Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Since, then, we have shown that we all are called children by Scripture, not only we but those who have followed Christ being allegorically called infants, and that only the Father of all things is perfect (for in him is the Son, and in the Son the Father), it is now time, following the order of our theme, to state whom we mean by our Instructor. His name is Jesus. At times he names himself a shepherd, declaring, "I myself am the good shepherd," drawing a likeness from shepherds who guide sheep — the one who guides little children is thereby understood as an instructor, the attentive shepherd of infants; for infants, pictured as sheep, are simple beings. "And they shall become," he says, "one single flock, and one shepherd." The Word, then, rightly bears the name Instructor, since he guides us, who are children, toward salvation. Most clearly, indeed, the Word has declared this of himself through Hosea: "I am your instructor." Now instruction amounts to the fear of God; it is the process of learning how to serve God, a discipline directed toward knowing truth, and an upright guidance that ascends toward heaven.
Now instruction is spoken of in many senses: there is that of the one being led and learning, and that of the one leading and teaching, and thirdly the process of guidance itself, and fourthly the things taught, such as the commandments. The instruction that comes from God is a straightening unto truth for the vision of God, and a setting forth of holy deeds unto an eternal continuance. As, then, the general straightens the line of battle, providing for the safety of his hired troops, and as the pilot steers the ship, electing to preserve those sailing within it, so too the Instructor guides the children toward the saving manner of life, out of concern for our own welfare; and broadly speaking, whatever things we might justly ask God to grant us, these become ours provided we obey the Instructor. Just as a pilot will not forever give way before the winds, but will at times turn the bow against them and stand firm through entire tempests, so the Instructor refuses to give way before the winds that blow through this world, nor does he ever permit the child, like a ship, to be dashed upon a savage and licentious way of life; but lifted along by a favorable wind, the wind of truth alone, he holds most firmly to the rudders of the child—I mean his ears—until he brings the child safely into harbor in the haven of the heavens. For what is called ancestral custom among men passes away, however slowly, but the divine guidance is a possession remaining forever. They say it was Phoenix who instructed Achilles, Adrastus who instructed the sons of Croesus, Leonidas who instructed Alexander, and Nausithous who instructed Philip. But the one, Phoenix, was mad for women; the other, Adrastus, was a fugitive; Leonidas did not remove the arrogance of the Macedonian, nor did Nausithous cure the drunkenness of the man from Pella; and the Thracian Zopyrus was not able to check the licentiousness of Alcibiades, but Zopyrus was a purchased slave; and the instructor of the children of Themistocles, Sicinnus, was a lazy household servant—they say he invented dancing and the dance called sicinnis. Nor have we overlooked the so-called royal instructors among the Persians, four in number, whom the kings of Persia, choosing them by merit from among all the Persians, set over their own children; but their children learn only to shoot with the bow, and when they come of age they consort with sisters and mothers and wives, both lawful and countless concubines, like boars trained for mating. But he who instructs us is the holy God, namely Jesus — that is, the Word, serving as guide to the whole of humankind; the God who loves humanity is himself this Instructor. Somewhere the Holy Spirit speaks of him in the ode: "He provided for the people in the desert, amid the heat's thirst, in a land without water; he surrounded him, gave him instruction, and guarded him as the pupil of his eye. Just as an eagle shelters its nest and longs over its brood, spreading wide its wings, so it took them and bore them upon its pinions; the Lord by himself guided them, and no strange god stood among them." Plainly enough, I believe, Scripture reveals the Instructor by recounting his guidance. And once more, speaking as himself, he acknowledges that he is Instructor: "I am the Lord your God, who led you out of Egypt." Who else, then, holds the power to lead one in and lead one out? Surely it is the Instructor. It is he "who appeared before Abraham and told him: I am your God; walk well-pleasing before me." And, teaching him most fittingly as a trustworthy child, he says, "and you shall be blameless; and I will establish my covenant between myself and you and your offspring." Here is a fellowship of governing friendship. He appears most plainly to be the Instructor of Jacob. At any rate he says to him: "Behold, I am with you, guarding you in every way you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done all that I have spoken to you." And he is said also to have wrestled with him. "Jacob was left alone," it says, "and a man wrestled with him"—the Instructor—"until morning." It was this figure who guided and bore him along, sparring alongside him and anointing Jacob the athlete for his contest against the evil one. And that the Word was the trainer together with Jacob and the Instructor of humanity, "he asked him," it says, "and said to him: Tell me your name. And he said: Why do you ask my name?" For he was reserving that fresh name for a fresh people, the people still in infancy; and the Lord God had not yet taken a name, not having yet become man. Still, "Jacob gave that place the name Vision of God, for," he says, "I beheld God directly, and my soul was preserved." Now it is the Word who is the countenance