The Instructor 1.9.82
Summary: Solomon and even Plato teach that reproof, a blow to the soul, purifies and saves from death; God is no terror to those who do good.
Greek text · Stählin 1:138
ταύτῃ τοι καὶ διὰ Σολομῶντος παραγγέλλεται· »σὺ μὲν ῥάβδῳ πάταξον τὸν υἱόν, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐκ θανάτου ῥῦσαι.« καὶ πάλιν· »μὴ ἀπόσχῃ νήπιον παιδεύων. εὔθυναι δὲ αὐτὸν ῥάβδῳ, οὐ γὰρ θανεῖται.« Ἔλεγχος γὰρ καὶ ἐπίπληξις, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ τοὔνομα αἰνίττεται, αὗται πληγαὶ ψυχῆς εἰσι, σωφρονίζουσαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ θάνατον ἀπείργουσαι, εἰς δὲ τὴν σωφροσύνην ἄγουσαι τοὺς εἰς ἀκολασίαν ὑποφερομένους. ταύτῃ τοι καὶ Πλάτων τὴν μεγίστην τῆς ἐπανορθώσεως δύναμιν καὶ τὴν κυριωτάτην κάθαρσιν τὸν ἔλεγχον εἰδὼς ἀκολούθως τῷ λόγῳ τὸν τὰ μέγιστα ἀκάθαρτον ὄντα ἀπαίδευτόν τε καὶ αἰσχρὸν γεγονέναι διὰ τὸ ἀνέλεγκτον εἶναι βούλεται, ᾗ καθαρώτατον καὶ κάλλιστον ἔπρεπεν τὸν ὄντως ἐσόμενον εὐδαίμονα εἶναι. εἰ γὰρ »οἱ ἄρχοντες οὐκ εἰσὶ φόβος τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἔργῳ«, πῶς ὁ φύσει ἀγαθὸς θεὸς φόβος ἔσται τῷ μὴ ἁμαρτάνοντι;
English · Claude translation
So it is also commanded through Solomon: “Strike your son with the rod, and you will deliver his soul from death.” And again: “Do not refrain from disciplining a child; correct him with the rod, for he will not die.” Reproof and reprimand (epiplēxis), as the name itself suggests, are blows (plēgai) to the soul, chastening sins and warding off death, and leading to self-control those who are carried away into licentiousness. So Plato too, knowing that reproof is the greatest power of correction and the most sovereign purification, holds, consistently, that the one who is most impure has become uneducated and shameful because he has not been reproved, whereas the one who is truly to be happy ought to be most pure and most beautiful. For if “rulers are not a terror to good conduct,” how will God, good by nature, be a terror to one who does not sin?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Prov 23:14 and 23:13, Plato, Sophist 230d–e (paraphrased), and Rom 13:3.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.9.82 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/9/82/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.9.82 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/9/82/).
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