Miscellanies 5.14.140
Summary: Having shown that the Greeks borrowed from the Scriptures, as the Lord's word about thieves implies, Clement stops, adding that Greek books must be read with care and that knowledge is the boundary of happiness.
Greek text · Stählin 2:420–421
Δεδειγμένου τοίνυν σαφῶς, ὡς οἶμαι, ὅπως κλέπτας εἰρῆσθαι πρὸς τοῦ κυρίου τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐξακουστέον, ἑκὼν παραλείπω τὰ τῶν φιλοσόφων δόγματα. εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὰς λέξεις ἐπίοιμεν αὐτῶν, οὐκ ἂν φθάνοιμεν, πλῆθος ὅσον ὑπομνημάτων συνερανίζοντες, ἐκ τῆς βαρβάρου φιλοσοφίας πᾶσαν φερομένην τὴν παρʼ Ἕλλησιν ἐνδεικνύμενοι σοφίαν. ἧς θεωρίας οὐδὲν ἧττον αὖθις ἐφαψόμεθα κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον, ὁπηνίκα ἂν τὰς περὶ ἀρχῶν δόξας τὰς παρʼ Ἕλλησι φερομένας ἀναλεγώμεθα. πλὴν καὶ τοῦτο ἡμῖν ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων ἡμῖν ἡσυχῇ παρίσταται σκοπεῖν, ὃν τρόπον ταῖς Ἑλληνικαῖς τῷ οἵῳ τε ὄντι διανήχεσθαι τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς κύματα ἐντευκτέον βίβλοις. ὄλβιος, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἄρα ἐστὶν κατὰ τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα, ὃς θείων πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον, δειλὸς δʼ ᾧ σκοτόεσσα θεῶν πέρι δόξα μέμηλεν. γνῶσιν καὶ ἀγνωσίαν ὅρους εὐδαιμονίας κακοδαιμονίας τε θείως ἐδήλωσεν. χρὴ γὰρ εὖ μάλα πολλῶν ἴστορας φιλοσόφους ἄνδρας εἶναι καθʼ Ἡράκλειτον, καὶ τῷ ὄντι ἀνάγκη πολλὰ πλανηθῆναι διζήμενον ἔμμεναι ἐσθλόν.
English · Claude translation
Now that it has been clearly shown, I think, how we are to understand the Lord's calling the Greeks thieves, I willingly pass over the doctrines of the philosophers. For if we were to go through their very words, we would never finish, collecting a vast mass of notes to show that all the wisdom current among the Greeks came from the barbarian philosophy. We shall nonetheless take up this study again as far as necessary, when we collect the opinions on first principles current among the Greeks. But this too quietly presents itself to us for consideration from what has been said: how the books of the Greeks should be approached by one who is able to swim through the waves in them. “Happy,” then, it seems, according to Empedocles, “is he who has gained the wealth of divine understanding; wretched he whose care is a dark opinion about the gods.” He divinely showed that knowledge and ignorance are the boundaries of happiness and unhappiness. For “men who love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things,” according to Heraclitus; and truly “one who seeks to be good must wander much.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The Lord's calling the Greeks thieves refers to John 10:8 (“all who came before me are thieves and robbers”), which Clement applies to Greek philosophy (compare Strom. 1.17.81). The quotations are Empedocles, fragment 132 (Diels–Kranz), Heraclitus, fragment 35 (Diels–Kranz), and an unidentified verse. The promised treatment of first principles is not extant.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.140 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/140/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.140 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/140/).
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