Miscellanies 7.9.54 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2

πάντοθεν ἄρα μαρτυρεῖ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ μόνος ὁ γνωστικὸς καὶ ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ· ἀεὶ γὰρ κατορθοῖ ἐν πᾶσι πάντως, καὶ ἐν λόγῳ καὶ ἐν πράξει καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἐννοίᾳ. Αὕτη μὲν οὖν, ὡς ἐν ἐπιδρομῇ φάναι, ἡ τοῦ Χριστιανοῦ θεοσέβεια. εἰ δὴ καθηκόντως ταῦτα ποιεῖ καὶ κατὰ λόγον τὸν ὀρθόν, εὐσεβῶς ποιεῖ καὶ δικαίως. εἰ δὲ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, μόνος ἂν εἴη τῷ ὄντι εὐσεβής τε καὶ δίκαιος καὶ θεοσεβὴς ὁ γνωστικός. οὐκ ἄρα ἄθεος ὁ Χριστιανός (τουτὶ γὰρ ἦν τὸ προκείμενον ἐπιδεῖξαι τοῖς φιλοσόφοις), ὥστε οὐδὲν κακὸν ἢ αἰσχρόν, ὅ ἐστιν ἄδικον, κατὰ μηδένα τρόπον ἐνεργήσει ποτέ. ἀκολούθως τοίνυν οὐδὲ ἀσεβεῖ, ἀλλʼ ἢ μόνος τῷ ὄντι θεοσεβεῖ ὁσίως καὶ προσηκόντως, τὸν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν πανηγεμόνα καὶ παμβασιλέα καὶ παντοκράτορα κατὰ τὴν ἀληθῆ θεοσέβειαν ὁσίως προστρεπόμενος.

English · Claude translation

From every side, then, the one who knows alone bears witness to the truth, both in deed and in word; for he always acts rightly in all things, in word, in action, and in thought itself. This, then, to put it briefly, is the Christian's piety. If he does these things as is fitting and according to right reason, he does them piously and justly. And if this is so, the one who knows would alone be truly pious, just, and godly. The Christian, then, is not an atheist (for this was what we set out to show the philosophers), and so he will never in any way do anything evil or shameful, that is, unjust. Consistently, then, he is not impious either; rather, he alone truly worships God in holiness and as is fitting, turning in holiness, according to true piety, to the God who truly is, the ruler of all, king of all, and Almighty.

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.

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text; word split in the digital text): εἰ δὲ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει. μόνος → εἰ δὲ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, μόνος; παμ βασιλέα → παμβασιλέα.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.9.54 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/9/54/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.9.54 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/9/54/).