Plato’s Sophist in the Epistemology of Clement of Alexandria

As it is well known, Clement of Alexandria’s “miscellaneous” work Stromateis is a real treasury of quotes from ancient philosophy and literature, in which a place of honour is reserved for Plato. The method of incorporating Platonic ideas into a new synthesis inspired by the biblical religion is already to be found in Clement’s Jewish predecessor Philo of Alexandria. As a theoretical basis for this operation, Clement offers the idea of both Jewish Law and Greek philosophy as a praeparatio evangelica or as two different “pedagogues” to bring Jews and Greeks unto Christ.3

In this paper, I will analyse Clement’s use of the Sophist, a dialogue which certainly does not belong among those most beloved by the Christian readers of Plato.