Stromateis 1 part 35/42

And indeed the form of instruction by command is most evident both through the Lord's covenants, and through the laws found among the Greeks, and also through the precepts enjoined in philosophy.

And, to speak concisely, all benefit pertaining to life is, according to the highest principle, accomplished by God almighty, the Father who guides all things, through the Son—who, for this reason too, is, as the apostle says, 'Savior of all men, but especially of believers'—and, according to the proximate order, by the proximate agents assigned to each, in accordance with the injunction and command of the Lord who stands proximate to the first Cause.

But our Gnostic always occupies himself with the things that are most essential.

But if there is somewhere leisure and a season of relaxation from the foremost pursuits, instead of other idle ease he takes hold also of Greek philosophy, savoring it, as it were, as a relish at dinner—not neglecting the better things, but taking these too in addition, so far as is fitting, for the reasons I have already mentioned.

But those who have reached out after the unnecessary and superfluous parts of philosophy, clinging only to contentious sophistries, have been left behind in the necessary and most essential matters—men who, quite artlessly, pursue mere shadows of arguments.

It is good, then, to know all things;

but for one whose soul is too weak to extend itself toward wide learned experience, he will choose only the foremost and better things.

for at the same time he also possesses knowledge of the false concerning the very same subject.

For indeed that saying seems to me to be well put:

'If one must philosophize, one must philosophize';

for this saying is itself self-consistent;

'but even if one must not philosophize' —

for no one could pass judgment on anything without having first come to know it.

These things being so, the Greeks must learn, through the Law and the Prophets, to worship one God alone, the truly existing Almighty, and then be taught this also through the Apostle:

that 'an idol is nothing in the world,' since no likeness of God can exist among created things; and to be taught further that not even the images they worship as statues could be true likenesses of those beings themselves;

for the class of souls is not at all such in form as the carved images which the Greeks fashion.

For souls are invisible, not only the rational ones but also those of irrational animals, while their bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but are instruments — for some, dwelling-places; for others, vehicles; and for others still, possessions in yet another manner.

But it is not even possible to reproduce clearly the images of these instruments themselves — let someone even try to fashion the sun just as it is seen, and to represent the rainbow with colors, and see.

But when they abandon their idols, then they will hear the Scripture:

'Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees' — who are justified by abstaining from evils — together with perfection in these things and the capacity to love and do good to one's neighbor, 'you shall not be' royal.

for the intensification of righteousness according to the Law is what reveals the Gnostic.

Thus, one who is ordered according to the ruling part of his own body, the head, and has advanced to the summit of faith — namely, knowledge itself, around which all the senses lie — will likewise obtain the highest inheritance.

The Apostle clearly points out the ruling role of knowledge to those able to discern it, writing to those Corinthians of Greece somewhat as follows:

'Having hope that, as your faith increases, we shall be greatly enlarged among you according to our rule, unto abundance, so as to preach the gospel to the regions beyond you' — not speaking of the geographical extension of the preaching (since he himself says that faith had already increased in Achaia, and it is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word even in Athens), but teaching that knowledge, which is the perfection of faith, abounds beyond catechetical instruction, according to the greatness of the Lord's teaching and the rule of the Church.

'But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge.'

Yet let those among the Greeks who boast of having grasped the truth tell us from whom they learned it, that they boast so.

For they would not say it was from God; rather, they admit it was from men.

And if this is so, then either they learned it late by themselves — as indeed some of them, puffed up, boast — or from others like themselves.

But men, insofar as they are men, are not reliable teachers when they speak about God;

for a man, being what he is, is not competent even to speak the truth about God — the weak and perishable one speaking about the Unbegotten and Incorruptible, and the work speaking about its Maker.

Then he who cannot speak the truth even about himself — is he not still less to be trusted concerning the things of God? For to the degree that man falls short of the power of God, to that same degree his word also grows weak, even when he speaks not God himself, but merely about God and the divine Word.

For human speech is by nature weak and unable to declare God — I do not mean the name (for it is common not only for philosophers but also for poets to utter this), nor the essence (for that is impossible), but the power and the works of God.

And yet even those who inscribe God as their teacher scarcely arrive at a conception of God, grace assisting them toward a certain measure of full knowledge, as they grow accustomed to contemplate will by will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit — since 'the Spirit searches the depths of God,' but 'the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit.'

Among us, wisdom is God-taught, and from it depend all the springs of wisdom, as many as aim at truth.

Indeed, since the Lord was coming to men to teach us, countless signifiers, heralds, preparers, and forerunners — from above, from the foundation of the world — foretold through deeds and through words, prophesying that he would come, and where, and how, and what the signs would be.

