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| Chapter I.—Preface—The Author’s Object—The Utility of Written Compositions.
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Chapter I.—Preface—The Author’s Object—The Utility of Written Compositions.1797
| 1797 [It is impossible to illustrate the Stromata by needed notes, on the plan of this publication. It would double the size of the work, and require time and such scholorship as belongs to experts. Important matters are briefly discussed at the end of each book. Elucidation I.] |
[Wants the beginning] . . .
. . . . . . .
that you may read them under your hand, and may be able to preserve
them. Whether written compositions are not to be left behind at all; or
if they are, by whom? And if the former, what need there is for written
compositions? and if the latter, is the composition of them to be
assigned to earnest men, or the opposite? It were certainly ridiculous
for one to disapprove of the writing of earnest men, and approve of
those, who are not such, engaging in the work of composition.
Theopompus and Timæus, who composed fables and slanders, and Epicurus
the leader of atheism, and Hipponax and Archilochus, are to be allowed
to write in their own shameful manner. But he who proclaims the truth
is to be prevented from leaving behind him what is to benefit
posterity. It is a good thing, I reckon, to leave to posterity good
children. This is the case with children of our bodies. But words are
the progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who have instructed us,
fathers. Wisdom is a communicative and philanthropic thing.
Accordingly, Solomon says, “My son, if thou receive the saying of
my commandment, and hide it with thee, thine ear shall hear
wisdom.”1798
He points out that the
word that is sown is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the
earth, and this is spiritual planting. Wherefore also he adds,
“And thou shalt apply thine heart to understanding, and apply it
for the admonition of thy son.” For soul, methinks, joined with
soul, and spirit with spirit, in the sowing of the word, will make that
which is sown grow and germinate. And every one who is instructed, is
in respect of subjection the son of his instructor. “Son,”
says he, “forget not my laws.”1799
And if knowledge belong not to all (set an ass
to the lyre, as the proverb goes), yet written compositions are for
the many. “Swine, for instance, delight in dirt more than in
clean water.” “Wherefore,” says the Lord, “I
speak to them in parables: because seeing, they see not; and hearing,
they hear not, and do not understand;”1800
not as if the Lord caused the
ignorance: for it were impious to think so. But He prophetically exposed
this ignorance, that existed in them, and intimated that they would not
understand the things spoken. And now the Saviour shows Himself, out of
His abundance, dispensing goods to His servants according to the ability
of the recipient, that they may augment them by exercising activity,
and then returning to reckon with them; when, approving of those that
had increased His money, those faithful in little, and commanding them
to have the charge over many things, He bade them enter into the joy
of the Lord. But to him who had hid the money, entrusted to him to be
given out at interest, and had given it back as he had received it,
without increase, He said, “Thou wicked and slothful servant,
thou oughtest to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming
I should have received mine own.” Wherefore the useless servant
“shall be cast into outer darkness.”1801
“Thou, therefore, be strong,” says Paul, “in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard of me among
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able
to teach others also.”1802
And again: “Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.”
