Exhortation to the Greeks 9.86

Greek text · Stählin 1:64–65

οὐδὲ εἰ τὸν Πακτωλόν τις ὅλον, τοῦ χρυσίου τὸ ῥεῦμα τὸ μυθικόν, ἀπομετρήσαι, ἀντάξιον σωτηρίας μισθὸν ἀριθμήσει. μὴ οὖν ἀποκάμητε· ἔξεστιν ὑμῖν, ἢν ἐθέλητε, ἐξωνήσασθαι τὴν πολυτίμητον σωτηρίαν οἰκείῳ θησαυρῷ, ἀγάπῃ καὶ πίστει ζωῆς, ὅς ἐστιν ἀξιόλογος μισθός. ταύτην ἡδέως τὴν τιμὴν ὁ θεὸς λαμβάνει. »ἠλπίκαμεν γὰρ ἐπὶ θεῷ ζῶντι, ὅς ἐστι σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν.« οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι περιπεφυκότες τῷ κόσμῳ, οἷα φυκία τινὰ ἐνάλοις πέτραις, ἀθανασίας ὀλιγωροῦσιν, καθάπερ ὁ Ἰθακήσιος γέρων οὐ τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ τῆς ἐν οὐρανῷ πατρίδος, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἱμειρόμενοι φωτός, ἀλλὰ τοῦ καπνοῦ. θεοσέβεια δέ, ἐξομοιοῦσα τῷ θεῷ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατάλληλον ἐπιγράφεται διδάσκαλον θεὸν τὸν καὶ μόνον ἀπεικάσαι κατʼ ἀξίαν δυνάμενον ἄνθρωπον θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

Not even if one measured out the whole Pactolus, the legendary river of gold, would he count out a price equal to salvation. Do not lose heart, then: if you are willing, you can buy that precious salvation with a treasure of your own, love and the faith of life, which is a worthy price. God gladly accepts this payment. “For we have hoped in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” But the rest, clinging to the world like seaweed to rocks in the sea, make light of immortality; like the old man of Ithaca, they long not for the truth and the fatherland in heaven, nor for the light that truly is, but for the smoke. Godliness, which makes the human being like God as far as possible, enrolls God as its fitting teacher, since he alone is able worthily to make a human being like God.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:64–65 · 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

1 Tim 4:10 · quotation, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Homer, Od. 1.57–59 (Homer, Odyssey) · allusion, high confidence
Plato, Theaet. 176b (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is 1 Tim 4:10. The old man of Ithaca is Odysseus, longing to see even the smoke of his homeland (Homer, Odyssey 1.57–59). “Likeness to God as far as possible” is Plato's phrase (Theaetetus 176b).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 9.86 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/9/86/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 9.86 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/9/86/).