The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire

687

c. Cels. iii, 44.

688

Ibid. iii, 59.

689

iii, 55. I have omitted a clause or two.

Clem A. Strom. iv, 67, on the other hand, speaks of the difficult position of wife or slave in such a divided household, and (68) of conversions in spite of the master of the house. Tert. ad Scap. 3, has a story of a governor whose wife became a Christian, and who in anger began a persecution at once.

690

iii, 75.

691

i, 9. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. i, 43, on some Christians who think themselves euphusîs and "ask for faith – faith alone and bare." In Paed. i, 27, he says much the same himself, tò pisteûsai mónon kaì anagennethûnai teleíôis estin en zoê.

692

vi, 10. Clem. Alex. Strom. ii, 8, "The Greeks think Faith empty and barbarous, and revile it," but (ii, 30) "if it had been a human thing, as they supposed, it would have been quenched."

693

iii, 62.

694

iii, 62.

695

iii, 65, toùs hamartangin pephykótas te kaì eithismenous.

696

iii, 71.

697

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 92, uses this simile of worms in the mud of swamps, applying it to people who live for pleasure.

698

iv, 23.

699

iv, 74.

700

So Lucian Icaromenippus, 19, explicitly.

701

iv, 88. Cf. Clem. Alex. Pædag. i, 7, tò phíltron éndon estìn en tô anthrópô toûth' óper emphysema légetai theoû.

702

c. Cels. iv, 74-99. Cf. Plato, Laws, 903 B, hôs tô tou pantòs epimelouménô pròs tèn sôterían kaì aretèn toû holou pánt' estì syntetagména ktè, explicitly developing the idea of the part being for the whole. Also Cicero, N.D. ii, 13, 34-36.

703

Of. M. Aurelius, xi, 3, the criticism of the theatricality of the Christians. See p. 198.

704

c. Cels. vii, 42, tòn mèn oun poietèn kaì patéra toûde toû pantòs ehureîn te épgon kaì ehuronta eis pántas adynaton legein; Timæus, 28 C – often cited by Clement too.

705

vii, 42.

706

vii, 42.

707

vii, 45.

708

iv, 14.

709

iv, 18. See Tertullian's argument on this question of God changing, in de Carne Christi, 3. See Plato, Rep. ii, 381 B.

710

iv, 52. See Timæus, 34 B ff. on God making soul.

711

iv, 73. See Clem. Alex. Paed. i, ch. 10, on God threatening; and Strom, ii, 72; iv, 151; vii, 37, for the view that God is without anger, and for guidance as to the understanding of language in the O.T. which seems to imply the contrary. For a different view, see Tertullian, de Testim. Animæ, 2, unde igitur naturalis timor animæ in deum, si deus nan novit irasci? adv. Marc. i, 26, 27, on the necessity for God's anger, if the moral law is to be maintained; and adv. Marc. ii, 16, a further account of God's anger, while a literal interpretation of God's "eyes" and "right hand" is excluded.

712

iv, 65.

713

iv, 69.

714

iv, 70. Long before (about 500 B.C.) eraclitus had said (fragm. 61): "To God all things are beautiful and good and just; but men have supposed some things to be unjust and others just." For this doctrine of the relativity of good and bad to the whole, cf. hymn of Cleanthes to Zeus: —

allà sù kaì tà perissá t' epístasai artia theînai,kaì kosmein ta kosma, kaì ou phila soì phila estín.ôde gàr eis èn pánta synérmokas esthlà kakoîsinôsth' éna gígnesthai pántôn logon aièn eónta.

Cf. also the teaching of Chrysippus, as given by Gellius, N.A. vii, 1: cum bona malis contraria sint, utraque necessum est opposita inter sese et quasi mutuo adverse quæque fulta nisu consistere; nullum adeo contrarium est sine contrario altero … situleris unum abstuleris utrumque. See also M. Aurelius in the same Stoic vein, viii, 50; ix, 42. On the other side see Plutarch's indignant criticism of this attribution of the responsibility for evil to God, de comm. not. adv. Sto. 14, 1065 D, ff. In opposition to Marcion, Tertullian emphasizes the worth of the world; his position, as a few words will show, is not that of Celsus, but Stoic influence is not absent: adv. Marc. i, 13, 14; Ergo nec mundus deo indignus: nihil etenim deus indignum st fecit, etsi mundum homini non sibi fecit, etsi omne opus inferius est suo artifice; see p. 317.

