THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 4
Clement of Alexandria: Exhortation to the Greeks, the Instructor and the Stromata
c. AD 190 – 215

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the fourth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in
order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This
volume is given to the main works of Clement of Alexandria.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. The
Exhortation to the Greeks and the Instructor are printed in the modern English versions
prepared for SermonIndex; the Stromata are printed in the older public-domain translation.

Short notes by the translator appear at the foot of the page of the modern English
versions. They explain a difficult word, name a person or place, point to a parallel
elsewhere, or say where the modern English departs from the earlier translation. They are
numbered afresh for each work.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

In the works printed in modern English, passages that quote or clearly echo the Bible are
marked in brackets at the end of the section. These references are an aid to the reader,
not a complete list: some parallels are not marked, and a marked passage may be a loose
quotation or an echo rather than an exact match. The older translations are not marked in
this way. The Scripture Index at the end of the book lists the marked references and the
pages on which they are found.

IN THIS VOLUME

Clement taught in Alexandria at the end of the second century, in a city of libraries and
philosophical schools. He set out to show an educated Greek reader that the Christian
faith did not need to be ashamed of Greek learning, and that the philosophers had at best
caught a glimpse of what the Church possessed in full.

His three best-known works are meant to be read in order. The Exhortation to the Greeks
turns the reader from the pagan gods to Christ. The Instructor, in three books, shows how
the Word trains the new believer in daily life. The Stromata, a word that means
“patchwork” or “miscellanies”, is a long and deliberately unsystematic work that moves
between Scripture, philosophy and the Christian life.

Book 3 of the Stromata, which treats marriage and the teaching of those who rejected it,
is not yet included in this edition. The shorter Excerpts of Theodotus and the Fragments
are printed at the beginning of Volume 5.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) (CHAPTERS 1–3)
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EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 190–200

An appeal by Clement, a Christian teacher in Alexandria, to educated Greeks. He mocks the
myths and mystery cults, shows that the poets and philosophers caught only glimpses of the
truth, and invites readers to turn to the Word of God, whom he presents as the new song.
Clement is steeped in Greek literature, so the text is full of quotations and allusions to
poets and myths.

A note for readers. Clement wrote for educated pagans and uses their own poets and
philosophers freely, sometimes treating them as pointing toward Christ. Readers have long
debated how far he goes in that. Many of his quotations come second-hand from earlier
collections, so some are not exact.

CHAPTER 1

Exhortation to Abandon the Impious Mysteries of Idolatry for the Adoration of the Divine
Word and God the Father.

1a Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both singers. Both are the stuff of
legend, and the Greeks still sing of them in their choruses. By the art of music, one
lured a fish and the other built walls around Thebes. Another master, a Thracian (his
story is another Greek legend), tamed wild beasts with song alone, and even moved trees,
oaks, and replanted them by his music. I could also tell you of another legend and singer,
a brother to these: Eunomus the Locrian and the Pythian cicada. A Greek festival was being
held at Pytho over a dead serpent, and Eunomus was singing the reptile’s funeral song.
Whether the song was a hymn or a lament for the snake, I cannot say. But there was a
contest, and Eunomus was playing the lyre in the heat of the day, when the cicadas, warmed
by the sun, were singing among the leaves on the mountains.[1]

1b But they were not singing to the dead Pythian serpent. They were singing to the all-
wise God a song bound by no rule but its own, better than the tunes of Eunomus. The
Locrian’s string snapped. The cicada flew onto the neck of the lyre and chirped there as
if on a branch, and the singer tuned his playing to the cicada’s song and so filled in the
missing string. So the cicada was not drawn by the song of Eunomus, as the legend would
have it. That legend even had a bronze statue set up at Pytho of Eunomus with his lyre,
and with him the Locrian’s partner in the contest. No, the cicada flew there of its own
will and sang of its own will, but the Greeks think it was a performer playing along to
his music. How, then, have you come to believe empty myths, and suppose that animals are
charmed by music? Only the bright face of truth, it seems, looks false to you, and it is
met with unbelieving eyes.[2]

1c So Cithaeron and Helicon and the mountains of the Odrysians and Thracians, the sites of
rites of error, have been treated as sacred and celebrated in hymns because of the
mysteries. For my part, even if these are only myths, I am grieved at so many disasters
being played out as tragedy. But for you, even the records of evils have become dramas,
and the actors in them a delight to watch. Well, let us crown the dramas and the poets of
the wine-press, already thoroughly drunk, with ivy. Let us shut them up, raving wildly in
Bacchic ritual with the satyrs and their frenzied band and the rest of the chorus of
demons, on Helicon and Cithaeron, now grown old. And let us bring down truth from heaven
above, together with the most radiant wisdom, to the holy mountain of God and the holy
prophetic chorus. Let her shine her light as far as it can reach, all around on those who
wallow in darkness. Let her free people from error, holding out her supreme right hand,
which is understanding, for their salvation.[3]

1d Let them lift their heads and look up, leave Helicon and Cithaeron, and live in Zion.
“For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” This is
the heavenly Word, the true champion crowned on the stage of the whole world. My Eunomus
does not sing the tune of Terpander or of Capion, nor the Phrygian, Lydian or Dorian mode.
He sings the eternal tune of the new harmony, which bears the name of God: the new song,
the Levitical song, “that banishes pain and anger, and makes us forget all evils.” A sweet
and true remedy for sorrow is blended into the song. To my mind, then, that Thracian
Orpheus, and the Theban and the Methymnaean, men who were not truly men, were deceivers.
Under the pretext of music they ruined human life. Raving with a kind of skilled sorcery,
as if possessed by demons, they brought people to ruin. They celebrated outrages in their
rites and made sorrows into things divine. They were the first to lead people by the hand
to idols, and to build up foolish custom out of stones and wood, that is, statues and
painted images. With their songs and incantations they bound in the worst slavery the
truly splendid freedom of those who lived as citizens under heaven.[4] [Isaiah 2:3; Micah
4:2]

1e But my singer is not like that. He has come to put a swift end to the bitter slavery
under tyrant demons. He leads us away to the gentle, humane yoke of reverence for God, and
calls back up to heaven those who were thrown down to earth. He alone of all who have ever
lived has tamed the most difficult of all wild beasts, human beings. The birds are the
flighty among them, the reptiles the deceivers, the lions the hot-tempered, the swine the
pleasure-lovers, and the wolves the greedy. The senseless are stones and wood. Indeed, a
person soaked in ignorance is even duller than stones. Let the voice of prophecy stand as
our witness, in harmony with the truth, pitying those worn down by ignorance and folly:
“For God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”[5] [Matthew 3:9;
Matthew 11:29] 1f God took pity on the deep ignorance and hardness of heart of those who
had been turned to stone against the truth. Out of those very stones, the nations who had
trusted in stones, he raised up a seed of godliness that is able to sense virtue. Again,
he somewhere calls certain venom-spitting, treacherous hypocrites, who lie in wait to
attack righteousness, “offspring of vipers.” Yet even of these serpents, if one willingly
repents and follows the Word, he becomes a “man of God.” Others he speaks of in a figure
as wolves dressed in sheepskins, hinting at those who are predatory in human form. So the
heavenly song itself has changed all these most savage beasts, and all such stones, into
gentle men. As the apostolic Scripture says: “For we too were once, yes once, senseless,
disobedient, led astray, slaves to various pleasures and desires, spending our lives in
malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness and love for mankind
of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done,
but according to his own mercy.” See how great the power of the new song is! It has made
men out of stones and men out of beasts.[6] [Matthew 3:7; Matthew 7:15; Titus 3:3-5]

1g Even those who were otherwise dead, with no share in the life that truly is, came back
to life simply by becoming hearers of the song. This song also set the whole universe in
tuneful order. It brought the discord of the elements into the order of harmony, so that
the whole world might become a harmony for it. It let the sea go free, yet forbade it to
overrun the land. The earth, which had been unsettled and adrift, it made firm, and it
fixed the earth as the sea’s boundary. It softened the rush of fire with air, as if
blending the Dorian mode with the Lydian. It tamed the harsh coldness of air by mixing it
with fire, blending these outermost notes of the universe in tune. And so the pure song,
the support of the whole and the harmony of all things, stretched from the middle to the
ends and from the extremes to the middle, and tuned this universe. It did so not after the
manner of Thracian music, which is like Jubal’s, but according to the fatherly will of
God, which David eagerly followed.[7] [Genesis 4:21; John 5:25]

1h But the Word of God, who comes from David and was before him, disregarded the lyre and
harp, those lifeless instruments. He tuned this universe by the Holy Spirit, and in
particular the little universe, man, both soul and body. He makes music to God on this
many-voiced instrument, and he sings to the accompaniment of that instrument, man. “For
you are a harp and a pipe and a temple for me.” A harp because of its harmony, a pipe
because of the Spirit, a temple because of the Word. So the first may sound, the second
breathe, and the third receive the Lord. David the king, the harpist we mentioned a little
earlier, urged people toward the truth and away from idols. He was far from singing the
praises of demons. They were driven away by his true music, and when Saul was under their
influence, David healed him just by singing.[8]

1i The Lord made man a beautiful breathing instrument, after his own image. And he himself
is also God’s all-harmonious instrument, tuneful and holy: the wisdom that is above the
world, the heavenly Word. What, then, does this instrument, the Word of God, the Lord, the
new song, want? He wants to open the eyes of the blind, to unstop the ears of the deaf,
and to take by the hand those who limp on both feet, or who wander, and lead them to
righteousness. He wants to show God to foolish people, to put an end to corruption, to
conquer death, and to reconcile disobedient sons to their Father. God’s instrument loves
mankind. The Lord pities, trains, urges, warns, saves and guards. Out of his abundance he
promises us the kingdom of heaven as the reward for our learning, and the only enjoyment
he gets from us is that we are saved. For evil feeds on the ruin of human beings. But
truth is like the bee: it harms nothing that exists, and delights only in the salvation of
human beings.[9] [Genesis 1:27; Isaiah 35:5]

1j So you have the promise, and you have his love for mankind. Share in his grace. And do
not suppose that my song of salvation is new the way a vessel or a house is new. “Before
the morning star” it was, and “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.” Error is old, but truth appears as the new thing. Maybe the
Phrygians are the oldest people, as the fabled goats teach. Maybe the Arcadians are, as
the poets say who write that they lived before the moon. Maybe the Egyptians are, as those
dream who say this land first produced both gods and men. But not one of these existed
before this world. We existed before the foundation of the world. Because we were destined
to exist in him, we were born to God beforehand. We are the rational creatures of God’s
Word, and because of him we can claim great age, because “in the beginning was the Word.”
Because the Word was from the first, he was and is the divine beginning of all things. But
he has now received the name “Christ,” a name consecrated long ago and worthy of power.
That is why I have called him a new song.[10] [John 1:1; Ephesians 1:4]

1k So the Word, the Christ, is the cause both of our being long ago (for he was in God)
and of our well-being. Now this same Word has appeared to men. He alone is both, God and
man, and he is the cause of all good things for us. Taught by him how to live well, we are
sent on our way to eternal life. For, as that inspired apostle of the Lord says, “The
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, training us to deny
ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously and godly in the present
age, while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ.” This is the new song: the appearing, now shining out among us, of
the Word who was in the beginning and who existed before. The Savior who existed before
has appeared only recently. He who is in the One who truly is has appeared, because the
Word who “was with God” has appeared as Teacher. He is the Word through whom all things
were made. In the beginning, as Creator, he gave us life when he formed us. Appearing as
Teacher, he taught us to live well, so that afterward, as God, he might supply us with
life that never ends.[11] [Titus 2:11-13; John 1:1-3]

1l This is not the first time he has pitied us for our error. He has done so from the
first, from the very beginning. But now, by appearing, he has fully rescued us when we
were already perishing. For the evil, creeping beast still enslaves and torments people
with his sorcery. It seems to me he takes a barbarian’s revenge, like those who are said
to tie captives to dead bodies until the captives rot together with them. In the same way
this wicked tyrant and dragon takes whomever he can claim from birth and fastens them with
the miserable chain of superstition to stones, wood, statues and idols of that kind. As
the saying goes, he buries them alive, until the people and the idols decay together.
There is one deceiver. From the beginning he brought Eve down to death, and now he brings
the rest of mankind down as well. For this reason there is also one helper and defender
for us, the Lord. From the beginning he foretold it through prophecy, and now he calls us
plainly to salvation.

1m So let us obey the apostolic command and flee “the ruler of the power of the air, the
spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Let us run to the Savior, the Lord. Both
now and always he has urged people toward salvation. He did so through wonders and signs
in Egypt, and in the desert through the bush and through the cloud that followed the
Hebrews like a servant, out of his gracious love for mankind. By the fear these things
caused he urged the hard-hearted. But through Moses, who was wise in everything, through
Isaiah, the lover of truth, and through the whole chorus of the prophets, he turns to the
Word, in a more reasoned way, those who have ears. At one point he reproaches, at another
he threatens. Over some people he mourns, and to others he sings. He is like a good
physician with sick bodies. He applies poultices to some, soothes others, and bathes
others. He cuts some with the knife, cauterizes others, and sometimes even saws off a
limb, if there is any way to make the man healthy, even at the cost of a part or limb.[12]
[Ephesians 2:2]

1n The Savior has many voices and many ways of saving people. By threatening, he warns. By
rebuking, he turns people around. By mourning, he shows pity. By singing, he encourages.
He speaks through a bush (those people needed signs and wonders), and he frightens people
with fire, kindling a flame from a pillar, a sign of grace and of fear together. If you
obey, there is light; if you disobey, there is fire. But flesh is more precious than a
pillar or a bush, so after those the prophets spoke, with the Lord himself speaking in
Isaiah, himself in Elijah, himself through the mouth of the prophets. Perhaps you do not
believe the prophets, and you suppose both the men and the fire to be a myth. Then the
Lord himself will speak to you. He “being in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God as something to be seized, but emptied himself.” He is the God who loves to show
compassion, and he longs to save man. Now the Word himself speaks to you plainly and
shames your unbelief. Yes, I say it: the Word of God became man, so that you too might
learn from a man how a man may become God.[13] [Philippians 2:6-7]

1o Is it not absurd, my friends, that God should always be urging us toward virtue, while
we shrink back from the benefit and put off our salvation? Does not John also call us to
salvation, and has he not become wholly a voice of exhortation? Then let us question him:
“Who are you among men, and where from?” He will not say he is Elijah. He will deny that
he is Christ. But he will confess that he is a voice crying in the wilderness. Who then is
John? To sketch it in outline, let me say: he is the exhorting voice of the Word, crying
in the wilderness. What are you crying, O voice? “Tell us too.” “Make straight the ways of
the Lord.” John is the forerunner, and his voice is the forerunner of the Word. It is a
voice of encouragement, preparing people for salvation, a voice urging them toward an
inheritance in the heavens. Through it the barren woman and the desert are fruitless no
more.[14] [John 1:19-23; Isaiah 40:3]

1p This pregnancy, as I see it, was foretold by the voice of an angel. That voice, too,
was a forerunner of the Lord, bringing good news to a barren woman, as John did to the
wilderness. Because of this voice of the Word, then, the barren woman is blessed with
children and the desert bears fruit. The Lord’s two forerunning voices, that of the angel
and that of John, hint to me at the salvation laid up for us. When this Word appeared, we
were to carry off the fruit of that good childbearing, eternal life. Scripture brings the
two voices together and makes it all plain: “Let her who does not bear listen. Let her who
is not in labor break out in a cry, because the children of the desert are more numerous
than those of the woman who has a husband.” The angel brought good news to us, and John
urged us to understand who the farmer is and to seek the husband. For he is one and the
same: the husband of the barren woman, the farmer of the desert, who filled both the
barren woman and the desert with divine power.[15] [Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:27]

1q The children of the noble woman are many. But the Hebrew woman, who from of old had
many children, became childless through disobedience. So the barren woman receives the
husband and the desert receives the farmer. One then becomes the mother of fruits, the
other of believers, and both are mothers through the Word. But for unbelievers she is
still left barren and desolate even now. John, the herald of the Word, was in this way
urging people to be ready for the coming of God, the Christ. This is what the silence of
Zechariah hinted at, as it waited for the fruit that would go before Christ. The Word, the
light of truth, was to become the gospel and release the mystic silence of the prophetic
riddles. If you long to see God in truth, take part in purifications fit for God. Do not
use laurel leaves or headbands decorated with wool and purple. Bind righteousness around
your head and put on the leaves of self-control. Search diligently for Christ. “I am the
door,” he says somewhere. If we want to understand God, we must learn about this door, so
that he may throw the gates of heaven wide open to us all at once. The gates of the Word
are rational, and they are opened by the key of faith. “No one has known God except the
Son, and the one to whom the Son reveals him.” I know well that the one who opens the
door, shut until now, will afterward reveal what is inside. He will show what could not
have been known before, except by those who have gone in through Christ, through whom
alone God is seen.[16] [Isaiah 54:1; John 10:9; Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22]

CHAPTER 2

The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen Mysteries and Fables About the Birth and Death of
Their Gods.

2a So do not pry into godless inner sanctuaries. Leave alone the mouths of chasms full of
monstrous trickery, the Thesprotian cauldron, the Cirrhaean tripod, and the bronze of
Dodona. Leave the ancient oak honored in the desert sands, and the oracle there that
withered along with the oak itself, to myths that have grown old. The spring of Castalia
is silent, and so is the other spring at Colophon. The rest of the prophetic waters are
dead in the same way. Emptied of their vanity, they have at last been exposed, late though
it is, as having run dry together with their own myths. Tell us also about the other kind
of divination, or rather madness, and its useless oracles: the Clarian, the Pythian, the
Didymaean, those of Amphiaraus, of Apollo, and of Amphilochus. If you like, consecrate
along with them the readers of portents, the watchers of birds, and the interpreters of
dreams. Bring the flour-diviners and barley-diviners and stand them beside the Pythian,
along with the ventriloquists, who are still honored by many people. And let the secret
shrines of the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be handed over to
darkness.[17]

2b These are truly mad things: workshops of trickery for unbelieving men, and gambling
dens of unmixed delusion. Partners in this sorcery are goats trained for divination, and
crows taught by men to give oracles to men. What if I were to go through the mysteries for
you? I will not mimic them in dance and so give them away, as they say Alcibiades did.
Instead I will strip bare, by the word of truth, the sorcery hidden in them. And I will
wheel out your so-called gods themselves, whose mystic rites these are, as on the stage of
life, before an audience of the truth. The Bacchants hold their orgies for the raving
Dionysus. They celebrate their sacred madness by eating raw flesh, and they perform the
apportioning of the butchered meat with snakes wound around their heads. They cry out
“Euan!” and so call on Eva, that Eve through whom error followed. The sign of the Bacchic
orgies is a consecrated snake. Indeed, in the exact speech of the Hebrews, the name Hevia,
pronounced with the aspirate, is interpreted “female serpent.” Deo and Kore have become a
mystic drama, and Eleusis lights the torches for their wandering, the abduction, and their
grief.[18]

2c It seems to me that we should trace the words “orgies” and “mysteries” to their
sources. Orgies come from the anger (orgē) of Deo against Zeus, and mysteries from the
pollution (mysos) that befell Dionysus. If they come instead from a certain Myus of
Attica, who Apollodorus says was killed while hunting, I do not object. Then your
mysteries have been glorified with the kind of honor paid at a tomb. You can also
understand “mysteries” as “myth-hunts,” since the letters correspond. For if anything
hunts down the most barbarous of the Thracians, the most foolish of the Phrygians, and the
superstitious among the Greeks, myths like these certainly do. So let him perish, whoever
first began this deception among men. It may have been Dardanus, who showed people the
mysteries of the Mother of the gods. It may have been Eetion, who established the orgies
and rites of the Samothracians. It may have been that Phrygian Midas, who learned from
Odrysus and then passed on the skillful deceit to his subjects.[19]

2d For Cinyras, the islander from Cyprus, could never persuade me. He dared to bring the
lewd orgies of Aphrodite out of the night and into the day, in his eagerness to make a
goddess of a prostitute from his own city. Others say that Melampus, son of Amythaon,
carried the festivals of Deo from Egypt to Greece, with her grief sung in hymns. I would
call these men the originators of evil and the fathers of godless myths and deadly
superstition. They planted the mysteries in human life as a seed of wickedness and
corruption. Now, since the time has come, I will prove that your rites are full of deceit
and charlatanry. If you have been initiated, you will laugh all the more at these myths of
yours that are held in honor. I will speak openly of what is hidden. I am not ashamed to
tell what you are not ashamed to worship. There is, then, the “foam-born” and “Cyprus-
born” goddess, the friend of Cinyras. I mean Aphrodite, “the lover of genitals, because
she appeared from the genitals.” These were the lustful parts cut off from Uranus, which
after the cutting forced themselves upon the waves. A fruit worthy of such shameless parts
is born to you in Aphrodite. In the rites of this sea-born pleasure, as a token of her
birth, a grain of salt and a phallus are given to those being initiated into the craft of
adultery. The initiates bring a coin to her, as lovers do to a courtesan.[20]

2e The mysteries of Deo involve Zeus’s sexual union with his mother Demeter, and the rage
of Deo. (I do not know what to call her now, mother or wife.) Because of this rage she is
said to have been named Brimo. They also include the pleading of Zeus, a drink of bile,
the tearing out of hearts, and unspeakable rites. The Phrygians perform the same rites for
Attis, Cybele and the Corybantes. They have gone on and on with a story that Zeus tore the
testicles from a ram and threw them into Deo’s lap. This was supposedly a penalty for his
violent union with her, as though he had castrated himself. The tokens of this initiation,
which I set out here as something extra, will make you laugh, I know, even though the
exposure leaves you in no mood for it. “I ate from the drum. I drank from the cymbal. I
carried the sacred vessel. I slipped into the bridal chamber.” Are these tokens anything
but an outrage?[21]

2f Are these mysteries not a mockery? What if I add the rest? Demeter becomes pregnant,
and Kore is brought up. Then Zeus, who fathered her, unites with Pherephatta, his own
daughter, after having done so with her mother Deo. He has forgotten his earlier
pollution. Zeus is both the father and the corrupter of the girl. He unites with her as a
serpent, and so is exposed for what he was. In the Sabazian mysteries, at any rate, the
token for the initiated is “the god through the bosom.” This god is a serpent drawn
through the bosom of those being initiated, which proves the lack of self-control in Zeus.
Pherephatta also bears a child in the shape of a bull. As one poet of the idols says: “The
bull is the serpent’s father, and the serpent the bull’s father; on the mountain, the
herdsman’s hidden goad.” By “herdsman’s goad,” I suppose, he means the fennel stalk that
the bacchants wreathe.[22]

2g Do you want me to tell you about Pherephatta’s flower-gathering, the basket, her
abduction by Aidoneus, the opening of the earth, and the pigs of Eubouleus that were
swallowed up along with the two goddesses? This is the reason why, at the Thesmophoria,
they throw pigs into the sacred pits. The women celebrate this myth in different ways from
city to city, in the Thesmophoria, the Skirophoria and the Arrhetophoria. In many forms
they act out the tragedy of Pherephatta’s abduction. The mysteries of Dionysus are utterly
inhuman. He was still a child, and the Kouretes were dancing around him with armed
movements. The Titans crept in by treachery and deceived him with childish toys. Then
these Titans tore him apart while he was still an infant, as Orpheus the Thracian, the
poet of the Initiation, says: “Cone and bull-roarer, and jointed dolls, and beautiful
golden apples from the clear-voiced Hesperides.” It will also help to condemn this rite if
I set out its worthless tokens for you: knucklebone, ball, spinning top, apples, bull-
roarer, mirror, tuft of wool.[23]

2h Athena took the heart of Dionysus, and was named Pallas from the throbbing (pallein) of
the heart. The Titans, who had torn him apart, put a cauldron on a tripod and threw in the
limbs of Dionysus. First they boiled them, then they skewered them on spits and “held them
over Hephaestus.” Later Zeus appeared. If he was a god, perhaps he got a share of the
savor of the roasting meat, which your gods admit is the “portion they have received.” He
struck the Titans with a thunderbolt and handed the limbs of Dionysus to his son Apollo to
bury. Apollo did not disobey Zeus. He carried the torn corpse to Parnassus and laid it
there. If you want to look on the rites of the Corybantes too, here they are. Two of them
killed their third brother and covered the head of the corpse with a purple cloth. They
crowned it, carried it on a bronze shield, and buried it at the foot of Olympus.[24]

2i In short, these mysteries are murders and burials. Their priests are called “Lords of
the Rite” (Anaktotelestai) by those who care to call them that. They add to the marvel of
the tragedy by forbidding anyone to put celery on the table with its root. For they
believe the celery grew from the blood that flowed from the Corybant. In the same way the
women celebrating the Thesmophoria take care not to eat pomegranate seeds that have fallen
on the ground. They suppose that pomegranates sprang from the drops of Dionysus’s blood.
They also call the Corybantes “Cabeiri,” and proclaim a Cabeiric rite. For these same two
brother-killers took the chest in which the genitals of Dionysus lay, and carried it to
Tyrrhenia, merchants of a glorious cargo! They lived there as exiles. They offered the
Tyrrhenians this much-prized teaching of piety, genitals and a chest, for them to
worship.[25]

2j For this reason some say, not unreasonably, that Dionysus is called Attis, because he
was deprived of his private parts. And why be surprised that the barbarian Etruscans are
initiated into such shameful sufferings, when among the Athenians and the rest of Greece
the story of Deo is full of shame? I am ashamed even to tell it. Deo wandered about
Eleusis looking for her daughter Kore (Eleusis is a place in Attica). She grew weary and
sat down by a well, grieving. Even now this is forbidden to the initiates, so that those
who have been initiated may not seem to imitate the mourning goddess. At that time the
earth-born people lived at Eleusis. Their names were Baubo, Dysaules and Triptolemus, and
also Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a cowherd, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouleus
a swineherd. From them sprang the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes (“Heralds”), the priestly
clans that flourished at Athens.[26]

2k Next (for I will not hold back from telling it), Baubo took Deo in as a guest and
offered her a drink of barley-mixture. Deo refused to take it and would not drink, for she
was in mourning. Baubo was deeply hurt, as if she had been scorned. So she pulled up her
clothes and showed her private parts to the goddess. Deo was pleased at the sight, and at
last, delighted with the spectacle, accepted the drink. These are the secret mysteries of
the Athenians. Orpheus also records them. I will set out Orpheus’ own verses for you, so
that you may have the guide of the mysteries himself as a witness to their shamelessness:
“When she had spoken, she drew up her robes and showed all of her body, a shape not fit to
be seen. The child Iacchus was there, and laughing he kept tossing it with his hand under
Baubo’s breast. Then the goddess smiled, and smiled in her heart, and took the shimmering
cup in which the barley-drink was placed.”[27]

2l This is the password of the Eleusinian mysteries: “I fasted, I drank the barley-drink,
I took from the chest, and having done the work, I put it in the basket, and from the
basket into the chest.” Fine sights indeed, and fitting for a goddess! These rites are
worthy of night and fire, and of the “great-hearted” (or rather empty-minded) people of
the sons of Erechtheus, and of the other Greeks too, for whom, “when they have died, there
awaits what they do not even hope for.” For whom does Heraclitus of Ephesus prophesy?
“Night-wanderers, magi, bacchants, maenads, initiates.” He threatens these with what
follows death; for these he foretells fire. “For the mysteries customary among men are
entered into in an unholy way.” So the mysteries are only custom and empty opinion. They
are a deceit of the serpent that people treat as worship, for with counterfeit piety they
turn to initiations that are really no initiations, and to rites that are no true rites.
And what are the mystic chests like? For I must strip bare their holy things and speak out
what may not be spoken.[28]

2m Are they not sesame cakes, pyramid-shaped cakes, balls of wool, many-knobbed cakes,
lumps of salt, and a serpent, the sacred emblem of Dionysus Bassareus? Besides these, are
there not pomegranates, fig branches, fennel-wands and ivy, and also round cakes and
poppies? These are their holy things. In addition there are the secret symbols of Earth-
Themis: marjoram, a lamp, a sword, and a woman’s comb, which is (to put it politely and in
mystic language) a woman’s private part. What open shamelessness! Once, for self-
controlled people, night was kept silent and was a cover for pleasure. Now, for the
initiates, night is talked about and becomes a test of their lack of self-control, and the
fire of the torches exposes their passions. Put out the fire, hierophant! Show respect for
the torches, torch-bearer! The light exposes your Iacchus. Allow night to hide the
mysteries. Let the rites be honored with darkness. Fire does not pretend.[29]

2n Fire is commanded to expose and to punish. These are the mysteries of the godless. I
call them godless with good reason, because they have not known the God who truly exists.
Instead they shamelessly worship a child being torn apart by the Titans, a grieving woman,
and private parts that truly cannot be named for shame. They are caught in a double
godlessness. The first is that they do not know God and do not recognize the God who truly
is. The second is this further error: they think that those who do not exist do exist, and
they call gods those who do not truly exist, or rather do not exist at all and have only
the name. For this reason the apostle also exposes us when he says, “You were strangers to
the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Many good
things be to the king of the Scythians, whoever he was.[30] [Ephesians 2:12]

2o This king shot his own countryman with an arrow. The man was imitating among the
Scythians the rite of the Mother of the gods as it is practiced at Cyzicus. He beat a
drum, clashed a cymbal, and had an image of a begging priest of the goddess hanging from
his neck. The king shot him because he had become unmanly among the Greeks and was
teaching the other Scythians the female disease. For this reason (for I must not hide it)
I wonder how Euhemerus of Acragas, Nicanor of Cyprus, the two Melians Diagoras and Hippo,
the Cyrenian Theodorus, and many others came to be called atheists. These men lived sober
lives and saw the error about these gods more sharply than other people. They may not have
grasped the truth itself, but they at least suspected the error. That suspicion springs up
as no small seed, a spark of understanding that leads toward the truth. One of them urges
the Egyptians: “If you think they are gods, do not mourn for them or beat your breasts.
But if you grieve for them, stop considering them gods.” Another took a wooden Heracles
(he happened to be cooking something at home, as one might expect) and said, “Come now,
Heracles. Now is your time to serve us as you served Eurystheus, and perform this
thirteenth labor by preparing Diagoras’ dinner.” Then he put it on the fire like a piece
of wood. So atheism and superstition are the extremes of ignorance, and we must work hard
to stay clear of both.[31]

2p Do you not see Moses, the hierophant of the truth, commanding that a man with crushed
or cut-off genitals must not enter the assembly, nor the son of a prostitute either?
Through the first two he hints at the godless way of life, which lacks divine and fruitful
power. Through the third he points to the person who claims many falsely named gods in
place of the one God who truly exists. In the same way the son of a prostitute claims many
fathers, because he does not know his real father. There was once an inborn, ancient
fellowship between human beings and heaven. Ignorance darkened it, yet now and then it
suddenly leaps out of the darkness and shines. This is what someone has said: “Do you see
this boundless sky on high, which holds the earth all around in its moist arms?” And
again: “O you who uphold the earth and have your seat upon the earth, whoever you are, so
hard to guess at and to see,” and all the other things the sons of the poets sing.[32]
[Deuteronomy 23:1-2]

2q But mistaken ideas, led away from the straight path and truly deadly, turned man, the
heavenly plant, away from a heavenly way of life and stretched him out on the earth. They
persuaded him to devote himself to images molded from earth. Some people were deceived at
once by the sight of the heavens. They trusted their eyes alone and watched the movements
of the stars. They admired them and made gods of them, calling the stars *theoi* (“gods”)
from *thein*, “to run.” They worshiped the sun, as the Indians do, and the moon, as the
Phrygians do. Others gathered the cultivated fruits that grow from the earth. They called
grain Deo, as the Athenians do, and the vine Dionysus, as the Thebans do. Others looked at
the payments that wickedness brings and made gods of those repayments, worshiping
retributions and disasters. From this come the Erinyes and the Eumenides, the Palamnaioi
and Prostropaioi, and also the Alastors, which the poets of the stage have invented.[33]

2r Some philosophers also, following the poets, make idols out of the shapes of the
passions within you: Fear, Love, Joy and Hope. So, for example, the ancient Epimenides set
up altars at Athens to Insolence and Shamelessness. Other gods arise from events and
things themselves, and people make gods of them and give them bodily form: a certain
Justice, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Fate, and the Attic goddesses Auxo and Thallo. There
is a sixth way of deception, which produces gods: the one by which they count up the
twelve gods. Hesiod sings the genealogy of these gods in his own way, and Homer says much
about them in his talk of the gods. The last way remains, for there are seven ways in all.
It starts from the divine kindness shown to human beings.[34] 2s They did not understand
that it is God who does us good. So they invented saviors: the Dioscuri, Heracles the
averter of evil, and Asclepius the healer. These are slippery and harmful departures from
the truth. They drag man down from heaven and tip him into a pit. I want to show you these
gods up close, to show what sort they are and whether they are anything at all. Then you
may finally give up your error and run back again to heaven. “For we too were once
children of wrath, like the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love
with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ, when we were already dead in
our trespasses.” For the Word is living, and the one who was buried with Christ is exalted
together with God. Those who are still unbelieving are called “children of wrath,”
nourished on wrath. But we are no longer wrath’s nurslings, since we have been torn away
from error and are rushing toward the truth.[35] [Ephesians 2:3-5; Colossians 2:12]

2t In this way we, who were once sons of lawlessness, have now become sons of God, through
the Word’s love for humankind. Your own poet, Empedocles of Acragas, steps in and speaks
to you: “Therefore, distraught amid grievous evils, you will never ease your heart of its
wretched sorrows.” Most of what is told about your gods is myth and invention. The rest,
what is supposed to have really happened, is written about shameful men who lived
licentious lives. “You walk in pride and madness. You have left the straight, right path
and gone off by the one through thorns and stakes. Why do you wander, mortals? Stop, you
fools. Leave the darkness of night and take hold of the light.” The Sibyl, prophetic and
poetic, urges this on us. Truth urges it too. She strips the crowd of gods of these
terrifying, stunning masks, and she exposes the opinions people have built up about them
by pointing out how they share the same names.[36]

2u For instance, some writers list three Zeuses. One is the son of Aether, in Arcadia. The
other two are sons of Cronus, one in Crete and the other again in Arcadia. Some also
suppose five Athenas. The first is the daughter of Hephaestus, the Athenian. The second is
the daughter of Nilus, the Egyptian. The third is the daughter of Cronus, the inventor of
war. The fourth is the daughter of Zeus, whom the Messenians call Koryphasia after her
mother. Last is the daughter of Pallas and of Titanis, daughter of Oceanus. She impiously
sacrificed her father and adorned herself with his skin, like a fleece. Then there is
Apollo. Aristotle names as the first the son of Hephaestus and Athena (so here Athena is
no longer a virgin). The second is the Cretan, the son of Cyrbas. The third is the son of
Zeus. The fourth is the Arcadian, the son of Silenus, called Nomios among the Arcadians.
After these he lists the Libyan, the son of Ammon. Didymus the grammarian adds a sixth,
the son of Magnes.

2v How many Apollos are there even now? They are countless: mortal, perishable men who
have been given the same name, just like those already mentioned. What if I told you about
the many Asclepiuses, or the Hermeses on the lists, or the Hephaestuses of the myths?
Would I not seem excessive, flooding your ears with so many names? But their homelands,
their crafts, their lives, and even their tombs prove that they were men. Take Ares, whom
even the poets honor as highly as they can: “Ares, Ares, bane of mortals, blood-stained
wall-batterer.” This fickle, hostile god was a Spartan, according to Epicharmus. Sophocles
knows him as a Thracian, and others say he was an Arcadian. Homer says he was kept in
chains for thirteen months: “Ares endured it, when Otus and mighty Ephialtes, the sons of
Aloeus, bound him in a strong bond. He was bound in a bronze jar for thirteen months.”[37]

2w May the Carians fare well, who sacrifice dogs to him! And let the Scythians never stop
sacrificing donkeys, as Apollodorus and Callimachus say: “Phoebus comes to the
Hyperboreans’ sacrifices of donkeys.” The same poet says elsewhere: “Rich donkey-
slaughterings delight Phoebus.” Then there is Hephaestus, whom Zeus threw from Olympus,
“from the divine threshold.” He fell on Lemnos and worked as a smith, crippled in both
feet: “and his thin legs moved quickly beneath him.” So among the gods you have not only a
smith but also a physician. And the physician loved money. His name was Asclepius. I will
bring in your own poet as witness, Pindar of Boeotia: “Him too gold, shown in his hands,
turned aside for a lordly fee. Then the son of Cronus hurled his bolt from his hands right
through the two of them and quickly took the breath from their chests. The blazing
thunderbolt brought down their doom.” Euripides says as well: “For Zeus is to blame for
killing my son Asclepius, striking flame into his chest.”[38]

2x So Asclepius lies there, struck by lightning, in the territory of Cynosuris.
Philochorus says that Poseidon is honored as a physician in Tenos, and that Sicily lies on
top of Cronus, who is buried there. Patrocles of Thurii and Sophocles the younger tell the
story of the Dioscuri in some of their tragedies. These two Dioscuri were mortal men,
subject to death, if Homer is reliable enough to confirm what was said: “But them the
life-giving earth already held, there in Lacedaemon, in their own dear native land.” Let
the writer of the Cyprian poems come forward too: “Castor is mortal, and the fate of death
is appointed for him; but Polydeuces is immortal, a scion of Ares.” That was a poet’s lie.
Homer is more trustworthy than he is. Homer spoke this way of both Dioscuri, and he also
exposed Heracles as a mere shade of the dead, for he calls him “the man Heracles, who had
a hand in great deeds.”[39]

2y So Homer himself knows Heracles as a mortal man. The philosopher Hieronymus even
describes the build of his body: small, bristly-haired, strong. Dicaearchus describes him
as lean, sinewy, dark, hook-nosed, with rather bright eyes and straight hair. This
Heracles lived fifty-two years. He ended his life and was given his funeral on the pyre on
Mount Oeta. Then there are the Muses. Alcman gives them as the daughters of Zeus and
Mnemosyne, and the other poets and prose writers deify and worship them. Whole cities even
set apart sacred precincts, “museums,” for them. Yet they were Mysian servant girls,
bought by Megaclo, the daughter of Macar. Macar was king of the Lesbians and was always
quarreling with his wife. Megaclo was angry on her mother’s behalf, and why would she not
be? So she bought these Mysian servant girls, the same number as the Muses, and in the
Aeolic dialect called them Moisai, “Muses.”[40]

2z She taught them to sing and to play the lyre, setting the deeds of old to music. By
playing constantly and singing sweetly, they charmed Macar and put a stop to his anger.
For this reason Megaclo set up bronze figures of them as a thank-offering on her mother’s
behalf, and ordered that they be honored in all the temples. That is the story of the
Muses, and it comes from Myrsilus of Lesbos. Now listen to the loves of the gods you
worship. Hear the strange tales of their lack of self-control, their wounds and chains,
their laughter and fights, their slavery as well, their drinking parties, their embraces,
tears and sufferings, and their lewd pleasures. Call Poseidon for me, and the chorus of
women ruined by him: Amphitrite, Amymone, Alope, Melanippe, Alcyone, Hippothoe, Chione,
and countless others. Even with so many, your Poseidon’s passions still felt cramped.[41]
2aa Call Apollo for me too. This is Phoebus, a pure prophet and a good counselor. But
Sterope does not say so, nor Aethusa, nor Arsinoe, nor Zeuxippe, nor Prothoe, nor
Marpessa, nor Hypsipyle. Only Daphne escaped both the prophet and the ruin he brought. And
let Zeus himself come last of all, the “father of men and gods,” as you call him. He
poured himself out so far into sexual pleasure that he desired every woman and carried out
his desire on every one. At any rate, he was filled with women no less than the Thmuite
goat was with she-goats. And I have marveled at your poems, Homer: “He spoke, and the son
of Cronus nodded with his dark brows. The ambrosial locks of the lord waved from his
immortal head, and he shook great Olympus.”[42]

2ab You make Zeus a majestic figure, Homer, and you give him a nod worthy of honor. But if
you only show the girdle, man, Zeus is exposed and his hair is disgraced. To what lengths
of licentiousness did that Zeus go, who took his pleasure with Alcmene for so many nights!
Nine nights were not long for that unrestrained god. On the contrary, a whole lifetime was
too short for his lack of self-control. All this so that he might sow for us the god who
wards off evil! Heracles, the son of Zeus, truly the son of Zeus, was born of that long
night. He labored through the twelve labors over a long time, yet in a single night he
ruined the fifty daughters of Thestius, becoming at once adulterer and bridegroom of so
many virgins. It is no surprise, then, that the poets call him “cruel” and “a doer of
wicked deeds.” It would take too long to tell of his adulteries of every kind and his
ruining of boys.[43]

2ac Your gods did not even keep away from boys. One loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus,
another Pelops, another Chrysippus, another Ganymede. Let your wives worship such gods,
then. Let them pray that their own husbands will be like these gods, so self-controlled!
That way the men will be like the gods, having eagerly copied the same behavior. Let your
sons be trained to revere these gods too, so that when they grow up they will have taken
the gods as a vivid picture of fornication. But perhaps only the male gods rush about
after sexual pleasure. Homer says, “the goddesses stayed each at home, for shame.” In his
story the goddesses were too modest to look at Aphrodite caught in adultery. Yet some
goddesses indulged themselves with even more passion, bound up in adultery: Eos with
Tithonus, Selene with Endymion, a Nereid with Aeacus, Thetis with Peleus, Demeter with
Iasion, and Pherephatta with Adonis.[44]

2ad Aphrodite, put to shame over Ares, went off to Cinyras. She married Anchises, lay in
wait for Phaethon, and loved Adonis. She also quarreled with the ox-eyed goddess. For the
sake of an apple the goddesses stripped and stood naked before the shepherd, to see
whether any of them would seem beautiful to him. Come now, let us go briefly around the
games and put an end to these festivals held at tombs: the Isthmian, Nemean and Pythian,
and the Olympian after them. At Pytho the Pythian dragon is worshipped, and the festival
of the serpent is announced as the Pythia. At the Isthmus the sea spat out a piece of
pitiful refuse, and the Isthmia mourn Melicertes. At Nemea another child, Archemorus, was
buried, and the funeral rite for the child is called the Nemea. And Pisa, you Greeks of
every land, is the grave of a Phrygian charioteer. The Olympia are the funeral offerings
for Pelops, and Pheidias’ Zeus claims them for himself.[45]

2ae So it seems the contests held over dead men were mysteries, just as the oracles were,
and both have been made public property. The mysteries at Agrae and at Halimus in Attica
are confined to Athens. But the contests and the phalluses paraded for Dionysus are by now
a disgrace to the whole world, and they have spread wickedly through all of life. The
story goes like this. Dionysus was eager to go down to Hades but did not know the way. A
man named Prosymnus promised to tell him, but not for free. The price was not honorable,
though it seemed honorable to Dionysus. The favor was sexual, and the payment Prosymnus
asked for was Dionysus himself. The god was glad to grant the request. He promised to give
himself if he came back, and he confirmed his promise with an oath. Having learned the
way, he left. Then he returned, but he did not find Prosymnus, for he had died. To
discharge his obligation to his lover, Dionysus rushed to the tomb, burning with desire to
play the passive part.[46]

2af He cut a branch from a fig tree that happened to be at hand and shaped it like a male
organ. Then he sat down on the branch, and so fulfilled his promise to the dead man. As a
mystic reminder of this experience, phalluses are set up for Dionysus in city after city.
Heraclitus says: “If it were not for Dionysus that they held the procession and sang the
hymn to the shameful parts, their deeds would be most shameless. But Hades and Dionysus
are the same, the one for whom they rave and celebrate the Lenaia.” They do this, I think,
not so much because of bodily drunkenness as because of the disgraceful sacred rite of
licentiousness. It is no surprise, then, that gods like yours are slaves, since they have
become slaves to their passions. Even before the so-called Helots among the Spartans,
Apollo came under the yoke of slavery to Admetus in Pherae, and Heracles to Omphale in
Sardis. Poseidon and Apollo worked as hired laborers for Laomedon. Apollo was like a
worthless house slave, unable even to win his freedom from his former master. At that time
the two of them also built the walls of Troy for the Phrygian.[47]

2ag Homer is not ashamed to show Athena lighting the way for Odysseus, “holding a golden
lamp” in her hands. And we have read that Aphrodite, like some loose little serving-girl,
brought a chair and set it for Helen face to face with her adulterer, so that she might
draw him into intercourse. Besides these, Panyasis records very many other gods who served
men. He writes something like this: “Demeter endured, the famous Lame One endured,
Poseidon endured, and silver-bowed Apollo endured it, to work as a hired servant beside a
mortal man for a year. Fierce-hearted Ares endured it too, under his father’s compulsion,”
and so on. It follows naturally, then, that I should present these lustful and passionate
gods of yours as having human feelings in every way. “For surely their skin is mortal.”
Homer proves it. He shows Aphrodite, very precisely, crying out sharply and loudly at her
wound. And he tells how Ares himself, the most warlike of all, was stabbed in the flank by
Diomedes.[48]

2ah Polemon says that Athena was wounded by Ornytus. Homer says that Aidoneus (Hades) was
shot with an arrow by Heracles, and Panyasis tells the same of the Sun. This same Panyasis
also reports that Hera, the goddess of marriage, was wounded by this same Heracles “in
sandy Pylos.” Sosibius says that Heracles himself was wounded in the hand by the sons of
Hippocoon. But if there are wounds, there is blood. And the poets’ “ichor” is even more
revolting than blood, since ichor is understood to be blood gone rotten. So they must also
be given medical care and food, since they need these things. Hence the tables, the
drinking, the laughter and the sex. If the gods were immortal, lacking nothing and never
aging, they would not have human sexual relations, or father children, or even sleep.[49]
2ai Zeus himself also shared a meal at a human table among the Ethiopians. But at the
house of Lycaon the Arcadian he was served an inhuman and forbidden meal. There he gorged
himself on human flesh, though not willingly. The god did not know that his host Lycaon
the Arcadian had slaughtered his own son (his name was Nyctimus) and set him before Zeus
as a dish. A fine Zeus indeed: the prophetic, the god of guests, the god of suppliants,
the gracious, the giver of every omen, the god to whom the guilty turn! Or rather he is
the unjust, the lawless, the wicked, the impious, the inhuman, the violent, the corrupter,
the adulterer, the lover. But that was when he was like this, when he was a man. Now, it
seems to me, even your myths have grown old. Zeus is no longer a serpent, no longer a swan
or an eagle or a man in love. The god does not fly, does not chase boys, does not kiss,
does not use force. Yet there are still many beautiful women today, more comely than Leda
and more in their prime than Semele. And there are youths more handsome and better
mannered than the Phrygian herdsman.[50]

2aj Where now is that eagle? Where is the swan? Where is Zeus himself? He has grown old,
feathers and all. It cannot be that he has repented of his love affairs or been taught
self-control. The myth is stripped bare before you. Leda is dead, the swan is dead, the
eagle is dead. Look for your Zeus, but do not search heaven; investigate the earth. The
Cretan, in whose land he lies buried, will tell you. Callimachus says in his Hymns: “For a
tomb, O lord, the Cretans built for you.” For Zeus is dead (do not be upset), just like
Leda, the swan, the eagle, the man in love, and the serpent. Even the superstitious
themselves now show that, unwillingly but still plainly, they see the error about the
gods. For the gods “are not from an ancient oak or from a rock, but are a race of men.”
And a little later they will be found to be oaks and rocks after all.[51]

2ak Staphylus reports that a certain Zeus Agamemnon is honored in Sparta. Phanocles, in
his work “Loves, or the Beautiful Boys,” says that Agamemnon, king of the Greeks, set up a
temple of Aphrodite of Argynnus in honor of Argynnus, his beloved. The Arcadians worship
an Artemis called the Hanged Woman, as Callimachus says in his Origins. At Methymna
another Artemis is honored, called Condylitis. There is also a shrine of yet another
Artemis, Artemis Podagra (Gout), in Laconia, as Sosibius says. Polemon knows of a statue
of Apollo the Gaper, and of another Apollo, the Glutton, honored in Elis. There the Eleans
sacrifice to Zeus the Fly-Averter. The Romans sacrifice to Heracles the Fly-Averter, and
also to Fever and Fear, whom they list among Heracles’ companions. I say nothing of the
Argives and Spartans. The Argives worship Aphrodite the Grave-Robber, and the Spartans
revere Artemis Chelytis (the Cougher), since they use the word “chelyttein” for
coughing.[52]

2al Do you suppose that the things we set before you are quoted from some spurious source?
You do not seem to know even your own writers, whom I call as witnesses against your
unbelief. You poor wretches, it is these writers who have filled your whole life, a life
truly not worth living, with godless mockery! Is not a bald Zeus honored in Argos, and
another Zeus, an avenger, in Cyprus? Do not the Argives sacrifice to Aphrodite Peribasō,
the Athenians to Aphrodite the Courtesan, and the Syracusans to Aphrodite of the Beautiful
Buttocks, whom the poet Nicander somewhere calls “kalliglouton”? I will say nothing now of
Dionysus Choiropsalas. The people of Sicyon worship him. They put Dionysus in charge of
women’s private parts, and so revere the founder of outrage as overseer of shame. Such are
their gods, and such are they themselves, who make sport of their gods, or rather mock and
insult themselves. How much better the Egyptians are, who honor irrational animals village
by village and city by city, than the Greeks who worship such gods as these![53]

2am For even if the Egyptians’ animals are beasts, they are not adulterous or lustful, and
not one of them hunts for pleasure against nature. As for what your gods are like, why say
more, when they have been exposed enough already? Now the Egyptians I just mentioned are
divided among themselves in their forms of worship. The people of Syene worship the
phagros fish. Those who live at Elephantine worship the maiotes, which is another fish.
The people of Oxyrhynchus likewise worship the fish that gives their country its name. The
people of Heracleopolis worship the ichneumon. The people of Sais and Thebes worship the
sheep. The people of Lycopolis worship the wolf, and those of Cynopolis the dog. The
people of Memphis worship Apis, and those of Mendes the goat. But you, who are better than
the Egyptians in every way (I hesitate to say worse), and who never stop laughing at the
Egyptians day after day, what are you like when it comes to irrational animals?[54]

2an Among you, the Thessalians honor storks because of their familiarity with them, and
the Thebans honor weasels because of the birth of Heracles. And what of the Thessalians
again? They are said to worship ants, because they have learned that Zeus took the form of
an ant, slept with Eurymedusa the daughter of Cletor, and fathered Myrmidon. Polemon
reports that the people living around the Troad worship the native mice, which they call
“sminthoi,” because the mice gnawed through their enemies’ bowstrings. They also named
Apollo “Sminthian” after those mice. Heraclides, in his Foundings of Temples, says that in
Acarnania, where the promontory of Actium and the temple of Apollo of Actium are, an ox is
first sacrificed to the flies. I will not forget the Samians either, for the Samians
worship the sheep, as Euphorion says. Nor will I forget the Syrians living in Phoenicia.
Some of them worship doves and others fish, as extravagantly as the Eleans worship
Zeus.[55]

2ao Very well. Since the ones you worship are not gods, I think we should look again at
whether they are really daimons, ranked, as you say, in this second order. For if they are
daimons, they are greedy and unclean. In fact you can openly find local daimons, city by
city, who receive honors. The Cythnians have Menedemus, the Tenians Callistagoras, the
Delians Anius, and the Spartans Astrabacus. At Phalerum a hero is honored “at the stern.”
The Pythian priestess also ordered the Plataeans to sacrifice to Androcrates, Democrates,
Cyclaeus and Leucon when the Persian wars were at their height. Anyone who can look around
even a little can see a great many other daimons. For “thrice ten thousand are there on
the all-nourishing earth, immortal daimons, guardians of mortal men.” Who are these
guardians, Boeotian? Do not begrudge us the answer.[56] 2ap Clearly these guardians are
the ones just named, and those held in higher honor than they, the great daimons: Apollo,
Artemis, Leto, Demeter, Kore, Pluto, Heracles, and Zeus himself. But surely they do not
guard us against running away, Ascraean. Perhaps they guard us against sinning, though
they have no experience of sins themselves! Here the proverb fits: “A father who has never
been corrected corrects his child.” But if these really are guardians, they are not moved
by any goodwill toward us. They are intent on your ruin, and like flatterers they cling to
your life, lured by smoke. The daimons themselves somewhere confess their gluttony when
they say: “of libation and the savor of fat, for this is the honor we have received as our
portion.” And if the gods of the Egyptians, such as cats and weasels, were given a voice,
what other voice would they use than the Homeric, poetic one, which loves the savor of fat
and the art of cooking? Such are the daimons and gods among you, and the so-called
demigods too, named the way mules are called “half-asses.” You have no shortage of names
for compounding your impieties.[57]

CHAPTER 3

The Cruelty of the Sacrifices to the Gods.

3a Let us add this as well: your gods are inhuman daimons who hate humanity. They are not
only glad at people’s madness, but they also enjoy the killing of human beings. Sometimes
they take their occasions of pleasure from armed contests in the stadiums, sometimes from
the countless ambitions of wars. In this way they may glut themselves as much as possible
on human bloodshed without restraint. And in cities and nations they have descended like
plagues and demanded savage offerings. So Aristomenes the Messenian cut the throats of
three hundred men for Ithomaean Zeus. He thought it a favorable sacrifice to offer so many
hecatombs at once, and of such quality. Among them was Theopompus, king of the Spartans, a
noble victim. The Taurians, who live on the Tauric Chersonese, immediately sacrifice to
the Tauric Artemis any strangers they catch among them who have come to grief at sea.
These sacrifices of yours Euripides sets out in tragedy on the stage.[58]

3b Monimus records in his *Collection of Marvels* that at Pella in Thessaly an Achaean man
is sacrificed to Peleus and Chiron. Anticleides, in his *Homeward Journeys*, shows that
the Lyctians, a Cretan people, slaughter men to Zeus. Dosidas says that the Lesbians offer
the same sacrifice to Dionysus. The Phocaeans I will not pass over either. Pythocles, in
the third book of his *On Concord*, records that they burn a man whole to Artemis
Tauropolos. Erechtheus of Attica and Marius the Roman both sacrificed their own daughters.
Erechtheus offered his to Persephone, as Demaratus reports in the first book of his
*Subjects of Tragedy*. Marius offered his to the Averting Powers, as Dorotheus reports in
the fourth book of his *Italian History*. These examples show how kind the daimons are to
humanity! And how could those who fear the daimons fail to be holy in proportion?[59] 3c
The daimons are hailed as “saviors,” and their worshippers ask for safety from the very
ones who plot against their safety. Supposing they are offering favorable sacrifices to
these powers, they do not notice that they are slaughtering their own kind, human beings.
A killing does not become a sacrifice because of where it happens. Someone may slaughter a
man to Artemis and Zeus at an altar in a supposedly holy place, instead of to anger and
greed on the road, though anger and greed are daimons of the same kind. He may call his
victim “sacred.” But such a sacrifice is still murder and manslaughter. So why is it, you
human beings, wisest of all living creatures, that we run from wild beasts? If we happen
on a bear or a lion, we turn aside. “As when a man sees a snake in a mountain glen and
springs back from it, and trembling seizes his limbs, and he draws back.” Yet daimons are
destructive and accursed, plotters, haters of mankind, and ruinous. You sense this
beforehand and understand it. Why do you not turn aside and turn away from them?[60]

3d What truth could the wicked ever tell, or whom could they ever help? Right now I can
show you that a human being is better than these gods of yours, the demons: Cyrus and
Solon were better than Apollo the prophet. Your Phoebus loves gifts, but he does not love
people. He betrayed his friend Croesus. Forgetting the payment he had received (so fond of
glory was he), he led Croesus across the Halys to the pyre. This is how the demons love:
they lead people into the fire. But you, O man, more loving toward people and more
truthful than Apollo, pity the one who lies bound on the pyre. You, Solon, prophesy the
truth. You, Cyrus, order the pyre put out. And you, Croesus, be sensible at last, now that
you have learned better through suffering. The one you worship is ungrateful. He takes his
payment, and after taking the gold he lies again.[61]

3e So it is not the demon but the man who tells you to look to the end. Solon does not
give crooked prophecies. This is the only oracle you will find true, barbarian, and you
will test it on the pyre. This makes me wonder what fancies carried away those who first
went astray, so that they proclaimed superstition to mankind and laid down laws to worship
accursed demons. Whether it was Phoroneus, or Merops, or someone else, they set up temples
and altars for these demons, and the myths say they were also the first to offer
sacrifices. Later, as time went on, people kept molding new gods for themselves to
worship. Take Eros, who is said to be among the oldest of the gods. No one honored him at
all until Charmus seduced a certain youth and set up an altar in the Academy, as a thank-
offering because his desire had been satisfied. So people have given the name Eros to the
lewdness of that sickness, making a god out of unrestrained desire.[62]

3f The Athenians did not even know who Pan was until Philippides told them. It is no
surprise, then, that superstition, once it began somewhere, became a fountain of senseless
evil. It was not checked. It grew and flowed out in a great flood, and became the maker of
many demons. It offered sacrifices of a hundred oxen, held festivals, set up statues and
built temples. These are the ones (for I will not be silent about them either, but will
expose them too) that are politely called temples but are really tombs. In other words,
the tombs have been given the name of temples. But you, now at least, forget your
superstition, and be ashamed to honor tombs. In the temple of Athena at Larissa, on the
acropolis, is the tomb of Acrisius. At Athens, on the acropolis, is the tomb of Cecrops,
as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his *Histories*.[63]

3g What of Erichthonius? Is he not buried in the temple of Athena Polias? And Immarados,
the son of Eumolpus and Daeira, is he not buried within the enclosure of the Eleusinion
below the Acropolis? Are the daughters of Celeus not buried at Eleusis? Why should I list
for you the women who came from the Hyperboreans? They were called Hyperoche and Laodice,
and they are buried in the Artemision on Delos, which lies within the sanctuary of the
Delian Apollo. Leandrius says that Cleochus is buried at Miletus, in the Didymaion. At
this point, following Zeno of Myndus, we should not pass over the tomb of Leucophryne, who
is buried in the temple of Artemis in Magnesia. Nor should we pass over the altar of
Apollo at Telmessus, which they report to be the tomb of Telmessus the seer. Ptolemy, the
son of Agesarchus, says in the first book of his work on Philopator that Cinyras and the
descendants of Cinyras are buried in the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos.[64]

3h But if I went through the tombs that you worship, all of time would not be enough for
me. And if no shame at what you dare to do creeps over you, then you are completely dead
and walk about trusting in the dead. “Ah, wretches, what is this evil you are suffering?
Night wraps your heads in darkness.”[65]

----------------------------------------

NOTES

[1] “Pythian” refers to Pytho (Delphi), where Apollo was said to have killed the serpent.

[2] Clement plays on the Greek word nomos, which means both “law” and a kind of melody,
and on the name Eunomus (“good nomos”). The cicada’s song is autonomos, a “law (or tune)
unto itself,” and better than the nomoi of Eunomus.

[3] “Poets of the wine-press” renders a word linked to the Lenaea, an Athenian festival of
Dionysus at which plays were performed.

[4] Terpander was a famous early Greek musician from Lesbos.

[5] The quotation is John the Baptist’s saying in Matthew 3:9 (also Luke 3:8), which
Clement calls the voice of prophecy.

[6] The quotation is from Titus 3:3–5.

[7] “Thracian music” points to Orpheus, the legendary Thracian singer whom Clement mocked
at the start of the work. Jubal appears in Genesis 4:21 as the father of all who play the
lyre and pipe.

[8] The story of Saul is in 1 Samuel 16:14–23. There David drives off the evil spirit by
playing the lyre; Clement says he healed Saul by singing.

[9] “After his own image” recalls Genesis 1:26–27. The opening of the eyes of the blind
and the ears of the deaf, and the healing of the lame, echo Isaiah 35:5–6.

[10] Where the older English says “pre-existed in the eye of God,” the Greek says simply
“were born to God beforehand.”

[11] The apostle is Paul (Titus 2:11-13).

[12] The last clause means the physician will, if necessary, sacrifice “a part or limb” to
restore the whole person to health.

[13] Clement quotes Philippians 2:6-7; the Greek verb ekenōsen means “emptied himself.”

[14] Clement’s wording, “Make straight the ways of the Lord,” differs slightly from the
Gospels’ wording of Isaiah 40:3.

[15] The quotation is Isaiah 54:1, given in Clement’s wording (also quoted in Galatians
4:27). The Greek word erēmos means both “desolate” and “desert,” which allows Clement’s
pairing of the barren woman with the desert.

[16] “Is seen” renders a verb that was also used of the highest stage of initiation in the
Greek mystery religions.

[17] “Ventriloquists” translates engastrimythoi, “belly-talkers.” These were diviners
whose oracles seemed to speak from inside them.

[18] Clement links the Bacchic cry “Euan” to Eve (Genesis 3); Aramaic has a word like
ḥewya meaning “serpent,” and a similar wordplay on Eve’s name appears in later Jewish
interpretation (Genesis Rabbah 20.11).

[19] “Odrysus” may instead mean “the Odrysian,” a member of a Thracian people.

[20] The phrases come from Hesiod’s Theogony (lines 188–200), which tells of Aphrodite’s
birth from the foam around the severed genitals of Uranus (Heaven); there she is called
philommeidēs (“laughter-loving”) “because she appeared from the genitals (mēdea),” a pun
Hesiod makes himself, and Clement gives the word as philomēdea (“genital-loving”) to bring
out the crude meaning.

[21] The “sacred vessel” is the kernos, a ritual vessel used in cults of Demeter.

[22] Deo is another name for Demeter. Pherephatta is a form of the name Persephone, the
same goddess as Kore (“the Maiden”).

[23] “Bull-roarer” translates rhombos, a toy or ritual object that was whirled or spun. It
may also mean a kind of spinning top, and the older translation gave “top.” That
translation gave “hoop” for strobilos, which can mean a spinning top or a pine cone. The
exact toys are uncertain.

[24] “Held them over Hephaestus” quotes Homer (Iliad 2.426), where sacrificial meat is
held over the fire. Hephaestus, the fire-god, stands for the fire itself. The “portion
they have received” also echoes Homer, where Zeus says that the savor of sacrifice is the
honor the gods receive (Iliad 4.49; 24.70).

[25] The Greek word selinon can mean celery or parsley, and the older translation has
“parsley.” Tyrrhenia is the Greek name for Etruria in central Italy.

[26] The Eumolpidae and the Kerykes were the two Athenian families that supplied the chief
priests of the Eleusinian mysteries.

[27] The Greek of these lines is obscure and may be corrupt, so the meaning of “tossing it
with his hand” is uncertain.

[28] The Greek says that the mysteries themselves are a deceit of the serpent; Clement
probably means the devil, the ancient serpent, with a glance at the snake used in these
rites (see the next section).

[29] “Balls of wool” may instead mean round cakes. The Greek word can mean either.

[30] Editors usually bracket the name Anacharsis as a later addition; in Herodotus (4.76)
Anacharsis was the man killed by a Scythian king, not the king himself.

[31] Other ancient sources usually call Euhemerus a man of Messene rather than of Acragas.

[32] Both quotations are from Euripides. The first is from a lost play (fragment 941), and
the second is from “The Trojan Women” (lines 884–885).

[33] The Erinyes (“Furies”) were the avenging spirits of Greek myth, and “Eumenides” (“the
Kindly Ones”) was a softening name for the same beings. Palamnaioi, Prostropaioi and
Alastors are names for spirits that avenge bloodshed and other crimes.

[34] Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos are the three Fates of Greek myth. Auxo and Thallo,
whose names mean roughly “Growth” and “Blooming,” were goddesses honored at Athens.

[35] The Greek here more naturally means that the Word is living and that the person
buried with Christ is exalted with God, not that the Word himself was buried with Christ.

[36] “Share the same names”: in what follows, Clement points out that there were several
gods called Zeus, Athena and so on, to show that these figures are human inventions. The
Greek word translated “opinions” means opinions that people have made up.

[37] The two Homer quotations are from the Iliad (5.31 and 5.385–387). “Fickle” echoes
another Homeric description of Ares as one who changes sides.

[38] The line about Hephaestus’s legs is from Homer, Iliad 18.411. The Greek says his thin
legs moved quickly beneath him.

[39] The Homer lines on the Dioscuri are Iliad 3.243–244. The line on Heracles is from
Odyssey 21.26. In Odyssey 11 Odysseus sees the “shade” (eidolon) of Heracles among the
dead, which is probably what Clement has in mind.

[40] The Greek says Megaclo bought (ἐώνηται) Mysian servant girls; “Moisai” is the Aeolic
form of “Muses.”

[41] The Greek says only that the figures were “bronze.” In the last sentence,
ἐστενοχωρεῖτο means “felt cramped” or “lacked room,” not simply “was not satisfied.”

[42] The quotation is from Homer, Iliad 1.528–530.

[43] Most other ancient accounts name the father of the fifty daughters Thespius rather
than Thestius.

[44] “Pherephatta” is a form of Persephone’s name.

[45] “The ox-eyed goddess” is Hera; the “shepherd” is Paris, who judged the contest of the
three goddesses.

[46] The Greek verb (paschētiaō) means to desire the passive role in sex. The act itself
is described in the next section.

[47] “Before the Helots” follows the Greek (pro tōn Heilōtōn). The Helots were the state-
owned serfs of Sparta.

[48] The Homer passages are Odyssey 19.33–34 (Athena with the lamp), Iliad 3.424–425
(Aphrodite sets the chair for Helen), Iliad 5.335–343 (Aphrodite wounded), and Iliad
5.855–857 (Ares wounded by Diomedes).

[49] The older English makes “men” the subject of the last sentence. In the Greek, the
subject is the gods: it is they who would not have sex, beget children or sleep if they
were truly immortal and lacked nothing.

[50] The “Phrygian herdsman” is Ganymede, the Trojan youth whom Zeus carried off.

[51] The oak-and-rock phrase adapts Homer’s Odyssey 19.163, where Penelope tells the
disguised Odysseus that he is not sprung “from an oak of old story or from a rock.” In the
last sentence Clement turns the phrase around: the gods’ statues are in fact made of wood
and stone.

[52] Older translation: it gives Phanocles’ title as “Brave and Fair.” The Greek title is
“Erotes or Kaloi,” meaning “Loves, or Beautiful Boys.”

[53] “Peribasō” is a cult title of uncertain meaning, perhaps from a verb meaning “to
straddle” or “walk around,” and often taken in a crude sense. “Choiropsalas” is an obscene
title (choiros was slang for the female parts), so it is left untranslated.

[54] The fish phagros cannot be identified with certainty. The name is used elsewhere for
a kind of sea bream.

[55] The Greek word for the reason the Thessalians honor storks (synētheia) can mean
either “custom” or “familiarity.”

[56] The verse is from Hesiod, Works and Days 252–253. Clement’s wording differs slightly
from the standard text of Hesiod. The Boeotian addressed here is Hesiod, whom Clement
calls “Ascraean” in the next section.

[57] The daimons’ words quote a line of Homer (Iliad 4.49, repeated at 24.70), where Zeus
speaks of the libation and savor of fat that are the gods’ portion.

[58] A “hecatomb” was properly a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, so three hundred men made
three hecatombs. Euripides’ play is Iphigenia among the Taurians.

[59] Clement is making a pun. The Greek word for these worshippers, deisidaimones,
normally means “superstitious,” but literally it means “those who fear the daimons.”

[60] The verse is from Homer (Iliad 3.33–35). In Homer the next words are “and pallor
seized his cheeks,” which Clement does not quote.

[61] Clement draws on Herodotus (Histories 1.46–91). Croesus of Lydia sent rich gifts to
Delphi and was told that if he made war on Persia he would destroy a great empire. The
empire he destroyed was his own, for Cyrus defeated him. On the pyre he called out the
name of Solon, who had once warned him. Cyrus ordered the fire put out, but in Herodotus
the flames were quenched only by a rainstorm after Croesus prayed to Apollo.

[62] “The end” recalls Solon’s famous advice to Croesus to call no one happy until he has
seen the end of his life (Herodotus 1.32). “Crooked” (loxa) is a pun on Apollo’s title
Loxias, which the Greeks connected with his ambiguous oracles.

[63] The clause “that is, the tombs have been given the name of temples” is bracketed by
editors as a probable later explanatory addition to the Greek.

[64] Herodotus (4.33–35) tells of Hyperboreans who came to Delos from the far north; he
names Hyperoche and Laodice as maidens who brought offerings and died there, and places
their tomb in the Artemision (4.34).

[65] The last line is from Homer’s Odyssey (20.351), where the seer Theoclymenus warns the
suitors of their coming death.


EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) (CHAPTERS 4–9)
=======================================================

EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) continued

CHAPTER 4

The Absurdity and Shamefulness of the Images by Which the Gods are Worshipped.

4a Suppose I now bring the images themselves and set them before you to look over. As you
examine them, you will find that your custom is truly nonsense, since you turn in devotion
to senseless “works of men’s hands.” In ancient times the Scythians worshipped the short
sword, the Arabs a stone, and the Persians a river. Other peoples, still more ancient, set
up conspicuous wooden posts and stood up pillars of stone. These were called xoana,
because they had been scraped out of their material. For example, the image of Artemis on
Icarus was an unworked piece of wood, and that of Cithaeronian Hera at Thespiae was a cut-
down tree trunk. The image of Samian Hera, according to Aethlius, was at first a plank.
Later, when Procles was ruler, it was given human shape. When the xoana began to be made
in the likeness of men, they took the name brete from brotoi, “mortals.”[66] [Psalm
135:15]

4b At Rome, the writer Varro says, the ancient wooden image of Mars was just a spear.
Craftsmen had not yet taken up this fine-looking but wicked craft. But once the craft
flourished, the error grew. It is plain at once that men made human-shaped images out of
stones and wood, in a word out of matter. You dress these up with a show of piety and
slander the truth. Still, since the subject calls for some proof, I must not shrink from
giving it. Everyone knows that Phidias made the Zeus at Olympia and the Athena Polias at
Athens out of gold and ivory. Olympichus reports in his Samian History that the wooden
image of Hera on Samos was made by Smilis, the son of Euclides. So do not doubt that, of
the goddesses at Athens called the Venerable Ones, Scopas made two out of the stone called
lychneus, and Calos made the one in the middle. I can show you Polemon as my witness, in
the fourth book of his work against Timaeus. Do not doubt either that this same Phidias
made the statues of Zeus and Apollo at Patara in Lycia, as well as the lions set up with
them. If, as some say, the work is by Bryaxis, I will not quarrel. In him you have another
maker of images. Put whichever of the two names you like on it.[67]

4c Again, as Philochorus says, the statues of Poseidon and Amphitrite on Tenos, nine
cubits tall and worshiped there, are the work of Telesias the Athenian. Demetrius, in the
second book of his Argolic History, records both the material of the wooden image of Hera
at Tiryns, which was pear wood, and its maker, Argus. Many people may well be amazed to
learn that the Palladium called “fallen from heaven” was made from the bones of Pelops.
Diomedes and Odysseus are said to have stolen it from Troy and entrusted it to Demophon.
In the same way, the Olympian Zeus was made from other bones, those of an Indian beast. I
bring forward Dionysius as my witness for this, in the fifth part of his Cycle. Apellas,
in his Delphic History, says there were two Palladia and that both were made by men. And
so that no one supposes I passed over these things out of ignorance, I will add the case
of Dionysus Morychus.[68]

4d His image at Athens was made from the stone called phellates, and it is the work of
Sikon, son of Eupalamos, as Polemon says in one of his letters. There were also two other
sculptors, Cretans I think, named Skyllis and Dipoinos. They made the statues of the
Dioscuri in Argos, the statue of Herakles in Tiryns, and the wooden image of Artemis
Munychia in Sicyon. But why do I linger over these? I can show you who the “great god”
himself really was. We hear that all people honor him above all others, and they have
dared to call him “not made by hands.” I mean the Egyptian Serapis. Some report that the
people of Sinope sent him as a thank-offering to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of the
Egyptians. They had been wasting away with famine and had sent to Egypt for grain, and
Ptolemy had relieved them. They say this wooden image was a statue of Pluto. Ptolemy
received the statue and set it up on the height now called Rhakotis. There the temple of
Serapis is honored, and the site borders on those places.

4e When Ptolemy’s concubine Blistiche died in Canopus, he brought her body over and buried
her under the shrine just mentioned. Others say that Serapis is a wooden image from
Pontus, brought to Alexandria with festival honors. Isidore alone says the image was
brought from the Seleucians near Antioch, who had also been in a famine and were fed by
Ptolemy. Athenodoros, son of Sandon, wanted to make Serapis ancient, but somehow he
tripped himself up and proved that the image was man-made. He says that Sesostris, king of
Egypt, had conquered most of the nations of the Greeks. When he came back to Egypt, he
brought skilled craftsmen with him. He ordered them to fashion, at great expense, an image
of Osiris, his forefather. The maker was Bryaxis, not the Athenian but another man with
the same name. He used a mixture of various materials for the work. 4f He had filings of
gold, silver, bronze, iron and lead, and also tin. Of Egyptian stones none was missing:
there were fragments of sapphire, hematite, emerald and topaz. He ground all these down
and mixed them together. He then colored the mixture dark blue, which is why the image is
rather dark in color. He kneaded everything together with the embalming preparation left
over from the funeral of Osiris and Apis, and so molded Serapis. Even his name hints at
this shared funeral and at a creation that came out of burial, since it is put together
from Osiris and Apis: Osirapis. The emperor of the Romans also solemnly made another new
god, in Egypt and very nearly among the Greeks too. This was his beloved, a youth of great
beauty, Antinous. He consecrated him as Zeus did Ganymede. For desire that has no fear is
not easily held back. People now worship the “sacred nights” of Antinous, though the lover
who kept vigil with him knew those nights were shameful.[69]

4g Why do you list for me a god who was honored for sexual immorality? Why did you command
that he be mourned like a son? Why do you describe his beauty? Beauty withered by outrage
is shameful. Do not play the tyrant over beauty, man, and do not abuse a young man in his
bloom. Keep it pure, so that it may be beautiful. Be a king over beauty, not a tyrant. Let
it stay free. Then I will acknowledge your beauty, when you have kept the image pure. Then
I will worship beauty, when it is the true original of all that is beautiful. But as it
is, there is already a tomb for the beloved boy, and a temple and a city of Antinous.
Tombs, I think, are admired just as temples are: pyramids, mausoleums and labyrinths,
which are other temples for the dead, just as those temples are tombs of the gods. As your
teacher I will bring forward the prophetess Sibyl. She is the spokeswoman not of the false
Phoebus, whom foolish men called a god and falsely made a prophet. She speaks for the
great God, whom the hands of men did not shape, like dumb idols of hewn stone.[70]

4h The Sibyl also calls the temples ruins. She foretells that the temple of Ephesian
Artemis will be swallowed up in “chasms and earthquakes,” in these words: “Ephesus will
lie flat and wail, weeping by the banks, looking for a temple where no one lives any
more.” She says too that the temple of Isis and Serapis in Egypt will be thrown down and
burned: “Isis, thrice-wretched goddess, you remain alone by the waters of the Nile, a
raving woman without a voice, on the sands of Acheron.” Then she goes on: “And you,
Serapis, lying on many rough stones, you lie a huge ruin in thrice-wretched Egypt.” But if
you will not listen to the prophetess, at least listen to your own philosopher, Heraclitus
of Ephesus, who reproaches the statues for their lack of feeling: “They pray to these
statues, as though someone were chatting with houses.” Are they not monstrous, those who
turn to stones for help and then set them in front of their gates as if they were active?
They worship Hermes as a god, and they set up Aguieus as a doorkeeper.[71]

4i If they abuse the statues as senseless, why do they worship them as gods? And if they
think the statues share in sensation, why set them up as doorkeepers? The Romans credited
their greatest successes to Fortune and thought her the greatest of gods. Yet they carried
her off and set her up in the latrine, giving the goddess the toilet as a fitting temple.
But senseless stone and wood and rich gold care nothing at all for the smell of burnt fat,
for blood or for smoke. That smoke blackens them even as they are “honored” and fumigated.
They care nothing for honor, and nothing for insult. Statues are worth less than any
living creature. How senseless things came to be treated as gods baffles me, and I pity
those who wander in such folly as wretched people. Some animals do not have all the
senses: worms and caterpillars, for example, and creatures that seem crippled from birth,
like moles and the shrew, which Nicander calls “blind and dreadful.” Yet even these are
better than those wooden images and statues, which are completely deaf. For these
creatures have at least one sense, say hearing or touch, or something corresponding to
smell or taste. But statues share in not a single sense.

4j Many animals have no sight, no hearing and not even a voice, such as oysters. Yet they
live and grow, and even respond to the moon. Statues, by contrast, are idle, inactive and
senseless. They are tied up, nailed on, fastened together, melted down, filed, sawn,
scraped and carved. The image-makers abuse the dumb earth. They drive it out of its own
nature and, by their craft, persuade people to worship it. In my judgment, those who make
gods are worshipping not gods or demons but earth and craftsmanship, which is all that
statues are. For a statue truly is dead matter shaped by the hand of a craftsman. But for
us the image is not something sensed, made of sensible matter. It is something grasped by
the mind. God is grasped by the mind and not by the senses; he is the only one who is
truly God.[72] 4k On the other hand, in the midst of actual troubles the superstitious,
the worshippers of stones, have learned by experience not to revere senseless matter. Yet
they are overcome by need itself and are ruined by their superstition. They despise the
statues, but do not want to be seen despising them altogether, and so they are shown up by
the very gods whose names the statues bear. Dionysius the Younger, the tyrant, took the
golden cloak off the statue of Zeus in Sicily and ordered a woolen one put on him. He
joked that this was better than the golden one, since it was lighter in summer and warmer
in winter. Antiochus of Cyzicus, short of money, ordered the golden statue of Zeus,
fifteen cubits tall, to be melted down. He had a similar statue made of cheaper material,
covered with gold leaf, and set up in its place.[73]

4l Swallows and most other birds fly in and foul the statues themselves. They care nothing
for Olympian Zeus, or Asclepius of Epidaurus, or Athena Polias, or Egyptian Serapis. Yet
even from them you do not learn that the statues feel nothing. Some criminals or enemies
have attacked these places. Out of shameful greed they have plundered temples, robbed the
offerings, and even melted down the statues. And if a Cambyses or a Darius or some other
madman attempted such things, and if someone killed the Egyptian Apis, I laugh that he
killed their god, but I am angry if he did wrong for the sake of profit. So I will gladly
overlook this crime. I count it the work of greed, not proof that the idols are powerless.
But fire and earthquakes are not out for profit. Nor do they fear or respect demons or
statues, any more than the waves respect the pebbles piled up on the beaches.[74]

4m I know a fire that exposes and cures superstition. If you want to stop your folly, this
fire will light your way. This fire burned down the temple at Argos together with its
priestess Chrysis. It burned the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, a second time after the
Amazons. It has swept over the Capitol in Rome many times. It did not spare even the
temple of Serapis in the city of the Alexandrians. At Athens it brought down the temple of
Dionysus Eleuthereus. At Delphi a storm first snatched away the temple of Apollo, and then
a sensible fire wiped it out. This is a foretaste for you of what the fire promises. Do
the makers of the statues not shame the sensible among you into despising the material?
The Athenian Phidias wrote on the finger of Olympian Zeus, “Pantarkes is beautiful.” For
to him it was not Zeus who was beautiful, but the boy he loved. Praxiteles, as Posidippus
explains in his book on Cnidus, made the statue of the Cnidian Aphrodite to look like his
mistress Cratine, so that the poor wretches could worship Praxiteles’ mistress.[75]

4n When Phryne, the courtesan from Thespiae, was in her prime, all the painters modeled
their pictures of Aphrodite on Phryne’s beauty. In the same way the sculptors at Athens
modeled their Hermes statues on Alcibiades. It is left to your own judgment to decide
whether you want to worship courtesans too. I think it was this that moved the ancient
kings. They despised these myths. Since men posed no danger to them, they shamelessly
proclaimed themselves gods. In this way they taught that those other gods too had been
made immortal because of their fame. Ceyx, son of Aeolus, was called Zeus by his wife
Alcyone, and Alcyone in turn was called Hera by her husband. Ptolemy the Fourth was called
Dionysus, and Mithridates of Pontus was also a Dionysus. Alexander wanted to be thought
the son of Ammon and to be portrayed with horns by the sculptors. He was eager to
disfigure the beautiful face of a man with a horn.[76]

4o And it was not only kings. Private persons also puffed themselves up with divine
titles. Menecrates the physician, for example, was called Zeus. Why should I list
Alexarchus? He was a grammarian by profession, and, as Aristus of Salamis reports, he
dressed himself up as the Sun. Why mention Nicagoras? He was from Zeleia and lived in the
time of Alexander. He was called Hermes and wore the costume of Hermes, as he himself
testifies. Indeed, whole nations and cities, with all their people, have given in to
flattery and cheapened the myths about the gods. People dress themselves up as equals of
the gods. They are puffed up with vanity and vote themselves excessive honors. At one time
they decreed worship at Cynosarges for Philip, son of Amyntas, the Macedonian from Pella,
“the man with the broken collarbone and the crippled leg,” who had an eye knocked out. At
another time they proclaimed Demetrius a god as well. The place where he got off his horse
as he entered Athens is a shrine of Demetrius the Descender, and there are altars to him
everywhere. The Athenians even prepared a marriage for him with Athena. But he looked down
on the goddess, since he could not marry a statue. He took his courtesan Lamia up to the
Acropolis and lay with her in Athena’s bridal chamber. To the old virgin he displayed the
postures of the young courtesan.[77]

4p So there is no reason to be angry with Hippo either, for making his own death immortal.
This Hippo ordered the following elegy to be inscribed on his tomb: “This is the tomb of
Hippo, whom Fate, when he died, made equal to the immortal gods.” Well done, Hippo! You
show us the delusion of mankind. If people did not believe you while you were alive and
speaking, let them become the disciples of a dead man. This is Hippo’s oracle; let us
understand it. The gods you worship were once men, and then they died. Myth and time have
given them honor. For it is the way of things that what is present is despised through
familiarity. But what is past is cut off from immediate refutation by the obscurity of
time, and it is honored through invention. So the one is disbelieved, while the other is
even admired. In just this way the dead of long ago, exalted by the long duration of the
delusion, are regarded as gods by those who come after.

4q Your proof of all this is your own mysteries and festivals, with their chains and
wounds and weeping gods: “Alas for me, that Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, is fated to be
subdued by Patroclus, son of Menoetius.” The will of Zeus is overpowered, and your Zeus,
defeated, wails over Sarpedon. So you yourselves have rightly called them idols and
demons, since Homer too paid Athena herself and the other gods a backhanded honor and
called them demons: “She went to Olympus, to the house of aegis-bearing Zeus, among the
other demons.” How then can these idols and demons still be gods? They are truly foul and
unclean spirits. Everyone agrees that they are earthy and filthy, weighed down toward the
earth, “rolling about tombs and monuments,” around which they appear faintly as “shadowy
phantoms.”[78] 4r These are your gods: idols and shadows. Besides them there are those
“lame, wrinkled, squint-eyed” Prayers, who are more like daughters of Thersites than of
Zeus. So I think Bion put it wittily: how could people rightly ask Zeus for fine children,
when he could not provide them even for himself? Alas for such godlessness! As far as it
depends on you, you bury the incorruptible Being in the ground. You have heaped the earth
of tombs over that pure and holy being, stripping the one who truly exists of his
divinity. Why have you given the honors that belong to God to those who are not gods? Why
have you left heaven and honored the earth? For what else are gold, silver, adamant, iron,
bronze, ivory and precious stones?[79]

4s Are they not earth, and from the earth? Are not all these things you see the offspring
of one mother, the earth? Why then, you vain and empty-headed people (I will say it
again), have you blasphemed the place above the heavens and dragged religion down to the
ground? You fashion earthly gods for yourselves, and you chase after these created things
instead of the uncreated God, and so you have fallen into a deeper darkness. Parian marble
is beautiful, but it is not yet Poseidon. Ivory is beautiful, but it is not yet the
Olympian. Matter always needs craftsmanship, but God needs nothing. Craftsmanship has
stepped forward, and the matter has been clothed with a shape. The costly material is
valuable for profit, but it becomes an object of reverence only because of its shape. Your
statue is gold, or wood, or stone, or earth, if you think it through from the beginning.
It has received its form from the craftsman.[80]

4t But I have trained myself to walk on the earth, not to worship it. It is not right for
me ever to entrust the hopes of my soul to lifeless things. So we must go as close as we
can to the statues, so that even their appearance may prove that error is at home in them.
The very shapes of the statues bear a clear imprint of the character of the demons. If
someone goes around looking at the paintings and statues, he will recognize your gods at
once from their shameful shapes. He knows Dionysus by his robe, Hephaestus by his craft,
Deo by her misfortune, Ino by her veil, Poseidon by his trident, and Zeus by the swan. The
pyre shows him Heracles, and if he sees a naked woman portrayed, he understands her to be
“golden” Aphrodite.[81] 4u So that famous Cypriot, Pygmalion, fell in love with an ivory
statue. The statue was of Aphrodite, and she was naked. The Cypriot was overcome by her
shape and had intercourse with the statue. Philostephanus tells this story. There was
another Aphrodite, at Cnidus, made of stone and beautiful. Another man fell in love with
her and had intercourse with the stone. Posidippus tells this one. The first wrote in his
work On Cyprus, the second in his work On Cnidus. That is how strongly art could deceive,
acting as a procurer that led men in love into the pit. The craftsman’s skill is powerful,
but it cannot deceive a reasoning being, or those who have lived by reason. In paintings,
it is true, pigeons have flown up to painted doves because of the likeness, and horses
have neighed at well-painted mares. They say a girl fell in love with a portrait, and a
handsome young man with the statue at Cnidus. But it was the eyes of the onlookers that
art had deceived.[82]

4v For no one in his right mind would have embraced a goddess, or been buried with a
corpse, or fallen in love with a demon and a stone. But art deceives you with a different
kind of sorcery. It may not lead you to love the statues and paintings, but it leads you
to honor and worship them. The painting is a good likeness; let the art be praised, but
let it not deceive a person into taking it for the truth. The horse stands quietly; the
dove is motionless, its wing idle. Yet Daedalus’ cow, made of wood, caught a wild bull,
and art, by deceiving the beast, forced it to mount a woman in the grip of desire. Such
madness do these wicked arts put into foolish people. The keepers and caretakers of apes,
however, marvel at them, because none of the likenesses made of wax or clay, none of the
dolls, deceives them. You, then, will turn out worse than apes, if you devote yourselves
to little statues of stone, wood, gold and ivory, and to paintings.[83]

4w These are the deadly toys that your craftsmen make for you: the stonecutters, the
sculptors, the painters, the carpenters, and the poets. Together they bring in a whole
crowd of such beings. In the fields they put Satyrs and Pans. In the woods they put
mountain Nymphs and Hamadryads. By the waters, rivers and springs they put Naiads, and
around the sea, Nereids. Now magicians, too, boast that demons serve their impiety. They
have enrolled them as their household servants and, by their incantations, have made them
slaves under compulsion. Then there are the marriages of the gods, their fathering of
children and their childbirths, which are recalled; their adulteries, which are sung;
their feasts, which are made fun of in comedies; and the laughter they are shown enjoying
over the wine. All this drives me to cry out, even if I would rather keep silent.[84] 4x
Alas for the godlessness! You have turned heaven into a stage. The divine has become a
play for you. You have made a comedy of what is holy by dressing it in the masks of
demons. By your superstition you have turned true reverence for God into a satyr-play.
“But he, striking the lyre, began to sing beautifully.” Sing for us, Homer, in that
beautiful voice, “about the love of Ares and fair-crowned Aphrodite, how they first lay
together secretly in the house of Hephaestus. He gave many gifts, and dishonored the bed
and couch of lord Hephaestus.” Stop the song, Homer. It is not beautiful. It teaches
adultery. We have renounced fornication, even with our ears. For we, we are the ones who
carry the image of God in this living, moving statue, the human being. This image lives in
the house with us, advises us, talks with us, eats at our table, shares our feelings, and
feels for us. We have become an offering to God for Christ. “We are the chosen race, the
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, who once were not a
people but now are the people of God.” As John puts it, we are not “from below” but have
learned everything from the one who came from above. We have understood God’s plan of
salvation, and we have trained ourselves to “walk in newness of life.”[85] [1 Peter
2:9-10; John 8:23; Romans 6:4]

4y But most people do not think this way. They throw off shame and fear, and they have the
unnatural lusts of the demons painted in their own homes. They devote themselves to
painted tablets hung up high, and they decorate their bedrooms with indecency, thinking
lewdness to be piety. Lying on the couch, in the very midst of their embraces, they look
at that naked Aphrodite, bound fast in her embrace. And the amorous bird fluttering around
Leda they engrave on the bezels of their rings. They welcome this picture of effeminacy,
using a seal that suits the lust of Zeus. These are the models of your self-indulgence.
These are the theologies of outrage. These are the teachings of the gods who commit
fornication along with you. As the Athenian orator says, “What each man wants, that he
also believes.” And what other images you have! Little Pans, naked girls, drunken satyrs,
and erect male parts, all stripped bare in paintings and condemned by their lack of self-
control.[86]

4z Now you look openly, with the whole crowd, at pictures of every posture of lewdness,
and you are not ashamed. Worse still, you keep them on display as if they really were
images of your gods. You have consecrated pillars of shamelessness in your homes, and you
have the postures of Philaenis painted just as readily as the labors of Heracles. We
declare that not only the use of these things but even the sight and the hearing of them
should be forgotten. Your ears have turned prostitute, your eyes have committed
fornication, and strangest of all, your looks have committed adultery before any embrace.
O you who have done violence to man, and have struck off in disgrace the divine element in
God’s creature! You disbelieve everything so that you can be driven wild by passion. You
believe in the idols, because you are eager to copy their lack of self-control. You
disbelieve God, because you cannot bear self-control. You have hated the better things and
honored the worse. You have become spectators of virtue but contestants in vice.[87]
[Matthew 5:28]

4aa So happy, one might say, are those alone, all of them with one mind, who, as the Sibyl
says, “will renounce all temples when they see them, and altars, useless foundations of
dumb stones, and stone carvings and hand-made statues, defiled with the blood of living
things, with sacrifices of four-footed and two-footed creatures and birds, and with the
slaughter of wild beasts.” For we are plainly forbidden to practice a deceptive art. “You
shall not make,” says the prophet, “a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on
the earth beneath.” Could we possibly still take the Demeter, the Kore and the mystic
Iacchus of Praxiteles to be gods? Or the works of Lysippus, or the hands of Apelles, which
have put the shape of divine glory on mere material? You work hard to have the statue made
as beautiful as possible, but you take no care that you yourselves do not become like the
statues through your lack of feeling. The prophetic word exposes this habit very plainly
and briefly: “All the gods of the nations are idols of demons, but God made the heavens,”
and what is in heaven.[88] [Exodus 20:4]

4ab Some people are led astray here, I do not know how. They worship a divine piece of
craftsmanship, but not God. They worship the sun, the moon and the rest of the chorus of
stars, absurdly taking them for gods, though they are only instruments for measuring time.
“For by his word they were made firm, and by the breath of his mouth all their power.”
Human skill makes houses, ships, cities and paintings. But how could I tell all that God
makes? Look at the whole world: it is his work. Heaven, sun, angels and men are “works of
his fingers.” How great is God’s power! His will alone is the making of the world. For God
alone made it, since he alone is truly God. He creates by simply willing it, and as soon
as he wishes it, it comes to be.[89] [Psalm 8:3] 4ac Here the chorus of philosophers goes
astray. They agree that man was made wonderfully well for looking at the heavens, yet they
worship the things that appear in the heavens and are grasped by sight. For even if the
works in heaven are not human works, they were at least made for human beings. Let none of
you worship the sun, but long for the maker of the sun. Do not make the world divine, but
seek the Creator of the world. So it seems that the only refuge left for anyone who means
to reach the doors of salvation is divine wisdom. From there, as from some sacred
sanctuary that cannot be violated, the man who hurries toward salvation can no longer be
dragged away by any demon.[90]

CHAPTER 5

The Opinions of the Philosophers Respecting God.

5a Let us also run through, if you like, the opinions the philosophers boast about
concerning the gods. Perhaps we will find that philosophy itself, out of vanity, turns
matter into idols. Or perhaps we can show, in passing, that while it deifies certain
demons, it only dreams of the truth. Some of them praised the elements and left them as
first principles. Thales of Miletus praised water. Anaximenes, also of Miletus, praised
air, and Diogenes of Apollonia later followed him. Parmenides of Elea introduced fire and
earth as gods. Of these two, Hippasus of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus took only
fire to be a god. Empedocles of Acragas fell into plurality: besides these four elements
he counts Strife and Love. These men too are godless. By a kind of unwise wisdom they
worshipped matter. They did not honor stones or wood, but they deified earth, the mother
of these. They did not fashion a Poseidon, but they turned in devotion to water itself.

5b For what is Poseidon but a watery substance, a name made from “posis,” drinking? So too
the warlike Ares is named from “arsis” and “anairesis,” that is, lifting up and killing.
That is why, I think, many simply fix a sword in the ground and sacrifice to it as to
Ares. This is a Scythian custom, as Eudoxus says in the second book of his *Circuit of the
Earth*. Among the Scythians, the Sauromatians worship a short sword, as Hicesius says in
his work *On Mysteries*. The followers of Heraclitus do the same thing when they revere
fire as the original source of things, for others have named this same fire Hephaestus.
The Persian Magi honor fire, and so do many who live in Asia, and also the Macedonians, as
Diogenes says in the first book of his *Persian History*. Why should I list the
Sauromatians, whom Nymphodorus in his *Barbarian Customs* reports to worship fire? Or the
Persians, the Medes and the Magi?[91]

5c Dinon says these peoples sacrifice in the open air, and that they regard fire and water
as the only images of the gods. I have not hidden their ignorance either. However much
they think they have escaped error, they slip into another deception. They have not taken
wood and stones to be images of gods, as the Greeks do. They have not taken ibises and
ichneumons, as the Egyptians do. They have taken fire and water, as the philosophers do.
Yet Berosus, in the third book of his *Chaldean History*, shows that many cycles of years
later they came to worship images in human form. Artaxerxes, son of Darius Ochus,
introduced this. He was the first to set up the statue of Aphrodite Anaitis in Babylon,
Susa and Ecbatana, and he showed the Persians, the Bactrians, Damascus and Sardis how to
worship it. So let the philosophers admit that their teachers are Persians, Sauromatians
or Magi. From these they learned the godlessness of revering first principles. They are
ignorant of the Ruler, the Maker of all things and Creator of those very principles, the
God who has no beginning. Instead they turn in devotion to those “poor” and “weak”
“elements,” as the apostle calls them, which were made to serve human beings.[92]
[Galatians 4:9]

5d Other philosophers went beyond the elements and busied themselves with something higher
and more out of the ordinary. Some of them praised the Unlimited. These were Anaximander
(he was from Miletus), Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, and Archelaus of Athens. These last two
set Mind over the Unlimited. Leucippus of Miletus and Metrodorus of Chios, it seems, left
two first principles, the full and the empty. Democritus of Abdera took these two and
added to them the “images.” Alcmaeon of Croton thought the stars were gods, and living
ones. I will not keep silent about their shamelessness. Xenocrates (he was from Chalcedon)
hints that there are seven gods, the planets, and an eighth, the heavens made up of all
the fixed stars. Nor will I pass over the Stoics. They say that the divine pervades all
matter, even the most dishonorable, and they simply bring shame on philosophy.[93] 5e I
think it is no trouble, now that we are here, to mention the Peripatetics too. The father
of that school did not understand the Father of all things. He thinks the one called “the
Highest” is the soul of the universe. That is, he takes the soul of the world to be God,
and so he runs himself through with his own sword. He limits providence to the region
reaching only as far as the moon, and then he regards the world as God. So he contradicts
himself, teaching that something with no share in God is God. Then there is Theophrastus
of Eresus, Aristotle’s pupil, who guesses at one moment that God is heaven and at another
that he is spirit. Epicurus alone I will gladly leave out. He thinks God cares about
nothing, and he is impious in everything. And what of Heraclides of Pontus? Is there any
point at which he too is not dragged down to the images of Democritus?[94]

CHAPTER 6

By Divine Inspiration Philosophers Sometimes Hit on the Truth.

6a A great crowd of such men presses in on me. They are like a bogeyman, bringing in an
absurd sketch of strange demons and telling myths in old wives’ drivel. We are far from
letting grown men listen to such talk. We do not even soothe our own crying children with
tales, as the saying goes. We are afraid of raising them alongside the godlessness that
these would-be sages proclaim, men who know the truth no better than babies. In the name
of truth, why do you show those who trust you to be given over to flux and drift and
disorderly whirlpools? Why do you fill my life with idols, fashioning winds, air, fire,
earth, stones, wood, iron, and this world itself into gods? You even make gods of the
wandering stars. Through this much-talked-of astrology (which is not astronomy) you talk
about the heavens and babble to people who have truly wandered astray.[95]

6b It is the Lord of the winds I long for, the Lord of fire, the Maker of the world, the
one who gives light to the sun. I am seeking God, not the works of God. Whom then shall I
take from you as a fellow worker in the search? We have not given up on you altogether. If
you like, let it be Plato. How then must God be tracked down, Plato? “To find the Father
and Maker of this universe is hard work, and having found him, it is impossible to declare
him to everyone.” Why so, in God’s own name? “Because he cannot be spoken of at all.” Well
done, Plato; you have touched on the truth. But do not grow weary. Join me in the search
for the Good. For a kind of divine outflow has been dropped into all people without
exception, and especially into those who devote themselves to learning. That is why, even
against their will, they confess that God is one, indestructible and unbegotten. They
confess that he exists truly and always, somewhere high up on the back of heaven, in his
own proper place of vantage.[96]

6c What kind of God, tell me, are we to think of? “One who sees all things and is himself
not seen,” says Euripides. Menander, I think, was mistaken when he said: “O Sun, you must
be worshipped first of the gods, for through you we are able to see the other gods.” The
sun could never show us the true God. It is the sound Word who does that, who is the sun
of the soul. Only when he rises within, in the depth of the mind, is the eye of the soul
lit up. So Democritus has good reason to say that “a few learned men stretched out their
hands toward what we Greeks now call the air and called it Zeus. For he knows all things,
he gives and takes away all things, and he is king of all.” Plato is thinking along the
same lines when he hints at God: “All things are around the king of all, and he is the
cause of all that is good.” Who then is the king of all?[97]

6d He is God, the measure of the truth of all that exists. Things that are measured are
grasped by the measure. In the same way, truth is measured and grasped by understanding
God. The truly holy Moses says: “There shall not be in your bag a weight and a weight, one
great and one small. Nor shall there be in your house a measure great or small. You shall
have only a true and just weight.” He understands God to be the weight, the measure and
the number of the whole. For unjust and unequal idols are hidden at home in the bag, and,
so to speak, in the filthy soul. But the only just measure, the only one who is truly God,
is always equal, always the same and unchanging. He measures and weighs all things. As
with a balance, he embraces and holds up the nature of the whole by his justice, without
tipping either way.[98] [Deuteronomy 25:13-15]

6e “God, as the old saying goes, holds the beginning, the end and the middle of all
things. He goes straight on his course, moving around them according to nature. Justice
always follows him, avenging those who fall away from the divine law.” Where, Plato, do
you get your hints of the truth? Where does your rich supply of words get its prophetic
sense of true worship? “The barbarian peoples,” he says, “are wiser than these.” I know
your teachers, even if you want to hide them. You learn geometry from the Egyptians and
astronomy from the Babylonians. You take your healing charms from the Thracians, and the
Assyrians have taught you many things. But for the laws that are true and for your
thoughts about God, you are indebted to the Hebrews themselves, who “do not honor with
empty deceits the works of men, in gold and bronze, in silver and ivory, or the images of
dead mortals, in wood and stone, such as mortals honor in their empty-minded counsel.
Instead they lift pure arms to heaven, rising early from their beds, always cleansing
their skin with water, and they honor only the Immortal One who rules forever.”[99]

6f And, philosophy, hurry to bring before me not just this one man, Plato, but many others
too. Bring those who, by God’s inspiration, proclaim the one God who truly is the only
God, if they have laid hold of the truth anywhere. Antisthenes did not think this up as a
Cynic. It was as a follower of Socrates that he said, “God is like no one; therefore no
one can learn to know him from an image.” Xenophon the Athenian would also have written
openly about the truth, bearing witness as Socrates did, if he had not feared the poison
that Socrates drank. Even so, he hints at it. He says: “The one who shakes all things and
stills them is clearly great and powerful, but what he is like in form is unseen. Even the
sun, which appears so bright, does not seem to allow itself to be seen. If anyone stares
at it shamelessly, it takes away his sight.” Where, then, does the son of Gryllus get his
wisdom, if not plainly from the Hebrew prophetess, who prophesies something like
this?[100]

6g “What flesh can see with its eyes the heavenly and true God, the immortal, who dwells
in the vault of heaven? Men cannot even stand in front of the rays of the sun, since they
are born mortal.” Cleanthes of Pedasa, the philosopher of the Stoa, shows not a poet’s
account of the gods’ origins but a true account of God. He did not hide what he thought
about God: “You ask me what the good is like? Listen: ordered, just, holy, pious, self-
controlled, useful, noble, fitting, austere, frank, always beneficial, fearless, free from
grief, profitable, painless, helpful, pleasing, safe, dear, honored, consistent * * * * *
glorious, free from conceit, careful, gentle, vigorous, enduring, blameless, lasting
always. Slavish is everyone who looks to reputation, as if he would get something good
from it.” Here, I think, he clearly teaches what God is like. He also teaches that popular
opinion and custom make slaves of those who follow them instead of seeking God.[101]

6h We must not leave out the followers of Pythagoras either. They say: “God is one. He is
not, as some suppose, outside the ordered world, but in it, whole in the whole circle. He
oversees all coming-to-be. He is the blending of all the ages, and the worker of his own
powers and of all his works. He is the light-giver in heaven and the Father of all, the
mind and the animating soul of the whole circle, and the mover of all things.” These words
too are enough for knowing God, for anyone who can examine the truth even a little. They
were written by these men through God’s inspiration, and we have selected them.

CHAPTER 7

The Poets Also Bear Testimony to the Truth.

7a Let poetry also come forward for us, since philosophy alone is not enough. Poetry is
wholly taken up with falsehood. Yet now at last, with difficulty, it will bear witness to
the truth, or rather, it will confess to God how it strayed into myth. Let whichever poet
likes come forward first. Aratus thinks that God’s power runs through all things: “so that
all things may grow firmly established; therefore they appease him always, first and last.
Hail, Father, great wonder, great benefit to men.” In the same way Hesiod of Ascra hints
at God: “For he himself is king and lord of all, and no other among the immortals has
contended with him in strength.” On the stage too they uncover the truth. One of them
looks up to the upper air and the heaven and says, “Take this to be God.” This is
Euripides. Then Sophocles, son of Sophillus, says: “In truth there is one God, only one,
who made heaven and the wide earth, the bright swell of the sea and the force of the
winds. But many of us mortals, wandering in heart, have set up images of the gods, made of
stone, or of bronze, or of gold, or of ivory, as a comfort in our troubles. We give them
sacrifices and empty festivals, and so we think we are worshipping rightly.”[102]

7b This poet, then, even at some risk, brought the truth before the audience on the stage.
But the Thracian Orpheus, son of Oeagrus, was both priest of the mysteries and poet. After
teaching the secret rites and the theology of idols, he brings in a retraction of his own,
a “palinode” of the truth. Late though it was, he still sang a truly sacred word: “I will
speak to those for whom it is right. Shut the doors, all you uninitiated alike. But you,
Musaeus, offspring of the light-bringing Moon, listen, for I will tell what is true. Do
not let what appeared to you before in your heart rob you of the life you love. Look to
the divine Word and keep close to it, keeping your heart, the vessel of understanding, on
a straight course. Walk well on the path, and look only to the immortal Lord of the
world.” Then he goes on and says plainly: “He is one, self-begotten, and all things are
made as the offspring of the One. Among them he himself moves, and no mortal sees him, but
he himself sees all.”[103]

7c So spoke Orpheus. In time, after wandering, he came to understand. But you, mortal of
many devices, do not delay. Turn back from your wandering and seek God’s favor. For even
if the Greeks did catch some sparks of the divine Word and spoke a few things of the
truth, this only shows two things. It bears witness that the power of the truth is not
hidden. It also proves their own weakness, because they did not reach the goal. For I
think it is now clear to everyone that those who act or speak apart from the Word of truth
are like people trying to walk without feet. Let the exposures of your gods also shame you
into salvation. The poets, forced by the truth, put these exposures into their comedies.
The comic poet Menander, for example, says in his play The Charioteer (some editors read
The Changeling): “No god pleases me who walks about outdoors with an old woman, nor one
who slips into houses on a little board, a begging priest of the Mother.” For that is what
the begging priests of the Mother are like.[104]

7d So Antisthenes rightly said to them when they begged: “I do not feed the Mother of the
gods; the gods feed her.” Again, the same comic writer, in his play The Priestess, is
angry at the common practice. He tries to expose the godless pride of this error and
wisely says: “If a man drags the god wherever he wants with cymbals, then the man who does
this is greater than the god. But these are tools of audacity and force, invented by men.”
Menander is not the only one. Homer and Euripides and many other poets also expose your
gods, and they are not afraid to abuse them as freely as they like. For example, they call
Athena “dog-fly” and Hephaestus “lame in both legs.” And Helen says to Aphrodite: “May
your feet never carry you back to Olympus.”[105] 7e Of Dionysus, Homer writes openly: “He
[Lycurgus] once chased the nurses of raving Dionysus over holy Nysa. All of them together
threw their sacred implements on the ground, under the attack of man-slaying Lycurgus.”
Euripides is truly worthy of the Socratic school. He keeps his eye on the truth and takes
no notice of his audience. At one point he exposes Apollo, “who dwells on his seat at the
earth’s center, giving mortals his most certain oracles.” Orestes says: “I obeyed him and
killed my mother. Think of him as the unholy one and put him to death. He sinned, not I.”
For Apollo is the one more ignorant of what is good and just. At another point Euripides
brings on Heracles raving mad, and elsewhere drunk and greedy. And why not? This was the
Heracles who, when feasted on meat, ate green figs on top of it, howling so tunelessly
that even a barbarian would notice. Then in his play Ion he brazenly wheels the gods out
onto the stage: “How is it just that you, who wrote the laws for mortals, are yourselves
guilty of wrongdoing? Suppose (though it never will happen, I will make the argument) you
pay men the penalty for the women you took by force, you, Poseidon, and Zeus, who rules
the sky. Then in paying for your wrongs you will empty your temples.”[106]

CHAPTER 8

The True Doctrine is to Be Sought in the Prophets.

