Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.126

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

Summary: The Orphic hymn's “mother-father” points to creation from nothing (though Gnostics misuse it to imagine a consort of God), and its verses paraphrase the prophets' God who makes the thunder and alone kills and makes alive.

Greek text · Stählin 2:411–412

εἶτα ἐπιφέρει, ῥητῶς παντοκράτορα ὀνομάζων τὸν θεόν· ἄφθιτον, ἀθάνατον, ῥητὸν μόνον ἀθανάτοισιν. ἐλθέ, μέγιστε θεῶν πάντων, κρατερῇ σὺν ἀνάγκῃ, φρικτός, ἀήττητος, μέγας, ἄφθιτος, ὃν στέφει αἰθήρ. διὰ μὲν τοῦ μητροπάτωρ οὐ μόνον τὴν ἐκ μὴ ὄντων γένεσιν ἐμήνυσεν, δέδωκεν δὲ ἀφορμὰς τοῖς τὰς προβολὰς εἰσάγουσι τάχα καὶ σύζυγον νοῆσαι τοῦ θεοῦ· παραφράζει δὲ ἐκείνας τὰς προφητικὰς γραφάς, τήν τε διὰ Ὠσηὲ ἐγὼ στερεῶν βροντὴν καὶ κτίζων πνεῦμα, οὗ αἱ χεῖρες τὴν στρατιὰν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐθεμελίωσαν, καὶ τὴν διὰ Μωυσέως· ἴδετε· ἴδετε, ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ἕτερος πλὴν ἐμοῦ· ἐγὼ ἀποκτενῶ καὶ ζῆν ποιήσω· πατάξω κἀγὼ ἰάσομαι· καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὃς ἐξελεῖται ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν μου. αὐτὸς δὲ ἐξ ἀγαθοῖο κακὸν θνητοῖσι φυτεύει καὶ πόλεμον κρυόεντα καὶ ἄλγεα δακρυόεντα κατὰ τὸν Ὀρφέα.

English · Claude translation

Then he adds, expressly naming God the Almighty: “imperishable, immortal, speakable only to immortals. Come, greatest of all the gods, with mighty necessity, dread, invincible, great, imperishable, whom the ether crowns.” By “mother-father” he has not only indicated coming into being from what is not, but has also given occasion to those who introduce emanations to think perhaps of a consort of God as well. And he paraphrases those prophetic Scriptures: the one through Hosea, “I am he who makes the thunder firm and creates the wind,” whose hands founded the host of heaven; and the one through Moses: “See, see that I am, and there is no other god besides me; I will kill and I will make alive; I will strike and I will heal; and there is none who will deliver out of my hands.” “And he himself, from good, plants evil for mortals, and chilling war and tearful pains,” according to Orpheus.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:411–412 · 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
  • Orpheus (attributed), Orph. frag. (Orpheus (attributed), Orphic poems (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The first quotation, which Clement ascribes to Hosea, is Amos 4:13 (LXX). “Whose hands founded the host of heaven” resembles Isa 45:12. The other quotations are Deut 32:39 and Orphic verses. “Those who introduce emanations” are Gnostic teachers such as the Valentinians, who paired divine beings in couples.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.126 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/126/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.126 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/126/).

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