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sympathizing with the animal, and of ensouled beings, some working to become immortal day by day, and of those still mortal, some in fear and still carried in their mother's womb, others by free-willed reasoning. and of men, all Greeks and barbarians, and no race anywhere of farmers or nomads, nor even of city dwellers, can live without being prepossessed by faith in the superior being. Therefore every eastern nation, and every one touching the western shores, both northern and all in the south, has one and the same preconception concerning him who established the rule, since indeed the most universal of his operations have pervaded all things equally. 13.13.65 And much more so the inquisitive philosophers among the Greeks, starting from the barbarian philosophy, gave the preeminence to the invisible and only and most powerful and most skillful and cause of all other most beautiful things, not knowing the things that follow from these, unless they were instructed by us, nor even how God is by nature to be conceived, but only, as we have already often said, in a true periphrasis.” 13.13.66 So much from Clement. But since at greater length the philosophy of Plato has been presented by us as being in most respects consonant with the doctrines of the Hebrews, for which we admire the man both for his intelligence and his other right-mindedness concerning the truth, it is time to consider what those things are that we say on account of which we are no longer similarly disposed towards him, but prefer the reputed barbarian philosophy to his.

13.14.1 14. THAT NOT ALL THINGS WERE SAID SUCCESSFULLY BY PLATO; WHEREFORE NOT WITHOUT REASON HAVE WE REJECTED HIS PHILOSOPHY

The oracles of the Hebrews, containing prophecies and divine responses of a power, so far as it is human, and inscribed with God as their author, and confirming their promise by the foretelling of future events and by the results which accord with the decrees, are said to be free from all deluded thought. At any rate, "the divine oracles are pure, and silver tried by fire, 13.14.2 a crucible for the earth, purified seven times," has been declared. But the writings of Plato are not such, nor indeed those of any other of the wise men among men, who with the eyes of a mortal mind and with dangerous conjectures and likelihoods, having arrived at an image of the nature of things as in a dream, but not in a waking state, have contributed a great mixture of falsehood to the truth of nature, so that you would not 13.14.3 find in them a doctrine pure from deceit. For straightaway, if you would be willing to relinquish a little of your self-love and to examine the matter itself in the light of the power of rational substance, you would recognize that admirable philosopher himself, the one who alone of all the Greeks touched the portals of truth, disgracing the title of "the gods" with perishable matter and with wooden images crafted by the hands of artisans into human form, and after the great height of his lofty language, by which he claimed to know the Father and Maker of this universe, being thrust down from some place above the super-cosmic vaults into the lowest depth of god-hated idolatry with the people of the Athenians; so that Socrates is not misrepresented when he says he went down to the Piraeus to pray to the goddess and to see the foreign festival which the citizens were then celebrating for the first time, and who admits he ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Asclepius, and who makes the ancestral interpreter of the Greeks, the daemon enthroned at Delphi, give oracles. 13.14.4 Therefore he would reasonably ascribe the cause of superstitious error to the unphilosophical multitude. At any rate, take up the argument again from a little before and see, what things the all-wise one, after the incorporeal and incorruptible

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συμπαθοῦντα τῷ ζῴῳ, τῶν δὲ ἐμψύχων τὰ μὲν ἤδη ἀθάνατα καθ' ἡμέραν ἐργαζόμενα, τῶν δ' ἔτι θνητῶν τὰ μὲν ἐν φόβῳ καὶ διὰ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῶν ἔτι κατὰ γαστρὸς ὀχούμενα, τὰ δὲ αὐτεξουσίῳ λογισμῷ. καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πάντες Ἕλληνές τε καὶ βάρβαροι, γένος δ' οὐδὲν οὐδαμοῦ τῶν γεωργούντων οὔτε νομάδων, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῶν πολιτικῶν δύναται ζῆν μὴ προκατειλημμένον τῇ τοῦ κρείττονος πίστει. διὸ πᾶν μὲν ἔθνος ἑῷον, πᾶν δὲ ἑσπερίων ἁπτόμενον ᾐόνων βόρειόν τε καὶ τὰ πρὸς τῷ νότῳ πάντα μίαν ἔχει καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν πρόληψιν περὶ τοῦ καταστησαμένου τὴν ἡγεμονίαν, εἴ γε καὶ τὰ καθολικώτατα τῶν ἐνεργημάτων αὐτοῦ διαπεφοίτηκεν ἐπ' ἴσης πάντα. 13.13.65 Πολὺ δὲ πλέον οἱ παρ' Ἕλλησι πολυπράγμονες φιλόσοφοι, ἐκ τῆς βαρβάρου ὁρμώμενοι φιλοσοφίας, τῷ ἀοράτῳ καὶ μόνῳ καὶ δυνατωτάτῳ καὶ τεχνικωτάτῳ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων καλλίστων αἰτιωτάτῳ τὴν προνομίαν ἔδωκαν, τὰ ἀκόλουθα τούτοις, εἰ μὴ κατηχηθεῖεν πρὸς ἡμῶν, οὐκ ἐπιστάμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐδ' αὐτὸν ὅπως νοεῖσθαι πέφυκε τὸν θεόν, μόνον δέ, ὡς ἤδη πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν, κατὰ περίφρασιν ἀληθῆ.» 13.13.66 Τοσαῦτα καὶ ὁ Κλήμης. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ διὰ μακροτέρων ἡμῖν ἡ κατὰ Πλάτωνα παρέστη φιλοσοφία συνῳδὸς οὖσα κατὰ πλεῖστα τοῖς Ἑβραίων δόγμασιν ἐφ' οἷς καὶ ἀγάμεθα τὸν ἄνδρα τῆς τε συνέσεως καὶ τῆς ἄλλης τοῦ ἀληθοῦς εὐγνωμοσύνης, ὥρα ἐπιθεωρῆσαι τίνα ταῦτ' εἶναί φαμεν ἐφ' ὧν οὐκέθ' ὁμοίως περὶ αὐτὸν διακείμεθα, τὴν δὲ νενομισμένην βάρβαρον τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν προτιμῶμεν φιλοσοφίας.

