Книга четвертая

1. The plan that the writer intends to follow in the future when discussing various subjects I now find it consistent to begin speaking about martyrdom, as well as about perfection and the perfect. Regarding these two topics, everything that has a connection with them will be presented. Here we, regardless of a person’s gender, whether male or female, will first of all have to resolve the philosophical question of who is a slave and who is free. Then, having supplemented our previous discussions about faith 470 and discussed the question of how to come to it, we will immediately enter into a discussion about symbols; and after a word about morals, casually throwing in a few conclusions about them, we will briefly show how barbarian philosophy helped the Hellenes. After presenting to the reader's attention an outline of this subject, we will dwell for a while on the passages of Scripture in refutation of both the Greeks and the Jews. Next we will go into some details, which in the preface we promised to present in one of the essays, but which promise we could not fulfill, being overwhelmed by the abundance of material and leaving them for this. After presenting, as far as possible, all these subjects, we will enter into an analysis of naturalistic principles, as far as the memory of them was preserved among the Hellenes and barbarians, in order to then move on to a discussion of the most important philosophical teachings. For this, after a quick glance at theology, it will be natural for us to present the traditions and prophetic ones. After this confirmation of the authenticity of the Scripture in which we have believed, and the demonstration of its Divine authority, we will be able to follow the heretical teachings step by step, contrasting them with the teaching of the one God and the Lord Almighty, so sincerely proclaimed in the law, the prophetic writings and in the gracious Gospel. Here the writer naturally expects frequent clashes with adherents of opposing opinions; but his intention is to overcome all the vileness of the sectarians by including them in this literary monument and by exposing their inventors with references to Scripture, against their own will, to convince them otherwise. Our task will thus be completed in its entirety as soon as our explanations, to the extent that they are instilled in us by the Holy Spirit - of which we consider it necessary to inform the reader before the presentation of the truth itself - we satisfy the most urgent need of the time. After this, we will move on to the presentation of the true Gnostic view of nature and will initiate the reader into the mysteries of lesser importance, first, in order to then lead him to the perception of the mysteries of the most important 471. Thus, after the preliminary principles have been clarified and formulated, the interpretation of holy things in accordance with the Divine Mind will no longer be hindered by anything. But this establishment of a view of visible nature, or better to say, dedication of ourselves to the mystery of the existence of the universe, through familiarization with the true Gnostic tradition and through cosmogonic theory, will lead us to the knowledge of God. That is why the starting point of our view of nature is to view it as created, which was also established by the prophets. In passing, we will recall the theories and those who think differently in order to expose, as far as possible, their inconsistency. And yet this entire plan can be fulfilled with the assistance only of the grace of God and to the extent that the Divine influxes upon us. Let us now turn, therefore, to our subject and first of all finish what remains for us to say about morality. 2. Why are these books given the name “Stromat”? These “Memoirs” of ours, as we have said more than once, due to readers who are not very sensible and knowledgeable, are given the appearance of patterned carpets, or with variegated types of tapestries. In them we constantly move from one subject to another, talking about one thing and giving something else to those we talk about. “The miner,” says Heraclitus, “searching for gold in the earth, digs through a lot of it, but finds little.” The reader of these “Notes” of ours, if he represents, so to speak, the true gold of the earth, and if he extracts from this creation of ours only that which is similar to himself, and without particularly rummaging through this creation of ours, he will find here even in small ways: after all, this book will meet at least one reader who will understand it. These “Stromata” of ours, in the hands of a reasonable person, are a medicine for his memory and a means of facilitating the discovery of the truth. But they do not impose unnecessary obligations on the reader and an independent attitude to the matter, and they will not be offended if he adds his own personal reasoning to them. For a reasonable traveler, if he enters an unfamiliar road, it is enough just to show him the true path so that he reaches the goal of the journey; It is up to him to walk unaccompanied and, based on his own considerations, to guess where he is and where the goal of his path is. One slave once asked the Delphic priestess for advice: “How can he please his master?” The Pythia answered: “Think and you will discover.” And yet it seems to me that the discovery of hidden beauty cannot be achieved without the expenditure of effort and labor. “Virtue only comes later” 472. ...The path to it is long and steep And very difficult at first. But when they climb to the top, It seems as easy as it seemed uncomfortable at first. Yes, indeed the path of the Lord is narrow and strait. 7:14) and only those who use effort 473 admire the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 11:12). That is why the Lord tells us: Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7), you will find if you keep to the royal path and never stray from it if you do not deviate from the path of strangers. Let it not seem strange to anyone that this work of ours looks like a field with different varieties of flowers and herbs growing on it. The plant, according to Scripture, although it takes up little space, contains many fruitful seeds (Job 5:25). Therefore, if our “Notes” are called “Stromata” (i.e., motley meadows), then this name is quite appropriate for their content, because they really talk about different subjects. According to Sophocles, in ancient sacrifices The fleece of the sheep and the wine were included, And well-preserved grape clusters, And olive oil in vessels, And wax honeycomb, the skillful work of the bee. Likewise, in our present “Stromata,” let us use the comparison that the comedian Timocles put into the mouth of his gardener, “as if in some fertile field, wine berries and olive trees and wild figs and bees bring honey.” It is this fertility of the field that makes the owner say: Of course, you’re not talking about the cultivated field, but about the branch of the olive tree standing in front of the church. Athenian children actually had the custom of singing verses with the following content in front of the church: The same olive branch bears olives, wine berries, and nutritious bread, And honey in our dishes, and oil to soften the skin of our members 474. Like a winnower separating grain from chaff, therefore in these “Notes” we should pass the wheat through a sieve more often and clear it of debris. 3. What is the true superiority of man? Most people's inconstancy and baseless actions are like the variability of the weather. Listen. “Unbelief is the mother of all good, and faith is the mother of all evil.” So says Epicharmus. “Remember not to believe,” he says; “This is the nerve (conductor, mediator) of rationality.” So. But disbelief in the truth is accompanied by death, just as faith in the truth of life is equal. And vice versa, to believe in a lie and reject the truth means digging a hole under your feet in order to perish in it. The same should be said about abstinence and intemperance: one is a matter of life; the other leads to death. To abstain from good deeds is tantamount to idleness; to abstain from all kinds of untruths is the beginning of salvation. And it seems to me that the Sabbath indirectly commands abstinence, since it recommends taming one’s inclinations towards everything evil. Otherwise, how would humans differ from animals? On the other hand, in what ways would the Angels of God be wiser than man? You have made him a little lower than the Angels, exclaims the royal prophet (Ps. 8:6). Indeed, no one attributes this saying of Scripture to the Lord, although he was also clothed with flesh. It is better to say that this expression of Scripture relates to the perfect sage (Gnostic), only less than degraded before the Angels, i.e. only by the temporary nature of this earthly life and by putting on this clothing of flesh (2 Cor. 5:2,3). Therefore, by wisdom I can understand nothing more than knowledge. Because life (incorporeal) from life (ours) in essence, of course, cannot be different. For mortal nature, i.e. For a person, as well as for all other creatures, together with them equally elevated to immortality, to live means to contemplate and observe moderation and restraint in everything. (i.e. spirituality) of life, although the degree of perfection of both beings can surpass each other 475. It is in this lofty sense that Pythagoras therefore says: “God alone is wise.” And the Apostle in his letter to the Romans writes: This mystery has been revealed to all nations, so that they may obey the faith and through Christ Jesus know the only wise God (Rom. 16:19). Because of the love that united Pythagoras with wisdom (God), he did not call himself a sage, but only a lover of wisdom (God). And with Moses, according to the testimony of Scripture, God spoke as a friend speaks to his friend (Ex. 33:11; cf. Numbers 12:8; Deut. 34:10). Truth is inherent in the being of God with such immediacy that it gives birth to truth; That is why the Gnostic loves her; (his love for her is equivalent to his love for God). Go, you sluggard, to the ant and learn from the bee (Prov. 6:6,8), says Solomon. What to learn? The fact that each living creature has its own special purpose. The life of an ox has another purpose, the life of a horse has another, and a dog has another. This means that man also has his own special calling. And what is it? Man, in my understanding, is something like the mythical Centaurus, revered in Thessaly. It is composed on the one hand of the same elements as animals; on the other hand, there is still a spiritual beginning in him; I want to say: a person consists of soul and body. The body is occupied by the earth and bends towards the earth; the soul strives for God. Having been enlightened by true wisdom (philosophy), she rushes to the celestials related to her; she works with all her might to free herself from the desires of the body, among other things, from labors and fears, although, as we showed above, patience and fear are necessary for confirmation in virtue. It is true, of course, that sin is known by the law (Rom. 3:20), as the blasphemers of the law claim, although before the law sin was in the world (Rom. 5:13); but without the law, we answer them, sin was dead (Rom. 7:6). Because if, by expelling sin from ourselves - the cause of fear - we, being in the law, were not freed from fear, then all the more punishment means we remove ourselves from ourselves, as soon as the source of violent desire dries up. The Law is not made for the righteous, says Scripture (1 Tim. 1:9). Therefore, the words of Heraclitus are full of deep truth: “People would never have a concept of justice if they did not know crimes.” And according to Socrates, “Laws are not made for the virtuous.” The detractors of the law did not further comprehend the meaning of these words of the Apostle: He who loves his neighbor (Rom. 5:8) does no harm to him (Rom. 5:10). And indeed these Divine commandments: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal (Lev. 19:18) and others are all contained in this one: Love your neighbor as yourself (Rom. 13:9). That is why our Lord says: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27; Matt. 12:37, 39). But since a person who loves his neighbor cannot do anything bad to him, and since the essence of all the commandments is contained in this one abbreviated word: Love your neighbors, it follows that the commandments, which are meant to awaken fear, should generate love, not hatred. The law, the mother of fear, therefore cannot give rise to either confusion or sadness in the soul. The law is holy and supremely spiritual, according to the Apostle (Rom. 7:12, 14). So, as soon as we know the nature of the body and the essence of the soul, then it would be possible, it seems to me, to understand what kind of fate awaits the body and what kind of fate awaits the soul; It would seem that after this, death should no longer be looked at as evil. For when you were slaves to sin, says the Apostle, then you enjoyed false freedom in regard to righteousness. What benefit did you get from this disorderly life, of which you yourself are now ashamed? The end is her death. Now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, your fruit is holiness, and the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:20–23). After this, one might seem to understand that the life of a sinful soul, when it is still united with the body, is death for it; real life for her would only be a severance of ties with sin. But with this gradual renunciation of sin, every now and then we come across wishes, as if they were meadows and ditches; This cleansing of oneself from sin is made more difficult by the whirlwinds of anger and other passions; In this case, it is necessary for us to bypass the abysses of carnal pleasures. You have to overcome them with determination of spirit, avoid the snares placed against you; and only if these conditions are met is it possible to achieve the contemplation of God face to face, and not only in the mirror (1 Cor. 13-12). The all-watching Zeus takes away half of the power from a person, Who has to be in slavery to others. In a state of slavery are all those who work under sin (Rom. 6:17, 20; 3:9), who are sold to it (Rom. 7:14). Scripture calls slaves of sin everyone who is busy providing themselves with only sensual pleasures - everyone who is busy only with their body. From the point of view of Scripture, these unfortunates are more like animals (Ps. 49:12, 20), like hot horses neighing at their neighbor's wife (Jer. 5:8, etc.); they are more brutes than people. In the symbolic language of Scripture, a carnivore is a lustful ass (Job 11:12; 24:5); predator of other people's goods 476 is a predatory wolf (Gen. 49:27; Ezek. 22:27); the slanderer is a snake (Gen. 49:17 and other places where the devil is called a serpent). That is why the gradual spiritual detachment of the soul from the body, with which the philosopher is occupied throughout his entire life, 477 awakens at the bottom of his heart a sincere desire for knowledge, so that he can more cheerfully and calmly endure natural death, which is the severing of the bonds connecting the soul with the body. The world is crucified to me and I to the world, says the Apostle (Gal. 6:14). Although I am still clothed in flesh, I already live as if I were in heaven (Phil. 3:20), he says. This is why the so-called Gnostic (sage) is very obedient; That’s why he even willingly gives his body, these mortal remains of his personality, to the one who demands this sacrifice from him. Having cleansed his flesh of all sinful inclinations, he does not address the seducer with curses, but rather, as it seems to us, with words of admonition and reproof for his outrage. No matter how rich he is, no matter what height of prosperity he may stand at, descending from it, as Empedocles says, he parted with his happiness without regret and returning to the environment of other people takes the place indicated to him without grumbling. First of all, he testifies to himself that he is sincerely faithful to God; secondly, he testifies against the seducer, proving to him that it is completely in vain that he is indignant at the firmness and immutability of his love for God; thirdly and finally, he testifies before the Lord that His teaching is inherent in a special Divine power of persuasiveness, so that even the fear of death cannot force him to apostasy. But he also confirms the truth of the teachings by deeds, revealing to everyone the omnipotence of God, to which he strives. Who would not be surprised at the eloquence of this sermon on love from such a noble athlete? Who would not find this feeling of gratitude wonderful, with which he strives to unite with kindred souls? With what shame does he cover the unbelievers by shedding his precious blood! Being restrained from apostasy by the beneficial fear of the commandment, he refuses to renounce Christ and through this testifies to the fear of God inherent in him. And pay special attention to this! He does not sell his faith. He acts as he does, not expecting to receive the crown prepared for him; he leaves this life solely out of love for God, with joy in his heart, with thanksgiving on his lips both to the One who awakened in him this voice calling him from this world, and in relation to the one who maliciously encroached on the days of this life. He thanks them for giving him what he himself never achieved. He thanks them for giving him such an opportunity to show himself to the world and before God as he is: to declare the energy of his patience before his tormentor; before God the sincerity of your love for Him. O fullness of the Divine mercy! Even before the rebirth of the martyr (in the waters of baptism), through the love kindled in his heart, it had already predestined him to be its property, and looked with love at his devotion and at his offering himself to the slaughter. Consider also his complete trust in the Lord. With what courage and joy he strives to unite with Him, with whom he loves, for Whom he voluntarily sacrifices his body, and also his life, as his earthly judges think! But he does not lose this, on the contrary, he gains it, hearing from Christ, for the similarity of their mutual suffering, a greeting with such flattering words “O my beloved brother,” as a poet would put it. Yes, we consider martyrdom to be “perfection.” It is not the meaningless concept of the mob that we associate with this word, which sees in martyrdom only a certain kind of end of life, no; we see in martyrdom a declaration of the most perfect love for God. The ancient Hellenes glorified the death of those who fell on the battlefield 478 in solemn songs. But they did not do this at all to recommend violent death to anyone, no. The reverence that was paid to those who died in the war, they testified only to the fact that the brave, dying in the war, departed from this life without experiencing the fear of death. He renounces the body before the soul can be overwhelmed by embarrassment and fall into a state of insensibility and unconsciousness, as happens with people dying of illness, for they depart from this life cowardly and consumed by the desire to live some more. This is how it happens that the soul of people dying of disease, unless they were extremely virtuous people, instead of being freed from this mortal prison cleanly, leaves the body surrounded by a whole swarm of wishes hanging on it like lead weights 479 . However, there are also those who fall on the battlefields who die with wishes and with all those passions that they would have discovered if they were withering and dying from some kind of disease. So, martyrdom consists in confessing God, and if so, then every soul that organizes its life in accordance with the knowledge of God and fulfills His commandments is already a confessor, a confessor in deed and word. Does it really matter one way or another to free yourself from the prison of this body? Instead of shedding blood, she testifies to her faith with her whole life and confesses God even at the moments of death. Doesn’t the Lord say in the Gospel: Whoever leaves his father or mother or brothers, etc. For the sake of the gospel and my name, he is blessed (Matthew 19:29, 30). The Lord is not talking about any simple martyrdom in the ordinary sense of the word here, but about martyrdom and confession flowing from knowledge, about confessing the Lord’s life through organizing it out of love for Him according to the principles of the Gospel. For these two words: “knowledge of My Name” and “understanding of My Gospel” denote more than the vain and fruitless invocation of the name and work of Christ, but indicate the need for true knowledge put into practice; and such knowledge will truly be confession, accompanied not only by the abandonment of the earthly family, but also by all external blessings, by the abandonment of all passions and all desires. The word mother, who has to be left for the sake of Christ and His gospel, allegorically denotes the fatherland and native country. By the word - father, Scripture means the order of private life, over which the righteous must rise with thanksgiving and generously in order to become pleasing to God and take a place in the sanctuary (of the kingdom of God) on the right side (to achieve the highest degree of glory), which the Apostles also sought 480. Heraclitus already said: “People who sacrificed themselves to Mars are honored by the gods.” Plato, in the 5th book of his work “On the State,” writes: “Among those who fight and die in war, who fall with glory, shall we not give the first place among the golden men of the generation? Without a doubt, these are the most excellent of all people" 481. The golden people of a certain generation are the descendants of the gods, who then inhabit the sky, the stationary sphere, and take the greatest part in controlling the destinies of people. Some of the heretics, not understanding the Lord clearly enough, have an impious and cowardly attachment to this life and claim that true confession consists in knowing God 482 . This is, of course, a good thing, but when they call every Christian who would glorify God by his death an attack on his personality and a suicide, then we already see wickedness in this. They confirm their opinion with sophistry inspired by cowardice. They disagree with us on the very principles regarding this and we will refute them when the moment comes for that. There are other kinds of people who have nothing in common with us except the name, but in reality are not Christians. They are already deliberately seeking death, running towards the executioner and giving themselves up to death, doing this out of hatred for the Creator. Unhappy ones! What kind of wild desire do they have to give up their lives as quickly as possible! Regarding these suicides, we proclaim: Their death is not martyrdom, although they are executed by sentences of the state authorities. They do not have the aura of martyrdom for the faith. They do not know the true God and their death is in vain. Similarly, the Indian gymnosophists throw themselves into the flames without any sense. To these false gnostics, who pour out their wickedness on their own bodies, we declare directly that the harmony and integrity of the bodily organs, on the contrary, greatly contribute to the development of the happy abilities of our soul. That is why Plato, whom heretics are not afraid to call as a witness of supposed hostility to his birth, in the 3rd book of his work “On the State” writes: “To establish harmony between body and soul, one should take special care of the body,” under the condition of being invested with which only the glorious proclaimer of truth can live and honestly act. Only by maintaining life and health can we ascend to the highest levels of knowledge. The one who, in the absence of these first conditions of success, is not given the opportunity to rise to this height, nor is he able to do everything that directs him on the path to knowledge, should he not value the well-being of the body all the more? Only by living can we affirm the well-being of life; and only under this corporeal shell, having become accustomed to the decency of life, will we move into a state of immortality. 5. On disdain for illness, poverty and other external misfortunes The Stoics are worthy of surprise with their teaching that bodily ailments do not in the least affect the soul; neither illnesses dispose her to vices, nor health and virtues; the state of the body and the mood of the soul have no connection with each other. Apparently so. In the face of eg. Job, reduced from wealth to poverty, from fame to obscurity, from beauty to ugliness, from health to illness, is not presented to us a brilliant and excellent example of faith and spiritual strength, since he overthrows the tempter, blesses the Creator and endures humiliation just as he endured glory? An amazing example of how a true sage (gnostic) remains faithful to virtue despite all the vicissitudes of life! And the Apostle also explains to us that the good examples of the ancient righteous are placed before us as, as it were, pictures by which we should be stimulated to transform our lives. So he writes that his chains became known in the praetorium and to everyone else for the glory of Christ Jesus; and that most of the brothers, encouraged by his chains, began to fearlessly proclaim the word of God with greater boldness (Phil. 1:13, 14). The Apostle had every reason to say this, since the martyrs also represent examples of the holy revolution brought about in them by the teaching of Christ, which they gloriously witnessed. And everything that was written, says Scripture, was written for our instruction, so that through patience and consolation, examples of which Scripture gives us, we might maintain hope (Rom. 15:4). In reality, however, it turns out differently. The soul, when it is struck by some kind of sorrow, seems to sink, lowers itself before it and considers it of great importance to free itself from the burden that has fallen on it. There is no doubt that during the entire continuation of this crisis she does not care about the subjects of knowledge, but she also neglects other virtues. We do not want to say by this that virtue itself tolerates anything; virtue cannot be ill. But a person who tends to be both virtuous and experience illness is often disturbed and overwhelmed by the acute pains of illness. If he has not yet developed in himself the mental strength that could support him; if he has not yet cultivated in himself that generosity that places itself above misfortune, then he can be taken out of a calm state. Unable to resist the attack of misfortune, he deserts from the banners. What about illnesses, the same should be said about poverty. And it deprives the soul of one thing it needs, I want to say: it deviates it from contemplation and makes it difficult to maintain impeccable moral purity and sinlessness. A person who, out of love for God, has not yet dedicated his entire personality to Him, she forces him to work so that he has something to nourish his body. Good health, on the contrary, and the possession of things necessary to support bodily life, develop freedom and independence in the soul, if only it wisely knows how to use earthly goods. Those who do not know this art, says the Apostle, will have sorrows in the flesh; I feel sorry for you and I want you to be without worries... - so that you serve the Lord decently and continually without distraction (1 Cor. 7:28, 32, 35). And yet, material needs must be dealt with: not because of them themselves, this must be done, but in the interests of the body. One should take care of the body because of the soul, to which everything is related. These impulses force the zealot of the Gnostic life (characteristic of a true sage) to learn useful things. There are many illicit pleasures; from this it follows that pleasure is not yet good; otherwise good could turn out to be evil, and evil good. But from this circumstance that there are pleasures that we seek and there are others that we avoid, doesn’t it all the more necessarily follow that not every pleasure is good? The same thing that we have said about pleasures must also be said about sorrows. We still tolerate some of them, others we avoid. What guides us in distinguishing them and preferring one to another? Science, knowledge. But from here it again follows that true good means not in pleasure, but in science, in knowledge; It is by this that we are guided and choose some of the pleasures, while rejecting others. Here is also the reason why the martyr, because of the joys expected of him and God’s favor towards him, endures the sufferings and sorrows of this life. If by thirst we mean a painful feeling, and by quenching it pleasure, then the basis of this pleasure is internal torment. But evil can never be the cause of good; therefore, neither the painful feeling of thirst nor the pleasure that comes from quenching it is evil. Simonides and Aristotle thought so. Both of them wrote that “the first good of man is health; the second is the symmetry and beauty of the body; the third is wealth acquired through legal means.” And the Megarian Theognis says: To escape poverty, throw yourself, Kirn, into the abundant sea of fish; Or - fall from the top of high rocks. On the contrary, according to Antisthenes, the comedian “Wealth blinds precisely those who seem to him more perspicacious than others.” That’s why poets are already singing about someone who was blind from birth. And she bore him a boy who had never seen the light of the sun, says the Chalcidian Euphorion. Wealth and the sensual life associated with it are a bad school; It is difficult to cultivate spiritual firmness in her, says Euripides in Alexander. There is a well-known proverb: “Poverty has chosen wisdom as its friend only because of its misfortune.” “The love of money can subjugate not only harsh Sparta, but also any other city.” “The true wealth of mortals,” says Sophocles, “is not in gold or silver; their virtue is more valuable." 