Homer says:
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior.”[912]
Again, Musæus having composed the lines:
“And as the fruitful field produceth leaves,
And on the ash trees some fade, others grow,
So whirls the race of man its leaf,”[913]--
Homer transcribes:
“Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground.
The budding wood bears some; in time of spring,
They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs.”[914]
Again, Homer having said:
“It is unholy to exult over dead men,”[915]--
Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:
“It is not noble at dead men to sneer;”
and Cratinus in the _Lacones_:
“For men ’tis dreadful to exult
Much o’er the stalwart dead.”
Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:
“I erred, nor say I nay, instead of many,”[916]--
writes thus:
“I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another.”
As certainly also that line:
“Even-handed[917] war the slayer slays.”[918]
He also, altering, has given forth thus:
“I will do it.
”For Mars to men in truth is even-handed.”[917]
Also, translating the following:
“The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,”[919]
he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic:
“Victory’s issues on the gods depend.”
Again, Homer having said:
“With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground,”[920]
–Euripides writes in _Erechtheus_:
“Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep,
Nor in the streams of water lave their feet.”
Archilochus having likewise said:
“But one with this and one with that
His heart delights,”--
in correspondence with the Homeric line:
“For one in these deeds, one in those delights,”[921]--
Euripides says in _Æneus_:
“But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight.”
And I have heard Æschylus saying:
“He who is happy ought to stay at home;
There should he also stay, who speeds not well.”
And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage:
“Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home.”
Menander, too, on comedy, saying:
“He ought at home to stay, and free remain,
Or be no longer rightly happy.”
Again, Theognis having said:
“The exile has no comrade dear and true,”--
Euripides has written:
“Far from the poor flies every friend.”
And Epicharmus, saying:
“Daughter, woe worth the day!
Thee who art old I marry to a youth;”[922]
and adding:
“For the young husband takes some other girl,
And for another husband longs the wife,”--
Euripides[923] writes:
“’Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth;
For he desires to share another’s bed,
And she, by him deserted, mischief plots.”
Euripides having, besides, said in the _Medea_:
“For no good do a bad man’s gifts,”--
Sophocles in _Ajax Flagellifer_ utters this iambic:
“For foes’ gifts are no gifts, nor any boon.”[924]
Solon having written:
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends.”
Theognis writes in the same way:
“For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends the bad.”
Whence also Thucydides, in the _Histories_, says: “Many men, to whom
in a great degree, and in a short time, unlooked-for prosperity comes,
are wont to turn to insolence.” And Philistus[925] likewise imitates
the same sentiment, expressing himself thus: “And the many things
which turn out prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an
incredibly dangerous[926] tendency to misfortune. For those who meet
with unlooked success beyond their expectations, are for the most part
wont to turn to insolence.” Again, Euripides having written:
“For children sprung of parents who have led
A hard and toilsome life, superior are;”
Critias writes: “For I begin with a man’s origin: how far the best and
strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and
eats in a hardy way, and subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if
the mother of the future child be strong in body, and give herself
exercise.”
Again, Homer having said of the Hephæstus-made shield:
“Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made,
And Ocean’s rivers’ mighty strength portrayed,”--
Pherecydes of Syros says: “Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and
works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus.”
And Homer having said:
“Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps,”[927]--
Euripides writes in _Erechtheus_:
“Of shame I find it hard to judge;
’Tis needed. ’Tis at times a great mischief.”
Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from
those who flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the
_Orestes_ of Euripides:
“Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease.”
From the _Eriphyle_ of Sophocles:
“Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease.”
And from the Antigone of Sophocles:
“Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;”[928]
And from the _Aleuades_ of Sophocles:
“Each good thing has its nature equal.”
Again, in the _Ctimenus_[929] of Euripides:
“For him who toils, God helps;”
And in the _Minos_ of Sophocles:
“To those who act not, fortune is no ally;”
And from the _Alexander_ of Euripides:
“But time will show; and learning, by that test,
I shall know whether thou art good or bad;”
And from the _Hipponos_ of Sophocles:
“Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time,
That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold.”
But let us similarly run over the following; for Eumelus having
composed the line,
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,”
Solon thus begins the elegy:
“Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright.”
Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:
“What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents, where?”[930]
]employs the following iambics in _Ægeus_:
“What country shall we say that thou hast left
To roam in exile, what thy land--the bound
Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat?
And of what father dost thou call thyself the son?”
And what? Theognis[931] having said:
“Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use
It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good,”--
does not Panyasis write?
“Above the gods’ best gift to men ranks wine,
In measure drunk; but in excess the worst.”
Hesiod, too, saying:
“But for the fire to thee I’ll give a plague,[932]
For all men to delight themselves withal,”--
Euripides writes:
“And for the fire
Another fire greater and unconquerable,
Sprung up in the shape of women.”[933]
And in addition, Homer, saying:
“There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men.”[934]
Euripides says:
“Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome;
From which all evils come.”
Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:
“With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,”--
Menander, in the _Poloumenoi_, expresses himself similarly, saying:
“The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
One sometimes must with others play[935] the fool.”
And Antimachus of Teos having said:
“From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,”--
Augias composed the line:
“For gifts men’s mind and acts deceive.”
And Hesiod having said:
“Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,”--
Simonides said:
“A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse.”
Again, Epicharmas having said:
“As destined long to live, and yet not long,
Think of thyself,”--
Euripides writes:
“Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
Why don’t we live as free from care, as pleasant
As we may?”
Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:
“The life of men is prone to change,”--
Posidippus says:
“No man of mortal mould his life has passed
From suffering free. Nor to the end again
Has continued prosperous.”
Similarly[936] speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature
subject to change.
Again, Euripides having said:
“Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
How slippery in everything art thou!
Now grow’st thou, and thou now decay’st away.
And there is set no limit, no, not one,
For mortals of their course to make an end,
Except when Death’s remorseless final end
Comes, sent from Zeus,”--
Diphilus writes:
“There is no life which has not its own ills,
Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep.”[937]
Furthermore, Euripides having said:
“Many are fortune’s shapes,
And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,”--
The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:
“The instability of mortals’ fates.”
And Bacchylides having said:
“To few[938] alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,”--
Moschion, the comic poet, writes:
“But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life.”
And you will find that, Theognis having said:
“For no advantage to a man grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,”--
Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:
“An old man to a young wife suits but ill.”
For Anacreon, having written:
“Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,”--
Euripides writes:
“For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends.”
But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the
propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow
us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea,
who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: “Of these things
some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musæus; some in one
place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by
the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks,
some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things
of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present
discourse new and varied.”
And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even
rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right
to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmæon of Crotona having
said, “It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a
friend,” Sophocles wrote in the _Antigone_:
“For what sore more grievous than a bad friend?”
And Xenophon said: “No man can injure enemies in any other way than by
appearing to be a friend.”
And Euripides having said in _Telephus_:
“Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians?”--
Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissæans, says: “Shall we be
slaves to Archelaus--Greeks to a Barbarian?”
And Orpheus having said:
“Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,
And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;”
and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines,
writes thus:
“It is death for souls to become water, and death for water to
become earth; and from earth comes water, and from water soul.”
And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, “Thus was produced
the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots--fire,
water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is
produced,”--Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote:
“The four roots of all things first do thou hear--
Fire, water, earth, and ether’s boundless height:
For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes.”
And Plato having said, “Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release
sooner from life those they value most,” Menander wrote:
“Whom the gods love, dies young.”
And Euripides having written in the _Œnomaus_:
“We judge of things obscure from what we see;”
and in the _Phœnix_:
“By signs the obscure is fairly grasped,”--
Hyperides says, “But we must investigate things unseen by learning
from signs and probabilities.” And Isocrates having said, “We must
conjecture the future by the past,” Andocides does not shrink from
saying, “For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs
in reference to what is to be.” Besides, Theognis having said:
“The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
If he is false,[939] and has a treacherous heart within,
This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
And of all things the hardest to detect,”--
Euripides writes:
“Oh Zeus, why hast thou given to men clear tests
Of spurious gold, while on the body grows
No mark sufficing to discover clear
The wicked man?”
Hyperides himself also says, “There is no feature of the mind impressed
on the countenance of men.”
Again, Stasinus having composed the line:
“Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,”--
Xenophon[940] says, “For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner,
as if one who killed the father should spare his children.” And
Sophocles having written in the _Antigone_:
“Mother and father being in Hades now,
No brother ever can to me spring forth,”--
Herodotus says, “Mother and father being no more, I shall not have
another brother.” In addition to these, Theopompus having written:
“Twice children are old men in very truth;”
And before him Sophocles in _Peleus_:
“Peleus, the son of Æacus, I, sole housekeeper,
Guide, old as he is now, and train again,
For the aged man is once again a child,”--
Antipho the orator says, “For the nursing of the old is like the
nursing of children.” Also the philosopher Plato says, “The old man
then, as seems, will be twice a child.” Further, Thucydides having
said, “We alone bore the brunt at Marathon,”[941]--Demosthenes said,
“By those who bore the brunt at Marathon.” Nor will I omit the
following. Cratinus having said in the _Pytine_:[942]
“The preparation perchance you know,”--
Andocides the orator says, “The preparation, gentlemen of the jury,
and the eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know.” Similarly
also Nicias, in the speech on the deposit, against Lysias, says, “The
preparation and the eagerness of the adversaries, ye see, O gentlemen
of the jury.” After him Æschines says, “You see the preparation, O men
of Athens, and the line of battle.” Again, Demosthenes having said,
“What zeal and what canvassing, O men of Athens, have been employed
in this contest, I think almost all of you are aware;” and Philinus
similarly, “What zeal, what forming of the line of battle, gentlemen of
the jury, have taken place in this contest, I think not one of you is
ignorant.” Isocrates, again, having said, “As if she were related to
his wealth, not him,” Lysias says in the _Orphics_, “And he was plainly
related not to the persons, but to the money.” Since Homer also having
written:
“O friend, if in this war, by taking flight,
We should from age and death exemption win,
I would not fight among the first myself,
Nor would I send thee to the glorious fray;
But now--for myriad fates of death attend
In any case, which man may not escape
Or shun--come on. To some one we shall bring
Renown, or some one shall to us,”[943]--
Theopompus writes, “For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were
to pass the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would
not be wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life,
that death in battle seems preferable.” And what? Chilo the sophist
having uttered the apophthegm, “Become surety, and mischief is at
hand,” did not Epicharmus utter the same sentiment in other terms, when
he said, “Suretyship is the daughter of mischief, and loss that of
suretyship?”[944] Further, Hippocrates the physician having written,
“You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease,” Euripides
says in _Hexameters_:[945]
“Those who the healing art would practise well,
Must study people’s modes of life, and note
The soil, and the diseases so consider.”
Homer, again, having written:
“I say no mortal man can doom escape,”--
Archinus says, “All men are bound to die either sooner or later;” and
Demosthenes, “To all men death is the end of life, though one should
keep himself shut up in a coop.”
And Herodotus, again, having said, in his discourse about Glaucus the
Spartan, that the Pythian said, “In the case of the Deity, to say and
to do are equivalent,” Aristophanes said:
“For to think and to do are equivalent.”
And before him, Parmenides of Elea said:
“For thinking and being are the same.”
And Plato having said, “And we shall show, not absurdly perhaps, that
the beginning of love is sight; and hope diminishes the passion, memory
nourishes it, and intercourse preserves it;” does not Philemon the
comic poet write:
“First all see, then admire;
Then gaze, then come to hope;
And thus arises love?”
Further, Demosthenes having said, “For to all of us death is a debt,”
and so forth, Phanocles writes in _Loves_, or _The Beautiful_:
“But from the Fates’ unbroken thread escape
Is none for those that feed on earth.”
You will also find that Plato having said, “For the first sprout of
each plant, having got a fair start, according to the virtue of its
own nature, is most powerful in inducing the appropriate end;” the
historian writes, “Further, it is not natural for one of the wild
plants to become cultivated, after they have passed the earlier period
of growth;” and the following of Empedocles:
“For I already have been boy and girl,
And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”--
Euripides transcribes in _Chrysippus_:
“But nothing dies
Of things that are; but being dissolved,
One from the other,
Shows another form.”
And Plato having said, in the _Republic_, that women were common,
Euripides writes in the _Protesilaus_:
“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”
Further, Euripides having written:
“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”--
Epicurus expressly says, “Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all.”
Again, Aristophanes having written:
“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just
And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”--
Epicurus says, “The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity.”
Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such,
stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of
perceiving.
And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts
and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of
the possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what
is the production of others, they have published it as their own; as
Eugamon of Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musæus,
and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis
of Halicarnassus, the capture of Œchalia from Cleophilus of Samos.
You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from
the _Disappearance_ of Dionysus, those words and what follows
verbatim:
“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]
And in the _Theogony_, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos:
“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him
All-conquering Sleep had seized.”
These Homer transferred to the Cyclops.[947] And Hesiod writes of
Melampous:
“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned
To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”
and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musæus.
And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the
_Thesmophoriazusæ_, transferred the words from the _Empiprameni_ of
Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in _Dædalus_,
steal from one another. _Cocalus_, composed by Araros,[948] the son of
Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the
comedy called _Hypobolimæus_.
Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of
Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium
and Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And,
besides, there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed
the writings of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristocles,
and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecatæus, and Androtion, and
Philochorus. Dieuchidas of Megara transferred the beginning of his
treatise from the _Deucalion_ of Hellanicus. I pass over in silence
Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus.
From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from
the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in which
they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and Aristotle,
took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus also
pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be
so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject
in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they
claim the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have
received from us.
CHAPTER III.
PLAGIARISM BY THE GREEKS OF THE MIRACLES RELATED
IN THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.
And now they are convicted not only of borrowing doctrines from the
Barbarians, but also of relating as prodigies of Hellenic mythology
the marvels found in our records, wrought through divine power from
above, by those who led holy lives, while devoting attention to us.
And we shall ask at them whether those things which they relate are
true or false. But they will not say that they are false; for they will
not with their will condemn themselves of the very great silliness of
composing falsehoods, but of necessity admit them to be true. And how
will the prodigies enacted by Moses and the other prophets any longer
appear to them incredible? For the Almighty God, in His care for all
men, turns some to salvation by commands, some by threats, some by
miraculous signs, some by gentle promises.
Well, the Greeks, when once a drought had wasted Greece for a
protracted period, and a dearth of the fruits of the earth ensued, it
is said, those that survived of them, having, because of the famine,
come as suppliants to Delphi, asked the Pythian priestess how they
should be released from the calamity. She announced that the only help
in their distress was, that they should avail themselves of the prayers
of Æacus. Prevailed on by them, Æacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and
stretching out pure[949] hands to heaven, and invoking the common[950]
God, besought him to pity wasted Greece. And as he prayed, thunder
sounded, out of the usual course of things, and the whole surrounding
atmosphere was covered with clouds. And impetuous and continued rains,
bursting down, filled the whole region. The result was a copious and
rich fertility wrought by the husbandry of the prayers of Æacus.
“And Samuel called on the Lord,” it is said, “and the Lord gave forth
His voice, and rain in the day of harvest.”[951] Do you see that “He
who sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust”[952] by the subject
powers is the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of
instances of God, in reference to the prayers of the just, hearing and
performing each one of their petitions.
Again, the Greeks relate, that in the case of a failure once of the
Etesian winds, Aristæus once sacrificed in Ceus to Isthmian Zeus.
For there was great devastation, everything being burnt up with the
heat in consequence of the winds, which had been wont to refresh the
productions of the earth, not blowing, and he easily called them back.
And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian
priestess having made answer:
“O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,”--
they having erected an altar and performed sacrifice to the winds, had
them as their helpers. For, blowing violently around Cape Sepias, they
shivered the whole preparations of the Persian expedition. Empedocles
of Agrigentum was called “Checker of Winds.” Accordingly it is said,
that when, on a time, a wind blew from the mountain of Agrigentum,
heavy and pestiferous for the inhabitants, and the cause also of
barrenness to their wives, he made the wind to cease. Wherefore he
himself writes in the lines:
“Thou shalt the might of the unwearied winds make still,
Which rushing to the earth spoil mortals’ crops,
And at thy will bring back the avenging blasts.”
