The Instructor 1.10.92
Summary: The beatitude is another form of instruction: the blessed are like a fruitful tree, the ungodly like dust; God calls the wanderer back like a dove to its mate.
Greek text · Stählin 1:144–145
Ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλο εἶδος αὐτοῦ παιδαγωγίας, ὁ μακαρισμός· καὶ »μακάριος ἐκεῖνος« διὰ Δαβὶδ λέγει [φησίν] »ὁ μὴ ἁμαρτών, καὶ ἔσται ὡς τὸ ξύλον τὸ πεφυτευμένον παρὰ τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὑδάτων, ὃ τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ δώσει ἐν καιρῷ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ φύλλον αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπορρυήσεται« (ταυτὶ μὲν καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀνάστασιν ᾐνίξατο) »καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἐὰν ποιήσῃ, κατευοδωθήσεται αὐτῷ.« τοιούτους ἡμᾶς γενέσθαι βούλεται, ἵνʼ ὦμεν μακάριοι. ἔμπαλιν δὲ τὸ ἀντισηκοῦν τοῦ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐνδεικνύμενος ζυγοῦ »[ἀλλʼ ἢ] οὐχ οὕτως« φησίν »οἱ ἀσεβεῖς, οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλʼ ἢ ὡς ὁ χνοῦς, ὃν ἐκριπτεῖ ὁ ἄνεμος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς«. τὸ ἐπιτίμιον τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ τὸ εὐδιαφόρητον αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ ὑπηνέμιον δείξας ὁ παιδαγωγὸς ἀπετρέψατο τῆς αἰτίας διὰ τῆς ἐπιτιμίας, καὶ τὴν κόλασιν ἐπανατεινάμενος τὴν κατʼ ἀξίαν, τῆς εὐεργεσίας ἐνεδείξατο τὴν εὐποιίαν, τεχνικώτατα ἐπὶ τὴν χρῆσιν ἡμᾶς καὶ τὴν κτῆσιν τῶν καλῶν διὰ ταύτης καλῶν. ναὶ μὴν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν γνῶσιν παρακαλεῖ διὰ μὲν τοῦ Ἱερεμίου λέγων· »τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰ ἐπορεύθης, κατῴκεις ἂν ἐν εἰρήνῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.« ὑποδεικνύων γὰρ ἐνταῦθα τὸν μισθὸν τῆς γνώσεως εἰς ἔρωτα αὐτῆς τοὺς συνετοὺς ἐκκαλεῖται καὶ τῷ πεπλανημένῳ συγγνώμην νέμων »ἐπίστρεφε γάρ, ἐπίστρεφε, ὡς ὁ τρυγῶν ἐπὶ τὸν κάρταλλον αὐτοῦ« λέγει.
English · Claude translation
There is another kind of his instruction too: the beatitude. “Blessed is he,” he says through David, “who has not sinned; and he will be like the tree planted by the streams of water, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall” (this he hinted with a view to the resurrection too), “and whatever he does will prosper.” He wants us to become such, so that we may be blessed. On the other hand, showing the counterweight on the scale of justice, he says: “Not so the ungodly, not so, but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth.” By showing the penalty of sinners, and how easily they are scattered and blown away, the Instructor turned us from the fault by means of the penalty; and holding up the deserved punishment, he showed the kindness of his benefaction, calling us most skillfully, by this means, to the use and possession of good things. He also calls us to knowledge through Jeremiah, saying: “If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace forever.” Here, showing the reward of knowledge, he calls the intelligent to love it; and granting pardon to the one who has gone astray, he says, “Turn back, turn back, as the grape-gatherer to his basket.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 1:1, 3, 4 (with “who has not sinned” for “who has not walked”) and Bar 3:13 (attributed to Jeremiah). The last quotation is Jer 6:9 (LXX). The bracketed words are marked by the editor as spurious (to be deleted).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong quotation mark in the digital text): λέγων· «τῇ ὁδῷ → λέγων· »τῇ ὁδῷ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.10.92 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/10/92/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.10.92 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/10/92/).
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