The Exhortation To The Greeks
CLEMENT
OF ALEXANDRIA
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
G. W. BUTTERWOHTH, M.A.
BODINGTON MEMORIAL FELLOW OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
THE EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS
THE RICH MAN'S SALVATION
AND THE FRAGMENT OF AN ADDRESS ENTITLED
TO THE NEWLY BAPTIZED
CAMBRIDGE,
MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
PRESS LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
MCMLX
First printed 1919 Reprinted 1939, 1953, 1960 Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
ST. JOHN AND THE ROBBER
Frontispiece PAGE
INTRODUCTION.......
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...
. xix
INTRODUCTION ....... 3-27
THE EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS
The minstrels of Greek legend were supposed to have performed wonderful deeds by the power of music.
But the new minstrel, the Word of God, does greater works in real life.
His power is shown in saving men from slavery to daemons ; and also in giving order and harmony to the universe.
He is the New Song ; and yet old, for He was " in the beginning."
He alone reveals God to men.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GREEK MYSTERIES
27-51 Sanctuaries, oracles, sacred springs and trees are now out of date.
The mysteries ; derivation of the word 4 mystery ; originator of mysteries.
Mysteries of '
(i.) Aphrodite, (ii.) Demeter, (iii.) Attis and Cybele.
Story of Persephone.
The mysteries of Dionysus.
Rites of the Corybantes and the Cabeiri.
The Eleusinian formula.
These mysteries are profane and unholy ; Heracleitus witnesses against them.
Greeks, not Christians, are the real atheists.
CONTENTS PAGE
DESCRIPTION OF THE GREEK GODS
53-101 Seven causes of idolatry.
Many gods of the same name.
Gods were really men ; examples to prove this.
The immorality of the gods, with examples.
Goddesses equally guilty.
The Greek games are all held in honour of dead men.
Origin of phallic emblems in Dionysus-worship.
Gods have even been slaves.
They have human feelings and needs.
Zeus was once alive, but is now dead.
Greeks themselves call the gods by stupid and indecent names ; Egyptian animal worship is better than this.
Greeks also worship animals ; examples.
Are the Greek gods daemons, or secondary divinities?
Certainly they are not guardians of men, but savage and man-hating creatures, as is proved by human sacrifices.
Such daemons must be avoided like wild beasts.
Men are better than daemons, e.g. Solon than Apollo.
The gods' temples are really tombs.
THE WORSHIP OF STATUES
101-143 The first images were unwrought wood and stone ; in later times they were made into human shape.
They are ah 1 the work of men ; as is shown by many examples.
Even the image of Sarapis in Alexandria is of human workmanship.
The deification of Antinous is another example of godmaking ; his tomb is now a temple.
The Sibyl predicts the destruction of temples with their images.
Heracleitus scoffs at image-worship.
Images are without life, and sacrifices do them no good.
The lowest animals are better than any statues.
God's true image is mental, not material.
Rulers despise statues, and insult vi
CONTENTS PAGE them.
Thieves steal them.
Fire and earthquakes destroy them.
Sculptors make them look like their own favourites.
Both kings and private persons, scorning image-worship, have styled themselves gods.
The epitaph of Hippo shows that all gods were once men.
They are now unclean spirits that haunt tombs, and their statues are simply earth and art.
The fascination of art has led men to fall in love with statues ; now it leads men to worship them.
Stories of gods are full of immorality ; but Christians are living images of God, and must not listen to them.
Indecent pictures hung in houses ; indecent symbols on rings ; shameful emblems displayed in public.
Image-making is forbidden to Christians.
Men must seek after God, and not after any created thing.
THE WITNESS OF PHILOSOPHY
145-165 Early philosophers supposed the elements to be first principles.
This veneration of matter is mere atheism.
It originates with barbarians.
Other philosophers sought for a higher first principle, as the Infinite, or Mind.
The Stoic doctrine of Immanence.
The Peripatetic doctrine ; God the soul of the universe.
Epicurus.
A crowd of minor philosophers who exalt the elements.
But Plato is a better guide ; together with Euripides and Democritus, he knows the majesty of the true God.
Whence came Plato's wisdom ?
From barbarians, as he confesses, i.e. from the Hebrews.
Antisthenes, Xenophon, Socrates, Cleanthes and Pythagoras also knew the truth.
