Miscellanies 4.10.76
Summary: Christ's command to flee persecution is not because persecution or death is evil, but so that we may not be the cause of the persecutor's sin; the one who disobeys is reckless.
Greek text · Stählin 2:282
Ἐπὰν δʼ ἔμπαλιν εἴπῃ ὅταν διώκωσιν ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, φεύγετε εἰς τὴν ἄλλην, οὐχ ὡς κακὸν ὂν τὸ διώκεσθαι παραινεῖ φεύγειν οὐδʼ ὡς θάνατον φοβουμένους διὰ φυγῆς ἐκκλίνειν προστάττει τοῦτον· βούλεται δὲ ἡμᾶς μηδενὶ αἰτίους μηδὲ συναιτίους κακοῦ τινος γίνεσθαι, σφίσιν τε αὐτοῖς πρὸς δὲ καὶ τῷ διώκοντι καὶ τῷ ἀναιροῦντι· τρόπον γάρ τινα παραγγέλλει αὐτὸν περιίστασθαι, ὁ δὲ παρακούων τολμηρὸς καὶ ῥιψοκίνδυνος.
English · Claude translation
When, again, he says, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to the other,” he does not advise flight as though being persecuted were evil, nor does he order us to avoid death through flight as though we feared it; but he wishes us to be the cause or joint cause of no evil to anyone, either to ourselves or to the persecutor and the killer. For in a way he commands us to keep clear of him; and the one who disobeys is rash and reckless.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Matt 10:23.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.10.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/10/76/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.10.76 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/10/76/).
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