8a Now that we have finished the other matters in order, it is time to turn to the
writings of the prophets. Their oracles set out most clearly the starting points for true
devotion to God, and so they lay the foundation of the truth. The divine Scriptures,
together with a disciplined way of life, are short roads to salvation. They have no
cosmetics, no outward fine speech, no glibness, no flattery. They raise up a person who is
being strangled by evil, and they look down on the slippery footing of this life. With one
and the same voice they heal many ills. They turn us away from ruinous deceit, and they
plainly urge us toward a salvation that lies open before us. So let the prophetess, the
Sibyl, be the first to sing us the song of salvation: “Look, he is plain to all and free
from error. Come, do not keep chasing darkness and gloom. See, the sweet-shining light of
the sun gleams brilliantly.”[107]

8b “But know it, and store up wisdom in your hearts. There is one God, who sends rains,
winds, earthquakes, lightnings, famines, plagues, grievous sorrows, snows and ice. But why
do I list them one by one? He rules heaven, he governs the earth, he himself truly
exists.” In this she speaks with real inspiration. She likens deceit to darkness and the
knowledge of God to the sun and its light. By setting the two side by side she teaches us
to choose. For falsehood is not scattered by merely placing the truth next to it. It is
driven out and put to flight when the truth is put to use. The prophet Jeremiah is full of
wisdom, or rather the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah shows us God. He says: “I am a God who is
near, and not a God far off. If a man does something in secret, will I not see him?[108]
[Jeremiah 23:23-24]

8c Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? says the Lord.” Again, through Isaiah, he
says: “Who will measure the heaven with a span and the whole earth with a handful?” See
God’s greatness and be amazed. Let us worship him of whom the prophet says: “Before your
face mountains will melt, as wax melts before the face of fire.” This, he says, is the God
“whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth,” and “if he opens the heaven,
trembling will seize you.” Do you want to hear what this prophet says about idols too?
“They will be made an example before the sun. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds
of heaven and the wild animals of the earth. They will rot under the sun and the moon,
which they loved and served, and their city will be burned.” He says that the elements and
the world will be destroyed along with them: “The earth will grow old and the heaven will
pass away, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And what of the time when God again
wants to show himself through Moses?[109] [Isaiah 40:12; Isaiah 64:1-2; Isaiah 66:1;
Isaiah 40:8]

8d “Look, look! I am, and there is no other god besides me. I will kill and I will make
alive; I will strike and I will heal, and there is no one who can rescue from my hands.”
But do you want to hear another prophet speaking God’s oracles? You have the whole
prophetic chorus, the companions of Moses. What does the Holy Spirit say to them through
Hosea? I will not hesitate to say it: “Look, I am the one who makes the thunder strong and
creates the wind (spirit).” His hands laid the foundations of the host of heaven. Again,
through Isaiah (I will recall this saying for you as well): “I am, I am the Lord, who
speaks righteousness and announces truth. Gather together and come. Take counsel together,
you who have escaped from the nations. They did not know, those who carry their wooden
carved image and pray to gods who will not save them.” Then, going on, he says: “I am God,
and there is no righteous one except me, and there is no savior besides me. Turn to me and
you will be saved, you from the ends of the earth.[110] [Deuteronomy 32:39; Amos 4:13;
Isaiah 45:19-20; Isaiah 45:21-22]

8e I am God, and there is no other. I swear by myself.” He is angry with idol worshippers
and says: “To whom have you likened the Lord? Or what likeness have you compared him to?
Did a craftsman make an image, or did a goldsmith melt gold and plate him with gold?” And
so on. Surely you are not still idol worshippers? At least now beware of the threats. The
carved and handmade things will wail, or rather those who trust in them will, for matter
has no feeling. He says further: “The Lord will shake inhabited cities and will seize the
whole inhabited world in his hand like a nest.” Why should I tell you the mysteries of
wisdom and the sayings of a Hebrew child who was made wise? “The Lord created me as the
beginning of his ways, for his works.” And: “The Lord gives wisdom, and from his face come
knowledge and understanding.” “How long, lazy one, will you lie there?[111] [Isaiah
45:22-23; Isaiah 40:18-19; Proverbs 8:22; Proverbs 2:6]

8f When will you rise from sleep? But if you are not lazy, your harvest will come to you
like a spring.” This harvest is the Father’s Word, the good lamp, the Lord who brings
light, faith and salvation to all. For as Jeremiah says, “The Lord who made the earth by
his strength set the world upright by his wisdom.” We had fallen down to idols, and
wisdom, which is his Word, sets us upright again toward the truth. This is the first
resurrection from our fall. So the divinely inspired Moses, turning us away from all
idolatry, cried out most beautifully: “Hear, Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord, is one,”
and “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.” So now, understand, you
people, as that blessed psalmist David says: “Take hold of instruction, or the Lord may
become angry, and you will perish from the righteous way, when his anger is quickly
kindled.[112] [Jeremiah 10:12; Deuteronomy 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:13]

8g Blessed are all who trust in him.” Already the Lord, in his great pity for us, is
giving the song of salvation, like a marching rhythm: “Sons of men, how long will you be
heavy of heart? Why do you love emptiness and seek after falsehood?” What, then, is the
emptiness, and what is the falsehood? The holy apostle of the Lord, accusing the Greeks,
will explain it to you: “Because they knew God but did not glorify him as God or give
thanks. Instead they became empty in their reasonings, and they exchanged the glory of God
for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and they worshipped the creation instead
of the Creator.” Yet this is the God who “in the beginning made heaven and earth.” You do
not understand God, but you worship the heaven. How are you not guilty of impiety?[113]
[Romans 1:21-23; Romans 1:25; Genesis 1:1] 8h Listen again to a prophet who says: “The sun
will fail and the heaven will be darkened, but the Almighty will shine forever. The powers
of the heavens will be shaken, and the heavens, stretched out and drawn together, will be
rolled up like a hide.” (These are the words of the prophets.) “And the earth will flee
from the face of the Lord.”[114] [Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 34:4]

CHAPTER 9

"That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God's Gracious Calling."

9a I could bring you countless passages of Scripture, of which not one “stroke of a
letter” will pass away without being fulfilled. For the mouth of the Lord, the Holy
Spirit, spoke these things. “So then, my son,” he says, “no longer make light of the
Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you.” What overflowing kindness!
He does not warn us as a teacher warns pupils, or a master warns servants, or God warns
men. He warns us as “a gentle father” warns his sons. Moses admits that he was “afraid and
trembling” when he heard about the Word. Do you hear the divine Word and feel no fear? Do
you feel no anguish? Are you not both reverent and eager to learn, that is, eager for
salvation? Do you not fear the wrath, love the grace, and long for the hope, so that you
may escape the judgment?[115] [Matthew 5:18; Proverbs 3:11; Hebrews 12:5; Hebrews 12:21]

9b Come, come, my young people! “Unless you become like little children again and are born
again,” as the Scripture says, you will not receive the Father who truly is, “and you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven.” How could a foreigner be allowed to enter? But when he
is enrolled, made a citizen, and receives the Father, then, I think, he will be “among the
things of the Father.” Then he will be counted worthy to inherit. Then he will share the
Father’s kingdom with the true Son, the “Beloved.” For this is the firstborn church, made
up of many good children. These are the “firstborn enrolled in heaven,” who keep festival
together with so many “myriads of angels.” We are the firstborn children, the ones God
nurtures, the true friends of the “Firstborn.” We were the first of all people to
understand God, the first to be torn away from our sins, and the first to be separated
from the devil.[116] [Matthew 18:3; John 3:3; Luke 2:49; Hebrews 12:22-23]

9c But now, the kinder God is, the more godless some people become. He wants us to become
sons instead of slaves, and they have been too proud even to become sons. What great
folly! You are ashamed of the Lord. He promises freedom, and you run off to slavery. He
gives salvation as a gift, and you let yourselves be carried down to death. He offers
eternal life, and you wait for punishment. You look toward “the fire that the Lord
prepared for the devil and his angels.” That is why the blessed apostle says, “I testify
in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the emptiness of their
minds. Their understanding is darkened, and they are cut off from the life of God because
of the ignorance in them and the hardness of their hearts. Having lost all feeling, they
have given themselves over to indecency, to practice every kind of uncleanness and greed.”
Such a witness exposes human folly and calls on God. What is left for the unbelieving but
judgment and condemnation?[117] [Matthew 25:41; Ephesians 4:17-19]

9d The Lord never tires of advising, frightening, urging, rousing and warning. He wakes
people from sleep, and he raises out of the darkness those who have gone astray. “Wake up,
sleeper,” he says, “and rise from the dead, and Christ the Lord will shine on you.” He is
the sun of the resurrection, “begotten before the morning star,” who gave life by his own
rays. So let no one look down on the Word, or he may unknowingly be despising himself. For
the Scripture says somewhere, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as
in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me by
putting me on trial.” If you want to learn what that trial was, the Holy Spirit will
explain it to you: “And they saw my works for forty years. So I was angry with that
generation and said, ‘They are always going astray in their hearts. They did not know my
ways.’ So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall never enter into my rest.’” See the threat. See
the encouragement. See the honor. Why, then, do we still turn grace into wrath? Why do we
not take in the Word with open ears and welcome God as a guest in pure souls?[118]
[Ephesians 5:14; Hebrews 3:7-11]

9e For great is the grace of his promise, if today we hear his voice. This “today” grows
with each day, as long as it is still called “today.” Until the end of the age, both the
“today” and the learning continue. Then the true “today,” God’s unending day, stretches
out together with the ages. So let us always obey the voice of the divine Word. For
“today” is an image of eternal time, and day is a symbol of light. The Word is light for
human beings, and through him we are lit up to see God. It is fitting, then, that grace
should overflow to those who believe and obey. But God is angry with those who disobey,
who go astray in heart, and who have not known the Lord’s paths, which John commanded
people to make straight and ready, and he threatens them. The ancient wanderers of the
Hebrews received the outcome of that threat in a figure. They are said not to have entered
the rest because of their unbelief, until at last, by following Moses’ successor, they
learned by actual experience that they could be saved in no other way than by believing as
Joshua (in Greek, “Jesus”) believed.[119] [Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 3:19; Matthew 3:3]

9f The Lord, in his love for humanity, calls all people “to the knowledge of the truth.”
He is the one who sends the Paraclete. What, then, is this knowledge? Godliness. For
according to Paul, “godliness is profitable for everything, holding a promise for the
present life and for the life to come.” How much would you have agreed to pay, my friends,
if eternal salvation were for sale? Even if someone measured out the whole of the
Pactolus, that legendary stream of gold, he would not count out a price equal to
salvation. So do not lose heart. You may, if you wish, buy this priceless salvation with a
treasure of your own: love and the faith that belongs to life. That is a worthy price. God
gladly accepts this payment. “For we have set our hope on the living God, who is the
Savior of all people, especially of believers.” But the rest cling to the world like
seaweed to rocks in the sea, and they think little of immortality. Like the old man of
Ithaca, they long not for the truth, nor for the homeland in heaven, nor for the light
that truly is, but for smoke.[120] [1 Timothy 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:8; 1 Timothy 4:10]

9g Godliness makes a person like God as far as that is possible. It names as its fitting
teacher God, who alone is able to make a human being truly like himself. The apostle knew
this teaching to be truly divine, and he says: “But you, Timothy, have known the sacred
writings from infancy, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in
Christ.” Truly sacred are those writings that make people holy and make them divine. The
same apostle then calls the Scriptures that are put together from these sacred letters and
syllables “God-breathed,” “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training
in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
No one could be so struck by the exhortations of any other saints as by the Lord himself,
the lover of humanity. For this is his one and only work: that human beings be saved.[121]
[2 Timothy 3:15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17]

9h So he himself cries out, urging people on to salvation: “The kingdom of heaven has come
near.” He turns people around by fear as they draw near. In the same way the Lord’s
apostle, appealing to the Macedonians, becomes the interpreter of the divine voice,
saying, “The Lord is near; take care that we are not found empty.” But you are so
fearless, or rather so unbelieving, that you obey neither the Lord himself nor Paul, even
though Paul was in chains for Christ. “Taste and see that God is good.” Faith will lead
you in, experience will teach you, and Scripture will train you, saying, “Come, children,
listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Then, as though to people who
already believe, it briefly adds, “Who is the person who wants life and loves to see good
days?” We are, we shall answer, we who worship the Good and are zealous for good
things.[122] [Matthew 4:17; Philippians 4:5]

9i So hear, “you who are far away,” and hear, “you who are near.” The Word has been hidden
from no one. He is a common light and shines on all people. No one is a Cimmerian as far
as the Word is concerned. Let us hurry to salvation, to the new birth. Let us, the many,
hurry to be gathered into one love, in keeping with the union of the single, undivided
being. As we are made good, let us likewise pursue unity, seeking the good Unity. The
union of the many, receiving a divine harmony out of a medley of voices and scattered
parts, becomes one symphony. It follows one choir-leader and teacher, the Word, and rests
on the truth itself, saying “Abba, Father.” God welcomes this true voice from his children
and gathers it as the first fruit.[123] [Isaiah 57:19; Ephesians 2:17; Romans 8:15;
Galatians 4:6]

----------------------------------------

NOTES

[66] Clement explains two Greek words for cult images by wordplay: xoana from xeō, “to
scrape or carve,” and brete from brotoi, “mortals.”

[67] The “Venerable Ones” (Semnai) were the goddesses worshiped at Athens and usually
identified with the Furies (Erinyes or Eumenides).

[68] The “Indian beast” is presumably the elephant, whose ivory Phidias used for the
statue. Clement does not name it.

[69] The older translation leaves out both “bronze” and “iron” from the list of metals.

[70] The older translation reads “Remain free” as if spoken to the man. The Greek says
that beauty is to remain free.

[71] Aguieus is Apollo as guardian of the streets. He was represented by a pillar set up
at the door.

[72] Some editors bracket “the image” in the last sentence as a later addition. If the
words are kept, the sense is that God himself is the Christian’s image, one grasped by the
mind and not by the senses.

[73] “Antiochus of Cyzicus” is Antiochus IX, a Seleucid king of Syria (late 2nd century
BC). He was nicknamed Cyzicenus because he was brought up at Cyzicus.

[74] Herodotus (Histories 3.27–29) tells how the Persian king Cambyses stabbed the Apis
bull, which the Egyptians worshipped as a god.

[75] Other ancient writers, such as Athenaeus, say Phryne (mentioned in the next section)
was the model for the Cnidian Aphrodite. Clement follows Posidippus in naming Cratine.

[76] In the myth as told by Apollodorus (Library 1.7.4), Zeus punished Ceyx and Alcyone
for calling themselves Zeus and Hera by turning them into birds. There, Alcyone is the
daughter of Aeolus and Ceyx is the son of the Morning Star, whereas Clement calls Ceyx the
son of Aeolus.

[77] The Greek calls Nicagoras a man of Zeleia, a town in the Troad near the Hellespont,
not Zela in Pontus.

[78] Clement says literally that Homer “honored them with badness.” The exact sense is
uncertain; the older translation has “sinister honour.” The word rendered “filthy”
(δεισαλέα) seems to be related to a word for slime or mire, which probably explains the
older translation’s “watery.” The older translation also renders εἴδωλα (“idols”) as
“shades.”

[79] Adamant (ἀδάμας) was a word for an extremely hard metal or stone; the older
translation renders it “steel.”

[80] “The place above the heavens” echoes Plato, Phaedrus 247c. “The Olympian” means Zeus
of Olympia, whose famous statue by Phidias was made of gold and ivory.

[81] “Golden” is a standard epithet of Aphrodite in Homer.

[82] The Aphrodite of Cnidus was a famous nude statue by the sculptor Praxiteles.

[83] The woman is Pasiphae in the Greek myth. Daedalus built a wooden cow so that she
could mate with a bull.

[84] The Greek word rendered “carpenters” (tektones) usually means woodworkers or
builders.

[85] The Greek word for “plan” is oikonomia, often rendered “dispensation” or “economy.”

[86] The Athenian orator is Demosthenes (Third Olynthiac 19).

[87] Philaenis was a woman to whom a manual of sexual positions was attributed.

[88] The quotation is Psalm 96:5 (95:5 in the Greek Old Testament), which in the Greek
reads “all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens” (the Hebrew
has “idols”). Clement’s wording differs (“idols of demons,” “God”), and “and what is in
heaven” appears to be his own addition.

[89] The quotation adapts Psalm 33:6 (32:6 in the Greek Old Testament), where the subject
is “the heavens” and “the word of the Lord.” “Works of his fingers” comes from Psalm 8:3.

[90] The adverb rendered “wonderfully well” (pankalōs) most naturally goes with “was
made,” but the word order also allows it to go with “agree” (“quite rightly agree”).

[91] Clement’s derivations of “Poseidon” from “posis” (drink) and “Ares” from
“arsis”/”anairesis” are ancient word-plays, not reliable etymologies.

[92] The Greek reads literally “Artaxerxes of Darius of Ochus.” This most likely means
Artaxerxes II, son of Darius II, whose personal name was Ochus.

[93] “Fixed stars” translates “aplaneis,” the “non-wandering” stars, as opposed to the
planets (“wanderers”). Xenocrates’ eighth god is the heaven made up of these fixed stars.

[94] Ancient summaries of Aristotle’s teaching credited him with the view that providence
reaches only as far as the moon. It is not stated in this form in his surviving works.

[95] The “wandering stars” are the planets. The Greek word for “wander” is the root of
“planet”, and Clement plays on it: those who worship the wanderers have themselves
wandered astray.

[96] “The back of heaven” echoes Plato’s Phaedrus (247b-c), where the souls stand on the
back of heaven and gaze at true being.

[97] The Plato quotation is from his Second Letter (312e).

[98] Deuteronomy 25:13-15, quoted closely from the Greek Old Testament, with some
shortening.

[99] The closing verses come from the Sibylline Oracles (Book 3), Greek verses written in
the style of a pagan prophetess. Clement does not name the source here.

[100] “The son of Gryllus” is Xenophon. The saying about the sun closely matches
Xenophon’s Memorabilia (4.3.14). The “Hebrew prophetess” is the Sibyl, whose verses
follow. Clement treats her as a prophetess of the Hebrews.

[101] The same Greek word, doxa, means “reputation” in Cleanthes’ line and “opinion” in
Clement’s comment, so Clement’s comment picks up the word from the quotation.

[102] Most scholars think these “Sophocles” lines are not genuine, and that a later
writer, probably a Jewish one, composed them.

[103] These verses come from a poem known as the “Testament of Orpheus.” Most scholars
think a Jewish author wrote it, not the legendary Orpheus.

[104] Menander is mocking the wandering begging priests of Cybele, the “Mother of the
gods”; the exact sense of “on a little board” is uncertain.

[105] The phrase “as freely as they like” renders a short and obscure Greek expression.

[106] “Brazenly” renders a Greek idiom that literally means “with bare head,” that is,
openly and without shame. The Greek speaks literally of “violent marriages,” unions forced
on women.

[107] Clement quotes from the Sibylline Oracles. These Greek verses were written in the
name of the ancient pagan prophetess, the Sibyl, but much of the collection was produced
by Jews and Christians. Clement treats them as genuine prophecy. They are not part of
Scripture.

[108] Clement quotes Jeremiah 23:23–24 as a statement, following the Greek Old Testament
(Septuagint); the Hebrew text, followed by most English Bibles, has a question: “Am I a
God at hand, and not a God afar off?”

[109] The quotations are from Jeremiah 23:24, Isaiah 40:12, Isaiah 64:1–2 (Greek Old
Testament; the source of both the melting mountains and the opened heaven), and Isaiah
66:1. The passage on idols loosely combines Jeremiah 7:33 and 8:2. The last quotations are
from Isaiah 51:6 and 40:8.

[110] The first quotation is Deuteronomy 32:39. The “thunder” quotation matches Amos 4:13
in the Greek Old Testament, though Clement names Hosea. The Isaiah quotations are from
Isaiah 45:19–22.

[111] The quotations are from Isaiah 45:22–23, Isaiah 40:18–19, Isaiah 10:10 and 10:13–14,
Proverbs 8:22, Proverbs 2:6 and Proverbs 6:9. The “Hebrew child” is apparently Solomon,
since the sayings come from Proverbs, but Clement does not name him here.

[112] The quotations are from Proverbs 6:11 (Greek Old Testament), Jeremiah 10:12,
Deuteronomy 6:4 and 6:13, and Psalm 2:10–12. Clement’s wording of Deuteronomy 6:13
(“worship... him alone”) matches Jesus’ quotation in Matthew 4:10, whereas most
manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament read “fear.”

[113] The quotations are from Psalm 2:12, Psalm 4:2 (Psalm 4:3 in the Greek numbering),
Romans 1:21–25 and Genesis 1:1. Clement shortens the Romans passage, joining parts of
verses 21, 23 and 25.

[114] Clement’s remark “these are the words of the prophets” shows that this is a string
of prophetic phrases, not one passage. Compare Isaiah 13:10 and 34:4, Matthew 24:29, and
Revelation 6:14 and 20:11.

[115] Moses’ words “afraid and trembling” closely follow Hebrews 12:21, about Mount Sinai.
Clement applies them to Moses hearing about the Word (περὶ τοῦ λόγου).

[116] “Among the things of the Father” is the same Greek phrase as in Luke 2:49, usually
rendered “in my Father’s house” or “about my Father’s business”. The Greek wording of the
“firstborn enrolled in heaven” and the “myriads of angels” echoes Hebrews 12:22-23.

[117] The Greek verb (προσκοπεῖτε) means to look ahead to or watch for the fire, that is,
they are heading toward it.

[118] “They shall never enter” renders a Hebrew-style oath formula, literally “if they
shall enter.”

[119] Moses’ successor is Joshua, whose Greek name, Iēsous, is the same as “Jesus.”
Hebrews 4:8 also calls Joshua by that name, and Clement likely intends a play on the name.

[120] The Pactolus was a river in Lydia famous in legend for its gold. The “old man of
Ithaca” is Odysseus, who in the Odyssey (book 1) longs to see even the smoke rising from
his homeland. He also turned down the nymph Calypso’s offer to make him immortal so that
he could go home.

[121] The quotations are from 2 Timothy 3:15–17. The Greek word for “writings” (grammata)
also means “letters” of the alphabet, which is why Clement goes on to speak of “letters
and syllables.”

[122] The psalm quotations are from Psalm 34:8, 11–12 (33:9, 12–13 in the Greek Old
Testament). The Greek Psalm has “the Lord is good,” and Clement has “God.”

[123] The Cimmerians were a legendary people in Homer’s Odyssey (book 11) who lived in
mist and darkness, never seeing the sun.


EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) (CHAPTERS 10–12)
=========================================================

EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) continued

CHAPTER 10

Answer to the Objection of the Heathen, that It Was Not Right to Abandon the Customs of
Their Fathers.

10a “But,” you say, “it is not reasonable to overturn a custom handed down to us from our
fathers.” Then why do we not still live on our first food, milk, which our nurses
accustomed us to from birth? Why do we increase or reduce our inheritance, and not keep it
exactly the same as we received it? Why do we no longer spit up on our fathers’ laps? Why
do we no longer keep doing the other things that made us laughingstocks as babies raised
by our mothers? We have corrected ourselves, even if we never had good tutors. Again, on a
sea voyage, detours are costly and dangerous, yet somehow they seem sweet. But in the
conduct of life, shall we not leave behind the custom that is evil, passion-driven and
godless, even if our fathers are angry? Shall we not turn to the truth and seek the One
who is truly Father, throwing off habit like a poisonous drug?

10b This is in fact the finest part of my undertaking: to show you that godliness was
hated because of madness and this thrice-wretched custom. Such a good thing, greater than
anything God has ever given to the human race, would never have been hated or rejected if
you had not been swept away by custom. You then stopped your ears against us. Like stiff-
necked horses that refuse the rein, you took the bit in your teeth and ran away from our
words. You longed to throw us off, though we were the drivers of your life, and in your
folly you were carried toward the cliffs of destruction. You took the holy word of God to
be something defiled. So, as Sophocles says, the wages of your choice follow you: “a mind
gone, ears useless, empty cares.” And you do not know that this above all is true: the
good and godly, who honored what is good, will receive a good reward, while the wicked, on
the other hand, will receive fitting punishment. Punishment hangs over the ruler of
wickedness himself.[124]

10c So the prophet Zechariah threatens him: “May he who chose Jerusalem rebuke you. Is
this not a brand plucked out of the fire?” Why, then, are people still gripped by a desire
for a death they choose for themselves? Why have they run for refuge to this deadly brand,
with which they will be burned up, when they could live well according to God and not
according to custom? God gives life freely. But evil custom, after we leave this world,
brings empty repentance together with punishment. “The fool learns by suffering” that
superstition destroys and godliness saves. Let any of you look at those who serve at the
idols. Their hair is filthy, and they are disgraced by dirty, ragged clothes. They have
never so much as tried a bath, and their long fingernails make them like wild beasts. Many
of them have even been castrated. They show in practice that the idols’ sacred precincts
are tombs or prisons. To me these people seem to be mourning the gods, not worshiping
them. What they have suffered deserves pity rather than reverence.[125] [Zechariah 3:2]

10d Do you see all this and still stay blind? Will you not look up to the Master of all,
the Lord of the universe? Will you not escape from the prisons here and take refuge in the
mercy that comes from heaven? Out of his great love for humanity, God holds fast to man,
as a mother bird flies to a nestling that has fallen from the nest. If a creeping beast
gapes at the chick, “the mother flutters around, wailing for her dear children.” But God
the Father seeks his creature, heals his fall, drives off the beast, and takes the chick
up again, urging it to fly back to the nest. Dogs that have wandered off track down their
master by scent. Horses that have thrown their rider obey their master at a single
whistle. “The ox knows its owner,” it says, “and the donkey its master’s manger, but
Israel does not know me.” What, then, does the Lord do?[126] [Isaiah 1:3]

10e He does not hold grudges. He still shows pity, and he still calls for repentance. I
want to ask you something. Does it not seem absurd to you that you, who are human beings,
God’s own creation, who received your soul from him and belong wholly to God, should serve
another master? Worse, you serve a tyrant in place of the king, and the evil one in place
of the good. For tell me, by the truth, what sane person leaves the good behind and lives
with wickedness? Who runs away from God to live with demons? Who, when he can be a son of
God, enjoys being a slave? Or who, when he can be a citizen of heaven, chases after
Erebus? He could instead tend Paradise, walk about in heaven, and share in the living,
unpolluted spring. Like Elijah, he could travel through the air in the track of that
shining cloud and watch the rain that brings salvation.[127]

10f But others, like worms, roll about in swamps and mud, the streams of pleasure, and
feed on useless and senseless luxuries. They are swinish people. For pigs, it is said,
“enjoy mud” more than clean water, and, as Democritus says, “they go mad with desire over
filth.” No, let us never, never be made slaves, and let us not become swinish. As true
“children of light,” let us look up and gaze at the light, so that the Lord does not
expose us as illegitimate, as the sun does with eagles. So let us repent and move from
ignorance to knowledge, from folly to wisdom, from lack of self-control to self-control,
from injustice to justice, and from godlessness to God. The risk of deserting to God’s
side is a good one. Those of us who love righteousness and pursue eternal salvation can
enjoy many other good things as well. Above all, there are the things God himself hints at
when he speaks through Isaiah: “There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord.” It
is a fine and lovable inheritance. It is not gold, silver or clothing, where the moth
creeps in, and where the thief, eyeing earthbound wealth, breaks in. It is that treasure
of salvation, and we must hurry toward it, becoming lovers of the Word. Our good works
depart with us from here and fly with us on the wing of truth.[128] [Ephesians 5:8; Isaiah
54:17; Matthew 6:19-20]

10g The eternal covenant of God hands this inheritance over to us, supplying an
everlasting gift. This loving Father of ours, the one who is truly a Father, never stops
urging, warning, training and loving us. For he never stops saving us, and he gives the
best advice: “Become righteous, says the Lord. You who are thirsty, go to the water. And
all of you who have no money, go, buy and drink without money.” He calls us to the
washing, to salvation, to enlightenment. He all but cries out and says: “I give you land
and sea, child, and heaven too, and I freely give you all the living creatures in them.”
Only thirst for your Father, child. God will be shown to you without payment. The truth is
not peddled in the marketplace. He gives you the birds, the fish, and the animals of the
land. The Father made all these for you to enjoy with thanksgiving.[129] [Isaiah 55:1]

10h The illegitimate one, a child of destruction who has chosen to “serve mammon,” will
have to buy things with money. But God entrusts to you what is yours. I mean to you, the
true child, who loves the Father, and for whose sake he is still at work. To this child
alone he makes the promise: “And the land will not be sold into permanent ownership.” For
it is not signed over to decay. “For all the land is mine,” and it is also yours, if you
receive God. So the Scripture rightly brings good news to those who have believed: “The
holy ones of the Lord will inherit the glory of God and his power.” What glory, blessed
one? Tell me. The glory “which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the
human heart. And they will rejoice in the kingdom of their Lord forever. Amen.” You people
have the divine promise of grace. You have also heard the other side, the threat of
punishment. By both of these the Lord saves, training people with fear and with grace. Why
are we waiting?[130] [Matthew 6:24; Leviticus 25:23; 1 Corinthians 2:9]

10i Why do we not turn away from the punishment? Why do we not accept the gift? Why do we
not choose the better things: God instead of the evil one, wisdom over idol-worship, life
in exchange for death? “See,” he says, “I have set death and life before your face.” The
Lord is trying to get you to choose life. Like a father, he advises you to obey God. “For
if you listen to me,” he says, “and are willing, you will eat the good things of the
land.” That is the grace given for obedience. “But if you do not obey me and are not
willing, the sword and fire will devour you.” That is the judgment on disobedience. “For
the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” The word of the Lord is a law of truth. Do
you want me to be a good counselor to you? Then listen, and I will show you what I can.
People, when you thought about the Good itself, you ought to have brought in an inborn
faith. That would have been a trustworthy witness from your own household, plainly
choosing what is best. Then you would not ask whether the Good should be pursued, but
would work hard at it.[131] [Deuteronomy 30:15; Deuteronomy 30:19; Isaiah 1:19-20]

10j Take drunkenness, for example. If anyone is going to get drunk, he ought to hesitate
over it. But you get drunk before you even think about it. And if you are going to behave
outrageously, you make no inquiry at all; you do it as fast as you can. Only when it comes
to worshiping God do you start asking questions. Should we follow this wise God and
Christ? That is the one thing you think deserves deliberation and study, though you have
not even grasped what is fitting for God, whatever that is. Believe us at least as you
believe drunkenness, so that you may become sober. Believe us at least as you believe
outrage, so that you may live. But if you want to be persuaded after looking at the clear
assurance that the virtues give, then I will set before you, from my abundance, the case
for the Word. As for you, your ancestral customs no longer keep you busy and distract you
from the truth, now that you have already been instructed. So you can now hear how the
rest of the matter stands. Do not let any shame at this name take hold of you first. That
shame “greatly harms men” and turns them aside from salvation.[132]

10k So let us strip openly and compete in the stadium of truth like true athletes. The
holy Word will be the umpire, and the Master of all things will preside over the contest.
The prize set before us is not a small one: immortality. So do not worry any more, not
even a little, about what some marketplace rabble say about you. They are godless dancers
in the chorus of superstition, driven by folly and madness into the very pit. They make
idols and bow down to stones. These people have dared to turn men into gods. They have
even listed Alexander the Macedonian as a thirteenth god, though “Babylon exposed him as a
corpse.” So I admire the sophist from Chios, whose name was Theocritus. After Alexander’s
death, Theocritus mocked the empty ideas people held about gods. He said to his fellow
citizens, “Men, take courage, as long as you see the gods dying before men.” But whoever
worships the visible gods, and this mixed crowd of created things, and attaches himself to
them, is far more wretched than those demons themselves.[133]

10l For God is not unjust in any way, as the demons are. He is as perfectly just as can
be. Nothing is more like him than the one of us who becomes perfectly just. “Be on your
way, all you working folk, who turn in prayer to Ergane, the fierce-eyed goddess, daughter
of Zeus, with winnowing-baskets set up beside you.” You fools, you are makers and
worshipers of stones! Let your Phidias come, and Polycleitus, and Praxiteles and Apelles,
and everyone who practices the manual crafts. They are earthly men, workers in earth. For
a certain prophecy says that affairs here will go badly when people put their trust in
statues. So let the petty craftsmen come again, for I will not stop calling. Not one of
them has ever made a breathing image, or kneaded soft flesh out of earth. Who melted the
marrow? Who set the bones?[134] 10m Who stretched the sinews? Who made the veins swell?
Who poured blood into them? Who stretched the skin around the body? Which of them could
ever make eyes that see? Who breathed a soul into it? Who gave righteousness? Who promised
immortality? Only the Maker of the universe, “the Father, the best of craftsmen,” formed
us human beings as such a living statue. But your Olympian, an image of an image, far out
of tune with the truth, is the dumb work of Attic hands. For the “image of God” is his
Word. The divine Word is the true Son of the Mind, light that is the original pattern of
light. The image of the Word is the true human being, the mind in man. For this reason he
is said to have been made “in the image” and “after the likeness” of God. By the
understanding in his heart he is made like the divine Word, and in this way he is
rational.[135] [Genesis 2:7; Genesis 1:26; Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4]

10n But the man-shaped statues are only an earthly image of the visible, earth-born man.
They are a short-lived imprint, plainly far from the truth. To me, then, human life seems
to have become nothing but madness, when it spends such zeal on raw material. Custom has
given you a taste of slavery and of senseless, overbusy concern, and it has been corrupted
by empty opinion. Ignorance is the cause of lawless customs and deceitful pretenses. It
has devised many forms of demons, deadly fates and hateful idols for the human race, and
it has stamped the stain of long death on those who follow it. So take the water of the
Word. Wash, you who are defiled. Sprinkle yourselves clean of custom with the true drops.
The pure must go up into the heavens. You are a human being, which is the most common
thing about you, so look for the one who made you. You are a son, which is the most
personal thing about you, so acknowledge your Father.[136] [Isaiah 1:16]

10o Yet do you still stay in your sins, clinging to pleasures? To whom will the Lord say,
“Yours is the kingdom of the heavens”? It is yours if you are willing, you who have set
your choice toward God. It is yours if you are willing simply to believe and to follow the
short, plain message. The Ninevites obeyed that message. By genuine repentance they
exchanged the capture they expected for a good salvation. “How then,” someone asks, “shall
I go up to the heavens?” The Lord is “the way.” It is “narrow,” but it comes “from the
heavens.” It is narrow, but it sends us up to the heavens. It is narrow on earth, where it
is despised, and wide in the heavens, where it is worshiped. Now the person who has never
heard the word has his ignorance to excuse his error. But the person who has heard it with
his own ears carries disobedience in his soul by his own decision. The wiser he seems to
be, the more his understanding works against him. By not choosing the best, he has made
his own good sense his accuser. For by nature, as a human being, he is made for close
kinship with God.[137] [John 14:6; Matthew 7:14]

10p We do not force a horse to plough or a bull to hunt. We lead each animal toward what
it is naturally suited for. In the same way we call human beings to the knowledge of God.
They were made to gaze at heaven, and they are truly a heavenly plant. We have grasped
what belongs to them and sets them apart from the other living creatures. So we advise
them to equip themselves with godliness, a provision sufficient for the ages. We say: if
you are a farmer, farm, but know God as you farm. You who love the sea, sail, but call on
the heavenly pilot. Has knowledge found you as a soldier? Listen to the commander who
gives just orders. So, like people weighed down with stupor and drunkenness, sober up.
Open your eyes a little and think what the stones you worship mean to you, and what you
spend with empty zeal on mere matter. You waste your money and your livelihood on
ignorance, just as you waste your life on death. That is the only end your vain hope
finds. You cannot even pity yourselves, and you are not ready to listen to those who pity
you for your error. You are enslaved to a bad custom. You cling to it by your own choice
until your last breath, and so you are carried off to ruin. “For the light has come into
the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.” Yet you could wipe away
what stands in the way of your salvation: conceit, wealth and fear. You could say aloud
that line of the poet: “Where am I carrying all this wealth?[138] [John 3:19]

10q And where am I myself wandering?” Will you not throw away these empty fantasies and
say goodbye to custom itself? Say to vain glory: “Farewell, false dreams; you were nothing
after all.” What do you think, my friends, of Hermes Tychon, the Hermes of Andocides, and
Hermes Amyetus? Surely it is clear to everyone that they are stones, just like Hermes
himself. The halo is not a god, and the rainbow is not a god. They are conditions of the
air and the clouds. In the same way, day is not a god, nor is the year, nor is the time
that is made up of them. Neither are the sun and the moon, which mark off each of these.
So who in his right mind would take Reckoning, Punishment, Justice and Retribution to be
gods?[139] 10r Neither are the Furies, the Fates or Destiny gods, since the State, Glory
and Wealth are not gods either. Painters even show Wealth as blind. If you make gods of
Shame, Love and Aphrodite, then let Disgrace, Desire, Beauty and Sexual Union follow them
as gods too. So it no longer makes sense for you to regard Sleep and Death as twin gods.
These are conditions that happen naturally to living creatures. Nor could you rightly call
Doom, Destiny or the Fates goddesses. If Strife and Battle are not gods, then neither are
Ares and Enyo. Again, if lightning, thunderbolts and rainstorms are not gods, how can fire
and water be gods? And how can shooting stars and comets be gods, when they come about
through a disturbance of the air?[140]

10s Whoever calls Fortune a god may as well call Action a god. Suppose none of these is
held to be a god, and neither are those senseless figures made by human hands. Yet a
providence of divine power is plainly at work around us. Then nothing is left but to admit
that he alone truly is and exists who alone is truly God. But you foolish people are like
men who have drunk mandrake or some other drug. May God at last grant you to wake from
this sleep and to understand God. May you no longer picture gold, or stone, or a tree, or
an action, or a suffering, or a disease, or a fear as a god. For truly there are “thirty
thousand” demons “on the many-nourishing earth.” They are “not immortal,” and not mortal
either. They have no share in sensation, and so they have no share in death. They are
masters of human beings, made of stone and wood, who abuse human life and break faith with
it through custom.[141]

10t “The earth is the Lord’s,” it says, “and its fullness.” Then how do you dare to live
in luxury on the Lord’s property and not know your Master? The Lord will say to you,
“Leave my land. Do not touch the water that I send up. Do not share in the fruits that I
cultivate.” Pay God back for the cost of your upbringing, O man. Recognize your Master.
You are God’s own creature. How could what is his own rightly come to belong to someone
else? For what has been estranged, and so has lost its belonging, has also lost the truth.
Are you not, in a way, like Niobe? Or rather, to speak to you more mystically, are you not
like the Hebrew woman (the ancients named her after Lot), turning into something without
feeling? We have received the account that this woman was turned to stone because she
loved Sodom. And the Sodomites are the godless, those who turn to impiety, the hard-
hearted and the foolish.[142] [Psalm 24:1; 1 Corinthians 10:26; Genesis 19:26]

10u Think of these words as spoken to you from God. Do not suppose that stones, wood,
birds and snakes are sacred, but human beings are not. The truth is just the opposite.
Regard human beings as truly sacred, and take the animals and stones for what they are.
For wretched, miserable people think that God cries out through a raven or a jackdaw but
is silent through a man. They honor the raven as a messenger of God, but they persecute
the man of God. He does not croak or chatter. He speaks. Alas, he teaches them with reason
and with love for humanity, and they try inhumanly to cut his throat. He calls them to
righteousness, yet they neither wait for the grace from above nor turn away from the
punishment. For they do not believe God, and they do not learn his power. 10v But the one
whose love for humanity is beyond words also has a hatred of evil beyond all measure.
Anger feeds punishment for sin, but love for humanity does good to those who repent. The
most pitiable thing of all is to be deprived of help from God. Blindness of the eyes and
deafness of the ears are more painful than the other ways the evil one gets the better of
us. The one robs a person of the sight of heaven, and the other deprives him of divine
teaching. But you are crippled toward the truth, blind in mind and deaf in understanding,
and yet you feel no pain and no distress. You have not longed to see heaven and the Maker
of heaven. You have not sought to hear and learn from the Creator and Father of all,
joining your choice to your salvation. For nothing stands in the way of the person who
hurries toward the knowledge of God: not lack of education, not poverty, not obscurity,
not lack of possessions. And no one prays to gain the truly real wisdom by “slaying with
bronze,” or with iron. This saying is well spoken, better than any other: the good person
brings salvation everywhere. For the one who is zealous for what is right, as a lover of
the One who lacks nothing, needs little himself. He has stored up his blessedness in
nothing other than God himself, where there is no moth, no thief, no pirate, but the
eternal Giver of good things.[143] [Matthew 6:20]

10w So it is fitting that you have been likened to those serpents whose ears are shut
against the charmers. For the Scripture says, “Their anger is like that of a serpent, like
a deaf asp that stops up its ears and will not hear the voice of charmers.” But as for
you, let your savagery be charmed away. Accept our gentle Word, and spit out the poisonous
venom, so that you may be given the chance, as far as possible, to strip off corruption,
as those serpents strip off old age. Listen to me. Do not stop up your ears or block your
hearing, but take what is said to heart. The medicine of immortality is good. Stop at last
your crawling, snakelike trails. “For the enemies of the Lord,” it says, “will lick the
dust.” Lift your heads from the earth to the sky, look up to heaven, and marvel. Stop
lying in wait for the heel of the righteous and blocking “the way of truth.” Be wise and
harmless. Perhaps the Lord will give you the wing of simplicity (he has chosen to give
wings to those born of the earth), so that you may leave your holes and live in the
heavens.[144] [Matthew 10:16; Genesis 3:15]

10x Only let us repent with our whole heart, so that we may be able to hold God with our
whole heart. “Hope in him, all you assembly of the people,” it says. “Pour out all your
hearts before him.” This is said to those who are empty of wickedness. He has mercy on
them and fills them with righteousness. Believe, O man, in the one who is man and God.
Believe, O man, in the living God, who suffered and is worshipped. Believe, you slaves, in
the one who died. All people, believe in him who alone is God of all people. Believe, and
receive salvation as your reward. “Seek God, and your soul will live.” The one who seeks
God is busy about his own salvation. Have you found God? Then you have life. So let us
seek, so that we may live. The reward of finding is life with God. “Let all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you, and let them say always, ‘Let God be magnified.’” A beautiful
hymn to God is an immortal man, built up in righteousness, in whom the words of truth are
engraved.[145] [Psalm 62:8]

10y For where else should righteousness be written than in a self-controlled soul? Where
else love? Where else reverence? Where else gentleness? I think that those who have
stamped these divine writings on their soul should regard wisdom as a good starting point
for anyone, whatever part of life they turn to. They should also count the same wisdom as
the calm harbor of salvation. Through this wisdom, those who have run to the Father are
good fathers to their children. Those who have come to know the Son are good sons to their
parents. Those who remember the Bridegroom are good husbands to their wives. Those who
have been ransomed from the worst slavery are good masters to their servants. Oh, the
beasts are more blessed than people in their error! They feed on ignorance, as you do, but
they do not put on a show of truth. Among them there are no tribes of flatterers. Fish are
not superstitious, and birds do not worship idols. They are struck with awe by the one
heaven alone, since, denied reason, they cannot conceive of God.

10z Are you not ashamed? You have made yourselves even more irrational than the irrational
animals, you who have worn away so many stages of life in godlessness. You were children,
then boys, then young men, then grown men, but never good. At least respect old age. Now
that you have reached the sunset of life, come to your senses. Even at the end of life,
come to know God, so that the end of your life may become the beginning of salvation. You
have grown old in superstition; come to the worship of God as young people. God will
accept guileless children. Let the Athenian follow the laws of Solon, the Argive those of
Phoroneus, and the Spartan those of Lycurgus. But if you enroll yourself as belonging to
God, heaven is your homeland and God your lawgiver. And what are the laws? “You shall not
murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not corrupt boys, you shall not steal,
you shall not bear false witness; you shall love the Lord your God.” There are also the
supplements to these: rational laws and holy words written on the hearts themselves. “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the
other also.” “You shall not desire, for by desire alone you have committed adultery.” How
much better it is for people not even to want to desire what they should not, in the first
place, than to get what they desire![146] [Exodus 20:13-16; Matthew 22:37-39; Luke 6:29;
Matthew 5:28]

10aa But you cannot bear the severity of salvation. We enjoy sweet foods and prefer them
for the smooth pleasure they give, yet bitter things that roughen the taste heal us and
make us well, and the harshness of medicines strengthens those with weak stomachs. In the
same way, custom is pleasant and tickles the senses, but custom pushes us into the pit,
while truth leads up to heaven. Truth is “rugged” at first, “but a good nurse of the
young.” She is a dignified women’s quarters and a sober council of elders. She is neither
hard to approach nor impossible to grasp. She lives very near us, within us, as the all-
wise Moses hints, dwelling in three parts of us: “in hands, mouth, and heart.” This is a
true symbol that truth is completed by three things altogether: purpose, action, and
speech. Do not fear that the many delightful things that appear before you will rob you of
wisdom. You will willingly step over the nonsense of custom yourself, just as children,
once grown, throw away their toys.[147] [Deuteronomy 30:14; 1 Corinthians 13:11]

10ab With unsurpassable speed and easily approached goodwill, the divine power shone on
the earth and filled the whole world with the seed of salvation. For the Lord could not
have accomplished so great a work in so short a time without divine care. He was despised
in appearance but worshiped in fact: the purifier, the savior, the gentle one, the divine
Word, truly the most plainly visible God, made equal to the Master of all, because he was
his Son and “the Word was in God.” He was not disbelieved when he was first announced
beforehand. Nor was he unrecognized when he took up the mask of a man, formed himself in
flesh, and acted out the saving drama of humanity. For he was a true contender, fighting
side by side with his own creature. He spread to all people very quickly, rising faster
than the sun from the Father’s own will, and most easily made God shine upon us. By what
he taught and showed, he made clear where he himself came from and who he was. He is the
bearer of the peace treaty, the reconciler, our Savior, the Word, a life-giving, peaceful
spring, poured out over the whole face of the earth. Through him, one might say,
everything has already become a sea of good things.[148] [John 1:1]

CHAPTER 11

How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of

11a If you wish, look back briefly to the beginning and see God’s kindness. The first man
played freely in Paradise, because he was a child of God. But he gave way to pleasure.
(The serpent is an allegory for pleasure, crawling on its belly, an earthly vice turned
toward material things.) He was led astray by desires. The child grew into a man through
disobedience, and having disobeyed his Father, he was ashamed before God. See what
pleasure could do. The man who had been free because of his simplicity was found bound by
sins. Then the Lord wished to free him from his bonds once more. He was bound in flesh (a
divine mystery!), subdued the serpent, and enslaved the tyrant, death. Most astonishing of
all, by outstretched hands he showed that man, who had been led astray by pleasure and
held fast by corruption, was set free. O mystical wonder! The Lord lay down, and man rose
up. He who fell out of Paradise receives a greater prize for obedience: the heavens.[149]
[Genesis 3:14]

11b For this reason, now that the Word himself has come to us from heaven, it seems to me
we no longer need to go after human teaching, busying ourselves with Athens and the rest
of Greece, and Ionia too. If our teacher is the one who filled all things with holy
powers, in creation, salvation, kindness, lawgiving, prophecy and teaching, then that
teacher now instructs us in everything. Through the Word the whole world has already
become Athens and Greece. You believed a poet’s myth that records Minos the Cretan as a
close companion of Zeus. Will you then refuse to believe us, who have become disciples of
God and have taken up the wisdom that is really true? The leaders of philosophy only
hinted at that wisdom, but the disciples of Christ have grasped it and proclaimed it. And
so, one might say, everyone … [words missing] … Christ is not divided. There is neither
barbarian nor Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, but a new human being, remade by the
Holy Spirit of God.[150] [1 Corinthians 1:13; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11]

11c Furthermore, all the other counsels and instructions are poor things and concern
particular matters: whether to marry, whether to take part in public life, whether to have
children. But there is one exhortation that is universal. It covers the whole of life, in
every season and every circumstance, and it directs us toward the highest goal, which is
life. That exhortation is godliness. It is the only rule we must live by if we are to live
forever. Philosophy, as the elders say, is a counsel of long duration, courting an
everlasting love of wisdom. But “the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, enlightening
the eyes.” Receive Christ, receive sight, receive your light, “that you may know well both
God and man.” The Word who has enlightened us is “sweet, above gold and precious stone”;
he is desirable “above honey and the honeycomb.” How could he not be desirable, when he
has brought into clear light a mind buried in darkness and sharpened the “light-bringing
eyes” of the soul?[151]

11d For just as “if there were no sun, it would be night everywhere, despite the other
stars,” so, if we had not known the Word and been lit up by him, we would be no better
than fattened birds, grown plump in darkness and fed for death. Let us take in the light,
so that we may take in God. Let us take in the light and become disciples of the Lord.
This is what he promised the Father: “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the
midst of the assembly I will sing hymns to you.” Sing, then, and tell me about your
Father, God. Your accounts will save me, and your song will teach me. Until now I was
wandering, seeking God. But since you lead me into the light, Lord, Lord, I find God
through you and receive the Father from you. I become your fellow heir, since you were not
ashamed of me, your brother.[152] [Psalm 22:22; Hebrews 2:11-12; Romans 8:17]

11e So let us remove, let us remove, our forgetfulness of the truth. Let us strip away
ignorance and the darkness that stands in the way like a mist over the eyes, and let us
look upon the God who truly is. First let us sing to him this greeting: “Hail, light!”
Light has shone on us from heaven, on us who were buried in darkness and shut up in the
shadow of death. It is purer than the sun and sweeter than the life we have here. That
light is eternal life, and whatever shares in it lives. Night is afraid of the light, and
in fear it sets and yields to the Lord’s day. Everything has become sleepless light, and
the west has been turned into the east. This is what the new creation means. For the “sun
of righteousness,” who drives his chariot over all things, travels equally around all
humanity. He imitates the Father, who “makes his sun rise on all people,” and he sprinkles
on them the dew of truth.[153] [Luke 1:79; Malachi 4:2; Matthew 5:45]

11f He turned the west into the east, and through the cross he turned death into life. He
snatched man out of destruction and lifted him up to hang in the upper air. He
transplanted corruption into incorruption and changed earth into heaven. He is God’s
farmer, “giving favorable signs, rousing the people to work,” to good work, “reminding
them of their livelihood,” the true one. He has given us the Father’s inheritance, which
is truly great and divine and cannot be taken away. By heavenly teaching he makes man
divine, “putting laws into their mind and writing them on their heart.” What laws does he
write? “That all will know God, from small to great; and I will be merciful to them,” says
God, “and I will by no means remember their sins.” Let us receive the laws of life and
obey God when he exhorts us. Let us learn to know him, so that he may be merciful. Even
though he needs nothing, let us pay him a wage of thanks, which is willing obedience, like
a kind of rent paid to God for our dwelling here.[154] [Hebrews 8:10-12; Jeremiah
31:33-34]

11g “Gold for bronze, the price of a hundred oxen for the price of nine.” So it is with
you: for a little faith God gives you all this earth to farm, water to drink and to sail
on, air to breathe, fire to serve you, and a world to live in. He has even allowed you to
send a colony from here to the heavens. All these great works of his hands, and all these
gifts, he has paid out to you for a little faith. People who trust sorcerers accept their
amulets and charms, supposing these will save them. Will you not be willing to have the
heavenly Word, the Saviour, fastened on you like an amulet? Will you not trust God’s own
charm and be set free from the passions, which are diseases of the soul, and be torn away
from sin? For sin is eternal death. Truly you are completely toothless and blind, like
moles. You live in the dark, doing nothing but eating, and you are wasting away in
corruption. But there is, there is a truth that cries out: “Out of darkness light will
shine.”[155] [2 Corinthians 4:6]

11h So let the light shine in the hidden part of a person, in the heart. Let the rays of
knowledge rise and bring out the person hidden within, making him shine: the disciple of
the light, the friend and fellow heir of Christ. This is especially so when a devout and
good child comes to know the most honored and venerable name, the name of a good Father.
This Father gives gentle commands and urges his child toward what will save him. The one
who obeys him gains in every way. He follows God, he obeys the Father. He came to know him
while he was still wandering. He has loved God, he has loved his neighbor, he has
fulfilled the commandment. He looks for the prize, he claims the promise. It is always
God’s purpose to save the flock of humanity. For this reason the good God sent the good
Shepherd. And the Word, laying the truth open, showed people the height of salvation, so
that they would either repent and be saved, or refuse to obey and be judged.[156] [1 Peter
3:4; Matthew 22:37-39; John 10:11]

11i This is the proclamation of righteousness: good news for those who obey, a judgment
for those who refuse to listen. Now when the “loud-crashing” trumpet sounds, it gathers
soldiers and announces war. Christ has breathed a song of peace to the ends of the earth.
Will he not, then, gather his own soldiers of peace? He has indeed gathered them, my
friend. By his blood and by his word he has gathered a bloodless army, and he has
entrusted the kingdom of heaven to them. Christ’s trumpet is his gospel. He has sounded
it, and we have heard it. Let us arm ourselves in peace, “putting on the breastplate of
righteousness,” taking up the shield of faith, putting on the helmet of salvation, and
sharpening “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is how the apostle
draws us up for battle, in peace. These are our weapons, and nothing can pierce them.
Armed with them, let us take our stand against the evil one. Let us put out the evil one’s
flaming arrows with blade-points of water, dipped by the Word. Let us repay his kindness
with grateful praise, and honor God with the divine Word.[157] [Ephesians 6:14-17]

11j “While you are still speaking,” he says, “he will say, ‘Look, I am here.’” What a holy
and blessed power this is, by which God lives as a fellow citizen with human beings! It is
better and finer, then, to become both an imitator and a servant of the best being there
is. For no one can imitate God except through the holy service he gives him, and no one
can serve and honor him except by imitating him. The heavenly and truly divine love comes
to people in this way: when true beauty, fanned into flame by the divine Word, is able to
shine out somewhere within the soul itself. And most important of all, salvation runs
together with sincerely wanting it, since choice and life are, so to speak, yoked
together. For this reason, this appeal of the truth alone is likened to the most faithful
of friends. It stays with us to our last breath. For those who depart for heaven, it
becomes a good escort for the whole and perfect spirit of the soul.[158] [Isaiah 58:9]

11k What, then, am I urging you to do? I am pressing you to be saved. This is what Christ
wants. In a word, he gives you life as a gift. And who is this? Learn it in brief: the
Word of truth, the Word of incorruption, who gives people new birth and brings them back
to the truth. He is the goad that drives us to salvation. He drives out corruption and
chases away death. He has built a temple in human beings, so that he might enshrine God in
them. Make the temple clean. Leave pleasures and carelessness to the wind and the fire,
like a flower that lasts a day. But farm the fruits of self-control with good sense, and
dedicate yourself to God as a first-fruits offering. Then you will be not only God’s work
but also his gift. Both suit Christ’s disciple: to be shown worthy of the kingdom, and to
have been counted worthy of the kingdom.[159] [1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:5]

CHAPTER 12

Exhortation to Abandon Their Old Errors and Listen to the Instructions of Christ.

12a So let us flee from custom. Let us flee it as we would a dangerous headland, or the
menace of Charybdis, or the Sirens of the myths. Custom chokes a person, turns him away
from the truth, and leads him away from life. It is a snare, a chasm, a pit, a greedy
evil. “Keep your ship clear of that smoke and that surge.” Let us flee, fellow sailors,
let us flee this wave! It belches out fire. It is a wicked island, piled high with bones
and corpses. On it sings a pretty little harlot, Pleasure, who delights in music for the
common crowd. “Come here, much-praised Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans; bring your
ship to rest, that you may hear a diviner voice.” She praises you, sailor, and calls you
famous in song, and the harlot claims for herself the glory of the Greeks. Let her feed on
the dead. A heavenly Spirit helps you. Pass Pleasure by; she is a deceiver. “Do not let a
woman with swaying hips cheat your mind, coaxing you with wheedling talk while she pries
into your barn.”[160]

12b Sail past the song; it brings death. Only be willing, and you have conquered
destruction. Bound to the wood, you will be set free from all corruption. The Word of God
will steer you, and the Holy Spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of heaven.
Then you will look upon my God. You will be initiated into those holy mysteries, and you
will enjoy the hidden things in heaven that are kept for me, “which no ear has heard, and
which have not entered the heart” of anyone. “Indeed, I seem to see two suns, and two
Thebes,” said one who was in a Bacchic frenzy over idols, drunk with undiluted ignorance.
I would pity him in his drunken raving. Even in such madness I would urge him toward a
sober salvation, because the Lord welcomes the repentance of a sinner and not his death.
Come, you who are out of your mind. Do not lean on the thyrsus or wrap yourself in ivy.
Throw away the headband, throw away the fawn-skin, and come to your senses. I will show
you the Word and the mysteries of the Word, explaining them in images you will
recognize.[161] [1 Corinthians 2:9; Ezekiel 33:11]

12c This is a mountain beloved by God. It is not the subject of tragedies, as Cithaeron
is, but is given over to the dramas of truth. It is a sober mountain, shaded by pure
woods. On it revel not the sisters of Semele “the lightning-struck,” the Maenads, who are
initiated into an unholy sharing out of flesh, but the daughters of God, the fair lambs.
They proclaim the solemn rites of the Word and gather a sober chorus. The chorus is the
righteous, and the song is a hymn to the King of all. The maidens sing, the angels give
glory, the prophets speak. The sound of music goes out. They run to follow the festal
band, and those who have been called hurry on, longing to receive the Father. Come to me,
old man, you also. Leave Thebes, give up prophecy and Bacchic revelry, and be led by the
hand to the truth. Look, I give you the wood to lean on. Hurry, Tiresias, believe, and you
will see. Christ shines more brightly than the sun, and through him the eyes of the blind
receive their sight. Night will flee from you, fire will fear you, and death will be gone.
You will see the heavens, old man, you who cannot see Thebes.[162]

12d O truly holy mysteries! O pure light! I am led by torchlight to look upon the heavens
and God. I become holy by being initiated. The Lord is the one who reveals the sacred
things. He seals the initiate as he leads him into the light, and he presents the believer
to the Father, to be kept for the ages. These are the revels of my mysteries. If you wish,
be initiated yourself, and you will dance with angels around the unbegotten,
indestructible, and only true God, while the Word of God sings the hymn with us. This
Jesus is eternal, the one great High Priest of the one God, who is also his Father. He
prays for human beings and calls out to them: “‘Listen, countless tribes,’ or rather, all
of you among humankind who have reason, barbarians and Greeks alike. I call the whole
human race, whose Maker I am by the Father’s will. Come to me, to be placed under the one
God and the one Word of God. You do not only surpass the irrational animals by reason. Out
of all mortal creatures, I grant to you alone the harvest of immortality.”[163] [Hebrews
4:14]

12e “For I want, I truly want, to share this grace with you as well, and to give you the
whole benefit, which is incorruption. I give you the Word, the knowledge of God. I give
you myself, complete. This is what I am. This is what God wants. This is concord, this is
the harmony of the Father. This is the Son, this is Christ, this is the Word of God, the
arm of the Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father. You were images long
ago, but not all of you were true likenesses. I want to set you right according to the
original, so that you may become like me. I will anoint you with the ointment of faith, by
which you throw off corruption. I will show you the form of righteousness, bare of any
covering, by which you climb up to God. ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are weighed
down, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is kind and my
burden is light.’” Let us hurry, let us run, you who are loved by God, you godlike statues
of the Word. Let us hurry, let us run, let us take up his yoke. Let us strive for
incorruption, and let us love Christ, the noble charioteer of humanity. He brought the
colt, the beast of burden, together with the old one. Having yoked the pair of humankind,
he steers the chariot toward immortality. He hurries toward God to fulfil in plain fact
what he once hinted at. Before, he drove into Jerusalem; now he drives into the heavens.
The eternal Son, victorious, is a most beautiful sight for the Father.[164] [Matthew
11:28-30; Matthew 21:2-7]

12f So let us be people who eagerly pursue what is good and who are loved by God, and let
us gain the greatest of all goods, God and life. The Word is our helper. Let us trust him,
and let no desire for silver and gold, or for glory, ever come over us as strongly as our
desire for the Word of truth himself. For it does not please even God himself if we count
what is most valuable as worth least, and instead value more highly the glaring outrages
of ignorance, stupidity, laziness, and idolatry, and the extreme of ungodliness. It is not
without reason that the children of the philosophers regard everything the foolish do as
unholy and impious. They describe ignorance itself as a form of madness, and so they
declare that the many are simply mad. Reason, then, leaves no room for doubt about which
of the two is better, to be sane or to be mad. Instead we must hold on to the truth with
all our grip and follow God with all our strength. With a sound mind we must regard
everything as his, as it truly is. Beyond that, since we have learned that we are the
finest of his possessions, we must entrust ourselves to God, loving the Lord God and
treating this as our work through the whole of life.[165] [Deuteronomy 6:5]

12g Now if “friends have all things in common,” and man is loved by God (for he is indeed
a friend of God, with the Word as mediator), then everything becomes man’s, because
everything is God’s. All things are shared by both friends, God and man. So it is time for
us to say that only the devout Christian is rich, sound-minded and well-born, and in this
way is God’s image, together with his likeness. We should say and believe that he has
become “righteous and holy with understanding” through Christ Jesus, and so is already
that far like God. The prophet does not hide this grace when he says, “I said, You are
gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” For he has adopted us, yes us, and wishes
to be called the Father of us alone, not of those who disobey.[166] [Psalm 82:6; Genesis
1:26] 12h This is how it stands with us who follow Christ: as our purposes are, so are our
words; as our words are, so are our actions; and as our deeds are, so is our life. The
whole life of those who have known Christ is good. I think I have said enough, even
though, out of love for humanity, I have gone on rather long. I have poured out whatever I
had from God, to urge you toward the greatest of goods, salvation. For when the subject is
a life that has no end at all, the words themselves never want to stop revealing its
sacred mysteries. What remains for you is this final step: to choose what is to your
advantage, judgment or grace. I do not think there should even be any hesitation over
which of the two is better. Nor is it even right to compare life with destruction.[167]

----------------------------------------

NOTES

[124] The Sophocles line does not appear in his surviving plays. It probably comes from a
lost work.

[125] “The fool learns by suffering” is from Hesiod (Works and Days 218); Homer has a
similar saying (“the fool learns when it is done,” Iliad 17.32, 20.198).

[126] The “it says” quotation is from Isaiah 1:3.

[127] Clement draws on the Elijah stories: the cloud and rain after the drought (1 Kings
18:44–45) and Elijah’s being taken up to heaven (2 Kings 2:11). “Shining cloud” is also
the phrase used for the cloud at the Transfiguration, where Elijah appears (Matthew 17:5).

[128] “Lovers of the Word” translates a Greek word that can also mean “lovers of learning”
or “lovers of discourse.”

[129] The words “You who are thirsty... without money” are Isaiah 55:1. The opening words,
“Become righteous, says the Lord,” do not match any single known Bible verse.

[130] The saying about the saints inheriting God’s glory has no exact match in our Bibles.
“What no eye has seen...” is close to 1 Corinthians 2:9, which echoes Isaiah 64:4.

[131] “Death and life” comes from Deuteronomy 30:15 and 30:19, where Moses urges Israel to
“choose life.” The two “if” sayings and “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” are from Isaiah
1:19–20. The words “grace” and “judgment” are Clement’s own comments on them.

[132] “Greatly harms men” is from a line of Homer (Iliad 24.45), also found in Hesiod
(Works and Days 318). The original line is about shame, which “greatly harms men, and
helps them too.” Clement quotes only the harmful half.

[133] “Thirteenth god” means one more than the twelve Olympian gods. The Greek calls
Theocritus “the sophist from Chios,” that is, from the island of Chios.

[134] Phidias, Polycleitus and Praxiteles were famous sculptors, and Apelles a famous
painter.

[135] “Image of God” echoes Colossians 1:15 (compare 2 Corinthians 4:4). “Image” and
“likeness” echo Genesis 1:26. “Breathed a soul into” recalls Genesis 2:7.

[136] “Wash, you who are defiled” may echo Isaiah 1:16, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves
clean.”

[137] The Greek (oikeiōs echein pros theon) says that a human being is by nature closely
akin to God.

[138] The poet’s lines are from Homer’s Odyssey (13.203-204). Odysseus speaks them when he
wakes up in Ithaca and does not recognize where he is.

[139] The Greek word for rainbow, iris, is also the name of the rainbow goddess Iris.

[140] Wealth (Plutus) was pictured as blind because he hands out riches without regard to
merit.

[141] Clement adapts Hesiod (Works and Days 252-253), who says there are thirty thousand
immortal watchers of Zeus over mortal men on the many-nourishing earth. Clement calls them
“demons” and denies they are immortal, to make his point that they are only lifeless
images of stone and wood.

[142] In Greek myth, Niobe was turned to stone while grieving for her children.

[143] “No moth, no thief” echoes Matthew 6:19–20.

[144] “Will lick the dust” adapts Psalm 72:9 (71:9 in the Greek Bible). “The heel of the
righteous” recalls the serpent and the heel in Genesis 3:15. “Wise and harmless” echoes
Matthew 10:16.

[145] The quotations follow the Greek Old Testament: Psalm 62:8 (61:9 in the Greek Bible),
Psalm 69:32 (68:33), and Psalm 70:4 (69:5); in the last, Clement leaves out the psalm’s
words “who love your salvation.”

[146] The “supplements” come from Leviticus 19:18 (compare Matthew 22:39), Luke 6:29, and
a free combination of “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17) with Matthew 5:28.

[147] The words about hands, mouth and heart echo Deuteronomy 30:14. “Hands” appears in
the Greek Old Testament there but not in the Hebrew.

[148] “Mask” and “drama” are theater words in the Greek. Clement pictures the incarnation
as an actor taking on a role, but he does not mean the role was unreal: the Word truly
“formed himself in flesh.”

[149] The Greek does not say whose hands are outstretched, but they are commonly taken as
the Lord’s hands stretched out on the cross.

[150] “Christ is not divided” echoes 1 Corinthians 1:13. The rest of the sentence echoes
Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:10-11 (“the new self”).

[151] “That you may know well both God and man” adapts Homer, Iliad 5.128. There Athena
removes the mist from Diomedes’ eyes so that he can tell gods from men.

[152] The Psalm quotation ends after “I will sing hymns to you”; what follows (“Sing,
then…”) is Clement’s own prayer, not Scripture.

[153] The older translation reads “the west has given credence to the east.” The Greek
printed here says the west (sunset) has been turned around into the east (sunrise), and
this version follows the Greek.

[154] After “rent,” the edition used has the word “piety” in brackets, marking it as a
possible later addition. It is left out here.

[155] The closing words quote 2 Corinthians 4:6, “Light will shine out of darkness.”

[156] “The good Shepherd” recalls John 10:11. Loving God and neighbor recalls Matthew
22:37–39.

[157] The Greek verb for “dipped” is used for tempering metal by plunging it into water.
It is related to the word for “baptize,” so Clement may be alluding to baptism.

[158] The quotation matches the Greek (Septuagint) text of Isaiah 58:9 (“while you are
still speaking, he will say, ‘Here I am’”).

[159] “His work... his gift” translates *ergon... charis tou theou*, literally “work...
grace (or favor) of God.”

[160] “A greedy evil” follows the Greek *lichnon*, “greedy.” The older English’s
“winnowing fan” seems to read a similar-looking word, *liknon*.

[161] The “two suns” line is spoken by Pentheus in Euripides’ Bacchae. The “ear has not
heard” wording echoes 1 Corinthians 2:9. The “sinner’s repentance” echoes Ezekiel 18:23
and 33:11.

[162] The older translation’s “[of the cross]” is a bracketed addition; the Greek says
only “the wood,” as in the previous section.

[163] “Listen, countless tribes” is a line from Homer’s Iliad (17.220), where Hector
addresses his allies. Clement puts it in the mouth of Christ and then corrects it to “all
who have reason.”

[164] The colt and “the old one” refer to the animals in Christ’s entry into Jerusalem
(Matthew 21:2-7, quoting Zechariah 9:9). The Greek says only “the old one”; “with its
parent” in the older translation is not in the Greek. Clement does not spell out his
meaning here. He seems to see the two animals as a picture of the new and old peoples of
humanity, both brought under Christ’s yoke.

[165] The idea that human beings are God’s possessions echoes Plato’s Phaedo (62b).
“Loving the Lord God” recalls Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37.

[166] Clement calls the devout person sōphrōn, “sound-minded” or “self-controlled,” rather
than simply “wise,” and calls the others apeithountes, “those who disobey,” a word
sometimes also rendered “unbelieving.”

[167] “Revealing its sacred mysteries” translates a verb taken from the hierophant, the
chief priest of the Eleusinian mysteries, who displayed the sacred objects to those being
initiated. Clement has mocked these mysteries earlier in the work, and here he applies
their language to the gospel. The Greek also plays on “end” and “stop”: a life without
end, words that never want to stop.


THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS)
===========================

THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 190–200

The second book of Clement’s great trilogy (after the Exhortation). Here the Instructor is
Christ the Word, who trains new Christians in daily life. Book 1 describes who the
Instructor is and how he deals with us as children of God. Books 2 and 3 apply his
teaching to eating and drinking, furniture and entertainment, dress and jewellery,
marriage, and how Christians should behave in the city, in bath and at the banquet. The
work ends with a short hymn to Christ.

A note for readers. Much of the Instructor is practical advice for wealthy Christians in
Alexandria around AD 200: what to eat, how to dress, whether to wear jewellery or visit
the baths. Clement draws on Stoic ideas about nature and self-control as well as on
Scripture, and some of his rules (and his remarks about the body and about women) belong
to his time. Read the long sections on food and dress as a window into daily church life,
not as a rulebook.

BOOK 1

1.arg. Chapter headings of the first book. 1. What the Instructor promises. 2. That the
Instructor takes charge of us because of our sins. 3. That the Instructor loves humanity.
4. That the Word is Instructor equally of men and of women. 5. That all who devote
themselves to the truth are children before God. 6. Against those who suppose that the
names “children” and “infants” point to teaching of the first elementary lessons. 7. Who
the Instructor is, and about his instruction. 8. Against those who think that what is just
is not good. 9. That it belongs to the same power to do good and to punish justly, and in
this chapter, what the manner of the Word’s instruction is. 10. That the same God, through
the same Word, both holds humanity back from sins by his threats and saves it by his
encouragement. 11. That the Word gave instruction through the law and the prophets. 12.
That the Instructor, in keeping with a father’s disposition, uses both sternness and
kindness. 13. That just as right conduct comes about by right reason, so, conversely, sin
is contrary to reason.

The Office of the Instructor.

1a What the Instructor promises. A foundation of truth has been laid for ourselves, you
children: an unbreakable base of knowledge for the holy temple of the great God. It is a
good exhortation, a longing for eternal life through reasonable obedience, laid down in a
field of the mind. Now there are three things in a human being: character, actions and
passions. The Exhortation has been given charge of his character. It guides us into
reverence for God, and as a keel is laid beneath a ship, this Word is laid beneath us for
the building up of faith. We rejoice greatly in it, renounce our old opinions and are made
young again for salvation. We sing along with the prophecy that says in its psalm, “How
good is God to Israel, to those who are upright in heart.” The Word that gives counsel
oversees all our actions, and the Word that comforts heals our passions. Yet it is one and
the same Word throughout. He snatches a person away from the habit that grew up with him
and from the custom of the world, and trains him toward the single way of salvation, faith
in God.

1b So when the heavenly guide, the Word, was calling people to salvation, his name was
“Exhorter.” This stirring-up side of his work is singled out, so that the whole Word is
named from a part. All true devotion to God is exhortation, because it produces in our
kindred reason a longing for the life that now is and the life to come. But now he is both
healer and counselor at once. Following his own earlier steps, he advises the one who has
already been turned toward him, and above all he promises healing for the passions within
us. So let us fittingly call him by one name, Instructor. He leads us on in practice and
does not simply teach a method. His aim is to make the soul better, not to teach it, and
to lead us into a self-controlled life, not a scholarly one. The same Word is indeed a
teacher as well, but not here. The teaching Word is the one who explains and reveals in
matters of doctrine. The Instructor is practical. First he urged us toward a settled
disposition of good character. Now he calls us also to do what we ought, handing on pure
counsels and showing to those who come later pictures of those who earlier went astray.

1c Both are most helpful. One is the form of counsel, which leads to obedience. The other
is taken in the role of example, and it too is twofold, like the first pair. One kind of
example is for us to imitate by choosing what is good. The other is for us to turn away by
rejecting the opposite. From this the healing of the passions follows. The Instructor
strengthens our souls through the comfort the examples bring. With his kindly counsels, as
with gentle medicines, he puts the sick on a regimen that leads to full knowledge of the
truth. Health and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge is gained by learning,
health by healing. So a person who is still sick could not first learn any of the
teachings before he is completely well. Nor is each instruction always spoken in the same
way to those who are learning and to those who are sick. To the first it is spoken for
knowledge, to the second for healing.

1d Just as sick bodies need a physician, so those who are weak in soul need an instructor
to heal our passions. After that, a teacher will take over. He prepares the soul to be
clean and fit for knowledge, able to receive the revelation of the Word. The Word, who
loves humanity in every way, is eager to bring us to perfection by a step suited to
salvation and to effective discipline. So he follows this fine arrangement: first he urges
us on from the beginning, then he trains us, and finally he teaches us fully.

Our Instructor's Treatment of Our Sins.

2a Our Instructor watches over us because of our sins. He is like his Father, God, whose
Son he is. You, my children, are the ones he instructs. He is sinless, blameless, and free
from passion in his soul. He is God in human form, undefiled, serving his Father’s will.
He is the Word who is God, who is in the Father and at the Father’s right hand, and who is
God even in the form he took. He is our spotless image, and we must try with all our
strength to make our souls like him. He is completely free from human passions. That is
why he alone is judge, because he alone is without sin. We, as far as we are able, must
try to sin as little as possible. For nothing is so urgent as, first, to be rid of our
passions and sicknesses, and then to stop ourselves from slipping easily into the habit of
sin.

2b It is best, then, not to sin at all, in any way. We say that this belongs to God alone.
Second best is never to commit a wrong deliberately, which is the mark of a wise person.
Third is not to fall into very many unintended offences, which belongs to those who have
been well and nobly trained. Not to linger long in sins let us put last. Even this is a
saving thing for those who are called back to repentance, so that they can take up the
fight again. The Instructor, it seems to me, speaks very well through Moses: “If anyone
dies suddenly beside him, at once the head of his vow will be defiled, and it shall be
shaved.” He calls unintended sin “sudden death.” He says it defiles because it stains the
soul. So he prescribes the cure at once, with all speed, advising that the head be shaved
immediately. He is urging us to wipe away the hair of ignorance that shades the reasoning
mind. Then the mind, which has its seat in the brain, is left bare of the thick growth of
wickedness and can run back to repentance.

2c Then, after a few words in between, he adds, “The former days were without reason.”
This clearly points to sins that were not done according to reason. The unintended act he
called “sudden,” and sinning he called “irrational.” This is why the Word, the Instructor,
has taken charge over us: to prevent irrational sin. Notice also this phrase in Scripture:
“Therefore thus says the Lord.” The earlier sin is exposed by the words that follow, since
just judgment comes after it. The prophets show this plainly. It is as if they were
saying, “If you had not sinned, he would not have threatened this.” So they say,
“Therefore thus says the Lord,” and “Because you did not listen to these words, therefore
thus says the Lord,” and “Therefore, behold, says the Lord.” 2d This is why there is
prophecy: because of obedience and disobedience. Through obedience we are saved, and
through disobedience we are corrected. So our Instructor, the Word, heals through his
exhortations the passions of the soul that are against nature. Strictly speaking, help for
bodily diseases is called medicine, an art that human wisdom can teach. But the Word of
the Father alone is the healer of human sicknesses, and the holy charmer who sings over
the sick soul. “Save your servant, my God, who hopes in you,” it says. “Have mercy on me,
Lord, for I will cry to you all day long.” For as Democritus says, “Medicine heals the
diseases of the body, but wisdom takes the passions from the soul.” The good Instructor,
who is Wisdom, the Word of the Father who made humanity, cares for his whole creation. He
is the Physician who can cure every ill of humankind, and he heals both body and soul.

2e The Savior says to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take the bed you are lying on, and go
home.” At once the sick man was made strong. And to the dead man he said, “Lazarus, come
out.” The dead man came out of the tomb as he had been before he suffered, having
practiced resurrection. He also heals the soul itself by commandments and by gifts of
grace. As for his counsels, he perhaps holds them back for a time. But he is rich in
gifts, and he says to us sinners, “Your sins are forgiven.” As soon as we thought of it,
we became children, receiving the best and most secure order from his own good order. This
order is first at work about the world and the heaven, the circuits of the sun, the
circles and courses of the other stars, all for man’s sake. Then it is at work about man
himself, on whom all its zeal is spent. Counting him its greatest work, it set his soul
straight with prudence and self-control. It blended his body with beauty and fine
proportion. And into the actions of mankind it breathed its own right-doing and good
order.

The Philanthropy of the Instructor.

3a The Instructor loves humankind. The Lord benefits everything and helps everything, both
as man and as God. As God he forgives our sins; as man he trains us along the way so that
we do not sin. It is fitting, then, that man is a friend to God, since man is his own
creation. The other things he made simply by command, but man he shaped with his own
hands, and he breathed into him something of his own. Now what was formed by him and after
his own pattern was either made by God because it was desirable for its own sake, or
fashioned because it was desirable for the sake of something else. If man is desirable for
his own sake, then God, being good, loved what is good. The love-charm is then within man
himself, and this is what is called the breath of God. But if man became desirable for the
sake of other things, God had no other reason for making him than this: without man it was
not possible for one to be a good Creator, or for the other to arrive at the knowledge of
God. (For God would not have accomplished the purpose for which man was made unless man
had been made.) The power God had hidden within him, his willing, he carried further
through the power that works outside him in making. He took from man what he made man; he
saw what he had, and what he willed came to be. There is nothing that God cannot do.

3b Man, then, whom God made, is desirable for his own sake. What is desirable for its own
sake is close to the one for whom it is so, and it is welcome and lovable to him. But can
something be lovable to someone and yet not be loved by him? Man has been shown to be
lovable, so man is loved by God. For how could he not be loved, for whose sake the only-
begotten Word of faith is sent down from the Father’s bosom? Here is faith in overflowing
measure: the Lord himself plainly confesses it and says, “For the Father himself loves
you, because you have loved me.” And again he says, “And you have loved them, as you have
loved me.” What the Instructor wants and promises is already clear. He is engaged in deed
and word, directing what must be done and forbidding the opposite. 3c It is clear that the
other kind of discourse is the teaching kind. It is plain and spiritual and concerned with
exact statement. It belongs to the higher vision of divine things, and we will set it
aside for now. What is fitting for us is to love in return the one who leads us, lovingly,
to the best life. We should live according to the ordinances of his will. We should not
only carry out what is commanded and keep from what is forbidden. We should also turn away
from some of the examples set before us and imitate others as closely as we can. In this
way we do the works of the Instructor in his likeness, so that “in the image and in the
likeness” may be fulfilled. For we wander through life as in deep darkness, and we need a
guide who does not stumble and who is exact. The best guide is not blind, as the Scripture
says, leading the blind into the pit. He is the Word, who sees sharply and looks through
the hidden things of the heart.

3d There is no light that does not give light, nothing that moves without moving
something, nothing that loves without loving. In the same way nothing is good that does
not do us good and guide us toward salvation. So let us love the commandments by way of
the works of the Lord. For the Word himself became flesh and showed us plainly the same
virtue, both in practice and in contemplation. Let us take the Word as our law, and let us
recognize his commandments and counsels as short, direct roads to eternity. For his orders
are full of persuasion, not of fear.

Men and Women Alike Under the Instructor's Charge.

4a (Heading: That the Word is Instructor of men and women alike.) Let us, then, embrace
this good obedience all the more and give ourselves to the Lord. Let us fasten on to the
surest cable, which is faith in him, and understand that the virtue of a man and of a
woman is the same. If God is one for both, the Instructor is also one for both. There is
one church, one self-control, one modesty. Their food is shared, and marriage is a yoke
they bear together. Breathing, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience and love are all
alike. Those whose life is shared also share grace and salvation, and so their virtue and
their training are shared too. “For in this age,” he says, “they marry and are given in
marriage.” Only in this age is the female distinguished from the male. “But in that age it
is so no longer.” There the rewards of this shared and holy life, which comes from the
union of marriage, are kept in store not for male and female but for the human being, who
is set free from the desire that divides him.

4b So the name “human being” is common to men and women. For this reason, I think, the
Attic Greeks used the word “paidarion” (“little child”) of both sexes, not only of boys
but of girls, if the comic poet Menander in his play *The Girl Who Was Slapped* seems
reliable to anyone. He says something like: “my little daughter . . . for the little child
(paidarion) is by nature very affectionate.” In the same way, “lambs” is a common name,
expressing harmlessness, for the male and the female animal. And “the Lord himself
shepherds us” forever. Amen. “Without a shepherd, neither sheep nor anything else is to
live, nor children without an instructor, nor servants without a master.”

All Who Walk According to Truth are Children of God.

5a (Heading: That all who devote themselves to the truth are children with God.) It is
clear from the name itself that paidagogia (“instruction”) is the training of children.
What remains is to consider the children whom Scripture has in view, and then to put the
Instructor in charge of them. We are the children. Scripture praises us in many ways and
speaks of us in many figures, varying the simplicity of faith with different names. In the
Gospel, for example, it says: “The Lord stood on the shore before the disciples (they
happened to be fishing) and called out, ‘Children, do you have anything to eat?’” Here he
addresses as children those who were already settled in the state of disciples. It also
says: “They brought children to him” so that he might lay his hands on them in blessing.
When the disciples tried to stop them, Jesus said, “Let the children be, and do not hinder
them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” The Lord
himself makes clear what this means when he says, “Unless you turn and become like these
children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” He is not speaking here in a figure
about regeneration. He is setting before us the simplicity found in children, so that we
may become like them.

5b The prophetic Spirit also singles out the children. It says: “The children cut branches
of olive or palm and went out to meet the Lord, and they cried out, ‘Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” This is light, glory and praise
offered to the Lord with supplication, for this is what “Hosanna” means when it is
interpreted in the Greek language. And it seems to me that Scripture, hinting at the
prophecy mentioned before, rebukes the careless: “Have you never read that out of the
mouth of infants and nursing babies you have perfected praise?” In the same way the Lord
in the Gospel goads his disciples, urging them to give heed to him as one already hurrying
to the Father. He makes his hearers more eager by telling them beforehand that he will
soon be gone. They must gather the fruit of the truth without holding back, he shows them,
since the Word was just about to go up to heaven.

5c So again he calls them children, for he says, “Children, I am with you a little while
longer.” And again he compares the kingdom of heaven to children “sitting in the
marketplaces and saying, We piped for you, and you did not dance; we sang a funeral song,
and you did not beat your breasts,” and whatever else he added that fits with this. It is
not only the Gospel that thinks this way; prophecy agrees with it. David, for example,
says, “Praise the Lord, you children; praise the name of the Lord.” And through Isaiah he
says, “Look, I and the children whom God has given me.” Are you surprised to hear that men
from the Gentiles are children before the Lord? You do not seem to understand the Attic
Greek idiom. From it you can learn that beautiful, blooming and free-born young women are
called “paidiskai,” and slave girls “paidiskaria,” who are also young women, honored with
a diminutive form because of the fresh bloom of youth.

5d And when he says, “Let my little lambs stand on my right,” he is hinting at the simple-
hearted, who are children, like lambs, and not grown men, like sheep by nature. He thought
the little lambs worthy of special privilege, because he valued most highly the gentleness
among people, the simplicity of mind, the freedom from malice. Again, when he says, “like
suckling calves,” he is speaking of us figuratively once more; and “like a dove, without
malice and without gall,” again he means us. Through Moses he also commands that two young
doves, or a pair of turtledoves, be offered for sin. He is saying that the sinlessness,
the harmlessness, and the readiness to forget wrongs of these tender young birds are
acceptable to God, and he is showing that like cleanses like. The timidity of turtledoves
also pictures a careful fear of sins. That he calls us the young birds, Scripture is
witness: “As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,” so we are the Lord’s chicks. In
this wonderful and mysterious way the Word sketches the simplicity of the soul as the age
of childhood.

5e For in one place he calls us children, in another young birds, sometimes infants,
elsewhere sons, and often offspring, and a young people and a new people. “My servants,”
he says, “will be called by a new name” (by “new name” he means what is new and
everlasting, undefiled, simple, childlike and true), “which will be blessed on the earth.”
Speaking figuratively, he also calls us colts: free from the yoke of vice, untamed by
wickedness, simple, and leaping only toward the Father himself. We are not “the horses
that neigh after their neighbors’ wives,” the yoked beasts mad after females, but free and
newborn colts, proud because of faith, running well toward the truth, quick toward
salvation, trampling and stamping on the things of the world. 5f “Rejoice greatly,
daughter of Zion; proclaim it, daughter of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you,
righteous and saving, and gentle himself, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt.”
It was not enough for him to say “colt” alone; he added “young,” showing the youthfulness
of humanity in Christ, and a simplicity that is eternal and never grows old. We little
ones are such young colts, and our divine colt-tamer brings us up. Even if the young
animal in Scripture is an ass, it is still a colt, the foal of an ass. “And he tied the
colt to a vine.” He tied this simple, childlike people to the Word, whom he pictures as a
vine. For the vine bears wine, as the Word bears blood, and both are a drink for people’s
salvation: the wine for the body, the blood for the spirit.

5g That he calls us lambs as well, the Spirit is a reliable witness through Isaiah: “Like
a shepherd he will tend his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs.” Here lambs,
even more tender than sheep, are a figure for simplicity. And indeed we ourselves honor
the finest and most perfect things in life by a word taken from the child: we have named
instruction “paideia” and guidance “paidagogia.” We hold that “paidagogia” is good
guidance toward virtue, beginning from childhood. The Lord reveals the meaning of the name
“child” to us more clearly. When a dispute arose among the apostles about which of them
was greater, Jesus set a child in the middle and said, “Whoever humbles himself like this
child, he is greater in the kingdom of heaven.” So he does not use the name “children” as
though it meant the age of those who cannot reason, as some have thought. And when he
says, “Unless you become like these children, you will not enter the kingdom of God,” it
must not be taken in an ignorant way.

5h So we who are infants no longer roll on the ground, and we no longer crawl on the earth
as we did before, like snakes, wriggling with our whole body after senseless desires.
Instead we stretch upward in mind, separated from the world and from sins, “touching the
earth with only a small foot,” just enough to seem to be in the world, and we pursue holy
wisdom. To those whose wits are sharpened for cunning, this seems foolishness. Rightly,
then, those who know God alone as Father are called children: plain, infantile and pure,
lovers of the horns of the unicorns. To those who have advanced in the Word he proclaimed
this saying. He told them to be free of worry about the things of this world and urged
them to give their attention to the Father alone, imitating children. So in the verses
that follow he says, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for its own evil is enough for the
day.” In this way he commands them to lay aside the cares of life and cling to the Father
alone.

5i Whoever fulfils this commandment is truly an infant and a child, both to God and to the
world: to the world as one who is deluded, and to God as one who is loved. Scripture says,
“There is one teacher in heaven,” and this is agreed. So all those on earth will rightly
be called disciples. For this is the truth: perfection belongs to the Lord, who always
teaches, while childhood and infancy belong to us, who are always learning. For this
reason prophecy honors the perfect by giving them the name “man.” For example, through
David it says of the devil, “The Lord abhors a man of bloodshed.” It calls him a man
because he is perfect in evil. And the Lord is also called man, because he is perfect in
righteousness. 5j So, for instance, the apostle writes to the Corinthians: “For I
betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” Whether he means
them as infants or as holy ones, they are still presented to the Lord alone. Writing to
the Ephesians, he explains the point at issue most clearly, speaking in this way: “until
we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God, to a perfect man, to
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants,
tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the dice-play of men, by
craftiness aimed at the scheming of error; but, speaking the truth in love, let us grow up
in all things into him.” He says this “for the building up of the body of Christ,” “who is
the head,” and who is the man who alone is perfect in righteousness.

5k But we who are infants must guard against the winds of the heresies, which blow upon us
to puff us up. We must not put our trust in those who lay down other fathers for us. We
are made perfect when we are the church, having received Christ as our head. Here it is
right to look closely at the word “infant.” The Greek nēpion is not applied to fools. The
foolish person is nēpytios, but nēpios comes from neēpios, just as ēpios is the tender-
minded person. That is, the infant is one who has newly become gentle and mild in manner.
The blessed Paul pointed this out most clearly when he said, “Though we could have been a
burden to you as apostles of Christ, we became gentle among you, as a nurse cherishes her
own children.” So the infant is gentle, and for that reason all the more tender: delicate,
simple, guileless and without hypocrisy, straight and upright in purpose. This is the very
substance of simplicity and truth.

5l “For on whom,” it says, “will I look, but on the gentle and quiet?” Such is the virgin
word: tender and unfeigned. This is why a virgin bride is customarily called “tender”
(atalē), and a child “tender-minded.” We are tender when we are soft toward persuasion,
ready to be shaped toward goodness, free of bitterness, and unmixed with malice and
crookedness. For the old generation was crooked and hard-hearted, but the company of
infants, we who are the new people, is delicate like a child. In the letter to the Romans
the apostle confesses that he rejoices over “the hearts of the innocent.” He also gives
what we might call a definition of infants when he says, “I want you to be wise for what
is good, but innocent for what is evil.” For we do not understand the name “infant” as
expressing a lack, even though the pupils of the grammarians lay down that nē- is a
negative prefix.

5m If those who run down childhood call us fools, see how they blaspheme against the Lord,
since they take those who have fled to God for refuge to be fools. But if, as is rather
the sense we should hear, they themselves take “children” to mean the simple, then let us
rejoice in the name. For the new minds are “childlike” in the old folly: they have only
just become wise, and they have dawned under the new covenant. God, at any rate, has only
recently been known, through the coming of Christ. “For no one has known God except the
Son, and the one to whom the Son reveals him.” So the new people are young, in contrast to
the older people, because they have learned new blessings. Our age has its fullness in
this youth that never grows old. In it we are always at our prime for understanding,
always young, always gentle, always new. For those who have shared in a new Word must be
new.

5n What shares in eternity tends to become like the incorruptible. So for us the name of
childhood means a springtime for the whole of life, because the truth in us is ageless,
and our character is poured out toward the truth. Wisdom is ever-blooming, always the same
in the same way, and never changing. “Their children,” it says, “will be lifted on their
shoulders and comforted on their knees. As a mother comforts someone, so I will comfort
you.” The mother draws her children to herself, and we look for our mother, the Church.
Everything weak and tender, since in its weakness it needs help, is welcome, sweet and
delightful, and God does not withhold help from such as these. Fathers and mothers take
more pleasure in seeing the foals of horses, the little calves of cattle, a lion’s cub, a
deer’s fawn, and a human child. In the same way the Father of all welcomes those who have
fled to him for refuge. He has been born them again by the Spirit into adoption as sons,
and he knows them as gentle. He loves only these, helps them and fights on their behalf,
and for this reason he calls them “child.”

5o I also trace Isaac back to the child. Isaac means “laughter.” The prying king saw him
playing with his wife and helper, Rebecca. The king (his name was Abimelech) seems to me
to represent a wisdom above the world, watching closely the mystery of the play. They
interpret Rebecca as “endurance.” What a wise play this is: laughter helped by endurance,
with the king looking on! The spirit of the children in Christ, who live as citizens in
endurance, rejoices, and this too is the divine play. Heraclitus says that his Zeus plays
a play like this. For what other work is fitting for a wise and perfect person than to
play and rejoice together in the endurance of what is good, and in the ordering of what is
good, keeping festival together with God? The prophecy can also be understood in another
way: that we, like Isaac, laugh and rejoice in salvation.

5p Isaac also laughed, released from death, playing and rejoicing with his bride, the
helper for our salvation, the Church. The firm name “endurance” is given to her, either
because she alone remains forever, always rejoicing, or because she is made up of the
endurance of believers, who are the members of Christ. The witness of those who endured to
the end, and the thanksgiving for them, is the mystical play, and the salvation that helps
us along with solemn gladness. So Christ the King looks down on our laughter from above.
As the Scripture says, he “looks through the window.” He watches over his own Church: the
thanksgiving, the blessing, the joy and gladness, and also the endurance that works with
them, and the Church that binds them together. He shows only his face, which was lacking
to the Church, now made perfect by her royal Head. 5q And where was the window through
which the Lord showed himself? It was the flesh, through which he has been made visible.
Isaac can also be taken another way, as a type of the Lord. He is a child, as a son (for
he was Abraham’s son, as Christ is God’s Son), and he is an offering, as the Lord is. But
unlike the Lord, he was not actually offered up. Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice,
as the Lord carried the wood. And he laughed in a mystical way, prophesying that the Lord
would fill us with joy, us who have been redeemed from corruption by the blood of the
Lord. Isaac did not suffer. This was fitting, since he yielded the first place in
suffering to the Word. But in not being slain he also hints at the Lord’s divinity. For
Jesus rose again after his burial, as though he had not suffered, just as Isaac was
released from the sacrifice.

5r I will offer one more very strong argument in support of the point before us. The
Spirit himself calls the Lord a child, prophesying this through Isaiah: “Behold, a child
has been born to us, a son has also been given to us, whose rule is upon his shoulder, and
his name has been called Angel of Great Counsel.” Who, then, is this little child, in
whose likeness we are little children? The same prophet describes his greatness:
“Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, by increasing
instruction; and of his peace there is no end.” O the great God! O the perfect child! The
Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. How could the instruction of that child not
be perfect, reaching to all of us as children, guiding us, his little ones, as an
instructor? 5s He has stretched out to us his hands, which we plainly believe. John, “the
greatest prophet among those born of women,” also bears witness to this child: “Behold,
the Lamb of God.” Scripture calls young children lambs. So God the Word, who became man
for our sake and wished to be made like us in every way, has been called the Lamb of God:
the Son of God, the infant child of the Father.

The Name Children Does Not Imply Instruction in Elementary Principles.

6a The title “Children”: against those who think it means teaching in elementary lessons.
We can answer those who love to find fault, and do so more than fully. We are not called
children and infants because our learning is childish and worth despising, as those puffed
up with “knowledge” have slandered us. On the contrary, the moment we were born again we
received the perfection we were hurrying toward. For we were enlightened, and this means
coming to know God. So the one who knows the perfect is not imperfect. Do not take me to
be claiming that I have fully known God. It seemed right to the Word to say it in this
way, and he is free. At the Lord’s baptism, a voice sounded from heaven, witnessing to the
beloved one: “You are my beloved Son; today I have begotten you.” Let us ask the wise,
then: was Christ, born again today, already perfect, or (which would be most absurd)
lacking?

6b If he was lacking, he still has something to learn. But it is unthinkable that he
should learn anything more, since he is God. No one could be greater than the Word, or be
a teacher of the one and only Teacher. Will they not then admit, though unwillingly, that
the Word, perfect and born of the perfect Father, was perfectly born again, according to
the plan of the economy that was prefigured? And if he was perfect, why was the perfect
one baptized? “It was necessary,” they say, “to fulfil what belongs to human beings.”
Quite so. Then I ask: at the very moment he was baptized by John, did he become perfect?
Clearly. Then he learned nothing more from John? Nothing. Is he perfected by the washing
alone, and sanctified by the descent of the Spirit? That is how it is. The same thing
happens to us, for whom the Lord became a pattern. When we are baptized we are
enlightened; enlightened, we are made sons; made sons, we are made perfect; made perfect,
we are made immortal. “I said,” it says, “you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most
High.” This work is called by many names: gift of grace, enlightenment, perfection, and
washing. It is a washing, by which we are cleansed of our sins. It is a gift of grace, by
which the penalties for our sins are cancelled. It is an enlightenment, by which we see
that holy, saving light, that is, by which we see God clearly. And we call “perfect” the
one who lacks nothing.

6c For what is still lacking to the one who has come to know God? It would be truly absurd
for something incomplete to be called a gift of God’s grace. Since he is perfect, he will
surely give perfect gifts. Just as everything comes into being the moment he commands it,
so the completion of his grace follows as soon as he merely wills to give it. For the
power of his will anticipates the time still to come. Besides, deliverance from evils is
the beginning of salvation. So we who have first laid hold of the boundaries of life are
already perfect, and we who have been separated from death already live. Salvation, then,
is following Christ. “For what has come into being in him is life.” “Truly, truly, I say
to you,” he says, “the one who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal
life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed over from death to life.” So to
believe and be born again is, by itself, perfection in life, for God is never weak.

6d For just as his will is a work, and this work is called the world, so his purpose is
the salvation of people, and this is called the church. He knows, then, those whom he has
called, and those whom he has called he has saved. He called and saved them at the same
moment. “For you yourselves,” says the apostle, “are taught by God.” So it is not right
for us to think that what he teaches is incomplete. What is learned from him is the
eternal salvation given by the eternal Savior, to whom be grace forever, amen. And the one
who has simply been born again, as the very name implies, is enlightened. He is set free
from the darkness at once and receives the light on the spot. Think of people who shake
off sleep: they are immediately awake within. Or better, think of people who try to remove
a cataract from the eyes. They do not supply from outside a light they lack, but remove
the obstacle from the eyes and leave the pupil free. In the same way we who are baptized
wipe away, by the divine Spirit, the sins that overshadow us like a mist. We then have the
eye of the spirit free, unobstructed and full of light. By this eye alone we look upon the
divine, since the Holy Spirit flows into us from heaven. This is a blending with an
eternal radiance that is able to see the eternal light, for like is dear to like, and what
is holy is dear to the source of holiness, which is properly called light: “For you were
once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” This is why I think the ancients called
man “light.”

6e “But he has not yet received the perfect gift,” they say. I agree with that. Still, he
is in the light, and the darkness does not overtake him. Between light and darkness there
is nothing in the middle. The fulfillment is stored up for the resurrection of those who
believe. This does not mean receiving something different, but obtaining the promise
already declared. For we do not say that both things take place at the same time: the
arrival at the goal, and the taking hold of it in advance. Eternity and time are not the
same, and neither are the starting out and the end. Yet one and the same person is
occupied with both, and with each of them. Faith, so to speak, is the starting out, born
in time; the end is the obtaining of the promise, made secure forever. 6f The Lord himself
has revealed most clearly that salvation is the same for all, when he said: “For this is
the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal
life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” As far as is possible in this world, which
he hints at by “the last day,” we believe that we are made perfect. We are kept for that
time, until this world comes to an end. For faith is the perfection of learning. This is
why he says, “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life.” So if we who have
believed have life, what more remains beyond possessing eternal life? Nothing is lacking
to faith, since it is perfect and complete in itself. If anything were lacking to it, it
would not be whole, and it would not be faith at all, but something limping in some
respect. Nor, after we leave this life, does something else await those who have believed.
Here we have been given the pledge without distinction, and because we have already
grasped by faith what is to come, we receive it as present after the resurrection. In this
way what was said is fulfilled: “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” Where
faith is, there is the promise, and the completion of the promise is rest.

6g So knowledge lies in the illumination, and the end of knowledge is rest, which is
understood to be the last thing we long for. Inexperience is ended by experience, and
perplexity by finding a way through. In the same way darkness must vanish when we are
illuminated. The darkness is ignorance, which makes us fall into sins because our sight of
the truth is dim. Knowledge, then, is illumination. It makes ignorance vanish and gives us
the power to see clearly. Throwing away what is worse also reveals what is better. What
ignorance bound badly, full knowledge looses well. These bonds are quickly loosed by human
faith and divine grace. Our offences are forgiven by one healing remedy, the baptism of
the Word. We are washed from all our sins, and from that moment we are no longer evil. 6h
This is the one grace of illumination: that our way of life is no longer what it was
before we were washed. Knowledge dawns together with the illumination and flashes around
the mind. At once we who were untaught hear and become disciples. Was it that this
learning had come to us at some earlier time? You could not name the time. Instruction
leads us around to faith, and faith is trained together with holy baptism by the Holy
Spirit. Faith is the one salvation common to all humanity, and the same equality and
fellowship with the righteous and loving God extends to everyone. The apostle explained
this most clearly when he said: “Before faith came, we were guarded under the law, shut up
for the faith that was about to be revealed. So the law has become our instructor to bring
us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are
no longer under an instructor.” Do you not hear that we are no longer under that law,
which went with fear, but under the Word, the instructor of free choice?

6i Then Paul added a statement free of all partiality: “For you are all sons, through
faith in God, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” So in the Word himself there are not some who are
“knowers” and others who are merely “soulish.” All who have put away the desires of the
flesh are equal, and spiritual before the Lord. Elsewhere he writes again: “For in one
Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free,
and we were all given one drink.” It is not out of place to use the very words of those
who say that the remembrance of better things is a filtering of the spirit. 6j By
“filtering” they mean the separating of the worse from the better, which comes from
remembering the better things. Whoever is reminded of better things must then repent of
the lesser. They agree, at any rate, that the spirit itself, once it has repented, runs
back up. In the same way we too have repented of our sins and said farewell to their
faults. We are filtered by baptism, and we run back to the eternal light, as children to
the Father. So Jesus, rejoicing in the Spirit, says: “I give thanks to you, Father, God of
heaven and earth, because you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and
revealed them to infants.” Here the Instructor and Teacher calls us infants. He means that
we are better suited to salvation than the wise of this world, who think themselves wise
and are puffed up. Exulting and overjoyed, he cries out, as if lisping along with the
infants: “Yes, Father, for so it was well pleasing before you.” That is why the things
hidden from the wise and understanding of the present age were revealed to infants.

6k It is fitting, then, that the children of God are infants. They have put away the old
man and stripped off the tunic of wickedness. They have put on over it the incorruption of
Christ. So we become new, a holy people, born again, so that we may keep the man
undefiled. We are infants, like God’s baby, cleansed from fornication and wickedness. The
blessed Paul has settled this question for us most clearly in his first letter to the
Corinthians, where he writes: “Brothers, do not become children in your thinking, but in
evil be infants, and in your thinking become mature.” The words “When I was an infant, I
thought as an infant, I spoke as an infant” hint at his life under the law. Then he was
not yet simple but still senseless. With childish thoughts he persecuted, and with
childish words he blasphemed the Word. 6l For the word “child” has two meanings. “Since I
have become a man,” Paul says again, “I have put away the things of the child.” The
apostle is not hinting at an immature stage of physical growth, nor at a fixed length of
time, nor at some other secret teachings belonging to more manly and advanced instruction.
He is the one who declares that he is putting childhood away, sending it off into exile.
Rather, he calls “children” those who live under the law, who are thrown into panic by
fear, as children are by bogeys. And he calls “men” those who obey the Word and are
masters of themselves. We have believed and are saved by free and willing choice, and any
fear that frightens us frightens us sensibly, not senselessly. The apostle himself will
testify to this, when he calls the Jews heirs under the first covenant, and us heirs by
promise. “I mean,” he says, “that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from
a slave, though he is lord of everything. But he is under guardians and stewards until the
date set by the father.”

6m “So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the
world. But when the fullness of time came, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, to buy back those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons
through him.” See how he admits that those under fear and sins are children. Those under
faith he calls sons, and so makes them men, in contrast with the children who were under
the law. “For you are no longer a slave,” he says, “but a son. And if a son, then also an
heir through God.” What, then, is still lacking to the son after the inheritance? So it is
a fine way to explain “When I was a child” like this: “When I was a Jew” (for he was a
Hebrew from the beginning), “I thought like a child,” because I followed the law. “But
since I have become a man,” I no longer think the things of the child, that is, of the
law, but the things of the man, that is, of Christ, whom alone Scripture, as we said
before, calls a man. “I have put away the things of the child.” But childhood in Christ is
maturity, in comparison with the law.

6n Having come to this point, we must speak in defense of our childhood. We must also
explain further what the apostle said: “I gave you milk to drink, as to infants in Christ,
not solid food. For you were not yet able, and even now you are not able.” It does not
seem to me that this saying should be taken in a Jewish way. For I will set against it
that other Scripture: “I will bring you into the good land, flowing with milk and honey.”
So a very great difficulty arises when we put these passages side by side: what do they
mean? If childhood on milk is the beginning of faith in Christ, yet it is belittled as
childish and imperfect, how is it that the rest of the perfect man, the man of knowledge,
which comes after the solid food, is again honored with the infant’s milk? Perhaps the
word “as,” which signals a comparison, points to something like this, and the saying
should be read in some such way as this: “I gave you milk to drink in Christ.” Then,
pausing briefly, let us add, “as to infants.” By this pause in the reading we may take the
sense to be: I instructed you in Christ with simple, true, naturally grown, spiritual
nourishment. For such is the life-giving substance of milk, which flows from loving
breasts. The whole meaning can then be understood like this: as nurses feed newborn
children with milk, so I too, by the Word, which is Christ’s milk, drip spiritual
nourishment into you.

6o In this way, then, milk is perfect nourishment. It is perfect and leads to the end that
never ceases. That is why this same milk, along with honey, is promised in the rest. It is
fitting that the Lord promises milk again to the righteous, so that the Word may be
clearly shown to be both: “Alpha and Omega, beginning and end.” Homer, too, unwittingly
prophesies something like this when he calls the righteous among men “milk-eaters.” The
Scripture can also be taken this way: “And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to
spiritual people, but as to fleshly people, as to infants in Christ.” So the “fleshly” can
be understood as those newly instructed, still infants in Christ. For he called
“spiritual” those who had already believed in the Holy Spirit. He called “fleshly” those
newly taught and not yet cleansed, whom he rightly calls “still fleshly,” since like the
pagans they still think the things of the flesh.

6p “For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and do you not
walk in a merely human way?” This is why he says, “I gave you milk to drink.” He means, “I
poured knowledge into you,” the knowledge that comes from instruction and nourishes us up
to eternal life. The word “gave to drink” is also a symbol of full sharing in the truth.
For the mature are said to drink, while infants are said to nurse. “My blood,” says the
Lord, “is true drink.” So when he said “I gave you milk to drink,” was he not hinting at
the perfect joy found in the Word as milk, the knowledge of the truth? And what follows,
“not solid food, for you were not yet able,” can hint at the clear revelation in the age
to come, face to face, like solid food. For the same apostle says, “Now we see as through
a mirror, but then face to face.” That is why he added, “But even now you are not able,
for you are still fleshly.” They set their minds on the things of the flesh: they lust,
they crave, they are jealous, angry and envious. He does not mean that we are still in the
flesh, as some have supposed. For we shall have the flesh with us, and with a face like
the angels’ face we shall see the promise face to face.

