Miscellanies 4.7.49
Summary: Poets praise glory won by toil; the one unafraid of death is no slave; God gave us a spirit of power and love, so we should not be ashamed of the Lord's testimony; love fulfills the law, and we confess our hope.
Greek text · Stählin 2:270–271
καὶ ὁ Πίνδαρος· νέων δὲ μέριμναι σὺν πόνοις εἱλισσόμεναι δόξαν εὑρίσκουσι, λάμπει δὲ χρόνῳ ἔργα μετʼ αἰθέρα λαμπευθέντα. ταύτης τῆς ἐννοίας καὶ Αἰσχύλος ἐπιλαβόμενός φησι· τῷ πονοῦντι δʼ ἐκ θεῶν ὀφείλεται τέκνωμα τοῦ πόνου κλέος. μόροι γὰρ μέζονες μέζονας μοίρας λαγχάνουσι καθʼ Ἡράκλειτον. τίς δʼ ἔστι δοῦλος τοῦ θανεῖν ἄφροντις ὤν; οὐ γὰρ ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ θεὸς πνεῦμα δουλείας πάλιν εἰς φόβον, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀγάπης καὶ σωφρονισμοῦ. μὴ οὖν ἐπαισχυνθῇς τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν μηδὲ ἐμὲ τὸν δέσμιον αὐτοῦ, τῷ Τιμοθέῳ γράφει. εἴη δʼ ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτος ὁ κολλώμενος τῷ ἀγαθῷ κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον, ἀποστυγῶν τὸ πονηρόν, ἀγάπην ἔχων ἀνυπόκριτον· ὁ γὰρ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἕτερον νόμον πεπλήρωκεν· εἰ δὲ ὁ θεὸς τῆς ἐλπίδος οὗτός ἐστιν ᾧ μαρτυροῦμεν, ὥσπερ οὖν ἐστι, τὴν ἐλπίδα ἡμῶν ὁμολογοῦμεν εἰς τὴν ἐλπίδα σπεύδοντες· οἱ δὲ μεστοὶ τῆς ἀγαθωσύνης πεπληρωμένοι, φησί, πάσης τῆς γνώσεως.
English · Claude translation
And Pindar: “The cares of the young, whirled about with toils, find glory; and in time deeds shine out, lifted to the sky.” Aeschylus too, taking up this thought, says: “To the one who toils, glory, the offspring of toil, is owed by the gods.” For “greater deaths obtain greater portions,” according to Heraclitus. “And who is a slave, if he takes no thought of dying?” “For God did not give us a spirit of slavery again to fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Do not, then, be ashamed of the testimony (martyrion) of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,” he writes to Timothy. Such a one would be the one who “holds fast to the good,” according to the apostle, “abhorring evil, having love without hypocrisy”; “for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” And if the God of hope is the one to whom we bear witness, as indeed he is, we confess our hope, hastening toward the hope. “And those full of goodness,” it says, “filled with all knowledge.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Pindar (fragment 227), Aeschylus (fragment 315 Nauck), Heraclitus (fragment 25), Euripides (fragment 958), 2 Tim 1:7–8 with Rom 8:15, Rom 12:9, Rom 13:8, Rom 15:13, and Rom 15:14.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.49 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/49/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.49 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/49/).
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