The Instructor 2.6.51 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 1:188

γενναιότερον δὲ ὁ ἀπόστολος »γίνεσθε« φησὶν »ἀποστυγοῦντες τὸ πονηρὸν κολλώμενοι τῷ ἀγαθῷ·« ὁ γὰρ μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀναστρεφόμενος ἁγιασθήσεται. πάντῃ οὖν ἀφεκτέον τῶν αἰσχρῶν ἀκουσμάτων καὶ ῥημάτων καὶ θεαμάτων, πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον ἔργων αἰσχρῶν καθαρευτέον, τοῦτο μὲν ἐν ἐπιδείξεσι καὶ παραγυμνώσεσι μερῶν τινων τοῦ σώματος, ὧν οὐ χρή, τοῦτο δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθεωρήσεσι τῶν ἀπορρητοτέρων μερῶν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἠνέσχετο τοῦ δικαίου τὴν γύμνωσιν αἰσχρὰν οὖσαν ἐπιδεῖν σώφρων υἱός, ἐσκέπασε δὲ ἡ σωφροσύνη, ὃ ἐγύμνωσεν ἡ μέθη, τὸ περίοπτον τῆς ἀγνοίας παράπτωμα. καθαρευτέον δὲ οὐδὲν ἧττον κἀν ταῖς προφοραῖς τῶν φωνῶν, αἷς ἄβατα εἶναι χρὴ τὰ ὦτα τῶν ἐν Χριστῷ πεπιστευκότων. ταύτῃ μοι δοκεῖ ὁ παιδαγωγὸς μηδὲ φθέγξασθαί τι τῶν τῆς ἀσχημοσύνης ἐφιέναι ἡμῖν, πόρρωθεν διαβάλλων πρὸς τὴν ἀκολασίαν.

English · Claude translation

More nobly the apostle says, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good”; for one who associates with the holy will be made holy. We must entirely abstain from shameful things heard, said, and seen, and much more keep ourselves pure from shameful deeds: on the one hand, from displaying and exposing any parts of the body we should not; on the other, from gazing at the more private parts. For the self-controlled son would not bear to look upon the nakedness of the righteous man, which was shameful; self-control covered what drunkenness had laid bare, the fault of ignorance exposed to view. We must be no less pure in the utterance of words, which must be inaccessible to the ears of those who have believed in Christ. So it seems to me that the Instructor does not allow us to utter anything indecent, setting us against licentiousness from afar.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:188 · 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

Rom 12:9 · quotation, high confidence
Ps 18:25 (17:26 LXX) · echo, medium confidence
Gen 9:23 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is Rom 12:9; “one who associates with the holy will be made holy” echoes Ps 18:25 (17:26 LXX). The allusion is Gen 9:23.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray raised point in the digital text): ὧν οὐ χρή, τοῦτο· δὲ ἐν → ὧν οὐ χρή, τοῦτο δὲ ἐν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.6.51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/6/51/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.6.51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/6/51/).