Sophia Scriptura

Exhortation to the Greeks 12.123

Clement of Alexandria · Exhortation to the Greeks · ca. 190–200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: God adopts believers as sons and calls them “gods”; the Christian's intentions, words, deeds, and life agree. Clement ends by setting before his hearers the choice between judgment and grace.

Greek text · Stählin 1:86

ὅμοιον ἤδη καὶ θεῷ. οὐκ ἀποκρύπτεται γοῦν ὁ προφήτης τὴν χάριν λέγων, »ἐγὼ εἶπον ὅτι θεοί ἐστε καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου πάντες.« ἡμᾶς γάρ, ἡμᾶς εἰσπεποίηται καὶ ἡμῶν ἐθέλει μόνων κεκλῆσθαι πατήρ, οὐ τῶν ἀπειθούντων. καὶ γὰρ οὖν ὧδέ πως ἔχει τὰ ἡμέτερα τῶν Χριστοῦ ὀπαδῶν· οἷαι μὲν αἱ βουλαί, τοῖοι καὶ οἱ λόγοι, ὁποῖοι δὲ οἱ λόγοι, τοιαίδε καὶ αἱ πράξεις, καὶ ὁποῖα τὰ ἔργα, τοιοῦτος ὁ βίος· χρηστὸς ὁ σύμπας ἀνθρώπων βίος τῶν Χριστὸν ἐγνωκότων. Ἅλις οἶμαι τῶν λόγων, εἰ καὶ μακροτέρω προῆλθον ὑπὸ φιλανθρωπίας ὅ τι περ εἶχον ἐκ θεοῦ ἐκχέων, ὡς ἂν ἐπὶ τὸ μέγιστον τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τὴν σωτηρίαν, παρακαλῶν· περὶ γάρ τοι τῆς παῦλαν οὐδαμῇ οὐδαμῶς ἐχούσης ζωῆς οὐκ ἐθέλουσιν οὐδʼ οἱ λόγοι παύσασθαί ποτε ἱεροφαντοῦντες. ὑμῖν δὲ ἔτι τοῦτο περιλείπεται πέρας τὸ λυσιτελοῦν ἑλέσθαι, ἢ κρίσιν ἢ χάριν· ὡς ἔγωγε οὐδʼ ἀμφιβάλλειν ἀξιῶ, πότερον ἄμεινον αὐτοῖν· οὐδὲ μὴν συγκρίνεσθαι θέμις ζωὴν ἀπωλείᾳ.

English · Claude translation

… already like God. The prophet does not hide this grace when he says: “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” For it is us, us whom he has adopted, and of us alone that he wishes to be called Father, not of the disobedient. And indeed this is how it is with us, the followers of Christ: as are our intentions, so are our words; as are our words, so are our actions; and as are our deeds, such is our life. The whole life of those who have known Christ is good. Enough words, I think, even if I have gone on at some length, out of love for humankind, pouring out whatever I had from God, as I called you to the greatest of good things, salvation. For about the life that has no end whatever, words too are unwilling ever to stop revealing the sacred mysteries. But for you this final point still remains: to choose what is profitable, judgment or grace. For my part, I do not think it right even to doubt which of the two is better; nor is it lawful to compare life with destruction.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:86 · 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
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Ps 82:6 (81:6 LXX; compare John 10:34). Clement, like other early Christian writers, uses “gods” for those made like God by grace, not for a change of nature.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 12.123 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/12/123/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 12.123 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/12/123/).

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