Introduction to This Volume
How this book is arranged
This is the fourth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume is given to the main works of Clement of Alexandria.
Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.
The translations
The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. The Exhortation to the Greeks and the Instructor are printed in the modern English versions prepared for SermonIndex; the Stromata are printed in the older public-domain translation.
Short notes by the translator appear at the foot of the page of the modern English versions. They explain a difficult word, name a person or place, point to a parallel elsewhere, or say where the modern English departs from the earlier translation. They are numbered afresh for each work.
Scripture references
In the works printed in modern English, passages that quote or clearly echo the Bible are marked in brackets at the end of the section. These references are an aid to the reader, not a complete list: some parallels are not marked, and a marked passage may be a loose quotation or an echo rather than an exact match. The older translations are not marked in this way. The Scripture Index at the end of the book lists the marked references and the pages on which they are found.
In this volume
Clement taught in Alexandria at the end of the second century, in a city of libraries and philosophical schools. He set out to show an educated Greek reader that the Christian faith did not need to be ashamed of Greek learning, and that the philosophers had at best caught a glimpse of what the Church possessed in full.
His three best-known works are meant to be read in order. The Exhortation to the Greeks turns the reader from the pagan gods to Christ. The Instructor, in three books, shows how the Word trains the new believer in daily life. The Stromata, a word that means “patchwork” or “miscellanies”, is a long and deliberately unsystematic work that moves between Scripture, philosophy and the Christian life.
Book 3 of the Stromata, which treats marriage and the teaching of those who rejected it, is not yet included in this edition. The shorter Excerpts of Theodotus and the Fragments are printed at the beginning of Volume 5.
Dates and authorship
Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.