Recognitions 0.1–1.19

To you, Gaudentius, distinguished ornament of our teachers, belongs such vigor of intellect, or rather such grace of the Spirit, that whatever you say even in the manner of everyday speech, whatever you deliver in church, ought to be kept in books and handed down to posterity for instruction. We, however, whom slenderness of talent makes less ready and old age now makes slow and sluggish, have at last, though after many delays, rendered the work which the virgin Silvia of venerable memory once enjoined on us, that we should put Clement into our language, and which you afterwards claimed by right of inheritance. And we are bringing in for the use and benefit of our people a booty, I think, not small, snatched from the libraries of the Greeks, so that we may nourish with foreign food those whom we cannot nourish with our own. For foreign things usually seem sweeter, and sometimes also more useful. Indeed, almost everything that brings healing to bodies, that counters diseases, that drives off poisons, is foreign. Judaea sends the tear of balsam, Crete the leafy head of dittany, Arabia the flowers of spices, and India reaps the harvest of spikenard; and though these reach us somewhat more broken than what our own field has produced, they keep entire the charm of their fragrance and their power to heal. Receive, then, my soul, our Clement returning to you; receive him now a Roman. And do not wonder if perhaps the face of eloquence appears less florid in him than usual. It makes no difference, provided the sense savors the same. So we carry foreign wares into our homeland with much sweat. And I do not know how gratefully the faces of my fellow citizens will receive me as I bring them great spoils from Greece and unlock the hidden treasures of wisdom with the key of our language. But may God favor your prayers, that no ill-omened eye and no envious look of anyone may meet us, lest by the last kind of portent, while those from whom he is taken feel no envy, those on whom he is conferred should yet turn livid with it.

It is only fair to explain the plan of our translation to you, who have read these things also in Greek, lest you think that in some places the order of the translation has been insufficiently kept by us. I suppose you are aware that in Greek there are two editions of this work of Clement, the Anagnōseis, that is, the Recognitions, and two bodies of books, differing in some points but in many containing the same narrative. Indeed, the last part of this work, which tells of the transformation of Simon, is found in one body and is entirely absent from the other. There are also in both bodies certain discussions about the unbegotten and the begotten God, and about some other matters, which, to say no more, went beyond our understanding. These, therefore, as being beyond my powers, I preferred to reserve for others rather than to present them imperfectly. In the rest, however, we have taken pains, as far as we could, to depart not only not from the sense but not even from the words and expressions. This makes the style of the narrative less ornate, but more faithful. The letter, indeed, in which this same Clement, writing to James the brother of the Lord, reports the death of Peter, and that Peter left him as successor of his chair and his teaching, and in which the whole order of the church is also set out, I have not now prefixed to this work, both because it is later in time and because I translated and published it some time ago. But since something in it may perhaps seem inconsistent to some, I think it not absurd to explain it here. For some ask how, since Linus and Cletus were bishops in the city of Rome before this Clement, Clement himself, writing to James, says that the chair of teaching was handed over to him by Peter. We have received this as the explanation: Linus and Cletus were indeed bishops in the city of Rome before Clement, but while Peter was still living, namely so that they bore the care of the episcopate while he himself fulfilled the office of apostleship; just as he is found to have done at Caesarea also, where, though he himself was present, he nevertheless had Zacchaeus, ordained by himself, as bishop. In this way both will be seen to be true: that those men are counted as bishops before Clement, and that Clement nevertheless received the seat of teaching after Peter's death. But now let us see how Clement himself, writing to James the brother of the Lord, begins his narrative.

I, Clement, born in the city of Rome, pursued chastity from my earliest age, while from boyhood an intentness of mind held me bound as if by chains of anxiety and grief. For there was in me a train of thought (whence it took its beginning I do not know) that kept bringing to my mind the condition of mortality, and at the same time debated: whether there is any life for me after death, or whether I shall be nothing at all afterwards; whether I did not exist before I was born; or whether there will be no remembrance at all of this life after death, and so the immensity of time will consign all things to oblivion and silence, so that not only shall we not exist, but it will not even be remembered that we existed. And this too turned over in my breast: when the world was made, or what there was before it was made, or whether it has always existed. For it seemed certain that if it had been made, it would surely also be dissolved; and if it is dissolved, what will there be afterwards? Unless perhaps oblivion and silence will cover all things, or perhaps there will be something which the mind of mortals cannot now perceive.

