Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.9.74

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The one who knows is free from all passion, not merely moderate in it, and shares not even in the so-called good feelings that border on the passions.

Greek text · Stählin 2:468–469

ἐξαιρετέον ἄρα τὸν γνωστικὸν ἡμῖν καὶ τέλειον ἀπὸ παντὸς ψυχικοῦ πάθους· ἡ μὲν γὰρ γνῶσις συνάσκησιν, ἡ συνάσκησις δὲ ἕξιν ἢ διάθεσιν, ἡ κατάστασις δὲ ἡ τοιάδε ἀπάθειαν ἐργάζεται, οὐ μετριοπάθειαν· ἀπάθειαν γὰρ καρποῦται παντελὴς τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐκκοπή. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ ἐκείνων τῶν θρυλουμένων ἀγαθῶν, τουτέστι τῶν παρακειμένων τοῖς πάθεσιν παθητικῶν ἀγαθῶν, μεταλαμβάνει ὁ γνωστικός, οἷον εὐφροσύνης λέγω (ἥτις παράκειται τῇ ἡδονῇ) καὶ κατηφείας (αὕτη γὰρ τῇ λύπῃ παρέζευκται) καὶ εὐλαβείας (ὑπέσταλκεν γὰρ τῷ φόβῳ), ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ θυμοῦ (παρὰ τὴν ὀργὴν οὗτος τέτακται),

English · Claude translation

We must, then, exempt the one who knows, the perfect man, from every passion of the soul. For knowledge produces training, training produces a habit or disposition, and such a state produces freedom from passion, not moderation of passion; for the complete cutting off of desire reaps freedom from passion. Nor does the one who knows share in those much-talked-of goods, that is, the passionate goods that lie next to the passions: I mean, for example, gladness (which lies next to pleasure), dejection (for this is yoked to grief), and caution (for it is subordinate to fear), nor indeed spirit (this is ranked beside anger),

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:468–469 · 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.
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • Clement rejects the Peripatetic ideal of moderated passion (μετριοπάθεια) in favor of freedom from passion (ἀπάθεια); the sentence continues in the next section.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.74 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/74/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.74 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/74/).

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