Pistis Sophia
Book I
CHAPTER 1
I. But it happened that after Jesus had risen from the dead he spent eleven years speaking with his disciples. And he taught them only as far as the places of the first ordinance and as far as the places of the First Mystery, which is within the veil which is within the first ordinance, which is the 24th mystery outside and below , these which are in the second space of the First Mystery, which is before all mysteries the Father in the form of a dove . And Jesus said to his disciples : "I have come forth from that First Mystery which is the last mystery, namely the 24th". And the disciples did not know and understand that there was anything within that mystery. But they thought that that mystery was the head of the All , and the head of all the things that exist . And they thought that it was the completion of all completions, because Jesus had said to them concerning the mystery, that it surrounded the first ordinance and the five incisions and the great light and the five helpers (parastatai) and the whole Treasury of Light. And moreover Jesus had not spoken to his disciples of the whole extent of the places of the great invisible one and the three triple powers and the 24 invisible ones and all their places and their aeons and all their ranks, how they extend - these which are the emanations of the great invisible one - and their unbegotten ones and their self-begotten ones and their begotten ones and their luminaries and their unpaired ones and their archons and their powers (exousiai) and their lords and their archangels and their angels and their decans and their ministers and all the houses of their spheres and all the ranks of each one of them.
Book I
CHAPTER 1
I. But it happened that after Jesus had risen from the dead he spent eleven years speaking with his disciples. And he taught them only as far as the places of the first ordinance and as far as the places of the First Mystery, which is within the veil which is within the first ordinance, which is the 24th mystery outside and below , these which are in the second space of the First Mystery, which is before all mysteries the Father in the form of a dove . And Jesus said to his disciples : "I have come forth from that First Mystery which is the last mystery, namely the 24th". And the disciples did not know and understand that there was anything within that mystery. But they thought that that mystery was the head of the All , and the head of all the things that exist . And they thought that it was the completion of all completions, because Jesus had said to them concerning the mystery, that it surrounded the first ordinance and the five incisions and the great light and the five helpers (parastatai) and the whole Treasury of Light. And moreover Jesus had not spoken to his disciples of the whole extent of the places of the great invisible one and the three triple powers and the 24 invisible ones and all their places and their aeons and all their ranks, how they extend - these which are the emanations of the great invisible one - and their unbegotten ones and their self-begotten ones and their begotten ones and their luminaries and their unpaired ones and their archons and their powers (exousiai) and their lords and their archangels and their angels and their decans and their ministers and all the houses of their spheres and all the ranks of each one of them.
And Jesus had not told his disciples of the whole extent of the emanations of the treasury, nor their ranks how they extend, nor had he told them of their saviours, according to the rank of each one, how they are. Nor had he told them which watcher is over each of the doors of the Treasury of Light. Nor had he told them of the place of the twin saviour who is the child of the child. Nor had he told them of the place of the three amens, in which places they extend, and he had not told them in which places the five trees are spread, nor of the seven other amens, namely the seven voices, which their place is and how they extend. And Jesus had not told his disciples of what type are the five helpers (Parastatai). Or into which places they are brought. Nor had he told them in what manner the great light extends, or into which places it is brought- Nor had he told them of the five incisions, nor concerning the first ordinance, into which places they are brought.
But he had only spoken to them in general, teaching them that they existed. But he had not told them their extent and the rank of their places according to how they exist. Because of this they also did not know that other places existed within that mystery. And he had not said to his disciples : "I came forth from such and such places until I entered that mystery, until I came forth from it." But he had said to them as hen thaught them : "I came forth from that mystery".
Because of this they thought now of that mystery that it was the completion of all completions, and that it was the head of the All, and that it was (the) whole pleroma, since Jesus had said to his disciples : "That mystery surrounds the totalities of which I have told you all from the day on which I met you until today". Because of this the disciples thought now that there was nothing existing within that mystery.
But he had only spoken to them in general, teaching them that they existed. But he had not told them their extent and the rank of their places according to how they exist. Because of this they also did not know that other places existed within that mystery. And he had not said to his disciples : "I came forth from such and such places until I entered that mystery, until I came forth from it." But he had said to them as hen thaught them : "I came forth from that mystery".
Because of this they thought now of that mystery that it was the completion of all completions, and that it was the head of the All, and that it was (the) whole pleroma, since Jesus had said to his disciples : "That mystery surrounds the totalities of which I have told you all from the day on which I met you until today". Because of this the disciples thought now that there was nothing existing within that mystery.
CHAPTER 2.
It happened as the disciples were sitting with one another upon the Mount of Olives, as they spoke these words they rejoiced with great joy, and they were very jubilant, and they said to one another: "We are blessed beyond all men who are on earth because the Saviour has revealed these things to us, and we have received the pleroma and the whole completion". As they were saying these things to one another, Jesus was sitting at a short distance from them.
It happened, however, on the 1sth of the moon in the month of Tôbe, which is the day on which the moon becomes full, now on that day when the sun had risen on its path , there came forth after it a great power of light, giving a very great light, and there was no measure to its accompanying light , for it came forth from the Light of Lights, exceedingly, with (a) light to which there was no measure. And the disciples gazed after him, and not one of them spoke until he had reached heaven, but they all kept a great silence. Now these things happened on the 15th of the moon, on the day on which it is full in the month of Tôbe. Now it happened when Jesus went up to heaven, after three hours all the powers of the heavens were disturbed, and they all shook against one another, they and all their aeons, and all their places and all their ranks and the whole earth moved with all who dwelt upon it. And all the men in the world were agitated, and also the disciples. And they all thought : "Perhaps the world will be rolled up". And all the powers which are in the heavens did not cease from their agitation, they and the whole world, and they all moved against one another from the third hour of the 15th of the
moon in (the month of) Tôbe until the ninth hour of the following day. And all the angels and their archangels and all the powers of the height all sang praises to the innermost of the inner , so that the whole world heard their voices, and they did not cease until the ninth hour of the following day.
CHAPTER 3.
Now it happened when the light-power had come down upon Jesus, it gradually surrounded him completely. Then Jesus rose or ascended to the height, giving light exceedingly, with (a) light to which there was no measure. And the disciples gazed after him, and not one of them spoke until he had reached heaven, but they all kept a great silence. Now these things happened on the 1sth of the moon, on the day on which it is full in the month of Tôbe. Now it happened when Jesus went up to heaven, after three hours all the powers of the heavens were disturbed, and they all shook against one another , they and all their aeons, and all their places and all their ranks and the whole earth moved with all who dwelt upon it. And all the men in the world were agitated, and also the disciples. And they all thought : "Perhaps the world will be rolled up". And all the powers which are in the heavens did not cease from their agitation, they and the whole world, and they all moved against one another from the third hour of the 1sth of the moon in (the month on Tôbe until the ninth hour of the following day. And all the angels and their archangels and all the powers of the height all sang praises to the innermost of the inner , so that the whole world heard their voices, and they did not cease until the ninth hour of the following day.
CHAPTER 4.
The disciples, however, sat with one another in fear, and were greatly agitated. ( They were afraid, however, on account of the great earthquake which happened, and they wept together, saying: "What will happen now? Perhaps the Saviour will destroy all the places". As they were saying these things and were weeping to one another, on the ninth hour of the following day the heavens opened, and they saw Jesus coming down, giving light exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light in which he was. For he gave more light than in the hour -that he went up to heaven, so that the men in the world were not able to speak of the light which was his, and it cast forth very many rays of light, and there was no measure to its rays. And his light was not equal throughout, but it was of different kinds, and it was of different types, so that some were many times superior to others, and the whole light together was in three forms, and the one was many
times superior to the other; the second which was in the middle was superior to the first which was below; and the
third which was above them all was superior to the second which was below. And the first ray which was below them
all was similar to the light which had come down upon Jesus before he went up to heaven, and it was quite equal to it in
its light. And the three light-forms were of different kinds of light and they were of different types. And some were many times superior to others.
CHAPTER 5.
It happened, however, when the disciples saw these they were greatly afraid and agitated. Now Jesus, the com-
compassionate and tender-hearted, when he saw that his disciples were in great agitation, he spoke to them saying :
"Be courageous. It is I, do not fear" .
CHAPTER 6.
Now it happened when the disciples heard these words, they said : "Lord, if it be thou, draw thy light-glory to thyself so that we can stand, otherwise our eyes are darkened and we are agitated, and also the whole world is agitated 1, because of the great light which is thine". Then Jesus drew to himself the glory of his light. And when this had happened all the disciples took courage, they came before Jesus, they all prostrated themselves at the same time, they worshipped him, rejoicing with great joy. They said to him : "Rabbi, where didst thou go, or what was thy service in which thou didst go, or for what reason were all these disturbances and all these earthquakes which happened ?" Then Jesus, the compassionate, said to them : "Rejoice and be glad from this hour because I have been to the places from whence I came forth. From today onwards now I will speak with you openly from the beginning of the truth until its completion. And I will speak with you face to face, without parable . I will not conceal from you, from this hour onwards, anything of the things of the height and of the place of the truth . For I have been given authority, through the Ineffable and through the First Mystery of all the mysteries, that I should speak with you from the beginning until the pleroma, and from within outwards, and from without inwards. Hear now, so that I tell you all things. It happened as I was sitting at a short distance from you
upon the Mount of Olives, I was thinking of the rank of the service for which I was sent, that it should be completed, and that my garment was not yet sent to me by the First Mystery, which is the 24th mystery from within outwards. These (24 mysteries) are in the second space of the First Mystery in the rank of that space. It happened now when I knew that the rank of the service for which I had been sent was completed, and that that mystery had not yet sent me the garment, which I had left behind within it until the time was completed - as I thought of these things, I was sitting upon the Mount of Olives at a short distance from you.
CHAPTER 7
It happened when the sun rose in the East now afterwards, through the First Mystery which had existed from the beginning, because of which ( the All existed, from which I myself have come just now - not prior to my crucifixion , but now - it happened through the command of that mystery, it sent me my garment of light, which it had given to me from the beginning, which I had left behind in the last mystery which is the 24th mystery from within outwards, these (24 mysteries) which are in the ranks of the second space of the First Mystery. That garment (of light) now I had left behind in the last mystery until the time was completed that I should put it on me, and that I should begin to speak with the race of mankind, and reveal to them all things from the beginning of the truth until its completion, and speak to them from the innermost of the inner to the outermost of the outer, and from the outermost of the outer to the innermost of the inner. Rejoice and be glad , and rejoice still more, that it is given to you that I should speak with you first from the beginning of the truth until its completion. Because of this indeed I have chosen you from the beginning ( through the First Mystery. Rejoice now and
be glad , because when I entered the world I brought the twelve powers with me, as I told you from the beginning, which I took from the twelve saviours of the Treasury of Light, according to the command of the First Mystery. These now I cast into the wombs of your mothers when I came into the world, and it is these which are in your bodies today. For these powers have been given to you above the whole world, for you are those who are able to save the whole world, so that you should be able to withstand the threat of the archons of the world, and the sufferings of the world and their dangers, and all their persecutions which the archons of the height will bring upon you. For I have said to you many times that the power which is within you I have brought from the twelve saviours, which are in the Treasury of Light. For this reason I have indeed said to you from the beginning that you are not from the world; I also am not from it . For all men who are in the world have received souls from (the power) of the arclions of the aeons. The power, however, which is in you, is from
me but your souls belong to the height. I have brought twelve powers of the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, taking them from the part of my power which I received at first. And when I entered the world I came to the midst of the archons of the sphere, and I took the likeness of Gabriel, the Angel of the aeons, and the archers of the aeons did not recognise me . But they thought that I was the Angel Gabriel. Now it happened that when I came into the midst of the archons of the aeons, I looked down at the world of mankind, at the command of the First Mystery. I found Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist , before she had conceived him and I cast into her a power which I had received from the Little Jao , the Good, who is in the Midst, so that he should be able to preach before me, and prepare my way and baptise with water of forgiveness . Now that power was in the body of John. And again, in place of the soul of the archons which he was due to receive, I found the soul of the prophet Elias in the aeons of the sphere; and I took it in and I took his soul again; I brought it to the Virgin of the Light, and she gave it to her paralemptors . They brought it to the sphere of the archons, and they cast it into the womb of Elisabeth. But the power of the Little Jao, he of the Midst, and the soul of the prophet Elias were bound in the body of John the Baptist. You doubted now at the time when I spoke to you because John said : 'I am not the Christ' and you said to me : 'lt is written in the scripture : when the Christ shall come,
there will come Elias before him and he will prepare his way’. But when you said this to me, I said to you : 'Elias has indeed come and he has prepared all things, as it is written : And they did to him as they pleased. And when I knew that you did not understand what I said to you concerning the soul of Elias, which was bound in John the Baptist, I answered you openly in speech, face to face, saying : 'lf it pleases you to accept John the Baptist, he is Elias of whom I have said that he will come'".
CHAPTER 8.
Jesus continued again speaking and said: "Now it happened after this, through the command of the First Mystery, I looked down again upon the world of mankind, I found Mary, who is called my mother according to the material body. I spoke to her in the type of Gabriel , and when she turned to the height towards me, I cast into her the first power which I had received from the Barbelo, which is the body which I wore in the height. And in place of the soul, I cast into her the power which I received from the great Sabaoth, the Good , who is in the place of the right. And the twelve powers of the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, which I received from the twelve servers which are in the Midst, I cast into the sphere of the archons. And the decans of the archons and their ministers thought that they were souls of the archons, and the ministers brought them, they bound them in the bodies of your mothers. And when your times were completed, they bore you into the world without there being souls of the archons in you. And you have received your parts from the power which the last helper (parastates) had breathed into the mixture, this (power) which is mixed with all the invisible
ones and all the archons and all the aeons. In a word, it is mixed with the world of destruction, namely the mixture. This (power) which, from the beginning, I brought out of myself, I cast into the first ordinance. And the first ordinance cast a part of it into the great light. And the great light cast a part of what it received into the five helpers (parastatai), and the last helper (parastates) took a part from what it received and cast it into the mixture. And (the part) has come to be in all who are in the mixture, as I have just said to you."
Now Jesus was saying these things to his disciples upon the Mount of Olives. Jesus now continued again in the discourse with his disciples: "Rejoice and be glad , and add joy to your joy, because the times are completed that I should put on my garment which was prepared for me from the beginning, which I left behind in the last mystery until the time of its completion. But the time of its completion is the time when I am commanded by the First Mystery to speak to you from the beginning of the truth to its fulfilment, and from the innermost of the inner (to the outermost of the outer), because the world will be saved by you. Rejoice and be glad because you are blessed beyond all men upon earth, because it is you who will save the whole world."
CHAPTER 9
It happened now when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he continued again with the discourse, and he said to them : "Behold, I have put on my garment and all authority is given to me through the First Mystery. Yet a little time, and I will tell you ( the mystery of the All and the pleroma of the All, and I will not hide anything from you from this hour, but in completion I will complete you in every pleroma and in every completion and in every mystery ; these are the completion of all completions and the Pleroma of all Pleromas and the gnosis of all gnoses, these which are in my garment. I will tell you all the mysteries from the outermost of the outer to the innermost of the inner. Hear, nevertheless, and I will tell you everything which has happened to me.
CHAPTER 10.
It happened now when the sun rose in the East, a great power of light came down, in which was my garment which I had left in the 24th mystery, as I have just been telling you. And I found a mystery in my garment, written in the manner of writing of those of the height :<lacuna untranslatable> whose interpretation is : 'O Mystery which art outside the world ,
because of which the All exists - this is the whole coming forth and the whole ascent which has emanated all emanations and all that is within them, and because of which all mysteries and all their places exist - come forth to us because we are thy fellow-members.
But we all with thee alone, we and thou are one and the same. Thou art the First Mystery which has existed from the beginning in the Ineffable One, before he went forth, and the name of that one is all of us. Now all together we will approach thee at the last boundary , which is the last mystery from within, itself a part of us. Now we have sent thee thy garment which has belonged to thee from the beginning, which thou didst leave in the last boundary, which is the last mystery from within, until its time was completed according to the command of the First Mystery.
Behold, the time is completed. Put it on, come to us, that we all approach thee to put on thee the First Mystery with all his glory, through his own command; as the First Mystery, having two garments , has given it to us that we should put it on thee, apart from this which we have sent thee because thou art worthy, since thou art first among us and thou didst exist before us . Because of this the First Mystery has sent to thee through us the mystery of his whole glory, having two garments. That is, in the first is all the glory of all the names of all the mysteries and all the emanations and the ranks of the spaces of the Ineffable One. And in the second garment is the whole glory of the name of all the mysteries and all the emanations which are in the ranks of the two spaces of the First Mystery. And in this garment which we have now sent thee is the glory of the name of the mystery of the informer, which is the first ordinance, and the mystery of the five incisions, and the mystery of the great messenger of the Ineffable, who is the great light, and the mystery of the five leaders who are the five helpers (parastatai). And furthermore, there is in that garment the glory of the name of the mystery of all the ranks of the emanations of the Treasury of the Light, and their saviours, and (the mystery on the ranks of the ranks,
which are the seven amens and the seven voices and the five trees and the three amens and the twin saviour, namely
the child of the child, and the mystery of the nine watchers of the three gates of the Treasury of the Light . And further-
more there is in it the whole glory of the name (of all those) who are on the right, and all those who are in the Midst. And furthermore there is in it the whole glory of the name of the great invisible one, who is the great forefather, and the mystery of the triple power, and the mystery, of their whole place, and the mystery, of all their invisible ones and of all those who are in the thirteenth aeon , and the name of the twelve aeons and of all their archons and all their archangels and all their angels, and of all those which are in the twelve aeons, and the whole mystery, of the names of all those which are in the Heimarmene and all the heavens. And the whole mystery of the name of all those in the sphere, and their firmaments and all those which are in them, and all their places. Behold now, we have sent thee that garment which no one knew, from the first ordinance downwards, because the glory of its light was hidden within it. And the spheres and all the places from the first ordinance downwards (did not know it). Behold now, put on this garment quickly.
Come to us that we approach thee to put on thee thy two garments, through the command of the First Mystery they having been for thee with the First Mystery since the beginning until the time appointed by the Ineffable One which contained their name. They were exceedingly afraid and all their bonds in which they were bound were loosened, and each one abandoned his rank. And they all prostrated themselves in my presence, they worshipped, saying : 'How
has the Lord of the All passed through us without our knowing?' And they all sang praises at once to the innermost of the inner. However they did not see me, but they saw the light alone and they were in great fear . And they
were greatly agitated, and they sang praises to the innermost of the inner.
CHAPTER 11
It happened now, when I saw the mystery, of all these words in the garment which was sent to me, I put it on in that hour, and I gave light exceedingly, and I flew to the height, and I came before the gate of the firmament, shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. And the gates of the firmament were agitated against one another, and they all opened at the same time. And all the archons and all the powers (exousiai) and all the angels therein were all agitated at the same time because of the great light which I had. And they looked upon the shining garment of light which I wore, they saw the mystery is completed. Behold the time is completed. Come now quickly to us that we put them on thee, until thou hast completed the whole service of the completion of the First Mystery, which is appointed by the Ineffable One. Come now quickly to us that we put them on thee, according to the command of the First Mystery. For yet a little time, an insignificant one, and thou wilt come to us and leave the world. Come now quickly, and thou shalt receive the whole glory which is the glory of the First Mystery
ii. It happened now, when I saw the mystery, of all these words in the garment which was sent to me, I put it on in that hour, and I gave light exceedingly, and I flew to the height, and I came before the gate of the firmament, shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. And the gates of the firmament were agitated against one another, and they all opened at the same time. And all the archons and all the powers (exousiai) and all the angels therein were all agitated at the same time because of the great light which I had. And they looked upon the shining garnient of light which I wore, they saw the mystery of their name within it. And they were increasingly agitated and they were in great fear, saying : "How has the Lord of the All passed through without our knowing?" And all their bonds were loosened, and their places and their ranks. And each one abandoned his rank. And they all prostrated themselves at the same time, they all worshipped in my presence or in the presence of my garment. And they all sang praises at the same time to the innermost of the inner, being in great fear and great agitation.
Chapter 12.
Nevertheless I left that place behind me, I came up to the first sphere shining exceedingly, 49 times more than when I gave light within the firmament. Now it happened when I reached the gate of the first sphere, its gates were agitated and they opened of themselves at the same time. I came into the houses of the spheres shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. And all the archons and all those who were in that sphere were agitated together. And they saw the great light which I had. And they looked upon my garment, they saw the mystery of their name within it. And they were increasingly agitated, and they were in great fear, saying: 'How, has the Lord of the All passed through us without our knowing?' And all their bonds were loosened, and their places and their ranks. And each one abandoned his rank. And they all prostrated themselves at the same time, they all worshipped in my presence or in the presence of my garment. And they all sang praises at the same time to the innermost of the inner, being in great fear and great agitation.
CHAPTER 13.
And I left that place behind me, I came to the gate of the second sphere, which is the Heimarmene. But all its gates were agitated and they opened of themselves . And I entered into the houses of the Heimarmene, shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, for I was shining in the Heimarmene 49 times more than in the sphere. And all the archons and all those who are in the Heimarmene were agitated and they fell upon one another, and were in very great fear as they saw the great light which I had. And they looked at my garment of light, they saw the mystery of their name in my garment, and they were increasingly agitated. They were in great fear, saying : 'How has the Lord of the All passed through us without our knowing?' And all the bonds of their places and their ranks and their houses were loosened. They all came at the same time, they prostrated themselves, they worshipped in my presence. And they all sang praises at the same time to the innermost of the inner, being in great fear and great agitation.
And I left that place behind me, I came to the gate of the second sphere, which is the Heimarmene. But all its gates were agitated and they opened of themselves . And I entered into the houses of the Heimarmene, shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, for I was shining in the Heimarmene 49 times more than in the sphere. And all the archons and all those who are in the Heimarmene were agitated and they fell upon one another, and were in very great fear as they saw the great light which I had. And they looked at my garment of light, they saw the mystery of their name in my garment, and they were increasingly agitated. They were in great fear, saying : 'How has the Lord of the All passed through us without our knowing?' And all the bonds of their places and their ranks and their houses were loosened. They all came at the same time, they prostrated themselves, they worshipped in my presence. And they all sang praises at the same time to the innermost of the inner, being in great fear and great agitation.
CHAPTER 14.
And I left that place behind me, I came upwards to the great aeons of the archons, I came before their veils and their gates shining exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light which I had. Now it happened when I reached the twelve aeons , their veils and their gates were agitated against one another. The veils drew themselves aside and the gates opened of themselves , and I entered into their aeons shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, 49 times greater than the light with which I was shining in the houses of the Heimarmene. And all the angels of the aeons and their archangels and their archons and their gods and their lords and their powers (exousiai) and their tyrants and their powers and their light-sparks and their luminaries and their unpaired ones and their invisible ones and their forefathers and their triple-powered glories, they saw me shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. And they were agitated against one another, and great fear came upon them as they saw the great light which I had. And their great agitation and their great fear reached to the place of the great invisible forefather and the three great triple-powered ones. However, because of the great fear from their agitation, the great forefather continued to run from side to side in his place,
he and the three triple-powered ones, and they could not close all their places because of the great fear in which they were. And they moved all their aeons at the same time, and all their spheres, and all their orders, fearing and greatly
agitated because of the great light which I had. Not as at the time when I had it, in which I was upon the earth of
mankind, when the garment of light came down upon me, for the world would not be able to bear the light as it is in
its reality, else the world and all that is upon it would be dissolved at the same time. But the light which I had in the twelve aeons was 8700 myriad times greater than that which I had with you in the world.
And I left that place behind me, I came upwards to the great aeons of the archons, I came before their veils and their gates shining exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light which I had. Now it happened when I reached the twelve aeons , their veils and their gates were agitated against one another. The veils drew themselves aside and the gates opened of themselves , and I entered into their aeons shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, 49 times greater than the light with which I was shining in the houses of the Heimarmene. And all the angels of the aeons and their archangels and their archons and their gods and their lords and their powers (exousiai) and their tyrants and their powers and their light-sparks and their luminaries and their unpaired ones and their invisible ones and their forefathers and their triple-powered glories, they saw me shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. And they were agitated against one another, and great fear came upon them as they saw the great light which I had. And their great agitation and their great fear reached to the place of the great invisible forefather and the three great triple-powered ones. However, because of the great fear from their agitation, the great forefather continued to run from side to side in his place,
he and the three triple-powered ones, and they could not close all their places because of the great fear in which they were. And they moved all their aeons at the same time, and all their spheres, and all their orders, fearing and greatly
agitated because of the great light which I had. Not as at the time when I had it, in which I was upon the earth of
mankind, when the garment of light came down upon me, for the world would not be able to bear the light as it is in
its reality, else the world and all that is upon it would be dissolved at the same time. But the light which I had in the twelve aeons was 8700 myriad times greater than that which I had with you in the world.
CHAPTER 15.
Now it happened when all those that were in the twelve aeons saw the great light which I had, they were all agitated against one another, and they ran from side to side in the aeons. And all the aeons and all the heavens and their whole order moved against one another, because of the great fear which they had because they did not know the mystery which had happened. And Adamas, the great tyrant , and all the tyrants which are in all the aeons began to wage war in vain against the light. And they did not know against whom they waged war, because they saw nothing except the greatly surpassing light. Now it happened when they waged war against the light, they were all exhausted together, and they were cast down into the aeons, and they became like the earth-dwellers who are dead and have no breath in them. And I took a third part of all their power so that they should not work their wicked actions, and in order that when men who are in the
world call upon them in their mysteries - those which the transgressing angels brought down, namely their magic - that when now they call upon them in their wicked actions, they are not able to complete them. And (as for) the Heimarmene and the sphere over which they rule, I turned them and caused them to spend six months turned to the left, as they complete their (periods of) influence, and to look to the right for six months, as they complete their (periods on influence. However, through the command of the first ordinance and through the command of the First Mystery, Jeu the Overseer of the Light had placed them so that they were looking to the left at all times, as they completed their (periods of) influence and their actions.
CHAPTER 16
Now it happened when I came to their place, they rebelled and waged war against the light. And I took a third part of their power, so that they should not be able to complete their wicked actions. And (as for) the Heimarmene and the sphere over which they rule, I turned them, I placed them looking to the left for six months, as they complete their (periods of) influence, and I placed them for another six months turning to the right, as they complete their (periods of) influence.
CHAPTER 17.
Now when he had said these things to his disciples, he said to them : "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". Now it happened when Mariam heard these words as the Saviour was saying them, she stared for one hour into
the air and said : "My Lord, command me that I speak openly".
Jesus, the compassionate, answered and said to Mariam : "Mariam, thou blessed one, whom I will complete in all the
mysteries of the height, speak openly, thou art she whose heart is more directed to the Kingdom of Heaven than all
thy brothers".
Now when he had said these things to his disciples, he said to them : "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". Now it happened when Mariam heard these words as the Saviour was saying them, she stared for one hour into
the air and said : "My Lord, command me that I speak openly".
Jesus, the compassionate, answered and said to Mariam : "Mariam, thou blessed one, whom I will complete in all the
mysteries of the height, speak openly, thou art she whose heart is more directed to the Kingdom of Heaven than all
thy brothers".
CHAPTER 18.
Then Mariam said to the Saviour: "My Lord, the word which thou hast spoken to us : 'Who has ears to hear, let him hear', thou say so that we may understand the word which thou hast spoken. Hear now, my Lord, for I will speak openly. The word which thou hast spoken: 'I have taken a third part of the power of the archons of all the aeons, and I have turned their Heimarmene and their sphere over which they rule, so that when the race of mankind call upon them in their mysteries - these which the transgressing angels have taught them for the completion of their evil and iniquitous deeds in the mystery of their magic - from this hour now they should not be able to complete their iniquitous deeds, because thou hast taken their power from them and from their astrologers and from their soothsayers and from those who tell men who are in the world all things which will happen, so that from this hour they will not understand anything which will happen
so as to tell it. For thou hast turned their sphere, and thou hast made them spend six months turned to the left, completing their (periods of) influence, and six months looking to the right, completing their (periods of) influence.' Now concerning this word, my Lord, the power within the prophet Isaiah has spoken thus and has related once in a spiritual parable, speaking about the vision of Egypt : 'Where now Egypt, where are thy soothsayers and thy astrologers, and those who call from the earth, and those who call from their bellies? Let them now tell thee, from this hour, the things which the Lord Sabaoth will do.' Now before thou didst come, the power within Isaiah, the prophet, prophesied concerning thee, that thou would take away the power of the archons of the aeons, and that thou wouldst turn their sphere and their Heimarmene, so that from this hour they would know nothing. Concerning this also it has said : 'You will not know what the Lord Sabaoth will do'. That is, none of the archons will know what things thou wilt do from this hour. They (the archons) are Egypt, because they are matter. The power within Isaiah has once prophesied about thee saying : 'You will not know from this hour what the Lord Sabaoth will do' Concerning the power of light which thou hast taken from Sabaoth the Good, who is in the place of the right, and which today is in thy material body, concerning this now, thou hast said to us, my Lord Jesus: 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear'~, so that thou shouldst know whose heart is directed towards the Kingdom of Heaven."
Then Mariam said to the Saviour: "My Lord, the word which thou hast spoken to us : 'Who has ears to hear, let him hear', thou say so that we may understand the word which thou hast spoken. Hear now, my Lord, for I will speak openly. The word which thou hast spoken: 'I have taken a third part of the power of the archons of all the aeons, and I have turned their Heimarmene and their sphere over which they rule, so that when the race of mankind call upon them in their mysteries - these which the transgressing angels have taught them for the completion of their evil and iniquitous deeds in the mystery of their magic - from this hour now they should not be able to complete their iniquitous deeds, because thou hast taken their power from them and from their astrologers and from their soothsayers and from those who tell men who are in the world all things which will happen, so that from this hour they will not understand anything which will happen
so as to tell it. For thou hast turned their sphere, and thou hast made them spend six months turned to the left, completing their (periods of) influence, and six months looking to the right, completing their (periods of) influence.' Now concerning this word, my Lord, the power within the prophet Isaiah has spoken thus and has related once in a spiritual parable, speaking about the vision of Egypt : 'Where now Egypt, where are thy soothsayers and thy astrologers, and those who call from the earth, and those who call from their bellies? Let them now tell thee, from this hour, the things which the Lord Sabaoth will do.' Now before thou didst come, the power within Isaiah, the prophet, prophesied concerning thee, that thou would take away the power of the archons of the aeons, and that thou wouldst turn their sphere and their Heimarmene, so that from this hour they would know nothing. Concerning this also it has said : 'You will not know what the Lord Sabaoth will do'. That is, none of the archons will know what things thou wilt do from this hour. They (the archons) are Egypt, because they are matter. The power within Isaiah has once prophesied about thee saying : 'You will not know from this hour what the Lord Sabaoth will do' Concerning the power of light which thou hast taken from Sabaoth the Good, who is in the place of the right, and which today is in thy material body, concerning this now, thou hast said to us, my Lord Jesus: 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear'~, so that thou shouldst know whose heart is directed towards the Kingdom of Heaven."
CHAPTER 19.
Now it happened when Maria finished saying these words, he said : "Excellent, Maria. Thou art blessed beyond all women upon earth, because thou shalt be the pleroma of all Pleromas and the completion of all completions."
But when Maria heard the Saviour saying these words, she rejoiced greatly and she came before Jesus, she prostrated
herself in his presence, she worshipped at his feet, she said to him : "My Lord, hear me that I question thee on this
word before thou speakest with us of the places to which thou hast gone". Jesus answered and said to Mariam : "Speak openly and do not fear. I will reveal all things which thou seekest".
CHAPTER 20.
She said : "My Lord, all men who know the mystery of the magic of all the archons of all the aeons, and the magic
of the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere, as the transgressing angels have taught them, when they
call upon them in their mysteries, that is their evil magic to prevent good things: will they, from this hour, fulfil them or not?"
Then Jesus answered and said to Maria : "They will not fulfil them in the manner in which they fulfilled them from the beginning, because I have taken a third part of their power. But they will borrow from those who know the mysteries of the magic of the third aeon. And when they call upon the mysteries of the magic of those who are in the third aeon, they will fulfil them well and certainly because I have not taken power from that place, according to the command of the First Mystery".
CHAPTER 21.
It happened, however, when Jesus finished speaking these words, Maria answered again and said : "My Lord, will the astrologers and the soothsayers not tell men, from this hour, what will happen?" Jesus answered, however, and said to Maria : "When the astrologers find the Heimarmene and the sphere turned to the left, according to their first distribution, then their words concur and they will say what is due to happen. But when they meet the Heimarmene or the sphere turned to the right, they do not speak anything of the truth, because I have turned their (periods of) influence and their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight , since their (periods of) influence remained turned to the left from the beginning, together with their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight. However, I have now caused them to spend six months turned to the left, and six months turned to the right. He who now will find their reckoning from the time when I turned them, placing them to spend six months looking to their left hand parts, and six months looking to
their right hand paths, and who will now consult them in this way, will know their (periods of) influence with certainty, and he will predict all things that they will do. Likewise also the soothsayers, when they call upon the name of the archons, and they meet them looking to the left, everything concerning which they will seek of their decans, they will tell them with certainty. However, when their soothsayers call upon their names as they are looking to the right, they will not hear them, because they look in another form than their first ordinance in which Jeu established them, since their names are other when they are turned to the left than when they are turned to the right. And when they call upon them as they are turned to the right, they will not speak the truth to them, but in confusion they will confuse them, and with threats they will threaten them. Those now who do not know their paths as they are turned to the right, with their triangles and their quadrangles and all their figures, they will find nothing of truth, but they will be confused in great confusion, and they will be in great
error, and they will be deluded in great delusion, because the works which they did in in the time when they were turned to the left in their quadrangles, in their triangles and in their figures of eight, these in which they continued as they were turned to the left, I have now turned. And I have caused them to spend six months making all their patterns turned to the right, so that they should be confused in confusion in their whole circuit. And furthermore I have caused them to spend six months turned to the left, doing the works of their (periods of) influence and all their patterns, so that the archons which are in the aeons and in their spheres and in their heavens and in all their places should be confused in confusion, and should wander in error, so that they should not understand their own paths".
CHAPTER 22.
It happened when Jesus finished saying these words, Philip sat writing every word as Jesus said them. Now after this it happened that Philip came forward, he prostrated himself and worshipped at the feet of Jesus, saying : "My Lord, Saviour, give me authority that I speak in thy presence and that I question thee on this discourse before thou speakest with us of the places to which thou hast gone for the sake of thy service". The compassionate Saviour answered, he said to Philip : "The authority is given to thee to deliver the discourse which thou dost wish". Then Philip answered and spoke to Jesus: "My Lord, for the sake of what mystery hast thou turned the bondage of the archons and their aeons and their Heimarmene and their sphere and all their places, and in confusion hast thou caused them to be confused in their paths, and to wander in their course? Hast thou now done this for the sake of the salvation of the world or not?"
CHAPTER 23.
Jesus answered, however, and said to Philip and all the disciples together : "I have turned their paths for the salvation of all souls. Truly, truly, I say to you : unless I had turned their paths a multitude of souls would have been destroyed. And they would have spent a long period if the archons of the aeons and the archons of the Heimarmene and the sphere and all their places and all their heavens and all their aeons were not dissolved. And the souls would have spent a great (period of) time outside. And there would have been delay in the completion of the number of perfect souls, which will be accounted among the inheritance of the height, through the mysteries, and will be in the Treasury of Light. Because of this, I have turned their paths so that they are confused and agitated, and give up the power which is in the matter of their world, which they make into souls, so that those that will be saved with all the power are purified quickly and ascend, and those who will not be saved are quickly dissolved".
CHAPTER 24.
It happened now when Jesus finished speaking these words to his disciples, Maria, the beautiful in her speech, came forward. The blessed one prostrated herself at the feet of Jesus and said : "My Lord, suffer me that I speak in thy presence, and be not angry with me because I trouble thee many times, questioning thee". The Saviour answered
compassionately, he said to Maria: "Speak the discourse which thou dost wish, and I will reveal it to thee openly""
Maria answered and said to Jesus : "'My Lord, in what manner would the souls be delayed outside or in what form
will they be quickly purified?"
CHAPTER 25.
However Jesus answered and said to Maria : "Excellent, Maria. Thou dost ask well with an excellent question and thou dost seek everything with certainty and with accuracy. Now indeed I will not conceal anything from you from this hour, but I will reveal everything to you with certainty and openly. Hear now, Maria, and give ear, all you disciples. Before I preached to all the archons of the aeons, and all the archons of the Heimarmene and the sphere, they were all bound with their bonds, in their spheres and their seals, according to the manner in which Jeu, the Overseer of the Light, had bound them from the beginning. And each one of them was continuing in his rank and each one was proceeding according to his course, according to the manner in which Jeu, the Overseer of the Light, had settled it. And when the time came of the number of Melchizedek, the great Paralemptor of Light, he came to the midst of the aeons, and to all the archons which were bound in the sphere and in the Heimarmene, and he took away what is purified of the light from all the archons of the aeons, and from all the archons of the Heimarmene, and from those of the sphere, for he took away that which agitated them. And he moved the hastener that is over them and made their cycles turn quickly, and he (Melchizedek) took away
their power which was in them, and the breath of their mouths, and the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their bodies. And Melchizedek, the Paralemptor of the Light, purified those powers, he carried their light to the Treasury of the Light. And all their matter was gathered together by the ministers of all the archons. And the ministers of all the archons of the Heimarmene and the ministers of the sphere which are below the aeons took them (the matter) and made them into souls of men and cattle and reptiles and beasts and birds. And they sent them to this world of mankind. And furthermore the paralemptors of the sun and the paralemptors of the moon when they looked up and they saw the patterns of the paths of the aeons, and the patterns of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere, they took the lightpower from them. And the paralemptors of the sun prepared to lay it down until they gave it to the paralemptor of Melchizedek, the purifier of the light. And their material dregs they brought to the sphere which is below the aeons, and they made it into the souls of men and they also made it into (souls of) reptiles and cattle and beasts and birds, according to the cycle of the archons of that sphere, and according to all the patterns of its revolution. And they cast them into this world of mankind, and they became souls in that place, according to what I have just told you.
CHAPTER 26
These things were now fully completed before their power diminished within them, and they declined and they weakened or they became powerless. It happened when they became weak, their power began to cease within them, and they became weak in their power. And their light, which was in their place, ceased. And their kingdom dissolved. And the All was quickly carried up. It happened now when these things in their time were known, and when the number of the cipher of Melchizedek, the Paralemptor (of the Light), occurred, he came forth, and he went into the midst of the archons of all the aeons, and to the midst of all the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere. And he agitated them, and he caused them quickly to abandon their circles, and immediately they were afflicted, and they cast the power out of themselves, out of the breath of their mouths, and out of the tears of their eyes, and out of the sweat of their bodies. And Melchizedek, the Paralemptor of the Light purified them, according to the manner in which he did so continually. And he took their light to the Treasury of the Light. And the matter of their dregs was surrounded and swallowed by all the archons of the aeons and the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere, and they did not allow them to go and become souls in the world. They now swallowed their matter, that they might not become powerless and weak, that their
power might not cease within them and their rulership (kingdom) dissolve. And they swallowed them so that they should not dissolve, but that they should be retarded, and should spend a great time until the completion of the number of perfect souls which would be in the Treasury of the Light.
These things were now fully completed before their power diminished within them, and they declined and they weakened or they became powerless. It happened when they became weak, their power began to cease within them, and they became weak in their power. And their light, which was in their place, ceased. And their kingdom dissolved. And the All was quickly carried up. It happened now when these things in their time were known, and when the number of the cipher of Melchizedek, the Paralemptor (of the Light), occurred, he came forth, and he went into the midst of the archons of all the aeons, and to the midst of all the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere. And he agitated them, and he caused them quickly to abandon their circles, and immediately they were afflicted, and they cast the power out of themselves, out of the breath of their mouths, and out of the tears of their eyes, and out of the sweat of their bodies. And Melchizedek, the Paralemptor of the Light purified them, according to the manner in which he did so continually. And he took their light to the Treasury of the Light. And the matter of their dregs was surrounded and swallowed by all the archons of the aeons and the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere, and they did not allow them to go and become souls in the world. They now swallowed their matter, that they might not become powerless and weak, that their
power might not cease within them and their rulership (kingdom) dissolve. And they swallowed them so that they should not dissolve, but that they should be retarded, and should spend a great time until the completion of the number of perfect souls which would be in the Treasury of the Light.
CHAPTER 27.
It happened now as the archons of the aeons and those of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere continued acting after this type; as they turned themselves they ate the dregs of their matter, they did not allow them to become souls in the world of mankind, so that they might be retarded as rulers. And the powers, namely the powers within them which were souls, spent a great time outside this. Now these remained making two cycles continually. It happened now when I came to go forth for the service for the sake of which I was appointed, through the command of the First Mystery, I came forth to the midst of the tyrants of the archons of the twelve aeons. And my garment of light was upon me, and I was shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had. Now it happened, when those tyrants saw the great light
which I had, the great Adamas, the Tyrant, and all the tyrants of the twelve aeons all began to wage war with the light of my garment, wishing to restrain it for themselves, so that they might still be retarded in their rulership (kingdom). These now acted thus, not knowing with whom they waged war. When they now rebelled and waged war with the light, I then turned the paths and the courses of their aeons, and the paths of their Heimarmene and their sphere, according to the command of the First Mystery, and I caused them to spend six months looking to the triangles of the left, and to the quadrangles, and to those in their aspect , and to their pattern of eight, according to the manner in which they were at first. But I turned their rotation or their aspect to another rank. And I caused them to spend another six months looking to the works of their (periods of) influence in the quadrangles of the right, and in their triangles, and in those which are in their aspect, and in their pattern of eight. And I caused the archons of the aeons to be confused with much confusion, and I caused them to wander in error, together with all the archons of the Heimarmene and those of the sphere. And I agitated them greatly. And they were now, from this time, not able to turn themselves to the dregs of their matter in order to swallow it, so that their places might be continually retarded, and so that they might spend a great time as rulers. But
when I had taken a third part of their power, I turned their sphere to cause them to spend (a period of) time looking to the left and to spend another (period of) time looking to the right. I turned their whole path and their whole course, and I caused the path of their course to be accelerated, so that they might be purified quickly, and they might go upwards quickly. And I lessened their cycles, and I made their path easier, and it was greatly accelerated, and they were confused in their path, and from this time they were not able to swallow the matter of the dregs of what is purified of their light. And further I lessened their times and their periods, so that the perfect number of souls which will receive mysteries and which will be in the Treasury of the Light should be completed quickly. And unless I had turned their courses and unless I had lessened their periods, they would not have allowed any souls to come to the world, on account of the matter of their dregs which they swallowed, and they would have destroyed a multitude of souls. On account of this now, I have said to you at this time : 'I have lessened the times for the sake of my chosen ones, otherwise none of the souls could have been saved'. But I have lessened the times and the periods for the sake of the perfect number of the souls which will receive mysteries, which are the chosen ones. And had I not lessened their periods, none of the material souls would have been saved, but they would have been consumed in the fire which is in the flesh of the archons. This now is the discourse on which you have questioned me with accuracy". It happened, however, when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, they all prostrated themselves at once, they worshipped him and they said to him : "We are blessed beyond all men, for thou hast revealed to us these great events".
CHAPTER 28.
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "Hear [hear] concerning the things which happened to me among the archons of the twelve aeons, and all their archons and their lords and their powers (exousiai) and their angels and their archangels. Now when they saw the garment of light which was upon me, they and their unpaired ones, each one of them saw the mystery of his name which was in the garment of light which was upon me. They all prostrated themselves together, they worshipped the garment of light which was upon me. And they all cried out at once, saying : 'How has the Lord of All passed through us without our knowing?' And they all sang praises at once to the innermost of the inner. And all their triple-powered ones and their great forefathers and their unbegotten ones and their self-begotten ones and their begotten ones and their gods and their light-sparks and their luminaries, in a word, all their great ones saw the tyrants of their place, that their power was diminished within them, and that they were in a state of weakness. And they were in great fear, to which there was no measure. And they contemplated the mystery of their name in my garment and they tried to come to worship the mystery of their name in my garment, and they were not able, on account of the great light which I had. But they worshipped at a little distance from me. However, they worshipped the light of my garment, and they all cried out at once as they sang praises to the innermost of the inner.
It happened moreover, when these things happened to the tyrants which are among the archons, they were all enfeebled,
they fell down in their aeons, and they became like men of this world who are dead, having no breath within them, as they did moreover at the time when I took away their power from them.
It happened now after this, when I came forth from those aeons, each one of all those who are in the twelve aeons were all bound within their ranks, and they completed their works according to the manner in which I had disposed it, that they should spend six months turned to the left, doing their works in their quadrangles, and their triangles and those in their aspects; and furthermore that they should spend another six months looking to the right, and to their triangles and their quadrangles and those in their aspects. Furthermore, this is the manner in which those who are in the Heimarmene and the sphere will proceed.
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "Hear [hear] concerning the things which happened to me among the archons of the twelve aeons, and all their archons and their lords and their powers (exousiai) and their angels and their archangels. Now when they saw the garment of light which was upon me, they and their unpaired ones, each one of them saw the mystery of his name which was in the garment of light which was upon me. They all prostrated themselves together, they worshipped the garment of light which was upon me. And they all cried out at once, saying : 'How has the Lord of All passed through us without our knowing?' And they all sang praises at once to the innermost of the inner. And all their triple-powered ones and their great forefathers and their unbegotten ones and their self-begotten ones and their begotten ones and their gods and their light-sparks and their luminaries, in a word, all their great ones saw the tyrants of their place, that their power was diminished within them, and that they were in a state of weakness. And they were in great fear, to which there was no measure. And they contemplated the mystery of their name in my garment and they tried to come to worship the mystery of their name in my garment, and they were not able, on account of the great light which I had. But they worshipped at a little distance from me. However, they worshipped the light of my garment, and they all cried out at once as they sang praises to the innermost of the inner.
It happened moreover, when these things happened to the tyrants which are among the archons, they were all enfeebled,
they fell down in their aeons, and they became like men of this world who are dead, having no breath within them, as they did moreover at the time when I took away their power from them.
It happened now after this, when I came forth from those aeons, each one of all those who are in the twelve aeons were all bound within their ranks, and they completed their works according to the manner in which I had disposed it, that they should spend six months turned to the left, doing their works in their quadrangles, and their triangles and those in their aspects; and furthermore that they should spend another six months looking to the right, and to their triangles and their quadrangles and those in their aspects. Furthermore, this is the manner in which those who are in the Heimarmene and the sphere will proceed.
CHAPTER 29.
Now it happened after these things I came to the height to the veils of the thirteenth aeon. Now it happened that when I reached their veils, they drew themselves and they opened to me. I entered into the thirteenth aeon, I found the Pistis Sophia below the thirteenth aeon alone, none of them being with her. But she dwelt in that place, sorrow and grieving because she had not been taken to the thirteenth aeon, her place in the height. And furthermore she was sorrowful on account of the torments which the Authades inflicted on her, he being one of the three triple-powered ones. But when I tell you about their extent, I will tell you the mystery of how these things happened. Now it happened, when the Pistis Sophia saw me shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, she was in great agitation and she looked at the light of my garment. She saw the mystery of her name in my garment and the whole glory of its mystery because she
was previously in the place of the height in the thirteenth aeon. But she was wont to sing praises to the light in the height which she saw in the veil of the Treasure of the Light. It happened now when she continued to sing praises to the
light in the height, all the archons, which are with the two great triple-powered ones, looked on, and also her invisible
one which is paired with her, and the other 22 invisible emanations - since the Pistis Sophia with her partner, with
the other 22 emanations make up the 24 emanations , which the great invisible forefather with the two great triple-powered ones has emanated."
Now it happened after these things I came to the height to the veils of the thirteenth aeon. Now it happened that when I reached their veils, they drew themselves and they opened to me. I entered into the thirteenth aeon, I found the Pistis Sophia below the thirteenth aeon alone, none of them being with her. But she dwelt in that place, sorrow and grieving because she had not been taken to the thirteenth aeon, her place in the height. And furthermore she was sorrowful on account of the torments which the Authades inflicted on her, he being one of the three triple-powered ones. But when I tell you about their extent, I will tell you the mystery of how these things happened. Now it happened, when the Pistis Sophia saw me shining exceedingly, there being no measure to the light which I had, she was in great agitation and she looked at the light of my garment. She saw the mystery of her name in my garment and the whole glory of its mystery because she
was previously in the place of the height in the thirteenth aeon. But she was wont to sing praises to the light in the height which she saw in the veil of the Treasure of the Light. It happened now when she continued to sing praises to the
light in the height, all the archons, which are with the two great triple-powered ones, looked on, and also her invisible
one which is paired with her, and the other 22 invisible emanations - since the Pistis Sophia with her partner, with
the other 22 emanations make up the 24 emanations , which the great invisible forefather with the two great triple-powered ones has emanated."
CHAPTER 30.
It happened now when Jesus said these things to his disciples, Mariam came forward and said : "My Lord, I heard thee at the time when thou didst say that the Pistis Sophia herself is one of the 24 emanations. How is she not in their place? Moreover thou hast said : 'I found her below the thirteenth aeon'." Jesus answered and said to his disciples : "It happened as the Pistis Sophia was in the thirteenth aeon in the place of all her brethren, the invisible ones who are the 24 emanations of the great invisible one it happened now, through the ordinance of the First Mystery, the Pistis Sophia looked to the height, she saw the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light, and she desired to go to that place. And she was not able to go to that place. Moreover she ceased performing the mystery of the thirteenth aeon, but she sang praises to the light of the height which she saw in the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light. Now it happened, as she sang praises to the place of the height, all the archons which are in the twelve aeons beneath hated her because she ceased from their mystery, and because she wished to go to the height and to make herself above them all. Now on account of these things
they were angry with her, and they hated her. And the great triple-powered Authades - the third triple-powered one who
is in the thirteenth aeon, who had been disobedient - had not emanated all that was purified of his inner power, nor had he given what was purified of his light at the time when the archons had given their purification, and he had wished to be lord over the whole thirteenth aeon and those beneath it. Now it happened when the archons of the thirteenth aeon were angry at the Pistis Sophia, who was above them, they hated her greatly. And the great triple-powered Authades, about whom I have just been speaking to you now, was also included among the archons of the twelve aeons, and he also was angry at the Pistis Sophia, and he hated her greatly, because she thought to go to the light which was above him. And he emanated from within himself a great lion-faced power. And from out of the matter within him, he emanated forth a further multitude of material emanations which were very powerful. And he sent them to the places below, to the parts of the Chaos, so that they should pursue the Pistis Sophia there and take her power from her, because she thought to go to the height which
is above them all, and because she ceased to perform their mystery, but she remained sorrowing, seeking the light which
she saw. And the archons which continued or persisted in performing the mystery hated her. And all the watchers which were at the gates of the aeons also hated her. It happened now after this, through the ordinance of the first ordinance, the great triple-powered Authades, -who is one of the three triple-powered ones, persecuted the 'Sophia in the thirteenth aeon, so that she should look at the parts below, so that she should see in that place his light power, which has a lion-face, and she should desire it, and come to that place, and her light would be taken from her.
It happened now when Jesus said these things to his disciples, Mariam came forward and said : "My Lord, I heard thee at the time when thou didst say that the Pistis Sophia herself is one of the 24 emanations. How is she not in their place? Moreover thou hast said : 'I found her below the thirteenth aeon'." Jesus answered and said to his disciples : "It happened as the Pistis Sophia was in the thirteenth aeon in the place of all her brethren, the invisible ones who are the 24 emanations of the great invisible one it happened now, through the ordinance of the First Mystery, the Pistis Sophia looked to the height, she saw the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light, and she desired to go to that place. And she was not able to go to that place. Moreover she ceased performing the mystery of the thirteenth aeon, but she sang praises to the light of the height which she saw in the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light. Now it happened, as she sang praises to the place of the height, all the archons which are in the twelve aeons beneath hated her because she ceased from their mystery, and because she wished to go to the height and to make herself above them all. Now on account of these things
they were angry with her, and they hated her. And the great triple-powered Authades - the third triple-powered one who
is in the thirteenth aeon, who had been disobedient - had not emanated all that was purified of his inner power, nor had he given what was purified of his light at the time when the archons had given their purification, and he had wished to be lord over the whole thirteenth aeon and those beneath it. Now it happened when the archons of the thirteenth aeon were angry at the Pistis Sophia, who was above them, they hated her greatly. And the great triple-powered Authades, about whom I have just been speaking to you now, was also included among the archons of the twelve aeons, and he also was angry at the Pistis Sophia, and he hated her greatly, because she thought to go to the light which was above him. And he emanated from within himself a great lion-faced power. And from out of the matter within him, he emanated forth a further multitude of material emanations which were very powerful. And he sent them to the places below, to the parts of the Chaos, so that they should pursue the Pistis Sophia there and take her power from her, because she thought to go to the height which
is above them all, and because she ceased to perform their mystery, but she remained sorrowing, seeking the light which
she saw. And the archons which continued or persisted in performing the mystery hated her. And all the watchers which were at the gates of the aeons also hated her. It happened now after this, through the ordinance of the first ordinance, the great triple-powered Authades, -who is one of the three triple-powered ones, persecuted the 'Sophia in the thirteenth aeon, so that she should look at the parts below, so that she should see in that place his light power, which has a lion-face, and she should desire it, and come to that place, and her light would be taken from her.
CHAPTER 31.
It happened now after this she looked down. She saw his power of light in the parts below, and she did not know that it was that of the triple-powered Authades. But she thought that it was from the light which she had seen from the beginning in the height, which was from the veil of the Treasury of the Light. And she thought to herself : "I will go to that place without my partner, and take the light, and create of it for myself aeons of light, so that I shall be able to go to the Light of Lights which is in the highest height." Now as she was thinking these things, she came forth from her place in the thirteenth aeon, and she came out to the twelve aeons . The archons of the aeons persecuted her, and they were angry with her, because she had thought to have greatness . However, she came forth from the twelve aeons, she came to the places of the Chaos. And she made her way to the light-power with a lion-face in order to swallow it. But all the material emanations of the Authades surrounded her. And the great light-power with a lion-face swallowed the light-powers in the Sophia. And it purified her light and swallowed it, and her matter was cast forth to the Chaos. There existed an archon with a lion-face in the Chaos, whose one half was fire and whose other half was darkness, namely Jaldabaoth, of whom I have spoken to you many times. Now when these things had happened, the Sophia became very greatly weakened. And
again that light-power with a lion-face began to take away all the light-powers from the Sophia. And all the material
powers of the Authades surrounded the Sophia at the same time, they oppressed her.
It happened now after this she looked down. She saw his power of light in the parts below, and she did not know that it was that of the triple-powered Authades. But she thought that it was from the light which she had seen from the beginning in the height, which was from the veil of the Treasury of the Light. And she thought to herself : "I will go to that place without my partner, and take the light, and create of it for myself aeons of light, so that I shall be able to go to the Light of Lights which is in the highest height." Now as she was thinking these things, she came forth from her place in the thirteenth aeon, and she came out to the twelve aeons . The archons of the aeons persecuted her, and they were angry with her, because she had thought to have greatness . However, she came forth from the twelve aeons, she came to the places of the Chaos. And she made her way to the light-power with a lion-face in order to swallow it. But all the material emanations of the Authades surrounded her. And the great light-power with a lion-face swallowed the light-powers in the Sophia. And it purified her light and swallowed it, and her matter was cast forth to the Chaos. There existed an archon with a lion-face in the Chaos, whose one half was fire and whose other half was darkness, namely Jaldabaoth, of whom I have spoken to you many times. Now when these things had happened, the Sophia became very greatly weakened. And
again that light-power with a lion-face began to take away all the light-powers from the Sophia. And all the material
powers of the Authades surrounded the Sophia at the same time, they oppressed her.
CHAPTER 32.
The Pistis Sophia cried out very much. She cried out to the Light of Lights which she had seen from the beginning, in which she had believed, and she said this repentance, speaking thus :
1. 'O Light of Lights, in whom I have believed from the beginning, hear my repentance now at this time, O Light; save me, O Light, for wicked thoughts have entered into me.
2. I looked, O Light, to the parts below. I saw a light in that place, and I thought : I will go to that place to receive that light. And I went, and I came to be in the darkness which is in the Chaos below. And I was not able to proceed out to go to my place, because I was oppressed among all the emanations of the Authades. And the lion-faced power took away my inner light.
3. And I cried out for help, and my voice did not penetrate the darkness. And I looked to the height, so that the Light in which I had believed might help me.
4. And when I looked to the height, I saw all the archons of the aeons , that they were numerous and they looked down upon me, rejoicing over me, although I had done nothing evil to them, but they had hated me without cause. And when the emanations of the Authades saw the archons of the aeons rejoicing over me, they knew that the archons of the aeons would not help me. And those emanations which oppressed me without cause were encouraged. And they took from me the light which I did not take from them.
5. Now at this time, O true Light, thou knowest that I have done these things in my simplicity, thinking that the lion-faced light belonged to thee, and the sin which I have committed is manifest in thy presence.
6. Do not now let me be lacking, O Lord, for I have believed in thy light from the beginning, O Lord, Light of the powers, do not let me now lack my light.
7. For on account of thee and thy light I have come to be in this oppression, and shame has covered me.
8. And because of the delusion of thy light, I have become a stranger to my brothers, the invisible ones, and also to the great emanations of the Barbelo.
9. These things happened to me, O Light, because I was eager for thy dwelling-place. And the anger of the Authades
came down upon me - this one who did not obey thy command to emanate from the enlanation of his power-because I was in his aeon and not performing his mystery.
10. And all the archons of the aeons mocked me.
11. And I was in that place, sorrowing and seeking the light which I had seen in the height.
12. And the watchers of the gates of the aeons were seeking me, and all those who continued in their mystery mocked me.
13. But I looked up to the height to thee, O Light. And I believed in thee. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, I am oppressed in the darkness of the Chaos. If now thou dost wish to come to save me - great is thy compassion - hear me truly and save me.
14. Save me out of the matter of this darkness, so that I shall not be immersed in it, and that I shall be saved from the emanations of the deity, Authades, which oppress me, and from their evils.
15. Do not allow this darkness to immerse me, and do not allow this lion-faced power to swallow up all my power
completely. And do not allow this Chaos to cover over my power.
16. Hear me O Light, for thy mercy is precious, and look down upon me, according to the great compassion of thy light.
17. Do not turn away thy face from me, for I am greatly afflicted.
18. Hear me quickly and save my power.
19. Save me, on account of the archons which hate me, for thou knowest my affliction and my torment, and the torment of my power which they have taken from me. Those who have put me into all these evils are in thy presence. Deal with them according to thy will.
20. My power looked forth from the midst of the Chaos, and from the midst of the darkness. I looked for my partner, that he should come and fight for me, and he did not come. And I looked that he should come and give power to me, and I did not find him.
21. And when I sought for light, I was given darkness. And when I sought for my power, I was given matter .
22. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, let the darkness and the matter which the emanations of the Authades have brought upon me become a snare for them, and let them be ensnared therein. And do thou repay them and bring
disgrace upon them, so that they do not come to the place of their Authades.
23. Let them remain in darkness and not see the light. Let them look at the Chaos at all times, and do not let them look at the height.
24. Bring down upon them their vengeance, and let thy judgement seize them.
25. Do not let them go to their place from this time, to their deity, Authades. And do not let his emanations go to their places from this time. Because their god is impious and insolent, because he thought that he had done these wicked things of himself, not knowing that, unless I was humbled according to thy ordinance, he would have had no power over me.
26. But when thou didst humble me, according to thy ordinance, I was persecuted the more. And their emanations
inflicted torments upon my humiliation.
27. And they took a light-power from me. And further- more they began to torment me greatly , in order to take away all the light that was in me. On account of these things into which I was put, do not let them go up to the thirteenth aeon, the place of righteousness.
28. And do not let them be numbered within the portion of those who purify themselves and their light. And do not let them be numbered among those who will repent quickly, so that they will quickly receive mysteries in the light.
29. For they have taken my light from me. And my power has begun to decrease within me. And I lack my light.
30. Now at this time, O Light which art in thee and with me, I sing praises to thy name, O Light, in glory.
31. And may my song of praise, O Light, please thee, like an excellent mystery which is received into the gates of light,
which those who will repent, will recite, and whose light they will purify.
32. Now at this time, let all material things rejoice; seek the light, all of you, so that the power of your souls, which is within you, may live.
33. Because the Light has heard the material things, and it will not leave any material things which it has not purified.
34. Let the souls and the material things bless the Lord of all the aeons ; the material things and all things in them.
35. For God will save their souls out of all matter, and a city will be prepared in the light; and all souls which will
be saved will dwell in that city, and they will inherit it.
36. And the soul of those who will receive mysteries will be in that place, and they who have received mysteries in
his name will be within it'."
The Pistis Sophia cried out very much. She cried out to the Light of Lights which she had seen from the beginning, in which she had believed, and she said this repentance, speaking thus :
1. 'O Light of Lights, in whom I have believed from the beginning, hear my repentance now at this time, O Light; save me, O Light, for wicked thoughts have entered into me.
2. I looked, O Light, to the parts below. I saw a light in that place, and I thought : I will go to that place to receive that light. And I went, and I came to be in the darkness which is in the Chaos below. And I was not able to proceed out to go to my place, because I was oppressed among all the emanations of the Authades. And the lion-faced power took away my inner light.
3. And I cried out for help, and my voice did not penetrate the darkness. And I looked to the height, so that the Light in which I had believed might help me.
4. And when I looked to the height, I saw all the archons of the aeons , that they were numerous and they looked down upon me, rejoicing over me, although I had done nothing evil to them, but they had hated me without cause. And when the emanations of the Authades saw the archons of the aeons rejoicing over me, they knew that the archons of the aeons would not help me. And those emanations which oppressed me without cause were encouraged. And they took from me the light which I did not take from them.
5. Now at this time, O true Light, thou knowest that I have done these things in my simplicity, thinking that the lion-faced light belonged to thee, and the sin which I have committed is manifest in thy presence.
6. Do not now let me be lacking, O Lord, for I have believed in thy light from the beginning, O Lord, Light of the powers, do not let me now lack my light.
7. For on account of thee and thy light I have come to be in this oppression, and shame has covered me.
8. And because of the delusion of thy light, I have become a stranger to my brothers, the invisible ones, and also to the great emanations of the Barbelo.
9. These things happened to me, O Light, because I was eager for thy dwelling-place. And the anger of the Authades
came down upon me - this one who did not obey thy command to emanate from the enlanation of his power-because I was in his aeon and not performing his mystery.
10. And all the archons of the aeons mocked me.
11. And I was in that place, sorrowing and seeking the light which I had seen in the height.
12. And the watchers of the gates of the aeons were seeking me, and all those who continued in their mystery mocked me.
13. But I looked up to the height to thee, O Light. And I believed in thee. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, I am oppressed in the darkness of the Chaos. If now thou dost wish to come to save me - great is thy compassion - hear me truly and save me.
14. Save me out of the matter of this darkness, so that I shall not be immersed in it, and that I shall be saved from the emanations of the deity, Authades, which oppress me, and from their evils.
15. Do not allow this darkness to immerse me, and do not allow this lion-faced power to swallow up all my power
completely. And do not allow this Chaos to cover over my power.
16. Hear me O Light, for thy mercy is precious, and look down upon me, according to the great compassion of thy light.
17. Do not turn away thy face from me, for I am greatly afflicted.
18. Hear me quickly and save my power.
19. Save me, on account of the archons which hate me, for thou knowest my affliction and my torment, and the torment of my power which they have taken from me. Those who have put me into all these evils are in thy presence. Deal with them according to thy will.
20. My power looked forth from the midst of the Chaos, and from the midst of the darkness. I looked for my partner, that he should come and fight for me, and he did not come. And I looked that he should come and give power to me, and I did not find him.
21. And when I sought for light, I was given darkness. And when I sought for my power, I was given matter .
22. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, let the darkness and the matter which the emanations of the Authades have brought upon me become a snare for them, and let them be ensnared therein. And do thou repay them and bring
disgrace upon them, so that they do not come to the place of their Authades.
23. Let them remain in darkness and not see the light. Let them look at the Chaos at all times, and do not let them look at the height.
24. Bring down upon them their vengeance, and let thy judgement seize them.
25. Do not let them go to their place from this time, to their deity, Authades. And do not let his emanations go to their places from this time. Because their god is impious and insolent, because he thought that he had done these wicked things of himself, not knowing that, unless I was humbled according to thy ordinance, he would have had no power over me.
26. But when thou didst humble me, according to thy ordinance, I was persecuted the more. And their emanations
inflicted torments upon my humiliation.
27. And they took a light-power from me. And further- more they began to torment me greatly , in order to take away all the light that was in me. On account of these things into which I was put, do not let them go up to the thirteenth aeon, the place of righteousness.
28. And do not let them be numbered within the portion of those who purify themselves and their light. And do not let them be numbered among those who will repent quickly, so that they will quickly receive mysteries in the light.
29. For they have taken my light from me. And my power has begun to decrease within me. And I lack my light.
30. Now at this time, O Light which art in thee and with me, I sing praises to thy name, O Light, in glory.
31. And may my song of praise, O Light, please thee, like an excellent mystery which is received into the gates of light,
which those who will repent, will recite, and whose light they will purify.
32. Now at this time, let all material things rejoice; seek the light, all of you, so that the power of your souls, which is within you, may live.
33. Because the Light has heard the material things, and it will not leave any material things which it has not purified.
34. Let the souls and the material things bless the Lord of all the aeons ; the material things and all things in them.
35. For God will save their souls out of all matter, and a city will be prepared in the light; and all souls which will
be saved will dwell in that city, and they will inherit it.
36. And the soul of those who will receive mysteries will be in that place, and they who have received mysteries in
his name will be within it'."
CHAPTER 33.
Now it happened, as Jesus said these words to his disciples, he said to them : "This is the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke in the first repentance, as she repented for her sin. And she spoke of all the things which had happened to her. Now at this time, he who has ears to hear, let him hear ."
Maria came forward again and said : "My Lord, there are ears to my man of light , and I hear in my light-power, and thy Spirit, which is with me, has made me sober. Hear now, that I may speak concerning the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, as she spoke of her sin, and all the things which had happened to her. Thy light-power once prophesied
about it through David, the prophet, in the 68th Psalm :
1. 'Save me, O God, for the waters have come in to my soul.
2. I have sunk or been immersed by the mire of the abyss, and there was no power. I came to the depths of the sea ; a storm wind overwhelmed me.
3. I have suffered as I cried out. My throat has gone. My eyes have failed as I waited upon God.
4. Those who hate me without cause have become more numerous than the hairs of my head. My enemies that persecute me with violence have become strong. They deprived me of those things which I did not steal.
5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from thee.
6. Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed on my account, O Lord, Lord of the powers. Let not those that seek thee be put to shame on my account, O Lord, God of Israel, God of the powers.
7. For I have borne disgrace on thy account; shame has covered my face.
8. I have become a stranger to my brothers, a stranger to the sons of my mother.
9. For the zeal of thy house has eaten me up. The reproaches of those who reproach thee have fallen upon me.
10. I bowed down my soul with fasting; it became a reproach to me.
11. I put sackcloth upon myself; I became a proverb to them.
12. They that sat in the gates talked against me ; and they that drink wine sang against me.
13. But I was praying in my soul to thee, O Lord ; it is the time of thy pleasure, O God ; in the magnitude of thy mercy,
hear truly for my salvation.
14. Save me from this mire, that I do not sink in it. Let me be saved from those that hate me and from the depths of the waters.
15. Let not the water flood immerse me. Let not the abyss swallow me up ; let not a pit close its mouth over me.
16. Hear me, O Lord, for beneficent is thy mercy; according to the magnitude of thy compassion look down upon me.
17. Turn not away thy face from thy servant, for I am afflicted.
18. Hear me quickly; give heed to my soul and save it.
19. Save me on account of my enemies; for thou knowest my reproach and my shame and my infamy. All that afflict
me are before thee.
20. My heart has looked for reproach and wretchedness ; I have looked for one to be sorrowful with me, I did not find
him ; and for one to comfort me, I did not meet him.
21. They gave me gall for my food; they made me drink vinegar for my thirst.
22. Let their table become a snare in their presence; and a stumbling block and a retribution and a disgrace.
23. Do thou bend their backs at all times.
24. Pour out upon them thy wrath, and let the fury of thy wrath take hold of them.
25. Let their dwelling-place be made desolate and let there be no inhabitant in their dwelling-places.
26. For they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten ; they have added to the pain of their blow .
27. They have added iniquity to their iniquities; let them not come into thy righteousness.
28. Let them be effaced from the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.
29. I am a poor man and also a sorrowful one; the salvation of thy face, O God, is that which has accepted me.
30. I will bless the name of God in song, and raise him up in blessing.
31. It will please God more than a young bull which carries horns and hoofs.
32. Let the poor see and rejoice ; seek God that your souls may live.
33. For the Lord has heard the poor and he has not despised those in fetters .
34. Let the heavens and the earth bless the Lord, the sea and all that are within it.
35. For God will save Zion ; and the cities of Judaea will be built, and (men) will dwell there and inherit it.
36. The seed of his servants will take possession of it, and they that love his name will dwell in it'."
Now it happened, as Jesus said these words to his disciples, he said to them : "This is the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke in the first repentance, as she repented for her sin. And she spoke of all the things which had happened to her. Now at this time, he who has ears to hear, let him hear ."
Maria came forward again and said : "My Lord, there are ears to my man of light , and I hear in my light-power, and thy Spirit, which is with me, has made me sober. Hear now, that I may speak concerning the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, as she spoke of her sin, and all the things which had happened to her. Thy light-power once prophesied
about it through David, the prophet, in the 68th Psalm :
1. 'Save me, O God, for the waters have come in to my soul.
2. I have sunk or been immersed by the mire of the abyss, and there was no power. I came to the depths of the sea ; a storm wind overwhelmed me.
3. I have suffered as I cried out. My throat has gone. My eyes have failed as I waited upon God.
4. Those who hate me without cause have become more numerous than the hairs of my head. My enemies that persecute me with violence have become strong. They deprived me of those things which I did not steal.
5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from thee.
6. Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed on my account, O Lord, Lord of the powers. Let not those that seek thee be put to shame on my account, O Lord, God of Israel, God of the powers.
7. For I have borne disgrace on thy account; shame has covered my face.
8. I have become a stranger to my brothers, a stranger to the sons of my mother.
9. For the zeal of thy house has eaten me up. The reproaches of those who reproach thee have fallen upon me.
10. I bowed down my soul with fasting; it became a reproach to me.
11. I put sackcloth upon myself; I became a proverb to them.
12. They that sat in the gates talked against me ; and they that drink wine sang against me.
13. But I was praying in my soul to thee, O Lord ; it is the time of thy pleasure, O God ; in the magnitude of thy mercy,
hear truly for my salvation.
14. Save me from this mire, that I do not sink in it. Let me be saved from those that hate me and from the depths of the waters.
15. Let not the water flood immerse me. Let not the abyss swallow me up ; let not a pit close its mouth over me.
16. Hear me, O Lord, for beneficent is thy mercy; according to the magnitude of thy compassion look down upon me.
17. Turn not away thy face from thy servant, for I am afflicted.
18. Hear me quickly; give heed to my soul and save it.
19. Save me on account of my enemies; for thou knowest my reproach and my shame and my infamy. All that afflict
me are before thee.
20. My heart has looked for reproach and wretchedness ; I have looked for one to be sorrowful with me, I did not find
him ; and for one to comfort me, I did not meet him.
21. They gave me gall for my food; they made me drink vinegar for my thirst.
22. Let their table become a snare in their presence; and a stumbling block and a retribution and a disgrace.
23. Do thou bend their backs at all times.
24. Pour out upon them thy wrath, and let the fury of thy wrath take hold of them.
25. Let their dwelling-place be made desolate and let there be no inhabitant in their dwelling-places.
26. For they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten ; they have added to the pain of their blow .
27. They have added iniquity to their iniquities; let them not come into thy righteousness.
28. Let them be effaced from the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.
29. I am a poor man and also a sorrowful one; the salvation of thy face, O God, is that which has accepted me.
30. I will bless the name of God in song, and raise him up in blessing.
31. It will please God more than a young bull which carries horns and hoofs.
32. Let the poor see and rejoice ; seek God that your souls may live.
33. For the Lord has heard the poor and he has not despised those in fetters .
34. Let the heavens and the earth bless the Lord, the sea and all that are within it.
35. For God will save Zion ; and the cities of Judaea will be built, and (men) will dwell there and inherit it.
36. The seed of his servants will take possession of it, and they that love his name will dwell in it'."
CHAPTER 34.
Now it happened when Mariam finished saying these words to Jesus in the midst of the disciples, she said to him ; "My Lord, this is the interpretation of the mystery of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia". It happened now when Jesus heard Mariam saying these words, he said to her : "Excellent, Mariam, thou blessed one, thou Pleroma or thou all-blessed Pleroma, who will be blessed among all generations"
Now it happened when Mariam finished saying these words to Jesus in the midst of the disciples, she said to him ; "My Lord, this is the interpretation of the mystery of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia". It happened now when Jesus heard Mariam saying these words, he said to her : "Excellent, Mariam, thou blessed one, thou Pleroma or thou all-blessed Pleroma, who will be blessed among all generations"
CHAPTER 35.
Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said : "The Pistis Sophia continued again, she also sang a second repentance, in which she spoke thus :
1. 'O Light of Lights, I have believed in thee. Do not leave me in the darkness until the completion of my time.
2. Help me and save me in thy mysteries. Incline thy ear to me and save me.
3. Let the power of thy light save me and carry me to the aeons on high, for it is thou who savest me and takest me to
the height of thy aeons.
4. Save me, O Light, from the hand of this lion-faced power, and from the hands of the enianations of the deity, Authades.
5. For thou, O Light, art the one in whose light I have believed and in whose light I have trusted from the beginning.
6. And I have believed in it from the hour that it emanated me forth. And thou indeed art he who caused me to be
emanated forth. And I have indeed believed in thy light from the beginning.
7. And when I believed in thee, the archons of the aeons mocked me, saying : she has ceased in her mystery. It is thou
who wilt save me. And thou art my Saviour. And thou art my mystery, O Light.
8. My mouth has been filled with glory, so that I might tell the mystery of thy greatness at all times.
9. Now, O Light, do not leave me in the Chaos during the completion of my whole time. Do not abandon me, O Light.
10. For my whole light-power has been taken away from me. And all the enianations of the Authades have surrounded me. They wanted to take all my light from me completely, and they watched for my power.
11. They were saying at the same time to one another : the light has left her ; let us seize her and take away all the light within her.
12. <illegible>.
13. May those who want to take away my power fall and become powerless. May those who want to take away my
light-power from me be wrapped in darkness and exist in powerlessness. This is the second repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, singing praises to the light."
Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said : "The Pistis Sophia continued again, she also sang a second repentance, in which she spoke thus :
1. 'O Light of Lights, I have believed in thee. Do not leave me in the darkness until the completion of my time.
2. Help me and save me in thy mysteries. Incline thy ear to me and save me.
3. Let the power of thy light save me and carry me to the aeons on high, for it is thou who savest me and takest me to
the height of thy aeons.
4. Save me, O Light, from the hand of this lion-faced power, and from the hands of the enianations of the deity, Authades.
5. For thou, O Light, art the one in whose light I have believed and in whose light I have trusted from the beginning.
6. And I have believed in it from the hour that it emanated me forth. And thou indeed art he who caused me to be
emanated forth. And I have indeed believed in thy light from the beginning.
7. And when I believed in thee, the archons of the aeons mocked me, saying : she has ceased in her mystery. It is thou
who wilt save me. And thou art my Saviour. And thou art my mystery, O Light.
8. My mouth has been filled with glory, so that I might tell the mystery of thy greatness at all times.
9. Now, O Light, do not leave me in the Chaos during the completion of my whole time. Do not abandon me, O Light.
10. For my whole light-power has been taken away from me. And all the enianations of the Authades have surrounded me. They wanted to take all my light from me completely, and they watched for my power.
11. They were saying at the same time to one another : the light has left her ; let us seize her and take away all the light within her.
12. <illegible>.
13. May those who want to take away my power fall and become powerless. May those who want to take away my
light-power from me be wrapped in darkness and exist in powerlessness. This is the second repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, singing praises to the light."
CHAPTER 36.
It happened now, when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he said : "Do you understand in what
manner I am speaking with you?" Peter leapt forward, he said to Jesus : "My Lord, we are not able to suffer this woman who takes the opportunity from us, and does not allow anyone of us to speak, but she speaks many times." Jesus answered, he said to his disciples : "Let him in whom the power of his Spirit has welled up so that he understands what I say, come forward and speak. Nevertheless, thou Peter, I see thy power within thee understands the interpretation of the mystery of the repentantce which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Now at this time do thou, Peter, speak the thought of her repentance in the midst of thy brethren." Peter answered, however, he said to Jesus : "Lord, hear, so that I say the thought of her repentance, about which thy power once prophesied through David the prophet, saying her repentance in the 70th Psalm :
1. 'O God, my God, I have trusted in thee; let me never be put to shame.
2. Save me in thy righteousness and deliver me. Incline thy ear to me and save me.
3. Be to me a strong God and a fortified place to save me ; for thou art my strength and my place of refuge.
4. My God, save me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the lawless and the impious.
5. For thou, O Lord, art my endurance; O Lord, thou art my hope from my youth.
6. I have relied upon thee from the womb; thou hast brought me forth from my mother's womb; my memory is of thee at all times.
7. I have become for many like the crazy; thou art my help and my strength, thou art my Saviour, O Lord.
8. My mouth has been filled with blessings, so that I might bless the glory of thy greatness all the day.
9. Cast me not out in the time of my old age; when my soul diminishes, do not forsake me.
10. For my enemies have spoken evil against me; and they who lie in wait for my soul have taken counsel against my soul.
11. Saying at the same time : God has forsaken him ; run and seize him, for there is none to save him.
12. O God, give heed to my help.
13. Let those that slander my soul be brought to shame and diminished; let those who seek evil against me be clothed with shame and disgrace.' This now is the interpretation of the second repentance which the Pistis Sophia said."
CHAPTER 37.
The Saviour answered and said to Peter : " Well done, Peter, this is the interpretation of her repentance. You are blessed beyond all men upon earth, for I have revealed to you these mysteries. Truly, truly, I say to you : I will fulfill you in every pleroma, from the mysteries of the inner to the mysteries of the outer. And I will fill you with Spirit so that you are called Pneumatics, fulfilled in every pleroma. And truly, truly, I say to you that I will give you all the mysteries of all the places of my Father, and all the places of the First Mystery, so that he whom you receive on earth will be received into the light of the height. And he whom you cast out upon earth will be cast out of the Kingdom of my Father which is in heaven . Nevertheless now hear and give ear to all the repentances which the Pistis Sophia said. She continued again and spoke the third repentance, saying :
1. 'O Light of the powers, give heed and save me.
2. May those that want to take away my light from me fail and he in darkness. Let them return to the Chaos, and may those who want to take away my power be put to shame.
3. May those that persecute me and say : we have become lords over her, return quickly to the darkness.
4. May all those who seek after the light rejoice and flourish and may they who want thy mystery say at all times : let the mystery be raised up.
5. Do thou now at this time save me, O Light, for I am lacking in my light, which has been taken away. And I need my power which has been taken from me. Thou, O Light, thou art my Saviour, and thou art my rescuer, O Light. Save me quickly out of this Chaos'."
CHAPTER 38.
It happened, however, when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, saying: "This is the third repentance which the Pistis Sophia said", he said to them : "Let him in whom the Spirit of perception has arisen, come forward and speak with understanding of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said".
It happened now, before Jesus had finished speaking, Martha came forward, she prostrated herself at his feet, she kissed them. She cried out, she wept aloud in humility, saying: "My Lord, have mercy on me, and be compassionate towards me, and allow me to say the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said".
And Jesus gave Martha his hand , he said to her : "Blessed is every man who humbles himself, for to him will mercy be
given . Now at this time, Martha, thou art blessed. Never- ‘ give now the interpretation of the thought of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia". Martha, however, answered and said to Jesus in the midst of the disciples : "Concerning the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, O my Lord Jesus, thy light-power which was in David once prophesied in the 69th psalm, saying :
1. O Lord God, give heed to my help.
2. Let those that seek after my soul be put to shame and disgraced.
3. May those that say to me : excellent, excellent, be turned back immediately and put to shame.
4. May all those that seek after thee be glad and rejoice over thee; and may those that love thy salvation say at all times : let God be exalted.
5. But I am poor and I am needy. O Lord, help me ; thou art my help and my defence. O Lord, do not delay.' This now is the interpretation of the third repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, singing praises to the height."
It happened, however, when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, saying: "This is the third repentance which the Pistis Sophia said", he said to them : "Let him in whom the Spirit of perception has arisen, come forward and speak with understanding of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said".
It happened now, before Jesus had finished speaking, Martha came forward, she prostrated herself at his feet, she kissed them. She cried out, she wept aloud in humility, saying: "My Lord, have mercy on me, and be compassionate towards me, and allow me to say the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said".
And Jesus gave Martha his hand , he said to her : "Blessed is every man who humbles himself, for to him will mercy be
given . Now at this time, Martha, thou art blessed. Never- ‘ give now the interpretation of the thought of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia". Martha, however, answered and said to Jesus in the midst of the disciples : "Concerning the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, O my Lord Jesus, thy light-power which was in David once prophesied in the 69th psalm, saying :
1. O Lord God, give heed to my help.
2. Let those that seek after my soul be put to shame and disgraced.
3. May those that say to me : excellent, excellent, be turned back immediately and put to shame.
4. May all those that seek after thee be glad and rejoice over thee; and may those that love thy salvation say at all times : let God be exalted.
5. But I am poor and I am needy. O Lord, help me ; thou art my help and my defence. O Lord, do not delay.' This now is the interpretation of the third repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, singing praises to the height."
CHAPTER 39.
It happened now when Jesus heard Martha saying these words, he said : "Excellent, Martha, and well done." Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "The Pistis Sophia continued again with the fourth repentance, saying it when the lion-faced power and all the material emanations with it, which the Authades had sent to
the Chaos, had not yet afflicted her for the second time, to take away all the remaining light which was in her. She now said this repentance thus :
1. 'O Light whom I have trusted, hear my repentance; and let my voice come into thy dwelling-place.
2. Do not turn thy image of light away from me, but give heed to me. If they oppress me, save me quickly at the time when I cry to thee.
3. For my time has vanished like a breath, and I have become matter.
4. My light has been taken from me, and my power has dried up. I have forgotten my mystery which I performed at first.
5. Through the voice of fear and the power of the Authades, my power has diminished within me.
6. I have become like a peculiar demon, which dwells in matter, in whom is no light. And I have become like a spirit counterpart which is in a material body, in which there is no light-power.
7. And I have become like a decan, which is upon the air alone.
8. The emanations of the Authades have afflicted me greatly; and my partner has spoken of it thus : in place of the light within her, they have filled her with Chaos .
9. I have swallowed the sweat of my matter myself and the anguish of the tears of the matter of my eyes, lest those that oppress me take away these things also.
10. All these things have happened to me, O Light, through thy ordinance and with thy command. And it is thy ordinance that I should be among these things.
11. Thy ordinance has brought me down, and I have come down like a power of the Chaos.; and my power has congealed within me.
12. But thou, O Lord, art eternal light; and at all times thou dost seek those who are oppressed.
13. Now at this time, O Light, arise and seek after my power and my soul within me. Thy ordinance is completed, which thou hast ordained for me in my affliction. My time has come, that thou shouldst seek after my power and my soul, and this is the time which thou hast ordained to seek me ;
14. For thy saviours have sought after the power which is in my soul, because the number is completed, and that they should save its matter also.
15. And then in that time all the archon. of the material aeons will fear before thy light: and all the emanations of the thirteenth material aeon will fear before the mystery of thy light, that the others may put on themselves what is purified of their light.
16. For the Lord will seek after the power of your souls; he has revealed his mystery.
17. For he will look at the repentance of those who are in the places below; and he has not overlooked their repentance.
18. This is that mystery which has become a type for the race which will be born ; and the race which will be born will
sing praises to the height.
19. For the light has looked forth from the height of his light. He will look down upon all matter ;
20. To hear the groaning of those that are bound; to release the power of the souls whose power is bound.
21. To place his name in the soul, and his mystery in the Power
It happened now when Jesus heard Martha saying these words, he said : "Excellent, Martha, and well done." Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "The Pistis Sophia continued again with the fourth repentance, saying it when the lion-faced power and all the material emanations with it, which the Authades had sent to
the Chaos, had not yet afflicted her for the second time, to take away all the remaining light which was in her. She now said this repentance thus :
1. 'O Light whom I have trusted, hear my repentance; and let my voice come into thy dwelling-place.
2. Do not turn thy image of light away from me, but give heed to me. If they oppress me, save me quickly at the time when I cry to thee.
3. For my time has vanished like a breath, and I have become matter.
4. My light has been taken from me, and my power has dried up. I have forgotten my mystery which I performed at first.
5. Through the voice of fear and the power of the Authades, my power has diminished within me.
6. I have become like a peculiar demon, which dwells in matter, in whom is no light. And I have become like a spirit counterpart which is in a material body, in which there is no light-power.
7. And I have become like a decan, which is upon the air alone.
8. The emanations of the Authades have afflicted me greatly; and my partner has spoken of it thus : in place of the light within her, they have filled her with Chaos .
9. I have swallowed the sweat of my matter myself and the anguish of the tears of the matter of my eyes, lest those that oppress me take away these things also.
10. All these things have happened to me, O Light, through thy ordinance and with thy command. And it is thy ordinance that I should be among these things.
11. Thy ordinance has brought me down, and I have come down like a power of the Chaos.; and my power has congealed within me.
12. But thou, O Lord, art eternal light; and at all times thou dost seek those who are oppressed.
13. Now at this time, O Light, arise and seek after my power and my soul within me. Thy ordinance is completed, which thou hast ordained for me in my affliction. My time has come, that thou shouldst seek after my power and my soul, and this is the time which thou hast ordained to seek me ;
14. For thy saviours have sought after the power which is in my soul, because the number is completed, and that they should save its matter also.
15. And then in that time all the archon. of the material aeons will fear before thy light: and all the emanations of the thirteenth material aeon will fear before the mystery of thy light, that the others may put on themselves what is purified of their light.
16. For the Lord will seek after the power of your souls; he has revealed his mystery.
17. For he will look at the repentance of those who are in the places below; and he has not overlooked their repentance.
18. This is that mystery which has become a type for the race which will be born ; and the race which will be born will
sing praises to the height.
19. For the light has looked forth from the height of his light. He will look down upon all matter ;
20. To hear the groaning of those that are bound; to release the power of the souls whose power is bound.
21. To place his name in the soul, and his mystery in the Power
CHAPTER 40.
It happened, however, while Jesus was speaking these words to his disciples, saying to them : "This is the fourth
repentance which the Pistis Sophia said; now at this time let him who understands understand" - now it happened
when Jesus said these words, John came forward. He kissed (lit. worshipped) the breast of Jesus, he said : "My Lord,
command me also and allow, me that I speak the interpretation of the fourth repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke". Jesus said to John: "I command thee and I allow thee to give (lit, say) the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
John answered, he said : "My Lord Saviour, concerning this repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke, thy light-power, which was in David, once prophesied about it in the 101st Psalm:
1. 'Lord, hear my prayer and let my voice come to thee.
2. Turn not thy face away from me ; incline thy ear to me in the day of my affliction ; hear me quickly in the day when I shall cry to thee.
3. For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones are parched like a stone.
4. I am scorched like grass and my heart is dried up ; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.
5. From the voice of my groaning my bone has cleaved to my flesh.
6. I have become like a pelican in the wilderness. I have become like an owl in a house.
7. I have spent nights of vigil; I have become like a sparrow alone upon a roof.
8. My enemies have reproached me all day long ; and those that honour me have sworn against me.
9. For I have eaten ashes in place of my bread; I have mixed my drink with tears;
10. In the presence of thy wrath and thy anger; for thou hast lifted me up, thou hast cast me down.
11. My days have declined like a shadow, and I am dried up like grass-
l2. But thou, O Lord, dost exist for ever ; and thy memory from generation to generation .
13. Do thou arise and be compassionate to Zion; for it is (lit. has happened) time for compassion to her; for the
appointed time has come.
14. Thy servants have desired her stones; and they will show pity on her land.
15. The peoples will fear the name of the Lord and the kings of the earth will fear thy glory.
16. For the Lord will build Zion and be manifest in his glory'
17. He has looked upon the prayer of the humble, and he has not despised their petition.
18. Let this be written for another generation; and the people which will be created will bless the Lord.
19. Because he has looked forth upon his holy height; the Lord has looked forth from heaven upon the earth;
20. To hear the groaning of those that are bound, to release the sons of those who have been killed;
21. To speak the name of the Lord in Zion, and his blessing in Jerusalem.
This, my Lord, is the interpretation of the mystery of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
It happened, however, while Jesus was speaking these words to his disciples, saying to them : "This is the fourth
repentance which the Pistis Sophia said; now at this time let him who understands understand" - now it happened
when Jesus said these words, John came forward. He kissed (lit. worshipped) the breast of Jesus, he said : "My Lord,
command me also and allow, me that I speak the interpretation of the fourth repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke". Jesus said to John: "I command thee and I allow thee to give (lit, say) the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
John answered, he said : "My Lord Saviour, concerning this repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke, thy light-power, which was in David, once prophesied about it in the 101st Psalm:
1. 'Lord, hear my prayer and let my voice come to thee.
2. Turn not thy face away from me ; incline thy ear to me in the day of my affliction ; hear me quickly in the day when I shall cry to thee.
3. For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones are parched like a stone.
4. I am scorched like grass and my heart is dried up ; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.
5. From the voice of my groaning my bone has cleaved to my flesh.
6. I have become like a pelican in the wilderness. I have become like an owl in a house.
7. I have spent nights of vigil; I have become like a sparrow alone upon a roof.
8. My enemies have reproached me all day long ; and those that honour me have sworn against me.
9. For I have eaten ashes in place of my bread; I have mixed my drink with tears;
10. In the presence of thy wrath and thy anger; for thou hast lifted me up, thou hast cast me down.
11. My days have declined like a shadow, and I am dried up like grass-
l2. But thou, O Lord, dost exist for ever ; and thy memory from generation to generation .
13. Do thou arise and be compassionate to Zion; for it is (lit. has happened) time for compassion to her; for the
appointed time has come.
14. Thy servants have desired her stones; and they will show pity on her land.
15. The peoples will fear the name of the Lord and the kings of the earth will fear thy glory.
16. For the Lord will build Zion and be manifest in his glory'
17. He has looked upon the prayer of the humble, and he has not despised their petition.
18. Let this be written for another generation; and the people which will be created will bless the Lord.
19. Because he has looked forth upon his holy height; the Lord has looked forth from heaven upon the earth;
20. To hear the groaning of those that are bound, to release the sons of those who have been killed;
21. To speak the name of the Lord in Zion, and his blessing in Jerusalem.
This, my Lord, is the interpretation of the mystery of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
CHAPTER 41.
Now it happened when John finished saying these words to Jesus in the midst of his disciples, he said to him : "Excellent, John, thou virgin who wilt rule in the Kingdom of the Light,"
Jesus, however, continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "it happened again thus : the emanations of the Authades oppressed the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos (es). They wanted to take away all her light, and the ordinance
was not yet completed to bring her forth from the Chaos, and the command had not yet come to me through the First
Mystery to save her from the Chaos. Now it happened, when all the material emanations of the Authades oppressed her,
she cried out and spoke the fifth repentance, saying :
1. 'O Light of my salvation, I sing praise to thee in the place of the height, and again in the Chaos.
2. I will sing praise to thee in my song, with which I have praised thee in the height, and with which I have praised thee when I was in the Chaos; may it reach thee. And give heed, O Light, to my repentance.
3. My power has been filled with darkness; and my light has come down to the Chaos.
4. I have become like the archons of the Chaos which have gone to the darkness below; I have become like a material body, which has no one in the height who will save it.
5. I have become like material things whose power has been taken from them as they were cast into the Chaos, which thou hast not saved; and they have been destroyed by thy ordinance.
6. Now at this time I have been placed in the darkness below, in dark things and in material things which are dead ;
and there is no power within them.
7. Thou hast brought thy ordinance upon me ; with all things which thou hast ordained.
8. And the Spirit has departed and left me; and again, through thy ordinance, the emanations of my aeon have not
helped me ; and they have hated me and they have ceased towards me, and yet I am not completely destroyed.
9. And my light has diminished within me, and I have cried out to the light with all the light that is in me ; and I have stretched out my hands to thee.
10. Now at this time, O Light, wilt thou perhaps fulfill thy ordinance in the Chaos? And will the saviours, perhaps, who
came according to thy ordinance, arise in the darkness and come and be disciples to thee?
11. Will they, perhaps, say the mystery of thy name in the Chaos?
12. Or will they not rather say thy name in matter of the Chaos, this in which thou wilt not purify?
13. But I have sung praises to thee, O Light, and my repentance will reach thee in the height.
14. May thy light come down upon me.
15. My light has been taken from me and I am in distress on account of the light, from the time when I was emanated
forth. And when I looked to the height to the light, I looked down to the light-power which is in the Chaos ; I rose, I came
down.
16.Thy ordinance came down upon me, and the fears which thou didst ordain for me, agitated me.
17. And they surrounded me roaring like water, they seized me at once for all my time.
18. And through thy ordinance, thou didst not allow my fellow-emanations to help me ; and thou didst not allow my
partner to save me from my afflictions.'
This now is the fifth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said in the Chaos, when all the material emanations of the
Authades continued to afflict her."
Now it happened when John finished saying these words to Jesus in the midst of his disciples, he said to him : "Excellent, John, thou virgin who wilt rule in the Kingdom of the Light,"
Jesus, however, continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "it happened again thus : the emanations of the Authades oppressed the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos (es). They wanted to take away all her light, and the ordinance
was not yet completed to bring her forth from the Chaos, and the command had not yet come to me through the First
Mystery to save her from the Chaos. Now it happened, when all the material emanations of the Authades oppressed her,
she cried out and spoke the fifth repentance, saying :
1. 'O Light of my salvation, I sing praise to thee in the place of the height, and again in the Chaos.
2. I will sing praise to thee in my song, with which I have praised thee in the height, and with which I have praised thee when I was in the Chaos; may it reach thee. And give heed, O Light, to my repentance.
3. My power has been filled with darkness; and my light has come down to the Chaos.
4. I have become like the archons of the Chaos which have gone to the darkness below; I have become like a material body, which has no one in the height who will save it.
5. I have become like material things whose power has been taken from them as they were cast into the Chaos, which thou hast not saved; and they have been destroyed by thy ordinance.
6. Now at this time I have been placed in the darkness below, in dark things and in material things which are dead ;
and there is no power within them.
7. Thou hast brought thy ordinance upon me ; with all things which thou hast ordained.
8. And the Spirit has departed and left me; and again, through thy ordinance, the emanations of my aeon have not
helped me ; and they have hated me and they have ceased towards me, and yet I am not completely destroyed.
9. And my light has diminished within me, and I have cried out to the light with all the light that is in me ; and I have stretched out my hands to thee.
10. Now at this time, O Light, wilt thou perhaps fulfill thy ordinance in the Chaos? And will the saviours, perhaps, who
came according to thy ordinance, arise in the darkness and come and be disciples to thee?
11. Will they, perhaps, say the mystery of thy name in the Chaos?
12. Or will they not rather say thy name in matter of the Chaos, this in which thou wilt not purify?
13. But I have sung praises to thee, O Light, and my repentance will reach thee in the height.
14. May thy light come down upon me.
15. My light has been taken from me and I am in distress on account of the light, from the time when I was emanated
forth. And when I looked to the height to the light, I looked down to the light-power which is in the Chaos ; I rose, I came
down.
16.Thy ordinance came down upon me, and the fears which thou didst ordain for me, agitated me.
17. And they surrounded me roaring like water, they seized me at once for all my time.
18. And through thy ordinance, thou didst not allow my fellow-emanations to help me ; and thou didst not allow my
partner to save me from my afflictions.'
This now is the fifth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said in the Chaos, when all the material emanations of the
Authades continued to afflict her."
CHAPTER 42.
Now when Jesus said these things to his disciples, he said to them: "He who has ears to hear, let him the things which I will do, and the things which you will see. And you will bear witness to all things of the Kingdom of Heaven."
Now when Jesus said these things to his disciples, he said to them: "He who has ears to hear, let him the things which I will do, and the things which you will see. And you will bear witness to all things of the Kingdom of Heaven."
CHAPTER 43.
Now when Jesus said these things he said to his disciples : "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Mariam sprang up again, she came to the midst, she stood beside Philip, she said to Jesus : "My Lord, my man of light has ears, and I am prepared to hear by means of my power. And I have understood the word which thou hast spoken. Now at this time, my Lord, hear, so that I speak openly, for thou hast said to us : 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'
Concerning the word which thou didst say to Philip: 'Thou and Thomas and Matthew are the three to whom it has been given, through the First Mystery, to write every word of the Kingdom of the Light, and to bear witness to them'; hear now that I give the interpretation of these words. It is this which thy light-power once prophesied through Moses: 'Through two and three witnesses everything will be established. The three witnesses are Philip and Thomas and Matthew". Now it happened when Jesus heard these words, he said : Excellent, Maria, this is the interpretation of the word. Now at this time, do thou, Philip, come forward and give the interpretation of the mystery of the fifth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. And afterwards sit and write every word which I shall speak until the completion of the number of thy part in the words of the Kingdom of the Light, which thou wilt write. After this thou shalt come forward and speak whatever thy Spirit shall understand. Nevertheless now, at this time give the explanation of the mystery of the fifth repentance of the Pistis Sophia.
But Philip answered and said to Jesus : "My Lord, hear that I say the interpretation of her repentance. For thy power once prophesied about it through David in the 87th Psalm, saying :
1. 'O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried to thee by day and night.
2. Let my prayer come before thy presence. Incline thy ear, O Lord, to my petition.
3. For my soul is filled with evil ; my life has approached Amente .
4. I am numbered with those who have gone down to the pit, I have become like a man without a helper.
5. The free among the dead are like the slain who are cast out and sleep in graves, whom now thou dost not remember; and they are destroyed through thy hands.
6. I have been laid in a pit below in darknesses and the shadow of death.
7. Thy anger has pressed down upon me ; and all thy cares have come down upon me. Pause.
8. Thou hast caused those that know me to be distant from me ; they have set me as an abomination to themselves ; they have set me and I did not go.
9. My eye(s) became weak through my poverty; I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread out my hands to thee.
10. Wilt thou perhaps do thy wonders among the dead? Will shades 1 rise that they confess thee?
11. Will thy name perhaps be spoken in the graves?
12. And thy righteousness in a land which thou hast forgotten?
13. But I have cried to thee, O Lord, and my prayer will reach thee at the hour of daybreak.
14. Turn not thy face away from me.
15. For I am poor; I have been in distress since my youth ; but when I was exalted I humbled myself, and I arose.
16. Thy rages have come down upon me, and thy fears have agitated me.
17. They have surrounded me like water; they have seized me all day.
18. Thou hast caused my companions to be distant from me; and those that know me on account of my wretchedness'.
This now is the interpretation of the fifth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said when she was afflicted in the Chaos.
Now when Jesus said these things he said to his disciples : "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Mariam sprang up again, she came to the midst, she stood beside Philip, she said to Jesus : "My Lord, my man of light has ears, and I am prepared to hear by means of my power. And I have understood the word which thou hast spoken. Now at this time, my Lord, hear, so that I speak openly, for thou hast said to us : 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'
Concerning the word which thou didst say to Philip: 'Thou and Thomas and Matthew are the three to whom it has been given, through the First Mystery, to write every word of the Kingdom of the Light, and to bear witness to them'; hear now that I give the interpretation of these words. It is this which thy light-power once prophesied through Moses: 'Through two and three witnesses everything will be established. The three witnesses are Philip and Thomas and Matthew". Now it happened when Jesus heard these words, he said : Excellent, Maria, this is the interpretation of the word. Now at this time, do thou, Philip, come forward and give the interpretation of the mystery of the fifth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. And afterwards sit and write every word which I shall speak until the completion of the number of thy part in the words of the Kingdom of the Light, which thou wilt write. After this thou shalt come forward and speak whatever thy Spirit shall understand. Nevertheless now, at this time give the explanation of the mystery of the fifth repentance of the Pistis Sophia.
But Philip answered and said to Jesus : "My Lord, hear that I say the interpretation of her repentance. For thy power once prophesied about it through David in the 87th Psalm, saying :
1. 'O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried to thee by day and night.
2. Let my prayer come before thy presence. Incline thy ear, O Lord, to my petition.
3. For my soul is filled with evil ; my life has approached Amente .
4. I am numbered with those who have gone down to the pit, I have become like a man without a helper.
5. The free among the dead are like the slain who are cast out and sleep in graves, whom now thou dost not remember; and they are destroyed through thy hands.
6. I have been laid in a pit below in darknesses and the shadow of death.
7. Thy anger has pressed down upon me ; and all thy cares have come down upon me. Pause.
8. Thou hast caused those that know me to be distant from me ; they have set me as an abomination to themselves ; they have set me and I did not go.
9. My eye(s) became weak through my poverty; I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread out my hands to thee.
10. Wilt thou perhaps do thy wonders among the dead? Will shades 1 rise that they confess thee?
11. Will thy name perhaps be spoken in the graves?
12. And thy righteousness in a land which thou hast forgotten?
13. But I have cried to thee, O Lord, and my prayer will reach thee at the hour of daybreak.
14. Turn not thy face away from me.
15. For I am poor; I have been in distress since my youth ; but when I was exalted I humbled myself, and I arose.
16. Thy rages have come down upon me, and thy fears have agitated me.
17. They have surrounded me like water; they have seized me all day.
18. Thou hast caused my companions to be distant from me; and those that know me on account of my wretchedness'.
This now is the interpretation of the fifth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said when she was afflicted in the Chaos.
CHAPTER 44.
It happened now when Jesus heard these words which Philip said , he said to him : " Excellent, Philip, thou beloved one. Come now at this time, sit and write thy part of every word which I shall say, and what I shall do, and everything which thou shalt see". And immediately Philip sat down and wrote.
It happened furthermore after this Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : " Then the Pistis
Sophia cried out to the Light. He forgave her sin, that she had forsaken her place, she had come down to the darkness.
She spoke the sixth repentance in this way, saying : 1. I have sung praises to thee, O Light, in the darkness below.
2.Hear my repentance, and may thy light give heed to the voice of my entreaty.
3. O Light, if thou dost remember my sins I shall not be able to come before thee, and thou wilt forsake me.
4. For thou, O Light, art my Saviour on account of the light of thy name. I have believed in thee, O Light.
5. And my power believed in thy mystery. And furthermore, my power trusted in the light, when it was in those of the height, and it (my power) trusted it (the light) when it (my power) was in the Chaos below.
6. May all the powers within me trust the light, when I am in the darkness below, and may they trust it when they come to the place of the height.
7. For it (the light) is merciful to us and saves us, and there is a great mystery of salvation within it.
8. And it will save all the powers from the Chaos on account of my transgression, because I have forsaken my place, I have come down to the Chaos.' At this time now, he whose understanding (mind) is uplifted , let him understand."
CHAPTER 45.
Now it happened when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I am speaking with you?" Andrew came forward, he said : "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the sixth repentance of the Pistis Sophia, thy light-power prophesied once, through David, in the 129th Psalm, saying :
1. 'Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord.
2. Hear my voice; let thine ears be inclined to the voice of my supplication.
3. O Lord, if thou givest heed to my iniquities who will be able to stand?
4. For forgiveness is with thee; I have waited for thee, O Lord, for thy name's sake.
5. My soul has waited on thy word.
6. My soul has hoped in the Lord from morning until evening; may Israel hope in the Lord from morning until evening.
7. For mercy is in the hand of the Lord, and with him is a great salvation.
8. And he will save Israel out of all his iniquities ".
Jesus said to him : "Excellent, Andrew, thou blessed one. This is the interpretation of her repentance. Truly, truly, I say to you, I will fulfill you in all the mysteries of the light, and every gnosis, from the innermost of the inner to the outermost of the outer; from the Ineffable to the darkness of darknesses ; and from the Light of Lights to the (? matter) of matter ; from all the gods to the demons ; from all the lords to the decans; from all the powers (exousiai) to the ministers ; from the creation of men to (that off beasts and cattle and reptiles, in order that you be called perfect, fulfilled in every pleroma. Truly, truly, I say to you that, in the place in which I shall be in the Kingdom of my Father, you will also be there with me . And when the perfect number is completed so that the mixture is dissolved, I will command that all the tyrant gods who did not give (up) what is purified of their light be brought. I will command the fire of wisdom, which the perfect ones transmit, to consume those tyrants until they give (up) the last of what is purified of their light."
It happened, when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I have spoken to you?" Maria said : "Yes, O Lord, I have understood the discourse which thou hast spoken. Concerning the word now which thou didst say : 'At the dissolving of the whole mixture thou wilt sit upon a light-power, and thy disciples, that is we, we will sit to the right of thee . And thou wilt judge the tyrant gods which did not give (up) what is purified of their light. And the fire of wisdom will consume them until they give (up) the last of the light which is in them.' Now concerning this word, thy light-power once prophesied, through David, in the 81st Psalm, saying : 'God will sit in
the assembly of gods and will judge the gods ". Jesus said to her : "Excellent, Maria."
CHAPTER 46.
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "It happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying the sixth repentance concerning the forgiveness of her transgression, she turned again to the height to see whether her sins were forgiven her, and to see whether she would be brought up from the Chaos. And she was not yet heard, through the command of the First Mystery, that her sin would be forgiven, and that she would be brought out of the Chaos. ( When she turned to the height to see whether her repentance was accepted, she saw all the archons of the twelve aeons mocking her and rejoicing over her, because her repentance was not yet accepted. When she now saw them mocking her, she was very sorrowful, she lifted up her voice to the height, saying in the seventh repentance :
1. 'O Light, I have raised up my power to thee, my Light.
2. I have believed in thee ; do not make me to be despised. Do not make the archons of the twelve aeons, which hate
me, rejoice over me.
3. For all those that believe in thee will not be brought to shame. May those who have taken away my power remain in darkness, and have no profit from it, but have it taken away from them.
4. O Light, show me thy ways, and I will be saved by them ; and show me thy paths, so that I be saved in the Chaos.
5. And lead me in thy light, and may I know, O Light, that thou art my Saviour; I will trust thee in my whole time.
6. Give heed, so that thou savest me, O Light, because thy compassion exists for ever.
7. Concerning my transgression which I have committed from the beginning in my ignorance, do not count it against me, O Light, but rather save me through thy great mystery of forgiveness of sins, for the sake of thy goodness, O Light.
8. For the Light is good and upright. Because of this he (the Light) will allow me (lit. give me my way) to be saved from my transgression.
9. And my powers, which are diminished through fear of the material emanations of the Authades, he will draw out
thence by his ordinance. And to my powers, which are diminished through lack of mercy, he will teach his know-
ledge.
10. For all knowledges of the light are salvations and are mysteries to everyone who seeks the places of his inheritance
and his mysteries.
11. For the sake of the mystery of thy name, O Light, forgive my transgression, for it is great.
12. To everyone who trusts the light, he will give the mystery which pleases him.
13. And his soul will exist in the places of the light; and his power will inherit the Treasury of the Light.
14. It is the light which gives power to those that believe in it. And the name of its mystery is for those that trust it.
And it will show them the place of the inheritance which is in the Treasury of the Light.
15. Moreover I have believed in the light at all times, that it is this which will save my feet from the bonds of the
darkneess.
16.Give heed to me, o Light, and save me, for my name has been taken from me in the Chaos.
17. Beyond all the emanations, my questions and my oppressions are very numerous; save me from my
transgression and this darkness.
