Exhortation to the Greeks 10.103
Summary: Only the true God exists and provides for us; the earth is the Lord's, and those who enjoy it while ignoring him are turning to stone like Lot's wife.
Greek text · Stählin 1:74
ὁ δὲ τὴν τύχην θεὸν λέγων καὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν λεγέτω θεόν. εἰ δὴ οὖν τούτων οὐδὲ ἓν θεὸς εἶναι νομίζεται οὐδὲ μὴν ἐκείνων τῶν χειροκμήτων καὶ ἀναισθήτων πλασμάτων, πρόνοια δέ τις περὶ ἡμᾶς καταφαίνεται δυνάμεως θεϊκῆς, λείπεται οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ τοῦτο ὁμολογεῖν, ὅτι ἄρα ὄντως μόνος ἔστι τε καὶ ὑφέστηκεν ὁ μόνος ὄντως ὑπάρχων θεός. ἀλλὰ γὰρ μανδραγόραν ἤ τι ἄλλο φάρμακον πεπωκόσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐοίκατε οἱ ἀνόητοι, θεὸς δὲ ὑμῖν ἀνανῆψαι δοίη ποτὲ τοῦδε τοῦ ὕπνου καὶ συνιέναι θεὸν μηδὲ χρυσὸν ἢ λίθον ἢ δένδρον ἢ πρᾶξιν ἢ πάθος ἢ νόσον ἢ φόβον ἰνδάλλεσθαι ὡς θεόν. »τρὶς γὰρ μύριοί εἰσιν« ὡς ἀληθῶς »ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ δαίμονες« οὐκ »ἀθάνατοι« οὐδὲ μὴν θνητοί (οὐδὲ γὰρ αἰσθήσεως, ἵνα καὶ θανάτου, μετειλήφασιν), λίθινοι δὲ καὶ ξύλινοι δεσπόται ἀνθρώπων, ὑβρίζοντες καὶ παρασπονδοῦντες τὸν βίον διὰ τῆς συνηθείας. »ἡ γῆ δὲ τοῦ κυρίου,« φησί, »καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς·« εἶτα τί τολμᾷς ἐν τοῖς τοῦ κυρίου τρυφῶν ἀγνοεῖν τὸν δεσπότην; κατάλειπε τὴν γῆν τὴν ἐμήν, ἐρεῖ σοι ὁ κύριος, μὴ θίγῃς τοῦ ὕδατος ὃ ἐγὼ ἀναδίδωμι, τῶν καρπῶν ὧν ἐγὼ γεωργῶ, μὴ μεταλάμβανε· ἀπόδος, ἄνθρωπε, τὰ τροφεῖα τῷ θεῷ· ἐπίγνωθί σου τὸν δεσπότην· ἴδιον εἶ πλάσμα τοῦ θεοῦ· τὸ δὲ οἰκεῖον αὐτοῦ πῶς ἂν ἐνδίκως ἀλλότριον γένοιτο; τὸ γὰρ ἀπηλλοτριωμένον στερόμενον τῆς οἰκειότητος στέρεται τῆς ἀληθείας. ἦ γὰρ οὐχ ᾗ Νιόβη τρόπον τινά, μᾶλλον δὲ ἵνα μυστικώτερον πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀποφθέγξωμαι, γυναικὸς τῆς Ἑβραίας δίκην (Λὼτ ἐκάλουν αὐτὴν οἱ παλαιοὶ) εἰς ἀναισθησίαν μετατρέπεσθε;
English · Claude translation
Whoever calls chance a god, let him call action a god too. If, then, not one of these is thought to be a god, nor any of those handmade and senseless images, and yet a providence of divine power is evident around us, there remains nothing but to confess that the only truly existing God alone truly is and subsists. But you fools are like people who have drunk mandrake or some other drug. May God grant you at last to wake from this sleep and understand God, and not to imagine gold or stone or tree or action or passion or disease or fear to be a god. For there truly are “thrice ten thousand daemons on the much-nourishing earth,” not “immortal,” nor even mortal (for they do not share in sensation, so as to share in death either), but masters of human beings made of stone and wood, insulting life and breaking faith with it through custom. “The earth is the Lord's,” it says, “and its fullness.” How then do you dare, while you enjoy the Lord's things, to ignore the Master? “Leave my earth,” the Lord will say to you; “do not touch the water that I send up; do not take the fruits that I cultivate. Repay God, man, for your upbringing. Recognize your Master. You are God's own creature; how could what is his own rightly become another's?” For what is estranged, deprived of its kinship, is deprived of the truth. Are you not, like Niobe in a way, or rather, to speak to you more mystically, like the Hebrew woman (the ancients called her Lot's wife), turning into senselessness?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Hesiod, Works and Days 252–253 (turned against the idols; see 2.41) and Ps 24:1 (23:1 LXX). Lot's wife: Gen 19:26.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray space before the closing quotation mark): ρίου, « → ρίου,«.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/103/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/103/).
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