Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.95

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

Summary: The Stoic goal of living by nature and Plato's goal of likeness to God come from Moses' command to follow God; Zeno's teaching that the good are friends was taken from Plato.

Greek text · Stählin 2:388–389

ἐντεῦθεν οἱ μὲν Στωϊκοὶ τὸ τέλος τῆς φιλοσοφίας τὸ ἀκολούθως τῇ φύσει ζῆν εἰρήκασι, Πλάτων δὲ ὁμοίωσιν θεῷ (ὡς ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ παρεστήσαμεν Στρωματεῖ)· Ζήνων δὲ ὁ Στωϊκὸς παρὰ Πλάτωνος λαβών, ὃ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς βαρβάρου φιλοσοφίας, τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς πάντας ἀλλήλων εἶναι φίλους λέγει. φησὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ Φαίδρῳ Σωκράτης ὡς οὐχ εἵμαρται κακὸν κακῷ φίλον εἶναι οὐδʼ ἀγαθὸν ἀγαθῷ μὴ φίλον, ὅπερ κἀν τῷ Λύσιδι ἀπέδειξεν ἱκανῶς, ὡς ἐν ἀδικίᾳ καὶ πονηρίᾳ οὐκ ἄν ποτε σωθείη φιλία. καὶ ὁ Ἀθηναῖος ξένος ὁμοίως φησὶ πρᾶξιν εἶναι φίλην καὶ ἀκόλουθον θεῷ καὶ ἕνα λόγον ἔχουσαν ἀρχαῖον, ὅταν τὸ μὲν ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ μετρίῳ ὄντι φίλον ᾖ, τὰ δὲ ἄμετρα οὔτε τοῖς ἀμέτροις οὔτε τοῖς ἐμμέτροις.

English · Claude translation

Hence the Stoics have said that the end of philosophy is to live following nature, and Plato, likeness to God (as we showed in the second Miscellany); and Zeno the Stoic, taking it from Plato, as Plato took it from the barbarian philosophy, says that all good people are friends of one another. For Socrates says in the Phaedrus that it is not fated for a bad man to be a friend to a bad man, nor for a good man not to be a friend to a good man; and he showed this sufficiently in the Lysis too, that friendship could never be preserved in injustice and wickedness. And the Athenian Stranger likewise says that the action that is dear to God and follows him is one, and has one ancient principle: that like is dear to like when it is measured, but things without measure are dear neither to the unmeasured nor to the measured.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:388–389 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Phaedr. 255b (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Plato, Lys. 214c–d (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence
  • Plato, Leg. 4.716c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The references are to Strom. 2.19.100, Plato, Phaedrus 255b, Lysis 214c–d, and Laws 4.716c (the Athenian Stranger). “Following” picks up the “following” of God in 5.14.94.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.95 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/95/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.95 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/95/).

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