Miscellanies 4.3.8
Summary: Both belief and unbelief can be good or bad depending on their object, as with abstaining; the Sabbath signifies abstinence from evil; man, lower than the angels by time and flesh, shares life with them but differs in contemplation and self-control.
Greek text · Stählin 2:251–252
οἱ πολλοὶ δὲ τῇ τῶν χειμώνων καταστάσει ὁμοίαν ἔχουσι τὴν διάθεσιν ἀνέδραστόν τε καὶ ἀλόγιστον. Πολλὰ ἀπιστία δέδρακεν ἀγαθὰ καὶ πίστις κακά. ὅ τε Ἐπίχαρμος μέμνασο ἀπιστεῖν φησίν· ἄρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν. αὐτίκα τὸ μὲν ἀπιστεῖν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ θάνατον φέρει ὡς τὸ πιστεύειν ζωήν, ἔμπαλιν δὲ τὸ πιστεύειν τῷ ψεύδει, ἀπιστεῖν δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὑποσύρει. ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος ἐπί τε ἐγκρατείας καὶ ἀκρασίας. ἐγκρατεύεσθαι μὲν γὰρ ἀγαθοεργίας κακίας ἔργον, ἀπέχεσθαι δὲ ἀδικίας σωτηρίας ἀρχή. ᾗ μοι δοκεῖ τὸ σάββατον διʼ ἀποχῆς κακῶν ἐγκράτειαν αἰνίσσεσθαι καὶ τί ποτʼ ἐστὶν ᾧ διαφέρει θηρίων ἄνθρωπος. τούτου τε αὖ οἱ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄγγελοι σοφώτεροι· ἠλάττωσας αὐτόν, φησί, βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους· οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἐκδέχονται τὴν γραφήν (καίτοι κἀκεῖνος σάρκα ἔφερεν), ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ τελείου καὶ γνωστικοῦ τῷ χρόνῳ καὶ τῷ ἐνδύματι ἐλαττουμένου παρὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους. οὐκοῦν ἄλλο τι σοφίαν παρὰ τὴν ἐπιστήμην λέγω, ἐπεὶ μὴ διαφέρει ζωή· κοινὸν γὰρ τῇ φύσει τῇ θνητῇ, τουτέστι τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, πρὸς τὸ ἀθανασίας κατηξιωμένον τὸ ζῆν, ἕξιν θεωρίας τε καὶ ἐγκρατείας θατέρου διαφέροντος.
English · Claude translation
Most people have a disposition like the state of winter, unsettled and unreasoning. Unbelief has done many good things, and faith many bad. And Epicharmus says, “Remember to disbelieve; these are the joints of the mind.” For example, to disbelieve the truth brings death, as believing it brings life; conversely, to believe falsehood and disbelieve the truth drags one to destruction. The same account holds for self-control and its lack. To abstain from doing good is the work of vice, but to abstain from injustice is the beginning of salvation. For this reason the Sabbath seems to me to hint at self-control through abstinence from evils, and at what it is in which man differs from beasts. And the angels of God are wiser than man: “You made him a little lower than the angels,” it says; for they understand the Scripture not of the Lord (though he too bore flesh), but of the perfect and knowing man, made lower than the angels by time and by his clothing. So I do not call wisdom something other than knowledge, since life does not differ: for living is common to mortal nature, that is, to man, and to what has been thought worthy of immortality, while they differ in the state of contemplation and self-control.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Epicharmus (fragment 250) and Ps 8:5 (8:6 LXX; Heb 2:7). The text is obscure in places.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misencoded parenthesis in the digital text): τὴν γραφήν *καίτοι κἀκεῖνος → τὴν γραφήν (καίτοι κἀκεῖνος.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.3.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/3/8/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.3.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/3/8/).
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