6q But suppose that promise really comes after we leave this life, the promise that “no
eye has seen, and it has not entered into the mind of man.” How then do they say they know
it? They have not conceived it by the Spirit but have received it by learning. They claim
to know “what ear never heard,” when only that one who was caught up into the third heaven
could say so. Yet even he was told at that time to keep silent. And if what is left to
suppose is that this boasting about knowledge is human wisdom, hear the law of Scripture:
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his
strength, but let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” We are “taught by God,” and we boast
in the name of Christ. So why should we not suppose that this is what the apostle means by
the milk of infants? After all, those who lead the churches are shepherds after the image
of the good Shepherd, and we are the sheep.

6r Does not the Lord keep the same consistency of figure when he also speaks of the milk
of the flock? And so the saying must be fitted again to this sense: “I gave you milk to
drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able.” The apostle does not take the solid
food to be something other than the milk, but the same thing in substance. For the same
Word is either gentle and fluid, like milk, or firm and compact, like solid food. There is
another way to take it. We can understand milk as the preaching of the gospel, poured out
as widely as possible. Solid food is then faith, built up from instruction into a
foundation. Faith is firmer than mere hearing, so it is compared to solid food, as it is
made into body within the soul itself. Elsewhere, in the Gospel according to John, the
Lord expressed this same nourishment in a different way through symbols. He said, “You
shall eat my flesh and drink my blood.” By this figure he spoke of the clear evidence of
faith, and of the promise as food and drink. Through these the Church, like a person made
of many members, is watered and grows, and is knit and fitted together from both: faith as
the body and hope as the soul, just as the Lord himself is made of flesh and blood.

6s For in truth hope is the blood of faith. By hope faith is held together, as by a soul.
And when hope breathes its last, like blood flowing out, the life of faith drains away.
Now some may want to argue further. They may say that milk means the first lessons, the
first foods so to speak, and that solid food means the spiritual understanding to which
they lift themselves up in “knowledge.” Let them know that when they call the solid food
“solid nourishment” and also “the flesh and blood of Jesus,” their own boastful wisdom
carries them back to the true simplicity. For blood is found to be the first-formed thing
in a human being, and some have dared to call it the substance of the soul. When the
mother conceives, this blood is changed by natural digestion. Through the sympathy of her
tender love, it blossoms and ripens, so that the child has nothing to fear. Blood is
moister than flesh, being a kind of liquid flesh. And milk is sweeter than blood and finer
in texture.

6t Whether it is the blood supplied to the unborn child, sent first through the mother’s
navel, or whether it is the menstrual blood itself, shut out from its usual course, God,
who feeds all things and brings them to birth, commands it to flow back by a natural
overflow to the breasts, which are by then swollen. There it is changed by warm breath and
prepared as the food the infant longs for. Either way, what is being changed is blood. For
of all the members, the breasts have the closest fellow-feeling with the womb. At birth
the vessel that carried blood to the child is cut off. The passage closes, and the blood
rushes toward the breasts. When a great flow arrives, the breasts are stretched, and the
blood turns into milk, in a way comparable to blood turning into pus in a festering wound.
Or else, the veins lying near the breasts are opened out during the stretching of
pregnancy, and the blood is poured into the natural hollows of the breasts. The breath
sent down from the neighboring arteries mingles with it, while the underlying substance of
the blood stays unchanged. Stirred up like a wave, it turns white, and by this beating it
is changed into froth. It is much like the sea, which, when the winds strike it, the poets
say “spits out the foam of the salt.” Yet the substance is still blood.

6u In the same way, rivers rushing along are whipped by the surrounding air and murmur
with foam. The moisture in our mouth also turns white with the breath. Why then should we
not admit that blood, too, is turned by breath into this most shining and white substance?
It undergoes a change of quality, not of substance. You will certainly find nothing more
nourishing than milk, nor sweeter, nor whiter. Spiritual food is like it in every way:
sweet because of grace, nourishing like life, white like the day of Christ. And the blood
of the Word has been shown to us as milk. So, when the child is born, the milk is arranged
and supplied to the baby. The breasts, which until then stood upright and looked toward
the husband, now bend down toward the child. They are taught to offer, in an easily
received form, the food that nature has worked on, for the nourishing of salvation. For
the breasts are not full like springs, with ready-made milk flowing into them. They change
the food within themselves, make it into milk, and give it out.

6v This food is fitted and suited to the newly formed, newly grown child, and it is
prepared by God, the nourisher and Father of those who are born and born again. It is like
the manna that flowed down from heaven for the ancient Hebrews, the heavenly food of
angels. Even now, in fact, nurses call the first draught of milk by the same name as that
food: manna. But women who have conceived become mothers and then their milk flows. The
Lord Christ, the fruit of the Virgin, did not pronounce women’s breasts blessed, nor did
he judge them to be his nurses. Instead, when the loving Father, who loves humankind, had
rained down the Word, Christ himself became spiritual food for the self-controlled. O
mystical wonder! There is one Father of all, and one Word of all, and the Holy Spirit is
one and the same everywhere, and there is only one virgin who becomes a mother. I like to
call her the Church.

6w This mother alone had no milk, because she alone did not become a woman. She is both
virgin and mother: undefiled as a virgin, loving as a mother. She calls her children to
her and nurses them with holy milk, the Word suited to infants. Therefore she had no milk,
because the milk was this child, fair and her own, the body of Christ. It feeds the young
people of the Word, whom the Lord himself bore in the pains of the flesh and whom the Lord
himself wrapped in swaddling clothes with his precious blood. O the holy births! O the
holy swaddling clothes! The Word is everything to the infant: father and mother,
instructor and nurse. “Eat my flesh,” he says, “and drink my blood.” The Lord gives us
this fitting food. He holds out his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking
for the children’s growth.

6x What a strange and wonderful mystery! He commands us to strip off our old, fleshly
corruption, just as we strip off our old food. We are to share in a new and different way
of life, the way of Christ. We are to take him into ourselves, if we can, and store him up
there, and to hold the Saviour close to our hearts, so that we may put an end to the
passions of our flesh. But you do not want to understand it this way. Perhaps you prefer
the more common reading. Then hear it this way too. He speaks of the Holy Spirit
allegorically as “flesh,” for the flesh was made by the Spirit. He hints at the Word as
“blood,” for the Word has been poured out on our life like rich blood. The mixture of the
two is the Lord, the food of infants. The Lord is Spirit and Word. The food, that is, the
Lord Jesus, that is, the Word of God, is Spirit made flesh, heavenly flesh made holy.

6y The food is the Father’s milk, and on it alone we infants are nursed. The Word himself,
the “beloved” one and our nourisher, poured out his own blood for us to save humanity.
Through him we have believed in God, and we run for refuge to the Father’s “care-
forgetting breast,” the Word. As it appears, he alone supplies us infants with the milk of
love, and those who suckle at this breast are the only ones truly blessed. For this reason
Peter also says: “So put away all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Like
newborn babies, long for the milk of the word, so that by it you may grow into salvation,
if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” But suppose someone granted these people that
solid food is something other than milk. How then would they not run themselves through,
since they have not understood nature?

6z In winter the surrounding air thickens and gives no way out, so the heat is shut up
inside. The food is then cooked and digested, turned into blood, and passes into the
veins. The veins get no ventilation, so they fill up, become very tense, and pulse. This
is why nurses are fullest of milk at that time. A little earlier we showed that in
pregnant women the blood turns into milk by a change in form, not a change in substance.
In the same way, the fair hair of old people changes to grey. In summer it is the other
way around. The body is more porous, so the food is dispersed more easily and there is
very little milk, since there is not much blood either; not all the food is retained. So
if the working-up of food produces blood, and the blood is turned into milk, then blood is
the raw material for milk. It is like the seed of a human being, or the pip of a vine.

1.6aa So from the moment we are born, we are nursed with milk, the Lord’s food. And from
the moment we are born again, we are honoured with the good news of the hope of rest, the
Jerusalem above, where, it is written, milk and honey rain down. Through this material
food we are already being betrothed to the holy food as well. For “foods will be done away
with,” as the apostle himself says. But the nourishment of milk leads the way to the
heavens, because it raises citizens of heaven and fellow dancers with the angels. The Word
is a gushing spring of life and has been called a river of oil. So Paul speaks
allegorically and names him milk, and then adds, “I gave you to drink.” For the Word is
drunk; he is the food of truth. Indeed, a drink is called liquid food. The same thing can
be both food and drink, depending on how we think of it. Cheese, for example, is curdled
milk, or milk that has set.

1.6ab I am not concerned just now with hunting for exact words. My point is only that one
substance serves as both kinds of nourishment. For babies at the breast, milk alone is
enough to be both drink and food. The Lord says, “I have food to eat that you do not know
about. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” You see here another food, which
like milk is allegorical: the will of God. He also called the completion of his own
suffering a “cup,” using the word loosely, because he alone had to drink it to the end and
finish it. So for Christ the food was the fulfilment of the Father’s purpose. For us
infants, who milk out the word of the heavens, Christ himself is the food. This is why
seeking is called “mastevsai.” To infants who seek the Word, the Father’s breasts of
loving kindness give milk.

1.6ac The Word also declares himself to be the bread of heaven. “For Moses did not give
you the bread from heaven,” he says, “but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
And the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” Here we should
note the mystery of the bread. He calls it flesh, and flesh that rises, as wheat rises
from decay and sowing. It is also put together through fire, like bread being baked, for
the joy of the Church. But this will be made clearer to us later, in the work On the
Resurrection. He said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh.” Flesh is watered by
blood, and blood is figuratively called wine. So we must understand this. Bread crumbled
into a mixture of wine and water takes up the wine and leaves the watery part behind. In
the same way the flesh of the Lord, the bread of heaven, drinks up the blood. It feeds the
heavenly among men to incorruption, and leaves behind to corruption only the desires of
the flesh.

1.6ad So the Word is described figuratively in many ways: as food, flesh, nourishment,
bread, blood and milk. The Lord is all of these for the enjoyment of us who have believed
in him. Let no one be surprised, then, when we say that the Lord’s blood is figuratively
called milk. Is it not also figuratively called wine? “He who washes his robe in wine,” it
says, “and his garment in the blood of the grape.” He means that he will adorn the body of
the Word with his own blood. In the same way he will feed with his Spirit those who hunger
for the Word. That the blood is the Word is shown by the blood of righteous Abel, which
pleaded with God. Blood could never have uttered a voice unless “blood” is understood to
mean the Word. The righteous man of old is a type of the new Righteous One. The blood of
old that pleaded also pleads on behalf of the new blood.

1.6ae The blood, which is the Word, speaks to God, because it pointed to the Word who was
to suffer. Flesh itself, and the blood in it, is watered and made to grow by milk, as
though milk repaid it with a kind of returned care. Even the shaping of what is conceived
happens when the seed is mixed with the pure residue left over from the monthly cleansing.
The power in the seed curdles the nature of the blood, as rennet sets milk, and so
produces the substance for forming the child. A balanced mixture flourishes, but extremes
risk childlessness. The earth itself works the same way. When it is flooded by heavy rain,
the seed is washed away. When it is dry for lack of moisture, the seed withers. But when
the moisture is sticky, it holds the seed and makes it grow. Some suppose that the seed of
a living creature is, in its substance, the foam of the blood. In intercourse, they say,
the male’s inborn heat stirs the blood up and whips it into foam, and the foam is
deposited in the seed-bearing veins. Diogenes of Apollonia wants the word “aphrodisia”
(the acts of love) to come from this.

1.6af It is plain from all this that the substance of the human body is blood. In the
womb, what is formed is at first a milky composition of fluid. Then it is turned to blood,
and this composition becomes flesh. It sets in the womb by the natural, warm breath by
which the embryo is shaped, and so it is brought to life. After birth the child is again
fed by the same blood, for the flow of milk is blood in another form, and milk is the
source of nourishment. By milk a woman is clearly shown to have truly given birth and to
be a mother, and through it she also gains a charm that wins affection. For this reason
the Holy Spirit in the apostle, using the Lord’s voice, says in a mystery, “I gave you
milk to drink.” For if we have been born again into Christ, the one who has begotten us
again feeds us with his own milk, the Word. Everything that begets seems to provide
nourishment at once for what it has begotten.

1.6ag Just as our new birth is spiritual, so in the same way our nourishment has become
spiritual. In every respect, then, and in everything, we have been made Christ’s own. We
are bound to him by kinship, through his blood, by which we are redeemed. We are bound to
him by sympathy, through the upbringing that comes from the Word. And we are bound to him
for immortality, through his training of us. “Among mortals, bringing up children often
wins more love than begetting them.” So the blood and the milk of the Lord are one and the
same: a symbol of his suffering and of his teaching. Each of us who are infants may
therefore boast in the Lord, and say, “I claim to be sprung from a good father and from
his blood.” That milk comes from blood by a process of change is already clear, but we can
also learn it from flocks and herds.

1.6ah In the season of the year we call spring, the air is moister, and the grass and
pastures are juicy and damp. At that time these animals are first filled with blood, as
the swelling of the veins and the bulging of the vessels shows. From the blood the milk
then flows more abundantly. In summer, by contrast, the blood is scorched and dried up by
the heat, and the change is checked, so less milk is drawn. Milk also has a very natural
kinship with water, just as the spiritual washing has with spiritual food. People who sip
a little cold water after drinking milk are helped at once. Its association with water
keeps the milk from turning sour, not through any opposition between them, but because the
water agrees with the milk and suits it. 1.6ai The partnership the Word has with baptism
is the same as the bond between milk and water. Milk alone of liquids admits a mixture
with water for the sake of cleansing, as baptism is taken for the forgiveness of sins. It
also mixes naturally with honey, again for cleansing, along with sweet nourishment. For
the Word, mixed with love for mankind, heals our passions and at the same time cleanses
away our sins. The line “sweeter than honey flowed his speech” seems to me to have been
said of the Word, who is honey. And prophecy in many places lifts him up as “above honey
and the honeycomb.” Milk is also mixed with sweet wine. The mixture is beneficial, as when
suffering is mixed in for the sake of incorruption. The wine draws off the whey and
curdles the milk, and whatever in it is impure is drained away.

1.6aj In the same way, the spiritual fellowship of faith with suffering man draws off the
fleshly desires. It gathers man together for eternity and makes him immortal through
divine things. Many people also use the fatty part of milk, which they call butter, as
lamp oil. By this clear riddle they show the rich oil of the Word, who alone rightly
feeds, nourishes and enlightens the little ones. For this reason Scripture says of the
Lord: “He fed them with the produce of the fields; they sucked honey from the rock and oil
from the solid rock, butter of cattle and milk of sheep, with the fat of lambs.” And he
gave them what follows after that. The prophet who foretells the birth of the child also
says, “He will eat butter and honey.” 1.6ak I am even amazed that some dare to call
themselves “perfect” and “gnostics,” thinking themselves above the apostle, puffed up and
arrogant, when Paul himself admits about himself: “Not that I have already obtained it or
have already been made perfect, but I press on to see if I may lay hold of that for which
I was also laid hold of by Christ. Brothers, I do not yet count myself to have laid hold
of it. But one thing: forgetting what lies behind and stretching out toward what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal, to the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.” Paul
does count himself perfect, in that he has been set free from his former life and holds
fast to the better one. He is not perfect in knowledge, but is reaching for what is
perfect. So he adds, “Let us then, as many as are perfect, think this way.” By perfection
he clearly means renouncing sins and being born again into faith in the One who alone is
perfect, having forgotten the sins left behind.

Who the Instructor Is, and Respecting His Instruction.

7a Who the Instructor Is, and His Instruction. We have shown that Scripture calls all of
us children. More than that, we who have followed Christ are called babes in a figure of
speech. And the Father of all is the only one who is perfect, for the Son is in him and
the Father is in the Son. So now, keeping to our order, it is time to say who our
Instructor is. He is called Jesus. Sometimes he calls himself a shepherd and says, “I am
the good shepherd.” The image is drawn from shepherds who lead their sheep. By it we are
to understand the Instructor, who leads the children, the shepherd who cares for the
babes. For babes are simple, and so they are pictured as sheep. “And they shall all become
one flock and one shepherd,” he says. So the Word, who leads us children to salvation, is
rightly called the Instructor.

7b The Word has spoken very plainly about himself through Hosea: “I am your instructor.”
Now godliness is instruction. It is learning how to serve God, training toward the
knowledge of the truth, and right guidance that leads up to heaven. The word “instruction”
is used in several ways. There is the instruction of the one who is led and learns. There
is that of the one who leads and teaches. Third, there is the guidance itself. Fourth,
there are the things taught, such as the commandments. The instruction that comes from God
is a straightening of the way by truth, toward the vision of God. It is also a pattern of
holy deeds, set in lasting perseverance. A general directs his battle line out of concern
for the safety of his hired soldiers, and a helmsman steers his ship because he wants to
save those sailing with him. In the same way the Instructor leads the children toward a
saving way of life, out of care for us. In general, whatever we reasonably ask God to do
for us will be ours if we obey the Instructor.

7c A helmsman does not always give way to the winds. Sometimes he turns his bow into them
and stands against the full force of the gales. In the same way the Instructor never gives
way to the winds that blow in this world. He does not let the child, like a ship, be
driven onto a bestial and licentious way of life. Instead he is carried along by the
favoring wind of the Spirit of truth alone, and he holds the child’s rudder very firmly.
By the rudder I mean the ears. He holds on until he brings the child safely into harbor in
the heavens. What men call ancestral custom passes away almost at once, but divine
guidance is a possession that stays forever. They say that Phoenix was the instructor of
Achilles, Adrastus of the sons of Croesus, Leonidas of Alexander, and Nausithous of
Philip. 7d But Phoenix was mad after women, and Adrastus was an exile. Leonidas did not
remove the conceit of the Macedonian, and Nausithous did not cure the drunkenness of the
man from Pella. The Thracian Zopyrus could not restrain the fornication of Alcibiades, but
Zopyrus was a slave bought for money. And Sicinnus, the instructor of the sons of
Themistocles, was a careless household slave. They say he invented the dance, and the
dancing called “sicinnizing,” after his name. We are not unaware of the so-called royal
instructors among the Persians. The kings of the Persians choose four of them for their
excellence out of all the Persians and set them over their own sons. But the boys learn
only to shoot the bow. When they come of age they sleep with sisters, mothers, wives and
countless concubines, like boars trained for mating.

7e But our Instructor is the holy God Jesus, the Word who is the guide of all humanity.
The God who loves humanity is himself our Instructor. Somewhere in the Song the Holy
Spirit says of him: “He provided for the people in the wilderness, in thirst and burning
heat, in a waterless land. He surrounded him, instructed him, and guarded him like the
apple of his eye. Like an eagle he covered his nest and yearned over his young. He spread
out his wings, received them, and took them up on his back. The Lord alone led them, and
there was no foreign god with them.” I think Scripture clearly shows us the Instructor
here, as it tells of his guidance. Again, when he speaks in his own person, he confesses
himself to be the Instructor: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt.” Who, then, has the authority to lead in and out?

7f Is it not the Instructor? This is the one who “appeared to Abraham and said to him: I
am your God; be pleasing before me.” In the manner of a true instructor he shapes Abraham
into a faithful child, saying, “And be blameless, and I will set my covenant between me
and you and your seed.” Here is a fellowship of friendship, with the Instructor presiding
over it. He shows himself most plainly as Jacob’s Instructor. He says to him, “Behold, I
am with you, guarding you in every way you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for
I will not leave you until I have done all that I spoke to you.” He is also said to have
wrestled with Jacob. “And Jacob was left alone,” it says, “and a man wrestled with
him”—the Instructor—“until morning.” This was the man who led him and carried him, who
trained with him and anointed the athlete Jacob for the contest against the evil one.

7g That the Word was both Jacob’s trainer and the Instructor of humanity is shown here:
“He asked him,” it says, “and said to him, Tell me your name. And he said, Why do you ask
my name?” For he was keeping the new name for the new people, the infant people. God the
Lord was still unnamed, since he had not yet become man. Even so, “Jacob called the name
of that place the Face of God. For I have seen God face to face,” he says, “and my soul
was saved.” The face of God is the Word, by whom God is lit up and made known. Then too he
was given the name Israel, when he saw God the Lord. This is God, the Word, the
Instructor, who later said to him again, “Do not be afraid to go down into Egypt.” 7h See
how the Instructor follows the righteous man, and how he anoints the athlete, teaching him
to trip up his opponent. This same Instructor also teaches Moses to be an instructor. For
the Lord says, “If anyone has sinned before me, I will blot him out of my book. But now go
and lead this people to the place I told you of.” Here he is the teacher of instruction.
For in truth the Lord was the Instructor of the old people through Moses, but of the new
people through himself, face to face. For he says to Moses, “Behold, my angel goes before
you.” By this he sets over them the Word’s power as messenger and leader, while still
guarding the Lord’s own dignity: “But on the day when I visit them,” he says, “I will
bring their sin upon them.” That is, on the day when I sit as judge, I will pay them back
what their sins deserve. For the same one is Instructor and judge, and he judges those who
disobey him. Yet the Word, who loves humanity, does not stay silent about their sin. He
reproves them so that they may repent, for “the Lord wants the repentance of the sinner
rather than his death.” And let us, like infants who have only heard about the sins of
others, hold back from the same offenses out of fear of the threat, so that we will not
suffer the same things.

7i What, then, was the sin they committed? “For in their anger they killed men, and in
their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed be their anger.” Who, then, could train us more
lovingly than he does? Before this, the older people had an older covenant. The law
trained the people with fear, and the Word was an angel. But to the new and young people a
new covenant has been given. The Word has become flesh, fear has been turned into love,
and that mystical angel, Jesus, is born. For this same Instructor said to them then, “You
shall fear the Lord your God,” but to us he has urged, “You shall love the Lord your God.”
This is why he also commands us, “Stop your works,” that is, your old sins; “learn to do
good; turn away from evil and do good; you have loved righteousness and hated
lawlessness.” This is my new covenant, engraved in the old letter.

7j So the newness of the Word is nothing to be ashamed of. The Lord also says in Jeremiah:
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you
came out of the womb I set you apart.” This prophecy can hint at us. God knew us for faith
before the foundation of the world, yet we are babes now, because his will has only
recently been fulfilled, and in that sense we have only just been born to our calling and
salvation. That is why he goes on: “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” He is
saying that Jeremiah must prophesy, and that the name “younger” should not seem a reproach
to those who are called babes. The law is an older grace, given by the Word through Moses.
That is why Scripture says, “The law was given through Moses.” It does not say by Moses,
but by the Word, through Moses his servant. For this reason the law was only for a time.
“But eternal grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Notice the wording of Scripture.
Of the law it says only “was given.”

7k But “truth” is the grace of the Father and the eternal work of the Word. It is no
longer said to be given, but to “come to be through Jesus,” “without whom not one thing
came to be.” So Moses, prophetically yielding to the Word as the perfect Instructor,
foretells both his name and his work as Instructor, and puts the Instructor before the
people, entrusting to them commands of obedience. “God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from among your brothers,” he says. He means Jesus the son of Nun, but hints at
Jesus the Son of God. For the name Jesus, announced in advance in the law, was a sketch in
shadow of the Lord. He then adds, counseling what is good for the people: “You shall
listen to him,” and, “The man who will not listen to this prophet,” he threatens. 7l Such
is the name that the prophecy foretells for our saving Instructor. That is why prophecy
gives him a rod: a rod that trains, rules and holds authority. Those whom the obedient
word does not heal, threatening will heal. Those whom threatening does not heal, the rod
will heal. Those whom the rod does not heal, the fire will consume. “A rod will come out
of the root of Jesse,” it says. See the care, the wisdom and the power of the Instructor:
“He will not judge by reputation, nor reprove by talk, but he will judge the humble with
justice and reprove the sinners of the earth.” And through David: “The Lord has trained me
by discipline, and has not handed me over to death.” To be disciplined and instructed by
the Lord is deliverance from death. The same prophet says: “You will shepherd them with an
iron rod.” The apostle was moved by this when he wrote to the Corinthians: “What do you
want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?” Through
another prophet he says, “The Lord will send out the rod of power from Zion.” And of this
instructor’s rod, someone else said, “Your rod and your staff comforted me.” This is the
power of the Instructor: dignified, comforting and saving.

Against Those Who Think that What is Just is Not Good.

8a Against Those Who Think that What Is Just Is Not Good. At this point some people spring
up and say that the Lord is not good, because of the rod, the threatening and the fear.
They have evidently misheard Scripture, which says somewhere, “He who fears the Lord turns
back to his heart.” They have also forgotten the greatest proof of his love for humanity:
that he became man for our sake. The prophet prays in words that fit him all the more:
“Remember us, for we are dust.” That is, “Have sympathy with us, because you have felt the
weakness of the flesh from your own experience.” In this way the Lord our Instructor is
altogether excellent and beyond reproach, for in the abundance of his love he has sympathy
with the nature of every human being. “For there was nothing that the Lord hates.” Surely
he does not hate something and yet want what he hates to exist. Nor does he want something
not to exist and yet cause the existence of what he wants not to exist. Nor, again, does
he not want something to exist, and yet it exists.

8b If, then, the Word hates anything, he wishes it not to exist. But there is nothing for
whose existence God does not supply the cause. So nothing is hated by God, and nothing is
hated by the Word either, for the two are one, God. John says, “In the beginning the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” If he hates nothing that he has made, it remains that
he loves it. Much more than the rest, and with good reason, he will love man, the most
beautiful of all the things he has made, a living creature who loves God. So God loves
mankind, and therefore the Word loves mankind. Now whoever loves something wants to
benefit it. What benefits is certainly better than what does not benefit, and nothing at
all is better than the good. So the good benefits. God is acknowledged to be good, so God
benefits.

8c The good, insofar as it is good, does nothing other than benefit. So God benefits all
things. Surely he does not benefit man without also caring for him, nor care for him
without also looking after him. For what benefits by deliberate choice is better than what
does not benefit by deliberate choice, and nothing is better than God. To benefit by
deliberate choice is nothing other than to look after. So God cares for man and looks
after him. He shows this in action by instructing him through the Word, who is the genuine
fellow-worker with God in his love for mankind. Now “good” is not said of righteousness
because it possesses virtue. Righteousness is itself virtue. It is called good because it
is good in itself and for its own sake. 8d The expedient is also called good in another
sense, not because it gives pleasure but because it benefits. Righteousness is all of
these. It is good as a virtue, as something to be chosen for its own sake, and as
something that does not aim to please. It does not judge in order to win favor, but gives
to each what he deserves. And what is beneficial goes with what is expedient. So
righteousness is marked out by every aspect in which the good is examined, since the two
share equally in the same qualities. Things marked by equal qualities are equal and alike.
So righteousness is good. “How then,” they say, “if the Lord loves mankind and is good,
does he get angry and punish?” We must deal with this too, as briefly as we can. This way
of handling the question is useful for the right upbringing of children and serves as a
needed aid.

8e Many of the passions are healed by punishment, by the imposing of stricter commands,
and also by teaching certain doctrines. Rebuke is like surgery on the passions of the
soul. The passions are a kind of festering growth that breaks away from the truth, and
they must be exposed by cutting them open. Reproach is like medicine. It dissolves the
hardened callouses of the passions, cleanses the filth of the life, meaning its lusts, and
smooths down the swellings of pride, restoring a person to health and truth. Admonition is
like the diet of a sick soul. It advises what to take and forbids what not to take. All of
this aims at salvation and everlasting health. A general also does this. He lays fines on
wrongdoers and inflicts beatings that reach the body itself, with chains and the worst
disgrace, and sometimes even punishes some with death. Yet his aim is good, for he is
training the soldiers under his command.

8f In the same way our great General, the Word, the Commander of all things, warns those
who rebel against his law. He aims to free them from slavery, error, and captivity to the
Adversary, and to restrain the passions of the soul. In this way he leads them peaceably
into the holy harmony of the common life of his city. Alongside the counseling kind of
speech there is the exhorting and encouraging form. In the same way, alongside the
praising kind there is the abusive and reproachful form. This form is an art of blame, and
blame is a sign of goodwill, not of hatred. Both a friend and a non-friend reproach, but
the enemy does it to mock, while the friend does it out of goodwill. So the Lord does not
revile people out of hatred. He could have destroyed them for their own faults, yet he
even suffered for us. For like a good instructor, he skillfully slips into blame by way of
rebuke. He uses abuse like a whip to rouse the dullness of the mind, and then in turn he
tries to exhort the same people.

8g Those whom praise did not move to action, blame stirs up. Those whom blame did not call
out to salvation, because they were like dead men, harsh words raise up to the truth. For
“whips and discipline are wisdom at every time. He who glues a potsherd together is
teaching a fool.” That is, he says, it is like bringing the earth to feeling, and
sharpening a hopeless person to understanding. That is why he plainly added, “rousing a
sleeper from deep sleep,” since sleep, more than anything else, resembles death. The Lord
himself shows this very clearly about himself. He speaks in an allegory of his many-sided
and richly beneficial care. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.”
Then he added, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every
branch that bears fruit he cleans, so that it may bear more fruit.” A vine that is not
pruned runs wild into wood, and so does a human being. The Word, like a knife, cuts away
its unruly offshoots. He forces our appetites to bear fruit instead of lusting.

8h The rebuke given to sinners aims at their salvation. The Word adjusts himself, as a
musician would, to each person’s own character, sometimes tightening and sometimes
loosening. Moses says this very plainly: “Take courage. God has come to test you, so that
the fear of him may be in you, so that you do not sin.” Plato learned from this source and
says well: “All who pay the penalty truly suffer good things. They are benefited, because
their souls become better when they are justly punished.” If those who are set right by
the just one suffer good, even according to Plato, then it is agreed that the just one is
good. Fear itself is beneficial and was devised for people’s good, because “a spirit that
fears the Lord will live, for its hope is in the one who saves it.” This same Word, who
imposes the penalty, is the judge. Isaiah also speaks of him: “The Lord handed him over to
our sins.” He means, plainly, as one who corrects and directs us away from our sins.

8i For this reason he alone is able to forgive our offenses. The Father of all appointed
him as our Instructor, and he alone can tell disobedience from obedience. When someone
threatens, it is clear that he does not want to do any harm or carry out what he
threatens. By setting fear in place, he stopped the rush toward sin, and he shows his love
for people. He still holds back and makes clear what they will suffer if they remain
sinners. He does not, like a snake, fasten on and bite immediately. So God is good. The
Lord often uses words before the deed. He says, “For my arrows will finish them off. They
will waste away with hunger and be devoured by birds, and with an incurable spasm of the
back. I will send the teeth of wild beasts against them, together with the fury of things
that crawl on the ground.”

8j “Outside, the sword will leave them childless, and inside the storerooms, there will be
fear.” So the divine nature is not angry, as some have supposed. Most of what God says is
threat, but in everything he has been advising humanity and showing what must be done.
This is a good art: to frighten us so that we do not sin. “For the fear of the Lord drives
away sins, but the one who has no fear will not be able to be justified,” says the
Scripture. God does not bring punishment out of anger. He looks to what is just, since it
is not good for us that justice be set aside. Each of us chooses his own penalties by
sinning willingly: “The blame belongs to the one who chooses; God is blameless.” “But if
our unrighteousness establishes the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God
unrighteous to bring his wrath upon us? By no means.” So he says in his threat: “I will
sharpen my sword, and my hand will take hold of judgment. I myself will repay vengeance to
my enemies, and I will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will eat flesh from the blood of the wounded.” It is plain here that those
who are not enemies of the truth and do not hate the Word would never hate their own
salvation, and so they would escape the penalties of that enmity.

8k “The crown of wisdom,” as Wisdom says, “is the fear of the Lord.” Very plainly, then,
the Word has made known his own way of managing things through the prophet Amos, saying,
“I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand
snatched out of the fire, and even so you did not turn back to me, says the Lord.” See how
God, out of his love of what is good, seeks repentance. By the very method of his threat
he quietly shows his love for humanity. “I will turn my face away from them,” he says,
“and I will show what will happen to them.” Where the face of the Lord looks, there is
peace and rejoicing; where it is turned away, evil creeps in. So he does not wish to look
upon evil things, for he is good. But when he willingly looks away, because of human
unbelief, evil comes into being.

8l “See then,” says Paul, “the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who
fell, but kindness toward you, if you remain in that kindness,” that is, in faith in
Christ. Hatred of evil follows upon the good, since he is good by nature. So I would agree
that he punishes the unbelieving, for punishment is for the good and benefit of the one
punished: it is the correction of one who resists. But I would not agree that he wants to
take vengeance. Vengeance is the repayment of evil given for the benefit of the one who
takes revenge. And he who teaches us to pray for those who abuse us would not desire to
take vengeance. Everyone, even against their will, admits that God is good. That the same
God is also just, I need no more words to show, once I set beside it the voice of the Lord
in the Gospel. He speaks of God as one: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father,
are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe
that you sent me.”

8m “And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one as we are one:
I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected into one.” God is one, and beyond the
one, and above the very Monad. This is why the word “you,” which points directly at
someone, shows the one who truly alone is, who was and is and will be, and for these three
times there is one name: “the One who is.” That this same God, who alone is, is also just,
the Lord will testify in the same Gospel, saying, “Father, I want those whom you have
given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” 8n “Righteous Father, the world
did not know you, but I knew you, and these knew that you sent me. I made your name known
to them, and I will make it known.” This is the one “who repays the sins of fathers upon
children for those who hate him, and shows mercy to those who love him.” He is the one who
sets some on the right and others on the left. Insofar as he is thought of as Father, he
is good, and he is called only what he is: good. Insofar as he is Son, his Word who is in
the Father, he is called righteous. This comes from the loving relation of the two to each
other, a name of power measured out by equality. Scripture says, “He will judge a man
according to his works.” God has shown us Jesus as the face of a good balance, and through
him we have come to know God, as from a scale whose two pans are equally weighted.

8o Of this same God Wisdom also speaks plainly: “For mercy and wrath are with him.” He
alone is Lord of both: “mighty in propitiations, pouring out wrath. As great as his mercy,
so great is his reproof.” The aim of both mercy and reproof is the salvation of those who
are reproved. Now the Word himself will again declare that the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus is good: “for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” He also says, “Be
compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” And he says plainly, “No one is good
except my Father in the heavens.” On top of this he says again, “My Father makes his sun
shine on all.” Notice here that he acknowledges his own Father to be both good and
Creator. No one disputes that the Creator is just. 8p And again he says, “My Father sends
rain on the just and the unjust.” Insofar as he sends rain, he is the Creator of water and
clouds. Insofar as he sends it on all, he holds the balance evenly and justly. Insofar as
he is good, he does it for the just and the unjust alike. So we reason very plainly that
God is one and the same, in this way. The Holy Spirit sang, “I will see the heavens, the
works of your fingers,” and “The one who made the heavens dwells in the heavens,” and
“Heaven is your throne.” The Lord says in his prayer, “Our Father in the heavens.” The
heavens belong to the one who made the world. So it cannot be denied that the Lord is also
the Son of the Creator. Everyone agrees that the Creator is just, and the Lord is the Son
of the Creator. Therefore the Lord is the Son of the Just One.

8q This is why Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from
law.” Again he says (so that you may understand it all the more as said of God), “the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no
distinction.” Then, bearing witness to the truth, he adds a little later, “in the
forbearance of God, to show that he is righteous and that he justifies the one who is of
faith in Jesus.” He also knows that what is righteous is good, for he says somewhere, “So
the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” He places both names
under the same power. And Scripture also says, “No one is good except his Father.” So it
is the same Father of his, who is one, who is made known by many powers. This is what was
meant by “No one knew the Father”: he was everything before the Son came. So it is truly
plain that the God of all is one alone: good, righteous, Creator, and Son in the Father.
To him be glory for ever. Amen.

8r It is not foreign to the saving Word to rebuke out of loving care. This too is a
medicine of God’s love for humanity. It brings out the blush of modesty and slips in a
shame at sinning. If censure is needed, then rebuke is needed too, when the time has come
to wound a soul that has grown numb. The wound is not deadly but saving, for by a little
pain the soul gains escape from eternal death. There is great wisdom in his training, and
the manner of his dealing is varied, all aimed at our salvation. The Instructor bears
witness to the good. He calls those who are called to better things. He turns back from
their course those who are hurrying to do wrong, and he urges them to change to a better
life. Neither side is left without witness, since the one is witnessed to alongside the
other, and the grace that comes from such witness is very great. Even the passion of
anger, if his admonition should be called anger, shows love for humanity. For God comes
down to feelings for the sake of man, and for man’s sake the Word of God became man.

That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also
the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos.

9a That it belongs to the same power both to do good and to punish justly, and what the
manner of the Word’s training is. With all his strength, then, the Instructor of humanity,
our divine Word, makes use of every device of wisdom and sets himself to save the little
children. He admonishes, scolds, rebukes, reproves, threatens, heals, promises, and gives
gifts. As with “many reins,” so to speak, he “binds” the irrational impulses of humanity.
To put it briefly, the Lord is toward us as we are toward our own children. “Do you have
children? Train them,” Wisdom advises, “and bend them from their youth. Do you have
daughters? Take care for their bodies, and do not show them a cheerful face.” Yet we love
our children, sons and daughters, very much, above anything whatever. 9b People who speak
to us only to please us have little love for us, since they do not grieve us. But those
who speak sharply for our benefit may cause pain at the moment, yet they do us good for
the age to come. So the Lord looked not to pleasure of the moment but to the delight that
is coming. Let us now go through the manner of his loving training, with the witness of
the prophets. Admonition, then, is loving censure that produces understanding. Such is the
Instructor when he admonishes, as when he says in the Gospel, “How often I wanted to
gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not
willing!” Scripture likewise admonishes when it says, “And they committed adultery with
wood and stone, and burned incense to Baal.” It is the greatest proof of his love for
humanity that, though he knew clearly the shamelessness of the people who had kicked
against him and bolted away, he still calls them to repentance. He says through Ezekiel,
“Son of man, you live in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless, speak to them, in case they
will listen.” And to Moses he says, “Go and tell Pharaoh to send the people away, but I
know that he will not send them away.”

9c For in this he shows both things: his divine foreknowledge of what would happen, and
his love for humanity, in giving the soul’s free will occasions for repentance. He also
admonishes through Isaiah, out of care for the people, when he says, “This people honors
me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” This is reproving censure. Then:
“They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Here his loving
care, having made the sin plain, shows salvation alongside it. Rebuke is censure for
shameful things that draws people close to what is good. He shows this through Jeremiah:
“They became horses mad for females; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I
not visit them for these things? says the Lord. Or on such a people shall my soul not take
vengeance?” Everywhere he weaves fear in, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of perception.”

9d And again, through Hosea, he says, “I will not visit them, because they themselves were
mixed up with prostitutes and sacrificed with those who were initiated into the mysteries,
and the people who understood were entangled with a prostitute.” He makes their sin
plainer by declaring that they understood, so that they sinned willingly. Understanding is
the eye of the soul. This is why Israel, “the one who sees God,” means the one who
understands God. Complaint is blame directed at people who are thought to be despising or
neglecting someone. The Instructor uses this method of training through Isaiah, saying:
“Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and
raised them high, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the
manger of its lord, but Israel has not known me.” How terrible it is if the one who knows
God will not know the Lord! The ox and the donkey, dull and foolish animals, will know the
one who feeds them, but Israel will be found even less reasonable than these.

9e Through Jeremiah, after complaining against the people on many counts, he adds: “And
they have forsaken me, says the Lord.” Rebuke is a stinging reproof, or blame that strikes
hard. The Instructor uses this remedy too, through Isaiah, saying: “Woe to you, rebellious
children. Thus says the Lord: you made a plan, but not through me, and agreements, but not
through my Spirit.” In each case he applies fear like a very sharp astringent. It opens
their mouths and, at the same moment, turns the people through it toward salvation. In the
same way, wool that is to be dyed is usually treated first with a mordant, to prepare it
to take the dye firmly. Reproof is bringing a sin out into the open. He uses this method
most of all, as necessary because the faith of many is slack. For he says through Isaiah,
“You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.” And he says
through Jeremiah: “The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered all the
more. For this people has done two evil things: they have forsaken me, the spring of
living water, and they have dug broken cisterns for themselves that cannot hold water.”
And again through the same prophet: “Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become
an object of tossing and shaking. All who glorified her have dishonored her, because they
have seen her shame.” He softens the severity of the reproof and the rebuke through
Solomon, hinting by what he leaves unsaid at the fatherly love in his training: “My son,
do not despise the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when you are reproved by
him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
For “a sinful man turns away from reproof.”

9f Accordingly, Scripture says, “Let the righteous man reprove me and discipline me, but
let the oil of the sinner not anoint my head.” Calling to one’s senses is blame that puts
sense into a person. He does not hold back from this method of training either, but says
through Jeremiah: “How long shall I cry out and they will not listen? Look, their ears are
uncircumcised.” What blessed patience! And again through the same prophet: “All the
nations are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart.” And, “The people
are disobedient, sons,” he says, “who have no faith.” Visitation is a sharp rebuke. He
uses this kind in the Gospel: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone
those who are sent to you.” The doubling of the name makes the rebuke strong. For how can
one who knows God persecute God’s servants? 9g This is why he says: “Your house is left to
you desolate. For I tell you, from now on you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” For if you do not accept his kindness, you will
come to know his power. Abuse is intensified blame. He uses abuse as a kind of medicine,
through Isaiah, saying, “Woe to a sinful nation, lawless sons, a people full of sins, an
evil seed.” In the Gospel, through John, he says, “Serpents, brood of vipers.” Accusation
is blame of those who do wrong. He uses this training method through David, saying: “A
people whom I did not know served me, and at the hearing of the ear obeyed me. Foreign
sons lied to me and limped away from their paths.” And through Jeremiah: “And I gave her a
certificate of divorce, and treacherous Judah was not afraid.” And again: “The house of
Israel acted faithlessly against me, and the house of Judah lied to the Lord.” Complaining
of one’s lot is hidden blame. It too arranges salvation by skillful help, under a
covering.

9h He uses this kind of speech through Jeremiah: “How does the city sit alone, she who was
full of people? She has become like a widow. She who ruled over the regions has become
subject to tribute. Weeping, she has wept in the night.” Mockery is censure that holds a
person up to ridicule. The divine Instructor used this remedy too, through Jeremiah,
saying: “You have the face of a prostitute; you have become shameless toward everyone. Did
you not call me your house, your father, and the guide of your virginity?” And again: “a
beautiful and charming prostitute, mistress of drugs.” With great skill he insults the
virgin with the name of prostitution, and then, by shaming her, calls her back to modesty.
Indignation is lawful rebuke, or rebuke of those who are exalted in their ways beyond what
is fitting. In this way he trained them through Moses, speaking of “blameworthy children,
a crooked and perverse generation: is this how you repay the Lord?

9i “This is a foolish people, not a wise one. Is not he himself your father, who acquired
you?” He says also through Isaiah: “Your rulers are disobedient, partners of thieves,
lovers of bribes, chasers after payment; they do not give justice to orphans.” In general,
then, his skilful handling of people through fear is a fountain of salvation, and saving
is the work of a good being: “The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, as he reproves,
disciplines and teaches, like a shepherd with his flock. He has mercy on those who accept
discipline and on those who earnestly seek to cling to him.” By this same training, “he
kept safe the six hundred thousand foot soldiers who had been gathered together in their
hardness of heart, by scourging and pitying, striking and healing, in compassion and
discipline.” “For as great as his mercy is, so great is his reproof.” It is good not to
sin, but it is also good for the sinner to repent. In the same way, the best thing is to
be always healthy, but it is also good to recover from illness.

9j For this reason Solomon too gives the command: “Strike your son with the rod, and
rescue his soul from death.” And again: “Do not hold back from disciplining a child.
Correct him with the rod, for he will not die.” Reproof and rebuke, as the very word
hints, are blows to the soul. They bring sins to their senses, keep death away, and lead
to self-control those who are being swept along into licentiousness. In the same way Plato
knew that reproof is the greatest power for setting people right and the most
authoritative purification. Following this line of argument, he holds that the man who is
most deeply impure is uneducated and ugly because he has never been reproved, whereas the
man who is truly to be happy ought to be as pure and as beautiful as possible. For if
“rulers are no terror to good work,” how could God, who is good by nature, be a terror to
the one who does not sin?

9k “But if you do evil, be afraid,” as the apostle says. That is why the apostle himself,
after the Lord’s likeness, tightened the reins on the churches on every occasion. Aware of
his own boldness and of the weakness of his hearers, he says to the Galatians: “Have I
become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Those who are healthy do not need a doctor,
because they are strong, but the sick need his skill. In the same way we, who are sick in
our way of life, with shameful desires, blameworthy lack of self-control and the other
inflammations of the passions, need the Saviour. He applies not only soothing medicines
but also astringent ones. The bitter roots of fear halt the spread of sins, which feed
like a creeping sore. So fear is saving, even if it is bitter. 9l It is right, then, that
we who are sick need a saviour; that we who have gone astray need someone to guide us;
that the blind need someone to lead them to the light; and that the thirsty need the
fountain of life, from which those who drink will never thirst again. The dead need life,
the sheep need the shepherd, and children need the instructor. Indeed all humanity needs
Jesus, so that we do not fall into final condemnation as undisciplined sinners, but are
sifted out from the chaff and heaped up in the Father’s storehouse. For the winnowing fork
is in the Lord’s hand, and with it the chaff, which is due to the fire, is separated from
the wheat. And if you wish, we may learn the highest wisdom of the all-holy Shepherd and
Instructor, the almighty Word of the Father, in the place where he speaks in figure and
calls himself the shepherd of the sheep. He is also the instructor of little children.

9m He says, then, through Ezekiel, addressing the elders and setting before them a saving
pattern of wise care: “I will bind up the lame, and heal the one who is troubled, and
bring back the one who has wandered, and I myself will feed them on my holy mountain.”
These are the promises of a good shepherd. Feed us, who are children, like sheep. Yes,
Master, fill us with your pasture, which is righteousness. Yes, Instructor, shepherd us to
your holy mountain, to the Church, which is lifted high, which is above the clouds, which
touches the heavens. “And I will be their shepherd,” he says, “and I will be near them,”
as close as a tunic to their skin. He wants to save my flesh, clothing it in the tunic of
incorruption, and he has anointed my skin. “They will call me,” he says, “and I will say,
‘Here I am.’” You answered sooner than I expected, Master. “And if they pass over, they
will not slip, says the Lord.” For we who are passing over into incorruption will not fall
into corruption, because he himself will hold on to us. For he himself has spoken, and he
himself has willed it.

9n Such is our Instructor, and he is rightly called good. “I did not come,” he says, “to
be served, but to serve.” For this reason he is shown in the Gospel as weary, because he
toils for us, and he promises “to give his life as a ransom in place of many.” For this is
the only one he acknowledges to be a good shepherd. He is generous, then, who gives the
greatest gift for us, his own life. He is greatly beneficial and loving toward humanity,
because, though he could have been Lord, he chose to be a brother of human beings. He is
so good that he even died on our behalf. His righteousness also cries out: “If you come to
me straight, I also will be straight toward you; if you walk crookedly, I also will be
crooked, says the Lord of hosts.” By the crooked ways he hints at the rebukes given to
sinners. For the straight way, the natural one, which the iota of “Jesus” hints at, is his
goodness, which is unmoved and unwavering toward those who have believed through
obedience.

9o “Since I called and you did not obey, says the Lord, but made my counsels void and paid
no attention to my reproofs.” In this way the Lord’s reproof is most beneficial.
Concerning these people he also says through David: “A crooked and embittering generation,
a generation that did not set its heart straight, and whose spirit was not faithful toward
God. They did not keep God’s covenant, and they were unwilling to walk in his law.” These
are the causes of the embitterment, and for them the Judge comes to bring judgment on
those who were unwilling to choose a good life. For this reason he dealt with them more
harshly from that point on, to see whether he could hold them back from their rush toward
death. Through David he gives the very clear reason for his threat: “They did not believe
in his wonders. When he killed them, they sought him, and turned back, and rose early to
seek God, and remembered that God is their helper and God the Most High is their
redeemer.” In this way he knows that they turn back through fear, but have despised his
kindness.

9p For goodness that is always gentle is generally neglected, but it is respected when it
reminds us through the humane fear that comes from righteousness. The kind of fear is
twofold. One kind comes with reverence, which citizens show toward good rulers, and we
toward God, as well-behaved children do toward their fathers: “For an untamed horse,” it
says, “turns out stubborn, and a son left unrestrained turns out reckless.” The other kind
of fear comes with hatred, which slaves feel toward harsh masters, and which the Hebrews
felt when they made God their master instead of their father. In matters of godliness, I
think, what is willing and chosen differs greatly, indeed completely, from what is forced.
“For he himself is compassionate,” it says, “he will heal their sins and not destroy them;
and he will multiply his turning away of his anger, and will not kindle all his wrath.”
See how the Instructor’s justice is shown in his corrections, and God’s goodness in his
acts of compassion.

9q For this reason David, that is, the Spirit speaking through him, takes in both together
and sings of the one God: “Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of your throne;
mercy and truth will go before your face.” He acknowledges that it belongs to the same
power both to judge and to do good. For authority over both belongs together, and the
judgment of the just one distinguishes between opposites. The same God is just and good.
He is truly God, who is himself all things, and all things are the same to him, because he
is God, the only God. A mirror is not bad to an ugly person because it shows him what he
looks like. A physician is not bad to a sick person because he reports the fever. The
physician is not the cause of the fever; he only exposes it. In the same way, the one who
reproves is not ill-disposed toward the person who is sick in soul. He does not put the
faults into him. He shows the sins that are already there, so that the person may turn
away from similar practices.

9r So God is good for his own sake, and just for our sake, and he is just because he is
good. His justice is shown to us through his own Word, from above, from the place where he
became Father. For before he became Creator he was God, and he was good. For that reason
he also wished to be Creator and Father. The disposition of that love became the beginning
of justice. It is the reason he makes his own sun shine and sends down his own Son. And
this Son was the first to announce the good righteousness that comes from heaven, when he
said, “No one knew the Son except the Father,” and “no one knew the Father except the
Son.” This knowledge, balanced equally on both sides, is the sign of an ancient, impartial
justice. Then justice came down to human beings, in letter and in body, that is, in the
Word and in the law. It pressed humanity toward saving repentance, for it was good. But
you do not obey God? Then blame yourself, for you are drawing the judge down on you.

That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and Saves Humanity
by Exhorting.

10a That the same God, by the same Word, both restrains from sins by threatening and saves
humanity by exhorting. We have shown that the plan of dealing sharply with humanity is
good and saving. We have shown that the Word necessarily adopts it, and that it is well
suited to bring repentance and to prevent sins. Next we should look at the gentleness of
the Word. For he has been shown to be just, and he sets before us his own counsels, which
call us to salvation. Through them, by his Father’s will, he wants to make known to us
what is noble and what is beneficial. Consider this: the noble belongs to the style of
praise, and the beneficial to the style of advice. Exhortation and dissuasion belong to
the style of advice. Commendation and censure belong to the style of praise. 10b For
advice becomes exhortation in one state of mind and dissuasion in another. In the same way
the style of praise becomes censure in one state and commendation in another. The just
Instructor, who aims at what is good for us, is chiefly occupied with these. We have
already been shown the censuring and dissuading kind. Now we must deal with the exhorting
and commending kind, and, as on a balance, set the equal pans of the just one against each
other. The Instructor uses exhortation toward what is beneficial through Solomon, somewhat
as follows: “I call on you, people, and I send out my voice to the sons of men. Listen to
me, for I will speak solemn things,” and so on. He advises what saves, because advice is
suited to choosing and avoiding. He does this through David when he says, “Blessed is the
man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, and did not stand in the way of
sinners, and did not sit in the seat of the pestilent, but his desire is in the law of the
Lord.” There are three parts to advice. One takes its examples from past times: for
instance, what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped an idol in the golden calf, and
what they suffered when they committed fornication, and the like. The second is observed
in the present time, grasped by the senses, as in what was said to those who asked the
Lord, “Are you the Christ, or are we to wait for another?” He said, “Go away.

10c “...and tell John: the blind see again, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the
dead are raised, and blessed is the one who is not offended in me.” This is what David
meant when he prophesied, “As we have heard, so also we have seen.” The third part of
counsel is made up of things to come. By it the Instructor commands us to guard against
what will result. So it was said: “Those who fall into sins will be thrown into the outer
darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and similar words. From these it
is plain that the Lord goes through every kind of treatment to call humanity to salvation.
By consolation he comforts us in our sins, lessening desire and at the same time giving
hope of salvation. For he says through Ezekiel, “If you turn back with your whole heart
and say, ‘Father,’ I will listen to you as to a holy people.” And again he says, “Come to
me, all who labor and are weighed down, and I will give you rest,” and the words that
follow, which the Lord speaks in his own person.

10d Most plainly he calls us to goodness through Solomon, saying, “Blessed is the man who
has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding.” For the good is found by
the one who seeks it, and it likes to be seen by the one who has found it. Through
Jeremiah also he explains understanding. He says, “We are blessed, Israel, because what
pleases God is known to us.” It is known through the Word, through whom we are blessed and
wise. For through the same prophet knowledge is shown to be understanding, when he says,
“Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; listen closely, so as to know understanding.”
Through Moses, too, because of his love for humanity, he promises in advance a gift to
those who hurry toward salvation. For he says, “I will bring you into the good land which
the Lord swore to your fathers.” And in addition, through Isaiah he says, “I will bring
you into the holy mountain and make you glad.”

10e There is another form of his instruction as well: pronouncing blessing. Through David
he says, “Blessed is the one who has not sinned, and he will be like the tree planted
beside the streams of water, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will
not fall off” (by this he also hinted at the resurrection), “and everything he does will
prosper.” He wants us to become such people, so that we may be blessed. Then, to show the
opposite pan of the scale of justice, he says, “Not so the ungodly, not so; they are like
the chaff which the wind blows off the face of the earth.” The Instructor shows the
penalty of sinners, how easily they are scattered and how they are at the mercy of the
wind. In this way he turns us away from the cause of sin by the threat of penalty. By
holding up the punishment they deserve, he shows the goodness of his kindness. With great
skill he leads us by this means to the use and possession of good things.

10f He also urges us toward knowledge. Through Jeremiah he says, “If you had walked in the
way of God, you would have lived in peace forever.” By pointing here to the reward of
knowledge, he calls the thoughtful to love it. And to the one who has strayed he grants
forgiveness: “Turn back, turn back,” he says, “like a grape-gatherer to his basket.” Do
you see the goodness of justice, which counsels repentance? Further, through Jeremiah he
lights up the truth for those who wander: “Thus says the Lord: Stand at the roads and
look, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, which is the good path, and walk in it,
and you will find purification for your souls.” He leads us to repentance for the sake of
our salvation. This is why he says, “If you repent, the Lord will cleanse your heart and
the heart of your offspring.” We could have called in the philosophers as advocates for
this inquiry, who say that only the perfect person deserves praise, and the worthless
person deserves blame.

10g But some people misrepresent the blessed life. They say it takes no trouble over
anything itself and brings none to anyone else, and so they fail to understand its love
for humanity. For their sake, and for the sake of those who still do not join justice to
goodness, I set this argument aside. For it would follow that we should say the rebuking
and censuring side of instruction suits human beings, since the philosophers say that all
men are bad. God alone is wise, since wisdom comes from him, and he alone is perfect, and
therefore he alone is worthy of praise. But I do not use this argument. I say instead that
praise, blame, or anything like praise or blame is, above all else, the most necessary
medicine for people. Some are hard to cure. Like iron, they are driven into shape by fire,
hammer and anvil, that is, by threat, exposure and rebuke. Others give their attention to
faith itself. They are, as it were, self-taught and willing, and they grow by praise: “For
virtue that is praised grows like a tree.”

10h It seems to me that Pythagoras of Samos understood this when he gave the command:
“When you have done shameful things, rebuke yourself; but delight in what is good.”
Rebuking is also called admonishing. The word for admonition (nouthetesis) is explained as
“putting sense into the mind” (nou enthematismos), so that the rebuking kind of
instruction is what produces understanding. But countless other commands have been found
for gaining good and avoiding evil: “There is no peace for the ungodly, says the Lord.”
For this reason he commands the little children, through Solomon, to be on guard: “My son,
do not let sinners lead you astray. Do not walk their roads with them. Do not go if they
urge you, saying, ‘Come with us, share in the shedding of innocent blood, let us bury a
righteous man in the earth for no reason, let us wipe him out like Hades, alive.’” This is
also a prophecy about the Lord’s suffering. And through Ezekiel Life lays down commands:
“The soul that sins shall die.

10i But the man who is righteous, who does righteousness, will not eat on the mountains.
He has not set his eyes on the idle fancies of the house of Israel. He will not defile his
neighbor’s wife. He will not come near a woman while she is set apart for her uncleanness.
He will not oppress anyone. He will return the pledge of a debtor. He will not seize
plunder. He will give his bread to the hungry and clothe the naked. He will not lend his
money at interest or take extra profit. He will keep his hand from injustice, and will
make a just judgment between a man and his neighbor. He has walked in my commands and kept
my ordinances to do them. This man is righteous. He will surely live, says the Lord.”
These words contain an outline of the Christian way of life and a notable encouragement
toward the blessed life, the prize of a good life: eternal life.

That the Word Instructed by the Law and the Prophets.

11a That the Word instructed through the Law and the Prophets. We have shown, as well as
we could, the manner of his love for humanity and of his instruction. So, explaining
himself very beautifully, he compared himself to a “grain of mustard seed.” By this he
hinted at several things: the spiritual nature of the word that is sown, its fruitful and
many-sided character, and the greatness and easy growth of the power of the Word. He also
hinted that the biting and cleansing effect of rebuke does good because of its sharpness.
So through the little seed, which is an allegory, he freely gives to all humanity a very
great thing, salvation. Honey, though very sweet, produces bile, just as kindness produces
contempt, which is the cause of sinning. Mustard, on the other hand, reduces bile (that
is, anger) and cuts through phlegm (that is, pride). From this Word comes true health of
the soul and its lasting, well-balanced condition.

11b Long ago, then, the Word trained us through Moses, and afterward through the prophets.
Moses was himself a prophet. For the law is the training of unruly children. Scripture
says, “Having been filled, they rose up to play.” The word it uses is “fodder,” not
“food,” meaning a mindless stuffing of the belly. They had been filled without thought,
and they played without thought. So the law followed them, and fear with it, to check
their sins and urge them toward right conduct. It prepared them to listen to the true
Instructor and to obey him. He is one and the same Word, fitting himself to what each
moment requires. Paul says that the law was given as “a tutor to bring us to Christ.” From
this it is plain that there is only one Instructor of ours who is true, good and just: the
Son, Jesus, the Word of God, in the image and likeness of the Father. God has handed us
over to him, as a loving father entrusts his children to a faithful tutor. God gave an
explicit command: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” The divine Instructor deserves
our trust, because he is adorned with three of the finest qualities: knowledge, goodwill
and boldness of speech. He has knowledge, because he is the Father’s wisdom: “All wisdom
is from the Lord and is with him forever.” He has boldness, because he is God and Creator:
“All things were made through him, and without him not one thing was made.” He has
goodwill, because he alone gave himself as a sacrifice for us: “The good shepherd lays
down his life for the sheep,” and he did lay it down. Goodwill is nothing other than
wishing good for one’s neighbor for that neighbor’s own sake.

The Instructor Characterized by the Severity and Benignity of Paternal Affection.

12a The Instructor shows both sternness and kindness, in keeping with a father’s
affection. With these points already covered, the next step is for our Instructor Jesus to
sketch for us the true life and to train the person who is in Christ. His character is not
excessively fearsome, nor is it wholly slack through kindness. He gives commands and at
the same time shapes them so that we are able to carry them out. It seems to me that this
same one formed man from the dust, gave him new birth by water, made him grow by the
Spirit, and trained him by the Word. He guides us by holy commands toward adoption as sons
and toward salvation. His purpose is to remake the earth-born man into a holy and heavenly
man, raised up by ascent, and so to fulfil most completely that divine saying, “Let us
make man in our image and likeness.” Christ has become the full realization of what God
said, while the rest of humanity is understood to be made only “in the image.”

12b But let us, children of a good Father and nurslings of a good Instructor, fulfil the
Father’s will. Let us listen to the Word and take the impress of the truly saving life of
our Savior. From now on let us practice the heavenly way of life, by which we are made
divine. Let us anoint ourselves with the ever-fresh ointment of joy and the unspoiled
ointment of sweet fragrance. We have the Lord’s way of life as a clear example of
incorruption, and we follow in the footsteps of God. He alone is fit to consider, and does
care, how and in what manner the life of human beings may become healthier. He also
prepares us for a life of self-sufficiency and simplicity, and for being ready to travel
lightly and unencumbered toward the endless blessedness of the good life. He teaches each
of us to be our own storehouse. For he says, “Do not worry about tomorrow.” He means that
the person enrolled in Christ’s service should be self-sufficient, his own servant, and
should live a life that takes up each day as it comes.

12c For we are trained in peace, not in war. War requires heavy preparation, and luxury
demands lavish supply. But peace and love are plain, quiet sisters. They need no weapons
and no wasteful provision. The Word is their food. He has been given the leadership that
shows us the way and trains us. From him we learn simplicity, freedom from pride, and in
sum everything that belongs to a love of freedom, a love of humanity and a love of what is
good. In a word, through a kinship of virtue we become like God. So work hard and do not
grow weary, for you will become what you do not hope for and could not even imagine.
Philosophers have one kind of training, orators another, wrestlers another. In the same
way there is a noble character, matching a choice to love what is good, that comes from
the training of Christ. In those trained by it, the activities of life show a worthy
dignity: how they walk, how they recline at table, their food, sleep, bed, daily regimen,
and the rest of their training. For this training by the Word is not overstrained but
properly tuned.

12d For this reason the Word is also called Saviour. He has discovered for people these
rational remedies, which bring sharp perception and salvation. He watches for the right
moment, exposes the harm, explains the causes of the passions, and cuts out the roots of
irrational desires. He commands what we must keep away from, and he brings every antidote
of salvation to the sick. For this is God’s greatest and most kingly work: to save
humanity. Sick people resent a doctor who gives them no advice for their health. How then
could we fail to give the greatest thanks to the divine Instructor? He does not keep
silent, and he does not overlook the acts of disobedience that lead to destruction. He
exposes them, checks the impulses that stretch toward them, and teaches the fitting
counsels for a right way of life. 12e We must therefore confess the very greatest thanks
to him. What else do we say the rational creature, I mean man, must do, if not contemplate
the divine? I say he must also contemplate human nature, and live as the truth leads. He
must greatly admire both the Instructor himself and his commands, because they are fitting
and in harmony with each other. After this pattern we too must fit ourselves to the
Instructor, make our words agree with our deeds, and truly live.

Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational.

13a Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational. Just as right conduct comes about according to right
reason, so, in the opposite way, sin comes about against reason. Everything that goes
against right reason is sin. For example, the philosophers see fit to define the most
general passions in this way. Desire is an appetite that disobeys reason. Fear is an
avoidance that disobeys reason. Pleasure is an elation of the soul that disobeys reason.
Grief is a contraction of the soul that disobeys reason. Now if disobedience to reason
produces sin, then obedience to reason, which we call faith, must surely bring about what
is called duty. For virtue itself is a condition of the soul that is in harmony with
reason throughout the whole of life. Above all, they define philosophy itself as the
pursuit of right reason. So everything done wrongly must come about through a failure of
reason, and it is rightly called a “sin.”

13b So when the first man sinned and disobeyed God, Scripture says, “man was likened to
the beasts.” He had sinned against reason, and so he was counted irrational and compared
to beasts. This is why Wisdom also says, “The pleasure-lover and the adulterer is a horse
for mating.” He is compared to a senseless animal, and so it adds, “He neighs under
everyone who sits on him.” Man, it says, no longer speaks. Whoever sins against reason is
no longer rational. He is an irrational beast, handed over to his desires, with every
pleasure sitting on his back. But what is done rightly through obedience to reason, the
heirs of the Stoics call “fitting” and “duty.” Now duty is what is fitting, and obedience
is built on commands. These commands are the same as the counsels, and they have truth as
their aim. They train us toward the final object of desire, which is understood as the
end. The end of godliness is eternal rest in God, and our end is the beginning of the age
to come.

13c Now the right accomplishment of godliness fulfils duty through works. So duties
rightly consist in actions, not in words. An action is the activity of the rational
Christian soul. It follows a refined judgment and a desire for truth, and it is carried
out through the body, the soul’s natural partner and fellow-combatant. A duty is a single
purpose in life that follows God and Christ, and it is rightly completed in eternal life.
For the Christian life, in which we are now being trained, is a system of rational
actions. That means the unfailing activity of what the Word teaches, which we have called
faith. The system is the Lord’s commandments. They are divine decisions and spiritual
counsels, written down for us, and they are suited both to ourselves and to our
neighbours. They also come back to us again, as a ball bounces back to the one who threw
it when it strikes something solid. For this reason duties are necessary for divine
training, since God commanded them and provided them for our salvation.

13d And some necessary things serve only for life here, while others lift us on wings from
here toward the good life there. In the same way, some duties are laid down for living,
and others for living well. The commands given for ordinary, worldly living are common
knowledge among the many. But what is fitting for living well, which is how that eternal
life is gained, we may consider in outline by gathering it from the Scriptures themselves.


THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS)
===========================

THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) continued

BOOK 2

2.arg. Chapter headings of the second book. 1. How we should behave about food. 2. How we
should approach drink. 3. That we should not be eager for costly household vessels. 4. How
we should relax at feasts. 5. On laughter. 6. On obscene talk. 7. What those who live
decently together must guard against. 8. Whether perfumes and garlands may be used. 9. How
we should approach sleep. 10. What we must understand about having children. 11. On
footwear. 12. That we should not be excited over jewels and golden ornaments.

On Eating.

1a How we should behave about food. So let us hold to our aim and choose from the
Scriptures what serves the practical purpose of our training. We must outline briefly what
a person called a Christian ought to be throughout his whole life. We must begin with
ourselves and with how we ought to conduct ourselves. So, keeping in view the proportion
of the whole work, we must say how each of us should treat his own body, or rather how he
should direct it. When someone is led by the Word away from outward things, and even from
the mere management of the body, to the mind, and learns exactly how things happen in man
according to nature, he will know not to be eager about outward things. He will know
instead to cleanse what is truly man’s own, the eye of the soul, and to purify the flesh
itself as well.

1b For if someone is cleanly freed from those things by which he is still dust, what could
he have that is more useful than himself for going on the road to grasp God? Other people
live in order to eat, just like the irrational animals, whose whole life is nothing but
the belly. But the Instructor commands us to eat in order to live. Food is not our work,
and pleasure is not our aim. Food is approved for the sake of our staying here, which the
Word is training toward immortality. This food is simple and unfussy, fitting the truth
and suiting simple, unfussy children. It is suited to living, not to luxury. And this
living is made of two things, health and strength. For these the easiest food is most
fitting. It helps digestion and keeps the body light, and from it come growth, health, and
a right strength. It is not an unjust, risky and miserable strength like that of athletes
produced by forced feeding.

1c So the many kinds of flavors must be spat out. They breed all sorts of harm: bad
condition of the body and upset stomachs. The sense of taste is made to play the harlot by
an evil-spirited art, the art of cookery, and by the empty craft of pastry-making. People
dare to call food that cultivated pursuit of luxuries which slides into harmful pleasures.
Antiphanes of Delos, a physician, said that this variety of dishes is one of the causes of
disease. Such people are displeased with the truth. In their varied vanity they swear off
a sober diet and go to great trouble over foods from overseas. I feel pity for their
sickness, but they are not ashamed to sing the praises of their pleasures. They hunt out
lampreys from the Strait of Sicily, eels from the Maeander, kids from Melos, mullets from
Sciathos, mussels from Pelorus, and oysters from Abydos. They do not leave out the
sardines of Lipara or the Mantinean turnip, nor even the beets of the Ascraeans. They
search for scallops from Methymna, flatfish from Attica, thrushes of the laurel groves,
and swallow figs. For the sake of such things the ill-starred Persian sent five hundred
myriads of men into Greece at once.

1d On top of these they buy up birds from the river Phasis, Egyptian francolins, and the
Median peacock. The gluttons vary all this with seasonings and stand gaping at the
delicacies. They provide for their greed with whatever the earth, the depths of the sea
and the measureless breadth of the air produce. These grasping, meddlesome people seem to
be simply dragging the whole world with a net to feed their love of pleasure. The sound of
“sizzling frying pans” rings around them. They wear out their whole lives at the mortar
and the grinding stone, these eaters of everything, who cling to their fuel like fire.
They even make bread, the plain and easy food, soft and effeminate by sifting out the
nourishing part of the wheat. So the necessary part of food becomes a reproach to
pleasure. Among men, daintiness knows no limit. It has run aground on cakes and honey-
cakes, and on sweets as well, inventing a multitude of desserts and hunting out every kind
of flavor.

1e Such a man seems to me to be nothing but a jaw. “Do not desire the rich man’s
dainties,” says the Scripture, “for they belong to a life that is false and shameful.”
Such people cling to rich dishes, which a little later end up in the latrine. But we are
hunting for the heavenly food, so we must rule the belly, which belongs under heaven, and
still more the things attached to it. “God will destroy” these, says the apostle, rightly
pronouncing a curse on greedy appetites. “Foods are for the belly,” and on these hangs
this truly fleshly, corrupting way of life. Some even dare to call by the name of “love”
(agape) little suppers that reek of fat and gravy, and they use a tongue with no door on
it. They insult the good and saving work of the Word, the sanctified love, with small pots
and a flow of sauce. By drinking, luxury and smoke they slander the name. They are
mistaken in their notion, for they expected to buy the promise of God with suppers.

1f For gatherings held for good cheer, we ourselves would count suppers, lunches and
receptions among them. Following the Word, we may fittingly call such a gathering a
“reception.” But the Lord has not called such feasts “love-feasts.” He says in one place,
“When you are invited to a wedding, do not recline in the chief place, but when you are
invited, lie down in the last place.” In another place he says, “When you give a lunch or
a dinner.” And again, “But when you give a reception, invite the poor,” which is the very
occasion for which a dinner should chiefly be given. And again, “A certain man gave a
great dinner and invited many.” But I see where the respectable name for these dinners
came from. It came from gullets and from a madness that haunts the dinner table, as the
comic poet puts it: “For truly, most things for most people are for the sake of dinner.”
They have not learned that God provided food and drink for his creature, man, for the sake
of his being kept alive, not for pleasure. The body does not naturally benefit from costly
foods. Quite the opposite: those who live on the cheapest food are stronger, healthier and
nobler, as servants are than their masters and farmers than their landlords. They are not
only more robust but also wiser, as philosophers are than rich men. For they have not
buried the mind under food, nor deceived it with pleasures.

1g Love (agape) is truly heavenly food, a banquet of the mind and reason. “It bears all
things, endures all things, hopes all things. Love never falls.” “Blessed is he who will
eat bread in the kingdom of God.” It is the worst of all falls for love, which never
falls, to be flung from heaven above down to the ground among the gravies. Do you suppose
I count as a supper that which is to be done away with? “For if I give away all that I
have,” he says, “and have not love, I am nothing.” The whole Law and the Word depend on
this love. And if you love the Lord your God and your neighbor, this is the heavenly feast
in the heavens. The earthly one is called a dinner, as has been shown from Scripture. A
dinner is given out of love, but the dinner is not love. It is a token of a kindly,
sharing and generous goodwill.

1h “So do not let our good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and
drinking,” says the apostle. He says this so that the meal he means will not be understood
as one that lasts only a day. He goes on: “but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit.” Whoever eats this best of meals will gain the best of all things that exist, the
kingdom of God. He will have practiced here below for that holy gathering of love, the
heavenly church. Love, then, is something pure and worthy of God, and its work is sharing.
“The care of instruction is love,” says Wisdom, “and love is the keeping of her laws.”
These feasts of joy have a spark of love in them, taken from the food common to all, and
they train us in the habit of eternal food. So love is not a dinner, but let the feast
depend on love. For it says, “Let your sons, whom you have loved, Lord, learn that it is
not the produce of the crops that feeds a man, but your word that keeps safe those who
believe in you.” For the righteous man will not live on bread alone.

1i But let our dinner be simple and light, suited to keeping us alert, not mixed with a
variety of flavors. Even this is not left without instruction. For love is a good nurse
for fellowship, and her rich provision is self-sufficiency. When self-sufficiency oversees
the food, measured out in the right amount, it manages the body for its health, and it
also gives some share out of its own store to our neighbors. But a diet that overflows
what is sufficient harms a person. It makes the soul sluggish and the body liable to
sickness. Moreover, pleasure in rich dishes brings on itself names of blame that are hard
to bear: daintiness, greediness, gluttony, fondness for delicacies, insatiability,
ravenous eating. Flies, weasels, flatterers, gladiators, and “the wild tribes of
parasites” fit these names well. Some sell their reason, some their friendship, some their
very life for the pleasure of the belly. They creep along on their bellies, beasts in the
shape of men, made in the image of their father, the greedy beast.

1j Those who first called such people “asotoi” (dissolute) seem to me to have hinted well
at their end. They understood the word as “asostoi” (unsaved), with the letter sigma
squeezed out. Are these not the very people who busy themselves over casserole dishes and
the silly fussiness of seasonings, low-minded and earth-born, chasing a life that lasts a
day as if they were never going to live again? The Holy Spirit pronounces them wretched
through Isaiah, quietly taking away from them the name of love, since their feasting was
not according to reason: “But they made merry, slaughtering calves and sacrificing sheep,
and saying, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” And to show that he counts such
luxury as sin, he adds: “And this sin of yours will not be forgiven until you die.” He
does not mean that a death without feeling is forgiveness of sin. He means that death, the
loss of salvation, is the repayment for sin.

1k “Do not rejoice in a little luxury,” says Wisdom. Here we should also recall the so-
called idol sacrifices, and why we are told to abstain from them. Those things seem to me
foul and loathsome, and over their blood hover “souls from Erebus of the dead who have
died.” “For I do not want you to become partners with demons,” says the apostle, since the
food of those who are being saved and of those who are perishing is separate. So we must
abstain from them. We do not do so out of fear, for there is no power in these foods. We
do so for the sake of our conscience, which is holy. We do so because we loathe the
demons, whose names the foods carry, for their foulness. And we do so also because of
those who are watery-minded and take many things in a slippery way, “whose conscience,
being weak, is defiled. For food will not bring us before God.” And he says, “It is not
what goes in that defiles a man, but what comes out of his mouth.” So the natural use of
food makes no difference. “For if we eat, we gain nothing extra,” he says, “and if we do
not eat, we lack nothing.” But it is not reasonable for people who have been counted
worthy to share in divine and spiritual food to take part in “the table of demons.”

1l The apostle says, “Do we not have the right to eat and drink, and to take a wife about
with us?” But we hold our pleasures in check and so restrain our desires. “Take care,
then, that this right of yours never becomes a stumbling block to the weak.” We must not
squander the Father’s gifts like the rich man’s son in the Gospel story, living
wastefully. We should use them as rulers do, with no leaning toward them. For we were
appointed to reign and to rule, not to be slaves to our food. It is admirable, then, to
look up to the truth and cling to the divine food from above. We should be filled with the
insatiable vision of him who truly is, and taste a pleasure that is steady, lasting and
pure. For the food of Christ shows that we must receive this love. But it is utterly
senseless, useless and inhuman to be fed for death, fattened like livestock. Such people
look down at the ground, always creatures of earth, bent over their tables. They chase a
greedy life and bury the good here, in a life that will not last. They flatter only the
act of swallowing, and because of it cooks have become more highly valued than farmers.

1m We are not doing away with companionship. We only regard the slippery slope of habit as
a disaster. So we must refuse greediness and take only a few necessary things. If one of
the unbelievers invites us and we decide to go (for it is good not to mix with the
disorderly), Paul tells us to eat whatever is set before us, “asking no questions for
conscience’ sake.” In the same way he told us to buy from the meat market without fussy
inquiry. So we are not to abstain completely from varied dishes; we are only not to make
them our concern. We should take what is set before us as befits a Christian. We honor the
one who invited us by sharing in the company in a way that does no harm and does not wear
anyone out. We treat the costliness of what is brought in as a matter of indifference, and
we despise the delicacies, since in a little while they will be gone. “Let the one who
eats not despise the one who does not eat, and let the one who does not eat not judge the
one who eats.” A little further on he explains the reason for this instruction, saying,
“The one who eats, eats to the Lord and gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat,
does not eat to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” So the right food is thanksgiving, and
the one who always gives thanks is not preoccupied with pleasures.

1n And if we are urging any of our fellow guests toward virtue, that is all the more
reason to keep away from these greedy dishes. We show ourselves as a clear example of
virtue, just as we ourselves have Christ. Paul says, “If any such food makes my brother
stumble, I will never eat it, so that I do not make my brother stumble.” By a little self-
restraint he wins the man. “Do we not have the right to eat and drink?” And he says, “We
have come to know the truth, that there is no idol in the world, but there is truly one
God for us, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus.” But, he says, “the weak
brother is destroyed by your knowledge, the brother for whom Christ died. And those who
wound the conscience of weak brothers sin against Christ.” This is why the apostle, taking
care for us, distinguishes between dinners. He says we are “not to associate with anyone
called a brother who is found to be sexually immoral, or an adulterer, or an idolater, and
not even to eat with such a person.” We are to avoid it whether it be the conversation or
the dish, suspecting the defilement that comes from it, just as from the tables of demons.

1o “It is good, then, not to eat meat or to drink wine.” Paul himself says this, and so do
the followers of Pythagoras. For eating flesh is more the way of wild animals, and the
vapor that rises from it is thick and clouds the soul. Yet if someone does take these
things, he does not sin, provided he takes them with self-control, without clinging to
them, being dependent on them, or gorging on the delicacies. A voice will speak within
him, saying, “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” It is very foolish to
marvel and gape at what is served at ordinary banquets, after the luxury we have in the
Word. It is far more foolish to have made one’s eyes slaves to the side dishes, as though
the servants carried one’s lack of self-control around along with them. How useless it is
to raise oneself up on the couches, almost throwing one’s face into the dishes, and to
peer out from the couch as from a nest, as the common saying goes, just to catch the
wandering vapor with one’s breath!

1p And is it not senseless to smear the hands with sauces, or to keep reaching out to the
dishes? These people do not taste; they snatch. They stuff themselves without measure and
without decency. You can see such people, in their greed to be filled, looking more like
pigs or dogs than human beings. Both jaws bulge at once, and the veins in the face swell.
Sweat pours over them, gripped as they are by insatiable appetite, and they pant from lack
of self-control. The food is shoved in with frantic haste, with no thought for anyone
else, down into the belly. They stow away the dishes as if packing provisions for a
journey, not as food to be digested. Excess is an evil everywhere, but it is most plainly
exposed in the matter of food. Thus “dainty-gluttony” (opsophagia) is nothing other than
excess in the use of delicacies. “Throat-gluttony” (laimargia) is madness about the
throat. “Belly-gluttony” (gastrimargia) is lack of self-control about food, and, as the
very name implies, madness about the belly, since a margos is a madman.

1q The apostle rebukes those who practice such habits at feasts, and says: “For each one
takes his own supper ahead of others as he eats, and one is hungry while another is drunk.
Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame
those who have nothing?” Among those who do have, the people who eat without restraint,
the insatiable, bring shame on themselves. Both groups do wrong. The one burdens those who
have nothing, and the other exposes its own lack of self-control in front of those who
have. So the apostle, of necessity, turns to those who have lost all shame and who abuse
their meals without restraint, the insatiable, for whom nothing is enough. A second time
he raises his voice in indignation: “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat,
wait for one another.

1r If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together for
judgment.” So we must keep away from all servile behavior and lack of self-control. We
should take what is set before us in an orderly way, keeping the hand, the couch and the
chin unsoiled, keeping the face’s good appearance undistorted, and behaving decently even
in swallowing. The hand should be stretched out in order, at intervals. * * We must also
take care not to say anything while eating. The voice becomes unseemly and indistinct when
it is cramped by full jaws. The tongue, pressed by the food and hindered in its natural
working, gives out a squeezed sound. Nor is it fitting to eat and drink at the same time.
It is the greatest intemperance to confuse times whose uses do not go together. And
“whether you eat or drink,” he says, “do everything for the glory of God.” We should aim
at true simplicity of living. I think the Lord hinted at it when he blessed the loaves and
the broiled fish with which he feasted his disciples, giving us a fine example of plain,
unfussy food.

1s The fish that Peter caught at the Lord’s command also hints at food that is easy to
come by, given by God, and moderate. For he suggests that, among those who come up out of
the water to the bait of righteousness, we should remove extravagance and love of money,
like the coin from the fish’s mouth. In this way he would drive out vainglory, and by
giving the stater to the tax collectors, rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s, he would
keep for God what is God’s. The stater could have other explanations, which are not
unknown to us, but the present moment is not suitable for working them out. It is enough
to mention it, since we are using it for our subject and it does not clash with the
flowers of the Word. We have often done this, drawing the many-benefiting spring to the
pressing point of the question, to water what the Word has planted.

1t For even if “it is lawful for me to partake of everything, not everything is
beneficial.” Those who do everything that is lawful quickly fall into doing what is not
lawful. Righteousness is not gained through greed, nor self-control through
licentiousness. In the same way, the Christian’s way of life is not acquired through
pleasure-seeking. The table of truth is far from “dishes that crave indulgence.” Even if
everything was made chiefly for the sake of human beings, it is not good to use
everything, nor to use it at all times. For the occasion, the time, the manner, and the
purpose all make no small difference, for the person being trained, in leading to what is
profitable. Fitness for the occasion has the strength to put an end to the life lived for
the belly. Riches invite such a life, though not riches that see sharply, but an abundance
that is blind to gluttony.

1u No one is poor when it comes to the necessities of life, and no human being is ever
overlooked. There is one God who feeds the birds, the fish, and, in a word, all the
creatures without reason. They lack nothing at all, though they take no anxious thought
for food. We are better than they, since we are their masters, and closer to God, since we
are wiser. We were made, not to eat and drink, but to come to the knowledge of God. “For
the righteous man,” it says, “eats and is satisfied in his soul, but the bellies of the
ungodly are in want,” because they crave a gluttony that never rests. Lavish expense is
suited not to solitary enjoyment but to sharing with others. So we must be on guard
against foods that bewitch our appetites and persuade us to eat when we are not hungry.
For surely a wholesome variety of dishes is possible even within a temperate simplicity?

1v Bulbs, olives, certain vegetables, milk, cheese, fruits in season, and all kinds of
cooked dishes without rich sauces. If roast or boiled meat is needed, it should be served.
After the resurrection the Lord said to the disciples, “Do you have anything to eat here?”
And they, as men taught by him to practise simple living, “gave him a piece of roasted
fish. And when he had eaten in front of them, he said to them” what he said, as Luke
records. Besides these, we must not overlook that those who dine according to the Word are
not to be left without nuts and honeycombs. Of all foods, the most suitable are those we
can use straight away without fire, since they are the most readily available. Next come
the plainest, as we said before. But those who hunch over inflamed tables, nursing their
own passions, are led by a most gluttonous demon. I would not be ashamed to call him the
“belly-demon,” the worst and most ruinous of demons.

1w This demon is just like the so-called ventriloquist spirit. But it is far better to
become blessed (“well-spirited”) than to have a demon living with you. Happiness is tested
by the practice of virtue. The apostle Matthew, then, ate seeds, nuts and vegetables,
without meat. John carried self-control to the extreme: “he ate locusts and wild honey.”
Peter also abstained from pork. But “a trance fell upon him,” as it is written in the Acts
of the Apostles, “and he saw heaven opened and a vessel tied at four corners resting on
the earth. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth and the birds
of heaven. And a voice came to him: ‘Get up, kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘Certainly
not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean.’” 1x “And the voice came to
him again a second time: ‘What God has cleansed, do not you call common.’” So for us, too,
the use of foods is a matter of indifference. “For it is not what goes into the mouth that
defiles a person.” What is empty is the notion about self-indulgence. For God, when he
formed man, said, “All things shall be yours for food.” But “a dish of vegetables with
love” (or “a calf with deceit”) is a good reminder of what was said before: it is not that
vegetables are love, but that meals are to be taken with love. The middle state is good in
everything, and not least in the preparation for a feast, since extremes are slippery and
the middle is good. The middle is whatever lacks none of the necessities. For natural
appetites are bounded by what is sufficient.

1y To the Jews, frugality was proclaimed through the law in a very well-ordered way. For
through Moses the Instructor took away from them the use of countless things, attaching
reasons: the spiritual ones hidden, the fleshly ones plain, and these latter they
believed. Some animals were forbidden because they do not have a divided hoof, some
because they do not chew the cud, and some fish because they alone of water creatures lack
scales. So very few were left that were suitable for their food. Even among the things he
allowed them to touch, he forbade animals that died of themselves, food offered to idols,
and animals that had been strangled, for it was not right to touch these either. Since it
is impossible for someone who enjoys pleasant things to give up approving of them, he set
against them the opposite discipline, until he could break the habit’s rush toward self-
indulgence.

1z For human beings, pleasure has mostly brought harm and grief. Overeating breeds in the
soul dullness, forgetfulness and folly. They also say that children’s bodies grow well in
height when they are given somewhat less food. The breath that runs up through the body to
make it grow is then not hindered, because plenty of food does not block the free flow of
its course. So Plato, the philosopher who most zealously sought the truth, condemned the
life of luxury and fanned the spark of Hebrew philosophy back into flame. He says: “When I
came there, the life they call happy, full of Italian and Syracusan tables, did not please
me at all. It means living stuffed twice a day, never sleeping alone at night, and all the
habits that go with that kind of life. No human being under heaven could ever become wise
if he practiced such things from his youth, nor would he ever be so wonderfully balanced
in character.” For Plato was not unaware of David. David set up the holy ark in his own
city, in the middle of the tent, and made all the people under his rule glad. “Before the
Lord he distributed to the whole host of Israel, from man to woman, a loaf of bread to
each, a baked cake, and a cake from the frying pan.”

2.1aa This food was enough for the Israelites, but the food of the Gentiles is excessive.
A man who lives on it “would never even intend to become temperate.” He has buried his
mind in his belly. He is very like the fish called the “ass,” which Aristotle says is the
only creature with its heart in its stomach. The comic poet Epicharmus calls this fish
“monster-belly.” Such are those who put their trust in the belly: “whose god is the belly,
and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.” The apostle
foretold nothing good for them, for he said, “Their end is destruction.”

On Drinking.

2a On Drinking. How we should approach drink. The apostle tells Timothy, who drank only
water, “Use a little wine, for your stomach’s sake.” This was an excellent way to treat an
ailing, flabby body, for he gave it a fitting, strengthening remedy. He approved only a
little, so that the remedy would not, through its quantity, quietly become something that
itself needed another treatment. The natural and sober drink that the thirsty need is
water. The Lord supplied this to the ancient Hebrews as the one drink of self-control,
pouring it from the sheer rock. Those who were still wandering most needed to be sober.
Afterward the holy vine put forth the prophetic cluster of grapes. This was a sign for
those who had been trained out of wandering into rest. The great cluster is the Word,
crushed for our sake. The Word wished the blood of the grape to be mixed with water, just
as his own blood is mixed with salvation. The Lord’s blood is twofold. One is fleshly, by
which we have been redeemed from corruption. The other is spiritual, and by it we have
been anointed.

2b To drink the blood of Jesus is to share in the Lord’s incorruption. The Spirit is the
power of the Word, as blood is of flesh. In the same proportion, then, wine is mixed with
water, and the Spirit with the human being. The mixture of wine and water feeds us toward
faith, and the Spirit leads us on to incorruption. The mixture of both, the drink and the
Word, is called the Eucharist, a grace that is praised and beautiful. Those who share in
it by faith are made holy in body and soul. The Father’s will mystically mixes the human
being, this divine mixture, with the Spirit and the Word. For the Spirit is truly joined
to the soul that it carries, and the flesh is joined to the Word, the flesh for whose sake
“the Word became flesh.” 2c I admire, then, those who have chosen a strict way of life.
They long for water, the medicine of self-control, and flee as far as they can from wine,
as from the threat of fire. So it seems good to me that boys and girls, for the most part,
should keep away from this drug. It is not suitable to pour the hottest of liquids, wine,
onto an age that is already boiling. That is like channeling fire onto fire. From it wild
impulses, inflamed desires and a fiery temper are kindled. Young people, heated from
within, become hasty toward their appetites. The harm is then plain to see in their
bodies, since the organs of desire ripen sooner than they should. They are aroused more
shamelessly, as if from boiling wine. Their breasts and private parts swell, and already
announce a picture of fornication. The wound of the soul forces the body to inflame, and
shameless throbbings drive them on to excess, calling the well-ordered character out into
lawlessness.

2d From this point the “new wine” of youth passes beyond the limits of modesty. So as far
as possible we must try to quench the urges of the young. We should take away the fuel,
the Bacchic frenzy that threatens them, and pour on the remedy for the boiling over. This
will hold back the soul that is already smoldering, check the swelling members, and put to
sleep the agitation of desire that is already stirring. As for those in the prime of life,
let them take a midday meal, since a midday meal suits them. Let them taste bread only and
abstain entirely from drink, so that their excess moisture may be soaked up and drunk in
by the dry food. For constant spitting and blowing the nose and hurrying to relieve
oneself are signs of intemperance, caused by immoderate intake that floods the body with
fluids. If thirst does come, let them cure the discomfort with a little water. It is not
right to drink water freely either, lest the food be washed out. The food should be broken
down for digestion, with the solid food settling into a mass and only a very little
passing off in the excretions.

2e Besides, it is not fitting to be heavy with wine when we are occupied with thoughts of
God. For, as the comic poet says, “unmixed wine compels a man to think few thoughts,” let
alone to be self-controlled. Wine should be used toward evening, around supper time, when
we are no longer busy with the more sober readings. At that hour the surrounding air is
cooler than in the daytime, so the natural warmth that is failing needs to be fed with
warmth brought in from outside. Even then the wine should be little, for we must not go on
to the bowls of insolence. Those who are already past their prime may be allowed to take
the drink more freely. With the vine’s remedy they can safely rekindle the chill of age,
which seems to wither under time. For the appetites of older men, for the most part, no
longer swell toward the shipwrecks of drunkenness. Moored, as it were, by reason and by
time as by anchors, they bear more easily the gale of desires that blows up from drink.
They may perhaps even allow themselves a little pleasantry at feasts.

2f But even for these let the limit of drinking be the point at which they keep their
reasoning steady, their memory active, and their body unmoved and unshaken by wine. Those
who are skilled in these matters call this state “top of the breastplate.” It is good,
then, to stop beforehand because of the risk of slipping. A certain Artorius, in his book
On Long Life (so I remember), thinks we should go only as far as is needed to moisten the
food, so that we may gain a longer life. It is fitting, then, that some take wine as part
of a treatment, for health alone, and others for rest and relaxation. For wine first makes
the drinker kinder to himself than before, gentler to his fellow drinkers, milder to his
servants, and more pleasant to his friends. But if he is made drunk, it repays him with
insolence. For wine is warm and has sweet juices. When mixed in due measure, it dissolves
the sticky waste matter by its warmth, and blends the sharp and bad humors with its
pleasant aromas.

2g Rightly, then, it has been said: “Wine was created from the beginning as a gladness of
soul and heart, when drunk in sufficient measure.” It is best to mix the wine with as much
water as possible and to dull its force against drunkenness. It should not be poured in
like water out of a love of wine. Both are works of God, and so the mixture of both, water
and wine, contributes to health, because life consists of what is necessary and what is
useful. So the necessary, water, should be mixed in as abundantly as possible with the
useful. But when wine is taken without measure, the tongue stumbles, the lips go slack,
and the eyes turn aside, as if the sight were swimming in the quantity of liquid. Forced
to deceive, the eyes think everything is spinning around, and they cannot count distant
objects as single. “Indeed, I seem to see two suns,” said the old Theban man in his
drunkenness. The sight, stirred by the heat of the wine, often pictures one thing as many.
It makes no difference whether the eye is moved or the thing seen, for the sight suffers
the same either way: because of the tossing, it cannot accurately grasp the object before
it.

2h Their steps are swept away from under them as by a current. Hiccups, vomiting and
madness crash in on the revel. For, as the tragedy says, every man drunk with wine is
overcome by anger and empty of sense. He loves to pour out a flood of idle talk, and then
unwillingly hears the evil things he said willingly. Even before the tragedy, Wisdom cried
out: “Wine drunk in quantity increases irritation and every kind of fall.” Therefore most
people say that we should unbend at drinking parties and put serious matters off until
dawn. I hold the opposite. That is exactly the time to bring in the Word to share the
feast and to act as instructor over the drinking, so that the feast does not slip
unnoticed into drunkenness. No sensible person would think of closing his eyes before he
goes to sleep. In the same way no one could rightly want the Word absent from the banquet,
or do well to put him to sleep before the day’s business is done.

2i Indeed the Word can never withdraw from what is his own, not even when we sleep, for we
must call on him even for our sleep. Wisdom is perfect: it is knowledge of divine and
human affairs and embraces the whole. In so far as it oversees the flock of men, it
becomes an art of living. So it is present with us everywhere, as long as we live, always
completing its own work, which is the good life. But the wretched men who drive self-
control out of the feast think that the disorder of their drinking parties is the happy
life. Their living is nothing but revelling, hangovers, baths, unmixed wine, chamber pots,
idleness and drink. You can see some of them half-drunk and staggering, with garlands
around their necks like wine jars, forcing the unmixed wine down one another’s throats in
the name of a toast to friendship. Others are sodden from their hangover, unwashed and
pale, with livid faces. Yet on top of yesterday’s drunkenness they pump up another
drunkenness at dawn.

2j It is good, my friends, very good, to study this picture, at once ridiculous and
pitiable, from as far away as possible. Then we may shape ourselves toward something
better, fearing that we too might become a similar sight and a laughingstock to others. It
was well said: “As the furnace tests the temper of steel in the dipping, so wine tests the
heart of the proud in drunkenness.” Now drunkenness is the more violent use of unmixed
wine. Drunken misbehavior is the disorder that comes from that use. A hangover (kraipalē)
is the discomfort and distaste that follow drunkenness. It is named from the head
throbbing (kara pallein). This kind of life, if it should be called life, is lazy,
restless after pleasures, and frantic over wine. Divine Wisdom looks on it with suspicion
and commands her children: “Do not be a wine-drinker, and do not stretch yourself out in
contracts and purchases of meat. For every drunkard and every frequenter of prostitutes
will become poor, and every drowsy person will wear torn clothes.” For the drowsy person
is anyone who is not awake to wisdom but is plunged into sleep by drunkenness.

2k “And the drunkard,” it says, “will wear torn clothes.” He will be ashamed of his
drunkenness because of those who look on. The tears in the garment are the holes that the
sinner’s love of pleasure has made in the fabric of the flesh. Through them the shame of
the soul within is seen, which is sin. Because of sin the fabric will not easily be saved.
It has been torn away on every side and is rotting in many desires, cut off from
salvation. So Scripture adds this very instructive warning: “Who has woe? Who has uproar?
Who has judgment? Who has unpleasant chatter? Who has bruises for nothing?” See the wine-
lover, torn to pieces. He pays no heed to the Word himself, and he has handed himself over
to drunkenness. See everything Scripture has threatened against him. Again it adds to the
threat: “Whose eyes are livid? Is it not those who linger over wine? Those who track down
where the drinking parties are?” Here the Word already shows the lover of drink to be
dead. It points to the livid eyes, which is a mark that appears on corpses, and so
announces to him a death “in the Lord.” For forgetfulness of the things that lead to true
life tilts toward destruction.

2l It is only natural, then, that the Instructor, who cares for our salvation, forbids
this most firmly: “Do not drink wine to drunkenness.” Why, you ask? “Because,” he says,
“your mouth will then speak twisted things, and you will lie down as in the heart of the
sea, like a ship’s pilot in a heavy swell.” Poetry has learned from this too, and says:
“Wine, whose force is like fire when it comes among men, and which heaves like the Libyan
sea under the north wind or the south; it reveals everything that is hidden, and makes men
speak wrongly. Wine is a slippery slope to the drunk; wine deceives the soul,” and so on.
Do you see the danger of shipwreck? The heart is swamped by heavy drinking. The Scripture
compares the flood of drunkenness to the threat of the sea. In that sea the body is sunk
like a ship; it goes down into the depths of disorder, buried under the triple waves of
wine. The pilot, the human mind, is swept about in the surge while drunkenness towers over
it. Out at sea it reels in the murk of the storm, having missed the harbor of truth. In
the end it strikes hidden rocks, runs itself aground on pleasures, and destroys itself.

2m It is only natural, then, that the apostle also commands: “Do not get drunk with wine,
in which there is much dissipation.” By the word “dissipation” (asotia) he hints that
drunkenness cannot be saved (asoston). For although the Lord made water into wine at the
wedding, he did not give permission to get drunk. Rather he brought to life the watery
quality of our thinking. [The Greek text is damaged here.] He filled the whole world with
the blood of the vine, which is the drink of truth. He gave to godliness the mixture of
the old law and the new Word, for the fulfilment of the time already set in
reconciliation. So Scripture has called wine a mystical symbol of holy blood. But when it
exposes the hangover that comes from wine, it says: “Wine is undisciplined, and
drunkenness is insolent.” Right reason therefore approves drinking in winter, because of
the cold, up to the point of not shivering, for those who are easily chilled. At other
times it approves it as a remedy for the inner organs.

2n We should use drink to stop thirst just as we use food to stop hunger, carefully
guarding against slipping, for wine’s creeping in is treacherous. In this way our soul
will be pure, dry and full of light, “for a dry soul is a radiance, the wisest and best.”
So it can also look on divine things, and is not waterlogged and turned into a cloud-like
body by the vapors that rise from wine. We should not fuss about Dian wine if it is not to
be had, or Ariusian wine when it is not at hand. Thirst is the feeling of some lack, and
it looks for the fitting remedy to fill it, not a swollen, showy drink. Importing wines
from overseas is for an appetite that has gone soft through lack of self-control, a soul
that is already out of its mind with desires before it gets drunk. There is fragrant
Thasian, sweet-breathing Lesbian, a sweet Cretan, a pleasant Syracusan, an Egyptian
Mendesian, island Naxian, and another flowery-scented wine from the land of Italy. Those
are many names. For the self-controlled drinking companion there is one wine, the farm-
produce of the one God.

2o Why should the local wine not be enough to satisfy the desire? Unless, of course, they
will also bring in water, like the foolish kings who brought along Choaspes water as they
brought their friends. The Holy Spirit pronounces the rich wretched for their luxury here
too, speaking through Amos: “Those who drink strained wine,” he says, “and lie on ivory
couches,” and he adds the rest that follows in the way of reproach. We should take special
care for decency. (The story says that Athena, whoever she was, looked after her own
appearance and threw away the pleasure of the flutes because of the ugliness it gave her
face.) So we should drink without distorting the face. We should not gulp until we are
full, or force our eyes into unseemly looks over the cup, or pull at it in one breath
through lack of self-control. We should not pour the drink over the chin or soak our
clothes when the drink rushes in all at once. That would be almost washing and rinsing our
own faces in the cups.

2p Think of the gurgling noise as the drink comes pouring down, drawn in with a great gasp
of breath as if it were being poured into a clay jar, while the throat echoes with the
rushing gulps. That is ugly, and the sight of such self-indulgence is unseemly. A love of
drinking is also a harmful habit for the one who gives in to it. Don’t rush into harm, my
friend. Your drink is not being snatched away. It has been given to you and is waiting for
you. Don’t be so eager to gulp it down with open mouth that you burst. Your thirst will be
filled even if you drink more slowly, and you will have gained good order, if the drink is
taken in measured portions. What self-indulgence grabs in haste is not taken from you by
waiting. Scripture says, “Do not play the strong man with wine, for wine has ruined many.”
“Drunkenness is practiced above all by the Scythians, Celts, Iberians and Thracians. These
are all warlike peoples, and they consider it a fine and happy custom.” But we are a
peaceful people. We feast for enjoyment, not for insolence, so let us drink our friendship
cups sober, so that they may truly be shown to be friendly pledges, as the name says.

2q How do you think the Lord drank when he became man for our sake? As shamelessly as we
do? Was it not with refinement? With decorum? With careful thought? You may be sure that
he too took wine, for he too was man. And he blessed the wine, saying, “Take, drink; this
is my blood.” The blood of the vine is his figure for the Word, “poured out for many for
the forgiveness of sins,” the holy stream of gladness. He showed clearly, by what he
taught at feasts, that the one who drinks must be self-controlled, for he did not teach
while drunk. And that what he blessed was wine, he showed again when he said to his
disciples, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in the
kingdom of my Father.” That it was wine the Lord drank, he also says of himself, when he
rebukes the hard-heartedness of the Jews: “For the Son of Man came, and they say, ‘Look, a
glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors.’” Let this be thrown in, as a
playful aside, against those who call themselves Encratites.

2r Women, supposedly to keep up a graceful appearance, avoid wide cups so that their lips
will not be stretched and split by opening the mouth wide. Instead they drink indecently
from narrow-necked alabaster flasks. They tilt their heads back and bare their necks,
which is not decent, in my opinion. They stretch the throat and gulp as they swallow, as
though they were exposing to their fellow drinkers all they could. They draw up belches
like a man’s, or rather like a slave’s, and carry on in wanton luxury. For no such noise
is fitting for a reasoning man, and still less for a woman, for whom the mere awareness of
what she is brings nothing but shame. Scripture says, “A drunken woman is great wrath.” It
is as if a wine-soaked woman were the anger of God. Why? Because “she does not cover up
her disgrace.” A woman is quickly dragged into disorder if she only gives her will over to
pleasures.

2s We have not forbidden drinking from alabaster flasks. What we cut off is the habit of
drinking only from them, as a piece of showiness. We advise women to use whatever happens
to be at hand without fuss, and so to check their appetites while they are still far from
slipping. The swelling of air that rises toward a belch should be let out quietly. In no
way should women be allowed to let any part of the body be seen uncovered, so that both do
not fall: the men, provoked to look, and the women, drawing the men’s eyes to themselves.
We must always behave decently, as though the Lord were present. Otherwise the apostle may
say to us in anger, as he did to the Corinthians, “When you come together, it is not
possible to eat the Lord’s supper.” It seems to me that the star the astronomers call “the
Headless,” which is counted before the “wandering” star, with its head sunk into its
chest, hints at gluttons, lovers of pleasure and those ready for drunkenness.

2t For in such people the reasoning faculty is seated not in the head but in the bowels,
enslaved to the passions of desire and anger. Elpenor broke his neck when he fell down
drunk. In the same way the brain of these people, made dizzy from above by drunkenness,
falls down to the liver and the heart, that is, to the love of pleasure and to anger. It
is a greater fall than the one the poets’ children say Hephaestus took when Zeus threw him
from heaven to the ground. Scripture says, “Sleeplessness brings pain, and bile and colic,
with an insatiable man.” This is also why Noah’s drunkenness was written down. We are to
guard against drunkenness as much as we can, having the failure set plainly before us in
writing. For this reason those who covered the shame of his drunkenness are blessed by the
Lord. So Scripture gathers it all up very briefly and says it in one sentence: “Wine is
enough for an instructed man, and he will rest on his bed.”

On Costly Vessels.

3a That we should not be eager for costly furnishings. The use of drinking cups made of
silver and gold, or others set with jewels, is to be rejected. They are only a deception
of the eye. If you pour a hot drink into them, the vessels become scorching, and taking
hold of them hurts. If you pour in something cold, the material passes on its quality and
spoils the mixture, so the rich man’s drink is harmful. Away, then, with Thericlean cups,
Antigonid cups, cantharoi, labronioi, lepastai, the endless kinds of drinking vessels, and
the wine-coolers and wine-pourers besides. For gold and silver, in private and in public
alike, are a possession that provokes envy when they go beyond what we need. They are rare
to get, hard to keep, and not suitable for use. The over-elaborate vanity of engraved
glass is also to be kept out of our well-ordered life. Because of its craftsmanship it
breaks all the more easily, and it teaches us to be afraid and to drink at the same time.
Then there are silver couches, basins, vinegar-dishes, small plates and bowls. There are
further vessels of silver and gold, some for serving food and some for other uses that I
am ashamed even to mention. There are tripods finely worked in easily split cedar, in
thyine wood, in ebony and in ivory. There are couches with silver feet, inlaid with ivory
and dotted with gold, and bed-screens decorated with tortoise-shell. There are purple
bedcovers and others in colours hard to come by. All these are proofs of tasteless luxury,
advantages that scheme to bring envy and laziness. All of them are to be set aside, for
none of them deserves any serious effort.

3b “For the time is short,” as the apostle says. [The Greek text has a gap here.] What
remains is that we not make ourselves look ridiculous. Some people are seen in processions
smeared on the outside to impressive effect and made to look dignified, but they are
wretched within. To make this clearer, the apostle added, “What remains is that those who
have wives be as though they had none, and those who buy as though they did not possess.”
If this applies to marriage, about which God says, “Multiply,” how, do you think, must
tasteless display be driven out by the Lord’s authority? This is also why the Lord says,
“Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and come, follow me.” Follow God stripped of
arrogance, stripped of perishable show. Keep only what is truly yours, the good that
cannot be taken away. That is faith in God, confession of the One who suffered, and
kindness to people, the most precious possession of all.

3c I also approve of Plato, who lays it down outright that one should have no wealth of
silver or gold. He says one should not even have a useless vessel, one that is not
moderate as well as serving a necessary use. The same thing should be suitable for many
purposes, and owning many things should be done away with. The divine Scripture speaks
admirably somewhere to the self-loving and the boastful: “Where are the rulers of the
nations, and those who lord it over the wild beasts on the earth, who make sport of the
birds of the sky, who store up silver and gold, in which people trusted, and there is no
end to their possessions, who work silver and gold and worry over it? There is no tracing
their works. They have vanished and gone down to Hades.” This is the reward of tasteless
extravagance. 3d We farm the land, and for that we need a hoe and a plough. Yet no one
would forge a hoe of silver or a sickle of gold. For farming we use the material that
works well, not the one that is rich. So what is to stop those who can see the same
principle from thinking the same way about household utensils? Let use be their measure,
not expense. Tell me, then: does the table knife not cut unless it is studded with silver
or has an ivory handle? Or must we forge Indian steel to carve a portion of meat, as if we
were calling in an ally for battle? And what if the washbasin is earthenware? Will it not
take the water from washing hands? Will the footbath not take the water from washing feet?
Will a table with ivory legs feel insulted at carrying a loaf worth a penny? Will the lamp
refuse to give light because it is the potter’s work and not the goldsmith’s?

