Stromata
The Stromata (
The contents of the Stromateis, as its title suggests, are miscellaneous. Its place in the trilogy is disputed – Clement initially intended to write the Didascalus, a work which would complement the practical guidance of the Paedagogus with a more intellectual schooling in theology.[1] The Stromata is less systematic and ordered than Clement's other works, and it has been theorized by André Méhat that it was intended for a limited, esoteric readership.[2]
Manuscript history
The sole authority for the Stromateis is preserved at the Laurentian Library in Florence. How it came to Florence is unknown. The editio princeps was published by Piero Vettori in 1550.[3]
In the 19th century, Percy Mordaunt Barnard and Otto Stählin posited that this manuscript was copied out in the 910s for Arethas of Caesarea, the remainder of whose extant library is held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Their theory is generally accepted today. As with the library of Arethas held at Paris, the Laurentian manuscript contains numerous misspellings, omitted words and sentences and even marginalia integrated into the text. However, Frederic G. Kenyon argued that this is not the fault of the copyist, but that an ancestral manuscript had caused the damage, perhaps even a papyrus.[4][5]
Contents of the books
The first book written c. 198 AD starts on the topic of Greek philosophy. Consistent with his other writing, Clement affirms that philosophy had a propaedeutic role for the Greek, similar to the function of the law for the Jews.[6] He then embarks on a discussion of the origins of Greek culture and technology, arguing that most of the important figures in the Greek world were foreigners, and (erroneously) that Jewish culture was the most significant influence on Greece.[7] In an attempt to demonstrate the primacy of Moses, Clement gives an extended chronology of the world, wherein he dates the birth of Christ to 25 April or May, 4-2 B.C., and the creation of the world to 5592 B.C. The book ends with a discussion on the origin of languages and the possibility of a Jewish influence on Plato.[8]
The second book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD is largely devoted to the
The third book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD covers asceticism. He discusses marriage, which is treated similarly in the Paedagogus. Clement rejects the Gnostic opposition to marriage, arguing that only men who are uninterested in women should remain celibate, and that sex is a positive good if performed within marriage for the purposes of procreation.[14] However it has not always been so: the Fall occurred because Adam and Eve succumbed to their desire for each other, and copulated before the allotted time.[15] He argues against the idea that Christians should reject their family for an ascetic life, which stems from Luke 14:25–27, contending that Jesus would not have contradicted the precept to "Honour thy Father and thy Mother" (Exodus 20:12), one of the Ten Commandments.[16] Clement concludes that asceticism will only be rewarded if the motivation is Christian in nature, and thus the asceticism of non-Christians such as the gymnosophists is pointless.[17][18]
Clement begins the fourth book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD with a belated explanation of the disorganized nature of the work, and gives a brief description of his aims for the remaining three or four books.
The fifth book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD returns to the subject of faith. Clement argues that truth, justice and goodness can be seen only by the mind, not the eye; faith is a way of accessing the unseeable.
In the beginning of the sixth book written c. 203 AD, Clement intends to demonstrate that the works of Greek poets were derived from the
The final extant book written c. 203 AD begins with a description of the nature of Christ, and that of the true Christian, who aims to be as similar as possible to both the Father and the Son. Clement then criticizes the simplistic anthropomorphism of most ancient religions, quoting Xenophanes' famous description of African, Thracian and Egyptian deities.[28] The Greek gods may also have had their origins in the personification of material objects: Ares representing iron, and Dionysus wine.[29] Prayer, and the relationship between love and knowledge are then discussed. 1 Corinthians 13:8 seems to contradict the characterization of the true Christian as one who knows; but to Clement knowledge vanishes only in that it is subsumed by the universal love expressed by the Christian in his reverence for his Creator.[30] Following Socrates, he argues that vice arises from a state of ignorance, not from intention. The Christian is a "laborer in God's vineyard", responsible both for his own path to salvation and that of his neighbor. The work ends with an extended passage against the contemporary divisions and heresies within the church.[31]
Question of the eighth book
Clement intended to make but one book of this; at least seven grew out of it, without his having treated all the subjects proposed. The absence of certain things definitely promised has led scholars to ask whether he wrote an eighth book, as would appear from
In any case the "excerpts" and "selections", which, with part of a treatise on logical method, are designated as the eighth book of the Stromateis in a single 11th-century manuscript, are not parts of the Hypotyposes, which Clement is known to have written. This work[
Quotes
- "And when [God] says, 'Be not much with a strange woman,' He admonishes us to use indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture."[33]
- "Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture. For if philosophy professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the honour and knowledge of God."[33]
- "Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanaeans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian Buddha; whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours."[34]
Notes
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 106
- ^ Osborn (2008), p. 8
- ^ Vitelli, Girolamo (1884). Collezione Fiorentina di facsimili paleografici greci e latini. Florence: Successori Le Monnier. p. Tavola X.
