Miscellanies 6.5.40 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:451–452

τί οὖν ἐστι τὸ μὴ κατὰ τοὺς Ἕλληνας, αὐτὸς διασαφήσει Πέτρος ἐπιφέρων· ὅτι ἀγνοίᾳ φερόμενοι καὶ μὴ ἐπιστάμενοι τὸν θεὸν ὡς ἡμεῖς κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν τὴν τελείαν, ὧν ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν εἰς χρῆσιν, μορφώσαντες, ξύλα καὶ λίθους, χαλκὸν καὶ σίδηρον, χρυσὸν καὶ ἄργυρον, τῆς ὕλης αὐτῶν καὶ χρήσεως ἐπιλαθόμενοι, τὰ δοῦλα τῆς ὑπάρξεως ἀναστήσαντες, σέβονται, καὶ ἃ δέδωκεν αὐτοῖς εἰς βρῶσιν ὁ θεός, τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ ἀέρος καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης τὰ νηκτὰ καὶ τῆς γῆς τὰ ἑρπετὰ καὶ τὰ θηρία σὺν κτήνεσι τετραπόδοις τοῦ ἀγροῦ, γαλᾶς τε καὶ μῦς αἰλούρους τε καὶ κύνας καὶ πιθήκους· καὶ τὰ ἴδια βρώματα βρωτοῖς θύματα θύουσιν καὶ νεκρὰ νεκροῖς προσφέροντες ὡς θεοῖς ἀχαριστοῦσι τῷ θεῷ, διὰ τούτων ἀρνούμενοι αὐτὸν εἶναι.

English · Claude translation

What “not as the Greeks” means, Peter himself will make clear, adding: “For they, carried along by ignorance and not knowing God” (as we do, by perfect knowledge), “shaping the things over which he gave them authority for use, wood and stones, bronze and iron, gold and silver, forgetting their material and their use, set up as objects of worship the things meant to serve their existence; and the things God gave them for food, the birds of the air and the swimming creatures of the sea and the creeping things of the earth and the wild beasts with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice, cats and dogs and apes; and they sacrifice their own foods as sacrifices to things that are themselves eaten, and offering dead things to the dead as to gods, they are ungrateful to God, denying by these things that he exists.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:451–452 · 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

Rom 1:23 · echo, medium confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Ker. Pet. (Preaching of Peter) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation continues the Preaching of Peter; compare Rom 1:21–23.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong breathing and accent on εἰς): εὶς χρῆσιν → εἰς χρῆσιν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.5.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/5/40/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.5.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/5/40/).