13.14.1 ιδʹ. ΟΤΙ ΜΗ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΕΠΙΤΥΧΩΣ ΕΙΡΗΤΑΙ ΤΩΙ ΠΛΑΤΩΝΙ· ∆ΙΟ ΟΥΚ ΑΛΟΓΩΣ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤ' ΑΥΤΟΝ ΠΑΡΗΙΤΗΜΕΘΑ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑΝ

Τὰ Ἑβραίων λόγια, θεοπρόπια καὶ χρησμοὺς θείας, ᾗ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, δυνάμεως περιέχοντα θεόν τε αὐθέντην ἐπιγραφόμενα καὶ πιστούμενά γε τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν διὰ τῆς τῶν μελλόντων προρρήσεως διά τε τῶν συμφώνων τοῖς θεσπίσμασιν ἀποτελεσμάτων, πάσης λέγεται διεψευσμένης διανοίας ἐκτὸς τυγχάνειν. τὰ γοῦν «θεῖα λόγια ἁγνὰ καὶ ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον, 13.14.2 δοκίμιον τῇ γῇ, κεκαθαρισμένον ἑπταπλασίως» ἀνείρηται. ἀλλ' οὐ καὶ τὰ Πλάτωνος τοιαῦτα οὐδὲ μὴν ἑτέρου του τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις σοφῶν, οἳ θνητῆς διανοίας ὄμμασιν ἐπικήροις τε στοχασμοῖς καὶ εἰκασίαις, ὄναρ ὥσπερ, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὕπαρ, τῆς τῶν ὄντων φύσεως ἐπὶ φαντασίαν ἐλθόντες πολὺ τὸ κρᾶμα τοῦ ψεύδους τῷ τῆς φύσεως ἀληθεῖ συνεπηνέγκαντο, ὡς σὲ μὴ 13.14.3 ἀνευρεῖν ἀπάτης καθαρὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς μάθημα. αὐτίκα γοῦν βραχύ τι τῆς φιλαυτίας εἰ ἐθελήσαις ὑφεῖναι καὶ φῶς αὐτὸ δυνάμει λογικῆς οὐσίας ἐπιθεωρῆσαι, γνοίης ἂν τὸν θαυμάσιον φιλόσοφον αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον, τὸν δὴ μόνον πάντων Ἑλλήνων ἀληθείας προθύρων ψαύσαντα, ὕλῃ φθαρτῇ καὶ ξοάνοις βαναύσων χερσὶν εἰς ἀνδρείκελον σχῆμα κατεσκευασμένοις τὴν τῶν θεῶν προσηγορίαν καταισχύνοντα καὶ μετὰ τὸ μέγα τῆς μεγαλοφωνίας ὕψος, δι' ἧς τὸν πατέρα καὶ δημιουργὸν εἰδέναι τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς διετείνατο, ἄνωθέν ποθεν ἐξ ὑπερκοσμίων ἁψίδων εἰς τὸν κατωτάτω βυθὸν τῆς θεομισοῦς εἰδωλολατρίας τῷ δήμῳ τῶν Ἀθηναίων συνωθούμενον· ὡς μὴ διατρέπεσθαι τὸν Σωκράτην καταβῆναι φάντα εἰς Πειραιᾶ προσευξόμενον τῇ θεῷ καὶ τὴν βάρβαρον ἑορτὴν τοὺς πολίτας τότε πρῶτον ἐπιτελοῦντας θεασόμενον καὶ τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα τῷ Ἀσκληπιῷ θῦσαι ὁμολογοῦντα προστάξαι τόν τε πάτριον Ἑλλήνων ἐξηγητήν, τὸν ἐγκαθήμενον ∆ελφοῖς δαίμονα, θειά13.14.4 ζοντα. διὸ καὶ εἰκότως τῆς ἀφιλοσόφου πληθύος τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς δεισιδαίμονος πλάνης ἐπιγράψαιτο ἄν. ἀνάλαβε γοῦν σμικρὸν ἄνωθεν τὸν λόγον καὶ θέα, οἷά σοι ὁ πάνσοφος μετὰ τὰς ἀσωμάτους καὶ ἀφθάρτους