Greek Fragments (Stählin)

"Because of the angels." By angels he means the righteous and virtuous. Let her be veiled, then, so as not to make them stumble into fornication; for the true angels, those in heaven, see her even when she is veiled. So Clement in the fourth book of the Hypotyposes.

"Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh." Just as what in us is 'according to the flesh' is what is in sins, and what is outside these is not according to the flesh, so in Christ what is according to the flesh is yielding to the natural passions, and not yielding is not according to the flesh. But as he, he says, was set free, so we too no longer … So Clement in the fourth book of the Hypotyposes.

The divine John says … in the Apocalypse, and we have read in Tobit that the first are seven, and in Clement, in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes.

Yes, they were truly baptized, as Clement the author of the Stromata records in the fifth volume of the Hypotyposes. For, explaining the apostle's saying, "I give thanks that I baptized none of you," he says: Christ is said to have baptized Peter only, Peter Andrew, Andrew James and John, and they the rest.

"And those who are Christ's [have crucified] the flesh." Then, so that they may not say, 'And who does these things?', he says: these are the ones who do them, who have crucified the flesh of Christ, that is, their own body (for our body is the flesh of Christ), and have, as it were, put it to death from the bodily passions; and not only have they crucified the body, so far as it tended toward the passions, but the passions themselves, so far as they tended toward being carried out, have been crucified by them. On this interpretation the 'and' is superfluous. Or thus: 'And why do I speak,' he says, 'of the forms of virtue one by one? For there are some who have crucified both themselves, as regards the passions, and the passions, as regards themselves.' On this interpretation the 'and' is not superfluous: 'and those who are Christ's,' that is, who belong to him, have crucified their own flesh. So Clement in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes.

From Clement, book 6 of the Hypotyposes: And he healed the leper and said, "Show yourself to the priests for a testimony," because of a tradition of this kind. The priests had the custom of healing lepers by the power of God on appointed days. Since they had not been able to heal this leper for a long time, they said, "No one will heal this man except Christ alone, if he comes." So when the leper had pleaded much, the Saviour, moved with compassion, healed him and for this reason said, "Go and show yourself to the priests for a testimony": that is, if this man has been healed, of whom you said, 'No one but Christ alone will heal him,' then Christ has come; believe in him.

"At the proper times," he says: that is, when people were fit for faith. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"Seen by angels." O mystery! The angels saw Christ together with us, having seen him before, but not in the way men see him. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"And especially of those of his own household." He provides for his own and for his household who provides not only for those connected with him but also for himself, by cutting out the passions. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"If she has washed the feet of the saints," that is, if she has performed the lowest services for the saints without shame. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"Without prejudgment": that is, without stumbling in anything and so falling under judgment and the punishment of disobedience. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"Who testified before Pontius Pilate." For he testified by what he did that he himself is the Christ, the Son of God. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

"Through many witnesses," that is, the law and the prophets; for the apostle made these the witnesses of his own preaching. So Clement in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes.

The seven lamps he (John) interpreted as seven spirits, which one must understand either, as Isaiah does, as the divine gifts of the Spirit, wisdom, strength, counsel and those that follow, or, as Irenaeus and Clement the author of the Stromata do, as the ministering spirits who stand above the other orders.

Truth belongs to few, and of these to as many as are able to find it, being led by the hand to contemplation through long demonstration and shared training.

Prayer is the priesthood and the true sacrifice.

The prudent man guarded against hardships even before suffering them; the one who corrects himself from experience is not foolish either; but most irrational of all is he who does not even take what happens to him as necessary warnings.

It is not possible for two contrary motions to arise in one soul in the same respect.

Corruption of virgins is said to be not only fornication but also marriage before the time, when a girl is given to a husband, so to speak, unripe, whether by her own act or by her parents.

The company a man keeps is a test of his character. When he is base, he will of necessity keep company with his like; when, again, he is temperate and wise, with those who pursue the same things as he does.

Someone will say, 'Let us inquire nothing about God.' I would answer: indeed we must never stop speaking and hearing about God, but only so far as faith allows, so as to say about him what may be said and hear what may be heard.

Four years after the resurrection and ascension of our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the reign of the same Tiberius Caesar, after Saint Paul had left Antioch the Great, where he had first preached the word with Barnabas in the street near the Pantheon called the street of Singon, and had gone to Cilicia, Peter came from Jerusalem to the same Antioch and taught the word. And having been enthroned there, persuaded by the Christians who had come from the Jews, he did not receive or love the believers from the Gentiles, but left them so and went away from there. Saint Paul, coming afterwards to Antioch the Great and learning these things about Saint Peter, removed the offence everywhere and received and loved all equally, exhorting all, as the most wise chroniclers Clement and Tatian wrote.

The Syrian, son of Agenor, became a wise man, who wrote the arithmetical philosophy in Phoenician letters; he taught that the first principles are incorporeal, that bodies change, and that souls pass into animals of other kinds. He was the first to set these things out, as the most wise Clement wrote.

On the sixth day of the millennium our Master Jesus Christ appeared on earth and saved mankind through the cross and the resurrection, as Clement, Theophilus and Timothy, the wise chroniclers, wrote in agreement.

Archelaus his son (Herod's) became king, or rather ruler of a district, of the Jewish nation for 9 years, in the consulship of Lamia and Servilianus, as the most wise Clement the chronographer set out.

The same king Herod, son of Philip, became swollen and lay sick for 7 months, and after the 8 months he was slain in his bedchamber, his wife also being privy to it, as the most wise Clement wrote.