Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The voluntary is either according to desire, or according to choice, or according to deliberate thought. Now these three things stand somewhat side by side with one another: fault, misfortune, wrongdoing. And a fault, for example, is living luxuriously and licentiously; a misfortune is striking a friend as an enemy through ignorance; a wrongdoing is grave-robbing or temple-robbery. To sin arises from not knowing how to judge what one ought to do, or from being unable to do it, just as, of course, someone also falls into a pit either from ignorance or from being unable to step over it through bodily weakness. But it is in our own power both to submit to our training and to obey the commandments.
If we should be unwilling to share in these, giving ourselves over as slaves to anger and desire, we shall sin, or rather we shall do wrong to our own soul. For that Laius of the tragedy says: "None of these things which you warn me of has escaped me, but though I have understanding, nature does violence to me" — that is, that he had given himself over to passion. Medea too, likewise, cries out upon the stage: "I know indeed what evils I am about to do, but anger is stronger than my deliberations." Nor is Ajax silent either, but when about to slaughter himself he shouts: "No calamity ever so gnawed at the soul of a free man as dishonor; thus have I suffered, and a deep, converging stain from the depths turns me back, provoked by the bitter goads of madness."
These men, then, anger drives to tragedy, but desire drives countless others — Phaedra, Antheia, Eriphyle, "who received the precious gold of her husband's friend" [as the price of betrayal]. For as to that comic character Thrasonides, another stage tells us: "a cheap little slave-girl has enslaved me."
Misfortune, then, is unreasoning error, and error is involuntary wrongdoing, while wrongdoing is voluntary vice. Error, therefore, is my own involuntary act. So it is written: "Sin will no longer be master over you, since you stand not under law but under favor" — addressed to those who have already come to belief, because "by his wound we were made whole." Misfortune is another's involuntary act directed at me; wrongdoing alone is found to be voluntary, whether it be mine or another's.
These distinctions among sins the psalmist hints at when he pronounces fortunate those whose lawless deeds God has wiped away, whose sins he has covered over, and whose other sins he did not reckon, and whose remaining sins he forgave. As scripture puts it: "Fortunate are those whose lawless acts stand pardoned, whose sins lie hidden from view; fortunate the man against whom the Lord will reckon no sin, and in whose mouth no deceit is found." This blessing came to rest upon those God had chosen through his Son Jesus Christ. For "love hides away a great many sins," and whoever favors a sinner's turning back over his ruin wipes those sins away.
Those sins are not reckoned which do not arise from deliberate choice; for "whoever has already desired has already committed adultery in his heart," as he says. And the Word who gives light forgives sins: "in that season," the Lord declares, "they will search for Israel's wrongdoing, and none will be found, and for Judah's sins, and they will not turn up, for who compares to me? And who can stand opposed to me, face to face?" Here one benevolent God is proclaimed, apportioning and pardoning sins according to each one's due. John too, in his longer letter, can be seen setting out the distinctions among sins in this passage: "Should anyone notice his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, let him make request, and life will be granted to him" — spoken of those whose sin does not lead to death; "there is, however, a sin that leads to death; regarding that one, I am not urging that a request be made." "Every wrongdoing is sin,"
and yet there is a sin not leading to death. David, and before him Moses, reveal their grasp of these three doctrines through this passage: "Fortunate is the man who has not entered the counsel of the wicked" — much as fish move through darkness into the deep, for those lacking scales, which Moses forbids touching, feed along the sea floor; "nor taken his stand along the path of the erring" — like those who claim reverence for the Lord yet sin as swine do, squealing while hungry but forgetting its keeper once fed; "nor settled into the chair of the scornful" — like birds poised for plunder. Moses likewise warned: "Do not eat swine, eagle, sharp-winged fowl, raven, or any fish lacking scales." Such, then, is Barnabas's reading. Yet I myself have heard a certain sage offer this interpretation instead — that the nations are the "counsel of the wicked," the assumptions of the Jews the "path of the erring," and the heresies the "chair of the scornful."
Another teacher, speaking with even greater authority, held that the first blessing rests on those who have not embraced false views that fall away from truth, and the second on those who do not linger on the wide, sprawling road — whether reared under the law or converts from the nations; and the "chair of the scornful" would name both the theaters and the courts, or more exactly, the pursuit of corrupt and ruinous authorities and partnership in their deeds. Rather, it is written, "his delight rests in the Lord's instruction" — Peter, in the Preaching, named the Lord "instruction and reason." It also appears, in a further sense, that the lawgiver teaches restraint from sin along three lines: from sins of speech, symbolized by the mute fish — for indeed there are cases where holding one's tongue outperforms speaking, and stillness carries its own secure reward; from sins of deed, symbolized by birds of prey and flesh-eaters; the swine, meanwhile, delights in mud and filth —
and one must also keep a conscience free of stain. Fittingly, then, the prophet declares: "Not so are the wicked," he says, "but rather like chaff that the wind sweeps from the earth's surface. Therefore the wicked will not stand upright at the judgment" — meaning those condemned already, since whoever refuses belief stands condemned from the start — "nor will sinners join the assembly of the just" — those condemned already, so as not to mingle among those whose walk has been without stumbling — "for the Lord watches over the path the righteous take, while the path of the wicked comes to nothing." Once more the Lord makes plain that both missteps and offenses rest within our own power, setting down remedies fitted to each passion, wanting us corrected through the shepherds addressed by Ezekiel, charging some of them, I gather, for failing to keep the commands: "you gave no strength to the feeble," continuing on to "and no one went searching, no one brought back the stray" — for, as the Lord says, "great joy arises before the Father over a single sinner reclaimed." On this count Abraham deserves the higher praise, since "he set out exactly as the Lord had told him."
From this well one of the sages among the Greeks drew and voiced the maxim "follow God." "The devout," Isaiah says, "sought counsel from understanding." Counsel means inquiring how we might act rightly given the situation before us, and sound counsel is prudence applied to our own deliberation. What then? After pardoning Cain, did God not, not long afterward, bring forward the penitent Enoch, showing plainly that turning back naturally invites pardon? And pardon lies not in bare release from penalty but in being healed. The same pattern appears again in the episode of the golden calf fashioned by the people under Aaron's direction. From this same well one of the sages among the Greeks voiced the maxim "pardon outranks vengeance," much as, naturally, "pledge yourself, and ruin stands near," spoken by Solomon: "My child, should you stand surety for your companion, you hand your own hand over to a stranger; for a man's own lips become a tight trap for him, and he is snared by his own words." And in a more hidden sense the maxim "know yourself" has likewise been drawn from this same well: "you have looked upon your brother, you have looked upon your God."
In just this way, "love the Lord your God with your entire heart, and your neighbor as yourself"; he adds that the whole law and the prophets rest upon and hang from these two commands. These words align with them: "I have told you these things so that my joy may be complete within you. This is what I command you: hold each other in the same love I have shown you"; for "the Lord shows mercy and compassion," and "the Lord treats all with goodness." Moses too, urging "know yourself" more directly, repeats often: "watch over yourself." Through almsgiving and through faith, then, sins are cleansed away; and reverence toward the Lord turns everyone aside from wrongdoing. And "reverence for the Lord is discipline and understanding."
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