Or do you think that a man who has been well exercised, and who has strenuously laboured with his body, would be disturbed in consequence of his garments being torn; and that he would not willingly throw them away, and deliver his body to the air, the naked to the naked (γυμνὸν γυμνῷ), the friend to the friend, and the free to the free? what else, then, do you think this skin, these bones, and this flesh are to the soul than a diurnal robe and slender and effeminate rags? [Maximus of Tyre, Dissertation 13]
But then I did a search in Clement's writings for the next phrase which immediately follows 'naked to naked' in Tyre - i.e. φίλον φίλῳ - which is translated by Thompson as 'friend to friend':
and that he would not willingly throw them away, and deliver his body to the air, the naked to the naked, the friend to the friend (φίλον φίλῳ), and the free to the free?
ἀλλ´ οὐκ ἂν ἀπορρίψαι αὐτὰ ἄσμενον, καὶ παραδοῦναι τὸ σῶμα τῷ ἀέρι, γυμνὸν γυμνῷ, φίλον φίλῳ, ἐλεύθερον ἐλευθέρῳ
Most interestingly, the exact same phrase appears in Clement as a description of the initiate's love for Jesus in a ritual setting:
Knowledge is therefore quick in purifying, and fit for that acceptable transformation to the better. Whence also with ease it removes [the soul] to what is akin to the soul, divine and holy, and by its own light conveys man through the mystic stages of advancement; till it restores the pure in heart to the crowning place of rest; teaching to gaze on God, face to face, with knowledge and comprehension. For in this consists the perfection of the gnostic soul, in its being with the Lord, where it is in immediate subjection to Him, after rising above all purification and service.
Faith is then, so to speak, a comprehensive knowledge of the essentials; and knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of what is received by faith, built upon faith by the Lord's teaching, conveying [the soul] on to infallibility, science, and comprehension. And, in my view, the first saving change is that from heathenism to faith, as I said before; and the second, that from faith to knowledge. And the latter terminating in love, thereafter gives the loving to the loved (φίλον φίλῳ), that which knows to that which is known. And, perchance, such an one has already attained the condition of "being equal to the angels." Accordingly, after the highest excellence in the flesh, changing always duly to the better, he urges his flight to the ancestral hall, through the holy septenniad [of heavenly abodes] to the Lord's own mansion; to be a light, steady, and continuing eternally, entirely and in every part immutable.[Clement Strom. 7.10]
The whole sentence here is:
And the latter terminating in love, thereafter gives the loving to the loved, that which knows to that which is known
ἣ δέ, εἰς ἀγάπην περαιουμένη, ἐνθένδε ἤδη φίλον φίλῳ τὸ γιγνῶσκον τῷ γιγνωσκομένῳ παρίστησιν
Is there something here beyond a strange set of coincidences? Could one author be citing the author or perhaps a Platonic text known to both (and presumably Theodore)? This is getting very, very interesting ...