And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and
some that had been long vexed by sore diseases.[953] They plainly,
then, believed in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders,
from our Scriptures. For if certain powers move the winds and dispense
showers, let them hear the psalmist: “How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!”[954] This is the Lord of powers, and principalities,
and authorities, of whom Moses speaks; so that we may be with Him. “And
ye shall circumcise your hard heart, and shall not harden your neck
any more. For He is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great God and
strong,”[955] and so forth. And Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes to the
height, and see who hath produced all these things.”[956]
And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests, and the
like, are wont to take place, not alone in consequence of material
disturbance, but also through anger of demons and bad angels. For
instance, they say that the Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena
of the skies, when the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the
threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices. And if at any time
there is the want of an animal, they are satisfied with bleeding their
own finger for a sacrifice. The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians
offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence, effected a delay of the
plague for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of Epimenides of Crete, put
off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is considered to be
all the same whether we call these spirits gods or angels. And those
skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the temples
have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Dæmons, and
teaching them to be worshipped by men; as having, in consequence of the
purity of their life, by the divine foreknowledge, received the power
of wandering about the space around the earth in order to minister to
men. For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But
of these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall
discourse.
Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial
phenomena, was called “Wisdom” (Σοφία). On his meeting a cordial
reception from his brother Damasus, he predicted that there would be
much rain, judging from certain stars. Some, accordingly, convinced by
him, gathered their crops; for being in summer-time, they were still on
the threshing-floor. But others lost all, unexpected and heavy showers
having burst down.
How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance
on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that
grew on the mount; and the sound of trumpets issued forth, breathed
without instruments? For that which is called the descent on the mount
of God is the advent of divine power, pervading the whole world, and
proclaiming “the light that is inaccessible.”[957]
For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was
seen, as Aristobulus says, while the whole multitude, amounting to not
less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around
the mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days’
journey. Over the whole place of the vision the burning fire was seen
by them all encamped as it were around; so that the descent was not
local. For God is everywhere.
Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain
there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit;
and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes
into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing
musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a
sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds.
Those also who composed the _Persics_ relate that in the uplands,
in the country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended
plain, and that those who travel through the locality, on coming to the
first mountain, hear a confused sound as of several myriads shouting,
as if in battle array; and on reaching the middle one, they hear a
clamour louder and more distinct; and at the end hear people singing
a pæan, as if victorious. And the cause, in my opinion, of the whole
sound, is the smoothness and cavernous character of the localities; and
the air, entering in, being sent back and going to the same point,
sounds with considerable force. Let these things be so. But it is
possible for God Almighty, even without a medium, to produce a voice
and vision through the ear, showing that His greatness has a natural
order beyond what is customary, in order to the conversion of the
hitherto unbelieving soul, and the reception of the commandment given.
But there being a cloud and a lofty mountain, how is it not possible
to hear a different sound, the wind moving by the active cause?
Wherefore also the prophet says, “Ye heard the voice of words, and saw
no similitude.”[958] You see how the Lord’s voice, the Word, without
shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the Lord, the truth
from heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the church, wrought
by the luminous immediate ministry.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GREEKS DREW MANY OF THEIR PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS
FROM THE EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN GYMNOSOPHISTS.
We shall find another testimony in confirmation, in the fact that the
best of the philosophers, having appropriated their most excellent
dogmas from us, boast, as it were, of certain of the tenets which
pertain to each sect being culled from other Barbarians, chiefly
from the Egyptians--both other tenets, and that especially of the
transmigration of the soul. For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of
their own. This is principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. For
first advances the Singer, bearing some one of the symbols of music.
For they say that he must learn two of the books of Hermes, the one of
which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regulations for
the king’s life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer,[959]
with a horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of astrology.
He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which are four in
number, always in his mouth. Of these, one is about the order of the
fixed stars that are visible, and another about the conjunctions and
luminous appearances of the sun and moon; and the rest respecting their
risings. Next in order advances the sacred Scribe, with wings on his
head, and in his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink and
the reed, with which they write. And he must be acquainted with what
are called hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography,
the position of the sun and moon, and about the five planets; also the
description of Egypt, and the chart of the Nile; and the description
of the equipment of the priests and of the places consecrated to them,
and about the measures and the things in use in the sacred rites. Then
the Stole-keeper follows those previously mentioned, with the cubit of
justice and the cup for libations. He is acquainted with all points
called Pædeutic (relating to training) and Moschophatic (sacrificial).
There are also ten books which relate to the honour paid by them to
their gods, and containing the Egyptian worship; as that relating to
sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and
the like. And behind all walks the Prophet, with the water-vase carried
openly in his arms; who is followed by those who carry the issue of
loaves. He, as being the governor of the temple, learns the ten books
called “Hieratic;” and they contain all about the laws, and the gods,
and the whole of the training of the priests. For the Prophet is, among
the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the revenues. There are
then forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; of which the
six-and-thirty containing the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are
learned by the forementioned personages; and the other six, which are
medical, by the Pastophoroi (image-bearers),--treating of the structure
of the body, and of diseases, and instruments, and medicines, and
about the eyes, and the last about women. Such are the customs of the
Egyptians, to speak briefly.
The philosophy of the Indians, too, has been celebrated. Alexander of
Macedon, having taken ten of the Indian Gymnosophists, that seemed the
best and most sententious, proposed to them problems, threatening to
put to death him that did not answer to the purpose; ordering one, who
was the eldest of them, to decide.
The first, then, being asked whether he thought that the living were
more in number than the dead, said, The living; for that the dead were
not. The second, on being asked whether the sea or the land maintained
larger beasts, said, The land; for the sea was part of it. And the
third being asked which was the most cunning of animals? The one, which
has not hitherto been known, man. And the fourth being interrogated,
For what reason they had made Sabba, who was their prince, revolt,
answered, Because they wished him to live well rather than die ill. And
the fifth being asked, Whether he thought that day or night was first,
said, One day. For puzzling questions must have puzzling answers. And
the sixth being posed with the query, How shall one be loved most? By
being most powerful; in order that he may not be timid. And the seventh
being asked, How any one of men could become God? said, If he do what
it is impossible for man to do. And the eighth being asked, Which is
the stronger, life or death? said, Life, which bears such ills. And
the ninth being interrogated, Up to what point it is good for a man to
live? said, Till he does not think that to die is better than to live.
And on Alexander ordering the tenth to say something, for he was judge,
he said, “One spake worse than another.” And on Alexander saying, Shall
you not, then, die first, having given such a judgment? he said, And
how, O king, wilt thou prove true, after saying that thou wouldest kill
first the first man that answered very badly?
And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is,
as I think, sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs.
CHAPTER V.
THE GREEKS HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.
And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by
positive knowledge, but by indirect expression,[960] Peter says in
the _Preaching_: “Know then that there is one God, who made the
beginning of all things, and holds the power of the end; and is the
Invisible, who sees all things; incapable of being contained, who
contains all things; needing nothing, whom all things need, and by whom
they are; incomprehensible, everlasting, unmade, who made all things by
the ‘Word of His power,’ that is, according to the gnostic scripture,
His Son.”[961]
Then he adds: “Worship this God not as the Greeks,”--signifying
plainly, that the excellent among the Greeks worshipped the same God
as we, but that they had not learned by perfect knowledge that which
was delivered by the Son. “Do not then worship,” he did not say, the
God whom the Greeks worship, but “as the Greeks,”--changing the manner
of the worship of God, not announcing another God. What, then, the
expression “not as the Greeks” means, Peter himself shall explain, as
he adds: “Since they are carried away by ignorance, and know not God”
(as we do, according to the perfect knowledge); “but giving shape to
the things[962] of which He gave them the power for use--stocks and
stones, brass and iron, gold and silver--matter;--and setting up the
things which are slaves for use and possession, worship them.[963] And
what God hath given to them for food--the fowls of the air, and the
fish of the sea, and the creeping things of the earth, and the wild
beasts with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice,
cats and dogs and apes, and their own proper food--they sacrifice as
sacrifices to mortals; and offering dead things to the dead, as to
gods, are unthankful to God, denying His existence by these things.”
And that it is said, that we and the Greeks know the same God, though
not in the same way, he will infer thus: “Neither worship as the Jews;
for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring
as they do angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the
moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called
the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened
bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.”[964] Then he gives the
finishing stroke to the question: “So that do ye also, learning holily
and righteously what we deliver to you; keep them, worshipping God
in a new way, by Christ.” For we find in the Scriptures, as the Lord
says: “Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your
fathers in Mount Horeb.”[965] He made a new covenant with us; for what
belonged to the Greeks and Jews is old. But we, who worship Him in a
new way, in the third form, are Christians. For clearly, as I think, he
showed that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile
way, by the Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us.
And further, that the same God that furnished both the Covenants was
the giver of Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty
is glorified among the Greeks, he shows. And it is clear from this.
Accordingly, then, from the Hellenic training, and also from that of
the law, are gathered into the one race of the saved people those
who accept faith: not that the three peoples are separated by time,
so that one might suppose three natures, but trained in different
Covenants of the one Lord, by the word of the one Lord. For that, as
God wished to save the Jews by giving to them prophets, so also by
raising up prophets of their own in their own tongue, as they were
able to receive God’s beneficence, He distinguished the most excellent
of the Greeks from the common herd, in addition to “_Peter’s
Preaching_,” the Apostle Paul will show, saying: “Take also the
Hellenic books, read the Sibyl, how it is shown that God is one, and
how the future is indicated. And taking Hystaspes, read, and you will
find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and
how many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ, hating Him
and those that bear His name, and His faithful ones, and His patience,
and His coming.” Then in one word he asks us, “Whose is the world, and
all that is in the world? Are they not God’s?”[966] Wherefore Peter
says, that the Lord said to the apostles: “If any one of Israel, then,
wishes to repent, and by my name to believe in God, his sins shall be
forgiven him, after twelve years. Go forth into the world, that no one
may say, We have not heard.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO JEWS AND GENTILES
IN HADES.
But as the proclamation [of the gospel] has come now at the fit
time, so also at the fit time were the Law and the Prophets given to
the Barbarians, and Philosophy to the Greeks, to fit their ears for
the gospel. “Therefore,” says the Lord who delivered Israel, “in an
acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I
helped thee. And I have given thee for a Covenant to the nations;
that thou mightest inhabit the earth, and receive the inheritance of
the wilderness; saying to those that are in bonds, Come forth; and to
those that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” For if the “prisoners”
are the Jews, of whom the Lord said, “Come forth, ye that will, from
your bonds,”--meaning the voluntary bound, and who have taken on them
“_the burdens grievous to be borne_”[967] by human injunction,--it
is plain that “those in darkness” are they who have the ruling faculty
of the soul buried in idolatry.
For to those who were righteous according to the law, faith was
wanting. Wherefore also the Lord, in healing them, said, “Thy faith
hath saved thee.”[968] But to those that were righteous according to
philosophy, not only faith in the Lord, but also the abandonment of
idolatry, were necessary. Straightway, on the revelation of the truth,
they also repented of their previous conduct.
Wherefore the Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades. Accordingly
the Scripture says, “Hades says to Destruction, We have not seen His
form, but we have heard His voice.”[969] It is not plainly the place,
which, the words above say, heard the voice, but those who have been
put in Hades, and have abandoned themselves to destruction, as persons
who have thrown themselves voluntarily from a ship into the sea. They,
then, are those that hear the divine power and voice. For who in his
senses can suppose the souls of the righteous and those of sinners in
the same condemnation, charging Providence with injustice?
But how? Do not [the Scriptures] show that the Lord preached[970]
the gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather had been
chained, and to those kept “in ward and guard?”[971] And it has been
shown also,[972] in the second book of the _Stromata_, that the
apostles, following the Lord, preached the gospel to those in Hades.
For it was requisite, in my opinion, that as here, so also there, the
best of the disciples should be imitators of the Master; so that He
should bring to repentance those belonging to the Hebrews, and they the
Gentiles; that is, those who had lived in righteousness according to
the Law and Philosophy, who had ended life not perfectly, but sinfully.
For it was suitable to the divine administration, that those possessed
of greater worth in righteousness, and whose life had been pre-eminent,
on repenting of their transgressions, though found in another place,
yet being confessedly of the number of the people of God Almighty,
should be saved, each one according to his individual knowledge.
And, as I think, the Saviour also exerts His might because it is His
work to save; which accordingly He also did by drawing to salvation
those who became willing, by the preaching [of the gospel], to believe
on Him, wherever they were. If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for
no other end but to preach the gospel, as He did descend; it was either
to preach the gospel to all or to the Hebrews only. If, accordingly,
to all, then all who believe shall be saved, although they may be of
the Gentiles, on making their profession there; since God’s punishments
are saving and disciplinary, leading to conversion, and choosing rather
the repentance than the death of a sinner;[973] and especially since
souls, although darkened by passions, when released from their bodies,
are able to perceive more clearly, because of their being no longer
obstructed by the paltry flesh.
If, then, He preached only to the Jews, who wanted the knowledge and
faith of the Saviour, it is plain that, since God is no respecter of
persons, the apostles also, as here, so there, preached the gospel
to those of the heathen who were ready for conversion. And it is
well said by the Shepherd, “They went down with them therefore into
the water, and again ascended. But these descended alive, and again
ascended alive. But those who had fallen asleep, descended dead, but
ascended alive.”[974] Further, the Gospel[975] says, “that many bodies
of those that slept arose,”--plainly as having been translated to a
better state.[976] There took place, then, a universal movement and
translation through the economy of the Saviour.
One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another
righteous man, whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only
Lord of the Jews, but of all men, and more nearly the Father of those
who know Him. For if to live well and according to the law is to live,
also to live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who
lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith,[977] and judged
to be righteous,--it is evident that those, too, who were outside of
the Law, having lived rightly, in consequence of the peculiar nature of
the voice,[978] though they are in Hades and in ward,[979] on hearing
the voice of the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting
through His apostles, with all speed turned and believed. For we
remember that the Lord is “the power of God,”[980] and power can never
be weak.
So I think it is demonstrated that the God being good, and the Lord
powerful, they save with a righteousness and equality which extend to
all that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere. For it is not here
alone that the active power of God is beforehand, but it is everywhere
and is always at work. Accordingly, in the _Preaching of Peter_,
the Lord says to the disciples after the resurrection, “I have chosen
you twelve disciples, judging you worthy of me,” whom the Lord wished
to be apostles, having judged them faithful, sending them into the
world to the men on the earth, that they may know that there is one
God, showing clearly what would take place by the faith of Christ;
that they who heard and believed should be saved; and that those who
believed not, after having heard, should bear witness, not having the
excuse to allege, We have not heard.
What then? Did not the same dispensation obtain in Hades, so that
even there, all the souls, on hearing the proclamation, might either
exhibit repentance, or confess that their punishment was just,
because they believed not? And it were the exercise of no ordinary
arbitrariness, for those who had departed before the advent of the
Lord (not having the gospel preached to them, and having afforded no
ground from themselves, in consequence of believing or not) to obtain
either salvation or punishment. For it is not right that these should
be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the
advent should have the advantage of the divine righteousness. But
to all rational souls it was said from above, “Whatever one of you
has done in ignorance, without clearly knowing God, if, on becoming
conscious, he repent, all his sins will be forgiven him.”[981] “For,
behold,” it is said, “I have set before your face death and life, that
ye may choose life.”[982] God says that He set, not that He made both,
in order to the comparison of choice. And in another scripture He says,
“If ye hear me, and be willing, ye shall eat the good of the land. But
if ye hear me not, and are not willing, the sword shall devour you: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.”[983]
Again, David expressly (or rather the Lord in the person of the saint,
and the same from the foundation of the world is each one who at
different periods is saved, and shall be saved by faith) says, “My
heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced, and my flesh shall still rest
in hope. For Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give
Thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the paths
of life, Thou wilt make me full of joy in Thy presence.”[984] As,
then, the people was precious to the Lord, so also is the entire holy
people; he also who is converted from the Gentiles, who was prophesied
under the name of proselyte, along with the Jew. For rightly the
Scripture says, that “the ox and the bear shall come together.”[985]
For the Jew is designated by the ox, from the animal under the yoke
being reckoned clean, according to the law; for the ox both parts the
hoof and chews the cud. And the Gentile is designated by the bear,
which is an unclean and wild beast. And this animal brings forth a
shapeless lump of flesh, which it shapes into the likeness of a beast
solely by its tongue. For he who is converted from among the Gentiles
is formed from a beastlike life to gentleness by the word; and, when
once tamed, is made clean, just as the ox. For example, the prophet
says, “The sirens, and the daughters of the sparrows, and all the
beasts of the field, shall bless me.”[986] Of the number of unclean
animals, the wild beasts of the field are known to be, that is, of the
world; since those who are wild in respect of faith, and polluted in
life, and not purified by the righteousness which is according to the
law, are called wild beasts. But changed from wild beasts by the faith
of the Lord, they become men of God, advancing from the wish to change
to the fact. For some the Lord exhorts, and to those who have already
made the attempt he stretches forth His hand, and draws them up. “For
the Lord dreads not the face of any one, nor will He regard greatness;
for He hath made small and great, and cares alike for all.”[987]
And David says, “For the heathen are fixed in the destruction they
have caused; their foot is taken in the snare which they hid.”[988]
“But the Lord was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in
affliction.”[989] Those, then, that were in affliction had the gospel
seasonably proclaimed. And therefore it said, “Declare among the
heathen his pursuits,”[990] that they may not be judged unjustly.
If, then, He preached the gospel to those in the flesh that they might
not be condemned unjustly, how is it conceivable that He did not for
the same cause preach the gospel to those who had departed this life
before His advent? “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: His
countenance beholdeth uprightness.”[991] “But he that loveth wickedness
hateth his own soul.”[992]
If, then, in the deluge all sinful flesh perished, punishment having
been inflicted on them for correction, we must first believe that the
will of God, which is disciplinary and beneficent,[993] saves those
who turn to Him. Then, too, the more subtle substance, the soul, could
never receive any injury from the grosser element of water, its subtle
and simple nature rendering it impalpable, called as it is incorporeal.
But whatever is gross, made so in consequence of sin, this is cast away
along with the carnal spirit which lusts against the soul.
Now also Valentinus, the Coryphæus of those who herald community, in
his book on _The Intercourse of Friends_, writes in these words:
“Many of the things that are written, though in common books, are found
written in the church of God. For those sayings which proceed from the
heart are vain. For the law written in the heart is the People[994]
of the Beloved--loved and loving Him.” For whether it be the Jewish
writings or those of the philosophers that he calls “the Common Books,”
he makes the truth common. And Isidore, at once son and disciple to
Basilides, in the first book of the _Expositions of the Prophet
Parchor_, writes also in these words: “The Attics say that certain
things were intimated to Socrates, in consequence of a dæmon attending
on him. And Aristotle says that all men are provided with dæmons, that
attend on them during the time they are in the body,--having taken this
piece of prophetic instruction and transferred it to his own books,
without acknowledging whence he had abstracted this statement.” And
again, in the second book of his work, he thus writes: “And let no
one think that what we say is peculiar to the elect, was said before
by any philosophers. For it is not a discovery of theirs. For having
appropriated it from our prophets, they attributed it to him who is
wise according to them.” Again, in the same: “For to me it appears
that those who profess to philosophize, do so that they may learn what
is the winged oak,[995] and the variegated robe on it,” all of which
Pherecydes has employed as theological allegories, having taken them
from the prophecy of Cham.
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT TRUE PHILOSOPHY IS, AND WHENCE SO CALLED.
As we have long ago pointed out, what we propose as our subject is not
the discipline which obtains in each sect, but that which is really
philosophy, strictly systematic Wisdom, which furnishes acquaintance
with the things which pertain to life. And we define Wisdom to be
certain knowledge, being a sure and irrefragable apprehension of things
divine and human, comprehending the present, past, and future, which
the Lord hath taught us, both by His advent and by the prophets. And
it is irrefragable by reason, inasmuch as it has been communicated.
And so it is wholly true according to [God’s] intention, as being
known through means of the Son. And in one aspect it is eternal, and
in another it becomes useful in time. Partly it is one and the same,
partly many and indifferent--partly without any movement of passion,
partly with passionate desire--partly perfect, partly incomplete.
This wisdom, then--rectitude of soul and of reason, and purity of
life--is the object of the desire of philosophy, which is kindly and
lovingly disposed towards wisdom, and does everything to attain it.
Now those are called philosophers, among us, who love Wisdom, the
Creator and Teacher of all things, that is, the knowledge of the Son
of God; and among the Greeks, those who undertake arguments on virtue.
Philosophy, then, consists of such dogmas found in each sect (I mean
those of philosophy) as cannot be impugned, with a corresponding life,
collected into one selection; and these, stolen from the Barbarian
God-given grace, have been adorned by Greek speech. For some they
have borrowed, and others they have misunderstood. And in the case of
others, what they have spoken, in consequence of being moved, they
have not yet perfectly worked out; and others by human conjecture and
reasoning, in which also they stumble. And they think that they have
hit the truth perfectly; but as we understand them, only partially.
They know, then, nothing more than this world. And it is just like
geometry, which treats of measures and magnitudes and forms, by
delineation on plain surfaces; and just as painting appears to take
in the whole field of view in the scenes represented. But it gives
a false description of the view, according to the rules of the art,
employing the signs that result from the incidence of the lines of
vision. By this means, the higher and lower points in the view, and
those between, are preserved; and some objects seem to appear in the
foreground, and others in the background, and others to appear in some
other way, on the smooth and level surface. So also the philosophers
copy the truth, after the manner of painting. And always in the case of
each one of them, their self-love is the cause of all their mistakes.
Wherefore one ought not, in the desire for the glory that terminates
in men, to be animated by self-love; but loving God, to become really
holy with wisdom. If, then, one treats what is particular as universal,
and regards that, which serves, as the Lord, he misses the truth, not
understanding what was spoken by David by way of confession: “I have
eaten earth [ashes] like bread.”[996] Now, self-love and self-conceit
are, in his view, earth and error. But if so, science and knowledge
are derived from instruction. And if there is instruction, you must
seek for the master. Cleanthes claims Zeno, and Metrodorus Epicurus,
and Theophrastus Aristotle, and Plato Socrates. But if I come to
Pythagoras, and Pherecydes, and Thales, and the first wise men, I
come to a stand in my search for their teacher. Should you say the
Egyptians, the Indians, the Babylonians, and the Magi themselves, I
will not stop from asking their teacher. And I lead you up to the first
generation of men; and from that point I begin to investigate Who is
their teacher. No one of men; for they had not yet learned. Nor yet any
of the angels: for in the way that angels, in virtue of being angels,
speak, men do not hear; nor, as we have ears, have they a tongue to
correspond; nor would any one attribute to the angels organs of speech,
lips I mean, and the parts contiguous, throat, and windpipe, and chest,
breath and air to vibrate. And God is far from calling aloud in the
unapproachable sanctity, separated as He is from even the archangels.
And we also have already heard that angels learned the truth, and their
rulers over them; for they had a beginning. It remains, then, for us,
ascending to seek their teacher. And since the unoriginated Being is
one, the Omnipotent God; one, too, is the First-begotten, “by whom all
things were made, and without whom not one thing ever was made.”[997]
“For one, in truth, is God, who formed the beginning of all things;”
pointing out “the first-begotten Son,” Peter writes, accurately
comprehending the statement, “In the beginning God made the heaven and
the earth.”[998] And He is called Wisdom by all the prophets. This is
He who is the Teacher of all created beings, the Fellow-counsellor
of God, who foreknew all things; and He from above, from the first
foundation of the world, “in many ways and many times,”[999] trains
and perfects; whence it is rightly said, “Call no man your teacher on
earth.”[1000]
You see whence the true philosophy has its handles; though the Law
be the image and shadow of the truth: for the Law is the shadow
of the truth. But the self-love of the Greeks proclaims certain
men as their teachers. As, then, the whole family runs back to God
the Creator;[1001] so also all the teaching of good things, which
justifies, does to the Lord, and leads and contributes to this.
But if from any creature they received in any way whatever the seeds
of the Truth, they did not nourish them; but committing them to a
barren and rainless soil, they choked them with weeds, as the Pharisees
revolted from the Law, by introducing human teachings,--the cause of
these being not the Teacher, but those who chose to disobey. But those
of them who believed the Lord’s advent and the plain teaching of the
Scriptures, attain to the knowledge of the law; as also those addicted
to philosophy, by the teaching of the Lord, are introduced into the
knowledge of the true philosophy: “For the oracles of the Lord are pure
oracles, melted in the fire, tested in the earth,[1002] purified seven
times.”[1003] Just as silver often purified, so is the just man brought
to the test, becoming the Lord’s coin and receiving the royal image.
Or, since Solomon also calls the “tongue of the righteous man gold that
has been subjected to fire,”[1004] intimating that the doctrine which
has been proved, and is wise, is to be praised and received, whenever
it is amply tried by the earth: that is, when the gnostic soul is in
manifold ways sanctified, through withdrawal from earthy fires. And the
body in which it dwells is purified, being appropriated to the pureness
of a holy temple. But the first purification which takes place in the
body, the soul being first, is abstinence from evil things, which some
consider perfection, and is, in truth, the perfection of the common
believer--Jew and Greek. But in the case of the Gnostic, after that
which is reckoned perfection in others, his righteousness advances to
activity in well-doing. And in whomsoever the increased force[1005] of
righteousness advances to the doing of good, in his case perfection
abides in the fixed habit of well-doing after the likeness of God.
For those who are the seed of Abraham, and besides servants of God,
are “the called;” and the sons of Jacob are the elect--they who have
tripped up the energy of wickedness.
If, then, we assert that Christ Himself is Wisdom, and that it was
His working which showed itself in the prophets, by which the gnostic
tradition may be learned, as He Himself taught the apostles during
His presence; then it follows that the _gnosis_, which is the
knowledge and apprehension of things present, future, and past, which
is sure and reliable, as being imparted and revealed by the Son of God,
is wisdom.
And if, too, the end of the wise man is contemplation, that of those
who are still philosophers aims at it, but never attains it, unless by
the process of learning it receives the prophetic utterance which has
been made known, by which it grasps both the present, the future, and
the past--how they are, were, and shall be.
And the _gnosis_ itself is that which has descended by transmission
to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles. Hence,
then, knowledge or wisdom ought to be exercised up to the eternal and
unchangeable habit of contemplation.
CHAPTER VIII.
PHILOSOPHY IS KNOWLEDGE GIVEN BY GOD.
For Paul too, in the epistles, plainly does not disparage philosophy;
but deems it unworthy of the man who has attained to the elevation
of the Gnostic, any more to go back to the Hellenic “philosophy,”
figuratively calling it “the rudiments of this world,”[1006] as being
most rudimentary, and a preparatory training for the truth. Wherefore
also, writing to the Hebrews, who were declining again from faith to
the law, he says, “Have ye not need again of one to teach you which are
the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have
need of milk, and not of strong meat?”[1007] So also to the Colossians,
who were Greek converts, “Beware lest any man spoil you by philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
this world, and not after Christ,”[1008]--enticing them again to return
to philosophy, the elementary doctrine.
And should one say that it was through human understanding that
philosophy was discovered by the Greeks, still I find the Scriptures
saying that understanding is sent by God. The psalmist, accordingly,
considers understanding as the greatest free gift, and beseeches,
saying, “I am Thy servant; give me understanding.”[1009] And does not
David, while asking the abundant experience of knowledge, write, “Teach
me gentleness, and discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed
in Thy commandments?”[1010] He confessed the covenants to be of the
highest authority, and that they were given to the more excellent.
Accordingly the psalm again says of God, “He hath not done thus to
any nation; and He hath not shown His judgments to them.”[1011] The
expression “He hath not done so” shows that _He hath done_, but
not “thus.” The “thus,” then, is put comparatively, with reference to
the pre-eminence, which obtains in our case. The prophet might have
said simply, “He hath not done,” without the “thus.”
Further, Peter in the Acts says, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is
no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and
worketh righteousness, is accepted by Him.”[1012]
The absence of respect of persons in God is not then in time, but
from eternity. Nor had His beneficence a beginning; nor any more is
it limited to places or persons. For His beneficence is not confined
to parts. “Open ye the gates of righteousness,” it is said; “entering
into them, I will confess to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord.
The righteous shall enter by it.”[1013] Explaining the prophet’s
saying, Barnabas adds, “There being many gates open, that which is in
righteousness is the gate which is in Christ, by which all who enter
are blessed.” Bordering on the same meaning is also the following
prophetic utterance: “The Lord is on many waters;”[1014] not the
different covenants alone, but the modes of teaching, those among the
Greek and those among the Barbarians, conducing to righteousness.
And already clearly David, bearing testimony to the truth, sings,
“Let sinners be turned into Hades, and all the nations that forget
God.”[1015] They forget, plainly, Him whom they formerly remembered,
and dismiss Him whom they knew previous to forgetting Him. There was
then a dim knowledge of God also among the nations. So much for those
points.
Now the Gnostic must be erudite. And since the Greeks say that
Protagoras having led the way, the opposing of one argument by another
was invented, it is fitting that something be said with reference to
arguments of this sort. For Scripture says, “He that says much, shall
also hear in his turn.”[1016] And who shall understand a parable
of the Lord, but the wise, the intelligent, and he that loves his
Lord? Let such a man be faithful; let him be capable of uttering his
knowledge; let him be wise in the discrimination of words; let him be
dexterous in action; let him be pure. “The greater he seems to be,
the more humble should he be,” says Clement in the Epistle to the
Corinthians,--“such an one as is capable of complying with the precept,
‘And some pluck from the fire, and on others have compassion, making a
difference.’”[1017]
The pruning-hook is made, certainly, principally for pruning; but
with it we separate twigs that have got intertwined, cut the thorns
which grow along with the vines, which it is not very easy to reach.
And all these things have a reference to pruning. Again, man is made
principally for the knowledge of God; but he also measures land,
practises agriculture, and philosophizes; of which pursuits, one
conduces to life, another to living well, a third to the study of
the things which are capable of demonstration. Further, let those
who say that philosophy took its rise from the devil know this, that
the Scripture says that “the devil is transformed into an angel of
light.”[1018] When about to do what? Plainly, when about to prophesy.
But if he prophesies as an angel of light, he will speak what is true.
And if he prophesies what is angelical, and of the light, then he
prophesies what is beneficial when he is transformed according to the
likeness of the operation, though he be different with respect to the
matter of apostasy. For how could he deceive any one, without drawing
the lover of knowledge into fellowship, and so drawing him afterwards
into falsehood? Especially he will be found to know the truth, if not
so as to comprehend it, yet so as not to be unacquainted with it.
Philosophy is not then false, though the thief and the liar speak
truth, through a transformation of operation. Nor is sentence of
condemnation to be pronounced ignorantly against what is said, on
account of him who says it (which also is to be kept in view, in the
case of those who are now alleged to prophesy); but what is said must
be looked at, to see if it keep by the truth.
And in general terms, we shall not err in alleging that all things
necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that
philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant
peculiar to them--being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy
which is according to Christ--although those who applied themselves
to the philosophy of the Greeks shut their ears voluntarily to the
truth, despising the voice of Barbarians, or also dreading the danger
suspended over the believer, by the laws of the state.
And as in the Barbarian philosophy, so also in the Hellenic, “tares
were sown” by the proper husbandman of the tares; whence also heresies
grew up among us along with the productive wheat; and those who in the
Hellenic philosophy preach the impiety and voluptuousness of Epicurus,
and whatever other tenets are disseminated contrary to right reason,
exist among the Greeks as spurious fruits of the divinely bestowed
husbandry. This voluptuous and selfish philosophy the apostle calls
“the wisdom of this world;” in consequence of its teaching the things
of this world and about it alone, and its consequent subjection, as
far as respects ascendancy, to those who rule here. Wherefore also
this fragmentary philosophy is very elementary, while truly perfect
science deals with intellectual objects, which are beyond the sphere
of the world, and with the objects still more spiritual than those
which “eye saw not, and ear heard not, nor did it enter into the heart
of men,” till the Teacher told the account of them to us; unveiling
the holy of holies; and in ascending order, things still holier
than these, to those who are truly and not spuriously heirs of the
Lord’s adoption. For we now dare aver (for here is the faith that is
characterized by knowledge[1019]) that such an one knows all things,
and comprehends all things in the exercise of sure apprehension,
respecting matters difficult for us, and really pertaining to the true
gnosis,[1020] such as were James, Peter, John, Paul, and the rest
of the apostles. For prophecy is full of knowledge (_gnosis_),
inasmuch as it was given by the Lord, and again explained by the Lord
to the apostles. And is not knowledge (_gnosis_) an attribute of
the rational soul, which trains itself for this, that by knowledge it
may become entitled to immortality? For both are powers of the soul,
both knowledge and impulse. And impulse is found to be a movement
after an assent. For he who has an impulse towards an action, first
receives the knowledge of the action, and secondly the impulse. Let
us further devote our attention to this. For since learning is older
than action; (for naturally, he who does what he wishes to do learns
it first; and knowledge comes from learning, and impulse follows
knowledge; after which comes action;) knowledge turns out the beginning
and author of all rational action. So that rightly the peculiar nature
of the rational soul is characterized by this alone; for in reality
impulse, like knowledge, is excited by existing objects. And knowledge
(_gnosis_) is essentially a contemplation of existences on the
part of the soul, either of a certain thing or of certain things, and
when perfected, of all together. Although some say that the wise man
is persuaded that there are some things incomprehensible, in such wise
as to have respecting them a kind of comprehension, inasmuch as he
comprehends that things incomprehensible are incomprehensible; which is
common, and pertains to those who are capable of perceiving little. For
such a man affirms that there are some things incomprehensible.