715

iv, 3.

716

iv, 6.

717

iv, 7.

718

vii, 36.

719

viii, 63.

720

viii, 66.

721

vi, 69. "Men, who count themselves wise," says Clement (Strom. i, 88), "count it a fairy tale that the son of God should speak through man, or that God should have a son, and he suffer."

722

vi, 72.

723

vi, 73. Cf. the Marcionite view; cf. Tert. adv. Marc. iii, 11; iv, 21; v, 19, cuius ingeniis tam longe abest veritas nostra ut … Christum ex vulva virginis natum non erubescat, ridentibus philosophis et hæreticis et ethnicis ipsis. See also de carne Christi, 4, 5, where he strikes a higher note; Christ loved man, born as man is, and descended for him.

724

vi, 75. Cf. Tert. de carne Christi, 9, adeo nec humanæ honestatis corpus fuit; adv. Jud. 14, ne aspectu quidem honestus.

725

vi, 78. Cf. Tert. adv. Marc. iii, i, atquin nihil putem a deo subitum quia nihil a deo non dispositum.

726

vii, 13, skataophageîn. Origen's reply is absurd —hína gàr kaì doxe hóti hésthein, hos sôma phorôn ho Iesoûs hésthein. So also said Clement (Strom. vi, 71). Valentinus had another theory no better, Strom. iii. 59. Marcion, Tertullian says (adv. Marc. iii, 10), called the flesh terrenam et stercoribus infusam. They are all filled with the same contempt for matter – not Tertullian, however.

727

i, 69.

728

i, 54.

729

i, 12.

730

ii, 23, 24.

731

ii, 34.

732

ii, 37.

733

ii, 66, 67. Tertullian meets this in Apol. 21. Nam nec ille se in vulgus eduxit ne impii errore liberarcntur, ut et fides, non mediocri praemio destinata, difficultate constaret.

734

ii, 68,

735

viii, 39.

736

viii, 41.

737

v, 65.

738

vi, 34. Cf. a curious passage of Clem. Alex. Protr. 114, oûtos tèn dúsin eis anatolèn metegagen kaì tòn thanaton eis zôèn anestaúrsen exarpásas dè tês apôleias tòn ánthrôpon prosekrémasen aíthéri, and so forth. Cf. Tert. adv. Valent. 20, who suggests that the Valentinians had "nut-trees in the sky" – it is a book in which he allows himself a good deal of gaiety and free quotation.

739

i, 28.

740

M. Aurelius, i, 6, "From Diognetus I learnt not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers (goétôn) about incantations and the sending away of dæmons and such things." Cf. Tertullian, adv. Marc. iii, 2-4, on inadequacy of proof from miracles alone, without that from prophecy; also de Anima, 57, on these conjurers, where he remarks, nec magnum illi exteriores oculos circumscribere, an interiorem mentis aciem excalcare perfacile est. See also Apol. 22, 23.

741

i, 68.

742

vii, 9.

743

iii, 36.

744

vi, 16. Cf. Plato, Laws, v, 12, p. 743 A.

745

vi, 17-19; Phædrus, 247 C.

746

vi, 42.

747

vii, 32; cf. Min. Felix, 11, 9.

748

iv, 11.

749

vi, 8.

750

vi, 47. Cf. Plato, Timæus (last words), 92 C, eîs ouranòs óde monogenès ón.

751

v, 14.

752

v, 14.

753

vii, 34.

754

viii, 49.

755

viii. 48.

756

iii, 14.

757

v, 59.

758

iii, 12.

759

vi, II.

760

iii, 9. Tertullian speaks in a somewhat similar way of heretics, especially of the Gnostics: de præscriptione hæret. c. 42.

761

vii, 68.

762

v, 25.

763

viii, 53, 58.

764

vii, 68.

765

vii, 2.

766

Cf. v, 34, 35.