Indeed, the Law and prophecy rehearse this beforehand from afar; then the forerunner points out the One who is present; after him, the heralds proclaim, fully instructing men in the power of his manifestation.

They persuaded only their own, and not even all of these: Socrates persuaded Plato, and Plato persuaded Xenocrates; Aristotle persuaded Theophrastus, and Zeno persuaded Cleanthes — men who won over only their own sectarian followers;

but the word of our Teacher did not remain in Judea alone, as philosophy remained in Greece; rather, it was poured out over the whole inhabited world, persuading Greeks and barbarians alike, nation by nation, village by village, and every city, whole households and each hearer individually, and already turning to the truth not a few even of the philosophers themselves.

And whereas Greek philosophy, if some chance ruler forbids it, vanishes at once, our teaching, from the time of its first proclamation onward, has been forbidden alike by kings and tyrants, by rulers and governors in every region together with all their hired soldiers, and moreover by countless ordinary men — waging war against us and trying with all their might to cut it off entirely;

yet it does not die like a merely human teaching, nor does it wither like a weak gift (for no gift of God is weak), but it remains unhindered, having been prophesied that it would be persecuted to the very end.

Then, concerning poetry, Plato writes: 'for a poet is a light and sacred thing, and he is not able to compose before he becomes inspired and out of his mind.'

But whatever a poet writes with inspiration and a sacred spirit is exceedingly beautiful.

But we know the sort of things poets say.

But would one not stand in awe of the prophets of God the Almighty, who became instruments of the divine voice? So then, having as it were fashioned a statue of the Gnostic, we have already shown what sort of person he is, having indicated, as in an outline sketch, the greatness and beauty of his character;

for what sort of person he is with regard to contemplation in matters of natural philosophy will be shown afterward, when we begin to treat of the origin of the world.

OF CLEMENT'S STROMATEIS, BOOK SEVEN. It is now time for us to demonstrate to the Greeks that the Gnostic alone is truly God-fearing, so that the philosophers, once they have learned afresh what sort of person the true Christian is, may condemn their own ignorance — they who pursue the name rashly and at random, and vainly call 'atheists' those who have in truth come to know God.

It is fitting, I think, to use clearer arguments with the philosophers, since, being already trained by the education current among them, they are able to understand — even if they have not yet shown themselves worthy to share in the power of believing.

For the present, we shall not make mention of the actual words of the prophets, but shall later make use of the Scriptures at the appropriate points;

but we shall indicate summarily what is signified by them, sketching Christianity in outline, so that we may not interrupt the continuity of our discourse by incorporating the Scriptures, especially for those who do not yet understand their language.

But once we have pointed out what is signified, then, for those who have come to believe out of that abundance, the testimonies also will be made manifest.

It breathes and lives; and our discourse, taking its starting points from the Scriptures, professes to present only their sense, not their letter. For excessive elaboration, when not timely, would reasonably seem superfluous, while failing to consider at all what is urgent would be utterly indolent and deficient.

Blessed indeed are those who search out the testimonies of the Lord; with their whole heart they will seek him out;

and the Law and the Prophets bear witness concerning the Lord.

Our task, then, is to demonstrate that the Gnostic alone is holy and pious, worshiping in a manner befitting God the God who truly exists;

and upon that which befits God there follows both being beloved of God and loving God.

Now he considers everything that is superior to be honorable, in proportion to its worth;

and one must honor, among sensible things, rulers and parents and every elder; among things taught, the most ancient philosophy and the most venerable prophecy; and among intelligible things, the most venerable in origin — the timeless, unbeginning beginning and firstfruits of all beings, the Son;

from whom it is possible to learn of the Cause beyond, the Father of all things, the most venerable and most beneficent of all, who is no longer conveyed by speech, but is most properly to be reverenced and venerated with awe and silence, with holy amazement;

spoken of by the Lord only insofar as it was possible for those learning to comprehend, but understood more fully by those who have been chosen by the Lord unto knowledge —

those, as the Apostle says, 'whose senses are trained by practice.'

The service of God, then, for the Gnostic is the continual care of the soul, and his ceaseless occupation with the divine through unbroken love;

for of the care given to men, one kind is improving, the other ministering;

medicine improves the body, philosophy improves the soul;

ministering benefit accrues to parents from their children, and to rulers from their subjects;

and likewise in the Church, the presbyters preserve the image of the improving kind, while the deacons preserve that of the ministering kind.

