Miscellanies 6.7.59
Summary: All good teaching goes back to the Lord; if some choke the seeds of truth, as the Pharisees did the law, the fault is theirs, while those who come to Christ from the law or from philosophy reach full knowledge.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:461
Ὡς οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν ποιητὴν τὸν θεὸν πᾶσα ἀνατρέχει πατριά, οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον ἡ τῶν καλῶν διδασκαλία καὶ ἡ δικαιοῦσα καὶ εἰς τοῦτο χειραγωγοῦσά τε καὶ συλλαμβάνουσα. εἰ δʼ ἔκ τινος † ποιήσεως τὰ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁτῳδήποτε τρόπῳ λαβόντες σπέρματα οὐκ ἐξέθρεψάν τινες, γῇ δὲ ἀγόνῳ καὶ ἀνομβρίᾳ παραδεδωκότες ἀγρίαις συνεπνίξαντο βοτάναις, καθάπερ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ἐξετράπησαν τοῦ νόμου ἀνθρωπίνας παρεισάγοντες διδασκαλίας, τούτων οὐχ ὁ διδάσκαλος αἴτιος, ἀλλʼ οἱ παρακούειν προῃρημένοι. οἱ πεισθέντες δὲ αὐτῶν τῇ τε τοῦ κυρίου παρουσίᾳ καὶ τῇ τῶν γραφῶν σαφηνείᾳ ἐν ἐπιγνώσει γίνονται τοῦ νόμου, καθάπερ καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας διὰ τῆς τοῦ κυρίου διδασκαλίας ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τῆς ἀληθοῦς φιλοσοφίας καθίστανται. τὰ λόγια γὰρ κυρίου λόγια ἁγνά, ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον δοκίμιον, τῇ γῇ κεκαθαρισμένον ἑπταπλασίως.
English · Claude translation
Just as every family goes back to God the Maker, so the teaching of good things goes back to the Lord, both the teaching that justifies and the teaching that leads by the hand to it and helps. But if some, having received seeds of the truth in whatever way from some …, did not nurture them, but handed them over to barren and rainless ground and choked them with wild weeds, as the Pharisees turned aside from the law by introducing human teachings, the teacher is not to blame for this, but those who chose to mishear. Those of them who were persuaded by the Lord's coming and the clarity of the Scriptures come to full knowledge of the law, just as those who come from philosophy are established, through the Lord's teaching, in full knowledge of the true philosophy. For “the words of the Lord are pure words, silver refined by fire, tested, purified seven times in the earth.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions and quotations are Eph 3:15, Matt 13:7, Matt 15:9, and Ps 12:6 (11:7 LXX). The text is corrupt (dagger) after “from some” (ποιήσεως); “…” marks the doubtful word.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.7.59 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/7/59/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.7.59 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/7/59/).
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