Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 5

All the points made so far appear to have been handed down by the great Moses to the Greeks as doctrines. Through these texts he teaches that everything belongs to the wise man, and because God had mercy on me, all things are mine. He also indicates that Moses was a friend of God by quoting, "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob." For a person who is explicitly called a friend is found face to face with God, whereas the one who sees God is shown to be renamed. He allegorized Isaac as a consecrated sacrifice, choosing him as a type of the economy of salvation for us. Among the Greeks, Minos is sung of as a nine-year king and a friend of Zeus, since they had heard that God once spoke with Moses as a man speaks to his own friend. Moses was indeed wise, a king, and a lawgiver, but our Savior surpasses all human nature. He is beautiful as the only one worthy to be loved by us who long for the true reality, for he is the true light. He was proclaimed king even by infants and by the Jews—who were unbelieving and ignorant—and he is announced by the prophets. He is rich to such a degree that he despises all the gold on and under the earth, together with every glory given him by the opposing power. What need is there to add that he is the only high priest, the sole knower of the service of God, the king of peace, Melchizedek, who is most fit to recount the race of humankind? He is also a lawgiver, giving the law through the mouth of the prophets, commanding and teaching most clearly what must be done and what must not. Who is more noble than the one whose only Father is God?

Let us also bring forward Plato, who propounds the same doctrines. In the Phaedrus he declares that the wise man is rich, praying, "Oh dear Pan and all you other gods, grant that I may become beautiful within; and whatever I have outside, let it be at peace with what is within, for I consider the wise man rich." The Athenian stranger criticizes those who think wealth consists in many possessions: "It is impossible for those whom the many call rich to be both rich and good. They call rich the few who possess property worth the most money, and even a wicked man may possess it." Solomon says, "The whole world of wealth belongs to the faithful, but the unbeliever does not even have an obol." We must therefore believe the Scripture that says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to philosophize (Matt. 19:24). On the contrary, it blesses the poor, as Plato says: "Poverty should be considered not as the reduction of one's substance, but as the increase of greed." For it is not scarcity of wealth but greed that is the problem, by which even a good and rich person would be defrauded. In the Alcibiades he calls wickedness 'slave-like' and virtue 'free-like.' Scripture says, "Take away the heavy yoke from you and take the light one," just as the poets also call a yoke 'slavery.' And the statement "You were sold to your sins" agrees with what was said before. Everyone who commits sin is a slave. But the slave does not remain in the house forever. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed, and the truth will set you free (John 8:34–36). The Athenian also says it is good to be wise: "If someone were to insist that the righteous are beautiful in the most righteous character, even if their bodies happen to be ugly, almost no one would think that a faulty statement." And the prophecy foretold that his appearance was lacking compared to all the sons of men. Plato calls the wise man a king in the Statesman, and the passage is there. Having demonstrated these things, let us return once more to the discourse on faith.

Indeed, with full demonstration Plato shows that faith is needed everywhere, at the same time praising peace: "For it is not possible to be faithful and sound in civil strife without complete virtue." Many mercenaries are willing to die in war, but most of them become reckless, unjust, insolent, and foolish—except for a very few. If these things are rightly said, every lawgiver, however small the benefit, will establish laws looking chiefly to the greatest virtue. And this is faithfulness, which we need at all times—in peace, in every war, and in all of life. For it seems to contain all the other virtues. The best thing is neither war nor strife, for it is to be avoided to have need of them; peace and friendliness toward one another are the strongest. It is clear, then, that the greatest prayer is to have peace, according to Plato, and the mother of the greatest virtues is faith. It is reasonable, therefore, that Solomon says, "Wisdom is in the mouth of the faithful," since Xenocrates also says in On Prudence that wisdom is the knowledge of the first causes and of intelligible substance, regarding prudence as twofold—practical and theoretical, which is human wisdom. Therefore wisdom is prudence, but not all prudence is wisdom. It has been shown that faith is knowledge of the principle of all things, not demonstration. For it would be absurd for the followers of Pythagoras of Samos to refuse demonstrations for the things they seek, yet to treat the teacher's mere statement as faith and be satisfied with that alone as confirmation of what they have heard, while those who love to contemplate the truth try to demand proofs from a trustworthy teacher, the only Savior God. "Let the one who has ears to hear, hear" (Matt. 11:15). And who is this? Epicharmus says: "The mind sees and the mind hears; the rest are deaf and blind." Heraclitus says that some are unbelievers, not knowing how to hear or speak, having perhaps been helped by Solomon, who says: "If you love to hear, you will receive, and if you incline your ear, you will be wise" (Prov. 2:2–6).