Exhortation to the Greeks 11.114
Summary: Christ, the Sun of righteousness, has turned night into day and death into life, lifting humanity to heaven and writing God's laws on the heart.
Greek text · Stählin 1:80–81
Ἀφέλωμεν οὖν, ἀφέλωμεν τὴν λήθην τῆς ἀληθείας· τὴν ἄγνοιαν καὶ τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐμποδὼν ὡς ἀχλὺν ὄψεως καταγαγόντες τὸν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν ἐποπτεύσωμεν, ταύτην αὐτῷ πρῶτον ἀνυμνήσαντες τὴν φωνήν »χαῖρε φῶς·« φῶς ἡμῖν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ τοῖς ἐν σκότει κατορωρυγμένοις καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου κατακεκλεισμένοις ἐξέλαμψεν ἡλίου καθαρώτερον, ζωῆς τῆς ἐνταῦθα γλυκύτερον. τὸ φῶς ἐκεῖνο ζωή ἐστιν ἀίδιος, καὶ ὅσα μετείληφεν αὐτοῦ, ζῇ, ἡ νὺξ δὲ εὐλαβεῖται τὸ φῶς καὶ δύνουσα διὰ τὸν φόβον παραχωρεῖ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ κυρίου· τὰ πάντα φῶς ἀκοίμητον γέγονεν καὶ ἡ δύσις εἰς ἀνατολὴν περιέστηκεν. τοῦτο ἡ κτίσις ἡ καινὴ βεβούληται· ὁ γὰρ τὰ πάντα καθιππεύων »δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος« ἐπʼ ἴσης περιπολεῖ τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα, τὸν πατέρα μιμούμενος, ὃς »ἐπὶ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἀνατέλλει τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ«, καὶ καταψεκάζει τὴν δρόσον τῆς ἀληθείας. οὗτος τὴν δύσιν εἰς ἀνατολὴν μετήγαγεν καὶ τὸν θάνατον εἰς ζωὴν ἀνεσταύρωσεν, ἐξαρπάσας δὲ τῆς ἀπωλείας τὸν ἄνθρωπον προσεκρέμασεν αἰθέρι, μεταφυτεύων τὴν φθορὰν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ γῆν μεταβάλλων εἰς οὐρανούς, ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ γεωργός, »δεξιὰ σημαίνων, λαοὺς δʼ ἐπὶ ἔργον« ἀγαθὸν »ἐγείρων, μιμνῄσκων βιότοιο« ἀληθινοῦ, καὶ τὸν μέγαν ὄντως καὶ θεῖον καὶ ἀναφαίρετον τοῦ πατρὸς κλῆρον χαριζόμενος ἡμῖν, οὐρανίῳ διδασκαλίᾳ θεοποιῶν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, »διδοὺς νόμους εἰς τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίαν γράφων αὐτούς.« τίνας ὑπογράφει νόμους;
English · Claude translation
Let us remove, then, let us remove the forgetfulness of truth. Taking away the ignorance and darkness that stand in the way like a mist over the eyes, let us behold the God who truly is, first singing to him this cry: “Hail, Light!” A light has shone on us from heaven, on us who were buried in darkness and shut up in the shadow of death, a light purer than the sun, sweeter than life here. That light is eternal life, and whatever shares in it lives. Night fears the light and, sinking in fear, yields to the day of the Lord. All things have become sleepless light, and the setting has turned into a rising. This is what the new creation meant. For “the Sun of righteousness,” who drives his chariot over all things, visits all humanity alike, imitating the Father, who “makes his sun rise on all people,” and he sprinkles on them the dew of the truth. He has changed the setting into a rising and crucified death into life; snatching the human being from destruction, he has lifted him up to the sky, transplanting corruption into incorruption and changing earth into heaven. He is God's farmer, “giving favorable signs, and rousing the peoples to” good “work, reminding them of” true “livelihood,” and granting us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying the human being by heavenly teaching, “putting laws into their minds and writing them on their hearts.” What laws does he write?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions and quotations are Isa 9:2 (Matt 4:16; Luke 1:79), Mal 4:2 (3:20 LXX), Matt 5:45, and Jer 31:33 (38:33 LXX) as quoted in Heb 8:10. The verses about God's farmer adapt Aratus, Phaenomena 6–7, with Clement's own additions (“good,” “true”). “Deifying” (θεοποιῶν) is Clement's word for the transformation of the human being by grace.
- “Hail, Light!” may come from an early Christian hymn.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 11.114 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/11/114/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 11.114 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/11/114/).
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