Miscellanies 1.11.53
Summary: Paul prays for discerning love; philosophers are infants under the elements unless Christ makes them mature; Hagar's son is still Abraham's seed; solid food is for the mature, who test all things.
Greek text · Stählin 2:34–35
διὰ τοῦτο προσεύχομαι, φησίν, ἵνα ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν ἔτι μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον περισσεύῃ ἐν ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει, εἰς τὸ δοκιμάζειν ὑμᾶς τὰ διαφέροντα· ἐπεὶ ὅτε ἦμεν νήπιοι, φησὶν ὁ αὐτὸς ἀπόστολος, ὑπὸ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου ἦμεν δεδουλωμένοι. ὁ δὲ νήπιος, κἂν κληρονόμος ᾖ, οὐδὲν δούλου διαφέρει ἄχρι τῆς προθεσμίας τοῦ πατρός. νήπιοι οὖν καὶ οἱ φιλόσοφοι, ἐὰν μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀπανδρωθῶσιν. εἰ γὰρ οὐ κληρονομήσει ὁ υἱὸς τῆς παιδίσκης μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἐλευθέρας, ἀλλὰ γοῦν σπέρμα ἐστὶν Ἀβραάμ, τὸ μὴ ἐξ ἐπαγγελίας τὸ ἴδιον εἰληφὸς δωρεάν. τελείων δέ ἐστιν ἡ στερεὰ τροφή τῶν διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἐχόντων πρὸς διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ. πᾶς γὰρ ὁ μετέχων γάλακτος ἄπειρος λόγου δικαιοσύνης, νήπιος ὢν καὶ μηδέπω ἐπιστάμενος τὸν λόγον καθʼ ὃν πεπίστευκέ τε καὶ ἐνεργεῖ, μηδὲ ἀποδοῦναι δυνάμενος τὴν αἰτίαν ἐν αὑτῷ. πάντα δὲ δοκιμάζετε, ὁ ἀπόστολός φησι, καὶ τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε, τοῖς πνευματικοῖς λέγων τοῖς ἀνακρίνουσι πάντα κατὰ ἀλήθειαν τὰ λεγόμενα, πότερον δοκεῖ ἢ ὄντως ἔχεται τῆς ἀληθείας.
English · Claude translation
“That is why I pray,” he says, “that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all perception, so that you may approve what is excellent”; since “when we were infants,” says the same apostle, “we were enslaved under the elements of the world.” “And the infant, though he is heir, differs in nothing from a slave until the time appointed by the father.” The philosophers too, then, are infants, unless they are made men by Christ. For if “the son of the slave woman will not inherit with the son of the free woman,” yet he is at any rate the seed of Abraham, having received his own gift not by promise. “But solid food is for the perfect, who through practice have their senses exercised to distinguish good and evil. For everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness,” being an infant and not yet knowing the word by which he has believed and acts, nor able to give the reason in himself. “But test all things,” says the apostle, “and hold fast what is good,” speaking to the spiritual, who judge everything said according to truth, whether it merely seems or truly holds to the truth.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Phil 1:9–10, Gal 4:3, 1, Gal 4:30 (Gen 21:10), Heb 5:14, 13, and 1 Thess 5:21.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misspelling and wrong accent in the digital text; wrong accent on ὢν): νήπιος ὤν καὶ → νήπιος ὢν καὶ; τὸν λόγου καθʼ ὅν πεπίστευκέ → τὸν λόγον καθʼ ὃν πεπίστευκέ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.11.53 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/11/53/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.11.53 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/11/53/).
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