TRV
Clement of Alexandria
Ante-Nicene · to AD 325
904 passages across 53 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On John
20 of 67-
John 1:1
For both are one-that is, God. For He has said, "In the beginning the Word was in God, and the Word was God."
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John 1:3
The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornament"-knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;-with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: "All Wisdom is from the Lord, and with Him for evermore; "-with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator: "For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made; ". He that is illuminated is therefore awake towards God; and such an one lives. "For what was made in Him was life.". At home, therefore, they ought to regard with modesty parents and domestics; in the ways, those they meet; in the baths, women; in solitude, themselves; and everywhere the Word, who is everywhere, "and without Him was not anything.". But a rational work is accomplished through God. "And nothing "it is said, "was made without Him"-the Word of God. And since the unoriginated Being is one, the Omnipotent God; one, too, is the First-begotten, "by whom all things were made, and without whom not one thing ever was made.". "Understand now for me the mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from…
The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornament"-knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;-with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: "All Wisdom is from the Lord, and with Him for evermore; "-with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator: "For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made; ".
He that is illuminated is therefore awake towards God; and such an one lives. "For what was made in Him was life.".
At home, therefore, they ought to regard with modesty parents and domestics; in the ways, those they meet; in the baths, women; in solitude, themselves; and everywhere the Word, who is everywhere, "and without Him was not anything.".
But a rational work is accomplished through God. "And nothing "it is said, "was made without Him"-the Word of God.
And since the unoriginated Being is one, the Omnipotent God; one, too, is the First-begotten, "by whom all things were made, and without whom not one thing ever was made.".
"Understand now for me the mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from advancing further in the treatment of it, by announcing this alone: "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one thing.".
and if "all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made".
"by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made.".
(that is, of the great High Priest, "by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made".
For the knowledge and apprehension of intellectual objects must necessarily be called certain scientific knowledge, whose function in reference to divine things is to consider what is the First Cause, and what that "by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made; " -
John 1:4
We then alone, who first have touched the confines of life, are already perfect; and we already live who are separated from death. Salvation, accordingly, is the following of Christ: "For that which is in Him is life.
And what? Does not he, who denies the Lord, deny himself? For does he not rob his Master of His authority, who deprives himself of his relation to Him? He, then, who denies the Saviour, denies life; for "the light was life." -
John 1:5
But he who has the light watches, "and darkness seizes not on him".
For how, says Heraclitus, can one escape the notice of that which never sets? Let us by no means, then, veil our selves with the darkness; for the light dwells in us. "For the darkness "it is said, "comprehendeth it not." -
John 1:9
He is so lovely, as to be alone loved by us, whose hearts are set on the true beauty, for "He was the true light."
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John 1:12
It is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness' sake, that He pronounces blessed-those who have despised the honours of this world in order to attain "the good; "likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore "have received power to become the sons of God"
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John 1:13
For not only must the idols which he formerly held as gods, but the works also of his former life, be abandoned by him who has been "born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh," but in the Spirit; which consists in repenting by not giving way to the same fault.
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John 1:14
Let us then aim at the fulfilment of the commandments by the works of the Lord; for the Word Himself also, having openly become flesh.
"Now the Word issuing forth was the cause of creation; then also he generated himself, "when the Word had become flesh" -
John 1:16
For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received of His fulness"
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John 1:17
Now the law is ancient grace given through Moses by the Word. Wherefore also the Scripture says, "The law was given through Moses".
Next is to be learned the greatness of the Saviour after Him, and the newness of grace; for, according to the apostle, "the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; " -
John 1:18
And John the apostle says: "No man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,"-calling invisibility and ineffableness the bosom of God. Hence some have called it the Depth, as containing and embosoming all things, inaccessible and boundless.
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John 1:27
This, then, is the type of "the law and the prophets which were until John;" while he, though speaking more perspicuously as no longer prophesying, but pointing out as now present, Him, who was proclaimed symbolically from the beginning, nevertheless said, "I am not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord's shoe." For he confesses that he is not worthy to baptize so great a Power; for it behooves those, who purify others, to free the soul from the body and its sins, as the foot from the thong.
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John 1:47
Such, according to David, "rest in the holy hill of God," in the Church far on high, in which are gathered the philosophers of God, "who are Israelites indeed, who are pure in heart, in whom there is no guile;" who do not remain in the seventh seat, the place of rest, but are promoted, through the active beneficence of the divine likeness, to the heritage of beneficence which is the eighth grade; devoting themselves to the pure vision of insatiable contemplation.
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John 2:13
But those who act contrary to these things-the avaricious, the liars, the hypocrites, those who make merchandise of the truth-the Lord cast out of His Father's court,
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John 3:6
This mystery the apostle refers to Christ and the Church. Just as "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, so that which is born of the spirit is spirit" not only in respect of its birth but also of what is acquired by learning. Thus "the children also are holy," they are well-pleasing to God, in that the Lord's words bring the soul as a bride to God. Fornication and marriage are therefore different things, as far apart as God is from the devil.
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John 3:18
Justly, therefore, the prophet says, "The ungodly are not so: but as the chaff which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth. Wherefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (being already condemned, for "he that believeth not is condemned already"), "nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous," inasmuch as they are already condemned, so as not to be united to those that have lived without stumbling. "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; and the way of the ungodly shall perish."
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John 3:29
Now the shoes which the Father bids the servant give to the repentant son who has betaken himself to Him, do not impede or drag to the earth (for the earthly tabernacle weighs down the anxious mind); but they are buoyant, and ascending, and waft to heaven, and serve as such a ladder and chariot as he requires who has turned his mind towards the Father. For, beautiful after being first beautifully adorned with all these things without, he enters into the gladness within. For "Bring out" was said by Him who had first said, "While he was yet a great way off, he ran and fell upon his neck." For it is here that all the preparation for entrance to the marriage to which we are invited must be accomplished. He, then, who has been made ready to enter will say, "This my joy is fulfilled." [John 3:29] But the unlovely and unsightly man will hear, "Friend, how did you come in here, without having a wedding garment?" [Matthew 22:12]
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John 3:30
"I must decrease," said the prophet John, and the Word of the Lord alone, in which the law terminates, "increase."
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John 3:33
Wherefore the Father bestows on him the glory and honour that was due and meet, putting on him the best robe, the robe of immortality; and a ring, a royal signet and divine seal, — impress of consecration, signature of glory, pledge of testimony (for it is said, "He has set to his seal that God is true,") [John 3:33] and shoes, not those perishable ones which he has set his foot on holy ground is bidden take off, nor such as he who is sent to preach the kingdom of heaven is forbidden to put on, but such as wear not, and are suited for the journey to heaven, becoming and adorning the heavenly path, such as unwashed feet never put on, but those which are washed by our Teacher and Lord.
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John 4:6
Such is our Instructor, righteously good. "I came not," He says, "to be ministered unto, but to minister." Wherefore He is introduced in the Gospel "wearied," because toiling for us, and promising "to give His life a ransom for many." For him alone who does so He owns to be the good shepherd.