But that Gnostic of whom I speak, himself comprehends what seems to be
incomprehensible to others; believing that nothing is incomprehensible
to the Son of God, whence nothing incapable of being taught. For He who
suffered out of His love for us, would have suppressed no element of
knowledge requisite for our instruction. Accordingly this faith becomes
sure demonstration; since truth follows what has been delivered by
God. But if one desires extensive knowledge, “he knows things ancient,
and conjectures things future; he understands knotty sayings, and the
solutions of enigmas. The disciple of wisdom foreknows signs and omens,
and the issues of seasons and of times.”[1021]
CHAPTER IX.
THE GNOSTIC FREE OF ALL PERTURBATIONS OF THE SOUL.
The Gnostic is such, that he is subject only to the affections that
exist for the maintenance of the body, such as hunger, thirst, and the
like. But in the case of the Saviour, it were ludicrous [to suppose]
that the body, as a body, demanded the necessary aids in order to
its duration. For He ate, not for the sake of the body, which was
kept together by a holy energy, but in order that it might not enter
into the minds of those who were with Him to entertain a different
opinion of Him; in like manner as certainly some afterwards supposed
that He appeared in a phantasmal shape (δοκήσει). But He was entirely
impassible (ἀπαθής); inaccessible to any movement of feeling--either
pleasure or pain. While the apostles, having most gnostically mastered,
through the Lord’s teaching, anger, and fear, and lust, were not liable
even to such of the movements of feeling, as seem good, courage, zeal,
joy, desire, through a steady condition of mind, not changing a
whit; but ever continuing unvarying in a state of training after the
resurrection of the Lord.
And should it be granted that the affections specified above, when
produced rationally, are good, yet they are nevertheless inadmissible
in the case of the perfect man, who is incapable of exercising
courage: for neither does he meet what inspires fear, as he regards
none of the things that occur in life as to be dreaded; nor can aught
dislodge him from this--the love he has towards God. Nor does he need
cheerfulness of mind; for he does not fall into pain, being persuaded
that all things happen well. Nor is he angry; for there is nothing to
move him to anger, seeing he ever loves God, and is entirely turned
towards Him alone, and therefore hates none of God’s creatures. No
more does he envy; for nothing is wanting to him, that is requisite to
assimilation, in order that he may be excellent and good. Nor does he
consequently love any one with this common affection, but loves the
Creator in the creatures. Nor, consequently, does he fall into any
desire and eagerness; nor does he want, as far as respects his soul,
aught appertaining to others, now that he associates through love with
the Beloved One, to whom he is allied by free choice, and by the habit
which results from training, approaches closer to Him, and is blessed
through the abundance of good things.
So that on these accounts he is compelled to become like his Teacher
in impassibility. For the Word of God is intellectual, according as
the image of mind is seen[1022] in man alone. Thus also the good man
is godlike in form and semblance as respects his soul. And, on the
other hand, God is like man. For the distinctive form of each one is
the mind by which we are characterized. Consequently, also, those who
sin against man are unholy and impious. For it were ridiculous to say
that the gnostic and perfect man must not eradicate anger and courage,
inasmuch as without these he will not struggle against circumstances,
or abide what is terrible. But if we take from him desire, he will be
quite overwhelmed by troubles, and therefore depart from this life
very basely. Unless possessed of it, as some suppose, he will not
conceive a desire for what is like the excellent and the good. If,
then, all alliance with what is good is accompanied with desire, how,
it is said, does he remain impassible who desires what is excellent?
But these people know not, as appears, the divinity of love.
For love is not desire on the part of him who loves; but is a
relation of affection, restoring the Gnostic to the unity of the
faith,--independent of time and place. But he who by love is already in
the midst of that in which he is destined to be, and has anticipated
hope by knowledge, does not desire anything, having, as far as
possible, the very thing desired. Accordingly, as to be expected, he
continues in the exercise of gnostic love, in the one unvarying state.
Nor will he, therefore, eagerly desire to be assimilated to what is
beautiful, possessing, as he does, beauty by love. What more need of
courage and of desire to him, who has obtained the affinity to the
impassible God which arises from love, and by love has enrolled himself
among the friends of God?
We must therefore rescue the gnostic and perfect man from all passion
of the soul. For knowledge (_gnosis_) produces practice, and
practice habit or disposition; and such a state as this produces
impassibility, not moderation of passion. And the complete eradication
of desire reaps as its fruit impassibility. But the Gnostic does not
share either in those affections that are commonly celebrated as good,
that is, the good things of the affections which are allied to the
passions: such, I mean, as gladness, which is allied to pleasure; and
dejection, for this is conjoined with pain; and caution, for it is
subject to fear. Nor yet does he share in high spirit, for it takes its
place alongside of wrath; although some say that these are no longer
evil, but already good. For it is impossible that he who has been
once made perfect by love, and feasts eternally and insatiably on the
boundless joy of contemplation, should delight in small and grovelling
things. For what rational cause remains any more to the man who has
gained “the light inaccessible,”[1023] for reverting to the good things
of the world? Although not yet true as to time and place, yet by that
gnostic love through which the inheritance and perfect restitution
follow, the giver of the reward makes good by deeds what the Gnostic,
by gnostic choice, had grasped by anticipation through love.
For by going away to the Lord, for the love he bears Him, though his
tabernacle be visible on earth, he does not withdraw himself from life.
For that is not permitted to him. But he has withdrawn his soul from
the passions. For that is granted to him. And on the other hand he
lives, having put to death his lusts, and no longer makes use of the
body, but allows it the use of necessaries, that he may not give cause
for dissolution.
How, then, has he any more need of fortitude, who is not in the midst
of dangers, being not present, but already wholly with the object of
love? And what necessity for self-restraint to him who has not need
of it? For to have such desires, as require self-restraint in order
to their control, is characteristic of one who is not yet pure, but
subject to passion. Now, fortitude is assumed by reason of fear and
cowardice. For it were no longer seemly that the friend of God, whom
“God hath fore-ordained before the foundation of the world”[1024] to
be enrolled in the highest “adoption,” should fall into pleasures or
fears, and be occupied in the repression of the passions. For I venture
to assert, that as he is predestinated through what he shall do, and
what he shall obtain, so also has he predestinated himself by reason
of what he knew and whom he loved; not having the future indistinct,
as the multitude live, conjecturing it, but having grasped by gnostic
faith what is hidden from others. And through love, the future is for
him already present. For he has believed, through prophecy and the
advent, on God who lies not. And what he believes he possesses, and
keeps hold of the promise. And He who hath promised is truth. And
through the trustworthiness of Him who has promised, he has firmly laid
hold of the end of the promise by knowledge. And he, who knows the sure
comprehension of the future which there is in the circumstances, in
which he is placed, by love goes to meet the future. So he, that is
persuaded that he will obtain the things that are really good, will
not pray to obtain what is here, but that he may always cling to the
faith which hits the mark and succeeds. And besides, he will pray that
as many as possible may become like him, to the glory of God, which is
perfected through knowledge. For he who is made like the Saviour is
also devoted to saving; performing unerringly the commandments as far
as the human nature may admit of the image. And this is to worship God
by deeds and knowledge of the true righteousness. The Lord will not
wait for the voice of this man in prayer. “Ask,” He says, “and I will
do it; think, and I will give.”[1025]
For, in fine, it is impossible that the immutable should assume
firmness and consistency in the mutable. But the ruling faculty being
in perpetual change, and therefore unstable, the force of habit is
not maintained. For how can he who is perpetually changed by external
occurrences and accidents, ever possess habit and disposition, and
in word, grasp of scientific knowledge (ἐριστήμη)? Further, also,
the philosophers regard the virtues as habits, dispositions, and
sciences. And as knowledge (_gnosis_) is not born with men, but
is acquired,[1026] and the acquiring of it in its elements demands
application, and training, and progress; and then from incessant
practice it passes into a habit; so, when perfected in the mystic
habit, it abides, being infallible through love. For not only has he
apprehended the first Cause, and the Cause produced by it, and is sure
about them, possessing firmly firm and irrefragable and immoveable
reasons; but also respecting what is good and what is evil, and
respecting all production, and to speak comprehensively, respecting all
about which the Lord has spoken, he has learned, from the truth itself,
the most exact truth from the foundation of the world to the end. Not
preferring to the truth itself what appears plausible, or, according to
Hellenic reasoning, necessary; but what has been spoken by the Lord
he accepts as clear and evident, though concealed from others; and he
has already received the knowledge of all things. And the oracles we
possess give their utterances respecting what exists, as it is; and
respecting what is future, as it shall be; and respecting what is past,
as it was.
In scientific matters, as being alone possessed of scientific
knowledge, he will hold the pre-eminence, and will discourse on the
discussion respecting the good, ever intent on intellectual objects,
tracing out his procedure in human affairs from the archetypes above;
as navigators direct the ship according to the star; prepared to hold
himself in readiness for every suitable action; accustomed to despise
all difficulties and dangers when it is necessary to undergo them;
never doing anything precipitate or incongruous either to himself or
the common weal; foreseeing; and inflexible by pleasures both of waking
hours and of dreams. For, accustomed to spare living and frugality, he
is moderate, active, and grave; requiring few necessaries for life;
occupying himself with nothing superfluous. But desiring not even these
things as chief, but by reason of fellowship in life, as necessary for
his sojourn in life, as far as necessary.
CHAPTER X.
THE GNOSTIC AVAILS HIMSELF OF THE HELP OF ALL
HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.
For to him knowledge (_gnosis_) is the principal thing. Consequently,
therefore, he applies to the subjects that are a training for
knowledge, taking from each branch of study its contribution to the
truth. Prosecuting, then, the proportion of harmonies in music; and in
arithmetic noting the increasing and decreasing of numbers, and their
relations to one another, and how the most of things fall under some
proportion of numbers; studying geometry, which is abstract essence,
he perceives a continuous distance, and an immutable essence which is
different from these bodies. And by astronomy, again, raised from the
earth in his mind, he is elevated along with heaven, and will revolve
with its revolution; studying ever divine things, and their harmony
with each other; from which Abraham starting, ascended to the knowledge
of Him who created them. Further, the Gnostic will avail himself of
dialectics, fixing on the distinction of genera into species, and will
master[1027] the distinction of existences, till he come to what are
primary and simple.
But the multitude are frightened at the Hellenic philosophy, as
children are at masks, being afraid lest it lead them astray. But
if the faith (for I cannot call it knowledge) which they possess be
such as to be dissolved by plausible speech, let it be by all means
dissolved,[1028] and let them confess that they will not retain the
truth. For truth is immoveable; but false opinion dissolves. We choose,
for instance, one purple by comparison with another purple. So that,
if one confesses that he has not a heart that has been made right, he
has not the table of the money-changers or the test of words.[1029] And
how can he be any longer a money-changer, who is not able to test and
distinguish spurious coin, even offhand?
Now David cried, “The righteous shall not be shaken for ever;”[1030]
neither, consequently, by deceptive speech nor by erring pleasure.
Whence he shall never be shaken from his own heritage. “He shall not
be afraid of evil tidings;”[1031] consequently neither of unfounded
calumny, nor of the false opinion around him. No more will he dread
cunning words, who is capable of distinguishing them, or of answering
rightly to questions asked. Such a bulwark are dialectics, that truth
cannot be trampled under foot by the Sophists. “For it behoves those
who praise in the holy name of the Lord,” according to the prophet,
“to rejoice in heart, seeking the Lord. Seek then Him, and be strong.
Seek His face continually in every way.”[1032] “For, having spoken at
sundry times and in divers manners,”[1033] it is not in one way only
that He is known.
It is, then, not by availing himself of these as virtues that our
Gnostic will be deeply learned. But by using them as helps in
distinguishing what is common and what is peculiar, he will admit the
truth. For the cause of all error and false opinion, is inability to
distinguish in what respect things are common, and in what respects
they differ. For unless, in things that are distinct, one closely watch
speech, he will inadvertently confound what is common and what is
peculiar. And where this takes place, he must of necessity fall into
pathless tracts and error.
The distinction of names and things also in the Scriptures themselves
produces great light in men’s souls. For it is necessary to understand
expressions which signify several things, and several expressions when
they signify one thing. The result of which is accurate answering. But
it is necessary to avoid the great futility which occupies itself in
irrelevant matters; since the Gnostic avails himself of branches of
learning as auxiliary preparatory exercises, in order to the accurate
communication of the truth, as far as attainable and with as little
distraction as possible, and for defence against reasonings that plot
for the extinction of the truth. He will not then be deficient in
what contributes to proficiency in the curriculum of studies and the
Hellenic philosophy; but not principally, but necessarily, secondarily,
and on account of circumstances. For what those labouring in heresies
use wickedly, the Gnostic will use rightly.
Therefore the truth that appears in the Hellenic philosophy, being
partial, the real truth, like the sun glancing on the colours both
white and black, shows what like each of them is. So also it exposes
all sophistical plausibility. Rightly, then, was it proclaimed also by
the Greeks:
“Truth the queen is the beginning of great virtue.”[1034]
CHAPTER XI.
THE MYSTICAL MEANINGS IN THE PROPORTIONS OF
NUMBERS, GEOMETRICAL RATIOS, AND MUSIC.
As then in astronomy we have Abraham as an instance, so also in
arithmetic we have the same Abraham. “For, hearing that Lot was taken
captive, and having numbered his own servants, born in his house, 318
(τιή[1035]),” he defeats a very great number of the enemy.
They say, then, that the character representing 300 is, as to shape,
the type of the Lord’s sign,[1036] and that the _Iota_ and
the _Eta_ indicate the Saviour’s name; that it was indicated,
accordingly, that Abraham’s domestics were in salvation, who having
fled to the Sign and the Name became lords of the captives, and of the
very many unbelieving nations that followed them.
Now the number 300 is, 3 by 100. Ten is allowed to be the perfect
number. And 8 is the first cube, which is equality in all the
dimensions--length, breadth, depth. “The days of men shall be,” it is
said, “120 (ρκ’) years.”[1037] And the sum is made up of the numbers
from 1 to 15 added together.[1038] And the moon at 15 days is full.
On another principle, 120 is a triangular[1039] number, and consists of
the equality[1040] of the number 64, [which consists of eight of the
odd numbers beginning with unity],[1041] the addition of which (1, 3,
5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15) in succession generates squares;[1042] and of the
inequality of the number 56, consisting of seven of the even numbers
beginning with 2 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14), which produce the numbers
that are not squares.[1043]
Again, according to another way of indicating, the number 120 consists
of four numbers--of one triangular, 15; of another, a square, 25; of
a third, a pentagon, 35; and of a fourth, a hexagon, 45. The 5 is
taken according to the same ratio in each mode. For in triangular
numbers, from the unity 5 comes 15; and in squares, 25; and of those
in succession, proportionally. Now 25, which is the number 5 from
unity, is said to be the symbol of the Levitical tribe. And the number
35 depends also on the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic scale of
doubles--6, 8, 9, 12; the addition of which makes 35. In these days,
the Jews say that seven months’ children are formed. And the number 45
depends on the scale of triples--6, 9, 12, 18--the addition of which
makes 45; and similarly, in these days they say that nine months’
children are formed.
Such, then, is the style of the example in arithmetic. And let the
testimony of geometry be the tabernacle that was constructed, and the
ark that was fashioned,--constructed in most regular proportions, and
through divine ideas, by the gift of understanding, which leads us from
things of sense to intellectual objects, or rather from these to holy
things, and to the holy of holies. For the squares of wood indicate
that the square form, producing right angles, pervades all, and points
out security. And the length of the structure was three hundred cubits,
and the breadth fifty, and the height thirty; and above, the ark ends
in a cubit, narrowing to a cubit from the broad base like a pyramid,
the symbol of those who are purified and tested by fire. And this
geometrical proportion has a place, for the transport of those holy
abodes, whose differences are indicated by the differences of the
numbers set down below.
And the numbers introduced are six-fold, as three hundred is six
times fifty; and ten-fold, as three hundred is ten times thirty; and
containing one and two-thirds (ἐπιδίμοιροι), for fifty is one and
two-thirds of thirty.
Now there are some who say that three hundred cubits are the symbol of
the Lord’s sign;[1044] and fifty, of hope and of the remission given at
Pentecost; and thirty, or as in some, twelve, they say points out the
preaching [of the gospel]; because the Lord preached in His thirtieth
year; and the apostles were twelve. And the structure’s terminating in
a cubit is the symbol of the advancement of the righteous to oneness
and to “the unity of the faith.”[1045]
And the table which was in the temple was six cubits;[1046] and its
four feet were about a cubit and a half.
