Sophia Scriptura

The Instructor 2.9.79

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

Summary: Christians should be like servants awake for their master's return, rising at night to bless God like the watchful angels; the enlightened are awake and alive.

Greek text · Stählin 1:205–206

»ἔστωσαν«, γάρ φησιν, »ὑμῶν αἱ ὀσφύες περιεζωσμέναι καὶ οἱ λύχνοι καιόμενοι· καὶ ὑμεῖς ὅμοιοι ἀνθρώποις προσδεχομένοις τὸν κύριον αὐτῶν, πότε ἀναλύσει ἐκ τῶν γάμων, ἵνα ἐλθόντος καὶ κρούσαντος ἀνοίξωσιν εὐθέως αὐτῷ. μακάριοι οἱ δοῦλοι ἐκεῖνοι, οὓς ἐλθὼν ὁ κύριος ἐγρηγορότας εὕρῃ.« οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀνδρὸς ὄφελος καθεύδοντος ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τεθνεῶτος. διὸ πολλάκις καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς ἀνεγερτέον τῆς κοίτης καὶ τὸν θεὸν εὐλογητέον· μακάριοι γὰρ οἱ ἐγρηγορότες εἰς αὐτόν, σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀπεικάζοντες ἀγγέλοις, οὓς ἐγρηγόρους καλοῦμεν. »καθεύδων δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐδεὶς οὐδενὸς ἄξιος, οὐδὲν μᾶλλον τοῦ μὴ ζῶντος·« ὁ δὲ τὸ φῶς ἔχων ἐγρήγορεν, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸν οὐ καταλαμβάνει, οὐδὲ μὴν ὕπνος, ἐπεὶ μὴ σκότος. ἐγρήγορεν ἄρα πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ὁ πεφωτισμένος, ὁ δὲ τοιοῦτος ζῇ· »ὃ γὰρ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ, ζωὴ ἦν.«

English · Claude translation

“Let your loins be girded,” it says, “and your lamps burning; and be like men waiting for their master, when he returns from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him at once. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” For a sleeping man is of no use, just as a dead one is not. So we should often rise from our bed at night and bless God; for blessed are those who are awake for him, making themselves like the angels, whom we call “Watchers.” “A man asleep is worth nothing, no more than one who is not alive.” But the one who has the light is awake, and the darkness does not overtake him, nor sleep either, since there is no darkness. The one who has been enlightened, then, is awake toward God, and such a one lives: “For what came to be in him was life.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:205–206 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Leg. 808b (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • 1 En. 1.5 (1 Enoch) · echo, low confidence
Topics
Prayer, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Luke 12:35–37, Plato, Laws 7.808b, and John 1:3–4; the allusion is John 1:5. The angels as “Watchers” (ἐγρήγοροι) come from Dan 4:13, 17 (in Theodotion) and 1 Enoch.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.9.79 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/9/79/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.9.79 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/9/79/).

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