{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>They say, too, that Here delights in the lily, and Artemis in the\r\nmyrtle. For if the flowers were made especially for man, and senseless\r\npeople have taken them not for their own proper and grateful use, but\r\nhave abused them to the thankless service of demons, we must keep\r\nfrom them for conscience sake. The crown is the symbol of untroubled\r\ntranquillity. For this reason they crown the dead, and idols, too,\r\non the same account, by this fact giving testimony to their being\r\ndead. For revellers do not without crowns celebrate their orgies; and\r\nwhen once they are encircled with flowers, at last they are inflamed\r\nexcessively. We must have no communion with demons. Nor must we crown\r\nthe living image of God after the manner of dead idols. For the fair\r\ncrown of amaranth is laid up for those who have lived well. This flower\r\nthe earth is not able to bear; heaven alone is competent to produce it.\r\nFurther, it were irrational in us, who have heard that the Lord was\r\ncrowned with thorns,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_552\" id=\"FNanchor_552\">[552]</a> to crown ourselves with flowers, insulting\r\nthus the sacred passion of the Lord. For the Lord’s crown prophetically\r\npointed to us, who once were barren, but are placed around Him through\r\nthe church of which He is the Head. But it is also a type of faith,\r\nof life in respect of the substance of the wood, of joy in respect of\r\nthe appellation of crown, of danger in respect of the thorn, for there\r\nis no approaching to the Word without blood. But this platted crown<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_238\">[238]</span>\r\nfades, and the plait of perversity is untied, and the flower withers.\r\nFor the glory of those who have not believed on the Lord fades. And\r\nthey crowned Jesus raised aloft, testifying to their own ignorance. For\r\nbeing hard of heart, they understood not that this very thing, which\r\nthey called the disgrace of the Lord, was a prophecy wisely uttered:\r\n“The Lord was not known by the people”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_553\" id=\"FNanchor_553\">[553]</a> which erred, which was not\r\ncircumcised in understanding, whose darkness was not enlightened, which\r\nknew not God, denied the Lord, forfeited the place of the true Israel,\r\npersecuted God, hoped to reduce the Word to disgrace; and Him whom they\r\ncrucified as a malefactor they crowned as a king. Wherefore the Man on\r\nwhom they believed not, they shall know to be the loving God the Lord,\r\nthe Just. Whom they provoked to show Himself to be the Lord, to Him\r\nwhen lifted up they bore witness, by encircling Him, who is exalted\r\nabove every name, with the diadem of righteousness by the ever-blooming\r\nthorn. This diadem, being hostile to those who plot against Him,\r\ncoerces them; and friendly to those who form the church, defends them.\r\nThis crown is the flower of those who have believed on the glorified\r\nOne, but covers with blood and chastises those who have not believed.\r\nIt is a symbol, too, of the Lord’s successful work, He having borne on\r\nHis head, the princely part of His body, all our iniquities by which we\r\nwere pierced. For He by His own passion rescued us from offences, and\r\nsins, and such like thorns; and having destroyed the devil, deservedly\r\nsaid in triumph, “O Death, where is thy sting?”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_554\" id=\"FNanchor_554\">[554]</a> And we eat grapes\r\nfrom thorns, and figs from thistles; while those to whom He stretched\r\nforth His hands—the disobedient and unfruitful people—He lacerates\r\ninto wounds. I can also show you another mystic meaning in it. For when\r\nthe Almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate by the Word, and\r\nwished His power to be manifested to Moses, a godlike vision of light\r\nthat had assumed a shape was shown him in the burning bush (the bush is\r\na thorny plant); but when the Word ended the giving of the law and His\r\nstay with men, the Lord was again mystically crowned with<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_239\">[239]</span> thorn. On\r\nHis departure from this world to the place whence He came, He repeated\r\nthe beginning of His old descent, in order that the Word beheld at\r\nfirst in the bush, and afterwards taken up crowned by the thorn, might\r\nshow the whole to be the work of one power, He Himself being one, the\r\nSon of the Father, who is truly one, the beginning and the end of time.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER VIII. ON THE USE OF OINTMENTS AND CROWNS."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_554","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-419"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b0e932accbd4b828727b9b3de1fa50194c1e64974ed4cb7f0a9de5ad9bcdd1f5","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1CO","chapter":15,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 Cor. xv. 55","verse":55,"verse_end":55}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_554","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_554","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_554\" id=\"Footnote_554\">[554]</a> 1 Cor. xv. 55.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_554","text_sha256":"5c87afa16144189a06ec1999719a333d317d54ce40323925739382df1ef5750e","verified":false,"work_id":null}