Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Hence the Gnostic, when called upon, reasonably obeys with ease, and cheerfully gives up his little body to the one who demands it, along with its sufferings, stripping these off in advance from his flesh, not insulting the one who puts him to the test, but rather, I think, instructing and reproving him — showing from what honor and from what length of blessedness, as Empedocles says, he has come here and now sojourns among mortals. This man truly bears witness both to himself, that he is genuinely faithful toward God, and to the one testing him, that he has vainly envied the man who is faithful through love, and again to the Lord, that his persuasion toward the teaching is divinely inspired, from which he will not depart for fear of death; yes, and he confirms in deed the truth of the proclamation, showing that the God toward whom he hastens is powerful. One would marvel at his love, which he plainly teaches by being thankfully united to what is akin to him, and moreover by shaming the unbelieving through his precious blood.
This man, then, will not shrink from denying Christ out of fear because of the commandment, so as to become a martyr through fear; nor indeed does he sell his faith in hope of prepared rewards, but through love toward the Lord he will most gladly be released from this life, knowing that he owes thanks, perhaps, even to the one who furnished the occasion of his departure from here and to the one who devised the plot against him, having received a reasonable pretext which he himself did not provide, to show himself for what he is — through endurance toward the one, through love toward the Lord; through which love he was shown, even before his birth, to the Lord who knew the resolve of the one who was to bear witness. Taking courage, then, toward the Lord as a friend, for whose sake he has willingly given up his body, and for whose sake also his soul, as the judges expected, he comes forward, hearing from our Savior, in the manner of poetry, "dear brother," because of the likeness of his life. We accordingly call martyrdom a perfecting, not because the man has reached the end of his life as others do, but because he has displayed a perfect work of love. And indeed the ancients among the Greeks praise the end of those who die in war, not advising that one die by violence, but because he who dies in war, free from fear of death, is released, cut off from the body, and has not worn out his soul beforehand nor grown soft, as men suffer in the case of diseases; for such men are released while turning effeminate and longing to live.
For this reason such men do not release the soul pure, but bearing with it, like lumps of lead, their desires — unless some of these have become notable for virtue. And there are also those who die in war along with their desires, these differing not at all from the others; or even if they were wasted away by disease, the case is the same. If, then, confession toward God is testimony, every soul that has conducted itself purely with knowledge of God, and kept his precepts, stands as a testifier in both life and speech, in whatever way it is released from the body, pouring out its faith, as it were blood, throughout the whole of life, and moreover at its departure. Straightway the Lord says in the Gospel: "Whoever leaves father or mother or brothers," and so on, "for the sake of the gospel and of my name, blessed is this one" — not indicating the simple testimony, but the Gnostic one, as belonging to one whose conduct has followed the gospel's standard out of love toward the Lord; for knowledge of the name and understanding of the gospel signify knowledge, not the bare title — to leave behind worldly kin, to leave behind substance and all possession, because of living without attachment. For fatherland is allegorically called mother and nurse, and the laws of the state are called fathers. These things the great-souled just man must thankfully look down upon for the sake of becoming a friend of God and obtaining the right-hand portions of the sanctuary, just as the apostles also have done.
Then Heraclitus says, "Those slain by Ares gods and men honor," and Plato writes in the fifth book of the Republic: "Of those, then, who have died on campaign, whoever dies having won distinction — shall we not say, first of all, that he is of the golden race?" "Most assuredly of all." Now the golden race belongs to the gods of heaven and of the unwandering sphere, who hold chief command over providence for mankind. But certain of the heretics, having misheard the Lord, impiously and at the same time cowardly cling to life, saying that the true testimony is the knowledge of the God who truly is — which we ourselves also confess — but that the one who confesses through death is a murderer and self-slayer of himself, and they bring forward other such sophistries born of cowardice. To these it will be answered when the occasion demands; for they differ from us concerning first principles.
But we too blame those who leap eagerly upon death; for there are some, not of our number, sharing only the name, who hasten to hand themselves over out of hatred toward the Creator — wretched men, in love with death. These we say bring themselves to an end without true witness, even should they suffer punishment in full view of the crowd. For they fail to keep intact the mark of true, faith-filled martyrdom, since they have not recognized the true God, but give themselves up to an empty death, just as the naked sages of the Indians do to a vain fire. But since these falsely-named ones slander the body, let them learn that the good tuning of the body also contributes to the mind's aptitude.
For this same reason, within Republic's third book, Plato stated — he whom they especially invoke as a witness when they revile the created world — that one must care for the body for the sake of the soul's harmony, through which it is possible both to live and to live rightly, proclaiming the message of truth; for it is through living and through health, as we walk our path, that we thoroughly learn knowledge. And for one to whom it is not even possible to approach the ordinary things of life without being among the necessities and doing through them all that tends toward knowledge, how should living well not be a thing to be chosen by him? At any rate, it is in living that living well is achieved, and he who has practiced right living through the body is escorted onward into the condition of eternity.
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