Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Let this much, then, be said as briefly as possible about the gnostic, sown in seed-form for the Greeks. But one must know that if the man of faith succeeds in one of these things, or even a second, still he does not succeed in all of them together, nor with the highest knowledge, as the gnostic does. And indeed there are many other testimonies from Scripture that could be adduced concerning that freedom from passion which belongs, so to speak, to the gnostic — that state in accordance with which the perfection of the man of faith, advancing through love, arrives "at a perfect man, at the measure of the stature" of maturity, being made like to God, becoming truly "equal to the angels." But I think it better to defer such an ambition of proof-texts on account of the length it would require, leaving it to those who wish to labor and to work out the doctrines further by their own selection from the Scriptures. I will, however, mention one passage very briefly, so as not to pass over the topic unmarked. For the divine apostle says in the former letter to the Corinthians: "Does any among you, holding a grievance against a neighbor, presume to seek judgment from wrongdoers rather than the holy ones? Or are you unaware that the holy ones shall pass judgment on the world?" and so forth. Since this is quite an extended passage, drawing on the apostle's own timely phrasing, briefly and in summary — restating it in our words, as it were — we shall lay out what the apostle means, and in doing so trace how he outlines the gnostic's perfection. For he does not fix the gnostic merely on the point of being wronged rather than wronging, but he also teaches him to bear no malice, not even permitting him to pray against the one who has wronged him; for he knows that the Lord himself expressly commanded us "to pray for our enemies." So then, seeking judgment from the unrighteous, he says, means that the wronged party appears to wish nothing else than to pay back in kind, wanting in turn to commit a second wrong himself, which amounts equally to committing wrong himself. But seeking judgment from the holy ones indicates that he means some who wish, through prayer, that the injustice be repaid to those who wronged them; and that the second sort are better than the first, yet not yet free from passion, unless, having become wholly free of malice, they pray, according to the Lord's teaching, even for their enemies.
It is good, then, that they too should adopt good sense out of repentance, passing over into faith. For even if truth seems to have acquired enemies in those who provoke it out of jealousy, yet truth itself is not at enmity with anyone. For "God makes his sun to rise upon the just and the unjust," and indeed dispatched the Lord in person to both the just and unjust alike; and the one who strives to be made like God, through abundant freedom from malice, "forgiving seventy times seven" (that is, throughout the whole of life and through the entire cosmic circuit signified by numbered sevens), shows kindness to everyone, even if someone who has lived his whole time in the flesh wrongs the gnostic. For the earnest man does not think it right merely to leave judgment of those who have wronged him to others, but wishes even to ask of those very judges, the righteous ones, forgiveness of sins for those who have offended against him — and reasonably so; since if it is only the outward thing, the thing concerning the body, even should it go so far as death, those who attempt to do wrong have the advantage, and none of this belongs properly to the gnostic. How indeed could one judge even the angels who apostatized, having himself become an apostate from that freedom from malice which is according to the gospel? "Why not rather be wronged?" he says; "why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong [and defraud]," praying, clearly, against those who offend through ignorance, "and you defraud" those against whom you pray, so far as it depends on you, of God's love for humankind and goodness. "And this, brothers" — not only those who share the faith, but he means also the proselytes. For whether the one now at enmity will later come to believe.
we do not yet know. From which it is clearly gathered that, even if it is not the case that all are so, still it seems to us that they ought to be reckoned brothers — and indeed that all people already, being the work of one God and clothed in one image upon one substance, even if some happen to be more sullied than others, only the man of knowledge recognizes both this and the working of created things, through which, in turn, he worships the will of God.
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" So then he who wrongs in return does wrong, whether in deed or in word or even in the mere intention of the will, which the gospel proscribes, coming after the tutelage of the law. "And such were some of you" — plainly such as those still are whom you yourselves do not forgive. "But you were washed" — not simply as the rest are washed, but with knowledge you cleansed away the passions of the soul, so as to be conformed, insofar as that is achievable, to the benevolence of God's providential care, both through patience and through freedom from malice, casting the kindliness of word and deed "upon the just and the unjust" alike, just as the sun does. Whether the gnostic secures this through magnanimity or through imitating the Better One — and a third motive lies in "pardon others and pardon will come to you," a precept that, so to speak, urges us onward to salvation by an overflow of goodness. "But you were sanctified": for to the one who has come to this condition it falls to be holy, encountering none of the passions in any way at all.
but as one already, so to speak, without flesh and above this earth, having become holy. Wherefore he says, "you were justified in the name of the Lord" — you were made, so to speak, righteous by him, as he himself is righteous. And "by the Holy Spirit" you were mingled together, so far as is possible according to your capacity. For does he not say, "everything is permitted to me, yet I refuse to be mastered by anything" — that is, refusing to be ruled in deed, thought, or speech by anything opposed to the gospel? "Foods are for the belly, and the belly for foods," which "God will bring to nothing" — that is, those who so reason and live as though they had come to be for the sake of eating, and not rather eating in order that they might live, following what is consequent, while attending in what is primary to knowledge. And is he not perhaps saying that these are like flesh cut off from the holy body? The church of the Lord is allegorized as a body — the spiritual and holy choir — from which those who bear the name only, but do not live according to reason, are mere flesh. "But this body," the spiritual one, that is, the holy church, is in no way and by no manner whatsoever to be made intimate "with fornication," nor with apostasy from the gospel toward the pagan way of life.
For the one who conducts himself in the church in a pagan manner — whether in deed, or in word, or in intention itself — commits fornication against the church, that is, against "his own body." The one thus "united with the prostitute," that is, with conduct running counter to the covenant, turns into a separate body, unholy, made "one flesh" with a pagan way of life and a different hope; "but whoever is united with the Lord is one spirit" — a "spiritual body," a kind distinct from that ordinary assembly. This one is wholly a son, a holy man, free from passion, gnostic, brought to completion under the Lord's own instruction, so that indeed, being attentive to the Lord in deed and in word and in the very spirit itself, he may receive that abode owed to one thus made truly a man. The indication suffices for those who have ears; for the mystery ought not to be paraded about, but only so much revealed as serves for remembrance to those who have shared in knowledge, who will also understand how it has been said by the Lord: "become perfect as your Father is perfect" — perfectly forgiving sins, bearing no malice, and living out their lives in the condition of freedom from passion. For just as we speak of a perfect physician and a perfect philosopher, so too, I think, of a perfect gnostic; yet none of these, great as it is, is taken up into likeness to God. For we do not, like the Stoics, say — quite godlessly — that the very same virtue belongs to man and to God. Are we then perhaps obliged to become perfect, as the Father wishes? For it is impossible and beyond all means for anyone to become perfect as God is; but the Father wishes us, living according to the obedience of the gospel, to become blamelessly perfect. If then, since the saying is expressed by way of ellipsis, we supply what is lacking to complete the sense of the passage — leaving what is omitted to be grasped by those capable of understanding — we shall both come to know the will of God and shall conduct our lives, worthily of the commandment, both piously and with greatness of mind.
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