They add, then, the twelve cubits, agreeably to the revolution of the
twelve months, in the annual circle, during which the earth produces
and matures all things; adapting itself to the four seasons. And the
table, in my opinion, exhibits the image of the earth, supported as
it is on four feet, summer, autumn, spring, winter, by which the
year travels. Wherefore also it is said that the table has “wavy
chains;”[1047] either because the universe revolves in the circuits of
the times, or perhaps it indicated the earth surrounded with ocean’s
tide.
Further, as an example of music, let us adduce David, playing at once
and prophesying, melodiously praising God. Now the Enarmonic[1048]
suits best the Dorian harmony, and the Diatonic the Phrygian, as
Aristoxenus says. The harmony, therefore, of the Barbarian psaltery,
which exhibited gravity of strain, being the most ancient, most
certainly became a model for Terpander, for the Dorian harmony, who
sings the praises of Zeus thus:
“O Zeus, of all things the Beginning, Ruler of all;
O Zeus, I send thee this beginning of hymns.”
The lyre, according to its primary signification, may by the psalmist
be used figuratively for the Lord; according to its secondary, for
those who continually strike the chords of their souls under the
direction of the Choir-master, the Lord. And if the people saved be
called the lyre, it will be understood to be in consequence of their
giving glory musically, through the inspiration of the Word and the
knowledge of God, being struck by the Word so as to produce faith. You
may take music in another way, as the ecclesiastical symphony at once
of the law and the prophets, and the apostles along with the gospel,
and the harmony which obtained in each prophet, in the transitions of
the persons.
But, as seems, the most of those who are inscribed with the Name,[1049]
like the companions of Ulysses, handle the word unskilfully, passing by
not the Sirens, but the rhythm and the melody, stopping their ears with
ignorance; since they know that, after lending their ears to Hellenic
studies, they will never subsequently be able to retrace their steps.
But he who culls what is useful for the advantage of the catechumens,
and especially when they are Greeks (and the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fulness thereof[1050]), must not abstain from erudition, like
irrational animals; but he must collect as many aids as possible for
his hearers. But he must by no means linger over these studies, except
solely for the advantage accruing from them; so that, on grasping and
obtaining this, he may be able to take his departure home to the true
philosophy, which is a strong cable for the soul, providing security
from everything.
Music is then to be handled for the sake of the embellishment and
composure of manners. For instance, at a banquet we pledge each other
while the music is playing;[1051] soothing by song the eagerness of our
desires, and glorifying God for the copious gift of human enjoyments,
for His perpetual supply of the food necessary for the growth of the
body and of the soul. But we must reject superfluous music, which
enervates men’s souls, and leads to variety,--now mournful, and then
licentious and voluptuous, and then frenzied and frantic.
The same holds also of astronomy. For treating of the description
of the celestial objects, about the form of the universe, and the
revolution of the heavens, and the motion of the stars, leading
the soul nearer to the creative power, it teaches to quickness in
perceiving the seasons of the year, the changes of the air, and the
appearance of the stars; since also navigation and husbandry derive
from this much benefit, as architecture and building from geometry.
This branch of learning, too, makes the soul in the highest degree
observant, capable of perceiving the true and detecting the false, of
discovering correspondences and proportions, so as to hunt out for
similarity in things dissimilar; and conducts us to the discovery of
length without breadth, and superficial extent without thickness, and
an indivisible point, and transports to intellectual objects from those
of sense.
The studies of philosophy, therefore, and philosophy itself, are aids
in treating of the truth. For instance, the cloak was once a fleece;
then it was shorn, and became warp and woof; and then it was woven.
Accordingly the soul must be prepared and variously exercised, if it
would become in the highest degree good. For there is the scientific
and the practical element in truth; and the latter flows from the
speculative; and there is need of great practice, and exercise, and
experience.
But in speculation, one element relates to one’s neighbours and another
to one’s self. Wherefore also training ought to be so moulded as to be
adapted to both. He, then, who has acquired a competent acquaintance
with the subjects which embrace the principles which conduce to
scientific knowledge (_gnosis_), may stop and remain for the
future in quiet, directing his actions in conformity with his theory.
But for the benefit of one’s neighbours, in the case of those who have
proclivities for writing, and those who set themselves to deliver
the word, both is other culture beneficial, and the reading of the
Scriptures of the Lord is necessary, in order to the demonstration of
what is said, and especially if those who hear are accessions from
Hellenic culture.
Such David describes the church: “The queen stood on thy right hand,
enveloped in a golden robe, variegated;”[1052] and with Hellenic and
superabundant accomplishments, “clothed variegated with gold-fringed
garments.”[1053] And the Truth says by the Lord, “For who had known
Thy counsel, hadst Thou not given wisdom, and sent Thy Holy Spirit
from the Highest; and so the ways of those on earth were corrected,
and men learned Thy decrees, and were saved by wisdom?” For the
Gnostic knows things ancient by the Scripture, and conjectures things
future: he understands the involutions of words and the solutions of
enigmas. He knows beforehand signs and wonders, and the issues of
seasons and periods, as we have said already. Seest thou the fountain
of instructions that takes its rise from wisdom? But to those who
object, What use is there in knowing the causes of the manner of
the sun’s motion, for example, and the rest of the heavenly bodies,
or in having studied the theorems of geometry or logic, and each of
the other branches of study?--for these are of no service in the
discharge of duties, and the Hellenic philosophy is human wisdom, for
it is incapable of teaching[1054] the truth--the following remarks
are to be made. First, that they stumble in reference to the highest
of things--namely, the mind’s free choice. “For they,” it is said,
“who keep holy holy things, shall be made holy; and those who have
been taught will find an answer.”[1055] For the Gnostic alone will do
holily, in accordance with reason all that has to be done, as he hath
learned through the Lord’s teaching, received through men.
Again, on the other hand, we may hear: “For in His hand, that is,
in His power and wisdom, are both we and our words, and all wisdom
and skill in works; for God loves nothing but the man that dwells
with wisdom.”[1056] And again, they have not read what is said by
Solomon; for, treating of the construction of the temple, he says
expressly, “And it was Wisdom as artificer that framed it; and Thy
providence, O Father, governs throughout.”[1057] And how irrational,
to regard philosophy as inferior to architecture and shipbuilding!
And the Lord fed the multitude of those that reclined on the grass
opposite to Tiberias with the two fishes and the five barley loaves,
indicating the preparatory training of the Greeks and Jews previous
to the divine grain, which is the food cultivated by the law. For
barley is sooner ripe for the harvest than wheat; and the fishes
signified the Hellenic philosophy that was produced and moved in the
midst of the Gentile billow, given, as they were, for copious food to
those lying on the ground, increasing no more, like the fragments of
the loaves, but having partaken of the Lord’s blessing, had breathed
into them the resurrection of Godhead[1058] through the power of the
Word. But if you are curious, understand one of the fishes to mean the
curriculum of study, and the other the philosophy which supervenes. The
gatherings[1059] point out the word of the Lord.
“And the choir of mute fishes rushed to it,”
says the Tragic Muse somewhere.
“I must decrease,” said the prophet John,[1060] and the Word of the
Lord alone, in which the law terminates, “increase.” Understand now
for me the mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from
advancing further in the treatment of it, by announcing this alone:
“All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one
thing.”[1061] Certainly He is called “the chief corner stone; in whom
the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple
of God,”[1062] according to the divine apostle.
I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea; and
out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the
better ones.”[1063]
And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues[1064] in
such a way as to show that the sources of them were communicated by the
Hebrews to the Greeks. This may be learned from the following: “And if
one loves justice, its toils are virtues. For temperance and prudence
teach justice and fortitude; and than these there is nothing more
useful in life to men.”
Above all, this ought to be known, that by nature we are adapted for
virtue; not so as to be possessed of it from our birth, but so as to be
adapted for acquiring it.
CHAPTER XII.
HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION;
THE GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT.
By which consideration[1065] is solved the question propounded to us
by the heretics, Whether Adam was created perfect or imperfect? Well,
if imperfect, how could the work of a perfect God--above all, that
work being man--be imperfect? And if perfect, how did he transgress
the commandments? For they shall hear from us that he was not perfect
in his creation, but adapted to the reception of virtue. For it is
of great importance in regard to virtue to be made fit for its
attainment. And it is intended that we should be saved by ourselves.
This, then, is the nature of the soul, to move of itself. Then, as we
are rational, and philosophy being rational, we have some affinity with
it. Now an aptitude is a movement towards virtue, not virtue itself.
All, then, as I said, are naturally constituted for the acquisition of
virtue.
But one man applies less, one more, to learning and training. Wherefore
also some have been competent to attain to perfect virtue, and others
have attained to a kind of it. And some, on the other hand, through
negligence, although in other respects of good dispositions, have
turned to the opposite. Now much more is that knowledge which excels
all branches of culture in greatness and in truth, most difficult to
acquire, and is attained with much toil. “But, as seems, they know not
the mysteries of God. For God created man for immortality, and made him
an image of His own nature;”[1066] according to which nature of Him who
knows all, he who is a Gnostic, and righteous, and holy with prudence,
hastes to reach the measure of perfect manhood. For not only are
actions and thoughts, but words also, pure in the case of the Gnostic:
“Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me by night,” it is
said; “Thou hast subjected me to the fire, and unrighteousness was not
found in me: so that my mouth shall not speak the works of men.”[1067]
And why do I say the works of men? He recognises sin itself, which is
not brought forward in order to repentance (for this is common to all
believers); but what sin is. Nor does he condemn this or that sin, but
simply all sin; nor is it what one has done ill that he brings up, but
what ought not to be done. Whence also repentance is twofold: that
which is common, on account of having transgressed; and that which,
from learning the nature of sin, persuades, in the first instance, to
keep from sinning, the result of which is not sinning.
Let them not then say, that he who does wrong and sins transgresses
through the agency of demons; for then he would be guiltless. But by
choosing the same things as demons, by sinning, being unstable, and
light, and fickle in his desires, like a demon, he becomes a demoniac
man. Now he who is bad, having become, through evil, sinful by nature,
becomes depraved, having what he has chosen; and being sinful, sins
also in his actions. And again, the good man does right. Wherefore
we call not only the virtues, but also right actions, good. And of
things that are good we know that some are desirable for themselves,
as knowledge; for we hunt for nothing from it when we have it, but
only [seek] that it be with us, and that we be in uninterrupted
contemplation, and strive to reach it for its own sake. But other
things are desirable for other considerations, such as faith, for
escape from punishment, and the advantage arising from reward, which
accrue from it. For, in the case of many, fear is the cause of their
not sinning; and the promise is the means of pursuing obedience,
by which comes salvation. Knowledge, then, desirable as it is for
its own sake, is the most perfect good; and consequently the things
which follow by means of it are good. And punishment is the cause of
correction to him who is punished; and to those who are able to see
before them he becomes an example, to prevent them falling into the
like.
Let us then receive knowledge, not desiring its results, but embracing
itself for the sake of knowing. For the first advantage is the habit of
knowledge (γνωστική), which furnishes harmless pleasures and exultation
both for the present and the future. And exultation is said to be
gladness, being a reflection of the virtue which is according to truth,
through a kind of exhilaration and relaxation of soul. And the acts
which partake of knowledge are good and fair actions. For abundance
in the actions that are according to virtue, is the true riches, and
destitution in decorous[1068] desires is poverty. For the use and
enjoyment of necessaries are not injurious in quality, but in quantity,
when in excess. Wherefore the Gnostic circumscribes his desires in
reference both to possession and to enjoyment, not exceeding the limit
of necessity. Therefore, regarding life in this world as necessary for
the increase of science (ἐπιστήμη) and the acquisition of knowledge
(γνώσις), he will value highest, not living, but living well. He will
therefore prefer neither children, nor marriage, nor parents, to love
for God, and righteousness in life. To such an one, his wife, after
conception, is as a sister, and is judged as if of the same father;
then only recollecting her husband, when she looks on the children;
as being destined to become a sister in reality after putting off
the flesh, which separates and limits the knowledge of those who are
spiritual by the peculiar characteristics of the sexes. For souls,
themselves by themselves, are equal. Souls are neither male nor female,
when they no longer marry nor are given in marriage. And is not woman
translated into man, when she is become equally unfeminine, and manly,
and perfect? Such, then, was the laughter of Sarah[1069] when she
received the good news of the birth of a son; not, in my opinion, that
she disbelieved the angel, but that she felt ashamed of the intercourse
by means of which she was destined to become the mother of a son.
And did not Abraham, when he was in danger on account of Sarah’s
beauty, with the king of Egypt, properly call her sister, being of the
same father, but not of the same mother?[1070]
To those, then, who have repented and not firmly believed, God
grants their requests through their supplications. But to those who
live sinlessly and gnostically, He gives, when they have but merely
entertained the thought. For example, to Anna, on her merely conceiving
the thought, conception was vouchsafed of the child Samuel.[1071]
“Ask,” says the Scripture, “and I will do. Think, and I will give.” For
we have heard that God knows the heart, not judging[1072] the soul
from [external] movement, as we men; nor yet from the event. For it is
ridiculous to think so. Nor was it as the architect praises the work
when accomplished that God, on making the light and then seeing it,
called it good. But He, knowing before He made it what it would be,
praised that which was made, He having potentially made good, from the
first by His purpose that had no beginning, what was destined to be
good actually. Now that which was future He already said beforehand
was good, the phrase concealing the truth by hyperbaton. Therefore the
Gnostic prays in thought during every hour, being by love allied to
God. And first he will ask forgiveness of sins; and after, that he may
sin no more; and further, the power of well-doing and of comprehending
the whole creation and administration by the Lord, that, becoming pure
in heart through the knowledge, which is by the Son of God, he may
be initiated into the beatific vision face to face, having heard the
scripture which says, “Fasting with prayer is a good thing.”[1073]
Now fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both
in action and in word, and in thought itself. As appears, then,
righteousness is quadrangular;[1074] on all sides equal and like in
word, in deed, in abstinence from evils, in beneficence, in gnostic
perfection; nowhere, and in no respect halting, so that he does not
appear unjust and unequal. As one, then, is righteous, so certainly is
he a believer. But as he is a believer, he is not yet also righteous--I
mean according to the righteousness of progress and perfection,
according to which the Gnostic is called righteous.
For instance, on Abraham becoming a believer, it was reckoned to him
for righteousness, he having advanced to the greater and more perfect
degree of faith. For he who merely abstains from evil conduct is not
just, unless he also attain besides beneficence and knowledge; and for
this reason some things are to be abstained from, others are to be
done. “By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left,”[1075] the apostle says, the righteous man is sent on to the
inheritance above,--by some [arms] defended, by others putting forth
his might. For the defence of his panoply alone, and abstinence from
sins, are not sufficient for perfection, unless he assume in addition
the work of righteousness--activity in doing good.
Then our dexterous man and Gnostic is revealed in righteousness already
even here, as Moses, glorified in the face of the soul,[1076] as we
have formerly said, the body bears the stamp of the righteous soul. For
as the mordant of the dyeing process, remaining in the wool, produces
in it a certain quality and diversity from other wool; so also in the
soul the pain is gone, but the good remains; and the sweet is left, but
the base is wiped away. For these are two qualities characteristic of
each soul, by which is known that which is glorified, and that which is
condemned.
And as in the case of Moses, from his righteous conduct, and from
his uninterrupted intercourse with God, who spoke to him, a kind of
glorified hue settled on his face; so also a divine power of goodness
clinging to the righteous soul in contemplation and in prophecy, and in
the exercise of the function of governing, impresses on it something,
as it were, of intellectual radiance, like the solar ray, as a visible
sign of righteousness, uniting the soul with light, through unbroken
love, which is God-bearing and God-borne. Thence assimilation to God
the Saviour arises to the Gnostic, as far as permitted to human nature,
he being made perfect “as the Father who is in heaven.”[1077]
It is He Himself who says, “Little children, a little while I am still
with you.”[1078] Since also God Himself remains blessed and immortal,
neither molested nor molesting another;[1079] not in consequence of
being by nature good, but in consequence of doing good in a manner
peculiar to Himself. God being essentially, and proving Himself
actually, both Father and good, continues immutably in the self-same
goodness. For what is the use of good that does not act and do good?
CHAPTER XIII.
DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN CORRESPONDING WITH THE
DIGNITIES OF THE CHURCH BELOW.
He, then, who has first moderated his passions and trained himself for
impassibility, and developed to the beneficence of gnostic perfection,
is here equal to the angels. Luminous already, and like the sun shining
in the exercise of beneficence, he speeds by righteous knowledge
through the love of God to the sacred abode, like as the apostles. Not
that they became apostles through being chosen for some distinguished
peculiarity[1080] of nature, since also Judas was chosen along with
them. But they were capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by
Him who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias, accordingly, who was
not chosen along with them, on showing himself worthy of becoming an
apostle, is substituted for Judas.
