Exhortation to the Greeks 1.7
Summary: The Word, God and man, who gave us being, has now appeared as teacher to give eternal life and to rescue us from the serpent, who binds people to lifeless idols.
Greek text · Stählin 1:7–8
ἀλλʼ ὅτι μὲν ἦν ὁ λόγος ἄνωθεν, ἀρχὴ θεία τῶν πάντων ἦν τε καὶ ἔστιν· ὅτι δὲ νῦν ὄνομα ἔλαβεν τὸ πάλαι καθωσιωμένον, καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως ἄξιον, ὁ Χριστός, καινὸν ᾆσμά μοι κέκληται. αἴτιος γοῦν ὁ λόγος, ὁ Χριστός, καὶ τοῦ εἶναι πάλαι ἡμᾶς (ἦν γὰρ ἐν θεῷ), καὶ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι· νῦν δὴ ἐπεφάνη ἀνθρώποις αὐτὸς οὗτος ὁ λόγος, ὁ μόνος ἄμφω, θεός τε καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ἁπάντων ἡμῖν αἴτιος ἀγαθῶν· παρʼ οὗ τὸ εὖ ζῆν ἐκδιδασκόμενοι εἰς ἀίδιον ζωὴν παραπεμπόμεθα. κατὰ γὰρ τὸν θεσπέσιον ἐκεῖνον τοῦ κυρίου ἀπόστολον »ἡ χάρις ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ σωτήριος πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπεφάνη, παιδεύουσα ἡμᾶς, ἵνα ἀρνησάμενοι τὴν ἀσέβειαν καὶ τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας σωφρόνως καὶ δικαίως καὶ εὐσεβῶς ζήσωμεν ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, προσδεχόμενοι τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.« τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ ᾆσμα τὸ καινόν, ἡ ἐπιφάνεια ἡ νῦν ἐκλάμψασα ἐν ἡμῖν τοῦ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντος καὶ προόντος λόγου· ἐπεφάνη δὲ ἔναγχος ὁ προὼν σωτήρ, ἐπεφάνη ὁ ἐν τῷ ὄντι ὤν, ὅτι »ὁ λόγος [ὃς] ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν,« διδάσκαλος, ἐπεφάνη ᾧ τὰ πάντα δεδημιούργηται λόγος, καὶ τὸ ζῆν ἐν ἀρχῇ μετὰ τοῦ πλάσαι παρασχὼν ὡς δημιουργός, τὸ εὖ ζῆν ἐδίδαξεν ἐπιφανεὶς ὡς διδάσκαλος, ἵνα τὸ ἀεὶ ζῆν ὕστερον ὡς θεὸς χορηγήσῃ. ὃ δὲ οὐ νῦν γε πρῶτον ᾤκτειρεν ἡμᾶς τῆς πλάνης, ἀλλʼ ἄνωθεν ἀρχῆθεν, νῦν δὲ ἤδη ἀπολλυμένους ἐπιφανεὶς περισέσωκεν. τὸ γὰρ πονηρὸν καὶ ἑρπηστικὸν θηρίον γοητεῦον καταδουλοῦται καὶ αἰκίζεται εἰσέτι νῦν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, βαρβαρικῶς τιμωρούμενον, οἳ νεκροῖς τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους συνδεῖν λέγονται σώμασιν, ἔστʼ ἂν αὐτοῖς καὶ συσσαπῶσιν. ὁ γοῦν πονηρὸς οὑτοσὶ τύραννος καὶ δράκων, οὓς ἂν οἷός τε ᾖ ἐκ γενετῆς σφετερίσασθαι, λίθοις καὶ ξύλοις καὶ ἀγάλμασιν καὶ τοιούτοις τισὶν εἰδώλοις προσσφίγξας τῷ δεισιδαιμονίας ἀθλίῳ δεσμῷ, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ λεγόμενον, ζῶντας ἐπιφέρων συνέθαψεν αὐτούς, ἔστʼ ἂν καὶ συμφθαρῶσιν. οὗ δὴ χάριν (εἷς γὰρ ὁ ἀπατεὼν ἄνωθεν μὲν τὴν Εὔαν, νῦν δὲ ἤδη καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους εἰς θάνατον ὑποφέρων) εἷς καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπίκουρος καὶ βοηθὸς ἡμῖν ὁ κύριος, προμηνύων ἀρχῆθεν προφητικῶς, νῦν δὲ ἤδη καὶ
English · Claude translation
But because the Word existed from above, he was and is the divine beginning of all things; and because he has now taken the name hallowed of old and worthy of his power, the Christ, I have called him a new song. The Word, the Christ, is the cause both of our being long ago (for he was in God) and of our well-being. Now this same Word has appeared to human beings, he who alone is both, God and man, the cause of all good things for us; learning from him how to live well, we are sent on our way to eternal life. For, as that inspired apostle of the Lord says, “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” This is the new song: the appearing, which has now shone out among us, of the Word who was in the beginning and existed before all things. The Savior who existed before has recently appeared; he who is in the One who is has appeared, because “the Word was with God” as teacher; the Word by whom all things were made has appeared. He who, as Creator, gave us life in the beginning when he formed us, taught us to live well when he appeared as teacher, so that afterward, as God, he might supply eternal life. It was not now for the first time that he pitied us for our error; he pitied us from the very beginning; but now, by appearing, he has saved us when we were already perishing. For that wicked, creeping beast enslaves human beings by sorcery and torments them even now, taking vengeance, it seems to me, in the manner of the barbarians, who are said to bind their captives to corpses until they rot together. This wicked tyrant and dragon, then, takes those he can claim from birth, binds them by the wretched bond of superstition to stones and wood and statues and such idols, and carries them off, as the saying goes, and buries them alive, until they perish together. For this reason, since the deceiver is one, who from the beginning brought Eve, and now also the rest of humankind, down to death, our helper and defender, the Lord, is also one; he foretold it prophetically from the beginning, and now also …
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Titus 2:11–13.
- The sentence continues in the next section; the digitization marks the section boundary in the middle of it.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray space before the closing quotation mark): θεόν, « → θεόν,«.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/1/7/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/1/7/).
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