Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/199

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CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
181

are the version of Cassiodorus. It seems, however, more probable that the printed notes are mere glosses taken from a Catena, and not a substantial work. The Adumbrationes were published by de la Bigne in his Bibliotheca Patrum, Par. 1575 (and in later editions); but he gives no account of the MS. or MSS. from which the text was taken. Ph. Labbe, however, states (de Scriptt. Eccles. 1660, i. p. 230) that he saw an ancient parchment MS., "qui fuit olim Coenobii S. Mariae Montis Dei," which contained these Adumbrationes, under that title, together with Didymus's commentary on the Catholic Epistles. De la Bigne then, probably, found the notes of Clement in the "very ancient but somewhat illegible MS." from which he took his text of Didymus, which follows the Adumbrationes (Bibl. vi. p. 676 n.).

V. The remaining extant work of Clement, Who is the Rich Man that is Saved? (τίς ὁ σωζόμενος πλούσιος;) is apparently a popular address based upon Mark x. 17‒31. The teaching is simple, eloquent, and just; and the tract closes with the exquisite "story, which is no story" of St. John and the young robber, which Eusebius relates in his History (iii. 23).

iii. Clements' Position and Influence as a Christian Teacher.—In order to understand Clement rightly, it is necessary to bear in mind that he laboured in a crisis of transition. This gives his writings their peculiar interest in all times of change. The transition was threefold, affecting doctrine, thought, and life. Doctrine was passing from the stage of oral tradition to written definition (1). Thought was passing from the immediate circle of the Christian revelation to the whole domain of human experience (2). Life in its fulness was coming to be apprehended as the object of Christian discipline (3). A few suggestions will be offered upon the first two of these heads. (1) Clement repeatedly affirms that even when he sets forth the deepest mysteries, he is simply reproducing an original unwritten tradition. This had been committed by the Lord to the apostles Peter, James, John, and Paul, and handed down from father to son, till at length he set forth accurately in writing what had been delivered in word (Strom. i. § 11, p. 322; cf. vi. 68, p. 774; and fragm. ap. Eus. H. E. ii. 1). But this tradition was, as he held it, not an independent source of doctrine, but a guide to the apprehension of doctrine. It was not co-ordinate with Scripture, but interpretative of Scripture (Strom. vi. 124 f., pp. 802 f.; de Div. Sal. § 5, p. 938). It was the help to the training of the Christian philosopher (ὁ γνωστικός), and not part of the heritage of the simple believer. Tradition in this aspect preserved the clue to the right understanding of the hidden sense, the underlying harmonies, the manifold unity of revelation. More particularly the philosopher was able to obtain through tradition the general principles of interpreting the records of revelation and significant illustrations of their application. In this way the true "gnostic" was saved from the errors of the false "gnostic" or heretic, who interpreted Scripture without regard to "the ecclesiastical rule" (Strom. vi. 125, p. 803, κανὼν ἐκκλησιαστικός: ὁ ἐκκλ. κ. ib. vi. 165, p. 826; vii. 41, p. 855; cf. ὁ κανὼν τῆς ἀληθείας, ib. vi. 124, p. 802; 131, p. 806; vii. 94, p. 890; ὁ κανὼν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ib. i. 96, p. 375; vii. 105, p. 897). The examples of spiritual interpretation which Clement gives in accordance with this traditional "rule" are frequently visionary and puerile (e.g. Strom. vi. 133 ff. pp. 807 ff.). But none the less the rule itself witnessed to a vital truth, the continuity and permanent value of the books of Holy Scripture. This truth was an essential part of the inheritance of the Catholic church; and Clement, however faulty in detail, did good service in maintaining it (id. vii. 96, p. 891). As yet, however, the contents of the Christian Bible were imperfectly defined. Clement, like the other Fathers who habitually used the Alexandrine O.T., quotes the books of the Apocrypha without distinguishing them in any way from the books of the Hebrew canon, and he appears to regard the current Greek Bible as answering to the Hebrew Scriptures restored by Ezra (Strom. i. 124, p. 392; id. 148, p. 409). There is the same laxity of usage in Clement with regard to the N.T. He ascribes great weight to the Ep. of Barnabas (Strom. ii. 31, p. 445; id. 116, p. 489); and makes frequent use of the Preaching of Peter (Strom. i. 182, p. 427, etc.); and quotes the Gospel acc. to the Hebrews (Strom. ii. 45, p. 453). Eusebius further adds that he wrote notes on the Revelation of Peter, which is in fact quoted in the Extracts from the Prophets (§§ 41, 48, 49). The text of his quotations is evidently given from memory (e.g. Matt. v. 45, vi. 26, etc.). But as the earliest Greek writer who largely and expressly quotes the N.T. (for the Greek fragments of Irenaeus are of comparatively small compass), his evidence as to the primitive form of the apostolic writings is of the highest value. Not unfrequently he is one of a very small group of witnesses who have preserved an original reading (e.g. I. Cor. ii. 13, vii. 3, 5, 35, 39, etc.). In other cases his readings, even when presumably wrong, are shewn by other evidence to have been widely spread at a very early date (e.g. Matt. vi. 33).

It is impossible here to follow in detail Clement's opinions on special points of doctrine. The contrast which he draws between the gnostic (the philosophic Christian) and the ordinary believer is of more general interest. This contrast underlies the whole plan of his Miscellanies, and explains the different aspects in which doctrine, according to his view, might be regarded as an object of faith and as an object of knowledge. Faith is the foundation; knowledge the superstructure (Strom. vi. 26, p. 660). By knowledge faith is perfected (id. vii. 55, p. 864), for to know is more than to believe (id. vi. 109, p. 794). Faith is a summary knowledge of urgent truths: knowledge a sure demonstration of what has been received through faith, being itself reared upon faith through the teaching of the Lord (id. vii. 57, p. 865). Thus the gnostic grasps the complete truth of all revelation from the beginning of the world to the end, piercing to the depths of Scripture, of which the believer tastes the surface only (id. vi. 78, p. 779; 131, p. 806; vii. 95, p. 891). As a consequence of this intelligent sympathy with the Divine Will, the