Exhortation to the Greeks 2.23

Summary: Those who worship such gods are doubly godless: they do not know the true God and they worship beings that do not exist.

Greek text · Stählin 1:17–18

Ταῦτα τῶν ἀθέων τὰ μυστήρια· ἀθέους δὲ εἰκότως ἀποκαλῶ τούτους, οἳ τὸν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν ἠγνοήκασιν, παιδίον δὲ ὑπὸ Τιτάνων διασπώμενον καὶ γύναιον πενθοῦν καὶ μόρια ἄρρητα ὡς ἀληθῶς ὑπʼ αἰσχύνης ἀναισχύντως σέβουσιν, διττῇ ἐνεσχημένοι τῇ ἀθεότητι, προτέρᾳ μέν, καθʼ ἣν ἀγνοοῦσι τὸν θεόν, τὸν ὄντως ὄντα μὴ γνωρίζοντες θεόν, ἑτέρᾳ δὲ καὶ δευτέρᾳ δὴ ταύτῃ τῇ πλάνῃ τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας ὡς ὄντας νομίζοντες καὶ θεοὺς τούτους ὀνομάζοντες τοὺς οὐκ ὄντως ὄντας, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ὄντας, μόνου δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος τετυχηκότας. διὰ τοῦτό τοι καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος διελέγχει ἡμᾶς »καὶ ἦτε ξένοι« λέγων »τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ.«

English · Claude translation

These are the mysteries of the godless. And I rightly call godless those who do not know the God who truly is, but shamelessly worship a child torn apart by Titans, a grieving woman, and parts that are truly unspeakable for shame. They are caught in a double godlessness: first, that they do not know God, failing to recognize the God who truly is; and second, this further error, that they consider as existing beings that do not exist, and call gods those who do not truly exist, or rather do not exist at all, but have received only the name. That is why the apostle convicts us too, saying: “You were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:17–18 · 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

Eph 2:12 · quotation, high confidence

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/23/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/23/).