Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
With all his strength, then, the educator of humanity, our divine Word, employing every device of wisdom, has undertaken to save the infants, admonishing, censuring, rebuking, refuting, threatening, healing, promising, showing favor, "binding" the irrational impulses of humanity "as it were with many bridles." To sum it up: the Lord acts toward us as we act toward our own children. "Do you have children? Discipline them," wisdom exhorts, "and bend them from their youth. Do you have daughters? Watch over their bodies, and do not brighten your face toward them." And yet we love our children, sons and daughters, exceedingly and beyond all else. But since those who court favor love little what does not grieve them, while those who press hard for benefit, even if painful for the moment, do good for the age to come, the Lord had regard not for present pleasure but for the delight that is to come. Let us now go on to consider the manner of his loving-kindly education, together with prophetic testimony.
Admonition, then, is censure exercised out of care, productive of understanding. Such is the educator when he admonishes, as also in the gospel where he says, "How often I wished to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." And again scripture admonishes, saying, "they committed adultery with wood and stone, and offered incense to Baal." For it is the greatest proof of his loving-kindness that, although he clearly knew the shamelessness of the people who had kicked and bolted away, he nevertheless calls them to repentance and declares through Ezekiel, "Son of man, you live surrounded by scorpions; even so, speak to them, in case they will listen." And likewise to Moses he says, "Go, tell Pharaoh to let my people depart, even though I already know he will refuse to let them go." For this shows both things at once: the divine foreknowledge of what will happen, and his loving-kindness in granting, to the soul's free will, occasions for repentance. He also admonishes through Isaiah, caring for the people, when he declares, "This people draws near me only with their mouths, while their hearts stay far away from me" (this is reproving censure) — "and their worship of me is empty, teaching human commandments as if they were doctrines." Here his care, having exposed the sin, shows salvation set alongside it.
Rebuke is censure that turns people from shameful things toward the good, by making them feel at home with the good. This he shows through Jeremiah: "They became stallions mad for females, each neighing after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a people?" And throughout he interweaves dread, since "reverence toward the Lord constitutes the origin of understanding." And again through Hosea he says, "I will not punish them, because they mingled themselves with harlots and sacrificed with the consecrated ones, and the people who understood entangled themselves with a harlot." He shows their sin more plainly by admitting that they understood, as sinning willingly. And understanding is the eye of the soul. Hence Israel is "the one who sees God," that is, the one who understands God.
Blame is censure directed at those who are careless or negligent. He has used this manner of education through Isaiah, saying, "Listen, O heaven, and pay heed, O earth, for the Lord himself has spoken: I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger, but Israel has not known me." For is it not terrible if the one who has known God will not know the Lord, while the ox and the donkey, sluggish and foolish animals, will know the one who feeds them, but Israel will be found more irrational even than these? And through Jeremiah, after blaming the people at length, he adds, "and they abandoned me, says the Lord."
Reprimand is a rebuke that strikes, or censure that wounds; the educator has used this treatment too, through Isaiah, saying, "Woe, rebellious children, thus says the Lord: you have made counsel not through me, and covenants not through my spirit." With this very harsh astringent he continually applies fear, at once opening up and turning the people back through it toward salvation, just as dyed wool likes to be treated with an astringent beforehand, to be made ready for a firm reception of the dye.
Refutation is the bringing forward of sin into full view. He resorts to this most of all, as a necessary manner of education, because of the laxity of the faith of the many. For he says through Isaiah, "You have forsaken the Lord and stirred the Holy One of Israel to wrath." And he says through Jeremiah, "The heavens were amazed at this, and the earth trembled greatly, because this people has committed two evil things: they abandoned me, a fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water." And again through the same: "Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become a thing tossed about; all who glorified her have dishonored her, because they have seen her shame." And, softening the severity and sharpness of the refutation through Solomon, he speaks alluding, by what is left unsaid, to the child-loving character of his education: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord, nor grow faint when refuted by him; for whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives," because "a sinful man turns away from refutation." Accordingly scripture says, "Let the righteous man reprove me, and correct me; but do not let the sinner's oil anoint my head."
Instructing-the-mind is censure that produces understanding. Nor has he abstained from this manner of education, but through Jeremiah he says, "How long shall I cry out and they not listen? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised." O the blessed forbearance! And again through the same: "Every nation remains uncircumcised, yet this people is uncircumcised at heart." "Because it is a disobedient people, sons," he says, "in whom there is no faith."
Visitation is a severe rebuke. He has used this form in the gospel: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her." And the doubling of the name has made the rebuke forceful. For how does the one who knows God persecute the servants of God? For this reason he says, "Your house is left to you desolate; for I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the Lord's name." Should you refuse his loving-kindness, you will instead come to experience his authority.
