Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now concerning the universe he has spoken truly and magnificently, as one who has taken in a divine teaching. Beginning, at any rate, from wonder at creation, he brings from his own store a proof of his capacity to receive knowledge. He becomes an eager disciple of the Lord. As soon as he hears of God and of providence he believes, on the strength of the very things he wondered at. Setting out from this point, then, he cooperates in every way toward learning, doing all those things through which he will be able to receive the knowledge he longs for (and longing is constituted by an admixture of the advance of faith together with seeking), this being what is worthy of so great and so momentous a contemplation. Thus the gnostic tastes what God wills; since it is not his hearing alone but his soul that he brings to bear upon the realities signified by what is said. Taking hold, then, of the very realities themselves, along with their essence, through the words, he fittingly leads his soul as well to what is needful, understanding "you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder" in the particular sense in which it is spoken to the gnostic, and not as it is understood among the rest.
He advances, then, being trained by scientific contemplation toward contending for the things spoken more universally and more magnificently, knowing well that, as the prophet says, it is the Lord "who teaches mankind knowledge," the Lord acting through a human mouth; for this reason he has also taken on flesh. Fittingly, then, he never chooses the pleasant before the expedient, nor, should a beautiful woman, caught in some circumstance and playing the harlot, try to force herself upon him, does he yield — since not even the wife of his master was able to lead Joseph astray from his resolve. He stripped off his tunic for her as she forcibly held onto it, becoming naked of sin while clothing himself in the decency of character. For even if the eyes of his master — I mean the Egyptian's — did not see Joseph, yet the eyes of the Almighty were watching over him. For we hear the voice and behold bodies, but God examines the very reality from which speaking and seeing proceed. Accordingly, even should illness come upon the gnostic, or some circumstance of distress, and above all the most fearful thing, death, his soul remains unshaken, aware that such events are simply a necessity of creation, yet even so, by the power of God, they become a "medicine of salvation," benefiting through discipline those being reshaped rather too harshly, being apportioned according to worth by truly good providence.
Making use, then, of created things, whenever reason permits, and to the extent it permits, in accordance with thanksgiving to the Creator, he becomes lord even of his enjoyment of them. He never bears a grudge, he is never harsh toward anyone, even should that one deserve hatred for what he does; for he reveres the Maker, and he loves his fellow traveler through life, pitying him and interceding for him because of his ignorance. Indeed he shares the suffering of the body, bound as it is by nature to suffering, but he does not suffer as the primary thing in accordance with the passion. In involuntary circumstances, then, drawing himself up from his pains toward what is properly his own, he is not carried away together with what is alien to him, but he accommodates himself to his necessities only to the extent that his soul is kept unharmed. For he does not wish to be faithful in mere supposition, nor even in seeming, but in knowledge and truth, which is to say, in firm deed and effectual word. Therefore he not only praises what is good but himself is impelled to be good, passing from being the "good and faithful servant" through love into being a "friend," because of the perfection of his disposition, which he has acquired purely through true learning and much joint training.
Since he is thus impelled to arrive at the summit of knowledge, adorned in character, composed in bearing, possessing all those advantages that belong to the gnostic in truth, looking to the beautiful images before him — the many patriarchs who succeeded before him, the very many prophets, the countless angels beyond number, and the Lord over all, who taught and demonstrated that it is possible to acquire that most excellent life — for this reason he does not love all the ready-at-hand good things of the world, so that he may not remain grounded, but rather to cling to what is hoped for — or rather already grasped, awaited only in respect of its complete fulfillment. In this way, then, he endures toils and torments and afflictions, not as the courageous do among the philosophers, in hope that present pains will cease and that he will again partake of pleasures, but knowledge has begotten in him a most firm conviction of the reception of the things to come. Wherefore he despises not only punishments here but also all pleasures. They say, at any rate, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his own wife led away to death, rejoiced because of her calling and her return home, and called out to her very encouragingly and consolingly, addressing her by name: "Remember, woman, the Lord."
Such, then, was the union of these blessed ones, and such their perfected attitude even toward those closest to them. For this reason too the apostle says, "let him who marries be as though he did not marry," holding that marriage should be free of passion and "undistracted" from love toward the Lord — a love that the true husband urged his wife to hold fast to as she journeyed forth from life to the Lord. Was not their faith in the hope after death manifest, in that they gave thanks to God even at the very peak of their torments? For firm, I think, was the faith they possessed, and faithful actions followed it accordingly. The gnostic's soul, then, is vigorous in every circumstance, like an athlete's body established in the height of good condition and strength. For he is well-counseled concerning human affairs, judging by what is just what must be done, deriving his first principles from above, from God, and having acquired, toward the assimilation to the divine, gentleness with regard to bodily pleasures and pains; he rises up above fears courageously and with confidence in God. The gnostic soul is, without artifice, an earthly image of divine power, adorned with perfect virtue, having grown together out of all these at once — nature, discipline, reason. This beauty belonging to the soul becomes a "shrine of the Holy Spirit" whenever, across the whole of life, it acquires a disposition in agreement with the gospel.
