Miscellanies 5.14.100
Summary: Greek poets speak of humans fashioned from clay, as Genesis does; the Stoics' creative fire corresponds to Scripture's calling God fire and light; Homer echoes the separation of sea and land; and Epicharmus says nothing is impossible for God.
Greek text · Stählin 2:392–393
Καλλίμαχος δὲ διαρρήδην γράφει· ἦν κεῖνος οὑνιαυτός, ᾧ τό τε πτηνὸν καὶ τοὐν θαλάσσῃ καὶ τὸ τετράπουν οὕτως ἐφθέγγετο ὡς ὁ πηλὸς ὁ Προμήθειος. πάλιν τε αὖ ὁ αὐτός τε εἴ σε (ἔφη) ὁ Προμηθεὺς ἔπλασε καὶ πηλοῦ μὴ ἐξ ἑτέρου γέγονας, Ἡσίοδός τε ἐπὶ τῆς Πανδώρας λέγει· Ἥφαιστον δʼ ἐκέλευσε περικλυτὸν ὅττι τάχιστα γαῖαν ὕδει φύρειν, ἐν δʼ ἀνθρώπου θέμεν αὐδὴν καὶ νόον. Πῦρ μὲν οὖν τεχνικὸν ὁδῷ βαδίζον εἰς γένεσιν τὴν φύσιν ὁρίζονται οἱ Στωϊκοί· πῦρ δὲ καὶ φῶς ἀλληγορεῖται ὁ θεὸς καὶ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ πρὸς τῆς γραφῆς. Τί δʼ; οὐχὶ καὶ Ὅμηρος, παραφράζων τὸν χωρισμὸν τοῦ ὕδατος ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τὴν ἐμφανῆ τῆς ξηρᾶς, ἐπί τε τῆς Τηθύος καὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ λέγει· ἤδη γὰρ δηρὸν χρόνον ἀλλήλων ἀπέχονται εὐνῆς καὶ φιλότητος. Πάλιν τὸ δυνατὸν ἐν πᾶσι προσάπτουσι καὶ οἱ παρʼ Ἕλλησι λογιώτατοι τῷ θεῷ, ὁ μὲν Ἐπίχαρμος (Πυθαγόρειος δὲ ἦν) λέγων· οὐδὲν ἐκφεύγει τὸ θεῖον· τοῦτο γιγνώσκειν σε δεῖ, αὐτός ἐσθʼ ἁμῶν ἐπόπτης, ἀδυνατεῖ δὲ οὐδὲν θεός,
English · Claude translation
And Callimachus writes expressly: “That was the year in which the winged creature, and the one in the sea, and the four-footed spoke just like the clay of Prometheus.” And again the same poet: “If Prometheus fashioned you, and you are not from some other clay.” And Hesiod says of Pandora: “And he commanded famous Hephaestus as quickly as possible to mix earth with water, and to put into it the voice and mind of a human being.” The Stoics define nature as a craftsmanlike fire proceeding methodically to generation; and God and his Word are called fire and light allegorically by the Scripture. What then? Does not Homer too, paraphrasing the separation of the water from the earth and the visible uncovering of the dry land, say of Tethys and Ocean: “For already for a long time they have kept apart from each other's bed and love.” Again, the most learned among the Greeks ascribe power over all things to God: Epicharmus (he was a Pythagorean) saying: “Nothing escapes the divine; this you must know; he himself is our overseer, and for God nothing is impossible.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Callimachus, Iambi (fragment 192 Pfeiffer) and fragment 493 Pfeiffer, Hesiod, Works and Days 60–62, Homer, Il. 14.206–207, and Epicharmus, fragment 23 (Diels–Kranz). The references are Gen 2:7, Deut 4:24 (compare Heb 12:29), John 1:9, and Gen 1:9.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.100 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/100/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.100 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/100/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text