18. And look upon the distress of my oppression and forgive my transgression.
19. Give heed to the archons of the twelve aeons which hate me with envy.
20. Watch over my power and save me ; and let me not remain in this darkness, for I have believed in thee.
21. And they have committed a great folly for I have believed in thee, O Light.
22. Now at this time, O Light, save my powers from the emanations of the Authades, by which I am oppressed.' Now at this time, he who is sober, let him be sober." Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples, Thomas came forward, he said: "My Lord, I am sober, I have become more sober, and my Spirit is ready within me. And I rejoice greatly because thou hast revealed to us these words. Nevertheless I have suffered my brothers up till now lest I cause anger in them. But I suffer each one of them to come before thee to say the interpretation of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Now at this time, O Lord, concerning the interpretation of the seventh repentance of the Pistis Sophia, thy light-power prophesied about it, through David the prophet, saying it thus in the 24th Psalm :
1. O Lord, I have lifted up my soul to thee, my God.
2. I have relied on thee; let me not be put to shame, nor let my enemies mock at me.
3. Because everyone that waits upon thee will not be put to shame. Let those that commit iniquity without cause be
ashamed.
4. O Lord, show me thy ways, and teach me thy paths.
5. Lead me in the way of thy truth, and teach me for thou art my God, my Saviour. I will wait on thee the whole day.
6. Remember thy compassion, O Lord, and thy mercies, for they are from eternity.
7. Remember not the sins of my youth and those of my ignorance. Remember me rather according to the greatness of thy mercy, for the sake of thy benificence, O Lord.
8. Beneficent and upright is the Lord; because of this, he will teach the sinners on the way.
9. He will guide the compassionate in judgment; he will teach the compassionate his ways.
10. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth for those that seek his righteousness and his witness.
11. For thy name's sake, O Lord, forgive me my sin, (for) it is very great.
12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will appoint (the) law for him in the way which he has chosen.
13. His soul will be in good things; and his seed will inherit the earth.
14. The Lord is the strength of those that fear him ; and the name of the Lord, to those that fear him, is that which
tells them of his covenant.
15. My eyes are directed to the Lord at all times; for it is he who will draw my feet out of the snare.
16. Look down upon me and have mercy on me ; for I am an only son , l am poor.
17. The afflictions of my heart have multiplied; lead me forth from my necessities.
18. Look upon my humbleness and my distress, and forgive all my sins.
19. Look upon my enemies, for they have multiplied and they have hated me with an unjust hatred.
20. Guard my soul and save me ; let me not be put to shame for I have hoped in thee.
21. The harmless and the upright have joined themselves to me ; for I have waited upon thee, O Lord.
22. O God, save Israel from all his afflictions' ". When however Jesus heard the words of Thomas, he said to him : "Excellent, Thomas, and well done. This is the interpretation of the seventh repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Truly, truly, I say to you that all the generations of the world will bless you upon the earth, because I have revealed this to you, and you have received of my Spirit, and you have become understanding and Pneumatic, since you have understood what I have said. And after this I will fill you with all the light and all the power of the Spirit, so that from this time you will understand all those things which will be said to you, and those things which you will see. Yet a little time and I will speak with you of all the things of the height, from the outer to the inner, and from the inner to the outer."
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples : "It happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying the sixth repentance concerning the forgiveness of her transgression, she turned again to the height to see whether her sins were forgiven her, and to see whether she would be brought up from the Chaos. And she was not yet heard, through the command of the First Mystery, that her sin would be forgiven, and that she would be brought out of the Chaos. ( When she turned to the height to see whether her repentance was accepted, she saw all the archons of the twelve aeons mocking her and rejoicing over her, because her repentance was not yet accepted. When she now saw them mocking her, she was very sorrowful, she lifted up her voice to the height, saying in the seventh repentance :
1. 'O Light, I have raised up my power to thee, my Light.
2. I have believed in thee ; do not make me to be despised. Do not make the archons of the twelve aeons, which hate
me, rejoice over me.
3. For all those that believe in thee will not be brought to shame. May those who have taken away my power remain in darkness, and have no profit from it, but have it taken away from them.
4. O Light, show me thy ways, and I will be saved by them ; and show me thy paths, so that I be saved in the Chaos.
5. And lead me in thy light, and may I know, O Light, that thou art my Saviour; I will trust thee in my whole time.
6. Give heed, so that thou savest me, O Light, because thy compassion exists for ever.
7. Concerning my transgression which I have committed from the beginning in my ignorance, do not count it against me, O Light, but rather save me through thy great mystery of forgiveness of sins, for the sake of thy goodness, O Light.
8. For the Light is good and upright. Because of this he (the Light) will allow me (lit. give me my way) to be saved from my transgression.
9. And my powers, which are diminished through fear of the material emanations of the Authades, he will draw out
thence by his ordinance. And to my powers, which are diminished through lack of mercy, he will teach his know-
ledge.
10. For all knowledges of the light are salvations and are mysteries to everyone who seeks the places of his inheritance
and his mysteries.
11. For the sake of the mystery of thy name, O Light, forgive my transgression, for it is great.
12. To everyone who trusts the light, he will give the mystery which pleases him.
13. And his soul will exist in the places of the light; and his power will inherit the Treasury of the Light.
14. It is the light which gives power to those that believe in it. And the name of its mystery is for those that trust it.
And it will show them the place of the inheritance which is in the Treasury of the Light.
15. Moreover I have believed in the light at all times, that it is this which will save my feet from the bonds of the
darkneess.
16.Give heed to me, o Light, and save me, for my name has been taken from me in the Chaos.
17. Beyond all the emanations, my questions and my oppressions are very numerous; save me from my
transgression and this darkness.
18. And look upon the distress of my oppression and forgive my transgression.
19. Give heed to the archons of the twelve aeons which hate me with envy.
20. Watch over my power and save me ; and let me not remain in this darkness, for I have believed in thee.
21. And they have committed a great folly for I have believed in thee, O Light.
22. Now at this time, O Light, save my powers from the emanations of the Authades, by which I am oppressed.' Now at this time, he who is sober, let him be sober." Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples, Thomas came forward, he said: "My Lord, I am sober, I have become more sober, and my Spirit is ready within me. And I rejoice greatly because thou hast revealed to us these words. Nevertheless I have suffered my brothers up till now lest I cause anger in them. But I suffer each one of them to come before thee to say the interpretation of the repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Now at this time, O Lord, concerning the interpretation of the seventh repentance of the Pistis Sophia, thy light-power prophesied about it, through David the prophet, saying it thus in the 24th Psalm :
1. O Lord, I have lifted up my soul to thee, my God.
2. I have relied on thee; let me not be put to shame, nor let my enemies mock at me.
3. Because everyone that waits upon thee will not be put to shame. Let those that commit iniquity without cause be
ashamed.
4. O Lord, show me thy ways, and teach me thy paths.
5. Lead me in the way of thy truth, and teach me for thou art my God, my Saviour. I will wait on thee the whole day.
6. Remember thy compassion, O Lord, and thy mercies, for they are from eternity.
7. Remember not the sins of my youth and those of my ignorance. Remember me rather according to the greatness of thy mercy, for the sake of thy benificence, O Lord.
8. Beneficent and upright is the Lord; because of this, he will teach the sinners on the way.
9. He will guide the compassionate in judgment; he will teach the compassionate his ways.
10. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth for those that seek his righteousness and his witness.
11. For thy name's sake, O Lord, forgive me my sin, (for) it is very great.
12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will appoint (the) law for him in the way which he has chosen.
13. His soul will be in good things; and his seed will inherit the earth.
14. The Lord is the strength of those that fear him ; and the name of the Lord, to those that fear him, is that which
tells them of his covenant.
15. My eyes are directed to the Lord at all times; for it is he who will draw my feet out of the snare.
16. Look down upon me and have mercy on me ; for I am an only son , l am poor.
17. The afflictions of my heart have multiplied; lead me forth from my necessities.
18. Look upon my humbleness and my distress, and forgive all my sins.
19. Look upon my enemies, for they have multiplied and they have hated me with an unjust hatred.
20. Guard my soul and save me ; let me not be put to shame for I have hoped in thee.
21. The harmless and the upright have joined themselves to me ; for I have waited upon thee, O Lord.
22. O God, save Israel from all his afflictions' ". When however Jesus heard the words of Thomas, he said to him : "Excellent, Thomas, and well done. This is the interpretation of the seventh repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Truly, truly, I say to you that all the generations of the world will bless you upon the earth, because I have revealed this to you, and you have received of my Spirit, and you have become understanding and Pneumatic, since you have understood what I have said. And after this I will fill you with all the light and all the power of the Spirit, so that from this time you will understand all those things which will be said to you, and those things which you will see. Yet a little time and I will speak with you of all the things of the height, from the outer to the inner, and from the inner to the outer."
CHAPTER 47
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to the disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia said her seventh repentance in the Chaos, the command, through the First Mystery, that I should save her and bring her up from the Chaos, had not yet come forth to me. But I of myself, out of compassion, without command, I brought her to a place in the Chaos which was a little wider. And when the material emanations of the Authades knew she had been brought to a place in the Chaos which was a little wider, they ceased a little from oppressing her, thinking she would be brought up from the Chaos completely. Now when these things happened, the Pistis Sophia did not know that it was I who helped her, nor did she know me at all. But she continued singing praises to the light of the Treasury which she had once seen, and in which she believed. And she thought, furthermore, that it was he who helped her. And it was he to whom she sang praises, thinking that he was the true light. But since she believed in the light which belongs to the true Treasury, for this reason she will be brought up from the Chaos and her repentance will be received. But the ordinance of the First Mystery that her repentance should be received was not yet completed. Therefore hear now, and I will tell you all the things (lit. words) which happened to the Pistis Sophia.
It happened when I brought her to a place in the Chaos, which was a little wider, the emanations of the Authades
ceased from oppressing her greatly , thinking she would be brought up from the Chaos completely. Now it happened
when the emanations of the Authades knew that the Pistis Sophia was not brought up from the Chaos, they turned
again at the same time to oppress her greatly. Because of this she now said the eighth repentance, because they had
ceased from oppressing her, and they had turned again to oppress her to the last. She spoke this repentance, saying
it thus :
1. 'I have hoped in thee, O Light. Leave me not in the Chaos; save me and deliver me with thy knowledge.
2. Give heed to me and save me. Be to me a Saviour, O Light, and save me and bring me into the presence of
thy light.
3. For thou art my Saviour and thou wilt bring me to thy presence. And for the sake of the mystery of thy name, lead me and give me thy mystery.
4. And thou wilt save me as I am ensnared by this lion-faced power; for thou art my Saviour.
5. And I will give what is purified of my light into thy hands; thou hast saved me, O Light, with thy knowledge.
6. Thou hast been angry with those who watch for me, who will not be able to seize me at all. But I have believed
in the light.
7. I will rejoice and sing praises, for thou hast had compassion on me ; and thou hast given heed to the oppression in which I am. And thou hast saved me. And also thou wilt deliver my power from the Chaos.
8. And thou didst not leave me to be in the hands of the lion-faced power, but thou hast brought me to a place which
is not oppressed'."
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to the disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia said her seventh repentance in the Chaos, the command, through the First Mystery, that I should save her and bring her up from the Chaos, had not yet come forth to me. But I of myself, out of compassion, without command, I brought her to a place in the Chaos which was a little wider. And when the material emanations of the Authades knew she had been brought to a place in the Chaos which was a little wider, they ceased a little from oppressing her, thinking she would be brought up from the Chaos completely. Now when these things happened, the Pistis Sophia did not know that it was I who helped her, nor did she know me at all. But she continued singing praises to the light of the Treasury which she had once seen, and in which she believed. And she thought, furthermore, that it was he who helped her. And it was he to whom she sang praises, thinking that he was the true light. But since she believed in the light which belongs to the true Treasury, for this reason she will be brought up from the Chaos and her repentance will be received. But the ordinance of the First Mystery that her repentance should be received was not yet completed. Therefore hear now, and I will tell you all the things (lit. words) which happened to the Pistis Sophia.
It happened when I brought her to a place in the Chaos, which was a little wider, the emanations of the Authades
ceased from oppressing her greatly , thinking she would be brought up from the Chaos completely. Now it happened
when the emanations of the Authades knew that the Pistis Sophia was not brought up from the Chaos, they turned
again at the same time to oppress her greatly. Because of this she now said the eighth repentance, because they had
ceased from oppressing her, and they had turned again to oppress her to the last. She spoke this repentance, saying
it thus :
1. 'I have hoped in thee, O Light. Leave me not in the Chaos; save me and deliver me with thy knowledge.
2. Give heed to me and save me. Be to me a Saviour, O Light, and save me and bring me into the presence of
thy light.
3. For thou art my Saviour and thou wilt bring me to thy presence. And for the sake of the mystery of thy name, lead me and give me thy mystery.
4. And thou wilt save me as I am ensnared by this lion-faced power; for thou art my Saviour.
5. And I will give what is purified of my light into thy hands; thou hast saved me, O Light, with thy knowledge.
6. Thou hast been angry with those who watch for me, who will not be able to seize me at all. But I have believed
in the light.
7. I will rejoice and sing praises, for thou hast had compassion on me ; and thou hast given heed to the oppression in which I am. And thou hast saved me. And also thou wilt deliver my power from the Chaos.
8. And thou didst not leave me to be in the hands of the lion-faced power, but thou hast brought me to a place which
is not oppressed'."
CHAPTER 48.
When Jesus had said these things to his disciples, he answered again and said to them : "It happened now when the lion-faced power knew that the Pistis Sophia was not brought up from the Chaos at all, it came again with all the rest of the material/ emanations of the Authades. They oppressed the Pistis Sophia again. Now it happened when they oppressed her, she cried out in this same repentance, in which she spoke thus:
9. Have compassion on me, O Light, for they have oppressed me again. The light within me has been agitated on account of thy ordinance; and my power and my understanding (mind).
10. My power has begun to decrease while I am in these oppressions; and the reckoning of my time while I am in the Chaos. My light has diminished, for they have taken away my power from me, and all the powers within me have been shaken.
11. I have become powerless before 1 all the archons of the aeons which hate me, and before the 24 emanations in whose places I was. And my brother, my partner, feared to help me, on account of those among whom I was held.
12. And all the archons of the height have reckoned me to be matter without light in it. I have become like a material
power which has fallen out of the archons.
13. And all those who were in the aeons said : she has become Chaos. And after this the merciless powers surrounded me at the same time, and spoke to take away all my light that was in me.
14. But I trusted thee, O Light, and I said : thou art my Saviour.
15. And my ordinance which thou hast ordained for me is in thy hands; save me from the hands of the emanations of the Authades which oppress me and pursue after me.
16. Send down thy light upon me, for I am nothing before thee; and save me in thy compassion.
17. Let me not be despised, for thou art he to whom I have sung praises, O Light. May the Chaos cover over the
emanations of the Authades, and may they be cast down to the darkness.
18. May the mouth be shut of those who, with cunning, want to swallow me ; who say : let us take away all the light within her, although I have done nothing wicked to them'."
When Jesus had said these things to his disciples, he answered again and said to them : "It happened now when the lion-faced power knew that the Pistis Sophia was not brought up from the Chaos at all, it came again with all the rest of the material/ emanations of the Authades. They oppressed the Pistis Sophia again. Now it happened when they oppressed her, she cried out in this same repentance, in which she spoke thus:
9. Have compassion on me, O Light, for they have oppressed me again. The light within me has been agitated on account of thy ordinance; and my power and my understanding (mind).
10. My power has begun to decrease while I am in these oppressions; and the reckoning of my time while I am in the Chaos. My light has diminished, for they have taken away my power from me, and all the powers within me have been shaken.
11. I have become powerless before 1 all the archons of the aeons which hate me, and before the 24 emanations in whose places I was. And my brother, my partner, feared to help me, on account of those among whom I was held.
12. And all the archons of the height have reckoned me to be matter without light in it. I have become like a material
power which has fallen out of the archons.
13. And all those who were in the aeons said : she has become Chaos. And after this the merciless powers surrounded me at the same time, and spoke to take away all my light that was in me.
14. But I trusted thee, O Light, and I said : thou art my Saviour.
15. And my ordinance which thou hast ordained for me is in thy hands; save me from the hands of the emanations of the Authades which oppress me and pursue after me.
16. Send down thy light upon me, for I am nothing before thee; and save me in thy compassion.
17. Let me not be despised, for thou art he to whom I have sung praises, O Light. May the Chaos cover over the
emanations of the Authades, and may they be cast down to the darkness.
18. May the mouth be shut of those who, with cunning, want to swallow me ; who say : let us take away all the light within her, although I have done nothing wicked to them'."
CHAPTER 49.
When, however, Jesus had said these things, Matthew came forward and said : "My Lord, thy Spirit has moved me, and thy light has made me sober, so that I should tell the eighth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. For thy power once prophesied about it through David, in the 30th Psalm, saying :
1. 'I have hoped in thee, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame for ever; save me in thy righteousness.
2. Incline thine ear to me; save me quickly, be to me a protecting God and a house of refuge to save me.
3. For thou art my support and my refuge; for the sake of thy name thou wilt guide me and nourish me.
4. And thou wilt bring me forth from this snare which they have hidden for me, for thou art my protector.
5. I will give up my spirit into thy hands. Thou hast saved me, O Lord, God of truth.
6. Thou hast hated those who idly keep to what is vain. But I have trusted;
7. And I will rejoice over the Lord , and I will be glad over thy mercy; for thou hast looked upon my humbleness, and thou hast saved my soul out of my necessities.
8. Thou hast not shut me in the hands of the enemy ; thou hast set my feet in a wide place.
9. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted; my eye is I troubled with anger; and my soul and my belly.
10. For my years have been spent in distress and my life has been spent in groanings; my power has become weak in poverty, and my bones are troubled.
11. I have become a reproach to all my enemies and my neighbors. I have become a fear to those that know me, and those that saw me ran away from me.
12. I have been forgotten like a corpse in their hearts; and I have become like a broken vessel.
13. I have heard contempt from many at my side who surrounded me ; when they gathered together against me, they took counsel to take away my soul from me.
14. But I have trusted thee, O Lord, I have said : thou art my God.
15. My lots are in thy hands; save me from the hand of my enemies, and deliver me from those that persecute me.
16. Reveal thy face over thy servant, and save me in thy mercy, O Lord.
17. Let me not be put to shame, for I have cried to thee; let the impious be put to shame and turned to Amente.
18. Let the cunning lips be dumb, who speak iniquity against the righteous with pride and contempt'."
When, however, Jesus had said these things, Matthew came forward and said : "My Lord, thy Spirit has moved me, and thy light has made me sober, so that I should tell the eighth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. For thy power once prophesied about it through David, in the 30th Psalm, saying :
1. 'I have hoped in thee, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame for ever; save me in thy righteousness.
2. Incline thine ear to me; save me quickly, be to me a protecting God and a house of refuge to save me.
3. For thou art my support and my refuge; for the sake of thy name thou wilt guide me and nourish me.
4. And thou wilt bring me forth from this snare which they have hidden for me, for thou art my protector.
5. I will give up my spirit into thy hands. Thou hast saved me, O Lord, God of truth.
6. Thou hast hated those who idly keep to what is vain. But I have trusted;
7. And I will rejoice over the Lord , and I will be glad over thy mercy; for thou hast looked upon my humbleness, and thou hast saved my soul out of my necessities.
8. Thou hast not shut me in the hands of the enemy ; thou hast set my feet in a wide place.
9. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted; my eye is I troubled with anger; and my soul and my belly.
10. For my years have been spent in distress and my life has been spent in groanings; my power has become weak in poverty, and my bones are troubled.
11. I have become a reproach to all my enemies and my neighbors. I have become a fear to those that know me, and those that saw me ran away from me.
12. I have been forgotten like a corpse in their hearts; and I have become like a broken vessel.
13. I have heard contempt from many at my side who surrounded me ; when they gathered together against me, they took counsel to take away my soul from me.
14. But I have trusted thee, O Lord, I have said : thou art my God.
15. My lots are in thy hands; save me from the hand of my enemies, and deliver me from those that persecute me.
16. Reveal thy face over thy servant, and save me in thy mercy, O Lord.
17. Let me not be put to shame, for I have cried to thee; let the impious be put to shame and turned to Amente.
18. Let the cunning lips be dumb, who speak iniquity against the righteous with pride and contempt'."
CHAPTER 50.
When however Jesus heard these words, he said: "Well done, Matthew. Now at this time truly I say to you, when the perfect number is completed and the All is raised up, I will sit in the Treasury of the Light, and you yourselves will sit on twelve light-powers, until we have set up again all the ranks of the twelve saviors at the place of the inheritance of each one of them." But when he had said these things, he said : "Do you understand what I say?"
Maria came forward and said : "O Lord, concerning this, thou didst once say to us in a parable: 'You have endured with me in temptations. I will establish a kingdom for you in the way in which my Father established it for me , so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. And you will sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel'."
He said to her : "Excellent, Maria." Jesus continued again and said to his disciples : "Now it happened after these things, when the emanations of the Authades oppressed the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos, she spoke the ninth repentance, saying :
1. 'O Light, smite down those who have taken my power away from me ; and take the power from those who have taken mine from me.
2. For I am thy power and thy light ; come and save me.
3. May a great darkness cover over those that oppress me ; say to my power : it is I who will save thee.
4. All those who want to take my light from me completely : may their power fail; those who want to take my light from me completely : may they turn to the Chaos and become powerless.
5. May their power become like dust; and may Jeu, thine angel, smite them down.
6. And if they come to go to the height, may a darkness seize them, so that they stumble and turn to the Chaos; and may thine angel, Jeu, pursue them and send them to the darkness below.
7. For without my having done evil to them, they have ensnared me with a lion-faced power from which their light will be taken; they have oppressed the power within me, which they will not able to take away.
8. Now at this time, O Light, take away what is purified from the lion-faced power, without his knowing; and the thought which the Authades had (lit. thought), to take away my light : take his own away; and let the light of the lion-faced power, which ensnared me, be taken away.
9. My power will flourish in the light and will rejoice because it will save it.
10. And all the parts of my power will say : there is now no Saviour except thee; for it is thou who wilt save me from the hands of the lion-faced power which has taken my power from me. And it is thou who savest me from the hands of those who have taken my power and my light from me.
11. For they stood up against me and told lies about me. And they say : I know the mystery of the light which is in the
height, in which I have believed. And they have compelled me, saying : Tell us the mystery of the light which is in the
height, this one which I do not know.
12. And they have repaid me with all these wicked things, because I have believed in the light of the height; and they
have made my power to be without light.
13. But when I was compelled, I sat in the darkness, while my soul was humble in sorrow.
14. And, O Light, concerning whom I sing praises to thee, save me ; I know that thou wilt save me, because I have done
thy will since I was in my aeon. I have done thy will like the invisible ones who are in my place, and like my partner; and I became sorrowful as I looked, seeking for thy light.
15. Now at this time all the emanations of the Authades have surrounded me ; and have rejoiced over me, and they have oppressed me greatly, without my knowing; and they have run away, they have left me, and they have not been merciful to me.
16. They turned again and tempted me, and they oppressed me with great oppression; they gnashed their teeth at me, wanting to take away my light from me completely.
17. How long now, O Light, dost thou suffer them, that they oppress me ? Save my power from their wicked thoughts,
and save me from the lion-faced power, for I alone among the invisible ones am in this place.
18. I will sing praise to thee, O Light, while I am in the midst of all those gathered against me. And I will cry out to thee in the midst of all those that oppress me.
19. Now at this time, O Light, let not those that hate me and want to take away my power from me, rejoice over me; these who hate me, as they move their eyes against me, without my having done anything to them.
20. For indeed they flatter me with sweet words while they seek from me the mysteries of the light which I do not know; speaking to me with cunning against me, and raging against me, because I have believed in the light which is in the height.
21. They have opened their mouths against me ; they have said : Yes. We will take away her light.
22. Now at this time, O Light, thou hast known their cunning ; suffer them not, and let not thy help be far from me.
23. Make haste, O Light, judge me and avenge me.
24. And give judgment to me in thy goodness; now at this time, O Light of Lights, let them not take my light from me.
25. And do not let them say in their hearts : Our power has satisfied itself with her light; and let them not say : We have swallowed her power.
26. But rather let darkness come down upon them; and let those that want to take away my light from me become
powerless; and those that say : We will take away her light and her power, let them be covered with Chaos and darkness,
27. Now at this time, save me, that I may rejoice, because I want the thirteenth aeon, the place of righteousness. And I will say at all times : May the light of Jeu, thy angel, give more light.
28. And my tongue will sing praises to thee in thy knowledge, all my time in the thirteenth aeon'."
When however Jesus heard these words, he said: "Well done, Matthew. Now at this time truly I say to you, when the perfect number is completed and the All is raised up, I will sit in the Treasury of the Light, and you yourselves will sit on twelve light-powers, until we have set up again all the ranks of the twelve saviors at the place of the inheritance of each one of them." But when he had said these things, he said : "Do you understand what I say?"
Maria came forward and said : "O Lord, concerning this, thou didst once say to us in a parable: 'You have endured with me in temptations. I will establish a kingdom for you in the way in which my Father established it for me , so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. And you will sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel'."
He said to her : "Excellent, Maria." Jesus continued again and said to his disciples : "Now it happened after these things, when the emanations of the Authades oppressed the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos, she spoke the ninth repentance, saying :
1. 'O Light, smite down those who have taken my power away from me ; and take the power from those who have taken mine from me.
2. For I am thy power and thy light ; come and save me.
3. May a great darkness cover over those that oppress me ; say to my power : it is I who will save thee.
4. All those who want to take my light from me completely : may their power fail; those who want to take my light from me completely : may they turn to the Chaos and become powerless.
5. May their power become like dust; and may Jeu, thine angel, smite them down.
6. And if they come to go to the height, may a darkness seize them, so that they stumble and turn to the Chaos; and may thine angel, Jeu, pursue them and send them to the darkness below.
7. For without my having done evil to them, they have ensnared me with a lion-faced power from which their light will be taken; they have oppressed the power within me, which they will not able to take away.
8. Now at this time, O Light, take away what is purified from the lion-faced power, without his knowing; and the thought which the Authades had (lit. thought), to take away my light : take his own away; and let the light of the lion-faced power, which ensnared me, be taken away.
9. My power will flourish in the light and will rejoice because it will save it.
10. And all the parts of my power will say : there is now no Saviour except thee; for it is thou who wilt save me from the hands of the lion-faced power which has taken my power from me. And it is thou who savest me from the hands of those who have taken my power and my light from me.
11. For they stood up against me and told lies about me. And they say : I know the mystery of the light which is in the
height, in which I have believed. And they have compelled me, saying : Tell us the mystery of the light which is in the
height, this one which I do not know.
12. And they have repaid me with all these wicked things, because I have believed in the light of the height; and they
have made my power to be without light.
13. But when I was compelled, I sat in the darkness, while my soul was humble in sorrow.
14. And, O Light, concerning whom I sing praises to thee, save me ; I know that thou wilt save me, because I have done
thy will since I was in my aeon. I have done thy will like the invisible ones who are in my place, and like my partner; and I became sorrowful as I looked, seeking for thy light.
15. Now at this time all the emanations of the Authades have surrounded me ; and have rejoiced over me, and they have oppressed me greatly, without my knowing; and they have run away, they have left me, and they have not been merciful to me.
16. They turned again and tempted me, and they oppressed me with great oppression; they gnashed their teeth at me, wanting to take away my light from me completely.
17. How long now, O Light, dost thou suffer them, that they oppress me ? Save my power from their wicked thoughts,
and save me from the lion-faced power, for I alone among the invisible ones am in this place.
18. I will sing praise to thee, O Light, while I am in the midst of all those gathered against me. And I will cry out to thee in the midst of all those that oppress me.
19. Now at this time, O Light, let not those that hate me and want to take away my power from me, rejoice over me; these who hate me, as they move their eyes against me, without my having done anything to them.
20. For indeed they flatter me with sweet words while they seek from me the mysteries of the light which I do not know; speaking to me with cunning against me, and raging against me, because I have believed in the light which is in the height.
21. They have opened their mouths against me ; they have said : Yes. We will take away her light.
22. Now at this time, O Light, thou hast known their cunning ; suffer them not, and let not thy help be far from me.
23. Make haste, O Light, judge me and avenge me.
24. And give judgment to me in thy goodness; now at this time, O Light of Lights, let them not take my light from me.
25. And do not let them say in their hearts : Our power has satisfied itself with her light; and let them not say : We have swallowed her power.
26. But rather let darkness come down upon them; and let those that want to take away my light from me become
powerless; and those that say : We will take away her light and her power, let them be covered with Chaos and darkness,
27. Now at this time, save me, that I may rejoice, because I want the thirteenth aeon, the place of righteousness. And I will say at all times : May the light of Jeu, thy angel, give more light.
28. And my tongue will sing praises to thee in thy knowledge, all my time in the thirteenth aeon'."
CHAPTER 51.
It happened when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he said to them : "He who is sober among you, let him give their interpretation."
James came forward, he kissed the breast of Jesus and said : "My Lord, thy Spirit has made me sober , and I am willing to give their interpretation. Concerning this, indeed, thy power prophesied once, through David, in the 34th Psalm,
speaking thus about the ninth repentance of the Pistis Sophia :
1. 'Judge, O Lord, those who do injustice to me; fight with those who fight with me.
2. Take hold of a weapon and shield, and rise to help me.
3. Draw forth a sword and unsheathe it in the presence of those that afflict me ; say to my soul : I am thy salvation.
4. May they be put to shame and disgrace that seek my soul; may those that think wicked things about me be turned
back and be put to shame.
5. May they become like dust before the wind; and may the angel of the Lord pursue them.
6. May their paths become dark and slippery; and may the angel of the Lord afflict them.
7. For, without cause, they have hidden for me a snare to their own destruction; and in vain they have slandered
my soul.
8. May the snare which they do not know come to them; and may the net, which they have hidden for me, catch them, and may they fall into this snare.
9. But my soul will rejoice over the Lord, and be glad over its salvation.
10. All my bones will say : O Lord, who can resemble thee? Thou dost save the poor out of the hand of those that are stronger than he ; and thou dost save a poor man and a needy from the hands of those that rob him.
11. Unjust witnesses have arisen; they have questioned me about things which I do not know.
12. They repaid me evil things for good, and childlessness to my soul.
13. But I, when they troubled me, I put on sackcloth, and I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer will return again to my bosom.
14. I was agreeable as if to my neighbor, and as if to my brother ; and I humbled myself like a mourner and a sorrowful one.
15. They have rejoiced over me and have been put to shame. Scourges were gathered against me and I did not know; they were separated and they were not distressed.
16. They tempted me, and they sneered at me contemptuously; they gnashed their teeth against me.
17. O Lord, when wilt thou look down upon me ? Establish my soul away from their wicked deeds; and save my only-
begotten one from the lions.
18. I will confess thee, O Lord, in a great congregation, and I will bless thee among countless people.
19. Let not those who are enemies to me unjustly, who hate me without cause and wink with their eyes, rejoice
over me.
20. For indeed they speak to me with peaceful words ; and they imagine wrath with cunning.
21. They opened wide their mouths against me and they said : Excellent, our eyes have had a full view of him.
22. Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not silent, O Lord; draw not back from me.
23. Arise, O Lord, give heed to my judgment; give heed to my revenge, my God and my Lord.
24. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness; let them not rejoice over me, my God.
25. Neither let them say : Excellent, our soul; let them not say : We have swallowed him.
26. Let those that rejoice over my misfortunes be put to shame, and disgraced at the same time; let those that speak great words against me be covered with shame and disgrace.
27. Let those that wish my righteousness be glad and rejoice; and may those that wish the peace of his servant say : let the Lord be magnified and lifted up.
28. My tongue will rejoice at thy righteousness and thy glory all the day'."
It happened when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, he said to them : "He who is sober among you, let him give their interpretation."
James came forward, he kissed the breast of Jesus and said : "My Lord, thy Spirit has made me sober , and I am willing to give their interpretation. Concerning this, indeed, thy power prophesied once, through David, in the 34th Psalm,
speaking thus about the ninth repentance of the Pistis Sophia :
1. 'Judge, O Lord, those who do injustice to me; fight with those who fight with me.
2. Take hold of a weapon and shield, and rise to help me.
3. Draw forth a sword and unsheathe it in the presence of those that afflict me ; say to my soul : I am thy salvation.
4. May they be put to shame and disgrace that seek my soul; may those that think wicked things about me be turned
back and be put to shame.
5. May they become like dust before the wind; and may the angel of the Lord pursue them.
6. May their paths become dark and slippery; and may the angel of the Lord afflict them.
7. For, without cause, they have hidden for me a snare to their own destruction; and in vain they have slandered
my soul.
8. May the snare which they do not know come to them; and may the net, which they have hidden for me, catch them, and may they fall into this snare.
9. But my soul will rejoice over the Lord, and be glad over its salvation.
10. All my bones will say : O Lord, who can resemble thee? Thou dost save the poor out of the hand of those that are stronger than he ; and thou dost save a poor man and a needy from the hands of those that rob him.
11. Unjust witnesses have arisen; they have questioned me about things which I do not know.
12. They repaid me evil things for good, and childlessness to my soul.
13. But I, when they troubled me, I put on sackcloth, and I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer will return again to my bosom.
14. I was agreeable as if to my neighbor, and as if to my brother ; and I humbled myself like a mourner and a sorrowful one.
15. They have rejoiced over me and have been put to shame. Scourges were gathered against me and I did not know; they were separated and they were not distressed.
16. They tempted me, and they sneered at me contemptuously; they gnashed their teeth against me.
17. O Lord, when wilt thou look down upon me ? Establish my soul away from their wicked deeds; and save my only-
begotten one from the lions.
18. I will confess thee, O Lord, in a great congregation, and I will bless thee among countless people.
19. Let not those who are enemies to me unjustly, who hate me without cause and wink with their eyes, rejoice
over me.
20. For indeed they speak to me with peaceful words ; and they imagine wrath with cunning.
21. They opened wide their mouths against me and they said : Excellent, our eyes have had a full view of him.
22. Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not silent, O Lord; draw not back from me.
23. Arise, O Lord, give heed to my judgment; give heed to my revenge, my God and my Lord.
24. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness; let them not rejoice over me, my God.
25. Neither let them say : Excellent, our soul; let them not say : We have swallowed him.
26. Let those that rejoice over my misfortunes be put to shame, and disgraced at the same time; let those that speak great words against me be covered with shame and disgrace.
27. Let those that wish my righteousness be glad and rejoice; and may those that wish the peace of his servant say : let the Lord be magnified and lifted up.
28. My tongue will rejoice at thy righteousness and thy glory all the day'."
CHAPTER 52.
When James had said these things, Jesus said : Excellent, well done, James. This is the interpretation of the ninth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will become first in the Kingdom of Heaven, before all the invisible ones, and all the gods, and all the archons, which are in the thirteenth aeon, and in the twelfth aeon. But not only you, but also everyone who will perform my mysteries."
When he had said these things, he said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I am speaking with you ?" Mariam sprang up again, she said : "Yes, O Lord. This is what thou didst say to us once : 'The last will become first and the first will become last.' Now the first, which were created before us, are the invisible ones, since they existed before mankind, they and the gods and the archons; and the men who will receive mysteries will precede them in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus said to her : "Excellent, Mariam."
Jesus continued again, he said to his disciples: "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia had said the ninth repentance, the lion-faced power oppressed her again, wanting to take away all the power within her. She cried again to the Light, saying :
'O Light, in whom I have believed from the beginning, for whose sake I have suffered great afflictions, help me.' And in that hour her repentance was accepted. The First Mystery heard her. And I was sent at his command, I came to help her, I brought her up from the Chaos because she had repented, and also because she had believed in the light, and she had suffered these great afflictions and these great dangers. She was deceived by the deity Authades. And she was deceived by nothing except a light-power, because of the likeness of the light in which she believed. Now because of this I was sent, through the command of the First Mystery to help her secretly. But I had not yet come to the place of the aeons at all. But I came forth from the midst of them all without any power knowing; neither the innermost ones of the inner, nor the outermost ones of the outer, except for the First Mystery alone.
Now it happened when I came to the Chaos, to help her, she saw that I was understanding, and that I was shining exceedingly and with compassion towards her. For I was not insolent like the lion-faced power, which had taken away
the power of light from the Sophia, and which had also afflicted her, to take away all the light within her. Now the Sophia saw me, that I was shining ten thousand times more than the lion-faced power, and that I had great compassion towards her. And she knew that I was from out of the height of heights, in the light of which she had believed from the beginning. The Pistis Sophia took courage and she spoke the tenth repentance, saying :
1. 'I have cried out to thee, O Light of Lights, in my affliction, and thou hast heard me.
2. O Light, save my power from unjust and iniquitous lips, and from cunning snares.
3. The light which was taken away from me with a cunning snare will not be brought to thee.
4. For the snares of the Authades are widespread, with the traps of the merciless.
5. Woe to me, for my dwelling was far off and I was in the dwellings of the Chaos.
6. My power was in places which were not mine.
7. And I flattered those merciless ones, and when I flattered them, they attacked me without cause'."
When James had said these things, Jesus said : Excellent, well done, James. This is the interpretation of the ninth repentance of the Pistis Sophia. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will become first in the Kingdom of Heaven, before all the invisible ones, and all the gods, and all the archons, which are in the thirteenth aeon, and in the twelfth aeon. But not only you, but also everyone who will perform my mysteries."
When he had said these things, he said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I am speaking with you ?" Mariam sprang up again, she said : "Yes, O Lord. This is what thou didst say to us once : 'The last will become first and the first will become last.' Now the first, which were created before us, are the invisible ones, since they existed before mankind, they and the gods and the archons; and the men who will receive mysteries will precede them in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus said to her : "Excellent, Mariam."
Jesus continued again, he said to his disciples: "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia had said the ninth repentance, the lion-faced power oppressed her again, wanting to take away all the power within her. She cried again to the Light, saying :
'O Light, in whom I have believed from the beginning, for whose sake I have suffered great afflictions, help me.' And in that hour her repentance was accepted. The First Mystery heard her. And I was sent at his command, I came to help her, I brought her up from the Chaos because she had repented, and also because she had believed in the light, and she had suffered these great afflictions and these great dangers. She was deceived by the deity Authades. And she was deceived by nothing except a light-power, because of the likeness of the light in which she believed. Now because of this I was sent, through the command of the First Mystery to help her secretly. But I had not yet come to the place of the aeons at all. But I came forth from the midst of them all without any power knowing; neither the innermost ones of the inner, nor the outermost ones of the outer, except for the First Mystery alone.
Now it happened when I came to the Chaos, to help her, she saw that I was understanding, and that I was shining exceedingly and with compassion towards her. For I was not insolent like the lion-faced power, which had taken away
the power of light from the Sophia, and which had also afflicted her, to take away all the light within her. Now the Sophia saw me, that I was shining ten thousand times more than the lion-faced power, and that I had great compassion towards her. And she knew that I was from out of the height of heights, in the light of which she had believed from the beginning. The Pistis Sophia took courage and she spoke the tenth repentance, saying :
1. 'I have cried out to thee, O Light of Lights, in my affliction, and thou hast heard me.
2. O Light, save my power from unjust and iniquitous lips, and from cunning snares.
3. The light which was taken away from me with a cunning snare will not be brought to thee.
4. For the snares of the Authades are widespread, with the traps of the merciless.
5. Woe to me, for my dwelling was far off and I was in the dwellings of the Chaos.
6. My power was in places which were not mine.
7. And I flattered those merciless ones, and when I flattered them, they attacked me without cause'."
CHAPTER 53.
Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples, he said to them : "Now at this time let him whose spirit moves him, come forth and say the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia." Peter answered and said : "O Lord, concerning this also, thy power prophesied once, through David, in the l19th Psalm, saying :
1. 'I cried to thee, O Lord, in my affliction and thou didst hear me.
2. O Lord, save my soul from unjust lips and from a cunning tongue.
3. What will be given to thee and what will be taken from thee with a cunning tongue?
4. The arrows of the strong are sharpened, together with the coals of the desert.
5. Woe on me, for my dwelling was far off. I dwelt in the dwellings of Kedar.
6. My soul has been a sojourner in many places.
7. I was peaceful with those who hate peace. When I spoke with them they fought me without cause.'
Now at this time, O Lord, this is the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia, which she said when the material emanations of the Authades oppressed her, they and his lion-faced power, and when they afflicted her greatly."
Jesus said to him : "Excellent, Peter, and well done. This is the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia."
Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples, he said to them : "Now at this time let him whose spirit moves him, come forth and say the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia." Peter answered and said : "O Lord, concerning this also, thy power prophesied once, through David, in the l19th Psalm, saying :
1. 'I cried to thee, O Lord, in my affliction and thou didst hear me.
2. O Lord, save my soul from unjust lips and from a cunning tongue.
3. What will be given to thee and what will be taken from thee with a cunning tongue?
4. The arrows of the strong are sharpened, together with the coals of the desert.
5. Woe on me, for my dwelling was far off. I dwelt in the dwellings of Kedar.
6. My soul has been a sojourner in many places.
7. I was peaceful with those who hate peace. When I spoke with them they fought me without cause.'
Now at this time, O Lord, this is the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia, which she said when the material emanations of the Authades oppressed her, they and his lion-faced power, and when they afflicted her greatly."
Jesus said to him : "Excellent, Peter, and well done. This is the interpretation of the tenth repentance of the Pistis Sophia."
CHAPTER 54.
Jesus continued again with the discourse, he said to his disciples: "Now it happened when the lion-faced power saw me approaching the Pistis Sophia, that I was shining exceedingly, it was more angry, and it emanated from itself another multitude of very powerful emanations. Now when these things happened, the Pistis Sophia spoke the eleventh repentance, saying :
1. 'Why has the strong power risen among the wicked?
2. Its thought took the light away from me at all times. And like sharp iron they took power from me.
3. I preferred to come down to the Chaos more than to remain in the place of the thirteenth aeon, the place of
righteousness.
4. And they wanted to take me by cunning, that they might swallow all my light.
5. Because of this now, the light will take all their light, and also their whole matter will be destroyed. And he will take their light, and he will not let them exist in the thirteenth aeon, their dwelling place, and he will not let their names be in the place of those that will live.
6. And the 24 emanations will see what has happened to thee, O lion-faced power, and they will fear and they will not be disobedient, but they will give what is purified of their light.
7. And they will see thee, and they will rejoice over thee and they will say : Behold an emanation which has not given what is purified of its light, that it might be saved, but it boasts of the magnitude of the light of its power, because it did not emanate the power within it ; and it said : I will take away the light of the Pistis Sophia, this which will be taken from her.'
Now at this time, let him in whom his power has arisen come forward and give the interpretation of the eleventh
repentance of the Pistis Sophia."
Then Salome came forward and said : "My Lord, concerning this, thy light-power once prophesied, through David,
in the 51st Psalm, saying :
I. "why does the mighty, boast of his evil?
2. Thy tongue has devised injustice all the day; like a sharp cutting knife thou hast practiced deceit.
3. Thou hast loved evil more than goodness; thou host loved injustice more than to speak righteousness.
4. Thou hast loved all words of subterfuge and a cunning tongue,
5. For this reason God will destroy thee completely, He will uproot thee; and he will draw thee from thy dwelling, and he will pluck out thy root and cast it outside of those that are living, Pause.
6. The righteous will see and will fear; and they will mock at him and say :
7. Behold a man who did not make God his helper, but he trusted in his great wealth and he had power upon his vanity.
8. But I am like a fruit-bearing olive tree in the House of God ; I have trusted in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9. And I will give thanks to thee, for thou hast dealt with me ; and I will wait upon thy name, for it is beneficent in the presence of thy holy ones.'
Now at this time, my Lord, this is the interpretation of the eleventh repentance of the Pistis Sophia. As thy light-power moved me, I said it according to thy will."
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Salome said, he said : "Excellent, Salome. Truly, truly , I say to you that I will complete you in all mysteries of the Kingdom of the Light."
CHAPTER 55.
Jesus, however, continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "It happened now after these things I entered into the Chaos, shining exceedingly, in order that I might take away the light of that lion-faced power.
As I was of exceeding light, it was afraid, it cried out to its deity, Authades, to help it. And at that hour the deity
Authades looked forth from the thirteenth aeon, he looked down upon the Chaos. He was exceedingly angry, wishing
to help his lion-faced power. And at that hour the lion-faced power and all its emanations turned to the Pistis Sophia,
wishing to take away all the light which was in the Sophia. It happened now when they oppressed the Sophia, she cried
out to the height, she cried out to me, that I should help her. Now it happened when she looked to the height, she saw the Authades who was very angry, and she was afraid. She said the twelfth repentance because of the Authades and his emanations. But she cried out to me, saying thus :
1. 'O Light, forget not my song of praise.
2. For the Authades and his lion-faced power opened their mouths against me, they dealt cunningly with me.
3. And they surrounded me, wishing to take away my power; and they hated me because I sang praises to thee.
4. Instead of loving me, they slandered me, but I sang praises.
5. They planned to take away my power because I sang praises to thee, O Light. And they hated me because I loved
thee.
6. Let the darkness come over the Authades, and may the archon of the outer darkness remain at his right hand.
7. And when thou dost judge him, take his power away from him ; and that which he thought - to take away my light from me - do thou take his from him.
8. And may all his powers of his light within him diminish; and may another one take his greatness in the three triple-powered ones.
9. May all the powers of his emanations become without light; and may his matter be without light in it.
10. May his emanations remain in the Chaos, and may they not be allowed to go to their place; may their light which is in them diminish, and let them not be allowed to go up to the thirteenth aeon, their place.
11. May the paralemptes, the purifier of the lights, purify all the lights which are in the Authades; and may he take them from them.
12. May the archons of the darkness below rule over his emanations, and let not anyone receive him to himself in his place ; and let not anyone hear the power of his emanations in the Chaos.
13. May the light which is in his emanations be taken away, and may their name be removed from the thirteenth aeon; indeed rather may his name be taken away from that place for ever.
14. And upon the lion-faced power, may there be brought the sin of him who emanated it in the presence of the light; and may the iniquity, of the matter which brought him (the Authades) forth not be erased.
15. And may their sin immediately be in the presence of the eternal light ; and may they not be allowed to see, and may their name be removed from every place;
16. Because they did not spare me, and they oppressed the one whose light and power they took away. And afterwards they put me among them, wishing to take away all my light from me.
17. They loved to come down to the Chaos; may they be within it, and not be brought forth from this time hence. They did not want the place of righteousness as dwelling place, and they will not be taken to it from this time forth.
18. He put on the darkness like a garment; and it (the darkness) went into him like water, and it went into all his powers like oil.
19. May he wrap himself in the Chaos like a garment, and gird himself with the darkness like a leather girdle at all times.
20. While these things happen to those who brought these things upon me on account of the light; and they said: let us take away all her power.
21. But thou, O Light, have compassion on me, on account of the mystery of thy name; and save me in the beneficence
of thy mercy.
22. Because they have taken away my light and my power, and my power is shaken within me, and I have not been able
to stand upright in their midst,
23. I have become like matter which has fallen; I have been cast on this side and that, like a demon which is in the air.
24. My power has been destroyed, for I possess no mystery ; and my matter has faded because of my light, for they took it away.
25. And as for me, they mocked me ; they looked at me as they winked about me.
26. Help me according to thy compassion.'
Now at this time, he whose spirit is eager, let him come forward and say the interpretation of the twelfth repentance
of the Pistis Sophia."
Jesus, however, continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "It happened now after these things I entered into the Chaos, shining exceedingly, in order that I might take away the light of that lion-faced power.
As I was of exceeding light, it was afraid, it cried out to its deity, Authades, to help it. And at that hour the deity
Authades looked forth from the thirteenth aeon, he looked down upon the Chaos. He was exceedingly angry, wishing
to help his lion-faced power. And at that hour the lion-faced power and all its emanations turned to the Pistis Sophia,
wishing to take away all the light which was in the Sophia. It happened now when they oppressed the Sophia, she cried
out to the height, she cried out to me, that I should help her. Now it happened when she looked to the height, she saw the Authades who was very angry, and she was afraid. She said the twelfth repentance because of the Authades and his emanations. But she cried out to me, saying thus :
1. 'O Light, forget not my song of praise.
2. For the Authades and his lion-faced power opened their mouths against me, they dealt cunningly with me.
3. And they surrounded me, wishing to take away my power; and they hated me because I sang praises to thee.
4. Instead of loving me, they slandered me, but I sang praises.
5. They planned to take away my power because I sang praises to thee, O Light. And they hated me because I loved
thee.
6. Let the darkness come over the Authades, and may the archon of the outer darkness remain at his right hand.
7. And when thou dost judge him, take his power away from him ; and that which he thought - to take away my light from me - do thou take his from him.
8. And may all his powers of his light within him diminish; and may another one take his greatness in the three triple-powered ones.
9. May all the powers of his emanations become without light; and may his matter be without light in it.
10. May his emanations remain in the Chaos, and may they not be allowed to go to their place; may their light which is in them diminish, and let them not be allowed to go up to the thirteenth aeon, their place.
11. May the paralemptes, the purifier of the lights, purify all the lights which are in the Authades; and may he take them from them.
12. May the archons of the darkness below rule over his emanations, and let not anyone receive him to himself in his place ; and let not anyone hear the power of his emanations in the Chaos.
13. May the light which is in his emanations be taken away, and may their name be removed from the thirteenth aeon; indeed rather may his name be taken away from that place for ever.
14. And upon the lion-faced power, may there be brought the sin of him who emanated it in the presence of the light; and may the iniquity, of the matter which brought him (the Authades) forth not be erased.
15. And may their sin immediately be in the presence of the eternal light ; and may they not be allowed to see, and may their name be removed from every place;
16. Because they did not spare me, and they oppressed the one whose light and power they took away. And afterwards they put me among them, wishing to take away all my light from me.
17. They loved to come down to the Chaos; may they be within it, and not be brought forth from this time hence. They did not want the place of righteousness as dwelling place, and they will not be taken to it from this time forth.
18. He put on the darkness like a garment; and it (the darkness) went into him like water, and it went into all his powers like oil.
19. May he wrap himself in the Chaos like a garment, and gird himself with the darkness like a leather girdle at all times.
20. While these things happen to those who brought these things upon me on account of the light; and they said: let us take away all her power.
21. But thou, O Light, have compassion on me, on account of the mystery of thy name; and save me in the beneficence
of thy mercy.
22. Because they have taken away my light and my power, and my power is shaken within me, and I have not been able
to stand upright in their midst,
23. I have become like matter which has fallen; I have been cast on this side and that, like a demon which is in the air.
24. My power has been destroyed, for I possess no mystery ; and my matter has faded because of my light, for they took it away.
25. And as for me, they mocked me ; they looked at me as they winked about me.
26. Help me according to thy compassion.'
Now at this time, he whose spirit is eager, let him come forward and say the interpretation of the twelfth repentance
of the Pistis Sophia."
CHAPTER 56.
Andrew however came forward, he said : "My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power prophesied once, through David,
concerning this repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, and spoke in the 108th Psalm, saying :
1. 'O God, do not be silent to my praise.
2. For the mouths of the sinner and the cunning, they have opened against me ; they have spoken about me with a cunning tongue.
3. And they surround me with words of hatred; and they have fought against me without a cause.
4. Instead of loving me, they slandered me, but I prayed.
5. They established for me evil in the place of good, and hatred in the place of my love.
6. Set a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand.
7. When he is judged, may he come forth condemned, and may his prayer become sin.
8. May his days be diminished, and may another take his office.
9. May his sons become orphans, and may his wife become a widow.
10. May his sons be moved, and may they be turned out and beg ; may they be cast forth from their house.
11. May the creditor search all his belongings; and may strangers rob all his efforts.
12. May there not exist for him anyone who gives him a hand, or who is compassionate to his orphans.
13. May his sons be blotted out; and may his name be blotted out in one generation.
14. May the sin of his fathers be remembered in the presence of the Lord ; and let not the iniquity of his mother be blotted out.
15. May they be in the presence of the Lord at all times ; and may his memory be wiped out from the earth.
16. Because he did not remember to show mercy; and he pursued a poor man and a wretched one, and he persecuted
one who was afflicted, to kill him.
17. He loved cursing and may it come to him; he did not wish to bless and may it be removed from him.
18. He put on cursing like a garment, and it went to his interior like water; it became like oil in his bones.
19. May it be to him like the garment with which he will wrap himself; and like a girdle with which he will gird himself at all times.
20. This is the dealing for those that slander me before the Lord, and those that speak lawless things into my soul.
21. But thou, O Lord, Lord show mercy on me, on account of thy name; save me.
22. For I am a poor man and I am a wretched one ; my heart is agitated within me.
23. I have been taken into the midst like a shadow which goes down; I am blown forth like locusts.
24. My knees are weak with lasting; and my flesh is changed on account of the (lack of) oil.
25. But I have become a mockery to them; they saw me and they shook their heads.
26. Help me, O Lord God, and save me, according to thy mercy.
27. May they know that this is thy hand, and thou hast created it, O Lord.'
This is the interpretation of the twelfth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, as she was in the Chaos."
Andrew however came forward, he said : "My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power prophesied once, through David,
concerning this repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, and spoke in the 108th Psalm, saying :
1. 'O God, do not be silent to my praise.
2. For the mouths of the sinner and the cunning, they have opened against me ; they have spoken about me with a cunning tongue.
3. And they surround me with words of hatred; and they have fought against me without a cause.
4. Instead of loving me, they slandered me, but I prayed.
5. They established for me evil in the place of good, and hatred in the place of my love.
6. Set a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand.
7. When he is judged, may he come forth condemned, and may his prayer become sin.
8. May his days be diminished, and may another take his office.
9. May his sons become orphans, and may his wife become a widow.
10. May his sons be moved, and may they be turned out and beg ; may they be cast forth from their house.
11. May the creditor search all his belongings; and may strangers rob all his efforts.
12. May there not exist for him anyone who gives him a hand, or who is compassionate to his orphans.
13. May his sons be blotted out; and may his name be blotted out in one generation.
14. May the sin of his fathers be remembered in the presence of the Lord ; and let not the iniquity of his mother be blotted out.
15. May they be in the presence of the Lord at all times ; and may his memory be wiped out from the earth.
16. Because he did not remember to show mercy; and he pursued a poor man and a wretched one, and he persecuted
one who was afflicted, to kill him.
17. He loved cursing and may it come to him; he did not wish to bless and may it be removed from him.
18. He put on cursing like a garment, and it went to his interior like water; it became like oil in his bones.
19. May it be to him like the garment with which he will wrap himself; and like a girdle with which he will gird himself at all times.
20. This is the dealing for those that slander me before the Lord, and those that speak lawless things into my soul.
21. But thou, O Lord, Lord show mercy on me, on account of thy name; save me.
22. For I am a poor man and I am a wretched one ; my heart is agitated within me.
23. I have been taken into the midst like a shadow which goes down; I am blown forth like locusts.
24. My knees are weak with lasting; and my flesh is changed on account of the (lack of) oil.
25. But I have become a mockery to them; they saw me and they shook their heads.
26. Help me, O Lord God, and save me, according to thy mercy.
27. May they know that this is thy hand, and thou hast created it, O Lord.'
This is the interpretation of the twelfth repentance which the Pistis Sophia said, as she was in the Chaos."
CHAPTER 57.
Jesus continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "It happened again after these things, the Pistis Sophia cried out to me, saying : 'O Light of Lights, I have transgressed against the twelve aeons. I came down
from them. For this reason I have said the twelve repentances, one according to each aeon. Now at this time, O Light of
Lights, forgive me my transgression, for it is very great. Because I left the places of the height. I came to dwell in the places of the Chaos.'
Now when the Pistis Sophia finished saying these things, she continued again with the thirteenth repentance, saying :
1. 'Hear me as I sing praises to thee, O Light of Lights. Hear me as I say the repentance of the thirteenth aeon, the
place from which I came down, so that the thirteenth repentance of the thirteenth aeon be completed. These (aeons) ( against which I have transgressed, from them I came down.
2. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, hear me as I sing praises to thee in the thirteenth aeon, my place from which I came forth.
3. Save me, O Light, in thy great mystery and forgive my transgression in thy forgiveness.
4. And give me the baptism and forgive my sins and purify me from my transgression.
5. And this my transgression is the lion-faced power, which was not hidden from thee at any time, for on account of it I came down.
6. And I alone among the invisible ones, in whose place I existed, transgressed, and I came down to the Chaos. I transgressed before thee so that thy ordinance should be fulfilled.'
The Pistis Sophia now said these things. Now at this time let him whose spirit moves him to understand her words, come forth and give their thought."
Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, my spirit moves me to give the interpretation of those things which the Pistis Sophia said. Concerning them, thy power once prophesied through David in the 50th Psalm, speaking thus :
1. 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great pity; according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out my sin .
2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
3. And my sin is present to me at all times.
4. That thou shouldst be justified in thy words and victorious when thou judgest me.'
This is the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said." Jesus said to her : ""Excellent, well done Martha, thou
blessed one".
Jesus continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "It happened again after these things, the Pistis Sophia cried out to me, saying : 'O Light of Lights, I have transgressed against the twelve aeons. I came down
from them. For this reason I have said the twelve repentances, one according to each aeon. Now at this time, O Light of
Lights, forgive me my transgression, for it is very great. Because I left the places of the height. I came to dwell in the places of the Chaos.'
Now when the Pistis Sophia finished saying these things, she continued again with the thirteenth repentance, saying :
1. 'Hear me as I sing praises to thee, O Light of Lights. Hear me as I say the repentance of the thirteenth aeon, the
place from which I came down, so that the thirteenth repentance of the thirteenth aeon be completed. These (aeons) ( against which I have transgressed, from them I came down.
2. Now at this time, O Light of Lights, hear me as I sing praises to thee in the thirteenth aeon, my place from which I came forth.
3. Save me, O Light, in thy great mystery and forgive my transgression in thy forgiveness.
4. And give me the baptism and forgive my sins and purify me from my transgression.
5. And this my transgression is the lion-faced power, which was not hidden from thee at any time, for on account of it I came down.
6. And I alone among the invisible ones, in whose place I existed, transgressed, and I came down to the Chaos. I transgressed before thee so that thy ordinance should be fulfilled.'
The Pistis Sophia now said these things. Now at this time let him whose spirit moves him to understand her words, come forth and give their thought."
Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, my spirit moves me to give the interpretation of those things which the Pistis Sophia said. Concerning them, thy power once prophesied through David in the 50th Psalm, speaking thus :
1. 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great pity; according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out my sin .
2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
3. And my sin is present to me at all times.
4. That thou shouldst be justified in thy words and victorious when thou judgest me.'
This is the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said." Jesus said to her : ""Excellent, well done Martha, thou
blessed one".
CHAPTER 58.
Jesus however continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia said these words, the time was fulfilled that she should be brought forth from the Chaos. And by myself alone, without the First Mystery', I brought forth from myself a light-power, I sent it down to the Chaos that it should bring the Pistis Sophia up from the deep places of the Chaos and bring her to the upper place of the Chaos, until the command came forth from the First Mystery that she should be brought up from the Chaos completely. And my light-power brought the Pistis Sophia up to the upper places of the Chaos. Now it happened when the emanations of the Authades knew that the Pistis Sophia was brought up to the upper places of the Chaos, they followed her upwards, wanting to take her again to the lower places of the Chaos. And my light-power, which I had sent to bring the Sophia up from the Chaos, gave light exceedingly. Now it happened when the emanations of the Authades followed the Sophia when she was brought to the upper places of
the Chaos, she sang praises again and she cried out to me, saying :
I. 'I will sing praises to thee, O Light, for I wanted to come to thee. I will sing praises to thee, O Light, for thou art my Saviour.
2. Leave me not in the Chaos. Save me, O Light of the height, for thou art he to whom I have sung praises.
3. By thyself thou hast sent to me thy light and thou hast saved me. Thou hast brought me to the upper places of the Chaos.
4. May the emanations of the Authades which follow me fall down to the lower places of the Chaos. And let them not come to the upper places so that they see me.
5. And may a great darkness cover them over and may a cloud of darkness come to them. And let them not see me in the light of thy power which thou hast sent to me to save me, lest they gain power over me again.
6. And their plan which they thought of, to take away my power, let it not happen for them. And according to how they spoke against me to take away my light from me, take theirs rather instead of mine.
7. And they have spoken to take away all my light. And they were not able to take it, for thy light-power was with me ;
8. Because they deliberated without thy ordinance, O Light. On account of this they were not able to take away my light.
9. Because I have believed in the light, I will not fear; and the light is my Saviour, and I will not fear.'
Now at this time let him whose power is elevated say the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said." But it happened when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, Salome came forward. She said : "My Lord, my power compels me to say the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said. Thy power prophesied once through Solomon, saying thus :
1. I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou art my God.
2. Leave me not, O Lord, for thou art my hope.
3. Thou hast given me thy judgment freely, and I have been saved through thee.
4. May those that persecute me fall and let them not see me.
5. May a cloud of smoke cover their eyes, and may a misty air darken them; and let them not see the day, lest they seize me.
6. May their counsels become powerless; and may those things which they have devised come upon them,
7. They have devised a counsel, and it has not happened for them.
8. And they, the powerful, are vanquished; and those things which they prepared with evil intent are cast down .
9. My hope is in the Lord and I will not fear ; for thou art my God, my Saviour'. "
Now it happened when Salome finished saying these words, Jesus said to her : "Excellent, Salome, and well done.
This is the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
Jesus however continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia said these words, the time was fulfilled that she should be brought forth from the Chaos. And by myself alone, without the First Mystery', I brought forth from myself a light-power, I sent it down to the Chaos that it should bring the Pistis Sophia up from the deep places of the Chaos and bring her to the upper place of the Chaos, until the command came forth from the First Mystery that she should be brought up from the Chaos completely. And my light-power brought the Pistis Sophia up to the upper places of the Chaos. Now it happened when the emanations of the Authades knew that the Pistis Sophia was brought up to the upper places of the Chaos, they followed her upwards, wanting to take her again to the lower places of the Chaos. And my light-power, which I had sent to bring the Sophia up from the Chaos, gave light exceedingly. Now it happened when the emanations of the Authades followed the Sophia when she was brought to the upper places of
the Chaos, she sang praises again and she cried out to me, saying :
I. 'I will sing praises to thee, O Light, for I wanted to come to thee. I will sing praises to thee, O Light, for thou art my Saviour.
2. Leave me not in the Chaos. Save me, O Light of the height, for thou art he to whom I have sung praises.
3. By thyself thou hast sent to me thy light and thou hast saved me. Thou hast brought me to the upper places of the Chaos.
4. May the emanations of the Authades which follow me fall down to the lower places of the Chaos. And let them not come to the upper places so that they see me.
5. And may a great darkness cover them over and may a cloud of darkness come to them. And let them not see me in the light of thy power which thou hast sent to me to save me, lest they gain power over me again.
6. And their plan which they thought of, to take away my power, let it not happen for them. And according to how they spoke against me to take away my light from me, take theirs rather instead of mine.
7. And they have spoken to take away all my light. And they were not able to take it, for thy light-power was with me ;
8. Because they deliberated without thy ordinance, O Light. On account of this they were not able to take away my light.
9. Because I have believed in the light, I will not fear; and the light is my Saviour, and I will not fear.'
Now at this time let him whose power is elevated say the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said." But it happened when Jesus finished saying these words to his disciples, Salome came forward. She said : "My Lord, my power compels me to say the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said. Thy power prophesied once through Solomon, saying thus :
1. I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou art my God.
2. Leave me not, O Lord, for thou art my hope.
3. Thou hast given me thy judgment freely, and I have been saved through thee.
4. May those that persecute me fall and let them not see me.
5. May a cloud of smoke cover their eyes, and may a misty air darken them; and let them not see the day, lest they seize me.
6. May their counsels become powerless; and may those things which they have devised come upon them,
7. They have devised a counsel, and it has not happened for them.
8. And they, the powerful, are vanquished; and those things which they prepared with evil intent are cast down .
9. My hope is in the Lord and I will not fear ; for thou art my God, my Saviour'. "
Now it happened when Salome finished saying these words, Jesus said to her : "Excellent, Salome, and well done.
This is the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
CHAPTER 59.
Jesus continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying these words in the Chaos, I caused the light-power which I had sent to save her, I caused it to become a crown of light on her head, so that from this hour the emanations of the Authades would have no power over her. And when it became a crown of light on her head, all the evil materials which were in her were moved, and they were all purified within her; they were destroyed and came to be in the Chaos, while the emanations of the Authades saw them and they rejoiced. And what was purified of the pure light within the Sophia gave power to the light of my light-power which had become a crown on her head. Now it happened further, as it surrounded the pure light within the Sophia, her pure light was not (left) without 1 the crown of the flame of the light-power, so that the emanations of the Authades did not steal it.
Now when these things had happened, the pure light-power within the Sophia began to sing praises; but she sang praises
to my light-power which had become a crown on her head. She sang praises, saying thus :
1. 'The light has become a crown on my head and I will not be (left) without it, so that the emanations of the Authades do not steal it from me.
2. And even if all the materials move, I however will not move.
3. And even if all my materials are destroyed and remain in the Chaos - these which the emanations of the Authades see - I however will not be destroyed.
4. For the light is with me, and I myself am with the light.'
But the Pistis Sophia said these words. Now at this time let him who understands the thought of these words come
forward and give their interpretation."
Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward. She said : "My son according to the world, my God and my Saviour according
to the height, command me that I give the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
But Jesus answered and said : "Thou also, Mary, thou hast received form which is in the Barbelo according to the matter, and thou hast received likeness which is in the on her head. Now it happened further, as it surrounded the pure light within the Sophia, her pure light was not (left) without the crown of the flame of the light-power, so that the emanations of the Authades did not steal it.
Now when these things had happened, the pure light-power within the Sophia began to sing praises; but she sang praises
to my light-power which had become a crown on her head. She sang praises, saying thus :
1. 'The light has become a crown on my head and I will not be (left) without it, so that the emanations of the Authades do not steal it from me.
2. And even if all the materials move, I however will not move.
3. And even if all my materials are destroyed and remain in the Chaos - these which the emanations of the Authades see - I however will not be destroyed.
4. For the light is with me, and I myself am with the light.'
But the Pistis Sophia said these words. Now at this time let him who understands the thought of these words come
forward and give their interpretation."
Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward. She said : "My son according to the world, my God and my Saviour according
to the height, command me that I give the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
But Jesus answered and said : "Thou also, Mary, thou hast received form which is in the Barbelo according to the matter, and thou hast received likeness which is in the Virgin of the Light according to the light, thou and the other Mary, the blessed one. And for thy sake the darkness exists and furthermore, from thee has come forth the material body in which I exist, which I have cleaned and purified. Now at this time I command thee to give the interpretation of the words which the Sophia said.
However Mary, the mother of Jesus, answered, she said : "My Lord, thy light-power once prophesied about these
words through Solomon in the 19th Ode and said :
1. 'The Lord is upon my head like a crown and I shall not be without him.
2. They plaited for me the true crown , and it caused thy branches to sprout in me.
3. For it is not like a withered crown which does not sprout; but thou livest upon my head and thou dost sprout upon me.
4. Thy fruits are full and ripe, filled with thy salvation'. "
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary his mother spoke , he said to her : "Excellent, well done.
Truly, truly, I say that they will bless thee from end to end of the earth , for the pledge of the First Mystery was entrusted to thee. And by means of that pledge all those of the earth and all those of the height will be saved. And that pledge is the beginning and the end."
Jesus continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to his disciples : "Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying these words in the Chaos, I caused the light-power which I had sent to save her, I caused it to become a crown of light on her head, so that from this hour the emanations of the Authades would have no power over her. And when it became a crown of light on her head, all the evil materials which were in her were moved, and they were all purified within her; they were destroyed and came to be in the Chaos, while the emanations of the Authades saw them and they rejoiced. And what was purified of the pure light within the Sophia gave power to the light of my light-power which had become a crown on her head. Now it happened further, as it surrounded the pure light within the Sophia, her pure light was not (left) without 1 the crown of the flame of the light-power, so that the emanations of the Authades did not steal it.
Now when these things had happened, the pure light-power within the Sophia began to sing praises; but she sang praises
to my light-power which had become a crown on her head. She sang praises, saying thus :
1. 'The light has become a crown on my head and I will not be (left) without it, so that the emanations of the Authades do not steal it from me.
2. And even if all the materials move, I however will not move.
3. And even if all my materials are destroyed and remain in the Chaos - these which the emanations of the Authades see - I however will not be destroyed.
4. For the light is with me, and I myself am with the light.'
But the Pistis Sophia said these words. Now at this time let him who understands the thought of these words come
forward and give their interpretation."
Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward. She said : "My son according to the world, my God and my Saviour according
to the height, command me that I give the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
But Jesus answered and said : "Thou also, Mary, thou hast received form which is in the Barbelo according to the matter, and thou hast received likeness which is in the on her head. Now it happened further, as it surrounded the pure light within the Sophia, her pure light was not (left) without the crown of the flame of the light-power, so that the emanations of the Authades did not steal it.
Now when these things had happened, the pure light-power within the Sophia began to sing praises; but she sang praises
to my light-power which had become a crown on her head. She sang praises, saying thus :
1. 'The light has become a crown on my head and I will not be (left) without it, so that the emanations of the Authades do not steal it from me.
2. And even if all the materials move, I however will not move.
3. And even if all my materials are destroyed and remain in the Chaos - these which the emanations of the Authades see - I however will not be destroyed.
4. For the light is with me, and I myself am with the light.'
But the Pistis Sophia said these words. Now at this time let him who understands the thought of these words come
forward and give their interpretation."
Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward. She said : "My son according to the world, my God and my Saviour according
to the height, command me that I give the explanation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
But Jesus answered and said : "Thou also, Mary, thou hast received form which is in the Barbelo according to the matter, and thou hast received likeness which is in the Virgin of the Light according to the light, thou and the other Mary, the blessed one. And for thy sake the darkness exists and furthermore, from thee has come forth the material body in which I exist, which I have cleaned and purified. Now at this time I command thee to give the interpretation of the words which the Sophia said.
However Mary, the mother of Jesus, answered, she said : "My Lord, thy light-power once prophesied about these
words through Solomon in the 19th Ode and said :
1. 'The Lord is upon my head like a crown and I shall not be without him.
2. They plaited for me the true crown , and it caused thy branches to sprout in me.
3. For it is not like a withered crown which does not sprout; but thou livest upon my head and thou dost sprout upon me.
4. Thy fruits are full and ripe, filled with thy salvation'. "
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary his mother spoke , he said to her : "Excellent, well done.
Truly, truly, I say that they will bless thee from end to end of the earth , for the pledge of the First Mystery was entrusted to thee. And by means of that pledge all those of the earth and all those of the height will be saved. And that pledge is the beginning and the end."
CHAPTER 60
Jesus however continued with the discourse. He said to his disciples : '"lt happened when the Pistis Sophia said the thirteenth repentance, moreover at that hour the ordinance was completed of all the afflictions which had been ordained for the Pistis Sophia, because of the completion of the First Mystery , which had been since the beginning. And the time came that she should be saved from the Chaos and brought forth from all the darknesses. For her repentance was received by the First Mystery'. And that Mystery sent me a great light-power from the height, so that I should help the Pistis Sophia and bring her up from the Chaos. But I looked to the aeons of the height , I saw the light-power which the First Mystery had sent to me so that I should save the Sophia from the Chaos. Now it happened, when I saw it coming forth from the aeons and it hastened towards me -- but I was above the Chaos - another light-power also came forth from me, in order to help the Pistis Sophia. And the light-power which came forth from the height through the First Mystery came down upon the light-power which came forth from me. And they met one another and became a great outpouring of light."
Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples he said: "Do you understand the manner in which I am speaking with you?"
Mariam sprang up, she said : "My Lord, I understand what thou dost say. Concerning the interpretation of these words,
thy light-power once prophesied through David in the 84th Psalm, saying :
10. 'Mercy and truth have met one another, and righteousness and peace have kissed one another.
11. Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven.' Now mercy is the light-power which came forth through the First Mystery, for the First Mystery, heard the Pistis Sophia, and had mercy on her in all her afflictions. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which came forth from thee, because thou didst fulfill the truth that thou shouldst save her (the Pistis Sophia) from the Chaos. And furthermore, righteousness is the power which came forth through the First Mystery, which will guide the Pistis Sophia. And again peace is the power which came forth from thee,
because it will go into the emanations of the Authades and take away from them the lights which they took from the Pistis Sophia; that is, thou dost gather them within the Sophia and dost make them to be at peace with her power. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which came forth from thee when thou wast in the lower places of the Chaos. Concerning this, thy power spoke through David thus: 'Truth has sprouted from the earth', because thou wast in the lower places of the Chaos. Righteousness, on the other hand, which looked forth from heaven, is the power which came forth from the height, through the First Mystery, and which entered into the Sophia."
Jesus however continued with the discourse. He said to his disciples : '"lt happened when the Pistis Sophia said the thirteenth repentance, moreover at that hour the ordinance was completed of all the afflictions which had been ordained for the Pistis Sophia, because of the completion of the First Mystery , which had been since the beginning. And the time came that she should be saved from the Chaos and brought forth from all the darknesses. For her repentance was received by the First Mystery'. And that Mystery sent me a great light-power from the height, so that I should help the Pistis Sophia and bring her up from the Chaos. But I looked to the aeons of the height , I saw the light-power which the First Mystery had sent to me so that I should save the Sophia from the Chaos. Now it happened, when I saw it coming forth from the aeons and it hastened towards me -- but I was above the Chaos - another light-power also came forth from me, in order to help the Pistis Sophia. And the light-power which came forth from the height through the First Mystery came down upon the light-power which came forth from me. And they met one another and became a great outpouring of light."
Now when Jesus had said these things to his disciples he said: "Do you understand the manner in which I am speaking with you?"
Mariam sprang up, she said : "My Lord, I understand what thou dost say. Concerning the interpretation of these words,
thy light-power once prophesied through David in the 84th Psalm, saying :
10. 'Mercy and truth have met one another, and righteousness and peace have kissed one another.
11. Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven.' Now mercy is the light-power which came forth through the First Mystery, for the First Mystery, heard the Pistis Sophia, and had mercy on her in all her afflictions. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which came forth from thee, because thou didst fulfill the truth that thou shouldst save her (the Pistis Sophia) from the Chaos. And furthermore, righteousness is the power which came forth through the First Mystery, which will guide the Pistis Sophia. And again peace is the power which came forth from thee,
because it will go into the emanations of the Authades and take away from them the lights which they took from the Pistis Sophia; that is, thou dost gather them within the Sophia and dost make them to be at peace with her power. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which came forth from thee when thou wast in the lower places of the Chaos. Concerning this, thy power spoke through David thus: 'Truth has sprouted from the earth', because thou wast in the lower places of the Chaos. Righteousness, on the other hand, which looked forth from heaven, is the power which came forth from the height, through the First Mystery, and which entered into the Sophia."
CHAPTER 61.
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words, he said: "Excellent, Mariam, thou blessed one who wilt inherit the whole Kingdom of the Light." After these things Mary, the mother of Jesus, also came forward and said: "My Lord and my Saviour, command me also that I answer this discourse."
Jesus said: "I will not prevent him whose spirit has become understanding, but I urge him the more to speak the thought which has moved him. Now at this time, Mary, my mother according to the matter, to whom I was entrusted, I command thee that thou also sayest the thought of the discourse."
Mary answered, however, and said : "My Lord, concerning the word which thy power prophesied through David :
10. 'Mercy and truth have met one another; righteousness and peace have kissed one another.
11. Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven.'
Thy power once prophesied in these words about thee. When thou wast small, before the Spirit came upon thee, while thou wast in a vineyard with Joseph, the Spirit came forth from the height ø, he came to me into my house, he resembled thee. And I did not recognize him and I thought that he was thou. And the Spirit said to me : 'Where is Jesus, my brother, that I meet him ?' And when he said these things to me, I was confused and I thought that he was a phantom to tempt me. But I took him, I bound him to the leg of the bed in my house, until I came out to you in the field, thou and Joseph, and I found you in the vineyard, as Joseph was hedging the vineyard with reeds. Now it happened, when thou didst hear me speaking the word to Joseph, thou didst understand the word and thou didst rejoice. And thou didst say : 'Where is he that I may see him? Or else I await him in this place'. But it happened when Joseph heard thee saying these words, he was agitated and we came up at the same time, we went into the house. We found the Spirit bound to the bed. And we looked at thee with him, we found thee like him. And he that was bound to the bed was released, he embraced thee, he kissed thee. And thou also, thou didst kiss him and you became one.
This now is the discourse and its interpretation. Mercy is the Spirit which came forth from the height, through the First Mystery, because he (the First Mystery) had mercy on the race of men. He sent his Spirit that it should forgive the sins of the whole world so that they (men) should receive mysteries and inherit the Kingdom of the Light. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which was entrusted to me; when it came forth from the Barbelo, it became for thee a material body. And it preached about the place of the truth . Righteousness is thy Spirit which has brought the mysteries forth from the height, to give them to the race of mankind. Peace, on the other hand, is the power which was entrusted to thy material body ,, according to the world, which baptised the race of mankind until they became strangers to sin. And it made them to be at peace with thy Spirit, and they came to be at peace with the emanations of the light. That is, righteousness and peace have kissed one another. And as it was said : 'Truth has sprouted from the earth': truth however is thy material body , which sprouted from me, according to the earth of mankind, and which has preached about the place of the truth. And also as it was said: 'Righteousness (looked forth) from heaven': righteousness is the power which looked forth from the height, which will give the mysteries of the light to the race of mankind. And they will become righteous and good and inherit the Kingdom of the Light." Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary his mother said, he said : "Excellent, well done, Mary. "
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words, he said: "Excellent, Mariam, thou blessed one who wilt inherit the whole Kingdom of the Light." After these things Mary, the mother of Jesus, also came forward and said: "My Lord and my Saviour, command me also that I answer this discourse."
Jesus said: "I will not prevent him whose spirit has become understanding, but I urge him the more to speak the thought which has moved him. Now at this time, Mary, my mother according to the matter, to whom I was entrusted, I command thee that thou also sayest the thought of the discourse."
Mary answered, however, and said : "My Lord, concerning the word which thy power prophesied through David :
10. 'Mercy and truth have met one another; righteousness and peace have kissed one another.
11. Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven.'
Thy power once prophesied in these words about thee. When thou wast small, before the Spirit came upon thee, while thou wast in a vineyard with Joseph, the Spirit came forth from the height ø, he came to me into my house, he resembled thee. And I did not recognize him and I thought that he was thou. And the Spirit said to me : 'Where is Jesus, my brother, that I meet him ?' And when he said these things to me, I was confused and I thought that he was a phantom to tempt me. But I took him, I bound him to the leg of the bed in my house, until I came out to you in the field, thou and Joseph, and I found you in the vineyard, as Joseph was hedging the vineyard with reeds. Now it happened, when thou didst hear me speaking the word to Joseph, thou didst understand the word and thou didst rejoice. And thou didst say : 'Where is he that I may see him? Or else I await him in this place'. But it happened when Joseph heard thee saying these words, he was agitated and we came up at the same time, we went into the house. We found the Spirit bound to the bed. And we looked at thee with him, we found thee like him. And he that was bound to the bed was released, he embraced thee, he kissed thee. And thou also, thou didst kiss him and you became one.
This now is the discourse and its interpretation. Mercy is the Spirit which came forth from the height, through the First Mystery, because he (the First Mystery) had mercy on the race of men. He sent his Spirit that it should forgive the sins of the whole world so that they (men) should receive mysteries and inherit the Kingdom of the Light. Truth, on the other hand, is the power which was entrusted to me; when it came forth from the Barbelo, it became for thee a material body. And it preached about the place of the truth . Righteousness is thy Spirit which has brought the mysteries forth from the height, to give them to the race of mankind. Peace, on the other hand, is the power which was entrusted to thy material body ,, according to the world, which baptised the race of mankind until they became strangers to sin. And it made them to be at peace with thy Spirit, and they came to be at peace with the emanations of the light. That is, righteousness and peace have kissed one another. And as it was said : 'Truth has sprouted from the earth': truth however is thy material body , which sprouted from me, according to the earth of mankind, and which has preached about the place of the truth. And also as it was said: 'Righteousness (looked forth) from heaven': righteousness is the power which looked forth from the height, which will give the mysteries of the light to the race of mankind. And they will become righteous and good and inherit the Kingdom of the Light." Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary his mother said, he said : "Excellent, well done, Mary. "
CHAPTER 62
The other Mary came forward and said : "My Lord, suffer me and be not angry with me, for since the time that thy mother spoke with thee concerning the interpretation of these words, my power has agitated me that I should come forward and also say the interpretation of these words. "
Jesus said to her : "I command thee to say their interpretation." Maria said : "My Lord : 'Mercy and truth have met one
another'. Now mercy is the Spirit which came down upon thee when thou didst receive baptism from John . Now mercy is the Spirit of Godhood which came forth upon thee, which had mercy upon the race of mankind. It came down, it met the power of Sabaoth the Good which is within thee and which has preached on the places of the truth. But it is said furthermore : 'Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. Now righteousness is the Spirit of the light, which came down upon thee, bringing the mysteries of the height in order to give them to the race of mankind. Peace, on the other hand, is the power of Sabaoth the Good which is within thee. It is this which baptised and forgave the race of mankind and made them to be at peace with the Sons of the Light . And furthermore, as thy power has said through David : 'Truth has sprouted from the earth' : that is, the power of Sabaoth the Good, [as it said : 'It sprouted from the earth'] it is this which sprouted from Mary thy mother, the earth-dweller . On the other hand, righteousness which looked forth from heaven ~ is the Spirit which is in the height, which has brought forth all the mysteries from the height. It gave them to the race of mankind, and they became righteous and good and they inherited the Kingdom of the Light."
It happened however when Jesus finished hearing these words which Mariam spoke, he said; "Excellent, Mariam, thou inheritor of the light." Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward again. She prostrated herself at his feet, she kissed them, and she said : "My Lord and my Son and my Saviour, be not angry with me, but forgive me that I say the interpretation of these words a second time: 'Mercy and truth have met one another'. I am Mary thy mother, and Elisabeth, the mother of John whom I met . Now mercy is the power in me of the Sabaoth which came forth from me , which is thou. Thou hast had mercy on the whole race of mankind. On the other hand, truth is the power which was in Elisabeth, which is John who came and preached on the true way, which is thou, before whom he preached. And furthermore: 'Mercy and truth have met one another' : that is thou, my Lord, who didst meet John on the day when thou didst receive baptism . But furthermore, thou and John are righteousness and peace, which kissed one another. 'Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven': that is the time when thou didst do service to thyself. Thou didst take the type of Gabriel, thou didst look down upon me from heaven , thou didst speak with me; and when thou didst speak with me thou didst sprout from me . That is, the truth which is the power of Sabaoth the Good which is in thy material body
- that is the truth which sprouted from the earth. "
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary, his mother, spoke, he said : "Excellent and well done. This is the interpretation of all the words about which my light-power once prophesied through David the prophet.
These, however, are the names which I will give from the endless one. Write them with a sign so that the sons of God will be manifest from here. This is the name of the immortal one : []; and this is the name of the voice by which the perfect man is moved : [] But these are the interpretations of the names of these mysteries : the first name which is uuu, its interpretation is []; the second which is ppp, its interpretation is []; the third which is [], its interpretation is ooo, the fourth which is [], its interpretation is vvv, the fifth which is ôôô, its interpretation is aaa. That which is on the throne is uuu; this is the interpretation of the second : aaaa,aaaa,aaaa ; this is the interpretation of the whole name.
The Second Book of Pistis Sophia
The other Mary came forward and said : "My Lord, suffer me and be not angry with me, for since the time that thy mother spoke with thee concerning the interpretation of these words, my power has agitated me that I should come forward and also say the interpretation of these words. "
Jesus said to her : "I command thee to say their interpretation." Maria said : "My Lord : 'Mercy and truth have met one
another'. Now mercy is the Spirit which came down upon thee when thou didst receive baptism from John . Now mercy is the Spirit of Godhood which came forth upon thee, which had mercy upon the race of mankind. It came down, it met the power of Sabaoth the Good which is within thee and which has preached on the places of the truth. But it is said furthermore : 'Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. Now righteousness is the Spirit of the light, which came down upon thee, bringing the mysteries of the height in order to give them to the race of mankind. Peace, on the other hand, is the power of Sabaoth the Good which is within thee. It is this which baptised and forgave the race of mankind and made them to be at peace with the Sons of the Light . And furthermore, as thy power has said through David : 'Truth has sprouted from the earth' : that is, the power of Sabaoth the Good, [as it said : 'It sprouted from the earth'] it is this which sprouted from Mary thy mother, the earth-dweller . On the other hand, righteousness which looked forth from heaven ~ is the Spirit which is in the height, which has brought forth all the mysteries from the height. It gave them to the race of mankind, and they became righteous and good and they inherited the Kingdom of the Light."
It happened however when Jesus finished hearing these words which Mariam spoke, he said; "Excellent, Mariam, thou inheritor of the light." Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward again. She prostrated herself at his feet, she kissed them, and she said : "My Lord and my Son and my Saviour, be not angry with me, but forgive me that I say the interpretation of these words a second time: 'Mercy and truth have met one another'. I am Mary thy mother, and Elisabeth, the mother of John whom I met . Now mercy is the power in me of the Sabaoth which came forth from me , which is thou. Thou hast had mercy on the whole race of mankind. On the other hand, truth is the power which was in Elisabeth, which is John who came and preached on the true way, which is thou, before whom he preached. And furthermore: 'Mercy and truth have met one another' : that is thou, my Lord, who didst meet John on the day when thou didst receive baptism . But furthermore, thou and John are righteousness and peace, which kissed one another. 'Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven': that is the time when thou didst do service to thyself. Thou didst take the type of Gabriel, thou didst look down upon me from heaven , thou didst speak with me; and when thou didst speak with me thou didst sprout from me . That is, the truth which is the power of Sabaoth the Good which is in thy material body
- that is the truth which sprouted from the earth. "
Now it happened when Jesus heard these words which Mary, his mother, spoke, he said : "Excellent and well done. This is the interpretation of all the words about which my light-power once prophesied through David the prophet.
These, however, are the names which I will give from the endless one. Write them with a sign so that the sons of God will be manifest from here. This is the name of the immortal one : []; and this is the name of the voice by which the perfect man is moved : [] But these are the interpretations of the names of these mysteries : the first name which is uuu, its interpretation is []; the second which is ppp, its interpretation is []; the third which is [], its interpretation is ooo, the fourth which is [], its interpretation is vvv, the fifth which is ôôô, its interpretation is aaa. That which is on the throne is uuu; this is the interpretation of the second : aaaa,aaaa,aaaa ; this is the interpretation of the whole name.
The Second Book of Pistis Sophia
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John also came forward, he said : " O Lord, command me also that I say the interpretation of the words which thy light-power once prophesized through David." But Jesus answered and said to John: "Thou also, John, I command thee to say the interpretation which my light-power prophesized through David.:
10. " Mercy and truth have met one another, and righteousness and peace has kissed one another."
11." Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven."
John answered, however, and said : "This is the word which thou hast said to us once : " I came forth from the height, I entered into Sabaoth the Good , I embraced the light-power within him." Now at this time : " Mercy and truth have met one another." Thou art the mercy which was sent forth from the places of the height through thy Father, the First Mystery, who looks within. He sent thee that thou shouldst have mercy on the whole world. Truth, on the other hand, is the power of Sabaoth the Good which bound itself to thee, which thou didst cast to the left, thou, the First Mystery which looks forth. The Little Sabaoth the Good received it, he cast it into the matter of Barbelo, and he preached on the true place of the truth in all the places of those of the left. Now it is that the matter of the Barbelo which is a body to thee today. "And righteousness and peace have kissed eachother." Righteousness is thou who didst bring all the mysteries through the Father, the First Mystery who looks within, and thou didst baptise the power of Sabaoth the Good . And thou didst come to the place of the archons , thou didst give to them the mysteries of the height and they became righteous and good. Peace, on the other hand , is the power of Sabaoth, namely thy soul which entered into the matter of Barbelo. And all the archons of the six aeons of Jabraoth have made peace with the mystery of the light. And: "Truth which has sprouted from the earth." . This is the power of Sabaoth the Good which came forth from the place of the right, which is outside the Treasury of the light, and which went to the place of those of the left. It entered the matter of the Barbelo, and it preached to them the mysteries of the place of the truth. Righteousness, on the other hand, which looked froth from heaven is thou, the First Mystery, which looked forth, having come forth from the spaces of the height with the mysteries of the kingdom of light. And thou didst come down upon the garment of light which thou didst receive from the hand of Barbelo ; thou didst come down upon him who is Jesus our Saviour, like a dove. Now it happened when John had spoken these words, the First Mystery who looks forth said to him : "Excellent, John, thou beloved brother."
Chapter 64
The First Mystery continued again, saying : " Now it happened, the power which came forth from the height, namely I myself, whom my Father sent to save the Pistis Sophia from the Chaos - now I with the other power which came forth from me and the soul which I received from Sabaoth the Good , they came towards one another , they made one outpouring of light which was exceedingly bright, I called Gabriel and Michael down from the aeons, by the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, and I gave them the outpouring of light. I caused them to go down to the Chaos to help the Pistis Sophia, and to take the light-powers which the emanations of the Authades had taken from her, to take them from them and to give them to the Pistis Sophia. And in the hour that they brought the outpouring of light down to the Chaos, it gave light exceedingly to the whole Chaos, and it spread in all their (the emanations?) places. And when the emanations of the Authades saw the great light of that outpouring, they were all afraid together. And that outpouring drew forth from them all the light-powers which they had taken from the Pistis Sophia. And the emanations of the Authades did not dare to take hold of that outpouring of light in the dark Chaos; nor were they able to take hold of it by the artifice of the Authades who had hold of the emanations. And Gabriel and Michael brought the outpouring of the light over the body of the matter of the Pistis Sophia. And they cast into her all her lights which had been taken from her. And the body of her matter received light completely. And furthermore, all her powers within her, whose light had been taken away, received light and they ceased to lack light, because they received their light which had been taken from them, because the light was given to them by me. And Michael and Gabriel, who served me and brought the outpouring of light to the Chaos, will give the mysteries of the light to them ; these are they who were entrusted with the outpouring of light which I gave to them, I brought it to the Chaos. Michael and Gabriel did not take any light for themselves from the lights of the Pistis Sophia , which they took away from the emanations of the Authades. Now it happened when my outpouring of light cast into the Pistis Sophia all her light-powers whch it took away from the emanations of the Authades, she became completely lighted. And also the light-powers which were in the Pistis Sophia, which the emanations of the Authades did not take away, rejoiced again and they were filled with light. And the lights which were cast into Pistis Sophia gave life to the body of her matter which had no light in it, which was about to be destroyed or was being destroyed, and they set up all its powers which were about to be dissolved. And they received light-power for themselves, they became as they were at first and they increased in perception of the light. And all the light-powers of the Sophia recognised one another through my outpouring of light. And they were saved through the light of that outpouring. And my outpouring of light, when it took the lights from the emanations of the Authades, which had taken them from the Pistis Sophia, it cast them into the Pistis Sophia. And it turned itself and came up out of the Chaos." Now when the First Mystery said to the disciples that those things happened to the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos, he answered and said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I am speaking to you?"
Chapter 65
Peter came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which thou hast spoken, thy light-power once prophesized through Solomon in his Ode:
7. "There went forth an outpouring, it became a great broad river.
8. It gathered all things; it turned towards the Temple.
9.It could not be restrained with restrainers and buildings, nor could the artificers of those who restrain water restrain it.
10.It was brought over the whole earth and it took hold of all things.
11.Those who were on the dry sand were given to drink, their thirst was relieved and quenched when they were given to drink by the hand of the Most High.
12.Blessed are the servers of that drink to whom the water of the Lord is entrusted.
13.They have changed dry lips; those that were fainting received joy of heart. Souls were given life, and breath was cast in so that they did not die.
14.They have set upright limbs that had fallen ; they have given power to their feebleness, and light to their eyes.
15.For they have all known themselves in the Lord; and they have been saved through a water of eternal life."
Hear now, my Lord, and I will give the discourse openly. As thy power prophesied through Solomon : "There went forth and outpouring, it became a great, broad river." : that is, the outpouring of the light was spread out in the Chaos in all the places of the emanations of the Authades. And again, the word which they power spoke through Solomon: "It gathered all things, it brought them over to the Temple." : that is, it gathered out of the emanations of the Authades all the light-powers which they had taken from the Pistis Sophia, and it cast them into the Pistis Sophia again. And the word which thy power spoke; "It could not be restrained with restrainers and buildings" : that is, the emanations of the Authades were not able to restrain the outpouring of light in the walls of the darkness of the Chaos. And the word which it spoke : "It was brought over the whole earth and filled all things." : that is, when Gabriel and Michael had brought it over the body of the Pistis Sophia, they cast into her all lights which the emanations of the Authades had taken away from her, and the body of her matter gave light. And the word which it spoke: "Those who were on dry sand were given to drink." : that is, all those received light who were in the Pistisn Sophia, those whose light was taken away at first. And the word which it spoke: "And their thirst was relieved and quenched.": that is, her powers ceased to lack light and they were satisfied with light, because they were given their light which had been taken from them. And again, as thy power spoke: "They were given to drink by the hand of the Most High" : that is, they were given light by the outpouring of light which came forth from me,
the First Mystery. And as thy power spoke : "Blessed are the servers of that drink" : that is the word, which thou didst say: Michael and Gabriel who have served brought the outflowing of the light to the Chaos and furthermore they brought her up. They will give to them the mysteries of the light of the height, these to whom the outpouring of light was entrusted. And furthermore as thy power spoke: "They changed dry lips": that is, Gabriel and Michael have not taken for themselves from the lights of the Pistis Sophia, which they seized from the emanations of the Authades, but they cast tem into the Pistis Sophia. And again the word which it spoke: "Those that were fainting received joy of heart." : that is, all the other powers of the Pistis Sophia, those that were not taken away by the emanations of the Authades, rejoiced greatly and they were filled with light through their fellow lights, because they were cast into them. And the word which thy power spoke:
"Souls were given life, breath was cast in so that they did not die": that is, when they cast the lights into the Pistis Sophia, they gave life to the body of her matter, from which its lights had been taken at first and which were about to perish. And again the word which thy power spoke : "They have set upright limbs, that have fallen, or lest they fall." : that is, when they cast her lights into her, they set upright all her powers which were about to collapse. And furthermore as thy light-power spoke : "They have given power to their feebleness": that is, they have received their light again and they have become as they were at first. And again the word which it said : "They have given light to their eyes." : that is, they have received perception in the light, and they have known the outpouring of light , that it belongs to the height. And again the word which it spoke : "They have all known themselves in the Lord." : that is, all the powers of the Pistis Sophia have known one another through the outpouring of light. And again the word which it spoke : "They have been saved through a water of eternal life." : that is, they have been saved through the wole outpouring of light. And the word which it spoke : "The outpouring of light gathered all things and gathered it in the Temple." : that is, when the outpouring of light took all the lights of the Pistis Sophia and seized them from the emanations of the Authades, it cast them into the Pistis Sophia, and it turned itself, it came forth from the Chaos. It came down upon thee, thou who art the Temple. This is the interpretation of all the words which thy power spoke through the Ode of Solomon."Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words
which Peter said, he said to him :"Excellent, thou blessed one, Peter, this is the interpretation of the words which were spoken."
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The First Mystery however continued again with the discourse. He said "Now it happened before I brought the Pistis Sophia up from the Chaos, because I was not yet commanded by my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, now at that time after this the emanations of the Authades knew that my outpouring of light had taken away from them the light-powers which they had taken away from the Pistis Sophia, and had cast them (the outpouring of light had cast them) into the Pistis Sophia. And furthermore when they saw the Pistis Sophia lighted as she was from the beginning, they were angry against the Pistis Sophia. And they cried again to their Authades, that he should come and help them, so that they should take away the powers which were in the Pistis Sophia once again. And the Authades sent out of the height, out of
the thirteenth aeon, he sent another great light-power. It came down to the Chaos like a flying arrow, in order that he (the Authades) should help his emanations, so that they should take the lights from the Pistis Sophia once again. And when the light-power came down, the emanations of the Authades, which were in the Chaos and afflicted the Pistis Sophia, were encouraged greatly.And they again pursued the Pistis Sophia with a great terror and a great disturbance. And some of the emanations of the Authades afflicted her. For one of them changed to the form of a basilisk, having seven heads; again another changed to the form of a dragon; with the other previous power of the Authades which has a lion-face; and with all his other very numerous emanations. And they came together, they oppressed the Pistis Sophia. And again they brought her to the places below the Chaos. And again they agitated her greatly. Now it happened when they agitated her, she ran from them, she came to the upper places of the Chaos. And the emanations of the Authades pursued her, they agitated her greatly. Now it happened after these things Adamas, the Tyrant, looked forth from the twelve aeons. He also was angry with the Pistis Sophia, because she wished to go to the Light of Lights which was above them all; because of this he was angry with her. Now it happened when Adamas, the Tyrant, looked forth from the twelve aeons, he saw the emanations of the Authades oppressing the Pistis Sophia until they took away all her light from her. But it happened when the power of the Adamas came down to the Chaos to the presence of all the emanations of the Authades - now it happened when that demon came down to the Chaos - he threw the Pistis Sophia down. And the lion-faced power and the serpent-face and the basilisk-face and the dragon-face and all the other emanations of the Authades, which were very numerous, surrounded the Pistis Sophia at one time, wishing to take her inner powers once again. And they oppressed
the Pistis Sophia greatly, and they threatened her. Now it happened when they oppressed her and when they agitated her greatly, she cried again to the light and she sang praises, saying:
1."O Light, who hast helped me, may thy light come down upon me.
2. For thou art my shelter and I come to thee, O Light, believing in thee, O Light.
3. For thou art my Saviour from the emanations of the Authades and Adamas, the Tyrant, and it is thou who wilt save me from all his powerful threats."
However, when the Pistis Sophia had said these things, then again through the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, I sent again Gabriel and Michael and the great outpouring of light, that they should help the Pistis Sophia. And I commanded Gabriel and Michael that they should carry the Pistis Sophia upon their hands, lest her feet touch the darkness below. And again I commanded them that they should guide her in the places of Chaos from whence they would bring her out. Now it happened when the angels went down to the Chaos, they and the outpouring of light, that it was exceedingly shining, there being no measure to the light which it had, they were afraid and they released the Pistis Sophia. And the great outpouring of light surrounded the Pistis Sophia on every side of her, on her left, and on her right, and on every side of her, and it made a crown of light for her head. Now it happened when the outpouring of light
surrounded the Pistis Sophia, she took courage very greatly. And it (the outpouring) did not cease surrounding her on very side. And she was not afraid of the emanations of the Authades , which were in the Chaos. Nor again was she afaid of the other new power of the Authades which he had cast down into the Chaos like a flying arrow. Nor did she tremble at the demonic power of Adamas which came forth from the aeons. And again through my command, I, the First Mystery who look forth, my outpouring of light which surrounded the Pistis Sophia on all sides gave light exceedingly. And the Pistis Sophia remained in the midst of the light, while a great light was on her left and on her right and on all sides, and it was a crown upon her head. And all the emanations of the Authades were not able to change their faces again, nor were they able to bear the impact of the great light of my outpouring which was a crown of light for her head. And all the emanations of the Authades, a multitude of them fell at her right because she was greatly lighted, and another multitude fell at her left; and they were not able to approach the Pistis Sophia at all because of the great light. Rather they all fell upon one another or they all came close to one another. And they were not able to do any evil to the Pistis Sophia, because she trusted in the light. And through the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, I also came down to the Chaos shining exceedingly.I made my way to the lion-faced power which was shining greatly, and I took away all its light
from within it. And I restrained all the emanations of the Authades so that from this hour they did not go to their place, namely the Thirteenth Aeon. And I took the power from all the emanations of the Authades, and they all fell powerless into the Chaos. And I brought the Pistis Sophia forth on the right of Gabriel and Michael. And the great outpouring of light
went again into her. And the Pistis Sophia saw with her eyes her enemies, that I had taken their light-power from them. And I brought forth the Pistis Sophia from the Chaos, while she trampled on the emanation of the Authades with a serpent-face; and furthermore she trampled upon the emanation with a basilisk-face with seven heads ; and she trampled upon the power with a lion-face, and the dragon-face. I caused the Pistis Sophia to remain standing upon the emanation of the Authades. But the one with a basilisk-face and seven heads was stronger than them all in its evil. And I, the First Mystery, stood upon it. And I took away all the powers within it, I destroyed all its matter, so that from this hour no seed from it should arise."
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When, however, the First Mystery said these things to the disciples, he answered, saying: "Do you understand in what manner I speak with you?" James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which
thou hast spoken, thy light-power prophesied about them, through David in the 90th psalm:
1."He that dwells in the help of the Highest will be under the shadow of the God of Heaven.
2. He will say to the Lord : Thou art my shelter and my refuge, my God in whom I have trusted.
3. For he will save me from the snare of the hunters and a powerful word.
4. He will overshadow thee with his breast and under his wings thou will trust. His truth will surround thee like a shield.
5. Thou shalt not fear from terror by night and from an arrow that flies by day.
6. From anything which walks in darkness; from a demonic blow at midday.
7. A thousand will fall at thy left and ten thousand at thy right, but they will not approach thee.
8. Rather thou wilt observe them with thy eyes and see the reward of sinners.
9. For thou, O Lord, art my hope ; thou hast set the Highest as thy refuge.
10. No evil will approach thee, no scourge will enter thy dwelling.
11. For he will command his angels concerning thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways.
12. They will bear upon thee upon their hands lest thou strikest a stone with thy foot.
13. Thou wilt thread upon the serpent and basilisk, and thou wilt trample upon the lion and dragon.
14. Because he has trusted in me I will save him ; I will overshadow him because he has known my name.
15. He will cry to me and I will hear him; I will be with him in his affliction, and I will save him and honour him.
16. I will increase him with many days, I will teach him my salvation.
This, O Lord, is the interpretation which thou didst speak. Hear now that I speak openly. Now the word which thy power spoke through David : "He that dwells in the help of the Highest will be under the shadow of the God of heaven.": that is, when the Sophia trusted in the light, she was under the light of the outpouring of light which came from the height through thee. And the word which thy power spoke through David : " I will say to the Lord: Thou art my shelter and my refuge, my God in whom I have trusted." : that is, the word with which the Pistis Sophia sang praises : "O Light, I believe in thee, thou art my Saviour from the emanations of the Authades and Adamas, the Tyrant; and it is tho who wilt save me from their powerful threats.". And furthermore the word which thy power spoke through David : "He will overshadow thee under his breast, and under his wings thou wilt trust." that is, the Pistis Sophia was in the light of the outpouring of light which came forth from thee, and she continued to be encouraged by the light upon her left and her right, which are the
wings of the outpouring of light. And the word which thy light-power prophesied through David: "Truth will surround thee like a shield.": that is the light of the outpouring of light which surrounded the Pistis Sophia on all sides like a shield. And the word which thy power spoke: "He shall not fear from terror by night.": that is, that the Pistis Sophia did not fear the terrors and disturbances which were contained in the Chaos which is the night. And the word which thy power spoke : "He shall not fear an arrow that flies by day": that is, that the Pistis Sophia did not fear the power which the Authades finally sent from the height, which came to the Chaos like an arrow which flies. Now thy light-power said : "Thou shalt not fear an arrow that flies by day" , because that power came forth from the tirteenth(Schmidt suggests that this is an error in the manuscript and that it is supposed to be the Twelft) aeon. He is lord over the twelft aeon and it is he who lights all the aeons ; because of this he has said "the day". And the word which thy power spoke : "He will not fear anything which walks in the darkness.": that is, the Pistis Sophia did not fear the emanationn with a serpent-face, which causes fear to the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos which is the darkness. And the word which thy power said : " He shall not fear a demonic blow at midday.": that is the Pistis Sophia did not fear the demonic emanation of Adamas the Tyrant, which cast the Pistis Sophia down with a great blow, which came forth from Adamas from the twelft aeon. Because of this thy
power said: "He shall not fear a demonic blow at midday." "Midday", because it came from the twelfth aeon, which is the hour of midday. And furthermore "Night" because it came forth from the Chaos, which is the night, and it came forth from the twelfth aeon, which is the middle between the two. Because of this thy light-power said "the hour of midday", because the twelve aeons are in the middle between the thirteenth aeon and the Chaos. And the word which thy light-power spoke through David: " A thousand will fall at his left and ten thousand at his right, and they will not approach him.": that is, when the emanations of the Authades which were very numerous were not able to bear the great light of the outpouring of light, a multitude of them fell at the left of the Pistis Sophia and a multitude fell at her right. And they were not able to approach her to corrupt her. And the word which thy light-power spoke through David : "Rather thou wilt observe them with thine eyes and see the reward of sinners, for thou , O Lord, art my hope.": that is, the Pistis Sophia observed with her eyes her enemies, namely the emanations of the Authades which had all fallen upon one another. Not only did she observe them with her eyes, but thou also, my Lord, the First Mystery, thou didst take away the light-power which was in the lion-faced power ; and further thou didst take away the power of all the emanations of the Authades, and thou didst restrain them in that Chaos, that they should not go to their place from that hour. Now because of this, the Pistis Sophia observed with her eyes her enemies, namely the emanations of the Authades, in everything which David prophesied about the Pistis Sophia, saying : "Rather thou wilt observe them with thy eyes and see the reward of sinners.". Not only did she observe them with her eyes, that they fell against one another in the Chaos, but she also saw their reward with which they were rewarded. As the emanations of the Authades thought to take away the light of the Sophia from her, thou didst reward them and repay them. And thou didst take away the light-power which is in them, instead of the lights of the Sophia who believed in the light of the height. And as thy light-power said through David : " Thou hast set the Most High as thy refuge. No evil will able to approach thee, and no scourge will enter thy dwelling." : that is, when the Pistis Sophia believed in the light and was oppressed, she sang praises to it, and the emanations of the Authades were not able to do any evil to her, nor were they able to corrupt her, and they were not able to approach her at all. And the word which thy power said through David: "He will command his angels concerning thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways ; and they will bear thee upon their hands, lest thou strike a stone with thy foot.": that is furthermore the word : "Thou didst command Gabriel and Michael that they should guide the Sophia in all the places of the Chaos until they bring her up, and that they should raise her upon their hands, lest her feet touch the darkness below and those of the darkness below seize her." And the word which thy light-power spoke through David : "Thou wilt thread upon the serpent and basilisk, and thou wilt trample upon the lion and dragon. Because he has trusted in me, I will save him and I will overshadow him because he has known my name." : that is the word: "When the Pistis Sophia came to emerge from the Chaos, she trampled upon the emanations
of the Authades. She trampled upon those with serpent-faces and upon those with basilisk-faces having seven heads. And she trampled upon the lion-faced power and that with a dragon-face, because she believed in the light she was saved from them all." This, my Lord, is the interpretation of the words which thou hast spoken."
Chapter 68
It happened when the First Mystery heard these words, he said: "Excellent, James, thou beloved one." The First Mystery continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to the disciples: " It happened when I brought the Pistis Sophia
forth from the Chaos, she cried out again saying:
1."I have been saved from the Chaos and released from the bonds of darkness. I have come to thee, O Light.
2. For thou hast been light on every side of me as thou didst save and help me.
3. And the emanations of the Authades, as they rose against me, thou didst prevent them through thy light. And they were not able to approach me, because thy light was with me, and saving me through thy outpouring of light.
4. For because the emanations of the Authades oppressed me, they took away my power from me, they cast me into the Chaos there being no light in me. I became like matter which is heavy, before them.
5. And after these things an outpouring power came to me from thee, saving me; it gave light on my left and on my right, and it surrounded me on every side, so that no part of me was without light.
6. And thou hast clothed me with the light of thy outpouring. And thou hast purified from me all my materials because of thy light.
