Книга пятая

What we said about the true sage (gnostic), we said hastily and in passing; Now let’s move on to consider the subjects that follow and delve into the question of faith. According to some, faith reveals the Son to us, but knowledge leads to the Holy Spirit. But they overlook the fact that if one must sincerely believe in the Son, in His filial dignity, in His coming, in His incarnation, in His purpose and in His suffering, then it is no less necessary to know who the Son of God is. It follows from this that there is no knowledge that does not have a connection with faith; just as there is no faith that does not depend on knowledge. But the Father, if He is the Father, then it means that He does not exist without the Son; The Father's patronymic presupposes that he has the Son. This is the only true Teacher who reveals the Father to us. To believe in the Son, you need to know the Father, with whom the Son is related. And conversely, in order to know the Father, one must first of all believe in the Son, because only the Son imparts to us the knowledge of God. And truly so. For it is the Father who through the Son leads us from faith to knowledge. The knowledge of the Son and the Father, according to the scale of the true sage (gnostic), will be that which consists of the true scale of all knowledge; this is the comprehension and embrace of one truth through another (Jn. 14:6, 7). We Christians, therefore, believe what the majority does not believe; knowledge of things that remain unknown to others is revealed to us; that is, we know what the majority does not know, and we believe in what they do not believe, but what only a few of the sages (Gnostics) believe in and know. However, true sages (gnostics) enter the memory of themselves and their deeds (in the book of the belly) not only with words, but also with a contemplative life. Blessed is he who speaks into the ears of those who listen to him. Faith is hearing, the ear of the soul. And the Lord secretly hints at this faith with the saying: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15). He wanted to say by this that he who believes in Him, let him understand what He says and let him give to what he is saying exactly the meaning that He Himself, the Lord, connects with it. Homer, the oldest of poets, also seems to connect the idea of ​​understanding with the word “hear,” using in this case species instead of gender. He says: (Odis. VI, 186; Ill. I, 218); that is, of course, “understood.” In short, both the harmonious teaching of the Teacher and the agreement with that teaching of the student in their harmonious unity strive towards the same goal, salvation. In this I refer to a true witness, to the Apostle, who says: I greatly desire to see you, in order to share with you some spiritual gift for your strengthening, that is, so that through being with you I may receive mutual consolation in the faith that is common to both me and you (Rom. 1:11-12). The Apostle adds below: In the Gospel, Divine justice is revealed to us according to the measure of our faith (v. 17). Paul seems to recognize the duality of faith; or, better: faith, according to his understanding, is one, but it can grow and mature. Ordinary and simple faith 589 represents the basis for a more perfect faith. To those who sought from Him the restoration of their health, the Lord said: Your faith has saved you (Matthew 9:22); because they came to Him moved by faith. Another faith, the faith of only a select few, which is established on knowledge and moves forward in it, has as its basis the simple and ordinary faith of the majority; in the heart of a true believer, it achieves completeness and perfection, equality with itself and with itself, from penetration into the deepest meaning and significance of the commandments and from fulfilling them. Such was the faith of the Apostles; she, according to the Gospel, was able to move mountains and replant trees (Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6; 1 Cor. 13:2). Therefore, realizing the greatness of the Lord’s personality. The apostles prayed to Him to increase this faith in them (Luke 17:5), which, like a mustard seed, spreads deep and healing roots in the soul and receives such wide development in it that under its shadow the comprehension of the most majestic mysteries begins to rest (Luke 13:18, 19; Matt. 13:31; Mark 4:31), the understanding of the Christian people already superior. To assert, as Basilides does, that one can know God due to the superiority of one’s nature, means to adorn the name of faith and the kingdom of heaven and to assimilate the miraculousness of one’s own ability of understanding; this means exalting the creature with unworthy praise and considering it in itself to be capable of substantial life; this means elevating it, if not to Divine power, then at least to the substantiality of being (and not only to potentiality); this means bringing the creature closer in this substantiality to the One who gave it this very substantiality; this means praising nature unknown what, substantiality unknown what; this means recognizing the highest beauty in the creation (and not in the Creator); this means not wanting to say with us that faith is the rational consent of the soul to the normal use of its freedom 590. And Valentin claims that he is saved by the right of his personal nature. But if, regardless of my will, I am imbued with faith, if I am by nature chosen, due to its superiorities, as Basilides desires, then why then are the commandments of the Old and New Testaments? Our damaged, fallen nature, could not it, over time, rise by itself to its original state and again, even without the coming of Christ Jesus, come to its senses and shine with its former beauty? If the sectarians say that for this it was necessary for the Lord to descend to earth, then to what, after admitting this, will all the advantages of their nature be equal? No, the correct formulation of this teaching is such that consideration among the elect is acquired by deepening in the teaching, purification, virtuous life, and not by the advantage of nature in itself. Answer. Abraham, whose obedient faith believed in the voice that promised him and his descendants under the oak tree in Mamre (Gen. 18:1) the land on which he wandered (Gen. 17:8), was this Abraham chosen or not? If he was not chosen, then for what other reason than through some natural inspiration did he immediately believe? If he was chosen, then your system falls fundamentally, for the proof is that election and salvation existed before the coming of the Lord, since the obedience of this patriarch was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3). If anyone, following Marcion, would dare to say that the Creator saved those who believed in Him before the coming of the Lord, and the elect, therefore, were saved by the action of the grace of the Creator bestowed upon them, then it turns out, truly, a strange method for extolling with praise the power of the good God! What? The good God does not put his hands to the salvation of people before seeing the Creator of the world (Demiurge) taking care of them? Thus, the sectarians themselves are forced to praise the good deeds of the Creator (Demiurge). But if the Creator of the world (Demiurge) saved before the coming of Christ, then the power and glory of the good God, who was the Father of Christ, only becomes darker, since this good God is not in himself, but only from the Creator of the world (Demiurge), having learned and through imitation of Him (Demiurge), makes people blessed. Such is our lesson to this student, or, better, to the low plagiarist of his predecessor. But let it be their way; I admit the heretics’ teaching that salvation has been granted to us by the good God. But then it turns out that His chosen ones are those whom He saves; for this is contrary to the will of the Creator, that the good God saves them. Violence and cunning are the tools of God who saves them (albeit good). I ask Marcion: “By what right do they consider this God good, if He claims to be cunning and violent, and if He comes to the aid of the last?” If the location of the Almighty is different from the location of the good God and lies very far from it, then look: the Will of God, who gives salvation, and the will of the One who gave this the first example, come closer to each other; and, therefore, there is only one God, and this is the good God. From the foregoing it is revealed that unbelievers and heretics are insane. Their paths are crooked, says the prophet, and they do not know peace (Ex. 59:8). Avoid foolish and useless debates, the divine Paul advises us, for they (only) give rise to discord (2 Tim. 2:23). And Aeschylus advises us: Do not exhaust yourself in vain in vain labors 591. Research consistent with faith and built on its foundations is a magnificent and majestic edifice, in which, as we know, truth preferably dwells. We also know that things that are obvious in themselves cannot be the subject of research and discussion; During the day, for example, they don’t ask whether the day will come soon. Likewise, they do not discuss unknown things that can never be clarified, such as, for example, whether stars exist with an even or odd number. The same applies to debates on certain subjects that can be decided both for and against. These are questions where each of the opponents can arbitrarily support both a negative and an affirmative answer. Such, for example, is the question: “Is the embryo contained in the uterus an animate being or not?” There remains a fourth category of questions, when all debate ends if one of the disputing parties presents an indisputable and irrefutable argument. After it, when all grounds for doubt have been overthrown, faith rises in all its strength, triumphing over the ruins of doubt. Well, we present to everyone the most decisive and final proof, the Word of God, which explains itself in the Scriptures and answers all the questions that form the subject of our research. Is there even one person so wicked, so alienated from God, that he will not want to believe His word? Will he, in addition to this, require from God the same proofs that are required from people? And then, of the various questions that need to be investigated, some do not make any sense, such as, for example, is the fire hot, is the snow white; the proposal of others, according to Aristotle, deserves censure and condemnation. This is, for example, the question: “Should we honor our parents?” 592. For others, the one offering them would be worth punishment; such, for example, is the question: “How can one prove the existence of Providence?” (So, the existence of Providence is undeniable). Given the undoubted existence of Providence, to think that the prophecies and the most majestic economy of the incarnation were not the work of Providence is already impiety. Perhaps it is better to even refrain from proving these lofty truths, because Divine Providence testifies to itself with all its creations, revealing at the same time both wisdom and beauty; and we know about some of these creative works because they are before us, while others we discover by delving into them. The One who gave us existence and life, He also gifted us with reason, wanting us to conform our lives to the dictates of reason and our good. Because the Word (Logos) of the Father of all things is not something external like our word. Logos is the wisdom and goodness of God, revealed in all His works; He represents an infinite and truly divine omnipotence, understandable to everyone, even to those who would not like to recognize it; it is the will that embraces everything in its omnipotence. But since some remain unbelievers, while others are eager to argue, this is the reason why not everyone reaches the understanding of the perfection of good. Achieving this is impossible without a plan energetically determined in advance. However, not everything depends on our will, such as our future. It is grace alone that saves us (Eph. 2:5), but not grace alone, but what we meet in our good deeds. We are destined by our very origin for virtue; but in order to possess it, for this we must develop some efforts. This striving for virtue requires a sound and simple mind, which would not allow itself to be stopped in its pursuits by any sorrows or grief. For this we especially need Divine grace, teaching imbued with wisdom, chaste and good inclinations; and most importantly and finally, we need to ask the Father to draw us to Himself (John 6:44). Being united with this earthly body, we comprehend sensory things through bodily senses, but we comprehend things that are subject to contemplation only with the mind. To expect that everything can be understood if everything that is subject to the senses is comprehended is to deviate very far from the truth. This is why the Apostle says that God is known spiritually. We see Him now, he says, as if in a mirror, but then we will know Him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). Indeed, only a few mortals are given the ability to perceive the truth. It was this circumstance that made Plato say in Epinomides: “I do not dare to say that everyone can achieve bliss and prosperity; this is the share of only a few. During this life, I cannot hope for more. After death I hope to possess all blessings.” Isn’t this the same idea expressed by these words of Moses: No one will see My face while remaining alive (Ex. 23:20). It is clear, therefore, that during this temporary life no one can know God perfectly. Those who are pure in heart, upon reaching the highest perfection, will see God (Matthew 5:8). And since our soul was too weak to understand what it should have understood, it needed a Divine Mentor. Therefore, from the heights of heaven the Lord was sent to earth to teach humanity goodness, to instill virtue in it; in a majestic and most mysterious manner He initiated humanity into the great secrets of Providence. So, what happened to the learned lawyers, says the Apostle: what happened to the inquisitive minds, not indifferent to the successes of their age? Has God discovered the folly of the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor. 1:20). And in another place: I will overthrow the wisdom of the wise and reject the knowledge of the learned (1 Cor. 1:19; Isa. 29:14), that is, those who only imagine themselves wise, but in fact are partial only to disputes. How profound is the advice of Jeremiah! This is what the Lord says: Stand on the paths and ask about the ancient ways, so that you may know the good way, and walk in it, and you will find the means to purify your souls (Jer. 5:1, 4, 5). Question, says the prophet, those who know, pay attention to what they say, but in order to obey, and not in order to compete and start strife. Having discovered the path of truth, we must follow it, never looking back, until we reach the goal of our desires. There were, therefore, reasonable reasons for the king of the Romans Numa, a follower of the teachings of Pythagoras, to dedicate the first church he built to Faith and Peace 593. Abraham, who believed in the word of God, had his faith counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:3, 5, 9, 22). This righteous man of ancient times 594 initially devoted himself to the contemplation of phenomena occurring in the air; He watched with a curious and reflective gaze the movement of the stars rolling across the sky. That is why he was called Abram, that is, “majestic father.” But now, having once raised his eyes to heaven, either in the spirit of the Son, as some believe, 595, or of an Angel clothed with glory, or in some other way having reached the knowledge of God 596 and recognizing that He is a thousand times more wonderful than all created things and all the penetrating harmony, he multiplies his name with alpha, a symbol that he has come to know the one God, and instead of Abram begins be called Abraham. Until now he had been an explorer of the secrets of nature; from that time on he became a sage and a friend of God. “Abraham” is a word that really means “chosen father,” “loud father,” because if they want to pronounce it clearly, they pronounce it loudly 597 . “Father”, this concept consists of the spirit of this word; and the concept of “chosen” consists of the spirit of a virtuous person 598. I cannot find words to adequately praise the poet of Akraganti (Empedocles), who glorifies faith in the following verses: Beloved! Then I know what is at the heart of my speeches The truth lies. But obedience to the truth It is difficult for impulses of faith to penetrate the human heart. That is why the Apostle invites us not to base our faith on human wisdom, which boasts that it has the secret to convince others, but on the power of God (1 Cor. 2:5), which can lead to salvation through the only pure and simple faith, without any assistance from any evidence. “Who knows best how to save others,” says Heraclitus of Ephesus, if not the one whose virtue was most tested? He adds that “the day will come on which (Divine) justice will appear with vengeance on the creators and preachers of lies.” This means that this philosopher already knew, having borrowed information about this from barbarian (Jewish) wisdom, that purification by fire would come for those who lived here badly 599 . Among the students of the portico this purification was later known as the general fire 600. For after the same philosopher the Stoics teach that those who are distinguished by such and such qualities will come to life again. They always had, therefore, a doctrine of the resurrection 601. Plato (in Timaeus) says that the earth has been purified by water and fire at different times. Here are his words about this: “Of all the scourges with which many generations have already been driven off the face of the earth, water and fire were the ones that carried away the largest number of them, despite the fact that their effect, compared with a thousand other earthly disasters, was shorter.” A little later he adds: “It is true that after a long period of time and after all the luminaries rolling around the earth and across the sky have completed their revolution, a huge general fire will break out, which will cause destruction in some part of the celestial sphere.” Then he talks about the flood: “When the gods send floods to cleanse the earth with water, people living on the mountains avoid death. These are nomads and shepherds of oxen; the inhabitants of our cities are carried away by the waves into the sea.” In the first book of our “Stromata” we argued that the Hellenic sages deserve the name of plagiarists for stealing from Moses and the prophets the main principles of them; the source from which they borrowed them is ungratefully hidden by them. We will add the following to this. Those of the angels who, according to the division, were assigned heaven as their place of residence, some stooped to shameful pleasures (voluptuousness); they revealed part of the Divine secrets and everything that they themselves knew to women, whose beauty they were captivated by, while others hid the treasure of these secrets or, better, preserved them until the time of the coming of the Lord 602. From here arose the doctrine of Providence and the discovery of Divine things. In addition, the ideas of the prophets had already reached the Hellenes through translations. When the Hellenic sages delved into the teachings of the prophets, they immediately comprehended the whole essence of the matter, immediately grasping the true meaning of the prophetic instructions; in places they were mistaken, due to their inability to penetrate behind the allegorical veil of prophecies. We intend to make a few comments regarding this point, as soon as we begin to consider other issues, which are also extremely important. We affirm that faith should not be isolated from knowledge, or be some kind of idle matter, but should be in connection with the spirit of inquisitiveness. The idea of ​​shunning research is far from ours. Seek, says the Lord, and you will find (Matthew 7:7: Luke 11:9). According to Sophocles, Truth, if actively sought, can be discovered; It escapes only if it is pursued sluggishly. The comedian Menander says something similar (in The Eunuch): All sages are of the opinion that what is sought must be sought carefully and carefully. But research must be guided by insight; It is necessary to eliminate all circumstances that could hinder the discovery of the truth. One should not serve the demon of ill will and discord; you need to part with this desire to argue; this is one of the most disastrous scourges of humanity. Cleverly and nobly, Timon the Fliusian writes the following about this: Then the dispute comes down to empty, albeit ringing, words. There is no monster more fierce. This is the friend and worthy sister of strife. It attacks everything, penetrates everywhere. Then, firmly establishing himself in the evil spirit of man, She directs him to crazy hopes. Who filled them with ardor to fight so fiercely? Who armed their hands with weapons for such a hard-hearted fight? This is the crowd, the rival of the nymph Echo. Annoyed by Silence and Caution, She once spread an epidemic of words between people, And the people began to die in droves 603. The poet uses syllogisms here: pseudomen, dilemma, dialeleta, sorites, hidden evidence, amphiboly and sophistry 604. To delve deeper into the search for God with the goal of getting closer to Him, and not out of empty love for disputes, is beneficial work, for it is written in David: The poor eat and are satisfied. You who seek the Lord exalt Him with praises, and your hearts will live forever (Ps. 21:27). What does it mean? And that which will be granted to those who seek the Lord, who truly seek Him, who seek Him with His praises on their lips; they will be filled with the knowledge that comes from God; and by their soul they will live. The holy king here calls the soul a heart, because the heart is the starting point of our life. And they will live with their souls, because through the Son they reach the understanding of the Father. However, one should not give confidence to all those who speak and write without the slightest caution. Vessels that are often grabbed by the ears, that is, by the handles, deteriorate and wear out from friction, soon lose their ears and end up breaking, falling to the ground. The same thing happens with those who humiliate and dishonor the chaste ears of their faith by listening to various numerous worldly nonsense: they finally become deaf to the voice of truth and grovel on the earth, becoming powerless for good. An allegorical application from this, with which we address children, is this: “Greet your friends and your neighbors by touching their ears,” 605 full of wisdom, symbolically and silently through this depicting that the sense of hearing mediates the feeling of love in the soul. God is love (1 John 4:16), and He reveals Himself to all who love Him. God is faithful (1 Cor 1:9; 10:13), and He testifies of Himself to the faithful through the commandments. It is necessary that we unite with Him by the bonds of Divine love, so that, with the assistance of holiness, which makes us like Him, we may contemplate His infinite holiness, listening with an obedient and sincere ear to the word of truth, becoming in obedience like pure and simple children. This is the mysterious meaning of the inscription, no matter whose hand it was that carved it at the entrance to the church at Epidaurus: You should enter the sacred fence of this church clean. This purity consists in holy thoughts. If you are not like these children, says the Lord, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:8). And in fact, the church of God (a truly pious man) here on earth turns out to be established on these three main principles: on faith and hope and love. From the Hellenic writers we have enough evidence left to support our faith. To select passages where they talked about hope and love would mean to indulge in endless speculation. Suffice it to say that in “Crito” Socrates, preferring glorious life and death to life (only plant and animal), claims that even after death he hopes for another life. I open his “Phaedrus” and read: “The soul, freed from the power of feelings and beginning to live only its own life, can touch the true and highest wisdom that is only possible for human powers. This happens when love on its wings lifts it from earth to heaven and, through the love characteristic of a sage, leads it to the goal of his hopes.” “Then,” he says, the beginning of another life, eternal, begins for her.” In the Symposium we read: “Each of the creatures has an innate desire to give birth to a creature similar to itself. Man gives birth to man; a virtuous person is a person like him. But one cannot become virtuous without perfect virtues, in which he could serve as an example for the young people who come to him.” “Then, according to Theaetetus, he is able to generate and produce people. Because some turn out to be gifted with spiritual fertility, while others with physical fertility.” There is nothing more right than to form the soul, instructing it in faith and opening its eyes to the true light (Eph. 1:8; John 1:4–5, 7, 9, etc.; Heb. 6:4); this is also known in barbarian philosophy 606 under the name of “rebirth.” It is I who begot you through the gospel in Christ Jesus, says the Divine Paul in one place in his epistles (1 Cor. 4:15). Empedocles included love among the principles, from which he makes a sympathetic force that unites everything and maintains universal harmony in everything. “Have it,” he says, before your soul’s gaze; but with your bodily eyes you will never see it, because it is not in matter.” Parmenides also hints at hope in his poem: Consider things that are absent in thought as existing. With the same confidence as if they were present. Because your mind is never able to separate what is from what will be. Not things scattered everywhere, from those that are concentrated in one place. 3. Objects of both faith and hope are comprehensible only by reason Both the believer and the hoper comprehend the objects of their faith and hope solely through reason; Only by this they are perceptible, they are hidden in the depths of the future. When we say that such and such a thing is right and lawful, and this is honorable and honest, and in the same way, when we assert that something is true, then we observe all this not with our bodily senses, but we notice it with an exclusively spiritual eye, namely the mind. I am the truth (John 14:6), says the Logos of God; therefore, only with the mind can He be contemplated. “Who, in your opinion, is a true sage (philosopher)? For me this issue has already been resolved. “True sages (philosophers) are those who willingly devote themselves to the contemplation of truth” 607. Plato in the Phaedrus identifies truth 608 with the idea. And the idea, that is, the infinite, eternal thought, is the mind of God - what the barbarians (Christians) call the Logos of God. But we will speak better in the true words of the great philosopher: “One should boldly express the truth, especially when it comes to the truth. True substance is colorless, formless, intangible, cannot be contemplated by anyone other than God, the Pilot (of the soul)” 609. Coming from the Father, the Logos manifests itself externally, becoming the author and cause of creation. Then He himself is born in time, taking on flesh (John 1:14) so ​​that he could be visible with our carnal eyes. The righteous person therefore strives for research that has its source in love; in their sphere he finds bliss. Knock and it will be opened to you; ask, and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7). Those who take the kingdom of heaven are those who make the effort (Matthew 11:12); and the means to this end for them are not sophisms and disputes, pompous with pride, but tireless constancy of piety; the energy that they direct towards achieving the kingdom of heaven consists of unceasing prayers (1 Thess. 5:17), freeing them from reproaches for previous sins. You can, says the poet, triumph over evil and all its power 610: He who fights courageously and God helps 611, The favor of the Muses is not granted to everyone he meets 612. Achieving it requires effort and can only be mastered in an attack. To admit that you know nothing is the first stage of knowledge for one who walks in the spirit of the Logos. This man was ignorant, then he began to search and, searching, found a teacher, and having found, he began to believe him; believing, he began to hope in him; imbued with hope, he began to be inflamed with love, striving to master the object of his love, but in turn, trying to become what the object of his love is. This is approximately the method that Socrates recommended to Alcibiades. “Do you think,” this young Athenian asked Socrates, “that in another way I could not find out what the righteous is?” - “You could know him if you saw him once.” - “And you think that I haven’t seen him?” - “I saw it if I was looking for it.” - “Do you think that I wasn’t looking for him?” - “You were looking for him when you thought you didn’t know him?” 613. This is the same symbolic meaning of the lamps that were lit by the wise virgins in the thick darkness of ignorance, called night in Scripture (Matthew 25:1 et al.). Similar to these virgins are intelligent and immaculate souls who, realizing that they live in this world in the midst of darkness, light their lamps, awaken their understanding, illuminate the darkness around them, dispel the darkness of ignorance, seek truth and await the appearance of the Teacher. “The crowd, I told myself, cannot be wise” 614. There are many bearers of the thyrsus (the rod of Bacchus), But few are inspired by this god 615. This is Plato's opinion. Indeed, many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16). Not everyone, says the Apostle, has knowledge (1 Cor. 8:7). So, pray for us, that we may get rid of foolish and wicked people, for faith is not in everyone (2 Thess. 