{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020322.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020322.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020322.htm","text":"Whence most beautifully the Egyptian priest in Plato said, \u201cO Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, not having in your souls a single ancient opinion received through tradition from antiquity. And not one of the Greeks is an old man;\u201d 2136 meaning by old, I suppose, those who know what belongs to the more remote antiquity, that is, our literature; and by young, those who treat of what is more recent and made the subject of study by the Greeks,\u2014things of yesterday and of recent date as if they were old and ancient. Wherefore he added, \u201cand no study hoary with time;\u201d for we, in a kind of barbarous way, deal in homely and rugged metaphor. Those, therefore, whose minds are rightly constituted approach the interpretation utterly destitute of artifice. And of the Greeks, he says that their opinions\u201d differ but little from myths.\u201d For neither puerile fables nor stories current among children are fit for listening to. And he called the myths themselves \u201cchildren,\u201d as if the progeny of those, wise in their own conceits among the Greeks, who had but little insight; meaning by the \u201choary studies\u201d the truth which was possessed by the barbarians, dating from the highest antiquity. To which expression he opposed the phrase \u201cchild fable,\u201d censuring the mythical character of the attempts of the moderns, as, like children, having nothing of age in them, and affirming both in common\u2014their fables and their speeches\u2014to be puerile.\nDivinely, therefore, the power which spoke to Hermas by revelation said, \u201cThe visions and revelations are for those who are of double mind, who doubt in their hearts if these things are or are not.\u201d 2137\nSimilarly, also, demonstrations from the resources of erudition, strengthen, confirm, and establish demonstrative reasonings, in so far as men\u2019s minds are in a wavering state like young people\u2019s. \u201cThe good commandment,\u201d then, according to the Scripture, \u201cis a lamp, and the law is a light to the path; for instruction corrects the ways of life.\u201d 2138 \u201cLaw is monarch of all, both of mortals and of immortals,\u201d says Pindar. I understand, however, by these words, Him who enacted law. And I regard, as spoken of the God of all, the following utterance of Hesiod, though spoken by the poet at random and not with comprehension:\u2014\n \u201cFor the Saturnian framed for men this law:\nFishes, and beasts, and winged birds may eat\nEach other, since no rule of right is theirs;\nBut Right (by far the best) to men he gave.\u201d\nWhether, then, it be the law which is connate and natural, or that given afterwards, which is meant, it is certainly of God; and both the law of nature and that of instruction are one. Thus also Plato, in The Statesman, says that the lawgiver is one; and in The Laws, that he who shall understand music is one; teaching by these words that the Word is one, and God is one. And Moses manifestly calls the Lord a covenant: \u201cBehold I am my Covenant with thee,\u201d 2139 having previously told him not to seek the covenant in writing. 2140 For it is a covenant which God, the Author of all, makes. For God is called \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2, from \u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 (placing), and order or arrangement. And in the Preaching 2141 of Peter you will find the Lord called Law and Word. But at this point, let our first Miscellany 2142 of gnostic notes, according to the true philosophy, come to a close.\n[See Shepherd of Hermas, i. p. 14, ante. S.]\n341:2138 341:2139\nGen. xvii. 4. \u201cAs for me, behold, My convenant is with thee.\u201d\u2014A.V.\n341:2140\nThe allusion here is obscure. The suggestion has been made that it is to ver. 2 of the same chapter, which is thus taken to intimate that the covenant would be verbal, not written.\n341:2141\nReferring to an apocryphal book so called. [This book is not cited as Scripture, but (valeat quantum) as containing a saying attributed to St. Peter. Clement quotes it not infrequently. A very full and valuable account of it may be found in Lardner, vol. ii. p. 252, et seqq. Not less valuable is the account given by Jones, On the Canon, vol. i. p. 355. See all Clement\u2019s citations, same volume, p. 345, et seqq.]\n341:2142","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter XXIX.\u2014The Greeks But Children Compared with the Hebrews.","type":"page"}