Miscellanies 7.18.110 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2

τοιούτοις τισὶν ὁ κύριος λέγει· »τί με λέγετε ›κύριε κύριε‹ καὶ οὐ ποιεῖτε ἃ λέγω;« ἀκάθαρτοι δὲ πάμπαν οἱ μὴ διχηλοῦντες μηδὲ ἀνάγοντες μηρυκισμόν. ὑμεῖς δʼ, ὦ Μεγαρεῖς, φησὶν ὁ Θέογνις, οὔτε τρίτοι οὔτε τέταρτοι οὔτε δυωδέκατοι οὔτʼ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτʼ ἐν ἀριθμῷ, »ἀλλʼ ἢ ὡς ὁ χνοῦς, ὃν ἐκρίπτει ὁ ἄνεμος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς« καὶ »ὡς σταγὼν ἀπὸ κάδου«. Τούτων ἡμῖν προδιηνυσμένων καὶ τοῦ ἠθικοῦ τόπου ὡς ἐν κεφαλαίῳ ὑπογραφέντος, σποράδην, ὡς ὑπεσχήμεθα, καὶ διερριμμένως τὰ ζώπυρα τῶν τῆς ἀληθοῦς γνώσεως ἐγκατασπείραντες δογμάτων, ὡς μὴ ῥᾳδίαν εἶναι τῷ περιτυχόντι τῶν ἀμυήτων τὴν τῶν ἁγίων παραδόσεων εὕρεσιν, μετίωμεν ἐπὶ τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν.

English · Claude translation

To such people the Lord says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” And those that neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud are wholly unclean. “But you, Megarians,” says Theognis, “are neither third nor fourth nor twelfth, neither in account nor in number,” but “like the chaff which the wind drives from the face of the earth,” and “like a drop from a bucket.” Having gone through these matters beforehand, and having sketched the ethical topic in summary, and having sown, as we promised, here and there and scattered about, the sparks of the doctrines of true knowledge, so that the discovery of the holy traditions may not be easy for any of the uninitiated who comes upon them, let us pass on to what we promised.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2 · 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

Luke 6:46 · quotation, high confidence
Ps 1:4 · quotation, high confidence
Isa 40:15 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Luke 6:46, Ps 1:4, and Isa 40:15. The words about the Megarians are a Delphic oracle (Greek Anthology 14.73), here ascribed to Theognis.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (Θέογνις)): ὁ Φέογνις → ὁ Θέογνις.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.18.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/18/110/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.18.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/18/110/).