Exhortation to the Greeks 10.96
Summary: Clement urges his hearers not to be ashamed of the Christian name but to contend for the prize of immortality, ignoring those who deify men like Alexander.
Greek text · Stählin 1:70
πιστεύσατε ἡμῖν κἂν ὡς μέθῃ, ἵνα σωφρονήσητε· πιστεύσατε κἂν ὡς ὕβρει, ἵνα ζήσητε. εἰ δὲ καὶ πείθεσθαι βούλεσθε τὴν ἐναργῆ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐποπτεύσαντες πίστιν, φέρε ὑμῖν ἐκ περιουσίας τὴν περὶ τοῦ λόγου παραθήσομαι πειθώ. ὑμεῖς δέ, οὐ γὰρ τὰ πάτρια ὑμᾶς ἔτι τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπασχολεῖ ἔθη προκατηχημένους, ἀκούοιτʼ ἂν ἤδη τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ὅπως ἔχει· καὶ δὴ μή τις ὑμᾶς τοῦδε τοῦ ὀνόματος αἰσχύνη προκαταλαμβανέτω, »ἥτʼ ἄνδρας μέγα σίνεται,« παρατρέπουσα σωτηρίας. ἀποδυσάμενοι δʼ οὖν περιφανῶς ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας σταδίῳ γνησίως ἀγωνιζώμεθα, βραβεύοντος μὲν τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ἁγίου, ἀγωνοθετοῦντος δὲ τοῦ δεσπότου τῶν ὅλων. οὐ γὰρ σμικρὸν ἡμῖν τὸ ἆθλον ἀθανασία πρόκειται. μὴ οὖν ἔτι φροντίζετε μηδὲ [εἰ] ὀλίγον, τί ὑμᾶς ἀγορεύουσι σύρφακές τινες ἀγοραῖοι, δεισιδαιμονίας ἄθεοι χορευταί, ἀνοίᾳ καὶ παρανοίᾳ ἐς αὐτὸ ὠθούμενοι τὸ βάραθρον, εἰδώλων ποιηταὶ καὶ λίθων προσκυνηταί· οἵδε γὰρ ἀνθρώπους ἀποθεοῦν τετολμήκασι, τρισκαιδέκατον Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Μακεδόνα ἀναγράφοντες θεόν, »ὃν Βαβυλὼν
English · Claude translation
Believe us, at least as you would drunkenness, so that you may become sober; believe, at least as you would outrage, so that you may live. And if you wish to be persuaded by looking at the clear evidence of the virtues, come, I will set before you, out of abundance, the persuasion concerning the Word. And you (for your ancestral customs, in which you were instructed beforehand, no longer keep you from the truth) may now hear how the next point stands. And let no shame of this name take hold of you, “shame, which greatly harms men,” turning them aside from salvation. Stripping off, then, openly, let us contend truly in the stadium of truth, with the holy Word as umpire and the Master of the universe presiding over the games. For no small prize is set before us: immortality. So pay no more attention, not even a little, to what certain rabble of the marketplace say to you, godless dancers in the chorus of superstition, pushed by folly and madness into the very pit, makers of idols and worshipers of stones. For these have dared to make men gods, enrolling Alexander of Macedon as the thirteenth god, “whom Babylon …
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Shame, which greatly harms men” is from Homer, Iliad 24.44–45 (also Hesiod, Works and Days 317–318). The Athenians proposed to add Alexander the Great to the twelve Olympian gods. The sentence continues in the next section; the bracketed word is marked by the editor as spurious (to be deleted).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray space before the closing quotation mark): εται, « → εται,«.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/96/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/96/).
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