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1. The plan according to which we will further present the material of these “Notes”
In the sixth and seventh books of these, in the spirit of the true philosophy of our Gnostic “Notes” (Stromat), after the fullest possible outpouring of the morality we preach and after depicting the life of a perfect sage (Gnostic), we will continue to prove to the secular sages that the one who accepts our teachings does not become an apostate at all, as they claim, but a pious person and the only true admirer of God. With this in mind, we will briefly touch on the teachings he accepts and the customs he observes. It goes without saying that we will entrust all this to writing to the extent that this is permitted by the importance of these secrets 749.
This is our task. For the Lord commanded us to take care of the food that endures to eternal life (John 6:27). And the prophet says: Blessed is he who sows on land irrigated with water, where ox and donkey graze (Isa. 32:20). What does it mean? And the fact that by a common faith one people is formed from Jews and pagans. But the weak, according to the judgment of the Apostle, eats vegetables (Rom. 14:2). Already with three books of our “Educator” a Christian from the cradle is accepted for education and guidance. They instruct him and confirm him in this way of life, to which he is disposed through the awakening of faith by catechization, which prepares in the soul of the convert, already disposed to virtue, the ground for accepting later the treasures of knowledge. Let us repeat once again: by familiarizing the pagans with the details of our teachings, we will give them the opportunity to know that by persecuting the true worshipers of God, they are committing an ungodly act.
True to the name and property of our “Stromata”, in which we set out our explanations, we will then resolve some objections raised by both the Hellenes and the barbarians (Jews) regarding the coming in the flesh of our Lord. So, the meadows of this creation of ours are dotted with various flowers; it is like a garden, which is decorated with different types of large trees; but they do not grow here grouped by genus or species. Our collection, in this respect, is not like the works of those authors who, when discussing well-known scientific matters in them, accordingly give them different names: sometimes “Helikon”, sometimes “Sotov”, sometimes “Kovrov”. Our “Stromats” look exactly like meadows. Here, in the manner of meadow flowers, thousands of objects are combined and mixed, because they are presented by us in the order in which they come to our minds; we sketch out our thoughts without order and in unartificial language; sometimes we scatter them even on purpose. Written down in this way, they become for us a fire hidden under the ashes, blown up as needed.
If this creation accidentally falls into the hands of a reader who may be initiated into the secrets of knowledge, then it will force him, not without some difficulty, to find something that may be suitable for him and which he can use. Justice requires that food should be preceded by work; Isn’t it all the more just that work should precede knowledge for those who go to salvation and eternal bliss along the narrow and difficult path (Matthew 7:14), the road according to royal truth? What is our knowledge essentially? What is it that serves as a garden and paradise for our spirit? This is our Lord himself, in whom we are established as in good soil (Rom. 11:17), after having been torn out of the barren soil of our former life. Transplantation promotes the goodness of the fetus. Once again: light and knowledge, this is our Lord into whom we have been transplanted.
There are two types of knowledge, just as there are two types of understanding and understanding: one is in connection with external feelings, the other with an internal, spiritual feeling; The first of these methods of cognition, generally so-called, is found in all people in general (the other is not in all). A similar distinction needs to be made. Knowledge based on the sensory perception of things around us belongs as much to beings endowed with reason as to those who have not received it as their inheritance. God save me from giving the name of knowledge to crude concepts that arise only from sensory perception. Knowledge, primarily and truly worthy of this name, has as its final sign reason and intelligence. Thus, there is no knowledge other than purely rational knowledge, which is acquired apart from the senses; and this simple act of the mind takes place only in the cognition of things comprehensible only by reason. Oh, what a wonderful man, exclaims David, compassionate towards those who are mistaken and perishing on false paths! He will lend and come to their aid, supplying them with the word of truth (Rom.
3:11 ; 1Sol. 2:8). But his compassion is not something reckless and thoughtless, no. He is defined in it and shares his speeches with deep and wise intelligibility. Such is the man who divided his wealth among the poor (Ps. 111:5-9).
2. The Hellenic writers borrowed their scientific positions not only from the sacred and Jewish books, but also from each other.
Before we begin to study the subjects we have outlined, we will, in the form of a preface to the sixth book, add here what we did not manage to set out in the fifth book of our “Stromata”. Proving that symbolism is of ancient origin and that not only the prophets, but also most of the Hellenic sages, as well as many of the nations and barbarians, used an allegorical way of expressing their thoughts, naturally began to remind us of these very revealed mysteries. But we will wait to present them, postponing this until the moment at which we begin to refute the teachings of the Hellenic sages about the principles, for these secrets, which we will show later, also fall within the scope of the study of these principles.
As for the present moment, since it has already been proven that the mysterious meaning of Hellenic teachings becomes fully clear only in the light of the truths set forth by us and transmitted by Scripture, through the publication of which in our arguments - not to express ourselves too arrogantly - the knowledge of the fruits of truth is revealed by the pagans: then let us call here Hellas itself as a witness against itself to convince it that it is really guilty of those borrowings of which he is exposed. Writers (secondary), openly borrowing from each other various truths that belong to primary writers, confirm that book plagiarism was developed between them to infinity; Consequently, they accuse themselves of being plagiarists; Moreover, against their own wishes, they testify that they in vain took credit for the truth received from us and that they secretly transmitted it to their nation.
Seeing how brazenly they extend their hand to the private property of their own fellow tribesmen and fellow citizens, can one expect from them a respectful attitude towards our treasures? Let us leave aside their teaching philosophy. The most opposing schools admit themselves, no doubt in order to prevent the reproach of ingratitude, that they received the most important of their teachings from Socrates. In support of our position, we have provided only a few pieces of evidence, borrowing them from the most famous of the Hellenic writers. This evidence sufficiently convinces the reader that in various eras these borrowings were quite practiced by book plagiarists. So, let's turn to the presentation of our subject.
What could be more impudent and more terrible than a woman?
There is nothing more terrible and unbearable than a woman (Odis. 11:427)
Caution always wins over brute force.
The woodcutter cuts down a tree not so much with strength as with dexterity (Il. 23:316)
Elsewhere the same Museum writes:
How fertile soil crowns an ash tree with leaves;
And just as some fall, while others are born:
This is how human generations follow one after another.
Homer does nothing more than reproduce these verses when he says:
The wind strips the tree of its leaves and scatters them;
When spring returns, it reproduces new ones.
This is how human generations pass: some are born, others die.
(Il. 6:146–9; cf. Sirach 14:19).
Homer expressed this idea:
One should not make noises over the ashes of the dead.
And immediately Archilochus and Cratinus pick her up.
One should not curse the dead;
It is disgusting to praise oneself about the dead.
The same Archilochus drew from Homer in other cases. This one writes:
I have sinned and I am not ashamed of this, because many others have sinned with me (Il. 9:116).
And Archilochus reproduces this verse like this:
I did something wrong; but in my misfortune I am not left without a comrade.
The same should be said about another Homeric verse. Homer says:
Ares, showing favor first to one party, then to another,
He sacrifices to those who, having defeated the enemy, have just now made a sacrifice to the darkness to himself. (Il. 18:309).
And Archilochus conveys this Homeric verse in the following form:
I will do this because Ares patronizes everyone equally.
Victory is in the hands of the Gods (Il. 7:102).
In the iambics, Archilochus becomes an encouragement to youth, arousing courage in them and sounds like this:
Never washing your feet and falling asleep on the ground
And Euripides in his Erechtheus writes:
And they do not wash their feet in any source.
According to the Homeric verse:
Some find pleasure in one activity, others in another (Odis. 14: 228) and Archilochus says:
Some rejoice in one thing, others in another.
And Euripides in Aeneas repeats after them:
Some prefer this way of life, while others prefer another.
Let a happy man lock himself in his house.
But let the unfortunate person not leave it either.
And Euripides was not slow to exclaim the same thing on his tragic scene:
Happy is the one who can hide his happiness inside his home.
Almost the same thing is repeated by the comic poet Menander:
Hide your happiness behind the walls of your home.
Here you will remain free. Otherwise, you will renounce true happiness.
An exile has no true friend;
and Euripides (in Medea, art. 561) changed his words as follows:
Friends shun their friend as soon as he becomes poor.
Alas! Oh, woe! My daughter! I ruined you by marrying you to a man younger than you.
Your husband takes a woman younger than himself as his mistress; his wife is looking for some adventurer.
Euripides reworks this text as follows:
A young man should not be married to an old woman. Otherwise, it will happen that one will sigh for the pleasures of another bed,
And the abandoned spouse will be plotting disastrous plans.
Euripides wrote in Medea (v. 618):
The gifts of an evil man are always disastrous (Il. 9:378)
And Sophocles, following him, composes the following iambic verse in his “furious Ajax”:
The gifts of the enemy are not gifts: they are always disastrous.
The satiety that accompanies wealth gives rise to shamelessness;
Theognis repeats this thought and, moreover, in almost the same expressions:
If wealth falls into the hands of a bad person, then satiety with it is reflected in reckless actions.
We find a similar imitation of this in Thucydides (book 2, chapter 84). “Most people, he says, if they experience a few moments of unexpected happiness, inevitably deviate into shameful deeds.” The Philist reproduces this same passage as follows: “Prosperity, accompanied by prudence and truthfulness, provides us with a name most of all and protects us most reliably from misfortune. Most people, if they unexpectedly experience a few moments of happiness, will certainly forget themselves and fall into impudence.”
Children born from parents leading a moderate and austere life
They are stronger than others and more beautiful.
Critias writes: “A person needs to be educated even before he is born. How? The child will need to have a strong physique if the father does not shy away from gymnastic exercises; if he eats nourishing and healthy food and tires his body with hard work; – if the mother of the unborn child has a healthy physique and maintains her bodily strength through physical labor.”
Homer depicts Hephaestus forging a shield in these terms:
He depicted on it the earth, sky and sea,
Adding to this the picture of the endless ocean
Pherikid the Syrian writes in turn: “Zeus is weaving a wide and magnificent cloak. He depicts the sky, the earth and the depths of the ocean with multi-colored paints.”
Shame is at the same time both useful to a person and dangerous (Il. XXIV, 45),
and Euripides after him in his Erechtheus writes:
What can I say about shame? I am absolutely perplexed. In some cases it is necessary, in others it is a great evil.
Compare with each other writers who flourished in the same era and followed the same principles of life and you will notice in them traces of their mutual influence on each other. For example, Euripides says in Orestes:
The sweet beauty of sleep cures all ills.
and Sophocles in Eryuphilus exclaims:
Go to sleep. Sleep will heal you from all diseases.
Euripides in Antigone says:
An illegitimate child has only a shameful name;
His nature is the same as that of a legitimate child; and Sophocles in the Alevadas answers him:
The nature of all good things is the same.
In Euripides' Temen I read:
God helps the worker;
Happiness never follows those whose actions are not impeccable.
In "Alexander" Euripides says:
Time will enlighten me. Are you good or bad?
I will learn from this truthful witness.
And in Hippo, Sophocles says:
Don't hide the truth from me. Time, from whose eyes and ears nothing escapes,
There is the best revealer of all secrets.
Let's continue this parallel.
Nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Olympian Zeus.
And Solon begins one of his elegies like this:
Brilliant daughters of Mnemosyne and Olympian Zeus.
Euripides, paraphrasing this verse from Homer:
Who are you? Where is your homeland? Where are your parents?
develops it in “Aegeus” into the following iambics:
What country, we ask, do you come from?
Why are you wandering in a foreign land?
Where is your homeland? In what direction should I look for it?
Who are your parents? Whose son should we call you?
But what? Doesn't Theognis say:
Its moderate use is beneficial.
And Panyuasiy writes after him:
When consumed in moderation, wine is a gift from the gods and is beneficial;
If used in excess, it becomes disastrous.
I will repay the stolen fire with evil, which will be a delight for everyone.
and Euripides repeats this verse in the following expressions:
Instead of fire, a woman appeared.
The scourge is even more terrible and difficult to defeat.
It is impossible for me to satisfy the desires of my belly,
This cruel tyrant, who causes so many misfortunes to man
And Euripides answers him in time:
Everything obeys the demands of the womb; this is the fatal source of all our disasters.
The comic poet Callias barely uttered this verse:
With madmen and others, everyone has to be mad.
As Menander already picked it up in his comedy “The Sale” and writes:
The human mind is often misled by gifts as well as by deeds.
Wisdom is not always timely;
Sometimes with crazy people you have to be crazy.
A man's gifts often cause his ruin;
Augeas learned this idea and writes:
The human mind is often misled by gifts as well as by deeds.
There is no treasure more precious for a man than a virtuous wife;
If she is an evil woman, then there is no scourge worse than this.
And Simonides, in turn, expresses the same idea as follows:
There is no treasure that can be equal in value to a virtuous wife;
On the contrary, there is nothing more terrible than an evil wife.
Epicharmus gives us this warning:
No matter how long you are destined to live,
Think that you only have one moment left to live.
Euripides repeats the same warning:
Since wealth is an unreliable good,
Then why don’t we live at least away from all the turmoil and anxiety?
Human life is a series of vicissitudes;
And Posidippus imitates him and writes:
There is no person who could walk the path of this life,
Without experiencing sorrows. But there are no such
Who would be unhappy until the end of his days.
And after them, Plato appeals to us that man, by his very nature, is a being capable of enduring various changes in his life.
Oh, miserable human life!
How transitory and changeable you are!
Today you soar into the clouds,
And tomorrow you descend into the abyss;
There is no fixed point at which a mortal can stop,
Is it only when, at the behest of Zeus,
He will come across the grave, the last pitfall of life.
Difil, in turn, says:
A life completely free from disasters,
There are no sorrows or worries.
Violence, deceit, and disease poison the days of each of us.
Only death is the deliverer from all troubles;
She frees us from all of them,
Lulling us into a deep sleep in the grave.
Further, in one of his tragedies, Euripides said:
Happiness has more than one type;
The gods send us unexpected events.
And the tragic poet Theodectus conveys this same thought as follows:
Human affairs are unstable and move among vicissitudes.
Few mortals are granted by the Divine
Succeed in everything and reach old age,
Crowned with gray hair, never having experienced misfortune.
Moschion the comedian immediately repeats after him:
Happy, thrice happy is he of mortals,
Whose life constantly flowed in a flat bed.
You will also find that the words of Theognis:
It is unwise to marry a young woman to an old man;
She won't listen to him, like a ship
seem to have been copied from the comedian Aristophanes, for this one also writes:
An old husband is not suitable for a young wife.
I will sing the praises of Cupid, young child,
Whose curls are crowned with garlands of flowers.
Cupid tyrannizes the gods too; and only he tames people.
Love conquers not only men and women;
She soars into the heavens, disturbing the peace of the gods;
She reigns in the depths even of the seas.
But fearing that the desire to prove how Hellenic writers, due to their penchant for borrowing, laid hands on thoughts and truths that did not belong to them at all, would lengthen our reasoning without benefit, let us cite in support of our words the testimony of Hippias, the Eleatic sophist, who defended a thought identical to ours. He testifies: “Some of these things have already been said by Orpheus; others were lightly touched by the Museum; still others are expressed elsewhere. Some are found in Hesiod, others in Homer; some from some poets, others from others, or from prophets; then finally among Hellenic writers, then among some barbarians. As for me, having organized everything that is most interesting and homogeneous, I will write a special word about it, new and varied in form.” To those who would imagine that philosophy, history and oratory are not involved in these borrowings, we will prove the opposite with several examples characteristic of each of these literary branches.
Alcmaeon the Crotonian said: “It is easier to beware of an enemy than of a friend.” And Sophocles repeats this in his Antigone, saying:
Do you know a plague more disgusting than a wicked friend?
Xenophon conveys the same saying in this way: “The surest way to harm your enemies is to appear to be their friend” (Cyropedia book 5).
Euripides in Telephes says:
Being Hellenes, we will serve the barbarians.
Thrasymachus, in his speech about the Larissians, exclaims: “And it is we, the Hellenes, who will slavishly serve Archelaus, the barbarian”?
For souls (of fire) death is transformation into water;
For water to be death is earth;
From water the earth arises, and from the earth water arises.
From water the soul is born, completely turning into air.
Heraclitus appropriates these provisions to himself and conveys them as follows: “For souls, death is transformation into water; for water transformation into earth. The earth produces water, and from water the soul is born."
Athamas the Pythagorean says: “The origin of the universe is this. There are four elements: fire, earth, water and air; it is from them that things are formed.” And Empedocles the Agrigentan writes after them:
Listen. There are four beginnings:
Fire, water, earth and air, which has no boundaries.
From these four principles were born, are born and will be born
All things past, present and future.
Plato said: “That is why the gods, knowing the malice of people, quickly cut off from life those whom they love more.” (Compare Wisdom 4:7–15). Menander writes:
Those who are loved by the gods die young.
Euripides said in Oenomaus:
We make assumptions about secret things
We judge the hidden by positive things.
And Hyperides writes: “It is necessary that those who teach others should try to reveal hidden things through the signs they investigate.” Isocrates said in accordance with this: “The past should serve us as a basis for assumptions about the future.” Andokid also repeats after them: “We should use the past as a torch to illuminate the future.”
Counterfeit gold and silver are not evil.
The husband is smart and without special adaptations
Can easily open a fake.
But if in the chest of a person you consider a friend
A callous and empty heart is hidden;
If deception lives in this heart:
Then the gods did not come up with anything and did not give people anything more deceitful.
This is a fraud that is difficult to discover.
O Zeus! You, who revealed obvious signs to people
To discover fake gold,
Why didn't you mark the villain with a special sign?
This would make him different from other people.
Hyperides also writes: “People have no signs on their faces by which one could judge their thoughts.”
A madman is one who kills a father, leaving the children to live (Odis. 3, 196).
And Herodotus (book 1) writes: “I see now that you acted as a man who killed his father and spared his children should have acted.”
Sophocles in his Antigone (v. 1028) writes:
Since my father and mother died,
How can I hope for my brother?
And Herodotus (3:119) writes: “Since I have neither father nor mother, there is no hope left for me to have another brother.”
Elders become children for the second time.
And even earlier, Sophocles wrote it in Peleus:
Alone now I am awake next to the elder Peleus, son of Eakov.
I am raising him again, so to speak;
For old age is a second childhood.
The speaker Antiphans reproduced this thought in the following expressions: “The cares with which an old man has to be surrounded are like caring for a child.” – We also read from Plato: “The Elder, this is a secondary child.”
In Thucydides (1:78) the following phrase is found: “Only the Marathonians withstood the danger.” Demosthenes, in one of his speeches, exclaims: “I swear this by the shadows of those who fought at Marathon.”
But let’s not leave the following examples without mention.
Kratin speaks in "Pyutin".
You may be aware of plans and intrigues;
and the speaker Andokidas repeats: “Judges, you know most of the plans and intrigues of my enemies. You also know their strongest desire to destroy me.” Nicias does the same in his speech about the pledge directed against Lysias: “Judges, you see the plans and intrigues of my opponents and their efforts to bring me to ruin.” Let us also listen to Aeschines. He says: “You know, Athenians, the plans and intrigues of my opponents, this crowd of rebels, ready to rush into battle.” - Demosthenes also says in one of his speeches: “I believe, Athenians, that you know all the harassment and intrigue that is in use in this struggle.” - Similar to Filin, reproducing this phrase like this: “Each of you, of course, knows, judges, what intrigues are being set in motion in this struggle, and what plans this crowd of rebels harbors.”
Isocrates, by the way, has the following statement: “It’s as if she is a sister to money, and not to him.” And Lysias in his “Orphics” repeats: “It becomes obvious that he was a brother to gold rather than to people.”
My friend! If only we had avoided the war.
Then we would never be subject to old age or death.
You wouldn't see me here fighting in the front row;
I wouldn’t involve you in the dangers of heroic combat either.
But since we are threatened with countless deaths,
And we have no way to avoid them,
Then let us go forward and glorify ourselves by putting to death one of our noble enemies;
Or by our death we will give one of them an opportunity for glory.
And from Theopompus we listen to the echo of these verses: “If, having evaded the present danger, we could spend the rest of our days in undisturbed security, then our attachment to life would not have anything strange in itself. But even outside of battles, we face so many dangers from everywhere that wouldn’t it be better to fall in battle?”
The sage Chilo wrote the following saying: “Vouch for someone, and immediately you will bring trouble upon yourself.” - Epicharmus reproduces it in the following expressions: “Guarantee is in a filial relationship with ruin and in a maternal relationship with losses.”
The physician Hippocrates writes: “Time, country, age and disease must be taken into account.” And Euripides repeats in hexameters.
Who wants to heal for sure,
He should start treatment
After a preliminary study of the country and the customs of its inhabitants.
Homer warns us that
It is not in man's power to escape death;
And Arkhip uses this verse and writes: “Death is a debt, which sooner or later, but has to be paid.” – Demosthenes also said: “The end of life for everyone is death; You cannot evade its blade even if you lock yourself in the depths of your house.”
Herodotus (6:86) conveys the following response from the Pythia to the Spartan Glaucus: “For God to say and do the same thing.”
Thought and action are one and the same.
But even earlier than Aristophanes, Parmenides the Eleathean repeated: “To think and to exist are one and the same.”
Plato writes: “We will prove that it may not be without reason that the feeling of love is generated by sight, that this feeling is nourished by hope, that it develops under the influence of memory, and that habit supports it.” – The comic poet Philemon reproduces these thoughts of Plato in this way:
We start with what we see;
Surprise follows;
And under the influence of all this, love is formed.
Demosthenes said: “We are all condemned to death,” etc. And Fanocles in his book “On Love, or Beauty” writes:
The thread that the Parks spin is unbreakable.
There is no way to break it; no one living on earth has yet thought of this.
Plato said: “As soon as the first sprout of a plant blossoms, the embryo itself already contains all the conditions for development and maturity.” And the historian repeats after him: “Nature itself has arranged it in such a way that as soon as the first time of flowering of a plant has passed, its juices already harden.”
The following passage is from Empedocles:
I was once a boy, a girl,
Bush, bird, sea fish
He borrowed from Euripides. In Chrysippus he writes:
Nothing that is born dies.
In the eternal rotation of nature, objects are repeated,
Only in new and different forms.