Turning these and similar things over in my mind unceasingly, I know not whence, I wasted away incredibly from excess of grief; and, what is worse, whenever I thought of rejecting such cares as useless, stronger waves of anxiety rose up within me. For I had within me an excellent companion who would not let me rest: the desire of immortality. For as the outcome of things afterwards taught, and the grace of almighty God showed, this intentness of mind led me to the search for truth and the knowledge of the true light. From this it came about that I afterwards mourned for those whom earlier, in my ignorance, I had believed blessed.

So, while from my earliest age I was occupied with such intentness of mind, wishing to learn something, I frequented the schools of the philosophers, where I saw nothing else going on but the assertion and refutation of doctrines without end, contests, and the arts and subtleties of syllogisms and conclusions being plied. And whenever the argument prevailed that the soul was immortal, I rejoiced; whenever it was argued to be mortal, I went away sad. Yet neither view held the firmness of truth in my heart; I understood only this, that opinions and definitions of things were thought true or false, not according to their own nature and the truth of the matters, but according to the talents of those who defended them. And I was tormented all the more deeply in my breast because I could neither hold anything of what was said as firm nor cast away the desire of inquiring; but the more I tried to neglect and spurn it, the more ardently, as I said above, this kind of thought, creeping in secretly as if with a certain pleasure, possessed my mind and soul.

Being thus hemmed in in the discovery of things, I said to myself: Why do we labor in vain, since the end of things is plain? For if after death I shall not exist, I am tormented needlessly now; but if there will be life for me after death, let us keep for that life the impulses that belong to its time, lest perhaps sadder things than those I now suffer await me there, unless I have lived piously and soberly, and, according to the opinions of some philosophers, I be handed over to the river Pyriphlegethon or to Tartarus, like Sisyphus and Tityus, and like Ixion and Tantalus, to eternal punishments in the underworld. And again I answered myself: But these things are fables; or, if it is so, in doubtful matters it is better to live piously. But again I reckoned with myself: How could I restrain myself from the lust of sin while the reward of righteousness is uncertain? Especially since even what righteousness itself is, the righteousness that pleases God, is uncertain to me; and I neither know whether the soul is immortal and is such as can hope for anything, nor do I know what will certainly come. And yet I cannot rest from such thoughts.

What then shall I do? I will go to Egypt, and there become friendly with the hierophants or prophets who preside over the shrines; and I will entreat a magician, hired from among them with money, to bring up a soul for me from the underworld by what they call necromancy, as though I wished to consult it about some business. But my consultation will be this: whether the soul is immortal. And the proof that the soul is immortal will be certain to me not from its speaking, or from what I hear, but from what I see; so that, beholding it with my own eyes, I may hold for the future the most certain conviction of its immortality. For then neither the deceitfulness of words nor uncertain hearing will be able to disturb the truth of sight. However, I referred this very plan of mine to a certain philosopher who was my friend, and he advised me not to dare to do it. “For if,” he said, “the soul does not obey the magician who summons it, you will afterwards live more hopelessly, thinking there is nothing after death, since you will also have attempted unlawful things. But if you seem to yourself to see something there, what religion or what piety will be handed on to you from unlawful and impious things? For they say that such business is hateful to the Deity, and that God sets himself against those who trouble souls after their release from bodies.” When I heard this I became slower about what I was preparing; yet I could by no means either lay aside my desire or cast off the trouble of my thought.

To be brief: while I was being tossed by these surges of thought, a certain report, which began in the regions of the East in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, gradually reached us, and, gaining strength from place to place like a good messenger sent from God, it was filling the whole world and would not allow the divine will to be hidden in silence. It spread, then, through every place, announcing that there was someone in Judaea who, beginning in the springtime, was preaching the kingdom of God to the Jews, and said that those would receive it who kept the ordinances of his commandments and teaching. And so that his word might be believed worthy of credit and full of divinity, he was said to perform many mighty works, and wonderful signs and portents, by his command alone, so that, as one having power from God, he made the deaf hear and the blind see, raised up the lame, drove away every infirmity and all demons from people, even raised the dead who were brought to him, and healed lepers, looking on them from a distance; and there was nothing at all that seemed impossible to him. These and similar things were confirmed in the course of time, no longer by frequent rumors but by the plain reports, so to speak, of people coming from those parts, and the truth of the matter became clearer day by day.