3e I say further that a plain cot gives a rest no worse than an ivory couch. A coat of
goatskin is quite enough to spread over the bed, so there is no need for purple or scarlet
covers. Yet people condemn such simplicity because of the foolishness of luxury, the
origin of all evil. See how great the error is, how great the love of empty show! The Lord
ate from a cheap dish. He had his disciples recline on the grass on the ground. He washed
their feet with a linen towel tied around him. He is the God without pride, the Lord of
all, and he did not bring a silver footbath down from heaven. He asked the Samaritan woman
for a drink, as she drew water from the well in an earthenware jar. He did not look for
royal gold, but taught us to quench thirst without trouble. He made need his aim, not
unlimited abundance. At feasts he ate and drank, but he did not dig metals out of the
earth. He did not use little vessels of silver and gold, which is to say, of rust, giving
off the smell of that puffed-up material.

3f In general, then, I say that food, clothing, utensils and everything else in the
household must fit the settled purpose of a Christian. Each should suit the person, age,
occupation and time. We are servants of one God, so our possessions and the furniture that
goes with them should show the marks of one good life. Each individual, with a faith that
makes no distinctions, with this single settled purpose, should be seen doing whatever
follows from it, in agreement with that one disposition. Whatever we acquire without
hardship, use without difficulty, and so can praise, keep easily and share readily, is
better. Useful things are better, and certainly the cheaper things are better than those
of the rich. 3g In sum, wealth that is not rightly managed is a fortress of evil. Many
people have their eyes fixed on it, and they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. They
are sick with worldly things and live arrogantly because of their luxuries. But those who
hurry toward salvation must grasp this first: all creation exists for us to use, and
possessions exist for the sake of self-sufficiency, which one can attain with few things.
People are foolish who, out of insatiable greed, take delight in their stored-up
treasures. Scripture says, “He who gathers wages has gathered them into a bag with holes.”
This is the man who gathers and locks up his seed and ends up with less, the man who
shares with no one. It is a joke and a big laugh that men carry silver chamber pots and
glass urinals around with them, as they take their advisers along with them. Rich women,
without any sense, have gold made as containers for their excretions. So even to relieve
themselves, the rich cannot do it unless they do so with pomp. I would pray that for their
whole lives they would judge gold to be fit for dung.

3h But as things are, the fortress of evil has been found: the love of money. The apostle
says it is the root of all evils: “Some, reaching for it, have wandered away from the
faith and pierced themselves with many pains.” The best wealth is to be poor in desires,
and true greatness of mind does not mean being proud of wealth but despising it. To boast
about one’s household utensils is utterly shameful. It is hardly right to take pains over
things that anyone who wishes can buy in the market. Wisdom, however, cannot be bought
with earthly coin or in a market. It is sold in heaven, and it is sold for honest coin:
the incorruptible Word, the royal gold.

How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts.

4a Heading: How we should relax at feasts. Let revelry be kept far from our rational
feasting. So too the empty all-night parties that run wild in drunken excess. Revelry is a
drunken restlessness, an improvised outburst of lovesick distress. Love and drunkenness,
those irrational passions, are banished far from our company. An all-night party over
drink is a kind of drunken carousing: it calls out for drunkenness and stirs up lust, a
daring that does shameful things. People who give themselves to flutes, harps, choruses,
dances, Egyptian castanets and such idle amusements become unruly, indecent and wholly
uninstructed, deafened by cymbals and drums and surrounded by the noise of instruments of
deceit. To my mind, a drinking party like that is simply a theatre of drunkenness. The
apostle calls on us to put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,
“walking decently as in the day,” not devoting ourselves to “revelries and drunkenness, to
beds and licentiousness.”

4b Let the shepherd’s pipe be left to shepherds, and the flute to superstitious people
hurrying off to idol worship. In truth these instruments should be sent away from a sober
banquet, for they suit wild animals better than human beings, and the more irrational kind
of human beings at that. We are told that deer are charmed by pipes and led by the tune
into the snares when hunters are chasing them. And when mares are being mated, a flute-
tune is played over them like a wedding song; the musicians call it the “horse-mounting
song.” In short, every sight and sound that is unworthy of a free person, and every
shameful sensation that comes from lack of self-control (which is truly a lack of
feeling), must be cut out completely. We must guard against the pleasure that tickles the
eyes and ears and makes us soft and unmanly. For the varied spells of limp, broken
melodies and mournful rhythms of the Carian muse corrupt character, and with their
undisciplined and wicked art drag people down into passion.

4c In contrast to such revelry, the Spirit sings of the divine service: “Praise him with
the sound of the trumpet.” For at the sound of a trumpet he will raise the dead. “Praise
him with the psaltery,” because the tongue is the Lord’s psaltery. “And praise him with
the harp”: let the harp be understood as the mouth, struck by the Spirit as though with a
plectrum. “Praise him with drum and dance”: he means the Church, rehearsing the
resurrection of the flesh in the sounding of the skin. “Praise him with strings and
organ”: he calls our body the organ and its sinews the strings, through which it has
received its harmonious tension, and when it is struck by the Spirit it gives out human
voices. “Praise him with cymbals of shouting”: he calls the tongue the cymbal of the
mouth, which sounds along with the lips as they are struck.

4d For this reason he called out to humanity, “Let every breath praise the Lord,” because
he has watched over every breath he has made. For man is truly an instrument of peace. If
you investigate the other instruments, you will find them to be instruments of war, which
either inflame desires, or kindle passions, or work up rage. In their wars, for example,
the Etruscans use the trumpet, the Arcadians the pipe, the Sicilians the pektis, the
Cretans the lyre, the Spartans the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the drum,
and the Arabs the cymbal. But we use only one instrument, the peaceful Word alone, with
which we honor God. We no longer use the old psaltery, trumpet, drum and flute. Men
trained for war, who despised the fear of God, were accustomed to use these at their
festivals, so that through such rhythms their slackened spirit might be roused up again.

4e Let our friendly cheer at the drink be twofold, as the law teaches. For if the command
is “You shall love the Lord your God,” and then “your neighbor,” then the first kind of
goodwill should be toward God, in thanksgiving and the singing of psalms. The second
should be toward our neighbor, in dignified conversation. For the apostle says, “Let the
word of the Lord dwell in you richly.” This Word fits itself to times, persons and places,
and here it is a Word for the banquet. For the apostle adds again: “teaching and
admonishing one another in all wisdom, with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to
God in your hearts with grace; and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God his Father.” This is our revel of
thanksgiving. And if you want to sing and play to the harp or the lyre, there is no fault
in it. You will be imitating the righteous Hebrew king who gave thanks to God.

4f “Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; praise is fitting for the upright,” says the
prophecy. “Give thanks to the Lord on the harp; sing to him on the ten-stringed psaltery;
sing him a new song.” Does not the ten-stringed psaltery point to the Word, Jesus, who is
shown forth by the letter standing for ten? Just as it is fitting to bless the Maker of
all things before we share in food, so at the drinking it is right to sing to him as we
share in his creatures. For a psalm is a tuneful and sober blessing; the apostle calls the
psalm “a spiritual song.” Above all, before we fall asleep, it is holy to give thanks to
God, having enjoyed his grace and kindness, so that we go to sleep in godly fashion. “And
give thanks to him in songs of the lips,” it says, “for all good pleasure comes by his
command, and there is no lack in his salvation.” Even among the ancient Greeks, at
drinking feasts and over the cups being poured, a song called the skolion was sung, after
the pattern of the Hebrew psalms. Sometimes all sang the paean together with one voice,
and sometimes they took turns passing the toasts of the song around. The more musical
among them sang to the lyre.

4g But let love songs be gone far away, and let our songs be hymns to God. “Let them
praise his name in the dance,” it says; “let them sing to him with timbrel and psaltery.”
And who is the choir that sings? The Spirit himself will tell you: “His praise is in the
assembly of the holy ones; let them rejoice in their King.” And again he adds: “For the
Lord takes pleasure in his people.” We should accept only sober harmonies. We must drive
as far as possible from our vigorous minds those truly soft and slack harmonies, which use
corrupt skill in the bending of the notes and slide into softness and vulgar buffoonery.
But stern and sober melodies reject the arrogance of drunkenness. So we should leave the
chromatic harmonies to drunken, unrestrained revels and to flowery, harlot-like music.

On Laughter.

5a On Laughter. People who imitate ridiculous, or rather laughable, passions must be
driven out of our way of life. All speech flows from the mind and character, so ridiculous
words cannot be uttered unless they come from a ridiculous character. The saying “There is
no good tree that bears rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that bears good fruit” fits
here too, for speech is the fruit of the mind. So if buffoons are to be banished from our
community, we must be far from allowing ourselves to play the buffoon. It is out of place
to be found imitating what we are forbidden to listen to. It is much more out of place to
work at becoming ridiculous oneself, that is, abusive and laughable. If we would not put
up with being dressed in a ridiculous way, as some are seen in processions, how could we
reasonably tolerate the inner man being shaped into something still more ridiculous?

5b And if we would not willingly twist our faces into something more ridiculous, how could
we deliberately try to be, and to look, ridiculous in our speech, mocking the most
precious of all human possessions, the word? To practice this is mere buffoonery, since
talk that is merely comic is not worth hearing. By its very words it trains us toward
shameful deeds. We should be witty and charming, but not clowns. Even laughter itself must
be kept under control. When it comes out in the right way, it shows good order; when it
goes the wrong way, it reveals a lack of self-control. In short, we must not remove from
people whatever is natural to them, but set a fitting measure and a proper time for it.
Man is a creature that can laugh, but that does not mean we should laugh at everything,
just as a horse, which can neigh, does not neigh at everything. As reasoning creatures, we
should keep ourselves in good balance. We should ease the strictness and over-tension of
our earnestness in tune, not let it go slack out of tune.

5c The proper relaxing of the face in harmony, as of an instrument, is called a smile.
This is the laughter of self-controlled people (the cheerfulness is, so to speak,
reflected in the face). But when the face goes slack out of tune, it is called, in women,
a giggle, which is the laughter of a prostitute. In men it is called a guffaw, which is
the laughter of a suitor and of an insolent man. “A fool raises his voice when he laughs,”
says the Scripture, “but a shrewd man will hardly smile quietly.” Here he uses “shrewd” to
mean sensible, the opposite of the fool. But we must not on the other hand be sullen; we
should be thoughtful. I quite approve of the man who was seen “smiling with a grim face,”
for then his laughter “would be less open to ridicule.” Even the smile needs to be
trained. If something is shameful, we should be seen to blush rather than smile, so that
we do not seem to share in the pleasure out of fellow-feeling. If something is sad, it is
fitting to look downcast rather than seem to enjoy it. The one is a sign of human
reasoning; the other suggests a reputation for cruelty.

5d We should not laugh all the time, for that is without measure. We should not laugh in
the presence of older people or others who deserve respect, unless they themselves make a
pleasant joke to cheer us. We should not laugh at just anyone, or in every place, or with
everyone, or about everything. Laughter is especially a slippery slope into slander for
young people and women. Looking dignified, even from a distance, drives off those who
would tempt us. Dignity alone, just by its appearance, can beat back the assaults of
licentiousness. As for the senseless, one might say all of them, wine “bids them laugh
softly and dance,” turning their effeminate character toward softness. And we should
notice how, from this, loose freedom of speech increases disorder into foul talk: “and he
let slip a word that had better been left unsaid.” Indeed, it happens that in wine the
characters of the deceitful are most clearly seen, stripped of their pretense by the
shameless frankness of drunkenness. Because of it reason, heavy-headed with drink, is put
to sleep within the soul itself, and the unruly passions are roused and overpower the
weakness of reasoning.

On Filthy Speaking.

6a On Filthy Speaking. We must keep entirely away from filthy talk ourselves, and we must
shut the mouths of those who use it. We can do this with a sharper look, by turning the
face away, by what is called a sneer, and often also with a rather harsh word. “For what
comes out of the mouth,” he says, “defiles a man.” It shows him to be common, pagan,
uneducated and licentious, not a person of his own mind, well-ordered and self-controlled.
As for hearing and seeing shameful things, the divine Instructor acts like the trainers of
boys who wrestle. To keep their ears from being injured, he puts self-controlled words
around us like ear-guards, so that the blow of fornication cannot reach far enough to
break the soul. And he directs our eyes to the sight of what is good, saying that it is
better to slip with the feet than with the eyes.

6b The apostle drives off this filthy speaking when he says, “Let no rotten word come out
of your mouth, but only what is good.” And again: “As is fitting for saints, let
shamefulness not be named among you, nor foolish talk, nor coarse joking, which are not
fitting, but rather thanksgiving.” If the person who calls his brother a fool is liable to
judgment, what shall we say of the one who talks foolishly? About this too it is written:
“Whoever speaks an idle word will give account of it to the Lord on the day of judgment.”
And again He says, “By your word you will be justified, and by your word you will be
condemned.” What, then, are the ear-guards that save us? And what is the training for eyes
that slip? They are time spent with the righteous. Such company takes hold of the ears
beforehand and blocks them against those who want to draw us away from the truth.

6c “Bad company corrupts good character,” says the poet. The apostle puts it more nobly:
“Be those who hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” For the one who lives among
the holy will be made holy. We must therefore keep away completely from shameful things
heard, said or seen. Much more must we keep clear of shameful deeds. These include
displaying or uncovering parts of the body that should not be shown, and gazing at the
more private parts. The modest son could not bear to look at the righteous man’s
nakedness, which was shameful. Self-control covered what drunkenness had uncovered, the
glaring fault of ignorance. We must be no less pure in the words we utter, and the ears of
those who believe in Christ must be closed to such words. For this reason, it seems to me,
the Instructor does not allow us even to say anything indecent. He attacks licentiousness
from far off.

6d For He is always skilled at cutting out the roots of sins. He turns “You shall not
commit adultery” into “You shall not desire,” since adultery is the fruit of desire, the
evil root. In the same way here, the Instructor condemns the careless use of words,
cutting off the careless mixing with licentiousness. Disorder in words builds the habit of
disorder in deeds, and practising self-control in speech is training to resist lust. We
have explained in a deeper discussion that the label “truly shameful” does not belong to
the names (the unusual names, not used in everyday speech) for the organs of intercourse,
nor to those organs, nor to the union of marriage. Knee and shin are not shameful members,
nor are their names, nor what they do. The private parts are also members of the human
body, and they are counted worthy of reverence, not shame. What is shameful is their
unlawful use, and that is why it deserves disgrace, reproach and punishment. For the only
thing that is truly shameful is vice and what is done through it.

6e By the same reasoning, “shameful speaking” is properly the name for talk about the
deeds of vice, such as discussing adultery or the love of boys and the like. Idle, foolish
chatter must also be silenced. “For in much talking,” it says, “you will not escape sin.”
So the lazy tongue will pay a penalty. “There is one who is found wise by keeping silent,
and one who is hated for his many words.” The chatterer is already sick of himself: “For
the one who multiplies words makes his own soul loathe him.”

Directions for Those Who Live Together.

7a What those who live together in a refined way must guard against. Let mockery stay far
from us, for it starts insult, and from insult come quarrels, fights and hatreds, which
swell up. We said that insult is the servant of drunkenness. A person is judged not only
by his deeds but also by his words. “At a banquet,” it says, “do not rebuke your
neighbour, and do not speak a word of reproach to him.” For even if we are told above all
to keep company with the saints, mocking a holy person is a sin. “From the mouth of
fools,” Scripture says, “comes a rod of insult.” By “rod” it means the support of insult,
the thing on which insult leans and rests. So I admire the apostle, who here too urges us
not to let slip coarse jokes or unfitting words. For if gatherings at feasts are held out
of love, and the aim of a banquet is friendly kindness toward those who are together, and
eating and drinking only go along with love, how should we not behave reasonably?

7b We must not be puzzling one another with riddles, either, for the sake of love. If we
gather to deepen our goodwill toward one another, how can we stir up hatred by mocking? It
is better to keep silent than to argue back, adding sin to ignorance. “Blessed,” truly,
“is the man who has not slipped with his mouth and has not been pierced with grief for
sin.” That is, he has either repented of the sin he committed by speaking, or he has
spoken in such a way as to grieve no one. In general, then, young men and young women
should for the most part keep away from such feasts, so that they do not stumble where
they should not. Unaccustomed things heard and indecent things seen stir up the mind while
their faith is still tossed by waves. The instability of their age also helps push them
toward desire, to which they are already inclined. Sometimes, too, they cause others to
stumble, by showing off the dangers of their youthful beauty.

7c Wisdom, it seems, gives good instruction: “Do not sit at all with a married woman, and
do not recline with her on your elbow.” That is, do not dine with her often or eat with
her. So the text goes on: “And do not argue with her over wine, lest your heart turn aside
toward her, and in your blood you slide into destruction.” For the freedom that comes with
wine is treacherous, and it can lead to a fall. He says “married” because the danger is
greater for the man who tries to break the bond of a marriage. But if some necessity
arises that requires women to be present, let them be well covered, outwardly with
clothing and inwardly with modesty. As for women who are not married, it is the worst
scandal for them to be present at a banquet of men, especially men who have been drinking.
The men, for their part, should keep their eyes fixed on the couch, lean steadily on their
elbows without moving, and be present with their ears alone. If they sit, they must not
cross their legs, or lay one thigh over the other, or prop the chin on the hand. It is
ill-bred not to hold oneself up, and in a young man it is a fault to be blamed.

7d Constantly shifting about and changing position is also a sign of lightness. It belongs
to the self-controlled man, right from the start, to choose the smaller portion and the
slower pace in eating and drinking, not the more hasty, both at the beginning and in the
pauses between courses. He also stops early and is not attached to the food. “Eat,” it
says, “what is set before you, as a man should. Be the first to stop, for the sake of good
manners. If you are seated among many, do not reach out your hand before them.” So we must
never leap ahead because greed persuades us. Nor should we strain to stretch the meal out
for a long time, since by lagging behind we confess our lack of self-control. Nor should
we be seen in the middle of the meal clinging to the food like wild animals, or taking a
large helping of savory dishes. For man is by nature not a relish-eater but a grain-eater.
It is also fitting for a self-controlled man to rise before the crowd and quietly slip
away from the banquet. “For at the time for getting up,” it says, “do not be last; hurry
off home.” The Twelve called together the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not
right for us to leave the word of God and serve tables.” If they guarded against this,
much more did they flee gluttony.

7e These same apostles, writing “to the brothers in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia,” said:
“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these
necessary things: to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things
strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do
well.” We must guard against drunken excess just as we guard against hemlock, for both
drag us down to death. “We must also keep away from extreme laughter and from excessive
tears.” Often drunken men laugh loudly for a long time, and then, I do not know how, are
led by some drunken impulse into tears. Both effeminate behavior and insolence are out of
harmony with the Word. Older men, looking on the young as their children, will very
seldom, but perhaps sometimes, play with them, joking in a way that will train them in
good behavior.

7f For example, to a shy and silent young man one may say playfully something like this:
“This son of mine—I mean the one who says nothing—never stops talking.” A joke like this
deepens the young man’s modesty. In a playful way it brings out the good qualities he has
by accusing him of the bad ones he does not have. It is a teacher’s device, confirming
what is present by what is not. The same kind of judgment lies behind the saying that a
water-drinker, a sober man, is behaving drunkenly and is drunk. But if there are people
who love to mock, we must keep silent and pass their idle words along, as we pass on the
full cups. Such sport is risky. “The mouth of the reckless is near to ruin.” “You shall
not accept an empty report, nor agree to join an unjust man as an unjust witness,” whether
in slanders, in abusive speech, or even in malicious talk.

7g I think I should also set a limit on the voice of self-controlled people, at least
those who are permitted to speak, namely the one who is answering in conversation. Silence
is the virtue of women and the safe honor of the young, but good speech belongs to a
tested age. “Speak, elder, at a banquet, for it becomes you. But speak without hindrance
and with exact knowledge.” “Young man,” wisdom allows you also: “Speak, if you must. When
you have barely been asked twice, sum up your words briefly.” Both speakers should keep
their voices in due proportion. A loud delivery is utterly mad, and speaking so that those
nearby cannot hear is the mark of a senseless person, since they will not hear him. The
first is a sign of low breeding, the second of arrogance. Let there also be no
quarrelsomeness, no striving for an empty victory in words, since our goal is freedom from
disturbance, and this is what “Peace to you” means. “Before you have heard, do not answer
a word.” A soft, broken voice belongs to an effeminate man, but a measured voice belongs
to the self-controlled man, who keeps his speech in check in loudness, length, speed and
amount.

7h We must never talk at great length, or too much, or idly, nor must we speak in a
hurried, tumbling rush. The voice itself, so to speak, must be given its due of justice,
and those who shout at the wrong moments and bawl must be silenced. This is why the self-
controlled Odysseus beat Thersites with blows. He was the only one who was punished,
because he was a man of measureless words, who knew in his mind many words that were
disorderly, uttered idly and not in good order. “A talkative man is dreadful in his own
destruction.” With babblers it is like old shoes: everything else is worn out by
wickedness, and only the tongue is left over, to do harm. So Wisdom gives the most
practical advice for life: “Do not chatter in the company of elders.” She cuts off foolish
talk at the top and begins from God, laying down the rule of moderation like this: “Do not
repeat your words in your prayer.” Clicking noises, whistles, and snapping of the fingers,
which people use to call their servants, are signals without words, and rational people
should avoid them. We should also give up constant spitting and violent throat-clearing.

7i Do not blow your nose at the drinking either. We must have some regard for our fellow
guests, so that they do not turn away in nausea from this kind of disorderly conduct,
which accuses a person of lack of self-control. The manger and the dung-heap are not in
the same place for oxen and donkeys. Yet many people blow their nose and spit while they
are dining in the same place. If someone happens to sneeze, or likewise belch, he must not
make a noise that rings in the ears of those nearby and testifies to his own lack of
training. The belch must be let pass quietly with the breath as it goes out, the mouth
shaped decently, not stretched and gaping like a tragic mask. The disturbance of a sneeze
should be removed by checking the breathing gently. In this way, by managing the passage
of the breath, we can quietly put out the sudden threat of the wind in the most seemly
manner, and even try to conceal anything superfluous that the air may force out with it.

7j To want to add to such noises instead of reducing them is a sign of arrogance and
disorder. People who pick at their teeth until their gums bleed are unpleasant to
themselves and offensive to their neighbors. Tickling the ears and provoking sneezes are
also pig-like itches, which practice unrestrained fornication. We must also avoid shameful
sights and shameful talk about them. Let the gaze be steady, the turning of the neck and
the movement of the body composed, and the gestures of the hands in conversation
restrained. In short, the Christian belongs to stillness, quietness, calm and peace.

On the Use of Ointments and Crowns.

8a Question: should we use perfumed oils and wreaths? We have no need to use wreaths and
perfumed oils. They run aground on pleasures and laziness, especially when night is near.
I know that the woman brought an “alabaster jar of ointment” to the holy supper, anointed
the Lord’s feet, and sang his praise. I also know that the ancient kings of the Hebrews
were crowned with gold and precious stones. But the woman had not yet shared in the Word
(for she was still a sinner). She honored the Master with the thing she thought finest
among her possessions, the ointment. With the adornment of her body, her own hair, she
wiped away the excess ointment, and she poured out on the Lord tears of repentance. For
this reason “her sins have been forgiven.” This can also be a symbol of the Lord’s
teaching and his suffering. Feet anointed with fragrant ointment hint at divine teaching
traveling with good repute to the ends of the earth: “Their voice has gone out to the ends
of the earth.” And if I do not seem tiresome, the Lord’s perfumed feet are the apostles.
In keeping with prophecy, they received a share of the Holy Spirit, the fragrance of the
anointing.

8b So the apostles, who went around the whole world and proclaimed the gospel, are
allegorically called the Lord’s feet. The Spirit foretells this about them through the
psalmist: “Let us worship at the place where his feet stood.” That is, let us worship
where his feet, the apostles, arrived, since by their preaching he came to the ends of the
earth. The tears are repentance. The loosened hair announced release from love of
adornment. It also announced the affliction, borne with endurance, that goes with
preaching for the Lord’s sake, since the old vainglory has been loosed for the sake of the
new faith. But it also reveals the Lord’s passion, for those who understand it mystically
in this way. The oil is the Lord himself, from whom comes the mercy shown to us. The
ointment, which is oil that has been tampered with, is Judas the betrayer. Through him the
Lord was anointed on the feet as he was departing from his life in the world, for the dead
are anointed with perfume. We are the tears: sinners who have repented, who have believed
in him, and whose sins he has forgiven. The loosened hair is Jerusalem, deserted and in
mourning, for whose sake the prophets’ laments were made.

8c The Lord himself teaches us that Judas is the one who is tampered with, when he says,
“Whoever dips with me in the dish, this one will betray me.” Do you see the deceitful
table companion? This same Judas betrayed the Teacher with a kiss. He became a hypocrite
with a deceitful kiss, imitating another hypocrite of old, and exposing that people of
whom it was said: “This people love me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
So it is not unlikely that Judas himself stands for both kinds of oil. As a disciple who
had been shown mercy, he is oil. As a betrayer, he is deceitful, drugged oil. This, then,
is what the perfumed feet were prophesying: the betrayal by Judas, as the Lord went on
toward his passion. And the Savior himself, when he washed the disciples’ feet and sent
them out to good works, hinted at their journey for the benefit of the nations. By his own
power he had made that journey ready beforehand, fair and clean.

8d In these events the ointment gave off its fragrance, and the work of that fragrance,
which reaches everyone, has been made known. For the Lord’s passion has filled us with
fragrance, but the Hebrews with sin. The apostle showed this most clearly when he said:
“Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and makes known through us the
fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are the Lord’s fragrance to God,
among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some it is a
fragrance from death to death, and to others a fragrance from life to life.” As for the
kings of the Jews, they wore a composite, varied crown of gold and precious stones. They
were the “anointed ones” (the christs), and they carried Christ symbolically on their
heads without knowing it. They were adorned with the head of the Lord.

8e A precious stone, a pearl or an emerald, is a hidden picture of the Word himself. Gold,
in turn, is the incorruptible Word, who does not admit the rust (or poison) of decay. When
he was born, the Magi brought him gold as a symbol of kingship. This crown, made in the
likeness of the Lord, stays immortal, for it does not wither like a flower. I also know
what Aristippus the Cyrenian said. Aristippus lived a soft and luxurious life. He put a
sophistical argument like this: “A horse anointed with perfume is not harmed in its
excellence as a horse, nor is a dog perfumed in its excellence as a dog. So neither is a
man.” That was how he drew his conclusion. But the horse and the dog take no notice of the
perfume. Those whose sense of smell is more rational are more to be blamed for enjoying it
when they put on girlish scents. These perfumes come in endless varieties: the Brenthian,
the Metallian, the Royal, the Plangonian, and the Egyptian Psagdas.

8f Simonides is not ashamed to say in his iambic verses: “I was anointed with perfumes and
incense and bacchar, for a merchant happened to be there.” People also make perfume from
lilies and from henna. Nard is highly valued among them, as are ointment of roses and the
others that women still use: liquid and dry perfumes, scented powders, and perfumes burned
as incense. Every day they invent some new way to match their insatiable desire with an
insatiable supply of fragrance. So they reek of a great lack of taste. These women also
perfume their clothes, bedding and houses with incense and sprinkle them with scent.
Luxury all but forces even their chamber pots to smell of perfume. Some people are
indignant at this enthusiasm. They think perfumes make the men’s quarters effeminate, and
they seem to me right to be so hostile to them. They even drive the makers of perfume, the
perfumers, out of well-governed cities, and the dyers of flower-colored wools as well. For
deceitful garments and ointments have no right to enter the city of truth.

8g It is especially fitting that the men among us should smell not of perfumes but of
nobility and goodness. Let the woman breathe out Christ, the royal ointment, and not
scented powders and perfumes. Let her always be anointed with the heavenly oil of self-
control, taking delight in the holy ointment, the Spirit. Christ prepares this for people
who know him: an ointment of fragrance, made up from heavenly spices. The Lord himself is
anointed with this ointment, as David shows: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Myrrh, stacte and cassia come from your
garments.” But let us not, without noticing it, come to loathe perfumes the way vultures
do, or beetles (they say beetles die when anointed with rose perfume). Women should be
permitted a few of these perfumes, those that do not overwhelm their husbands. For
excessive anointing with perfume smells of a funeral, not of life together.

8h Yet oil itself is hostile to bees and to insects. Among people, it has helped some and
stirred others to fight. Those who were cowardly before, once anointed with it, it turns
in the stadiums into thorough fighters in the contest. But perfume is a soft oil. Do you
not think it can make noble character effeminate? Certainly. Just as we have shut out
luxury from taste, so we also banish the pursuit of pleasure in what we see and smell.
Otherwise we may unknowingly give a way back into the soul, through the senses (like
unguarded doors), to the self-indulgence we drove out. Suppose they say that the Lord, the
great High Priest, offers the incense of fragrance to God. Let them not take this to mean
a sacrifice and the fragrance of burning incense. Let them accept instead that the Lord
offers on the altar what love has made acceptable, the spiritual fragrance.

8i Oil by itself is enough to make the skin glossy, to relax the sinews, and to check any
heavy smell of the body. For that purpose we may well need oil. But the cultivation of
fragrance is a bait of idle self-indulgence, drawing a person from far off into greedy
desire. The undisciplined man is led on from every side: by food, by bedding, by company,
by his eyes, his ears and his jaws, and by his nostrils too. As oxen are pulled by rings
and ropes, so the undisciplined man is dragged about by incense, perfumes and the scents
of garlands. We give no place to any pleasure that is tied to no useful service in life.
So let us make a distinction here too, and choose what is useful. 8j There are some
fragrances that do not dull the head or stir up desire. They do not smell of sexual
embrace or loose company. Used with moderation they are healthy, feeding the brain when it
is in poor condition and strengthening the stomach. We should not throw out their use
altogether. Ointment should be used like a medicine or a remedy: to revive failing
strength, and against catarrh, chills and low spirits. The comic poet says somewhere: “He
anoints his nostrils with perfumes; it is a very great part of health to give the brain
good smells.” The rubbing of the feet with the oil of warming or cooling ointments is also
practised for the sake of benefit. In those who are congested, it draws the fluid from the
head and lets it drain down to the less important parts of the body.

8k But pleasure that has no usefulness joined to it is a mark of a courtesan’s character
and a drug that provokes desire. There is a real difference between bathing oneself in
perfume and being anointed with ointment. The first is womanish; the second is sometimes
even profitable. The philosopher Aristippus, for example, once anointed himself with
ointment and said that the wretched effeminate men deserved to perish miserably for
bringing the benefit of ointment into disrepute. “Honour the physician for the use you
have of him,” says the Scripture, “for the Most High created him, and healing comes from
the Lord.” Then it goes on: “And the perfumer will make a mixture.” Clearly, ointments are
given for benefit and not for self-indulgence. We must never take pains over the
provocative side of ointments, but choose what is helpful. After all, God granted people
the making of oil to help them in their labours.

8l Foolish women dye their grey hairs and perfume their locks, yet they go grey sooner,
because spices are drying. This is why those who use perfume look more unkempt, and
dryness makes the hair greyer. (Whether grey hair is a withering of the hair or a lack of
heat, the dryness drinks up the moist nourishment proper to the hair and turns it grey.)
How can people who run from grey hair reasonably go on loving perfumes, when perfumes
cause it? Just as dogs track wild animals by the scent, so the self-controlled hunt down
the licentious by their overdone perfume. The use of garlands is much the same, fit for
revelry and drunkenness: “Away! Do not put a garland around my head.” In spring it is good
to spend time in dewy, soft meadows, green with flowers of every colour, and to feed, like
the bees, on their natural, pure fragrance. But to weave a garland from an untouched
meadow and wear it about at home is not for people of self-control. It is not fitting for
revelling hair to be covered with rosebuds, violets, lilies or other such flowers, as
though dressing oneself in the greenery.

8m A garland set around the head chills the hair in any case, both by its moisture and by
its coldness. For this reason physicians, explaining by natural science that the brain is
cold, think it right to anoint the chest and the tips of the nostrils with ointment. Then
the warm vapour, passing gently upward, can strongly warm the chill. So a man is far from
right to cool the head with flowers when the sinewy part wants to be warmed. Besides,
those who wear garlands lose the delight of the blossoms. People who bind a garland above
their eyes do not enjoy the sight, and those who drive the flowers up above their
breathing do not enjoy the fragrance. Fragrance naturally rises and evaporates upward
above the head, so the breath is left without enjoyment, since the fragrance is snatched
away. A flower, like any beauty, gives pleasure when it is looked at, and in enjoying
beautiful things through the eye we should glorify the Creator.

8n Wearing them is harmful, and the pleasure soon passes, punished by regret. Their short
life is quickly exposed, for both of them fade, the flower and the beauty. And of those
who touch them, the one cools them and the other sets them on fire. In a word, enjoying
them by any means other than the eye is an outrage, not a delight. We should take our
delight as in a paradise, with self-control, since we truly follow the Scripture. We
should think of a woman’s crown as her husband, and of a husband’s crown as his marriage.
The flowers of the marriage are the children of both, which the divine farmer gathers from
the meadows of the flesh. “The crown of old men is their children’s children, and the
glory of children is their fathers,” it says. For us the glory is the Father of all, and
the crown of the whole church is Christ.

8o Flowers, like roots and herbs, have their own properties. Some are beneficial, some
harmful, and some risky. Ivy, for example, is cooling. The walnut tree gives off a
drugging vapor, as its name, when traced to its origin, shows. The narcissus is a flower
with a heavy scent, and its name exposes it, since it produces numbness in the nerves. The
scents of roses and violets, which are mildly cool, relieve and check heaviness of the
head. But we are not permitted to join others in drinking at all, and not even to get
drunk on wine. Saffron and the cyprus flower lead to painless sleep. Many flowers, though,
warm the brain, which is naturally cold, by their scents, thinning out the excess matter
in the head. 8p They say the rose also gets its name from this, because it sends out a
great stream of fragrance, and so it fades quickly. But the ancient Greeks did not yet use
crowns at all. Neither the suitors nor the luxury-loving Phaeacians wore them. At the
games, first came the giving of the prizes, second the circling round to be acclaimed,
third the showering of leaves, and last the crown, after Greece, once the Persian wars
were over, had grown in luxury. Those trained by the Word, then, are kept from crowns. It
is not that they think this would bind the Word, who has his seat in the brain, and not
that the crown might be a symbol of revelry and arrogance. It is because crowns are named
after the idols. Sophocles, for example, called the narcissus “the ancient garland of the
great gods,” meaning the gods of the underworld. Sappho crowns the Muses with the rose,
for “you have no share in the roses of Pieria.” They say that Hera delights in the lily
and Artemis in the myrtle.

8q Even if flowers were made above all for the sake of man, foolish people have taken them
and used them wrongly. They have not used them in thankful use of their own, but in the
ungrateful service of demons. So we must abstain from them “for conscience’ sake.” The
crown is a symbol of carefree ease, free from trouble. For this reason people crown the
dead, and for the same reason the idols, bearing witness by the act itself that the idols
are dead. Revelers do not celebrate their rites without crowns, and once they have put on
the flowers, they are inflamed for the ceremony. We must have no fellowship at all with
demons. Nor should we crown the living image of God, as dead idols are crowned. The fair
crown of what does not fade is laid up for the one who has lived well. The earth has no
room to bear this flower. Heaven alone knows how to bring it to fruit.

8r Besides, it is senseless for us who have heard that the Lord was crowned with thorns to
put on flowers, making light of the Lord’s solemn suffering. The Lord’s crown spoke
prophetically in riddle of us, who were once fruitless, and who are placed around him
through the church, of which he is the head. It is also a figure of faith: of life,
because of the substance of the wood; of joy, because of the name of a crown; and of
danger, because of the thorn. For it is not possible to approach the Word without blood.
But this woven crown of flowers fades. The braid of crookedness comes undone, and the
flower withers. For the glory of those who have not believed in the Lord fades. They
crowned Jesus when he was lifted up, bearing witness to their own ignorance. The hard-
hearted do not understand that this very thing, which they call an insult to the Lord, was
a prophecy, wisely framed.

8s “The people who went astray did not know the Lord. They are not circumcised in their
reasoning, and their darkness has not been enlightened. They did not see God. They denied
the Lord, and they have lost the name of Israel. They persecuted God and hoped to insult
the Word. The one they crucified as a criminal, they crowned as a king. For this reason
they will come to know, as Lord and righteous, the loving God in the man they did not
believe in. They provoked him to show himself as Lord, and by that very act they bore
witness to him when he was lifted up. They fastened the diadem of righteousness on the one
exalted above every name, by means of the ever-flowering thorn. To those who plot against
him, this diadem is an enemy and holds them back. To those who gather together in the
church, it is a friend and fences them round. This crown is the flower of those who have
believed in the glorified One, but it draws blood from the unbelieving and punishes them.”

8t Yes, and the crown is also a symbol of the Lord’s triumph. On his head, the ruling part
of his body, he bore all our evils, by which we were being pricked. By his own suffering
he rescued us from stumbling-blocks, sins and thorns of that kind. He brought the devil to
nothing, and so he rightly said in triumph, “Death, where is your sting?” And we gather
grapes from thorns and figs from brambles, while those toward whom he stretched out his
hands, a disobedient and fruitless people, are torn into wounds. I can tell you another
hidden meaning here as well. When the almighty Lord of all began to give the law through
the Word, he wanted his power to be made plain to Moses. A vision of God’s form appeared
to him, light shaped upon a burning bush. (The bush is a thorny plant.) When the Word had
finished giving the law and his visit among men, the Lord was again crowned with thorn, in
a hidden sense. He was going from here to the place from which he had come down, and he
recapitulated the beginning of his old descent. The Word first seen in the bush, and
afterward taken up through the thorn, would show that everything is the work of one power.
He is one, from the one Father, who is the beginning and end of the age.

8u But I have strayed from the instructor’s manner by bringing in the style of a teacher,
so I now return to the subject before us. We have shown that the delight of flowers, and
the benefit of perfumes and incense, are not to be rejected. They serve as a medicine for
healing, and sometimes also for moderate relaxation. Some may ask, “What then is the use
of flowers to those who do not wear them?” Let them know that perfumed oils are made from
flowers, and that these have many uses. Susinon oil is made from lilies and is warming,
opening, drawing, moistening, cleansing, fine in texture, stimulating to the bile and
softening. Narcissus oil, made from the narcissus, helps just as much as the Susinon.
Myrtle oil, made from myrtle and myrtle berries, is astringent and holds back discharges
from the body. The oil from roses is cooling. 8v In general, these things too were made
for our good use. Scripture says, “Listen to me, and blossom like a rose planted by
streams of water. Give off a sweet smell like frankincense, and bless the Lord for his
works.” There would be much to say on this subject, since we hold that flowers and spices
were made for necessary benefits, not for the excesses of luxury. If some allowance must
be made, it is enough for people to enjoy the scent of flowers. Let them not wear them as
crowns. For the Father cares greatly for man, and gives his own craftsmanship to him
alone. So Scripture says, “Water and fire and iron and milk, fine wheat flour and honey,
the blood of the grape and oil and clothing: all these are for good to the godly.”

On Sleep.

9a How We Should Approach Sleep Next we must say how to go to sleep, keeping in mind the
rules of self-control. After the meal we bless God for sharing these enjoyments with us
and for the day that has run its course. Then our talk should turn to sleep, and we should
dismiss costly bedding: rugs sprinkled with gold, smooth coverlets embroidered in gold,
purple robes, expensive shaggy cloaks, fancy purple blankets, thick woolen covers laid on
top, and beds “softer than sleep.” Besides the shame of such self-indulgence, sleeping in
downy feathers is harmful. The bodies of those who lie in them sink as into a chasm
because the bedding is so soft. † It is not suitable for those who turn over in it,
because the bed rises like a hill on either side of the body. It allows food to be
digested, but it overheats it all the more, and that ruins the nourishment.

9b Those who can roll over on level beds have, in this, a kind of natural exercise for
sleep. They digest their food more easily and make themselves readier for emergencies.
Furthermore, silver-footed couches condemn their owners as very showy. And ivory on little
beds, “from a body that has left its soul, is not pure.” For holy people it is a lazy
contrivance for rest. So we should not be eager about such things. Those who own them are
not forbidden to use them, but fussing over them is forbidden, for happiness does not lie
in them. On the other hand, it is Cynic vainglory to make a practice of sleeping like
Diomedes, “and under him was spread the hide of an ox of the fields,” unless circumstances
force it. Odysseus set right the lame leg of his wedding bed with a stone. Such plain
living and doing for oneself was practiced not only by ordinary people but also by the
leaders of the ancient Greeks.

9c But why do I speak of these? Jacob slept on the ground with a stone for his pillow, and
then he was counted worthy to see the sight that is beyond man. For us, following reason,
the bed should be plain and simple, with a moderate comfort: in summer something to cover
us, in cold weather something to keep us warm. The bedstead should not be fussy, and its
legs should be smooth. Elaborate carvings sometimes become highways for crawling
creatures, which wind around the cuts of the craftsman’s work and do not slip off. Above
all, the softness of the bedding should be moderate and manly. Sleep should not be a total
loosening of the body, but a relaxing of it. So I say we should take sleep not for
laziness, but as a rest from our work. 9d So we should doze off in such a way that we wake
easily. For he says, “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning. Be like people
waiting for their master to return from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks they
may open to him at once. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he
comes.” A sleeping man is of no more use than a dead one. So we should often rise from bed
in the night and bless God. Blessed are those who stay awake for him, making themselves
like the angels, whom we call “watchers.” “A man asleep is worth nothing, no more than one
who is not alive.” But the one who has the light is awake, and the darkness does not
overtake him, nor does sleep, since there is no darkness. So the enlightened person is
awake toward God, and such a person lives: “What came to be in him was life.” “Blessed is
the man,” says Wisdom, “who will listen to me, and the man who keeps my ways, watching
daily at my doors, guarding the posts of my entrances.” “So let us not sleep like the
rest,” says the Scripture, “but let us stay awake and be sober.

9e For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.” That
is, in the darkness of ignorance. “But let us, who belong to the day, be sober. For you
are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to night or to darkness.” “But
whoever among us is most of all a guardian of true life and of genuine understanding stays
awake as long as possible. He keeps only as much sleep as is useful for his health, and
that is not much, once it has become a good habit.” Training in self-discipline, born of
hard work, produces a lasting wakefulness. So let our food not weigh us down but lighten
us, so that sleep harms us as little as possible. Weighed-down food is like the weights
hung on swimmers. Instead, let sobriety lift us up, as if from the deep below, to the
surface of wakefulness.

9f The pull of sleep is like death. Through lack of awareness it carries us down into
insensibility, and it cuts off the light by the closing of the eyelids. So let us, who are
sons of the true light, not shut this light outside. Let us turn it inward on ourselves
and light up the eyes of the hidden man. Let us look upon the truth itself and share in
its streams, so that true dreams may be clearly and wisely revealed to us. But the
belching of those heavy with wine, the rattling breath of those stuffed with food, the
snoring wrapped up in bedclothes, and the rumbling of cramped stomachs bury the seeing eye
of the soul, because the mind is filled with countless fantasies. The cause is excess
food, which drags the reasoning part down into insensibility. “For much sleep brings no
benefit to our bodies or our souls, and even though it is natural, it is not altogether
suited to the pursuit of truth.” The righteous Lot (I leave aside for now the
interpretation of the economy of regeneration) would not have been led into that unlawful
union if he had not been made drunk by his daughters and stupefied by sleep.

9g If, then, we cut away the causes of heavy drowsiness, we shall sleep more soberly. For
those who have the wakeful Word living in them “ought not to sleep the whole night
through.” We should rise in the night, especially when the days are growing short. One
should pursue learning, another begin his own craft, and the women take up their wool-
working. All of us, so to speak, should fight against sleep, accustoming ourselves to it
gently and by degrees, so that through wakefulness we may gain more time for living. (For
sleep, like a tax collector, takes half of our lifetime.) Much less should we allow sleep
in the daytime to those who cut off most of the night for staying awake. Restlessness,
drowsy nodding, stretching and yawning are signs of discontent in an unsteady soul. Above
all we must know this: it is not the soul that needs sleep, for the soul is always in
motion. It is the body that is eased and let go by rest, while the soul no longer works
through the body but thinks by itself. So true dreams, for anyone who reasons rightly, are
the thoughts of a sober soul. At that time it is undistracted by the body’s sympathies and
gives itself the best counsel. For the soul, to be still is destruction. Therefore, by
thinking always of God and keeping constant company with him, the soul enrolls wakefulness
in the body, makes the person equal to the angels in grace, and takes hold of the eternity
of life from the practice of staying awake.

-Quaenam de Procreatione Liberorum Tractanda Sint.

10a What should be said about the begetting of children. The time for intercourse is left
for married people alone to consider. For the married, the purpose is the begetting of
children, and the end is good children. It is like the farmer: the reason he scatters seed
is to provide food, and the end of his farming is gathering in the crops. But far better
is the farmer who sows a living field. The one farms because he wants food for the season.
The other farms because he cares for the continuance of the whole race. The one plants for
himself, the other for God. For God said, “Multiply,” and we must obey. In this respect
man becomes an image of God, that a man works together with God in the birth of a man. Not
every soil is fit to receive seed. Even if every soil were, it would not be so for the
same farmer. Nor should anyone sow on rocks, or outrage the seed. The seed is the
substance that begins generation, and it has the principles of nature sown together within
it. To shame those natural principles senselessly, by sending them into unnatural
channels, is utterly godless.

10b See, then, how the all-wise Moses figuratively rejects fruitless sowing when he says,
“You shall not eat the hare or the hyena.” He does not want a man to share their nature or
to taste the same licentiousness, for these animals are driven to excess in mating. They
say the hare gains an extra opening each year, having as many openings as the years he has
lived. So the ban on eating hare shows, they say, a turning away from the love of boys.
The hyena, they say, changes in turn from male to female every year, and abstaining from
the hyena hints that one must not rush into adultery. I too agree that the all-wise Moses,
by this prohibition, hints that we must not be made like these animals. But I do not agree
with this way of explaining what he said symbolically. 10c Nature can never be forced into
change. What has once been formed in it may not be remade into its opposite by passion.
For passion is not nature. Passion tends to debase the stamp of creation, not to rearrange
it. Many birds are said to change both color and voice with the seasons. The blackbird,
for example, turns yellow from black and becomes a chatterer instead of a singer. The
nightingale likewise changes both its color and its song as the seasons turn. But they do
not change their nature itself, so as to become female from male by a change of form.
Instead, the new growth of feathers blossoms like fresh clothing, a kind of dye on the
plumage. A little later, at winter’s threat, it fades like a flower whose color withers.
The voice, worn down by the cold, withers in the same way. The surface of the body is
thickened by the surrounding air, and the passages in the neck are squeezed and thickened
and press upon the breath. The breath is badly confined and chokes, and so it gives out
its sound.

10d Then, once the breath is again made like the surrounding air and relaxes with the
spring, it is freed from its confinement. It travels through wide passages that until then
had been shut. The withered song no longer twitters faintly. It blossoms now, clear and
shrill, and the sound of the birds pours out more broadly. The song becomes the spring of
the birds’ voice. So we must never believe that the hyena changes its nature. The same
animal does not have both organs at once, male and female, as some have supposed. They
tell marvelous tales of hermaphrodites and invent a new third nature between female and
male, the androgyne. They are badly deceived, because they have not understood the
artistry of nature, the mother of all and maker of generation. The hyena is an extremely
lustful animal. Under its tail, before the passage for waste, there grows a fleshy
protrusion, similar in shape to the female organ. But this fleshy formation has no passage
leading to any useful end, that is, neither to a womb nor to the rectum. It has only a
large cavity, which receives empty lust when the passages occupied with bearing young are
turned away.

10e This same feature grows on both the male and the female hyena, because of their
excessive passive lust. The male also takes the passive part with other males. This is why
it is very rare to find a female hyena. Pregnancies are not frequent in this animal, since
unnatural sowing is so common among them, unchecked. For this reason, it seems to me,
Plato in the Phaedrus rejects pederasty and calls it a beastly thing. He says that lustful
men, handed over to pleasures, “take the bit between their teeth, mount in the manner of
four-footed animals, and try to beget children.” The godless, as the apostle says, “God
handed over to passions of dishonor. For their females exchanged natural use for what is
against nature. In the same way their males also left natural use and burned in their
desire for one another, males working shameful things with males and receiving in
themselves the repayment that was due for their error.” Yet nature has not allowed even
the most lustful animals to leap upon the passage of waste. Urine is separated off into
the bladder, and moistened food into the stomach. Tears go to the eye, blood to the veins,
wax to the ears, and mucus to the nostrils. The seat lies next to the end of the rectum,
and through it the waste is expelled.

10f Only in hyenas, then, has nature in her variety devised this extra organ for their
excessive mating. So it is hollow to a certain depth, to serve the itching parts, but
beyond that the cavity is blind, because it was not made for generation. From this it is
plain, and generally agreed, that we must refuse sex between males, barren sowing,
intercourse from behind, and unnatural unions of the androgynous kind. We are to follow
nature herself, who forbids them by the construction of the bodily parts. She made the
male virile not to receive seed but to send it forth. When Jeremiah says, that is, when
the Spirit says through him, “My house has become a hyena’s den,” he shows his loathing
for food taken from dead bodies. By this wise allegory he condemns idolatry. For the house
of the living God must truly be pure of idols. 10g Again, Moses forbids eating the hare.
The hare mates in every season. The male mounts the female while she sits, coming at her
from behind, for the hare is a rear-mounting animal. She conceives every month and
conceives again while already pregnant. She mates and gives birth, and right after giving
birth she is mated by whatever hare happens to come along, since she is not content with
one partner. She conceives again while still nursing, because her womb is divided in two.
The empty space of the womb is not the only thing that drives her to intercourse, for
everything empty longs to be filled. When hares are pregnant, the other half of the womb
is gripped by desire and is in heat. That is why they conceive again on top of a
pregnancy. So the prohibition in this riddle urged us to keep away from violent appetites
and from repeated acts of intercourse. It urged us to avoid relations with pregnant women,
males mounting one another, the corruption of boys, adultery and lust.

10h So the same Moses forbade these things openly, no longer in riddles, with uncovered
head, saying: “You shall not commit fornication, you shall not commit adultery, you shall
not corrupt boys.” We must keep the Word’s command with all our strength. We must never
break it in any way or make the commandments void. For the name of evil desire is “hubris”
(outrage). Plato called the horse of desire “outrageous,” having read the words “You have
become to me horses mad for women.” The punishment for such outrage will be shown to you
by the angels who came to Sodom. They burned up, together with the city itself, those who
wanted to violate them. By this clear example they sketched out fire as the fruit of lust.
For the misfortunes of the ancients, as we said before, were written down to warn us. They
were written so that we would not be caught in the same sins, but would guard against
falling into the same penalties.

10i We should regard boys as our sons, and look on other men’s wives as our own daughters.
It is a most masterful thing to rule over pleasures, to hold the belly in check, and to be
lord over what lies below the belly. The Stoics agree that reason does not allow even the
wise man to move his finger carelessly. How much more, then, must those who pursue wisdom
master the organ of intercourse! For this reason, I think, it is called the “aidoion”
(part of shame), because we must use this part of the body, above all others, with
modesty. Nature has allowed us what is fitting, useful and decent, both in food and in
lawful marriage. She has also allowed us to desire to have children. Those who chase after
excess go wrong against what is natural, and harm themselves through unlawful intercourse.
10j For it is right above all never to have sexual relations with young men as one does
with women. So the philosopher who learned from Moses says we must not “sow on rocks and
stones,” because what is sown there will never take root and receive its fertile nature.
And the Word, through Moses, commanded very plainly: “And you shall not lie with a male as
with a woman, for it is an abomination.” Besides this, the noble Plato took his advice
from the divine Scriptures and gave it as a law received from there. He said to keep away
from “every female field” except one’s own. The Scripture says: “And you shall not give
your bed of seed to your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her.” And Plato says: “The
seeds of concubines are unconsecrated and illegitimate.” Do not sow where you would not
want what is sown to grow. Do not touch anyone at all except your own wedded wife. It is
right to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh with her alone, for the sake of legitimate
offspring.

10k For these are the only things the Word counts as lawful. Since we share in the divine
creative power, we must not throw seed away, or abuse it, or sow it in ground that cannot
receive it. This same Moses forbids approaching even our wives when they are in their
monthly cleansing. It is not reasonable to defile the most fertile part of the seed, which
will soon be a human being, with the body’s waste. Nor is it reasonable to wash away the
seed of a well-formed offspring in the filthy flow and discharge of that matter, cut off
from the furrows of the womb. Nor has Moses presented any of the ancient Hebrews as having
intercourse with his pregnant wife. For mere pleasure, even when taken within marriage, is
unlawful, unjust and irrational. Moses, on the contrary, keeps husbands away from pregnant
women until they have given birth. In fact, the womb lies beneath the bladder and above
the intestine called the rectum. It extends its neck “between the shoulders” in the
bladder. The opening of the neck, which receives the seed, closes when the womb is full.
It is emptied again when it is cleansed by childbirth. Once it has laid down its fruit, it
then receives seed again.

10l It is not shameful for us to name the organs of conception, for the benefit of those
who hear. God was not ashamed to create them. So the womb, thirsting for children,
receives the seed. It refuses the blameworthy side of intercourse, and once the seed is
sown it shuts its mouth and bars wantonness completely. Its desires had until then been
stirred toward loving embraces. Now they turn inward and are busy with bearing a child,
and so they work together with the Creator. It is not right, then, to trouble nature while
it is already at work, by going on to excess and outrage. Outrage has many names and many
forms. When it turns aside into that part of disorder which concerns sexual pleasure, it
is called lust (lagneia). The name itself shows what it is: the common, vulgar, unclean
urge toward mating. When these appetites grow, a great crowd of diseases follows: love of
fine food, love of wine, love of women, and also profligacy and every kind of love of
pleasure. Desire is the tyrant over all of them.

10m Countless sister passions grow alongside these, and from them the undisciplined
character reaches its peak. Scripture says, “Whips and punishments are prepared for the
undisciplined, on the shoulders of fools.” It calls the strength of undiscipline, and its
stubborn endurance, “the shoulders of fools.” For this reason it says, “Remove from your
servants empty hopes, and turn away from me unseemly desires. Let the appetite of the
belly and sexual intercourse not overtake me.” So we must keep the great mischief of those
who plot against us far away. For not only into the knapsack of Crates, but into our city
too, “there sails no foolish parasite, no greedy fornicator exulting in his backside, no
deceitful harlot,” and no other such beast of pleasure. Let us then sow much dignity of
conduct in ourselves throughout our whole life. Whether one should marry at all, or keep
entirely clear of marriage (for this too is open to inquiry), I have explained in my work
On Continence.

10n But if the very question whether one should marry needed examination, how could anyone
be allowed to use intercourse without restraint, as if it were necessary every time, like
food? One can see that the nerves, like threads on a loom, are pulled apart and torn by
the strain of the union. It also spreads a mist over the senses and cuts down the body’s
strength. This is plain among animals without reason and among trained bodies. Athletes
who abstain overcome their opponents in contests. Animals are led away from mating,
dragged around, almost hauled along, completely drained of all strength and spring. The
sophist from Abdera called intercourse “a small epilepsy,” and thought it an incurable
disease. Do not faint spells and weakness follow, and are they not put down to the
greatness of what is lost? “For a human being grows out of a human being and is torn away
from him.” See how great the harm is.

10o A whole man is torn away through the loss that comes with intercourse. For Scripture
says, “This now is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh.” A man is emptied by the
seed to the full extent of what is seen in his body, because what leaves him is the
beginning of generation. The seething of the matter also stirs up the body and shakes its
harmony. How witty, then, was the man who was asked how he stood toward sexual pleasures.
He said, “Hush, man! I was most glad to escape them, as from a raging and savage master.”
But let marriage be approved and given its place. The Lord wants humanity to “multiply.”
He does not say, “Be licentious,” and he did not want people to give themselves up to
pleasures as if they had been made for mating. Let the Instructor put us to shame, crying
through Ezekiel, “Circumcise your fornication.”

10p Even the animals without reason have a fitting season for sowing. To come together for
any purpose other than the begetting of children is to outrage nature. We should take
nature as our teacher and observe the wise lessons of the proper time. I mean old age and
childhood, which nature brings in: for the one she has not yet permitted marriage, and the
other she no longer wishes to marry. But even otherwise, she does not mean us to be
married at all times. Marriage is the desire for children, not the disorderly discharge of
seed, which is lawless and against reason. Our whole life would run according to nature if
we mastered our desires from the start. We must not destroy, by wicked contrivances, the
human race that grows by God’s providence. People use these devices to cover up
fornication. They take drugs that bring complete destruction, and so they abort human
kindness along with the unborn child.

10q For those who are allowed to marry, though, an instructor was needed. The secret rites
of nature must not be carried out by day. A man must not come home from church or the
marketplace in the early morning and mount his wife like a rooster, when it is the time
for prayer, for reading, and for the good works of the day. The evening is the right time
to rest, after the meal and after giving thanks for the good things enjoyed. Nature does
not always allow the time for marital union to be fulfilled, and a union that is delayed
longer is more longed for. Nor should anyone give way to wantonness at night, as if in the
dark. Instead, modesty should be kept shut up in the soul like the light of reason.
Otherwise we will be no different from Penelope at her loom: by day we weave the teachings
of self-control, and at night, when we go to bed, we unravel them. If we must practice
dignity, as indeed we must, then much more must a man show dignity to his own wife by
refusing shameful embraces. And let reliable proof of his dignity toward his neighbors
come from his own home.

10r For it cannot be, it cannot be, that a man is thought dignified by a wife in whose
experience his dignity is not borne out in those very keen pleasures. Goodwill that admits
it slips easily into intercourse blooms only briefly and grows old along with the body.
Sometimes it grows old before the body, when desire has withered, as happens whenever the
pleasures of a prostitute have insulted the self-control of marriage. For the hearts of
lovers are fickle, and love charms are quenched by regret. Love often turns to hatred,
when satiety senses it has been condemned. As for unrestrained words, indecent postures,
kisses like a prostitute’s, and lewd acts of that kind, we should not even mention them.
We are obeying the blessed apostle, who says plainly: “Fornication and every kind of
uncleanness or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper for saints.” Someone
seems to have put it well: “Intercourse has never done anyone good; we should be glad if
it has not done harm.” For even lawful intercourse is hazardous, except as far as it
serves the begetting of children. About unlawful intercourse Scripture says: “A woman for
hire will be reckoned a fattened pig, but a married woman is a tower of death to those who
use her.” It compared the passion for a prostitute to a boar or a sow. And it called
adultery “death that is sought,” when it is committed with a prostitute who is kept under
guard.

10s As for a house and a city where people live in wantonness, your own poetry somewhere
reproaches them, writing: “Adulteries are found with you, and unlawful mingling of men,
womanish and unjust, wicked city, wholly unclean.” On the other hand, it admires the self-
controlled: those who do not feel shameful desire for another man’s bed, and do not rush
to the hateful and loathsome outrage against a male, because it is against nature. Most
people think of these things as luxuries, though they are their own sins. Those who are a
little more decent know that they are sins, but they are overcome by pleasures. And
darkness is their cover for their passions. For a man who treats his own marriage like a
relationship with a prostitute commits adultery against it, and he does not hear the
Instructor crying out: “The man who goes up onto his bed, who says in his soul: Who sees
me?

10t Darkness is all around me, and the walls cover me, and no one sees my sins. Why should
I be afraid? The Most High will not remember.” This man is utterly wretched. He fears only
human eyes, and he supposes that he will escape God’s notice. “For he does not know,” says
Scripture, “that the eyes of the Lord Most High are ten thousand times brighter than the
sun. They look upon all the ways of men and see into hidden places.” Again the Instructor
threatens such people through Isaiah, saying: “Woe to those who make their plans in
secret, and will say: Who sees us?” One might perhaps escape the light that we perceive
with the senses, but the light of the mind cannot be escaped. As Heraclitus says: “How
could anyone hide from what never sets?” So let us never cover ourselves with darkness,
for the light lives in us. “And the darkness,” it says, “did not overcome it.” The night
is lit up by self-controlled reasoning, and Scripture calls the thoughts of good men lamps
that never sleep.

10u Yet to try to hide what one is doing is itself an admission of sinning. Everyone who
sins does wrong at once. If he commits adultery, he wrongs his neighbor less than he
wrongs himself, because he is the one who has committed adultery. In every case he shows
himself to be worse and less honorable. For the sinner, to the extent that he sins, is
worse and less honorable than he was himself before. And surely a man who is mastered by a
shameful pleasure already has licentiousness added to him. For this reason the fornicator
has altogether died to God. The Word has left him, as the spirit leaves a corpse. For what
is holy shrinks from being defiled, as one would expect. It is always right for the pure
to touch what is pure. So let us never strip off modesty at the same moment that we take
off a garment, since it is never right for the righteous man to strip off self-control.
“For behold, this corruptible will put on incorruption.” That happens when the insatiable
appetite, which flows toward licentiousness, has been trained by self-control and has
ceased to love corruption. It then yields the man to an everlasting self-control. “For in
this age they marry and are given in marriage.” But when we have put away the works of the
flesh, and have put on incorruption in the flesh itself, now pure, we pursue the measure
of the angels.

10v For this reason Plato in the Philebus, a disciple of the barbarian philosophy,
mystically called “godless” those who ruin and defile, as far as they can, the God who
dwells in them, the Word, by making themselves at home with the passions. So those who are
made holy to God must never live in a merely mortal way. Nor, as Paul says, may we make
the members of Christ members of a prostitute. Nor may we make the temple of God a temple
of shameful passions. Remember the twenty-four thousand who were cast off because of
fornication. The sufferings of those who committed fornication, as I have already said,
are “types” that train our desires. And the Instructor advises us most plainly: “Do not go
after your desires, and keep yourself back from your appetites.” “For wine and women will
lead the wise astray, and he who joins himself to prostitutes will become more reckless.
Rot and the worm will inherit him, and he will be taken away as a greater public example.”
And again, for he never tires of doing us good: “He who stands face to face against
pleasure crowns his life.” So it is not right to be mastered by sexual pleasures, nor to
gape after desires, nor to be driven wild by irrational appetites, nor to wish to be
defiled.

10w The married man, like a farmer, is permitted only to sow, and only at the time when
the season receives the seed. Against other kinds of intemperance the Word is the best
medicine. It also helps to go without being stuffed, since fullness inflames the desires
and makes them leap about after pleasures. So we should not strive after expensive
clothing, any more than after elaborate food. The Lord himself divides his counsel into
three parts: soul, body, and, third, external things. He advises us to get external things
for the sake of the body, to govern the body by the soul, and he trains the soul, saying,
“Do not worry for your soul about what you will eat, or for your body about what you will
wear. For the soul is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” And he adds a
clear example for his teaching: “Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have
no storeroom or barn, and God feeds them.

10x Are you not worth more than the birds?” That is what he says about food. He gives the
same instruction about clothing, which belongs to the third division, external things,
saying, “Consider the lilies, how they neither spin nor weave. But I tell you, not even
Solomon was dressed like one of these.” King Solomon prided himself greatly on his wealth.
What, then, is more beautiful or more colorful than flowers? What is more delightful than
lilies or roses? “And if God clothes in this way the grass that is in the field today and
thrown into the oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! You
also, do not seek what you will eat or what you will drink.” Here the word “what” rules
out variety in food. The Scripture means this: do not worry about what sorts of things you
will eat or drink. To worry about such things is greed and luxury. Eating, understood
simply by itself, is a sign of need, since it is, as we said, the filling of a want. But
the “what” goes beyond that, and Scripture has shown that whatever goes beyond what is
needed comes from the devil.

10y The words that follow make his meaning clear. After saying, “Do not seek what you will
eat or what you will drink,” he added, “and do not be lifted up.” Pride and luxury lift
people up and away from the truth. The pleasure-seeking that busies itself with
superfluous things also leads away from the truth. That is why he says, very rightly, “All
these things the nations of the world seek.” The “nations” are the disorderly and
senseless. And what does he mean by “these things”? Luxury, self-indulgence, rich
seasoning, dainty eating, gluttony. These are the “what.” But about plain food, dry and
liquid, which is necessary, he says, “Your Father knows that you need it.” If we have
become seekers at all, let us not waste our seeking on luxury. Let us fan it into flame to
find the truth. 10z “Seek the kingdom of God,” he says, “and what you need for food will
be added to you.” If he removes anxiety about clothing, food and all superfluous things,
as unnecessary, what must we think he would say about love of finery? What about the
dyeing of wool, the variety of colours, the fussiness over gems, the elaborate working of
gold, artificial hairpieces and twisted curls? What about painting the eyes, plucking
hairs, rouge, white lead, hair dye, and all the evil tricks used in these deceptions?
Should we not strongly suspect that what was said a little earlier about the grass was
said also about these “unadorned” lovers of adornment? For the field is the world, and we
are the plants of the field, refreshed with dew by the grace of God. When we are cut down,
we spring up again, as will be shown at greater length in the book On the Resurrection.
But the common crowd is pictured by the “hay.” It belongs to a passing merriment and
blooms only briefly. It loves the world and loves glory, and loves anything more than
truth. It is good for nothing except to feed a fire.

2.10aa “There was a man,” says the Lord in his account, “very rich, who dressed in purple
and fine linen and made merry splendidly every day.” This man was the hay. “And a poor man
named Lazarus had been thrown at the rich man’s gate, covered with sores, longing to be
filled with what fell from the rich man’s table.” This man is the grass. But the rich man
was being punished in Hades, sharing in the fire, while the other flourished again in the
bosom of the Father. I admire the old city of the Spartans. It allowed only courtesans to
wear flowered clothing and gold ornaments. By permitting only women of that kind to adorn
themselves, it took the love of finery away from respectable women. The Athenian
magistrates were the opposite. They were keen on the refined life of the city, and they
forgot what befits men. They wore gold and put on tunics down to their feet. They tied up
the *krobylos*, a kind of braided knot of hair, adorned with golden cicadas fastened into
it. So they displayed their “earth-born” origin, in the tasteless vulgarity of their
effeminate decadence.

2.10ab The zeal of these magistrates spread to the other Ionians as well. Homer mocks them
as effeminate and calls them “trailing their robes.” So there are people who turn to love
of finery, which is only an image of the beautiful, and not to the beautiful itself. Under
a fair-sounding name they practise idolatry again. They must be sent far away from the
truth, because they dream of the nature of the beautiful by opinion, not by knowledge.
Life here is for them a deep sleep of ignorance. We must wake from it and hurry toward
what is truly beautiful and orderly. We must long to lay hold of that alone, and leave the
ornaments of this life to delight in the world itself, before we fall fast asleep for
good. I say, then, that people needed woven cloth for one reason only: to cover the body,
to protect against extreme cold and fierce heat, so that the excesses of the air around us
do not harm us.

2.10ac If this is the purpose of clothing, consider whether one kind of clothing should be
assigned to men and another to women. Being covered is common to both, just as eating and
drinking are. Since the need is common, we approve a similar provision. As both need
coverings, so the coverings should be alike. [The Greek text is damaged at this point.] If
so, we must also adopt that covering by which women are to hide their eyes. Even if the
female sex claims more for itself because of its weakness, we should blame the habit of a
bad upbringing. Through it, men raised on poor ways of living have often become more
effeminate than women. We must not slacken our firmness. But if some allowance must be
made, we should give women a little room to use softer fabrics. We should remove only the
foolish fineness and the elaborate patterns in the weaving. We should bid farewell to gold
thread, Indian silks and the fussy products of silkworms.

2.10ad Then the creature changes again into a third form, which some call the “chrysalis”
(others call it “nekydallos”). From this a long thread is produced, as the spider’s thread
comes from the spider. These excessive, see-through fabrics are the proof of a weak mind.
They cover the shame of the body with a slight veil, and so serve as a go-between for it.
For luxurious clothing is no longer a covering at all, since it cannot hide the shape of
the nakedness. Such clothing falls against the body and takes its impression more easily.
It clings to the figure like flesh and moulds itself to it. It stamps the outline of the
woman, so that anyone looking sees the whole form of the body, even though he is not
actually looking at the body itself. Dyes in clothing must also be refused. They are far
from what is needed and far from the truth, and they also break out into a slander on
one’s character. Their use is not helpful, for they are not good against cold. They
provide nothing for covering beyond what other clothing gives, except the blame. The
pleasing effect of the colour troubles the greedy and provokes them to foolish ogling. But
for those who are white inside and not counterfeit, it is most fitting to wear white and
simple clothes.

2.10ae Daniel the prophet says clearly and plainly: “Thrones were set, and one like an
Ancient of days sat on them, and his garment was white as snow.” He sees the Lord in a
vision wearing such a robe. The Revelation also says: “I saw the souls of those who had
borne witness, under the altar, and a white robe was given to each.” But if some other
colour must be sought, the natural dye of truth is enough. Garments that look like flowers
should be left to Bacchic nonsense and the mystery rites. So should “the purple and the
silver plate,” as the comic poet says, “which are useful for tragic actors and not for
life.” Our life ought to be anything but a parade. Yet Sardian dye, another the colour of
unripe grapes, another green, another rose-mixed, another scarlet, and countless other
dyes have been devised, with great effort, for ruinous self-indulgence.

2.10af This kind of clothing is for the eye, not for covering. We must also bid farewell,
along with the art itself, to garments embroidered with gold, to the purple-dyed and those
woven with figures (a luxury that is merely a show in the wind), to that saffron robe dyed
with perfume, and to the costly, many-coloured cloaks of fine membrane that people stare
at, with little figures in the purple. “What sensible or splendid thing could we women
do,” says the comedy, “when we sit about decked in flowers, wearing saffron robes and made
up with cosmetics?” The Instructor, however, gives plain advice: “Do not boast about the
clothing you wear, and do not be lifted up by any glory, since it does not last.” So in
the Gospel he mocks those dressed in soft clothing: “Look, those who live in splendid
clothing and luxury are in kings’ palaces.” He means the earthly palaces, the perishable
ones, where there is love of reputation, hunting for fame, flattery and deceit. But those
who serve in the heavenly court around the King of all are made holy in the unstained
garment of the soul, the flesh, and over it they put on incorruption.

2.10ag So the unmarried woman gives her time to God alone, and her concern is not divided.
The self-controlled married woman divides her life between God and her husband. But the
woman who is carried off in another direction gives herself wholly to marriage, which
means to passion. In the same way, I think, the self-controlled wife who devotes herself
to her husband worships God without hypocrisy. But if she loves finery, she falls away
both from God and from chaste marriage. She trades her husband for adornment, just like
the Argive courtesan, I mean Eriphyle, who “accepted precious gold in place of a dear
husband.” For this reason I also approve of the sophist of Ceos, who drew matching and
corresponding pictures of virtue and vice. He made one of them, Virtue, stand simply, in
white, clean, adorned with modesty alone. (Faith ought to be like that: virtuous, with
modesty.) The other, Vice, he presented in the opposite way: dressed in excessive clothing
and made radiant with borrowed colour. Her movement and her bearing are practised for
pleasing effect, and she is displayed as a sketch for loose women.

2.10ah The one who follows the Word will not attach himself to any shameful pleasure. So
in clothing, too, what is useful should be chosen first. The Word sings through David
about the Lord: “The daughters of kings made you glad in your honor; the queen stood at
your right hand, in a robe woven with gold, clothed in golden fringes.” Here he does not
mean luxurious clothing. He means the unspoiled adornment of the Church, woven together
out of faith, made up of those who have received mercy. In her the guileless Jesus “shines
like gold,” and the fringes are the elect, the golden ones. If we must relax our
strictness a little for the sake of the women, let the cloth be woven smooth and soft to
the touch. It should not be decked with flowers like paintings, to please the eye. A
painting fades with time. The washing and soaking in the drug-like juices of the dye eat
away the wool and leave the fabric of the garments weak. That is not good household
management either.

2.10ai It is the greatest tastelessness to be so excited about robes, long gowns, wraps,
cloaks and tunics, “which cover the private parts,” as Homer says. I am truly ashamed to
see so much wealth poured out on covering the parts we are ashamed of. The first man in
paradise measured out his covering for shame with branches and leaves. Now that sheep have
been made for us, let us not be as foolish as sheep. Trained by the Word, let us expose
the costliness of clothing by saying: “You are sheep’s hair. Though Miletus boasts of you
and Italy praises you, and though the hair that so many go mad over is kept safe under
skin covers, we ought not to take it seriously.” The blessed John looked down even on
sheep’s hair, since it smells of luxury. He chose camel’s hair and wore it, setting before
us an example of a plain and honest life.

2.10aj John also ate honey and locusts, a sweet and spiritual food, preparing the Lord’s
ways to be free of pride and self-controlled. Would a man who had turned away from the
showiness of city life wear a purple cloak? He went into the desert, living for God in the
stillness of the wilderness, far from all empty busyness, from clumsy display and from
pettiness. Elijah wore a sheepskin cloak and fastened it with a belt made of hair. Isaiah,
another prophet, was “naked and barefoot,” and often wore sackcloth as a garment of
humility. If you mention Jeremiah, he had only a linen loincloth. Well-fed bodies show
their vigor more plainly when stripped. In the same way the beauty of character shows its
greatness when it is not wrapped up in tasteless nonsense. 2.10ak It is also thoroughly
showy to let clothes hang down to the tips of the toes and drag along. It gets in the way
of walking. The garment sweeps the loose rubbish on the ground like a broom. Not even
those degenerate dancers on the stage, who act out a silent shamelessness, overlook a robe
that falls to such a disgrace. Their careful draping, their dangling hems and the
elaborate rhythms of their poses show the dragging of petty-minded softness. Someone may
point to the Lord’s robe that reached to the feet. But that tunic, with its many flowers,
shows the flowers of wisdom: the varied Scriptures that never fade, the oracles of the
Lord flashing with the rays of truth. The Spirit clothed the Lord in another such robe
through David, singing something like this: “You have put on praise and splendor, wrapping
yourself in light like a garment.” So, just as we must keep clear of everything improper
in making our clothes, we must also guard against excess in using them.

2.10al It is not fitting either for a woman’s dress to be above the knee, as they say the
Spartan girls dressed. No part of a woman should be bared. A modest woman can answer very
properly, with that witty remark, someone who says, “Your arm is beautiful.” She can
reply, “But not for the public.” When he says, “Your legs are beautiful,” she can say,
“But only for my husband.” And “Your face is lovely”: “But only for the man who married
me.” Still, I do not want chaste women even to give occasion for such praises to men who
use praise to hunt for something to blame. And it is not only forbidden to show the ankle.
The head is also commanded to be covered and the face shaded. It is not holy for the
beauty of the body to become a trap for men. Nor is it reasonable for a woman to use a
purple veil to make herself the center of attention.

2.10am If only it were possible to remove purple from clothing altogether, so that
spectators would not be drawn to look at the faces of those who wear it! But these women
weave only a very small part of their garment in other colors and make the whole thing
purple, and so they inflame their own careless indulgence. Those who are besotted with
these foolish, dainty purples fall under the poet’s saying, “purple death took hold of
them.” Because of this purple, Tyre and Sidon, and the seacoast neighboring Laconia, are
most longed for. Their dyers and purple-fishers are held in high esteem, and so are the
shellfish themselves, because the purple blooms from their blood. Deceitful women, and
effeminate men too, mix these deceitful dyes into their greedy fabrics and rave on without
any limit. They no longer get their linens from Egypt, but obtain other kinds from the
land of the Hebrews and the land of the Cilicians.

2.10an I say nothing of the Amorgian and fine linen garments; luxury has gone beyond even
the names for things. A covering, I think, should show that what it covers is better than
itself: as the statue is better than the temple, the soul than the body, and the body than
its clothing. But now it is the complete opposite. If the body of these women were put up
for sale, it would never fetch a thousand Attic drachmas, yet they will pay ten thousand
talents for a single garment, and so they prove themselves more worthless and less
valuable than the fabrics. Why then do you chase after what is rare and costly rather than
what is common and cheap? Because you do not know what is truly beautiful and truly good.
Foolish people pursue what only seems so in place of what really is, and like madmen they
imagine white things to be black.

-On Clothes.

11a On Shoes. Showy women behave much the same way with their footwear, and here too they
display great softness of living. Those sandals with gold ornaments on them are truly
shameful. They even insist on having the nails driven into the soles in spiral patterns.
Many of them engrave love-greetings on the soles, so that as they walk they set the ground
to a rhythm, and stamp the harlot’s attitude of mind into it by their stride. So we must
say goodbye to the pointless craftsmanship of gold-covered and jeweled sandals, to Attic
and Sicyonian half-boots, and to Persian and Tyrrhenian buskins. Setting before ourselves,
as our truth is accustomed to do, the right aim, we should choose what is natural. For
shoes are used partly to cover the feet, and partly to guard the sole of the foot against
stumbling and against the roughness of mountain paths. 11b Women may be allowed white
shoes, except when they are traveling; then they should use greased leather. Women who
travel need shoes with nailed soles. Still, they should wear shoes most of the time, for
it is not fitting to show a bare foot; besides, a woman is easily led into harm. For a
man, going barefoot is entirely suitable, unless he is serving as a soldier, for being
shod is somehow close to being bound. Going barefoot is best for training, and it suits
health and ease, wherever no necessity prevents it. But if we are not traveling and cannot
bear to go barefoot, we should use slippers or white shoes. The Athenians called these
“dust-feet,” I think because they keep the feet close to the dust. John is sufficient
witness for simple footwear, since he declared that he was not worthy to untie the strap
of the Lord’s sandals. The man who was showing the Hebrews the pattern of true philosophy
wore nothing elaborate on his feet. If this also hints at something further, it will be
explained elsewhere.

On Shoes.

12a That we should not be wild about jewels and gold ornaments. It is childish to gape at
dark blue or green stones, at what a distant sea throws up, and at the nuggets of the
earth. To rush after little transparent stones, stones of unusual color, and varicolored
glass is nothing but the mark of foolish people who are drawn by whatever has a striking
appearance. In the same way, children who see a fire run to it, led on by its brightness,
and in their foolishness do not understand how dangerous it is to touch. Such are the
stones that silly women hang on their chains and fasten into their necklaces: amethysts,
thunderstones, jaspers, topaz, and the Milesian emerald, a most costly piece of
merchandise. The very expensive pearl has also burst into the women’s quarters in an
extravagant way. It is formed in a kind of oyster like the pinna-shell, and is about the
size of a large fish’s eye.

12b These wretched women are not ashamed to have put all their effort into this little
oyster. They could be adorned with a holy stone, the Word of God, whom Scripture somewhere
calls a pearl: the clear and pure Jesus, the eye that watches over us in the flesh, the
transparent Word, through whom the flesh is made precious when it is born again by water.
For that oyster, which comes to be in water, covers the flesh around it, and the pearl is
conceived from that flesh. We have received the teaching that the Jerusalem above is
walled with holy stones. We understand that the twelve gates of the heavenly city are
likened to precious stones, and that this hints at the conspicuous grace of the apostles.
For in costly stones the colors are what is prized, and these are the valuable part, while
the rest is left over as earthy matter. It is fitting, then, that the city of the saints,
built spiritually, is walled with these stones as symbols.

12c In contrast to the inimitable bloom of the stones, they have understood the bloom of
the Spirit, the pure and holy bloom of its being. But these women do not grasp the
symbolic language of the Scriptures. They stand gaping at the stones, offering that
marvelous excuse: “Why should we not use what God has shown us?” “I have it at hand; why
should I not enjoy it?” “For whom, then, did these things come to be, if not for us?” Such
talk comes from people who are completely ignorant of God’s will. First, God supplies the
necessities, such as water and air, openly to all. But everything that is not necessary he
hid in earth and water. This is why ants mine gold, griffins guard it, and the sea hides
the pearl, that stone. But you are meddlesome about what you should leave alone. 12d Look,
the whole heaven is spread open, and you do not seek God. But the gold and stones that lie
hidden are dug out of the earth, among us, by those condemned to death. You even sing
against Scripture, which cries out plainly: “Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all
these things will be added to you.” But suppose all things have been given to you and all
things allowed to you. The apostle says, “All things are lawful for us, but not all things
are beneficial.” God himself brought our race into being for fellowship. He was first to
share what was his own, and he offered his own Word as a help common to all people, making
all things for the sake of all. So all things are common, and the rich should not grab
more than their share. Therefore the saying “I have it, and I have more than enough; why
should I not enjoy it?”

12e is neither human nor sociable. This one is much more loving: “I have it; why should I
not share it with those in need?” The person who says this is perfect, having fulfilled
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” For this is true luxury, wealth that is stored
up as treasure. But spending on empty desires should be counted as destruction, not as
expense. I know that God has given us the freedom to use things, but only up to what is
necessary, and he has willed that the use be shared. It is out of place for one person to
live in luxury while many are poor. How much more glorious it is to do good to many than
to live in costly splendor! How much wiser to spend on people than on stones and gold! How
much more useful to gain well-ordered friends than lifeless ornaments! What have fields
ever profited anyone as much as giving generously does?

12f So we still have to answer this objection that follows: “For whom, then, are the more
costly things, if everyone chooses the cheaper?” I would say: for people, if we use them
without attachment and without favoritism. But if it is impossible for everyone to be
self-controlled, we should still pursue what is easy to obtain, for the sake of what we
need, and bid a long farewell to these superfluities. In general, then, women must drive
away their “ornaments” like girls’ trinkets, and refuse adornment itself altogether. For
they ought to be well-ordered within and show the woman inside to be beautiful. Beauty and
ugliness show themselves only in the soul. So only the earnest person is truly beautiful
and good, and the teaching holds that only the beautiful is good. Virtue alone shines
through a beautiful body and blooms in the flesh. It shows the lovely bloom of self-
control as worthy of love, when character shines on the appearance like a ray of light.

12g The beauty of every plant and every animal lies in the particular excellence of each.
The excellence of a human being is justice, self-control, courage and godliness. So the
beautiful person is the just and self-controlled person, in short the good person, not the
rich one. Yet even soldiers now want to be decked out with gold. They have not read the
poet’s line about the man who “went to war wearing gold, like a silly young girl.” The
love of finery cares nothing for virtue and lays claim only to the body. Here the love of
what is beautiful has turned aside into vainglory, and it must be thrown out completely.
It attaches to the body things that do not belong to it, as though they did. In this way
it trains people in lying and breeds a habit of deceit. It shows not what is dignified,
unaffected and truly childlike, but what is haughty, soft and pampered.

12h Some women dim true beauty by overshadowing it with gold. They do not realize how
great their fault is, since they have put countless rich bonds around themselves. They say
that among the barbarians criminals are bound with gold, and these women seem to me to be
imitating those rich prisoners. Is the golden necklace not a collar, and the twisted neck-
rings too? The so-called “catheters” work like chains, and Attic writers call them by that
very name, “chains.” Philemon, in his play *The Fellow-Cadet*, called the women’s unseemly
adornment of the feet “ankle-fetters”: “transparent garments and a golden fetter.” What
else, then, is this envied beautifying, women, but a wish to be seen in fetters? If the
material takes the edge off the shame, the condition is still the same. 12i To me, then,
women who fall into bonds of their own free will seem to be boasting about rich
misfortunes. Perhaps the poet’s myth also says that such bonds were thrown around
Aphrodite when she was caught in adultery. If so, it hints that these ornaments are
nothing but a sign of adultery, for Homer called those bonds golden too. Yet women are not
ashamed to wear the plainest emblems of the evil one. The serpent deceived Eve, and in the
same way golden ornament has driven other women wild into licentiousness. It uses the
serpent’s shape as bait, and they have moray eels and snakes molded into jewelry to look
attractive. The comic poet Nicostratus says: “chains, catheters, rings, bracelets, snakes,
anklets, hellebore.” Aristophanes, in the *Thesmophoriazusae*, lists the whole array of
women’s finery in a very reproachful way. I will set down the comic poet’s own words,
which expose exactly how vulgar your ignorance of what is good really is. Speaker A:

12j “Headbands, hair-bands, soda, pumice, breast-band, back-sling, veil, rouge, necklaces,
eye-liner, soft shawl, hellebore, hair-net, girdle, wrap, luxury gown, border, long robe,
tunic, *barathron*, round cloak, little tunic. And I have not mentioned the biggest
items.” B: “What else, then?” A: “Ear-pendants, gem-set pieces, plasters, mallow-colored
dye, cluster earrings, bracelets, brooches, armlets, necklaces, anklets, seal rings,
chains, finger rings, poultices, bubbles, ties, *olisboi*, carnelians, *hypoderides*,
spiral ornaments.” I am tired and annoyed at listing so many ornaments. I am amazed that
these women are not worn out carrying such a load. What empty fussing! What vain craze for
glory! Like prostitutes they pour out their wealth to their own shame. In their lack of
taste they counterfeit God’s gifts and imitate the craft of the evil one. The Lord in the
Gospel plainly called the rich man a fool. He stored up his goods in barns and said to
himself, “You have many good things laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry.” But the
Lord said, “This very night they are taking your soul from you; and the things you have
prepared, whose will they be?” The painter Apelles once saw one of his pupils who had
painted Helen loaded with gold. “Young man,” he said, “since you could not paint her
beautiful, you have made her rich.”

12k Such Helens are the women of today: not genuinely beautiful, but richly made up. To
them the Spirit prophesies through Zephaniah: “Neither their silver nor their gold will be
able to rescue them in the day of the Lord’s wrath.” Women who are being trained by Christ
should be adorned not with gold but with the Word, through whom alone gold shows itself
for what it is. The ancient Hebrews would have been blessed if they had simply taken off
their women’s ornaments and thrown them away or melted them down. Instead they cast the
gold into a calf and worshiped it as an idol. They gained nothing from their craft or
their scheme. Yet they taught our women, in a most striking pattern, to keep away from
ornaments. That part of desire which prostitutes itself to gold becomes an idol, and it is
put to the test by fire. Luxury is kept for fire alone, as an idol is, and not truth.

12l Here the Word, rebuking the Hebrews through the prophet, says, “They made silver and
gold things for Baal.” He means ornaments. And in a most vivid threat he says, “I will
take vengeance on her for the days of the Baalim, on which she offered sacrifice to it,
and put on her earrings and her necklaces.” Then he adds the reason for her adornment:
“And she went after her lovers, but me she forgot, says the Lord.” So let women lay aside
these trifles to the evil sophist himself. Let them take no part in this harlot-like
beautifying, and let them not practice idolatry behind a respectable screen. The blessed
Peter speaks very admirably here: “Women likewise, not with braided hair, or gold, or
pearls, or costly clothing, but with what is fitting for women who profess reverence for
God, adorning themselves through good works.” He is right to command that their
beautifying be absent. If they are beautiful, nature is enough. Let art not compete with
nature. That is, let deceit not quarrel with truth. But if they are ugly by nature, what
they put on to cover what they lack exposes them.

12m It is fitting, then, for women who serve Christ to embrace simplicity. For simplicity
really does provide for holiness. It evens out excess and obtains the use we seek from
superfluities by means of ordinary things. For what is simple, as the very name suggests,
does not stick out or swell or puff itself up at any point. It is wholly level, smooth,
even and free of excess, and for that reason it is sufficient. Sufficiency is a settled
state that reaches its proper end without lack and without excess. The mother of these is
righteousness, and their nurse is self-sufficiency. This is a settled state that is
content with what is needed and by itself provides what contributes to the blessed life.
Then let your adornment be in the fruits of your hands: holy, generous sharing and works
of homemaking. “For he who gives to the poor lends to God,” and “the hands of the
courageous enrich.” By “courageous” he means those who despise money and are ready to
share it.

12n On your feet, let there appear a tireless readiness to do good and a walking in the
way of righteousness. Modesty and self-control are your chains and necklaces. These are
the kind of necklaces God makes of gold. “Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the
mortal who has seen understanding,” says the Spirit through Solomon, “for it is better to
trade for her than for treasures of gold and silver, and she is more precious than costly
stones.” This is true adornment. Their ears should not be pierced, against nature, to hang
pendants and earrings from them. It is not right to force nature against what it intends.
Nor could there be a better ornament for the ears than true instruction, which goes down
by the natural passages of hearing. Eyes anointed with the Word, and ears pierced for
perception, make a person a hearer of divine things and a beholder of holy things. The
Word truly shows the true beauty, “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard” before.


THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS)
===========================

THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) continued

BOOK 3

3.arg. Chapter headings of the third book. 1. On true beauty. 2. That one should not
beautify oneself. 3. Against men who beautify themselves. 4. With whom one should spend
time. 5. How one should behave at the baths. 6. That only the Christian is rich. 7. That
frugality is a good provision for a Christian. 8. That images and examples are a very
large part of right teaching. 9. For what purpose the bath is to be used. 10. That
exercises too are to be approved for those who live according to reason. 11. A summary
survey of the best life. 12. A similar summary survey of the best life, drawn from the
holy Scriptures that mark out the Christian life.

On the True Beauty.

1a On the True Beauty. It appears, then, that the greatest of all lessons is to know
oneself. For if someone knows himself, he will know God. And knowing God, he will be made
like God. This happens not by wearing gold or trailing robes, but by doing good and by
needing as few things as possible. God alone needs nothing. He is most pleased when he
sees us clean in the adornment of the mind, and then also in that of the body, clothed in
self-control, which is a pure robe. The soul has three parts. The first is the rational
part, also called the reasoning faculty. This is the inner man, who rules this visible
man, while that inner man is himself led by another, God. The second is the spirited part,
which is bestial and lives close to madness. The third is the desiring part, which has
many forms. It is more changeable than Proteus, the sea-god, taking one shape after
another and working itself up into adultery, lust and seduction. “First he became a
bearded lion,” still keeping his finery, for the hair of the beard shows he is a man. “But
then a serpent, or a leopard, or a great boar.” Love of finery has slid down into
wantonness.

1b No longer does the man appear in a mighty beast, “but he became flowing water, and a
tree with high leaves.” The passions pour out and the pleasures gush forth. Beauty
withers. It falls to the ground faster than a leaf when the lustful storms of insolence
blow on it, and it is shriveled by corruption before autumn even comes. For desire becomes
everything, fashions itself, and wants to deceive, so as to hide the man. But the man in
whom the Word lives is not painted up and not fashioned. He has the form of the Word and
is made like God. He is beautiful and does not beautify himself, for the true beauty is
God. That man becomes God, because God wills it. Heraclitus therefore spoke rightly when
he said, “Men are gods, and gods are men, 1c for the Word is the same.” This is a plain
mystery: God in man, and man God. The Mediator carries out the Father’s will. For the Word
is Mediator, shared by both: Son of God and Savior of men, servant of the one and our
Instructor. Now the flesh is a slave, as Paul testifies. So how could anyone reasonably
deck out the maid-servant like a procurer? That the fleshly is the form of a slave, the
apostle says of the Lord: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” He calls the
outward man a slave even before the Lord became a slave and bore flesh. But the
compassionate God himself set the flesh free. He rescued it from corruption and from the
bitter, death-bringing slavery, and clothed it with incorruption. He put on the flesh this
holy adornment of eternity: immortality.

1d There is another beauty of men: love. As the apostle says, “Love is patient, is kind,
is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up.” For beautifying oneself is bragging,
since it gives the impression of excess and uselessness. This is why he adds, “It does not
behave indecently.” For a form that is foreign and not according to nature is indecent,
and what is artificially made up is foreign. He makes this clear by saying that love “does
not seek what is not its own.” Truth calls its own what truly belongs to it, but love of
finery seeks what is foreign, since it stands outside God, the Word and love. The Spirit
testifies through Isaiah that the Lord himself was ugly in appearance: “And we saw him,
and he had no form or beauty, but his form was without honor, lacking beside men.” And who
is better than the Lord? But what he showed was not the outward, illusory beauty of the
flesh. It was the true beauty of both soul and body: in the soul, doing good; in the
flesh, immortality.

Against Embellishing the Body.

2a That is why it is not the outward appearance of a person that must be adorned. It is
the soul that must be adorned with the ornament of true nobility of character. We could
say the same of the flesh, which is to be adorned with the ornament of self-control. But
women who beautify the surface while leaving the depths a wasteland do not realize that
they are decorating themselves like the temples of the Egyptians. Those people take great
care over gateways and outer courts, with groves and sacred meadows. Their courtyards are
ringed with many columns. Their walls shine with imported stones, and no skill in painting
is lacking. The temples gleam with gold, silver and amber, and sparkle with many-colored
gems from India and Ethiopia. The inner sanctuaries are shaded with curtains woven with
gold. But suppose you go on into the depths of the enclosure, eager to see something
greater, and look for the statue that lives in the temple. Then a priest, or some other
temple official, comes forward with a solemn look on his face, singing a hymn in the
Egyptian language. He lifts the curtain a little, as if to show you the god, and gives us
a good laugh at the thing they worship.

2b The god we hurried to find will not be found inside. We will find a cat, a crocodile, a
native snake, or some such animal. It is unworthy of the temple and fit only for a hole, a
den or the mud. The god of the Egyptians appears as a beast rolling on a purple couch. In
the same way, I think, women who wear gold are like this. They work at curling their hair,
rub ointment on their cheeks, paint under their eyes, dye their hair, and devise other
kinds of mischievous self-indulgence. They decorate the fleshly enclosure, truly acting
like Egyptians, to draw in lovers who are superstitious. But suppose someone pulled back
the curtain of the temple. I mean the hairnet, the dye, the clothing, the gold, the rouge,
the cosmetics, that is, the whole fabric woven from these. He expects to find true beauty
inside, but he will be disgusted, I know well.

2c He will not find the image of God, so worthy of respect, living inside. Instead a
prostitute and adulteress has taken over the inner shrine of the soul. The real beast will
be exposed: an ape smeared with white lead. That shifty serpent eats away the mind of the
person through the love of glory and makes the soul his den. He fills everything with
deadly drugs and spits out into them his own venom of deceit. This dragon, this pimp, has
turned women into prostitutes. For love of finery belongs not to a wife but to a
courtesan. Such women give little thought to keeping house for their husbands. They undo
their husbands’ purses and divert the money to their desires, so that they may have many
witnesses to their seeming beauty. They sit all day at the hairdresser’s and spend their
time with slaves they have bought. 2d Like a bad relish, they season the flesh. They spend
the day shut up in their rooms, wasting away over their cosmetics, so that no one will
catch them dyeing their hair blond. In the evening this counterfeit beauty creeps up to
the lamp as if out of a den. Drunkenness and the dim light help the make-up they have put
on. The comic poet Menander banishes from the house the woman who dyes her hair blond:
“Now get out of this house.” For a self-controlled woman must not make her hair blond, and
she must not rouge her cheeks or paint her eyes either. These unlucky women do not realize
that by bringing in a foreign beauty they destroy their own. At daybreak they are torn at,
scrubbed and plastered with various pastes. They scrape the skin, wear down the flesh with
drugs, and by their fussy washes they wither their own natural bloom.

2e That is why they look pale from the plasters, and they easily fall sick, since their
flesh, shaded with paints, is already softened by the drugs. They dishonor the Creator of
human beings, as though he had given them a beauty that was not good enough. No wonder
they become idle about keeping house. They sit like painted pictures, made to be looked at
and not to run a household. This is why the thoughtful woman in the comic poet says: “What
wise or brilliant thing could we women do, who sit with our hair dyed blond, spoiling the
character of free women? We bring about the ruin of households, the turning aside of
marriages, and the passing off of substitute children.” Antiphanes the comic poet, in his
play *Malthake*, mocks this courtesan-like behavior of women in words that apply to all of
them and describe the endless wearing-out of themselves: “She comes, she goes again, she
approaches, she goes again, she has come, she is here, she is washing, she approaches, she
is soaping, she is combing, she has stepped in, she is rubbing, she is bathing, she is
looking in the mirror, she is dressing, she is perfuming, she is adorning, she is
anointing herself. And if she has anything wrong, she hangs herself.”

2f They deserve to be destroyed three times, not just once, for using crocodile dung,
smearing themselves with the foam of rotting matter, rubbing soot onto their eyebrows and
white lead into their cheeks. If even the pagan poets are sick of these women because of
their manner of life, how could the truth not cast them out? Another comic poet, Alexis,
exposes them. I will quote his words as well, so that his elaborate wording may shame
their stubborn shamelessness; he was not overdoing it that much. I myself am ashamed that
the women’s quarters should be mocked in comedy so far, when woman was made to be a
“helper” and yet ends up destroying her husband as well. “First of all, everything else is
a side issue to them compared with making a profit and robbing their neighbors. If one of
them happens to be short, she stitches cork into her shoes.

2g “If one is tall, she wears a thin sole and goes out with her head drooped onto her
shoulder; this takes away from her height. If one has no hips, she puts on padding sewn in
underneath, so that those who see her cry out about her fine figure. If one has a big
belly, she gets the sort of false breasts the comic poets give their nurses, and by adding
these upright pieces she pushes the front of her belly forward like poles. If one has
reddish eyebrows, she paints them with soot. If she happens to be dark, she plasters
herself with white lead. If one is too pale, she rubs on rouge. If she has some fine part
of her body, she displays it bare. If she has good teeth, she has to laugh, so that those
present can see what a pretty mouth she has. But if she has no wish to laugh, she spends
the whole day with a thin, straight sliver of myrtle wood held between her lips, so that
in time her mouth is fixed in a grin, whether she wants it or not.”

2h I set these passages from worldly wisdom before you to turn you away from the scheming
of those who love finery, since the Word wants to save us by every means. Soon I will
reinforce them with the divine Scriptures. People who are exposed tend to give up their
sins out of shame at being rebuked. A bandaged hand or a salved eye makes people suspect,
from the look of it, that the person is ill. In the same way, face-creams and dyes hint
that the soul is deeply sick. But the divine Instructor urges us to pass by “a foreign
river.” By this figure he means a foreign woman, the lustful one, who flows toward
everyone and pours herself out to all in prostitute-like indulgence. “Keep away from
foreign water,” he says, “and do not drink from a foreign spring.” He is urging us to
guard against the stream of pleasure, “so that we may live a long time, and years of life
may be added to us.” This applies whether we avoid hunting after pleasures that belong to
someone else, or turn away from the sects.

2i Love of delicacies and love of wine are great passions, but they are not as great as
love of finery. A full table and cup after cup are enough to satisfy gluttony. But for
those who love gold, purple and jewels, neither the gold above and below the earth is
enough, nor the Tyrian sea, nor the cargo from India and Ethiopia, nor even the Pactolus
river flowing with riches. Not even if one of them became a Midas would she be satisfied;
she would still be poor, longing for more wealth. These people are ready to die along with
their gold. And if Wealth is blind, as he is, how can the women who are crazy about him
and share his feelings not be blind too? Having no limit to their desire, they run aground
on shamelessness. For they need the theater, the processions, crowds of spectators,
wandering about in the temples and loitering in the streets, so that they are seen by
everyone.

2j They adorn themselves to please others, boasting in the face and not in the heart. As
brand marks show a runaway slave, so these fancy colors show the adulteress. “Even if you
put on scarlet and adorn yourself with golden ornaments, and even if you paint your eyes
with eye-shadow, your beautification is in vain,” says the Word through Jeremiah. Is it
not absurd that horses, birds and other animals rise up from the grass and the meadows,
and fly up, delighting in their own natural adornment, the horse’s mane, the natural
color, the varied plumage, while woman, as though worse off than the animals, thinks she
is so unlovely that she needs someone else’s beauty, bought and painted on? Hairnets,
different kinds of hairnets, elaborate braids, countless arrangements of the hair, and
costly mirrors in which they pose themselves to catch those who are as crazy about looks
as foolish children: all this belongs to women who have lost every blush of shame. Anyone
who called them prostitutes would not be wrong, since they turn their faces into masks.

2k But the Word urges us “not to look at the things that are seen, but at the things that
are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen
are eternal.” What goes beyond even absurdity is this: for their artificial appearance, as
if it were some feat of courage or a work of improvement, they have thought up mirrors.
Yet this deceit above all ought to be covered with a veil. For even by the Greek myth it
did not turn out well for the handsome Narcissus to be a spectator of his own image. Moses
commands that people make no image in rivalry with God’s craft. How then could these women
reasonably copy their own likenesses by reflection, to produce a falsified face? Consider
also the prophet Samuel. When he was sent to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king, he saw
the eldest of the boys, handsome and tall, and brought out the oil, pleased with him.
Scripture says, “The Lord said to him: Do not look at his appearance or the height of his
stature, for I have rejected him.

2l “For man looks at the eyes, but the Lord looks at the heart.” And he anointed not the
one beautiful in body, but the one beautiful in soul. If then the Lord counts the natural
beauty of the body as less than that of the soul, what does he think of counterfeit
beauty, when he throws out every falsehood root and branch? “For we walk by faith, not by
appearance.” The Lord teaches very clearly through Abraham that the one who follows God
must despise homeland, relatives, property and all wealth. He made him a foreigner, and
for this reason he called him “friend,” because he despised the abundance he had at home.
For Abraham was of noble birth and very wealthy. With three hundred and eighteen servants
of his own he defeated the four kings who had taken Lot captive. Esther alone, we find,
was rightly adorned. 2m That woman made herself beautiful in a hidden, mystical way for
her own king, and that beauty of hers turns out to be the ransom of a people marked for
slaughter. That adornment turns women into courtesans, and men into effeminate adulterers.
The tragic poet bears witness to this, telling the story something like this: “This man
who judged the goddesses came from Phrygia to Lacedaemon, as the Argive myth has it. He
was bright in a robe of flowered garments and gleaming with gold, in barbarian luxury. A
lover, he went off with a loving Helen, snatching her away to the cattle-folds of Ida,
having caught Menelaus away from home.” What adulterous beauty! Barbarian love of finery
and effeminate luxury overthrew Greece. Clothing, luxury and youthful beauty destroyed
Spartan self-control. Barbarian love of display exposed the daughter of Zeus as a
courtesan. They had no instructor to cut off their desires. They had none to say “You
shall not commit adultery,” or “You shall not desire.” They had none to say: do not travel
the road to adultery through desire, and do not inflame your appetites through love of
finery.

2n Think what an end followed for them, and how many evils those suffered who were
unwilling to restrain self-love. Two continents were shaken by undisciplined pleasures,
and everything was thrown into turmoil by a barbarian youth. All Greece set sail, and the
sea was crowded, carrying continents. A long war blazed up, and fierce battles broke out,
and the plains were filled with corpses. The barbarian insults the naval camp. Injustice
prevails, and the eye of that Zeus of the poets looks toward the Thracians. Barbarian
plains drink noble blood, and the streams of the rivers stand clogged with dead bodies.
Breasts are beaten in lamentation, and grief spreads over the land. All the foothills and
peaks of many-springed Ida shake, and the city of the Trojans and the ships of the
Achaeans. Where shall we flee, Homer, and make a stand? Show us a land that is not shaken.
* * * “Do not touch the reins, child, since you have no experience, and do not mount the
chariot to drive without having learned. Heaven delights in two charioteers, and only by
them is the fire driven and led.”

2o For the mind is carried away by pleasure. The untouched purity of reason, when it is
not instructed by the Word, slides down into licentiousness and receives a fall as the
wage of its transgression. The angels of God are an example of this. They abandoned beauty
for the sake of a fading beauty, and so fell from heaven to the ground. The Shechemites
too were punished and brought low for outraging the holy virgin. Their punishment was a
grave, and the memorial of their penalty instructs us toward salvation.

Against Men Who Embellish Themselves.

3a Against men who adorn themselves. Luxury has advanced so far that it is no longer only
women who are sick with this empty concern for appearances. Men are now eager to catch the
disease too. Men who are not free of the love of finery are not healthy. They lean toward
softness and become womanish. They have their hair cut in a base and harlot-like style,
wrap themselves in fine, transparent cloaks, chew mastic gum, and reek of perfume. What
can one say on seeing them? Like a man who reads character from the forehead, one can tell
from their appearance that they are adulterers and half-women, hunting after both kinds of
sexual pleasure. They hate body hair and are hairless. They loathe the bloom of manhood,
yet they adorn their head hair as women do. “Living in unholy acts of daring,” says the
Sibyl, these fickle creatures “do reckless and evil deeds.” Because of them the cities are
full of people who apply pitch plasters, shave and pluck these effeminate men. Workshops
have been set up and opened everywhere. The craftsmen of this prostitute-like vice openly
make a great deal of money. Men let themselves be covered with pitch and have their hairs
pulled out, offering themselves in every way. They feel no shame before those who watch or
pass by, or even before themselves as men. Such are the zealots of the baser passions,
whose whole body has been made smooth by the violent tugging of the pitch.

3b They care nothing about going further in such shamelessness. If nothing is left undone
by them, nothing will be left unsaid by me. When Diogenes was being sold as a slave, he
rebuked one of these degenerates like a teacher, and said very boldly, “Come here, young
man, and buy yourself a man.” With a double-edged saying he was correcting the fellow’s
harlot-like ways. For men to shave themselves and make themselves smooth: is that not
degrading? The dyes for the hair, the ointments for grey hair, the yellow tints, and the
womanish combing of hair are the habits of ruined half-women, and must be given up. They
think that, like a snake, they can slip off the old age of their head, repainting
themselves and making themselves young again. Though they may cleverly trick the hair,
they will not escape wrinkles. They will not escape death either by tricking time. For it
is not terrible, it is not terrible, to look old when you cannot hide the fact that you
are.

3c The nearer a man hurries to his end, the more truly honorable he is. Only God is older
than he is, since God is the eternal Elder, older than all that exists. Prophecy has
called him “the Ancient of days,” and the prophet says, “the hair of his head was like
pure wool.” And no one else, says the Lord, “can make a hair white or black.” How then do
these godless men set themselves up as rival makers against God, or rather, struggle to
oppose him, when they counterfeit the hair he has turned grey? Scripture says, “The crown
of old men is great experience,” and the grey hair on their face is the flower of great
experience. But these men disgrace the privilege of old age, the grey head. It is not
possible, it is not possible, for a man with a counterfeit head to show a true soul. The
apostle says: “But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you heard him and were
taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, in keeping with your former way
of life, the old man.” He does not mean the grey-haired man, but the one “who is being
corrupted by the desires of deceit.” And he says to be renewed, not by dyes and cosmetics,
but “in the spirit of your mind,” and to “put on the new man, created according to God in
righteousness and holiness of the truth.” For a man to comb his hair, to have it cut with
a razor for good looks, to arrange it at the mirror, to shave, pluck and smooth his
cheeks: how is that not womanish?

3d If you did not see them naked, you would take them for women. Even if they are not
allowed to wear gold, out of their womanish desire they wrap straps and the fringes of
their garments in thin sheets of gold. Or they have balls shaped from the same metal made,
and tie them to their ankles and hang them from their necks. This is a trick of broken-
down men who are dragged off into the women’s quarters: amphibious, lustful beasts. This
way of lying in ambush is that of a harlot, and it is godless. God wanted woman to be
smooth-skinned, glorying only in her naturally growing hair, as a horse does in its mane.
But he adorned man with a beard, like lions, and made him manly with a shaggy chest, a
sign of strength and authority. In the same way he decked out the cocks, which fight on
behalf of the hens, with combs like helmets.

3e God values these hairs so highly that he commands them to appear on men together with
good sense. Delighting in dignity, he has honored the rugged look of a man’s face with
venerable grey hair. Good sense and careful reasoning, grown grey with understanding, come
to their prime along with time. They strengthen old age with the vigor of long experience,
and they hold out the grey head, the lovely flower of serious good sense, as a reasonable
ground for trust. The beard, then, is the man’s badge, the thing by which he is plainly
seen to be a man. It is older than Eve and is a symbol of the stronger nature. God judged
that shagginess suited the man, and he scattered hair over his whole body. But whatever in
him was smooth and soft, God took from his side. From it he made Eve, pleasant to the
touch for receiving seed, a woman who is a helper in bringing forth children and in
keeping the house.

3f But the man (for he gave up the smoothness) remained a man and shows himself a man. To
him it is granted to act, as it is to her to be acted upon. For hairy things are by nature
drier and hotter than smooth ones. So males are hairier and hotter than females, animals
with their organs than castrated ones, and the complete than the incomplete. It is
therefore impious to violate the symbol of manly nature, hairiness. As for the adornment
of smoothing (for the Word makes me hot with anger), if it is aimed at men, it belongs to
an effeminate person. If it is aimed at women, it belongs to an adulterer. Both must be
driven as far as possible from our way of life. “But even the hairs of your head are all
numbered,” says the Lord. The hairs on the chin are numbered too, and indeed those on the
whole body.

3g Nothing at all is to be plucked out against God’s choice, which he has counted in by
his own will. The apostle says, “Unless you somehow fail to recognize yourselves, that
Christ Jesus is in you.” If we knew that he lives in us, I do not know how we could dare
to abuse him. Then there is the use of pitch plasters. I hesitate even to speak of the
indecency of the act. These men turn away and bend over, exposing nature’s private parts
to view. They sway and arch their backs in shameful postures, and they feel no shame at
themselves. They behave indecently among the young men and in the middle of the gymnasium,
where the manly virtue of men is tested. They pursue this practice that is against nature.
Is that not the height of licentiousness? Those who do such things in public would hardly
feel shame before anyone at home. Their shamelessness in public bears witness to their
unrestrained wantonness in private. The man who denies his manhood in the light of day is
clearly shown up as a woman at night.

3h The Word said through Moses, “There shall not be a prostitute among the daughters of
Israel, and there shall not be a fornicator among the sons of Israel.” “But the pitch is
useful,” someone says. I say it slanders. No one in his right mind would want to seem a
fornicator unless he were sick. No one would willingly choose to make a practice of
slandering the beautiful image. For the blessed apostle says that God predestined “those
called according to his purpose, whom he foreknew, to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” So how are they not godless who
mutilate the body that is conformed to the Lord? The man who wants to be beautiful must
adorn the most beautiful thing in a human being, his mind. Each day he should show it more
attractive. What must be plucked out is not hairs but desires.

3i I even pity the boys who belong to slave-dealers and are dressed up for abuse. They
have not mutilated themselves. The poor things are made up on orders, for someone’s
shameful profit. But those who choose of their own will to do what they would rather have
died than do on orders, if they were men, how are they not contemptible? Life has now
reached such a pitch of licentiousness, with injustice running riot, that all lewdness has
flooded the cities and become law. Among them women stand on the brothel roofs, selling
their own flesh for the outrage of pleasure. Boys who have been taught to deny their
nature pass themselves off as women. Luxury has upset everything. A soft-living, meddling
curiosity has disgraced humanity. It searches out everything, tries everything, forces
everything, and confuses nature. Men have taken on what belongs to women, and women are
made manly against nature, women being both wives and husbands.

3j No road is closed to licentiousness. Their shared lust is made public property, and
luxury sits at the same table with them. What a pitiable sight! What an unspeakable way of
life! These are the trophies of your city’s lack of self-control that are put on show, and
the women who walk the streets are the proof of what is done. Alas for such lawlessness!
The wretches do not even understand how many tragedies are caused by the secrecy of these
encounters. A son has used prostitutes, and there are daughters who sell themselves, and
fathers often sleep with them without knowing it. They forget the children they exposed,
and this freedom to indulge without restraint shows the fathers to be the very men who
begot them. These are the things your wise laws permit. People may sin by the law, and
they call the unmentionable side of pleasure a convenience. Those who commit adultery
against nature think they are free of adultery. But justice follows their daring acts as
an avenger. They draw down an unavoidable disaster on themselves, and for a little coin
they buy their own death.

3k The unhappy traders in these goods sail the seas carrying prostitution as cargo, as if
it were grain or wine. Others, far more wretched, buy pleasures as they would bread or
relish. They have not even given a thought to the saying of Moses: “You shall not defile
your daughter by making her a prostitute, and the land will not prostitute itself, and the
land will be filled with lawlessness.” This was prophesied long ago, and the outcome is
plain: the whole earth is now filled with prostitution and lawlessness. I admire the
ancient Roman lawgivers. They hated unmanly conduct. They judged that a man who gives his
body to a woman’s role, against the law of nature, deserved the pit, according to the law
of justice. For it is never right to pluck out the beard, the natural beauty, the noble
beauty that first belongs to a young man with his first growth of beard, whose youth is
most charming.

3l As he grows older, he is anointed and rejoices in his beard, on which the prophetic
ointment ran down when Aaron was honored. The man who is rightly trained, on whom peace
has settled, ought to keep peace with his own hair as well. What, then, will women not do,
women who rush into lewdness, when they see men daring such things in front of their
mirrors? Better to call these people not men but degenerates and effeminate creatures.
Their voices are soft and broken, and their clothing is made womanish by its feel and its
dye. Such people are exposed for what they are by outward things: their cloak, their
shoes, their bearing, their walk, their haircut, their look. For Scripture says, “A man
will be known by his look, and a person will be known by meeting him. A man’s clothing,
the step of his foot, and the laughter of his teeth will tell about him.” These men, even
though they fight hard against every other kind of hair, tend only the hair on their
heads, and almost bind up their locks in hairnets like women.

3m Lions are proud of their shaggy manes, but their hair arms them for battle. Boars too
are proud of their bristly crest, but hunters fear them when they bristle their hair.
Woolly sheep are weighed down with their fleeces, but even their hair the Father, who
loves humanity, made abundant for your service, O man, having taught you to shear the
fleece. Among the nations, the Celts and the Scythians wear their hair long, but they do
not dress it up. The thick hair of the barbarian has something fearful about it, and its
yellow color threatens war, since the color is akin to blood. Both these barbarian peoples
have hated luxury. The German will offer the Rhine as a clear witness, and the Scythian
his wagon. The Scythian sometimes even despises the wagon (the barbarian thinks a large
one a sign of wealth), and leaving luxury behind, he lives simply. A Scythian takes a
horse, a self-sufficient home, lighter to carry than the wagon, and mounts it and is
carried wherever he likes. When he is faint with hunger, he asks the horse for food. The
horse offers its veins, and gives its master the only thing it has, its blood. So for the
nomad the horse becomes both transport and food.

3n Among the Arabs (another nomadic people), the fighting men ride camels. They mount
camels that are pregnant. These graze and run at the same time, carrying their masters and
bearing their household along with them. If the barbarians run out of drink, they milk the
camels. When that food is used up, they do not spare even the blood, like wolves in a
frenzy, as people say. Yet the camels, which are gentler than the barbarians, bear no
grudge when wronged. They run boldly across the desert, carrying and feeding their masters
at once. So let those guardian beasts perish, whose food is blood! For it is not right for
human beings to touch blood, since their body is nothing but flesh nourished by blood.
Human blood shares in the Word, and takes part in grace through the Spirit. If anyone
wrongs it, it will not go unnoticed. 3o Even naked, stripped of outward show, a person may
speak to the Lord. I approve of the plain living of the barbarians. They have loved a life
free of baggage and have given up luxury. This is what the Lord calls us to be: bare of
bad taste, bare of vain glory, torn away from our sins, carrying with us only the wood of
life, holding on only to salvation.

With Whom We are to Associate.

4a With Whom We Are to Associate. But I had unawares sailed past the order of my subject
in my thoughts. I must run back to it and rebuke the great number of household slaves that
people keep. They avoid working for themselves and serving themselves, so they take refuge
in servants. They buy up a great crowd of cooks, of table-setters, and of men who
skillfully cut up the meat into portions. Their service is divided into many branches.
Some labor over their gluttony: the carvers, the seasoners, and those who prepare and make
the pastries, the honey-cakes and the soups. Others busy themselves with their excessive
wardrobes. Others guard their gold like griffins. Others look after the silver, polish the
cups, and get ready the equipment for banquets. Others groom the pack animals. A crowd of
cupbearers is trained in their houses, along with herds of handsome young boys, like
livestock, from whom they milk out their beauty.

4b Male and female hairdressers attend the women, some with the mirrors, some with the
hairnets, others with the combs. There are many eunuchs too, and they act as go-betweens.
Because they are believed to be unable to enjoy pleasure, they serve those who wish to
indulge themselves without raising suspicion. But a true eunuch is not the man who is
unable, but the man who is unwilling, to enjoy pleasure. Now the Word, through the prophet
Samuel, bore witness against those Jews who had transgressed when the people asked for a
king. He did not promise them a kindly lord. He threatened them with a headstrong, self-
indulgent tyrant, who “will take your daughters,” he says, “to be perfumers, cooks and
bakers.” Such a king rules by the law of war and has no zeal for peaceful government. Many
Celts lift the women’s litters high and carry them on their shoulders. But there is
nowhere any wool-working, spinning, weaving, women’s work in the women’s quarters, or
housekeeping. Instead those who falsify the women spend all day with them, chattering
about love stories, and wear down their bodies and souls with false work and false talk.

4c “You shall not be with many for evil,” it says, “nor add yourself to a crowd.” For
wisdom shows itself among the few, but disorder among the many. These women do not buy
bearers out of modesty, from not wanting to be looked at. That would be commendable, if
they sought the covering with that attitude. They are carried by their servants out of
pampered luxury, eager to put on a show. So they pull back the curtain and look sharply
around at those who gaze at them, and they prove what their character is. Often they even
lean out from inside, and by their unsteady curiosity they disgrace their surface show of
modesty. “Do not look around in the streets of the city,” it says, “and do not wander in
its deserted places.” For a place is truly deserted, even if there is a crowd of dissolute
people, where no self-controlled person is present. These women are carried around the
temples, offering sacrifices and consulting oracles. Every day they parade along with
beggar-priests, beggar-priests of the Mother goddess, and scurrilous old women who ruin
households. They put up with the old women’s whispering over the cups, and they learn love
potions and spells from sorcerers, to the destruction of marriages.

4d Some of the men they already have, others they pray for, and others the diviners
promise them. They do not realize they are being deceived. They hand themselves over as an
instrument of pleasure to anyone who wants to indulge his lust. They trade their purity
for the most shameful abuse, and they count their disgraceful ruin as a business deal.
Many serve this prostitute-like lewdness, slipping in from one place or another. The
licentious are quick to rush toward debauchery, like pigs on a boat rushing to the end
that is sinking. So Scripture warns with great force: “Do not bring every man into your
house, for the traps of the deceitful are many.” Elsewhere it says: “Let righteous men be
your dinner companions, and in the fear of the Lord your boast will stand.” To the crows
with fornication! “For you may be sure of this,” says the apostle, “that every fornicator
or covetous person, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
God.” But these women take pleasure in the company of effeminate men. Crowds of loose-
tongued perverts slip into the house, foul in body and foul in speech, grown men fit for
shameless services, servants of adultery. They giggle and whisper. Through their noses
they make lewd, unrestrained snorts that signal lust. They try to please with indecent
words and gestures, and they draw out laughter, which comes before fornication. Sometimes,
when some passing anger inflames them, they are fornicators themselves, or devoted
followers of the crowd of perverts to their own destruction. Then they snort through the
nose like frogs, as if bile lived in their nostrils.

4e But the more refined women raise Indian birds and Median peacocks. They recline at
table with deformed, pointy-headed people and play with them, delighted with these satyr-
dance freaks. They laugh when they hear about Thersites, yet they buy Thersiteses at high
prices. They take pride not in their husbands but in these creatures, who are a burden on
the earth. They overlook a chaste widow, who is worth far more than a Maltese lapdog. They
look past a righteous old man, who is better looking, I think, than a freak bought with
silver. They who raise parrots and plovers will not even take in an orphan child. They
expose the babies born in their own homes, but take up the chicks of birds. They prefer
creatures without reason to those with reason. They ought instead to support old men who
profess self-control, who are better looking than monkeys, I think, and can say something
better than nightingales. “As much as you did it to one of these least,” he says, “you did
it to me.” But these women, on the contrary, have put lack of training ahead of self-
control. They turn their fortunes into stone, into pearls and Indian emeralds. Yes, and
they waste and scatter their money on fading dyes and on slaves bought with silver. They
are like well-fed hens scratching through the dung heaps of life. “Poverty,” it says,
“humbles a man.” By poverty he means stinginess, which makes the rich poor in giving, as
though they had nothing.

Behaviour in the Baths.

5a How to behave at the baths. And what are their baths like? They are built-up rooms,
solid yet portable, covered with sheer linen. They have gilded chairs, silver ones too
[text missing], and countless vessels of gold and silver. Some are carried along for
toasts, some for food, some for bathing. They even have braziers of coals. They have
reached such a level of self-indulgence that they dine and get drunk while still bathing.
The silver plate that they parade about they set out, in poor taste, in the bathhouses.
Perhaps this is to show off their wealth out of excessive vanity. But above all it shows
their headstrong lack of training, which lets them denounce unmanly men who are ruled by
women. In doing so they show, and in a way prove, that they themselves cannot even sweat
without a great collection of equipment. For even poor women, who have no share in the
procession, use the same baths.

5b So the grime of excess comes wrapped in plenty of reproach. With this, as with bait,
they hook the poor fools who gape at the glitter of gold. By dazzling the tasteless with
it, they contrive to be admired by their lovers, who a little later treat them with
contempt when they are naked. They would not undress before their own husbands, since they
are after a pretended reputation for modesty. Yet anyone else who wishes may see these
women, who are kept shut up at home, naked in the baths. There they are not ashamed to
strip before spectators, as though before dealers in bodies. Hesiod advises that one
should not even wash the skin in a woman’s bath. But the baths are open to men and women
together, and there they strip for self-indulgence. “For from seeing, people come to
desire,” as though their modesty were washed away in the baths.

5c Some women are not quite so shameless. They shut out strangers, but they bathe together
with their own household servants. They strip naked before their slaves and are rubbed
down by them. In this way they give the servant, who has been cowering with his desire,
freedom to touch without fear. For the men brought in to attend their naked mistresses at
the bath get practice in stripping themselves. By this evil custom they set fear aside and
grow bold in their desire. The athletes of old were ashamed to show a man’s naked body, so
they competed in loincloths and kept their modesty. But these women take off their shame
along with their tunics. They want to look beautiful, but they are shown, against their
will, to be wicked all the same. For the body itself most clearly shows the wanton hunger
of desire, just as in people with dropsy the water shows beneath the surface of the skin.
In both cases the sickness is recognized by the look.

5d So men ought to give women a noble example of truth. They should be ashamed to strip in
front of women, and they should guard against slippery glances. For Scripture says, “He
who has looked too curiously has already sinned.” At home, then, we should show respect to
parents and servants. On the streets we should respect those we meet. In the baths we
should respect the women. In lonely places we should respect ourselves. And everywhere we
should respect the Word, who is everywhere, and “without him not one thing came into
being.” For a person will stay free from falling only if he always believes that God is
present with him.

The Christian Alone Rich.

6a Only the Christian is rich. We must take our share of wealth in a worthy way and give
from it generously, not in a mean or showy way. We must not let the love of beauty turn
into self-love and bad taste. Otherwise someone may say of us, “His horse is worth fifteen
talents, or his land, or his servant, or his gold, but the man himself is worth only three
coppers.” Take away the women’s finery and the masters’ servants, and you will find the
masters no different from slaves who were bought with money: not in the way they walk, or
look, or speak. They look just like their slaves. They differ only by being weaker than
their servants and having been brought up in a more sickly way. So we should sing this
best of teachings on every occasion: the good man, being self-controlled and just, stores
up his wealth in heaven. He sells his earthly goods and gives to the poor, and so finds
the treasure that cannot perish, where no moth and no thief comes. He is truly blessed,
even if he is small, weak and unknown, and he is truly rich with the greatest wealth. But
suppose a man is richer than Cinyras and Midas, yet is unjust and proud. He is like the
man who lived in luxury in purple and fine linen and looked down on Lazarus. That man is
wretched. He lives a painful life, and he will not live.

6b Wealth seems to me to be like a snake. If someone does not know how to pick it up
safely, by holding the creature up at a distance by the tip of its tail, it will wind
around his hand and bite. Wealth is just as dangerous as it wriggles. Whether the hand
that grips it is skilled or unskilled, it is quick to cling and bite. The only safe way is
to look down on it with a great mind and to use it with knowledge. Then, by the charm of
the Word, a person can subdue the creature and remain unharmed himself. But it seems that
the man who owns the things of greater worth is rich without anyone noticing. And the
things of great value are not stone, or silver, or clothing, or bodily beauty. They are
virtue, which is the Word handed on through the Instructor to be put into practice. This
is the Word who swears off luxury. He calls self-reliant work to serve us, and he sings
the praises of simple living, the child of self-control. “Take instruction,” he says, “and
not silver, and knowledge rather than tested gold. For wisdom is better than costly
stones, and nothing precious is worth as much as she is.” And again: “Gain me as your
fruit rather than gold and precious stone and silver. For my produce is better than choice
silver.” But if we must make a distinction, let the man with many possessions be called
“rich,” stuffed with gold like a filthy bag. The just man, though, is the one who is
“well-formed.” For good form is a right order, measured in how one manages and gives. “For
there are those who sow and gather more,” and of such a man it is written, “He scattered,
he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains for ever.” So the rich man is not the one
who has and keeps, but the one who shares. It is the giving, not the owning, that shows a
man to be blessed. Generosity is the fruit of the soul. So real wealth lies in the soul.

6c Let it be granted, then, that good things can be possessed only by good people, and
Christians are good. A foolish or self-indulgent person could neither perceive what is
good nor obtain it. So good things can be possessed by Christians alone. Nothing is richer
than these good things, so Christians alone are rich. For true wealth is righteousness,
and the Word, more precious than any treasure. This wealth does not grow from flocks and
fields but is given by God. It cannot be taken away, and the soul alone is its treasure
house. It is the best possession for its owner, and it makes a person truly blessed. Think
of the man who desires nothing that is not in our power, who gets what he desires, and who
receives from God, by asking, whatever he rightly longs for. Is he not rich in
possessions, indeed in everything, when he has God as his everlasting treasure? “To the
one who asks,” it says, “it will be given, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
If God refuses nothing, then everything belongs to the godly person.

Frugality a Good Provision for the Christian.

7a Luxury that wanders off into pleasures becomes a terrible shipwreck for people. For
this pleasant but inglorious life of the many is foreign to true love of what is beautiful
and to refined pleasures. By nature a human being is a lofty and proud creature who seeks
what is noble, since he is the work of the One who alone is noble. But a life lived for
the belly is undignified, disgraceful, ugly and laughable. Love of pleasure is most
foreign to the divine nature: to eat like sparrows, and to mate like pigs and goats. To
think pleasure a good is the mark of complete lack of taste for what is truly excellent.
Love of money, too, drives a person from the right way of living. It persuades him to feel
no shame at shameful things, “so long as he has the power, like a beast, to eat all kinds
of food, to drink in the same way, and to take his fill of sexual pleasure in every way.”

7b For this reason such a person very rarely inherits the kingdom of God. Why, then, are
so many dishes prepared, except to fill a single belly? The sewers prove the filthiness of
gluttony, for our bellies spit out into them the leftovers of the feast. Why do they
gather so many cupbearers, when one cup would be enough to fill them? Why the chests of
clothing? Why the gold? Why the ornaments? These things are made ready for clothes-thieves
and criminals, and for greedy eyes. “Let acts of mercy and faithfulness not forsake you,”
says the Scripture. Look, we have in Elijah the Tishbite a fine example of frugality, when
he “sat down under the broom tree” and the angel brought him food: “there was a barley
loaf baked in the ashes and a flask of water.” That was the meal the Lord sent him. 7c As
we travel toward the truth, then, we must travel light. “Do not carry,” said the Lord, “a
purse, a bag, or sandals.” That is: do not acquire wealth that is merely stored up in a
purse. Do not fill your own storehouses, as if you were packing grain into a bag, but
share with those in need. Do not busy yourselves with pack animals and servants, who carry
the burdens of the rich on their journey and are called “sandals” in a figurative sense.
So we must throw away the great mass of household goods, the silver and gold drinking
cups, and the crowd of servants. In their place we take from the Instructor two fine and
dignified companions, self-help and simplicity. We must walk in step with the Word, even
if a man has a wife and children. A household is no burden when it has learned to follow a
self-controlled traveler. The wife who loves her husband must be equipped like him for the
road. Both of them carry simplicity along with one chaste dignity, a good provision for
the journey to heaven. As the foot is the measure of the sandal, so each person’s body is
the measure of what he should own. What goes beyond that, what people call “ornaments,”
and the furnishings of the rich, is a burden and no adornment to the body.

7d Whoever is pressing hard to climb up into the heavens must carry about the good staff
of doing good, and by sharing with those in distress, take his share of true rest. For
Scripture agrees that “a man’s own wealth is the ransom of his soul.” That is, if he is
rich, he will be saved by giving to others. Think of wells that naturally flow freely:
when they are drawn down, they rise again to their former level. In the same way giving is
a good spring of kindness to people. When it shares drink with the thirsty, it grows and
fills again, just as milk usually flows into breasts that are nursed or milked. For the
one who has the Word, the almighty God, lacks nothing and is never at a loss for anything
he needs. The Word is a possession that lacks nothing, and the cause of all plenty.
Someone may say he has often seen a righteous man short of bread. That is rare, and
happens only where there is no other righteous man around. Even so, let him read this as
well: “For the righteous man will not live on bread alone, but by the word of the Lord.”
That Word is the true bread, the bread of the heavens.

7e The good man, then, is never in need, as long as he keeps his confession of God sound.
For he may ask and receive from the Father of all whatever he needs, and enjoy what is his
own, if he keeps the Son. He may also feel no want at all. This Word, who is our
instructor, gives us riches, and there is no envy in being rich for those who gain,
through him, freedom from want. Whoever has this wealth will inherit the kingdom of God.

Similitudes and Examples a Most Important Part of Right Instruction.

8a Similitudes and examples are a very important part of right instruction. If any of you
avoids luxury to the end, nursing yourself on simple living, you will find it easier to
bear hardships you do not choose. By constantly making voluntary troubles your exercises
for persecutions, you will not be untrained in endurance when you come to unavoidable
hardships, fears and griefs. This is why we have no homeland on earth: so that we may look
down on earthly possessions. Simplicity is the richest condition, since it never runs
short in spending, when money is spent on what it should be, and as much as it should be.
For expenses are “charges” (tele). How a wife should live with her husband, and about
doing one’s own work, housekeeping and the use of servants, and also about the proper time
for marriage and what suits women, we will go through in our discourse on marriage. Here
we must set down only what belongs to instruction, sketching in outline the life of
Christians.

8b Most things have now been said and taught. What remains I will add, since examples are
no small weight toward salvation. See what the tragedy says: “Telemachus did not kill the
wife of Odysseus; for she did not marry husband upon husband, but the bed stayed sound in
the house.” In rebuking shameless adultery, the poet held up a fine picture of chastity,
love for one’s husband. And the Spartans made the Helots (Helots is the name of their
slaves) drink to excess. They showed their own sober men the deeds of drunkenness, as a
kind of cure and correction. Watching the Helots’ disgraceful behavior, so as not to fall
into the same condemnation, the Spartans were trained, and benefited by the shame of the
drunkards to keep themselves free from fault. For some people were saved by being taught,
and others by teaching themselves; they either pursued virtue eagerly or searched for it.

8c “Best of all is the man who works out everything for himself.” That is Abraham, who
sought God. “Good also is the man who obeys one who speaks well.” These are the disciples
who were persuaded by the Word. So the one was called a friend, and the others apostles.
The one busied himself in search, the others preached, one and the same God. Both are
good. Their hearers are of two kinds: one is helped through searching, the other saved
through finding. “But whoever neither understands for himself nor takes to heart what he
hears from another, he is a useless man.” This is the people who do not follow Christ. Yet
the loving Instructor helps in many ways. Some things he urged, some he rebuked. When
others sinned, he showed us their shame, and made plain the punishment that followed. In
this he both led our souls and warned us, devising a kindly way to turn us from evil by
showing what others had suffered before. By these pictures he plainly stopped some who
were in a bad state, and held back those who dared the same things. He built others up in
endurance, and made others stop their wickedness. Others he healed, when they changed for
the better by looking at their like.

8d Who, when following someone along a road, would not take care, if the man ahead fell
into a pit, to turn aside from the same danger, guarding against following him into his
sin? Again, what athlete in training has learned the way to glory and seen the competitor
before him win the prize, and does not himself race for the crown, imitating the older
man? There are many such pictures in divine wisdom. But I will mention one example and set
it out briefly. The suffering of the Sodomites was a judgment on those who did wrong, and
instruction for those who heard of it. The Sodomites, through great luxury, ran aground on
licentiousness. They committed adultery without fear and were wildly inflamed with passion
for boys. The all-seeing Word looked on them. Those who do unholy things cannot hide from
him, and the sleepless guardian of humanity did not keep silent about their
licentiousness. He wanted to turn us away from imitating them and to train us toward his
own self-control. So he brought punishment on the sinners, so that lust going unpunished
should not gain a flood of impunity. He ordered Sodom to be burned, pouring out a little
of that wise fire on their lack of restraint. Otherwise their lust, grown unchecked, would
have thrown wide the gates for those rushing toward pleasure.

8e So the just punishment of the Sodomites became, for people, a picture of salvation that
is reasonable. Those who have not sinned as the punished did would never suffer the same
penalty as those sinners, since by not sinning they are kept from suffering. “For I want
you to know,” says Jude, “that God, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt,
afterwards destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their own
rank but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the
judgment of the great day.” Then, a little further on, he sets out in a very instructive
way the pictures of those who are judged: “Woe to them, for they have gone the way of
Cain, have poured themselves out in the error of Balaam, and have perished in the
rebellion of Korah.” For fear keeps from insolence those who cannot bear the freedom of
adoption as sons.

8f This is why there are punishments and threats: so that, fearing the penalties, we may
hold back from sinning. I could tell you of the punishments for love of the world and for
love of glory, and not only for lack of self-control. I could also set beside them the
condemnations of the foolish talk that comes from wealth, in which the Word holds us back
from wrongdoing by making us afraid. But to spare the length of this work, I now bring you
the next commands of the Instructor, so that you may heed his warnings.

Why We are to Use the Bath.

9a Why the bath is to be used. Now, to return to the point where I turned aside: there are
four reasons why we go to the bath. These are cleanliness, warmth, health, and lastly
pleasure. Bathing for pleasure must be set aside, for shameless pleasure must be cut out
by the roots. Women should take the bath for cleanliness and health; men for health alone.
Bathing for warmth is unnecessary, since a body stiff with cold can be comforted in other
ways. Constant use of the bath wears down strength and loosens the body’s natural tone,
and it often brings on weakness and fainting. For in a certain way bodies drink, like
trees, not only through the mouth but also through the opening of the pores over the whole
body in the bath, as they say. 9b Here is the proof: people who are thirsty have often
gone into the water and so cured their thirst. So even if the bath is useful for some
purpose, we should not give ourselves up to it. The ancients called baths “places for
fulling people,” since they wear out the body into rags and force it to grow old sooner
than it should. They boil the body, as it were, and the flesh is softened by the heat like
iron. So we then need cold water, like the dipping and tempering of the metal. Nor should
we bathe every time we can. If someone is very empty, or on the other hand overfull, he
should avoid the bath, and he should also consider the age of his body and the season of
the year. For the bath does not benefit everyone, or at all times, as the experts in these
matters agree. For us moderation is enough, which we call on everywhere as a help in life.
We should not spend so long at the bath that we need someone to lead us by the hand, nor
bathe constantly and many times a day, as if going to the marketplace.

9c It is also an outrage against our neighbors to have several servants pour water over
us. Such people grab more than their share out of love of luxury, and refuse to understand
that the bath is equally common to all who bathe. Above all we should wash the soul with
the cleansing Word. The body we wash sometimes because of the dirt that grows on it, and
sometimes also to ease weariness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” says
the Lord, “for you are like whitewashed tombs. Outwardly the tomb looks beautiful, but
inside it is full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” And again he says to the same
people: “Woe to you, because you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside
they are full of uncleanness. First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may
be clean too.” The best bath, then, scrubs the filth from the soul, and it is spiritual.
Of this the prophecy says plainly: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and
daughters of Israel, and will cleanse the blood from their midst.” This means the blood of
lawlessness and the murders of the prophets. And the Word went on to name the manner of
the cleansing: “by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” The bodily, fleshly
washing, by contrast, is done with water alone, as often happens in the country, where
there is no bath.

The Exercises Suited to a Good Life.

10a Those who live by reason should also approve of exercise. For young men the gymnasium
is enough, even if a bath is at hand. Indeed, it is perhaps no bad thing for men to choose
exercises before baths above all else. They have something useful for the health of the
young, and they stir up zeal and ambition to care not only for good physical condition but
also for courage of soul. When this is done without being pulled away from better work, it
is pleasant and not unprofitable. Women are not to be excluded from bodily exertion
either. But they should not be urged toward wrestling and running. Let them exercise by
spinning wool, by weaving, and by standing beside the woman who bakes, if need be. Wives
should also fetch with their own hands from the storeroom what we need, and there is no
shame in their going to the mill. Nor is it a disgrace for a wife who keeps the house and
helps her husband to busy herself with the cooking, so that it is pleasing to him.

10b If she also shakes out the bedding herself, hands a drink to her thirsty husband, and
sets food before him, she will be exercising herself most becomingly and for sound health.
The Instructor approves of such a wife, who “stretches out her arms to useful tasks, and
her hands hold the spindle. She opened her hands to the poor and reached out her fruit to
the needy.” She was not ashamed of the finest service, imitating Sarah in waiting on
travelers. For Abraham said to her, “Hurry, and knead three measures of fine flour, and
make hearth cakes.” “Rachel, the daughter of Laban,” it says, “came with her father’s
sheep.” And that was not enough: to teach freedom from pride, the text adds, “for she was
feeding her father’s sheep.” The Scriptures offer countless examples of simple living and
self-reliance, and also of exercise. 10c Among men, let some strip and take part in
wrestling. Let others play the small-ball game called phaininda, especially in the sun.
For others a walk is enough, whether they go out to the country or down into town. If they
also take up a hoe, this is no ignoble side-activity: it is economical, and it is farm
exercise. I had almost overlooked the famous Pittacus, the king of the Mytileneans, who is
said to have used active exercise (the older English says he turned the mill). It is also
good to draw water for oneself and to chop the wood one will use. “Jacob was shepherding
the rest of Laban’s sheep,” carrying a royal sign, “a rod of storax wood,” and practicing
by means of the wood to change nature for the better. For many people, reading aloud is
also at times an exercise. As for the wrestling we have approved, let it not be taken up
out of useless rivalry, but to bring out a man’s sweat. We should not work at the skilful
tricks, the show-off side of it, but at straight wrestling, freeing the neck, hands and
sides. Such exercise is more orderly and manly, done with seemly strength for the sake of
useful, beneficial health. The other kinds of athletic labor announce training in postures
unworthy of free men.

10d We must always aim at the right measure. Just as it is best for work to come before
meals, so working beyond the measure is very bad, tiring, and productive of sickness. So
we should not be altogether idle, nor completely worn out with toil. As we have explained
about food, so in everything and everywhere our way of life should not be turned toward
soft living and self-indulgence, nor to the opposite extreme of harshness. It should take
the middle course between them, one that is well-tuned, self-controlled, and free of both
vices, luxury and stinginess. As we have also said before, doing things for oneself is an
exercise that keeps pride away. Examples are putting on one’s own shoes, washing one’s own
feet, and rubbing oneself down after being oiled. To give the same service in return, turn
and turn about, to the one who has rubbed you is likewise an exercise in shared justice.
So too is staying up through the night beside a sick friend, helping one who cannot help
himself, and setting food before one in need.

10e “And Abraham,” it says, “set a meal before the three of them under the tree, and stood
by them while they ate.” Fishing is also fitting, as with Peter, if we have time to spare
from the necessary lessons of the Word. But better is the catch the Lord gave to his
disciple, when he taught him to fish for people through water, as one fishes for fish.

A Compendious View of the Christian Life.

11a A Summary Survey of the Best Life. For this reason we need not cut off entirely the
wearing of gold or the use of softer clothing. But we must put a bridle on the irrational
impulses, so that they do not throw us into soft living by carrying us off in a flood of
too much ease. Luxury that has run on into excess is terrible: it leaps about, rears up,
and throws off its driver, the Instructor. He, from a distance, pulls back on the reins
and leads and drives toward salvation the human horse. That is the irrational part of the
soul, which turns wild over pleasures, blameworthy desires, jewels, gold, embroidered
clothing and other finery. Above all we should keep in mind what was said in a holy way:
“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles good, so that when they slander you as evildoers,
they may see your good works and glorify God.” So the Instructor allows us simple
clothing, and white in colour, as we said before. We are then not to be at home with what
is patterned by artifice, but with what is produced by nature. We should push aside
everything deceitful that tells lies against the truth, and embrace the single manner and
single face of the truth.

11b Sophocles, rebuking a soft-living young man, says: “You make a show in clothes that
imitate a woman’s.” For as there is a proper dress for a soldier, a sailor and a ruler, so
the proper dress for a self-controlled person is one that is unfussy, becoming and clean.
For this reason the law about leprosy given through Moses in the Law rejects what is
multicoloured and heavily spotted as unholy, since it resembles the mottled scales of the
serpent. It wants the person who is no longer decked out in a variety of colours, but has
turned wholly white from the top of the head to the soles of the feet, to be clean. Thus,
by a change from the body to the mind, we are to let go of the variegated and cunning
passion of the mind, and love the plain, unhesitating, simple colour of the truth. In this
also Plato, best in everything, shows himself an admirer of Moses. He approves of that
kind of weaving which needs no more work than a modest woman can give. He says: “White
colours are fitting for dignity, in weaving as elsewhere; but dyes are not to be used,
except for the ornaments of war.” So white suits peaceable people, people of light.

11c Signs that stand closest to their causes show the presence of the cause, or rather
prove the existence of what produced them. Smoke shows fire, and good colour and a strong
pulse show health. In the same way, among us, this kind of clothing displays the settled
state of our character. Self-control is clean and plain. Cleanness is a condition that
provides for a pure way of life, unmixed with anything shameful. Plainness is a condition
that removes what is excessive. Sturdy clothing, especially unbleached cloth, keeps in the
heat of the body. It is not that the clothing has heat in itself, but that it turns back
the heat leaving the body and gives it no way out. If any heat from outside falls on it,
the cloth catches and keeps it, and being warmed by it, warms the body in return. That is
why it should be used especially in winter. Such clothing is also easy to live with. Ease
of living is an unexcessive condition that accepts what is enough to keep life from
lacking anything, so that one lives a life according to reason, healthy and blessed.

11d A woman too should wear plain and modest clothing. It may be softer than is fitting
for a man, but it should not be altogether shameless, nor so soft that it is all luxury
and slackness. Clothes should suit a person’s age, appearance, place, build and way of
life. The divine apostle counsels us very well “to put on Christ Jesus, and to make no
provision for the flesh for its desires.” The Word forbids us to do violence to nature by
piercing the lobes of the ears. For why not the nose as well? Then the saying would be
fulfilled: “Like an earring in a pig’s snout, so is beauty on a woman without sense.” In
short, if anyone thinks gold makes her beautiful, she is lower than gold, and one who is
lower than gold is not its master. And to admit that you are less adorned than a speck of
Lydian gold dust, is that not utterly absurd?

11e Gold is fouled by the filthiness of a sow when she stirs up the muck with her snout.
In the same way, the more pampered women, puffed up by their wealth, run wild in
wantonness and insult true beauty with the defilement of sexual indulgence. The Word,
then, allows them a gold ring, though not as an ornament. It is for sealing whatever in
the house is worth guarding, because of their care in keeping house. If everyone were well
trained, there would be no need of seals, since righteous people, servants and masters
alike, would be on equal terms. But since lack of training gives a strong push toward
wrongdoing, we have needed seals. Yet there are times to ease the strictness. Sometimes we
must forgive women who have not been fortunate in finding a self-controlled marriage, and
who adorn themselves to please their husbands. Let their limit be this: that their
eagerness to be admired is directed only at their own husbands.

11f I myself would not want them to cultivate bodily attractiveness at all. I would rather
they won their husbands by self-controlled love for them, which is a compelling and
righteous charm. Even so, since they choose to be unhappy in soul, let them, if they
really want to be self-controlled, set themselves to calm their husbands’ irrational
impulses and desires gently. They should lead their husbands quietly toward simplicity, by
accustoming them little by little to greater self-restraint. For a dignified bearing comes
not from adding something burdensome but from taking away what is excessive. In the same
way, women’s luxury goods must be clipped like swift wings. They produce unstable puffed-
up vanity and empty pleasures, and lifted up and winged by these, women often fly away
from their marriages. So women must be kept in an orderly way and bound with the restraint
of modest reserve, so that they do not slip away from the truth through vanity.

11g It is good, then, for husbands who trust their wives to entrust the care of the house
to them, since they were given as helpers for this. But we men may need to take part in
city life or manage other tasks in the country, often away from our wives, and may need to
seal something for safety. For this alone the Word gives us a signet. All other rings must
be thrown away, since, as Scripture says, “a golden ornament is instruction for a prudent
man.” Women who wear gold seem to me to be afraid that, if someone takes their gold away,
they will be taken for slaves rather than adorned women. But the true nobility, which is
judged by what is naturally beautiful in the soul, does not tell a slave by sale and
purchase. It tells him by a servile mind. It is fitting for us not to appear free but to
be free, since we are trained by God and adopted by God.

11h So we must discard every trace of the slavish in our standing, moving, walking, dress
and, in a word, our whole way of life, and make them as truly free as possible. Men should
not wear the ring on the joint, for that is feminine. They should wear it on the little
finger, pushed down to its base. That way the hand will be most useful for whatever work
we need it for, and the signet will not easily fall off, since it is held by the thicker
joint. Let our seals be a dove, or a fish, or a ship running before the wind, or a musical
lyre, as Polycrates used, or a ship’s anchor, which Seleucus had engraved as his device.
If someone is a fisherman, he will remember the apostle and the children drawn up out of
the water. We must not engrave the faces of idols, since we are forbidden even to pay
attention to them. Nor should we engrave a sword or a bow, since we pursue peace, or
drinking cups, since we practice self-control.

11i Many licentious people have their lovers or their mistresses engraved on their rings.
They seem unwilling ever to forget their love affairs, even if they wanted to, because
their licentiousness is constantly brought back to mind. On the matter of hair, this is my
judgment. A man’s head should be close-cropped, unless his hair is naturally curly, but
his chin should be bearded. The twisted locks on the head should not hang down too far and
slide into womanish ringlets, for a “fine beard” is enough for men. If someone does trim
some of his beard, he must not make it completely bare, for that is an ugly sight. Cutting
the beard right down to the skin is condemned, since it comes close to plucking and
smoothing it. The psalmist, for example, delighting in the hair of the beard, says, “Like
the ointment that runs down on the beard, the beard of Aaron.” By repeating the word
“beard” he praised its seemliness, and he made the face shine with the ointment of the
Lord.

11j Cutting the hair is not to be taken up for the sake of beauty but out of necessity.
The hair on the head should be cut so that, as it grows, it does not come down and get in
the way of the eyes. The hair on the moustache, which gets dirty when we eat, should
perhaps be cut too. This should be done not with a razor, which is unbecoming for a free
man, but with a pair of cropping scissors. The hair on the chin, however, should not be
disturbed when it causes no trouble, since it gives the face dignity and a fatherly, awe-
inspiring look. Appearance also trains many not to sin, because they would be easily found
out. But for those who do not want to sin openly, an appearance that goes unnoticed and
does not stand out is most welcome. Hidden behind it, they can go astray without being
recognized, and because they look like the crowd they enjoy sinning without fear. A shaved
head, then, not only shows a man to be austere. It also makes the skull hardier, by
accustoming it to cold and heat, and it keeps off the harm that hair soaks up like a
sponge from these and then lodges in the brain, so that the damage from the moisture
lasts.

11k For women it is enough to keep their hair soft and to tie it up simply at the neck
with a plain pin. With this unaffected care they let their modest hair grow into true
beauty. The elaborate twisting of hair that prostitutes go in for, and the binding of it
into coils, make women look unsightly. They also damage the hair, pulling it out with
those cunning braids. Because of the braids, women dare not even touch their own heads for
fear of disturbing their hair. Even sleep comes with anxiety, in case they unknowingly
spoil the shape of the arrangement. But adding other people’s hair is to be rejected
entirely. It is utterly godless to fit foreign hair onto the head, dressing the skull in
dead locks. For on whom will the elder lay his hand? Whom will he bless? Not the woman who
has been adorned, but the strange hair, and through it another head.

11l “The head of a woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ.” So how is it not
godless for these women to fall into a double sin? They deceive the men by substituting
hair that is not their own. And as far as it lies in them, they shame the Lord by adorning
themselves like prostitutes, to the deception of the truth, and they slander the head that
is truly beautiful. So hair must not be dyed, nor must grey hair be changed in colour, for
we are not even permitted to vary the colours of our clothing. Above all, the venerable
and trustworthy look of old age should not be covered up. The mark of honour should be
shown in the light of God, to win the respect of the young. For sometimes, when young
people have been shameless, the sight of grey hair, standing over them like a tutor, has
turned them to self-control, and the brightness of its appearance has stunned the youthful
rage of desire.

11m Women also must not rub their faces with the tricks of crafty cleverness. Instead, let
us show them a modest kind of beautifying. The best beauty is first of all that of the
soul, as I have often pointed out. This is when the soul is adorned by the Holy Spirit and
breathed upon by the bright graces that come from him: righteousness, prudence, courage,
self-control, love of the good, and modesty. No colour more blooming than modesty has ever
been seen. Next, let bodily beauty also be cultivated: “the symmetry of limbs and parts,
with a good colour.” The beautifying that belongs to health is suitable here. By it the
artificial image gives way to what is real, according to the form given by God. A well-
tempered mixture in drinks and moderation in food are wonderfully able to beautify in
accord with nature. For through these the body not only keeps its health but also lets its
beauty show through.

11n From what is fiery come gleam and sparkle. From what is moist come brightness and
grace. From what is dry come manliness and firmness. From what is airy come easy breathing
and balance. With these the Word’s well-proportioned and beautiful statue is adorned.
Beauty is the free-born flower of health. Health works inside the body, while beauty
blossoms out to the surface and shows a healthy complexion. So the finest and healthiest
ways of training, by working the body hard, produce a beauty that is genuine and lasting.
Heat draws to itself all the moisture and the cold breath, and heat is fanned into drawing
power by movement. Once it has drawn them in, it gently warms the flesh and steams off
through the flesh itself the surplus left from food, with a measure of moisture but an
excess of heat. 11o For this reason the earlier food is also cleared away. But if the body
does not move, the food it has eaten does not take hold. It drops out, like bread from a
cold oven, which comes out either whole or with only the bottom left behind. So it is
natural that those who live in excess, and do not rub it off by exercise, produce too much
urine and excrement. They also have too much of the other waste, and sweat as well,
because the food is not distributed through the body but spills out into waste. Lusts also
arise from this, since the surplus flows to the organs of procreation. So this surplus
should be melted away by moderate exercise and dissolved into digestion, and it is
digestion that gives beauty its rosy color. It is absurd for people made “in the image and
likeness of God” to dishonor the original, as it were, by bringing in a foreign cosmetic
art. They prefer human trickery to the creation of God.

11p The Instructor commands women to come forward “in modest dress, adorning themselves
with modesty and self-control,” “submitting to their own husbands, so that even if some
are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,
as they watch,” he says, “your pure conduct in the word. Let your adornment not be the
outward braiding of hair and putting on of gold or wearing of clothes. Let it be the
hidden person of the heart, in the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is very precious in God’s sight.” Working with their own hands, above all, brings
women genuine beauty. It exercises their bodies and adorns them by their own efforts. They
do not bring out an adornment made by others, which is unadorned, servile and fit for a
prostitute. Instead each self-controlled woman brings what she herself has made and woven
with her own hands, whenever she needs it most. For it is never fitting for women who live
as citizens according to God to appear adorned with things bought in the market. They
should be adorned by the work of the household.

11q For a woman who keeps house is a most beautiful piece of work. She clothes herself and
her husband in ornaments of her own making. In these all rejoice: the children in their
mother, the husband in his wife, she in them, and all of them in God. In short, a woman of
courage is a storehouse of virtue. She “did not eat the bread of idleness, and the rules
of almsgiving are on her tongue.” She “opened her mouth wisely and lawfully, and her
children rose up and called her blessed,” as the holy Word says through Solomon, “and her
husband praised her. For a godly woman is blessed, and let her praise the fear of the
Lord.” And again: “A woman of courage is a crown to her husband.” Above all, their
bearing, their looks, their walk and their voices must be set right. 11r They must not
behave like some women who envy the playacting of comedy and copy the loose movements of
dancers, and so strut about on a stage in company. They glance around in a languid way,
with soft movements, gliding steps and put-on voices, trained as bait for pleasure. “For
honey drips from the lips of a prostitute, who speaks to please and makes your throat
smooth. But afterward you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged
sword. For the feet of folly lead those who use her down to Hades, with death.” Samson,
noble man that he was, was beaten by a prostitute, and another woman cut off his hair. But
no other woman deceived Joseph like that. The Egyptian prostitute was beaten, and self-
control, though it took bonds, showed itself stronger than the one who was free.

11s That saying also fits very well: “In short, I do not know how to whisper, or to walk
about with my neck bent sideways in a limp way, as I see other men doing here in the city,
many of them effeminate, with their hair plucked out with pitch.” Womanish movements,
softness and luxury must be cut out completely. For a delicate, pampered way of walking,
and “walking with a mincing gait,” as Anacreon puts it, is altogether the manner of
courtesans, or so it seems to me. Comedy says that the tracks of courtesans leave behind
youthful beauty and luxury. And Scripture says: “A prostitute’s footprints do not rest
firmly on the truth; for she does not travel the paths of life, and her tracks are
slippery and hard to recognize.” Above all the eyes must be spared, since it is better to
slip with the feet than with the eyes. So the Lord cures this passion in the shortest way,
when he says, “If your eye causes you to stumble, cut it out,” pulling desire up from its
foundations. Languishing looks and ogling, that is, winking with the eyes, are nothing
other than committing adultery with the eyes, as desire shoots its darts through them.

11t For the eyes are ruined before the rest of the body. “An eye that looks on fine things
gladdens the heart.” That is, the eye that has learned to look well gladdens it. “But one
who winks his eye with deceit gathers griefs for men.” They portray the effeminate
Sardanapalus, king of the Assyrians, in much this way: sitting on a couch with his feet
up, carding purple wool and rolling up the whites of his eyes. Women who practice these
things act as their own procurers by their looks. For Scripture says, “The eye is the lamp
of the body,” by which the things inside are shown, lit up by the light that shines out.
“A woman’s fornication is in the lifting of her eyes.” “Put to death, then, the members
that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry, on account of which the wrath of God comes,” the apostle cries out. Yet
we fan the passions into flame and are not ashamed.

11u Some of these women go about “chewing mastic” and grin at those who pass by. Others
behave as though they had no fingers, and put on delicate airs while scratching their
heads with the pins they carry. They go to great trouble over these pins, which are made
of tortoiseshell, or ivory, or the body of some other dead animal. Others act as if they
had some sort of blemishes, and to look attractive to onlookers they decorate themselves
with brightly colored cosmetics and so stain their own faces. Through Solomon he calls
such a woman “foolish and brazen, a woman who knows no shame. She sat on a chair at the
doors of her own house, openly calling to those passing by, those who were keeping their
paths straight.” By her posture and her whole way of life she is plainly saying, “Which of
you is the most foolish? Let him turn aside to me.” And to those who lack sense she urges,
saying, “Gladly touch secret bread and sweet stolen water.” By this he means this stealthy
Aphrodite.

11v Helped by this, Pindar of Boeotia says, “Something sweet is the stolen delight of
Cypris.” “But the wretched man does not know that earthborn men perish with her, and he
comes to the very ledge of Hades. So leap away,” says the Instructor, “and do not linger
in that place, or fix your eye on her. For in this way you will cross foreign water and
pass over the Acheron.” This is why the Lord says these things through Isaiah: “Because
the daughters of Zion walked with raised neck and winking eyes, dragging their tunics as
they walked and playing with their feet, God will humble the daughters of Zion and will
uncover their shape.” That is, their shameful shape. For my part, I do not think the
maidservants who walk at the women’s left, or who follow them, should speak shamefully or
act shamefully. They should be corrected by their mistresses. The comic poet Philemon
speaks very sharply: “As I went out, I saw behind a free woman only one maidservant
following, a pretty one, and some man from Plataea tagging along and ogling her.”

11w The wantonness of a maidservant rebounds on her mistress. It gives a foothold to men
who try small liberties first, so that they need not fear to go on to greater ones. For
the mistress, by tolerating shameful conduct, shows that she does not condemn it. And not
to be angry with those who behave licentiously is a plain proof of a mind inclined the
same way. “Like mistress, like dog,” as the proverb-makers say. We must also drive out of
our walking any wild, frantic manner. We should choose a dignified and unhurried pace,
though not a dawdling step. A man must not swagger in the streets, or throw his head back
and glance sideways at those he meets to see whether they are looking at him, as if he
were parading on a stage and being pointed out with fingers. Nor should men be pushed up a
slope by their servants, as we see the more pampered do. They think themselves strong, but
they are worn down by softness of soul.

11x A noble man must show no visible sign of softness in his face, or indeed in any other
part of his body. So let the ugly mark of unmanliness never be found in his movements or
his postures. Nor should a healthy man use his servants as pack animals. Servants are
commanded “to be subject to their masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle
but also to the crooked,” as Peter says. In the same way fairness, patience and kindness
suit masters. For he says, “Finally, all be of one mind, sympathetic, loving as brothers,
tenderhearted, humble,” and what follows, “that you may inherit a blessing.” Zeno of
Citium seems to sketch a fine and lovable portrait for a young person, and he sculpts him
like this: “Let the face be clear, the brow not drooping, the eye neither wide open nor
melting. Let the neck not be thrown back, nor the limbs of the body slack, but held up as
if they were taut. Let there be quickness to hear a word and make it one’s own, and a firm
hold on what has been rightly said. Let the postures and movements give the licentious no
hope at all.

11y Let modesty and manliness bloom in him. Let him stay away from loitering in the
perfume shops, goldsmiths’ shops, wool shops and other workshops, where people dressed
like prostitutes spend whole days, like women sitting on a brothel’s roof.” So men too
must stop spending their time in barbers’ shops and taverns, chattering idly and hunting
the women who pass by. Many of them never stop slandering others for a laugh. The game of
dice should also be forbidden, and the practice of greed through knucklebones, which such
men love to handle. Self-indulgence with no restraint invents things like this for those
who spend their leisure badly. The cause is idleness. A man falls in love with empty
things that lie outside the truth. There is no other way to get pleasure without harm. And
the choice a person makes about how to live reflects the mind of each one.

11z But, it seems, only company with good men does us good. On the other hand, the all-
wise Instructor, through Moses, knew that living with worthless people is swinish, so he
forbade the older people to eat pork. He was showing that those who call on God must not
mix with unclean people. Such people, like pigs, are itching for bodily pleasures, for
foul food, and for lewd titillations, and they delight in the ill-joyed pleasure of sex.
He also says not to eat “kite, or swift-winged bird that tears at the breast, or eagle.”
He means, “You shall not go near those who earn their living by plunder.” The other
animals are explained allegorically in the same way. With whom, then, should we keep
company? Again speaking allegorically, he says: with the righteous. For everything that
“parts the hoof and chews the cud” is clean. The parted hoof shows a balanced
righteousness. The chewing of the cud shows righteousness feeding on its own proper food,
the Word. The Word enters from outside, like food, through instruction, and is sent back
up from within, as if from the stomach of the mind, for rational remembrance.

3.11aa The righteous man chews the cud of spiritual food, keeping the Word in his mouth.
And righteousness fittingly parts the hoof, because it sanctifies us here and sends us on
to the age to come. So the Instructor will not take us to the shows either. It would not
be unfitting to call the stadiums and theatres “the seat of plagues.” There is a wicked
“counsel” here, just as there was against the Righteous One, and so the gathering against
him is cursed. These assemblies are full of great disorder and lawlessness. The very
reasons for coming together cause indecency, since men and women come mixed together to
look at one another. At this point the whole gathering becomes vain and showy. With the
eyes feasting greedily, desires grow warm. Eyes grow used to looking more boldly at those
nearby, because they have leisure to do so, and they set erotic desires ablaze.

3.11ab So let us also give up the shows and the public recitals, which are full of coarse
jokes and idle chatter. What shameful deed is not put on display in the theatres? What
shameless word do the clowns not bring out? Those who have enjoyed the wickedness shown
there carry its vivid images home with them. By contrast, those who are not charmed by
such things and are unmoved by them will never stumble into easy-going pleasures. People
will say they take up the shows as a kind of play, for the heart’s delight. But I would
say that cities which take even their play so seriously are not sound-minded. For these
ruthless rivalries for glory, which end in so many deaths, are no longer play. Nor are the
empty enthusiasms and thoughtless ambitions, or the pointless waste of money, and nor are
the riots that follow from them still play.

3.11ac Relaxation must never be bought at the price of empty zeal. No one with any sense
would choose what is more pleasant over what is better. “But,” someone says, “we are not
all philosophers.” Then do we not all pursue life? What are you saying? How, then, have
you come to believe? How do you still love God and your neighbor, if you do not pursue
wisdom? How do you love yourself, if you do not love life? “I never learned letters,” he
says. But even if you have not learned to read, you have no excuse for not hearing, since
hearing does not have to be taught. Faith is the possession not of those who are wise by
the world’s standard, but of those who are wise by God’s. It is trained even without
letters. Its book, plain and yet divine, is called love, a spiritual composition. It is
possible to listen to divine wisdom, and also to live as a citizen of it. Nothing forbids
you to conduct the affairs of this world decently, in a way that honors God.

3.11ad Let the one who sells or buys never name two prices for what he buys or sells. Let
him name a single price and practice telling the truth. If he does not get that price, he
still gets the truth, and he is rich in right disposition. Let praising of the goods and
oaths over anything sold be far away, and let oaths be far away in everything else. In
this way too let the market people and shopkeepers practice philosophy. “You shall not
take the name of the Lord in vain, for the Lord will not cleanse the one who takes his
name in vain.” Those who act against these things, the lovers of money, the liars, the
hypocrites, those who peddle the truth, the Lord drove out of his Father’s courtyard. He
did not want the holy house of God to be a house of dishonest trade, whether in words or
in goods made of material things.

3.11ae Woman and man are to be led to the church decently dressed, walking without
affectation, loving silence, possessing “love without hypocrisy,” pure in body and pure in
heart, fit to pray to God. Let the woman take this further: let her be covered entirely,
unless she happens to be at home. For that dress is dignified, and it keeps her from being
gazed at. She will never fall if she puts modesty and her covering before her eyes, and
she will not tempt another into the slip of sin by uncovering her face. This is what the
Word wills, since it is fitting for her to pray veiled. They say that Aeneas’ wife, out of
extreme modesty, did not uncover herself even when Troy was being captured and she was in
terror. Though fleeing from the burning city, she stayed veiled. Those who are being
initiated into Christ ought to appear like this, and to shape themselves like this,
throughout their whole life, just as they make themselves look more solemn in the
churches. They ought to be such people, not merely seem to be, so gentle, so reverent, so
loving. But now, somehow, they change their appearance and manners along with the place,
just as they say octopuses become like the rocks they cling to and take on their color.

3.11af When they leave this place, they lay aside the God-inspired spirit of the assembly
and become like the many people they live among. Or rather, by dropping the false show of
solemnity, they are exposed as what they secretly were. They showed reverence for the word
about God, but they have left it inside, where they heard it. Outside they carry on
foolishly with the godless, filled with strumming and love-song trills, flute-singing,
clapping, drunkenness and every kind of rubbish. These are the same people who earlier
sang hymns to immortality. They sing along, and sing back and forth, and in the end,
wicked as they are, they wickedly sing the most ruinous of reversals: “Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die.” But they are dead to God not tomorrow but already. They are
burying their own dead, that is, burying themselves in death. The apostle stands firmly
against them: “Do not be deceived: neither adulterers, nor the soft, nor men who lie with
men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers,” and all the others that
go with these, “will inherit the kingdom of God.” And if we have been called to the
kingdom of God, let us live as citizens worthy of the kingdom, loving God and our
neighbor.

3.11ag Love is judged not by a kiss but by goodwill. Yet some people do nothing but make
the churches ring with kissing, though they do not have the loving heart itself within
them. This careless use of the kiss has filled the matter with shameful suspicion and
slander. The kiss ought to be a mystery (the apostle called it “holy”). The soul should
taste goodwill through a modest mouth that is kept closed, and through such a mouth above
all a gentle character does its service. But there is also another kiss, an unchaste one,
full of poison, which pretends to be holy. Do you not know that poisonous spiders, merely
by touching a person’s mouth, cause them agony? Kisses often inject the venom of
licentiousness. So it is plain to us that a kiss is not love, for “love is of God.” “This
is the love of God,” says John, “that we keep the commandments” (not that we fawn on one
another with the mouth), “and his commandments are not burdensome.” Likewise the greetings
of the brothers and sisters in the streets are full of foolish boldness. They come from
people who want to be noticed by outsiders, and they have not the least grace in them.

3.11ah If it is right to pray to God secretly “in the inner room,” it follows that we
should also show kindness to “our neighbor,” whom we are commanded to love second,
secretly in the same way, from within, “redeeming the time.” For we are “the salt of the
earth.” Scripture says: “Whoever blesses his friend early in the morning with a loud voice
will seem no different from one who curses.” Above all, it seems best to turn away from
looking at women. For it is possible to sin not only by touching but also by looking, and
the person who is truly trained must avoid this most of all. “Let your eyes look straight
ahead, and let your eyelids look toward what is right.” Surely it is not impossible to
stand firm even after seeing? But we must guard against falling. A person who has seen may
slip, but a person who has not seen cannot possibly desire. For self-controlled people it
is not enough just to be pure. They must also take care to be free from blame, shutting
out every ground for suspicion, to complete their purity, so that we are not only
believers but also appear trustworthy.

3.11ai This too must be guarded against, as the apostle says: “that no one find fault with
us; for we take thought for what is honorable, not only before the Lord but also before
men.” And Scripture says: “Turn your eye away from a graceful woman, and do not study
another’s beauty.” If you ask the reason, it explains further: “For many have been led
astray by a woman’s beauty, and from it love is kindled like fire.” So the love that
starts from fire, which people call passion, leads on, because of sin, to a fire that
never stops.

Continuation: with Texts from Scripture.

12a A summary overview of the best life: all the passages of the holy Scriptures that mark
out the Christian life. I would also advise married men never to kiss their wives at home
in front of the servants. Aristotle would not even allow people to smile at slaves, so a
husband should be far from showing affection to his wife in their sight. It is better to
begin at home, in marriage itself, to show dignity. For the partnership of self-control is
the greatest, and it breathes out pure pleasure. The tragedy puts it wonderfully: “Ah,
women, among human beings neither gold, nor royal power, nor the luxury of wealth has
pleasures so far above the rest as the mind of a good man and a devout wife, a mind that
is just and thinks what is right.” We should not reject these precepts of righteousness
even when they are spoken by those who pursue the wisdom of the world.

12b So then, since we know “the work of each one,” let us “live out the time of your stay
here as foreigners in fear, knowing that you were ransomed from your empty way of life
handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things, silver or gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” “The time that
has passed is enough,” says Peter, “to have done the will of the Gentiles, living in
debauchery, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and lawless idolatries.” Let
us take the cross of the Lord as our boundary. By it we are fenced around and walled off
from our former sins. Having been born again, then, let us nail ourselves to the truth,
return to sobriety, and be made holy, “because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do
evil. And who is there to harm us, if we become zealous for what is good?” The best way of
life is good order. It is complete propriety and a settled, well-ordered strength. It
gives each thing in turn its proper place in practice, and in virtue it cannot be
surpassed.

12c The Instructor says: “If I have spoken rather harshly in arranging for your salvation
through correction, let it be put down to me, since ‘the one who rebukes with frankness
makes peace.’ If you listen to me, you will be saved. If you pay no attention to what I
have said, it is no concern of mine.” Yet it is still a concern to me even so, for “he
chooses the repentance of the sinner rather than his death.” The Instructor says again,
“If you listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land.” By “the good things of
the land” he means what people count as good: beauty, wealth, health, strength, food. The
things that are truly good are “what no ear has heard, and what has never entered the
heart.” These are the truly good things that belong to the truly existing King and are
waiting for us, for he is both the giver and the guardian of good things. The things here
share the same names because they take part in those realities. In this way the Word, in a
manner worthy of God, trains the weakness of human beings, leading them from what the
senses perceive to what the mind understands.

12d The Instructor has now said plenty about what must be guarded against at home and how
life is to be set right. But there are also things he likes to say to his children along
the road, until he brings them to the Teacher. These he now lays before us in summary
form, using the Scriptures themselves. He sets out the commands plainly, fitting them to
the time of guidance, and leaves their explanation to the Teacher. For his law intends to
loosen the hold of fear by setting the willing will free for faith. “Listen, child,” he
says, “you who are being rightly trained, to the main points of salvation. I will lay bare
my own character and set before you these good commands, through which you will come to
salvation. And I am leading you along the way of salvation.” 12e “Keep away from the ways
of error, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly will
perish.” Follow, then, child, the good way that I shall explain to you, and lend me your
listening ears. “And I will give you treasures that are dark, hidden, and unseen” by the
nations, but visible to us. “The treasures of wisdom are inexhaustible,” and the apostle,
marveling at them, says, “Oh, the depth of riches and of wisdom!” These many treasures are
supplied by one God. Some are revealed through the law, some through the prophets, some by
the divine mouth, and another by the sevenfold Spirit singing in harmony. The Lord is one,
and through all of these he is the same Instructor. Here, then, is a short rule that sums
up the whole of life and includes everything: “As you want people to do to you, do the
same to them.” It is also possible to include the commandments in two, as the Lord says:
“You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” Then he adds, “On these hang the whole law and
the prophets.” Indeed, to the man who asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he
answered, “You know the commandments.” When the man said yes, he said, “Do this, and you
will be saved.”

12f Still, the Instructor’s love for humanity should be set out more distinctly, through
his many different commandments that lead to salvation. Then, with the Scriptures so
generously arranged, we can find the way of salvation more readily. We have the Decalogue
given through Moses. It hints at its meaning through a single, simple element, and it
marks out a saving name for sins: “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not worship
idols,” you shall not corrupt boys, “you shall not steal, you shall not bear false
witness; honor your father and your mother,” and what follows these. We must keep these
commands, and whatever else is commanded in the readings of the books. He also commands
through Isaiah: “Wash yourselves, become clean. Remove the evils from your souls from
before my eyes. Learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the wronged, give judgment for the
orphan, vindicate the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord.” We would
find many instructions in other writers too. Take prayer, for example: “Good works,” says
the Scripture, “are a prayer acceptable to the Lord.”

12g The manner of prayer is also laid down: “If you see a naked person,” it says, “clothe
him, and you will not look down on those of your own family. Then your light will appear
early, and your garments will quickly shine out, and your righteousness will go on before
you, and the glory of God will wrap you round.” What, then, is the fruit of this prayer?
“Then you will cry out, and God will answer you; while you are still speaking, he will
say, ‘Look, I am here.’” About fasting he says: “Why do you fast for me? says the Lord.
This is not the fast I chose, a day for a man to humble his soul. Even if you bend your
neck like a hoop and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath you, you will still not call that
an acceptable fast.” What, then, does fasting point to?

12h “Look,” he says, “this is the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord. Loose every bond
of injustice. Undo the strangling knots of violent contracts. Set free the broken-down by
release, and tear up every unjust written agreement. Break your bread for the hungry, and
bring homeless poor people into your house. If you see a naked person, clothe him.” And
about sacrifices he says: “What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord.
I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams. I do not want the fat of lambs, or the blood
of bulls and goats, even if you come to appear before me. For who asked this from your
hands? You shall no more trample my court. If you bring fine flour, it is worthless;
incense is an abomination to me. I cannot stand your new moons and your sabbaths.” How,
then, shall I sacrifice to the Lord?

12i “A sacrifice to the Lord,” he says, “is a broken spirit.” How then shall I crown
myself with a wreath, or anoint myself with perfume? Or what incense shall I burn to the
Lord? “A fragrant aroma to God,” he says, “is a heart that glorifies the one who formed
it.” These are God’s wreaths and sacrifices, his perfumes and flowers. Now, about patience
under wrong: “If your brother sins,” he says, “rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times turns back to you saying, ‘I
repent,’ forgive him.” Through John he commands soldiers to be content with their pay
alone, and tax collectors to demand nothing beyond what is set. To a judge he says, “You
shall not show partiality in judgment, for gifts blind the eyes of those who see and ruin
just words”; and, “Rescue those who are wronged.” To those who manage households: “A
possession hastily gained with lawlessness becomes less.” About love: “Love,” he says,
“covers a multitude of sins.” About citizenship: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to
God what is God’s.” About oaths and holding grudges: “Did I command your fathers when they
came out of the land of Egypt to bring me whole burnt offerings and sacrifices? This is
what I commanded them: let none of you hold a grudge in his heart against his neighbor,
and let him not love a false oath.” He also threatens liars and the arrogant. To the first
he says something like this: “Woe to those who call sweet bitter and bitter sweet.” To the
others: “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and learned in their own sight.” “He
who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself will be humbled.” He
blesses the merciful, “for they themselves will receive mercy,” while wisdom pities the
angry person, “because anger will destroy even the wise.” Finally he commands us to love
our enemies, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who mistreat us.

12j “To the one who strikes you on the cheek,” he says, “offer the other also; and if
someone takes your tunic, do not stop him from taking your cloak as well.” About faith he
says: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” And, as Pindar says,
“nothing is trustworthy to the unbelieving.” We should also treat our household servants
as we treat ourselves, for they are human beings like us. “For God is equal to all, if you
consider it, to free men and to slaves alike.” When servants do wrong, we must not punish
them but rebuke them. “For the one who spares his rod,” it says, “hates his own son.”
Again, he drives out the love of glory, saying, “Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love
the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.” But he welcomes
the repentance of the sinner, loving the repentance that follows sins. For the Word alone
is without sin. To sin is inborn in all and common to all, but to recover from sin is not
the mark of any ordinary man, but of a man of real worth.

12k About sharing, he said: “Come to me, all you who are blessed, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food;
I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you
clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to me.” And when did we do any
of these things for the Lord? The Instructor himself will answer again, lovingly counting
the kindness shown to the brothers as done to himself, saying: “Inasmuch as you did it to
these little ones, you did it to me. And such people will go away into eternal life.” Such
are the laws of the Word, words of encouragement. They are written not on tablets of stone
by the finger of the Lord, but inscribed on the hearts of men, the only place where they
cannot be destroyed.

12l For this reason the tablets of the hard-hearted were broken, so that the faith of the
little children might be impressed on soft minds. Both laws served the Word for the
training of humanity, one through Moses and the other through the apostles. What kind of
training came through the apostles? I think I must speak about this kind of teaching too.
Or rather, the Instructor himself, remembering me, speaks, and I will again set out his
counsels in seed form: “Put away falsehood, and let each of you speak truth with his
neighbor, for we are members of one another. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and
do not give a place to the devil. Let the thief steal no longer, but rather let him labor,
doing good work, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and shouting and slander be taken away from you, along with
all malice.

12m Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave
you. Be wise, then, and imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ
also loved us.” “Let wives submit to their own husbands, as to the Lord, and let husbands
love their own wives, as Christ also loved the church.” So let those joined together love
one another “as their own bodies.” “Children, obey your parents. Fathers, do not provoke
your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of
heart, as to Christ, serving from the soul with goodwill. 12n And masters, treat your
servants well, giving up threats, knowing that both their Lord and yours is in heaven, and
there is no favoritism with him.” “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the
Spirit. Let us not become conceited, challenging one another, envying one another. Bear
one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Do not be deceived: God is not
mocked. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not
give up.” “Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the
disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, hold on to the weak, be patient with everyone. See
that no one repays anyone evil for evil. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise
prophecies; but test everything, hold fast to what is good; keep away from every kind of
evil.” “Devote yourselves to prayer, staying alert in it with thanksgiving.

12o “Walk in wisdom toward those outside, making the most of the time. Let your speech
always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer
each person.” “Feed on the words of faith. Train yourselves for godliness. For bodily
training is of benefit for a little, but godliness is beneficial for everything, since it
holds a promise for the life now and for the life to come.” “Those who have believing
masters must not look down on them because they are brothers, but must serve them all the
more, because they are believers.” “Let the one who gives do so with simplicity, the one
who leads with diligence, the one who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without
hypocrisy. Hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Be tenderly affectionate
toward one another in brotherly love, taking the lead in showing honor to one another. Do
not be slow in diligence. Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope,
enduring in affliction, devoted to prayer, pursuing hospitality, sharing in the needs of
the saints.” These are a few out of many sayings, offered as samples. The Instructor has
gone through the divine Scriptures themselves and sets them before his children. By them,
one might say, wickedness is torn up by the roots and injustice is shut out.

12p There are countless other instructions written in the holy books, addressed to
particular chosen persons: some to elders, some to bishops and deacons, others to widows.
We may speak of these at another time. Many things are also said in riddles and many in
parables, and readers can benefit from them. But, says the Instructor, it is no longer my
task to teach these things. We need a teacher to explain those holy words, and we must go
to him. And now it is time for me to stop my instruction and for you to listen to the
Teacher. When he takes you over, trained as you have been in good discipline, he will
teach you the oracles. This Church is his school, and the Bridegroom is the only Teacher.
He is the good purpose of the good Father, the genuine Wisdom, the sanctuary of knowledge.
“And he is the propitiation for our sins,” as John says. He is Jesus, who heals both our
body and our soul, the eternal person. “And not only for our sins, but also for the whole
world.

12q “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The
one who says, ‘I know him,’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is
not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been brought to
completion. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he remains in him ought
himself also to walk just as he walked.” O you who are nurtured by this blessed training!
Let us fill out the fair face of the Church, and let us who are infants run to our good
mother. Even if we only become hearers of the Word, let us glorify the blessed plan of
salvation. By it a person is trained, and made holy as a child of God. He lives as a
citizen in heaven while still being trained on earth, and he receives there as Father the
one he learns about on earth.

12r The Word does everything, teaches everything and trains in everything. A horse is led
by a bridle, a bull is led by a yoke, and a wild animal is caught in a snare. But a human
being is reshaped by the Word. By the Word wild animals are tamed, fish are lured and
birds are brought down. He is the one who truly devises the bridle for the horse, the yoke
for the bull, the snare for the wild animal, the rod for the fish and the trap for the
bird. He governs the city and farms the land; he rules, he serves, and he creates the
whole universe. “In it he made the earth, in it the sky, in it the sea, in it all the
constellations with which the heaven is crowned.” O the divine works of creation! O the
divine commands! “Let this water surge within itself. Let this fire hold back its anger.
Let this air drift into the upper sky. Let the earth be fixed firm, and let it move
whenever I wish. I still want to form a human being. The elements are the matter I have to
work with. I dwell with what I have formed.”

12s “If you come to know me, fire will serve you.” Such is this Word, the Instructor, the
Creator of the world and of man, and for man’s sake now also the Instructor of the world.
By his command we both stand firm, man and world together, as we wait for judgment. “For
he does not bring to mortals a stealthy, spoken word; the word will be wisdom,” as
Bacchylides says. But the “blameless, pure and unblemished” children “of God,” as Paul
says, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, shine in the world like lights.”
Now that we are at such a festival of the Word, what remains is to pray to the Word. Be
merciful to your children, Instructor, Father, Charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both
one, Lord. Grant to us who follow your commands that we may fill out the likeness of the
image. Grant that we may sense, as strongly as we can, that God is good and a judge who is
not harsh. And may you yourself provide everything for us. May we live as citizens in your
peace and be moved to your city. May we sail across the surge of sin without being tossed.
May we be carried along in calm by the Holy Spirit, by your inexpressible wisdom. Night
and day, until the perfect day, may we offer a thankful praise to the only Father and Son,
Son and Father, the Son who is Instructor and Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit.

12t All things to the One, in whom are all things, through whom all things are one,
through whom there is forever, of whom all are members, whose glory is the ages. All
things to the good, all things to the beautiful, all things to the wise, all things to the
just. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. Since the Instructor has set us in the
church and has handed us over to himself as the teaching Word who oversees all things, it
is fitting that we, having come to this point, send up a song of praise to the Lord. It is
a fair wage of thanks, matching his excellent training. Bridle of untamed colts, wing of
birds that do not stray, sure rudder of ships, shepherd of royal lambs: gather your simple
children to praise you in holiness, to sing to you without guile, with the innocent mouths
of children, to Christ, the leader of children. King of the saints, all-conquering Word of
the Most High Father, ruler of wisdom, support of those who toil, joy of the ages, Jesus,
Savior of the human race: shepherd, plowman, rudder, bridle, heavenly wing of the all-holy
flock, fisher of the people who are being saved. You draw pure fish out of the sea of
wickedness, out of the hostile wave, and bait them with sweet life.

12u Lead us, holy shepherd of rational sheep. Lead us, king of untouched children. The
footsteps of Christ are the heavenly way. Ever-flowing Word, boundless age, eternal light,
spring of mercy, worker of virtue for those who hymn God with a reverent life, Christ
Jesus: you are the heavenly milk pressed out from the sweet breasts of the bride, from the
graces of your wisdom. We are infants, nourished with tender mouths and filled from the
breast of the Word with the refreshing Spirit. Simple praises and true hymns to Christ the
King, holy wages for the teaching of life, let us sing together, let us send up in
simplicity to the mighty Child. We are a chorus of peace, the Christ-born; we are a self-
controlled people. Let us sing together to the God of peace.


THE STROMATA BOOK 1
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 1 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER 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." 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."

2 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; " 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." "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." And again: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

3 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." 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." "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."

4 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 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." 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 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."

5 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. 6 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. And nutriment is received both by bread and by
words. And truly "blessed are the peace-makers," 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," 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.

7 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. "As, then, we have opportunity,
let us do good to all, especially to the household of faith. 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."

8 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 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.

9 "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 waters," says Esaias, And "drink water from thine own vessels," 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."

10 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." 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 ; 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.

11 When I came upon the last (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. 12 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. "In a man
who loves wisdom the father will be glad. 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. 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. 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.

13 Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath; 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. 14 And if one say that it is written, "There is nothing secret which
shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed," 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."

15 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. 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. 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;

16 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, 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.

17 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." 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." 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.

18 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.
19 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;

20 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.

CHAPTER II.-OBJECTION TO THE NUMBER OF EXTRACTS FROM PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS IN THESE BOOKS ANTICIPATED AND ANSWERED.

1 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; 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.

2 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
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."

CHAPTER III.-AGAINST THE SOPHISTS.

1 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.

2 "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."
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; " the Scripture calling those the wise (sofou/j) who are skilled in
words and arts, sophists (sofista/j) Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative
appellation of wise and sophists (sofoi/, sofistai/) to those who were versed in anything
Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said:-

3 "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."

CHAPTER IV.-HUMAN ARTS AS WELL AS DIVINE KNOWLEDGE PROCEED FROM GOD.

1 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." 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." And then He adds the general
reason, "And to every understanding heart I have given understanding; " 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."

2 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" -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.

3 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." 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 by philosophy, the knowledge which leads
to piety is laid up as a help.

CHAPTER V.-PHILOSOPHY THE HANDMAID OF THEOLOGY.

1 Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for
righteousness. 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." 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." Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is
perfected in Christ. "Now," says Solomon, "defend wisdom, and it will exalt thee, and it
will shield thee with a crown of pleasure." 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," 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." The commandments and the modes of preparatory training are to be regarded as
the ways and appliances of life.

2 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen her
chickens! 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. 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.

3 And when He says, "Be not much with a strange woman," 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. "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. 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.

4 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." For it is said in connection with this,
"Be not much with a strange woman." 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, having much experience, and being fit for exercise.

6 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; "
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." 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" ); 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.

CHAPTER VI.-THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE.

1 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. 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," 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;

2 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.

3 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. 4 But as we say that a man can be a believer without learning, 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. "For hatred," says Solomon, "raises strife, but instruction guardeth the ways
of life; " 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," 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:-

5 "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.

CHAPTER VII.-THE ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHY PAVES THE WAY FOR DIVINE VIRTUE.

1 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, in as much
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 seed"-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.

2 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. But such conclusions of human reasonings, as men have cut away and falsified,
I would never call divine. 3 And now we must look also at this, that if ever those who
know not how to do well, live well; 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. 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 were
translated into the language of the Greeks, in order that they might never be able to
allege the excuse of ignorance, in as much 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. "Open, then," says
the Scripture, "the gates of righteousness; and I will enter in, and confess to the Lord.
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.

4 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. 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."

CHAPTER VIII.-THE SOPHISTICAL ARTS USELESS.

1 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 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 (nosw=n) about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh contention, envy,
railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the
truth."

2 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 (nosoj). Very beautifully, therefore, the tragic poet Euripides says in the
Phoenissae,- "But a wrongful speech Is diseased in itself, and needs skilful medicines."
For the saving Word 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

3 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; prosecuting
a bootless task, which the apostle has called "cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie
in wait to deceive." "For there are," he says, "many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers: " Wherefore it was not said to all, "Ye are the salt of the earth." 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.

4 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." 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." 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.

5 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.

CHAPTER IX.-HUMAN KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES.

1 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. 2 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. 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.

3 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. 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.

4 But a rational work is accomplished through God. "And nothing," it is said, "was made
without Him"-the Word of God. 5 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?

CHAPTER X.-TO ACT WELL OF GREATER CONSEQUENCE THAN TO SPEAK WELL.

1 Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then breaking the
bread, He presented it, that we might eat it, according to reason, and that knowing the
Scriptures 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,
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. But now we are benefited mutually
and reciprocally by words and deeds;

2 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. 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. And whom does he call wise? Hear
from the Wisdom of Jesus: "Wisdom is not the knowledge of evil. 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. And if you inquire again of what sort this is, you are
told, "The mouth of the righteous man will distil wisdom. And similarly with truth, the
art of sophistry is called wisdom. 3 But it is my purpose, as I reckon, and not without
reason, to live according to the Word, and to understand what is revealed; 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. And in
the Theoetetus 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. This the Scripture 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;

4 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. We
ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory, to make broad the phylacteries. It
suffices the gnostic if only one hearer is found for him. You may hear therefore Pindar
the Boeotian, 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."

CHAPTER XI.-WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY WHICH THE APOSTLE BIDS US SHUN?

1 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." 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." "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." 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." 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; " branding not all
philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles, 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.

2 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 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. 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," 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. 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;

3 "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. For
the teaching which is agreeable to Christ deifies the Creator, and traces providence in
particular events, 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 as holding the first rank and superior to all
training. 4 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.
"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. "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. 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,"
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. "For every one
that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe," 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," speaking to spiritual men, who judge what is said according to truth, whether it
seems or truly holds by the truth.

5 "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. "For he that seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness;
and they who have sought it rightly have found peace. "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. 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."

CHAPTER 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." 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." 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; " bidding them receive the secret traditions 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 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.

CHAPTER XIII.-ALL SECTS OF PHILOSOPHY CONTAIN A GERM OF TRUTH.

1 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, are illuminated by the dawn of Light. 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. 2 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), 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;

3 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. He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be pre-
eminently a gnostic. Now it is written, "Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give
life to him who is of it. 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."

CHAPTER XIV.-SUCCESSION OF PHILOSOPHERS IN GREECE.

1 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." You see how even to the prophets of the Greeks he attributes something of the
truth, and is not ashamed, when discours ing 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." 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.

2 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." 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," 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. He
transferred his school from Ionia to Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, whose pupil
Socrates was.

4 "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.

5 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. 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.

CHAPTER XV.-THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN GREAT PART DERIVED FROM THE BARBARIANS.

1 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 which he
maintained. 2 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." 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, 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."

3 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 Saul, 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
Timaeus 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."

4 Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said to have combined
with his own compositions a translation of the column of Acicarus. 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. 5 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 (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 Galataeand the Brahmins.
Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle.
Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God's aid, the Sibyl spoke. 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. 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.

6 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, and others
Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are called Hylobii 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.

7 Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha; 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. These did not allow the men to fight against Caesar
till the new moon shone. 8 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 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:-

9 "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.


THE STROMATA BOOK 1
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 1 continued

CHAPTER XVI.-THAT THE INVENTORS OF OTHER ARTS WERE MOSTLY BARBARIANS.

1 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 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 (a\ #rph),-it is a curved sword,-and were the first to use shields on
horseback.

2 Similarly also the Illyrians invented the shield (pe/lth). Besides, they say that the
Tuscans invented the art of moulding clay; and that Itanus (he was a Samnite) first
fashioned the oblong shield (qure/oj). 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, 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. 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. In music, Olympus the Mysian
practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca, 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.

3 And they invented castanets. In the time of Semiramis queen of the Assyrians, 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."

4 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 calledno/moi 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, as Diodorus says. And Apollodorus of Cuma first assumed the name of critic, and
was called a grammarian.

5 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.

6 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.

CHAPTER XVII.-ON THE SAYING OF THE SAVIOUR, "ALL THAT CAME BEFORE ME WERE THIEVES AND ROBBERS."

1 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." 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. 2
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?

3 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.

4 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. In as much, then, as evil is involuntary,-for no one prefers evil as evil;

5 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."

6 But among the lies, the false prophets also told some true things. And in reality they
prophesied "in an ecstasy," a" 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, which He purposed in Christ." 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.

7 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." 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." For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received of His fulness," 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." Such are the Greeks, "lovers of their own
selves, and boasters." Scripture, when it speaks of these as wise, does not brand those
who are really wise, but those who are wise in appearance.

CHAPTER XVIII.-HE ILLUSTRATES THE APOSTLE'S SAYING, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE."

1 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 of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world? " 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," 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.

2 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 "called. For there is no unrighteousness
with God. Those of either race who have believed, are "a peculiar people. 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; " 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,"
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?

CHAPTER XIX.-THAT THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME PORTION OF TRUTH.

1 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. 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;

2 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. 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; " 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 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 (if that is really the work of Plato):

3 "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," according to Heraclitus. And in the fifth book of the Republic. 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.'" 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.

4 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," and assign as
its cause "combined utterance," he specifies forms of prophecy. Further, others will have
it that some truths were uttered by the philosophers, in appearance. 5 The divine apostle
writes accordingly respecting us: "For now we see as through a glass; " knowing ourselves
in it by reflection, and simultaneously 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.
"And there are those who, sewing their own, make increase. 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. You see how care must be taken for external clothing and for keeping.
"And thou shalt intelligently know the souls of thy flock. "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," 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, the Word most clearly says:

6 "Better is a friend that is near, than a brother that dwelleth afar off. "And he who
relies on falsehoods, feeds on the winds, and pursues winged birds. 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. 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; " 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;

7 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.

CHAPTER XX.-IN WHAT RESPECT PHILOSOPHY CONTRIBUTES TO THE COMPREHENSION OF DIVINE TRUTH.

1 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.

2 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" 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 (tou= gnwstikou=); not assigning as the cause that which is but the joint-cause; nor
as the upholding cause, what is merely co-operative;

3 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.
4 Although at one time philosophy justified the Greeks, 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; " 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.

5 "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. 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, 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.

CHAPTER XXI.-THE JEWISH INSTITUTIONS AND LAWS OF FAR HIGHER ANTIQUITY THAN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.

1 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.

2 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, 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 Timoeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And wishing to draw them out into a discussion
respecting antiquities, he said that he ventured to speak of the most remote antiquities
of this city respecting Phoroneus, called the first man, and Niobe, and what happened
after the deluge.

3 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 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, 4 "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.

5 "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:-

6 "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." 7
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
(i0e/nai) 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 (soro/j), was deposited in the temple of the god
(dai/monoj) 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.

8 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-

9 "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. 10
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 king of Mesopotamia for eight years, as the book of
Judges mentions. But having afterwards besought the Lord, they receive for leader
Gothoniel, 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 king of the Moabites for eighteen years. But
on their repentance, Aod, 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 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, 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.

11 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, 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 of Bethlehem, of the tribe
of Juda, ruled seven years. Then Ebron the Zebulonite, eight years. Then Eglom of Ephraim,
eight years. Some add to the seven years of Abatthan the eight of Ebrom. 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.

12 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. 13 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.

14 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 Menander 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, and prophesied against the
altar. After him his son Abijam, twenty-three years; and likewise his son Asaman. The
last, in his old age, was diseased in his feet; and in his reign prophesied Jehu the son
of Ananias.

15 After him Jehosaphat his son reigned twenty-five years. 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. After him the mother of Ozias, Gotholia,
reigned eight years, having slain the children of her brother. 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.

16 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. 17 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.

18 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 tu/rannoj. 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. 19 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, 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, 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.

20 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. In his reign, in the eighteenth year, the passover was celebrated,
not having been kept from the days of Samuel in the intervening period. 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. And in his days Olda prohesied, and
Sophonias, and Jeremiah. And in the days of Jeremiah was Ananias the son of Azor, the
false prophet. He 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.

21 Josiah was succeeded by Jechoniah, called also Joachas, 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 Joakim reigned for three months. Then Zedekiah reigned for eleven years; and
up to his time Jeremiah continued to prophesy. Along with him Ezekiel the son of Buzi, and
Urias the son of Samaeus, and Ambacum 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.

22 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, 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. 23 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. 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,
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.

24 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. 25 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.

26 That the temple accordingly was 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.

27 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.

28 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.

29 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;

30 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, as is there written, of the name of Hyperon. 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 Oraclesascribed to Musaeus
are said to be the production of Onomacritus, and the Crateresof Orpheus the production of
Zopyrus of Heraclea, and The Descent to Hadesthat of Prodicus of Samos. Ion of Chios
relates in the Triagmi, 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.

31 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. 32 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, 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 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, 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 Mopsus. 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.

33 "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. 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. 34 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.

35 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; 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.

36 Then within the same period John prophesied till the baptism of salvation; and after
the birth of Christ, Anna and Simeon. 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. 37 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, 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 ofthe 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 Aenuas and the founding
of Lavinium, ten years;

38 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." 39 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.

40 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.

41 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.

42 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." 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. 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.

43 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. 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
interpretpu=r (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.

44 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. 45 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," and so on. And that it was necessary
for Him to preach only a year, this also is written: "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 fifteenyears 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.

46 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. 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."

47 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." 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."
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.

48 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,
"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.

CHAPTER XXII.-ON THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

1 So much for the details respecting dates, as stated variously by many, and as set down
by us. 2 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 thegreatest 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, Esdra"
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:

3 "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.


THE STROMATA BOOK 1
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 1 continued

CHAPTER XXIII.-THE AGE, BIRTH, AND LIFE OF MOSES.

1 Moses, originally of a Chaldean family, was born in Egypt, his ancestors having migrated
from Babylon into Egypt on account of a protracted famine. Born in the seventh generation
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.

2 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," -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, 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 he is said "to have been instructed in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

3 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, 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. 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, the composer of Jewish tragedies in the drama entitled The Exodus. He thus
writes in the person of Moses:-

4 "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

5 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:-

6 "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? " 7 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.]

CHAPTER XXIV.-HOW MOSES DISCHARGED THE PART OF A MILITARY LEADER.

1 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. 2 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. 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.

3 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.

4 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. 5
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.

6 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).

7 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,-

8 "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
Europiarelates 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," 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.

CHAPTER XXV.-PLATO AN IMITATOR OF MOSES IN FRAMING LAWS.

1 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. 2 And he refers to the
Creator, as the Statesman (o9 politiko/j) by way of eminence, in his book of this name (o9
politiko/j); and those who lead an active and just life, combined with contemplation, he
calls statesmen (politikoi/). 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.

3 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," 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.

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.

1 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 (qesmo/j ), in as much 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." 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,

2 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; " so also we shall say
that legislation, in as much 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." 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.

3 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.

CHAPTER XXVII.-THE LAW, EVEN IN CORRECTING AND PUNISHING, AIMS AT THE GOOD OF MEN.

1 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 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?

2 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." For the prophet
had said before, "Chastening, the Lord hath chastised me, but hath not given me over unto
death." "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."

3 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." 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."

4 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," 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."

5 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." 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."
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." 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." "There is no fear of
God before their eyes." "Professing themselves wise, they became fools." "And we know that
the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." "Desiring to be teachers of the law, they
understand," says the apostle, "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." "Now the
end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith
unfeigned."

CHAPTER XXVIII.-THE FOURFOLD DIVISION OF THE MOSAIC LAW.

1 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," 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" 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.

2 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 or God or man." 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." 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." "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, -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.

CHAPTER XXIX.-THE GREEKS BUT CHILDREN COMPARED WITH THE HEBREWS.

1 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; " 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.

2 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." 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." "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

3 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," having previously told him not to seek the covenant in writing.
For it is a covenant which God, the Author of all, makes. For God is called Qeo/j from
qe/sij (placing), and order or arrangement. And in the Preaching of Peter you will find
the Lord called Law and Word. But at this point, let our first Miscellany of gnostic
notes, according to the true philosophy, come to a close.


THE STROMATA BOOK 2
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 2 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER I.-INTRODUCTORY.

1 As Scripture has called the Greeks pilferers of the Barbarian 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. 2 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 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;

3 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; 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. 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. 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.

4 If any one, then, speculating on what is similar, wants to arrive 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."

CHAPTER II.-THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CAN BE ATTAINED ONLY THROUGH FAITH.

1 "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" ), 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.

2 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. 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 ha"-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? " 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; " 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.

3 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. 4 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. "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. 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," -that is, grasp the secret that is in the prophecies.

5 "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. 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," the prophet said. And another prophet also says, "Except ye believe,
neither shall ye understand. 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 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. 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.

6 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? 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. 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.

CHAPTER III.-FAITH NOT A PRODUCT OF NATURE.

1 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 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. 2 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 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, 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.

CHAPTER IV.-FAITH THE FOUNDATION OF ALL KNOWLEDGE.

1 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." 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. Now, in as much 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.

2 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. 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. 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.

3 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. 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.

4 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. 5
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 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.

6 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; 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 <i>chrestoi (good), 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.

7 Such is he who fulfils the law, "doing the will of the Father," 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, 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; " 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.

CHAPTER V.-HE PROVES BY SEVERAL EXAMPLES THAT THE GREEKS DREW FROM THE SACRED WRITERS.

1 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." And that he is beloved of God,
God intimates when He says, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." For
the first is found to have been expressly called "friend; " and the second is shown to
have received a new name, signifying "he that sees God ; " while Isaac, God in a figure
selected for Himself as a consecrated sacrifice, to be a type to us of the economy of
salvation. 2 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. 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. 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? He is Melchizedek, "King of peace," the most fit of all to head the race
of men. A legislator too, in as much 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 Phaedrus, 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.

3 I would reckon the wise man rich. And the Athenian stranger, 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," 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 "
to lead a philosophic life. But, on the other hand, it blesses "the poor; " 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 Alcibiadeshe calls vice a servile thing, and virtue the attribute of freemen.
"Take away from you the heavy yoke, and take up the easy one," 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.

4 But if the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free, and the truth shall make you
free." 5 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," prophecy
predicted. Plato, moreover, has called the wise man a king, in The Statesman.The remark is
quoted above. 6 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
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.

7 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 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:- 8 "Mind sees, mind hears; all besides is deaf and blind." 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.

CHAPTER VI.-THE EXCELLENCE AND UTILITY OF FAITH.

1 "Lord, who hath believed our report? " 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! " 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 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.

2 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 (mete/gnw), which is
(meta\ tau=ta e !gnw ) "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.

3 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." 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.

4 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. "Thou hast lived for the fence of the people, thy children were
blessed in the tents of their fathers. 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," 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," 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.

5 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," 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;

6 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.
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, 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.

CHAPTER VII.-THE UTILITY OF FEAR. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

1 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 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 admonition
for their discipline. 2 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,
(eu0la/beia) which is a shunning (e !kklisij) agreeable to reason. Such Critolaus of
Phasela not inaptly called fighters about names (o0nomatoma/koi). The commandment, then,
has already appeared fair and lovely even in the highest degree, when conceived under a
change of name. Cautious fear (eu0la/beia) 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." 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 (a !qeoi). Now instruction is the beginning of wisdom. "But the ungodly
despise wisdom and instruction," saith the Scripture.

3 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. 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? " 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.

4 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 (paidagwgo/j) to Christ, 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.
Now the commandment works repentance; in as much as it deters 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. 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. And Barnabas the apostle
having said, "Woe to those who are wise in their own conceits, clever in their own eyes,"
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. Whence "the fear of God" is divinely said to be the beginning of wisdom.

CHAPTER VIII.-THE VAGARIES OF BASILIDES AND VALENTINUS AS TO FEAR BEING THE CAUSE OF THINGS.

1 Here the followers of Basilides, interpreting this expression, say, "that the Prince,
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 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."

2 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?

3 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.

4 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." 5 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, 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," 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 isDe/oj [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."

CHAPTER IX.-THE CONNECTION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.

1 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 (e9tai=roj) is another self; 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
(e0pi/cenoi) are strangers (ce/noi); and friends are guests; and brethren are friends.
"Dear brother," says Homer. 3 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; 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 (o9mognwmosu/nh) is harmony of opinions (sumfwni/a gnwmw=n). "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. 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. For they did not know and do the will of
the law; but what they supposed, that they thought the law wished.

4 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," 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. 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," -manifestly previous to the coming of the
Lord; after which to Israel, 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" 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.

5 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. "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,"
according to the apostle.

6 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
Theaetetus; 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 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.

CHAPTER X.-TO WHAT THE PHILOSOPHER APPLIES HIMSELF.

1 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. 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," it
declares both the correction of the Hebrews themselves, and the training and advancement
of us who are nigh: it declares at once their life and ours. For "those who were dead in
sins are quickened together with Christ," by our covenant.

2 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.

CHAPTER XI.-THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH COMES THROUGH FAITH THE SUREST OF ALL.

1 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. 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. And again, "According to thy faith let it be to thee. 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.

2 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. 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; " and reflecting that "blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God; " 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. 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.

3 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, 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. 4 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." 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. And to Moses it is said, "But do thou stand there with Me."
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."

5 Convicted by this utterance, the heretics reject the Epistles to Timothy. 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."

CHAPTER XII.-TWOFOLD FAITH.

1 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." 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.

2 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 extreme"
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. 3 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, "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 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."

CHAPTER XIII.-ON FIRST AND SECOND REPENTANCE.

1 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. 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.

2 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. 3 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," 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. 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," says the Scripture. And again, "The righteousness of the
innocent will make his way right. Nay, "as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear Him. David writes, "They who sow," then, "in tears, shall reap in
joy; " those, namely, who confess in penitence. "For blessed are all those that fear the
Lord. 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.

4 "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. Appetite is then the movement of
the mind to or from something. 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.

CHAPTER XIV.-HOW A THING MAY BE INVOLUNTARY.

1 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;

2 for this is an irrational passion of the soul approaching garrulity. "The faithful man
chooses to conceal things in his spirit. Things, then, that depend on choice are subjects
for judgment. "For the Lord searcheth the hearts and reins. "And he that looketh so as to
lust" is judged. Wherefore it is said, "Thou shalt not lust. And "this people honoureth Me
with their lips," it is said, "but their heart is far from Me. 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.

CHAPTER XV.-ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VOLUNTARY ACTIONS, AND THE SINS THENCE PROCEEDING.

1 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

2 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." 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." 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." 3 Mistake is a sin contrary to
calculation; and voluntary sin is crime (a0diki/a); 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. Addressing those who
have believed, he says, "For by His stripes we were healed. Mistake is the involuntary
action of another towards me, while a crime (a0diki/a) 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 (a0nomi/aj) God hath blotted out, and whose sins
(a9marti/aj) 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. This blessedness came on those who had been chosen by Cod through Jesus Christ our
Lord. For"love hides the multitude of sins. And they are blotted out by Him"who desireth
the repentance rather than the death of a sinner. And those are not reckoned that are not
the effect of choice; "for he who has lusted has already committed adultery," 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. "For who is like Me?

4 and who shall stand before My face? 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." 5 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. 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." 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."

6 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" (being already condemned, for "he that believeth not is condemned already" ),
"nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous," in as much 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." 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."

7 For "great is the joy before the Father when one sinner is saved," 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. "The
godly," says Esaias, "framed wise counsels. 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? 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. And the
saying, "Know thyself," has been taken rather more mystically from this, "Thou hast seen
thy brother, thou hast seen thy God. Thus also, "Thou shalt love the Load thy God with all
thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;

8 "for it is said, "On these commandments the law and the prophets hang and are suspended.
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.
"For the Lord is merciful and pitiful; and gracious is the Lord to all. "Know thyself" is
more clearly and often expressed by Moses, when he enjoins, "Take heed to thyself. "By
alms then, and acts of faith, sins are purged. "And by the fear of the Lord each one
departs from evil. "And the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom."

CHAPTER XVI.-HOW WE ARE TO EXPLAIN THE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH ASCRIBE TO GOD HUMAN AFFECTIONS.

1 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. 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 in as much as ye did it to one of the least of
these, ye did it to Me. As, then, He is nourished, though not personally, by the
nourishing of one whom He wishes nourished;

2 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;

3 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. And God is without blame. And in reality,
"blessed is the man who feareth alway through piety."

CHAPTER XVII.-ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE.

1 As, then, Knowledge (e0pisth/mh) 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
(ei !dhsij), Comprehension (su/nesij), perception, and Science. Cognition (ei !dhsij) is
the knowledge of universals by species; and Experience is comprehensive knowledge, which
investigates the nature of each thing. Perception (no/hsij) is the knowledge of
intellectual objects; and Comprehension (su/nesij) 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 (gnw=sij) 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. 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: " 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 having been made immortal, and
our being conversant with the contemplation of realities, and beholding the Father through
what belongs to Him.

2 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." 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."


THE STROMATA BOOK 2
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 2 continued

CHAPTER XVIII.-THE MOSAIC LAW THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL ETHICS, AND THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THE GREEKS DREW THEIRS.

1 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. 2 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," 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. "Break every bond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice that is acceptable to
the Lord, a contrite heart that seeks its Maker. "Deceitful balances are abomination
before God; but a just balance is acceptable to Him. 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. "For they call the wise and prudent worthless. But it were tedious to adduce
testimonies respecting these virtues, since the whole Scripture celebrates them. Since,
then, they define manliness to be knowledge 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;

3 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;

4 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. 5 What reason is
there in the law's prohibiting a man from "wearing woman's clothing "? 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; " -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;

6 according to the gnostic word: "For the hope of a good man dead or living does not
perish," says Wisdom; "I love them that love me; and they who seek me shall find peace,"
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. 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. 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.

7 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. 8 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. 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.

9 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. 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? 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.

10 "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. 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. 11 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; 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." And what? Does it not command us "to love strangers not only as friends and
relatives, but as ourselves, both in body and soul? " Nay more, it honoured the nations,
and bears no grudge against those who have done ill. Accordingly it is expressly said,
"Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, for thou wast a sojourner in Egypt; " 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.

12 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." 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.

13 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.

14 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. 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.

15 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;

16 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. 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." 17 And it prohibits
an ox and ass to be yoked in the plough together; 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.

18 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. 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, the person of the
Lord. And a sacrifice of praise is above holocausts: "for He," it is said, "giveth
strength to get power." 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.

CHAPTER XIX.-THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS AN IMITATOR OF GOD, ESPECIALLY IN BENEFICENCE.

1 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; "
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," 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." For him who hastes to serve the self-existent One, being
a suppliant, 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.

2 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 elder served him. For it is the greatest boon to a bad man not to be
master of himself.

3 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." 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; " those who were governed obeying the good man of their own accord, from admiration of
his virtue. 4 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." 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." 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." "For the wisdom of the clever knows its
ways; but the folly of the foolish is in error." "For on whom will I look, but on him who
is mild and gentle, and trembleth at my words? "says the prophecy.

5 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. 6 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. "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. 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.

7 "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever," the
Scripture says. 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.

CHAPTER XX.-THE TRUE GNOSTIC EXERCISES PATIENCE AND SELF-RESTRAINT.

1 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." He, bearing about the
cross of the Saviour, will follow the Lord's footsteps, as God, having become holy of
holies.

2 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 u[j
(sow), said that it was qu/j, as being fit only for slaughter (qu/sin) 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.

3 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, thou didst embrace." And again:- "Was the sword then by
beauty blunted? " 4 And I agree with Antisthenes when he says, "Could I catch Aphrodité, I
would shoot her; for she has destroyed many of our beautiful and good women." And he says
that "Love 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 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."

5 "For it is these, it is these that go through our bowels, And throw into disorder men's
hearts." 6 "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," says the divine
apostle.

7 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.

8 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. 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.

9 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 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:

10 "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. 11 Valentinus too, in a letter to certain people, writes in these very words
respecting the appendages: "There is one good, by whose presence 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."

12 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," 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."

13 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
Laïs, and am not possessed by her."

14 Such also are those (who say that they follow Nicolaus, quoting an adage of the man,
which they pervert, "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."

15 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:-

16 "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:-

17 "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 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.

18 Already, then, the aegis of the poetic Jove is described as "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." 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:-

19 "And to what sort of a deity wilt thou come, dost thou ask, Who knows neither clemency
nor favour, But loves bare justice alone." 20 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."
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." And again he says, "Though in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." "For
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption." "Lo, ye shall die like men," the Spirit has said, confuting us.

21 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," 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."

CHAPTER XXI.-OPINIONS OF VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS ON THE CHIEF GOOD.

1 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.

2 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. 3 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.

4 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 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, 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?

CHAPTER XXII.-PLATO'S OPINION, THAT THE CHIEF GOOD CONSISTS IN ASSIMILATION TO GOD, AND ITS AGREEMENT WITH SCRIPTURE.

1 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 (eu0daimoni/a)
is to possess rightly the daemon, and that the ruling faculty of the soul is called the
daemon; and he terms happiness (eu0daimoni/a) 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. He says, accordingly, in The Laws:

2 "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 Theataetus 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.

3 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.

4 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. 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. On account of which love and the restoration to hope, he says,
in another place, "which rest is laid up for us. 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. 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. Similarly with Paul
"the All-virtuous Wisdom" says, "He, that heareth me shall dwell trusting in hope. 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," in order that that
may take place.

6 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 wisdomhe 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.

CHAPTER XXIII.-ON MARRIAGE.

1 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. Accordingly Menander the comic poet says:- "For the begetting of legitimate
children, I give thee my daughter." 2 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," 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.

3 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." 4 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." 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, 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.
The comic poet then, Menander, while running down marriage, and yet alleging on the other
side its advantages, replies to one who had said:-

5 "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." 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:-

6 "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." 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.

7 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. 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.

8 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,"
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? 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. 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.

9 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. 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." 10 Let us conclude this second book of the Stromata at this point, on account
of the length and number of the chapters.


THE STROMATA BOOK 4
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 4 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER I.-ORDER OF CONTENTS.

1 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.

2 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.

CHAPTER II.-THE MEANING OF THE NAME STROMATA OR MISCELLANIES.

1 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

2 "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," 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,

3 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.

CHAPTER III.-THE TRUE EXCELLENCE OF MAN.

1 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. 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.

2 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; " 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. 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. 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," as
those allege who disparage the law, and "till the law sin was in the world; " yet "without
the law sin was dead," we oppose them.

3 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," 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. So
also is it said, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. 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," 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.

4 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. 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." 5 "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." 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."

CHAPTER IV.-THE PRAISES OF MARTYRDOM.

1 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," 2 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.

3 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.

4 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," 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.

5 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
)-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, in as
much 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.

6 But since these falsely named 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.

CHAPTER V.-ON CONTEMPT FOR PAIN, POVERTY, AND OTHER EXTERNAL THINGS.

1 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," -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." 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.

2 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." 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.

3 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:-

4 "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.

CHAPTER VI.-SOME POINTS IN THE BEATITUDES.

1 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," 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 circumstance"-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," and "to tread on serpents and scorpions," and to rule over demons and "the host
of the adversary.

2 And, in fine, the Lord's discipline 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," 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." 3 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" -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;

4 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. 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. 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? Thereare 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.

5 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. 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. 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.

6 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. 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.
"They bless with their mouth, but they curse in their heart. "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. For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves
against His flock.

7 "Lay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and thieves break through and steal," 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. "For I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy," 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. 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? " And the
commandment is expressed in these very words, "Take heed, therefore, of covetousness.

8 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? " "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. 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. 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.

9 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. 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. 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.

10 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. "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; " for they who have repented of their
former evil life shall attain to"the calling" (klh=sin), for this is the meaning of being
comforted (paraklhqh=nai). And there are two styles of penitents. 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.

11 For it is said, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. And He 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. 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. 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.

12 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. 13
"Blessed, then, are the peacemakers," 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; " or, as some of those who transpose the Gospels 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; " 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.

CHAPTER VII.-THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE MARTYR.

1 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." He does not term those men of
little faith, but faithless and hypocrites, 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.

2 "Why call ye me Lord, Lord," He says, "and do not the things which I say? " For "the
people that loveth with their lips, but have their heart far away from the Lord," 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." "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." 3 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. "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.

4 And in further explanation continues, that no one may, like Marcion 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."

5 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. "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 captiously say, And
how is it possible for feeble flesh to resist the energies and spirits of the Powers?
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;

6 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. 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." 7 "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." 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:-

8 "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. Such shall he be "who
cleaves to that which is good," according to the apostle, "who hates evil, having love
unfeigned; for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law." 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."

