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Clement of Alexandria: The Instructor
William Wilson; ANF02 (1885) · Edition commentary
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Book III. — Translator and historical edition notes (part 2)
τουτοις, an emendation for τούτῳ.
Odyss., xi. 65.
Iliad, i. 591.
Ecclus. xxxi. 20.
Shem and Japheth.
see Ecclus. xxxi. 19, where, however, we have a different reading.
Limpet-shaped cups. [On this chapter consult Kaye, p. 74.]
1 Cor. vii. 29, 30.
Matt. xix. 21.
Baruch iii. 16–19.
Or, proud.
[See Elucidation I. ἐνστάσεσιν τοῦ Χριστιανοῦ.]
καλοῦ.
Hag. i. 6.
1 Tim. vi. 10.
The reading ἅλυσις is here adopted. The passage is obscure.
Rom. xiii. 12, 13.
[He distinguishes between the lewd music of Satanic odes (Tatian, cap. xxxiii. p. 79, supra), and another art of music of which he will soon speak.]
Ps. cl. 3, 5.
Col. iii. 16.
[Here instrumental music is allowed, though he turns everything into a type.]
Ps. xxxiii. 1–3.
[Even the heathen had such forms. The Christian grace before and after meat is here recognised as a matter of course. 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.]
Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.
[Besides the hymn on lighting the lamps, he notes completory prayer at bedtime.]
Wisd. Sirach (Ecclus.) xxxix. 15, 16.
Ps. cxlix. 3.
Ps. cxlix. 1, 2.
Ps. clxix. 4.
[Observe the contrast between the modest harmonies he praises, and the operatic strains he censures. Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin ceremonial.]
[On gluttony and drinking, our author borrows much from Plato. Kaye, p. 74.]
Or, society.
Matt. vii. 18; Luke vi. 43.
[Our author is a terrible satirist; but it is instructive to see Christianity thus prescribing the minor morals, and banishing pagan brutality with holy scorn.]
Ecclus. xxi. 20.
Odyss., xiv. 463–466.
Matt. xv. 18.
[May the young Christian who reads this passage learn to abhor all freedom of speech of this kind. This is a very precious chapter.]
Eph. iv. 29.
Eph. v. 3, 4.
Matt. v. 22, xii. 36.
Matt. xii. 37.
Rom. xii. 9.
[How then can Christians frequent theatrical shows, and listen to lewd and profane plays?]
Gen. ix. 23.
Ex. xx. 14, 17.
[An example may not be out of place, as teaching how we may put such things to silence. “Since the ladies have withdrawn,” said one, “I will tell a little anecdote.” “But,” interposed a dignified person, “let me ask you to count me as representing the ladies; for I am the husband of one of them, and should be sorry to hear what would degrade me in her estimation.”]
Prov. x. 19.
Ecclus. xx. 5.
Ecclus. xx. 8.
Ecclus. xxxi. 31.
Prov. xiv. 3.
Eph. v. 4.
Ecclus. xiv. 1.
Ecclus. ix. 9. [i.e., reclining at the table.]
Ecclus. ix. 9.
Ecclus. xxxi. 16–18.
Ecclus. xxxii. 11.
Acts. vi. 2.
Acts xv. 23, 28, 29.
Prov. x. 14.
Prov. xxiv. 28; Ex. xxiii. 1.
Ecclus. xxxii. 3, 4, 8.
[A primitive form of Christian salutation, borrowed from the great Example. John xx. 19.]
Iliad, ii. 213.
Ecclus. ix. 18.
Ecclus. ix. 15.
[“Against such there is no law.” Emollit Mores, etc.]
Matt. xxvi. 7, etc.
Luke vii. 47.
Ps. xix. 4; Rom. x. 18.
Ps. cxxxii.
[We need not refuse this efflorescence as poetry, nor accept it as exposition.]
Matt. xxvi. 23.
Isa. xxix. 13.
John xiii. 5.
2 Cor. ii. 14–16.
Ps. xlv. 7, 8.
[Considering the use of incense in Hebrew worship, and the imagery of the Apocalypse, the emphasis with which the Fathers reject material incense, is to be noted.]
Ecclus. xxxviii. 1, 2, 8.
[An idyllic passage illustrative of our author’s delight in rural scenes and pleasures.]
[Christianity delights in natural beauty, and always associates its enjoyment with praise to its Author. Ecclus. xliii. 11.]
Prov. xvii. 6.
[This was a marked characteristic of Christian manners at war with heathenism.]
[ “Immortal amaranth, a flower which once In Paradise fast by the tree of life Began to bloom.” Paradise Lost, iii. 352.]