6. Some of the sources of bliss Our Divine Savior counted both poverty and wealth, and likewise everything that fits into the same category with them, among things equally spiritual and physical. He said: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness (Mt. 5:10), which clearly showed us that in any situation in life one should not refuse martyrdom (confession). Would anyone be reduced to poverty for the truth: he testifies (confesses) that the truth to which he is devoted is good. Does anyone hunger and thirst for truth? He proves that truth is the highest of blessings. In the same way, if anyone weeps and grieves because of the truth, he gives evidence of the superiority of the law, its beauty and venerability. Therefore, the Lord equally calls both those persecuted for the sake of truth and those who hunger and thirst for truth blessed, approving the purity and sincerity of desire, which even hunger cannot suppress. Yes, if they thirst for righteousness for its own sake, then they are blessed (Matthew 5:6). Blessed are also the poor, whether it be in the spirit (Matthew 5:3) or natural wealth, as long as it is out of love for righteousness. It is not poverty in general because of poverty itself that the Lord blesses, but that poverty that neglects worldly treasures out of love for truth, as well as poverty that neglects worldly honors in order to acquire true treasure. Therefore, He also calls those blessed who, through observing purity of body and soul, maintain purity of morals. Blessed are these noble and glorious souls, who, because of the constant observation of the truth, received the privilege of being adopted and in accordance with this received the power to be children of God (John 1:12), to tread on snakes and scorpions, to subdue demons and to rule over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). And in general, standing for the Lord distracts the soul from the body, imbues it with gratitude to God, good dispositions and, concentrating it in itself, lifts it to other places. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life will find it (John 12:25; Matt. 10:39), if only we rest our frailty on the eternity of God. The will of God is such that we know Him; through this we become partakers of His eternity. Whoever, in the light of repentance, sees stains on his soul, destroys (kills) it for sin, for he snatches it from his embrace for life. But, having destroyed her in this way, through bringing her to obedience to God, he finds her again, for through faith a new life is kindled in her (Rom. 6:4, 5), and for sin she dies. So, this finding of one’s soul is equivalent to self-knowledge. The Stoics say that this turning of the soul to divine things occurs as a result of some moral revolution in it, because the soul thereby turns from sin to wisdom. According to Plato, “the soul in this case, after wandering through a sphere where only the faint flicker of day dominates, ascends to the region of the highest light” 484. And other philosophers recognize the right of an honest person to leave this life better than to abandon his way of thinking and acting, if all the ways to do it turn out to be so difficult that there is no longer any hope for a more glorious outcome, as for the judicial power, resorting to violence to force the follower of Christ to renounce the Chosen One, it seems to me that it would be better for her to direct her efforts to discover who is truly a friend of God and who is not. With the order given to such matters now, it is unthinkable to hesitate in choosing whom to obey, whether the threat of man or the love of God. And abstinence from evil deeds is in some way equivalent to the weakening and extinguishing of corrupt inclinations, because their influence through renunciation of the course of action consistent with their instructions - which is self-evident - is destroyed. This is precisely the meaning of the words: Sell what you have and give to the poor and come and follow Me (Matthew 19:21), i.e. do what the Lord commands. Some people connect this word “possession” with the concept of all foreign contents of the soul. But how it can be distributed to the poor, such interpreters cannot explain. Isn’t it better, therefore, to base the interpretation of this saying of the Savior on the conviction that God distributes everything to everyone according to the dignity of each, because His economy is just. “So, despising riches,” says the Lord, “divide them generously in the name of God and follow what I say, rushing into the realms of the spirit. Do not limit yourself only to abstaining from evil, but move forward in improving yourself, imitating the Divine blessings” (Acts 10:38). Thus, shaming one who boasted of fulfilling all the commandments of the law, but did not show his love towards his neighbor, the Lord, in place of this slavish fulfillment of the law, commands that love, which in the system of Gnostic perfection, rising and dominating over the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12; Mark 7:1; Luke 6:6), is revealed by charity. It is necessary, I think, to come to the Logos the Savior, driven not by the fear of punishment and not by the expectation of any giving, but because of the superiority of good in oneself 485 . Such will stand in the sanctuary on the right hand: those who imagine that through the distribution of perishable property they will acquire incorruptible property are called mercenaries in the parable of the two brothers (Luke 15:11). And now “in the likeness and image” of God (Gen. 1:26) is not the explanation of all this revealed? Doesn't all this mean that those who conform their life to the life of the Lord become like Him, and those who are on the right side in the sanctuary 486 only carry the image of God in themselves, but are not like the Lord in deeds? From the tree of truth grow two branches (grafted and ungrafted); the root is the same, but it is far from an indifferent matter to choose one or the other; or better to say, from the difference in the ways of choosing between them (that is, with knowledge of the matter or without knowledge) and the difference between those branches is more noticeable. It’s another thing to try an apple and another to look at it. There is a big difference, I think, whether you follow someone else’s example and choose something; or - relying only on the voice of your reason: another thing is a burning fire and another thing is a reflected fire. So Israel, according to Scripture, is light “in likeness”; other peoples only bear the “image” of God within themselves 487. What does the Lord want to say with the parable of Lazarus, where the images of a rich man and a poor man are presented to our eyes (Luke 16:19)? What is also meant by these words: No one can serve two masters, God and mammon (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13)? The Lord speaks both here and here about disorderly love for collecting wealth. Don’t you also see that people partial to them do not come to the feast to which they were invited (Matthew 22:2; Luke 14:16)? It is not because they were wealthy and rich people that they did not come, but because they were too busy with their property and attached to their wealth. And in the saying: Foxes have lairs (Matthew 13:20; Luke 9:58), the Lord calls foxes people whose entire occupation consists only of digging and burying gold; This is an adulterous race of men, the true sons of the earth. In the same sense, He said about Herod: Go and tell this fox: Behold, I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish (Luke 13:82). On the contrary, those who are distinguished by the sky from other birds, who are truly pure and are always ready to direct their flight to the knowledge of the heavenly Logos, he calls the birds of the air (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58). Countless worries are generated not only by wealth, not only by fame and marriage, but also by poverty, if someone does not know how to endure it. In the parable about the seed that fell on the soil of four different properties, thorns and rocky places mean precisely these worries and worries that drown out the seed and prevent it from germinating, developing and bearing fruit (Matthew 13:4; Luke 8:5). So, it is necessary to learn how we should behave in various misfortunes of life, so that life, imbued with wise decency and determined by knowledge, becomes for us a means to achieve eternal life. I saw 488, says the Scripture, a wicked man who exalted himself and stood tall like the cedars of Lebanon; I passed by and he was no longer there; I looked for him, and did not find his place. Protect innocence; do not lose sight of the truth: and your last day will end in peace (Ps. 37:35–7). Such is the person whose faith is sincere and whose soul is always at peace. Another people praises God with the ends of their lips, but their heart is far from the Lord (Isa. 29:13); He blesses with his lips, but curses with his heart (Ps. 61:5). They flattered Him with their tongue and lied to Him with their lips, but their heart was not really with Him and they did not remain faithful to the covenant with Him (Ps. 58:8, 9). May all lying lips become numb (Ps. 30:19) and may the Lord destroy the tongue that glorifies itself. May He destroy those who say: Let us glorify our word; our lips are independent and who is our master? The grief of the oppressed and the groans of the poor will raise me up, says the Lord; I will free the despised and will speak through their mouths (Ps. 12:3-5). Christ is the Lord of those who behave humbly, and not of those who rebel against His flock. Do not lay up treasure for yourself here on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19), says the Lord, wanting to shame partly those who are addicted to riches, and partly those who indulge in vanities and worries; and finally, perhaps, those who love their body too much. And indeed, carnal and lustful desires, illnesses, bad thoughts, penetrating into the last bends of our heart, undermine and destroy the whole person. Our true treasure is where, through knowledge, we find the divine relatives of our soul (God and disembodied spirits). for there is a tendency towards righteousness and fellowship; according to her strength, she abandons the ancient way of life (Eph. 6:22) and returns to life what was acquired from her; She herself soars to God, begging Him for mercy. Here are the sheaths (purse), which in truth do not wear out (Luke 12:33); here is the money you spend on the way to eternal life; Here is a treasure that does not fail in heaven (Luke 12:33), because in being merciful I am merciful to those to whom I show mercy, says the Lord (Exodus 33:19; Rom. 6:15). These last words also apply to those who wish (better) to beg for the sake of truth; they know this word, that a broad and spacious way leads to destruction, and that many follow it (Matthew 7:13). The Lord speaks here about nothing else, but about a dissolute lifestyle, about an insane passion for women, about a passionate desire for fame, for power and other similar passions. Fool, He says, this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared (Luke 12:20)? So, beware of all kinds of covetousness, because life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15). What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul (Matthew 16:26)? Therefore I say: Do not worry about your life: what you will eat, nor about your body: what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body is more than (merely) clothing (Matthew 6:31; Luke 12:22, 23). And again: Your Father knows that you need all this. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and righteousness; for these things are great, and those little things which belong to the way of life 489 will be added to you (Matthew 6:32, 33; Luke 12:30, 31). Isn’t it the Lord clearly inviting us to the Gnostic life (corresponding to the teaching we have learned) here? Doesn’t He convince us by this to remain faithful to the truth both in word and in deed? He is Christ, the Divine Educator of our soul, who values ​​the rich man not for the greatness of his gift, but for his good will. According to others, Zacchaeus, and according to others, Matthew, the chief of publicans, hearing that the Lord intended to enter his house, said: Here, I will give half of my property to the poor, Lord; and if I have offended anyone in any way, I will pay you back fourfold. Therefore, the Savior said about him: The Son of man came and now sought what was lost (Luke 19:8-10). Another time, seeing a rich man who had put into the treasury a gift corresponding to his wealth and a widow who had put two mites there, He said that the widow had put in more than everyone else, because one gave out of excess, and the other out of poverty (Luke 21:1; Mark 12:41), and since everything is directed by the Lord to the education of our soul, He says: Blessed are the meek, because they inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Who are these meek ones? Those who tame the dangerous storms rising in the soul, such as anger, desires and other passions that depend on them. He praises not that meekness that is the daughter of necessity, but that for which our own will and good will lay the foundation. Indeed, in the house of the Lord there are many rewards and many mansions (John 14:2) according to the difference in the way of our life on earth. Whoever receives a prophet, says the Lord, in the name of a prophet, will receive the reward of a prophet; and whoever receives the righteous in the name of the righteous will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever accepts one of these little disciples will not lose his reward (Matthew 10:41, 42). Another time, after an unequal number of hours, the Lord designates different degrees of virtue, commensurate with the merits of each and the greatness of the rewards awaiting him. Further, the sameness of the reward promised to everyone who works in the vineyard, i.e. by salvation, here designated through the denarius, the Savior indicates the equal right of everyone to receive a reward; and the difference between those called is due to the difference in the number of working hours and the amount of labor (Matthew 20:7 etc.) · Being accomplices of the ineffable economy and the gift of the Divine, those chosen by their labors must therefore correspond to the rewards that are promised to them, becoming worthy of the heavenly abodes. “But those who are called,” says Plato, “exceed other people in the holiness of their lives; upon liberation from these low places, as if from some kind of prison, they are ascended to heavenly dwellings” 490. He expresses the same thing, but more clearly, in the following words. “Among these people,” he says, “those who have been sufficiently purified by philosophy (a virtuous life), in all subsequent times they live completely incorporeal” (in our sense of the word), being clothed with some in airy bodies, others in fiery ones.” To this Plato also adds: “And they come to even more glorious dwellings, the beauty of which is not easy to depict, and there would not be enough time for this.” And this is why the Lord, appreciating them, says: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be called. Because those who grieve over their past bad life and repent of its sins immediately respond to this calling voice. This is precisely the meaning of the Greek word παρακληϑῆναι, that is, that their consolation will consist in their calling, in their calling. There are two kinds of repentants: one of them, and this is the most numerous class, repent out of fear of the punishments they deserve; others, and their number is very limited, obeying the inner shame that is awakened in their soul by the voice of conscience. You can come to repentance in one or the other of these two ways, it’s all the same, because there is no place that can hide from Divine mercy. The Lord also says: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). Mercy is not, as some of the philosophers thought, 491 grief caused by some misfortune, but rather, in the language of the prophets, something beautiful and pleasant. I want mercy, says the Lord, and not sacrifice (Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13; 12:7). He calls merciful not only those people who are engaged in acts of mercy, but also those who would like to be merciful, but do not have the means for this, i.e. therefore - disposed to mercy. Indeed, it is often desirable for us to show someone some kind of mercy, either through monetary benefits or through physical labor; It would be desirable, for example. helping the poor, caring for the sick, visiting the unfortunate: but we cannot carry out our pious intentions, because either poverty, or illness, or old age, which is the same illness, prevents us from doing so. Desire motivates us, but some obstacle makes its fulfillment difficult. In this case, our will is given the same honor as power; here she is equal to herself, differing from that one only in that she has ways of acting. Since there are two paths to the perfection that saves and makes us happy, deeds and knowledge, the Lord said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8). If you think about the matter more carefully, then knowledge is the purification of the governmental part of the soul: and this purification, of course, represents something good. Among good deeds, some are good in themselves, while others are good through correlation with good deeds; This is how we talk about good relationships. Without intermediate things belonging to the class of material, such as. Without health, without life and other auxiliary means, either essential or only helpful, no good or evil deed can truly take place. The Lord therefore desires that we approach the knowledge of God with a heart free from carnal desires, with a mind wholly occupied with holy thoughts, so that in the dominant part of our soul there is nothing alien to it that would hinder the action of His grace here. So, when a student of truth, immersed in contemplation, enters into communication and morally pure treatment only with God, then he comes into contact with Divine dispassion, 492 through which he is identified with God; he is no longer occupied with science, he no longer chooses the means of knowledge; he himself becomes science and knowledge. Blessed are the peacemakers. those. those who softened and pacified the law, fighting against the law of our mind (Rom. 7:28), - threats of anger, seductive lures of voluptuousness and other passions that lead the soul out of a calm and reasonable state. Engaged in life with the science of good deeds, immersed in it and distinguished by true prudence, they will be all the more closely aligned with the grace-filled right of adoption. Complete peace is that which, amid all earthly vicissitudes, maintains unchanging firmness of spirit, confesses Providence as eternally holy, always wondrous, revealing things divine and human as they are; but even in catastrophes that apparently disrupt the order of nature, it reveals the beautiful harmony of creation. Peacemakers also calm those who are overwhelmed by sin and besieged by its attacks; they return them to faith and restore peace in their souls. And yet, the totality of all virtues is our Lord, who teaches us an even more perfect contempt for death out of love for God. Blessed, He says, are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5:10) or as some of those who explain the Gospel: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for they will be perfect.” Α also: “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for My sake, for they will receive a place where persecution will not reach them” 493. And one more thing: blessed are you when people hate you, when they reject you and when they revile your name as dishonorable because of the Son of Man (Luke 6:22). However, for this we must observe the following conditions: not to disdain our persecutors, to remain firm in the midst of suffering, and not to harbor hatred towards those who inflict it on us. We must console ourselves with this thought, given that the test nevertheless visited us later than we expected; On the contrary, we must be convinced that at the basis of every temptation, no matter what befalls us, lies martyrdom and the opportunity for confession presents itself to us. 7. About the bliss of those who shed their blood for God And now what a colossal crime is apostasy! When an apostate leaves God, where does he go? Under the banner of Satan. So, through apostasy, one who testifies to the abandonment of his faith in God deceives the Lord, or, better to say, abandons his hope and declares it to be vain. Without a doubt, he who does not fulfill His commandments also turns out to be an unbeliever in God. But what a huge difference there is between failure to fulfill the Divine commandments and renunciation of the Lord! He who renounces the Lord renounces himself. He who does not fulfill the will of God does not yet renounce power over himself; While remaining master of himself, he does not yet break all the ties that connect him to self-control. Whoever renounces the Savior renounces life, because being light, He was life (John I:4) 494. He does not call these cowardly apostates “little faith” (Matthew 6:30), but infidels and hypocrites; They write His name on their banner, but refuse to be faithful to their oath. But to those who believe in Him, He gives the name of friend and servant. So, he who truly loves himself loves the Lord and confesses Him for salvation (Rom. 10:10) in order to preserve the integrity of his life. And if you decided to sacrifice your life for your neighbor out of love for him (Rom. 5:7), then remember that the Savior is our neighbor, because the God who saves us, in relation to the one being saved, is called the God who is near, the God who draws near (Deut. 6:7; Ezek. 23:23). Did He not voluntarily choose death in order to give us life? Was it not out of love for us, more than to satisfy the truth of God, that He suffered? From there He calls Himself our brother. He who suffers for the love of God suffers for the sake of his own salvation; and the dying person, in the name of preserving the integrity of his own personality, suffers both for himself and out of love for God. Indeed, being Himself life, He wanted to suffer for our sake, so that His suffering would become life for us. Why do you turn to Me: Lord, Lord, and do not do what I command? - says Scripture (Luke 6:46). A people who love the Lord only with their lips, but are far from Him in their hearts (Isa. 29:13), there is a people alien to Him. He obeys another teacher, having voluntarily sold himself to him (Rom. 7:14). The people who keep the Savior’s commandments are holy. They testify to Him with every one of their actions; they obey his will; accordingly, they call Him Lord and by their deeds they solemnly testify that the One in whom they believe is God, for whom they crucified their flesh with its desires and passions. If we live by the Spirit, then we must walk by the Spirit, says the Apostle (Gal. 5:24, 25). He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal. 6:8). To confess the name of Christ at the cost of one’s own blood seems to some pitiful people to be inhuman violence against oneself. But the worldliness of their way of thinking is to be regretted; they do not know that in these gates of death the path to true life, eternal life, opens. They do not want to think about how those who lived holyly will be rewarded after death, nor about what torment those who lived wickedly and dissolutely will experience. They refuse to believe not only what is written on this subject in our sacred books, where all commandments are related to these punishments and these rewards, but they do not want to listen to instructions on this matter even from their own philosophers. What does he write, for example? Theano Pythagorean? “This life would indeed be a merry feast for the wicked. Allowing themselves to commit all kinds of atrocities throughout their lives, they would then die; burdened with crimes, but not responsible for them. But the soul is immortal...” And Plato writes in the Phaedo: “Death for the wicked would be a godsend if it were complete destruction. With the death of their body, their soul and soul would be freed from responsibility for their atrocities.” But one should not imagine with Toleph of Aeschylus that “there is only one right road, this is to go down to hell” 495: many roads lead us there, because many crimes carry us there. Probably these are the treacherous people who hover in all kinds of delusions that the comedian Aristophanes exposes to public ridicule when he says (in “The Birds”): “Go, you pale-faced people, of whom all earthly life was only a pale flicker, - who disappeared from the face of the earth, like a leaf from a tree in autumn, leaving no work on it, - frail people, - wax figures, - a people of empty shadows, like fleeting breath, unable to soar upward, as if you were birds, deprived of wings, - beings who seemed to have lived for only one day.” And in Epicharmus we read: “What is human life? This is goat fur, filled with air” 496. The Savior told us: The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, says the Apostle, for it does not submit to the law of God, and indeed cannot. But those who live according to the flesh cannot be pleasing to God. And opening his thought more broadly, so that no one, along with Marcion, would allow himself to ungratefully blaspheme the creation, as if it were bad, the Apostle adds: But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. And again: For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. I think that the sufferings of this life are worth nothing in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us, if only we suffer with Christ in order to be with Him and glorified as His joint heirs. For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He predestined, those He also called, and those He called, them He also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified (Rom. 8:7, 8, 10, 17, 18, 28–30). You see from this instruction that love is the principle of martyrdom. And if you decide to be witnesses of Christ Jesus because of the reward laid down for good works, then listen again: We are saved by hope. Hope, when it sees, is not hope, for if one sees, what can one hope for? If we hope for what we do not yet see, then we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8:24, 25). But even if we suffer for the sake of righteousness, says Peter, we are blessed. Do not be afraid of the disasters with which they threaten (which they want to make you fear), rather be embarrassed by them. Sanctify Christ the Lord in your hearts and be always ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, with meekness and reverence and maintaining a clear conscience, so that those who blaspheme your holy life in Christ will be