3:1-2). The portico philosopher Cleanthes expresses the same idea in the following verses: Do you want to achieve wisdom faster? Don't seek fame. Do not be afraid of the opinions of stupid and copper-faced fools (impudent) people. This gang of people, driven by confused and arbitrary impulses, lacks judgment and understanding. You will hardly encounter this treasure of the mind only in a select few mortals. The comic poet 616 expresses himself with greater brevity and in a more positive form: People who are ignorant and not embarrassed by principles and decency should not be entrusted with what is beautiful. These poets and philosophers, as I believe, heard some echoes of eternal wisdom, which tells us: Among the foolish, do not waste words and save them for another time, but among the prudent, be constant (Sir. 27:12). And in another place: The wise hide knowledge within themselves (Proverbs 10:14). Why is this so? Because the crowd (uncouth people who carry their own agenda, that is, acting arbitrarily and speaking contrary to the truth) needs more tangible guarantees and evidence to confirm the truth; saving happiness and bliss, which flow solely from faith (in the beginning), are not enough for her. It is dangerous to believe the words of empty people and rogues 617, Although they often occupy a high position in society. Listen to what our muse teaches: Don't deal with verbal wrappers; seek knowledge in the depths of your soul. “It is the constant habit of mental and moral cripples,” says Empedocles, to desire triumph over the truth by undermining faith and spreading unbelief.” And that our teachings are based on solid and reliable evidence, the Greeks will understand this better if they pay more serious attention to the subsequent explanations. You learn things like this from others like you. The same idea is contained in the following parable saying of Solomon about answering (and not answering) a fool according to his stupidity (Prov. 26:5). Those who ask about (true) human wisdom and its elements should be answered by presenting similar teachings with which they are already briefly familiar, so that on the paths they are already walking, it is easier to bring them to faith in the word of truth. To all, says the Apostle, I have become all things, in order to win them all (1 Cor. 9:22). The rain of Divine grace - doesn't it fall equally on both the good and the evil? (Matthew 5:45). Is God really the God of the Jews only! - exclaims the glorious Apostle. – Isn’t He the God of the pagans too? Yes, of course, He is also the God of the Gentiles, because there is only one God (Rom. 3:29, 30). 4. Writers, both pagan and sacred, usually reveal legends relating to the Deity under the cover of allegories You refuse to believe in goodness and in saving wisdom (which is the fusion of love and truth, truth and goodness - the highest, mental and moral perfection), under the pretext that it would be unreasonable on your part. Let it be your way. But we accept your teachings, for everything comes from God; and especially the most beautiful and sublime of your teachings are borrowed from us; We will present them to you in a language that you will be able to understand. The crowd (most people are rude and vulgar), by the measure of wisdom, or the highest truth, accepts not the truth itself, but what flatters sensuality; and for her there is nothing more lovable than things that are similar to herself. But the only people who can stay outside the Divine society are those who are short-sighted and dull-witted, empty and senseless, that is, those who are incapable of comprehending and comprehending (Divine truth), of fearlessness and vigilance (in its perception and confession). These properties are distinguished only by the soul, which (by nature) is disposed towards contemplative activity; (or better) these qualities are bestowed upon her only by the Savior. Without them, it remains morally impure, incapable and unworthy of accepting and containing pure, holy and venerable truth, it remains and lives outside the laws of order and harmony, being immersed in matter. That is why the wicked are not admitted to the Mysteries. In the same way, a person who knows neither dancing, nor music, nor singing is eliminated from the choir. We communicate spiritual things to those who are spiritual (1 Cor 2:13). For this, of course, reason, the Egyptians symbolically represented this truly divine, sacred and for us so necessary word of truth resting in the holy of holies of their circles, and the Jews still separated it from the church with a curtain (Heb. 9:8 et al.). To enter the Holy of Holies, lifting the mysterious curtain for this purpose, was allowed only to persons specially appointed for this purpose, that is, those who dedicated themselves to God, who cut off unclean desires in their hearts in order to make room here for the love of God alone. Plato also considered it indecent to touch something pure 618. And that is why prophecies and divinations were expressed in dark and mysterious terms. That is why not everyone they met was admitted to the mysteries indiscriminately and without further circumstance, but only after preliminary cleansing, atonement and atonement for sins, and after instructions. Then Muse was not yet greedy for profits And she did not stoop to the level of a mercenary; Terpsichore did not yet trade in her tender singing, Her forehead was not yet silver 619. Those receiving an Egyptian education begin their studies with the system of Egyptian letters, the so-called epistolographic. Then they move on to the study of hieratic or hierogrammatic letters, which are used by priests writing about sacred things. They finish their studies by studying the system of hieroglyphic letters. These latter fall into two classes: one, this is the class of elementary letters, and their purpose is to express the own meaning of words; Letters of this category are called kyriological. The letters of another category in this hieroglyphic letter are called symbolic. The method of symbolic writing is divided into three types; one by one, objects are depicted in their own form through imitation of them; in another way, images need to be associated with a figurative meaning; the third method moves entirely in the sphere of allegories, expressing known concepts mysteriously. So, if an Egyptian wants to give a concept, for example, about the sun using the kyriological method, then he draws a circle; if it’s about the moon, then he draws the figure of a crescent. According to the method of writing, objects are called figuratively and the concept of them is given by analogies, sometimes slightly changing the image of objects, sometimes subjecting it to various types of transformation. Therefore, when they want to express, for example, praise to their kings, they mix in these praises stories about the gods, and for writing they use anaglyphs or bas-reliefs, convex signs. And here is an example of the third type of letter, which can introduce an understanding of the use of cryptic hints. The Egyptians depict some of the stars as serpentine bodies due to the curvature of their path. But they also write the sun in the form of a beetle, because this insect, having mixed ox dung into a circular heap, rolls it on itself during its return movement. They think that the beetle spends six months underground and the rest of the year lives on the surface of the earth. They add that the seed-bearing embryo formed by the beetle is injected into the spheroid and in this way a new beetle is born; There seem to be no female beetles. In a word, everyone who wrote about the mysteries of the Divine, whether they were Hellenes or barbarians, tried to hide the true principles of things from the eyes of the ignorant; the crowd was conveyed the truth, clothed only in riddles, in symbols, in allegories, in metaphors, and a thousand other similar types. Such were the oracles of the Hellenes. From there it happens that Apollo of Pythia is renamed Loxias, that is, evasive 620. The apothegmas spoken by the Hellenic sages have the same character. Although they are laconic, they are distinguished by their ambiguity. Let’s take for example this saying: “Take care of time.” It contains and. it contains a hint either that our life is short and that we should not waste time in vain and on extravagances; or, on the other hand, perhaps it contains a hint of the need to limit our private expenses so that we never lack what we need, even if we have to live even a hundred years. How meaningful is this apothegm: “Know yourself!” She tells us: “Recognize that you are mortal, that you are a man and that, compared with the primary benefits that can be acquired by you here on earth, you, boasting of your fame and riches, are boasting of nothing more than insignificance. Or this apothegma can be considered equivalent to the following instruction: Know that, drowning in contentment and wealth or being rewarded with honors, you should not boast about the exceptional benefits that have fallen to your lot, with which you surpass your neighbors. Stay away from this. Remember for what purpose you were born, whose image you wear on yourself, what kind of nature you have, who your Creator is, what kind of relationship you have with God.” But the same apothegma speaks of something similar. The Holy Spirit, through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, also tells us: I will give you treasures kept in darkness and riches hidden (Is. 45:3). Divine treasures are inexhaustible riches (Luke 12:33) and are much more valuable than that (imaginary) wisdom, the acquisition of which involves so much labor. Or this will be better. Poets, having borrowed what they conveyed about the divine mysteries from the Jewish prophets, hide their thoughts under the image of allegories. This observation applies to Orpheus, Linus, Museum, Homer, Hesiod, and in general to everyone who, speaking about these matters, showed some wisdom in them. Entering into enthusiasm, the poets, as if with a kind of veil, covered their ideas with symbols in front of the crowd. Under the cover of words and allegories, they hide something that, however, worries and moves. Doesn’t this mean as if God deliberately blocked our access to knowledge: who, without committing a crime, can consider Him accessible to human passions? In this case, all he wants is for our mind, being forced to penetrate beyond the mysterious shell, to gather its thoughts in order to discover the truth behind it. That is why the tragic poet (Sophocles) writes in one place: I will never part with the conviction that wise people God reveals the secret meaning of prophecies; But He only points out evil to simple souls. In a few words He teaches much. The poet speaks of evil, thereby meaning all sorts of vulgar and meaningless things. This inspired the king-prophet to openly and clearly declare in the psalms that all Scripture is nothing more than a parable. Listen, O people, to My law, he exclaims in the name of God; incline your ear to the words of My mouth, I will open My mouth in a parable, in mysterious symbols I will explain to you things hidden from the beginning (Ps. 77:1-2). The glorious Apostle speaks in almost the same language: We preach wisdom to the perfect, not the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom of the princes of this world who will die, but we preach the wisdom of God, which in its mystery remains hidden, which God before all ages ordained and prepared for our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, because if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord glory (1 Cor. 2:6–8). The Hellenic philosophers did not take part in the dishonor that was inflicted on our Lord by those who befell His descent. The Apostle could here condemn, therefore, only the vain knowledge of those among the Jews who imagined themselves to be wise men; therefore he adds: We preach the wisdom about which it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him (Isa. 64:4). And God revealed this to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:9-10). The Apostle of Nations knew that the disciple of the Holy Spirit, assisted by God, and bearing within himself the mind of Christ, is a spiritual man and a Gnostic, while a carnal man cannot comprehend the things that come from the Divine Spirit, they seem foolish to her (1 Cor. 2:14). Distinguishing Gnostic perfection from simple faith, Paul sometimes calls this latter the milk of the weak, sometimes the foundation of a building. So he writes: And I, my brothers, cannot speak to you as spiritual people, but as carnal people and also as children in Christ. I fed you only with milk, and not with solid food, because you were not yet capable of this, and even now you are still not able, since you are still carnal. And indeed. Because if there is envy and disputes among you, is it not obvious that you are carnal and that you behave according to human customs (1 Cor. 3:1-3)? This indeed is the path to which sinners willingly deviate. Those, on the contrary, who shun this path, comprehend divine things, taste and enjoy the food of knowledge and find the highest pleasure in it. According to the grace given to me by God, the Apostle continues, I, like a wise builder, laid the foundation, and others are building on it a building of gold, silver and precious stones. These are the buildings built by knowledge on the foundations of faith in Christ Jesus. Straw, wood and hay are flabby ruins, erected on this foundation by heresy, but what is the work of each, it will be tested by fire (1 Cor. 3:10, 12, 13). In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle indirectly once again alludes to the building of knowledge: I desire to see you, so that I may make you partakers of a certain spiritual gift, intended for your strengthening (Rom. 1:11). The apostle desires to converse with the faithful personally, because such gifts could not be communicated openly through letters. 5. About Pythagorean symbolic sayings Pythagoras borrowed his symbolic instructions from barbarian wisdom, out of precaution, however, hiding it. This Samian philosopher, for example, commands: “Do not keep swallows in your house.” This means: Do not accept under the roof of your house a man who is verbose, a chatterbox and an earphone, whose ever-unbridled tongue cannot keep the secrets entrusted to him 621. The swallow, the turtledove, the tree sparrow, according to Scripture, know the time of their flight (Jer. 8:7); This means you shouldn’t live with idle talkers. In connection with the matter, they also chase the turtledove from the roof, whose eternal cooing reminds one of the ungrateful complaints of the dissatisfied: Don’t coo endlessly to me, one from one ear, the other from the other, says the poet. As for the swallow, who would keep it? It reminds us of a fable in which the main role is played by Pandion’s daughter, committing heinous crimes (infanticide), and if rumor is to be believed, then experiencing tragic adventures, some of which were suffered by her husband Tereus. in others he himself took part. Another reason why the swallow inspired self-loathing in the Pythagoreans is that the swallow feeds on grasshoppers, these field speakers; therefore, it is fair to drive out of the house anyone who pursues an honest word. “By the faithful guardian,” says the poet, “my tongue protects the treasure, This is the sceptron-bearing Hero, whose base is the peaks of Olympus." “And my tongue is also locked,” exclaims Aeschylus 622. But let's move on again to the Pythagorean allegorical instructions. “Having removed the cauldron from the fire, smooth out its imprint on the ash,” “When you get out of bed, turn over the blanket.” With these instructions, Pythagoras makes us understand that we need to leave behind not only all swagger and arrogance, but also erase the last traces of anger. Has the fire of passion died down? Tame your very anger and blot out from the bottom of your heart even the memory of the insult inflicted on you. Let not the sun go down on your anger, says Scripture (Eph. 4:26). He who spoke this commandment: You shall not covet (Exodus 20:17) also forbids us to harbor feelings of revenge for the insult we have received. For anger is inspired by desire, disturbing the peace of mind and prompting us to unusual and unreasonable revenge 623. Likewise, when Pythagoras advises us to turn over the blanket after spending the night under it, he instructs us to thereby erase the memory of an indecent dream, if our dream was thus defiled; He also warned them about long-term sleep 624. With the same figurative saying, Pythagoras may have forbidden us the dark phantoms of the imagination and ordered us to dispel them with the light of truth. When you indulge in anger, David says, beware of sin (Ps. 4:4; Eph. 4:26). What does he want to tell Sim? Conquer the impulses and passions of your imagination and do not indulge in anger until the impulses are imprinted in its fact. – Among the symbolic prohibitions of Pythagoras, there is also this: “Do not swim on the ground.” To them he says the following: “Do not accept the positions of publican and similar ones, because they are associated with the unknown and temptations. That is why the Logos assures us that it is difficult for publicans to be saved” (Matthew 19:28; Mark 10:28; Luke 18:24). – The Samian philosopher also forbids us to wear rings on our fingers and not to cut out images of gods on seals. In this case, he only imitates Moses, who several centuries before him forbade by law the making of any images of the Divine, carved, cast, painted or sculpted. The ban is very wise! The legislator wanted to elevate our minds in the contemplative area, and not to stop them on matter 625. It is not true that the greatness of God will lose its splendor if the Divinity is not represented by ordinary art; on the contrary, to worship an incorporeal Being, noticeable with only a spiritual eye, depicting Him in a sensual form, this only means to humiliate Him. The smartest of the Egyptian priests thought so, decreeing that the church of Athena should remain without a roof 626. The Jews also thought so when they erected a church without idols in it 627. But there are people who, when rendering the following veneration to God, prostrate themselves before the image of the sky and stars 628. They are deceived, no doubt, by this passage of Scripture: Let Us make man in Our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). It would be appropriate to cite here the saying of the Pythagorean Euryut. In his essay “On Happiness,” he claims that the Creator, when creating man, had himself as a prototype, for to everything else said about this he adds: “The body of man was created similar to the bodies of other creatures, since it is formed from the same matter; but it came out of the hands of the most glorious Artist, who had Himself as a prototype.” In a word, Pythagoras and his disciples, who are called by his name, and Plato, of all philosophers, have the closest relationship with the Jewish legislator (Moses), which is easy to see from their teachings. And when, as a result of a special kind of natural fortune-telling insight, but not without the participation of suggestion and the divine, they came across well-known prophecies and, collecting some elementary particles of truth, expressed it ambiguously or resorted to purely external explanations of the truth, then the result was an explanation of it, although it had something to do with it, but one that only led its authors to the truth, but did not initiate it into the truth itself. That is why Greek philosophy is like the flame of a torch, made of grass and ignited by rays artificially stolen from the sun. But as soon as the Logos was proclaimed, the sacred light shone in all its splendor. With borrowed light it is undoubtedly useful to illuminate houses at night, but the endless light of the intelligent Sun gives rise to eternal day, and transforms night into it. Let's continue. Everything that Moses said about justice was summarized by Pythagoras in the following symbolic instruction: “Keep your steelyard in balance,” that is, try not to violate the laws of justice; it should determine your actions entirely; remain faithful to her under all kinds of conditions. What connects friends to friends, Cities with cities, hands of those fighting in battle? Right. Equality is a law given to people by nature itself. The largest and the smallest are constantly and openly at odds with each other. Here the first impulses to hatred 629 arose. That is why the Lord says: Take My beneficial and easy yoke (Matthew 11:29, 30). He once saw his disciples arguing among themselves about primacy, and commanded simplicity and equality, declaring that they should be like children (Matthew 18:8). The Apostle says the same thing as the Lord. He writes: In Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, neither Greek nor Jew (Gal. 3:28), for the new man created in us by Christ (Gal. 6:15) is an enemy of strife, far from greed; he observes fair equality because envy, rivalry, and restlessness are eliminated from the harmonious society of the elect (Gal. 5:19–21). The priests who receive into the mysteries also tell us symbolically: “Do not devour your own heart.” Through this they make us understand that we should not wound our souls and exhaust them with worries and be saddened by events that take our prudence and our will by surprise. And truly, very unhappy is he (Bellerophon), whom Homer represents as wandering and gnawing at his own heart (Il. VI, 200). And again, when the Gospel, the Apostles and all the prophets show us two paths, one they call narrow and difficult, because it is limited by prohibitions and commandments, the other is the opposite of this and leads to destruction, which they call broad and extensive (Matthew 7:13, 14; Luke 13:24), because on it access to passions and the satisfaction of desires is free; and when they add even more clearly: Blessed is the man who does not enter into fellowship with the wicked and does not stop in the path of sinners (Ps. 1:1), then doesn’t it become obvious that it was these passages of Scripture that gave rise to the famous allegory of Prodicus of Ceos, where Vice and Virtue quarrel with each other over the soul of Hercules? Isn’t that why Pythagoras, while forbidding us to walk on big roads, public roads, paths known to everyone, considers it necessary to warn us against the opinions of the crowd, which are almost always absurd and arbitrary. Aristocritus, in the 1st book of his “Objections” to Heracleodorus, cites a letter with literally the following content: “Antaeus, king of the Scythians, to the people of Byzantium. Do not oppose me in collecting tribute; otherwise my mares will go and drink the water of your rivers.” In this figurative language he announced to the Byzantines that he was going to war against them. The poet Euphorion puts similar words into the mouth of Nestor: “We have not yet watered our horses, born in the valleys of Greece, in the waves of Simois.” The Egyptian custom of placing sphinxes in front of churches also has a symbolic meaning. The Sphinxes tell us that the doctrine of the Divine should have some allegory and secrecy. Maybe the sphinxes want to tell us that we need to both love and fear God, to love because He is good and merciful to those who honor Him, to fear because, in His justice, He punishes the wicked without mercy. And indeed, the Sphinx in its dual image, human and animal, is capable of reminding of this. 6. The mysterious meaning of the tabernacle and its utensils 630 It would be too long to explain all the symbols contained either in the books of the prophets or in the books of the law, since Scripture almost always covers its messages with a veil of allegories. For someone who is gifted with a bright and sound mind, I believe it will be enough to give only a few examples to certify this fact. The peculiarity of Scripture in the allegorical way of presenting thoughts, and moreover, in such a way that this form constitutes its main difference, is confirmed, for example, by the special significance of the seven curtains of the ancient church, which are mentioned in Jewish books. This is no less evidenced by the various decorations of the high priest’s vestments. Being emblems of celestial phenomena, those decorations represented (to both the eyes and the mind) the complete composition of the universe with heaven and earth. The upper cover of the tabernacle and the outer curtain with their colors - hyacinth, purple, scarlet and linen - meant that the nature of the elements reveals God. And authentic. Purple is obtained from water, flax is supplied by earth, hyacinth with its cloudy color resembles air, which is blackish in nature, and scarlet is fire. In the space between the front and back curtains, where only the priests had the right to enter, there was an altar of incense. Symbolically, it represented the earth occupying the center of the world, from which vapors and incense rise. The space behind the curtains, into which on certain days only the high priest had the right to enter, and the entire middle of the outer court, to which all Jews had access, represented, as they say, the most central place of heaven and earth. According to others, it was a symbol of the sensory-intelligent world. The curtain, by which the sanctuary was separated from the infidel people, was stretched on five columns and formed a barrier for those in the vestibule. The columns mysteriously represented the five loaves of bread broken by the Savior. The veil on them foreshadowed that those loaves, having multiplied under the hands of the Lord’s listeners, did not lead them to desire other bread (John 6:24–65). For there are very many people who give themselves over to sensual things, as if others did not exist. “Watch carefully,” says Plato, so that these things are not heard by any of the uninitiated. The uninitiated are those who imagine that nothing exists except what they can firmly grasp with their hands, and who do not consider actions, generation, and everything that eludes the eye to be real things. Indeed, that is exactly what they are; which are guided only by five senses. The idea of ​​God cannot be comprehended by hearing, sight and similar organs. This is why the Son is called the face of the Father, because He wanted to reveal himself to the five of our senses 632. The incarnate Logos is the great herald of the Father's being. But if we live in the spirit, then we must behave spiritually (Gal. 5:25), for we are moved forward by faith. and not the sense of sight (2 Cor. 5:7), the glorious apostle calls to us. So, yours; The priests performed their duties under the shadow and behind veils, by which all those belonging to the sacred class were separated from the people standing outside. The second curtain covered the interior of the Holy of Holies. The four columns with which it was supported were reminiscent of the four covenants with the ancients 633. I must say the same thing about the mysterious saying that the high priest, who had the right to enter the Holy of Holies, wore on his forehead: it also consisted of four letters. This Hebrew word, "Ιαου" 634, means the One who is and who will be. But the Greek word “Θεός” also consists of four letters. Like the high priest, the Lord entered into the world only comprehended by the mind through His sufferings, penetrating through it (through humanity) into the knowledge of unspoken mysteries (Heb. 2:10; 9:26) and being exalted from that world with a name that surpasses everything that can enter the human language (Phil. 2:9). The lamp that stood on the south side of the incense altar represented the seven luminaries describing the southern conversions. That is why this lamp had six branches on the right and left, each of which supported a lamp, while the sun was represented as the middle lamp on the lamp, since according to the Divine dispensation it sheds light on the luminaries located both above it and on those located below. Is this lamp golden? according to a different understanding, it also had another symbolic meaning. Not only by his external structure, but also by his light, he transformed the light brought to earth by Christ. This light of Christ's teaching was repeatedly and diversified (Heb. 1:1) among people, whose spiritual eye was turned to this rational light, by the Apostles and other disciples, originally reborn by Christ himself. They spread faith in Christ and hope in Him throughout the world. According to some, this lamp represented the seven eyes of the Lord (Rev. 