06 - Book II Chapters 10-12

SECTION 6 OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH BY JOHN OF DAMASCUS TRANSLATED BY S. D. F. SALMAN THIS LIBRIVOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. BOOK II. CHAPTER X. CONCERNING EARTH AND ITS PRODUCTS The earth is one of the four elements—dry, cold, heavy, motionless— brought into being by God out of nothing on the first day. For in the beginning, he said, God created the heaven and the earth. But the seat and foundation of the earth no man has been able to declare. Some, indeed, hold that its seat is the waters. Thus the divine David says, To him who established the earth on the waters. Others place it in the air. Again some other says, He who hangs the earth on nothing. And again David, the singer of God, says as though the representative of God, I bear up the pillars of it, meaning by pillars the force that sustains it. Further the expression, He has founded it upon the seas, shows clearly that the earth is on all hands surrounded by water. But whether we grant that it is established on itself, or on air, or on water, or on nothing, we must not turn aside from reverent thought, but must admit that all things are sustained and preserved by the power of the Creator. In the beginning, then, as the Holy Scripture says, it was hidden beneath the waters and was unwrought, that is to say, not beautified. But at God's bidding, places to hold the waters appeared, and then the mountains came into existence. And at the divine command the earth received its own proper adornment, and was dressed in all manner of herbs and plants. And on these, by the divine decree, was bestowed the power of growth and nourishment, and of producing seed to generate their like. Moreover, at the bidding of the Creator, it produced also all manner of kinds of living creatures, creeping things, and wild beasts and cattle. All, indeed, are for the seasonable use of man. But of them some are for food, such as stags, sheep, deer, and such like. Others for service, such as camels, oxen, horses, asses, and such like. And others for enjoyment, such as apes, and among birds, jays, and parrots, and such like. Again, among plants and herbs some are fruit-bearing, others edible, others fragrant and flowery, given to us for our enjoyment, for example the rose and such like, and others for the healing of disease. For there is not a single animal or plant in which the Creator has not implanted some form of energy capable of being used to satisfy man's needs. For he who knew all things before they were saw that in the future man would go forward in the strength of his own will, and would be subject to corruption. And therefore he created all things for his seasonable use, alike those in the firmament, and those on the earth, and those in the waters. Indeed, before the transgression, all things were under his power. For God set him as ruler over all things on the earth and in the waters. Even the serpent was accustomed to man, and approached him more readily than it did other living creatures, and held intercourse with him with delightful motions. And hence it was through it that the devil, the prince of evil, made his most wicked suggestion to our first parents. Moreover, the earth of its own accord used to yield fruits for the benefit of the animals that were obedient to man. And there was neither rain nor tempest on the earth. But after the transgression, when he was compared with the unintelligent cattle and became like to them, after he had contrived that in him irrational desire should have rule over reasoning mind, and had become disobedient to the Master's command, the subject creation rose up against him whom the Creator had appointed to be ruler, and it was appointed for him that he should till with sweat the earth from which he had been taken. But even now wild beasts are not without their uses. For by the terror they cause, they bring man to the knowledge of his Creator, and lead him to call upon his name. And further, at the transgression, the thorn sprang out of the earth in accordance with the Lord's express declaration, and was conjoined with the pleasures of the rose, that it might lead us to remember the transgression, on account of which the earth was condemned to bring forth for us thorns and prickles. That this is the case is made worthy of belief from the fact that their endurance is secured by the word of the Lord, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. Further, some hold that the earth is in the form of a sphere. Others, that it is in that of a cone. At all events, it is much smaller than the heaven, and suspended almost like a point in its midst, and it will pass away and be changed. But blessed is the man who inherits the earth promised to the meek. For the earth that is to be the possession of the holy is immortal. Who then can fitly marvel at the boundless and incomprehensible wisdom of the Creator? Or who can render sufficient thanks to the Giver of so many blessings? There are also provinces, or prefectures, of the earth which we recognize. Europe embraces thirty-four, and the huge continent of Asia has forty-eight of these provinces, and twelve canons, as they are called. Chapter 11. Concerning Paradise. Now when God was about to fashion man out of the visible and invisible creation in his own image and likeness, to reign as king and ruler over all the earth and all that it contains, he first made for him, so to speak, a kingdom in which he should live