7. And thy outpouring of light is that which has raised me, and it has taken away from me the emenations of the Authades, which afflicted me.
8. And in thy light I became courageous and a pure light of thy outpouring.
9. And the emanations of the Authades which oppressed me have gone far from me, and I have become lighted in thy great power, fr thou dost save me at all times."
This is the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said when she came out of the Chaos and was released from the bonds of the Chaos. Now at this time, he who has ears to hear, let him hear."
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Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, Thomas came forward and said:
"My Lord, my man of light has ears and my mind has understood the words which thou hast said. Now at this time command me that I give the interpretation of the words clearly." But the First Mystery answered and said to Thomas:
"I command thee to give the interpretation of the song of praise in which the Pistis Sophia sang praises to me."
Thomas however answered and said : "My Lord, concerning the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke because she was saved from the Chaos, thy light-power once prophesied about it through Solomon, the son of David, in his Odes, thus:"
1. I have been saved from the bonds; I have fled to thee, O Lord.
2. For thou hast been a right hand to me ; saving me, saving me and helping me.
3. Thou hast prevented those that rise against me; and they have not been revealed because thy face was with me, saving me with thy grace.
4. I was despised in the presence of a multitude; and they cast me forth; I became like lead in their presence.
5. There has been for me a power from thee, helping me; for thou hast placed lamps on my right side and on my left side, lest any side of me should be without light.
6. Thou hast sheltered me with the shadow of thy mercy; and I became raised above garments of skin.
7. It was thy right hand which raised me and thou hast taken away sickness from me.
8. I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in righteousness.
9. Those that rose against me have gone far from me; and I have been justified in thy beneficence, for thy rest exists for ever and ever."
Now, O my Lord, this is the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke when she was saved from the Chaos. Hear now and I will say it openly.
Now the word which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: " I have been saved from my bonds; I have fled to thee , O Lord": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke; "I have been released from the bonds of darkness; I have come to thee, O Light". And the word which thy power spoke: "Thou hast been a right hand to me; saving me and helping me." And the word which thy light-power spoke: "Thou hast prevented those that rise against me and they have not been revealed.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And the emanations of the Authades, which rose against me, thou didst prevent them through thy light ; and they were not able to approach me." And the word which thy power spoke: "For thy face was with me, saving me with thy grace": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said : "Because thy light was with me , saving me through thy outpouring of light." And the word which thy power spoke : " I was despised in the presence of a multitude and they cast me forth." that is the word which Pistis Sophia said: "For the emanations of the Authades oppressed me and they took away my power from me ; and I was despised before them and they cast me into the Chaos, there being no light in me." And the word which thy power spoke: " I became like lead in their presence": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "When they took away my lights from me I became like matter (hylè) which was heavy, before them." And the word which thy power spoke: "There has been for me a power from thee, helping me.": that is the word which the PIstis Sophia said; "And after these things a light-power came to me from thee, saving me". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast palced lamps on my right side and on my left side, lest any side of me should be without light.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "Thy power gave light on my right and my left, and It surrounded me on every side of me, so that no part of me was without light.". And the word which thy power spoke: "Thou hast sheltered me in the shadow of thy mercy": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thou hast clothed me with the light of thy outpouring". And the word which thy power spoke: "I became raised above garments of skin"; that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I have been purified from all my evil materials, and I have become raised over them in thy light." And the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "It was thy right hand which raised me and it took away sickness from me": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thy outpouring of light is that which has raised me in thy light, and it has taken away from me the emanations of the Authades which afflicted me". And the word which thy power spoke: "I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in thy righteousness": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And in thy light I became powerful and a pure light in thy outpouring". And the word which thy power spoke: "Those that rose against me have gone far from me.": that is the word which the PIstis Sophia said: " And the emanations of the Authades which oppressed me have gone far from me". And the word which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: "And I have been justified in thy benefience, for thy rest exists for ever and ever": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I have been saved in thy benefience, for thou dost save everyone."
Now, O my Lord, this is the whole interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke when she was saved from the Chaos, and she was released from the bonds of darkness.
Chapter 70
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard Thomas saying these words, he said to him: "Excellent, well done Thomas, thou blessed one. This is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
The First Mystery, however, continued again. He said to the disciples: "But the Pistis Sophia continyed again, she sang praises to me, saying:
1. I sing praise to thee; through thy ordinance thou didst bring me forth from the aeon on high, which is above, and thou didst bring me to the places below.
2. And again through thy ordinance thou didst save me from the places below; and through thyself thou hast there taken the matter which is my light-power, and I saw it.
3. And thou hast dispelled from me the emantions of the Authades which oppressed me, and they were hostile to me; and thou didst give to me the authority that I should be released from the bonds of the emanations of the Adamas.
4. And thou hast smitten the basilisk with seven heads, thou hast cast it out with my hands; and trhou has set me up over its matter. Thou hast destroyed it, lest its seed rise up from this hour.
5. And thou wast with me giving power to me in all these things; and thy light surrounded me in all places, and through thyself thou hast made all the emanations of the Authades powerless.
6. For thou hast taken away from them the power of their light; and thou hast made straight my way to bring me forth from the Chaos.
7. And thou hast removed me out of the material darknesses and thou hast taken away from them all my powers, the light which had been taken.
8. Thou hast cast into them (my powers) pure light; and to all my members, in which there was no light, thou hast given pure light out of the light of the height.
9. And thou hast made straight the way for them (my members); and the light of thy face has become for me imperishable life.
10. Thou hast brought me above the Chaos, the place of the Chaos and the destruction, so that all the materials within it which are in that place should be released, so that all my powers should be renewed in thy light and that thy light should be within them all.
11. Thou hast placed the light of thy outpouring in me. I have become purified light. This again is the second song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Now let him who understands this repentance come forth and say it."
Chapter 71
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words, Matthew came forward and said: " I have understood the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Now at this time command me that I say it openly."
The First Mystery, however, answered and said: "I command thee, Matthew, to give the interpretation of the song of
praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
Matthew, however, answered and said: Concerning the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke,
thy light-power once prophesied about it through the Ode of Solomon, thus:
1. He who brought me down from the high places which are above has brought me up from the places in the depth below.
2. He who there has taken those that are in the midst has taught me of them.
3. He who has dispelled my enemies and my adversaries has given me authority over bonds, to release them.
4. He who has smitten the serpent with seven heads with my hands has set me up over its root, so that I might wipe out its seed.
5. And thou wast with me, helpingt me. In all places thy name surrounded me.
6. Thy right hand has destroyed the poison of the slanderer (lit. Satanas); thy hand has made th way for thy faithful ones.
7. Thou hast freed them from the graves and thou hast removed them from the midst of corpses.
8. Thou hast taken the dead bones and thou hast clothed them with a body; and to those that do not move thou hast given energy of life.
9. Thy way has become indestructible, and thy face.
10. Thou hast brought thy aeon to destruction that all things should be dissolved and be made new and that thy light should become a foundation for them all.
11. Thou hast built thy wealth upon them, and they have become a holy dwelling place.
This now, my Lord, is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Hear now that I say it openly. The word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "He who brought me down from the high places which are above also brought me forth from the places in the depth below.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I sing praise to thee; through thy ordinance thou didst bring me forth from the aeon on high which is above, and thou didst bring me t the places below. And again through thy ordinance thou didst save me and bring me out of the places below." And the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: " He who there has taken those that are in the midst has taught me of them": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And again through thyself thou hast caused the matter in the midst of
my power to be purified, and I saw it". And again the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "He who has dispelled my enemies and my adversaries" : that is the word which the Pistis sophia said: " And thou hast dispelled from me the emantions of the Authades which oppressed me, and were hostile to me". And the word which thy power said: "He who gave to me his wisdom over bonds, to release them.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said : " And he gave me his wisdom to release me from the bonds of those emanations." And the word which thy power spoke: "He who has smitten the serpent with my hands, has set me up over its matter. Thou hast destroyed it that its seed may not rise up from this hour". And the word which thy power spoke: " And thou wast to me helping me": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thou was with me giving power to me in al these things.". And the word which thy power spoke: "In all places thy name surrounded me" : that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thy light surrounded me in all their places." And the word which thy power spoke: "Thy right hand has destroyed the poison of the slanderer": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And through thyself the emanations of the Authades were made powerless. For thou hast taken away from them the light of their power.". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thy hand has made the way for thy faithful ones": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke: "Thou hast made straight my way, to bring me forth from the Chaos because I have believed in thee". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast freed them from the graves and hast removed them from the midst of the corpses.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thou hast freed me from the Chaos and thou hast removed me out of the material darknesses which are the dark emanations in the Chaos, the light of which thou hast taken away from them." And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast
taken dead bones and thou hast clothed them with a body; and to those that do not move thou hast given energy of life": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke: "Thou hast taken all my powers in which there was no light, thou hast put into them pure light. And to all my members in which no light moved, thou hast given living light from thy height." And the word which thy power spoke: "Thy way has become indestructible, and thy face." : that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thou hast made straight thy way for me, and the light of thy face has become for me imperishable life."
And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast brought thy aeon to destruction, that all things should be dissolved and made new.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "Thou hast brought me, thy power, above the Chaos and above the destruction, so that all the materials which are in that place should be dissolved, and that all my powers should
be renewed in the light." And the word which thy power spoke: "And thy light becomes a foundation for them all": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thy light has been in them all". And the word which thy light-power which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: "Thou hast placed thy wealth upon it, and it has become a holy dwelling place": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " Thou hast made fast the light of thy outpouring upon me, and I have become purified light." This now, my Lord, is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia said."
Chapter 72
Now it happened whan the First Mystery heard these words which Matthew spoke, he said: "Excellent, Matthew, and well done, thou beloved one. This is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
The First Mystery however continued again, he said: "The Pistis Sophia, however, continued again in this song of praise,
she said:
1. I will say that thou art the light which is on high, for thou didst save me, and thou hast brought me to thyself. And thou didst not allow the emanations of the Authades, which are my enemies, to take away my light.
2. O Light of Lights, I have sung praises to thee; thou hast saved me.
3. O Light, thou hast brought my power up from the Chaos, thou hast saved me from among those that go down to the darkness.
The Pistis Sophia said these words also. Now at this time, he whose mind has become understanding to understand the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke, let him come forward and give their interpretation"
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the discipls, Mary came forward. She said: "My Lord, my mind is understanding at all times that I should come forward at any time and give the interpretation of the words which she spoke, but I am afraid of Peter, for he threatens me and he hates our race."
But when she said these things, the First Mystery said to her: "Everyone who will be filled with the Spirit of light to come forward and give the interpretation of those things which I say, him will no one be able to prevent. Now at this time, O Maria, give the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
Now Maria answered and said to the First Mystery in the midst of the disciples: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke, thy light-power once prophesied through David thus:
I will exalt thee, O Lord, for thou hast received me and thou hast not given to my enemies to rejoice over me.
2. O Lord, my God, I have cried to thee and thou didst heal me.
3. O Lord thou hast brought my soul up from Amente; thou hast saved me from those who go down to the pit."
Chapter 73
However, when Maria had said these things, the First Mystery said to her: "Excellent, well done, Maria, thou blessed one."
But he continued again with the discourse. He said to the disciples: " The Pistis Sophia continued again with this song of praise, she said:
1. The Light has become my Saviour.
2. And it has turned my darkness into light for me. And it has rent the Chaos which surrounded me. It has girded me with light."
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished speaking these words, Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, thy power prophesied once, through David, concerning these words, saying:
10. The Lord has become my helper.
11. He has turned my lament into rejoicing for me, he has rent my sackcloth,
he has girded me with gladness."
It happened, however, when the First Mystery finished hering these words which Martha spoke, he said: "Excellent, and well done, Martha"
But the First Mystery continued again, he said to the disciples: "The Pistis Sophia continued again with the song of praise, and she said:
1. My Power, sing praise to the Light and forget not all the powers of the light which he has given to thee.
2. And all the powers within me, sing praise to the name of his holy mystery.
3. Who forgives all thy transgressions, who saves thee from all thy oppressions with which the emanations of the Authades have afflicted thee.
4. Who has saved thy light from the emanations of the Authades which belong to destruction; who has crowned thee with light in his compassion until he saves thee.
5. Who has filled thee with pure light; and thy beginning will be renewed like an invisible one of the height.
With these words the Pistis Sophia sang praises because she was saved. And she remembered all the things which I had done for her."
Chapter 74
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, he said to them: " He who understands the interpretation of these words, let him come forward and speak openly."
Maria came forward again and said: " My Lord, concerning these words with which the Pistis Sophia sang praises,
thy light-power prophesied them through David, thus;
1. Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his rewards.
3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and who heals all thy sicknesses.
4. Who saves thy life from destruction, who crowns thee with mercy and compassion.
5. Who satisfies thy desire with good things; thy youth will be renewed like that of an eagle."
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words which Maria spoke, he said: "Excellent, O Maria, thou blessed one."
Now it happened after these things, the First Mystery continued again with the discourse, he said to the disciples: " I took the Pistis Sophia. I brought her out to a place which is below the thirteenth aeon. And I gave to her a new mystery of the light, which is not that of her own aon, the place of the invisible ones. And I gave to her a song of praise of the light so that from this time the archons of the aeons would not be able to have power over her. And I set her in that place until I should come for her and take her to her place which is in the height.
Now it happened when I set her in that place, she spoke again this song of praise,
saying thus:
1. In faith I have believed in the Light; and he remembered me, he heard my song of praise.
2. He brought my power out of the Chaos of all the matter, and the darkness below. And he brought me out, he placed me in an aeon on high which is strong; he has set me on the way which leads to my place.
3. And he gave me a new mystery which is not that of my aeon; and he gave me a song of praise of the light. Now at this time, O Light, all the archons of the light will see what thou hast done for me, and they wil be afraid, and they will believe in thy light.
Now the Pistis Sophia spoke this song of praise, rejoicing because she was brought out of the Chaos, and she was brought to the places which are below the thirteenth aeon.
Now at this time, he whose mind moves him to understand the interpretation of the thought in the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke, let him come forward and say it."
Andrew came forward, he said: "My Lord, this is what thy light-power once prophesied through David, saying:
1. I waited with endurance for the Lord; he gave heed to me and he heard my supplication.
2. He brought my soul up from the pit of wretchedness and the miry clay; he has set my feet upon a rock and he has directed my steps.
3. He has put a new song into my mouth, a blessing for our God. Many will see and will be afraid, and will hope in the Lord."
Now it happeend when Andrew gave the thought of the Pistis Sophia, the First Mystery said to him: "Excellent, Andrew, thou blessed one."
Chapter 75
However he (the First Mystery) continued again with the discourse. He said to the disciples: "These are all the events which happened to the Pistis Sophia. Now it happened when I brought her to the place which is below the thirteenth aeon, I was about to go to the light and to abandon her, she said to me: "O Light of Lights, thou wilt go to the light and abandon me, and Adamas, the Tyrant, will know that thou hast abandoned me, and he will know that there is no one who will save me. He will come again to me to this place, he and all his archons who hate me. And the Authades will again give
power to his lion-faced emanation, that they all come and oppress me at the same time and take away all my light from me, so that I become powerless, and I also become without light. Now at this time, O Light and my Light, take the power of the light from me, so that I become powerless, take the power of their light from them, so that they have not the power to oppress me from this time."
Now it happened when I heard these words which the Pistis Sophia said, I answered her, saying; "My Father who emanated me has not yet commanded me to take away their light from them, but I will seal the places of the Authades,
and all his aeons which hate thee, because thou hast believed in the light. And furthermore I will seal the places of Adamas and his archons, so that none of them are able to wage war on thee until their time is completed, and until the appointed time comes fwhen my Father commands me to take away their light from them."
Chapter 76
But after this I said to her again: " Hear that I speak with thee about their time, in which these things will happen which I have said to thee. They will happen when the three times are completed."
The Pistis Sophia answered, she said to me: "O Light, by what shall I known when the three times will happen, that I may rejoice and be glad, because the time has arrived that thou takest me to my place? And furthermore I will rejoice because the time has come that thou wilt take away the light-power from all those that hate me because I have believed in thy light."
However, I answered again and said to her: "When thou seest the gate of the Treasury of the great Light - this which opens to the thirteenth aeon, namely the left - when that gate is opened the three times are completed."
The Pistis Sophia answered again, she said: "O Light, by what shall I know, when I am in this place, that gate has been opened?"
But I answered her and said to her: "When the gate is opened, those who are in all the aeons will know, because of the
great light which will happen in all their places. Nevertheless see, I have now established that they (the archons) will not dare anything evil against thee, until the three times are completed. But thou wilt have the authority there to go to their
twelve aeons at the same time which pleases thee, and to return again, and to come to thy place in which thou art this time, which is below the thirteenth aeon. But thou wilt not have authority to go within the gate of the height which is in the
thirteenth aeon, to go within to thy place from which thou didst come forth. Nevertheless, when the three times are now completed, the Authades and all his archons will oppress thee again to take away thy light from thee. He will be angry with thee, thinking that thou hast restrained his power in the Chaos, and thinking that thou hast taken away the light (of his power) from it. He will now be infuriated against thee to take away thy light from thee, so that he may send it down to the Chaos and put it into those emanations of his, so that they should have power to come out of the Chaos, and to come to his (the Authades) place. But Adamas will begin these things. But I will take away all thy powers from him and give them to thee, and I will come and take them. Now at the moment when they oppress thee at that time, sing praises to the light and I will not delay to help thee. And I will come to thee in haste to the places below thee. And I will come to this place
in which I have established thee, which is below the thirteenth aeon, until I take thee to thy place from which thou didst come forth".
Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia heard these words which I spoke to her, she rejoiced with great joy. But I sent her in the place which is below the thirteenth aeon, I went to the light, I abandoned her.
Chapter 77
The First Mystery however spoke to the disciples of all these events, for they happened to the Pistis Sophia. And he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, speaking all these words in the midst of the disciples. He continued again however, he said to them: "But it happened again after all these things, as I was in the world of mankind, as I was sitting by the wayside that is this place, namely the Mount of Olives, before I had yet been sent my garment - which I had left behind in the 24th mystery from within, but the first from without, which is the great incomprehensible one in which I shone - and before I went to the height to receive my second garment, as I was sitting before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives, the time was completed of which I had spoken to the Pistis Sophia thus: "Adamas and all his archons will oppress thee."
Now it happened when that time came - I however was in the world of mankind, sitting before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives - Adamas looked forth from the twelve Aeons. He looked down to the places of the Chaos, he saw his demonic power which was in the Chaos with no light at all in it, for I had taken away its light from it. And he saw it, that it was dark and not able to come to his place, namely the twelve aeons. Adamas again remembered Pistis Sophia and he was exceedingly angry with her, for he thought that it was she who had restraned his power in the Chaos, and he thought that it was she who had taken away its light from it (the power of Adamas). And he was very wrathful and added anger to anger. He emanated forth a dark emanation and another chaotic and wicked one which was powerful, so that through them he should agitate the Pistis Sophia. And he created a dark place in his place, so that he should oppress the Sophia within it. And he took many of his archons, they pursued the Pistis Sophia to bring her to the dark Chaos which he had created. And the two dark emanations which Adamas had emanated oppressed her in that place, and they agitated
her until they took away all her light from her. And Adamas took the light of the Pistis Sophia , and he gave it to the two dark and powerful emanations to take to the great Chaos which is chaotic, so that perhaps it (the power) would be able to come to his place, for it had become very dark because I had taken away its light-power from it. Now it happened when they pursued the Pistis Sophia, she cried out again, she sang praises to the light since I had said to her: "When thou art oppressed and dost praise me, I will come in haste to help thee."
Now it happened when she was oppressed - but I sat before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives - she sang praises to the light, saying:
1. O Light of Lights, I have believed in thee. Save me from all these archons which pursue me, and help me.
2. Lest they take away my light from me, like the lion-faced power, for thy light and thy outpouring are not with me to save me. Rather Adamas was angry with me, saying to me: It is thou who hast restrained my power in the Chaos.
3. Now O Light of Lights, If I have done this - If I have restrained it, If I have done anything unjust to that power.
4. If I have oppressed it as it has oppressed me - may all these archons which pursue me take my light from me and leave me empty.
5. And may the enemy Adamas pursue my power and seize it and take away my light from me, and cast it into his dark power which is in the Chaos; and may he place my power in the Chaos.
6. Now O Light, seize me in thy anger, and raise thy power against my enemies which has risen against me at last.
7. Save me quickly, according to what thou hast said: "I will help thee.".
Chapter 78
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, he said: "He who has understood these words which I have said, let him come forward and give their explanation."
James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning this song of praise which the Pistis Sophia has sung, thy light-power once prophesied it, through David, in the 7th Psalm, thus:
1. O Lord my God, I have trusted thee; save me from those that pursue me, and deliver me.
2. Lest he seize my soul like a lion; while there is no one who delivers and saves.
3. O Lord my God, If I have done this; if there is injustice at my hands;
4. If I have repaid those who repaid me with evil things, may I fall down empty through my enemies.
5. And may the enemy pursue my soul and seize it, and trample my life upon the earth, and take my glory to be in the dust.
6. Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath, be exalted in the boundary of my enemies. Arise in the commandment which thou hast decreed."
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words which James spoke, he said: "Excellent, James, thou beloved one."
Chapter 79
However, the First Mystery continued, he said to the disciples: " Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying the words of this song of praise, she turned back to see whether the Adamas and his archons had turned back to go to their aeon. And she saw them as they were pursuing her. She turned to them and said to them:
1. Why do you pursue me and say: there is no one to be a help to me, to save me from you?
2. Now at this time the light is a true judge and a strong one. But he is long-suffering until the time of which he has spoken to me thus: I will come and help thee; and he will not bring his wrath upon you at all times. And this is the time of which he has spoken to me.
3. Now at this time, if you do not turn yourselves back and cease to pursue me, the light will prepare his power, and he will prepare with all his powers.
4. And he has prepared with his power, that he may take away your light which is within you, so that you become dark; and he has created his powers, that he may take away your power from you and you be destroyed."
But when the Pistis Sophia had said these things, she looked to the place of Adamas. She saw the dark and chaotic place which had created. And she saw furthermore the dark emanations, of exceeding strenght, which Adamas had emanated, so that they should seize the Pistis Sophia and should cast her down to the Chaos which he had created, and should oppress her in that place, and should agitate her until they took her light away from her.
Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia saw those two dark emanations and the dark place which Adamas had created, she was afraid and she cried out to the light, saying:
1. O Light, behold Adamas the violent is angry. He has created a dark emanation, and furthermore he has emanated another chaotic one.
2. And he has created another dark and chaotic one; and he has prepared it.
3. Now at this time O Light, the Chaos which he has created so that he should cast me into it and take away my light-power from me - take away his light from him.
4. And the thought which he conceived to take away my light, let his be (taken) from him. And the violence which he has spoken, to take away my lights from me - take away all his lights.
These are the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke in her song of praise. Now at this time he who is sober in spirit, let him come forward and give the interpretation of the words (which the Pistis Sophia spoke) in her song of praise."
Chapter 80
Martha came forward again and said: "My Lord, I am sober in spirit, and I understand these words which thou dost speak. Now at this time command me that I give their interpretation openly."
The First Mystery , however, answered and said to Martha: " I command thee, Martha, that thou givest the interpretation of the words which the Sophia said in her song of praise."
Martha, however, answered and said: "My Lord, these are the words which thy light-power once prophesied through
David in the 7th Psalm:
11. God is a righteous judge, and strong and long-suffering, who does not bring down his wrath every day.
12. If you do not turn round he will sharpen his sword; he has bent his bow and made it ready.
13. He has prepared in it instruments of death; he has made his arrows for those who will be burnt.
14. Behold, violence has travailed; he has conceived trouble, he has given birth to iniquity.
15. He has dug a pit, he has hollowed it; he will fall into the hole which he has made.
16. His trouble will return upon his head and his violence will come down upon the crown of his head."
But when Martha had spoken these things, the First Mystery which looks forth said to her: "Excellent,m well done, Martha, thou blessed one."
Chapter 81
Now it happened when Jesus finished saying to his disciples all the events which had happened to the Pistis Sophia when
she was in the Chaos, and the manner in which she had sung praises to the Light until he had saved her and brought her out of the Chaos, and brought her into the twelfth aeon, and the manner in which he had saved her from all her oppressions with which the archons of the Chaos had oppressed her, because she desired to go to the light, Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples:" Now it happened after all these things, I took the Pistis Sophia, I brought her into the thirteenth aeon. And I was shining exceedingly , there being no measure to the light which I had. I came into the place of the 24 invisible ones and I was shining exceedingly.And they were agitated with great agitation. They looked and saw the Sophia who was with me. They recognised her, but as for me they did not recognise who I was. But they thought of me as being an emanation of the Land of the Light. Now it happened when the Sophia saw her fellow invisible ones she rejoiced with great joy and she was very glad. She wished to tell them the wonders which I had done for her on the earth of mankind below, until I saved her. She came to the midst of the invisible ones, she sang praises to me in their midst, saying:
1. I will give thanks to thee, O Light, for thou art a Saviour, and thou art a deliverer at all times.
2. I will speak this song of praise to the light, for he has saved me and he has delivered me out of the hands of the archons, my enemies.
3. And thou hast saved me from all the places. And thou hast saved me from the height and the depth of the Chaos, and from the aeons of the archons, my enemies.
4. And when I came forth from the height I went astray in places in which there was no light. And I was not able to return to the thirteenth aeon, my dwelling place.
5. For there was no light in me, nor power. For my power had weakened completely.
6. And the ligh saved me from all my afflictions. I saing praises tgo the light; he heard me when I was afflicted.
7. He guided me in the creation of the aeons in order to bring me to the thirteenth aeon, my dwelling place.
8. I will give thanks to thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me, and for thy wonders among the race of mankind.
9. When I lacked my power thou didst give power to me ; and when I lacked my light thou didst fill me with purified light.
10. I have been in the darkness and the shadow of the Chaos, bound with the strong bonds of the Chaos, and there was no light in me.
11. I have caused wrath to the ordinance of light, I have transgressed; I have caused anger to the ordinance of the light, for I came forth from my place.
12. And when I came down I lacked my power, and I was without light; and 0there was no one to help me.
13. And when I was afflicted I sang praises to the light, and he saved me from my afflictions.
14. And furthermore he broke all my bonds, he brought me out of the darkness and the oppressions of the Chaos.
15. I will thank thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me; and thy wonders exist among the race of mankind.
16. Thou hast broken the high gates of the darkness and the strong bars of the Chaos.
17. And thou didsy cause me to turn away from the place in which I transgressed; and furthermore my power was taken because I transgressed.
18. And I desisted from the mysteries; I went down to the gates of the Chaos.
19. And when they afflicted me I sang praises to the light; he saved me from all my afflictions.
20. Thou didst send thy outpouring of light; it gave power to me and it saved me from all my oppressions.
21. I will thank thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me; and thy wonders are among the race of mankind."
Now this is the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke as she was in the midst of the 24 invisible ones, wishing that they should know all the wonders which I had done for her. And she wished that they should know that I went to the world of mankind, I gave them the mysteries of the height. Now at this time, he who is elevated in his thought, let him come forward and say the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. "
The Gospel of the Ebionites
John also came forward, he said : " O Lord, command me also that I say the interpretation of the words which thy light-power once prophesized through David." But Jesus answered and said to John: "Thou also, John, I command thee to say the interpretation which my light-power prophesized through David.:
10. " Mercy and truth have met one another, and righteousness and peace has kissed one another."
11." Truth has sprouted from the earth and righteousness has looked forth from heaven."
John answered, however, and said : "This is the word which thou hast said to us once : " I came forth from the height, I entered into Sabaoth the Good , I embraced the light-power within him." Now at this time : " Mercy and truth have met one another." Thou art the mercy which was sent forth from the places of the height through thy Father, the First Mystery, who looks within. He sent thee that thou shouldst have mercy on the whole world. Truth, on the other hand, is the power of Sabaoth the Good which bound itself to thee, which thou didst cast to the left, thou, the First Mystery which looks forth. The Little Sabaoth the Good received it, he cast it into the matter of Barbelo, and he preached on the true place of the truth in all the places of those of the left. Now it is that the matter of the Barbelo which is a body to thee today. "And righteousness and peace have kissed eachother." Righteousness is thou who didst bring all the mysteries through the Father, the First Mystery who looks within, and thou didst baptise the power of Sabaoth the Good . And thou didst come to the place of the archons , thou didst give to them the mysteries of the height and they became righteous and good. Peace, on the other hand , is the power of Sabaoth, namely thy soul which entered into the matter of Barbelo. And all the archons of the six aeons of Jabraoth have made peace with the mystery of the light. And: "Truth which has sprouted from the earth." . This is the power of Sabaoth the Good which came forth from the place of the right, which is outside the Treasury of the light, and which went to the place of those of the left. It entered the matter of the Barbelo, and it preached to them the mysteries of the place of the truth. Righteousness, on the other hand, which looked froth from heaven is thou, the First Mystery, which looked forth, having come forth from the spaces of the height with the mysteries of the kingdom of light. And thou didst come down upon the garment of light which thou didst receive from the hand of Barbelo ; thou didst come down upon him who is Jesus our Saviour, like a dove. Now it happened when John had spoken these words, the First Mystery who looks forth said to him : "Excellent, John, thou beloved brother."
Chapter 64
The First Mystery continued again, saying : " Now it happened, the power which came forth from the height, namely I myself, whom my Father sent to save the Pistis Sophia from the Chaos - now I with the other power which came forth from me and the soul which I received from Sabaoth the Good , they came towards one another , they made one outpouring of light which was exceedingly bright, I called Gabriel and Michael down from the aeons, by the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, and I gave them the outpouring of light. I caused them to go down to the Chaos to help the Pistis Sophia, and to take the light-powers which the emanations of the Authades had taken from her, to take them from them and to give them to the Pistis Sophia. And in the hour that they brought the outpouring of light down to the Chaos, it gave light exceedingly to the whole Chaos, and it spread in all their (the emanations?) places. And when the emanations of the Authades saw the great light of that outpouring, they were all afraid together. And that outpouring drew forth from them all the light-powers which they had taken from the Pistis Sophia. And the emanations of the Authades did not dare to take hold of that outpouring of light in the dark Chaos; nor were they able to take hold of it by the artifice of the Authades who had hold of the emanations. And Gabriel and Michael brought the outpouring of the light over the body of the matter of the Pistis Sophia. And they cast into her all her lights which had been taken from her. And the body of her matter received light completely. And furthermore, all her powers within her, whose light had been taken away, received light and they ceased to lack light, because they received their light which had been taken from them, because the light was given to them by me. And Michael and Gabriel, who served me and brought the outpouring of light to the Chaos, will give the mysteries of the light to them ; these are they who were entrusted with the outpouring of light which I gave to them, I brought it to the Chaos. Michael and Gabriel did not take any light for themselves from the lights of the Pistis Sophia , which they took away from the emanations of the Authades. Now it happened when my outpouring of light cast into the Pistis Sophia all her light-powers whch it took away from the emanations of the Authades, she became completely lighted. And also the light-powers which were in the Pistis Sophia, which the emanations of the Authades did not take away, rejoiced again and they were filled with light. And the lights which were cast into Pistis Sophia gave life to the body of her matter which had no light in it, which was about to be destroyed or was being destroyed, and they set up all its powers which were about to be dissolved. And they received light-power for themselves, they became as they were at first and they increased in perception of the light. And all the light-powers of the Sophia recognised one another through my outpouring of light. And they were saved through the light of that outpouring. And my outpouring of light, when it took the lights from the emanations of the Authades, which had taken them from the Pistis Sophia, it cast them into the Pistis Sophia. And it turned itself and came up out of the Chaos." Now when the First Mystery said to the disciples that those things happened to the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos, he answered and said to them : "Do you understand in what manner I am speaking to you?"
Chapter 65
Peter came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which thou hast spoken, thy light-power once prophesized through Solomon in his Ode:
7. "There went forth an outpouring, it became a great broad river.
8. It gathered all things; it turned towards the Temple.
9.It could not be restrained with restrainers and buildings, nor could the artificers of those who restrain water restrain it.
10.It was brought over the whole earth and it took hold of all things.
11.Those who were on the dry sand were given to drink, their thirst was relieved and quenched when they were given to drink by the hand of the Most High.
12.Blessed are the servers of that drink to whom the water of the Lord is entrusted.
13.They have changed dry lips; those that were fainting received joy of heart. Souls were given life, and breath was cast in so that they did not die.
14.They have set upright limbs that had fallen ; they have given power to their feebleness, and light to their eyes.
15.For they have all known themselves in the Lord; and they have been saved through a water of eternal life."
Hear now, my Lord, and I will give the discourse openly. As thy power prophesied through Solomon : "There went forth and outpouring, it became a great, broad river." : that is, the outpouring of the light was spread out in the Chaos in all the places of the emanations of the Authades. And again, the word which they power spoke through Solomon: "It gathered all things, it brought them over to the Temple." : that is, it gathered out of the emanations of the Authades all the light-powers which they had taken from the Pistis Sophia, and it cast them into the Pistis Sophia again. And the word which thy power spoke; "It could not be restrained with restrainers and buildings" : that is, the emanations of the Authades were not able to restrain the outpouring of light in the walls of the darkness of the Chaos. And the word which it spoke : "It was brought over the whole earth and filled all things." : that is, when Gabriel and Michael had brought it over the body of the Pistis Sophia, they cast into her all lights which the emanations of the Authades had taken away from her, and the body of her matter gave light. And the word which it spoke: "Those who were on dry sand were given to drink." : that is, all those received light who were in the Pistisn Sophia, those whose light was taken away at first. And the word which it spoke: "And their thirst was relieved and quenched.": that is, her powers ceased to lack light and they were satisfied with light, because they were given their light which had been taken from them. And again, as thy power spoke: "They were given to drink by the hand of the Most High" : that is, they were given light by the outpouring of light which came forth from me,
the First Mystery. And as thy power spoke : "Blessed are the servers of that drink" : that is the word, which thou didst say: Michael and Gabriel who have served brought the outflowing of the light to the Chaos and furthermore they brought her up. They will give to them the mysteries of the light of the height, these to whom the outpouring of light was entrusted. And furthermore as thy power spoke: "They changed dry lips": that is, Gabriel and Michael have not taken for themselves from the lights of the Pistis Sophia, which they seized from the emanations of the Authades, but they cast tem into the Pistis Sophia. And again the word which it spoke: "Those that were fainting received joy of heart." : that is, all the other powers of the Pistis Sophia, those that were not taken away by the emanations of the Authades, rejoiced greatly and they were filled with light through their fellow lights, because they were cast into them. And the word which thy power spoke:
"Souls were given life, breath was cast in so that they did not die": that is, when they cast the lights into the Pistis Sophia, they gave life to the body of her matter, from which its lights had been taken at first and which were about to perish. And again the word which thy power spoke : "They have set upright limbs, that have fallen, or lest they fall." : that is, when they cast her lights into her, they set upright all her powers which were about to collapse. And furthermore as thy light-power spoke : "They have given power to their feebleness": that is, they have received their light again and they have become as they were at first. And again the word which it said : "They have given light to their eyes." : that is, they have received perception in the light, and they have known the outpouring of light , that it belongs to the height. And again the word which it spoke : "They have all known themselves in the Lord." : that is, all the powers of the Pistis Sophia have known one another through the outpouring of light. And again the word which it spoke : "They have been saved through a water of eternal life." : that is, they have been saved through the wole outpouring of light. And the word which it spoke : "The outpouring of light gathered all things and gathered it in the Temple." : that is, when the outpouring of light took all the lights of the Pistis Sophia and seized them from the emanations of the Authades, it cast them into the Pistis Sophia, and it turned itself, it came forth from the Chaos. It came down upon thee, thou who art the Temple. This is the interpretation of all the words which thy power spoke through the Ode of Solomon."Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words
which Peter said, he said to him :"Excellent, thou blessed one, Peter, this is the interpretation of the words which were spoken."
Chapter 66
The First Mystery however continued again with the discourse. He said "Now it happened before I brought the Pistis Sophia up from the Chaos, because I was not yet commanded by my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, now at that time after this the emanations of the Authades knew that my outpouring of light had taken away from them the light-powers which they had taken away from the Pistis Sophia, and had cast them (the outpouring of light had cast them) into the Pistis Sophia. And furthermore when they saw the Pistis Sophia lighted as she was from the beginning, they were angry against the Pistis Sophia. And they cried again to their Authades, that he should come and help them, so that they should take away the powers which were in the Pistis Sophia once again. And the Authades sent out of the height, out of
the thirteenth aeon, he sent another great light-power. It came down to the Chaos like a flying arrow, in order that he (the Authades) should help his emanations, so that they should take the lights from the Pistis Sophia once again. And when the light-power came down, the emanations of the Authades, which were in the Chaos and afflicted the Pistis Sophia, were encouraged greatly.And they again pursued the Pistis Sophia with a great terror and a great disturbance. And some of the emanations of the Authades afflicted her. For one of them changed to the form of a basilisk, having seven heads; again another changed to the form of a dragon; with the other previous power of the Authades which has a lion-face; and with all his other very numerous emanations. And they came together, they oppressed the Pistis Sophia. And again they brought her to the places below the Chaos. And again they agitated her greatly. Now it happened when they agitated her, she ran from them, she came to the upper places of the Chaos. And the emanations of the Authades pursued her, they agitated her greatly. Now it happened after these things Adamas, the Tyrant, looked forth from the twelve aeons. He also was angry with the Pistis Sophia, because she wished to go to the Light of Lights which was above them all; because of this he was angry with her. Now it happened when Adamas, the Tyrant, looked forth from the twelve aeons, he saw the emanations of the Authades oppressing the Pistis Sophia until they took away all her light from her. But it happened when the power of the Adamas came down to the Chaos to the presence of all the emanations of the Authades - now it happened when that demon came down to the Chaos - he threw the Pistis Sophia down. And the lion-faced power and the serpent-face and the basilisk-face and the dragon-face and all the other emanations of the Authades, which were very numerous, surrounded the Pistis Sophia at one time, wishing to take her inner powers once again. And they oppressed
the Pistis Sophia greatly, and they threatened her. Now it happened when they oppressed her and when they agitated her greatly, she cried again to the light and she sang praises, saying:
1."O Light, who hast helped me, may thy light come down upon me.
2. For thou art my shelter and I come to thee, O Light, believing in thee, O Light.
3. For thou art my Saviour from the emanations of the Authades and Adamas, the Tyrant, and it is thou who wilt save me from all his powerful threats."
However, when the Pistis Sophia had said these things, then again through the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, I sent again Gabriel and Michael and the great outpouring of light, that they should help the Pistis Sophia. And I commanded Gabriel and Michael that they should carry the Pistis Sophia upon their hands, lest her feet touch the darkness below. And again I commanded them that they should guide her in the places of Chaos from whence they would bring her out. Now it happened when the angels went down to the Chaos, they and the outpouring of light, that it was exceedingly shining, there being no measure to the light which it had, they were afraid and they released the Pistis Sophia. And the great outpouring of light surrounded the Pistis Sophia on every side of her, on her left, and on her right, and on every side of her, and it made a crown of light for her head. Now it happened when the outpouring of light
surrounded the Pistis Sophia, she took courage very greatly. And it (the outpouring) did not cease surrounding her on very side. And she was not afraid of the emanations of the Authades , which were in the Chaos. Nor again was she afaid of the other new power of the Authades which he had cast down into the Chaos like a flying arrow. Nor did she tremble at the demonic power of Adamas which came forth from the aeons. And again through my command, I, the First Mystery who look forth, my outpouring of light which surrounded the Pistis Sophia on all sides gave light exceedingly. And the Pistis Sophia remained in the midst of the light, while a great light was on her left and on her right and on all sides, and it was a crown upon her head. And all the emanations of the Authades were not able to change their faces again, nor were they able to bear the impact of the great light of my outpouring which was a crown of light for her head. And all the emanations of the Authades, a multitude of them fell at her right because she was greatly lighted, and another multitude fell at her left; and they were not able to approach the Pistis Sophia at all because of the great light. Rather they all fell upon one another or they all came close to one another. And they were not able to do any evil to the Pistis Sophia, because she trusted in the light. And through the command of my Father, the First Mystery who looks within, I also came down to the Chaos shining exceedingly.I made my way to the lion-faced power which was shining greatly, and I took away all its light
from within it. And I restrained all the emanations of the Authades so that from this hour they did not go to their place, namely the Thirteenth Aeon. And I took the power from all the emanations of the Authades, and they all fell powerless into the Chaos. And I brought the Pistis Sophia forth on the right of Gabriel and Michael. And the great outpouring of light
went again into her. And the Pistis Sophia saw with her eyes her enemies, that I had taken their light-power from them. And I brought forth the Pistis Sophia from the Chaos, while she trampled on the emanation of the Authades with a serpent-face; and furthermore she trampled upon the emanation with a basilisk-face with seven heads ; and she trampled upon the power with a lion-face, and the dragon-face. I caused the Pistis Sophia to remain standing upon the emanation of the Authades. But the one with a basilisk-face and seven heads was stronger than them all in its evil. And I, the First Mystery, stood upon it. And I took away all the powers within it, I destroyed all its matter, so that from this hour no seed from it should arise."
Chapter 67
When, however, the First Mystery said these things to the disciples, he answered, saying: "Do you understand in what manner I speak with you?" James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which
thou hast spoken, thy light-power prophesied about them, through David in the 90th psalm:
1."He that dwells in the help of the Highest will be under the shadow of the God of Heaven.
2. He will say to the Lord : Thou art my shelter and my refuge, my God in whom I have trusted.
3. For he will save me from the snare of the hunters and a powerful word.
4. He will overshadow thee with his breast and under his wings thou will trust. His truth will surround thee like a shield.
5. Thou shalt not fear from terror by night and from an arrow that flies by day.
6. From anything which walks in darkness; from a demonic blow at midday.
7. A thousand will fall at thy left and ten thousand at thy right, but they will not approach thee.
8. Rather thou wilt observe them with thy eyes and see the reward of sinners.
9. For thou, O Lord, art my hope ; thou hast set the Highest as thy refuge.
10. No evil will approach thee, no scourge will enter thy dwelling.
11. For he will command his angels concerning thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways.
12. They will bear upon thee upon their hands lest thou strikest a stone with thy foot.
13. Thou wilt thread upon the serpent and basilisk, and thou wilt trample upon the lion and dragon.
14. Because he has trusted in me I will save him ; I will overshadow him because he has known my name.
15. He will cry to me and I will hear him; I will be with him in his affliction, and I will save him and honour him.
16. I will increase him with many days, I will teach him my salvation.
This, O Lord, is the interpretation which thou didst speak. Hear now that I speak openly. Now the word which thy power spoke through David : "He that dwells in the help of the Highest will be under the shadow of the God of heaven.": that is, when the Sophia trusted in the light, she was under the light of the outpouring of light which came from the height through thee. And the word which thy power spoke through David : " I will say to the Lord: Thou art my shelter and my refuge, my God in whom I have trusted." : that is, the word with which the Pistis Sophia sang praises : "O Light, I believe in thee, thou art my Saviour from the emanations of the Authades and Adamas, the Tyrant; and it is tho who wilt save me from their powerful threats.". And furthermore the word which thy power spoke through David : "He will overshadow thee under his breast, and under his wings thou wilt trust." that is, the Pistis Sophia was in the light of the outpouring of light which came forth from thee, and she continued to be encouraged by the light upon her left and her right, which are the
wings of the outpouring of light. And the word which thy light-power prophesied through David: "Truth will surround thee like a shield.": that is the light of the outpouring of light which surrounded the Pistis Sophia on all sides like a shield. And the word which thy power spoke: "He shall not fear from terror by night.": that is, that the Pistis Sophia did not fear the terrors and disturbances which were contained in the Chaos which is the night. And the word which thy power spoke : "He shall not fear an arrow that flies by day": that is, that the Pistis Sophia did not fear the power which the Authades finally sent from the height, which came to the Chaos like an arrow which flies. Now thy light-power said : "Thou shalt not fear an arrow that flies by day" , because that power came forth from the tirteenth(Schmidt suggests that this is an error in the manuscript and that it is supposed to be the Twelft) aeon. He is lord over the twelft aeon and it is he who lights all the aeons ; because of this he has said "the day". And the word which thy power spoke : "He will not fear anything which walks in the darkness.": that is, the Pistis Sophia did not fear the emanationn with a serpent-face, which causes fear to the Pistis Sophia in the Chaos which is the darkness. And the word which thy power said : " He shall not fear a demonic blow at midday.": that is the Pistis Sophia did not fear the demonic emanation of Adamas the Tyrant, which cast the Pistis Sophia down with a great blow, which came forth from Adamas from the twelft aeon. Because of this thy
power said: "He shall not fear a demonic blow at midday." "Midday", because it came from the twelfth aeon, which is the hour of midday. And furthermore "Night" because it came forth from the Chaos, which is the night, and it came forth from the twelfth aeon, which is the middle between the two. Because of this thy light-power said "the hour of midday", because the twelve aeons are in the middle between the thirteenth aeon and the Chaos. And the word which thy light-power spoke through David: " A thousand will fall at his left and ten thousand at his right, and they will not approach him.": that is, when the emanations of the Authades which were very numerous were not able to bear the great light of the outpouring of light, a multitude of them fell at the left of the Pistis Sophia and a multitude fell at her right. And they were not able to approach her to corrupt her. And the word which thy light-power spoke through David : "Rather thou wilt observe them with thine eyes and see the reward of sinners, for thou , O Lord, art my hope.": that is, the Pistis Sophia observed with her eyes her enemies, namely the emanations of the Authades which had all fallen upon one another. Not only did she observe them with her eyes, but thou also, my Lord, the First Mystery, thou didst take away the light-power which was in the lion-faced power ; and further thou didst take away the power of all the emanations of the Authades, and thou didst restrain them in that Chaos, that they should not go to their place from that hour. Now because of this, the Pistis Sophia observed with her eyes her enemies, namely the emanations of the Authades, in everything which David prophesied about the Pistis Sophia, saying : "Rather thou wilt observe them with thy eyes and see the reward of sinners.". Not only did she observe them with her eyes, that they fell against one another in the Chaos, but she also saw their reward with which they were rewarded. As the emanations of the Authades thought to take away the light of the Sophia from her, thou didst reward them and repay them. And thou didst take away the light-power which is in them, instead of the lights of the Sophia who believed in the light of the height. And as thy light-power said through David : " Thou hast set the Most High as thy refuge. No evil will able to approach thee, and no scourge will enter thy dwelling." : that is, when the Pistis Sophia believed in the light and was oppressed, she sang praises to it, and the emanations of the Authades were not able to do any evil to her, nor were they able to corrupt her, and they were not able to approach her at all. And the word which thy power said through David: "He will command his angels concerning thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways ; and they will bear thee upon their hands, lest thou strike a stone with thy foot.": that is furthermore the word : "Thou didst command Gabriel and Michael that they should guide the Sophia in all the places of the Chaos until they bring her up, and that they should raise her upon their hands, lest her feet touch the darkness below and those of the darkness below seize her." And the word which thy light-power spoke through David : "Thou wilt thread upon the serpent and basilisk, and thou wilt trample upon the lion and dragon. Because he has trusted in me, I will save him and I will overshadow him because he has known my name." : that is the word: "When the Pistis Sophia came to emerge from the Chaos, she trampled upon the emanations
of the Authades. She trampled upon those with serpent-faces and upon those with basilisk-faces having seven heads. And she trampled upon the lion-faced power and that with a dragon-face, because she believed in the light she was saved from them all." This, my Lord, is the interpretation of the words which thou hast spoken."
Chapter 68
It happened when the First Mystery heard these words, he said: "Excellent, James, thou beloved one." The First Mystery continued again, however, with the discourse. He said to the disciples: " It happened when I brought the Pistis Sophia
forth from the Chaos, she cried out again saying:
1."I have been saved from the Chaos and released from the bonds of darkness. I have come to thee, O Light.
2. For thou hast been light on every side of me as thou didst save and help me.
3. And the emanations of the Authades, as they rose against me, thou didst prevent them through thy light. And they were not able to approach me, because thy light was with me, and saving me through thy outpouring of light.
4. For because the emanations of the Authades oppressed me, they took away my power from me, they cast me into the Chaos there being no light in me. I became like matter which is heavy, before them.
5. And after these things an outpouring power came to me from thee, saving me; it gave light on my left and on my right, and it surrounded me on every side, so that no part of me was without light.
6. And thou hast clothed me with the light of thy outpouring. And thou hast purified from me all my materials because of thy light.
7. And thy outpouring of light is that which has raised me, and it has taken away from me the emenations of the Authades, which afflicted me.
8. And in thy light I became courageous and a pure light of thy outpouring.
9. And the emanations of the Authades which oppressed me have gone far from me, and I have become lighted in thy great power, fr thou dost save me at all times."
This is the repentance which the Pistis Sophia said when she came out of the Chaos and was released from the bonds of the Chaos. Now at this time, he who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Chapter 69
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, Thomas came forward and said:
"My Lord, my man of light has ears and my mind has understood the words which thou hast said. Now at this time command me that I give the interpretation of the words clearly." But the First Mystery answered and said to Thomas:
"I command thee to give the interpretation of the song of praise in which the Pistis Sophia sang praises to me."
Thomas however answered and said : "My Lord, concerning the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke because she was saved from the Chaos, thy light-power once prophesied about it through Solomon, the son of David, in his Odes, thus:"
1. I have been saved from the bonds; I have fled to thee, O Lord.
2. For thou hast been a right hand to me ; saving me, saving me and helping me.
3. Thou hast prevented those that rise against me; and they have not been revealed because thy face was with me, saving me with thy grace.
4. I was despised in the presence of a multitude; and they cast me forth; I became like lead in their presence.
5. There has been for me a power from thee, helping me; for thou hast placed lamps on my right side and on my left side, lest any side of me should be without light.
6. Thou hast sheltered me with the shadow of thy mercy; and I became raised above garments of skin.
7. It was thy right hand which raised me and thou hast taken away sickness from me.
8. I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in righteousness.
9. Those that rose against me have gone far from me; and I have been justified in thy beneficence, for thy rest exists for ever and ever."
Now, O my Lord, this is the interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke when she was saved from the Chaos. Hear now and I will say it openly.
Now the word which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: " I have been saved from my bonds; I have fled to thee , O Lord": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke; "I have been released from the bonds of darkness; I have come to thee, O Light". And the word which thy power spoke: "Thou hast been a right hand to me; saving me and helping me." And the word which thy light-power spoke: "Thou hast prevented those that rise against me and they have not been revealed.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And the emanations of the Authades, which rose against me, thou didst prevent them through thy light ; and they were not able to approach me." And the word which thy power spoke: "For thy face was with me, saving me with thy grace": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said : "Because thy light was with me , saving me through thy outpouring of light." And the word which thy power spoke : " I was despised in the presence of a multitude and they cast me forth." that is the word which Pistis Sophia said: "For the emanations of the Authades oppressed me and they took away my power from me ; and I was despised before them and they cast me into the Chaos, there being no light in me." And the word which thy power spoke: " I became like lead in their presence": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "When they took away my lights from me I became like matter (hylè) which was heavy, before them." And the word which thy power spoke: "There has been for me a power from thee, helping me.": that is the word which the PIstis Sophia said; "And after these things a light-power came to me from thee, saving me". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast palced lamps on my right side and on my left side, lest any side of me should be without light.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "Thy power gave light on my right and my left, and It surrounded me on every side of me, so that no part of me was without light.". And the word which thy power spoke: "Thou hast sheltered me in the shadow of thy mercy": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thou hast clothed me with the light of thy outpouring". And the word which thy power spoke: "I became raised above garments of skin"; that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I have been purified from all my evil materials, and I have become raised over them in thy light." And the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "It was thy right hand which raised me and it took away sickness from me": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thy outpouring of light is that which has raised me in thy light, and it has taken away from me the emanations of the Authades which afflicted me". And the word which thy power spoke: "I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in thy righteousness": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And in thy light I became powerful and a pure light in thy outpouring". And the word which thy power spoke: "Those that rose against me have gone far from me.": that is the word which the PIstis Sophia said: " And the emanations of the Authades which oppressed me have gone far from me". And the word which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: "And I have been justified in thy benefience, for thy rest exists for ever and ever": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I have been saved in thy benefience, for thou dost save everyone."
Now, O my Lord, this is the whole interpretation of the repentance which the Pistis Sophia spoke when she was saved from the Chaos, and she was released from the bonds of darkness.
Chapter 70
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard Thomas saying these words, he said to him: "Excellent, well done Thomas, thou blessed one. This is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
The First Mystery, however, continued again. He said to the disciples: "But the Pistis Sophia continyed again, she sang praises to me, saying:
1. I sing praise to thee; through thy ordinance thou didst bring me forth from the aeon on high, which is above, and thou didst bring me to the places below.
2. And again through thy ordinance thou didst save me from the places below; and through thyself thou hast there taken the matter which is my light-power, and I saw it.
3. And thou hast dispelled from me the emantions of the Authades which oppressed me, and they were hostile to me; and thou didst give to me the authority that I should be released from the bonds of the emanations of the Adamas.
4. And thou hast smitten the basilisk with seven heads, thou hast cast it out with my hands; and trhou has set me up over its matter. Thou hast destroyed it, lest its seed rise up from this hour.
5. And thou wast with me giving power to me in all these things; and thy light surrounded me in all places, and through thyself thou hast made all the emanations of the Authades powerless.
6. For thou hast taken away from them the power of their light; and thou hast made straight my way to bring me forth from the Chaos.
7. And thou hast removed me out of the material darknesses and thou hast taken away from them all my powers, the light which had been taken.
8. Thou hast cast into them (my powers) pure light; and to all my members, in which there was no light, thou hast given pure light out of the light of the height.
9. And thou hast made straight the way for them (my members); and the light of thy face has become for me imperishable life.
10. Thou hast brought me above the Chaos, the place of the Chaos and the destruction, so that all the materials within it which are in that place should be released, so that all my powers should be renewed in thy light and that thy light should be within them all.
11. Thou hast placed the light of thy outpouring in me. I have become purified light. This again is the second song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Now let him who understands this repentance come forth and say it."
Chapter 71
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words, Matthew came forward and said: " I have understood the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Now at this time command me that I say it openly."
The First Mystery, however, answered and said: "I command thee, Matthew, to give the interpretation of the song of
praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
Matthew, however, answered and said: Concerning the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke,
thy light-power once prophesied about it through the Ode of Solomon, thus:
1. He who brought me down from the high places which are above has brought me up from the places in the depth below.
2. He who there has taken those that are in the midst has taught me of them.
3. He who has dispelled my enemies and my adversaries has given me authority over bonds, to release them.
4. He who has smitten the serpent with seven heads with my hands has set me up over its root, so that I might wipe out its seed.
5. And thou wast with me, helpingt me. In all places thy name surrounded me.
6. Thy right hand has destroyed the poison of the slanderer (lit. Satanas); thy hand has made th way for thy faithful ones.
7. Thou hast freed them from the graves and thou hast removed them from the midst of corpses.
8. Thou hast taken the dead bones and thou hast clothed them with a body; and to those that do not move thou hast given energy of life.
9. Thy way has become indestructible, and thy face.
10. Thou hast brought thy aeon to destruction that all things should be dissolved and be made new and that thy light should become a foundation for them all.
11. Thou hast built thy wealth upon them, and they have become a holy dwelling place.
This now, my Lord, is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. Hear now that I say it openly. The word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "He who brought me down from the high places which are above also brought me forth from the places in the depth below.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "I sing praise to thee; through thy ordinance thou didst bring me forth from the aeon on high which is above, and thou didst bring me t the places below. And again through thy ordinance thou didst save me and bring me out of the places below." And the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: " He who there has taken those that are in the midst has taught me of them": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And again through thyself thou hast caused the matter in the midst of
my power to be purified, and I saw it". And again the word which thy power spoke through Solomon: "He who has dispelled my enemies and my adversaries" : that is the word which the Pistis sophia said: " And thou hast dispelled from me the emantions of the Authades which oppressed me, and were hostile to me". And the word which thy power said: "He who gave to me his wisdom over bonds, to release them.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said : " And he gave me his wisdom to release me from the bonds of those emanations." And the word which thy power spoke: "He who has smitten the serpent with my hands, has set me up over its matter. Thou hast destroyed it that its seed may not rise up from this hour". And the word which thy power spoke: " And thou wast to me helping me": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thou was with me giving power to me in al these things.". And the word which thy power spoke: "In all places thy name surrounded me" : that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And thy light surrounded me in all their places." And the word which thy power spoke: "Thy right hand has destroyed the poison of the slanderer": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "And through thyself the emanations of the Authades were made powerless. For thou hast taken away from them the light of their power.". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thy hand has made the way for thy faithful ones": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke: "Thou hast made straight my way, to bring me forth from the Chaos because I have believed in thee". And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast freed them from the graves and hast removed them from the midst of the corpses.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thou hast freed me from the Chaos and thou hast removed me out of the material darknesses which are the dark emanations in the Chaos, the light of which thou hast taken away from them." And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast
taken dead bones and thou hast clothed them with a body; and to those that do not move thou hast given energy of life": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia spoke: "Thou hast taken all my powers in which there was no light, thou hast put into them pure light. And to all my members in which no light moved, thou hast given living light from thy height." And the word which thy power spoke: "Thy way has become indestructible, and thy face." : that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thou hast made straight thy way for me, and the light of thy face has become for me imperishable life."
And the word which thy power spoke: " Thou hast brought thy aeon to destruction, that all things should be dissolved and made new.": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: "Thou hast brought me, thy power, above the Chaos and above the destruction, so that all the materials which are in that place should be dissolved, and that all my powers should
be renewed in the light." And the word which thy power spoke: "And thy light becomes a foundation for them all": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " And thy light has been in them all". And the word which thy light-power which thy light-power spoke through Solomon: "Thou hast placed thy wealth upon it, and it has become a holy dwelling place": that is the word which the Pistis Sophia said: " Thou hast made fast the light of thy outpouring upon me, and I have become purified light." This now, my Lord, is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia said."
Chapter 72
Now it happened whan the First Mystery heard these words which Matthew spoke, he said: "Excellent, Matthew, and well done, thou beloved one. This is the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke."
The First Mystery however continued again, he said: "The Pistis Sophia, however, continued again in this song of praise,
she said:
1. I will say that thou art the light which is on high, for thou didst save me, and thou hast brought me to thyself. And thou didst not allow the emanations of the Authades, which are my enemies, to take away my light.
2. O Light of Lights, I have sung praises to thee; thou hast saved me.
3. O Light, thou hast brought my power up from the Chaos, thou hast saved me from among those that go down to the darkness.
The Pistis Sophia said these words also. Now at this time, he whose mind has become understanding to understand the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke, let him come forward and give their interpretation"
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the discipls, Mary came forward. She said: "My Lord, my mind is understanding at all times that I should come forward at any time and give the interpretation of the words which she spoke, but I am afraid of Peter, for he threatens me and he hates our race."
But when she said these things, the First Mystery said to her: "Everyone who will be filled with the Spirit of light to come forward and give the interpretation of those things which I say, him will no one be able to prevent. Now at this time, O Maria, give the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia said."
Now Maria answered and said to the First Mystery in the midst of the disciples: "My Lord, concerning the interpretation of the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke, thy light-power once prophesied through David thus:
I will exalt thee, O Lord, for thou hast received me and thou hast not given to my enemies to rejoice over me.
2. O Lord, my God, I have cried to thee and thou didst heal me.
3. O Lord thou hast brought my soul up from Amente; thou hast saved me from those who go down to the pit."
Chapter 73
However, when Maria had said these things, the First Mystery said to her: "Excellent, well done, Maria, thou blessed one."
But he continued again with the discourse. He said to the disciples: " The Pistis Sophia continued again with this song of praise, she said:
1. The Light has become my Saviour.
2. And it has turned my darkness into light for me. And it has rent the Chaos which surrounded me. It has girded me with light."
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished speaking these words, Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, thy power prophesied once, through David, concerning these words, saying:
10. The Lord has become my helper.
11. He has turned my lament into rejoicing for me, he has rent my sackcloth,
he has girded me with gladness."
It happened, however, when the First Mystery finished hering these words which Martha spoke, he said: "Excellent, and well done, Martha"
But the First Mystery continued again, he said to the disciples: "The Pistis Sophia continued again with the song of praise, and she said:
1. My Power, sing praise to the Light and forget not all the powers of the light which he has given to thee.
2. And all the powers within me, sing praise to the name of his holy mystery.
3. Who forgives all thy transgressions, who saves thee from all thy oppressions with which the emanations of the Authades have afflicted thee.
4. Who has saved thy light from the emanations of the Authades which belong to destruction; who has crowned thee with light in his compassion until he saves thee.
5. Who has filled thee with pure light; and thy beginning will be renewed like an invisible one of the height.
With these words the Pistis Sophia sang praises because she was saved. And she remembered all the things which I had done for her."
Chapter 74
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, he said to them: " He who understands the interpretation of these words, let him come forward and speak openly."
Maria came forward again and said: " My Lord, concerning these words with which the Pistis Sophia sang praises,
thy light-power prophesied them through David, thus;
1. Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his rewards.
3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and who heals all thy sicknesses.
4. Who saves thy life from destruction, who crowns thee with mercy and compassion.
5. Who satisfies thy desire with good things; thy youth will be renewed like that of an eagle."
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words which Maria spoke, he said: "Excellent, O Maria, thou blessed one."
Now it happened after these things, the First Mystery continued again with the discourse, he said to the disciples: " I took the Pistis Sophia. I brought her out to a place which is below the thirteenth aeon. And I gave to her a new mystery of the light, which is not that of her own aon, the place of the invisible ones. And I gave to her a song of praise of the light so that from this time the archons of the aeons would not be able to have power over her. And I set her in that place until I should come for her and take her to her place which is in the height.
Now it happened when I set her in that place, she spoke again this song of praise,
saying thus:
1. In faith I have believed in the Light; and he remembered me, he heard my song of praise.
2. He brought my power out of the Chaos of all the matter, and the darkness below. And he brought me out, he placed me in an aeon on high which is strong; he has set me on the way which leads to my place.
3. And he gave me a new mystery which is not that of my aeon; and he gave me a song of praise of the light. Now at this time, O Light, all the archons of the light will see what thou hast done for me, and they wil be afraid, and they will believe in thy light.
Now the Pistis Sophia spoke this song of praise, rejoicing because she was brought out of the Chaos, and she was brought to the places which are below the thirteenth aeon.
Now at this time, he whose mind moves him to understand the interpretation of the thought in the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke, let him come forward and say it."
Andrew came forward, he said: "My Lord, this is what thy light-power once prophesied through David, saying:
1. I waited with endurance for the Lord; he gave heed to me and he heard my supplication.
2. He brought my soul up from the pit of wretchedness and the miry clay; he has set my feet upon a rock and he has directed my steps.
3. He has put a new song into my mouth, a blessing for our God. Many will see and will be afraid, and will hope in the Lord."
Now it happeend when Andrew gave the thought of the Pistis Sophia, the First Mystery said to him: "Excellent, Andrew, thou blessed one."
Chapter 75
However he (the First Mystery) continued again with the discourse. He said to the disciples: "These are all the events which happened to the Pistis Sophia. Now it happened when I brought her to the place which is below the thirteenth aeon, I was about to go to the light and to abandon her, she said to me: "O Light of Lights, thou wilt go to the light and abandon me, and Adamas, the Tyrant, will know that thou hast abandoned me, and he will know that there is no one who will save me. He will come again to me to this place, he and all his archons who hate me. And the Authades will again give
power to his lion-faced emanation, that they all come and oppress me at the same time and take away all my light from me, so that I become powerless, and I also become without light. Now at this time, O Light and my Light, take the power of the light from me, so that I become powerless, take the power of their light from them, so that they have not the power to oppress me from this time."
Now it happened when I heard these words which the Pistis Sophia said, I answered her, saying; "My Father who emanated me has not yet commanded me to take away their light from them, but I will seal the places of the Authades,
and all his aeons which hate thee, because thou hast believed in the light. And furthermore I will seal the places of Adamas and his archons, so that none of them are able to wage war on thee until their time is completed, and until the appointed time comes fwhen my Father commands me to take away their light from them."
Chapter 76
But after this I said to her again: " Hear that I speak with thee about their time, in which these things will happen which I have said to thee. They will happen when the three times are completed."
The Pistis Sophia answered, she said to me: "O Light, by what shall I known when the three times will happen, that I may rejoice and be glad, because the time has arrived that thou takest me to my place? And furthermore I will rejoice because the time has come that thou wilt take away the light-power from all those that hate me because I have believed in thy light."
However, I answered again and said to her: "When thou seest the gate of the Treasury of the great Light - this which opens to the thirteenth aeon, namely the left - when that gate is opened the three times are completed."
The Pistis Sophia answered again, she said: "O Light, by what shall I know, when I am in this place, that gate has been opened?"
But I answered her and said to her: "When the gate is opened, those who are in all the aeons will know, because of the
great light which will happen in all their places. Nevertheless see, I have now established that they (the archons) will not dare anything evil against thee, until the three times are completed. But thou wilt have the authority there to go to their
twelve aeons at the same time which pleases thee, and to return again, and to come to thy place in which thou art this time, which is below the thirteenth aeon. But thou wilt not have authority to go within the gate of the height which is in the
thirteenth aeon, to go within to thy place from which thou didst come forth. Nevertheless, when the three times are now completed, the Authades and all his archons will oppress thee again to take away thy light from thee. He will be angry with thee, thinking that thou hast restrained his power in the Chaos, and thinking that thou hast taken away the light (of his power) from it. He will now be infuriated against thee to take away thy light from thee, so that he may send it down to the Chaos and put it into those emanations of his, so that they should have power to come out of the Chaos, and to come to his (the Authades) place. But Adamas will begin these things. But I will take away all thy powers from him and give them to thee, and I will come and take them. Now at the moment when they oppress thee at that time, sing praises to the light and I will not delay to help thee. And I will come to thee in haste to the places below thee. And I will come to this place
in which I have established thee, which is below the thirteenth aeon, until I take thee to thy place from which thou didst come forth".
Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia heard these words which I spoke to her, she rejoiced with great joy. But I sent her in the place which is below the thirteenth aeon, I went to the light, I abandoned her.
Chapter 77
The First Mystery however spoke to the disciples of all these events, for they happened to the Pistis Sophia. And he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, speaking all these words in the midst of the disciples. He continued again however, he said to them: "But it happened again after all these things, as I was in the world of mankind, as I was sitting by the wayside that is this place, namely the Mount of Olives, before I had yet been sent my garment - which I had left behind in the 24th mystery from within, but the first from without, which is the great incomprehensible one in which I shone - and before I went to the height to receive my second garment, as I was sitting before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives, the time was completed of which I had spoken to the Pistis Sophia thus: "Adamas and all his archons will oppress thee."
Now it happened when that time came - I however was in the world of mankind, sitting before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives - Adamas looked forth from the twelve Aeons. He looked down to the places of the Chaos, he saw his demonic power which was in the Chaos with no light at all in it, for I had taken away its light from it. And he saw it, that it was dark and not able to come to his place, namely the twelve aeons. Adamas again remembered Pistis Sophia and he was exceedingly angry with her, for he thought that it was she who had restraned his power in the Chaos, and he thought that it was she who had taken away its light from it (the power of Adamas). And he was very wrathful and added anger to anger. He emanated forth a dark emanation and another chaotic and wicked one which was powerful, so that through them he should agitate the Pistis Sophia. And he created a dark place in his place, so that he should oppress the Sophia within it. And he took many of his archons, they pursued the Pistis Sophia to bring her to the dark Chaos which he had created. And the two dark emanations which Adamas had emanated oppressed her in that place, and they agitated
her until they took away all her light from her. And Adamas took the light of the Pistis Sophia , and he gave it to the two dark and powerful emanations to take to the great Chaos which is chaotic, so that perhaps it (the power) would be able to come to his place, for it had become very dark because I had taken away its light-power from it. Now it happened when they pursued the Pistis Sophia, she cried out again, she sang praises to the light since I had said to her: "When thou art oppressed and dost praise me, I will come in haste to help thee."
Now it happened when she was oppressed - but I sat before you in this place which is the Mount of Olives - she sang praises to the light, saying:
1. O Light of Lights, I have believed in thee. Save me from all these archons which pursue me, and help me.
2. Lest they take away my light from me, like the lion-faced power, for thy light and thy outpouring are not with me to save me. Rather Adamas was angry with me, saying to me: It is thou who hast restrained my power in the Chaos.
3. Now O Light of Lights, If I have done this - If I have restrained it, If I have done anything unjust to that power.
4. If I have oppressed it as it has oppressed me - may all these archons which pursue me take my light from me and leave me empty.
5. And may the enemy Adamas pursue my power and seize it and take away my light from me, and cast it into his dark power which is in the Chaos; and may he place my power in the Chaos.
6. Now O Light, seize me in thy anger, and raise thy power against my enemies which has risen against me at last.
7. Save me quickly, according to what thou hast said: "I will help thee.".
Chapter 78
Now it happened when the First Mystery finished saying these words to the disciples, he said: "He who has understood these words which I have said, let him come forward and give their explanation."
James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning this song of praise which the Pistis Sophia has sung, thy light-power once prophesied it, through David, in the 7th Psalm, thus:
1. O Lord my God, I have trusted thee; save me from those that pursue me, and deliver me.
2. Lest he seize my soul like a lion; while there is no one who delivers and saves.
3. O Lord my God, If I have done this; if there is injustice at my hands;
4. If I have repaid those who repaid me with evil things, may I fall down empty through my enemies.
5. And may the enemy pursue my soul and seize it, and trample my life upon the earth, and take my glory to be in the dust.
6. Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath, be exalted in the boundary of my enemies. Arise in the commandment which thou hast decreed."
Now it happened when the First Mystery heard these words which James spoke, he said: "Excellent, James, thou beloved one."
Chapter 79
However, the First Mystery continued, he said to the disciples: " Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia finished saying the words of this song of praise, she turned back to see whether the Adamas and his archons had turned back to go to their aeon. And she saw them as they were pursuing her. She turned to them and said to them:
1. Why do you pursue me and say: there is no one to be a help to me, to save me from you?
2. Now at this time the light is a true judge and a strong one. But he is long-suffering until the time of which he has spoken to me thus: I will come and help thee; and he will not bring his wrath upon you at all times. And this is the time of which he has spoken to me.
3. Now at this time, if you do not turn yourselves back and cease to pursue me, the light will prepare his power, and he will prepare with all his powers.
4. And he has prepared with his power, that he may take away your light which is within you, so that you become dark; and he has created his powers, that he may take away your power from you and you be destroyed."
But when the Pistis Sophia had said these things, she looked to the place of Adamas. She saw the dark and chaotic place which had created. And she saw furthermore the dark emanations, of exceeding strenght, which Adamas had emanated, so that they should seize the Pistis Sophia and should cast her down to the Chaos which he had created, and should oppress her in that place, and should agitate her until they took her light away from her.
Now it happened when the Pistis Sophia saw those two dark emanations and the dark place which Adamas had created, she was afraid and she cried out to the light, saying:
1. O Light, behold Adamas the violent is angry. He has created a dark emanation, and furthermore he has emanated another chaotic one.
2. And he has created another dark and chaotic one; and he has prepared it.
3. Now at this time O Light, the Chaos which he has created so that he should cast me into it and take away my light-power from me - take away his light from him.
4. And the thought which he conceived to take away my light, let his be (taken) from him. And the violence which he has spoken, to take away my lights from me - take away all his lights.
These are the words which the Pistis Sophia spoke in her song of praise. Now at this time he who is sober in spirit, let him come forward and give the interpretation of the words (which the Pistis Sophia spoke) in her song of praise."
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Martha came forward again and said: "My Lord, I am sober in spirit, and I understand these words which thou dost speak. Now at this time command me that I give their interpretation openly."
The First Mystery , however, answered and said to Martha: " I command thee, Martha, that thou givest the interpretation of the words which the Sophia said in her song of praise."
Martha, however, answered and said: "My Lord, these are the words which thy light-power once prophesied through
David in the 7th Psalm:
11. God is a righteous judge, and strong and long-suffering, who does not bring down his wrath every day.
12. If you do not turn round he will sharpen his sword; he has bent his bow and made it ready.
13. He has prepared in it instruments of death; he has made his arrows for those who will be burnt.
14. Behold, violence has travailed; he has conceived trouble, he has given birth to iniquity.
15. He has dug a pit, he has hollowed it; he will fall into the hole which he has made.
16. His trouble will return upon his head and his violence will come down upon the crown of his head."
But when Martha had spoken these things, the First Mystery which looks forth said to her: "Excellent,m well done, Martha, thou blessed one."
Chapter 81
Now it happened when Jesus finished saying to his disciples all the events which had happened to the Pistis Sophia when
she was in the Chaos, and the manner in which she had sung praises to the Light until he had saved her and brought her out of the Chaos, and brought her into the twelfth aeon, and the manner in which he had saved her from all her oppressions with which the archons of the Chaos had oppressed her, because she desired to go to the light, Jesus continued again with the discourse. He said to his disciples:" Now it happened after all these things, I took the Pistis Sophia, I brought her into the thirteenth aeon. And I was shining exceedingly , there being no measure to the light which I had. I came into the place of the 24 invisible ones and I was shining exceedingly.And they were agitated with great agitation. They looked and saw the Sophia who was with me. They recognised her, but as for me they did not recognise who I was. But they thought of me as being an emanation of the Land of the Light. Now it happened when the Sophia saw her fellow invisible ones she rejoiced with great joy and she was very glad. She wished to tell them the wonders which I had done for her on the earth of mankind below, until I saved her. She came to the midst of the invisible ones, she sang praises to me in their midst, saying:
1. I will give thanks to thee, O Light, for thou art a Saviour, and thou art a deliverer at all times.
2. I will speak this song of praise to the light, for he has saved me and he has delivered me out of the hands of the archons, my enemies.
3. And thou hast saved me from all the places. And thou hast saved me from the height and the depth of the Chaos, and from the aeons of the archons, my enemies.
4. And when I came forth from the height I went astray in places in which there was no light. And I was not able to return to the thirteenth aeon, my dwelling place.
5. For there was no light in me, nor power. For my power had weakened completely.
6. And the ligh saved me from all my afflictions. I saing praises tgo the light; he heard me when I was afflicted.
7. He guided me in the creation of the aeons in order to bring me to the thirteenth aeon, my dwelling place.
8. I will give thanks to thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me, and for thy wonders among the race of mankind.
9. When I lacked my power thou didst give power to me ; and when I lacked my light thou didst fill me with purified light.
10. I have been in the darkness and the shadow of the Chaos, bound with the strong bonds of the Chaos, and there was no light in me.
11. I have caused wrath to the ordinance of light, I have transgressed; I have caused anger to the ordinance of the light, for I came forth from my place.
12. And when I came down I lacked my power, and I was without light; and 0there was no one to help me.
13. And when I was afflicted I sang praises to the light, and he saved me from my afflictions.
14. And furthermore he broke all my bonds, he brought me out of the darkness and the oppressions of the Chaos.
15. I will thank thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me; and thy wonders exist among the race of mankind.
16. Thou hast broken the high gates of the darkness and the strong bars of the Chaos.
17. And thou didsy cause me to turn away from the place in which I transgressed; and furthermore my power was taken because I transgressed.
18. And I desisted from the mysteries; I went down to the gates of the Chaos.
19. And when they afflicted me I sang praises to the light; he saved me from all my afflictions.
20. Thou didst send thy outpouring of light; it gave power to me and it saved me from all my oppressions.
21. I will thank thee, O Light, for thou hast saved me; and thy wonders are among the race of mankind."
Now this is the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke as she was in the midst of the 24 invisible ones, wishing that they should know all the wonders which I had done for her. And she wished that they should know that I went to the world of mankind, I gave them the mysteries of the height. Now at this time, he who is elevated in his thought, let him come forward and say the interpretation of the song of praise which the Pistis Sophia spoke. "
The Gospel of the Ebionites
In the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis,
In the Gospel that is in general use among them which is called "according to Matthew",
which however is not whole and complete but forged and mutilated - they call it the
Hebrews Gospel-it is reported:
There appeared a certain man named Jesus of about thirty years of age, who chose us.
And when he came to Capernaum, he entered into the house of Simon whose surname
is Peter, and opened his mouth and said: "As I passed the Lake of Tiberias, I chose John
and James the sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddeus and Simon the
Zealot and Judas the Iscariot, and you, Matthew, I called as you sat at the receipt of
custom, and you followed me. You, therefore, I will to be twelve apostles for a testimony
unto Israel." (Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.2-3)
And:
It came to pass that John was baptzing; and there went out to him Pharisees and were
baptized, and all of Jerusalem.
And John had a garment of camel`s hair and a leather girdle about his loins, and
his food, as it is said, was wild honey, the taste if which was that of manna, as a cake
dipped in oil.
Thus they were resolved to pervert the truth into a lie and put a cake in the place of locusts.
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.4-5)
And the beginning of their Gospel runs:
It came to pass in the days of Herod the king of Judaea, when Caiaphas was high priest,
that there came one, John by name, and baptized with the baptism of repentance in
the river Jordan. It was said of him that he was of the lineage of Aaron the priest, a
son of Zacharias and Elisabeth : and all went out to him.
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.6)
And after much has been recorded it proceeds:
When the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John.
And as he came up from the water, the heavens was opened and he saw the
Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that descended and entered into him.
And a voice sounded from Heaven that said:
"You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. "
And again: " I have this day begotten you".
And immediately a great light shone round about the place.
When John saw this, it is said, he said unto him :
"Who are you, Lord?"
And again a voice from Heaven rang out to him:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
And then, it is said, John fell down before him and said:
"I beseech you, Lord, baptize me."
But he prevented him and said:
"Suffer it; for thus it is fitting that everything should be fulfilled."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.7-8)
Moreover, they deny that he was a man, evidently on the ground of the
word which the Saviour spoke when it was reported to him:
"Behold, your mother and your brethren stand without." namely:
"Who is my mother and who are my brethren?"
And he stretched his hand towards his disciples and said:
"These are my brethren and mother and sisters, who do the will of my Father."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.14.5)
They say that Christ was not begotten of God the Father, but created as one of
the archangels ... that he rules over the angels and all the creatures of the
Almighty, and that he came and declared, as their Gospel, which is called
Gospel according to Matthew, or Gospel According to the Hebrews?,
reports:
"I am come to do away with sacrfices, and if you cease not sacrificing,
the wrath of God will not cease from you."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16,4-5)
But they abandon the proper sequence of the words and pervert the saying,
as is plain to all from the readings attached, and have let the disciples say:
"Where will you have us prepare the passover?"
And him to answer to that:
"Do I desire with desire at this Passover to eat flesh with you?"
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.22.4)
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES
OF CLEMENS ALEXANRIUS
BOOK I
CHAP. I.—PREFACE—THE AUTHOR’S OBJECT—THE UTILITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS.(1)
[ Wants the beginning] ..........that you may read them under your hand, and may be able to preserve them. Whether written compositions are not to be left behind at all; or if they are, by whom? And if the former, what need there is for written compositions? and if the latter, is the composition of them to be assigned to earnest men, or the opposite? It were certainly ridiculous for one to disapprove of the writing of earnest men, and approve of those, who are not such, engaging in the work of composition. Theopompus and Timaeus, who composed fables and slanders, and Epicurus the leader of atheism, and Hipponax and Archilochus, are to be allowed to write in their own shameful manner.
But he who proclaims the truth is to be prevented from leaving behind him what is to benefit posterity. It is a good thing, I reckon, to leave to posterity good children. This is the case with children of our bodies. But words are the progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who have instructed us, fathers. Wisdom is a communicative and philanthropic thing. Accordingly, Solomon says, "My son, if thou receive the saying of my commandment, and hide it with thee, thine ear shall hear wisdom."(2) He points out that the word that is sown is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the earth, and this is spiritual planting. Wherefore also he adds, "And thou shall apply thine heart to understanding, and apply it for the admonition of thy son." For soul, me thinks, joined with soul, and spirit with spirit, in the sowing of the word, will make that which is sown grow and germinate. And every one who is instructed, is in respect of subjection the son of his instructor.
"Son," says he, "forget not my laws."(3) And if knowledge belong not to all (set an ass to the lyre, as the proverb goes), yet written compositions are for the many. "Swine, for instance, delight in dirt more than in clean water."
"Wherefore," says the Lord, "I speak to them in parables: because seeing, they see not; and hearing, they hear not, and do not understand; "(4) not as if the Lord caused the ignorance: for it were impious to think so. But He prophetically exposed this ignorance, that existed in them, and intimated that they would not understand the things spoken. And now the Saviour shows Himself, out of His abundance, dispensing goods to His servants according to the ability of the recipient, that they may augment them by exercising activity, and then returning to reckon with them; when, approving of those that had increased His money, those faithful in little, and commanding them to have the charge over many things, He bade them enter into the joy of the Lord. But to him who had hid the money, entrusted to him to be given out at interest, and had given it back as he had received it, without increase, He said, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own."
Wherefore the useless servant "shall be cast into outer darkness."(5) "Thou, therefore, be strong," says Paul, "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."(6) And again: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
If, then, both proclaim the Word—the one by writing, the other by speech—are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith active by love? It is by one’s own fault that he does not choose what is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of others to test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is determined within themselves. But there is that species of knowledge which is characteristic of the herald, and that which is, as it were, characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable in whatever way it operates, both by the hand and tongue. "For he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing."(1) On him who by Divine Providence meets in with it, it confers the very highest advantages,--the beginning of faith, readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards the truth, a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it gives the means of salvation.
And those who have been rightly reared in the words of truth, and received provision for eternal life, wing their way to heaven. Most admirably, therefore, the apostle says, "In everything approving ourselves as the servants of God; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. Our mouth is opened to you."(2) "I charge thee," he says, writing to Timothy, "before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality."(3)
Both must therefore test themselves: the one, if he is qualified to speak and leave behind him written records; the other, if he is in a right state to hear and read: as also some in the dispensation of the Eucharist, according to(4) custom enjoin that each one of the people individually should take his part. One’s own conscience is best for choosing accurately or shunning. And its firm foundation is a right life, with suitable instruction. But the imitation of those who have already been proved, and who have led correct lives, is most excellent for the understanding and practice of the commandments. "So that whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup."(5)
It therefore follows, that every one of those who undertake to promote the good of their neighbours, ought to consider whether he has betaken himself to teaching rashly and out of rivalry to any; if his communication of the word is out of vainglory; if the only reward he reaps is the salvation of those who hear, and if he speaks not in order to win favour: if so, he who speaks by writings escapes the reproach of mercenary motives. "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know," says the apostle, "nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children."(6)
In the same way, therefore, those who take part in the divine words, ought to guard against betaking themselves to this, as they would to the building of cities, to examine them out of curiosity; that they do not come to the task for the sake of receiving worldly things, having ascertained that they who are consecrated to Christ are given to communicate the necessaries of life. But let such be dismissed as hypocrites. But if any one wishes not to seem, but to be righteous, to him it belongs to know the things which are best. If, then, "the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers few," it is incumbent on us "to pray" that there may be as great abundance of labourers as possible.(7)
But the husbandry is twofold,--the one unwritten, and the other written. And in whatever way the Lord’s labourer sow the good wheat, and grow and reap the ears, he shall appear a truly divine husbandman. "Labour," says the Lord, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life."(8) And nutriment is received both by bread and by words. And truly "blessed are the peace-makers,"(9) who instructing those who are at war in their life and errors here, lead them back to the peace which is in the Word, and nourish for the life which is according to God, by the distribution of the bread, those "that hunger after righteousness."
For each soul has its own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and others feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is not eatable. "And he that planteth and he that watereth," "being ministers" of Him "that gives the increase, are one" in the ministry. "But every one shall receive his own reward, according to his own work. For we are God’s husbandmen, God’s husbandry. Ye are God’s building,"(10) according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. Nor is the word, given for investigation, to be committed to those who have been reared in the arts of all kinds of words, and in the power of inflated attempts at proof; whose minds are already pre-occupied, and have not been previously emptied.
But whoever chooses to banquet on faith, is stedfast for the reception of the divine words, having acquired already faith as a power of judging, according to reason. Hence ensues to him persuasion in abundance. And this was the meaning of that saying of prophecy, "If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand."(1) "As, then, we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to the household of faith."(2) And let each of these, according to the blessed David, sing, giving thanks. "Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins. Blot out mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy princely spirit."(3)
He who addresses those who are present before him, both tests them by time, and judges by his judgment, and from the others distinguishes him who can hear; watching the words, the manners, the habits, the life, the motions, the attitudes, the look, the voice; the road, the rock, the beaten path, the fruitful land, the wooded region, the fertile and fair and cultivated spot, that is able to multiply the seed. But he that speaks through books, consecrates himself before God, crying in writing thus: Not for gain, not for vainglory, not to be vanquished by partiality, nor enslaved by fear nor elated by pleasure; but only to reap the salvation of those who read, which he does, not at present participate in, but awaiting in expectation the recompense which will certainly be rendered by Him, who has promised to bestow on the labourers the reward that is meet. But he who is enrolled in the number of men(4) ought not to desire recompense. For he that vaunts his good services, receives glory as his reward. And he who does any duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the custom of the world, either as one who has done well, hastening to receive a reward, or as an evil-doer avoiding retribution? We must, as far as we can, imitate the Lord.
I And he will do so, who complies with the will of God, receiving freely, giving freely, and receiving as a worthy reward the citizenship itself. "The hire of an harlot shall not come into the sanctuary," it is said: accordingly it was forbidden to bring to the altar the price of a dog.
And in whomsoever the eye of the soul has been blinded by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to the true light, to the truth, which shows by writing the things that are unwritten. "Ye that thirst, go to the aters,"(5) says Esaias, And "drink water from thine own vessels,"(6) Solomon exhorts. Accordingly in "The Laws," the philosopher who learned from the Hebrews, Plato, commands husbandmen not to irrigate or take water from others, until they have first dug down in their own ground to what is called the virgin soil, and found it dry. For it is right to supply want, but it is not well to support laziness. For Pythagoras said that, "although it be agreeable to reason to take a share of a burden, it is not a duty to take it away."
Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of the soul, and directs the eye suitably for contemplation; perchance inserting something, as the husbandman when he ingrafts, but, according to the opinion of the divine apostle, exciting what is in the soul. "For there are certainly among us many weak and sickly, and many sleep. But if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged."(7) Now this work of mine in writing is not artfully constructed for display; but my memoranda are stored up against old age, as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men.
Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic ;(8) the other in Magna Graecia: the first of these from Coele-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others in the East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew in Palestine.
When I came upon the last(9) (he was the first in power), having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless element of knowledge.
Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God’s will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape the blessed tradition.(10)
"In a man who loves wisdom the father will be glad."(1) Wells, when pumped out, yield purer water; and that of which no one partakes, turns to putrefaction. Use keeps steel brighter, but disuse produces rust in it. For, in a word, exercise produces a healthy condition both in souls and bodies.
"No one lighteth a candle, and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to those who are regarded worthy of the feast."(2) For what is the use of wisdom, if it makes not him who can hear it wise? For still the Saviour saves, "and always works, as He sees the Father."(3) For by teaching, one learns more; and in speaking, one is often a hearer along with his audience. For the teacher of him who speaks and of him who hears is one—who waters both the mind and the word. Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath;(4) but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God.(5)
And if one say that it is written, "There is nothing secret which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,"(6) let him also hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall be manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle. And to him who is able secretly to observe what is delivered to him. that which is veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and what is hidden to the many, shall appear manifest to the few. For why do not all know the truth? why is not righteousness loved, if righteousness belongs to all? But the mysteries are delivered mystically, that what is spoken may be in the mouth of the speaker; rather not in his voice, but in his understanding. "God gave to the Church, some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."(7)
The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak when compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged to hear.(8) But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was struck with the thyrsus. For "speak," it is said, "to a wise man, and he will grow wiser; and to him that hath, and there shall be added to him." And we profess not to explain secret things sufficiently—far from it—but only to recall them to memory, whether we have forgot aught, or whether for the purpose of not forgetting. Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, that have dropped away unwritten. Whence, to aid the weakness of my memory, and provide for myself a salutary help to my recollection in a systematic arrangement of chapters, I necessarily make use of this form. There are then some things of which we have no recollection; for the power that was in the blessed men was great.(8) There are also some things which remained unnoted long, which have now escaped; and others which are effaced, having faded away in the mind itself, since such a task is not easy to those not experienced; these I revive in my commentaries. Some things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise selection, afraid to write what I guarded against speaking: not grudging—for that were wrong—but fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be found "reaching a sword to a child." For it is impossible that what has been written should not escape, although remaining unpublished by me.
But being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of writing, they answer nothing to him that makes inquiries beyond what is written; for they require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who wrote, or of some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things my treatise will hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently.
The dogmas taught by remarkable sects will be adduced; and to these will be opposed all that ought to be premised in accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge, which, as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition, from the creation of the world,(9) will advance to our view; setting before us what according to natural contemplation necessarily has to be treated of beforehand, and clearing off what stands in the way of this arrangement. So that we may have our ears ready for the reception of the tradition of true knowledge; the soil being previously cleared of the thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in order to the planting of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude to the contest; and them are some mysteries before other mysteries.
Our book will not shrink from making use of what is best in philosophy and other preparatory instruction. "For not only for the Hebrews and those that are under the law," according to the apostle, "is it right to become a Jew, but also a Greek for the sake of the Greeks, that we may gain all."(1) Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes, "Admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ."(2) The nicety of speculation, too, suits the sketch presented in my commentaries. In this respect the resources of learning are like a relish mixed with the food of an athlete, who is not indulging in luxury, but entertains a noble desire for distinction.
By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity. And as those who wish to address the people, do so often by the herald, that what is said may be better heard; so also in this case. For we have the word, that was spoken to many, before the common tradition. Wherefore we must set forth the opinions and utterances which cried individually to them, by which those who hear shall more readily turn.
And, in truth, to speak briefly: Among many small pearls there is the one; and in a great take of fish there is the beauty-fish; and by time and toil truth will gleam forth, if a good helper is at hand. For most benefits are supplied, from God, through men. All of us who make use of our eyes see what is presented before them. But some look at objects for one reason, others for another. For instance, the cook and the shepherd do not survey the sheep similarly: for the one examines it if it be fat; the other watches to see if it be of good breed. Let a man milk the sheep’s milk if he need sustenance: let him shear the wool if he need clothing. And in this way let me produce the fruit of the Greek erudition.(3)
For I do not imagine that any composition can be so fortunate as that no one will speak against it. But that is to be regarded as in accordance with reason, which nobody speaks against, with reason. And that course of action and choice is to be approved, not which is faultless, but which no one rationally finds fault with. For it does not follow, that if a man accomplishes anything not purposely, he does it through force of circumstances. But he will do it, managing it by wisdom divinely given, and in accommodation to circumstances. For it is not he who has virtue that needs the way to virtue, any more than he, that is strong, needs recovery. For, like farmers who irrigate the land beforehand, so we also water with the liquid stream of Greek learning what in it is earthy; so that it may receive the spiritual seed cast into it, and may be capable of easily nourishing it. The Stromata will contain the truth mixed up in the dogmas of philosophy, or rather covered over and hidden, as the edible part of the nut in the shell. For, in my opinion, it is fitting that the seeds of truth be kept for the husbandmen of faith, and no others. I am not oblivious of what is babbled by some, who in their ignorance are frightened at every noise, and say that we ought to occupy ourselves with what is most necessary, and which contains the faith; and that we should pass over what is beyond and superfluous, which wears out and detains us to no purpose, in things which conduce nothing to the great end. Others think that philosophy was introduced into life by an evil influence, for the ruin of men, by an evil inventor.
But I shall show, throughout the whole of these Stromata, that evil has an evil nature, and can never turn out the producer of aught that is good; indicating that philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine Providence.(3)
CHAP. II.—OBJECTION TO THE NUMBER OF EXTRACTS FROM PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS IN THESE BOOKS ANTICIPATED AND ANSWERED.
In reference to these commentaries, which contain as the exigencies of the case demand, the Hellenic opinions, I say thus much to those who are fond of finding fault. First, even if philosophy were useless, if the demonstration of its uselessness does good, it is yet useful. Then those cannot condemn the Greeks, who have only a mere hearsay knowledge of their opinions, and have not entered into a minute investigation in each department, in order to acquaintance with them. For the refutation, which is based on experience, is entirely trustworthy. For the knowledge of what is condemned is found the most complete demonstration. Many things, then, though not contributing to the final result, equip the artist. And otherwise erudition commends him, who sets forth the most essential doctrines so as to produce persuasion in his hearers, engendering admiration in those who are taught, and leads them to the truth. And such persuasion is convincing, by which those that love learning admit the truth; so that philosophy does not ruin life by being the originator of false practices and base deeds, although some have calumniated it, though it be the clear image of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks;(4) nor does it drag us away from the faith, as if we were bewitched by some delusive art, but rather, so to speak, by the use of an ampler circuit, obtains a common exercise demonstrative of the faith. Further, the juxtaposition of doctrines, by comparison, saves the truth, from which follows knowledge.
Philosophy came into existence, not on its own account, but for the advantages reaped by us from knowledge, we receiving a firm persuasion of true perception, through the knowledge of things comprehended by the mind. For I do not mention that the Stromata, forming a body of varied erudition, wish artfully to conceal the seeds of knowledge. As, then, he who is fond of hunting captures the game after seeking, tracking, scenting, hunting it down with dogs; so truth, when sought and got with toil, appears a delicious(1) thing. Why, then, you will ask, did you think it fit that such an arrangement should be adopted in your memoranda? Because there is great danger in divulging the secret of the true philosophy to those, whose delight it is unsparingly to speak against everything, not justly; and who shout forth all kinds of names and words indecorously, deceiving themselves and beguiling those who adhere to them. "For the Hebrews seek signs," as the apostle says, "and the Greeks seek after wisdom."(2)
CHAP. III.—AGAINST THE SOPHISTS.
There is a great crowd of this description: some of them, enslaved to pleasures and willing to disbelieve, laugh at the truth which is worthy of all reverence, making sport of its barbarousness. Some others, exalting themselves, endeavour to discover calumnious objections to our words, furnishing captious questions, hunters out of paltry sayings, practisers of miserable artifices, wranglers, dealers in knotty points, as that Abderite says:--
"For mortals’ tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches; And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."
And—
"Of whatever sort the word you have spoken, of the same sort you must hear."
Inflated with this art of theirs, the wretched Sophists, babbling away in their own jargon; toiling their whole life about the division of names and the nature of the composition and conjunction of sentences, show themselves greater chatterers than turtle-doves; scratching and tickling, not in a manly way, in my opinion, the ears of those who wish to be tickled.
"A river of silly words—not a dropping;"
just as in old shoes, when all the rest is worn and is falling to pieces, and the tongue alone remains.
The Athenian Solon most excellently enlarges, and writes:--
"Look to the tongue, and to the words of the glozing man, But you look on no work that has been done; But each one of you walks in the steps of a fox, And in all of you is an empty mind."
This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, "The foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head."(3) For on the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind and gentle Word, "who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the LORD knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they axe vain;"(4) the Scripture calling those the wise (<greek>sofous</greek>) who are skilled in words and arts, sophists (<greek>sofistas</greek>) Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative appellation of wise and sophists (<greek>sofoi</greek> <greek>sofistai</greek>) to those who were versed in anything Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said:--
"Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."
And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Flute-playing Satyrs, says:--
"For there entered A band of sophists, all equipped."
Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the divine Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."(5)
CHAP. IV.—HUMAN ARTS AS WELL AS DIVINE KNOWLEDGE PROCEED FROM GOD.
Homer calls an artificer wise; and of Margites, if that is his work, he thus writes:--
"Him, then, the Gods made neither a delver nor a ploughman,Nor in any other respect wise; but he missed every art."
Hesiod further said the musician Linus was "skilled in all manner of wisdom;" and does not hesitate to call a mariner wise, seeing he writes:--
"Having no wisdom in navigation."
And Daniel the prophet says, "The mystery which the king asks, it is not in the power of the wise, the Magi, the diviners, the Gazarenes, to tell the king; but it is God in heaven who revealeth it."(6) Here he terms the Babylonians wise. And that Scripture calls every secular science or art by the one name wisdom (there are other arts and sciences invented over and above by human reason), and that artistic and skilful invention is from God, will be clear if we adduce the following statement: "And the Lord spake to Moses, See, I have called Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Or, of the tribe of Judah; and I have filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to devise and to execute in all manner of work, to work gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and in working stone work, and in the art of working wood," and even to "all works."(1) And then He adds the general reason, "And to every understanding heart I have given understanding;"(2) that is, to every one capable of acquiring it by pains and exercise. And again, it is written expressly in the name of the Lord "And speak thou to all that are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the spirit of perception."(3)
Those who are wise in mind have a certain attribute of nature peculiar to themselves; and they who have shown themselves capable, receive from the Supreme Wisdom a spirit of perception in double measure. For those who practise the common arts, are in what pertains to the senses highly gifted: in hearing, he who is commonly called a musician; in touch, he who moulds clay; in voice the singer, in smell the perfumer, in sight the engraver of devices on seals. Those also that are occupied in instruction, train the sensibility according to which the poets are susceptible to the influence of measure; the sophists apprehend expression; the dialecticians, syllogisms; and the philosophers are capable of the contemplation of which themselves are the objects. For sensibility finds and invents; since it persuasively exhorts to application. And practice will increase the application which has knowledge for its end. With reason, therefore, the apostle has called the wisdom of God" manifold," and which has manifested its power "in many departments and in many modes"(4)--by art, by knowledge, by faith, by prophecy—for our benefit. "For all wisdom is from the Lord, and is with Him for ever," as says the wisdom of Jesus.(5)
For if thou call on wisdom and knowledge with a loud voice, and seek it as treasures of silver, and eagerly track it out, thou shalt understand godliness and find divine knowledge."(6) The prophet says this in contradiction to the knowledge according to philosophy, which teaches us to investigate in a magnanimous and noble manner, for our progress in piety. He opposes, therefore, to it the knowledge which is occupied with piety, when referring to knowledge, when he speaks as follows: "For God gives wisdom out of His own mouth, and knowledge along with understanding, and treasures up help for the righteous." For to those who have been justified(7) by philosophy, the knowledge which leads to piety is laid up as a help.
CHAP. V.—PHILOSOPHY THE HANDMAID OF THEOLOGY.
Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness.(8) And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration. "For thy foot," it is said, "will not stumble, if thou refer what is good, whether belonging to the Greeks or to us, to Providence."(9) For God is the cause of all good things; but of some primarily, as of the Old and the New Testament; and of others by consequence, as philosophy. Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring "the Hellenic mind," as the law, the Hebrews, "to Christ."(10) Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ.(8)
"Now," says Solomon, "defend wisdom, and it will exalt thee, and it will shield thee with a crown of pleasure."(11) For when thou hast strengthened wisdom with a cope by philosophy, and with right expenditure, thou wilt preserve it unassailable by sophists. The way of truth is therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides. It has been therefore said by inspiration: "Hear, my son, and receive my words; that thine may be the many ways of life. For I teach thee the ways of wisdom; that the fountains fail thee not,"(12) which gush forth from the earth itself. Not only did He enumerate several ways of salvation for any one righteous man, but He added many other ways of many righteous, speaking thus: "The paths of the righteous shine like the light."(13) The commandments and the modes of preparatory training are to be regarded as the ways and appliances of life.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen her chickens!"(14) And Jerusalem is, when interpreted, "a vision of peace." He therefore shows prophetically, that those who peacefully contemplate sacred things are in manifold ways trained to their calling. What then? He "would," and could not. How often, and where? Twice; by the prophets, and by the advent. The expression, then, "How often," shows wisdom to be manifold; every mode of quantity and quality, it by all means saves some, both in time and in eternity. "For the Spirit of the Lord fills the earth."(1) And if any should violently say that the reference is to the Hellenic culture, when it is said, "Give not heed to an evil woman; for honey drops from the lips of a harlot," let him hear what follows: "who lubricates thy throat for the time." But philosophy does not flatter. Who, then, does He allude to as having committed fornication? He adds expressly, "For the feet of folly lead those who use her, after death, to Hades. But her steps are not supported."
Therefore remove thy way far from silly pleasure. "Stand not at the doors of her house, that thou yield not thy life to others." And He testifies, "Then shall thou repent in old age, when the flesh of thy body is consumed." For this is the end of foolish pleasure. Such, indeed, is the case. And when He says, "Be not much with a strange woman,"(2) He admonishes us to use indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the word of the Lord. "For already some men, ensnared by the charms of handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, some of them in music, some in geometry, others in grammar, the most in rhetoric."(3) "But as the encyclical branches of study contribute to philosophy, which is their mistress; so also philosophy itself co-operates for the acquisition of wisdom. For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes."
Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture. For if philosophy" professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the honour and knowledge of God."(4) And Scripture will afford a testimony to what has been said in what follows. Sarah was at one time barren, being Abraham’s wife. Sarah having no child, assigned her maid, by name Hagar, the Egyptian, to Abraham, in order to get children. Wisdom, therefore, who dwells with the man of faith (and Abraham was reckoned faithful and righteous), was still barren and without child in that generation, not having brought forth to Abraham aught allied to virtue. And she, as was proper, thought that he, being now in the time of progress, should have intercourse with secular culture first (by Egyptian the world is designated figuratively); and afterwards should approach to her according to divine providence, and beget Isaac."(5)
And Philo interprets Hagar to mean "sojourning."(6) For it is said in connection with this, "Be not much with a strange woman."(7) Sarah he interprets to mean "my princedom." He, then, who has received previous training is at liberty to approach to wisdom, which is supreme, from which grows up the race of Israel. These things show that that wisdom can be acquired through instruction, to which Abraham attained, passing from the contemplation of heavenly things to the faith and righteousness which are according to God. And Isaac is shown to mean "self-taught;" wherefore also he is discovered to be a type of Christ. He was the husband of one wife Rebecca, which they translate "Patience." And Jacob is said to have consorted with several, his name being interpreted" Exerciser." And exercises are engaged in by means of many and various dogmas. Whence, also, he who is really "endowed with the power of seeing" is called Israel,(8) having much experience, and being fit for exercise.
Something else may also have been shown by the three patriarchs, namely, that the sure seal of knowledge is composed of nature, of education, and exercise.
You may have also another image of what has been said, in Thamar sitting by the way, and presenting the appearance of a harlot, on whom the studious Judas (whose name is interpreted "powerful"), who left nothing unexamined and uninvestigated, looked; and turned aside to her, preserving his profession towards God. Wherefore also, when Sarah was jealous at Hagar being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what was profitable in secular philosophy, said, "Behold, thy maid is in thine hands: deal with her as it pleases thee;"(9) manifestly meaning, "I embrace secular culture as youthful, and a handmaid; but thy knowledge I honour and reverence as true wife." And Sarah afflicted her; which is equivalent to corrected and admonished her. It has therefore been well said, "My son, despise not thou the correction of God; nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the LORD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."(1) And the foresaid Scriptures, when examined in other places, will be seen to exhibit other mysteries. We merely therefore assert here, that philosophy is characterized by investigation into truth and the nature of things (this is the truth of which the Lord Himself said, "I am the truth"(2)); and that, again, the preparatory training for rest in Christ exercises the mind, rouses the intelligence, and begets an inquiring shrewdness, by means of the true philosophy, which the initiated possess, having found it, or rather received it, from the truth itself.
CHAP. VI.—THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE.
The readiness acquired by previous training conduces much to the perception of such things as are requisite; but those things which can be perceived only by mind are the special exercise for the mind. And their nature is triple according as we consider their quantity, their magnitude, and what can be predicated of them. For the discourse which consists of demonstrations, implants in the spirit of him who follows it, clear faith; so that he cannot conceive of that which is demonstrated being different; and so it does not allow us to succumb to those who assail us by fraud. In such studies, therefore, the soul is purged from sensible things, and is excited, so as to be able to see truth distinctly. For nutriment, and the training which is maintained gentle, make noble natures I; and noble natures, when they have received such training, become still better than before both in other respects, but especially in productiveness, as is the case with the other creatures.
Wherefore it is mid, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and become wiser than it, which provideth much and, varied food in the harvest against the inclemency of winter."(3) Or go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces one honey-comb. And if "thou prayest in the closet," as the Lord taught, "to worship in spirit,"(4) thy management will no longer be solely occupied about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured up in it; and when it ought to be produced, and to whom. For it is not by nature, but by learning, that people become noble and good, as people also become physicians and pilots. We all in common, for example, see the vine and the horse. But the husbandman will know if the vine be good or bad at fruit-bearing; and the horseman will easily distinguish between the spiritless and the swift animal. But that some are naturally predisposed to virtue above others, certain pursuits of those, who are so naturally predisposed above others, show. But that perfection in virtue is not the exclusive property of those, whose natures are better, is proved, since also those who by nature are ill-disposed towards virtue, in obtaining suitable training, for the most part attain to excellence; and, on the other hand, those whose natural dispositions are apt, become evil through neglect.
Again, God has created us naturally social and just; whence justice must not be said to take its rise from implantation alone. But the good imparted by creation is to be conceived of as excited by the commandment; the soul being trained to be willing to select what is noblest.
But as we say that a man can be a believer without learning,(5) so also we assert that it is impossible for a man without learning to comprehend the things which are declared in the faith.
But to adopt what is well said, and not to adopt the reverse, is caused not simply by faith, but by faith combined with knowledge. But if ignorance is want of training and of instruction, then teaching produces knowledge of divine and human things. But just as it is possible to live rightly in penury of this world’s good things, so also in abundance. And we avow, that at once with more ease and more speed will one attain to virtue through previous training. But it is not such as to be unattainable without it; but it is attainable only when they have learned, and have had their senses exercised.(6) "For hatred," says Solomon, "raises strife, but instruction guardeth the ways of life;"(7) in such a way that we are not deceived nor deluded by those who are practised in base arts for the injury of those who hear. "But instruction wanders reproachless,"(8) it is said. We must be conversant with the art of reasoning, for the purpose of confuting the deceitful opinions of the sophists. Well and felicitously, therefore, does Anaxarchus write in his book respecting "kingly rule:" "Erudition benefits greatly and hurts greatly him who possesses it; it helps him who is worthy, and injures him who utters readily every word, and before the whole people. It is necessary to know the measure of time. For this is the end of wisdom. And those who sing at the doors, even if they sing skilfully, are not reckoned wise, but have the reputation of folly." And Hesiod:--
"Of the Muses, who make a man loquacious, divine, vocal."
For him who is fluent in words he calls loquacious; and him who is clever, vocal; and "divine," him who is skilled, a philosopher, and acquainted with the truth.
CHAP. VII.—THE ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHY PAVES THE WAY FOR DIVINE VIRTUE.
The Greek preparatory culture, therefore, with philosophy itself, is shown to have come down from God to men, not with a definite direction but in the way in which showers fail down on the good land, and on the dunghill, and on the houses. And similarly both the grass and the wheat sprout; and the figs and any other reckless trees grow on sepulchres. And things that grow, appear as a type of truths. For they enjoy the same influence of the rain. But they have not the same grace as those which spring up in rich soil, inasmuch as they are withered or plucked up. And here we are aided by the parable of the sower, which the Lord interpreted. For the husbandman of the soil which is among men is one; He who from the beginning, from the foundation of the world, sowed nutritious seeds; He who in each age rained down the Lord, the Word. But the times and places which received [such gifts], created the differences which exist. Further, the husbandman sows not only wheat (of which there are many varieties), but also other seeds—barley, and beam, and peas, and vetches, and vegetable and flower seeds. And to the same husbandry belongs both planting and the operations necessary in the nurseries, and gardens, and orchards, and the planning and rearing of all sorts of trees
In like manner, not only the care of sheep, but the care of herds, and breeding of horses, and dogs, and bee-craft, all arts, and to speak comprehensively, the care of flocks and the rearing of animals, differ from each other more or less, but are all useful for life. And philosophy—I do not mean the Stoic, or the Platonic, or the Epicurean, or the Aristotelian, but whatever has been well said by each of those sects, which teach righteousness along with a science pervaded by piety, --this eclectic whole I call philosophy.(1) But such conclusions of human reasonings, as men have cut away and falsified, I would never call divine.
