Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
It is time, then, since the other matters have already been dispatched in their order, to proceed to the prophetic scriptures; for the oracles, by holding out to us most clearly the starting-points toward reverence for God, lay the foundation of the truth. The divine scriptures, though they are, in a manner, sober constitutions and short roads to salvation, are bare of adornment, of external beauty of voice, of glibness, and of flattery, and yet they raise up mankind when he is being choked by vice, looking beyond the slippery slope of ordinary life, and with a single unified voice they render many benefits: they turn us away from ruinous deceit and openly urge us on toward manifest salvation. At once, then, let the prophetess sing to us first — the Sibyl — her song of salvation: 'Behold, this one is clear and unerring to all; come, and do not pursue darkness and gloom forever. Behold, the sweetly-gazing light of the sun shines forth exceedingly. Learn, laying wisdom up in your hearts. There is a single deity, dispatcher of rain, of winds and quaking ground, of thunderbolts, of famine, of plague and bitter griefs, of snow and hoarfrost — why should I recount them one by one? He rules over heaven, he holds sway over the earth, he himself exists.' Most divinely she likens deceit to darkness, and knowledge to the sun and the light of God, and, setting the two side by side in comparison, she teaches the choice; for falsehood is not dispelled by the bare juxtaposition of truth, but is put to flight, forced out, by the actual use of truth. And Jeremiah the all-wise prophet — or rather, the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah — displays God: 'I am a God who draws near,' he says, 'and not a God from afar. If someone hides an act in secret, will I fail to notice him? Do not I myself fill up both sky and ground? — thus speaks the Lord.' Again, through Isaiah: 'Who,' he says, 'shall measure heaven with a span, and all the earth with the hollow of the hand?' Behold the greatness of God, and be struck with awe. Let us worship this one, of whom the prophet says: 'At your presence the mountains shall melt, as wax melts before the presence of fire.' This, he says, is God, 'whose throne is heaven, and whose footstool is the earth,' 'who, if he opens the heaven, trembling shall seize you.' Do you wish also to hear what this prophet says about idols? 'They shall be made a public example before the sun, and their bodies shall be devoured by birds that fly above and creatures that roam below, and they shall waste away beneath sun and moon alike, the very things which they themselves loved and served as slaves, and their city shall be set on fire.' And he says that the elements themselves and the world, together with them, shall be destroyed: 'the ground,' he states, 'will wear out with age, and the sky itself will vanish away,' yet 'the utterance of the Lord endures without end.' And what does he say when God again wishes to show himself through Moses? 'Look now, look — I alone am he; no other deity stands beside me. It is I who put to death and I who restore to life; I who wound and I who mend, and no one can snatch anyone free from my grip.' But do you wish also to listen to another oracle-speaker? You have the whole prophetic chorus, the fellow-initiates of Moses. What does the Holy Spirit say to them through Hosea? I will not hesitate to say it: 'Take note, I am the one steadying the thunderclap and fashioning the breeze' — the very hands that laid the foundation of heaven's army. And again through Isaiah (and this saying too I shall call to your remembrance for you): 'I am he, I am he,' he says, 'the Lord who speaks righteousness and proclaims truth; assemble now and draw near; deliberate jointly, you who are rescued out from among the peoples. Those hauling around a chunk of timber, their graven likeness, lack any comprehension, petitioning powers incapable of rescuing them.' Then further on: 'I myself,' he declares, 'am God, and no just one exists apart from me, nor any deliverer outside of me; return to me and rescue will follow, you dwellers at earth's furthest edges. I am God, and none else remains; by my own self I take this oath.' And he expresses displeasure at the idol-worshippers, saying: 'To whom have you likened the Lord? Or with what likeness have you likened him? Has a carpenter made an image, or has a goldsmith melted down gold and overlaid it with gold?' — and so on with what follows. Are you, then, still idol-worshippers? But even now, take heed of the threats; for the carved things and the things made by hand shall wail — or rather, those who trust in them shall wail, for matter itself has no perception. Further he says: 'The Lord shall shake inhabited cities, and shall take hold of the whole inhabited world in his hand as a nest.' Why should I announce to you the mysteries of wisdom and the sayings of a wise Hebrew child? 'The Lord brought me into being as the first of his undertakings, at the outset of his works,' and 'the Lord gives wisdom, and from his presence come knowledge and understanding.' 'How long, O sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from sleep? But if you are not slothful, your harvest shall come to you like a spring' — that is, the paternal Word, the good lamp, the Lord who brings in the light, faith and salvation for all. For 'the Lord,' as Jeremiah says, 'who made the earth by his strength,' 'set the inhabited world upright by his wisdom.' For when we had fallen away to idols, wisdom, which is his Word, sets us upright again toward the truth. And this is the first resurrection from our fall; wherefore, turning us away from all idolatry, the godlike Moses cries out most beautifully: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one,' and 'you shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve.' Now, then, grasp this, you men, following the words of David, that fortunate composer of psalms: 'Seize hold of correction, so the Lord does not grow angry, and you perish from the righteous way, when his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who trust in him.' And already, taking pity on us beyond measure, the Lord grants us the saving melody, a kind of marching rhythm: 'Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you cherish emptiness and chase after lies?' What, then, is this vanity, and what is this falsehood? The holy apostle of the Lord, in accusing the Greeks, will explain it to you: 'because, though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their reasonings, and exchanged the glory of God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator.' And indeed this God is the one who 'in the beginning made heaven and earth'; but you do not conceive of God, and yet you worship heaven — and how are you not impious? Hear again a prophet saying: 'The sun shall fail and the heaven shall be darkened, but the Almighty shall shine forever, and the forces of the heavens shall be convulsed, and the sky shall be furled together like a tent-cloth, spread wide and then gathered in' (for these are the prophetic utterances) — 'and the earth shall flee from the face of the Lord.'
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