Miscellanies 6.5.41
Summary: The Preaching of Peter says that Greeks and Jews both worship God in an old way, while Christians, a third race, worship him in the new way of the new covenant.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:452
καὶ ὅτι γε ὡς τὸν αὐτὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν τε αὐτῶν καὶ Ἑλλήνων ἐγνωκότων † φέρεται, πλὴν οὐχ ὁμοίως, ἐποίσει πάλιν ὧδέ πω· μηδὲ κατὰ Ἰουδαίους πλὴν οὐχ ὁμοίως, ἐκεῖνοι μόνοι οἰόμενοι τὸν θεὸν γινώσκειν οὐκ ἐπίστανται, λατρεύοντες ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀρχαγγέλοις, μηνὶ καὶ σελήνῃ. καὶ ἐὰν μὴ σελήνη φανῇ, σάββατον οὐκ ἄγουσι τὸ λεγόμενον πρῶτον, οὐδὲ νεομηνίαν ἄγουσιν οὔτε ἄζυμα οὔτε ἑορτὴν οὔτε μεγάλην ἡμέραν. εἶτα τὸν κολοφῶνα τοῦ ζητουμένου προσεπιφέρει· ὥστε καὶ ὑμεῖς ὁσίως καὶ δικαίως μανθάνοντες ἃ παραδίδομεν ὑμῖν, φυλάσσεσθε, καινῶς τὸν θεὸν διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ σεβόμενοι· εὕρομεν γὰρ ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς καθὼς ὁ κύριος λέγει· ›ἰδοὺ διατίθεμαι ὑμῖν καινὴν διαθήκην, οὐχ ὡς διεθέμην τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν ἐν ὄρει Χωρήβ.‹ νέαν ἡμῖν διέθετο· τὰ γὰρ Ἑλλήνων καὶ Ἰουδαίων παλαιά, ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ καινῶς αὐτὸν τρίτῳ γένει σεβόμενοι Χριστιανοί. σαφῶς γάρ, οἶμαι, ἐδήλωσεν τὸν ἕνα καὶ μόνον θεὸν ὑπὸ μὲν Ἑλλήνων ἐθνικῶς, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἰουδαίων Ἰουδαϊκῶς, καινῶς δὲ ὑφʼ ἡμῶν καὶ πνευματικῶς γινωσκόμενον.
English · Claude translation
And that he speaks as though we and the Greeks know the same God, though not in the same way, he shows by adding next: “Nor worship as the Jews do …; for they too, thinking that they alone know God, do not know him, serving angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the moon does not appear, they do not keep the Sabbath called the first, nor do they keep the new moon, or unleavened bread, or the feast, or the great day.” Then he adds the crowning point of the question: “So you too, learning in holiness and righteousness what we hand on to you, keep it, worshiping God in a new way through Christ. For we have found in the Scriptures, as the Lord says: ‘Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your fathers on Mount Horeb.’ He made a new one with us; for the ways of the Greeks and the Jews are old, but we are those who worship him in a new way, as a third race: Christians.” For he clearly showed, I think, that the one and only God is known by the Greeks in a Gentile way, by the Jews in a Jewish way, but by us in a new and spiritual way.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are from the Preaching of Peter, which quotes Jer 31:31–32 (38:31–32 LXX) combined with Deut 5:2 (Horeb). The text is corrupt at φέρεται (dagger), and the words “though not in the same way” are repeated after “as the Jews do” in the printed text (marked “…”). The charge that the Jews worship angels and depend on the moon is the Preaching's own polemic, reported here by Clement.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.5.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/5/41/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.5.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/5/41/).
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