Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.12.99

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

Summary: Knowledge is the highest good, to be embraced for itself; punishment corrects and warns; true wealth is abundance of virtuous deeds, and possessions harm only when used beyond measure.

Greek text · Stählin 2:481–482

τελειότατον ἄρα ἀγαθὸν ἡ γνῶσις, διʼ αὑτὴν οὖσα αἱρετή, κατʼ ἐπακολούθημα δὲ καὶ τὰ διὰ ταύτης ἀκολουθοῦντα καλά. καὶ ἡ κόλασις τῷ μὲν κολαζομένῳ διορθώσεως αἰτία, τοῖς δὲ διορᾶν πόρρωθεν δυναμένοις παράδειγμα γίνεται, διʼ οὗ τὸ συνεμπίπτειν τοῖς ὁμοίοις ἀνακόπτουσιν. δεξώμεθα οὖν τὴν γνῶσιν οὐ τῶν ἀποβαινόντων ἐφιέμενοι, ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ ἕνεκα τοῦ γινώσκειν ἀσπαζόμενοι. πρώτη γὰρ ὠφέλεια ἡ ἕξις ἡ γνωστική, ἡδονὰς ἀβλαβεῖς παρεχομένη καὶ ἀγαλλίασιν καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς ὕστερον. τὴν δὲ ἀγαλλίασιν εὐφροσύνην εἶναί φασιν, ἐπιλογισμὸν οὖσαν τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀρετῆς διά τινος ἑστιάσεως καὶ διαχύσεως ψυχικῆς. τὰ δὲ μετέχοντα τῆς γνώσεως ἔργα αἱ ἀγαθαὶ καὶ καλαὶ πράξεις εἰσίν. πλοῦτος μὲν γὰρ ἀληθὴς ὁ ἐν ταῖς κατὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν πράξεσι πλεονασμός, πενία δὲ ἡ κατὰ τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας ἀπορία. αἱ κτήσεις γὰρ καὶ χρήσεις τῶν ἀναγκαίων οὐ τὴν ποιότητα ἔχουσι βλαβεράν, ἀλλὰ τὴν παρὰ τὸ μέτρον ποσότητα.

English · Claude translation

Knowledge, then, is the most perfect good, being chosen for its own sake; and the good things that follow through it follow as consequences. Punishment is a cause of correction for the one punished, and for those able to see far ahead it becomes an example by which they check themselves from falling into the same faults. Let us, then, receive knowledge, not desiring its results, but embracing it for the sake of knowing itself. For the first benefit is the habit of knowing, which furnishes harmless pleasures and exultation, both now and hereafter. They say that exultation is gladness, being a reckoning of the virtue that accords with truth, through a certain feasting and expansion of the soul. The works that share in knowledge are good and noble actions. For true wealth is abundance in actions according to virtue, and poverty is want in respect of worldly desires. For the acquisition and use of necessities are not harmful in their quality, but in quantity beyond measure.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:481–482 · 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.
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The definition of exultation as a kind of gladness is Stoic.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (word repeated in the digital text): καὶ καλαὶ καλαὶ πράξεις → καὶ καλαὶ πράξεις.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.12.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/12/99/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.12.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/12/99/).

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