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Elucidations.
I.
(On the Greeks, cap. i. note 3, p. 347.)
The admirable comments of Stier on the
Greeks, who said to Philip, “We would see Jesus,”2436
seem to me vindicated by the history of
the Gospel, and by the part which the Greeks were called to take in its
propagation. Clement seems to me the man of Providence, who gives rich
significance to “the corn of wheat,” and its multiplication
in Gentile discipleship. And in this I am a convert to Stier’s
view, against my preconceptions. That the Greeks who were at Jerusalem
at the Passover were other than Hellenistic Jews, or Greek proselytes,
always seemed to me improbable; but, more and more, I discover a design
in this narrative, which seems to me thoroughly sustained by the history
of the Gentile churches, which were Greek everywhere originally, and for
the use of which the Septuagint had been prepared in the providence of
God. To say nothing of the New-Testament Scriptures, the whole symbolic
and liturgic system of the early Christians and all the Catholic councils
which were Greek in their topography, language, and legislation, confirm
the sublime thought which Stier has elucidated. “The Pharisees said,
The world is gone after him; and there were certain Greeks,”
etc. So the story is introduced. Jesus is told of their desire to see
him; and he answers, “The hour is come that the Son of man should
be glorified;” and he goes on to speak of his death as giving life
to the world. I feel grateful to Stier for his bold originality in
treating the subject; and I trust
others will find that it invests the study of the ante-Nicene Fathers
with a fresh interest, and throws back from their writings a peculiar
reflex light on the New-Testament Scriptures themselves.
II.
(See p. 352, note 9.)
Μόνος
ὁ σοφὸς
ἐλέυφερος.
Stier, in his comments2437
| 2437
“Words of Jesus.” Translation (vol. v. p. 354, ed. Edinburgh,
1856). | on St. John (viii. 32–36), may well be compared
with this chapter of Clement’s. The eighteenth chapter of this
book must also be kept in view if we would do full justice to the
true position of Clement, who recognises nothing in heathen philosophy
as true wisdom, save as it flows from God, in Moses, and through the
Hebrew Church. That Greek philosophy, so viewed, did lead to Christ,
and that this great principle is recognised in the apostolic teachings,
seems to me indisputable. This illustrates what has been noted above in
Elucidation I.
III.
(See p. 359.)
Clement notes that
the false Gnostics rejected the Epistles to Timothy,2438
| 2438 Stromata, book
ii. cap. xi. p. 358, supra. | chiefly because of 1
Tim. vi. 20. Beausobre (Histoire
du Manichéisme, tom. ii. p. v.) doubts as to Basilides,
whether he is open to this charge; but Jerome accuses him expressly of
rejecting the pastoral epistles, and that to the Hebrews. For this,
and Neander’s qualifying comment, see Kaye, p. 263. Clement is
far from charging Basilides, personally, with an immoral life, or from
lending his sanction to impurity; but a study of the Gnostic sects,
with whom our Alexandrian doctor was forced to contend, will show
that they were introducing, under the pretence of Christianity, such
abominations as made their defeat and absolute overthrow a matter of
life and death for the Church. To let such teachers be confounded
with Christians, was to neutralize the very purpose for which the Church
existed. Now, it was in the deadly grapple with such loathsome errorists,
that the idea of “Catholic orthodoxy” became so precious
to the primitive faithful. They were forced to make even the heathen
comprehend the existence of that word-wide confederation of churches
already explained,2439
| 2439
Quotation from Milman, p. 166, this volume. | and to exhibit
their Scriptural creed and purity of discipline, in the strongest contrast
with these pestilent “armies of the aliens,” who were neither
Gnostics nor Christians indeed, much less Catholic or Orthodox teachers
and believers.
Now, if in dealing with counterfeits Clement was obliged
to meet them on their own grounds, and defeat them on a plan, at once
intelligible to the heathen, and enabling all believers to “fight
the good fight of faith” successfully, we must concede that he
knew better than we can, what was suited to the Alexandrian schools,
their intellect, and their false mysticism. His works were a great
safeguard to those who came after him; though they led to the false
system of exposition by which Origen so greatly impaired his services
to the Church, and perhaps to other evils, which, in the issue, shook
the great patriarchate of Alexandria to its foundations. It is curious
to trace the influence of Clement, through Tertullian and St.
Augustine, upon the systems of the schoolmen, and again, through them,
on the Teutonic reformers. The mysticism of Fénelon as well, may be
traced, more than is generally credited, to the old Alexandrian school,
which was itself the product of some of the most subtle elements of our
nature, sanctified, but not wholly controlled, by the wisdom that is
from above. Compare the interminable controversies of the period, in
the writings of Fénelon and Bossuet; and, for a succinct history, see
L’Histoire de
l’église de
France, par l’Abbe
Guettée, tom. xi. p. 156 et seqq. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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