ashamed of the slander that is spread about you. If the will of God wants you to suffer, then it is better to suffer for good deeds than for evil ones (1 Pet. 3:14–17). If some scoffer stops you here with the following objection: “How can this happen, that the flesh is weak, but struggles with the powers (Eph. 6:12) and with the spirits (directions of thought) that dominate life,” then let him know that we are struggling with the principles (principles) of darkness and with death, strong with the help and generous hope of the Almighty (Father) and the Lord. Raise your voice, says the prophet, and at the very first call the Lord will answer: Here am I (Isa. 63:9). Such is the irresistible Helper, covering us with his shield. When the Lord tests you with the fire of sorrow, says Peter, do not be surprised as if something special happened to you in this case, but rejoice that you are participating in Christ’s sufferings, so that you may be filled with joy when you discover His glory. Blessed are you if you are slandered for the name of Christ, because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests on you (1 Peter 6:12-14), as it is written: For Your sake we are daily put to death, counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in the midst of all these adversities we remain victorious through the power of Him who loved us (Rom. 8:36, 37). The secret that you want to tear from my chest You wouldn’t recognize him, not even if you burned me; Not even if he sawed me from head to toe with a sharp saw; Not even if you burdened me with a thousand chains 497. This is how the wife declared her unshakable courage on the tragic scene. Antigone, despising Creon's sentence, also answers him boldly: But it was not the king of the gods who dictated this order to me 498. We say: This is what God commands us; must obey Him. You need to believe with your heart to achieve righteousness, and confess with your mouth to receive salvation (Rom. 10:10, 11). That is why Scripture says: He who believes in Him will not be put to shame (1 Tim. 1:7,8). This is why Simonides rightfully writes: The saga says that Virtue lives high, on rocks that are difficult to reach. One here reigns supreme over souls. It cannot be seen by any mortal eye, Because only those who shed sweat in life In an aspiration that embraces the whole soul, Only he, developing the fullness of spiritual courage, reaches heights. I open Pindar and read from him: Through only labor and work, mastered later, Youth may gain lasting glory; Her lofty deeds then finally begin to shine with light. Aeschylus expressed the same thought as follows: Finally he will see his vine grown from the gods, and your work crowned with glory. According to Heraclitus, “the higher the enterprise, the more glorious the reward.” Show me a slave opposite who would not tremble before death? And indeed God did not give us a spirit of slavery to live again in fear, 499 writes the Apostle to Timothy, but a spirit of power, love and wisdom. Therefore, take courage in confessing our Lord and do not be ashamed of me, who am in chains for Him (2 Tim. 1:7,8). But such a witness for the name of Christ will be, according to the judgment of the Apostle, constantly attached to good, turning away from evil and having unfeigned love (Rom. 12:9), for he who loves another has fulfilled the law (Rom. 13:8). But if the God whom we confess is the God of our hope, which He really is, then we must openly admit this, realizing and justifying this hope with all our might. This is the most important thing, according to the judgment of the Apostle, so that you are full of guardianship, filled with all (necessary) knowledge (wisdom) (Rom. 15:13, 14). Indian sages told Alexander the Great: “You can transfer our bodies from one place to another; our souls, you cannot force them to do what we do not want. Fire, which brings such horror to others and seems so painful, we despise” 500. Hence Heraclitus “prefers glory to all the blessings of the world; to the crowd, as he himself admits, he provides only this stupid pleasure of eating to satiety in the manner of animals.” We do almost all our work on the body. To protect it from the harmful influences of the seasons, we build houses. For the body, we dig silver from the depths of the earth. For him we sow the fields. Because of him, finally, thousands of worries, to which we give different names. The reckless crowd wastes its energy and overwhelms itself in these unnecessary labors. The Apostle says to us: let us know this, that our old man was crucified, so that the body of sin might be abolished, and so that henceforth we would no longer be slaves of sin (Rom. 6:6). Showing us to what extent the common people despise the faith and what cruel insults they inflict on it as a result of their contempt for it, the Apostle adds with complete frankness: It seems to me that God treats us and the other Apostles as the lowest of men, as if victims sentenced to death, because we have become a laughing stock for the world, for Angels and for people. Even to this day we suffer hunger and thirst, we are naked and beaten, and have no permanent home. We work until exhaustion with our hands: we are cursed, but we bless; we are persecuted, but we endure, we are slandered, but we answer with prayer; we have become as it were the rubbish of the world (1 Cor 4:9, 11-13). Plato writes something similar in his work “On the State”: “Torment the righteous, torture, gouge out his eyes: he will always remain blessed” 501. The end is presented to the true sage (gnostic) not in this earthly life; he transfers his work to a higher region; with his whole being he is turned to eternal bliss and appeals to the royal friendship of God. No matter what dishonor they subject him to, no matter how full of shame they cover him; whether he himself will be subjected to exile; whether his estate will be confiscated; whether he will be condemned to death: no one can ever deprive him of his freedom, nor of his most important good, the love with which he is united with God. Love endures everything, endures everything (1 Cor. 13:7), for it is convinced that Divine Providence rules all things wisely. Be imitators of me: I beg you, writes the Apostle (1 Cor. 4:16). The commandment, combined with intimidation, takes us to the first step, which elevates us above carnal man: fear keeps us from all kinds of untruths. The second step is hope, which directs us towards the supreme good. Love, as it naturally leads to perfection, completes the work of our education on the paths of knowledge. The Hellenes, attributing everything that happened to blind predestination - I no longer understand how they did it - argued that they were following it against their own will. At least that's what Euripides says. Listen. Woman! Listen carefully to what I say. There is not a single creature here on earth that does not suffer. Bury children, give birth to others, and then soon die Such is the sad fate of humanity 502. The troubles imposed on us by nature must be endured with submission to fate and courage. What is necessary can be transferred to mortals. Those who strive for perfection strive for a reasonable goal, indicated to them by knowledge. The essence of this goal is determined by such a holy triad: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13). Truly, although everything is permitted to me, says the Apostle, not everything is beneficial; everything is allowed to me, but not everything is edifying. And one more thing: Let no one seek only his own, but the benefit of something else (1 Cor. 10:23, 24), so that he can create and teach at the same time - to create, but also to arrange what is being created. Because although the Lord’s earth and all that fills it, this point is not subject to any doubt or dispute; – and yet one should not tempt a weak conscience. I don’t mean my own conscience, but another, for why should I have freedom to be judged by someone else’s conscience (this freedom allows me to eat everything). So, if I take food with thanksgiving, then why blame me for what I give thanks for? So, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:26, 29-31). Despite the fact that we are in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, capable of destroying the strongholds of the enemy and casting down the imaginations of men and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of the Lord (2 Cor. 10:3-5). Equipped with these weapons, the true sage (gnostic) exclaims: “O Lord, grant me an opportunity to fight and accept my confession. Let this dangerous and terrible enemy come: I am strong in love for You and I despise his attacks.” Of all human deeds there is only one virtue Cannot be satisfied with external reward: She is her own noblest reward. So, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on the compassion of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; above all, have love, which is the totality of perfections. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you are called, to form one body and be grateful (Col. 3:12, 14, 15), although still in the flesh, observing, like the ancient righteous, spiritual peace and dispassion. 8. The Church equally gives the rights of martyrdom to both men and women, as well as slaves and children, and equally places the duties of it on them. Not only the Aesopians 503, the Macedonians and the Spartans knew how to behave courageously under torture - as Eratosthenes testifies to their attitude towards them in his book “Good and Evil” - but also Zeno the Eleathean. Forced under torture to reveal a certain secret, he withstood the torture courageously and did not reveal the secret. At the same time, he did something even greater. Feeling the approach of death, he bit off his tongue and spat it out in the face of the tyrant, for some Nearch, for others Damul. Theodotus the Pythagorean and Paul, the disciple of Lacudes, acted in a similar manner, as Timothy the Pergamite testifies to this in his book “On the Courage of the Philosophers” and Achaic in his “Ithica”. The Roman Postumius 504 may also be added to this. Captured by the Peucetians, he was subjected to torture. And among them he kept the secret entrusted to him. He even remained seemingly insensitive to the fire: without changing his face at all, he lowered his hand into the fire, as if holding it out over a copper bowl. Should I remain silent about the heroic exclamation of Anaxarchus under the iron crushing pestles of the tyrant? 505 “Talk, talk,” he exclaimed, “a bag of Anaxarchs; But you won’t crush Anaxarchus himself.” Thus, hope for bliss and love for God not only do not emit complaints and murmurs about the vicissitudes of life, but among them they maintain complete freedom of spirit. They can fall into the midst of the most ferocious beasts, can be devoured by fire, be tortured by the deadly weapons of executioners: being united with God by bonds of inextricable love, they soar into the heavenly abodes, not allowing themselves to be enslaved and leaving people with only these mortal bodily remains, this only thing over which they seem to still have some power. The barbarian people 506, not alien to wisdom 507, they say, annually elected a legate to the demigod Zamolx, who was once a student and friend of Pythagoras 508. This legate was chosen from among the most worthy men and was sacrificed to Zamolx; others who sought this honor, but were not awarded it, lamented that they were deprived of the opportunity to achieve bliss in this way. So, the body of the church is made up of brave men and honest women 509, throughout their entire life, in all its paths, who thought only about death, which would revive them for a new life in Christ. Because whoever orders his life in accordance with our morals, through this very thing, without the help of teaching and science, immerses himself in true wisdom. whether he be a barbarian, or a Greek, a slave, an old man, a boy or a wife (Gal. 3:28; Rom. 10:12; 1 Cor. 12:13). Wisdom (virtue) is the common property of all people: for this you just have to assimilate it. We take it for granted that in every person the nature is the same and that everyone is equally capable of virtue. As for human properties, a woman has no different nature compared to a man: therefore, both men and women are equally capable of virtue. If, on the contrary, only a man is capable of moderation, justice and other virtues that follow from this, then a woman, of necessity, is capable only of injustice and is inclined only to unbridledness. But this is already something absurd. Both men and women, both free and slave, are equally capable of observing moderation, justice and, in general, all virtues; if human nature is equally common to them, then obviously the ability to be virtuous people is also common to them. We do not mean by this that a woman, although she is a woman, is characterized by a masculine nature: certain differences are also characteristic of both sexes, according to the strength of which one is a woman and the other a man. So eg. It is typical for a woman to be pregnant and give birth; and this is her belonging precisely as a woman, and not as a person. If there were no differences between a man and a woman, then they would act exactly the same and they would experience exactly the same states. Being identical with a man in soul, a woman can rise to the same virtue as a man, but according to her organic structure, her purpose is to conceive, give birth and look after the internal state of the house. For I want you to know, says the Apostle, that the head of every man is Christ, but the head of a woman is her husband. Man was not created from wife, but woman from husband. However, neither husband without wife, nor wife without husband is in the Lord (1 Cor. 11:3, 8, 11). Just as when addressing a man we say: “Be temperate, control your desires”: similarly, we declare to a woman: “Be moderate, conquer the inclination to pleasure.” What does the Apostolic Commandment advise us to do? Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit is contrary to the flesh; they oppose each other. The Apostle does not contrast them in the same way as evil is opposed to good, no; he opposes them to each other, just as two rivals oppose each other, not without benefit, fighting each other. Therefore he adds. Don't do what you want. The works of the flesh are known: fornication, other filthy vices, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, factions, dissensions, heresies, hatred, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do this will not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, self-control, goodness, faith, meekness (Gal. 5:16, 17, 19-22). The Apostle undoubtedly called sinners flesh, just as he used the word spirit to mean the righteous. In addition to this, we should arm ourselves with courage in order to strengthen humility and patience in ourselves, so that we are able to curb our anger with spiritual firmness: offering the other to the one who strikes on the cheek and the one who takes away the himation, without preventing us from taking the tunic (Luke 6:29). We do not train women in the art of war and do not set ourselves the goal of making them some kind of Amazons: we want men to be more peaceful; and so they tell us in response to this that among the Sarmatians, women go to war on an equal basis with men, that the Sakidians appear on the battlefields and, in feigned flight, shoot arrows along with their husbands (Herod. IV, 117). And I know that women from Iberia (Spain) share all work and labor with their husbands, not remaining idle even during pregnancy and immediately after birth. It often happens that during working hours a woman gives birth in the field, picks up the child and carries her home. – Along with their husbands, they look after the house, hunt with them, and tend the herds together. Even though she was pregnant, The Cretan woman quickly chased the deer. Yes. True wisdom is the task of women no less than men, although a man can surpass women in everything and take precedence over them, unless he relaxes from effeminacy. Integrity and virtue are necessary for the entire human race, if it is true that it strives for perfection. Therefore, it cannot be said that Euripides writes very judiciously when he says that “all women in general are more evil than men; even if the worst of men married even Virtue herself, then even then his wife would still be more evil than her husband.” And in another place: “Every woman, if she wants to be considered reasonable, must be the slave of her husband; the one who gains the upper hand over her husband will certainly humiliate him with her madness.” There is nothing better or more desirable Agreement between spouses united under a common roof with the same feelings (Odis. VI, 182–4). And yet the head is the one who has the primacy of authority and power. If the Lord is the head of the husband, and the head of the wife is the husband, then the husband is lord over the wife, because he is the image and glory of God (1 Cor. 3:3, 7). That is why the Apostle writes in the last chapter. to Ephesians: Submit to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body. But just as the church obeys Christ, so wives should obey their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church, so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies; He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one has ever hated his own flesh (Eph. 5:21–25, 28, 29). And in the last To the Colossians the Apostle writes the same. Wives, he says, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not irritate your children for fear that they will become despondent. Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh in everything, not only serving them in appearance as people-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God. Whatever you do, do it from the heart as for the Lord, and not for people, knowing that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, for you serve the Lord, and whoever does wrong will receive according to his own unrighteousness: with Him there is no partiality. Lords, show your slaves what is due and just, knowing that you also have a Lord in heaven (Col. 3:18–25; 4:1), where there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). The earthly church is the image of the heavenly church (Heb. 9:23). That is why we pray that the will of God will be fulfilled on earth just as it is fulfilled in heaven (Matthew 6:10: Luke 11:2): that this will be fulfilled through our investment in the compassion of Divine mercy, in goodness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance to one another and mutual forgiveness, if anyone has a complaint against anyone: like Christ I forgave you, so forgive me. Above all, put on love, which is the sum of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are called in one body and be friendly (Col. 3:12-15). It is not superfluous to repeat this sacred text more often in refutation of Marcion, just to bring him to repentance and to the conviction that every true believer should be grateful to God the Creator for calling us and through the incarnate Word (Logos) giving us the Gospel. From this it becomes clear to us that unity is also determined by faith; and from here it becomes even clearer who is perfect. No matter how unpleasant it may be for someone, no matter how stubbornly someone resists this, still both the woman and the slave, no matter how much torment the husband threatens one, the master threatens the other, will follow in practice the true wisdom we preach. Yes, and a free man - in the name of the tyrant, let them threaten him with death, let him call him to trial, drag him to extreme torment, let him frighten him with confiscation of property, deprivation of all rights, no matter what means they use for this - no one will ever be able to distract him from the worship of the true God. No one will ever be able to force his wife to live with a morally despicable husband; never a son, if he has such a father, nor a slave, if he has a cruel master, can be deviated from the courageous and noble pursuit of virtue. It is beautiful and glorious for a man to die for virtue, for freedom, for the integrity of his personality: why can’t the same action be beautiful and glorious for a woman? This is not just men, after all, it is a certain privilege: it is the right of all respectable people. Every old man, every young man, every woman, every slave, everyone who wants to obey the commandments has the right to live in accordance with his faith, and if necessary, then to die for his faith - oh, I was mistaken - and to revive himself by death. How many sons do we know, how many women, how many slaves, who became the best and most perfect against the will of their fathers and mothers, against the will of their spouses, against the will of their masters! So, all of you who have decided to live godly! Let your zeal for this not fade or weaken at the sight of obstacles. On the contrary, among them, aggravate it and fight for your improvement courageously, fearing that, under some pretext, you will abandon your intentions, which are nevertheless the best and (sooner or later) inevitable. Is it possible to doubt for even one minute which is better: to be a worshiper of Almighty God or to revolve in darkness with demons? When we do things to please others, attention is always paid to the good of those for whose sake we do them. And what other principle do we follow in this, if not to become pleasing to them? In matters that we do for ourselves rather than in the interests of others, we apply diligence to this, always remaining true to ourselves, whether our actions are approved by others or not. If some of the goods, the possession of which in itself is unimportant, nevertheless turn out to be worth it - despite all the obstacles and difficulties on the part of other people - to achieve their acquisition, then is it not all the more necessary - without being embarrassed by whether others like it or not and what they say about us - to fight for virtue and to be guided by nothing else in this than exclusively by its beauty and righteousness? Therefore, these words of Epicurus addressed to Menoiki in a letter to him are beautiful: “Let the young man pursue virtue without delay. But let the elder not shy away from it. It is never too early or too late to heal your soul. To say that the time to be virtuous has not yet come for me, or that it has passed, would mean almost the same thing as saying that the time for my happiness has not yet come or that it has already passed. Virtue is just as necessary for youth as for old age: so that, having grown old, it can become youthful through renewing itself with virtues or otherwise through grateful recollection of early deeds; youth, so that at the same time it is young and old, with peace of mind and ensuring its future” 510. 9. Sayings of Christ the Savior about the benefits of martyrdom and an explanation of those sayings Let us collect into one, here and here according to Scripture, the scattered, clear sayings of Christ the Savior about the benefits of martyrdom. He said: But I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of man will also confess it before the angels of God. Whoever denies Me before men will be rejected before the Angels (Luke 12:8). For whoever is ashamed of Me or My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with His angels (Mark 8:38). So, everyone who confesses Me before men, I also will confess before My Father in heaven (Matthew 10:32). When they bring you from the synagogue to the rulers and powers, do not worry about how to answer or what to say: for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you should say (Luke 12:11,12). Heracleon, the most significant of Valentine’s disciples, explaining this passage, literally says the following: “You can confess the Lord in two ways: by faith together with the way of life, and then also by words. Testimony to the Lord in words is that which is given before the mighty of the earth.” “Many,” he continues, “think that this confession of the Lord before the authorities is the only testimony about Him. They are grossly mistaken about this. And hypocrites can confess the Lord in this way. But it cannot be proven that precisely this strict meaning should be connected with these sayings. Not all the elect confessed the Lord with a word and not all died for His name. Such are Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi (Mark 11:14; Luke 5:27) and many others. Public and solemn testimony to the Lord is far from being everyone’s responsibility; it is a special mercy of God and depends on the circumstances. Witnessing about Christ by deeds and by a course of action consistent with faith, it, says Heracleon, constitutes the common duty of all. To this confession, obligatory for everyone, is added a private one, given in the face of the authorities, if this is necessary and if reason requires it. Should a true believer take much care in confessing the Lord in words when he is already united to Him with sincerity of love? Notice with what high wisdom the Lord spoke about the obligation to confess Him. About those who confess Him, He said Who will confess Me (ἐν ἐμοὶ), and about the apostates: Who will deny Me (ἐμὲ). These latter, even if they testify about Him verbally, retreat from Him because they do not connect this testimony with deeds. Only those who testify to Him through life and deeds profess the name of Christ. He praises them because in their person He testifies of Himself, because He lives in them, and they in Him. That is why He can never deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). Those who do not live in Him deny Him. Pay careful attention to His words. He did not say: “Whoever denies Me” (ἐν ἐμοὶ), but whoever denies Me (ἐμὲ), because whoever is in Him will not deny Him, as for these words before people, then by people we must understand those who seek salvation, and likewise the pagans who persecute us. life should be witnessed by behavior and word before these. That is why they can never deny the Lord, but those who do not live in Him deny the Lord.” Such is the reasoning of Heracleon. And in some ways he seems to agree with us. But he forgot one side of the question. He does not think about the very possible case that someone who has never confessed Christ before people through deeds and life can suddenly make a verbal confession about Him before the judges, without betraying himself in the midst of torture even until the last hour and testifying that he believes in Christ from the depths of his heart. This magnanimous mood, which even death could not change, is able to erase in the martyr all the vices that are generated in us by wishes, i.e. therefore, with their beginnings. This martyrdom is, so to speak, repentance, evidenced at the end of a lifetime by action; at the same time, it is also a brilliant testimony about Christ coming from the lips of the confessor. If the Spirit of the Father testifies in us, then how can we be hypocrites who, according to Heracleon, confess the Lord only in words? But to some, if necessary, this Spirit will be given; it is promised to them; He will be given to justify the faith by their words, so that their martyrdom and their testimony may be useful to society. The church members are all courageous. And those of the pagans who with fiery zeal seek the path of salvation (looking at them) are surprised and carried away by their faith: others are all amazed by surprise and amazement. Confession of the Lord is therefore an unconditional duty for everyone, since it depends unconditionally on ourselves. Being apologists for religion and defending it with words is not an absolute duty for everyone, because it does not depend on our power. He who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13). Is there even one sane person who would not prefer royal dignity in God to slavery to a demon? Without a doubt, there are people who, according to the Apostle, say that they know God, but deny by deeds, being vile and disobedient and incapable of any good deed (Titus 1:16). They, limiting themselves only to such a confession of God (that is, only to knowing Him), at least at the end of their lives can testify to the Lord with at least one good deed, this is martyrdom for Him. It is also baptism, washing away all sins. In "The Shepherd" we read: "You will escape the attacks of this wild beast if your heart remains pure and free from all stains" 511 . But the Lord himself says: Satan asked to sow you like wheat, but I prayed (Luke 22:31, 32). The Lord alone drank the cup (Matthew 20:22) to cleanse both those who plotted against Him and those who did not yet know Him, and the Apostles, only following His example, as true Gnostics and perfect people, suffered for the churches they founded. It follows from this that the Gnostics, if they want to be faithful imitators of the Apostles, must keep themselves pure from all sin and love their neighbors out of love for God, so that when danger comes they can endure with glory the trials that depress them and drink the cup of the Lord for their church. So, it is revealed that all those who confess the name of Christ by the deeds of their lives, as well as those who confess it before the judges, whether motivated by the hope of reward, or yielding to the fear of punishment, are more worthy than those who confess salvation only with their lips. If any Christian rises to the level of love, then this one is truly blessed and a martyr in truth and perfect: he gives before God the Father, through the mediation of the Lord, proof of the perfect fulfillment of the commandments. He proves that he is the brother of our Lord, who loves Him passionately, who has devoted himself exclusively to God. With love and gratitude he returns the treasures to which he was assigned; He returns to God the person required from him. 10. We should not ask for prosecution for our faith. When you are persecuted in one city, the Lord said, flee to another (Matthew 10:28). This does not mean that the Lord advises us to flee from persecution for our faith, as if being persecuted for this would be a misfortune. It was not His intention to advise avoiding death here, as if He approved of the fear of death. What did He want to say with these words? That we should not become for anyone either the cause of evil or accomplices in it; We would not harm ourselves, nor our pursuers, nor our murderers. And the way He shows us how we must avoid persecution. It would be foolhardy to disobey, but asking for danger is also foolhardy. If the one who puts a man of God to death sins against God (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17), then the one who voluntarily surrenders himself to the judges also becomes an accomplice in murder 512. And it is precisely this kind of promoter of persecution 513 who becomes the one who, instead of evading his pursuers, boldly exposes himself to them and runs towards them. This means that, to the extent that it depends on him, he contributes to the bitterness of the pursuer. If, on top of this, he deliberately arouses his anger against himself, then he is already entirely guilty; this is equivalent to setting a ferocious animal on oneself, and in the same way, if someone gave someone a reason to become arrogant against themselves or to fine themselves or to sue themselves or in general to hostile and hostile relations against themselves: they themselves become the cause of all this. It is for this purpose (calming hostility against us) that we are commanded not to retain any things of this world by force if someone takes them away from us, but not to prevent the one who takes away our outer clothing from taking a shirt (Luke 6:29). The Lord wants us to remain free from any excessive attachment to anything; He fears that by trying to retain some of the earthly blessings, we might antagonize those who dispute it among us, and that by our resistance we might bring blasphemy against the name of the Christian God. 11. Answer to the objection: “When providing for you, why does God allow you to suffer”? They say: “If God cares about you 514, then why are persecutions being carried out against you; Why are you being put to death? “Is it He who allows such disasters to happen to you,” our opponents exclaim. We do not think that such disasters befall us by the will of God. But at the same time, His prediction comes to our memory that in subsequent times all this will happen to us, i.e. that all these misfortunes will befall us, that for His name we will be condemned to death and nailed to the cross 515. Consequently, it was not His will to persecute us; but He foretold the calamities that were about to befall us in advance, so that by forewarning us of the trials ahead, He would accustom us to patience and uncomplaining obedience, for which He promised us an inheritance. We are not the only ones dying; Many others are being executed along with us. “But these others,” our opponents continue, “are the villains; they are executed in the name of law and justice.” But through this our opponents involuntarily testify against themselves; This means that we are innocent and we are being sacrificed to it only because of formal loyalty to the law. But the injustices of the judiciary do not overthrow Divine providence. The judiciary should dominate its judgments and not pronounce them slavishly. Judges should not be like the soulless strings of musical instruments, who, when pressed on them, obey a foreign reason and receive the impressions they produce from an alien force. That is why our judges, in turn, and themselves will be required to account for their judicial verdicts. They will give an account of the use they made of their freedom, but we will give an account of the steadfastness that we opposed to their threats. We are innocent, and the judicial power persecutes us as if we were violators of laws and some kind of serious criminals, although it does not know our affairs, and does not want to inquire about them 516. She even allows herself the most terrible things against us. She is guided towards us only by empty prejudice against us, for which she herself will be subject to God’s judgment. We are not being persecuted for crimes, but only because of an unfounded opinion about us, that we are harmful people in the world - solely because we are Christians and, moreover, not only arranging our lives according to Christian principles, but also attracting others to follow the same principles. “But why doesn’t help come to you in the heat of persecution against you,” our opponents exclaim. We answer them. We do not lose anything from this; at least we can say this about ourselves personally. Having been freed from all these disasters through death, we have to soar to our Lord, and this transition to another world means no more for us than the transition from one age of life to another. Without further ado, we also thank those who give us the opportunity to depart from this world quickly, and we are only concerned about one thing, so that our martyrdom is supported by the love of God. Without these spiritual dispositions of ours, the majority would look at us as monsters. And this majority, if they learn the truth, and they themselves, together with all the people, will turn to the same path (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:22: 18:25, 26; 22:4), and from that time on there will be no more elect. Yes, our faith truly has the power to become the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) and it will expose its unbelief. “Neither Anytus will harm me, nor Melitus; they are unable to do this. for I do not believe that it is in the power of an evil man to harm a good man” 517. Therefore, each of us can boldly exclaim: The Lord is for me, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me (Ps. 66:6). The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and torment will not touch them (Wis. 3:1). 12. Refutation of the opinion of Basilides that martyrdom is a form of punishment for previous cases of violation of fidelity Basilides in the 23rd chapter. of his “Interpretations” regarding those who are condemned to martyrdom by the verdict of the judiciary for their faith, states the following: “Concerning those who are subjected to so-called persecution, my opinion is this: All of them are undoubtedly guilty of sins of ignorance and this happiness (martyrdom) is granted to them by the goodness of Providence, which leads them to this. It allows them to be brought to trial for very varied reasons. It arranges that they are tortured not like simple criminals, condemned to death based on indisputable evidence and for vices not inglorious such as adultery or murder, but they are accused simply because they are Christians; and this softens their torment, so that it seems as if they were not suffering. “If one of those true believers were subjected to torture, for whom there is no sin of ignorance, which is nevertheless rare, then no one has the right to attribute the suffering he experiences to the malice and delusion of the authorities, but should think about his suffering that it is the suffering of a sinless child.” Then, a little lower, Basilides adds: “Just as a child who has not yet had time to commit any sin, or at least has not spontaneously committed it, can be comprehended by suffering for the very fact that he carries within himself the germ of sin (a soul that has sinned even before being sent into this body) and in sending them down on him should see a benefit for himself, introducing him to many of the difficulties of life: similarly, the application of suffering to a person, in nothing who has not sinned, or who has not - at least spontaneously - violated his duty, will flow from the same principle, and his suffering will have the character of the suffering of a child. He already carries within himself a tendency to sin; and if he has not yet sinned, it is only because the opportunity has not yet presented itself, so that means he has no right to consider himself completely innocent. Anyone disposed to violate fidelity to his duty or word is already a criminal, even if he still kept his word or fulfilled his duty (Matthew 5:33); Anyone who intends to commit murder is already a murderer, even if he has not yet committed murder. The same should be said about a righteous person who has not yet sinned: his righteousness is imaginary. From the very minute I saw him suffering, I already declare him a criminal, even if he has not yet committed any offense: he already carried within himself the desire to sin. And in truth, most likely, I will say whatever you want, but not this, that Providence is hard-hearted.” – Further and even lower, Basilides expresses himself about the Lord in such a way that his opinion about Him as about a simple person is obvious. “If,” he says, abandoning all previous reasoning, “someone tried to prove the opposite to me, referring to certain individuals: so-and-so suffered, therefore he sinned? I will answer this with his permission: he did not sin, but suffered just as a child suffers, and if my opponent still insisted on his point, I would add: Name me any person you like, after all, he will be a man, and God is just. Who will be born clean from an unclean? No one (Job 14:4). Basilides adheres to the starting point that souls brought to punishment here on earth for their sins sinned during their previous life; the soul of the chosen one is punished by martyrdom, which covers it with an aura of glory; every other soul is purified by the execution it deserves. But the whole set of these proofs of Vasilido’s falls down as soon as we pay attention to the fact that it completely depends on us whether to confess Christ or not; and it is in our power whether to suffer martyrdom for Him or not. For the one who renounces the Lord, does Providence already exist, if it is understood in Basilides’ sense? Now I’ll ask him too. Answer me, Basilides: Here is a Christian in custody. Whether by the will or against the will of Providence, it happened that this prisoner would testify about Christ and be executed. If he renounces Christ, he will avoid execution, but what will happen then to his cleansing from sin? If Basilides says that this confessor should not even enter the arena to testify, and therefore will not be executed, then he will contradict himself, for he will have to say that even for those who renounce Christ, eternal destruction is arranged by Providence. Further, how can this glory and reward with a blessed eternity become the lot of a martyr if his will did not participate in it when confessing the Lord? If Basilides says that Providence did not allow the one who had to suffer to sin, then through this a double injustice is at once attributed to Providence: firstly, that in the name of justice It does not free the unfortunate man who is being dragged to death; and then the fact that It assists the judge by bringing to trial an innocent person who acts contrary to duty. It turns out that It punished the first for a matter of confession that was consistent with His convictions; the second, enslaved by his dissolute will, was unjustly favored and did not reject him from the work he had wrongfully undertaken. Let us say without hesitation: Basilides in this case turns out to be a reckless wicked man, because he idolizes Satan and boldly dares to turn the Lord into a sinful man. When a demon tempts us, knowing well who we are, but not knowing whether we will resist him or not, then through this he wants to shake our faith, trying to subordinate us to his influence: and beyond this his power over us does not extend. Providence, allowing this, has a triple goal in mind: firstly, It wants us to be saved by our own efforts, having a means of doing so in observing the commandments of the law; secondly, It wants the tempter to be covered with shame because of the failure he encountered; Finally, It wants the faith of the church members to be strengthened by examples of religious firmness and for the light of faith to penetrate the conscience of non-believers, who are already amazed at the heroism of the martyrs. But if martyrdom is a reward for virtue, and if the death penalty plays the role of only a means for this; then the same must be said about the faith and teaching by which martyrdom is caused; Martyrdom is conditioned by faith and teaching. Do you know of a doctrine more absurd than this? As for the question: Does the soul pass from one body to another and what is the participation of the demon in this, then we will discuss these subjects at another time. At this moment, to what we have already said, we add the following reflection: What would be lost from faith in the future if martyrdom were considered nothing more than a punishment for sins committed in a previous life? What would be the love of God that endures persecution and stands firm for the truth? What would be the merits of a confessor? What would be the dishonesty of an apostate? What then would the right way of life serve, the mortification of one’s desires and the non-hatred of any creature? Further, if, according to the testimony of Basilides himself, one of the character traits consistent with the Divine will is the one about which we spoke, “to treat everything lovingly,” because the parts must be related to the whole and be in harmony with it; if another trait of such a character should be that of “desiring nothing”; and finally the third, “do not harbor malice or enmity towards anyone and treat everything without hatred,” then what follows from this? Is it that executions occur according to the will of God? Godless doctrine! It was not at all by the will of his Father that our Lord suffered; It is not God’s will for Christians to be persecuted. One of two things: either persecution of us is good if it occurs according to the will of God; or our executioners and persecutors are innocent. But in nature nothing happens without the will of the Ruler of the universe. Concluding everything in one word, it remains for us to say that all this happens because God does not resist it 518. With this only possible explanation, Providence is reconciled with the mercy of the Almighty. There is no need to imagine that God himself raises his hands against us and brings misfortune upon us; We are far from this idea. But we must believe that God does not stop the hand of those who cause misfortune for us, and turns the anger of our enemies to our benefit. I will take away his fence, says the Lord, and he will be desolate (Isa. 5:4). Such are the admonitions given to us by Providence in the person of others, punished for their personal sins; and the instructions given to us by Christ and the Apostles because of our sins are as follows. The will of God, says the Apostle, is that you should be holy, that you should avoid fornication, that each of you should know how to keep the vessel of his body in holiness and honor, not indulging in sensual lusts like pagans who do not know the Lord, and that no one should deal with his brother unlawfully and covetously, because the Lord is the avenger of all this, as we told you and testified before. For God has not called us to depravity, but to be holy. He who despises what I have said does not despise man, but God himself, who gave us his Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 4:3-8). For our sanctification, God did not prevent our Lord from suffering. If one of the disciples of Basilides, in his justification, refers to the fact that the martyr suffers punishment for sins committed by his soul before its transition to the body, but will receive the fruits of his virtue after this life, and that this is the economy of God, then we will ask this one separating from the church: will retribution then be distributed according to the types of Providence? If it does not flow from the law of Divine justice, then the world does not represent something like a purifying quarry, and all Basilid’s scaffolding then collapses under the weight of its own feet. If they want to assert that purification comes from Providence, then punishments also flow from Him. But providence, as Basilides understands it, although it receives its first movement from the Supreme Archon, still joined only at the moments of God’s creation of creatures. Under this system, the Basilidians themselves must admit that torture is either not unjust, and then the judges who condemn us for it, the executioners of martyrs who torture, also act according to the right; or that persecution flows directly from the Divine will. Therefore, torment and fear, as they themselves say, are not necessary accidents of things, but stick to them in the same way as rust sticks to iron and sticks to the soul only as a result of its inherent will. We would now have to explain these subjects more thoroughly, but we leave this until a more favorable time. 13. Refutation of Valentine's opinion on the abolition of death Valentin in one of his conversations writes the following: “You are immortal by your very origin and are children of eternal life; you wished to take part in death in order to exhaust it and blot it out, and so that death would die in you and through you. For when you tame the world, you will not deprive yourself of your strength and you will dominate creation, having triumphed over the dominion of death.” Valentin, together with Basilides, assume that there is a race of people who, by their very nature, are saved, receiving the privilege of this by the right of their very birth. This race of people, different from other mortals, is sent down to this earth from above to overthrow the dominion of death here, this gloomy deed created by the evil principle that created the world. In support of their teaching, these heretics refer to the following word of Scripture: No man can see the face of God and live (Ex. 33:20). Based on this saying, they claim that God is the author and cause of death. Valentine also hints at this God himself in the following words: “As far as the image is lower than a living face, so much lower is the world lower than the living Aeon. So, what is the subject of the image? The type was imparted to the artist by the greatness of his face, so that through his name his creation might be glorious. Indeed, it was not of his own will and initiative that the form was invented, but with the name in this creation what was imperfect in it was completed 519. What is invisible in God is explained to us by this material world.” And since the Creator of the world is called in Scripture “God” and “Father,” Valentine calls this Creator of the world “the image of the true God” and “prophet”; wisdom, for the glory of the invisible, having reproduced the image (of Him), he turns into an artist. “For beings that come into being ex conjugatione are represented by the pleroma; beings, originating from the beginning of the individual, are only images. Since the world of phenomena has no relation to the invisible God, the soul is a mediating principle, i.e. by what is in it different from this material world, half belonging to the higher world, and by what is in it alien to that higher world, belonging to this phenomenal world; and she is an emanation of the discriminating Spirit; since she was inspired by the Spirit, then as a result of this she became the soul and image of the Spirit.” In general, the Valentinians claim that their teaching about the Dimiurge, created in the image of God, is clearly expressed in that place in the book. Genesis, where, under a sensual image, she talks about the creation of man. They assimilate the likeness of God to themselves, claiming that the infusion of a spirit of a different nature into them remained unknown to the Dimiurge. When we prove that there is only one and only God, proclaimed by the law, the prophets and the Gospel, we will refute this teaching, for the question about it is very important. Here we turn to what we consider essential to insist on at this moment. If it is true that the race of privileged people was sent down to abolish death through them, then it means that Christ did not abolish it, unless the Valentinians also assimilate to His nature a substantiality similar to which they themselves are the bearers. “But He abolished it,” the Valentinians will say, “so that it would not affect them, the chosen, privileged race of people.” Therefore, we will answer them, they, who compete with Dimiur, do not abolish death, they, according to the teaching they contain, in the image of God of their soul, in substance half belonging to this, half to another world, bear the highest life. And if they said that this abolition of death occurs through the mother (wisdom?); and also if they decided to assert that it is with the consent of Christ that they are fighting against death, in both of these cases they will turn out to accept and contain the secret teaching that it is necessary and possible to fight against the Divine power of the Creator of the world (Dimiurge), and his creation can and should be improved and transformed, as if they were some kind of higher beings and as if one should try to save this spiritual (carnal) image, of which he himself He could not free him from corruption. But if we judge this way, then shouldn’t the Lord be recognized as a being of a higher nature than God the Dimiurge (Creator of the world)? Because what kind of son is he when he competes with his father? And what is wild between people, does it really happen in the divine world? That God Almighty and Creator of the universe is the Father of the Son, we will postpone the exposition of this until the place where we will refute this heresy, in accordance with our promise to prove that there is only one God, and precisely the same one who was proclaimed by the Son. The Apostle, urging us to be patient in sorrows, tells us: And this is from God, who has given you the grace not only to believe in Christ, but even to suffer for Him, calling you to the same struggle that you saw in me and about which of my feats and now you still hear. If you find some consolation in Christ, if there is any consolation and some relief in love, if there is any spiritual communication, if there is any mercy and compassion between us: then make my joy complete by remaining like-minded, imbued with the same love, having the same spirit and the same feelings. If, after your faith has been sacrificed to God, it is also required that my blood be shed as the same sacrifice, then I am comforted and rejoice along with you all (Phil. 1:29, 30; II:1, 2, 17). I ask Valentin: How does the Apostle call those very Philippians whom he called his partners in grace (Phil. 1:7), how does he call them partners in this, both in soul and in carnal organization? In the same way, he writes about Timothy, but also about himself: I have no one equally zealous (ίσόψυχον) who would sincerely care about you, because everyone seeks their own, and not what is pleasing to Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:20, 21). So, not only the above-mentioned heretics insult us by assimilating to us only a carnal organization, but also the Phrygians, who so call people who do not believe the new prophecy. We will refute them when we discuss prophecy. Therefore, it is necessary that the one who lays claim to the title of a perfect person should exercise love: only then will he be able to rise to fellowship with God, fulfilling His commandments out of love for Him. If the Lord commands us to love our enemies, then this does not mean that He commands us to love evil, wickedness, adultery, theft, no; and He commands to love the thief himself, the wicked, the adulterer, but not to the extent that they sin and dishonor the dignity of man, but to the extent that they are people and the creation of God. Sin is undoubtedly something actual and not substantial. That is why it cannot be the work of God. We said that sinners are the enemies of God. Why? Because they are enemies of the commandments of God, rebelling against them. On the contrary, we call those who obey the Divine commandments friends of God. Some are friends because of the voluntary bonds that unite them with God; others are enemies because of their voluntary alienation from God. There would be no hostility or hatred if there were no enemies and sinners. Don't wish for it. This commandment prohibits the desire for certain things from the realm of another God, as this commandment is understood by heretics who distinguish the Dimiurge or Creator from the first God and consider some things of this world to be incompatible with their supernatural nature and alien to it. But generation by this commandment is not dishonored as if it were some kind of vile act: this would be a truly wicked teaching. We do not call worldly things alien to us, as if they were obscene and disgusting in themselves, and not because they have nothing to do with God, the Ruler of the universe, but because we do not live forever among them. From the point of view of property, they are alien to us, for they float out of our hands, passing into the hands of our descendants; in relation to their use, they have significant significance for each of us, because they were created for us. And yet, during this earthly life, our relationship to them should be determined by well-known natural boundaries, from crossing which the commandment wisely warns us; We must beware of all excess and all attachment to material goods. 