The Instructor 1.5.22
Summary: The saved rejoice like Isaac; the church, the bride, is called patience, and Christ the King looks down on her joy.
Greek text · Stählin 1:103
τί γὰρ ἄλλο εὐπρεπὲς ἔργον σοφῷ καὶ τελείῳ ἢ παίζειν καὶ συνευφραίνεσθαι τῇ τῶν καλῶν ὑπομονῇ καὶ τῇ διοικήσει τῶν καλῶν, συμπανηγυρίζοντα τῷ θεῷ; ἔστι καὶ ἄλλως ὑπολαβεῖν τὸ ὑπὸ τῆς προφητείας μηνυόμενον χαίροντας ἡμᾶς καὶ γελῶντας ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ὡς τὸν Ἰσαάκ. ἐγέλα δὲ κἀκεῖνος τοῦ θανάτου λελυμένος, παίζων καὶ ἀγαλλιώμενος σὺν τῇ νύμφῃ τῇ εἰς σωτηρίαν ἡμῶν βοηθῷ, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ᾗ ὑπομονὴ ὄνομα πάγιον τέθειται, ἤτοι ἐπεὶ μόνη αὕτη εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας μένει χαίρουσα ἀεὶ ἢ ἐξ ὑπομονῆς τῶν πιστευόντων συνέστηκεν, οἵ ἐσμεν μέλη Χριστοῦ· καὶ ἡ τῶν εἰς τέλος ὑπομεινάντων μαρτυρία καὶ ἡ ἐπὶ τούτοις εὐχαριστία, αὕτη [δέ] ἐστιν ἡ μυστικὴ παιδιὰ καὶ ἡ σὺν τῇ σεμνῇ θυμηδίᾳ βοηθοῦσα σωτηρία. ὁ γοῦν βασιλεὺς ὁ Χριστὸς ἄνωθεν ἡμῶν ἐπισκοπεῖ τὸν γέλωτα καὶ »διακύψας τῆς θυρίδος«, ὥς φησιν ἡ γραφή, τὴν εὐχαριστίαν καὶ τὴν εὐλογίαν ἀγαλλίασίν τε καὶ εὐφροσύνην, ἔτι τε ὑπομονὴν συνεργοῦσαν, καὶ τὴν τούτων συμπλοκήν, τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἐποπτεύει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ, μόνον ἐπιδεικνὺς τὸ πρόσωπον τὸ αὑτοῦ τὸ λεῖπον τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ,
English · Claude translation
For what other work is fitting for the wise and perfect than to play and rejoice together in the patience of good things and the ordering of good things, keeping festival with God? The message of the prophecy can also be understood in another way: that we rejoice and laugh at our salvation, like Isaac. He too laughed, freed from death, playing and rejoicing with the bride who is our helper for salvation, the church. The fixed name of patience has been given her, either because she alone remains forever, always rejoicing, or because she is composed of the patience of believers, who are members of Christ. And the witness of those who endured to the end, and the thanksgiving for them, is the mystic play and the salvation that helps us, with holy joy. So Christ the King looks down from above on our laughter, and, “looking out through the window,” as Scripture says, he beholds the thanksgiving and the blessing, the exultation and gladness, and also the patience that works with them, and their union, the church, his own; showing only his face, which is lacking to the church,
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Looking out through the window” is Gen 26:8. The sentence continues in the next section. The bracketed word is marked by the editor as spurious (to be deleted).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/5/22/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/5/22/).
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