Matt. xxvii. 29.
Isa. i. 3.
1 Cor. xv. 55.
[See note 10, p. 253. The beauty of this mysticism need not be pointed out, but it need not be pressed as exposition.]
[This illustrates, in part, the difference between the esoteric, or mystic, and the more popular teaching of our author.]
Ecclus. xxxix. 13, 14.
Ecclus. xxxix. 26, 27.
[Family prayers, apparently.]
See p. 258, infra. Sleep, he supposes, frees the soul as really, not so absolutely, as death:— “Th’ immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook.” Penseroso, line 91.]
Iliad, x. 155. [Note the Scriptural moderation with which he censures, recognising what is allowable, and rejecting the “pride that apes humility.”]
Luke xii. 35–37. [Concerning “sleep,” see p. 259, infra.]
[Holy men, on waking in the night, have always used ejaculations, even when unable to rise. Ps. cxix. 62; Acts xvi. 25.]
John i. 5.
John i. 3, 4.
Prov. viii. 34.
1 Thess. v. 5–8.
[Does our author here use the term “regeneration” with reference to the restitution of all things? (Matt. xix. 20; Acts iii. 21.) He touched upon the subject above, speaking of one that is illuminated: then he begins upon the true life, and to this he may refer. But it strikes me, that naming Lot, his place in the dispensations of grace strikes him as needing some comment, and so he apologizes for passing on.]
[See note 7 supra, p. 257. Here the immaterial soul is recognised as wholly independent of bodily organs, and sleep is expounded as the image of death freeing the mind.]
[The psychology of Clement is noteworthy, but his ethical reflections are pure gold.]
For obvious reasons, we have given the greater part of this chapter in the Latin version. [Much of this chapter requires this sacrifice to a proper verecundia; but the learned translators have possibly been too cautious, erring, however, on the right side of the question.]
[For the substance of this chapter, see Kaye, p. 84.]
Gen. i. 27, 28.
Deut. xiv. 7.
[He lays down the law, that marriage was instituted for the one result of replenishing the earth; and he thinks certain unclean animals of the Mosaic system to be types of the sensuality which is not less forbidden to the married than to others.]
Rom. i. 26, 27.
Jer. xii. 9. [The empirical science of the day is here enlarged upon, by Clement, for he cannot forbear to make lust detestable by a natural parable of the foul hyæna.]
Ex. xx. 14.
Jer. v. 8.
Lev. xviii. 22.
Lev. xviii. 20.
Prov. xix. 29.
Ecclus. xxiii. 4, 5, 6.
Gen. ii. 23.
[Tamen possunt senes et steriles matrimonium sanctum contrahere, et de re conjugali aliter docet Lanctantius de naturâ singulari mulierum argute disserens: q. v. in libro ejus de vero cultu, vi. cap. 23, p. 280, ed. Basiliæ 1521.]
[Naturâ duce, sub lege Logi, omnia fidelibus licent non omnia tamen expediunt. Conf Paulum, I., Ad Corinth, vi. 12.]
Eph. v. 3.
[He has argued powerfully on the delicacy and refinement which should be observed in Christian marriage, to which Lactantius in the next age will be found attributing the glory of chastity, as really as to a pure celibacy. He now continues the argument in a form which our translators do not scruple to English.]
Ecclus. xxiii. 18, 19.
Isa. xxix. 15.
John i. 5.
Wisd. vii. 10 is probably referred to.
Matt xxii. 30.
That is, the Jewish.
1 Cor. vi. 15.
[1 Cor. x. 8; Num. xxv. 1–9. Clement says twenty-four thousand, with the Old Testament, but St. Paul says twenty-three thousand; on which, ad locum, see Speaker’s Commentary.]
Ecclus. xviii. 30.
Ecclus. xix. 2, 3, 5.
[Right reason is the best remedy against all excesses, argues our author, but always subject to the express law of the Gospel.]
Chap. xi. is not a separate chapter in the Greek, but appears as part of chap. x.
Luke xii. 22, 23.
Luke xii. 24.
Luke xii. 24.
Luke xii. 27.
Luke xii. 28.
μετέωρος
Matt. vi. 32.
Clement uses here Platonic language, δόξα meaning opinion established on no scientific basis, which may be true or may be false, and ἐπιστήμη knowledge sure and certain, because based on the reasons of things.
[Martial, Epigrams, passim.]
[The reproach and opprobrium of foppery.]
Dan. vii. 9.
Rev. vi. 9, 11.
