74 [Note her remarkable accord with inspiration, clearly distinguishing between such and the oracles of God. But see, supra, p. 132 and p. 145.]
75 [Having shown what truth there is to be found in heathen poets, he ascends to the Sibyl, and thus comes to the prophets; showing them how to climb upward in this way, and cleverly inducing them to make the best use of their own prophets and poets, by following them to the sources of their noblest ideas.]
76 [How sublimely he now introduces the oracles of truth.]
81 Jer. viii. 2. xxx. 20, iv. 6.
100 This is made up of several passages, as Isa. xiii. 10, Ezek. xxxii. 7, Joel ii. 10, 31, iii. 15.
114 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. [Here note the testimony of Clement to the universal diffusion and study of the Scriptures.]
117 Ps. xxxiv. 8, where Clem. has read risto/j for xrhsto/j.
119 [Here seems to be a running allusion to the privileges of the Christian Church in its unity, and to the "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, " which were so charming a feature of Christian worship. Bunsen, Hippolytus, etc., vol. ii. p. 157.]
124 Isa. liv. 17, where Sept.reads, "ye shall be righteous."
132 [Immersion was surely the form of primitive baptism, but these words, if not a reference to that sacrament, must recall Isa. lii. 15.]
133 [This fine passage will be recalled by what Clement afterward, in the Stromata, says of prayer. Book vii. vol. ii. p. 432. Edin.]
136 A translation in accordance with the Latin version would run thus: "While a certain previous conception of divine power is nevertheless discovered within us." But adopting that in the text the argument is: there is unquestionably a providence implying the exertion of divine power. That power is not exercised by idols or heathen gods. The only other alternative is, that it is exercised by the one self-exitent God.
137 Ps. xxiv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 26,28.
138 [1 Pet. ii. 17. This appeal in behalf of the sanctity of man as man, shows the workings of the apostolic precept.]
139 The expression "conquered by brass or iron" is borrowed from Homer (Il., viii. 534). Brass, or copper, and iron were the metals of which arms were made.
141 Ps. lviii. 4,5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.]
142 "They" seems to refer to sanctity and the word.
143 Ps. lviii. 4,5. [It was supposed that adders deafened themselves by laying one ear on the earth, and closing the other with the tail.]
146 [The impact of the Gospel on the slavery and helotism of the Pagans.]
148 [See above, p. 201, and below, the command "thou shalt love thy neighbor."]
149 Ex. xx. 13-16; Deut. vi. 5.
152 [Good will to men made emphatic. Slavery already modified, free-schools established, and homes created. As soon as persecution ceased, we find the Christian hospital. Forster ascribes the first foundation of this kind to Ephraim Syrus. A friend refers me to his Mohammedanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 283.]
153 [The Catholic instinct is here; and an all-embracing benevolence is its characteristic, not worldly empire.]
155 [He seems to be thinking of 1 Tim. vi. 6, and 1 Tim. iv. 8.]
159 [Eph. v. 14, is probably from a hymn of the Church, which is here referred to as His, as it is adopted into Scripture.]
162 [A quotation from another hymn, in all probability.]
164 Heb. viii. 10-12; Jer. xxxi. 33,34.
165 Il., vi. 236. [The exchange of Glaucus.]
172 [Here are references to baptism and the Eucharist, and to the Trisagion, "Therefore with angels and archangels," which was universally diffused in the Christian Church. Bunsen, Hippol., iii. 63.]
174 ["Who is this that cometh from Edom," seems to be in mind. Isa. lxiii. 1.]
175 Clement here draws a distinction, frequently made by early Christian writers, between the image and the likeness of God. Man never loses the image of God; but as the likeness consists in moral resemblance, he may lose it, and he recovers it only when he becomes righteous, holy, and wise.
177 [Let me quote from an excellent author: "We ought to give the Fathers credit for knowing what arguments were best calculated to affect the minds of those whom they were addressing. It was unnecessary for them to establish, by a long train of reasoning, the probability that a revelation may be made from heaven to man, or to prove the credibility of miracles... The majority, both of the learned and unlearned, were fixed in the belief that the Deity exercised an immediate control over the human race, and consequently felt no predisposition to reject that which purported to be a communication of His will... . Accustomed as they were, however, to regard the various systems proposed by philosophers as matters of curious speculation, designed to exercise the understanding, not to influence the conduct, the chief difficulty of the advocate of Christianity was to prevent them from treating it with the same levity, and to induce them to view it in its true light as a revelation declaring truths of the highest practical importance."
This remark of Bishop Kaye is a hint of vast importance in our study of the early Apologists. It is taken from that author's Account of the Writings of Clement of Alexandria (London, 1835), to which I would refer the student, as the best introduction to these works that I know of. It is full of valuable comment and exposition I make only sparing reference to it, however, in these pages, as otherwise I should hardly know what to omit, or to include.]