If, then, both proclaim the Word—the one
by writing, the other by
speech—are not both then to be approved, making, as they do,
faith active by love? It is by one’s own fault that he does not
choose what is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand,
it is the business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of
others to test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is
determined within themselves. But there is that species of knowledge
which is characteristic of the herald, and that which is, as it were,
characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable in whatever way it
operates, both by the hand and tongue. “For he that soweth to the
Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing.”1803
On him who by Divine Providence meets in with
it, it confers the very highest advantages,—the beginning of faith,
readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards the
truth, a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it gives
the means of salvation. And those who have been rightly reared in the
words of truth, and received provision for eternal life, wing their
way to heaven. Most admirably, therefore, the apostle says, “In
everything approving ourselves as the servants of God; as poor, and yet
making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. Our mouth
is opened to you.”1804
| 1804
2 Cor. vi. 4, 10, 11. | “I charge thee,” he says,
writing to Timothy, “before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect
angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring one before
another, doing nothing by partiality.”1805
Both must therefore test themselves: the one, if he is
qualified to speak and leave behind him written records; the other, if he
is in a right state to hear and read: as also some in the dispensation of
the Eucharist, according to1806
| 1806
[To be noted as apparently allowed, yet exceptionally so.] |
custom enjoin that each one of the people individually should take
his part. One’s own conscience is best for choosing accurately
or shunning. And its firm foundation is a right life, with suitable
instruction. But the imitation of those who have already been proved,
and who have led correct lives, is most excellent for the understanding
and practice of the commandments. “So that whosoever shall eat the
bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him
eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”1807
It therefore follows, that
every one of those who undertake to promote the good of their neighbours,
ought to consider whether he has betaken himself to teaching rashly
and out of rivalry to any; if his communication of the word is out of
vainglory; if the the only reward he reaps is the salvation of those
who hear, and if he speaks not in order to win favour: if so, he who
speaks by writings escapes the reproach of mercenary motives. “For
neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know,” says the
apostle, “nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men
sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have
been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you,
even as a nurse cherisheth her children.”1808
In the same way, therefore, those who take part in
the divine words, ought to guard against betaking themselves to this, as
they would to the building of cities, to examine them out of curiosity;
that they do not come to the task for the sake of receiving worldly
things, having ascertained that they who are consecrated to Christ are
given to communicate the necessaries of life. But let such be dismissed
as hypocrites. But if any one wishes not to seem, but to be righteous,
to him it belongs to know the things which are best. If, then, “the
harvest is plenteous, but the labourers few,” it is incumbent on us
“to pray” that there may be as great abundance of labourers
as possible.1809
But the husbandry is twofold,—the one
unwritten, and the other written. And in whatever way the Lord’s
labourer sow the good wheat, and grow and reap the ears, he shall
appear a truly divine husbandman. “Labour,” says the Lord,
“not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to
everlasting life.”1810
And nutriment is received both by bread and
by words. And truly “blessed are the peace-makers,”1811
who
instructing those who are at war in their life and errors here, lead
them back to the peace which is in the Word, and nourish for the life
which is according to God, by the distribution of the bread, those
“that hunger after righteousness.” For each soul has its
own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and others
feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is
not eatable. “And he that planteth and he that watereth,”
“being ministers” of Him “that gives the increase, are
one” in the ministry. “But every one shall receive his own
reward, according to his own work. For we are God’s husbandmen,
God’s husbandry. Ye are God’s building,”1812
according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers are not permitted to
apply the test of comparison. Nor is the word, given for investigation,
to be committed to those who have been reared in the arts of all kinds
of words, and in the power of inflated attempts at proof; whose
minds are already pre-occupied,
and have not been previously emptied. But whoever chooses to banquet
on faith, is stedfast for the reception of the divine words, having
acquired already faith as a power of judging, according to reason. Hence
ensues to him persuasion in abundance. And this was the meaning of
that saying of prophecy, “If ye believe not, neither shall
ye understand.”1813
“As, then, we have opportunity, let us
do good to all, especially to the household of faith.”1814
And let each of these, according to the blessed David, sing,
giving thanks. “Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I
shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the
snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which
have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins. Blot out
mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit in my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not
Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and
establish me with Thy princely spirit.”1815
He who addresses those who are present before him,
both tests them by time, and judges by his judgment, and from the others
distinguishes him who can hear; watching the words, the manners, the
habits, the life, the motions, the attitudes, the look, the voice; the
road, the rock, the beaten path, the fruitful land, the wooded region,
the fertile and fair and cultivated spot, that is able to multiply the
seed. But he that speaks through books, consecrates himself before God,
crying in writing thus: Not for gain, not for vainglory, not to be
vanquished by partiality, nor enslaved by fear nor elated by pleasure;
but only to reap the salvation of those who read, which he does, not
at present participate in, but awaiting in expectation the recompense
which will certainly be rendered by Him, who has promised to bestow
on the labourers the reward that is meet. But he who is enrolled in
the number of men1816
ought not to desire recompense. For he that
vaunts his good services, receives glory as his reward. And he who does
any duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the custom
of the world, either as one who has done well, hastening to receive a
reward, or as an evil-doer avoiding retribution? We must, as far as we
can, imitate the Lord. And he will do so, who complies with the will of
God, receiving freely, giving freely, and receiving as a worthy reward
the citizenship itself. “The hire of an harlot shall not come
into the sanctuary,” it is said: accordingly it was forbidden to
bring to the altar the price of a dog. And in whomsoever the eye of the
soul has been blinded by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to
the true light, to the truth, which shows by writing the things that
are unwritten. “Ye that thirst, go to the waters,”1817
says
Esaias. And “drink water from thine own vessels,”1818
Solomon
exhorts. Accordingly in “The Laws,” the philosopher who
learned from the Hebrews, Plato, commands husbandmen not to irrigate
or take water from others, until they have first dug down in their
own ground to what is called the virgin soil, and found it dry. For it
is right to supply want, but it is not well to support laziness. For
Pythagoras said that, “although it be agreeable to reason to take
a share of a burden, it is not a duty to take it away.”
Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of
the soul, and directs the eye suitably for contemplation; perchance
inserting something, as the husbandman when he ingrafts, but,
according to the opinion of the divine apostle, exciting what is
in the soul. “For there are certainly among us many weak and
sickly, and many sleep. But if we judge ourselves, we shall not be
judged.”1819
Now
this work of mine in writing is not artfully constructed for display;
but my memoranda are stored up against old age, as a remedy against
forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated
discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly
remarkable men.
Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic;1820
| 1820 The first probably Tatian, the
second Theodotus. | the other in Magna Græcia: the first
of these from Cœle-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others in the
East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew
in Palestine.
When I came upon the last1821
(he was the first in
power), having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He,
the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the
prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers
a deathless element of knowledge.
Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed
doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John,
and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the
fathers), came by God’s will to us also to deposit those ancestral
and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean
delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation
of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this,
will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape
the blessed tradition.1822
“In a man who loves wisdom the
father will be glad.”1823
Wells, when pumped out, yield purer water;
and that of which no one partakes, turns to putrefaction. Use keeps
steel brighter, but disuse produces rust in it. For, in a word, exercise
produces a healthy condition both in souls and bodies. “No one
lighteth a candle, and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick,
that it may give light to those who are regarded worthy of the
feast.”1824
For what is the use of wisdom, if it makes
not him who can hear it wise? For still the Saviour saves, “and
always works, as He sees the Father.”1825
For by teaching, one learns
more; and in speaking, one is often a hearer along with his audience. For
the teacher of him who speaks and of him who hears is one—who waters
both the mind and the word. Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good
while keeping the Sabbath;1826
| 1826
[This reference to the Jewish Sabbath to be noted in connection with
what Clement says elsewhere.] | but allowed us to communicate
of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are
able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what
did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they
belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according
to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing,
as is the case with God.1827
And if one say that it is written, “There is
nothing secret which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not
be disclosed,”1828
let him also hear from us, that to him who
hears secretly, even what is secret shall be manifested. This is what was
predicted by this oracle. And to him who is able secretly to observe what
is delivered to him, that which is veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and
what is hidden to the many, shall appear manifest to the few. For why do
not all know the truth? why is not righteousness loved, if righteousness
belongs to all? But the mysteries are delivered mystically, that what
is spoken may be in the mouth of the speaker; rather not in his voice,
but in his understanding. “God gave to the Church, some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ.”1829
The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well
know, is weak when compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I
was privileged to hear.1830
| 1830 [An
affectionate reference to Pantænus and his other masters.] |
But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was struck
with the thyrsus. For “speak,” it is said, “to a
wise man, and he will grow wiser; and to him that hath, and there
shall be added to him.” And we profess not to explain secret
things sufficiently—far from it—but only to recall them to
memory, whether we have forgot aught, or whether for the purpose of not
forgetting. Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length
of time, that have dropped away unwritten. Whence, to aid the weakness
of my memory, and provide for myself a salutary help to my recollection
in a systematic arrangement of chapters, I necessarily make use of this
form. There are then some things of which we have no recollection; for the
power that was in the blessed men was great.1831
| 1831 [An affectionate reference to Pantænus and his
other masters.] | There are also some things which remained
unnoted long, which have now escaped; and others which are effaced,
having faded away in the mind itself, since such a task is not easy
to those not experienced; these I revive in my commentaries. Some
things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise selection, afraid
to write what I guarded against speaking: not grudging—for that
were wrong—but fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble
by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be
found “reaching a sword to a child.” For it is impossible that
what has been written should not escape, although remaining unpublished by
me. But being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of writing,
they answer nothing to him that makes inquiries beyond what is written;
for they require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who
wrote, or of some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things
my treatise will hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely
mention. It will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and
to demonstrate silently. The dogmas taught by remarkable sects will be
adduced; and to these will be opposed all that ought to be premised in
accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge, which,
as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition, from
the creation of the world,1832
will advance to our view; setting before
us what according to natural contemplation necessarily has to be
treated of beforehand, and clearing off what stands in the way of this
arrangement. So that we may have our ears ready for the reception of the
tradition of true knowledge; the soil being previously cleared of the
thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in order to the planting
of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude to the contest;
and there are some mysteries before other mysteries.
