‘A New Book according to the Syllables’: Organizing Scripture in Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

The work of classicists in recent years have shown the creative means by which readers organized knowledge textually within the Roman Empire. In the sixth book of his Stromateis, Clement of Alexandria reflects on a passage from the Shepherd of Hermas that contrasts reading ‘according to the letter’ and ‘according to the syllables’ to interpret Isaiah 8:1–2 on the composition of a ‘new book.’ In this article, I take this passage as a springboard to analyze the grammatical and rhetorical features—hinted subtly in these two passages—that Clement adapted for organizing the knowledge he believes Scripture to transmit. I argue that Clement employs a form of archival thinking to transfer the skills of grammarians and rhetoricians to the hermeneutics of Christian Scripture. This ‘grammatical archive’ and ‘memorial archive’ form the structures to Clement’s craft of thinking, which is ultimately expressed in the construction of textual constellations that aid in understanding the plain sense of the Scriptures and their subject matter.