2 [See Exhortation to the Heathen, cap. xi. p. 203, supra.]
3 The paedagogus. [This word seems to be used by Clement, with frequent alusion, at least, to its original idea, of one who leads the child to his instructor; which is the true idea, I suppose, in Gal. iii. 24.]
10 Bishop Kaye (Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria, p. 48) translates, "receiving from man that which made man (that on account of which man was made)." But it seems more likely that Clement refers to the ideal man in the divine mind, whom he indentifies elsewhere with the Logos, the a!nqrwpoj a0paqh/j, of whom man was the image. The reader will notice that Clement speaks of man as existing in the divine mind before his creation, and creation is represented by God's seeing what He had previously within Him merely as a hidden power.
19 [The dignity ascribed to Christian childhood in this chapter is something noteworthy. The Gospel glorifying children, sanctifies marriage, and creates the home.]
21 Matt. xxi. 16; Ps. viii. 2.
23 Matt. xi. 16,17. [In the Peshitoi-Syraic version, where are probably found the very words our Saviour thus quotes from children in Nazareth, this saying is seen to be metrical and alliterative.]
28 Lev. xv. 29, xii. 8; Luke ii. 24.
32 Zech. ix. 9; Gen. xlix. 11.
35 Theodoret explains this to mean that, as the animal referred to has only one horn, so those brought up in the practice of piety worship only one God. [It might mean lovers of those promises which are introduced by these words in the marvellous twenty-second Psalm.]
49 In allusion apparently to John viii. 35,36.
54 viz., the result of His will.
61 Migne's text has a0poka/luyij. The emendation a0po/lhyij is preferable.
63 Gal. iii. 23-25. [Here the schoolmaster should be the child-guide; for the law leads us to the Master, says Clement, and we are no longer under the disciplinary guide, but "under the Word, the master of our free choice." The schoolmaster then is the Word, and the law merely led us to his school.]
68 [Clement here considers all believers as babes, in the sense he explains; but the tenderness towards children of the allusions running through this chapter are not the less striking.]
70 1 Cor. xiii. 11. [A text much misused by the heretical gnostics whom Clement confutes.]
71 viz., simple or innocent as a child, and foolish as a child.
86 Jer. ix. 23; 1 Cor. i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.
88 The emendation a0polh/rhsij is adopted instead of the reading in the text.
90 1 Pet. ii. 1-3 Clement here reads Xristo/jChrist, for xrhsto/j, gracious, in Text. Rec.
91 [Clement here argues from what was scientific in his day, introducing a curious, but to us not very pertinent, episode.]
99 [i.e., Not from the a0fro\j, of the sea, but of the blood.]
118 Or, "against the evil one."
143 For a0lhqei/aj, there are the readings a0paqei/aj and a0timi/aj.
171 Ps. ii. 4, xi. 5, ciii. 19.
176 Luke x. 22; John xvii. 25.
179 Jer. iii. 9, vii. 9, xi. 13, xxxii. 29.
185 Hos. iv. 14: "understood not" in the A.V.
190 Lowth conjectures e0pistomw=n or e0pistomi/zwn, instead of a0nastomw=n.
194 H. reads dhktiko/n, for which the text has e0pideiktiko/n.
203 Nothing similar to this is found in the fourth Gospel; the reference may be to the words of the Baptist, Matt. iii. 7, Luke iii. 7.
219 Matt. iii. 12; Luke iii. 17.
227 Here Clement gives the sense of various passages, e.g., Jer. vi., Lev. xxvi.
237 Matt. xi. 3-6; Luke vii. 19, 22, 23.
243 In Prov. ii. 4, 5; iii. 15. Jer. ii. 24, we have the sense of these verses.
254 Isa. lvii. 21, xlviii. 22.
257 Matt. xiii. 31; Luke xiii. 19.
258 Ex. xxxii. 6; 1 Cor. x. 7.
265 [The secondary, civilizing, and socializing power of the Gospel, must have already produced all this change from heathen manners, under Clement's own observation.]
268 [Note this definition in Christian ethics.]
4 o!qen, an emendation for o!n.
5 Love, or love-feast, a name applied by the ancients to public entertainments. [But surely he is here rebuking, with St. Jude (v. 12), abuses of the Christian agapae by heretics and others.]
15 Deut. viii. 3; Matt. iv. 4.
34 [Clement seems to think this abuse was connected with the agapae not-one might trust-with the Lord's supper.]
37 Literally, "slave-manners," the conduct to be expected from slaves.
43 A bulbous root, much prized in Greece, which grew wild.
45 A play here on the words eu0dai/mwn and dai/mwn.
46 a0kro/drua, hard-shelled fruits.
