Miscellanies 4.13.93
Summary: Neither Valentinians nor Montanists should call other Christians “psychics”; the perfect practice love, which means loving enemies as God's creatures, not their sins, for sin lies in activity, not in substance.
Greek text · Stählin 2:289
Μὴ τοίνυν ψυχικοὺς ἐν ὀνείδους μέρει λεγόντων ἡμᾶς οἱ προειρημένοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ Φρύγες· ἤδη γὰρ καὶ οὗτοι τοὺς τῇ νέᾳ προφητείᾳ μὴ προσέχοντας ψυχικοὺς καλοῦσιν, πρὸς οὓς ἐν τοῖς Περὶ προφητείας διαλεξόμεθα. ἀγάπην οὖν ἀσκεῖν τὸν τέλειον χρή, κἀνθένδε ἐπὶ τὴν θείαν φιλίαν σπεύδειν, διʼ ἀγάπην ἐκτελοῦντα τὰς ἐντολάς. τὸ δὲ ἀγαπᾶν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς οὐκ ἀγαπᾶν τὸ κακὸν λέγει οὐδὲ ἀσέβειαν ἢ μοιχείαν ἢ κλοπήν, ἀλλὰ τὸν κλέπτην καὶ τὸν ἀσεβῆ καὶ τὸν μοιχόν, οὐ καθὸ ἁμαρτάνει καὶ τῇ ποιᾷ ἐνεργείᾳ μολύνει τὴν ἀνθρώπου προσηγορίαν, καθὸ δὲ ἄνθρωπός ἐστι καὶ ἔργον θεοῦ. ἀμέλει τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν ἐν ἐνεργείᾳ κεῖται, οὐκ οὐσίᾳ· διὸ οὐδὲ ἔργον θεοῦ.
English · Claude translation
Let not those just mentioned, then, call us “psychics” by way of reproach; nor the Phrygians either; for these too already call “psychics” those who do not pay attention to the new prophecy; against them we will argue in our work On Prophecy. The perfect man, then, must practice love, and from here hasten to divine friendship, fulfilling the commandments through love. And loving one's enemies does not mean loving evil, nor impiety, adultery, or theft, but the thief, the impious man, and the adulterer; not insofar as he sins and pollutes the name of man by such activity, but insofar as he is a man and the work of God. Indeed sinning lies in activity, not in substance; that is why it is not the work of God.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “The Phrygians” are the Montanists and “the new prophecy” their movement. Clement's work On Prophecy is lost or was never written. The allusion is Matt 5:44.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.13.93 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/13/93/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.13.93 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/13/93/).
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