Plato in his Republic designs a community of wives. Euripides writes in his Protesilaus:
And let the marriage bed be common
Euripides expressed the following idea:
For a moderate person what is necessary is absolutely sufficient.
And Epicurus repeats: “The greatest of wealth is the ability to be content with what is necessary.”
Be fair. Justice determines firmness, fearlessness and calmness.
And Epicurus echoes him: “The most important of the benefits that follow justice is freedom from all kinds of confusion and anxiety.”
These numerous examples, proving the tendency of the Hellenes to borrow from each other the essence of thoughts, are completely sufficient to enlighten the minds of those who are capable of understanding anything. But the Hellenic scientists were not content with assimilating thought, nor were they content with borrowing and expressing it; They did not limit themselves to paraphrasing it. We will prove this now. We will expose them for their complete borrowing. They appropriated entire works of others; They then published them without a twinge of conscience under their own name. This is what Evgamon the Cyrene did with the whole book of Thesprotians, which belonged to the Museum; Pisander the Camiraean with the "Heraclea" of the Lindian Piso, and Panuasius the Halicarnassian with the "Conquest of Oechalia" belonging to Cleophilus of Samos. The great poet Homer himself borrowed word for word from Orpheus’ “The Death of Dionysus” a passage beginning like this:
Similar to a leafy olive tree, which the gardener tends with care, etc.
What Orpheus says in his Theogony about Kronos:
His head and powerful neck are tilted
Like a person already in the sleep of death, etc.
Homer applied it in the Odyssey to the image of the Cyclops (Polyphemus, Odys. 9, 372).
Hesiod's passage about Melampodes, beginning with the words:
It's nice to listen to stories about that,
There is evidence here of both good and evil,
borrowed verbatim from the poet Museum.
Aristophanes in his comedy “The First Celebration of Thesmophoria” introduced verses from Kratino’s comedy “Firemen”. – The comic poet Plato and Aristophanes in Daedalus simply robbed themselves of each other. – Filimon the comedian, allowing himself to slightly modify one of Aristophanes’s witty comedies, did what Filimonovo did from Aristophanes’ “Kokal” into “The Thrown Child.” – The compilers Eumelus and Akuzilaus simply dismember Hesiod’s verses, transpose them into prose, and then publish this arrangement under their own name – Melesagoras was very brazenly robbed by the historians Gorgias the Leontian and Eudemus of Naxos; Vion the Proconnesian did the same with him. This one, moreover, published only in an abbreviated form his history of ancient Cadmus. - Amphilochus, Aristocles, Leander, Anaximenes, Hellanicus, Hecataeus, Androtion, Philochorus, Dieuchis the Megarian simply simply copied into their works the beginning of the speech from Hellanicus’ “Deucalionia” with which this one begins. Let us keep silent about the borrowings of Heraclitus of Ephesus, the best part of whose works belongs to Orpheus.
– Plato borrowed the doctrine of the immortality of the soul from Pythagoras, and this one owes it to the Egyptians. – The Platonists left us many works; but with all of them they prove that the main teachings of Plato were included in the teachings of the Stoics and Aristotle. – Something more needs to be said. The teachings of Epicurus, in their main features, were borrowed by him from Democritus. But let's be content with a real quick listing of names. My whole life would not be enough if I wanted to specifically engage in the discovery of all the borrowings that they entered into out of a desire to satisfy their vain pride and if I wanted to point out the ridiculousness of their arrogance with the most beautiful teachings, which appeared among them under the name of national treasures, which in fact were borrowed by them from us.
3. Hellenic scientists even included miracles in their national history and mythology, in imitation of those told in the sacred. Scripture.
So, it must be considered proven that Hellenic scientists borrowed many of their teachings from the barbarians. But they didn't stop there. Their national ideology found food for itself in the wondrous miracles that, by Divine omnipotence, through the mediation of some righteous people, were performed in our midst for the sanctification of us; They only distorted the Hellenic miracles.
But first we will ask them here: “Are the facts you tell in your mythology, O Hellenes, true or false?” But they will never admit that they are false. One cannot expect them to testify with their own lips to their madness, which goes so far as to invent purely chimerical things. Undoubtedly, they will claim that all their nonsense inventions of this kind bear the stamp of truth. But in this case, on what basis do they reject the reliability of the miracles performed by Moses and other prophets? Do they not know that the goodness of God, which extends equally to all people, leads some of them to salvation by presenting them with commandments, others with threats, others with miracles, and still others with comforting promises?
Once a long drought visited Hellas. Its consequences were infertility and hunger. Those who were the last to be spared went on a pilgrimage to Delphi and here they asked the priestess how they could help their own misfortune and get rid of the terrible scourge that was punishing them. The priestess answered: “There is no other way than to ask for prayers from Aeacus.” Aeacus condescended to the requests addressed to him, entered one of the mountains of Hellas 750, stretched out his clean hands to the sky and, calling on the common Father of people, begged Him to come to the aid of unfortunate Hellas. As soon as he finished his prayer, thunderclaps were heard: they were a joyful sign that the air had begun to fill with vapors. Then rain poured down from the clouds in torrents, watering the whole country, and on the earth, moistened by the prayers of Aeacus. a rich harvest grew.
But this is the same thing that Scripture says. And Samuel cried to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder, and rain fell during the harvest (1 Samuel 12:18). What? Is this not convincing proof that one and the same God, through the forces of nature subordinate to Him, will rain on the righteous and the unjust (Matt. 5:45)? Our priests The Scriptures are full of other examples indicating that God fulfills requests addressed to Him by the mouths of the righteous.
The Hellenes further narrate that when one day there were no favorable winds, Aristaeus on the island of Chios turned to Olympian Zeus with prayer and sacrifice. The disaster was great. The fruits of the earth have all dried up due to excessive heat. This is due to the lack of wind, which usually refreshes the harvest. But Aristaeus, with his prayers, easily managed to turn the beneficial breath of the winds onto the country.
During the invasion of Xerxes, the Delphic Pythia uttered the following prophecy: “Delphians, make a sacrifice to the winds and everything will go for the better.” The Delphians erected an altar, made a sacrifice to the winds, and thus secured their alliance. What happened was that the terrible force of the enemy fleet was scattered by stormy winds near Cape Sepiada (Herod. 7:178).
Empedocles the Agrigentan was nicknamed "Komosanemos", that is, the tamer of the winds. They say that he calmed the wind that blew from Mount Agrigentum and caused not only plague diseases, but also the cause of childlessness in women. That is why he himself writes in the poems that belong to him:
You calm the wrath of the tireless winds,
Falling down on the country and draining its fields.
You arbitrarily replace some of the winds with others.
They also say about him that he constantly walked accompanied by a crowd of people who were eager to learn their future from him or who had suffered from severe illnesses for a long time.
So, this is from our priests. The Greeks learned from the Scriptures that the righteous can heal diseases and perform signs and wonders. The Hellenic belief in this has no other basis. And if they want to be convinced that the winds are controlled by some forces or some foreign power, then let them listen to the singing of the Psalmist: How desirable are Your dwellings, O Lord of hosts (Ps. 83:1). This is the Lord of powers, principalities and powers. Moses, commanding us not to separate from Him, says: Take care to circumcise your heart and do not remain stiff-necked in the future, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. God is great and strong, etc. (Deut. 10:16–17). Isaiah also says: Lift up your eyes to the heights of heaven and behold Him who created all things (Isaiah 50:26). This is where the opinion of some arose that contagious diseases, hail, storms and other similar disasters arise not only from the disorderly action of the elements, but also from the wrath of demons and evil spirits.
The Magi of Cleon are said to carefully observe the nature of the clouds; and when they notice clouds promising to burst into hail, they try to ward off the anger and thunderstorm from the evil spirits with sacrifices and chants. And when there are no sacrificial animals in sight, they bleed from their fingers; This is what they replace sacrificial blood with. The soothsayer Diotima, having advised the Athenians, even before the plague invaded them, to make a sacrifice to the gods, delayed the beginning of it for ten whole years. The war that the Persians threatened the Hellenes with was postponed for the same period, thanks to the sacrifices recommended by Epimenides the Crotonian. “Call these people whatever you want, gods or angels, we don’t care,” others say. How is it not the case when people, knowledgeable in things of this kind, placed in many churches the graves of the dead instead of statues of gods, calling their souls geniuses and inspiring people to honor them with a special cult, since Providence, as a reward for the purity of life, clothed them with power to ascend into the regions surrounding the earth and monitor human needs?
They knew that the very nature of some souls is such that they should be imprisoned in bodily bonds. But this question will find its place when we talk about Angels.
Democritus was nicknamed “wisdom” because he often predicted the future by observing the celestial bodies. His brother Damascus, who surrounded him with all the cares of benevolent hospitality, was immediately rewarded for his tenderness. Democritus, after observing the luminaries, told him that heavy and prolonged rain would soon fall. Those who repeated his words hastened to remove the harvest, so that before the end of summer it was already in the granaries. Those who did not believe, being caught by a sudden rain that fell without interruption, lost their entire harvest.
And if this is so according to their own stories, then why do the Hellenes refuse to believe that the Lord appeared in all his glory on Sinai, when the entire mountain was engulfed in flames, and the vegetation that covered it remained intact and trumpet sounds were heard shaking the air, but no trumpets were seen or were there? By the descent of God to earth we must understand nothing more than the fulfillment by earth-born of the Divine will, extending to the whole world and with it bringing inexplicable clarity (1 Tim. 6:16). This is the meaning of the allegory of Scripture. In addition, according to the testimony of Aristobulus, a mysterious flame was visible on the mountain; and around the mountain, which required at least five days for a round trip, no less than a million people were crowded, not counting those who had not yet reached maturity; and this flame, crowning the mountain, apparently was all the people located in that area. Consequently, the Divine manifestation was not partial, for the infinite Divinity fills the entire universe.
Historians also say that on the island of Britain there is a mountain, and under this there is a cave with an opening at the top 751. As soon as the wind blows, bursting into this abyss, it is reflected from the inner walls with a thousand twists and the sounds of cymbals being rhythmically struck are heard. In the forests you can often hear sounds similar to the voices of birds, and meanwhile they are produced by a fierce hurricane raging in the trees and their foliage.
But there are better explanations than this. Those who have studied the history of Persos say that in the highest regions of the country inhabited by magicians, among a vast plateau, three mountains rise in a row, one next to the other. Arriving at the base of the first, the traveler hears some unclear voices, which he takes for the screams of hundreds of thousands of people on the battlefield. As soon as he reaches the central mountain, the clarity and intensity of this noise doubles. When he approaches the third rock, these sounds become simply chants of praise and hymns of victory. The reasons for all this noise, in my opinion, should be sought in the smoothness of the walls and their hollowness. And regarding the sounds heard in the cave, I think that they are formed by the wind: the air, escaping from it and driven there again, makes the strongest sounds there. This is how I explain all these phenomena to myself.
However, God, for whom nothing is impossible, and without the mediation of any agent can with all vividness produce in the ear the impression of a sound, even if the sound itself was not heard from anywhere. The Almighty will thereby testify to His greatness, showing that He can act against the laws of nature if His goodness finds it possible to convert to faith and observation of the commandments someone who does not yet believe and has not accepted faith. In Sinai, it was all the easier for something like this to happen. This mountain is high and cloudy. Why couldn’t the air, set in motion by a strong push, produce various sounds here? That is why the prophet says: You heard the voice of His words, but you did not see the image (Deut. 4:12).
It now becomes clear to you how the voice of the Lord, the disembodied Logos, the power of the word of God, this luminous Word of the Lord, the Truth itself, descended from heaven into the bowels of the church, how Christ could manifest his secrets in the properties of light and other forces of nature.
4. Most of the creeds included in Hellenic wisdom have their primary source in the accounts of the priests of the Egyptian and Indian gymnosophists, both of whom were famous for their learning.
But we have other evidence at hand that proves that the Hellenic scientists borrowed from us the most glorious of their teachings; Then they appropriated them to themselves, as if they were their own invention. They made similar borrowings from other barbarian nations. From each of the foreign schools they learned the most important truths, and then boasted of them as if they were their own. They especially borrowed a lot from the Egyptians. The most important of these borrowings is the doctrine of transmigration. The Egyptians actually had a whole teaching of purely national origin on this subject.
And in general, Egyptian wisdom was distinguished by its purely national originality. In confirmation of this it is enough to refer to their sacred ceremonies. Their sacred procession was usually opened by a singer, holding one of the musical symbols in his hands. He was reputed to be an expert in the two books of Hermes, the first of which contained hymns in honor of the gods; the second is the rules of conduct for kings. Behind the singer was an observer of the seasons and hours of the day (astrologer, oroscope), holding in his hands a clepsydra 752 and a palm branch, symbols of astrology. He knew by heart and always had on his lips four books of Hermes about astrology. The first dealt with fixed and visible stars: the second with stars and solar and lunar light; the other two spoke of the rise of the luminaries. In the third row was the sacred scribe. His head was decorated with wings, in his hands there was a book and a ruler, which contained ink and canes used for writing.
He knew the entire system of hieroglyphs, cosmography, geography, the path of the sun, moon and five planets; in addition - the chorography of Egypt, the course of the Nile River, churches with their utensils and other sacred places and their accessories; and finally, he was an expert in proportion and in general everything that was necessary during worship and religious ceremonies. Following the named priests was the stolist, i.e., the one in charge of the cult utensils. He carried the square of justice and the cup of libations. This was an expert in everything related to the doctrine of sacrifices and observable rituals. There were only ten books that talked about the honor that should be given to each of the gods and about the secrets of the Egyptian religion, and they were divided like this: about sacrifices, about firstfruits and firstborns, hymns, prayers, ceremonies, holidays and the like. The sacred procession was completed by the soothsayer, carrying on his chest the sacred amphora, which was still visible from afar by all those present. He was followed by bread-bearers with the loaves assigned for the sacrifice.
The soothsayer, since he was the manager of the sacrifice, knew perfectly all the contents of the liturgical books; and they spoke about the gods and set out all the liturgical rituals in general. This soothsayer also had supreme supervision over the distribution of taxes among the Egyptians. The number of books of Hermes, to which all were given paramount importance, reached forty-two. Of these, thirty-six contained Egyptian wisdom, which the above-mentioned priests were required to know in detail. The contents of six other books belonged to the field of pastophora 753. They presented medical information under the following divisions: human organization, diseases, organs, medicines, eye diseases, women's diseases. This was the general content of Egyptian wisdom; in particular, we do not enter.
The wisdom of the Hindus was also remarkable. And that’s why Alexander the Great was curious to personally check the rumors about Indian gymnosophists. Ten of them were presented to him, famous for the depth of their wisdom and laconicism of their answers. He began to ask them various questions, adding that if the answer was unsuccessful, the defendant would face death; the eldest of them was appointed the judge of the answers. First they asked him: “Who is greater in number, the living or the dead?” “The living,” answered the gymnosophist, because the dead cannot be taken into account.” - The second one was asked: “Where do more large animals live, in water or on land?”
“On the earth,” he answered, since water constitutes only part of it. - The third was asked: “Which of the animals is the most cunning?” He answered: “A man, because they still don’t know him.” - The fourth was asked the question: “Why did you mislead your king Savva?” He replied: “We want him to either live gloriously or die in a miserable way.” - Fifth: “Which came first, day or night?” He answered: “Night; She was a day early." This gymnosophist answered both sides of the ambiguous question. – Sixth: “How to awaken the greatest possible love for yourself?” “This means,” he answered, “is the greatest power, knowing no fear of anything.” – Seventh: “How can a person become God?” Answer: “By doing everything that is impossible for people.” – Eighth “What is stronger, life or death?” “Life, because it alone is obliged to endure disasters.” – Ninth: “Until when is it honorable for a person to live?” “As long as he considers death better than life.” – When the turn came to the tenth, Alexander ordered him to answer too, since he was the judge.
“They all answered worse than the other,” said this one. “Well,” the Macedonian remarked, “that means you will die first, having given such a judgment about them.” “But what, king,” he answered, with your promise to put to death the one who answers worse than all the others?..
The Hellenes are quite rightly accused of all kinds of borrowing. We, it seems, have sufficiently proven this with numerous evidence.
5. The Hellenes had some concept of the true God.
And that the most glorious of the Hellenes had the concept of the true God not in the form of fully developed knowledge, but on the basis of a common tradition among all people about this sublime subject 754, St. Peter in his Sermon. “So, confess,” he says, one God, recognizing Him as the Creator of all things (Gen. 1:1; Apoc. 3:14) 755. In His right hand is the beginning and end of all creatures. He sees everything, although he himself is invisible. He contains everything in His power, without being contained by anything 756. He does not need anything, whereas everyone needs Him, and everything exists only through Him alone. He is incomprehensible, eternal, immutable, uncreated. He created everything by the power of his word, that is, according to the understanding of Scripture in the spiritual and mysterious sense, by the power of his Son” 757. Peter further adds: “In worshiping this God, do not be like the Greeks.” What's so? And the fact that the best of the Hellenes, although they honored the same God with us, were not able to achieve, like us, perfect knowledge of Him, as required by the tradition emanating from the Son of God himself.
That is why he does not say: “Do not honor the same God as the Hellenes”; but: “Do not honor Him in the same way as the Greeks; do not serve Him equally with them.” The apostle changes only the type of ministry. and does not at all proclaim any new God. However, he himself can explain to us what meaning we should connect with his words: “Do not honor this God as the Greeks honor Him.” “Having fallen into shameful ignorance,” he says, and not having the clear knowledge about God that we have about Him, they sharpened statues from wood, stone, bronze, iron, gold, silver; then, having placed before them these statues made of material, which was given to them to satisfy their everyday needs and the purpose of which was to be in the hands of their slaves, they began to kneel before them. In the same way, they began to worship the creatures that were appointed by God as food for them, that is, those that fly under the heavens, and those that swim in the water, and those that reptile on the earth. Wild animals, domestic four-legged animals, rats, weasels, cats, dogs, monkeys, everything was idolized by them.
They began to dedicate their food to creatures who themselves were supposed to serve them as food. They began to sacrifice mortal things (animals) to death (to people) 758, who were revered as gods, thus turning out to be ungrateful towards the true God, whose existence was denied by their wickedness. And that this is so, that is, that the God recognized by both us and the Greeks is one and the same, although there is a difference between us in honoring Him, this is confirmed by the same Apostle with these words: “Do not honor Him in the same way as the Jews. They, imagining that they know God, but in fact not knowing Him, honor Angels, Archangels, the days of the months and the moon 759. Watch them. If the moon does not appear, then they have no holiday: neither the so-called first Sabbath, nor unleavened bread, nor the new moon, nor a holiday, nor a great day (of atonement)” (Lev. 23:21). Peter further adds as a conclusion: “Therefore, having received the tradition which is proclaimed to you in all its truth, serve God with a new ministry in Christ Jesus. For in the Holy
In the Scriptures we read the following: Behold, I am making a new covenant with you, not like the covenant I made with your fathers on Mount Horeb (Jer. 31:31–32; Heb. 8:8–10). He gave us a new covenant. The covenant with the Greeks and the Jews was an old covenant; We, Christians, representing ourselves as the third covenant people, honor Him with a new ministry.
The Apostle, if I am not mistaken, clearly proves by all of the above that although the true God was known to the Hellenes, they honored Him in a pagan way: the Jews - in a Jewish way, and not in the way they should have honored Him - in a spiritual way. The apostle further testifies that the benefits of both covenants come from the same God. This is the same God who instilled in the Hellenes the desire for wisdom, with which they glorified the Almighty. The words of the Apostle we have cited serve as irrefutable proof of this. So, those who were brought up in the teachings of the Hellenic and the children of the Law of Moses, from now on, all that are subject to the influence of faith, merge into one family and constitute one people, walking along a beneficial and saving path. They differ only in time; only it divides this people into three branches. We need to keep this in mind. Otherwise, one might think that there are three kinds of people, different in nature. In fact, this is not the case. These are only three different covenants of God with people, three revelations with which the voice of the same God addressed these three peoples. And really, pay attention.
In his saving intentions for the Jews, God sends them prophets. In the same way, among the Hellenes, He raises up virtuous people from their sons. He singles them out from the ignorant masses and makes them prophets among the people, proclaiming Divine blessings to them to the extent of their own understanding of them. Peter's "sermon" has already convinced us of this truth; Paul confirms it 760. “Take,” he also says, the books of the Hellenes; collect the prophecies of the Sibyls and you will hear that both of them proclaim the unity of God and predict the future. Take also Hystaspes 761 and read. Here you will find an even clearer and more precise revelation concerning the Son of God. Here we read that many kings are arming themselves against Christ and persecuting Him with their hatred, Him and all those who, seeking support for themselves in His name, remain faithful to Him. It speaks there of His coming, of His long-suffering.” Then, summarizing everything that has been said, the Apostle asks the following short question: “Whose property is this world and all its contents? Isn’t he a creation of God?
That is why, according to Peter, the Savior said to the Apostles: “If anyone from Israel wants to turn and repent and believe in God in My name, then his sins will be forgiven him after twelve years 762. Go scatter throughout the whole world so that no one has the right to say: We did not know.”
6. The Gospel was proclaimed equally with the Jews, both to those of the pagans whose abode was already hell, and to the living.
Just as in our days the preaching of the Gospel has found a favorable time for itself, similarly the law and the prophets were given to the barbarians (Jews) in a timely manner, just as the spirit of the Hellenes was occupied with wisdom also in a timely manner, preparing their ears to receive the sacred word. This is what the Lord their Savior said to the Jews: I heard you in an acceptable time and on the day of salvation I helped you; I have made you the mediator of my covenant with the nations; I have sent you to repopulate the earth and restore the inheritance left behind, and to say to the captives, “Come in,” and to those in darkness, “See the light” (Isaiah 49:8–9). If it is true that the Lord said to the captive Jews: Leave your bonds, if you wish, meaning by these captives voluntary captives who have taken on their shoulders unbearable burdens, then there should be no doubt that through the worship of idols, those who buried the noble abilities of the soul in the ground are living in darkness (Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:47). And it's true. Since according to the law the righteous needed faith, the Lord, healing them, said to them: Your faith has saved you (Matthew 9:22 and elsewhere).