767

viii, ii. Cf. Tert. adv. Prax. 3, where it is argued that God's monarchy is not impaired tot angelorum numero, nor by the oikonomía of the Trinity.

768

v, 41.

769

v, 41.

770

viii, 45.

771

vii, 35.

772

iii, 24. Cf. p. 222.

773

viii, 35.

774

viii, 63.

775

viii, 12.

776

vii, 68.

777

viii, 24.

778

i, 9, Mithrais kaì Sabadíois.

779

viii, 60. See note on ch. iii, p. 107.

780

viii, 67.

781

Cf. Tert. de cor. mil. 11, if a soldier is converted, aut deserendum statim ut a multis actum, aut, etc. The chapter is a general discussion whether military service and Christianity are compatible. Cf. also Tert. de idol. 19, Non convenit sacramento divino et humano, signo Christi et signo diaboli, castris lucis et castris tenebrarum … quomodo autem bellabit immo quomodo etiam in pace militabit sine gladio quem dominus abstulit? … omnem postea militem dominus in Petro exarmando discinxit. Tertullian, it may be remembered, was a soldier's son.

782

viii, 68. The Greeks used basileùs as Emperor.

783

viii, 69. For this taunt against the Jews, cf. Cicero, pro Flacco, 28, 69.

784

viii, 72.

785

viii, 73.

786

viii, 75.

787

Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. i, 55, who says that hardly any words could be to the many more absurd than the mysteries of the faith.

788

Clem. Alex. Protr. 56 (on idols). ou gár moi thémis empisteûsai pote toîs apsychois tàs tês psychês elpídas.

789

This was at all events the view of Clement, Strom. i, 19. oudè katapsephixesthai tôn Hellénon oíon te psilê tê perì tôn dogmatiothénton autoîs chroménous phrásei, me synembrainontas eis tèn katà méros áchri syllnóseôs ekkalypsin. pistòs gar eû mála ho met' empeirias elegchos, hóti kaì teleiotáte apádeixis ehurísketai he gnôsis tôn kategnosménôn.

790

It is regrettable that Clement should have flung one of these against the school of Carpocrates, Strom. iii, 10.

791

See the letter of Hadrian quoted by Vopiscus, Saturninus, 8 (Script. Hist. Aug.).

792

Pædag. ii, 2; 13; 14.

793

Pæd. ii, 20, 2, 3.

794

Pæd. ii, 32, 2.

795

Pæd. ii, 38, 1-3.

796

Pæd. ii, 45-60.

797

Pæd. ii, 61-73; Tertullian, de corona militis, 5, flowers on the head are against nature, etc.; ib. 10, on the paganism of the practice; ib. 13 (end), a list of the heathen gods honoured if a Christian hang a crown on his door.

798

Pæd. ii, 129, 3; iii, 56, 3; Tertullian ironically, de cultu fem. ii, 10, scrupulosa deus et auribus vulnera intulit.

799

iii, 4, 2. Cf. Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion, p. 22: "In the temple of Sobk there was a tank containing a crocodile, a cat dwelt in the temple of Bast." The simile also in Lucian, Imag. 11, and used by Celsus ap. Orig. c. Cels. iii, 17.

800

iii, 64, 2.

801

iii, 79, 5.

802

iii, 50.

803

iii, 59, 2.

804

ii, 60, 61.

805

iii, 92. Cf., in general, Tertullian, de Cultu Feminarum.

806

Euseb. E.H. v, 10.

807

Euseb. E.H. vi, 11, 6; vi, 14, 8.

808

Euseb. E.H. vi, 6; see de Faye, Clément d'Alexandrie, pp. 17 to 27, for the few facts of his life – a book I have used and shall quote with satisfaction.

809

Epiphanius, Haer. I, ii, 26, p. 213; de Faye, Clément d'Alexandrie, p. 17, quoting Zahn.

810

Euseb. Præpar. Ev. ii, 2, 64. Klémes … pántôn mèn dià peìras elthòn anèr, thâttón ge mèn plánes ananeúsas, hôs àn pròs toû sôteríou lógou kaì dià tês euaggelikês didaskalías tôn kakôn lelutrômenos.

811

Pæd. i, 1, 1.

812

Strom. i, 48, 1; ii, 3, 1.

813

Strom. vii. 111. Such hills are described in Greek novels; cf. Ælian, Varia Historia, xiii, 1, Atalanta's bower.

814

One may perhaps compare the admiration of the contemporary Pausanias for earlier rather than later art; cf. Frazer, Pausanias and other Sketches, p. 92.

815

Strom. i, 22, 5.

816

Strom. i, 37, 6; and vi, 55, 3.

817

Strom. i, 29, 10 (the phrase is Philo's); Truth in fact has been divided by the philosophic schools, as Pentheus was by the Mænads, Strom, i, 57. Cf. Milton, Areopagitica.

818

Protr. 120, 1; ô tôn hagíon hos alethôs mysterion, ô phoòos akerátou. dadouchoûmai toùs ouranoùs kaì tòn theòn epopteûsai, hágios gínomai muoúmenos, hierophanteî dè ho kyrios kaì tòn músten sphragízetai photagogôn. Strange as the technical terms seem to-day, yet when Clement wrote, they suggested religious emotion, and would have seemed less strange than the terms modern times have kept from the Greek – bishop, deacon, liturgy, diocese, etc.

819

Strom. iv, 162, 3.

820

Strom. i, 71, 4. The Brahmans also in iii, 60.

821

Strom. v, 20, 3; 31, 5; etc.

822

Strom. vi, ch. iv, § 35 f.

823

Origen, c. Cels. i, 2. Celsus' words: hikanoùs ehureîn dógmata toùs barbárous, and then krînai dè kaì bebaiôsasthai kaì askêsai pròs aretèn tà hypò barbaron ehurethénta ameínonés eisin héllenes. Pausanias, iv, 32, 4, egò dè Chaldaíous kaì Indôn toùs mágous prôtous oîda eipóntas hos athánatos estin anthrótou phyche. kaí sphisi kaì Hellénon álloi te epeísthesan kaì ouch hékista Plâton ho Arístonos.

824

Euseb. E.H. vi, 13.

825

Strom. i, 11. The quotation is roughly from Homer, Od. ii, 276.

826

Strom. i, 43, i. Some who count themselves euphueîs, mónen kaì psilèn tèn pístin apaitoûsi.

827

Strom. i, 45, 6, oi orthodoxastaí.

828

Strom. vii, 55.

829

Pædag. i, 26; 27. Perhaps for "he saith," we should read "it saith," viz. Scripture.

830

Strom. v, 9.

831

Strom. 43, 3-44, 2.

832

Pæd. i, 14, 2; 19. Cf. Blake's poem.

833

Pæd. i, 22, 3.

834

Marcus Aurelius, xi, 3. He may have had in mind some who courted martyrdom.

835

Euseb. E.H. v, 28, quotes a document dealing with men who study Euclid, Aristotle and Theophrastus, and all but worship Galen, and have "corrected" the Scriptures. For the view of Tertullian on this, see p. 337.

836

Strom. i, 18, 2.

837

Strom. vi, 80, 5.

838

Strom. vi, 162, 5.

839

Strom. i, 19, 2. psilê tê perì tôn dogmatisthenton autoîs chromenous phrâsei, ue synembaínontas eis tèn kata meros áchri syggnóseos ekkálypsin.

840

Strom. vi, 59, 1. The exact rendering of the last clause is doubtful; the sense fairly clear.

841

Strom. i, 97, 1-4.

842

Spherical astronomy. A curious passage on this at the beginning of Lucan's Pharsalia, vii.

843

Strom. vi, 93, 94. The line comes from a play of Sophocles, fr. 695. It may be noted that Clement has a good many such fragments, and the presence of some very doubtful ones among them, which are also quoted in the same way by other Christian writers (e. g. in Strom, v, 111-113), raises the possibility of his borrowing other men's quotations to something near certainty. Probably they all used books of extracts. See Justin, Coh. ad. Gent. 18; Athenagoras, Presb. 5, 24.

844

Strom. vi, 152, 3-154, 1. Cf. Strom. iv, 167, 4, "the soul is not sent from heaven hither for the worse, for God energizes all things for the better." – If the English in some of these passages is involved and obscure, it perhaps gives the better impression of the Greek.

