Section 24
176 Luke x. 22; John xvii. 25.
179 Jer. iii. 9, vii. 9, xi. 13, xxxii. 29.
185 Hos. iv. 14: "understood not" in the A.V.
190 Lowth conjectures e0pistomw=n or e0pistomi/zwn, instead of a0nastomw=n.
194 H. reads dhktiko/n, for which the text has e0pideiktiko/n.
203 Nothing similar to this is found in the fourth Gospel; the reference may be to the words of the Baptist, Matt. iii. 7, Luke iii. 7.
204 Ps. xviii. 43-45.
219 Matt. iii. 12; Luke iii. 17.
227 Here Clement gives the sense of various passages, e.g., Jer. vi., Lev. xxvi.
237 Matt. xi. 3-6; Luke vii. 19, 22, 23.
243 In Prov. ii. 4, 5; iii. 15. Jer. ii. 24, we have the sense of these verses.
254 Isa. lvii. 21, xlviii. 22.
257 Matt. xiii. 31; Luke xiii. 19.
258 Ex. xxxii. 6; 1 Cor. x. 7.
265 [The secondary, civilizing, and socializing power of the Gospel, must have already produced all this change from heathen manners, under Clement's own observation.]
267 Ecclus. xxxiii. 6.
268 [Note this definition in Christian ethics.]
4 o!qen, an emendation for o!n.
5 Love, or love-feast, a name applied by the ancients to public entertainments. [But surely he is here rebuking, with St. Jude (v. 12), abuses of the Christian agapae by heretics and others.]
15 Deut. viii. 3; Matt. iv. 4.
34 [Clement seems to think this abuse was connected with the agapae not-one might trust-with the Lord's supper.]
37 Literally, "slave-manners," the conduct to be expected from slaves.
43 A bulbous root, much prized in Greece, which grew wild.
45 A play here on the words eu0dai/mwn and dai/mwn.
46 a0kro/drua, hard-shelled fruits.
51 In allusion to the agapae, or love-feasts.
52 2 Kings vi. 17-19, Septuagint: 2 Sam. vi. 17-19. A.V.
53 o!noj, perhaps the hake or cod.
56 [This remarkable chapter seems to begin with the author's recollections of Pindar (a!riston me\n u#dwr), but to lay down very justly the Scriptural ideas of temperance and abstinence.]
58 [Clement reckons only two classes as living faithfully with respect to drink, the abstinent and the totally abstinent.]
59 [This seems Clement's exposition of St. John (vi. 63), and a clear statement as to the Eucharist, which he pronounces spiritual food.]
60 [A plain reference to the use of the mixed cup in the Lord's supper.]
61 [If the temperate do well, he thinks, the abstinent do beter; but nobody is temperate who does not often and habitually abstain.]
62 [A very important principle; for, if wine be "the milk of age," the use of it in youth deprives age of any benefit from its sober use].
63 The exact derivation of acrothorakes is matter of doubt. But we have the authority of Aristotle and Erotian for believing that is was applied to those who were slightly drunk. Some regard the clause here as an interpolation.
65 Pentheus in Euripides, Bacch., 918.
67 Ecclus. xxxi. 29.
68 [A beautiful maxim, and proving the habit of early Christians to use completory prayers. This the drunkard is in no state to do.]
73 [A passage not to be overlooked. Greek, mustiko\n su/mbolon.]
75 a0nqosmi/aj.Some suppose the word to be derived from the name of a town: "The Anthosmian."
77 [Here Clement satirizes heathen manners, and quote Athene, to shame Christians who imitate them.]
79 [The blood of the vine is Christ's blood. According to Clement, then, it remains in the Eucharist unchanged.]
80 Mark xvi. 25; Matt. xxvi. 29. [This also is a noteworthy use of the text.]
83 1 Cor. xi. 20. [Clement has already hinted his opinion, that this referred to a shameful custom of the Corinthians to let an agape precede the Eucharist; an abuse growing out of our Lord's eating of the Passover before he instituted the Eucharist.]
84 toutoij, an emendation for tou/tw|.
89 see Ecclus. xxxi. 19, where, however, we have a different reading.
90 Limpet-shaped cups. [On this chapter consult Kaye, p. 74.]
95 [See Elucidation I. e0nsta/sesin tou= Xristianou=.]
99 The reading a#lusij is here adopted. The passage is obscure.
101 [He distinguishes between the lewd music of Satanic odes (Tatian, cap. xxxiii. p. 79, supra), and another art of music of which he will soon speak.]