a life of happiness and prosperity. And this is the Divine Paradise, planted in Eden by the hands of God, a very storehouse of joy and gladness of heart. For Eden means luxuriousness. Its sight is higher in the east than all the earth. It is temperate, and the air that surrounds it is the rarest and purest. Evergreen plants are its pride, sweet fragrances abound. It is flooded with light, and in sensuous freshness and beauty it transcends imagination. In truth the place is divine, a meet home for him who was created in God's image. No creature lacking reason made its dwelling there but man alone, the work of God's own hands. In its midst God planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. The Tree of Knowledge was for trial and proof and exercise of man's obedience and disobedience, and hence it was named the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or else it was because to those who partook of it was given power to know their own nature. Now this is a good thing for those who are mature, but an evil thing for the immature and those whose appetites are too strong, being like solid food to tender babies still in need of milk. For our Creator, God, did not intend us to be burdened with care and trouble about many things, nor to take thought about or make provision for our own life. But this at length was Adam's fate, for he tasted, and knew that he was naked, and made a girdle round about him. For he took fig leaves and girded himself about. But before they took of the fruit they were both naked, Adam and Eve, and were not ashamed. For God meant that we should be thus free from passion, and this is indeed the mark of a mind absolutely void of passion. Yea, he meant us further to be free from care, and to have but one work to perform, to sing as do the angels without ceasing or intermission the praises of the Creator, and to delight in contemplation of Him, and to cast all our care on Him. This is what the prophet David proclaimed to us when he said, Cast your burdens on the Lord, and He will sustain you. And again, in the Gospels, Christ taught His disciples, saying, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. And further, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And to Martha He said, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her, meaning clearly, sitting at His feet and listening to His words. The tree of life, on the other hand, was a tree having the energy that is the cause of life, or to be eaten only by those who deserve to live and are not subject to death. Some indeed have pictured paradise as a realm of sense, and others as a realm of mind. But it seems to me that just as man is a creature in whom we find both sense and mind blend together, in like manner also man's most holy temple combines the properties of sense and mind, and has this twofold expression. For, as we said, the life in the body is spent in the most divine and lovely region, while the life in the soul is passed in a place far more sublime and of more surpassing beauty, where God makes His home, and where He wraps man about as with a glorious garment, and robes him in His grace, and delights and sustains him like an angel with the sweetest of all fruits, the contemplation of Himself. Verily it has been fitly named the tree of life, for since the life is not cut short by death, the sweetness of the divine participation is imparted to those who share it. And this is in truth what God meant by every tree, saying, Of every tree in paradise you may freely eat. For the Every is just Himself in whom and through whom the universe is maintained. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was for the distinguishing between the many divisions of contemplation, and this is just the knowledge of one's own nature, which indeed is a good thing for those who are mature and advanced in divine contemplation, being of itself a proclamation of the magnificence of God, and have no fear of falling, because they have through time come to have the habit of such contemplation. But it is an evil thing to those still young and with stronger appetites, who by reason of their insecure hold on the better part, and because as yet they are not firmly established in the seat of the one and only good, are apt to be torn and dragged away from this to the care of their own body. Thus, to my thinking, the divine paradise is twofold, and the God-inspired fathers handed down a true message, whether they taught this doctrine or that. Indeed, it is possible to understand by every tree the knowledge of the divine power derived from created things. In the words of the divine apostle, For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. But of all these thoughts and speculations, the sublimest is that dealing with ourselves, that is, with our own composition. As the divine David says, The knowledge of you from me, that is, from my constitution, was made a wonder. But for the reasons we have already mentioned, such knowledge was dangerous for Adam, who had been so lately created. The tree of life, too, may be understood as that more divine thought that has its origin in the world of sense, and the ascent through that to the originating and constructive cause of all. And this was the name he gave to every tree, implying fullness and indivisibility, and conveying only participation in what is good. But by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are to understand that sensible and pleasurable food, which, sweet though it seems, in reality brings him who partakes of it into communion with evil. For God says, Of every tree in paradise you may freely eat. It is, methinks, as if God said, Through all my creations you are to ascend to me, your Creator, and of all the fruits you may pluck one, that is, myself, who art the true life. Let everything bear for you the fruit of life, and let participation in me be the support of your own being, for in this way you will be immortal. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. For sensible food is by nature for the replenishing of that which gradually wastes away, and it passes into the draught and perishes, and he cannot remain incorruptible who partakes of sensible food. Chapter 12. Concerning Man. In this way, then, God brought into existence mental essence, by which I mean angels and all the heavenly orders, for these clearly have a mental and incorporeal nature. Incorporeal, I mean, in comparison with the denseness of matter, for the deity alone in reality is immaterial and incorporeal. But further he created in the same way sensible essence, that is, heaven and earth and the intermediate region, and so he created both the kind of being that is of his own nature, for the nature that has to do with reason is related to God, and apprehensible by mind alone, and the kind which, inasmuch as it clearly falls under the province of the senses, is separated from him by the greatest interval. And it was also fit that there should be a mixture of both kinds of being, as a token of still greater wisdom, and of the opulence of the divine expenditure as regards natures, as Gregorius, the expounder of God's being and ways, puts it, and to be a sort of connecting link between the visible and invisible natures. And by the word fit, I mean, simply that it was in evidence of the Creator's will, for that will is the law and ordinance most meet, and no one will say to his maker, Why have you so fashioned me? For the potter is able at his will to make vessels of various patterns out of his clay, as a proof of his own wisdom. Now this being the case, he creates with his own hands man of a visible nature and an invisible, after his own image and likeness, on the one hand man's body he formed of earth, and on the other his reasoning and thinking soul he bestowed upon him by his own inbreeding. And this is what we mean by after his image. For the phrase after his image clearly refers to the side of his nature which consists of mind and free will, whereas after his likeness means likeness in virtue, so far as that is possible. Further, body and soul were formed at one and the same time, not first the one and then the other, as origin so senselessly supposes. God then made man without evil, upright, virtuous, free from pain and care, glorified with every virtue, adorned with all that is good, like a sort of second microcosm within the great world, another angel capable of worship, compound, surveying the visible creation, and initiated into the mysteries of the realm of thought, king over the things of earth but subject to a higher king, of the earth and of the heaven, temporal and eternal, belonging to the realm of sight and to the realm of thought, midway between greatness and lowliness, spirit and flesh, for he is spirit by grace, but flesh by overweening pride, spirit that he may abide and glorify his benefactor, and flesh that he may suffer, and suffering may be admonished and disciplined when he prides himself in his greatness. Here, that is, in the present life, his life is ordered as an animal's, but elsewhere, that is, in the age to come, he is changed and, to complete the mystery, becomes deified by merely inclining himself towards God, becoming deified in the way of participating in the divine glory, and not in that of a change into the divine being. But God made him by nature sinless, and endowed him with free will. By sinless, I mean not that sin could find no place in him, for that is the case with deity alone, but that sin is the result of the free volition he enjoys rather than an integral part of his nature. That is to say, he has the power to continue and go forward in the path of goodness by cooperating with the divine grace, and, likewise, to turn from good and take to wickedness, for God has conceded this by conferring freedom of will upon him, for there is no virtue in what is the result of mere force. The soul, accordingly, is a living essence, simple, incorporeal, invisible in its proper nature to bodily eyes, immortal, reasoning and intelligent, formless, making use of an organized body, and being the source of its powers of life and growth and sensation and generation, mind being but its purest part, and not in any wise alien to it. For as the eye to the body, so is the mind to the soul. Further, it enjoys freedom and volition and energy, and is mutable, that is, it is given to change because it is created. All these qualities, according to nature it has received of the grace of the Creator, of which grace it has received both its being and this particular kind of nature. Marginal Note. The Different Applications of Incorporeal. We understand two kinds of what is incorporeal and invisible and formless, the one is such in essence, the other by free gift, and, likewise, the one is such in nature, and the other only in comparison with the denseness of matter. God, then, is incorporeal by nature, but the angels and demons and souls are said to be so by free gift and in comparison