Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b12.2

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b12.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 212

Ἱερεὺς καὶ εὐσέβεια

II.7.5b12.2

Λέγουσι δὲ καὶ ἱερέα μόνον εἶναι τὸν σοφόν, φαῦλον δὲ μηδένα. Τὸν γὰρ ἱερέα εἶναι δεῖν ἔμπειρον νόμων τῶν περὶ θυσίας καὶ εὐχὰς καὶ καθαρμοὺς καὶ ἱδρύσεις καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις καὶ ἁγιστείας τε καὶ εὐσεβείας δεῖσθαι καὶ ἐμπειρίας τῆς τῶν θεῶν θεραπείας, καὶ ⟨τοῦ⟩ ἐντὸς εἶναι τῆς φύσεως τῆς θείας. Μηδ’ ἓν ⟨δέ τ⟩ι τούτων ὑπάρχειν τῷ φαύλῳ, διὸ καὶ πάντας εἶναι τοὺς ἄφρονας ἀσεβεῖς. Τὴν γὰρ ἀσέβειαν κακίαν οὖσαν, ἄγνοιαν εἶναι θεῶν θεραπείας, τὴν δ’ εὐσέβειαν, ὡς εἴπομεν, ἐπιστήμην θεῶν θεραπείας.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 213

The Priest and Piety

II.7.5b12.2

They also say that only the wise person is a priest, and no base person is. For a priest must be experienced in the laws concerning sacrifices, prayers, purifications, consecrations, and all such matters; he also needs religious purity, piety, experience in service to the gods, and inward acquaintance with the divine nature.²⁴⁷ Not a single one of these belongs to the base person; hence all the foolish are impious. For impiety, being a vice, is ignorance of service to the gods, while piety, as we have said, is knowledge of service to the gods.²⁴⁸

247.The priesthood is defined through ethical and religious competence, rather than the mere possession of an office. Ἱδρύσεις concerns establishing or consecrating sacred objects or cults; ἁγιστεία concerns religious purity or holy observance. “Inward acquaintance” renders the expression literally meaning being within the divine nature; it does not assert a particular initiation ceremony. The supplied τοῦ introduces that infinitive construction and is expressed through English grammar.

248.The supplement δέ τ restores the connective and the beginning of τι in the compressed negative expression; English renders its force in “not a single one” without adding a separate bracketed noun. The opposition of ignorance and knowledge repeats the earlier definition of piety at II.7.5b2.6, printed p. 62. Wachsmuth’s parenthetical page reference is omitted from the ancient sentence. The universal description of the foolish as impious is the report’s claim.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.