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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 3)
Aristophanes, Lysistrata.
[John xvii. 17. “Thy word is truth,” is here in mind; and, soon after, he speaks of the Scriptures and the Word (Logos) in the same way.]
[He rebukes heathen women out of their own poets; while he warns Christian women also to resist the contagion of their example, fortified by the Scriptures.]
Prov. ix. 11.
[This is worth noting. Worse than love of wine, because he regards a love for finery as tending to loss of chastity.]
Wealth.
1 Thess. ii. 17.
Jer. iv. 30.
2 Cor. iv. 18.
1 Sam. xvi. 7.
2 Cor. v. 7.
Iphigenia in Aulis, 71–77.
[The law was the pædagogue of the Jews (Gal. iii. 24); and therefore, as to Gentiles, they were a law unto themselves (Rom. ii. 14, 15), with some truth in their philosophy to guide them.]
Phaethon of Euripides.
Gen. vi. 1, 2. [It is surprising with what tenacity this interpretation clings to the ancient mind of the Church. The Nephilim and Gibborim need a special investigation. The Oriental tales of the genii are probably connected with their fabulous history.]
[Heathen manners are here depicted as a warning to Christians. We cannot suppose Christians, as yet, to any extent, corrupted in their manners by fashion and frivolity; for to be a Christian excluded one from temptations of this kind.]
[Query, De re Nicotiana?]
[Smelling of Nicotine?]
Dan. vii. 9. [A truly eloquent passage.]
Matt. v. 36.
Ecclus. xxv. 6.
Eph. iv. 20–24.
[On the other hand, this was Esau’s symbol; and the sensual “satyrs” (Isa. xiii. 2) are “hairy goats,” in the original. So also the originals of “devils” in Lev. xvii. 7, and 2 Chron. xi. 15. See the learned note of Mr. West, in his edition of Leighton, vol. v. p. 161.]
Matt. x. 30.
έγκαταριθμένην seems to be here used in a middle, not a passive sense, as καταριθμημένος is sometimes.
2 Cor. xiii. 5.
[Such were the manners with which the Gospel was forced everywhere to contend. That they were against nature is sufficiently clear from the remains of decency in some heathen. Herodotus (book i. cap. 8) tells us that the Lydians counted it disgraceful even for a man to be seen naked.]
Deut. xxiii. 17.
Rom. viii. 28, 29.
Lev. xix. 29.
[When the loss of the beard was a token of foppery and often of something worse, shaving would be frivolity; but here he treats of extirpation.]
Ps. cxxxiii. 2.
Ecclus. xix. 29, 30.
Hesiod, Works and Days, i. 232.
Of which they drink.
[He took upon him our nature, flesh and blood. Heb. ii. 14–16.]
1 Sam. viii. 13.
Ex. xxiii. 2.
Ecclus. ix. 7.
Ecclus. xi. 29.
Ecclus. ix. 16.
Eph. v. 5.
φοξός, in allusion to Thersites, to which Homer applies this epithet.
[The wasting on pet dogs, pups, and other animals, expense and pains which might help an orphan child, is a sin not yet uprooted. Here Clement’s plea for widows, orphans, and aged men, prepares the way for Christian institutions in behalf of these classes. The same arguments should prevail with Christians in America.]
Prov. xix. 17.
Matt. xxv. 40.
Prov. x. 4.
Hesiod, Works and Days, ii. 371.
[Such were women before the Gospel came. See note to Hermas, cap. xi. note 1, p. 47, this volume, and Elucidation (p. 57) of the same.]
[The barbarians were more decent than the Greeks, being nearer to the state of nature, which is a better guide than pagan civilization. But see the interesting note of Rawlinson (Herod., vol. i. p. 125, ed. New York), who quotes Thucydides (i. 6) to prove the recent invasion of immodest exposure even among athletes. Our author has this same quotation in mind, for he almost translates it here.]
[Attic girls raced in the games quite naked. Spartan girls wore only the linen chiton, even in the company of men; and this was esteemed nudity, not unjustly. David’s “uncovering himself” (2 Sam. vi. 20) was nudity of the same sort. Married women assumed to peplus.]
Matt. v. 28.
John i. 3.
Prov. viii. 10, 11.
Prov. viii. 19.
Prov. xi. 24.
Ps. cxii. 9.
Matt. vii. 7, 8.
Prov. iii. 5.
1 Kings xix. 4, 6.
Luke x. 4.
Prov. xiii. 8.
[Kaye, p. 97.]
[A beautiful apophthegm, and admirably interpretative of Ps. xxxvii. 25.]
Deut. viii. 3; Matt. iv. 4.
The word used by Clement here for frugality is εύτέλεια, and he supposes the word to mean originally “spending well.” A proper way of spending money is as good as unfailing riches, since it always has enough for all that is necessary.