And now we must look also at this, that if ever those who know not how to do well, live well;(2) for they have lighted on well-doing. Some, too, have aimed well at the word of truth through understanding. "But Abraham was not justified by works, but by faith."(3) It is therefore of no advantage to them after the end of life, even if they do good works now, if they have not faith.
Wherefore also the Scriptures(4) were translated into the language of the Greeks, in order that they might never be able to allege the excuse of ignorance, inasmuch as they are able to hear also what we have in our hands, if they only wish. One speaks in one way of the truth, in another way the truth interprets itself. The guessing at truth is one thing, and truth itself is another. Resemblance is one thing, the thing itself is another. And the one results from learning and practice, the other from power and faith. For the teaching of piety is a gift, but faith is grace. "For by doing the will of God we know the will of God."(5) "Open, then," says the Scripture, "the gates of righteousness; and I will enter in, and confess to the LORD."(6) But the paths to righteousness (since God saves in many ways, for He is good) are many and various, and lead to the Lord’s way and gate.
And if you ask the royal and true entrance, you will hear, "This is the gate of the LORD, the righteous shall enter in by it."(7) While there are many gates open, that in righteousness is in Christ, by which all the blessed enter, and direct their steps in the sanctity of knowledge. Now Clemens, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, while expounding the differences of those who are approved according to the Church, says expressly, "One may be a believer; one may be powerful in uttering knowledge; one may be wise in discriminating between words; one may be terrible in deeds."(8)
CHAP. VIII.—THE SOPHISTICAL ARTS USELESS.
But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and disputation for wrangling. These arts, therefore, if not conjoined with philosophy, will be injurious to every one. For Plato openly called sophistry "an evil art." And Aristotle, following him, demonstrates it to be a dishonest art, which abstracts in a specious manner the whole business of wisdom, and professes a wisdom which it has not studied. To speak briefly, as the beginning of rhetoric is the probable, and an attempted proof(9) the process, and the end persuasion, so the beginning of disputation is what is matter of opinion, and the process a contest, and the end victory. For in the same manner, also, the beginning of sophistry is the apparent, and the process twofold; one of rhetoric, continuous and exhaustive; and the other of logic, and is interrogatory. And its end is admiration.
The dialectic in vogue in the schools, on the other hand, is the exercise of a philosopher in matters of opinion, for the sake of the faculty of disputation. But truth is not in these at all. With reason, therefore, the noble apostle, depreciating these superfluous arts occupied about words, says, "If any man do not give heed to wholesome words, but is puffed up by a kind of teaching, knowing nothing, but doting (<greek>noswn</greek>) about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh contention, envy, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth."(1)
You see how he is moved against them, calling their art of logic—on which, those to whom this garrulous mischievous art is dear, whether Greeks or barbarians, plume themselves—a disease (<greek>nosos</greek>). Very beautifully, therefore, the tragic poet Euripides says in the Phoenissoe,--
"But a wrongful speech Is diseased in itself, and needs skilful medicines."(2)
For the saving Word(3) is called "wholesome," He being the truth; and what is wholesome (healthful) remains ever deathless. But separation from what is healthful and divine is impiety, and a deadly malady. These are rapacious wolves hid in sheep-skins, men-stealers, and glozing soul-seducers, secretly, but proved to be robbers; striving by fraud and force to catch us who are unsophisticated and have less power of speech.
"Often a man, impeded through want of words, carries less weight In expressing what is right, than the man of eloquence.
But now in fluent mouths the weightiest truths They disguise, so that they do not seem what they ought to seem," says the tragedy. Such are these wranglers, whether they follow the sects, or practise miserable dialectic arts. These are they that "stretch the warp and weave nothing," says the Scripture;(4) prosecuting a bootless task, which the apostle has called "cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive."(5) "For there are," he says, "many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers:"(6)
Wherefore it was not said to all, "Ye are the salt of the earth."(7) For there are some even of the hearers of the word who are like the fishes of the sea, which, reared from their birth in brine, yet need salt to dress them for food. Accordingly I wholly approve of the tragedy, when it says:--
"O son, false words can be well spoken, And truth may be vanquished by beauty of words. But this is not what is most correct, but nature and what is right; He who practises eloquence is indeed wise, But I consider deeds always better than words."
We must not, then, aspire to please the multitude. For we do not practise what will please them, but what we know is remote from their disposition. "Let us not be desirous of vainglory,," says the apostle, "provoking one another, envying one another."(8)
Thus the truth-loving Plato says, as if divinely inspired, "Since I am such as to obey nothing but the word, which, after reflection, appears to me the best."(9)
Accordingly he charges those who credit opinions without intelligence and knowledge, with abandoning right and sound reason unwarrantably, and believing him who is a partner in falsehood. For to cheat one’s self of the truth is bad; but to speak the truth, and to hold as our opinions positive realities, is good.
Men are deprived of what is good unwillingly. Nevertheless they are deprived either by being deceived or beguiled, or by being compelled and not believing. He who believes not, has already made himself a willing captive; and he who changes his persuasion is cozened, while he forgets that time imperceptibly takes away some things, and reason others. And after an opinion has been entertained, pain and anguish, and on the other hand contentiousness and anger, compel. Above all, men are beguiled who are either bewitched by pleasure or terrified by fear. And all these are voluntary changes, but by none of these will knowledge ever be attained.
CHAP. IX.—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.(1) And he who brings everything to bear on a fight 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 touch-stone (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."(2) 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.(3)
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?
CHAP. X.—TO ACT WELL OF GREATER CONSEQUENCE THAN TO SPEAK WELL.
Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then breaking the bread,(4) He presented it, that we might eat it, according to reason, and that knowing the Scriptures s we might walk obediently. And as those whose speech is evil are no better than those whose practice is evil (for calumny is the servant of the sword, and evil-speaking inflicts pain; and from these proceed disasters in life, such being the effects of evil speech); so also those who are given to good speech are near neighbours to those who accomplish good deeds. Accordingly discourse refreshes the soul and entices it to nobleness; and happy is he who has the use of both his hands. Neither, therefore, is he who can act well to be vilified by him who is able to speak well; nor is he who is able to speak well to be disparaged by him who is capable of acting well. But let each do that for which he is naturally fitted. What the one exhibits as actually done, the other speaks, preparing, as it were, the way for well-doing, and leading the hearers to the practice of good.
For there is a saving word, as there is a saving work. Righteousness, accordingly,(6) is not constituted without discourse. And as the receiving of good is abolished if we abolish the doing of good; so obedience and faith are abolished when neither the command, nor one to expound the command, is taken along with us.(7)
But now we are benefited mutually and reciprocally by words and deeds; but we must repudiate entirely the art of wrangling and sophistry, since these sentences of the sophists not only bewitch and beguile the many, but sometimes by violence win a Cadmean victory.(8) For true above all is that Psalm, "The just shall live to the end, for he shall not see corruption, when he beholds the wise dying."(9) And whom does he call wise? Hear from the Wisdom of Jesus: "Wisdom is not the knowledge of evil."(10) Such he calls what the arts of speaking and of discussing have invented. "Thou shalt therefore seek wisdom among the wicked, and shalt not find it."(11) And if you inquire again of what sort this is, you are told, "The mouth of the righteous man will distil wisdom."(12) And similarly with truth, the art of sophistry is called wisdom.
But it is my purpose, as I reckon, and not without reason, to live according to the Word, and to understand what is revealed;(1) but never affecting eloquence, to be content merely with indicating my meaning. And by what term that which I wish to present is shown, I care not. For I well know that to be saved, and to aid those who desire to be saved, is the best thing, and not to compose paltry sentences like gewgaws. "And if," says the Pythagorean in the Politicus of Plato, "you guard against solicitude about terms, you will be richer in wisdom against old age."(2) And in the Theaetetus you will find again, "And carelessness about names, and expressions, and the want of nice scrutiny, is not vulgar and illiberal for the most part, but rather the reverse of this, and is sometimes necessary."(3) This the Scripture(4) has expressed with the greatest possible brevity, when it said, "Be not occupied much about words." For expression is like the dress on the body.
The matter is the flesh and sinews. We must not therefore care more for the dress than the safety of the body. For not only a simple mode of life, but also a style of speech devoid of superfluity and nicety, must be cultivated by him who has adopted the true life, if we are to abandon luxury as treacherous and profligate, as the ancient Lacedaemonians adjured ointment and purple, deeming and calling them rightly treacherous garments and treacherous unguents; since neither is that mode of preparing food right where there is more of seasoning than of nutriment; nor is that style of speech elegant which can please rather than benefit the hearers. Pythagoras exhorts us to consider the Muses more pleasant than the Sirens, teaching us to cultivate wisdom apart from pleasure, and exposing the other mode of attracting the soul as deceptive. For sailing past the Sirens one man has sufficient strength, and for answering the Sphinx another one, or, if you please, not even one.(5) We ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory, to make broad the phylacteries. It suffices the gnostic(6) if only one hearer is found for him.(7) You may hear therefore Pindar the Boeotian,(8) who writes, "Divulge not before all the ancient speech. The way of silence is sometimes the surest.
And the mightiest word is a spur to the fight." Accordingly, the blessed apostle very appropriately and urgently exhorts us "not to strive about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, but to shun profane and vain babblings, for they increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker."(9)
CHAP. XI.—WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY WHICH THE APOSTLE BIDS US SHUN?
This, then, "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God," and of those who are "the wise the
Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are vain."(10) Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the LORD, that executeth mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my delight, saith the LORD."(11) "That we should trust not in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead," says the apostle, "who delivered us from so great a death, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." "For the spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man."(12) I hear also those words of his, "And these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or one should enter in to spoil you."(13) And again, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;"(14) branding not all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles,(15) which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator.(16)
The Stoics also, whom he mentions too, say not well that the Deity, being a body, pervades the vilest matter. He calls the jugglery of logic "the tradition of men." Wherefore also he adds, "Avoid juvenile(17) questions. For such contentions are puerile." "But virtue is no lover of boys," says the philosopher Plato. And our struggle, accOrding to Gorgias Leontinus, requires two virtues—boldness and wisdom,--boldness to undergo danger, and wisdom to understand the enigma. For the Word, like the Olympian proclamation, calls him who is wiring, and crowns him who is able to continue unmoved as far as the truth is concerned. And, in truth, the Word does not wish him who has believed to be idle. For He says, "Seek, and ye shall find."(1) But seeking ends in finding, driving out the empty trifling, and approving of the contemplation which confirms our faith.
"And this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words,"(2) says the apostle, evidently as having learned to distinguish what was said by him, and as being taught to meet objections. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith."(3) Now persuasion is [the means of] being established in the faith. "Beware lest any man spoil you of faith in Christ by philosophy and vain deceit," which does away with providence, "after the tradition of men;" for the philosophy which is in accordance with divine tradition establishes and confirms providence, which, being done away with, the economy of the Saviour appears a myth, while we are influenced "after the elements of the world, and not after Christ."(4) For the teaching which is agreeable to Christ deifies the Creator, and traces providence in particular events,(5) and knows the nature of the elements to be capable of change and production, and teaches that we ought to aim at rising up to the power which assimilates to God, and to prefer the dispensation(6) as holding the first rank and superior to all training.
The elements are worshipped,--the air by Diogenes, the water by Thales, the fire by Hippasus; and by those who suppose atoms to be the first principles of things, arrogating the name of philosophers, being wretched creatures devoted to pleasure.(7) "Wherefore I pray," says the apostle, "that your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent."(8) "Since, when we were children," says the same apostle, "we were kept in bondage under the rudiments of the world. And the child, though heir, differeth nothing from a servant, till the time appointed of the father."(9) Philosophers, then, are children, unless they have been made men by Christ. "For if the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free,"(10) at least he is the seed of Abraham, though not of promise, receiving what belongs to him by free gift. "But strong meat belongeth to those that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."(11)
"For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe,"(12) and not yet acquainted with the word, according to which he has believed and works, and not able to give a reason in himself. "Prove all things," the apostle says, "and hold fast that which is good,"(13) speaking to spiritual men, who judge what is said according to truth, whether it seems or truly holds by the truth. "He who is not corrected by discipline errs, and stripes and reproofs give the discipline of wisdom," the reproofs manifestly that are with love. "For the right heart seeketh knowledge."(14) "For he that seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who have sought it rightly have found peace."(15) "And I will know," it is said, "not the speech of those which are puffed up, but the power." In rebuke of those who are wise in appearance, and think themselves wise, but are not in reality wise, he writes: "For the kingdom of God is not in word."(16) It is not in that which is not true, but which is only probable according to opinion; but he said "in power," for the truth alone is powerful. And again: "If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." For truth is never mere opinion.
But the "supposition of knowledge inflates," and fills with pride; "but charity edifieth," which deals not in supposition, but in truth. Whence it is said, "If any man loves, he is known."(17)
CHAP. XII.—THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH NOT TO BE DIVULGED TO ALL.
But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide in a mystery the wisdom spoken, which the Son of God taught. Now, therefore, Isaiah the prophet has his tongue purified by fire, so that he may be able to tell the vision. And we must purify not the tongue alone, but also the ears, if we attempt to be partaken of the truth.
Such were the impediments in the way of my writing. And even now I fear, as it is said, "to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them under foot, and turn and rend us."(18) For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true light, to swinish and untrained hearers. For scarcely could anything which they could hear be more ludicrous than these to the multitude; nor any subjects on the other hand more admirable or more inspiring to those of noble nature. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him."(1) But the wise do not utter with their mouth what they reason in council.
"But what ye hear in the ear," says the Lord, "proclaim upon the houses;"(2) bidding them receive the secret traditions(3) of the true knowledge, and expound them aloft and conspicuously; and as we have heard in the ear, so to deliver them to whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us to communicate to all without distinction, what is said to them in parables. But there is only a delineation in the memoranda, which have the truth sowed sparse(4) and broadcast, that it may escape the notice of those who pick up seeds like jackdaws; but when they find a good husbandman, each one of them will germinate and produce corn.
CHAP. XIII.—ALL SECTS OF PHILOSOPHY CONTAIN A GERM OF TRUTH.
Since, therefore, truth is one (for falsehood has ten thousand by-paths); just as the Bacchantes tore asunder the limbs of Pentheus, so the sects both of barbarian and Hellenic philosophy have done with truth, and each vaunts as the whole truth the portion which has fallen to its lot. But all, in my opinion,(5) are illuminated by the dawn of Light.(6) Let all, therefore, both Greeks and barbarians, who have aspired after the truth,--both those who possess not a little, and those who have any portion,--produce whatever they have of the word of truth.
Eternity, for instance, presents in an instant the future and the present, also the past of time. But truth, much more powerful than limitless duration, can collect its proper germs, though they have fallen on foreign soil. For we shall find that very many of the dogmas that are held by such sects as have not become utterly senseless, and are not cut out from the order of nature (by cutting off Christ, as the women of the fable dismembered the man),(7) though appearing unlike one another, correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole. For they coincide in one, either as a part, or a species, or a genus. For instance, though the highest note is different from the lowest note, yet both compose one harmony. And in numbers an even number differs from an odd number; but both suit in arithmetic; as also is the case with figure, the circle, and the triangle, and the square, and whatever figures differ from one another. Also, in the whole universe, all the parts, though differing one from another, preserve their relation to the whole. So, then, the barbarian and Hellenic philosophy has torn off a fragment of eternal truth not from the mythology of Dionysus, but from the theology of the ever-living Word.
And He who brings again together the separate fragments, and makes them one, will without peril, be assured, contemplate the perfect Word, the truth. Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes: "And I added wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem; and my heart saw many things; and besides, I knew wisdom and knowledge, parables and understanding. And this also is the choice of the spirit, because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of knowledge."(8) He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be pre-eminently a gnostic.(9) Now it is written, "Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it."(10) And again, what is said is confirmed more clearly by this saying, "All things are in the sight of those who understand"—all things, both Hellenic and barbarian; but the one or the other is not all. "They are right to those who wish to receive understanding. Choose instruction, and not silver, and knowledge above tested gold," and prefer also sense to pure gold; "for wisdom is better than precious stones, and no precious thing is worth it."(11)
CHAP. XIV.—SUCCESSION OF PHILOSOPHERS IN GREECE.
The Greeks say, that after Orpheus and Linus, and the most ancient of the poets that appeared among them, the seven, called wise, were the first that were admired for their wisdom. Of whom four were of Asia—Thales of Miletus, and Bias of Priene, Pittacus of Mitylene, and Cleobulus of Lindos; and two of Europe, Solon the Athenian, and Chilon the Lacedaemonian; and the seventh, some say, was Periander of Corinth; others, Anacharsis the Scythian; others, Epimenides the Cretan, whom Paul knew as a Greek prophet, whom he mentions in the Epistle to Titus, where he speaks thus: "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And this witness is true."(12) You see how even to the prophets of the Greeks he attributes something of the truth, and is not ashamed,(13) when discoursing for the edification of some and the shaming of others, to make use of Greek poems. Accordingly to the Corinthians (for this is not the only instance), while discoursing on the resurrection of the dead, he makes use of a tragic Iambic line, when he said, "What advantageth it me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners."(1)
Others have enumerated Acusilaus the Argive among the seven wise men; and others, Pherecydes of Syros. And Plato substitutes Myso the Chenian for Periander, whom he deemed unworthy of wisdom, on account of his having reigned as a tyrant. That the wise men among the Greeks flourished after the age of Moses, will, a little after, be shown. But the style of philosophy among them, as Hebraic and enigmatical, is now to be considered. They adopted brevity, as suited for exhortation, and most useful. Even Plato says, that of old this mode was purposely in vogue among all the Greeks, especially the Lacedaemonians and Cretans, who enjoyed the best laws.
The expression, "Know thyself," some supposed to be Chilon’s. But Chamaeleon, in his book About the Gods, ascribes it to Thales; Aristotle to the Pythian. It may be an injunction to the pursuit of knowledge. For it is not possible to know the parts without the essence of the whole; and one must study the genesis of the universe, that thereby we may be able to learn the nature of man. Again, to Chilon the Lacedaemonian they attribute, "Let nothing be too much."(2) Strato, in his book Of Inventions, ascribes the apophthegm to Stratodemus of Tegea. Didymus assigns it to Solon; as also to Cleobulus the saying, "A middle course is best." And the expression, "Come under a pledge, and mischief is at hand," Cleomenes says, in his book Concerning Hesiod, was uttered before by Homer in the lines:--
"Wretched pledges, for the wretched, to be pledged."(3)
The Aristotelians judge it to be Chilon’s; but Didymus says the advice was that of Thales. Then, next in order, the saying, "All men are bad," or, "The most of men are bad" (for the same apophthegm is expressed in two ways), Sotades the Byzantian says that it was Bias’s. And the aphorism, "Practice conquers everything,"(4) they will have it to be Periander’s; and likewise the advice, "Know the opportunity," to have been a saying of Pittacus. Solon made laws for the Athenians, Pittacus for the Mitylenians. And at a late date, Pythagoras, the pupil of Pherecydes, first called himself a philosopher. Accordingly, after the fore-mentioned three men, there were three schools of philosophy, named after the places where they lived: the Italic from Pythagoras, the Ionic from Thales, the Eleatic from Xenophanes. Pythagoras was a Samian, the son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus says: cording to Aristoxenus, in his life of Pythagoras and Aristarchus and Theopompus, he was a Tuscan; and according to Neanthes, a Syrian or a Tyrian. So that Pythagoras was, according to the most, of barbarian extraction.
Thaies, too, as Leander and Herodotus relate, was a Phoenician; as some suppose, a Milesian. He alone seems to have met the prophets of the Egyptians. But no one is described as his teacher, nor is any one mentioned as the teacher of Pherecydes of Syros, who had Pythagoras as his pupil. But the Italic philosophy, that of Pythagoras, grew old in Metapontum in Italy. Anaximander of Miletus, the son of Praxiades, succeeded Thales; and was himself succeeded by Anaximenes of Miletus, the son of Eurustratus; after whom came Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the son of Hegesibulus.(5) He transferred his school from Ionia to Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, whose pupil Socrates was.
"From these turned aside, the stone-mason;
Talker about laws; the enchanter of the Greeks," says Timon in his Satirical Poems, on account of his quitting physics for ethics. Antisthenes, after being a pupil of Socrates, introduced the Cynic philosophy; and Plato withdrew to the Academy. Aristotle, after studying philosophy under Plato, withdrew to the Lyceum, and founded the Peripatetic sect. He was succeeded by Theophrastus, who was succeeded by Strato, and he by Lycon, then Critolaus, and then Diodorus. Speusippus was the successor of Plato; his successor was Xenocrates; and the successor of the latter, Polemo. And the disciples of Polemo were Crates and Crantor, in whom the old Academy founded by Plato ceased. Arcesilaus was the associate of Crantor; from whom, down to Hegesilaus, the Middle Academy flourished. Then Carneades succeeded Hegesilaus, and others came in succession.
The disciple of Crates was Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect. He was succeeded by Cleanthes; and the latter by Chrysippus, and others after him. Xenophanes of Colophon was the founder of the Eleatic school, who, Timaeus says, lived in the time of Hiero, lord of Sicily, and Epicharmus the poet; and Apollodorus says that he was born in the fortieth Olympiad, and reached to the times of Darius and Cyrus. Parmenides, accordingly, was the disciple of Xenophanes, and Zeno of him; then came Leucippus, and then Democritus. Disciples of Democritus were Protagoras of Abdera, and Metrodorus of Chios, whose pupil was Diogenes of Smyrna; and his again Anaxarchus, and his Pyrrho, and his Nausiphanes. Some say that Epicurus was a scholar of his.
Such, in an epitome, is the succession of the philosophers among the Greeks. The periods of the originators of their philosophy are now to be specified successively, in order that, by comparison, we may show that the Hebrew: philosophy was older by many generations.(1)
It has been said of Xenophanes that he was the founder of the Eleatic philosophy. And Eudemus, in the Astrological Histories, says that Thales foretold the eclipse of the sun, which took place at the time that the Medians and the Lydians fought, in the reign of Cyaxares the father of Astyages over the Medes, and of Alyattus the son of Croesus over the Lydians. Herodotus in his first book agrees with him. The date is about the fiftieth Olympiad. Pythagoras is ascertained to have lived in the days of Polycrates the tyrant, about the sixty-second Olympiad. Mnesiphilus is described as a follower of Solon, and was a contemporary of Themistocles. Solon therefore flourished about the forty-sixth Olympiad. For Heraclitus, the son of Bauso, persuaded Melancomas the tyrant to abdicate his sovereignty. He despised the invitation of king Darius to visit the Persians.
CHAP. XV.—THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN GREAT PART DERIVED FROM THE BARBARIANS.
These are the times of the oldest wise men and philosophers among the Greeks. And that the most of them were barbarians by extraction, and were trained among barbarians, what need is there to say? Pythagoras is shown to have been either a Tuscan or a Tyrian. And Antisthenes was a Phrygian. And Orpheus was an Odrysian or a Thracian. The most, too, show Homer to have been an Egyptian. Thales was a Phoenician by birth, and was said to have consorted with the prophets of the Egyptians; as also Pythagoras did with the same persons, by whom he was circumcised, that he might enter the adytum and learn from the Egyptians the mystic philosophy. He held converse with the chief of the Chaldeans and the Magi; and he gave a hint of the church, now so called, in the common hall(2) which he maintained.
And Plato does not deny that he procured all that is most excellent in philosophy from the barbarians; and he admits that he came into Egypt. Whence, writing in the Phoedo that the philosopher can receive aid from all sides, he said: "Great indeed is Greece, O Cebes, in which everywhere there are good men, and many are the races of the barbarians."(3) Thus Plato thinks that some of the barbarians, too, are philosophers. But Epicurus, on the other hand, supposes that only Greeks can philosophise. And in the Symposium, Plato, landing the barbarians as practising philosophy with conspicuous excellence,(4) truly says: "And in many other instances both among Greeks and barbarians, whose temples reared for such sons are already numerous." And it is clear that the barbarians signally honoured their lawgivers and teachers, designating them gods. For, according to Plato, "they think that good souls, on quitting the supercelestial region, submit to come to this Tartarus; and assuming a body, share in all the ills which are involved in birth, from their solicitude for the race of men;" and these make laws and publish philosophy, "than which no greater boon ever came from the gods to the race of men, or will come."(5)
And as appears to me, it was in consequence of perceiving the great benefit which is conferred through wise men, that the men themselves Were honoured and philosophy cultivated publicly by all the Brahmins, and the Odrysi, and the Getae. And such were strictly deified by the race of the Egyptians, by the Chaldeans and the Arabians, called the Happy, and those that inhabited Palestine, by not the least portion of the Persian race, and by innumerable other races besides these.
And it is well known that Plato is found perpetually celebrating the barbarians, remembering that both himself and Pythagoras learned the most and the noblest of their dogmas among the barbarians. Wherefore he also called the races of the barbarians, "races of barbarian philosophers," recognising, in the Phaedrus, the Egyptian king, and shows him to us wiser than Theut, whom he knew to be Hermes. But in the Charmides, it is manifest that he knew certain Thracians who were said to make the soul immortal. And Pythagoras is reported to have been a disciple of Sonches the Egyptian arch-prophet; and Plato, of Sechnuphis of Heliopolis; and Eudoxus, of Cnidius of Konuphis, who was also an Egyptian. And in his book, On the Soul,(6) Plato again manifestly recognises prophecy, when he introduces a prophet announcing the word of Lachesis, uttering predictions to the souls whose destiny is becoming fixed. And in the Timoeus he introduces Solon, the very wise, learning from the barbarian. The substance of the declaration is to the following effect: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children. And no Greek is an old man. For you have no learning that is hoary with age."(1)
Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said to have combined with his own compositions a translation of the column of Acicarus.(2) And you may find the distinction notified by him when he writes, "Thus says Democritus." About himself, too, where, pluming himself on his erudition, he says, "I have roamed over the most ground of any man of my time, investigating the most remote parts. I have seen the most skies and lands, and I have heard of learned men in very great numbers. And in composition no one has surpassed me; in demonstration, not even those among the Egyptians who are called Arpenodaptae, with all of whom I lived in exile up to eighty years." For he went to Babylon, and Persis, and Egypt, to learn from the Magi and the priests.
Zoroaster the Magus, Pythagoras showed to be a Persian. Of the secret books of this man, those who follow the heresy of Prodicus boast to be in possession. Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a pupil of Nazaratus the Assyrian a (some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterwards be shown), and will have it that, in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatae and the Brahmins. Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle.(4) Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God’s aid, the Sibyl spoke.(5) They say, accordingly, that at Delphi a stone was shown beside the oracle, on which, it is said, sat the first Sibyl, who came from Helicon, and had been reared by the Muses. But some say that she came from Milea, being the daughter of Lamia of Sidon.(6) And Serapion, in his epic verses, says that the Sibyl, even when dead ceased not from divination. And he writes that, what proceeded from her into the air after her death, was what gave oracular utterances in voices and omens; and on her body being changed into earth, and the grass as natural growing out of it, whatever beasts happening to be in that place fed on it exhibited to men an accurate knowledge of futurity by their entrails. He thinks also, that the face seen in the moon is her soul. So much for the Sibyl.
Numa the king of the Romans was a Pythagorean, and aided by the precepts of Moses, prohibited from making an image of God in human form, and of the shape of a living creature.
Accordingly, during the first hundred and seventy years, though building temples, they made no cast or graven image. For Numa secretly showed them that the Best of Beings could not be apprehended except by the mind alone. Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanaeans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour’s birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanae,(7) and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are called Hylobii(8) neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of children.
Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha;(9) whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours.
Anacharsis was a Scythian, and is recorded to have excelled many philosophers among the Greeks. And the Hyperboreans, Hellanicus relates, dwelt beyond the Riphaean mountains, and inculcated justice, not eating flesh, but using nuts. Those who are sixty years old they take without the gates, and do away with. There are also among the Germans those called sacred women, who, by inspecting the whirlpools of rivers and the eddies, and observing the noises of streams, presage and predict future events.(10) These did not allow the men to fight against Caesar till the new moon shone.
Of all these, by far the oldest is the Jewish race; and that their philosophy committed to writing has the precedence of philosophy among the Greeks, the Pythagorean Philo(11) shows at large; and, besides him, Aristobulus the Peripatetic, and several others, not to waste time, in going over them by name. Very clearly the author Megasthenes, the contemporary of Seleucus Nicanor, writes as follows in the third of his books, On Indian Affairs: "All that was said about nature by the ancients is said also by those who philosophise beyond Greece: some things by the Brahmins among the Indians, and others by those called Jews in Syria." Some more. fabulously say that certain of those called the Idaean Dactyli were the first wise men; to whom are attributed the invention of what are called the "Ephesian letters," and of numbers in music. For which reason dactyls in music received their name. And the Idaean Dactyli were Phrygians and barbarians.
Herodotus relates that Hercules, having grown a sage and a student of physics, received from the barbarian Atlas, the Phrygian, the columns of the universe; the fable meaning that he received by instruction the knowledge of the heavenly bodies. And Hermippus of Berytus calls Charon the Centaur wise; about whom, he that wrote The Battle of the Titans says, "that he first led the race of mortals to righteousness, by teaching them the solemnity of the oath, and propitiatory sacrifices and the figures of Olympus." By him Achilles, who fought at Troy, was taught. And Hippo, the daughter of the Centaur, who dwelt with AEolus, taught him her father’s science, the knowledge of physics. Euripides also testifies of Hippo as follows:--
"Who first, by oracles, presaged, And by the rising stars, events divine."
By this AEolus, Ulysses was received as a guest after the taking of Troy. Mark the epochs by comparison with the age of Moses, and with the high antiquity of the philosophy promulgated by him.
CHAP. XVI.—THAT THE INVENTORS OF OTHER ARTS WERE MOSTLY BARBARIANS.
And barbarians were inventors not only of philosophy, but almost of every art. The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology among men. Similarly also the Chaldeans. The Egyptians first showed how to burn lamps, and divided the year into twelve months, prohibited intercourse with women in the temples, and enacted that no one should enter the temples(1) from a woman without bathing. Again, they were the inventors of geometry. There are some who say that the Carians invented prognostication by the stars. The Phrygians were the first who attended to the flight of birds. And the Tuscans, neighbours of Italy, were adepts at the art of the Haruspex. The Isaurians and the Arabians invented augury, as the Telmesians divination by dreams. The Etruscans invented the trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute. For Olympus and Marsyas were Phrygians. And Cadmus, the inventor of letters among the Greeks, as Euphorus says, was a Phoenician; whence also Herodotus writes that they were called Phoenician letters. And they say that the Phoenicians and the Syrians first invented letters; and that Apis, an aboriginal inhabitant of Egypt, invented the healing art before Io came into Egypt. But afterwards they say that Asclepius improved the art.
Atlas the Libyan was the first who built a ship and navigated the sea. Kelmis and Damnaneus, Idaean Dactyli, first discovered iron in Cyprus. Another Idaean discovered the tempering of brass; according to Hesiod, a Scythian. The Thracians first invented what is called a scimitar (<greek>arph</greek>),--it is a curved sword,--and were the first to use shields on horseback. Similarly also the Illyrians invented the shield (<greek>pelth</greek>). Besides, they say that the Tuscans invented the art of moulding clay; and that Itanus (he was a Samnite) first fashioned the oblong shield (<greek>qureos</greek>). Cadmus the Phoenician invented stonecutting, and discovered the gold mines on the Pangaean mountain. Further, another nation, the Cappadocians, first invented the instrument called the nabla,(2) and the Assyrians in the same way the dichord. The Carthaginians were the first that constructed a triterme; and it was built by Bosporus, an aboriginal.(3) Medea, the daughter of AEetas, a Colchian, first invented the dyeing of hair.
Besides, the Noropes (they are a Paeonian race, and are now called the Norici) worked copper, and were the first that purified iron. Amycus the king of the Bebryci was the first inventor of boxing-gloves.(4) In music, Olympus the Mysian practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca,(5) a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented by Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise also diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and the half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same region as those mentioned above. And the Doric was invented by Thamyris the Thracian. We have heard that the Persians were the first who fashioned the chariot, and bed, and footstool; and the Sidonians the first to construct a trireme. The Sicilians, close to Italy, were the first inventors of the phorminx, which is not much inferior to the lyre. And they invented castanets.
In the time of Semiramis queen of the Assyrians,(1) they relate that linen garments were invented. And Hellanicus says that Atossa queen of the Persians was the first who composed a letter. These things are reported by Seame of Mitylene, Theophrastus of Ephesus, Cydippus of Mantinea also Antiphanes, Aristodemus, and Aristotle and besides these, Philostephanus, and also Strato the Peripatetic, in his books Concerning Inventions. I have added a few details from them, in order to confirm the inventive and practically useful genius of the barbarians, by whom the Greeks profited in their studies. And if any one objects to the barbarous language, Anacharsis says, "All the Greeks speak Scythian to me." It was he who was held in admiration by the Greeks, who said, "My covering is a cloak; my supper, milk and cheese." You see that the barbarian philosophy professes deeds, not words. The apostle thus speaks: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall ye know what is spoken?
for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kind of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." And, "Let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."(2)
Nay more, it was late before the teaching and writing of discourses reached Greece. Alcmaeon, the son of Perithus, of Crotona, first composed a treatise on nature. And it is related that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the son of Hegesibulus, first published a book in writing. The first to adapt music to poetical compositions was Terpander of Antissa; and he set the laws of the Lacedaemonians to music. Lasus of Hermione invented the dithyramb; Stesichorus of Himera, the hymn; Alcman the Spartan, the choral song; Anacreon of Tees, love songs; Pindar the Theban, the dance accompanied with song. Timotheus of Miletus was the first to execute those musical compositions called <greek>nomoi</greek> on the lyre, with dancing. Moreover, the iambus was invented by Archilochus of Pares, and the choliambus by Hipponax of Ephesus. Tragedy owed its origin to Thespis the Athenian, and comedy to Susarion of Icaria. Their dates are handed down by the grammarians. But it were tedious to specify them accurately: presently, however, Dionysus, on whose account the Dionysian spectacles are celebrated, will be shown to be later than Moses. They say that Antiphon of Rhamnusium, the son of Sophilus, first invented scholastic discourses and rhetorical figures, and was the first who pied causes for a fee, and wrote a forensic speech for delivery,(3) as Diodorus says. And Apollodorus of Cuma first assumed the name of critic, and was called a grammarian. Some say it was Eratosthenes of Cyrene who was first so called, since he published two books which he entitled Grammatica.
The first who was called a grammarian, as we now use the term, was Praxiphanes, the son of Disnysophenes of Mitylene. Zeleucus the Locrian was reported to have been the first to have framed laws (in writing) Others say that it was Menos the son of Zeus, in the time of Lynceus. He comes after Danaus, in the eleventh generation from Inachus and Moses; as we shall show a little further on. And Lycurgus, who lived many years after the taking of Troy, legislated for the Lacedaemonians a hundred and fifty years before the Olympiads. We have spoken before of the age of Solon. Draco (he was a legislator too) is discovered to have lived about the three hundred and ninth Olympiad. Antilochus, again, who wrote of the learned men from the age of Pythagoras to the death of Epicurus, which took place in the tenth day of the month Gamelion, makes up altogether three hundred and twelve years.
Moreover, some say that Phanothea, the wife of Icarius, invented the heroic hexameter; others Themis, one of the Titanides. Didymus, however, in his work On the Pythagorean Philosophy, relates that Theano of Crotona was the first woman who cultivated philosophy and composed poems The Hellenic philosophy then, according to some, apprehended the truth accidentally, dimly, partially; as others will have it, was set a-going by the devil. Several suppose that certain powers, descending from heaven, inspired the whole of philosophy. But if the Hellenic philosophy comprehends not the whole extent of the truth, and besides is destitute of strength to perform the commandments of the Lord, yet it prepares the way for the truly royal teaching; training in some way or other, and moulding the character, and fitting him who believes in Providence for the reception of the truth.(4)
CHAP. XVII.—ON THE SAYING OF THE SAVIOUR, "ALL THAT CAME BEFORE ME WERE THIEVES AND ROBBERS."(5)
But, say they, it is written, "All who were before the Lord’s advent are thieves and robbers." All, then, who are in the Word (for it is these that were previous to the incarnation of the Word) are understood generally. But the prophets, being sent and inspired by the Lord, were not thieves, but servants. The Scripture accordingly says, "Wisdom sent her servants, inviting with loud proclamation to a goblet of wine."(1)
But philosophy, it is said, was not sent by the Lord, but came stolen, or given by a thief. It was then some power or angel that had learned something of the truth, but abode not in it, that inspired and taught these things, not without the Lord’s knowledge, who knew before the constitution of each essence the issues of futurity, but without His prohibition.
For the theft which reached men then, had some advantage; not that he who perpetrated the theft had utility in his eye, but Providence directed the issue of the audacious deed to utility. I know that many are perpetually assailing us with the allegation, that not to prevent a thing happening, is to be the cause of it happening. For they say, that the man who does not take precaution against a theft, or does not prevent it, is the cause of it: as he is the cause of the conflagration who has not quenched it at the beginning; and the master of the vessel who does not reef the sail, is the cause of the shipwreck. Certainly those who are the causes of such events are punished by the law.
For to him who had power to prevent, attaches the blame of what happens. We say to them, that causation is seen in doing, working, acting; but the not preventing is in this respect inoperative. Further, causation attaches to activity; as in the case of the shipbuilder in relation to the origin of the vessel, and the builder in relation to the construction of the house. But that which does not prevent is separated from what takes place. Wherefore the effect will be accomplished; because that which could have prevented neither acts nor prevents. For what activity does that which prevents not exert?
Now their assertion is reduced to absurdity, if they shall say that the cause of the wound is not the dart, but the shield, which did not prevent the dart from passing through; and if they blame not the thief, but the man who did not prevent the theft. Let them then say, that it was not Hector that burned the ships of the Greeks, but Achilles; because, having the power to prevent Hector, he did not prevent him; but out of anger (and it depended on himself to be angry or not) did not keep back the fire, and was a concurring cause. Now the devil, being possessed of free-will, was able both to repent and to steal; and it was he who was the author of the theft, not the Lord, who did not prevent him. But neither was the gift hurtful, so as to require that prevention should intervene.
But if strict accuracy must be employed in dealing with them, let them know, that that which does not prevent what we assert to have taken place in the theft, is not a cause at all; but that what prevents is involved in the accusation of being a cause. For he that protects with a shield is the cause of him whom he protects not being wounded; preventing him, as he does, from being wounded. For the demon of Socrates was a cause, not by not preventing, but by exhorting, even if (strictly speaking) he did not exhort. And neither praises nor censures, neither rewards nor punishments, are right, when the soul has not the power of inclination and disinclination, but evil is involuntary. Whence he who prevents is a cause; while he who prevents not judges justly the soul’s choice. So in no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins, and a mistaken judgment sometimes prevails, from which, since it is ignorance and stupidity, we do not take pains to recede, punishments are rightly inflicted. For to take fever is involuntary; but when one takes fever through his own fault, from excess, we blame him.
Inasmuch, then, as evil is involuntary,--for no one prefers evil as evil; but induced by the pleasure that is in it, and imagining it good, considers it desirable;--such being the case, to free ourselves from ignorance, and from evil and voluptuous choice, and above all, to withhold our assent from those delusive phantasies, depends on ourselves. The devil is called "thief and robber;" having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the wheat. "All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;" not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prophetic name dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar. For the Lord says, "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it."(2)
But among the lies, the false prophets also told some true things. And in reality they prophesied "in an ecstasy," as(3) the servants of the apostate. And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermas, of the false prophet: "For he speaks some truths. For the devil fills him with his own spirit, if perchance he may be able to cast down any one from what is right." All things, therefore, are dispensed from heaven for good, "that by the Church may be made known the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal foreknowledge,(1) which He purposed in Christ."(2)
Nothing withstands God: nothing opposes Him: seeing He is Lord and omnipotent. Further, the counsels and activities of those who have rebelled, being partial, proceed from a bad disposition, as bodily diseases from a bad constitution, but are guided by universal Providence to a salutary issue, even though the cause be productive of disease. It is accordingly the greatest achievement of divine Providence, not to allow the evil, which has sprung from voluntary apostasy, to remain useless, and for no good, and not to become in all respects injurious. For it is the work of the divine wisdom, and excellence, and power, not alone to do good (for this is, so to speak, the nature of God, as it is of fire to warm and of light to illumine), but especially to ensure that what happens through the evils hatched by any, may come to a good and useful issue, and to use to advantage those things which appear to be evils, as also the testimony which accrues from temptation.
There is then in philosophy, though stolen as the fire by Prometheus, a slender spark, capable of being fanned into flame, a trace of wisdom and an impulse from God. Well, be it so that "the thieves and robbers" are the philosophers among the Greeks, who from the Hebrew prophets before the coming of the Lord received fragments of the truth, not with full knowledge, and claimed these as their own teachings, disguising some points, treating others sophistically by their ingenuity, and discovering other things, for perchance they had "the spirit of perception."(3) Aristotle, too, assented to Scripture, and declared sophistry to have stolen wisdom, as we intimated before. And the apostle says, "Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."(4) For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received of His fulness,"(5) that is, of Christ’s. So that the prophets are not thieves. "And my doctrine is not Mine," saith the Lord, "but the Father’s which sent me." And of those who steal He says: "But he that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory."(6) Such are the Greeks, "lovers of their own selves, and boasters."(7) Scripture, when it speaks of these as wise, does not brand those who are really wise, but those who are wise in appearance.
CHAP. XVIII.—HE ILLUSTRATES THE APOSTLE’S SAYING, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE."
And of such it is said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." The apostle accordingly adds, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers(8) of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"(9) which is equivalent to, showed it to be foolish, and not true, as they thought. And if you ask the cause of their seeming wisdom, he will say, "because of the blindness of their heart;" since "in the wisdom of God," that is, as proclaimed by the prophets, "the world knew not," in the wisdom "which spake by the prophets," "Him,"(10) that is, God,--"it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching"—what seemed to the Greeks foolishness—"to save them that believe. For the Jews require signs," in order to faith; "and the Greeks seek after wisdom," plainly those reasonings styled "irresistible," and those others, namely, syllogisms. "But we preach Jesus Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumbling-block," because, though knowing prophecy, they did not believe the event: "to the Greeks, foolishness;" for those who in their own estimation are wise, consider it fabulous that the Son of God should speak by man and that God should have a Son, and especially that that Son should have suffered. Whence their preconceived idea inclines them to disbelieve. For the advent of the Saviour did not make people foolish, and hard of heart, and unbelieving, but made them understanding, amenable to persuasion, and believing.
But those that would not believe, by separating themselves from the voluntary adherence of those who obeyed, were proved to be without understanding, unbelievers and fools. "But to them who are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Should we not understand (as is better) the words rendered, "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"
negatively: "God hath not made foolish the wisdom of the world?"—so that the cause of their hardness of heart may not appear to have proceeded from God, "making foolish the wisdom of the world." For on all accounts, being wise, they incur greater blame in not believing the proclamation.
For the preference and choice of truth is voluntary. But that declaration, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," declares Him to have sent forth light, by bringing forth in opposition the despised and contemned barbarian philosophy; as the lamp, when shone upon by the sun, is said to be extinguished, on account of its not then exerting the same power. All having been therefore called, those who are willing to obey have been named(1) "called." For there is no unright-eousness with God. Those of either race who have believed, are "a peculiar people."(2) And in the Acts of the Apostles you will find this, word for word, "Those then who received his word were baptized;"(3) but those who would not obey kept themselves aloof. To these prophecy says, "If ye be willing and hear me, ye shall eat the good things of the land;"(4) proving that choice or refusal depends on ourselves. The apostle designates the doctrine which is according to the Lord, "the wisdom of God," in order to show that the true philosophy has been communicated by the Son. Further, he, who has a show of wisdom, has certain exhortations enjoined on him by the apostle: "That ye put on the new man, which after God is renewed in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let him labour, working that which is good" (and to work is to labour in seeking the truth; for it is accompanied with rational well-doing), "that ye may have to give to him that has need,"(5) both of worldly wealth and of divine wisdom. For he wishes both that the word be taught, and that the money be put into the bank, accurately tested, to accumulate interest. Whence he adds, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,"—that is "corrupt communication" which proceeds out of conceit,--"but that which is good for the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers." And the word of the good God must needs be good. And how is it possible that he who saves shall not be good?
CHAP. XIX.—THAT THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME PORTION OF TRUTH.
Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have laid down some true opinions, we may from this point take a glance at the testimonies. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded to have said to the Areopagites, "I perceive that ye are more than ordinarily religious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him; though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we also are His offspring."(6)
Whence it is evident that the apostle, by availing himself of poetical examples from the Phenomena of Aratus, approves of what had been well spoken by the Greeks; and intimates that, by the unknown God, God the Creator was in a roundabout way worshipped by the Greeks; but that it was necessary by positive knowledge to apprehend and learn Him by the Son. "Wherefore, then, I send thee to the Gentiles," it is said, "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Me."(7)
Such, then, are the eyes of the blind which are opened. The knowledge of the Father by the Son is the comprehension of the "Greek circumlocution;"(8) and to turn from the power of Satan is to change from sin, through which bondage was produced. We do not, indeed, receive absolutely all philosophy, but that of which Socrates(9) speaks in Plato. "For there are (as they say) in the mysteries many bearers of the thyrsus, but few bacchanals;" meaning, "that many are called, but few chosen." He accordingly plainly adds: "These, in my opinion, are none else than those who have philosophized right; to belong to whose number, I myself have left nothing undone in life, as far as I could, but have endeavoured in every way. Whether we have endeavoured rightly and achieved aught, we shall know when we have gone there, if God will, a little afterwards."
Does he not then seem to declare from the Hebrew Scriptures the righteous man’s hope, through faith, after death? And in Demodocus(10) (if that is really the work of Plato): "And do not imagine that I call it philosophizing to spend life pottering about the arts, or learning many things, but something different; since I, at least, would consider this a disgrace." For he knew, I reckon, "that the knowledge of many things does not educate the mind,"(1) according to Heraclitus. And in the fifth book of the Republic.(2) he says, "’ Shall we then call all these, and the others which study such things, and those who apply themselves to the meaner arts, philosophers?’ ‘By no means,’ I said, ‘but like philosophers.’ ‘And whom,’ said he, ‘do you call true?’ ‘Those,’ said I,’ who delight in the contemplation of truth. For philosophy is not in geometry, with its postulates and hypotheses; nor in music, which is conjectural; nor in astronomy, crammed full of physical, fluid, and probable causes.
But the knowledge of the good and truth itself are requisite,--what is good being one thing, and the ways to the good another.’"(3) So that he does not allow that the curriculum of training suffices for the good, but co-operates in rousing and training the soul to intellectual objects.
Whether, then, they say that the Greeks gave forth some utterances of the true philosophy by accident, it is the accident of a divine administration (for no one will, for the sake of the present argument with us, deify chance); or by good fortune, good fortune is not unforeseen. Or were one, on the other hand, to say that the Greeks possessed a natural conception of these things, we know the one Creator of nature; just as we also call righteousness natural; or that they had a common intellect, let us reflect who is its father, and what righteousness is in the mental economy. For were one to name "prediction,"(4) and assign as its cause "combined utterance,"(5) he specifies forms of prophecy. Further, others will have it that some truths were uttered by the philosophers, in appearance.
The divine apostle writes accordingly respecting us: "For now we see as through a glass;"(6) knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simul-taneously contemplating, as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, in us, is divine. For it is said, "Having seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God:" methinks that now the Saviour God is declared to us. But after the laying aside of the flesh, "face to face,"—then definitely and comprehensively, when the heart becomes pure. And by reflection and direct vision, those among the Greeks who have philosophized accurately, see God.
For such, through our weakness, are our true views, as images are seen in the water, and as we see things through pellucid and transparent bodies. Excellently therefore Solomon says: "He who soweth righteousness, worketh faith."(7) "And there are those who, sewing their own, make increase."(8) And again: "Take care of the verdure on the plain, and thou shalt cut grass and gather ripe hay, that thou mayest have sheep for clothing."(9) You see how care must be taken for external clothing and for keeping. "And thou shalt intelligently know the souls of thy flock."(10) "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; uncircumcision observing the precepts of the law,"(11) according to the apostle, both before the law and before the advent. As if making comparison of those addicted to philosophy with those called heretics,(12) the Word most clearly says: "Better is a friend that is near, than a brother that dwelleth afar off."(13) "And he who relies on falsehoods, feeds on the winds, and pursues winged birds."(14) I do not think that philosophy directly declares the Word, although in many instances philosophy attempts and persuasively teaches us probable arguments; but it assails the sects.
Accordingly it is added: "For he hath forsaken the ways of his own vineyard, and wandered in the tracks of his own husbandry." Such are the sects which deserted the primitive Church.(12) Now he who has fallen into heresy passes through an arid wilderness, abandoning the only true God, destitute of God, seeking waterless water, reaching an uninhabited and thirsty land, collecting sterility with his hands. And those destitute of prudence, that is, those involved in heresies, "I enjoin," remarks Wisdom, saying, "Touch sweetly stolen bread and the sweet water of theft;"(15) the Scripture manifestly applying the terms bread and water to nothing else but to those heresies, which employ bread and water in the oblation, not according to the canon of the Church. For there are those who celebrate the Eucharist with mere water. "But begone, stay not in her place:" dace is the synagogue, not the Church. He calls it by the equivocal name, place.
Then He subjoins: "For so shalt thou pass through the water of another;" reckoning heretical baptism not proper and true water. "And thou shalt pass over another’s river," that rushes along and sweeps down to the sea; into which he is cast who, having diverged from the stability which is according to truth, rushes back into the heathenish and tumultous waves of life.
CHAP. XX.—IN WHAT RESPECT PHILOSOPHY CONTRIBUTES TO THE COMPREHENSION OF DIVINE TRUTH.
As many men drawing down the ship, cannot be called many causes, but one cause consisting of many;--for each individual by himself is not the cause of the ship being drawn, but along with the rest;--so also philosophy, being the search for truth, contributes to the comprehension of truth; not as being the cause of comprehension, but a cause along with other things, and co-operator; perhaps also a joint cause. And as the several virtues are causes of the happiness of one individual; and as both the sun, and the fire, and the bath, and clothing are of one getting warm: so while truth is one, many things contribute to its investigation. But its discovery is by the Son. If then we consider, virtue is, in power, one. But it is the case, that when exhibited in some things, it is called prudence, in others temperance, and in others manliness or righteousness. By the same analogy, while truth is one, in geometry there is the truth of geometry; in music, that of music; and in the right philosophy, there will be Hellenic truth.
But that is the only authentic truth, unassailable, in which we are instructed by the Son of God. In the same way we say, that the drachma being one and the same, when given to the shipmaster, is called the fare; to the tax-gatherer, tax; to the landlord, rent; to the teacher, fees; to the seller, an earnest. And each, whether it be virtue or truth, called by the same name, is the cause of its own peculiar effect alone; and from the blending of them arises a happy life. For we are not made happy by names alone, when we say that a good life is happiness, and that the man who is adorned in his soul with virtue is happy. But if philosophy contributes remotely to the discovery of truth, by reaching, by diverse essays, after the knowledge which touches close on the truth, the knowledge possessed by us, it aids him who aims at grasping it, in accordance with the Word, to apprehend knowledge. But the Hellenic truth is distinct from that held by us (although it has got the same name), both in respect of extent of knowledge, certainly of demonstration, divine power, and the like. For we are taught of God, being instructed in the truly "sacred letters"(1) by the Son of God.
Whence those, to whom we refer, influence souls not in the way we do, but by different teaching. And if, for the sake of those who are fond of fault-finding, we must draw a distinction, by saying that philosophy is a concurrent and cooperating cause of true apprehension, being the search for truth, then we shall avow it to be a preparatory training for the enlightened man (<greek>tou</greek> <greek>gnwstikou</greek>); not assigning as the cause that which is but the joint-cause; nor as the upholding cause, what is merely co-operative; nor giving to philosophy the place of a sine qua non. Since almost all of us, without training in arts and sciences, and the Hellenic philosophy, and some even without learning at all, through the influence of a philosophy divine and barbarous, and by power, have through faith received the word concerning God, trained by self-operating wisdom. But that which acts in conjunction with something else, being of itself incapable of operating by itself, we describe as co-operating and concausing, and say that it becomes a cause only in virtue of its being a joint-cause, and receives the name of cause only in respect of its concurring with something else, but that it cannot by itself produce the right effect.
Although at one time philosophy justified the Greeks,(2) not conducting them to that entire righteousness to which it is ascertained to cooperate, as the first and second flight of steps help you in your ascent to the upper room, and the grammarian helps the philosopher. Not as if by its abstraction, the perfect Word would be rendered incomplete, or truth perish; since also sight, and hearing, and the voice contribute to truth, but it is the mind which is the appropriate faculty for knowing it. But of those things which co-operate, some contribute a greater amount of power; some, a less. Perspicuity accordingly aids in the communication of truth, and logic in preventing us from falling under the heresies by which we are assailed. But the teaching, which is according to the Saviour, is complete in itself and without defect, being "the power and wisdom of God;"(3) and the Hellenic philosophy does not, by its approach, make the truth more powerful; but rendering powerless the assault of sophistry against it, and frustrating the treacherous plots laid against the truth, is said to be the proper "fence and wall of the vineyard."
And the truth which is according to faith is as necessary for life as bread; while the preparatory discipline is like sauce and sweetmeats. "At the end of the dinner, the dessert is pleasant," according to the Theban Pindar. And the Scripture has expressly said, "The innocent will become wiser by understanding, and the wise will receive knowledge."(4) "And he that speaketh of himself," saith the Lord, "seeketh his own glory; but He that seeketh His glory that sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."(5) On the other hand, therefore, he who appropriates what belongs to the barbarians, and vaunts it is his own, does wrong, increasing his own glory, and falsifying the truth. It is such an one that is by Scripture called a "thief." It is therefore said, "Son, be not a liar; for falsehood leads to theft." Nevertheless the thief possesses really, what he has possessed himself of dishonestly,(1) whether it be gold, or silver, or speech, or dogma. The ideas, then, which they have stolen, and which are partially true, they know by conjecture and necessary logical deduction: on becoming disciples, therefore, they will know them with intelligent apprehension.
CHAP. XXI.—THE JEWISH INSTITUTIONS AND LAWS OF FAR HIGHER ANTIQUITY THAN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.
On the plagiarizing of the dogmas of the philosophers from the Hebrews, we shall treat a little afterwards. But first, as due order demands, we must now speak of the epoch of Moses, by which the philosophy of the Hebrews will be demonstrated beyond all contradiction to be the most ancient of all wisdom. This has been discussed with accuracy by Tatian in his book To the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. Nevertheless our commentary demands that we too should run over what has been said on the point. Apion, then, the grammarian, surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth book of The Egyptian Histories, although of so hostile a disposition towards the Hebrews, being by race an Egyptian, as to compose a work against the Jews, when referring to Amosis king of the Egyptians, and his exploits, adduces, as a witness, Ptolemy of Mendes.
And his remarks are to the following effect: Amosis, who lived in the time of the Argive Inachus, overthrew Athyria, as Ptolemy of Mendes relates in his Chronology. Now this Ptolemy was a priest; and setting forth the deeds of the Egyptian kings in three entire books, he says, that the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, under the conduct of Moses, took place while Amosis was king of Egypt. Whence it is seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus. And of the Hellenic states, the most ancient is the Argolic, I mean that which took its rise from Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his Times. And younger by forty generations than it was Attica, founded by Cecrops, who was an aboriginal of double race, as Tatian expressly says; and Arcadia, founded by Pelasgus, younger too by nine generations; and he, too, is said to have been an aboriginal.
And more recent than this last by fifty-two generations, was Pthiotis, rounded by Deucalion. And from the time of Inachus to the Trojan war twenty generations or more are reckoned; let us say, four hundred years and more. And if Ctesias says that the Assyrian power is many years older than the Greek, the exodus of Moses from Egypt will appear to have taken place in the forty-second year of the Assyrian empire,(2) in the thirty-second year of the reign of Belochus, in the time of Amosis the Egyptian, and of Inachus the Argive. And in Greece, in the time of Phoroneus, who succeeded Inachus, the flood of Ogyges occurred; and monarchy subsisted in Sicyon first in the person of AEgialeus, then of Europs, then of Telches; in Crete, in the person of Cres. For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man. Whence, too, the author of Phoronis said that he was "the father of mortal men." Thence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And wishing to draw them out into a discussion respecting antiquities, he(3) said that he ventured to speak of the most remote antiquities of this city(4) respecting Phoroneus, called the first man, and Niobe, and what happened after the deluge." And in the time of Phorbus lived Actaeus, from whom is derived Actaia, Attica; and in the time of Triopas lived Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and Cecrops of double race, and Ino. And in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluge s of Deucalion; and in the time of Sthenelus, the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnesus; and trader Dardanus happened the building of Dardania, whom, says Homer,
"First cloud-compelling Zeus begat,"—
and the transmigration from Crete into Phoenicia. And in the time of Lynceus took place the abduction of Proserpine, and the dedication of the sacred enclosure in Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. And in the time of Proetus the war of Eumolpus with the Athenians took place; and in the time of Acrisius, the removal of Pelops from Phrygia, the arrival of Ion at Athens; and the second Cecrops appeared, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus took place, and Orpheus and Musaeus lived. And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon, Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign of Demophon the son of Theseus at Athens, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says; but AEgias and Dercylus, in the third book, say that it was on the eighth day of the last division of the month Panemus; Hellanicus says that it was on the twelfth of the month Thargelion; and some of the authors of the Attica say that it was on the eighth of the last division of the month in the last year of Menestheus, at full moon.
"It was midnight,"
says the author of the Little Iliad,
"And the moon shone clear."
Others say, it took place on the same day of Scirophorion. But Theseus, the rival of Hercules, is older by a generation than the Trojan war. Accordingly Tlepolemus, a son of Hercules, is mentioned by Homer, as having served at Troy.
Moses, then, is shown to have preceded the deification of Dionysus six hundred and four years, if he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronology. From Bacchus to Hercules and the chiefs that sailed with Jason in the ship Argo, are comprised sixty-three years. AEsculapius and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in his Argonautics. And from the reign of Hercules, in Argos, to the deification of Hercules and of AEsculapius, are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronologist; from this to the deification of Castor and Pollux, fifty-three years. And at this time Troy was taken.
And if we may believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear him:--
"Then to Jove, Maia, Atlas’ daughter, bore renowned Hermes, Herald of the immortals, having ascended the sacred couch. And Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, too, bore an illustrious son, Dionysus, the joy-inspiring, when she mingled with him in love."(1)
Cadmus, the father of Semele, came to Thebes in the time of Lynceus, and was the inventor of the Greek letters. Triopas was a contemporary of Isis, in the seventh generation from Inachus. And Isis, who is the same as Io, is so called, it is said, from her going (<greek>ienai</greek>) roaming over the whole earth. Her, Istrus, in his work on the migration of the Egyptians, calls the daughter of Prometheus.
Prometheus lived in the time of Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses. So that Moses appears to have flourished even before the birth of men, according to the chronology of the Greeks. Leon, who treated of the Egyptian divinities, says that Isis by the Greeks was called Ceres, who lived in the time of Lynceus, in the eleventh generation after Moses. And Apis the king of Argos built Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first book of the Arcadica. And Aristeas the Argive says that he was named Serapis, and that it is he that the Egyptians worship. And Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third book of the Institutions of Asia, says that the bull Apis, dead and laid in a coffin (<greek>soros</greek>), was deposited in the temple of the god (<greek>daimonos</greek>) there worshipped, and thence was called Soroapis, and afterwards Serapis by the custom of the natives. And Apis is third after Inachus. Further, Latona lived in the time of Tityus. "For he dragged Latona, the radiant consort of Zeus."
Now Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. Rightly, therefor, the Boeotian Pindar writes, "And in time was Apollo born;" and no wonder when he is found along with Hercules, serving Admetus "for a long year." Zethus and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And should one assert that Phemonoe was the first who sang oracles in verse to Acrisius, let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe, lived Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules. And Homer and Hesiod are much more recent than the Trojan war; and after them the legislators among the Greeks are far more recent, Lycurgus and Solon, and the seven wise men, and Pherecydes of Syros, and Pythagoras the great, who lived later, about the Olympiads, as we have shown. We have also demonstrated Moses to be more ancient, not only than those called poets and wise men among the Greeks, but than the most of their deities. Nor he alone, but the Sibyl also is more ancient than Orpheus. For it is said, that respecting her appellation and her oracular utterances there are several accounts; that being a Phrygian, she was called Artemis; and that on her arrival at Delphi, she sang—
"O Delphians, ministers of far-darting Apollo, I come to declare the mind of AEgis-bearing Zeus, Enraged as I am at my own brother Apollo."
There is another also, an Erythraean, called Herophile. These are mentioned by Heraclides of Pontus in his work On Oracles. I pass over the Egyptian Sibyl, and the Italian, who inhabited the Carmentale in Rome, whose son was Evander, who built the temple of Pan in Rome, called the Lupercal.
It is worth our while, having reached this point, to examine the dates of the other prophets among the Hebrews who succeeded Moses. After the close of Moses’s life, Joshua succeeded to the leadership of the people, and he, after warring for sixty-five years, rested in the good land other five-and-twenty. As the book of Joshua relates, the above mentioned man was the successor of Moses twenty-seven years. Then the Hebrews having sinned, were delivered to Chusachar(2) king of Mesopotamia for eight years, as the book of Judges mentions. But having afterwards besought the Lord, they receive for leader Gothoniel,(1) the younger brother of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, who, having slain the king of Mesopotamia, ruled over the people forty years in succession. And having again sinned, they were delivered into the hands of AEglom(2) king of the Moabites for eighteen years. But on their repentance, Aod,(3) a man who had equal use of both hands, of the tribe of Ephraim, was their leader.for eighty years. It was he that despatched AEglom. On the death of Aod, and on their sinning again, they were delivered into the hand of Jabim(4) king of Canaan twenty years.
After him Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, of the tribe of Ephraim, prophesied; and Ozias the son of Rhiesu was high priest. At her instance Barak the son of Bener,(5) of the tribe of Naphtali, commanding the army, having joined battle with Sisera, Jabim’s commander-in-chief, conquered him. And after that Deborah ruled, judging the people forty years. On her death, the people having again sinned, were delivered into the hands of the Midianites seven years. After these events, Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joas, having fought with his three hundred men, and killed a hundred and twenty thousand, ruled forty years; after whom the son of Ahimelech, three years. He was succeeded by Boleas, the son of Bedan, the son of Charran,(6) of the tribe of Ephraim, who ruled twenty-three years. After whom, the people having sinned again, were delivered to the Ammonites eighteen years; and on their repentance were commanded by Jephtha the Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh; and he ruled six years. After whom, Abatthan(7) of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Juda, ruled seven years. Then Ebron(8) the Zebulonite, eight years. Then Eglom of Ephraim, eight years.
Some add to the seven years of Abatthan the eight of Ebrom.(9) And after him, the people having again transgressed, came under the power of the foreigners, the Philistines, for forty years. But on their returning [to God], they were led by Samson, of the tribe of Dan, who conquered the foreigners in battle. He ruled twenty years. And after him, there being no governor, Eli the priest judged the people for forty years. He was succeeded by Samuel the prophet; contemporaneously with whom Saul reigned, who held sway for twenty-seven years. He anointed David. Samuel died two years before Saul, while Abimelech was high priest. He anointed Saul as king, who was the first that bore regal sway over Israel after the judges; the whole duration of whom, down to Saul, was four hundred and sixty-three years and seven months.
Then in the first book of Kings there are twenty years of Saul, during which he reigned after he was renovated. And after the death of Saul, David the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, reigned next in Hebron, forty years, as is contained in the second book of Kings. And Abiathar the son of Abimelech, of the kindred of Eli, was high priest. In his time Gad and Nathan prophesied. From Joshua the son of Nun, then, till David received the kingdom, there intervene, according to some, four hundred and fifty years. But, as the chronology set forth shows, five hundred and twenty-three years and seven months are comprehended till the death of David.
And after this Solomon the son of David reigned forty years. Under him Nathan continued to prophesy, who also exhorted him respecting the building of the temple. Achias of Shilo also prophesied. And both the kings, David and Solomon, were prophets. And Sadoc the high priest was the first who ministered in the temple which Solomon built, being the eighth from Aaron, the first high priest. From Moses, then, to the age of Solomon, as some say, are five hundred and ninety-five years, and as others, five hundred and seventy-six.
And if you count, along with the four hundred and fifty years from Joshua to David, the forty years of the rule of Moses, and the other eighty years of Moses’s life previous to the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, you will make up the sum in all of six hundred and ten years. But our chronology will run more correctly, if to the five hundred and twenty-three years and seven months till the death of David, you add the hundred and twenty years of Moses and the forty years of Solomon.
For you will make up in all, down to the death of Solomon, six hundred and eighty-three years and seven months.
Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon about the time of the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, after the capture of Troy, as is said by Menan-der of Pergamus, and Laetus in The Phoenicia. And after Solomon, Roboam his son reigned for seventeen years; and Abimelech the son of Sadoc was high priest. In his reign, the kingdom being divided, Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, the servant of Solomon, reigned in Samaria; and Achias the Shilonite continued to prophesy; also Samaeas the son of Amame, and he who came from Judah to Jeroboam,(10) and prophesied against the altar. After him his son Abijam, twenty-three years; and likewise his son Asaman.(1) The last, in his old age, was diseased in his feet; and in his reign prophesied Jehu the son of Ananias.
After him Jehosaphat his son reigned twenty-five years.(2) In his reign prophesied Elias the Thesbite, and Michaeas the son of Jebla, and Abdias the son of Ananias. And in the time of Michaeas there was also the false prophet Zedekias, the son of Chonaan. These were followed by the reign of Joram the son of Jehosaphat, for eight years; during whose time prophesied Elias; and after Elias, Elisaeus the son of Saphat. In his reign the people in Samaria ate doves’ dung and their own children. The period of Jehosaphat extends from the close of the third book of Kings to the fourth. And in the reign of Joram, Elias was translated, and Elisaeus the son of Saphat commenced prophesying, and prophesied for six years, being forty years old.
Then Ochozias reigned a year. In his time Elisaeus continued to prophesy, and along with him Adadonaeus.(3) After him the mother of Ozias,(4) Gotholia,(5) reigned eight(6) years, having slain the children of her brother.(7) For she was of the family of Ahab. But the sister of Ozias, Josabaea, stole Joas the son of Ozias, and invested him afterwards with the kingdom. And in the time of this Gotholia, Elisaeus was still prophesying. And after her reigned, as I said before, Joash, rescued by Josabaea the wife of Jodae the high priest, and lived in all forty years.
There are comprised, then, from Solomon to the death of Elisaeus the prophet, as some say, one hundred and five years; according to others, one hundred and two; and, as the chronology before us shows, from the reign of Solomon an hundred and eighty-one.
Now from the Trojan war to the birth of Homer, according to Philochorus, a hundred and eighty years elapsed; and he was posterior to the Ionic migration. But Aristarchus, in the Archilochian Memoirs, says that he lived during the Ionic migration, which took place a hundred and twenty years after the siege of Troy. But Apollodorus alleges it was an hundred and twenty years after the Ionic migration, while Agesilaus son of Doryssaeus was king of the Lacedaemonians: so that he brings Lycurgus the legislator, while still a young man, near him. Euthymenes, in the Chronicles, says that he flourished contemporaneously with Hesiod, in the time of Acastus, and was born in Chios about the four hundredth year after the capture of Troy. And Archimachus, in the third book of his Euboean History), is of this opinion.
So that both he and Hesiod were later than Elisaeus, the prophet. And if you choose to follow the grammarian Crates, and say that Homer was born about the time of the expedition of the Heraclidae, eighty years after the taking of Troy, he will be found to be later again than Solomon, in whose days occurred the arrival of Menelaus in Phenicia, as was said above. Eratosthenes says that Homer’s age was two hundred years after the capture of Troy.
Further, Theopompus, in the forty-third book of the .Philippics, relates that Homer was born five hundred years after the war at Troy. And Euphorion, in his book about the Aleuades, maintains that he was born in the time of Gyges, who began to reign in the eighteenth Olympiad, who, also he says, was the first that was called tyrant <greek>turannos</greek>. Sosibius Lacon, again, in his Record of Dates, brings Homer down to the eighth year of the reign of Charillus the son of Polydectus. Charillus reigned for sixty-four years, after whom the son of Nicander reigned thirty-nine years. In his thirty-fourth year it is said that the first Olympiad was instituted; so that Homer was ninety years before the introduction of the Olympic games.
After Joas, Amasias his son reigned as his successor thirty-nine years. He in like manner was succeeded by his son Ozias, who reigned for fifty-two years, and died a leper. And in his time prophesied Amos, and Isaiah his son,(8) and Hosea the son of Beeri, and Jonas the son of Amathi, who was of Gethchober, who preached to the Ninevites, and passed through the whale’s belly.
Then Jonathan the son of Ozias reigned for sixteen years. In his time Esaias still prophesied, and Hosea, and Michaeas the Morasthite, and Joel the son of Bethuel.
Next in succession was his son Ahaz, who reigned for sixteen years. In his time, in the fifteenth
year, Israel was carried away to Babylon. And Salmanasar the king of the Assyrians carried away the people of Samaria into the country of the Medes and to Babylon.
Again Ahaz was succeeded by Osee,(9) who reigned for eight years. Then followed Hezekiah, for twenty-nine years. For his sanctity, when he had approached his end, God, by Isaiah, allowed him to live for other fifteen years, giving as a sign the going back of the sun. Up to his times Esaias, Hosea, and Micah continued prophesying.
And these are said to have lived after the age of Lycurgus, the legislator of the Lacedaemonians. For Dieuchidas, in the fourth book of the Megarics, places the era of Lycurgus about the two hundred and ninetieth year after the capture of Troy.
After Hezekiah, his son Manasses reigned for fifty-five years. Then his son Amos for two years. After him reigned his son Josias, distinguished for his observance of the law, for thirty-one years. He "laid the carcases of men upon the carcases of the idols," as is written in the book of Leviticus.(1) In his reign, in the eighteenth year, the passover was celebrated, not having been kept from the days of Samuel in the intervening period.(2) Then Chelkias the priest, the father of the prophet Jeremiah, having fallen in with the book of the law, that had been laid up in the temple, read it and died.(3) And in his days Olda(4) prohesied, and Sophonias,(5) and Jeremiah. And in the days of Jeremiah was Ananias the son of Azor,(6) the false prophet. He(7) having disobeyed Jeremiah the prophet, was slain by Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt at the river Euphrates, having encountered the latter, who was marching on the Assyrians.
Josiah was succeeded by Jechoniah, called also Joachas,(8) his son, who reigned three months and ten days. Necho king of Egypt bound him and led him to Egypt, after making his brother Joachim king in his stead, who continued his tributary for eleven years. After him his namesake(9) Joakim reigned for three months. Then Zedekiah reigned for eleven years; and up to his time Jeremiah continued to prophesy. Along with him Ezekiel(10) the son of Buzi, and Urias(11) the son of Samaeus, and Ambacum(12) prophesied. Here end the Hebrew kings.
There are then from the birth of Moses till this captivity nine hundred and seventy-two years; but
according to strict chronological accuracy, one thousand and eighty-five, six months, ten days. From the reign of David to the captivity by the Chaldeans, four hundred and fifty-two years and six months; but as the accuracy we have observed in reference to dates makes out, four hundred and eighty-two and six months ten days.
And in the twelfth year of the reign of Zedekiah, forty years before the supremacy of the Persians, Nebuchodonosor made war against the Phoenicians and the Jews, as Berosus asserts in his Chaldaean Histories. And Joabas,(13) writing about the Assyrians, acknowledges that he had received the history from Berosus, and testifies to his accuracy. Nebuchodonosor, therefore, having put out the eyes of Zedekiah, took him away to Babylon, and transported the whole people (the captivity lasted seventy years), with the exception of a few who fled to Egypt.
Jeremiah and Ambacum were still prophesying in the time of Zedekiah. In the fifth year of his reign Ezekiel prophesied at Babylon; after him Nahum, then Daniel. After him, again, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied in the time of Darius the First for two years; and then the angel among the twelve.(14) After Haggai and Zechariah, Nehemiah, the chief cup-bearer of Artaxerxes, the son of Acheli the Israelite, built the city of Jerusalem and restored the temple. During the captivity lived Esther and Mordecai, whose book is still extant, as also that of the Maccabees. During this captivity Mishael, Ananias, and Azarias, refusing to worship the image, and being thrown into a furnace of fire, were saved by the appearance of an angel. At that time, on account of the serpent,(15) Daniel was thrown into the den of lions; but being preserved through the providence of God by Ambacub, he is restored on the seventh day. At this period, too, occurred the sign of Jona; and Tobias, through the assistance of the angel Raphael, married Sarah, the demon having killed her seven first suitors; and after the marriage of Tobias, his father Tobit recovered his sight.
At that time Zorobabel, having by his wisdom overcome his opponents, and obtained leave from Darius for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, returned with Esdras to his native land; and by him the redemption of the people and the revisal and restoration of the inspired oracles were effected; and the passover of deliverance celebrated, and marriage with aliens dissolved.
Cyrus had, by proclamation, previously enjoined the restoration of the Hebrews. And his promise being accomplished in the time of Darius, the feast of the dedication was held, as also the feast of tabernacles.
There were in all, taking in the duration of the captivity down to the restoration of the people, from the birth of Moses, one thousand one hundred and fifty-five years, six months, and ten days; and from the reign of David, according to some, four hundred and fifty-two; more correctly, five hundred and seventy-two years, six months, and ten days.
From the captivity at Babylon, which took place in the time of Jeremiah the prophet, was fulfilled what was spoken by Daniel the prophet as follows: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to seal sins, and to wipe out and make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the word commanding an answer to be given, and Jerusalem to be built, to Christ the Prince, are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and the street shall be again built, and the wall; and the times shall be expended.
And after the sixty-two weeks the anointing shall be overthrown, and judgment shall not be in him; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the coming Prince. And they shall be destroyed in a flood, and to the end of the war shall be cut off by: desolations. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and oblation shall be taken away; and in the holy place shall be the abomination of desolations, and until the consummation of time shall the consummation be assigned for desolation. And in the midst of the week shall he make the incense of sacrifice cease, and of the wing of destruction, even till the consummation, like the destruction of the oblation."(1)
That the temple accordingly was l built in seven weeks, is evident; for it is written in Esdras. And thus Christ became King of the Jews, reigning in Jerusalem in the fulfilment of the seven weeks. And in the sixty and two weeks the whole of Judaea was quiet, and without wars. And Christ our Lord, "the Holy of Holies," having come and fulfilled the vision and the prophecy, was anointed in His flesh by the Holy Spirit of His Father. In those "sixty and two weeks," as the prophet said, and "in the one week," was He Lord. The half of the week Nero held sway, and in the holy city Jerusalem placed the abomination; and in the half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius. And Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place. And that such are the facts of the case, is clear to him that is able to understand, as the prophet said.
On the completion, then, of the eleventh year, in the beginning of the following, in the reign of Joachim, occurred the carrying away captive to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor the king, in the seventh year of his reign over the Assyrians, in the second year of the reign of Vaphres over the Egyptians, in the archonship of Philip at Athens, in the first year of the forty-eighth Olympiad. The captivity lasted for seventy years, and ended in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, who had become king of the Persians, Assyrians, and Egyptians; in whose reign, as I said above, Haggai and Zechariah and the angel of the twelve prophesied. And the high priest was Joshua the son of Josedec. And in the second year of the reign of Darius, who, Herodotus says, destroyed the power of the Magi, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel was despatched to raise and adorn the temple at Jerusalem.
The times of the Persians are accordingly summed up thus: Cyrus reigned thirty years; Cambyses, nineteen; Darius, forty-six; Xerxes, twenty-six; Artaxerxes, forty-one; Darius, eight; Artaxerxes, forty-two; Ochus or Arses, three. The sum total of the years of the Persian monarchy is two hundred and thirty-five years.
Alexander of Macedon, having despatched this Darius, during this period, began to reign. Similarly, therefore, the times of the Macedonian kings are thus computed: Alexander, eighteen years; Ptolemy the son of Lagus, forty years; Ptolemy Philadelphus, twenty-seven years; then Euergetes, five-and-twenty years; then Philopator, seventeen years; then Epiphanes, four-and-twenty years; he was succeeded by Philometer, who reigned five-and-thirty years; after him Physcon, twenty-nine years; then Lathurus, thirty-six years; then he that was surnamed I Dionysus, twenty-nine years; and last Cleopatra reigned twenty-two years. And after her was the reign of the Cappadocians for eighteen days.
Accordingly the period embraced by the Macedonian kings is, in all, three hundred and twelve years and eighteen days.
Therefore those who prophesied in the time of Darius Hystaspes, about the second year of his reign,--Haggai, and Zechariah, and the angel of the twelve, who prophesied about the first year of the forty-eighth Olympiad,--are demonstrated to be older than Pythagoras, who is said to have lived in the sixty-second Olympiad, and than Thales, the oldest of the wise men of the Greeks, who lived about the fiftieth Olympiad. Those wise men that are classed with Thales were then contemporaneous, as Andron says in the Tripos. For Heraclitus being posterior to Pythagoras, mentions him in his book. Whence indisputably the first Olympiad, which was demonstrated to be four hundred and seven years later than the Trojan war, is found to be prior to the age of the above-mentioned prophets, together with those called the seven wise men. Accordingly it is easy to perceive that Solomon, who lived in the time of Menelaus (who was during the Trojan war), was earlier by many years than the wise men among the Greeks. And how many years Moses preceded him we showed, in what we said above.
And Alexander, surnamed Polyhistor, in his work on the Jews, has transcribed some letters of Solomon to Vaphres king of Egypt, and to the king of the Phoenicians at Tyre, and theirs to Solomon; in which it is shown that Vaphres sent eighty thousand Egyptian men to him for the building of the temple, and the other as many, along with a Tyrian artificer, the son of a Jewish mother, of the tribe of Dan,(1) as is there written, of the name of Hyperon.(2) Further, Onomacritus the Athenian, who is said to have been the author of the poems ascribed to Orpheus, is ascertained to have lived in the reign of the Pisistratidae, about the fiftieth Olympiad. And Orpheus, who sailed with Hercules, was the pupil of Musaeus. Amphion precedes the Trojan war by two generations. And Demodocus and Phemius were posterior to the capture of Troy; for they were famed for playing on the lyre, the former among the Phaeacians, and the latter among the suitors. And the Orades ascribed to Musaeus are said to be the production of Onomacritus, and the Crateres of Orpheus the production of Zopyrus of Heraclea, and The Descent to Hades that of Prodicus of Samos.
Ion of Chios relates in the Triagmi,(3) that Pythagoras ascribed certain works [of his own] to Orpheus. Epigenes, in his book respecting The Poetry attributed to Orpheus, says that The Descent to Hades and the Sacred Discourse were the production of Cecrops the Pythagorean; and the Peplus and the Physics of Brontinus. Some also make Terpander out ancient. Hellanicus, accordingly, relates that he lived in the time of Midas: but Phanias, who places Lesches the Lesbian before Terpander, makes Terpander younger than Archilochus, and relates that Lesches contended with Arctinus, and gained the victory. Xanthus the Lydian says that he lived about the eighteenth Olympiad; as also Dionysius says that Thasus was built about the fifteenth Olympiad: so that it is clear that Archilochus was already known after the twentieth Olympiad. He accordingly relates the destruction of Magnetes as having recently taken place. Simonides is assigned to the time of Archilochus. Callinns is not much older; for Archilochus refers to Magnetes as destroyed, while the latter refers to it as flourishing. Eumelus of Corinth being older, is said to have met Archias, who founded Syracuse.
We were induced to mention these things, because the poets of the epic cycle are placed amongst those of most remote antiquity. Already, too, among the Greeks, many diviners are said to have made their appearance, as the Bacides, one a Boeotian, the other an Arcadian, who uttered many predictions to many. By the counsel of Amphiletus the Athenian,(5) who showed the time for the onset, Pisistratus, too, strengthened his government. For we may pass over in silence Cometes of Crete, Cinyras of Cyprus, Admetus the Thessalian, Aristaeas the Cyrenian, Amphiaraus the Athenian, Timoxeus(6) the Corcyraean, Demaenetus the Phocian, Epigenes the Thespian, Nicias the Carystian, Aristo the Thessalian, Dionysius the Carthaginian, Cleophon the Corinthian, Hippo the daughter of Chiro, and Boeo, and Manto, and the host of Sibyls, the Samian, the Colophonian, the Cumaean, the Erythraean, the Pythian,(7) the Taraxandrian, the Macetian, the Thessalian, and the Thesprotian.
And Calchas again, and Mopsus, who lived during the Trojan war. Mopsus, however, was older, having sailed along with the Argonants. And it is said that Battus the Cyrenian composed what is called the Divination of Mop-sus. Dorotheus in the first Pandect relates that Mopsus was the disciple of Alcyon and Corone. And Pythagoras the Great always applied his mind to prognostication, and Abaris the Hyperborean, and Aristaeas the Proconnesian, and Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, and Zoroaster the Mede, and Empedocles of Agrigentum, and Phormion the Lacedaemonian; Polyaratus, too, of Thasus, and Empedotimus of Syracuse; and in addition to these, Socrates the Athenian in particular. "For," he says in the Theages, "I am attended by a supernatural intimation, which has been assigned me from a child by divine appointment. This is a voice which, when it comes, prevents What I am about to do, but exhorts never."(8) And Execestus, the tyrant of the Phocians, wore two enchanted rings, and by the sound which they uttered one against the other determined the proper times for actions. But he died, nevertheless, treacherously murdered, although warned beforehand by the sound, as Aristotle says in the Polity of the Phocians.
Of those, too, who at one time lived as men among the Egyptians, but were constituted gods by human opinion, were Hermes the Theban, and Asclepius of Memphis; Tireseus and Manto, again, at Thebes, as Euripides says. Helenus, too, and Laocoon, and OEnone, and Crenus in Ilium. For Crenus, one of the Heraclidae, is said to have been a noted prophet. Another was Jamus in Elis, from whom came the Jamidae; and Polyidus at Argos and Megara, who is mentioned by the tragedy. Why enumerate Telemus, who, being a prophet of the Cyclops, predicted to Polyphemus the events of Ulysses’ wandering; or Onomacritus at Athens; or Amphiaraus, who campaigned with the seven at Thebes, and is reported to be a generation older than the capture of Troy; or Theoclymenus in Cephalonia, or Telmisus in Caria, or Galeus in Sicily ?
There are others, too, besides these: Idmon, who was with the Argonauts, Phemonoe of Delphi, Mopsus the son of Apollo and Manto in Pamphylia, and Amphilochus the son of Amphiaraus in Cilicia, Alcmaeon among the Acarnanians, Anias in Delos, Aristander of Telmessus, who was along with Alexander. Philochorus also relates in the first book of the work, On Divination, that Orpheus was a seer. And Theopompus, and Ephorus, and Timaeus, write of a seer called Orthagoras; as the Samian Pythocles in the fourth book of The Italics writes of Caius Julius Nepos.
But some of these "thieves and robbers," as the Scripture says, predicted for the most part from observation and probabilities, as physicians and soothsayers judge from natural signs; and others were excited by demons, or were disturbed by waters, and fumigations, and air of a peculiar kind. But among the Hebrews the prophets were moved by the power and inspiration of God. Before the law, Adam spoke prophetically in respect to the woman, and the naming of the creatures; Noah preached repentance;(1) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave many clear utterances respecting future and present things. Contemporaneous with the law, Moses and Aaron; and after these prophesied Jesus the son of Nave, Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Achias, Samaeas, Jehu, Elias, Michaeas, Abdiu, Elisaeus, Abbadonai, Amos, Esaias, Osee, Jonas, Joel, Jeremias, Sophonias the son of Buzi, Ezekiel, Urias, Ambacum, Naum, Daniel, Misael, who wrote the syllogisms, Aggai, Zacharias, and the angel among the twelve. These are, in all, five-and-thirty prophets. And of women (for these too prophesied), Sara, and Rebecca, and Mariam, and Debbora, and Olda, i.e., Huldah.
Then within the same period John prophesied till the baptism of salvation;(2) and after the birth of Christ, Anna and Simeon.(3) For Zacaharias, John’s father, is said in the Gospels to have prophesied before his son. Let us then draw up the chronology of the Greeks from Moses.
From the birth of Moses to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, eighty years j and the period down to his death, other forty years. The exodus took place in the time of Inachus, before the wandering of Sothis,(4) Moses having gone forth from Egypt three hundred and forty-five years before. From the rule of Moses, and from Inachus to the flood of Deucalion, I mean the second inundation, and to the conflagration of Phaethon, which events happened in the time of Crotopus, forty generations are enumerated (three generations being reckoned for a century). From the flood to the conflagration of Ida, and the discovery of iron, and the Idaean Dactyls, are seventy-three years, according to Thrasyllus; and from the conflagration of Ida to the rape of Ganymede, sixty-five years.
From this to the expedition of Perseus, when Glaucus established the Isthmian games in honour of Melicerta, fifteen years; and from the expedition of Perseus to the building of Troy, thirty-four years. From this to the voyage of the Argo, sixty-four years. From this to Theseus and the Minotaur, thirty-two years; then to the seven at Thebes, ten years. And to the Olympic contest, which Hercules instituted in honour of Pelops, three years; and to the expedition of the Amazons against Athens, and the rape of Helen by Theseus, nine years. From this to the deification of Hercules, eleven years; then to the rape of Helen by Alexander, four years. From the taking of Troy to the descent of AEneas and the founding of Lavinium, ten years; and to the government of Ascanius, eight years; and to the descent of the Heraclidae, sixty-one years; and to the Olympiad of Iphitus, three hundred and thirty-eight years. Eratosthenes thus sets down the dates: "From the capture of Troy to the descent of the Heraclidae, eighty years. From this to the founding of Ionia, sixty years; and the period following to the protectorate of Lycurgus, a hundred and fifty-nine years; and to the first year of the first Olympiad, a hundred and eight years.
From which Olympiad to the invasion of Xerxes, two hundred and ninety-seven years; from which to the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, forty-eight years; and to its close, and the defeat of the Athenians, twenty-seven years; and to the battle at Leuctra, thirty-four years; after which to the death of Philip, thirty-five years. And after this to the decease of Alexander, twelve years."
Again, from the first Olympiad, some say, to the building of Rome, are comprehended twenty-four years; and after this to the expulsion of the kings,’ when consuls were created, about two hundred and forty-three years. And from the taking of Babylon to the death of Alexander, a hundred and eighty-six years. From this to the victory of Augustus, when Antony killed himself at Alexandria, two hundred and ninety-four years, when Augustus was made consul for the fourth time. And from this time to the games which Domitian instituted at Rome, are a hundred and fourteen years; and from the first games to the death of Commodus, a hundred and eleven years.
There are some that from Cecrops to Alexander of Macedon reckon a thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight years; and from Demophon, a thousand two hundred and fifty; and from the taking of Troy to the expedition of the Heraclidae, a hundred and twenty or a hundred and eighty years. From this to the archonship of Evaenetus at Athens, in whose time Alexander is said to have marched into Asia, according to Phanias, are seven hundred and fifty years; according to Ephorus, seven hundred and thirty-five; according to Timaeus and Clitarchus, eight hundred and twenty; according to Eratosthenes, seven hundred and seventy-four. As also Duris, from the taking of Troy to the march of Alexander into Asia, a thousand years; and from that to the archonship of Hegesias, in whose time Alexander died eleven years. From this date to the reign of Germanicus Claudius Caesar, three hundred and sixty-five years. From which time the years summed up to the death of Commodus are manifest.
After the Grecian period, and in accordance with the dates, as computed by the barbarians, very large intervals are to be assigned.
From Adam to the deluge are comprised two thousand one hundred and forty-eight years, four days. From Shem to Abraham, a thousand two hundred and fifty years. From Isaac to the division of the land, six hundred and sixteen years. Then from the judges to Samuel, four hundred and sixty-three years, seven months. And after the judges there were five hundred and seventy-two years, six months, ten days of kings.
After which periods, there were two hundred and thirty-five years of the Persian monarchy. Then of the Macedonian, till the death of Antony, three hundred and twelve years and eighteen days. After which time, the empire of the Romans, till the death of Commodus, lasted for two hundred and twenty-two years.
Then, from the seventy years’ captivity, and the restoration of the people into their own land to
the captivity in the time of Vespasian, are comprised four hundred and ten years: Finally, from Vespasian to the death of Commodus, there are ascertained to be one hundred and twenty-one years, six months, and twenty-four days.
Demetrius, in his book, On the Kings in Judaea, says that the tribes of Juda, Benjamin, and Levi
were not taken captive by Sennacherim; but that there were from this captivity to the last, which Nabuchodonosor made out of Jerusalem, a hundred and twenty-eight years and six months; and from the time that the ten tribes were carried captive from Samaria till Ptolemy the Fourth, were five hundred and seventy-three years, nine months; and from the time that the captivity from Jerusalem took place, three hundred and thirty-eight years and three months.
Philo himself set down the kings differently from Demetrius.
Besides, Eupolemus, in a similar work, says that all the years from Adam to the fifth year of Ptolemy Demetrius, who reigned twelve years in Egypt, when added, amount to five thousand a hundred and forty-nine; and from the time that Moses brought out the Jews from Egypt to the above-mentioned date, there are, in all, two thousand five hundred and eighty years. And from this time till the consulship in Rome of Caius Domitian and Casian, a hundred and twenty years are computed.
Euphorus and many other historians say that there are seventy-five nations and tongues, in consequence of hearing the statement made by Moses: "All the souls that sprang from Jacob, which went down into Egypt, were seventy-five."(2) According to the true reckoning, there appear to be seventy-two generic dialects, as our Scriptures hand down. The rest of the vulgar tongues are formed by the blending of two, or three, or more dialects. A dialect is a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar to a locality, or a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar or common to a race. The Greeks say, that among them are five dialects—the Attic, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and the fifth the Common; and that the languages of the barbarians, which are innumerable, are not called dialects, but tongues.
Plato attributes a dialect also to the gods, forming this conjecture mainly from dreams and oracles, and especially from demoniacs, who do not speak their own language or dialect, but that of the demons who have taken possession of them. He thinks also that the irrational creatures have dialects, which those that belong to the same genus understand.(1) Accordingly, when an elephant falls into the mud and bellows out any other one that is at hand, on seeing what has happened, shortly turns, and brings with him a herd of elephants, and saves the one that has fallen in. It is said also in Libya, that a scorpion, if it does not succeed in stinging a man, goes away and returns with several more; and that, hanging on one to the other like a chain they make in this way the attempt to succeed in their cunning design.
The irrational creatures do not make use of an obscure intimation, or hint their meaning by assuming a particular attitude, but, as I think, by a dialect of their own.(1) And some others say, that if a fish which has been taken escape by breaking the line, no fish of the same kind will be caught in the same place that day. But the first and generic barbarous dialects have terms by nature, since also men confess that prayers uttered in a barbarian tongue are more powerful. And Plato, in the Cratylus, when wishing to interpret <greek>pur</greek> (fire), says that it is a barbaric term. He testifies, accordingly, that the Phrygians use this term with a slight deviation.
And nothing, in my opinion, after these details, need stand in the way of stating the periods of the Roman emperors, in order to the demonstration of the Saviour’s birth. Augustus, forty-three years; Tiberius, twenty-two years; Caius, four years; Claudius, fourteen years; Nero, fourteen years; Galba, one year; Vespasian, ten years; Titus, three years; Domitian, fifteen years; Nerva, one year; Trajan, nineteen years; Adrian, twenty-one years; Antoninus, twenty-one years; likewise again, Antoninus and Commodus, thirty-two. In all, from Augustus to Commodus, are two hundred and twenty-two years; and from Adam to the death of Commodus, five thousand seven hundred and eighty-four years, two months, twelve days.
Some set down the dates of the Roman emperors thus:--
Caius Julius Caesar, three years, four months, five days; after him Augustus reigned forty-six years, four months, one day. Then Tiberius, twenty-six years, six months, nineteen days. He was succeeded by Caius Caesar, who reigned three years, ten months, eight days; and be by Claudius for thirteen years, eight months, twenty-eight days. Nero reigned thirteen years, eight months, twenty-eight days; Galba, seven months and six days; Otho, five months, one day; Vitellius, seven months, one day; Vespasian, eleven years, eleven months, twenty-two days; Titus, two years, two months; Domitian, fifteen years, eight months, five days; Nerva, one year, four months, ten days;
Trajan, nineteen years, seven months, ten days; Adrian, twenty years, ten months, twenty-eight days. Antoninus, twenty-two years, three months, and seven days; Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, nineteen years, eleven days; Commodus, twelve years, nine months, fourteen days.
From Julius Caesar, therefore, to the death of Commodus, are two hundred and thirty-six years, six months. And the whole from Romulus, who founded Rome, till the death of Commodus, amounts to nine hundred and fifty-three years, six months. And our Lord was born in the twenty-eighth year, when first the census was ordered to be taken in the reign of Augustus. And to prove that this is true, it is written in the Gospel by Luke as follows: "And in the fifteenth year, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias." And again in the same book: "And Jesus was coming to His baptism, being about thirty years old,"(2) and so on.
And that it was necessary for Him to preach only a year, this also is written:(3) "He hath sent Me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." This both the prophet spake, and the Gospel.
Accordingly, in fifteen years of Tiberius and fifteen years of Augustus; so were completed the thirty years till the time He suffered. And from the time that He suffered till the destruction of Jerusalem are forty-two years and three months; and from the destruction of Jerusalem to the death of Commodus, a hundred and twenty-eight years, ten months, and three days. From the birth of Christ, therefore, to the death of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days. And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon. And the followers of Basilides hold the day of his baptism as a festival, spending the night before in readings.
And they say that it was the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, the fifteenth day of the month Tubi; and some that it was the eleventh of the same month, And treating of His passion, with very great accuracy, some say that it took place in the sixteenth year of Tiberius, on the twenty-fifth of Phamenoth; and others the twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi and others say that on the nineteenth of Pharmuthi the Saviour suffered. Further, others say that He was born on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi.(4)
We have still to add to our chronology the following,--I mean the days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For the two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is "the half of the week," as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: "How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away."(1)
These two thousand three hundred days, then, make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, "Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."(2) For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased. And this number is demonstrated from a subsequent chapter, which is as follows: "And from the time of the change of continuation, and of the giving of the abomination of desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."(3)
Flavius Josephus the Jew, who composed the history of the Jews, computing the periods, says that from Moses to David were five hundred and eighty-five years; from David to the second year of Vespasian, a thousand one hundred and seventy-nine; then from that to the tenth year of Antoninus, seventy-seven. So that from Moses to the tenth year of Antoninus there are, in all, two thousand one hundred and thirty-three years.
Of others, counting from Inachus and Moses to the death of Commodus, some say there were three thousand one hundred and forty-two years; and others, two thousand eight hundred and thirty-one years.
And in the Gospel according to Matthew, the genealogy which begins with Abraham is continued down to Mary the mother of the Lord. "For," it is said,(4) "from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon till Christ are likewise other fourteen generations,"—three mystic intervals completed in six weeks.(5)
CHAP. XXII.—ON THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
So much for the details respecting dates, as stated variously by many, and as set down by us.
It is said that the Scriptures both of the law and of the prophets were translated from the dialect of the Hebrews into the Greek language in the reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagos, or, according to others, of Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus; Demetrius Phalereus bringing to this task the greatest earnestness, and employing painstaking accuracy on the materials for the translation. For the Macedonians being still in possession of Asia, and the king being ambitious of adorning the library he had at Alexandria with all writings, desired the people of Jerusalem to translate the prophecies they possessed into the Greek dialect. And they being the subjects of the Macedonians, selected from those of highest character among them seventy elders, versed in the Scriptures, and skilled in the Greek dialect, and sent them to him with the divine books. And each having severally translated each prophetic book, and all the translations being compared together, they agreed both in meaning and expression. For it was the counsel of God carried out for the benefit of Grecian ears. It was not alien to the inspiration of God, who gave the prophecy, also to produce the translation, and make it as it were Greek prophecy.
Since the Scriptures having perished in the captivity of Nabuchodonosor, Esdras(6) the Levite, the priest, in the time of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, having become inspired in the exercise of prophecy restored again the whole of the ancient Scriptures. And Aristobulus, in his first book addressed to Philometor, writes in these words: "And Plato followed the laws given to us, and had manifestly studied all that is said in them." And before Demetrius there had been translated by another, previous to the dominion of Alexander and of the Persians, the account of the departure of our countrymen the Hebrews from Egypt, and the fame of all that happened to them, and their taking possession of the land, and the account of the whole code of laws; so that it is perfectly clear that the above-mentioned philosopher derived a great deal from this source, for he was very learned, as also Pythagoras, who transferred many things from our books to his own system of doctrines. And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, expressly writes: "For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek?"
This Moses was a theologian and prophet, and as some say, an interpreter of sacred laws. His family, his deeds, and life, are related by the Scriptures themselves, which are worthy of all credit; but have nevertheless to be stated by us also as well as we can.(1)
CHAP.XXIII.—THE AGE, BIRTH,AND LIFE OF MOSES.
Moses, originally of a Chaldean(2) family, was born in Egypt, his ancestors having migrated from Babylon into Egypt on account of a protracted famine. Born in the seventh generation(3) and having received a royal education, the following are the circumstances of his history. The Hebrews having increased in Egypt to a great multitude, and the king of the country being afraid of insurrection in consequence of their numbers, he ordered all the female children born to the Hebrews to be reared (woman being unfit for war), but the male to be destroyed, being suspicious of stalwart youth. But the child being goodly, his parents nursed him secretly three months, natural affection being too strong for the monarch’s cruelty. But at last, dreading lest they should be destroyed along with the child, they made a basket of the papyrus that grew there, put the child in it, and laid it on the banks of the marshy river. The child’s sister stood at a distance, and watched what would happen. In this emergency, the king’s daughter, who for a long time had not been pregnant, and who longed for a child, came that day to the river to bathe and wash herself; and hearing the child cry, she ordered it to be brought to her; and touched with pity, sought a nurse.
At that moment the child’s sister ran up, and said that, if she wished, she could procure for her as nurse one of the Hebrew women who had recently had a child. And on her consenting and desiring her to do so, she brought the child’s mother to be nurse for a stipulated fee, as if she had been some other person. Thereupon the queen gave the babe the name of Moses, with etymological propriety, from his being drawn out of "the water,"(4)--for the Egyptians call water "mou,"—in which he had been exposed to die. For they call Moses one who "who breathed [on being taken] from the water." It is clear that previously the parents gave a name to the child on his circumcision; and he was called Joachim. And he had a third name in heaven, after his ascension,(5) as the mystics say—
Melchi. Having reached the proper age, he was taught arithmetic, geometry, poetry, harmony, and besides, medicine and music, by those that excelled in these arts among the Egyptians; and besides, the philosophy which is conveyed by symbols, which they point out in the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The rest of the usual course of instruction, Greeks taught him in Egypt as a royal child, as Philo says in his life of Moses. He learned, besides, the literature of the Egyptians, and the knowledge of the heavenly bodies from the Chaldeans and the Egyptians; whence in the Acts(6) he is said "to have been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." And Eupolemus, in his book On the Kings in Judea, says that "Moses was the first wise man, and the first that imparted grammar to the Jews, that the Phoenicians received it from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians." And betaking himself to their philosophy,(7) he increased his wisdom, being ardently attached to the training received from his kindred and ancestors, till he struck and slew the Egyptian who wrongfully attacked the Hebrew. And the mystics say that he slew the Egyptian by a word only; as, certainly, Peter in the Acts is related to have slain by speech those who appropriated part of the price of the field, and lied.(8)
And so Artapanus, in his work On the Jews, relates "that Moses, being shut up in custody by Chenephres, king of the Egyptians, on account of the people demanding to be let go from Egypt, the prison being opened by night, by the interposition of God, went forth, and reaching the palace, stood before the king as he slept, and aroused him; and that the latter, struck with what had taken place, bade Moses tell him the name of the God who had sent him; and that he, bending forward, told him in his ear; and that the king on hearing it fell speechless, but being supported by Moses, revived again." And respecting the education of Moses, we shall find a harmonious account in Ezekiel,(9) the composer of Jewish tragedies in the drama entitled The Exodus. He thus writes in the person of Moses:--
"For, seeing our race abundantly increase, His treacherous snares King Pharaoh ‘gainst us laid, And cruelly in brick-kilns some of us, And some, in toilsome works of building, plagued.
And towns and towers by toil of ill-starred men He raised. Then to the Hebrew race proclaimed, That each male child should in deep-flowing Nile Be drowned. My mother bore and hid me then Three months (so afterwards she told). Then took, And me adorned with fair array, and placed On the deep sedgy marsh by Nilus bank, While Miriam, my sister, watched afar.
Then, with her maids, the daughter of the king, To bathe her beauty in the cleansing stream, Came near, straight saw, and took and raised me up; And knew me for a Hebrew. Miriam My sister to the princess ran, and said, ‘Is it thy pleasure, that I haste and find A nurse for thee to rear this child Among the Hebrew women?’ The princess Gave assent. The maiden to her mother sped, And told, who quick appeared. My own Dear mother took me in her arms. Then said The daughter of the king: ‘Nurse me this child, And I will give thee wages.’ And my name Moses she called, because she drew and saved Me from the waters on the river’s bank.
And when the days of childhood had flown by, My mother brought me to the palace where The princess dwelt, after disclosing all About my ancestry, and God’s great gifts.
In boyhood’s years I royal nurture had, And in all princely exercise was trained, As if the princess’s very son. But when The circling days had run their course, I left the royal palace."
Then, after relating the combat between the Hebrew and the Egyptian, and the burying of the Egyptian in the sand, he says of the other contest:--
"Why strike one feebler than thyself? And he rejoined: Who made thee judge o’er us, Or ruler? Wilt thou slay me, as thou didst Him yesterday? And I m terror said, How is this known?"
Then he fled from Egypt and fed sheep, being thus trained beforehand for pastoral rule. For the shepherd’s life is a preparation for sovereignty in the case of him who is destined to rule over the peaceful flock of men, as the chase for those who are by nature warlike. Thence God brought him to lead the Hebrews. Then the Egyptians, oft admonished, continued unwise; and the Hebrews were spectators of the calamities that others suffered, learning in safety the power of God. And when the Egyptians gave no heed to the effects of that power, through their foolish infatuation disbelieving, then, as is said, "the children knew" what was done; and the Hebrews afterwards going forth, departed carrying much spoil from the Egyptians, not for avarice, as the cavillers say, for God did not persuade them to covet what belonged to others. But, in the first place, they took wages for the services they had rendered the Egyptians all the time; and then in a way recompensed the Egyptians, by afflicting them in requital as avaricious, by the abstraction of the booty, as they had done the Hebrews by enslaving them.
Whether, then, as may be alleged is done in war, they thought it proper, in the exercise of the rights of conquerors, to take away the property of their enemies, as those who have gained the day do from those who are worsted (and there was just cause of hostilities. The Hebrews came as suppliants to the Egyptians on account of famine; and they, reducing their guests to slavery, compelled them to serve them after the manner of captives, giving them no recompense); or as in peace, took the spoil as wages against the will of those who for a long period had given them no recompense, but rather had robbed them, [it is all one.]
CHAP. XXIV.—HOW MOSES DISCHARGED THE PART OF A MILITARY LEADER.
Our Moses then is a prophet, a legislator, skilled in military tactics and strategy, a politician, a philosopher. And in what sense he was a prophet, shall be by and by told, when we come to treat of prophecy. Tactics belong to military command, and the ability to command an army is among the attributes of kingly rule. Legislation, again, is also one of the functions of the kingly office, as also judicial authority.
Of the kingly office one kind is divine,--that which is according to God and His holy Son, by whom both the good things which are of the earth, and external and perfect felicity too, are supplied. "For," it is said, "seek what is great, and the little things shall be added."(1) And there is a second kind of royalty, inferior to that administration which is purely rational and divine, which brings to the task of government merely the high mettle of the soul; after which fashion Hercules ruled the Argives, and Alexander the Macedonians. The third kind is what aims after one thing—merely to conquer and overturn; but to turn conquest either to a good or a bad purpose, belongs not to such rule. Such was the aim of the Persians in their campaign against Greece.
For, on the one hand, fondness for strife is solely the result of passion, and acquires power solely for the sake of domination; while, on the other, the love of good is characteristic of a soul which uses its high spirit for noble ends. The fourth, the worst of all, is the sovereignty which acts according to the promptings of the passions, as that of Sardanapalus, and those who propose to themselves as their end the gratification of the passions to the utmost. But the instrument of regal sway—the instrument at once of that which overcomes by virtue, and that which does so by force—is the power of managing (or tact). And it, varies according to the nature and the material. In the case of arms and of fighting animals the ordering power is the soul and mind, by means animate and inanimate; and in the case of the passions of the soul, which we master by virtue, reason is the ordering power, by affixing the seal of continence and self-restraint, along with holiness, and sound knowledge with truth, making the result of the whole to terminate in piety towards God.
For it is wisdom which regulates in the case of those who so practise virtue; and divine things are ordered by wisdom, and human affairs by politics—all things by the kingly faculty. He is a king, then, who governs according to the laws, and possesses the skill to sway willing subjects. Such is the Lord, who receives all who believe on Him and by Him. For the Father has delivered and subjected all to Christ our King," that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’(1)
Now, generalship involves three ideas: caution, enterprise, and the union of the two. And each of these consists of three things, acting as they do either by word, or by deeds, or by both together. And all this can be accomplished either by persuasion, or by compulsion, or by inflicting harm in the way of taking vengeance on those who ought to be punished; and this either by doing what is right, or by telling what is untrue, or by telling what is true, or by adopting any of these means conjointly at the same time.
Now, the Greeks had the advantage of receiving from Moses all these, and the knowledge of how to make use of each of them. And, for the sake of example, I shall cite one or two instances of leadership. Moses, on leading the people forth, suspecting that the Egyptians would pursue, left the short and direct route, and turned to the desert, and marched mostly by night. For it was another kind of arrangement by which the Hebrews were trained in the great wilderness, and for a protracted time, to belief in the existence of one God alone, being inured by the wise discipline of endurance to which they were subjected. The strategy of Moses, therefore, shows the necessity of discerning what will be of service before the approach of dangers, and so to encounter them. It turned out precisely as he suspected, for the Egyptians pursued with horses and chariots, but were quickly destroyed by the sea breaking on them and overwhelming them with their horses and chariots, so that not a remnant of them was left.
Afterwards the pillar of fire, which accompanied them (for it went before them as a guide), conducted the Hebrews by night through an untrodden region, training and bracing them, by toils and hardships, to manliness and endurance, that after their experience of what appeared formidable difficulties, the benefits of the land, to which from the trackless desert he was conducting them, might become apparent. Furthermore, he put to flight and slew the hostile occupants of the land, falling upon them from a desert and rugged line of march (such was the excellence of his generalship). For the taking of the land of those hostile tribes was a work of skill and strategy.
Perceiving this, Miltiades, the Athenian general, who conquered the Persians in battle at Marathon, imitated it in the following fashion. Marching over a trackless desert, he led on the Athenians by night, and eluded the barbarians that were set to watch him. For Hippias, who had deserted from the Athenians, conducted the barbarians into Attica, and seized and held the points of vantage, in consequence of having a knowledge of the ground. The task was then to elude Hippias. Whence rightly Miltiades, traversing the desert and attacking by night the Persians commanded by Dates, led his soldiers to victory.
But further, when Thrasybulus was bringing back the exiles from Phyla, and wished to elude observation, a pillar became his guide as he marched over a trackless region. To Thrasybulus by night, the sky being moonless and stormy, a fire appeared leading the way, which, having conducted them safely, left them near Munychia, where is now the altar of the light-bringer (Phosphorus).
