“Hidden Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge”

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 3 turns attention for the first time specifically to the practices of textual analysis that Clement employs from the repository of his “grammatical archive.” It examines four significant passages from book 5 of the Stromateis, where Clement comments on specific biblical texts to furnish an account of Scripture’s role in Christian theological reflection: Romans 1, Isaiah 45:3, and Colossians 1–2. This chapter argues that not only does Clement understand Christian exegesis and inquiry as a fundamentally literary project, but the inclinations he develops from the use of the tools of the grammatical archive actually restrict the figurative potential he sees in the Scriptures. Though one must speak figuratively—or symbolically—when interpreting the letter of Scripture, one cannot permit Scripture to figure absolutely anything. On the contrary, Clement believes that Scripture itself—and particularly the Apostle Paul—identifies a twofold mystery contained in the text of Scripture. The chapter ends by suggesting that Clement’s most trenchant claims about exegesis can be missed because he never states these claims explicitly. Instead, he develops his most penetrating claims about scriptural exegesis in the course of his own readings of Scripture. In other words, one must move beyond the idea of Clement’s exegesis and actually parse his exegetical practice to recover these subtle but significant points about reading the biblical text.