Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
"Of the rest I am silent," glorifying the Lord. Yet I do speak of those gnostic souls who, by the magnificence of their contemplation, surpass the constitution proper to every holy order, according to which the blessed dwellings of the gods have been distinctly allotted — souls reckoned holy among the holy and translated wholly out of the whole, arriving at better places among the better, no longer embracing the divine contemplation in mirrors or through mirrors, but feasted upon a vision that is as clear as possible and precisely unmixed, with souls that love it insatiably beyond nature, reaping everlastingly an everlasting, insatiable gladness unto ages without end, all alike honored in the sameness of their pre-eminence. This is the comprehending contemplation of "the pure in heart." This, then, is the activity of the gnostic made perfect: to commune with God by means of the great high priest, becoming as like the Lord as one may through the entirety of the service offered to God — a service which extends to the salvation of men, in accordance with the care of the benefaction shown toward us, both in liturgy and in teaching and in the beneficence that comes through works. Yes indeed, he both builds and fashions himself, and moreover adorns those who give ear to him, the gnostic being made like God, who by nature possesses freedom from passion, likening to it, as far as is possible, that freedom from passion which is compressed out of practice — and this while holding converse and communion with the Lord "without distraction." Gentleness, I think, and love of mankind and magnificent reverence toward God are the rules of gnostic assimilation to God.
These virtues, I say, are "an acceptable sacrifice" before God — the heart free of vanity, joined with right knowledge, which Scripture calls "a whole burnt offering to God," when every man taken up into holiness is wholly illumined into undivided union. For to seize hold of themselves and bring themselves to nothing — mortifying "the old man, corrupted through his own desires," and raising up "the new" from the death of the former depravity — this is what both the gospel and the apostle enjoin, laying aside the passions and becoming sinless. This, then, was what the law too was hinting at darkly when it commanded that the sinner be put to death: the passing over from death to life, the freedom from passion that comes of faith. Not understanding this, the teachers of the law, receiving the law in a contentious spirit, have furnished occasions to those who vainly attempt to slander it. For this reason we do not, as is fitting, offer sacrifice to God, who is in need of nothing, who has furnished all things to all; rather, we glorify him who was made a priestly victim on our behalf, offering ourselves as priests unto that which is without need, out of that which is without need, and unto that which is without passion, out of that which is without passion. For God delights only in our salvation. Fittingly, then, we do not bring sacrifice to him who is not conquered by pleasures — a sacrifice that reaches down somewhere low, not even as high as the thickest clouds, and far short even of these, since the smoky exhalation reaches only as far as it reaches, and no further.
The divine, then, is neither in need nor fond of pleasure nor fond of gain nor fond of money, being full and providing all things to every created and needy thing. It is not charmed by sacrifices, nor indeed by votive offerings, nor again by glory and honor, nor is it led astray by any such things, but appears like men who are truly noble and good, who would never betray justice, whether for fear of threatened harm or for the promise of greater gifts. But those who have not perceived the self-determination of the human soul and its freedom from bondage in the choice of a life, being vexed at what happens through untutored injustice, do not believe there is a God. Equal to these in their opinion are those who, falling into the intemperance of pleasures and into excessive griefs and into unwanted misfortunes, and giving up hope amid disasters, claim either that no God exists at all, or that, granting his existence, he takes no oversight of everything. And there are others who are persuaded that the so-called gods are to be won over by sacrifices and gifts, being as it were accomplices in men's licentiousness, and who are not even willing to believe that the one who truly is God is he alone who exists in the sameness of righteous goodness.
The gnostic, then, is pious, caring first for himself, and then for his neighbors, so that we may become the best possible — for the son too gratifies a good father by showing himself earnest and like his father, and the one ruled gratifies the ruler, since believing and being persuaded lie in our own power; while one might suppose that the cause of evils is the weakness of matter, and the unwanted impulses of ignorance, and the irrational compulsions that come through lack of learning — over which the gnostic, having risen above them like wild beasts through learning, imitating the divine purpose, does good, according to his power, to such men as are willing; and should he ever be established in a position of rule, like Moses, he will lead for the salvation of those under his rule, and will tame what is savage and unpersuadable, by honoring the best and punishing the wicked, inscribing them into education according to reason. For above all the soul of the righteous man is a divine image and closely resembling God, in which, through obedience to the commandments, there is consecrated and enshrined the leader of all things, both mortal and immortal — king and begetter of all that is beautiful, being in truth law and ordinance and eternal reason, one savior both privately to each and in common to all. This is he who is truly the only-begotten, the very stamp of the glory of the Father who is king over all and ruler over all, who seals upon the gnostic the perfect contemplation after his own image, so that the divine image is now a third thing, rendered like, so far as ability permits, the second cause, to the genuine life whereby our true living comes — as if copying out the gnostic to become for us a type, turning about among things stable and utterly unchangeable.
