Exhortation to the Greeks 10.108
Summary: Even the old should turn to God and become like children; the citizen of heaven follows God's laws, written in the commandments and on the heart.
Greek text · Stählin 1:77
ἐσχάτης δουλείας λελυτρωμένοι. ὢ μακαριώτερα τῆς ἐν ἀνθρώποις πλάνης τὰ θηρία· ἐπινέμεται τὴν ἄγνοιαν, ὡς ὑμεῖς, οὐχ ὑποκρίνεται δὲ τὴν ἀλήθειαν· οὐκ ἔστι παρʼ αὐτοῖς κολάκων γένη, οὐ δεισιδαιμονοῦσιν ἰχθύες, οὐκ εἰδωλολατρεῖ τὰ ὄρνεα, ἕνα μόνον ἐκπλήττεται τὸν οὐρανόν, ἐπεὶ θεὸν νοῆσαι μὴ δύναται ἀπηξιωμένα τοῦ λόγου. εἶτʼ οὐκ αἰσχύνεσθε καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀλογωτέρους πεποιηκότες, οἳ διὰ τοσούτων ἡλικιῶν ἐν ἀθεότητι κατατέτριφθε; παῖδες γεγόνατε, εἶτα μειράκια, εἶτα ἔφηβοι, εἶτα ἄνδρες, χρηστοὶ δὲ οὐδέποτε. κἂν τὸ γῆρας αἰδέσθητε, ἐπὶ δυσμαῖς τοῦ βίου γενόμενοι σωφρονήσατε, κἂν ἐπὶ τέλει τοῦ βίου τὸν θεὸν ἐπίγνωτε, ὡς δὴ τὸ τέλος ὑμῖν τοῦ βίου ἀρχὴν ἀναλάβοι σωτηρίας. εἰ γηράσατε πρὸς δεισιδαιμονίαν, νέοι ἀφίκεσθε πρὸς θεοσέβειαν· παῖδας ἀκάκους ἐγκρινεῖ θεός. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀθηναῖος τοῖς Σόλωνος ἑπέσθω νόμοις καὶ ὁ Ἀργεῖος τοῖς Φορωνέως καὶ ὁ Σπαρτιάτης τοῖς Λυκούργου, εἰ δὲ σεαυτὸν ἀναγράφεις τοῦ θεοῦ, οὐρανὸς μέν σοι ἡ πατρίς, ὁ δὲ θεὸς νομοθέτης. τίνες δὲ καὶ οἱ νόμοι; »οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ παιδοφθορήσεις, οὐ κλέψεις, οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις, ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου.« εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ τούτων τὰ παραπληρώματα, λόγιοι νόμοι καὶ ἅγιοι λόγοι ἐν αὐταῖς ἐγγραφόμενοι ταῖς καρδίαις· »ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν,« καὶ »τῷ τύπτοντί σε εἰς τὴν σιαγόνα πάρεχε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην,« καὶ »οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις, ἐπιθυμίᾳ γὰρ μόνῃ
English · Claude translation
O, the beasts are more blessed than humankind in its error! They live in ignorance, as you do, but they do not pretend to the truth. There are no tribes of flatterers among them; fish are not superstitious; birds do not worship idols; they marvel at heaven alone, since, being deprived of reason, they cannot understand God. Are you not ashamed, then, to have made yourselves more irrational than the irrational animals, you who have worn yourselves out in godlessness through so many ages of life? You have been children, then boys, then youths, then men, but never good. At least respect your old age; now that you have come to the sunset of life, be wise; at least at the end of life, recognize God, so that the end of your life may become the beginning of salvation. If you have grown old in superstition, come young to godliness; God will enroll you as innocent children. Let the Athenian follow the laws of Solon, the Argive those of Phoroneus, and the Spartan those of Lycurgus; but if you enroll yourself as God's, heaven is your fatherland and God your lawgiver. And what are the laws? “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not corrupt boys, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall love the Lord your God.” And there are their complements, rational laws and holy words written on the hearts themselves: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and “To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also,” and “You shall not covet; for by desire alone …
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The commandments are from Exod 20:13–16 and Deut 6:5; “you shall not corrupt boys” is not in the Decalogue but is in the early Christian lists of Did. 2.2 and Barn. 19.4. The other quotations are Lev 19:18 (Matt 22:39), Luke 6:29, and Exod 20:17 with Matt 5:28. The sentence continues in the next section.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray space before the closing quotation mark; εἰ (“if”) mangled in the digital text): ἐ γηράσατε → εἰ γηράσατε; υτόν, « → υτόν,«; λλην, « → λλην,«.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/108/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/108/).
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