5:6), the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit resting on the Lord, this flowering shoot that grew from the trunk of Jesse (Isa. 9:1, 2). “The table with the showbread stood north of the altar of incense, because the most nutritious winds blow from the northern countries. Perhaps this table, with its position under the northern winds, was an emblem of the thrones of different churches, which, despite their apparently separateness, are still one body, because they converge in a single Head, agree with each other in their teachings and are united into a single church. “Everything in Scripture that is said about the ark means a world that is only contemplated by the mind, not comprehended by the crowd, remaining hidden and enclosed for them. – Two golden statues, with six wings each, were, according to some, a symbol of the Great and Little Dippers; or, according to another, more successful explanation, two hemispheres. – The word “cherub” means extensive knowledge. With their twelve wings, both of these cherubs represented this visible world with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the cycle of seasons in it. The meaning of these cherubs can be stated, as I believe, even in these words of a tragic poet. Turning his attention to the realm of visible nature, he exclaims: “Tireless time flows forever on the full shores of the universe. It has no other source for its origin than itself. And both Ursa, quickly moving their wings, guard the Atlantean (fixed) polar star.” Atlas is the polar star that cannot be turned; and it can really represent a motionless sphere or, even better, a motionless, unshakable eternity. – The Ark of the Covenant, in my understanding, also had another, higher meaning. The Hellenes call it “kivot”, from the Hebrew word “thebotha”, translated meaning: “Everywhere is one for the sake of its simplicity.” Wasn’t it the eight (“ogdoadem”), that is, the world of ideas, that he represented? Didn’t he symbolically signify God, for the infinite God embraces the entire universe with Himself, although He Himself has neither any specific form nor image and is not subject to our external senses. We leave a detailed explanation of this here. Let us only say that, in addition to this, the ark of the covenant meant peace, the rest that souls who glorify the Lord, allegorically represented here by cherubim, enjoy. For there is no doubt that, having commanded not to make any, either sculpted or carved, images of Himself, God could not allow the visible image of these cherubim if they did not have a symbolic meaning. Because it is impossible to imagine that there are living beings somewhere in the sky, subject to external senses, that resemble these images. No, these images had a symbolic meaning. The face in them depicted a rational soul; Three pairs of wings depicted their activity and service with a sublime character, for deeds, like wings, also surround us on the right and left. The lips in these images signified the hymn of glory, which is sung by a grateful soul, occupied with incessant contemplation, given over to endless speculative activity (Isa. 6:3). These hints about the mysterious significance of the cherubim, I believe, will be enough not to extend further discussion here. – The length of the high priest’s talar was a symbol of the sensory world. Five precious stones, together with two carbuncles (rubies), designated the septenary number of planets; separately by two carbuncles: one - the planet Saturn, the other - the Moon. Because Saturn floats on the southern side of the sky; in addition, its quality consists of humidity; it looks like earth and is heavy. As for the Moon, its sphere is air, which is why others call it Artemis (that is, “αεροτόμος”), cutting through the air, which is dark in nature. Moses tells us, among other things, that five precious stones and two carbuncles were figuratively represented by the Angels who assist in the generation of things on our earth and that by Divine Providence they were appointed to be the guardians of the seven planets; a breastplate with these seven stones was placed on the chest and shoulders of the high priest as a sign of the first seven days of creation, when nonentity was fertilized by creative action. And of course, it was not without reason that this emblem was worn on the chest, since the chest is the seat of the heart and life. - It may also be that the precious stones scattered here and there throughout the high priestly vestment, sometimes on its upper parts, sometimes on its lower ones, also indicated various types of salvation, one or another of which each of us, our whole body and the whole body of the church, is saved. – Three hundred and sixty bells sewn to the bottom of the high priest’s robe signified the annual cycle, the year of the Lord’s salvation, the year of loud gospels, which foreshadowed the glorious coming of Christ Jesus (Isa. 61:2; Luke 6:19). – The golden diadem worn on the head of the high priest signified the royal power of the Lord, because He is the Head of the church (Eph. 5:23). A sign of someone’s highest authority is the decoration of that person’s head with a turban (tiara); That’s why another word is addressed to us and we know: Christ’s Head is God (1 Cor. 11:3; 2 Cor. 11:31); He is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – In addition, the confidant also consisted of a shoulder pad, which was a symbol of activity, and also of the “word of judgment,” which was a symbol of reason and Logos, this universal Equalizer. This “word of judgment” was an image of heaven, created by the Logos, which with all its creations is subject to the same orders and governed by the same laws and is subordinate to the common Head Christ. - The two light emeralds that adorned the high priestly shoulder pad indicated the sun and the moon, these two luminaries that contribute to nature. - The hand, presumably, begins from the shoulder. A dozen precious stones arranged on the breastplate in rows of three or four resembled the circle of the zodiac with four seasons. Was it not fitting for the head of the church, Christ, who has the highest power and dignity in it, to base them on the law and the prophets, whose light was reminded by the light of those precious stones of the “word of judgment”? Was it not only in this light, the light of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord could reveal those who were righteous from the point of view of both covenants? By calling the Apostles righteous and prophets, we do not sin against the accuracy of expressions, because both through the Old Testament righteous men and prophets, and through the New Testament Apostles, the same Holy Spirit acted (1 Cor. 12:11). The Lord is above the entire world, not only this sensory world, but also that which we comprehend only by speculation. Likewise, the name of God, carved on a golden tablet, was placed on the forehead, that is, above all authority, all authority and power (Phil. 2:9). This majestic emblem reminded both the written commandments of God and the coming of Christ in the flesh to the senses. This name was the name of God, because, constantly contemplating the goodness of the Father, the Son acts as God the Savior (John 5:9). He, the Son, is the beginning of everything, the first and before all ages to reproduce in his own person the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:45), and then to create all other creatures. – “The Word of Judgment” symbolically designated all the prophecies that cried out and proclaimed through the mouth of the Logos; they also foreshadowed the future judgment, since the same Logos that foretells He also judges and, recognizing, divides. They also claim that the length of the high priest’s talar prophetically foreshadowed the economy of the incarnation of God the Word (Logos), as a result of which the world could become more familiar with Him. That is why the high priest, on the day of purification, taking off this sacred robe, washes himself and puts on another robe, so to speak, more sacred than that sacred one, and already in it he enters the Holy of Holies 635. This meant that although the world and everything created in it were sanctified by God, when He saw that everything He created was very good (Gen. 1:31), but to approach God still more perfect and complete sanctification was required; that is, it is symbolically indicated that a Christian at the same time must be both a priest and a Gnostic, so to speak, the highest of those priests who are sanctified only by the water of baptism, have put on the clothing of only faith and expect only its abiding. He must distinguish and separate the world of sensory phenomena from the spiritual world, which is only contemplated by the mind, and must thereby rise above the entire host of priests; his aspirations must be directed toward penetration into the very essence of things, accessible only to reason; he must renounce everything earthly and no longer need to undergo any water ablutions, which he had to perform when he belonged to the class of ordinary priests. When the Logos, the highest principle of all knowledge, purifies him to the depths of his heart, when all his behavior becomes impeccable and he rises to the highest level of priestly life, then all the properties of his being, deeds and words are truly sanctified; he is clothed with the spirit of glory (1 Pet. 4:14), possessing ineffable treasure, which is the property of a spiritual and perfect man. This is that same treasure and those blessings that the eye has never seen, about which the ear has never heard, the thoughts of which have not entered the heart of a person, which he has not yet comprehended with his feelings and sensations (1 Cor. 2:9). He becomes the son and friend of God; he contemplates God face to face (1 Cor. 13:12) and cannot get enough of this sight. But it would be better to give the floor here to the Logos himself, with whose sayings in Scripture the mind is enlightened much more fully and deeply. So, let us listen to Him: And let him take off the linen robe that he put on at the moments of entering the sanctuary and let him leave it there; let him wash his body in a sacred place and put on his clothes (Lev. 16:23, 24). Christ Himself, in the mystery of His incarnation, took off and put on clothes that were extremely sacred, differently from how the Jewish high priest who believed in Him did it. The Apostle explains this in one of his epistles (2 Cor. 5:2–4) 636. That is why only the most glorious persons, distinguished by the greatness of their spiritual gifts and virtues, were chosen from the priestly family as the image of the Lord and as high priests; and besides, these persons, who were chosen for the royal and prophetic ministries, were also sanctified through anointing with sacred oil. 7. The Egyptian priests also presented concepts related to the Deity to the people in the form of symbols and riddles We find the same precaution among the Egyptians. Instead of revealing to everyone without distinction the meaning of the Divine secrets they contained and entrusting the knowledge of divine things to the ignorant and those who might turn out to be wicked people, they allowed initiation into these secrets only those who were destined to bear the royal dignity and those from the priestly class, whose suitability and ability for this work was indicated, firstly, by their upbringing itself, secondly, by learning, and thirdly, by birth. The Egyptian symbols, in their mystery, which pointed to something else and aroused curiosity, are very similar to the symbols that were in use among the Jews. According to the Egyptian allegorical system, the sun was represented either as a ship or as a crocodile. The allegory wanted to mean that the sun passing through soft and moist air creates time, the emblematic sign of which, according to another sacred legend, was the crocodile. In the Egyptian city of Diospolis, on the so-called church pylon, you can see the image of a small child, which allegorically signified birth, and an old man, which figure symbolically signified death. Next to them is a hawk, a symbol of the Divine, and a fish, the figurative meaning of which is hatred. At the edge of this allegorical picture there is a crocodile, expressing impudence. The whole of this symbolic picture clearly expresses the following: “Oh, you who are born and die, do not forget that the Divine hates insolence” 637. - Another symbol. Egyptian priests made figurines of eyes and ears from precious material; They consecrate them and hang them on the gods in churches, no doubt to inform those present that the Divine sees and hears everything. Accordingly, the Egyptians considered the lion a symbol of strength and courage; They undoubtedly depicted land, agriculture, food as an ox; the horse symbolically represented courage and independence; and the sphinx already signified the combination of strength and reason in one person, because his body was made like a lion, and his face was human. Likewise, if they wanted to give the concept of insight, memory, power, art, industry, then they depicted the face of a person in convex writing in their churches. Or here's another symbol. When depicting the feasts of the gods, which they called “κωμασίαις”, it was customary for them to wear four golden statues around the table; the first and second of them were an image of a dog, the third was a hawk, and the fourth was an ibis. And these four images denoted our four letters. The two dogs were a symbol of the two hemispheres revolving around themselves in an orbit that remained unchanged; the hawk denoted the sun with its scorching rays and their destructive power, because the Egyptians attributed the spread of infectious diseases to the sun 638; the ibis represented the moon; black feathers on it meant darkness, and white feathers meant the light of this planet 639. According to another interpretation, the two dogs denoted both tropics, these two vigilant guards, one of which is placed on the threshold of the southern countries, and the other on the threshold of the northern ones; they supervise the course of the sun as it approaches one of these points. In this case, the hawk would signify the equator due to the elevation of this line and the heat that scorches it; the ibis, therefore, signified the oblique circle, otherwise the zodiac, because it is the ibis among other animals that is the same as the oblique circle among other circles; and it seems that it was this oblique circle that led the Egyptians to the discovery of reckoning and land surveying. 8. Sacred concepts not only among our sacred writers, but also among poets and sages from other nations, were usually expressed symbolically This allegorical way of expressing thoughts was adopted not only by the most educated class of the Egyptian people, but also by all other peoples, as soon as science and art flourished among them. About Idanfur, king of the Scythians 640, Pherecydes the Syrian tells that, at the news of Darius’s crossing of Istra, instead of a letter, threatening war, he sent him its symbols: a mouse, a frog, a bird, an arrow and a ploughshare. At the sight of this strange gift in the Dariev camp, everyone began to ask what it meant and what to think about what was sent. Then the commander Orontopagus stood up and said: “Great king! This means that the Scythians submit to you. The mouse means that they are betraying their houses into your power; frog - that they allow you to use their waters; bird - by air; arrow - they connect their weapon with yours; plow coulter - that they cede to you the lands of their country.” But Xiphodrus understood the gift conveyed differently. He said: “If we do not leave this country quickly, like the birds, or hide in the ground, like a mouse, or in the water, like this frog, then we will not be able to hide from the arrows of the Scythians, because we are not the masters of this country.” - The same historian says that the Scythian Anacharsis always slept, covering the organs of the hypogastrium with his left hand, and his mouth with his right, letting them understand that the tongue and voluptuousness should be curbed, and the first even more than the other. But why should I dwell on the barbarian peoples, when it is easy to prove that the Hellenes themselves often used an allegorical way of expressing thoughts? The disciple of Pythagoras, Androcydes, says that the writings known under the name of Ephesus, whose fame was very widespread, were purely symbolic 641. For example, "άσκιον" means darkness because it is truly shadowless; “κατάσκιον” means light, because it disperses darkness and shadows; "λιξ" means "oblique"; ancient name of the land. The word "τέτραξ", which means a quaternary number, allegorically denotes the year, due to the four seasons into which it is divided. The word “δαμναμενεύς” refers to the sun. Being composed of “δαμάω” - “I tame, bridle” - and “αίσια”, which means the word true (“αίσα”, fate), the whole word, therefore, means irresistible power 642. A symbol is nothing more than a decoration with which the concept of Divine things is covered, for example, darkness is equated with light, the sun with the year, the earth with various works of nature. Or this is better. The grammarian Dionysius the Thracian, in his work “Explanation of the Symbol of the Wheels,” says literally the following: “Some taught morality not only in words, but also through symbols: through words, because they expressed instructions similar to those that we know as Delphic and which were set forth in such sayings as: “Nothing too much,” “Know yourself”; through symbols in this way: in the churches either wheels borrowed from the Egyptians were supplied, or palm branches were given to the fans.” Orpheus the Thracian alludes to these symbols when he says: There are various works to which a person, like a branch, devotes himself here on earth. His mind is not exclusively occupied with anything; The lots constantly revolve around him, never being able to stop at one point; But just as in the beginning rotary motion was given to things, so in subsequent times They constantly hold him back. The branch symbolically represents the first rudiments of food. Perhaps the purpose of this symbol was to remind the people that the fruits on the branches grow, grow stronger and exist for a long time; the branches themselves are destined to exist only for a short time. This means that the Hellenes found this symbolic sign suitable for drawing everyone’s attention to the brevity of his days. Perhaps the following was said to the worshiper by handing over the branch in the church: “Just as this branch, being thrown into the fire, will burn: in the same way, its bearers, after this life, will serve as food for the flame.” Knowledge of symbolic language is very useful in all respects. It is useful for sound theology, for piety, for sharpening the acuity of the mind, for saving time, for discovering one’s wisdom and intelligence. “The characteristic of a sage,” says the grammarian Didymus, is to skillfully use a symbol and comprehend the secret hidden under its form. The initial training received by children also contains an explanation of the four original elements in the following mysterious words 643. It is known that the Phrygians designated water with the word “βέδυ”. Orpheus uses this word precisely in this sense: And the Naiads pour clean water (“βέδυ”) from their fountains. Dion the fortune teller also says: “Take water, pour it on your hands, then tell your fortune by the entrails of the sacrificial animals.” The comic poet Filyudei, on the contrary, by the word “βέδυ” means vital air: Oh, if only the gods would arrange it so that I could breathe into myself βέδυ, the source of health. Yes, I ask them to grant me clean, unalloyed air to breathe. This understanding of the word “βέδυ” is shared by Neanthes of Cysis. “The Macedonian priests,” he says, “turn in their prayers to “βέδυ,” asking him for a happy existence for themselves and their children. They understand by this word the air we breathe.” And unscientific interpreters derive the word “Ζάψ” from “ζέσις” - “boiling” and claim that it means fire. But that's not true. “Ζάψ” means “sea,” as can be seen from Euphorion’s answer to Theorida: And Ζάψ, the great destroyer of ships, smashed them against the rocks. Dionysius, nicknamed Iambus, uses this word in the same sense: And Ζάψ in its salty plain disturbed them terribly with its noisy waves. The comic poet Kratin Jr. also says: Ζάψ gives birth to crayfish and small fish. Finally, in Simmias the Rhodian we read: And the undulating Ζάψ feeds the Telkhints and Ignetyans among its salty depths. Word production “χθών”, earth: from “χέω” - “to spread”, “to pour out”, according to its majestic extent in space. “Πλήκτρον”, a small clanking stick. According to some, this word means “πόλος”, a circle in the sky with a star revolving in it, the polar star. According to others, it is air. It is so named either because it touches, pushes and moves everything, conducive to generation and development; or because it fills space with itself. But those who accept this explanation probably have not read the philosopher Cleanthes, who directly calls the sun by this name. Really watch the sun rise. With its disk, as if leaning on the ground, it touches it with its rays; and in its uniform movement, how rhythmically and quite majestically it spills its light! After the sun, Cleanthes also calls other stars by this name. As for the word “sphinx”, which comes from “σφίγγω” - to press, to press, it does not mean the cohesion of things, nor the circular movement of our world, as the poet Arat wants it. I would like to understand by this word better a kind of certain spiritual order or harmony that permeates the world and restrains it; or - to put it differently and better - is not this the ether that surrounds the earth and compresses all creation? Empedocles also testifies to this: First I will tell you about the origin of the sun And about the beginning from which everything we see evolved: The earth, the sea with its countless waves, This moist air is a giant, and ether, Which, embracing all of nature, binds it into one whole. Apollodorus the Corcyrian relates that these verses were sung by the soothsayer Branchus during the purification ceremonies established at Miletus to free that city from famine. Walking among the people and sprinkling them with purifying water from a laurel branch, he sang the opening verses of the prayer hymn: Sing, children, to Apollo and Artemis, who strike us from afar, and the people answered him with the following refrain: “Βέδυ, ζάψ, χθώμ, πλήκτρον, σφίγξ, κναξζβιχ, θύπτης, φλεγμό, δρώψς". – Callimachus also mentions this fact in his “Iambics.” According to his interpretation, the word “κναξζβι” denotes a disease, derived from “κναίειν” - to destroy, destroy and “διαφθείρειν” ​​- to scatter. “Χθύπτης”, derived from “τύφω” - to ignite, means igniting with lightning. The tragic poet Thespis seems to have a different opinion about this. He expresses it in the following verses: Behold, I offer you a libation of white κναξζβι, Milked from the udder of a white cow with my own hands. Here's a mixture of cheese and red honey. O Pan, two-horned! I place this sacred mixture upon your throne; Behold, I pour out before you the fiery drink of Bacchus. Thespis, the first of these words, without a doubt, denotes that mammalian food with which our soul feeds and which consists of 24 signs of our ideas. This initial milk, having thickened, forms more solid food. The poet ends his speech with a word about the blood of the Vine, that is, the Logos - about that fiery and mysterious wine, about that complete and perfect joy that comes from initiation into the Christian sacraments. “Δρώψ” is the active Logos, which, elevating the convert from the first stages of catechesis to the state of a developed person to the extent of his mature age (Eph. 4:13), excites and enlightens the mind. There is also a third symbol assigned for children's education: “Μάρπτε, σφίγξ, κλώψ, ζβυχθηδόν.” If I am not mistaken, it means that the understanding of the most perfect things must be achieved by knowledge of the laws that govern this world and the elements, in order to acquire eternal salvation for us through a virtuous life and works. And indeed in the word “μάρπτες” there is the idea of ​​“grasping”, “comprehending”; the sphinx represents the harmony of the world; “ζβυχθηδόν” means “difficulty”, “obstacles”; and “κλώψ” at the same time means both the day and the intimate knowledge of the secrets of our Lord. But how? Epigenes, in his essay “On the Poetry of Orpheus,” explaining the special expressions of this poet, doesn’t he say that the weaver’s shuttle with its curved tips resembles a plow, and the warp or beam is like a paddock, and the threads of the weft are the seed sown by the farmer? And isn’t the rain signified by the tears of Zeus? And in the goddesses who control the destinies of man (Latin: Parks), aren’t the different phases of the moon personified, the first quarter, the last and the new moon? This is why Orpheus, as Epigenes adds, calls them “λευκοστόλους,” that is, “dressed in white,” because they are participants in the light. And again: “ἄνθιον” (flowery) in the same Orpheus does not mean spring, the season of flowers? He calls the night inactive, lazy, “αργιδα”, because it brings with it hours of calm, sleep, and rest. He gives the moon the epithet “γοργόνιον” because its disk is apparently similar to the face of the Gorgon. By Aphrodite, this poet, interpreter of divine things, means the time when it is necessary to sow the earth. The Pythagorean school made no less use of symbols. The planets, according to their allegorical representation, are the dogs of Persephone; sea ​​- tears of Kronos. Reviewing the works of philosophers and poets, we come across countless allegorical expressions and forms. There are even entire books in which the thoughts of the authors are presented entirely in secret. Such is the book of Heraclitus “On Nature”, which gave its author a reputation as an obscure writer and assigned him the nickname “dark”. The theology of Pherecydes the Syrian is similar in form of presentation to this work of Heraclitus. The understanding of the poet Euphorion, Callimachus' "Causes", Lucofron's "Alexandra" and other works written in the same kind, for all interpreters is a skill and equal to heroic work (of an athlete). Is it surprising, then, that Moses used the same symbolic form of expressing his thoughts? Like other ancients, he also presented his wisdom, which we are discussing here, covertly and symbolically, as will be shown here. This character is, for example, his prohibition to eat the meat of a pig, hawk, eagle, raven (Lev., ch. 11; Deut., ch. 14) 644. The pig is indeed an unclean animal that excites voluptuousness. She represents the embodiment of carnal lusts of gluttony, lustful impulses of unrestrained voluptuousness; she constantly rolls around in the dirt of matter and grows fat, only to be stabbed and die. On the other hand, the legislator allowed his people to eat the meat of animals that regurgitate cud and have a split hoof. What would that mean? Barnabas answers us that the prophet said the following: “Cleave to people who fear the Lord, who keep at the bottom of their hearts the words they have heard, who talk about the commandments of the Lord, who observe them and understand how great consolation the soul can find in constant meditation on the law of the Lord. What is indicated by an animal with a cloven hoof? And the fact is that although the righteous man moves in this world, he lives in the hope of one day being translated into the world of saints. See, Barnabas adds, how wise and spiritual the law given by Moses was; but the Jews could not comprehend its true meaning 645. As for us, who received this knowledge solely by the will of the Lord, we can boast of our knowledge in it. This is why He circumcised our minds and our hearts, in order to make us capable of delving into the mysterious meaning of the law. So, when Moses said: Do not eat eagle, hawk, kite, or raven, he commanded them as follows: Do not have any relations with these people who do not know how to support their lives by labor and sweat, but instead live by robbery and injustice, robbing others of what they own 646. The eagle actually lives by robbery and predation, the hawk by injustice, and the raven by greed. But it is written: With the innocent you will be innocent, with the chosen you will be chosen, with the wicked you will be wicked (Ps. 17:25, 26). One should cleave to sacred people, because those who remain among them will themselves be sanctified. Thus the following words were inspired by Theognis: In communicating with good people you will learn good deeds; If you know bad people, you will distort all your concepts 647. When Moses exclaimed in the hymn of deliverance: He caused glory to thunder about Himself: horse and rider He cast into the sea (Ex. 15:1), then he seemed to cry out like this: He cast into the sea of ​​this world with its storms and noisy waves thousands of rude and bestial instincts of desire, together with the guide who rode this hot animal and let down the reins of voluptuousness 648. Plato in his conversation “On the Soul” 649 depicts before us both the guide and the rebellious