Miscellanies 6.15.127
Summary: The incarnation, virgin birth, passion, and resurrection look like a riddle to outsiders but, when the Scriptures are opened, are God's power and wisdom; prophecy spoke in veiled terms, and prophets, the Lord, and the apostles were all persecuted.
Greek text · Stählin 2:496
ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἡ οἰκονομία πᾶσα ἡ περὶ τὸν κύριον προφητευθεῖσα παραβολὴ ὡς ἀληθῶς φαίνεται τοῖς μὴ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐγνωκόσιν, ὅταν τις τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ τὰ πάντα πεποιηκότος σάρκα ἀνειληφότα καὶ ἐν μήτρᾳ παρθένου κυοφορηθέντα, καθὸ γεγέννηται τὸ αἰσθητὸν αὐτοῦ σαρκίον, ἀκολούθως δέ, καθὸ γέγονεν τοῦτο, πεπονθότα καὶ ἀνεσταμένον ὃ μὲν λέγῃ, οἳ δὲ ἀκούωσιν, Ἰουδαίοις μὲν σκάνδαλον, Ἕλλησι δὲ μωρίαν, ὥς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος. διανοιχθεῖσαι δὲ αἱ γραφαὶ καὶ τοῖς ὦτα ἔχουσιν ἐμφήνασαι τὸ ἀληθὲς αὐτὸ ἐκεῖνο, ὃ πέπονθεν ἡ σάρξ, ἣν ἀνείληφεν ὁ κύριος, δύναμιν θεοῦ καὶ σοφίαν καταγγέλλουσιν. ἐπὶ πᾶσί τε τὸ παραβολικὸν εἶδος τῆς γραφῆς, ἀρχαιότατον ὄν, ὡς παρεστήσαμεν, εἰκότως παρὰ τοῖς προφήταις μάλιστα ἐπλεόνασεν, ἵνα δὴ καὶ τοὺς φιλοσόφους τοὺς παρʼ Ἕλλησι καὶ τοὺς παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις βαρβάροις σοφοὺς ἠγνοηκέναι τὸ ἅγιον ἐπιδείξῃ πνεῦμα τὴν ἐσομένην τοῦ κυρίου παρουσίαν καὶ τὴν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ παραδοθησομένην μυστικὴν διδασκαλίαν. εἰκότως ἄρα κηρύσσουσα ἡ προφητεία τὸν κύριον, ὡς μὴ παρὰ τὰς τῶν πολλῶν ὑπολήψεις λέγουσα βλασφημεῖν τισι δοκοίη, ἐσχημάτισε τὰ σημαινόμενα φωναῖς ταῖς καὶ ἐπὶ ἑτέρας ἐννοίας ἄγειν δυναμέναις. αὐτίκα οἱ προφῆται πάντες οἱ προθεσπίσαντες τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ σὺν αὐτῇ τὰ ἅγια μυστήρια ἐδιώχθησαν, ἐφονεύθησαν, καθάπερ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος διασαφήσας αὐτῶν τὰς γραφὰς καὶ οἱ τούτου γνώριμοι οἱ κηρύξαντες τὸν λόγον ὡσαύτως μετʼ αὐτὸν τὸ ζῆν παρεβάλοντο.
English · Claude translation
Indeed, the whole dispensation concerning the Lord that was prophesied appears truly a parable to those who have not known the truth, when someone says, and others hear, that the Son of God, of the one who made all things, took flesh and was carried in a virgin's womb, insofar as his sensible flesh was born, and consequently, insofar as it came to be, suffered and rose again—“to Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness,” as the apostle says. But the Scriptures, once opened and showing the truth to those who have ears, proclaim that very thing which the flesh the Lord assumed suffered to be the power and wisdom of God. And above all, the parabolic form of Scripture, being most ancient, as we have shown, fittingly abounded most among the prophets, so that the Holy Spirit might show that the philosophers among the Greeks and the wise among the other barbarians were ignorant of the Lord's future coming and of the mystical teaching to be handed on by him. Fittingly, then, prophecy, in proclaiming the Lord, lest it should seem to some to blaspheme by speaking against the assumptions of the many, shaped what it meant in words that can also lead to other ideas. For instance, all the prophets who foretold the coming of the Lord, and with it the holy mysteries, were persecuted and killed; so too the Lord himself, who made their writings clear, and likewise his disciples, who preached the Word, risked their lives after him.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is 1 Cor 1:23–24; the allusions are Luke 24:32, 45 (opening the Scriptures), Matt 11:15, and Matt 23:31–37 (Acts 7:52).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.15.127 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/15/127/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.15.127 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/15/127/).
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