Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For Paul too, in his letters, plainly does not disparage philosophy; rather, he thinks that the man who has laid hold of the height of the gnostic ought no longer to run back to Greek philosophy, allegorizing it as "the elements of the world," as being a kind of elementary instruction and a preliminary training for the truth. Hence, writing to the Hebrews who were turning back from faith to the law, he says, "You have need again that someone teach you what are the first elements of the oracles of God, and you have turned into people who still require milk, rather than firm nourishment." And likewise also to the Colossians, who were turning back from the Greeks, he says: "See lest anyone spoil you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world and not according to Christ" — luring them once more to run back into philosophy, elementary teaching that it is. And even if someone should say that philosophy was discovered by the Greeks according to human understanding, still I find that the scriptures say that understanding is sent from God.
The psalmist, at any rate, considers understanding the greatest gift, and asks for it, saying: "I am your servant; give me understanding." And is it not surely the manifold experience of knowledge that David is asking for when he writes: "Teach me kindness and instruction and understanding, since your commandments have earned my trust"? It is agreed, moreover, that the covenants are authoritative, and are given to those held in greater honor. The psalm again says of God: "He has not done thus to any nation, and his judgments he has not shown to them." Now "he has not done thus" indicates that he has indeed done something, but not in this way — for "thus" here is used in comparison, with reference to the superiority shown toward us; for it would surely have been possible for the prophet to say simply "he has not done it," without the addition "thus." Indeed Peter too, in the Acts, says: "Now I truly grasp that God shows no partiality toward persons; rather, in every nation, whoever reveres him and does what is right is welcome to him."
The impartiality of God, then, is not a thing of time, but is from eternity; nor did his beneficence ever begin, nor indeed is it confined to certain places or certain men, for his benefaction is not partial. "Open to me the gates of righteousness," it says; "once through them I will give praise to the Lord. Here stands the Lord's gate; through it the righteous make their entry." Interpreting this saying of the prophet, Barnabas adds: "Though many gates stand open, this is the one in righteousness, the one in Christ, in which all who enter are blessed." Of the same thought is that other prophetic word: "The Lord is upon many waters" — not of the various covenants alone, but also of the modes of teaching, both those among the Greeks that lead to righteousness and those among the barbarians. And David too, bearing clear witness already to the truth, sings: "Let the sinners be turned back into Hades, all the nations that forget God." Now they "forget," clearly, that which they formerly remembered, and him whom they knew before they forgot him is the one from whom they are being sent away. There was, then, some dim knowledge of God even among the nations.
Let this stand as it is. The gnostic must be widely learned; and since the Greeks say — Protagoras having been the first to maintain it — that to every argument an opposing argument may be set, it is fitting that he too be prepared to speak against such arguments. For scripture says: "The one who talks a great deal will also get an answer in turn." And who could grasp one of the Lord's parables unless he is wise, well-informed, and devoted to his Lord? Let such a man be faithful, then; let him be able to declare knowledge; let him be wise in the discernment of arguments; let him be vigorous in works; let him be pure. "For the more one seems to be greater, the more he ought to be humble-minded," says Clement in his letter to the Corinthians. Such a man is capable of obeying that command: "Those whom you snatch from the fire, and those who are wavering, have mercy on them." Indeed the pruning-hook was made chiefly for the purpose of pruning, but with it we also separate the tangled vine-shoots and cut away the thorns that grow up together with the vines, which it is not easy to approach; and all these operations bear reference to the pruning. In the same way man's chief purpose is knowing God, yet he also tills the soil, studies geometry, and pursues philosophy; of these the first supports mere survival, the second living well, and the third the practice of demonstrative reasoning.