horse, lying on the ground at once, that is, the unreasonable part of the soul that feeds passions and desires. The fable of Phaeton has the same meaning. The reckless charioteer was overturned along with his chariot, because he did not know how to restrain his intemperance. The story of Joseph, in addition to reality, is also an allegory. In Joseph's youth, his brothers, jealous of the fact that with his foresight he despised knowledge of the future more clearly than they did, took off his multi-colored tunic, took him and lowered him into a dry tank. This was a sign of their insulting disregard for the diverse knowledge acquired so laboriously, with which this virtuous son of Jacob was distinguished. Or the act of these rude people, who believed only in the simple letter of the law and threw their brother into a waterless cistern, had a symbolic meaning: that cistern represented Egypt, which did not then know the word of God, into which the brothers sold Joseph. Be that as it may, the tank represents the stupid ignorance of these traitors. It seemed to them that the sage, secretly plunged into darkness, should lose his light here and become like them, that is, lose all knowledge. According to another interpretation, the removal of the multi-colored clothing by the sons of Jacob from their brother and then casting him into an empty pond signifies a desire that involves him in various sensual pleasures and digs a bottomless abyss under a person’s feet. (The Cistern of Joseph gives us a reason to explain another law of Moses). If someone opens a pit or digs a cistern, says the law, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, then the owner of the pit must pay the chain of these animals, and the corpse becomes his property (Ex. 21:33, 34). Add to this the words of the prophecy: The ox knows its owner and the donkey its stable, but Israel does not know who I am (Isa. 1:3). What does this mean? But this: It may happen that the school, which you have opened for imparting knowledge in it, will receive rude listeners, incapable of being bearers of the truth, since they may understand poorly and will stumble at every step, then be prudent and restrained in the use of words. Before these unenlightened people, who cannot be initiated into wisdom, who come to you, not led by reason, block access to the spring that originates in the depths and let go, give out healing, saving water only to those who thirst for truth. Close this tank from minds that cannot contain the depths of knowledge. The owner of the tank himself, the Gnostic, according to the word of the Lord, will suffer punishment and shame; he will be guilty if his brother is burned by the greatness of the teachings communicated to him, because this convert was ill prepared to understand the greatness of the Logos, and the unreasonable initiator allowed him to contemplate when he was only still a worker 650; and thus unwisely distracted him from faith, which is effective in itself, without knowledge. The punishment that he will have to bear is an account that he will have to give to the will of the Creator. Thus the law and the prophets constantly move in images; and this continued until the time of even John the Baptist. And although the Forerunner is already beginning to express himself more clearly, because he. instead of predicting according to the model of the prophets, he points with his finger to the One who has already become incarnate, Who was foreshadowed by so many symbols from the beginning of the world; however, he did not fail to say: I am not worthy to untie the thongs of His sandals (Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27). He humbly admits that it is not appropriate for him to baptize such an omnipotent Ruler, because the work of the purifier, truly saving, should have been the liberation of the soul from the power of the body and from the bonds of sin, just as one frees the leg from the shackles placed on it. And it is not impossible that it was precisely this last benefit of the Savior to us, that is, the most immediate and sought after us in the closest way, remaining until then hidden under the cover of prophetic allegories, it is not impossible that by that saying of the Baptist it was actually announced to the people. Untying the difficult knot of prophecies related to the incarnation and symbolically foreshadowing it, revealing their meaning, the Forerunner, when the Logos itself was already present, seemed to say to people: “Look, this is the Virtue that the prophets preached about so many times over a number of centuries. Finally She appeared before your eyes.” The formalities observed when signing wills according to Roman law are, strictly speaking, also symbols. They bring scales and several aces of a walking Roman coin; an act of alienation of property and assignment of it to another is drawn up. Then those present touch each other's ears. The scales and coin serve as an external sign of justice, the observation of which is recommended in the present case; the act of transferring property determines its value; touching the ears warns the witness that he is obliged to remember the matter in which he was a mediator. 9. The motives for which the truth was hidden under the cover of allegories I am worried that the desire to show the ubiquity of the language of allegory will not inadvertently lead me beyond the bounds of what I should. The time of my entire life would not be enough to name all the many sages who used this form to express their thoughts. To aid memory, to promote brevity and conciseness of language, to strain and refine the mind in the discovery of truth - this is the threefold purpose of the allegorical way of expressing thought and symbolic language in the works of writers of foreign and barbarian peoples. Symbolism recognizes as its true disciples, who find taste and understanding in it, only those listeners or readers who are diligent in interrogating it, in demanding answers from it, who have already developed their personality on it, who, with the liveliness of their faith and purity of life, achieve the wisdom and theology of the true. He reminds us of the need for a guide and an interpreter. Through this, we approach this activity with greater diligence and do not risk going astray, because knowledge is imparted to us by knowledgeable people who have found us worthy to participate in these treasures. Add to this that the truth, seen behind the veil, takes on a more majestic appearance and inspires greater reverence. It is like fruits, the beauty of which is elevated when viewed through water; or - on the forms, if one can only guess about them from clothing: the mysterious shine of water gives greater beauty to the fruits, and a certain secrecy serves the benefit of the forms; while the light striking an object from all sides only reveals all its shortcomings. Moreover, open truth, truth in its pure form and without veils can be understood only in one sense; meanwhile, if it is expressed in a veiled manner and, so to speak, hidden between words, then the meaning of this secrecy can be interpreted differently, so that from a dark and unlearned person, unable to expose the mysterious veil of veils, the truth remains hidden, while the Gnostic without difficulty reads it even behind the veils. Sacred teachings cannot be rashly revealed to the first person they meet; and the treasures of wisdom cannot be given over to dishonor and humiliation to those in whom everything is unclean, who dream only dirty dreams. So, the secret must be kept and respected. Is it really fair to indiscriminately impart to one and all the treasures acquired with such difficulty, and to reveal to the uninitiated the secrets of the Logos? It is said that the Pythagorean Hipparchus, accused by his relatives of having published the teachings of Pythagoras in his writings 651, was expelled from the school and a funeral column was allegedly erected for him as if he were dead 652. That is why, in barbarian wisdom, that is, Jewish and Christian, betrayal of teaching and the enslavement of someone’s soul to the rule of passions is known under the name of death (1 Cor. 5:2). And indeed, what is common between righteousness and lawlessness, exclaims the Divine Apostle! What is the connection between light and darkness? Can there be agreement between Christ and Belial? What kind of communication does the faithful have with the infidel? (2 Cor. 6:14, 15). Is the veneration given to the gods of Olympus different from the honors given to mere mortals? 653 Therefore come out from among them, says the Lord, and be separate, and do not touch the unclean, and I will receive you and will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). Among the philosophers of Greece, not only Plato and the Pythagoreans often used symbolic language. The Epicureans also boasted that they too had certain mysterious teachings and did not allow everyone to read the works in which they were expounded. The Stoics attribute to the founder of their school, Zeno, the exposition of some secret teachings, which they carefully hide from their students until they are convinced of the sincerity of their love for wisdom. The school of Aristotle has works of two kinds: some of them are called esoteric, or secret, while others are exoteric, that is, open to everyone 654. But this is not enough. The founders of the mysteries, wise people, hid their teachings under myths, shielding them from the attention of the crowd. So, if people already hide their own inventions under veils in order to hide them from the gaze of the ignorant, then what is surprising if Divine holy wisdom and the contemplation of eternal truth that makes us happy hid under symbolic forms? And yet neither the teachings of barbarian wisdom, nor the fables of Pythagoras, nor the fable of Er, the son of Armenius, told by Plato in his work “On the State” (Book X) and about Aeacus and Rhadamanthus in the “Gorgias”, about the underworld in the “Phaedo”, about Prometheus and Epimetheus in the “Protagoras”, and, moreover, about the war between the Atlanteans and the Athenians, given in the Atlantic 655, nothing from all this in all its parts can be understood allegorically 656, but only where the expression conveys only a general thought each time. We constantly find this type of thought only hinted at and hidden under the veil of allegory. Pythagoras's students were divided according to the degree of his attitude towards them and more or less close ties with them. The category that contained the largest number of them were the so-called “acousmatics”, listeners. Students were enrolled in another category by choice: they were called “mathematicians” and studied philosophy with great zeal. What did this distinction mean if not that one thing was said to everyone, and the other was hidden from the majority? Indeed, there are things that are understandable to the common people, and there are others that need to be kept secret. It seems to me that the Peripatetic school, with its categories of probable things and scientific things, is not far from distinguishing human opinions and glory from real glory and unchangeable truth. Do not fall into slavery out of desire for honors and rewards; These are one-day flowers, distributed by human hands. Be more concerned about what is pious and pleasing to the gods. The Ionic Muses say that “the common people and the imaginary sages blindly follow the poets and use the laws, knowing well that there are many bad laws and poets, and very few good ones. Chosen people, on the contrary, seek true glory.” “Let it be far from us,” continues the same poet, the imitation of the crowd, attached to things that satisfy only for one day; Let the best people strive for the immortal glory of mortals; to think about satisfying the wishes of only the coarsest, similar to the wishes of animals, let them leave it to the crowd. Intemperance, debauchery, that’s her only measure of happiness.” The illustrious Parmenides the Eleatic also distinguishes two different paths. He says: One is the path of truth; the goddess introduces it With a peaceful and calm heart, words of conviction; Another path is the path of following the changing opinions of men; These are ghosts and shadows, and it is dangerous to trust them 658. 10. And according to the reasoning of the Apostles, the mysteries of faith must be clothed with a veil The glorious and Divine Apostle had every reason to say: Through revelation this mystery was revealed to me, about which I wrote to you briefly above, so that by reading you can see my understanding of the mystery of Christ, which was not announced to people of previous generations, as it is now revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets (Eph. 3:3-5). Because there is some special teaching for perfect Christians, about which in the Epistle to the Colossians the Apostle writes this way: We do not cease to pray for you and ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and all spiritual understanding, so that you behave worthy of God, trying in everything to please Him, bearing fruit in all kinds of good deeds, growing in the knowledge of God; in a word, that you may be strengthened with every kind of good quality, according to the power of His glory (Col. 1:9-11). And then the Apostle adds: According to the economy of God, entrusted to me, to carry it out regarding you, to fulfill the word regarding you. God, I preach to you a mystery that remained hidden from all ages and previous generations, but has now been revealed to all the saints, to whom God was pleased to show among the Gentiles what is the riches of glory in this mystery (Col. 1:25-27). Consequently, the secrets that remained hidden even until the time of the Apostles and the knowledge of which was transmitted to us by the Apostles, who in turn received it from the Lord, are a different matter; these are the mysteries hidden in the Old Testament, but now revealed to the saints; and another thing is the riches of glory in this mystery for the Gentiles (Col. 1:29), consisting of faith and hope in Christ, whom the Apostle elsewhere calls the foundation of the building (1 Cor. 3:10). Further, as if out of a desire to fully outline this knowledge, he adds: Warning every man and teaching him all wisdom, in order to make every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28). Please note carefully: by “every person” here one does not need to mean absolutely everyone in general, because in that case there would be no unbelievers; Further, the Apostle does not even want to say that to achieve perfection, faith in Christ Jesus is sufficient, no; every person - this expression means a whole, complete person, purified both in soul and in body. And to convince you that perfection, that is, knowledge, is not the lot of everyone (1 Cor. 8:7), listen again to the Apostle: So that, united in love, they may become rich in all the riches of perfect understanding, which reveals to them the knowledge of the secrets of God and the Father and Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are combined (Col. 2:2, 3). Be constant in prayer, being vigilant in it and accompanying it with thanksgiving (Col. 4:2). A grateful person thanks God not only for what pertains to the soul and for spiritual benefits, but also for what pertains to the body and for bodily benefits. But the Apostle gives us even clearer proof that knowledge is not the property of everyone (1 Cor. 8:7). He writes: Pray also for us, that God will open the door of the word for us, in order to proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, and that I may reveal it to people as it should be revealed (Col. 4:3, 4). The Jews even had special commandments, transmitted orally and without the medium of writing. Judging by the time during which you are taught, says the Apostle, you should have been teachers, since you have grown old in the Old Testament; and yet you must be taught again the first principles of the word of God; you find yourself in a position where you should be given milk rather than solid food. Anyone fed on milk is unable to understand the teaching of truth, because he is still a baby; solid food is characteristic of the perfect, and whose spirit is accustomed through long exercise to distinguish good from evil: therefore, leaving speech about the first beginnings and foundations of the teaching of Christ, let us soar to the most perfect (Heb. 5:12-14; 6:1). But Barnabas 659, who assisted Paul with his word in his apostolic service to the pagans, says: “I am writing to you in such simplicity that you will understand me.” And then he, more precisely indicating the path and steps of the Gnostic tradition, writes: “What Moses, the holy prophet, says to them: This is what the Lord God says: Take possession of this fruitful land, which the Lord God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and possess this land, where milk and honey flow; I gave it to you as an inheritance (Ex. 33:1; Lev. 20:24). See what is revealed to us in these words by knowledge 660: “Trust in Christ, who is about to appear among you in the flesh as a man.” “The suffering earth” here means man, because Adam was created from clay taken from the surface of the earth. And what a way of expression! God calls the fruitful land flowing with honey and milk 661. Blessed be our Lord, brethren, who has given us wisdom and knowledge of His innermost secrets. And the prophet says: “Who will understand the parable of the Lord but one who is wise, and a believer, and one who loves his Lord?” 662. The knowledge of these things is truly granted only to a few. And yet, as Barnabas also says, the Lord does not exclaim in the Gospel out of envy or jealousy: “My secrets are my heritage and the children of my house” (Is. 2:16). No, He says by this only that He grants His chosen ones a faithful refuge, free from all worries and vanities, so that, having appreciated the importance of the choice they made and its consequences, they become above envy. He who does not know about good is indeed a bad and evil person, because only the Father is good (Matthew 19:17). Not knowing the Father is tantamount to death; whereas to know the Father is eternal life (John 17:3), because it means having a part in God’s endless omnipotence. Not being subject to death is already a divine property; he, therefore, who deviates from the knowledge of God goes to death. Therefore, the prophet also said: And I will give you treasures kept in darkness and invisible and mysterious riches, so that you may know that I am the Lord God (Isaiah 45:3). David also cries in his psalms: But You, O Lord, You have loved the truth; You have revealed to me the secrets of Your wisdom (Ps. 50:8). Day to day speech conveys, that is, what is written without any concealment and is clear; and the night of the night reveals knowledge, that is, knowledge hidden under the veil of mysterious emblems and allegories; and there is no language or dialect in which their voice is not heard (Ps. 18:2, 3), that is, heard by God, who spoke these words: Will anyone do anything in the darkness, and I will not see him? That is why the teaching is called enlightenment, because it reveals hidden secrets, because only the Head of the Tabernacle opened the lid of the ark of the covenant, completely contrary to what the poets say about Zeus, depicting him closing the barrel with goods, and opening the one that contains evil 663. I have no doubt that if I came to you, I would be accompanied by the full blessing of the gospel of Christ, says the Apostle. The spiritual gift (Rom. 1:11) and the Gnostic tradition, which he burns with the desire to convey to the Romans orally and face to face, because it was impossible for him to communicate it in writing, both he calls the fullness of Christ (Rom. 15:29), because both contain the revelation of a mystery that remained hidden for centuries, but is now revealed through the prophetic writings, and, by the determination of the eternal God, has become known to all nations to bring them into obedience to faith (Rom. 14:24, 25). The Apostle speaks to everyone, meaning by them those who believed in the existence of God. But even of these, the meaning of those secrets is revealed to few. Plato already points to this, speaking in letters about God: “You should write in mysterious terms, so that if you lose your notebook on a ship or at sea, whoever finds it and reads it cannot understand it” 664. The concept of the God of the universe, who is above every word, surpasses all imagination and all understanding, really, as can be conveyed in writing? The Word is powerless to express the infinity of His omnipotence. Plato expresses his opinion about this in the following words: “Beware lest your notebook ever fall into unworthy hands and lest you repent of this oversight. The best preventive measure against this is this - not to write anything, but to trust everything only to your memory, because it is impossible, yes, impossible, that things written will never fall into the wrong hands" 665. St. Paul the Apostle, remaining faithful to the symbolic language of the prophets and ancient times, from which Greece drew the most beautiful of its teachings, speaks almost this language of Plato. We preach, he says, this wisdom among the perfect, not the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom of the princes of this world, which is transitory, but we preach the wisdom of God, which in its mystery remains hidden (1 Cor. 2:6, 7). Further, he instills in us caution in releasing these teachings to the people. And I, he writes, my brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as carnal ones. As infants in Christ, I fed you only with milk, and not with solid food, because you were not receptive to this, and even now you are still carnal (1 Cor. 3:1-3). Since milk, as the Apostle puts it, is the food of children, but only adults can eat solid food (Heb. 5:13, 14), then the first should be understood as the initial spiritual food imparted to the catechumens, and the second is complete and final admission to the contemplation of the mysteries. What do the flesh and blood of the Logos mean? Understanding of Divine omnipotence and being. Taste and see that Christ is Lord (Ps. 33:9), says the prophet 666. And indeed. During this eating, the Lord communicates himself to those who touch this food in the most spiritual way. I say “in the most spiritual way” because, according to Plato, that most zealous admirer of truth, the soul feeds itself 667. I am talking about the Lord communicating himself in the sacrament of His body and blood, because eating the Divine Logos from the flesh (John 1:14) and drinking from His blood (John 6:53ff) is equivalent to knowing the Divine being. That is why Plato, in the 2nd book of his work “On the State,” writes: “When turning to God, one should not sacrifice a pig, but something truly great and precious, relatively inaccessible” 668. Let us, in turn, listen to what the Apostle says: Our Paschal Lamb is Christ, who was slain for us (1 Cor. 5:7). The sacrifice is truly great and most precious: the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself for us. 11. The acquisition and content of the true concept of God is greatly facilitated by renunciation of things and deeds of the flesh and worldly; this is recommended even by pagan sages A truly fragrant sacrifice to God consists in our irrevocable rejection and abandonment of exclusive concerns about the body and the suppression of carnal passions. There is no other worship of God more true and more trustworthy. Is this not what inspired Socrates to say these wise words: “Thinking about death is already wisdom”? 669. And indeed. To allow neither the participation of vision nor the intervention of any other sense in the work of thought, but instead to be guided in the study of things by the vision of the mind alone, freeing oneself from any outside influence - does this not mean taking the path of true wisdom? And this is the purpose of the five-year silence that Pythagoras demanded of his students. Distracted from the material world, during this time they had to contemplate the Divine only with the eye of the spirit. Wonderful legends! But as marvelous as they are, they also turn out to be borrowings made by the most enlightened of philosophers from Moses. And as soon as the skin of the sacrificial animal is removed, says the Jewish lawgiver, cut off its members (Lev. 1:6). This means: after the soul is freed from material coverings, it, possessing knowledge, freed from the coarse ghosts of imagination and passions, which give rise to unfounded and false opinions, is finally cleansed of all carnal desires and sanctified for the light. The majority of people 670, having hidden themselves in matter, like a snail in its shell, and, like hedgehogs, wallowing in the circle of their carnal passions, harbor thoughts regarding the Divinity, a being predominantly blessed and incorruptible, that are no more sublime than what they harbor regarding people. Although these people are our brothers, they do not know that God has given us many things in which He Himself has no part with us. Thus, for example, He gave us birth, although He Himself was not born. He supplies us with food, although He Himself has no need for any food. He gave us the opportunity to grow, although he himself remains unchanged. He gives us a happy old age and a quiet death, although he himself is not subject to either old age or death. We do not think that the Jews, speaking about the hands of the Almighty, about the feet, about the lips, about the eyes, about His coming and departure, about His anger, threats, wanted to mean that God is subject to our passions. Not at all. Piety sees in these expressions only allegories, the meaning of which we will explain when the opportunity presents itself. “Of all medicines,” says Callimachus in his Epigrams, the most salutary is wisdom.” But there is no wise man who does not learn his wisdom from another. “This is the law of both the past and the present,” says Bacchylides in his Paeans 671. For it is not easy for one to find the key to secret and mysterious words. Consequently, one can only praise Isocrates for the fact that, in his Panathenaic, posing the question: “To whom should the name be given to the well-educated?”, he answered: “To those who turn to their benefit the events of every day; whose insight judges circumstances sensibly and often achieves goals the pursuit of which should have been abandoned; those who bring simplicity and the strictest honesty into friendships; constantly patient and uncomplaining in the face of troubles or insults with which others cause them suffering, while they themselves try not to show anything other than an even disposition of spirit and the greatest possible moderation in front of those with whom they know; those who have already conquered voluptuousness; who, instead of allowing themselves to be killed by misfortune, look their evil fate straight in the eye with a heroism worthy of the nobility of our nature; those, finally - and this last category of people is the most remarkable - whose well-being can neither worsen nor change, nor make them arrogant, but who invariably remain within the boundaries of wisdom.” The speaker finally comes to the following conclusion in his speech: “As for those who, through their habits and their way of life, fulfill, without contradiction and self-betrayal, not just one of these duties, but a whole range of them at once, I call them enlightened and perfect people, people who are endowed with all the virtues.” Pay attention to how the Hellenes, who have no idea what knowledge is, glorify with the praises of only the Divine a worthy gnostic life, lived according to the rules of knowledge. So, what is knowledge? They never even dreamed of this idea. If we unanimously admit that “to know” means to feed on the Logos, then - as in Scripture - truly blessed are those who hunger and thirst for truth, for they will be satisfied with incorruptible food (Matthew 5:6). Wonderful thing! If you listen to Euripides, then this poet, who popularized wisdom on the tragic stage, almost agrees with what we just said, for he, obeying I don’t know what secret suggestions, depicts both the Father and the Son at once. He exclaims: For you, the Most High King, this is a libation of wine and this sacrificial bread. You, Zeus or Hades, if you like the latter name better! Accept graciously this exquisite offering, Consisting of a variety of fruits, just like this cup, full to the brim. Christ is truly a wonderful and sacred sacrifice, in which all perfections are combined, so that it could be offered to the Father for us. The following verses show even more clearly that the poet, in addition to his own knowledge, is talking here about the Savior. For in one and the same hand you hold between the heavenly gods the scepter of Zeus, And the reins of the kingdoms of the earth and the underground. Then Euripides adds explicitly: Enlighten the souls of mortals who wish to know Where did the disputes and battles come from? And which of the blessed should be propitiated by sacrifices, To take a break from your work. It is not without reason that propitiatory purifications are the first ceremonies in the Hellenic mysteries, just as the door to life for the barbarians is opened by baptism (Titus 