[This refers to the natural tint of unbleached linen, or to wool not whitened by the art of the fuller. Hermas speaks of “pure undressed linen.” Book iii. 4, p. 40, supra.]
[The colour (probably, for mss. differ) reprehended as the dress of the false shepherd in Hermas. See note 10, book iii. Simil. 6. cap. ii. p. 36, this volume.]
Ecclus. xi. 4.
Luke vii. 25.
Prodicus, of the island Ceus.
Or by a conjectural emendation of the text, “If in this we must relax somewhat in the case of women.”
Various kinds of robes. [The peplus, or shawl of fine wool, seems to be specified in condemning the boast below, which asserts real wool and no imitation.]
Alluding to the practice of covering the fleeces of sheep with skins, when the wool was very fine, to prevent it being soiled by exposure.
Mark i. 6.
2 Kings i. 8.
Isa. xx. 2.
Jer. xiii. 1.
[The bearing of this chapter on ecclesiastical vestments must be evident. It is wholly inconsistent with aught but very simple attire in public worship; and rebukes even the fashionable costumes of women and much of our mediæval æstheticism, with primitive severity. On the whole subject, see the Vestiarium Christianum of the Rev. Wharton B. Marriott. London, Rivingtons, 1868.]
[Based upon the idea that Joseph’s coat of many colours, which was afterwards dipped in blood, was a symbol of our Lord’s raiment, on which lots were cast.]
Ps. civ. 2.
[Women’s tunics tucked up to give freedom to the knee, are familiar objects in ancient art.]
Iliad, v. 83.
Flax grown in the island of Amorgos.
[Matt. vi. 25.]
[It was such designs which early Christian art endeavoured to supplant, by the devices on lamps, ΧΡ, ΑΩ., etc.]
υποδεδεσθαι τῷ δεδέσθαι. “Wearing boots is near neighbour to wearing bonds.”
κονιποδες.
Mark. i. 7; Luke iii. 16. [It was reserved for Chrysostom to give a more terrible counterblast against costly chaussure, in commenting upon Matt. xvi. 13, et seq. Opera, tom. vii. p. 502, ed. Migne.]
[Amber is referred to, and the extravagant values attributed to it. The mysterious enclosure of bees and other insects in amber, gave it superstitious importance. Clement may have fancied these to be remnants of a pre-adamite earth.]
Matt. vi. 33.
1 Cor. x. 23.
[Chrysostom enlarges on this Christian thought most eloquently, in several of his homilies: e.g., on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Hom. xxi. tom. x. p. 178. Opp., ed. Migne.]
Iliad, ii. 872.
[The necklace called κάθεμα or κάθημα seems to be referred to. Ezek. xvi. 11, and Isa. iii. 19, Sept.]
Ἐλλόβιον by conjecture, as more suitable to the connection than Ἐλλέβορον or Ἐλέβορον. Hellebore of the ms., though Hellebore may be intended as a comic ending.
[The Greek satirist seems to have borrowed Isaiah’s catalogue. cap. iii. 18–23.]
Luke. xii. 19, 20.
Zeph. i. 18.
Logos is identified with reason; and it is by reason, or the ingenuity of man, that gold is discovered and brought to light. [But here he seems to have in view the comparisons between gold and wisdom, in Job xxviii.]
εἴ´δωλον, an appearance, an image.
Hos. ii. 8.
Hos. ii. 13.
By mistake for Paul. Clement quotes here, as often, from memory (1 Tim. ii. 9, 10).
Prov. xix. 17.
Prov. x. 4.
[Eph. vi. 15.]
Prov. iii. 13–15.
1 Cor. ii. 9.
[On this book, Kaye’s comments extend from p. 91 to p. 111 of his analysis.]
[Note this psychological dissection. Compare Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, book vi. cap. 2, ἄισθησις, νοῦς, ὂρεξις, sense, intellect, appetition. Also, book i. cap. 11, or 13 in some editions.]
Odyss., iv. 456–458.
Phil. ii. 7.
1 Cor. xiii. 4.
Isa. liii. 2, 3. [But see also Ps. xlv. 2, which was often cited by the ancients to prove the reverse. Both may be reconciled; he was a fair and comely child like his father David; but, as “the man of sorrows,” he became old in looks, and his countence was marred. For David’s beauty, see 1 Sam. xvi. 12. For our Lord’s at twelve years of age, when the virgin was seeking her child, Canticles, v. 7–16. For his appearance at three and thirty, when the Jews only ventured to credit him with less than fifty years, John viii. 57. See also Irenæus, Against Heresies, cap. xxii. note 12, p. 391, this series.]