4. Clement's Opinion about the Eternity of Matter
clement of alexandria on trial
act of the creation of the visible world, that original unity becomes the perfect pattern of the creation of the material world.41 This is yet another assimilation of Clement's concept to Philo's theory from the De οpificio mundi.42
From the whole philosophical framework of Clement's thought it is possible to deduce that the Ideas, as God's thoughts, must have existed before the creation of κοσμός αἰσθητός in time. Did they always exist?
Do they coexist with God and share his eternity? The essential, innermost connection of the Ideas with God's thoughts and with the divine
Logos, which possesses all Ideas in toto, leads to a positive answer. The nature of mind, even divine Mind, is always related to the thoughts, here the Ideas. Clement of Alexandria had no reason to undermine the coherence of this view, while later for Photios, in a different philosophical and theological climate, it proves a different answer.
4. Clement's Opinion about the Eternity of Matter Photios' accusation suggests Clement held the view that the Ideas were pre-existence, but also that some sort of matter preceded the creation of the visible world in time (ὕλη ἄχρονος). Again, it is important to establish the exact terminology and then the context of Clement's narrative in order to find out more details about his philosophical view.
One of the most significant statements on matter comes from a passage in Book 5 of the Stromateis (5.89.6): "They [the philosophers] should have known that so-called matter, denoted by them as without quality, and formless, was described boldly by Plato as non-being."43
This passage hints at the Aristotelian insight, originating in Plato, which maintains the fundamental opposition between τὸ ὄν/οὐσία and μὴ ὄν.44 The original matter described by Clement as ἄποιον καὶ
41 See Philo, Opif. 24–27, 29–31, 35–36; Clement, Strom. 5.93.4.
42 See Philo, Opif. 13–16.
43 ἴστωσαν οὖν τὴν καλουμένην ὕλην ἄποιον καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον λεγομένην πρὸς αὐτῶν, καὶ τολμηρότερον ἤδη μὴ ὄν πρὸς τοῦ Πλάτωνος εἰρῆσθαι. Alain Le
Boulluec's analytical commentary highlights Clement's dependence on the Middle Platonists such as Alcinous, Didascal. 8.2. Similarly, Clement's view on matter as μὴ ὄν is based on the philosophical opinions of the Middle Platonists and some Neopythagoreans (e.g., Moderatus of Gades, Numenius of Apamea). It does not suggest that Clement denied the existence of an original matter. Cf. Lilla's elaboration of this passage in Clement of Alexandria, 197–9.
44 Stählin points to Aristotle, Physics, 191a10, 191b36, 192a6 (O. Stählin [ed.], Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2: Stromata Buch I–VI, ed. L. Früchtel, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 15 [Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1985]).
the existence of eternal matter and ideas
ἀσχημάτιστον was not the ultimate opposition to being as is the case with Plato and Aristotle and their disciples. For Clement this formless original matter existed before the creation of the visible world, as he explains in his note to Genesis 1:2: "And certainly the prophetic statement: 'the earth was invisible and formless', provided them [i.e., to some philosophers] with the reason to accept matter as an existing reality."45
This explanation allows the following observation: ἡ γῆ ἀόρατος καί ἀκατασκεύαστος, that is the intelligible world, was made of ὑλικὴ οὐσίας as Clement's Platonising interpretation follows Philo's earlier exegesis. In addition, there is no contradiction in Clement's statements between the description of matter as μὴ ὄν and the description of it as ὑλικὴ οὐσία. While the former definition, in a philosophical context, differentiates between the status of matter and the status of being in which matter is 'nothing'; the latter, this time in the theological context of creation, contrasts the status of the original world made of pre-existent matter with the creation of the visible world. Matter is 'nothing' when compared with God whom Clement calls τὸ ὄν, οὐσία, ὁ ὤν,46 that is, God who is or has the fullness of existence. But also matter is 'nothing' while compared with the organised, created world. Like the eternity of Ideas, the pre-existence of matter fits well into Clement's philosophical and theological framework and it diminishes nether the omnipotence of God nor his unique way of existing. Also, it does not attribute eternity to this visible world.
