Clement

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria, was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria.

Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature.

As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other recorded Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics.

“It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify, but your soul, adorning it with good works.” Clement of Alexandria

His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well.

In one of his works, he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.

He was well-educated and taught Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem.

"We must not cast away riches which can benefit our neighbor. Possessions were made to be possessed; goods are called goods because they do good, and they have been provided by God for the good of men: they are at hand and serve as the material, the instruments for a good use in the hand of him who knows how to use them." Clement of Alexandria

"We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly." Clement of Alexandria

“The Word does not command us to renounce property but to manage property without inordinate affection” (Eclogae Propheticae).

"If God rewarded the righteous immediately, we would soon be engaged in business, not godliness... we would be pursuing not piety, but profit." Clement of Alexandria

Although Clement is not widely venerated in Eastern Christianity, the Coptic tradition considers him a saint. The Clementine Homilies and other writings may be of interest.

The Doctrines of the Church are the Doctrines of Jesus.

Overseers and deacon

Clement often uses different terms for words like “overseers” or “appointed” than Luke used for the terms “elder” and “appointing”.

In writings concerning Corinth, there was a turnover or replacement of overseers.

He appears to use the words for “elders” and overseer interchangeably.

Ignatius writes years later of one bishop, numerous presbyters, and deacons using different terms for appoint.

More quotes

The Clementine Homilies (H), consisting of 20 books and survives in the original Greek.
Clementine Recognitions (R), for which the original Greek has been lost but exists in a Latin translation produced by Tyrannius Rufinus in 406.

The Epistles of Clement are two letters ascribed to Clement of Rome (fl. 96):

First Epistle of Clement;
Second Epistle of Clement, not by the same author;

"It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify, but your soul, adorning it with good works." Clement of Alexandria

"Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God." Clement of Alexandria

"If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes." Clement of Alexandria

"When lies have been accepted for some time, the truth always astounds with an air of novelty." Clement of Alexandria

"The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked the disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet, with a towel wrapped around His waist - He, who is the Lord of the universe!" Clement of Alexandria

"All our life is like a day of celebration for us; we are convinced, in fact, that God is always everywhere. We work while singing, we sail while reciting hymns, we accomplish all other occupations of life while praying." Clement of Alexandria

"If you enroll as one of God's people, then heaven is your country and God your lawgiver." Clement of Alexandria

"The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God." Clement of Alexandria

"Explain the Scriptures by the Scriptures.: Clement of Alexandria

"'Eat my flesh,' Jesus says, 'and drink my blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children." Clement of Alexandria

"The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise." Clement of Alexandria

"Above all Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings." Clement of Alexandria

"When you see your brother, you see God." Clement of Alexandria

"Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings." Clement of Alexandria

"There is one river of Truth which receives tributaries from every side." Clement of Alexandria

PRECEPTS OF CLEMENT

EXHORTATION TO ENDURANCE OR TO THE NEWLY BAPTIZED

Cultivate quietness in word, quietness in deed, likewise in speech and gait; and avoid impetuous eagerness. For then the mind will remain steady, and will not be agitated by your eagerness and so become weak and of narrow discernment and see darkly; nor will it be worsted by gluttony, worsted by boiling rage, worsted by the other passions, lying a ready prey to them. For the mind, seated on high on a quiet thrown looking intently towards God, must control the passions. By no means be swept away by temper in bursts of anger, nor be sluggish in speaking, nor all nervousness in movement; so that your quitness may be adorned by good proportion and your bearing may appear something divine and sacred. Guard also against the signs of arrogance, a haughty bearing, a lofty head, a dainty and high-treading footstep.

Let your speech be gentle towards those wyou meet, and your greetings kind; be modest towards women, and let your glance be turned to the ground. Be thoughtfull in all your talk, and give back a useful answer, adapting the utterance to the hearer's need, just so loud that it may be distinctly audible, neither escaping the ears of the company by reason of feebleness nor going to excess with too much noise. Take care never to speak what you have not weighed and pondered beforehand; nor interject your own words on the spur of the moment and in the midst of another's; for you must listen and converse in turn, with set times for speech and for silence. Learn gladly, and teach ungrudgingly; never hide wisdom for others by reason of a grudging spirit, nor through false modesty stand aloof from instruction. Submit to elders just as to fathers. Honour God's servants. Be first to practice wisdom and virtue. Do not wrangle with your friends, nor mock at them and play the buffoon. Firmly renounce falsehood, guile and insolence. Endure in silence, as a gentle and high-minded man, the arrogant and insolent.