Both these ministries angels perform in service to God, according to the administration of earthly affairs; and the Gnostic himself likewise, being at the service of God, while displaying to men the contemplation that improves, insofar as he is also appointed to teach for the correction of mankind.

for he alone is truly God-fearing who serves God well and blamelessly in the affairs of men.

For just as the best cultivation of plants is that by which fruits are produced and gathered in through agricultural knowledge and experience, providing men the benefit derived from them, so also the God-fearing devotion of the Gnostic, receiving into itself the fruits of those men who have come to believe through him — as more come to full knowledge and are thereby saved — accomplishes, through experience, the best harvest.

But if propriety toward God is a disposition that preserves what befits God, then only the one who is befitting to God is beloved of God;

and this would be the one who knows what is fitting, both in knowledge and in life — how one who is to become, and indeed is already becoming, like God ought to live.

In this way, then, he is first of all a lover of God;

for just as one who honors his father is a lover of his father, so one who honors God is a lover of God.

In this respect it also appears to me that there are three effects of the Gnostic power: first, to know the true nature of things; second, to accomplish whatever reason dictates; and third, to be able to hand on, in a manner befitting God, the things hidden within the truth.

How, then, could one who is persuaded that God is Almighty, and who has learned the divine mysteries from His only-begotten Son, be an atheist? For an atheist is one who does not believe that God exists, while a superstitious person is one who fears the demons.

the superstitious person is the one who deifies everything — wood and stone and spirit — a man enslaved, who does not live according to reason.

Faith in knowing God is the first thing; together with the Savior's teaching it brings the conviction to do wrong in no way whatsoever ... one must consider this fitting for the full knowledge of God.

already partaking more purely of the eternal and blessed life

Most perfect, most holy, most sovereign, most princely, most royal, and most beneficent is the nature of the Son, which is nearest of all to the only Almighty.

This is that greatest pre-eminence, which orders all things according to the will of the Father and steers the universe most excellently, working all things by an untiring and unwearied power, and by the very means through which it acts, beholding the hidden thoughts.

For the Son of God never departs from his watch-tower; he is not divided, not cut off, not passing from place to place, but is everywhere at all times and contained nowhere — wholly mind, wholly the Father's light, wholly eye, seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing all things, ... searching out the powers by his power.

To him the whole host of angels and gods is subject — the paternal Word, who has undertaken the holy administration on account of him who subjected all things to him, through whom also all men are his: some according to full knowledge, others not yet; and some as friends, others as faithful servants, and others simply as servants.

This is the Teacher who instructs the one possessing knowledge by mysteries, the believer by good hopes, and the hard-hearted by corrective discipline through effects perceptible to the senses.

Hence providence acts privately ... and publicly, and everywhere.

That he is the Son of God, and that this one is the Savior and Lord whom we proclaim, the divine prophecies plainly set forth.

In this way the Lord of all persuades those who are willing, both Greeks and barbarians.

For he does not compel one who is able, by choosing and fulfilling all that lies within his own power, to receive salvation from him — in order to lay hold of the hope.

This is he who also gave philosophy to the Greeks through the inferior angels.

For there are angels apportioned by an ancient and divine ordinance according to the nations.

But the portion of the Lord is the glory of those who believe.

For either the Lord does not care for all men — and this could only be because he is unable, which is not to be supposed, for that is a sign of weakness, or because, though able, he is unwilling, which disposition is not that of one who is good —

— surely he who for our sake took up the passible flesh is not indolent through self-indulgence — or else he cares for all things together, which is indeed fitting for him who has become Lord of all.

For he is Savior, not of some only and not of others;

but according to the degree of fitness each one possessed, he distributed his own beneficence, to Greeks and barbarians alike, and to those from among them who were foreordained, but who were called, at their own proper time, as faithful and elect.

Therefore he who has called all men equally, yet has assigned special honors to those who have believed in a special way, would never begrudge anyone.

Nor could the Lord of all ever be hindered by another, especially since he most fully serves the will of the good and almighty Father.

But envy does not touch the Lord, who is without passion and without beginning, nor indeed are the affairs of men such as to be objects of envy on the Lord's part;

It is another kind of being who envies — one whom passion has indeed touched.

Nor indeed can it be said that the Lord is unwilling to save mankind through ignorance, on the ground that he does not know how each one must be cared for.

For ignorance does not touch the Son, who before the foundation of the world was the Father's counselor.

For this was the Wisdom in whom the almighty God delighted;

For the Son is the power of God, being, before all things that came into being, the most sovereign Word of the Father, and might rightly be called both his Wisdom and the Teacher of those who were formed through him.

Nor indeed, distracted by any pleasure, would he ever abandon his care for mankind — he who even took upon himself the flesh that is by nature subject to passion, and trained it into a state of impassibility.

How could he be Savior and Lord, if he were not Savior and Lord of all? He is Savior of those who have believed, because they have willed to know him, and Lord of those who have disobeyed, until, being able to make confession, they obtain through him the benefit fitting and proper to them.

And all the Lord's activity has reference to the Almighty, and the Son may, so to speak, be called a certain paternal activity.

Never is the Savior a hater of mankind, seeing that, because of his surpassing love for humanity, he did not disdain the natural susceptibility of human flesh, but rather clothed himself with it, and came to the common salvation of men;

for the faith of those who have chosen it is common to all.

Nor indeed would he ever neglect his own work — the fact that, of all other living creatures, understanding of God alone was instilled in man at his creation.

Nor could there be for God any other administration of mankind better or more harmonious than the one he has appointed.

For it is always fitting that the better should, by nature, lead the worse, and that the administration of a thing be entrusted to the one able to manage it well.

And that which truly rules and governs is the divine Word and his providence, which oversees all things, and overlooks its care for none of its own.

And these would be those who have chosen to belong to him, who are being perfected through faith.

Thus the Son becomes, by the will of the almighty Father, the cause of all good things — the primal power of motion, imperceptible to sense.

For he did not appear as he truly was to those who, because of the weakness of the flesh, were unable to comprehend him; but, taking upon himself a sensible flesh, he came to show what is possible for men in obedience to the commandments.

Being, then, the power of the Father, he easily prevails over whatever he wills, leaving not even the smallest thing without care in his administration;

for otherwise the whole would no longer have been well wrought by him.

It is, I think, a mark of the greatest power to examine with precision all the parts, down to the very smallest, while all things look to the first Governor of the universe, who steers the salvation of all by the will of the Father, some being ranked as leaders under others.

... until one arrives at the great High Priest.

For from one single principle from above, acting according to the will of God, the first, the second, and the third ranks are all suspended;

then, at the furthest extremity of the visible order, is the blessed hierarchy of angels; and indeed, down even to ourselves, some are ranked beneath others, all being saved and saving from one and through one source.

Just as, then, even the farthest-extending portion of iron is moved together by the force of the Heraclean stone [the magnet], extending through many iron rings, so too, drawn by the Holy Spirit, the virtuous are attached to the first abode, and others in succession down to the last; while those who are evil through weakness, having fallen into a wretched condition through unjust insatiability, neither holding fast nor being held, are swept away, entangled in their passions, and fall to the ground.

For this is a law from above: that the one who wills should choose ... virtue.

Wherefore also the commandments, both those according to the law and those before the law, given not for the law-abiding — for law is not laid down for the righteous man — ordained that the one who chooses should receive eternal life as a blessed reward, while permitting, in turn, the one who delighted in wickedness to remain with what he had chosen; and again, that the soul which is ever improving toward the recognition of virtue and increase in righteousness should receive, throughout the whole order, a better rank, extending with each advance toward a state of impassibility, until it arrives at a perfect man — the excellence of both knowledge and inheritance together.

These saving revolutions are apportioned, according to the order of their transformation, by times, places, honors, degrees of knowledge, inheritances, and ministries, each in its own turn, up to that rank which is the highest and nearest to the eternal contemplation of the Lord.

And the beloved object draws to the contemplation of itself everyone who has wholly given himself over, through love of knowledge, to that contemplation.

Wherefore also the Lord, drawing from one and the same fountain the commandments he gave, both the earlier and the later, neither overlooked those before the law as being without law, nor again allowed those who did not heed the barbarian philosophy to run wild in disobedience.

For, having granted to some the commandments, and to others philosophy, he shut up unbelief until his coming; whence everyone who has not believed is without excuse.

For he leads, from each kind of advancement, both Greek and barbarian, toward perfection through faith.

He who has set out toward the true teaching has, as it were, outthrown all others in the contest — even if he be an unlearned man — having chosen the short way of salvation through faith unto perfection.

All things, then, that in no way hindered man's choice from being voluntary, he made and showed to be co-workers unto virtue, so that, in some way or another, even to those able to discern but dimly, the truly one and only almighty and good God might be made manifest — saving from age to age through the Son, while being in every way and altogether guiltless of evil.

For, with a view to the salvation of the whole, all things have been ordered by the Lord of the universe, both universally and in every particular.

It is, then, the work of saving righteousness always to advance each one toward the better, so far as is possible.