9 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." 10 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." 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." Such also are the words
of Plato in the Republic: "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," 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 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:-

11 "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."
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." And, "Let no one seek his own
advantage, but also that of his neighbour," 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." "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."
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.

12 "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," ye who, while still in
the body, like the just men of old, enjoy impassibility and tranquillity of soul.

CHAPTER VIII.-WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN, SLAVES AS WELL AS FREEMEN, CANDIDATES FOR THE MARTYR'S CROWN.

1 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.

2 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. 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. 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.

3 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. For neither is the woman without
the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord. For as we say that the man ought to
be continent, 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.

4 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, temperance,
goodness, faith, meekness. 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:-

5 "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 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." 6 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. 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. And in that to the Colossians it is said, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands, as is fit in the Lord. 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.

7 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. 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. "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. For there is no
obstacle to adducing frequently the same Scripture in order to put Marcion 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.

8 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.

9 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 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."

CHAPTER IX.-CHRIST'S SAYINGS RESPECTING MARTYRDOM.

1 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. "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. "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. 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. Of whom are Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi, and many others. And confession by
the lip is not universal, but partial.

2 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. 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;

3 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. 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. And
these, though they confess nothing but this, will have done at the end one good work.

4 Their witness, then, appears to be the cleansing away of sins with glory. For instance,
the Shepherd 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. 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.

CHAPTER X.-THOSE WHO OFFERED THEMSELVES FOR MARTYRDOM REPROVED.

When, again, He says, "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye to the other," 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.

CHAPTER XI.-THE OBJECTION, WHY DO YOU SUFFER IF GOD CARES FOR YOU, ANSWERED.

1 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.
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.

2 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? " "For
the souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and no plague shall touch them."

CHAPTER XII.-BASILIDES' IDEA OF MARTYRDOM REFUTED.

1 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;

2 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.'" But the hypothesis of Basilides 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.

3 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].

4 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.

5 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.
Providence being a disciplinary art; 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. Wherefore the Lord was not
prohibited from this sanctification of ours.

6 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.

CHAPTER XIII.-VALENTINIAN'S VAGARIES ABOUT THE ABOLITION OF DEATH REFUTED.

1 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;

2 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. 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.

3 But should they say that this takes place by His mother, 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. 4 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" with the Philippians, to whom the apostle
speaks, calling them "fellow-partakers of joy," 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."

5 Let not the above-mentioned people, then, call us, by way of reproach, "natural men"
(yukikoi/), nor the Phrygians either; for these now call those who do not apply themselves
to the new prophecy"natural men" (yukikoi/), with whom we shall discuss in our remarks
on"Prophecy. 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).

6 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.

CHAPTER 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," 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." 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." You have got a compendious account of
the gnostic martyr.


THE STROMATA BOOK 4
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 4 continued

CHAPTER XV.-ON AVOIDING OFFENCE.

1 "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. " Should they say, "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, ought that to be
bought? "adding, by way of interrogation, "asking no questions," 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, "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?

2 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. "But the earth is
the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 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 " -what you are commanded to do by the rule of faith.

CHAPTER XVI.-PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RESPECTING THE CONSTANCY, PATIENCE, AND LOVE OF THE MARTYRS.

1 "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. 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. "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. 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," 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.

2 "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. And if
"God be love," piety also is love: "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear. "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. 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. 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. 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.

3 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. 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.

4 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. Since, then, he specifies one salvation in Christ of the righteous, 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. 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. 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.

5 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."

CHAPTER XVII.-PASSAGES FROM CLEMENT'S EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS ON MARTYRDOM.

1 Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Clement also, drawing a picture
of the Gnostic, says: "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."

2 "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.' And of Job it is thus written: `Job was
just and blameless, true and pious, abstaining from all evil.'" 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." "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."

3 "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.' 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.'" 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. For the Scripture somewhere
says, "The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp, searching the recesses of the belly. 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 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;

4 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." 5 "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? ' 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.' 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.' ` Many are the stripes of sinners; but those who hope in the Lord,
mercy shall compass about.'" "A multitude of mercy," he nobly says, "surrounds him that
trusts in the Lord."

6 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."

CHAPTER XVIII.-ON LOVE, AND THE REPRESSING OF OUR DESIRES.

1 "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. ` Love covers a multitude of sins. Love
beareth all things, suffereth all things.' 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." 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.

2 "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." "For the
sacrifice of God is a broken spirit." "God," then, being good, "is love," it is said.
Whose "love worketh no ill to his neighhour," 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; " 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.

3 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," 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. 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.

4 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; 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 carnally. 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.

5 "And his life shall not fall away"-the leaf of the living tree that is nourished "by the
water-courses. Now the righteous is likened to fruit-bearing trees, and not only to such
as are of the nature 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 (o !recij) from lust (e0piqumi/a); 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. 6 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." 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, held back ten thousand armed 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.

7 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 ," 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. 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.

8 And the daughters of Diodorus, who was called Kronus, all became dialecticians, as Philo
the dialectician says in the Menexenus, 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.

9 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.

CHAPTER XX.-A GOOD WIFE.

1 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.

2 "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 practise 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. 3 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. 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.

4 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. 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. Wherefore also Paul rejoices for Christ's sake that he was "in labours, more
abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft."

CHAPTER XXI.-DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC.

1 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. 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;

2 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.
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," 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. "Let us then," he says, "perfect holiness in
the fear of God.

3 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. 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; " 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.

4 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?

5 "For to one God has given warlike deeds, To another the accomplishment of the dance, To
another the lyre and song," says Homer. "But each has his own proper gift of God " -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 -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; " 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.

CHAPTER XXII.-THE TRUE GNOSTIC DOES GOOD, NOT FROM FEAR OF PUNISHMENT OR HOPE OF REWARD, BUT ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF GOOD ITSELF.

1 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. 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. 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; " 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;

2 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.

3 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," 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.

4 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.

5 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 (fro/nhsij). 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." 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." "For blessed are those that
have seen the Lord," 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."
By day and light he designates figuratively the Son, and by the armour of light
metaphorically the promises.

6 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." It is Penelope that is going to prayer:- "And Telemachus, Having washed
his hands in the hoary sea, prayed to Athene." 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, and divesting
our mind both of the things which please us through the senses, and of our former
transgressions.

7 If, then, we are to give the etymology ofe0pisth/mh, knowledge, its signification is to
be derived from sta/sij, 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 (sta/sij) of our soul respecting that which is. 8 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 Socrate" also, in the Phaedo, says "that good souls depart hence
with a good hope;

9 "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. 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. 10 But he who obeys the mere call, as he
is called, neither for fear, nor for enjoyments, is on his way to knowledge (gnw=sij). 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," 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.

CHAPTER XXIII.-THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

1 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.
2 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; in as much as he, in virtue of the selection of what is good, has chosen what is
good according to knowledge (gnwstikw=j), 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.

3 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." 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."
"Rely with all thy heart and thy mind on God."

4 On this wise it is possible for the Gnostic already to have become God. "I said, Ye are
gods, and 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.

5 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 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.

CHAPTER XXIV.-THE REASON AND END OF DIVINE PUNISHMENTS.

1 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, "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. 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;

2 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 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."

CHAPTER XXV.-TRUE PERFECTION CONSISTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF GOD.

1 "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

2 "Alone wise, while these flit like shadows." "For the dead bury their dead." Whence
Jeremiah says: "I will fill it with the earth-born dead whom mine anger has smitten." 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.

3 "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. 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. 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;

4 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, 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; " 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," 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. For the intent of one generation
succeeding another is to immortalize by progress. "But the lamp of the wicked shall be put
out. 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:

5 "Now the virgin was fair, and man had not known her. And Rebecca, interpreted, means
"glory of God; "and the glory of God is immortality. 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. 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. 6 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: - "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.

CHAPTER XXVI.-HOW THE PERFECT MAN TREATS THE BODY AND THE THINGS OF THE WORLD.

1 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; " 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;

2 and thy disgrace shall be seen, thy adultery, and thy neighing," and so on. 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. 3
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.

4 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. 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.

5 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," 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," that is, God, whose work and creation
are all things, both the world and things supramundane. I admire Epicharmus, who clearly
says:- 6 "Endowed with pious mind, you will not, in dying, Suffer aught evil. The spirit
will dwell in heaven above; " and the minstrel 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."

7 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. 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. And another
prophet says again, "Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth," 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.

8 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.
And Abraham said, "By no means. The Lord is He who judgeth the earth; " "since he that
believeth not, is," according to the utterance of the Saviour, "condemned already. And
there is written in the Kings 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.
"For there is no unrighteousness with God," 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?

9 " 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. "Let thy works shine," and behold a man
and his works before his face. "For behold God and His works. 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."

10 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.


THE STROMATA BOOK 5
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 5 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER I.-ON FAITH

1 Of the Gnostic so much has been cursorily, as it were, written. We proceed now to the
sequel, and must again contemplate faith; for there are some that draw the distinction,
that faith has reference to the Son, and knowledge to the Spirit. But it has escaped their
notice that, in order to believe truly in the Son, we must believe that He is the Son, and
that He came, and how, and for what, and respecting His passion; and we must know who is
the Son of God. Now neither is knowledge without faith, nor faith without knowledge. Nor
is the Father without the Son; for the Son is with the Father. And the Son is the true
teacher respecting the Father; and that we may believe in the Son, we must know the
Father, with whom also is the Son. Again, in order that we may know the Father, we must
believe in the Son, that it is the Son of God who teaches; for from faith to knowledge by
the Son is the Father. And the knowledge of the Son and Father, which is according to the
gnostic rule-that which in reality is gnostic-is the attainment and comprehension of the
truth by the truth.

2 We, then, are those who are believers in what is not believed, and who are Gnostics as
to what is unknown; that is, Gnostics as to what is unknown and disbelieved by all, but
believed and known by a few; and Gnostics, not describingactions by speech, but Gnostics
in the exercise of contemplation. Happy is he who speaks in! the ears of the hearing. Now
faith is the ear of the soul. And such the Lord intimates faith to be, when He says, "He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear; " so that by believing he may comprehend what He
says, as He says it. Homer, too, the oldest of the poets, using the word "hear" instead
of" perceive"-the specific for the generic term-writes:- "Him most they heard." 3 For, in
fine, the agreement and harmony of the faith of both contribute to one end-salvation. We
have in the apostle an unerring witness: "For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto
you some spiritual gift, in order that ye may be strengthened; that is, that I may be
comforted in you, by the mutual faith of you and me. And further on again he adds, "The
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The apostle, then, manifestly
announces a twofold faith, or rather one which admits of growth and perfection; for the
common faith lies beneath as a foundation. To those, therefore, who desire to be healed,
and are moved by faith, He added, "Thy faith hath saved thee. But that which is
excellently built upon is consummated in the believer, and is again perfected by the faith
which results from instruction and the word, in order to the performance of the
commandments. Such were the apostles, in whose case it is said that "faith removed
mountains and transplanted trees. Whence, perceiving the greatness of its power, they
asked "that faith might be added to them; " a faith which salutarily bites the soil "like
a grain of mustard," and grows magnificently in it, to such a degree that the reasons of
things sublime rest on it. For if one by nature knows God, as Basilides thinks, who calls
intelligence of a superior order at once faith and kingship, and a creation worthy of the
essence of the Creator;

4 and explains that near Him exists not power, but essence and nature and substance; and
says that faith is not the rational assent of the soul exercising free-will, but an
undefined beauty, belonging immediately to the creature;-the precepts both of the Old and
of the New Testament are, then, superfluous, if one is saved by nature, as Valentinus
would have it, and is a believer and an elect man by nature, as Basilides thinks; and
nature would have been able, one time or other, to have shone forth, apart from the
Saviour's appearance. But were they to say that the visit of the Saviour was necessary,
then the properties of nature are gone from them, the elect being saved by instruction,
and purification, and the doing of good works. Abraham, accordingly, who through hearing
believed the voice, which promised under the oak in Mamre," I will give this land to thee,
and to thy seed," was either elect or not. But if he was not, how did he straightway
believe, as it were naturally? And if he was elect, their hypothesis is done away with, in
as much as even previous to the coming of the Lord an election was found, and that saved:
"For it was reckoned to him for righteousness. For if any one, following Marcion, should
dare to say that the Creator (Dhmiourgo/n) saved the man that believed on him, even before
the advent of the Lord, (the election being saved with their own proper salvation); the
power of the good Being will be eclipsed;

5 in as much as late only, and subsequent to the Creator spoken of by them in words of be
good men, it made the attempt to save, and by instruction, and in imitation of him. But
if, being such, the good Being save, according to them; neither is it his own that he
saves, nor is it with the consent of him who formed the creation that he essays salvation,
but by force or fraud. And how can he any more be good, acting thus, and being posterior?
But if the locality is different, and the dwelling-place of the Omnipotent is remote from
the dwelling-place of the good God; yet the will of him who saves, having been the first
to begin, is not inferior to that of the good God. From what has been previously proved,
those who believe not are proved senseless: "For their paths are perverted, and they know
not peace," saith the prophet. "But foolish and unlearned questions" the divine Paul
exhorted to"avoid, because they gender strifes. And Aeschylus exclaims:-

6 "In what profits not, labour not in vain." 7 For that investigation, which accords with
faith, which builds, on the foundation of faith, the august knowledge of the truth, we
know to be the best. Now we know that neither things which are clear are made subjects of
investigation, such as if it is day, while it is day; nor things unknown, and never
destined to become clear, as whether the stars are even or odd in number; nor things
convertible; and those are so which can be said equally by those who take the opposite
side, as if what is in the womb is a living creature or not. A fourth mode is, when, from
either side of those, there is advanced an unanswerable and irrefragable argument. If,
then, the ground of inquiry, according to all of these modes, is removed, faith is
established. For we advance to them the unanswerable consideration, that it is God who
speaks and comes to our help in writing, respecting each one of the points regarding which
I investigate. Who, then, is so impious as to disbelieve God, and to demand proofs from
God as from men? Again, some questions demand the evidence of the senses, as if one were
to ask whether the fire be warm, or the snow white; and some admonition and rebuke, as the
question if you ought to honour your parents. And there are those that deserve punishment,
as to ask proofs of the existence of Providence.

8 There being then a Providence, it were impious to think that the whole of prophecy and
the economy in reference to a Saviour did not take place in accordance with Providence.
And perchance one should not even attempt to demonstrate such points, the divine
Providence being evident from the sight of all its skilful and wise works which. are seen,
some of which take place in order, and some appear in order. And He who communicated to us
being and life, has communicated to us also reason, wishing us to live rationally and
rightly. For the Word of the Father of the universe is not the uttered word (lo/goj
proforiko/j), but the wisdom and most manifest kindness of God, and His power too, which
is almighty and truly divine, and not incapable of being conceived by those who do not
confes"-the all-potent will. But since some are unbelieving, and some are disputations,
all do not attain to the perfection of the good. For neither is it possible to attain it
without the exercise of free choice; nor does the whole depend on our own purpose; as, for
example, what is defined to happen."For by grace we are saved: "not, indeed, without good
works; but we must, by being formed for what is good, acquire an inclination for it. And
we must possess the healthy mind which is fixed on the pursuit of the good;

9 in order to which we have the greatest need of divine grace, and of right teaching, and
of holy susceptibility, and of the drawing of the Father to Him. For, bound in this
earthly body, we apprehend the objects of sense by means of the body; but we grasp
intellectual objects by means of the logical faculty itself. But if one expect to
apprehend all things by the senses, he has fallen far from the truth. Spiritually,
therefore, the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God, "For now we see as through
a glass, but then face to face. For the vision of the truth is given but to few.
Accordingly, Plato says in the Epinomis, "I do not say that it is possible for all to be
blessed and happy; only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case. But there
is a good hope that after death I shall attain all. To the same effect is what we find in
Moses: "No man shall see My face, and live. For it is evident that no one during the
period of life has been able to apprehend God clearly. But" the pure in heart shall see
God," when they arrive at the final perfection. For since the soul became too enfeebled
for the apprehension of realities, we needed a divine teacher. The Saviour is sent down-a
teacher and leader in the acquisition of the good-the secret and sacred token of the great
Providence. "Where, then, is the scribe? where is the searcher of this world?

10 Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? " it is said. And again, "I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,"
plainly of those wise in their own eyes, and disputatious. Excellently therefore Jeremiah
says, "Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths,"what is the
good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find expiation for your souls. Ask, he says, and
inquire of those who know, without contention and dispute. And on learning the way of
truth, let us walk on the right way, without turning till we attain to what we desire: It
was therefore with reason that the king of the Romans (his name was Numa), being a
Pythagorean, first of all men, erected a temple to Faith and Peace. "And to Abraham, on
believing, righteousness was reckoned. He, prosecuting the lofty philosophy of aerial
phenomena, and the sublime philosophy of the movements in the heavens, was called Abram,
which is interpreted "sublime father. But afterwards, on looking up to heaven, whether it
was that he saw the Son in the spirit, as some explain, or a glorious angel, or in any
other way recognised God to be superior to the creation, and all the order in it, he
receives in addition the Alpha, the knowledge of the one and only God, and is called
Abraam, having, instead of a natural philosopher, become wise, and a lover of God. For it
is interpreted, "elect father of sound.

11 For by sound is the uttered word: the mind is its father; and the mind of the good man
is elect. I cannot forbear praising exceedingly the poet of Agrigentum, who celebrates
faith as follows:- 12 "Friends, I know, then, that there is truth in the myths Which I
will relate. But very difficult to men, And irksome to the mind, is the attempt of faith."
13 Wherefore also the apostle exhorts, "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of
men," who profess to persuade, "but in the power of God," which alone without proofs, by
mere faith, is able to save."For the most approved of those that are reputable knows how
to keep watch. And justice will apprehend the forger and witnesses of lies," says the
Ephesian. For he, having derived his knowledge from the barbarian philosophy, is
acquainted with the purification by fire of those who have led bad lives, which the Stoics
afterwards called the Conflagration (e0kpu/rwsij), in which also they teach that each will
arise exactly as he was, so treating of the resurrection; while Plato says as follows,
that the earth at certain periods is purified by fire and water: "There have been many
destructions of men in many ways; and there shall be very great ones by fire and water;
and others briefer by innumerable causes. And after a little he adds: "And, in truth,
there is a change of the objects which revolve about earth and heaven; and in the course
of long periods there is the destruction of the objects on earth by a great conflagration.
Then he subjoins respecting the deluge: "But when, again, the gods deluge the earth to
purify it with water, those on the mountains herdsmen and shepherds, are saved; those in
your cities are carried down by the rivers into the sea.

14 And we showed in the first Miscellany that the philosophers of the Greeks are called
thieves, in as much as they have taken without acknowledgment their principal dogmas from
Moses and the prophets. To which also we shall add, that the angels who had obtained the
superior rank, having sunk into pleasures, told to the women the secrets which had come to
their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them, or rather, kept them against
the coming of the Lord. Thence emanated the doctrine of providence, and the revelation of
high things; and prophecy having already been imparted to the philosophers of the Greeks,
the treatment of dogma arose among the philosophers, sometimes true when they hit the
mark, and sometimes erroneous, when they comprehended not the secret of the prophetic
allegory. And this it is proposed briefly to indicate in running over the points requiring
mention. Faith, then, we say, we are to show must not be inert and alone, but accompanied
with investigation. For I do not say that we are not to inquire at all. For "Search, and
thou shalt find," it is said.

15 "What is sought may be captured, But what is neglected escapes,"? according to
Sophocles. The like also says Menander the comic poet:- "All things sought, The wisest
say, need anxious thought. But we ought to direct the visual faculty of the soul aright to
discovery, and to clear away obstacles; and to cast clean away contention, and envy, and
strife, destined to perish miserably from among men. For very beautifully does Timon of
Phlius write:- "And Strife, the Plague of Mortals, stalks vainly shrieking, The sister of
Murderous Quarrel and Discord, Which rolls blindly over all things. But then It sets its
head towards men, and casts them on hope." Then a little below he adds:- "For who hath set
these to fight in deadly strife? A rabble keeping pace with Echo; for, enraged at those
silent, It raised an evil disease against men, and many perished; " of the speech which
denies what is false, and of the dilemma, of that which is concealed, of the Sorites, and
of the Crocodilean, of that which is open, and of ambiguities and sophisms. To inquire,
then, respecting God, if it tend not to strife, but to discovery, is salutary. For it is
written in David, "The poor eat, and shall be filled; and they shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live for ever." For they who seek Him after the true search,
praising the Lord, shall be filled with the gift that comes from God, that is, knowledge.
And their soul shall live; for the soul is figuratively termed the heart, which ministers
life: for by the Son is the Father known.

16 We ought not to surrender our ears to all who speak and write rashly. For cups also,
which are taken hold of by many by the ears, are dirtied, and lose the ears; and besides,
when they fall they are broken. In the same way also, those, who have polluted the pure
hearing of faith by many trifles, at last becoming deaf to the truth, become useless and
fall to the earth. It is not, then, without reason that we commanded boys to kiss their
relations, holding them by the ears; indicating this, that the feeling of love is
engendered by hearing. And "God," who is known to those who love, "is love," as "God," who
by instruction is communicated to the faithful, "is faithful; " and we must be allied to
Him by divine love: so that by like we may see like, hearing the word of truth guilelessly
and purely, as children who obey us. And this was what he, whoever he was, indicated who
wrote on the entrance to the temple at Epidaurus the inscription:-

17 "Pure he must be who goes within The incense-perfumed fane." And purity is "to think
holy thoughts." "Except ye become as these little children, ye shall not enter," it is
said, "into the kingdom of heaven." For there the temple of God is seen established on
three foundations-faith, hope, and love.

CHAPTER II.-ON HOPE.

1 Respecting faith we have adduced sufficient testimonies of writings among the Greeks.
But in order not to exceed bounds, through eagerness to collect a very great many also
respecting hope and love, suffice it merely to say that in the Crito Socrates, who prefers
a good life and death to life itself, thinks that we have hope of another life after
death. Also in the Phaedrus he says, "That only when in a separate state can the soul
become partaker of the wisdom which is true, and surpasses human power; and when, having
reached the end of hope by philosophic love, desire shall waft it to heaven, then," says
he, "does it receive the commencement of another, an immortal life." And in the
Symposiumhe says, "That there is instilled into all the natural love of generating what is
like, and in men of generating men alone, and in the good man of the generation of the
counterpart of himself. But it is impossible for the good man to do this without
possessing the perfect virtues, in which he will train the youth who have recourse to
him." And as he says in the Theaetetus, "He will beget and finish men. For some procreate
by the body, others by the soul; "since also with the barbarian philosophers to teach and
enlighten is called to regenerate; and "I have begotten you in Jesus Christ," says the
good apostle somewhere.

2 Empedocles, too, enumerates friendship among the elements, conceiving it as a combining
love:- "Which do you look at with your mind; and don't sit gaping with your eyes."
Parmenides, too, in his poem, alluding to hope, speaks thus:- "Yet look with the mind
certainly on what is absent as present, For it will not sever that which is from the grasp
it has of that which is Not, even if scattered in every direction over the world or
combined."

CHAPTER III.-THE OBJECTS OF FAITH AND HOPE PERCEIVED BY THE MIND ALONE.

1 For he who hopes, as he who believes, sees intellectual objects and future things with
the mind. If, then, we affirm that aught is just, and affirm it to be good, and we also
say that truth is something, yet we have never seen any of such objects with our eyes, but
with our mind alone. Now the Word of God says, "I am the truth." The Word is then to be
contemplated by the mind. "Do you aver," it was said, "that there are any true
philosophers? ""Yes," said I, "those who love to contemplate the truth." In the Phaedrus
also, Plato, speaking of the truth, shows it as an idea. Now an idea is a conception of
God; and this the barbarians have termed the Word of God. The words are as follow: "For
one must then dare to speak the truth, especially in speaking of the truth. For the
essence of the soul, being colourless, formless, and intangible, is visible only to God,
its guide." Now the Word issuing forth was the cause of creation; then also he generated
himself, "when the Word had become flesh," that He might be seen. The righteous man will
seek the discovery that flows from love, to which if he haste he prospers. For it is said,
"To him that knocketh, it shall be opened: ask, and it shall be given to you." "For the
violent that storm the kingdom " are not so in disputations speeches; but by continuance
in a right life and unceasing prayers, are said "to take it by force," wiping away the
blots left by their previous sins.

2 "You may obtain wickedness, even in great abundance. And him who toils God helps; For
the gifts of the Muses, hard to win, Lie not before you, for any one to bear away." The
knowledge of ignorance is, then, the first lesson in walking according to the Word. An
ignorant man has sought, and having sought, he finds the teacher; and finding has
believed, and believing has hoped; and henceforward having loved, is assimilated to what
was loved-endeavouring to be what he first loved. Such is the method Socrates shows
Alcibiades, who thus questions: "Do you not think that I shall know about what is right
otherwise? ""Yes, if you have found out." "But you don't think I have found out?
""Certainly, if you have sought." "Then you don't think that I have sought? ""Yes, if you
think you do not know." So with the lamps of the wise virgins, lighted at night in the
great darkness of ignorance, which the Scripture signified by "night." Wise souls, pure as
virgins, understanding themselves to be situated amidst the ignorance of the world, kindle
the light, and rouse the mind, and illumine the darkness, and dispel ignorance, and seek
truth, and await the appearance of the Teacher.

3 "The mob, then," said I, "cannot become philosopher." "Many rod-bearers there are, but
few Bacchi," according to Plato. "For many are called, but few chosen." "Knowledge is not
in all," says the apostle. "And pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked
men: for all men have not faith." And the Poetics of Cleanthes, the Stoic, writes to the
following effect:- "Look not to glory, wishing to be suddenly wise, And fear not the
undiscerning and rash opinion of the many; For the multitude has not an intelligent, or
wise, or right judgment, And it is in few men that you will find this." And more
sententiously the comic poet briefly says:- "It is a shame to judge of what is right by
much noise." For they heard, I think, that excellent wisdom, which says to us, "Watch your
opportunity in the midst of the foolish, and in the midst of the intelligent continue."
And again, "The wise will conceal sense." For the many demand demonstration as a pledge of
truth, not satisfied with the bare salvation by faith.

4 "But it is strongly incumbent to disbelieve the dominant wicked, And as is enjoined by
the assurance of our muse, Know by dissecting the utterance within your breast." "For this
is habitual to the wicked," says Empedocles, "to wish to overbear what is true by
disbelieving it." And that our tenets are probable and worthy of belief, the Greeks shall
know, the point being more thoroughly investigated in what follows. For we are taught what
is like by what is like. For says Solomon, "Answer a fool according to his folly."
Wherefore also, to those that ask the wisdom that is with us, we are to hold out things
suitable, that with the greatest possible ease they may, through their own ideas, be
likely to arrive at faith in the truth. For "I became all things to all men, that I might
gain all men." Since also "the rain" of the divine grace is sent down "on the just and the
unjust." "Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the
Gentiles: if indeed He is one God," exclaims the noble apostle.

CHAPTER IV.-DIVINE THINGS WRAPPED UP IN FIGURES BOTH IN THE SACRED AND IN HEATHEN WRITERS.

1 But since they will believe neither in what is good justly nor in knowledge unto
salvation, we ourselves reckoning what they claim as belonging to us, because all things
are God's; and especially since what is good proceeded from us to the Greeks, let us
handle those things as they are capable of hearing. For intelligence or rectitude this
great crowd estimates not by truth, but by what they are delighted with. And they will be
pleased not more with other things than with what is like themselves. For he who is still
blind and dumb, not having understanding, or the undazzled and keen vision of the
contemplative soul, which the Saviour confers, like the uninitiated at the mysteries, or
the unmusical at dances, not being yet pure and worthy of the pure truth, but still
discordant and disordered and material, must stand outside of the divine choir. "For we
compare spiritual things with spiritual." Wherefore, in accordance with the method of
concealment, the truly sacred Word truly divine and most necessary for us, deposited in
the shrine of truth, was by the Egyptians indicated by what were called among them adyta,
and by the Hebrews by the veil. Only the consecrated-that is, those devoted to God,
circumcised in the desire of the passions for the sake of love to that which is alone
divine-were allowed access to them. For Plato also thought it not lawful for "the impure
to touch the pure."

2 Thence the prophecies and oracles are spoken in enigmas, and the mysteries are not
exhibited incontinently to all and sundry, but only after certain purifications and
previous instructions. "For the Muse was not then Greedy of gain or mercenary; Nor were
Terpsichore's sweet, Honey-toned, silvery soft-voiced Strains made merchandise of." Now
those instructed among the Egyptians learned first of all that style of the Egyptian
letters which is called Epistolographic; and second, the Hieratic, which the sacred
scribes practise; and finally, and last of all, the Hieroglyphic, of which one kind which
is by the first elements is literal (Kyriologic), and the other Symbolic. Of the Symbolic,
one kind speaks literally by imitation, and another writes as it were figuratively; and
another is quite allegorical, using certain enigmas. 3 Wishing to express Sun in writing,
they makea circle; and Moon, a figure like the Moon, like its proper shape. But in using
the figurative style, by transposing and transferring, by changing and by transforming in
many ways as suits them, they draw characters. In relating the praises of the kings in
theological myths, they write in anaglyphs. Let the following stand as a specimen of the
third species-the Enigmatic. For the rest of the stars, on account of their oblique
course, they have figured like the bodies of serpents; but the sun, like that of a beetle,
because it makes a round figure of ox-dung, and rolls it before its face. And they say
that this creature lives six months under ground, and the other division of the year above
ground, and emits its seed into the ball, and brings forth; and that there is not a female
beetle. All then, in a word, who have spoken of divine things, both Barbarians and Greeks,
have veiled the first principles of things, and delivered the truth in enigmas, and
symbols, and allegories, and metaphors, and such like tropes. Such also are the oracles
among the Greeks. And the Pythian Apollo is called Loxias. Also the maxims of those among
the Greeks called wise men, in a few sayings indicate the unfolding of matter of
considerable importance. Such certainly is that maxim, "Spare Time: "either because life
is short, and we ought not to expend this time in vain; or, on the other hand, it bids you
spare your personal expenses;

4 so that, though you live many years, necessaries may not fail you. Similarly also the
maxim "Know thyself" shows many things; both that thou art mortal, and that thou wast born
a human being; and also that, in comparison with the other excellences of life, thou art
of no account, because thou sayest that thou art rich or renowned; or, on the other hand,
that, being rich or renowned, you are not honoured on account of your advantages alone.
And it says, Know for what thou wert born, and whose image thou art; and what is thy
essence, and what thy creation, and what thy relation to God, and the like. And the Spirit
says by Isaiah the prophet, "I will give thee treasures, hidden, dark. Now wisdom, hard to
hunt, is the treasures of God and unfailing riches. But those, taught in theology by those
prophets, the poets, philosophize much by way of a hidden sense. I mean Orpheus, Linus,
Musaeus, Homer, and Hesiod, and those in this fashion wise. The persuasive style of poetry
is for them a veil for the many. Dreams and signs are all more or less obscure to men, not
from jealousy (for it were wrong to conceive of God as subject to passions), but in order
that research, introducing to the understanding of enigmas, may haste to the discovery of
truth. Thus Sophocles the tragic poet somewhere says:-

5 "And God I know to be such an one, Ever the revealer of enigmas to the wise, But to the
perverse bad, although a teacher in few words,"- putting bad instead of simple. Expressly
then respecting all our Scripture, as if spoken in a parable, it is written in the Psalms,
"Hear, O My people, My law: incline your ear to the words of My mouth. I will open My
mouth in parables, I will utter My problems from the beginning." Similarly speaks the
noble apostle to the following effect: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among those that are
perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to
nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery; which none of the princes of
this world knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

6 The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance of the Lord. It
therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise among the Jews which the apostle
inveighs against it. Wherefore he adds, "But we preach, as it is written, 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. For God hath revealed it to us by the Spirit. For
the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. For he recognises the
spiritual man and the Gnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spirit dispensed by God, which
is the mind of Christ. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for
they are foolishness to him. Now the apostle, in contradistinction to gnostic perfection,
calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes milk, writing on this wise:
"Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not able. Neither yet are ye now
able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not
carnal, and walk as men? " Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But
those who abstain from these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of
gnostic food.

7 "According to the grace," it is said, "given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid
the foundation. And another buildeth on it gold and silver, precious stones. Such is the
gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But "the stubble, and
the wood, and the hay," are the additions of heresies. "But the fire shall try every man's
work, of what sort it is. In allusion to the gnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the
Romans, he says, "For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you a spiritual gift,
that ye may be established. It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written
without disguise.

CHAPTER V.-ON THE SYMBOLS OF PYTHAGORAS.

1 Now the Pythagorean symbols were connected with the Barbarian philosophy in the most
recondite way. For instance, the Samian counsels "not to have a swallow in the house ;
"that is, not to receive a loquacious, whispering, garrulous man, who cannot contain what
has been communicated to him. "For the swallow, and the turtle, and the sparrows of the
field, know the times of their entrance," says the Scripture; and one ought never to dwell
with trifles. And the turtle-dove murmuring shows the thankless slander of fault-finding,
and is rightly expelled the house."Don't mutter against me, sitting by one in one place,
another in another." The swallow too, which suggests the fable of Pandion, seeing it is
right to detest the incidents reported of it, some of which we hear Tereus suffered, and
some of which he inflicted. It pursues also the musical grasshoppers, whence he who is a
persecutor of the word ought to be driven away.

2 "By sceptre-bearing Here, whose eye surveys Olympus, I have a rusty closet for tongues,"
says Poetry. Aeschylus also says:- "But, I, too, have a key as a guard on my tongue."
Again Pythagoras commanded, "When the pot is lifted off the fire, not to leave its mark in
the ashes, but to scatter them; "and "people on getting up from bed, to shake the bed-
clothes." For he intimated that it was necessary not only to efface the mark, but not to
leave even a trace of anger; and that on its ceasing to boil, it was to be composed, and
all memory of injury to be wiped out. "And let not the sun," says the Scripture, "go down
upon your wrath." And he that said, "Thou shall not desire," took away all memory of
wrong; for wrath is found to be the impulse of concupiscence in a mild soul, especially
seeking irrational revenge. In the same way "the bed is ordered to be shaken up," so that
there may be no recollection of effusion in sleep, or sleep in the day-time; nor, besides,
of pleasure during the night. And he intimated that the vision of the dark ought to be
dissipated speedily by the light of truth. "Be angry, and sin not," says David, teaching
us that we ought not to assent to the impression, and not to follow it up by action, and
so confirm wrath.

3 Again, "Don't sail on land" is a Pythagorean saw, and shows that taxes and similar
contracts, being troublesome and fluctuating, ought to be declined. Wherefore also the
Word says that the tax-gatherers shall be saved with difficulty. 4 And again, "Don't wear
a ring, nor engrave on it the images of the gods," enjoins Pythagoras; as Moses ages
before enacted expressly, that neither a graven, nor molten, nor moulded, nor painted
likeness should be made; so that we may not cleave to things of sense, but pass to
intellectual objects: for familiarity with the sight disparages the reverence of what is
divine; and to worship that which is immaterial by matter, is to dishonour it by sense.
Wherefore the wisest of the Egyptian priests decided that the temple of Athene should be
hypaethral, just as the Hebrews constructed the temple without an image. And some, in
worshipping God, make a representation of heaven containing the stars; and so worship,
although Scripture says, "Let Us make man in Our image and likeness. I think it worth
while also to adduce the utterance of Eurysus the Pythagorean, which is as follows, who in
his book On Fortune, having said that the "Creator, on making man, took Himself as an
exemplar," added, "And the body is like the other things, as being made of the same
material, and fashioned by the best workman, who wrought it, taking Himself as the
archetype. And, in fine, Pythagoras and his followers, with Plato also, and most of the
other philosophers, were best acquainted with the Lawgiver, as may be concluded from their
doctrine.

5 And by a happy utterance of divination, not without divine help, concurring in certain
prophetic declarations, and, seizing the truth in portions and aspects, in terms not
obscure, and not going beyond the explanation of the things, they honoured it on as
pertaining the appearance of relation with the truth. Whence the Hellenic philosophy is
like the torch of wick which men kindle, artificially stealing the light from the sun. But
on the proclamation of the Word all that holy light shone forth. Then in houses by night
the stolen light is useful; but by day the fire blazes, and all the night is illuminated
by such a sun of intellectual light. 6 Now Pythagoras made an epitome of the statements on
righteousness in Moses, when he said, "Do not step over the balance; "that is, do not
transgress equality in distribution, honouring justice so. "Which friends to friends for
ever, binds, To cities, cities-to allies, allies, For equality is what is right for men;
But less to greater ever hostile grows, And days of hate begin," as is said with poetic
grace. Wherefore the Lord says, "Take My yoke, for it is gentle and light." And on the
disciples, striving for the pre-eminence, He enjoins equality with simplicity, saying
"that they must become as little children." Likewise also the apostle writes, that "no one
in Christ is bond or free, or Greek or Jew. For the creation in Christ Jesus is new, is
equality, free of strife-not grasping-just." For envy, and jealousy, and bitterness, stand
without the divine choir.

7 Thus also those skilled in the mysteries forbid "to eat the heart; "teaching that we
ought not to gnaw and consume the soul by idleness and by vexation, on account of things
which happen against one's wishes. Wretched, accordingly, was the man whom Homer also
says, wandering alone, "ate his own heart." But again, seeing the Gospel supposes two
ways-the apostles, too, similarly with all the prophets-and seeing they call that one
"narrow and confined" which is circumscribed according to the commandments and
prohibitions, and the opposite one, which leads to perdition, "broad and roomy," open to
pleasures and wrath, and say, "Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, and standeth not in the way of sinners." Hence also comes the fable of Prodicus
of Ceus about Virtue and Vice. And Pythagoras shrinks not from prohibiting to walk on the
public thoroughfares, enjoining the necessity of not following the sentiments of the many,
which are crude and inconsistent. And Aristocritus, in the first book of his Positions
against Heracliodorus, mentions a letter to this effect: "Atoeeas king of the Scythians to
the people of Byzantium: Do not impair my revenues in case my mares drink your water; "for
the Barbarian indicated symbolically that he would make war on them. Likewise also the
poet Euphorion introduces Nestor saying,-

8 "We have not yet wet the Achaean steeds in Simois." Therefore also the Egyptians place
Sphinxes before their temples, to signify that the doctrine respecting God is enigmatical
and obscure; perhaps also that we ought both to love and fear the Divine Being: to love
Him as gentle and benign to the pious; to fear Him as inexorably just to the impious; for
the sphinx shows the image of a wild beast and of a man together.

CHAPTER VI.-THE MYSTIC MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE.

1 It were tedious to go over all the Prophets and the Law, specifying what is spoken in
enigmas; for almost the whole Scripture gives its utterances in this way. It may suffice,
I think, for any one possessed of intelligence, for the proof of the point in hand, to
select a few examples. Now concealment is evinced in the reference of the seven circuits
around the temple, which are made mention of among the Hebrews; and the equipment on the
robe, indicating by the various symbols, which had reference to visible objects, the
agreement which from heaven reaches down to earth. And the covering and the veil were
variegated with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and linen. And so it was suggested that the
nature of the elements contained the revelation of God. For purple is from water, linen
from the earth; blue, being dark, is like the air, as scarlet is like fire.

2 In the midst of the covering and veil, where the priests were allowed to enter, was
situated the altar of incense, the symbol of the earth placed in the middle of this
universe; and from it came the fumes of incense. And that place intermediate between the
inner veil, where the high priest alone, on prescribed days, was permitted to enter, and
the external court which surrounded it-free to all the Hebrews-was, they say, the
middlemost point of heaven and earth. But others say it was the symbol of the intellectual
world, and that of sense. The coveting, then, the barrier of popular unbelief, was
stretched in front of the five pillars, keeping back those in the surrounding space. So
very mystically the five loaves are broken by the Saviour, and fill the crowd of the
listeners. For great is the crowd that keep to the things of sense, as if they were the
only things in existence. "Cast your eyes round, and see," says Plato, "that none of the
uninitiated listen." Such are they who think that nothing else exists, but what they can
hold tight with their hands; but do not admit as in the department of existence, actions
and processes of generation, and the whole of the unseen. For such are those who keep by
the five senses. But the knowledge of God is a thing inaccessible to the ears and like
organs of this kind of people. Hence the Son is said to be the Father's face, being the
revealer of the Father's character to the five senses by clothing Himself with flesh. "But
if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." "For we walk by faith, not by
sight," the noble apostle says. Within the veil, then, is concealed the sacerdotal
service; and it keeps those engaged in it far from those without.

3 Again, there is the veil of the entrance into the holy of holies. Four pillars there
are, the sign of the sacred tetrad of the ancient covenants. Further, the mystic name of
four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called
Jave, which is interpreted, "Who is and shall be." The name of God, too, among the Greeks
contains four letters. Now the Lord, having come alone into the intellectual world, enters
by His sufferings, introduced into the knowledge of the Ineffable, ascending above every
name which is known by sound. The lamp, too, was placed to the south of the altar of
incense; and by it were shown the motions of the seven planets, that perform their
revolutions towards the south. For three branches rose on either side of the tamp, and
lights on them; since also the sun, like the lamp, set in the midst of all the planets,
dispenses with a kind of divine music the light to those above and to those below.

4 The golden lamp conveys another enigma as a symbol of Christ, not in respect of form
alone, but in his casting light, "at sundry times and divers manners," on those who
believe on Him and hope, and who see by means of the ministry of the First-born. And they
say that the seven eyes of the Lord "are the seven spirits resting on the rod that springs
from the root of Jesse." North of the altar of incense was placed a table, on which there
was "the exhibition of the loaves; "for the most nourishing of the winds are those of the
north. And thus are signified certain seats of churches conspiring so as to form one body
and one assemblage. And the things recorded of the sacred ark signify the properties of
the world of thought, which is hidden and closed to the many. And those golden figures,
each of them with six wings, signify either the two bears, as some will have it, or rather
the two hemispheres. And the name cherubim meant "much knowledge." But both together have
twelve wings, and by the zodiac and time, which moves on it, point out the world of sense.
It is of them, I think, that Tragedy, discoursing of Nature, says:-

5 "Unwearied Time circles full in perennial flow, Producing itself. And the twin-bears On
the swift wandering motions of their wings, Keep the Atlantean pole." And Atlas, the
unsuffering pole, may mean the fixed sphere, or better perhaps, motionless eternity. But I
think it better to regard the ark, so called from the Hebrew word Thebotha, as signifying
something else. It is interpreted, one instead of one in all places. Whether, then, it is
the eighth region and the world of thought, or God, all-embracing, and without shape, and
invisible, that is indicated, we may for the present defer saying. But it signifies the
repose which dwells with the adoring spirits, which are meant by the cherubim. For He who
prohibited the making of a graven image, would never Himself have made an image in the
likeness of holy things. Nor is there at all any composite thing, and creature endowed
with sensation, of the sort in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, and
the wings are the lofty ministers and energies of powers fight and left; and the voice is
delightsome glory in ceaseless contemplation. Let it suffice that the mystic
interpretation has advanced so far.

6 Now the high priest's robe is the symbol of the world of sense. The seven planets are
represented by the five stones and the two carbuncles, for Saturn and the Moon. The former
is southern, and moist, and earthy, and heavy; the latter aerial, whence she is called by
some Artemis, as if Aerotomos (cutting the air); and the air is cloudy. And cooperating as
they did in the production of things here below, those that by Divine Providence are set
over the planets are rightly represented as placed on the breast and shoulders; and by
them was the work of creation, the first week. And the breast is the seat of the heart and
soul. Differently, the stones might be the various phases of salvation; some occupying the
upper, some the lower parts of the entire body saved. The three hundred and sixty bells,
suspended from the robe, is the space of a year, "the acceptable year of the Lord,"
proclaiming and resounding the stupendous manifestation of the Saviour. Further, the broad
gold mitre indicates the regal power of the Lord, "since the Head of the Church" is the
Savour. The mitre that is on it [i.e., the head] is, then, a sign of most princely rule;
and otherwise we have heard it said, "The Head of Christ is the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ." Moreover, there was the breastplate, comprising the ephod, which is the
symbol of work, and the oraclelogi/on; and this indicated the Word lo/goj by which it was
framed, and is the symbol of heaven, made by the Word, and subjected to Christ, the Head
of all things, in as much as it moves in the same way, and in a like manner. The luminous
emerald stones, therefore, in the ephod, signify the sun and moon, the helpers of nature.
The shoulder, I take it, is the commencement of the hand.

7 The twelve stones, set in four rows on the breast, describe for us the circle of the
zodiac, in the four changes of the year. It was otherwise requisite that the law and the
prophets should be placed beneath the Lord's head, because in both Testaments mention is
made of the righteous. For were we to say that the apostles were at once prophets and
righteous, we should say well, "since one and the self-same Holy Spirit works in all." And
as the Lord is above the whole world, yea, above the world of thought, so the name
engraven on the plate has been regarded to signify, above all rule and authority; and it
was inscribed with reference both to the written commandments and the manifestation to
sense. And it is the name of God that is expressed; since, as the Son sees the goodness of
the Father, God the Saviour works, being called the first principle of all things, which
was imaged forth from the invisible God first, and before the ages, and which fashioned
all things which came into being after itself. Nay more, the oracle exhibits the prophecy
which by the Word cries and preaches, and the judgment that is to come; since it is the
same Word which prophesies, and judges, and discriminates all things.

8 And they say that the robe prophesied the ministry in the flesh, by which He was seen in
closer relation to the world. So the high priest, putting off his consecrated robe (the
universe, and the creation in the universe, were consecrated by Him assenting that, what
was made, was good), washes himself, and puts on the other tunic-a holy-of holies one, so
to speak-which is to accompany him into the adytum; exhibiting, as seems to me, the Levite
and Gnostic, as the chief of other priests (those bathed in water, and clothed in faith
alone, and expecting their own individual abode), himself distinguishing the objects of
the intellect from the things of sense, rising above other priests, hasting to the
entrance to the world of ideas, to wash himself from the things here below, not in water,
as formerly one was cleansed on being enrolled in the tribe of Levi. But purified already
by the gnostic Word in his whole heart, and thoroughly regulated, and having improved that
mode of life received from the priest to the highest pitch, being quite sanctified both in
word and life, and having put on the bright array of glory, and received the ineffable
inheritance of that spiritual and perfect man, "which eye hath not seen and ear hath not
heard, and it hath not entered into the heart of man; "and having become son and friend,
he is now replenished with insatiable contemplation face to face.

9 For there is nothing like hearing the Word Himself, who by means of the Scripture
inspires fuller intelligence. For so it is said, "And he shall put off the linen robe,
which he had put on when he entered into the holy place; and shall lay it aside there, and
wash his body in water in the holy place, and put on his robe. But in one way, as I think,
the Lord puts off and puts on by descending into the region of sense; and in another, he
who through Him has believed puts off and puts on, as the apostle intimated, the
consecrated stole. Thence, after the image of the Lord. the worthiest were chosen from the
sacred tribes to be high priests, and those elected to the kingly office and to prophecy
were anointed.

CHAPTER VII.-THE EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS AND ENIGMAS OF SACRED THINGS.

1 Whence also the Egyptians did not entrust the mysteries they possessed to all and
sundry, and did not divulge the knowledge of divine things to the profane; but only to
those destined to ascend the throne, and those of the priests that were judged the
worthiest, from their nurture, culture, and birth. Similar, then, to the Hebrew enigmas in
respect to concealment, are those of the Egyptians also. Of the Egyptians, some show the
sun on a ship, others on a crocodile. And they signify hereby, that the sun, making a
passage through the delicious and moist air, generates time; which is symbolized by the
crocodile in some other sacerdotal account. Further, at Diospolis in Egypt, on the temple
called Pylon, there was figured a boy as the symbol of production, and an old man as that
of decay. A hawk, on the other hand, was the symbol of God, as a fish of hate; and,
according to a different symbolism, the crocodile; of impudence. The whole symbol, then,
when put together, appears to teach this: "Oh ye who are born and die, God hates
impudence."

2 And there are those who fashion ears and eyes of costly material, and consecrate them,
dedicating them in the temples to the gods-by this plainly indicating that God sees and
hears all things. Besides, the lion is with them the symbol of strength and prowess, as
the ox clearly is of the earth itself, and husbandry and food, and the horse of fortitude
and confidence; while, on the other hand, the sphinx, of strength combined with
intelligence-as it had a body entirely that of a lion, and the face of a man. Similarly to
these, to indicate intelligence, and memory, and power, and art, a man is sculptured in
the temples. And in what is called among them the Komasiae of the gods, they carry about
golden images-two dogs, one hawk, and one ibis; and the four figures of the images they
call four letters. For the dogs are symbols of the two hemispheres, which, as it were, go
round and keep watch; the hawk, of the sun, for it is fiery and destructive (so they
attribute pestilential diseases to the sun); the ibis, of the moon, likening the shady
parts to that which is dark in plumage, and the luminous to the light. And some will have
it that by the dogs are meant the tropics, which guard and watch the sun's passage to the
south and north. The hawk signifies the equinoctial line, which is high and parched with
heat, as the ibis the ecliptic. For the ibis seems, above other animals, to have furnished
to the Egyptians the first rudiments of the invention of number and measure, as the
oblique line did of circles.

CHAPTER VIII.-THE USE OF THE SYMBOLIC STYLE BY POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS.

1 But it was not only the most highly intellectual of the Egyptians, but also such of
other barbarians as prosecuted philosophy, that affected the symbolical style. They say,
then, that Idanthuris king of the Scythians, as Pherecydes of Syros relates, sent to
Darius, on his passing the Ister in threat of war, a symbol, instead of a letter,
consisting of a mouse, a frog, a bird, a javelin, a plough. And there being a doubt in
reference to them, as was to be expected, Orontopagas the Chiliarch said that they were to
resign the kingdom; taking dwellings to be meant by the mouse, waters by the frog, air by
the bird, land by the plough, arms by the javelin. But Xiphodres interpreted the contrary;
for he said, "If we do not take our flight like birds, or like mice get below the earth,
or like frogs beneath the water, we shall not escape their arrows; for we are not lords of
the territory."

2 It is said that Anacharsis the Scythian, while asleep, covered the pudenda with his left
hand, and his mouth with his fight, to intimate that both ought to be mastered, but that
it was a greater thing to master the tongue than voluptuousness. And why should I linger
over the barbarians, when I can adduce the Greeks as exceedingly addicted to the use of
the method of concealment? Androcydes the Pythagorean says the far-famed so-called
Ephesian letters were of the class of symbols. For he said that a !skion (shadowless)
meant darkness, for it has no shadow; and kata/skion (shadowy) light, since it casts with
its rays the shadow; andli/c if is the earth, according to an ancient' appellation; and
tetra/j is the year, in reference to the seasons; anddamnameneu/j is the sun, which
overpowers (dama/zwn); andta\ ai !sia is the true voice. And then the symbol intimates
that divine things have been arranged in harmonious order-darkness to light, the sun to
the year, and the earth to nature's processes of production of every sort. Also Dionysius
Thrax, the grammarian, in his book, Respecting the Exposition of the Symbolical
Signification in Circles, says expressly, "Some signified actions not by words only, but
also by symbols: by words, as is the case of what are called the Delphic maxims, `Nothing
in excess, '`Know thyself, 'and the like; and by symbols, as the wheel that is turned in
the temples of the gods, derived from the Egyptians, and the branches that are given to
the worshippers. For the Thracian Orpheus says:-

3 "Whatever works of branches are a care to men on earth, Not one has one fate in the
mind, but all things Revolve around; and it is not lawful to stand at one point, But each
one keeps an equal part of the race as they began." The branches either stand as the
symbol of the first food, or they are that the multitude may know that fruits spring and
grow universally, remaining a very long time; but that the duration of life allotted to
themselves is brief. And it is on this account that they will have it that the branches
are given; and perhaps also that they may know, that as these, on the other hand, are
burned, so also they themselves speedily leave this life, and will become fuel for fire.
Very useful, then, is the mode of symbolic interpretation for many purposes; and it is
helpful to the right theology, and to piety, and to the display of intelligence, and the
practice of brevity, and the exhibition of wisdom. "For the use of symbolical speech is
characteristic of the wise man," appositely remarks the grammarian Didymus, "and the
explanation of what is signified by it." And indeed the most elementary instruction of
children embraces the interpretation of the four elements; for it is said that the
Phrygians call water Bedu, as also Orpheus says: -

4 "And bright water is poured down, the Bedu of the nymphs." Dion Thytes also seems to
write similarly:- "And taking Bedu, pour it on your hands, and turn to divination." On the
other hand, the comic poet, Philydeus, understands by Bedu the air, as being (Biodoros)
life-giver, in the following lines :- "I pray that I may inhale the salutary Bedu, Which
is the most essential part of health; Inhale the pure, the unsullied air." In the same
opinion also concurs Neanthes of Cyzicum, who writes that the Macedonian priests invoke
Bedu, which they interpret to mean the air, to be propitious to them and to their
children. And Zaps some have ignorantly taken for fire (from ze/sin, boiling); for so the
sea is called, as Euphorion, in his reply to Theoridas:- "And Zaps, destroyer of ships,
wrecked it on the rocks." And Dionysius Iambus similarly:- "Briny Zaps moans about the
maddened deep."

5 Similarly Cratinus the younger, the comic poet:- "Zaps casts forth shrimps and little
fishes." And Simmias of Rhodes:- "Parent of the Ignetes and the Telchines briny Zaps was
born." And xqw/n is the earth kexume/nh spread forth to bigness. And Plectron, according
to some, is the sky (po/loj), according to others, it is the air, which strikes
(plh/ssonta) and moves to nature and increase, and which fills all things. But these have
not read Cleanthes the philosopher, who expressly calls Plectron the sun; for darting his
beams in the east, as if striking the world, he leads the light to its harmonious course.
And from the sun it signifies also the rest of the stars. And the Sphinx is not the
comprehension of the universe, and the revolution of the world, according to the poet
Aratus; but perhaps it is the spiritual tone which pervades and holds together the
universe. But it is better to regard it as the ether, which holds together and presses all
things; as also Empedocles says:-

6 "But come now, first will I speak of the Sun, the first principle of all things, From
which all, that we look upon, has sprung, Both earth, and billowy deep, and humid air;
Titan and Ether too, which binds all things around." And Apollodorus of Corcyra says that
these lines were recited by Branchus the seer, when purifying the Milesians from plague;
for he, sprinkling the multitude with branches of laurel, led off the hymn somehow as
follows :- "Sing Boys Hecaergus and Hecaerga." And the people accompanied him, saying,
"Bedu, Zaps, Chthon, Plectron, Sphinx, Cnaxzbi, Chthyptes, Phlegmos, Drops." Callimachus
relates the story in iambics. Cnaxzbi is, by derivation, the plague, from its gnawing
(knai/ein) and destroyingdiafqei/rein, and qu=yai is to consume with a thunderbolt.
Thespis the tragic poet says that something else was signified by these, writing thus:
"Lo, I offer to thee a libation of white Cnaxzbi, having pressed it from the yellow
nurses. Lo, to thee, O two-horned Pan, mixing Chthyptes cheese with red honey, I place it
on thy sacred altars. Lo, to thee I pour as a libation the sparkling gleam of Bromius."He
signifies, as I think, the soul's first milk-like nutriment of the four-and-twenty
elements, after which solidified milk comes as food. And last, he teaches of the blood of
the vine of the Word, the sparkling wine, the perfecting gladness of instruction. And
Drops is the operating Word, which, beginning with elementary training, and advancing to
the growth of the man, inflames and illumines man up to the measure of maturity.

7 The third is said to be a writing copy for children-ma/rptej, sfi/gc, klw/y, zunxqhdo/n.
And it signifies, in my opinion, that by the arrangement of the elements and of the world,
we must advance to the knowledge of what is more perfect, since eternal salvation is
attained by force and toil; for ma/ryai is to grasp. And the harmony of the world is meant
by the Sphinx; and zunxqhdo/n means difficulty; and klw/yj means at once the secret
knowledge of the Lord and day. Well! does not Epigenes, in his book on the Poetry of
Orpheus, in exhibiting the peculiarities found in Orpheus, say that by"the curved rods"
(kerai/si) is meant "ploughs;" and by the warp (sth/mosi), the furrows; and the woof
(mi/toj) is a figurative expression for the seed; and that the tears of Zeus signify a
shower; and that the "parts" (moi=rai) are, again, the phases of the moon, the thirtieth
day, and the fifteenth, and the new moon, and that Orpheus accordingly calls them "white-
robed," as being parts of the light? Again, that the Spring is called "flowery," from its
nature; and Night "still," on account of rest; and the Moon "Gorgonian," on account of the
face in it; and that the time in which it is necessary to sow is called Aphrodité by the
"Theologian." In the same way, too, the Pythagoreans figuratively called the planets the
"dogs of Persephone; "and to the sea they applied the metaphorical appellation of "the
tears of Kronus." Myriads on myriads of enigmatical utterances by both poets and
philosophers are to be found; and there are also whole books which present the mind of the
writer veiled, as that of Heraclitus On Nature, who on this very account is called
"Obscure." Similar to this book is the Theology of Pherecydes of Syrup; for Euphorion the
poet, and the Causes of Callimachus, and the Alexandraof Lycophron, and the like, are
proposed as an exercise in exposition to all the grammarians.

8 It is, then, proper that the Barbarian philosophy, on which it is our business to speak,
should prophecy also obscurely and by symbols, as was evinced. Such are the injunctions of
Moses: "These common things, the sow, the hawk, the eagle, and the raven, are not to be
eaten." For the sow is the emblem of voluptuous and unclean lust of food, and lecherous
and filthy licentiousness in venery, always prurient, and material, and lying in the mire,
and fattening for slaughter and destruction. Again, he commands to eat that which parts
the hoof and ruminates; "intimating," says Barnabas, "that we ought to cleave to those who
fear the Lord, and meditate in their heart on that portion of the word which they have
received, to those who speak and keep the Lord's statutes, to those to whom meditation is
a work of gladness, and who ruminate on the word of the Lord. And what is the parted hoof?
That the righteous walks in this world, and expects the holy eternity to come." Then he
adds, "See how well Moses enacted. But whence could they understand or comprehend these
things? We who have rightly understood speak the commandments as the Lord wished;
wherefore He circumcised our ears and hearts, that we may comprehend these things. And
when he says, `Thou shalt not eat the eagle, the hawk, the kite, and the crow; 'he says,
`Thou shalt not adhere to or become like those men who know not how to procure for
themselves subsistence by toil and sweat, but live by plunder, and lawlessly.' For the
eagle indicates robbery, the hawk injustice, and the raven greed. It is also written,
`With the innocent man thou wilt be innocent, and with the chosen choice, and with the
perverse thou shall pervert.' It is incumbent on us to cleave to the saints, because they
that cleave to them shall be sanctified."

9 Thence Theognis writes:- "For from the good you will learn good things; But if you mix
with the bad, you will destroy any mind you may have." 10 And when, again, it is said in
the ode, "For He hath triumphed gloriously: the home and his rider hath He cast into the
sea; " the many limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted, who gives the
reins to pleasures, "He has cast into the sea," throwing them away into the disorders of
the world. Thus also Plato, in his book On the Soul, says that the charioteer and the
horse that ran off-the irrational part, which is divided in two, into anger and
concupiscence-fall down; and so the myth intimates that it was through the licentiousness
of the steeds that Phaethon was thrown out. Also in the case of Joseph: the brothers
having envied this young man, who by his knowledge was possessed of uncommon foresight,
stripped off the coat of many colours, and took and threw him into a pit (the pit was
empty, it had no water), rejecting the good man's varied knowledge, springing from his
love of instruction; or, in the exercise of the bare faith, which is according to the law,
they threw him into the pit empty of water, selling him into Egypt, which was destitute of
the divine word. And the pit was destitute of knowledge; into which being thrown and
stript of his knowledge, he that had become unconsciously wise, stript of knowledge,
seemed like his brethren. Otherwise interpreted, the coat of many colours is lust, which
takes its way into a yawning pit.

11 "And if one open up or hew out a pit," it is said, "and do not cover it, and there fall
in there a calf or ass, the owner of the pit shall pay the price in money, and give it to
his neighbour; and the dead body shall be his. Here add that prophecy: "The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not understood Me. In order, then,
that none of those, who have fallen in with the knowledge taught by thee, may become
incapable of holding the truth, and disobey and fall away, it is said, Be thou sure in the
treatment of the word, and shut up the living spring in the depth from those who approach
irrationally, but reach drink to those that thirst for truth. Conceal it, then, from those
who are unfit to receive the depth of knowledge, and so cover the pit. The owner of the
pit, then, the Gnostic, shall himself be punished, incurring the blame of the others
stumbling, and of being overwhelmed by the greatness of the word, he himself being of
small capacity; or transferring the worker into the region of speculation, and on that
account dislodging him from off-hand faith. "And will pay money," rendering a reckoning,
and submittinghis accounts to the "omnipotent Will."

12 This, then, is the type of "the law and the prophets which were until John; " while he,
though speaking more perspicuously as no longer prophesying, but pointing out as now
present, Him, who was proclaimed symbolically from the beginning, nevertheless said, "I am
not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord's shoe." For he confesses that he is not
worthy to baptize so great a Power; for it behooves those, who purify others, to free the
soul from the body and its sins, as the foot from the thong. Perhaps also this signified
the final exertion of the Saviour's power toward us-the immediate, I mean-that by His
presence, concealed in the enigma of prophecy, in as much as he, by pointing out to sight
Him that had been prophesied of, and indicating the Presence which had come, walking forth
into the light, loosed the latchet of the oracles of the [old] economy, by unveiling the
meaning of the symbols.

13 And the observances practised by the Romans in the case of wills have a place here;
those balances and small coins to denote justice, and freeing of slaves, and rubbing of
the ears. For these observances are, that things may be transacted with justice; and those
for the dispensing of honour; and the last, that he who happens to be near, as if a burden
were imposed on him, should stand and hear and take the post of mediator.

CHAPTER IX.-REASONS FOR VEILING THE TRUTH IN SYMBOLS.

1 But, as appears, I have, in my eagerness to establish my point, insensibly gone beyond
what is requisite. For life would fail me to adduce the multitude of those who
philosophize in a symbolical manner. For the sake, then, of memory and brevity, and of
attracting to the truth, such are the Scriptures of the Barbarian philosophy. For only to
those who often approach them, and have given them a trial by faith and in their whole
life, will they supply the real philosophy and the true theology. They also wish us to
require an interpreter and guide. For so they considered, that, receiving truth at the
hands of those who knew it well, we would be more earnest and less liable to deception,
and those worthy of them would profit. Besides, all things that shine through a veil show
the truth grander and more imposing; as fruits shining through water, and figures through
veils, which give added reflections to them. For, in addition to the fact that things
unconcealed are perceived in one way, the rays of light shining round reveal defects.
Since, then, we may draw several meanings, as we do from what is expressed in veiled form,
such being the case, the ignorant and unlearned man fails. But the Gnostior apprehends.
Now, then, it is not wished that all things should be exposed indiscriminately to all and
sundry, or the benefits of wisdom communicated to those who have not even in a dream been
purified in soul, (for it is not allowed to hand to every chance comer what has been
procured with such laborious efforts); nor are the mysteries of the word to be expounded
to the profane.

2 They say, then, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, being guilty of writing the tenets of
Pythagoras in plain language, was expelled from the school, and a pillar raised for him as
if he had been dead. Wherefore also in the Barbarian philosophy they call those dead who
have fallen away from the dogmas, and have placed the mind in subjection to carnal
passions. "For what fellowship hath righteousness and iniquity? "according to the divine
apostle. "Or what communion hath light with darkness? or what concord hath Christ with
Belial? or what portion hath the believer with the unbeliever? " For the honours of the
Olympians and of mortals lie apart. "Wherefore also go forth from the midst of them, and
be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and
will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be my sons and daughters."

3 It was not only the Pythagoreans and Plato then, that concealed many things; but the
Epicureans too say that they have things that may not be uttered, and do not allow all to
peruse those writings. The Stoics also say that by the first Zeno things were written
which they do not readily allow disciples to read, without their first giving proof
whether or not they are genuine philosophers. And the disciples of Aristotle say that some
of their treatises are esoteric, and others common and exoteric. Further, those who
instituted the mysteries, being philosophers, buried their doctrines in myths, so as not
to be obvious to all. Did they then, by veiling human opinions, prevent the ignorant from
handling them; and was it not more beneficial for the holy and blessed contemplation of
realities to be concealed? But it was not only the tenets of the Barbarian philosophy, or
the Pythagorean myths. But even those myths in Plato (in the Republic, that of Hero the
Armenian; and in the Gorgias, that of Aeacus and Rhadamanthus; and in the Phaedo, that of
Tartarus; and in the Protagoras, that of Prometheus and Epimetheus; and besides these,
that of the war between the Atlantini and the Athenians in the Atlanticum) are to be
expounded allegorically, not absolutely n in all their expressions, but in those which
express the general sense. And these we shall find indicated by symbols under the veil of
allegory. Also the association of Pythagoras, and the twofold intercourse with the
associates which designates the majority, hearers (a0kousmatikoi/), and the others that
have a genuine attachment to philosophy, disciples (maqhmatikoi/, yet signified that
something was spoken to the multitude, and something concealed from them. Perchance, too,
the twofold species of the Peripatetic teaching-that called probable, and that called
knowable-came very near the distinction between opinion on the one hand, and glory and
truth on the other.

4 "To win the flowers of fair renown from men, Be not induced to speak aught more than
right." The Ionic muses accordingly expressly say, "That the majority of people, wise in
their own estimation, follow minstrels and make use of laws, knowing that many are bad,
few good; but that the best pursue glory: for the best make choice of the everlasting
glory of men above all. But the multitude cram themselves like brutes, measuring happiness
by the belly and the pudenda, and the basest things in us." And the great Parmenides of
Elea is introduced describing thus the teaching of the two ways:- "The one is the
dauntless heart of convincing truth; The other is in the opinions of men, in whom is no
true faith."

CHAPTER X.-THE OPINION OF THE APOSTLES ON VEILING THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH.

1 Rightly, therefore, the divine apostle says, "By revelation the mystery was made known
to me (as I wrote before in brief, in accordance with which, when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known
to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets. For there is
an instruction of the perfect, of which, writing to the Colossians, he says, "We cease not
to pray for you, and beseech that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing;
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened
with all might according to the glory of His power. And again he says, "According to the
disposition of the grace of God which is given me, that ye may fulfil the word of God; the
mystery which has been hid from ages and generations, which now is manifested to His
saints: to whom God wished to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the nations. So that, on the one hand, then, are the mysteries which were hid till
the time of the apostles, and were delivered by them as they received from the Lord, and,
concealed in the Old Testament, were manifested to the saints.

2 And, on the other hand, there is "the riches of the glory of the mystery in the
Gentiles," which is faith and hope in Christ; which in another place he has called the
"foundation. And again, as if in eagerness to divulge this knowledge, he thus writes:
"Warning every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man (the whole man) perfect in
Christ; "not every man simply, since no one would be unbelieving. Nor does he call every
man who believes in Christ perfect; but he says all the man, as if he said the whole man,
as if purified in body and soul. For that the knowledge does not appertain to all, he
expressly adds: "Being knit together in love, and unto all the riches of the full
assurance of knowledge, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. "Continue in prayer, watching therein
with thanksgiving. And thanksgiving has place not for the soul and spiritual blessings
alone, but also for the body, and for the good things of the body. And he still more
clearly reveals that knowledge belongs not to all, by adding: "Praying at the same time
for you, that God would open to us a door to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am
bound; that I may make it known as I ought to speak. For there were certainly, among the
Hebrews, some things delivered unwritten.

3 "For when ye ought to be teachers for the time," it is said, as if they had grown old in
the Old Testament, "ye have again need that one teach you which be the first principles of
the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For
every one that par-taketh of milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a
babe, being instructed with the first lessons. But solid food belongs to those who are of
full age, who by reason of use have their senses exercised so as to distinguish between
good and evil. Wherefore, leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us
go on to perfection." 4 Barnabas, too, who in person preached the word along with the
apostle in the ministry of the Gentiles, says, "I write to you most simply, that ye may
understand. Then below, exhibiting already a clearer trace of gnostic tradition, he says,
"What says the other prophet Moses to them? Lo, thus saith the Lord God, Enter ye into the
good land which the Lord God sware, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and ye
received for an inheritance that land, flowing with milk and honey. What says knowledge?
Learn, hope, it says, in Jesus, who is to be manifested to you in the flesh. For man is
the suffering land; for from the face of the ground was the formation of Adam. What, then,
does it say in reference to the good land, flowing with milk and honey? Blessed be our
Lord, brethren, who has put into our hearts wisdom, and the understanding of His secrets.
For the prophet says, "Who shall understand the Lord's parable but the wise and
understanding, and he that loves his Lord? "It is but for few to comprehend these things.
For it is not in the way of envy that the Lord announced in a Gospel, "My mystery is to
me, and to the sons of my house; "placing the election in safety, and beyond anxiety; so
that the things pertaining to what it has chosen and taken may be above the reach of envy.
For he who has not the knowledge of good is wicked:

5 for there is one good, the Father; and to be ignorant of the Father is death, as to know
Him is eternal life, through participation in the power of the incorrupt One. And to be
incorruptible is to participate in divinity; but revolt from the knowledge of God brings
corruption. Again the prophet says: "And I will give thee treasures, concealed, dark,
unseen; that they may know that I am the Lord. Similarly David sings: "For, lo, Thou hast
loved truth; the obscure and hidden things of wisdom hast Thou showed me. "Day utters
speech to day" (what is clearly written), "and night to night proclaims knowledge" (which
is hidden in a mystic veil); "and there are no words or utterances whose voices shall not
be heard" by God, who said, "Shall one do what is secret, and I shall not see him? " 6
Wherefore instruction, which reveals hidden things, is called illumination, as it is the
teacher only who uncovers the lid of the ark, contrary to what the poets say, that "Zeus
stops up the jar of good things, but opens that of evil." "For I know," says the apostle,
"that when I come to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ; "
designating the spiritual gift, and the gnostic communication, which being present he
desires to impart to them present as "the fulness of Christ, according to the revelation
of the mystery sealed in the ages of eternity, but now manifested by the prophetic
Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all the nations, in
order to the obedience of faith," that is, those of the nations who believe that it is.
But only to a few of them is shown what those things are which are contained in the
mystery.

7 Rightly then, Plato, in the Epistles, treating of God, says: "We must speak in enigmas
that should the tablet come by any mischance on its leaves either by sea or land, he who
reads may remain ignorant." For the God of the universe, who is above all speech, all
conception, all thought, can never be committed to writing, being inexpressible even by
His own power. And this too Plato showed, by saying: "Considering, then, these things,
take care lest some time or other you repent on account of the present things, departing
in a manner unworthy. The greatest safeguard is not to write, but learn; for it is utterly
impossible that what is written will not vanish." Akin to this is what the holy Apostle
Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that
were good were derived by the Greeks: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect;
but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought;
but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery." Then proceeding, he thus inculcates
the caution against the divulging of his words to the multitude in the following terms:
"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even to babes
in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not yet able; neither are
ye now able. For ye are yet carnal."

8 If, then, "the milk" is said by the apostle to belong to the babes, and "meat" to be the
food of the full-grown, milk will be understood to be catechetical instruction-the first
food, as it were, of the soul. And meat is the mystic contemplation; for this is the flesh
and the blood of the Word, that is, the comprehension of the divine power and essence.
"Taste and see that the Lord is Christ," it is said. For so He imparts of Himself to those
who partake of such food in a more spiritual manner; when now the soul nourishes itself,
according to the truth-loving Plato. For the knowledge of the divine essence is the meat
and drink of the divine Word. Wherefore also Plato says, in the second book of the
Republic, "It is those that sacrifice not a sow, but some great and difficult sacrifice,"
who ought to inquire respecting God. And the apostle writes, "Christ our passover was
sacrificed for us; " -a sacrifice hard to procure, in truth, the Son of God consecrated
for us.


THE STROMATA BOOK 5
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 5 continued

CHAPTER XI.-ABSTRACTION FROM MATERIAL THINGS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO ATTAIN TO THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

1 Now the sacrifice which is acceptable to God is unswerving abstraction from the body and
its passions. This is the really true piety. And is not, on this account, philosophy
rightly called by Socrates the practice of Death? For he who neither employs his eyes in
the exercise of thought, nor draws aught from his other senses, but with pure mind itself
applies to objects, practises the true philosophy. This is, then, the import of the
silence of five years prescribed by Pythagoras, which he enjoined on his disciples; that,
abstracting themselves from the objects of sense, they might with the mind alone
contemplate the Deity. It was from Moses that the chief of the Greeks drew these
philosophical tenets. For he commands holocausts to be skinned and divided into parts. For
the gnostic soul must be consecrated to the light, stript of the integuments of matter,
devoid of the frivolousness of the body and of all the passions, which are acquired
through vain and lying opinions, and divested of the lusts of the flesh. But the most of
men, clothed with what is perishable, like cockles, and rolled all round in a ball in
their excesses, like hedgehogs, entertain the same ideas of the blessed and incorruptible
God as of themselves. But it has escaped their notice, though they be near us, that God
has bestowed on us ten thousand things in which He does not share: birth, being Himself
unborn; food, He wanting nothing; and growth, He being always equal; and long life and
immortality, He being immortal and incapable of growing old. Wherefore let no one imagine
that hands, and feet, and mouth, and eyes, and going in and coming out, and resentments
and threats, are said by the Hebrews to be attributes of God. By no means; but that
certain of these appellations are used more sacredly in an allegorical sense, which, as
the discourse proceeds, we shall explain at the proper time.

2 "Wisdom of all medicines is the Panacea, writes Callimachus in the Epigrams. "And one
becomes wise from another, both in past times and at present," says Bacchylides in the
Paeans; "for it is not very easy to find the portals of unutterable words." Beautifully,
therefore, Isocrates writes in the Panathenaic, baring put the question, "Who, then, are
well trained? "adds, "First, those who manage well the things which occur each day, whose
opinion jumps with opportunity, and is able for the most part to hit on what is
beneficial; then those who behave becomingly and rightly to those who approach them, who
take lightly and easily annoyances and molestations offered by others, but conduct
themselves as far as possible, to those with whom they have intercourse, with consummate
care and moderation; further, those who have the command of their pleasures, and are not
too much overcome by misfortunes, but conduct themselves in the midst of them with
manliness, and in a way worthy of the nature which we share; fourth-and this is the
greatest-those who are not corrupted by prosperity, and are not put beside themselves, or
made haughty, but continue in the class of sensible people." Then he puts on the top-stone
of the discourse: "Those who have the disposition of their soul well suited not to one
only of these things, but to them all-those I assert to be wise and perfect men, and to
possess all the virtues."

3 Do you see how the Greeks deify the gnostic life (though not knowing how to become
acquainted with it)? And what knowledge it is, they know not even in a dream. If, then, it
is agreed among us that knowledge is the food of reason, "blessed truly are they,"
according to the Scripture, "who hunger and thirst after truth: for they shall be filled"
with everlasting food. In the most wonderful harmony with these words, Euripides, the
philosopher of the drama, is found in the following words,-making allusion, I know not
how, at once to the Father and the Son:- "To thee, the Lord of all, I bring Cakes and
libations too, O Zeus, Or Hades would'st thou choose be called; Do thou accept my offering
of all fruits, Rare, full, poured forth." For a whole burnt-offering and rare sacrifice
for us is Christ. And that unwittingly he mentions the Saviour, he will make plain, as he
adds:-

4 "For thou who, 'midst the heavenly gods, Jove's sceptre sway'st, dost also share The
rule of those on earth." Then he says expressly:- "Send light to human souls that fain
would know Whence conflicts spring, and what the root of ills, And of the blessed gods to
whom due rites Of sacrifice we needs must pay, that so We may from troubles find repose."
It is not then without reason that in the mysteries that obtain among the Greeks,
lustrations hold the first place; as also the layer among the Barbarians. After these are
the minor mysteries, which have some foundation of instruction and of preliminary
preparation for what is to come after; and the great mysteries, in which nothing remains
to be learned of the universe, but only to contemplate and comprehend nature and things.
We shall understand the mode of purification by confession, and that of contemplation by
analysis, advancing by analysis to the first notion, beginning with the properties
underlying it; abstracting from the body its physical properties, taking away the
dimension of depth, then that of breadth, and then that of length. For the point which
remains is a unit, so to speak, having position; from which if we abstract position, there
is the conception of unity.

5 If, then, abstracting all that belongs to bodies and things called incorporeal, we cast
ourselves into the greatness of Christ, and thence advance into immensity by holiness, we
may reach somehow to the conception of the Almighty, knowing not what He is, but what He
is not. And form and motion, or standing, or a throne, or place, or right hand or left,
are not at all to be conceived as belonging to the Father of the universe, although it is
so written. But what each of these means will be shown in its proper place. The First
Cause is not then in space, but above both space, and time, and name, and conception. 6
Wherefore also Moses says, "Show Thyself to me," -intimating most clearly that God is not
capable of being taught by man, or expressed in speech, but to be known only by His own
power. For inquiry was obscure and dim; but the grace of knowledge is from Him by the Son.
Most clearly Solomon shall testify to us, speaking thus: "The prudence of man is not in
me: but God giveth me wisdom, and I know holy things." Now Moses, describing allegorically
the divine prudence, called it the tree of life planted in Paradise; which Paradise may be
the world in which all things proceeding from creation grow. In it also the Word blossomed
and bore fruit, being "made flesh," and gave life to those "who had tasted of His
graciousness; "since it was not without the wood of the tree that He came to our
knowledge. For our life was hung on it, in order that we might believe. And Solomon again
says: "She is a tree of immortality to those who take hold of her." "Behold, I set before
thy face life and death, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk in His ways, and hear His
voice, and trust in life. But if ye transgress the statutes and the judgments which I have
given you, ye shall be destroyed with destruction. For this is life, and the length of thy
days, to love the Lord thy God."

7 Again: "Abraham, when he came to the place which God told him of on the third day,
looking up, saw the place afar off." For the first day is that which is constituted by the
sight of good things; and the second is the soul's best desire; on the third, the mind
perceives spiritual things, the eyes of the understanding being opened by the Teacher who
rose on the third day. The three days may be the mystery of the seal, in which God. is
really believed. It is consequently afar off that he sees the place. For the region of God
is hard to attain; which Plato called the region of ideas, having learned from Moses that
it was a place which contained all things universally. But it is seen by Abraham afar off,
rightly, because of his being in the realms of generation, and he is forthwith initiated
by the angel. Thence says the apostle: "Now we see as through a glass, but then face to
face," by those sole pure and incorporeal applications of the intellect. In reasoning, it
is possible to divine respecting God, if one attempt without any of the senses, by reason,
to reach what is individual; and do not quit the sphere of existences, till, rising up to
the things which transcend it, he apprehends by the intellect itself that which is good,
moving in the very confines of the world of thought, according to Plato.

8 Again, Moses, not allowing altars and temples to be constructed in many places, but
raising one temple of God, announced that the world was only-begotten, as Basilides says,
and that God is one, as does not as yet appear to Basilides. And since the gnostic Moses
does not circumscribe within space Him that cannot be circumscribed, he set up no image in
the temple to be worshipped; showing that God was invisible, and incapable of being
circumscribed; and somehow leading the Hebrews to the conception of God by the honour for
His name in the temple. Further, the Word, prohibiting the constructing of temples and all
sacrifices, intimates that the Almighty is not contained in anything, by what He says:
"What house will ye build to Me? saith the Lord. Heaven is my throne," and so on.
Similarly respecting sacrifices: "I do not desire the blood of bulls and the fat of
lambs," and what the Holy Spirit by the prophet in the sequel forbids.

9 Most excellently, therefore, Euripides accords with these, when he writes:- "What house
constructed by the workmen's hands, With folds of walls, can clothe the shape divine? "
And of sacrifices he thus speaks:- "For God needs nought, if He is truly God. These of the
minstrels are the wretched myths." 10 "For it was not from need that God made the world;
that He might reap honours from men and the other gods and demons, winning a kind of
revenue from creation, and from us, fumes, and from the gods and demons, their proper
ministries," says Plato. Most instructively, therefore, says Paul in the Acts of the
Apostles: "The God that made the world, and all things in it, being the Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped by men's hands, as
if He needed anything; seeing that it is He Himself that giveth to all breath, and life,
and all things. And Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, says in this book of the
Republic, "that we ought to make neither temples nor images; for that no work is worthy of
the gods. And he was not afraid to write in these very words: "There will be no need to
build temples. For a temple is not worth much, and ought not to be regarded as holy. For
nothing is worth much, and holy, which is the work of builders and mechanics. Rightly,
therefore, Plato too, recognising the world as God's temple, pointed out to the citizens a
spot in the city where their idols were to be laid up. "Let not, then, any one again," he
says, "consecrate temples to the gods. For gold and silver in other states, in the case of
private individuals and in the temples, is an invidious possession;

11 and ivory, a body which has abandoned the life, is not a sacred votive offering; and
steel and brass are the instruments of wars; but whatever one wishes to dedicate, let it
be wood of one tree, as also stone for common temples. Rightly, then, in the great Epistle
he says: "For it is not capable of expression, like other branches of study. But as the
result of great intimacy with this subject, and living with it, a sudden light, like that
kindled by a coruscating fire, arising in the soul, feeds itself. Are not these statements
like those of Zephaniah the prophet? "And the Spirit of the Lord took me, and brought me
up to the fifth heaven, and I beheld angels called Lords; and their diadem was set on in
the Holy Spirit; and each of them had a throne sevenfold brighter than the light of the
rising sun; and they dwelt in temples of salvation, and hymned the ineffable, Most High
God."

CHAPTER XII.-GOD CANNOT BE EMBRACED IN WORDS OR BY THE MIND.

1 "For both is it a difficult task to discover the Father and Maker of this universe; and
having found Him, it is impossible to declare Him to all. For this is by no means capable
of expression, like the other subjects of instruction," says the truth-loving Plato. For
he that had heard right well that the all-wise Moses, ascending the mount for holy
contemplation, to the summit of intellectual objects, necessarily commands that the whole
people do not accompany him. And when the Scripture says, "Moses entered into the thick
darkness where God was," this shows to those capable of understanding, that God is
invisible and beyond expression by words, And "the darkness "-which is, in truth, the
unbelief and ignorance of the multitude-obstructs the gleam of truth. And again Orpheus,
the theologian, aided from this quarter, says:- "One is perfect in himself, and all things
are made the progeny of one,"

2 or, "are born; "for so also is it written. He adds:- "Him No one of mortals has seen,
but He sees all." And he adds more clearly:- "Him see I not, for round about, a cloud Has
settled; for in mortal eyes are small, And mortal pupils-only flesh and bones grow there."
To these statements the apostle will testify: "I know a man in Christ, caught up into the
third heaven, and thence into Paradise, who heard unutterable words which it is not lawful
for a man to speak,"-intimating thus the impossibility of expressing God, and indicating
that what is divine is unutterable by human power; if, indeed, he begins to speak above
the third heaven, as it is lawful to initiate the elect souls in the mysteries there. For
I know what is in Plato (for the examples from the barbarian philosophy, which are many,
are suggested now by the composition which, in accordance with promises previously given,
waits the suitable time). For doubting, in Timaeus, whether we ought to regard several
worlds as to be understood by many heavens, or this one, he makes no distinction in the
names, calling the world and heaven by the same name. But the words of the statement are
as follows: "Whether, then, have we rightly spoken of one heaven, or of many and infinite?
It were more correct to say one, if indeed it was created according to the model."
Further, in the Epistle of the Romans to the Corinthians it is written, "An ocean
illimitable by men and the worlds after it." Consequently, therefore, the noble apostle
exclaims, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!"

3 And was it not this which the prophet meant, when he ordered unleavened cakes to be
made, intimating that the truly sacred mystic word, respecting the unbegotten and His
powers, ought to be concealed? In confirmation of these things, in the Epistle to the
Corinthians the apostle plainly says: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among those who are
perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to
nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery." And again in another place he
says: "To the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge." These things the Saviour Himself seals when He says:
"To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." And again the Gospel
says that the Saviour spake to the apostles the word in a mystery. For prophecy says of
Him: "He will open His mouth in parables, and will utter things kept secret from the
foundation of the world." And now, by the parable of the leaven, the Lord shows
concealment; for He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and
hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." For the tripartite soul is
saved by obedience, through the spiritual power hidden in it by faith; or because the
power of the word which is given to us, being strong and powerful, draws to itself
secretly and invisibly every one who receives it, and keeps it within himself, and brings
his whole system into unity.

4 Accordingly Solon has written most wisely respecting God thus:- "It is most difficult to
apprehend the mind's invisible measure Which alone holds the boundaries of all things."
For "the divine," says the poet of Agrigenturn, - "Is not capable of being approached with
our eyes, Or grasped with our hands; but the highway Of persuasion, highest o£ all, leads
to men's minds." And John the apostle says: "No man hath seen God at any time. The only-
begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him," -calling
invisibility and ineffableness the bosom of God. Hence some have called it the Depth, as
containing and embosoming all things, inaccessible and boundless. 5 This discourse
respecting God is most difficult to handle. For since the first principle of everything is
difficult to find out, the absolutely first and oldest principle, which is the cause of
all other things being and having been, is difficult to exhibit. For bow can that be
expressed which is neither genus, nor difference, nor species, nor individual, nor number;
nay more, is neither an event, nor that to which an event happens? No one can rightly
express Him wholly. For on account of His greatness He is ranked as the All, and is the
Father of the universe. Nor are any parts to be predicated of Him. For the One is
indivisible; wherefore also it is infinite, not considered with reference to
inscrutability, but with reference to its being without dimensions, and not having a
limit. And therefore it is without form and name. And if we name it, we do not do so
properly, terming it either the One, or the Good, or Mind, or Absolute Being, or Father,
or God, or Creator or Lord. We speak not as supplying His name; but for want, we use good
names, in order that the mind may have these as points of support, so as not to err in
other respects. For each one by itself does not express God; but all together are
indicative of the power of the Omnipotent. For predicates are expressed either from what
belongs to things themselves, or from their mutual relation. But none of these are
admissible in reference to God. Nor any more is He apprehended by the science of
demonstration. For it depends on primary and better known principles. But there is nothing
antecedent to the Unbegotten.

6 It remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and by the word alone
that proceeds from Him; as Luke in the Acts of the Apostles relates that Paul said, "Men
of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For in walking about,
and beholding the objects of your worship, I found an altar on which was inscribed, To the
Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."

CHAPTER XIII.-THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD A DIVINE GIFT, ACCORDING TO THE PHILOSOPHERS.

1 Everything, then, which falls under a name, is originated, whether they will or not.
Whether, then, the Father Himself draws to Himself everyone who has led a pure life, and
has reached the conception of the blessed and incorruptible nature; or whether the free-
will which is in us, by reaching the knowledge of the good, leaps and bounds over the
barriers, as the gymnasts say; yet it is not without eminent grace that the soul is
winged, and soars, and is raised above the higher spheres, laying aside all that is heavy,
and surrendering itself to its kindred element. Plato, too, in Meno, says that virtue is
God-given, as the following expressions show: "From this argument then, O Meno, virtue is
shown to come to those, in whom it is found, by divine providence." Does it not then
appear that "the gnostic disposition" which has come to all is enigmatically called
"divine providence? "And he adds more explicitly: "If, then, in this whole treatise we
have investigated well, it results that virtue is neither by nature, nor is it taught, but
is produced by divine providence, not without intelligence, in those in whom it is found."
Wisdom which is God-given, as being the power of the Father, rouses indeed our free-will,
and admits faith, and repays the application of the elect with its crowning fellowship.

2 And now I will adduce Plato himself, who clearly deems it fit to believe the children of
God. For, discoursing on gods that are visible and born, in Timaeus, he says: "But to
speak of the other demons, and to know their birth, is too much for us. But we must credit
those who have formerly spoken, they being the offspring of the gods, as they said, and
knowing well their progenitors, although they speak without probable and necessary
proofs." I do not think it possible that clearer testimony could be borne by the Greeks,
that our Saviour, and those anointed to prophesy (the latter being called the sons of God,
and the Lord being His own Son), are the true witnesses respecting divine things.
Wherefore also they ought to be believed, being inspired, he added. And were one to say in
a more tragic vein, that we ought not to believe,

3 "For it was not Zeus that told me these things," yet let him know that it was God
Himself that promulgated the Scriptures by His Son. And he, who announces what is his own,
is to be believed. "No one," says the Lord, "hath known the Father but the Son, and he to
whom the Son shall reveal Him." This, then, is to be believed, according to Plato, though
it is announced and spoken "without probable and necessary proofs," but in the Old and New
Testament. "For except ye believe," says the Lord, "ye shall die in your sins." And again:
"He that believeth hath everlasting life." "Blessed are all they that put their trust in
Him." For trusting is more than faith. For when one has believed that the Son of God is
our teacher, he trusts that his teaching is true. And as "instruction," according to
Empedocles, "makes the mind grow," so trust in the Lord makes faith grow.

4 We say, then, that it is characteristic of the same persons to vilify philosophy, and
run down faith, and to praise iniquity and felicitate a libidinous life. But now faith, if
it is the voluntary assent of the soul, is still the doer of good things, the foundation
of right conduct; and if Aristotle defines strictly when he teaches thatpoiei=n is applied
to the irrational creatures and to inanimate things, while pra/ttein is applicable to men
only, let him correct those who say that God is the maker (poihth/j) of the universe. And
what is done (prakto/n), he says, is as good or as necessary. To do wrong, then, is not
good, for no one does wrong except for some other thing; and nothing that is necessary is
voluntary. To do wrong, then, is voluntary, so that it is not necessary. But the good
differ especially from the bad in inclinations and good desires. For all depravity of soul
is accompanied with want of restraint; and he who acts from passion, acts from want of
restraint and from depravity.

5 I cannot help admiring in every particular that divine utterance: "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some
other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth. Then the Lord says in explanation, "I am
the door of the sheep. Men must then be saved by learning the truth through Christ, even
if they attain philosophy. For now that is clearly shown "which was not made known to
other ages, which is now revealed to the sons of men. For there was always a natural
manifestation of the one Almighty God, among all right-thinking men; and the most, who had
not quite divested themselves of shame with respect to the truth, apprehended the eternal
beneficence in divine providence. In fine, then, Xenocrates the Chalcedonian was not quite
without hope that the notion of the Divinity existed even in the irrational creatures. And
Democritus, though against his will, will make this avowal by the consequences of his
dogmas; for he represents the same images as issuing, from the divine essence, on men and
on the irrational animals. Far from destitute of a divine idea is man, who, it is written
in Genesis, partook of inspiration, being endowed with a purer essence than the other
animate creatures. Hence the Pythagoreans say that mind comes to man by divine providence,
as Plato and Aristotle avow;

6 but we assert that the Holy Spirit inspires him who has believed. The Platonists hold
that mind is an effluence of divine dispensation in the soul, and they place the soul in
the body. For it is expressly said by Joel, one of the twelve prophets, "And it shall come
to pass after these things, I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy. But it is not as a portion of God that the Spirit is in
each of us. But how this dispensation takes place, and what the Holy Spirit is, shall be
shown by us in the books on prophecy, and in those on the soul. But "incredulity is good
at concealing the depths of knowledge, "according to Heraclitus; "for incredulity escapes
from ignorance."

CHAPTER XIV.-GREEK PLAGIARISM FROM THE HEBREWS.

1 Let us add in completion what follows, and exhibit now with greater clearness the
plagiarism of the Greeks from the Barbarian philosophy. Now the Stoics say that God, like
the soul, is essentially body and spirit. You will find all this explicitly in their
writings. Do not consider at present their allegories as the gnostic truth presents them;
whether they show one thing and mean another, like the dexterous athletes, Well, they say
that God pervades all being; while we call Him solely Maker, and Maker by the Word. They
were misled by what is said in the book of Wisdom: "He pervades and passes through all by
reason of His purity; " since they did not understand that this was said of Wisdom, which
was the first of the creation of God. So be it, they say. But the philosophers, the
Stoics, and Plato, and Pythagoras, nay more, Aristotle the Peripatetic, suppose the
existence of matter among the first principles; and not one first principle. Let them then
know that what is called matter by them, is said by them to be without quality, and
without form, and more daringly said by Plato to be non-existence. And does he not say
very mystically, knowing that the true and real first cause is one, in these very words:
"Now, then, let our opinion be so. As to the first principle or principles of the
universe, or what opinion we ought to entertain about all these points, we are not now to
speak, for no other cause than on account of its being difficult to explain our sentiments
in accordance with the present form of discourse." But undoubtedly that prophetic
expression, "Now the earth was invisible and formless," supplied them with the ground of
material essence.

2 And the introduction of "chance" was hence suggested to Epicurus, who misapprehended the
statement, "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." And it occurred to Aristotle to extend
Providence as far as the moon from this psalm: "Lord, Thy mercy is in the heavens; and Thy
truth reacheth to the clouds." For the explanation of the prophetic mysteries had not yet
been revealed previous to the advent of the Lord. Punishments after death, on the other
hand, and penal retribution by fire, were pilfered from the Barbarian philosophy both by
all the poetic Muses and by the Hellenic philosophy. Plato, accordingly, in the last book
of the Republic, says in these express terms: "Then these men fierce and fiery to look on,
standing by, and hearing the sound, seized and took some aside and binding Aridaeus and
the rest hand, foot, and head, and throwing them down, and flaying them, dragged them
along the way, tearing their flesh with thorns." For the fiery men are meant to signify
the angels, who seize and punish the wicked. "Who maketh," it is said, "His angels
spirits; His ministers flaming fire." It follows from this that the soul is immortal. For
what is tortured or corrected being in a state of sensation lives, though said to suffer.
Well! Did not Plato know of the rivers of fire and the depth of the earth, and Tartarus,
called by the Barbarians Gehenna, naming, as he does prophetically, Cocytus, and Acheron,
and Pyriphlegethon, and introducing such corrective tortures for discipline?

3 But indicating "the angels" as the Scripture says, "of the little ones, and of the
least, which see God," and also the oversight reaching to us exercised by the tutelary
angels he shrinks not from writing, "That when all the souls have selected their several
lives, according as it has fallen to their lot, they advance in order to Lachesis; and she
sends along with each one, as his guide in life, and the joint accomplisher of his
purposes, the demon which he has chosen." Perhaps also the demon of Socrates suggested to
him something similar. Nay, the philosophers. having so heard from Moses, taught that the
world was created. And so Plato expressly said, "Whether was it that the world had no
beginning of its existence, or derived its beginning from some beginning? For being
visible, it is tangible; and being tangible, it has a body." Again, when he says, "It is a
difficult task to find the Maker and Father of this universe," he not only showed that the
universe was created, but points out that it was generated by him as a son, and that he is
called its father, as deriving its being from him alone, and springing from non-existence.
The Stoics, too, hold the tenet that the world was created.

4 And that the devil so spoken of by the Barbarian philosophy, the prince of the demons,
is a wicked spirit, Plato asserts in the tenth book of the Laws, in these words: "Must we
not say that spirit which pervades the things that are moved on all sides, pervades also
heaven? Well, what? One or more? Several, say I, in reply for you. Let us not suppose
fewer than two-that which is beneficent, and that which is able to accomplish the
opposite." Similarly in the Phaedrus he writes as follows: "Now there are other evils. But
some demon has mingled pleasure with the most things at present." Further, in the tenth
book of the Laws, he expressly emits that apostolic sentiment, "Our contest is not with
flesh and blood, but principalities, with powers, with the spiritual things of those which
are in heaven; "writing thus: "For since we are agreed that heaven is full of many good
beings; but it is also full of the opposite of these, and more of these; and as we assert
such a contest is deathless, and requiring marvellous watchfulness."

5 Again the Barbarian philosophy knows the world of thought and the world of sense-the
former archetypal, and the latter the image of that which is called the model; and assigns
the former to the Monad, as being perceived by the mind, and the world of sense to the
number six. For six is called by the Pythagoreans marriage, as being the genital number;
and he places in the Monad the invisible heaven and the holy earth, and intellectual
light. For "in the beginning," it is said, "God made the heaven and the earth; and the
earth was invisible." And it is added, "And God said, Let there be light; and there was
light." And in the material cosmogony He creates a solid heaven (and what is solid is
capable of being perceived by sense), and a visible earth, and a light that is seen. Does
not Plato hence appear to have left the ideas of living creatures in the intellectual
world, and to make intellectual objects into sensible species according to their genera?
Rightly then Moses says, that the body which Plato calls "the earthly tabernacle" was
formed of the ground, but that the rational soul was breathed by God into man's face. For
there, they say, the ruling faculty is situated; interpreting the access by the senses
into the first man as the addition of the soul.

6 Wherefore also man is said "to have been made in [God's] image and likeness. For the
image of God is the divine and royal Word, the impassible man; and the image of the image
is the human mind. And if you wish to apprehend the likeness by another name, you will
find it named in Moses, a divine correspondence. For he says, "Walk after the Lord your
God, and keep His commandments. And I reckon all the virtuous, servants and followers of
God. Hence the Stoics say that the end of philosophy is to live agreeable to nature; and
Plato, likeness to God, as we have shown in the second Miscellany. And Zeno the Stoic,
borrowing from Plato, and he from the Barbarian philosophy, says that all the good are
friends of one another. For Socrates says in the Phaedrus, "that it has not been ordained
that the bad should be a friend to the bad, nor the good be not a friend to the good; "as
also he showed sufficiently in the Lysis, that friendship is never preserved in wickedness
and vice. And the Athenian stranger similarly says, "that there is conduct pleasing and
conformable to God, based on one ancient ground-principle, That like loves like, provided
it be within measure. But things beyond measure are congenial neither to what is within
nor what is beyond measure. Now it is the case that God is the measure to us of all
things. Then proceeding, Plato adds: "For every good man is like every other good man;

7 and so being like to God, he is liked by every good man and by God. At this point I have
just recollected the following. In the end of the Timaeus he says: "You must necessarily
assimilate that which perceives to that which is perceived, according to its original
nature; and it is by so assimilating it that you attain to the end of the highest life
proposed by the gods to men, for the present or the future time. For those have equal
power with these. He, who seeks, will not stop till he find; and having found, he will
wonder; and wondering, he will reign; and reigning, he will rest. And what? Were not also
those expressions of Thales derived from these? The fact that God is glorified for ever,
and that He is expressly called by us the Searcher of hearts, he interprets. For Thales
being asked, What is the divinity? said, What has neither beginning nor end. And on
another asking, "If a man could elude the knowledge of the Divine Being while doing aught?
"said, "How could he who cannot do so while thinking? "

8 Further, the Barbarian philosophy recognises good as alone excellent, and virtue as
sufficient for happiness, when it says, "Behold, I have set before your eyes good and
evil, life and death that ye may choose life." For it calls good, "life," and the choice
of it excellent, and the choice of the opposite"evil." And the end of good and of life is
to become a lover of God: "For this is thy life and length of days," to love that which
tends to the truth. And these points are yet clearer. For the Saviour, in enjoining to
love God and our neighbour, says, "that on these two commandments hang the whole law and
the prophets." Such are the tenets promulgated by the Stoics; and before these, by
Socrates, in the Phaedrus, who prays, "O Pan, and ye other gods, give me to be beautiful
within." And in the Theaetetus he says expressly, "For he that speaks well (kalw=j) is
both beautiful and good." And in the Protagoras he avers to the companions of Protagoras
that he has met with one more beautiful than Alcibiades, if indeed that which is wisest is
most beautiful. For he said that virtue was the soul's beauty, and, on the contrary, that
vice was the soul's deformity. Accordingly, Antipatrus the Stoic, who composed three books
on the point, "That, according to Plato, only the beautiful is good," shows that,
according to him, virtue is sufficient for happiness; and adduces several other dogmas
agreeing with the Stoics. And by Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, who is mentioned by the composer of the epitome of the books of the
Maccabees, there were abundant books to show that the Peripatetic philosophy was derived
from the law of Moses and from the other prophets. Let such be the case.

9 Plato plainly calls us brethren, as being of one God and one teacher, in the following
words: "For ye who are in the state are entirely brethren (as we shall say to them,
continuing our story). But the God who formed you, mixed gold in the composition of those
of you who are fit to rule, at your birth, wherefore you are most highly honoured; and
silver in the case of those who are helpers; and steel and brass in the case of farmers
and other workers." Whence, of necessity, some embrace and love those things to which
knowledge pertains; and others matters of opinion. Perchance he prophesies of that elect
nature which is bent on knowledge; if by the supposition he makes of three natures he does
not describe three politics, as some supposed: that of the Jews, the silver; that of the
Greeks, the third; and that of the Christians, with whom has been mingled the regal gold,
the Holy Spirit, the golden.

10 And exhibiting the Christian life, he writes in the Theaetetus in these words: "Let us
now speak of the highest principles. For why should we speak of those who make an abuse of
philosophy? These know neither the way to the forum, nor know they the court or the
senate-house, or any other public assembly of the state. As for laws and decrees spoken or
written, they neither see nor hear them. But party feelings of political associations and
public meetings, and revels with musicians [occupy them]; but they never even dream of
taking part in affairs. Has any one conducted himself either well or ill in the state, or
has aught evil descended to a man from his forefathers?-it escapes their attention as much
as do the sands of the sea. And the man does not even know that he does not know all these
things; but in reality his body alone is situated and dwells in the state, while the man
himself flies, according to Pindar, beneath the earth and above the sky, astronomizing,
and exploring all nature on all sides.

11 Again, with the Lord's saying, "Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay," may be compared
the following: "But to admit a falsehood, and destroy a truth, is in nowise lawful." With
the prohibition, also, against swearing agrees the saying in the tenth book of the Laws:
"Let praise and an oath in everything be absent." And in general, Pythagoras, and
Socrates, and Plato say that they hear God's voice while closely contemplating the fabric
of the universe, made and preserved unceasingly by God. For they heard Moses say, "He
said, and it was done," describing the word of God as an act. And founding on the
formation of man from the dust, the philosophers constantly term the body earthy. Homer,
too, does not hesitate to put the following as an imprecation:- "But may you all become
earth and water." As Esaias says, "And trample them down as clay." And Callimachus clearly
writes:-

12 "That was the year in which Birds, fishes, quadrupeds, Spoke like Prometheus' clay."
And the same again:- "If thee Prometheus formed, And thou art not of other clay." Hesiod
says of Pandora:- "And bade Hephaestus, famed, with all his speed, Knead earth with water,
and man's voice and mind Infuse." The Stoics, accordingly, define nature to be artificial
fire, advancing systematically to generation. And God and His Word are by Scripture
figuratively termed fire and light. But how? Does not Homer himself, is not Homer himself,
paraphrasing the retreat of the water from the land, and the clear uncovering of the dry
land, when he says of Tethys and Oceanus:- "For now for a long time they abstain from Each
other's bed and love? " Again, power in all things is by the most intellectual among the
Greeks ascribed to God; Epicharmus-he was a Pythagorean-saying:- "Nothing escapes the
divine. This it behoves thee to know.

13 He is our observer. To God nought is impossible." And the lyric poet:- "And God from
gloomy night Can raise unstained light, And can in darksome gloom obscure The day's
refulgence pure." He alone who is able to make night during the period of day is God. In
the Phoenomena Aratus writes thus:- "With Zeus let us begin; whom let us ne'er, Being men,
leave unexpressed. All full of Zeus, The streets, and throngs of men, and full the sea,
And shores, and everywhere we Zeus enjoy." He adds:- "For we also are His offspring; ... "
that is, by creation. "Who, bland to men, Propitious signs displays, and to their tasks
Arouses. For these signs in heaven He fixed, The constellations spread, and crowned the
year With stars; to show to men the seasons' tasks, That all things may proceed in order
sure. Him ever first, Him last too, they adore:

14 Hail Father, marvel great-great boon to men." And before him, Homer, framing the world
in accordance with Moses on the Vulcan-wrought shield, says:- "On it he fashioned earth,
and sky, and sea, And all the signs with which the heaven is crowned." For the Zeus
celebrated in poems and prose compositions leads the mind up to God. And already, so to
speak, Democritus writes, "that a few men are in the light, who stretch out their hands to
that place which we Greeks now call the air. Zeus speaks all, and he hears all, and
distributes and takes away, and he is king of all." And more mystically the Boeotian
Pindar, being a Pythagorean, says:- "One is the race of gods and men, And of one mother
both have breath; " that is, of matter: and names the one creator of these things, whom he
calls Father, chief artificer, who furnishes the means of advancement on to divinity,
according to merit.

15 For I pass over Plato; he plainly, in the Epistle to Erastus and Coriscus, is seen to
exhibit the Father and Son somehow or other from the Hebrew Scriptures, exhorting in these
words: "In invoking by oath, with not illiterate gravity, and with culture, the sister of
gravity, God the author of all, and invoking Him by oath as the Lord, the Father of the
Leader, and author; whom if ye study with a truly philosophical spirit, ye shall know."
And the address in the Timoeus calls the creator, Father, speaking thus: "Ye gods of gods,
of whom I am Father; and the Creator of your works." So that when he says, "Around the
king of all, all things are, and because of Him are all things; and he [or that] is the
cause of all good things; and around the second are the things second in order; and around
the third, the third," I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for
the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made
according to the will of the Father.

16 And the same, in the tenth book of the Republic, mentions Eros the son of Armenius, who
is Zoroaster. Zoroaster, then, writes: "These were composed by Zoroaster, the son of
Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth: having died in battle, and been in Hades, I learned them
of the gods." This Zoroaster, Plato says, having been placed on the funeral pyre, rose
again to life in twelve days. He alludes perchance to the resurrection, or perchance to
the fact that the path for souls to ascension lies through the twelve signs of the zodiac;
and he himself says, that the descending pathway to birth is the same. In the same way we
are to understand the twelve labours of Hercules, after which the soul obtains release
from this entire world. 17 I do not pass over Empedocles, who speaks thus physically of
the renewal of all things, as consisting in a transmutation into the essence of fire,
which is to take place. And most plainly of the same opinion is Heraclitus of Ephesus, who
considered that there was a world everlasting, and recognised one perishable-that is, in
its arrangement, not being different from the former, viewed in a certain aspect. But that
he knew the imperishable world which consists of the universal essence to be everlastingly
of a certain nature, he makes clear by speaking thus: "The same world of all things,
neither any of the gods, nor any one of men, made. But there was, and is, and will be
ever-living fire, kindled according to measure, and quenched according to measure." And
that he taught it to be generated and perishable, is shown by what follows: "There are
transmutations of fire,-first, the sea; and of the sea the half is land, the half fiery
vapour." For he says that these are the effects of power. For fire is by the Word of God,
which governs all things, changed by the air into moisture, which is, as it were, the germ
of cosmical change; and this he calls sea. And out of it again is produced earth, and sky,
and all that they contain. How, again, they are restored and ignited, he shows clearly in
these words: "The sea is diffused and measured according to the same rule which subsisted
before it became earth." Similarly also respecting the other elements, the same is to be
understood. The most renowned of the Stoics teach similar doctrines with him, in treating
of the conflagration and the government of the world, and both the world and man properly
so called, and of the continuance of our souls.