From such an instance, therefore, let our accounts become credible to the Greeks, namely, that it was possible for the omnipotent God to make the pillar of fire, which was their guide on their march, go before the Hebrews by night. It is said also in a certain oracle,--
"A pillar to the Thebans is joy-inspiring Bacchus,"
from the history of the Hebrews. Also Euripides says, in Antiope,--"In the chambers within, the herdsman, With chaplet of ivy, pillar of the Evoean god."
The pillar indicates that God cannot be portrayed. The pillar of light, too, in addition to its pointing out that God cannot be represented, shows also the stability and the permanent duration of the Deity, and His unchangeable and inexpressible light. Before, then, the invention of the forms of images, the ancients erected pillars, and reverenced them as statues of the Deity. Accordingly, he who composed the Pharonis writes,--
"Callithoe, key-bearer of the Olympian queen:
Argive Hera, who first with fillets and with fringes The queen’s tall column all around adorned."
Further, the author of Europia relates that the statue of Apollo at Delphi was a pillar in these words:--
"That to the god first-fruits and tithes we may On sacred pillars and on lofty column hang."
Apollo, interpreted mystically by "privation of many,"(1) means the one God. Well, then, that fire like a pillar, and the fire in the desert, is the symbol of the holy light which passed through from earth and returned again to heaven, by the wood [of the cross], by which also the gift of intellectual vision was bestowed on us.
CHAP. XXV.—PLATO AN IMITATOR OF MOSES IN FRAMING LAWS.
Plato the philosopher, aided in legislation by the books of Moses, censured the polity of Minos, and that of Lycurgus, as having bravery alone as their aim; while he praised as more seemly the polity which expresses some one thing, and directs according to one precept. For he says that it becomes us to philosophize with strength, and dignity, and wisdom,--holding unalterably the same opinions about the same things, with reference to the dignity of heaven. Accordingly, therefore, he interprets what is in the law, enjoining us to look to one God and to do justly. Of politics, he says there are two kinds,--the department of law, and that of politics, strictly so called.
And he refers to the Creator, as the Statesman (<greek>o</greek> <greek>politikos</greek>) by way of eminence, in his book of this name (<greek>o</greek> <greek>politikos</greek>); and those who lead an active and just life, combined with contemplation, he calls statesmen (<greek>politiko</greek>). That department of politics which is called "Law," he divides into administrative magnanimity and private good order, which he calls orderliness; and harmony, and sobriety, which are seen when rulers suit their subjects, and subjects are obedient to their rulers; a result which the system of Moses sedulously aims at effecting. Further, that the department of law is founded on generation, that of politics on friendship and consent, Plato, with the aid he received, affirms; and so, coupled with the laws the philosopher in the Epinomis, who knew the course of all generation, which takes place by the instrumentality of the planets; and the other philosopher, Timaeus, who was an astronomer and student of the motions of the stars, and of their sympathy and association with one another, he consequently joined to the "polity" (or "republic").
Then, in my opinion, the end both of the statesman, and of him who lives according to the law, is contemplation. It is necessary, therefore, that public affairs should be rightly managed. But to philosophize is best. For he who is wise will live concentrating all his energies on knowledge, directing his life by good deeds, despising the opposite, and following the pursuits which contribute to truth. And the law is not what is decided by law (for what is seen is not vision), nor every opinion (not certainly what is evil). But law is the opinion which is good, and what is good is that which is true, and what is true is that which finds "true being," and attains to it. "He who is,"(2) says Moses, "sent me." In accordance with which, namely, good opinion, some have called law, right reason, which enjoins what is to be done and forbids what is not to be done.
CHAP. XXVI.—MOSES RIGHTLY CALLED A DIVINE LEGISLATOR, AND, THOUGH INFERIOR TO CHRIST, FAR SUPERIOR TO THE GREAT LEGISLATORS OF THE GREEKS, MINOS AND LYCURGUS.
Whence the law was rightly said to have been given by Moses, being a rule of fight and wrong; and we may call it with accuracy the divine ordinance (<greek>qesmos</greek>(3)), inasmuch as it was given by God through Moses. It accordingly conducts to the divine. Paul says: "The law was instituted because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made."
Then, as if in explanation of his meaning, he adds: "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up," manifestly through fear, in consequence of sins, "unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed; so that the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we should be justified by faith."(4) The true legislator is he who assigns to each department of the soul what is suitable to it and to its operations. Now Moses, to speak comprehensively, was a living law, governed by the benign Word. Accordingly, he furnished a good polity, which is the right discipline of men in social life. He also handled the administration of justice, which is that branch of knowledge which deals with the correction of transgressors in the interests of justice. Co-ordinate with it is the faculty of dealing with punishments, which is a knowledge of the due measure to be observed in punishments.
And punishment, in virtue of its being so, is the correction of the soul. In a word, the whole system of Moses is suited for the training of such as are capable of becoming good and noble men, and for hunting out men like them; and this is the art of command.
And that wisdom, which is capable of treating rightly those who have been caught by the Word, is legislative wisdom. For it is the property of this wisdom, being most kingly, to possess and use, It is the wise man, therefore, alone whom the philosophers proclaim king, legislator, general, just, holy, God-beloved. And if we discover these qualities in Moses, as shown from the Scriptures themselves, we may, with the most assured persuasion, pronounce Moses to be truly wise. As then we say that it belongs to the shepherd’s art to care for the sheep; for so "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep;"[1] so also we shall say that legislation, inasmuch as it presides over and cares for the flock of men, establishes the virtue of men, by fanning into flame, as far as it can, what good there is in humanity.
And if the flock figuratively spoken of as belonging to the Lord is nothing but a flock of men, then He Himself is the good Shepherd and Lawgiver of the one flock, "of the sheep who hear Him," the one who cares for them, "seeking," and finding by the law and the word, "that which was lost;" since, in truth, the law is spiritual and leads to felicity. For that which has arisen through the Holy Spirit is spiritual. And he is truly a legislator, who not only announces what is good and noble, but understands it. The law of this man who possesses knowledge is the saving precept; or rather, the law is the precept of knowledge. For the Word is "the power and the wisdom of God."[2] Again, the expounder of the laws is the same one by whom the law was given; the first expounder of the divine commands, who unveiled the bosom of the Father, the only-begotten Son.
Then those who obey the law, since they have some knowledge of Him. cannot disbelieve or be ignorant of the truth. But those who disbelieve, and have shown a repugnance to engage in the works of the law, whoever else may, certainly confess their ignorance of the truth.
What, then, is the unbelief of the Greeks? Is it not their unwillingness to believe the truth which
declares that the law was divinely given by Moses, whilst they honour Moses in their own writers? They relate that Minos received the laws from Zeus in, nine years, by frequenting the cave of Zeus; and Plato, and Aristotle, and Ephorus write that Lycurgus was trained in legislation by going constantly to Apollo at Delphi. Chamaeleo of Heraclea, in his book On Drunkenness, and Aristotle in The Polity of Locrians, mention that Zaleucus the Locrian received the laws from Athene.
But those who exalt the credit of Greek legislation as far as in them lies, by referring it to a divine source, after the model of Mosaic prophecy, are senseless in not owning the truth, and the archetype of what is related among them.
CHAP. XXVII.—THE LAW, EVEN IN CORRECTING AND PUNISHING, AIMS AT THE GOOD OF MEN.
Let no one then, run down law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. For shall he who drives away bodily disease appear a benefactor; and shall not he who attempts to deliver the soul from iniquity, as much more appear a friend, as the soul is a more precious thing than the body? Besides, for the sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, and cauterizations, and medicinal draughts; and he who administers them is called saviour and healer[3] even though amputating parts, not from grudge or ill-will towards the patient, but as the principles of the art prescribe, so that the sound parts may not perish along with them, and no one accuses the physician’s art of wickedness; and shall we not similarly submit, for the soul’s Sake, to either banishment, or punishment, or bonds, provided only from unrighteousness we shall attain to righteousness?
For the law, in its solicitude for those who obey, trains up to piety, and prescribes what is to be done, and restrains each one from sins, imposing penalties even on lesser sins.
But when it sees any one in such a condition as to appear incurable, posting to the last stage of wickedness, then in its solicitude for the rest, that they may not be destroyed by it (just as if amputating a part from the whole body), it condemns such an one to death, as the course most conducive to health. "Being judged by the Lord," says the apostle, "we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world."[4] For the prophet had said before, "Chastening, the LORD hath chastised me, but hath not given me over unto death."[5] "For in order to teach thee His righteousness," it is said, "He chastised thee and tried thee, and made thee to hunger and thirst in the desert land; that all His statutes and His judgments may be known in thy heart, as I command thee this day; and that thou mayest know in thine heart, that just as if a man were chastising his son, so the LORD our God shall chastise thee."[6]
And to prove that example corrects, he says directly to the purpose: "A clever man, when he seeth the wicked punished, will himself be severely chastised, for the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom."[7]
But it is the highest and most perfect good, when one is able to lead back any one from the practice of evil to virtue and well-doing, which is the very function of the law. So that, when one fails into any incurable evil,--when taken possession of, for example, by wrong or covetousness,--it will be for his good if he is put to death. For the law is beneficent, being able to make some righteous from unrighteous, if they will only give ear to it, and by releasing others from present evils; for those who have chosen to live temperately and justly, it conducts to immortality.
To know the law is characteristic of a good disposition. And again: "Wicked men do not understand the law; but they who seek the LORD shall have understanding in all that is good." [1]
It is essential, certainly, that the providence which manages all, be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that dispenses salvation—the one correcting by punishment, as supreme, the other showing kindness in the exercise of beneficence, as a benefactor. It is in your power not to be a son of disobedience, but to pass from darkness to life, and lending your ear to wisdom, to be the legal slave of God, in the first instance, and then to become a faithful servant, fearing the Lord God. And if one ascend higher, he is enrolled among the sons.
But when "charity covers the multitude of sins,"[2] by the consummation of the blessed hope, then may we welcome him as one who has been enriched in love, and received into the elect adoption, which is called the beloved of God, while he chants the prayer, saying, "Let the Lord be my God."
The beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in the passage relating to the Jews, writing thus: "Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and knowest the will of God, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law."[3] For it is admitted that such is the power of the law, although those whose conduct is not according to the law, make a false pretence, as if they lived in the law.
"Blessed is the man that hath found wisdom, and the mortal who has seen understanding; for out of its mouth," manifestly Wisdom’s, "proceeds righteousness, and it bears law and mercy on its tongue."[4] For both the law and the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is "the power and wisdom of God;" and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to salvation. "Let not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck."[5] In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not understanding the law. "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known."[6] "There is no fear of God before their eyes."[7] "Professing themselves wise, they became fools."[8] "And we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully."[9] "Desiring to be teachers of the law, they understand," says the apostle, "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."[10] "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." [11]
CHAP. XXVIII.—THE FOURFOLD DIVISION OF THE MOSAIC LAW.
The Mosaic philosophy is accordingly divided into four parts,--into the historic, and that which is specially called the legislative, which two properly belong to an ethical treatise; and the third, that which, relates to sacrifice, which belongs to physical science; and the fourth, above all, the department of theology, "vision,"[12] which Plato predicates of the truly great mysteries. And this species Aristotle calls metaphysics. Dialectics, according to Plato, is, as he says in The Statesman, a science devoted to the discovery of the explanation of things. And it is to be acquired by the wise man, not for the sake of saying or doing aught of what we find among men (as the dialecticians, who occupy themselves in sophistry, do), but to be able to say and do, as far as possible, what is pleasing to God.
But the true dialectic, being philosophy mixed with truth, by examining things, and testing forces and powers, gradually ascends in relation to the most excellent essence of all, and essays to go beyond to the God of the universe, professing not the knowledge of mortal affairs, but the science of things divine and heavenly; in accordance with which follows a suitable course of practice with respect to words and deeds, even in human affairs. Rightly, therefore, the Scripture, in its desire to make us such dialecticians, exhorts us: "Be ye skilful money-changers"[3] rejecting some things, but retaining what is good. For this true dialectic is the science which analyses the objects of thought, and shows abstractly and by itself the individual substratum of existences, or the power of dividing things into genera, which descends to their most special properties, and presents each individual object to be contemplated simply such as it is.
Wherefore it alone conducts to the true wisdom, which is the divine power which deals with the knowledge of entities as entities, which grasps what is perfect, and is freed from all passion; not without the Saviour, who withdraws, by the divine word, the gloom of ignorance arising from evil training, which had overspread the eye of the soul, and bestows the best of gifts,--
"That we might well know of God or man."[1]
It is He who truly shows how we are to know ourselves. It is He who reveals the Father of the universe to whom He wills, and as far as human nature can comprehend. "For no man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him."[2]
Rightly, then, the apostle says that it was by revelation that he knew the mystery: "As I wrote afore
in few words, according as ye are able to understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ."[3] "According as ye are able," he said, since he knew that some had received milk only, and had not yet received meat, nor even milk simply. The sense of the law is to be taken in three ways,[4]--either as exhibiting a symbol, or laying down a precept for right conduct, or as uttering a prophecy.
But I well know that it belongs to men [of full age] to distinguish and declare these things. For the whole Scripture is not in its meaning a single Myconos, as the proverbial expression has it; but those who hunt after the connection of the divine teaching, must approach it with the utmost perfection of the logical faculty.
CHAP. XXIX.—THE GREEKS BUT CHILDREN COMPARED WITH THE HEBREWS.
Whence most beautifully the Egyptian priest in Plato said, "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, not having in your souls a single ancient opinion received through tradition from antiquity. And not one of the Greeks is an old man;"[5] meaning by old, I suppose, those who know what belongs to the more remote antiquity, that is, our literature; and by young, those who treat of what is more recent and made the subject of study by the Greeks,--things of yesterday and of recent date as if they were old and ancient. Wherefore he added, "and no study hoary with time;" for we, in a kind of barbarous way, deal in homely and rugged metaphor. Those, therefore, whose minds are rightly constituted approach the interpretation utterly destitute of artifice.
And of the Greeks, he says that their opinions" differ but little from myths." For neither puerile fables nor stories current among children are fit for listening to. And he called the myths themselves "children," as if the progeny of those, wise in their own conceits among the Greeks, who had but little insight meaning by the "hoary studies" the truth which was possessed by the barbarians, dating from the highest antiquity. To which expression he opposed the phrase "child fable," censuring the mythical character of the attempts of the moderns, as, like children, having nothing of age in them, and affirming both in common—their fables and their speeches—to be puerile.
Divinely, therefore, the power which spoke to Hermas by revelation said, "The visions and revelations are for those who are of double mind, who doubt in their hearts if these things are or are not."[6]
Similarly, also, demonstrations from the resources of erudition, strengthen, confirm, and establish demonstrative reasonings, in so far as men’s minds are in a wavering state like young people’s. "The good commandment," then, according to the Scripture, "is a lamp, and the law is a light to the path; for instruction corrects the ways of life."[7] "Law is monarch of all, both of mortals and of immortals," says Pindar. I understand, however, by these words, Him who enacted law. And I regard, as spoken of the God of all, the following utterance of Hesiod, though spoken by the poet at random and not with comprehension:--
"For the Saturnian framed for men this law:
Fishes, and beasts, and winged birds may eat Each other, since no rule of right is theirs; But Right (by far the best) to men he gave."
Whether, then, it be the law which is connate and natural, or that given afterwards, which is meant, it is certainly of God; and both the law of nature and that of instruction are one. Thus also Plato, in The Statesman, says that the lawgiver is one; and in The Laws, that he who shall understand music is one; teaching by these words that the Word is one, and God is one. And Moses manifestly calls the Lord a covenant: "Behold I am my Covenant with thee,"[8] having previously told him not to seek the covenant in writing.[9] For it is a covenant which God, the Author of all, makes. For God is called from <greek>qesis</greek> (placing), and order or arrangement. And in the Preaching[10] of Peter you will find the Lord called Law and Word. But at this point, let our first Miscellany[11] of gnostic notes, according to the true philosophy, come to a close.
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES.
OF CLEMENS ALEXANDRIUS
In the Gospel that is in general use among them which is called "according to Matthew",
which however is not whole and complete but forged and mutilated - they call it the
Hebrews Gospel-it is reported:
There appeared a certain man named Jesus of about thirty years of age, who chose us.
And when he came to Capernaum, he entered into the house of Simon whose surname
is Peter, and opened his mouth and said: "As I passed the Lake of Tiberias, I chose John
and James the sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddeus and Simon the
Zealot and Judas the Iscariot, and you, Matthew, I called as you sat at the receipt of
custom, and you followed me. You, therefore, I will to be twelve apostles for a testimony
unto Israel." (Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.2-3)
And:
It came to pass that John was baptzing; and there went out to him Pharisees and were
baptized, and all of Jerusalem.
And John had a garment of camel`s hair and a leather girdle about his loins, and
his food, as it is said, was wild honey, the taste if which was that of manna, as a cake
dipped in oil.
Thus they were resolved to pervert the truth into a lie and put a cake in the place of locusts.
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.4-5)
And the beginning of their Gospel runs:
It came to pass in the days of Herod the king of Judaea, when Caiaphas was high priest,
that there came one, John by name, and baptized with the baptism of repentance in
the river Jordan. It was said of him that he was of the lineage of Aaron the priest, a
son of Zacharias and Elisabeth : and all went out to him.
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.6)
And after much has been recorded it proceeds:
When the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John.
And as he came up from the water, the heavens was opened and he saw the
Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that descended and entered into him.
And a voice sounded from Heaven that said:
"You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. "
And again: " I have this day begotten you".
And immediately a great light shone round about the place.
When John saw this, it is said, he said unto him :
"Who are you, Lord?"
And again a voice from Heaven rang out to him:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
And then, it is said, John fell down before him and said:
"I beseech you, Lord, baptize me."
But he prevented him and said:
"Suffer it; for thus it is fitting that everything should be fulfilled."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.7-8)
Moreover, they deny that he was a man, evidently on the ground of the
word which the Saviour spoke when it was reported to him:
"Behold, your mother and your brethren stand without." namely:
"Who is my mother and who are my brethren?"
And he stretched his hand towards his disciples and said:
"These are my brethren and mother and sisters, who do the will of my Father."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.14.5)
They say that Christ was not begotten of God the Father, but created as one of
the archangels ... that he rules over the angels and all the creatures of the
Almighty, and that he came and declared, as their Gospel, which is called
Gospel according to Matthew, or Gospel According to the Hebrews?,
reports:
"I am come to do away with sacrfices, and if you cease not sacrificing,
the wrath of God will not cease from you."
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16,4-5)
But they abandon the proper sequence of the words and pervert the saying,
as is plain to all from the readings attached, and have let the disciples say:
"Where will you have us prepare the passover?"
And him to answer to that:
"Do I desire with desire at this Passover to eat flesh with you?"
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30.22.4)
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES
OF CLEMENS ALEXANRIUS
BOOK I
CHAP. I.—PREFACE—THE AUTHOR’S OBJECT—THE UTILITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS.(1)
[ Wants the beginning] ..........that you may read them under your hand, and may be able to preserve them. Whether written compositions are not to be left behind at all; or if they are, by whom? And if the former, what need there is for written compositions? and if the latter, is the composition of them to be assigned to earnest men, or the opposite? It were certainly ridiculous for one to disapprove of the writing of earnest men, and approve of those, who are not such, engaging in the work of composition. Theopompus and Timaeus, who composed fables and slanders, and Epicurus the leader of atheism, and Hipponax and Archilochus, are to be allowed to write in their own shameful manner.
But he who proclaims the truth is to be prevented from leaving behind him what is to benefit posterity. It is a good thing, I reckon, to leave to posterity good children. This is the case with children of our bodies. But words are the progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who have instructed us, fathers. Wisdom is a communicative and philanthropic thing. Accordingly, Solomon says, "My son, if thou receive the saying of my commandment, and hide it with thee, thine ear shall hear wisdom."(2) He points out that the word that is sown is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the earth, and this is spiritual planting. Wherefore also he adds, "And thou shall apply thine heart to understanding, and apply it for the admonition of thy son." For soul, me thinks, joined with soul, and spirit with spirit, in the sowing of the word, will make that which is sown grow and germinate. And every one who is instructed, is in respect of subjection the son of his instructor.
"Son," says he, "forget not my laws."(3) And if knowledge belong not to all (set an ass to the lyre, as the proverb goes), yet written compositions are for the many. "Swine, for instance, delight in dirt more than in clean water."
"Wherefore," says the Lord, "I speak to them in parables: because seeing, they see not; and hearing, they hear not, and do not understand; "(4) not as if the Lord caused the ignorance: for it were impious to think so. But He prophetically exposed this ignorance, that existed in them, and intimated that they would not understand the things spoken. And now the Saviour shows Himself, out of His abundance, dispensing goods to His servants according to the ability of the recipient, that they may augment them by exercising activity, and then returning to reckon with them; when, approving of those that had increased His money, those faithful in little, and commanding them to have the charge over many things, He bade them enter into the joy of the Lord. But to him who had hid the money, entrusted to him to be given out at interest, and had given it back as he had received it, without increase, He said, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own."
Wherefore the useless servant "shall be cast into outer darkness."(5) "Thou, therefore, be strong," says Paul, "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."(6) And again: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
If, then, both proclaim the Word—the one by writing, the other by speech—are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith active by love? It is by one’s own fault that he does not choose what is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of others to test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is determined within themselves. But there is that species of knowledge which is characteristic of the herald, and that which is, as it were, characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable in whatever way it operates, both by the hand and tongue. "For he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing."(1) On him who by Divine Providence meets in with it, it confers the very highest advantages,--the beginning of faith, readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards the truth, a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it gives the means of salvation.
And those who have been rightly reared in the words of truth, and received provision for eternal life, wing their way to heaven. Most admirably, therefore, the apostle says, "In everything approving ourselves as the servants of God; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. Our mouth is opened to you."(2) "I charge thee," he says, writing to Timothy, "before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality."(3)
Both must therefore test themselves: the one, if he is qualified to speak and leave behind him written records; the other, if he is in a right state to hear and read: as also some in the dispensation of the Eucharist, according to(4) custom enjoin that each one of the people individually should take his part. One’s own conscience is best for choosing accurately or shunning. And its firm foundation is a right life, with suitable instruction. But the imitation of those who have already been proved, and who have led correct lives, is most excellent for the understanding and practice of the commandments. "So that whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup."(5)
It therefore follows, that every one of those who undertake to promote the good of their neighbours, ought to consider whether he has betaken himself to teaching rashly and out of rivalry to any; if his communication of the word is out of vainglory; if the only reward he reaps is the salvation of those who hear, and if he speaks not in order to win favour: if so, he who speaks by writings escapes the reproach of mercenary motives. "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know," says the apostle, "nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children."(6)
In the same way, therefore, those who take part in the divine words, ought to guard against betaking themselves to this, as they would to the building of cities, to examine them out of curiosity; that they do not come to the task for the sake of receiving worldly things, having ascertained that they who are consecrated to Christ are given to communicate the necessaries of life. But let such be dismissed as hypocrites. But if any one wishes not to seem, but to be righteous, to him it belongs to know the things which are best. If, then, "the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers few," it is incumbent on us "to pray" that there may be as great abundance of labourers as possible.(7)
But the husbandry is twofold,--the one unwritten, and the other written. And in whatever way the Lord’s labourer sow the good wheat, and grow and reap the ears, he shall appear a truly divine husbandman. "Labour," says the Lord, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life."(8) And nutriment is received both by bread and by words. And truly "blessed are the peace-makers,"(9) who instructing those who are at war in their life and errors here, lead them back to the peace which is in the Word, and nourish for the life which is according to God, by the distribution of the bread, those "that hunger after righteousness."
For each soul has its own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and others feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is not eatable. "And he that planteth and he that watereth," "being ministers" of Him "that gives the increase, are one" in the ministry. "But every one shall receive his own reward, according to his own work. For we are God’s husbandmen, God’s husbandry. Ye are God’s building,"(10) according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. Nor is the word, given for investigation, to be committed to those who have been reared in the arts of all kinds of words, and in the power of inflated attempts at proof; whose minds are already pre-occupied, and have not been previously emptied.
But whoever chooses to banquet on faith, is stedfast for the reception of the divine words, having acquired already faith as a power of judging, according to reason. Hence ensues to him persuasion in abundance. And this was the meaning of that saying of prophecy, "If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand."(1) "As, then, we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to the household of faith."(2) And let each of these, according to the blessed David, sing, giving thanks. "Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins. Blot out mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy princely spirit."(3)
He who addresses those who are present before him, both tests them by time, and judges by his judgment, and from the others distinguishes him who can hear; watching the words, the manners, the habits, the life, the motions, the attitudes, the look, the voice; the road, the rock, the beaten path, the fruitful land, the wooded region, the fertile and fair and cultivated spot, that is able to multiply the seed. But he that speaks through books, consecrates himself before God, crying in writing thus: Not for gain, not for vainglory, not to be vanquished by partiality, nor enslaved by fear nor elated by pleasure; but only to reap the salvation of those who read, which he does, not at present participate in, but awaiting in expectation the recompense which will certainly be rendered by Him, who has promised to bestow on the labourers the reward that is meet. But he who is enrolled in the number of men(4) ought not to desire recompense. For he that vaunts his good services, receives glory as his reward. And he who does any duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the custom of the world, either as one who has done well, hastening to receive a reward, or as an evil-doer avoiding retribution? We must, as far as we can, imitate the Lord.
I And he will do so, who complies with the will of God, receiving freely, giving freely, and receiving as a worthy reward the citizenship itself. "The hire of an harlot shall not come into the sanctuary," it is said: accordingly it was forbidden to bring to the altar the price of a dog.
And in whomsoever the eye of the soul has been blinded by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to the true light, to the truth, which shows by writing the things that are unwritten. "Ye that thirst, go to the aters,"(5) says Esaias, And "drink water from thine own vessels,"(6) Solomon exhorts. Accordingly in "The Laws," the philosopher who learned from the Hebrews, Plato, commands husbandmen not to irrigate or take water from others, until they have first dug down in their own ground to what is called the virgin soil, and found it dry. For it is right to supply want, but it is not well to support laziness. For Pythagoras said that, "although it be agreeable to reason to take a share of a burden, it is not a duty to take it away."
Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of the soul, and directs the eye suitably for contemplation; perchance inserting something, as the husbandman when he ingrafts, but, according to the opinion of the divine apostle, exciting what is in the soul. "For there are certainly among us many weak and sickly, and many sleep. But if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged."(7) Now this work of mine in writing is not artfully constructed for display; but my memoranda are stored up against old age, as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men.
Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic ;(8) the other in Magna Graecia: the first of these from Coele-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others in the East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew in Palestine.
When I came upon the last(9) (he was the first in power), having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless element of knowledge.
Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God’s will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a soul desirous of preserving from escape the blessed tradition.(10)
"In a man who loves wisdom the father will be glad."(1) Wells, when pumped out, yield purer water; and that of which no one partakes, turns to putrefaction. Use keeps steel brighter, but disuse produces rust in it. For, in a word, exercise produces a healthy condition both in souls and bodies.
"No one lighteth a candle, and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to those who are regarded worthy of the feast."(2) For what is the use of wisdom, if it makes not him who can hear it wise? For still the Saviour saves, "and always works, as He sees the Father."(3) For by teaching, one learns more; and in speaking, one is often a hearer along with his audience. For the teacher of him who speaks and of him who hears is one—who waters both the mind and the word. Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath;(4) but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God.(5)
And if one say that it is written, "There is nothing secret which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,"(6) let him also hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall be manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle. And to him who is able secretly to observe what is delivered to him. that which is veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and what is hidden to the many, shall appear manifest to the few. For why do not all know the truth? why is not righteousness loved, if righteousness belongs to all? But the mysteries are delivered mystically, that what is spoken may be in the mouth of the speaker; rather not in his voice, but in his understanding. "God gave to the Church, some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."(7)
The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak when compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged to hear.(8) But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was struck with the thyrsus. For "speak," it is said, "to a wise man, and he will grow wiser; and to him that hath, and there shall be added to him." And we profess not to explain secret things sufficiently—far from it—but only to recall them to memory, whether we have forgot aught, or whether for the purpose of not forgetting. Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, that have dropped away unwritten. Whence, to aid the weakness of my memory, and provide for myself a salutary help to my recollection in a systematic arrangement of chapters, I necessarily make use of this form. There are then some things of which we have no recollection; for the power that was in the blessed men was great.(8) There are also some things which remained unnoted long, which have now escaped; and others which are effaced, having faded away in the mind itself, since such a task is not easy to those not experienced; these I revive in my commentaries. Some things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise selection, afraid to write what I guarded against speaking: not grudging—for that were wrong—but fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be found "reaching a sword to a child." For it is impossible that what has been written should not escape, although remaining unpublished by me.
But being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of writing, they answer nothing to him that makes inquiries beyond what is written; for they require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who wrote, or of some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things my treatise will hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently.
The dogmas taught by remarkable sects will be adduced; and to these will be opposed all that ought to be premised in accordance with the profoundest contemplation of the knowledge, which, as we proceed to the renowned and venerable canon of tradition, from the creation of the world,(9) will advance to our view; setting before us what according to natural contemplation necessarily has to be treated of beforehand, and clearing off what stands in the way of this arrangement. So that we may have our ears ready for the reception of the tradition of true knowledge; the soil being previously cleared of the thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in order to the planting of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude to the contest; and them are some mysteries before other mysteries.
Our book will not shrink from making use of what is best in philosophy and other preparatory instruction. "For not only for the Hebrews and those that are under the law," according to the apostle, "is it right to become a Jew, but also a Greek for the sake of the Greeks, that we may gain all."(1) Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes, "Admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ."(2) The nicety of speculation, too, suits the sketch presented in my commentaries. In this respect the resources of learning are like a relish mixed with the food of an athlete, who is not indulging in luxury, but entertains a noble desire for distinction.
By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity. And as those who wish to address the people, do so often by the herald, that what is said may be better heard; so also in this case. For we have the word, that was spoken to many, before the common tradition. Wherefore we must set forth the opinions and utterances which cried individually to them, by which those who hear shall more readily turn.
And, in truth, to speak briefly: Among many small pearls there is the one; and in a great take of fish there is the beauty-fish; and by time and toil truth will gleam forth, if a good helper is at hand. For most benefits are supplied, from God, through men. All of us who make use of our eyes see what is presented before them. But some look at objects for one reason, others for another. For instance, the cook and the shepherd do not survey the sheep similarly: for the one examines it if it be fat; the other watches to see if it be of good breed. Let a man milk the sheep’s milk if he need sustenance: let him shear the wool if he need clothing. And in this way let me produce the fruit of the Greek erudition.(3)
For I do not imagine that any composition can be so fortunate as that no one will speak against it. But that is to be regarded as in accordance with reason, which nobody speaks against, with reason. And that course of action and choice is to be approved, not which is faultless, but which no one rationally finds fault with. For it does not follow, that if a man accomplishes anything not purposely, he does it through force of circumstances. But he will do it, managing it by wisdom divinely given, and in accommodation to circumstances. For it is not he who has virtue that needs the way to virtue, any more than he, that is strong, needs recovery. For, like farmers who irrigate the land beforehand, so we also water with the liquid stream of Greek learning what in it is earthy; so that it may receive the spiritual seed cast into it, and may be capable of easily nourishing it. The Stromata will contain the truth mixed up in the dogmas of philosophy, or rather covered over and hidden, as the edible part of the nut in the shell. For, in my opinion, it is fitting that the seeds of truth be kept for the husbandmen of faith, and no others. I am not oblivious of what is babbled by some, who in their ignorance are frightened at every noise, and say that we ought to occupy ourselves with what is most necessary, and which contains the faith; and that we should pass over what is beyond and superfluous, which wears out and detains us to no purpose, in things which conduce nothing to the great end. Others think that philosophy was introduced into life by an evil influence, for the ruin of men, by an evil inventor.
But I shall show, throughout the whole of these Stromata, that evil has an evil nature, and can never turn out the producer of aught that is good; indicating that philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine Providence.(3)
CHAP. II.—OBJECTION TO THE NUMBER OF EXTRACTS FROM PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS IN THESE BOOKS ANTICIPATED AND ANSWERED.
In reference to these commentaries, which contain as the exigencies of the case demand, the Hellenic opinions, I say thus much to those who are fond of finding fault. First, even if philosophy were useless, if the demonstration of its uselessness does good, it is yet useful. Then those cannot condemn the Greeks, who have only a mere hearsay knowledge of their opinions, and have not entered into a minute investigation in each department, in order to acquaintance with them. For the refutation, which is based on experience, is entirely trustworthy. For the knowledge of what is condemned is found the most complete demonstration. Many things, then, though not contributing to the final result, equip the artist. And otherwise erudition commends him, who sets forth the most essential doctrines so as to produce persuasion in his hearers, engendering admiration in those who are taught, and leads them to the truth. And such persuasion is convincing, by which those that love learning admit the truth; so that philosophy does not ruin life by being the originator of false practices and base deeds, although some have calumniated it, though it be the clear image of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks;(4) nor does it drag us away from the faith, as if we were bewitched by some delusive art, but rather, so to speak, by the use of an ampler circuit, obtains a common exercise demonstrative of the faith. Further, the juxtaposition of doctrines, by comparison, saves the truth, from which follows knowledge.
Philosophy came into existence, not on its own account, but for the advantages reaped by us from knowledge, we receiving a firm persuasion of true perception, through the knowledge of things comprehended by the mind. For I do not mention that the Stromata, forming a body of varied erudition, wish artfully to conceal the seeds of knowledge. As, then, he who is fond of hunting captures the game after seeking, tracking, scenting, hunting it down with dogs; so truth, when sought and got with toil, appears a delicious(1) thing. Why, then, you will ask, did you think it fit that such an arrangement should be adopted in your memoranda? Because there is great danger in divulging the secret of the true philosophy to those, whose delight it is unsparingly to speak against everything, not justly; and who shout forth all kinds of names and words indecorously, deceiving themselves and beguiling those who adhere to them. "For the Hebrews seek signs," as the apostle says, "and the Greeks seek after wisdom."(2)
CHAP. III.—AGAINST THE SOPHISTS.
There is a great crowd of this description: some of them, enslaved to pleasures and willing to disbelieve, laugh at the truth which is worthy of all reverence, making sport of its barbarousness. Some others, exalting themselves, endeavour to discover calumnious objections to our words, furnishing captious questions, hunters out of paltry sayings, practisers of miserable artifices, wranglers, dealers in knotty points, as that Abderite says:--
"For mortals’ tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches; And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."
And—
"Of whatever sort the word you have spoken, of the same sort you must hear."
Inflated with this art of theirs, the wretched Sophists, babbling away in their own jargon; toiling their whole life about the division of names and the nature of the composition and conjunction of sentences, show themselves greater chatterers than turtle-doves; scratching and tickling, not in a manly way, in my opinion, the ears of those who wish to be tickled.
"A river of silly words—not a dropping;"
just as in old shoes, when all the rest is worn and is falling to pieces, and the tongue alone remains.
The Athenian Solon most excellently enlarges, and writes:--
"Look to the tongue, and to the words of the glozing man, But you look on no work that has been done; But each one of you walks in the steps of a fox, And in all of you is an empty mind."
This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, "The foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head."(3) For on the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind and gentle Word, "who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the LORD knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they axe vain;"(4) the Scripture calling those the wise (<greek>sofous</greek>) who are skilled in words and arts, sophists (<greek>sofistas</greek>) Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative appellation of wise and sophists (<greek>sofoi</greek> <greek>sofistai</greek>) to those who were versed in anything Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said:--
"Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."
And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Flute-playing Satyrs, says:--
"For there entered A band of sophists, all equipped."
Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the divine Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."(5)
CHAP. IV.—HUMAN ARTS AS WELL AS DIVINE KNOWLEDGE PROCEED FROM GOD.
Homer calls an artificer wise; and of Margites, if that is his work, he thus writes:--
"Him, then, the Gods made neither a delver nor a ploughman,Nor in any other respect wise; but he missed every art."
Hesiod further said the musician Linus was "skilled in all manner of wisdom;" and does not hesitate to call a mariner wise, seeing he writes:--
"Having no wisdom in navigation."
And Daniel the prophet says, "The mystery which the king asks, it is not in the power of the wise, the Magi, the diviners, the Gazarenes, to tell the king; but it is God in heaven who revealeth it."(6) Here he terms the Babylonians wise. And that Scripture calls every secular science or art by the one name wisdom (there are other arts and sciences invented over and above by human reason), and that artistic and skilful invention is from God, will be clear if we adduce the following statement: "And the Lord spake to Moses, See, I have called Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Or, of the tribe of Judah; and I have filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to devise and to execute in all manner of work, to work gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and in working stone work, and in the art of working wood," and even to "all works."(1) And then He adds the general reason, "And to every understanding heart I have given understanding;"(2) that is, to every one capable of acquiring it by pains and exercise. And again, it is written expressly in the name of the Lord "And speak thou to all that are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the spirit of perception."(3)
Those who are wise in mind have a certain attribute of nature peculiar to themselves; and they who have shown themselves capable, receive from the Supreme Wisdom a spirit of perception in double measure. For those who practise the common arts, are in what pertains to the senses highly gifted: in hearing, he who is commonly called a musician; in touch, he who moulds clay; in voice the singer, in smell the perfumer, in sight the engraver of devices on seals. Those also that are occupied in instruction, train the sensibility according to which the poets are susceptible to the influence of measure; the sophists apprehend expression; the dialecticians, syllogisms; and the philosophers are capable of the contemplation of which themselves are the objects. For sensibility finds and invents; since it persuasively exhorts to application. And practice will increase the application which has knowledge for its end. With reason, therefore, the apostle has called the wisdom of God" manifold," and which has manifested its power "in many departments and in many modes"(4)--by art, by knowledge, by faith, by prophecy—for our benefit. "For all wisdom is from the Lord, and is with Him for ever," as says the wisdom of Jesus.(5)
For if thou call on wisdom and knowledge with a loud voice, and seek it as treasures of silver, and eagerly track it out, thou shalt understand godliness and find divine knowledge."(6) The prophet says this in contradiction to the knowledge according to philosophy, which teaches us to investigate in a magnanimous and noble manner, for our progress in piety. He opposes, therefore, to it the knowledge which is occupied with piety, when referring to knowledge, when he speaks as follows: "For God gives wisdom out of His own mouth, and knowledge along with understanding, and treasures up help for the righteous." For to those who have been justified(7) by philosophy, the knowledge which leads to piety is laid up as a help.
CHAP. V.—PHILOSOPHY THE HANDMAID OF THEOLOGY.
Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness.(8) And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration. "For thy foot," it is said, "will not stumble, if thou refer what is good, whether belonging to the Greeks or to us, to Providence."(9) For God is the cause of all good things; but of some primarily, as of the Old and the New Testament; and of others by consequence, as philosophy. Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring "the Hellenic mind," as the law, the Hebrews, "to Christ."(10) Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ.(8)
"Now," says Solomon, "defend wisdom, and it will exalt thee, and it will shield thee with a crown of pleasure."(11) For when thou hast strengthened wisdom with a cope by philosophy, and with right expenditure, thou wilt preserve it unassailable by sophists. The way of truth is therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides. It has been therefore said by inspiration: "Hear, my son, and receive my words; that thine may be the many ways of life. For I teach thee the ways of wisdom; that the fountains fail thee not,"(12) which gush forth from the earth itself. Not only did He enumerate several ways of salvation for any one righteous man, but He added many other ways of many righteous, speaking thus: "The paths of the righteous shine like the light."(13) The commandments and the modes of preparatory training are to be regarded as the ways and appliances of life.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen her chickens!"(14) And Jerusalem is, when interpreted, "a vision of peace." He therefore shows prophetically, that those who peacefully contemplate sacred things are in manifold ways trained to their calling. What then? He "would," and could not. How often, and where? Twice; by the prophets, and by the advent. The expression, then, "How often," shows wisdom to be manifold; every mode of quantity and quality, it by all means saves some, both in time and in eternity. "For the Spirit of the Lord fills the earth."(1) And if any should violently say that the reference is to the Hellenic culture, when it is said, "Give not heed to an evil woman; for honey drops from the lips of a harlot," let him hear what follows: "who lubricates thy throat for the time." But philosophy does not flatter. Who, then, does He allude to as having committed fornication? He adds expressly, "For the feet of folly lead those who use her, after death, to Hades. But her steps are not supported."
Therefore remove thy way far from silly pleasure. "Stand not at the doors of her house, that thou yield not thy life to others." And He testifies, "Then shall thou repent in old age, when the flesh of thy body is consumed." For this is the end of foolish pleasure. Such, indeed, is the case. And when He says, "Be not much with a strange woman,"(2) He admonishes us to use indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the word of the Lord. "For already some men, ensnared by the charms of handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, some of them in music, some in geometry, others in grammar, the most in rhetoric."(3) "But as the encyclical branches of study contribute to philosophy, which is their mistress; so also philosophy itself co-operates for the acquisition of wisdom. For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes."
Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture. For if philosophy" professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the honour and knowledge of God."(4) And Scripture will afford a testimony to what has been said in what follows. Sarah was at one time barren, being Abraham’s wife. Sarah having no child, assigned her maid, by name Hagar, the Egyptian, to Abraham, in order to get children. Wisdom, therefore, who dwells with the man of faith (and Abraham was reckoned faithful and righteous), was still barren and without child in that generation, not having brought forth to Abraham aught allied to virtue. And she, as was proper, thought that he, being now in the time of progress, should have intercourse with secular culture first (by Egyptian the world is designated figuratively); and afterwards should approach to her according to divine providence, and beget Isaac."(5)
And Philo interprets Hagar to mean "sojourning."(6) For it is said in connection with this, "Be not much with a strange woman."(7) Sarah he interprets to mean "my princedom." He, then, who has received previous training is at liberty to approach to wisdom, which is supreme, from which grows up the race of Israel. These things show that that wisdom can be acquired through instruction, to which Abraham attained, passing from the contemplation of heavenly things to the faith and righteousness which are according to God. And Isaac is shown to mean "self-taught;" wherefore also he is discovered to be a type of Christ. He was the husband of one wife Rebecca, which they translate "Patience." And Jacob is said to have consorted with several, his name being interpreted" Exerciser." And exercises are engaged in by means of many and various dogmas. Whence, also, he who is really "endowed with the power of seeing" is called Israel,(8) having much experience, and being fit for exercise.
Something else may also have been shown by the three patriarchs, namely, that the sure seal of knowledge is composed of nature, of education, and exercise.
You may have also another image of what has been said, in Thamar sitting by the way, and presenting the appearance of a harlot, on whom the studious Judas (whose name is interpreted "powerful"), who left nothing unexamined and uninvestigated, looked; and turned aside to her, preserving his profession towards God. Wherefore also, when Sarah was jealous at Hagar being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what was profitable in secular philosophy, said, "Behold, thy maid is in thine hands: deal with her as it pleases thee;"(9) manifestly meaning, "I embrace secular culture as youthful, and a handmaid; but thy knowledge I honour and reverence as true wife." And Sarah afflicted her; which is equivalent to corrected and admonished her. It has therefore been well said, "My son, despise not thou the correction of God; nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the LORD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."(1) And the foresaid Scriptures, when examined in other places, will be seen to exhibit other mysteries. We merely therefore assert here, that philosophy is characterized by investigation into truth and the nature of things (this is the truth of which the Lord Himself said, "I am the truth"(2)); and that, again, the preparatory training for rest in Christ exercises the mind, rouses the intelligence, and begets an inquiring shrewdness, by means of the true philosophy, which the initiated possess, having found it, or rather received it, from the truth itself.
CHAP. VI.—THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE.
The readiness acquired by previous training conduces much to the perception of such things as are requisite; but those things which can be perceived only by mind are the special exercise for the mind. And their nature is triple according as we consider their quantity, their magnitude, and what can be predicated of them. For the discourse which consists of demonstrations, implants in the spirit of him who follows it, clear faith; so that he cannot conceive of that which is demonstrated being different; and so it does not allow us to succumb to those who assail us by fraud. In such studies, therefore, the soul is purged from sensible things, and is excited, so as to be able to see truth distinctly. For nutriment, and the training which is maintained gentle, make noble natures I; and noble natures, when they have received such training, become still better than before both in other respects, but especially in productiveness, as is the case with the other creatures.
Wherefore it is mid, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and become wiser than it, which provideth much and, varied food in the harvest against the inclemency of winter."(3) Or go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces one honey-comb. And if "thou prayest in the closet," as the Lord taught, "to worship in spirit,"(4) thy management will no longer be solely occupied about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured up in it; and when it ought to be produced, and to whom. For it is not by nature, but by learning, that people become noble and good, as people also become physicians and pilots. We all in common, for example, see the vine and the horse. But the husbandman will know if the vine be good or bad at fruit-bearing; and the horseman will easily distinguish between the spiritless and the swift animal. But that some are naturally predisposed to virtue above others, certain pursuits of those, who are so naturally predisposed above others, show. But that perfection in virtue is not the exclusive property of those, whose natures are better, is proved, since also those who by nature are ill-disposed towards virtue, in obtaining suitable training, for the most part attain to excellence; and, on the other hand, those whose natural dispositions are apt, become evil through neglect.
Again, God has created us naturally social and just; whence justice must not be said to take its rise from implantation alone. But the good imparted by creation is to be conceived of as excited by the commandment; the soul being trained to be willing to select what is noblest.
But as we say that a man can be a believer without learning,(5) so also we assert that it is impossible for a man without learning to comprehend the things which are declared in the faith.
But to adopt what is well said, and not to adopt the reverse, is caused not simply by faith, but by faith combined with knowledge. But if ignorance is want of training and of instruction, then teaching produces knowledge of divine and human things. But just as it is possible to live rightly in penury of this world’s good things, so also in abundance. And we avow, that at once with more ease and more speed will one attain to virtue through previous training. But it is not such as to be unattainable without it; but it is attainable only when they have learned, and have had their senses exercised.(6) "For hatred," says Solomon, "raises strife, but instruction guardeth the ways of life;"(7) in such a way that we are not deceived nor deluded by those who are practised in base arts for the injury of those who hear. "But instruction wanders reproachless,"(8) it is said. We must be conversant with the art of reasoning, for the purpose of confuting the deceitful opinions of the sophists. Well and felicitously, therefore, does Anaxarchus write in his book respecting "kingly rule:" "Erudition benefits greatly and hurts greatly him who possesses it; it helps him who is worthy, and injures him who utters readily every word, and before the whole people. It is necessary to know the measure of time. For this is the end of wisdom. And those who sing at the doors, even if they sing skilfully, are not reckoned wise, but have the reputation of folly." And Hesiod:--
"Of the Muses, who make a man loquacious, divine, vocal."
For him who is fluent in words he calls loquacious; and him who is clever, vocal; and "divine," him who is skilled, a philosopher, and acquainted with the truth.
CHAP. VII.—THE ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHY PAVES THE WAY FOR DIVINE VIRTUE.
The Greek preparatory culture, therefore, with philosophy itself, is shown to have come down from God to men, not with a definite direction but in the way in which showers fail down on the good land, and on the dunghill, and on the houses. And similarly both the grass and the wheat sprout; and the figs and any other reckless trees grow on sepulchres. And things that grow, appear as a type of truths. For they enjoy the same influence of the rain. But they have not the same grace as those which spring up in rich soil, inasmuch as they are withered or plucked up. And here we are aided by the parable of the sower, which the Lord interpreted. For the husbandman of the soil which is among men is one; He who from the beginning, from the foundation of the world, sowed nutritious seeds; He who in each age rained down the Lord, the Word. But the times and places which received [such gifts], created the differences which exist. Further, the husbandman sows not only wheat (of which there are many varieties), but also other seeds—barley, and beam, and peas, and vetches, and vegetable and flower seeds. And to the same husbandry belongs both planting and the operations necessary in the nurseries, and gardens, and orchards, and the planning and rearing of all sorts of trees
In like manner, not only the care of sheep, but the care of herds, and breeding of horses, and dogs, and bee-craft, all arts, and to speak comprehensively, the care of flocks and the rearing of animals, differ from each other more or less, but are all useful for life. And philosophy—I do not mean the Stoic, or the Platonic, or the Epicurean, or the Aristotelian, but whatever has been well said by each of those sects, which teach righteousness along with a science pervaded by piety, --this eclectic whole I call philosophy.(1) But such conclusions of human reasonings, as men have cut away and falsified, I would never call divine.
And now we must look also at this, that if ever those who know not how to do well, live well;(2) for they have lighted on well-doing. Some, too, have aimed well at the word of truth through understanding. "But Abraham was not justified by works, but by faith."(3) It is therefore of no advantage to them after the end of life, even if they do good works now, if they have not faith.
Wherefore also the Scriptures(4) were translated into the language of the Greeks, in order that they might never be able to allege the excuse of ignorance, inasmuch as they are able to hear also what we have in our hands, if they only wish. One speaks in one way of the truth, in another way the truth interprets itself. The guessing at truth is one thing, and truth itself is another. Resemblance is one thing, the thing itself is another. And the one results from learning and practice, the other from power and faith. For the teaching of piety is a gift, but faith is grace. "For by doing the will of God we know the will of God."(5) "Open, then," says the Scripture, "the gates of righteousness; and I will enter in, and confess to the LORD."(6) But the paths to righteousness (since God saves in many ways, for He is good) are many and various, and lead to the Lord’s way and gate.
And if you ask the royal and true entrance, you will hear, "This is the gate of the LORD, the righteous shall enter in by it."(7) While there are many gates open, that in righteousness is in Christ, by which all the blessed enter, and direct their steps in the sanctity of knowledge. Now Clemens, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, while expounding the differences of those who are approved according to the Church, says expressly, "One may be a believer; one may be powerful in uttering knowledge; one may be wise in discriminating between words; one may be terrible in deeds."(8)
CHAP. VIII.—THE SOPHISTICAL ARTS USELESS.
But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and disputation for wrangling. These arts, therefore, if not conjoined with philosophy, will be injurious to every one. For Plato openly called sophistry "an evil art." And Aristotle, following him, demonstrates it to be a dishonest art, which abstracts in a specious manner the whole business of wisdom, and professes a wisdom which it has not studied. To speak briefly, as the beginning of rhetoric is the probable, and an attempted proof(9) the process, and the end persuasion, so the beginning of disputation is what is matter of opinion, and the process a contest, and the end victory. For in the same manner, also, the beginning of sophistry is the apparent, and the process twofold; one of rhetoric, continuous and exhaustive; and the other of logic, and is interrogatory. And its end is admiration.
The dialectic in vogue in the schools, on the other hand, is the exercise of a philosopher in matters of opinion, for the sake of the faculty of disputation. But truth is not in these at all. With reason, therefore, the noble apostle, depreciating these superfluous arts occupied about words, says, "If any man do not give heed to wholesome words, but is puffed up by a kind of teaching, knowing nothing, but doting (<greek>noswn</greek>) about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh contention, envy, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth."(1)
You see how he is moved against them, calling their art of logic—on which, those to whom this garrulous mischievous art is dear, whether Greeks or barbarians, plume themselves—a disease (<greek>nosos</greek>). Very beautifully, therefore, the tragic poet Euripides says in the Phoenissoe,--
"But a wrongful speech Is diseased in itself, and needs skilful medicines."(2)
For the saving Word(3) is called "wholesome," He being the truth; and what is wholesome (healthful) remains ever deathless. But separation from what is healthful and divine is impiety, and a deadly malady. These are rapacious wolves hid in sheep-skins, men-stealers, and glozing soul-seducers, secretly, but proved to be robbers; striving by fraud and force to catch us who are unsophisticated and have less power of speech.
"Often a man, impeded through want of words, carries less weight In expressing what is right, than the man of eloquence.
But now in fluent mouths the weightiest truths They disguise, so that they do not seem what they ought to seem," says the tragedy. Such are these wranglers, whether they follow the sects, or practise miserable dialectic arts. These are they that "stretch the warp and weave nothing," says the Scripture;(4) prosecuting a bootless task, which the apostle has called "cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive."(5) "For there are," he says, "many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers:"(6)
Wherefore it was not said to all, "Ye are the salt of the earth."(7) For there are some even of the hearers of the word who are like the fishes of the sea, which, reared from their birth in brine, yet need salt to dress them for food. Accordingly I wholly approve of the tragedy, when it says:--
"O son, false words can be well spoken, And truth may be vanquished by beauty of words. But this is not what is most correct, but nature and what is right; He who practises eloquence is indeed wise, But I consider deeds always better than words."
We must not, then, aspire to please the multitude. For we do not practise what will please them, but what we know is remote from their disposition. "Let us not be desirous of vainglory,," says the apostle, "provoking one another, envying one another."(8)
Thus the truth-loving Plato says, as if divinely inspired, "Since I am such as to obey nothing but the word, which, after reflection, appears to me the best."(9)
Accordingly he charges those who credit opinions without intelligence and knowledge, with abandoning right and sound reason unwarrantably, and believing him who is a partner in falsehood. For to cheat one’s self of the truth is bad; but to speak the truth, and to hold as our opinions positive realities, is good.
Men are deprived of what is good unwillingly. Nevertheless they are deprived either by being deceived or beguiled, or by being compelled and not believing. He who believes not, has already made himself a willing captive; and he who changes his persuasion is cozened, while he forgets that time imperceptibly takes away some things, and reason others. And after an opinion has been entertained, pain and anguish, and on the other hand contentiousness and anger, compel. Above all, men are beguiled who are either bewitched by pleasure or terrified by fear. And all these are voluntary changes, but by none of these will knowledge ever be attained.
CHAP. IX.—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.(1) And he who brings everything to bear on a fight 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 touch-stone (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."(2) 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.(3)
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?
CHAP. X.—TO ACT WELL OF GREATER CONSEQUENCE THAN TO SPEAK WELL.
Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then breaking the bread,(4) He presented it, that we might eat it, according to reason, and that knowing the Scriptures s we might walk obediently. And as those whose speech is evil are no better than those whose practice is evil (for calumny is the servant of the sword, and evil-speaking inflicts pain; and from these proceed disasters in life, such being the effects of evil speech); so also those who are given to good speech are near neighbours to those who accomplish good deeds. Accordingly discourse refreshes the soul and entices it to nobleness; and happy is he who has the use of both his hands. Neither, therefore, is he who can act well to be vilified by him who is able to speak well; nor is he who is able to speak well to be disparaged by him who is capable of acting well. But let each do that for which he is naturally fitted. What the one exhibits as actually done, the other speaks, preparing, as it were, the way for well-doing, and leading the hearers to the practice of good.
For there is a saving word, as there is a saving work. Righteousness, accordingly,(6) is not constituted without discourse. And as the receiving of good is abolished if we abolish the doing of good; so obedience and faith are abolished when neither the command, nor one to expound the command, is taken along with us.(7)
But now we are benefited mutually and reciprocally by words and deeds; but we must repudiate entirely the art of wrangling and sophistry, since these sentences of the sophists not only bewitch and beguile the many, but sometimes by violence win a Cadmean victory.(8) For true above all is that Psalm, "The just shall live to the end, for he shall not see corruption, when he beholds the wise dying."(9) And whom does he call wise? Hear from the Wisdom of Jesus: "Wisdom is not the knowledge of evil."(10) Such he calls what the arts of speaking and of discussing have invented. "Thou shalt therefore seek wisdom among the wicked, and shalt not find it."(11) And if you inquire again of what sort this is, you are told, "The mouth of the righteous man will distil wisdom."(12) And similarly with truth, the art of sophistry is called wisdom.
But it is my purpose, as I reckon, and not without reason, to live according to the Word, and to understand what is revealed;(1) but never affecting eloquence, to be content merely with indicating my meaning. And by what term that which I wish to present is shown, I care not. For I well know that to be saved, and to aid those who desire to be saved, is the best thing, and not to compose paltry sentences like gewgaws. "And if," says the Pythagorean in the Politicus of Plato, "you guard against solicitude about terms, you will be richer in wisdom against old age."(2) And in the Theaetetus you will find again, "And carelessness about names, and expressions, and the want of nice scrutiny, is not vulgar and illiberal for the most part, but rather the reverse of this, and is sometimes necessary."(3) This the Scripture(4) has expressed with the greatest possible brevity, when it said, "Be not occupied much about words." For expression is like the dress on the body.
The matter is the flesh and sinews. We must not therefore care more for the dress than the safety of the body. For not only a simple mode of life, but also a style of speech devoid of superfluity and nicety, must be cultivated by him who has adopted the true life, if we are to abandon luxury as treacherous and profligate, as the ancient Lacedaemonians adjured ointment and purple, deeming and calling them rightly treacherous garments and treacherous unguents; since neither is that mode of preparing food right where there is more of seasoning than of nutriment; nor is that style of speech elegant which can please rather than benefit the hearers. Pythagoras exhorts us to consider the Muses more pleasant than the Sirens, teaching us to cultivate wisdom apart from pleasure, and exposing the other mode of attracting the soul as deceptive. For sailing past the Sirens one man has sufficient strength, and for answering the Sphinx another one, or, if you please, not even one.(5) We ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory, to make broad the phylacteries. It suffices the gnostic(6) if only one hearer is found for him.(7) You may hear therefore Pindar the Boeotian,(8) who writes, "Divulge not before all the ancient speech. The way of silence is sometimes the surest.
And the mightiest word is a spur to the fight." Accordingly, the blessed apostle very appropriately and urgently exhorts us "not to strive about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, but to shun profane and vain babblings, for they increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker."(9)
CHAP. XI.—WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY WHICH THE APOSTLE BIDS US SHUN?
This, then, "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God," and of those who are "the wise the
Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are vain."(10) Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the LORD, that executeth mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my delight, saith the LORD."(11) "That we should trust not in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead," says the apostle, "who delivered us from so great a death, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." "For the spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man."(12) I hear also those words of his, "And these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or one should enter in to spoil you."(13) And again, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;"(14) branding not all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles,(15) which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator.(16)
The Stoics also, whom he mentions too, say not well that the Deity, being a body, pervades the vilest matter. He calls the jugglery of logic "the tradition of men." Wherefore also he adds, "Avoid juvenile(17) questions. For such contentions are puerile." "But virtue is no lover of boys," says the philosopher Plato. And our struggle, accOrding to Gorgias Leontinus, requires two virtues—boldness and wisdom,--boldness to undergo danger, and wisdom to understand the enigma. For the Word, like the Olympian proclamation, calls him who is wiring, and crowns him who is able to continue unmoved as far as the truth is concerned. And, in truth, the Word does not wish him who has believed to be idle. For He says, "Seek, and ye shall find."(1) But seeking ends in finding, driving out the empty trifling, and approving of the contemplation which confirms our faith.
"And this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words,"(2) says the apostle, evidently as having learned to distinguish what was said by him, and as being taught to meet objections. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith."(3) Now persuasion is [the means of] being established in the faith. "Beware lest any man spoil you of faith in Christ by philosophy and vain deceit," which does away with providence, "after the tradition of men;" for the philosophy which is in accordance with divine tradition establishes and confirms providence, which, being done away with, the economy of the Saviour appears a myth, while we are influenced "after the elements of the world, and not after Christ."(4) For the teaching which is agreeable to Christ deifies the Creator, and traces providence in particular events,(5) and knows the nature of the elements to be capable of change and production, and teaches that we ought to aim at rising up to the power which assimilates to God, and to prefer the dispensation(6) as holding the first rank and superior to all training.
The elements are worshipped,--the air by Diogenes, the water by Thales, the fire by Hippasus; and by those who suppose atoms to be the first principles of things, arrogating the name of philosophers, being wretched creatures devoted to pleasure.(7) "Wherefore I pray," says the apostle, "that your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent."(8) "Since, when we were children," says the same apostle, "we were kept in bondage under the rudiments of the world. And the child, though heir, differeth nothing from a servant, till the time appointed of the father."(9) Philosophers, then, are children, unless they have been made men by Christ. "For if the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free,"(10) at least he is the seed of Abraham, though not of promise, receiving what belongs to him by free gift. "But strong meat belongeth to those that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."(11)
"For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe,"(12) and not yet acquainted with the word, according to which he has believed and works, and not able to give a reason in himself. "Prove all things," the apostle says, "and hold fast that which is good,"(13) speaking to spiritual men, who judge what is said according to truth, whether it seems or truly holds by the truth. "He who is not corrected by discipline errs, and stripes and reproofs give the discipline of wisdom," the reproofs manifestly that are with love. "For the right heart seeketh knowledge."(14) "For he that seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who have sought it rightly have found peace."(15) "And I will know," it is said, "not the speech of those which are puffed up, but the power." In rebuke of those who are wise in appearance, and think themselves wise, but are not in reality wise, he writes: "For the kingdom of God is not in word."(16) It is not in that which is not true, but which is only probable according to opinion; but he said "in power," for the truth alone is powerful. And again: "If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." For truth is never mere opinion.
But the "supposition of knowledge inflates," and fills with pride; "but charity edifieth," which deals not in supposition, but in truth. Whence it is said, "If any man loves, he is known."(17)
CHAP. XII.—THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH NOT TO BE DIVULGED TO ALL.
But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide in a mystery the wisdom spoken, which the Son of God taught. Now, therefore, Isaiah the prophet has his tongue purified by fire, so that he may be able to tell the vision. And we must purify not the tongue alone, but also the ears, if we attempt to be partaken of the truth.
Such were the impediments in the way of my writing. And even now I fear, as it is said, "to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them under foot, and turn and rend us."(18) For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true light, to swinish and untrained hearers. For scarcely could anything which they could hear be more ludicrous than these to the multitude; nor any subjects on the other hand more admirable or more inspiring to those of noble nature. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him."(1) But the wise do not utter with their mouth what they reason in council.
"But what ye hear in the ear," says the Lord, "proclaim upon the houses;"(2) bidding them receive the secret traditions(3) of the true knowledge, and expound them aloft and conspicuously; and as we have heard in the ear, so to deliver them to whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us to communicate to all without distinction, what is said to them in parables. But there is only a delineation in the memoranda, which have the truth sowed sparse(4) and broadcast, that it may escape the notice of those who pick up seeds like jackdaws; but when they find a good husbandman, each one of them will germinate and produce corn.
CHAP. XIII.—ALL SECTS OF PHILOSOPHY CONTAIN A GERM OF TRUTH.
Since, therefore, truth is one (for falsehood has ten thousand by-paths); just as the Bacchantes tore asunder the limbs of Pentheus, so the sects both of barbarian and Hellenic philosophy have done with truth, and each vaunts as the whole truth the portion which has fallen to its lot. But all, in my opinion,(5) are illuminated by the dawn of Light.(6) Let all, therefore, both Greeks and barbarians, who have aspired after the truth,--both those who possess not a little, and those who have any portion,--produce whatever they have of the word of truth.
Eternity, for instance, presents in an instant the future and the present, also the past of time. But truth, much more powerful than limitless duration, can collect its proper germs, though they have fallen on foreign soil. For we shall find that very many of the dogmas that are held by such sects as have not become utterly senseless, and are not cut out from the order of nature (by cutting off Christ, as the women of the fable dismembered the man),(7) though appearing unlike one another, correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole. For they coincide in one, either as a part, or a species, or a genus. For instance, though the highest note is different from the lowest note, yet both compose one harmony. And in numbers an even number differs from an odd number; but both suit in arithmetic; as also is the case with figure, the circle, and the triangle, and the square, and whatever figures differ from one another. Also, in the whole universe, all the parts, though differing one from another, preserve their relation to the whole. So, then, the barbarian and Hellenic philosophy has torn off a fragment of eternal truth not from the mythology of Dionysus, but from the theology of the ever-living Word.
And He who brings again together the separate fragments, and makes them one, will without peril, be assured, contemplate the perfect Word, the truth. Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes: "And I added wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem; and my heart saw many things; and besides, I knew wisdom and knowledge, parables and understanding. And this also is the choice of the spirit, because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of knowledge."(8) He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be pre-eminently a gnostic.(9) Now it is written, "Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it."(10) And again, what is said is confirmed more clearly by this saying, "All things are in the sight of those who understand"—all things, both Hellenic and barbarian; but the one or the other is not all. "They are right to those who wish to receive understanding. Choose instruction, and not silver, and knowledge above tested gold," and prefer also sense to pure gold; "for wisdom is better than precious stones, and no precious thing is worth it."(11)
CHAP. XIV.—SUCCESSION OF PHILOSOPHERS IN GREECE.
The Greeks say, that after Orpheus and Linus, and the most ancient of the poets that appeared among them, the seven, called wise, were the first that were admired for their wisdom. Of whom four were of Asia—Thales of Miletus, and Bias of Priene, Pittacus of Mitylene, and Cleobulus of Lindos; and two of Europe, Solon the Athenian, and Chilon the Lacedaemonian; and the seventh, some say, was Periander of Corinth; others, Anacharsis the Scythian; others, Epimenides the Cretan, whom Paul knew as a Greek prophet, whom he mentions in the Epistle to Titus, where he speaks thus: "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And this witness is true."(12) You see how even to the prophets of the Greeks he attributes something of the truth, and is not ashamed,(13) when discoursing for the edification of some and the shaming of others, to make use of Greek poems. Accordingly to the Corinthians (for this is not the only instance), while discoursing on the resurrection of the dead, he makes use of a tragic Iambic line, when he said, "What advantageth it me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners."(1)
Others have enumerated Acusilaus the Argive among the seven wise men; and others, Pherecydes of Syros. And Plato substitutes Myso the Chenian for Periander, whom he deemed unworthy of wisdom, on account of his having reigned as a tyrant. That the wise men among the Greeks flourished after the age of Moses, will, a little after, be shown. But the style of philosophy among them, as Hebraic and enigmatical, is now to be considered. They adopted brevity, as suited for exhortation, and most useful. Even Plato says, that of old this mode was purposely in vogue among all the Greeks, especially the Lacedaemonians and Cretans, who enjoyed the best laws.
The expression, "Know thyself," some supposed to be Chilon’s. But Chamaeleon, in his book About the Gods, ascribes it to Thales; Aristotle to the Pythian. It may be an injunction to the pursuit of knowledge. For it is not possible to know the parts without the essence of the whole; and one must study the genesis of the universe, that thereby we may be able to learn the nature of man. Again, to Chilon the Lacedaemonian they attribute, "Let nothing be too much."(2) Strato, in his book Of Inventions, ascribes the apophthegm to Stratodemus of Tegea. Didymus assigns it to Solon; as also to Cleobulus the saying, "A middle course is best." And the expression, "Come under a pledge, and mischief is at hand," Cleomenes says, in his book Concerning Hesiod, was uttered before by Homer in the lines:--
"Wretched pledges, for the wretched, to be pledged."(3)
The Aristotelians judge it to be Chilon’s; but Didymus says the advice was that of Thales. Then, next in order, the saying, "All men are bad," or, "The most of men are bad" (for the same apophthegm is expressed in two ways), Sotades the Byzantian says that it was Bias’s. And the aphorism, "Practice conquers everything,"(4) they will have it to be Periander’s; and likewise the advice, "Know the opportunity," to have been a saying of Pittacus. Solon made laws for the Athenians, Pittacus for the Mitylenians. And at a late date, Pythagoras, the pupil of Pherecydes, first called himself a philosopher. Accordingly, after the fore-mentioned three men, there were three schools of philosophy, named after the places where they lived: the Italic from Pythagoras, the Ionic from Thales, the Eleatic from Xenophanes. Pythagoras was a Samian, the son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus says: cording to Aristoxenus, in his life of Pythagoras and Aristarchus and Theopompus, he was a Tuscan; and according to Neanthes, a Syrian or a Tyrian. So that Pythagoras was, according to the most, of barbarian extraction.
Thaies, too, as Leander and Herodotus relate, was a Phoenician; as some suppose, a Milesian. He alone seems to have met the prophets of the Egyptians. But no one is described as his teacher, nor is any one mentioned as the teacher of Pherecydes of Syros, who had Pythagoras as his pupil. But the Italic philosophy, that of Pythagoras, grew old in Metapontum in Italy. Anaximander of Miletus, the son of Praxiades, succeeded Thales; and was himself succeeded by Anaximenes of Miletus, the son of Eurustratus; after whom came Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the son of Hegesibulus.(5) He transferred his school from Ionia to Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, whose pupil Socrates was.
"From these turned aside, the stone-mason;
Talker about laws; the enchanter of the Greeks," says Timon in his Satirical Poems, on account of his quitting physics for ethics. Antisthenes, after being a pupil of Socrates, introduced the Cynic philosophy; and Plato withdrew to the Academy. Aristotle, after studying philosophy under Plato, withdrew to the Lyceum, and founded the Peripatetic sect. He was succeeded by Theophrastus, who was succeeded by Strato, and he by Lycon, then Critolaus, and then Diodorus. Speusippus was the successor of Plato; his successor was Xenocrates; and the successor of the latter, Polemo. And the disciples of Polemo were Crates and Crantor, in whom the old Academy founded by Plato ceased. Arcesilaus was the associate of Crantor; from whom, down to Hegesilaus, the Middle Academy flourished. Then Carneades succeeded Hegesilaus, and others came in succession.
The disciple of Crates was Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect. He was succeeded by Cleanthes; and the latter by Chrysippus, and others after him. Xenophanes of Colophon was the founder of the Eleatic school, who, Timaeus says, lived in the time of Hiero, lord of Sicily, and Epicharmus the poet; and Apollodorus says that he was born in the fortieth Olympiad, and reached to the times of Darius and Cyrus. Parmenides, accordingly, was the disciple of Xenophanes, and Zeno of him; then came Leucippus, and then Democritus. Disciples of Democritus were Protagoras of Abdera, and Metrodorus of Chios, whose pupil was Diogenes of Smyrna; and his again Anaxarchus, and his Pyrrho, and his Nausiphanes. Some say that Epicurus was a scholar of his.
Such, in an epitome, is the succession of the philosophers among the Greeks. The periods of the originators of their philosophy are now to be specified successively, in order that, by comparison, we may show that the Hebrew: philosophy was older by many generations.(1)
It has been said of Xenophanes that he was the founder of the Eleatic philosophy. And Eudemus, in the Astrological Histories, says that Thales foretold the eclipse of the sun, which took place at the time that the Medians and the Lydians fought, in the reign of Cyaxares the father of Astyages over the Medes, and of Alyattus the son of Croesus over the Lydians. Herodotus in his first book agrees with him. The date is about the fiftieth Olympiad. Pythagoras is ascertained to have lived in the days of Polycrates the tyrant, about the sixty-second Olympiad. Mnesiphilus is described as a follower of Solon, and was a contemporary of Themistocles. Solon therefore flourished about the forty-sixth Olympiad. For Heraclitus, the son of Bauso, persuaded Melancomas the tyrant to abdicate his sovereignty. He despised the invitation of king Darius to visit the Persians.
CHAP. XV.—THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN GREAT PART DERIVED FROM THE BARBARIANS.
These are the times of the oldest wise men and philosophers among the Greeks. And that the most of them were barbarians by extraction, and were trained among barbarians, what need is there to say? Pythagoras is shown to have been either a Tuscan or a Tyrian. And Antisthenes was a Phrygian. And Orpheus was an Odrysian or a Thracian. The most, too, show Homer to have been an Egyptian. Thales was a Phoenician by birth, and was said to have consorted with the prophets of the Egyptians; as also Pythagoras did with the same persons, by whom he was circumcised, that he might enter the adytum and learn from the Egyptians the mystic philosophy. He held converse with the chief of the Chaldeans and the Magi; and he gave a hint of the church, now so called, in the common hall(2) which he maintained.
And Plato does not deny that he procured all that is most excellent in philosophy from the barbarians; and he admits that he came into Egypt. Whence, writing in the Phoedo that the philosopher can receive aid from all sides, he said: "Great indeed is Greece, O Cebes, in which everywhere there are good men, and many are the races of the barbarians."(3) Thus Plato thinks that some of the barbarians, too, are philosophers. But Epicurus, on the other hand, supposes that only Greeks can philosophise. And in the Symposium, Plato, landing the barbarians as practising philosophy with conspicuous excellence,(4) truly says: "And in many other instances both among Greeks and barbarians, whose temples reared for such sons are already numerous." And it is clear that the barbarians signally honoured their lawgivers and teachers, designating them gods. For, according to Plato, "they think that good souls, on quitting the supercelestial region, submit to come to this Tartarus; and assuming a body, share in all the ills which are involved in birth, from their solicitude for the race of men;" and these make laws and publish philosophy, "than which no greater boon ever came from the gods to the race of men, or will come."(5)
And as appears to me, it was in consequence of perceiving the great benefit which is conferred through wise men, that the men themselves Were honoured and philosophy cultivated publicly by all the Brahmins, and the Odrysi, and the Getae. And such were strictly deified by the race of the Egyptians, by the Chaldeans and the Arabians, called the Happy, and those that inhabited Palestine, by not the least portion of the Persian race, and by innumerable other races besides these.
And it is well known that Plato is found perpetually celebrating the barbarians, remembering that both himself and Pythagoras learned the most and the noblest of their dogmas among the barbarians. Wherefore he also called the races of the barbarians, "races of barbarian philosophers," recognising, in the Phaedrus, the Egyptian king, and shows him to us wiser than Theut, whom he knew to be Hermes. But in the Charmides, it is manifest that he knew certain Thracians who were said to make the soul immortal. And Pythagoras is reported to have been a disciple of Sonches the Egyptian arch-prophet; and Plato, of Sechnuphis of Heliopolis; and Eudoxus, of Cnidius of Konuphis, who was also an Egyptian. And in his book, On the Soul,(6) Plato again manifestly recognises prophecy, when he introduces a prophet announcing the word of Lachesis, uttering predictions to the souls whose destiny is becoming fixed. And in the Timoeus he introduces Solon, the very wise, learning from the barbarian. The substance of the declaration is to the following effect: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children. And no Greek is an old man. For you have no learning that is hoary with age."(1)
Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said to have combined with his own compositions a translation of the column of Acicarus.(2) And you may find the distinction notified by him when he writes, "Thus says Democritus." About himself, too, where, pluming himself on his erudition, he says, "I have roamed over the most ground of any man of my time, investigating the most remote parts. I have seen the most skies and lands, and I have heard of learned men in very great numbers. And in composition no one has surpassed me; in demonstration, not even those among the Egyptians who are called Arpenodaptae, with all of whom I lived in exile up to eighty years." For he went to Babylon, and Persis, and Egypt, to learn from the Magi and the priests.
Zoroaster the Magus, Pythagoras showed to be a Persian. Of the secret books of this man, those who follow the heresy of Prodicus boast to be in possession. Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a pupil of Nazaratus the Assyrian a (some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterwards be shown), and will have it that, in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatae and the Brahmins. Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle.(4) Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God’s aid, the Sibyl spoke.(5) They say, accordingly, that at Delphi a stone was shown beside the oracle, on which, it is said, sat the first Sibyl, who came from Helicon, and had been reared by the Muses. But some say that she came from Milea, being the daughter of Lamia of Sidon.(6) And Serapion, in his epic verses, says that the Sibyl, even when dead ceased not from divination. And he writes that, what proceeded from her into the air after her death, was what gave oracular utterances in voices and omens; and on her body being changed into earth, and the grass as natural growing out of it, whatever beasts happening to be in that place fed on it exhibited to men an accurate knowledge of futurity by their entrails. He thinks also, that the face seen in the moon is her soul. So much for the Sibyl.
Numa the king of the Romans was a Pythagorean, and aided by the precepts of Moses, prohibited from making an image of God in human form, and of the shape of a living creature.
Accordingly, during the first hundred and seventy years, though building temples, they made no cast or graven image. For Numa secretly showed them that the Best of Beings could not be apprehended except by the mind alone. Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanaeans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour’s birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanae,(7) and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are called Hylobii(8) neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of children.
Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha;(9) whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours.
Anacharsis was a Scythian, and is recorded to have excelled many philosophers among the Greeks. And the Hyperboreans, Hellanicus relates, dwelt beyond the Riphaean mountains, and inculcated justice, not eating flesh, but using nuts. Those who are sixty years old they take without the gates, and do away with. There are also among the Germans those called sacred women, who, by inspecting the whirlpools of rivers and the eddies, and observing the noises of streams, presage and predict future events.(10) These did not allow the men to fight against Caesar till the new moon shone.
Of all these, by far the oldest is the Jewish race; and that their philosophy committed to writing has the precedence of philosophy among the Greeks, the Pythagorean Philo(11) shows at large; and, besides him, Aristobulus the Peripatetic, and several others, not to waste time, in going over them by name. Very clearly the author Megasthenes, the contemporary of Seleucus Nicanor, writes as follows in the third of his books, On Indian Affairs: "All that was said about nature by the ancients is said also by those who philosophise beyond Greece: some things by the Brahmins among the Indians, and others by those called Jews in Syria." Some more. fabulously say that certain of those called the Idaean Dactyli were the first wise men; to whom are attributed the invention of what are called the "Ephesian letters," and of numbers in music. For which reason dactyls in music received their name. And the Idaean Dactyli were Phrygians and barbarians.
Herodotus relates that Hercules, having grown a sage and a student of physics, received from the barbarian Atlas, the Phrygian, the columns of the universe; the fable meaning that he received by instruction the knowledge of the heavenly bodies. And Hermippus of Berytus calls Charon the Centaur wise; about whom, he that wrote The Battle of the Titans says, "that he first led the race of mortals to righteousness, by teaching them the solemnity of the oath, and propitiatory sacrifices and the figures of Olympus." By him Achilles, who fought at Troy, was taught. And Hippo, the daughter of the Centaur, who dwelt with AEolus, taught him her father’s science, the knowledge of physics. Euripides also testifies of Hippo as follows:--
"Who first, by oracles, presaged, And by the rising stars, events divine."
By this AEolus, Ulysses was received as a guest after the taking of Troy. Mark the epochs by comparison with the age of Moses, and with the high antiquity of the philosophy promulgated by him.
CHAP. XVI.—THAT THE INVENTORS OF OTHER ARTS WERE MOSTLY BARBARIANS.
And barbarians were inventors not only of philosophy, but almost of every art. The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology among men. Similarly also the Chaldeans. The Egyptians first showed how to burn lamps, and divided the year into twelve months, prohibited intercourse with women in the temples, and enacted that no one should enter the temples(1) from a woman without bathing. Again, they were the inventors of geometry. There are some who say that the Carians invented prognostication by the stars. The Phrygians were the first who attended to the flight of birds. And the Tuscans, neighbours of Italy, were adepts at the art of the Haruspex. The Isaurians and the Arabians invented augury, as the Telmesians divination by dreams. The Etruscans invented the trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute. For Olympus and Marsyas were Phrygians. And Cadmus, the inventor of letters among the Greeks, as Euphorus says, was a Phoenician; whence also Herodotus writes that they were called Phoenician letters. And they say that the Phoenicians and the Syrians first invented letters; and that Apis, an aboriginal inhabitant of Egypt, invented the healing art before Io came into Egypt. But afterwards they say that Asclepius improved the art.
Atlas the Libyan was the first who built a ship and navigated the sea. Kelmis and Damnaneus, Idaean Dactyli, first discovered iron in Cyprus. Another Idaean discovered the tempering of brass; according to Hesiod, a Scythian. The Thracians first invented what is called a scimitar (<greek>arph</greek>),--it is a curved sword,--and were the first to use shields on horseback. Similarly also the Illyrians invented the shield (<greek>pelth</greek>). Besides, they say that the Tuscans invented the art of moulding clay; and that Itanus (he was a Samnite) first fashioned the oblong shield (<greek>qureos</greek>). Cadmus the Phoenician invented stonecutting, and discovered the gold mines on the Pangaean mountain. Further, another nation, the Cappadocians, first invented the instrument called the nabla,(2) and the Assyrians in the same way the dichord. The Carthaginians were the first that constructed a triterme; and it was built by Bosporus, an aboriginal.(3) Medea, the daughter of AEetas, a Colchian, first invented the dyeing of hair.
Besides, the Noropes (they are a Paeonian race, and are now called the Norici) worked copper, and were the first that purified iron. Amycus the king of the Bebryci was the first inventor of boxing-gloves.(4) In music, Olympus the Mysian practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca,(5) a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented by Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise also diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and the half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same region as those mentioned above. And the Doric was invented by Thamyris the Thracian. We have heard that the Persians were the first who fashioned the chariot, and bed, and footstool; and the Sidonians the first to construct a trireme. The Sicilians, close to Italy, were the first inventors of the phorminx, which is not much inferior to the lyre. And they invented castanets.
In the time of Semiramis queen of the Assyrians,(1) they relate that linen garments were invented. And Hellanicus says that Atossa queen of the Persians was the first who composed a letter. These things are reported by Seame of Mitylene, Theophrastus of Ephesus, Cydippus of Mantinea also Antiphanes, Aristodemus, and Aristotle and besides these, Philostephanus, and also Strato the Peripatetic, in his books Concerning Inventions. I have added a few details from them, in order to confirm the inventive and practically useful genius of the barbarians, by whom the Greeks profited in their studies. And if any one objects to the barbarous language, Anacharsis says, "All the Greeks speak Scythian to me." It was he who was held in admiration by the Greeks, who said, "My covering is a cloak; my supper, milk and cheese." You see that the barbarian philosophy professes deeds, not words. The apostle thus speaks: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall ye know what is spoken?
for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kind of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." And, "Let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."(2)
Nay more, it was late before the teaching and writing of discourses reached Greece. Alcmaeon, the son of Perithus, of Crotona, first composed a treatise on nature. And it is related that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the son of Hegesibulus, first published a book in writing. The first to adapt music to poetical compositions was Terpander of Antissa; and he set the laws of the Lacedaemonians to music. Lasus of Hermione invented the dithyramb; Stesichorus of Himera, the hymn; Alcman the Spartan, the choral song; Anacreon of Tees, love songs; Pindar the Theban, the dance accompanied with song. Timotheus of Miletus was the first to execute those musical compositions called <greek>nomoi</greek> on the lyre, with dancing. Moreover, the iambus was invented by Archilochus of Pares, and the choliambus by Hipponax of Ephesus. Tragedy owed its origin to Thespis the Athenian, and comedy to Susarion of Icaria. Their dates are handed down by the grammarians. But it were tedious to specify them accurately: presently, however, Dionysus, on whose account the Dionysian spectacles are celebrated, will be shown to be later than Moses. They say that Antiphon of Rhamnusium, the son of Sophilus, first invented scholastic discourses and rhetorical figures, and was the first who pied causes for a fee, and wrote a forensic speech for delivery,(3) as Diodorus says. And Apollodorus of Cuma first assumed the name of critic, and was called a grammarian. Some say it was Eratosthenes of Cyrene who was first so called, since he published two books which he entitled Grammatica.
The first who was called a grammarian, as we now use the term, was Praxiphanes, the son of Disnysophenes of Mitylene. Zeleucus the Locrian was reported to have been the first to have framed laws (in writing) Others say that it was Menos the son of Zeus, in the time of Lynceus. He comes after Danaus, in the eleventh generation from Inachus and Moses; as we shall show a little further on. And Lycurgus, who lived many years after the taking of Troy, legislated for the Lacedaemonians a hundred and fifty years before the Olympiads. We have spoken before of the age of Solon. Draco (he was a legislator too) is discovered to have lived about the three hundred and ninth Olympiad. Antilochus, again, who wrote of the learned men from the age of Pythagoras to the death of Epicurus, which took place in the tenth day of the month Gamelion, makes up altogether three hundred and twelve years.
Moreover, some say that Phanothea, the wife of Icarius, invented the heroic hexameter; others Themis, one of the Titanides. Didymus, however, in his work On the Pythagorean Philosophy, relates that Theano of Crotona was the first woman who cultivated philosophy and composed poems The Hellenic philosophy then, according to some, apprehended the truth accidentally, dimly, partially; as others will have it, was set a-going by the devil. Several suppose that certain powers, descending from heaven, inspired the whole of philosophy. But if the Hellenic philosophy comprehends not the whole extent of the truth, and besides is destitute of strength to perform the commandments of the Lord, yet it prepares the way for the truly royal teaching; training in some way or other, and moulding the character, and fitting him who believes in Providence for the reception of the truth.(4)
CHAP. XVII.—ON THE SAYING OF THE SAVIOUR, "ALL THAT CAME BEFORE ME WERE THIEVES AND ROBBERS."(5)
But, say they, it is written, "All who were before the Lord’s advent are thieves and robbers." All, then, who are in the Word (for it is these that were previous to the incarnation of the Word) are understood generally. But the prophets, being sent and inspired by the Lord, were not thieves, but servants. The Scripture accordingly says, "Wisdom sent her servants, inviting with loud proclamation to a goblet of wine."(1)
But philosophy, it is said, was not sent by the Lord, but came stolen, or given by a thief. It was then some power or angel that had learned something of the truth, but abode not in it, that inspired and taught these things, not without the Lord’s knowledge, who knew before the constitution of each essence the issues of futurity, but without His prohibition.
For the theft which reached men then, had some advantage; not that he who perpetrated the theft had utility in his eye, but Providence directed the issue of the audacious deed to utility. I know that many are perpetually assailing us with the allegation, that not to prevent a thing happening, is to be the cause of it happening. For they say, that the man who does not take precaution against a theft, or does not prevent it, is the cause of it: as he is the cause of the conflagration who has not quenched it at the beginning; and the master of the vessel who does not reef the sail, is the cause of the shipwreck. Certainly those who are the causes of such events are punished by the law.
For to him who had power to prevent, attaches the blame of what happens. We say to them, that causation is seen in doing, working, acting; but the not preventing is in this respect inoperative. Further, causation attaches to activity; as in the case of the shipbuilder in relation to the origin of the vessel, and the builder in relation to the construction of the house. But that which does not prevent is separated from what takes place. Wherefore the effect will be accomplished; because that which could have prevented neither acts nor prevents. For what activity does that which prevents not exert?
Now their assertion is reduced to absurdity, if they shall say that the cause of the wound is not the dart, but the shield, which did not prevent the dart from passing through; and if they blame not the thief, but the man who did not prevent the theft. Let them then say, that it was not Hector that burned the ships of the Greeks, but Achilles; because, having the power to prevent Hector, he did not prevent him; but out of anger (and it depended on himself to be angry or not) did not keep back the fire, and was a concurring cause. Now the devil, being possessed of free-will, was able both to repent and to steal; and it was he who was the author of the theft, not the Lord, who did not prevent him. But neither was the gift hurtful, so as to require that prevention should intervene.
But if strict accuracy must be employed in dealing with them, let them know, that that which does not prevent what we assert to have taken place in the theft, is not a cause at all; but that what prevents is involved in the accusation of being a cause. For he that protects with a shield is the cause of him whom he protects not being wounded; preventing him, as he does, from being wounded. For the demon of Socrates was a cause, not by not preventing, but by exhorting, even if (strictly speaking) he did not exhort. And neither praises nor censures, neither rewards nor punishments, are right, when the soul has not the power of inclination and disinclination, but evil is involuntary. Whence he who prevents is a cause; while he who prevents not judges justly the soul’s choice. So in no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins, and a mistaken judgment sometimes prevails, from which, since it is ignorance and stupidity, we do not take pains to recede, punishments are rightly inflicted. For to take fever is involuntary; but when one takes fever through his own fault, from excess, we blame him.
Inasmuch, then, as evil is involuntary,--for no one prefers evil as evil; but induced by the pleasure that is in it, and imagining it good, considers it desirable;--such being the case, to free ourselves from ignorance, and from evil and voluptuous choice, and above all, to withhold our assent from those delusive phantasies, depends on ourselves. The devil is called "thief and robber;" having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the wheat. "All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;" not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prophetic name dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar. For the Lord says, "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it."(2)
But among the lies, the false prophets also told some true things. And in reality they prophesied "in an ecstasy," as(3) the servants of the apostate. And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermas, of the false prophet: "For he speaks some truths. For the devil fills him with his own spirit, if perchance he may be able to cast down any one from what is right." All things, therefore, are dispensed from heaven for good, "that by the Church may be made known the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal foreknowledge,(1) which He purposed in Christ."(2)
Nothing withstands God: nothing opposes Him: seeing He is Lord and omnipotent. Further, the counsels and activities of those who have rebelled, being partial, proceed from a bad disposition, as bodily diseases from a bad constitution, but are guided by universal Providence to a salutary issue, even though the cause be productive of disease. It is accordingly the greatest achievement of divine Providence, not to allow the evil, which has sprung from voluntary apostasy, to remain useless, and for no good, and not to become in all respects injurious. For it is the work of the divine wisdom, and excellence, and power, not alone to do good (for this is, so to speak, the nature of God, as it is of fire to warm and of light to illumine), but especially to ensure that what happens through the evils hatched by any, may come to a good and useful issue, and to use to advantage those things which appear to be evils, as also the testimony which accrues from temptation.
There is then in philosophy, though stolen as the fire by Prometheus, a slender spark, capable of being fanned into flame, a trace of wisdom and an impulse from God. Well, be it so that "the thieves and robbers" are the philosophers among the Greeks, who from the Hebrew prophets before the coming of the Lord received fragments of the truth, not with full knowledge, and claimed these as their own teachings, disguising some points, treating others sophistically by their ingenuity, and discovering other things, for perchance they had "the spirit of perception."(3) Aristotle, too, assented to Scripture, and declared sophistry to have stolen wisdom, as we intimated before. And the apostle says, "Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."(4) For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received of His fulness,"(5) that is, of Christ’s. So that the prophets are not thieves. "And my doctrine is not Mine," saith the Lord, "but the Father’s which sent me." And of those who steal He says: "But he that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory."(6) Such are the Greeks, "lovers of their own selves, and boasters."(7) Scripture, when it speaks of these as wise, does not brand those who are really wise, but those who are wise in appearance.
CHAP. XVIII.—HE ILLUSTRATES THE APOSTLE’S SAYING, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE."
And of such it is said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." The apostle accordingly adds, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers(8) of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"(9) which is equivalent to, showed it to be foolish, and not true, as they thought. And if you ask the cause of their seeming wisdom, he will say, "because of the blindness of their heart;" since "in the wisdom of God," that is, as proclaimed by the prophets, "the world knew not," in the wisdom "which spake by the prophets," "Him,"(10) that is, God,--"it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching"—what seemed to the Greeks foolishness—"to save them that believe. For the Jews require signs," in order to faith; "and the Greeks seek after wisdom," plainly those reasonings styled "irresistible," and those others, namely, syllogisms. "But we preach Jesus Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumbling-block," because, though knowing prophecy, they did not believe the event: "to the Greeks, foolishness;" for those who in their own estimation are wise, consider it fabulous that the Son of God should speak by man and that God should have a Son, and especially that that Son should have suffered. Whence their preconceived idea inclines them to disbelieve. For the advent of the Saviour did not make people foolish, and hard of heart, and unbelieving, but made them understanding, amenable to persuasion, and believing.
But those that would not believe, by separating themselves from the voluntary adherence of those who obeyed, were proved to be without understanding, unbelievers and fools. "But to them who are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Should we not understand (as is better) the words rendered, "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"
negatively: "God hath not made foolish the wisdom of the world?"—so that the cause of their hardness of heart may not appear to have proceeded from God, "making foolish the wisdom of the world." For on all accounts, being wise, they incur greater blame in not believing the proclamation.
For the preference and choice of truth is voluntary. But that declaration, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," declares Him to have sent forth light, by bringing forth in opposition the despised and contemned barbarian philosophy; as the lamp, when shone upon by the sun, is said to be extinguished, on account of its not then exerting the same power. All having been therefore called, those who are willing to obey have been named(1) "called." For there is no unright-eousness with God. Those of either race who have believed, are "a peculiar people."(2) And in the Acts of the Apostles you will find this, word for word, "Those then who received his word were baptized;"(3) but those who would not obey kept themselves aloof. To these prophecy says, "If ye be willing and hear me, ye shall eat the good things of the land;"(4) proving that choice or refusal depends on ourselves. The apostle designates the doctrine which is according to the Lord, "the wisdom of God," in order to show that the true philosophy has been communicated by the Son. Further, he, who has a show of wisdom, has certain exhortations enjoined on him by the apostle: "That ye put on the new man, which after God is renewed in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let him labour, working that which is good" (and to work is to labour in seeking the truth; for it is accompanied with rational well-doing), "that ye may have to give to him that has need,"(5) both of worldly wealth and of divine wisdom. For he wishes both that the word be taught, and that the money be put into the bank, accurately tested, to accumulate interest. Whence he adds, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,"—that is "corrupt communication" which proceeds out of conceit,--"but that which is good for the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers." And the word of the good God must needs be good. And how is it possible that he who saves shall not be good?
CHAP. XIX.—THAT THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME PORTION OF TRUTH.
Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have laid down some true opinions, we may from this point take a glance at the testimonies. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded to have said to the Areopagites, "I perceive that ye are more than ordinarily religious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him; though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we also are His offspring."(6)
Whence it is evident that the apostle, by availing himself of poetical examples from the Phenomena of Aratus, approves of what had been well spoken by the Greeks; and intimates that, by the unknown God, God the Creator was in a roundabout way worshipped by the Greeks; but that it was necessary by positive knowledge to apprehend and learn Him by the Son. "Wherefore, then, I send thee to the Gentiles," it is said, "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Me."(7)
Such, then, are the eyes of the blind which are opened. The knowledge of the Father by the Son is the comprehension of the "Greek circumlocution;"(8) and to turn from the power of Satan is to change from sin, through which bondage was produced. We do not, indeed, receive absolutely all philosophy, but that of which Socrates(9) speaks in Plato. "For there are (as they say) in the mysteries many bearers of the thyrsus, but few bacchanals;" meaning, "that many are called, but few chosen." He accordingly plainly adds: "These, in my opinion, are none else than those who have philosophized right; to belong to whose number, I myself have left nothing undone in life, as far as I could, but have endeavoured in every way. Whether we have endeavoured rightly and achieved aught, we shall know when we have gone there, if God will, a little afterwards."
Does he not then seem to declare from the Hebrew Scriptures the righteous man’s hope, through faith, after death? And in Demodocus(10) (if that is really the work of Plato): "And do not imagine that I call it philosophizing to spend life pottering about the arts, or learning many things, but something different; since I, at least, would consider this a disgrace." For he knew, I reckon, "that the knowledge of many things does not educate the mind,"(1) according to Heraclitus. And in the fifth book of the Republic.(2) he says, "’ Shall we then call all these, and the others which study such things, and those who apply themselves to the meaner arts, philosophers?’ ‘By no means,’ I said, ‘but like philosophers.’ ‘And whom,’ said he, ‘do you call true?’ ‘Those,’ said I,’ who delight in the contemplation of truth. For philosophy is not in geometry, with its postulates and hypotheses; nor in music, which is conjectural; nor in astronomy, crammed full of physical, fluid, and probable causes.
But the knowledge of the good and truth itself are requisite,--what is good being one thing, and the ways to the good another.’"(3) So that he does not allow that the curriculum of training suffices for the good, but co-operates in rousing and training the soul to intellectual objects.
Whether, then, they say that the Greeks gave forth some utterances of the true philosophy by accident, it is the accident of a divine administration (for no one will, for the sake of the present argument with us, deify chance); or by good fortune, good fortune is not unforeseen. Or were one, on the other hand, to say that the Greeks possessed a natural conception of these things, we know the one Creator of nature; just as we also call righteousness natural; or that they had a common intellect, let us reflect who is its father, and what righteousness is in the mental economy. For were one to name "prediction,"(4) and assign as its cause "combined utterance,"(5) he specifies forms of prophecy. Further, others will have it that some truths were uttered by the philosophers, in appearance.
The divine apostle writes accordingly respecting us: "For now we see as through a glass;"(6) knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simul-taneously contemplating, as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, in us, is divine. For it is said, "Having seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God:" methinks that now the Saviour God is declared to us. But after the laying aside of the flesh, "face to face,"—then definitely and comprehensively, when the heart becomes pure. And by reflection and direct vision, those among the Greeks who have philosophized accurately, see God.
For such, through our weakness, are our true views, as images are seen in the water, and as we see things through pellucid and transparent bodies. Excellently therefore Solomon says: "He who soweth righteousness, worketh faith."(7) "And there are those who, sewing their own, make increase."(8) And again: "Take care of the verdure on the plain, and thou shalt cut grass and gather ripe hay, that thou mayest have sheep for clothing."(9) You see how care must be taken for external clothing and for keeping. "And thou shalt intelligently know the souls of thy flock."(10) "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; uncircumcision observing the precepts of the law,"(11) according to the apostle, both before the law and before the advent. As if making comparison of those addicted to philosophy with those called heretics,(12) the Word most clearly says: "Better is a friend that is near, than a brother that dwelleth afar off."(13) "And he who relies on falsehoods, feeds on the winds, and pursues winged birds."(14) I do not think that philosophy directly declares the Word, although in many instances philosophy attempts and persuasively teaches us probable arguments; but it assails the sects.
Accordingly it is added: "For he hath forsaken the ways of his own vineyard, and wandered in the tracks of his own husbandry." Such are the sects which deserted the primitive Church.(12) Now he who has fallen into heresy passes through an arid wilderness, abandoning the only true God, destitute of God, seeking waterless water, reaching an uninhabited and thirsty land, collecting sterility with his hands. And those destitute of prudence, that is, those involved in heresies, "I enjoin," remarks Wisdom, saying, "Touch sweetly stolen bread and the sweet water of theft;"(15) the Scripture manifestly applying the terms bread and water to nothing else but to those heresies, which employ bread and water in the oblation, not according to the canon of the Church. For there are those who celebrate the Eucharist with mere water. "But begone, stay not in her place:" dace is the synagogue, not the Church. He calls it by the equivocal name, place.
Then He subjoins: "For so shalt thou pass through the water of another;" reckoning heretical baptism not proper and true water. "And thou shalt pass over another’s river," that rushes along and sweeps down to the sea; into which he is cast who, having diverged from the stability which is according to truth, rushes back into the heathenish and tumultous waves of life.
CHAP. XX.—IN WHAT RESPECT PHILOSOPHY CONTRIBUTES TO THE COMPREHENSION OF DIVINE TRUTH.
As many men drawing down the ship, cannot be called many causes, but one cause consisting of many;--for each individual by himself is not the cause of the ship being drawn, but along with the rest;--so also philosophy, being the search for truth, contributes to the comprehension of truth; not as being the cause of comprehension, but a cause along with other things, and co-operator; perhaps also a joint cause. And as the several virtues are causes of the happiness of one individual; and as both the sun, and the fire, and the bath, and clothing are of one getting warm: so while truth is one, many things contribute to its investigation. But its discovery is by the Son. If then we consider, virtue is, in power, one. But it is the case, that when exhibited in some things, it is called prudence, in others temperance, and in others manliness or righteousness. By the same analogy, while truth is one, in geometry there is the truth of geometry; in music, that of music; and in the right philosophy, there will be Hellenic truth.
But that is the only authentic truth, unassailable, in which we are instructed by the Son of God. In the same way we say, that the drachma being one and the same, when given to the shipmaster, is called the fare; to the tax-gatherer, tax; to the landlord, rent; to the teacher, fees; to the seller, an earnest. And each, whether it be virtue or truth, called by the same name, is the cause of its own peculiar effect alone; and from the blending of them arises a happy life. For we are not made happy by names alone, when we say that a good life is happiness, and that the man who is adorned in his soul with virtue is happy. But if philosophy contributes remotely to the discovery of truth, by reaching, by diverse essays, after the knowledge which touches close on the truth, the knowledge possessed by us, it aids him who aims at grasping it, in accordance with the Word, to apprehend knowledge. But the Hellenic truth is distinct from that held by us (although it has got the same name), both in respect of extent of knowledge, certainly of demonstration, divine power, and the like. For we are taught of God, being instructed in the truly "sacred letters"(1) by the Son of God.
Whence those, to whom we refer, influence souls not in the way we do, but by different teaching. And if, for the sake of those who are fond of fault-finding, we must draw a distinction, by saying that philosophy is a concurrent and cooperating cause of true apprehension, being the search for truth, then we shall avow it to be a preparatory training for the enlightened man (<greek>tou</greek> <greek>gnwstikou</greek>); not assigning as the cause that which is but the joint-cause; nor as the upholding cause, what is merely co-operative; nor giving to philosophy the place of a sine qua non. Since almost all of us, without training in arts and sciences, and the Hellenic philosophy, and some even without learning at all, through the influence of a philosophy divine and barbarous, and by power, have through faith received the word concerning God, trained by self-operating wisdom. But that which acts in conjunction with something else, being of itself incapable of operating by itself, we describe as co-operating and concausing, and say that it becomes a cause only in virtue of its being a joint-cause, and receives the name of cause only in respect of its concurring with something else, but that it cannot by itself produce the right effect.
Although at one time philosophy justified the Greeks,(2) not conducting them to that entire righteousness to which it is ascertained to cooperate, as the first and second flight of steps help you in your ascent to the upper room, and the grammarian helps the philosopher. Not as if by its abstraction, the perfect Word would be rendered incomplete, or truth perish; since also sight, and hearing, and the voice contribute to truth, but it is the mind which is the appropriate faculty for knowing it. But of those things which co-operate, some contribute a greater amount of power; some, a less. Perspicuity accordingly aids in the communication of truth, and logic in preventing us from falling under the heresies by which we are assailed. But the teaching, which is according to the Saviour, is complete in itself and without defect, being "the power and wisdom of God;"(3) and the Hellenic philosophy does not, by its approach, make the truth more powerful; but rendering powerless the assault of sophistry against it, and frustrating the treacherous plots laid against the truth, is said to be the proper "fence and wall of the vineyard."
And the truth which is according to faith is as necessary for life as bread; while the preparatory discipline is like sauce and sweetmeats. "At the end of the dinner, the dessert is pleasant," according to the Theban Pindar. And the Scripture has expressly said, "The innocent will become wiser by understanding, and the wise will receive knowledge."(4) "And he that speaketh of himself," saith the Lord, "seeketh his own glory; but He that seeketh His glory that sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."(5) On the other hand, therefore, he who appropriates what belongs to the barbarians, and vaunts it is his own, does wrong, increasing his own glory, and falsifying the truth. It is such an one that is by Scripture called a "thief." It is therefore said, "Son, be not a liar; for falsehood leads to theft." Nevertheless the thief possesses really, what he has possessed himself of dishonestly,(1) whether it be gold, or silver, or speech, or dogma. The ideas, then, which they have stolen, and which are partially true, they know by conjecture and necessary logical deduction: on becoming disciples, therefore, they will know them with intelligent apprehension.
CHAP. XXI.—THE JEWISH INSTITUTIONS AND LAWS OF FAR HIGHER ANTIQUITY THAN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.
On the plagiarizing of the dogmas of the philosophers from the Hebrews, we shall treat a little afterwards. But first, as due order demands, we must now speak of the epoch of Moses, by which the philosophy of the Hebrews will be demonstrated beyond all contradiction to be the most ancient of all wisdom. This has been discussed with accuracy by Tatian in his book To the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. Nevertheless our commentary demands that we too should run over what has been said on the point. Apion, then, the grammarian, surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth book of The Egyptian Histories, although of so hostile a disposition towards the Hebrews, being by race an Egyptian, as to compose a work against the Jews, when referring to Amosis king of the Egyptians, and his exploits, adduces, as a witness, Ptolemy of Mendes.
And his remarks are to the following effect: Amosis, who lived in the time of the Argive Inachus, overthrew Athyria, as Ptolemy of Mendes relates in his Chronology. Now this Ptolemy was a priest; and setting forth the deeds of the Egyptian kings in three entire books, he says, that the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, under the conduct of Moses, took place while Amosis was king of Egypt. Whence it is seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus. And of the Hellenic states, the most ancient is the Argolic, I mean that which took its rise from Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his Times. And younger by forty generations than it was Attica, founded by Cecrops, who was an aboriginal of double race, as Tatian expressly says; and Arcadia, founded by Pelasgus, younger too by nine generations; and he, too, is said to have been an aboriginal.
And more recent than this last by fifty-two generations, was Pthiotis, rounded by Deucalion. And from the time of Inachus to the Trojan war twenty generations or more are reckoned; let us say, four hundred years and more. And if Ctesias says that the Assyrian power is many years older than the Greek, the exodus of Moses from Egypt will appear to have taken place in the forty-second year of the Assyrian empire,(2) in the thirty-second year of the reign of Belochus, in the time of Amosis the Egyptian, and of Inachus the Argive. And in Greece, in the time of Phoroneus, who succeeded Inachus, the flood of Ogyges occurred; and monarchy subsisted in Sicyon first in the person of AEgialeus, then of Europs, then of Telches; in Crete, in the person of Cres. For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man. Whence, too, the author of Phoronis said that he was "the father of mortal men." Thence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And wishing to draw them out into a discussion respecting antiquities, he(3) said that he ventured to speak of the most remote antiquities of this city(4) respecting Phoroneus, called the first man, and Niobe, and what happened after the deluge." And in the time of Phorbus lived Actaeus, from whom is derived Actaia, Attica; and in the time of Triopas lived Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and Cecrops of double race, and Ino. And in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluge s of Deucalion; and in the time of Sthenelus, the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnesus; and trader Dardanus happened the building of Dardania, whom, says Homer,
"First cloud-compelling Zeus begat,"—
and the transmigration from Crete into Phoenicia. And in the time of Lynceus took place the abduction of Proserpine, and the dedication of the sacred enclosure in Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. And in the time of Proetus the war of Eumolpus with the Athenians took place; and in the time of Acrisius, the removal of Pelops from Phrygia, the arrival of Ion at Athens; and the second Cecrops appeared, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus took place, and Orpheus and Musaeus lived. And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon, Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign of Demophon the son of Theseus at Athens, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says; but AEgias and Dercylus, in the third book, say that it was on the eighth day of the last division of the month Panemus; Hellanicus says that it was on the twelfth of the month Thargelion; and some of the authors of the Attica say that it was on the eighth of the last division of the month in the last year of Menestheus, at full moon.
"It was midnight,"
says the author of the Little Iliad,
"And the moon shone clear."
Others say, it took place on the same day of Scirophorion. But Theseus, the rival of Hercules, is older by a generation than the Trojan war. Accordingly Tlepolemus, a son of Hercules, is mentioned by Homer, as having served at Troy.
Moses, then, is shown to have preceded the deification of Dionysus six hundred and four years, if he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronology. From Bacchus to Hercules and the chiefs that sailed with Jason in the ship Argo, are comprised sixty-three years. AEsculapius and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in his Argonautics. And from the reign of Hercules, in Argos, to the deification of Hercules and of AEsculapius, are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronologist; from this to the deification of Castor and Pollux, fifty-three years. And at this time Troy was taken.
And if we may believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear him:--
"Then to Jove, Maia, Atlas’ daughter, bore renowned Hermes, Herald of the immortals, having ascended the sacred couch. And Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, too, bore an illustrious son, Dionysus, the joy-inspiring, when she mingled with him in love."(1)
Cadmus, the father of Semele, came to Thebes in the time of Lynceus, and was the inventor of the Greek letters. Triopas was a contemporary of Isis, in the seventh generation from Inachus. And Isis, who is the same as Io, is so called, it is said, from her going (<greek>ienai</greek>) roaming over the whole earth. Her, Istrus, in his work on the migration of the Egyptians, calls the daughter of Prometheus.
Prometheus lived in the time of Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses. So that Moses appears to have flourished even before the birth of men, according to the chronology of the Greeks. Leon, who treated of the Egyptian divinities, says that Isis by the Greeks was called Ceres, who lived in the time of Lynceus, in the eleventh generation after Moses. And Apis the king of Argos built Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first book of the Arcadica. And Aristeas the Argive says that he was named Serapis, and that it is he that the Egyptians worship. And Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third book of the Institutions of Asia, says that the bull Apis, dead and laid in a coffin (<greek>soros</greek>), was deposited in the temple of the god (<greek>daimonos</greek>) there worshipped, and thence was called Soroapis, and afterwards Serapis by the custom of the natives. And Apis is third after Inachus. Further, Latona lived in the time of Tityus. "For he dragged Latona, the radiant consort of Zeus."