3:5). Then, in order of importance, the small mysteries take second place, preparing for the mysteries of the great fundamental teaching. The one who has passed the last tests has nothing more to do with comprehending the whole of things or their entirety: no other task now arises before the spirit than to surrender to sublime thoughts and embrace both nature and things in one’s contemplations. As for us, during our purification ceremonies we usually observe confession, and we rise to the contemplation of the First Cause through analysis. Through analysis we rise gradually to the concept of the original Cause, starting with creatures that are subordinate to the First Cause, and ending with the liberation of the body from the natural properties inherent in it. Let's reduce, for example, three dimensions: depth, width and length. After this, only an abbreviated unit will remain, so to speak, a point that cannot be measured by its volume and extent in space. Abolish, destroy this very point, and you will fall into the abstraction of the unit. If, however, freeing the body from the properties inherent in it, and from those that bear the name incorporeal, we immerse ourselves in the contemplation of the greatness of Christ and, through holiness, soar into infinity, then we will rise in some way to the Almighty, although in this case we will not yet comprehend what is in Him, but only what is not in Him. But for these expressions, such as: image, movement, state, throne, place, right hand, shuytsa, in the sacred books to be literally applied to the Creator of the universe, it is not permissible to even think about this, although it is written so. What is the meaning of these words? As promised, we will clarify this in due time. The root cause is not limited to any one specific place. It is above space, above time, above any human word and understanding. That is why Moses himself exclaimed: Show me You! (Ex. 33:18), testifying clearly that God cannot be known in the usual ways among people or depicted in human words; He can only be known by virtue flowing from Himself. Therefore you seek Him in vain; there is no form for His comprehension; There is nothing in Him that is subject to our feelings 672. The grace of knowledge of God comes from His Son. Solomon clearly convinces us of this with his testimony: Human reason, he says, is not in me; God gives me wisdom, and I know holy things (Proverbs 30:2). The image that Moses chooses to depict Divine Providence is the tree of life still growing in paradise, and paradise, in turn, can represent the world in which all the works of creation are located. In this same world, the incarnate Logos shone and bore fruit (John 1:14; 1 Pet. 2:3). Living on this earth, He revived those who ate the sweetness of His fruits. And in fact, isn’t it the tree of salvation that He revealed Himself to us? The Author of Life, was He not hanged on a tree to arouse in us faith in Himself? Further, Solomon also tells us: For those who choose it and are attached to it, wisdom is a tree of life (Proverbs 3:18). Therefore the Almighty says to Israel: Behold, I have now set life and death before your eyes: you are free to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways, and to obey His commandments, and to believe in the life He promises you. If you begin to break the commandments and laws that I have given you, you will perish in destruction. For to love the Lord your God is your life and the longevity of your days (Deut. 30:15, 16ff.). It is also said: Abraham, having gone to the place about which God had told him, on the third day, lifting up his eyes, saw that place from afar (Gen. 22:3, 4). And indeed it is. The first day was filled with surprise at what is beautiful; the second - the noble aspirations of the soul; on the third day, the mind finally penetrates into spiritual things, after the eyes of the mind were opened by the Teacher, who rose on the third day (Eph. 1:18). These three days can also signify the mystery of sacred sealing, in which the convert testifies to his faith in the true God 673. Accordingly, it is said that Abraham saw that place from afar. It is difficult to penetrate into the realm of God (the invisible); this is the region, the country that Plato calls the region of ideas, because, as we read from Moses, God combines and contains in Himself all the completeness and universality of ideas. Abraham sees that area from afar. The expression is quite accurate, for the patriarch was still kept in physical bonds, and an Angel was needed to introduce him to the knowledge of this secret. That is why the Apostle said: Now we see God as if in a mirror, but then we will see Him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), that is, solely by the power of our rational abilities, not hampered by the mediation of body and matter. However, we can discover and contemplate God by contemplating Him in our thoughts if, freeing our soul from the power of the senses, we strive through the efforts of the sole mind to penetrate into the essence of every thing, without falling behind and never parting with the thing, before we soar into the region that commands things, before we comprehend with our mind the true good, which constitutes the highest and final goal of all knowledge, if only this comes from a rational principle, with which Plato also agrees. Or this will be better. Moses, by not allowing the erection of churches and altars in different places, but by building himself a single church for the glory of God, did he not thereby reveal that the world is the creation of one God, which is also recognized by Basilides, and that there is only one God, which Basilides no longer recognizes? Moses, as a true Gnostic, understood very well that an infinite Being cannot be limited to any one place. That is why he did not offer the people any carved or cast image for veneration, thereby revealing that God is invisible and infinite. Through this, he wanted to elevate the way of thinking of his people and, so to speak, raise it to God, passing on to the people for veneration only the sacred name of God, which filled the interior of the church. Then the Logos, by prohibiting the construction of churches and the making of sacrifices, does not thereby make it clear that the greatness of the Almighty is not limited to one place? What kind of house, says the Lord, can you build for Me? Heaven is My throne (Isa. 66:1), and so on. And regarding sacrifices: I do not want the blood of oxen, nor the fat of rams (Ps. 49:13), nor what the Holy Spirit further rejects through the mouth of the prophet. Marvelous words! Euripides agrees with them in the following verses: What a church, built by the hand of man, Could the Deity be contained within its stone walls? And about sacrifices the same poet says: God has no need of them because He is the King of the universe; All these are chimeras and fabrications of poets. God, according to Plato, did not create the world in order to derive any benefit from it; nor in order to collect and accept respect from people, gods and geniuses - a kind of tribute that He would exact from everything that He calls into life: to take tribute from mortals, to accept honors and service from gods and geniuses - this would mean taking a vain and insignificant tribute. Consequently, the words of Paul in Acts have a high meaning: God, who created the world and all that is in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in churches made by human hands; He cannot be honored by the works of mortal human hands, as if He needed anything, He who Himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything (Acts 17:24, 25). Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school, in his essay “On the State” also says that neither churches should be built nor statues should be erected, because no human creation can be worthy of the gods. But let’s make him speak better himself. He is not afraid to express himself in this way: “And there is no need to build churches at all, for a church should not be considered some kind of holy and valuable thing. Nothing that comes from the hands of a stonemason or a rough craftsman can be holy and precious.” Plato, therefore, reveals a lot of wisdom when, convinced that the whole universe serves as a church for God, he allocates to the citizens of his “State” only a small place in the city where they can display their idols. He forbids both men and women to have their own home chapels, no matter who it is. “And let no one else, he says, dedicate churches to the gods! In other states, gold and silver, with which private houses and churches shine, arouse envy. Not so in my state. And ivory, stripped of meat, devoid of soul, what kind of sacrifice is this? And can she be pleasant? Iron and copper should be used for military weapons. The sacrifice that anyone can bring to one common church for all can be a product, his own work, wooden or stone, it doesn’t matter, as long as he likes it and is made from one solid piece.” The same philosopher, in the longest of his letters, therefore, had every reason to say: “The mystery of the Divine being cannot, as happens with the subjects of other sciences, be expressed in human language, having concentrated our minds on it for a long time and been occupied with it, and after we entered into a kind of heartfelt union with this subject, light penetrated into our soul, shining upon us as if with a sparkling torch, from which time the soul began to feed on itself.” These words - don’t they remind me of the words of the prophet: “And I was overcome by the spirit, and he lifted me to the fifth heaven, and I admired the Angels, the so-called Dominions; and upon them was a diadem placed by the Holy Spirit; and the throne of each of them was seven times more brilliant than the light of the sun at its rising; and they live in the churches of salvation and sing about the ineffable and high God" 675. 12. God cannot be comprehended by reason, nor can the concept of Him be expressed in words “To know the Father and Creator of this universe is not an easy task; but having found it, you will still not be able to announce Him to everyone” 676. “Because the mystery of His being, unlike other teachings, cannot be expressed in words,” says the sincere friend of truth, Plato 677. He heard, no doubt, it was said about Moses, in whom the same wisdom lived, - how he, preparing to ascend the mountain to contemplate face to face this most majestic of mysteries perceivable by the mind, was forced to forbid the people to follow these inscrutable revelations. And when Scripture says: And Moses entered into the cloud where God was (Ex. 20:21), then these words for a person capable of understanding meant that God cannot be seen with the eye, nor depicted by human words 678. What does cloud mean? And the fact that unbelief and ignorance prevents most mortals from seeing the brilliance of truth. Orpheus, who was also inspired by Moses in his exposition of the doctrine of God, says: There is a Being that contains the reason for its existence within itself. Everything was created by the hand of this Being. In the last verse, the predicate can be understood as follows: “born of this alone,” because there are texts where it is conveyed this way. Then Orpheus adds: There is no mortal who has seen God, But the poet expresses himself even more clearly: And I don’t see Him because His throne is unchanging Located among the clouds, and the weak eyes of people, Consisting of nothing more than bone and flesh, They cannot penetrate these depths. The Apostle also confirms the previous with his authority. I know a man in Christ, he writes, who was caught up even to the third heaven and from there to paradise; and there he heard mysterious words that a person cannot retell (2 Cor. 12:2-4). The Apostle thereby makes it clear that human language is powerless to explain the concept of God. It’s impossible, says the Apostle. This does not mean as if he silently obeyed some law or some prohibition, no; he only wants to tell us this, that the idea of ​​the Divine cannot be explained to people living under the third heaven, because if they begin to call God above the third heaven, then only the Angels living there can delve into the sacred secrets of the souls of the elect. Regarding this third heaven, Scripture reminds me of many testimonies of barbaric wisdom. But I will wait a minute to explain them, because I have already promised an explanation of another. Let us content ourselves, for a while, with one passage from Plato. Having raised the question in the Timaeus whether there are several worlds or only one inhabited by us, the philosopher begins to use the words heaven and world indifferently. But let us speak better in his own words: “So, what is fairer, that there is only one world, or several, or that their number is infinite? It is better to say that there is one, if all worlds are created according to the same model.” In the letter of the Roman Church (Clement of Rome) to the Church of Corinth, among other things, it is written: “The boundless ocean and the worlds outside it.” Accordingly, the Divine Apostle exclaims: Oh, the depth of the wealth and wisdom and mind of God! (Rom. 11:33). Isn't there a symbolic meaning, therefore, contained in the prophetic command to make unleavened bread and bake them in ashes? (Gen. 18:6; Ex. 13:6; 12:39). This indicates to us that the word, truly sacred and mysterious, about the uncreated Being and His properties must be hidden under cover. The Apostle also confirms this, clearly testifying in his Epistle to the Corinthians: We preach wisdom to those who are perfect, not the wisdom of this world and not the passing wisdom of the princes of this world, but the wisdom of God, which in its mystery remains hidden (1 Cor. 1:6, 7). And in another place: In order to achieve an understanding of the mystery of God about Christ Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2, 3). Our Savior himself sanctifies the words of the Apostle, saying: It has been given to you to know the secret of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:11; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10). The Gospel tells us about our Lord, what He said to His disciples in mysterious terms (Matthew 13:34, 35). The same is signified by these words of the prophet: He will open his mouth in parables and announce things that have been hidden since the beginning of the world (Ps. 68:2). But even through the parable of leaven, the Savior points to hiddenness. He says that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and kneaded with three measures of wheat flour until the dough was leavened (Matthew 13:33). The soul, indeed with its three parts 679, as a reward for its obedience, is rewarded with salvation in two ways. She is saved either thanks to the spiritual power with which her faith penetrates; or the fortress imparted to us by the Logos, concentrated and sovereign, as it is, influencing the one who received it and contains it, mysteriously and invisibly attracts everything to itself, merges all the moral properties of his being into one strong whole. Solon, therefore, reveals a lot of wisdom, speaking about God in the following verses: It is very difficult to discover the full depth of knowledge, For the beginning and end of everything lies in God. Therefore the Agrigentine poet (Empedocles) said: No matter how much you raise your eyes to heaven; No matter how you spread your arms: You cannot comprehend the Divine; the path is rough, By what reason does It descend into the human mind, No one has ever seen God, says the Apostle John; only the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, only He could give information about Him (John 1:18). In the depths, in the bosom of the Father... Some, on the basis of this expression, meaning the invisibility of God and the inexpressibility of the concept of Him, allow themselves to call God “depth” 680, because He combines everything and embraces everything in the depths of His immensity 681; because He is infinite and limitless and no one can comprehend the boundaries of His being. It is certain that the question of God is connected with difficulties. If it is testified that discovering any beginning in general is a difficult matter, then it is all the more difficult to discover the first and most ancient of all beginnings, that beginning by virtue of which all other beginnings exist and maintain their existence 682 . And in fact, what name should we call the One who is not born, has no differences in himself, no definite form, no individuality, no number, but is such a Being who has no accidents in himself, and likewise is not subject to anything accidental? Would you say that God is the whole? The definition is imperfect, because the whole represents a quantity that is still commensurable, and God is the Father of everything that exists. Would you like to give Him different parts? But you are not able to do this, for in its essence this One is indivisible. This is why God is infinite, infinite, not at all in the sense that we imagine it - as if we could not embrace Him with our thoughts, but in the fact that God is not subject to measurement, and there are no limits, boundaries in His being. There are also no forms in Him, and He also cannot be named 683. And if sometimes we point to Him with such expressions as: the One, the Good, the Spirit, the Existing, the Father, God, the Creator, the Lord, then all these expressions are inaccurate and powerless to depict God. We resort to the help of these beautiful words, speaking of our reverence for God, only due to the lack of a real name and word that could thoroughly and definitively express our thought about Him and would warn us against other names by which the Eternal 684 could be humiliated. None of these sayings, taken separately, gives the concept of God; yet together they speak of Him as the Almighty. Things are known either by their own nature, or by their mutual relations with each other; none of this applies to God 685. Nor can He be revealed by proofs, because they are based on previous principles and previous concepts; but for anything to exist before an uncreated Being is inconceivable 686 . To comprehend the unsearchable Being, nothing remains, therefore, except His own grace and His revelation through the mediation of the Logos abiding in His depths, which Luke also shows us, in the “Acts of the Apostles,” conveying in the following expressions the speech of Paul: From everything I see, Athenians, that you are very God-fearing. For, passing and seeing the statues of your gods, I even came across such an altar, on which was written: “To the unknown God.” This, which you worship without knowing, I preach to you (Acts 17:23). 13. And according to the teaching of the sages of the world, knowledge of God is a gift coming down from Himself; and only those honored with Divine inspiration can make us partakers of this knowledge So, everything that can be named, whether it wants it or not, has happened, and has been born, and must die. If one is called to immortality, then either the Father himself attracts to Himself (John 6:44; 12:32) everyone who lived blamelessly and rose to the concept of a blessed and immortal Being; or the free will inherent in us, having risen to the knowledge of the supreme good, is excited and - as they say in gymnastics institutions - jumps over obstacles (ditches and hedges), but not without the help of special grace. For she “receives wings” 687, is encouraged and, putting aside the shell of the body that burdens her, returns it to her kindred earth, and she directs her flight to the highest regions. Plato also explains in Meno 688 that virtue is a gift of God. Here are his words: “So, Meno, from these discussions of ours with you, it seems quite and clear that to whom it is given, virtue is given by divine lot?” I ask you: with this divine lot, or divine influence, as it seems to you, with these expressions did not Plato designate Gnostic knowledge, which is by no means a common heritage of all? This philosopher, therefore, complements his thought more clearly: “If during this entire conversation we inquired and reasoned whether virtue is not inherent in man by nature or whether it cannot be acquired by teaching, and if we found that it enters the soul of our readers by the power of Divine influx, although not without their personal participation, then this is good.” So, wisdom is a gift of God; virtue is the grace of the Father. On the one hand, it is determined by our freedom, on the other, by the acceptance of faith; zeal and deeds are rewarded with the highest favor in being chosen for the inheritance. And here I will refer you to the testimony of Plato himself, who openly and clearly declares that the children of God should be given faith. In Timaeus, discussing the gods, who are both visible and born 689, he adds: “Talking about the gods called geniuses and explaining their origin is a matter that exceeds our mind. On this question it is necessary to turn for an answer to the first people who, having been born gods, as they themselves say, should have fully known their fathers. And truly, one cannot help but believe the children of God, even if they did not present any convincing or even simply plausible evidence to confirm their words.” It is doubtful that the Greeks would be able to present to us a more solid testimony (about God) than that which our Savior and all who received prophetic anointing brought in his person; and our Lord and the prophets are unfalse witnesses about the Divinity: the Lord as the true Son of God, the prophets as children adopted by God. “Let us give them faith,” adds Plato, “because they are adopted by God.” And if someone came to you and began to cry out, taking on a somewhat tragic role: I can’t believe it, Because I did not hear a warning about this from Zeus himself, then let him know that the Holy Scriptures were proclaimed to us by God himself through the mouth of the Son. Isn’t this very Son worthy of faith, proclaiming things over which He is Master and which constitute His personal property? He says: No one knows the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son will reveal it (Matthew 11:27: Luke 3:22). According to Plato, there is a need to believe even if the object of faith did not contain certain components of persuasiveness and verisimilitude; The Old and New Testaments should be believed for one reason only, that the truth is preached by them; If you do not believe, says the Lord, you will die in your sins (John 8:24). The believer, on the contrary, has eternal life (John 3:15–16, 36; 5:24). Blessed are all those who have placed their trust in the Lord (Ps. 2:12). Hope, trust in someone, conviction in someone is one of the manifestations of high faith in someone and in the truth. If faith has convinced me that the Teacher whose word I hear is the Son of God, then don’t I also have firm confidence in the truth of His teaching? But just as instruction and deepening of thought into oneself, according to Empedocles, adds wisdom, in the same way, by trusting in the Lord, faith in turn increases and its intensity rises. We declare this formally, in compliance with all orders and circumstance, that the censure and depreciation of wisdom by someone and attacks on someone’s faith are certainly accompanied by praises of lawlessness and the promotion of happiness in the satisfaction of all kinds of desires; but this is also depravity, mental and moral distortion, determined precisely by the disdain that those people harbor for faith. Faith, if it consists of the voluntary agreement of the soul with something, does not part with devotion to virtue and is the basis for a way of thinking and action that shines with righteousness. But the word “do,” here the subtle Aristotle would object to us, 690 is used about animals and inanimate things, while the word “act” applies only to people and to what concerns them. Wonderful! So, let Aristotle admonish his national poets, who say about God that He “created” all things. “Every action,” he further says, is either good or necessary. To commit lawlessness or anything wrong does not represent a good and kind thing, for no one commits lawlessness for himself, but for some motives that have only an external relation to this arbitrary matter. There is no participation of freedom in necessary actions. But to commit lawlessness is a voluntary matter, therefore, there is no need for this. But a good person differs from an evil one especially in the purpose of his actions and the purity of his wishes. Because every mental vice is a product of immoderation, and to act out of passion means to act out of intemperance, out of malice and lewdness. How wonderful, therefore, in all its details and particulars, is this proclamation of the Savior: Truly, truly, I say to you? He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs inside, is a thief and a robber. And he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens for him (John 10:1-3). Then the Lord, continuing the same comparison, says: I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7). From here it is revealed that for salvation it is necessary to hear the truth from the lips of Christ, even if we have risen to the knowledge and understanding of the tenets of Greek philosophy. For the veil has finally been removed from the mystery, which was not revealed to generations of people in previous centuries, as it is now made known to the sons of men (Eph. 3:5). And in fact, the idea of ​​​​one God Almighty is so unique and incomparable, so omnipotent, that in the souls of truthful and open minds it constantly lives in the form of a revelation that is somehow natural; and the majority of those who do not suppress all respect for the truth have a part in this eternal benefit to us from Divine Providence. And limiting ourselves here to a brief presentation of only a few examples to prove this, we affirm that Xenocrates the Chalcidian should not seem very strange and puzzling to us with his belief that the idea of ​​​​God is characteristic even of irrational animals. Democritus was of the opposite opinion, but the force of the principles he established, against his will, draws him to the recognition of the same thing. Because, according to his system, the same images that stem from the Divine being are also found in people and in animals devoid of reason 691. And how can man have no idea of ​​God, when the Book of Genesis presents him to us as receiving the breath of life, and made of a substance purer and nobler than all other animals? (Gen. 2:7). And this is why Pythagoras declares that a person is imbued with reason due to a certain influence of the Divine. Plato and Aristotle agree with Pythagoras on this. As for us Christians, we say that the influx of the Holy Spirit descends on believers 692. According to the Platonists, understanding is the flow into the soul of a certain part of the Divine being; the mind is its abode, just as the body is the abode of the soul. Joel, one of the twelve prophets, therefore said publicly and before everyone: And it will come to pass after this: I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy (Joel 2:28). One should not, however, think that the Spirit of God dwells in each of us as some kind of particle of the Divine. And how this division of the Holy Spirit is accomplished and what He Himself is, we will explain this when we discuss “prophecy” and the “soul.” Let us end our unreasonable reasoning with the words of Heraclitus: “Unbelief can only close its eyes to the depths of knowledge; ignorance settled behind him, as if behind some trench.” 14. The Greeks borrowed their decrees from Jewish books Time to move on to subsequent subjects and expose the borrowings that entered Hellenic wisdom from barbarian wisdom. Thus, the Stoics define God as a being consisting of body and spirit, and as if the soul, along with Him, exists by virtue of its own nature. We open the Holy Scriptures and find the same definition almost word for word 693. But we do not seek here, with the torch of interpretation of the real and learned, the allegorical meaning of the sacred books and do not follow the example of fighters who know how to manage their affairs; We do not ask ourselves to look for this mysterious meaning where it is really not contained under external covers. The only point is that, according to the Stoics, the Divine soul is diffused throughout nature, while we call God the only Creator of the universe, who created it through the Logos 694. They were misled by this saying of the Book of Wisdom: Wisdom, because of its purity, passes everywhere and penetrates everything (Wis. 7:24), not realizing that here we are talking about Wisdom that existed even before God created the world. “Right,” you say. – But don’t all philosophers consider matter among the principles and elements of the primeval? There is not one among them that would admit a single beginning. The schools of the portico, Plato, Pythagoras, and the peripatetic school of Aristotle are unanimous in this.” And I, in turn, will answer you that what you call matter and for which you do not recognize any properties and any specific type 695, Plato, more boldly than you, calls “I don’t know what” or “that which is not, that does not exist.” What we read from him in Timaeus, these deeply mysterious words of his there, do they not come from a person with convictions who established them on one principle? “Our thought,” he says, “is this: as for the beginning of the universe or beginnings, then whatever opinion we hold regarding this subject, we must leave speech about it until another time; and this is not for any other reason than the fact that, due to the state and quality of the present dispute, it would be difficult for us to agree on anything in this direction.” However, here’s the thing: the reason for invention and matter was given by the following saying of Scripture: And the earth was invisible and unsettled (Gen. 1:2). And who could instill in Epicurus his system of a world of chance, left to all the whims of chance? 