HUMAN KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING
OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Some, who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch
either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural
science. They demand bare faith alone, as if they wished, without
bestowing any care on the vine, straightway to gather clusters from the
first. Now the Lord is figuratively described as the vine, from which,
with pains and the art of husbandry, according to the word, the fruit
is to be gathered.
We must lop, dig, bind, and perform the other operations. The
pruning-knife, I should think, and the pick-axe, and the other
agricultural implements, are necessary for the culture of the vine,
so that it may produce eatable fruit. And as in husbandry, so also in
medicine: he has learned to purpose, who has practised the various
lessons, so as to be able to cultivate and to heal. So also here, I
call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth; so
that, from geometry, and music, and grammar, and philosophy itself,
culling what is useful, he guards the faith against assault. Now,
as was said, the athlete is despised who is not furnished for the
contest. For instance, too, we praise the experienced helmsman who
“has seen the cities of many men,” and the physician who has had large
experience; thus also some describe the empiric.[882] And he who brings
everything to bear on a right life, procuring examples from the Greeks
and barbarians, this man is an experienced searcher after truth, and
in reality a man of much counsel, like the touchstone (that is, the
Lydian), which is believed to possess the power of distinguishing
the spurious from the genuine gold. And our much-knowing gnostic can
distinguish sophistry from philosophy, the art of decoration from
gymnastics, cookery from physic, and rhetoric from dialectics, and
the other sects which are according to the barbarian philosophy, from
the truth itself. And how necessary is it for him who desires to be
partaker of the power of God, to treat of intellectual subjects by
philosophising! And how serviceable is it to distinguish expressions
which are ambiguous, and which in the Testaments are used synonymously!
For the Lord, at the time of His temptation, skilfully matched the
devil by an ambiguous expression. And I do not yet, in this connection,
see how in the world the inventor of philosophy and dialectics, as some
suppose, is seduced through being deceived by the form of speech which
consists in ambiguity. And if the prophets and apostles knew not the
arts by which the exercises of philosophy are exhibited, yet the mind
of the prophetic and instructive spirit, uttered secretly, because
all have not an intelligent ear, demands skilful modes of teaching
in order to clear exposition. For the prophets and disciples of the
Spirit knew infallibly their mind. For they knew it by faith, in a way
which others could not easily, as the Spirit has said. But it is not
possible for those who have not learned to receive it thus. “Write,”
it is said, “the commandments doubly, in counsel and knowledge, that
thou mayest answer the words of truth to them who send unto thee.”[883]
What, then, is the knowledge of answering? or what that of asking? It
is dialectics. What then? Is not speaking our business, and does not
action proceed from the Word? For if we act not for the Word, we shall
act against reason. But a rational work is accomplished through God.
“And nothing,” it is said, “was made without Him”--the Word of God.[884]
And did not the Lord make all things by the Word? Even the beasts work,
driven by compelling fear. And do not those who are called orthodox
apply themselves to good works, knowing not what they do?