Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.134

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

Summary: The Greek philosophers, drawing on the Scriptures, gave first place to one invisible God, but without Christian teaching they could not know him truly; he is God of all in power, but not in knowledge.

Greek text · Stählin 2:417

πολὺ δὲ πλέον οἱ παρʼ Ἕλλησι πολυπράγμονες οἱ φιλόσοφοι ἐκ τῆς βαρβάρου ὁρμώμενοι φιλοσοφίας τῷ ἀοράτῳ καὶ μόνῳ καὶ δυνατωτάτῳ καὶ τεχνικωτάτῳ καὶ τῶν καλλίστων αἰτιωτάτῳ τὴν προνομίαν ἔδοσαν, τὰ ἀκόλουθα τούτοις, εἰ μὴ κατηχηθεῖεν πρὸς ἡμῶν, οὐκ ἐπιστάμενοι, ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ αὐτὸν ὅπως νοεῖσθαι πέφυκεν τὸν θεόν, μόνον δʼ, ὡς ἤδη πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν, κατὰ περίφρασιν ἀληθῆ. εἰκότως οὖν ὁ ἀπόστολος ἢ Ἰουδαίων μόνων φησὶν ὁ θεός; οὐχὶ καὶ Ἑλλήνων; οὐ μόνον προφητικῶς λέγων καὶ τοὺς ἐξ Ἑλλήνων πιστεύοντας Ἕλληνας εἴσεσθαι τὸν θεόν, ἀλλὰ κἀκεῖνο μηνύων, ὡς δυνάμει μὲν ὁ κύριος καὶ θεὸς πάντων ἂν εἴη καὶ τῷ ὄντι παντοκράτωρ, κατὰ δὲ τὴν γνῶσιν οὐ πάντων θεός· οὔτε γὰρ ὅ ἐστιν οὔθʼ ὅπως κύριος καὶ πατὴρ καὶ ποιητής, οὐδὲ τὴν ἄλλην ἴσασιν οἰκονομίαν τῆς ἀληθείας, μὴ οὐ πρὸς αὐτῆς διδαχθέντες.

English · Claude translation

Much more did the inquisitive philosophers among the Greeks, starting from the barbarian philosophy, give first place to the invisible, the only, the most powerful, the most skillful, and the highest cause of the most beautiful things; though they did not know what follows from these things unless they were instructed by us, nor indeed how God is by nature to be conceived, but only, as we have often said, by true periphrasis. Fittingly, then, the apostle says: “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not also of Greeks?” not only saying prophetically that those of the Greeks who believe would know God, but also indicating that in power the Lord is God of all and truly Almighty, but in knowledge he is not the God of all. For they do not know what he is, nor how he is Lord and Father and Maker, nor the rest of the dispensation of the truth, unless they are taught by the truth itself.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:417 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Rom 3:29, with “Greeks” where Paul has “Gentiles.”

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.134 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/134/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.134 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/134/).

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