14. About love for everyone, even enemies But to what extent should favor extend? The Lord answers this to us: Bless those who curse you; pray for those who persecute you and slander you (Matthew 5:44). And so on He continues in the same spirit, and then adds: That you may be sons of your heavenly Father (Matthew 5:45), thus indicating how you can approach God in likeness. Hurry to make peace with your rival, He says in another place, while you are still on the road with him (Matt. V, 25). By the rival spoken of here, this should not be understood as the body, as some claim, but rather the demon and those similar to him; in the form of people who create demonic debauchery on this earth, he himself, the demon, is on the road with us. It is a very possible thing that through verbal confession of the work of Christ we can contribute to the greatest evil, if at the same time we are on the side of the demon. For it is written: “...out of fear that your adversary will bring you to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the wicked ruler of the kingdom of demons.” For I am convinced that neither the death with which our persecutors betray us, nor this temporary life, nor the apostate angels, nor the beginnings, i.e. the sovereign dignity of Satan, based on his indignation against God; and also all the powers of darkness, nor the present, among which we find ourselves during this life, what is the hope of a soldier and the profit of a merchant, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature is able to stop the works of faith in a person who follows his free will in his private actions. The name of the creature is used here to refer to purely human actions that represent a human creation. Such actions cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38,39). Here is a brief outline of confession and martyrdom, which the true sage (gnostic) is the bearer of. 15. You shouldn’t seduce others with yourself. We know, says the Apostle, that we all have knowledge, science, which deals with things relating to society and constitutes the common property of all; We also know the teaching about the existence of only one God. The Apostle addressed this word to believers; therefore he adds: But not everyone has (such) knowledge; not everyone contains it, and it is the property of only a few 520. According to the understanding of some, the Apostle here commands not to inform everyone that it is possible to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols. He fears that our freedom will not serve as a temptation for the weak and that this information will not destroy our brother (1Kor. 8:1,7,9,11), and if some turned to the question the Apostolic word and began to ask: Is it possible to buy everything that is sold on the market and its subsequent expression: without investigating anything, they used to answer, saying this: “Do this, without investigating anything,” then the whole place would get funny meaning. The Apostle said: Buy everything else from the market without any research (I Cor. 10:25), with the exception of what is listed in the conciliar letter of all the apostles, where it is written that this is what pleases the Holy Spirit. This epistle was included in the book of the Acts of the Apostles and was brought to the believers through the care of Paul himself. So, the Apostles in this letter inform that one should abstain from sacrifices to idols and blood and strangulation and fornication; By observing these things you will do well (Acts 15:29). The Apostle said something else 521. Or do we have no power to eat and drink? Or do we not have the power to have a sister wife as a companion, like the other Apostles and brothers of the Lord and Cephas? But we have not used this power, says the Apostle, but we endure everything, so as not to put an obstacle to the gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 9:4,5,12), i.e. we endure these very important inconveniences because we hasten to respond with a manifestation to every call 522; or because they wanted to present an example of abstinence to those who also wanted to live in abstinence. “With this in mind,” the Apostle wants to say, “we were not inclined to eat everything that was offered to us, much less cum muliere habere consuetudinem.” Especially those who were entrusted with such an important house-building had to be an example of purity and impeccability for the disciples. That is why the Apostle continues: Being free from everything, I made myself a slave to everything, in order to gain more. And everyone who competes abstains from everything (1 Cor. 9:19,25). But the earth is the Lord's and all that fills it. So, for the sake of conscience, one must abstain from what it is forbidden to abstain from; I do not mean my own conscience: mine is enlightened by knowledge, but the conscience of another. Refrain from the desire that your brother’s edification will be all the more successful, so that out of ignorance he does not decide to imitate what he does not know, or so that instead of sublime feelings he does not develop arrogance. For why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience? If I take food with thanksgiving, then why blame me for giving thanks? So, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. By everything we must understand deeds permitted by the rules of faith. 16. Explanation of some passages of Scripture about the firmness, patience and love of martyrs To achieve righteousness, faith of the heart is required, but bliss is achieved by verbal confession. Hence the promise of Scripture: Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. The word of faith we preach is this: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:10,11,8,9). It is obvious that the Apostle sketches here an image of perfect righteousness, the fullness of which consists of works and contemplation. So, we should bless our persecutors. Bless them, says the Apostle, and do not curse (Rom. 12:14). For this glory is ours, the testimony of our conscience, that we know God and we prove this knowledge by holiness and godly sincerity, even in unimportant cases, revealing works of love and revealing that we do not live in this world by carnal wisdom, but by the grace of God (2 Cor. 1:12). This is the testimony of the Apostle about knowledge. The general teaching of faith 523 in the same letter to the Corinthians he calls the fragrance of knowledge (2 Cor. 2:14). For for the majority, even to this day, when they read the Old Testament, the same veil remains uncovered (2 Cor. 3:14), which seems to have already been revealed before they turned to the Lord. That is why the Lord revealed to those who can contemplate this that the principle of this life, like a serpent crawling on its belly, can be even more sublime, although we remain covered with flesh. The people who sadly crawl on the earth, devoted to carnal pleasures, slavishly serving the belly and underbelly, and all those who, being devoted to worldly desires, cut off each other's heads 524, the Lord called brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7). Children, we do not love in word, nor in tongue, says John, teaching us to be perfect, but in deed and truth; through this we will know that we are children of the truth (1 John 3:18,19). But if God is love, and if love is also godliness, then there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:16,18). This is love for God, so that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3). Elsewhere, for those who are afraid to be true wise men (Gnostics), it is written: Be an example for the faithful in speech, in your treatment of others, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. 4:12). In my opinion, the perfection of faith (charity) is different from universal faith. The Divine Apostle conveys in these words the rules of a true sage: I have learned to be content with the position in which I find myself. I can live in both poverty and wealth. Having experienced everything, I am capable of everything, to be full and hungry, to have abundance and to endure shortcomings; I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:11,12,13). Discussing with others in order to encourage them to modesty, the Apostle does not hesitate to shame them (1 Cor. 6:5; 15:34) in the following expressions: Remember your first days, when you, having been enlightened, endured the great feat of suffering, now in the midst of dishonor and sorrow, serving as a spectacle for others, now taking part in the sorrows of those who were in a similar state. For you also had compassion for my chains, and you accepted the theft of your property with joy, knowing that you have better and lasting property. So, do not give up hope, which will have a great reward. You need patience in order to fulfill the will of God and receive what is promised. For in a little while the Coming One will come and will not delay. My righteous one will live by faith, and if anyone hesitates, My soul will not take pleasure in him (Hab. 2:3,4). We are not those who waver to destruction, but remain steadfast in the faith to gain souls (Heb. 10:32-9). The Apostle then gives us examples of men inspired and strengthened by God. Truly, did they not testify their faith admirably by patience, enduring insults and scourgings, chains and imprisonment? They were stoned, subjected to the most severe tortures, died by the blade of the sword, led a wandering life covered in sheep and goat skins, remaining helpless, crushed by exhaustion, persecuted; they, whom the whole world was not worthy of, wandered through deserts and mountains, hiding in dens, earthly caves and gorges. And all these, whom faith had made so worthy of praise, did not see the fulfillment of the Divine promises. In order to fully comprehend the meaning of this phrase, you need to mean with it the word “only”, inserting it silently into it. This is why the Apostle adds: Because God, for He is good 525, has provided something better for us, so that only with us they would receive perfect bliss. Therefore, we, being surrounded by such a multitude of witnesses, this sacred and brilliant cloud, let us throw off everything that burdens us and the chains of sin that cling to us and rush courageously to the lists open before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 11:36-40; 12:1,2). But although the Apostle clearly said that both for the righteous who preceded Christ, and for us, there is one and only salvation in Christ, 526, however, speaking about Moses, he adds: He considered the reproach of Christ to be the greatest treasure of all the riches of Egypt, for he looked at the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath; he stood firm as if he saw the Invisible (Heb. 11:26,27). Divine wisdom says about the martyrs: In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed dead, their death was considered death and their departure from us destruction. But they are at peace; and even if they suffered torture in front of people, their hope is full of immortality (Wis. 3:2–4). Then, showing that martyrdom is purification, Wisdom adds: Their suffering was light, and their reward was great. God tested them, i.e. allowed them to be tested for their greater glory and for the shame of the seducer and found them worthy of Himself, that is. so that they can be called children. He tested them like gold in a furnace and accepted them as an all-perfect sacrifice, and on the day of His visit to them, they will shine with sparks running through the dry straw. They will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever (Wis. 3:5–8). 17. Places from the message of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, confirming the previous And the Apostle Clement 527 in his letter to the Corinthians outlines for us some image of a true sage (Gnostic). He writes: “So many foreigners have been outside the walls of your city. And who among them was not amazed at your firm faith and its adorning with all sorts of virtues? Who among them did not admire this piety of yours in Christ, full of meekness and wisdom? Who among them did not praise your generosity and wonderful custom of hospitality? Which of them has not finally spread rumors everywhere about how happy you are, confidently containing such extensive and unshakable knowledge? Indeed, you do everything you do without paying attention to faces and follow faithfully the commandments of the Lord,” and so on. And then, in even more precise expressions, the Apostle adds: “Let us constantly look to these people 528 who rendered His glory and His greatness the veneration worthy of Him. Let us pay attention to Enoch, who through obedience to God became righteous and was translated into heaven; - on Noah, who was saved from the flood because he believed; - on Abraham, who, as a reward for his faith and hospitality, was called the friend of God (James 2:23) and made the father of Isaac. But that's not all. Lot, as a reward for his faith and the hospitality shown to the Angels, leaves Sodom without suffering any harm. Rahab the harlot, amidst universal destruction, is saved solely thanks to her faith and her hospitality. Let us imitate those who, sometimes covering themselves with goat and sheep skins, sometimes with camel hair wickerwork, went everywhere, predicting the kingdom of Christ. Such were the St. prophets Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel and John. Abraham, who gave brilliant evidence of his free faith and was called a friend of God for the greatness of his faith, far from being proud of his glory, exclaimed in a feeling of deep humility: I am only dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). This is what Scripture says about Job: Job was a righteous, blameless, upright and pious man, avoiding all evil (Job 1:1). He, by the valor of his patience, defeated the tempter, he who testified about God, but about whom God also testified, humbly says about himself: No one is clean from filth, even if only one day were his life (Job 14: 4, 5). Moses, who was found faithful throughout the house of God (Heb. 5:5), answered a voice speaking to him from a bush engulfed in flames: Who am I that you send me? I have a slow tongue and a weak voice (Ex. 3:11; 4:10), so that with my human lips I can serve God in interpreting His words. He adds: I am the steam of boiling water. God opposes the proud, but gives mercy to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 4:5). But what can we say about David, about whom God so brilliantly testifies: I have found a man after My heart, David, the son of Jesse. And I anointed him with holy oil to reign forever and ever (Ps. 89:21). But David himself speaks to God: Have mercy on me, O God, according to the greatness of Your mercy and blot out my iniquity according to the abundance of Your mercy. Wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, I acknowledge my iniquity and my sin is always before me (Ps. 50:1-4). Then, hinting at a sin that is not subject to legal punishment, he adds with the humility of a sage (Gnostic): I sinned only against You, I have done evil before Your face (Ps. 50:6). Doesn't Scripture say in one place: The Spirit of God is a torch that searches the depths of the heart (Proverbs 20:27). And the higher we ascend in knowledge, walking the paths of righteousness, the closer the Spirit of light is to us. This is how the Lord approaches the righteous. Therefore, no sin, even the most secret and secret thought, remains hidden from Him. And what is this Spirit of light? This is Christ Jesus, our Lord, testing our hearts with His almighty will, whose blood became our sanctification (John 17:19). So, let us imitate the examples set before us: we will honor the elders, we will educate the youth in the fear of God. Truly blessed is he who does what he teaches, and fulfills as it should the commandments of the Lord: this is a sign of an exalted spirit and disposed to contemplate the truth. Let us turn the will of our wives to good deeds. “How worthy is purity of morals,” says our Apostle. – And let our wives express it with all their behavior, the modesty of all their techniques, the restraint of their language, the limitation through silence of the excess of their words; Let them not turn aside with their love, but testify it to all who fear the true God, and in it let them always remain equal to themselves. We will raise our children in the commandments of the teachings of Christ, so that they know how strong humility is with God, how valuable pure and undefiled love is in the eyes of God, how beautiful and majestic the fear of God is, which saves all who walk before Him in holiness and observance of purity of heart. I repeat: God penetrates into the thoughts and thoughts of the heart. His Spirit is in us and He takes it away from us whenever He pleases. Yet these truths are established by faith in Christ Jesus. Come, children, says the Lord, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Does anyone want to live, does anyone love long life and happiness? Then the Lord, explaining the secret of the septenary and octal numbers 529, adds: Keep your tongue from slander and your lips from flattering speech. Avoid evil and do good; seek peace and observe it constantly. By teaching us to reject evil and embrace goodness, the Lord allegorically means “knowledge,” the perfection of which is made up of deeds and words. The eyes of the Lord are open on the righteous; His ears listen to their prayers; His anger is directed at those who do evil, and He erases the memory of them from the earth. The righteous man calls out and the Lord hears him and delivers him from all troubles (Ps. 33:12–19). Sinners have many sorrows, but the Lord surrounds those who trust in Him with mercy (Ps. 31:10), what else can I say? He whose faith is pure and correct will be surrounded by the fullness of mercy. Therefore, it is written in the letter to the Corinthians: “Our rational spirit, which before Christ revolved in thick darkness, was brought into the light by Him (Il. 1:236). In this light, the Almighty has given us a foretaste of immortality even here on earth. Clement, explaining to us in even more detail the nature of this knowledge, adds: “Accepting these truths with full faith, we must plunge our gaze into the depths of this Divine wisdom, fulfilling the commandments of the Lord with due accuracy and in a timely manner. Therefore, let the wise man demonstrate his wisdom not by idle talk, but by good deeds. Let the humble person not personally testify to this, but leave it to others to repay what is due. Let him who observes bodily purity and chastity not become more vain, attributing his abstinence to God’s gifts to him. Consider, brethren, that the more complete and profound the knowledge we receive, the more bodies there are and the more obvious the danger to which we are exposed.” 18. About love and curbing desires According to Clement 530, “decent and pure dispositions of our love seek the common good.” She either declares herself through confession and martyrdom; or edifies his neighbor with his words and deeds, with this twofold speech, written and unwritten. To love God and neighbor, that is where she puts her duty 531. And it lifts us to a height the image of which cannot be described in human words. Love covers a multitude of sins (James 5:20; 1 Pet. 4:8). Love endures everything (1 Cor. 13:4,7), waits patiently for the fulfillment of promises; it unites us in the closest union with God; in affairs she observes a spirit of unanimity and general agreement; it is love that makes God's elect perfect in goodness. No deed can be pleasing to God unless it is imbued with love. In short, its superiority is such that it cannot be conveyed by a weak human word. Only those whom God himself has honored with it can become the owner of this precious gift. Therefore, he writes very definitely about the love of St. Paul. If I give my body (to be burned), I do not have love, he says, then I am nothing more than a ringing brass or a sounding cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1,3). As if the Apostle were saying this: Is it not my free will and reason-guided love that I suffer for Christ and testify to my faith in Him by confession? If I acted in such a way that I moved only my lips to confess the Lord, imbued with a feeling of fear, then I would be a pitiful person. Would I not be a soulless instrument, merely mechanically uttering the name of God, which remains unknown to me? There really are people. testifying his love for the Lord only with his lips (Isa. 29:13); and there is another people who give up their bodies to be burned for their faith (2 Cor. 13:3). And if I give away all my property, says the Apostle, in order to support the poor, but if in this charity I am guided not by the principle of love, but by the expectation of gratitude from the person to whom the service was rendered, or by the expectation of reward promised by the Lord; then at least I had such a fullness of faith that I could move mountains and with it calm the passions that darken my mind: if love does not make me faithful to the Lord, I am nothing, i.e. Compared to a righteous man who testifies to his faith before the people in accordance with the rules of his wisdom, I am an obscure person and no different from the crowd. “Many generations from the time of Adam and even to the present time lived on the surface of the earth, and they all disappeared; those who are perfect in love, by the grace of the Lord, will inherit the land of the pious and holy, as it will be revealed at the coming of the day on which Christ Jesus will come to judge the world and open his kingdom. Love does not allow itself to sin. If any of those who own this treasure, at the prompting of the tempter, falls into some involuntary sin, then, imitating David, he immediately sings: I will exalt the Lord in praise; and may this sacrifice be more acceptable to Him than a calf with horns and hooves. Let the poor see this and rejoice (Ps. 68:32,33). For He says: Sacrifice praise to God and pay your vows to the Most High. And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me (Ps. 49:14,15). A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit (Ps. 50:19). God is also called love (1 John 5:8,16) because He is good. It is not consistent with the fullness of His love for anyone to harm his neighbor (Rom. 13:10) either by causing him injustice or by avenging evil with new evil. Let's sum it all up in one word: imitating God, the wise man pours out good deeds to everyone indifferently (Matthew 5:44 et c., Luke 12:36). So, fulfilling the law is love (Rom. 13:10), i.e. following the example of Christ (Matthew 5:17), the fulfillment of the law should be such an active implementation of love that the presence of the Lord who loves us is vividly felt among us; in other words, the fulfillment of the law consists in the fulfillment of the Lord’s teaching on love; this is a life imbued with love and its organization according to the commandments of the Savior. A terrifying commandment was once given: Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife (Rom. 13:9); Now this commandment is indicated for its most perfect fulfillment through love. It is not at all indifferent whether something is done out of fear or love, or whether something follows from faith or knowledge. In justice, therefore, there are different levels of retribution. For the wise man (Gnostic) there is prepared for that which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and which has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9; Isa. 64:4); the Lord promises to reward those who limit themselves only to faith a hundredfold for what they have abandoned (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:29,30). This promise can be understood by everyone without a doubt 532. I remember on this occasion a strange explanation of this place by one of the imaginary sages (Gnostics). The Savior says: But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with desire is already looking for a criminal connection with her (Matthew 5:28). This interpreter says that the Lord does not condemn us here for a simple wish, but for the fact that if a matter that is usually a consequence of a wish, going beyond its limits, finds completion in it itself. There is no doubt that in a dream the wish does not use the vision and the body at the same time. Writers who collected anecdotes assimilate this maxim to the fair Bakkhor 533. The young man, carried away by his love for the courtesan, persuaded her to come to him the next day for an agreed payment. It happened that this young man dreamed that this young girl gave herself to him and satisfied his wishes. Contrary to expectations, the young man's passion turned out to be saturated, so he closed the door on his mistress when, in accordance with the condition, she came to him. Upon learning of what had happened, the escorted young girl demanded the promised payment on the grounds that, although in a dream, she had satisfied the young man’s wishes. So the matter came to court. The judge, having ordered the young man to place the purse containing the payment for shame in the sun, ordered the courtesan to take his shadow, cunningly condemning the defendant to pay a shadow of compensation for the shadow of possession, pro imagine coitu 534. If the soul, shocked by the vision, comes into contact with it during sleep, then this is a dream. If in reality a person dreams, if he looks at any object with the eyes of desire, then he is chasing a vision that no longer has anything fantastic. Crime, according to our imaginary Gnostic, does not begin immediately as someone is notified by the eye; fornication or adultery begins in thought; it is a matter of desire, as far as the crime begins in the desire. But if someone were to look at the beauty of the body, says the Logos, then the flesh will turn out to be beautiful from the point of view of desire. You looked at him with a carnal and sinful eye, and your contemplation is criminal. Look, on the contrary, at beauty from the point of view of chaste passion, then you will forget the beauty of the flesh for the beauty of the soul 535; you will then look at the body as at a statue, rising through this earthly beauty to the Creator himself and to that which is truly beautiful, revealing to the angels guarding the entrance to heaven the seal of holiness, the bright character of righteousness 536. I want to tell this that the imprint of a good conscience is pleasing to God; He is pleased with the joyful discovery of virtuous feelings, which excite the soul, happy because it is the receptacle of the Holy Spirit. This is the light with which the face of Moses shone, and the brilliance of which the people could not bear. That is why he had to cover it from the carnal eyes of the crowd with a veil (Ex. 34:19 etc.). People who bring with them any of the earthly things are stopped by the overseers of the heavenly abodes and are freed from the human sorrows with which they come. This is not the case with those who have left in this world goods unacceptable in the heavenly world: rich in treasures of knowledge and righteousness consisting of works, the angels pass them among unanimous blessings and proclaim their persons and their deeds happy. And its leaf will not fall off, i.e. leaf of the tree of life planted by streams of water (Ps. 1:3). The righteous is compared to trees that are laden with fruit, not only to victims whose scent rises to heaven. According to the law, the Levites were required to examine the victims and reveal their defects. Likewise, sophisticated minds 537 easily distinguish a legitimate desire from a criminal one. They attribute this latter to voluptuousness and intemperance, since it contradicts reason. The first they classify as things that, by virtue of the law of nature, have become necessary, because it has reason as its basis and as its regulator. 