Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
"Do not be lifted up over your own wisdom," says Proverbs, "but in all your ways acknowledge her, that she may make your paths straight, and your foot not stumble." By these words it wishes to show that works must follow upon reason, and further to make plain that we ought to have and to pick out whatever is useful from every kind of instruction. The ways of wisdom are various, cutting straight toward the way of truth, and that way is faith; "let your foot not stumble" refers to certain things which seem to run counter to the one, divine, providential government of the world. Hence it goes on: "Do not be wise in your own eyes," that is, according to the godless reckonings that set themselves against God's economy, "but fear the only powerful God," from which it follows that nothing is opposed to God. And besides, what comes next makes plain in unmistakable terms that reverence toward God is a turning away from evil. For it says, "and turn away from all evil." Here we have wisdom's training-school; since it is written that the one loved by the Lord is corrected by him, made to feel pain on the way to understanding, yet restored afterward to peace and to incorruption.
The barbarian philosophy, then, which we follow, is in truth perfect and true. At any rate it says in Wisdom: "For he himself has given me unerring knowledge of the things that are, to know the constitution of the world," and so on, down to "and the powers of roots." In all this it has taken in the natural contemplation that concerns the sensible world of all things that have come to be. Next it hints also at things intelligible, in what follows: "and whatever things are hidden and manifest I have known; for wisdom, the artificer of all things, taught me." There you have, in brief, the profession of our own philosophy. The learning of these things, practiced together with right conduct of life, leads up, through the wisdom that is artificer of all, to the ruler of the universe — a thing hard to catch and hard to hunt down, forever withdrawing and standing far off from the pursuer. Yet this same one, though far off, has come nearest of all, an unspeakable wonder: "I am a God who draws near," says the Lord — far off in essence (for how could that which is begotten ever draw near to the unbegotten?), yet nearest of all in power, by which all things are enfolded in his bosom. "If someone does a thing in secret," it says, "shall I not see him?" And indeed the power of God is ever present, touching us with a power that watches over us, that does us good, and that instructs us.
Hence Moses, persuaded that God could never be known by human wisdom, says, "Show yourself to me," and forces his way even into the thick darkness where the voice of God was, that is, into the unapproachable and formless conceptions concerning the One who is. For God dwells neither in gloom nor within any location, but stands above place alike and time and the particular nature belonging to created things. Therefore he is never confined to any part, neither containing nor contained, whether by some boundary or by division. "For what house will you build for me?" says the Lord; nor indeed did he build one for himself, being beyond all containing, even though heaven is called his throne — not even so is he contained, but he rests there, delighting in his own creative work. It is plain to us, then, that the truth lies hidden, as has already been shown from one example, and a little later we shall establish it through several more.
How, then, are they not worthy of welcome, both those who wish to learn and those who are able, in Solomon's words, "to know wisdom and instruction, and to understand words of prudence, and to receive the turns of speech, and to understand true righteousness" (as though there were also another righteousness, not taught according to truth, put forward by the Greek laws and by the other philosophers), and "to set judgments straight" — meaning not judgments in the law courts, but that we must keep the tribunal within us sound and unerring — "that he may give shrewdness to the innocent, and to the young child perception and understanding." For the one who is wise, having heard these things — the one persuaded to obey the commandments — will become wiser still in knowledge, and the one who possesses understanding will gain the pilot's skill, grasping a proverb along with its veiled meaning, the utterances of sages and their enigmas. For those inspired by God do not put forth counterfeit words, nor do those who traffic in them, nor indeed do they set snares such as the many sophists weave around the young while occupying themselves with nothing true; rather, those who have acquired the Holy Spirit search the depths of God, that is, they become partakers of the hidden meaning concerning the prophecies. But it is forbidden to give of holy things to the dogs, so long as they remain beasts; for it is never fitting to mix the divine and pure stream, the living water, with envious and disturbed and still-faithless characters, shameless in barking at inquiry.
"Let not your waters overflow beyond your own fountain, but let your waters pass through your own streets." For, as the noble Heraclitus says, "the many do not understand such things as they meet with, nor do they know them even after learning, though they think they do." Does it not seem to you that he too is reproaching those who do not believe? "But my righteous one shall live by faith," says the prophet. And another prophet says likewise, "unless you believe, you will not understand." For how could a soul ever make room for the surpassing contemplation of these things while unbelief still fights within it against learning? Faith — which the Greeks slander, thinking it empty and barbarous — is a voluntary anticipation, an assent of piety, "the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen," as the divine apostle says; for it was chiefly through this that the ancients had witness borne to them; and "apart from faith, pleasing God cannot be done."
Others have defined faith as an assent of the mind to a thing not apparent, just as demonstration, of course, is an evident assent to a thing not known. If, then, it amounts to a deliberate choice, a kind of stretching-out toward something — a stretching-out, in this case, of the mind — then, given that such deliberate choice starts off every action, faith turns out to be the starting-point of action, the ground on which intelligent choice rests, since through faith the proof has already been supplied beforehand to the mind that does the choosing. And to follow willingly what is beneficial is the beginning of understanding. Indeed, an undistracted choice contributes greatly toward knowledge. Straightway the practice of faith becomes knowledge, resting firm upon a sure foundation. The children of the philosophers, at any rate, define knowledge as a settled state that reason cannot dislodge. Is there, then, some other such true condition belonging to piety itself, of which reason alone is the teacher? I for one do not think so. Theophrastus says that sense-perception is the beginning of faith; for from this the first principles are extended toward the reason and understanding within us. The one, then, who has believed the divine scriptures, holding a firm judgment, receives an irrefutable proof in the very voice of the God who gave the scriptures. Faith, therefore, is no longer something merely fortified by demonstration. "Blessed, then, are those who have not seen and yet have believed." So too the enchantments of the Sirens, displaying a more-than-human power, struck with amazement those who happened upon them, all but readying them, against their will, to accept what was being said.
← All of Clement of Alexandria: Exhortation, Instructor & Miscellanies