Clement Of Alexandria

Source Quotes:

"Wisdom�was the first of the creation of God." (The Stromata, Book 5, Chapter 14) "The second word [i.e., commandment] intimated that men ought not to take and confer the august power of God (which is the name, for this alone were many even yet capable of learning), and transfer His title to things created and vain, which human artificers have made, among which 'He that is' is not ranked. For in His uncreated identity, 'He that is' is absolutely alone." (The Stromata, Book 6, Chapter 16) "So the best thing on earth is the most pious man; and the best thing in heaven, the nearer in place and purer, is an angel, the partaker of the eternal and blessed life.

But the nature of the Son, which is nearest to Him who is alone the Almighty One, is the most perfect, and most holy, and most potent, and most princely, and most kingly, and most beneficent. This is the highest excellence, which orders all things in accordance with the Father's will, and holds the helm of the universe in the best way, with unwearied and tireless power, working all things in which it operates, keeping in view its hidden designs. For from His own point of view the Son of God is never displaced; not being divided, not severed, not passing from place to place; being always everywhere, and being contained nowhere; complete mind, the complete paternal light; all eyes, seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing all things, by His power scrutinizing the powers. To Him is placed in subjection all the host of angels and gods; He, the paternal Word, exhibiting a the holy administration for Him who put [all] in subjection to Him." (The Stromata, Book 7, Chapter 2)

Further Quotations from Clement of Alexandria:

"And the address in the Tim�us calls the creator, Father, speaking thus: 'Ye gods of gods, of whom I am Father; and the Creator of your works.' So that when he says, 'Around the king of all, all things are, and because of Him are all things; and he [or that] is the cause of all good things; and around the second are the things second in order; and around the third, the third,' I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father." (The Stromata, Book 5, Chapter 14) "For it was not without divine care that so great a work was accomplished in so brief a space by the Lord, who, though despised as to appearance, was in reality adored, the expiator of sin, the Saviour, the clement, the Divine Word, He that is truly most manifest Deity, He that is made equal to the Lord of the universe; because He was His Son, and the Word was in God, not disbelieved in by all when He was first preached, nor altogether unknown when, assuming the character of man, and fashioning Himself in flesh, He enacted the drama of human salvation: for He was a true champion and a fellow-champion with the creature." (Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 10) "If it is thy wish, be thou also initiated; and thou shall join the choir along with angels around the unbegotten and indestructible and the only true God, the Word of God, raising the hymn with us. This Jesus, who is eternal, the one great High Priest of the one God, and of His Father, prays for and exhorts men: 'Hear, ye myriad tribes, rather whoever among men are endowed with reason, both barbarians and Greeks.

I call on the whole race of men, whose Creator I am, by the will of the Father. Come to Me, that you may be put in your due rank under the one God and the one Word of God�.'" (Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 12) "�our Instructor is like His Father God, whose son He is, sinless, blameless, and with a soul devoid of passion; God in the form of man, stainless, the minister of His Father's will, the Word who is God, who is in the Father, who is at the Father's right hand, and with the form of God is God." (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 2) "The Lord ministers all good and all help, both as man and as God: as God, forgiving our sins; and as man, training us not to sin." (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 3) "For since Scripture calls the infant children lambs, it has also called Him - God the Word - who became man for our sakes, and who wished in all points to be made like to us - 'the Lamb of God' - Him, namely, that is the Son of God, the child of the Father." (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 5) "�our Instructor is the holy God Jesus, the Word, who is the guide of all humanity. The loving God Himself is our Instructor�.Again, when He speaks in His own person, He confesses Himself to be the Instructor: 'I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.' Who, then, has the power of leading in and out? Is it not the Instructor? This was He who appeared to Abraham, and said to him, 'I am thy God, be accepted before Me;'�This was the man who led, and brought, and wrestled with, and anointed the athlete Jacob against evil. Now that the Word was at once Jacob's trainer and the Instructor of humanity [appears from this] - 'He asked,' it is said, 'His name, and said to him, Tell me what is Thy name.' And he said, 'Why is it that thou askest My name?' For He reserved the new name for the new people - the babe; and was as yet unnamed, the Lord God not having yet become man.

Yet Jacob called the name of the place, 'Face of God.' 'For I have seen,' he says, 'God face to face; and my life is preserved.' The face of God is the Word by whom God is manifested and made known. Then also was he named Israel, because he saw God the Lord. It was God, the Word, the Instructor, who said to him again afterwards, 'Fear not to go down into Egypt.'" (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 7) "Nothing, then, is hated by God, nor yet by the Word. For both are one - that is, God. For He has said, 'In the beginning the Word was in God, and the Word was God.'" (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 8) "�it is clear, that one alone, true, good, just, in the image and likeness of the Father, His Son Jesus, the Word of God, is our Instructor; to whom God hath entrusted us, as an affectionate father commits his children to a worthy tutor, expressly charging us, 'This is my beloved Son: hear Him.'

The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornament-knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance: with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: 'All Wisdom is from the Lord, and with Him for evermore;' with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator: 'For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made;' and with benevolence, for He alone gave Himself a sacrifice for us�." (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 11) "Be gracious, O Instructor, to us Thy children, Father, Charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both in One, O Lord�.And do Thou Thyself cause that all of us who have our conversation in Thy peace�may praise, and praising thank the Alone Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son, Instructor and Teacher, with the Holy Spirit, all in One�." (The Instructor, Book 3, Closing Prayer) "O King, great Giver of good gifts to men, Lord of the good, Father, of all the Maker, Who heaven and heaven's adornment, by Thy word Divine fitly disposed, alone didst make�.Thee and Thy co-eternal Word, All-wise, From Thee proceeding, ever may I praise�." (The Instructor, Book 3, Closing Prayer) "1 John 1:1. 'That which was from the beginning; which we have seen with our eyes; which we have heard.'�.What therefore he says, 'from the beginning,' the Presbyter explained to this effect, that the beginning of generation is not separated from the beginning of the Creator. For when he says, 'That which was from the beginning,' he touches upon the generation without beginning of the Son, who is co-existent with the Father. There was; then, a Word importing an unbeginning eternity; as also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreated�.'And we show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto you.' He signifies by the appellation of Father, that the Son also existed always, without beginning." (Fragment, Comments on the First Epistle of John) "Matthew 13:46. A pearl, and that pellucid and of purest ray, is Jesus, whom of the lightning flash of Divinity the Virgin bore.

For as the pearl, produced in flesh and the oyster-shell and moisture, appears to be a body moist and transparent, full of light and spirit; so also God the Word, incarnate, is intellectual light, sending His rays, through a body luminous and moist." (Fragment from Nicetas' Catena on Matthew) "Luke 3:22. God here assumed the 'likeness' not of a man, but 'of a dove,' because He wished, by a new apparition of the Spirit in the likeness of a dove, to declare His simplicity and majesty." (Fragment from the Catena on Luke, Edited by Corderius; also Fragment from Macarius Chrysocephalus: Oration VIII On Matt. viii, and Book VII On Luke xiii) "This visible appearance cheats death and the devil; for the wealth within, the beauty, is unseen by them. And they rave about the carcase, which they despise as weak, being blind to the wealth within; knowing not what a 'treasure in an earthen vessel' we bear, protected as it is by the power of God the Father, and the blood of God the Son, and the dew of the Holy Spirit." (On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Section 34)

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