Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Our Gnostic always spends his time on the most authoritative matters; but if leisure and an occasion for relaxation should arise from those principal pursuits, then instead of other idle amusement he takes hold of Greek philosophy, tasting it as one might nibble some little relish alongside the main dinner, not neglecting the better things but adding this too, so far as is fitting, and for the reasons I stated before. But those who have reached out for the unnecessary and superfluous parts of philosophy and cling only to contentious sophistries have been left behind in the necessary and most authoritative matters — men who quite literally chase the shadows of arguments. Now it is a fine thing to know everything; but whoever's soul is too weak to stretch itself toward such wide-ranging learning will choose only the principal and better things. For true knowledge, which we say the Gnostic alone possesses, is a firm apprehension arrived at through true and firm reasonings, leading up to knowledge of the cause; and one who has knowledge is at once knowing both the truth and the falsehood concerning any given matter. And indeed that saying seems to me somehow well put: if one ought to philosophize, one must philosophize; for the statement follows from itself; but even if one ought not to philosophize — for no one could condemn a thing without first having known it. Therefore one must philosophize.
Since these things are so, the Greeks must learn thoroughly, through the Law and the Prophets, to worship one God alone, the truly existing Almighty, and then be taught this also through the Apostle: that for us there is no idol in the world, since no image of God can exist among created things, and further be taught that not even the statues they worship could be likenesses of these beings whose worship they render; for the class of souls is not, in its form, such as the Greeks fashion their carved images to be. For souls are invisible — not only the rational ones, but also those of irrational animals — and their material frames are at no point constituents of the souls proper, but function instead as tools: for some souls, a dwelling; for others, a conveyance; and for others yet, a possession held in still another fashion.
But not even of these instruments can images be made that accurately reproduce them — since one might just as well try to mold the sun as it appears to sight, or to represent the rainbow in its colors. But when they abandon their idols, then they will hear the words of Scripture: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, who are justified only by abstaining from evils, you will not be of the kingdom — unless, along with the perfecting found in these things, you are also able to love and do good to your neighbor. For it is the intensification of the righteousness according to the Law that reveals the Gnostic. Thus one who is ordered according to that which governs his own body, namely the head, and who has advanced to the summit of faith, will likewise attain the loftiest inheritance in knowledge itself, that toward which all the senses are directed. The Apostle clearly points out the governing element of knowledge to those capable of discerning it, writing thus to those Greek-speaking Corinthians: having hope that as your faith grows, we shall be enlarged among you according to our rule unto abundance, so as to preach the gospel unto the regions beyond you — not speaking of the geographical extension of the preaching (since he himself says that faith had already increased in Achaia,
and this is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, where he preached the word in Athens) — but he is teaching knowledge, which is the perfecting of faith, as abounding beyond mere catechetical instruction, matching the magnitude of what the Lord taught and the Church's governing standard. This is why, going on, he adds: even if unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge. Yet let those among the Greeks who boast of having grasped the truth tell us from whom they learned it, that they can boast so. They would not say from God; they admit it was from men. And if so, either they learned it late from themselves — just as, indeed, some of them boast, being puffed up — or from others like themselves. But men are not trustworthy teachers concerning God, insofar as they are men; for a man is not competent to speak the truth about God, being himself weak and perishable, when it comes to the Unbegotten and Incorruptible One — the work speaking about its Maker.
Then again, is not one who cannot speak the truth about himself even less to be trusted concerning God? For to the degree that a man falls short of the power of God, to that same degree his reasoning grows weak also, even when he speaks not of God himself but merely about God and about the divine word. For human reason is by nature weak and unable to express God — I do not mean the name (for it is common not only to philosophers but also to poets to use it), nor the essence (for that is impossible), but rather God's might and his deeds. And yet even those who claim God as their teacher scarcely arrive at a conception of God, grace assisting them toward a certain measure of knowledge, as they train themselves to perceive, as it were, one will meeting another will, one Spirit answering that same Spirit — since the Spirit searches the depths of God, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. Therefore ours alone is the God-taught wisdom, from which all the springs of wisdom depend, as many as aim at the truth. Indeed, as though the Lord were coming among men to teach us, countless signs, heralds, preparers, and forerunners from above, from the foundation of the world, foretold him ahead of time through deeds and through speech, declaring in advance that he would arrive, from what place, in what manner, and what tokens would mark it.
Indeed, from far off the Law and prophecy rehearse it beforehand, and then the forerunner points out the one who is present, after whom the heralds, teaching fully the power of his manifestation, proclaim it. Yet these were pleasing to only a few, and not even to all of those: Socrates pleased Plato, and Plato pleased Xenocrates; Aristotle pleased Theophrastus, and Zeno pleased Cleanthes — men who persuaded only their own particular followers. But the word of our Teacher did not remain in Judea alone, as philosophy remained in Greece, but was poured out over the whole inhabited world, persuading Greeks and barbarians alike, by nation and village and every city, whole households and each of the hearers individually, and converting to the truth not a few even of the philosophers themselves. And whereas Greek philosophy, if some chance ruler forbids it, vanishes at once, our teaching, from the very beginning together with its first proclamation, has been opposed alike by kings and tyrants and the various rulers and governors together with all their hired soldiers, and besides these, by countless ordinary people, who wage war against us and try with all their power to cut it down — yet it flourishes all the more. For it does not die like a human teaching, nor does it wither like a feeble gift (for no gift of God is feeble), but remains unhindered, prophesied to be persecuted to the very end.
Then, concerning poetry, Plato writes that a poet is a light and sacred thing, and is not able to compose until he becomes inspired and out of his senses. And Democritus says likewise: whatever a poet writes with enthusiasm and sacred inspiration is altogether beautiful. Yet we know the sort of things poets say. Should one not, then, be all the more struck with awe before the prophets of the Almighty God, who became instruments of a divine voice?
Just as, then, having modeled a statue of the Gnostic, we have already shown what sort of person he is, indicating the greatness and beauty of his character as in a sketch — for what he is like in contemplation regarding natural things will be shown afterward, when we begin to treat of the origin of the world.
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