At last gatherings began to be held in various places in the city, this report to be discussed, and the question to be pondered with wonder: who this might be who had appeared, and what message from God he had brought to men. Then in the same year a certain man, standing in the most crowded place of the city, proclaimed to the people: “Hear me, citizens of Rome. The Son of God is now in the regions of Judaea, promising eternal life to all who are willing to hear him, provided they direct their actions according to the will of God the Father, by whom he was sent. Therefore turn from evil things to good, from temporal things to eternal. Acknowledge that there is one God, ruler of heaven and earth, in whose righteous sight you, being unrighteous, inhabit his world. But if you turn and act according to his will, you will come to the world to come, be made eternal, and enjoy his unspeakable good things and rewards.” Now this man who was saying these things to the people was from the regions of the East, by nation a Hebrew, by name Barnabas, who said that he was himself one of his disciples and had been sent for this purpose, to declare these things to those who were willing. When I heard this, I began with the rest of the crowd to follow him and hear what he said. I perceived, indeed, that there was nothing of the dialectical art in the man, but that he set forth simply, without any coloring of speech, what he had heard or seen from the Son of God. For he did not fortify his assertions by force of argument, but produced from the very people standing around many witnesses of the words and wonders he announced.

But since the people began to assent gladly to what was said sincerely and to embrace the simple speech, those who seemed to themselves learned, or philosophers, began to laugh at the man and despise him, and to bring out against him the snares of syllogisms as though they were the strongest weapons. But he, undaunted, regarding their subtleties as ravings, did not even judge them worthy of an answer, but went on fearlessly with what he had set out to say. At length, when someone put to him, as he was speaking, the question why the gnat was so made that, though it is a tiny animal and has six feet, wings were added to it besides, whereas the elephant, though it is a huge animal and has no wings, has only four feet, he, without even looking at the question, went on with unbroken attention with the discourse that the untimely question had interrupted, adding at each interruption only this admonition: “We have it in charge to announce to you the words and wonderful deeds of him who sent us, and to confirm the truth of what we say, not by arguments sought out by art, but by witnesses produced from among yourselves. For I recognize many standing in your midst who, I remember, heard with us what we heard and saw what we saw. But let it be in your power either to receive or to reject what we announce. For we cannot keep silent about what we know to be for your good, because for us, if we keep silent, there is loss; but for you, if you do not receive what we say, destruction. I could indeed very easily answer your foolish questions—I mean about the difference between the gnat and the elephant—if you asked them for the sake of learning the truth; but now it is absurd to say anything to you about creatures, when the very Creator and Founder of all is unknown to you.”

When he had said this, all, as if with one accord, burst out laughing together with undisciplined mouths, wishing to put him to shame and impose silence on him, and crying out that he was a barbarian and not of sound mind. But when I saw these things being done, filled with a certain zeal (I know not whence) and kindled with religious fervor, I could not keep silent, but cried out with all boldness: “Most rightly,” I said, “has almighty God hidden his will from you, whom he foresaw to be unworthy of the knowledge of himself, as is plain to the right-minded from what you are now doing. For when you see that preachers of the will of God have come, you laugh at the ministers and messengers of your salvation because their speech professes no knowledge of the grammatical art, and they bring the divine commandments to you in simple and unpolished words, so that all who hear can follow and understand what is said. You do not know that it is your condemnation—you who seem to yourselves skilled and eloquent—that the knowledge of the truth is found among rustics and barbarians. When it comes to you, it is not received even as a guest, though, had your intemperance and lust not stood in the way, it ought to have been a citizen and a native. So you are convicted of being not friends of truth and philosophers, but followers of boastfulness and vain talkers, who believe that truth dwells not in simple words but in crafty and cunning ones, and who pour out countless words not worth the price of a single word. What then do you think will become of you, all you crowd of Greeks, if there is to be a judgment of God, as this man says? But now leave off laughing at this man to your own ruin, and let any of you who wishes answer me; for by your mere barking you disturb even the ears of those who wish to be saved, and by your disturbances you turn aside to the fall of unbelief minds that are prepared for faith. What pardon will there ever be for you, who laugh at and insult the messenger of the Deity who promises you the knowledge of God? Even if he brought nothing of truth, yet for his very purpose of kindness toward you, you ought to hold him welcome and acceptable.”