696 Without a doubt, the words of Ecclesiastes: Vanity of vanities and all is vanity (Eccl. 1:2): he read them, but did not understand them. How did it happen that Aristotle limits Divine Providence only to the sphere of the moon? 697 He poorly understood the exclamation of the Psalmist: Lord! Your mercy reaches to heaven; Your truth reaches to the clouds! (Ps. 35:6). This is what accompanied the circumstance that the meaning of the secrets hidden in the prophetic sayings was not revealed until the coming of the Lord! The doctrine of afterlife punishments, of purification through fire is also an alien property, the muse of poets everywhere, not excluding Hellenic philosophy, borrowed from barbarian wisdom. In the last book of Plato’s “Republics” we read the following meaningful and eloquent words: “Then wild men appeared, seemingly fiery, and, obeying the roar of the mouth (of the hellish chasm), they took the newcomers one by one and took them aside. Then they grabbed Arideus 698 and some others, threw them to the ground, tied them hand, foot and head and, having flayed them, dragged them along the edge of the road through the thorny bushes.”699 I ask now: “These people with a fiery face - don’t they represent evil Angels who seize criminals and hand them over to torture?” This is an illustration of the word of Scripture: He makes spirits his angels and his servants a blazing fire (Ps. 103:4) 700. It follows that the soul is immortal. For whoever is punished or admonished is, therefore, endowed with feeling, and, therefore, alive, even if his life flowed in the midst of suffering. And what else, if not the same thing, follows from Platonov’s mention of rivers of fire and this abyss, known among the barbarians as Gehenna, and to which Plato gave the poetic name “Tartar”? Was it not he who further introduced into morality the rivers Cocytus, Acheron, Periphlegethon, and finally, all kinds of prisons and torments, punitive and corrective for human crimes! Is it about Angels who, according to Scripture, see God and are assigned to little children and the weakest of people (Matthew 8:10) to help them and protect them from dangers - or, if he wants to portray their vigilant and tender love for us, he, without hesitation, says this: “As soon as the souls choose by lot the type of life, they appear before Lachesa. She sends them to earth with a special genius whom she has chosen. He becomes the guardian of her life and the executor of her intentions” 701. The “guardian genius” of Socrates, without a doubt, should also be understood. But let's continue. Philosophers drew their doctrine of the creation of the world from no other source than from the books of Moses. Plato, in compliance with all external orders, but also the essence of the matter, speaks about this (in Timaeus) like this: “Did the world always exist, or did it happen at some specific time”? And he answers: “The world has happened. Since we see it and can touch it, it means that it is in some way corporeal.” In another place we read from him: “To know the Creator and Father of this universe is not an easy task” 702. Plato not only asserts the creation of the world, but also that it was created by God and that it came from God, like a son from a father. “God is called the Father of the universe,” he says, “because the world was created by Him alone and precisely from nothing.” The Stoics also share this teaching about the world, that is, that it originated in time, and does not exist from eternity. But something even more needs to be said. The devil, who is spoken of under the name of the prince of demons on almost every page of barbarian wisdom, is called by Plato in the 10th book of his “Laws” a malevolent spirit. Here are his actual words: “Shouldn’t we also accept that the spirit that dwells in everything that moves and controls movement also rules the sky? Yes, absolutely so. Is this one spirit or several? I answer for you that there is more than one. But we cannot allow more than two of them to exist. One spirit is beneficent, the other is evil.” – And in his “Phaedrus” he also writes: “There are also other disasters; but to most of them the demon mixes some joys and momentary pleasures.” And in the 10th book of his “Laws” Plato goes even further and already, as it were, complements the words of the Apostle. This one says: Our struggle is not with people who are made of flesh and blood, but against the principalities, powers and spirits that move in the air (Eph. 6:12). And Plato literally writes the following: “And truly, if we have accepted that there is a lot of good and evil in the universe, so that the totality of evil exceeds the mass of good, then between one and the other there must necessarily be an eternal war, requiring from us extraordinary vigilance” 703. In barbarian wisdom, two worlds are also distinguished: one only contemplated by the mind and eternal, the other transitory and visible with bodily eyes; the first serves as a prototype for the second; the second was created according to this marvelous model. And the first, comprehended only by the mind, she puts in relation to the Monad, and the second, already cognizable by our external senses, with the number six. Among the Pythagoreans, marriage actually appeared under the number six, because it signified procreation. So, by revealed wisdom, this invisible world, not subject to our senses, this holy land, this light, visible with spiritual eyes only, is located in the Monad. She truly says this, testifying that in the beginning God created heaven and earth, but the earth was invisible. Then she adds: And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Gen. 1:1–3). So, at the creation of the world, subject to the senses, God created the firmament of heaven, this sky, subject to the senses (Gen. 1:6) and this visible earth, and the light felt by our eyes. And Plato (in Timaeus) attributed the ideas of living beings to the speculative world, and here on earth, placing only their sensual forms, formed, so to speak, according to various spiritual prototypes, is he not in this case following in the footsteps of Moses? The Jewish legislator, therefore, had every reason to say that the body, called by Plato “the earthly hut,” was created from the clay of the earth (Gen. 2:7), while the soul, poured over the human face, comes from the breath of the Divine into it. It is indeed quite natural for a person to be the seat of this imperious power 704, for they think that the soul was actually introduced into the primordial man through the (revival) of the senses. And this is why it was added that man was created in the image of God and likeness (Gen. 1:26). In fact, an impassive person, with a Divine and royal mind, truly represents the image of God 705, but the human mind is only an image of the Image 706. Would you like to deal with this Divine appearance in man under another name? Moses, outlining the main features of this, says that it consists of following God, obedience to His commandments. Follow the Lord your God, he says, and keep His commandments (Deut. 13:4). Virtue is visible, carried out in life and deed, and truly represents walking in the footsteps of God, the Divine path; this is the worship of God, His true veneration. And this is why, according to the teachings of the Stoics, the ultimate goal and highest perfection of wisdom is life in accordance with the laws of nature. Plato even equates it to the Divine life, as we have already shown in the 2nd book of our “Stromata” (chapter 19). Zeno the Stoic, following Plato, and Plato himself, having learned this from barbarian wisdom, say that all good people love each other. “It is unnatural,” says Socrates in the Phaedrus 707, for a villain to have a villain as a friend, or for a virtuous person not to be on friendly terms with another virtuous person.” The same point is quite convincingly proven by Plato in his Lucida, where he argues that there can be no lasting friendship between lawlessness and wickedness. The Athenian guest 708 affirms something similar to this, saying that in accordance with the will of God, only what is pleasing to God is based on this ancient principle: “Like likes like, and then only if they equally adhere to the correct measure, for everything that goes beyond its limits cannot agree with each other, nor please those who do not deviate from this measure. The scale of all actions and reality for us must be God.” Plato adds: “Following this principle, virtuous people become like each other; This is what brings a virtuous person closer to God, so that he becomes a friend not only of every other virtuous person, but also of God himself.” This last place reminds me of the final words of the Timaeus: “It follows that a rational being, in accordance with the laws of its original purpose, should try to translate the idea it has comprehended into itself. Having risen to this realization of a conceivable idea, a person achieves that best life, which is provided for people by the gods not only for the present and life, but also for the future life.” These words, in my opinion, have the same meaning as the following: “He who seeks something will not stop until he finds it; and once found, he will be overwhelmed with admiration; admiring, he will reign; reigning, he will calm down.” And don’t Thales’s answers represent clear borrowings from the Holy Scriptures and explanations of his thoughts: “From century to century, praise be to God”; “He knows the depths of hearts”? These are Thales' answers. One day he was asked: “What is God?” “This is a being that has neither beginning nor end,” he answered. Another person asked him the following question: “Can a person hide his actions from the eyes of the Divine?” Thales answered: “How can he do this when he is unable to hide even his innermost thoughts from Him?” Yes, truly. And barbarian wisdom knew that goodness lies only in noble and unswerving honesty and that only virtue is sufficient for happiness. This is what the barbarians say: Behold, I have set before your eyes good and evil, life and death; choose life (Deut. 30:15). So she calls goodness life. The choice of good is, according to her teaching, a valiant deed, while the choice of the opposite is evil. And the ultimate goal of both goodness and life is to love God (Deut. 30:6). This determines your life and the length of your days - love for the truth and everything that leads to it. But here is clearer evidence. Having commanded to love God and neighbor, the Savior adds: All the law and the prophets rest on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37, 39–40). These teachings are also known to the Stoics 709. And even before them, Socrates finished the Phaedrus with the following prayer: “Oh, Pan and all the other gods! Grant my soul inner beauty!” In the Theaetetus, he expresses himself with all certainty as follows: “A virtuous speaker is simultaneously distinguished by both virtue and beauty.” In “Protagoras” he confesses to one of Protagoras’ friends that he has just finished a conversation with a man more beautiful than Alcibiades, if it is true that “the wisest man is at the same time the most beautiful.” In his opinion, virtue is spiritual beauty, and vice is spiritual ugliness. Antipater the Stoic 710, who wrote three books in explanation of Platonov’s saying “Goodness lies only in honesty,” fully agrees with this philosopher that “only virtue is sufficient for happiness.” He also expounds several other doctrines consistent with the principles of the Porticus. According to this Antipater, Aristobulus, who lived during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus 711, mentioned by the compiler of the history of the Maccabees (2 Maccabees 1:10), wrote several arguments in which he proves that peripatetic philosophy is the fruit of the animation of the Law of Moses and the other prophets. Let this truth remain forever precisely substantiated. Plato gives us irrefutable proof that we are all brothers. The proof of this is that we are all children of one God and disciples of the same Teacher. But let us present in the original his instructive allegory. Here it is: “Citizens! You are all brothers. But God, who created you, on the day of your birth, mixed a certain amount of gold into the embryo that was to produce those of you who were destined for government. That's why they are respected. The defenders of the state, at the time of their origin, are mixed with silver. The class of farmers and artisans took iron and copper into their veins. From this, Plato continues, it necessarily follows that the first seek and engage in that which belongs to the realm of knowledge, while others are occupied with that which belongs to the realm of mere opinions” 712. There is no doubt that Plato, with his genius, traces the existence of those selected natures who thirst for knowledge, unless he meant by these three natural categories of people to characterize, as some believe, three types of government. “Silver” in this case meant Jewish worship; “iron” and “copper” – Greek democracy; and “gold” is the Christian monarchy, on whose members the Holy Spirit is poured out, this truly royal gold. And in the following words, which I borrowed from Theaetetus 713, the philosopher - it is already positively known - described the life of Christians. “So, let’s say a few words about them,” says Plato, “but not about them, but about their heads, for it is not worth mentioning those who, although devoted to wisdom, are without genius, and, therefore, work unsuccessfully. A true sage from his youth does not know the way to places where people gather; he does not know where the judges' chambers, the senate and other places of public meetings are. He does not take part and is not interested in people’s votes or other public news, nor does he take part in gatherings and does not solicit to achieve any public position; Even in his dreams, neither gatherings, nor feasts, accompanied by the music of flutists, nor anything like that come to his mind. Whether something goes bad or good in his time in the state or went in the time of his ancestors, all this does not attract him to himself; he is not busy measuring these immeasurable things - a matter similar to counting drops in the sea. He doesn’t even know that he doesn’t know all this. To tell the truth: he only lives in the city with his body, but his spirit is focused on resolving world issues. He, as Pindar says, soars above the earth, understands celestial phenomena for himself, there contemplating the flow of the heavenly bodies; With an inquisitive eye, he delves into the inner being of everything majestic, from which the life of the universe is composed; he does not descend to the point of engaging in common and hackneyed things.” With the word of the Savior: Let your word be “yes, yes” and “no, no” (Matthew 5:37; James 5:12) can be compared with the following word of Hellenic wisdom: “It is not permissible for me to agree with a lie or to drown out the voice of truth in myself.” The oath is forbidden to us. But Plato, in the 10th book of his “Laws,” I hear, says to me: “Never utter praise or oath.” And in general, Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato, who heard as much of the voice of God as they could understand, carefully peering into the wondrous structure of the universe, which was formed so beautifully and continuously supported by the right hand of the Divine, do they not seem to have borrowed from Moses the following words: He said, and it was (Gen., ch. 1), by which the sacred historian expresses the idea that it is enough for God to say that His will was performed. Let us take for comparison the question of the creation of man, what turns out to be? Just as Scripture tells of the creation of man from the mud of the earth, similarly secular sages everywhere talk about the human body that it was formed from earth. In Homer, for example, there is the following curse: “May you all perish, turning into water and earth” (Il. VII, 99). And let your foot trample them like dirt, says Isaiah (Isaiah 10:6; 11:27). Callimachus also puts it very clearly: When birds, fish and quadrupeds And elsewhere from the same poet we read: If you were formed by Prometheus, Then you didn’t come from any other dirt, Hesiod 714 writes about Pandora: Then he ordered the glorious Hephaestus Soak some soil in water And lower the human voice and mind into this mixture. The Stoics produce the life of nature from the creative fire, which in mysterious ways influences generation 715. And in the Holy Scriptures, in its allegorical language, are not God and Logos called “fire” and “light”? (Ex., ch. 3ff.; John 1:4 and elsewhere). And Homer, speaking about the divorce of Thetis from the Ocean, what else does he depict if not the separation of water from the earth and the appearance of land? He writes: A sad discord has long separated them And deprived of tender caresses on the common bed. Moreover, the most learned of the Hellenes assimilate to God the supreme supremacy over all that exists. The Pythagorean Epicharmus says this about this: Nothing can hide from the eyes of God, Never forget about this. His gaze is constantly directed at us; And for Him alone nothing is impossible. Let's listen to the lyric poet. He writes: God can again bring forth pure, unalloyed light, And the clear light of day can be obscured by darkness. Who can turn night into day, Arat begins his poem “On Phenomena” with the following invitation: Let's start with Zeus. His name must constantly live on the lips of mortals; Streets, public meeting places, The harbors, the immeasurable ocean, everything, everything, must testify to his greatness; His hand supports and preserves us all. And then the poet states the reason for this: Because we are all his children (genus) children after the creation of us by him. He shows His benevolent protection to us And he brings out the whole multitude of peoples to work during the day. Was it not he who dotted the sky with various luminaries, They were distributed and approved, So that they determine the seasons And was the land fertilized correctly? That's why, first of all, but finally of all, We turn to Him with our worship: Greetings to you, Father of the earthly, A creature most amazing in its greatness, The source of all benefits for man. But even before Aratus, Homer was already inspired by Moses. Describing the shield that was forged by Hephaestus and on which the creation of the world was depicted, he says that this divine artist He depicted the earth and sky on the shield, The sea and the luminaries crowning the sky Zeus, sung by poets and praised by orators, is none other than the true God. Democritus, whose testimony should also be quoted here, says: “There are few people under the sun today who stretch out their hands to Him whom we Greeks call “Air.” Zeus investigates everything thoroughly and he knows everything; he gives everything and he deprives everything; he is the king of the universe" 716. The Boeotian Pindar, as a follower of the teachings of Pythagoras, expresses himself even more mysteriously: We both breathe, This lyrical poet adds that the Creator of gods and people is one. He calls him the Father, the wise and highest Artist, who, in accordance with our merits, elevates us to the level of even gods. Shall I remain silent about the testimony of Plato, who, in his letter to Erastus and Coriscus, very clearly and with remarkable certainty names, on the basis of Jewish books, the Father and the Son. He writes: “If you want to swear with all your heart and protect your zeal from blindness, that is, if you want to combine your zeal with an understanding of the matter, then swear by God, the First Author of everything that exists, and by the Lord, the Father of Him Who is at the same time both the First Author and the Ruler of the universe. You will certainly know Him if you follow the path of true wisdom" 717. In the Timaeus, Plato also calls the Creator Father in one place: “Gods, sons of gods, of whom I am the Father and Creator, as well as everything else.” And in this place from Plato: “Everything is subordinate to the King of all that exists; By Him alone the whole universe exists; He is the source of all good; secondary things come from the Second, and tertiary things from the Third” 718, in these words I see nothing more than an allusion to the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The third signifies the Holy Spirit, and the second refers to the Son, who brought everything to completion in accordance with the will of the Father. In the 10th book of his Republic, Plato speaks of a certain Er, son of Armenia, originally from Pamphylia, who was none other than Zoroaster 719. This same Zoroaster testifies to himself: “The author of this work is Zoroaster, son of Armenia, a Pamphylian by birth. Having been killed in the war, I received the following revelations from the underground gods.” So, this same Zoroaster, according to Plato, 12 days after his death, when they wanted to burn his corpse, came to life again. What did this great philosopher want to say? Perhaps in this case he hints at the resurrection; and perhaps, somewhat secretly, he also expresses the idea that the souls of the dead, before being accepted into heaven, must pass through 12 signs of the zodiac, just as they descend to earth at the moment of birth along the same path. It would also be unnecessary to seek another meaning for the 12 labors of Hercules, upon completion of which the soul is freed from all the troubles of this world. I do not want to pass over in silence the authoritative testimony of Empedocles. According to this physicist, the renewal of the world will one day follow through the transformation of everything into fire. Heraclitus of Ephesus obviously holds the same opinion, because he distinguishes two worlds: one is eternal and unchanging, the other is transitory and has to perish, but only in form and external structure, therefore, only having to change; This last sim is only different from the first world. And that he eternally assimilates to that world in which everything is created from unchanging substances and which always remains equal to itself, he clearly expresses this in the following words: “This world, which embraces the entire totality of beings living in it, was not created either by God or by any man. It has always been supported, is supported and will be supported by an eternally existing fire, alternately and evenly flaring up and then going out.” If you want proof that this created world was considered by this philosopher to be subject to disorder and destruction, then you will find proof of this in his following words: “These are the various modifications of fire. First, a sea is formed from fire, one half of which turns into earth, and the other evaporates from a fiery hurricane.” And the philosopher recognizes these changes as being carried out by force, which, in my opinion, is tantamount to the statement that the power of the Logos and God, by which everything that exists, is governed, transforms fire into air, into a moist substance called the sea, that is, into that vast workshop from which all the miracles of our world, heaven, earth and all the contents of their depths originated. And how does the world become like itself again, only to burn again? Heraclitus states this clearly in the following expressions: “The sea overflows in the same way and in the same dimensions as before the formation of the earth. The same must be said regarding the other elements.” The most famous of the Stoics hold similar views 720. They teach about a general fire that will follow. Regarding the management of the universe, regarding the being of the world and man in the proper sense, and finally, regarding the immutability of our soul amid all the vicissitudes, they express thoughts similar to those of Heraclitus. In the 7th book of his Republic, Plato calls our daylight nightlight 721. This is, of course, because of the princes of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). In another place, following Heraclitus, he says that the descent of the soul into the body it animates is for it sleep and death 722. But didn’t the Spirit that inspired David predict something similar about the Savior? I lay down and fell asleep; stood up: The Lord is my strength (Ps. 3:6). There is a double allegory hidden here. The Resurrection of the Lord is His awakening from sleep, just as His incarnation is a dream for Him. That is why He convinces us to stay awake, that is, to think about true life, to strive diligently to free the soul from the power of the body. In the tenth book of his Republic, Plato predicts the day of the Lord. He says 723: “After spending seven days in the valley, on the eighth day everyone leaves it and after four days of travel reaches the goal.” By this valley we must mean the motionless sphere, the quiet and peaceful abodes of the saints; under seven days 724 - the various movements of the seven planets and all other activities that set themselves one goal - peace. The path that opens behind the planets leads to the already personified sky, that is, to movement or the eighth day (“ὀγδόην”). A four-day journey is nothing more than a journey through the four elements. The seventh day was considered sacred not only among the Jews, but also among the Hellenes, because this day saw how the world made its first movement with the entire totality of the animals and plants that inhabited it. This is what prompted Hesiod 725 to say: The first, fourth and seventh days of the month are sacred. On the seventh day the day of the joyful sun was already shining. On the seventh day the sacred sun shone for mortals. It was the holy seventh day. Then the seventh day began, on which everything was finished. And finally, he says: At dawn we left the shores of Acheron. And the poet Callimachus can be brought here to testify: The seventh day was already shining, on which everything was over. The seventh day is favorable; it's a birthday. The seventh day is at the same time both the first and the last. All the luminaries circling in the air And annually renewing the same cycle They were created in seven days. And Solon in his elegies also attaches great sacred significance to the seventh day (week) 726. And doesn’t Plato, in the 2nd book of his Republic 727, almost go as far as prophesying the saving sufferings of our Lord? Scripture says: Let us remove the Righteous One from among us, for he is a burden to us (Wis. 2:12). And Plato writes: “A righteous person with such dispositions will be beaten with whips, tortured, chained; his eyes will be torn out; finally, subjected to all kinds of abuse, he will be nailed to the cross.” Who will you liken Me to? - says the Lord (Isa. 40:18, 25; 46:5 and other places). And Antisthenes, a follower of Socrates, as if to explain these words of Scripture, says the following: “God is not like anyone else; therefore, no one can form an idea about Him from any image.” The Athenian Xenophanes 728 shares this thought, saying: “Whoever shakes the universe and reaffirms it, thereby reveals his greatness and omnipotence. What He looks like is unknown. His existence is undeniable, although even the sun, with its light, however, everything, all nature, illuminating, itself cannot be contemplated with impunity. Whoever boldly fixes his eye on him loses his sight. With what bodily eye could one behold the immortal, the true God, whose throne is at the zenith of heaven? Mortal! You want to see the Divine, And your gaze cannot withstand the brilliance of the sun’s rays for even one minute, - This is how the ancient Sibyl sang. That is why Xenophanes of Colophon, instilling in us the truth that God is one and incorporeal, wisely ends his speech with these words: The Most High God, who commands both men and gods, One; but He does not have a body like a human, No spirit similar to the spirit of mortals, adding to this the following: And people imagine that gods are born; They assimilate their appearance, voice, body, the same as their own. Give your hands to the ox and the lion and give them Draw with paints or, as people do, Make a sculptural image of the Deity: The ox will portray Him as an ox, And a horse in the form of a horse. What else can I say in addition to this? Each of the living beings gives the Divine a form of existence, Let us also listen to what the lyricist Bacchylides says about the nature of the Divine: Gods are not subject to painful diseases, Pure from all sins, in no way similar to mortals. Cleanthes the Stoic, in one of his hymns to the Divine, expresses this in the following way: You ask: “What is the highest of goods?” Find out about this from my lips. The highest of goods consists In good order, in righteousness, in holiness, In piety, in self-control, in its usefulness, In beauty, in pleasantness, in majesty, in originality, In everlasting suitability; it does not fear for itself, He does not depress himself with worries or sorrows; It is saving, it prospers everything, Makes everyone happy, always true to yourself, Has a good reputation for himself, and yet modestly, To everything attentively, kindly, Zealously, agelessly, blamelessly, eternally 730. Further, indirectly condemning the idolatry of ignorant people, the same poet exclaims: A slave is one who shares the opinions of the crowd, It would be madness to look for anything useful from her. It is not worth consulting with an ignorant and ignorant person about how to think about the Divine. No, I will never believe it So that hominis scelesti clanculum speciem induens Tuum hoc cubile petere, prout homines solent, Amphion says to Antiope. Sophocles, however, without covering up the matter with any unnecessary words, says: Zeus ἔγημε, nupsit with the one who became He didn't do it under the guise of golden showers What was it like on the day when puellae junctus est Pleuroniae And under the guise of a true person. Then, continuing to depict the same lawlessness, the poet adds: Crime in quick steps Transgressed beyond the threshold of the bridal chamber. Then the poet, in even clearer terms, talks about the unbridled intemperance of Zeus, invented by folk myths as he, Without eating, without even washing my hands, At pectus acri saucius morsu, torum Init, atque Veneri nocte se tota dedit. But let us leave the depiction of these abominations to the extravagance of theatergoers. Heraclitus does not soften matters at all and says bluntly: “People do not understand the voice of eternal reason, either before hearing it or after hearing it.” And Melanippides the lyricist sings this on his lyre: Hear my wishes, Father, Being the subject of people's surprise, You, who rule over the souls that live forever. The “Great” Parmenides, as Plato calls him in his Sophist, speaks of God this way: He never had a beginning There will never be an end He is eternally existing, unborn, all-encompassing, unchanging. You are the King and Lord of all immortals. Who can challenge Your authority? Nobody. Even tragedy already diverted the people from serving idols and taught them to raise their gaze to heaven. So Sophocles, as the historian Hecataeus testifies to this in his book “Abraham and the Egyptians,” exclaimed from the height of the tragic scene: Truly, there is only one God, Creator of heaven and earth, azure skies and stormy winds. And we, weak mortals, are in the error of our hearts But is it possible in these images of gods, Made of wood, copper, gold and ivory, Finding comfort in adversity? We make sacrifices for them; We dedicate holidays to them, Thinking that this is piety 731. Euripides introduces similar speeches into his tragedies: Do you see this air stretched over our heads, Free, endless, limitless, Holding the earth in its wet embrace? Say: Here is Zeus; here is God 732. The same poet in the tragedy “Pirithous” says this: I appeal to You, a Being that has arisen from itself. To You, who binds all nature with the whirlwinds of the ether, To You, constantly surrounded by daylight, darkness of night And a brilliant retinue of countless luminaries. By “a being that came from itself” we mean the creative mind. The following expressions are applicable to the world, that scene where darkness fights with light. Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, speaks of the Divinity in such concise and weighty terms: Zeus - air, Zeus - earth, Zeus - sky, Zeus - everything; And if there is anything more magnificent, Plato, with his authority, also confirms the testimony of Heraclitus. This one says: “The Being, the only wise one, He is not content with the name “One”; the name of Zeus is also kind to him.” “The law,” says Heraclitus in another place, “consists of following the commandments of the One Being.” He who has ears to hear, let him hear, said the Savior (Luke 14:35). Do you want to penetrate into the depth of the meaning of this saying? You will find its disclosure in the same Heraclitus of Ephesus: “Those who hear, but do not understand what they hear, are the same as the deaf. They justify the saying: “By being present, they are absent.” Do you want to know that the Hellenes also attached great importance to faith in a single principle? Listen to what Timaeus the Locrian says about this. In his discussion “On Nature,” he writes verbatim the following: “The beginning of all things is one and cannot be created. Imagine that it comes from another beginning: it immediately ceases to be a beginning, giving way to the beginning that gave it existence” 733. This teaching is completely true and represents nothing more than the revelation of these biblical words: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Serve Him alone (Deut. 6:4, 13). Look, behold, He reveals Himself to everyone And dispels false ideas, - exclaims the Sibyl 734. Homer, by some inspiration, seemingly divine, has a presentiment of the existence of the Father and the Son when he puts the following words into the mouth of the Cyclopes: If no one (insignificant person) causes violence to you in your solitude, It is impossible to remove the disaster sent to you by the great Zeus. ...because the Cyclopes don't care one bit about the aegis-bearing Zeus. And Orpheus, speaking about the subject that interests us, even earlier than Homer, exclaimed: O Son of the great Zeus, Father of the aegis-bearing Zeus! And Xenocrates the Chalcidian, distinguishing between two Zeuses, one whom he calls superior and the other inferior, does he not thereby make some allusion to the Father and the Son? And here's something even stranger. Homer, portraying the gods as being under the power of the same passions with which people are overwhelmed, and for this suffering reproaches from Epicurus, nevertheless recognizes the existence of the Divine, because he expresses himself about it this way: Why are you, Pelid, being mortal, Relying on your quick feet, are you pursuing the immortal god in my person? Or have you not yet recognized God in me? The poet thus tells us that neither with his hands, nor with his legs, nor with his eyesight, nor with any of his other organs is man able to comprehend and embrace the Divine. To whom will you liken the Lord, says Scripture, and in what features will you convey His face? And is it not the artist who casts His statue? Is it not the goldsmith who covers it with gold? – etc. (Isa. 40:18, 19). - The comic poet Epicharmus in his Republic also, and quite clearly, points to the Divine Logos: Reason (Logos) and number constitute an essential and necessary aspect of human life. We live only by reason (Logos) and number; Nothing else can save us. Then with even greater precision he adds: Reason (Logos) governs people and protects morals. There is human reasoning, And there is the Divine mind (Logos). With his understanding, a person satisfies the material needs of life. The Divine Reason (Logos) by Himself generates and moves the arts. He personally teaches each of us this, What is useful to us. Because after all Art was not invented by man; It originates only from God Human reason (Logos) is rooted In the mind (Logos) of the Divine. So, let's continue our comparisons. The Holy Spirit cries out through Isaiah: Why do I need the multitude of your sacrifices? I am satisfied with the burnt offerings of goats, the fat of your rams and the blood of oxen. I do not want it (Isa. 1:11). And a little lower the prophet adds: Wash and be clean, leave evil thoughts, etc. (Is. 1:16). And Menander the comedian almost literally repeats the same thoughts and expressions: If anyone thinks, Pamphilus, By sacrificing oxen, kids and the like, Or some precious work of your own hands, Like, for example, chlamys woven from gold and purple, Or by creating statues from bone and beryl. Attract God's favor to yourself, Then he is mistaken and thereby reveals extreme frivolity. It is man's duty to be virtuous, Honor the purity of virgins and the impeccability of spouses, Keep yourself from theft and murder, Do not envy the wealth and wealth of others, God is close to us, Pamphilus. He sees us. I am not only God near, says Scripture about God, but God is also far away. If someone works in darkness, will I not see him? - God speaks through the mouth of Jeremiah (Jer. 23:23, 24). And again the Scripture says: Sacrifice righteousness to God, and then trust in Him (Ps. 4:6). And the poet Menander supplements this word of Scripture. He writes: My friend! Do not covet even the slightest part of another's property. God loves only righteous deeds, and hates unrighteousness. He allows you to increase your wealth only through righteous labor. Therefore, be righteous to the grave. Constantly sacrifice to God not clothes of pomp and wealth, but spiritual purity. If thunder roars and your conscience is clear, then why should you run, my friend? God sees you; He is next to you. And the promise of Scripture is this: You will still speak, but I will already say: Here I am (Is. 52:6). And the comic poet Diphilus also shares the belief in the final judgment, saying: Do you really think, Nikerat, that those who spent a life of feasts and sensual pleasures Will they not be subject to Divine justice upon death? And the all-watching, just eye watches over them. We know that upon entering the underworld The path is divided into two: one leads to the abode of the righteous; The other into the dwellings of the wicked, forever covered with earth. So, go, lie, steal, respect nothing; But don't deceive yourself: Judgment will come for you in the underworld; It will be pronounced over you by God himself, the Supreme Ruler of the universe. I don’t dare say his terrible name here. Sometimes He allows the wicked to live long; But let not the villain deceive himself with the supposition, That his daily crimes are hidden from Him Or that they are indifferent to Him: This thought already represents a new crime. No, this only means that the Right Hand is only postponing vengeance on him. You who dream that there is no God, beware! There is a God, He exists; yes, it exists. And if someone, having already been born evil, does evil; Then let him take advantage of the time still remaining at his disposal, Afterwards you will be subject to terrible punishments. In accordance with this, the tragedy speaks about this as follows: The day will come, a terrible and sad day, When the ether releases the fiery whirlwinds from their chains, hiding in its depths; Then all living things on earth and in the air will be destroyed by unbridled flames. And there will be no boundaries to the fury of fire. And a few verses below the poet adds: And when everything is destroyed, the depths of the ocean will be empty. The earth will also present the appearance of a desert, There will be no flocks of winged creatures that burn from its surface They would fly into the heights of the sky. But everything destroyed will then be restored again. And in the Orphic poems we find similar ideas: Whatever he hides in his heart is sacred; All this will be returned to them again in the radiant light of the sun, And, moreover, in a more beautiful form than the previous one. Without a doubt, we can be happy on this earth if we live here holy and righteous. But we will be incomparably happier having left this world, because after this, instead of temporary bliss, we will enjoy eternal peace, Having become cohabitants and table-fellows of the immortals, Freed forever from the troubles and diseases that befall mortals, as the philosophical school of Empedocles promises us. So, according to the belief of the Hellenes, there will be no people too noble, whose nobility would exempt them from the judgment of the Supreme Judge, nor too insignificant so as not to attract the gaze of this Judge. The same Orpheus tells us about this in the following expressions: Constantly turn your gaze to the Divine Logos And never turn them away from Him. Carefully examining all the bends of your soul; Walk with confident steps along the straight path, Directing the mind only to one immortal King of the universe 735. Elsewhere he states that God is incomprehensible. At the same time, Orpheus adds that He revealed himself to only one person of Chaldean origin. By this he means either Abraham or his son. But here are his actual words: He revealed himself only to one of the descendants of a certain Chaldean family. This sage knew about the flow of the sun, About the movement he makes around the earth, On which she carries the vault of heaven with her And at the same time it rotates around its axis. He saw winged horses (winds) ruling the world. How they run through space and descend into the depths of the abyss. Then, as if to clarify these expressions of Scripture: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool (Isa. 66:1), he adds the following: Unshakable, eternal, He sits at the zenith of the sky on a golden throne. The earth is His footstool. With His right hand He touches the ends of the ocean. With the breath of his wrath He shakes the mountains And these cannot bear the weight. He is everywhere, although His dwelling place is heaven. Nothing that happens on earth For He is the beginning, the middle and the end of all things. But what am I saying? It is not permissible to even pronounce His name. My body trembles and trembles just at the mere thought of Him. He lives in the heights of heaven and from here He rules everything... What eloquent language! But it clearly resembles the following words of the prophet: If You open the sky, then the mountains tremble and melt before Your face, like wax before fire (Isa. 6:1). But these words of Isaiah are identical with these: Who measured the heavens with an outstretched hand? Who weighed the earth on scales? (Isa. 40:12). We find the same basic ideas in the following passage from Orpheus: Lord of heaven and hell, Lord of earth and waves! You, Olympus, shaking with your thunderous voice! You, whom the spirits fear, whom the host of gods fear! You, whom the Parks 736 obediently serve, unforgiving towards everyone else! An eternal being, revered by us under the double name of father and mother! The whole world is shaking from Your wrath! You unchain the winds, surround nature with thick clouds, And you cut through the air with furrows of Your lightning! The luminaries move, obeying the unchangeable laws established by You. Around Your shining throne stand numerous hosts of Angels, And it is their duty to monitor the needs of mortals and their fulfillment of Your commandments. From You comes spring with fresh flowers crowning it; But it is from You that winter encircles us with ice and embraces us with cold winds. Finally, we owe to you the clusters of grapevines and autumn fruits. Then, in expressions that do not arouse any doubt, the poet proclaims the omnipotence of God: His name, inaccessible for death to attack Him, Only immortals have the right to pronounce. Come down to us, O greatest of gods! Come to us accompanied by inexorable necessity! Come, God, terrible, invincible, great, immortal, With the expression: “...whom we honor under the double name of father and mother” (in Greek “Μητροπάτηρ”) Orpheus wants to say that God created all living beings from nothing. It would not seem surprising to me if this passage inspired the supporters of the doctrine of emanations and aeons with the idea of ​​​​giving God et cojugem 737. In fact, the poet is only paraphrasing the words of Isaiah (Amos) the prophet: Here is He, who thickens the clouds and raises storms, by whose hands the heavenly stars (armies) were formed (Amos 4:18). Or perhaps the poet also had in mind the words of Moses: See and know that it is I, I; and that there is no God other than Me. I kill and give life; I strike and heal, and no one will snatch it out of My hand (Deut. 32:39). For the pleasantness of joys he makes painful sorrows follow, The horrors of battles and the deplorable fates of life. This is how Orpheus sings. Archilochus of Paria similarly exclaims: O Zeus! Heaven is your kingdom. But from the heights of your home you see But let the Thracian singer Orpheus also sing something to us on his lyre: With His right hand He touches the edges of the ocean, The earth is His footstool. That we are dealing with imitation here is very noticeable. And it resembles the following words of Scripture: The Lord will preserve the inhabited cities. He will take the whole universe into His hand like a nest (Isa. 10:14). It was the Lord who created the earth with his omnipotence, says Jeremiah; It was He who brought the entire universe into balance (Jer. 10:12). Let us add to the testimony of sacred writers the testimony of secular writers. Thus, Phocydides calls the Angels geniuses and distinguishes between them good and evil. Our legends actually speak of rebel angels: Spirits (demons) are different 738. They also affect people in different ways. But it is certain that one of them is entrusted with diverting from us all the disasters that threaten us. The comic poet Philemon, therefore, already undermining idolatry, says the following: Happiness is not a god, far from a god, Although everything we receive unexpectedly or by chance, In this regard, we must remember Sophocles with gratitude and praise, for he writes: Not everything goes according to the will of the gods. Supreme power belongs to Zeus. It is the beginning and the end of all things. Orpheus says the same thing again: There is only one power and one supreme Deity; It is His light that shines in the heavens. All things were created by Him; It is by Him that everything is set in motion: Carried away by delight, the Theban lyricist (Pindar) equally exclaims: What is God? God is the whole universe. God is the Creator of all mortals. People! Why do you rely on human wisdom? They don't have the slightest bit of it. Penetrate the advice of the gods for the human mind There is a difficult matter: We are all born from mortal mothers. In this last saying of Pindar one hears only an echo of the words of the prophet Isaiah: Who has known the thought of the Lord? Who was His advisor? (Isa. 40:13; Rom. 11:34 and 1 Cor. 5:16). And Hesiod writes similar to what this prophet says: Between the sons of men There is no fortuneteller who could Penetrate the mind of almighty Zeus. The Athenian legislator Solon, therefore, had every reason in one place of his elegies, in agreement with Hesiod, to express himself this way: The thought of the immortals is a deep mystery for people. Scripture, through the mouth of Moses, predicted to the wife that, in atonement for her disobedience to the Divine commandment, she would give birth to children amidst illnesses and sorrows. In agreement with this, the poet, whose name is far from inglorious, says: Work and cry day and night. This is the sad fate of the wife. The gods will never stop sending her sorrow after sorrow. When Homer portrays the Pantocrator Holding golden scales in his right hand, then through this symbolically it means, without a doubt, the justice of God. Menander the comedian testifies to the goodness of God this way: As soon as a person is born, A kind genius, a benevolent mentor, comes to him: It is his duty to introduce man to all the mysteries of existence. And it is impossible to imagine that this was an evil spirit, Which would be entrusted with distracting the newborn from a virtuous life. Menander ends his speech with a phrase that, by its grammatical construction, can mean at the same time that “every God is good” or, and this is more likely, that “God is good in everything.” The tragedian Aeschylus, trying to define Divine omnipotence, without hesitation, calls God the Most High. He says: Beware of identifying God with mortal men And do not imagine that He has flesh like ours. You say, “I don’t know Him.” But He appears to you under the guise of a shining fire, the touch of which is not in vain for us; Sometimes He takes the form of a wild animal: Then He is the whistling wind, the swift cloud, the flashing lightning, Thunder thundering, a stream freed from shackles; The sea, rocks, lakes obey Him. Everything trembles at His gaze: And the face of the earth, and the abysses of the ocean, and the peaks of the highest mountains. To the new that the glory of the Most High is unlimited, Don't you find that these verses of the poet serve only as a commentary on the words of Scripture: At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles (Ps. 68:8)? But that the idea of ​​the Almighty God Almighty was not alien to the Hellenes, there is evidence for this that is even more important. Apollo himself, famous for his knowledge of the future, testifies to the glory of the true God. He is forced to announce that during the Persian invasion of Hellas, Athena came and begged Zeus for Attica. The Oracle (Herod., VII, 140, 141) spoke about this like this: Athena's prayers and all her art are in vain. Nothing can shake the will of Olympian Zeus. He is preparing to burn many of the churches dedicated to the immortals; These are trembling with fear, and they are covered in cold sweat. Fearis, in her discussion of nature, writes: “The beginning of the universe, its true beginning is one; it is eternal, and therefore one.” There is no other Deity except the Supreme Lord, says Orpheus. The comic poet Diphilus, following Orpheus, expresses the following deep thought: Always honor the Father of the Universe. He is the source and culprit of all the blessings surrounding you, Honor Him constantly; Honor Him alone. Plato, therefore, is right when people, who are by nature the best, are brought together and become friends with the idea of ​​striving for knowledge, which we have already recognized as the most sublime. This knowledge consists in the preferential contemplation of only the good of one and through constant efforts in ascending to it. Here we are not talking about indifferent and fleeting excitement, as in the games of childhood 739, but about a correct movement that would lead the soul out of this somewhat night light, where it remains, as it were, buried, and would direct it to the true light, along the path that from now on we will call true philosophy (wisdom) 740. Plato looks at those who embark on this path as joining the golden tribe 741. “You are all brothers,” he says. And everyone belonging to this golden tribe has the ability to judge everything sensibly. So, all living beings, in some way, by virtue of instinct and without the introduction of this idea by education, have a presentiment that there is a common Father and Creator of everything for all of us. Inorganic and animate nature are connected by sympathetic relations. Of the living beings, some already enjoy immortality, while others worry and work for this every day, while still remaining here on earth. But even among mortals, some are immersed in blind fear and imprisoned in the maternal bowels that bear them; others move freely, using their independence. Further, the entire human family is divided into Hellenes and Barbarians. Among these peoples there is not a single agricultural, or nomadic, or city-dwelling nation that could live and maintain itself without an instinctive faith in a Supreme Being. Avoid the whole world from east to west, from north to south - everywhere you will meet the same elementary ideas about the Supreme Lord, because the action of creative omnipotence equally extends to all ends of the earth and equally embraces all its regions. The Hellenic sages, with the spirit of exploration that animated them, having had longer than others in relations with the barbarian sages, went further than their contemporaries. They adopted the providential care of the invisible and one God, the supreme Creator and direct Creator of the most beautiful things. However, they were not able to draw conclusions from their teachings without our assistance; coming to their aid in this, we develop those conclusions before them; for they do not even know how it is given and characteristic of this nature to reveal God. But, as we have already shown 742, they defined the Divinity in circumlocutions, although quite close to the truth. Therefore the Apostle was right when he said: Is God only the God of the Jews? Isn't He the God of the Gentiles too? (Rom. 3:29). However, he did not assert the indifference of faiths by this, but he only wanted to say that those of the Hellenes who believe in his teachings will achieve true knowledge of God. No, these words of the Apostles do not represent any kind of prophecy, but have a philosophical meaning. The Apostle says by them that in relation to power, God is Lord over all people and that He is truly Almighty; from the point of view of knowledge, He is not the God of all. The pagans really neither know what God is, nor how the Lord is the Father and Creator; They do not know any other secrets that are part of the true teaching, the contents of you, Christians; for this they must receive an education at our school. The Prophet says the same thing as the Apostle. Let us listen, for example, to what Isaiah says: You would say: We trust in the Lord our God. And I will tell you: So, enter into an alliance with my lord, the king of Assyria (Isa. 36:7, 8). The Prophet adds: Do you really think that without the will of God we brought war into this country? (Isa. 35:10). From other inspired lips, Jonah the prophet's lips, we hear the same thing: And the helmsman approached him and said to him: Why are you sleeping? Arise and cry to your God. Perhaps God will remember us, and we will not perish (John 1:6). The words to your God, addressed to Jonah, who knew Him, and others: Perhaps God will remember us, indicate the unanimous consent of the peoples, who, even before their enlightenment by faith, rose in their minds to the concept of God Almighty. And Jonah said to them: I am the servant of the Lord and I honor the Lord God of heaven. And they exclaimed, as the same Jonah tells: We pray to You, Lord: do not destroy us because of this man! (John 1:9, 14). The prophet Malachi puts these words into the mouth of the Lord: The offering from your hands is not pleasing to Me. From the east to the west, My name is glorified by the nations and sacrifices are offered to Me everywhere. And again: For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and My name is great among the nations (Mal. 1:10, 11, 14). What kind of name is this? For believers, this name consists of “Son,” which also alludes to the Father; and for the pagans this name is “God the Creator” 743. Plato 744 gives his opinion on free will in the following expressions: “Virtue does not recognize anyone as its master. Depending on whether she is revered or neglected and she herself is more or less tied to herself. Everyone is responsible for the choice; God is not to blame for it.” Plato said the truth: “God cannot be the cause of evil” 745. The lyric poet 746 exclaims: O you warlike Trojans! Zeus, reigning in the heavens, and with his own eyes Cannot be the culprit of evil, Weighing down on mortals. But no one is deprived of the right to follow only the holy and pure truth, Companion of legitimacy and cautious Themis. Those are the lucky ones and the parents are happy, In whose midst she lives as if she were an immaculate sister. Pindar, under the image of Zeus the Savior marrying Themis, openly depicted the King, the Savior and the Righteous. The parks place the wise Themis on a chariot drawn by horses with golden wings. Then they take the goddess to the steep shore of the ocean, To the majestic threshold of the magnificent road leading to Olympus, Where she should forever become the first wife of Zeus the Savior. From this union the seasons were born, These beneficent goddesses with hair covered with a golden hoop, Their hands are burdened with precious fruits. He who does not believe the truth, but is proud of his human knowledge (1 Tim. 6:3, 4), is unhappy. He, in the words of Euripides: Instead of rising to God by contemplating the pictures of nature, He argues about what is happening in the higher layers of the air and sows sophisms, Which tireless and nonsense-bearing tongue releases at random, Without comprehending what is hidden in them. So, whoever wants to maintain the true teaching, come closer and listen to what Parmenides the Eleathean promises him: You study the properties of air, the movement of luminaries rotating in space And the invisible influence of the pure and sacred light of the sun. All these things are mysterious, but their origin will be revealed to you. You will further become acquainted with the rotation of the moon, and you will penetrate into the secrets of nature. You will have an understanding of the sky and that it embraces the entire universe in all its parts. You will understand how it was born on the day when the highest power It was bound above our heads in order to establish the luminaries and their movement in it. Let's listen again to Metrodorus. Although he is a student of Epicurus, his speeches are nevertheless distinguished by almost divine wisdom. This is what he says: “Menestratus, since you were born mortal and your days are numbered, do not forget to ascend with your soul far from the earth until infinity and eternity appear to you - that eternity that was before you and will be after you.” This blissful moment will come when, according to Plato, we will be able, without coverings, together with a host of blessed spirits, to contemplate the inexpressible bliss that they enjoy, when we, ascended to the feet of Zeus, and others of us to the feet of other gods, so to speak, will triumph in the highest sacraments of divine bliss, washed from all impurities, freed from all sorts of troubles to which they were condemned in this world. There will be no more barriers to stop our gaze! Freed from the bonds of the body, we will contemplate the eternal essence in the waves of pure light. Yes, we will be cleansed and freed from this shell, which is called the body and which we have to drag with us everywhere, in which we now live, enclosed in it, like an oyster in its double shell.” The Pythagoreans give the sky the name “Antichthon,” that is, the earth that is opposite to ours. This is that beautiful country about which the Lord said: I will include you among My children and will give you a desired land, the inheritance of God Almighty (Jer. 3:19), whose inheritors will be kings of the earth. Many other similar tirades pop up in my memory. But harmony, which should determine the size of the parts of this creation and their relationship to the whole, warns me to finish it; otherwise, it will be possible to apply to me the reproach that we read from the tragic poet Agathon: They talk about incidental things with the same care as And about the main thing with the same carelessness, So, now that it has been proven with all possible evidence, at least as it seems to me, in what sense the word of the Lord should be understood: “Greeks are thieves” 747, I part with the teachings of secular sages without the slightest remorse. If I were to discuss each of their sayings separately, then no matter how I expanded these “Memoirs,” I would never finish them: I would forever have to insist that all Hellenic wisdom has barbarian wisdom as its primary source. However, depending on the need, we will return to this point from time to time, collecting the principled opinions of the Hellenes. All the foregoing can be considered as an indirect warning regarding the point of view from which one who feels able to navigate this sea, so abundant in pitfalls 748, should approach the Hellenic writings when reading. Happy is he who possesses the treasures of Divine wisdom, On the contrary, he is very unhappy who takes pleasure in vague dreams about the gods. The poet, as if by some divine inspiration, teaches us that the highest goal of knowledge is bliss, and the end of ignorance is misfortune. So, - with which Heraclitus also agrees, - a wise man should know a lot. And indeed, it is extremely necessary... A zealot of virtue must follow the straight path without stumbling, not paying attention to all deviations from his knowledge. From all of the above, it clearly follows that the goodness of God is eternal, and His justice, in some way, by virtue of natural necessity, extends to all creatures and pays attention to the merits and significance of each of them. This justice comes from the Beginning of the uncreated, which never had the beginning of its existence. And indeed, the existence of God never began; therefore, He never began to be good, but was so forever; He is eternally as He is. The action of His goodness will stop only on the day when He brings all His work to an end. Each of us has our part in His bounty to the extent that we choose. The difference between the predestination of some to one lot and others to another depends on the merit of the choice and on the faithfulness of following it. Here we finish the fifth book of these in the spirit of the true philosophy of our Gnostic “Notes”. That is, the faith characteristic of the Christian people, the mass of Christians. The writer contrasts this faith with the faith of the Apostles. Basilides argued that extraordinary understanding and faith, as well as the kingdom of heaven, are characteristic of some people by their very nature and that by their very nature, and not as a result of the rightful use of their will, they achieve the likeness of God and closeness to Him; faith, in his understanding, was, so to speak, instilled in them during the initial creative act, and not as a result of a good life, it was characteristic of them or as a result of the assimilation of teaching; from there Clement speaks of Basilides’s assimilation of unsearchable, immeasurable, sublime beauty into the creation. This verse is found in Prometheus Bound. The passage relating to this is in Aristotle's Topeka, I, 11. Compare Plutarch in the biography of Numa; Libya in the book. I; Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the 2nd book. "Roman Antiquities". In the future, the writer follows Philo. This is how this one talks about this righteous man in the treatise “De Abrahamo” and “De nominum mutatione”. He, according to some, appeared to Abraham (Gen. 18:1). Some call Him the Angel of God. Most of the ancient church fathers understand by the Appearance of the Only Begotten Son of God. Compare Justina in "Conversation with Tryphon". Also Philo in “De nominum mutatione”. According to Heraclitus, fire is the beginning of all things, and everything will be decomposed again by it. The Stoics taught about the double destruction of the world, through water and fire. Everything, according to their teaching, came from the interaction between heat and moisture. And the world came from fire, after its fiery substance, under the influence of air, turned into moist. Hence their teaching about the new conversion of the world into a fiery substance. Both Heraclitus and the Stoics taught that the world would be renewed by fire. Origen, “Against Celsus” (V, 20): “The Stoics teach that after a very long period of time this world will burn up, then be renewed again and again take on a form in which it will be completely similar to the world that previously existed.” Then he adds: “So, although they do not use the word “resurrection,” they accept the concept expressed by this word.” Against this, it should be noted that both Clement and Origen yield too much honor to the Stoics in this regard. Not a single Stoic could believe in what Christians mean by the word “resurrection.” They believed that the same people who lived in a world that was about to burn out, they would also arise to live in a world that was about to be renewed; and this will happen exactly in the same way as it is happening now: they will be born again by their former parents and will lead their former way of life, will live the same amount of time and in the same way as they lived before. But this is not at all the same as the Christian “resurrection.” According to the Christian understanding, bodies that have decayed by the power of Divine omnipotence will be restored again and will again be united with their immortal souls for immortal life. But this is not at all what the Stoics taught, that a person, due to the ordinary course of things in another world, will be reborn for the same life. Such inappropriate comparisons of pagan and Christian teachings only paved the way for various kinds of distortions of revealed truth; such comparisons are still sometimes made; one must see in Christian teachings, by their highest spirituality, the highest level to which humanity has been elevated. Compare "Teacher", III, 2; "Stromata", I, 17; III, 7.; VI, 17 and so on. The Fliasian Timon was originally a stage dancer; then he became a student of Pyrrho and wrote caustic poems against philosophers. The verses cited by Clement are obviously a parody of the first verses of the Iliad. All these are various forms of syllogisms used in ancient schools and the newest scholastic ones and more depleted the human spirit than served it. Plutarch also mentions this custom in “De auditu”. It was customary, when kissing small children, to touch their ear and invite them to do the same; This inspired them that they should especially listen to those who tell them something and thereby want to do them something useful. . Plato, On the State, Book V. Plato speaks of this about the soul, but Clement considered it more appropriate to apply it to truth or true, that is, Christian, teaching. “By God” is an addition from Clement; Plato does not have it; Plato speaks specifically about God in this place. Hesiod "Works and Days" I, 285. In the book. VI of this “Stromat” this verse is attributed to Euripides, while philologists attribute this verse to him, then to Alexis, then to Hippolytus. And this is a verse from some lyric poet. From Plato's dialogue "Alcibiades the First". Plato's words from Book VII. his works “On the State”. Bacchus was not at first the god of drunkenness, but of poetic animation. The above proverb is found in Plato's Phaedo. An allusion to the sophists and sophistry that poisoned the entire ancient society to the very top. Comp. Yar. Ep. Ved. 1884 L. 48. From Pindar's 2nd Isthmian Ode, Art. 9 ff. According to Plutarch, this oracle was so nicknamed because he preferred ambiguity and reciprocity in answers to talkativeness. – Author of “Etymologici magni”: “Apollo is nicknamed Loxias because he signifies the sun, which takes a crooked path through the zodiac.” This place, along with others, is important for understanding the sources used by our writer. Plutarch, Symposiac. VIII, 7, giving the same argument, seems to have had the same author at hand as Clement. Junius also attributes the previous two verses to him. The influence is Stoic, because the Stoics also considered anger to be a type of desire. Compare in Stobaeus, Laertius, Cicero. Compare what Plutarch says about Sulla. Similar is Iamblichus in Protrepticus. That is, Isis. The churches of dusty Zeus and Branchidas among the Milesians were also without roofs. According to Lucian, the Egyptians also had churches without idols. According to Herodotus and Strabo, the Persians also had such. And Eusebius says that there were such people in Greece during the time of Kekrops. In the first book. In this “Stromat” our author testifies that until the year 170 ab urbe condita the Romans did not yet have any images of the gods. “Heaven is the throne of God,” says Scripture. Among the Egyptians, the deity was depicted either in the form of the world, then fate or five stars. "Phoenician Women" by Euripides Art. 540. All this allegorical, mysterious meaning of the tabernacle and its utensils is outlined by the writer in this chapter based on various works of Philo. With Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. In Hebrew, this word includes the letters Yod, Ge, Vau, Ge. This is how the Jews understood the last words of verse 23 in chapter 16. book Leviticus. The fact is that here in the original the Apostle says “στολή”, clothing, as he calls the transformed body, and not the dwelling, “σκηνή”, as in the Russian translation. It seems that it was Clement’s thought hidden here that Origen subsequently developed in Op. against Celsus book. II, § 64 (Yar. ep. ed. 1879, No. 32). And Pierius Valerian in the XXXI book. "Hyeroglyphica sive de sacris Aegiptiorum", agreeing with Clement in explaining the details of this picture, only states that it was not a crocodile depicted on the edge of it, but a hippopotamus, and that it was in another city; He conveys the meaning of the image as follows: “We are born, we grow old, we live, we die: nature is at enmity against us.” Same with Homer in the 1st Rhapsody of the Iliad. There were two types of ibis in Egypt: black, which, according to Aristotle, was found only in Pelusium of the Nile Delta, and white - in all of Egypt, except Pelusium. Herodotus (IV, ch. 127) calls this king Indafurs. These were several mysterious words written on the wreath, belt and legs of Artemis of Ephesus; decommissioned they served as an incantatory talisman; and there was a rumor that using them saved from all dangers, helped in competitions, etc. Clement already had occasion to mention these mysterious words in Strom. I, ch. 15. It was these words that bore the name and constituted the content of the so-called “Ephesian grammars.” Plutarch (“Symposium”, VII, 5) writes about these magical letters: “Sorcerers put them around the necks of people possessed by demons and ordered them to read or memorize what was written on them.” Next, the writer gives technical expressions that contain all the letters of the Greek alphabet and were offered to children, probably to confirm their pronunciation. But since this was, as Clement himself noted, an Egyptian system of education, it is revealed that this very education was saturated with superstitions. They instilled vain faith in some magic words, memorized them; the writer even cites three such conspiracies that everything by us, as is self-evident, should be consigned to eternal oblivion and condemnation. – As for our writer’s word productions, given the current state of philological science, they do not stand up to even a little criticism. Similar in “Ped.”, III, 11 and “Strom.”, II, 15. Porphyry of Chaeremon, who wrote about the Egyptians, reports that the Egyptian priests also did not eat fish at all, and among four-legged animals they abstained from single-hoofed, multi-hoofed and hornless animals, and from birds from carnivores. Compare by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. Epistle of Barnabas, ch. 10. Plato in the Meno also highly praises these verses and advises knowing them by heart. From Philo "De somniis" etc. Not in the Phaedo, but in the Phaedrus, where the spiritual life of the sage is depicted in features similar to the life of Clement the Gnostic. A Christian - a performer, a worker, not yet prepared for contemplation - is compared with a donkey and an ox. Cicero also mentions the Pythagorean rule “Not everything should be revealed to everyone” in the preface. to book IV of Tusculan Conversations. – Laertius testifies that the teaching of Pythagoras was unknown even before the time of Philolaus, and only he published it in three books, which Plato asked by letter to buy for 100 minutes. Acceptance into the Pythagorean school was preceded by five years of experience. Anyone who behaved badly during this time or turned out to be obscure received double the money he brought with him, and had to leave school. In memory of him, a tomb monument or column was erected here. The same was done with those who behaved inconsistently with the rules of the school or divulged its secrets. Origen, in his work against Celsus, twice (II, 12; III, 51) mentions this Pythagorean custom. – St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in one of his letters, also makes a humorous application of this custom. A place borrowed as if from some poet. Origen also mentions this - “Against Celsus”, I. An allusion to the story about this by the Egyptian priest Solon in Plato's Timaeus. Many of the ancients already believed that some secret teachings were hidden in the myths of Homer, Orpheus and other ancient poets. Thus, Heraclitus already wrote “De allegoris Homericus”; Others thought similarly. According to Aristotle, the beginnings of knowledge can be either scientific, which in themselves inspire faith; and also probable, plausible, which, although they seem true, in fact must still justify their truth. Proclus also notes about Plato that he strictly distinguished between “λόγους” - traditional opinions and “γνώσεις” - scientifically based. That is, the meaning of this is spiritual and mysterious. That is, Christians, reborn and recreated by the Savior. There are literally no such words in Scripture, but the meaning is similar to this passage: Isa. 40:13 ; Proverbs 1:6; Sire. 1:6. Of course, Pandora’s barrel, from which, by the decision of Zeus, she poured out all the evil on the human race (Hesiod’s “Works and Days”, I, 94 ff. Compare “Iliad”, XXIV, 527 ff.). Of course, Plato's 2nd letter to Dionysius. In the same 2nd letter to Dionysius. Compare our note about this. to “Week” I, in ch. 6th. Hippocrates in Plato’s Protagoras asks Socrates: “The soul, Socrates, what does it feed on?” – Socrates: “By knowledge.” But Plato writes about this in a sense somewhat different from what our writer would like: “I would not easily allow stories about the gods to be told before foolish and young people, but it would be better to order them to be silent about them; when the need to speak would arise, then for the sake of the mystery of the subject, very few would listen to me about it, sacrificing not a pig, but something great and rare, so that very few would hear about it.” Socrates is presented as saying much of this kind in Plato's Phaedo. The closest thing to this, according to Philo. This is also cited by St. Cyril of Alexandria in his 1st speech against Julian. Philo has something similar in his De nominum mutatione. Of course, sealing by baptism, in which the believer testified to his faith in the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity and, accordingly, was immersed in water three times. Compare Plato “On Laws” at the end of the book. X and XII. Borrowing from some apocrypha. The first words point to the prophet Zephaniah, because in his book there is a similar phrase. These words from Plato's Timaeus are often quoted by the church fathers. So, St. brings them. Cyril in his speech “Against Julian”, Theodoret of Cyrus in “Medicine”, Gregory of Nazianzus in the 2nd speech “On Theology”, Justin in “Apology”, II; Athenagoras in "Embassy"; Tertullian in Apology, II; author of Clement's Recognitions; Minutius in Octavia. – Our writer himself has already quoted this passage in the “Admonition”, ch. 6. Similar to Philo in “De nominum mutatione”. Of course, the platonic division of the soul into parts: rational, desirable and passionate. Compare "Pedagogy", III, 1. Homeric epithet. Il. II, 560; XVIII, 339. Similar to Philo in “De confusione linguarum”. Compare in "Strom." II, 2. An expression modeled on one found in the Phaedo: “Philosophers (wise men) are not so concerned about anything as dying and being dead.” Names are given to things to distinguish them from one another, and God, since He is one and has no being similar or equal to Himself, does not need any name. Hence it follows that His nature, which is obscure and inexplicable to us, cannot be described by any special name. That God has no name has been the constant teaching of both fathers and philosophers. Compare "Ped." I, 7; Justin in Apologies, II, in Lactantius, in Minucius in Octavius, in Origen in Against Celsus, in Clement's Recognitions, book. V, and others. Similar to this Philo in De Confusione Linguarim. The concept of a thing can be formed either on the basis of the properties inherent in it, or on the basis of its relationship to something close. The concept of God cannot be composed in either one way or another, because in Him there are no properties (accidents), no parts, or anything else that would be infused into Him, into His being, or such that would place Him in any relation to any other thing. Apparently, this refers to Aristotle's definition of evidence in Analytica Posteriora, I, 2, where it is said that it is composed of the true and the original, and the immediate, and the most known, and the previous, and the grounds of the conclusion. This is how truth appears, akin to what is being expressed. From here our writer concludes that nothing can be proven regarding God, because in relation to Him there are no principles or principles. Plato's expression in the Phaedrus. Afterwards Plato talks about the sky and its luminaries. Nicomachean Ethics, VI, 3. Compare in "Admonition", ch. 5. – According to the testimony of St. Irenaeus (II, 19), Democritus was the first to teach that “many different precisely stamped images, descending from universality into the void, formed this world.” – Minucius; “What is Democritus? Although he was the first inventor of atoms, for the most part, is it not nature that creates images, and is it not reason that calls God? With these images he explains the origin of absolutely everything. – According to Diogenes Laertius (IX, 44), Democritus said that “we see and use other senses because images of things burst into us.” According to Plutarch (“De Placita philosophorum”, V, I), he also explained the origin of dreams by the presence of those images in us” - From here it is revealed that he did not seem to recognize the existence of God. – Cicero, De Natura Deorum, lib. II, writes: “The existence of the gods was either denied by the sages, which in some way follows, for example, from the teachings of Democritus and Epicurus about images, or it was allowed; and these judgments must be recognized as valid and something beautiful.” – Our writer deduces from the teachings of Democritus that Democritus, willy-nilly, in order to remain faithful to his own teaching and the conclusions from it, must recognize the existence of God, because those images fall into both people and irrational animals, invade and enter “from the divine substance,” although Democritus meant by this latter nothing other than nature. - Cicero in the book. I "On the nature of the gods", ch. 12, writes: “Democritus, classifying among the gods both his images and their circulation, and this nature, which creates these images and carries them, and likewise our knowledge and understanding, was he not in the greatest error?” Our writer calls Spirit (“Πνεῦμα”) what many of the philosophers called “Mind” (“νοῦς”). Tatian can shed some light on this” - St. Justin the philosopher in “Conversation with Tryphon” in the spirit of Plato says: “The soul is divine and immortal; and it is part of the powerful Mind.” And further: “It is left to us to comprehend God with our minds.” The writer silently adds: “Only in a different sense” (compare the text below from the Book of Wisdom). The Stoics thought that God is “ζῶον” immortal, animal immortale, as Laertius testifies. “But they consider the whole world and heaven to be Divine substance,” he says. The rest of the heads of the Stoic school, Chrysippus, Posidonius and Antipater, argued the same; that is, it seemed to them that the world was a huge animal formed by the Divine soul. – Seneca in letter 97: “This whole and one, which contains us within itself, is God.” That is why, as your writer also says, they taught that “God is diffused throughout nature and permeates all matter with Himself.” Compare "Admonition" in ch. 5th and Strom. I, ch. 11th. - Sextus Empiricus in “Pyrrhoniae hypotyposes”, III, 24, writes: “The Stoics thought that spirit penetrates (“διῆκον”) all matter (“διά καί τῶν ειδεχθών”). The same with Laertius in Zeno. Cicero in the book. II, ch. 40 of his essay “On the Nature of the Gods” he writes: “From these despicable fables, which say that God is contained in the nature of every thing, the earth under the name of Ceres, the sea under the name of Neptune, other kinds of elements and things under other names, you can understand who the gods are and what they are like.” They, the Stoics, said that the souls of people and other animals, which formed their corresponding bodies, are particles of God. Seneca in the place already quoted: Et socii ejus et membra sumus. Virgil about bees. Georg. IV, 220: Esse apibus partem divinue mentis et haustus Aetherios dixere: Deum namque ire per omnes Terrosque, tractusque maris coelumque profundum. All this was (John 1:3). The Stoics also recognized God as the Creator of the world, but in what sense? They divided nature into two parts: one - which produces, the other - which puts itself at the disposal of the first and is capable of receiving different forms. In the first there is creative power; in the second matter; neither one nor the other can exist without the other; This is how the teaching of the Stoics is conveyed about this by Lactantius (“Divinae institutiones”, VII, 3). This is how Aristotle and others taught about matter, recognizing that before taking a definite form, it existed in an ugly form. Compare in "Admonition", ch. 5. Our writer has already mentioned this in the “Exhortation” at the end of Chapter. 5th. Besides him, Tatian wrote against this in his “Word to the Hellenes,” Theodoret in “Medicine,” and Athenagoras. A tyrant of a Pamphylian city, who lived a thousand years before that time, killed his elder father and elder brother, and also committed many other crimes. This passage is also cited by St. Justin in "Admonition to the Hellenes". Compare note at the end of Origen's On Prayer. At the end of his creation “On the State”. The same saying is given in the Exhortation, ch. 6. Apparently, this refers to one passage from the IX book of Plato’s “Republics” or something similar. - Similar to Justin in the “Admonition to the Hellenes.” According to Plato, the head is the seat of the guiding, or rational part of the soul; the heart is the angry part, and the liver is the voluptuous part of the soul. Similar is Heraclitus of Pontus in his work “On Homeric Allegories”. Similar is in the “Admonition”, ch. 9. Our writer often says that the mind in man is the image of the Son of God, just as the Son of God is the image of the Father. Compare in the "Exhortation", in the middle of ch. 10th. Similar - Origen, “Against Celsus”, VI, 63. Imitating this Image of the Father, people become less perfect images of the Father, while the Son of God is the perfect image of the Father. Deduced by Plato in his work “On the Laws,” book. IV. The Stoics' view of good is well known. Living in accordance with nature is, according to their teaching, tantamount to a virtuous life. And an honest or truthful course of action is characteristic of only wise people and cannot be separated from virtue. Compare Cicero in the book. III, “On Duties.” According to Laertius, in Zeno, book. VII, the beautiful and the good were one and the same for them. A Tarsian who lived in the middle of the 2nd century. BC Plutarch mentions it in his essay “On Peace of Mind.” In Strom. I, ch. 22 Our writer calls him a contemporary of Ptolemy Philometor. For this place, see the end of the 3rd book. "About the State". A little before the middle of the dialogue. The Stoics taught that the soul of the world is fire; The stars and the sky are made of it; it spreads life and vegetation everywhere. This tirade from Democritus was already given by the writer in the “Admonition”, in chapter. 6th. This passage is also quoted by Origen - “Against Celsus”, VI, 18. And Athenagoras also brought this place. It is read in Plato's 2nd letter to Dionysius. Compare from our writer in “Admonition”, ch. 6th; at St. Justin in Apology 1; in Origen's "Against Celsus", book. VI, ch. 18; Cyril of Alexandria in his first speech “Against Julian”. Many fathers mention this person. So, compare. in Justin's "Admonition"; in Origen in book II. "Against Celsus"; in Kirill's book. VIII "Against Julian"; Augustine “On the State of God” in the book. XXII, ch. 28; in Theodoret's speech 11; finally, our writer has already mentioned it in the same book above. Of secular writers, see Plutarch in “Sympos.”, book. IX. Compare above "Strom." V, 1. Plato says much of this kind at the beginning of the book. VII of his creation “On the State,” where he compares this world to a cave-like dwelling. The passage quoted by our writer is near the beginning of the book. In the book. X-th of his “State” in the speech of Er, son of Armenia, whom our Clement mentioned a little earlier. “Deeds and Days” Art. 6; The month is of course lunar. More details about this in Strom. VI, 16. At the beginning. This passage from Plato was already cited by our writer as “Strome.” IV, 7. This tirade from Xenophanes was already cited by the writer in the “Admonition”, ch. 6. Compare in the Exhortation, ch. 6. The writer has already cited these verses of Cleanthes in “Admonition”, ch. 6. The same verses in the Exhortation, ch. 7. Similar is Plato in Phaedrus and Cicero in Tusculum. conversations.”, book. II. We have already cited this verse in the “Admonition”, ch. 8. These verses of Orpheus were already given in the “Admonition”, ch. 7. Goddesses of Fate: Clotho held the spinning wheel of life, Lachesis led it, and Atropos cut the thread of life. An allusion to Valentine and his emanation theory of aeons. Compare beginning of the third book. "Stromat". For the opinion of Christians about this, see the end of the VI book. "Stromat". A hint of a game of "ostrakind". It consisted of the children being divided into two parties, one of which chose white, the other black. They threw a shard or a shell. If it fell with the white side up, then that party had to chase the other, and vice versa. “On the State,” not far from the beginning of the book. VII. There, at the end of the book. III. - Compare in the same Vth book. "Stromat" in Chap. 14th. Compare "Stromata", book. I, in ch. 19th, and "Stromata", book. VI, in ch. 5th. The writer wants to say that the name of God the Father was proclaimed to the faithful through the Son; The name of God the Creator is known to the pagans from the works of creation. "On the State", Book X. Compare "Teacher", book. I, ch. 8. Or Pindar, or Bacchylides. Compare beginning of the second book. "Stromat". St. Basil the Great explained this in detail in his treatise “On Reading Greek Writers.”