Indeed, let those who say that philosophy originates from the devil take note of this as well: that scripture says the devil disguises himself as a messenger of radiance — toward what end? Evidently, in order to prophesy. Yet if he foretells things while posing as a shining messenger, then what he speaks will be true. If his acts are angelic and full of light, he will prophesy and be useful precisely then, when he transforms himself according to a likeness of that activity, even though he is other in the substance of his apostasy. For how could he deceive anyone, if he did not lead the lover of learning by means of true things into familiarity, and only afterward drag him down into falsehood? Besides, he will be found to have knowledge of the truth, even if not by way of full comprehension, yet certainly not without experience of it. Philosophy, then, is not false, even though the thief and the liar, by a transformation of his activity, speaks true things; nor indeed must one, on account of the speaker, condemn beforehand and in ignorance the things spoken — which is a caution to be observed also with regard to those now said to prophesy — but one must examine what is said, to see whether it holds to the truth.
Already, then, speaking in general terms, we would not err in saying that everything essential and beneficial for our existence has come to us from God, and that philosophy was given to the Greeks especially, as a covenant of their own, being a foundation for the philosophy that is according to Christ — even though those who philosophize among the Greeks willfully turn a deaf ear to the truth, disdaining the speech of the barbarians, or else fearing the danger of death hanging over the believer under the civil laws. But just as in barbarian philosophy, so also in Greek philosophy the tares were sown by the farmer proper to the tares. Whence both the heresies among us have sprung up together with the fruitful wheat, and those who proclaim the godlessness of Epicurus, and pleasure, and whatever else has been sown contrary to right reason within Greek philosophy, are bastard fruits belonging to the Greeks, of the husbandry given by God.
This is the wisdom of this age, the pleasure-loving and self-loving kind, that the apostle speaks of, as teaching only the things of this world and what pertains to it, and consequently subject, by way of subordination, to the rulers of this age; wherefore this partial philosophy is a kind of elementary instruction, falling short of that truly perfect knowledge which ranges beyond the world, about the intelligible realities, and further still about the more spiritual of these — things which "eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man" — until the Teacher disclosed to us the account concerning these things, revealing the holy of holies and, by a further ascent beyond even these, the still more holy things, to those who are the genuine, not spurious, heirs of the sonship of the Lord. For we may boldly say (for here is the gnostic faith) that the true gnostic is one who has knowledge of all things and comprehends all things, employing a firm apprehension even of matters that are obscure to us — such a man as James was, and Peter, John, Paul, along with the other apostles. For prophecy overflows with knowledge, since it was granted by the Lord and afterward made plain to his apostles through him; and is not knowledge, perhaps, a property peculiar to the rational soul, which is trained toward this end, that through knowledge it may be inscribed for immortality? For both are powers of the soul, knowledge and impulse.
Now impulse is found to be a movement occurring after a certain assent; for the one who is impelled toward some action first receives knowledge of the action, and second, the impulse. Let us consider the matter further from this angle: since learning is prior to doing (for by nature the one who does a thing first learns that which he wishes to do), and knowledge comes from learning, and doing comes from being impelled, and knowledge from learning, and impulse follows upon knowledge, and after impulse comes the deed — knowledge would then be the beginning and the maker of every rational act, so that it is by this alone that the property peculiar to the rational soul may reasonably be characterized. For in truth impulse is, as it were, a kind of knowledge in motion with respect to the things that are, while knowledge itself is precisely this: a certain contemplation by the soul of the things that are, or of certain of them, but when perfected, of all things together.
And yet certain thinkers claim that the wise man is convinced there are things that cannot be grasped, so that even about these he possesses a kind of grasp, in that he comprehends that the incomprehensible things will be incomprehensible. This, however, is common even to those capable of only a little foresight; for such a person merely affirms that there exist certain incomprehensible things. But that gnostic of whom I speak comprehends, for himself, the very things that seem incomprehensible to others, having believed that nothing is incomprehensible to the Son of God, and hence nothing is untaught by him; for he who suffered for love of us would withhold nothing from the teaching of knowledge. This faith, then, becomes a firm demonstration, since truth follows upon the things handed down by God. And if one also longs for manifold experience, the disciple of wisdom knows the things of old and conjectures the things to come; he understands the turns of arguments and the resolutions of riddles; he has foreknowledge of omens and marvels, and of how seasons and epochs will unfold.
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