The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book I

Book I

• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.1 — Preface—The Author’s Object—The Utility of Written Compositions. [Wants the beginning] . . . . . . . . . . that you may read them under your hand, and may be able to preserve them. Whether written compositions are…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.2 — Objection to the Number of Extracts from Philosophical Writings in These Books Anticipated and Answered. In reference to these commentaries, which contain as the exigencies of the case demand, the Hellenic opinions,…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.3 — Against the Sophists. There is a great crowd of this description: some of them, enslaved to pleasures and willing to disbelieve, laugh at the truth which is worthy of all reverence, making sport of its barbarousness.…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.4 — Human Arts as Well as Divine Knowledge Proceed from God. Homer calls an artificer wise; and of Margites, if that is his work, he thus writes:— Hesiod further said the musician Linus was “skilled in all manner of…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.5 — Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology. Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.6 — The Benefit of Culture. The readiness acquired by previous training conduces much to the perception of such things as are requisite; but those things which can be perceived only by mind are the special exercise for…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.7 — The Eclectic Philosophy Paves the Way for Divine Virtue. The Greek preparatory culture, therefore, with philosophy itself, is shown to have come down from God to men, not with a definite direction but in the way in…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.8 — The Sophistical Arts Useless. But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.9 — Human Knowledge Necessary for the Understanding of the Scriptures. Some, who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural science.…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.10 — To Act Well of Greater Consequence Than to Speak Well. Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then breaking the bread, He presented it, that we might eat it, according to reason, and that…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.11 — What is the Philosophy Which the Apostle Bids Us Shun?. This, then, “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God,” and of those who are “the wise the Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are vain.” Let no man…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.12 — The Mysteries of the Faith Not to Be Divulged to All. But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide in a mystery the wisdom…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.13 — All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth. Since, therefore, truth is one (for falsehood has ten thousand by-paths); just as the Bacchantes tore asunder the limbs of Pentheus, so the sects both of barbarian and…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.14 — Succession of Philosophers in Greece. The Greeks say, that after Orpheus and Linus, and the most ancient of the poets that appeared among them, the seven, called wise, were the first that were admired for their…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.15 — The Greek Philosophy in Great Part Derived from the Barbarians. These are the times of the oldest wise men and philosophers among the Greeks. And that the most of them were barbarians by extraction, and were trained…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.16 — That the Inventors of Other Arts Were Mostly Barbarians. And barbarians were inventors not only of philosophy, but almost of every art. The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology among men. Similarly also…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.17 — On the Saying of the Saviour, “All that Came Before Me Were Thieves and Robbers.”. But, say they, it is written, “All who were before the Lord’s advent are thieves and robbers.” All, then, who are in the Word (for it…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.18 — He Illustrates the Apostle’s Saying, “I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise.”. And of such it is said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” The apostle…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.19 — That the Philosophers Have Attained to Some Portion of Truth. Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have laid down some true opinions, we may from this point take a glance at the testimonies. Paul, in the Acts of…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.20 — In What Respect Philosophy Contributes to the Comprehension of Divine Truth. As many men drawing down the ship, cannot be called many causes, but one cause consisting of many;—for each individual by himself is not…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.21 — The Jewish Institutions and Laws of Far Higher Antiquity Than the Philosophy of the Greeks. On the plagiarizing of the dogmas of the philosophers from the Hebrews, we shall treat a little afterwards. But first, as…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.22 — On the Greek Translation of the Old Testament. So much for the details respecting dates, as stated variously by many, and as set down by us. It is said that the Scriptures both of the law and of the prophets were…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.23 — The Age, Birth, and Life of Moses. Moses, originally of a Chaldean family, was born in Egypt, his ancestors having migrated from Babylon into Egypt on account of a protracted famine. Born in the seventh generation,…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.24 — How Moses Discharged the Part of a Military Leader. Our Moses then is a prophet, a legislator, skilled in military tactics and strategy, a politician, a philosopher. And in what sense he was a prophet, shall be by…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.25 — Plato an Imitator of Moses in Framing Laws. Plato the philosopher, aided in legislation by the books of Moses, censured the polity of Minos, and that of Lycurgus, as having bravery alone as their aim; while he…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.26 — Whence the law was rightly said to have been given by Moses, being a rule of right and wrong; and we may call it with accuracy the divine ordinance (θεσμός), inasmuch as it was given by God through Moses. It…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.27 — The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men. Let no, one then, run down law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. For shall he who drives away bodily disease appear…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.28 — The Fourfold Division of the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic philosophy is accordingly divided into four parts,—into the historic, and that which is specially called the legislative, which two properly belong to an ethical…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies I.29 — The Greeks But Children Compared with the Hebrews. Whence most beautifully the Egyptian priest in Plato said, “O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, not having in your souls a single ancient opinion…vatican.va