But that he may drive away destruction and expel death,
the good Pedagogue, who is the Wisdom, who is the Word of the Father, who fashioned man, ὅλου κήδεται τοῦ πλάσματος· καὶ σώμα καὶ ψυχὴν ἀκεῖται αὐτοῦ ὁ πανάρκης1 τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ἰατρός, ὁ Σωτήρ, cares for the whole creature and heals both his body and his soul, he who is the physician of humanity sufficient in every respect, the Savior2.
For just as3
there is no light which does not illuminate, nor anything moving which does not move, nor anything loving which does not love; οὐδὲ ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ὃ μὴ ὠφελεῖ, καὶ εἰς σωτηρίαν καθοδηγεῖ, so neither is there any good—which the Pedagogue is—which does not benefit and lead unto salvation.
All those attain this salvation4
who are not enemies of truth and do not hate the Word… For God, because of his goodness, even when he threatens, manifests τὸ φιλάνθρωπον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ, his benevolence toward men.
Whence5, if any are not saved, αἰτία ἑλομένων, θεὸς ἀναίτιος, the fault belongs to those who choose, and can in no way be referred to God.
For6 τὸ σώζειν ἔργον αὐτοῦ, it is his work to save; and therefore7 τοῖς ἐν σαρκὶ εὐηγγελίσατο, ἵνα μὴ καταδικασθῶσιν ἀδίκως, he announced the Gospel to those who were in the flesh, lest they should be condemned unjustly. “For8, since God is good, διὰ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν τῆς κτίσεως ἁπάσης, σώζεσθαι βουλόμενος τοῦτο, ἐπὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ἐτράπετο καὶ τὰ λοιπά, on account of him who holds the chief place in the whole creation, since he willed him to be saved, he turned also to making the remaining things”; and he so disposed all things that there would be no one to whom the way of salvation did not lie open. Hence it came about9
that God has always appeared good, ἐξ αἰῶνος εἰς αἰῶνα σώζων διὰ υἱοῦ· κακίας δ᾽ αὖ παντῇ πάντως ἀναίτιος· πρὸς γὰρ τὴν τοῦ ὅλου σωτηρίαν τῷ τῶν ὅλων Κυρίῳ πάντα ἐστὶ διατεταγμένα, καὶ καθόλου, καὶ ἐπὶ μέρους, bestowing salvation from age unto age through the Son. But he is in no respect whatsoever the cause of evil; for all things, both generally and individually, have been ordered by the Lord of all unto the salvation of the whole.
Footnotes
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It would perhaps be more suitable to read πανάκης, healing all things, who heals all. ↩
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Pedagogue, book I, chap. II, p. 101. ↩
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Ibid., chap. III, p. 103. ↩
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Ibid., chap. VIII, p. 139. ↩
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Clement employs this maxim in the passage which we have just cited, and again in Stromata, book I, pp. 271–311; book II, p. 393; book IV, p. 535; book V, p. 613; book VII, pp. 705–711. The author of the Clementine Homilies, homily XV, chap. VIII, Justin in the former Apology, Pseudo-Origen in the commentary on Job XXXVIII.7, Eusebius in Preparation for the Gospel, book V, Gregory Nazianzen in the former invective against Julian, and Theodoret in On the Cure of Greek Affections, discourse VI, also employ it. But the author of this sentence appears to have been Plato, who wrote in the tenth book of the Republic, αἰτία ἑλομένου, θεὸς δ᾽ ἀναίτιος, the fault belongs to him who chooses; God is free of fault. Hence Lucian says in On Salaried Posts: μέμνησο τοῦ σοφοῦ λέγοντος, ὡς θεὸς ἀναίτιος, αἰτία δ᾽ ἑλομένου. ↩
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Stromata, book VI, § VI, p. 763. ↩
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Ibid., p. 766. ↩
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Ibid., § XVII, p. 819. ↩
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Stromata, book VII, § II, p. 835. ↩