Miscellanies 6.18.165
Summary: Paul means that knowledge goes beyond basic instruction, being the perfection of faith; the Greeks, who learned from men, cannot be reliable teachers about God, since the weak creature cannot speak truly of its Maker.
Greek text · Stählin 2:517
φέρεται δὲ κἀν ταῖς Πράξεσι τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις κηρύξας τὸν λόγον), ἀλλὰ τὴν γνῶσιν διδάσκει, τελείωσιν οὖσαν τῆς πίστεως, ἐπέκεινα περισσεύειν τῆς κατηχήσεως κατὰ τὸ μεγαλεῖον τῆς τοῦ κυρίου διδασκαλίας καὶ τὸν ἐκκλησιαστικὸν κανόνα. διὸ καὶ ὑποβὰς ἐπιφέρει· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἰδιώτης τῷ λόγῳ, ἀλλʼ οὐ τῇ γνώσει. πλὴν οἵ γε ἐπὶ τῷ κατειλῆφθαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν αὐχοῦντες τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἰπάτωσαν ἡμῖν, παρὰ τίνος μαθόντες ἀλαζονεύονται. παρὰ θεοῦ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἂν φήσαιεν, παρὰ ἀνθρώπων δὲ ὁμολογοῦσιν. καὶ εἰ τοῦτο, ἤτοι γε παρʼ ἑαυτῶν ὀψὲ ἐκμαθόντες, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ τετυφωμένοι τινὲς αὐτῶν αὐχοῦσιν, ἢ παρʼ ἑτέρων τῶν ὁμοίων. ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐχέγγυοι διδάσκαλοι περὶ θεοῦ λέγοντες ἄνθρωποι, καθὸ ἄνθρωποι· οὐ γὰρ ἀξιόχρεως γε ἄνθρωπός γε ὢν καὶ περὶ θεοῦ τἀληθῆ λέγειν, ὁ ἀσθενὴς καὶ ἐπίκηρος περὶ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου καὶ ἀφθάρτου καὶ τὸ ἔργον περὶ τοῦ πεποιηκότος.
English · Claude translation
and it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word in Athens too); rather, he teaches that knowledge, being the perfection of faith, goes abundantly beyond catechetical instruction, in keeping with the majesty of the Lord's teaching and the church's rule. That is why, going on, he adds: “But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge.” But let those of the Greeks who boast of having grasped the truth tell us from whom they learned what they boast of. They would not say from God; they admit that it was from men. And if so, either they learned it late from themselves, as indeed some of them boast in their conceit, or from others like themselves. But men are not trustworthy teachers when they speak about God, insofar as they are men. For one who is a man is not competent to speak the truth even about God: the weak and perishable about the unbegotten and incorruptible, the work about its maker.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Acts 17:16–34 (Paul at Athens); the quotation is 2 Cor 11:6.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.18.165 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/18/165/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.18.165 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/18/165/).
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