The Instructor 1.13.103 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 1:151–153

δὴ πίστιν κεκλήκαμεν. τὸ δὲ σύστημα ἐντολαὶ κυριακαί, αἳ δὴ δόξαι οὖσαι θεϊκαὶ ὑποθῆκαι πνευματικαὶ ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ἀναγεγράφαται, πρός τε ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πέλας εὔθετοι· καὶ αὗται αὖθις πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀνταναστρέφουσι, καθάπερ πρὸς τὸν βάλλοντα ἡ σφαῖρα διὰ τὴν ἀντιτυπίαν παλινδρομοῦσα· ὅθεν καὶ ἔστιν ἀναγκαῖα τὰ καθήκοντα εἰς παιδαγωγίαν θεϊκήν, ὡς ὑπὸ θεοῦ παρηγγελμένα καὶ εἰς σωτηρίαν πεπορισμένα. καὶ ἐπεὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων τὰ μὲν πρὸς τὸ ζῆν ἐστι τὸ ἐνταῦθα μόνον, τὰ δὲ ἔνθεν πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν ἐκεῖσε ἀναπτεροῖ, ἀναλόγως καὶ τῶν καθηκόντων τὰ μὲν πρὸς τὸ ζῆν, τὰ δὲ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν διατάττεται. ὅσα μὲν οὖν πρὸς τὸ ἐθνικὸν ζῆν παραγγέλλεται, ταῦτα καὶ παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς δεδήμευται, ἃ δὲ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν ἁρμόττει, ἐξ ὧν τὸ ἀίδιον ἐκεῖνο περιγίνεται ζῆν, ταῦτα δὲ ἐν ὑπογραφῆς μέρει ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀναλεγομένοις τῶν γραφῶν ἐξέστω σκοπεῖν.

English · Claude translation

we have called faith. The system is the Lord's commandments, which, being divine doctrines, have been written down for us as spiritual precepts, suited both to ourselves and to our neighbors; and they rebound on us, as a ball bounces back to the thrower from the wall. So duties are necessary for divine instruction, as commanded by God and provided for salvation. And since of necessary things some concern only life here, while others lift us from here to living well there, so too, correspondingly, some duties are ordered to living, others to living well. What is commanded for ordinary life has been made common among the many; but what fits living well, from which that eternal life comes, may be considered in outline, gathered from the Scriptures themselves.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:151–153 · 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)

Topics

Ethics, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

This closes book 1. “Ordinary life” renders τὸ ἐθνικὸν ζῆν (literally “the life of the nations,” ordinary human life).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (misspelling in the digital text; word repeated in the digital text): καὶ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πέλας → καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πέλας; πρὸς τὸ ζῆς, → πρὸς τὸ ζῆν,.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.13.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/13/103/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.13.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/13/103/).