And those who strove for righteousness in the name of their wisdom had to not only turn to faith in the Lord, but also reject idolatry. It so happened that now we see them moving towards the light that has opened before them and repenting of their previous errors. That is why the Lord proclaimed the Gospel to those in hell (1 Peter 3:19). 763. In Scripture we read about this: Hell said to the abyss: We have not seen His face, but only heard His voice (Job 28:22; 26:6). Without a doubt, these words did not belong to hell, which suddenly received a voice: they could only belong to those who were in hell and themselves fell into the abyss in much the same way as travelers sometimes voluntarily throw themselves into the sea. It was they who heard the voice of Divine grace. Only someone devoid of reason can imagine that the souls of the righteous and sinners are imprisoned in the same place; and by this he will offend Divine justice.
But what? Doesn’t Scripture say, without any circumstance or circumlocution, that the Lord proclaimed the Gospel to those who perished in the flood (1 Peter 3:19–20) or, better yet, to those who were chained and held in captivity? We talked already in the 2nd book. Stromat (ch. 9), that following the example of the Lord 764 and the Apostles preached the Gospel in hell. It turns out, in my opinion, that the most virtuous of the disciples should imitate their Teacher in the afterlife, just as they imitated Him on earth, so that the Logos could convert to himself the Jews who descended into hell, and the Apostles the pagans, or - in a word - everyone who lived righteously, in accordance with the requirements of the righteousness that was imposed on them by the law and human wisdom; but in following this they fell into frequent errors and were still far from perfect.
It was completely in accordance with the dignity of the Divine Council that all who had declared their righteousness by deed and all who had gone astray should repent of their errors, so that in the knowledge that each of them possessed they would find salvation for themselves; because, despite their place of residence, they were undeniably still from among those who represented the property of God. I hope that the Savior will not be denied the opportunity to save these people, for the purpose of His coming to earth was salvation. This was accomplished by Him through the attraction of the Gospel preaching to salvation (John 6:44; 12:32) of all those who wanted to believe in Him without regard to the place where they lived. So, if the Lord descended into hell - and that He went there, this is certain - with no other purpose than to proclaim the Gospel here, then He converted either all the dead or only the Jews. Without a doubt, all the dead. But from this it follows that all who believe will be saved, even if they belong to paganism, because even while living in the underworld they confess the name of the Lord. And it's true.
For the punishments that prompt the sinner to conversion are very beneficial and salutary and are aimed at the repentance of the sinner, and not his death (Ezek. 18:23-32; 33:11). Add to this that souls freed from this corporeal shell that subjugated them can better understand the purpose and meaning of punishment, even if they are clouded by passions. Will anyone really argue that Christ the Lord, during his descent into hell, converted only the Jews, whose knowledge and faith were far from satisfactory, for these come only from the Savior? So, it becomes obvious that God, who has no sight of persons (Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11), would send the Apostles, as here on earth, to hell to proclaim the Gospel to those of the pagans who could still be converted. The “Shepherd” is therefore right when he says: “They went down with them into the water and again came out of it vitally renewed. As for those who died before, it is true: they went there dead, but came out alive” 765. The Gospel further tells that many of the dead rose from the tombs in which they rested (Matt. 27:52).
This is without a doubt in order to be relocated to better places. What else can I say? In general, the incarnation of the Savior produced a new movement in the world; it gave impetus to a kind of worldwide movement. A righteous person, insofar as he is righteous, is not different from another righteous person, whether this one belongs to the Hellenic people or to the Jews living under the law, for God is the Lord not only of the Jews, but of all people in general (Rom. 3:29; 10:12), although of course He is a closer Father in relation to those who know Him more. If a virtuous life is equivalent to a lawful life; and to conform to the law if it means to live in harmony and with reason; if, on the other hand, those who lived virtuously before the law are children of faith (Rom. 9:3) and should be recognized as righteous, then it is obvious that those born outside the law could lead a righteous life, relying on no other help other than the voice of their conscience; and consequently being swallowed up in hell and held captive therein (1 Pet.
3:19), here too they could immediately turn and accept faith in Christ, as soon as He appeared here and as soon as they heard the Divine word of Him or His Apostles here.
And let us not forget that the Lord is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:29) and that the power of God cannot be weak. It has been proven to all those who preceded that God is good; further - that He is omnipotent and that with the same justice He can save all those who turn to Him, whether it be here on earth or in some other place. Let us not delude ourselves into the assumption that the grace of God is effective only in relation to us, no; it fills everything with itself and acts continuously. That is why in Peter’s “Sermon” it is reported that after the resurrection the Lord said to the Apostles, among other things, the following: “I have chosen you twelve in number to be My disciples and considering you worthy of this.” The Lord wanted them to be Apostles, having found them worthy of this trust in them. He sent them into the world to proclaim the Gospel to the people inhabiting it.
They were obliged to teach people that there is only one God; could foretell the future to them in the name of Christ, so that those who heard the gospel from the mouth of the Apostles and believed in it would be saved, while those who heard it on the contrary and did not believe would testify against themselves and would be deprived of the opportunity to justify themselves with the excuse: “We have not heard.” How? Didn’t the news of the Divine economy and incarnation penetrate all the way to hell, so that even there all souls, at the sounds of the Divine sermon, either repented of their past or, having renounced their faith, thereby solemnly testified that the punishment they suffered was justly imposed on them? And in fact, suppose that the Gospel was not preached to the dead before the coming of the Lord: then you will come out that both their salvation and condemnation are a matter of blatant injustice, because then neither their faith nor their unbelief could be credited to them.
Justice demanded that one of the two halves of humanity should not be condemned without being heard; but the same justice also required something else, so that only those who lived after the incarnation should not participate in the benefits of Divine truth. Addressing all souls gifted with understanding and reason, a voice from above then cried out: “Whatever your sins may be, committed in an incomplete knowledge of God (Acts 3:17–19; 17:30), they are forgiven you from the very minute you confess them in sincerity of repentance. For behold, I have set before you life and death, cries the Lord, that you may choose life (Deut. 30:15–19). Do you hear? God does not remind us of His creation of man, but says that He offered people life and death, so that everyone would reflect and choose something. In another place of Scripture on the same subject the following is said: If you are willing and obey My voice, you will enjoy the blessings of the earth, but if you do not want to obey Me, then the sword will devour you, for the Lord says so (Isaiah 1:19–20).
Let us also listen to David, or better yet, to the Lord himself, speaking in the name of this holy man; - and every person is holy, no matter who he is from the very creation of the world, who has been throughout the ages or who will yet be saved. So, the Lord says: My heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Even My flesh will rest in hope, for You will not leave my soul in hell and will not allow Your Holy One to decay. You have made Me know the way of life; Your face will fill me with joy (Ps. 15:9–11; Acts 2:26–28).
So, following the example of the people chosen by the Lord, the holy people are made up not only of Jews, but also of all pagans who have turned to the faith, to whom the prophets give the name “proselytes.” Priest Scripture is therefore right in saying that the ox and the bear will live together (Isa. 11:7) 766. The Jew is here allegorically represented by the image of an ox, an animal that wears a yoke and is declared clean in the law because it regurgitates the cud and the horny growth of its hooves is cloven. The bear, an unclean and wild animal, is a symbol of the pagan. The cubs born from her are a shapeless mass of meat; by licking them with her tongue, the mother gives them her own likeness and character. Is it not in a similar way that a converted pagan is transformed under the influence of the Logos? Being torn out of pagan life, he experiences the transformation of his rough nature into a tame one and, like an ox, finally becomes pure. This is the same meaning of the following prophetic saying: The sirens will glorify Me, as well as the sparrow chicks and all the animals of the desert (Isa. 43:20). Desert animals, i.e.
world are known to be unclean. The prophet means by the inhabitants of these secluded places the pagans whom faith has not yet softened, whose life is vile and who have not yet been purified by the daughter of faith, righteousness. Transformed by the Christian faith, they, from the wild ones they were before, become the people of God, achieving this high dignity only because their will from the very beginning was disposed towards conversion. God speaks to some, prompting them; to others, who have already begun the work of their salvation, He stretches out His hand and draws them to Himself. Being the ruler of the universe, the Lord does not look at faces; He is not afraid of any greatness, for He created both small and great and provides for everyone equally (Wis. 5:9). In David we also read: Will the nations fall into the abyss they themselves have dug; will their foot become entangled in the snares they have set for themselves: the Lord is a refuge for the unfortunate; in days of sorrow, He comes to their aid in a timely manner (Ps. 9:16). What do all these extracts from Scripture indicate and give the right to conclude?
What if not that at that time the favorable Gospel reached the ears of those who lived in sorrow (Ps. 9:9). That is why the Psalmist also adds: Proclaim His deeds among the nations (Ps. 9:12), so that they are not judged unjustly. If the Savior preached the Gospel to the living so as not to be judged unjustly, then why, out of a similar impulse, could He not preach His Gospel to those who had died before His coming? The Lord is righteous and loves truth; His face is turned towards the righteous, but he who loves unrighteousness hates himself (Ps. 10:7-5). If all flesh that sinned perished in the waters of the flood, being admonished by this great lesson and at the same time punished, then one should believe that the Divine will, which from time immemorial had in mind and arranged our salvation and teaching, all the more saves people who convert. The soul is rightly called incorporeal. And if, due to the strength of the subtlety of her being and the immateriality of her beginning, the flood water could no longer harm her, the element is rough and tangible; then the less harm she suffers during normal childbirth and death.
If at the same time, under the influence of sin, some parts of the soul can become coarsened, then she can throw off this alien rust that has stuck to it and it, along with the carnal spirit (Gal. 5:17), the wishes of which have always been so at odds with her own desires.
The head of the heretics who preached the universality of revelation 767, Valentin, in his conversation “On Friendship” also says, and literally, the following: “Most of the sayings contained in folk (intended for general use) books have already been included in the works of church writers. For words coming from the heart are common to everyone. The law written in the heart of every person is the word of the Beloved (Matthew 3:17), which is dear to Him and responds to His love in kind.” Whether Valentin means by the books of the people the sacred books of the Jews or the writings of the Hellenic sages, in any case he admits, without paying attention to rational differences, that the entire human race participates in the composition of the true teaching. Isidore, a student and son of Basilides, is of the same opinion on this subject. In the 1st book of his interpretations of the prophet Parhor, he literally says the following: “If you believe the Athenians, it turns out that the most important truths were revealed to Socrates by a certain spirit that always accompanied Him.”
Aristotle argued that every person has a special genius that never leaves him throughout his stay in this mortal body. He borrowed this doctrine no doubt from the prophets; then, hiding the source, he introduced it into his writings. In the 2nd book of the same work, the same Isidore again adds: “Let us not deceive ourselves with the idea that the doctrine expounded by certain chosen minds was taught for the first time by these wise men. The honor of inventing these teachings does not belong to them; they borrowed them from the prophets, and then they adopted them by the wisest.” And further: “Those who strive for true wisdom, in my opinion, should understand what the multi-colored winged bird depicted by Pharecydes in his theology means, about which he borrowed the story from the prophecy of Ham” 768.
7. About the qualities of true wisdom and its Divine source.
At the beginning of this creation, we already announced that its essence is not a particular school of rules for the moral kind of life, but a teaching about the behavior that a person should adhere to, truly wise, of a truly scientific nature, influencing life relationships. Wisdom, as we understand it, consists in a complete and definite knowledge of everything pertaining to God and man 769; it is a kind of unshakable theory, illuminating the past, but valuable both for the present and for the future. Its foundations go back to the Lord himself, who communicated it to us either during his personal presence among people, or earlier through his prophets; and since she is the daughter of the Logos, then on this basis she is indestructible 770. On the other hand, since it is revealed by the Logos, it represents the will of God. Wisdom has two types: that is, uncreated, eternal Wisdom; then taught to us in time for our benefit. In eternity She is constantly the same; here, in time, it takes on various forms.
There She is motionless due to her complete dispassion; here she can be overwhelmed by passions. There She exists in complete and complete form; here is the lot of her incompleteness and weakness. This is the wisdom that philosophy so assiduously strives for. Its goal is spiritual good; and she declares herself by the truth of her word and the purity of her morals. Thousands of efforts are aimed at this; True sages pursue this goal with enthusiasm and passion. By true sages, we Christians mean those who strive for Wisdom, which created everything and teaches everything, that is, those who seek knowledge of the Son of God. The Greeks, on the contrary, give the name of sages (philosophers) and to those who enter into verbal disputes about virtue. By philosophy we mean an impeccable life that realizes true teaching. This latter is scattered among different schools, having come here from barbarian legends, which are a truly Divine treasure, only adorned by the Hellenes and offered in a different form.
But from what was borrowed, one thing was misunderstood by the Hellenic sages: the other, although they said it under the influence of Divine inspiration, was not reproduced in all its fullness; or expanded by their personal assumptions and reasoning, which are mostly erroneous. If you listen to them themselves, you might think that they contain the whole truth; we affirm that they possess only part of the truth. And their knowledge does not extend beyond this world. In this regard, the same can be said about their wisdom as about their geometry and painting. Their geometry reproduces the measure, size and shape of various objects; but she draws them on a flat surface. Painting deals with various monuments and views. It reproduces the appearance of objects, arranging their lines according to the laws of perspective. Thanks to some ingenious devices, it really accurately conveys the convexities of objects, depressions and planes, so that some of the objects themselves protrude, others protrude, and others rise above the level of the plane.
The same applies to the Hellenic sages (philosophers). They do not interpret the truth any more correctly than they mediate external objects just like their painting. And it was only out of immoderate pride that they were proud of such a partial content of truth; but immoderate pride is always the cause of error and fall. Instead of striving out of insane egoism for vain glory and honors from people, it would be much better to work on sanctifying oneself through love for God, combining this with prudence. To accept a part for the whole, to give power over oneself to something that should occupy a service position, truly means deviating from the truth far to the crossroads and not understanding the meaning of the words of David, who confessed his sin: I ate ashes like bread (Ps. 101:10). Selfishness and pride, this is what led him astray; this is the ashes on which he fed.
So, there are some teachings that are undeniable. And if so, then you can recognize them; we just have to find a teacher who can instruct us in them. So Cleanthes went to study with Zeno, Theophrastus with Aristotle, Metrodorus with Epicurus, Plato with Socrates. Having reached Pythagoras, Farecydes and Thales, I stop and ask myself: “Who was their teacher?” In vain you will call me the Egyptians, the Hindus, the Babylonians, or even the magicians themselves, I still will not stop asking you: “Who was the teacher of these latter?” From link to link I will bring you through all the centuries to the first people and there I will ask you again: “Who was the mentor of these?” Not people; Back then everyone didn’t know anything. And they are not Angels: in substance and organization they are different from humans. The celestials have no tongue to speak; and a person has two ears precisely in order to hear. Everything that determines the formation of verbal sounds: the voice, lips and parts adjacent to these, the windpipe, chest, larynx, the breath itself, with which the air would be shaken, they have none of this.
There is no voice similar to ours in God, who, with his unsurpassed holiness, is at an immeasurable distance even from the Archangels. And that it was not the Angels who were the mentors of the first people, we also know this from tradition, which says that the truth was also communicated to them and to their heads from without, for they, too, are created beings like us. To discover who was their mentor, therefore, we have to soar above the Thrones and Dominions themselves. And since there is only one uncreated being, namely God Almighty, He was therefore the teacher of the first people through His first-born 771 and only-begotten Son, “through whom all things were created and without whom nothing that was created came into being” 772 . For there is only one God, and from Him comes the beginning of all things (John 1:3), says Peter, by the beginning he means the only begotten Son of God. This is the deepest meaning of the words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). All the prophets proclaim precisely this only begotten Son of God when they speak about wisdom.
It is He who is the teacher of all created beings; He is God's adviser, foreseeing everything. From the very first times of the world's existence, He turned out to be a mentor to people in various ways and on a wide variety of occasions, guiding them to perfection from the heights of heaven. That is why it is said: And do not call your mentor any of those who live on earth (Matthew 23:8-10).
Now it becomes clear what elements constitute true wisdom. Although the law (Old Testament) is only an image and shadow of the truth (Heb. 10:1), since it included the content of the Divine teaching, it is true. The Hellenes, on the contrary, under the influence of their conceit, declare ordinary people to be teachers. This is wrong. Just as the beginning of every patronymic goes back to God the Creator (Eph. 3:14–15), similarly our knowledge of what is good and what is honest comes from the Lord, who taught us this. From here, that is, as a result of constant help from above, the doctrine of justification arose and developed; the latter is possible only by following the Divine teachings.
Of course, there are people who do not grow within themselves the seeds of truth (Luke 8:5, etc.), presented to their minds in one way or another. These seeds lie hidden in their souls, as if in some barren and unirrigated land; or they are dying here from the many weeds. Like the ancient Pharisees, these new Pharisees are disobedient to the law. In addition, they stealthily mix human teachings with Divine traditions (Matt. 15:9). It is no longer their Divine Teacher who is to blame for such human misconceptions, but the people themselves, who through willful stubbornness have shut their ears to His suggestions. Those who believed in the coming of the Savior and in the fulfillment of all that was announced about Him through the Holy. The Scriptures have knowledge of the law, just as the Hellenic sages, who listened to the instructions of the Lord, acquired the knowledge of true wisdom. The words of the Lord are truly pure words, silver tested by fire, freed from the impurities of earthly elements, purified by the sevenfold (Ps. 11:7). What else does this mean if not that the righteous are tested by the Lord (Ps. 10:5), just as silver is purified?
Righteous man, this is the coin of the Lord, having on it the seal of the Lord. One can also agree with Solomonov’s interpretation of this. This royal interpreter of the word of God declares that the tongue of the righteous is silver tested by fire (Prov. 20:20; cf. Ps. 109:140; Ps. 16:3). He wanted to express by this that the teaching, the wisdom of which is known and recognized, should be accepted (with gratitude), since it was repeatedly purified from any earthly admixture to it, that is, there were already many souls who initiated themselves into the secrets of knowledge and, through abstinence from earthly passions, sanctified themselves in various respects. I say: in different ones, because the body in which such a soul lives is also holy. By placing itself entirely at the disposal of the guest living in it, it itself is a sanctuary into which nothing unclean should be brought. As for the soul, the first thing to cleanse it through the entire time it revives the body should consist in abstinence from all evil in general 773.
This cleansing of the soul is not yet perfection, as some believe; this is only a relative perfection, only for the simple faithful, whether they be Jews or pagans. Righteousness, directing the gaze of the true sage (gnostic) beyond what others consider to be perfection, elevates him to the fulfillment of all that is good; and when the Gnostic, with his highest righteousness, ascends to this level, when he becomes like God on it, then his perfection is then established on an unshakable attachment to good. Abraham's descendants, who served God, consisted of those who were called (Matt. 20:10); The children of Jacob, because they committed 774 evil, turned out to be chosen.
So, if Christ is wisdom for us: and He acted through the prophets, whose writings are truly enlightening; just as if Christ personally communicated this true teaching to the Apostles: then, of course, knowledge of this teaching is already wisdom; This determines complete knowledge and unmistakable understanding of both the past, as well as the present and future. Who will argue against the fact that the teaching is perfect and infallible, since it was transmitted to us and revealed by the Son of God? And if it is true that contemplative activity is the true goal to which the sage strives, then the contemplative activity of the Hellenic sages, even if it was not accompanied by complete success and represents only a secondary virtue, still had God in mind. This speculative activity achieves its goal, that is, the knowledge of God, only on the day when, through Christian sanctification, the secular sage is introduced to the understanding of prophetic predictions, thus rising to the level of comprehension.
What was, and also what is and will be (Il. 1:70).
This highest knowledge, passed on from generation to generation, without the help of any special scriptures, and first of all being communicated to the apostolic men, came down to us this way 775. It means to strive for this knowledge or, if you like, wisdom, in order to place the soul on a point of speculation that is stable and unshakable forever.
8. Philosophy, although the Apostle put it in nothing in comparison with the most perfect light of the Gospel, is nevertheless knowledge that comes from God.
And Paul in his letters, as it turns out, does not unconditionally condemn philosophy. He only does not want the faithful, having ascended to the height of knowledge of the true, to descend with it into the valleys of Hellenic philosophy, which he allegorically calls the elements of this world (Col. 2:8), that is, only an elementary science that only prepares for the acceptance of the true teaching. Therefore, to the Jews who left the faith to observe the precepts of the Law of Moses, he writes the following: Is it still necessary to teach you the first rudiments of the word of God? Have you really reached the point where you should be given only milk instead of solid food (Heb. 5:12)? Likewise to the Colossians, i.e. to the Hellenes who converted to Christianity, he writes: Beware lest anyone deceive you with philosophy and idle subtleties, according to human traditions, according to the elements of worldly sciences, and not according to Christ (Col. 2:8). What does it mean? The Apostle warns that some scientist should not seduce the faithful and lead them back into philosophy, that is, to elementary and elementary knowledge.
“All the wisdom invented by the Hellenes, they will tell me, is an expression of human understanding.” I am on the basis of the Holy. I answer from the Scriptures that reason is a gift of God. The psalmist considers it a most precious gift and asks God for it in the following expressions: I am Your servant; grant me understanding (Ps. 119:125). In another place he prays for the granting of comprehensive knowledge to him. Teach me, he writes, goodness, order and knowledge, for I believed in Your commandments (Ps. 119:66). This meant to testify in the hearing of everyone that both covenants are characterized by the greatest authority, and equally that God communicates this to the most distinguished of his children. Elsewhere the Psalmist exclaims again: You have not dealt like this with any people, O Lord. You did not announce to them Your statutes (Ps. 145:20). These words: You have not treated any people like this express that the Lord was still merciful to other nations, but only in a different way. The particle thus establishes only a comparison and relation of subordination of other peoples in the reasoning of us, who are awarded the highest advantage compared to them.
The Prophet could actually express the same thought without adding a word to it like that. Peter in Acts says: Now of the truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation the one who fears Him and observes righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts 10:34–35). Not only at any specific time, God is impartial, but always, from eternity, for His generosity is eternal, just as He Himself is not tied to any specific place, nor does His goodness rest on the heads of just a few individuals; it is always present and there are no exceptions from it for anyone. Open to me the doors of righteousness, says the Psalmist, and I will enter into them and praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord: through it the righteous will enter (Ps. 119:19-20). Barnabas 776 explains these words of the prophet to us as follows: “Of the many gates that open before us, the door that leads to righteousness leads at the same time to Christ Jesus. Blessed are all who enter through these gates." The same thought is contained in the following words of the Psalmist: The Lord is over many waters (Ps.
