Miscellanies 1.23.154
Summary: A tradition says Moses killed the Egyptian by a word, as Peter did Ananias and Sapphira; Artapanus tells how Moses, freed from prison, spoke God's name into Pharaoh's ear and struck him speechless.
Greek text · Stählin 2:96
φασὶ δὲ οἱ μύσται λόγῳ μόνῳ ἀνελεῖν τὸν Αἰγύπτιον, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει ὕστερον Πέτρος ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσι φέρεται τοὺς νοσφισαμένους τῆς τιμῆς τοῦ χωρίου καὶ ψευσαμένους λόγῳ ἀποκτείνας. Ἀρτάπανος γοῦν ἐν τῷ περὶ Ἰουδαίων συγγράμματι ἱστορεῖ κατακλεισθέντα εἰς φυλακὴν Μωυσέα ὑπὸ Χενεφρέους τοῦ Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέως ἐπὶ τῷ παραιτεῖσθαι τὸν λαὸν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἀπολυθῆναι, νύκτωρ ἀνοιχθέντος τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου κατὰ βούλησιν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξελθόντα καὶ εἰς τὰ βασίλεια παρελθόντα ἐπιστῆναι κοιμωμένῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ ἐξεγεῖραι αὐτόν, τὸν δὲ καταπλαγέντα τῷ γεγονότι κελεῦσαι τῷ Μωυσεῖ τὸ τοῦ πέμψαντος εἰπεῖν ὄνομα θεοῦ καὶ τὸν μὲν προσκύψαντα πρὸς τὸ οὖς εἰπεῖν, ἀκούσαντα δὲ τὸν βασιλέα ἄφωνον πεσεῖν, διακρατηθέντα δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ Μωυσέως πάλιν ἀναβιῶναι.
English · Claude translation
The initiated say that he killed the Egyptian by a word alone, as indeed later Peter in the Acts is said to have killed by a word those who kept back part of the price of the field and lied. Artapanus, at any rate, in his work on the Jews, relates that Moses was shut up in prison by Chenephres, king of the Egyptians, for asking that the people be released from Egypt; and that at night, when the prison was opened by God's will, he went out, came into the palace, stood over the sleeping king, and woke him; and the king, astonished at what had happened, ordered Moses to tell the name of the God who had sent him; and he, bending down, said it into his ear; and the king, hearing it, fell speechless, but, held by Moses, came to life again.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Acts 5:1–10. Artapanus was a Jewish writer of the second century BC.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.23.154 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/23/154/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.23.154 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/23/154/).
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