Exhortation to the Greeks 10.106
Summary: Clement urges his hearers to cast off their serpent-like enmity, repent with the whole heart, and believe in Christ, who is man and God, who suffered and is worshiped.
Greek text · Stählin 1:75–76
ἀλλʼ ὑμεῖς γε κατεπᾴσθητε τὴν ἀγριότητα καὶ παραδέξασθε τὸν ἥμερον καὶ ἡμέτερον λόγον καὶ τὸν ἰὸν ἀποπτύσατε τὸν δηλητήριον, ὅπως ὅτι μάλιστα ὑμῖν τὴν φθοράν, ὡς ἐκείνοις τὸ γῆρας, ἀποδύσασθαι δοθῇ. ἀκούσατέ μου καὶ μὴ τὰ ὦτα ἀποβύσητε μηδὲ τὰς ἀκοὰς ἀποφράξητε, ἀλλʼ εἰς νοῦν βάλεσθε τὰ λεγόμενα. καλόν ἐστι τὸ φάρμακον τῆς ἀθανασίας· στήσατέ ποτε τοὺς ὁλκοὺς τοὺς ἑρπηστικούς. »οἱ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ κυρίου χοῦν λείξουσι«, φησίν [ἡ γραφὴ λέγει]· ἀνανεύσατε τῆς γῆς εἰς αἰθέρα, ἀναβλέψατε εἰς οὐρανόν, θαυμάσατε, παύσασθε καραδοκοῦντες τῶν δικαίων τὴν πτέρναν καὶ »τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀληθείας« ἐμποδίζοντες· φρόνιμοι γένεσθε καὶ ἀβλαβεῖς· τάχα που ὁ κύριος ἁπλότητος ὑμῖν δωρήσεται πτερόν (πτερῶσαι προῄρηται τοὺς γηγενεῖς), ἵνα δὴ τοὺς χηραμοὺς καταλείποντες οἰκήσητε τοὺς οὐρανούς. μόνον ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας μετανοήσωμεν, ὡς ὅλῃ καρδίᾳ δυνηθῆναι χωρῆσαι τὸν θεόν. »ἐλπίσατε ἐπʼ αὐτόν«, φησί, »πᾶσα συναγωγὴ λαοῦ, ἐκχέετε ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ πάσας τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν« πρὸς τοὺς κενοὺς τῆς πονηρίας λέγει· ἐλεεῖ καὶ δικαιοσύνης πληροῖ· πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε, ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ θεῷ· πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε τῷ παθόντι καὶ προσκυνουμένῳ, θεῷ ζῶντι πιστεύσατε οἱ δοῦλοι τῷ νεκρῷ· πάντες ἄνθρωποι πιστεύσατε μόνῳ τῷ πάντων ἀνθρώπων θεῷ· πιστεύσατε καὶ μισθὸν λάβετε σωτηρίαν· »ἐκζητήσατε τὸν θεόν, καὶ ζήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν.«
English · Claude translation
But you, at least, let your savagery be charmed away; receive the gentle Word, who is ours, and spit out the deadly poison, so that you may be granted, as far as possible, to strip off corruption, as those snakes strip off their old age. Listen to me, and do not stop your ears or block your hearing, but take to heart what is said. Beautiful is the medicine of immortality. Stop at last your creeping trails. “For the enemies of the Lord will lick the dust,” it says [the Scripture says]. Lift your heads from the earth to the ether, look up to heaven, wonder; stop lying in wait for the heel of the righteous and obstructing “the way of truth.” Be wise and harmless; perhaps the Lord will give you the wing of simplicity (he has chosen to give wings to those born of earth), so that you may leave your holes and dwell in the heavens. Only let us repent with our whole heart, so that we may be able to receive God with our whole heart. “Hope in him,” it says, “all the assembly of the people; pour out all your hearts before him”: he says this to those who are empty of wickedness; he has mercy and fills them with righteousness. Believe, man, in him who is man and God; believe, man, in him who suffered and is worshiped, the living God. Believe, you slaves, in him who died; all people, believe in him who alone is God of all people. Believe, and receive salvation as your reward. “Seek God, and your soul shall live.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Medicine of immortality” echoes Ignatius, Eph. 20.2. The quotations are Ps 72:9 (71:9 LXX), Ps 62:8 (61:9 LXX), and Ps 69:32 (68:33 LXX); the allusions are Gen 3:15 (the heel), 2 Pet 2:2 (“the way of truth”), and Matt 10:16. The bracketed words are marked by the editor as a gloss.
- The punctuation of “believe … in him who suffered and is worshiped, the living God” follows the sense; the digital text runs the clauses together.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (elision mark missing; stray line-break mark in the digital text): ἀλλ ὑμεῖς γε → ἀλλʼ ὑμεῖς γε; ἄν¦θρωπε → ἄνθρωπε.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/106/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/106/).
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