Saturday, December 18, 2010
How Isn't This a Confirmation of the Two Gospels of the Alexandrian Tradition Explicitly Referenced in Clement's Letter to Theodore?
"Akin to this is what the holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were good were derived by the Greeks (Ἀδελφὰ τούτοις ὁ ἅγιος ἀπόστολος Παῦλος λέγει, τὴν προφητικὴν καὶ τῷ ὄντι ἀρχαίαν σῴζων ἐπίκρυψιν, ἀφ´ ἧς τὰ καλὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐρρύη δόγματα): 'Howbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought; but we speak the secret wisdom of God in a mystery.' Then proceeding, he thus inculcates the caution against the divulging of his words to the multitude in the following terms: 'And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not yet able; neither are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal.' If, then, 'the milk' is said by the apostle to belong to the babes, and 'meat' to be the food of the perfect (τὸ βρῶμα δὲ τῶν τελείων), milk will be understood to be catechetical instruction -- the first food, as it were, of the soul. And meat is the mystic contemplation (βρῶμα δὲ ἡ ἐποπτικὴ θεωρία); for this is the flesh and the blood of the Word, that is, the comprehension of the divine power and essence. 'Taste and see that the Lord is Chrestos (ὅτι χρηστὸς ὁ κύριος).'" [Clement, Str. 5.10]
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