* vn
CONTENTS PAGE
THE WITNESS OF POETRY
16.3-173 Poetry is entirely concerned with fiction, yet it cannot help bearing some witness to truth.
Examples from Aratus, Hesiod, Sophocles, Orpheus.
Even comic poets know the truth, for instance, Menander.
Homer, too, and many others speak ill of the gods ; but especially Euripides.
THE WITNESS OF HEBREW PROPHECY
173-195 The sacred writings are simple in style, but of great power.
A prelude from the Sibyl.
Many quotations to show the majesty of the one true God and His love for man ; from Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, Hosea, Solomon, David.
But Christ the Word speaks with even greater authority.
He invites us into His kingdom, to be sons of God.
Punishment awaits unbelievers.
We must then obey God " to-day."
The meaning of " to-day."
We must choose between God's grace and His displeasure.
Salvation is beyond price ; yet it can be bought for faith and love.
God is our teacher, through the scriptures.
All may become His children.
THE CLAIMS OF CUSTOM ....
197-237 Ought men to abandon their traditional ways ?
Yes, just as children abandon childish ways.
Custom is the real obstacle to godliness.
It refuses all guidance.
The sight of filthy and degraded priests ought to bring men to God, who is a loving Father.
Yet some men are like worms viii
CONTENTS PAGE and swine, loving what is foul.
God has a splendid inheritance for His children ; heaven and earth are theirs without cost.
An innate faith in goodness is possessed by all, and is worthy of trust.
Custom is stupid ; it deifies mere human beings, and sets up stones for worship.
God's Word is His true image ; and man's mind is an image of the Word.
Custom is rooted in ignorance.
But ignorance is only an excuse for him who has never heard God's message.
Custom destroys men.
It is utterly absurd.
Those who follow it are like drugged men ; they also become like stones when they worship stones.
Men are the really sacred things, not animals or stones.
Unbelievers are deaf and blind in heart ; or like serpents, wriggling on the earth.
Life is the reward for finding God.
Divine wisdom helps man to do life's duties well.
God's children follow God's laws, which are severe, but health-giving.
The Word has brought untold blessings to men.
GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION
237-251 Man was created innocent and free ; but he fell through pleasure.
The Word became incarnate, and died on the Cross to save him.
So man gains more than he lost.
The Word is now man's teacher.
He brings light and reveals God.
The night of earth gives place to the day of God.
The Word is also an amulet that can save from sin.
This is ever God's purpose to save men.
It is proclaimed to men by Christ's bloodless army.
Those who obey God become His delight as well as His handiwork, and they inherit a kingdom.
A2 *
CONTENTS PAGE
FINAL EXHORTATION ....
251-263 Custom must be shunned as a;deadly peril.
It is like Circe's island.
Follow Odysseus' example, and be bound to the Cross.
Be warned by the madness of Pentheus.
The Word's mysteries are sober ; performed by pure maidens and righteous men.
These mysteries alone give a vision of God.
Christ is the true hierophant.
He offers rest and immortality.
It is sheer madness to remain in ignorance when truth is within reach.
Man can become a friend and son of God, but only by following Christ.
Finally, the reader is exhorted to make for himself the great choice between life and destruction.
THE RICH MAN'S SALVATION
265-367
TO THE NEWLY BAPTIZED
368-377 APPENDIX ON THE GREEK MYSTERIES 379-390 INDICES 391-409
INTRODUCTION
FEW facts are known to us concerning the life of Clement of Alexandria.
His title comes from the city which was the scene of all his important work ; but an early tradition spoke of him as being an Athenian by birth, and this may be correct.
The date of his birth can be fixed roughly at 150 A.D.
We are told nothing of his parentage or early training.
It seems clear, however, that he was not a Christian to begin with.
He is so well acquainted with the mystery cults that there is a strong probability that he had been initiated into some of them.
We have it on his own authority that he wandered through many lands and heard many teachers.
Six of these he singles out for mention, though not by name ; they were " blessed and memorable men," who spoke
"plain and living words."
Doubtless all of them were Christians.
The last of the six, who was " first in power," and whom he found in Egypt, is almost certainly Pantaenus, then head of the Catechetical School at Alexandria.
Here Clement's wanderings xi
INTRODUCTION
ceased.
He became a presbyter of the Church, and taught in Alexandria for more than twenty years, succeeding Pantaenus as head of the School.
On the outbreak of persecution under Severus in 202 A.D. he left Alexandria, never to return.
