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.7.11k.8–II.7.11k.9

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English Page · Branch 174 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11k.8–II.7.11k.9

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Ancient Greek

p. 344

Πᾶν ἁμάρτημα ἀσέβημα

II.7.11k.8

Ἀρέσκει δὲ καὶ πᾶν ἁμάρτημα ἀσέβημα εἶναι. Τὸ γὰρ παρὰ τὴν βούλησίν τι πράττεσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀσεβείας εἶναι τεκμήριον. Τῶν γὰρ θεῶν οἰκειουμένων μὲν τῇ ἀρετῇ καὶ τοῖς ταύτης ἔργοις, ἀλλοτριουμένων δὲ τῇ κακίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ ταύτης συντελουμένοις, τοῦ δ’ ἁμαρτήματος ὄντος ἐνεργήματος κατὰ κακίαν, κατεφαίνετο πᾶν ἁμάρτημα ἀπάρεστον θεοῖς ὑπάρχον (τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶν ἀσέβημα)· [καὶ] καθ’ ἕκαστον γὰρ ἁμάρτημα ὁ φαῦλος ἀπάρεστόν τι ποιεῖ θεοῖς.

Ἀσέβεια ὡς ἕξις

II.7.11k.9

Ἔτι δὲ ἐπεὶ πᾶς φαῦλος ὅσα ποιεῖ κατὰ κακίαν ποιεῖ, καθάπερ ὁ σπουδαῖος κατ’ ἀρετήν, καὶ ὁ μίαν ἔχων κακίαν πάσας ἔχει. Ἐν δὲ ταύταις ὁρᾶσθαι καὶ τὴν ἀσέβειαν, οὐ τὴν τεταγμένην κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ ἐναντίαν ἕξιν. Τὸ δὲ κατὰ ἀσέβειαν πεπραγμένον ἀσέβημα εἶναι, πᾶν ⟨οὖν⟩ ἁμάρτημα ἀσέβημα εἶναι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 345

Every Error as an Impious Act

II.7.11k.8

They also hold that every error is an impious act. For something’s being done contrary to the will of god is evidence of impiety.⁴⁵⁴ Since the gods are favorably disposed toward virtue and its deeds, and alienated from vice and what is accomplished through it, and since an error is an activity in accordance with vice, it followed that every error is displeasing to the gods—and that is an impious act. For in each error the base person does something displeasing to the gods.⁴⁵⁵

Impiety as a State

II.7.11k.9

Further, since every base person does whatever he does in accordance with vice, just as the virtuous person does in accordance with virtue, a person who has one vice has them all. Impiety too is found among these—not impiety classified in terms of activity, but the state opposed to piety.⁴⁵⁶ What is done in accordance with impiety is an impious act; ⟨therefore⟩ every error is an impious act.⁴⁵⁷

454.Ἁμάρτημα retains “error,” the wrong action defined at II.7.11a; ἀσέβημα is an impious act, distinguished from ἀσέβεια, impiety. The source first uses singular τοῦ θεοῦ, “of god,” then plural “the gods”; the English preserves the change.

455.Οἰκειουμένων and ἀλλοτριουμένων contrast affinity and alienation toward virtue and vice. The inference proceeds from the ethical character of action to its displeasing the gods. Wachsmuth brackets καί before the final explanatory sentence for deletion; it remains visible in the Greek but is not translated.

456.The printed sentence is compressed: it moves from action according to vice to possession of all the vices. The distinction within impiety is explicit, between its classification by activity and the ἕξις, state, opposed to piety. The English keeps the state/activity distinction rather than making the second argument simply repeat the first.

457.Heeren’s supplied οὖν, “therefore,” marks the conclusion and remains bracketed. This is a second argument for the same claim: acting according to vice involves the vice of impiety, and hence produces an impious act.

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.