Miscellanies 6.9.76

Summary: The one who knows needs neither courage nor self-restraint, since he has no fears or desires to master; foreordained to adoption, he already grasps by faith what others only guess.

Greek text · Stählin 2:469

Πῶς οὖν ἔτι τούτῳ τῆς ἀνδρείας χρεία, μὴ γινομένῳ ἐν δεινοῖς, τῷ γε μὴ παρόντι, ὅλως δὲ ἤδη συνόντι τῷ ἐραστῷ; τίς δὲ καὶ σωφροσύνης ἀνάγκη μὴ χρῄζοντι αὐτῆς; τὸ γὰρ ἔχειν τοιαύτας ἐπιθυμίας, ὡς σωφροσύνης δεῖσθαι πρὸς τὴν τούτων ἐγκράτειαν, οὐδέπω καθαροῦ, ἀλλʼ ἐμπαθοῦς, ἀνδρεία τε διὰ φόβον καὶ δειλίαν παραλαμβάνεται. οὐ γὰρ δὴ πρέπον ἔτι τὸν φίλον τοῦ θεοῦ, ὃν προώρισεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου εἰς τὴν ἄκραν ἐγκαταλεγῆναι υἱοθεσίαν, ἡδοναῖς ἢ φόβοις περιπίπτειν καὶ περὶ τὴν καταστολὴν ἀπασχολεῖσθαι τῶν παθῶν. τολμήσας γὰρ φήσαιμʼ ἄν· καθάπερ προωρισμένως κεῖται διʼ ὧν πράξει καὶ οὗ τεύξεται, οὕτως καὶ αὐτὸς προορίσας ἔχει διʼ ὧν ἔγνω ὃν ἠγάπησεν, οὐκ ἔχων δυστέκμαρτον τὸ μέλλον, καθάπερ οἱ πολλοὶ στοχαζόμενοι βιοῦσιν, ἀπειληφὼς δὲ διὰ πίστεως γνωστικῆς, ὃ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄδηλον.

English · Claude translation

How then does he still need courage, since he is not among terrors, not being present here, but already wholly united with the Beloved? And what need of self-restraint has he who does not need it? For to have such desires as to need self-restraint for self-control over them belongs to one not yet pure but subject to passion; and courage is taken up because of fear and cowardice. For it is certainly no longer fitting that the friend of God, whom God foreordained before the foundation of the world to be enrolled in the highest adoption, should fall into pleasures or fears and be occupied with the repression of passions. For I would dare to say: just as he stands foreordained through what he will do and what he will attain, so he too, having foreordained, holds through what he has known the one whom he has loved; he does not have a future hard to discern, as the many live by guessing, but has received through knowing faith what is unclear to others.

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

Eph 1:4 · allusion, high confidence
Eph 1:5 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/76/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/76/).

Greek text · Stählin 2:469

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage