The Stromata Or Miscellanies

1 Chapter I.--Preface--The Author's Object--The Utility of Written Compositions. 2 Chapter II.--Objection to the Number of Extracts from Philosophical Writings in These Books Anticipated and Answered. 3 Chapter III.--Against the Sophists. 4 Chapter IV.--Human Arts as Well as Divine Knowledge Proceed from God. 5 Chapter V.--Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology. 6 Chapter VI.--The Benefit of Culture. 7 Chapter VII.--The Eclectic Philosophy Paves the Way for Divine Virtue. 8 Chapter VIII.--The Sophistical Arts Useless. 9 Chapter IX.--Human Knowledge Necessary for the Understanding of the Scriptures. 10 Chapter X.--To Act Well of Greater Consequence Than to Speak Well. 11 Chapter XI.--What is the Philosophy Which the Apostle Bids Us Shun? 12 Chapter XII.--The Mysteries of the Faith Not to Be Divulged to All. 13 Chapter XIII.--All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth. 14 Chapter XIV.--Succession of Philosophers in Greece. 15 Chapter XV.--The Greek Philosophy in Great Part Derived from the Barbarians. 16 Chapter XVI.--That the Inventors of Other Arts Were Mostly Barbarians. 17 Chapter XVII.--On the Saying of the Saviour, |All that Came Before Me Were Thieves and Robbers.| 18 Chapter XVIII.--He Illustrates the Apostle's Saying, |I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise.| 19 Chapter XIX.--That the Philosophers Have Attained to Some Portion of Truth. 20 Chapter XX.--In What Respect Philosophy Contributes to the Comprehension of Divine Truth. 21 Chapter XXI.--The Jewish Institutions and Laws of Far Higher Antiquity Than the Philosophy of the Greeks. 22 Chapter XXII.--On the Greek Translation of the Old Testament. 23 Chapter XXIII.--The Age, Birth, and Life of Moses. 24 Chapter XXIV.--How Moses Discharged the Part of a Military Leader. 25 Chapter XXV.--Plato an Imitator of Moses in Framing Laws. 26 Chapter XXVI.--Moses Rightly Called a Divine Legislator, And, Though Inferior to Christ, Far Superior to the Great Legislators of the Greeks, Minos and Lycurgus. 27 Chapter XXVII.--The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men. 28 Chapter XXVIII.--The Fourfold Division of the Mosaic Law. 29 Chapter XXIX.--The Greeks But Children Compared with the Hebrews. 30 Elucidations. 31 Chapter I.--Introductory. 32 Chapter II.--The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith. 33 Chapter III.--Faith Not a Product of Nature. 34 Chapter IV.--Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge. 35 Chapter V.--He Proves by Several Examples that the Greeks Drew from the Sacred Writers. 36 Chapter VI.--The Excellence and Utility of Faith. 37 Chapter VII.--The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered. 38 Chapter VIII.--The Vagaries of Basilides and Valentinus as to Fear Being the Cause of Things. 39 Chapter IX.--The Connection of the Christian Virtues. 40 Chapter X.--To What the Philosopher Applies Himself. 41 Chapter XI.--The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All. 42 Chapter XII.--Twofold Faith. 43 Chapter XIII.--On First and Second Repentance. 44 Chapter XIV.--How a Thing May Be Involuntary. 45 Chapter XV.--On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding. 46 Chapter XVI.--How We are to Explain the Passages of Scripture Which Ascribe to God Human Affections. 47 Chapter XVII.--On the Various Kinds of Knowledge. 48 Chapter XVIII.--The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs. 49 Chapter XIX.--The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence. 50 Chapter XX.--The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self-Restraint. 51 Chapter XXI.--Opinions of Various Philosophers on the Chief Good. 52 Chapter XXII.--Plato's Opinion, that the Chief Good Consists in Assimilation to God, and Its Agreement with Scripture. 53 Chapter XXIII.--On Marriage. 54 Elucidations. 55 Caput I.