with the denseness of matter. Further, body is that which has three dimensions, that is to say, it has length and breadth and depth or thickness, and every body is composed of the four elements. The bodies of living creatures, moreover, are composed of the four humors. Now there are, it should be known, four elements, earth, which is dry and cold, water, which is cold and wet, air, which is wet and warm, fire, which is warm and dry. In like manner there are also four humors, analogous to the four elements, black bile, which bears an analogy to earth, for it is dry and cold, phlegm, analogous to water, for it is cold and wet, blood, analogous to air, for it is wet and warm, yellow bile, the analogy to fire, for it is warm and dry. Now fruits are composed of the elements, and the humors are composed of the fruits, and the bodies of living creatures consist of the humors and dissolve back into them, for everything that is compound dissolves back into its elements. Man, it is to be noted, has community with things inanimate and participates in the life of unreasoning creatures, and shares in the mental processes of those endowed with reason, for the bond of union between man and inanimate things is the body and its composition out of the four elements. And the bond between man and plants consists, in addition to these things, of their powers of nourishment and growth and seeding, that is, generation. And finally, over and above these links, man is connected with unreasoning animals by appetite, that is, anger and desire, and sense and impulsive movement. There are then five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Further, impulsive movement consists in change from place to place, and in the movements of the body as a whole, and in the emission of voice and the drawing of breath, for we have it in our power to perform or refrain from performing these actions. Lastly, man's reason unites him to incorporeal and intelligent natures, for he applies his reason and mind and judgment to everything, and pursues after virtues, and eagerly follows after piety, which is the crown of the virtues. And so man is a microcosm. Moreover, it should be known that division and flux and change are peculiar to the body alone. By change, I mean change in quality, that is, in heat and cold and so forth. By flux, I mean change in the way of depletion, for dry things and wet things and spirit suffer depletion and require repletion, so that hunger and thirst are natural affections. Again, division is the separation of the humors one from another and the partition into form and matter. But piety and thought are the peculiar properties of the soul, and the virtues are common to soul and body, although they are referred to the soul as if the soul were making use of the body. The reasoning part should be understood naturally bears rule over that which is void of reason, for the faculties of the soul are divided into that which has reason and that which is without reason. Again, of that which is without reason there are two divisions, that which does not listen to reason, that is to say, is disobedient to reason, and that which listens and obeys reason. That which does not listen or obey reason is the vital or pulsating faculty, and the spermatic or generative faculty, and the vegetative or nutritive faculty. To this belong also the faculties of growth and bodily formation, for these are not under the dominion of reason but under that of nature. That which listens to and obeys reason, on the other hand, is divided into anger and desire, and the unreasoning part of the soul is called in common the pathetic and the appetitive. Further, it is to be understood that impulsive movement likewise belongs to the part that is obedient to reason. The part which does not pay heed to reason includes the nutritive and generative and pulsating faculties, and the name vegetative is applied to the faculties of increase and nutriment and generation, and the name vital to the faculty of pulsation. Of the faculty of nutrition, then, there are four forces, an attractive force, which attracts nourishment, a retentive force, by which nourishment is retained and not suffered to be immediately excreted, an alternative force, by which food is resolved into the humerus, and an excretive force, by which the excess of food is excreted into the draught and cast forth. The forces, again, inherent in a living creature, are, it should be noted, partly psychical, partly vegetative, partly vital. The psychical forces are concerned with free volition, that is to say, impulsive movement and sensation. Impulsive movement includes change of place and movement of the body as a whole, and phonation and respiration, for it is in our power to perform or refrain from performing these acts. The vegetative and vital forces, however, are quite outside the province of will. The vegetative, moreover, include the faculties of nourishment and growth and generation, and the vital power is the faculty of pulsation, for these go on energizing whether we will it or not. Lastly, we must observe that, of actual things, some are good and some are bad. A good thing in anticipation constitutes desire, while a good thing in realization constitutes pleasure. Similarly, an evil thing in anticipation begets fear, and in realization it begets pain. And when we speak of good in this connection, we are to be understood to mean both real and apparent good, and, similarly, we mean real and apparent evil.