Let everything you do be done for God, both deeds and words; and refer all that is yours to Christ; and constantly turn your soul to God; and lean your thought on the power of Christ, as if in some harbour by the divine light of the Saviour it were resting from all talk and action. And often by day communicate your thoughts to men, but most of all to God at night as well as by day; for let not much sleep prevail to keep you from your prayers and hymns to God, since long sleep is a rival of death. Show yourself always a partner of Christ who makes the divine ray shine from heaven; let Christ be to you continual and unceasing joy.

Relax not the tension of your soul with feasting and indulgence in drink, but consider what is needful to be enough for the body. And do not hasten early to meals before the time for dinner comes; but let your dinner be bread, and let earth's grasses and the ripe fruits of trees be set before you; and go to your meal with composure, showing no sign of raging gluttony. Be not a flesh-eater nor a lover of wine, when no sickness leads you to this as a cure. But in place of the pleasures that are in these, choose the joys that are in divine words and hymns, joys supplied to you by wisdom from God; and let heavenly meditation ever lead you upward to heaven.

And give up the many anxious cares about the body by taking comfort in hopes towards God; because for you He will provide all necessary things in sufficiency, food to support life, covering for the body, and protection against winter cold. For to your King belongs the whole earth and all that is produced from it; and God treats the bodily parts of His servants with exceeding care, as if they were His, like His own shrines and temples. On this account do not dread severe diseases, nor the approach of old age, which must be expected in time; for even disease will come to an end, when the whole-hearted purpose we do His commandments.

Knowing this, make your soul strong even in face of diseases; be of good courage, like a man in the arena, bravest to submit to his toils with strength unmoved. Be not utterly crushed in soul by grief, whether disease lies heavily upon you, or any other hardship befalls, but nobly confront toils with your understanding, even in the midst of your struggles rendering thanks to God; since His thoughts are wiser than men's, and such as it is not easy nor possible for men to find out. Pity those who are in distress, and ask for men the help that comes from God; for God will grant grace to His friend when he asks, and will provide succour for those in distress, wishing to make His power known to men, in the hope that, when they have come to full knowledge, they may return to God, and may enjoy eternal blessedness when the Son of God shall appear and restore good things to His own.

ὕπεικε πρεσβυτέροις ἴσα πατράσιν· τίμα θεράποντας θεοῦ·

ὕ elders of the fatherland; honor of god's healer;

-- 1933 -- 4245 -- 2470 -- 3962
ὕπεικε πρεσβυτέροις ἴσα πατράσιν
epieikés presbuteros isos patrasin

submit elder equal fathers

epieikés let down, retire
to resist no longer, but to give way, yield (of combatants)metaph. to yield to authority and admonition, to submit

3 patrasin Occurrences

Acts 7:44 KJV: Our fathers had the tabernacle

Hebrews 1:1 KJV: in time past unto the fathers by

Hebrews 8:9 KJV: I made with their fathers in the day

The Stromatas Book V

"IT would be tedious to review all the Prophets and the Law, specifying what is spoken in enigmas; for almost the whole Scripture gives its utterances in this way. It may suffice, I think, for any one possessed of intelligence, for the proof of the point in hand, to select a few examples.

32.1 Μακρὸν δ΄ ἂν εἴη πάντα ἐπεξιέναι τὰ προφητικὰ καὶ τὰ νομικὰ τὰ δι΄ αἰνιγμάτων εἰρημένα ἐπιλεγομένους. σχεδὸν γὰρ ἡ πᾶσα ὧδέ πως θεσπίζεται γραφή. ἀπόχρη δ΄͵ οἶμαι͵ τῷ γε νοῦν κεκτημένῳ εἰς ἔνδειξιν τοῦ προκειμένου ὀλίγα τινὰ ἐκτεθέντα παραδείγματα. 32.2

Now concealment is evinced in the reference of the seven circuits around the temple, which are made mention of among the Hebrews; and the equipment on the robe, indicating by the various symbols, which had reference to visible objects, the agreement which from heaven reaches down to earth. And the covering and the veil were variegated with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and linen. And so it was suggested that the nature of the elements contained the revelation of God. For purple is from water, linen from the earth; blue, being dark, is like the air, as scarlet is like fire."