29:3), from which it follows not only that both covenants have their own special differences, but also that both among the Greeks and among the barbarians the teachings leading to righteousness are varied. But here the king-prophet, testifying to the truth, exclaims with indignation: Cast yourself down, O sinners, into hell, and also the nations, who forget God (Ps. 9:17). Yes, they forget about God, whom they previously remembered; They knew God before they forgot Him; now they do not honor Him.
So, the pagans had some ideas about God, although vague and unclear; this fact seems proven to us. It follows, therefore, that a Gnostic should be distinguished by his great learning and possess the greatest possible store of knowledge. And since the Hellenes never cease to repeat the opinion of Protagoras, who first said that “dialectics must always have evidence ready to counter it with other evidence, it is necessary to become familiar with the art of objections. He who speaks many words, says Scripture, should not himself listen in turn (Job 11:2)? “Who can understand the parables of the Lord if not the wise, who has knowledge and loves the Lord” 777? Let him testify by this to his loyalty to the Lord. He must be able to explain the secrets of knowledge, skillfully separate truth from lies; he must show himself admirable in his deeds, pure both in body and soul. “He should be the more humble the more exalted he seems to others,” says Clement in his letter to the Corinthians.
Finally, he must be able to follow this commandment: Pull some out of the fire, but take others back with reason (Jude 22-23). The special purpose of a grape knife is, of course, to trim vines; but it also serves us for cutting tangled vines and for cutting out thorns that grow around them and form a wall difficult to pass through. All these various actions performed by him are related to his main purpose. Apply this comparison to a person. His ultimate goal is undoubtedly to achieve knowledge of God; nevertheless, he is engaged in agriculture, geometry, and philosophy. Of these three sciences, one is necessary for life, the other teaches him a good life, the third explains to him everything that is included in the field of evidence. “But,” some here exclaim, “philosophy comes from the devil.” Let us assume that this is so, for Scripture says that Satan sometimes turns into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). For what? It is clear that for prophecy. But if he prophesies as an angel of light, then the truth comes from his mouth.
If his prophecies have such a character as if they came from an Angel, if their property is light: then it follows that they are useful, because Satan tries to become like the action that he performs, although in essence he remains an apostate and rebel. What other trick could he use to catch us if not this: a person who desires knowledge, attracting to himself first of all with the brilliance of truth, in order to then lead him into error? Moreover, the truth is actually known to the demon. Although he does not have the strength to embrace her in all her integrity, he is still not a stranger to her. Philosophy, therefore, is not yet a lie for the sole reason that by counterfeiting the truth, both the thief and the liar express it, and these first of all deceive themselves. Out of hatred for the speaker, one should not blindly and prematurely condemn what he says; You need to think about whether this is a voice of truth or a lie: precaution is especially necessary in relation to those who are now reputed and present themselves as prophets.
To assert, in accordance with the generally accepted opinion, that everything necessary and useful for our life comes from God, without a doubt does not represent anything risky or erroneous. But we will be much closer to the truth if we say that philosophy was given to the Hellenes as a special kind and a covenant most befitting them - as a preparatory foundation (rock, mountain plateau) on which the building of Christian philosophy should be built and raised, although the Hellenic philosophers completely arbitrarily and turn away from this last light, partly out of disdain for it as a barbaric teaching, partly out of fear for their lives, for through civil laws the heads of the faithful are constantly in danger of death. The point is, however, that the hand, accustomed to scattering tares (Matthew 13:25), sowed them in Hellenic philosophy, as well as in barbarian philosophy. This is where heresies arose among us, rivaling the good seed.
This is where the impious teaching of Epicurus originated; hence - voluptuousness, now declared the supreme good, and many other oddities, under the name of Hellenic philosophy, put into use by the sophists: deceptive fruits in the God-given field of the Hellenes. The Apostle calls these teachings, conducive only to sensual pleasures and arrogant, the wisdom of this age, because in reality they are conducive only to the nonsense of this world, limiting by it all the thoughts of their nurturers, thus making them dependent on the princes of this world (1 Cor. 2:6) and subordinate to them. This is what humiliates Hellenic wisdom, making it a partisan science and far from perfect knowledge. This is only the first step towards perfect science; and this last one lives far from this land, in a world accessible only to reason; and she deals with even more spiritual subjects, which the eye of man has not seen, his ear has not heard, about which no thought has entered the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9), before our true Teacher explained them to us.
Before the legitimate heirs of the Divine adoption, He revealed first the Holy of Holies, and then gradually even more sublime truths 778.
We even dare to assert something more, namely this. The true Gnostic knows everything, for faith elevates him even to this. In the firmness and unshakability of his understanding, he comprehends everything that remains unclear to our understanding and that relates to supernatural science (secret revelation). Such true sages (gnostics) were James, Peter, John, Paul 779 and all the other Apostles. The prophecies truly contain all the secrets of knowledge, because the Lord, having put them into the mouths of the prophets, himself then explained them to the Apostles. Cognition means that this is not a function of the rational soul, with the help of which we enter our name in the book of immortality? The soul uses two wings to soar to the heavenly lands: knowledge and aspiration. Desire is the movement that follows agreement. And it's true. Pay attention to a person engaged in some good deed: this latter is preceded by knowledge; Behind this is desire, aspiration.
There is something else that you should also pay attention to. Since our action is preceded by study; since the very essence of the matter requires that a being acting freely, in advance and before deciding to do something, knows what it wants to do; since knowledge follows study, action follows aspiration or desire; since knowledge flows from study, striving from cognition, and from striving action will be born: it follows from this that the beginning and motive cause of every rational action is cognition. So, we are right in calling knowledge the main, dominant function of the soul, which essentially characterizes it, since in fact both aspiration and knowledge move in the sphere of substance. It follows from this that knowledge, strictly speaking, is a state of the soul in which it contemplates either one or several objects, or even, if it is perfect, then the totality of everything that exists.
I know, I know the opinion of some, that even according to the conviction of the sage himself, there are things that are incomprehensible to him and that everything he can comprehend regarding them is limited only by their incomprehensibility. This is a rough presentation of the matter!.. This is the narrow horizon of the truly short-sighted eyes! This short-sighted sage confesses - say that there are things that are incomprehensible. The true sage (Gnostic) of whom I am speaking understands even where the understanding of others turns out to be short; he is convinced that for the Son of God nothing is incomprehensible; therefore, there is nothing that cannot be known. Is it possible to imagine that He who endured so much suffering out of love for humanity would exclude even one point from the area subject to human knowledge? Didn’t He come to earth to impart knowledge? Thus, faith itself becomes solid and irrefutable evidence, for truth is inextricably linked with the teaching handed down to us from God. What more and more experience and enlightenment should we strive for? The student of Divine wisdom knows the past and makes assumptions about the future (Wis.
7:18), destroys word structures, comprehends the meaning of mysterious speeches, foresees signs and wonders, the outcome of known events and the end of times.
9. A true sage protects his soul from all kinds of disorder and unrest.
The advantage of a true sage (gnostic) is that he recognizes the legitimacy only of those needs, the satisfaction of which is required by maintaining bodily health; are as follows: hunger, thirst and other similar sensations 780. To assert that the Savior's body as such required to support his various cares and concerns, similar to those with which we support our bodily life, would be a rather funny assurance. The Savior ate, but not to maintain his body, which was supported and preserved by the Divine power, but to warn those close to Him of the idea that He had a ghostly body, which is what some of the later sectarians said about Him. In essence, of course, He was alien to all kinds of human passions; Confused states of mind were alien to Him; He was not worried; stood above all pleasures as well as grief.
As for the Apostles, through the teaching of the Lord and the possession in it of all the treasures of knowledge, having suppressed anger, fear and all desires, they, starting from the resurrection of the Lord, their Teacher, apparently did not experience even the most innocent inner movements, such as: courageous courage, competition, joy and wishes. From then on, they were established in a certain, motionless peace of mind, from which, after the resurrection of the Lord, they never emerged, remaining uninvolved in all disturbances and constantly maintaining this state of mind within themselves. Without a doubt, the just mentioned mental movements have nothing reprehensible in themselves if they are moderated and guided by reason. And yet they find no place for themselves in the soul of a perfect Christian. What would courage and boldness serve him for example? Since life cannot present him with anything terrible, no terrible events, no sorrow of any kind, no anxiety that would turn him away from the love of God: then a perfect Christian never, therefore, finds himself in any danger 781.
What does it have to do with joy? He never experiences grief, supporting himself with the conviction that everything is fine. - He never gets irritated. Who could raise waves of anger in someone who is constantly imbued with love for God, who thinks only about God, and therefore cannot harbor hatred towards any of God’s creations? “He also doesn’t know the feeling of competition. What else is missing for him to completely merge with That which is good and beautiful? “He doesn’t feel this coarse affection for anyone, which is called friendship: he loves the Creator in the creation. - All wishes and envy are far from him. He has all the treasures, at least spiritual ones, because through love he constantly maintains relations with the Beloved; He is already united with Him by the bonds of election; and this softness of bonds and closeness with Christ is further strengthened through his diligent fulfillment of the commandments: he is happy in that he has an abundance of all blessings. These are the motives for which he, following the example of his Divine Teacher, tries to close his heart to all human passions.
He truly represents the embodiment of only reason, the Logos (Word) of God, for human reason is only a reflection in man of this Divine Logos. Thus, a good person rises to the embodiment of the image and likeness of God; and this is how God is likened to man: the common form of manifestation for both God and man is the mind, which distinguishes us and is peculiar to us. It also follows that sin against such a person is tantamount to blasphemy and to cause him any harm is an unholy act.
But here I hear kind warnings that the Gnostic and the perfect man can hide anger and courage in the depths of his heart and should not renounce them; otherwise, without the assistance of these two auxiliary means, he will not be able to incite himself against the enemy, nor will he be able to expose his invincible brow to the enemy. These objectors add: “If all desires die out in him, then grief will consume him and he will end this life shamefully. As soon as the fire of desires goes out, the sage will not even harbor within himself the ambition that constantly drives a virtuous person forward. Indeed, if union with all kinds of virtues is mediated by desire, then how can one demand from a person striving for virtue that he break all attachments within himself?
A nonsensical and childish objection! The lips that formulated it apparently do not know the Divine nature of love. Love is not desire; this is a union holy and tender, of a true sage, and without the mediation of time and place, leading into the unity of faith. The one whom love has already endowed with all the blessings that he will one day possess, because through the embodiment of virtue in himself he has become imbued with the hope of receiving them, he has nothing to desire, because he already in advance, as far as he can, enjoys all the treasures that one can desire. What is marvelous in the fact that the soul, in which knowledge is united with love, always remains unchanged in equanimity 782? The ardent and envious desire to personify something beautiful also does not torment the true sage: love already penetrates him with beauty. Why the sting of desires and passion for courage for a man who, by the strength of his love for God, is already included in the number of His friends? Through this love he is already united with God, and even the slightest and most insignificant change never touches God.
It is now clear why we expel even imaginary agitation and confusion from the soul of a true sage. Knowledge itself gives rise to exercise, exercise turns into a state or constant state of mind; such an arrangement, in turn, results in the absence of any disordered movements in the soul, and not power only over these movements. What is the secret of this unchanging peace? It can be mastered only by those who have cut out all desires from their soul to their very roots.
Likewise, do not remind the Gnostic about these inner impulses, which are usually exalted with such praise and presented as a great good, but in fact are too similar to passions and are distinguished by all their rebellion. I speak of a joy so close to pleasure; – about sadness living next to grief; - about caution, so similar to fear; – about liveliness that comes close to anger. The Gnostic pays no attention at all to the praise given to these imaginary benefits. It is impossible for a person, who through love has risen to perfection and eternally maintained the insatiability of his desires by contemplation, which gives him such high pleasure, it is impossible for him to again degrade himself to miserable earthly joys. Are you asking him to come down from these heights, inviting him to enjoy the benefits of this measure? But he has already entered into the unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). Of course, this last does not actually happen, since it is still separated from this impregnable light by time and place; and yet the Gnostic lives in this unapproachable light by the power of purely spiritual love for God.
And the Divine Rewarder rewards him for this with the granting of a heavenly inheritance and a complete restoration to his former dignity. This is how God’s promise regarding gifts is realized on the Gnostic; The Gnostic already chooses them earlier and receives them from Him earlier for his love for God. Isn’t it true: having soared to God on the wings of love, the Gnostic, although his bodily shell still remains on earth, if he does not completely renounce the bonds of this earthly life - which is forbidden to him - then at least does not free his soul from the influence of passions - and what can be more legitimate than this - and does not he live free on the ruins of all kinds of desires? It no longer touches the body. He allows him to use only those things that are necessary for its preservation, so that its destruction does not occur. And what good is it for you to talk about courage with a purely spiritual person, to whom no danger can attack, because here on earth he seems to be absent, being already completely near the Object of his love? Why does he need abstinence? He doesn't need it.
The embodiment of this virtue in oneself would also prove the defeat of desires that still need to be overcome; Therefore, the Gnostic leaves it to the person who, not yet being completely pure, struggles with passions to practice it. He doesn't need courage either. This weapon is only against fear and cowardice. But is it proper for a friend of God, destined by God even before the creation of the world to be included in the number of children awarded the highest adoption (Eph. 1:4-5) 783, to be subject to the attack of fear and voluptuousness? Isn’t it precisely this kind of emotional unrest that he is busy taming? I am not afraid to speak out openly: just as he is destined by God to do exactly what he does and to achieve precisely the goal for which he strives: so he personally destined himself for the same thing, determined in this by knowledge and love for his God.
He does not harbor incorrect assumptions about the future, like most people, whose life is nothing more than a continuing constant state of uncertainty: the light of faith and knowledge illuminates for him what is unclear to others; the love that animates him makes the future already present for him. Based on prophecies that have already been fulfilled, on the mystery of the incarnation, he believes in the words of God, who never deceives. He already has what he has believed; and the promised gift is already in his hands. Indeed! The promise flows from the Truth itself; That is why it is reliable; As a perfect Christian, the Gnostic, through his confidence that he will certainly receive the promised, already sees in advance the fulfillment of the promise. Thus, the one who realizes that he understands the future correctly, with this fervor of love, anticipates this very future. That is why the Gnostic does not ask God for any earthly blessings. He harbors an unshakable confidence in himself that he will own true treasures.
All his prayers consist of requests to preserve his faith, which should fulfill his desires. Further, he wants the greatest possible number of faithful to be like him: through this, the glory of God, which is revealed especially in knowledge, would spread. For whoever, through the impeccable fulfillment of the Divine commandments, to the extent possible to human nature, becomes like the Savior, he himself in some way becomes the savior of others. This is true justice; and such is her reverence for God, her righteousness of actions, as well as the truth of knowledge. The Lord does not even expect the prayers of this worthy servant of his, “Ask. He tells him, and I will do it; wish and I will fulfill” 784. In general, immutability cannot be rooted and established in eternal mobility and impermanence. If this principle is true, then the mental faculty, which is characterized by this power, under the influence of constant variability, finally loses its balance and the very possibility of being formed.
I’ll ask you again: How can you achieve stability on this ground, constantly shaking due to collisions with external objects? in a word: How can you rest in the confidence that you have solid knowledge?
According to the Hellenic sages themselves, virtues are the essence of a certain kind of state, internal dispositions, a special kind of art and science. But there is no science innate to man; Every science is a child brought up, nurtured under certain conditions and mutual relations. It becomes our property, first of all, under the condition of taking care of it, looking after it and the student’s success in it. They master it and strengthen their position in it only through diligent reflection. The same applies to Divine science. When one who has devoted himself to it achieves a relatively perfect knowledge of the holy mysteries, then love builds a solid and indestructible foundation for it. And indeed it is. Having reached this height, a Christian reaches not only the First Cause; he also understands the cause produced by It; he remains unchanged in his convictions, because they are established on solid and unshakable supports.
In addition, from the mouth of the Truth itself, he knows that the origin of good and evil is relative, the creation of the world is relative, and in one word, regarding everything, the complete truth has been revealed to us by the Lord, which embraces the history of the world from its very beginning to its destruction. What does he care about whether all this is probable and about the need to prove all this in accordance with the requirements of Hellenic science? He is careful not to place more trust in them than in the Truth itself. The language of the Lord, unclear to others, is clear to him. In this way knowledge of everything was imparted to him. For the prophecies contained in our sacred books depict the future precisely in the same terms as it will appear. They also present the present in the form in which it is. They depict the past as it was. And as for science, which conducts its work by evidence, the Gnostic, thanks to his much knowledge, will surpass everyone; on all issues relating to goodness and honor, the palm will remain with him.
With a mind constantly turned to objects accessible only to speculation, according to these Divine prototypes (ideas), he judges everything concerning humanity, in approximately the same way as sailors who, before setting off a ship, consult the stars. He is always ready for any good deed. He places himself above the vicissitudes that can agitate and confuse the soul. Will you have to endure any kind of attack? He does not show any particular courage in his undertakings; he does not allow himself any movement that would not be in harmony with himself or the public good; he is careful and circumspect; unyielding to any pleasures, he cannot be seduced by them either in the waking state or in sleep 785. And truly so. Accustomed to a strict and abstinent lifestyle, he remains moderate and easy-going, but with importance; for life he needs only what is essentially necessary and he never bothers about something secondary and not directly related to the matter.
Don’t even remind him that this necessary thing has its own special importance; he accepts it in strict measure, only to the extent that it is inevitably necessary to maintain this material life, which he shares equally with all other people.
10. The study of human sciences is also useful; they help strengthen the faith and prepare the mind for the understanding of objects included in Divine science.
So, the essential thing for a Gnostic is knowledge. But the reverence that the Gnostic has for knowledge within himself disposes him in favor of the preparatory and conditioning sciences; in each of them he finds a weapon that helps defend the truth. Music, determined by the rhythm and harmony of its chords, teaches him to agree with himself. Arithmetic, with its ascending and descending progressions of numbers, teaches him their interrelations and explains to him that most things and their interrelations are subject to numerical proportions 786. Delving into geometry and comprehending its nature, accessible only to speculation, 787, he, thanks to this skill in contemplation, gets used to the idea of continuous space and being, substantial, unchanging, different from earthly objects. Astronomy lifts his mind beyond the boundaries of the earth, teaches him to soar in the celestial spheres, follow the movements of the heavenly bodies, and get used to the constant contemplation in his mind of Divine miracles and the harmony that reigns between them.
Abraham observed these miracles and rose to the knowledge of his Creator. But the Gnostic does not stop there. He studies dialectics, which interprets the concepts of generic and specific and the art of distinguishing between them. It is she who teaches the Gnostic to penetrate into the essence of objects, to isolate one and the other of them from a number of others, and in this way to reach the substance of the original and simple ones.
There are many people among us who are afraid of Hellenic philosophy, just as children are afraid of ghosts. “We are afraid that she will mislead us,” they cry. If their faith - I no longer dare to talk about their knowledge - is so weak that it can be shaken by human reasoning, then they should not adopt it for themselves; let these weak Christians better admit that they never believed in the truth. If they were imbued with the truth, they would not hesitate, for the truth is irrefutable; Only false opinions can be refuted. Only when comparing a good purple with a bad one do we choose the first one. To admit that you waver in your convictions means to loudly announce to everyone that you have neither the money changer’s touchstone nor the criterion of truth. What position will this man, ignorant of his business, find himself in when he sits down at a banker’s desk! What will happen to him then if he is not able to test the coins presented to him and distinguish a true coin from a counterfeit one 788?
The righteous will never be shaken, exclaims David (Ps. 113:6). What does this mean? And the fact that he does not hesitate from false speeches; he passes by deceptive pleasures without being carried away by them; from which it follows that nothing can deviate him from the inheritance he expects. No matter what threats are addressed to him, fear has no place in his heart (Ps. 113:7). What does he care about unfounded slander and false rumors about him! He is not afraid of the intricacies of evil speech; He is always able to discover a lie in its folds. Isn’t he always ready to ask and also answer questions? Dialectics actually rises up around the true Gnostic like a rampart, stopping the further movement of the sophists and preventing them from overthrowing the truth. The hearts of those who boast in the holy name of God and seek the Lord, according to the words of the prophet, should be filled with joy. Ask Him for strength and He will strengthen you. Constantly and in all possible cases place yourself before His presence (Ps. 104:4). This means that we must constantly seek God, repeatedly and in various ways (Heb.
1:1), for there are several ways that equally lead to the knowledge of God. A true Gnostic, instead of considering the numerous knowledge he has collected as forces directly at his disposal, sees in them only enabling forces, helping him to comprehend the truth by imparting to him the ability to distinguish the general from the particular. He knows that all our errors and false opinions come from our inability to establish the difference between the general and substantial relationship of objects and the points that distinguish them from each other. To allow oneself to speak about any subject hesitantly, evasively in one direction or another, without subdividing it and subsuming it under one category or another, means, without understanding the matter, to confuse the general with the particular. With such disorderly movement ahead, you will inevitably lose your way from the straight path. On the contrary, when using words with a precise distinction of their meaning and mutually distinguishing objects from each other, you will begin to study even the sacred with a light. Scriptures.
And in fact, it is necessary to combine one specific meaning with expressions that have different meanings; and it is also necessary to know those numerous expressions with which only one meaning is connected. This determines the fidelity and accuracy of expressions.
Still, you shouldn’t waste your time on fruitless investigations. For a true Gnostic, the human sciences are merely preparatory, but they help him, as far as possible, not only to soar through speculation to the truth and establish himself on this unshakable foundation, but also to refute the sophisms of those who object to the truth. The Gnostic must be familiar with the entire course of school science and with all Hellenic wisdom. Only he does not treat them as having an essential meaning in themselves; he sees in them only a useful accessory, even necessary due to time and circumstances. In the hands of heretics, these sciences serve as a means for spreading lies and evil; in the hands of a Gnostic they serve as weapons to strengthen goodness and truth. So, although the truth contained in Hellenic philosophy is partial, it is nevertheless the truth.