We get one more glimpse of him; in 211 A.D. he was the bearer of a letter from Alexander, afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, to the Church at Antioch.
In this letter he is described as " Clement the blessed presbyter, a virtuous and esteemed man .
. who upheld and extended the Church of the Lord."
Alexander was one of Clement's old pupils, and a fellow-pupil with the great Origen.
Clement must have died not long after this letter was written ; for the same Alexander, writing to Origen a few years later, speaks of him together with Pantaenus as " those blessed men who have trodden the road before us."
The extant works of Clement are as follows : the Exhortation to the Greeks ; the Pedagogue or Tutor ; eight books of Stromateis or Miscellanies ; a short treatise entitled, Who is the rich man that shall be saved? together with some fragments called Selections from the Prophets, being comments upon portions of the Scriptures.
There are also a number of short extracts from the writings of a certain Theodotus with comments thereon.
Of the lost works the most important is the Hypoty'poses,or Outlines, a commentary upon the Scriptures.
Possibly the Selections from the Prophets formed part of this work.
Xil
INTRODUCTION
The writings of Clement are considerable in extent, and remarkable in character.
Hardly a page can be found without some quotation from the Old or New Testaments.
Besides this, Clement makes constant references to the Greek poets, dramatists, philosophers and historians.
He can illustrate his argument by a passage from Plato, or by lines from Homer or Euripides.
He can strengthen his attack by quoting Heracleitus or Democritus.
Items of information about curious, absurd or immoral Greek customs he can glean from a crowd of minor authors whose works have now perished.
It is said that he mentions by name more than three hundred such authors, of whom otherwise we know nothing.
Some of these may have been known to him only through books of extracts; but there can be no question as to his thorough reading of Plato and Homer.
For Plato he has a sincere admiration, and Platonic expressions and ideas, to say nothing of direct quotations, are everywhere to be met with in his writings.
Generally speaking he betrays no interest in his authorities except in so far as they are useful to establish some point.
But this wide reading is evidence of a large and generous mind, that welcomed the true and the good wherever they might be found, confident that every ray of light proceeds from the same sun.
This fearless acceptance of truth from every available source makes Clement not only important xm
INTRODUCTION
for his own times, but also interesting for the world of to-day.
He was faced by a problem that ever recurs, the problem of blending old truth with new.
In the second century Christianity had become a power.
No longer was the Church weak, poor and neglected.
Educated men inquired about its faith, and asked admittance within its fold ; but they would bring with them an inheritance of thought and culture, unknown to the simple Christians of an earlier age.
The question was bound to arise, What relation has this to the Christian faith ?
Is it to be set aside as superfluous, or injurious ?
Or is all the good in it to be accepted and welcomed, a proof that God's revelation extends in a measure to all men, to Greeks as well as Jews ?
Clement himself had come to Christianity with a mind steeped in Greek learning, and he answered this question with clearness and confidence.
Greek learning was not to be rejected.
Philosophy at its best had stood to the Greeks in the same relation as prophecy to the Jews ; it had been, he held, a preparation for Christ.
It abounded in glimmerings and foreshadowings of the divine teaching, and could not have come from the devil, as timid Christians maintained.
It was therefore a proper object of study, and the exercise of human reason which it pre-supposed could do no harm to the Christian faith.
Thus Clement, taking his stand upon the oneness of truth, laid down the lines upon which Christian theology could safely proceed, xiv
INTRODUCTION
But while Clement asserted that a real revelation had been made to the higher minds of Greece, he knew well how slight was its effect on the popular morality and religion.
Hence the fierce attack which is the subject of his first work, the Exhortation to the Greeks.
With bitter scorn he describes the mysteries, seizing upon any disgraceful legend or piece of childish ceremonial which seems to stamp them as worthless and debasing.
As for the gods, with their human needs and passions, they are subjects for ridicule, to which Clement adds a burning indignation when he thinks of the low standard of morality attributed to them in the current mythology.
The worship of images, too, is stupid ; the true God cannot be represented in material form.
Yet Clement can prove by quotations that philosophers, Plato especially, and even poets, had clearly taught the unity, supremacy, and goodness of God.
But the greatest witnesses of all were the Hebrew prophets, through whom God gave His promises to men.
The Greeks are prevented from accepting the truth by Custom, that dead weight of inherited tradition, which must be abandoned.