Now Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. Rightly, therefor, the Boeotian Pindar writes, "And in time was Apollo born;" and no wonder when he is found along with Hercules, serving Admetus "for a long year." Zethus and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And should one assert that Phemonoe was the first who sang oracles in verse to Acrisius, let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe, lived Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules. And Homer and Hesiod are much more recent than the Trojan war; and after them the legislators among the Greeks are far more recent, Lycurgus and Solon, and the seven wise men, and Pherecydes of Syros, and Pythagoras the great, who lived later, about the Olympiads, as we have shown. We have also demonstrated Moses to be more ancient, not only than those called poets and wise men among the Greeks, but than the most of their deities. Nor he alone, but the Sibyl also is more ancient than Orpheus. For it is said, that respecting her appellation and her oracular utterances there are several accounts; that being a Phrygian, she was called Artemis; and that on her arrival at Delphi, she sang—
"O Delphians, ministers of far-darting Apollo, I come to declare the mind of AEgis-bearing Zeus, Enraged as I am at my own brother Apollo."
There is another also, an Erythraean, called Herophile. These are mentioned by Heraclides of Pontus in his work On Oracles. I pass over the Egyptian Sibyl, and the Italian, who inhabited the Carmentale in Rome, whose son was Evander, who built the temple of Pan in Rome, called the Lupercal.
It is worth our while, having reached this point, to examine the dates of the other prophets among the Hebrews who succeeded Moses. After the close of Moses’s life, Joshua succeeded to the leadership of the people, and he, after warring for sixty-five years, rested in the good land other five-and-twenty. As the book of Joshua relates, the above mentioned man was the successor of Moses twenty-seven years. Then the Hebrews having sinned, were delivered to Chusachar(2) king of Mesopotamia for eight years, as the book of Judges mentions. But having afterwards besought the Lord, they receive for leader Gothoniel,(1) the younger brother of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, who, having slain the king of Mesopotamia, ruled over the people forty years in succession. And having again sinned, they were delivered into the hands of AEglom(2) king of the Moabites for eighteen years. But on their repentance, Aod,(3) a man who had equal use of both hands, of the tribe of Ephraim, was their leader.for eighty years. It was he that despatched AEglom. On the death of Aod, and on their sinning again, they were delivered into the hand of Jabim(4) king of Canaan twenty years.
After him Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, of the tribe of Ephraim, prophesied; and Ozias the son of Rhiesu was high priest. At her instance Barak the son of Bener,(5) of the tribe of Naphtali, commanding the army, having joined battle with Sisera, Jabim’s commander-in-chief, conquered him. And after that Deborah ruled, judging the people forty years. On her death, the people having again sinned, were delivered into the hands of the Midianites seven years. After these events, Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joas, having fought with his three hundred men, and killed a hundred and twenty thousand, ruled forty years; after whom the son of Ahimelech, three years. He was succeeded by Boleas, the son of Bedan, the son of Charran,(6) of the tribe of Ephraim, who ruled twenty-three years. After whom, the people having sinned again, were delivered to the Ammonites eighteen years; and on their repentance were commanded by Jephtha the Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh; and he ruled six years. After whom, Abatthan(7) of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Juda, ruled seven years. Then Ebron(8) the Zebulonite, eight years. Then Eglom of Ephraim, eight years.
Some add to the seven years of Abatthan the eight of Ebrom.(9) And after him, the people having again transgressed, came under the power of the foreigners, the Philistines, for forty years. But on their returning [to God], they were led by Samson, of the tribe of Dan, who conquered the foreigners in battle. He ruled twenty years. And after him, there being no governor, Eli the priest judged the people for forty years. He was succeeded by Samuel the prophet; contemporaneously with whom Saul reigned, who held sway for twenty-seven years. He anointed David. Samuel died two years before Saul, while Abimelech was high priest. He anointed Saul as king, who was the first that bore regal sway over Israel after the judges; the whole duration of whom, down to Saul, was four hundred and sixty-three years and seven months.
Then in the first book of Kings there are twenty years of Saul, during which he reigned after he was renovated. And after the death of Saul, David the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, reigned next in Hebron, forty years, as is contained in the second book of Kings. And Abiathar the son of Abimelech, of the kindred of Eli, was high priest. In his time Gad and Nathan prophesied. From Joshua the son of Nun, then, till David received the kingdom, there intervene, according to some, four hundred and fifty years. But, as the chronology set forth shows, five hundred and twenty-three years and seven months are comprehended till the death of David.
And after this Solomon the son of David reigned forty years. Under him Nathan continued to prophesy, who also exhorted him respecting the building of the temple. Achias of Shilo also prophesied. And both the kings, David and Solomon, were prophets. And Sadoc the high priest was the first who ministered in the temple which Solomon built, being the eighth from Aaron, the first high priest. From Moses, then, to the age of Solomon, as some say, are five hundred and ninety-five years, and as others, five hundred and seventy-six.
And if you count, along with the four hundred and fifty years from Joshua to David, the forty years of the rule of Moses, and the other eighty years of Moses’s life previous to the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, you will make up the sum in all of six hundred and ten years. But our chronology will run more correctly, if to the five hundred and twenty-three years and seven months till the death of David, you add the hundred and twenty years of Moses and the forty years of Solomon.
For you will make up in all, down to the death of Solomon, six hundred and eighty-three years and seven months.
Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon about the time of the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, after the capture of Troy, as is said by Menan-der of Pergamus, and Laetus in The Phoenicia. And after Solomon, Roboam his son reigned for seventeen years; and Abimelech the son of Sadoc was high priest. In his reign, the kingdom being divided, Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, the servant of Solomon, reigned in Samaria; and Achias the Shilonite continued to prophesy; also Samaeas the son of Amame, and he who came from Judah to Jeroboam,(10) and prophesied against the altar. After him his son Abijam, twenty-three years; and likewise his son Asaman.(1) The last, in his old age, was diseased in his feet; and in his reign prophesied Jehu the son of Ananias.
After him Jehosaphat his son reigned twenty-five years.(2) In his reign prophesied Elias the Thesbite, and Michaeas the son of Jebla, and Abdias the son of Ananias. And in the time of Michaeas there was also the false prophet Zedekias, the son of Chonaan. These were followed by the reign of Joram the son of Jehosaphat, for eight years; during whose time prophesied Elias; and after Elias, Elisaeus the son of Saphat. In his reign the people in Samaria ate doves’ dung and their own children. The period of Jehosaphat extends from the close of the third book of Kings to the fourth. And in the reign of Joram, Elias was translated, and Elisaeus the son of Saphat commenced prophesying, and prophesied for six years, being forty years old.
Then Ochozias reigned a year. In his time Elisaeus continued to prophesy, and along with him Adadonaeus.(3) After him the mother of Ozias,(4) Gotholia,(5) reigned eight(6) years, having slain the children of her brother.(7) For she was of the family of Ahab. But the sister of Ozias, Josabaea, stole Joas the son of Ozias, and invested him afterwards with the kingdom. And in the time of this Gotholia, Elisaeus was still prophesying. And after her reigned, as I said before, Joash, rescued by Josabaea the wife of Jodae the high priest, and lived in all forty years.
There are comprised, then, from Solomon to the death of Elisaeus the prophet, as some say, one hundred and five years; according to others, one hundred and two; and, as the chronology before us shows, from the reign of Solomon an hundred and eighty-one.
Now from the Trojan war to the birth of Homer, according to Philochorus, a hundred and eighty years elapsed; and he was posterior to the Ionic migration. But Aristarchus, in the Archilochian Memoirs, says that he lived during the Ionic migration, which took place a hundred and twenty years after the siege of Troy. But Apollodorus alleges it was an hundred and twenty years after the Ionic migration, while Agesilaus son of Doryssaeus was king of the Lacedaemonians: so that he brings Lycurgus the legislator, while still a young man, near him. Euthymenes, in the Chronicles, says that he flourished contemporaneously with Hesiod, in the time of Acastus, and was born in Chios about the four hundredth year after the capture of Troy. And Archimachus, in the third book of his Euboean History), is of this opinion.
So that both he and Hesiod were later than Elisaeus, the prophet. And if you choose to follow the grammarian Crates, and say that Homer was born about the time of the expedition of the Heraclidae, eighty years after the taking of Troy, he will be found to be later again than Solomon, in whose days occurred the arrival of Menelaus in Phenicia, as was said above. Eratosthenes says that Homer’s age was two hundred years after the capture of Troy.
Further, Theopompus, in the forty-third book of the .Philippics, relates that Homer was born five hundred years after the war at Troy. And Euphorion, in his book about the Aleuades, maintains that he was born in the time of Gyges, who began to reign in the eighteenth Olympiad, who, also he says, was the first that was called tyrant <greek>turannos</greek>. Sosibius Lacon, again, in his Record of Dates, brings Homer down to the eighth year of the reign of Charillus the son of Polydectus. Charillus reigned for sixty-four years, after whom the son of Nicander reigned thirty-nine years. In his thirty-fourth year it is said that the first Olympiad was instituted; so that Homer was ninety years before the introduction of the Olympic games.
After Joas, Amasias his son reigned as his successor thirty-nine years. He in like manner was succeeded by his son Ozias, who reigned for fifty-two years, and died a leper. And in his time prophesied Amos, and Isaiah his son,(8) and Hosea the son of Beeri, and Jonas the son of Amathi, who was of Gethchober, who preached to the Ninevites, and passed through the whale’s belly.
Then Jonathan the son of Ozias reigned for sixteen years. In his time Esaias still prophesied, and Hosea, and Michaeas the Morasthite, and Joel the son of Bethuel.
Next in succession was his son Ahaz, who reigned for sixteen years. In his time, in the fifteenth
year, Israel was carried away to Babylon. And Salmanasar the king of the Assyrians carried away the people of Samaria into the country of the Medes and to Babylon.
Again Ahaz was succeeded by Osee,(9) who reigned for eight years. Then followed Hezekiah, for twenty-nine years. For his sanctity, when he had approached his end, God, by Isaiah, allowed him to live for other fifteen years, giving as a sign the going back of the sun. Up to his times Esaias, Hosea, and Micah continued prophesying.
And these are said to have lived after the age of Lycurgus, the legislator of the Lacedaemonians. For Dieuchidas, in the fourth book of the Megarics, places the era of Lycurgus about the two hundred and ninetieth year after the capture of Troy.
After Hezekiah, his son Manasses reigned for fifty-five years. Then his son Amos for two years. After him reigned his son Josias, distinguished for his observance of the law, for thirty-one years. He "laid the carcases of men upon the carcases of the idols," as is written in the book of Leviticus.(1) In his reign, in the eighteenth year, the passover was celebrated, not having been kept from the days of Samuel in the intervening period.(2) Then Chelkias the priest, the father of the prophet Jeremiah, having fallen in with the book of the law, that had been laid up in the temple, read it and died.(3) And in his days Olda(4) prohesied, and Sophonias,(5) and Jeremiah. And in the days of Jeremiah was Ananias the son of Azor,(6) the false prophet. He(7) having disobeyed Jeremiah the prophet, was slain by Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt at the river Euphrates, having encountered the latter, who was marching on the Assyrians.
Josiah was succeeded by Jechoniah, called also Joachas,(8) his son, who reigned three months and ten days. Necho king of Egypt bound him and led him to Egypt, after making his brother Joachim king in his stead, who continued his tributary for eleven years. After him his namesake(9) Joakim reigned for three months. Then Zedekiah reigned for eleven years; and up to his time Jeremiah continued to prophesy. Along with him Ezekiel(10) the son of Buzi, and Urias(11) the son of Samaeus, and Ambacum(12) prophesied. Here end the Hebrew kings.
There are then from the birth of Moses till this captivity nine hundred and seventy-two years; but
according to strict chronological accuracy, one thousand and eighty-five, six months, ten days. From the reign of David to the captivity by the Chaldeans, four hundred and fifty-two years and six months; but as the accuracy we have observed in reference to dates makes out, four hundred and eighty-two and six months ten days.
And in the twelfth year of the reign of Zedekiah, forty years before the supremacy of the Persians, Nebuchodonosor made war against the Phoenicians and the Jews, as Berosus asserts in his Chaldaean Histories. And Joabas,(13) writing about the Assyrians, acknowledges that he had received the history from Berosus, and testifies to his accuracy. Nebuchodonosor, therefore, having put out the eyes of Zedekiah, took him away to Babylon, and transported the whole people (the captivity lasted seventy years), with the exception of a few who fled to Egypt.
Jeremiah and Ambacum were still prophesying in the time of Zedekiah. In the fifth year of his reign Ezekiel prophesied at Babylon; after him Nahum, then Daniel. After him, again, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied in the time of Darius the First for two years; and then the angel among the twelve.(14) After Haggai and Zechariah, Nehemiah, the chief cup-bearer of Artaxerxes, the son of Acheli the Israelite, built the city of Jerusalem and restored the temple. During the captivity lived Esther and Mordecai, whose book is still extant, as also that of the Maccabees. During this captivity Mishael, Ananias, and Azarias, refusing to worship the image, and being thrown into a furnace of fire, were saved by the appearance of an angel. At that time, on account of the serpent,(15) Daniel was thrown into the den of lions; but being preserved through the providence of God by Ambacub, he is restored on the seventh day. At this period, too, occurred the sign of Jona; and Tobias, through the assistance of the angel Raphael, married Sarah, the demon having killed her seven first suitors; and after the marriage of Tobias, his father Tobit recovered his sight.
At that time Zorobabel, having by his wisdom overcome his opponents, and obtained leave from Darius for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, returned with Esdras to his native land; and by him the redemption of the people and the revisal and restoration of the inspired oracles were effected; and the passover of deliverance celebrated, and marriage with aliens dissolved.
Cyrus had, by proclamation, previously enjoined the restoration of the Hebrews. And his promise being accomplished in the time of Darius, the feast of the dedication was held, as also the feast of tabernacles.
There were in all, taking in the duration of the captivity down to the restoration of the people, from the birth of Moses, one thousand one hundred and fifty-five years, six months, and ten days; and from the reign of David, according to some, four hundred and fifty-two; more correctly, five hundred and seventy-two years, six months, and ten days.
From the captivity at Babylon, which took place in the time of Jeremiah the prophet, was fulfilled what was spoken by Daniel the prophet as follows: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to seal sins, and to wipe out and make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the word commanding an answer to be given, and Jerusalem to be built, to Christ the Prince, are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and the street shall be again built, and the wall; and the times shall be expended.
And after the sixty-two weeks the anointing shall be overthrown, and judgment shall not be in him; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the coming Prince. And they shall be destroyed in a flood, and to the end of the war shall be cut off by: desolations. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and oblation shall be taken away; and in the holy place shall be the abomination of desolations, and until the consummation of time shall the consummation be assigned for desolation. And in the midst of the week shall he make the incense of sacrifice cease, and of the wing of destruction, even till the consummation, like the destruction of the oblation."(1)
That the temple accordingly was l built in seven weeks, is evident; for it is written in Esdras. And thus Christ became King of the Jews, reigning in Jerusalem in the fulfilment of the seven weeks. And in the sixty and two weeks the whole of Judaea was quiet, and without wars. And Christ our Lord, "the Holy of Holies," having come and fulfilled the vision and the prophecy, was anointed in His flesh by the Holy Spirit of His Father. In those "sixty and two weeks," as the prophet said, and "in the one week," was He Lord. The half of the week Nero held sway, and in the holy city Jerusalem placed the abomination; and in the half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius. And Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place. And that such are the facts of the case, is clear to him that is able to understand, as the prophet said.
On the completion, then, of the eleventh year, in the beginning of the following, in the reign of Joachim, occurred the carrying away captive to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor the king, in the seventh year of his reign over the Assyrians, in the second year of the reign of Vaphres over the Egyptians, in the archonship of Philip at Athens, in the first year of the forty-eighth Olympiad. The captivity lasted for seventy years, and ended in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, who had become king of the Persians, Assyrians, and Egyptians; in whose reign, as I said above, Haggai and Zechariah and the angel of the twelve prophesied. And the high priest was Joshua the son of Josedec. And in the second year of the reign of Darius, who, Herodotus says, destroyed the power of the Magi, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel was despatched to raise and adorn the temple at Jerusalem.
The times of the Persians are accordingly summed up thus: Cyrus reigned thirty years; Cambyses, nineteen; Darius, forty-six; Xerxes, twenty-six; Artaxerxes, forty-one; Darius, eight; Artaxerxes, forty-two; Ochus or Arses, three. The sum total of the years of the Persian monarchy is two hundred and thirty-five years.
Alexander of Macedon, having despatched this Darius, during this period, began to reign. Similarly, therefore, the times of the Macedonian kings are thus computed: Alexander, eighteen years; Ptolemy the son of Lagus, forty years; Ptolemy Philadelphus, twenty-seven years; then Euergetes, five-and-twenty years; then Philopator, seventeen years; then Epiphanes, four-and-twenty years; he was succeeded by Philometer, who reigned five-and-thirty years; after him Physcon, twenty-nine years; then Lathurus, thirty-six years; then he that was surnamed I Dionysus, twenty-nine years; and last Cleopatra reigned twenty-two years. And after her was the reign of the Cappadocians for eighteen days.
Accordingly the period embraced by the Macedonian kings is, in all, three hundred and twelve years and eighteen days.
Therefore those who prophesied in the time of Darius Hystaspes, about the second year of his reign,--Haggai, and Zechariah, and the angel of the twelve, who prophesied about the first year of the forty-eighth Olympiad,--are demonstrated to be older than Pythagoras, who is said to have lived in the sixty-second Olympiad, and than Thales, the oldest of the wise men of the Greeks, who lived about the fiftieth Olympiad. Those wise men that are classed with Thales were then contemporaneous, as Andron says in the Tripos. For Heraclitus being posterior to Pythagoras, mentions him in his book. Whence indisputably the first Olympiad, which was demonstrated to be four hundred and seven years later than the Trojan war, is found to be prior to the age of the above-mentioned prophets, together with those called the seven wise men. Accordingly it is easy to perceive that Solomon, who lived in the time of Menelaus (who was during the Trojan war), was earlier by many years than the wise men among the Greeks. And how many years Moses preceded him we showed, in what we said above.
And Alexander, surnamed Polyhistor, in his work on the Jews, has transcribed some letters of Solomon to Vaphres king of Egypt, and to the king of the Phoenicians at Tyre, and theirs to Solomon; in which it is shown that Vaphres sent eighty thousand Egyptian men to him for the building of the temple, and the other as many, along with a Tyrian artificer, the son of a Jewish mother, of the tribe of Dan,(1) as is there written, of the name of Hyperon.(2) Further, Onomacritus the Athenian, who is said to have been the author of the poems ascribed to Orpheus, is ascertained to have lived in the reign of the Pisistratidae, about the fiftieth Olympiad. And Orpheus, who sailed with Hercules, was the pupil of Musaeus. Amphion precedes the Trojan war by two generations. And Demodocus and Phemius were posterior to the capture of Troy; for they were famed for playing on the lyre, the former among the Phaeacians, and the latter among the suitors. And the Orades ascribed to Musaeus are said to be the production of Onomacritus, and the Crateres of Orpheus the production of Zopyrus of Heraclea, and The Descent to Hades that of Prodicus of Samos.
Ion of Chios relates in the Triagmi,(3) that Pythagoras ascribed certain works [of his own] to Orpheus. Epigenes, in his book respecting The Poetry attributed to Orpheus, says that The Descent to Hades and the Sacred Discourse were the production of Cecrops the Pythagorean; and the Peplus and the Physics of Brontinus. Some also make Terpander out ancient. Hellanicus, accordingly, relates that he lived in the time of Midas: but Phanias, who places Lesches the Lesbian before Terpander, makes Terpander younger than Archilochus, and relates that Lesches contended with Arctinus, and gained the victory. Xanthus the Lydian says that he lived about the eighteenth Olympiad; as also Dionysius says that Thasus was built about the fifteenth Olympiad: so that it is clear that Archilochus was already known after the twentieth Olympiad. He accordingly relates the destruction of Magnetes as having recently taken place. Simonides is assigned to the time of Archilochus. Callinns is not much older; for Archilochus refers to Magnetes as destroyed, while the latter refers to it as flourishing. Eumelus of Corinth being older, is said to have met Archias, who founded Syracuse.
We were induced to mention these things, because the poets of the epic cycle are placed amongst those of most remote antiquity. Already, too, among the Greeks, many diviners are said to have made their appearance, as the Bacides, one a Boeotian, the other an Arcadian, who uttered many predictions to many. By the counsel of Amphiletus the Athenian,(5) who showed the time for the onset, Pisistratus, too, strengthened his government. For we may pass over in silence Cometes of Crete, Cinyras of Cyprus, Admetus the Thessalian, Aristaeas the Cyrenian, Amphiaraus the Athenian, Timoxeus(6) the Corcyraean, Demaenetus the Phocian, Epigenes the Thespian, Nicias the Carystian, Aristo the Thessalian, Dionysius the Carthaginian, Cleophon the Corinthian, Hippo the daughter of Chiro, and Boeo, and Manto, and the host of Sibyls, the Samian, the Colophonian, the Cumaean, the Erythraean, the Pythian,(7) the Taraxandrian, the Macetian, the Thessalian, and the Thesprotian.
And Calchas again, and Mopsus, who lived during the Trojan war. Mopsus, however, was older, having sailed along with the Argonants. And it is said that Battus the Cyrenian composed what is called the Divination of Mop-sus. Dorotheus in the first Pandect relates that Mopsus was the disciple of Alcyon and Corone. And Pythagoras the Great always applied his mind to prognostication, and Abaris the Hyperborean, and Aristaeas the Proconnesian, and Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, and Zoroaster the Mede, and Empedocles of Agrigentum, and Phormion the Lacedaemonian; Polyaratus, too, of Thasus, and Empedotimus of Syracuse; and in addition to these, Socrates the Athenian in particular. "For," he says in the Theages, "I am attended by a supernatural intimation, which has been assigned me from a child by divine appointment. This is a voice which, when it comes, prevents What I am about to do, but exhorts never."(8) And Execestus, the tyrant of the Phocians, wore two enchanted rings, and by the sound which they uttered one against the other determined the proper times for actions. But he died, nevertheless, treacherously murdered, although warned beforehand by the sound, as Aristotle says in the Polity of the Phocians.
Of those, too, who at one time lived as men among the Egyptians, but were constituted gods by human opinion, were Hermes the Theban, and Asclepius of Memphis; Tireseus and Manto, again, at Thebes, as Euripides says. Helenus, too, and Laocoon, and OEnone, and Crenus in Ilium. For Crenus, one of the Heraclidae, is said to have been a noted prophet. Another was Jamus in Elis, from whom came the Jamidae; and Polyidus at Argos and Megara, who is mentioned by the tragedy. Why enumerate Telemus, who, being a prophet of the Cyclops, predicted to Polyphemus the events of Ulysses’ wandering; or Onomacritus at Athens; or Amphiaraus, who campaigned with the seven at Thebes, and is reported to be a generation older than the capture of Troy; or Theoclymenus in Cephalonia, or Telmisus in Caria, or Galeus in Sicily ?
There are others, too, besides these: Idmon, who was with the Argonauts, Phemonoe of Delphi, Mopsus the son of Apollo and Manto in Pamphylia, and Amphilochus the son of Amphiaraus in Cilicia, Alcmaeon among the Acarnanians, Anias in Delos, Aristander of Telmessus, who was along with Alexander. Philochorus also relates in the first book of the work, On Divination, that Orpheus was a seer. And Theopompus, and Ephorus, and Timaeus, write of a seer called Orthagoras; as the Samian Pythocles in the fourth book of The Italics writes of Caius Julius Nepos.
But some of these "thieves and robbers," as the Scripture says, predicted for the most part from observation and probabilities, as physicians and soothsayers judge from natural signs; and others were excited by demons, or were disturbed by waters, and fumigations, and air of a peculiar kind. But among the Hebrews the prophets were moved by the power and inspiration of God. Before the law, Adam spoke prophetically in respect to the woman, and the naming of the creatures; Noah preached repentance;(1) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave many clear utterances respecting future and present things. Contemporaneous with the law, Moses and Aaron; and after these prophesied Jesus the son of Nave, Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Achias, Samaeas, Jehu, Elias, Michaeas, Abdiu, Elisaeus, Abbadonai, Amos, Esaias, Osee, Jonas, Joel, Jeremias, Sophonias the son of Buzi, Ezekiel, Urias, Ambacum, Naum, Daniel, Misael, who wrote the syllogisms, Aggai, Zacharias, and the angel among the twelve. These are, in all, five-and-thirty prophets. And of women (for these too prophesied), Sara, and Rebecca, and Mariam, and Debbora, and Olda, i.e., Huldah.
Then within the same period John prophesied till the baptism of salvation;(2) and after the birth of Christ, Anna and Simeon.(3) For Zacaharias, John’s father, is said in the Gospels to have prophesied before his son. Let us then draw up the chronology of the Greeks from Moses.
From the birth of Moses to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, eighty years j and the period down to his death, other forty years. The exodus took place in the time of Inachus, before the wandering of Sothis,(4) Moses having gone forth from Egypt three hundred and forty-five years before. From the rule of Moses, and from Inachus to the flood of Deucalion, I mean the second inundation, and to the conflagration of Phaethon, which events happened in the time of Crotopus, forty generations are enumerated (three generations being reckoned for a century). From the flood to the conflagration of Ida, and the discovery of iron, and the Idaean Dactyls, are seventy-three years, according to Thrasyllus; and from the conflagration of Ida to the rape of Ganymede, sixty-five years.
From this to the expedition of Perseus, when Glaucus established the Isthmian games in honour of Melicerta, fifteen years; and from the expedition of Perseus to the building of Troy, thirty-four years. From this to the voyage of the Argo, sixty-four years. From this to Theseus and the Minotaur, thirty-two years; then to the seven at Thebes, ten years. And to the Olympic contest, which Hercules instituted in honour of Pelops, three years; and to the expedition of the Amazons against Athens, and the rape of Helen by Theseus, nine years. From this to the deification of Hercules, eleven years; then to the rape of Helen by Alexander, four years. From the taking of Troy to the descent of AEneas and the founding of Lavinium, ten years; and to the government of Ascanius, eight years; and to the descent of the Heraclidae, sixty-one years; and to the Olympiad of Iphitus, three hundred and thirty-eight years. Eratosthenes thus sets down the dates: "From the capture of Troy to the descent of the Heraclidae, eighty years. From this to the founding of Ionia, sixty years; and the period following to the protectorate of Lycurgus, a hundred and fifty-nine years; and to the first year of the first Olympiad, a hundred and eight years.
From which Olympiad to the invasion of Xerxes, two hundred and ninety-seven years; from which to the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, forty-eight years; and to its close, and the defeat of the Athenians, twenty-seven years; and to the battle at Leuctra, thirty-four years; after which to the death of Philip, thirty-five years. And after this to the decease of Alexander, twelve years."
Again, from the first Olympiad, some say, to the building of Rome, are comprehended twenty-four years; and after this to the expulsion of the kings,’ when consuls were created, about two hundred and forty-three years. And from the taking of Babylon to the death of Alexander, a hundred and eighty-six years. From this to the victory of Augustus, when Antony killed himself at Alexandria, two hundred and ninety-four years, when Augustus was made consul for the fourth time. And from this time to the games which Domitian instituted at Rome, are a hundred and fourteen years; and from the first games to the death of Commodus, a hundred and eleven years.
There are some that from Cecrops to Alexander of Macedon reckon a thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight years; and from Demophon, a thousand two hundred and fifty; and from the taking of Troy to the expedition of the Heraclidae, a hundred and twenty or a hundred and eighty years. From this to the archonship of Evaenetus at Athens, in whose time Alexander is said to have marched into Asia, according to Phanias, are seven hundred and fifty years; according to Ephorus, seven hundred and thirty-five; according to Timaeus and Clitarchus, eight hundred and twenty; according to Eratosthenes, seven hundred and seventy-four. As also Duris, from the taking of Troy to the march of Alexander into Asia, a thousand years; and from that to the archonship of Hegesias, in whose time Alexander died eleven years. From this date to the reign of Germanicus Claudius Caesar, three hundred and sixty-five years. From which time the years summed up to the death of Commodus are manifest.
After the Grecian period, and in accordance with the dates, as computed by the barbarians, very large intervals are to be assigned.
From Adam to the deluge are comprised two thousand one hundred and forty-eight years, four days. From Shem to Abraham, a thousand two hundred and fifty years. From Isaac to the division of the land, six hundred and sixteen years. Then from the judges to Samuel, four hundred and sixty-three years, seven months. And after the judges there were five hundred and seventy-two years, six months, ten days of kings.
After which periods, there were two hundred and thirty-five years of the Persian monarchy. Then of the Macedonian, till the death of Antony, three hundred and twelve years and eighteen days. After which time, the empire of the Romans, till the death of Commodus, lasted for two hundred and twenty-two years.
Then, from the seventy years’ captivity, and the restoration of the people into their own land to
the captivity in the time of Vespasian, are comprised four hundred and ten years: Finally, from Vespasian to the death of Commodus, there are ascertained to be one hundred and twenty-one years, six months, and twenty-four days.
Demetrius, in his book, On the Kings in Judaea, says that the tribes of Juda, Benjamin, and Levi
were not taken captive by Sennacherim; but that there were from this captivity to the last, which Nabuchodonosor made out of Jerusalem, a hundred and twenty-eight years and six months; and from the time that the ten tribes were carried captive from Samaria till Ptolemy the Fourth, were five hundred and seventy-three years, nine months; and from the time that the captivity from Jerusalem took place, three hundred and thirty-eight years and three months.
Philo himself set down the kings differently from Demetrius.
Besides, Eupolemus, in a similar work, says that all the years from Adam to the fifth year of Ptolemy Demetrius, who reigned twelve years in Egypt, when added, amount to five thousand a hundred and forty-nine; and from the time that Moses brought out the Jews from Egypt to the above-mentioned date, there are, in all, two thousand five hundred and eighty years. And from this time till the consulship in Rome of Caius Domitian and Casian, a hundred and twenty years are computed.
Euphorus and many other historians say that there are seventy-five nations and tongues, in consequence of hearing the statement made by Moses: "All the souls that sprang from Jacob, which went down into Egypt, were seventy-five."(2) According to the true reckoning, there appear to be seventy-two generic dialects, as our Scriptures hand down. The rest of the vulgar tongues are formed by the blending of two, or three, or more dialects. A dialect is a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar to a locality, or a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar or common to a race. The Greeks say, that among them are five dialects—the Attic, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and the fifth the Common; and that the languages of the barbarians, which are innumerable, are not called dialects, but tongues.
Plato attributes a dialect also to the gods, forming this conjecture mainly from dreams and oracles, and especially from demoniacs, who do not speak their own language or dialect, but that of the demons who have taken possession of them. He thinks also that the irrational creatures have dialects, which those that belong to the same genus understand.(1) Accordingly, when an elephant falls into the mud and bellows out any other one that is at hand, on seeing what has happened, shortly turns, and brings with him a herd of elephants, and saves the one that has fallen in. It is said also in Libya, that a scorpion, if it does not succeed in stinging a man, goes away and returns with several more; and that, hanging on one to the other like a chain they make in this way the attempt to succeed in their cunning design.
The irrational creatures do not make use of an obscure intimation, or hint their meaning by assuming a particular attitude, but, as I think, by a dialect of their own.(1) And some others say, that if a fish which has been taken escape by breaking the line, no fish of the same kind will be caught in the same place that day. But the first and generic barbarous dialects have terms by nature, since also men confess that prayers uttered in a barbarian tongue are more powerful. And Plato, in the Cratylus, when wishing to interpret <greek>pur</greek> (fire), says that it is a barbaric term. He testifies, accordingly, that the Phrygians use this term with a slight deviation.
And nothing, in my opinion, after these details, need stand in the way of stating the periods of the Roman emperors, in order to the demonstration of the Saviour’s birth. Augustus, forty-three years; Tiberius, twenty-two years; Caius, four years; Claudius, fourteen years; Nero, fourteen years; Galba, one year; Vespasian, ten years; Titus, three years; Domitian, fifteen years; Nerva, one year; Trajan, nineteen years; Adrian, twenty-one years; Antoninus, twenty-one years; likewise again, Antoninus and Commodus, thirty-two. In all, from Augustus to Commodus, are two hundred and twenty-two years; and from Adam to the death of Commodus, five thousand seven hundred and eighty-four years, two months, twelve days.
Some set down the dates of the Roman emperors thus:--
Caius Julius Caesar, three years, four months, five days; after him Augustus reigned forty-six years, four months, one day. Then Tiberius, twenty-six years, six months, nineteen days. He was succeeded by Caius Caesar, who reigned three years, ten months, eight days; and be by Claudius for thirteen years, eight months, twenty-eight days. Nero reigned thirteen years, eight months, twenty-eight days; Galba, seven months and six days; Otho, five months, one day; Vitellius, seven months, one day; Vespasian, eleven years, eleven months, twenty-two days; Titus, two years, two months; Domitian, fifteen years, eight months, five days; Nerva, one year, four months, ten days;
Trajan, nineteen years, seven months, ten days; Adrian, twenty years, ten months, twenty-eight days. Antoninus, twenty-two years, three months, and seven days; Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, nineteen years, eleven days; Commodus, twelve years, nine months, fourteen days.
From Julius Caesar, therefore, to the death of Commodus, are two hundred and thirty-six years, six months. And the whole from Romulus, who founded Rome, till the death of Commodus, amounts to nine hundred and fifty-three years, six months. And our Lord was born in the twenty-eighth year, when first the census was ordered to be taken in the reign of Augustus. And to prove that this is true, it is written in the Gospel by Luke as follows: "And in the fifteenth year, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias." And again in the same book: "And Jesus was coming to His baptism, being about thirty years old,"(2) and so on.
And that it was necessary for Him to preach only a year, this also is written:(3) "He hath sent Me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." This both the prophet spake, and the Gospel.
Accordingly, in fifteen years of Tiberius and fifteen years of Augustus; so were completed the thirty years till the time He suffered. And from the time that He suffered till the destruction of Jerusalem are forty-two years and three months; and from the destruction of Jerusalem to the death of Commodus, a hundred and twenty-eight years, ten months, and three days. From the birth of Christ, therefore, to the death of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days. And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon. And the followers of Basilides hold the day of his baptism as a festival, spending the night before in readings.
And they say that it was the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, the fifteenth day of the month Tubi; and some that it was the eleventh of the same month, And treating of His passion, with very great accuracy, some say that it took place in the sixteenth year of Tiberius, on the twenty-fifth of Phamenoth; and others the twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi and others say that on the nineteenth of Pharmuthi the Saviour suffered. Further, others say that He was born on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi.(4)
We have still to add to our chronology the following,--I mean the days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For the two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is "the half of the week," as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: "How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away."(1)
These two thousand three hundred days, then, make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, "Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."(2) For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased. And this number is demonstrated from a subsequent chapter, which is as follows: "And from the time of the change of continuation, and of the giving of the abomination of desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."(3)
Flavius Josephus the Jew, who composed the history of the Jews, computing the periods, says that from Moses to David were five hundred and eighty-five years; from David to the second year of Vespasian, a thousand one hundred and seventy-nine; then from that to the tenth year of Antoninus, seventy-seven. So that from Moses to the tenth year of Antoninus there are, in all, two thousand one hundred and thirty-three years.
Of others, counting from Inachus and Moses to the death of Commodus, some say there were three thousand one hundred and forty-two years; and others, two thousand eight hundred and thirty-one years.
And in the Gospel according to Matthew, the genealogy which begins with Abraham is continued down to Mary the mother of the Lord. "For," it is said,(4) "from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon till Christ are likewise other fourteen generations,"—three mystic intervals completed in six weeks.(5)
CHAP. XXII.—ON THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
So much for the details respecting dates, as stated variously by many, and as set down by us.
It is said that the Scriptures both of the law and of the prophets were translated from the dialect of the Hebrews into the Greek language in the reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagos, or, according to others, of Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus; Demetrius Phalereus bringing to this task the greatest earnestness, and employing painstaking accuracy on the materials for the translation. For the Macedonians being still in possession of Asia, and the king being ambitious of adorning the library he had at Alexandria with all writings, desired the people of Jerusalem to translate the prophecies they possessed into the Greek dialect. And they being the subjects of the Macedonians, selected from those of highest character among them seventy elders, versed in the Scriptures, and skilled in the Greek dialect, and sent them to him with the divine books. And each having severally translated each prophetic book, and all the translations being compared together, they agreed both in meaning and expression. For it was the counsel of God carried out for the benefit of Grecian ears. It was not alien to the inspiration of God, who gave the prophecy, also to produce the translation, and make it as it were Greek prophecy.
Since the Scriptures having perished in the captivity of Nabuchodonosor, Esdras(6) the Levite, the priest, in the time of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, having become inspired in the exercise of prophecy restored again the whole of the ancient Scriptures. And Aristobulus, in his first book addressed to Philometor, writes in these words: "And Plato followed the laws given to us, and had manifestly studied all that is said in them." And before Demetrius there had been translated by another, previous to the dominion of Alexander and of the Persians, the account of the departure of our countrymen the Hebrews from Egypt, and the fame of all that happened to them, and their taking possession of the land, and the account of the whole code of laws; so that it is perfectly clear that the above-mentioned philosopher derived a great deal from this source, for he was very learned, as also Pythagoras, who transferred many things from our books to his own system of doctrines. And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, expressly writes: "For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek?"
This Moses was a theologian and prophet, and as some say, an interpreter of sacred laws. His family, his deeds, and life, are related by the Scriptures themselves, which are worthy of all credit; but have nevertheless to be stated by us also as well as we can.(1)
CHAP.XXIII.—THE AGE, BIRTH,AND LIFE OF MOSES.
Moses, originally of a Chaldean(2) family, was born in Egypt, his ancestors having migrated from Babylon into Egypt on account of a protracted famine. Born in the seventh generation(3) and having received a royal education, the following are the circumstances of his history. The Hebrews having increased in Egypt to a great multitude, and the king of the country being afraid of insurrection in consequence of their numbers, he ordered all the female children born to the Hebrews to be reared (woman being unfit for war), but the male to be destroyed, being suspicious of stalwart youth. But the child being goodly, his parents nursed him secretly three months, natural affection being too strong for the monarch’s cruelty. But at last, dreading lest they should be destroyed along with the child, they made a basket of the papyrus that grew there, put the child in it, and laid it on the banks of the marshy river. The child’s sister stood at a distance, and watched what would happen. In this emergency, the king’s daughter, who for a long time had not been pregnant, and who longed for a child, came that day to the river to bathe and wash herself; and hearing the child cry, she ordered it to be brought to her; and touched with pity, sought a nurse.
At that moment the child’s sister ran up, and said that, if she wished, she could procure for her as nurse one of the Hebrew women who had recently had a child. And on her consenting and desiring her to do so, she brought the child’s mother to be nurse for a stipulated fee, as if she had been some other person. Thereupon the queen gave the babe the name of Moses, with etymological propriety, from his being drawn out of "the water,"(4)--for the Egyptians call water "mou,"—in which he had been exposed to die. For they call Moses one who "who breathed [on being taken] from the water." It is clear that previously the parents gave a name to the child on his circumcision; and he was called Joachim. And he had a third name in heaven, after his ascension,(5) as the mystics say—
Melchi. Having reached the proper age, he was taught arithmetic, geometry, poetry, harmony, and besides, medicine and music, by those that excelled in these arts among the Egyptians; and besides, the philosophy which is conveyed by symbols, which they point out in the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The rest of the usual course of instruction, Greeks taught him in Egypt as a royal child, as Philo says in his life of Moses. He learned, besides, the literature of the Egyptians, and the knowledge of the heavenly bodies from the Chaldeans and the Egyptians; whence in the Acts(6) he is said "to have been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." And Eupolemus, in his book On the Kings in Judea, says that "Moses was the first wise man, and the first that imparted grammar to the Jews, that the Phoenicians received it from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians." And betaking himself to their philosophy,(7) he increased his wisdom, being ardently attached to the training received from his kindred and ancestors, till he struck and slew the Egyptian who wrongfully attacked the Hebrew. And the mystics say that he slew the Egyptian by a word only; as, certainly, Peter in the Acts is related to have slain by speech those who appropriated part of the price of the field, and lied.(8)
And so Artapanus, in his work On the Jews, relates "that Moses, being shut up in custody by Chenephres, king of the Egyptians, on account of the people demanding to be let go from Egypt, the prison being opened by night, by the interposition of God, went forth, and reaching the palace, stood before the king as he slept, and aroused him; and that the latter, struck with what had taken place, bade Moses tell him the name of the God who had sent him; and that he, bending forward, told him in his ear; and that the king on hearing it fell speechless, but being supported by Moses, revived again." And respecting the education of Moses, we shall find a harmonious account in Ezekiel,(9) the composer of Jewish tragedies in the drama entitled The Exodus. He thus writes in the person of Moses:--
"For, seeing our race abundantly increase, His treacherous snares King Pharaoh ‘gainst us laid, And cruelly in brick-kilns some of us, And some, in toilsome works of building, plagued.
And towns and towers by toil of ill-starred men He raised. Then to the Hebrew race proclaimed, That each male child should in deep-flowing Nile Be drowned. My mother bore and hid me then Three months (so afterwards she told). Then took, And me adorned with fair array, and placed On the deep sedgy marsh by Nilus bank, While Miriam, my sister, watched afar.
Then, with her maids, the daughter of the king, To bathe her beauty in the cleansing stream, Came near, straight saw, and took and raised me up; And knew me for a Hebrew. Miriam My sister to the princess ran, and said, ‘Is it thy pleasure, that I haste and find A nurse for thee to rear this child Among the Hebrew women?’ The princess Gave assent. The maiden to her mother sped, And told, who quick appeared. My own Dear mother took me in her arms. Then said The daughter of the king: ‘Nurse me this child, And I will give thee wages.’ And my name Moses she called, because she drew and saved Me from the waters on the river’s bank.
And when the days of childhood had flown by, My mother brought me to the palace where The princess dwelt, after disclosing all About my ancestry, and God’s great gifts.
In boyhood’s years I royal nurture had, And in all princely exercise was trained, As if the princess’s very son. But when The circling days had run their course, I left the royal palace."
Then, after relating the combat between the Hebrew and the Egyptian, and the burying of the Egyptian in the sand, he says of the other contest:--
"Why strike one feebler than thyself? And he rejoined: Who made thee judge o’er us, Or ruler? Wilt thou slay me, as thou didst Him yesterday? And I m terror said, How is this known?"
Then he fled from Egypt and fed sheep, being thus trained beforehand for pastoral rule. For the shepherd’s life is a preparation for sovereignty in the case of him who is destined to rule over the peaceful flock of men, as the chase for those who are by nature warlike. Thence God brought him to lead the Hebrews. Then the Egyptians, oft admonished, continued unwise; and the Hebrews were spectators of the calamities that others suffered, learning in safety the power of God. And when the Egyptians gave no heed to the effects of that power, through their foolish infatuation disbelieving, then, as is said, "the children knew" what was done; and the Hebrews afterwards going forth, departed carrying much spoil from the Egyptians, not for avarice, as the cavillers say, for God did not persuade them to covet what belonged to others. But, in the first place, they took wages for the services they had rendered the Egyptians all the time; and then in a way recompensed the Egyptians, by afflicting them in requital as avaricious, by the abstraction of the booty, as they had done the Hebrews by enslaving them.
Whether, then, as may be alleged is done in war, they thought it proper, in the exercise of the rights of conquerors, to take away the property of their enemies, as those who have gained the day do from those who are worsted (and there was just cause of hostilities. The Hebrews came as suppliants to the Egyptians on account of famine; and they, reducing their guests to slavery, compelled them to serve them after the manner of captives, giving them no recompense); or as in peace, took the spoil as wages against the will of those who for a long period had given them no recompense, but rather had robbed them, [it is all one.]
CHAP. XXIV.—HOW MOSES DISCHARGED THE PART OF A MILITARY LEADER.
Our Moses then is a prophet, a legislator, skilled in military tactics and strategy, a politician, a philosopher. And in what sense he was a prophet, shall be by and by told, when we come to treat of prophecy. Tactics belong to military command, and the ability to command an army is among the attributes of kingly rule. Legislation, again, is also one of the functions of the kingly office, as also judicial authority.
Of the kingly office one kind is divine,--that which is according to God and His holy Son, by whom both the good things which are of the earth, and external and perfect felicity too, are supplied. "For," it is said, "seek what is great, and the little things shall be added."(1) And there is a second kind of royalty, inferior to that administration which is purely rational and divine, which brings to the task of government merely the high mettle of the soul; after which fashion Hercules ruled the Argives, and Alexander the Macedonians. The third kind is what aims after one thing—merely to conquer and overturn; but to turn conquest either to a good or a bad purpose, belongs not to such rule. Such was the aim of the Persians in their campaign against Greece.
For, on the one hand, fondness for strife is solely the result of passion, and acquires power solely for the sake of domination; while, on the other, the love of good is characteristic of a soul which uses its high spirit for noble ends. The fourth, the worst of all, is the sovereignty which acts according to the promptings of the passions, as that of Sardanapalus, and those who propose to themselves as their end the gratification of the passions to the utmost. But the instrument of regal sway—the instrument at once of that which overcomes by virtue, and that which does so by force—is the power of managing (or tact). And it, varies according to the nature and the material. In the case of arms and of fighting animals the ordering power is the soul and mind, by means animate and inanimate; and in the case of the passions of the soul, which we master by virtue, reason is the ordering power, by affixing the seal of continence and self-restraint, along with holiness, and sound knowledge with truth, making the result of the whole to terminate in piety towards God.
For it is wisdom which regulates in the case of those who so practise virtue; and divine things are ordered by wisdom, and human affairs by politics—all things by the kingly faculty. He is a king, then, who governs according to the laws, and possesses the skill to sway willing subjects. Such is the Lord, who receives all who believe on Him and by Him. For the Father has delivered and subjected all to Christ our King," that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’(1)
Now, generalship involves three ideas: caution, enterprise, and the union of the two. And each of these consists of three things, acting as they do either by word, or by deeds, or by both together. And all this can be accomplished either by persuasion, or by compulsion, or by inflicting harm in the way of taking vengeance on those who ought to be punished; and this either by doing what is right, or by telling what is untrue, or by telling what is true, or by adopting any of these means conjointly at the same time.
Now, the Greeks had the advantage of receiving from Moses all these, and the knowledge of how to make use of each of them. And, for the sake of example, I shall cite one or two instances of leadership. Moses, on leading the people forth, suspecting that the Egyptians would pursue, left the short and direct route, and turned to the desert, and marched mostly by night. For it was another kind of arrangement by which the Hebrews were trained in the great wilderness, and for a protracted time, to belief in the existence of one God alone, being inured by the wise discipline of endurance to which they were subjected. The strategy of Moses, therefore, shows the necessity of discerning what will be of service before the approach of dangers, and so to encounter them. It turned out precisely as he suspected, for the Egyptians pursued with horses and chariots, but were quickly destroyed by the sea breaking on them and overwhelming them with their horses and chariots, so that not a remnant of them was left.
Afterwards the pillar of fire, which accompanied them (for it went before them as a guide), conducted the Hebrews by night through an untrodden region, training and bracing them, by toils and hardships, to manliness and endurance, that after their experience of what appeared formidable difficulties, the benefits of the land, to which from the trackless desert he was conducting them, might become apparent. Furthermore, he put to flight and slew the hostile occupants of the land, falling upon them from a desert and rugged line of march (such was the excellence of his generalship). For the taking of the land of those hostile tribes was a work of skill and strategy.
Perceiving this, Miltiades, the Athenian general, who conquered the Persians in battle at Marathon, imitated it in the following fashion. Marching over a trackless desert, he led on the Athenians by night, and eluded the barbarians that were set to watch him. For Hippias, who had deserted from the Athenians, conducted the barbarians into Attica, and seized and held the points of vantage, in consequence of having a knowledge of the ground. The task was then to elude Hippias. Whence rightly Miltiades, traversing the desert and attacking by night the Persians commanded by Dates, led his soldiers to victory.
But further, when Thrasybulus was bringing back the exiles from Phyla, and wished to elude observation, a pillar became his guide as he marched over a trackless region. To Thrasybulus by night, the sky being moonless and stormy, a fire appeared leading the way, which, having conducted them safely, left them near Munychia, where is now the altar of the light-bringer (Phosphorus).
From such an instance, therefore, let our accounts become credible to the Greeks, namely, that it was possible for the omnipotent God to make the pillar of fire, which was their guide on their march, go before the Hebrews by night. It is said also in a certain oracle,--
"A pillar to the Thebans is joy-inspiring Bacchus,"
from the history of the Hebrews. Also Euripides says, in Antiope,--"In the chambers within, the herdsman, With chaplet of ivy, pillar of the Evoean god."
The pillar indicates that God cannot be portrayed. The pillar of light, too, in addition to its pointing out that God cannot be represented, shows also the stability and the permanent duration of the Deity, and His unchangeable and inexpressible light. Before, then, the invention of the forms of images, the ancients erected pillars, and reverenced them as statues of the Deity. Accordingly, he who composed the Pharonis writes,--
"Callithoe, key-bearer of the Olympian queen:
Argive Hera, who first with fillets and with fringes The queen’s tall column all around adorned."
Further, the author of Europia relates that the statue of Apollo at Delphi was a pillar in these words:--
"That to the god first-fruits and tithes we may On sacred pillars and on lofty column hang."
Apollo, interpreted mystically by "privation of many,"(1) means the one God. Well, then, that fire like a pillar, and the fire in the desert, is the symbol of the holy light which passed through from earth and returned again to heaven, by the wood [of the cross], by which also the gift of intellectual vision was bestowed on us.
CHAP. XXV.—PLATO AN IMITATOR OF MOSES IN FRAMING LAWS.
Plato the philosopher, aided in legislation by the books of Moses, censured the polity of Minos, and that of Lycurgus, as having bravery alone as their aim; while he praised as more seemly the polity which expresses some one thing, and directs according to one precept. For he says that it becomes us to philosophize with strength, and dignity, and wisdom,--holding unalterably the same opinions about the same things, with reference to the dignity of heaven. Accordingly, therefore, he interprets what is in the law, enjoining us to look to one God and to do justly. Of politics, he says there are two kinds,--the department of law, and that of politics, strictly so called.
And he refers to the Creator, as the Statesman (<greek>o</greek> <greek>politikos</greek>) by way of eminence, in his book of this name (<greek>o</greek> <greek>politikos</greek>); and those who lead an active and just life, combined with contemplation, he calls statesmen (<greek>politiko</greek>). That department of politics which is called "Law," he divides into administrative magnanimity and private good order, which he calls orderliness; and harmony, and sobriety, which are seen when rulers suit their subjects, and subjects are obedient to their rulers; a result which the system of Moses sedulously aims at effecting. Further, that the department of law is founded on generation, that of politics on friendship and consent, Plato, with the aid he received, affirms; and so, coupled with the laws the philosopher in the Epinomis, who knew the course of all generation, which takes place by the instrumentality of the planets; and the other philosopher, Timaeus, who was an astronomer and student of the motions of the stars, and of their sympathy and association with one another, he consequently joined to the "polity" (or "republic").
Then, in my opinion, the end both of the statesman, and of him who lives according to the law, is contemplation. It is necessary, therefore, that public affairs should be rightly managed. But to philosophize is best. For he who is wise will live concentrating all his energies on knowledge, directing his life by good deeds, despising the opposite, and following the pursuits which contribute to truth. And the law is not what is decided by law (for what is seen is not vision), nor every opinion (not certainly what is evil). But law is the opinion which is good, and what is good is that which is true, and what is true is that which finds "true being," and attains to it. "He who is,"(2) says Moses, "sent me." In accordance with which, namely, good opinion, some have called law, right reason, which enjoins what is to be done and forbids what is not to be done.
CHAP. XXVI.—MOSES RIGHTLY CALLED A DIVINE LEGISLATOR, AND, THOUGH INFERIOR TO CHRIST, FAR SUPERIOR TO THE GREAT LEGISLATORS OF THE GREEKS, MINOS AND LYCURGUS.
Whence the law was rightly said to have been given by Moses, being a rule of fight and wrong; and we may call it with accuracy the divine ordinance (<greek>qesmos</greek>(3)), inasmuch as it was given by God through Moses. It accordingly conducts to the divine. Paul says: "The law was instituted because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made."
Then, as if in explanation of his meaning, he adds: "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up," manifestly through fear, in consequence of sins, "unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed; so that the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we should be justified by faith."(4) The true legislator is he who assigns to each department of the soul what is suitable to it and to its operations. Now Moses, to speak comprehensively, was a living law, governed by the benign Word. Accordingly, he furnished a good polity, which is the right discipline of men in social life. He also handled the administration of justice, which is that branch of knowledge which deals with the correction of transgressors in the interests of justice. Co-ordinate with it is the faculty of dealing with punishments, which is a knowledge of the due measure to be observed in punishments.
And punishment, in virtue of its being so, is the correction of the soul. In a word, the whole system of Moses is suited for the training of such as are capable of becoming good and noble men, and for hunting out men like them; and this is the art of command.
And that wisdom, which is capable of treating rightly those who have been caught by the Word, is legislative wisdom. For it is the property of this wisdom, being most kingly, to possess and use, It is the wise man, therefore, alone whom the philosophers proclaim king, legislator, general, just, holy, God-beloved. And if we discover these qualities in Moses, as shown from the Scriptures themselves, we may, with the most assured persuasion, pronounce Moses to be truly wise. As then we say that it belongs to the shepherd’s art to care for the sheep; for so "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep;"[1] so also we shall say that legislation, inasmuch as it presides over and cares for the flock of men, establishes the virtue of men, by fanning into flame, as far as it can, what good there is in humanity.
And if the flock figuratively spoken of as belonging to the Lord is nothing but a flock of men, then He Himself is the good Shepherd and Lawgiver of the one flock, "of the sheep who hear Him," the one who cares for them, "seeking," and finding by the law and the word, "that which was lost;" since, in truth, the law is spiritual and leads to felicity. For that which has arisen through the Holy Spirit is spiritual. And he is truly a legislator, who not only announces what is good and noble, but understands it. The law of this man who possesses knowledge is the saving precept; or rather, the law is the precept of knowledge. For the Word is "the power and the wisdom of God."[2] Again, the expounder of the laws is the same one by whom the law was given; the first expounder of the divine commands, who unveiled the bosom of the Father, the only-begotten Son.
Then those who obey the law, since they have some knowledge of Him. cannot disbelieve or be ignorant of the truth. But those who disbelieve, and have shown a repugnance to engage in the works of the law, whoever else may, certainly confess their ignorance of the truth.
What, then, is the unbelief of the Greeks? Is it not their unwillingness to believe the truth which
declares that the law was divinely given by Moses, whilst they honour Moses in their own writers? They relate that Minos received the laws from Zeus in, nine years, by frequenting the cave of Zeus; and Plato, and Aristotle, and Ephorus write that Lycurgus was trained in legislation by going constantly to Apollo at Delphi. Chamaeleo of Heraclea, in his book On Drunkenness, and Aristotle in The Polity of Locrians, mention that Zaleucus the Locrian received the laws from Athene.
But those who exalt the credit of Greek legislation as far as in them lies, by referring it to a divine source, after the model of Mosaic prophecy, are senseless in not owning the truth, and the archetype of what is related among them.
CHAP. XXVII.—THE LAW, EVEN IN CORRECTING AND PUNISHING, AIMS AT THE GOOD OF MEN.
Let no one then, run down law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. For shall he who drives away bodily disease appear a benefactor; and shall not he who attempts to deliver the soul from iniquity, as much more appear a friend, as the soul is a more precious thing than the body? Besides, for the sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, and cauterizations, and medicinal draughts; and he who administers them is called saviour and healer[3] even though amputating parts, not from grudge or ill-will towards the patient, but as the principles of the art prescribe, so that the sound parts may not perish along with them, and no one accuses the physician’s art of wickedness; and shall we not similarly submit, for the soul’s Sake, to either banishment, or punishment, or bonds, provided only from unrighteousness we shall attain to righteousness?
For the law, in its solicitude for those who obey, trains up to piety, and prescribes what is to be done, and restrains each one from sins, imposing penalties even on lesser sins.
But when it sees any one in such a condition as to appear incurable, posting to the last stage of wickedness, then in its solicitude for the rest, that they may not be destroyed by it (just as if amputating a part from the whole body), it condemns such an one to death, as the course most conducive to health. "Being judged by the Lord," says the apostle, "we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world."[4] For the prophet had said before, "Chastening, the LORD hath chastised me, but hath not given me over unto death."[5] "For in order to teach thee His righteousness," it is said, "He chastised thee and tried thee, and made thee to hunger and thirst in the desert land; that all His statutes and His judgments may be known in thy heart, as I command thee this day; and that thou mayest know in thine heart, that just as if a man were chastising his son, so the LORD our God shall chastise thee."[6]
And to prove that example corrects, he says directly to the purpose: "A clever man, when he seeth the wicked punished, will himself be severely chastised, for the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom."[7]
But it is the highest and most perfect good, when one is able to lead back any one from the practice of evil to virtue and well-doing, which is the very function of the law. So that, when one fails into any incurable evil,--when taken possession of, for example, by wrong or covetousness,--it will be for his good if he is put to death. For the law is beneficent, being able to make some righteous from unrighteous, if they will only give ear to it, and by releasing others from present evils; for those who have chosen to live temperately and justly, it conducts to immortality.
To know the law is characteristic of a good disposition. And again: "Wicked men do not understand the law; but they who seek the LORD shall have understanding in all that is good." [1]
It is essential, certainly, that the providence which manages all, be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that dispenses salvation—the one correcting by punishment, as supreme, the other showing kindness in the exercise of beneficence, as a benefactor. It is in your power not to be a son of disobedience, but to pass from darkness to life, and lending your ear to wisdom, to be the legal slave of God, in the first instance, and then to become a faithful servant, fearing the Lord God. And if one ascend higher, he is enrolled among the sons.
But when "charity covers the multitude of sins,"[2] by the consummation of the blessed hope, then may we welcome him as one who has been enriched in love, and received into the elect adoption, which is called the beloved of God, while he chants the prayer, saying, "Let the Lord be my God."
The beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in the passage relating to the Jews, writing thus: "Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and knowest the will of God, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law."[3] For it is admitted that such is the power of the law, although those whose conduct is not according to the law, make a false pretence, as if they lived in the law.
"Blessed is the man that hath found wisdom, and the mortal who has seen understanding; for out of its mouth," manifestly Wisdom’s, "proceeds righteousness, and it bears law and mercy on its tongue."[4] For both the law and the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is "the power and wisdom of God;" and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to salvation. "Let not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck."[5] In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not understanding the law. "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known."[6] "There is no fear of God before their eyes."[7] "Professing themselves wise, they became fools."[8] "And we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully."[9] "Desiring to be teachers of the law, they understand," says the apostle, "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."[10] "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." [11]
CHAP. XXVIII.—THE FOURFOLD DIVISION OF THE MOSAIC LAW.
The Mosaic philosophy is accordingly divided into four parts,--into the historic, and that which is specially called the legislative, which two properly belong to an ethical treatise; and the third, that which, relates to sacrifice, which belongs to physical science; and the fourth, above all, the department of theology, "vision,"[12] which Plato predicates of the truly great mysteries. And this species Aristotle calls metaphysics. Dialectics, according to Plato, is, as he says in The Statesman, a science devoted to the discovery of the explanation of things. And it is to be acquired by the wise man, not for the sake of saying or doing aught of what we find among men (as the dialecticians, who occupy themselves in sophistry, do), but to be able to say and do, as far as possible, what is pleasing to God.
But the true dialectic, being philosophy mixed with truth, by examining things, and testing forces and powers, gradually ascends in relation to the most excellent essence of all, and essays to go beyond to the God of the universe, professing not the knowledge of mortal affairs, but the science of things divine and heavenly; in accordance with which follows a suitable course of practice with respect to words and deeds, even in human affairs. Rightly, therefore, the Scripture, in its desire to make us such dialecticians, exhorts us: "Be ye skilful money-changers"[3] rejecting some things, but retaining what is good. For this true dialectic is the science which analyses the objects of thought, and shows abstractly and by itself the individual substratum of existences, or the power of dividing things into genera, which descends to their most special properties, and presents each individual object to be contemplated simply such as it is.
Wherefore it alone conducts to the true wisdom, which is the divine power which deals with the knowledge of entities as entities, which grasps what is perfect, and is freed from all passion; not without the Saviour, who withdraws, by the divine word, the gloom of ignorance arising from evil training, which had overspread the eye of the soul, and bestows the best of gifts,--
"That we might well know of God or man."[1]
It is He who truly shows how we are to know ourselves. It is He who reveals the Father of the universe to whom He wills, and as far as human nature can comprehend. "For no man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him."[2]
Rightly, then, the apostle says that it was by revelation that he knew the mystery: "As I wrote afore
in few words, according as ye are able to understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ."[3] "According as ye are able," he said, since he knew that some had received milk only, and had not yet received meat, nor even milk simply. The sense of the law is to be taken in three ways,[4]--either as exhibiting a symbol, or laying down a precept for right conduct, or as uttering a prophecy.
But I well know that it belongs to men [of full age] to distinguish and declare these things. For the whole Scripture is not in its meaning a single Myconos, as the proverbial expression has it; but those who hunt after the connection of the divine teaching, must approach it with the utmost perfection of the logical faculty.
CHAP. XXIX.—THE GREEKS BUT CHILDREN COMPARED WITH THE HEBREWS.
Whence most beautifully the Egyptian priest in Plato said, "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, not having in your souls a single ancient opinion received through tradition from antiquity. And not one of the Greeks is an old man;"[5] meaning by old, I suppose, those who know what belongs to the more remote antiquity, that is, our literature; and by young, those who treat of what is more recent and made the subject of study by the Greeks,--things of yesterday and of recent date as if they were old and ancient. Wherefore he added, "and no study hoary with time;" for we, in a kind of barbarous way, deal in homely and rugged metaphor. Those, therefore, whose minds are rightly constituted approach the interpretation utterly destitute of artifice.
And of the Greeks, he says that their opinions" differ but little from myths." For neither puerile fables nor stories current among children are fit for listening to. And he called the myths themselves "children," as if the progeny of those, wise in their own conceits among the Greeks, who had but little insight meaning by the "hoary studies" the truth which was possessed by the barbarians, dating from the highest antiquity. To which expression he opposed the phrase "child fable," censuring the mythical character of the attempts of the moderns, as, like children, having nothing of age in them, and affirming both in common—their fables and their speeches—to be puerile.
Divinely, therefore, the power which spoke to Hermas by revelation said, "The visions and revelations are for those who are of double mind, who doubt in their hearts if these things are or are not."[6]
Similarly, also, demonstrations from the resources of erudition, strengthen, confirm, and establish demonstrative reasonings, in so far as men’s minds are in a wavering state like young people’s. "The good commandment," then, according to the Scripture, "is a lamp, and the law is a light to the path; for instruction corrects the ways of life."[7] "Law is monarch of all, both of mortals and of immortals," says Pindar. I understand, however, by these words, Him who enacted law. And I regard, as spoken of the God of all, the following utterance of Hesiod, though spoken by the poet at random and not with comprehension:--
"For the Saturnian framed for men this law:
Fishes, and beasts, and winged birds may eat Each other, since no rule of right is theirs; But Right (by far the best) to men he gave."
Whether, then, it be the law which is connate and natural, or that given afterwards, which is meant, it is certainly of God; and both the law of nature and that of instruction are one. Thus also Plato, in The Statesman, says that the lawgiver is one; and in The Laws, that he who shall understand music is one; teaching by these words that the Word is one, and God is one. And Moses manifestly calls the Lord a covenant: "Behold I am my Covenant with thee,"[8] having previously told him not to seek the covenant in writing.[9] For it is a covenant which God, the Author of all, makes. For God is called from <greek>qesis</greek> (placing), and order or arrangement. And in the Preaching[10] of Peter you will find the Lord called Law and Word. But at this point, let our first Miscellany[11] of gnostic notes, according to the true philosophy, come to a close.
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES.
OF CLEMENS ALEXANDRIUS
BOOK II.
CHAP. I.—INTRODUCTORY.
As Scripture has called the Greeks pilferers of the Barbarian[2] philosophy, it will next have to be considered how this may be briefly demonstrated. For we shall not only show that they have imitated and copied the marvels recorded in our books; but we shall prove, besides, that they have plagiarized and falsified (our writings being, as we have shown, older) the chief dogmas they hold, both on faith and knowledge and science, and hope and love, and also on repentance and temperance and the fear of God,--a whole swarm, verily, of the virtues of truth.
Whatever the explication necessary on the point in hand shall demand, shall be embraced, and especially what is occult in the barbarian philosophy, the department of symbol and enigma; which those who have subjected the teaching of the ancients to systematic philosophic study have affected, as being in the highest degree serviceable, nay, absolutely necessary to the knowledge of truth. In addition, it will in my opinion form an appropriate sequel to defend those tenets, on account of which the Greeks assail us, making use of a few Scriptures, if perchance the Jew also may listen[3] and be able quietly to turn from what he has believed to Him on whom he has not believed.
The ingenuous among the philosophers will then with propriety be taken up in a friendly exposure both of their life and of the discovery of new dogmas, not in the way of our avenging ourselves on our detractors (for that is far from being the case with those who have learned to bless those who curse, even though they needlessly discharge on us words of blasphemy), but with a view to their conversion; if by any means these adepts in wisdom may feel ashamed, being brought to their senses by barbarian demonstration; so as to be able, although late, to see clearly of what sort are the intellectual acquisitions for which they make pilgrimages over the seas. Those they have stolen are to be pointed out, that we may thereby pull down their conceit; and of those on the discovery of which through investigation they plume themselves, the refutation will be furnished. By consequence, also we must treat of what is called the curriculum of study—how far it is serviceable;[4] and of astrology, and mathematics, and magic, and sorcery. For all the Greeks boast of these as the highest sciences. "He who reproves boldly is a peacemaker."[5]
We lave often said already that we have neither practised nor do we study the expressing ourselves in pure Greek; for this suits those who seduce the multitude from the truth. But true philosophic demonstration will contribute to the profit not of the listeners’ tongues, but of their minds. And, in my opinion, he who is solicitous about truth ought not to frame his language with artfulness and care, but only to try to express his meaning as he best can. For those who are particular about words, and devote their time to them, miss the things.[6] It is a feat fit for the gardener to pluck without injury the rose that is growing among the thorns; and for the craftsman to find out the pearl buried in the oyster’s flesh.
And they say that fowls have flesh of the most agreeable quality, when, through not being supplied with abundance of food, they pick their sustenance with difficulty, scraping with their feet. If any one, then, speculating on what is similar, wants to arrive[1] at the truth [that is] in the numerous Greek plausibilities, like the real face beneath masks, he will hunt it out with much pains. For the power that appeared in the vision to Hermas said, "Whatever may be revealed to you, shall be revealed."[2]
CHAP. II.—THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CAN BE ATTAINED ONLY THROUGH FAITH.
"Be not elated on account of thy wisdom," say the Proverbs. "In all thy ways acknowledge her, that she may direct thy ways, and that thy foot may not stumble." By these remarks he means to show that our deeds ought to be conformable to reason, and to manifest further that we ought to select and possess what is useful out of all culture. Now the ways of wisdom are various that lead right to the way of truth. Faith is the way. "Thy foot shall not stumble" is said with reference to some who seem to oppose the one divine administration of Providence. Whence it is added, "Be not wise in thine own eyes," according to the impious ideas which revolt against the administration of God. "But fear God," who alone is powerful. Whence it follows as a consequence that we are not to oppose God. The sequel especially teaches clearly, that "the fear of God is departure from evil;" for it is said, "and depart from all evil." Such is the discipline of wisdom ("for whom the Lord loveth He chastens"[3]), causing pain in order to produce understanding, and restoring to peace and immortality. Accordingly, the Barbarian philosophy, which we follow, is in reality perfect and true.
And so it is said in the book of Wisdom: "For He hath given me the unerring knowledge of things that exist, to know the constitution of the word," and so forth, down to "and the virtues of roots." Among all these he comprehends natural science, which treats of all the phenomena in the world of sense. And in continuation, he alludes also to intellectual objects in what he subjoins: "And what is hidden or manifest I know; for Wisdom, the artificer of all things, taught me."[4] You have, in brief, the professed aim of our philosophy; and the learning of these branches, when pursued with right course of conduct, leads through Wisdom, the artificer of all things, to the Ruler of all,--a Being difficult to grasp and apprehend, ever receding and withdrawing from him who pursues.
But He who is far off has—oh ineffable marvel!--come very near. "I am a God: that draws near," says the Lord. He is in essence remote; "for how is it that what is begotten can have approached the Unbegotten?" But He is very near in virtue of that power which holds all things in its embrace.
"Shall one do aught in secret, and I see him not?"[5] For the power of God is always present, in contact with us, in the exercise of inspection, of beneficence, of instruction. Whence Moses, persuaded that God is not to be known by human wisdom, said, "Show me Thy glory;"[6] and into the thick darkness where God’s voice was, pressed to enter—that is, into the inaccessible and invisible ideas respecting Existence. For God is not in darkness or in place, but above both space and time, and qualities of objects. Wherefore neither is He at any time in a part, either as containing or as contained, either by limitation or by section. "For what house will ye build to Me?" saith the Lord? Nay, He has not even built one for Himself, since He cannot be contained.
And though heaven be called His throne, not even thus is He contained, but He rests delighted in the creation. It is clear, then, that the truth has been hidden from us; and if that has been already shown by one example, we shall establish it a little after by several more. How entirely worthy of approbation are they who are both willing to learn, and able, according to Solomon, "to know wisdom and instruction, and to perceive the words of wisdom, to receive knotty words, and to perceive true righteousness," there being another [righteousness as well], not according to the truth, taught by the Greek laws, and by the rest of the philosophers. "And to direct judgments," it is said—not those of the bench, but he means that we must preserve sound and free of error the judicial faculty which is within us—"That I may give subtlety to the simple, to the young man sense and understanding."[8] "For the wise man," who has been persuaded to obey the commandments, "having heard these things, will become wiser" by knowledge; and "the intelligent man will acquire rule, and will understand a parable and a dark word, the sayings and enigmas of the wise."[9]
For it is not spurious words which those inspired by God and those who are gained over by them adduce, nor is it snares in which the most of the sophists entangle the young, spending their time on nought true. But those who possess the Holy Spirit "search the deep things of God,"[10]--that is, grasp the secret that is in the prophecies. "To impart of holy things to the dogs" is forbidden, so long as they remain beasts. For never ought those who are envious and perturbed, and still infidel in conduct, shameless in barking at investigation, to dip in the divine and clear stream of the living water.
"Let not the waters of thy fountain overflow, and let thy waters spread over thine own streets."[1] For it is not many who understand such things as they fall in with; or know them even after learning them, though they think they do, according to the worthy Heraclitus. Does not even he seem to thee to censure those who believe not? "Now my just one shall live by faith,"[2] the prophet said. And another prophet also says, "Except ye believe, neither shall ye understand."[3] For how ever could the soul admit the transcendental contemplation of such themes, while unbelief respecting what was to be learned struggled within? But faith, which the Greeks disparage, deeming it futile and barbarous, is a voluntary preconception[4] the assent of piety—" the subject of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," according to the divine apostle. "For hereby," pre-eminently, "the elders obtained a good report. But without faith it is impossible to please God."[5] Others have defined faith to be a uniting assent to an unseen object, as certainly the proof of an unknown thing is an evident assent. If then it be choice, being desirous of something, the desire is in this instance intellectual.
And since choice is the beginning of action, faith is discovered to be the beginning of action, being the foundation of rational choice in the case of any one who exhibits to himself the previous demonstration through faith. Voluntarily to follow what is useful, is the first principle of understanding. Unswerving choice, then, gives considerable momentum in the direction of knowledge. The exercise of faith directly becomes knowledge, reposing on a sure foundation. Knowledge, accordingly, is defined by the sons of the philosophers as a habit, which cannot be overthrown by reason. Is there any other true condition such as this, except piety, of which alone the Word is teacher?[6] I think not. Theophrastus says that sensation is the root of faith. For from it the rudimentary principles extend to the reason that is in us, and the understanding. He who believeth then the divine Scriptures with sure judgment, receives in the voice of God, who bestowed the Scripture, a demonstration that cannot be impugned. Faith, then, is not established by demonstration. "Blessed therefore those who, not having seen, yet have believed."[7] The Siren’s songs, exhibiting a power above human, fascinated those that came near, conciliating them, almost against their will, to the reception of what was said.
CHAP. III.—FAITH NOT A PRODUCT OF NATURE.
Now the followers of Basilides regard faith as natural, as they also refer it to choice, [representing it] as finding ideas by intellectual comprehension without demonstration; while the followers of Valentinus assign faith to us, the simple, but will have it that knowledge springs up in their own selves (who are saved by nature) through the advantage of a germ of superior excellence, saying that it is as far removed from faith as s the spiritual is from the animal. Further, the followers of Basilides say that faith as well as choice is proper according to every interval; and that in consequence of the supramundane selection mundane faith accompanies all nature, and that the free gift of faith is comformable to the hope of each. Faith, then, is no longer the direct result of free choice, if it is a natural advantage.
Nor will he who has not believed, not being the author [of his unbelief], meet with a due recompense; and he that has believed is not the cause [of his belief]. And the entire peculiarity and difference of belief and unbelief will not fall under either praise or censure, if we reflect rightly, since there attaches to it the antecedent natural necessity proceeding from the Almighty. And if we are pulled like inanimate things by the puppet-strings of natural powers, willingness[9] and unwillingness, and impulse, which is the antecedent of both, are mere redundancies. And for my part, I am utterly incapable of conceiving such an animal as has its appetencies, which are moved by external causes, under the dominion of necessity. And what place is there any longer for the repentance of him who was once an unbeliever, through which comes forgiveness of sins? So that neither is baptism rational, nor the blessed seal,[10] nor the Son, nor the Father. But God, as I think, turns out to be the distribution to men of natural powers, which has not as the foundation of salvation voluntary faith.
CHAP. IV.—FAITH THE FOUNDATION OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.
But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we have chosen life and believe God through His voice. And he who has believed the Word knows the matter to be true; for the Word is truth. But he who has disbelieved Him that speaks, has disbelieved God.
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of things which appear," says the apostle. "By faith Abel offered to God a fuller sacrifice than Cain, by which he received testimony that he was righteous, God giving testimony to him respecting his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh," and so forth, down to "than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."[1] Faith having, therefore, justified these before the law, made them heirs of the divine promise. Why then should I review and adduce any further testimonies of faith from the history in our hands? "For the time would fail me were I to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, and Samuel, and the prophets," and what follows.[2]
Now, inasmuch as there are four things in which the truth resides—Sensation, Understanding, Knowledge, Opinion,--intellectual apprehension is first in the order of nature; but in our case, and in relation to ourselves, Sensation is first, and of Sensation and Understanding the essence of Knowledge is formed; and evidence is common to Understanding and Sensation. Well Sensation is the ladder to Knowledge; while Faith, advancing over the pathway of the objects of sense, leaves Opinion behind, and speeds to things free of deception, and reposes in the truth.
Should one say that Knowledge is founded on demonstration by a process of reasoning, let him hear that first principles are incapable of demonstration; for they are known neither by art nor sagacity. For the latter is conversant about objects that are susceptible of change, while the former is practical solely, and not theoretical.[3] Hence it is thought that the first cause of the universe can be apprehended by faith alone. For all knowledge is capable of being taught; and what is capable of being taught is rounded on what is known before. But the first cause of the universe was not previously known to the Greeks; neither, accordingly, to Thales, who came to the conclusion that water was the first i cause; nor to the other natural philosophers who succeeded him, since it was Anaxagoras who was the first who assigned to Mind the supremacy over material things.
But not even he preserved the dignity suited to the efficient cause, describing as he did certain silly vortices, together with the inertia and even foolishness of Mind. Wherefore also the Word says, "Call no man master on earth."[4] For knowledge is a state of mind that results from demonstration; but faith is a grace which from what is indemonstrable conducts to what is universal and simple, what is neither with matter, nor matter, nor under matter. But those who believe not, as to be expected, drag all down from heaven, and the region of the invisible, to earth, "absolutely grasping with their hands rocks and oaks," according to Plato. For, clinging to all such things, they asseverate that that alone exists which can be touched and handled, defining body and essence to be identical: disputing against themselves, they very piously defend the existence of certain intellectual and bodiless forms descending somewhere from above from the invisible world, vehemently maintaining that there is a true essence.
"Lo, I make new things," saith the Word, "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man."[5] With a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, whatever can be seen and heard is to be apprehended, by the faith and understanding of the disciples of the Lord, who speak, hear, and act spiritually. For there is genuine coin, and other that is spurious; which no less deceives unprofessionals, that it does not the money-changers; who know through having learned how to separate and distinguish what has a false stamp from what is genuine. So the money-changer only says to the unprofessional man that the coin is counterfeit. But the reason why, only the banker’s apprentice, and he that is trained to this department, learns.
Now Aristotle says that the judgment which follows knowledge is in truth faith. Accordingly, faith is something superior to knowledge, and is its criterion. Conjecture, which is only a feeble supposition, counterfeits faith; as the flatterer counterfeits a friend, and the wolf the dog. And as the workman sees that by learning certain things he becomes an artificer, and the helmsman by being instructed in the art will be able to steer; he does not regard the mere wishing to become excellent and good enough, but he must learn it by the exercise of obedience. But to obey the Word, whom we call Instructor, is to believe Him, going against Him in nothing. For how can we take up a position of hostility to God? Knowledge, accordingly, is characterized by faith; and faith, by a kind of divine mutual and reciprocal correspondence, becomes characterized by knowledge.
Epicurus, too, who very greatly preferred pleasure to truth, supposes faith to be a preconception of the mind; and defines preconception to be a grasping at something evident, and at the clear understanding of the thing; and asserts that, without preconception, no one can either inquire, or doubt, or judge, or even argue. How can one, without a preconceived idea of what he is aiming after, learn about that which is the subject of his investigation? He, again, who has learned has already turned his preconception[1] into comprehension. And if he who learns, learns not without a preconceived idea which takes. in what is expressed, that man has ears to hear the truth.
And happy is the man that speaks to the ears of those who hear; as happy certainly also is he who is a child of obedience. Now to hear is to understand. If, then, faith is nothing else than a preconception of the mind in regard to what is the subject of discourse, and obedience is so called, and understanding and persuasion; no one shall learn aught without faith, since no one [learns aught] without preconception. Consequently there is a more ample demonstration of the complete truth of what was spoken by the prophet, "Unless ye believe, neither will ye understand." Paraphrasing this oracle, Heraclitus of Ephesus says, "If a man hope not, he will not find that which is not hoped for, seeing it is inscrutable and inaccessible." Plato the philosopher, also, in The Laws, says, "that he who would be blessed and happy, must be straight from the beginning a partaker of the truth, so as to live true for as long a period as possible; for he is a man of faith. But the unbeliever is one to whom voluntary falsehood is agreeable; and the man to whom involuntary falsehood is agreeable is senseless;[2] neither of which is desirable. For he who is devoid of friendliness, is faithless and ignorant."
And does he not enigmatically say in Euthydemus, that this is "the regal wisdom"? In The Statesman he says expressly, "So that the knowledge of the true king is kingly; and he who possesses it, whether a prince or private person, shall by all means, in consequence of this act, be rightly styled royal." Now those who have believed in Christ both are and are called Chrestoi (good),[3] as those who are cared for by the true king are kingly. For as the wise are wise by their wisdom, and those observant of law are so by the law; so also those who belong to Christ the King are kings, and those that are Christ’s Christians. Then, in continuation, he adds clearly, "What is right will turn out to be lawful, law being in its nature right reason, and not found in writings or elsewhere." And the stranger of Elea pronounces the kingly and statesmanlike man "a living law."
Such is he who fulfils the law, "doing the will of the Father,"[4] inscribed on a lofty pillar, and set as an example of divine virtue to all who possess the power of seeing. The Greeks are acquainted with the staves of the Ephori at Lacedaemon, inscribed with the law on wood. But my law, as was said above, is both royal and living; and it is right reason. "Law, which is king of all—of mortals and immortals," as the Boeotian Pindar sings. For Speusippus,[5] in the first book against Cleophon, seems to write like Plato on this wise: "For if royalty be a good thing, and the wise man the only king and ruler, the law, which is fight reason, is good;"[6] which is the case.
The Stoics teach what is in conformity with this, assigning kinghood, priesthood, prophecy, legislation, riches, true beauty, noble birth, freedom, to the wise man alone. But that he is exceedingly difficult to find, is confessed even by them.
CHAP. V.—HE PROVES BY SEVERAL EXAMPLES THAT THE GREEKS DREW FROM THE SACRED WRITERS.
Accordingly all those above-mentioned dogmas appear to have been transmitted from Moses the great to the Greeks. That all things belong to the wise man, is taught in these words: "And because God hath showed me mercy, I have all things."[7] And that he is beloved of God, God intimates when He says, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."[8] For the first is found to have been expressly called "friend;"[9] and the second is shown to have received a new name, signifying "he that sees God ;"[10] while Isaac, God in a figure selected for Himself as a consecrated sacrifice, to be a type to us of the economy of salvation.
Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years’ reign, and familiar friend of Zeus, is celebrated in song; they having heard how once God conversed with Moses, "as one speaking with his friend."[11] Moses, then, was a sage, king, legislator. But our Saviour surpasses all human nature." He is so lovely, as to be alone loved by us, whose hearts are set on the true beauty, for "He was the true light."[13] He is shown to be a King, as such hailed by unsophisticated children and by the unbelieving and ignorant Jews, and heralded by the prophets. So rich is He, that He despised the whole earth, and the gold above and beneath it, with all glory, when given to Him by the adversary. What need is there to say that He is the only High Priest, who alone possesses the knowledge of the worship of God?[1]
He is Melchizedek, "King of peace,"[2] the most fit of all to head the race of men. A legislator too, inasmuch as He gave the law by the mouth of the prophets, enjoining and teaching most distinctly what things are to be done, and what not. Who of nobler lineage than He whose only Father is God? Come, then, let us produce Plato assenting to those very dogmas. The wise man he calls rich in the Phoedrus, when he says, "O dear Pan, and whatever other gods are here, grant me to become fair within; and whatever external things I have, let them be agreeable to what is within. I would reckon the wise man rich."[3] And the Athenian stranger,[4] finding fault with those who think that those who have many possessions are rich, speaks thus: "For the very rich to be also good is impossible—those, I mean, whom the multitude count rich. Those they call rich, who, among a few men, are owners of the possessions worth most money; which any bad man may possess." "The whole world of wealth belongs to the believer,"[5] Solomon says, "but not a penny to the unbeliever." Much more, then, is the Scripture to be believed which says, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man "[6] to lead a philosophic life.
But, on the other hand, it blesses "the poor;"[7] as Plato understood when he said, "It is not the diminishing of one’s resources, but the augmenting of insatiableness, that is to be considered poverty; for it is not slender means that ever constitutes poverty, but insatiableness, from which the good man being free, will also be rich." And in Alcibiades he calls vice a servile thing, and virtue the attribute of freemen. "Take away from you the heavy yoke, and take up the easy one,"[8] says the Scripture; as also the poets call [vice] a slavish yoke. And the expression, "Ye have sold yourselves to your sins," agrees with what is said above: "Every one, then, who committeth sin is a slave; and the slave abideth not in the house for ever. But if the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free, and the truth shall make you free."[9]
And again, that the wise man is beautiful, the Athenian stranger asserts, in the same way as if one were to affirm that certain persons were just, even should they happen to be ugly in their persons. And in speaking thus with respect to eminent rectitude of character, no one who should assert them to be on this account beautiful would be thought to speak extravagantly. And "His appearance was inferior to all the Sons of men,"[10] prophecy predicted.
Plato, moreover, has called the wise man a king, in The Statesman. The remark is quoted above.
These points being demonstrated, let us recur again to our discourse on faith. Well, with the fullest demonstration, Plato proves, that there is need of faith everywhere, celebrating peace at the same time: "For no man will ever be trusty and sound in seditions without entire virtue. There are numbers of mercenaries full of fight, and willing to die in war; but, with a very few exceptions, the most of them are desperadoes and villains, insolent and senseless." If these observations are right, "every legislator who is even of slight use, will, in making his laws, have an eye to the greatest virtue. Such is fidelity, which we need at all times, both in peace and in war, and in all the rest of our life, for it appears to embrace the other virtues. "But the best thing is neither war nor sedition, for the necessity of these is to be deprecated. But peace with one another and kindly feeling are what is best." From these remarks the greatest prayer evidently is to have peace, according to Plato.
And faith is the greatest mother of the I virtues. Accordingly it is rightly said in Solomon, "Wisdom is in the mouth of the faithful." Since also Xenocrates, in his book on "Intelligence," says "that wisdom is the knowledge of first causes and of intellectual essence." He considers intelligence as twofold, practical and theoretical, which latter is human wisdom. Consequently wisdom is intelligence, but all intelligence is not wisdom. And it has been shown, that the knowledge of the first cause of the universe is of faith, but is not demonstration. For it were strange that the followers of the Samian Pythagoras, rejecting demonstrations of subjects of question, should regard the bare ipse dixit[13] as ground of belief; and that this expression alone sufficed for the confirmation of what they heard, while those devoted to the contemplation of the truth, presuming to disbelieve the trustworthy Teacher, God the only Saviour, should demand of Him tests of His utterances. But He says, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." And who is he? Let Epicharmus say:--
"Mind sees, mind hears; all besides is deaf and blind."[14]
Rating some as unbelievers, Heraclitus says, "Not knowing how to hear or to speak;" aided doubtless by Solomon, who says, "If thou lovest to hear, thou shalt comprehend; and if thou incline thine ear, thou shalt be wise.[1]
CHAP. VI.—THE EXCELLENCE AND UTILITY OF FAITH.
"Lord, who hath believed our report?"[2] Isaiah says. For "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," saith the apostle. "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those that publish glad tidings of good things ! "3 You see how he brings faith by hearing, and the preaching of the apostles, up to the word of the Lord, and to the Son of God. We do not yet understand the word of the Lord to be demonstration.
As, then, playing at ball not only depends on one throwing the ball skilfully, but it requires besides one to catch it dexterously, that the game may be gone through according to the rules for ball; so also is it the case that teaching is reliable when faith on the part of those who hear, being, so to speak, a sort of natural art, contributes to the process of learning. So also the earth co-operates, through its productive power, being fit for the sowing of the seed. For there is no good of the very best instruction without the exercise of the receptive faculty on the part of the learner, not even of prophecy, when there is the absence of docility on the part of those who hear. For dry twigs, being ready to receive the power of fire, are kindled with great ease; and the far-famed stone[4] attracts steel through affinity, as the amber tear-drop drags to itself twigs, and the lump sets chaff in motion. And the substances attracted obey them, influenced by a subtle spirit, not as a cause, but as a concurring cause.
There being then a twofold species of vice—that characterized by craft and stealth, and that which leads and drives with violence—the divine Word cries, calling all together; knowing perfectly well those that will not obey; notwithstanding then since to obey or not is in our own power, provided we have not the excuse of ignorance to adduce. He makes a just call, and demands of each according to his strength. For some are able as well as willing, having reached this point through practice and being purified; while others, if they are not yet able, already have the will. Now to will is the act of the soul, but to do is not without the body. Nor are actions estimated by their issue alone; but they are judged also according to the element of free choice in each,--if he chose easily, if he repented of his sins, if he reflected on his failures and repented (<greek>metegnw</greek>), which is (<greek>meta</greek> <greek>tauta</greek> <greek>egnw</greek> ) "afterwards knew."
For repentance is a tardy knowledge, and primitive innocence is knowledge. Repentance, then, is an effect of faith. For unless a man believe that to which he was addicted to be sin, he will not abandon it; and if he do not believe punishment to be impending over the transgressor, and salvation to be the portion of him who lives according to the commandments, he will not reform.
Hope, too, is based on faith. Accordingly the followers of Basilides define faith to be, the assent of the soul to any of those things, that do not affect the senses through not being present. And hope is the expectation of the possession of good. Necessarily, then, is expectation founded on faith. Now he is faithful who keeps inviolably what is entrusted to him; and we are entrusted with the utterances respecting God and the divine words, the commands along with the execution of the injunctions. This is the faithful servant, who is praised by the Lord. And when it is said, "God is faithful," it is intimated that He is worthy to be believed when declaring aught. Now His Word declares; and "God" Himself is "faithful."[5] How, then, if to believe is to suppose, do the philosophers think that what proceeds from themselves is sure?
For the voluntary assent to a preceding demonstration is not supposition, but it is assent to something sure. Who is more powerful than God? Now unbelief is the feeble negative supposition of one opposed to Him: as incredulity is a condition which admits faith with difficulty. Faith is the voluntary supposition and anticipation of pre-comprehension. Expectation is an opinion about the future, and expectation about other things is opinion about uncertainty. Confidence is a strong judgment about a thing.
Wherefore we believe Him in whom we have confidence unto divine glory and salvation. And we confide in Him, who is God alone, whom we know, that those things nobly [promised to us, and for this end benevolently created and bestowed by Him on us, will not fail.
Benevolence is the wishing of good things to another for his sake. For He needs nothing; and the beneficence and benignity which flow from the Lord terminate in us, being divine benevolence, and benevolence resulting in beneficence. And if to Abraham on his believing it was counted for righteousness; and if we are the seed of Abraham, then we must also believe through heating. For we are Israelites, who are convinced not by signs, but by hearing. Wherefore it is said, "Rejoice, O barren, that barest not; break forth and cry, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than of her who hath an husband."[1] "Thou hast lived for the fence of the people, thy children were blessed in the tents of their fathers."[2] And if the same mansions are promised by prophecy to us and to the patriarchs, the God of both the covenants is shown to be one. Accordingly it is added more clearly, "Thou hast inherited the covenant of Israel,"[3] speaking to those called from among the nations that were once barren, being formerly destitute of this husband, who is the Word,--desolate formerly,--of the bridegroom.
"Now the just shall live by faith,"[4] which is according to the covenant and the commandments; since these, which are two in name and time, given in accordance with the [divine] economy—being in power one—the old and the new, are dispensed through the Son by one God. As the apostle also says in the Epistle to the Romans, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith," teaching the one salvation which from prophecy to the Gospel is perfected by one and the same Lord. "This charge," he says, "I commit to thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war the good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck,"[5] because they defiled by unbelief the conscience that comes from God. Accordingly, faith may not, any more, with reason, be disparaged in an offhand way, as simple and vulgar, appertaining to anybody.
For, if it were a mere human habit, as the Greeks supposed, it would have been extinguished. But if it grow, and there be no place where it is not; then I affirm, that faith, whether founded in love, or in fear, as its disparagers assert, is something divine; which is neither rent asunder by other mundane friendship, nor dissolved by the presence of fear. For love, on account of its friendly alliance with faith, makes men believers; and faith, which is the foundation of love, in its turn introduces the doing of good; since also fear, the paedagogue of the law, is believed to be fear by those, by whom it is believed. For, if its existence is shown in its working, it is yet believed when about to do and threatening, and when not working and present; and being believed to exist, it does not itself generate faith, but is by faith tested and proved trustworthy. Such a change, then, from unbelief to faith—and to trust in hope and fear, is divine. And, in truth, faith is discovered, by us, to be the first movement towards salvation; after which fear, and hope, and repentance, advancing in company with temperance and patience, lead us to love and knowledge.
Rightly, therefore, the Apostle Barnabas says, "From the portion I have received I have done my diligence to send by little and little to you; that along with your faith you may also have perfect knowledge.[6] Fear and patience are then helpers of your faith; and our allies are long-suffering and temperance. These, then," he says, "in what respects the Lord, continuing in purity, there rejoice along with them, wisdom, understanding, intelligence, knowledge." The fore-mentioned virtues being, then, the elements of knowledge; the result is that faith is more elementary, being as necessary to the Gnostic,[7] as respiration to him that lives in this world is to life. And as without the four elements it is not possible to live, so neither can knowledge be attained without faith. It is then the support of truth.
CHAP. VII.—THE UTILITY OF FEAR. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
Those, who denounce fear, assail the law; and if the law, plainly also God, who gave the law. For these three elements are of necessity presented in the subject on hand: the ruler, his administration, and the ruled. If, then, according to hypothesis, they abolish the law; then, by necessary consequence, each one who is led by lust, courting pleasure, must neglect what is right and despise the Deity, and fearlessly indulge in impiety and injustice together, having dashed away from the truth.
Yea, say they, fear is an irrational aberration[8] and perturbation of mind. What sayest thou? And how can this definition be any longer maintained, seeing the commandment is given me by the Word? But the commandment forbids, hanging fear over the head of those who have incurred[9] admonition for their discipline.
Fear is not then irrational. It is therefore rational. How could it be otherwise, exhorting as it does, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Than shalt not bear false witness? But if they will quibble about the names, let the philosophers term the fear of the law, cautious fear, (<greek>eulabeia</greek>) which is a shunning (<greek>ekklisis</greek>) agreeable to reason. Such Critolaus of Phasela not inaptly called fighters about names (<greek>onomatomakoi</greek>). The commandment, then, has already appeared fair and lovely even in the highest degree, when conceived under a change of name.
Cautious fear (<greek>eulabeia</greek>) is therefore shown to be reasonable being the shunning of what hurts; from which arises repentance for previous sins. "For the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; good understanding is to all that do it."[1] He calls wisdom a doing, which is the fear of the Lord paving the way for wisdom. But if the law produces fear, the knowledge of the law is the beginning of wisdom; and a man is not wise without law. Therefore those who reject the law are unwise; and in consequence they are reckoned godless (<greek>aqeoi</greek>).
Now instruction is the beginning of wisdom. "But the ungodly despise wisdom and instruction,"[2] saith the Scripture.
Let us see what terrors the law announces. If it is the things which hold an intermediate place between virtue and vice, such as poverty, disease, obscurity, and humble birth, and the like, these things civil laws hold forth, and are: praised for so doing. And those of the Peripatetic school, who introduce three kinds of good things, and think that their opposites are evil, this opinion suits. But the law given to us enjoins us to shun what are in reality bad things—adultery, uncleanness, paederasty, ignorance, wickedness, soul-disease, death (not that which severs the soul from the body, but that which severs the soul from truth). For these are vices in reality, and the workings that proceed from them are dreadful and terrible. "For not unjustly," say the divine oracles, "are the nets spread for birds; for they who are accomplices in blood treasure up evils to themselves."[3]
How, then, is the law still said to be not good by certain heresies that clamorously appeal to the
apostle, who says, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin?"[4] To whom we say, The law did not cause, but showed sin. For, enjoining what is to be done, it reprehended what ought not to be done.
And it is the part of the good to teach what is salutary, and to point out what is deleterious; and to counsel the practice of the one, and to command to shun the other. Now the apostle, whom they do not comprehend, said that by the law the knowledge of sin was manifested, not that from it it derived its existence. And how can the law be not good, which trains, which is given as the instructor (<greek>paidagwgos</greek>) to Christ, s that being corrected by fear, in the way of discipline, in order to the attainment of the perfection which is by Christ? "I will not," it is said, "the death of the sinner, as his repentance."[6] Now the commandment works repentance; inasmuch as it deters[7] from what ought not to be done, and enjoins good deeds.
By ignorance he means, in my opinion, death. "And he that is near the Lord is full of stripes."[8] Plainly, he, that draws near to knowledge, has the benefit Of perils, fears, troubles, afflictions, by reason of his desire for the truth. "For the son who is instructed turns out wise, and an intelligent son is saved from burning. And an intelligent son will receive the commandments."[9] And Barnabas the apostle having said, "Woe to those who are wise in their own conceits, clever in their own eyes,"[10] added, "Let us become spiritual, a perfect temple to God; let us, as far as in us lies, practise the fear of God, and strive to keep His commands, that we may rejoice in His judgments."[11] Whence "the fear of God" is divinely said to be the beginning of wisdom.[12]
CHAP. VIII.—THE VAGARIES OF BASILIDES AND VALENTINUS AS TO FEAR BEING THE CAUSE OF THINGS,
Here the followers of Basilides, interpreting this expression, say, "that the Prince,[13] having heard the speech of the Spirit, who was being ministered to, was struck with amazement both with the voice and the vision, having had glad tidings beyond his hopes announced to him; and that his amazement was called fear, which became the origin of wisdom, which distinguishes classes, and discriminates, and perfects, and restores. For not the world alone, but also the election, He that is over all has set apart and sent forth."
And Valentinus appears also in an epistle to have adopted such views. For he writes in these very words: "And as[14] terror fell on the angels at this creature, because he uttered things greater than proceeded from his formation, by reason of the being in him who had invisibly communicated a germ of the supernal essence, and who spoke with free utterance; so also among the tribes of men in the world, the works of men became terrors to those who made them,--as, for example, images and statues. And the hands of all fashion things to bear the name of God:
for Adam formed into the name of man inspired the dread attaching to the pre-existent man, as having his being in him; and they were terror-stricken, and speedily marred the work."
But there being but one First Cause, as will be shown afterwards, these men will be shown to be inventors of chatterings and chirpings. But since God deemed it advantageous, that from the law and the prophets, men should receive a preparatory discipline by the Lord, the fear of the Lord was called the beginning of wisdom, being given by the Lord, through Moses, to the disobedient and hard of heart. For those whom reason convinces not, fear tames; which also the Instructing Word, foreseeing from the first, and purifying by each of these methods, adapted the instrument suitably for piety. Consternation is, then, fear at a strange apparition, or at an unlooked-for representation—such as, for example, a message; while fear is an excessive wonderment on account of something which arises or is.
They do not then perceive that they represent by means of amazement the God who is highest and is extolled by them, as subject to perturbation and antecedent to amazement as having been in ignorance. If indeed ignorance preceded amazement; and if this amazement and fear, which is the beginning of wisdom, is the fear of God, then in all likelihood ignorance as cause preceded both the wisdom of God and all creative work, and not only these, but restoration and even election itself. Whether, then, was it ignorance of what was good or what was evil?
Well, if of good, why does it cease through amazement? And minister and preaching and baptism are [in that case] superfluous to them. And if of evil, how can what is bad be the cause of what is best? For had not ignorance preceded, the minister would not have come down, nor would have amazement seized on "the Prince," as they say; nor would he have attained to a beginning of wisdom from fear, in order to discrimination between the elect and those that are mundane. And if the fear of the pre-existent man made the angels conspire against their own handiwork, under the idea that an invisible germ of the supernal essence was lodged within that creation, or through unfounded suspicion excited envy, which is incredible, the angels became murderers of the creature which had been entrusted to them, as a child might be, they being thus convicted of the grossest ignorance. Or suppose they were influenced by being involved in foreknowledge. But they would not have conspired against what they foreknew in the assault they made; nor would they have been terror-struck at their own work, in consequence of foreknowledge, on their perceiving the supernal germ. Or, finally, suppose, trusting to their knowledge, they dared (but this also were impossible for them), on learning the excellence that is in the Pleroma, to conspire against man. Furthermore also they laid hands on that which was according to the image, in which also is the archetype, and which, along with the knowledge that remains, is indestructible.
To these, then, and certain others, especially the Marcionites, the Scripture cries, though they listen not, "He that heareth Me shall rest with confidence in peace, and shall be tranquil, fearless of all evil."[1]
What, then, will they have the law to be? They will not call it evil, but just; distinguishing what is good from what is just. But the Lord, when He enjoins us to dread evil, does not exchange one evil for another, but abolishes what is opposite by its opposite. Now evil is the opposite of good, as what is just is of what is unjust. If, then, that absence of fear, which the fear of the Lord produces, is called the beginning of what is good,[2] fear is a good thing. And the fear which proceeds from the law is not only just, but good, as it takes away evil. But introducing absence of fear by means of fear, it does not produce apathy by means of mental perturbation, but moderation of feeling by discipline.
When, then, we hear, "Honour the Lord, and be strong: but fear not another besides Him,"[3] we understand it to be meant fearing to sin, and following the commandments given by God, which is the honour that cometh from God. For the fear of God is <greek>Deos</greek> [in Greek]. But if fear is perturbation of mind, as some will have it that fear is perturbation of mind, yet all fear is not perturbation. Superstition is indeed perturbation of mind; being the fear of demons, that produce and are subject to the excitement of passion. On the other hand, consequently, the fear of God, who is not subject to perturbation, is free of perturbation.
For it is not God, but failing away from God, that the man is terrified for. And he who fears this—that is, falling into evils—fears and dreads those evils. And he who fears a fall, wishes himself to be free of corruption and perturbation. "The wise man, fearing, avoids evil: but the foolish, trusting, mixes himself with it," says the Scripture; and again it says, "In the fear of the LORD is the hope of strength."[4]
CHAP. IX.—THE CONNECTION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.
Such a fear, accordingly, leads to repentance and hope. Now hope is the expectation of good things, or an expectation sanguine of absent good; and favourable circumstances are assumed in order to good hope, which we have learned leads on to love. Now love turns out to be consent in what pertains to reason, life, and manners, or in brief, fellowship in life, or it is the intensity of friendship and of affection, with fight reason, in the enjoyment of associates. And an associate (<greek>etairos</greek>) is another self;[1] just as we call those, brethren, who are regenerated by the same word. And akin to love is hospitality, being a congenial an devoted to the treatment of strangers. And those are strangers, to whom the things of the world are strange.
For we regard as worldly those, who hope in the earth and carnal lusts. "Be not conformed," says the apostle, "to this world: but be ye transformed in the renewal of the mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."[2]
Hospitality, therefore, is occupied in what is useful for strangers; and guests (<greek>epixenoi</greek>) are strangers (<greek>xenoi</greek>); and friends are guests; and brethren are friends. "Dear brother,"[3] says Homer.
Philanthropy, in order to which also, is natural affection, being a loving treatment of men, and natural affection, which is a congenial habit exercised in the love of friends or domestics, follow in the train of love. And if the real man within us is the spiritual, philanthropy is brotherly love to those who participate, in the same spirit. Natural affection, on the other hand, the preservation of good-will, or of affection; and affection is its perfect demonstration;[4] and to be beloved is to please in behaviour, by drawing and attracting. And persons are brought to sameness by consent, which is the knowledge of the good things that are enjoyed in common. For community of sentiment (<greek>omognwmosunh</greek>) is harmony of opinions (<greek>sumfwnia</greek> <greek>gnwmpn</greek>). "Let your love be without dissimulation," it is said; "and abhorring what is evil, let us become attached to what is good, to brotherly love," and so on, down to "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, living peaceably with all men."
Then "be not overcome of evil," it is said, "but overcome evil with good."[5] And the same apostle owns that he bears witness to the Jews, "that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God."[6] For they did not know and do the will of the law; but what they supposed, that they thought the law wished. And they did not believe the law as prophesying, but the bare word; and they followed through fear, not through disposition and faith.
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,"[7] who was prophesied by the law to every one that believeth.
Whence it was said to them by Moses, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are not a people; and I will anger you by a foolish nation, that is, by one that has become disposed to obedience."[8] And by Isaiah it is said, "I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest to them that inquired not after Me,"[9]--manifestly previous to the coming of the Lord; after which to lsrael, the things prophesied, are now appropriately spoken: "I have stretched out My hands all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people." Do you see the cause of the calling from among the nations, clearly declared, by the prophet, to be the disobedience and gainsaying of the people? Then the goodness of God is shown also in their case. For the apostle says, "But through their transgression salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy,"[10] and to willingness to repent.
And the Shepherd, speaking plainly of those who had fallen asleep, recognises certain righteous among Gentiles and Jews, not only before the appearance of Christ, but before the law, in virtue of acceptance before God,--as Abel, as Noah, as any other righteous man. He says accordingly, "that the apostles and teachers, who had preached the name of the Son of God, and had fallen asleep, in power and by faith, preached to those that had fallen asleep before." Then he subjoins: "And they gave them the seal of preaching. They descended, therefore, with them into the water, and again ascended. But these descended alive, and again ascended alive.
But those, who had fallen asleep before, descended dead, but ascended alive. By these, therefore, they were made alive, and knew the name of the Son of God. Wherefore also they ascended with them, and fitted into the structure of the tower, and unhewn were built up together; they fell asleep in righteousness and in great purity, but wanted only this seal."[11] "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves,"[12] according to the apostle.
As, then, the virtues follow one another, why need I say what has been demonstrated already, that faith hopes through repentance, and fear through faith; and patience and practice in these along with learning terminate in love, which is perfected by knowledge? But that is necessarily to be noticed, that the Divine alone is to be regarded as naturally wise. Therefore also wisdom, which has taught the truth, is the power of God; and in it the perfection of knowledge is embraced.
The philosopher loves and likes the truth, being now considered as a friend, on account of his love, from his being a true servant. The beginning of knowledge is wondering at objects, as Plato says is in his Theoetetus; and Matthew exhorting in the Traditions, says, "Wonder at what is before you;" laying this down first as the foundation of further knowledge. So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is written, "He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest. It is impossible, therefore, for an ignorant man, while he remains ignorant, to philosophize, not having apprehended the idea of wisdom; since philosophy is an effort to grasp that which truly is, and the studies that conduce thereto. And it is not the rendering of one[1] accomplished in good habits of conduct, but the knowing how we are to use and act and labour, according as one is assimilated to God. I mean God the Saviour, by serving the God of the universe through the High Priest, the Word, by whom what is in truth good and right is beheld. Piety is conduct suitable and corresponding to God.
CHAP. X.—TO WHAT THE PHILOSOPHER APPLIES HIMSELF.
These three things, therefore, our philosopher attaches himself to: first, speculation; second, the performance of the precepts; third, the forming of good men;--which, concurring, form the Gnostic.
Whichever of these is wanting, the elements of knowledge limp. Whence the Scripture divinely says, "And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, I am the LORD your God. According to the customs of the land of Egypt, in which ye have dwelt, ye shall not do; and according to the customs of Canaan, into which I bring you, ye shall not do; and in their usages ye shall not walk. Ye shall perform My judgments, and keep My precepts, and walk in them: I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep all My commandments, and do them. He that doeth them shall live in them. I am the LORD your God."[2]
Whether, then, Egypt and the land of Canaan be the symbol of the world and of deceit, or of sufferings and afflictions; the oracle shows us what must be abstained from, and what, being divine and not worldly, must be observed. And when it is said, "The man that doeth them shall live in them,"[3] it declares both the correction of the Hebrews themselves, and the training and advancement of us who are nigh:[4] it declares at once their life and ours. For "those who were dead in sins are quickened together with Christ,"[5] by our covenant. For Scripture, by the frequent reiteration of the expression, "I am the LORD your God," shames in such a way as most powerfully to dissuade, by teaching us to follow God who gave the commandments, and gently admonishes us to seek God and endeavour to know Him as far as possible; which is the highest speculation, that which scans the greatest mysteries, the real knowledge, that which becomes irrefragable by reason. This alone is the knowledge of wisdom, from which rectitude of conduct is never disjoined.
CHAP. XI.—THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH COMES THROUGH FAITH THE SUREST OF ALL.
But the knowledge of those who think themselves wise, whether the barbarian sects or the philosophers among the Greeks, according to the apostle, " puffeth up."[6] But that knowledge, which is the scientific demonstration of what is delivered according to the true philosophy, is rounded on faith. Now, we may say that it is that process of reason which, from what is admitted, procures faith in what is disputed. Now, faith being twofold—the faith of knowledge and that of opinion—nothing prevents us from calling demonstration twofold, the one resting on knowledge, the other on opinion; since also knowledge and foreknowledge are designated as twofold, that which is essentially accurate, that which is defective. And is not the demonstration, which we possess, that alone which is true, as being supplied out of the divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of the "God-taught wisdom," according to the apostle? Learning, then, is also obedience to the commandments, which is faith in God.