of God, through whom God is made luminous and known. It was then also that he was named Israel, when he saw God the Lord. This is God, the Word, the Instructor, who later still told him, "Have no fear about journeying down into Egypt." Notice how closely the Instructor accompanies the righteous man, and how he also coaches the wrestler, showing him the throw that fells his rival. This same one, at any rate, teaches Moses also to be an instructor; for the Lord declares: "Whoever has sinned against me, that one I will erase out of my scroll. Yet now depart, and guide this people toward the place I have described to you." Here he is a teacher of instruction; for he was truly, through Moses, the Instructor of the old people as Lord, but through himself he is the guide of the new people, face to face. "Behold," he says to Moses, "my angel goes before you," setting over them the good-news-bringing and leading power of the Word; and guarding his lordly dignity, "on the day I come to reckon with them," he says, "I will lay their sin upon them"—meaning, whichever day I take my seat in judgment, I will give them what their sins deserve; for it is one and the same figure who is both Instructor and Judge, who condemns those disobedient toward him, and the God who loves humanity does not stay silent over their wrongdoing but rebukes it, so that they might turn back; "for the Lord wills that the sinner turn from his ways rather than perish." And we, having received the sins of others by hearsay as infants, let us, through fear of the threat, refrain from the same offenses, so as not to suffer the same things. What then was their sin? "Because in their wrath they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull; cursed be their wrath."
Who then could instruct us more lovingly than he? In earlier times, then, the older people held an older covenant, and the law schooled that people through fear, with the Word acting as messenger; but to the new, youthful people a fresh, youthful covenant has been granted, the Word has taken on flesh, fear has given way to love, and that mystical messenger, Jesus, has come into being. For this same Instructor formerly said, "You shall fear the Lord your God," but to us he has urged, "You shall love the Lord your God." For this reason he also commands us, "Cease from your works"—the old sins—"learn to do good; turn away from evil and do good; you have loved righteousness, you have hated lawlessness." This is my new covenant, engraved with an old letter. The youthfulness of the Word, then, is not to be reproached. And also in Jeremiah the Lord says: "Do not say, I am too young; before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you." This prophecy may well be pointing toward us, who were recognized by God for our faith even prior to the world's foundation, yet who count now as infants owing to God's purpose only recently brought to completion, since we have been born anew into a calling of salvation. Hence he continues, "I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations," indicating that prophesying was his task, and that being called younger should carry no shame for those termed infants. Now the law is old grace given through Moses by the Word. So Scripture likewise states: "The law came by means of Moses" (meaning not that Moses was its source but the Word, though it passed through Moses his servant, and for that reason it was also temporary in nature), "whereas the everlasting grace and the truth came into being through Jesus Christ." Note how Scripture words this: concerning the law it says merely that it "came"; but "the truth" — which is the Father's grace — stands as the everlasting achievement of the Word, and it is no longer described as merely given, but as "coming into being through Jesus, without whom nothing has come into being." Thus, at any rate, Moses, yielding prophetically to the perfect Instructor, the Word, both foretells his name and his instruction, and presents the Instructor to the people, having handed over commandments of obedience: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet," he says, "like me, from among your brothers"—meaning Joshua the son of Nun, but hinting at Jesus the Son of God; for the name Jesus, proclaimed beforehand in the law, was a shadowy sketch of the Lord. He adds, then, counseling what is profitable for the people, saying, "You shall listen to him, and whoever does not listen to this prophet, him he threatens." Such a name of a saving Instructor he prophesies to us. For this reason prophecy also fits him with a rod, an instructive rod, a ruling rod, an authoritative rod, so that whoever the persuasive Word fails to cure, the warning might cure instead, and whoever the warning fails to cure, the rod might cure, and whoever even the rod fails to cure is consumed by fire. "There shall come forth," it says, "a rod from the root of Jesse." Consider too the solicitude, the wisdom, and the might belonging to the Instructor: "He will not render judgment by outward appearance," it says, "nor rebuke merely by what is heard, but he will judge the poor in righteousness and rebuke the earth's sinners." And through David: "The Lord has chastened and instructed me, but has not given me over to death"; for to be chastened and instructed by the Lord is a release from death. And through the same prophet he says: "You shall shepherd them with a rod of iron." Moved by this, the Apostle too, in his letter to the Corinthians, says: "What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?" And also, "The Lord shall send forth a rod of power out of Zion," he says through another prophet. And this instructive power is that of which another has said, "Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me"—this is the power of the Instructor, the solemn, the comforting, the saving power.
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