Those, then, also now, who have exercised themselves in the Lord’s
commandments, and lived perfectly and gnostically according to the
gospel, may be enrolled in the chosen body of the apostles. Such an one
is in reality a presbyter of the church, and a true minister (deacon)
of the will of God, if he do and teach what is the Lord’s; not as being
ordained[1081] by men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but
enrolled in the presbyterate[1082] because righteous. And although here
upon earth he be not honoured with the chief seat,[1083] he will sit
down on the four-and-twenty thrones,[1084] judging the people, as John
says in the Apocalypse.
For, in truth, the covenant of salvation, reaching down to us from the
foundation of the world, through different generations and times, is
one, though conceived as different in respect of gift. For it follows
that there is one unchangeable gift of salvation given by one God,
through one Lord, benefiting in many ways. For which cause the middle
wall[1085] which separated the Greek from the Jew is taken away, in
order that there might be a peculiar people. And so both meet in the
one unity of faith; and the selection out of both is one. And the
chosen of the chosen are those who by reason of perfect knowledge are
culled [as the best] from the church itself, and honoured with the most
august glory--the judges and rulers--four-and-twenty (the grace being
doubled) equally from Jews and Greeks. Since, according to my opinion,
the grades[1086] here in the church, of bishops, presbyters, deacons,
are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economy which, the
Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the
apostles, have lived in perfection of righteousness according to the
gospel. For these taken up in the clouds, the apostle[1087] writes,
will first minister [as deacons], then be classed in the presbyterate,
by promotion in glory (for glory differs[1088] from glory) till they
grow into “a perfect man.”[1089]
CHAPTER XIV.
DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.
Such, according to David, “rest in the holy hill of God,”[1090] in the
church far on high, in which are gathered the philosophers of God,
“who are Israelites indeed, who are pure in heart, in whom there is
no guile;”[1091] who do not remain in the seventh seat, the place
of rest, but are promoted, through the active beneficence of the
divine likeness, to the heritage of beneficence which is the eighth
grade; devoting themselves to the pure vision[1092] of insatiable
contemplation.
“And other sheep there are also,” saith the Lord, “which are not
of this fold”[1093]--deemed worthy of another fold and mansion,
in proportion to their faith. “But my sheep hear my voice,”[1094]
understanding gnostically the commandments. And this is to be taken in
a magnanimous and worthy acceptation, along with also the recompense
and accompaniment of works. So that when we hear, “Thy faith hath saved
thee,”[1095] we do not understand Him to say absolutely that those who
have believed in any way whatever shall be saved, unless also works
follow. But it was to the Jews alone that He spoke this utterance, who
kept the law and lived blamelessly, who wanted only faith in the Lord.
No one, then, can be a believer and at the same time be licentious; but
though he quit the flesh, he must put off the passions, so as to be
capable of reaching his own mansion.
Now to know is more than to believe, as to be dignified with the
highest honour after being saved is a greater thing than being
saved. Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting
himself of the passions, passes to the mansion which is better than
the former one, viz. to the greatest torment, taking with him the
characteristic of repentance from the sins he has committed after
baptism. He is tortured then still more--not yet or not quite attaining
what he sees others to have acquired. Besides, he is also ashamed
of his transgressions. The greatest torments, indeed, are assigned
to the believer. For God’s righteousness is good, and His goodness
is righteous. And though the punishments cease in the course of the
completion of the expiation and purification of each one, yet those
have very great and permanent grief who[1096] are found worthy of the
other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been
glorified through righteousness.
For instance, Solomon, calling the Gnostic, wise, speaks thus of those
who admire the dignity of his mansion: “For they shall see the end of
the wise, and to what a degree the Lord has established him.”[1097]
And of his glory they will say, “This was he whom we once held up to
derision, and made a byword of reproach; fools that we were! We thought
his life madness, and his end dishonourable. How is he reckoned among
the sons of God, and his inheritance among the saints?”[1098]
Not only then the believer, but even the heathen, is judged most
righteously. For since God knew in virtue of His prescience that he
would not believe, He nevertheless, in order that he might receive
his own perfection, gave him philosophy, but gave it him previous
to faith. And He gave the sun, and the moon, and the stars to be
worshipped; “which God,” the Law says,[1099] made for the nations, that
they might not become altogether atheistical, and so utterly perish.
But they, also in the instance of this commandment, having become
devoid of sense, and addicting themselves to graven images, are judged
unless they repent; some of them because, though able, they would not
believe God; and others because, though willing, they did not take the
necessary pains to become believers. There were also, however, those
who, from the worship of the heavenly bodies, did not return to the
Maker of them. For this was the way given to the nations to rise up
to God, by means of the worship of the heavenly bodies. But those who
would not abide by those heavenly bodies assigned to them, but fell
away from them to stocks and stones, “were counted,” it is said, “as
chaff-dust and as a drop from a jar,”[1100] beyond salvation, cast away
from the body.
As, then, to be simply saved is the result of medium[1101] actions,
but to be saved rightly and becomingly is right action, so also all
action of the Gnostic may be called right action; that of the simple
believer, intermediate action, not yet perfected according to reason,
not yet made right according to knowledge; but that of every heathen
again is sinful. For it is not simply doing well, but doing actions
with a certain aim, and acting according to reason, that the Scriptures
exhibit as requisite.[1102]
As, then, lyres ought not to be touched by those who are destitute of
skill in playing the lyre, nor flutes by those who are unskilled in
flute-playing, neither are those to put their hand to affairs who have
not knowledge, and know not how to use them in the whole[1103] of life.
The struggle for freedom, then, is waged not alone by the athletes
of battles in wars, but also in banquets, and in bed, and in the
tribunals, by those who are anointed by the word, who are ashamed to
become the captives of pleasures.
“I would never part with virtue for unrighteous gain.” But plainly,
unrighteous gain is pleasure and pain, toil and fear; and, to speak
comprehensively, the passions of the soul, the present of which is
delightful, the future vexatious. “For what is the profit,” it is said,
“if you gain the world and lose the soul?”[1104] It is clear, then,
that those who do not perform good actions, do not know what is for
their own advantage. And if so, neither are they capable of praying
aright, so as to receive from God good things; nor, should they receive
them, will they be sensible of the boon; nor, should they enjoy them,
will they enjoy worthily what they know not; both from their want
of knowledge how to use the good things given them, and from their
excessive stupidity, being ignorant of the way to avail themselves of
the divine gifts.
Now stupidity is the cause of ignorance. And it appears to me that it
is the vaunt of a boastful soul, though of one with a good conscience,
to exclaim against what happens through circumstances:
“Therefore let them do what they may;[1105]
For it shall be well with me; and Right
Shall be my ally, and I shall not be caught doing evil.”
But such a good conscience preserves sanctity towards God and justice
towards men; keeping the soul pure with grave thoughts, and pure words,
and just deeds. By thus receiving the Lord’s power, the soul studies
to be God; regarding nothing bad but ignorance, and action contrary
to right reason. And giving thanks always for all things to God, by
righteous hearing and divine reading, by true investigation, by holy
oblation, by blessed prayer; lauding, hymning, blessing, praising, such
a soul is never at any time separated from God. Rightly then is it
said, “And they who trust in Him shall understand the truth, and those
faithful in love shall abide by Him.”[1106] You see what statements
Wisdom makes about the Gnostics.
Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the
worth of those who have believed. To the point Solomon says, “For there
shall be given to him the choice grace of faith, and a more pleasant
lot in the temple of the Lord.”[1107] For the comparative shows that
there are lower parts in the temple of God, which is the whole church.
And the superlative remains to be conceived, where the Lord is. These
chosen abodes, which are three, are indicated by the numbers in the
Gospel--the thirty, the sixty, the hundred.[1108] And the perfect
inheritance belongs to those who attain to “a perfect man,” according
to the image of the Lord. And the likeness is not, as some imagine,
that of the human form; for this consideration is impious. Nor is the
likeness to the first cause that which consists in virtue. For this
utterance is also impious, being that of those who have imagined that
virtue in man and in the sovereign God is the same. “Thou hast supposed
iniquity,” He says, “[in imagining] that I will be like to thee.”[1109]
But “it is enough for the disciple to become as the Master,”[1110]
saith the Master. To the likeness of God, then, he that is introduced
into adoption and the friendship of God, to the just inheritance of the
lords and gods is brought; if he be perfected, according to the Gospel,
as the Lord Himself taught.
CHAPTER XV.
DIFFERENT DEGREES OF KNOWLEDGE.
The Gnostic, then, is impressed with the closest likeness, that is,
with the mind of the Master; which He being possessed of, commanded
and recommended to His disciples and to the prudent. Comprehending
this, as He who taught wished, and receiving it in its grand sense, he
teaches worthily “on the house-tops”[1111] those capable of being built
to a lofty height; and begins with the doing of what is spoken, in
accordance with the example of life. For He enjoined what is possible.
And, in truth, the kingly man and Christian ought to be ruler and
leader. For we are commanded to be lords over not only the wild beasts
without us, but also over the wild passions within ourselves.
Through the knowledge, then, as appears, of a bad and good life is the
Gnostic saved, understanding and executing “more than the scribes and
Pharisees.”[1112] “Exert thyself, and prosper, and reign,” writes
David, “because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy
right hand shall guide thee marvellously,”[1113] that is, the Lord.
“Who then is the wise? and he shall understand these things. Prudent?
and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right,”[1114]
says the prophet, showing that the Gnostic alone is able to understand
and explain the things spoken by the Spirit obscurely. “And he who
understands in that time shall hold his peace,”[1115] says the
Scripture, plainly in the way of declaring them to the unworthy.
For the Lord says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,”[1116]
declaring that hearing and understanding belong not to all. To the
point David writes: “Dark water is in the clouds of the skies. At the
gleam before Him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire;”[1117]
showing that the holy words are hidden. He intimates that transparent
and resplendent to the Gnostics, like the innocuous hail, they are
sent down from God; but that they are dark to the multitude, like
extinguished coals out of the fire, which, unless kindled and set on
fire, will not give forth fire or light. “The Lord, therefore,” it is
said, “gives me the tongue of instruction, so as to know in season when
it is requisite to speak a word;”[1118] not in the way of testimony
alone, but also in the way of question and answer. “And the instruction
of the Lord opens my mouth.”[1119] It is the prerogative of the
Gnostic, then, to know how to make use of speech, and when, and how,
and to whom. And already the apostle, by saying, “After the rudiments
of the world, and not after Christ,”[1120] makes the asseveration that
the Hellenic teaching is elementary, and that of Christ perfect, as we
have already intimated before.
“Now the wild olive is inserted into the fatness of the olive,”[1121]
and is indeed of the same species as the cultivated olives. For the
graft uses as soil the tree in which it is engrafted. Now all the
plants sprouted forth simultaneously in consequence of the divine
order. Wherefore also, though the wild olive be wild, it crowns the
Olympic victors. And the elm teaches the vine to be fruitful, by
leading it up to a height. Now we see that wild trees attract more
nutriment, because they cannot ripen. The wild trees, therefore, have
less power of secretion than those that are cultivated. And the cause
of their wildness is the want of the power of secretion. The engrafted
olive accordingly receives more nutriment from its growing in the wild
one; and it gets accustomed, as it were, to secrete the nutriment,
becoming thus assimilated[1122] to the fatness of the cultivated tree.
So also the philosopher, resembling the wild olive, in having much that
is undigested, on account of his devotion to the search, his propensity
to follow, and his eagerness to seize the fatness of the truth; if he
get besides the divine power, through faith, by being transplanted into
the good and mild knowledge, like the wild olive, engrafted in the
truly fair and merciful Word, he both assimilates the nutriment that is
supplied, and becomes a fair and good olive tree. For engrafting makes
worthless shoots noble, and compels the barren to be fruitful by the
art of culture and by gnostic skill.
_Different modes of engrafting illustrative of different
kinds of conversion._
They say that engrafting is effected in four modes: one, that in which
the graft must be fitted in between the wood and the bark; resembling
the way in which we instruct plain people belonging to the Gentiles,
who receive the word superficially. Another is, when the wood is cleft,
and there is inserted in it the cultivated branch. And this applies to
the case of those who have studied philosophy; for on cutting through
their dogmas, the acknowledgment of the truth is produced in them. So
also in the case of the Jews, by opening up the Old Testament, the new
and noble plant of the olive is inserted. The third mode of engrafting
applies to rustics and heretics, who are brought by force to the
truth. For after smoothing off both suckers with a sharp pruning-hook,
till the pith is laid bare, but not wounded, they are bound together.
And the fourth is that form of engrafting called budding. For a bud
(eye) is cut out of a trunk of a good sort, a circle being drawn round
in the bark along with it, of the size of the palm. Then the trunk is
stripped, to suit the eye, over an equal circumference. And so the
graft is inserted, tied round, and daubed with clay, the bud being kept
uninjured and unstained. This is the style of gnostic teaching, which
is capable of looking into things themselves. This mode is, in truth,
of most service in the case of cultivated trees. And “the engrafting
into the good olive” mentioned by the apostle, may be [engrafting
into] Christ Himself; the uncultivated and unbelieving nature being
transplanted into Christ--that is, in the case of those who believe in
Christ. But it is better [to understand it] of the engrafting[1123] of
each one’s faith in the soul itself. For also the Holy Spirit is thus
somehow transplanted by distribution, according to the circumscribed
capacity of each one, but without being circumscribed.
_Knowledge and love._
Now, discoursing on knowledge, Solomon speaks thus: “For wisdom is
resplendent and fadeless, and is easily beheld by those who love her.
She is beforehand in making herself known to those who desire her. He
that rises early for her shall not toil wearily. For to think about
her is the perfection of good sense. And he that keeps vigils for her
shall quickly be relieved of anxiety. For she goes about, herself
seeking those worthy of her (for knowledge belongs not to all); and
in all ways she benignly shows herself to them.”[1124] Now the paths
are the conduct of life, and the variety that exists in the covenants.
Presently he adds: “And in every thought she meets them,”[1125] being
variously contemplated, that is, by all discipline. Then he subjoins,
adducing love, which perfects by syllogistic reasoning and true
propositions, drawing thus a most convincing and true inference, “For
the beginning of her is the truest desire of instruction,” that is,
of knowledge; “prudence is the love of instruction, and love is the
keeping of its laws; and attention to its laws is the confirmation of
immortality; and immortality causes nearness to God. The desire of
wisdom leads, then, to the kingdom.”[1126]
For he teaches, as I think, that true instruction is desire for
knowledge; and the practical exercise of instruction produces love
of knowledge. And love is the keeping of the commandments which lead
to knowledge. And the keeping of them is the establishment of the
commandments, from which immortality results. “And immortality brings
us near to God.”
_True knowledge found in the teaching of Christ alone._
If, then, the love of knowledge produces immortality, and leads the
kingly man near to God the King, knowledge ought to be sought till it
is found. Now seeking is an effort at grasping, and finds the subject
by means of certain signs. And discovery is the end and cessation of
inquiry, which has now its object in its grasp. And this is knowledge.
And this discovery, properly so called, is knowledge, which is the
apprehension of the object of search. And they say that a proof is
either the antecedent, or the coincident, or the consequent. The
discovery, then, of what is sought respecting God, is the teaching
through the Son; and the proof of our Saviour being the very Son of God
is the prophecies which preceded His coming, announcing Him; and the
testimonies regarding Him which attended His birth in the world; in
addition, His powers proclaimed and openly shown after His ascension.
The proof of the truth being with us, is the fact of the Son of God
Himself having taught us. For if in every inquiry these universals are
found, a person and a subject, that which is truly the truth is shown
to be in our hands alone. For the Son of God is the person of the truth
which is exhibited; and the subject is the power of faith, which
prevails over the opposition of every one whatever, and the assault of
the whole world.
But since this is confessedly established by eternal facts and reasons,
and each one who thinks that there is no Providence has already been
seen to deserve punishment and not contradiction, and is truly an
atheist, it is our aim to discover what doing, and in what manner
living, we shall reach the knowledge of the sovereign God, and how,
honouring the Divinity, we may become authors of our own salvation.
Knowing and learning, not from the Sophists, but from God Himself, what
is well-pleasing to Him, we endeavour to do what is just and holy. Now
it is well-pleasing to Him that we should be saved; and salvation is
effected through both well-doing and knowledge, of both of which the
Lord is the teacher.
