Miscellanies 7.9.52
Summary: Teaching others is the highest work of the one who knows; by forming and renewing those he instructs, the teacher becomes a living image of the Lord.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Πλεῖον δέ τι καὶ μᾶλλον ἐπιτείνει τὸ γνωστικὸν ἀξίωμα ὁ τὴν προστασίαν τῆς τῶν ἑτέρων διδασκαλίας ἀναλαβών, τοῦ μεγίστου ἐπὶ γῆς ἀγαθοῦ τὴν οἰκονομίαν λόγῳ τε καὶ ἔργῳ ἀναδεξάμενος, διʼ ἧς πρὸς τὸ θεῖον συνάφειάν τε καὶ κοινωνίαν ἐμμεσιτεύει. ὡς δὲ οἱ τὰ ἐπίγεια θρῃσκεύοντες τοῖς ἀγάλμασι καθάπερ ἐπαΐουσι προσεύχονται, τὰς βεβαίας ἐπὶ τούτων τιθέμενοι συνθήκας, οὕτως ἐπὶ τῶν ἐμψύχων ἀγαλμάτων, τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἡ μεγαλοπρέπεια τοῦ λόγου ἡ ἀληθὴς πρὸς τοῦ ἀξιοπίστου παραλαμβάνεται διδασκάλου, καὶ ἡ εἰς τούτους εὐεργεσία εἰς αὐτὸν ἀναφέρεται τὸν κύριον, οὗ κατʼ εἰκόνα παιδεύων ὁ τῷ ὄντι ἄνθρωπος δημιουργεῖ καὶ μεταρρυθμίζει καινίζων εἰς σωτηρίαν τὸν κατηχούμενον ἄνθρωπον. ὡς γὰρ τὸν σίδηρον Ἄρην προσαγορεύουσιν Ἕλληνες καὶ τὸν οἶνον Διόνυσον κατά τινα ἀναφοράν, οὕτως ὁ γνωστικός, ἰδίαν σωτηρίαν ἡγούμενος τὴν τῶν πέλας ὠφέλειαν, ἄγαλμα ἔμψυχον εἰκότως ἂν τοῦ κυρίου λέγοιτο, οὐ κατὰ τὴν τῆς μορφῆς ἰδιότητα, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ τῆς δυνάμεως σύμβολον καὶ κατὰ τὸ τῆς κηρύξεως ὁμοίωμα.
English · Claude translation
The one who has taken on the charge of teaching others raises the dignity of knowledge still higher and further, having undertaken in word and deed the stewardship of the greatest good on earth, through which he mediates union and communion with the divine. And as those who worship earthly things pray to statues as though they could hear, making their firm agreements before them, so with living statues, human beings, the true grandeur of the Word is received from the trustworthy teacher, and the good done to them is referred to the Lord himself. After his image, the truly human person, by educating, creates, reshapes, and renews for salvation the person who is being instructed. For as the Greeks call iron Ares and wine Dionysus by a kind of association, so the one who knows, who regards the benefit of his neighbors as his own salvation, might reasonably be called a living statue of the Lord, not in the particular features of his form, but as a token of his power and a likeness of his preaching.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “The person who is being instructed” renders κατηχούμενος, the catechumen. Renewal after the image echoes Col 3:10.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.9.52 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/9/52/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.9.52 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/9/52/).
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