--Basilidis Sententiam de Continentia Et Nuptiis Refutat. 56 Caput II.--Carpocratis Et Epiphanis Sententiam de Feminarum Communitate Refutat. 57 Caput III.--Quatenus Plato Aliique E Veteribus Præiverint Marcionitis Aliisque Hæreticis, Qui a Nuptiis Ideo Abstinent Quia Creaturam Malam Existimant Et Nasci Homines in Poenam Opinantur. 58 Caput IV.--Quibus Prætextibus Utantur Hæretici ad Omnis Genetis Licentiam Et Libidinem Exercendam. 59 Caput V.--Duo Genera Hæreticorum Notat: Prius Illorum Qui Omnia Omnibus Licere Pronuntiant, Quos Refutat. 60 Caput VI.--Secundum Genus Hæreticorum Aggreditur, Illorum Scilicet Qui Ex Impia de Deo Omnium Conditore Sententia, Continentiam Exercent. 61 Caput VII.--Qua in Re Christianorum Continentia Eam Quam Sibi Vindicant Philosophi Antecellat. 62 Caput VIII.--Loca S. Scripturæ Ab Hæreticis in Vituperium Matrimonii Adducta Explicat; Et Primo Verba Apostoli Romans 6:14, Ab Hæreticorum Perversa Interpretatione Vindicat. 63 Caput IX.--Dictum Christi ad Salomen Exponit, Quod Tanquam in Vituperium Nuptiarum Prolatum Hæretici Allegabant. 64 Caput X.--Verba Christi Matt. xviii. 20, Mystice Exponit. 65 Caput XI.--Legis Et Christi Mandatum de Non Concupiscendo Exponit. 66 Caput XII.--Verba Apostoli 1 Cor. vii. 5, 39, 40, Aliaque S. Scripturæ Loca Eodem Spectantia Explicat. 67 Caput XIII.--Julii Cassiani Hæretici Verbis Respondet; Item Loco Quem Ex Evangelio Apocrypho Idem Adduxerat. 68 Caput XIV.--2 Cor. xi. 3, Et Eph. iv. 24, Exponit. 69 Caput XV.--1 Cor. vii. 1; Luc. xiv. 26; Isa. lvi. 2, 3, Explicat. 70 Caput XVI.--Jer. xx. 14; Job xiv. 3; Ps. l. 5; 1 Cor. ix. 27, Exponit. 71 Caput XVII.--Qui Nuptias Et Generationem Malas Asserunt, II Et Dei Creationem Et Ipsam Evangelii Dispensationem Vituperant. 72 Caput XVIII.--Duas Extremas Opiniones Esse Vitandas: Primam Illorum Qui Creatoris Odio a Nuptiis Abstinent; Alteram Illorum Qui Hinc Occasionem Arripiunt Nefariis Libidinibus Indulgendi. 73 Elucidations. 74 Chapter I.--Order of Contents. 75 Chapter II.--The Meaning of the Name Stromata or Miscellanies. 76 Chapter III.--The True Excellence of Man. 77 Chapter IV.--The Praises of Martyrdom. 78 Chapter V.--On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things. 79 Chapter VII.--The Blessedness of the Martyr. 80 Chapter VIII.--Women as Well as Men, Slaves as Well as Freemen, Candidates for the Martyr's Crown. 81 Chapter IX.--Christ's Sayings Respecting Martyrdom. 82 Chapter X.--Those Who Offered Themselves for Martyrdom Reproved. 83 Chapter XI.--The Objection, Why Do You Suffer If God Cares for You, Answered. 84 Chapter XII.--Basilides' Idea of Martyrdom Refuted. 85 Chapter XIII.--Valentinian's Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted. 86 Chapter XIV.--The Love of All, Even of Our Enemies. 87 Chapter XV.--On Avoiding Offence. 88 Chapter XVI.--Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs. 89 Chapter XVII.--Passages from Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians on Martyrdom. 90 Chapter XVIII.--On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires. 91 Chap. XIX.--Women as well as Men Capable of Perfection. 92 Chapter XX.--A Good Wife. 93 Chapter XXI.--Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic. 94 Chapter XXIII.--The Same Subject Continued. 95 Elucidations. 96 The Stromata, or Miscellanies. Book V. cChap. I.--On Faith. 97 Chap. II.--On Hope. 98 Chapter III.--The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone. 99 Chapter IV.--Divine Things Wrapped Up in Figures Both in the Sacred and in Heathen Writers. 100 Chapter V.--On the Symbols of Pythagoras. 101 Chapter VI.--The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture. 102 Chapter VII.--The Egyptian Symbols and Enigmas of Sacred Things. 103 Chapter VIII.--The Use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers. 104 Chapter IX.--Reasons for Veiling the Truth in Symbols. 105 Chapter X.--The Opinion of the Apostles on Veiling the Mysteries of the Faith. 