Clement of Alexandria: STROMATA (MISCELLANIES), Part IV, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 25

And how? Is it not similar to Scripture when it says, "Let us remove the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us?" [3131] when Plato, all but predicting the economy of salvation, says in the second book of the Republic as follows: "Thus he who is constituted just shall be scourged, shall be stretched on the rack, shall be bound, have his eyes put out; and at last, having suffered all evils, shall be crucified." [3132]

And the Socratic Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance, "To whom have ye likened me? saith the Lord," [3133] says that "God is like no one; wherefore no one can come to the knowledge of Him from an image."

Xenophon too, the Athenian, utters these similar sentiments in the following words: "He who shakes all things, and is Himself immoveable, is manifestly one great and powerful. But what He is in form, appears not. No more does the sun, who wishes to shine in all directions, deem it right to permit any one to look on himself. But if one gaze on him audaciously, he loses his eyesight."

"What flesh can see with eyes the Heavenly, True,

Immortal God, whose dwelling is the poles?

Not even before the bright beams of the sun

Are men, as being mortal, fit to stand,"--

the Sibyl had said before.

[3131] Wisd. ii. 12.

[3132] [See Leighton, Works, vol. v. p. 62, the very rich and copious note of the editor, William West, of Nairn, Scotland.]

[3133] Isa. xl. 18, 25.

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