19. Women are just as capable of excellence as men. Examples of this Both men and women are equally capable of perfection 538 . Let's show this with examples. Here is Moses. He hears from the Lord the following words 539: I have already told you and I repeat again: I look at this people, and behold they are a stiff-necked people. Do not hold back Me, and I will destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and from you I will make a nation that will be more numerous and more wondrous than this (Deut. 9:13,14). What about Moses? He does not pay attention to his personal interests, but to general salvation and answers with a persistent prayer: Do not do this, Lord. Forgive this people their sin, or blot me out from the book of the living (Ex. 32:32). Marvelous perfection! This man would rather die with his people than be saved alone. But the selflessness of Moses does not exclude the ability of women to do so. Here is Judith. Seeing the city of Bethulia besieged, she, entrusting herself to the prayers of the elders, penetrates the camp of foreigners. To liberate her fatherland, she despises all dangers; in firm trust in God he surrenders into the hands of the enemy. And soon her faith is rewarded. Burning with vengeance towards the enemy of her faith, she cuts off Holofernes' head. Here is another woman, Esther, who also declared herself to be perfect in faith. Was it not she who liberated Israel from the power of a despot and from the cruelties of a satrap? Weak, lonely, armed only with fasting and tearful prayers, she resists thousands of hands ready to put chains on her fellow tribesmen, works to abolish the tyrannical decree, and thanks to the energy of her faith achieves her goal. But the matter doesn't end there. She appeases the Assyrian, punishes Haman, and saves Israel with her zealous prayers addressed to the Lord. – Should we talk about Susanna and Moses’ sister? One, together with the prophet, took part in commanding the army and was the first among Jewish women to become famous for her wisdom; the other, in order to remain faithful to her virgin purity, despised torment and, being condemned to it by dissolute old men, fearlessly went to her death as a heroic martyr of chastity. According to the testimony of Dion the philosopher 540, the wife named Lucidica was so chaste that she always bathed in a chiton (tunic). Another, named Philotera, entering the water, raised her tunic gradually, as the water embraced the naked parts of her body; and when leaving the water after swimming, she gradually covered her body in exactly the same way. Didn’t the famous Lehena the Athenian endure all her torments with unshakable courage? Initiated into the secret of the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton against Hipparchus, she did not reveal the slightest detail, despite the cruelest torture applied to her 541. But Telesilla, who led the Argive women, was at the same time both a leader and a poetess, who with one look put the Spartans so experienced in war to flight 542: she managed to instill such contempt for death in her friends. – The author of the poem “Danaës” tells the same thing about the daughters of Danae: And then the daughters of Danae hastily took up arms On the banks of the majestic Nile River, etc. - Other poets glorify Atalanta for her speed in the hunt - the tender love of Anticleia 543, the conjugal love of Alceste, the courage of Macaria 544 and Guacintides. “And Theano the Pythagorean, didn’t she give a sublime testimony to her love for wisdom when she answered one of her admirers like this: “What a beautiful hand,” exclaimed this admirer of hers, looking at her with a curious gaze; “Yes,” answered Feano, “but it does not belong to everyone” 545. The following is told about this same Feano. Asked: “how many days after sleeping with a man can a woman attend the festival of Thesmophoria,” she gave such a worthy answer: “If this is her husband, then now; and if not a husband, then never.” Themisto the Lampsakian, daughter of Zoilus, wife of Leonteus the Lampsakian, was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, just as Muya 546, daughter of Theano, belonged to the Pythagoreans. Arignota 547 wrote about the life of Dionysus. The daughters of Diodorus, nicknamed Kronos, were all strong in dialectics, as Philo the dialectician 548 testifies in his Menexenus. These are their names given to them: Menexena, Argeia, Theognis, Artemisia, Pantacleia. I will remind you here of a certain Hipparchia, a Maronite woman, the wife of Crates, who belonged to the school of Cynics, in whose honor “Cyunogamy” celebrations were held in Poikilia. Arete, the daughter of Aristippus, a Cyrenean, was a student of her father’s philosophy and, in turn, had as a student a certain Aristippus, nicknamed “Mitrodidact” because he received his initial education from his mother. Among the disciples of Plato were the Arcadian Lastheneia and the Phliasian Axiophea. Aspasia of Miletus 549, about whom the comedians made such a fuss, had a beneficial influence on Socrates and his philosophy, as well as on Pericles and his oratory. For fear of prolonging the speech, I will keep silent about others. I will not dwell on the poetesses: Corinne and Telesilla, Muillet 550 and Sappho; – nor about women artists like Eirene, daughter of Cratinus, and Anaxandra, daughter of Nealkos, as is revealed from Didymus’ “Symposiak”. Eumetis, the daughter of the wise Cleobulus, king of the Hindus, did not find it shameful to wash the feet of the guests whom her father received. Likewise, Abraham’s wife, blessed Sarah, herself prepared bread for the Angels and baked it herself in ashes. Among the Jews, even girls of royal blood were engaged in herding sheep 551. Homer's Nausicaa goes to wash her clothes in spring water 552. A chaste woman, first of all, should set her husband, if possible, as an example of following the path to bliss together. If she does not succeed in this, let her move toward virtue alone, obeying her husband in everything, without contradicting his will, except with regard to virtue and salvation. A man who would drive his wife or maid out of the house for the mere fact that they fulfill the Divine commandments with unfeigned sincerity, would achieve nothing less than to drive righteousness and self-control out of the house. It is impossible for a man or woman to understand anything about their science if they have not practically studied it, have not thought about it, and have not been occupied with it. Virtue depends on nothing else but us entirely. Violence and oppression can take away all other wealth from us; virtue, which constitutes the content of ourselves 553, can never be taken away from us, even if someone vigilantly persists in this. Virtue is a gift from heaven and only God alone has power over it. That is why intemperance is the property of only the incontinent, and self-control is the benefit of only a person who knows how to control his desires. 20. Duties of a good wife Euripides, drawing a portrait of a wife who loves her husband with a well-behaved and honest love, gives her the following advice: Whatever the husband says, the wife should Find it beautiful, at least said A wife's job is to please her husband. The same writer elsewhere writes the following: It is wonderful to make sure that in times of misfortune your wife Sad with her husband That she takes upon herself half of his sorrows, but also his joys. Then, depicting the wife’s meekness and tenderness when her husband is beset by misfortunes, he adds: I am sick with your sorrow, I enter into your sorrows, I share half of all your misfortunes. None of what I endured for you Doesn't bother me. Favorite lot, both good and bad, It is possible to transfer; What else is friendship? That is why marriage is sacred and according to the commandments of the Logos and is perfect if the married couple is obedient to the will of God (1 Tim. 4:5), if sincerity and complete trust reign in their mutual relations, if the soul is clean from the defilements of an evil conscience, if the body is washed with clean water, if it remains firm in the confession of faith, once accepted by it and its blessings, since it has become the subject of hope. Because He who promised is faithful (Heb. 10:22,23). One should not rely on the happiness of marriage either in wealth or beauty. Where does she stay? In virtue. Beauty, says the tragic poet, I have never given the strength to keep my wife to herself Husband's heart. Virtue, on the contrary, was useful to the majority of them. Indeed, every virtuous woman, Since she is bound by marriage to her husband, Remains a strict performer of the duties of modesty. Then the writer adds as a warning: The first point is this: Every man, even if he was a freak, I must try to appear handsome to my wife, even though she wasn't very smart. Because it’s not the eye that judges her, but her mind, and so on. Scripture with great wisdom said that the wife was given by God to her husband as a helper (Gen. 2:20). This gives her responsibilities and purpose. She counters the troubles that she may have when communicating with her husband with reason, a strong, but at the same time convincing, remedy. If the husband is not inclined to her convictions, let her, as far as is given to human nature, try to keep herself clean from sin; whether it would be necessary to live or die, let her remain faithful to the Logos. Let her remain convinced that throughout her entire life and at the hour of death she can count on Divine help and support: closeness to God has truly never deceived anyone. He saves both in the present and in the future. Let her have Him as the guide of her actions; let her consider chastity and righteousness as her duties, her last duty after death to become pleasing to God. I open the letter of the Apostle to Titus and there I read such wise advice: Old women should display holy modesty even in their dress, not slander, not indulge in wine, teach good things to young women, inspiring them to love their husbands and children, to be decent, self-controlled, caring for their home, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that there is no blasphemy against the word of God (Titus 2:3-5). The Apostle says even more in another place: Try to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see God. See to it that there is no criminal ingratiation with someone else's inclination or some wicked person like Esau, who, in order to be satisfied once, sold his right of primacy; See to it that some bitter root, having sprouted, does not choke out the good seed and defile the souls of many (Heb. 12:13-17). Then, as if in order to add the last line to the question of marriage, the Apostle adds: In all things, let marriage be respected and the marriage bed spotless, for God judges criminals who ingratiate themselves with criminal tendencies in women. The same and only goal and the same end exist for both men and women. Regarding the perfect Christian, Peter said the following in his 1st epistle: This should give you joy even now, that for such a short time you were afflicted by many temptations, so that your faith, strengthened and tested like gold in a furnace, may be found more precious than this metal that perishes, and may be found worthy of praise, honor and glory on the day of the appearing of Christ Jesus, whom you love, although you have not seen, and in whom you believe, although you have not yet seen. For you hope that you will be rewarded with inexpressible and glorious joy, having also achieved rewards for your faith, which is the salvation of your souls (1 Pet. 1:6-9). This is why Paul is proud that because of Christ he was in greater labor than anyone else, that he received more blows for Him than anyone else, and that very often because of Him he was close to death (2 Cor. 11:23). 21. About the perfect Christian, or true Gnostic (sage) Here I find it appropriate to state that a Christian, at least in my understanding, can achieve perfection in different ways, depending on the nature of his chosen virtue. You can declare yourself perfect in piety, patience, purity, charity, confession and knowledge. At the same time, to achieve perfection in each of these virtues, I do not know whether it is given to any person, as long as he remains a person. Was it only characteristic of Him who, for our sake, took upon Himself human nature in order to embody this great advantage in Himself? For which man is to be considered perfect in the eyes of the law? One who could boast of not being involved in any kind of evil. But this is the path that leads to the Gospel and to all kinds of virtues. Gnostic perfection for every person. living under the law, therefore faith in the Gospel consists. Only by this can a person under the law be elevated to perfection. That is why Moses, who lived under the authority of the ancient law, foretold that these ancient decrees must be obeyed in order to obtain Christ (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22; 7:37), which, according to the Apostle, is the fullness of the law (Matthew 5:17; Rom. X. 4). And the true sage (gnostic) quickly moves on to this faith in the Gospel. This is not only because the law serves as a stepping stone for him to accept this new law, but also because a true Gnostic uses the law and understands its meaning as it was explained to the Apostles by the Lord himself, the Author of both covenants. It is impossible for a true sage to move forward in goodness only sluggishly; because he arranges his life wisely. Moreover, bearing witness to God with his impeccable behavior, he is both a martyr, and a martyr, moreover, for love. By this confession he acquires the highest glory that can only be achieved among people. But, despite all these merits, he still cannot be considered perfect as long as he remains imprisoned in this body. This Gnostic witness of Christ achieves this sacred title only at the end of his life, because only then does he have the opportunity to declare his faith as a most perfect deed and on this great day of judgment to see the perfection of his deeds, as well as their consequences. Supported by the mercy of God, enlightened by His wisdom, he seals his self-sacrifice with blood and gives up the spirit received from God, bleeding with it. From that moment on, he is blessed and rightfully considered perfect, so that what is most majestic between us can be assimilated according to the Apostle, the omnipotence of God, and not to us. We are saved, on the one hand, only by our good will in choosing, and on the other, by Divine mercy. We endure all kinds of oppression, but are not constrained by them; we are in desperate circumstances, but we do not despair; we are persecuted, but we do not remain helpless; we are cast down, but we do not perish (2 Cor. 4:7–9). It is necessary, the Apostle continues, that those who strive for perfection should not serve as a temptation to anyone in anything, but that in all respects they should prove worthy of approval not only from people, but also from God. It should be added: and so that they are obedient to people; this is required by reason because of the violence and curses that the disobedient incur on themselves. Our glory is (not in disobedience, but) in much patience, in adversity, in need, in distress, under blows, in prisons, in exiles, in labors, in vigilance, in fasting, in purity, in knowledge, in generosity, in goodness, in the works of the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned mercy, in the word of truth, in the power of God (2 Cor. 6:4-6 ), so that we may be the church of God (2 Cor. 6:16), cleansed from everything that defiles the body and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). And I, the Apostle continues in the name of God, will receive you and will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me (2 Cor. 6:17,18). So, let us complete the work of our sanctification, says the Apostle, in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1). Because although fear gives rise to sadness, I rejoice, he says, not because you were sad, but because this sadness brought you to repentance. The sorrow you experienced befell you by the will of God, and thus you did not suffer any harm from it because of us. For sorrow for the sake of God produces unchanging repentance for salvation, while the sorrow of this world produces death. And indeed. Look what this sadness you experienced for Bose produced in you: what thoughtfulness, what apologies, what indignation, what fear, what desire, what jealousy, what exactingness for the crime! By all your behavior you showed that in this matter you were pure and blameless (2 Cor. 7:1,9-11). These are the exercises that precede a Christian’s entry into the Gnostic field. But since the Almighty God himself appointed some as apostles, others as prophets, these as evangelists, those as shepherds and teachers, so that they would work to perfect the saints through the fulfillment of the duties of their ministry, through the building up of the body of Christ, until we all come into the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13), then we must strive for this manly age through knowledge; We must approach perfection as close as possible, although we are still clothed in flesh. And we will achieve this if we are still here on earth in heart and spirit in union with God, if we coordinate our actions with His will, so that through the fullness of Christ, in whom all perfections are combined to an unlimited and final degree, we restore to us the privileges of our nobility and our high origin. We now understand why, how and when a person is perfect, according to the view of the glorious Apostle, and what differences exist, according to his understanding, between people who have achieved perfection. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, he says in another place, which are manifested externally, are distributed among the members of the church for its benefit. One received from the Holy Spirit the gift of speaking intelligently, another from the same Spirit to speak knowledgeably, the third again from the same Holy Spirit the gift of faith; another receives from the Holy Spirit the gift of healing illnesses; still another to perform miracles; the other is the gift of prophecy, this discernment of spirits; this one is the gift of speaking in different languages, the other is the gift of interpreting what is said in them. Yet all this is done by one and the same Spirit, dividing his gifts as He pleases (1 Cor. 7:7-11). Under such a Ruler, a prophet is perfect in his prophecy, a righteous man in his righteousness, a martyr in his bloody testimony about Christ, and others in preaching about Him. We do not want to say by this that they are not busy with good, simple deeds, but only that they declare themselves to be excellent only in that virtue to which they are called by God. Which sane person can say, for example, that a prophet does not act in truth? But do not the righteous also have the gift of prophecy, like Abraham? To one, says Homer, God gave the ability to conduct himself in war, Another was gifted with the ability to dance; this ability to play the cithara, that - the sweetness of the chant But everyone has his own gift from God, one this way, another another (1 Cor. 7:7). The apostles were filled with all gifts. Follow, if you wish, their “Acts”, read their writings, and you will find that they were characterized by knowledge, and virtue, and the gift of preaching, and integrity, and the gift of prophecy. It should be noted, however, that although Paul’s life belongs to an era comparatively closer to our time, because he appeared only after the Ascension of the Savior, his epistles have a close connection with those of the Old Testament. He draws his inspiration from them and speaks in their expressions. For by faith in Christ and knowledge of the Gospel the law is interpreted and replenished. That is why it was said to the Hebrews: If you do not have faith in what I have said, you will not understand it (Isa. 7:9). What does the sim express? The fact is that if you do not believe in Him whose coming was predicted and depicted in the law, then you will not understand the Old Testament, because the Savior, having become incarnate, has already explained it by this alone. 22. The principle of the way of thinking and action of a true sage (gnostic) should not be either the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. It should be governed only by love for the good and beautiful seen in ourselves So, the traits that characterize a true sage (gnostic) are prudence and foresight. But his activity is not limited only to abstaining from evil; this is only a step to the highest perfection; but even in devotion to good he is not obedient to fear. It is written: Where will I run and where will I hide from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I go to the edge of the sea, Thy right hand will be there. If I go down into the abyss, your Spirit will be there (Ps. 139:7-10). And it is not because of the promised reward that the Gnostic is virtuous, for it is said (Rev. 22:12): Behold the Lord, and His reward is before Him (Isa. 15:10; 62:11), to give to every man according to his works (Ps. 61:13; Rom. 2:6). The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not entered into what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). What is the engine of the Gnostic? Isn't it good activity, rooted in love? Isn’t it good, for the sake of his beauty and for his own sake, venerable? Didn’t God (the Father) himself say to the Son: I will give you the nations as an inheritance (Ps. 2:8). This is the Tsar’s request that is truly worthy. She also teaches us to ask the King of the universe to grant humanity tuna (free of charge. – Approx. ed. ), without any merit or salvation on his part. so that we may all become the Lord's heritage and His possession. On the contrary, to strive for the knowledge of God with the goal of acquiring some benefit from it - so that this happens, and so that this does not happen - this is not in the rules of the Gnostic. He does not need any other purpose for contemplation other than contemplation itself. I dare to say that not because of the desire to be saved, a person should strive to know God, but should accept and assimilate it because of the Divine beauty and greatness, holiness, superiority and superiority of the naturalness of this knowledge itself. And authentic. Understanding, as a result of constant exercise, becomes the determining principle. Comprehension is timeless, constant - this is the essence of the Gnostic; activity is coherent, unrelenting, continuous. And this never-stopping contemplative activity becomes in the Gnostic the substantial principle that animates it. Let's assume the following. Here the Gnostic is offered a choice between the knowledge of God and eternal salvation. Let us assume that these two matters, in no case inseparable, can be separated from one another. Without a moment's hesitation, a Gnostic would choose the knowledge of God. In this case, he would reason in such a way that one should always and in everything, they say, give preference to the power in itself, in the present case, this ability, which is inherent in faith and inseparable from it, this property of it: through the penetration of our being with love, to bring us to knowledge. The first principle of good activity of a completely perfect person is this: to act not in the form of personal good. Once he has reasoned that virtue is something beautiful and honorable: the fiery impulse of his soul is already constantly and energetically impelling him to goodness because of goodness itself. You will not see him virtuous today, and tomorrow criminal or indifferent to good: his path is precise and immutably established in goodness. On the other hand, the Gnostic follows the course of his life in the image and likeness of God, not to gain glory or fame for himself: and he is not guided by the expectation of reward from God or from people, as philosophers claim. If it happens that for the good done by the Gnostic, someone who is contrary to him would repay him, then, forgetting the offense, he throws away the thought of retribution for evil with evil from himself, like any other evil, remembering that the Lord turns out to be good and just both to the evil and to the good, both in relation to the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). To those who are animated by this feeling, the Lord addresses himself with the following word: Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). For the Gnostic, the flesh is already dead; He alone is still alive in her (Gal. 2:20). This burying of himself in himself serves as the foundation for him to build on it a holy church dedicated to God (1 Cor. 3:16), in which his soul, hitherto enslaved to sin, ascends to God 554. Then it is impossible to say about him: “here he is abstinent”; he achieves such dispassion, access to his soul is so difficult for ordinary human passions, that he only expects to be clothed in the Divine image (Phil. 2:6) 555. When you give alms, says the Lord, let no one know about it (Matthew 6:1). And when you fast, oil your head, so that only one knows about your fast (Matthew 6:16,17), but no one among the people. But a merciful person himself should not know about his mercy (Matthew 6:3); otherwise sometimes he will be merciful, sometimes not. When alms are distributed to them according to their skill in it and because he has already been imbued with this property, then by his very nature he will become closer to goodness. Let us not give room in our souls to the pompous hope that the intended goal can be achieved with a one-time sublime effort; it can only be achieved by humbly walking on earth; step by step we must go through the entire narrow path here (Matthew 7:13–14). The words “to be drawn by the Father” (John 6:44) indicate the obligation to take care to earn the communication to us of the power and action of grace coming from God, so that thanks to it we can move forward unhindered and ascend along the difficult path of virtue. If it happens that the chosen one suffers hatred from people, then, knowing their ignorance, he regrets the blindness of their way of thinking. This happens for a reason; that knowledge, quickened by love, teaches the ignorant and instructs in every creature to respect the creation of the Almighty. If a Gnostic has learned to love God, then from then on his virtue is in no way lost, either in a dream or in reality, or from any sensory thing. For what has become a substantial property of his spirit cannot fall away from the conditions of its existence, whether this property is knowledge or you would like to call it an internal disposition: because the dominant part of the soul, through the very fact that it never lives in the thoughts of others, is unchangeable in its action and does not accept anything from the changeable forms passing before it; even in her sleep she does not pursue any of these images that pass before her at night, while they disturb the minds of those who were disturbed by them during the day. That is why the Lord also commands us to stay awake (Matt. 24:42), so that our soul will never, even in sleep, be disturbed by passions. His will is that our way of being during the night be just as orderly (1 Thessalonians 5:8) as during the day, and that we keep our sleep pure and immaculate. The way to achieve the likeness of God, as far as it depends on us, is to maintain in our spirit a constant disposition towards those very things. This is already the property of the spirit, since it is a spirit, that the reason for its variability and its deviations is too much inflammation by material things. This is the reason why the Hellenes called the night “good advisor” 556 because the soul, having then freed itself from the power of the senses, enters into itself in order to fully surrender itself to the suggestions of wisdom. That is why the mysteries are also performed especially at night, as if in order to depict the composure that its detachment from the body produces on the soul during darkness. So, let us not indulge in sleep like others, but let us stay awake and maintain sobriety in ourselves, for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night. Let us, being children of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and instead of a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 6–8). What is said about sleep can also be said about death. Both states depict the self-deepening of the soul: death is the image of this complete withdrawal into itself, sleep is weakened. Heraclitus, if asked, would give us the same lesson. “Death,” he says, “is approaching sleep, because the deceased person is enveloped by the night, extinguished for the joys of light; A living person approaches the state of the dead when he closes his eyes to sleep; in the waking state, a person approaches the state of a sleeping person when he closes his eyes.” Blessed indeed, according to the expression of the Apostle, are those who have seen the Lord 557, because the hour has already come to wake up from our carelessness. For now we are much closer to our salvation than when we accepted faith. The deep night has passed, the day has come. Let us therefore leave behind the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light (Rom. 13:11,12). The Apostle metaphorically calls the Son the name of day and light, and the commandments, in another metaphor, weapons of light. That is why we are commanded to approach the throne for sacrifice and prayer, purified by washing and shining in appearance, dressed in rich clothes. You need to see a symbol in these commands, which prescribe cleansing and beautifying your appearance. True purification consists in maintaining holy feelings and thoughts within oneself. These ablutions, prescribed by law, the tradition of which from Moses reached secular writers, depict Christian baptism. From these writers we read: Penelope goes to the church to pray, after Having washed in clean water and put on clean clothes (Odis. IV, 751, 752; XVII, 48, 58). Telemachus turns to Athena in prayer, having washed his hands in the foamy waves of the sea (Odis. II, 261). The Jews also had the custom of purifying themselves every time post concubitum. This word is full of wisdom Cleanse yourself less with water and more with spirit. This is the most perfect purity, I believe, if someone is pure in soul, if whose deeds are impeccable, if whose thoughts are blameless, if whose words are clear as the sun; finally, if whose soul remains virgin even in sleep. For a person, I believe, this cleansing alone is sufficient, which is a sincere and adamant repentance, when, condemning ourselves for previous