[This plea for similitudes illustrates the principle of Hermas, and the ground of the currency of his Pastor.]
Euripides, Orestes, 588–590.
Hesiod, Works and Days, i. 291.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Jude 5, 6.
Following Lowth’s conjecture of κακοφρόνων insteasd of that of the text, κακόφρονας.
[The morals of Clement as to decency in bathing need to be enforced among modern Christians, at seaside places of resort.]
ἀνθρωπογναφεῖα.
Matt. xxiii. 27.
Matt. xxiii. 25, 26.
Isa. iv. 4.
Isa. iv. 4.
Prov. xxxi. 19, 20, Septuagint.
Gen. xviii. 6.
Gen. xxix. 9.
Ibid.
φενίνδα or φεννίς.
The text has ἦλθεν. The true reading, doubtless, is ᾖληθεν. That Pittacus exercised himself thus, is stated by Isidore of Pelusium, Diogenes, Laertius, Plutarch.
Gen. xxx. 37. Not “poplar,” as in A.V. [See Abp. Leighton on “Laban’s lambs,” Comm. on St. Peter, part i. p. 360, and questionable note of an admirable editor, same page.]
Gen. xviii. 8.
[The old canons allowed to clergymen the recreation of fishing, but not the chase, or fowling. Of this, the godly Izaak Walton fails not to remind us. Complete Angler, p. 38, learned note, and preface by the late Dr. Bethune. New York, 1847.]
1 Pet. ii. 12.
[Surely the costly and gorgeous ecclesiastical raiment of the Middle Ages is condemned by Clement’s primitive maxims.]
Plato’s words are:
“The web is not to be more than a woman’s work for a month. White colour is peculiarly becoming for the gods in other things, but especially in cloth. Dyes are not to be applied, except for warlike decorations.”
—Plato: De Legibus, xii. 992.
[Another law against colours in clerical attire.]
Καρὰ Λόγον. The reading in the text is κατάλογον.
Rom. xiii. 14.
[Natural instinct is St. Paul’s argument (1 Cor. xi. 14, 15); and that it rules for modesty in man as well as women, is finely illustrated by an instructive story in Herodotus (book i. 8–12). The wife of Gyges could be guilty of a heathenish revenge, but nature taught her to abhor exposure. “A woman who puts off her raiment, puts off her modesty,” said Candaules to her foolish husband.]
Prov. xi. 22.
[Possibly used thus early as a distinction of matrons.]
Εὑτυχούσαις, for which the text has ἐντοχούσαις.
Ecclus. xxi. 21.
[How this was followed, is proved by the early Christian devices of the catacombs, contrasted with the engraved gems from Pompeii, in the Museo Borbonico at Naples.]
Masculine.
γεγλυμμἐνους, written on the margin of Codex clxv. for γεγυμνωμένους (naked) of the text. [Royal Library, Naples.]
Ps. cxxxiii. 2.
[Here Clement’s rules are arbitrary, and based on their existing ideas of propriety. If it be not improper to shave the head, much less to shave the face, which he allows in part.]
“Not” does not occur in the mss.
For δεδοικότες, the conjectural emendation δεδυκότες, has been adopted.
φυλάσσειν, Sylburg and Bod. Reg., agree better than μαλάσσειν with the context.
[The chrism (confirmation) was thus administered then, not with material oil, and was called anointing, with reference to 1 John ii. 27. Consult Bunsen, however, who attributes great antiquity to his canons (collected in vol. iii. Hippolytus), p. 22, Church and House Book.]
1 Cor. xi. 3. Nov. reads “Christ,” as in St. Paul, instead of “God.”
1 Tim. ii. 9.
1 Pet. iii. 1–4.
In reference to Prov. xxxi. 22.
Prov. xxxi. 26, 27, 28, 30, quoted from memory, and with variety of reading.
Prov. xii. 4.
Prov. v. 3–5, Septuagint.
We have read from the New College ms. σωφροσύνη for σωφροσύνης.
From some comic poet.
Some read ᾤραν ἀπολείπει . [New College ms.] In the translation the conjecture ᾤρα ἀπολείπειν is adopted.
An adaptation of Prov. v. 5, 6.
An imitation of Zeno’s saying, “It is better to slip with the feet than the tongue.”
Quoting from memory, he has substituted ἔκκοψον for ἔξελε (Matt. v. 29).
Prov. x. 10.
Ecclus. xxvi. 9.
Col. iii. 5, 6.
[A similar practice, very gross and unbecoming, prevails among the lower class of girls brought together in our common schools.]
Prov. ix. 13–18.
τὸ ἄσχημον σχῆμα (Isa. iii. 16, 17), Sept.