18 Plato, again, in the seventh book of the Republic, has called "the day here nocturnal,"
as I suppose, on account of "the world-rulers of this darkness; " and the descent of the
soul into the body, sleep and death, similarly with Heraclitus. And was not this
announced, oracularly, of the Saviour, by the Spirit, saying by David, "I slept, and
slumbered; I awoke: for the Lord will sustain me? " For He not only figuratively calls the
resurrection of Christ rising from sleep; but to the descent of the Lord into the flesh he
also applies the figurative term sleep. The Saviour Himself enjoins, "Watch; " as much as
to say, "Study how to live, and endeavour to separate the soul from the body." And the
Lord's day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of the Republic, in these
words: "And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they
are to set out and arrive in four days." By the meadow is to be understood the fixed
sphere, as being a mild and genial spot, and the locality of the pious; and by the seven
days each motion of the seven planets, and the whole practical art which speeds to the end
of rest. But after the wandering orbs the journey leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth
motion and day. And he says that souls are gone on the fourth day, pointing out the
passage through the four elements. But the seventh day is recognised as sacred, not by the
Hebrews only, but also by the Greeks; according to which the whole world of all animals
and plants revolve. Hesiod says of it:-

19 "The first, and fourth, and seventh day were held sacred." And again:- "And on the
seventh the sun's resplendent orb." And Homer:- "And on the seventh then came the sacred
day." And:- "The seventh was sacred." And again:- "It was the seventh day, and all things
were accomplished." And again:- "And on the seventh morn we leave the stream of Acheron."
Callimachus the poet also writes:- "It was the seventh morn, and they had all things
done." And again:- "Among good days is the seventh day, and the seventh race." And:- "The
seventh is among the prime, and the seventh is perfect." And:- "Now all the seven were
made in starry heaven, In circles shining as the years appear." The Elegies of Solon, too,
intensely deify the seventh day. And how? Is it not similar to Scripture when it says,
"Let us remove the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us? " when Plato,
all but predicting the economy of salvation, says in the second book of the Republic as
follows: "Thus he who is constituted just shall be scourged, shall be stretched on the
rack, shall be bound, have his eyes put out; and at last, having suffered all evils, shall
be crucified."

20 And the Socratic Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance, "To whom have ye
likened me? saith the Lord," says that "God is like no one; wherefore no one can come to
the knowledge of Him from an image." Xenophon too, the Athenian, utters these similar
sentiments in the following words: "He who shakes all things, and is Himself immoveable,
is manifestly one great and powerful. But what He is in form, appears not. No more does
the sun, who wishes to shine in all directions, deem it right to permit any one to look on
himself. But if one gaze on him audaciously, he loses his eyesight." "What flesh can see
with eyes the Heavenly, True, Immortal God, whose dwelling is the poles? Not even before
the bright beams of the sun Are men, as being mortal, fit to stand,"- the Sibyl had said
before. Rightly, then, Xenophanes of Colophon, teaching that God is one and incorporeal,
adds:-

21 "One God there is midst gods and men supreme; In form, in mind, unlike to mortal men."
And again:- "But men have the idea that gods are born, And wear their clothes, and have
both voice and shape." And again:- "But had the oxen or the lions hands, Or could with
hands depict a work like men, Were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods, The horses
would them like to horses sketch, To oxen, oxen, and their bodies make Of such a shape as
to themselves belongs." Let us hear, then, the lyric poet Bacchylides speaking of the
divine:- "Who to diseases dire never succumb, And blameless are; in nought resembling
men." And also Cleanthes, the Stoic, who writes thus in a poem on the Deity: - "If you ask
what is the nature of the good, listen- That which is regular, just, holy, pious, Self-
governing, useful, fair, fitting,

22 Grave, independent, always beneficial, That feels no fear or grief, profitable,
painless, Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly, Held in esteem, agreeing with itself:
honourable, Humble, careful, meek, zealous, Perennial, blameless, ever-during." And the
same, tacitly vilifying the idolatry of the multitude, adds:- "Base is every one who looks
to opinion, With the view of deriving any good from it." We are not, then, to think of God
according to the opinion of the multitude. "For I do not think that secretly, Imitating
the guise of a scoundrel, He would go to thy bed as a man," says Amphion to Antiope. And
Sophocles plainly writes:- "His mother Zeus espoused, Not in the likeness of gold, nor
covered With swan's plumage, as the Pleuronian girl He impregnated; but an out and out
man." He further proceeds, and adds:- "And quick the adulterer stood on the bridal steps."
Then he details still more plainly the licentiousness of the fabled Zeus:-

23 "But he nor food nor cleansing water touched, But heart-stung went to bed, and that
whole night Wantoned." But let these be resigned to the follies of the theatre. Heraclius
plainly says: "But of the word which is eternal men are not able to understand, both
before they have heard it, and on first hearing it." And the lyrist Melanippides says in
song:- "Hear me, O Father, Wonder of men, Ruler of the ever-living soul." And Parmenides
the great, as Plato says in the Sophist writes of God thus:- "Very much, since unborn and
indestructible He is, Whole, only-begotten, and immoveable, and unoriginated." Hesiod also
says:- "For He of the immortals all is King and Lord. With God none else in might may
strive." Nay more, Tragedy, drawing away from idols, teaches to look up to heaven.
Sophocles, as Hecataeus, who composed the histories in the work about Abraham and the
Egyptians, says, exclaims plainly on the stage:-

24 "One in very truth, God is One, Who made the heaven and the far-stretching earth, The
Deep's blue billow, and the might of winds. But of us mortals, many erring far In heart,
as solace for our woes, have raised Images of gods-of stone, or else of brass, Or figures
wrought of gold or ivory; And sacrifices and vain festivals To these appointing, deem
ourselves devout." And Euripides on the stage, in tragedy, says:- "Dost thou this lofty,
boundless Ether see, Which holds the earth around in the embrace Of humid arms? This
reckon Zeus, And this regard as God." And in the drama of Pirithous, the same writes those
lines in tragic vein:- "Thee, self-sprung, who on Ether's wheel Hast universal nature
spun, Around whom Light and dusky spangled Night, The countless host of stars, too,
ceaseless dance." For there he says that the creative mind is self-sprung. What follows
applies to the universe, in which are the opposites of light and darkness.

25 Aeschylus also, the son of Euphorion, says with very great solemnity of God:- "Ether is
Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven; The universe is Zeus, and all above." I am aware
that Plato assents to Heraclitus, who writes: "The one thing that is wise alone will not
be expressed, and means the name of Zeus." And again, "Law is to obey the will of one."
And if you wish to adduce that saying, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," you will
find it expressed by the Ephesian to the following effect: "Those that hear without
understanding are like the deaf. The proverb witnesses against them, that when present
they are absent." But do you want to hear from the Greeks expressly of one first
principle? Timaeus the Locrian, in the work on Nature, shall testify in the following
words: "There is one first principle of all things unoriginated. For were it originated,
it would be no longer the first principle; but the first principle would be that from
which it originated." For this true opinion was derived from what follows: "Hear," it is
said, "O Israel; the Lord thy God is one, and Him only shalt thou serve."

26 "Lo He all sure and all unerring is," says the Sibyl. Homer also manifestly mentions
the Father and the Son by a happy hit of divination in the following words:- "If out is,
alone as thou art, offers thee violence, And there is no escaping disease sent by Zeus,
For the Cyclopes heed not Ae gis-bearing Zeus." And before him Orpheus said, speaking of
the in hand:- "Son of great Zeus, Father of Ae gis-bearing Zeus." And Xenocrates the
Chalcedonian, who mentions the supreme Zeus and the inferior Zeus, leaves an indication of
the Father and the Son. Homer, while representing the gods as subject to human passions,
appears to know the Divine Being, whom Epicurus does not so revere. He says accordingly:-
"Why, son of Peleus, mortal as thou art, With swift feet me pursuest, a god Immortal? Hast
thou not yet known That I am a god? "

27 For he shows that the Divinity cannot be captured by a mortal, or apprehended either
with feet, or hands, or eyes, or by the body at all. "To whom have ye likened the Lord? or
to what likeness have ye likened Him? "says the Scripture. Has not the artificer made the
image? or the goldsmith, melting the gold, has gilded it, and what follows. The comic poet
Epicharmus speaks in the Republic clearly of the Word in the following terms:- "The life
of men needs calculation and number alone, And we live by number and calculation, for
these save mortals." He then adds expressly:- "Reason governs mortals, and alone preserves
manners." Then:- "There is in man reasoning; and there is a divine Reason. Reason is
implanted in man to provide for life and sustenance, But divine Reason attends the arts in
the case of all, Teaching them always what it is advantageous to do.

28 For it was not man that discovered art, but God brought it; And the Reason of man
derives its origin from the divine Reason." The Spirit also cries by Isaiah: "Wherefore
the multitude of sacrifices? saith the Lord. I am full of holocausts of rams, and the fat
of lambs and the blood of bulls I wish not; "and a little after adds: "Wash you, and be
clean. Put away wickedness from your souls," and so forth. Menander, the comic poet,
writes in these very words:- "If one by offering sacrifice, a crowd Of bulls or kids, O
Pamphilus, by Zeus. Or such like things; by making works of art, Garments of gold or
purple, images Of ivory or emerald, deems by these God can be made propitious, he does
err, And has an empty mind. For the man must prove A man of worth, who neither maids
deflowers, Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor kills

29 For love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus. Nay, covet not a needle's thread. For God Thee
sees, being near beside thee." ... "I am a God at hand," it is said by Jeremiah, "and not
a God afar off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him? " And
again Menunder, paraphrasing that Scripture, "Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and
trust in the Lord," thus writes:- "And not a needle even that is Another's ever covet,
dearest friend; For God in righteous works delights, and so Permits him to increase his
worldly wealth, Who toils, and ploughs the land both night and day. But sacrifice to God,
and righteous be, Shining not in bright robes, but in thy heart; And when thou hear'st the
thunder, do not flee, Being conscious to thyself of nought amiss, Good sir, for thee God
ever present sees." "Whilst thou art yet speaking," says the Scripture, "I will say, Lo,
here I am."

30 Again Diphilus, the comic poet, discourses as, follows on the judgment:- "Think'st
thou, O Niceratus, that the dead, Who in all kinds of luxury in life have shared, Escape
the Deity, as if forgot? There is an eye of justice, which sees all. For two ways, as we
deem, to Hades lead- One for the good, the other for the bad. But if the earth hides both
for ever, then Go plunder, steal, rob, and be turbulent. But err not. For in Hades
judgment is, Which God the Lord of all will execute, Whose name too dreadful is for me to
name, Who gives to sinners length of earthly life. If any mortal thinks, that day by day,
While doing ill, he eludes the gods keen sight, His thoughts are evil; and when justice
has The leisure, he shall then detected be So thinking. Look, whoe'er you be that say

31 That there is not a God. There is, there is. If one, by nature evil, evil does, Let him
redeem the time; for such as he Shall by and by due punishment receive." And with this
agrees the tragedy in the following lines:- "For there shall come, shall come that point
of time, When Ether, golden-eyed, shall ope its store Of treasured fire; and the devouring
flame, Raging, shall burn all things on earth below, And all above."... And after a little
he adds:- ... "And when the whole world fades, And vanished all the abyss of ocean's
waves, And earth of trees is bare; and wrapt in flames, The air no more begets the winged
tribes; Then He who all destroyed, shall all restore." We shall find expressions similar
to these also in the Orphic hymns, written as follows:- "For having hidden all, brought
them again To gladsome light, forth from his sacred heart,

32 Solicitous." And if we live throughout holily and righteously, we are happy here, and
shall be happier after our departure hence; not possessing happiness for a time, but
enabled to rest in eternity. "At the same hearth and table as the rest Of the immortal
gods, we sit all free Of human ills, unharmed," says the philosophic poetry of Empedocles.
And so, according to the Greeks, none is so great as to be above judgment, none so
insignificant as to escape its notice. And the same Orpheus speaks thus:- "But to the word
divine, looking, attend, Keeping aright the heart's receptacle Of intellect, and tread the
straight path well, And only to the world's immortal King Direct thy gaze." And again,
respecting God, saying that He was invisible, and that He was known to but one, a Chaldean
by race-meaning either by this Abraham or his son-he speaks as follows:-

33 "But one a scion of Chaldean race; For he the sun's path knew right well, And how the
motion of the sphere about The earth proceeds, in circle moving Equally around its axis,
how the winds Their chariot guide o'er air and sea." Then, as if paraphrasing the
expression, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool," he adds :- "But in great
heaven, He is seated firm Upon a throne of gold, and neath His feet The earth. His right
hand round the ocean's bound He stretches; and the hills' foundations shake To the centre
at His wrath, nor can endure His mighty strength. He all celestial is, And all things
finishes upon the earth. He the Beginning, Middle is, and End. But Thee I dare not speak.
In limbs And mind I tremble. He rules from on high." And so forth. For in these he
indicates these prophetic utterances: "If Thou openest the heaven, trembling shall seize
the mountains from Thy presence; and they shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire; "
and in Isaiah, "Who hath measured the heaven with a span, and the whole earth with His
fist? Again, when it is said :-

34 "Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land, Who with Thy bolts Olympus' strong-built home
Dost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throng Of gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates
obey, Relentless though they be. O deathless One, Our mother's Sire I whose wrath makes
all things reel; Who mov'st the winds, and shroud'st in clouds the world, Broad Ether
cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,- Thine is the order 'mongst the stars, which run As
Thine unchangeable behests direct. Before Thy burning throne the angels wait, Much-
working, charged to do all things, for men. Thy young Spring shines, all prank'd with
purple flowers; Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails; Three Autumn noisy Bacchus
distributes." Then he adds, naming expressly the Almighty God:- "Deathless Immortal,
capable of being To the immortals only uttered! Come, Greatest of gods, with strong
Necessity. Dread, invincible, great, deathless One, Whom Ether crowns."... By the
expression"Sire of our Mother"mhtropa/twr he not only intimates creation out of nothing,
but gives occasion to those who introduce emissions of imagining a consort of the Deity.
And he paraphrases those prophetic Scripture-that in Isaiah, "I am He that fixes the
thunder, and creates the wind; whose hands have rounded the host of heaven; " and that in
Moses, "Behold, behold that I am He, and there is no god beside me: I will kill, and I
will make to live; I will smite, and I will heal: and there is none that shall deliver out
of my hands."

35 "And He, from good, to mortals planteth ill, And cruel war, and tearful woes,"
according to Orpheus. Such also are the words of the Parian Archilochus. "O Zeus, thine is
the power of heaven, and thou Inflict'st on men things violent and wrong." Again let the
Thracian Orpheus sing to us:- "His right hand all around to ocean's bound He stretches;
and beneath His feet is earth." These are plainly derived from the following: "The Lord
will save the inhabited cities, and grasp the whole land in His hand like a nest; " "It is
the Lord that made the earth by His power," as saith Jeremiah, "and set up the earth by
His wisdom." Further, in addition to these, Phocylides, who calls the angels demons,
explains in the following words that some of them are good, and others bad (for we also
have learned that some are apostate):- "Demons there are-some here, some there-set over

36 men; Some, on rnan's entrance [into life], to ward off ill." Rightly, then, also
Philemon, the comic poet demolishes idolatry in these words:- "Fortune is no divinity to
us: There's no such god. But what befalls by chance And of itself to each, is Fortune
called." And Sophocles the tragedian says:- "Not even the gods have all things as they
choose, Excepting Zeus; for he beginning is and end." And Orpheus:- "One Might, the great,
the flaming heaven, was One Deity. All things one Being were; in whom All these revolve
fire, water, and the earth." And so forth. Pindar, the lyric poet, as if in Bacchic
frenzy, plainly says:- "What is God? The All." And again:- "God, who makes all mortals."
And when he says,- "How little, being a man, dost thou expect Wisdom for man? 'Tis hard
for mortal mind The counsels of the gods to scan; and thou

37 Wast of a mortal mother born," he drew the thought from the following: "Who hath known
the mind of the Lord, or who was His counsellor? " Hesiod, too, agrees with what is said
above, in what he writes:- "No prophet, sprung of men that dwell on earth, Can know the
mind of Aegis-bearing Zeus." Similarly, then, Solon the Athenian, in the Elegies,
following Hesiod, writes:- "The immortal's mind to men is quite unknown." Again Moses,
having prophesied that the woman would bring forth in trouble and pain, on account of
transgression, a poet not undistinguished writes:- "Never by day From toil and woe shall
they have rest, nor yet By night from groans. Sad cares the gods to men Shall give."
Further, when Homer says,- "The Sire himself the golden balance held," he intimates that
God is just. And Menander, the comic poet, in exhibiting God, says:- "To each man, on his
birth, there is assigned

38 A tutelary Demon, as his life's good guide. For that the Demon evil is, and harms A
good life, is not to be thought." Then he adds:-"#Apanta d' a9gaqo\ n ei9nai to\ n Qeo/n,"
meaning either "that every one good is God," or, what is preferable, "that God in all
things is good." Again, Aeschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not
shrink from calling Him the Highest, in these words:- "Place God apart from mortals; and
think not That He is, like thyself, corporeal. Thou know st Him not. Now He appears as
fire, Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom; And in the beasts is dimly shadowed
forth, In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain; And minister to Him the seas and
rocks, Each fountain and the water's floods and streams. The mountains tremble, and the
earth, the vast Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills,

39 When on them looks the Sovereign's awful eye: Almighty is the glory of the Most High
God. " Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, "At the presence of the Lord the
earth trembles? " In addition to these, the most prophetic Apollo is compelled-thus
testifying to the glory of God-to say of Athene, when the Medes made war against Greece,
that she besought and supplicated Zeus for Attica. The oracle is as follows:- "Pallas
cannot Olympian Zeus propitiate, Although with many words and sage advice she prays; But
he will give to the devouring fire many temples of the immortals, Who now stand shaking
with terror, and bathed in sweat; " and so forth. Thearidas, in his book On Nature,
writes: "There was then one really true beginning [first principle] of all that
exist"-one. For that Being in the beginning is one and alone." "Nor is there any other
except the Great King,"

40 says Orpheus. In accordance with whom, the comic poet Diphilus says very sententiously,
the "Father of all, To Him alone incessant reverence pay, The inventor and the author of
such blessings." Rightly therefore Plato "accustoms the best natures to attain to that
study which formerly we said was the highest, both to see the good and to accomplish that
ascent. And this, as appears, is not the throwing of the potsherds; but the turning round
of the soul from a nocturnal day to that which is a true return to that which really is,
which we shall assert to be the true philosophy." Such as are partakers of this he judges
to belong to the golden race, when he says: "Ye are all brethren; and those who are of the
golden race are most capable of judging most accurately in every respect." 41 The Father,
then, and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things, agreeably to all, by innate
power and without teaching,-things inanimate, sympathizing with the animate creation; and
of living beings some are. already immoral, working in the light of day. But of those that
are still mortal, some are in fear, and carried still in their mother's womb; and others
regulate themselves by their own independent reason. And of men all are Greeks and
Barbarians. But no race anywhere of tillers of the soil, or nomads, and not even of
dwellers in cities, can live, without being imbued with the faith of a superior being.
Wherefore every eastern nation, and every nation touching the western shore; or the north,
and each one towards the south, -all have one and the same preconception respecting Him
who hath appointed government; since the most universal of His operations equally pervade
all. Much more did the philosophers among the Greeks, devoted to investigation, starting
from the Barbarian philosophy, attribute providence to the "Invisible, and sole, and most
powerful, and most skilful and supreme cause of all things most beautiful; "-not knowing
the inferences from these truths, unless instructed by us, and not even how God is to be
known naturally; but only, as we have already often said, by a true periphrasis. Rightly
therefore the apostle says, "Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Greeks?
"-not only saying prophetically that of the Greeks believing Greeks would know God;

42 but also intimating that in power the Lord is the God of all, and truly Universal King.
For they know neither what He is, nor how He is Lord, and Father, and Maker, nor the rest
of the system of the truth, without being taught by it. Thus also the prophetic utterances
have the same force as the apostolic word. For Isaiah says, "If ye say, We trust in the
Lord our God: now make an alliance with my Lord the king of the Assyrians. And he adds:
"And now, was it without the Lord that we came up to this land to make war against it? "
And Jonah, himself a prophet, intimates the same thing in what he says: "And the
shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why dost thou snore? Rise, call on thy God, that
He may save us, and that we may not perish. For the expression "thy God" he makes as if to
one who knew Him by way of knowledge; and the expression, "that God may save us," revealed
the consciousness in the minds of heathens who had applied their mind to the Ruler of all,
but had not yet believed. And again the same: "And he said to them, I am the servant of
the Lord; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven. And again the same: "And he said, Let us
by no means perish for the life of this man. And Malachi the prophet plainly exhibits God
saying, "I will not accept sacrifice at your hands.

43 For from the rising of the sun to its going down, My name is glorified among the
Gentiles; and in every place sacrifice is offered to Me. And again: "Because I am a great
King, saith the Lord omnipotent; and My name is manifest among the nations. What name? The
Son declaring the Father among the Greeks who have believed. 44 Plato in what follows
gives an exhibition of free-will: "Virtue owns not a master; and in proportion as each one
honours or dishonours it, in that proportion he will be a partaker of it. The blame lies
in the exercise of free choice." But God is blameless. For He is never the author of evil.
"O warlike Trojans," says the lyric poet, - "High ruling Zeus, who beholds all things, Is
not the cause of great woes to mortals; But it is in the power of all men to find Justice,
holy, pure, Companion of order, And of wise Themis The sons of the blessed are ye In
finding her as your associate." And Pindar expressly introduces also Zeus Soter, the
consort of Themis, proclaiming him King, Saviour, Just, in the following lines:- "First,
prudent Themis, of celestial birth, On golden steeds, by Ocean's rock, The Fates brought
to the stair sublime,

45 The shining entrance of Olympus, Of Saviour Zeus for aye to be the spouse, And she, the
Hours, gold-diademed, fair-fruited, good, brought forth." He, then, who is not obedient to
the truth, and is puffed up with human teaching, is wretched and miserable, according to
Euripides:- "Who these things seeing, yet apprehends not God, But mouthing lofty themes,
casts far Perverse deceits; stubborn in which, the tongue Its shafts discharges, about
things unseen, Devoid of sense." Let him who wishes, then, approaching to the true
instruction, learn from Parmenides the Eleatic, who promises:- "Ethereal nature, then, and
all the signs In Ether thou shall know, and the effects, All viewless, of the sacred Sun's
clear torch And whence produced. The round-eyed Moon's Revolving influences and nature
thou Shall learn; and the ensphering heaven shall know; Whence sprung; and how Necessity
took it And chained so as to keep the starry bounds."

46 And Metrodorus, though an Epicurean, spoke thus, divinely inspired: "Remember, O
Menestratus, that, being a mortal endowed with a circumscribed life, thou hast in thy soul
ascended, till thou hast seen endless time, and the infinity of things; and what is to be,
and what has been; "when with the blessed choir, according to Plato, we shall gaze on the
blessed sight and vision; we following with Zeus, and others with other deities, if we may
be permitted so to say, to receive initiation into the most blessed mystery: which we
shall celebrate, ourselves being perfect and untroubled by the ills which awaited us at
the end of our time; and introduced to the knowledge of perfect and tranquil visions, and
contemplating them in pure sunlight; we ourselves pure, and now no longer distinguished by
that, which, when carrying it about, we call the body, being bound to it like an oyster to
its shell.

47 The Pythagoreans call heaven the Antichthon [the opposite Earth]. And in this land, it
is said by Jeremiah, "I will place thee among the children, and give thee the chosen land
as inheritance of God Omnipotent; " and they who herit it shall reign over the earth.
Myriads on myriads of examples rush on my mind which might adduce. But for the sake of
symmetry the discourse must now stop, in order that we may not exemplify the saying of
Agatho the tragedian:- "Treating our by-work as work, And doing our work as by-work." It
having been, then, as I think, clearly shown in what way it is to be understood that the
Greeks were called thieves by the Lord, I willingly leave the dogmas of the philosophers.
For were we to go over their sayings, we should gather together directly such a quantity
of notes, in showing that the whole of the Hellenic wisdom was derived from the Barbarian
philosophy. But this speculation, we shall, nevertheless, again touch on, as necessity
requires, when we collect the opinions current among the Greeks respecting first
principles.

48 But from what has been said, it tacitly devolves on us to consider in what way the
Hellenic books are to be perused by the man who is able to pass through the billows in
them. Therefore "Happy is he who possesses the wealth of the divine mind," as appears
according to Empedocles, "But wretched he, who cares for dark opinion about the Gods." He
divinely showed knowledge and ignorance to be the boundaries of happiness and misery. "For
it behoves philosophers to be acquainted with very many things," according to Heraclitus;
and truly must "He, who seeks to be good, err in many things." It is then, now clear to
us, from what has been said, that the beneficence of God is eternal, and that, from an
unbeginning principle, equal natural righteousness reached all, according to the worth of
each several race,-never having had a beginning. For God did not make a beginning of being
Lord and Good, being always what He is. Nor will He ever cease to do good, although He
bring all things to an end. And each one of us is a partaker of His beneficence, as far as
He wills. For the difference of the elect is made by the intervention of a choice worthy
of the soul, and by exercise.

49 Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance with the true
philosophy be brought to a close.


THE STROMATA BOOK 6
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 6 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER I.-PLAN.

1 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." And the prophet says," Blessed is he that
soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread," [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. 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.

2 In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruittrees,
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 Miscellaniesis
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.

3 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, in as much 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, "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."

CHAPTER II.-THE SUBJECT OF PLAGIARISMS RESUMED. THE GREEKS PLAGIARIZED FROM ONE ANOTHER.

1 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.

2 Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, in
as much 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.

3 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." And Musaeus having written:- "Since art is greatly superior to
strength," Homer says:- "By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior."
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," 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." Again,
Homer having said:- "It is unholy to exult over dead men," 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

4 Much o'er the stalwart dead." Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:- "I
erred, nor say I nay:-instead of many" writes thus:- "I erred, and this mischief hath
somehow seized another." As certainly also that line:- "Evenhanded war the slayer slays."
He also, altering, has given forth thus:- "I will do it. For Mars to men in truth is
evenhanded." Also, translating the following:- "The issues of victory among men depend on
the gods," 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,"
Euripides writes in Erechteus: - "Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep, Nor in
the streams of water lave their feet." Archilochus having likewise said:- "But one with
this and one with that His heart delights? in correspondence with the Homeric line:- "For
one in these deeds, one in those delights,"

5 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; " and adding:- "For the young husband takes some other
girl, And for another husband longs the wife," Euripides writes:- "'Tis bad to yoke an old
wife to a youth; For he desires to share another's bed,

6 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 Flagelliferutters this
iambic:- "For foes' gifts are no gifts, nor any boon." 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 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 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

7 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 Hephaestus made shield:- "Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made, And
Ocean's rivers' mighty strength portrayed," Pherecydes of Syros says:-"Zas makes a cloak
large and beautiful, and works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus."And Homer
having said:- "Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps," - 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:-

8 "Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease." From the Eriphyle of Sophocles:- "Hie thee to
sleep, healer of that disease." And from the Antigone of Sophocles:- "Bastardy is
opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal; " And from the Aleuadesof Sophocles:- "Each
good thing has its nature equal." Again, in the Ctimenus 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 Alexanderof 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; forEumelus 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."

9 Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:- "What, whence art thou? Thy city and
thy parents, where? " 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
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, 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" And
in addition, Homer, saying:- "There is no satiating the greedy paunch,

10 Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men." 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 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,

11 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 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."

12 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 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

13 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:-

14 "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 :-

15 "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;

16 But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast, If he is false, 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 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:-

17 "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 Pytine: - "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:-

18 "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? " Further, Hippocrates the physician having written, "You must
look to time, and locality, and age, and disease," Euripides says in Hexameters: -

19 "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 :-

20 "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,

21 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.

22 You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from the
Disappearanceof Dionysus, those words and what follows verbatim:- "As a man trains a
luxuriant shoot of olive." 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. 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 Thesmophoriazusae, transferred the words from the Empiprameniof Cratinus. And
Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in Daedalus, steal from one another. Cocalus,
composed by Araros, the son of Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and
made into the comedy called Hypobolimaens. 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.

23 From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from the Egyptians.
And many of the Platonists composed books, in which they show that the Stoics, as we said
in the beginning, and Aristotle, took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato.
Epicurus also pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be so.
For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject in detail, to expose
the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim the discovery of the best of
their doctrines, which they have received from us.

CHAPTER III.-PLAGIARISM BY THE GREEKS OF THE MIRACLES RELATED IN THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.

1 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 hands to heaven, and
invoking the common 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.

2 "And Samuel called on the Lord," it is said, "and the Lord gave forth His voice, and
rain in the day of harvest." Do you see that "He who sendeth His rain on the just and on
the unjust" 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:-

3 "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. 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!" 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," unit so forth. And Isaiah says, "Lift your eyes to the height, and see
who hath produced all these things."

4 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 worshipped by men; as having, in consequence of the purity of their life, by the divine
foreknowledge, received the power of wandering about the space around the earth in order
to minister to men. For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But of
these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall discourse.

5 Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial phenomena, was
called"Wisdom" (Sofi/a). 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." For such is the allegory, according to the
Scripture. But the fire was seen, as Aristobulus says, while the whole multitude,
amounting to not less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around the
mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days' journey. Over the whole
place of the vision the burning fire was seen by them all encamped as it were around; so
that the descent was not local. For God is everywhere.

6 Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain there is a cave
situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit; and that, accordingly, when the wind
falls into the cave, and rushes into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals
clashing musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of
wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds. 7 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, 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." You see how
the Lord's voice, the Word, without shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the
Lord, the truth from heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the Church, wrought by
the luminous immediate ministry.

CHAPTER IV.-THE GREEKS DREW MANY OF THEIR PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS FROM THE EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN GYMNOSOPHISTS.

1 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, 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;

2 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. Such are the
customs of the Egyptians, to speak briefly.

3 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. 4 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?

5 And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is, as I think,
sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs.

CHAPTER V.-THE GREEKS HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.

1 And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by positive knowledge,
but by indirect expression, 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." 2 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 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. 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;

3 for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring as they do angels
and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the moon be not visible, they do not hold
the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of
unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day. 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. 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.

4 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? " Wherefore Peter says, that the Lord said to the apostles: "If any one of
Israel then, wishes to repent, and by my name to believe in God, his sins shall be
forgiven him, after twelve years. Go forth into the world, that no one may say, We have
not heard."

CHAPTER VI.-THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO JEWS AND GENTILES IN HADES.

1 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" by human injunction-
it is plain that "those in darkness" are they who have the ruling faculty of the soul
buried in idolatry.

2 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." 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." 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?

3 But how? Do not [the Scriptures] show that. the Lord preached the Gospel to those that
perished in the flood, or rather had been chained, and to those kept "in ward and guard"?
And it has been shown also, 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.

4 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; 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.

5 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." Further the Gospel says, "that many
bodies of those that slept arose,"-plainly as having been translated to a better state.
There took place, then, a universal movement and translation through the economy of the
Saviour. One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another righteous man,
whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only Lord of the Jews, but of all men,
and more nearly the Father of those who know Him. For if to live well and according to the
law is to live, also to live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who
lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith, 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, though they are in Hades and in ward, 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,"
and power can never be weak.

6 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.

7 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." "For, behold," it is
said, "I have set before your face death and life, that ye may choose life." 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."

8 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. 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. 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.

9 For example, the prophet says, "The sirens, and the daughters of the sparrows, and all
the beasts of the field, shall bless me. 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. And David says, "For the
heathen are fixed in the destruction they have caused; their foot is taken in the snare
which they hid. "But the Lord was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in
affliction. Those, then, that were in affliction had the Gospel seasonably proclaimed. And
therefore it said, "Declare among the heathen his pursuits," that they may not be judged
unjustly.

10 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." "But he that loveth wickedness
hateth his own soul." 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, 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.

11 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 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 dae mon attending on him. And Aristotle says that all men
are provided with dae mons, 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."

CHAPTER VII.-WHAT TRUE PHILOSOPHY IS, AND WHENCE SO CALLED.

1 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, in as much
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.

2 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. 3 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.

4 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. 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;

5 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. 6 And we also have already heard that angels learned the truth, and their
rulers over them; for they had a beginning. It remains, then, for us, ascending to seek
their teacher. And since the unoriginated Being is one, the Omnipotent God; one, too, is
the First-begotten, "by whom all things were made, and without whom not one thing ever was
made." "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." 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," trains and perfects; whence it is rightly said, "Call no man your
teacher on earth."

7 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; so also all the teaching of good things, which justifies, does to the
Lord, and leads and contributes to this. 8 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, purified seven times. 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,"
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.

9 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 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. 10 If; then, we assert that Christ Himself is
Wisdom, and that it was His working which showed itself in the prophets, by which the
gnostic tradition may be learned, as He Himself taught the apostles during His presence;
then it follows that the gnosis, which is the knowledge and apprehension of things
present, future, and past, which is sure and reliable, as being imparted and revealed by
the Son of God, is wisdom. And if, too, the end of the wise man is contemplation, that of
those who are still philosophers aims at it, but never attains it, unless by the process
of learning it receives the prophetic utterance which has been made known, by which it
grasps both the present, the future, and the past-how they are, were, and shall be. And
the gnosis itself is that which has descended by transmission to a few, having been
imparted unwritten by the apostles. Hence, then, knowledge or wisdom ought to be exercised
up to the eternal and unchangeable habit of contemplation.

CHAPTER VIII.-PHILOSOPHY IS KNOWLEDGE GIVEN BY GOD.

1 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," 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? " 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," -enticing
them again to return to philosophy, the elementary doctrine.

2 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." 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? " 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." 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."

3 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." 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." 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; " 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." 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.

4 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." 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." 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.

6 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.

7 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 ) 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 such as were James, Peter, John, Paul,
and the rest of the apostles.

8 For prophecy is full of knowledge (gnosis), in as much 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,
in as much as he comprehends that things incomprehensible are incomprehensible; which is
common, and pertains to those who are capable of perceiving little.

9 For such a man affirms that there are some things incomprehensible. 10 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."

CHAPTER IX.-THE GNOSTIC FREE OF ALL PERTURBATIONS OF THE SOUL.

1 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 (dokh/sei). But He was
entirely impassible (a0paqh/j); 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.

2 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.

3 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, in as much 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?

4 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?

5 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," 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.

6 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. 7
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" 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.

8 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."

9 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 (e0pisth/mh)? Further, also, the philosophers regard the
virtues as habits, dispositions, and sciences. And as knowledge (gnosis) is not born with
men, but is acquired, 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.

10 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
incongruouseither 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.

CHAPTER X.-THE GNOSTIC AVAILS HIMSELF OF THE HELP OF ALL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

1 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 the distinction of existences, till he come to what are primary and simple.

2 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, 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. 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; " 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; " 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." "For, having spoken at sundry times and in divers manners," it
is not in one way only that He is known.

3 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.

4 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."


THE STROMATA BOOK 6
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 6 continued

CHAPTER XI.-THE MYSTICAL MEANINGS IN THE PROPORTIONS OF NUMBERS, GEOMETRICAL RATIOS, AND MUSIC.

1 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 (tih\ ),"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, 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 (rk') years." And the sum is made up of
the numbers from r to 15 added together. And the moon at 15 days is full.

2 On another principle, 120 is a triangular number, and consists of the equality of the
number 64, [which consists of eight of the odd numbers beginning with unity], the addition
of which (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15) in succession generate squares; 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 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 ratioin 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.

3 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.

4 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
(epidi/moiroi), 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; 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." And the table
which was in the temple was six cubits; 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; " either because the
universe revolves in the circuits of the times, or perhaps it indicated the earth
surrounded with ocean's tide.

5 Further, as an example of music, let us adduce David, playing at once and prophesying,
melodiously praising God. Now the Enarmonic 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.

6 But, as seems, the most of those who are inscribed with the Name, 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 ), 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.

7 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; 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.

8 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.

9 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. 10 Such David describes the Church: "The queen stood on thy right hand,
enveloped in a golden robe, variegated; " and with Hellenic and superabundant
accomplishments, "clothed variegated with gold-fringed garments." And the Truth says by
the Lord, "For who had known Thy counsel, hadst Thou not given wisdom, and sent Thy Holy
Spirit from the Highest; and so the ways of those on earth were corrected, and men learned
Thy decrees, and were saved by wisdom? "For the Gnostic knows things ancient by the
Scripture, and conjectures things future: he understands the involutions of words and the
solutions of enigmas. He knows beforehand signs and wonders, and the issues of seasons and
periods, as we have said already. Seest thou the fountain of instructions that takes its
rise from wisdom? But to those who object, What use is there in knowing the causes of the
manner of the sun's motion, for example, and the rest of the heavenly bodies, or in having
studied the theorems of geometry or logic, and each of the other branches of study?-for
these are of no service in the discharge of duties, and the Hellenic philosophy is human
wisdom, for it is incapable of teaching 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." 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.

11 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." 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."
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 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.

12 "And the choir of mute fishes rushed to it," says the Tragic Muse somewhere."I must
decrease," said the prophet John, 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." Certainly He is called
"the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into
an holy temple of God," 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." And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues 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."

13 Above all, this ought to be known, that by nature we are adapted for virtue; not so as
to be possessed of it from our birth, but so as to be adapted for acquiring it.

CHAPTER XII.-HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION; THE GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT.

1 By which consideration 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. 2 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; "
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."

3 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. 4 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.

5 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 (gnwstikh/), 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 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 (e0pisth/mh) and the acquisition of
knowledge (gnw=sij), 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.

6 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 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. 7 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? 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. "Ask," says
the Scripture, "and I will do. Think, and I will give." For we have heard that God knows
the heart, not judging 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."

8 Now fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both in action and in word,
and in thought itself. As appears, then, righteousness is quadrangular; 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," 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.

9 Then our dexterous man and Gnostic is revealed in righteousness already even here, as
Moses, glorified in the face of the soul, 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."

10 It is He Himself who says, "Little children, a little while I am still with you." Since
also God Himself remains blessed and immortal, neither molested nor molesting another; 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?

CHAPTER XIII.-DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN CORRESPONDING WITH THE DIGNITIES OF THE CHURCH BELOW.

1 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 by men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but enrolled in
the presbyterate because righteous. And although here upon earth he be not honoured with
the chief seat, he will sit down on the four-and-twenty thrones, judging the people, as
John says in the Apocalypse.

2 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 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 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
writes, will first minister [as deacons], then be classed in the presbyterate, by
promotion in glory (for glory differs from glory) till they grow into "a perfect man."

CHAPTER XIV.-DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.

1 Such, according to David, "rest in the holy hill of God," 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; " 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
of insatiable contemplation. "And other sheep there are also," saith the Lord, "which are
not of this fold " -deemed worthy of another fold and mansion, in proportion to their
faith. "But My sheep hear My voice," 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, 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.

2 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 are found worthy of the other
fold, on account of not being along with those that have been glorified through
righteousness.

3 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." 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? " 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, 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," beyond
salvation, cast away from the body.

4 As, then, to be simply saved is the result of medium actions, but to be saved tightly
and becomingly 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. 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 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.

5 "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? " 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.

6 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; 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. Rightly
then is it said, "And they who trust in Him shall underStand the truth, and those faithful
in love shall abide by Him." You see what statements Wisdom makes about the Gnostics.

7 Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the worth of those who
have believed. To the point Solomon says, "For there shall be given to him the choice
grace of faith, and a more pleasant lot in the temple of the Lord." 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. And
the perfect inheritance belongs to those who attain to "a perfect man," according to the
image of the Lord. And the likeness is not, as some imagine, that of the human form; for
this consideration is impious. Nor is the likeness to the first cause that which consists
in virtue. For this utterance is also impious, being that of those who have imagined that
virtue in man and in the sovereign God is the same. "Thou hast supposed iniquity," He
says, "[in imagining] that I will be like to thee." But "it is enough for the disciple to
become as the Master," saith the Master. To the likeness of God, then, he that is
introduced into adoption and the friendship of God, to the just inheritance of the lords
and gods is brought; if he be perfected, according to the Gospel, as the Lord Himself
taught.

CHAPTER XV.-DIFFERENT DEGREES OF KNOWLEDGE.

1 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" 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. 2 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. "Exert thyself, and prosper, and reign" writes David, "because of
truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall guide thee marvellously,"
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," 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," 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," 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; " 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;

3 " 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. 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," makes the
asseveration that the Hellenic teaching is elementary, and that of Christ perfect, as we
have already intimated before. 4 "Now the wild olive is inserted into the fatness of the
olive," 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.

5 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. 6 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.

7 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." 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," 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."

8 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.

9 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.

10 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." And Daniel, under the king of the Persians, wore "the
chain," though he despised not the afflictions of the people.

11 The liars, then, in reality are not those who for the sake of the scheme of salvation
conform, nor those who err in minute points, but those who are wrong in essentials, and
reject the Lord and as far as in them lies deprive the Lord of the true teaching; who do
not quote or deliver the Scriptures in a manner worthy of God and of the Lord; for the
deposit rendered to God, according to the teaching of the Lord by His apostles, is the
understanding and the practice of the godly tradition. "And what ye hear in the ear "-that
is, in a hidden manner, and in a mystery (for such things are figuratively said to be
spoken in the ear)-"proclaim," He says, "on the 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; " and if "all things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made," consequently also prophecy and the
law were by Him, and were spoken by Him in parables.

12 "But all things are right," says the Scripture, "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; 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.

13 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.

14 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. 15 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. 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 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."

16 And after a little again he draws the inference that the Scriptures owed their origin
to the divine providence, asserting as follows: "For we know that God enjoined these
things, and we say nothing apart from the Scriptures." Now the Hebrew dialect, like all
the rest, has certain properties, consisting in a mode of speech which exhibits the
national character. Dialect is accordingly defined as a style of speech produced by the
national character. But prophecy is not marked by those dialects. For in the Hellenic
writings, what are called changes of figures purposely produce 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.

17 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. "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."

18 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, exhibit the gnostic mode of life, showing it systematically according to the rule
of the truth. Did not the Power also, that appeared to Hermas in the Vision, in the form
of the Church, give for transcription the book which she wished to be made known to the
elect? And this, he says, he transcribed to the letter, without finding how to complete
the syllables. And this signified that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken according
to the bare reading; and that this is the faith which occupies the place of the rudiments.
Wherefore also the figurative expression is employed, "reading according to the letter;
"while we understand that the gnostic unfolding of the Scriptures, when faith has already
reached an advanced state, is likened to reading according to the syllables.

19 Further, Esaias the prophet is ordered to take "a new book, and write in it" 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.

20 Many also of those who called to the Lord said, "Son of David, have mercy on me." 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," -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.

CHAPTER XVI.-GNOSTIC EXPOSITION OF THE DECALOGUE.

1 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.

2 And the ark which held them will then be the knowledge of divine and human things and
wisdom. 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."
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. 3 Besides, in
addition to these ten human parts, the law appear to give its injunctions 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.

4 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," 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 in as much as God creates all things
by the Word (lo/gw|and the man who has become a Gnostic performs good actions by the
faculty of reason (tw=| logikw=|), 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.

5 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 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 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 ill"-preparing for the Primal Day, 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 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.

7 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." 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.

8 Thus the Lord, who ascended the mountain, the fourth, 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
Etaseven.

9 And the character 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 (tw=| e0pish/mw| ), 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." 10 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," "by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing
was made." 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, in as much 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.

11 And now the whole world of creatures born alive, and things that grow, revolves in
sevens. The first-born princes of the angels, who have the greatest power, are seven. The
mathematicians also say that the planets, which perform their course around the earth, are
seven; by which the Chaldeans think that all which concerns mortal life is effected
through sympathy, in consequence of which they also undertake to tell things respecting
the future. And of the fixed stars, the Pleiades are seven. And the Bears, by the help of
which agriculture and navigation are carried through, consist of seven stars. And in
periods of seven days the moon undergoes its changes. In the first week she becomes half
moon; in the second, full moon; and in the third, in her wane, again half moon; and in the
fourth she disappears. Further, as Seleucus the mathematician lays down, she has seven
phases. First, from being invisible she becomes crescent-shaped, then half moon, then
gibbous and full; and in her wane again gibbous, and in like manner half moon and
crescent-shaped.

12 "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.

13 The seventh and eighth septenniads see him now In mind and speech mature, till fifty
years; And in the ninth he still has vigour left, But strength and body are for virtue
great Less than of yore; when, seven years more, God brings To end, then not too soon may
he submit to die." Again, in diseases the seventh day is that of the crisis; and the
fourteenth, in which nature struggles against the causes of the diseases. And a myriad
such instances are adduced by Hermippus of Berytus, in his book On the Number Seven,
regarding it as holy. And the blessed David delivers clearly to those who know the mystic
account of seven and eight, praising thus: "Our years were exercised like a spider. The
days of our years in them are seventy years; but if in strength, eighty years. And that
will be to reign." 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."
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; " that is, in consequence of the knowledge imparted by Him,
let us celebrate the divine festival; for the Word that throws light on things hidden, and
by whom each created thing came into life and being, is called day.

14 And, in fine, the Decalogue, by the letter Iota, 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 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.

15 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, 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." 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.

16 The elements, however, and the star"-that is, the administrative powers-are ordained
for the accomplishment of what is essential to the administration, and are influenced and
moved by what is commanded to them, in the way in which the Word of the Lord leads, since
it is the nature of the divine power to work all things secretly. He, accordingly, who
alleges that he has conceived or made anything which pertains to creation, will suffer the
punishment of his impious audacity.The Tenth Commandment. And the tenth is the command
respecting all lusts. As, then, he who entertains unbecoming desires is called to account;
in the same way he is not allowed to desire things false, or to suppose that, of created
objects, those that are animate have power of themselves, and that inanimate things can at
all save or hurt. And should one say that an antidote cannot heal or hemlock kill, he is
unwittingly deceived. For none of these operates except one makes use of the plant and the
drug; just as the axe does not without one to cut with it, or a saw without one sawing
with it. And as they do not work by themselves, but have certain physical qualities which
accomplish their proper work by the exertion of the artisan; so also, by the universal
providence of God, through the medium of secondary causes, the operative power is
propagated in succession to individual objects.


THE STROMATA BOOK 6
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 6 continued

CHAPTER XVII.-PHILOSOPHY CONVEYS ONLY AN IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

1 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 that we believe in Christ, as it is not alone for the purpose
of being seen, while in the sun, that we pass into the sun. But in the one case for the
purpose of being warmed; and in the other, we are compelled to be Christians in order to
be excellent and good. For the kingdom belongs pre-eminently to the violent, who, from
investigation, and study, and discipline, reap this fruit, that they become kings.

2 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.

3 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 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 :-

4 "Father of men and gods," - 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." Accordingly he does not profess to wish to participate, but begins to do
so. Nor does it belong to him to intend, but to beregal, 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.

5 So there is no absurdity in philosophy having been given by Divine Providence as a
preparatory discipline for the perfection which is by Christ; unless philosophy is ashamed
at learning from Barbarian knowledge how to advance to truth. But if "the very hairs are
numbered, and the most insignificant motions," how shall not philosophy be taken into
account? For to Samson power was given in his hair, in order that he might perceive that
the worthless arts that refer to the things in this life, which lie and remain on the
ground after the departure of the soul, were not given without divine power. 6 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" (that is, of the great High Priest, "by whom all things were made, and
without whom not even one thing was made" ); not to the ornament of the body; for
Philosophy is outside of the People, like raiment. 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.

7 Thus Scripture says, that "the spirit of perception" was given to the artificers from
God. 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 (no/hsij). 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 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.

8 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.

9 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 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. And, perchance, some are assigned to individuals.

10 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.

11 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.

12 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."
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. Now, too what is good in the arts as arts, 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 (fro/nhsij). Now sagacity is
virtue, and it is its function to know other things, but much more especially what belongs
to itself. And Wisdom (Sofi/a) being power, is nothing but the knowledge of good things,
divine and human.

13 But "the earth is God's, and the fulness thereof," 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. 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" both for researches and deeds.

14 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." 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.

CHAPTER XVIII.-THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY TO THE GNOSTIC.

1 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. 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 (e0pisth/mh, which we affirm the Gnostic alone possesses) is a
sure comprehension (kata/lhyij), leading up through true and sure reasons to the knowledge
(gnw=sij) 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.

2 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. 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," 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.

3 After abandoning idols, then, they will hear the Scripture, "Unless your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees " (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."
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." 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. 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. Wherefore also he proceeds to add, "And if I am rude
in speech, yet I am not in knowledge."

4 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.

5 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." 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.

6 Universal diffusion of the Gospel a contrast to philosophy. The philosophers, however,
chose to [teach philosophy] to the Greeks alone, 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. 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?

7 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.


THE STROMATA BOOK 7
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 7 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER L.-THE GNOSTIC A TRUE WORSHIPPER OF GOD, AND UNJUSTLY CALUMNIATED BY UNBELIEVERS AS AN ATHEIST.

1 It is now time to show the Greeks that the Gnostic alone is truly pious; so that the
philosophers, learning of what description the true Christian is, may condemn their own
stupidity in rashly and inconsiderately persecuting the [Christian] name, and without
reason calling those impious who know the true God. And clearer arguments must be
employed, I reckon, with the philosophers, so that they may be able, from the exercise
they have already had through their own training, to understand, although they have not
yet shown themselves worthy to partake of the power of believing. The prophetic sayings we
shall not at present advert to, as we are to avail ourselves of the Scriptures
subsequently at the proper places. But we shall point out summarily the points indicated
by them, in our delineation of Christianity, so that by taking the Scriptures at once
(especially as they do not yet comprehend their utterances), we may not interrupt the
continuity of the discourse. But after pointing out the things indicated, proofs shall be
shown in abundance to those who have believed.

2 But if the assertions made by us appear to certain of the multitude to be different from
the Scriptures of the Lord, let it be known that it is from that source that they have
breath and life; and taking their rise from them, they profess to adduce the sense only,
not the words. For further treatment, not being seasonable, will rightly appear
superfluous. Thus, not to look at what is urgent would be excessively indolent and
defective; and "blessed, in truth, are they who, investigating the testimonies of the
Lord, shall seek Him with their whole heart." And the law and the prophets witness of the
Lord. It is, then, our purpose to prove that the Gnostic alone is holy and pious, and
worships the true God in a manner worthy of Him; and that worship meet for God is followed
by loving and being loved by God. He accordingly judges all excellence to be honourable
according to its worth; and judges that among the objects perceived by our senses, we are
to esteem rulers, and parents, and every one advanced in years; and among subjects of
instruction, the most ancient philosophy and primeval prophecy; and among intellectual
ideas, what is oldest in origin, the timeless and unoriginated First Principle, and
Beginning of existence"-the Son-from whom we are to learn the remoter Cause, the Father,
of the universe, the most ancient and the most beneficent of all; not capable of
expression by the voice, but to be reverenced with reverence, and silence, and holy
wonder, and supremely venerated; declared by the Lord, as far as those who learned were
capable of comprehending, and understood by those chosen by the Lord to acknowledge;
"whose senses," says the apostle, "were exercised."

3 The service of God, then, in the case of the Gnostic, is his soul's continual study and
occupation, bestowed on the Deity in ceaseless love. For of the service bestowed on men,
one kind is that whose aim is improvement, the other ministerial. The improvement of the
body is the object of the medical art, of the soul of philosophy. Ministerial service is
rendered to parents by children, to rulers by subjects. Similarly, also, in the Church,
the elders attend to the department which has improvement for its object; and the deacons
to the ministerial. In both these ministries the angels serve God, in the management of
earthly affairs; and the Gnostic himself ministers to God, and exhibits to men the scheme
of improvement, in the way in which he has been appointed to discipline men for their
amendment. For he is alone pious that serves God rightly and unblameably in human affairs.
For as that treatment of plants is best through which their fruits are produced and
gathered in, through knowledge and skill in husbandry, affording men the benefit accruing
from them; so the piety of the Gnostic, taking to itself the fruits of the men who by his
means have believed, when not a few attain to knowledge and are saved by it, achieves by
his skill the best harvest. And as Godliness (qeopre/peia) is the habit which preserves
what is becoming to God, the godly man is the only lover of God, and such will he be who
knows what is becoming, both in respect of knowledge and of the life which must be lived
by him, who is destined to be divine (qew=|), and is already being assimilated to God. So
then he is in the first place a lover of God. For as he who honours his father is a lover
of his father, so he who honours God is a lover of God.

4 Thus also it appears to me that there are three effects of gnostic power: the knowledge
of things; second, the performance of whatever the Word suggests; and the third, the
capability of delivering, in a way suitable to God, the secrets veiled in the truth. He,
then, who is persuaded that God is omnipotent, and has learned the divine mysteries from
His only-begotten Son, how can he be an atheist (a !peoj)? For he is an atheist who thinks
that God does not exist. And he is superstitious who dreads the demons; who deifies all
things, both wood and stone; and reduces to bondage spirit, and man who possesses the life
of reason.

CHAPTER II.-THE SON THE RULER AND SAVIOUR OF ALL.

1 To know God is, then, the first step of faith; then, through confidence in the teaching
of the Saviour, to consider the doing of wrong in any way as not suitable to the knowledge
of God. So the best thing on earth is the most pious man; and the best thing in heaven,
the nearer in place and purer, is an angel, the partaker of the eternal and blessed life.
But the nature of the Son, which is nearest to Him who is alone the Almighty One, is the
most perfect, and most holy, and most potent, and most princely, and most kingly, and most
beneficent. This is the highest excellence, which orders all things in accordance with the
Father's will, and holds the helm of the universe in the best way, with unwearied and
tireless power, working all things in which it operates, keeping in view its hidden
designs. For from His own point of view the Son of God is never displaced; not being
divided, not severed, not passing from place to place; being always everywhere, and being
contained nowhere; complete mind, the complete paternal light; all eyes, seeing all
things, hearing all things, knowing all things, by His power scrutinizing the powers. To
Him is placed in subjection all the host of angels and gods; He, the paternal Word,
exhibiting a the holy administration for Him who put [all] in subjection to Him.

2 Wherefore also all men are His; some through knowledge, and others not yet so; and some
as friends, some as faithful servants, some as servants merely. This is the Teacher, who
trains the Gnostic by mysteries, and the believer by good hopes, and the hard of heart by
corrective discipline through sensible operation. Thence His providence is in private, in
public, and everywhere. And that He whom we call Saviour and Lord is the Son of God, the
prophetic Scriptures explicitly prove. So the Lord of all, of Greeks and of Barbarians,
persuades those who are willing. For He does not compel him who (through choosing and
fulfilling, from Him, what pertains to laying hold of it the hope) is able to receive
salvation from Him. 3 It is He who also gave philosophy to the Greeks by means of the
inferior angels. For by an ancient and divine order the angels are distributed among the
nations. But the glory of those who believe is "the Lord's portion. For either the Lord
does not care for all men; and this is the case either because He is unable (which is not
to be thought, for it would be a proof of weakness), or because He is unwilling, which is
not the attribute of a good being. And He who for our sakes assumed flesh capable of
suffering, is far from being luxuriously indolent. Or He does care for all, which is
befitting for Him who has become Lord of all. For He is Saviour; not [the Saviour] of
some, and of others not. But in proportion to the adaptation possessed by each, He has
dispensed His beneficence both to Greeks and Barbarians, even to those of them that were
predestinated, and in due time called, the faithful and elect. Nor can He who called all
equally, and assigned special honours to those who have believed in a specially excellent
way, ever envy any. Nor can He who is the Lord of all, and serves above all the will of
the good and almighty Father, ever be hindered by another. But neither does envy touch the
Lord, who without beginning was impassible; nor are the things of men such as to be envied
by the Lord. But it is another, he whom passion hath touched, who envies.

4 And it cannot be said that it is from ignorance that the Lord is not willing to save
humanity, because He knows not how each one is to be cared for. For ignorance applies not
to the God who, before the foundation of the world, was the counsellor of the Father. For
He was the Wisdom "in which" the Sovereign God "delighted. For the Son is the power of
God, as being the Father's most ancient Word before the production of all things, and His
Wisdom. He is then properly called the Teacher of the beings formed by Him. Nor does He
ever abandon care for men, by being drawn aside from pleasure, who, having assumed flesh,
which by nature is susceptible of suffering, trained it to the condition of impossibility.
5 And how is He Saviour and Lord, if not the Saviour and Lord of all? But He is the
Saviour of those who have believed, because of their wishing to know; and the Lord of
those who have not believed, till, being enabled to confess him, they obtain the peculiar
and appropriate boon which comes by Him. Now the energy of the Lord has a reference to the
Almighty; and the Son is, so to speak, an energy of the Father. Therefore, a hater of man,
the Saviour can never be; who, for His exceeding love to human flesh, despising not its
susceptibility to suffering, but investing Himself with it, came for the common salvation
of men; for the faith of those who have chosen it, is common. Nay more, He will never
neglect His own work, because man alone of all the other living creatures was in his
creation endowed with a conception of God. Nor can there be any other better and more
suitable government for men than that which is appointed by God.

6 It is then always proper for the one who is superior by nature to be over the inferior,
and for him who is capable of managing aught well to have the management of it assigned to
him. Now that which truly rules and presides is the Divine Word and His providence, which
inspects all things, and despises the care of nothing belonging to it. Those, then, who
choose to belong to Him, are those who are perfected through faith. He, the Son, is, by
the will of the Almighty Father, the cause of all good things, being the first efficient
cause of motion-a power incapable of being apprehended by sensation. For what He was, was
not seen by those who, through the weakness of the flesh, were incapable of taking in [the
reality]. But, having assumed sensitive flesh, He came to show man what was possible
through obedience to the commandments. Being, then, the Father's power, He easily prevails
in what He wishes, leaving not even the minutest point of His administration unattended
to. For otherwise the whole would not have been well executed by Him.

7 But, as I think, characteristic of the highest power is the accurate scrutiny of all the
parts, reaching even to the minutest, terminating in the first Administrator of the
universe, who by the will of the Father directs the salvation of all; some overlooking,
who are set under others, who are set over them, till you come to the great High Priest.
For on one original first Principle, which acts according to the [Father's] will, the
first and the second and the third depend. Then at the highest extremity of the visible
world is the blessed band of angels; and down to ourselves there are ranged, some under
others, those who, from One and by One, both are saved and save. As, then, the minutest
particle of steel is moved by the spirit of the Heraclean stone when diffused over many
steel rings; so also, attracted by the Holy Spirit, the virtuous are added by affinity to
the first abode, and the others in succession down to the last. But those who are bad from
infirmity, having fallen from vicious insatiableness into a depraved state, neither
controlling nor controlled, rush round and round, whirled about by the passions, and fall
down to the ground.

8 For this was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object of voluntary
choice. Wherefore also the commandments, according to the Law, and before the Law, not
given to the upright (for the law is not appointed for a righteous man ), ordained that he
should receive eternal life and the blessed prize, who chose them. But, on the other hand,
they allowed him who had been delighted with vice to consort with the objects of his
choice; and, on the other hand, that the soul, which is ever improving in the acquisition
of virtue and the increase of righteousness, should obtain a better place in the universe,
as tending in each step of advancement towards the habit of impassibility, till "it come
to a perfect man," to the excellence at once of knowledge and of inheritance. These
salutary revolutions, in accordance with the order of change, are distinguished both by
times, and places, and honours, and cognitions, and heritages, and ministries, according
to the particular order of each change, up to the transcendent and continual contemplation
of the Lord in eternity.

9 Now that which is lovable leads, to the contemplation of itself, each one who, from love
of knowledge, applies himself entirely to contemplation. Wherefore also the Lord, drawing
the commandments, both the first which He gave, and the second, from one fountain, neither
allowed those who were before the law to be without law, nor permitted those who were
unacquainted with the principles of the Barbarian philosophy to be without restraint. For,
having furnished the one with the commandments, and the other with philosophy, He shut up
unbelief to the Advent. Whence every one who believes not is without excuse. For by a
different process of advancement, both Greek and Barbarian, He leads to the perfection
which is by faith. And if any one of the Greeks, passing over the preliminary training of
the Hellenic philosophy, proceeds directly to the true teaching, he distances others,
though an unlettered man, by choosing the compendious process of salvation by faith to
perfection.

10 Everything, then, which did not hinder a man's choice from being free, He made and
rendered auxiliary to virtue, in order that there might be revealed somehow or other, even
to those capable of seeing but dimly, the one only almighty, good God-from eternity to
eternity saving by His Son. And, on the other hand, He is in no respect whatever the cause
of evil. For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the
Lord of the universe, both generally and particularly. It is then the function of the
righteousness of salvation to improve everything as far as practicable. For even minor
marten are arranged with a view to the salvation of that which is better, and for an abode
suitable for people's character. Now everything that is virtuous changes for the better;
having as the proper cause of change the free choice of knowledge, which the soul has in
its own power. But necessary corrections, through the goodness of the great overseeing
Judge, both by the attendant angels, and by various acts of anticipative judgment, and by
the perfect judgment, compel egregious sinners to repent.

CHAPTER III.-THE GNOSTIC AIMS AT THE NEAREST LIKENESS POSSIBLE TO GOD AND HIS SON.

1 Now I pass over other things in silence, glorifying the Lord. But I affirm that gnostic
souls, that surpass in the grandeur of contemplation the mode of life of each of the holy
ranks, among whom the blessed abodes of the gods are allotted by distribution, reckoned
holy among the holy, transferred entire from among the entire, reaching places better than
the better places, embracing the divine vision not in mirrors or by means of mirrors, but
in the transcendently clear and absolutely pure insatiable vision which is the privilege
of intensely loving souls, holding festival through endless ages, remain honoured with the
indentity of all excellence. Such is the vision attainable by "the pure in heart." This is
the function of the Gnostic, who has been perfected, to have convene with God through the
great High Priest, being made like the Lord, up to the measure of his capacity, in the
whole service of God, which tends to the salvation of men, through care of the beneficence
which has us for its object; and on the other side through worship, through teaching and
through beneficence in deeds. The Gnostic even forms and creates himself; and besides
also, he, like to God, adorns those who hear him; assimilating as far as possible the
moderation which, arising from practice, tends to impossibility, to Him who by nature
possesses impossibility; and especially having uninterrupted converse and fellowship with
the Lord. Mildness, I think, and philanthropy, and eminent piety, are the rules of gnostic
assimilation. I affirm that these virtues "are a sacrifice acceptable in the sight of God;
" heart with Scripture alleging that" right knowledge is the holocaust of God; each man
who is admitted to holiness being illuminated in order to indissoluble union.

2 For "to bring themselves into captivity," and to slay themselves, putting to death "the
old man, who is through lusts corrupt," and raising the new man from death, "from the old
conversation," by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and
the apostle enjoin. It was this, consequently, which the Law intimated, by ordering the
sinner to be cut off, and translated from death to life, to the impossibility that is the
result of faith; which the teachers of the Law, not comprehending, in as much as they
regarded the law as contentions, they have given a handle to those who attempt idly to
calumniate the Law. And for this reason we rightly do not sacrifice to God, who, needing
nothing, supplies all men with all things; but we glorify Him who gave Himself in
sacrifice for us, we also sacrificing ourselves; from that which needs nothing to that
which needs nothing, and to that which is impassible from that which is impassible. For in
our salvation alone God delights. We do not therefore, and with reason too, offer
sacrifice to Him who is not overcome by pleasures, in as much as the fumes of the smoke
stop far beneath, and do not even reach the thickest clouds; but those they reach are far
from them. The Deity neither is, then, in want of aught, nor loves pleasure, or gain, or
money, being full, and supplying all things to everything that has received being and has
wants. And neither by sacrifices nor offerings, nor on the other hand by glory and honour,
is the Deity won over; nor is He influenced by any such things; but He appears only to
excellent and good men, who will never betray justice for threatened fear, nor by the
promise of considerable gifts.

3 But those who have not seen the self-determination of the human soul, and its
incapability of being treated as a slave in what respects the choice of life, being
disgusted at what is done through rude injustice, do not think that there is a God. On a
par with these in opinion, are they who, falling into licentiousness in pleasures, and
grievous pains, and unlooked-for accidents, and bidding defiance to events, say that there
is no God, or that, though existing, He does not oversee all things. And others there are,
who are persuaded that those they reckon gods are capable of being prevailed upon by
sacrifices and gifts, favouring, so to speak, their profligacies; and will not believe
that He is the only true God, who exists in the invariablehess of righteous goodness. The
Gnostic, then, is pious, who cares first for himself, then for his neighbours, that they
may become very good. For the son gratifies a good father, by showing himself good and
like his father; and in like manner the subject, the governor. For believing and obeying
are in our own power.

4 But should any one suppose the cause of evils to be the weakness of matter, and the
involuntary impulses of ignorance, and (in his stupidity) irrational necessities; he who
has become a Gnostic has through instruction superiority over these, as if they were wild
beasts; and in imitation of the divine plan, he does good to such as are willing, as far
as he can. And if ever placed in authority, like Moses, he will rule for the salvation of
the governed; and will tame wildness and faithlessness, by recording honour for the most
excellent, and punishment for the wicked, in accordance with reason for the sake of
discipline. For pre-eminently a divine image, resembling God, is the soul of a righteous
man; in which, through obedience to the commands, as in a consecrated spot, is enclosed
and enshrined the Leader of mortals and of immortals, King and Parent of what is good, who
is truly law, and right, and eternal Word, being the one Saviour individually to each, and
in common to all.

5 He is the true Only-begotten, the express image of the glory of the universal King and
Almighty Father, who impresses on the Gnostic the seal of the perfect contemplation,
according to His own image; so that there is now a third divine image, made as far as
possible like the Second Cause, the Essential Life, through which we live the true life;
the Gnostic, as we regard him, being described as moving amid things sure and wholly
immutable. Ruling, then, over himself and what belongs to him, and possessing a sure
grasp, of divine science, he makes a genuine approach to the truth. For the knowledge and
apprehension of intellectual objects must necessarily be called certain scientific
knowledge, whose function in reference to divine things is to consider what is the First
Cause, and what that "by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made; "
and what things, on the other hand, are as pervasive, and what is comprehensive; what
conjoined, what disjoined; and what is the position which each one of them holds, and what
power and what service each contributes. And again. among human things, what man himself
is, and what he has naturally or preternaturally; and how, again, it becomes him to do or
to suffer; and what are his virtues and what his vices; and about things good, bad, and
indifferent; also about fortitude, and prudence, and self-restraint, and the virtue which
is in all respects complete, namely, righteousness.

6 Further, he employs prudence and righteousness in the acquisition of wisdom, and
fortitude, not only in the endurance of circumstances, but also in restraining pleasure
and desire, grief and anger; and, in general, to withstand everything which either by any
force or fraud entices us. For it is not necessary to endure vices and virtues, but it is
to be persuaded to bear things that inspire fear. 7 Accordingly, pain is found beneficial
in the healing art, and in discipline, and in punishment; and by it men's manners are
corrected to their advantage. Forms of fortitude are endurance, magnanimity, high spirit,
liberality, and grandeur. And for this reason he neither meets with the blame or the bad
opinion of the multitude; nor is he subjected to opinions or flatteries. But in the
indurance of toils and at the same time in the discharge of any duty, and in his manly
superiority to all circumstances, he appears truly a man (a0nh/r) among the rest of human
beings. And, on the other hand, maintaining prudence, he exercises moderation in the
calmness of his soul; receptive of what is commanded, as of what belongs to him,
entertaining aversion to what is base, as alien to him; become decorous and supramundane,
he does everything with decorum and in order, and transgresses in no respect, and in
nothing. Rich he is in the highest degree in desiring nothing, as having few wants; and
being in the midst of abundance of all good through the knowledge of the good. For it is
the first effect of his righteousness, to love to spend his time and associate with those
of his own race both in earth and heaven. So also he is liberal of what he possesses. And
being a lover of men, he is a hater of the wicked, entertaining a perfect aversion to all
villany. He must consequently learn to be faithful both to himself and his neighbours, and
obedient to the commandments.

8 For he is the true servant of God who spontaneously subjects himself to His commands.
And he who already, not through the commandments, but through knowledge itself, is pure in
heart, is the friend of God. For neither are we born by nature possessing virtue, nor
after we are born does it grow naturally, as certain parts of the body; since then it
would neither be voluntary nor praiseworthy. Nor is virtue, like speech, perfected by the
practice that results from everyday occurrences (for this is very much the way in which
vice originates). For it is not by any art, either those of acquisition, or those which
relate to the care of the body, that knowledge is attained. No more is it from the
curriculum of instruction. For that is satisfied if it can only prepare and sharpen the
soul. For the laws of the state are perchance able to restrain bad actions; but persuasive
words, which but touch the surface, cannot produce a scientific permanence of the truth.

9 Now the Greek philosophy, as it were, purges the soul, and prepares it beforehand for
the reception of faith, on which the Truth builds up the edifice of knowledge. This is the
true athlete-he who in the great stadium, the fair world, is crowned for the true victory
over all the passions. For He who prescribes the contest is the Almighty God, and He who
awards the prize is the only-begotten: Son of God. Angels and gods are spectators; and the
contest, embracing all the varied exercises, is "not against flesh and blood," but against
the spiritual powers of inordinate passions that work through the flesh. He who obtains
the mastery in these struggles, and overthrows the tempter, menacing, as it were, with
certain contests, wins immortality. For the sentence of God in most righteous judgment is
infallible. The spectators are summoned to the contest, and the athletes contend in the
stadium; the one, who has obeyed the directions of the trainer, wins the day. For to all,
all rewards proposed by God are equal; and He Himself is unimpeachable. And he who has
power receives mercy, and he that has exercised will is mighty.

10 So also we have received mind, that we may know what we do. And the maxim"Know thyself"
means here to know for what we are born. And we are born to obey the commandments, if we
choose to be willing to be saved. Such is the Nemesis, through which there is no escaping
from God. Man's duty, then, is obedience to God, who has proclaimed salvation manifold by
the commandments. And confession is thanksgiving. For the beneficent first begins to do
good. And he who on fitting considerations readily receives and keeps the commandments, is
faithful (pisto/j); and he who by love requites benefits as far as he is able, is already
a friend. One recompense on the part of men is of paramount importance-the doing of what
is pleasing to God. As being His own production, and a result akin to Himself, the Teacher
and Saviour receives acts of assistance and of improvement on the part of men as a
personal favour and honour; as also He regards the injuries inflicted on those who believe
on Him as ingratitude and dishonour to Himself. For what other dishonour can touch God?
Wherefore it is impossible to render a recompense at all equivalent to the boon received
from the Lord.

11 And as those who maltreat property insult the owners, and those who maltreat soldiers
insult the commander, so also the ill-usage of His consecrated ones is contempt for the
Lord. For, just as the sun not only illumines heaven and the whole world, shining over
land and sea, but also through windows and small chinks sends his beams into the innermost
recesses of houses, so the Word diffused everywhere casts His eye-glance on the minutest
circumstances of the actions of life.

CHAPTER IV.-THE HEATHENS MADE GODS LIKE THEMSELVES, WHENCE SPRINGS ALL SUPERSTITION.

1 Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing human forms, so also do they as
possessing human passions. And as each of them depict their forms similar to themselves,
as Xenophanes says, "Ethiopians as black and apes, the Thracians ruddy and tawny; "so also
they assimilate their souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for instance, who make
them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who make them more civilized, yet subject to
passion. Wherefore it stands to reason, that the ideas entertained of God by wicked men
must be bad, and those by good men most excellent. And therefore he who is in soul truly
kingly and gnostic, being likewise pious and free from superstition, is persuaded that He
who alone is God is honourable, venerable, august, beneficent, the doer of good, the
author of all good things, but not the cause of evil. And respecting the Hellenic
superstition we have, as I think, shown enough in the book entitled by us The Exhortation,
availing ourselves abundantly of the history bearing on the point. There is no need, then,
again to make a long story of what has already been clearly stated. But in as far as
necessity requires to be pointed out on coming to the topic, suffice it to adduce a few
out of many considerations in proof of the impiety of those who make the Divinity resemble
the worst men. For either those Gods of theirs are injured by men, and are shown to be
inferior to men on being injured by us; or, if not so, how is it that they are incensed at
those by whom they are not injured, like a testy old wife roused to wrath?

2 As they say that Artemis was enraged at the Aetolians on account of Oeneus. For how,
being a goddess, did she not consider that he had neglected to sacrifice, not through
contempt, but out of inadvertence, or under the idea that he had sacrificed? And Latona,
arguing her case with Athene, on account of the latter being incensed at her for having
brought forth in the temple, says:- "Man-slaying spoils Torn from the dead you love to
see. And these To you are not unclean. But you regard My parturition here a horrid thing,
Though other creatures in the temple do No harm by bringing forth their young." It is
natural, then, that having a superstitious dread of those irascible [gods], they imagine
that all events are signs and causes of evils. If a mouse bore through an altar built of
clay, and for want of something else gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being
fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to be a sign of something.

3 Of such a one Menander gives a comic description in The Superstitious Man:- "A. Good
luck be mine, ye honoured gods! Tying my, right shoe's string, I broke it." "B. Most
likely, silly fool, For it was rotten, and you, niggard, you Would not buy new ones." It
was a clever remark of Antiphon, who (when one regarded it as an ill omen that the sow had
eaten her pigs), on seeing her emaciated through the niggardliness of the person that kept
her, said, Congratulate yourself on the omen that, being so hungry, she did not eat your
own children. "And what wonder is it," says Bion, "if the mouse, finding nothing to eat,
gnaws the bag? "For it were wonderful if (as Arcesilaus argued in fun) "the bag had eaten
the mouse." Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered at finding a serpent
coiled round a pestle: "Don't wonder; for it would have been more surprising if you had
seen the pestle coiled round the serpent, and the serpent straight."

4 For the irrational creatures must run, and scamper, and fight, and breed, and die; and
these things being natural to them, can never be unnatural to us. "And many birds beneath
the sunbeams walk." And the comic poet Philemon treats such points in comedy:- "When I see
one who watches who has sneezed, Or who has spoke; or looking, who goes on, I straightway
in the market sell him off. Each one of us walks, talks, and sneezes too, For his own
self, not for the citizens: According to their nature things turn out." Then by the
practice of temperance men seek health: and by cramming themselves, and wallowing in
potations at feasts, they attract diseases. There are many, too, that dread inscriptions
set up. Very cleverly Diogenes, on finding in the house of a bad man the inscription,
"Hercules, for victory famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter," remarked, "And how
shall the master of the house go in? "

5 The same people, who worship every stick and greasy stone, as the saying is, dreads
tufts of tawny wool, and lumps of salt, and torches, and squills, and sulphur, bewitched
by sorcerers, in certain impure rites of expiation. But God, the true God, recognises as
holy only the character of the righteous man,-as unholy, wrong and wickedness. You may see
the eggs, taken from those who have been purified, hatched if subjected to the necessary
warmth. But this could not take place if they had had transferred to them the sins of the
man that had undergone purification. Accordingly the comic poet Diphilus facetiously
writes, in comedy, of sorcerers, in the following words:- "Purifying Proetus' daughters,
and their father Proetus Abantades, and fifth, an old wife to boot, So many people's
persons with one torch, one squill, With sulphur and asphalt of the loud-sounding sea,
From the placid-flowing, deep-flowing ocean.

6 But blest air through the clouds send Anticyra That I may make this bug into a drone."
For well Menander remarks: - "Had you, O Phidias, any real ill, You needs must seek for it
a real cure; Now 'tis not so. And for the unreal ill I've found an unreal cure Believe
that it Will do thee good. Let women in a ring Wipe thee, and from three fountains water
bring. Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself. Each one is pure, who s conscious of
no sin." For instance, the tragedy says:- Menelaus. "What disease, Orestes, is destroying
thee? " Orestes. "Conscience. For horrid deeds I know I've done." For in reality there is
no other purity but abstinence from sins. Excellently then Epicharmus says:- "If a pure
mind thou hast, In thy whole body thou art pure." Now also we say that it is requisite to
purify the soul from corrupt and bad doctrines by right reason; and so thereafter to the
recollection of the principal heads of doctrine. Since also before the communication of
the mysteries they think it right to apply certain purifications to those who are to be
initiated; so it is requisite for men to abandon impious opinion, and thus turn to the
true tradition.

CHAPTER V.-THE HOLY SOUL A MORE EXCELLENT TEMPLE THAN ANY EDIFICE BUILT BY MAN.

1 For is it not the case that rightly and truly we do not circumscribe in any place that
which cannot be circumscribed; nor do we shut up in temples made with hands that which
contains all things? What work of builders, and stonecutters, and mechanical art can be
holy? Superior to these are not they who think that the air, and the enclosing space, or
rather the whole world and the universe, are meet for the excellency of God? It were
indeed ridiculous, as the philosophers themselves say, for man, the plaything of God, to
make God, and for God to be the plaything of art; since what is made is similar and the
same to that of which it is made, as that which is made of ivory is ivory, and that which
is made of gold golden. Now the images and temples constructed by mechanics are made of
inert matter; so that they too are inert, and material, and profane; and if you perfect
the art, they partake of mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be sacred and
divine.

2 And what can be localized, there being nothing that is not localized? Since all things
are in a place. And that which is localized having been formerly not localized, is
localized by something. If, then, God is localized by men, He was once not localized, and
did not exist at all. For the non-existent is what is not localized; since whatever does
not exist is not localized. And what exists cannot be localized by what does not exist;
nor by another entity. For it is also an entity. It follows that it must be by itself. And
how shall anything generate itself? Or how shall that which exists place itself as to
being? Whether, being formerly not localized, has it localized itself? But it was not in
existence; since what exists not is not localized. And its localization being supposed,
how can it afterwards make itself what it previously was?

3 But how can He, to whom the things that are belong, need anything? But were God
possessed of a human form, He would need, equally with man, food, and shelter, and house,
and the attendant incidents. Those who are like in form and affections will require
similar sustenance. And if sacred (to i0ero/n) has a twofold application, designating both
God Himself and the structure raised to His honour, how shall we not with propriety call
the Church holy, through knowledge, made for the honour of God, sacred (i0ero/n) to God,
of great value, and not constructed by mechanical art, nor embellished by the hand of an
impostor, but by the will of God fashioned into a temple? For it is not now the place, but
the assemblage of the elect, that I call the Church. This temple is better for the
reception of the greatness of the dignity of God. For the living creature which is of high
value, is made sacred by that which is worth all, or rather which has no equivalent, in
virtue of the exceeding sanctity of the latter. Now this is the Gnostic, who is of great
value, who is honoured by God, in whom God is enshrined, that is, the knowledge respecting
God is consecrated. Here, too, we shall find the divine likeness and the holy image in the
righteous soul, when it is blessed in being purified and performing blessed deeds. Here
also we shall find that which is localized, and that which is being localized,-the former
in the case of those who are already Gnostics, and the latter in the case of those capable
of becoming so, although not yet worthy of receiving the knowledge of God. For every being
destined to believe is already faithful in the sight of God, and set up for His honour, an
image, endowed with virtue, dedicated to God.

CHAPTER VI.-PRAYERS AND PRAISE FROM A PURE MIND, CEASELESSLY OFFERED, FAR BETTER THAN SACRIFICES.

1 As, then, God is not circumscribed by place, neither is ever represented by the form of
a living creature; so neither has He similar passions, nor has He wants like the
creatures, so as to desire sacrifice, from hunger, by way of food. Those creatures which
are affected by passion are all mortal. And it is useless to bring food to one who is not
nourished. And that comic poet Pherecrates, in The Fugitives, facetiously represents the
gods themselves as finding fault with men on the score of their sacred rites:- "When to
the gods you sacrifice, Selecting what our portion is, 'Tis shame to tell, do ye not take,
And both the thighs, clean to the groins, The loins quite bare, the backbone, too, Clean
scrape as with a file, Them swallow, and the remnant give To us as if to dogs? And then,
As if of one another 'shamed,

2 With heaps of salted barley hide." And Eubulus, also a comic poet, thus writes
respecting sacrifices:- "But to the gods the tail alone And thigh, as if to paederasts you
sacrifice." And introducing Dionysus in Semele, he represents him disputing:- "First if
they offer aught to me, there are Who offer blood, the bladder, not the heart Or caul. For
I no flesh do ever eat That's sweeter than the thigh." And Menander writes:- "The end of
the loin, The bile, the bones uneatable, they set Before the gods; the rest themselves
consume." For is not the savour of the holocausts avoided by the beasts? And if in reality
the savour is the guerdon of the gods of the Greeks, should they not first deify the
cooks, who are dignified with equal happiness, and worship the chimney itself, which is
closer still to the much-prized savour? And Hesiod says that Zeus, cheated in a division
of flesh by Prometheus, received the white bones of an ox, concealed with cunning art, in
shining fat:-

3 "Whence to the immortal gods the tribes of men The victim's white bones on the altars
burn." But they will by no means say that the Deity, enfeebled through the desire that
springs from want, is nourished. Accordingly, they will represent Him as nourished without
desire like a plant, and like beasts that burrow. They say that these grow innoxiously,
nourished either by the density in the air, or from the exhalations proceeding from their
own body. Though if the Deity, though needing nothing, is according to them nourished,
what necessity has He for food, wanting nothing? But if, by nature needing nothing, He
delights to be honoured, it is not without reason that we honour God in prayer; and thus
the best and holiest sacrifice with righteousness we bring, presenting it as an offering
to the most righteous Word, by whom we receive knowledge, giving glory by Him for what we
have learned.

4 The altar, then, that is with us here, the terrestrial one, is the congregation of those
who devote themselves to prayers, having as it were one common voice and one mind. Now, if
nourishing substances taken in by the nostrils are diviner than those taken in by the
mouth, yet they infer respiration. What, then, do they say of God? Whether does He exhale
like the tribe of oaks? Or does He only inhale, like the aquatic animals, by the
dilatation of their gills? Or does He breathe all round, like the insects, by the
compression of the section by means of their wings? But no one, if he is in his senses,
will liken God to any of these. And the creatures that breathe by the expansion of the
lung towards the thorax draw in the air. Then if they assign to God viscera, and arteries,
and veins, and nerves, and parts, they will make Him in nothing different from man.

5 Now breathing together (su/mpnoia) is properly said of the Church. For the sacrifice of
the Church is the word breathing as incense from holy souls, the sacrifice and the whole
mind being at the same time unveiled to God. Now the very ancient altar in Delos they
celebrated as holy; which alone, being undefiled by slaughter and death, they say
Pythagoras approached. And will they not believe us when we say that the righteous soul is
the truly sacred altar, and that incense arising from it is holy prayer? But I believe
sacrifices were invented by men to be a pretext for eating flesh. But without such
idolatry he who wished might have partaken of flesh. For the sacrifices of the Law express
figuratively the piety which we practise, as the turtle-dove and the pigeon offered for
sins point out that the cleansing of the irrational part of the soul is acceptable to God.
But if any one of the righteous does not burden his soul by the eating of flesh, he has
the advantage of a rational reason, not as Pythagoras and his followers dream of the
transmigration of the soul.

6 Now Xenocrates, treating by himself of "the food derived from animals," and Polemon in
his work On Life according to Nature, seem clearly to say that animal food is unwholesome,
in as much as it has already been elaborated and assimilated to the souls of the
irrational creatures. So also, in particular, the Jews abstain from swine's flesh on the
ground of this animal being unclean; since more than the other animals it roots up, and
destroys the productions of the ground. But if they say that the animals were assigned to
men-and we agree with them-yet it was not entirely for food. Nor was it all animals, but
such as do not work. Wherefore the comic poet Plato says not badly in the drama of The
Feasts: - "For of the quadrupeds we should not slay In future aught but swine. For these
have flesh Most toothsome; and about the pig is nought

7 For us, excepting bristles, mud, and noise." Whence Aesop said not badly, that "swine
squeaked out very loudly, because, when they were dragged, they knew that they were good
for nothing but for sacrifice." Wherefore also Cleanthes says, "that they have soul
instead of salt," that their flesh may not putrefy. Some, then, eat them as useless,
others as destructive of fruits. And others do not eat them, because the animal has a
strong sensual propensity. So, then, the law sacrifices not the goat, except in the sole
case of the banishment of sins; since pleasure is the metropolis of vice. It is to the
point also that it is said that the eating of goat's flesh contributes to epilepsy. And
they say that the greatest increase is produced by swine's flesh. Wherefore it is
beneficial to those who exercise the body; but to those who devote themselves to the
development of the soul it is not so, on account of the hebetude that results from the
eating of flesh. Perchance also some Gnostic will abstain from the eating of flesh for the
sake of training, and in order that the flesh may not grow wanton in amorousness. "For
wine," says Androcydes, "and gluttonous feeds of flesh make the body strong, but the soul
more sluggish." Accordingly such food, in order to clear understanding, is to be rejected.

8 Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications practised among them, do not allow
the priests to feed on flesh; but they use chickens, as lightest; and they do not touch
fish, on account of certain fables, but especially on account of such food making the
flesh flabby. But now terrestrial animals and birds breathe the same air as our vital
spirits, being possessed of a vital principle cognate with the air. But it is said that
fishes do not breathe this air, but that which was mixed with the water at the instant of
its first creation, as well as with the rest of the elements, which is also a sign of the
permanence of matter. Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not costly, but such
as He loves. And that compounded incense which is mentioned in the Law, is that which
consists of many tongues and voices in prayer, or rather of different nations and natures,
prepared by the gift vouchsafed in the dispensation for "the unity of the faith," and
brought together in praises, with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from holy works
and righteous prayer. For in the elegant language of poetry,-

9 "Who is so great a fool, and among men So very easy of belief, as thinks The gods, with
fraud of fleshless bones and bile All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat, Delighted
are, and take this as their prize, And favour show to those who treat them thus," though
they happen to be tyrants and robbers? But we say that the fire sanctifies not flesh, but
sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire but that of wisdom, which pervades
the soul passing through the fire.

CHAPTER VII.-WHAT SORT OF PRAYER THE GNOSTIC EMPLOYS, AND HOW IT IS HEARD BY GOD.

1 Now we are commanded to reverence and to honour the same one, being persuaded that He is
Word, Saviour, and Leader, and by Him, the Father, not on special days, as some others,
but doing this continually in our whole life, and in every way. Certainly the elect race
justified by the precept says, "Seven times a day have I praised Thee." Whence not in a
specified place, or selected temple, or at certain festivals and on appointed days, but
during his whole life, the Gnostic in every place, even if he be alone by himself, and
wherever he has any of those who have exercised the like faith, honours God, that is,
acknowledges his gratitude for the knowledge of the way to live. And if the presence of a
good man, through the respect and reverence which he inspires, always improves him with
whom he associates, with much more reason does not he who always holds uninterrupted
converse with God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every step superior to
himself in all respect"-in conduct, in words, in disposition? Such an one is persuaded
that God is ever beside him, and does not suppose that He is confined in certain limited
places; so that under the idea that at times he is without Him, he may indulge in excesses
night and day.

2 Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is altogether on every
side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest
of our conversation we conduct ourselves according to rule. The Gnostic, then, is very
closely allied to God, being at once grave and cheerful in all things,-grave on account of
the bent of his soul towards the Divinity, and cheerful on account of his consideration of
the blessings of humanity which God hath given us. Now the excellence of knowledge is
evidently presented by the prophet when he says, "Benignity, and instruction, and
knowledge teach me," magnifying the supremacy of perfection by a climax. 3 He is, then,
the truly kingly man; he is the sacred high priest of God. And this is even now observed
among the most sagacious of the Barbarians, in advancing the sacerdotal caste to the royal
power. He, therefore, never surrenders himself to the rabble that rules supreme over the
theatres, and gives no admittance even in a dream to the things which are spoken, done,
and seen for the sake of alluring pleasures; neither, therefore, to the pleasures of
sight, nor the various pleasures which are found in other enjoyments, as costly incense
and odours, which bewitch the nostrils, or preparations of meats, and indulgences in
different wines, which ensnare the palate, or fragrant bouquets of many flowers, which
through the senses effeminate the soul. But always tracing up to God the grave enjoyment
of all things, he offers the first-fruits of food, and drink, and unguents to the Giver of
all, acknowledging his thanks in the gift and in the use of them by the Word given to him.
He rarely goes to convivial banquets of all and sundry, unless the announcement to him of
the friendly and harmonious character of the entertainment induce him to go. For he is
convinced that God knows and perceives all things-not the words only, but also the
thought; since even our sense of hearing, which acts through the passages of the body, has
the apprehension [be longing to it] not through corporeal power, but through a psychical
perception, and the intelligence which distinguishes significant sounds.

4 God is not, then, possessed of human form, so as to hear; nor needs He senses, as the
Stoics have decided, "especially hearing and sight; for He could never otherwise
apprehend. But the susceptibility of the air, and the intensely keen perception of the
angels, and the power which reaches the soul's consciousness, by ineffable power and
without sensible hearing, know all things at the moment of thought. And should any one say
that the voice does not reach God, but is rolled downwards in the air, yet the thoughts of
the saints cleave not the air only, but the whole world. And the divine power, with the
speed of light, sees through the whole soul. Well! Do not also volitions speak to God,
uttering their voice? And are they not conveyed by conscience? And what voice shall He
wait for, who, according to His purpose, knows the elect already, even before his birth,
knows what is to be as already existent? Does not the light of power shine down to the
very bottom of the whole soul; "the lamp of knowledge," as the Scripture says, searching
"the recesses"? God is all ear and all eye, if we may be permitted to use these
expressions.

5 In general, then, an unworthy opinion of God preserves no piety, either in hymns, or
discourses, or writings, or dogmas, but diverts to grovelling and unseemly ideas and
notions. Whence the commendation of the multitude differs nothing from censure, in
consequence of their ignorance of the truth. The objects, then, of desires and
aspirations, and, in a word, of the mind's impulses, are the subjects of prayers.
Wherefore, no man desires a draught, but to drink what is drinkable; and no man desires an
inheritance, but to inherit. And in like manner no man desires knowledge, but to know; or
a right government, but to take part in the government. The subjects of our prayers, then,
are the subjects of our requests, and the subjects of requests are the objects of desires.
Prayer, then, and desire, follow in order, with the view of possessing the blessings and
advantages offered. The Gnostic, then, who is such by possession, makes his prayer and
request for the truly good things which appertain to the soul, and prays, he himself also
contributing his efforts to attain to the habit of goodness, so as no longer to have the
things that are good as certain lessons belonging to him, but to be good.

6 Wherefore also it is most incumbent on such to pray, knowing as they do the Divinity
rightly, and having the moral excellence suitable to him; who know what things are really
good, and what are to be asked, and when and how in each individual case. It is the
extremest stupidity to ask of them who are no gods, as if they were gods; or to ask those
things which are not beneficial, begging evils for themselves under the appearance of good
things. Whence, as is right, there being only one good God, that some good things be given
from Him alone, and that some remain, we and the angels pray. But not similarly. For it is
not the same thing to pray that the gift remain, and to endeavour to obtain it for the
first time. The averting of evils is a species of prayer; but such prayer is never to be
used for the injury of men, except that the Gnostic, in devoting attention to
righteousness, may make use of this petition in the case of those who are past feeling.

7 Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though whispering,
consequently, and not opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God
hears continually all the inward converse. So also we raise the head and lift the hands to
heaven, and set the feet in motion at the closing utterance of the prayer, following the
eagerness of the spirit directed towards the intellectual essence; and endeavouring to
abstract the body from the earth, along with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged
with longing for better things, we compel it to advance to the region of holiness,
magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. For we know right well, that the Gnostic
willingly passes over the whole world, as the Jews certainly did over Egypt, showing
clearly, above all, that he will be as near as possible to God. Now, if some assign
definite hours for prayer-as, for example, the third, and sixth, and ninth-yet the Gnostic
prays throughout his whole life, endeavouring by prayer to have fellowship with God. And,
briefly, having reached to this, he leaves behind him all that is of no service, as having
now received the perfection of the man that acts by love. But the distribution of the
hours into a threefold division, honoured with as many prayers, those are acquainted with,
who know the blessed triad of the holy abodes.

8 Having got to this point, I recollect the doctrines about there being no necessity to
pray, introduced by certain of the heterodox, that is, the followers of the heresy of
Prodicus. That they may not then be inflated with conceit about this godless wisdom of
theirs, as if it were strange, let them learn that it was embraced before by the
philosophers called Cyrenaics. Nevertheless, the unholy knowledge (gnosis) of those
falsely called [Gnostics] shall meet with confutation at a fitting time; so that the
assault on them, by no means brief, may not, by being introduced into the commentary,
break the discourse in hand, in which we are showing that the only really holy and pious
man is he who is truly a Gnostic according to the rule of the Church, to whom alone the
petition made in accordance with the will of God is granted, on asking and on thinking.
For as God can do all that He wishes, so the Gnostic receives all that he asks. For,
universally, God knows those who are and those who are not worthy of good things; whence
He gives to each what is suitable. Wherefore to those that are unworthy, thoughthey ask
often, He will not give; but He will give to those who are worthy.

9 Nor is petition superfluous, though good things are given without claim. Now
thanksgiving and request for the conversion of our neighbours is the function of the
Gnostic; as also the Lord prayed, giving thanks for the accomplishment of His ministry,
praying that as many as possible might attain to knowledge; that in the saved, by
salvation, through knowledge, God might be glorified, and He who is alone good and alone
Saviour might be acknowledged through the Son from age to age. But also faith, that one
will receive, is a species of prayer gnostically laid up in store. 10 But if any occasion
of converse with God becomes prayer, no opportunity of access to God ought to be omitted.
Without doubt, the holiness of the Gnostic, in union with [God's] blessed Providence,
exhibits in voluntary confession the perfect beneficence of God. For the holiness of the
Gnostic, and the reciprocal benevolence of the friend of God, are a kind of corresponding
movement of providence. For neither is God involuntarily good, as the fire is warming; but
in Him the imparting of good things is voluntary, even if He receive the request
previously. Nor shall he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not inanimate;
but he will above all voluntarily and of free choice speed to salvation. Wherefore also
man received the commandments in order that he might be self-impelled, to whatever he
wished of things to be chosen and to be avoided. Wherefore God does not do good by
necessity, but from His free choice benefits those who spontaneously turn. For the
Providence which extends to us from God is not ministerial, as that service which proceeds
from inferiors to superiors. But in pity for our weakness, the continual dispensations of
Providence work, as the care of shepherds towards the sheep, and of a king towards his
subjects; we ourselves also conducting ourselves obediently towards our superiors, who
take the management of us, as appointed, in accordance with the commission from God with
which they are invested.

11 Consequently those who render the most free and kingly service, which is the result of
a pious mind and of knowledge, are servants and attendants of the Divinity. Each place,
then, and time, in which we entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred. When, then,
the man who chooses what is right, and is at the same time of thankful heart, makes his
request in prayer, he contributes to the obtaining of it, gladly taking hold in prayer of
the thing desired. For when the Giver of good things perceives the susceptibility on our
part, all good things follow at once the conception of them. Certainly in prayer the
character is sifted, how it stands with respect to duty. But if voice and expression are
given us, for the sake of understanding, how can God not hear the soul itself, and the
mind, since assuredly soul hears soul, and mind, mind? Whence God does not walt for
loquacious tongues, as interpreters among men, but knows absolutely the thoughts of all;
and what the voice intimates to us, that our thought, which even before the creation He
knew would come into our mind, speaks to God. Prayer, then, may be uttered without the
voice, by concentrating the whole spiritual nature within on expression by the mind, in
un-distracted turning towards God.

12 And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that point the light which
has shone forth at first from the darkness increases, there has also dawned on those
involved in darkness a day of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of
the sun's rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east. Whence also
the most ancient temples looked towards the west, that people might be taught to turn to
the east when facing the images. "Let my prayer be directed before Thee as incense, the
uplifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice," say the Psalms. In the case of wicked
men, therefore, prayer is most injurious, not to others alone, but to themselves also. If,
then, they should ask and receive what they call pieces of good fortune, these injure them
after they receive them, being ignorant how to use them. For they pray to possess what
they have not, and they ask things which seem, but are not, good things. But the Gnostic
will ask the permanence of the things he possesses, adaptation for what is to take place,
and the eternity of those things which he shall receive. And the things which are really
good, the things which concern the soul, he prays that they may belong to him, and remain
with him. And so he desires not anything that is absent, being content with what is
present. For he is not deficient in the good things which are proper to him; being already
sufficient for himself, through divine grace and knowledge. But having become sufficient
in himself, he stands in no want of other things. But knowing the sovereign will, and
possessing as soon as he prays, being brought into close contact with the almighty power,
and earnestly desiring to be spiritual, through boundless love, he is united to the
Spirit.

13 Thus he, being magnanimous, possessing, through knowledge, what is the most precious of
all, the best of all, being quick in applying himself to contemplation, retains in his
soul the permanent energy of the objects of his contemplation, that is the perspicacious
keenness of knowledge. And this power he strives to his utmost to acquire, by obtaining
command of all the influences which war against the mind; and by applying himself without
intermission to speculation, by exercising himself in the training of abstinence from
pleasures, and of fight conduct in what he does; and besides, furnished with great
experience both in study and in life, he has freedom of speech, not the power of a
babbling tongue, but a power which employs plain language, and which neither for favour
nor fear conceals aught of the things which may be worthily said at the fitting time, in
which it is highly necessary to say them. He, then, having received the things respecting
God from the mystic choir of the truth itself, employs language which urges the magnitude
of virtue in accordance with its worth; and shows its results with an inspired elevation
of prayer, being associated gnostically, as far as possible, with intellectual and
spiritual objects.

14 Whence he is always mild and meek, accessible, affable, long-suffering, grateful,
endued with a good conscience. Such a man is rigid, not alone so as not to be corrupted,
but so as not to be tempted. For he never exposes his soul to submission, or capture at
the hands of Pleasure and Pain. If the Word, who is Judge, call; he, having grown
inflexible, and not indulging a whir the passions, walks unswervingly where justice
advises him to go; being very well persuaded that all things are managed consummately
well, and that progress to what is better goes on in the case of souls that have chosen
virtue, till they come to the Good itself, to the Father's vestibule, so to speak, close
to the great High Priest. Such is our Gnostic, faithful, persuaded that the affairs of the
universe are managed in the best way. Particularly, he is well pleased with all that
happens. In accordance with reason, then, he asks for none of those things in life
required for necessary use; being persuaded that God, who knows all things, supplies the
good with whatever is for their benefit, even though they do not ask.

15 For my view is, that as all things are supplied to the man of art according to the
rules of art, and to the Gentile in a Gentile way, so also to the Gnostic all things are
supplied gnostically. And the man who turns from among the Gentiles will ask for faith,
while he that ascends to knowledge will ask for the perfection of love. And the Gnostic,
who has reached the summit, will pray that contemplation may grow and abide, as the common
man will for continual good health. Nay, he will pray that he may never fall from virtue;
giving his most strenuous co-operation in order that he may become infallible. For he
knows that some of the angels, through carelessness, were hurled to the earth, not having
yet quite reached that state of oneness, by extricating themselves from the propensity to
that of duality. 16 But him, who from this has trained himself to the summit of knowledge
and the elevated height of the perfect man, all things relating to time and place help on,
now that he has made it his choice to live infallibly, and subjects himself to training in
order to the attainment of the stability of knowledge on each side. But in the case of
those in whom there is still a heavy corner, leaning downwards, even that part which has
been elevated by faith is dragged down. In him, then, who by gnostic training has acquired
virtue which cannot be lost, habit becomes nature. And just as weight in a stone, so the
knowledge of such an one is incapable of being lost. Not without, but through the exercise
of will, and by the force of reason, and knowledge, and Providence, is it brought to
become incapable of being lost. Through care it becomes incapable of being lost. He will
employ caution so as to avoid sinning, and consideration to prevent the loss of virtue.

17 Now knowledge appears to produce consideration, by teaching to perceive the things that
are capable of contributing to the permanence of virtue. The highest thing is, then, the
knowledge of God; wherefore also by it virtue is so preserved as to be incapable of being
lost. And he who knows God is holy and pious. The Gnostic has consequently been
demonstrated by us to be the only pious man. He rejoices in good things present, and is
glad on account of those promised, as if they were already present. For they do not elude
his notice, as if they were still absent, because he knows by anticipation what sort they
are. Being then persuaded by knowledge how each future thing shall be, he possesses it.
For want and defect are measured with reference to what appertains to one. If, then, he
possesses wisdom, and wisdom is a divine thing, he who partakes of what has no want will
himself have no want. For the imparting of wisdom does not take place by activity and
receptivity moving and stopping each other, or by aught being abstracted or becoming
defective. Activity is therefore shown to be undiminished in the act of communication. So,
then, our Gnostic possesses all good things, as far as possible; but not likewise in
number; since otherwise he would be incapable of changing his place through the due
inspired stages of advancement and acts of administration.

18 Him God helps, by honouring him with closer oversight. For were not all things made for
the sake of good men, for their possession and advantage, or rather salvation? He will not
then deprive, of the things which exist for the sake of virtue, those for whose sake they
were created. For, evidently in honour of their excellent nature and their holy choice, he
inspires those who have made choice of a good life with strength for the rest of their
salvation; exhorting some, and helping others, who of themselves have become worthy. For
all good is capable of being produced in the Gnostic; if indeed it is his aim to know and
do everything intelligently. And as the physician ministers health to those who co-operate
with him in order to health, so also God ministers eternal salvation to those who co-
operate for the attainment of knowledge and good conduct; and since what the commandments
enjoin are in our own power, along with the performance of them, the promise is
accomplished.

19 And what follows seems to me to be excellently said by the Greeks. An athlete of no
mean reputation among those of old, having for a long time subjected his body to thorough
training in order to the attainment of manly strength, on going up to the Olympic games,
cast his eye on the statue of the Pisaean Zeus, and said: "O Zeus, if all the requisite
preparations for the contest have been made by me, come, give me the victory, as is
right." For so, in the case of the Gnostic, who has unblameably and with a good conscience
fulfilled all that depends on him, in the direction of learning, and training, and well-
doing, and pleasing God, the whole contributes to carry salvation on to perfection. From
us, then, are demanded the things which are in our own power, and of the things which
pertain to us, both present and absent, the choice, and desire, and possession, and use,
and permanence.

20 Wherefore also he who holds converse with God must have his soul immaculate and
stainlessly pure, it being essential to have made himself perfectly good. But also it
becomes him to make all his prayers gently with the good. For it is a dangerous thing to
take part in others' sins. Accordingly the Gnostic will pray along with those who have
more recently believed, for those things in respect of which it is their duty to act
together. And his whole life is a holy festival. His sacrifices are prayers, and praises,
and readings in the Scriptures before meals, and psalms and hymns during meals and before
bed, and prayers also again during night. By these he unites himself to the divine choir,
from continual recollection, engaged in contemplation which has everlasting remembrance.
And what? Does he not also know the other kind of sacrifice, which consists in the giving
both of doctrines and of money to those who need? Assuredly. But he does not use wordy
prayer by his mouth; having learned to ask of the Lord what is requisite. In every place,
therefore, but not ostensibly and visibly to the multitude, he will pray. But while
engaged in walking, in conversation, while in silence, while engaged in reading and in
works according to reason, he in every mood prays. If he but form the thought in the
secret chamber of his soul, and call on the Father "with unspoken groanings," He is near,
and is at his side, while yet speaking. In as much as there are but three ends of all
action, he does everything for its excellence and utility ; but doing aught for the sake
of pleasure, he leaves to those who pursue the common life.

CHAPTER VIII.-THE GNOSTIC SO ADDICTED TO TRUTH AS NOT TO NEED TO USE AN OATH.

1 The man of proved character in such piety is far from being apt to lie and to swear. For
an oath is a decisive affirmation, with the taking of the divine name. For how can he,
that is once faithful, show himself unfaithful, so as to require an oath; and so that his
life may not be a sure and decisive oath? He lives, and walks, and shows the
trustworthiness of his affirmation in an unwavering and sure life and speech. And if the
wrong lies in the judgment of one who does and says [something], and not in the suffering
of one who has been wronged, he will neither lie nor commit perjury so as to wrong the
Deity, knowing that it by nature is incapable of being harmed. Nor yet will he lie or
commit any transgression, for the sake of the neighbour whom he has learned to love,
though he be not on terms of intimacy. Much more, consequently, will he not lie or perjure
himself on his own account, since he never with his will can be found doing wrong to
himself.

2 But he does not even swear, preferring to make averment, in affirmation by "yea," and in
denial by "nay." For it is an oath to swear, or to produce anything from the mind in the
way of confirmation in the shape of an oath. It suffices, then, with him, to add to an
affirmation or denial the expression" I say truly," for confirmation to those who do not
perceive the certainty of his answer. For he ought, I think, to maintain a life calculated
to inspire confidence towards those without, so that an oath may not even be asked; and
towards himself and those with whom he associates good feeling, which is voluntary
righteousness. The Gnostic swears truly, but is not apt to swear, having rarely recourse
to an oath, just as we have said. And his speaking truth on oath arises from his accord
with the truth. This speaking truth on oath, then, is found to be the result of
correctness in duties. Where, then, is the necessity for an oath to him who lives in
accordance with the extreme of truth? He, then, that does not even swear will be far from
perjuring himself. And he who does not transgress in what is ratified by compacts, will
never swear; since the ratification of the violation and of the fulfilment is by actions;
as certainly lying and perjury in affirming and swearing are contrary to duty. But he who
lives justly, transgressing in none of his duties, when the judgment of truth is
scrutinized, swears truth by his acts. Accordingly, testimony by the tongue is in his case
superfluous.

3 Therefore, persuaded always that God is everywhere, and fearing not to speak the truth,
and knowing that it is unworthy of him to lie, he is satisfied with the divine
consciousness and his own alone And so he lies not, nor does aught contrary to his
compacts. And so he swears not even when asked for his oath ; nor does he ever deny, so as
to speak falsehood, though he should die by tortures.

CHAPTER IX.-THOSE WHO TEACH OTHERS, OUGHT TO EXCEL IN VIRTUES.

1 The gnostic dignity is augmented and increased by him who has undertaken the first place
in the teaching of others, and received the dispensation by word and deed of the greatest
good on earth, by which he mediates contact and fellowship with the Divinity. And as those
who worship terrestrial things pray to them as if they heard, confirming compacts before
them; so, in men who are living images, the true majesty of the Word is received by the
trustworthy teacher; and the beneficence exerted towards them is carried up to the Lord,
after whose image he who is a true man by instruction creates and harmonizes, renewing to
salvation the man who receives instruction. For as the Greeks called steel Ares, and wine
Dionysus, on account of a certain relation; so the Gnostic considering the benefit of his
neighbours as his own salvation, may be called a living image of the Lord, not as respects
the peculiarity of form, but the symbol of power and similarity of preaching.