Reviling is intensified censure. He has employed reviling in the manner of a medicine, through Isaiah, saying, "Woe, nation steeped in sin, children of lawlessness, a people laden with wrongdoing, wicked brood," and in the gospel through John he says, "Serpents, offspring of vipers."
Accusation is censure of those who do wrong. This form of education he has used through David, saying, "A people whom I did not know served me, and obeyed me at the hearing of the ear; foreign sons lied to me and went lame from their paths," and through Jeremiah: "and I gave her a bill of divorce, and faithless Judah was not afraid," and again: "and the house of Israel acted treacherously toward me, and the house of Judah deceived the Lord."
Grumbling-complaint is censure delivered covertly, arranging salvation, with skillful help, under a veil. He has used it through Jeremiah: "How the city that was full of peoples sits alone! She has become like a widow; she who ruled over lands has become tributary; weeping she wept in the night."
Mockery is derisive censure. This remedy too the divine educator has used through Jeremiah, saying, "You have become like the face of a harlot; you have grown shameless before everyone. Have you not called me house, and father, and prince of your virginity?" and "a beautiful and charming harlot, a mistress of sorceries." Having very skillfully outraged the virgin with the name of harlotry, he then calls her back again, turning her toward modesty.
Indignant-reproach is lawful censure, or censure of those who exalt the †ways beyond what is fitting. With this he educated through Moses, saying, "Blameworthy children, a crooked and perverse generation, is this how you repay the Lord? This is a foolish people and not wise. Is he not this same father who acquired you?" And through Isaiah he says, "Your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing recompense, not judging for orphans."
In general, the whole art concerning fear of him is a fountain of salvation, and it belongs to goodness to bring salvation: "The Lord's mercy is upon all flesh; refuting and disciplining and teaching as a shepherd his flock. He has mercy on those who accept discipline, and on those who press eagerly to cling to him"; and by this guidance "he preserved six hundred thousand foot-soldiers, gathered together in the hardness of heart they then had, scourging, showing mercy, striking, healing, in compassion and discipline." "For according to his great mercy, so also is his refutation." For it is good not to sin, but it is also good, having sinned, to repent, just as it is best always to be healthy, but it is also good to recover from sickness. For this reason it is enjoined too through Solomon: "Strike your son with the rod, but rescue his soul from death." And again: "Do not hold back from disciplining a child. Discipline him using the rod, and he will not perish."
For refutation and reprimand, as indeed the very name hints, are blows to the soul, bringing sins to their senses and warding off death, and leading toward self-control those being carried away into licentiousness. For this reason Plato too, knowing refutation to be the greatest power of correction and the most sovereign purification, wishes, consistently with reason, that the man who is impure in the greatest matters should be shown to be uneducated and shameful precisely because he is unrefuted — since it was fitting that the one who was truly to become happy should be the purest and most beautiful. For if "those who rule bring no fear to good behavior," how shall God, who is good by nature, be a terror to the one who does not sin? "But if you do evil, be afraid," as the apostle says. For this reason the apostle himself continually applies astringency to the churches, after the image of the Lord, and, aware both of his own frankness and of the weakness of his hearers, says to the Galatians, "Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" And just as the healthy have no need of a physician, insofar as they are strong, while the sick require his art, so too we, who are sick in life with regard to disgraceful desires, and with regard to blameworthy lack of self-control, and with regard to the other inflammations of the passions, need the Savior; and he applies not only mild medicines, but also astringent ones. At any rate the bitter roots of fear check the spread of sins; hence fear, even if bitter, is salutary. Reasonably, then, we who are sick need a savior, and we who have wandered need one to guide us, and the blind need one to bring the light, and the thirsty need the spring of living water, from which those who partake will thirst no more, and the dead need life, and the sheep need a shepherd, and the children need an educator — indeed all humanity needs Jesus, so that we may not, undisciplined and sinful, fall into final condemnation, but may be separated out from the chaff and gathered into the Father's storehouse; for the winnowing fan is in the hand of the Lord, by which the chaff owed to the fire is sorted apart from the wheat. And it is possible, if you wish, to learn the utmost wisdom of the all-holy shepherd and educator, the almighty and paternal Word, where he allegorizes, calling himself the shepherd of sheep; and he is the educator of infants. He says, then, through Ezekiel, addressing the elders and setting before them a saving pattern of reasonable care: "and I will bind up the lame, and heal the afflicted, and turn back the wandering, and I will pasture them upon my holy mountain." These are the promises of a good shepherd: feed us, the infants, as sheep. Yes, Master, fill us with your pasture, your righteousness; yes, Educator, shepherd us to your holy mountain, to the church that is exalted, that towers above the clouds, that touches the heavens. "And I myself," he declares, "will become their shepherd, and I will stay close beside them," like a garment next to their skin; he desires to preserve my flesh, by clothing it in the garment of incorruption, and he has anointed my skin. "They will call upon me," he declares, "and I will answer: Here I am." You responded before I even hoped for it, Master. "And should they pass over, they will not stumble, says the Lord." For we who pass over into incorruption will not fall into corruption, because he himself will hold us fast; for he himself said it and he himself willed it.
