Miscellanies 5.11.68
Summary: Most people imagine God to be like themselves, but God gives us birth, food, and growth without sharing them; the Hebrew Scriptures' talk of God's hands, eyes, and anger is to be read allegorically.
Greek text · Stählin 2:371–372
οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸ θνητὸν ἐνδυόμενοι καθάπερ οἱ κοχλίαι καὶ περὶ τὰς αὑτῶν ἀκρασίας ὥσπερ οἱ ἐχῖνοι σφαιρηδὸν εἱλούμενοι περὶ τοῦ μακαρίου καὶ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ τοιαῦτα οἷα καὶ περὶ αὑτῶν δοξάζουσιν. λέληθεν δʼ αὐτούς, κἂν πλησίον ἡμῶν τύχωσιν, ὡς μυρία ὅσα δεδώρηται ἡμῖν ὁ θεός, ὧν αὐτὸς ἀμέτοχος, γένεσιν μὲν ἀγένητος ὤν, τροφὴν δὲ ἀνενδεὴς ὤν, καὶ αὔξησιν ἐν ἰσότητι ὤν, εὐγηρίαν τε καὶ εὐθανασίαν ἀθάνατός τε καὶ ἀγήρως ὑπάρχων. διὸ καὶ χεῖρας καὶ πόδας καὶ στόμα καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ εἰσόδους καὶ ἐξόδους καὶ ὀργὰς καὶ ἀπειλὰς μὴ πάθη θεοῦ τις ὑπολάβῃ παρὰ Ἑβραίοις λέγεσθαι, μηδαμῶς, ἀλληγορεῖσθαι δέ τινα ἐκ τούτων τῶν ὀνομάτων ὁσιώτερον, ἃ δὴ καὶ προϊόντος τοῦ λόγου κατὰ τὸν οἰκεῖον καιρὸν διασαφήσομεν. ἦ πανακὲς πάντων φάρμακον ἁ σοφία, Καλλίμαχος ἐν τοῖς ἐπιγράμμασι γράφει· ἕτερος (δὲ) ἐξ ἑτέρου σοφὸς τό τε πάλαι τό τε νῦν, φησὶ Βακχυλίδης ἐν τοῖς Παιᾶσιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ῥᾷστον ἀρρήτων ἐπέων πύλας ἐξευρεῖν·
English · Claude translation
But most people, clothing themselves in what is mortal like snails, and rolled up in a ball around their own lack of self-control like hedgehogs, hold such opinions about the blessed and incorruptible God as they hold about themselves. It has escaped them, even though they happen to be near us, that God has given us countless things in which he himself has no share: birth, though he is unbegotten; food, though he has no need; growth, though he is always the same; a good old age and an easy death, though he is immortal and ageless. Therefore let no one suppose that hands and feet and mouth and eyes and comings in and goings out and angers and threats are spoken of among the Hebrews as passions of God. By no means; rather, certain things are expressed allegorically, more reverently, by these names, which we shall explain as the discussion proceeds, at the proper time. “Truly wisdom is a remedy that cures all things,” writes Callimachus in his Epigrams. “One is wise from another, both of old and now,” says Bacchylides in his Paeans; “for it is not easiest to find the gates of unspoken words.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The line of Callimachus is from his Epigrams (the exact number is uncertain; not in the surviving collection as usually printed). The lines of Bacchylides are from his Paeans (fragment 5 Snell–Maehler).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.11.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/11/68/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.11.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/11/68/).
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