Miscellanies 6.17.159
Summary: It is absurd to credit the devil with philosophy, since it makes people virtuous and vice cannot produce virtue; philosophy came from God, as the law did for the Jews, until Christ's coming brought the universal call to one people.
Greek text · Stählin 2:513–514
πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἄτοπον τὴν ἀταξίαν καὶ τὴν ἀδικίαν προσνέμοντας τῷ διαβόλῳ ἐναρέτου πράγματος τοῦτον, τῆς φιλοσοφίας, δοτῆρα ποιεῖν; κινδυνεύει γὰρ εὐμενέστερος τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εἰς τὸ ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας γίγνεσθαι γεγονέναι τῆς θείας προνοίας τε καὶ γνώμης. ἔμπαλιν δʼ, οἶμαι, νόμου ἴδιον καὶ λόγου παντὸς ὀρθοῦ τὸ προσῆκον ἑκάστῳ καὶ τὸ ἴδιον καὶ τὸ ἐπιβάλλον ἀποδιδόναι. ὡς γὰρ ἡ λύρα μόνου τοῦ κιθαριστοῦ καὶ ὁ αὐλὸς τοῦ αὐλητοῦ, οὕτως τὰ προτερήματα τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐστι κτήματα, καὶ καθάπερ φύσις τοῦ ἀγαθοποιοῦ τὸ ἀγαθοποιεῖν, ὡς τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ θερμαίνειν καὶ τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ φωτίζειν. κακὸν δὲ οὐκ ἂν ποιήσαι ἀγαθός, ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ φῶς σκοτώσει ἢ ψύξει τὸ πῦρ. οὕτως ἔμπαλιν ἡ κακία οὐκ ἄν τι ἐνάρετον ποιήσαι· ἐνέργεια γὰρ αὐτῆς τὸ κακοποιεῖν ὡς τοῦ σκότους τὸ συγχεῖν τὰς ὄψεις· οὐ τοίνυν κακίας ἔργον ἡ φιλοσοφία ἐναρέτους ποιοῦσα. λείπεται δὴ θεοῦ, οὗ μόνον τὸ ἀγαθύνειν ἔργον ἐστίν, καὶ πάνθʼ ὅσα παρὰ θεοῦ δίδοται, καλῶς δίδοταί τε καὶ λαμβάνεται. ναὶ μὴν ἡ χρῆσις τῆς φιλοσοφίας οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρώπων κακῶν· ἀλλʼ εἰ τοῖς ἀρίστοις τῶν Ἑλλήνων δέδοται, δῆλον καὶ ὅθεν δεδώρηται, παρὰ τῆς κατʼ ἀξίαν τὰ προσήκοντα ἑκάστοις ἀπονεμούσης δηλονότι προνοίας. εἰκότως οὖν Ἰουδαίοις μὲν νόμος, Ἕλλησι δὲ φιλοσοφία μέχρι τῆς παρουσίας, ἐντεῦθεν δὲ ἡ κλῆσις ἡ καθολική, εἰς περιούσιον δικαιοσύνης λαὸν κατὰ τὴν ἐκ πίστεως διδασκαλίαν συνάγοντος διʼ ἑνὸς τοῦ κυρίου τοῦ μόνου ἑνὸς ἀμφοῖν θεοῦ, Ἑλλήνων τε καὶ βαρβάρων, μᾶλλον δὲ παντὸς τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους.
English · Claude translation
How, then, is it not absurd, while ascribing disorder and injustice to the devil, to make him the giver of a virtuous thing, philosophy? For then he would seem to have been kinder to the Greeks, in making them good men, than divine providence and purpose. On the contrary, I think, it belongs to law and to all right reason to render to each what is fitting, what is his own, and what is due. For as the lyre belongs only to the lyre-player and the pipe to the piper, so advantages are the possessions of good men; and it is the nature of the beneficent to do good, as it is of fire to warm and of light to give light. A good man would not do evil, just as light will not darken nor fire chill. So, conversely, vice would not do anything virtuous; for its activity is doing evil, as darkness's is to confound the sight. Philosophy, then, is not a work of vice, since it makes men virtuous. It remains, then, that it is from God, whose only work is to do good; and all that is given by God is given and received well. Moreover, the use of philosophy does not belong to bad men; but if it was given to the best of the Greeks, it is clear from where it was bestowed: from providence, which assigns to each what is fitting according to worth. Fittingly, then, the law was given to the Jews and philosophy to the Greeks until the coming; and from then on came the universal calling, into a people for his own possession of righteousness, according to the teaching that comes from faith, as the one God, the only God of both, Greeks and barbarians, or rather of the whole human race, gathers them through the one Lord.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Titus 2:14 (a people for his own possession), Rom 3:29–30, and Gal 3:24 (the law as tutor until Christ); compare Jas 1:17.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.159 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/159/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.159 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/159/).
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