sinful acts, we begin to live better for the future, being enlightened in our understanding and freeing our soul from under the blocks of sensual pleasures and previous sins. If I had to give the word production of the word science (ἐηιστή μη), then I would pay attention to its component στάσις, the word which denotes peace, because science stops our attention, hitherto changeable and indecisive, on the essence of things. The same word is included in the composition of the faith πίστις; faith really is the stopping of the spirit, calmness on what truly exists. We Christians always strive to find out the truth regarding every matter; if a cause wants to remain eternally righteous, then it should not be afraid of the punishments that the law threatens, nor the hatred of its contemporaries or revenge for virtue; Finally, it should not tremble at the danger into which crime and baseness plunge it. To abstain from untruth for such motives means to be virtuous out of fear, and not out of personal good and preference for everyone. Epicurus says that “a wise man, or at least one whom he considers such, will never decide to commit any injustice, despite all the benefits that he could derive from it, because he can never be sure that his injustice will remain a secret.” So, Epicurus, your sage could commit evil if he could be sure that it would never be revealed! This is your teaching. It is darkness. No, if you move away from untruth in the hope of even the rewards appointed by God for good deeds, then even in this case you will not yet testify to your voluntary disposition towards good. In the first case, righteousness is generated by fear, and in the second by a reward, but not righteousness either, I was mistaken, but only a shadow of righteousness. The hope of being rewarded with good after death for the well-intentioned and evil for the wicked is characteristic not only of those who follow barbarian (Jewish) philosophy, but also of the Pythagoreans. They share the same teaching. Because they set hope for this as a goal for those who are devoted to their philosophy. Socrates says in the Phaedo that “the souls of virtuous people leave this world with the hope of bliss.” Then, condemning the evil, he says the opposite: “They live, expecting evil retribution.” Heraclitus, in his discussion about man, says the same thing as Socrates: “A state awaits him after death that cannot be the subject of either hope or calculation.” The Apostle was inspired by God when he wrote to the Romans: From tribulation comes patience, from patience experience, from experience hope, and hope does not put one to shame (Rom. 5:3-5). Patience actually suffers, hoping for the future. Hope at the same time means not only making oneself worthy of what is expected, but also receiving what is expected. In this last respect, hope will not be put to shame, because it will not have any changeable or illusory benefits. A person who pursues his calling because of himself, solely because he is called, he strives for knowledge not driven by fear or threats; and it is not because of the attraction of pleasure that he is devoted to his work. He does not investigate whether his activity will be accompanied by any beneficial consequences or whether it will give him any pleasure; he renders God the following veneration, carried away by the love of what is truly dear, and following only his duty. Suppose, if you will, that God authorized him to follow the forbidden with impunity; suppose that he is promised blessedness for breaking the law; even assume, although this is impossible, that his deeds would remain unknown to God: still, he will never agree to allow anything contrary to reason in his actions. As soon as the truly beautiful and in itself desirable things are recognized by him as just such, he strives for them as an object worthy and worth striving for. True good does not consist only in maintaining and nourishing the body. Our Gnostic knows that what makes us pleasing to God is not food (1 Cor. 8:8), not marriage and not celibacy, observed as a result of error of reason, but virtue, which has light and wisdom as its initial principle. If this is not so, then the dog, an animal devoid of reason, should be taught the virtue of moderation, because even it does not touch food as soon as the owner’s stick is raised over it. Abolish the promises to virtuous people; remove the fear that threatens them and the danger hanging over their heads, and you will see what is going on in the depths of their souls. 23. A true sage (gnostic), as far as it depends on him, abstains from everything that flatters sensuality and sacrifices benefits of this kind for the higher ones People who deviate from the true (Orthodox) way of thinking do not penetrate quite deeply into the nature of things when, in accordance with reality and the voice of reason, they do not want to admit that everything created for our benefit is good; that both marriage and having children are beautiful if all this is accompanied by prudence and abstinence from passions. But even better, because of the likeness to God, is complete freedom from passions 558; It’s wonderful to adapt to virtue and get used to it. People of the wrong way of thinking from external things, whether they are useful or harmful, abstain from some, but not at all from others. But even the worst thing happens to them from here. Their abstinence from certain things and the disgust they have for them causes them to slander both the creature and the Creator; Apparently this is a devout way of thinking, but in fact, in its fundamentals it is wicked. This commandment: Thou shalt not covet, it does not need to be reinforced by intimidation, which would force us to abstain from certain acts that are pleasing to our sensuality, nor to be lured to do so by a reward, which by pointing to it would encourage us to curb criminal desires within ourselves. Those who are not carried away by the lures of carnal pleasures abstain from them not at all because they follow the commandment in themselves, but for the sake of the promise, for the sake of the benefits promised to those who choose obedience and obey God. For truly, even aversion from sensual things is not necessarily followed by a turn to speculative things. It would be better to say that this aversion from the sensual occurs as a result of turning to the speculative. Dealing with things that can only be comprehended by reason naturally distracts the Gnostic from things of the senses; through the choice of what is beautiful, he chooses good with full consciousness; he marvels at the mystery of generation and honors it, inviolably preserving the law of the Creator; but he also honors and sacredly observes the likeness to God, which brings us closer to Him. He says: “However, Lord, I want to be free 559 from desires, so that I can be in the closest union with You. The structure of this world is beautiful and the laws that govern creation are full of wisdom. Nothing happens here without a reason. It was required, O Almighty, that I live among the works of Your hands. But being among them, I abide in You. Let fear be far from me, so that I may be able to draw closer to Your greatness. As long as I remain here on earth, I wish to be content with little, trying to imitate the justice of Your election, which distinguishes true good from imaginary.” From the holiest and most mysterious teachings of the Apostle we learn what our choice truly pleases God. This choice, according to his teaching, consists less in renouncing certain things, as if they were bad, but more in honoring others, more valuing higher goods, incomparable with ordinary things. For example: his actual words: Therefore, he who gives his maiden in marriage does well, and he who does not give it away does better (1 Cor. 7:38), caring for her with piety and unhindered service to the Lord (1 Cor. 7:35). We have been taught that things that are difficult to acquire mean they are not necessary; meanwhile, the things we need through the mercy of the Creator are given to us, as it were, into our hands. Democritus was therefore right when he said that nature and teaching are almost identical things. In a few words we will find out here the reason for this. It is truly characteristic of teaching to compose and structure a person; it suits him in the same way that an instrument is tuned. By introducing order and harmony into a person, the teaching creates a new nature in him. And in this regard, it is a matter of indifference how this transformation into a new person occurs in him, whether it happens naturally or whether he changes into a new species from time to time, or from the assimilation of a known teaching. The good of both equally comes from the Lord: one comes from Him as the Creator of the world, the other flows from Him as from the Restorer of the world and Renewer in the new covenant with Him. One should especially choose that which is most approved by the most important and noblest part of the human being; and this is what the mind consists of. So, if the choice takes place under the guidance of reason, then what is truly good will at the same time be the most pleasant, and the deeds and things so chosen will in themselves yield the expected good fruits; I want to say: doing them will bring silence, clarity and tranquility into the soul. He who listens to me, says Scripture, will live in peace and rest in hope, his soul will not be troubled by any evil (Prov. 1:33). Trust in God with all the fullness of your heart and all your mind (Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). Already such behavior can liken a true sage to God. I will tell you: you are gods and sons of the Most High (Ps. 81:6). And Empedocles also classifies the souls of wise men as gods, saying: Finally, among the dead, soothsayers, hymn writers and doctors take precedence. After leaving the earth, they are reborn by the gods And surrounded by the highest honors. Man, considered from an abstract and absolute point of view, carries in his structure the idea of ​​a spirit, which actually joins his organization. Not without a model, it is born in the laboratory of nature, where the mysterious birth of humanity generally takes place, because its substance and its form are common to man with all other creatures. But, taken separately, a person reproduces in his being a type that presents him with objects worthy of his special love. This is what gives us reason to assert that Adam was perfect in his organization, for he lacked nothing that characterizes the idea of ​​man and his external image. He received perfection simultaneously with life and it was justified by his obedience. This is what had in him to gradually rise to maturity; this was his ability to improve; I want to say: this was his free will, that his will could choose and that it chose the forbidden fruit, this sin should not be attributed to God. There are two types of generation: there are beings that are born and there are things that happen. Courage, since man is by nature subject to passions and emotional disturbances, in common parlance, makes him fearless and imparts invincibility to anyone who follows his suggestions. The strength of the heart serves as a squire for the spirit, so to speak, supporting it in patience, uncomplaining obedience and other similar virtues. Temperance and prudence, with their beneficial influences, calm desire. God is impassive; Anger in our sense of the word is not characteristic of Him; He has no desires; He is not overcome by fear, since He does not need to avoid dangers: He is eternally self-controlled, since He does not have to curb His lusts. By His nature, God really cannot fall into any danger, He cannot be subject to fear; in the same way, He has no desires; therefore he does not have to curb them. “It is necessary,” said Pythagoras, “for a person to develop unity within himself.” This word of Pythagoras is repeated among us in a mysterious sense. We have one High Priest, one God, unchangeable in His essence; From Him flow all blessings. The Savior, by forbidding even a wish, thereby cuts off anger at the root, for anger is nothing more than a desire for revenge. In general, a desire, no matter what its nature, contains confusion of spirit and imposes on it a passionate state. Every person who has learned to curb the disorderly movements of his soul, by his innocence, becomes a participant in the Divine nature and rises in his being to this majestic state. which is called the unity of God. Just as sailors, wanting to pull back to themselves the protective anchor they had lowered, dragging it, they themselves move towards it: similarly, the true Gnostic, wanting to attract God to himself by the perfection of his life, without his own knowledge, he himself gravitates towards Him. He who serves God also serves himself. In the contemplative life, caring for one’s dearest interests is identical with reverence for God; and the perfection of purification by mutual identity of essence brings the holiness of man to the contemplation of the holiness of God. Thus, a self-controlled person, always remaining reasonable, constantly observing himself and contemplating himself, never changing himself, becomes like God, at least as much as this likeness is possible. 24. The meaning and purpose of sorrows placed on man by God From the very moment a thing and its opposite are in our hands, for example. to live or not to live virtuously, to believe or not to believe, from that very moment it is false to assert that it is in our power. And from the very circumstance that we find ourselves masters of two opposite things, it follows that what is in our power is possible. Therefore, it is in our power whether to fulfill the commandments or not. Therefore, it corresponds to this that praise or blame is a consequence of our own actions; and if a sinner is punished for the crimes he has committed, then he bears punishment only according to his own field and for his sins: it depended on him that the punishment was sent to him. Before that there were violations of the law; the same thing that has been done cannot be done as if it had not happened. Sins committed before accepting faith are forgiven by the Lord. But He does not leave them as if they had never been committed, but blots out (their consequences) as if those sins had not occurred. “Forgiveness does not apply to all sins,” Basilides exclaims here; “It applies only to involuntary crimes that occurred from accident and ignorance.” We answer him: God reveals to us the treasure of his gifts not in the same way as a person would do it. And the Holy Scripture answers this heretic: The wicked thought in his iniquity: I will be like Him (Ps. 49:21) 560. But even in the case when we are punished for involuntary sins, this does not happen in order to make those sins not happen, but precisely because we are punished because they were committed by us. Punishment does not yet give the guilty the strength and means not to sin; it only helps him not to sin in the future. By the way, and to everyone else, it seems to say: “Beware of falling into the same sins.” For three reasons, here on earth the all-good God punishes us: firstly, so that the one being punished himself becomes better; secondly, so that those who can still be saved can be prepared in advance for salvation by the examples of their punished neighbors; thirdly and finally, to protect from contempt the one who has become a victim of injustice and to prevent him from inflicting a new insult. We distinguish two methods of admonition and correction: one through teaching, the other through punishment, which is therefore called the forced method. You also need to know that we are punished only for sins committed by us after baptism 561; our early sins are forgiven; As for later sins, we need cleansing from them. About the unbelievers it is said: They are considered like dust raised by the wind from the surface of the soil, like a drop of water falling from a basin (Ps. 1:4; Isa. 15:15; Wis. 11:23). 25. True perfection consists in knowing God and loving Him “Happy is the man who has gained intelligence from science. Blessed is the one who did not set the goal of his actions to harm and misfortune his fellow citizens, nor who did not encourage others to do injustice. Blessed is he, contemplating the endless beauty of eternal nature, unaffected by old age, blessed is he, knowing what that beauty consists of and how and why it remains unchanged. In people of this kind, the intention never arises to allow themselves to act dishonestly” 562. And Plato therefore had every reason to say that a person “who devotes himself to the contemplation of ideas will live among mortals as if he were a god. The mind is the throne of ideas, and God is the throne of the mind." About a person whose mind is turned to the contemplation of the invisible God, Plato said that he is God, living among mortal people. In the Sophist, Socrates also calls the Elean, his guest, distinguished in dialectics, “god” and equates him with those of them who visit cities under the guise of foreigners (Odis. XVII, 485). A sage may indeed be something god-like. Because when his soul, rising above everything material, turns only to itself and, limiting itself only to its personal life, maintains a relationship, like the coryphaeus in “Theaetetus,” only with the world of ideas, then it rises to the state of an angel (Matthew 22:30), immersed with its life in Christ; and being turned to the contemplation of God, honors only His will. And in truth Only such a person is a true sage; The rest are nothing more than balancers, Vespers dance on a point without support and are like fleeting shadows (Odis. X, 495). Dead (in spirit), they are really busy with nothing more than burying their dead (Matthew 8:22). That is why Jeremiah said: I will fill this city with the corpses of the sons of the country, struck by My indignation (Jer. 33:5). God (the Father, directly) incomprehensible 563 cannot be (directly) the subject of science. The Son, at the same time, is wisdom and truth and science, and finally He consists of everything that can have the closest relationship to God. He's even more than that. It is an explanation, but also the starting point of everything. But when everything was created together with all the powers of the Spirit (Gen. 1:2), then it was created by creation, strictly speaking, to one central point, to the Son. There is no way to know all His powers, because in reality the Son is not represented by just one thing; He does not exist in the form of some kind of mathematical unit 564; Below is a multitude composed of parts, He represents; but this is not a being and some kind of polysyllabic one, allowing the presence of several parts in itself, no; The existence of the Son must be imagined in such a way that with His unity He embraces everything, which is why everything flows from Him. He is the rim of all forces: they move in Him and are united by Him. And this is the reason why the Logos is called Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8). Because He is the only being of its kind, whose end is also the beginning, and whose beginning is also the end; and there is no interruption, break or measure in the existence of this Being 565. And that is why to believe in the Logos through the mediation of Himself means to achieve unity with oneself, 566 which is tantamount to an indivisible, indissoluble union with the Logos. Not to believe in the Logos means falling into doubt, wandering through unknown countries, being separated and divided into parties. This is what prompted the Lord to say: No son of a foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in the flesh, i.e. He who is unclean in soul and body will not enter My sanctuary, not even that foreigner who lives among the children of Israel; Only the Levites will enter (Ezek. 44:9,10). What kind of sons of a foreigner are these? These are those who, instead of believing, would rather remain non-believers. Consequently, only those who lead an immaculate life are true priests of God. Therefore, of all the tribes and those who were circumcised, only those among whom the sons of the people (in this sense) were clothed, after anointing them with the sacred oil, with the duties of high priest, royal and prophetic, were known under the name of the most holy. Therefore, they were forbidden to even touch the corpses; they were not allowed to even enter the room where the dead man lay (Lev. 21:1, etc.; Num. 6:9,10, etc.; Ezek. 44:25, etc.). Not because it is as if the corpse itself became something defiling, but because sin and disobedience are the works of the flesh, they live in the body, and die with it (i.e., leaving no good fruits behind); and as a result of this they are vile 567. Therefore, the priest was allowed to enter the room of the deceased only if it was his father, mother, son or daughter. The priest's carnal and blood relations were therefore limited only to filial and parental ones. In the same closest and continuous degree of kinship, the title of priest was inherited by birth. Therefore, the priests had to cleanse themselves within seven days, a period equal in duration to the creation of the world. On the seventh day they celebrated the rest of God. On the eighth day they offered a propitiatory sacrifice for their sin, as it is written about this in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:27). It must be understood as reassurance and affirmative hope. Perfect purification, in my opinion, consists of truly purifying and reconciling (with God) faith, through the law and the prophets leading to the acceptance of the Gospel. This Gospel purity and peace with God consist in complete obedience to God while putting aside concern for all earthly things and detachment from them, continuing and preserved until the day on which the soul that used them joyfully and gratefully gives up its carnal hut to the earth (2 Cor. 5:2). Then this cleansing had to take place after seven Sabbath years in the year that brought with it the Sabbath or higher rest (Lev. 25:4-8, etc.). This signifies those seven heavens, which according to some represent intermediate steps in our ascent to God. Or this directly designates the region of the fixed stars, adjacent to the world of intelligent forces, to which the prophet hints with osminas 568. During these seven weeks, a true Gnostic, in my opinion, must completely renounce the world of sensory phenomena, and most of all, sin. That is why sacrifices for the atonement of sins were offered for seven days. However, it is necessary to carefully observe this cycle of times, so that no traces of sinful impurity remain even by the seventh week (and someone else will live to see it!). Job was a righteous man, and so he said: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will go (Job 1:21). He didn’t want to say that he was leaving this world without accumulating wealth: that would have been a pitiful and vulgar thought, but that, as befits a righteous man, he was leaving this land uninvolved in evil and vice, free and pure from the veneration of idols and ghosts that had no specific type, which even beyond the grave accompany the people who lived here disorderly, wickedly and unrighteously 569 . The same thing is signified by the following saying: Having been converted, you must be like children (Matthew 28:3), pure in body, holy in soul, abstaining from evil deeds. The Lord shows us by this that He wants to see us as we came from the womb of the water 570. Carnal birth must be followed by spiritual rebirth, with which the Lord wants to gradually prepare us for immortality. The lamp of the wicked will go out (Job 21:10). The wise Moses outlines this purity of soul and body, which constitutes the goal of all the efforts and aspirations of a true Gnostic, in his depiction of the internal and external purity of Rebecca, decently drawing our attention to his image through the repetition of his thoughts. He describes Rebekah in these terms: But the maiden was beautiful: her husband did not know her (Gen. 24:16). Rebekah means “the glory of God,” and the glory of God consists in incorruptibility and unharmfulness. True righteousness consists in never coveting the things of others and never harming others, and in general, with one’s entire personality, represent a church dedicated to God. Righteousness! She is the peace and serenity of life, its strength and steadfastness. When the Lord said to the woman He healed: Go in peace (Mark 5:34), then with this expression He commanded her nothing more than to turn her to the same righteousness. Α Salem means peace, and our Lord truly bears the title of “King of Peace” (Matthew 21:5: Luke 12:15). Moses alludes to Him when he speaks of Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who, as a sign of gratitude, offered Abraham consecrated bread and wine (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1,2). He is depicted here as an even higher person. The word Melchizedek means King of righteousness, and righteousness and peace are synonymous, one and the same (Heb. 12:2). Basilides thinks that righteousness and its daughter the world are placed in the octagon mentioned by the prophet and remain there. But this interpretation is too alletorical. Let us turn from him to explanations that are more accessible and moral for everyone; An analysis of Vasilido's teachings will follow the present discussion. So, truly, the Savior himself initiates us into his sacraments, according to what the tragic poet also says: Knowing those who know Him, He Himself gives us these holidays 571. What kind of holidays are these that I’m talking about? Those who are not initiated into the secrets should not reveal them. If, out of curiosity, someone began to find out again what kind of celebrations these were, he would again hear: You should not be allowed to hear these secrets, Despite the fact that they are worth investigating: The wicked are not allowed on the festivals of this God. God, who had no beginning, is the perfect beginning of all things. Everything that exists is related to this beginning. And since He is a being, He is the beginning of all creativity; and since He is good, He is the source of moral powers; and since He is the mind, He is the source of the rational and judgmental abilities. From here it follows that the only begotten Son of the Most High Father, of infinite holiness, is also the educator of humanity. 