“Now,” says Solomon, “defend wisdom, and it will exalt you, and it will shield you with a crown of pleasure.” (Prov. 4:8-9) For when you have strengthened wisdom with a cope by philosophy, and with right expenditure, you will preserve it unassailable by sophists. The way of truth is therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides. It has been therefore said by inspiration: “Hear, my son, and receive my words; that yours may be the many ways of life. For I teach you the ways of wisdom; that the fountains fail you not,” which gush forth from the earth itself. Not only did He enumerate several ways of salvation for any one righteous man, but He added many other ways of many righteous, speaking thus: “The paths of the righteous shine like the light.” (Prov. 4:18) The commandments and the modes of preparatory training are to be regarded as the ways and appliances of life.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen her chickens!” (Mt. 23:37; Lk 13:34) And Jerusalem is, when interpreted, “a vision of peace.” He therefore shows prophetically, that those who peacefully contemplate sacred things are in manifold ways trained to their calling. What then? He “would,” and could not. How often, and where? Twice; by the prophets, and by the advent. The expression, then, “How often,” shows wisdom to be manifold; every mode of quantity and quality, it by all means saves some, both in time and in eternity. “For the Spirit of the Lord fills the earth.” And if any should violently say that the reference is to the Hellenic culture, when it is said, “Give not heed to an evil woman; for honey drops from the lips of a harlot,” let him hear what follows: “who lubricates your throat for the time.” But philosophy does not flatter. Who, then, does He allude to as having committed fornication? He adds expressly, “For the feet of folly lead those who use her, after death, to Hades. But her steps are not supported.” Therefore remove your way far from silly pleasure. “Stand not at the doors of her house, that you yield not your life to others.” And He testifies, “Then shall you repent in old age, when the flesh of your body is consumed.” For this is the end of foolish pleasure. Such, indeed, is the case. And when He says, “Be not much with a strange woman,” He admonishes us to use indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the word of the Lord. “For already some men, ensnared by the charms of handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, some of them in music, some in geometry, others in grammar, the most in rhetoric.” “But as the encyclical branches of study contribute to philosophy, which is their mistress; so also philosophy itself co-operates for the acquisition of wisdom. For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes.” Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture. For if philosophy “professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the honour and knowledge of God.” And Scripture will afford a testimony to what has been said in what follows. Sarah was at one time barren, being Abraham's wife. Sarah having no child, assigned her maid, by name Hagar, the Egyptian, to Abraham, in order to get children. Wisdom, therefore, who dwells with the man of faith (and Abraham was reckoned faithful and righteous), was still barren and without child in that generation, not having brought forth to Abraham anything allied to virtue. And she, as was proper, thought that he, being now in the time of progress, should have intercourse with secular culture first (by Egyptian the world is designated figuratively); and afterwards should approach to her according to divine providence, and beget Isaac.
And Philo interprets Hagar to mean “sojourning.” For it is said in connection with this, “Be not much with a strange woman.” Sarah he interprets to mean “my princedom.” He, then, who has received previous training is at liberty to approach to wisdom, which is supreme, from which grows up the race of Israel. These things show that that wisdom can be acquired through instruction, to which Abraham attained, passing from the contemplation of heavenly things to the faith and righteousness which are according to God. And Isaac is shown to mean “self-taught;” wherefore also he is discovered to be a type of Christ. He was the husband of one wife Rebecca, which they translate “Patience.” And Jacob is said to have consorted with several, his name being interpreted “Exerciser.” And exercises are engaged in by means of many and various dogmas. Whence, also, he who is really “endowed with the power of seeing” is called Israel, having much experience, and being fit for exercise.
Something else may also have been shown by the three patriarchs, namely, that the sure seal of knowledge is composed of nature, of education, and exercise.
You may have also another image of what has been said, in Thamar sitting by the way, and presenting the appearance of a harlot, on whom the studious Judas (whose name is interpreted “powerful”), who left nothing unexamined and uninvestigated, looked; and turned aside to her, preserving his profession towards God. Wherefore also, when Sarah was jealous at Hagar being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what was profitable in secular philosophy, said, “Behold, your maid is in your hands: deal with her as it pleases you;” (Gen. 16:6) manifestly meaning, “I embrace secular culture as youthful, and a handmaid; but your knowledge I honour and reverence as true wife.” And Sarah afflicted her; which is equivalent to corrected and admonished her. It has therefore been well said, “My son, despise not the correction of God; nor faint when you are rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” (Prov. 3:11-12; Heb 12:5-6) And the foresaid Scriptures, when examined in other places, will be seen to exhibit other mysteries. We merely therefore assert here, that philosophy is characterized by investigation into truth and the nature of things (this is the truth of which the Lord Himself said, “I am the truth” (Jn. 14:6); and that, again, the preparatory training for rest in Christ exercises the mind, rouses the intelligence, and begets an inquiring shrewdness, by means of the true philosophy, which the initiated possess, having found it, or rather received it, from the truth itself.
~The Stromata (or Miscellanies), Book I, Chap. 5.
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Clement begins the Stromata "with the importance of philosophy for the pursuit of Christian knowledge. Here he is perhaps defending his own scientific labours from local criticism of conservative brethren. He shows how faith is related to knowledge, and emphasizes the superiority of revelation to philosophy. God's truth is to be found in revelation, another portion of it in philosophy. It is the duty of the Christian to neglect neither." (See Catholic Encyclopedia: Clement of Alexandria) + +
Wisdom. By Tiziano Vecellio.
Oil on canvas, c. 1560; Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice.
Oil on canvas, c. 1560; Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice.