Just as the sun, shedding its light on objects either white or dark, makes it possible to distinguish both of these colors, similarly, with the truths contained in Hellenic philosophy, the false arguments of the sophists are ultimately overthrown. So, the Hellenes have the right (in the words of their poet Pindar) to exclaim: “O truth, queen of the world, mother of great virtues.”
11. The mysterious meaning of objects included in Theology is also contained in numerical or geometric proportions and in the numerical data of various types of music.
We have already referred to the example of Abraham, who was brought by astronomy to the knowledge of God. Let the same forefather once again serve as an example for us, just as arithmetic also contributes to the same thing 789. At the news of the capture of Lot, the patriarch gathers his servants, born in his house, and at the head of a detachment, composed of them and extending up to 318 people, overtakes the enemies and scatters a significant number of them (Gen. 14:14 etc.). It should be noted here that the numerical sign meaning the number 300 is the letter T. representing the cross 790 of our Lord; the letters iota (ι) and this (η) the first signifies the number ten, and the second - eight, denotes the name of the Savior 791. From the point of view of salvation, they, of course, that is, the name and cross of Christ, were the servants and allies of Abraham. That is why, without a doubt, Abraham and his servants triumphed over the enemy who captured Lot and over the unfaithful nations who followed them, because his banner was the cross and the holy name of Jesus. In addition, the number 300 represents three hundred.
But everyone unanimously recognizes that the number 10 of numbers is in all respects the most perfect 792. As for 8, it is a cube, which represents equality in all directions: in length, width and height 793. The days of man, says the priest. Scripture, there will be 120 years (Gen. 6:5). What is this number? The sum of the first fifteen numbers added one to the other starting from one 794. – The full moon occurs on the 15th day. Moreover, the number 120 is triangular 795 is added to - 1 of the even series of 796 numbers (from the odd series of even numbers), consisting of 64: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, the partial addition of which (starting from one) gives the squares of numbers, which show their count 797. In 2, it consists of a series of odd numbers (from an even series of an odd number of numbers), amounting to 56, namely, of seven even numbers, starting with two: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, the partial addition of which produces an inequality of sides 798.
Viewed from a different point of view, the number 120 consists of four numbers: one triangular, namely 15; – another – square, namely 25; – third pentagonal 799, namely 35; the fourth hexagonal is 800, namely 45. In fact, 5 represents the base of these four polygonal numbers. If you start counting from one, then 15 is the fifth triangular number, consisting of 8 sides: 25 is the fifth square, etc. And 25, which is the fifth square number, counting from one through 5, is - they say - a symbol of the tribe of Levi. The number 85 is reproduced by adding an arithmetic, geometric and harmonic figure, the last member of which is double the first: 6, 8, 9, 12. Ask the Jews and they will tell you that a child born after 7 months is formed within 35 days. As for the number 45, it is obtained from the figure 6, 9, 12, 18, where the last term is triple the first. It is in such and such a number of days that a child is formed, born after nine months 801.
Here are examples that prove the benefits of arithmetic. The construction of the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant proves the virtues of geometry. The ark and the tabernacle were built according to the plan communicated by God himself, according to the most perfect analogy and with the investment in the structure of the gift of such understanding that it led from sensible objects to the invisible world or - better said - leading us from here to the sanctuary and holy of holies. The hewn logs also show that the quadrangular shape has penetrated everywhere, producing strength and durability with its right angles. And the length of the building was 300 cubits, the width was 50, and the height was 80 cubits, and the top ended with a square (Gen. 6:14–16). Rising on a wide base, gradually becoming sharper like a pyramid, with its shape the ark symbolically marked the place where they were tested and purified by fire. These geometric proportions are offered to us in a sense as an introduction to the understanding of the dwelling of the saints. The differences separating them are indicated by the differences separating the numbers mentioned.
These numbers, arranged in this way, are decomposed into 6 parts: 200 is the product of 6 by 50; or into ten parts: 300 is also the product of 10 by 30; or into two unequal parts: 50 is the sum of 20 and 30. – Some prefer to see the symbol of the Cross of the Lord 802 at 300 cubits; The 50 cubits, in their opinion, signify the hope and remission of sins given to us at Pentecost. Thirty cubits signify the preaching of the Gospel, for the Lord began to preach it in the 30th year of his life. According to others, the advantage of this symbol again belongs to the number 12, for such was the number of the Apostles. The building, they add, ended at a corner to show that the perfections of the righteous, ascending from stage to stage, reach the unity of faith (Eph. 4:13). The table that stood in the church had 6 cubits, and its four legs were one and a half cubits each (Ex. 25:23). The combination of these 12 cubits signified the 12 months that make their revolution throughout the year, during which time the earth, thanks to four different seasons, produces and brings to maturity the germs of all its products.
The table, in my opinion, served as an image of the earth, which also rests on four legs: summer, autumn, spring and winter; He's been walking on these four legs for a year. Priest Scripture says that the edge of the table was wavy. Maybe this was done to indicate that everything is rolling, carried away by the movement of time; or perhaps it was an image of the earth, which is actually surrounded on all sides by the waves of the ocean.
To be convinced of the benefits of music, let us refer to the testimony of David, the Divine singer and inspired prophet, who sang the praises of God in measured hymns. A characteristic feature of Doric music is harmony, Phrygian music is diatonium, that is, according to Aristoxenus, simplicity and lightness. And since the sounds of the barbarian instrument of the psalter, by which a serious and majestic melody is predominantly expressed, are the most ancient of all, then without a doubt they led Terpandra onto the path of the Doric method of music and inspired him with the following hymn to Zeus, beginning like this:
Zeus, the beginning and head of all things,
I dedicate the beginning of these hymns to you.
The harp is used by the psalmist allegorically to name the Lord on the one hand and the believers on the other. Under the guidance of the Lord, human souls are, as it were, stirred by strings. Serving as an image of the chosen 803, acting under the inspiration of the Logos, the harp can also mean those praising God, enlightened by knowledge and, under the influence of the Logos, making the strings of their faith sound. In harmonic musical combinations you will also discover that harmony, the seat of which is the church; I am talking about the harmony that reigns in the law, the prophets, the apostles and the gospel and unites them into one. As a final symbol, you will find in this harmony a wonderful unanimity of prophecy, for inspiration passes from one prophet to another. Those who added their name to the number of the soldiers of Christ are for the most part likened to the companions of Odysseus (Odys. 12:155), for they bring only crude ideas to the foot of the teachings of Christ. Look at them! They do not run away from sirens, but they avoid measure and melody, stubbornly stopping their ears from it.
If they had once opened them to even Hellenic teachings, then - they know this very well - they could not go back. But the catechist, who collects everything that can be useful to the catechumens, especially from the Hellenes - for the earth belongs to the Lord and everything that lives on it (1 Cor. 10:26) - should not, like some unreasonable animal, shun the study of science. On the contrary, he must strengthen his listeners with all the means at his disposal. However, he will dwell on these teachings only for a certain period of time, which is necessary to extract everything useful from them. Then, enriched by these testimonies, he can return to home, that is, to true wisdom, this indestructible stronghold, behind which the soul is already safe. So you should study music; it decorates and softens the character.
That is why, during Christian meals, we mutually stimulate ourselves to sing, passing the feast cup from hand to hand, 804 thus extinguishing desires through the influence of music and at the same time praising God for the abundance of gifts with which He bestows on us and for the food He constantly provides us to support the dual life in us: bodily and mental. But away from us is relaxing music that arouses various sensations in the soul: sometimes sad and inclining to thoughtfulness, sometimes obscene and stimulating sensuality, sometimes frantic and extravagant!
And astronomy brings us benefits. On the one hand, introducing us to celestial phenomena, expounding the doctrine of the form of the earth, the universe, the revolution of the sky, the movement of the luminaries, it raises our mind to the foot of the Creative Power; on the other hand, it teaches us to easily distinguish between the return of the seasons, changes in temperature, the rising and setting of the stars. It is also extremely useful in navigation and agriculture, just as architecture uses geometry to construct its monuments and buildings.
This latest science greatly sharpens mental abilities. It makes the soul most receptive to understanding; most capable of distinguishing truth, refuting lies and discovering the relationship between homology and analogy. It is through architecture that we perceive similarities and differences; thanks to its help we can find length without width, a surface that has no depth, a point that is not divisible and has no extension; Finally, it is she who elevates us from sensory objects to things that can only be comprehended by the mind.
So all other sciences help wisdom; Philosophy itself is an assistant in finding the truth. Take a closer look at this cloak. At first he was nothing more than wool; then the wool was broken by the hand of a wool beater and carder; then the weft is formed from it, then the warp, and then the matter. Before reaching perfection, the soul must also go through preliminary exercises and undergo several trials. Because truth is composed of two elements: knowledge and deeds; deeds stem from contemplation and require effort, persistent struggle and great experience. In addition, two objects are comprehended by contemplation: our neighbor and ourselves; hence the conclusion follows about the need for scholarship adapted to this dual purpose. Anyone who is sufficiently familiar with the preliminary sciences leading to knowledge can remain calm, coordinating his actions as a norm with the rules revealed by contemplation.
Do you intend to teach your brothers with the scriptures 805 or do you work to teach them through oral teaching: secular sciences will be useful to you in both these cases, and sacred knowledge. Scripture is necessary to draw evidence from, especially if your students come from Hellenic schools. The psalmist depicts the church in the following terms: The Queen appeared at Your right hand in robes of gold and with speckled garments (Ps. 44:10). And in another place: Rasna (fringed) with golden garments (bordered) and speckled (v. 14). What else could this mean if not that the church is full of children delivered by Hellas and other countries? Only through the mediation of the Lord is the truth known. What kind of person, O my God, can penetrate into Your intentions, if You yourself do not bestow him with wisdom, if from the heights of heaven you do not send him Your Most Holy Spirit? Thus human paths are straightened; Your statutes are proclaimed to the earth and the nations are placed by Your wisdom on the path of salvation (Wis. 7:17-18).
Through the study of the sacred books, the Gnostic truly knows the ancient, calculates the future, discerns the subtlety of speeches, penetrates into the meaning of mysterious words, foresees signs, wonders and the course of events, as we have already said about this above 806. Wisdom, as you see, is the source from which all sciences flow.
But some of the faithful exclaim: “What is it to know, for example, why and how the sun, as well as other luminaries, make their movements? What do we care about geometric theorems, dialectical proofs and speculations included in other sciences? You won't learn how to perform your duties from them! What is all Hellenic wisdom if not the daughter of human reason, unable to teach us the truth?
I answer: “First of all, you are mistaken here regarding one important point, namely, regarding the good decision of free will. Those who holyly preserve the holy, says Wisdom, will be justified, and whoever learns this will be able to answer (Wis. 6:10). And indeed it is. It is quite natural that only one Gnostic can perform his duty sacredly. In the school of the Lord he learned what should be done, although this teaching was communicated to him by human lips. Let us listen further to the sacred sayings. We are all in His right hand, that is, we are subject to the action of His omnipotence and wisdom; and our words, and all understanding, and art of works (Wis. 7:16). For God loves no one more than he who lives by wisdom (Wis. 7:28). Those objectors, moreover, by their objection only prove that they did not read what Solomon said on this subject. This is what he writes about the ship: It was built by the art of a master; Thy Providence, O Lord, governs it (Wis. 14:2-3). So, I ask the objectors: “Isn’t it wild to put philosophy below the art of carpentry or shipbuilding”?
Hearing that the Lord fed the crowd sitting on the grass with two fish and five barley loaves in sight of Lake Tiberias (John 6:11), I think that He pointed this to the Old Testament teaching, which equally prepared both Hellenes and Jews for the adoption of Christianity. Just as, under the influence of summer heat, barley develops and ripens before wheat: similarly, the spiritual food mediated by the law preceded eating from the Divine wheat. Hellenic wisdom, born and raised in the waters of paganism, was depicted by fish, which, being divided among the crowd that was still sitting on the earth, fed it to its full; but not a piece of these fish remained, just as there were crumbs of bread 807. But since this multitude of people was blessed by the Lord, through the Divine breath they were given from above the power of the Logos, the Holy Spirit, the ability to awaken in themselves the highest virtues; the seed of immortality has been dropped, and through it, by the power of the All-Holy Spirit, the resurrection in the future from the dead. Perhaps you are curious to receive other clarifications?
One of the fish could represent the sciences included in the curriculum of youth; the other is philosophy, which serves as a stepping stone to truth; the collected pieces of bread will mean the teaching of the Lord himself, collected from His words.
And the dumb fish rushed in a crowd.
says the tragic muse in one place. I should be malitised, says the prophet John, and grow only in the Logos of the Lord, which is the purpose of the law (John 3:30). Hear and understand the mystery of truth and cover with forgiveness if in considering it I am afraid to go further and limit myself to proclaiming only such testimony: All things happened through Him and without Him nothing happened (John 1:3). That is why the Apostle calls Him the chief cornerstone. The building founded on Him, he adds, rises and grows into a holy church of the Lord (Eph. 2:20-21). Let us leave aside for now the Gospel parable, which says: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who casts his nets into the sea, and then chooses the best from the many fish he catches (Matthew 13:47–48). But already the Book of Wisdom, which is in our hands, declares in very clear terms that there are four main virtues 808, which must first be sought from the Jews, from where they have already reached the Hellenes.
But here are the very words of its text: Whoever loves righteousness, his labors are reflected in virtues, for moderation and prudence teach righteousness and courage, more useful than which there is nothing in human life (Wis. 7:8). What conclusion can be drawn from everything that has gone before? People are characterized by virtue not at all due to the advantage of birth: we all equally bring with us into the world a disposition towards virtue and are capable of acquiring it 809.
12. Perfection is achievable by all people without distinction; however, only the sage truly achieves this goal.
So, all people are equally capable of virtue. From here the groundlessness of the objection with which heresy addresses us is itself revealed: “Was Adam created perfect or imperfect? If imperfect, then how could the creation of a perfect God be imperfect? And especially how did man (the highest of creations) turn out to be such an imperfect thing? If they say that man was created perfect, then how did he break the commandments? To this we answer the heretics: Only the potential ability to be perfect was innate to Adam, and not virtue itself; for it is another matter to possess virtue and another matter to be able to acquire it. God's will was such that we personally should be the agents of our own salvation. Our soul, by its very nature, is characterized by a striving forward. Further, since we are gifted with reason, and philosophy is based on it, then by our very nature we are in a somewhat related relationship with it.
But let us not be deceived: the ability for virtue is only an inclination, a desire for it, and not virtue itself. All people, I repeat, are born with a disposition towards virtue; But with the ability to be imbued with it, but brought up in it, in fact, people are endowed with it to very different degrees. Hence, some achieve perfection in virtue, while others reach only certain levels of it. Some are already born by nature with the happiest abilities: but since they themselves are careless, their carelessness carries them along false paths. Moreover, knowledge, which surpasses all other skills in its comparative greatness and truth, is difficult to conquer and this requires long and harsh work. But they, as it turns out, did not know the mysteries of God; They did not know that God created man for immortality and that He created him in the image of his own being (Wis. 5:22–23).
Through this likeness to the Omniscient, the faithful (gnostic), possessing knowledge, being clothed with righteousness and holiness, strives, in accordance with the instructions of reason, to reach the age of a perfect man (Eph. 4:13). Actions of thought, speech, in a true Gnostic everything is pure, as is confirmed by the following saying of the psalmist: You have searched my heart, he says, and visited me at night. You made me go through the fire of sorrows, and you did not find unrighteousness in me. May my mouth not be busy interpreting human affairs (Ps. 16:3-4). But what am I saying: human affairs? The Gnostic knows sin itself, but not on the path of repentance, as is typical of ordinary Christians; but he is familiar with the very essence of sin and condemns the wrong one or
another sin, but a sin in general. What kind of sin was committed by this or that person, he does not know: but he knows well that he should not have committed it. So, there are two types of repentance: ordinary, occurring as a result of sin, and another more sublime, when a person, having once recognized the essence of sin, renounces it; whence it naturally follows that he no longer sins.
Let them not tell me that a person stained with untruths and sins sins under the influence of a demon. With such reasoning, he would not be guilty. But the sinner, through violation of the law, choosing what the demons also chose, unstable and vain like them, he himself turns in some way into a demon. So, an evil person, becoming a sinner through his natural anger, makes himself vicious through the possession of what he freely chose. Due to his internal inclination to sin, this from the soul passes into action; whereas a good person always acts honestly.
This is what makes us consider not only good deeds good, but also simply honest ones. We distinguish two types of goods. Some are desirable in themselves; such is, for example, cognition. Indeed, once we have mastered it, what else can we ask for except to own it forever? Shouldn't he be the goal of all efforts? Shouldn’t they be driven by it? so, finally, shouldn’t contemplation become our permanent state? Other goods attract us to the consequences that they entail. Such, for example, is faith, which saves us from torment and promises us reward. Fear really is a bridle that keeps many people from sin when they are already on the slope towards it; and the promise produces obedience, which leads to salvation. So, knowledge is the most perfect of goods, because because of it itself it is desirable: and therefore the deeds done through knowledge are the most perfect.
Punishment imposed on a sinner improves and corrects him; for other people, more far-sighted, punishment serves as an example, which, as it were, calls to them: “Beware of falling into the same sins.”
Let us work on acquiring knowledge, being guided in acquiring it not by the hope of the benefits it provides, but with the sole purpose of owning it for its own sake. The first of its fruits is the knowledge of the Gnostic, from which arises for him the purest pleasures, delights in the present, as well as in the future. And delight is defined in such a way that it is the joy that comes from thinking about true virtue, from the passion for which the soul blossoms and expands. Actions in which knowledge is involved are good and beautiful actions, for true wealth consists in the abundance of virtuous actions; just like true poverty consists in the poverty of honest desires, for the use of necessary things and their use, innocent in nature, begins to harm only in quantity, when it goes beyond the limit. This is why the Gnostic, who carefully limits his desires regarding possession and use, never goes beyond the limits of what is necessary.
Considering this life necessary for increasing one’s knowledge and for achieving the height of knowledge, he attaches the greatest importance to “not life in general, but a virtuous life” 810. He does not place either his children, his wife, or his parents above the love of God, as well as the righteousness of this life. After his wife gives him children, in his eyes she becomes nothing more than a sister 811 descended from the same Father; but she herself remembers her husband only when she sees her children. Because she will indeed once be his sister, when she throws off this bodily shell, which still distinguishes them by gender and prevents them from merging into one in knowledge, which is characteristic of spiritual people. Souls, considered in themselves, are all similar to each other: they belong neither to the male nor to the female (Gal. 3:28; Luke 20:35); That’s why they neither get married nor get married. Let me ask you: A woman who is not distinguished by anything peculiar to her sex, who is calmly determined and, like her husband, perfected in goodness, does not she turn into a man?
Such was Sarah's laughter when she was told about the birth of a son that was to follow from her. Not, as I believe, she laughed because she found the Angel’s promise incredible, but because she was ashamed of the new marital relationship that would make her the mother of a son. And later 812, when Abraham was called 813 before the Egyptian Pharaoh to justify his course of action in relation to Sarah, whose beauty attracted the attention of Pharaoh, then doesn’t Abraham call her sister, born, although not from the same mother, but from the same father (Gen. 20:12)?
To those who repent of sins and do not have firm faith, God will grant what they ask for through prayers to Him; for those who live in accordance with the law and according to the suggestions of their knowledge, one desire is enough, fulfilled immediately after its formation. Look at Hannah (1 Samuel 1:13). She desires a son; and immediately she is granted the conception of Samuel. “Ask to speak the Scripture; and I will do it; just wish in your mind, and I will fulfill it” 814. Our traditions indeed tell us that God knows the depths of the heart (Acts 1:24; 15:8). But He does not, like people, need some kind of spiritual movement in order to comprehend the secrets of any of us; - not in any event that would reveal them to Him; It's funny to even think like that. When God, having created light, contemplates it, and then says that it is good (Gen. 1:3-4), then He is in no way like an architect approving the finished building.
And before producing light from nothing, God already knew what the light would become and had already approved in His thought that which after creation turned out to be good, so that by the omnipotence of God, in the pre-eternity of His counsel, good was created, which was subsequently realized as a future good. Thus, hiding the truth under a figure called hyperbole, He, according to foreknowledge, praises the future good. So, a true Gnostic prays even mentally, at any time of the day, for love binds him with God in the closest union. First of all, he asks for remission of sins: he asks further, so as not to sin; thirdly, to do good; and finally to understand God’s works in creation together with the laws that govern them, so that with a heart purified through knowledge (Matt. 5:8) coming from the Son of God, he may be allowed to contemplate face to face such a spectacle that makes us happy (1 Cor. 13:12) for keeping the commandment of Scripture: “Fasting is good if it is combined with prayer.”
And fasting means nothing more than abstaining from all evil, whether it be in deed, in word, or even in thought. So, righteousness is the whole in its entirety 815; all its parts, similar to each other, exactly correspond to one another. Words, actions, abstinence from evil, good deeds, perfect knowledge, none of these are lame in a true sage; there is nothing in it that would offend equality and straightforwardness. So, to the extent that someone is righteous, to that extent is he necessarily faithful; but if someone is faithful, it does not follow that he is righteous. I speak here of progressive and perfect righteousness, by which the name of the Gnostic is identified with the name of the righteous. In this way, Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3), for he was elevated to certain things greater and more perfect than faith. You will not become righteous only by abstaining from bad deeds. For this you should also do good and know why it is necessary not to allow yourself to do this and that and why it is necessary to do such and such.
The righteous, according to the Apostle, acquires the highest inheritance with the weapon of righteousness both in the right hand and in the left (2 Cor. 6:7). He defends himself with some, and attacks with others, for defensive weapons and abstinence from sin alone are not enough for perfection, unless the goal of righteousness and good activity is added to them. Only then, protected on all sides and having reached the height of knowledge, the righteous man is completely revealed and the face of his soul shines with the same glory as the face of Moses (Ex. 34:35), a property, as we said earlier, that characterizes the soul of the righteous man. Just as the dyer’s colors, being absorbed by wool, act on it in some way forever and distinguish it from other types of wool: in the same way, traces of moral work on oneself quickly disappear from the soul, so as to leave room there only for goodness and virtue. On the other hand, the pleasure that accompanies a shameful act passes; shame and dishonor are absorbed 816.
