Miscellanies 7.1.3
Summary: Serving God means caring for the soul and for others; as presbyters improve and deacons minister in the church, the one who knows both serves God and improves people, gathering a harvest of those saved through him.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Θεραπεία τοίνυν τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ συνεχὴς ἐπιμέλεια τῆς ψυχῆς τῷ γνωστικῷ καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸ θεῖον αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀδιάλειπτον ἀγάπην ἀσχολία. τῆς γὰρ περὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους θεραπείας ἣ μὲν βελτιωτική, ἣ δὲ ὑπηρετική. ἰατρικὴ μὲν σώματος, φιλοσοφία δὲ ψυχῆς βελτιωτική. γονεῦσι μὲν ἐκ παίδων καὶ ἡγεμόσιν ἐκ τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων ὑπηρετικὴ ὠφέλεια προσγίνεται· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν μὲν βελτιωτικὴν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι σῴζουσιν εἰκόνα, τὴν ὑπηρετικὴν δὲ οἱ διάκονοι. ταύτας ἄμφω τὰς διακονίας ἄγγελοί τε ὑπηρετοῦνται τῷ θεῷ κατὰ τὴν τῶν περιγείων οἰκονομίαν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ γνωστικός, θεῷ μὲν διακονούμενος, ἀνθρώποις δὲ τὴν βελτιωτικὴν ἐνδεικνύμενος θεωρίαν, ὅπως ἂν καὶ παιδεύειν ᾖ τεταγμένος εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπανόρθωσιν. θεοσεβὴς γὰρ μόνος ὁ καλῶς καὶ ἀνεπιλήπτως περὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπεια ἐξυπηρετῶν τῷ θεῷ. ὥσπερ γὰρ θεραπεία φυτῶν ἀρίστη καθʼ ἣν γίγνονται οἱ καρποὶ καὶ συγκομίζονται ἐπιστήμῃ καὶ ἐμπειρίᾳ γεωργικῇ, τὴν ὠφέλειαν τὴν ἐξ αὐτῶν παρεχομένη τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οὕτως ἡ θεοσέβεια τοῦ γνωστικοῦ, τοὺς καρποὺς τῶν διʼ αὐτοῦ πιστευσάντων ἀνθρώπων εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἀναδεχομένη. ἐν ἐπιγνώσει πλειόνων γιγνομένων καὶ ταύτῃ σῳζομένων. συγκομιδὴν ἀρίστην διʼ ἐμπειρίας ἐργάζεται. εἰ δʼ ἡ θεοπρέπεια ἕξις ἐστὶ τὸ πρέπον τῷ θεῷ σῴζουσα, θεοφιλὴς ὁ θεοπρεπὴς μόνος· οὗτος δʼ ἂν εἴη ὁ εἰδὼς τὸ πρέπον καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐπιστήμην καὶ κατὰ τὸν βίον, ὅπως βιωτέον τῷ ἐσομένῳ καὶ δὴ ἐξομοιουμένῳ ἤδη θεῷ.
English · Claude translation
The service of God, then, for the one who knows, is the continual care of his soul and his occupation with the divine in unceasing love. For of the service rendered to human beings, one kind improves, the other ministers: medicine improves the body, philosophy the soul; while to parents from children and to rulers from subjects a ministering benefit accrues. Likewise in the church the presbyters preserve the image of the improving kind, and the deacons that of the ministering kind. Both these ministries the angels render to God in the administration of earthly affairs, and so does the one who knows himself, serving God and showing human beings the improving contemplation, in whatever way he has been appointed to educate them for the correction of human beings. For he alone is godly who serves God well and blamelessly in human affairs. For as the best care of plants is that by which the fruits grow and are gathered by agricultural skill and experience, providing their benefit to human beings, so the godliness of the one who knows, taking to itself the fruits of those who have believed through him, as more come to full knowledge and so are saved, works the best harvest through experience. And if fitness toward God is the disposition that preserves what befits God, he who is fit for God is alone dear to God. He would be the one who knows what is fitting, both in knowledge and in life: how one must live who is to become like God, and indeed is already becoming like him.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The presbyter/deacon pair illustrates the two kinds of service; no bishop is named here. The last clause echoes the Platonic goal of becoming like God (Theaetetus 176b).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text): σῴζουσα. θεοφιλὴς → σῴζουσα, θεοφιλὴς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.1.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/1/3/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.1.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/1/3/).
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