Miscellanies 5.13.88 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:384

ἐντεῦθεν οἱ ἀμφὶ τὸν Πυθαγόραν θείᾳ μοίρᾳ τὸν νοῦν εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἥκειν φασί, καθάπερ Πλάτων καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης ὁμολογοῦσιν. ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς μὲν τῷ πεπιστευκότι προσεπιπνεῖσθαι τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμά φαμεν, οἳ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα νοῦν μὲν ἐν ψυχῇ θείας μοίρας ἀπόρροιαν ὑπάρχοντα, ψυχὴν δὲ ἐν σώματι κατοικίζουσιν· ἀναφανδὸν γὰρ διὰ Ἰωὴλ ἑνὸς τῶν δώδεκα προφητῶν εἴρηται· καὶ ἔσται μετὰ ταῦτα, ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ ὑμῶν καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες ὑμῶν προφητεύσουσιν. ἀλλʼ οὐχ ὡς μέρος θεοῦ ἐν ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα. ὅπως δὲ ἡ διανομὴ αὕτη καὶ ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, ἐν τοῖς Περὶ προφητείας κἀν τοῖς Περὶ ψυχῆς ἐπιδειχθήσεται ἡμῖν. ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν τῆς γνώσεως βάθη κρύπτειν ἀπιστίη ἀγαθὴ καθʼ Ἡράκλειτον, ἀπιστίῃ γὰρ διαφυγγάνει μὴ γιγνώσκεσθαι.

English · Claude translation

Hence the Pythagoreans say that mind comes to human beings by divine dispensation, as Plato and Aristotle also agree. But we say that the Holy Spirit is breathed in besides upon the one who has believed, while the Platonists place mind in the soul as an emanation of divine dispensation, and the soul in the body. For it has been said openly through Joel, one of the twelve prophets: “And it shall be after these things that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” But the Spirit is not in each of us as a part of God. How this distribution takes place, and what the Holy Spirit is, will be shown by us in the works On Prophecy and On the Soul. But “to hide the depths of knowledge is a good distrust,” according to Heraclitus; “for through distrust it escapes being known.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:384 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.

Scripture

Joel 2:28 (3:1 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Heraclitus (Heraclitus (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Joel 2:28 (3:1 LXX) and Heraclitus, fragment 86 (Diels–Kranz), adapted by Clement (“to hide the depths of knowledge” is his own framing). The promised works On Prophecy and On the Soul are not known to have been written.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.13.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/13/88/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.13.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/13/88/).