These are the visible signs attached to this or that soul, constituting a seal of glorification for the soul of the righteous and condemnation for the soul of the wicked. There should be no doubt about this. Moses' life of righteousness and his great intimacy with God, who spoke to him face to face, reflected upon his face a brilliance and radiance that rested upon him in the form of a kind of halo. In the same way, as a result of contemplation, as a result of engaging in prophecies and good deeds, goodness is affirmed in the soul of the righteous by some Divine power and is reflected on his face by a certain radiance that amazes you with its command and beauty: these are reflections of the Logos (eternal reason). Just as the light of the sun brings with it not only light, but also warmth, so this light is inextricably united in the soul with love, which descends into it from God and brings something Divine to the Gnostic. So, a true Gnostic is likened to God the Savior. He, to the extent permitted by human weakness, is exalted to the perfection of the Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:48).
This God of mercy said: My children, I am with you for a little while longer (John 13:33). The goodness inherent in God by nature is not in this sense the reason for His eternal bliss and immortality, supposedly He does not care about any matter and does not cause difficulty to anyone, doing good as some kind of slave for Himself only, no 817. Being beneficent by the very essence of his nature, like the true God, a tender Father, He is constantly busy doing good - these are the reasons why He remains in the same state and goodness and never deviates from it. What would be the use of idle kindness, which is not revealed in any good deeds? He who does not experience goodness and is not engaged in doing good is not filled with goodness and does not act on its impulses.
13. True wise men in heaven will be awarded the highest degrees of glory, which in the earthly church correspond to the degrees of bishop, presbyter and deacon.
Whoever, after curbing his passions, then begins to lead a dispassionate life, then little by little rises to devotion to goodness, which represents that perfection to which a sage can be brought by knowledge, he already here on earth becomes angelic. Dressed in light and shining like the sun with the perfect deeds of his goodness, through knowledge established in righteousness and love for God, he ascends, following the example of the Apostles, into a holy dwelling. The apostles were endowed with apostleship not by virtue of any advantages of their nature, with which they were superior to others; and not by right of predestination 818, for Judas was chosen like them. But they deserved apostleship in the sight of Him who knows in advance the end of all things. Therefore, Matthew, not being chosen at the same time as the others, replaced Judas later, for he turned out to be worthy of this assignment. Why is it that even in our days, those who faithfully fulfill the commandments and spend the days of their lives in perfection and knowledge, in accordance with the Gospel, are allowed to join the chosen society of the Apostles 819.
He becomes a true presbyter, becomes a deacon in all the strict meaning of this word, that is, he becomes a servant of the will of God who himself fulfills the will of the Lord and teaches others the same. Ordination from people, consecration, presbytery in itself does not constitute righteousness. You can be considered an elder only when you are righteous. And even though here on earth such a simple priest did not occupy an honorary seat, he will sit on one of the twenty-four thrones and will judge the nations, as John says in the Apocalypse (Apocalypse 4:4; 11:16; Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30). For the saving covenant, which has reached us through generations and centuries from the beginning of the world, is one and the same, although it differs in appearance and application. From this it follows that the gift of salvation is one and unchangeable and that it comes from one and the same God through the mediation of one Lord, although it was revealed in different ways (Heb. 1:1). This is how the mediastinum falls (Eph. 2:14–16; 4:18), which separated the Greeks from the Jews and made the latter a people who enjoyed certain advantages.
Thus, both peoples are united in one faith and merge into one chosen people. The most chosen, says John, are those who have risen to perfect knowledge and who are recognized by the church itself for its color, set apart and honored with the highest glory. Consisting of judges and rulers, it makes no difference whether they were chosen from the Greeks or from the Jews, they sit among the twenty-four, for the benefit of mercy was doubled 820. The hierarchy of the earthly church with its episcopacy, priesthood and deaconry is, of course, only a prototype of the glory of the angels and the economy of that, the various degrees in which are assigned, according to the promise of the priest. Scripture, those who, following in the footsteps of St. The apostles live in perfection and righteousness, according to the Gospel. The Apostle, after ascending into the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17), sees them first of all endowed with the diaconate (Apoc. 4:4; 11:16); then elevated to a new level of heavenly glory, already admitted to the presbytery. for glory varies from glory (1 Cor. 15:41), until they finally reach the highest perfection (Eph. 4:13).
14. For those who are engaged in the search for truth and virtue, a dwelling is prepared in heaven, corresponding to the merits of each.
The faithful, who have already reached the blessed state here on earth, according to David, will be laid to rest on the holy mountain of God (Ps. 15:1), that is, in the heavenly church, where all those who love God and the good they have commanded will gather. These are the true Israelites (John 1:47). pure in heart (Matt. 5:8), in whom there is no guile (John 1:47). These are those who, instead of remaining in the rest of the seventh day, 821, through devotion to virtue, becoming like God, have achieved that eight-numbered inheritance that is promised to virtue, that is, they have reached the tabernacle, where speculatively, without a veil, they enjoy the divine spectacle, the contemplation of which is impossible to get enough of. And I have other sheep, says the Lord, which are not of this fold (not this flock) (John 10:16), which means that according to the measure of their faith they were found worthy of being transferred to another court, or another location. My sheep hear my voice. 10:28), that is, they understand the hidden meaning of My commandments. But this means that they comprehend their sublime meaning and the connection that exists between deeds and reward for them according to their dignity and merit.
Hearing the words of the Gospel: Your faith has saved you (Mark 5:34 and elsewhere), we should not understand them as if everyone will be saved, no matter how much they believe, even if they do not add works to their faith. No, we know that faith and works must be added. The Savior addressed these words only to Jews who had the law, led an impeccable life, and had everything except faith in the Lord. An intemperate life excludes faith. Therefore, in order to be introduced into the blessed eternal dwelling intended for each of the faithful, not the flesh must only be put off; but for this it is necessary for the faithful to cleanse himself of all the dirt of the vices and passions that burden him 822. But to know means more than to believe, just as to receive the highest honors destined for the righteous means more than simply to be saved 823. When our faithful one reaches the point where, through long exercise, he has thrown off spiritual infirmities, he moves to a dwelling that makes him happier than the one in which he had previously lived, grieving and atonement with repentance for the sins committed after baptism.
Therefore, he is tormented even more, partly seeing that he has not achieved the highest degree of glory, which he strived for and which others have already achieved; partly realizing that he will never be able to achieve it. Moreover, his sins cover him with shame and disgrace; and this is the highest punishment for the faithful. Thus, although God’s justice is merciful, His mercy is also full of justice. Because although the purifying punishments of one and the other for his sins will cease, still the faithful, recognized as worthy of entering the monastery only of lower glory, will give in to inconsolable grief that they cannot participate in the splendor of their brothers, whom God exalted with the highest glory for the righteousness of their lives 824.
Solomon, under the name of a sage, portraying a true Gnostic, writes the following about those who contemplate with wonder the knowledge with which the Savior invests the perfect Christian: They will see the death of the sage and will not understand what the Lord has determined about him and what he has been destined for (Wis. 4:17). But after glorifying him, they will say: This is the one who was never mocked among us and served as the subject of our reproaches. What madmen we were then! We considered his life to be madness, and his death shameful. How is he numbered among the sons of God and how is his inheritance among the saints (Wis. 5:3-5)? And so not only the faithful, but also the pagan will be subject to condemnation to the fullest extent of justice. God, in His eternal foreknowledge, knowing that the pagans would not believe in Him, nevertheless, in order to raise them to the perfection of which they were only capable, gave them philosophy, but only as a preparatory step to faith. He allowed them to idolize the sun, moon and stars created for the common benefit out of fear, as the law says (Deut.
4:19) 825 so that, living without God and in complete wickedness, they do not completely perish. But these peoples turned out to be ungrateful. Disobeying the Divine commandment, they began to worship sculptural images of the Deity. If they do not purify themselves with the same repentance as us, they will suffer punishment, alone because they did not want to believe in God, having every opportunity to do so; others because, with all their desire to be faithful, they did nothing to fulfill this desire; and also because from the adoration of the luminaries they did not rise to the veneration of their Creator. Because God placed stars over their heads as a path that leads to Him. They did not stop at the luminaries given to them for this purpose, but descended from heaven and began to bow before stone and wood, from now on becoming like straw carried by the wind, as the Scripture says, a drop of water falling from a bucket (Is. 40:15). So they found themselves outside of being saved and separated from the body of steel humanity.
Working on your salvation is a matter of dubious dignity 826 if reason does not join this work; it is a completely good deed only when the duty is fulfilled in all perfection. Because all the deeds of a Gnostic are marked with the stamp of perfection. The deeds of the ordinary faithful have only average dignity, because they are not headed by reason and are not governed by knowledge. On the contrary, all the deeds of a pagan are nothing more than sins. Scripture really does not simply and without any circumstance tell us: “Do good,” no; Moreover, it commands us to direct all our actions towards one goal and set reason as their principle. Unskilled hands should not even touch the lyre or flute, let alone play them. In the same way, those who do not have knowledge and do not know how to use certain things in life should not touch them during their entire life on this earth. It is not only on battlefields that warriors fight for freedom.
He who is anointed with the Logos, at the thought of the possibility of being carried away into captivity from any sensual pleasure, blushing with noble shame, fights both on the bed of sleep and while eating and in front of the judges. “I will never renounce virtue for the sake of unrighteous gain.” What kind of unjust gain is this? Obviously sensual pleasure and embarrassment, because of them, labor and anxiety; in a word, various passions that torment our soul, pleasant in the present, but saddening us beyond measure a moment later. What would it really serve you if someone gained the whole world, says the Lord, but damaged his own soul (Matt. 16:26: Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25)?
It is obvious, then, that people who are not engaged in good deeds do not understand their own benefit. And if this is so, then they are even unable to properly ask God for what is good, for they do not know the true good. And even if they had received those benefits from God, they would not have felt the greatness of the gift and would not have been able to worthily take advantage of what they did not comprehend; due to ignorance, they would not be able to properly and correctly apply those gifts of God to business. So, insufficient knowledge is the cause of ignorance. And in my opinion, it is common for a modest mind, or at least a good conscience, to exclaim when it fails: “Let everything that can happen happen; I have the truth on my side. Justice will fight for me and I will never be caught in any wrongdoing, for I am busy doing good deeds” 827. It is this purity of conscience in relation to God that maintains holiness in the soul, and justice in relations with people; This spiritual purity is then protected by reflections on important things, by chaste words and good deeds.
Having been thus imbued with the power of the Lord, the soul itself becomes Divine 828. To this day, she does not recognize any other evil except ignorance and actions that do not have reason as their original source. Constantly always giving thanks to God for everything, both when listening to words of justification, and when reading the Divine Scriptures, during the search for the truth, during the offering of a sacred sacrifice and during prayers that make it happy, such a soul pours itself out in words, praises, blessings 829, in enthusiastic chants. A soul imbued with such dispositions is never separated from its God for a moment. Therefore, the saying is distinguished by deep wisdom: And those who trust Him will comprehend the truth and the faithful will listen to Him with love (Wis. 3:9). This is what the Book of Wisdom says about true Gnostics.
So, in heaven there are various abodes into which the faithful are moved according to their personal merits. The most chosen gift, says Solomon, will be a reward for his faith and he will receive the most brilliant place in the house of the Lord (Wis. 3:14). The most brilliant.... The comparative degree here means that in the church of God, which consists of nothing other than the universal church, there are also lower monasteries. And at the same time, this grammatical form elevates our thought to the most sublime regions where Divine greatness reigns. The numbers 30, 60 and 100, found in the Gospel (Matthew 13:8), indirectly indicate these three types of monasteries. The perfect inheritance is the lot of those who have achieved perfection in the “image” of the Lord. Regarding “likeness” 830 it would be wicked to think, as some have believed, that it consists in the outward appearance of a person, no. It does not consist equally in the complete penetration of the Divine properties 831 that distinguish the First Cause.
This opinion is also wicked and constitutes an invention of dreamers, as if the properties of man and the Almighty are the same. Wicked man, says the Lord, you thought that I was like you (Ps. 49:21). It is enough for a student if he is like his mentor, says our Teacher (Matt. 25:10). The faithful one, whom God has honored with the advantage of adoption as sons and friendship with Himself, becomes like God, for he is a joint heir and Lord of the gods, 832 if only he has achieved that perfection that is commanded by the Gospel.
15. Various stages of knowledge, which themselves determine the achievement of perfection. The reasons why in St. Much of Scripture is stated in secret and mysterious ways.
So, a true sage (Gnostic) embodies in his person a more direct image of the (Divine) likeness, that is, the spirit of his Divine Teacher, as this was revealed in the commandments and advice to wise and prudent people. The reason for this is the Gnostic’s understanding of the will of his Divine Teacher. Our Lord commanded us from the rooftops to proclaim what He said only to His disciples and in the ear (Matthew 10:27; Luke 12:3). Therefore, the Gnostic, due to his predominant gifts, conveys the teachings of his Lord in a more sublime way to people seeking more sublime edification. But first of all, he backs up his words with the authority of his deeds, in accordance with the example given to us in this regard by our Lord himself. He does not demand from us the impossible, but He has commanded us only that which can be accomplished. It is precisely in such matters that our royal dignity is reflected 833; This is precisely what our Christianity should consist of, our dominant position among other people.
Our calling is not to dominate only wild animals; like so many wild animals, we carry within ourselves passions over which we must rule.
Thus, knowledge of the superiority of a virtuous life over an evil one saves the Gnostic and makes him understanding of good deeds and more abundant in them than how much the scribes and Pharisees understood and had (Matt. 5:20). Take up arms, reign and triumph, writes David, defending the truth, the quietness of your spirit and behavior and your righteousness, and the Lord, your right hand, will rule you in a wonderful way (Ps. 19:4). So who is wise and understands this? Whoever understands, in order to know this, the ways of the Lord are right, says the prophet (Hos. 14:10), wanting to explain to us through this that only a true sage is able to understand and interpret the true meaning, the hidden meaning of the words of the Holy Spirit. And whoever understands will remain silent at this time, says the sacred word of Scripture (Amos 5:13), that is, he will not reveal secrets to the unworthy. Why? Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, says the Lord (Matthew 11:15), expressing by this that hearing and understanding (the mysteries of the kingdom of God) are not given to everyone. David writes about this: He clothed himself with dark water in the clouds of the air. From the brilliance of His face the clouds opened and began to spew out hail and fiery coals (Ps.
17:11–12), which means that the sayings of the saint. The Scriptures are full of mystery. For the Gnostic they are clear and intelligible; His thoughts perceive them as grains of harmless hail sent by Divine mercy. For the uninitiated, they are dark as coals, however, they hide the power within themselves to flare up again and illuminate everything with their brilliance, if someone’s skill awakens what has gone out in them - there was a flame in them. The Lord gave me a language of instruction, the prophet says, so that I would know that in certain cases it would be appropriate to say (Is. 50:4) not only when confessing (faith) before the judicial authorities, but also in ordinary questioning and answering. And the instruction of the Lord will open my mouth (Isa. 50:5). So, a true sage (gnostic) knows how to use the word, when, before whom and what to say.
The Apostle already said: “According to the principles of worldly science, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8) doesn’t he teach us that the science of the Hellenes is only elementary and primary knowledge, but the teaching of Christ is final and perfect, as we have already talked about this before. But a good olive is already grafted onto a wild olive, and the wild one takes part in the essence and juices of the good one (Rom. 17). Wild olive grows almost identically to cultivated olives. But grafting from cultivated olives, instead of drawing juices directly from the earth, draws them indirectly through wild animals that feed on earthly juices. (This circumstance, however, does not yet give us the right to consider some of the plants to be somehow cursed). All plants, no matter what kind they are, grow according to the will of God. This is why an olive branch, even if taken from a tree and wild, can still crown a winner at the Olympic Games. Compared to the elm, the grapevine is of course a noble plant.
However, does not the elm, which allowed the weak vine to creep upward along itself, teach it through this to be most fertile? Wild trees, as is known, absorb more earthly juices, but they cannot soften them through processing. So, wild trees, compared to cultivated ones, are less capable of processing juices, and the astringency of the taste of their fruits depends solely on the lack of ability to soften the fruit and its taste. A cultivated olive, grafted onto a wild one, therefore gains the ability to absorb more juice through it. But being absorbed by the wild, those juices, under the influence of the noble inoculation, are assimilated to him, that is, they are also ennobled. The pagan philosopher is such a wild olive. His wisdom contains many meaningful elements, but all of them in their raw form are inappropriate. That sage thirsts for research and passionately devotes himself to it; with his usual methods of activity, he easily comprehends the truth, absorbing its juices. And yet his wisdom lacks elements that are truly nourishing.
Only when, through the power of his faith, Divine grace infuses him, only then does this wild olive, strengthened by such a gracious and meaningful knowledge, only then does it, through the instillation of the glorious and merciful Logos, immediately transform the nourishing juices absorbed by it and itself turn into an olive of a different nature, abounding in the most beautiful oil. This is because the grafting turned it, a useless tree, into an ennobled tree; It was barren, but grafting turned it fertile. The art of agriculture is so important! Such miracles are generated by true knowledge!
It is known that there are four ways to graft trees. But the first method of grafting is introduced between the wood and its bark. Common infidels turn to Christ in exactly the same way: with their mental underdevelopment, they accept the Logos only on the surface of their soul. According to the second method, the stem is cut and the cultivated cutting is inserted into the cut. This method of grafting has to do with those who have dedicated themselves to wisdom. Having penetrated into their teachings, we introduce the true teaching into their number. In the same way, that is, through clarification of the meaning of the ancient sacred books, a new and good olive branch, Christian teaching, was grafted onto the trunk of the Jewish olive tree. The third method of inoculation is applicable to rude people and heretics, who by their inner nature are already drawn to the truth. With this method, the gardener, with an iron in his hand, exposes, but without injuring it, the core of two branches and connects them to one another. The fourth method is grafting with the so-called eye.
A bud is removed from a noble tree, cut in a circle, so that the bark around it is approximately the width of a finger; then an incision is made on the foreign stem to the extent of the eye to be grafted, it is applied, this entire part is wrapped in bandages, coated with clay, however, taking care to ensure that the eye remains in all its integrity, not changed in the least. This fourth method of grafting for fruit trees is the most useful. From this an application can be made to the Gnostic teaching, whose gaze also penetrates into the very depths of things. Of course, grafting through a cut, about which the Apostle speaks (Rom. 11:24), can turn a wild olive into a good olive, i.e., that the rough and unfaithful nature of those who turn to Christ, created in Christ, is transformed into the essence of Himself. But it is better if faith is grafted onto everyone’s own soul trunk.
For although the Holy Spirit influences parts of our being, it is grafted onto us to the extent of the place we give up to Him in our soul, remaining indivisible and not losing anything from our being. Solomon portrays wisdom in the following terms: Wisdom is bright and unfading; she is easily known by those who love her. She even anticipates those who want to know her and is the first to know her. Whoever stays awake early in the morning because of it will not get tired. Already thinking about it is the perfection of the mind and the one who is awake because of it will soon be freed from worries. She herself goes here and there, looking for those worthy of her - for knowledge is not the destiny of everyone (1 Cor. 8:7), - and favorably, with a smiling face, appears to them on the paths (Wis. 6:12-14). These are the ways in which the rules of moral behavior and the great variety and variety of covenants are formed. Solomon continues: And she appears to him in all kinds of thoughts, i.e. they comprehend it, despite the variety of its forms, discover it in all kinds of teachings.
By adding to wisdom love, which complements it, the sacred writer, in his conclusions and a number of luminous propositions, especially conclusively sets out the same truth. The beginning of wisdom, he says, is the most sincere desire for learning, that is, knowledge. And care for learning is love for it. Love is the preservation of its laws; and observing them is the key to immortality, bringing us closer to God. So, the pursuit of wisdom elevates us to kingship (Wis. 6:15–20). Solomon, I believe, teaches us here that true teaching consists in an ardent desire for knowledge. And teaching moves forward from love to knowledge; This love is nothing more than keeping the commandments leading to knowledge; keeping the commandments is fidelity to them, from which comes immortality, which brings us closer to God.
If it is true that the love of knowledge gives rise to immortality and that it brings those who are already imbued with the consciousness of their royal origin and dignity closer to God, the King of all that exists: then how urgent is the duty for us to seek knowledge, to seek until we have mastered it! Research is the movement of our soul towards the goal that we want to achieve. We move towards the goal at the same time, observing some indicating signs (milestones). By discovering the purpose of research, a limit is set and it ceases; Having achieved understanding, we calm down; understanding here is identical with knowledge. In the strict sense of the word, the discovery of the goal consists only of cognition, since this is the comprehension of the subject of research. By a pointing sign, philosophers mean a guiding assumption, accompanying or self-evident 834.
Research that takes God as its subject reaches the teaching that comes to us through the medium of the Son of God. By what signs can we recognize that the Son of God Himself is our Savior? Look for the answer to this in the prophecies that announced His coming many centuries before their fulfillment. Look for the answer to this in evidence proving that He was sensually present among us (which presence is still felt by us to this day). Seek the answer to this finally in His omnipotence, so solemnly, beginning from the time of His ascension into heaven, and proclaimed with such obviousness that it seems you can touch it with your hands.
What other proof is required to confirm that the truth is among us? The Son of God Himself spoke to us. In fact, if the essence of each question always moves around two such things, around a person and an object, then this only confirms that the truth and what is worth this name lives only between us. The person who brought the truth is the Son of God himself. What does it mean? And the fact that among us the eternal Truth itself was revealed. The subject of revelation is the power of faith, triumphing over all kinds of obstacles and being able to defeat even the whole world, even if it had to fight the whole world. But since, on the one hand, people of action and reason have at all times agreed to better neglect the wickedness of the unfortunate, rejecting Providence and atheist, or subject him to punishment 835 than to refute it; just as, on the other hand, in the face of Christ it is shown to us what we should do and how to live in order to achieve knowledge of the Almighty, and in His teaching, in what ways.