104 [Here instrumental music is allowed, though he turns everything into a type.]
106 [Even the heathen had such forms. The Christian grace before and after meat is here recognised as a matter of course. 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.]
108 [Besides the hymn on lighting the lamps, he notes completory prayer at bedtime.]
109 Wisd. Sirach (Ecclus.) xxxix. 15, 16.
113 [Observe the contrast between the modest harmonies he praises, and the operatic strains he censures. Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin ceremonial.]
114 [On gluttony and drinking, our author borrows much from Plato. Kaye, p. 74.]
116 Matt. vii. 18; Luke vi. 43.
117 [Our author is a terrible satirist; but it is instructive to see Christianity thus prescribing the minor morals, and banishing pagan brutality with holy scorn.]
118 Ecclus. xxi. 20.
121 [May the young Christian who reads this passage learn to abhor all freedom of speech of this kind. This is a very precious chapter.]
127 [How then can Christians frequent theatrical shows, and listen to lewd and profane plays?]
130 [An example may not be out of place, as teaching how we may put such things to silence. "Since the ladies have withdrawn," said one, "I will tell a little anecdote." "But," interposed a dignified person, "let me ask you to count me as representing the ladies; for I am the husband of one of them, and should be sorry to hear what would degrade me in her estimation."]
138 Ecclus. ix. 9. [i.e., reclining at the table.]
145 Prov. xxiv. 28; Ex. xxiii. 1.
147 [A primitive form of Christian salutation, borrowed from the great Example. John xx. 19.]
151 ["Against such there is no law." Emollit Mores, etc.]
156 [We need not refuse this efflorescence as poetry, nor accept it as exposition.]
162 [Considering the use of incense in Hebrew worship, and the imagery of the Apocalypse, the emphasis with which the Fathers reject material incense, is to be noted.]
164 [An idyllic passage illustrative of our author's delight in rural scenes and pleasures.]
165 [Christianity delights in natural beautuy, and always associates its enjoyment with praise to its Author. Ecclus. xliii. 11.]
167 [This was a marked characteristic of Christian manners at war with heathenism.]
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once
In Paradise fast by the tree of life
Began to bloom."
Paradise Lost, iii. 352.]
172 [See Note 10. p. 253. The beauty of this mysticism need not be pointed out, but it need not be pressed as exposition.]
173 [This illustrates, in part, the difference between the esoteric, or mystic, and the more popular teaching of our author.]
176 [Family prayers, apparently.]
177 See p. 258, infra. Sleep, he supposes, frees the soul as really, not so absolutely, as death:-"
Th' immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook."
Penseroso, line 91.]
178 Iliad, x. 155. [Note the Scriptural moderation with which he censures, recognising what is allowable, and rejecting the "pride that apes humility."]
179 Luke xii. 35-37. [Concerning "sleep," see p. 259. infra.]
180 [Holy men, on waking in the night, have always used ejaculations, even when unable to rise. Ps. cxix. 62; Acts xvi. 25.]
185 [Does our author here use the term "regeneration" with reference to the restitution of all things? (Matt. xix. 20; Acts iii. 21.) He touched upon the subject above, speaking of one that is illuminated: then he begins upon the true life, and to this he may refer. But it strikes me, that naming Lot, his place in the dispensations of grace strikes him as needing some comment, and so he apologizes for passing on.]
186 [See note, 7 supra, p. 257. Here the immaterial soul is recognised as wholly independent of bodily organs, and sleep is expounded as the image of death freeing the mind.]
187 [The psychology of Clement is noteworthy, but his ethical reflections are pure gold.]
212 188 For obvious reasons, we have given the greater part of this chapter in the Latin version. [Much of this chapter requires this sacrifice to a proper verecundia; but the learned translators have possibly been to cautious, erring, however, on the right side of the question.]
213 189 [For the substance of this chapter, see Kaye, p. 84.]
192 [He lays down the law, that marriage was instituted for the one result of replenishing the earth; and he thinks certain unclean animals of the Mosaic system to be types of the sensuality which is not less forbidden to the married than to others.]
194 Jer. xii. 9. [The empirical science of the day is here enlarged upon, by Clement, for he cannot forbear to make lust detestable by a natural parable of the foul hyaena.]