In the midst of the covering and veil, where the priests were allowed to enter, was situated the altar of incense, the symbol of the earth placed in the middle of this universe; and from it came the fumes of incense. And that place intermediate between the inner veil, where the high priest alone, on prescribed days, was permitted to enter, and the external court which surrounded it— free to all the Hebrews— was, they say, the middlemost point of heaven and earth. But others say it was the symbol of the intellectual world, and that of sense. The covering, then, the barrier of popular unbelief, was stretched in front of the five pillars, keeping back those in the surrounding space.

So very mystically the five loaves are broken by the Saviour, and fill the crowd of the listeners. For great is the crowd that keep to the things of sense, as if they were the only things in existence. Cast your eyes round, and see, says Plato, that none of the uninitiated listen. Such are they who think that nothing else exists, but what they can hold tight with their hands; but do not admit as in the department of existence, actions and processes of generation, and the whole of the unseen. For such are those who keep by the five senses. But the knowledge of God is a thing inaccessible to the ears and like organs of this kind of people. Hence the Son is said to be the Father’s face, being the revealer of the Father’s character to the five senses by clothing Himself with flesh. But if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 5:25) For we walk by faith, not by sight, (2 Cor. 5:7) the noble apostle says. Within the veil, then, is concealed the sacerdotal service; and it keeps those engaged in it far from those without.

Again, there is the veil of the entrance into the holy of holies. Four pillars there are, the sign of the sacred tetrad of the ancient covenants. Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Jave, which is interpreted, Who is and shall be. The name of God, too, among the Greeks contains four letters.

Now the Lord, having come alone into the intellectual world, enters by His sufferings, introduced into the knowledge of the Ineffable, ascending above every name which is known by sound. The lamp, too, was placed to the south of the altar of incense; and by it were shown the motions of the seven planets, that perform their revolutions towards the south. For three branches rose on either side of the lamp, and lights on them; since also the sun, like the lamp, set in the midst of all the planets, dispenses with a kind of divine music the light to those above and to those below.

The golden lamp conveys another enigma as a symbol of Christ, not in respect of form alone, but in his casting light, at sundry times and various manners, (Heb.1:1) on those who believe in Him and hope, and who see by means of the ministry of the First-born. And they say that the seven eyes of the Lord are the seven spirits resting on the rod that springs from the root of Jesse.

ἔχει δέ τι καὶ ἄλλο αἴνιγμα ἡ λυχνία ἡ χρυσῆ τοῦ σημείου τοῦ Χριστοῦ͵ οὐ τῷ σχήματι μόνῳ͵ ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ φωτεμ βολεῖν πολυτρόπως καὶ πολυμερῶς τοὺς εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύοντας ἐλπίζοντάς τε καὶ βλέποντας διὰ τῆς τῶν πρωτοκτίστων διακονίας. 35.2 φασὶ δ΄ εἶναι ἑπτὰ ὀφθαλμοὺς κυρίου τὰ ἑπτὰ πνεύματα͵ τὰ 35.3 ἐπαναπαυόμενα τῇ ῥάβδῳ τῇ ἀνθούσῃ ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης Ἰεσσαί.

North of the altar of incense was placed a table, on which there was the exhibition of the loaves; for the most nourishing of the winds are those of the north. And thus are signified certain seats of churches conspiring so as to form one body and one assemblage.

And the things recorded of the sacred ark signify the properties of the world of thought, which is hidden and closed to the many.

And those golden figures, each of them with six wings, signify either the two bears, as some will have it, or rather the two hemispheres. And the name cherubim meant much knowledge. But both together have twelve wings, and by the zodiac and time, which moves on it, point out the world of sense. It is of them, I think, that Tragedy, discoursing of Nature, says:—

Unwearied Time circles full in perennial flow,

Producing itself. And the twin-bears

On the swift wandering motions of their wings,

Keep the Atlantean pole.

And Atlas, the unsuffering pole, may mean the fixed sphere, or better perhaps, motionless eternity. But I think it better to regard the ark, so called from the Hebrew word Thebotha, as signifying something else. It is interpreted, one instead of one in all places. Whether, then, it is the eighth region and the world of thought, or God, all-embracing, and without shape, and invisible, that is indicated, we may for the present defer saying. But it signifies the repose which dwells with the adoring spirits, which are meant by the cherubim.