By worshiping God we can create our own salvation; in addition, since we learn what pleases God the Savior not in the school of sophists, but from the lips of the Divine: then we, Christians, try to walk the paths of righteousness and holiness. It pleases God that we be saved, and salvation is the fruit of good deeds and knowledge, in which our Lord instructs us. If it is fair to say with Plato that no one except God or the descendants of the gods can reveal the truth, then we have the right to boast that we contain the truth and exclaim with noble pride: “The truth has been communicated to us through the medium of the Son of God. Prophecies spoken before events and subsequently justified by events, these are our proofs.”
However, what contributes to the discovery of truth should not be rejected. So when philosophy teaches that there is Providence, that there are rewards beyond the grave, that the virtuous will be awarded a blessed life, and the vicious will be punished, then it briefly interprets the same thing that constitutes the content of Theology. But ask her about the revelation, go down to details, and she will not be able to answer you. She does not speak either about the Son of God, or about the Divine economy of our salvation, what teachings are set forth among us, because she has no information at all about proper reverence for God. That is why the heresies that arise in the depths of barbarian philosophy repeat in vain with us that there is only God; in vain they glorify Christ: these are purely human speeches, circumlocutions and unnecessary words that lack truth. The God they preach is the God they self-invented. The Christ they confess is not the Christ whom the prophets proclaim.
Their teachings will remain false until they are confirmed by the earnestness of life; until then they will always be against us. It is true, of course, that Paul, because of the Jews who believed in Christ, subjected Timothy to circumcision (Acts 16:3). He feared that by abolishing the custom, which people under the law still understood in a carnal way, converts from Judaism would be turned away from Christianity. But he understood perfectly well that circumcision does not justify. His rule was to “make yourself everything to everyone”; out of condescension and for a time, therefore, he fulfilled the instructions that were still in force in order to save everyone (1 Cor. 9:19-22). Likewise, Daniel, while at the court of the king of the Persians, wore a gold necklace around his neck. He did not consider the people's grief to be a sufficient reason for putting aside this decoration.
From this it follows that one cannot be accused of lying if someone shows leniency in order to save someone, or if someone is mistaken in some unimportant point. Those who are actually liars and deceivers, who, attacking the most important of the creeds, deny the Lord, as far as it is in their power, or at least distort the true teaching, explaining and expounding the sacred. Scripture does not agree with the greatness of the Lord God. Meanwhile, the interpretation of St. The Scriptures and observation in life began it, consistent with the Lord's teaching and imbued with the same spirit of piety that St. by the Apostles, represents the return to God of this pledge in all its integrity and inviolability. What is said in your ear, that is, in a special and mysterious sense - for when it is said about telling someone a secret, this is precisely the allegory that is used - then proclaim it from the housetops, says the priest. Scripture (Matt. 10:27).
Yes, without a doubt, we must perceive the sublime meaning of sacred sayings, conveying them in all their greatness, explaining them in accordance with the rules of the discovery of truth. Neither the prophets, nor even the Lord himself offered us the Divine secrets with sufficient clarity, so that the first person we met could comprehend them. The form under which they were hidden was a supply one. The apostles say about the Lord that He spoke everything in parables and spoke nothing to them without a parable (Matt. 13:34). But if everything happened through Him and without Him nothing began to be (John 1:3), then it is also true that both the prophets and the law received their beginning from Him and that in the parables it was He who spoke through them.
All My words are completely clear to those who understand, says the Holy Spirit (Proverbs 8:9). By reasonable here we should mean those who, having received the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures from the church, understand them in accordance with its instructions, and therefore in the sense and meaning that the Lord himself gave them. The ecclesiastical understanding of Scripture is such that the law and the prophets according to it are in harmonious agreement with each other, mediated by the covenant that was left to us by Christ Jesus during His bodily sojourn among us. Knowledge must be distinguished by reasonableness, and reasonableness by sobriety. One can even say about rationality that it represents knowledge peculiar to the Divine: that is why it is the lot of people, who represent something Divine 836. Sobriety, common sense, which by its very nature constitutes a natural attribute of man, is the lot of people devoted to wisdom, but who have not yet achieved it in life.
If virtue is a certain Divine property, then knowledge must be the same; sobriety, restraint is a form of incomplete rationality, striving to become such; her deeds are distinguished by more brawl-loving tension than calm contemplation. No doubt the same applies to righteousness. Being in its manifestations in the human world a completely natural phenomenon, and therefore itself a universal property, it nevertheless stands lower than holiness, which is (no longer human, but) God’s righteousness 837. Look at the perfect man. He does not wait until civil orders or the prohibitions of the law force him to righteousness; he strives for it himself out of completely voluntary motives and out of love for God. So, for the priest. Writers were very motivated to express the meaning of many of their sayings only covertly.
First of all, Holy Scripture desires that we devote ourselves to the study of its meaning in good faith, that we constantly maintain the sobriety of our minds, being always ready to comprehend the meaning of saving teachings. Further, it was not at all required that all people understand what the priest said. Writers. The words of the Holy Spirit, aimed at our salvation, could only be distorted by the wicked if they began to address them with other, that is, reprehensible goals and dispositions. That is why the holy mysteries of prophecy, appointed for the elect and for those who are brought to knowledge by faith, are clothed in parables, because the whole meaning of the Scriptures is allegorical. That is why the Lord, although He was not of this world, entered into communication with people as if He were a man of this world. He was a living example of all virtues. He raised man, nourished by this world, to the contemplation of invisible and fundamental things; This is how He transformed this world into another. Here is another reason that forced Scripture to resort to allegory.
This form of expression of thoughts, which does not indicate the object itself, but only hints at it with a light cover, pushes the thinking person towards his own and true meanings; or, as some say, allegory is a way of expressing thought in which things that instruct us speak about reality under a different name.
In fact, don’t we see that the Divine economy regarding the Incarnation of the Lord, predicted by the prophets, remains a simple allegory for people who do not know the truth? That the Son of God Himself, who creates everything, took on our flesh, that He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin - for He was pleased to put on a sensual body - that just as He was born fleshly, suffered in the flesh and was resurrected, this is a mystery that some proclaim, and others heed - a temptation to the Jews, but madness to the Greeks, according to the expression of the Apostle (2 Cor. 2:23). But lift the veils of Scripture, and it will reveal the truth to those who have ears (Matt. 11:15 et seq.). In this fleshly image, taken upon Himself by our Savior, who suffered according to the flesh, you will easily see the wisdom and power of God proclaimed to you (2 Cor. 1:24). Finally, since the allegorical form of expressing thoughts originates from ancient times, as we have already shown, we should not be surprised that we often encounter it in the prophets.
Through this, the Holy Spirit prepared the way of persuasion that was to instill in the Hellenic philosophers and sages of other barbarian nations that the coming of the Lord and His mysterious teaching, which He had to bring to earth, remained unknown to them. It was not in vain that the prophets, pointing to the Lord and fearing in the eyes of some to appear blasphemers - for their predictions contradicted generally accepted opinions - clothed what they meant in such expressions that were supposed to awaken different ideas in different minds. Moreover, all the prophets who predicted the coming of Christ, and at the same time all the mysteries that constitute its consequences, were persecuted and died a violent death, just like the Lord himself, who explained the Scripture to them. But His disciples, who spread His word in the world as soon as He left this life, following His example, used allegorical ways of expressing their thoughts. Here's what for example.
Peter says in his “Sermon” about the Apostles: “Having read through the books left to us by the prophets, where Christ Jesus is spoken of sometimes in parables, sometimes in mysterious expressions, sometimes in indisputably clear and precise expressions, we found in them prophecies about His coming, about His cross, death, about all the sufferings that the Jews subjected Him to, about His resurrection and ascension into heaven even before the foundation of the new Jerusalem, as it is written (Apoc. 21; 2 Peter 3:13). This is what sorrow He certainly had to go through and this is what was supposed to follow after Him. After such a study, we began to believe in God as Scripture says about Him.” Then, a little lower, Peter adds that the sacred books are the work of Divine Providence. “We have learned,” he says, that in truth they were written by the command of God himself; Therefore, we do not speak a single word without relying on Scripture.”
The Hebrew language, like other languages, also has some distinctive features. It is rich in original expressions that reflect the character of the people. Language is defined in such a way that “it is a way of expressing thoughts cast in accordance with the character of the people.” But the prophecies have nothing that would resemble the combinations characteristic of these adverbs. Among the Hellenes, figurative expressions concerning everyday life were deliberately clothed in a mysterious form in order to more skillfully imitate our prophecies in this regard. This means that both in poetry and in prose they were arbitrarily allowed to deviate from the natural meaning, for the tropical expression is one of the abstractions of a word from the natural meaning in order to assimilate to it a figurative meaning for the special purposes of composition in the form of communication to various parts of its great grace and liveliness. But prophecies never use images to convey embellishment to their language. Their imagery has other reasons.
Knowing that not everyone could contain the truth, the prophecies hid it in many different forms; They shone with a brilliant light only on the faithful, initiated into knowledge and led lovingly to the truth. Barbarian wisdom is characterized by various types of prophecies: proverb, parable, riddle. She distinguishes wisdom from instruction; then she distinguishes the rules of prudence, the subtlety of language - the real, direct truth, then also the ability to control judgment, the cunning that science imparts to simpletons, the feeling and understanding imparted to a convert by a catechumen. “A wise man, listening to these prophets, it is said, will become wiser, and a wise man will learn the art of governing. He will penetrate into parables and their hidden meaning, into the speech of the wise and into their secrets (Proverbs 1:1-6). If it is true that Hellenic gave his name to Hellenic dialects, according to some the son of Zeus, and according to others Deucalion, then the chronology we outlined earlier in 838 can serve as the best evidence of how many generations the Hebrew language originated before the Hellenic dialects.
As we move forward in this work, exploring different types of images, under which, according to the prophet (Solomon), the priests are hidden. secrets, we will depict carefully and in accordance with the requirements of the truth the meaning of the way of life that characterizes the Gnostic. When Divine Virtue (elder) appeared to Erma in a vision under the image of a church 839, She handed him a book, and wanting to introduce it to the elect, instructed Erma to rewrite it. “I rewrote it,” writes the Shepherd, from letter to letter, not being able to discover how the syllables were combined” 840. This vision meant that St. Scripture, if we deal only with its letter, is clear to everyone; faith combines letter with letter (Heb. 5:12). That is why the phrase “read literally” has an allegorical meaning (that is, to understand little). The Gnostic understanding of Scripture, thanks to the progress of which faith is capable, is like reading syllables. So in another place of Scripture it is narrated that the prophets Isaiah (7:1) received a command to take a new book and write down some mysterious speeches in it. What does this mean?
Through this symbol, the Holy Spirit pointed to sacred information concerning the economy of our salvation, which would be revealed through the explanation of the Scriptures, this sacred treasure, which the books of Scripture did not yet contain, because it was still unknown. From the very beginning of their appearance, these secrets were revealed only to those who had understanding. But more than that. Since our Lord himself taught the Apostles, through tradition everything began to reach us, not written in Scripture, but related to it, since by the omnipotence of God it began to be inscribed on renewed hearts, in accordance with the new testament. That is why the most enlightened among the Hellenes, to Hermes, whom they call (Logos) the Word, dedicate a pomegranate apple in gratitude for the gift of voice and speech and for the interpretation of it, because speech really contains many dark expressions.
Joshua's vision also contained deep wisdom. Moses, during his ascension to heaven, he saw in a double form: one ascended among a host of angels, the other stood on the top of the mountains and, however, was also worthy to have angels as interlocutors in these heights. Jesus saw this sight from below, being lifted up in spirit along with Caleb. However, both of these spectators did not see the same thing. The latter quickly descended, eager to lay down the burden that burdened him; the other, having descended from these heights, successively spoke about all the glory that he had witnessed; being more pure, he was also more clairvoyant compared to his companion. This story, according to our understanding, means that knowledge is not a common property. Some, being occupied only with the material part of Scripture, that is, with words and names, see only the body of Moses. Others penetrate into the depths of thoughts and look for mysterious meaning in words, listening with all the thirst of curiosity to Moses sitting in the host of Angels.
It is true, of course, that among those who called on the Lord, many said: Son of David, have mercy on me (Mark 10:48 et seq.). But how few saw in Him, like Peter, the Son of God! That is why the Teacher called Peter blessed, for it was not flesh and not blood that revealed this secret to him, but the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:17). The Lord wanted to teach us with these words that a true Gnostic knows the Son of the Almighty not through the eyes of this flesh formed in the womb of the mother, but through the grace of the Father. Possessing the truth is a difficult task, not only for the inexperienced and the unskilled. The story of Moses proves to us that even those for whom it is a specialty do not enjoy contemplating it in all its breadth. The Jews once beheld the glory of Moses (Ex. 34:30 etc.). Whole hosts of Angels appeared in visions to the Saints of Israel (eg Dan. 10:7 et al.). Let us strive to ensure that we, like them, can contemplate the brilliance of truth face to face.
16. The mysterious meaning of the Decalogue, as an example of the fact that all Scripture must be understood in a mysterious sense 841.
In passing, let us dwell here on the Decalogue, which can be an example of the contents of all Scripture and the mysterious meaning comprehended only by a Gnostic.
That the number 10 is a sacred number, I still consider it unnecessary to prove. If it is true that the tablets with the commandments inscribed on them are the work of God (Ex. 32:15–16; 31:18), then there is no doubt that they signify the created nature. By the finger of God is meant Divine omnipotence, which created heaven and earth: the tablets served as a symbol, one of heaven, the other of earth. The letters inscribed by God on the tablets that received them actually depicted this world created by Himself. Consequently, one of the tablets of the Decalogue, since it was an image of the sky, hinted at its ten elements: the sun, moon, stars, clouds, light, wind, water, air, darkness, fire. This is the natural decalogue of heaven. The second tablet designated the earth with its elements: people, domestic animals, reptiles and beasts of the field; from aquatic fish and cetaceans; of birds, carnivorous and non-carnivorous; from plants fruity and sterile. This is the natural tenology of the earth. Regarding the ark containing the tablets of the law (Exod.
25:16), then this consists of wisdom and knowledge of things Divine and human 842. It may also be that the two tablets gave a prophetic hint of the two covenants. The tablets were mysteriously renewed as soon as ignorance and sin broke free. The commandments, as it turns out, were also inscribed on the tablets twice: the first time by the commanding spirit, and the second time by the obeying spirit, for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17).
Man himself is also the personification of the decimal number. He has five senses; he says, is born; the eighth element in it is breathing, which determines the formation of the body itself 843; the soul, which is the ruler in a person, is the ninth element in him, the dominant one: finally, the tenth element in a person is some special gift; By the power of faith, the Holy Spirit indwells a person and places a special stamp and distinctive character on this gift. Add to this that the law, as it turns out, embraces with its prescriptions all ten elements that enter into a person: vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste and paired organs, which are the servants of the first, i.e. arms and legs. This is for the outer man, for such is his composition. But in man there is also a soul, and besides this, a principle that is even more important and governs the whole man, reasoning in him and by its origin is not due, so that even apart from this we have 10 abilities that perform the entire set of functions inherent to us.
Following the gradualness in which all these abilities manifest themselves, we find that a person owes his carnal birth to the beginning of the servile passions, although the judgmental ability subsequently turns out to be the most important of all in him; we even consider it to be the educational principle of the animal, which determines its composition and all nature; even more than that: and about the irrational part of the animal we say that it is animated, enlivened by that beginning and itself constitutes, as it were, an appendage to it. The vital principle, which contains the power that nourishes and grows the outer man, or, speaking generally: which is characterized by all kinds of movements, consists of the carnal spirit, gifted with amazing mobility; through the senses and the rest of the body he can develop; and it is natural for him to be aroused first of all through the body. The dominant ability is characterized by freedom; in the deepest sources of this ability live the spirit of inheritance, the spirit of order and legality, the desire for knowledge. And a wonderful thing!
Everything in a person turns out to be ordered in relation to this one ability that has power in him; by it a person is determined in his life, and, moreover, determined in a certain way. So, through the mediation of the carnal spirit, a person feels, desires, rejoices, is irritated, nourishes, develops; through it, a person acts in accordance with what is invented and decided by them in the soul and in the mind. If the passions are conquered, the dominant faculty triumphs. The commandment “thou shalt not covet” therefore means nothing more than the following: “Instead of slavish service to the carnal spirit, dominate it, for on the one hand, the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, being a rebel, always ready to cover you with shame by falling into excesses that are disharmonious with nature; on the other hand, the spirit is given such power to control the body that throughout his entire life a person can act in accordance with his inner nature.
So, what is wrong with the message of the holy books that man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26)? In this case, we are not talking about its external organization. The expression means that just as God created everything with His Logos, so the Gnostic, following His example, that is, coordinating all his actions with reason, through which the Divine Logos declares Himself, performs deeds, the dignity of which is determined by their rationality, for this is what the Gnostic strives for. In truth, the two tablets of the covenant signify symbolically those commandments which, given by both of the two spirits - that is, both the creating (carnal) spirit and the governing spirit - preceded the law. In addition, they indicate the duality of movements characteristic of our feelings. These movements are also divided into two types, depending on whether they originate in our mind or arise from bodily processes: a double path in the comprehension of objects of knowledge. External feelings have a relationship with the material world, while speculation has a relationship with what is contemplated in the realm of thought alone.
But as for actions, they are also of two types: some arise from the mind, the source of others is carnal movements.
The first commandment of the Decalogue brings before our spiritual eyes the one omnipotent God (Ex. 22:2–3, etc.), who brought the chosen people out of Egypt, in order to bring them through the desert into possession of the inheritance of their fathers. By this commandment, the Creator demands from His people that when paying attention to these Divine miracles, they should be imbued, as far as possible, with the consciousness of the greatness of His omnipotence. He further demands that the people no longer give idolatrous honors to the creation, but place all their hopes only on the true God. - The second commandment requires that no one dare use the greatness of the Eternal, who alone is truly worthy of reverent worship for vain purposes, no one dares to call this sacred name on created and perishable objects created by the hand of human artists; Jehovah (Ex. 3:14) has nothing in common with them; for with identity only with oneself, there truly exists only one Being. His greatness, of course, is represented only by His name, but at that time the mass of the people could not understand more.
This is the meaning of the 3rd commandment. – The fourth proclaims to us that peace is the work of God, that God has given us the seventh day for rest, because of the sorrows we endure in this life and the disasters to which we are exposed here. God Himself, with His eternal strength and tirelessness and holy dispassion, does not need peace. But the same cannot be said about us who bear the burden of the flesh. This seventh day is called the day of rest, that is, abstinence from all types of evil. This day foreshadows that primordial day 844, that is, Christ, in which all things first appeared in the world, which is our true peace and with which that light (of reason) has a relationship, with the brilliance of which everything is clear to us and everything becomes our property. Starting from this very day, the first rays of wisdom and knowledge shine upon us. I want to say this: the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the light of truth, the true and infallible light, in which there is not the slightest darkness, a light that is divisible, but not divided into parts, among those who are sanctified by faith, represents a speculative sun, illuminating everything that exists.
To use this light throughout your life means to establish yourself in holy dispassion. This is what marks the rest of the seventh day. That is why Solomon (Proverbs 8:22, etc.) depicts before us the Almighty, many centuries before the beginning of heaven, earth and everything that exists, conceiving and giving birth to Wisdom, the penetration of which - I’m talking about our part in it through effort and virtue, and not about any of our substantial, or essentially, equality with it - introduces us to the laws of Divine and human: even in time This earthly life, through contemplation, we thus reach an understanding of them.
Since the speech touched upon the septenary number and the octal number, the following is also evoked in our memory in passing. An octal number, strictly speaking, is only a septenary number; but at the same time, the septenary number also represents the sixfold number, i.e. Saturday. The septenary number is assigned for activity, because the creation of the world was completed in six days. The sun takes six months to complete its movement from one tropic to another, 845 during which period of time one day the leaves fall, and another time the plants multiply and the embryos develop. They also say that the embryo develops completely over the course of six months, that is, after 182 days and a half, as the doctor Polub writes about this in his discussion “On eight-month-old children” and Aristotle in his work “On Nature.” Probably due to the creation of the world in 6 days, the disciples of Pythagoras, on the basis of the book of Genesis, consider the perfect number six 846, which they call the number located in the middle between direct numbers, i.e. 2 and 10. It was also called “marriage.”
It was called the first of these names because, being equally distant from 10 and from 2, in some way there is a middle ground between them. This number is called Gamos, i.e. marriage, because it has some similarities with it. Just as marriage occurs through the union of a husband and wife, in the same way the number 6 is produced by the odd number 8, which is considered to be a masculine number, and the number 2, which is considered a feminine number 847. Two times three is six. The same number of movements through which the offspring spreads; there are six of them: up, down, right, left, forward, backward. Therefore, in fairness, considering the number 7 as born without a mother and not producing any offspring, it is made a symbol of the Sabbath, an allegorical emblem of that peace in which one neither marries nor is given in marriage (Luke 20:35). For this number, which is not the product of any factors, does not give any of the numbers contained between one and twelve 848.
Placing a fixed sphere in the number of 7 planets, the number eight is called cubic. Those 7 planets mark with their movement a great year, which has to show general reward and fulfillment of vows 849. That is why the Lord, having entered Mount Tabor, the quarter 850 himself soon becomes the sixth 851 and, shining with the radiance of spiritual light, reveals such glory as only those worthy of seeing it could withstand. The voice—which means the seventh person—proclaimed Him to be the Son of God. What did he want? Convince his companions to rely on Him with all the strength of their convictions and - revealing Himself as God incarnate, in all the splendor of His omnipotence. The emblem of his birth into the world is the number six with its wonderful properties; the emblem of His Divinity is the number eight, for He was considered a simple man, but a voice from above revealed the secret of His nature 852. And in fact, the number six, although of course it occupies its rightful place between numbers, there is no sign for it in the alphabet 853.
