Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.9.75

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

Summary: One perfected by love and feasting on contemplation cannot return to petty pleasures; though still in the body, he has departed to the Lord, not by ending his life but by withdrawing his soul from the passions.

Greek text · Stählin 2:469

κἂν λέγωσί τινες μηκέτʼ εἶναι ταῦτα κακά, ἀλλʼ ἤδη ἀγαθά. ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν ἅπαξ τελειωθέντα διʼ ἀγάπης καὶ τὴν ἀπλήρωτον τῆς θεωρίας εὐφροσύνην ἀιδίως καὶ ἀκορέστως ἑστιώμενον ἐπὶ τοῖς μικροῖς καὶ χαμαιζήλοις ἔτι τέρπεσθαι· τίς γὰρ ὑπολείπεται ἔτι τούτῳ εὔλογος αἰτία ἐπὶ τὰ κοσμικὰ παλινδρομεῖν ἀγαθὰ τῷ τὸ ἀπρόσιτον ἀπειληφότι φῶς κἂν μηδέπω κατὰ τὸν χρόνον καὶ τὸν τόπον, ἀλλʼ ἐκείνῃ γε τῇ γνωστικῇ ἀγάπῃ, διʼ ἣν καὶ ἡ κληρονομία καὶ ἡ παντελὴς ἕπεται ἀποκατάστασις, βεβαιοῦντος διʼ ἔργων τοῦ μισθαποδότου, ὃ διὰ τοῦ ἑλέσθαι γνωστικῶς διὰ τῆς ἀγάπης φθάσας προείληφεν ὁ γνωστικός; ἦ γὰρ οὐχί, ἀποδημῶν πρὸς τὸν κύριον διʼ ἀγάπην τὴν πρὸς αὐτόν, κἂν τὸ σκῆνος αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ γῆς θεωρῆται, ἑαυτὸν μὲν οὐκ ἐξάγει τοῦ βίου (οὐ γὰρ ἐπιτέτραπται αὐτῷ), ἐξήγαγεν δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν τῶν παθῶν (συγκεχώρηται γὰρ αὐτῷ) ζῇ τε αὖ νεκρώσας τὰς ἐπιθυμίας καὶ οὐκέτι συγχρῆται τῷ σώματι, μόνον δὲ αὐτῷ ἐπιτρέπει χρῆσθαι τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις, ἵνα μὴ τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς διαλύσεως παράσχῃ;

English · Claude translation

even if some say that these are no longer evils but already goods. For it is impossible that one who has once been perfected through love, and who feasts eternally and insatiably on the never-cloying gladness of contemplation, should still delight in small and grovelling things. For what reasonable cause is left to him to run back to worldly goods, when he has attained the unapproachable light, even if not yet in time and place, yet by that knowing love through which the inheritance and the complete restoration follow, the rewarder confirming by deeds what the one who knows, having chosen it knowingly through love, has already anticipated and taken beforehand? Is it not so that, departing to the Lord through his love for him, even if his tent is seen on earth, he does not remove himself from life (for that is not permitted him), but he has removed his soul from the passions (for that is granted him), and he lives having put his desires to death, and no longer makes common use of the body, but only allows it the use of necessities, so as not to give cause for its dissolution?

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:469 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Ethics, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are 1 Tim 6:16, Heb 11:6, 2 Cor 5:1, 8, and Col 3:5.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.75 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/75/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.75 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/75/).

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