Such a one, then, rises up above every fear, every terror — not only of death but also of poverty and disease and disrepute and whatever is akin to these — becoming unconquered by pleasure and lord of irrational desires. For he knows well what is to be done and what not, having mastered the knowledge of what is truly fearful and what is not. Hence he undergoes, with understanding, what reason dictates is necessary and fitting for him, discerning with understanding what is truly to be faced with confidence — that is, the good things — from what merely appears so, and what is truly fearful from what merely seems so, such as death and disease and poverty, which belong to opinion rather than to truth. This is the man who is truly good, who is beyond the passions, who by the settled state or disposition of his virtuous soul has risen above the whole life of passion. For him "all things depend upon himself" toward the acquisition of the end. For the things called terrible by fortune are not fearful to the earnest man, since they are not evils, while the things that are truly terrible are alien to the Christian gnostic, running diametrically opposite to the good things, since they are evils, and it is impossible for opposites to meet in the same subject at the same time. Blamelessly, then, "playing his part in the drama of life," whatever role God grants him to contend in, he recognizes both what must be done and what must be endured.
Is it not the case, then, that if cowardice arises from ignorance of what is fearful and what is not, the gnostic alone is courageous — knowing the things that are good both now and in the future, and knowing along with these, as I said, also the things that are not truly fearful, since he knows that vice alone is hostile and destructive of those advancing toward knowledge, and, fortified with the weapons of the Lord, he wages war against it? For if something arises through folly and through the working — or rather cooperation — of the devil, this is not therefore immediately identical with the devil or with folly (since no working is prudence, for prudence is a settled state, and no settled state is a working); nor, then, is an action arising through ignorance itself already ignorance, but rather vice arising through ignorance, not ignorance itself; for neither are the passions, nor are sins, vices, even though they proceed from vice. No one, then, is a gnostic who is courageous without reason; since one might as well call children courageous for facing frightful things in ignorance of what is dangerous (at any rate they even touch fire), and call wild beasts that charge straight at spears courageous, virtuous, though they are irrational. Perhaps in this way people will also call jugglers courageous who tumble onto knives out of some practiced skill, plying a wretched trade for a paltry wage. But the man who is truly courageous, having the danger plainly before him because of the zeal of the many against him, cheerfully accepts whatever comes upon him. In this he is distinguished from those others called martyrs, in that some, offering pretexts to themselves, hurl themselves recklessly into danger in a manner I cannot quite endorse (though it is proper to speak with reverence), while others, guarding themselves according to right reason, then, when God truly calls, give themselves up eagerly, and by having nothing rash on their conscience "confirm their calling" and show that their courage is to be judged by true, rational courage.
Neither, then, out of fear of greater terrors do they endure lesser ones, as the rest do, nor again, dreading the censure of their equals and those of like mind, do they abide in the confession of their calling; rather, through love toward God they willingly submit to the calling, choosing no other aim than pleasing God, and not because of the prizes of their toils. For some endure out of love of glory, others out of caution against some other sharper punishment, others because of certain pleasures and joys after death — these remain children in the faith. They are blessed indeed, yet not yet grown men in love toward God, as the gnostic has become — for just as in athletic games, so also within the assembly, there exist prizes suited to grown men and prizes suited to little ones; but love itself is desirable for its own sake and nothing besides. So then, for the gnostic, together with knowledge, the perfection of courage grows through the joint training of life, as he continually practices mastery over the passions.
Love, then, anointing and training its own athlete, renders him fearless and undaunted and confident in the Lord, just as righteousness secures for him truthfulness throughout his whole life. For it was the sum of righteousness to say, "let your yes be yes and your no, no." The same account applies also to self-mastery. For it is neither through love of honor (as athletes compete for the sake of crowns and renown) nor through love of money (as some pretend to be self-controlled, pursuing the good out of a fearful passion), nor indeed out of bodily attachment aimed merely at wellness, nor even out of plain crudeness that anyone is truly self-controlled, continent and untasting of pleasures (for indeed, once they have tasted pleasures, those who wear away a life of labor immediately break the rigidity of their self-restraint before pleasures). Such also are those restrained by law and by fear, for once they seize an opportunity they steal past the law by stealth, running away from the good. But self-mastery choiceworthy for its own sake, being perfected according to knowledge and ever abiding, makes a man ruler and owner of his own self, so that the gnostic becomes continent and untouched by passion, unmelted by pleasures and pains, just as they say adamant is unmelted by fire.
The cause of these things, then, is the most holy and most sovereign love of all knowledge; for through devotion to the Best and Most Excellent — which is indeed characterized by the One — it makes the gnostic simultaneously a son and a friend, grown into a genuinely "complete man, matching the full measure of stature" belonging to maturity. But concord too is agreement concerning the same reality, and the same is one; and friendship is accomplished through likeness, its commonality resting in the One. The gnostic, then, being a lover of the truly One God, is a truly perfect man and friend of God, having been inscribed among those holding the standing of a son. For these titles denote nobility, and knowledge, and completeness, according to the contemplation of God, which the gnostic soul receives as its most consummate advance, having become perfectly pure, counted worthy everlastingly to behold the Almighty God "face," as scripture puts it, "to face." Since it has turned wholly spiritual, and has passed onward to what is akin to itself, it abides within the spiritual assembly, in the rest belonging to God.
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