Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.106

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Christ's command to watch means separating the soul from the body; Plato's souls who rise on the eighth day from the meadow point to the Lord's day and the soul's ascent beyond the planets to heaven.

Greek text · Stählin 2:397

αὐτίκα ὁ αὐτὸς σωτὴρ παρεγγυᾷ· γρηγορεῖτε, οἷον μελετᾶτε ζῆν καὶ χωρίζειν τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ σώματος πειρᾶσθε. τήν τε κυριακὴν ἡμέραν ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας ὁ Πλάτων διὰ τούτων καταμαντεύεται· ἐπειδὴ δὲ τοῖς ἐν τῷ λειμῶνι ἑκάστοις ἑπτὰ ἡμέραι γένοιντο, ἀναστάντας ἐντεῦθεν δεῖ τῇ ὀγδόῃ πορεύεσθαι καὶ ἀφικνεῖσθαι τεταρταίους. λειμῶνα μὲν οὖν ἀκουστέον τὴν ἀπλανῆ σφαῖραν, ὡς ἥμερον χωρίον καὶ προσηνὲς καὶ τῶν ὁσίων χῶρον, ἑπτὰ δὲ ἡμέρας ἑκάστην κίνησιν τῶν ἑπτὰ καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐργαστικὴν τέχνην εἰς τέλος ἀναπαύσεως σπεύδουσαν. ἡ δὲ μετὰ τοὺς πλανωμένους πορεία ἐπὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἄγει, τουτέστι τὴν ὀγδόην κίνησίν τε καὶ ἡμέραν. τεταρταίους δὲ τὰς ψυχὰς ἀπιέναι λέγει, δηλῶν τὴν διὰ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων πορείαν.

English · Claude translation

So the Savior himself exhorts: “Watch”; that is, practice how to live, and try to separate the soul from the body. And Plato, in the tenth book of the Republic, divines the Lord's day in these words: “When seven days had passed for each of those in the meadow, they must rise up from there on the eighth and set out, and arrive on the fourth day.” The meadow, then, is to be understood as the fixed sphere, a gentle and pleasant place and the region of the holy; and the seven days as each motion of the seven planets, and all the working art hastening toward its end in rest. And the journey beyond the wandering stars leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth motion and day. And he says that the souls depart on the fourth day, indicating the journey through the four elements.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:397 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Resp. 10.616b (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Matt 24:42 (compare Mark 13:37) and Plato, Republic 10.616b. The “eighth day” is the Lord's day, the day of the resurrection, beyond the sabbath.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/106/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/106/).

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