Ruler, then, of himself and of what is his own, having acquired a firm grasp of divine knowledge, he approaches truth as one legitimately born to it. For the knowledge and firm grasp of intelligible things would rightly be called science — one part of which has as its task, concerning divine things, to consider what the first cause is, and what that is "through whom all things came to be, and without whom nothing has come to be"; and again which things pervade others, and which contain them, and which are conjoined and which disjoined, and what order and what power and what function each of these brings to bear. And again, in human affairs, what man himself is, and what belongs to him according to nature or against nature, and how it is fitting for him to act or to be affected, and what his virtues are and what his vices, concerning goods and evils and things in between, and all that concerns courage and prudence and temperance and that all-embracing virtue over all, justice. By prudence and justice he has made use for the acquisition of wisdom, but by courage not only in enduring circumstances, but also in mastering pleasure and desire, and again grief and anger, and in general in setting himself against everything that would lead our soul astray either by force or by some deceit. For one ought not to endure vices and evils, but to thrust them away, while enduring things fearful. Pain, then, is found useful, in medicine and in education and in punishment, and through it characters are corrected to the benefit of men.
The kinds of courage are: endurance, greatness of mind, magnanimity, liberality, and magnificence — for which reason the gnostic incurs neither blame nor ill repute from the many, nor is he subject to opinions or flatteries; and in enduring toils, while at the same time accomplishing something of what is fitting and courageously rising above all circumstances, he shows himself truly a man among other men; and further, preserving prudence, he is temperate in the tranquility of his soul, receptive of the promised goods as his own, and averse to base things as alien to him, having become orderly and beyond the order of this world, doing all things in order and arrangement and offending in nothing anywhere, being rich in the highest degree in this, that he desires nothing, since he needs little and abounds in every good through his knowledge of the Good. For the first work of his righteousness is to spend his life in love with those of his own kind and to be with them both on earth and in heaven.
In this way, being one who shares what he has acquired, he is also a lover of mankind, being most hostile to wickedness, through his perfect aversion to every evildoing. One must learn, then, to be faithful both to himself and to his neighbors, and obedient to the commandments. For this man is "the servant of God," who submits willingly to the commandments; but he who no longer acts for the sake of the commandments, but for the sake of knowledge itself, being "pure in heart," is "a friend of God." For we are not born possessing virtue by nature, nor does it come to us afterward by nature once we are born, as certain other parts of the body naturally develop later (since then it would no longer be voluntary or praiseworthy); nor indeed is virtue perfected out of the incidents and habituation that come afterward, in the manner that speech is (for it is nearly in this manner that vice arises); nor again does knowledge come about from any craft, whether of the money-making sort or of those that tend the body; nor even from ordinary education — one should be content if this can merely prepare the soul and be of service. For civic laws are perhaps able to restrain wicked deeds,
but neither they themselves nor persuasive arguments, being superficial, could furnish a scientific and abiding possession of the truth. Greek philosophy, however, in a sense purifies beforehand and habituates the soul to the reception of faith, upon which truth builds up knowledge.
This is he, this is the athlete, truly the one in the great stadium, the beautiful world, crowned with a genuine triumph over every one of the passions. For the president of the games is God the ruler over all, and the umpire is the only-begotten Son of God, and the spectators are angels and gods; and the all-conquering contest of every kind is "not against blood and flesh," but against the "spiritual powers" of passionate passions that operate through the flesh — over these great struggles he prevails, and having contended, as it were, in certain contests set before him by the tempter, he has gained mastery of immortality; for the verdict of God is not to be gainsaid, unto the most righteous judgment. Now the theater is called to the contest, but the athletes engage in the all-out combat in the stadium; and indeed it is out of these that he prevails who has become obedient to his trainer. For all things are laid out equally for all by God, and he himself is blameless, while the one who is able and willing chooses, and shall have strength; for this reason too we have received mind, that we might know what we are doing, and here too the "know thyself," that we might know for what we have come into being. And we have come into being for the purpose of being obedient to the commandments, if we should choose the will to be saved. This, I suppose, is Adrasteia, according to which it is not possible to flee from God.
The task proper to man, then, is ready obedience to God who has proclaimed manifold salvation through the commandments, and well-pleasing is agreement with him. For the benefactor takes the initiative in doing good, while he who receives it eagerly with due reasoning and keeps the commandments is faithful; and he who further, to the extent of his power, repays the benefaction through love, is now a friend. And there is one recompense most proper of all from men — to do those things that are pleasing to God; and just as one would of his own offspring or of some kindred achievement, so the Teacher and Savior accepts the benefits and corrections of men as his own grace and honor — regarding likewise the harms done to those who have believed in him as his own ingratitude and dishonor (for what other dishonor could touch God?). For this reason there is no other recompense so fitting to render, worthy of the salvation received from the Lord's benefit. And just as those who mistreat property insult its masters, and as those who mistreat soldiers insult their commander, so it belongs to the Lord that the mistreatment of those consecrated to him is an act of disregard toward himself. For just as the sun does not merely light up the sky and the entire cosmos, shedding its rays over land and sea, but also casts a beam through windows and even a narrow gap into the rooms deepest within, so the Word, poured out everywhere, looks even upon the smallest of life's actions.
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