106 Chapter XI.--Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God. 107 Chapter XII.--God Cannot Be Embraced in Words or by the Mind. 108 Chapter XIII.--The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, According to the Philosophers. 109 Chapter XIV.--Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews. 110 Elucidations. 111 Chapter I.--Plan. 112 Chapter II.--The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another. 113 Chapter III.--Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles Related in the Sacred Books of the Hebrews. 114 Chapter IV.--The Greeks Drew Many of Their Philosophical Tenets from the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists. 115 Chapter V.--The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God. 116 Chapter VI.--The Gospel Was Preached to Jews and Gentiles in Hades. 117 Chapter VII.--What True Philosophy Is, and Whence So Called. 118 Chapter VIII.--Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God. 119 Chapter IX.--The Gnostic Free of All Perturbations of the Soul. 120 Chapter X.--The Gnostic Avails Himself of the Help of All Human Knowledge. 121 Chapter XI.--The Mystical Meanings in the Proportions of Numbers, Geometrical Ratios, and Music. 122 Chapter XII.--Human Nature Possesses an Adaptation for Perfection; The Gnostic Alone Attains It. 123 Chapter XIII.--Degrees of Glory in Heaven Corresponding with the Dignities of the Church Below. 124 Chapter XIV.--Degrees of Glory in Heaven. 125 Chapter XV.--Different Degrees of Knowledge. 126 Chapter XVI.--Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue. 127 Chapter XVII.--Philosophy Conveys Only an Imperfect Knowledge of God. 128 Chapter XVIII.--The Use of Philosophy to the Gnostic. 129 Elucidations. 130 Chapter I.--The Gnostic a True Worshipper of God, and Unjustly Calumniated by Unbelievers as an Atheist. 131 Chapter II.--The Son the Ruler and Saviour of All. 132 Chapter III.--The Gnostic Aims at the Nearest Likeness Possible to God and His Son. 133 Chapter IV.--The Heathens Made Gods Like Themselves, Whence Springs All Superstition. 134 Chapter V.--The Holy Soul a More Excellent Temple Than Any Edifice Built by Man. 135 Chapter VI.--Prayers and Praise from a Pure Mind, Ceaselessly Offered, Far Better Than Sacrifices. 136 Chapter VII.--What Sort of Prayer the Gnostic Employs, and How It is Heard by God. 137 Chapter VIII.--The Gnostic So Addicted to Truth as Not to Need to Use an Oath. 138 Chapter IX.--Those Who Teach Others, Ought to Excel in Virtues. 139 Chapter X.--Steps to Perfection. 140 Chapter XI.--Description of the Gnostic's Life. 141 Chapter XII.--The True Gnostic is Beneficent, Continent, and Despises Worldly Things. 142 Chapter XIII.--Description of the Gnostic Continued. 143 Chapter XIV.--Description of the Gnostic Furnished by an Exposition of 1 Cor. vi. 1, Etc. 144 Chapter XV.--The Objection to Join the Church on Account of the Diversity of Heresies Answered. 145 Chapter XVI.--Scripture the Criterion by Which Truth and Heresy are Distinguished. 146 Chapter XVII.--The Tradition of the Church Prior to that of the Heresies. 147 Chapter XVIII--The Distinction Between Clean and Unclean Animals in the Law Symbolical of the Distinction Between the Church, and Jews, and Heretics. 148 Elucidations 149 Book VIII. 150 Chapter I.--The Object of Philosophical and Theological Inquiry--The Discovery of Truth. 151 Chapter II.--The Necessity of Perspicuous Definition. 152 Chapter III.--Demonstration Defined. 153 Chapter IV.--To Prevent Ambiguity, We Must Begin with Clear Definition. 154 Chapter V.--Application of Demonstration to Sceptical Suspense of Judgment. 155 Chapter VI.--Definitions, Genera, and Species. 156 Chapter VII.--On the Causes of Doubt or Assent. 157 Chapter VIII.--The Method of Classifying Things and Names. 158 Chapter IX.--On the Different Kinds of Cause. 159 Elucidations.