Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Consider for a little while, if you will, the divine beneficence from the beginning. The first man once played freely in paradise, since he was still a child of God; but when he fell prey to pleasure (the serpent is an allegory for pleasure, creeping upon its belly, an earthly wickedness turned toward matter), and was led astray by his desires, the child, playing the man in disobedience and disregarding his Father's word, brought shame upon God. How strong pleasure proved to be: the man who, through simplicity, had been free, was found bound by sins. The Lord willed once more to loose him from these bonds, and, having girded himself with flesh (a divine mystery, this), he overpowered the snake and put death, that tyrant, into bondage, and — strangest of all — showed that very man who had been led astray by pleasure, who had been bound to corruption, loosed, with hands outstretched. O mystical wonder: the Lord lay low, and man arose, and he who fell from paradise receives, as a greater prize than obedience, the heavens themselves. Therefore it seems to me that, now that the Word in person has descended to us out of the sky, we need no longer go seeking human instruction, busying ourselves with Athens and the rest of Greece, and Ionia besides. For if our teacher is he who has filled the universe with holy powers — with creation, salvation, beneficence, lawgiving, prophecy, teaching — then the teacher now instructs us in everything, and the whole world has already, through the Word, become Athens and Greece. For surely you did not believe the poetic myth that records Minos the Cretan as the intimate companion of Zeus, only to disbelieve that we have become disciples of God, having laid hold of the truly true wisdom, which the very summits of philosophy only hinted at, but which the disciples of Christ have both grasped and proclaimed. And indeed, so to speak, every… Christ is not divided: in him there is no barbarian, no Jew, no Greek, no male or female category at all; he is a new humanity, remolded by the Holy Spirit of God. Then again, other counsels and precepts are meager and concern only particular matters — whether one should marry, whether one should engage in public life, whether one should have children — but the one universal exhortation, clearly directed toward the whole of life, in every season, in every circumstance, straining toward the most sovereign end, namely life, is piety toward God; and by this alone is it necessary to live, that we may live forever. Philosophy, as the elders say, is a lifelong counsel, wooing an eternal love of wisdom; but "the commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes" — receive Christ, receive the power of sight, receive your light, "so that you may come to a full knowledge of God and of humankind alike." How sweet is the Word who has given us light, "more delightful than gold and than a costly gem, more to be longed for than honey and the dripping comb." For how could he not be desirable, who has made vivid the mind buried in darkness, and sharpened the "light-bearing eyes" of the soul? For just as, "were the sun not to exist, night would be all things because of the other stars," so too, if we had not come to know the Word and been illumined by him, we would be no better than birds being fattened, plumping up in the dark while being readied for slaughter. Let us make room for the light, that we may make room for God; let us make room for the light and become disciples of the Lord. This indeed he has promised to the Father: "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing your praise." Sing praise, and declare to me your Father, God; your declarations will save, the song will instruct me. How until now I wandered, seeking God; but since you guide me to the light, Lord, Lord, I find God through you, and I receive the Father from you; I become your fellow heir, since you were not ashamed of your brother.