While I was pursuing these and similar things, a great uproar arose among the people standing by, some being moved with pity, as toward a stranger, and approving my speech as consistent with that, while others, petulant and stupid, roused the anger of their unbridled minds against me too, as against Barnabas. But as the day was now declining toward evening, I took Barnabas by the right hand and, though he resisted, brought him to my house and made him stay there, lest anyone of the unruly mob should lay hands on him. So, being together for some days, I gladly heard him discourse the word of truth; yet he pressed for his departure, saying that he must by all means celebrate in Judaea a festival of his religion that was approaching, and remain there thereafter with his fellow citizens and brethren, plainly showing that he was struck with horror at the injury done him.

Then I said: “Only set out for me the teaching of that man who you say has appeared, and I, putting your sayings into my own words, will preach the kingdom and righteousness of almighty God; and after that, if you wish, I will even sail with you, for I very much desire to see Judaea, and perhaps to remain with you permanently.” To this he answered: “If indeed you wish to see our country and learn what you desire, sail with me right now; but if something keeps you, I will leave you directions to our dwelling, so that when you wish to come you may easily find us; for tomorrow I set out on my journey.” When I saw that he was immovable, I went down with him to the harbor, carefully received from him the directions to the dwelling he had spoken of, and told him that, were it not that I had to recover some money from debtors, I would not delay at all, but would quickly follow him. Having said this, and having commended him very earnestly to those in charge of the ship, I returned sad; for the memory of my association with a good guest and the best of friends held me.

After remaining a few days and settling part of what was owed to me (for in my eagerness to hasten I neglected much, so as not to be hindered from my purpose), I sailed straight for Judaea, and after fifteen days landed at Caesarea Stratonis, the largest city of Palestine. When I had left the ship and was looking for lodging, I learned from common talk that a certain Peter, a most approved disciple of him who appeared in Judaea and showed many signs and wonders divinely performed among men, was to hold a debate of words and questions the next day with a certain Simon, a Samaritan from the village of Gitthae. When I heard this, I asked to be shown his lodging; and when I had found it and stood before the door, I told the doorkeeper who I was and whence I came. And behold, Barnabas came out, and as soon as he saw me he ran into my embrace, weeping for joy, and taking me by the hand led me in to Peter. Pointing him out to me from a distance, he said: “This is Peter, whom I told you was greatest in the wisdom of God, and to whom I in turn have spoken of you without ceasing. Go in, then, as one well known to him. For he has learned most truly all the good that is in you, and has carefully understood your religious purpose; hence he is moved with the greatest desire to see you. So today I present you to him from my hands as a great gift.” And at the same time, presenting me, he said: “This is Clement, Peter.”

But the most kind Peter, hearing my name, ran to me at once and kissed me, and after making me sit down, he said: “You did well to receive Barnabas, a preacher of the truth, as your guest, in no way fearing the fury of the frenzied people; you will be blessed. For as you have counted the ambassador of the truth worthy of every honor, so the truth itself will receive you as a stranger and guest and enroll you as a citizen of its own city; and then you will have great joy, because by bestowing a small kindness now you are being written down as heir of eternal goods. Now, then, do not trouble to explain your mind to me; for Barnabas has told me everything about you and your character in a faithful account, recalling the memory of your good qualities almost daily and without ceasing. And, to tell you briefly, as to a friend already of one mind with us, what I would advise: if nothing hinders you, journey with us and hear the word of truth which we shall speak in each place until we reach the very city of Rome; and now, if you wish anything, say it.”

When I had explained to him what purpose I had formed from the beginning, and how I had been worn out by empty questions (and all those things which I told you, my lord James, at the beginning, so that I need not repeat them), I gladly promised that I would travel with him; “for this,” I said, “is what I was most eagerly waiting for. But first I want the account of the truth explained to me, so that I may know whether the soul is mortal or immortal, and, if immortal, whether it will be brought to judgment for what it does here. I also want to know what righteousness is, the righteousness that pleases God. Then besides, whether the world was made, and why it was made, or whether it is to be dissolved, or renewed for the better, or whether after this there will be no world at all; and, not to go through every point, I want to learn how these and similar things stand.” To this Peter said: “Briefly, Clement, I will impart to you the knowledge of these things; listen now.”

“The will and counsel of God have been hidden from men for many reasons. First, indeed, because of bad upbringing, very evil companionships, wicked habits, conversations that are not good, and presumptions that are not right. Because of all these, I say, first error, then contempt, then unbelief and malice, avarice too and vain boasting, and other evils like these, have filled the whole house of this world like a vast smoke, and have not allowed those who dwell inside a free view to behold their Founder, nor to perceive what is pleasing to him. What then befits those who are inside, except to raise a cry from their inmost hearts and call for the help of him whom alone the smoke-filled house does not shut in, that he may come and open the door of the house, so that the smoke that is inside may be let out, and the light of the sun that shines outside may be let in?”

