Miscellanies 5.10.66
Summary: Paul's milk and solid food mean elementary instruction and the highest contemplation, which is the flesh and blood of the Word; Plato's great sacrifice points to Christ our Passover.
Greek text · Stählin 2:370
ἔπειτα ὑποβὰς τὸ εὐλαβὲς τῆς εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς τῶν λόγων ἐκφοιτήσεως ὧδέ πως διδάσκει· κἀγώ, ἀδελφοί, οὐκ ἠδυνήθην ὑμῖν λαλῆσαι ὡς πνευματικοῖς, ἀλλʼ ὡς σαρκίνοις, ὡς νηπίοις ἐν Χριστῷ, γάλα ὑμᾶς ἐπότισα, οὐ βρῶμα· οὔπω γὰρ ἐδύνασθε· ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ ἔτι νῦν δύνασθε· ἔτι γάρ ἐστε σαρκικοί. εἰ τοίνυν τὸ μὲν γάλα τῶν νηπίων, τὸ βρῶμα δὲ τῶν τελείων τροφὴ πρὸς τοῦ ἀποστόλου εἴρηται, γάλα μὲν ἡ κατήχησις οἱονεὶ πρώτη ψυχῆς τροφὴ νοηθήσεται, βρῶμα δὲ ἡ ἐποπτικὴ θεωρία· σάρκες αὗται καὶ αἷμα τοῦ λόγου, τουτέστι κατάληψις τῆς θείας δυνάμεως καὶ οὐσίας. γεύσασθε καὶ ἴδετε ὅτι χρηστὸς ὁ κύριος, φησίν· οὕτως γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ μεταδίδωσι τοῖς πνευματικώτερον τῆς τοιαύτης μεταλαμβάνουσι βρώσεως, ὅτε δὴ ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτὴ ἑαυτὴν ἤδη τρέφει κατὰ τὸν φιλαλήθη Πλάτωνα· βρῶσις γὰρ καὶ πόσις τοῦ θείου λόγου ἡ γνῶσίς ἐστι τῆς θείας οὐσίας. διὸ καί φησιν ἐν δευτέρῳ Πολιτείας ὁ Πλάτων· θυσαμένους οὐ χοῖρον, ἀλλά τι μέγα καὶ ἄπορον θῦμα, οὕτω χρῆναι ζητεῖν περὶ θεοῦ. ὁ δὲ ἀπόστολος καὶ τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύθη γράφει Χριστός, ἄπορον ὡς ἀληθῶς θῦμα, υἱὸς θεοῦ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁγιαζόμενος.
English · Claude translation
Then, going on, he teaches in this way the caution to be used in letting words out to the many: “And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to people of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able; and even now you are not yet able; for you are still fleshly.” If, then, milk has been called by the apostle the food of infants, and solid food that of the perfect, milk will be understood as elementary instruction, the first food, as it were, of the soul, and solid food as the contemplation of the highest mysteries: these are the flesh and blood of the Word, that is, the apprehension of the divine power and essence. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” it says; for in this way he imparts himself to those who partake of such food more spiritually, when indeed the soul now nourishes itself, according to the truth-loving Plato; for the eating and drinking of the divine Word is knowledge of the divine essence. That is why Plato also says in the second book of the Republic: “having sacrificed not a pig but some great and hard-to-obtain victim,” so one ought to inquire about God. And the apostle writes: “For Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed,” truly a victim hard to obtain, the Son of God consecrated for us.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are 1 Cor 3:1–3, Ps 34:8 (33:9 LXX), Plato, Republic 2.378a, and 1 Cor 5:7. “The flesh and blood of the Word” alludes to John 6:53–56. The source of the Platonic idea that the soul nourishes itself is uncertain (compare Phaedrus 247d). “Contemplation of the highest mysteries” renders ἐποπτικὴ θεωρία, the vision of those admitted to the final grade of the mysteries. Corrected ὴ to ἡ.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong breathing and accent on the article ἡ): ὴ γνῶσίς → ἡ γνῶσίς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.10.66 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/10/66/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.10.66 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/10/66/).
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