Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.11.84

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

Summary: Abraham's 318 servants symbolize the cross (T = 300) and the name of Jesus (IH = 18), by which believers overcome; the numbers 300, 10, 8, and 120 also carry meaning.

Greek text · Stählin 2:473–474

Καθάπερ οὖν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀστρονομίας ἔχομεν ὑπόδειγμα τὸν Ἀβραάμ, οὕτως ἐπὶ τῆς ἀριθμητικῆς τὸν αὐτὸν Ἀβραάμ. ἀκούσας γὰρ ὅτι αἰχμάλωτος ἐλήφθη ὁ Λώτ, τοὺς ἰδίους οἰκογενεῖς τιη΄ ἀριθμήσας καὶ ἐπεξελθὼν πάμπολυν ἀριθμὸν τῶν πολεμίων χειροῦται. φασὶν οὖν εἶναι τοῦ μὲν κυριακοῦ σημείου τύπον κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τὸ τριακοσιοστὸν στοιχεῖον, τὸ δὲ ἰῶτα καὶ τὸ ἦτα τοὔνομα σημαίνειν τὸ σωτήριον· μηνύεσθαι τοίνυν τοὺς Ἀβραὰμ οἰκείους εἶναι κατὰ τὴν σωτηρίαν, τοὺς τῷ σημείῳ καὶ τῷ ὀνόματι προσπεφευγότας, κυρίους γεγονέναι τῶν αἰχμαλωτιζόντων καὶ τῶν τούτοις ἀκολουθούντων παμπόλλων ἀπίστων ἐθνῶν. ἤδη δὲ ὁ μὲν τριακόσια ἀριθμὸς τριάς ἐστιν ἐν ἑκατοντάδι, ἡ δεκὰς δὲ ὁμολογεῖται παντέλειος εἶναι. ὁ δὲ ὀκτώ, κύβος ὁ πρῶτος, ἡ ἰσότης ἐν ἁπάσαις ταῖς διαστάσεσι, μήκους, πλάτους, βάθους. Αἵ τε ἡμέραι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἔσονται, φησίν, ἔτη ρκ΄. ἔστι δὲ ὁ ἀριθμὸς ἀπὸ μονάδος κατὰ σύνθεσιν πεντεκαιδέκατος, σελήνη δὲ πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ πλησιφαὴς γίνεται.

English · Claude translation

Just as we have Abraham as an example in astronomy, so we have the same Abraham in arithmetic. For hearing that Lot had been taken captive, he numbered his own household servants, 318, and going out he overcame a very great number of the enemy. They say, then, that the letter that stands for 300 is by its shape a type of the Lord's sign, and that iota and eta signify the saving name; it is indicated, then, that Abraham's household in respect of salvation, those who had taken refuge in the sign and the name, became masters of the captors and of the very many unbelieving nations following them. Now the number 300 is three in the hundreds, and ten is acknowledged to be all-perfect; and eight is the first cube, equality in all dimensions: length, breadth, depth. “And the days of men will be,” it says, “120 years.” This number is the fifteenth by addition from unity, and the moon becomes full on the fifteenth day.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:473–474 · 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
  • Barn. 9.8 (Epistle of Barnabas) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Gen 14:14 and Gen 6:3. The interpretation of 318 (Greek ΤΙΗ: T, shaped like the cross, = 300; IH, the first letters of “Jesus,” = 18) is from Barn. 9.8. The number 120 is the sum of the numbers from 1 to 15.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.11.84 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/11/84/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.11.84 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/11/84/).

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