Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.115

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

Summary: Heraclitus and Timaeus of Locri speak of one wise principle, unbegotten, a teaching that flowed from Moses' “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one.”

Greek text · Stählin 2:404

οἶδα ἐγὼ καὶ Πλάτωνα προσμαρτυροῦντα Ἡρακλείτῳ γράφοντι· ἓν τὸ σοφὸν μοῦνον λέγεσθαι οὐκ ἐθέλει καὶ ἐθέλει Ζηνὸς ὄνομα. καὶ πάλιν· νόμος καὶ βουλῇ πείθεσθαι ἑνός. κἂν τὸ ῥητὸν ἐκεῖνο ἀναγαγεῖν ἐθέλῃς ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω, εὕροις ἂν ὧδέ πως ἐμφαινόμενον πρὸς τοῦ Ἐφεσίου· ἀξύνετοι ἀκούσαντες κωφοῖς ἐοίκασι· φάτις αὐτοῖσιν μαρτυρεῖ παρεόντας ἀπεῖναι. Ἀλλʼ ἄντικρυς καὶ μίαν ἀρχὴν καὶ παρʼ Ἑλλήνων ἀκοῦσαι ποθεῖς; Τίμαιος ὁ Λοκρὸς ἐν τῷ φυσικῷ συγγράμματι κατὰ λέξιν ὧδέ μοι μαρτυρήσει· μία ἀρχὰ πάντων ἐστὶν ἀγένητος· εἰ γὰρ ἐγένετο, οὐκ ἂν ἦν ἔτι ἀρχά, ἀλλʼ ἐκείνα, ἐξ ἇς ἁ ἀρχὰ ἐγένετο. ἐρρύη γὰρ ἐκεῖθεν δόξα ἡ ἀληθής· ἄκουε, φησίν, Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεός σου εἷς ἐστιν, καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις. οὗτος ἰδοὺ πάντεσσι σαφὴς ἀπλάνητος ὑπάρχει, ὥς φησιν ἡ Σίβυλλα.

English · Claude translation

I know that Plato too bears witness to Heraclitus, who writes: “The one thing that alone is wise is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus.” And again: “It is law too to obey the counsel of one.” And if you wish to refer that saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” you would find it expressed by the Ephesian thus: “Hearing without understanding, they are like the deaf; the saying bears witness to them: present, they are absent.” But do you long to hear plainly of one first principle from the Greeks too? Timaeus of Locri, in his work on nature, will bear witness for me word for word thus: “There is one principle of all things, unbegotten; for if it had come into being, it would no longer be a principle, but that would be from which the principle came to be.” For the true opinion flowed from there: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one, and him only shall you serve.” “Behold, he is clear to all, unerring,” as the Sibyl says.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:404 · 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
  • Sib. Or. fragment 1.28 (Sibylline Oracles) · quotation, high confidence
  • Heraclitus (Heraclitus (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Heraclitus, fragments 32, 33, and 34 (Diels–Kranz), Matt 11:15, a line ascribed to Timaeus of Locri (not found in the surviving treatise under his name; uncertain), Deut 6:4 and 6:13 (compare Matt 4:10), and the Sibylline Oracles, fragment 1.28. The sense of “Plato bears witness to Heraclitus” is unclear.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/115/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/115/).

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