2 Whatever, therefore, he has in his mind, he bears on his tongue, to those who are worthy
to hear, speaking as well as living from assent and inclination. For he both thinks and
speaks the truth; unless at any time, medicinally, as a physician for the safety of the
sick, he may deceive or tell an untruth, according to the Sophists. To illustrate: the
noble apostle circumcised Timothy, though loudly declaring and writing that circumcision
made with hands profits nothing. But that he might not, by dragging all at once away from
the law to the circumcision of the heart through faith those of the Hebrews who were
reluctant listeners, compel them to break away from the synagogue, he, "accommodating
himself to the Jews, became a Jew that he might gain all." He, then, who submits to
accommodate himself merely for the benefit of his neighbours, for the salvation of those
for whose sake he accommodates himself, not partaking in any dissimulation through the
perilimpending over the just from those who envy them, such an one by no means acts with
compulsion. But for the benefit of his neighbours alone, he will do things which would not
have been done by him primarily, if he did not do them on their account. Such an one gives
himself for the Church, for the disciples whom he has begotten in faith; for an example to
those who are capable of receiving the supreme economy of the philanthropic and God-loving
Instructor, for confirmation of the truth of his words, for the exercise of love to the
Lord. Such an one is unenslaved by fear, true in word, enduring in labour, never willing
to lie by uttered word, and in it always securing sinlessness; since falsehood, being
spoken with a certain deceit, is not an inert word, but operates to mischief.

3 On every hand, then, the Gnostic alone testifies to the truth in deed and word. For he
always does rightly in all things, both in word and action, and in thought itself. Such,
then, to speak cursorily, is the piety of the Christian. If, then, he does these things
according to duty and right reason, he does them piously and justly. And if such be the
case, the Gnostic alone is really both pious, and just, and God-fearing. The Christian is
not impious. For this was the point incumbent on us to demonstrate to the philosophers; so
that he will never in any way do aught bad or base (which is unjust). Consequently,
therefore, he is not impious; but he alone fears God, holily and dutifully worshipping the
true God, the universal Ruler, and King, and Sovereign, with the true piety.

CHAPTER X.-STEPS TO PERFECTION.

1 For knowledge (gnosis), to speak generally, a perfecting of man as man, is consummated
by acquaintance with divine things, in character, life, and word, accordant and
conformable to itself and to the divine Word. For by it faith is perfected, in as much as
it is solely by it that the believer becomes perfect. Faith is an internal good, and
without searching for God, confesses His existence, and glorifies Him as existent. Whence
by starting from this faith, and being developed by it, through the grace of God, the
knowledge respecting Him is to be acquired as far as possible. Now we assert that
knowledge (gnosis) differs from the wisdom (sofi/a), which is the result of teaching. For
as far as anything is knowledge, so far is it certainly wisdom; but in as far as aught is
wisdom, it is not certainly knowledge. For the term wisdom appears only in the knowledge
of the uttered word.

2 But it is not doubting in reference to God, but believing, that is the foundation of
knowledge. But Christ is both the foundation and the superstructure, by whom are both the
beginning and the ends. And the extreme points, the beginning and the end-I mean faith and
love-are not taught. But knowledge, conveyed from communication through the grace of God
as a deposit, is entrusted to those who show themselves worthy of it; and from it the
worth of love beams forth from light to light. For it is said, "To him that hath shall be
given: " to faith, knowledge; and to knowledge, love; and to love, the inheritance. 3 And
this takes place, whenever one hangs on the Lord by faith, by knowledge, by love, and
ascends along with Him to where the God and guard of our faith and love is. Whence at last
(on account of the necessity for very great preparation and previous training in order
both to hear what is said, and for the composure of life, and for advancing intelligently
to a point beyond the righteousness of the law) it is that knowledge is committed to those
fit and selected for it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us
beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods; after we
are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our sins,
for salutary discipline. After which redemption the reward and the honours are assigned to
those who have become perfect; when they have got done with purification, and ceased from
all service, though it be holy service, and among saints. Then become pure in heart, and
near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are
called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods
that have been first put in their places by the Saviour.

4 Knowledge is therefore quick in purifying, and fit for that acceptable transformation to
the better. Whence also with ease it removes [the soul] to what is akin to the soul,
divine and holy, and by its own light conveys man through the mystic stages of
advancement; till it restores the pure in heart to the crowning place of rest; teaching to
gaze on God, face to face, with knowledge and comprehension. For in this consists the
perfection of the gnostic soul, in its being with the Lord, where it is in immediate
subjection to Him, after rising above all purification and service. Faith is then, so to
speak, a comprehensive knowledge of the essentials; and knowledge is the strong and sure
demonstration of what is received by faith, built upon faith by the Lord's teaching,
conveying [the soul] on to infallibility, science, and comprehension. And, in my view, the
first saving change is that from heathenism to faith, as I said before; and the second,
that from faith to knowledge. And the latter terminating in love, thereafter gives the
loving to the loved, that which knows to that which is known. And, perchance, such an one
has already attained the condition of "being equal to the angels." Accordingly, after the
highest excellence in the flesh, changing always duly to the better, he urges his flight
to the ancestral hall, through the holy septenniad [of heavenly abodes] to the Lord's own
mansion; to be a light, steady, and continuing eternally, entirely and in every part
immutable.

5 The first mode of the Lord's operation mentioned by us is an exhibition of the
recompense resulting from piety. Of the very great number of testimonies that there are, I
shall adduce one, thus summarily expressed by the prophet David: "Who shall ascend to the
hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He who is guiltless in his hands,
and pure in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, or sworn deceitfully to
his neighbour. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour.
This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of
Jacob." The prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the Gnostic. David, as
appears, has cursorily demonstrated the Saviour to be God, by calling Him"the face of the
God of Jacob," who preached and aught concerning the Spirit. Wherefore also the apostle
designates as"the express image (xarakth=ra) of the glory of the Father" the Son, who
taught the truth respecting God, and expressed the fact that the Almighty is the one and
only God and Father, "whom no man knoweth but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal
Him." That God is one is intimated by those"who seek the face of the God of Jacob; "whom
being the only God, our Saviour and God characterizes as the Good Father. And"the
generation of those that seek Him" is the elect race, devoted to inquiry after knowledge.
Wherefore also the apostle says, "I shall profit you nothing, unless I speak to you,
either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophecy, or by doctrine."

6 Although even by those who are not Gnostics some things are done rightly, yet not
according to reason; as in the case of fortitude. For some who are naturally high-
spirited, and have afterwards without reason fostered this disposition, rush to many
things, and act like brave men, so as sometimes to succeed in achieving the same things;
just as endurance is easy for mechanics. But it is not from the same cause, or with the
same object; not were they to give their whole body. "For they have not love," according
to the apostle. All the action, then, of a man possessed of knowledge is right action; and
that done by a man not possessed of knowledge is: wrong action, though he observe a plan;
since it is not from reflection that he acts bravely, nor does he direct his action in
those things which proceed from virtue to virtue, to any useful purpose.

7 The same holds also with the other virtues. So too the analogy is preserved in religion.
Our Gnostic, then, not only is such in reference to holiness; but corresponding to the
piety of knowledge are the commands respecting the rest of the conduct of life. For it is
our purpose at present to describe the life of the Gnostic, not to present the system of
dogmas, which we shall afterwards explain at the fitting time, preserving the order of
topics.


THE STROMATA BOOK 7
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 7 continued

CHAPTER XI.-DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC'S LIFE.

1 Respecting the universe, he conceives truly and grandly in virtue of his reception of
divine teaching. Beginning, then, with admiration of the Creation, and affording of
himself a proof of his capability for receiving knowledge, he becomes a ready pupil of the
Lord. Directly on hearing of God and Providence, he believed in consequence of ethe
admiration he entertained. Through the power of impulse thence derived he devotes his
energies in every way to learning, doing all those things by means of which he shall be
able to acquire the knowledge of what he desires. And desire blended with inquiry arises
as faith advances. And this is to become worthy of speculation, of such a character, and
such importance. So shall the Gnostic taste of the will of God. For it is not his ears,
but his soul, that he yields up to the things signified by what is spoken. Accordingly,
apprehending essences and things through the words, he brings his soul, as is fit, to what
is essential; apprehending (e.g.) in the peculiar way in which they are spoken to the
Gnostic, the commands, "Do not commit adultery, "Do not kill; "and not as they are
understood by other people. Training himself, then, in scientific speculation, he proceeds
to exercise himself in larger generalizations and grander propositions; knowing right well
that "He that teacheth man knowledge," according to the prophet, is the Lord, the Lord
acting by man's mouth. So also He assumed flesh.

2 As is right, then, he never prefers the pleasant to the useful; not even if a beautiful
woman were to entice him, when overtaken by circumstances, by wantonly urging him: since
Joseph's master's wife was not able to seduce him from his stedfastness; but as she
violently held his coat, divested himself of it,-becoming bare of sin, but clothed with
seemliness of character. For if the eyes of the master-the Egyptian, I mean-saw not
Joseph, yet those of the Almighty looked on. For we hear the voice, and see the bodily
forms ; but God scrutinizes the thing itself, from which the speaking and the looking
proceed. Consequently, therefore, though disease, and accident, and what is most terrible
of all, death, come upon the Gnostic, he remains inflexible in soul,-knowing that all such
things are a necessity of creation, and that, also by the power of God, they become the
medicine of salvation, benefiting by discipline those who are difficult to reform;
allotted according to desert, by Providence, which is truly good.

3 Using the creatures, then, when the Word prescribes, and to the extent it prescribes, in
the exercise of thankfulness to the Creator, he becomes master of the enjoyment of them.
He never cherishes resentment or harbours a grudge against any one, though deserving of
hatred for his conduct. For he worships the Maker, and loves him, who shares life, pitying
and praying for him on account of his ignorance. He indeed partakes of the affections of
the body, to which, susceptible as it is of suffering by nature, he is bound. But in
sensation he is not the primary subject of it. Accordingly, then, in involuntary
circumstances, by withdrawing himself from troubles to the things which really belong to
him, he is not carried away with what is foreign to him. And it is only to things that are
necessary for him that he accommodates himself, in so far as the soul is preserved
unharmed. For it is not m supposition or seeming that he wishes to be faithful; but in
knowledge and truth, that is, in sure deed and effectual word. Wherefore he not only
praises what is noble, but endeavours himself to be noble; changing by love from a good
and faithful servant into a friend, through the perfection of habit, which he has acquired
in purity from true instruction and great discipline.

4 Striving, then, to attain to the summit of knowledge (gnosis); decorous in character;
composed in mien; possessing all those advantages which belong to the true Gnostic fixing
his eye on fair models, on the many patriarchs who have lived rightly, and on very many
prophets and angels reckoned without number, and above all, on the Lord, who taught and
showed it to be possible for him to attain that highest life of all,-he therefore loves
not all the good things of the world, which are within his grasp, that he may not remain
on the ground, but the things hoped for, or rather already known, being hoped for so as to
be apprehended. So then he undergoes toils, and trials, and affections, not as those among
the philosophers who are endowed with manliness, in the hope of present troubles ceasing,
and of sharing again in what is pleasant; but knowledge has inspired him with the firmest
persuasion of receiving the hopes of the future. Wherefore he contemns not alone the pains
of this world, but all its pleasures.

5 They say, accordingly, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his wife led to death, rejoiced
on account of her call and conveyance home, and called very encouragingly and
comfortingly, addressing her by name, "Remember thou the Lord." Such was the marriage of
the blessed and their perfect disposition towards those dearest to them. Thus also the
apostle says, "that he who marries should be as though he married not," and deem his
marriage free of inordinate affection, and inseparable from love to the Lord; to which the
true husband exhorted his wife to cling on her departure out of this life to the Lord. Was
not then faith in the hope after death conspicuous in the case of those who gave thanks to
God even in the very extremities of their punishments? For firm, in my opinion, was the
faith they possessed, which was followed by works of faith. In all circumstances, then, is
the soul of the Gnostic strong, in a condition of extreme health and strength, like the
body of an athlete.

6 For he is prudent in human affairs, in judging what ought to be done by the just man;
having obtained the principles from God from above, and having acquired, in order to the
divine resemblance, moderation in bodily pains and pleasures. And he struggles against
fears boldly, trusting in God. Certainly, then, the gnostic soul, adorned with perfect
virtue, is the earthly image of the divine power; its development being the joint result
of nature, of training, of reason, all together. This beauty of the soul becomes a temple
of the Holy Spirit, when it acquires a disposition in the whole of life corresponding to
the Gospel. Such an one consequently withstands all fear of everything terrible, not only
of death, but also poverty and disease, and ignominy, and things akin to these; being
unconquered by pleasure, and lord over irrational desires. For he well knows what is and
what! is not to be done; being perfectly aware what things are really to be dreaded, and
what not. Whence he bears intelligently what the Word intimates to him to be requisite and
necessary; intelligently discriminating what is really safe (that is, good), from what
appears so; and things to be dreaded from what seems so, such as death, disease, and
poverty; which are rather so in opinion than in truth.

7 This is the really good man, who is without passions; having, through the habit or
disposition of the soul endued with virtue, transcended the whole life of passion. He has
everything dependent on himself for the attainment of the end. For those accidents which
are called terrible are not formidable to the good man, because they are not evil. And
those which are really to be dreaded are foreign to the gnostic Christian, being
diametrically opposed to what is good, because evil; and it is impossible for contraries
to meet in the same person at the same time. He, then, who faultlessly acts the drama of
life which God has given him to play, knows both what is to be done and what is to be
endured. Is it not then from ignorance of what is and what is not to be dreaded that
cowardice arises? Consequently the only man of courage is the Gnostic, who knows both
present and future good things; along with these, knowing, as I have said, also the things
which are in reality not to be dreaded. Because, knowing vice alone to be hateful, and
destructive of what contributes to knowledge, protected by the armour of the Lord, he
makes war against it.

8 For if anything is caused through folly, and the operation or rather co-operation of the
devil, this thing is not straightway the devil or folly. For no action is wisdom. For
wisdom is a habit. And no action is a habit. The action, then, that arises from ignorance,
is not already ignorance, but an evil through ignorance, but not ignorance. For neither
perturbations of mind nor sins are vices, though proceeding from vice. 9 No one, then, who
is irrationally brave is a Gnostic ; since one might call children brave, who, through
ignorance of what is to be dreaded, undergo things that are frightful. So they touch fire
even. And the wild beasts that rush close on the points of spears, having a brute courage,
might be called valiant. And such people might perhaps call jugglers valiant, who tumble
on swords with a certain dexterity, practising a mischievous art for sorry gain. But he
who is truly brave, with the peril arising from the bad feeling of the multitude before
his eyes, courageously awaits whatever comes. In this way he is distinguished from others
that are called martyrs, in as much as some furnish occasions for themselves, and rush
into the heart of dangers, I know not how (for it is right to use mild language); while
they, in accordance with right reason, protect themselves; then, on God really calling
them, promptly surrender themselves, and confirm the call, from being conscious of no
precipitancy, and present the man to be proved in the exercise of true rational fortitude.
Neither, then, enduring lesser dangers from fear of greater, like other people, nor
dreading censure at the hands of their equals, and those of like sentiments, do they
continue in the confession of their calling; but from love to God they willingly obey the
call, with no other aim in view than pleasing God, and not for the sake of the reward of
their toils.

10 For some suffer from love of glory, and others from fear of some other sharper
punishment, and others for the sake of pleasures and delights after death, being children
in faith; blessed indeed, but not yet become men in love to God, as the Gnostic is. For
there are, as in the gymnastic contests, so also in the Church, crowns for men and for
children. But love is to be chosen for itself, and for nothing else. Therefore in the
Gnostic, along with knowledge, the perfection of fortitude is developed from the
discipline of life, he having always studied to acquire mastery over the passions.
Accordingly, love makes its own athlete fearless and dauntless, and confident in the Lord,
anointing and training him; as righteousness secures for him truthfulness in his whole
life. For it was a compendium of righteousness to say, "Let your yea be yea; and your nay,
nay."

11 And the same holds with self-control. For it is neither for love of honour, as the
athletes for the sake of crowns and fame; nor on the other hand, for love of money, as
some pretend to exercise self-control, pursuing what is good with terrible suffering. Nor
is it from love of the body for the sake of health. Nor any more is any man who is
temperate from rusticity, who has not tasted pleasures, truly a man of self-control.
Certainly those who have led a laborious life, on tasting pleasures, forthwith break down
the inflexibility of temperance into pleasures. Such are they who are restrained by law
and fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity they defraud the law, by giving what is
good the slip. But self-control, desirable for its own sake, perfected through knowledge,
abiding ever, makes the man lord and master of himself; so that the Gnostic is temperate
and passionless, incapable of being dissolved by pleasures and pains, as they say adamant
is by fire.

12 The cause of these, then, is love, of all science the most sacred and most sovereign.
For by the service of what is best and most exalted, which is characterized by unity, it
renders the Gnostic at once friend and son, having in truth grown "a perfect man, up to
the measure of full stature." Further, agreement in the same thing is consent. But what is
the same is one. And friendship is consummated in likeness; the community lying in
oneness. The Gnostic, consequently, in virtue of being a lover of the one true God, is the
really perfect man and friend of God, and is placed in the rank of son. For these are
names of nobility and knowledge, and perfection in the contemplation of God; which
crowning step of advancement the gnostic soul receives, when it has become quite pure,
reckoned worthy to behold everlastingly God Almighty, "face," it is said, "to face." For
having become wholly spiritual, and having in the spiritual Church gone to what is of
kindred nature, it abides in the rest of God.

CHAPTER XII.-THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS BENEFICENT, CONTINENT, AND DESPISES WORLDLY THINGS.

1 Let these things, then, be so. And such being the attitude of the Gnostic towards the
body and the soul-towards his neighbours, whether it be a domestic, or a lawful enemy, or
whosoever-he is found equal and like. For he does not "despise his brother," who,
according to the divine law, is of the same father and mother. Certainly he relieves the
afflicted, helping him with consolations, encouragements, and the necessaries of life;
giving to all that need, though not similarly, but justly, according to desert;
furthermore, to him who persecutes and hates, even if he need it; caring little for those
who say to him that be has given out of fear, if it is not out of fear that he does so,
but to give help. For how much more are those, who towards their enemies are devoid of
love of money, and are haters of evil, animated with love to those who belong to them?

2 Such an one from this proceeds to the accurate knowledge of whom he ought chiefly to
give to, and how much, and when, and how. And who could with any reason become the enemy
of a man who gives no cause for enmity in any way? And is it not just as in the case of
God? We say that God is the adversary of no one, and the enemy of no one (for He is the
Creator of all, and nothing that exists. is what He wills it not to be; but we assert that
the disobedient, and those who walk not according to His commandments, are enemies to Him,
as being those who are hostile to His covenant). We shall find the very same to be the
case with the Gnostic, for he can never in any way become an enemy to any one; but those
may be regarded enemies to him who turn to the contrary path.

3 In particular, the habit of liberality which prevails among us is called "righteousness;
"but the power of discriminating according to desert, as to greater and less, with
reference to those who am proper subjects of it, is a form of the very highest
righteousness. There are things practised in a vulgar style by some people, such as
control over pleasures. For as, among the heathen, there are those who, from the
impossibility of obtaining what one sees, and from fear of men, and also for the sake of
greater pleasures, abstain from the delights that are before them; so also, in the case of
faith, some practise self-restraint, either out of regard to the promise or from fear of
God. Well, such self-restraint is the basis of knowledge, and an approach to something
better, and an effort after perfection. For "the fear of the Lord," it is said, "is the
beginning of wisdom." But the perfect man, out of love, "beareth all things, endureth all
things," "as not pleasing man, but God." Although praise follows him as a consequence, it
is not for his own advantage, but for the imitation and benefit of those who praise him.

4 According to another view, it is not he who merely controls his passions that is called
a continent man, but he who has also achieved the mastery over good things, and has
acquired surely the great accomplishments of science, from which he produces as fruits the
activities of virtue. Thus the Gnostic is never, on the occurrence of an emergency,
dislodged from the habit peculiar to him. For the scientific possession of what is good is
firm and unchangeable, being the knowledge of things divine and human. Knowledge, then,
never becomes ignorance nor does good change into evil. Wherefore also he eats, and
drinks, and marries, not as principal ends of existence, but as necessary. I name marriage
even, if the Word prescribe, and as is suitable. For having become perfect, he has the
apostles for examples; and one is not really shown to be a man in the choice of single
life; but he surpasses men, who, disciplined by marriage, procreation of children, and
care for the house, without pleasure or pain, in his solicitude for the house has been
inseparable from God's love, and withstood all temptation arising through children, and
wife, and domestics, and possessions. But he that has no family is in a great degree free
of temptation. Caring, then, for himself alone, he is surpassed by him who is inferior, as
far as his own personal salvation is concerned, but who is superior in the conduct of
life, preserving certainly, in his care for the truth, a minute image.

5 But we must as much as possible subject the soul to varied preparatory exercise, that it
may become susceptible to the reception of knowledge. Do you not see how wax is softened
and copper purified, in order to receive the stamp applied to it? Just as death is the
separation of the soul from the body, so is knowledge as it were the rational death urging
the spirit away, and separating it from the passions, and leading it on to the life of
well-doing, that it may then say with confidence to God, "I live as Thou wishest." For he
who makes it his purpose to please men cannot please God, since the multitude choose not
what is profitable, but what is pleasant. But in pleasing God, one as a consequence gets
the favour of the good among men. How, then, can what relates to meat, and drink, and
amorous pleasure, be agreeable to such an one? since he views with suspicion even a word
that produces pleasure, and a pleasant movement and act of the mind. "For no one can serve
two masters, God and Mammon," it is said; meaning not simply money, but the resources
arising from money bestowed on various pleasures. In reality, it is not possible for him
who magnanimously and truly knows God, to serve antagonistic pleasures.

6 There is one alone, then, who from the beginning was free of concupiscence-the
philanthropic Lord, who for us became man. And whosoever endeavour to be assimilated to
the impress given by Him, strive, from exercise, to become free of concupiscence. For he
who has exercised concupiscence and then restrained himself, is like a widow who becomes
again a virgin by continence. Such is the reward of knowledge, rendered to the Saviour and
Teacher, which He Himself asked for,-abstinence from what is evil, activity in doing good,
by which salvation is acquired. As, then, those who have learned the arts procure their
living by what they have been taught, so also is the Gnostic saved, procuring life by what
he knows. For he who has not formed the wish to extirpate the passion of the soul, kills
himself. But, as seems, ignorance is the starvation of the soul, and knowledge its
sustenance.

7 Such are the gnostic souls, which the Gospel likened to the consecrated virgins who wait
for the Lord. For they are virgins, in respect of their abstaining from what is evil. And
in respect of their waiting out of love for the Lord and kindling their light for the
contemplation of things, they are wise souls, saying, "Lord, for long we have desired to
receive Thee; we have lived according to what Thou hast enjoined, transgressing none of
Thy commandments. Wherefore also we claim the promises. And we pray for what is
beneficial, since it is not requisite to ask of Thee what is most excellent. And we shall
take everything for good; even though the exercises that meet us, which Thine arrangement
brings to us for the discipline of our stedfastness, appear to be evil." The Gnostic,
then, from his exceeding holiness, is better prepared to fail when he asks, than to get
when he does not ask.

8 His whole life is prayer and converse with God. And if he be pure from sins, he will by
all means obtain what he wishes. For God says to the righteous man, "Ask, and I will give
thee; think, and I will do." If beneficial, he will receive it at once; and if injurious,
he will never ask it, and therefore he will not receive it. So it shall be as he wishes.
But if one say to us, that some sinners even obtain according to their requests, [we
should say] that this rarely takes place, by reason of the righteous goodness of God. And
it is granted to those who are capable of doing others good. Whence the gift is not made
for the sake of him that asked it; but the divine dispensation, foreseeing that one would
be saved by his means, renders the boon again righteous. And to those who are worthy,
things which are really good are given, even without their asking.

9 Whenever, then, one is righteous, not from necessity or out of fear or hope, but from
free choice, this is called the royal road, which the royal race travel. But the byways
are slippery and precipitous. If, then, one take away fear and honour, I do not know if
the illustrious among the philosophers, who use such freedom of speech, will any longer
endure afflictions. Now lusts and other sins are called "briars and thorns." Accordingly
the Gnostic labours in the Lord's vineyard, planting, pruning, watering; being the divine
husbandman of what is planted in faith. Those, then, who have not done evil, think it
right to receive the wages of ease. But he who has done good out of free choice, demands
the recompense as a good workman. He certainly shall receive double wages-both for what he
has not done, and for what good he has done. Such a Gnostic is tempted by no one except
with God's permission, and that for the benefit of those who are with him; and he
strengthens them for faith, encouraging them by manly endurance. And assuredly it was for
this end, for the establishment and confirmation of the Churches, that the blessed
apostles were brought into trial and to martyrdom.

10 The Gnostic, then, hearing a voice ringing in his ear, which says, "Whom I shall
strike, do thou pity," beseeches that those who hate him may repent. For the punishment of
malefactors, to be consummated in the highways, is for children to behold; for there is no
possibility of the Gnostic, who has from choice trained himself to be excellent and good,
ever being instructed or delighted with such spectacles. And so, having become incapable
of being softened by pleasures, and never failing into sins, he is not corrected by the
examples of other men's sufferings. And far from being pleased with earthly pleasures and
spectacles is he who has shown a noble contempt for the prospects held out in this world,
although they are divine. "Not every one," therefore, "that says Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of God." Such is the gnostic labourer,
who has the mastery of worldly desires even while still in the flesh; and who, in regard
to things future and still invisible, which he knows, has a sure persuasion, so that he
regards them as more present than the things within reach. This able workman rejoices in
what he knows, but is cramped on account of his being involved in the necessities of life;
not yet deemed worthy of the active participation in what he knows. So he uses this life
as if it belonged to another,-so far, that is, as is necessary.

11 He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those days -I mean the Fourth and the
Preparation. For the one has its name from Hermes, and the other from Aphrodité. He fasts
in his life, in respect of covetousness and voluptuousness, from which all the vices grow.
For we have already often above shown the three varieties of fornication, according to the
apostle-love of pleasure, love of money, idolatry. He fasts, then, according to the Law,
abstaining from bad deeds, and, according to the perfection of the Gospel, from evil
thoughts. Temptations are applied to him, not for his purification, but, as we have said,
for the good of his neighbours, if, making trial of toils and pains, he has despised and
passed them by. The same holds of pleasure. For it is the highest achievement for one who
has had trial of it, afterwards to abstain. For what great thing is it, if a man restrains
himself in what he knows not? He, in fulfilment of the precept, according to the Gospel,
keeps the Lord's day, when he abandons an evil disposition, and assumes that of the
Gnostic, glorifying the Lord's resurrection in himself. Further, also, when he has
received the comprehension of scientific speculation, he deems that he sees the Lord,
directing his eyes towards things invisible, although he seems to look on what he, does
not wish to look on; chastising the faculty of vision, when he perceives himself
pleasurably affected by the application of his eyes; since he wishes to see and hear that
alone which concerns him.

12 In the act of contemplating the souls of the brethren, he beholds the beauty of the
flesh also, with the soul itself, which has become habituated to look solely upon that
which is good, without carnal pleasure. And they are really brethren; in as much as, by
reason of their elect creation, and their oneness of character, and the nature of their
deeds, they do, and think, and speak the same holy and good works, in accordance with the
sentiments with which the Lord wished them as elect to be inspired. For faith shows itself
in their making choice of the same things; and knowledge, in learning and thinking the
same things; and hope, in desiring the same things. And if, through the necessity of life,
he spend a small portion of time about his sustenance, he thinks himself defrauded, being
diverted by business. Thus not even in dreams does he look on aught that is unsuitable to
an elect man. For thoroughly a stranger and sojourner in the whole of life is every such
one, who, inhabiting the city, despises the things in the city which are admired by
others, and lives in the city as in a desert, so that the place may not compel him, but
his mode of life show him to be just.

13 This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the apostles, by the
rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting his relations, by
"removing the mountains" of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their
soul. Although each of us is his own vineyard and labourer. He, too, while doing the most
excellent things, wishes to elude the notice of men, persuading the Lord along with
himself that he is living in accordance with the commandments, preferring these things
from believing them to exist. "For where any one's mind is, there also is his treasure."
He impoverishes himself, in order that he may never overlook a brother who has been
brought into affliction, through the perfection that is in love, especially if he know
that he will bear want himself easier than his brother. He considers, accordingly, the
other's pain his own grief; and if, by contributing from his own indigence in order to do
good, he suffer any hardship, he does not fret at this, but augments his beneficence still
more. For he possesses in its sincerity the faith which is exercised in reference to the
affairs of life, and praises the Gospel in practice and contemplation. And, in truth, he
wins his praise "not from men, but from God," by the performance of what the Lord has
taught.

14 He, attracted by his own hope, tastes not the good things that are in the world,
entertaining a noble contempt for all things here; pitying those that are chastised after
death, who through punishment unwillingly make confession; having a clear conscience with
reference to his departure, and being always ready, as "a stranger and pilgrim," with
regard to the inheritances here; mindful only of those that are his own, and regarding all
things here as not his own; not only admiring the Lord's commandments, but, so to speak,
being by knowledge itself partaker of the divine will; a truly chosen intimate of the Lord
and His commands in virtue of being righteous; and princely and kingly as being a Gnostic;
despising all the gold on earth and under the earth, and dominion from shore to shore of
ocean, so that he may cling to the sole service of the Lord. Wherefore also, in eating,
and drinking, and marrying (if the Word enjoin), and even in seeing dreams, he does and
thinks what is holy.

15 So is he always pure for prayer. He also prays in the society of angels, as being
already of angelic rank, and he is never out of their holy keeping; and though he pray
alone, he has the choir of the saints standing with him. He recognises a twofold [element
in faith], both the activity of him who believes, and the excellence of that which is
believed according to its worth; since also righteousness is twofold, that which is out of
love, and that from fear. Accordingly it is said, "The fear of the Lord is pure, remaining
for ever and ever." For those that from fear turn to faith and righteousness, remain for
ever. Now fear works abstinence from what is evil; but love exhorts to the doing of good,
by building up to the point of spontaneousness; that one may hear from the Lord, "I call
you no longer servants, but friends," and may now with confidence apply himself to prayer.

16 And the form of his prayer is thanksgiving for the past, for the present, and for the
future as already through faith present. This is preceded by the reception of knowledge.
And he asks to live the allotted life in the flesh as a Gnostic, as free from the flesh,
and to attain to the best things, and flee from the worse. He asks, too, relief in those
things in which we have sinned, and conversion to the acknowledgment of them. He follows,
on his departure, Him who calls, as quickly, so to speak, as He who goes before calls,
hasting by reason of a good conscience to give thanks; and having got there with Christ
shows himself worthy, through his purity, to possess, by a process of blending, the power
of God communicated by Christ. For he does not wish to be warm by participation in heat,
or luminous by participation in flame, but to be wholly light.

17 He knows accurately the declaration, "Unless ye hate father and mother, and besides
your own life, and unless ye bear the sign [of the cross]." For he hates the inordinate
affection: of the flesh, which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains a
noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation and nutriment of the flesh. He also
withstands the corporeal soul, putting a bridle-bit on the restive irrational spirit: "For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit." And "to bear the sign of [the cross]" is to bear
about death, by taking farewell of all things while still alive; since there is not equal
love in "having sown the flesh," and in having formed the soul for knowledge. He having
acquired the habit of doing good, exercises beneficence well, quicker than speaking;
praying that he may get a share in the sins of his brethren, in order to confession and
conversion on the part of his kindred; and eager to give a share to those dearest to him
of his own good things. And so these are to him, friends. Promoting, then, the growth of
the seeds deposited in him, according to the husbandry enjoined by the Lord, he continues
free of sin, and becomes continent, and lives in spirit with those who are like him, among
the choirs of the saints, though still detained on earth.

18 He, all day and night, speaking and doing the Lord's commands, rejoices exceedingly,
not only on rising in the morning and at noon, but also when walking about, when asleep,
when dressing and undressing; and he teaches his son, if he has a son. He is inseparable
from the commandment and from hope, and is ever giving thanks to God, like the living
creatures figuratively spoken of by Esaias, and submissive in every trial, he says, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away." For such also was Job; who after the spoiling of
his effects, along with the health of his body, resigned all through love to the Lord. For
"he was," it is said, "just, holy, and kept apart from all wickedness." Now the word
"holy" points out all duties toward God, and the entire course of life. Knowing which, he
was a Gnostic. For we must neither cling too much to such things, even if they are good,
seeing they are human, nor on the other hand detest them, if they are bad; but we must be
above both [good and bad], trampling the latter under foot, and passing on the former to
those who need them. But the Gnostic is cautious in accommodation, lest he be not
perceived, or lest the accommodation become disposition.

CHAPTER XIII.-DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC CONTINUED.

1 He never remembers those who have sinned against him, but forgives them. Wherefore also
he righteously prays, saying, "Forgive us; for we also forgive." For this also is one of
the things which God wishes, to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the work of
one will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes the Gnostic to be perfect as" the heavenly
Father," that is, Himself, who says, "Come, ye children, hear from me the fear of the
Lord? " He wishes him no longer to stand in need of help by angels, but to receive it from
Himself, having become worthy, and to have protection from Himself by obedience. Such an
one demands from the Lord, and does not merely ask. And in the case of his brethren in
want, the Gnostic will not ask himself for abundance of wealth to bestow, but will pray
that the supply of what they need may be furnished to them. For so the Gnostic gives his
prayer to those who are in need, and by his prayer they are supplied, without his
knowledge, and without vanity.

2 Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent for admonition, for the correction
of the past, and for care for the future. Such an one prays for relief from them, in
virtue of possessing the prerogative of knowledge, not out of vainglory; but from the very
fact of his being a Gnostic, he works beneficence, having become the instrument of the
goodness of God. They say in the traditions that Matthew the apostle constantly said, that
"if the neighbour of an elect man sin, the elect man has sinned. For had he conducted
himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour also would have been filled with such
reverence for the life he led as not to sin." What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic
himself? "Know ye not," says the apostle, "that ye are the temple of God? " The Gnostic is
consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now the Scripture,
showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who have fallen away to strangers,
saying, "Look not on a strange woman, to lust," plainly pronounces sin foreign and
contrary to the nature of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the Church, and
it is small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham. He, therefore, who has God
resting in him will not desire aught else. At once leaving all hindrances, and despising
all matter which distracts him, he cleaves the heaven by knowledge. And passing through
the spiritual Essences, and all rule and authority, he touches the highest thrones,
hasting to that alone for the sake of which alone he knew.

3 Mixing, then, "the serpent with the dove," he lives at once perfectly and with a good
conscience, mingling faith with hope, in order to the expectation of the future. For he is
conscious of the boon he has received, having become worthy of obtaining it; and is
translated from slavery to adoption, as the consequence of knowledge; knowing God, or
rather known of Him, for the end, he puts forth energies corresponding to the worth of
grace. For works follow knowledge, as the shadow the body. Rightly, then, he is not
disturbed by anything which happens; nor does he suspect those things, which, through
divine arrangement, take place for good. Nor is he ashamed to die, having a good
conscience, and being fit to be seen by the Powers. Cleansed, so to speak, from all the
stains of the soul, he knows right well that it will be better with him after his
departure.

4 Whence he never prefers pleasure and profit to the divine arrangement, since he trains
himself by the commands, that in all things he may be well pleasing to the Lord, and
praiseworthy in the sight of the world, since all things depend on the one Sovereign God.
The Son of God, it is said, came to His own, and His own received Him not. Wherefore also
in the use of the things of the world he not only gives thanks and praises the creation,
but also, while using them as is right, is praised; since the end he has in view
terminates in contemplation by gnostic activity in accordance with the commandments.
Thence now, by knowledge collecting materials to be the food of contemplation, having
embraced nobly the magnitude of knowledge, he advances to the holy recompense of
translation hence. For he has heard the Psalm which says: "Encircle Zion, and encompass
it, tell upon its towers." For it intimates, I think, those who have sublimely embraced
the Word, so as to become lofty towers, and to stand firmly in faith and knowledge.

5 Let these statements concerning the Gnostic, containing the germs of the matter in as
brief terms as possible, be made to the Greeks. But let it be known that if the [mere]
believer do rightly one or a second of these things, yet he will not do so in all nor with
the highest knowledge, like the Gnostic.

CHAPTER XIV.-DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC FURNISHED BY AN EXPOSITION OF 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1, ETC.

1 Now, of what I may call the passionlessness which we attribute to the Gnostic (in which
the perfection of the believer, "advancing by love, comes to a perfect man, to the measure
of full stature," by being assimilated to God, and by becoming truly angelic), many other
testimonies from the Scripture, occur to me to adduce. But I think it better, on account
of the length of the discourse, that such an honour should be devolved on those who wish
to take pains, and leave it to them to elaborate the dogmas by the selection of
Scriptures. One passage, accordingly, I shall in the briefest terms advert to, so as not
to leave the topic unexplained. For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the divine
apostle says: "Dare any of you, having a matter against the other, go to law before the
unrighteous, and not before the saints? Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?
" and so on.

2 The section being very long, we shall exhibit the meaning of the apostle's utterance by
employing such of the apostolic expressions as are most pertinent, and in the briefest
language, and in a sort of cursory way, interpreting the discourse in which he describes
the perfection of the Gnostic. For he does not merely instance the Gnostic as
characterized by suffering wrong rather than do wrong; but he teaches that he is not
mindful of injuries, and does not allow him even to pray against the man who has done him
wrong. For he knows that the Lord expressly enjoined "to pray for enemies." To say, then,
that the man who has been injured goes to law before the unrighteous, is nothing else than
to say that he shows a wish to retaliate, and a desire to injure the second in return,
which is also to do wrong likewise himself.

3 And his saying, that he wishes "some to go to law before the saints," points out those
who ask by prayer that those who have done wrong should suffer retaliation for their
injustice, and intimates that the second are better than the former; but they are not yet
obedient, if they do not, having become entirely free of resentment, pray even for their
enemies. It is well, then, for them to receive right dispositions from repentance, which
results in faith. For if the truth seems to get enemies who entertain bad feeling, yet it
is not hostile to any one. "For God makes His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust,"
and sent the Lord Himself to the just and the unjust. And he that earnestly strives to be
assimilated to God, in the exercise Of great absence of resentment, forgives seventy times
seven times, as it were all his life through, and in all his course in this world (that
being indicated by the enumeration of sevens) shows clemency to each and any one; if any
during the whole time of his life in the flesh do the Gnostic wrong. For he not only deems
it right that the good man should resign his property alone to others, being of the number
of those who have done him wrong; but also wishes that the righteous man should ask of
those judges forgiveness for the offences of those who have done him wrong. And with
reason, if indeed it is only in that which is external and concerns the body, though it go
to the extent of death even, that those who attempt to wrong him take advantage of him;
none of which truly belong to the Gnostic.

4 And how shall one "judge" the apostate "angels," who has become himself an apostate from
that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according to the Gospel? "Why do ye not rather
suffer wrong? "he says; "why are ye not rather defrauded? Yea, ye do wrong and defraud,"
manifestly by praying against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive of the
philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as in you lies, those against whom you pray, "and
these your brethren,"-not meaning those in the faith only, but also the proselytes. For
whether he who now is hostile shall afterwards believe, we know not as yet. From which the
conclusion follows clearly, if all are not yet brethren to us, they ought to be regarded
in that light. And now it is only the man of knowledge who recognises all men to be the
work of one God, and invested with one image in one nature, although some may be more
turbid than others; and in the creatures he recognises the operation, by which again he
adores the will of God.

5 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? " He acts
unrighteously who retaliates, whether by deed or word, or by the conception of a wish,
which, after the training of the Law, the Gospel rejects. "And such were some of you"-such
manifestly as those still are whom you do not forgive; "but ye are washed," not simply as
the rest, but with knowledge; ye have cast off the passions of the soul, in order to
become assimilated, as far as possible, to the goodness of God's providence by long-
suffering, and by forgiveness "towards the just and the unjust," casting on them the gleam
of benignity in word and deeds, as the sun. The Gnostic will achieve this either by
greatness of mind, or by imitation of what is better. And that is a third cause. "Forgive,
and it shall be forgiven you; "the commandment, as it were, compelling to salvation
through superabundance of goodness.

6 "But ye are sanctified." For he who has come to this state is in a condition to be holy,
falling into none of the passions in any way, but as it were already disembodied and
already grown holy without this earth. "Wherefore," he says, "ye are justified in the name
of the Lord." Ye are made, so to speak, by Him to be righteous as He is, and are blended
as far as possible with the Holy Spirit. For "are not all things lawful to me? yet I will
not be brought under the power of any," so as to do, or think, or speak aught contrary to
the Gospel. "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, which God shall destroy," -that
is, suchas think and live as if they were made for eating, and do not eat that they may
live as a consequence, and apply to knowledge as the primary end. And does he not say that
these are, as it were, the fleshy parts of the holy body? As a body, the Church of the
Lord, the spiritual and holy choir, is symbolized. Whence those, who are merely called,
but do not live in accordance with the word, are the fleshy parts. "Now" this spiritual
"body," the holy Church, "is not for fornication." Nor are those things which belong to
heathen life to be adopted by apostasy from the Gospel. For he who conducts himself
heathenishly in the Church, whether in deed, or word, or even in thought, commits
fornication with reference to the Church and his own body. He who in this way "is joined
to the harlot," that is, to conduct contrary to the Covenant becomes another "body," not
holy, "and one flesh," and has a heathenish life and another hope. "But he that is joined
to the Lord in spirit" becomes a spiritual body by a different kind of conjunction.

7 Such an one is wholly a son, an holy man, passionless, gnostic, perfect, formed by the
teaching of the Lord; in order that in deed, in word, and in spirit itself, being brought
close to the Lord, he may receive the mansion that is due to him who has reached manhood
thus. Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not required to unfold
the mystery, but only to indicate what is sufficient for those who are partakers in
knowledge to bring it to mind; who also will comprehend how it was said by the Lord, "Be
ye perfect as your father, perfectly," by forgiving sins, and forgetting injuries, and
living in the habit of passionlessness. For as we call a physician perfect, and a
philosopher perfect, so also, in my view, do we call a Gnostic perfect. But not one of
those points, although of the greatest importance, is assumed in order to the likeness of
God. For we do not say, as the Stoics do most impiously, that virtue in man and God is the
same. Ought we not then to be perfect, as the Father wills? For it is utterly impossible
for any one to become perfect as God is. Now the Father wishes us to be perfect by living
blamelessly, according to the obedience of the Gospel.

8 If, then, the statement being elliptical, we understand what is wanting, in order to
complete the section for those who are incapable of understanding what is left out, we
shall both know the will of God, and shall walk at once piously and magnanimously, as
befits the dignity of the commandment.

CHAPTER XV.-THE OBJECTION TO JOIN THE CHURCH ON ACCOUNT OF THE DIVERSITY OF HERESIES ANSWERED.

1 Since it comes next to reply to the objections alleged against us by Greeks and Jews;
and since, in some of the questions previously discussed, the sects also who adhere to
other teaching give, their help, it will be well first to clear away the obstacles before
us, and then, prepared thus for the solution of the difficulties, to advance to the
succeeding Miscellany. First, then, they make this objection to us, saying, that they
ought not to believe on account of the discord of the sects. For the truth is warped when
some teach one set of dogmas, others another. To whom we say, that among you who are Jews,
and among the most famous of the philosophers among the Greeks, very many sects have
sprung up. And yet you do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize or Judaize,
because of the want of agreement of the sects among you between themselves. And then, that
heresies should be sown among the truth, as "tares among the wheat," was foretold by the
Lord; and what was predicted to take place could not but happen. And the cause of this is,
that everything that is fair is followed by a foul blot. If one, then, violate his
engagements, and go aside from the confession which he makes before us, are we not to
stick to the truth because he has belied his profession? But as the good man must not
prove false or fail to ratify what he has promised, although others violate their
engagements; so also are we bound in no way to transgress the canon of the Church. And
especially do we keep our profession in the most important points, while they traverse it.

2 Those, then, are to be believed, who hold firmly to the truth. And we may broadly make
use of this reply, and say to them, that physicians holding opposite opinions according to
their own schools, yet equally in point of fact treat patients. Does one, then, who is ill
in body and needing treatment, not have recourse to a physician, on account of the
different schools in medicine? No more, then, may he who in soul is sick and full of
idols, make a pretext of the heresies, in reference to the recovery of health and
conversion to God. Further, it is said that it is on account of "those that are approved
that heresies exist." [The apostle] calls "approved," either those who in reaching faith
apply to the teaching of the Lord with some discrimination (as those are called skilful
money-changers, who distinguish the spurious coin from the genuine by the false stamp), or
those who have already become approved both in life and knowledge.

3 For this reason, then, we require greater attention and consideration in order to
investigate how precisely we ought to live, and what is the true piety. For it is plain
that, from the very reason that truth is difficult and arduous of attainment, questions
arise from which spring the heresies, savouring of self-love and vanity, of those who have
not learned or apprehended truly, but only caught up a mere conceit of knowledge. With the
greater care, therefore, are we to examine the real truth, which alone has for its object
the true God. And the toil is followed by sweet discovery and reminiscence. On account of
the heresies, therefore, the toil of discovery must be undertaken; but we must not at all
abandon [the truth]. For, on fruit being set before us, some real and ripe, and some made
of wax, as like the real as possible, we are not to abstain from both on account of the
resemblance. But by the exercise of the apprehension of contemplation, and by reasoning of
the most decisive character, we must distinguish the true from the seeming.

4 And as, while there is one royal highway, there are many others, some leading to a
precipice, some to a rushing river or to a deep sea, no one will shrink from travelling by
reason of the diversity, but will make use of the safe, and royal, and frequented way; so,
though some say this, some that, concerning the truth, we must not abandon it; but must
seek out the most accurate knowledge respecting it. Since also among garden-grown
vegetables weeds also spring up, are the husbandmen, then, to desist from gardening?
Having then from nature abundant means for examining the statements made, we ought to
discover the sequence of the truth. Wherefore also we are rightly condemned, if we do not
assent to what we ought to obey, and do not distinguish what is hostile, and unseemly, and
unnatural, and false, from what is true, consistent, and seemly, and according to nature.
And these means must be employed in order to attain to the knowledge of the real truth.

5 This pretext is then, in the case of the Greeks, futile; for those who are willing may
find the truth. But in the case of those who adduce unreasonable excuses, their
condemnation is unanswerable. For whether do they deny or admit that there is such a thing
as demonstration? I am of opinion that all will make the admission, except those who take
away the senses. There being demonstration, then, it is necessary to condescend to
questions, and to ascertain by way of demonstration by the Scriptures themselves how the
heresies failed, and how in the truth alone and in the ancient Church is both the exactest
knowledge, and the truly best set of I principles (ai\ #resij). Now, of those who diverge
from the truth, some attempt to deceive themselves alone, and some also their neighbours.
Those, then, who are called (doco/sofoi) wise in their own opinions, who think that they
have found the truth, but have no true demonstration, deceive themselves in thinking that
they have reached a resting place. And of whom there is no inconsiderable multitude, who
avoid investigations for fear of refutations, and shun instructions for fear of
condemnation. But those who deceive those who seek access to them are very astute; who,
aware that they know nothing, yet darken the truth with plausible arguments.

6 But, in my opinion, the nature of plausible arguments is of one character, and that of
true arguments of another. And we know that it is necessary that the appellation of the
heresies should be expressed in contradistinction to the truth; from which the Sophists,
drawing certain things for the destruction of men, and burying them in human arts invented
by themselves, glory rather in being at the head of a School than presiding over the
Church.

CHAPTER XVI.-SCRIPTURE THE CRITERION BY WHICH TRUTH AND HERESY ARE DISTINGUISHED.

1 But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the
search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves. There
are certain criteria common to men, as the senses; and others that belong to those who
have employed their wills and energies in what is true,-the methods which are pursued by
the mind and reason, to distinguish between true and false propositions. Now, it is a very
great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one's stand between accurate knowledge and the
rash wisdom of opinion, and to know that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that
the entrance to it is toilsome "and strait." And let him who has once received the Gospel,
even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation, "not turn back,
like Lot's wife," as is said; and let him not go back either to his former life, which
adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies. For they form the character, not knowing
the true God. "For he that loveth father or mother more than Me," the Father and Teacher
of the truth, who regenerates and creates anew, and nourishes the elect soul, "is not
worthy of Me"-He means, to be a son of God and a disciple of God, and at the same time
also to be a friend, and of kindred nature. "For no man who looks back, and puts his hand
to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God."

2 But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account of the birth of
her child, as having been in the puerperal state, although she was not. For some say that,
after she brought forth, she was found, when examined, to be a virgin. Now such to us are
the Scriptures of the Lord, which gave birth to the truth and continue virgin, in the
concealment of the mysteries of the truth. "And she brought forth, and yet brought not
forth," Says the Scripture; as having conceived of herself, and not from conjunction.
Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics; but the heresies, not having learned
them, dismissed them as not having conceived. Now all men, having the same judgment, some,
following the Word speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while others, giving themselves
up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts. And the lover of truth,
as I think, needs force of soul. For those who make the greatest attempts must fail in
things of the highest importance; unless, receiving from the truth itself the rule of the
truth, they cleave to the truth. But such people, in consequence of falling away from the
right path, err in most individual points; as you might expect from not having the faculty
for judging of what is true and false, strictly trained to select what is essential. For
if they had, they would have obeyed the Scriptures.

3 As, then, if a man should, similarly to those drugged by Circe, become a beast; so he,
who has spurned the ecclesiastical tradition, and darted off to the opinions of heretical
men, has ceased to be a man of God and to remain faithful to the Lord. But he who has
returned from this deception, on hearing the Scriptures, and turned his life to the truth,
is, as it were, from being a man made a god. For we have, as the source of teaching, the
Lord, both by the prophets, the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, "in divers manners and
at sundry times," leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. But if one should
suppose that another origin was required, then no longer truly could an origin be
preserved. He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord, which by
the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded] faithful. Certainly we use
it as a criterion in the discovery of things. What is subjected to criticism is not
believed till it is so subjected; so that what needs criticism cannot be a first
principle. Therefore, as is reasonable, grasping by faith the indemonstrable first
principle, and receiving in abundance, from the first principle itself, demonstrations in
reference to the first principle, we are by the voice of the Lord trained up to the
knowledge of the truth.

4 For we may not give our adhesion to men on a bare statement by them, who might equally
state the opposite. But if it is not enough merely to state the opinion, but if what is
stated must be confirmed, we do not wait for the testimony of men, but we establish the
matter that is in question by the voice of the Lord, which is the surest of all
demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration; in which knowledge those who have
merely tasted the Scriptures are believers; while those who, having advanced further, and
become correct expounders of the truth, are Gnostics. Since also, in what pertains to
life, craftsmen are superior to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common notions;
so, consequently, we also, giving a complete exhibition of the Scriptures from the
Scriptures themselves, from faith persuade by demonstration. And if those also who follow
heresies venture to avail themselves of the prophetic Scriptures; in the first place they
will not make use of all the Scriptures, and then they will not quote them entire, nor as
the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting ambiguous expressions, they
wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few expressions here and there; not looking
to the sense, but making use of the mere words. For in almost all the quotations they
make, you will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the meanings;
neither knowing, as they affirm, nor using the quotations they adduce, according to their
true nature.

5 But the truth is not found by changing the meanings (for so people subvert all true
teaching), but in the consideration of what perfectly belongs to and becomes the Sovereign
God, and in establishing each one of the points demonstrated in the Scriptures again from
similar Scriptures. Neither, then, do they want to turn to the truth, being ashamed to
abandon the claims of self-love; nor are they able to manage their opinions, by doing
violence to the Scriptures. But having first promulgated false dogmas to men; plainly
fighting against almost the whole Scriptures, and constantly confuted by us who contradict
them; for the rest, even now partly they hold out against admitting the prophetic
Scriptures, and partly disparage us as of a different nature, and incapable of
understanding what is peculiar to them. And sometimes even they deny their own dogmas,
when these are confuted, being ashamed openly to own what in private they glory in
teaching. For this may be seen in all the heresies, when you examine the iniquities of
their dogmas. For when they are overturned by our clearly showing that they are opposed to
the Scriptures, one of two things may be seen to have been done by those who defend the
dogma. For they either despise the consistency of their own dogmas, or despise the
prophecy itself, or rather their own hope. And they invariably prefer what seems to them
to be more evident to what has been spoken by the Lord through the prophets and by the
Gospel, and, besides, attested and confirmed by the apostles.

6 Seeing, therefore, the danger that they are in (not in respect of one dogma, but in
reference to the maintenance of the heresies) of not discovering the truth; for while
reading the books we have ready at hand, they despise them as useless, but in their
eagerness to surpass common faith, they have diverged from the truth. For, in consequence
of not learning the mysteries of ecclesiastical knowledge, and not having capacity for the
grandeur of the truth, too indolent to descend to the bottom of things, reading
superficially, they have dismissed the Scriptures. Elated, then, by vain opinion, they are
incessantly wrangling, and plainly care more to seem than to bephilosophers. Not laying as
foundations the necessary first principles of things; and influenced by human opinions,
then making the end to suit them, by compulsion; on account of being confuted, they spar
with those who are engaged in the prosecution of the true philosophy, and undergo
everything, and, as they say, ply every oar, even going the length of impiety, by
disbelieving the Scriptures, rather than be removed from the honours of the heresy and the
boasted first seat in their churches; on account of which also they eagerly embrace that
convivial couch of honour in the Agape, falsely so called.

7 The knowledge of the truth among us fromwhat is already believed, produces faith in what
is not yet believed; which [faith] is, so to speak, the essence of demonstration. But, as
appears, no heresy has at all ears to hear what is useful, but opened only to what leads
to pleasure. Since also, if one of them would only obey the truth, he would be healed. Now
the cure of self-conceit (as of every ailment) is threefold: the ascertaining of the
cause, and the mode of its removal; and thirdly, the training of the soul, and the
accustoming it to assume a right attitude to the judgments come to. For, just like a
disordered eye, so also the soul that has been darkened by unnatural dogmas cannot
perceive distinctly the light of truth, but even overlooks what is before it. They say,
then, that in muddy water eels are caught by being blinded. And just as knavish boys bar
out the teacher, so do these shut out the prophecies from their Church, regarding them
with suspicion by reason of rebuke and admonition. In fact, they stitch together a
multitude of lies and figments, that they may appear acting in accordance with reason in
not admitting the Scriptures. So, then, they are not pious, in as much as they are not
pleased with the divine commands, that is, with the Holy Spirit. And as those almonds are
called empty in which the contents are worthless, not those in which there is nothing; so
also we call those heretics empty, who are destitute of the counsels of God and the
traditions of Christ; bitter, in truth, like the wild almond, their dogmas originating
with themselves, with the exception of such truths as they could not, by reason of their
evidence, discard and conceal.

8 As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the post which the commander has assigned
him, so neither must we desert the post assigned by the Word, whom we have received as the
guide of knowledge and of life. But the most have not even inquired, if there is one that
we ought to follow, and who this is, and how lie is to be followed. For as is the Word,
such also must the believer's life be, so as to be able to follow God, who brings all
things to end from the beginning by the right course. But when one has transgressed
against the Word, and thereby against God; if it is through becoming powerless in
consequence of some impression being suddenly made, he ought to see to have the
impressions of reasons at hand. And if it is that he has become "common," as the Scripture
says, in consequence of being overcome the habits which formerly had sway by over him, the
habits must be entirely put a stop to, and the soul trained to oppose them. And if it
appears that conflicting dogmas draw some away, these must be taken out of the way, and
recourse is to be had to those who reconcile dogmas, and subdue by the charm of the
Scriptures such of the untutored as are timid, by explaining the truth by the connection
of the Testaments.

9 But, as appears, we incline to ideas founded on opinion, though they be contrary, rather
than to the truth. For it is austere and grave. Now, since there are three states of the
soul-ignorance, opinion, knowledge-those who are in ignorance are the Gentiles, those in
knowledge, the true Church, and those in opinion, the Heretics. Nothing, then, can be more
clearly seen than those, who know, making affirmations about what they know, and the
others respecting what they hold on the strength of opinion, as far as respects
affirmation without proof. They accordingly despise and laugh at one another. And it
happens that the same thought is held in the highest estimation by some, and by others
condemned for insanity. And, indeed, we have learned that voluptuousness, which is to be
attributed to the Gentiles, is one thing; and wrangling, which is preferred among the
heretical sects, is another; and joy, which is to be appropriated to the Church, another;
and delight, which is to be assigned to the true Gnostic, another. And as, if one devote
himself to Ischomachus, he will make him a farmer; and to Lampis, a mariner; and to
Charidemus, a military commander; and to Simon, an equestrian; and to Perdices, a trader;
and to Crobytus, a cook; and to Archelaus, a dancer; and to Homer, a poet; and to Pyrrho,
a wrangler; and to Demosthenes, an orator; and to Chrysippus, a dialectician; and to
Aristotle, a naturalist; and to Plato, a philosopher: so he who listens to the Lord, and
follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the
teacher-made a god going about in flesh.

10 Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow not God whither He leads. And He
leads us in the inspired Scriptures. Though men's actions are ten thousand in number, the
sources of all sin are but two, ignorance and inability. And both depend on ourselves; in
as much as we will not learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust. And of these, the one
is that, in consequence of which people do not judge well, and the other that, in
consequence of which they cannot comply with right judgments. For neither will one who is
deluded in his mind be able to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what he knows;
nor, though capable of judging what is requisite, will he keep himself free of blame, if
destitute of power in action. Consequently, then, there are assigned two kinds of
correction applicable to both kinds of sin: for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration
from the testimony of the Scriptures; and for the other, the training according to the
Word, which is regulated by the discipline of faith and fear. And both develop into
perfect love. For the end of the Gnostic here is, in my judgment, two-fold,-partly
scientific contemplation, partly action.

11 Would, then, that these heretics would learn and be set right by these notes, and turn
to the sovereign God! But if, like the deaf serpents, they listen not to the song called
new, though very old, may they be chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions
previous to the Judgment, till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through
headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment. For there are partial
corrections, which are called chastisements, which many of us who have been in
transgression incur, by falling away from the Lord's people. But as children are chastised
by their teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not punish, for
punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however, for good to those who are
chastised, collectively and individually. I have adduced these things from a wish to avert
those, who are eager to learn, from the liability to fall into heresies, and out of a
desire to stop them from superficial ignorance, or stupidity, or bad disposition, or
whatever it should be called. And in the attempt to persuade and lead to the truth those
who are not entirely incurable, I have made use of these words. For there are some who
cannot bear at all to listen to those who exhort them to turn to the truth; and they
attempt to trifle, pouring out blasphemies against the truth, claiming for themselves the
knowledge of the greatest things in the universe, without having learned, or inquired, or
laboured, or discovered the consecutive train of ideas,-whom one should pity rather than
hate for such perversity.

12 But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the outspokenness of the
truth, which cuts away and burns their false opinions. let him lend the ears of the soul.
And this will be the case, unless, through the propensity to sloth, they push truth away,
or through the desire of fame, endeavour to invent novelties. For those are slothful who,
having it in their power to provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine
Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, select only what contributes to their own
pleasures. And those have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a
diverse sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which are wedded
to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human teachings , in order to
establish the heresy. For, in truth, what remained to be said-in ecclesiastical knowledge
I mean-by such men, Marcion, for example, or Prodicus, and such like, who did not walk in
the right way? For they could not have surpassed their predecessors in wisdom, so as to
discover anything in addition to what had been uttered by them; for they would have been
satisfied had they been able to learn the things laid down before.

13 Our Gnostic then alone, having grown old in the Scriptures, and maintaining apostolic
and ecclesiastic orthodoxy in doctrines, lives most correctly in accordance with the
Gospel, and discovers the proofs, for which he may have made search (sent forth as he is
by the Lord), from the law and the prophets. For the life of the Gnostic, in my view, is
nothing but deeds and words corresponding to the tradition of the Lord. But "all have not
knowledge. For I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren," says the apostle, "that all
were under the cloud, and partook of spiritual meat and drink; " clearly affirming that
all who heard the word did not take in the magnitude of knowledge in deed and word.
Wherefore also he added: "But with all of them He was not well pleased. Who is this? He
who said, "Why do you call Me Lord, and do not the will of My Father? " That is the
Saviour's teaching, which to us is spiritual food, and drink that knows no thirsty the
water of gnostic life. Further it is said, knowledge is said "to puff up. To whom we say:
Perchance seeming knowledge is said to puff up, if one suppose the expression means "to be
swollen up. But if, as is rather the case, the expression of the apostle means, "to
entertain great and true sentiments," the difficulty is solved. Following, then, the
Scriptures, let us establish what has been said: "Wisdom," says Solomon, "has inflated her
children.

14 For the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars of His teaching; but He produces
trust in the truth and expansion of mind, in the knowledge that is communicated by the
Scriptures, and contempt for the things which drag into sin, which is the meaning of the
expression "inflated. It teaches the magnificence of the wisdom implanted in her children
by instruction. Now the apostle says, "I will know not the speech of those that are puffed
up, but the power; " if ye understand the Scriptures magnanimously (which means truly; for
nothing is greater than truth). For in that lies the power of the children of wisdom who
are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if ye rightly entertain great thoughts
respecting knowledge. "For God," according to David, "is known in Judea," that is, those
that are Israelites according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted "Confession. It is,
then, rightly said by the apostle, "This Thou, shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not
steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in
this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

15 For we must never, as do those who follow the heresies, adulterate the truth, or steal
the canon of the Church, by gratifying our own lusts and vanity, by defrauding our
neighbours; whom above all it is our duty, in the exercise of love to them, to teach to
adhere to the truth. It is accordingly expressly said, "Declare among the heathen His
statutes," that they may not be judged, but that those who have previously given ear may
be converted. But those who speak treacherously with their tongues have the penalties that
are on record.

CHAPTER XVII.-THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH PRIOR TO THAT OF THE HERESIES.

1 Those, then, that adhere to impious words, and dictate them to others, in as much as
they do not make a right but a perverse use of the divine words, neither themselves enter
into the kingdom of heaven, nor permit those whom they have deluded to attain the truth.
But not having the key of entrance, but a false (and as the common phrase expresses it), a
counterfeit key (a0ntiklei=j), by which they do not enter in as we enter in, through the
tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain; but bursting through the side-door,
and digging clandestinely through the wall of the Church, and stepping over the truth,
they constitute themselves the Mystagogues of the soul of the impious. For that the human
assemblies which they held were posterior to the Catholic Church requires not many words
to show. For the teaching of our Lord at His advent, beginning with Augustus and Tiberius,
was completed in the middle of the times of Tiberius.

2 And that of the apostles, embracing the ministry of Paul, ends with Nero. It was later,
in the times of Adrian the king, that those who invented the heresies arose; and they
extended to the age of Antoninus the eider, as, for instance, Basilides, though he claims
(as they boast) for his master, Glaucias, the interpreter of Peter. Likewise they allege
that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas. And he was the pupil of Paul. For Marcion, who
arose in the same age with them, lived as an old man with the younger [heretics]. And
after him Simon heard for a little the preaching of Peter. Such being the case, it is
evident, from the high antiquity and perfect truth of the Church, that these later
heresies, and those yet subsequent to them in time, were new inventions falsified [from
the truth]. From what has been said, then, it is my opinion that the true Church, that
which is really ancient, is one, and that in it those who according to God's purpose are
just, are enrolled. For from the very reason that God is one, and the Lord one, that which
is in the highest degree honourable is lauded in consequence of its singleness, being an
imitation of the one first principle. In the nature of the One, then, is associated in a
joint heritage the one Church, which they strive to cut asunder into many sects.

3 Therefore in substance and idea, in origin, in pre-eminence, we say that the ancient and
Catholic Church is alone, collecting as it does into the unity of the one faith-which
results from the peculiar Testaments, or rather the one Testament in different times by
the will of the one God, through one Lord-those already ordained, whom God predestinated,
knowing before the foundation of the world that they would be righteous. But the pre-
eminence of the Church, as the principle of union, is, in its oneness, in this surpassing
all things else, and having nothing like or equal to itself. But of this afterwards. Of
the heresies, some receive their appellation from a [person's] name, as that which is
called after Valentinus, and that after Marcion, and that after Basilides, although they
boast of adducing the opinion of Matthew [without truth]; for as the teaching, so also the
tradition of the apostles was one. Some take their designation from a place, as the
Peratici; some from a nation, as the [heresy] of the Phrygians; some from an action, as
that of the Encratites; and some from peculiar dogmas, as that of the Docetae, and that of
the Harmatites; and some from suppositions, and from individuals they have honoured, as
those called Cainists, and the Ophians; and some from nefarious practices and enormities,
as those of the Simonians called Entychites.

CHAPTER XVIII-THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS IN THE LAW SYMBOLICAL OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE CHURCH, AND JEWS, AND HERETICS.

1 After showing a little peep-hole to those who love to contemplate the Church from the
law of sacrifices respecting clean and unclean animals (in as much as thus the common Jews
and the heretics are distinguished mystically from the divine Church), let us bring the
discourse to a close. For such of the sacrifices as part the hoof, and ruminate, the
Scripture represents as clean and acceptable to God; since the just obtain access to the
Father and to the Son by faith. For this is the stability of those who part the hoof,
those who study the oracles of God night and day, and ruminate them in the soul's
receptacle for instructions; which gnostic exercise the Law expresses under the figure of
the rumination of the clean animal. But such as have neither the one nor the other of
those qualities it separates as unclean. Now those that ruminate, but do not part the
hoof, indicate the majority of the Jews, who have indeed the oracles of God, but have not
faith, and the step which, resting on the truth, conveys to the Father by the Son. Whence
also this kind of cattle are apt to slip, not having a division in the foot, and not
resting on the twofold support of faith. For "no man," it is said, "knoweth the Father,
but he to whom the Son shall reveal Him."

2 And again, those also are likewise unclean that part the hoof, but do not ruminate. For
these point out the heretics, who indeed go upon the name of the Father and the Son, but
are incapable of triturating and grinding down the clear declaration of the oracles, and
who, besides, perform the works of righteousness coarsely and not with precision, if they
perform them at all. To such the Lord says, "Why will ye call me Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say? " And those that neither part the hoof nor chew the cud are
entirely unclean. "But ye Megareans," says Theognis, "are neither third nor fourth, Nor
twelfth, neither in reckoning nor in number,""but as chaff which the wind drives away from
the face of the earth," and as a drop from a vessel." These points, then, having been
formerly thoroughly treated, and the department of ethics having been sketched summarily
in a fragmentary way, as we promised; and having here and there interspersed the dogmas
which are the germs of true knowledge, so that the discovery of the sacred traditions may
not be easy to any one of the uninitiated, let us proceed to what we promised.

3 Now the Miscellanies are not like parts laid out, planted in regular order for the
delight of the eye, but rather like an umbrageous and shaggy hill, planted with laurel,
and ivy, and apples, and olives, and figs; the planting being purposely a mixture of
fruit-bearing and fruitless trees, since the composition aims at concealment, on account
of those that have the daring to pilfer and steal the ripe fruits; from which, however,
the husbandmen, transplanting shoots and plants, will adorn a beautiful park and a
delightful grove. The Miscellanies, then, study neither arrangement nor diction; since
there are even cases in which the Greeks on purpose wish that ornate diction should be
absent, and imperceptibly cast in the seed of dogmas, not according to the truth,
rendering such as may read laborious and quick at discovery. For many and various are the
baits for the various kinds of fishes.

4 And now, after this seventh Miscellany of ours, we shall give the account of what
follows in order from another commencement.


THE STROMATA BOOK 8
===================

THE STROMATA BOOK 8 Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 150–215

Christian teacher in Alexandria who engaged Greek learning.

CHAPTER I.-THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY-THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH.

1 But the most ancient of the philosophers were not carried away to disputing and
doubting, much less are we, who are attached to the really true philosophy, on whom the
Scripture enjoins examination and investigation. For it is the more recent of the Hellenic
philosophers who, by empty and futile love of fame, are led into useless babbling in
refuting and wrangling. But, on the contrary, the Barbarian philosophy, expelling all
contention, said, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; ask,
and it shall be given you." Accordingly, by investigation, the point proposed for inquiry
and answer knocks at the door of truth, according to what appears. And on an opening being
made through the obstacle in the process of investigation, there results scientific
contemplation. To those who thus knock, according to my view, the subject under
investigation is opened. And to those who thus ask questions, in the Scriptures, there is
given from God (that at which they aim) the gift of the God-given knowledge, by way of
comprehension, through the true illumination of logical investigation. For it is
impossible to find, without having sought; or to have sought, without having examined; or
to have examined, without having unfolded and opened up the question by interrogation, to
produce distinctness; or again, to have gone through the whole investigation, without
thereafter receiving as the prize the knowledge of the point in question.

2 But it belongs to him who has sought, to find; and to him to seek, who thinks previously
that he does not know. Hence drawn by desire to the discovery of what is good, he seeks
thoughtfully, without love of strife or glory, asking, answering, and besides considering
the statements made. For it is incumbent, in applying ourselves not only to the divine
Scriptures, but also to common notions, to institute investigations, the discovery ceasing
at some useful end. For another place and crowd await turbulent people, and forensic
sophistries. But it is suitable for him, who is at once a lover and disciple of the truth,
to be pacific even in investigations, advancing by scientific demonstration, without love
of self, but with love of truth, to comprehensive knowledge.

CHAPTER II.-THE NECESSITY OF PERSPICUOUS DEFINITION.

1 What better or clearer method, for the commencement of instruction of this nature, can
there be than discussion of the term advanced, so distinctly, that all who use the same
language may follow it? Is the term for demonstration of such a kind as the word Blityri,
which is a mere sound, signifying nothing? But how is it that neither does the
philosopher, nor the orator,-no more does the judge,-adduce demonstration as a term that
means nothing; nor is any of the contending parties ignorant of the fact, that the meaning
does not exist? Philosophers, in fact, present demonstration as having a substantial
existence, one in one way, another in another. Therefore, if one would treat aright of
each question, he cannot carry back the discourse to another more generally admitted
fundamental principle than what is admitted to be signified by the term by all of the same
nation and language.

2 Then, starting from this point, it is necessary to inquire if the proposition has this
signification or not. And next, if it is demonstrated to have, it is necessary to
investigate its nature accurately, of what kind it is, and whether it ever passes over the
class assigned. And if it suffices not to say, absolutely, only that which one thinks (for
one's opponent may equally allege, on the other side, what he likes); then what is stated
must be confirmed. If the decision of it be carried back to what is likewise matter of
dispute, and the decision of that likewise to another disputed point, it will go on ad
infinitum, and will be incapable of demonstration. But if the belief of a point that is
not admitted be carried back to one admitted by all, that is to be made the commencement
of instruction. Every term, therefore, advanced for discussion is to be converted into an
expression that is admitted by those that are parties in the discussion, to form the
starting point for instruction, to lead the way to the discovery of the points under
investigation. For example, let it be the term "sun" that is in question. Now the Stoics
say that it is "an intellectual fire kindled from the waters of the sea." Is not the
definition, consequently, obscurer than the term, requiring another demonstration to prove
if it be true? It is therefore better to say, in the common and distinct form of speech,
"that the brightest of the heavenly bodies is named the sun." For this expression is more
credible and clearer, and is likewise admitted by all.

CHAPTER III.-DEMONSTRATION DEFINED.

1 Similarly, also, all men will admit that demonstration is discourse, agreeable to
reason, producing belief in points disputed, from points admitted. Now, not only
demonstration and belief and knowledge, but foreknowledge also, are used in a twofold
manner. There is that which is scientific and certain, and that which is merely based on
hope. In strict propriety, then, that is called demonstration which produces in the souls
of learners scientific belief. The other kind is that which merely leads to opinion. As
also, both he that is really a man, possessing common judgment, and he that is savage and
brutal,-each is a man. Thus also the Comic poet said that "man is graceful, so long as he
is man." The same holds with ox, horse, and dog, according to the goodness or badness of
the animal. For by looking to the perfection of the genus, we come to those meanings that
are strictly proper. For instance, we conceive of a physician who is deficient in no
element of the power of healing, and a Gnostic who is defective in no element of
scientific knowledge.

2 Now demonstration differs from syllogism; in as much as the point demonstrated is
indicative of one thing, being one and identical; as we say that to be with child is the
proof of being no longer a virgin. But what is apprehended by syllogism, though one thing,
follows from several; as, for example, not one but several proofs are adduced of Pytho
having betrayed the Byzantines, if such was the fact. And to draw a conclusion from what
is admitted is to syllogize; while to draw a conclusion from what is true is to
demonstrate. So that there is a compound advantage of demonstration: from its assuming,
for the proof of points in question, true premisses, and from its drawing the conclusion
that follows from them. If the first have no existence, but the second follow from the
first, one has not demonstrated, but syllogized. For, to draw the proper conclusion from
the premisses, is merely to syllogize. But to have also each of the premisses true, is not
merely to have syllogized, but also to have demonstrated.

3 And to conclude, as is evident from the word, is to bring to the conclusion. And in
every train of reasoning, the point sought to be determined is the end, which is also
called the conclusion. But no simple and primary statement is termed a syllogism, although
true; but it is compounded of three such, at the least,-of two as premisses, and one as
conclusion. Now, either all things require demonstration, or some of them are self-
evident. But if the first, by demanding the demonstration of each demonstration we shall
go on ad infinitum; and so demonstration is subverted. But if the second, those things
which are self-evident will become the starting points [and fundamental grounds] of
demonstration. In point of fact, the philosophers admit that the first principles of all
things are indemonstrable. So that if there is demonstration at all, there is an absolute
necessity that there be something that is self-evident, which is called primary and
indemonstrable.

4 Consequently all demonstration is traced up to indemonstrable faith. It will also turn
out that there are other starting points for demonstrations, after the source which takes
its rise in faith,-the things which appear clearly to sensation and understanding. For the
phenomena of sensation are simple, and incapable of being decompounded; but those of
understanding are simple, rational, and primary. But those produced from them are
compound, but no less clear and reliable, and having more to do with the reasoning faculty
than the first. For therefore the peculiar native power of reason, which we all have by
nature, deals with agreement and disagreement. If, then, any argument be found to be of
such a kind, as from points already believed to be capable of producing belief in what is
not yet believed, we shall aver that this is the very essence of demonstration. Now it is
affirmed that the nature of demonstration, as that of belief, is twofold: that which
produces in the souls of the hearers persuasion merely, and that which produces knowledge.

5 If, then, one begins with the things which are evident to sensation and understanding,
and then draw the proper conclusion, he truly demonstrates. But if [he begin] with things
which are only probable and not primary, that is evident neither to sense nor
understanding, and if he draw the right conclusion, he will syllogize indeed, but not
produce a scientific demonstration; but if [he draw] not the right conclusion, he will not
syllogize at all. Now demonstration differs from analysis. For each one of the points
demonstrated, is demonstrated by means of points that are demonstrated; those having been
previously demonstrated by others; till we get back to those which are self-evident, or to
those evident to sense and to understanding; which is called Analysis. But demonstration
is, when the point in question reaches us through all the intermediate steps. The man,
then, who practises demonstration, ought to give great attention to the truth, while he
disregards the terms of the premisses, whether you call them axioms, or premisses, or
assumptions. Similarly, also, special attention must be paid to what suppositions a
conclusion is based on; while he may be quite careless as to whether one choose to term it
a conclusive or syllogistic proposition.

6 For I assert that these two things must be attended to by the man who would demonstrate-
to assume true premisses, and to draw from them the legitimate conclusion, which some also
call "the inference," as being what is inferred from the premisses. Now in each
proposition respecting a question there must be different premisses, related, however, to
the proposition laid down; and what is advanced must be reduced to definition. And this
definition must be admitted by all. But when premisses irrelevant to the proposition to be
established are assumed, it is impossible to arrive at any right result; the entire
proposition-which is also called the question of its nature-being ignored. In all
questions, then, there is something which is previously known,-that which being self-
evident is believed without demonstration; which must be made the starting point in their
investigation, and the criterion of apparent results.

CHAPTER IV.-TO PREVENT AMBIGUITY, WE MUST BEGIN WITH CLEAR DEFINITION.

1 For every question is solved from pre-existing knowledge. And the knowledge pre-existing
of each object of investigation is sometimes merely of the essence, while its functions
are unknown (as of stones, and plants, and animals, of whose operations we are ignorant),
or [the knowledge] of the properties, or powers, or (so to speak) of the qualities
inherent in the objects. And sometimes we may know some one or more of those powers or
properties,-as, for example, the desires and affections of the soul,-and be ignorant of
the essence, and make it the object of investigation. But in many instances, our
understanding having assumed all these, the question is, in which of the essences do they
thus inhere; for it is after forming conceptions of both-that is, both of essence and
operation-in our mind, that we proceed to the question. And there are also some objects,
whose operations, along with their essences, we know, but are ignorant of their
modifications.

2 Such, then, is the method of the discovery [of truth]. For we must begin with the
knowledge of the questions to be discussed. For often the form of the expression deceives
and confuses and disturbs the mind, so that it is not easy to discover to what class the
thing is to be referred; as, for example, whether the foetus be an animal. For, having a
conception of an animal and a foetus, we inquire if it be the case that the foetus is an
animal; that is, if the substance which is in the foetal state possesses the power of
motion, and of sensation besides. So that the inquiry is regarding functions and
sensations in a substance previously known. Consequently the man who proposes the question
is to be first asked, what he calls an animal. Especially is this to be done whenever we
find the same term applied to various purposes; and we must examine whether what is
signified by the term is disputed, or admitted by all. For were one to say that he calls
whatever grows and is fed an animal, we shall have again to ask further, whether he
considered plants to be animals; and then, after declaring himself to this effect, he must
show what it is which is in the foetal state, and is nourished.

3 For Plato calls plants animals, as partaking of the third species of life alone, that of
appetency. But Aristotle, while he thinks that plants are possessed of a life of
vegetation and nutrition, does not consider it proper to call them animals; for that
alone, which possesses the other life-that of sensation-he considers warrantable to be
called an animal. The Stoics do not call the power of vegetation, life. Now, on the man
who proposes the question denying that plants are animals, we shall show that he affirms
what contradicts himself. For, having defined the animal by the fact of its nourishment
and growth, but having asserted that a plant is not an animal, it appears that he says
nothing else than that what is nourished and grows is both an animal and not an animal.
Let him, then, say what he wants to learn. Is it whether what is in the womb grows and is
nourished, or is it whether it possesses any sensation or movement by impulse? For,
according to Plato, the plant is animate, and an animal; but, according to Aristotle, not
an animal, for it wants sensation, but is animate. Therefore, according to him, an animal
is an animate sentient being. But according to the Stoics, a plant is neither animate nor
an animal; for an animal is an animate being. If, then, an animal is animate, and life is
sentient nature, it is plain that what is animate is sentient. If, then, he who has put
the question, being again interrogated if he still calls the animal in the foetal state an
animal on account of its being nourished and growing, he has got his answer.

4 But were he to say that the question he asks is, whether the foetus is already sentient,
or capable of moving itself in consequence of any impulse, the investigation of the matter
becomes clear, the fallacy in the name no longer remaining. But if he do not reply to the
interrogation, and will not say what he means, or in respect of what consideration it is
that he applies the term "animal" in propounding the question, but bids us define it
ourselves, let him be noted as disputatious. But as there are two methods, one by question
and answer, and the other the method of exposition, if he decline the former, let him
listen to us, while we expound all that bears on the problem. Then when we have done, he
may treat of each point in turn. But if he attempt to interrupt the investigation by
putting questions, he plainly does not want to hear.

5 But if he choose to reply, let him first be asked, To what thing he applies the name,
animal. And when he has answered this, let him be again asked, what, in his view, the
foetus means, whether that which is in the womb, or things already formed and living; and
again, if the foetus means the seed deposited, or if it is only when members and a shape
are formed that the name of embryos is to be applied. And on his replying to this, it is
proper that the point in hand be reasoned out to a conclusion, in due order, and taught.
But if he wishes us to speak without him answering, let him hear. Since you will not say
in what sense you allege what you have propounded (for I would not have thus engaged in a
discussion about meanings, but I would now have looked at the things themselves), know
that you have done just as if you had propounded the question, Whether a dog were an
animal? For I might have rightly said, Of what dog do you speak? For I shall speak of the
land dog and the sea dog, and the constellation in heaven, and of Diogenes too, and all
the other dogs in order. For I could not divine whether you inquire about all or about
some one. What you shall do subsequently is to learn now, and say distinctly what it is
that your question is about. Now if you are shuffling about names, it is plain to
everybody that the name foetus is neither an animal nor a plant, but a name, and a sound,
and a body, and a being, and anything and everything rather than an animal. And if it is
this that you have propounded, you are answered.

6 But neither is that which is denoted by the name foetus an animal. But that is
incorporeal, and may be called a thing and a notion, and everything rather than an animal.
The nature of an animal is different. For it was clearly shown respecting the very point
in question, I mean the nature of the embryo, of what sort it is. The question respecting
the meanings expressed by the name animal is different. I say, then, if you affirm that an
animal is what has the power of sensation and of moving itself from appetency, that an
animal is not simply what moves through appetency and is possessed of sensation. For it is
also capable of sleeping, or, when the objects of sensation are not present, of not
exercising the power of sensation. But the natural power of appetency or of sensation is
the mark of an animal. For something of this nature is indicated by these things. First,
if the foetus is not capable of sensation or motion from appetency; which is the point
proposed for consideration. Another point is; if the foetus is capable of ever exercising
the power of sensation or moving through appetency. In which sense no one makes it a
question, since it is evident.

7 But the question was, whether the embryo is already an animal, or still a plant. And
then the name animal was reduced to definition, for the sake of perspicuity. But having
discovered that it is distinguished from what is not an animal by sensation and motion
from appetency; we again separated this from its adjuncts; asserting that it was one thing
for that to be such potentially, which is not yet possessed of the power of sensation and
motion, but will some time be so, and another thing to be already so actually; and in the
case of such, it is one thing to exert its powers, another to be able to exert them, but
to be at rest or asleep. And this is the question. For the embryo is not to be called an
animal from the fact that it is nourished; which is the allegation of those who turn aside
from the essence of the question, and apply their minds to what happens otherwise. But in
the case of all conclusions alleged to be found out, demonstration is applied in common,
which is discourse (lo/goj), establishing one thing from others. But the grounds from
which the point in question is to be established, must be admitted and known by the
learner. And the foundation of all these is what is evident to sense and to intellect.

8 Accordingly the primary demonstration is composed of all these. But the demonstration
which, from points already demonstrated thereby, concludes some other point, is no less
reliable than the former. It cannot be termed primary, because the conclusion is not drawn
from primary principles as premisses. The first species, then, of the different kinds of
questions, which are three, has been exhibited-I mean that, in which the essence being
known, some one of its powers or properties is unknown. The second variety of propositions
was that in which we all know the powers and properties, but do not know the essence; as,
for example, in what part of the body is the principal faculty of the soul.

CHAPTER V.-APPLICATION OF DEMONSTRATION TO SCEPTICAL SUSPENSE OF JUDGMENT.

1 Now the same treatment which applies to demonstration applies also to the following
question. Some, for instance, say that there cannot be several originating causes for one
animal. It is impossible that there can be several homogeneous originating causes of an
animal; but that there should be several heterogeneous, is not absurd. Suppose the
Pyrrhonian suspense of judgment, as they say, [the idea] that nothing is certain: it is
plain that, beginning with itself, it first invalidates itself. It either grants that
something is true, that you are not to suspend your judgment on all things; or it persists
in saying that there is nothing true. And it is evident, that first it will not be true.
For it either affirms what is true or it does not affirm what is true. But if it affirms
what is true, it concedes, though unwillingly, that something is true. And if it does not
affirm what is true, it leaves true what it wished to do away with. For, in so far as the
scepticism which demolishes is proved false, in so far the positions which are being
demolished, are proved true; like the dream which says that all dreams are false. For in
confuting itself, it is confirmatory of the others.

2 And, in fine, if it is true, it will make a beginning with itself, and not be scepticism
of anything else but of itself first. Then if [such a man] apprehends that he is a man, or
that he is sceptical, it is evident that he is not sceptical. And how shall he reply to
the interrogation? For he is evidently no sceptic in respect to this. Nay, he affirms even
that he does doubt. And if we must be persuaded to suspend our judgment in regard to
everything, we shall first suspend our judgment in regard to our suspense of judgment
itself, whether we are to credit it or not. And if this position is true, that we do not
know what is true, then absolutely nothing is allowed to be true by it. But if he will say
that even this is questionable, whether we know what is true; by this very statement he
grants that truth is knowable, in the very act of appearing to establish the doubt
respecting it.

3 But if a philosophical sect is a leaning toward dogmas, or, according to some, a leaning
to a number of dogmas which have consistency with one another and with phenomena, tending
to a right life; and dogma is a logical conception, and conception is a state and assent
of the mind: not merely sceptics, but every one who dogmatizes is accustomed in certain
things to suspend his judgment, either through want of strength of mind, or want of
clearness in the things, or equal force in the reasons.

CHAPTER VI.-DEFINITIONS, GENERA, AND SPECIES.

1 The introductions and sources of questions are about these points and in them. But
before definitions, and demonstrations, and divisions, it must be propounded in what ways
the question is stated; and equivocal terms are to be treated; and synomyms stated
accurately according to their significations. Then it is to be inquired whether the
proposition belongs to those points, which are considered in relation to others, or is
taken by itself. Further, If it is, what it is, what happens to it; or thus, also, if it
is, what it is, why it is. And to the consideration of these points, the knowledge of
Particulars and Universals, and the Antecedents and the Differences, and their divisions,
contribute. Now, Induction aims at generalization and definition; and the divisions are
the species, and what a thing is, and the individual. The contemplation of the How adduces
the assumption of what is peculiar; and doubts bring the particular differences and the
demonstrations, and otherwise augment the speculation and its consequences; and the result
of the whole is scientific knowledge and truth.

2 Again, the summation resulting from Division becomes Definition. For Definition is
adopted before division and after: before, when it is admitted or stated; after, when it
is demonstrated. And by Sensation the Universal is summed up from the Particular. For the
starting point of Induction is Sensation; and the end is the Universal. Induction,
accordingly, shows not what a thing is, but that it is, or is not. Division shows what it
is; and Definition similarly with Division teaches the essence and what a thing is, but
not if it is; while Demonstration explains the three points, if it is, what it is, and why
it is. There are also Definitions which contain the Cause. And since it may be known when
we see, when we see the Cause ; and Causes are four-the matter, the moving power, the
species, the end; Definition will be fourfold. Accordingly we must first take the genus,
in which are the points that are nearest those above; and after this the next difference.
And the succession of differences, when cut and divided, completes the "What it is." There
is no necessity for expressing all the differences of each thing, but those which form the
species.

3 Geometrical analysis and synthesis are similar to logical division and definition; and
by division we get back to what is simple and more elementary. We divide, therefore, the
genus of what is proposed for consideration into the species contained in it; as, in the
case of man, we divide animal, which is the genus, into the species that appear in it, the
mortal, and the immortal. And thus, by continually dividing those genera that seem to be
compound into the simpler species, we arrive at the point which is the subject of
investigation, and which is incapable of further division. For, after dividing "the
animal" into mortal and immortal, then into terrestrial and aquatic; and the terrestrial
again into those who fly and those who walk; and so dividing the species which is nearest
to what is sought, which also contains what is sought, we arrive by division at the
simplest species, which contains nothing else, but what is sought alone.

4 For again we divide that which walks into rational and irrational; and then selecting
from the species, apprehended by division, those next to man, and combining them into one
formula, we state the definition of a man, who is an animal, mortal, terrestrial, walking,
rational. Whence Division furnishes the class of matter, seeking for the definition the
simplicity of the name; and the definition of the artisan and maker, by composition and
construction, presents the knowledge of the thing as it is; not of those things of which
we have general notions. To these notions we say that explanatory expressions belong. For
to these notions, also, divisions are applicable. Now one Division divides that which is
divided into species, as a genus; and another into parts, as a whole; and another into
accidents. The division, then, of a whole into the parts, is, for the most part, conceived
with reference to magnitude; that into the accidents can never be entirely explicated, if,
necessarily, essence is inherent in each of the existences.

5 Whence both these divisions are to be rejected, and only the division of the genus into
species is approved, by which both the identity that is in the genus is characterized, and
the diversity which subsists in the specific differences. The species is always
contemplated in a part. On the other hand, however, if a thing is part of another, it will
not be also a species. For the hand is a part of a man, but it is not a species. And the
genus exists in the species. For [the genus] is both in man and the ox. But the whole is
not in the parts. For the man is not in his feet. Wherefore also the species is more
important than the part; and whatever things are predicated of the genus will be all
predicated of the species. It is best, then, to divide the genus into two, if not into
three species. The species then being divided more generically, are characterized by
sameness and difference. And then being divided, they are characterized by the points
generically indicated.

6 For each of the species is either an essence; as when we say, Some substances are
corporeal and some incorporeal; or how much, or what relation, or where, or when, or
doing, or suffering. One, therefore, will give the definition of whatever he possesses the
knowledge of; as one can by no means be acquainted with that which he cannot embrace and
define in speech. And in consequence of ignorance of the definition, the result is, that
many disputes and deceptions arise. For if he that knows the thing has the knowledge of it
in his mind, and can explain by words what he conceives; and if the explanation of the
thought is definition; then he that knows the thing must of necessity be able also to give
the definition. Now in definitions, difference is assumed, which, in the definition,
occupies the place of sign. The faculty of laughing, accordingly, being added to the
definition of man, makes the whole-a rational, mortal, terrestrial, walking, laughing
animal. For the things added by way of difference to the definition are the signs of the
properties of things; but do not show the nature of the things themselves. Now they say
that the difference is the assigning of what is peculiar; and as that which has the
difference differs from all the rest, that which belongs to it alone, and is predicated
conversely of the thing, must in definitions be assumed by the first genus as principal
and fundamental.

7 Accordingly, in the larger definitions the number of the species that are discovered are
in the ten Categories; and in the least, the principal points of the nearest species being
taken, mark the essence and nature of the thing. But the least consists of three, the
genus and two essentially necessary species. And this is done for the sake of brevity. We
say, then, Man is the laughing animal. And we must assume that which pre-eminently happens
to what is defined, or its peculiar virtue, or its peculiar function, and the like.
Accordingly, while the definition is explanatory of the essence of the thing, it is
incapable of accurately comprehending its nature. By means of the principal species, the
definition makes an exposition of the essence, and almost has the essence in the quality.

CHAPTER VII.-ON THE CAUSES OF DOUBT OR ASSENT.

The causes productive of scepticism are two things principally. One is the changefulness
and instability of the human mind, whose nature it is to generate dissent, either that of
one with another, or that of people with themselves. And the second is the discrepancy
which is in things; which, as to be expected, is calculated to be productive of
scepticism. For, being unable either to believe in all views, on account of their
conflicting nature; or to disbelieve all, because that which says that all are
untrustworthy is included in the number of those that are so; or to believe some and
disbelieve others on account of the equipoise, we are led to scepticism. But among the
principal causes of scepticism is the instability of the mind, which is productive of
dissent. And dissent is the proximate cause of doubt. Whence life is full of tribunals and
councils; and, in fine, of selection in what is said to be good and bad; which are the
signs of a mind in doubt, and halting through feebleness on account of conflicting
matters. And there are libraries full of books, and compilations and treatises of those
who differ in dogmas, and are confident that they themselves know the truth that there is
in things.

CHAPTER VIII.-THE METHOD OF CLASSIFYING THINGS AND NAMES.

1 In language there are three things :-Names, which are primarily the symbols of
conceptions, and by consequence also of subjects. Second, there are Conceptions, which are
the likenesses and impressions of the subjects. Whence in all, the conceptions are the
same; in consequence of the same impression being produced by the subjects in all. But the
names are not so, on account of the difference of languages. And thirdly, the Subject-
matters by which the Conceptions are impressed in us. The names are reduced by grammar
into the twenty-four general elements; for the elements must be determined. For of
Particulars there is no scientific knowledge, seeing they are infinite. But it is the
property of science to rest on general and defined principles. Whence also Particulars are
resolved into Universals. And philosophic research is occupied with Conceptions and Real
subjects. But since of these the Particulars are infinite, some elements have been found,
under which every subject of investigation is brought; and if it be shown to enter into
any one or more of the elements, we prove it to exist; but if it escape them all, that it
does not exist.

2 Of things stated, some are stated without connection; as, for example, "man" and "runs,"
and whatever does not complete a sentence, which is either true or false. And of things
stated in connection, some point out "essence," some "quality," some "quantity," some
"relation," some "where," some "when," some "position," some "possession," some "action,"
some "suffering," which we call the elements of material things after the first
principles. For these are capable of being contemplated by reason. But immaterial things
are capable of being apprehended by the mind alone, by primary application. And of those
things that are classed under the ten Categories, some are predicated by themselves (as
the nine Categories), and others in relation to something. And, again, of the things
contained under these ten Categories, some are Univocal, as ox and man, as far as each is
an animal. For those are Univocal terms, to both of which belongs the common name, animal;
and the same principle, that is definition, that is animate essence. And Heteronyms are
those which relate to the same subject under different names, as ascent or descent; for
the way is the same whether upwards or downwards. And the other species of Heteronyms, as
horse and black, are those which have a different name and definition from each other, and
do not possess the same subject. But they are to be called different, not Heteronyms. And
Polyonyms are those which have the same definition, but a different name, as, hanger,
sword, scimitar. And Paronyms are those which are named from something different, as
"manly" from "manliness."

3 Equivocal terms have the same name, but not the same definition, as man-both the animal
and the picture. Of Equivocal terms, some receive their Equivocal name fortuitously, as
Ajax, the Locrian, and the Salaminian; and some from intention; and of these, some from
resemblance, as man both the living and the painted; and some from analogy, as the foot of
Mount Ida, and our foot, because they are beneath; some from action, as the foot of a
vessel, by which the vessel soils, and our foot, by which we move. Equivocal terms are
designated from the same and to the same; as the book and scalpel are called surgical,
both from the surgeon who uses them and with reference to the surgical matter itself.

CHAPTER IX.-ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CAUSE.

1 Of Causes, some are Procatarctic and some Synectic, some Co-operating, some Causes sine
quâ non. Those that afford the occasion of the origin of anything first, are Procatarctic;
as beauty is the cause of love to the licentious; for when seen by them, it alone produces
the amorous inclinanation, but not necessarily. Causes are Synectic (which are also
univocally perfect of themselves) whenever a cause is capable of producing the effect of
itself, independently. Now all the causes may be shown in order in the case of the
learner. The father is the Procatarctic cause of learning, the teacher the. Synectic, and
the nature of the learner the cooperating cause, and time holds the relation of the Cause
sine qua ( non. Now that is properly called a cause which is capable of effecting anything
actively; since we say that steel is capable of cutting, not merely while cutting, but
also while not cutting. Thus, then, the capability of causing (to\ parektiko/n) signifies
both; both that which is now acting, and that which is not yet acting, but which possesses
the power of acting.

2 Some, then, say that causes are properties of bodies; and others of incorporeal
substances; others say that the body is properly speaking cause, and that what is
incorporeal is so only catachrestically, and a quasi-cause. Others, again, reverse
matters, saying that corporeal substances are properly causes, and bodies are so
improperly; as, for example, that cutting, which is an action, is incorporeal, and is the
cause of cutting which is an action and incorporeal, and, in the case of bodies, of being
cut,-as in the case of the sword and what is cut [by it]. The cause of things is
predicated in a threefold manner. One, What the cause is, as the statuary; a second, Of
what it is the cause of becoming, a statue; and a third, To what it is the cause, as, for
example, the material: for he is the cause to the brass of becoming a statue. The being
produced, and the being cut, which are causes to what they belong, being actions, are
incorporeal.

3 According to which principle, causes belong to the class of predicates (kathgorhma/twn),
or, as others say, of dicta (lektw=n) (for Cleanthes and Archedemus call predicates
dicta); or rather, some causes will be assigned to the class of predicates, as that which
is cut, whose case is to be cut; and some to that of axioms,-as, for example, that of a
ship being made, whose case again is, that a ship is constructing. Now Aristotle
denominates the name of such things as a house, a ship, burning, cutting, an appellative.
But the case is allowed to be incorporeal. Therefore that sophism is solved thus: What you
say passes through your mouth. Which is true. You name a house. Therefore a house passes
through your mouth. Which is false. For we do not speak the house, which is a body, but
the case, in which the house is, which is incorporeal. 4 And we say that the house-builder
builds the house, in reference to that which is to be produced. So we say that the cloak
is woven; for that which makes is the indication of the operation. That which makes is not
the attribute of one, and the cause that of another, but of the same, both in the case of
the cloak and of the house. For, in as far as one is the cause of anything being produced,
in so far is he also the maker of it. Consequently, the cause, and that which makes, and
that through which (di' o#), are the same. Now, if anything is "a cause" and "that which
effects," it is certainly also "that through which." But if a thing is "that through
which," it does not by any means follow that it is also "the cause." Many things, for
instance, concur in one result, through which the end is reached; but all are not causes.
For Medea would not have killed her children, had she not been enraged. Nor would she have
been enraged, had she not been jealous. Nor would she have been this, if she had not
loved. Nor would she have loved, had not Jason sailed to Colchi. Nor would this have taken
place, had the Argo not been built. Nor would this have taken place, had not the timbers
been cut from Pelion. For though in all these things there is the case of "that through
which," they are not all "causes" of the murder of the children, but only Medea was the
cause. Wherefore, that which does not hinder does not act. Wherefore, that which does not
hinder is not a cause, but that which hinders is. For it is in acting and doing something
that the cause is conceived:

5 Besides, what does not hinder is separated from what takes place; but the cause is
related to the event. That, therefore, which does not hinder cannot be a cause. Wherefore,
then, it is accomplished, because that which can hinder is not present. Causation is then
predicated in four ways: The efficient cause, as the statuary; and the material, as the
brass; and the form, as the character; and the end, as the honour of the Gymnasiarch. The
relation of the cause sine qua ( non is held by the brass in reference to the production
of the statue; and likewise it is a [true] cause. For everything without which the effect
is incapable of being produced, is of necessity a cause; but a cause not absolutely. For
the cause sine qua ( non is not Synectic, but Co-operative. And everything that acts
produces the effect, in conjunction with the aptitude of that which is acted on. For the
cause disposes. But each thing is affected according to its natural constitution; the
aptitude being causative, and occupying the place of causes sine qua non. Accordingly, the
cause is inefficacious without the aptitude; and is not a cause, but a co-efficient. For
all causation is conceived in action. Now the earth could not make itself, so that it
could not be the cause of itself. And it were ridiculous to say that the fire was not the
cause of the burning, but the logs,-or the sword of the cutting, but the flesh,-or the
strength of the antagonist the cause of the athlete being vanquished, but his own
weakness.

6 The Synectic cause does not require time. For the cautery produces pain at the instant
of its application to the flesh. Of Procatarctic causes, some require time till the effect
be produced, and others do not require it, as the case of fracture. Are not these called
independent of time, not by way of privation, but of diminution, as that which is sudden,
not that which has taken place without time? Every cause, apprehended by the mind as a
cause, is occupied with something, and is conceived in relation to something; that is,
some effect, as the sword for cutting; and to some object, as possessing an aptitude, as
the fire to the wood. For it will not burn steel. The cause belongs to the things which
have relation to something. For it is conceived in its relation to another thing. So that
we apply our minds to the two, that we may conceive the cause as a cause.

7 The same relation holds with the creator, and maker, and father. A thing is not the
cause of itself. Nor is one his own father. For so the first would become the second. Now
the cause acts and affects. That which is produced by the cause is acted on and is
affected. But the same thing taken by itself cannot both act and be affected, nor can one
be son and father. And otherwise the cause precedes in being what is done by it, as the
sword, the cutting. And the same thing cannot precede at the same instant as to matter, as
it is a cause, and at the same time, also, be after and posterior as the effect of a
cause. Now being differs from becoming, as the cause from the effect, the father from the
son. For the same thing cannot both beand becomeat the same instant; and consequently it
is not the cause of itself. Things are not causes of one another, but causes to each
other. For the splenetic affection preceding is not the cause of fever, but of the
occurrence of fever; and the fever which precedes is not the cause of spleen, but of the
affection increasing.

8 Thus also the virtues are causes to each other, because on account of their mutual
correspondence they cannot be separated. And the stones in the arch are causes of its
continuing in this category, but are not the causes of one another. And the teacher and
the learner are to one another causes of progressing as respects the predicate. And mutual
and reciprocal causes are predicated, some of the same things, as the merchant and the
retailer are causes of gain; and sometimes one of one thing and others of another, as the
sword and the flesh; for the one is the cause to the flesh of being cut, and the flesh to
the sword of cutting. [It is well said, ] "An eye for an eye, life for life." For he who
has wounded another mortally, is the cause to him of death, or of the occurrence of death.
But on being mortally wounded by him in turn, he has had him as a cause in turn, not in
respect of being a cause to him, but in another respect. For he becomes the cause of death
to him, not that it was death returned the mortal stroke, but the wounded man himself. So
that he was the cause of one thing, and had another cause. And he who has done wrong
becomes the cause to another, to him who has been wronged. But the law which enjoins
punishment to be inflicted is the cause not of injury, but to the one of retribution, to
the other of discipline. So that the things which are causes, are not causes to each other
as causes.

9 It is still asked, if many things in conjunction become many causes of one thing. For
the men who pull together are the causes of the ship being drawn down; but along with
others, unless what is a joint cause be a cause. Others say, if there are many causes,
each by itself becomes the cause of one thing. For instance, the virtues, which are many,
are causes of happiness, which is one; and of warmth and pain, similarly, the causes are
many. Are not, then, the many virtues one in power, and the sources of warmth and of pain
so, also? and does not the multitude of the virtues, being one in kind, become the cause
of the one result, happiness? But, in truth, Procatarctic causes are more than one both
generically and specifically; as, for example, cold, weakness, fatigue, dyspepsia,
drunkenness, generically, of any disease; and specifically, of fever. But Synectic causes
are so, generically alone, and not also specifically.

10 For of pleasant odour, which is one thing genetically, there are many specific causes,
as frankincense, rose, crocus, styrax, myrrh, ointment. For the rose has not the same kind
of sweet fragrance as myrrh. And the same thing becomes the cause of contrary effects;
sometimes through the magnitude of the cause and its power, and sometimes in consequence
of the susceptibility of that on which it acts. According to the nature of the force, the
same string, according to its tension or relaxation, gives a shrill or deep sound. And
honey is sweet to those who are well, and bitter to those who are in fever, according to
the state of susceptibility of those who are affected. And one and the same wine inclines
some to rage, and others to merriment. And the same sun melts wax and hardens clay.
Further, of causes, some are apparent; others are grasped by a process of reasoning;
others are occult; others are inferred analogically.

11 And of causes that are occult, some are occult temporarily, being hidden at one time,
and at another again seen clearly; and some are occult by nature, and capable of becoming
at no time visible. And of those who are so by nature, some are capable of being
apprehended; and these some would not call occult, being apprehended by analogy, through
the medium of signs, as, for example, the symmetry of the passages of the senses, which
are contemplated by reason. And some are not capable of being apprehended; which cannot in
any mode fall under apprehension; which are by their very definition occult. Now some are
Procatarctic, some Synectic, some Joint-causes, some Co-operating causes. And there are
some according to nature, some beyond nature. And there are some of disease and by
accident, some of sensations, some of the greatness of these, some of times and of
seasons. Procatarctic causes being removed, the effect remains. But a Synectic cause is
that, which being present, the effect remains, and being removed, the effect is removed.

12 The Synectic is also called by the synonymous expression "perfect in itself." Since it
is of itself sufficient to produce the effect. And if the cause manifests an operation
sufficient in itself, the co-operating cause indicates assistance and service along with
the other. If, accordingly, it effects nothing, it will not be called even a co-operating
cause; and if it does effect something, it is wholly the cause of this, that is, of what
is produced by it. That is, then, a co-operating cause, which being present, the effect
was produced-the visible visibly, and the occult invisibly. The Joint-cause belongs also
to the genus of causes, as a fellow-soldier is a soldier, and as a fellow-youth is a
youth. The Co-operating cause further aids the Synectic, in the way of intensifying what
is produced by it. But the Joint-cause does not fall under the same notion. For a thing
may be a Joint-cause, though it be not a Synectic cause. For the Joint-cause is conceived
in conjunction with another, which is not capable of producing the effect by itself, being
a cause along with a cause. And the Co-operating cause differs from the Joint-cause in
this particular, that the Joint-cause produces the effect in that which by itself does not
act. But the Co-operating cause, while effecting nothing by itself, yet by its accession
to that which acts by itself, co-operates with it, in order to the production of the
effect in the intensest degree. But especially is that which becomes co-operating from
being Procatarctic, effective in intensifying the force of the cause.


SOURCES AND CREDITS
===================

Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS (PROTREPTICUS) Greek text: Otto Stählin’s edition (Leipzig,
Hinrichs, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0).
English (older translation): Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885), public domain, from the
Writings-Database collection (HistoricalChristianFaith); we matched its sentences to the
Greek rows, and the translator’s chapter titles are kept. English (older translation):
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885), public domain, from the Writings-Database collection
(HistoricalChristianFaith); we matched its sentences to the Greek rows, and the
translator’s chapter titles are kept. Modern English: prepared for SermonIndex with AI,
based on that older English translation and checked clause by clause against the Greek,
then checked again in a second AI pass, and released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Where the older
translation departs from the Greek, our wording follows the Greek and a translator’s note
says so. Translator’s notes also explain hard words and mark places where the author
departs from Scripture. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

THE INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) Greek text: Otto Stählin’s edition (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1905),
digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). English (older
translation): Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885), public domain, from the Writings-
Database collection (HistoricalChristianFaith); we matched its sentences to the Greek
rows, and the translator’s chapter titles are kept. English (older translation): Ante-
Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885), public domain, from the Writings-Database collection
(HistoricalChristianFaith); we matched its sentences to the Greek rows by reading both in
order. Modern English: prepared for SermonIndex with AI, based on that older English
translation and checked clause by clause against the Greek, then checked again in a second
AI pass, and released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Where the older translation departs from the
Greek, our wording follows the Greek and a translator’s note says so. Translator’s notes
also explain hard words and mark places where the author departs from Scripture. Long
sections are divided into parts (2a, 2b …) for easier reading; those divisions are ours,
not the author’s. The short hymn at the end of Book 3 has no older English column.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

THE STROMATA BOOK 1 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 2 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 4 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 5 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 6 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 7 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE STROMATA BOOK 8 English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.