The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
The philosophy of the Indians, too, has been celebrated. Alexander of
Macedon, having taken ten of the Indian Gymnosophists, that seemed the
best and most sententious, proposed to them problems, threatening to
put to death him that did not answer to the purpose; ordering one, who
was the eldest of them, to decide.
The first, then, being asked whether he thought that the living were
more in number than the dead, said, The living; for that the dead were
not. The second, on being asked whether the sea or the land maintained
larger beasts, said, The land; for the sea was part of it. And the
third being asked which was the most cunning of animals? The one, which
has not hitherto been known, man. And the fourth being interrogated,
For what reason they had made Sabba, who was their prince, revolt,
answered, Because they wished him to live well rather than die ill. And
the fifth being asked, Whether he thought that day or night was first,
said, One day. For puzzling questions must have puzzling answers. And
the sixth being posed with the query, How shall one be loved most? By
being most powerful; in order that he may not be timid. And the seventh
being asked, How any one of men could become God? said, If he do what
it is impossible for man to do. And the eighth being asked, Which is
the stronger, life or death? said, Life, which bears such ills. And
the ninth being interrogated, Up to what point it is good for a man to
live? said, Till he does not think that to die is better than to live.
And on Alexander ordering the tenth to say something, for he was judge,
he said, “One spake worse than another.” And on Alexander saying, Shall
you not, then, die first, having given such a judgment? he said, And
how, O king, wilt thou prove true, after saying that thou wouldest kill
first the first man that answered very badly?
And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is,
as I think, sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs.
CHAPTER V.
THE GREEKS HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.
And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by
positive knowledge, but by indirect expression,[960] Peter says in
the _Preaching_: “Know then that there is one God, who made the
beginning of all things, and holds the power of the end; and is the
Invisible, who sees all things; incapable of being contained, who
contains all things; needing nothing, whom all things need, and by whom
they are; incomprehensible, everlasting, unmade, who made all things by
the ‘Word of His power,’ that is, according to the gnostic scripture,
His Son.”[961]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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