Miscellanies 2.5.22
Summary: Christ, whose Father is God, is the truly noble; Plato too calls the wise man rich, free, beautiful, and king, agreeing with Scripture that riches lie in the soul and freedom comes from the truth.
Greek text · Stählin 2:124–125
τίς δʼ ἂν τούτου εὐγενέστερος, οὗ μόνος πατὴρ ὁ θεός; φέρε δὴ καὶ Πλάτωνα τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπιβάλλοντα παραστησώμεθα δόγμασιν· πλούσιον μὲν τὸν σοφὸν εἴρηκεν ἐν τῷ Φαίδρῳ, ὦ φίλε Πὰν λέγων καὶ ὅσοι ἄλλοι τῇδε θεοί, δοίητέ μοι καλῷ γενέσθαι τἄνδοθεν· ἔξωθεν δὲ ὅσα ἔχω, τοῖς ἐντὸς εἶναί μοι φίλα· πλούσιον δὲ νομίζοιμι τὸν σοφόν. καταμεμφόμενος δὲ ὁ Ἀθηναῖος ξένος τῶν οἰομένων πλουσίους εἶναι τοὺς πολλὰ κεκτημένους χρήματα ὧδε λέγει· πλουσίους δʼ αὖ σφόδρα εἶναι καὶ ἀγαθοὺς ἀδύνατον, οὕς γε δὴ πλουσίους οἱ πολλοὶ καταλέγουσι· λέγουσι δὲ τοὺς κεκτημένους ἐν ὀλίγοις τῶν ἀνθρώπων πλείστου νομίσματος ἄξια κτήματα, ἃ καὶ κακός τις κέκτηται. τοῦ πιστοῦ ὅλος ὁ κόσμος τῶν χρημάτων, ὁ Σολομὼν λέγει, τοῦ δὲ ἀπίστου οὐδὲ ὀβολός. πειστέον οὖν πολλῷ μᾶλλον τῇ γραφῇ λεγούσῃ θᾶττον κάμηλον διὰ τρυπήματος βελόνης διελεύσεσθαι ἢ πλούσιον φιλοσοφεῖν· μακαρίζει δʼ ἔμπαλιν τοὺς πένητας, ὡς συνῆκεν Πλάτων λέγων· πενίαν δὲ ἡγητέον οὐ τὸ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐλάττω ποιεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὸ τὴν ἀπληστίαν πλείω. οὐ γάρ ποτε ἡ ὀλιγοχρηματία, ἀλλʼ ἡ ἀπληστία, ἧς φροῦδος ὁ ἀγαθὸς ὢν καὶ πλούσιός γʼ ἂν εἴη. ἔν τε τῷ Ἀλκιβιάδῃ δουλοπρεπὲς μὲν τὴν κακίαν προσαγορεύει, ἐλευθεροπρεπὲς δὲ τὴν ἀρετήν. ἄρατε, φησίν, ἀφʼ ὑμῶν τὸν βαρὺν ζυγὸν καὶ λάβετε τὸν πρᾶον, ἡ γραφή φησι, καθάπερ καὶ οἱ ποιηταὶ δούλειον καλοῦσι ζυγόν. καὶ τὸ ἐπράθητε ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν τοῖς προειρημένοις συνᾴδει. πᾶς μὲν οὖν ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν δοῦλός ἐστιν. ὁ δὲ δοῦλος οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. ἐὰν δὲ ὁ υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, ἐλεύθεροι ἔσεσθε, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς. καλὸν δʼ αὖ εἶναι τὸν σοφὸν ὁ Ἀθηναῖος ὡδὶ λέγει· ὡς εἴ τις διισχυρίζοιτο εἶναι τοὺς δικαίους, ἂν καὶ τυγχάνωσιν ὄντες αἰσχροὶ τὰ σώματα, κατά γε τὸ δικαιότατον ἦθος ταύτῃ παγκάλους εἶναι, σχεδὸν οὐδεὶς ἂν λέγων οὕτω πλημμελῶς δόξειεν λέγειν· καὶ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ἐκλεῖπον παρὰ πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἦν ἡ προφητεία προηγόρευσεν. Πλάτων δὲ βασιλέα τὸν σοφόν εἴρηκεν ἐν τῷ Πολιτικῷ, καὶ πρόκειται ἡ λέξις.
English · Claude translation
Who could be of nobler birth than he, whose only Father is God? Come, let us present Plato too as approaching the same doctrines. He called the wise man rich in the Phaedrus, saying: “O dear Pan and all you other gods of this place, grant me to become beautiful within; and that whatever I have outside may be friendly to what is within. And may I consider the wise man rich.” And the Athenian Stranger, blaming those who think that those who possess much money are rich, says this: “It is impossible for people to be very rich and good, at least those whom the many count rich; and they mean those who possess, among a few people, possessions worth the most money, which even a bad man may possess.” “The whole world of wealth belongs to the believer,” says Solomon, “but to the unbeliever not even an obol.” Much more, then, must we believe Scripture, which says that a camel will pass through the eye of a needle sooner than a rich man will philosophize. On the other hand it blesses the poor, as Plato understood when he said: “Poverty must be thought to be not diminishing one's property but increasing one's greed.” For it is never lack of money but insatiability, from which the good man is free, that makes poverty; and he would be rich. And in the Alcibiades he calls vice slavish and virtue fit for a free man. “Take off from yourselves the heavy yoke and take the gentle one,” Scripture says, as the poets too speak of a “yoke of slavery.” And “you were sold by your sins” agrees with what has been said. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave. And the slave does not remain in the house forever. But if the Son sets you free, you will be free, and the truth will set you free.” And the Athenian Stranger says that the wise man is beautiful, in this way: “As if someone should insist that the just, even if they happen to be ugly in body, are altogether beautiful in respect of their most just character, hardly anyone would seem to speak amiss in saying so.” And “his form was lacking beyond all the sons of men,” the prophecy foretold. And Plato called the wise man king in the Statesman, and the passage has been quoted.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Plato, Phaedrus 279b–c, Laws 5.742e, Prov 17:6a (LXX addition), a form of Matt 19:24, Plato, Laws 5.736e, Alcibiades 1.135c, Matt 11:29–30 (paraphrased), Isa 50:1, John 8:34–36, 32, Plato, Laws 9.859d, and Isa 53:3 (LXX).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent missing on ἔν; accent: grave on ἂν; misreading in the digital text (δὴ); wrong breathing on εἶναι and punctuation missing): φέρε φὴ καὶ Πλάτωνα → φέρε δὴ καὶ Πλάτωνα; τοῖς ἐντὸς εἷναί μοι φίλα πλούσιον → τοῖς ἐντὸς εἶναί μοι φίλα· πλούσιον; ἐν τε τῷ Ἀλκιβιάδῃ → ἔν τε τῷ Ἀλκιβιάδῃ; ἄν καὶ τυγχάνωσιν → ἂν καὶ τυγχάνωσιν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/22/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/22/).
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