The Instructor 2.10.110

Clement of Alexandria · The Instructor · ca. 190–200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Prodicus pictured virtue in white and vice in gaudy clothes; the queen's golden robes in Psalm 45 are the church's adornment of faith, in which Christ shines like gold.

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Greek text · Stählin 1:223

Ταύτῃ καὶ τὸν Κεῖον ἀποδέχομαι σοφιστὴν τὰς ἐοικυίας καὶ καταλλήλους ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας εἰκόνας ὑπογράφοντα· τὴν μὲν αὐταῖν ἀφελῶς ἱσταμένην ἐποίησε καὶ λευχείμονα καὶ καθάριον, τὴν ἀρετήν, αἰδοῖ μόνῃ κεκοσμημένην (τοιαύτην εἶναι χρὴ τὴν πίστιν, ἐνάρετον μετʼ αἰδοῦς), θατέραν δὲ τοὐναντίον εἰσάγει, τὴν κακίαν, περιττῇ μὲν ἐσθῆτι ἠμφιεσμένην, ἀλλοτρίῳ δὲ χρώματι γεγανωμένην· καὶ ἡ κίνησις αὐτῆς καὶ ἡ σχέσις πρὸς τὸ ἐπιτερπὲς ἐπιτηδευομένη ταῖς μαχλώσαις ἔκκειται σκιαγραφία γυναιξί. πρὸς οὐδεμίαν δὲ ὅλως ὁ ἑπόμενος τῷ λόγῳ αἰσχρὰν ἡδονὴν οἰκειώσεται· διὸ καὶ τῆς ἐσθῆτος τὸ χρειῶδες προκριτέον. κἂν ὁ λόγος τοῦτο ψάλλῃ διὰ Δαβὶδ περὶ τοῦ κυρίου λέγων »εὔφρανάν σε θυγατέρες βασιλέων ἐν τῇ τιμῇ σου· παρέστη ἡ βασίλισσα ἐκ δεξιῶν σου ἐν ἱματισμῷ διαχρύσῳ καὶ κροσσωτοῖς χρυσοῖς περιβεβλημένη«, οὐκ ἐσθῆτα τὴν τρυφητικὴν μεμήνυκεν, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐκ πίστεως συνυφασμένον ἀκήρατον τῶν ἠλεημένων κόσμον τῆς ἐκκλησίας δεδήλωκεν, ἐν ᾗ ὁ ἄδολος Ἰησοῦς »ὡς χρυσὸς διαπρέπει«, καὶ οἱ

English · Claude translation

So I also accept the sophist of Ceos, who drew fitting and corresponding pictures of virtue and vice. He made the one, virtue, stand simply, dressed in white and clean, adorned only with modesty (such should faith be, virtuous with modesty); and he brought in the other, vice, the opposite, clothed in superfluous clothing and brightened with a borrowed color, and her movement and bearing, contrived to please, were set out as a sketch of lewd women. The one who follows the Word will make no shameful pleasure his own; so in clothing too usefulness must be preferred. And if the Word sings this through David concerning the Lord: “The daughters of kings have delighted you in your honor; the queen stood at your right hand in gold-woven clothing, arrayed in golden fringes,” he has not indicated luxurious clothing, but has shown the pure adornment, woven together from faith, of those who have received mercy, the church, in which the guileless Jesus “shines like gold,” and the

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:223 · 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

Ps 45:9 (44:10 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 45:13 (44:14 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Xenophon, Mem. 2.1.22 (Xenophon, Memorabilia) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

The sophist of Ceos is Prodicus, whose fable of Heracles choosing between Virtue and Vice is told in Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1.21–34. The quotation is Ps 45:9, 13 (44:10, 14 LXX). The sentence continues in the next section.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/110/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/110/).

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