The Instructor 1.8.71
Summary: Christ's prayer in John 17 shows the one God to be both good and righteous: the Father is called good and the Son, his Word in the Father, just.
Greek text · Stählin 1:131–132
Ἀλλὰ ὅτι μὲν ἀγαθὸς ὁ θεός, καὶ ἄκοντες ὁμολογοῦσιν οἱ πάντες· ὅτι δὲ καὶ δίκαιος ὁ αὐτὸς θεός, οὔ μοι χρὴ πλειόνων ἔτι λόγων τὴν εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ κυρίου παραθεμένῳ φωνήν· ἓν μὲν αὐτὸν λέγει· »ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσι, καθὼς σύ, πάτερ, ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν σοί, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ἓν ὦσιν, ἵνα καὶ ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ, ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας. κἀγὼ τὴν δόξαν, ἣν ἔδωκάς μοι, δέδωκα αὐτοῖς, ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν· ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί, ἵνα ὦσι τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν·« ἓν δὲ ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἐπέκεινα τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτὴν μονάδα. διὸ καὶ τὸ »σύ« μόριον δεικτικὴν ἔχον ἔμφασιν τὸν ὄντως μόνον ὄντα, ὃς ἦν καὶ ἔστιν καὶ ἔσται, δείκνυσιν θεόν, καθʼ ὧν τριῶν χρόνων ἓν ὄνομα κεῖται »ὁ ὤν«. ὅτι δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς μόνος ὢν θεὸς καὶ δίκαιός ἐστιν [ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ μόνος ὄντως], ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ μαρτυρήσει κύριος εὐαγγελίῳ λέγων »πάτερ, οὓς ἔδωκάς μοι, θέλω ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγώ, κἀκεῖνοι ὦσι μετʼ ἐμοῦ, ἵνα θεωρῶσι τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἐμήν, ἣν ἔδωκάς μοι, ὅτι ἠγάπησάς με πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. πάτερ δίκαιε, καὶ ὁ κόσμος σε οὐκ ἔγνω, ἐγὼ δέ σε ἔγνων κἀκεῖνοι ἔγνωσαν, ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας· καὶ ἐγνώρισα αὐτοῖς τὸ ὄνομά σου καὶ γνωρίσω.« οὗτός ἐστιν »ὁ ἀποδιδοὺς ἁμαρτίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα τοῖς μισοῦσι καὶ ποιῶν ἔλεος τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν.« ὁ γὰρ ἱστὰς τοὺς μὲν ἐκ δεξιῶν, τοὺς δὲ ἐξ εὐωνύμων, καθὸ μὲν πατὴρ νοεῖται, ἀγαθὸς ὤν, αὐτὸ μόνον ὅ ἐστι κέκληται, ἀγαθός, καθὸ δέ, υἱὸς ὤν, ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ πατρί ἐστι, δίκαιος προσαγορεύεται ἐκ τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα σχέσεως ἀγάπης, ἰσότητι μεμετρημένον † ὄνομα δυνάμεως.
English · Claude translation
That God is good, all admit, even against their will. That the same God is also just, I need no more words to show, once I have set down the Lord's saying in the Gospel. He calls him one: “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you have given me I have given them, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” God is one, and beyond the one, and above the Monad itself. So also the word “you,” having demonstrative force, points out God, the only one who truly is, “who was and is and will be,” for whom, in the three tenses, the one name “He who is” is set. That the same God who alone is is also just, the Lord will bear witness in the same Gospel, saying: “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me; and I have made your name known to them, and will make it known.” This is he “who visits the sins of the fathers on the children of those who hate him, and shows mercy to those who love him.” For he who sets some on the right hand and others on the left, insofar as he is understood as Father, being good, is called by that alone which he is, good; but insofar as, being Son, his Word is in the Father, he is called just, † a name of power measured by equality, from their relation of love to each other.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are John 17:21–23, John 17:24–26 (“Righteous Father”), and Exod 20:5–6; the allusions are Rev 1:4, 8, Exod 3:14 (LXX “He who is”), and Matt 25:33.
- The dagger marks a text the editor considers corrupt; the last clause is uncertain in sense.
- The point is again anti-Marcionite: the good Father and the just God are one and the same.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.8.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/8/71/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.8.71 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/8/71/).
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