Our book will not shrink from making use of what is
best in philosophy and other preparatory
instruction. “For not only
for the Hebrews and those that are under the law,” according
to the apostle, “is it right to become a Jew, but also a
Greek for the sake of the Greeks, that we may gain all.”1833
Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes, “Admonishing every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man
perfect in Christ.”1834
The nicety of speculation, too, suits the sketch
presented in my commentaries. In this respect the resources of learning
are like a relish mixed with the food of an athlete, who is not indulging
in luxury, but entertains a noble desire for distinction.
By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension
of gravity. And as those who wish to address the people, do so often
by the herald, that what is said may be better heard; so also in this
case. For we have the word, that was spoken to many, before the common
tradition. Wherefore we must set forth the opinions and utterances
which cried individually to them, by which those who hear shall more
readily turn.
And, in truth, to speak briefly: Among many small
pearls there is the one; and in a great take of fish there is the
beauty-fish; and by time and toil truth will gleam forth, if a good helper
is at hand. For most benefits are supplied, from God, through men. All
of us who make use of our eyes see what is presented before them. But
some look at objects for one reason, others for another. For instance,
the cook and the shepherd do not survey the sheep similarly: for the
one examines it if it be fat; the other watches to see if it be of good
breed. Let a man milk the sheep’s milk if he need sustenance:
let him shear the wool if he need clothing. And in this way let me
produce the fruit of the Greek erudition.1835
| 1835 [Every reference of our author to
his use of Greek learning and (eclectic) philosophy, is important in
questions about his orthodoxy.] |
For I do not imagine that any composition can be
so fortunate as that no one will speak against it. But that is to be
regarded as in accordance with reason, which nobody speaks against,
with reason. And that course of action and choice is to be approved,
not which is faultless, but which no one rationally finds fault with.
For it does not follow, that if a man accomplishes anything not purposely,
he does it through force of circumstances. But he will do it, managing it
by wisdom divinely given, and in accommodation to circumstances. For it
is not he who has virtue that needs the way to virtue, any more than he,
that is strong, needs recovery. For, like farmers who irrigate the land
beforehand, so we also water with the liquid stream of Greek learning
what in it is earthy; so that it may receive the spiritual seed cast into
it, and may be capable of easily nourishing it. The Stromata will
contain the truth mixed up in the dogmas of philosophy, or rather covered
over and hidden, as the edible part of the nut in the shell. For, in my
opinion, it is fitting that the seeds of truth be kept for the husbandmen
of faith, and no others. I am not oblivious of what is babbled by some,
who in their ignorance are frightened at every noise, and say that we
ought to occupy ourselves with what is most necessary, and which contains
the faith; and that we should pass over what is beyond and superfluous,
which wears out and detains us to no purpose, in things which conduce
nothing to the great end. Others think that philosophy was introduced into
life by an evil influence, for the ruin of men, by an evil inventor. But I
shall show, throughout the whole of these Stromata, that evil has
an evil nature, and can never turn out the producer of aught that is good;
indicating that philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine Providence.1836
| 1836 [Every reference of our author
to his use of Greek learning and (eclectic) philosophy, is important in
questions about his orthodoxy.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