202 [Tamen possunt senes et steriles matrimonium sanctum contrahere, et de re conjugali aliter docet Lanctantius de natura singulari mulierum argute disserens: q. v. in libro ejus de vero cultu, vi. cap. 23, p. 280, ed. Basiliae 1521.]
203 [Natura duce, sub lege Logi, omnia fidelibus licent non omnia tamen expediunt. Conf Paulum, I., Ad Corinth, vi. 12.]
205 [He has argued powerfully on the delicacy and refinement which should be observed in Christian marriage, to which Lactantius in the next age will be found attributing the glory of chastity, as really as to a pure celibacy. He now continues the argument in a form which our translators do not scruple to English.]
209 Wisd. vii. 10 is probably referred to.
213 [1 Cor. x. 8; Num. xxv. 1-9. Clement says twenty-four thousand, with the Old Testament, but St. Paul says twenty-three thousand; on which, ad locum, see Speaker's Commentary.]
216 [Right reason is the best remedy against all excesses, argues our author, but always subject to the express law of the Gospel.]
241 217 Chap. xi. is not a separate chapter in the Greek, but appears as part of chap. x.
225 Clement uses here Platonic language, do/ca meaning opinion established on no scientific basis, which may be true or may be false, and e0pisth/mh knowledge sure and certain, because based on the reasons of things.
226 [Martial, Epigrams, passim.]
227 [The reproach and opprobrium of foppery.]
230 [This refers to the natural tint of unbleached linen, or to wool not whitened by the art of the fuller. Hermas speaks of "pure undressed linen." Book iii. 4, p. 40, supra.]
231 [The colour (probably, for mss. differ) reprehended as the dress of the false shepherd in Hermas. See note 10, book iii. Simil. 6. cap. i. p. 30, this volume.]
234 Prodicus, of the island Ceus.
235 Or by a conjectural emendation of the text, "If in this we must relax somewhat in the case of women."
236 Various kinds of robes. [The peplus, or shawl of fine wool, seems to be specified in condemning the boast below, which asserts real wool and no imitation.]
237 Alluding to the practice of covering the fleeces of sheep with skins, when the wool was very fine, to prevent it being soiled by exposure.
242 [The bearing of this chapter on ecclesiastical vestments must be evident. It is wholly inconsistent with aught but very simple attire in public worship; and rebukes even the fashionable costumes of women and much of our mediaeval aestheticism, with primitive severity. On the whole subject, see the Vestiarium Christianum of the Rev. Wharton B. Marriott. London, Rivingtons, 1868.]
243 [Based upon the idea that Joseph's coat of many colours, which was afterwards dipped in blood, was a symbol of our Lord's raiment, on which lots were cast.]
245 [Women's tunics tucked up to give freedom to the knee, are familiar objects in ancient art.]
247 Flax grown in the island of Amorgos.
249 [It was such designs which early Christian art endeavoured to supplant, by the devices on lamps, CR. AW., etc.]
250 upodedesqai tw=| dede/sqai. "Wearing boots is near neighbour to wearing bonds."
252 Mark. i. 7: Luke iii. 16. [It was reserved for Chrysostom to give a more terrible counterblast against costly chaussure, in commenting upon Matt. xvi. 13, et seq. Opera, tom. vii. p. 502, ed. Migne.]
253 [Amber is referred to, and the extravagant values attributed to it. The mysterious enclosure of bees and other insects in amber, gave it superstitious importance. Clement may have fancied these to be remnants of a pre-adamite earth.]
256 [Chrysostom enlarges on this Christian thought most eloquently, in several of his homilies: e.g., on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Hom. xxi. tom. x. p. 178. Opp., ed. Migne.]
257 [Chrysostom enlarges on this Christian thought most eloquently, in several of his homilies: e.g., on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Hom. xxi. tom. x. p. 178. Opp., ed. Migne.]
258 [The necklace called ka/qema or ka/qhma seems to be referred to. Ezek. xvi. 11, and Isa. iii. 19, Sept.]
259 'Ello/bion by conjecture, as more suitable to the connection than 'Elle/boron or 'Ele/boron. Hellebore of the ms.., though Hellebore may be intended as a comic ending.
260 [The Greek satirist seems to have borrowed Isaiah's catalogue. cap. iii. 18-23.]
263 Logos is identified with reason; and it is by reason, or the ingenuity of man, that gold is discovered and brought to light. [But here he seems to have in view the comparisons between gold and wisdom, in Job xxviii.]