Let us cast off, then, let us cast off forgetfulness of the truth; having driven away, like a mist from our sight, the ignorance and darkness that stand in our way, let us behold the God who truly is, first raising to him this hymn: "Hail, light!" Light from heaven has shone upon us who lay buried in darkness and shut up in the shadow of death, more radiant than the sun, more welcome than this present life. That light is everlasting life, and anything that shares in it, lives; but night is in awe of the light, and setting, yields, through fear, to the day of the Lord. All things have become unsleeping light, and the setting has turned into a rising. This is what the new creation has willed; for he who drives all things before him, the "sun of righteousness," travels equally around all humanity, imitating the Father, who "makes his sun rise upon all men," and sprinkles down the dew of truth. He has changed the setting into a rising and crucified death into life; and having snatched man from destruction, he has hung him aloft in the ether, transplanting corruption into incorruption and changing earth into heaven — he, the husbandman of God, "showing favorable signs, and rousing the people to good work, reminding them of" the true "life," and granting us the great and truly divine and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, "giving laws into their understanding and writing them upon their heart." What laws does he thus inscribe? "That all shall know God, from the least to the greatest, and I will be merciful," says God, "to them, and their sins I will remember no more." Let us take up these laws of life, let us heed God's exhortation, let us come to know him, that he may be merciful; let us render, though he needs it not, a thankful recompense, obedience, as a kind of rent to God for our dwelling here. "Gold for bronze, a hundred oxen's worth for nine" — for so little faith he grants you so much land to cultivate, water to drink and to sail upon besides, air to breathe, fire to serve you, a world to dwell in; and from here he has permitted you to send forth a colony to the heavens. These great and so numerous works of creation and gifts he has let out to you for so small a rent of faith. And yet, while those who have put their trust in sorcerers accept amulets and incantations as though they were truly saving, will you refuse to bind about yourselves the heavenly one himself, the saving Word, and, trusting the enchantment of God, refuse to be delivered from the passions, which are indeed diseases of the soul, and to be torn away from sin? For sin is eternal death. Are you utterly toothless and blind, like moles, living on nothing but what you eat in the dark, wasting away in corruption all the while? But there is, there is the truth that cries out: "Out of darkness light shall shine." So let the light shine within a person's hidden depths, in the heart, and let the rays of knowledge rise up, revealing and making radiant the man hidden within — the disciple of the light, the intimate and fellow heir of Christ — above all when the most precious and venerable name comes to the knowledge of the pious and good child of a good Father, who gives gentle commands and enjoins upon the child what brings salvation. He who obeys him gains the advantage in every respect: he follows God, he obeys the Father, he who had wandered has come to know him, he has loved God, he has loved his neighbor, he has fulfilled the commandment, he seeks the prize, he claims the promise.
It is God's constant purpose to save the human flock. To this end the good God sent forth the good shepherd; and the Word, laying bare the truth, showed men the height of salvation, so that people would either turn back and be rescued, or refuse and face condemnation. Such is the announcement of what is right: good news for those who listen, a courtroom for those who will not. But if the "great-clanging" trumpet, sounding, gathered soldiers together and announced war, will Christ, who has breathed out a note of peace reaching every corner of the world, not muster his own peaceable troops? He has indeed gathered together, O man, that bloodless army with blood and with the Word, and has entrusted to them the kingdom of heaven. The gospel is the trumpet of Christ; he has sounded it, and we have heard. Let us arm ourselves peaceably, "putting on the breastplate of righteousness" and taking up the shield of faith and donning the helmet of salvation, and let us hone "the Spirit's blade, that is, the utterance of God." So the apostle equips us for a bloodless fight; such is our unbreakable armory; wearing it, let us take our stand in formation against the evil one; let us quench the fiery darts of the evil one with the watery edges dipped by the Word, repaying his good deeds with thankful blessings and honoring God with the divine Word. "For while you are still speaking," he says, "he will say, Here I am."
O this holy and blessed power, through which God shares citizenship with men! It is therefore better and nobler to become at once an imitator and a worshipper of the noblest of beings; for no one can imitate God except through the ways by which he piously worships him, nor again can he worship and revere him except by imitating him. That truly heavenly and divine love comes to men in this way, whenever, somewhere within the soul itself, the true beauty, rekindled by the divine Word, is able to shine forth; and, greatest of all, together with the sincere wish for salvation there runs a corresponding readiness, choice and life, so to speak, yoked as one. For this reason, this exhortation to the truth alone is likened to the most faithful of friends, remaining beside us to our last breath, and serving as a good guide for the soul's complete and undivided spirit as it journeys onward to heaven. Why then do I exhort you? I am eager for your salvation. This is what Christ wills; in a single word, he grants you life. And who is this? Learn briefly: the Word of truth, the Word of incorruption, who regenerates man, bringing him up into truth, the goad of salvation, who drives out corruption, who banishes death, who has built a temple among men, that he might establish God among men. Purify the temple, and abandon pleasures and idleness, like an ephemeral flower, to the wind and the fire, but cultivate wisely the fruits of self-control, and raise yourself up as a firstfruit offering to God, so that you may be not merely a work of God, but also his grace; for it befits the intimate of Christ to be both, to appear worthy of the kingdom, and to have been deemed worthy of the kingdom.
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