Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.97

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

Summary: Christ's two great commandments underlie Socrates' prayer for inner beauty and the Stoic view that only the noble is good; Aristobulus showed that Peripatetic philosophy depended on Moses.

Greek text · Stählin 2:390

Σαφέστερον δὲ ἐκεῖνα ἔχει. ὁ γὰρ σωτήρ, ἀγαπᾶν παραγγείλας τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸν πλησίον, ἐν ταύταις φησὶ ταῖς δυσὶν ἐντολαῖς ὅλον τὸν νόμον καὶ τοὺς προφήτας κρέμασθαι. ταῦτα θρυλοῦσιν οἱ Στωϊκοὶ τὰ δόγματα καὶ πρὸ τούτων ὁ Σωκράτης ἐν Φαίδρῳ εὐχόμενος· ὦ Πάν τε καὶ ἄλλοι θεοί, δοίητέ μοι τἄνδον εἶναι καλῷ. ἐν δὲ τῷ Θεαιτήτῳ διαρρήδην φησίν· ὁ γὰρ καλῶς λέγων καλός τε κἀγαθός. κἀν τῷ Πρωταγόρᾳ καλλίονι Ἀλκιβιάδου ἐντυχεῖν ὁμολογεῖ τοῖς ἑταίροις Πρωταγόρου, εἴ γε τὸ σοφώτατον κάλλιστόν ἐστιν· τὴν γὰρ ἀρετὴν τὸ κάλλος τῆς ψυχῆς ἔφη εἶναι, κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἐναντίον τὴν κακίαν αἶσχος ψυχῆς. Ἀντίπατρος μὲν οὖν ὁ Στωϊκός, τρία συγγραψάμενος βιβλία περὶ τοῦ ὅτι κατὰ Πλάτωνα μόνον τὸ καλὸν ἀγαθόν, ἀποδείκνυσιν ὅτι καὶ κατʼ αὐτὸν αὐτάρκης ἡ ἀρετὴ πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν, καὶ ἄλλα πλείω παρατίθεται δόγματα σύμφωνα τοῖς Στωϊκοῖς. Ἀριστοβούλῳ δὲ τῷ κατὰ Πτολεμαῖον γεγονότι τὸν Φιλομήτορα, οὗ μέμνηται ὁ συνταξάμενος τὴν τῶν Μακκαβαϊκῶν ἐπιτομήν, βιβλία γέγονεν ἱκανά, διʼ ὧν ἀποδείκνυσι τὴν Περιπατητικὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἔκ τε τοῦ κατὰ Μωυσέα νόμου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἠρτῆσθαι προφητῶν.

English · Claude translation

Those words are still clearer. For the Savior, having commanded us to love God and our neighbor, says that on these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets. The Stoics keep repeating these doctrines, and before them Socrates in the Phaedrus, praying: “O Pan and you other gods, grant me to be beautiful within.” And in the Theaetetus he says expressly: “For he who speaks beautifully is beautiful and good.” And in the Protagoras he admits to Protagoras' companions that he has met someone more beautiful than Alcibiades, if indeed what is wisest is most beautiful; for he said that virtue is the beauty of the soul, and conversely vice is the ugliness of the soul. Antipater the Stoic, then, who wrote three books on the thesis that according to Plato only the noble is good, shows that according to Plato too virtue is sufficient for happiness, and he cites many other doctrines in agreement with the Stoics. And Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometor, and whom the author of the epitome of the Maccabean history mentions, wrote books enough to show that the Peripatetic philosophy depended on the law of Moses and the other prophets.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:390 · 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
  • Plato, Phaedr. 279b (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Plato, Theaet. 185e (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Plato, Prot. 309c (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence
  • 2 Macc 1:10 (2 Maccabees) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The references are Matt 22:37–40, Plato, Phaedrus 279b, Theaetetus 185e, and Protagoras 309c, and 2 Macc 1:10 (which names Aristobulus). The Greek καλός means both “beautiful” and “noble,” and Clement plays on both senses.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.97 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/97/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.97 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/97/).

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