51 In allusion to the agapae, or love-feasts.
52 2 Kings vi. 17-19, Septuagint: 2 Sam. vi. 17-19. A.V.
53 o!noj, perhaps the hake or cod.
56 [This remarkable chapter seems to begin with the author's recollections of Pindar (a!riston me\n u#dwr), but to lay down very justly the Scriptural ideas of temperance and abstinence.]
58 [Clement reckons only two classes as living faithfully with respect to drink, the abstinent and the totally abstinent.]
59 [This seems Clement's exposition of St. John (vi. 63), and a clear statement as to the Eucharist, which he pronounces spiritual food.]
60 [A plain reference to the use of the mixed cup in the Lord's supper.]
61 [If the temperate do well, he thinks, the abstinent do beter; but nobody is temperate who does not often and habitually abstain.]
62 [A very important principle; for, if wine be "the milk of age," the use of it in youth deprives age of any benefit from its sober use].
63 The exact derivation of acrothorakes is matter of doubt. But we have the authority of Aristotle and Erotian for believing that is was applied to those who were slightly drunk. Some regard the clause here as an interpolation.
65 Pentheus in Euripides, Bacch., 918.
68 [A beautiful maxim, and proving the habit of early Christians to use completory prayers. This the drunkard is in no state to do.]
73 [A passage not to be overlooked. Greek, mustiko\n su/mbolon.]
75 a0nqosmi/aj.Some suppose the word to be derived from the name of a town: "The Anthosmian."
77 [Here Clement satirizes heathen manners, and quote Athene, to shame Christians who imitate them.]
79 [The blood of the vine is Christ's blood. According to Clement, then, it remains in the Eucharist unchanged.]
80 Mark xvi. 25; Matt. xxvi. 29. [This also is a noteworthy use of the text.]
83 1 Cor. xi. 20. [Clement has already hinted his opinion, that this referred to a shameful custom of the Corinthians to let an agape precede the Eucharist; an abuse growing out of our Lord's eating of the Passover before he instituted the Eucharist.]
84 toutoij, an emendation for tou/tw|.
89 see Ecclus. xxxi. 19, where, however, we have a different reading.
90 Limpet-shaped cups. [On this chapter consult Kaye, p. 74.]
95 [See Elucidation I. e0nsta/sesin tou= Xristianou=.]
99 The reading a#lusij is here adopted. The passage is obscure.
101 [He distinguishes between the lewd music of Satanic odes (Tatian, cap. xxxiii. p. 79, supra), and another art of music of which he will soon speak.]
104 [Here instrumental music is allowed, though he turns everything into a type.]
106 [Even the heathen had such forms. The Christian grace before and after meat is here recognised as a matter of course. 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.]
108 [Besides the hymn on lighting the lamps, he notes completory prayer at bedtime.]
109 Wisd. Sirach (Ecclus.) xxxix. 15, 16.
113 [Observe the contrast between the modest harmonies he praises, and the operatic strains he censures. Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin ceremonial.]
114 [On gluttony and drinking, our author borrows much from Plato. Kaye, p. 74.]
116 Matt. vii. 18; Luke vi. 43.
117 [Our author is a terrible satirist; but it is instructive to see Christianity thus prescribing the minor morals, and banishing pagan brutality with holy scorn.]
121 [May the young Christian who reads this passage learn to abhor all freedom of speech of this kind. This is a very precious chapter.]
127 [How then can Christians frequent theatrical shows, and listen to lewd and profane plays?]
130 [An example may not be out of place, as teaching how we may put such things to silence. "Since the ladies have withdrawn," said one, "I will tell a little anecdote." "But," interposed a dignified person, "let me ask you to count me as representing the ladies; for I am the husband of one of them, and should be sorry to hear what would degrade me in her estimation."]
138 Ecclus. ix. 9. [i.e., reclining at the table.]
145 Prov. xxiv. 28; Ex. xxiii. 1.
147 [A primitive form of Christian salutation, borrowed from the great Example. John xx. 19.]
151 ["Against such there is no law." Emollit Mores, etc.]
156 [We need not refuse this efflorescence as poetry, nor accept it as exposition.]
162 [Considering the use of incense in Hebrew worship, and the imagery of the Apocalypse, the emphasis with which the Fathers reject material incense, is to be noted.]
164 [An idyllic passage illustrative of our author's delight in rural scenes and pleasures.]
165 [Christianity delights in natural beautuy, and always associates its enjoyment with praise to its Author. Ecclus. xliii. 11.]
167 [This was a marked characteristic of Christian manners at war with heathenism.]
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once
In Paradise fast by the tree of life
Began to bloom."
Paradise Lost, iii. 352.]