- ISBN 978-1589833722.
- ^ Barnard, Percy Mordaunt (1897). Clement of Alexandria: Quis dives salvetur. Cambridge University Press. p. xii.
- ^ Ferguson (1974), pp. 108–9
- ^ Ferguson (1974), pp. 113–6
- ^ Ferguson (1974), pp. 117–9
- ^ Osborn (1994), p. 3
- ^ Osborn (1994), p. 4
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 121
- ^ Osborn (1994), p. 7
- ^ Osborn (1994), pp. 11–12
- ^ Heid (2000), p. 65
- ^ Seymour (1997), p. 257
- ^ Clark (1999), p. 198
- ^ Clark (1999), p. 17
- ^ Burrus (2011), p. 30
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 133
- ^ Verhey (2011), p. 350
- ^ Burrus (2011), p. 82
- ^ Osborn (1994), p. 8
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 139
- ^ Osborn (1994), p. 9
- ^ a b Osborn (1994), p. 10
- ^ de Jáuregui (2010), p. 201
- ^ Seymour (1997), pp. 262–3
- ^ Grant (1988), p. 77
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 150
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 151
- ^ Ferguson (1974), p. 152
- ^ Kaye (1835), p. 221
- ^ a b The Stromateis (Book 1), Chapter 5.
- ^ Book 1, Chapter 15
References
- Burrus, Virginia (2010). Late Ancient Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-9720-4.
- Clark, Elizabeth Ann (1999). Reading renunciation: asceticism and Scripture in early Christianity. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00512-6.
- Ferguson, John (1974). Clement of Alexandria. New York: Ardent Media. ISBN 978-0-8057-2231-4.
- Grant, Robert McQueen (1988). Gods and the One God. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-25011-9.
- Heid, Stefan (2000). Celibacy in the early Church: the beginnings of a discipline of obligatory continence for clerics in East and West. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-0-89870-800-4.
- de Jáuregui, Miguel Herrero (2010). Orphism and Christianity in late antiquity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-020633-3.
- Kaye, John (1835). Some account of the writings and opinions of Clement of Alexandria. London: J.G. & F. Rivington.
- Outler, Albert C. (July 1940). "The "Platonism" of Clement of Alexandria". The Journal of Religion. 20 (3): 217–240. doi:10.1086/482574.
- Osborn, Eric (March 1994). "Arguments for Faith in Clement of Alexandria". Vigiliae Christianae. 48 (1): 1–24. .
- Osborn, Eric (2008). Clement of Alexandria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09081-0.
- Seymour, Charles (September 1997). "On Choosing Hell". Religious Studies. 3 (33): 249–266. JSTOR 20008103.
- Verhey, Allen (2011). The Christian Art of Dying: Learning from Jesus. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8028-6672-1.
External links
- Στρώματα (original text in Greek)
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Clementis Stromata (scans of 11th century Greek manuscript)
- Reinhold Koltz, Titi Flaui Clementis Alexandrini opera omnia (E.B. Schwickerti, Lipsiae 1831), Vol. 1, 2, 3, and 4
- Stromata, including English translation of Book 3 – The Gnostic Society Library (Due to sexual content, Book 3 is provided only in Latin in the classic Ante-Nicene Fathers edition)
- Clement of Alexandria: Stromata, Book 1 – Early Christian Writings
- English translation of Stromateis at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- English translation of Stromateis at the New Advent