Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 16

Let the Decalogue be set before us as an example, by way of a brief digression, for the sake of clear knowledge. That the Ten is sacred need not be stated at this point. But if the written tablets are a work of God, they will be found to reveal a natural creation; for the finger of God is understood as the power of God, through which the creation of heaven and earth is completed, and both tablets will be recognized as symbols of the two realms (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10). The writing and shaping of God, inscribed on the tablet, constitutes the creation of the world. The Decalogue, in its heavenly image, contains the sun and moon, stars, clouds, light, spirit, water, air, darkness, and fire. This is the natural Decalogue of heaven. The earthly image, by contrast, contains humans, cattle, reptiles, wild beasts, and among aquatic creatures, fish and sea monsters; likewise among birds, both the flesh-eating and those that feed by day; and among plants, both the fruit-bearing and the unfruitful. This is the natural Decalogue of earth. The ark that encloses these things would be the knowledge and wisdom of things divine and human. Perhaps these two tablets represent the prophecy of two covenants. They were therefore renewed mystically, as ignorance and sin abounded together. It appears that the commandments are written twice, by two spirits, for the ruling part and the subject part, since the flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. There is also a certain tenfold structure within the human person himself: the five senses, the faculty of speech, the seminal faculty, and this—eighth—is the spiritual faculty according to formation; ninth is the ruling faculty of the soul; and tenth is the characteristic mark of the Holy Spirit, which comes through faith. Beyond these, the legislation seems to command ten human parts: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and the two pairs of organs that serve them—hands and feet; for this is the formation of the human. The soul is then inserted, and the ruling part is added, by which we reason; this is not born at the casting of the seed, so that the number ten is complete even without it, and through these the whole activity of the human person is fulfilled. For the human, coming directly into being in due order, receives the beginning of life from the passive elements. We therefore affirm that the rational and ruling part is the cause of the animal's constitution, but also of the irrational part being ensouled and becoming a part of it. The bodily spirit, then, receives the vital power, which encompasses the nutritive, augmentative, and generally motive functions; it is swift-moving, traversing all the senses and the rest of the body, and suffers first impact through the body. The ruling part, however, possesses the power of choice, about which lies inquiry, learning, and knowledge. But since the reference of all things is gathered into one, the ruling part is constituted, and through it the human lives and lives in a certain way.