If, then, according to Plato, it is only possible to learn the truth
either from God or from the progeny of God, with reason we, selecting
testimonies from the divine oracles, boast of learning the truth by the
Son of God, prophesied at first, and then explained.
_Philosophy and heresies, aids in discovering the truth._
But the things which co-operate in the discovery of truth are not to
be rejected. Philosophy, accordingly, which proclaims a Providence,
and the recompense of a life of felicity, and the punishment, on the
other hand, of a life of misery, teaches theology comprehensively;
but it does not preserve accuracy and particular points; for neither
respecting the Son of God, nor respecting the economy of Providence,
does it treat similarly with us; for it did not know the worship of God.
Wherefore also the heresies of the Barbarian philosophy, although they
speak of one God, though they sing the praises of Christ, speak without
accuracy, not in accordance with truth; for they discover another God,
and receive Christ not as the prophecies deliver. But their false
dogmas, while they oppose the conduct that is according to the truth,
are against us. For instance, Paul circumcised Timothy because of the
Jews who believed, in order that those who had received their training
from the law might not revolt from the faith through his breaking such
points of the law as were understood more carnally, knowing right well
that circumcision does not justify; for he professed that “all things
were for all” by conformity, preserving those of the dogmas that were
essential, “that he might gain all.”[1127] And Daniel, under the king
of the Persians, wore “the chain,”[1128] though he despised not the
affliction of the people.
The liars, then, in reality are not those who for the sake of the
scheme of salvation conform, nor those who err in minute points, but
those who are wrong in essentials, and reject the Lord, and as far as
in them lies deprive the Lord of the true teaching; who do not quote
or deliver the Scriptures in a manner worthy of God and of the Lord;
for the deposit rendered to God, according to the teaching of the Lord
by His apostles, is the understanding and the practice of the godly
tradition. “And what ye hear in the ear”--that is, in a hidden manner,
and in a mystery (for such things are figuratively said to be spoken
in the ear)--“proclaim,” He says, “on the house-tops,” understanding
them sublimely, and delivering them in a lofty strain, and according
to the canon of the truth explaining the Scriptures; for neither
prophecy nor the Saviour Himself announced the divine mysteries simply
so as to be easily apprehended by all and sundry, but expressed them
in parables. The apostles accordingly say of the Lord, that “He spake
all things in parables, and without a parable spake He nothing unto
them;”[1129] and if “all things were made by Him, and without Him was
not anything made that was made,”[1130] consequently also prophecy
and the law were by Him, and were spoken by Him in parables. “But
all things are right,” says the Scripture,[1131] “before those who
understand,” that is, those who receive and observe, according to the
ecclesiastical rule, the exposition of the Scriptures explained by Him;
and the ecclesiastical rule is the concord and harmony of the law
and the prophets in the covenant delivered at the coming of the Lord.
Knowledge is then followed by practical wisdom, and practical wisdom
by self-control: for it may be said that practical wisdom is divine
knowledge, and exists in those who are deified; but that self-control
is mortal, and subsists in those who philosophize, and are not yet
wise. But if virtue is divine, so is also the knowledge of it; while
self-control is a sort of imperfect wisdom which aspires after wisdom,
and exerts itself laboriously, and is not contemplative. As certainly
righteousness, being human, is, as being a common thing, subordinate to
holiness, which subsists through the divine righteousness;[1132] for
the righteousness of the perfect man does not rest on civil contracts,
or on the prohibition of law, but flows from his own spontaneous action
and his love to God.
_Reasons for the meaning of Scripture being veiled._
For many reasons, then, the Scriptures hide the sense. First, that we
may become inquisitive, and be ever on the watch for the discovery
of the words of salvation. Then it was not suitable for all to
understand, so that they might not receive harm in consequence of
taking in another sense the things declared for salvation by the Holy
Spirit. Wherefore the holy mysteries of the prophecies are veiled
in the parables--preserved for chosen men, selected to knowledge
in consequence of their faith; for the style of the Scriptures is
parabolic. Wherefore also the Lord, who was not of the world, came as
one who was of the world to men. For He was clothed with all virtue;
and it was His aim to lead man, the foster-child of the world, up
to the objects of intellect, and to the most essential truths by
knowledge, from one world to another.
Wherefore also He employed metaphorical description; for such is the
parable,--a narration based on some subject which is not the principal
subject, but similar to the principal subject, and leading him who
understands to what is the true and principal thing; or, as some say, a
mode of speech presenting with vigour, by means of other circumstances,
what is the principal subject.
And now also the whole economy which prophesied of the Lord
appears indeed a parable to those who know not the truth, when one
speaks and the rest hear that the Son of God--of Him who made the
universe--assumed flesh, and was conceived in the virgin’s womb (as
His material body was produced), and subsequently, as was the case,
suffered and rose again, being “to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to
the Greeks foolishness,” as the apostle says.
But on the Scriptures being opened up, and declaring the truth to
those who have ears, they proclaim the very suffering endured by the
flesh, which the Lord assumed, to be “the power and wisdom of God.”
And finally, the parabolic style of Scripture being of the greatest
antiquity, as we have shown, abounded most, as was to be expected,
in the prophets, in order that the Holy Spirit might show that the
philosophers among the Greeks, and the wise men among the Barbarians
besides, were ignorant of the future coming of the Lord, and of
the mystic teaching that was to be delivered by Him. Rightly then,
prophecy, in proclaiming the Lord, in order not to seem to some to
blaspheme while speaking what was beyond the ideas of the multitude,
embodied its declarations in expressions capable of leading to other
conceptions. Now all the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming,
and the holy mysteries accompanying it, were persecuted and killed.
As also the Lord Himself, in explaining the Scriptures to them, and
His disciples who preached the word like Him, and subsequently to His
life used parables.[1133] Whence also Peter, in his _Preaching_,
speaking of the apostles, says: “But we, unrolling the books of the
prophets which we possess, who name Jesus Christ, partly in parables,
partly in enigmas, partly expressly and in so many words, find His
coming and death, and cross, and all the rest of the tortures which
the Jews inflicted on Him, and His resurrection and assumption to
heaven previous to the capture[1134] of Jerusalem. As it is written,
_These things are all that He behoved to suffer, and what should be
after Him_. Recognising them, therefore, we have believed in God in
consequence of what is written respecting Him.”
And after a little again he draws the inference that the Scriptures
owed their origin to the divine providence, asserting as follows: “For
we know that God enjoined these things, and we say nothing apart from
the Scriptures.”
Now the Hebrew dialect, like all the rest, has certain properties,
consisting in a mode of speech which exhibits the national character.
Dialect is accordingly defined as a style of speech produced by the
national character. But prophecy is not marked by those dialects. For
in the Hellenic writings, what are called changes of figures purposely
produce obscurations, deduced after the style of our prophecies. But
this is effected through the voluntary departure from direct speech
which takes place in metrical or offhand diction. A figure, then, is a
form of speech transferred from what is literal to what is not literal,
for the sake of the composition, and on account of a diction useful in
speech.
But prophecy does not employ figurative forms in the expressions for
the sake of beauty of diction. But from the fact that truth appertains
not to all, it is veiled in manifold ways, causing the light to arise
only on those who are initiated into knowledge, who seek the truth
through love. The proverb, according to the Barbarian philosophy, is
called a mode of prophecy, and the parable is so called, and the enigma
in addition. Further also, they are called “wisdom;” and again, as
something different from it, “instruction and words of prudence,” and
“turnings of words,” and “true righteousness;” and again, “teaching to
direct judgment,” and “subtlety to the simple,” which is the result of
training, “and perception and thought,” with which the young catechumen
is imbued.[1135] “He who hears these prophets, being wise, will be
wiser. And the intelligent man will acquire rule, and will understand a
parable and a dark saying, the words and enigmas of the wise.”[1136]
And if it was the case that the Hellenic dialects received their
appellation from Hellen, the son of Zeus, surnamed Deucalion, from the
chronology which we have already exhibited, it is comparatively easy to
perceive by how many generations the dialects that obtained among the
Greeks are posterior to the language of the Hebrews.
But as the work advances, we shall in each section, noting the figures
of speech mentioned above by the prophet,[1137] exhibit the gnostic
mode of life, showing it systematically according to the rule of the
truth.
Did not the Power also, that appeared to Hermas in the Vision, in the
form of the Church, give for transcription the book which she wished
to be made known to the elect? And this, he says, he transcribed to
the letter, without finding how to complete the syllables. And this
signified that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken according to
the bare reading; and that this is the faith which occupies the place
of the rudiments. Wherefore also the figurative expression is employed,
“reading according to the letter;” while we understand that the gnostic
unfolding of the Scriptures, when faith has already reached an advanced
state, is likened to reading according to the syllables.
Further, Esaias the prophet is ordered to take “a new book, and write
in it”[1138] certain things: the Spirit prophesying that through
the exposition of the Scriptures there would come afterwards the
sacred knowledge, which at that period was still unwritten, because
not yet known. For it was spoken from the beginning to those only
who understand. Now that the Saviour has taught the apostles, the
unwritten rendering of the written [Scripture] has been handed down
also to us, inscribed by the power of God on hearts new, according to
the renovation of the book. Thus those of highest repute among the
Greeks, dedicate the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, who they say
is speech, on account of its interpretation. For speech conceals much.
Rightly, therefore, Jesus the son of Nave saw Moses, when taken up [to
heaven], double,--one Moses with the angels, and one on the mountains,
honoured with burial in their ravines. And Jesus saw this spectacle
below, being elevated by the Spirit, along also with Caleb. But both do
not see similarly. But the one descended with greater speed, as if the
weight he carried was great; while the other, on descending after him,
subsequently related the glory which he beheld, being able to perceive
more than the other, as having grown purer; the narrative, in my
opinion, showing that knowledge is not the privilege of all. Since some
look at the body of the Scriptures, the expressions and the names as to
the body of Moses; while others see through to the thoughts and what is
signified by the names, seeking the Moses that is with the angels.
Many also of those who called to the Lord said, “Son of David, have
mercy on me.”[1139] A few, too, knew Him as the Son of God; as Peter,
whom also He pronounced blessed, “for flesh and blood revealed not
the truth to him, but His Father in heaven,”[1140]--showing that
the Gnostic recognises the Son of the Omnipotent, not by His flesh
conceived in the womb, but by the Father’s own power. That it is
therefore not only to those who read simply that the acquisition of the
truth is so difficult, but that not even to those whose prerogative the
knowledge of the truth is, is the contemplation of it vouchsafed all
at once, the history of Moses teaches, until, accustomed to gaze, as
the Hebrews on the glory of Moses, and the prophets of Israel on the
visions of angels, so we also become able to look the splendours of
truth in the face.
CHAPTER XVI.
GNOSTIC EXPOSITION OF THE DECALOGUE.
Let the Decalogue be set forth cursorily by us as a specimen for
gnostic exposition.
_The number “Ten.”_
That ten is a sacred number, it is superfluous to say now. And if the
tables that were written were the work of God, they will be found to
exhibit physical creation. For by the “finger of God” is understood
the power of God, by which the creation of heaven and earth is
accomplished; of both of which the tables will be understood to be
symbols. For the writing and handiwork of God put on the table is the
creation of the world.
And the Decalogue, viewed as an image of heaven, embraces sun and moon,
stars, clouds, light, wind, water, air, darkness, fire. This is the
physical Decalogue of the heaven.
And the representation of the earth contains men, cattle, reptiles,
wild beasts; and of the inhabitants of the water, fishes and whales;
and again, of the winged tribes, those that are carnivorous, and those
that use mild food; and of plants likewise, both fruit-bearing and
barren. This is the physical Decalogue of the earth.
And the ark which held them[1141] will then be the knowledge of divine
and human things and wisdom.[1142]
And perhaps the two tables themselves may be the prophecy of the two
covenants. They were accordingly mystically renewed, as ignorance
along with sin abounded. The commandments are written, then, doubly,
as appears, for twofold spirits, the ruling and the subject. “For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh.”[1143]
And there is a ten in man himself: the five senses, and the power of
speech, and that of reproduction; and the eighth is the spiritual
principle communicated at his creation; and the ninth the ruling
faculty of the soul; and tenth, there is the distinctive characteristic
of the Holy Spirit, which comes to him through faith.
Besides, in addition to these ten human parts, the law appears to give
its injunctions[1144] to sight, and hearing, and smell, and touch, and
taste, and to the organs subservient to these, which are double--the
hands and the feet. For such is the formation of man. And the soul is
introduced, and previous to it the ruling faculty, by which we reason,
not produced in procreation; so that without it there is made up the
number ten, of the faculties by which all the activity of man is
carried out. For in order, straightway on man’s entering existence, his
life begins with sensations. We accordingly assert that rational and
ruling power is the cause of the constitution of the living creature;
also that this, the irrational part, is animated, and is a part of it.
Now the vital force, in which is comprehended the power of nutrition
and growth, and generally of motion, is assigned to the carnal spirit,
which has great susceptibility of motion, and passes in all directions
through the senses and the rest of the body, and through the body is
the primary subject of sensations. But the power of choice, in which
investigation, and study, and knowledge, reside, belongs to the ruling
faculty. But all the faculties are placed in relation to one--the
ruling faculty: it is through that man lives, and lives in a certain
way.
Through the corporeal spirit, then, man perceives, desires, rejoices,
is angry, is nourished, grows. It is by it, too, that thoughts and
conceptions advance to actions. And when it masters the desires, the
ruling faculty reigns.
The commandment, then, “Thou shalt not lust,” says, thou shalt not
serve the carnal spirit, but shalt rule over it; “for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit,”[1145] and excites to disorderly conduct against
nature; “and the Spirit against the flesh” exercises sway, in order
that the conduct of the man may be according to nature.
Is not man, then, rightly said “to have been made in the image of
God?”--not in the form of his [corporeal] structure; but inasmuch
as God creates all things by the Word (λόγῳ), and the man who has
become a Gnostic performs good actions by the faculty of reason (τῷ
λογικῷ), properly therefore the two tables are also said to mean
the commandments that were given to the twofold spirits,--those
communicated before the law to that which was created, and to the
ruling faculty; and the movements of the senses are both copied in the
mind, and manifested in the activity which proceeds from the body. For
apprehension results from both combined. Again, as sensation is related
to the world of sense, so is thought to that of intellect. And actions
are twofold--those of thought, those of act.
_The First Commandment._
The first commandment of the Decalogue shows that there is one only
Sovereign God;[1146] who led the people from the land of Egypt through
the desert to their fatherland; that they might apprehend His power,
as they were able, by means of the divine works, and withdraw from the
idolatry of created things, putting all their hope in the true God.
_The Second Commandment._
The second word[1147] intimated that men ought not to take and confer
the august power of God (which is the name, for this alone were many
even yet capable of learning), and transfer His title to things created
and vain, which human artificers have made, among which “He that is” is
not ranked. For in His uncreated identity, “He that is” is absolutely
alone.
_The Fourth Commandment._
And the fourth[1148] word is that which intimates that the world was
created by God, and that He gave us the seventh day as a rest, on
account of the trouble that there is in life. For God is incapable of
weariness, and suffering, and want. But we who bear flesh need rest.
The seventh day, therefore, is proclaimed a rest--abstraction from
ills--preparing for the Primal Day,[1149] our true rest; which, in
truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are viewed
and possessed. From this day the first wisdom and knowledge illuminate
us. For the light of truth--a light true, casting no shadow, is the
Spirit of God indivisibly divided to all, who are sanctified by faith,
holding the place of a luminary, in order to the knowledge of real
existences. By following Him, therefore, through our whole life, we
become impassible; and this is to rest.
Wherefore Solomon also says, that before heaven, and earth, and all
existences, Wisdom had arisen in the Almighty; the participation of
which--that which is by power, I mean, not that by essence--teaches a
man to know by apprehension things divine and human. Having reached
this point, we must mention these things by the way; since the
discourse has turned on the seventh and the eighth. For the eighth
may possibly turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh
manifestly the sixth, and the latter properly the Sabbath, and the
seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded
in six days. For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is
completed in six months--in the course of which, at one time the
leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity.
And they say that the embryo is perfected exactly in the sixth month,
that is, in one hundred and eighty days in addition to the two and a
half, as Polybus the physician relates in his book _On the Eighth
Month_, and Aristotle the philosopher in his book _On Nature_.
Hence the Pythagoreans, as I think, reckon six the perfect number,
from the creation of the world, according to the prophet, and call it
Meseuthys[1150] and Marriage, from its being the middle of the even
numbers, that is, of ten and two. For it is manifestly at an equal
distance from both.
And as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated
from the odd number three, which is called the masculine number, and
the even number two, which is considered the feminine. For twice three
are six.
