Codex 111

[Clement of Alexandria, The Miscellanies]

The Miscellanies,[1]in eight books, contain an attack upon heresy and the heathen. The material is arranged promiscuously and the chapters are not in order, the reason for which he himself gives at the end of the seventh book in the following words: “Since these points have been thoroughly discussed, and our ethical formula has been sketched summarily and fragmentarily, as we promised, teachings calculated to kindle the flame of true knowledge being scattered here and there, so that the discovery of the sacred mysteries may not be easy to any one of the uninitiated,” and so on. This, he himself says, is the reason why the subject-matter is so unsystematically arranged. In an old copy I have found the title of this work not only given as Miscellanies,but in full as follows : Miscellany of Gnostic Notes in accordance with the True Philosophy, books1-8. The first seven books have the same title, and are identical in all the copies. The title of the eighth, however, varies, as does the subject-matter. In some copies it is called Who is the Rich Man that is saved?and begins, “Those who . . . laudatory speeches,” etc.; in others it is called The Miscellanies, the eighth book,like the other seven, and begins, “But not even the oldest of the philosophers,” etc. The work in some parts is unsound, but not like the Outlines,some of whose statements it refutes.

Clement is said to have written several other works, of which the following are mentioned by other writers: On Easter; On Fasting; On Evil-speaking; On the Ecclesiastical Canons, and against those who follow the Erroneous Doctrine of the Jews,dedicated to Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. He flourished during the reign of Severus and his son Antoninus at Rome.