Sophia Scriptura

The Instructor 2.1.17

Clement of Alexandria · The Instructor · ca. 190–200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The mean is having what is necessary; the law's food restrictions trained the Jews in frugality by breaking the habit of luxury.

Greek text · Stählin 1:166

μέσον δέ ἐστι πᾶν τὸ ἀνενδεὲς τῶν ἀναγκαίων· αἱ γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν ὀρέξεις αὐταρκείᾳ περιορίζονται. Ἰουδαίοις δὲ διὰ τοῦ νόμου οἰκονομικώτατα καταγγέλλεται ἡ εὐτέλεια· μυρίων γὰρ ὅσων ἀφείλατο τὴν χρῆσιν ὁ παιδαγωγὸς αὐτοὺς διὰ Μωσέως, αἰτίας προσάπτων, κεκρυμμένας μὲν τὰς πνευματικάς, ἐμφανεῖς δὲ τὰς σαρκικάς, αἷς καὶ πεπιστεύκασι, τοῖς μὲν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι δίχηλα, τοῖς δὲ ὅτι τὴν τροφὴν οὐ μηρυκᾶται, τὰ δʼ ὅτι ἄρα οὐκ ἔχει μόνα τῶν ἐνύδρων λεπίδας, ὡς ὀλίγα παντελῶς ἀπολείπεσθαι πρὸς τὴν τροφὴν αὐτοῖς ἐπιτήδεια. ὧν δὲ ἐφῆκεν ἅπτεσθαι, πάλιν κεκώλυκεν τούτων τὰ θνηξιμαῖα τά τε εἰδωλόθυτα τά τε ἀποπεπνιγμένα· οὐδὲ γὰρ τούτων ψαύειν θέμις. ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἀμήχανον χρώμενον τοῖς ἡδέσιν ἀποστῆναι τῆς ἀποδοχῆς αὐτῶν, τὴν ἐναντίαν ἀντέθηκεν ἀγωγήν, μέχρις ἂν ἐκλύσῃ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἔθους ἐπὶ τὴν ἡδυπάθειαν καταδρομήν. ἀνθρώποις δὲ τὰ μὲν πολλὰ βλάβην καὶ λύπην ἐνεγέννησεν ἡδονή, δυσπάθειαν δὲ καὶ λήθην καὶ ἀφροσύνην ἡ πολυτροφία ἐντίκτει τῇ ψυχῇ.

English · Claude translation

The mean is whatever lacks none of the necessities; for natural appetites are limited by sufficiency. To the Jews frugality was enjoined through the law with great wisdom; for the Instructor, through Moses, took away from them the use of a great many things, attaching reasons, the spiritual ones hidden, the fleshly ones plain, which they believed: to some animals, that they do not have divided hooves; to others, that they do not chew the cud; to others, that they alone of water creatures do not have scales; so that very few indeed were left them suitable for food. And of those he allowed them to touch, he again forbade what had died of itself, what was offered to idols, and what was strangled; it was not lawful to touch even these. For since it is impossible for one who uses pleasant things to refrain from accepting them, he set against this the opposite training, until he should break the habitual rush toward luxury. In human beings pleasure has bred much harm and pain, and overfeeding begets in the soul sluggishness, forgetfulness, and folly.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:166 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 1, Protrepticus und Paedagogus, GCS 12 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 1: Protrepticus und Paedagogus (GCS 12, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 12. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1905); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Ethics, Fasting

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Lev 11:3, 9–12, Deut 14:21, and Acts 15:29. Clement, like other early Christian writers, reads the food laws as both literal discipline and spiritual allegory.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.1.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/1/17/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.1.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/1/17/).

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