845

Cf. Iliad, 3, 277.

846

We may note his fondness for the old idea of Plato that man is an phytòn ouránion and has an emphytos archaia pròs ouranon koinoniá. Cf. Protr. 25, 3; 100, 3.

847

Strom. vi, 156, 3-157, 5.

848

Strom. vi, 159. Cf. vi, 57, 58, where he asks Who was the original teacher, and answers that it is the First-born, the Wisdom.

849

Strom. i, 28, kata proegoúmenon and kat epakoloúthema. See de Faye, p. 168, 169. Note ref. to Paul, Galat. 3, 24.

850

Strom. vi, 67, 1.

851

Strom. vi, 42, 1.

852

Strom. i, 99, 3.

853

Strom. vi, 44, 1.

854

Strom. vi, 44, 4.

855

Strom. vi, 45-7; Cf. Strom. ii, 44, citing Hermas, Sim. ix, 16, 5-7. A curious discussion follows (in Strom. vi, 45-52) on the object of the Saviour's descent into Hades, and the necessity for the Gospel to be preached in the grave to those who in life had no chance of hearing it. "Could he have done anything else?" (§ 51).

856

Strom. vi, 110, 111; Deuteronomy 4, 19, does not bear him out – neither in Greek nor in English.

857

Strom. i, 105 and 108. Cf. Tert. adv. Marc. ii, 17, sed ante Lycurgos et Salonas omnes Moyses et deus; de anima, 28, mutio antiquior Moyses etiam Saturno nongentis circiter annis; cf. Apol. 19.

858

For the Scripture parallels see Strom. v, 90-107. For Euripides and other inter-Hellenic plagiarisms, Strom. vi, 24.

859

Strom. vii, 6.

860

Strom. v, 10, 2. See an amusing page in Lecky, European Morals, i, 344.

861

Strom. i, 94, 1; katà períptosin; katà syntychian; physikèn ennoian; koinòn noûn.

862

Strom. v, 10; i, 18; 86; 94.

863

Strom. i, 81, 1; John 10, 8.

864

Strom. vi, 66; 159.

865

Strom. vi, 67, 2.

866

Protr. 1-3.

867

Odyssey, iv, 221, Cowper's translation.

868

Ibid. 5; 6.

869

Protr. 8, 4, lógos ho toû theoû ánthropos genómenos hína dè kaì sù parà anthropou máthes, pê pote ára anthropos gentai theós.

870

Protr. 25, 3; ref. to Euripides, fr. 935, and Troades, 884. The latter (not quite correctly quoted by Clement) is one of the poet's finest and profoundest utterances.

871

Protr. 56, 6.

872

Ibid. 63, 5.

873

Protr. 66, 3.

874

Ibid. 66, 5.

875

Ibid. 68, 1.

876

Protr. 70, 1; in Strom. i, 150, 4, he quotes a description of Plato as Mousês attikíxon. Cf. Tertullian, Apol. 47.

877

Protr. 76. He quotes Orestes, 591 f.; Alcestis, 760; and concludes (anticipating Dr Verrall) that in the Ion gymnê te kephalê ekkukleî tô theátro tous theoús, quoting Ion, 442-447.

878

Protr. 82, 1.

879

Ibid. 84, 2.

880

Ibid. 85, 4.

881

Ibid. 86, 1.

882

Protr. 86, 2. The reference is to Odyssey, i, 57. One feels that, with more justice to Odysseus, more might have been made of his craving for a sight of the smoke of his island home.

883

Protr. 88, 2, 3.

884

Elsewhere, he says God is beyond the Monad, Pæd. i, 71, 1, epékein toû henòs kaì hypèr autèn tèn monáda. See p. 290.

885

Protr. 94, 1, 2. On God making the Christian his child, cf. Tert. adv. Marc. iv, 17.

886

Protr. 100, 3, 4.

887

Ibid. 107, 1.

888

Ibid. 108, 5.

889

Protr. 116, 1, hypsos (height) is the word used in literature for "sublimity," and that may be the thought here. Cf. Tert. de Bapt. 2, simplicitas divinorum operum … et magnificentia. See p. 328.