Miscellanies 5.14.94
Summary: Scripture's account of an invisible and a visible creation is the source of Plato's intelligible and sensible worlds; man's body is from the earth and his soul from God's breath, and the image of God is the Word, of whom the human mind is an image.
Greek text · Stählin 2:388
εἶτʼ ἐπιφέρει· καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός· γενηθήτω φῶς· καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς. ἐν δὲ τῇ κοσμογονίᾳ τῇ αἰσθητῇ στερεὸν οὐρανὸν δημιουργεῖ (τὸ δὲ στερεὸν αἰσθητόν) γῆν τε ὁρατὴν καὶ φῶς βλεπόμενον. ἆρʼ οὐ δοκεῖ σοι ἐντεῦθεν ὁ Πλάτων ζῴων ἰδέας ἐν τῷ νοητῷ ἀπολείπειν κόσμῳ καὶ τὰ εἴδη τὰ αἰσθητὰ κατὰ τὰ γένη δημιουργεῖν τὰ νοητά; εἰκότως ἄρα ἐκ γῆς μὲν τὸ σῶμα διαπλάττεσθαι λέγει ὁ Μωυσῆς, ὃ γήινόν φησιν ὁ Πλάτων σκῆνος, ψυχὴν δὲ τὴν λογικὴν ἄνωθεν ἐμπνευσθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς πρόσωπον. ἐνταῦθα γὰρ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν ἱδρῦσθαι λέγουσι, τὴν διὰ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἐπείσοδον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου εἴσοδον ἑρμηνεύοντες, διὸ καὶ κατʼ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν τὸν ἄνθρωπον γεγονέναι. εἰκὼν μὲν γὰρ θεοῦ λόγος θεῖος καὶ βασιλικός, ἄνθρωπος ἀπαθής, εἰκὼν δʼ εἰκόνος ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς. ἑτέρῳ δʼ εἰ βούλει παραλαβεῖν ὀνόματι τὴν ἐξομοίωσιν, εὕροις ἂν παρὰ τῷ Μωυσεῖ τὴν ἀκολουθίαν ὀνομαζομένην θείαν· φησὶ γάρ· ὀπίσω κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν πορεύεσθε καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ φυλάξατε. ἀκόλουθοι δʼ, οἶμαι, καὶ θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ πάντες οἱ ἐνάρετοι.
English · Claude translation
Then it adds: “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.” And in the creation of the sensible world he makes a solid heaven (and what is solid is sensible), a visible earth, and light that is seen. Does it not seem to you that it is from here that Plato leaves ideas of living beings in the intelligible world, and makes the sensible species according to the intelligible kinds? Fittingly, then, Moses says that the body was formed from the earth, what Plato calls the “earthly tent,” but that the rational soul was breathed in from above by God into the face. For there, they say, the ruling faculty is seated, and they interpret the entrance of the soul through the sense organs in the first-formed man as its entry; for this reason also man is said to have come into being “according to the image and likeness.” For the image of God is the divine and royal Word, the man free from passion, and the image of the image is the human mind. And if you wish to take up “likeness” under another name, you would find it called in Moses “following” God; for he says: “Walk after the Lord your God and keep his commandments.” And all the virtuous, I think, are followers and servants of God.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Gen 1:3, Gen 1:6–8, Gen 2:7, Gen 1:26, and Deut 13:4. The “earthly tent” is not in Plato's genuine works; compare the Platonic Axiochus 366a and Wis 9:15. Corrected the parenthesis around “and what is solid is sensible,” mis-encoded in the digital text as a breathing mark and an apostrophe.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (parentheses mis-encoded in the digital text): ̔τὸ δὲ στερεὸν αἰσθητόνʼ → (τὸ δὲ στερεὸν αἰσθητόν).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.94 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/94/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.94 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/94/).
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