Sophia Scriptura

The Instructor 3.11.78

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

Summary: Every believer must pursue the true philosophy of loving God and neighbor; even the unlettered can hear, for faith's book is love, and one can live in the world in a godly way.

Greek text · Stählin 1:279

τὸ δὲ ῥᾳθυμεῖν οὐδέποτε ὠνητέον κενοσπουδίᾳ. οὐ γὰρ πρὸ τοῦ βελτίονος ἕλοιτο ἄν ποτε ὁ νοῦν ἔχων τὸ ἥδιον. ἀλλʼ οὐ πάντες, φησί, φιλοσοφοῦμεν. μή τι οὖν οὐδὲ πάντες τὴν ζωὴν μετερχόμεθα; τί σὺ λέγεις; πῶς οὖν πεπίστευκας; πῶς δὲ ἔτι ἀγαπᾷς τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸν πλησίον σου μὴ φιλοσοφῶν; πῶς δὲ σεαυτὸν ἀγαπᾷς, εἰ μὴ φιλοζωεῖς; γράμματα, φησίν, οὐκ ἔμαθον. ἀλλʼ εἰ μὴ τὸ ἀναγιγνώσκειν ἔμαθες, τὸ ἀκούειν ἀναπολόγητον, ὅτι μὴ διδακτόν· πίστις δὲ οὐ σοφῶν τῶν κατὰ κόσμον, ἀλλὰ τῶν κατὰ θεόν ἐστιν τὸ κτῆμα· ἣ δὲ καὶ ἄνευ γραμμάτων ἐκπαιδεύεται, καὶ τὸ σύγγραμμα αὐτῆς τὸ ἰδιωτικὸν ἅμα καὶ θεῖον ἀγάπη κέκληται, σύνταγμα πνευματικόν. ἐξὸν δὲ ἀκροᾶσθαι μὲν σοφίας θεϊκῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολιτεύσασθαι ἐξόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐν κόσμῳ κοσμίως κατὰ θεὸν ἀγαγεῖν οὐ κεκώλυται.

English · Claude translation

Idleness must never be bought with vain zeal; for no one with sense would ever choose the more pleasant before the better. “But we are not all philosophers,” someone says. Do we not all, then, pursue life? What are you saying? How then have you believed? How do you still love God and your neighbor, if you do not practice philosophy? How do you love yourself, if you do not love life? “I have not learned letters,” he says. But if you did not learn to read, hearing has no excuse, since it need not be taught. Faith is the possession not of the wise according to the world but of those according to God; and it is instructed even without letters, and its book, at once untutored and divine, is called love, a spiritual composition. It is possible to listen to divine wisdom, and it is possible also to live by it; nor is one prevented from conducting the things of the world in a seemly way, according to God.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:279 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Philosophy” for Clement means the Christian life of wisdom; the play on κόσμος (“world”) and κοσμίως (“in a seemly way”) is in the Greek. The echoes are Matt 22:37–39 and 1 Cor 1:20.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.11.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/11/78/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.11.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/11/78/).

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