And faith is a power of God, being the strength of the truth. For example, it is said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall remove the mountain."[7] And again, "According to thy faith let it be to thee."[8] And one is cured, receiving healing by faith; and the dead is raised up in consequence of the power of one believing that he would be raised. The demonstration, however, which rests on opinion is human, and is the result of rhetorical arguments or dialectic syllogisms. For the highest demonstration, to which we have alluded, produces intelligent faith by the adducing and opening up of the Scriptures to the souls of those who desire to learn; the result of which is knowledge (gnosis). For if what is adduced in order to prove the point at issue is assumed to be true, as being divine and prophetic, manifestly the conclusion arrived at by inference from it will consequently he inferred truly; and the legitimate result of the demonstration will be knowledge.
When, then, the memorial of the celestial and divine food was commanded to be consecrated in the golden pot, it was said, "The omer was the tenth of the three measures."[1] For in ourselves, by the three measures are indicated three criteria; sensation of objects of sense, speech,--of spoken names and words, and the mind,--of intellectual objects.
The Gnostic, therefore, will abstain from errors in speech, and thought, and sensation, and action, having heard "that he that looks so as to lust hath committed adultery;"[2] and reflecting that "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;"[3] and knowing this, "that not what enters into the mouth defileth, but that it is what cometh forth by the mouth that defileth the man.
For out of the heart proceed thoughts."[4] This, as I think, is the true and just measure according to God, by which things capable of measurement are measured, the decad which is comprehensive of man; which summarily the three above-mentioned measures pointed out. There are body and soul, the five senses, speech, the power of reproduction—the intellectual or the spiritual faculty, or whatever you choose to call it. And we must, in a word, ascending above all the others, stop at the mind; as also certainly in the universe overleaping the nine divisions, the first consisting of the four elements put in one place for equal interchange: and then the seven wandering stars and the one that wanders not, the ninth, to the perfect number, which is above the nine,[5] and the tenth division, we must reach to the knowledge of God, to speak briefly, desiring the Maker after the creation. Wherefore the tithes both of the ephah and of the sacrifices were presented to God; and the paschal feast began with the tenth day, being the transition from all trouble, and from all objects of sense.
The Gnostic is therefore fixed by faith; but the man who thinks himself wise touches not what pertains to the truth, moved as he is by unstable and wavering impulses. It is therefore reasonably written, "Cain went forth from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Naid, over against Eden."
Now Naid is interpreted commotion, and Eden delight; and Faith, and Knowledge, and Peace are delight, from which he that has disobeyed is cast out. But he that is wise in his own eyes will not so much as listen to the beginning of the divine commandments; but, as if his own teacher, throwing off the reins, plunges voluntarily into a billowy commotion, sinking down to mortal and created things from the uncreated knowledge, holding various opinions at various times. "Those who have no guidance fall like leaves."[6]
Reason, the governing principle, remaining unmoved and guiding the soul, is called its pilot. For access to the Immutable is obtained by a truly immutable means. Thus Abraham was stationed before the Lord, and approaching spoke.[7] And to Moses it is said, "But do thou stand there with Me."[8] And the followers of Simon wish be assimilated in manners to the standing form which they adore. Faith, therefore, and the knowledge of the truth, render the soul, which makes them its choice, always uniform and equable. For congenial to the man of falsehood is shifting, and change, and turning away, as to the Gnostic are calmness, and rest, and peace.
As, then, philosophy has been brought into evil repute by pride and self-conceit, so also ghosts by false ghosts called by the same name; of which the apostle writing says, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science (gnosis) falsely so called; which some professing, have erred concerning the faith."[9]
Convicted by this utterance, the heretics reject the Epistles to Timothy.[10] Well, then, if the Lord is the truth, and wisdom, and power of God, as in truth He is, it is shown that the real Gnostic is he that knows Him, and His Father by Him. For his sentiments are the same with him who said, "The lips of the righteous know high things."[11]
CHAP. XII.—TWOFOLD FAITH.
Faith as also Time being double, we shall find virtues in pairs both dwelling together. For memory is related to past time, hope to future. We believe that what is past did, and that what is future will take place. And, on the other I hand, we love, persuaded by faith that the past was as it was, and by hope expecting the future. For in everything love attends the Gnostic, who knows one God. "And, behold, all things which He created were very good."[12] He both knows and admires.
Godliness adds length of life; and the fear of the Lord adds days. As, then, the days are a portion of life in its progress, so also fear is the beginning of love, becoming by development faith, then love.
But it is not as I fear and hate a wild beast (since fear is twofold) that I fear the father, whom I fear and love at once. Again, fearing lest I be punished, I love myself in assuming fear. He who fears to offend his father, loves himself. Blessed then is he who is found possessed of faith, being, as he is, composed of love and fear. And faith is power in order to salvation, and strength to eternal life.
Again, prophecy is foreknowledge; and knowledge the understanding of prophecy; being the knowledge of those things known before by the Lord who reveals all things.
The knowledge, then, of those things which have been predicted shows a threefold result—either one that has happened long ago, or exists now, or about to be. Then the extremes[1] either of what is accomplished or of what is hoped for fall under faith; and the present action furnishes persuasive arguments of the confirmation of both the extremes. For if, prophecy being one, one part is accomplishing and another is fulfilled; hence the truth, both what is hoped for and what is passed is confirmed. For it was first present; then it became past to us; so that the belief of what is past is the apprehension of a past event, and a hope which is future the apprehension of a future event.
And not only the Platonists, but the Stoics, say that assent is in our own power. All opinion then, and judgment, and supposition, and knowledge, by which we live and have perpetual intercourse with the human race, is an assent; which is nothing else than faith. And unbelief being defection from faith, shows both assent and faith to be possessed of power; for non-existence cannot be called privation. And if you consider the truth, you will find man naturally misled so as to give assent to what is false, though possessing the resources necessary for belief in the truth.
"The virtue, then, that encloses the Church in its grasp," as the Shepherd says,[2] "is Faith, by which the elect of God are saved; and that which acts the man is Self-restraint. And these are followed by Simplicity, Knowledge, Innocence, Decorum, Love," and all these are the daughters of Faith. And again, "Faith leads the way, fear upbuilds, and love perfects." Accordingly he[3] says, the Lord is to be feared in order to edification, but not the devil to destruction. And again, the works of the Lord—that is, His commandments—are to be loved and done; but the works of the devil are to be dreaded and not done. For the fear of God trains and restores to love; but the fear of the works of the devil has hatred dwelling along with it. The same also says" that repentance is high intelligence.
For he that repents of what he did, no longer does or says as he did. But by torturing himself for his sins, he benefits his soul. Forgiveness of sins is therefore different from repentance; but both show what is in our power."
CHAP. XIII.—ON FIRST AND SECOND REPENTANCE.
He, then, who has received the forgiveness of sins ought to sin no more. For, in addition to the first and only repentance from sins (this is from the previous sins in the first and heathen life—I mean that in ignorance), there is forthwith proposed to those who have been called, the repentance which cleanses the seat of the soul from transgressions, that faith may be established. And the Lord, knowing the heart, and foreknowing the future, foresaw both the fickleness of man and the craft and subtlety of the devil from the first, from the beginning; how that, envying man for the forgiveness of sins, he would present to the servants of God certain causes of sins; skilfully working mischief, that they might fall together with himself. Accordingly, being very merciful, He has vouch-safed, in the case of those who, though in faith, fall into any transgression, a second repentance; so that should any one be tempted after his calling, overcome by force and fraud, he may receive still a repentance not to be repented of. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shah devour the adversaries."[4]
But continual and successive repentings for sins differ nothing from the case of those who have not believed at all, except only in their consciousness that they do sin. And I know not which of the two is worst, whether the case of a man who sins knowingly, or of one who, after having repented of his sins, transgresses again. For in the process of proof sin appears on each side,--the sin which in its commission is condemned by the worker of the iniquity, and that of the man who, foreseeing what is about to be done, yet puts his hand to it as a wickedness. And he who perchance gratifies himself in anger and pleasure, gratifies himself in he knows what; and he who, repenting of that in which he gratified himself, by rushing again into pleasure, is near neighbour to him who has sinned wilfully at first. For one, who does again that of which he has repented, and condemning what he does, performs it willingly.
He, then, who from among the Gentiles and from that old life has betaken himself to faith, has obtained forgiveness of sins once. But he who has sinned after this, on his repentance, though he obtain pardon, ought to fear, as one no longer washed to the forgiveness of sins. For not only must the idols which he formerly held as gods, but the works also of his former life, be abandoned by him who has been "born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,"[1] but in the Spirit; which consists in repenting by not giving way to the same fault. For frequent repentance and readiness to change easily from want of training, is the practice of sin again.[2] The frequent asking of forgiveness, then, for those things in which we often transgress, is the semblance of repentance, not repentance itself. "But the righteousness of the blameless cuts straight paths,"[3] says the Scripture.
And again, "The righteousness of the innocent will make his way right."[4] Nay, "as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him."[5] David writes, "They who sow," then, "in tears, shall reap in joy; "[6] those, namely, who confess in penitence. "For blessed are all those that fear the LORD."[7] You see the corresponding blessing in the Gospel. "Fear not," it is said, "when a man is enriched, and when the glory of his house is increased: because when he dieth he shall leave all, and his glory shall not descend after him."[8] "But I in Thy I mercy will enter into Thy house. I will worship I toward Thy holy temple, in Thy fear: LORD, lead me in Thy righteousness."[9] Appetite is then the movement of the mind to or from something.[10] Passion is an excessive appetite exceeding the measures of reason, or appetite unbridled and disobedient to the word.
Passions, then, are a perturbation of the soul contrary to nature, in disobedience to reason. But revolt and distraction and disobedience are in our own power, as obedience is in our power. Wherefore voluntary actions are judged. But should one examine each one of the passions, he will find them irrational impulses.
CHAP. XIV.—HOW A THING MAY BE INVOLUNTARY.
What is involuntary is not matter for judgment. But this is twofold,--what is done in ignorance, and what is done through necessity. For how will you judge concerning those who are said to sin in involuntary modes? For either one knew not himself, as Cleomenes and Athamas, who were mad; or the thing which he does, as Aeschylus, who divulged the mysteries on the stage, who, being tried in the Areopagus, was absolved on his showing that he had not been initiated. Or one knows not what is done, as he who has let off his antagonist, and slain his domestic instead of his enemy; or that by which it is done, as he who, in exercising with spears having buttons on them, has killed some one in consequence of the spear throwing off the button; or knows not the manner how, as he who has killed his antagonist in the stadium, for it was not for his death but for victory that he contended; or knows not the reason why it is done, as the physician gave a salutary antidote and killed, for it was not for this purpose that he gave it, but to save. The law at that time punished him who had killed involuntarily, as e.g., him who was subject involuntarily to gonorrhoea, but not equally with him who did so voluntarily. Although he also shall be punished as for a voluntary action, if one transfer the affection to the truth. For, in reality, he that cannot contain the generative word is to be punished; for this is an irrational passion of the soul approaching garrulity.
"The faithful man chooses to conceal things in his spirit."[11] Things, then, that depend on choice are subjects for judgment. "For the Lord searcheth the hearts and reins."[12] "And he that looketh so as to lust"[13] is judged. Wherefore it is said, "Thou shalt not lust."[14] And "this people honoureth Me with their lips," it is said, "but their heart is far from Me."[15] For God has respect to the very thought, since Lot’s wife, who had merely voluntarily turned towards worldly wickedness, He left a senseless mass, rendering her a pillar of salt, and fixed her so that she advanced no further, not as a stupid and useless image, but to season and salt him who has the power of spiritual perception.
CHAP. XV.—ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VOLUNTARY ACTIONS, AND THE SINS THENCE PROCEEDING.
What is voluntary is either what is by desire, or what is by choice, or what is of intention.
Closely allied to each other are these things—sin, mistake, crime. It is sin, for example, to live luxuriously and licentiously; a misfortune, to wound one’s friend in ignorance, taking him for an enemy; and crime, to violate graves or commit sacrilege. Sinning arises from being unable to determine what ought to be done, or being unable to do it; as doubtless one falls into a ditch either through not knowing, or through inability to leap across through feebleness of body. But application to the training of ourselves, and subjection to the commandments, is in our own power; with which if we will have nothing to do, by abandoning ourselves wholly to lust, we shall sin, nay rather, wrong our own soul. For the noted Laius says in the tragedy:--
"None of these things of which you admonish me have escaped me;
But notwithstanding that I am in my senses, Nature compels me;"
i.e., his abandoning himself to passion. Medea, too, herself cries on the stage:--
"And I am aware what evils I am to perpetrate, But passion is stronger than my resolutions."[1]
Further, not even Ajax is silent; but, when about to kill himself, cries: --
"No pain gnaws the soul of a free man like dishonour. Thus do I suffer; and the deep stain of calamity Ever stirs me from the depths, agitated By the bitter stings of rage."[2]
Anger made these the subjects of tragedy, and lust made ten thousand others—Phaedra, Anthia, Eriphyle,--
"Who took the precious gold for her dear husband."
For another play represents Thrasonides of the comic drama as saying:--
"A worthless wench made me her slave."
Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary sin is crime (<greek>adikia</greek>); and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part voluntary. Wherefore says the apostle, "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace."[3]
Addressing those who have believed, he says, "For by His stripes we were healed."[4] Mistake is the involuntary action of another towards me, while a crime (<greek>adikia</greek>) alone is voluntary, whether my act or another’s. These differences of sins are alluded to by the Psalmist, when he calls those blessed whose iniquities (<greek>anomias</greek>) God hath blotted out, and whose sins (<greek>amartias</greek>) He hath covered. Others He does not impute, and the rest He forgives. For it is written, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin, and in whose mouth there is no fraud."[5] This blessedness came on those who had been chosen by Cod through Jesus Christ our Lord. For "love hides the multitude of sins."[6] And they are blotted out by Him "who desireth the repentance rather than the death of a sinner."[7] And those are not reckoned that are not the effect of choice; "for he who has lusted has already committed adultery,"[8] it is said.
And the illuminating Word forgives sins: "And in that time, saith the LORD, they shall seek for the iniquity of Israel, and it shall not exist; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found."[9] "For who is like Me? and who shall stand before My face?[10] You see the one God declared good, rendering according to desert, and forgiving sins. John, too, manifestly teaches the differences of sins, in his larger Epistle, in these words: "If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life: for these that sin not unto death," he says. For "there is a sin unto death: I do not say that one is to pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death."[11]
David, too, and Moses before David, show the knowledge of the three precepts in the following words: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly;" as the fishes go down to the depths in darkness; for those which have not scales, which Moses prohibits touching, feed at the bottom of the sea. "Nor standeth in the way of sinners," as those who, while appearing to fear the Lord, commit sin, like the sow, for when hungry it cries, and when full knows not its owner.
"Nor sitteth in the chair of pestilences," as birds ready for prey. And Moses enjoined not to eat the sow, nor the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the raven, nor any fish without scales. So far Barnabas.[12] And I heard one skilled in such matters say that "the counsel of the ungodly" was the heathen, and "the way of sinners" the Jewish persuasion, and explain "the chair of pestilence" of heresies. And another said, with more propriety, that the first blessing was assigned to those who had not followed wicked sentiments which revolt from God; the second to those who do not remain in the wide and broad road, whether they be those who have been brought up in the law, or Gentiles who have repented. And "the chair of pestilences" will be the theatres and tribunals, or rather the compliance with wicked and deadly powers, and complicity with their deeds.
"But his delight is in the law of the LORD."[13] Peter in his Preaching called the Lord, Law and Logos. The legislator seems to teach differently the interpretation of the three forms of sin—understanding by the mute fishes sins of word, for there are times in which silence is better than speech, far silence has a safe recompense; sins of deed, by the rapacious and carnivorous birds. The sow delights in dirt and dung; and we ought not to have "a conscience" that is "defiled."[1]
Justly, therefore, the prophet says, "The ungodly are not so: but as the chaff which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth. Wherefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment"[2] (being already condemned, for "he that believeth not is condemned already"[3]), "nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous," inasmuch as they are already condemned, so as not to be united to those that have lived without stumbling. "For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous; and the way of the ungodly shall perish."[4]
Again, the Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to be in our own power, by prescribing modes of cure corresponding to the maladies; showing His wish that we should be Corrected by the shepherds, in Ezekiel; blaming, I am of opinion, some of them for not keeping the commandments. "That which was enfeebled ye have not strengthened," and so forth, down to, "and there was none to search out or turn away."[5]
For "great is the joy before the Father when one sinner is saved,"[6] saith the Lord. So Abraham was much to be praised, because "he walked as the Lord spake to him." Drawing from this instance, one of the wise men among the Greeks uttered the maxim, "Follow God."[7] "The godly," says Esaias, "framed wise counsels."[8] Now counsel is seeking for the right way of acting in present circumstances, and good counsel is wisdom in our counsels. And what? Does not God, after the pardon bestowed on Cain, suitably not long after introduce Enoch, who had repented?[9]
Showing that it is the nature of repentance to produce pardon; but pardon does not consist in remission, but in remedy. An instance of the same is the making of the calf by the people before Aaron. Thence one of the wise men among the Greeks uttered the maxim, "Pardon is better than punishment;" as also, "Become surety, and mischief is at hand," is derived from the utterance of Solomon which says, "My son, if thou become surety for thy friend, thou wilt give thine hand to thy enemy; for a man’s own lips are a strong snare to him, and he is taken in the words of his own mouth."[10]
And the saying, "Know thyself," has been taken rather more mystically from this, "Thou hast seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God."[11] Thus also, "Thou shalt love the Load thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;" for it is said, "On these commandments the law and the prophets hang and are suspended."[12] With these also agree the following: "These things have I spoken to you, that My joy might be fulfilled: and this is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."[13] "For the LORD is merciful and pitiful; and gracious[14] is the LORD to all."[15] "Know thyself" is more clearly and often expressed by Moses, when he enjoins, "Take heed to thyself."[16] "By alms then, and acts of faith, sins are purged."[17] "And by the fear of the LORD each one departs from evil."[18] "And the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom."[19]
CHAP. XVI.—HOW WE ARE TO EXPLAIN THE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH ASCRIBE TO GOD HUMAN AFFECTIONS.
Here again arise the cavaliers, who say that joy and pain are passions of the soul: for they define joy as a rational elevation and exultation, as rejoicing on account of what is good; and pity as pain for one who suffers undeservedly; and that such affections are moods and passions of the soul. But we, as would appear, do not cease in such matters to understand the Scriptures carnally; and starting from our own affections, interpret the will of the impassible Deity similarly to our perturbations; and as we are capable of hearing; so, supposing the same to be the case with the Omnipotent, err impiously. For the Divine Being cannot be declared as it exists: but as we who are lettered in the flesh were able to listen, so the prophets spake to us; the Lord savingly accommodating Himself to the weakness of men.[20]
Since, then, it is the will of God that he, who is obedient to the commands and repents of his sins should be saved, and we rejoice on account of our salvation, the Lord, speaking by the prophets, appropriated our joy to Himself; as speaking lovingly in the Gospel He says, "I was hungry, and ye gave Me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me to drink. For inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to Me."[1]
As, then, He is nourished, though not personally, by the nourishing of one whom He wishes nourished; so He rejoices, without suffering change, by reason of him who has repented being in joy, as He wished. And since God pities richly, being good, and giving commands by the law and the prophets, and more nearly still by the appearance of his Son, saving and pitying, as was said, those who have found mercy; and properly the greater pities the less; and a man cannot be greater than man, being by nature man; but God in everything is greater than man; if, then, the greater pities the less, it is God alone that will pity us. For a man is made to communicate by righteousness, and bestows what he received from God, in consequence of his natural benevolence and relation, and the commands which he obeys. But God has no natural relation to us, as the authors of the heresies will have it; neither on the supposition of His having made us of nothing, nor on that of having formed us from matter; since the former did not exist at all, and the latter is totally distinct from God unless we shall dare to say that we are a part of Him, and of the same essence as God.
And I know not how one, who knows God, can bear to hear this when he looks to our life, and sees in what evils we are involved. For thus it would turn out, which it were impiety to utter, that God sinned in [certain] portions, if the portions are parts of the whole and complementary of the whole; and if not complementary, neither can they be parts. But God being by nature rich in pity, in consequence of His own goodness, cares for us, though neither portions of Himself, nor by nature His children. And this is the greatest proof of the goodness of God: that such being our relation to Him, and being by nature wholly estranged, He nevertheless cares for us.
For the affection in animals to their progeny is natural, and the friendship of kindred minds is the result of intimacy. But the mercy of God is rich toward us, who are in no respect related to Him; I say either in our essence or nature, or in the peculiar energy of our essence, but only in our being the work of His will. And him who willingly, with discipline and teaching, accepts the knowledge of the truth, He calls to adoption, which is the greatest advancement of all. "Transgressions catch a man; and in the cords of his own sins each one is bound."[2] And God is without blame. And in reality, "blessed is the man who feareth alway through piety."[3]
CHAP. XVII.—ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE.
As, then, Knowledge (<greek>episthemeh</greek>) is an intellectual state, from which results the act of knowing, and becomes apprehension irrefragable by reason; so also ignorance is a receding impression, which can be dislodged by reason. And that which is overthrown as well as that which is elaborated by reason, is in our power. Akin to Knowledge is experience, cognition (<greek>eidhsis</greek>), Comprehension (<greek>sunesis</greek>), perception, and Science.
Cognition (<greek>eidhsis</greek>) is the knowledge of universals by species; and Experience is comprehensive knowledge, which investigates the nature of each thing. Perception (<greek>nohsis</greek>) is the knowledge of intellectual objects; and Comprehension (<greek>sunesis</greek>) is the knolwedge of what is compared, or a comparison that cannot be annulled, or the faculty of comparing the objects with which Judgment and Knowledge are occupied, both of one and each and all that goes to make up one reason. And Science (<greek>gnwsis</greek>) is the knowledge of the thing in itself, or the knowledge which harmonizes with what takes place. Truth is the knowledge of the true; and the mental habit of truth is the knowledge of the things which are true. Now knowledge is constituted by the reason, and cannot be overthrown by another reason.[4] What we do not, we do not either from not being able, or not being willing—or both. Accordingly we don’t fly, since we neither can nor wish; we do not swim at present, for example, since we can indeed, but do not choose; and we are not as the Lord, since we wish, but cannot be: "for no disciple is above his master, and it is sufficient if we be as the master:"[5]
Not m essence (for it is impossible for that, which is by adoption, to be equal in substance to that, which is by nature); but [we are as Him] only in our[6] having been made immortal, and our being conversant with the contemplation of realities, and beholding the Father through what belongs to Him.
Therefore volition takes the precedence of all; for the intellectual powers are ministers of the Will. "Will," it is said, "and thou shalt be able."[7] And in the Gnostic, Will, Judgment, and Exertion are identical. For if the determinations are the same, the opinions and judgments will be the same too; so that both his words, and life, and conduct, are conformable to rule. "And a right heart seeketh knowledge, and heareth it." "God taught me wisdom, and I knew the knowledge of the holy."[1]
CHAP. XVIII.—THE MOSAIC LAW THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL ETHICS, AND THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THE GREEKS DREW THEIRS.
It is then clear also that all the other virtues, delineated in Moses, supplied the Greeks with the rudiments of the whole department of morals. I mean valour, and temperance, and wisdom, and justice, and endurance, and patience, and decorum, and self-restraint; and in addition to these, piety.
But it is clear to every one that piety, which teaches to worship and honour, is the highest and oldest cause; and the law itself exhibits justice, and teaches wisdom, by abstinence from sensible images, and by inviting to the Maker and Father of the universe. And from this sentiment, as from a fountain, all intelligence increases. "For the sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to the LORD; but the prayers of the upright are acceptable before Him,"[3] since "righteousness is more acceptable before God than sacrifice." Such also as the following we find in Isaiah: "To what purpose to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the LORD;" and the whole section.[4]
"Break every bond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice that is acceptable to the Lord, a contrite heart that seeks its Maker."[5] "Deceitful balances are abomination before God; but a just balance is acceptable to Him."[6] Thence Pythagoras exhorts "not to step over the balance;" and the profession of heresies is called deceitful righteousness; and "the tongue of the unjust shall be destroyed, but the mouth of the righteous droppeth wisdom."[7] "For they call the wise and prudent worthless."[8] But it were tedious to adduce testimonies respecting these virtues, since the whole Scripture celebrates them. Since, then, they define manliness to be knowledge[9] of things formidable, and not formidable, and what is intermediate; and temperance to be a state of mind which by choosing and avoiding preserves the judgments of wisdom; and conjoined with manliness is patience, which is called endurance, the knowledge of what is bearable and what is unbearable; and magnanimity is the knowledge which rises superior to circumstances. With temperance also is conjoined caution, which is avoidance in accordance with reason.
And observance of the commandments, which is the innoxious keeping of them, is the attainment of a secure life. And there is no endurance without manliness, nor the exercise of self-restraint without temperance. And these virtues follow one another; and with whom are the sequences of the virtues, with him is also salvation, which is the keeping of the state of well-being. Rightly, therefore, in treating of these virtues, we shall inquire into them all; for he that has one virtue gnostically, by reason of their accompanying each other, has them all. Self-restraint is that quality which does not overstep what appears in accordance with right reason. He exercises self-restraint, who curbs the impulses that are contrary to right reason, or curbs himself so as not to indulge in desires contrary to right reason. Temperance, too, is not without manliness; since from the commandments spring both wisdom, which follows God who enjoins, and that which imitates the divine character, namely righteousness; in virtue of which, in the exercise of self-restraint, we address ourselves in purity to piety and the course of conduct thence resulting, in conformity with God; being assimilated to the Lord as far as is possible for us beings mortal in nature.
And this is being just and holy with wisdom; for the Divinity needs nothing and suffers nothing; whence it is not, strictly speaking, capable of self-restraint, for it is never subjected to perturbation, over which to exercise control; while our nature, being capable of perturbation, needs self-constraint, by which disciplining itself to the need of little, it endeavours to approximate in character to the divine nature. For the good man, standing as the boundary between an immortal and a mortal nature, has few needs; having wants in consequence of his body, and his birth itself, but taught by rational self-control to want few things.
What reason is there in the law’s prohibiting a man from "wearing woman’s clothing "?[10] Is it not that it would have us to be manly, and not to be effeminate neither in person and actions, nor in thought and word? For it would have the man, that devotes himself to the truth, to be masculine both in acts of endurance and patience, in life, conduct, word, and discipline by night and by day; even if the necessity were to occur, of witnessing by the shedding of his blood. Again, it is said, "If any one who has newly built a house, and has not previously inhabited it; or cultivated a newly-planted vine, and not yet partaken of the fruit; or betrothed a virgin, and not yet married her;"[11]--such the humane law orders to be relieved from military service: from military reasons in the first place, lest, bent on their desires, they turn out sluggish in war; for it is those who are untrammelled by passion that boldly encounter perils; and from motives of humanity, since, in view of the uncertainties of war, the law reckoned it not right that one should not enjoy his own labours, and another should without bestowing pains, receive what belonged to those who had laboured.
The law seems also to point out manliness of soul, by enacting that he who had planted should reap the fruit, and he that built should inhabit, and he that had betrothed should marry: for it is not vain hopes which it provides for those who labour; according to the gnostic word: "For the hope of a good man dead or living does not perish,"[1] says Wisdom; "I love them that love me; and they who seek me shall find
peace,"[2] and so forth. What then? Did not the women of the Midianites, by their beauty, seduce from wisdom into impiety, through licentiousness, the Hebrews when making war against them?
For, having seduced them from a grave mode of life, and by their beauty ensnared them in wanton delights, they made them insane upon idol sacrifices and strange women; and overcome by women and by pleasure at once, they revolted from God, and revolted from the law. And the whole people was within a little of falling under the power of the enemy through female stratagem, until, when they were in peril, fear by its admonitions pulled them back. Then the survivors, valiantly undertaking the struggle for piety, got the upper hand of their foes. "The beginning, then, of wisdom is piety, and the knowledge of holy things is understanding; and to know the law is the characteristic of a good understanding."[3] Those, then, who suppose the law to be productive of agitating fear, are neither good at understanding the law, nor have they in reality comprehended it; for "the fear of the LORD causes life, but he who errs shall be afflicted with pangs which knowledge views not."[4]
Accordingly, Barnabas says mystically, "May God who rules the universe vouchsafe also to you wisdom, and understanding, and science, and knowledge of His statutes, and patience. Be therefore God-taught, seeking what the Lord seeks from you, that He may find you in the day of judgment lying in wait for these things." "Children of love and peace," he called them gnostically.[5]
Respecting imparting and communicating, though much might be said, let it suffice to remark that the law prohibits a brother from taking usury: designating as a brother not only him who is born of the same parents, but also one of the same race and sentiments, and a participator in the same word; deeming it right not to take usury for money, but with open hands and heart to bestow on those who need. For God, the author and the dispenser of such grace, takes as suitable usury the most precious things to be found among men—mildness, gentleness, magnanimity, reputation, renown. Do you not regard this command as marked by philanthropy?
As also the following, "To pay the wages of the poor daily," teaches to discharge without delay the wages due for service; for, as I think, the alacrity of the poor with reference to the future is paralyzed when he has suffered want. Further, it is said, "Let not the creditor enter the debtor’s house to take the pledge with violence." But let the former ask it to be brought out, and let not the latter, if he have it, hesitate.[6] And in the harvest the owners are prohibited from appropriating what falls from the handfuls; as also in reaping [the law] enjoins a part to be left unreaped; signally thereby training those who possess to sharing and to large-heartedness, by foregoing of their own to those who are in want, and thus providing means of subsistence for the poor? You see how the law proclaims at once the righteousness and goodness of God, who dispenses food to all ungrudgingly. And in the vintage it prohibited the grape-gatherers from going back again on what had been left, and from gathering the fallen grapes; and the same injunctions are given to the olive-gatherers.[8] Besides, the tithes of the fruits and of the flocks taught both piety towards the Deity, and not covetously to grasp everything, but to communicate gifts of kindness to one’s neighbours. For it was from these, I reckon, and from the first-fruits that the priests were maintained. We now therefore understand that we are instructed in piety, and in liberality, and in justice, and in humanity by the law.
For does it not command the land to be left fallow in the seventh year, and bids the poor fearlessly use the fruits that grow by divine agency, nature cultivating the ground for behoof of all and sundry?[9] How, then, can it be maintained that the law is not humane, and the teacher of righteousness? Again, in the fiftieth year, it ordered the same things to be performed as in the seventh; besides restoring to each one his own land, if from any circumstance he had parted with it in the meantime; setting bounds to the desires of those who covet possession, by measuring the period of enjoyment, and choosing that those who have paid the penalty of protracted penury should not suffer a life-long punishment. "But alms and acts of faith are royal guards, and blessing is on the head of him who bestows; and he who pities the poor shall be blessed."[1] For he shows love to one like himself, because of his love to the Creator of the human race.
The above-mentioned particulars have other explanations more natural, both respecting rest and the recovery of the inheritance; but they are not discussed at present.
Now love is conceived in many ways, in the form of meekness, of mildness, of patience, of liberality, of freedom from envy, of absence of hatred, of forgetfulness of injuries. In all it is incapable of being divided or distinguished: its nature is to communicate. Again, it is said, "If you See the beast of your relatives, or friends, or, in general, of anybody you know, wandering in the wilderness, take it back and restore it;[2] and if the owner be far away, keep it among your own till he return, and restore it." It teaches a natural communication, that what is found is to be regarded as a deposit, and that we are not to bear malice to an enemy. "The command of the Lord being a fountain of life" truly, "causeth to turn away from the snare of death."[3] And what?
Does it not command us "to love strangers not only as friends and relatives, but as ourselves, both in body and soul?"[4] Nay more, it honoured the nations, and bears no grudge[5] against those who have done ill. Accordingly it is expressly said, "Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, for thou wast a sojourner in Egypt;"[6] designating by the term Egyptian either one of that race, or any one in the world. And enemies, although drawn up before the walls attempting to take the city, are not to be regarded as enemies till they are by the voice of the herald summoned to peace.[7]
Further, it forbids intercourse with a female captive so as to dishonour her. "But allow her," it says, "thirty days to mourn according to her wish, and changing her clothes, associate with her as your lawful wife." s For it regards it not right that this should take place either in wantonness or for hire like harlots, but only for the birth of children. Do you see humanity combined with continence? The master who has fallen in love with his captive maid it does not allow to gratify his pleasure, but puts a check on his lust by specifying an interval of time; and further, it cuts off the captive’s hair, in order to shame disgraceful love: for if it is reason that induces him to marry, he will cleave to her even after she has become disfigured. Then if one, after his lust, does not care to consort any longer with the captive, it ordains that it shall not be lawful to sell her, or to have her any longer as a servant, but desires her to be freed and released from service, lest on the introduction of another wife she bear any of the intolerable miseries caused through jealousy.
What more? The Lord enjoins to ease and raise up the beasts of enemies when labouring beneath their burdens; remotely teaching us not to indulge in joy at our neighbour’s ills, or exult over our enemies; in order to teach those who are trained in these things to pray for their enemies. For He does not allow us either to grieve at our neighbour’s good, or to reap joy at our neighbour’s ill. And if you find any enemy’s beast straying, you are to pass over the incentives of difference, and take it back and restore it. For oblivion of injuries is followed by goodness, and the latter by dissolution of enmity. From this we are fitted for agreement, and this conducts to felicity.
And should you suppose one habitually hostile, and discover him to be unreasonably mistaken either through lust or anger, turn him to goodness. Does the law then which conducts to Christ appear humane and mild?
And does not the same God, good, while characterized by righteousness from the beginning to the end, employ each kind suitably in order to salvation? "Be merciful," says the Lord, "that you may receive mercy; forgive, that you may be forgiven. As ye do, so shall it be done to you; as ye give, so shall it be given to you; as ye judge, so shall ye be judged; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness be shown to you: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."[9] Furthermore, [the law] prohibits those, who are in servitude for their subsistence, to be branded with disgrace; and to those, who have been reduced to slavery through money borrowed, it gives a complete release in the seventh year. Further, it prohibits suppliants from being given up to punishment.
True above all, then, is that oracle. "As gold and silver are tried in the furnace, so the Lord chooseth men’s hearts. The merciful man is long-suffering; and in every one who shows solicitude there is wisdom. For on a wise man solicitude will fall; and exercising thought, he will seek life; and he who seeketh God shall find knowledge with righteousness. And they who have sought Him rightly have found peace."[10] And Pythagoras seems to me, to have derived his mildness towards irrational creatures from the law. For instance, he interdicted the immediate use of the young in the flocks of sheep, and goats, and herds of cattle, on the instant of their birth; not even on the pretext of sacrifice allowing it, both on account of the young ones and of the mothers; training man to gentleness by what is beneath him, by means of the irrational creatures.
"Resign accordingly," he says, "the young one to its dam for even the first seven days." For if nothing takes place without a cause, and milk comes in a shower to animals in parturition for the sustenance of the progeny, he that tears that, which has been brought forth, away from the supply of the milk, dishonours nature. Let the Greeks, then, feel ashamed, and whoever else inveighs against the law; since it shows mildness in the case of the irrational creatures, while they expose the offspring of men though long ago and prophetically, the law, in the above-mentioned commandment, threw a check in the way of their cruelty. For if it prohibits the progeny of the irrational creatures to be separated from the dam before sucking, much more in the case of men does it provide beforehand a cure for cruelty and savageness of disposition; so that even if they despise nature, they may not despise teaching. For they are permitted to satiate themselves with kids and lambs, and perhaps there might be some excuse for separating the progeny from its dam.
But what cause is there for the exposure of a child? For the man who did not desire to beget children had no right to marry at first; certainly not to have become, through licentious indulgence, the murderer of his children. Again, the humane law forbids slaying the offspring and the dam together on the same day. Thence also the Romans, in the case of a pregnant woman being condemned to death, do not allow her to undergo punishment till she is delivered. The law too, expressly prohibits the slaying of such animals as are pregnant till they have brought forth, remotely restraining the proneness of man to do wrong to man. Thus also it has extended its clemency to the irrational creatures; that from the exercise of humanity in the case of creatures of different species, we might practise among those of the same species a large abundance of it.
Those, too, that kick the bellies of certain animals before parturition, in order to feast on flesh mixed with milk, make the womb created for the birth of the foetus its grave, though the law expressly commands, "But neither shalt thou seethe a lamb in its mother’s milk."[1] For the nourishment of the living animal, it is meant, may not become sauce for that which has been deprived of life; and that, which is the cause of life, may not co-operate in the consumption of the body. And the same law commands "not to muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn: for the labourer must be reckoned worthy of his food."[2]
And it prohibits an ox and ass to be yoked in the plough together;[3] pointing perhaps to the want of agreement in the case of the animals; and at the same time teaching not to wrong any one belonging to another race, and bring him under the yoke, when there is no other cause to allege than difference of race, which is no cause at all, being neither wickedness nor the effect of wickedness. To me the allegory also seems to signify that the husbandry of the Word is not to be assigned equally to the clean and the unclean, the believer and the unbeliever; for the ox is clean, but the ass has been reckoned among the unclean animals. But the benignant Word, abounding in humanity, teaches that neither is it right to cut down cultivated trees, or to cut down the grain before the harvest, for mischiefs sake; nor that cultivated fruit is to be destroyed at all—either the fruit of the soil or that of the soul: for it does not permit the enemy’s country to be laid waste.
Further, husbandmen derived advantage from the law in such things. For it orders newly planted trees to be nourished three years in succession, and the superfluous growths to be cut off, to prevent them being loaded and pressed down; and to prevent their strength being exhausted from want, by the nutriment being frittered away, enjoins tilling and digging round them, so that [the tree] may not, by sending out suckers, hinder its growth. And it does not allow imperfect fruit to be plucked from immature trees, but after three years, in the fourth year; dedicating the first-fruits to God after the tree has attained maturity.
This type of husbandry may serve as a mode of instruction, teaching that we must cut the growths of sins, and the useless weeds of the mind that spring up round the vital fruit, till the shoot of faith is perfected and becomes strong.[4] For in the fourth year, since there is need of time to him that is being solidly catechized, the four virtues are consecrated to God, the third alone being already joined to the fourth,[5] the person of the Lord. And a sacrifice of praise is above holocausts:
"for He," it is said, "giveth strength to get power."[6] And if your affairs are in the sunshine of prosperity, get and keep strength, and acquire power in knowledge. For by these instances it is shown that both good things and gifts are supplied by God; and that we, becoming ministers of the divine grace, ought to sow the benefits of God, and make those who approach us noble and good; so that, as far as possible, the temperate man may make others continent, he that is manly may make them noble, he that is wise may make them intelligent, and the just may make them just.
CHAP. XIX.—THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS AN IMITATOR OF GOD, ESPECIALLY IN BENEFICENCE.
He is the Gnostic, who is after the image and likeness of God, who imitates God as far as possible, deficient in none of the things which contribute to the likeness as far as compatible, practising self-restraint and endurance, living righteously, reigning over the passions, bestowing of what he has as far as possible, and doing good both by word and deed. "He is the greatest," it is said, "in the kingdom who shall do and teach;"[1] imitating God in conferring like benefits.
For God’s gifts are for the common good. "Whoever shall attempt to do aught with presumption, provokes God,"[2] it is said. For haughtiness is a vice of the soul, of which, as of other sins, He commands us to repent; by adjusting our lives from their state of derangement to the change for the better in these three things—mouth, heart, hands. These are signs—the hands of action, the heart of volition, the mouth of speech. Beautifully, therefore, has this oracle been spoken with respect to penitents: "Thou hast chosen God this day to be thy God; and God hath chosen thee this day to be His people."[3] For him who hastes to serve the self-existent One, being a suppliant,[4] God adopts to Himself; and though he be only one in number, he is honoured equally with the people. For being a part of the people, he becomes complementary of it, being restored from what he was; and the whole is named from a part.
But nobility is itself exhibited in choosing and practising what is best. For what benefit to Adam was such a nobility as he had? No mortal was his father; for he himself was father of men that are born. What is base he readily chose, following his wife, and neglected what is true and good; on which account he exchanged his immortal life for a mortal life, but not for ever. And Noah, whose origin was not the same as Adam’s, was saved by divine care, For he took and consecrated himself to God. And Abraham, who had children by three wives, not for the indulgence of pleasure, but in the hope, as I think, of multiplying the race at the first, was succeeded by one alone, who was heir of his father’s blessings, while the rest were separated from the family; and of the twins who sprang from him, the younger having won his father’s favour and received his prayers, became heir, and the eider served him. For it is the greatest boon to a bad man not to be master of himself.[5]
And this arrangement was prophetical and typical. And that all things belong to the wise, Scripture clearly indicates when it is said, "Because God hath had mercy on me, I have all things."[6] For it teaches that we are to desire one thing, by which are all things, and what is promised is assigned to the worthy. Accordingly, the good man who has become heir of the kingdom, it registers also as fellow-citizen, through divine wisdom, with the righteous of the olden time, who under the law and before the law lived according to law, whose deeds have become laws to us; and again, teaching that the wise man is king, introduces people of a different race, saying to him, "Thou art a king before God among us;"[7] those who were governed obeying the good man of their own accord, from admiration of his virtue.
Now Plato the philosopher, defining the end of happiness, says that it is likeness to God as far as possible; whether concurring with the precept of the law (for great natures that are free of passions somehow hit the mark respecting the truth, as the Pythagorean Philo says in relating the history of Moses), or whether instructed by certain oracles of the time, thirsting as he always was for instruction. For the law says, "Walk after the Lord your God, and keep my commandments."[8] For the law calls assimilation following; and such a following to the utmost of its power assimilates.
"Be," says the Lord, "merciful and pitiful, as your heavenly Father is pitiful."[9] Thence also the Stoics have laid down the doctrine, that living agreeably to nature is the end, fitly altering the name of God into nature; since also nature extends to plants, to seeds, to trees, and to stones. It is therefore plainly said, "Bad men do not understand the law; but they who love the law fortify themselves with a wall."[10] "For the wisdom of the clever knows its ways; but the folly of the foolish is in error."[11] "For on whom will I look, but on him who is mild and gentle, and trembleth at my words?" says the prophecy.
We are taught that there are three kinds of friendship: and that of these the first and the best is that which results from virtue, for the love that is founded on reason is firm; that the second and intermediate is by way of recompense, and is social, liberal, and useful for life; for the friendship which is the result of favour is mutual.
And the third and last we assert to be that which is founded on intimacy; others, again, that it is that variable and changeable form which rests on pleasure. And Hipppodamus the Pythagorean seems to me to describe friendships most admirably: "That founded on knowledge of the gods, that founded on the gifts of men, and that on the pleasures of animals." There is the friendship of a philosopher,--that of a man and that of an animal. For the image of God is really the man who does good, in which also he gets good: as the pilot at once saves, and is saved. Wherefore, when one obtains his request, he does not say to the giver, Thou hast given well, but, Thou hast received well.
So he receives who gives, and he gives who receives. "But the righteous pity and show mercy."[1] "But the mild shall be inhabitants of the earth, and the innocent shall be left in it. But the transgressors shall be extirpated from it."[2] And Homer seems to me to have said prophetically of the faithful, "Give to thy friend." And an enemy must be aided, that he may not continue an enemy.
For by help good feeling is compacted, and enmity dissolved. "But if there be present readiness of mind, according to what a man hath it is acceptable, and not according to what he hath not: for it is not that there be ease to others, but tribulation to you, but of equality at the present time," and so forth.[3] "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever," the Scripture says.[4] For conformity with the image and likeness is not meant of the body (for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is immortal), but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses the seal of likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising rule. For governments are directed not by corporeal qualities, but by judgments of the mind. For by the counsels of holy men states are managed well, and the household also.
CHAP. XX.—THE TRUE GNOSTIC EXERCISES PATIENCE AND SELF-RESTRAINT.
Endurance also itself forces its way to the divine likeness, reaping as its fruit impassibility. through patience, if what is related of Ananias be kept in mind; who belonged to a number, of whom Daniel the prophet, filled with divine faith, was one. Daniel dwelt at Babylon, as Lot at Sodom, and Abraham, who a little after became the friend of God, in the land of Chaldea. The king of the Babylonians let Daniel down into a pit full of wild beasts; the King of all, the faithful Lord, took him up unharmed. Such patience will the Gnostic, as a Gnostic, possess. He will bless when under trial, like the noble Job; like Jonas, when swallowed up by the whale, he will pray, and faith will restore him to prophesy to the Ninevites; and though shut up with lions, he will tame the wild beasts; though cast into the fire, he will be besprinkled with dew, but not consumed.
He will give his testimony by night; he will testify by day; by word, by life, by conduct, he will testify. Dwelling with the Lord? he will continue his familiar friend, sharing the same hearth according to the Spirit; pure in the flesh, pure in heart, sanctified in word. "The world," it is said, "is crucified to him, and he to the world."[6] He, bearing about the cross of the Saviour, will follow the Lord’s footsteps, as God, having become holy of holies.
The divine law, then, while keeping in mind all virtue, trains man especially to self-restraint, laying this as the foundation of the virtues; and disciplines us beforehand to the attainment of self-restraint by forbidding us to partake of such things as are by nature fat, as the breed of swine, which is full-fleshed. For such a use is assigned to epicures. It is accordingly said that one of the philosophers, giving the etymology of <greek>us</greek> (sow), said that it was <greek>qus</greek>, as being fit only for slaughter (<greek>qusin</greek>) and killing; for life was given to this animal for no other purpose than that it might swell in flesh. Similarly, repressing our desires, it forbade partaking of fishes which have neither fins nor scales; for these surpass other fishes in fleshiness and fatness. From-this it was, in my opinion, that the mysteries not only prohibited touching certain animals, but also withdrew certain parts of those slain in sacrifice, for reasons which are known to the initiated. If, then, we are to exercise control over the belly, and what is below the belly, it is clear that we have of old heard from the Lord that we are to check lust by the law.
And this will be completely effected, if we unfeignedly condemn what is the fuel of lust: I mean pleasure. Now they say that the idea of it is a gentle and bland excitement, accompanied with some sensation. Enthralled by this, Menelaus, they say, after the capture of Troy, having rushed to put Helen to death, as having been the cause of such calamities, was nevertheless not able to effect it, being subdued by her beauty, which made him think of pleasure. Whence the tragedians, jeering, exclaimed insultingly against him:--
"But thou, when on her breast thou lookedst, thy sword Didst cast away, and with a kiss the traitress, Ever-beauteous wretch,[7] thou didst embrace."
And again:--
"Was the sword then by beauty blunted?"
And I agree with Antisthenes when he says, "Could I catch Aphrodite, I would shoot her; for she has destroyed many of our beautiful and good women." And he says that "Love[1] is a vice of nature, and the wretches who fall under its power call the disease a deity." For in these words it is shown that stupid people are overcome from ignorance of pleasure, to which we ought to give no admittance, even though it be called a god, that is, though it be given by God for the necessity of procreation. And Xenophon, expressly calling pleasure a vice, says: "Wretch, what good dost thou know, or what honourable aim hast thou? which does not even wait for the appetite for sweet things, eating before being hungry, drinking before being thirsty; and that thou mayest eat pleasantly, seeking out fine cooks; and that thou mayest drink pleasantly, procuring costly wines; and in summer runnest about seeking snow; and that thou mayest sleep pleasantly, not only providest soft beds, but also supports[2] to the couches." Whence, as Aristo said, "against the whole tetrachord of pleasure, pain, fear, and lust, there is need of much exercise and struggle."
"For it is these, it is these that go through our bowels, And throw into disorder men’s hearts."
"For the minds of those even who are deemed grave, pleasure makes waxen," according to Plato; since "each pleasure and pain nails to the body the soul" of the man, that does not sever and crucify himself from the passions. "He that loses his life," says the Lord, "shall save it;" either giving it up by exposing it to danger for the Lord’s sake, as He did for us, or loosing it from fellowship with its habitual life. For if you would loose, and withdraw, and separate (for this is what the cross means) your soul from the delight and pleasure that is in this life, you will possess it, found and resting in the looked-for hope. And this would be the exercise of death, if we would be content with those desires which are measured according to nature alone, which do not pass the limit of those which are in accordance with nature—by going to excess, or going against nature—in which the possibility of sinning arises. "We must therefore put on the panoply of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; since the weapons of our war fire are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down reasonings, and every lofty thing which exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ,"[3] says the divine apostle.
There is need of a man who shall use in a praiseworthy and discriminating manner the things from which passions take their rise, as riches and poverty, honour and dishonour, health and sickness, life and death, toil and pleasure. For, in order that we may treat things, that are different, indifferently, there is need of a great difference in us, as having been previously afflicted with much feebleness, and in the distortion of a bad training and nurture ignorantly indulged ourselves. The simple word, then, of our philosophy declares the passions to be impressions on the soul that is soft and yielding, and, as it were, the signatures of the spiritual powers with whom we have to straggle. For it is the business, in my opinion, of the malificent powers to endeavour to produce somewhat of their own constitution in everything, so as to overcome and make their own those who have renounced them. And it follows, as might be expected, that some are worsted; but in the case of those who engage in the contest with more athletic energy, the powers mentioned above, after carrying on the conflict in all forms, and advancing even as far as the crown wading in gore, decline the battle, and admire the victors.
For of objects that are moved, some are moved by impulse and appearance, as animals; and some by transposition, as inanimate objects. And of things without life, plants, they say, are moved by transposition in order to growth, if we will concede to them that plants are without life. To stones, then, belongs a permanent state. Plants have a nature; and the irrational animals possess impulse and perception, and likewise the two characteristics already specified.[4] But the reasoning faculty, being peculiar to the human soul, ought not to be impelled similarly with the irrational animals, but ought to discriminate appearances, and not to be carried away by them. The powers, then, of which we have spoken hold out beautiful sights, and honours, and adulteries, and pleasures, and such like alluring phantasies before facile spirits; as those who drive away cattle hold, out branches to them. Then, having beguiled those incapable of distinguishing the true from the false pleasure, and the fading and meretricious from the holy beauty, they lead them into slavery. And each deceit, by pressing constantly on the spirit, impresses its image on it; and the soul unwittingly carries about the image of the passion, which takes its rise from the bait and our consent.
The adherents of Basilides are in the habit of calling the passions appendages: saying that these are in essence certain spirits attached to the rational soul, through some original perturbation and confusion; and that, again, other bastard and heterogeneous natures of spirits grow on to them, like that of the wolf, the ape, the lion, the goat, whose properties showing themselves around the soul, they say, assimilate the lusts of the soul to the likeness of the animals. For they imitate the actions of those whose properties they bear.
And not only are they associated with the impulses and perceptions of the irrational animals, but they affect[1] the motions and the beauties of plants, on account of their bearing also the properties of plants attached to them. They have also the properties of a particular state, as the hardness of steel.
But against this dogma we shall argue subsequently, when we treat of the soul. At present this only needs to be pointed out, that man, according to Basilides, preserves the appearance of a wooden horse, according to the poetic myth, embracing as he does in one body a host of such different spirits. Accordingly, Basilides’ son himself, Isidorus, in his book, About the Soul attached to us, while agreeing in the dogma, as if condemning himself, writes in these words: "For if I persuade any one that the soul is undivided, and that the passions of the wicked are occasioned by the violence of the appendages, the worthless among men will have no slight pretence for saying,’ I was compelled, I was carried away, I did it against my will, I acted unwillingly;’ though he himself led the desire of evil things, and did not fight against the assaults of the appendages. But we must, by acquiring superiority in the rational part, show ourselves masters of the inferior creation in us."
For he too lays down the hypothesis of two souls in us, like the Pythagoreans, at whom we shall glance afterwards.
Valentinus too, in a letter to certain people, writes in these very words respecting the appendages: "There is one good, by whose presence[2] is the manifestation, which is by the Son, and by Him alone can the heart become pure, by the expulsion of every evil spirit from the heart: for the multitude of spirits dwelling in it do not suffer it to be pure; but each of them performs his own deeds, insulting it oft with unseemly lusts. And the heart seems to be treated somewhat like a caravanserai. For the latter has holes and ruts made in it, and is often filled with dung; men living filthily in it, and taking no care for the place as belonging to others. So fares it with the heart as long as there is no thought taken for it, being unclean, and the abode of many demons.
But when the only good Father visits it, it is sanctified, and gleams with light. And he who possesses such a heart is so blessed, that "he shall see God."[3]
What, then, let them tell us, is the cause of such a soul not being cared for from the beginning?
Either that it is not worthy (and somehow a care for it comes to it as from repentance), or it is a saved nature, as he would have it; and this, of necessity, from the beginning, being cared for by reason of its affinity, afforded no entrance to the impure spirits, unless by being forced and found feeble. For were he to grant that on repentance it preferred what was better, he will say this unwillingly, being what the truth we hold teaches; namely, that salvation is from a change due to obedience, but not from nature. For as the exhalations which arise from the earth, and from marshes, gather into mists and cloudy masses; so the vapours of fleshly lusts bring on the soul an evil condition, scattering about the idols of pleasure before the soul.
Accordingly they spread darkness over the light of intelligence, the spirit attracting the exhalations that arise from lust, and thickening the masses of the passions by persistency in pleasures. Gold is not taken from the earth in the lump, but is purified by smelting; then, when made pure. it is called gold, the earth being purified. For "Ask, and it shall be given you,"[4] it is said to those who are able of themselves to choose what is best. And how we say that the powers of the devil, and the unclean spirits, sow into the sinner’s soul, requires no more words from me, on adducing as a witness the apostolic Barnabas (and he was one of the seventy? and a fellow-worker of Paul), who speaks in these words: "Before we believed in God, the dwelling-place of our heart was unstable, truly a temple built with hands.
For it was full of idolatry, and was a house of demons, through doing what was opposed to God."[6]
He says, then, that sinners exercise activities appropriate to demons; but he does not say that the spirits themselves dwell in the soul of the unbeliever. Wherefore he also adds, "See that the temple of the Lord be gloriously built. Learn, having received remission of sins; and having set our hope on the Name, let us become new, created again from the beginning." For what he says is not that demons are driven out of us, but that the sins which like them we commit before believing are remitted. Rightly thus he puts in opposition what follows: "Wherefore God truly dwells in our home. He dwells in us. How? The word of His faith, the calling of His promise, the wisdom of His statutes, the commandments of His communication, [dwell in us]."
"I know that I have come upon a heresy; and its chief was wont to say that he fought with pleasure by pleasure, this worthy Gnostic advancing on pleasure in reigned combat, for he said he was a Gnostic; since he said it was no great thing for a man that had not tried pleasure to abstain from it, but for one who had mixed in it not to be overcome [was something]; and that therefore by means of it he trained himself in it. The wretched man knew not that he was deceiving himself by the artfulness of voluptuousness. To this opinion, then, manifestly Aristippus the Cyrenian adhered—that of the sophist who boasted of the truth. Accordingly, when reproached for continually cohabiting with the Corinthian courtezan, he said, "I possess Lais, and am not possessed by her."
Such also are those (who say that they follow Nicolaus, quoting an adage of the man, which they pervert,[1] "that the flesh must be abused." But the worthy man showed that it was necessary to check pleasures and lusts, and by such training to waste away the impulses and propensities of the flesh. But they, abandoning themselves to pleasure like goats, as if insulting the body, lead a life of self-indulgence; not knowing that the body is wasted, being by nature subject to dissolution; while their soul is buffed in the mire of vice; following as they do the teaching of pleasure itself, not of the apostolic man. For in what do they differ from Sardanapalus, whose life is shown in the epigram:--
"I have what I ate—what I enjoyed wantonly; And the pleasures I felt in love. But those Many objects of happiness are left, For I too am dust, who ruled great Ninus."
For the feeling of pleasure is not at all a necessity, but the accompaniment of certain natural needs—hunger, thirst, cold, marriage. If, then, it were possible to drink without it, or take food, or beget children, no other need of it could be shown. For pleasure is neither a function, nor a state, nor any part of us; but has been introduced into life as an auxiliary, as they say salt was to season food. But when it casts off restraint and rules the house, it generates first concupiscence, which is an irrational propension and impulse towards that which gratifies it; and it induced Epicurus to lay down pleasure as the aim of the philosopher. Accordingly he deifies a sound condition of body, and the certain hope respecting it. For what else is luxury than the voluptuous gluttony and the superfluous abundance of those who are abandoned to self-indulgence? Diogenes writes significantly in a tragedy:--
"Who to the pleasures of effeminate And filthy luxury attached in heart, Wish not to undergo the slightest toil."
And what follows, expressed indeed in foul language, but in a manner worthy of the voluptuaries.
Wherefore the divine law appears to me necessarily to menace with fear, that, by caution and attention, the philosopher may acquire and retain absence of anxiety, continuing without fall and without sin in all things. For peace and freedom are not otherwise won, than by ceaseless and unyielding struggles with our lusts. For these stout and Olympic antagonists are keener than wasps, so to speak; and Pleasure especially, not by day only, but by night, is in dreams with witchcraft ensnaringly plotting and biting. How, then, can the Greeks any more be right in running down the law, when they themselves teach that Pleasure is the slave of fear? Socrates accordingly bids "people guard against enticements to eat when they are not hungry, and to drink when not thirsty, and the glances and kisses of the fair, as fitted to inject a deadlier poison than that of scorpions and spiders." And Antisthenes chose rather "to be demented than delighted." And the Theban Crates says:--
"Master these, exulting in the disposition of the soul, Vanquished neither by gold nor by languishing love, Nor are they any longer attendants to the wanton."
And at length infers:--
"Those, unenslaved and unbended by servile Pleasure, Love the immortal kingdom and freedom."
He writes expressly, in other words, "that the stop[2] to the unbridled propensity to amorousness is hunger or a halter."
And the comic poets attest, while they depreciate the teaching of Zeno the Stoic, to be to the following effect:--
"For he philosophizes a vain philosophy:
He teaches to want food, and gets pupils One loaf, and for seasoning a dry fig, and to drink water."
All these, then, are not ashamed clearly to confess the advantage which accrues from caution. And the wisdom which is trite and not contrary to reason, trusting not in mere words and oracular utterances, but in invulnerable armour of defence and energetic mysteries, and devoting itself to divine commands, and exercise, and practice, receives a divine power according to its inspiration from the Word.
Already, then, the aegis of the poetic Jove is described a "Dreadful, crowned all around by Terror, And on it Strife and Prowess, and chilling Rout; On it, too, the Gorgon’s head, dread monster, Terrible, dire, the sign of AEgis-bearing Jove."[1]
But to those, who are able rightly to understand salvation, I know not what will appear dearer than the gravity of the Law, and Reverence, which is its daughter. For when one is said to pitch too high, as also the Lord says, with reference to certain; so that some of those whose desires are towards Him may not sing out of pitch and tune, I do not understand it as pitching too high in reality, but only as spoken with reference to such as will not take up the divine yoke. For to those, who are unstrung and feeble, what is medium seems too high; and to those, who are unrighteous, what befalls them seems severe justice. For those, who, on account of the favour they entertain for sins, are prone to pardon, suppose truth to be harshness, and severity to be savageness, and him who does not sin with them, and is not dragged with them, to be pitiless. Tragedy writes therefore well of Pluto:--
"And to what sort of a deity wilt thou come,[2] dost thou ask, Who knows neither clemency nor favour, But loves bare justice alone."
For although you are not yet able to do the things enjoined by the Law, yet, considering that the noblest examples are set before us in it, we are able to nourish and increase the love of liberty; and so we shall profit more eagerly as far as we can, inviting some things, imitating some things, and fearing others. For thus the righteous of the olden time, who lived according to the law, "were not from a storied oak, or from a rock;" because they wish to philosophize truly, took and devoted themselves entirely to God, and were classified under faith. Zeno said well of the Indians, that he would rather have seen one Indian roasted, than have learned the whole of the arguments about bearing pain. But we have exhibited before our eyes every day abundant sources of martyrs that are burnt, impaled, beheaded. All these the fear inspired by the law,--leading as a paedagogue to Christ, trained so as to manifest their piety by their blood. "God stood in the congregation of the gods; He judgeth in the midst of the gods."[3]
Who are they? Those that are superior to Pleasure, who rise above the passions, who know what they do—the Gnostics, who are greater than the world.
"I said, Ye are Gods; and all sons of the Highest." To whom speaks the Lord? To those who reject as far as possible all that is of man. And the apostle says, "For ye are not any longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit."[5] And again he says, "Though in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh."[6]
"For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."[7] "Lo, ye shall die like men," the Spirit has said, confuting us.
We must then exercise ourselves in taking care about those things which fall under the power of the passions, fleeing like those who are truly philosophers such articles of food as excite lust, and dissolute licentiousness in chambering and luxury; and the sensations that tend to luxury, which are a solid reward to others, must no longer be so to us. For God’s greatest gift is self-restraint. For He Himself has said, "I will neyer leave thee, nor forsake thee,"[8] as having judged thee worthy according to the true election. Thus, then, while we attempt piously to advance, we shall have put on us the mild yoke of the Lord from faith to faith, one charioteer driving each of us onward to salvation, that the meet fruit of beatitude may be won. "Exercise is" according to Hippocrates of Cos, "not only the health of the body, but of the soul—fearlessness of labours—a ravenous appetite for food."
CHAP. XXI.—OPINIONS OF VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS ON THE CHIEF GOOD.
Epicurus, in placing happiness in not being hungry, or thirsty, or cold, uttered that godlike word, saying impiously that he would tight in these points even with Father Jove; teaching, as if it were the case of pigs that live in filth and not that of rational philosophers, that happiness was victory.
For of those that are ruled by pleasure are the Cyrenaics and Epicurus; for these expressly said that to live pleasantly was the chief end, and that pleasure was the only perfect good. Epicurus also says that the removal of pain is pleasure; and says that that is to be preferred, which first attracts from itself to itself, being, that is, wholly in motion. Dinomachus and Callipho said that the chief end was for one to do what he could for the attainment and enjoyment of pleasure; and Hieronymus the Peripatetic said the great end was to live unmolested, and that the only final good was happiness; and Diodorus likewise, who belonged to the same sect, pronounces the end to be to live undisturbed and well. Epicurus indeed, and the Cyrenaics, say that pleasure is the first duty; for it is for the sake of pleasure, they say, that virtue was introduced, and produced pleasure. According to the followers of Calliphon, virtue was introduced for the sake of pleasure, but that subsequently, on seeing its own beauty, it made itself equally prized with the first principle, that is, pleasure.
But the Aristotelians lay it down, that to live in accordance with virtue is the end, but that neither happiness nor the end is reached by every one who has virtue. For the wise man, vexed and involved in involuntary mischances, and wishing gladly on these accounts to flee from life, is neither fortunate nor happy. For virtue needs time; for that is not acquired in one day which exists [only] in the perfect man since, as they say, a child is never happy. But human life is a perfect time, and therefore happiness is completed by the three kinds of good things. Neither, then, the poor, nor the mean nor even the diseased, nor the slave, can be one of them.
Again, on the other hand, Zeno the Stoic thinks the end to be living according to virtue; and, Cleanthes, living agreeably to nature in the fight exercise of reason, which he held to consist of the selection of things according to nature. And Antipatrus, his friend, supposes the end to consist in choosing continually and unswervingly the things which are according to nature, and rejecting those contrary to nature. Archedamus, on the other hand, explained the end to be such, that in selecting the greatest and chief things according to nature, it was impossible to overstep it. In addition to these, Panictius pronounced the end to be, to live according to the means given to us by nature. And finally, Posidonius said that it was to live engaged in contemplating the truth and order of the universe, and forming himself as he best can, in nothing influenced by the irrational part of his soul. And some of the later Stoics defined the great end to consist in living agreeably to the constitution of man. Why should I mention Aristo? He said that the end was indifference; but what is indifferent simply abandons the indifferent. Shall I bring forward the opinions of Herillus?
Herillus states the end to be to live according to science. For some think that the more recent disciples of the Academy define the end to be, the steady abstraction of the mind to its own impressions. Further, Lycus the Peripatetic used to say that the final end was the true joy of the soul; as Leucimus, that it was the joy it had in what was good. Critolaus, also a Peripatetic, said that it was the perfection of a life flowing rightly according to nature, referring to the perfection accomplished by the three kinds according to tradition.
We must, however, not rest satisfied with these, but endeavour as we best can to adduce the doctrines laid down on the point by the naturalist; for they say that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae affirmed contemplation and the freedom. flowing from it to be the end of life; Heraclitus the Ephesian, complacency. The Pontic Heraclides relates, that Pythagoras taught that the knowledge of the perfection of the numbers[1] I was happiness of the soul. The Abderites also teach the existence of an end. Democritus, in his work On the Chief End, said it was cheerfulness, which he also called well-being, and often exclaims, "For delight and its absence are the boundary of those who have reached full age;" Hecataeus, that it was sufficiency to one’s self; Apollodotus of Cyzicum, that it was delectation as Nausiphanes, that it was undauntedness,[2] for he said that it was this that was called by Democritus imperturbability. In addition to these still, Diotimus declared the end to be perfection of what is good, which he said was termed well-being. Again, Antisthenes, that it was humility. And those called Annicereans, of the Cyrenaic succession, laid down no definite end for the whole of life; but said that to each action belonged, as its proper end, the pleasure accruing from the action. These Cyrenaics reject Epicurus’ definition of pleasure, that is the removal of pain, calling that the condition of a dead man; because we rejoice not only on account of pleasures, but companionships and distinctions; while Epicurns thinks that all joy of the soul arises from previous sensations of the flesh. Metrodorus, in his book On the Source of Happiness in Ourselves being greater than that which arises from Objects, says: What else is the good of the soul but the sound state of the flesh, and the sure hope of its continuance?
CHAP. XXII.—PLATO’S OPINION, THAT THE CHIEF GOOD CONSISTS IN ASSIMILATION TO GOD, AND ITS AGREEMENT WITH SCRIPTURE.
Further, Plato the philosopher says that the end is twofold: that which is communicable, and exists first in the ideal forms themselves, which he also calls "the good;" and that which partakes of it, and receives its likeness from it, as is the case in the men who appropriate virtue and true philosophy. Wherefore also Cleanthes, in the second book, On Pleasure, says that Socrates everywhere teaches that the just man and the happy are one and the same, and execrated the first man who separated the just from the useful, as having done an impious thing. For those are in truth impious who separate the useful from that which is tight according to the law. Plato himself says that happiness(<greek>eudai</greek>- <greek>monia</greek>) is to possess rightly the daemon, and that the ruling faculty of the soul is called the daemon; and he terms happiness (<greek>eudaimonia</greek>) the most perfect and complete good. Sometimes he calls it a consistent and harmonious life, sometimes the highest perfection in accordance with virtue; and this he places in the knowledge of the Good, and in likeness to God, demonstrating likeness to be justice and holiness with wisdom.
For is it not thus that some of our writers have understood that man straightway on his creation received what is "according to the image," but that what is according "to the likeness" he will receive afterwards on his perfection? Now Plato, teaching that the virtuous man shall have this likeness accompanied with humility, explains the following: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted."[1] He says, accordingly, in The Laws: "God indeed, as the ancient saying has it, occupying the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things, goes straight through while He goes round the circumference.
And He is always attended by Justice, the avenger of those who revolt from the divine law." You see how he connects fear with the divine law. He adds, therefore: "To which he, who would be happy, cleaving, will follow lowly and beautified." Then, connecting what follows these words, and admonishing by fear, he adds: "What conduct, then, is dear and conformable to God? That which is characterized by one word of old date: Like will be dear to like, as to what is in proportion; but things out of proportion are neither dear to one another, nor to those which are in proportion. And that therefore he that would be dear to God, must, to the best of his power, become such as He is And in virtue of the same reason, our self-controlling man is dear to God. But he that has no self-control is unlike and diverse." In saying that it was an ancient dogma, he indicates the teaching which had come to him from the law. And having in the Theaoetus admitted that evils make the circuit of mortal nature and of this spot, he adds: "Wherefore we must try to flee hence as soon as possible. For flight is likeness to God as far as possible. And likeness is to become holy and just with wisdom." Speusippus, the nephew of Plato, says that happiness is a perfect state in those who conduct themselves in accordance with nature, or the state of the good: for which condition all men have a desire, but the good only attained to quietude; consequently the virtues are the authors of happiness. And Xenocrates the Chalcedonian defines happiness to be the possession of virtue, strictly so called, and of the power subservient to it.
Then he clearly says, that the seat in which it resides is the soul; that by which it is effected, the virtues; and that of these as parts are formed praiseworthy actions, good habits and dispositions, and motions, and relations; and that corporeal and external objects are not without these. For Polemo, the disciple of Xenocrates, seems of the opinion that happiness is sufficiency of all good things, or of the most and greatest. He lays down the doctrine, then, that happiness never exists without virtue; and that virtue, apart from corporeal and external objects, is sufficient for happiness. Let these things be so. The contradictions to the opinions specified shall be adduced in due time.
But on us it is incumbent to reach the unaccomplished end, obeying the commands—that is, God—and living according to them, irreproachably and intelligently, through knowledge of the divine will; and assimilation as far as possible in accordance with right reason is the end, and restoration to perfect adoption by the Son, which ever glorifies the Father by the great High Priest who has deigned to call us brethren and fellow-heirs. And the apostle, succinctly describing the end, writes in the Epistle to the Romans:
"But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."[2] And viewing the hope as twofold—that which is expected, and that which has been received—he now teaches the end to be the restitution of the hope. "For patience," he says, "worketh experience, and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us."[3] On account of which love and the restoration to hope, he says, in another place, "which rest is laid up for us."[4]
You will find in Ezekiel the like, as follows: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the man who shall be righteous, and shall do judgment and justice, who has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, and hath not approached to a woman in the time of her uncleanness (for he does not wish the seed of man to be dishonoured), and will not injure a man; will restore the debtor’s pledge, and will not take usury; will turn away his hand from wrong; will do true judgment between a man and his neighbour; will walk in my ordinances, and keep my commandments, so as to do the truth; he is righteous, he shall surely live, saith Adonai the Lord."[5] Isaiah too, in exhorting him that hath not believed to gravity of life, and the Gnostic to attention, proving that man’s virtue and God’s are not the same, speaks thus: "Seek the Lord, and on finding Him call on Him.
And when He shall draw near to you, let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his ways; and let him return to the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy," down to "and your thoughts from my thoughts."’ "We," then, according to the noble apostle, "wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."[2] And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope," down to "made an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek."[3] Similarly with Paul "the All-virtuous Wisdom" says, "He, that heareth me shall dwell trusting in hope."[4] For the restoration of hope is called by the same term "hope." To the expression "will dwell" it has most beautifully added" trusting," showing that such an one has obtained rest, having received the hope for which he hoped. Wherefore also it is added, "and shall be quiet, without fear of any evil." And openly and expressly the apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians says, "Be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ," s in order that that may take place. If ye are of me, and I am of Christ, then ye are imitators of Christ, and Christ of God. Assimilation to God, then, so that as far as possible a man becomes righteous and holy with wisdom he lays down as the aim of faith, and the end to be that restitution of the promise which is effected by faith. From these doctrines gush the fountains, which we specified above, of those who have dogmatized about "the end." But of these enough.
CHAP. XXIII.—ON MARRIAGE.
Since pleasure and lust seem to fall under marriage, it must also be treated of. Marriage is the first conjunction of man and woman for the procreation of legitimate children.[6] Accordingly Menander the comic poet says:--
"For the begetting of legitimate children, I give thee my daughter."
We ask if we ought to marry; which is one of the points, which are said to be relative. For some must marry, and a man must be in some condition, and he must marry some one in some condition. For every one is not to marry, nor always. But there is a time in which it is suitable, and a person for whom it is suitable, and an age up to which it is suitable. Neither ought every one to take a wife, nor is it every woman one is to take, nor always, nor in every way, nor inconsiderately. But only he who is in certain circumstances, and such an one and at such time as is requisite, and for the sake of children, and one who is in every respect similar, and who does not by force or compulsion love the husband who loves her.
Hence Abraham, regarding his wife as a sister, says, "She is my sister by my father, but not by my mother; and she became my wife,"[7] teaching us that children of the same mothers ought not to enter into matrimony. Let us briefly follow the history. Plato ranks marriage among outward good things, providing for the perpetuity of our race, and handing down as a torch a certain perpetuity to children’s children.
Democritus repudiates marriage and the procreation of children, on account of the many annoyances thence arising, and abstractions from more necessary things. Epicurus agrees, and those who place good in pleasure, and in the absence of trouble and pain. According to the opinion of the Stoics, marriage and the rearing of children are a thing indifferent; and according to the Peripatetics, a good. In a word, these, following out their dogmas in words, became enslaved to pleasures; some using concubines, some mistresses, and the most youths. And that wise quaternion in the garden with a mistress, honoured pleasure by their acts. Those, then, will not escape the curse of yoking an ass with an ox, who, judging certain things not to suit them, command others to do them, or the reverse. This Scripture has briefly showed, when it says, "What thou hatest, thou shalt not do to another."[8]
But they who approve of marriage say, Nature has adapted us for marriage, as is evident from the structure of our bodies, which are male and female. And they constantly proclaim that command, "Increase and replenish."[9] And though this is the case, yet it seems to them shameful that man, created by God, should be more licentious than the irrational creatures, which do not mix with many licentiously, but with one of the same species, such as pigeons and ringdoves,[10] and creatures like them. Furthermore, they say, "The childless man fails in the perfection which is according to nature, not having substituted his proper successor in his place. For he is perfect that has produced from himself his like, or rather, when he sees that he has produced the same; that is, when that which is begotten attains to the same nature with him who begat."
Therefore we must by all means marry, both for our country’s sake, for the succession of children, and as far as we are concerned, the perfection of the world; since the poets also pity a marriage half-perfect and childless, but pronounce the fruitful one happy. But it is the diseases of the body that principally show marriage to be necessary. For a wife’s care and the assiduity of her constancy appear to exceed the endurance of all other relations and friends, as much as to excel them in sympathy; and most of all, she takes kindly to patient watching. And in truth, according to Scripture, she is a needful help.[1] The comic poet then, Menander, while running down marriage, and yet alleging on the other side its advantages, replies to one who had
said:--
"I am averse to the thing, For you take it awkwardly."
Then. he adds:--
"You see the hardships and the things which annoy you in it. But you do not look on the advantages."
And so forth.
Now marriage is a help in the case of those advanced in years, by furnishing a spouse to take care of one, and by rearing children of her to nourish one’s old age.
"For to a man after death his children bring renown, Just as corks bear the net, Saving the fishing-line from the deep."[2]
according to the tragic poet Sophocles.
Legislators, moreover, do not allow those who are unmarried to discharge the highest magisterial offices. For instance, the legislator of the Spartans imposed a fine not on bachelorhood only, but on monogamy? and late marriage, and single life. And the renowned Plato orders the man who has not married to pay a wife’s maintenance into the public treasury, and to give to the magistrates a suitable sum of money as expenses. For if they shall not beget children, not having married, they produce, as far as in them lies, a scarcity of men, and dissolve states and the world that is composed of them, impiously doing away with divine generation. It is also unmanly and weak to shun living with a wife and children. For of that of which the loss is an evil, the possession is by all means a good; and this is the case with the rest of things.
But the loss of children is, they say, among the chiefest evils: the possession of children is consequently a good thing; and if it be so, so also is marriage. It is said:--
"Without a father there never could be a child, And without a mother conception of a child could not be. Marriage makes a father, as a husband a mother."[4]
Accordingly Homer makes a thing to be earnestly prayed for:--
"A husband and a house;"
yet not simply, but along with good agreement. For the marriage of other people is an agreement for indulgence; but that of philosophers leads to that agreement which is in accordance with reason, bidding wives adorn themselves not in outward appearance, but in character; and enjoining husbands not to treat their wedded wives as mistresses, making corporeal wantonness their aim; but to take advantage of marriage for help in the whole of life, and for the best self-restraint.
Far more excellent, in my opinion, than the seeds of wheat and barley that are sown at appropriate seasons, is man that is sown, for whom all things grow; and those seeds temperate husbandmen ever sow. Every foul and polluting practice must therefore be purged away from marriage; that the intercourse of the irrational animals may not be cast in our teeth, as more accordant with nature than human conjunction in procreation. Some of these, it must be granted, desist at the time in which they are directed, leaving creation to the working of Providence.
By the tragedians, Polyxena, though being murdered, is described nevertheless as having, when dying, taken great care to fall decently,--
"Concealing what ought to be hid from the eyes of men."
Marriage to her was a calamity. To be subjected, then, to the passions, and to yield to them, is the extremest slavery; as to keep them in subjection is the only liberty. The divine Scripture accordingly says, that those who have transgressed the commandments are sold to strangers, that is, to sins alien to nature, till they return and repent. Marriage, then, as a sacred image, must be kept pure from those things which defile it.[5] We are to rise from our slumbers with the Lord, and retire to sleep with thanksgiving and prayer,--
"Both when you sleep, and when the holy light comes,"
confessing the Lord in our whole life; possessing piety in the soul, and extending self-control to the body. For it is pleasing to God to lead decorum from the tongue to our actions. Filthy speech is the way to effrontery; and the end of both is filthy conduct.
Now that the Scripture counsels marriage, and allows no release from the union, is expressly contained in the law, "Thou shalt not put away thy wife, except for the cause of fornication;" and it regards as fornication, the marriage of those separated while the other is alive. Not to deck and adorn herself beyond what is becoming, renders a wife free of calumnious suspicion. while she devotes herself assiduously to prayers and supplications; avoiding frequent departures from the house, and shutting herself up as far as possible from the view of all not related to her, and deeming housekeeping of more consequence than impertinent trifling.
"He that taketh a woman that has been put away," it is said, "committeth adultery; and if one puts away his wife, he makes her an adulteress,"[1] that is, compels her to commit adultery. And not only is he who puts her away guilty of this, but he who takes her, by giving to the woman the opportunity of sinning; for did he not take her, she would return to her husband. What, then, is the law?[2] In order to check the impetuosity of the passions, it commands the adulteress to be put to death, on being convicted of this; and if of priestly family, to be committed to the flames.[3] And the adulterer also is stoned to death, but not in the same place, that not even their death may be in common. And the law is not at variance with the Gospel, but agrees with it. How should it be otherwise, one Lord being the author of both?
She who has committed fornication liveth in sin, and is dead to the commandments; but she who has repented, being as it were born again by the change in her life, has a regeneration of life; the old harlot being dead, and she who has been regenerated by repentance having come back again to life. The Spirit testifies to what has been said by Ezekiel, declaring, "I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn."[4] Now they are stoned to death; as through hardness of heart dead to the law which they believed not. But in the case of a priestess the punishment is increased, because "to whom much is given, from him shall more be required."[5]
Let us conclude this second book of the Stromata at this point, on account of the length and number of the chapters.
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES.
OF CLEMENS ALEXANDRIUS.
BOOK IV.
CHAP. I.—ORDER OF CONTENTS.
It will follow, I think, that I should treat of martyrdom, and of who the perfect man is. With these points shall be included what follows in accordance with the demands of the points to be spoken about, and how both bond and free must equally philosophize, whether male or female in sex. And in the sequel, after finishing what is to be said on faith and inquiry, we shall set forth the department of symbols; so that, on cursorily concluding the discourse on ethics, we shall exhibit the advantage which has accrued to the Greeks from the barbarian philosophy. After which sketch, the brief explanation of the Scriptures both against the Greeks and against the Jews will be presented, and whatever points we were unable to embrace in the previous Miscellanies (through having respect necessarily to the multitude of matters), in accordance with the commencement of the poem, purposing to finish them in one commentary. In addition to these points, afterwards on completing the sketch, as far as we can in accordance with what we propose, we must give an account of the physical doctrines of the Greeks and of the barbarians, respecting elementary principles, as far as their opinions have reached us, and argue against the principal views excogitated by the philosophers.
It will naturally fall after these, after a cursory view of theology, to discuss the opinions handed down respecting prophecy; so that, having demonstrated that the Scriptures which we believe are valid from their omnipotent authority, we shall be able to go over them consecutively, and to show thence to all the heresies one God and Omnipotent Lord to be truly preached by the law and the prophets, and besides by the blessed Gospel. Many contradictions against the heterodox await us while we attempt, in writing, to do away with the force of the allegations made by them, and to persuade them against their will, proving by the Scriptures themselves.
On completing, then, the whole of what we propose in the commentaries, on which, if the Spirit will, we ministering to the urgent need, (for it is exceedingly necessary, before coming to the truth, to embrace what ought to be said by way of preface), shall address ourselves to the true gnostic science of nature, receiving initiation into the minor mysteries before the greater; so that nothing may be in the way of the truly divine declaration of sacred things, the subjects requiring preliminary detail and statement being cleared away, and sketched beforehand. The science of nature, then, or rather observation, as contained in the gnostic tradition according to the rule of the truth, depends on the discussion concerning cosmogony, ascending thence to the department of theology. Whence, then, we shall begin our account of what is handed down, with the creation as related by the prophets, introducing also the tenets of the heterodox, and endeavouring as far as we can to confute them. But it shall be written if God will, and as He inspires; and now we must proceed to what we proposed, and complete the discourse on ethics.
CHAP. II.—THE MEANING OF THE NAME STROMATA OR MISCELLANIES.
Let these notes of ours, as we have often said for the sake of those that consult them carelessly and unskilfully, be of varied character—and as the name itself indicates, patched together—passing constantly from one thing to another, and in the series of discussions hinting at one thing and demonstrating another. "For those who seek for gold," says Heraclitus, "dig much earth and find little gold." But those who are of the truly golden race, in mining for what is allied to them, will find the much in little. For the word will find one to understand it. The Miscellanies of notes contribute, then, to the recollection and expression of truth in the case of him who is able to investigate with reason.
And you must prosecute, in addition to these, other labours and researches; since, in the case of people who are setting out on a road with which they are unacquainted, it is sufficient merely to point out the direction. After this they must walk and find out the rest for themselves. As, they say, when a certain slave once asked at the oracle what he should do to please his master, the Pythian priestess replied, "You will find if you seek." It is truly a difficult matter, then, as turns out, to find out latent good; since "Before virtue is placed exertion, And long and steep is the way to it, And rough at first; but when the summit is reached, Then is it easy, though difficult [before]."
"For narrow," in truth, "and strait is the way" of the Lord. And it is to the "violent that the kingdom of God belongs."’ Whence, "Seek, and ye shall find," holding on by the truly royal road, and not deviating. As we
might expect, then, the generative power of the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in small space, as the "universal herbage of the field,"(2) as Scripture saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title, wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things of which Sophocles writes:--
"For there was a sheep’s fleece, and there was a vine, And a libation, and grapes well stored; And there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds, And the fat of the olive, and the most curious Wax-formed work of the yellow bee."
Just so our Stromata, according to the husbandman of the comic poet Timocles, produce "figs, olives, dried figs, honey, as from an all-fruitful field;" on account of which exuberance he adds:--
"Thou speakest of a harvest-wreath not of husbandry."
For the Athenians were wont to cry:--
"The harvest-wreath bears figs and fat loaves, And honey in a cup, and olive oil to anoint you."
We must then often, as in winnowing sieves, shake and toss up this the great mixture of seeds, in order to separate the wheat.
CHAP. III.—THE TRUE EXCELLENCE OF MAN.
The most of men have a disposition unstable and heedless, like the nature of storms. "Want of faith has done many good things, and faith evil things." And Epicharmus says, "Don’t forget to exercise incredulity; for it is the sinews of the soul." Now, to disbelieve truth brings death, as to believe, life; and again, to believe the lie and to disbelieve the truth hutries to destruction. The same is the case with self-restraint and licentiousness. To restrain one’s self from doing good is the work of vice; but to keep from wrong is the beginning of salvation. So the Sabbath, by abstinence from evils, seems to indicate self-restraint. And what, I ask, is it in which man differs from beasts, and the angels of God, on the other hand, are wiser than he? "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels."(3) For some do not interpret this Scripture of the Lord, although He also bore flesh, but of the perfect man and the gnostic, inferior in comparison with the angels in time, and by reason of the vesture [of the body]. I call then wisdom nothing but science, since life differs not from life. For to live is common to the mortal nature, that is to man, with that to which has been vouchsafed immortality; as also the faculty of contemplation and of self-restraint, one of the two being more excellent.
On this ground Pythagoras seems to me to have said that God alone is wise, since also the apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans, "For the obedience of the faith among all nations, being made known to the only wise God through Jesus Christ;"(4) and that he himself was a philosopher, on account of his friendship with God. Accordingly it is said, "God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend." s That, then, which is true being clear to God, forthwith generates truth. And the gnostic loves the truth. "Go," it is said, "to the ant, thou sluggard, and be the disciple of the bee;" thus speaks Solomon.(6) For if there is one function belonging to the peculiar nature of each creature, alike of the ox, and horse, and dog, what shall we say is the peculiar function of man ?
He is like, it appears to me, the Centaur, a Thessalian figment, compounded of a rational and irrational part, of soul and body. Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy, it speeds to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience and fear belong to the good man. For if "by the law is the knowledge of sin,"(7) as those allege who disparage the law, and "till the law sin was in the world;"(8) yet "without the law sin was dead,"(9) we oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away that which gives rise to lust. "For the law is not made for the just man,"[1] says the Scripture. Well, then, says Heraclitus, "They would not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been." And Socrates says, "that the law was not made for the sake of the good."
But the cavillers did not know even this, as the apostle says, "that he who loveth his brother worketh not evil;" for this, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in the word, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself."[2] So also is it said, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."[3] And "if he that loveth his neighbour worketh no evil," and if "every commandment is comprehended in this, the loving our neighbour," the commandments, by menacing with fear, work love, not hatred.
Wherefore the law is productive of the emotion of fear. "So that the law is holy," and in truth "spiritual,"[4] according to the apostle. We must, then, as is fit, in investigating the nature of the body and the essence of the soul, apprehend the end of each, and not regard death as an evil. "For when ye were the servants of sin," says the apostle, "ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things in which ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."[5] The assertion, then, may be hazarded, that it has been shown that death is the fellowship of the soul in a state of sin with the body; and life the separation from sin.
And many are the stakes and ditches of lust which impede us, and the pits of wrath and anger which must be overleaped, and all the machinations we must avoid of those who plot against us,--who would no longer see the knowledge of God "through a glass."
"The half of virtue the far-seeing Zeus takes From man, when he reduces him to a state of slavery."
As slaves the Scripture views those "under sin" and "sold to sin," the lovers of pleasure and of the body; and beasts rather than men, "those who have become like to cattle, horses, neighing after their neighbours’ wives."[6] The licentious is "the lustful ass," the covetous is the "savage wolf,"
and the deceiver is "a serpent." The severance, therefore, of the soul from the body, made a life-long study, produces in the philosopher gnostic alacrity, so that he is easily able to bear natural death, which is the dissolution of the chains which bind the soul to the body. "For the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," the [apostle] says; "and now I live, though in the flesh, as having my conversation in heaven."[7]
CHAP. IV.—THE PRAISES OF MARTYRDOM.
Whence, as is reasonable, the gnostic, when Galled, obeys easily, and gives up his body to him who asks; and, previously divesting himself of the affections of this carcase, not insulting the tempter, but rather, in my opinion, training him and convincing him,--
"From what honour and what extent of wealth fallen,"
as says Empedocles, here for the future he walks with mortals. He, in truth, bears witness to himself that he is faithful and loyal towards God; and to the tempter, that he in vain envied him who is faithful through love; and to the Lord, of the inspired persuasion in reference to His doctrine, from which he will not depart through fear of death; further, he confirms also the truth of preaching by his deed, showing that God to whom he hastes is powerful. You will wonder at his love, which he conspicuously shows with thankfulness, in being united to what is allied to him, and besides by his precious blood, shaming the unbelievers. He then avoids denying Christ through fear by reason of the command; nor does he sell his faith in the hope of the gifts prepared, but in love to the Lord he will most gladly depart from this life; perhaps giving thanks both to him who afforded the cause of his departure hence, and to him who laid the plot against him, for receiving an honourable reason which he himself furnished not, for showing what he is, to him by his patience, and to the Lord in love, by which even before his birth he was manifested to the Lord, who knew the martyr’s choice.
With good courage, then, he goes to the Lord, his friend, for whom he voluntarily gave his body, and, as his judges hoped, his soul, hearing from our Saviour the words of poetry, "Dear brother," by reason of the similarity of his life. We call martyrdom perfection, not because the man comes to the end of his life as others, but because he has exhibited the perfect work of love. And the ancients laud the death of those among the Greeks who died in war, not that they advised people to die a violent death, but because he who ends his life in war is released without the dread of dying, severed from the body without experiencing previous suffering or being enfeebled in his soul, as the people that suffer in diseases. For they depart in a state of effeminacy and desiring to live; and therefore they do not yield up the soul pure, but bearing with it their lusts like weights of lead; all but those who have been conspicuous in virtue.
Some die in battle with their lusts, these being in no respect different from what they would have been if they had wasted away by disease.
If the confession to God is martyrdom, each soul which has lived purely in the knowledge of God, which has obeyed the commandments, is a witness both by life and word, in whatever way it may be released from the body,--shedding faith as blood along its whole life till its departure. For instance, the Lord says in the Gospel, "Whosoever shall leave father, or mother, or brethren," and so forth, "for the sake of the Gospel and my name,"[1] he is blessed; not indicating simple martyrdom, but the gnostic martyrdom, as of the man who has conducted himself according to the rule of the Gospel, in love to the Lord (for the knowledge of the Name and the understanding of the Gospel point out the gnosis, but not the bare appellation), so as to leave his worldly kindred, and wealth, and every possession, in order to lead a life free from passion. "Mother" figuratively means Country and sustenance; "fathers" are the laws of civil polity: which must be contemned thankfully by the high-souled just man; for the sake of being the friend of God, and of obtaining the right hand in the holy place, as the Apostles have done.
Then Heraclitus says, "Gods and men honour those slain in battle;" and Plato in the fifth book of the Republic writes, "Of those who die in military service, whoever dies after winning renown, shall we not say that he is chief of the golden race? Most assuredly." But the golden race is with the gods, who are in heaven, in the fixed sphere, who chiefly hold command in the providence exercised towards men. Now some of the heretics who have misunderstood the Lord, have at once an impious and cowardly love of life; saying that the true martyrdom is the knowledge of the only true God (which we also admit), and that the man is a self-murderer and a suicide who makes confession by death; and adducing other similar sophisms of cowardice. To these we shall reply at the proper time; for they differ with us in regard to first principles. Now we, too, say that those who have rushed on death (for there are some, not belonging to us, but sharing the name merely, who are in haste to give themselves up, the poor wretches dying through hatred to the Creator[2])-- these, we say, banish themselves without being martyrs, even though they are punished publicly. For they do not preserve the characteristic mark of believing martyrdom, inasmuch as they have not known the only true God, but give themselves up to a vain death, as the Gymnosophists of the Indians to useless fire.
But since these falsely named[3] calumniate the body, let them learn that the harmonious mechanism of the body contributes to the understanding which leads to goodness of nature.
Wherefore in the third book of the Republic, Plato, whom they appeal to loudly as an authority that disparages generation, says, "that for the sake of harmony of soul, care must be taken for the body," by which, he who announces the proclamation of the truth, finds it possible to live, and to live well. For it is by the path of life and health that we learn gnosis. But is he who cannot advance to the height without being occupied with necessary things, and through them doing what tends to knowledge, not to choose to live well? In living, then, living well is secured. And he who in the body has devoted himself to a good life, is being sent on to the state of immortality.
CHAP. V.—ON CONTEMPT FOR PAIN, POVERTY, AND OTHER EXTERNAL THINGS.
Fit objects for admiration are the Stoics, who say that the soul is not affected by the body, either to vice by disease, or to virtue by health; but both these things, they say, are indifferent. And indeed Job, through exceeding continence, and excellence of faith, when from rich he became poor, from being held in honour dishonoured, from being comely unsightly, and sick from being healthy, is depicted as a good example, putting the Tempter to shame, blessing his Creator; bearing what came second, as the first, and most clearly teaching that it is possible for the gnostic to make an excellent use of all circumstances, And that ancient achievements are proposed as images for our correction, the apostle shows, when he says, "So that my bonds in Christ are become manifest in all the palace, and to all the rest; and several of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear,"[4]--since martyrs’ testimonies are examples ‘of conversion gloriously sanctified. "For what things the Scripture speaks were written for our instruction, that we, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, might have the hope of consolation."[5] When pain is present, the soul appears to decline from it, and to deem release from present pain a precious thing. At that moment it slackens from studies, when the other virtues also are neglected.
And yet we do not say that it is virtue itself which suffers, for virtue is not affected by disease. But he who is partaker of both, of virtue and the disease, is afflicted by the pressure of the latter; and if he who has not yet attained the habit of self-command be not a high-souled man, he is distraught; and the inability to endure it is found equivalent to fleeing from it.
The same holds good also in the case of poverty. For it compels the soul to desist from necessary things, I mean contemplation and from pure sinlessness, forcing him, who has not wholly dedicated himself to God in love, to occupy himself about provisions; as, again, health and abundance of necessaries keep the soul free and unimpeded, and capable of making a good use of what is at hand. "For," says the apostle, "such shall have trouble in the flesh. But I spare you. For I would have you without anxiety, in order to decorum and assiduity for the Lord, without distraction."[1]
These things, then, are to be abstained from, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the body; and care for the body is exercised for the sake of the Soul, to which it has reference. For on this account it is necessary for the man who lives as a gnostic to know what is suitable. Since the fact that pleasure is not a good thing is admitted from the fact that certain pleasures are evil, by this reason good appears evil, and evil good. And then, if we choose some pleasures and shun others, it is not every pleasure that is a good thing.
Similarly, also, the same rule holds with pains, some of which we endure, and others we shun. But choice and avoidance are exercised according to knowledge; so that it is not pleasure that is the good thing, but knowledge by which we shall choose a pleasure at a certain time, and of a certain kind. Now the martyr chooses the pleasure that exists in prospect through the present pain. If pain is conceived as existing in thirst, and pleasure in drinking, the pain that has preceded becomes the efficient cause of pleasure. But evil cannot be the efficient cause of good. Neither, then, is the one thing nor the other evil. Simonides accordingly (as also Aristotle) writes, "that to be in good health is the best thing, and the second best thing is to be handsome, and the third best thing is to be rich without cheating."
And Theognis of Megara says:--
"You must, to escape poverty, throw Yourself, O Cyrnus down from The steep rocks into the deep sea."
On the other hand, Antiphanes, the comic poet, says, "Plutus (Wealth), when it has taken hold of those who see better than others, makes them blind." Now by the poets he is proclaimed as blind from his birth:--
"And brought him forth blind who saw not the sun."
Says the Chalcidian Euphorion:--
"Riches, then, and extravagant luxuries, Were for men the worst training for manliness."
Wrote Euripides in Alexander:--
"And it is said,
Penury has attained wisdom through misfortune; But much wealth will capture not Sparta alone, but every city."
"It is not then the only coin that mortals have, that which is white silver or golden, but virtue too,"
as Sophocles says.
CHAP. VI.—SOME POINTS IN THE BEATITUDES.
Our holy Saviour applied poverty and riches, and the like, both to spiritual things and objects of sense. For when He said, "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,"[2] He clearly taught us in every circumstance to seek for the martyr who, if poor for righteousness’ sake, witnesses that the righteousness which he loves is a good thing; and if he "hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake," testifies that righteousness is the best thing. Likewise he, that weeps and mourns for righteousness’ sake, testifies to the best law that it is beautiful. As, then, "those that are persecuted," so also "those that hunger and thirst" for righteousness’ sake, are called "blessed" by Him who approves of the true desire, which not even famine can put a stop to. And if "they hunger after righteousness itself," they are blessed. "And blessed are the poor," whether "in spirit" or in circumstances—that is, if for righteousness’ sake. It is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness’ sake, that He pronounces blessed—those who have despised the honours of this world in order to attain "the good;" likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore "have received power to become the sons of God,"[3] and "to tread on serpents and scorpions," and to rule over demons and "the host of the adversary."[4]
And, in fine, the Lord’s disciplines draws the soul away gladly from the body, even if it wrench itself away in its removal. "For he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it,"[4] if we only join that which is mortal of us with the immortality of God. It is the will of God[that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the word of repentance, knows his life to be sinful will lose it—losing it from sin, from which it is wrenched; but losing it, will find it, according to the obedience which lives again to faith, but dies to sin. This, then, is what it is "to find one’s life," "to know one’s self."
The conversion, however, which leads to divine things, the Stoics say, is affected by a change, the soul being changed to wisdom. And Plato: "On the soul taking a turn to what is better, and a change from a kind of nocturnal day." Now the philosophers also allow the good man an exit from life in accordance with reason, in the case of one depriving him of active exertion, so that the hope of action is no longer left him. And the judge who compels us to deny Him whom we love, I regard as showing who is and who is not the friend of God. In that case there is not left ground for even examining what one prefers—the menaces of man or the love of God. And abstinence from vicious acts is found, somehow, [to result in] the diminution and extinction of vicious propensities, their energy being destroyed by inaction. And this is the import of "Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me"[1]--that is, follow what is said by the Lord. Some say that by what "thou hast" He designated the things in the soul, of a nature not akin to it, though how these are bestowed on the poor they are not able to say. For God dispenses to all according to desert, His distribution being righteous.
Despising, therefore, the possessions which God apportions to thee in thy magnificence, comply with what is spoken by me; haste to the ascent of the Spirit, being not only justified by abstinence from what is evil, but in addition also perfected, by Christlike beneficence.[2] In this instance He convicted the man, who boasted that he had fulfilled the injunctions of the law, of not loving his neighbour; and it is by beneficence that the love which, according to the gnostic ascending scale, is Lord of the Sabbath, proclaims itself.[3] We must then, according to my view, have recourse to the word of salvation neither from fear of punishment nor promise of a gift, but on account of the good itself. Such, as do so, stand on the right hand of the sanctuary; but those who think that by the gift of what is perishable they shall receive in exchange what belongs to immortality are in the parable of the two brothers called "hirelings." And is there not some light thrown here on the expression "in the likeness and image," in the fact that some live according to the likeness of Christ, while those who stand on the left hand live according to their image? There are then two things proceeding from the truth, one root lying beneath both,--the choice being, however, not equal, or rather the difference that is in the choice not being equal.
To choose by way of imitation differs, as appears to me, from the choice of him who chooses according to knowledge, as that which is set on fire differs from that which is illuminated. Israel, then, is the light of the likeness which is according to the Scripture. But the image is another thing. What means the parable of Lazarus, by showing the image of the rich and poor? And what the saying, "No man can serve two masters, God and Mammon?"—the Lord so terming the love of money. For instance, the covetous, who were invited, responded not to the invitation to the supper, not because of their possessing property, but of their inordinate affection to what they possessed. "The foxes," then, have holes. He called those evil and earthly men who are occupied about the wealth which is mined and dug from the ground, foxes. Thus also, in reference to Herod: "Go, tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected."[4]
For He applied the name "fowls of the air" to those who were distinct from the other birds—those really pure, those that have the power of flying to the knowledge of the heavenly Word. For not riches only, but also honour, and marriage, and poverty, have ten thousand cares for him who is unfit for them.[5] And those cares He indicated in the parable of the fourfold seed, when He said that "the seed of the word which fell unto the thorns" and hedges was choked by them, and could not bring forth fruit. It is therefore necessary to learn how to make use of every occurrence, so as by a good life, according to knowledge, to be trained for the state of eternal life. For it said, "I saw the wicked exalted and towering as the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed," says the Scripture, "and, lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. Keep innocence, and look on uprightness: for there is a remnant to the man of peace."[6] Such will he be who believes unfeignedly with his whole heart, and is tranquil in his whole soul. "For the different people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from the Lord."[7] "They bless with their mouth, but they curse in their heart."[1] "They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, and they were not faithful to His covenant."
Wherefore "let the false lips become speechless, and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in his case."[2] For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. "Lay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal,"[3] says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts "break through" the mind and the whole man. But our true "treasure" is where what is allied to our mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, "the bag that waxeth not old," the provisions of eternal life, "the treasure that faileth not in heaven."[4]
"For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,"[5] saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness’ sake. For they have heard in the commandment that "the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it."[6] It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, "Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?"[7] And the commandment is expressed in these very words, "Take heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he possesses.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"[8] "Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. For your life is more than meat, and your body than raiment."[9] And again, "For your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." "But seek first the kingdom of heaven, and its righteousness," for these are the great things, and the things which are small and appertain to this life "shall be added to you."[10] Does He not plainly then exhort us to follow the gnostic life, and enjoin us to seek the truth in word and deed? Therefore Christ, who trains the soul, reckons one rich, not by his gifts, but by his choice. It is said, therefore, that Zaccheus, or, according to some, Matthew, the chief of the publicans, on hearing that the Lord had deigned to come to him, said, "Lord, and if I have taken anything by false accusation, I restore him fourfold;" on which the Saviour said, "The Son of man, on coming to-day, has found that which was lost."[11] Again, on seeing the rich cast into the treasury according to their wealth, and the widow two mites, He said "that the widow had cast in more than they all," for "they had contributed of their abundance, but she of her destitution." And because He brought all things to bear on the discipline of the soul, He said, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."[12]
And the meek are those who have quelled the battle of unbelief in the soul, the battle of wrath, and lust, and the other forms that are subject to them. And He praises those meek by choice, not by necessity. For there are with the Lord both rewards and" many mansions," corresponding to men’s lives. "Whosoever shall receive," says He, "a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward; and whosoever shall receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man’s reward; and whoso shall receive one of the least of these my disciples, shall not lose his reward."[13] And again, the differences of virtue according to merit, and the noble rewards, He indicated by the hours unequal in number; and in addition, by the equal reward given to each of the labourers—that is, salvation, which is meant by the penny—He indicated the equality of justice; and the difference of those called He intimated, by those who worked for unequal portions of time.
They shall work, therefore, in accordance with the appropriate mansions of which they have been deemed worthy as rewards, being fellow-workers in the ineffable administration and service.[14] "Those, then," says Plato, "who seem called to a holy life, are those who, freed and released from those earthly localities as from prisons, have reached the pure dwelling-place on high." In clearer terms again he expresses the same thing: "Those who by philosophy have been sufficiently purged from those things, live without bodies entirely for all time. Although they are enveloped in certain shapes; in the case of some, of air, and others, of fire." He adds further: "And they reach abodes fairer than those, which it is not easy, nor is there sufficient time now to describe." Whence with reason, "blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted;"[1] for they who have repented of their former evil life shall attain to "the calling"
(<greek>klhsin</greek>), for this is the meaning of being comforted
(<greek>paraklhqhnai</greek>). And there are two styles of penitents.[2] That which is more common is fear on account of what is done; but the other which is more special, the shame which the spirit feels in itself arising from conscience. Whether then, here or elsewhere (for no place is devoid of the beneficence of God), He again says, "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." And mercy is not, as some of the philosophers have imagined, pain on account of others’ calamities, but rather something good, as the prophets say. For it is said, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."[3] And He[4] means by the merciful, not only those who do acts of mercy, but those who wish to do them, though they be not able; who do as far as purpose is concerned. For sometimes we wish by the gift of money or by personal effort to do mercy, as to assist one in want, or help one who is sick, or stand by one who is in any emergency; and are not able either from poverty, or disease, or old age (for this also is natural disease), to carry out our purpose, in reference to the things to which we are impelled, being unable to conduct them to the end we wished. Those, who have entertained the wish whose purpose is equal, share in the same honour with those who have the ability, although others have the advantage in point of resources.[5]
And since there are two paths of reaching the perfection of salvation, works and knowledge, He called the "pure in heart blessed, for they shall see God."[6] And if we really look to the truth of the matter, knowledge is the purification of the leading faculty of the soul, and is a good activity. Some things accordingly are good in themselves, and others by participation in what is good, as we say good actions are good. But without things intermediate which hold the place of material, neither good nor bad actions are constituted, such I mean as life, and health, and other necessary things or circumstantials. Pure then as respects corporeal lusts, and pure in respect of holy thoughts, he means those are, who attain to the knowledge of God, when the chief faculty of the soul has nothing spurious to stand in the way of its power. When, therefore, he who partakes gnostically of this holy quality devotes himself to contemplation, communing in purity with the divine, he enters more nearly into the state of impassible identity, so as no longer to have science and possess knowledge, but to be science and knowledge.
"Blessed, then, are the peacemakers,"[7] who have subdued and tamed the law which wars against the disposition of the mind, the menaces of anger, and the baits of lust, and the other passions which war against the reason; who, having lived in the knowledge both of good works and true reason, shall be reinstated in adoption, Which is dearer. It follows that the perfect peacemaking is that which keeps unchanged in all circumstances what is peaceful; calls Providence holy and good; and has its being in the knowledge of divine and human affairs, by which it deems the opposites that are in the world to be the fairest harmony of creation. They also are peacemakers, who teach those who war against the stratagems of sin to have recourse to faith and peace. And it is the sum of all virtue, in my opinion, when the Lord teaches us that for love to God we must gnostically despise death. "Blessed are they," says He, "who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for they shall be called the sons of God;"[8] or, as some of those who transpose the Gospels[9] say, "Blessed are they who are persecuted by righteousness, for they shall be perfect."
And, "Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake; for they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted." And, "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall separate you, when they shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake;"[10] if we do not detest our persecutors, and undergo punishments at their hands, not hating them under the idea that we have been put to trial more tardily than we looked for; but knowing this also, that every instance of trial is an occasion for testifying.
CHAP. VII.—THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE MARTYR.
Then he who has lied and shown himself unfaithful, and revolted to the devil’s army, in what evil do we think him to be? He belies, therefore, the Lord, or rather he is cheated of his own hope who believes not God; and he believes not who does not what He has commanded.
And what? Does not he, who denies the Lord, deny himself? For does he not rob his Master of His authority, who deprives himself of his relation to Him? He, then, who denies the Saviour, denies life; for "the light was life."[1] He does not term those men of little faith, but faithless and hypocrites,[2] who have the name inscribed on them, but deny that they are really believers. But the faithful is called both servant and friend. So that if one loves himself, he loves the Lord, and confesses to salvation that he may save his soul. Though you die for your neighbour out of love, and regard the Saviour as our neighbour (for God who saves is said to be nigh in respect to what is saved); you do so, choosing death on account of life, and suffering for your own sake rather than his. And is it not for this that he is called brother? he who, suffering out of love to God, suffered for his own salvation; while he, on the other hand, who dies for his own salvation, endures for love to the Lord. For he being life, in what he suffered wished to suffer that we might live by his suffering.
"Why call ye me Lord, Lord," He says, "and do not the things which I say?"[3] For "the people that loveth with their lips, but have their heart far away from the Lord,"[4] is another people, and trust in another, and have willingly sold themselves to another; but those who perform the commandments of the Lord, in every action "testify," by doing what He wishes, and consistently naming the Lord’s name; and "testifying" by deed to Him in whom they trust, that they are those "who have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." s "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."[6]
But to those miserable men, witness to the Lord by blood seems a most violent death, not knowing that such a gate of death is the beginning of the true life; and they will understand neither the honours after death, which belong to those who have lived holily, nor the punishments of those who have lived unrighteously and impurely? I do not say only from our Scriptures (for almost all the commandments indicate them); but they will not even hear their own discourses. For the Pythagorean Theano writes, "Life were indeed a feast to the wicked, who, having done evil, then die; were not the soul immortal, death would be a godsend." And Plato in the Phaedo, "For if death were release from everything," and so forth. We are not then to think according to the Telephus of Aeschylus, "that a single path leads to Hades." The ways are many, and the sins that lead thither. Such deeply erring ones as the unfaithful are, Aristophanes properly makes the subjects of comedy.
"Come," he says, "ye men of obscure life, ye that are like the race of leaves, feeble, wax figures, shadowy tribes, evanescent, fleeting, ephemeral." And Epicharmus, "This nature of men is inflated skins." And the Saviour has said to us, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."[8] "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God," explains the apostle: "for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed, can be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God." And in further explanation continues, that no one may, like Marcion[9] regard the creature as evil. "But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." And again: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. If we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified together as joint-heirs of Christ. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to the purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. And whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified."[10]
You see that martyrdom for love’s sake is taught. And should you wish to be a martyr for the recompense of advantages, you shall hear again. "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."[11] "But if we also suffer for righteousness’ sake," says Peter, "blessed are we. Be not afraid of their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to him that asks a reason of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear, having a good conscience; so that in reference to that for which you are spoken against, they may be ashamed who calumniate your good conversation in Christ. For it is better to suffer for well-doing. if the will of God, than for evil-doing." But if one should cap-tiously say, And how is it possible for feeble flesh to resist the energies and spirits of the Powers?[1] well, let him know this, that, confiding in the Almighty and the Lord, we war against the principalities of darkness, and against death.
