Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 2) - XXI - Book 7 of 'The stromata or miscellanies'

Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Book 7 of 'The stromata or miscellanies'.

My summary
This week Clement praises 'Gnostics' as true worshippers of God.  (In the elucidations we read the editor's comment about Clement's use of the word 'Gnostic' which appears as interchangeable with 'Christian' (not the Gnostic heretics): 'This unfortunate word Gnostic hides the force of Clement’s teaching, throughout this work. Here he virtually expounds it, and we see that it refers even more to the heart than to the head. It carries with it the conduct of life by knowledge; i.e., by “the true Light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.”')

We learn about the 'Gnostic':
(i) understanding of God and his Son;
(ii) desire to be like God and his Son;
(iii) despising of Greek gods;
(iv) prayer life;
(v) truth telling;
(vi) faith;
(vii) holy behaviour;
(viii) forgiveness of others;
(ix) authority for truth - the Scriptures.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed Clement's comment about the exegetical methods of heretics: 'And if those also who follow heresies venture to avail themselves of the prophetic Scriptures; in the first place they will not make use of all the Scriptures, and then they will not quote them entire, nor as the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting ambiguous expressions, they wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few expressions here and there; not looking to the sense, but making use of the mere words. For in almost all the quotations they make, you will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the meanings; neither knowing, as they affirm, nor using the quotations they adduce, according to their true nature.'

Read the whole Bible and you won't be misled by heresy as easily.

Next week's reading
Read Book 8 of 'The stromata or miscellanies'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.