ἀ κύων, catella. The literal English rendering is coarser and more opprobrious than the original, which Helen applies to herself (Iliad, vi. 344, 356).
1 Pet. ii. 18.
1 Pet. iii. 8. Clement has substituted ταπεινόφρονες for φιλόφρονες (courteous).
This passage has been variously amended and translated. The reading of the text has been adhered to, but ὸρθόνου has been coupled with what follows.
Sylburg suggests παριούας (passing by) instead of παριζούσας.
κὔβος, a die marked on all the six sides. [This prohibition would include cards in modern ethics.]
διὰ ͠ῶν ἀστραγάλων. The ἀστραγάλοι were dice marked on four sides only. Clemens seems to use the terms here indifferently.
Lowth’s conjecture of ἔρως instead of ἐρᾷ has been adopted.
Lev. xi. 13, 14; Deut. xiv. 12.
Ps. i. 1, Septuagint.
Acts iii. 14.
ἀναμιξιας adopted instead of the reading ἀμιξίας, which is plainly wrong.
λιχνευούσης on the authority of the Pal. ms. Nov. Reg. Bod.
[Jeremy Collier’s Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (London, 1698) and the discussions that followed belong to literature, and ought to be republished with historic notes.]
Ex. xx. 7.
In allusion to the cleansing of the temple (John ii. 13–17; Matt. xxi. 12, 13; Luke xix. 45, 46).
[This early use of the word “church” for the place or house of worship, is to be noted. See Elucidation ii.]
1 Cor. xi. 5. [This helps to the due rendering of ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς in 1 Cor. xi. 10.]
[1 Cor. xi. 22. But I cannot say that the word ἐκκλησία is used for the place of Christian worship, even in this text, where it seems to be in antithesis with the dwelling-house.]
Matt. viii. 22.
1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
[The sexes sat apart in the primitive churches, and the kiss of peace was given by women only to women (Bunsen, Hippol., iii. p. 15). Does the author, here, imply that unholy kissing had crept in? Among the Germans, even in our days, nothing is more common than to see men, not at all related, salute one another in this way. It was therefore all one with shaking hands, in the apostolic ordinance. For some very fine reflections on the baiser de paix, see De Masitre, Soirèes, ii. p. 199, ed. Paris, 1850.]
Rom. xvi. 16.
1 John v. 3.
Matt. v. 13.
Prov. xxvii. 14.
Prov. iv. 25.
2 Cor. viii. 20, 21.
Ecclus. ix. 8.
Ecclus. ix. 8.
1 Pet. i. 17–19.
1 Pet. iv. 3.
Ps. xxxiv. 15, 16.
1 Pet. iii. 13.
Prov. x. 10, Sept.
Ezek. xviii. 23.
1 Cor. ii. 9.
[Here the pædagogue is the child-guide, leading to the Teacher.]
[Important foot-note, Kaye, p. 105.]
Ps. i. 6.
Isa. xlv. 3.
Rom. xi. 33.
Luke vi. 31.
Matt. xxii. 37, 39, 40.
[See Irenæus, vol. i. p. 482, this series. Stromata, vi. 360.]
Ex. xx.; Deut. v.
Isa. i. 16, 17, 18.
Where, no one knows.
Isa. lviii. 7, 8, 9.
Isa. lvii. 6, 7.
Isa. i. 11–14.
Ps. li. 17.
Not in Scripture. [Irenæus, iv. 17, vol. i. 444, this series.]
Luke xvii. 3, 4.
Prov. xiii. 11.
1 Pet. iv. 8.
Matt. xxii. 21; Mark xii. 17; Luke xx. 25.
In Jer. vii. 22, 23, and Zech. viii. we find the substance of what Clement gives here.
Isa. v. 20, 21.
Luke xiv. 11, xviii. 14.
Prov. xvi. Sept.
Matt. v. 40; Luke vi. 27–29.
Matt. xxi. 22.
Prov. xiii. 24.
Luke xi. 43.
Matt. xxv. 34–36, 40, 46.
δἰ ἐμαυτοῦ. The reading here adopted is found in Bod. and Reg.
iφρόνιμοι, not found in Eph. v. 1.
Eph. iv. 25–29, v. 1, 2, 22, 25, vi. 1, 4–9.
Gal. v. 25, 26, vi. 2, 7, 9.
1 Thess. v. 13–15, 19–22.
Col. iv. 2, 5, 9.
1 Tim. iv. 6–8.
1 Tim. vi. 2.
Rom. xii. 8–13.
[Consult Bunsen’s Handbook, book iv. pp. 75–82. Thus did primitive Christianity labour to uproot the social estate of heathenism.]
That is, he who undertakes the instruction of those that are full-grown, as Clemens does in the Stromata. [Where see his esoteric doctrine.]