The Instructor 1.3.7
Summary: God, who forgives as God and trains as man, loves the human being as his own handiwork, into whom he breathed something of himself.
Greek text · Stählin 1:94
Πάντα ὀνίνησιν ὁ κύριος καὶ πάντα ὠφελεῖ καὶ ὡς ἄνθρωπος καὶ ὡς θεός, τὰ μὲν ἁμαρτήματα ὡς θεὸς ἀφιείς, εἰς δὲ τὸ μὴ ἐξαμαρτάνειν παραπαιδαγωγῶν ὡς ἄνθρωπος. εἰκότως ἄρα φίλος ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῷ θεῷ, ἐπεὶ καὶ πλάσμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν. καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα κελεύων μόνον πεποίηκεν, τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον διʼ αὑτοῦ ἐχειρούργησεν καί τι αὐτῷ ἴδιον ἐνεφύσησεν. τὸ οὖν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπεικονισμένον ἢ ὡς διʼ αὑτὸ αἱρετὸν τῷ θεῷ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ δεδημιούργηται τοῦ θεοῦ ἢ ὡς ἕνεκεν ἄλλου αἱρετὸν διαπέπλασται. εἰ μὲν οὖν διʼ αὑτὸ αἱρετὸν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀγαθὸς ὢν ἀγαθὸν ἠγάπησεν, καὶ τὸ φίλτρον ἔνδον ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, τοῦθʼ ὅπερ ἐμφύσημα εἴρηται θεοῦ· εἰ δὲ ἕνεκεν τῶν ἄλλων ὁ ἄνθρωπος αἱρετὸν γέγονεν, οὐκ ἄλλην αἰτίαν ἔσχεν τοῦ ποιεῖν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς ἢ ὡς οὐκ ἄνευ αὐτοῦ οἵου τε ὄντος τὸν μὲν γενέσθαι δημιουργὸν ἀγαθόν, τὸν δὲ εἰς γνῶσιν ἀφικέσθαι θεοῦ (οὐ γὰρ ἄλλως ἂν τὸ οὗ ἕνεκεν ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός, εἰ μὴ ἄνθρωπος ἐγεγόνει), καὶ ἣν εἶχεν ἐναποκεκρυμμένην ἰσχύν, τὸ βούλεσθαι, ὁ θεὸς διὰ τῆς ἔξωθεν τοῦ πεποιηκέναι προσανεπλήρωσεν δυνάμεως, λαβὼν παρὰ ἀνθρώπου ὃ πεποίηκεν ἄνθρωπον καὶ ὃ εἶχεν εἶδεν καὶ γέγονεν ὃ ἠθέλησεν·
English · Claude translation
The Lord helps us in all things and benefits us in all things, both as man and as God: as God he forgives our sins, and as man he trains us not to sin. Naturally, then, the human being is dear to God, since he is his creature. The other things he made by command alone, but the human being he shaped with his own hands and breathed into him something of his own. So what was fashioned by him and in his likeness was made by God either because it is desirable to God for its own sake, or it was formed as desirable for the sake of something else. If the human being is desirable for his own sake, then God, being good, loved what is good; and the love charm is within the human being, that very thing which is called God's breath. But if the human being was made desirable for the sake of other things, God had no other reason for making him than that without him God could not have become a good Creator, nor could man have come to the knowledge of God (for God would not otherwise have made that for which the human being was made, had the human being not been made). And the power which God had hidden within himself, his will, he fulfilled by the power of making that was outside him, receiving from man that for which he made man; and he saw what he had, and what he willed came to be.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The argument is scholastic in form (a dilemma: desirable for its own sake or for another's). The last sentence is difficult; the translation follows its most likely sense.
- The allusion is Gen 2:7 (God forming man and breathing into him).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.3.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/3/7/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.3.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/3/7/).
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