Miscellanies 4.6.26
Summary: The beatitudes bless those who mourn, hunger, and are poor for righteousness' sake, choosing poverty to gain the good; true nobility is adoption as God's children, with authority over snakes and demons.
Greek text · Stählin 2:259–260
ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ὁ κλαίων καὶ ὁ πενθῶν διὰ δικαιοσύνην μαρτυρεῖ τῷ βελτίστῳ νόμῳ εἶναι καλῷ. ὡς οὖν τοὺς δεδιωγμένους, οὕτω δὲ καὶ τοὺς πεινῶντας καὶ τοὺς διψῶντας διὰ δικαιοσύνην μακαρίους λέγει, ὁ τὸν γνήσιον ἀποδεχόμενος πόθον ὃν οὐδὲ λιμὸς διακόψαι ἴσχυσεν. κἂν τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτὴν πεινῶσι, μακάριοι· μακάριοι δὲ καὶ οἱ πτωχοὶ εἴτε πνεύματι εἴτε περιουσίᾳ διὰ δικαιοσύνην δηλονότι. μή τι οὖν οὐχ ἁπλῶς τοὺς πένητας, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἐθελήσαντας διὰ δικαιοσύνην πτωχοὺς γενέσθαι, τούτους μακαρίζει, τοὺς καταμεγαλοφρονήσαντας τῶν ἐνταῦθα τιμῶν εἰς περιποίησιν τἀγαθοῦ, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τοὺς καλοὺς τὸ ἦθος καὶ τὸ σῶμα διʼ ἁγνείαν γενομένους τούς τε εὐγενεῖς καὶ ἐνδόξους, τοὺς διὰ δικαιοσύνην εἰς υἱοθεσίαν ἐληλακότας καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εἰληφότας ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι καὶ ἐπάνω ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων περιπατεῖν κυριεύειν τε καὶ δαιμόνων καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀντικειμένου στρατιᾶς.
English · Claude translation
Likewise the one who weeps and mourns for righteousness' sake bears witness to the best law, that it is good. As, then, he calls blessed those who are persecuted, so also those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, he who accepts the genuine longing that not even hunger could break off. And even if they hunger for righteousness itself, they are blessed. Blessed too are the poor, whether in spirit or in substance, clearly for righteousness' sake. Does he not, then, bless not simply the poor, but those who have wished to become poor for righteousness' sake, who have looked down on the honors here in order to gain the good? Likewise too those who have become beautiful in character and body through purity, and the well-born and glorious, who through righteousness have come to adoption and so have received “authority to become children of God” and “to walk on snakes and scorpions,” and to master demons and the army of the adversary.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Matt 5:4, 6, 3 (Luke 6:20), John 1:12, and Luke 10:19.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter missing in the digital text): τέκνα θεῦ γενέσθαι → τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/26/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/26/).
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