Miscellanies 1.9.44
Summary: The experienced Christian, like a touchstone, can tell true philosophy from sophistry and truth from heresy; distinguishing ambiguous words is useful, as Christ did against the devil in the temptation.
Greek text · Stählin 2:29
αὐτίκα καὶ κυβερνήτην τὸν πολύπειρον ἐπαινοῦμεν, ὃς πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων εἶδεν ἄστεα, καὶ ἰατρὸν τὸν ἐν πείρᾳ πολλῶν γεγενημένον· ᾗ τινες καὶ τὸν ἐμπειρικὸν ἀναπλάττουσιν. ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸν βίον ἀναφέρων ἕκαστα τὸν ὀρθὸν ἔκ τε τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν καὶ τῶν βαρβαρικῶν ὑποδείγματα κομίζων πολύπειρος οὗτος τῆς ἀληθείας ἰχνευτὴς καὶ τῷ ὄντι πολύμητις, δίκην τῆς βασάνου λίθου (ἣ δʼ ἐστὶ Λυδὴ διακρίνειν πεπιστευμένη τὸ νόθον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰθαγενοῦς χρυσίου) καὶ ἱκανὸς ὢν χωρίζειν, ὁ πολύιδρις ἡμῶν καὶ γνωστικός, σοφιστικὴν μὲν φιλοσοφίας, κομμωτικὴν δὲ γυμναστικῆς καὶ ὀψοποιικὴν ἰατρικῆς καὶ ῥητορικὴν διαλεκτικῆς καὶ μαγείας ἄλλας τε κατὰ τὴν βάρβαρον φιλοσοφίαν αἱρέσεις αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας. πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον περὶ νοητῶν φιλοσοφοῦντα διαλαβεῖν τὸν ἐπιποθοῦντα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμεως ἐπήβολον γενέσθαι; πῶς δὲ οὐχὶ καὶ διαιρεῖσθαι χρήσιμον τάς τε ἀμφιβόλους φωνὰς τάς τε ὁμωνύμως ἐκφερομένας κατὰ τὰς διαθήκας; παρʼ ἀμφιβολίαν γὰρ ὁ κύριος τὸν διάβολον κατὰ τὸν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ σοφίζεται χρόνον, καὶ οὐκέτι ἔγωγε ἐνταῦθα συνορῶ, ὅπως ποτὲ ὁ τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ τῆς διαλεκτικῆς εὑρετής, ὥς τινες ὑπολαμβάνουσιν, παράγεται τῷ κατʼ ἀμφιβολίαν ἀπατώμενος τρόπῳ.
English · Claude translation
Thus we praise the much-experienced pilot, who “saw the cities of many men,” and the physician who has had experience of many cases; hence some even invent the empiric. The one who refers each thing to right living, bringing examples from Greek and barbarian sources, is a much-experienced tracker of the truth and truly “of many counsels”; like the touchstone (the Lydian stone, trusted to distinguish counterfeit from genuine gold), our man of wide learning and knowledge is able to separate sophistry from philosophy, cosmetics from gymnastics, cookery from medicine, rhetoric from dialectic, and magic and other heresies from the truth itself according to the barbarian philosophy. How is it not necessary for one who longs to attain the power of God to discuss intelligible things philosophically? How is it not useful to distinguish the ambiguous words and those used with the same name in the Testaments? For by an ambiguity the Lord outwitted the devil at the time of the temptation; and I no longer see here how the inventor of philosophy and dialectic, as some suppose, is led astray, deceived by the way of ambiguity.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Homer, Odyssey 1.3 (“saw the cities of many men”); “of many counsels” is Odysseus's epithet. Some said the devil invented philosophy. The allusion is Matt 4:1–11.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): τάς τε ἀμφιβόλους φωνᾶς → τάς τε ἀμφιβόλους φωνὰς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.9.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/9/44/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.9.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/9/44/).
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