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The Stromata, or Miscellanies

Clement of Alexandria

Book 4 · Chapter 11

About this work

A wide-ranging collection on faith, knowledge, philosophy, Scripture, ethics, and Christian maturity that intentionally mixes subjects while portraying the ideal Christian knower formed through disciplined inquiry.

Author: Clement of Alexandria
Date: c. AD 195–215
Origin: Alexandria
Genre: Theological Treatise

Chapter XI.—The Objection, Why Do You Suffer If God Cares for You, Answered.

But, say they, if God cares

‹ Book 4 · Chapter 10 Book 4 · Chapter 12 ›

for

you

,

why

are

you

persecuted

and

put

to

death

?

Has

He

delivered

you

to

this

?

No

,

we

do

not

suppose

that

the

Lord

wishes

us

to

be

involved

in

calamities

,

but

that

He

foretold

prophetically

what

would

happen

—

that

we

should

be

persecuted

for

His

name’s

sake

,

slaughtered

,

and

impaled

.

So

that

it

was

not

that

He

wished

us

to

be

persecuted

,

but

He

intimated

beforehand

what

we

shall

suffer

by

the

prediction

of

what

would

take

place

,

training

us

to

endurance

,

to

which

He

promised

the

inheritance

,

although

we

are

punished

not

alone

,

but

along

with

many

.

But

those

,

it

is

said

,

being

malefactors

,

are

righteously

punished

.

Accordingly

,

they

unwillingly

bear

testimony

to

our

righteousness

,

we

being

unjustly

punished

for

righteousness

’

sake

.

But

the

injustice

of

the

judge

does

not

affect

the

providence

of

God

.

For

the

judge

must

be

master

of

his

own

opinion

—

not

pulled

by

strings

,

like

inanimate

machines

,

set

in

motion

only

by

external

causes

.

Accordingly

he

is

judged

in

respect

to

his

judgment

,

as

we

also

,

in

accordance

with

our

choice

of

things

desirable

,

and

our

endurance

.

Although

we

do

not

wrong

,

yet

the

judge

looks

on

us

as

doing

wrong

,

for

he

neither

knows

nor

wishes

to

know

about

us

,

but

is

influenced

by

unwarranted

prejudice

;

wherefore

also

he

is

judged

.

Accordingly

they

persecute

us

,

not

from

the

supposition

that

we

are

wrong

-

doers

,

but

imagining

that

by

the

very

fact

of

our

being

Christians

we

sin

against

life

in

so

conducting

ourselves

,

and

exhorting

others

to

adopt

the

like

life

.

But why are you not helped when persecuted? say they. What wrong is done us, as far as we are concerned, in being released by death to go to the Lord, and so undergoing a change of life, as if a change from one time of life to another? Did we think rightly, we should feel obliged to those who have afforded the means for speedy departure, if it is for love that we bear witness; and if not, we should appear to the multitude to be base men. Had they also known the truth, all would have bounded on to the way, and there would have been no choice. But our faith, being the light of the world, reproves unbelief. “Should Anytus and Melitus kill me, they will not hurt me in the least; for I do not think it right for the better to be hurt by the worse,” [says Socrates]. So that each one of us may with confidence say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: what shall man do to me?” “For the souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and no plague shall touch them.”

Notes

115
[Self-condemned. A pathetic description of the indifference of the Roman law to the rights of the people. Pilates all were these judges of Christ’s followers or Gallios at best.]
116
Ps. cxviii. 6.
117
Wisd. iii. 1. [This is pronounced canonical Scripture by the Trent theology, and yet the same theology asserts a purgatory to which none but the faithful are committed.]