For even the lesser things are administered, in proportion to their own character, with a view to the salvation and perseverance of that which is greater.

Straightway everything virtuous passes over into better dwellings, having as the cause of its transformation the choice of knowledge, which the soul possessed as its sovereign, self-determining faculty.

And the necessary chastisements, by the goodness of the great Judge who oversees all — administered both through the attendant angels, and through various preliminary judgments, and through the final and complete judgment — compel those who have become excessively hardened to repent.

But other things I keep silent, glorifying the Lord.

Except I say this of those gnostic souls, who, by the magnificence of their contemplation, surpass the citizenship proper to each holy order — the orders according to which the blessed abodes of the gods have been determinately allotted — souls reckoned holy among the holy, and translated wholly out of the wholes, arriving at better places among places already better; no longer embracing the divine contemplation in mirrors or through mirrors, but feasting, as clearly and as precisely and purely as possible, upon the insatiable vision, for souls that love it beyond nature; eternally reaping eternal and insatiable joy; remaining, all of them, honored unto the endless ages in the sameness of their pre-eminence.

This is the comprehensive contemplation belonging to the pure in heart.

This, then, is the activity of the perfected gnostic: to commune with God through the great High Priest, being conformed to the Lord to the utmost of his power, through every service rendered to God — a service which extends to the salvation of men, in keeping with the care of the benefit bestowed upon us, both in ministry, in teaching, and in well-doing through works.

Indeed, the gnostic creates and forms himself, and moreover adorns those who heed him, being conformed to God — likening, as much as possible, that state which has been compressed by ascetic discipline into impassibility, to him who possesses impassibility by nature; and this, moreover, while conversing with, and being in fellowship with, the Lord without distraction.

Gentleness, I think, and love of mankind, and magnificent piety toward God, are the rules of gnostic likeness to God.

These virtues, I say, are an acceptable sacrifice before God, Scripture calling the unassuming heart, joined with right knowledge, a whole burnt-offering to God — the entire man who has been taken up into holiness thereby being illumined unto undivided union.

For both the Gospel and the Apostle command us to take ourselves captive and to destroy ourselves — putting to death the old man who is being corrupted according to his lusts, and raising up the new man out of the death of the old perversion — laying aside the passions and becoming sinless.

This, then, was what the law also hinted at when it commanded that the sinner be destroyed — namely, the passing over from death into life, that impassibility which comes from faith.

Not understanding this, the teachers of the law, taking the law in a contentious sense, have furnished occasions to those who vainly attempt to slander it.

For this reason we, quite reasonably, do not sacrifice to God, who is in need of nothing and who has provided all things to all; but we glorify him who was made a priestly victim on our behalf, offering ourselves as priests unto that freedom from need which comes from him who is free from need, and unto that impassibility which comes from him who is without passion.

For God delights in nothing but our salvation.

...of these [sacrifices], since the vapor rising through the smoke reaches only those to whom indeed it ... reaches.

For the divine is neither needy, nor pleasure-loving, nor greedy for gain, nor fond of money, being full and supplying all things to every creature that is generated and in need; nor is the divine charmed by sacrifices, nor indeed by votive offerings, nor again is it seduced by glory and honor or led astray by such things, but it shows itself like good and noble men, who would never betray justice either through fear of threats or through the promise of greater gifts.

But as many as have not discerned the self-determined and unenslaved character of the human soul in the choice of life, being vexed at what happens ... because of untutored injustice, do not believe that God exists.

Like these in opinion are those who, falling into intemperance in pleasures, into excessive griefs, and into unwished-for misfortunes, and despairing under calamities, say that God does not exist, or that, though existing, he does not oversee all things.

There are others who, being persuaded that the so-called gods are appeasable by sacrifices and gifts, as if conniving, so to speak, at men's own licentiousness, are unwilling to believe that the only truly existing God is he who exists in the unchanging sameness of righteous goodness.

The Gnostic, then, is pious — he who cares first for himself, and then for his neighbors, that we may become as excellent as possible.

For the son too gratifies a good father by showing himself earnest and like his father, and

that to believe and to obey lie within our own power.

One might suppose the cause of evils to be the weakness of matter, the unwilled impulses of ignorance, and the irrational compulsions that come through lack of instruction.

Rising above these — as above wild beasts — through learning, and imitating the divine purpose, the Gnostic does good, according to his power, to such of men as are willing.

And should he ever come to a position of rule, as Moses did, he will govern for the salvation of those under him, and will tame what is fierce and intractable, honoring the best and chastising the wicked, by that discipline which is inscribed according to reason for instruction.