Christianity offers man the true mysteries, culminating in the vision of God.
Thus the Greek religion which Clement attacks is a thing far removed from the lofty conceptions of Plato or Aeschylus.
It is the religion of the multitude in the Greek-speaking world.
Five hundred years xv
INTRODUCTION
before this, Plato censured the immoralities of the gods in terms hardly less severe than those of Clement, but Plato's words were ineffective to change what he himself was heartily ashamed of.
The Christian Church, however, under the leadership of men like Clement, was slowly gathering the common people into a society which upheld a higher view of the divine character, and demanded a correspondingly higher standard of human conduct.
No doubt the evil of the popular religion is exaggerated ; certainly Clement omits all reference to its good.
Yet there must have been enough of the evil before men's eyes to make Christian life and teaching stand out in noble contrast.
In the house, in the street, in the market-place, at feasts, assemblies and religious processions, Christian converts were exposed to sights and sounds from which they had learnt instinctively to shrink.
It is such things, and all that was bound up with them, that Clement denounces.
To-day we may admire Greek art without paying much attention to the mythology which was then inseparable from it ; we may probe mystery religions in search of those elements of good which made them for centuries the chief spiritual food of the common people.
Such discrimination is not to be looked for in the second century.
Clement claimed a place for philosophy in the Church ; later on a home was found for art too, and even the fundamental ideas of the mysteries were not refused xvi
INTRODUCTION
admission.
Time was necessary to show what could be assimilated and what could not.
In Clement's day Christianity was still struggling for existence, and popular religion was its deadliest enemy.
This fact should serve as an excuse for the over-elaboration of his attack and for one or two passages which are unpleasant to a modern reader.
In preparing the present translation I have had the great advantage of being able to work from the text of Stahlin, published in 1905.
All students of Clement must be grateful, not only for this clear and accurate text, but also for the references collected by Stahlin, which throw light on many a difficult passage.
The text printed here is substantially that of Stahlin's edition, though I have occasionally preferred the conjectures of other scholars or retained the manuscript reading where
Stahlin departs from it.
All deviations of any importance from the MSS. are noted at the foot of each page.
So far as concerns the Exhortation, the chief extant MS. is the Parisian, referred to by Stahlin as P.
A description of this MS. is to be found in the introduction to Stahlin's text (vol. i. pp. xvi-xxiii).
Depending on P is the Codex Mutinensis, known as M.
This translation was first drafted several years ago as part of a complete edition of the Exhortation to the Greeks ; and I am still working towards xvii
INTRODUCTION
the accomplishment of this larger plan.
A grateful acknowledgment is due to the committee of the Bodington Memorial Fund, in connexion with the University of Leeds, for grants which have materially assisted the progress of my work.
I desire also to record my deep indebtedness to the late Dr. Joseph B. Mayor, who in the closing years of his life gave me most generous and patient help both in the details of the translation and in my general study of Clement.
Most of all, I thank Professor W. Rhys Roberts, of the University of Leeds, at whose suggestion I first began to read Clement, and to whose kindly encouragement and ungrudging help is largely due my perseverance hitherto in so difficult an undertaking.
XVlll
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE chief editors ofClement of Alexandria are as follows :
JOHN POTTER, Archbishop of Canterbury.
His edition in two vols. was issued at Oxford in 1715, and is reprinted in Migne, P.O. vols. viii. and ix.
WILLIAM DINDOBF.
4 vols.
Issued at Oxford in 1869.
OTTO STAHLIN.
3 vols.
Issued at Leipzig 1905-1909.
This supersedes all previous editions.
Out of the very large literature that has grown up around Clement's works the following books in English may be mentioned :
BISHOP KAYE.
Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria.
London, 1835.
BIGG.
The Christian Platonists ofAlexandria.
Oxford, 1886.
HOBT.
Six Lectures on the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
London, 1895.
HITCHCOCK.
Clement ofAlexandria (Fathers for English Readers series, S.P.C.K. 1899).
TOLLINTON.
Clement of Alexandria : a Study in Christian Liberalism.
2 vols.
1914.
PATBICK.
Clement of Alexandria (The Croall Lecture for 1899-1900).
1914. xix
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The whole of Clement's extant works (with the exception of the Extracts from Theodotus and the newly-discovered Exhortation to Endurance) are translated into English in The Ante-Nicene Christian Library by the Rev.
