The Instructor 2.8.75
Summary: The Word who appeared to Moses in the thorny bush at the giving of the law was crowned with thorns at his departure, showing that all is the work of one power.
Greek text · Stählin 1:203
Ἔχοιμʼ ἄν σοι καὶ ἄλλο μυστικὸν ἐνταῦθα εἰπεῖν. ἐπεὶ γὰρ ὁ παγκρατὴς κύριος τῶν ὅλων, ὁπηνίκα νομοθετεῖν ἤρχετο τῷ λόγῳ, [καὶ] τῷ Μωσεῖ καταφανῆ ἐβούλετο γενέσθαι τὴν αὑτοῦ δύναμιν, ὄψις αὐτῷ δείκνυται θεοειδὴς φωτὸς μεμορφωμένου ἐπὶ φλεγομένῳ βάτῳ· τὸ δὲ ἀκανθῶδες φυτόν ἐστιν, ὁ βάτος· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐπαύσατο τῆς νομοθεσίας καὶ τῆς εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιδημίας ὁ λόγος, ὁ κύριος μυστικῶς αὖθις ἀναστέφεται ἀκάνθῃ, ἐνθένδε ἀπιὼν ἐκεῖσε ὅθεν κατῆλθεν, ἀνακεφαλαιούμενος τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς καθόδου τῆς παλαιᾶς, ὅπως ὁ διὰ βάτου τὸ πρῶτον ὀφθείς, ὁ λόγος, διὰ τῆς ἀκάνθης ὕστερον ἀναληφθεὶς μιᾶς ἔργον τὰ πάντα δείξῃ δυνάμεως, εἷς ὢν ἑνὸς ὄντος τοῦ πατρός, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος αἰῶνος.
English · Claude translation
I could tell you something else mystical here. When the almighty Lord of all began to give the law by the Word, and wished his power to be made plain to Moses, a godlike vision of light in form was shown to him in a burning bush; and the bush is a thorny plant. And when the Word ceased from giving the law and from his sojourn among human beings, the Lord was mystically crowned again with thorn, departing from here to where he came down from, summing up the beginning of his former descent; so that the Word, who was first seen through the bush and later taken up through the thorn, might show that all things are the work of one power, being himself one, of the one Father, the beginning and end of the age.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Exod 3:2 (the burning bush) and Rev 22:13; “summing up” (ἀνακεφαλαιούμενος) recalls Eph 1:10 and Irenaeus's teaching of recapitulation. The bracketed word is marked by the editor as spurious (to be deleted).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray raised point in the digital text): εἷς ὢν ἑνὸς· ὄντος τοῦ πατρός → εἷς ὢν ἑνὸς ὄντος τοῦ πατρός.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.8.75 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/8/75/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.8.75 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/8/75/).
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