Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The character of his love for mankind and of his tutelage has now been shown to us as far as was possible. Wherefore, most beautifully explaining himself, he compared himself to "a mustard seed," hinting darkly, through its sharpness, at the fruitfulness in spirit of the seed once cast down, and the vigor joined to the vast expansion of its rational power, and further the biting and cleansing power of rebuke, are all beneficial. From so small a grain, then—understood allegorically—he bestows on the whole of humankind something exceedingly great: salvation. Now honey, though it is the sweetest thing, is productive of bile, just as the good produces contempt, which indeed is the cause of sinning; but mustard both diminishes bile, that is, anger, and cuts through phlegm, that is, conceit; and from this word the soul's true health and its everlasting good temper result. Long ago, then, the Word was tutor through Moses, and afterward also through the prophets; and Moses himself likewise held the prophet's office, since the law amounts to the schooling given unruly children. "When they were filled," it says, "they rose up to play"—calling the irrational fullness of food a mere feeding, not a meal. And since, having been irrationally sated, they played irrationally, for this reason both the law and fear followed upon them, to check their sins and urge them toward right conduct, fitting them for obedience to the true tutor—that is, docility—being one and the same Word adapted to what was urgently needed. For Paul says that "the law was given as a tutor unto Christ," so that from this it becomes plainly evident that there is one alone who is true, good, just, the Son Jesus made after the image and likeness of the Father, the Word of God, who is our tutor, to whom God has handed us over, the way a loving father entrusts his own children to a genuine tutor, plainly declaring to us: "This one is my beloved Son; listen to him." Trustworthy is the divine tutor, adorned with the three fairest qualities: knowledge, goodwill, and frankness of speech. In knowledge, because he is the Father's wisdom—"every kind of wisdom comes from the Lord, remaining beside him for all ages"; in frankness of speech, because he is God and maker of all—"since everything came into being by his agency, and apart from him nothing whatsoever came to be"; in goodwill, because he alone gave himself up as a sacrificial victim on our behalf—"for the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep," and indeed he laid it down. And goodwill is nothing other than the wish for what is good for one's neighbor, for that neighbor's own sake.
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