Miscellanies 5.6.36
Summary: A tragic poet describes time and the twin Bears; the ark (Hebrew tēbāh) signifies the intelligible world or God, and rest with the glorifying spirits; the cherubim are not images but symbols of the rational soul, its ministries, and ceaseless praise.
Greek text · Stählin 2:350–351
περὶ τούτων οἶμαι καὶ ἡ τραγῳδία φυσιολογοῦσά φησιν· ἀκάμας τε χρόνος περί τʼ ἀενάῳ ῥεύματι πλήρης φοιτᾷ τίκτων αὐτὸς ἑαυτόν, δίδυμοί τʼ ἄρκτοι ταῖς ὠκυπλάνοις πτερύγων ῥιπαῖς τὸν Ἀτλάντειον τηροῦσι πόλον. Ἄτλας δὲ ὁ μὴ πάσχων πόλος δύναται μὲν εἶναι καὶ ἡ ἀπλανὴς σφαῖρα, βέλτιον δὲ ἴσως αἰῶνα ἀκίνητον νοεῖσθαι. ἄμεινον δʼ ἡγοῦμαι τὴν κιβωτὸν ἐκ τοῦ Ἑβραϊκοῦ ὀνόματος θηβωθὰ καλουμένην ἄλλο τι σημαίνειν. ἑρμηνεύεται μὲν ἓν ἀνθʼ ἑνὸς πάντων τόπων. εἴτʼ οὖν ὀγδοὰς καὶ ὁ νοητὸς κόσμος εἴτε καὶ ὁ περὶ πάντων περιεκτικὸς ἀσχημάτιστός τε καὶ ἀόρατος δηλοῦται θεός, τὰ νῦν ὑπερκείσθω λέγειν· πλὴν ἀνάπαυσιν μηνύει τὴν μετὰ τῶν δοξολόγων πνευμάτων, ἃ αἰνίσσεται Χερουβίμ· οὐ γὰρ ἄν ποτε ὁ μηδὲ γλυπτὸν εἴδωλον δημιουργεῖν παραινέσας αὐτὸς ἀπεικόνιζεν τῶν ἁγίων ἄγαλμα, οὐδʼ ἔστι τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπισύνθετόν τι καὶ αἰσθητὸν ζῷον ἐν οὐρανῷ ὧδέ πως ἔχον, σύμβολον δʼ ἐστὶ λογικῆς μὲν τὸ πρόσωπον ψυχῆς, πτέρυγες δὲ λειτουργίαι τε καὶ ἐνέργειαι αἱ μετάρσιοι δεξιῶν τε ἅμα καὶ λαιῶν δυνάμεων, ἡ φωνὴ δὲ δόξα εὐχάριστος ἐν ἀκαταπαύστῳ θεωρίᾳ.
English · Claude translation
About these, I think, the tragedy too, speaking of nature, says: “Unwearied Time goes around, full, in ever-flowing stream, begetting itself; and the twin Bears, with swift-wandering beats of their wings, guard the Atlantean pole.” Atlas, the pole that does not suffer, can also be the fixed sphere; but perhaps it is better understood as motionless eternity. But I think it better that the ark, called by the Hebrew name thēbōtha, signifies something else. It is interpreted “one in place of one of all places.” Whether, then, the Ogdoad and the intelligible world, or God who contains all things, shapeless and invisible, is indicated, let it be put off for now; except that it signifies the rest with the glorifying spirits, which the Cherubim hint at. For the one who bade us not even to fashion a carved image would never himself have made a likeness of holy things; nor is there at all any composite and sensible living being in heaven like this; but the face is a symbol of the rational soul, the wings of the lofty ministries and activities of powers on the right and left, and the voice is thankful glory in unceasing contemplation.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Euripides, Peirithous (fragment 594 Nauck; or Critias). The Hebrew for “ark” here is tēbāh, the word used of Noah's ark and Moses' basket; the ark of the covenant is ʾārôn.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.6.36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/6/36/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.6.36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/6/36/).
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