Miscellanies 7.5.28
Summary: God cannot be confined in temples made with hands; a statue or temple made by human craft is only matter, and a God who had to be set up by human beings would once not have existed.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Ἢ γὰρ οὐ καλῶς καὶ ἀληθῶς οὐκ ἐν τόπῳ τινὶ περιγράφομεν τὸν ἀπερίληπτον οὐδʼ ἐν ἱεροῖς καθείργνυμεν »χειροποιήτοις« τὸ πάντων περιεκτικόν; τί δʼ ἂν καὶ οἰκοδόμων καὶ λιθοξόων καὶ βαναύσου τέχνης ἅγιον εἴη ἔργον; οὐχὶ ἀμείνους τούτων οἱ τὸν ἀέρα καὶ τὸ περιέχον, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸν ὅλον κόσμον καὶ τὸ σύμπαν ἄξιον ἡγησάμενοι τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπεροχῆς; γελοῖον μεντἂν εἴη, ὡς αὐτοί φασιν οἱ φιλόσοφοι, ἄνθρωπον, ὄντα »παίγνιον θεοῦ«, θεὸν ἐργάζεσθαι καὶ γίγνεσθαι παιδιὰν τέχνης τὸν θεόν. ἐπεὶ τὸ γινόμενον ταὐτὸν καὶ ὅμοιον τῷ ἐξ οὗ γίνεται, ὡς τὸ ἐξ ἐλέφαντος ἐλεφάντινον καὶ τὸ ἐκ χρυσοῦ χρυσοῦν· τὰ δὲ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων βαναύσων κατασκευαζόμενα ἀγάλματά τε καὶ ἱερὰ ἐκ τῆς ὕλης τῆς ἀργῆς γίνεται, ὥστε καὶ αὐτὰ ἂν εἴη ἀργὰ καὶ ὑλικὰ καὶ βέβηλα. κἂν τὴν τέχνην ἐκτελέσῃς, τῆς βαναυσίας μετείληφεν· οὐκέτʼ οὖν ἱερὰ καὶ θεῖα τῆς τέχνης τὰ ἔργα. τί δʼ ἂν καὶ ἱδρύοιτο μηδενὸς ἀνιδρύτου τυγχάνοντος, ἐπεὶ πάντα ἐν τόπῳ; ναὶ μὴν τὸ ἱδρυμένον ὑπό τινος ἱδρύεται πρότερον ἀνίδρυτον ὄν. εἴπερ οὖν ὁ θεὸς ἱδρύεται πρὸς ἀνθρώπων, ἀνίδρυτός ποτε ἦν καὶ οὐδʼ ὅλως ἦν. τοῦτο γὰρ ἂν εἴη ἀνίδρυτον, τὸ οὐκ ὄν· ἐπειδήπερ πᾶν τὸ μὴ ὂν ἱδρύεται. τὸ δὲ ὂν ὑπὸ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐκ ἂν ἱδρυνθείη, ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὑπʼ ἄλλου ὄντος· ὂν γάρ ἐστι καὶ αὐτό.
English · Claude translation
Or are we not right and true in not confining in any place the one who cannot be contained, and in not shutting up in temples “made with hands” the one who contains all things? What work of builders and stonecutters and mechanical craft could be holy? Are not those better than these who have thought the air and the surrounding heaven, or rather the whole world and the universe, worthy of God's pre-eminence? It would surely be ridiculous, as the philosophers themselves say, for a human being, who is “God's plaything,” to make God, and for God to become the plaything of a craft. For what is made is the same as, and like, that from which it is made: what is made from ivory is ivory, and what is made from gold is golden. But the statues and temples built by workmen are made from inert matter, so that they too would be inert, material, and profane; and even if you perfect the craft, the work shares in the mechanical. So the works of craft are no longer sacred and divine. And what could be set up and established, when nothing is unestablished, since all things are in place? Indeed, what is established is established by someone, having previously been unestablished. If, then, God is established by human beings, he was once unestablished and did not exist at all. For what would be unestablished is what does not exist, since it is what does not exist that gets established. But what exists could not be established by what does not exist, nor even by another existing thing, for that too exists.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Acts 7:48 / 17:24 (“made with hands”). “God's plaything” is Plato, Laws 7.803c. The argument plays on ἱδρύω, “to set up” a statue or temple, and so “to establish”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text): ἀνιδρύτου τυγχάνοντος. ἐπεὶ → ἀνιδρύτου τυγχάνοντος, ἐπεὶ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.5.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/5/28/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.5.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/5/28/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text