Such is our educator, good by right. "I came," he says, "not to be served, but to serve." For this reason he is introduced in the gospel as growing weary, he who labors on our behalf, and promising "to give his own soul as a ransom for many." For this alone he acknowledges makes one a good shepherd; great, then, is the giver who gives up the greatest thing for us, his own soul, and greatly beneficial and loving of humanity, in that, though it was within his power to be Lord, he wished to be brother to men; and he is so good that he is even willing to die on our behalf. But his righteousness too cries out: "If you come to me uprightly, I too will be upright toward you; if you walk crookedly, I too will be crooked, says the Lord of hosts," hinting that the rebukes of sinners are crooked paths. For the straight path, and the one according to nature, which the iota of Jesus hints at, is his goodness, unmoved and unswerving toward those who have believed out of obedience. "Since I called and you did not obey, says the Lord, but you set at nought my counsels, and did not attend to my reproofs." Thus the Lord's refutation is most beneficial. Concerning these things he also says through David: "A crooked, embittering generation, a generation whose heart was not set rightly, and whose spirit remained unfaithful toward God. They did not keep the covenant of God, and were not willing to walk in his law." These are the causes of the provocation, on account of which the judge comes to bring judgment upon those who were unwilling to choose the good life. For this reason a harsher treatment has been brought to bear on them from this point, in case he might somehow check their impulse toward death. He states, then, through David, the clearest cause of the threat: "They did not believe in his wonders. When he was slaying them, they sought him out, and returned, and rose early to seek God, and recalled that God had been their helper, and that God Most High was their redeemer." Thus he knows that they turn back only through fear, having despised his loving-kindness. For the good, as it is ever kindly disposed, tends for the most part to be disregarded, but it is attended to when it reminds, by the fear proper to righteousness, of loving-kindness. Now fear is of two kinds: the one arises with reverence, which citizens use toward good rulers, and we toward God, just as self-controlled children use it toward their fathers — "for an untamed horse," it says, "turns out stubborn, and a son let loose turns out headstrong"; the other kind of fear arises with hatred, which slaves use toward harsh masters, and which the Hebrews used, having made God a master, not a father. But by far, I think, and altogether, the voluntary and deliberate approach to piety differs from the one done under compulsion. "For he himself," it says, "is compassionate; he will heal their sins and not destroy them; and he will many times turn away his wrath, and will not kindle the whole of his anger." See how the justice of the educator is displayed in his rebukes, and the goodness of God in his acts of compassion. For this reason David, that is, the spirit that speaks through him, embracing both together, sings of the same God: "Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of your throne; mercy and truth shall go before your face." He acknowledges that judging and doing good both belong to one and the same power; for the authority for both belongs at once, the judgment of righteousness that distinguishes opposites. And the same one is both righteous and good, the one who truly is God, who himself is all things and who is himself all things, because he himself is God, the only God. For just as a mirror is no evil to the ugly man, because it shows him what he is, and just as the physician who announces the fever is no evil to the one who is sick (for it is not the physician who causes the fever, but rather he who reveals it), so too the one who refutes is not ill-disposed toward the soul that is ailing; for he does not implant the offenses, but exposes the sins already present, so as to turn one away from like practices. So then God is good on his own account, but righteous already for our sake, and this too because he is good. And his righteousness is shown to us through his own Word, from that source above, from where he became Father. For prior to becoming creator, he already was God; he was good, and it was for this reason he chose to be both craftsman and father; and the disposition of that love became the beginning of righteousness, in causing his own sun to shine and sending down his own Son; and this one first proclaimed the good righteousness from the heavens, saying, "No one has known the Son except the Father, nor the Father except the Son." This mutually balancing knowledge is, in equal measure, a symbol of ancient righteousness. Thereafter righteousness has descended upon men both in writing and in bodily form, through the Word and through the Law, forcing humanity, for its salvation, toward repentance; for it was good. But you do not obey God; then blame yourself, for it is you who draws the judge upon yourself.
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