To sum up, both parts of the present reconstruction show that Clement did not believe in creatio ex nihilo. It is significant and not coinciden45 Clement, Strom. 5.90.1: ἄλλως τε ἡ λέξις ἡ προφητικὴ ἐκείνη "ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καί ἀκατασκεύαστος" ἀφορμὰς αὐτοῖς ὑλικῆς οὐσίας παρέσχηται.
I wish to note that, according to an insightful observation made by to Boulluec, Clement follows Philo's allegorical elaboration of the Scriptural account of the creation of the world by identifying ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καί ἀκατασκεύαστος with matter. In addition, Boulluec suggests that Photios' charge is not supported by the evidence in Clement's philosophy: "l'accusation du Photius (Bibl. Cod 109) … reprochant à Clément d'enseigner dans les Hypotyposeis … manqué de clarté" (Boulluec, Stromata V,
294). It is possible that Clement accepted creation/generation of matter before time.
Nonetheless, he did not elaborate on the origin of matter in direct reference to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (see ibid. 294–5).
46 As Clement's apophatic theology is not our main interest in this study, I would like to point to a recent study where these titles are discussed in detail, Hägg, Clement of Alexandria and the Beginning of Christian Apophaticism, 165–70.
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tal, that, while being acquainted with 2 Maccabees,47 nowhere in his oeuvre did he mention the famous declaration on the creation of the visible world out of nothing: ὅτι οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων ἐποίησεν αὐτὰ ὁ θεός
(7:28).48 This direct Scriptural evidence would provide him with a substantial argument against the Gnostic dualistic tendencies, held for example by Tatian the Syrian,49 or even against the opinion of some
Valentinians that the creator of the visible world originates from the passion of desire (ἐκ πάθους τῆς ἐπιθυμίας).50 Against Gnostic adversaries, Clement did not use the argument from 2 Maccabees, which emphasises the goodness of all creation, although it was certainly known to him. Therefore the evidence is against Clement of Alexandria being the first Christian theologian to subscribe to the notion of creatio ex nihilo. This does not undermine the fact that he was convinced that the whole of reality, κοσμός νοητός as well as κόσμoς αἰσθητός, is totally dependent on God and its good Creator the divine Logos.
Clement strongly believed in the omnipotence of God. Against some Christian Gnostics, he also maintained that the visible world is not the product of an evil demiurge. He was aware of the Stoic error, later assimilated by the Eastern Valentinian school, which combined the elements of the visible world with the divine one (κρᾶσις δι᾿ ὅλων).51
The material world did not emerge from its divine source and is not his extension in space and time.52 It does not have its source in some prehistoric cosmological catastrophe and is not a degradation or an erroneous footprint of the original intelligible realm. It has its beginning in God, is entirely dependent on God, but it was formed as the 47 The references to 2 Macc. are in Clement, Strom. 3.36.5, 5.97.7.
48 It is important to remember that this passage does not discuss the cosmogony of the world or philosophical theory but expresses only the deep religious piety of a Jewish mother and stresses the dependence of the whole reality on the Creator, the God of Israel. Therefore the text does not directly say anything specific about the nature of matter. Still, it is possible to use this passage in an allegorical way as declaration of creatio ex nihilo, as has been proved by Origen in Princ. 2.1.5; Com. Jo. 1.103.
For more information on Origen's doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, see P. Tzamalikos, The Concept of Time in Origen (Bern: Peter Lang, 1991), 77–107.
49 See Clement, Strom. 3.82.3.
50 See Clement, Ex. Th. 33.4.
51 See ibid. 17.1; 'Appendice B' in F. Sagnard, Clément d'Alexandrie, Extraits de
Théodote, Sources chrétiennes 23 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1948).
52 See the discussion of this theme in the context of the Neopythagorean and Valen tinian doctrines in E. Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the 'Valentinians', Nag Hammadi and Manichean Studies 60 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006), 275–9.