"Whilst thou art yet speaking," He says, "Lo, here am I." See the invincible Helper who shields us. "Think it not strange, therefore, concerning the burning sent for your trial, as though some strange thing happened to you; But, as you are partaken in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice; that at the revelation of His glory ye may rejoice exultant. If ye be reproached in the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you."[2] As it is written, "Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."[3]
"What you wish to ascertain from my mind, You shall not ascertain, not were you to apply Horrid saws from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, Not were you to load me with chains,"
says a woman acting manfully in the tragedy. And Antigone, contemning the proclamation of Creon, says boldly:--
"It was not Zeus who uttered this proclamation."
But it is God that makes proclamation to us, and He must be believed. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Wherefore the Scripture saith, "Whosoever believeth on Him shah not be put to shame."[4] Accordingly Simonides justly writes, "It is said that virtue dwells among all but inaccessible rocks, but that she speedily traverses a pure place. Nor is she visible to the eyes of all mortals. He who is not penetrated by heart-vexing sweat will not scale the summit of manliness." And Pindar says:--
"But the anxious thoughts of youths, revolving with toils, Will find glory: and in time their deeds Will in resplendent ether splendid shine."
AEschylus, too, having grasped this thought, says:--
"To him who toils is due, As product of his toil, glory from the gods."
"For great Fates attain great destinies," according to Heraclitus:--
"And what slave is there, who is careless of death?"
"For God hath not given us the spirit of bondage again to fear; but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner," he writes to Timothy.[5] Such shall he be "who cleaves to that which is good," according to the apostle,[6] "who hates evil, having love unfeigned; for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law."[7] If, then, this God, to whom we bear witness, be as He is, the God of hope, we acknowledge our hope, speeding on to hope, "saturated with goodness, filled with all knowledge."[8]
The Indian sages say to Alexander of Macedon: "You transport men’s bodies from place to place. But you shall not force our souls to do what we do not wish. Fire is to men the greatest torture, this we despise." Hence Heraclitus preferred one thing, glory, to all else; and professes "that he allows the crowd to stuff themselves to satiety like cattle."
"For on account of the body are many toils, For it we have invented a roofed house, And discovered how to dig up silver, and sow the land, And all the rest which we know by names."
To the multitude, then, this vain labour is desirable. But to us the apostle says, "Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."[9] Does not the apostle then plainly add the following, to show the contempt for faith in the case of the multitude? "For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. Up to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are beaten, and are feeble, and labour, working with our hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat; we are become as it were the offscourings of the world."[10] Such also are the words of Plato in the Republic:[11] "The just man, though stretched on the rack, though his eyes are dug out, will be happy."
The Gnostic will never then have the chief end placed in life, but in being always happy and blessed, and a kingly friend of God. Although visited with ignominy and exile, and confiscation, and above all, death, he will never be wrenched from his freedom, and signal love to God. "The charity which bears all things, endures all things,"[12] is assured that Divine Providence orders all things well. "I exhort you," therefore it is said, "Be followers of me." The first step to salvation[13] is the instruction accompanied with fear, in consequence of which we abstain from what is wrong; and the second is hope, by reason of which we desire the best things; but love, as is fitting, perfects, by training now according to knowledge. For the Greeks, I know not how, attributing events to unreasoning necessity, own that they yield to them unwillingly. Accordingly Euripides says:--
"What I declare, receive from me, madam:
No mortal exists who has not toil; He buries children, and begets others, And he himself dies, And thus mortals are afflicted."
Then he adds: --
"We must bear those things which are inevitable according to nature, and go through them: Not one of the things which are necessary is formidable for mortals."
And for those who are aiming at perfection there is proposed the rational gnosis, the foundation of which is "the sacred Triad." "Faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love."[1] Truly, "all things are lawful, but all things are not expedient," says the apostle: "all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not."[2] And, "Let no one seek his own advantage, but also that of his neighbour,"[3] so as to be able at once to do and to teach, building and building up. For that "the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof," is admitted; but the conscience of the weak is supported. "Conscience, I say, not his own, but that of the other; for why is my liberty judged of by another conscience? For if I by grace am partaker, why am I evil spoken of l for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."[4] "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the demolition of fortifications, demolishing thoughts, and every high thing which exalteth itself against the knowledge of Christ."[5] Equipped with these weapons, the Gnostic says: O Lord, give opportunity, and receive demonstration; let this dread event pass; I contemn dangers for the love I bear to Thee.
"Because alone of human things Virtue receives not a recompense from without, But has itself as the reward of its toils."
"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering. And above all these, love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God reign in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body; and be thankful,"[6] ye who, while still in the body, like the just men of old, enjoy impassibility and tranquillity of soul.
CHAP. VIII.—WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN, SLAVES AS WELL AS FREEMEN, CANDIDATES FOR THE MARTYR’S CROWN.
Since, then, not only the Aesopians, and Macedonians, and the Lacedaemonians endured when subjected to torture, as Eratosthenes says in his work, On Things Good and Evil; but also Zeno of Elea, when subjected to compulsion to divulge a secret, held out against the tortures, and confessed nothing; who, when expiring, bit out his tongue and spat it at the tyrant, whom some term Nearchus, and some Demulus. Theodotus the Pythagorean acted also similarly, and Paulus the friend of Lacydes, as Timotheus of Pergamus says in his work on The Fortitude of Philosophers, and Achaicus in The Ethics. Posthumus also, the Roman, when captured by Peucetion, did not divulge a single secret; but putting his hand on the fire, held it to it as if to a piece of brass, without moving a muscle of his face. I omit the case of Anaxarchus, who exclaimed, "Pound away at the sack which holds Anaxarchus, for it is not Anaxarchus you are pounding," when by the tyrant’s orders he was being pounded with iron pestles. Neither, then, the hope of happiness nor the love of God takes what befalls ill, but remains free, although thrown among the wildest beasts or into the all-devouring fire; though racked with a tyrant’s tortures.
Depending as it does on the divine favour, it ascends aloft unenslaved, surrendering the body to those who can touch it alone. A barbarous nation, not cumbered with philosophy, select, it is said, annually an ambassador to the hero Zamolxis. Zamolxis was one of the disciples of Pythagoras. The one, then, who is judged of the most sterling worth is put to death, to the distress of those who have practised philosophy, but have not been selected, at being reckoned unworthy of a happy service.
So the Church is full of those, as well chaste women as men, who all their life have contemplated the death which rouses up to Christ? For the individual whose life is framed as ours is, may philosophize without Learning, whether barbarian, whether Greek, whether slave—whether an old man, or a boy, or a woman.[8] For self-control is common to all human beings who have made choice of it. And we admit that the same nature exists in every race, and the same virtue. As far as respects human nature, the woman does not possess one nature, and the man exhibit another, but the same: so also with virtue. If, consequently, a self-restraint and righteousness, and whatever qualities are regarded as following them, is the virtue of the male, it belongs to the male alone to be virtuous, and to the woman to be licentious and unjust. But it is offensive even to say this.
Accordingly woman is to practise self-restraint and righteousness, and every other virtue, as well as man, both bond and free; since it is a fit consequence that the same nature possesses one and the same virtue.[1] We do not say that woman’s nature is the same as man’s, as she is woman. For undoubtedly it stands to reason that some difference should exist between each of them, in virtue of which one is male and the other female. Pregnancy and parturition, accordingly, we say belong to woman, as she is woman, and not as she is a human being. But if there were no difference between man and woman, both would do and suffer the same things. As then there is sameness, as far as respects the soul, she will attain to the same virtue; but as there is difference as respects the peculiar construction of the body, she is destined for child-bearing and housekeeping.
"For I would have you know," says the apostle, "that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man: for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. I For neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord."[2] For as we say that the man ought to be conti-nent, and superior to pleasures; so also we reckon that the woman should be continent and practised in fighting against pleasures. "But I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," counsels the apostolic command; "for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These, then, are contrary" (not as good to evil, but as fighting advantageously), he adds therefore, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication uncleanness, profligacy, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wrath, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have also said before, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, temperance, goodness, faith, meekness."[3]
He calls sinners, as I think, "flesh," and the righteous "spirit." Further, manliness is to be assumed in order to produce confidence and forbearance, so as "to him that strikes on the one cheek, to give to him the other; and to him that takes away the cloak, to yield to him the coat also," strongly, restraining anger. For we do not train our women like Amazons to manliness in war; since we wish the men even to be peaceable. I hear that the Sarmatian women practise war no less than the men; and the women of the Sacae besides, who shoot backwards, feigning flight as well as the men. I am aware, too, that the women near Iberia practise manly work and toil, not refraining from their tasks even though near their delivery; but even in the very struggle of her pains, the woman, on being delivered, taking up the infant, carries it home. Further, the females no less than the males manage the house, and hunt, and keep the flocks:--
"Cressa the hound ran keenly in the stag’s track."
Women are therefore to philosophize equally with men, though the males are preferable at everything, unless they have become effeminate[4] To the whole human race, then, discipline and virtue are a necessity, if they would pursue after happiness. And how recklessly Euripides writes sometimes this and sometimes that! On one occasion, "For every wife is inferior to her husband, though the most excellent one marry her that is of fair fame." And on another:--
"For the chaste is her husband’s slave, While she that is unchaste in her folly despises her consort. .... For nothing is better and more excellent, Than when as husband and wife ye keep house, Harmonious in your sentiments."
The ruling power is therefore the head. And if "the Lord is head of the man, and the man is head of the woman," the man, "being the image and glory of God, is lord of the woman."[5] Wherefore also in the Epistle to the Ephesians it is written, "Subjecting ),ourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Husbands, love your wives, as also Christ loved the Church. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh."[6]
And in that to the Colossians it is said, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord.[7] Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, be obedient in all things to those who are your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but with singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as serving the Lord and not men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer shall receive the Wrong, which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons. Masters, render to your servants justice and equity; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, free: but Christ is all, and in all."[1] And the earthly Church is the image of the heavenly, as we pray also "that the will of God may be done upon the earth as in heaven."[2] "Putting on, therefore, bowels of mercy, gentleness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if one have a quarrel against any man; as also Christ hath forgiven us, so also let us. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which ye are called in one body; and be thankful."[3]
For there is no obstacle to adducing frequently the same Scripture in order to put Marcion[4] to the blush, if perchance he be persuaded and converted; by learning that the faithful ought to be grateful to God the Creator, who hath called us, and who preached the Gospel in the body. From these considerations the unity of the faith is clear, and it is shown who is the perfect man; so that though some are reluctant, and offer as much resistance as they can, though menaced with punishments at the hand of husband or master, both the domestic and the wife will philosophize. Moreover, the free, though threatened with death at a tyrant’s hands, and brought before the tribunals, and all his substances imperilled, will by no means abandon piety; nor will the wife who dwells with a wicked husband, or the son if he has a bad father, or the domestic if he has a bad master, ever fail in holding nobly to virtue.
But as it is noble for a man to die for virtue, and for liberty, and for himself, so also is it for a woman. For this is not peculiar to the nature of males, but to the nature of the good. Accordingly, both the old man, the young, and the servant will live faithfully, and if need be die; which will be to be made alive by death. So we know that both children, and women, and servants have often, against their fathers’, and masters’, and husbands’ will, reached the highest degree of excellence. Wherefore those who are determined to live piously ought none the less to exhibit alacrity, when some seem to exercise compulsion on them; but much more, I think, does it become them to show eagerness, and to strive with uncommon vigour, lest, being overcome, they abandon the best and most indispensable counsels. For it does not, I think, admit of comparison, whether it be better to be a follower of the Almighty than to choose the darkness of demons.
For the things which are done by us on account of others we are to do always, endeavouring to have respect to those for whose sake it is proper that they be done, regarding the gratification rendered in their case, as what is to be our rule; but the things which are done for our own sake rather than that of others, are to be done with equal earnestness, whether they are like to please certain people or not. If some indifferent things have obtained such honour as to appear worthy of adoption, though against the will of some; much more is virtue to be regarded by us as worth contending for, looking the while to nothing but what can be rightly done, whether it seem good to others or not.
Well then, Epicurus, writing to Menoeceus, says, "Let not him who is young delay philosophizing, and let not the old man grow weary of philosophizing; for no one is either not of age or past age for attending to the health of his soul. And he who says that the time for philosophizing is not come or is past, is like the man who says that the time for happiness is not come or has gone. So that young s as well as old ought to philosophize: the one, in order that, while growing old, he may grow young in good things out of favour accruing from what is past; and the other, that he may be at once young and old, from want of fear for the future."
CHAP. IX.—CHRIST’S SAYINGS RESPECTING MARTYRDOM.
On martyrdom the Lord hath spoken explicitly, and what is written in different places we bring together. "But I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess in Me before men, the Son of man also shall confess before the angels of God; but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I deny before the angels."[6] "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me or of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man also be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with His angels.
Whosoever therefore shall confess in Me before men, him will I also confess before my Father in heaven.[1] "And when they bring you before synagogues, and rulers, and powers, think not: beforehand how ye shall make your defence, or what ye shall say. For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what ye must say."[2] In explanation of this passage, Heracleon, the most distinguished of the school of Valentinians, says expressly, "that there is a confession by faith and conduct, and one with the voice. The confession that is made with the voice, and before the authorities, is what the most reckon the only confession. Not soundly: and hypocrites also can confess with this confession. But neither will this utterance be found to be spoken universally; for all the saved have confessed with the confession made by the voice, and departed.[3] Of whom are Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi, and many others. And confession by the lip is not universal, but partial. But that which He specifies now is universal, that which is by deeds and actions corresponding to faith in Him.
This confession is followed by that which is partial, that before the authorities, if necessary, and reason dictate. For he will confess rightly with his voice who has first confessed by his disposition.[3] And he has well used, with regard to those who confess, the expression ‘in Me,’ and applied to those who deny the expression ‘Me.’ For those, though they confess Him with the voice, yet deny Him, not confessing Him in their conduct. But those alone confess ‘in Him,’ who live in the confession and conduct according to Him, in which He also confesses, who is contained in them and held by them. Wherefore ‘He never can deny Himself.’ And those deny Him who are not in Him. For He said not, ‘Whosoever shall deny’ in Me, but ‘Me.’ For no one who is in Him will ever deny Him. And the expression ‘before men ‘ applies both to the saved and the heathen similarly by conduct before the one, and by voice before the other. Wherefore they never can deny Him. But those deny Him who are not in Him." So far Heracleon.
And in other things he seems to be of the same sentiments with us in this section; but he has not adverted to this, that if some have not by conduct and in their life "confessed Christ before men," they are manifested to have believed with the heart; by confessing Him with the mouth at the tribunals, and not denying Him when tortured to the death. And the disposition being confessed, and especially not being changed by death at any time, cuts away all passions which were engendered by corporeal desire. For there is, so to speak, at the close of life a sudden repentance in action, and a true confession toward Christ, in the testimony of the voice. But if the Spirit of the Father testifies in us, how can we be any more hypocrites, who are said to bear testimony with the voice alone?
But it will be given to some, if expedient, to make a defence, that by their witness and confession all may be benefited—those in the Church being confirmed, and those of the heathen who have devoted themselves to the search after salvation wondering and being led to the faith; and the rest seized with amazement. So that confession is by all means necessary.[4] For it is in our power. But to make a defence for our faith is not universally necessary. For that does not depend on us. "But he that endureth to the end shall be saved." For who of those who are wise would not choose to reign in God, and even to serve? So some "confess that they know God," according to the apostle; "but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate."[5] And these, though they confess nothing but this, will have done at the end one good work. Their witness, then, appears to be the cleansing away of sins with glory. For instance, the Shepherd[6] says: "You will escape the energy of the wild beast, if your heart become pure and blameless." Also the Lord Himself says: "Satan hath desired to sift you; but I have prayed."[7]
Alone, therefore, the Lord, for the purification of the men who plotted against Him and disbelieved Him, "drank the cup;" in imitation of whom the apostles, that they might be in reality Gnostics, and perfect, suffered for the Churches which they founded. So, then, also the Gnostics who tread in the footsteps of the apostles ought to be sinless, and, out of love to the Lord, to love also their brother; so that, if occasion call, enduring without stumbling, afflictions for the Church, "they may drink the cup." Those who witness in their life by deed, and at the tribunal by word, whether entertaining hope or surmising fear, are better than those who confess salvation by their mouth alone. But if one ascend also to love, he is a really blessed and true martyr, having confessed perfectly both to the commandments and to God, by the Lord; whom having loved, he acknowledged a brother, giving himself up wholly for God, resigning pleasantly and lovingly the man when asked, like a deposit.[8]
CHAP. X.—THOSE WHO OFFERED THEMSELVES FOR MARTYRDOM REPROVED.
When, again, He says, "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye to the other,"[1] He does not advise flight, as if persecution were an evil thing; nor does He enjoin them by flight to avoid death, as if in dread of it, but wishes us neither to be the authors nor abettors of any evil to any one, either to ourselves or the persecutor and murderer. For He, in a way, bids us take care of ourselves. But he who disobeys is rash and foolhardy. If he who kills a man of God sins against God, he also who presents himself before the judgment-seat becomes guilty of his death. And such is also the case with him who does not avoid persecution, but out of daring presents himself for capture. Such a one, as far as in him lies, becomes an accomplice in the crime of the persecutor. And if he also uses provocation, he is wholly guilty, challenging the wild beast. And similarly, if he afford any cause for conflict or punishment, or retribution or enmity, he gives occasion for persecution.
Wherefore, then, we are enjoined not to cling to anything that belongs to this life; but "to him that takes our cloak to give our coat," not only that we may continue destitute of inordinate affection, but that we may not by retaliating make our persecutors savage against ourselves, and stir them up to blaspheme the name.[2]
CHAP.XI.—THE OBJECTION, WHY DO YOU SUFFER IF GOD CARES FOR YOU, ANSWERED.
But, say they, if God cares for you, why are you persecuted and put to death? Has He delivered you to this? No, we do not suppose that the Lord wishes us to be involved in calamities, but that He foretold prophetically what would happen—that we should be persecuted for His name’s sake, slaughtered, and impaled. So that it was not that He wished us to be persecuted, but He intimated beforehand what we shall suffer by the prediction of what would take place, training us to endurance, to which He promised the inheritance, although we are punished not alone, but along with many. But those, it is said, being malefactors, are righteously punished. Accordingly, they unwillingly bear testimony to our righteousness, we being unjustly punished for righteousness’ sake. But the injustice of the judge does not affect the providence of God.
For the judge must be master of his own opinion—not pulled by strings, like inanimate machines, set in motion only by external causes. Accordingly he is judged in respect to his judgment, as we also, in accordance with our choice of things desirable, and our endurance. Although we do not wrong, yet the judge looks on us as doing wrong, for he neither knows nor wishes to know about us, but is influenced by unwarranted prejudice; wherefore also he is judged.[3] Accordingly they persecute us, not from the supposition that we are wrong-doers. but imagining that by the very fact of our being Christians we sin against life in so conducting ourselves, and exhorting others to adopt the like life.
But why are you not helped when persecuted? say they. What wrong is done us, as far as we are concerned, in being released by death to go to the Lord, and so undergoing a change of life, as if a change from one time of life to another? Did we think rightly, we should feel obliged to those who have afforded the means for speedy departure, if it is for love that we bear witness; and if not, we should appear to the multitude to be base men. Had they also known the truth, all would have bounded on to the way, and there would have been no choice. But our faith, being the light of the world, reproves unbelief. "Should Anytus and Melitus kill me, they will not hurt me in the least; for I do not think it right for the better to be hurt by the worse," [says Socrates]. So that each one of us may with confidence say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: what shall man do to me?"[4]
"For the souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and no plague shall touch them."[5]
CHAP. XII.—BASILIDES’ IDEA OF MARTYRDOM REFUTED.
Basilides, in the twenty-third book of the Exegetics, respecting those that are punished by martyrdom, expresses himself in the following language: "For I say this, Whosoever fall under the afflictions mentioned, in consequence of unconsciously transgressing in other matters, are brought to this good end by the kindness of Him who brings them, but accused on other grounds; so that they may not suffer as condemned for what are owned to be iniquities, nor reproached as the adulterer or the murderer, but because they are Christians; which will console them, so that they do not appear to suffer. And if one who has not sinned at all incur suffering—a rare case—yet even he will not suffer aught through the machinations of power, but will suffer as the child which seems not to have sinned would suffer." Then further on he adds: "As, then, the child which has not sinned before, or committed actual sin in itself, but has that which committed sin, when subjected to suffering, gets good, reaping the advantage of many difficulties; so also, although a perfect man may not have sinned in act, while he endures afflictions, he suffers similarly with the child.
Having within him the sinful principle, but not embracing the opportunity of committing sin, he does not sin; so that he is not to be reckoned as not having sinned. For as he who wishes to commit adultery is an adulterer, although he does not succeed in committing adultery; and he that wishes to commit murder is a murderer, although he is unable to kill; so also, if I see the man without sin, whom I specify, suffering, though he have done nothing bad, I should call him bad, on account of his wishing to sin. For I will affirm anything rather than call Providence evil." Then, in continuation, he says expressly concerning the Lord, as concerning man: "If then, passing from all these observations, you were to proceed to put me to shame by saying, perchance impersonating certain parties, This man has then sinned; for this man has suffered;--if you permit, I will say, He has not sinned; but was like a child suffering. If you were to insist more urgently, I would say, That the man you name is man, but that God is righteous: ‘ For no one is pure,’ as one said, ‘ from pollution.’
"[1] But the hypothesis of Basilides[2] says that the soul, having sinned before in another life,
endures punishment in this—the elect soul with honour by martyrdom, the other purged by appropriate punishment. How can this be true, when the confessing and suffering punishment or not depends on ourselves? For in the case of the man who shall deny, Providence, as held by Basilides, is done away with. I will ask him, then, in the case of a confessor who has been arrested, whether he will confess and be punished in virtue of Providence or not? For in the case of denying he will not be punished. But if, for the sake of escaping and evading the necessity of punishing such an one, he shall say that the destruction of those who shall deny is of Providence, he will be a martyr against his will. And how any more is it the case, that there is laid up in heaven the very glorious recompense to him who has witnessed, for his witnessing?
If Providence did not permit the sinner to get the length of sinning, it is unjust in both cases; both in not rescuing the man who is dragged to punishment for righteousness’ sake, and in having rescued him who wished to do wrong, he having done it as far as volition was concerned, but [Providence] having prevented the deed, and unjustly favoured the sinner. And how impious, in deifying the devil, and in daring to call the Lord a sinful man! For the devil tempting us, knowing what we are, but not knowing if we will hold out, but wishing to dislodge us from the faith, attempts also to bring us into subjection to himself. Which is all that is allowed to him, partly from the necessity of saving us, who have taken occasion from the commandment, from ourselves; partly for the confusion of him who has tempted and failed; for the confirmation of the members of the Church, and the conscience of those who admire the constancy [displayed].
But if martyrdom be retribution by way of punishment, then also faith and doctrine, on account of which martyrdom comes, are co-operators in punishment—than which, what other absurdity could be greater? But with reference to these dogmas, whether the soul is changed to another body, also of the devil, at the proper time mention will be made. But at present, to what has been already said, let us add the following: Where any more is faith in the retribution of sins committed before martyrdom takes place? And where is love to God, which is persecuted and endures for the truth? And where is the praise of him who has confessed, or the censure of him who has denied? And for what use is right conduct, the mortification of the lusts, and the hating of no creature? But if, as Basilides himself says, we suppose one part of the declared will of God to be the loving of all things because all things bear a relation to the Whole, and another "not to lust after anything," and a third "not to hate anything," by the will of God these also will be punishments, which it were impious to think. For neither did the Lord suffer by the will of the Father, nor are those who are persecuted by the will of God; since either of two things is the case: either persecution in consequence of the will of God is a good thing, or those who decree and afflict are guiltless. But nothing is without the will of the Lord of the universe.
It remains to say that such things happen without the prevention of God; for this alone saves both the providence and the goodness of God. We must not therefore think that He actively produces afflictions (far be it that we should think this!); but we must be persuaded that He does not prevent those that cause them, but overrules for good the crimes of His enemies: "I will therefore," He says, "destroy the wall, and it shall be for treading under foot."[3] Providence being a disciplinary art;[4] in the case of others for each individual’s sins, and in the case of the Lord and His apostles for ours.
To this point says the divine apostle: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication: that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles who know not the Lord: that none of you should overreach or take advantage of his brother in any matter; because the Lord is the avenger in respect of all such, as we also told you before, and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but to holiness. Wherefore he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given His Holy Spirit to you."[1] Wherefore the Lord was not prohibited from this sanctification of ours. if, then, one of them were to say, in reply, that the martyr is punished for sins committed before this embodying, and that he will again reap the fruit of his conduct in this life, for that such are the arrangements of the [divine administration], we shall ask him if the retribution takes place by Providence. For if it be not of the divine administration, the economy of expiations is gone, and their hypothesis falls to the ground; but if expiations are by Providence, punishments are by Providence too.
But Providence, although it begins, so to speak, to move with the Ruler, yet is implanted in substances along with their origin by the God of the universe. Such being the case, they must confess either that punish-merit is not just, and those who condemn and persecute the martyrs do right, or that persecutions even are wrought by the will of God. Labour and fear are not, then, as they say, incident to affairs as rust to iron, but come upon the soul through its own will. And on these points there is much to say, which will be reserved for future consideration, taking them up in due course.
CHAP. XIII.—VALENTINIAN’S VAGARIES ABOUT THE ABOLITION OF DEATH REFUTED.
Valentinian, in a homily, writes in these words: "Ye are originally immortal, and children of eternal life, and ye would have death distributed to you, that ye may spend and lavish it, and that death may die in you and by you; for when we dissolve the world, and are not yourselves dissolved, ye have dominion over creation and all corruption." For he also, similarly with Basilides, supposes a class saved by nature, and that this different race has come hither to us from above for the abolition of death, and that the origin of death is the work of the Creator of the world. Wherefore also he so expounds that Scripture, "No man shall see the face of God, and live," as if He were the cause of death. Respecting this God, he makes those allusions when writing in these expressions:
"As much as the image is inferior to the living face, so much is the world inferior to the living AEon. What is, then, the cause of the image? The majesty of the face, which exhibits the figure to the painter, to be honoured by his name; for the form is not found exactly to the life, but the name supplies what is wanting in the effigy. The invisibility of God co-operates also in order to the faith of that which has been fashioned." For the Creator, called God and Father, he designated as "Painter," and "Wisdom," whose image that which is formed is, to the glory of the invisible One; since the things which proceed from a pair are complements, and those which proceed from one are images. But since what is seen is no part of Him, the soul comes from what is intermediate, which is different; and this is the inspiration of the different spirit, and generally what is breathed into the soul, which is the image of the spirit.
And in general, what is said of the Creator, who was made according to the image, they say was foretold by a sensible image in the book of Genesis respecting the origin of man; and the likeness they transfer to themselves, teaching that the addition of the different spirit was made; unknown to the Creator. When, then, we treat of the unity of the God who is proclaimed in the law, the prophets, and the Gospel, we shall also discuss this; for the topic is supreme.[2] But we must advance to that which is urgent. If for the purpose of doing away with death the peculiar race has come, it is not Christ who has abolished death, unless He also is said to be of the same essence with them. And if He abolished it to this end, that it might not touch the peculiar race, it is not these, the rivals of the Creator, who breathe into the image of their intermediate spirit the life from above—in accordance with the principle of their dogma—that abolish death. But should they say that this takes place by His mother,[3] or should they say that they, along with Christ, war against death, let them own their secret dogma that they have the hardihood to assail the divine power of the Creator, by setting to rights His creation, as if they were superior, endeavouring to save the vital image which He was not able to rescue from corruption.
Then the Lord would be superior to God the Creator; for the son would never contend with the father, especially among the gods. But the point that the Creator of all things, the omnipotent Lord, is the Father of the Son, we have deferred till the discussion of these points, in which we have undertaken to dispute against the heresies, showing that He alone is the God proclaimed by Him.
But the apostle, writing to us with reference to the endurance of afflictions, says, "And this is of God, that it is given to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. If there is therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any communion of spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye may be of the same mind, having the same love, unanimous, thinking one thing. And if he is offered on the sacrifice and service of faith, joying and rejoicing"[1] with the Philippians, to whom the apostle speaks, calling them "fellow-partakers of joy,"[2] how does he say that they are of one soul, and having a soul? Likewise, also, writing respecting Timothy and himself, he says, "For I have no one like-souled, who will nobly care for your state. For all seek their own, not the-things which are Jesus Christ’s."[3]
Let not the above-mentioned people, then, call us, by way of reproach, "natural men" (<greek>yukikoi</greek>), nor the Phrygians[4] either; for these now call those who do not apply themselves to the new prophecy "natural men" (<greek>yukikoi</greek>), with whom we shall discuss in our remarks on "Prophecy."[5] The perfect man ought therefore to practise love, and thence to haste to the divine friendship, fulfilling the commandments from love. And loving one’s enemies does not mean loving wickedness, or impiety, or adultery, or theft; but the thief, the impious, the adulterer, not as far as he sins, and in respect of the actions by which he stains the name of man, but as he is a man, and the work of God. Assuredly sin is an activity, not an existence: and therefore it is not a work of God. Now sinners are called enemies of God—enemies, that is, of the commands which they do not obey, as those who obey become friends, the one named so from their fellowship, the others from their estrangement, which is the result of free choice; for there is neither enmity nor sin without the enemy and the sinner.
And the command "to covet nothing," not as if the things to be desired did not belong to us, does not teach us not to entertain desire, as those suppose who teach that the Creator is different from the first God, not as if creation was loathsome and bad (for such opinions are impious). But we say that the things of the world are not our own, not as if they were monstrous, not as if they did not belong to God, the Lord of the universe, but because we do not continue among them for ever; being, in respect of possession, not ours, and passing from one to another in succession; but belonging to us, for whom they were made in respect of use, so long as it is necessary to continue with them. In accordance, therefore, with natural appetite, things disallowed are to be used rightly, avoiding all excess and inordinate affection.
CHAP. XIV.—THE LOVE OF ALL, EVEN OF OUR ENEMIES.
How great also is benignity! "Love your enemies," it is said, "bless them who curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you,"[6] and the like; to which it is added, "that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven," in allusion to resemblance to God. Again, it is said, "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him."[7] The adversary is not the body, as some would have it, but the devil, and those assimilated to him, who walks along with us in the person of men, who emulate his deeds in this earthly life. It is inevitable, then, that those who confess themselves to belong to Christ, but find themselves in the midst of the devil’s works, suffer the most hostile treatment. For it is written, "Lost he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officers of Satan’s kingdom."
"For I am persuaded that neither death," through the assault of persecutors, "nor life" in this world, "nor angels," the apostate ones, " nor powers" (and Satan’s power is the life which he chose, for such are the powers and principalities of darkness belonging to him), "nor things present," amid which we exist during the time of life, as the hope entertained by the soldier, and the merchant’s gain, "nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," in consequence of the energy proper to a man,--opposes the faith of him who acts according to free choice. "Creature" is synonymous with activity, being our work, and such activity "shall not be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."[8] You have got a compendious account of the gnostic martyr.
CHAP. XV.—ON AVOIDING OFFENCE.
"We know that we all have knowledge"—common knowledge in common things, and the knowledge that there is one God. For he was writing to believers; whence he adds, "But knowledge (gnosis) is not in all," being communicated to few. And there are those who say that the knowledge about things sacrificed to idols is not promulgated among all, "lest our liberty prove a stumbling-block to the weak. For by thy knowledge he that is weak is destroyed. "[1] Should they say, "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, ought that to be bought?" adding, by way of interrogation, "asking no questions,"[2] as if equivalent to "asking questions," they give a ridiculous interpretation. For the apostle says, "All other things buy out of the shambles, asking no questions," with the exception of the things mentioned in the Catholic epistle of all the apostles,[3] "with the consent of the Holy Ghost," which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, and conveyed to the faithful by the hands of Paul himself.
For they intimated "that they must of necessity abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which keeping themselves, they should do well." It is a different matter, then, which is expressed by the apostle: "Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as the rest of the apostles, as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?
But we have not used this power," he says, "but bear all things, lest we should occasion hindrance to the Gospel of Christ;" namely, by bearing about burdens, when it was necessary to be untrammelled for all things; or to become an example to those who wish to exercise temperance, not encouraging each other to eat greedily of what is set before us, and not to consort inconsiderately with woman. And especially is it incumbent on those entrusted with such a dispensation to exhibit to disciples a pure example.
"For though I be free from all men, I have made myself servant to all," it is said, "that I might gain all. And every one that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things."[4] "But the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof."[5] For conscience’ sake, then, we are to abstain from what we ought to abstain. "Conscience, I say, not his own," for it is endued with knowledge, "but that of the other," lest he be trained badly, and by imitating in ignorance what he knows not, he become a despiser instead of a strong-minded man. "For why is my liberty judged of by another conscience? For if I by grace am a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God "[6]--what you are commanded to do by the rule of faith.
CHAP. XVI.—PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RESPECTING THE CONSTANCY, PATIENCE, AND LOVE OF THE MARTYRS.
"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Wherefore the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed; that is, the word of faith which we preach: for if thou confess the word with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."[7] There is clearly described the perfect righteousness, fulfilled both in practice and contemplation.
Wherefore we are "to bless those who persecute us. Bless, and curse not."[8] " For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of a good conscience, that in holiness and sincerity we know God" by this inconsiderable instance exhibiting the work of love, that "not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."[9] So far the apostle respecting knowledge; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the common "teaching of faith" the savour of knowledge. "For unto this day the same veil remains on many in the reading of the Old Testament,"[10] not being uncovered by turning to the Lord. Wherefore also to those capable of perceiving he showed resurrection, that of the life still in the flesh, creeping on its belly.
Whence also he applied the name "brood of vipers" to the voluptuous, who serve the belly and the pudenda, and cut off one another’s heads for the sake of worldly pleasures. "Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue," says John, teaching them to be perfect, "but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we are of the truth."[11] And if "God be love," piety also is love: "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear."[12] "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."[13] And again, to him who desires to become a Gnostic, it is written, "But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity."[14] For perfection in faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith. And the divine apostle furnishes the rule for the Gnostic in these words, writing as follows: "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to lack.
I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me."[15] And also when discussing with others in order to put them, to shame, he does not shrink from saying, "But call to mind the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took with joy the spoiling of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after doing the will of God, ye may obtain the promise. For yet a little while, and He that cometh will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: and if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."[1] He then brings forward a swarm of divine examples. For was it not "by faith," he says, this endurance, that they acted nobly who "had trial of mockeries and scourgings, and, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments? They were stoned, they were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, in mountains, in dens, and caves of the earth. And all having received a good report, through faith, received not the promise of God" (what is expressed by a parasiopesis is left to be understood, viz., "alone").
He adds accordingly, "God having provided some better thing for us (for He was good), that they should not without us be made perfect. Wherefore also, having encompassing us such a cloud," holy and transparent, "of witnesses, laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."[2] Since, then, he specifies one salvation in Christ of the righteous,[3] and of us he has expressed the former unambiguously, and saying nothing less respecting Moses, adds, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect to the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."[4] The divine Wisdom says of the martyrs, "They seemed in the eyes of the foolish to die, and their departure was reckoned a calamity, and their migration from us an affliction. But they are in peace. For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope was full of immortality."[5] He then adds, teaching martyrdom to be a glorious purification, "And being chastened a little, they shall be benefited much; because God proved them," that is, suffered them to be tried, to put them to the proof, and to put to shame the author of their trial, "and found them worthy of Himself," plainly to be called sons. "As gold in the furnace He proved them, and as a whole burned-offering of sacrifice He accepted them. And in the time of their visitation they will shine forth, even as sparks run along the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and rule over the peoples, and the Lord shall reign over them forever."[6]
CHAP. XVII.—PASSAGES FROM CLEMENT’S EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS ON MARTYRDOM.
Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle[7] Clement also, drawing a picture of the Gnostic, says:[8] "For who that has sojourned among you has not proved your perfect and firm faith? and has not admired your sound and gentle piety? and has not celebrated the munificent style of your hospitality? and has not felicitated your complete and sure knowledge? For ye did all things impartially, and walked in the ordinances of God;" and so forth.
Then more clearly: "Let us fix our eyes on those who have yielded perfect service to His magnificent glory. Let us take Enoch, who, being by his obedience found righteous, was translated; and Noah, who, having believed, was saved; and Abraham, who for his faith and hospitality was called the friend of God, and was the father of Isaac." "For hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom." "For faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved." "From patience and faith they walked about in goat-skins, and sheep-skins, and folds of camels’ hair, proclaiming the kingdom of Christ. We name His prophets Elias, and Eliseus, and Ezekiel, and John."
"For Abraham, who for his free faith was called ‘ the friend of God,’ was not elated by glory, but modestly said, ‘I am dust and ashes.’[9] And of Job it is thus written: ‘ Job was just and blameless, true and pious, abstaining from all evil.’"[10] He it was who overcame the tempter by patience, and at once testified and was testified to by God; who keeps hold of humility, and says, "No one is pure from defilement, not even if his life were but for one day."[11] "Moses, ‘the servant who was faithful in all his house,’ said to Him who uttered the oracles from the bush,’ Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am slow of speech, and of a stammering tongue,’ to minister the voice of God in human speech. And again: ‘ I am smoke from a pot.’" "For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."[1]
"David too, of whom the Lord, testifying, says, ‘I found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse. With my holy oil I anointed him.’[2] But he also says to God, ‘Pity me, O God, according to Thy mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgression.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.’ "[3] Then, alluding to sin which is not subject to the law, in the exercise of the moderation of true knowledge, he adds, "Against Thee only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight."[4] For the Scripture somewhere says, "The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching the recesses of the belly."[5] And the more of a Gnostic a man becomes by doing right, the nearer is the illuminating Spirit to him. "Thus the Lord draws near to the righteous, and none of the thoughts and reasonings of which we are the authors escape Him—I mean the Lord Jesus," the scrutinizer by His omnipotent will of our heart, "whose blood was consecrated[6] for us.
Let us therefore respect those who are over us, and reverence the elders; let us honour the young, and let us teach the discipline of God." For blessed is he who shah do and teach the Lord’s commands worthily; and he is of a magnanimous mind, and of a mind contemplative of truth. "Let us direct our wives to what is good; let them exhibit," says he, "the lovable disposition of chastity; let them show the guileless will of their meekness; let them manifest the gentleness of their tongue by silence; let them give their love not according to their inclinations, but equal love in sanctity to all i that fear God. Let our children share in the discipline that is in Christ; let them learn what humility avails before God; what is the power of holy love before God, how lovely and great is the fear of the Lord, saving all that walk in it holily; with a pure heart: for He is the Searcher of the thoughts and sentiments, whose breath is in us, and when He wills He will take it away."
"Now all those things are confirmed by the faith that is in Christ. ‘Come, ye children,’ says the Lord, ‘ hearken to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man that desireth life, that loveth to see good days?’[7] Then He subjoins the gnostic mystery of the numbers seven and eight. ‘Stop thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good.
Seek peace, and pursue it.’[8] For in these words He alludes to knowledge (gnosis), with abstinence from evil and the doing of what is good, teaching that it is to be perfected by word and deed. ‘ The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are to their prayer. But the face of God is against those thai do evil, to root out their memory from the earth. The righteous cried, and the Lord heard, and delivered him out of all his distresses.’[9] ‘ Many are the stripes of sinners; but those who hope in the Lord, mercy shall compass about.’"[10] "A multitude of mercy," he nobly says, "surrounds him that trusts in the Lord."
For it is written in the Epistle to the Corinthians, "Through Jesus Christ our foolish and darkened mind springs up to the light. By Him the Sovereign Lord wished us to taste the knowledge that is immortal." And, showing more expressly the peculiar nature of knowledge, he added: "These things, then, being clear to us, looking into the depths of divine knowledge, we ought to do all things in order which the Sovereign Lord commanded us to perform at the appointed seasons. Let the wise man, then, show his wisdom not in words only, but in good deeds. Let the humble not testify to himself, but allow testimony to be borne to him by another. Let not him who is pure in the flesh boast, knowing that it is another who furnishes him with continence. Ye see, brethren, that the more we are subjected to peril, the more knowledge are we counted worthy of."
CHAP. XVIII.—ON LOVE, AND THE REPRESSING OF OUR DESIRES.
"The decorous tendency of our philanthropy, therefore," according to Clement, "seeks the common good;" whether by suffering martyrdom, or by teaching by deed and word,--the latter being twofold, unwritten and written. This is love, to love God and our neighbour. "This conducts to the height which is unutterable.[11] ‘ Love covers a multitude of sins.[12] Love beareth all things, suffereth all things.’[13] Love joins us to God, does all things in concord. In love, all the chosen of God were perfected. Apart from love, nothing is well pleasing to God." "Of its perfection there is no unfolding," it is said. "Who is fit to be found in it, except those whom. God counts worthy ?" To the point the Apostle Paul speaks, "If I give my body, and have not love, I am sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal."[14] If it is not from a disposition determined by gnostic love that I shall testify, he means; but if through fear and expected reward, moving my lips in order to testify to the Lord that I shall confess the Lord, I am a common man, sounding the Lord’s name, not knowing Him.
"For there is the people that loveth with the lips; and there is another which gives the body to be burned." "And if I give all my goods in alms," he says, not according to the principle of loving communication, but on account of recompense, either from him who has received the benefit, or the Lord who has promised; "and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains," and cast away obscuring passions, and be not faithful to the Lord from love, "I am nothing," as in comparison of him who testifies as a Gnostic, and the crowd, and being reckoned nothing better.
"Now all the generations from Adam to this day are gone. But they who have been perfected in love, through the grace of God, hold the place of the godly, who shall be manifested at the visitation of the kingdom of Christ." Love permits not to sin; but if it fall into any such case, by reason of the interference of the: adversary, in imitation of David, it will sing: "I will confess unto the Lord, and it will please Him above a young bullock that has horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it, and be glad." For he says, "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay to the Lord thy vows; and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."[1] "For the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit."[2]
"God," then, being good, "is love," it is said.[3] Whose "love worketh no ill to his neighhour,"[4] neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God. "Love is," then, "the fulfilling of the law; "[4] like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands not to commit adultery, and not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, are fulfilled,[these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear.
The same work, then, presents a difference, according as it is done by fear, or accomplished by love, and is wrought by faith or by knowledge. Rightly, therefore, their rewards are different. To the Gnostic "are prepared what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man;" but to him who has exercised simple faith He testifies a hundredfold in return for what he has left,--a promise which has turned out to fall within human comprehension. Come to this point, I recollect one who called himself a Gnostic. For, expounding the words, "But i say unto you, he that looketh on a woman to lust after, hath committed adultery,"[5] he thought that it was not bare desire that was condemned; but if through the desire the act that results from it proceeding beyond the desire is accomplished in it. For dream employs phantasy and the body. Accordingly, the historians relate the following decision, of Bocchoris the just.[6] A youth, falling in love with a courtezan, persuades the girl, for a stipulated reward, to come to him next day.
But his desire being unexpectedly satiated, by laying hold of the girl in a dream, by anticipation, when the object of his love came according to stipulation, he prohibited her from coming in. But she, on learning what had taken place, demanded the reward, saying that in this way she had sated the lover’s desire. They came accordingly to the judge. He, ordering the youth to hold out the purse containing the reward in the sun, bade the courtezan take hold of the shadow; facetiously bidding him pay the image of a reward for the image of an embrace.
Accordingly one dreams, the soul assenting to the vision. But he dreams waking, who looks so as to lust; not only, as that Gnostic said, if along with the sight of the woman he imagine in his mind intercourse, for this is already the act of lust, as lust; but if one looks on beauty of person (the Word says), and the flesh seem to him in the way of lust to be fair, looking on cam ally and sinfully, he is judged because he admired. For, on the other hand, he who in chaste love looks on beauty, thinks not that the flesh is beautiful, but the spirit, admiring, as I judge, the body as an image, by whose beauty he transports himself to the Artist, and to the true beauty; exhibiting the sacred symbol, the bright impress of righteousness to the angels that wait on the ascension;[7] I mean the unction of acceptance, the quality of disposition which resides in the soul that is gladdened by the communication of the Holy Spirit.
This glory, which Shone forth on the face of Moses, the people could not look on. Wherefore he took a veil for the glory, to those who looked cam ally. For those, who demand toll, detain those who bring in any worldly things, who are burdened with their own passions. But him that is free of all things which are subject to duty, and is full of knowledge, and of the righteousness of works, they pass on with their good wishes, blessing the man with his work. "And his life shall not fall away"—the leaf of the living tree that is nourished "by the water-courses."[8] Now the righteous is likened to fruit-bearing trees, and not only to such as are of the nature[1] of tall-growing ones. And in the sacrificial oblations, according to the law, there were those who looked for blemishes in the sacrifices. They who are skilled in such matters distinguish propension[2] (<greek>orexis</greek>) from lust (<greek>epiqumia</greek>); and assign the latter, as being irrational, to pleasures and licentiousness; and propension, as being a rational movement, they assign to the necessities of nature.
CHAP. XIX.—WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN CAPABLE OF PERFECTION.
In this perfection it is possible for man and woman equally to share. It is not only Moses, then, that heard from God, "I have spoken to thee once, and twice, saying, I have seen this people, and lo, it is stiff-necked. Suffer me to exterminate them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make thee into a great and wonderful nation much greater than this;" who answers not regarding himself, but the common salvation: "By no means, O Lord; forgive this people their sin, or blot me out of the book of the living."[3] How great was his perfection, in wishing to die together with the people, rather than be saved alone !
But Judith too, who became perfect among women, in the siege of the city, at the entreaty of the elders went forth into the strangers’ camp, despising all danger for her country’s sake, giving herself into the enemy’s hand in faith in God; and straightway she obtained the reward of her faith,--though a woman, prevailing over the enemy of her faith, and gaining possession of the head of Holofernes. And again, Esther perfect by faith, who rescued Israel from the power of the king and the satrap’s cruelty: a woman alone, afflicted with fastings,[4] held back ten thousand armed[5] hands, annulling by her faith the tyrant’s decree; him indeed she appeased, Haman she restrained, and Israel she preserved scathless by her perfect prayer to God. I pass over in silence Susanna and the sister of Moses, since the latter was the prophet’s associate in commanding the host, being superior to all the women among the Hebrews who were in repute for their wisdom; and the former in her surpassing modesty, going even to death condemned by licentious admirers, remained the unwavering martyr of chastity.
Dion, too, the philosopher, tells that a certain woman Lysidica, through excess of modesty, bathed in her clothes; and that Philotera, when she was to enter the bath, gradually drew back her tunic as the water covered the naked parts; and then rising by degrees, put it on. And did not Lesena of Attica manfully bear the torture ? She being privy to the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton against Hipparchus, uttered not a word, though severely tortured. And they say that the Argolic women, under the guidance of Telesilla the poetess, turned to flight the doughty Spartans by merely showing themselves; and that she produced in them fearlessness of death. Similarly speaks he who composed the Danais respecting the daughters of Danaus:--
"And then the daughters of Danaus swiftly armed themselves, Before the fair-flowing river, majestic Nile[4],"
and so forth.
And the rest of the poets sing of Atalanta’s swiftness in the chase, of Anticlea’s love for children, of Alcestis’s love for her husband, of the courage of Makaeria and of the Hyacinthides. What shall I say ? Did not Theano the Pythagorean make such progress in philosophy, that to him who looked intently at her, and said, "Your arm is beautiful," she answered "Yes, but it is not public." Characterized by the same propriety, there is also reported the following reply.[6] When asked when a woman after being with her husband attends the Thesmophoria, said, "From her own husband at once, from a stranger never." Themisto too, of Lampsacus, the daughter of Zoilus, the wife of Leontes of Lampsacus, studied the Epicurean philosophy, as Myia the daughter of Theano the Pythagorean, and Arignote, who wrote the history of Dionysius.
And the daughters of Diodorus, who was called Kronus, all became dialecticians, as Philo the dialectician says in the Mrenexenus, whose names are mentioned as follows—Menexene, Argia, Theognis, Artemesia, Pantaclea. I also recollect a female Cynic,--she was called Hipparchia, a Maronite, the wife of Crates,--in whose case the so-called dog-wedding was celebrated in the Pcecile. Arete of Cyrene, too, the daughter of Aristippus, educated her son Aristippus, who was surnamed Mother-taught. Lastheneia of Arcis, and Axiothea of Phlius, studied philosophy with Plato. Besides, Aspasia of Miletus, of whom the writers of comedy write much, was trained by Socrates in philosophy, by Pericles in rhetoric. I omit, on account of the length of the discourse, the rest; enumerating neither the poetesses Corinna, Telesilla, Myia, and Sappho; nor the painters, as Irene the daughter of Cratinus, and Anaxandra the daughter of Nealces, according to the account of Didymus in the Symposiaci. The daughter of Cleobulus, the sage and monarch of the Lindii, was not ashamed to wash the feet of her father’s guests.
Also the wife of Abraham, the blessed Sarah, in her own person prepared the cakes baked in the ashes for the angels; and princely maidens among the Hebrews fed sheep. Whence also the Nausicaa of Homer went to the washing-tubs.
The wise woman, then, win first choose to persuade her husband to be her associate in what is conducive to happiness. And should that be found impracticable, let her by herself earnestly aim at virtue, gaining her husband’s consent in everything, so as never to do anything against his will, with exception of what is reckoned as contributing to virtue and salvation. But if one keeps from such a mode of life either wife or maid-servant, whose heart is set on it; what such a person in that case plainly does is nothing else than determine to drive her away from righteousness and sobriety, and to choose to make his own house wicked and licentious.
It is not then possible that man or woman can be conversant with anything whatever, without the advantage of education, and application, and training; and virtue, we have said, depends not on others, but on ourselves above all. Other things one can repress, by waging war against them; but with what depends on one’s self, this is entirely out of the question, even with the most strenuous persistence. For the gift is one conferred by God, and not in the power of any other. Whence licentiousness should be regarded as the evil of no other one than of him who is guilty of licentiousness; and temperance, on the other hand, as the good of him who is able to practise it.
CHAP. XX.—A GOOD WIFE.
The woman who, with propriety, loves her husband, Euripides describes, while admonishing,--"That when her husband says aught, She ought to regard him as speaking well if she say nothing; And if she will say anything, to do her endeavour to gratify her husband."
And again he subjoins the like :--
"And that the wife should sweetly look sad with her husband, Should aught evil befall him, And have in common a share of sorrow and joy."
Then, describing her as gentle and kind even in misfortunes, he adds:--
"And I, when you are ill, will, sharing your sickness bear it; And I will bear my share in your misfortunes."
And:--
"Nothing is bitter to me, For with friends one ought to be happy, For what else is friendship but this?"
The marriage, then, that is consummated according to the word, is sanctified, if the union be under subjection to God, and be conducted "with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and the body washed with pure water, and holding the confession of hope; for He is faithful that promised." And the happiness of marriage ought never to be estimated either by wealth or beauty, but by virtue.
"Beauty," says the tragedy,--
"Helps no wife with her husband; But virtue has helped many; for every good wife Who is attached to her husband knows how to pracise sobriety."
Then, as giving admonitions, he says :--
"First, then, this is incumbent on her who is endowed with mind,That even if her husband be ugly, he must appear good-looking; For it is for the mind, not the eye, to judge."
And so forth.
For with perfect propriety Scripture has said that woman is given by God as "an help" to man. It is evident, then, in my opinion, that she will charge herself with remedying, by good sense and persuasion, each of the annoyances that originate with her husband in domestic economy. And if he do not yield, then she will endeavour, as far as possible for human nature, to lead a sinless life; whether it be necessary to die, in accordance with reason, or to live; considering that God is her helper and associate in such a course of conduct, her true defender and Saviour both for the present and for the future; making Him the leader and guide of all her actions, reckoning sobriety and righteousness her work, and making the favour of God her end. Gracefully, therefore, the apostle says in the Epistle to Titus, "that the eider women should be of godly behaviour, should not be slanderers, not enslaved to much wine; that they should counsel the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, discreet, chaste, housekeepers, good, subject to their own husbands; that the word of God be not blasphemed."[1]
But rather, he says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently, lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel surrendered his birth-right; and lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."[2] And then, as putting the finishing stroke to the question about marriage, he adds: "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."[3]
And one aim and one end, as far as regards perfection, being demonstrated to belong to the man and the woman, Peter in his Epistle says, "Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ; whom, having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls."[1] Wherefore also Paul rejoices for Christ’s sake that he was "in labours, more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft."[2]
CHAP. XXI.—DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC.
Here I find perfection apprehended variously in relation to Him who excels in every virtue. Accordingly one is perfected as pious, and as patient, and as continent, and as a worker, and as a martyr, and as a Gnostic. But I know no one of men perfect in all things at once, while still human, though according to the mere letter of the law, except Him alone who for us clothed Himself with humanity. Who then is perfect? He who professes abstinence from what is bad. Well, this is the way to the Gospel and to well-doing. But gnostic perfection in the case of the legal man is the acceptance of the Gospel, that he that is after the law may be perfect. For so he, who was after the law, Moses, foretold that it was necessary to hear in order that we might, according to the apostle, receive Christ, the fulness of the law.[3] But now in the Gospel the Gnostic attains proficiency not only by making use of the law as a step, but by understanding and comprehending it, as the Lord who gave the Covenants delivered it to the apostles. And if he conduct himself rightly (as assuredly it is impossible to attain knowledge (gnosis) by bad conduct); and if, further, having made an eminently right confession, he become a martyr out of love, obtaining considerable renown as among men; not even thus will he be called perfect in the flesh beforehand; since it is the close of life which claims this appellation, when the gnostic martyr has first shown the perfect work, and rightly exhibited it, and having thankfully shed his blood, has yielded up the ghost: blessed then will he be, and truly proclaimed perfect, "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us," as the apostle says.
Only let us preserve free-will and love: "troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."[4] For those who strive after perfection, according to the same apostle, must "give no offence in anything, but in everything approve themselves not to men, but to God." And, as a consequence, also they ought to yield to men; for it is reasonable, on account of abusive calumnies: Here is the specification: "in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God,"[5] that we may be the temples of God, purified "from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit." "And I," He says, "will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to Me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."[6] "Let us then," he says, "perfect holiness in the fear of God." For though fear beget pain, "I rejoice," he says, "not that ye were made sorry, but that ye showed susceptibility to repentance. For ye sorrowed after a godly sort, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For this same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what earnestness it wrought in you; yea, what clearing of yourselves; yea, what compunction; yea, what fear; yea, what desire; yea, what zeal; yea, revenge! In all things ye have showed yourselves clear in the matter."[7] Such are the preparatory exercises of gnostic discipline. And since the omnipotent God Himself "gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; "[8] we are then to strive to reach manhood as befits the Gnostic, and to be as perfect as we can while still abiding in the flesh, making it our study with perfect concord here to concur with the will of God, to the restoration of what is the truly perfect nobleness and relationship, to the fulness of Christ, that which perfectly depends on our perfection.
And now we perceive where, and how, and when the divine apostle mentions the perfect man, and how he shows the differences of the perfect. And again, on the other hand: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given for our profit. For to one is given the word of wisdom by the Spirit; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith through the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing through the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another diversities of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: and all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one according as He wills."’ Such being the case, the prophets are perfect in prophecy, the righteous in righteousness, and the martyrs in confession, and others in preaching, not that they are not sharers in the common virtues, but are proficient in those to which they are appointed. For what man in his senses would say that a prophet was not righteous ? For what ? did not righteous men like Abraham prophesy ?
"For to one God has given warlike deeds, To another the accomplishment of the dance, To another the lyre and song,"[2]
says Homer. "But each has his own proper gift of God "[3]--one in one way, another in another. But the apostles were perfected in all. You will find, then, if you choose, in their acts and writings, knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. We must know, then, that if Paul is’ young in respect to time[4]--having flourished immediately after the Lord’s ascension—yet his writings depend on the Old Testament, breathing and speaking of them. For faith in Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel are the explanation and fulfilment of the law; and therefore it was said to the Hebrews, "If ye believe not, neither shall you understand;"[5] that is, unless you believe what is prophesied in the law, and oracularly delivered by the law, you will not understand the Old Testament, which He by His coming expounded.
CHAP. XXII.—THE TRUE GNOSTIC DOES GOOD, NOT FROM FEAR OF PUNISHMENT OR HOPE OF REWARD, BUT ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF GOOD ITSELF.
The man of understanding and perspicacity is, then, a Gnostic. And his business is not abstinence from what is evil (for this is a step to the highest perfection), or the doing of good out of fear. For it is written, "Whither shall I flee, and where shall I hide myself from Thy presence ? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I go away to the uttermost parts of the sea, there is Thy right hand; if I go down into the depths, there is Thy Spirit."[6] Nor any more is he to do so from hope of promised recompense. For it is said, "Behold the Lord, and His reward is before His face, to give to every one according to his works; what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath not entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love Him."[7] But only the doing of good out of love, and for the sake of its own excellence, is to be the Gnostic’s choice. Now, in the person of God it is said to the Lord, "Ask of Me, and I will give the heathen for Thine inheritance;"[8] teaching Him to ask a truly regal request—that is, the salvation of men without price, that we may inherit and possess the Lord.
For, on the contrary, to desire knowledge about God for any practical purpose, that this may be done, or that may not be done, is not proper to the Gnostic; but the knowledge itself suffices as the reason for contemplation. For I will dare aver that it is not because he wishes to be saved that he, who devotes himself to knowledge for the sake of the divine science itself, chooses knowledge. For the exertion of the intellect by exercise is prolonged to a perpetual exertion. And the perpetual exertion of the intellect is the essence of an intelligent being, which results from an uninterrupted process of admixture, and remains eternal contemplation, a living substance. Could we, then, suppose any one proposing to the Gnostic whether he would choose the knowledge of God or everlasting salvation; and if these, which are entirely identical, were separable, he would without the least hesitation choose the knowledge of God, deeming that property of faith, which from love ascends to knowledge, desirable, for its own sake.
This, then, is the perfect man’s first form of doing good, when it is done not for any advantage in what pertains to him, but because he judges it right to do good; and the energy being vigorously exerted in all things, in the very act becomes good; not, good in some things, and not good in others; but consisting in the habit of doing good, neither for glory, nor, as the philosophers say, for reputation, nor from reward either from men or God; but so as to pass life after the image and likeness of the Lord.
And if, in doing good, he be met with anything adverse, he will let the recompense pass without resentment as if it were good, he being just and good "to the just and the unjust." To such the Lord says, "Be ye, as your Father is perfect."
To him the flesh is dead; but he himself lives alone, having consecrated the sepulchre into a holy temple to the Lord, having turned towards God the old sinful soul. Such an one is no longer continent, but has reached a state of passionlessness, waiting to put on the divine image. "If thou doest alms," it is said, "let no one know it; and if thou fastest, anoint thyself, that God alone may know,"[1] and not a single human being. Not even he himself who shows mercy ought to know that he does show mercy; for in this way he will be sometimes merciful, sometimes not. And when he shall do good by habit, he will imitate the nature of good, and his disposition will be his nature and his practice. There is no necessity for removing those who are raised on high, but there is necessity for those who are walking to reach the requisite goal, by passing over the whole of the narrow way. For this is to be drawn by the Father, to become worthy to receive the power of grace from God, so as to run without hindrance. And if some hate the elect, such an one knows their ignorance, and pities their minds for its folly.
As is right, then, knowledge itself loves and teaches the ignorant, and instructs the whole creation to honour God Almighty. And if such an one teaches to love God, he will not hold virtue as a thing to be lost in any case, either awake or in a dream, or in any vision; since the habit never goes out of itself by falling from being a habit. Whether, then, knowledge be said to be habit or disposition; on account of diverse sentiments never obtaining access, the guiding faculty, remaining unaltered, admits no alteration of appearances by framing in dreams visionary conceptions out of its movements by day. Wherefore also the Lord enjoins "to watch," so that our soul may never be perturbed with passion, even in dreams; but also to keep the life of the night pure and stainless, as if spent in the day. For assimilation to God, as far as we can, is preserving the mind in its relation to the same things. And this is the relation of mind as mind.
But the variety of disposition arises from inordinate affection to material things. And for this reason, as they appear to me, to have called night Euphrone; since then the soul, released from the perceptions of sense, turns in on itself, and has a truer hold of intelligence (<greek>Fronhsis</greek>).[2] Wherefore the mysteries are for the most part celebrated by night, indicating the withdrawal of the soul from the body, which takes place by night. "Let us not then sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as an helmet the hope of salvation."[3]
And as to what, again, they say of sleep, the very same things are to be understood of death. For each exhibits the departure of the soul, the one more, the other less; as we may also get this in Heraclitus: "Man touches night in himself, when dead and his light quenched; and alive, when he sleeps he touches the dead; and awake, when he shuts his eyes, he touches the sleeper."[4] "For blessed are those that have seen the Lord,"[5] according to the apostle; "for it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light."[6] By day and light he designates figuratively the Son, and by the armour of light metaphorically the promises.
So it is said that we ought to go washed to sacrifices and prayers, clean and bright; and that this
external adornment and purification are practised for a sign. Now purity is to think holy thoughts. Further, there is the image of baptism, which also was handed down to the poets from Moses as follows:--
"And she having drawn water, and wearing on her body clean clothes."[7]
It is Penelope that is going to prayer:--
"And Telemachus, Having washed his hands in the hoary sea, prayed to Athene."[8]
It was a custom of the Jews to wash frequently after being in bed. It was then well said,--
"Be pure, not by washing of water, but in the mind."
For sanctity, as I conceive it, is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds, and thoughts, and words too, and in its last degree sinlessness in dreams.
And sufficient purification to a man, I reckon, is thorough and sure repentance. If, condemning ourselves for our former actions, we go forward, after these things taking thought,[9] and divesting our mind both of the things which please us through the senses, and of our former transgressions.
If, then, we are to give the etymology of <greek>episthmh</greek>, knowledge, its signification is to be derived from <greek>stasiu</greek>, placing; for our soul, which was formerly borne, now in one way, now in another, it settles in objects. Similarly faith is to be explained etymologically, as the settling (<greek>stasiu</greek>) of our soul respecting that which is.
But we desire to learn about the man who is always and in all things righteous; who, neither dreading the penalty proceeding from the law, nor fearing to entertain hatred of evil in the case of those who live with him and who prosecute the injured, nor dreading danger at the hands of those who do wrong, remains righteous. For he who, on account of these considerations, abstains from anything wrong, is not voluntarily kind, but is good from fear. Even Epicurus says, that the man who in his estimation was wise, "would not do wrong to any one for the sake of gain; for he could not persuade himself that he would escape detection." So that, if he knew he would not be detected, he would, according to him, do evil. And such are the doctrines of darkness.
If, too, one shall abstain from doing wrong from hope of the recompense given by God on account of righteous deeds, he is not on this supposition spontaneously good. For as fear makes that man just, so reward makes this one; or rather, makes him appear to be just. But with the hope after death—a good hope to the good, to the bad the reverse—not only they who follow after Barbarian wisdom, but also the Pythagoreans, are acquainted. For the latter also proposed hope as an end to those who philosophize. Whereas Socrates[1] also, in the Phaedo, says "that good souls depart hence with a good hope;" and again, denouncing the wicked, he sets against this the assertion, "For they live with an evil hope." With him Heraclitus manifestly agrees in his dissertations concerning men:
"There awaits man after death what they neither hope nor think." Divinely, therefore, Paul writes expressly, "Tribulation worketh, patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed."[2] For the patience is on account of the hope in the future. Now hope is synonymous with the recompense and restitution of hope; which maketh not ashamed, not being any more vilified.
But he who obeys the mere call, as he is called, neither for fear, nor for enjoyments, is on his way to knowledge (<greek>gnwsiu</greek>). For he does not consider whether any extrinsic lucrative gain or enjoyment follows to him; but drawn by the love of Him who is the true object of love, and led to what is requisite, practises piety. So that not even were we to suppose him to receive from God leave to do things forbidden with impunity; not even if he were to get the promise that he would receive as a reward the good things of the blessed; but besides, not even if he could persuade himself that God would be hoodwinked with reference to what he does (which is impossible), would he ever wish to do aught contrary to right reason, having once made choice of what is truly good and worthy of choice on its own account, and therefore to be loved.
For it is not in the food of the belly, that we have heard good to be situated. But he has heard that "meat will not commend us,"[3] nor marriage, nor abstinence from marriage in ignorance; but virtuous gnostic conduct. For the dog, which is an irrational animal, may be said to be continent, dreading as it does the uplifted stick, and therefore keeping away from the meat. But let the predicted promise be taken away, and the threatened dread cancelled, and the impending danger removed, and the disposition of such people will be revealed.
CHAP. XXIII.—THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
For it is not suitable to the nature of the thing itself, that they should apprehend in the truly gnostic manner the truth, that all things which were created for our use are good; as, for example, marriage and procreation, when used in moderation; and that it is better than good to i become free of passion, and virtuous by assimilation to the divine. But in the case of external things, agreeable or disagreeable, from some they abstain, from others not. But in those things from which they abstain from disgust, they plainly find fault with the creature and the Creator; and though in appearance they walk faithfully, the opinion they maintain is impious. That command, "Thou shall not lust," needs neither the necessity arising from fear, which compels to keep from things that are pleasant; nor the reward, which by promise persuades to restrain the impulses of passion.
And those who obey God through the promise, caught by the bait of pleasure, choose obedience not for the sake of the commandment, but for the sake of the promise. Nor will turning away from objects of sense, as a matter of necessary consequence, produce attachment to intellectual objects.
On the contrary, the attachment to intellectual objects naturally becomes to the Gnostic an influence which draws away from the objects of sense; inasmuch as he, in virtue of the selection of what is good, has chosen what is good according to knowledge (<greek>gnwstikwu</greek>), admiring generation, and by sanctifying the Creator sanctifying assimilation to the divine. But I shall free myself from lust, let him say, O Lord, for the sake of alliance with Thee. For the economy of creation is good, and all things are well administered: nothing happens without a cause. I must be in what is Thine, O Omnipotent One. And if I am there, I am near Thee. And I would be free of fear that I may be able to draw near to Thee, and to be satisfied with little, practising Thy just choice between things good and things like.
Right mystically and sacredly the apostle, teaching us the choice which is truly gracious, not in the way of rejection of other things as bad, but so as to do things better than what is good, has spoken, saying, "So he that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well; and he that giveth her not doeth better; as far as respects seemliness and undistracted attendance on the Lord."[1]
Now we know that things which are difficult are not essential; but that things which are essential have been graciously made easy of attainment by God. Wherefore Democritus well says, that "nature and instruction" are like each other. And we have briefly assigned the cause. For instruction harmonizes man, and by harmonizing makes him natural; and it is no matter whether one was made such as he is by nature, or transformed by time and education. The Lord has furnished both; that which is by creation, and that which is by creating again and renewal through the covenant. And that is preferable which is advantageous to what is superior; but what is superior to everything is mind. So, then, what is really good is seen to be most pleasant, and of itself produces the fruit which is desired—tranquillity of soul. "And he who hears Me," it is said, "shall rest in peace, confident, and shall be calm without fear of any evil."[2] "Rely with all thy heart and thy mind on God."[3]
On this wise it is possible for the Gnostic already to have become God. "I said, Ye are gods, and[4] sons of the highest." And Empedocles says that the souls of the wise become gods, writing as follows:--
"At last prophets, minstrels, and physicians, And the foremost among mortal men, approach; Whence spring gods supreme in honours."
Man, then, genetically considered, is formed in accordance with the idea of the connate spirit. For he is not created formless and shapeless in the workshop of nature, where mystically the production of man is accomplished, both art and essence being common. But the individual man is stamped according to the impression produced in the soul by the objects of his choice. Thus we say that Adam was perfect, as far as respects his formation; for none of the distinctive characteristics of the idea and form of man were wanting to him; but in the act of coming into being he received perfection. And he was justified by obedience; this was reaching manhood, as far as depended on him. And the cause lay in his choosing, and especially in his choosing what was forbidden. God was not the cause.
For production is twofold—of things procreated, and of things that grow. And manliness in man, who is subject to perturbation, as they say, makes him who partakes of it essentially fearless and invincible; and anger is the mind’s satellite in patience, and endurance, and the like; and self-constraint and salutary sense are set over desire. But God is impassible, free of anger, destitute of desire. And He is not free of fear, in the sense of avoiding what is terrible; or temperate, in the sense of having command of desires. For neither can the nature of God fall in with anything terrible, nor does God flee fear; just as He will not feel desire, so as to rule over desires.
Accordingly that Pythagorean saying was mystically uttered respecting us, "that man ought to become one;" for the high priest himself is one, God being one in the immutable state of the perpetual flow[5] or good things. Now the Saviour has taken away wrath in and with lust, wrath being lust of vengeance. For universally liability to feeling belongs to every kind of desire; and man, when deified purely into a passionless state, becomes a unit. As, then, those, who at sea are held by an anchor, pull at the anchor, but do not drag it to them, but drag themselves to the anchor; so those who, according to the gnostic life, draw God towards them, imperceptibly bring themselves to God: for he who reverences God, reverences himself. In the contemplative life, then, one in worshipping God attends to himself, and through his own spotless purification beholds the holy God holily; for self-control, being present, surveying and contemplating itself uninterruptedly, is as far as possible assimilated to God.
CHAP. XXIV.—THE REASON AND END OF DIVINE PUNISHMENTS.
Now that is in our power, of which equally with its opposite we are masters,--as, say to philosophize or not, to believe or disbelieve. In consequence, then, of our being equally masters of each of the opposites, what depends on us is found possible. Now the commandments may be done or not done by us, who, as is reasonable, are liable to praise and blame. And those, again, who are punished on account of sins committed by them, are punished for them alone; for what is done is past, and what is done can never be undone. The sins committed before faith are accordingly forgiven by the Lord, not that they may be undone, but as if they had not been done.
"But not all," says Basilides,[6] "but only sins involuntary and in ignorance, are forgiven;" as would be the case were it a man, and not God, that conferred such a boon. To such an one Scripture says, "Thou thoughtest that I would be like thee."[7] But if we are punished for voluntary sins, we are punished not that the sins which are done may be undone, but because they were done. But punishment does not avail to him who has sinned, to undo his sin, but that he may sin no more, and that no one else fall into the like. Therefore the good God corrects for these three causes: First, that he who is corrected may become better than his former self; then that those who are capable of being saved by examples may be driven back, being admonished; and thirdly, that he who is injured may not be readily despised, and be apt to receive injury. And there are two methods of correction—the instructive and the punitive, which we have called the disciplinary. It ought to be known, then, that those who fall into sin after baptism[1] are those who are subjected to discipline; for the deeds done before are remitted, and those done after are purged. It is in reference to the unbelieving that it is said, "that they are reckoned as the chaff which the wind drives from the face of the earth, and the drop which falls from a vessel."[2]
CHAP. XXV.—TRUE PERFECTION CONSISTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF GOD.
"Happy he who possesses the culture of knowledge, and is not moved to the injury of the citizens or to wrong actions, but contemplates the undecaying order of immortal nature, how and in what way and manner it subsists. To such the practice of base deeds attaches not," Rightly, then, Plato says, "that the man who devotes himself to the contemplation of ideas will live as a god among men; now the mind is the place of ideas, and God is mind." He says that be who contemplates the unseen God lives as a god among men. And in the Sophist, Socrates calls the stranger of Elea, who was a dialectician, "god:" "Such are the gods who, like stranger guests, frequent cities.
For when the soul, rising above the sphere of generation, is by itself apart, and dwells amidst ideas," like the Coryphaeus in Theaetetus, now become as an angel, it will be with Christ, being rapt in contemplation, ever keeping in view the will of God; in reality "Alone wise, while these flit like shadows."[3]
"For the dead bury their dead." Whence Jeremiah says: "I will fill it with the earth-born dead whom mine anger has smitten."[4]
God, then, being not a subject for demonstration, cannot be the object of science. But the Son is wisdom, and knowledge, and truth, and all else that has affinity thereto. He is also susceptible of demonstration and of description. And all the powers of the Spirit, becoming collectively one thing, terminate in the same point—that is, in the Son. But He is incapable of being declared, in respect of the idea of each one of His powers. And the Son is neither simply one thing as one thing, nor many things as parts, but one thing as all things; whence also He is all things. For He is the circle of all powers rolled and united into one unity. Wherefore the Word is called the Alpha and the Omega, of whom alone the end becomes beginning, and ends again at the original beginning without any break. Wherefore also to believe in Him, and by Him, is to become a unit, being indissolubly united in Him; and to disbelieve is to be separated, disjoined, divided.
"Wherefore thus saith the Lord, Every alien son is uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh" (that is, unclean in body and soul): "there shall not enter one of the strangers into the midst of the house of Israel, but the Lerites."[5] He calls those that would not believe, but would disbelieve, strangers. Only those who live purely being true priests of God. Wherefore, of all the circumcised tribes, those anointed to be high priests, and kings, and prophets, were reckoned more holy. Whence He commands them not to touch dead bodies, or approach the dead; not that the body was polluted, but that sin and disobedience were incarnate, and embodied, and dead, and therefore abominable. It was only, then, when a father and mother, a son and daughter died, that the priest was allowed to enter, because these were related only by flesh and seed, to whom the priest was indebted for the immediate cause of his entrance into life. And they purify themselves seven days, the period in which Creation was consummated.
For on the seventh day the rest is celebrated; and on the eighth he brings a propitiation, as is written in Ezekiel, according to which propitiation the promise is to be received.[6] And the perfect propitiation, I take it, is that propitious faith in the Gospel which is by the law and the prophets, and the purity which shows itself in universal obedience, with the abandonment of the things of the world; in order to that grateful surrender of the tabernacle, which results from the enjoyment of the soul.
Whether, then, the time be that which through the seven periods enumerated returns to the chiefest rest,[7] or the seven heavens, which some reckon one above the other; or whether also the fixed sphere which borders on the intellectual world be called the eighth, the expression denotes that the Gnostic ought to rise out of the sphere of creation and of sin. After these seven days, sacrifices are offered for sins. For there is still fear of change, and it touches the seventh circle. The righteous Job says: "Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there;"[1] not naked of possessions, for that were a trivial and common thing; but, as a just man, he departs naked of evil and sin, and of the unsightly shape which follows those who have led bad lives. For this was what was said, "Unless ye be converted, and become as children,"[2] pure in flesh, holy in soul by abstinence from evil deeds; showing that He would have us to be such as also He generated us from our mother—the water.[3]
For the intent of one generation succeeding another is to immortalize by progress. "But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out."[4] That purity in body and soul which the Gnostic partakes of, the all-wise Moses indicated, by employing repetition in describing the incorruptibility of body and of soul in the person of Rebecca, thus: "Now the virgin was fair, and man had not known her."[5] And Rebecca, interpreted, means "glory of God;" and the glory of God is immortality.[6] This is in reality righteousness, not to desire other things, but to be entirely the consecrated temple of the Lord. Righteousness is peace of life and a well-conditioned state, to which the Lord dismissed her when He said, "Depart into peace."[7] For Salem is, by interpretation, peace; of which our Saviour is enrolled King, as Moses says, Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type of the Eucharist.
And Melchizedek is interpreted "righteous king;" and the name is a synonym for righteousness and peace. Basilides however, supposes that Righteousness and her daughter Peace dwell stationed in the eighth sphere. But we must pass from physics to ethics, which are clearer; for the discourse concerning these will follow after the treatise in hand. The Saviour Himself, then, plainly initiates us into the mysteries, according to the words of the tragedy:[8]--
"Seeing those who see, he also gives the orgies."
And if you ask,
"These orgies, what is their nature ?"
You will hear again:--
"It is forbidden to mortals uninitiated in the Bacchic rites to know."
And if any one will inquire curiously what they are, let him hear:--
"It is not lawful for thee to hear, but they are worth knowing; The rites of the God detest him who practises impiety."
Now God, who is without beginning, is the perfect beginning of the universe, and the producer of the beginning. As, then, He is being, He is the first principle of the department of action, as He is good, of morals; as He is mind, on the other hand, He is the first principle of reasoning and of judgment. Whence also He alone is Teacher, who is the only Son of the Most High Father, the Instructor of men.
CHAP. XXVI.—HOW THE PERFECT MAN TREATS THE BODY AND THE THINGS OF THE WORLD.
Those, then, who run down created existence and vilify the body are wrong; not considering that the frame of man was formed erect for the contemplation of heaven, and that the organization of the senses tends to knowledge; and that the members and parts are arranged for good, not for pleasure. Whence this abode becomes receptive of the soul which is most precious to God; and is dignified with the Holy Spirit through the sanctification of soul and body, perfected with the perfection of the Saviour. And the succession of the three virtues is found in the Gnostic, who morally, physically, and logically occupies himself with God.
For wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and righteousness is the concord of the parts of the soul; and holiness is the service of God. But if one were to say that he disparaged the flesh, and generation on account of it, by quoting Isaiah, who says, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass is withered, and the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever; "[9] let him hear the Spirit interpreting the matter in question by Jeremiah, "And I scattered them like dry sticks, that are made to fly by the wind into the desert.
This is the lot and portion of your disobedience, saith the Lord. As thou hast forgotten Me, and hast trusted in lies, so will I discover thy hinder parts to thy face; and thy disgrace shall be seen, thy adultery, and thy neighing," and so on.[10] For "the flower of grass," and "walking after the flesh," and "being carnal," according to the apostle, are those who are in their sins. The soul of man is confessedly the better part of man, and the body the inferior. But neither is the soul good by nature, nor, on the other hand, is the body bad by nature. Nor is that which is not good straightway bad. For there are things which occupy a middle place, and among them are things to be preferred, and things to be rejected. The constitution of man, then, which has its place among things of sense, was necessarily composed of things diverse, but not opposite—body and soul.
Always therefore the good actions, as better, attach to the better and ruling spirit; and voluptuous and sinful actions are attributed to the worse, the sinful one.
Now the soul of the wise man and Gnostic, as sojourning in the body, conducts itself towards it
gravely and respectfully, not with inordinate affections, as about to leave the tabernacle if the time of departure summon. "I am a stranger in the earth, and a sojourner with you," it is said.[1] And hence Basilides says, that he apprehends that the election are strangers to the world, being supramundane by nature. But this is not the case. For all things are of one God. And no one is a stranger to the world by nature, their essence being one, and God one.
But the elect man dwells as a sojourner, knowing all things to be possessed and disposed of; and he makes use of the things which the Pythagoreans make out to be the threefold good things. The body, too, as one sent on a distant pilgrimage, uses inns and dwellings by the way, having care of the things of the world, of the places where he halts; but leaving his dwelling-place and property without excessive emotion; readily following him that leads him away from life; by no means and on no occasion turning back; giving thanks for his sojourn, and blessing [God] for his departure, embracing the mansion that is in heaven "For we know, that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we by sight,"[2] as the apostle says; walk by faith, not "and we are willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with God."
The rather is in comparison. And comparison obtains in the case of things that fall under resemblance; as the more valiant man is more valiant among the valiant, and most valiant among cowards. Whence he adds, "Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to be accepted with Him,"[3] that is, God, whose work and creation are all things, both the world and things supramundane. I admire Epicharmus, who clearly says:--
"Endowed with pious mind, you will not, in dying, Suffer aught evil. The spirit will dwell in heaven above;"
and the minstrel[4] who sings:--
"The souls of the wicked flit about below the skies on earth, In murderous pains beneath inevitable yokes of evils; But those of the pious dwell in the heavens, Hymning in songs the Great, the Blessed One."
The soul is not then sent down from heaven to what is worse. For God works all things up to what is better. But the soul which has chosen the best life—the life that is from God and righteousness—exchanges earth for heaven. With reason therefore, Job, who had attained to knowledge, said, "Now I know that thou canst do all things; and nothing is impossible to Thee. For who tells me of what I know not, great and wonderful things with which I was unacquainted ? And I felt myself vile, considering myself to be earth and ashes."[5] For he who, being in a state of ignorance, is sinful, "is earth and ashes; "while he who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is already spiritual, and so elect.
And that Scripture calls the senseless and disobedient "earth," will be made clear by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, in reference to Joachim and his brethren "Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; Write this man, as man excommunicated."[6] And another prophet says again, "Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth,"[7] calling understanding "ear," and the soul of the Gnostic, that of the man who has applied himself to the contemplation of heaven and divine things, and in this way has become an Israelite, "heaven."
For again he calls him who has made ignorance and hardness of heart his choice, "earth."And the expression" give ear" he derives from the "organs of hearing, the ears," attributing carnal things to those who cleave to the things of sense. Such are they of whom Micah the prophet says, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye peoples who dwell with pangs."[8] And Abraham said, "By no means.
The Lord is He who judgeth the earth; "[9] "since he that believeth not, is," according to the utterance of the Saviour, "condemned already."[10] And there is written in the Kings[11] the judgment and sentence of the Lord, which stands thus: "The Lord hears the righteous, but the wicked He saveth not, because they do not desire to know God." For the Almighty will not accomplish what is absurd. What do the heresies say to this utterance, seeing Scripture proclaims the Almighty God to be good, and not the author of evil and wrong, if indeed ignorance arises from one not knowing? But God does nothing absurd. "For this God," it is said, "is our God, and there is none to save besides Him."[12] "For there is no unrighteousness with God,"[1] according to the apostle.
And clearly yet the prophet teaches the will of God, and the gnostic proficiency, in these words: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and walk in all His ways, and love Him, and serve Him alone?"[2] He asks of thee, who hast the power of choosing salvation. What is it, then, that the Pythagoreans mean when they bid us "pray with the voice"? As seems to me, not that they thought the Divinity could not hear those who speak silently, but because they wished prayers to be right, which no one would be ashamed to make in the knowledge of many. We shall, however, treat of prayer in due course by and by. But we ought to have works that cry aloud, as becoming "those who walk in the day."[3] "Let thy works shine,"[4] and behold a man and his works before his face. "For behold God and His works."[5]
For the gnostic must, as far as is possible, imitate God. And the poets call the elect in their pages godlike and gods, and equal to the gods, and equal in sagacity to Zeus, and having counsels like the gods, and resembling the gods,--nibbling, as seems to me, at the expression, "in the image and likeness."[6]
Euripides accordingly says, "Golden wings are round my back, and I am shod with the winged sandals of the Sirens; and I shall go aloft into the wide ether, to hold convene with Zeus."
But I shall pray the Spirit of Christ to wing me to my Jerusalem. For the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but places here on earth are not cities; for they are called so, but are not. For a city is an important thing, and the people a decorous body, and a multitude of men regulated by law as the church by the word—a city on earth impregnable—free from tyranny; a product of the divine will on earth as in heaven. Images of this city the poets create with their pen. For the Hyperboreans, and the Arimaspian cities, and the Elysian plains, are commonwealths of just men. And we know Plato’s city placed as a pattern in heaven.[7]
THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES.
OF CLEMENS ALEXANDRIUS
BOOK VI.
CHAP. I.PLAN.
THE sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as possible the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited what the Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that he is by no means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly pious, by a compendious exhibition of the Gnostic’s form of religion, as far as it is possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a book of reference. For the Lord enjoined "to labour for the meat which endureth to eternity."[2] And the prophet says," Blessed is he that soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread,"[3] [that is,] the people, from the Law and from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith.
"Now the weak eateth herbs," according to the noble apostle.[4] The Instructor, divided by us into three books, has already exhibited the training and nurture up from the state of childhood, that is, the course of life which from elementary instruction grows by faith; and in the case of those enrolled in the number of men, prepares beforehand the soul, endued with virtue, for the reception of gnostic knowledge. The Greeks, then, clearly learning, from what shall be said by us in these pages, that in profanely persecuting the God loving man, they themselves act impiously; then, as the notes advance, in accordance with the style of the Miscellanies, we must solve the difficulties raised both by Greeks and Barbarians with respect to the coming of the Lord.
In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruit trees, are not separated according to their species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have Composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the form of the Miscellanies is promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is fight that labour should precede not only food but also, much more knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and blessed salvation by the "strait and narrow way," which is truly the Lord’s.
Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself; into whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from our old life, into the good land. And transplanting contributes to fruitfulness. The Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is the Light i and the true Knowledge.
Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects; in which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational, share, which I would never term knowledge, inasmuch as the apprehension of things through the senses comes naturally. But that which par excellence is termed knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and reason, in the exercise of which there will be rational cognitions alone, applying purely to objects of thought, and resulting from the bare energy of the soul. "He is a good man," says David,[5] "who pities" (those ruined through error), "and lends" (from the communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for "he will dispense his words in judgment:" with profound calculation, "he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor."
CHAP. II.THE SUBJECT OF PLAGIARISMS RESUMED. THE GREEKS PLAGIARIZED FROM ONE ANOTHER.
Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us in the Scriptures, taking it according to the sense, we have proved, not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them.
Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows.
Orpheus, then, having composed the line:-- "Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,"
Homer plainly says:-- "Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman."[1]
And Musaeus having written:-- "Since art is greatly superior to strength,"
Homer says:-- "By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior."[2]
Again, Musaeus 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," [3]
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."[4]
Again, Homer having said:-- "It is unholy to exult over dead men,"[5]
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"[6]
writes thus:-- "I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another."
As certainly also that line:-- "Evenhanded[7] war the slayer slays."[8]
He also, altering, has given forth thus:-- "I will do it. For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded."[7]
Also, translating the following:-- "The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,"[9] 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," [10] Euripides writes in Erechteus:-- "Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep Nor m 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,"[11]Euripides says in OEneus:-- "But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight."
And I have heard Aeschylus 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; "[1]
and adding:-- "For the young husband takes some other girl, And for another husband longs the wife,"
Euripides[2] 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."[3]
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, unlookedfor prosperity comes, are wont to turn to insolence." And Philistus[4] 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 s 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, anti 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 Hephaestusmade 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 he!ps,"[6]
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 Sophocies:-- "Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease."
And from the Antigone of Sophocles:-- "Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;"[2]
And from the Aleuades of Sophocles:-- "Each good thing has its nature equal."
Again, in the Otimenus[3] 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?"[1]
employs the following iambics in Aegeus:-- "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[2] 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,[3] 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"[4]
And in addition, Homer, saying:-- "There is no satiating the greedy paunch, Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men."[3]
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[6] 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 Ion 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[7] 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 I 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."[5]
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[9] 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 mall 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 Musaeus; 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 Alcmaeon 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 way other 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 Larissaeans, 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 OEnomaus:-- "We judge of things obscure from what we see;"
and in the Phoenix:-- "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,[1] 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[2] 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 Aeacus, 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,"—Demosthenes said, "By those who bore the brunt at Marathon." Nor will I omit the following. Cratinus having said in the "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 Aeschines 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,"
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? Child 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?"[4] Further, Hippocrates the physician having written, "You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease," Euripides says in Hexameters :[5]--
"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 Musaeus, and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the capture of OEchalia 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."[1]
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 transferrred to the Cyclops.[2] 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 Musaeus.
And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the Thesmophoriazusoe, transferred the words from the Empiprameni of Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in Doeda-lus, steal from one another. Cocalus, composed by Araros,[3] the son of Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the comedy called Hypobolimoens.
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 Aristotle, and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecataeus, 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.
CHAP. 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 Aeacus. Prevailed on by them, Aeacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and stretching out pure[4] hands to heaven, and invoking the commons 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 Aeacus.
"And Samuel called on the LORD," it is said, "and the LORD gave forth His voice, and rain in the day of harvest."[6] Do you see that "He who sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust"[1] 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, Aristaeus 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.[2] 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!"[3] 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,"[4] unit so forth. And Isaiah says, "Lift your eyes to the height, and see who hath produced all these things."[5]
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 Daemons, and teaching them to be wor-shipped 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" (<greek>Sofia</greek>). 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 stir 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 trampets 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."[6]
For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was seen, as Aristobulus[7] 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 s 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 paean, 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,[1] 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."[2] 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.
CHAP. 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,[3] 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 Paedeutic(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.[4] 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.[1]
CHAP. 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,[2] 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."[3]
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); "hut giving shape to the things[4] 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.[5] 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;[6] nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day."[7] 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."[8] 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 ? "[1] 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."
CHAP. VI.—THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO JEWS AND GENTILES IN HADES.[2]
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"[3] 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."[4] 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."[5] 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[6] the Gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather had been chained, and to those kept "in ward and guard"?[7] And it has been shown also,[8] 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 thorn the death of a sinner;[1] 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."[2] Further the Gospel[3] says, "that many bodies of those that slept arose,"—plainly as having been translated to a better state.[4] There took place, then, a universal movement and translation through the economy of the Saviour.[5]
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,[6] 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,[7] though they are in Hades and in ward,[8] 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,"[9] 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."[10] "For, behold," it is said, "I have set before your face death and life, that ye may choose life."[11] " 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."[12]
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."[13] 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."[14] 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 convened 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."[1] 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."[2] And David says, "For the heathen are fixed in the destruction they have caused; their foot is taken in the snare which they hid." s "But the LORD was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in affliction."[4] Those, then, that were in affliction had the Gospel seasonably proclaimed. And therefore it said, "Declare among the heathen his pursuits,"[5] 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."[6] "But he that loveth wickedness hateth his own soul."[7]
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,[8] 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.[9]
Now also Valentinus, the Coryphaeus 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 hooks, 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[10] 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 hook 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 daemon attending on him. And Aristotle says that all men are provided with daemons, 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,’" and the variegated robe on it, all of which Pherecydes has employed as theological allegories, having taken them from the prophecy of Chum."
CHAP. 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 plane-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 incidents 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."[1] 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;[1] 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."[3] "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."[4] 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,"[5] trains and perfects; whence it is rightly said, "Call no man your teacher on earth."[6]
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;[7] 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 reinless 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 choose 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, tried in the earth,[1] purified seven times."[2] 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,"[3] 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[4] 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 grinds, 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.
CHAP. 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,"[5] 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?"[6] 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,"[7]--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."s 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?"[9] 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."[10] The expression "He hath not done so" shows that He hath done, but not "thus." The "thus," then, is put comparatively, with reference to 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."[11]
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."[1] 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;"[2] 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."[3] 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."[4] 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,’"[5]
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."[6] 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[1]) 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[2] 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."[3]
CHAP. 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 (<greek>dokhsei</greek>). But He was entirely impassible (<greek>apaqhg</greek>); inaccessible to any movement of feeling—either pleasure or pain. While the apostles, having most gnostically mastered, through the Lord’s teaching, angel 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 ‘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,"[2] for revering 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"[3] 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."[1]
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 mad accidents, ever possess habit and disposition, and in a word, grasp of scientific knowledge (<greek>episthmh</greek>)? Further, also, the philosophers regard the virtues as habits, dispositions, and sciences. And as knowledge (gnosis) is not born with men, but is acquired,[2] 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; fore-seeing; and inflexible by pleasures both of waking hours and of dreams. For, accustomed to spare living and frugality, he is moderate, active, mad 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.
CHAP. 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[3] 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,[4] 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.[5] And how can he be any longer a money-changer, who is not able to prove and distinguish spurious coin, even offhand?
Now David cried, "The righteous shall not be shaken for ever;"[6] 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; "[1] 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."[2] "For, having spoken at sundry times and in divers manners,"[3] 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 tightly.
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."[4]
CHAP. Xl.—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 (<greek>tih</greek>[5])," 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,[6] 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 (<greek>rk</greek>) years."[7] And the sum is made up of the numbers from r to 15 added together.[8] And the moon at 15 days is full.
On another principle, 120 is a triangular[9] number, and consists of the equality[10] of the number 64, [which consists of eight of the odd numbers beginning with unity],[12] the addition of which (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15) in succession generate squares;[12] 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[13]
Again, according to another way of indicating. the number 120 consists of four numbers—of one triangle, 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 fight 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 sixfold, as three hundred is six times fifty; and tenfold, as three hundred is ten times thirty; and containing one and two-thirds (<greek>epidimoiroi</greek>), 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;[1] 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."[2]
And the table which was in the temple was six cubits;[3] 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;"[4] 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 s 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 praise of Zeus thus:--
"O Zeus, of all things the Beginning, Rule, 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,[6] 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[7]), 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;[8] 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 l 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; "[1] and with Hellenic and superabundant accomplishments, "clothed variegated with gold-fringed garments."[2] 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 teachings 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."[4] 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."[5] 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."[6] 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, and breathed into them the resurrection of Godhead[1] 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’ 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,[3] 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."[4] Certainly He is called "the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple of God,"[5] 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."[6]
And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues[7] 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.
CHAP. XII.—HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION; THE GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT.
By which consideration s 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;"[9] 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."[10]
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 failing 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 (<greek>gnpstikh</greek>), 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[1] 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 (<greek>episthmh</greek>) and the acquisition of knowledge (<greek>gnpsid</greek>), 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[2] 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?[3]
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.[4] "Ask," says the Scripture, "and I will do. Think, and I will give." For we have heard that God knows the heart, not judging [5] 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 has 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."[6]
Now fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both in action and in word, and in thought itself. As appears, then, righteousness is quadrangular;[7] 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,"[1] 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,[2] 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."[3]
It is He Himself who says, "Little children, a little while I am still with you."[4] Since also God
Himself remains blessed and immortal, neither molested nor molesting another;[5] not in consequence of being by nature good, but in 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?
CHAP. 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 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[7] by men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but enrolled in the presbyterate s because righteous. And although here upon earth he be not honoured with the chief seat,[9] he will sit down on the four-and-twenty thrones,[10] 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[11] 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 called [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[1] 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[2] writes, will first minister [as deacons], then be classed in the presbyterate, by promotion in glory (for glory differs[3] from glory) till they grow into "a perfect man."[4]
CHAP. XIV.—DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.
Such, according to David, "rest in the holy hill of God,"[5] 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; "[6] 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[7] of insatiable contemplation.
"And other sheep there are also," saith the Lord, "which are not of this fold "[8]--deemed worthy of another fold and mansion, in proportion to their faith. "But My sheep hear My voice,"[9] 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,[10] 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[11] 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."[12] 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 ?"[13]
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,[14] 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 sway 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,"[15] beyond salvation, cast away from the body.
As, then, to be simply saved is the result of medium[1] actions, but to be saved tightly and becomingly[2] is right action, so also all action of the Gnostic may be called tight 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.[3]
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[4] 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 ?"[5] 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;[6]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 fight reason. And giving thanks always for all things to God, by righteous heating 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.[7] Rightly then is it said, "And they who trust in Him shall underStand the truth, and those faithful in love shall abide by Him."[8] You see what statements Wisdom makes about the Gnostics.
Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the worth of those who have believed.[9] 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."[10] 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.[11] 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,’[1] He says, "[in imagining] that I will be like to thee."[12] But "it is enough for the disciple to become as the Master,"[13] 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.
CHAP. 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 housetops"[14] those capable of being built to a lofty height; and begins 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."[1] "Exert thyself, and prosper, and reign" writes David, "because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall guide thee marvellously,"[2] 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,"[3] 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,"[4] 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,"[5] 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;"[6] 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;"[7] 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."[8] 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,"[9] 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,"[10] 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" 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 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."[2] 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,"[3] 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."[4]
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 gasp. 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 cam ally, 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."[1] And Daniel, under the king of the Persians, wore "the chain,"[2] though he despised not the afflictions 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;[3] 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 housetops," 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 express 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;"[4] and if "all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made,"[5] consequently also prophecy and the law were by Him, and were spoken by Him in parables. "But all things are right," says the Scripture,[6] "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;[7] 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.[1] 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[2] of Jerusalem. As it is written, These things are all that He behoves 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 criptures."
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 onscurations, 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.[3] "He who bears 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."[4]
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,[5] 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.[6] 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"[7] 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 it 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."[2] 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," 3--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 vouch-safed all at once, the history of Moses teaches, until, accustomed to gaze, at 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.
CHAP. 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 rise 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[4] will then be the knowledge of divine and human things and wisdom.[5]
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."[6]
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 appear to give its injunctions[7] 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 re.on, 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 shall rule over it; "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,"[1] 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 (<greek>logw</greek>and the man who has become a Gnostic performs good actions by the faculty of reason (<greek>tw</greek> <greek>logikp</greek>), 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 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[3] 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[4] 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,[5] 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 impossible; and this is to rest.[6]
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[1] 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."[2] 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 called 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,[3] 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 sixth 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[4] 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 (<greek>tp</greek> <greek>epishmw</greek>[5]), 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."[6]
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,"[7] " by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made."[8] 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 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.[9] 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 Solan 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.[1] 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."[2] 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."[3] 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; "[4] that is, in consequence of the knowledge[5] 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,[6] 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,[7] 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."[8]
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 uncrested, or affirming anything against true doctrine, is most pernicious.
The Eight 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 Father of the universe, as far as in lies, of His tireless might. e 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.[1]
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 in-animate 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.
CHAP. 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[2] 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,[3] 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 philosophies, 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[1] 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,"[2]-- 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."[3]
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.[4] 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"[5] (that is, of the great High Priest, "by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made"[6]); not to the ornament of the body; for Philosophy is outside of the People, like raiment.[7] 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.[8] 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 (<greek>nohsis</greek>). 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[9] 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.
But God’s will is especially obeyed by the free-will of good men. Since many advantages are common to good and bad men: yet they are nevertheless advantageous only to men of goodness and probity, for whose sake God created them. For it was for the use of good men that the influence which is in God’s gifts was originated. Besides, the thoughts of virtuous men are produced through the inspiration[1] of God; the soul being disposed in the way it is, and the divine will being conveyed to human souls, particular divine ministers contributing to such services. For regiments of angels are distributed over the nations and cities.[2] And, perchance, some are assigned to individuals.[3]
The Shepherd, then, cares for each of his sheep; and his closest inspection is given to those who are excellent in their natures, and are capable of being most useful. Such are those fit to lead and teach, in whom the action of Providence is conspicuously seen; whenever either by instruction, or government, or administration, God wishes to benefit. But He wishes at all times. Wherefore He moves those who are adapted to useful exertion in the things which pertain to virtue, and peace, and beneficence. But all that is characterized by virtue proceeds from virtue, and leads back to virtue. And it is given either in order that men may become good, or that those who are so may make use of their natural advantages. For it co-operates both in what is general and what is particular. How absurd, then, is it, to those who attribute disorder and wickedness to the devil, to make him the bestower of philosophy, a virtuous thing ! For he is thus all but made more benignant to the Greeks, in respect of making men good, than the divine providence and mind.
Again, I reckon it is the part of law and of right reason to assign to each one what is appropriate to him, and belongs to him, and falls to him. For as the lyre is only for the harper, and the flute for the flute-player; so good things are the possessions of good men. As the nature of the beneficent is to do good, as it is of the fire to warm, and the light to give light, and a good man will not do evil, or light produce darkness, or fire cold; so, again, vice cannot do aught virtuous. For its activity is to do evil, as that of darkness to dim the eyes.
Philosophy is not, then, the product of vice, since it makes men virtuous; it follows, then, that it is the work of God, whose work it is solely to do good. And all things given by God are given and received well.
Further, if the practice of philosophy does not belong to the wicked, but was accorded to the best of the Greeks, it is clear also from what source it was bestowed—manifestly from Providence, which assigns to each what is befitting in accordance with his deserts."[4]
Rightly, then, to the Jews belonged the Law, and to the Greeks Philosophy, until the Advent; and after that came the universal calling to be a peculiar people of righteousness, through the teaching which flows from faith, brought together by one Lord, the only God of both Greeks and Barbarians, or rather of the whole race of men. We have often called by the name philosophy that portion of truth attained through philosophy, although but partial.[1]
Now, too what is good in the arts as arts,[2] have their beginning from God. For as the doing of anything artistically is embraced in the rules of art, so also acting sagaciously is classed under the head of sagacity (<greek>fronhsis</greek>). Now sagacity is virtue, and it is its function to know other things, but much more especially what belongs to itself. And Wisdom (<greek>Sofia</greek>) being power, is nothing but the knowledge of good things, divine and human.
But "the earth is God’s, and the fulness thereof,"[3] says the Scripture, teaching that good things come from God to men; it being through divine power and might that the distribution of them comes to the help of man.
Now the modes of all help and communication from one to another are three. One is, by attending to another, as the master of gymnastics, in training the boy. The second is, by assimilation, as in the case of one who exhorts another to benevolence by practising it before. The one co-operates with the learner, and the other benefits him who receives. The third mode is that by command, when the gymnastic master, no longer training the learner, nor showing in his own person the exercise for the boy to imitate, prescribes the exercise by name to him, as already proficient in it.
The Gnostic, accordingly, having received from God the power to be of service, benefits some by disciplining them, by bestowing attention on them; others, by exhorting them, by assimilation; and others, by training and teaching them, by command. And certainly he himself is equally benefited by the Lord. Thus, then, the benefit that comes from God to men becomes known—angels at the same time lending encouragement.[4] For by angels, whether seen or not, the divine power bestows good things. Such was the mode adopted in the advent of the Lord. And sometimes also the power "breathes" in men’s thoughts and reasonings, and "puts in" their hearts "strength" and a keener perception, and furnishes "prowess" and "boldness of alacrity"[5] both for researches and deeds.
But exposed for imitation and assimilation are truly admirable and holy examples of virtue in the actions put on record. Further, the department of action is most conspicuous both in the testaments of the Lord, and in the laws in force among the Greeks, and also in the precepts of philosophy.
And to speak comprehensively, all benefit appertaining to life, in its highest reason, proceeding from the Sovereign God, the Father who is over all, is consummated by the Son, who also on this account "is the Saviour of all men," says the apostle, "but especially of those who believe."[6] But in respect of its immediate reason, it is from those next to each, in accordance with the command and injunction of Him who is nearest the First Cause, that is, the Lord.
CHAP. XVIII.—THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY TO THE GNOSTIC.
Greek philosophy the recreation of the Gnostic.
Now our Gnostic always occupies himself with the things of highest importance. But if at any time he has leisure and time for relaxation from what is of prime consequence, he applies himself to Hellenic philosophy in preference to other recreation, feasting on it as a kind of dessert at supper.[7] Not that he neglects what is superior; but that he takes this in addition, as long as proper, for the reasons I mentioned above. But those who give their mind to the unnecessary and superfluous points of philosophy, and addict themselves to wrangling sophisms alone, abandon what is necessary and most essential, pursuing plainly the shadows of words.
It is well indeed to know all. But the man whose soul is destitute of the ability to reach to acquaintance with many subjects of study, will select the principal and better subjects alone. For real science (<greek>episthmh</greek>, which we affirm the Gnostic alone possesses) is a sure comprehension (<greek>katalhyis</greek>), leading up through true and sure reasons to the knowledge (<greek>gnpsis</greek>) of the cause. And he, who is acquainted with what is true respecting any one subject, becomes of course acquainted with what is false respecting it.
Philosophy necessary.
For truly it appears to me to be a proper point for discussion, Whether we ought to philosophize: for its terms are consistent.
But if we are not to philosophize, what then? (For no one can condemn a thing without first knowing it): the consequence, even in that case, is that we must philosophize.[8]
First of all, idols are to be rejected. Such, then, being the case, the Greeks ought by the Law and the Prophets to learn to worship one God only, the only Sovereign; then to be taught by the apostle, "but to us an idol is no, thing in the world,"[1] since nothing among created things can be a likeness of God; and further, to be taught that none of those images which they worship can be similitudes: for the race of souls is not in form such as the Greeks fashion their idols. For souls are invisible; not only those that are rational, but those also of the other animals. And their bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but organs—partly as seats, partly as vehicles—and in other cases possessions in various ways. But it is not possible to copy accurately even the likenesses of the organs; since, were it so, one might model the sun, as it is seen, and take the likeness of the rainbow in colours.
After abandoning idols, then, they will hear the Scripture, "Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees "[2] (who justified themselves in the way of abstinence from what was evil),--so as, along with such, perfection as they evinced, and "the loving of your neighbour," to be able also to do good,you shall not "be kingly."[3]
For intensification of the righteousness which is according to the law shows the Gnostic. So one who is placed in the head, which is that which rules its own body—and who advances to the summit of faith, which is the knowledge (gnosis) itself, for which all the organs of perception exist—will likewise obtain the highest inheritance.
The primacy of knowledge the apostle shows to those capable of reflection, in writing to those Greeks of Corinth, in the following terms: "But having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall he magnified in you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the Gospel beyond you."[4]
He does not mean the extension of his preaching locally: for he says also that in Achaia faith abounded; and it is related also in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word in Athens.[5] But he teaches that knowledge (gnosis), which is the perfection of faith, goes beyond catechetical instruction, in accordance with the magnitude of the Lord’s teaching and the rule of the Church.[6] Wherefore also he proceeds to add, "And if I am rude in speech, yet I am not in knowledge."[7]
Whence is the knowledge of truth?
But let those who vaunt on account of having apprehended the truth tell us from whom they boast of having heard it. They will not say from God, but will admit that it was from men. And if so, it is either from themselves that they have learned it lately, as some of them arrogantly boast, or from others like them. But human teachers, speaking of God, are not reliable, as men. For he that is man cannot speak worthily the truth concerning God: the feeble and mortal [cannot speak worthily] of the Unoriginated and Incorruptible—the work, of the Workman. Then he who is incapable of speaking what is true respecting himself, is he not much less reliable in what concerns God ? For just as far as man is inferior to God in power, so much feebler is man’s speech than Him; although he do not declare God, but only speak about God and the divine word. For human speech is by nature feeble, and incapable of uttering God. I do not say His name. For to name it is common, not to philosophers only, but also to poets. Nor [do I say] His essence; for this is impossible, but the power and the works of God.
Those even who claim God as their teacher, with difficulty attain to a conception of God, grace aiding them to the attainment of their modicum of knowledge; accustomed as they are to contemplate the will [of God] by the will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit. "For the Spirit searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit."[8]
The only wisdom, therefore, is the God-taught wisdom we possess; on which depend all the sources of wisdom, which make conjectures at the truth.
Intimations of the Teacher’s advent
Assuredly of the coming of the Lord, who has taught us, to men, there were a myriad indicators, heralds, preparers, precursors, from the beginning, from the foundation of the world, intimating beforehand by deeds and words, prophesying that He would come, and where, and how, what should be the signs. From afar certainly Law and Prophecy kept Him in view beforehand. And then the precursor pointed Him out as present. After whom the heralds point out by their teaching the virtue of His manifestation.
Universal diffusion of the Gospel a contrast to philosophy.
The philosophers, however, chose to [teach philosophy] to the Greeks alone,[9] and not even to all of them; but Socrates to Plato, and Plato to Xenocrates, Aristotle to Theophrastus, and Zeno to Cleanthes, who persuaded their own followers alone.
But the word of our Teacher remained not in Judea alone, as philosophy did in Greece; but was diffused over the whole world, over every nation, and village, and town, bringing already over to the truth whole houses, and each individual of those who heard it by him himself, and not a few of the philosophers themselves.
And if any one ruler whatever prohibit the Greek philosophy, it vanishes forthwith.[1] But our doctrine on its very first proclamation was prohibited by kings and tyrants together, as well as particular rulers and governors, with all their mercenaries, and in addition by innumerable men, warring against us, and endeavouring as far as they could to exterminate it. But it flourishes the more. For it dies not, as human doctrine dies, nor fades as a fragile gift. For no gift of God is fragile. But it remains unchecked, though prophesied as destined to be persecuted to the end. Thus Plato writes of poetry: "A poet is a light and a sacred thing, and cannot write poetry till he be inspired and lose his senses." And Democritus similarly: "Whatever things a poet writes with divine afflatus, and with a sacred spirit, are very beautiful." And we know what sort of things poets say. And shall no one be amazed at the prophets of God Almighty becoming the organs of the divine voice ?
Having then moulded, as it were, a statue of the Gnostic, we have now shown who he is; indicating in outline, as it were, both the greatness and beauty of his character. What he is as to the study of physical phenomena shall be shown afterwards, when we begin to treat of the creation of the world.
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