Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.13.107

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

Summary: Jews and Greeks form one elect people, and the most perfect among them are the twenty-four elders; the church's bishops, presbyters, and deacons imitate the angelic order, and the perfected advance in glory from deacons to presbyters.

Greek text · Stählin 2:485–486

καὶ οὕτως ἄμφω εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως καταντῶσιν, καὶ ἡ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἐκλογὴ μία. καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν, φησίν, ἐκλεκτότεροι οἱ κατὰ τὴν τελείαν γνῶσιν καὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας αὐτῆς ἀπηνθισμένοι καὶ τῇ μεγαλοπρεπεστάτῃ δόξῃ τετιμημένοι, κριταί τε καὶ διοικηταί, ἐπʼ ἴσης ἔκ τε Ἰουδαίων ἔκ τε Ἑλλήνων, οἱ τέσσαρες καὶ εἴκοσι, διπλασιασθείσης τῆς χάριτος· ἐπεὶ καὶ αἱ ἐνταῦθα κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν προκοπαὶ ἐπισκόπων, πρεσβυτέρων, διακόνων μιμήματα, οἶμαι, ἀγγελικῆς δόξης κἀκείνης τῆς οἰκονομίας τυγχάνουσιν, ἣν ἀναμένειν φασὶν αἱ γραφαὶ τοὺς κατʼ ἴχνος τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐν τελειώσει δικαιοσύνης κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον βεβιωκότας. ἐν νεφέλαις τούτους ἀρθέντας γράφει ὁ ἀπόστολος διακονήσειν μὲν τὰ πρῶτα, ἔπειτα ἐγκαταταγῆναι τῷ πρεσβυτερίῳ κατὰ προκοπὴν δόξης (δόξα γὰρ δόξης διαφέρει), ἄχρις ἂν εἰς τέλειον ἄνδρα αὐξήσωσιν.

English · Claude translation

And so both come to the unity of the faith, and the election from both is one. “And more elect than the elect,” it says, are those who are so by perfect knowledge, culled like flowers from the church itself and honored with the most magnificent glory, judges and administrators, the twenty-four, equally from Jews and from Greeks, the grace being doubled. For the grades here in the church, of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, are, I think, imitations of the angelic glory and of that ordering which the Scriptures say awaits those who, following in the footsteps of the apostles, have lived in the perfection of righteousness according to the gospel. The apostle writes that these, taken up in the clouds, will first serve as deacons, then be enrolled in the presbyterate by advancement in glory (for glory differs from glory), until they grow to the perfect man.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:485–486 · 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
Topics
Church office, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “More elect than the elect” is an unidentified quotation. The allusions are Eph 4:13, 1 Pet 2:21, 1 Thess 4:17 (taken up in the clouds), and 1 Cor 15:41 (glory differs from glory). The heavenly service as deacons and presbyters is Clement's own development, not a statement of the apostle.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.13.107 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/13/107/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.13.107 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/13/107/).

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