Such, again, is the number of the most general motions, according to
which all origination takes place--up, down, to the right, to the
left, forward, backward. Rightly, then, they reckon the number seven
motherless and childless, interpreting the Sabbath, and figuratively
expressing the nature of the rest, in which “they neither marry nor
are given in marriage any more.”[1151] For neither by taking from one
number and adding to another of those within ten is seven produced; nor
when added to any number within the ten does it make up any of them.
And they call eight a cube, counting the fixed sphere along with the
seven revolving ones, by which is produced “the great year,” as a kind
of period of recompense of what has been promised.
Thus the Lord, who ascended the mountain, the fourth,[1152] becomes
the sixth, and is illuminated all round with spiritual light, by
laying bare the power proceeding from Him, as far as those selected
to see were able to behold it, by the Seventh, the Voice, proclaimed
to be the Son of God; in order that they, persuaded respecting Him,
might have rest; while He by His birth, which was indicated by the six
conspicuously marked, becoming the eighth, might appear to be God in
a body of flesh, by displaying His power, being numbered indeed as
a man, but being concealed as to who He was. For six is reckoned in
the order of numbers, but the succession of the letters acknowledges
the character which is not written. In this case, in the numbers
themselves, each unit is preserved in its order up to seven and eight.
But in the number of the characters, _Zeta_ becomes six and
_Eta_ seven.
And the character[1153] having somehow slipped into writing, should we
follow it out thus, the seven became six, and the eight seven.
Wherefore also man is said to have been made on the sixth day, who
became faithful to Him who is the sign (τῷ ἐπισήμῳ[1154]), so as
straightway to receive the rest of the Lord’s inheritance. Some such
thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation,
in which man was perfected. Further, of the eight, the intermediates
are seven; and of the seven, the intervals are shown to be six. For
that is another ground, in which seven glorifies eight, and “the
heavens declare to the heavens the glory of God.”[1155]
The sensible types of these, then, are the sounds we pronounce.
Thus the Lord Himself is called “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end,”[1156] “by whom all things were made, and without whom not
even one thing was made.”[1157] God’s resting is not, then, as some
conceive, that God ceased from doing. For, being good, if He should
ever cease from doing good, then would He cease from being God, which
it is sacrilege even to say. The resting is, therefore, the ordering
that the order of created things should be preserved inviolate, and
that each of the creatures should cease from the ancient disorder.
For the creations on the different days followed in a most important
succession; so that all things brought into existence might have honour
from priority, created together in thought, but not being of equal
worth. Nor was the creation of each signified by the voice, inasmuch
as the creative work is said to have made them at once. For something
must needs have been named first. Wherefore those things were announced
first, from which came those that were second, all things being
originated together from one essence by one power. For the will of God
was one, in one identity. And how could creation take place in time,
seeing time was born along with the things which exist?
And now the whole world of creatures born alive, and things that
grow, revolves in sevens. The first-born princes of the angels, who
have the greatest power, are seven. The mathematicians also say that
the planets, which perform their course around the earth, are seven;
by which the Chaldeans think that all which concerns mortal life is
effected through sympathy, in consequence of which they also undertake
to tell things respecting the future.
And of the fixed stars, the Pleiades are seven. And the Bears, by the
help of which agriculture and navigation are carried through, consist
of seven stars. And in periods of seven days the moon undergoes its
changes. In the first week she becomes half moon; in the second, full
moon; and in the third, in her wane, again half moon; and in the
fourth she disappears. Further, as Seleucus the mathematician lays
down, she has seven phases. First, from being invisible she becomes
crescent-shaped, then half moon, then gibbous and full; and in her wane
again gibbous, and in like manner half moon and crescent-shaped.
“On a seven-stringed lyre we shall sing new hymns,”
writes a poet of note, teaching us that the ancient lyre was
seven-toned. The organs of the senses situated on our face are also
seven--two eyes, two passages of hearing, two nostrils, and the seventh
the mouth.
And that the changes in the periods of life take place by sevens, the
_Elegies of Solon_ teach thus:
“The child, while still an infant, in seven years,
Produces and puts forth its fence of teeth;
And when God seven years more completes,
He shows of puberty’s approach the signs;
And in the third, the beard on growing cheek
With down o’erspreads the bloom of changing skin;
And in the fourth septenniad, at his best
In strength, of manliness he shows the signs;
And in the fifth, of marriage, now mature,
And of posterity, the man bethinks;
Nor does he yet desire vain works to see.
The seventh and eighth septenniads see him now
In mind and speech mature, till fifty years;
And in the ninth he still has vigour left,
But strength and body are for virtue great
Less than of yore; when, seven years more, God brings
To end, then not too soon may he submit to die.”
Again, in diseases the seventh day is that of the crisis; and the
fourteenth, in which nature struggles against the causes of the
diseases. And a myriad such instances are adduced by Hermippus of
Berytus, in his book _On the Number Seven_, regarding it as holy.
And the blessed David delivers clearly to those who know the mystic
account of seven and eight, praising thus: “Our years were exercised
like a spider. The days of our years in them are seventy years; but
if in strength, eighty years. And that will be to reign.”[1158] That,
then, we may be taught that the world was originated, and not suppose
that God made it in time, prophecy adds: “This is the book of the
generation: also of the things in them, when they were created in the
day that God made heaven and earth.”[1159] For the expression “when
they were created” intimates an indefinite and dateless production. But
the expression “in the day that God made,” that is, in and by which God
made “all things,” and “without which not even one thing was made,”
points out the activity exerted by the Son. As David says, “This is the
day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice in it;”[1160]
that is, in consequence of the knowledge imparted by Him, let us
celebrate the divine festival; for the Word that throws light on things
hidden, and by whom each created thing came into life and being, is
called day.
And, in fine, the Decalogue, by the letter _Iota_,[1161] signifies
the blessed name, presenting Jesus, who is the Word.
_The Fifth Commandment._
Now the fifth in order is the command on the honour of father and
mother. And it clearly announces God as Father and Lord. Wherefore also
it calls those who know Him sons and gods. The Creator of the universe
is their Lord and Father; and the mother is not, as some say, the
essence from which we sprang, nor, as others teach, the church, but the
divine knowledge and wisdom, as Solomon says, when he terms wisdom “the
mother of the just,” and says that it is desirable for its own sake.
And the knowledge of all, again, that is lovely and venerable, proceeds
from God through the Son.
_The Seventh Commandment._
This is followed by the command respecting adultery. Now it is
adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge,
and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous
opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol
of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from,
knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true
belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle
calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry,[1162] in following the
prophet, who says: “[My people] hath committed fornication with stock
and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the
stone, Thou hast begotten me.”[1163]
_The Sixth Commandment._
Then follows the command about murder. Now murder is a sure
destruction. He, then, that wishes to extirpate the true doctrine
of God and of immortality, in order to introduce falsehood, alleging
either that the universe is not under Providence, or that the world
is uncreated, or affirming anything against true doctrine, is most
pernicious.
_The Eighth Commandment._
And after this is the command respecting theft. As, then, he that
steals what is another’s, doing great wrong, rightly incurs ills
suitable to his deserts; so also does he, who arrogates to himself
divine works by the art of the statuary or the painter, and pronounces
himself to be the maker of animals and plants. Likewise those, too, who
mimic the true philosophy are thieves. Whether one be a husbandman or
the father of a child, he is an agent in depositing seeds. But it is
God who, ministering the growth and perfection of all things, brings
the things produced to what is in accordance with their nature. But
the most, in common also with the philosophers, attribute growth and
changes to the stars as the primary cause, robbing the Father of the
universe, as far as in them lies, of His tireless might.
The elements, however, and the stars--that is, the administrative
powers--are ordained for the accomplishment of what is essential to
the administration, and are influenced and moved by what is commanded
to them, in the way in which the Word of the Lord leads, since it
is the nature of the divine power to work all things secretly. He,
accordingly, who alleges that he has conceived or made anything which
pertains to creation, will suffer the punishment of his impious
audacity.
_The Tenth Commandment._
And the tenth is the command respecting all lusts. As, then, he who
entertains unbecoming desires is called to account; in the same way he
is not allowed to desire things false, or to suppose that, of created
objects, those that are animate have power of themselves, and that
inanimate things can at all save or hurt. And should one say that
an antidote cannot heal or hemlock kill, he is unwittingly deceived.
For none of these operates except one makes use of the plant and the
drug; just as the axe does not without one to cut with it, or a saw
without one sawing with it. And as they do not work by themselves, but
have certain physical qualities which accomplish their proper work by
the exertion of the artisan; so also, by the universal providence of
God, through the medium of secondary causes, the operative power is
propagated in succession to individual objects.
CHAPTER XVII.
PHILOSOPHY CONVEYS ONLY AN IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD.
But, as appears, the philosophers of the Greeks, while naming God,
do not know Him. But their philosophical speculations, according to
Empedocles, “as passing over the tongue of the multitude, are poured
out of mouths that know little of the whole.” For as art changes the
light of the sun into fire by passing it through a glass vessel full of
water, so also philosophy, catching a spark from the divine Scripture,
is visible in a few. Also, as all animals breathe the same air, some
in one way, others in another, and to a different purpose; so also a
considerable number of people occupy themselves with the truth, or
rather with discourse concerning the truth. For they do not say aught
respecting God, but expound Him by attributing their own affections to
God. For they spend life in seeking the probable, not the true. But
truth is not taught by imitation, but by instruction. For it is not
that we may seem good[1164] that we believe in Christ, as it is not
alone for the purpose of being seen, while in the sun, that we pass
into the sun. But in the one case for the purpose of being warmed;
and in the other, we are compelled to be Christians in order to be
excellent and good. For the kingdom belongs pre-eminently to the
violent, who, from investigation, and study, and discipline, reap this
fruit, that they become kings.
He, then, who imitates opinion shows also preconception. When then one,
having got an inkling of the subject, kindles it within in his soul by
desire and study, he sets everything in motion afterwards in order to
know it. For that which one does not apprehend, neither does he desire
it, nor does he embrace the advantage flowing from it. Subsequently,
therefore, the Gnostic at last imitates the Lord, as far as allowed
to men, having received a sort of quality akin to the Lord Himself,
in order to assimilation to God. But those who are not proficient in
knowledge cannot judge the truth by rule. It is not therefore possible
to share in the gnostic contemplations, unless we empty ourselves
of our previous notions. For the truth in regard to every object
of intellect and of sense is thus simply universally declared. For
instance, we may distinguish the truth of painting from that which
is vulgar, and decorous music from licentious. There is, then, also
a truth of philosophy as distinct from the other philosophers, and a
true beauty as distinct from the spurious. It is not then the partial
truths, of which truth is predicated, but the truth itself, that we
are to investigate, not seeking to learn names. For what is to be
investigated respecting God is not one thing, but ten thousand. There
is a difference between declaring God, and declaring things about
God. And to speak generally, in everything the accidents are to be
distinguished from the essence.
Suffice it for me to say, that the Lord of all is God; and I say the
Lord of all absolutely, nothing being left by way of exception.
Since, then, the forms of truth are two--the names and the things--some
discourse of names, occupying themselves with the beauties of words:
such are the philosophers among the Greeks. But we who are Barbarians
have the things. Now it was not in vain that the Lord chose to make use
of a mean form of body; so that no one praising the grace and admiring
the beauty might turn his back on what was said, and attending to what
ought to be abandoned, might be cut off from what is intellectual.
We must therefore occupy ourselves not with the expression, but the
meaning.
To those, then, who are not gifted[1165] with the power of
apprehension, and are not inclined to knowledge, the word is not
entrusted; since also the ravens imitate human voices, having
no understanding of the thing which they say. And intellectual
apprehension depends on faith. Thus also Homer said:
“Father of men and gods,”[1166]--
knowing not who the Father is, or how He is Father.
And as to him who has hands it is natural to grasp, and to him who
has sound eyes to see the light; so it is the natural prerogative of
him who has received faith to apprehend knowledge, if he desires, on
“the foundation” laid, to work, and build up “gold, silver, precious
stones.”[1167]
Accordingly he does not profess to wish to participate, but begins to
do so. Nor does it belong to him to _intend_, but to _be_
regal, and illuminated, and gnostic. Nor does it appertain to him to
wish to grasp things in name, but in fact.
For God, being good, on account of the principal part of the whole
creation, seeing He wishes to save it, was induced to make the rest
also; conferring on them at the beginning this first boon, that of
existence. For that to be is far better than not to be, will be
admitted by every one. Then, according to the capabilities of their
nature, each one was and is made, advancing to that which is better.
So there is no absurdity in philosophy having been given by Divine
Providence as a preparatory discipline for the perfection which is
by Christ; unless philosophy is ashamed at learning from Barbarian
knowledge how to advance to truth. But if “the very hairs are numbered,
and the most insignificant motions,” how shall not philosophy be taken
into account? For to Samson power was given in his hair, in order that
he might perceive that the worthless arts that refer to the things in
this life, which lie and remain on the ground after the departure of
the soul, were not given without divine power.
But it is said Providence, from above, from what is of prime
importance, as from the head, reaches to all, “as the ointment,” it
is said, “which descends to Aaron’s beard, and to the skirt of his
garment”[1168] (that is, of the great High Priest, “by whom all things
were made, and without whom not even one thing was made”[1169]); not
to the ornament of the body; for Philosophy is outside of the People,
like raiment.[1170] The philosophers, therefore, who, trained to their
own peculiar power of perception by the spirit of perception, when
they investigate, not a part of philosophy, but philosophy absolutely,
testify to the truth in a truth-loving and humble spirit; if in the
case of good things said by those even who are of different sentiments
they advance to understanding, through the divine administration, and
the ineffable Goodness, which always, as far as possible, leads the
nature of existences to that which is better. Then, by cultivating
the acquaintance not of Greeks alone, but also of Barbarians, from
the exercise common to their proper intelligence, they are conducted
to Faith. And when they have embraced the foundation of truth, they
receive in addition the power of advancing further to investigation.
And thence they love to be learners, and aspiring after knowledge,
haste to salvation.
Thus Scripture says, that “the spirit of perception” was given to the
artificers from God.[1171] And this is nothing else than Understanding,
a faculty of the soul, capable of studying existences,--of
distinguishing and comparing what succeeds as like and unlike,--of
enjoining and forbidding, and of conjecturing the future. And it
extends not to the arts alone, but even to philosophy itself.
Why, then, is the serpent called wise? Because even in its wiles there
may be found a connection, and distinction, and combination, and
conjecturing of the future. And so very many crimes are concealed;
because the wicked arrange for themselves so as by all means to escape
punishment.
And Wisdom being manifold, pervading the whole world, and all human
affairs, varies its appellation in each case. When it applies itself
to first causes, it is called Understanding (νόησις). When, however,
it confirms this by demonstrative reasoning, it is termed Knowledge,
and Wisdom, and Science. When it is occupied in what pertains to piety,
and receives without speculation the primal Word[1172] in consequence
of the maintenance of the operation in it, it is called Faith. In
the sphere of things of sense, establishing that which appears as
being truest, it is Right Opinion. In operations, again, performed
by skill of hand, it is Art. But when, on the other hand, without
the study of primary causes, by the observation of similarities and
by transposition, it makes any attempt or combination, it is called
Experiment. But belonging to it, and supreme and essential, is the Holy
Spirit, which above all he who, in consequence of [divine] guidance,
has believed, receives after strong faith. Philosophy, then, partaking
of a more exquisite perception, as has been shown from the above
statements, participates in Wisdom.
Logical discussion, then, of intellectual subjects, with selection and
assent, is called Dialectics; which establishes, by demonstration,
allegations respecting truth, and demolishes the doubts brought forward.
Those, then, who assert that philosophy did not come hither from God,
all but say that God does not know each particular thing, and that He
is not the cause of all good things; if, indeed, each of these belongs
to the class of individual things. But nothing that exists could have
subsisted at all, had God not willed. And if He willed, then philosophy
is from God, He having willed it to be such as it is, for the sake of
those who not otherwise than by its means would abstain from what is
evil. For God knows all things--not those only which exist, but those
also which shall be--and how each thing shall be. And foreseeing the
particular movements, “He surveys all things, and hears all things,”
seeing the soul naked within; and possesses from eternity the idea
of each thing individually. And what applies to theatres, and to the
parts of each object, in looking at, looking round, and taking in the
whole in one view, applies also to God. For in one glance He views all
things together, and each thing by itself; but not all things, by way
of primary intent.
Now, then, many things in life take their rise in some exercise
of human reason, having received the kindling spark from God. For
instance, health by medicine, and soundness of body through gymnastics,
and wealth by trade, have their origin and existence in consequence
of Divine Providence indeed, but in consequence, too, of human
co-operation. Understanding also is from God.