26. How a true Gnostic uses the body and earthly things So, those who blaspheme the creation and are dissatisfied with the body are foolish. They do not pay attention to the fact that man is already oriented towards heights by his bodily organization, so that he can have the opportunity to contemplate the sky 572; the entire mechanism of his feelings is reduced to the acquisition of knowledge; the members of his body and all its parts are adapted more to doing good than to sensual pleasures. This is why our physical hut can contain the soul, the most precious being in the eyes of God; and the entire human being, after the sanctification of both soul and body, through its renewal in Christ Jesus, is worthy of becoming the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The Gnostic combines the triad of virtues in a more intimate way, because he devotes himself to the search for God morally, physically and mentally. For wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human 573. Righteousness establishes harmonious harmony between the parts of the soul 574; and holiness consists in due reverence for God. If someone says that the flesh dishonors itself and that it is in it that the act of generation is rooted, and in confirmation of his hatred of the flesh he refers to the word of Isaiah: All flesh is grass and all human beauty is like a wildflower; the grass dries up, the color falls off; But the word of the Lord endures forever (Isa. 15:6, 8): then let him listen to the explanation of the question that occupies us from the Holy Spirit himself through the mouth of Jeremiah: I will scatter them like chaff, carried by the wind into the desert. This is the lot and fate of your disobedience, says the Lord. And since you have forgotten Me and trust in lies, then I will expose your nakedness before everyone, and your dishonor will be visible to everyone, your adultery and the frenzy of your desires, etc. (Jer. 13:24–27). Who is depicted in Scripture as a flower of the field (James 1:0; 1 Pet. 1:24)? What kind of people are these who walk in the flesh (1 Cor. 10:3)? What kind of carnal people are these about whom the Apostle speaks (1 Cor. 3:3)? These are people living in sins. And indeed it is so. It is a generally accepted truth that the soul is the noblest part of the human being, and the body the lowest. But neither the soul is good by its very nature, nor the body is evil by the same nature. But even from the fact that a certain thing is not good, it does not immediately follow that it is evil. There is a class of things that occupy the middle between good and evil. And things “not accepted” and “recognized” 575 are included in the same category. It was necessary that man, who by organization belongs to beings guided by feelings, should be composed of diverse, but not opposite, principles; and such are the body and soul. Now it turns out that good deeds, belonging to a higher nature, always have a relationship to this higher principle, which tends to dominate; deeds of voluptuousness and sin flow from the lower source, the sinful spirit. But the soul of the sage and Gnostic, confined in the body only for a short time, like the Traveler who has come to a strange land, uses the body with strict moderation and is careful not to be too lenient and favorable towards it, being disposed to leave this mortal hut immediately as soon as the call is announced to it. A stranger, she says together with Abraham, I am in this land and a stranger among you (Gen. 23:4; Ps. 39:13). Basilides bases his teaching on these words about the advantages of the chosen ones and that by their nature they are of transcendental origin. The teaching is wicked and false. All creatures are the work of one and the same God; There is no one who by nature would be alien to this world, because nature is one, just as there is only one God. And yet the chosen one lives here as a stranger, knowing that although he can own everything here, he must leave everything behind. He does not neglect the benefits divided by the Peripatetics into three types 576 and uses them; he also uses the body, but rather like a traveler who has visited a distant place; he enters the hotels and houses he meets along the way, but cares about the things of this world and the roof that protects him as little as a traveler cares. Having left everything, home, property, as well as the use of them, without having the slightest passion for them, he willingly and joyfully follows the guide who leads him out of this life, never turning back to look at what he left behind, 577 thanking God for his earthly journey and calling, welcoming with love and blessings the home prepared for him in heaven. We know, says the Apostle, that when this earthly hut of ours is destroyed, God will give us another dwelling in heaven, not created by human hands and which will exist forever. That is why, being in this flesh, we sigh, desiring to be clothed in the glory of this heavenly dwelling, if only the hour of death would find us clothed and not naked, for we are still going to that dwelling by faith, and do not yet see it openly, but we wish better to leave the body and dwell with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:1-3,7,8). We wish better... This last word is an expression of comparison. But they compare things that have mutual similarities. So the bravest is braver than the brave and those who have no courage at all. That is why Paul adds: Our whole love consists in this, whether living away from Him or being already in His presence, to be pleasing to God (2 Cor. 5:9). Pleasing to God, i.e. the one God, the Author and Creator of all things, both in this world and extra-worldly. I agree with this clear word of Epicharmus: “If you were pious from the depths of your heart, then after death you will not tolerate any evil; your spirit will live in heaven forever." I no less approve of the lyric poet (Pindar), who uttered the following verses: “The souls of wicked people are carried hither and thither by a whirlwind under the sky and suffer bleeding torments; They always wear this yoke of misery and torment and cannot get rid of it. The souls of pious people, on the other hand, live in heaven and in joyful hymns offer praise to the King of the Blessed.” So, let no one tell us now that the soul is sent from heaven to earth to endure a fate unworthy of it here. God works everything out for the better. The only point is that the soul, which has voluntarily chosen the most righteous life according to God and righteousness, exchanges earth for heaven. Job, who strived for knowledge and achieved it, had the right to say: I know that You can do everything and that nothing is impossible for You. And authentic. Who is the One who taught me to know things that I had not seen before - great and amazing things that I did not know? I regard myself as nothing and call myself ashes and earth (Job 42:2,3,6). Why is this? Because the ignorant is attached to sin and consists of earth and ashes; Meanwhile, a person who advances in knowledge, and through it, as far as human weakness allows, becomes like God, walks from that time in the spirit and so reaches the point where he becomes the chosen one. Or do you want to have new proof that Scripture calls the foolish and disobedient by the name of ashes? Listen. The prophet Jeremiah gives us this in what he says about Joachim and his brothers. Earth, earth, listen to the word of the Lord: Write down this man as unfortunate (Jer. 22:29,30). And here another prophet exalts the same naked: Listen to the heavens and listen to the earth (Is. 1:2). The prophet calls the mind listening, and the soul of the Gnostic heaven, because his only concern is the contemplation of heavenly and divine things, which is why he becomes an Israelite. On the contrary, the one who chooses ignorance and prefers hard-heartedness, he brands him with the name of the earth. - Listen... The Prophet here addresses the organ of hearing, the ears, attributing the sensual to those who are occupied with carnal things. It was about them that the prophet Micah said: You peoples living in grief, listen to the word of the Lord (Micah 1:2). And Abraham (Gen. 18:25) said: Never, Lord, judge of the earth 578, since he who does not believe the saving word is already condemned (John 3:18). There is also another judgment and sentence of the Lord, and it is set out in the book. Kings 579: God hears the prayers of the righteous, but He does not want to save the wicked because they refuse to acknowledge Him. The Almighty indeed cannot do anything that is contrary to reason (Job 36:6; 34:12). What will the heresies answer to these words? Here Scripture declares that the Almighty God is good and that he can never be the author of vice and lawlessness. If they have not known God, then the beginning of their delusion is ignorance. God cannot create anything that is contrary to reason. Behold our God, says the prophet, There is no other Savior besides Him (Ex. 45:21). For in God there is no unrighteousness, as the Apostle testifies (Rom. 9:14; Heb. 6:10). From the prophet we clearly learn what the will of God is and what Gnostic progress consists of: So, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? This is only so that you fear the Lord your God and walk in all His ways (Deut. 10:12). From you, who have the power to choose, He requires nothing else but that you choose a saving thing, love Him and serve Him alone (Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8). What else do the Pythagoreans command when they advise “praying loudly”? It does not seem to them that God will not hear those who pray quietly: that would be incredible. They think that prayers said without blushing in front of a large crowd of people cannot but be fair 580 . As for us, we will discuss prayer later, when the time comes for it 581. We should be busy doing things that cry out to God, 582 behaving as if in broad daylight (Rom. 13:13). Until your works shine (Matthew 5:16). Here is man and His works go before Him. For here is God and His works (Isa. 62:11). It is required that the Gnostic, as far as possible for him, imitate God, and I remember that the poets also call the chosen ones “god-like” beings for their beauty. They sometimes call them beings of the “divine kind”, sometimes “equal to God”, sometimes they assimilate wisdom equal in degree to the wisdom of Zeus. They are characterized by divine caution; these creatures are like gods 583. What can you say to this, if not that in these various names it is necessary to recognize plagiarism from Moses of words in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26). Listen to Euripides. “Golden wings are attached to my shoulders. I am wearing the winged sandals of the Sirens. Dressed like this, I soar into the immeasurable ether, pass through the plains of the sky and appear for a conversation with Zeus” 584. I would pray that the spirit of Christ would lift me up to my beloved Jerusalem 585. The Stoics also say that there is no other city that is more worthy of its name than heaven; the cities that exist here on earth are not cities in the proper sense; they only bear the names of cities; they lack reality. And it's true. This is a city that is so truly beautiful. All the people in it are a host of virtuous people; there are whole masses of people in it and everyone is obedient to the law; This is the Church of the Logos. This city cannot be subject to siege, cannot be oppressed by some earthly tyrant: the will of God reigns in it, taking place on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Poets give us some features of this city. Because these Hyperborean cities 586, these plains of the Arimaspes, these fields of Elysees 587 are the essence of the society of the righteous. And Plato’s Republic, as you know, is an ideal image. represented as existing in heaven 588 . Compare below in chap. 8, 18, 20, 21. Compare Strom. I, 1 and Strom. VI, 11. Hesiod's Works and Days, V, 288–90. Compare Strom. V, 2; VI, 17. In Athens there was a custom for children to bring to the church of Apollo a branch of an olive tree, entwined with wool and hung with various kinds of fruits, on the feast of Pyaneneia. At the same time, the boys' choir sang a hymn in honor of Apollo, which included two verses with the above content. This was a gift to Apollo for fertility. The writer here wants to say the following: Angels and other heavenly spirits have life on an equal basis with man, therefore, something common, but what is common in the life of both people and celestial beings can only be knowledge; wisdom therefore, i.e. moderation and abstinence are included in the concept of knowledge and in essence are not different from it. Similar in “Exhortation.” not far from the beginning. Thought from Plato's Phaedo. The funeral orations over them are quite well known, for example. Pericles in Book II. stories of Thucydides, Lysiev and Demosthenes. And Platonov’s “Menexen” often subsequently served instead of a funeral speech. Imitation of Plato. Compare not far from the beginning of the VII book. his works “On the State”. Allusion to Matt. 20:21, where the mother of the sons of Zebedee asks Christ the Savior to give them places, one on the right side of His throne, the other on the left. Compare below in chap. 8th. Similar in “Menexen”, in the dialogue “On Laws”. The same Virgil in IV George. Art. 216, 217 and in Aeneid II. 417. Compare Irin, IV, 64 and III, 20. Aristotle cites this saying in the 1st book. of his “Ifika” to Nikom. Plato also repeats in books I and II. "About laws." Compare Strom. II, 16. Plato in the book. ΥΙΙ “About the State.” The writer wants to say that those are more perfect who arrange their lives by making it like the life of the Savior; those who live by following only the image of God imprinted on them are less perfect. In other places the writer calls Christ the “image” of God, and man the “image of the image” of God. Compare "Admonition." in ch. 10 and Strom. V, 14, also in “Teacher” I, 12. Further texts are given by the writer as they are given in the first last. St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians. Compare in Strom. I, ch. 24. These are the Stoics, who taught that “Sadness is an unreasonable melancholy, oppression of the soul,” and “mercy, compassion is one of the main types of this melancholy.” This is how Laertius testifies to this in Zeno, VII, 3. - Cicero in Tusculan Conversations, book. IV: “Compassion is sorrow for another who is unjustly oppressed.” Therefore, both this and all other states that disturb the peace of the soul, the Stoics considered unworthy of a wise man, as Diogenes testifies to this in the same book. department. 123. Hence the opinion of Zeno, cited among others by Cicero in his speech “for L. Murena”: “Only a fool is compassionate.” A person who is perfect according to the teachings of the Stoics is certainly dispassionate. Compare "Teacher." I, 2. These apparently discrepancies are explained as follows: Among the ancient codices of sacred books that belonged to churches and private individuals, there were those that came out from the hands of booksellers clean and almost free from any notes in the margins; This is how they entered the church book depositories; but here, for the benefit of the readers, they were almost immediately supplied with glosses and scholia, which were inserted either between the lines or written in the margins; immersed in the study of the sacred. The Scriptures valued these notes, clarifying for themselves the meaning of Scripture and thereby making it more instructive. Our writer apparently used one of these codes. Compare however, Origen “Against Celsus” II, 27. About the different interpretations of this place by Clement in comparison with our accepted comparison. note in the book I “Teacher”, in ch. 6th. Theodoret of Cyrrhus in “Medicine” explains this saying of Epicharmus about people who do not believe anything except what is presented by their feelings. Seneca writes something similar in his letter to the 88th: “Faith is the most sacred good of the human breast. No necessity can force one to fall away from it; tempt to do so at no cost. Burn, cut, kill, says the poet; I won't cheat on her. The more secrets the one who saddens me seeks, the more I hide them.” Sophocles "Antigone" Art. 460. Connection 2 Tim. 1:7 with Rom. 8:15. The Hindu Galan wrote something similar to this to Alexander, according to Philo’s testimony in his book “Quod omnis probus sit liber”: “Galan to Alexander. Your friends advise you to act violently with the Hindu philosophers. But your friends never dreamed of what those sages were capable of. You can carry their bodies from place to place, but you have no power over their souls and you have no more ability to force them against their will to do anything than you can force stones to speak or a tree. Fire causes the greatest suffering and death to bodies, but we despise it too and throw ourselves into it alive.” Compare above "Strom." II in ch. 20. Plato literally says the following (Book II): “If my words are rather harsh, then do not think, Socrates, that I am saying this; say those who prefer injustice to justice; They believe that such a righteous person will be flogged, tortured and kept in chains, that his eyes will be burned out and gouged out, and that finally, having experienced all kinds of torment, he will be nailed to the cross and will learn that a person should not be, but appear to be, righteous.” The words of Amphiaraus, with which in Euripides’ “Huppsiphilus” he consoles the mother of Archemoras, who was extremely grieving over the death of her son. Of course, imitators of the patience of ancient Aesop. Livy, Seneca, Plutarch and others tell this not about Postumius, but about Mucius Scaevola. Plutarch calls this tyrant Nikocreon, and Origen (“against Celsus” VII, 54) Aristocreon. According to Herodotus (IV, 95), Zamolx was revered especially by the Getae, one of the Thracian tribes. Herodotus calls them the bravest and most honest of all the Thracians. Origen "against Celsus" I., 55 and III, 54, calls him a slave of Pythagoras. This letter is given by Diogenes Laertius in the life of Epicurus X, 122. - Compare. Horace, who was a student of Epicurus, last. 4, art. 32 etc. “Shepherd” of Hermas, book. I, view. 4. Examples of this in the last. to St. Smyrna Polycarp ch. 6. – Eusebius also tells it in his church. stories IV, 15. Compare Strom. VII, in ch. 16 Compare with this place Seneca’s book De Providentia, or Cur bonis occidaat mala, cum sit Providentia. From the 2nd book. Platonov’s works “On the State”. Compare above the same book. in ch. 7th. Tertullian, at the beginning of his Apology, develops this argument more broadly. From Plato's Apology of Socrates. An allusion to the custom of ancient artists to give names to the persons depicted in their works of art in order to make it easier to recognize those images. Valentin uses this custom as an image in his teaching. The invisible supreme God, according to him, to instill faith in his image. those. to his image in the person of the Creator of the world, formed by matter by Wisdom, told him the name of “God”. That secret knowledge was transmitted only to a few, the writer already spoke about this Strom. I, 21. The writer wants to say that abstaining from sacrifices to idols and other things that are prohibited in the Acts of the Apostles is absolutely necessary. One should abstain from what the Apostle lists only to avoid temptation. A hint to what was said earlier in Strom. III, ch. 6th ο St. Paul the Apostle. The contrast between a general creed and a secret knowledge taught only to a few. An allusion to the manner of the ancients of drawing a woman plotting against a man in the form of a snake biting off the serpent's head, because, as Pliny says in his natural history X, 62: Viperae mas caput inserit in os, quod illa abrodit voluptatis dulcedine. The phrase inserted by the writer is obviously due to heretics who denied the goodness of God. “He is the door of the Father, through which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, the Apostles and the rest of the church entered,” as St. Ignatius in his letter to the Philadelphians (ch. 9). Some of the ancient fathers and teachers of the church called “Apostles” and men of the Apostles. Compare Strom. III, in ch. 6. What follows is borrowed with some abbreviations, insertions and changes to suit its purpose from chapters 9–12, 17, 18, 21, 22, 38, 40, 41, 48–50 et seq. the same letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians. The seventh day among the Jews was dedicated to rest, and the eighth day to a return to work. The writer therefore wants to say with the first of his expressions that “one must abandon evil,” and with the second, “embrace goodness.” With some changes and omissions borrowed from the same last. St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, ch. 48–50 and further. The promise of what the eye has not seen and has not entered into the heart of man is opposed to the promise of things that do not exceed human understanding. Egyptian pharaoh, founder of the XXIV dynasty; real name: "Tafnakhtut". Plutarch, in his biography of Demetrius, calls this hetaera Fonida and gives a judgment about the echoing process of the hetaera Lamia, who found that the refusal to pay her was unfair, because her desire for money with their shadow was not satisfied, as the passion of the young man was satisfied in a dream. The judgment about love is Socratic and Platonic. Hermas in “The Shepherd” speaks of the Angel of repentance and the Angel of punishment. “And there are other angels,” he says: “angels of death, peace, marriage, virginity” and others, almost all things. Hence the belief that when the soul ascends to heaven, all these Angels are present. And the Savior says that the soul of Lazarus was carried into the bosom of Abraham by Angels (Luke 16:22). Barnabas in ch. The 18th of his epistle writes: “Two paths of teaching and power, one of light, the other of darkness. But there is a great difference between these two paths. On one are placed the luminous Angels of God, on the other the angels of Satan. From here in “Resolution. Apostle." VIII, 41: “Set serene angels with him and bring him into the bosom of the patriarchs” and so on. Stoics. They taught about reasonable passions and disobedient reason. The wish was considered to be the latter. What follows, with some changes, is borrowed from the last. St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians ch. 53. Dio Chrysostomos, who lived during the time of Emperor Trajan. In her memory, the Athenians erected, at the entrance to the Acropolis, a statue in the form of a copper lioness, deprived of a tongue. The anger of this animal signified Lehena’s invincible firmness, and the absence of language indicated her silence and secrecy. When the Argive men were all killed in the war against Cleomenes, king of Sparta, the Argive women under the leadership of Telesilla defended Argos. In her memory, a statue was erected near the church of Venus: at her feet there are scrolls of poems, in her hand a helmet, which she looks at, preparing to put it on her head. Nanny of Telemachus, son of Odysseus. Daughters of Hercules and Deianira; On the advice of the oracle, she betrayed herself to death in order to bring victory to the Athenians. Also the daughter of Pythagoras and Theano. She wrote Bacchic poems and other philosophical ones, according to Svida. Teacher of Karveada, fellow student of Zeno the Kittian, student of Philo Diodorus Kronos. Plato himself speaks about this Aspasia, the daughter of Axiochus, in his Menexenus, and Aristophanes in his Acharnans, and Plutarch in his Pericles. This is not the daughter of Pythagoras, mentioned above, but another, Svida speaks about three famous women with this name: about Muye of Thespians, who wrote lyrical poetry; ο Muye, the Spartan poetess who wrote hymns to Apollo and Artemis; ο Muya, daughter of Pythagoras and Theano, a Samian. These are Rebekah, Gen. 24:15; Rachel, Gen. 29:6; Zipporah and her sisters Ex. 2:6. The lovely character of this lioness, the daughter of the Phaeacian king Alcinous, is depicted by Homer in the VI Rhapsody of his Odyssey. Epictetus at the beginning of his Enchiridion: Of things, some are completely dependent on us, others are not, what is in our power is by its very nature free; it cannot be prohibited or hindered in any way. And what does not depend on us is unsteady, servile, dependent on obstacles, alien to us.” But perhaps there is also a hint here of the pagan custom of turning tombs and burial places of the dead into temples to the gods. Compare “Exhortation.” to Ellin." Ch. 4. Compare Exhortation Ch. XI; Ped. I, 2 and notes. ours in Ped. I, ch. 12. Plutarch in the book De curiositate and author of Etymologici magni. Clement instead of καιοός in Rome. XIII, 11 read Κύριος. An allusion to the Homeric verse Αὐτάρ ἐγὼν αὐτὸς ἐμὲ λύσομαί. The following about correction and punishment compare. with the fact that Seneca transmitted from Plato to the book. I, ch. the last one is “De ira”. Compare in "Strom." VI, ch. 14. Apparently this is a verse from some poem unknown to us. And according to other church fathers, God the Father never personally revealed himself, but only through the Son (John 1:18). The writer wants to say that the Son is a single being, not in the sense in which things collected in one place are one; and He is not much, consisting of many parts; but in the fact that in His unity, true and personal, He embraces everything. Therefore, He is further compared to a circle, the figure of which has neither beginning nor end, but from whatever point you begin the path, it ends at the beginning. The image is borrowed from the circle. Compare the same idea in ch. preceding in Strom. V, 11; VII, 7. This may be said in relation to Genesis 3:1–6, 11–13, 17. The ancients divided the sky into 8 spheres, of which the planets wandered in the lower seven, and in the eighth they placed the fixed stars; hence this 8th sphere was closest to the world of rational spirits or higher minds. Plato in the Phaedo: “If the soul detaches itself from the body, dirty and unclean, because it was in constant communication with it, served it, loved it, was fascinated by desires and passions, so that it did not consider anything true except that which is corporeal, which can be touched, seen, drunk, eaten and applied to affairs of love, and what is dark to the eye and formless, mental and approved by philosophy, usually did not tolerate it, was afraid and ran away: such a soul, transformed by body-like properties, implanted in it by carnal life and communication with the body, which always enjoyed its attention and care, should be earthly and visible, and with such properties gravitates and is attracted again to the visible and wanders around crypts and tombs, where the body-like phenomena of souls have actually been seen, as their images actually appear when they did not purely renounce, but retained the visible within themselves, as a result of which they are visible.” Of course, rebirth in the waters of baptism. This is from Euripides' tragedy "Bacchus" Art. 465 etc. Ovid in the book. I of his “Metamorphoses”: “While all other animals look at the earth, leaning forward, God gave man a face turned to the sky, raised up, commanding him to look at the sky and turn his gaze to the stars.” The same definition of wisdom in "Ped." II, 2; "Strom." VI, 15, 17; VII, 12. Platonists sometimes distinguished two parts of the soul, rational and unreasonable, sometimes three, capable of understanding, anger and desires. This is how Aristotle writes “On the Soul”. III, 9, Plutarch and others. Hence, according to Plato, private virtues are the perfection of certain parts of the soul; righteousness is the perfection of the whole soul; from there it happens that all the other parts of the soul with it are in mutual agreement, and with the soul in its entirety they are then in harmony; and each in particular reveals the perfection that is peculiar to it, but does not touch the ability that is alien to it; At the same time, the mind commands, and all other parts of the soul obey it. So, according to Plato, righteousness is a certain force that agrees and unites three parts of the soul with each other, and each remains with its own and acts as it should. The Stoics distinguished eight parts in the soul, as Laertius VII. 157 reports: five senses, productive, the gift of speech and reason. – Similar is Varro in the book. VIII, De lingua Latina and Plutarch De placitis philoph. IV, 4. This is said in the sense of Stonkov’s teachings. Diogenes Laertius in “Zeno” VII, 105. speaks about them: “Of the indifferent things, some they call “preferred,” while others reject.” Among the first they included, for example. intelligence, health, fame, etc.; to another category: stupidity, decrepitude, ignorance, etc.; both of them were not called either good or evil; They adopted these epithets only for virtue and vice. Also Cicero in the book. III. Defin. Aristotle in Ithica to Nicomachus, I, 8: “Goods are of three types: mental, physical and external. Those. keeping in my soul the commandment of Christ Mark. 17:32: Remember Lot's wife (Gen. 19:26). Full text: It cannot be from You that You would act in such a way that You would destroy the righteous with the wicked! Will the judge of all the earth act unrighteously? In the book. There are no subsequent kingdoms, and the writer simply connects different passages from the book. Job. The writer discusses prayer in Stromata VII. There is no direct expression in Scripture that good deeds cry out to God; but this matter is understandable in itself. If evil deeds cry out for vengeance (James 5:4; Gen. 4:10), then how much more do good deeds cry out for their protection. These epithets are all found in Homer in Il. II, 632, 714; I, 264; VII, 47; Odis. XIII, 89; Il. I, 131 and other places. Similar to Horace, book. II, ode 20; in Euripides it is between the fragments. Those. to the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26). Compare Diogenes Laertius in Anaxagoras. Elian (var. hist. Ш, 18) calls the Hyperboreans “the happiest.” They live, according to some fables, for a thousand years. Strabo in the book. XV of his geography agrees with what Simonides, Pindar and other mythologists say about them. Diodorus Siculus also reports something about them in the book. II of his “Historical Library”. Herodotus talks about them in Melpomene. The Elysian Fields are described by Homer in Odyssey IV, Art. 563 ff., and Virgil in Aeneid VI, 637 ff. Of course, the 9th book. his creations “On the State”; see at the end.