“He, then, whose help is sought for the house filled with the darkness of ignorance and the smoke of vices is, we say, the one who is called the true Prophet, who alone can enlighten the souls of men, so that they see the way of salvation plainly with their own eyes. For otherwise it is impossible to gain knowledge of divine and eternal things, unless one has learned from that true Prophet; because, as you yourself mentioned a little while ago, belief about things and opinions about causes are weighed rather according to the talents of those who defend them. Hence the same cause is thought now just, now unjust, and what seemed true a moment ago seems false on the assertion of another. For this reason faith in religion and piety required the presence of the true Prophet, that he himself might tell us about each thing as the truth itself stands, and teach how one ought to believe about each. And therefore before everything the credibility of the prophet must be tested with all examination; and once you have recognized that he is truly a prophet, you must believe him in everything thereafter, and no longer discuss point by point what he teaches, but hold what he says as firm and sacred; and these things, though they seem to be received by faith, are nevertheless believed on the strength of the proof already made. For once the truth of the prophet has been established by examination at the start, the rest is to be heard and held by the faith by which it is already established that he is a teacher of truth. And as it is certain that all things that pertain to divine knowledge must be held according to the rule of truth, so it is beyond doubt that what is true can be known from no one else but from him alone.”

Having said this, he explained to me so openly and so clearly who that Prophet was and how he might be found, that I seemed to have before my eyes and to handle with my hand the proofs he had produced concerning the prophetic truth; and I was fixed in great astonishment that no one sees what all are seeking, though it is placed before their eyes. Then, at his command, arranging in order what he had said to me, I wrote a book about the true Prophet and, at his command, sent it to you from Caesarea. For he said that he had received an instruction from you to send you each year, written out, whatever he had said and done. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the discourse that he held with me on the first day about the true Prophet and very many other things, when he had instructed me most fully, he added this also: “See to it,” he said, “from now on, that you are present at my discussions, which I shall hold, whenever necessity requires, with those who oppose us. In disputing against them, even if I should perhaps seem to be worsted, I shall not fear that you will come to doubt what I have handed on to you; because even if I seem to be beaten, the things the true Prophet has handed on to us will not on that account seem weak. Yet I hope that we shall not be beaten in disputations either, provided the hearers are reasonable and friends of truth, able to discern the force and appearance of words, and to recognize which speech comes from the sophistic art, containing not truth but an image of truth, and which, uttered simply and without coloring, has all its force not in appearance and ornament but in truth and reason.”

To this I said: “I give thanks to almighty God that I have been instructed as I desired. Yet you may be so far assured about me that I cannot come to doubt what I have learned from you, so that even if you yourself should at some time wish to transfer my faith from the true Prophet, you could not do it at all; with so full a spirit have I drunk in what you have handed on. And lest you think I am promising you something great in saying that I cannot be moved from this faith: it is certain to me that whoever among men has received this account of the true Prophet can never again doubt the truth in any way. And therefore I am confident, having grown together with this divine teaching, in which every art of malice is overcome. For against prophecy no art will be able to stand, nor the cunning of sophisms and syllogisms. Everyone who has heard of the true Prophet must at once conceive a desire for the truth itself, and will no longer, on the pretext of seeking the truth, endure various errors. Therefore, my lord Peter, I do not want you to be anxious any more, as about one who does not know what he has received and how great a gift has been entrusted to him. Be sure that you have bestowed a favor on one who knows and understands, and I cannot easily be deceived because I seem to have quickly obtained what I long desired. For it can happen that one man who desires obtains quickly, while another does not reach his desires even slowly.”

And Peter, hearing this from me, said: “I give thanks to my God both for your salvation and for my own peace; for I am greatly delighted because I see that you have understood how great is the power of prophecy, and because, as you say, not even I myself, if I wished (which God forbid!), could turn you to another faith. From now on begin to be with us, and tomorrow be present at our disputations; for I am to have a contest with Simon Magus.” When he had said this, he withdrew to take food with his own people, but told me to eat apart. And after the meal, when he had given praise and thanks to God, he also gave me the reason for this very practice, and added: “May the Lord grant you to be made like us in all things, so that, having received baptism, you may come to the same table with us.” Having said this, he told me to rest; for by now both the nature of the body and the hour invited to sleep.