W. Wilson.
The vols. marked Clement of Alexandria, I. and II., contain the Exhortation to the Greeks, the Pedagogue or Tutor and the Stromateis.
The Rich Man's Salvation is to be found at the end of the volume marked Lactantius II., and the Selections from the Prophets and various Fragments are at the end of a small volume entitled Early Liturgies : Fragments.
The Seventh Book of the Stromateis is translated by the Rev. J. B. Mayor in Hort and Mayor's edition of that book.
Cambridge, 1902.
The Rich Man's Salvation lias been translated by P. M. Barnard ( Who is the Rich Man that is being saved ?
Early Church Classics series.
S.P.C.K.
1901).
The Fragment entitled Exhortation to Endurance, or, To the Newly Baptized has been translated by J. Patrick in his book Clement of Alexandria, pp. 183-185.
NOTE ON ILLUSTRATION
(For the story see pp. 357-365.) The Illustration reproduces (by kind permission of the Master and fellows) a page from a manuscript Apocalypse l in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, which is perhaps the finest example of the English art of its time, viz. the middle of the thirteenth century.
It is one of the very few representations of the story of St. John and the Robber which occur in mediaeval art.
The inscriptions, in Anglo-French, explain the scenes quite adequately.
PICTURE 1 (top of page).
Here is hoiv St. John asks for the youth, and how he is in the forest with the robbers.
On label (St. John says to the Bishop) Restore me him whom I entrusted to you, and, by the witness of the Holy Church which you govern, I demand of you the youth whom I commended to you.
(The Bishop says) He is dead.
Verily he is dead to God ; for he is gone away full of all mischief, and in the end he is become a wicked robber, and now he is in the mountain with a great company of robbers and hath taken the mountain for to spoil and to kill and to rob the people.
PICTURE 2.
Here is how the youth fled, and how St. John gallops after him and calls him gently.
(St.
John says) Fair son, why dost thou flee from thy father ?
Wherefore dost thou flee from an old man unarmed ?
Have pity on thyself and have no fear, for thou canst still have hope of life.
Fair son, stay !
PICTURE 3.
Here is how St. John kisses the youth's right hand, and how he baptizes him, and how he leads him back to the Church from whence he had gone out.
1 This Apocalypse has recently (1909) been edited for the Roxburghe Club by the Provost of King's.
XXI
CLEMENT
OF ALEXANDRIA
KAHMENTOS AAESANAPEflS
nPOTPEIITIKOS IIPO2 EAAHNA2
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EuvdyLtou a Arion was returning from Sicily to Greece laden with prizes and presents.
The sailors thought to kill him for his wealth, but after playing his lyre he jumped into the sea.
Dolphins, charmed by the music, gathered round him, and one of them took the bard on its back to Corinth.
6 The stones were said to have moved into their proper places at the sound of Amphion's music.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
THE EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS
AMPHION of Thebes and Avion of Methymna were Minstrels oi both minstrels.
Both are celebrated in legend, and^ their to this day the story is sung by a chorus of Greeks wonderful how their musical skill enabled the one to lure fish and the other to build the walls of Thebes. &Amphkm i i Orpheus There was also a ihracian wizard/ so runs another Greek legend, who used to tame wild beasts simply by his song, yes, and to transplant trees, oaks, by music.
I can also tell you of another legend and another minstrel akin to these, namely, Eunomus the Eunomus
Locriaii and the Pythian grasshopper.^ A solemn pyflJ-JJ assembly of Greeks, held in honour of a dead serpent, grasshopper was gathering at Pytho/ and Eunomus sang a funeral ode for the reptile.
Whether his song was a hymn c i.e., Orpheus.
Cp. Euripides, Rhesus 924, QprjKi. d Strictly cicala, here and elsewhere. e i.e., Delphi.
According to the Greek legend the serpent was the ancient guardian of the Delphic shrine, and was slain by Apollo.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
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TeXecrTTj/stci r^s 7rXd^r?s, 5td rd /ui/crrTjpia Schwartz. re\e- , rrjs TrXdvTjs rd fJ-vcrrripLa MSS. a Mt. Cithaeron was sacred to Zeus ; Mt. Helicon to the Muses ; and the Thracian mountains were the home of Dionysus-worship.
For the meaning of these mountaincults in Greek religion see A. B. Cook, /?<ws, i. pp. 100-163.