For He who prohibited the making of a graven image, would never Himself have made an image in the likeness of holy things. Nor is there at all any composite thing, and creature endowed with sensation, of the sort in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, and the wings are the lofty ministers and energies of powers right and left; and the voice is delightsome glory in ceaseless contemplation. Let it suffice that the mystic interpretation has advanced so far.

Now the high priest’s robe is the symbol of the world of sense. The seven planets are represented by the five stones and the two carbuncles, for Saturn and the Moon. The former is southern, and moist, and earthy, and heavy; the latter aerial, whence she is called by some Artemis, as if Ærotomos (cutting the air); and the air is cloudy. And cooperating as they did in the production of things here below, those that by Divine Providence are set over the planets are rightly represented as placed on the breast and shoulders; and by them was the work of creation, the first week. And the breast is the seat of the heart and soul.

Differently, the stones might be the various phases of salvation; some occupying the upper, some the lower parts of the entire body saved. The three hundred and sixty bells, suspended from the robe, is the space of a year, the acceptable year of the Lord, proclaiming and resounding the stupendous manifestation of the Saviour. Further, the broad gold mitre indicates the regal power of the Lord, since the Head of the Church is the Savour. (Eph. 5:23) The mitre that is on it [i.e., the head] is, then, a sign of most princely rule; and otherwise we have heard it said, The Head of Christ is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 11:3); (2 Cor. 11:31) Moreover, there was the breastplate, comprising the ephod, which is the symbol of work, and the oracle ; and this indicated the Word by which it was framed, and is the symbol of heaven, made by the Word, and subjected to Christ, the Head of all things, inasmuch as it moves in the same way, and in a like manner. The luminous emerald stones, therefore, in the ephod, signify the sun and moon, the helpers of nature. The shoulder, I take it, is the commencement of the hand.

The twelve stones, set in four rows on the breast, describe for us the circle of the zodiac, in the four changes of the year. It was otherwise requisite that the law and the prophets should be placed beneath the Lord’s head, because in both Testaments mention is made of the righteous. For were we to say that the apostles were at once prophets and righteous, we should say well, since one and the self-same Holy Spirit works in all. (1 Cor. 12:11) And as the Lord is above the whole world, yea, above the world of thought, so the name engraven on the plate has been regarded to signify, above all rule and authority; and it was inscribed with reference both to the written commandments and the manifestation to sense. And it is the name of God that is expressed; since, as the Son sees the goodness of the Father, God the Saviour works, being called the first principle of all things, which was imaged forth from the invisible God first, and before the ages, and which fashioned all things which came into being after itself. Nay more, the oracle exhibits the prophecy which by the Word cries and preaches, and the judgment that is to come; since it is the same Word which prophesies, and judges, and discriminates all things.

And they say that the robe prophesied the ministry in the flesh, by which He was seen in closer relation to the world. So the high priest, putting off his consecrated robe (the universe, and the creation in the universe, were consecrated by Him assenting that, what was made, was good), washes himself, and puts on the other tunic— a holy-of-holies one, so to speak— which is to accompany him into the adytum; exhibiting, as seems to me, the Levite and Gnostic, as the chief of other priests (those bathed in water, and clothed in faith alone, and expecting their own individual abode), himself distinguishing the objects of the intellect from the things of sense, rising above other priests, hasting to the entrance to the world of ideas, to wash himself from the things here below, not in water, as formerly one was cleansed on being enrolled in the tribe of Levi. But purified already by the gnostic Word in his whole heart, and thoroughly regulated, and having improved that mode of life received from the priest to the highest pitch, being quite sanctified both in word and life, and having put on the bright array of glory, and received the ineffable inheritance of that spiritual and perfect man, which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man; and having become son and friend, he is now replenished with insatiable contemplation face to face.

For there is nothing like hearing the Word Himself, who by means of the Scripture inspires fuller intelligence. For so it is said, And he shall put off the linen robe, which he had put on when he entered into the holy place; and shall lay it aside there, and wash his body in water in the holy place, and put on his robe. (Lev. 16:23-24) But in one way, as I think, the Lord puts off and puts on by descending into the region of sense; and in another, he who through Him has believed puts off and puts on, as the apostle intimated, the consecrated stole. Thence, after the image of the Lord the worthiest were chosen from the sacred tribes to be high priests, and those elected to the kingly office and to prophecy were anointed.

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Brother Gregory
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