In the series of numbers, the numbers 7 and 8 certainly occupy the place appropriate to each of them; in the alphabet the sixth letter is theta, and the seventh is eta. And it is unknown how the sign s appeared for six. That is why, according to the accepted system of letters, the seventh becomes the sixth, and the eighth the seventh. That is why it is said that man was created on the sixth day. If he is faithful to the One who is represented by the number 6, then he is immediately brought into possession of the inheritance that is promised by the Lord. Something similar also means the 6th hour, in which the God-man died and the work of our salvation was completed (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44; John 19:14). It has been proven that 8 is equal to 7, and 7 = 6 according to the place they occupy in the alphabet. And in another even more mysterious sense, seven is praised by the number eight, for the heavens proclaim to the heavens the glory of the Most High (Ps. 18:1). So, the phonetic signs we accept are signs, symbols of sensory objects. So the Lord himself is called Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Apoc. 21:6), by whom everything was created and without whom nothing happened (John 1:3).
It must not be supposed that the rest of God, as some understand it, consisted in cessation of activity. If God, who is essentially good, ceased to do good, then at the same time He would cease to be God; but even talking about this is indecent. He died, what does that mean? This signifies God’s command that the once established order remain undisturbed throughout the centuries and that all creation, having been brought out of its previous disorder and disorder, rests from them. On different days, having come from nothing, everything created came into amazing harmony with each other. Having all proceeded from one and the same thought, the created beings were, however, unequal in honor, namely, those who came into being earlier were lower than those who were later. The origin of each of them would not have been separated from the origin of other types of being, and each of them would not have been given a special origin by the voice of the Almighty, if creation had occurred in masses; then that would be what would be said about him. But it was necessary to talk about creation in a certain order.
That is why the sacred historian speaks first of the creation of one, then of the creation of another, although by the power of the Most High the entire collection of beings was extracted from the same substance. The will of God, as far as I can understand, in its identity with itself, is one. But how could creation be accomplished in time, when it itself is contemporary with creation?
But the whole world of animate beings, as well as organic nature, revolves around the number seven. There are seven original Angels who are princes over all others and are invested with the greatest influence and powers. According to astronomers, the earth is ruled by seven wandering planets, to whose influence the Chaldeans attribute everything that happens to us mortals in this life and through the observation of which they guess about the future. The number of fixed Pleiades consists of seven stars. Both Ursae also consist of the septenary number of stars, by which farmers and sailors are determined in their affairs. The moon also changes its appearance every seven days. It becomes a two-horned sickle in the first week, full at the end of the second, again becomes a sickle in the third, decreasing during it; it completely disappears in the fourth.
But the mathematician Seleucus distinguishes seven different phases in it: first invisible, then bent like a sickle, then half full, then completely full and rounded, then going to the detriment, but rounded; once again half full and again bent with a sickle:
Sing new hymns on our seven-stringed lyre.
it is not the ignorant poet (Pindar) who writes, teaching us with these words that the ancient lyre had seven strings. Our face also contains seven organs of our sensations: two eyes, two conductors of sounds, two nostrils and a mouth that complements the number seven. Solon's elegies also explain to us that various changes in human life also occur in weeks.
When the child reaches the first seven years of life,
You will see a fence of teeth in his mouth.
If the Divine gives him seven more years of life,
Then he will show signs of maturity.
When he has lived another seven years,
His cheeks will be covered with a thick beard.
Add another seven years to his age,
And in all his prime he will take his place between the husbands.
The fifth septenary reminds the husband that it is time to look for a wife,
To be reborn into posterity.
The sixth seven years will pass,
And with it prudence and intelligence will appear
And disgust from everything that smacks of frivolity and recklessness.
Seventh and eighth septenaries -
The time of the best state of mind and speech.
In the subsequent ninth week
The strength of body and mind has not yet left a person,
But being weakened, the mind is no longer capable of anything lofty.
In the tenth week, finally, man, ripe for the grave,
Falls under the blows of death, which is not untimely for such an age.
But let's continue. In illnesses, the seventh and fourteenth days are critical days, when nature fights the source that gave rise to the disease. Hermippus Berutyanin in his discussion “On the septenary number” sets out many other wonderful properties of it. But the blessed King David very clearly reveals to the person who understands the mysterious meaning of the numbers sevenfold and eightfold, singing like this: Our life is like a spider’s web. The days of our years are 70 years, and 80 for the mighty (Ps. 89:9-10). And if it is higher than this, then it would mean reigning.
Let's make no mistake. The world was conceived, not created in time 854. In order to convince us of this, the prophecy adds: This is the book of the origin of the heavens and the earth, when they were created - on the day that the Lord created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 2:4). These words, when they were created, give an unclear indication and do not limit creation to any era; the words on the day when the Lord created mean the Day on which and by which He created all things and without which nothing happened (John 1:3). that is, it speaks here of the creation that took place through the Son, about whom the Psalmist says: This is the Day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in Him (Ps. 117:24). What does this symbol mean? Let us sit down at the Divine meal: let us taste the knowledge given by God. Isn’t it the Logos, who illuminates the deepest darkness (John 1:9; 1Cor. 4:5) and through Whom all creations arose in the world and for life, is He not called day and light? And in general, the Decalogue uses an iota to designate a name that is predominantly blessed; this letter points us to Jesus, who is the Logos 855.
Then the next commandment of the Decalogue, the fifth, reminds us of our duty to honor our father and mother. Through this it is clear that she calls both God and our Lord Father. This is why those who know Him are called sons of God, 856 Our Father, our Lord, He is also the Creator of everything that exists. But who is our mother? Should we look for it in the matter from which we are created, like some others do; or should we see it in church, as some of the interpreters suggest to us? Let there be neither one nor the other. Our mother, that is, the mother of the righteous, is, according to Solomon (Prov. 1:8; 31:1), Divine knowledge, wisdom, which should be chosen for its own sake. Moreover, the knowledge of everything that is beautiful, everything that is glorious, descends to us from God through the mediation of the Son.
Next, observe the commandment prohibiting adultery. You become guilty when, moving away from the church, retreating from true knowledge and conviction in the existence of God, you begin to share opinions worthy of condemnation, or when you elevate any creation to the degree of Divinity; or when you give the form of an idol to something that does not exist at all, thus leaving the boundaries of knowledge - or not - becoming a deserter, a fugitive from under the banner of knowledge. Falling into false opinions is just as unusual for a Gnostic as the content of true opinions is usual for him and inseparable from him. That is why the glorious Apostle 857 calls idolatry a kind of adultery (Col. 3:5; Gal. 5:20; 1 Peter 4:3), agreeing in this case with the prophet, who also says: This people committed adultery with wood and stone (Jer. 3:9). He said to the tree, “You are my father”; and to the stone: “You conceived me” (Jer. 2:27).
Next comes the commandment prohibiting murder. Murder is a well-thought-out abduction, concealment, concealment. Conceal the true teaching about God and eternity, replacing it with lies; to say, for example, that there is no Providence governing the world; assert that this world is not created; finally to deny any immutable sacred doctrine: this is to commit murder.
The next commandment is forbidden theft. As a thief of someone else's property, given the significance of the loss they cause, he deserves the punishment that befalls him in all justice: similarly, those foolish people who, through painting and sculpture 858, do not rightfully seize Divine advantages and brazenly appropriate some kind of creativity for themselves, proclaiming themselves the creators of animals and plants; just as the copyists of true wisdom are thieves. If someone were a farmer, or if someone had a son, what is important about this? All of them are servants of God (1 Cor. 3:5-6), having received a commission from Him to sow the seed (His words). It is God alone who grows and perfects each plant, bringing it to the state required by its nature. But very many, resembling philosophers in this respect, connect the vegetation of embryos and their modifications mainly with the circulation of the luminaries, thereby depriving the Father of all creatures of His enduring power, as far as it depends on them. Elements and luminaries!
But aren’t these forces obedient to God, created by Him to fulfill the intentions of His Divine providence? They fly slavishly in space, fulfilling the orders of their Master. They go where the path is shown to them by the word of the Lord, because Divine omnipotence does not cease to act on things in mysterious ways known to Him alone. So, all of you who exclaimed: “We have invented or formed and created something creative,” you are wicked and atheists and will answer for the sacrilege you commit.
The tenth commandment prohibits all kinds of wishes. A wish that is inconsistent with duty exposes the culprit to grave responsibility. The same commandment also prohibits us from desiring false things or imagining that salvation can be brought to us through themselves by any animate beings, much less that inanimate things can in no way bring this to us or harm us. But you will object to me: “But can’t an antidote cure or taking hemlock take a life?” I answer you: In this case, you become a victim of skillful sophistry. Nothing is accomplished without the permission of the Divine Mind. Everyone uses both a plant and a medicine only as a tool, just as an ax or a saw cannot chop or saw without a hand to guide them. They do not act on their own impulse. They are endowed with certain natural properties, which, even if applied to the work by the alien hand of some technician, produce their characteristic influence. The same must be said about God’s providence in general.
God uses the forces closest to Him and more immediate to spread the reality of His providence even to the last steps of the ladder of beings.
17. Although Hellenic philosophy did not convey to us a complete and developed knowledge of God, nevertheless, God in it gave us medicine for the soul.
As it seems, the Hellenic sages, although they talked about God, still did not know Him, because they did not give Him the worship befitting the Divinity (Rom. 1:21). “The teachings of their philosophical schools, according to Empedocles, are like the nonsense uttered by the crowd, who understand little of everything and nothing of the whole.” Hellenic wisdom is like a glass vessel filled with water. He is inactive. But then a ray of sunlight falls on it, passes through its walls and becomes a flame. The same can be said about Hellenic philosophy. If only one of the holy ones fell on her. Scripture is a spark of fire, and its meaning is revealed before the eyes of mortals. All animals breathe the same air, but there is a difference between them and each of them fulfills a special purpose with its life. The same must be said about people. When discussing the truth, many people come close to it, or at least there are some hints of it in their discussions about the truth. And yet it would be in vain to seek from them the true teaching about God. They assimilate human passions to Him.
Throughout one's life one chases not so much the truth as the probabilities.
But the truth is reached not through imitative reproduction of it, but through scientific and empirical study of it. This is exactly our method. It is not because we believe in Christ just to “appear” to be good, but in order to “be” so. We do not go out to this Sun just to be illuminated by Him, but for this reason we seek the rays of this Luminary in order to warm ourselves in them. We strive to be Christians in order to become people in the full sense of the word who are good and devoted to virtue. This kingdom truly belongs only to those who work more on themselves (Matt. 11:12); it is the destiny of those 859 whose investigations, experimental knowledge and activities, fully and comprehensively completed (Matthew 7:7), imbue their labors with royal dignity as their fruit.
Taking any opinion as an example for yourself and for imitation means thereby proving that you have against all prejudices dissimilar to it (a research method of dubious merit). Accept even a particle of truth, and your soul will come to life from this spark; ignite it in your soul with pious desire and study, and immediately your entire inner world will begin to move; you will soar to the heights of knowledge. For what we do not yet grasp in thought, we cannot sincerely desire, nor can we derive all the benefit from it. The Gnostic, having reached these heights of life not only contemplative, but also active, as the highest stage of perfection, practices imitation of his Teacher, the Lord, at least as far as this is allowed by our human weakness; he tries to imbue himself with the virtue of the Lord and imprint on himself the image of God. This is where knowledge makes itself known, because one who has not tasted it cannot have a firm criterion in determining the truth.
He will have to forever and completely renounce all Gnostic contemplation, who does not want to renounce and throw out from the soul everything and previously perceived concepts without an accurate recognition of the matter, because if we talk about the truth clearly and without subterfuge, then it is called everything perceived only by reason and feelings.
Without a doubt, no one will find it difficult to distinguish truly artistic painting from vulgar and vulgar, and decent music from unbridled music. Consequently, there is a truth for a true sage that is not the same for other false sages; and there is true beauty, different from fake beauty. And not just any piece of truth should be the subject of our efforts; for crumbs to assimilate the name of truth only means to discredit its whole; It is in vain, therefore, to decorate those scraps with the name of truth. You should strive for it yourself and not stop at what only passes under the name of truth, but in fact represents empty talk. There is not one teaching about God, but many. However, the question is still whether what you say about God has anything to do with Him. During conversations and about any subject in general, one should distinguish deliberate reasoning about one or another of them, on the essence of the matter, from random notes about it, so to speak, unexpected and unexpected, unaccountable and causeless.
When I say: “God is Lord, the Ruler of the universe,” I say that He really is the Sovereign of it and that nothing is excluded from His power. But since truth is found in two forms, namely in words and things, then many people, and this is exactly what the Hellenic philosophers consist of, striving for grace and superficial beauty of speech, stop exclusively with words, while we barbarians deal with the essence of things. That is why it was not in vain that the Lord, when descending to earth, took upon Himself a despicable and inconspicuous body (Is. 53: 2–3) 860. He feared that the listeners would be amused by the splendor of His beauty and would not pay attention to His teachings and that, paying attention only to His appearance and marveling only at His bodily beauty - which should always occupy a subordinate position and which must be sacrificed - they would not deviate from the desire for truth, comprehended only by understanding. So, what do we care about accidents of language now? We should deal only with the meaning of words, not with the words.
The words of people who are incapable of comprehending the matter and who are not driven by the impulse of knowledge are unconvincing. Crows also imitate the voice of a person, but they do not have the slightest idea about what they repeat. Faith, on the contrary, is immediately and directly accompanied by both empirical perception and, through reason, comprehension.
Father of gods and men (Il. 1:544),
exclaims Homer, although he neither knows what kind of Father this is, nor how He is our Father. But just as it is natural for someone who has hands to take something with them; and just as a healthy eye tends to see light, in the same way knowledge becomes the property and gift of everyone who has accepted our faith, if only he wishes to continue to work and on the laid foundation to build a building equivalent to gold, silver or precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12). Such a person does not only hope: “I will one day become a participant in the benefits of faith and knowledge”; he is already taking part in them. Why should he postpone his glory until the future and leave it to his chance? In the present he becomes a king, an enlightened and luminous man, a true sage, a gnostic; it is fitting for him to be all this, He is not content with words; it touches the very essence of things, penetrates into it. Being good, God was generous especially towards the king of creation and really wanted his salvation and directed everything else towards this goal. First of all, the grace of God granted him the blessing of existence.
Everyone will certainly agree that existence is better than non-existence. Then Providence arranged and happens that, to the extent accommodated by the nature of each, everyone is given the opportunity to move forward from what is good to what is even better for him. Therefore, do not let it seem strange that philosophy itself was bestowed by the Supreme Goodness only to serve as a preface to the perfection achieved through the mediation of Christ. If only she herself were not ashamed to turn to barbaric knowledge with the request: “Help me move forward towards the truth and succeed in it.”
Even the hairs of our heads are numbered (Matt. 10:30; Luke 12:7). Even the smallest of our actions are written down. Why shouldn’t philosophy also have value? Samson was given the power hidden in his hair. What this means is to convince us that science and art are external, that is, secular and pagan, having only material life as their subject matter in this world and, after the soul leaves this body, does not bring it any benefit, descending into the same grave with it, and it can only be comprehended with the assistance of grace from above. Divine Providence, our sacred books tell us (Luke 13:5; 16:17), from above, from what is most important, from a person, as if from the head, then pours out onto all creatures, like the fragrant ointment that flowed from the head of Aaron on his face and spilled onto the edges of even his clothes (Ps. 133:2). Only by Aaron here should we mean the highest High Priest, through whom everything was created and without whom nothing happened (John 1:3). It is said that the fragrant ointment flowed down onto the edges of Aaron’s garment. On the edges of clothing, and not on the body, i.e. not on the world of corporeal beings.
This means that for a Jew and a Christian, the philosophy (the entire totality of external sciences) of a certain people is really a garment that adorns only the outer side of their life.
It is therefore desirable that these philosophers, who have refined the spirit of understanding within themselves, should work not on crumbs of truth, but on the study of that truth, which in itself and, moreover, is absolute truth. It is desirable that they, leaving arrogance, be guided only by love for the truth, of which they are, after all, witnesses. It is also desirable that they take advantage of everything that is useful in the teachings of other faiths and contributes to the acquisition of a more elevated concept of the subject. Let them pay attention to this providential and ineffable goodness of God, leading every creature within the limits possible to the better. Oh, if only they could finally get along not only with the Hellenes, but also with the barbarians! Then from these general, so ordinary and intermediate works for them, they could move into the sphere of faith, and from the sphere of faith into the field of comprehension and its particulars. Having truth as their fulcrum, they would only expand their ability to research and their horizon and would guarantee success in their work. From now on, learning would be their only pleasure.
Thirsting for truth, they would take long strides along the path of salvation. That's why in St. Scripture says that the artists who worked on the construction of the tabernacle were given the spirit of understanding (Ex. 28:3). What else is meant by this if not prudence, if not mental insight, which sees what actually exists, imagines what follows, notices similarities and differences, divides, compares, commands or dissuades, and rushes with its assumptions and guesses into the future? Understanding is not limited to the arts; it governs wisdom itself (philosophy). Why is reason also attributed to the snake (Gen. 3:1)? Because even in a crime there is a sequence, a plan, assumptions about the future. The mystery in which most crimes are clothed has no other reason: the villain protects himself from punishment with all the forces of his reason.
Since thought appears in various forms, being diffused everywhere in the universe and acting in every human activity, it has different names in all these various cases. If it is directed to the study of the First Cause, it is called understanding. If she brings light into souls with reasoning and evidence, then she is knowledge, wisdom, science. If it revolves among objects that create piety and if it accepts the Logos, the primary Reason, without contemplation, relying solely on its obedience, then it receives the name of faith. If among material things she has discovered what turns out to be the most true, then she has a right opinion. If it succeeds in technical work, it receives the name of art. And when it either leaves the contemplation of the First Cause aside in order to engage in the observation of analogies and the analysis of facts, and when an impulse for any enterprise is formed in it, it is then called experience.
But its essence and its elevating feature is always the Holy Spirit, dominating in everything that by the mercy of God descends into the soul of the new convert after faith in him is strengthened and established. So philosophy, when it was distinguished by this higher reason, as outlined in the previous one, then it would also form a part of it. If, through a combination of principles and methodological conclusions, it argues about what is accessible only by reason, then it represents dialectics, the purpose of which is to make truth tangible through evidence and to resolve doubts that arise.
To assert, like some others, that it was not God who sent philosophy from above to our earth, this, it seems to me, is tantamount to the assurance that God cannot know particulars and that He is not the primary source of all goods, since each of them, taken separately, is a special good. But of course, nothing that exists exists without the will of God. God willed it; This means philosophy comes from God; This means that He desired it as it is for the benefit of the peoples who had no other bridle to abstain from evil. In fact, nothing escapes the gaze of God, neither the present, nor the future, nor the way of existence of every creature. Knowing in advance what the slightest movements of His creations will be,
The depths of all souls are open before Him. From eternity He has the clearest knowledge regarding each person, because He is attentive to everything that happens on the worldly stage and in all corners of this stage. With one glance He embraces both the whole and the details at once - This is God. However, although He embraces all beings at once with one and the same gaze, He does not always act directly and clearly and dominantly. How many things happen in life according to human calculations, after the initial impulse is lowered into them by the Divine right hand! Medicine brings you back to health; Gymnastics oil supports your bodily strength: commercial turnover increases your wealth. But from whom did you receive all these benefits? Undoubtedly from Providence, which, however, also provides man with his share of action. This means that understanding also comes from God. The free will of virtuous people especially obeys the Divine will.
An evil person may share many common gifts with a righteous person, but these gifts benefit only the virtuous person, for whom God created everything. Yes, certain properties of sacred gifts are innate for the benefit of virtuous people. Even more than that. Even the thoughts of a virtuous person arise as if by Divine inspiration, since his soul is tuned in a certain way; and the Divine will is communicated to the human soul through the services of special figures who help it in these influences. The armies of angels are distributed among the nations and cities; there may even be a special Angel assigned to each of them. The shepherd cares about each sheep individually. But the more immediate care of Providence surrounds those who are distinguished by talents and knowledge and who can be useful to their people. Consisting of the heads and leaders of humanity, they are called upon to be the primary and obvious organs of Divine Providence, whose will is to show the earth their benefits in teaching, management or orders.
Whose will is to appear on earth... we say. Yes, this is the constant will of God. And that’s why it calls on its bearers to do everything that can help strengthen the kingdom of peace, virtue and good deeds. Everything that consists of virtue, stems from virtue, has a relationship with it and is given to us either in order to make us good or so that we, being already virtuous, enjoy the advantages that nature has endowed us with. Once again, Providence comes to our aid both in general and in particular.
Now I ask: “Is it not absurdity and gross inconsistency to attribute the invention of philosophy, that is, of things useful and virtuous, to him who is called the father of anarchy and untruth? It turns out that the demon worked on the moral improvement of the Hellenes with care even more merciful than Divine Providence itself. This is not my opinion on this subject. The dignity and essential property of law and common sense, in my opinion, is to give to everyone his due, his due, his due. Just as it is natural for a cypress tree to be the owner of a lyre, for a flute player to be the owner of a flute: in the same way, the gifts of heaven are the property of a virtuous person. It is as natural for a virtuous soul to do good as it is for a fire to warm or to illuminate with light; it is in the nature of a virtuous person. Virtue will never commit evil, just as cold will not come from fire, or darkness from light.
But vice versa: you will never see vice busy with virtue; he is destined to give birth and cause only evil, just as darkness is destined to mix all colors. Philosophy that disposes a person to virtue does not mean the incarnation of vice. What remains is to produce it only from God, whose sublime privilege is to create only good. Everything given by God is therefore given as a good, and then must be accepted as a good.
Moreover, philosophy has never been the property of bad people. The most virtuous and most glorious people among the Hellenes were engaged in it. Here is new proof of its origin from Divine Providence, which endows everyone with what is useful to them. There was deep wisdom in the fact that before the coming of the Lord, the law shone among the Jews, and philosophy among the Greeks. Since the coming of the Lord, the call to faith has been extended to everyone without exception. Providence calls all nations to unite through the teachings of faith. This is a new people, gathered for righteousness (Tit. 2:14) and united under one Shepherd (Rom. 5:19), who is the Lord alike of Greeks and barbarians, or better said: who is the God of all mankind. Philosophy, we have repeated this more than once, is a mediator of truth, but not all of it, but only part of it. Even more must be said. Everything that is good in the arts, insofar as it is art, comes from God.
The artistic execution of any work of art depends on the theory of art: in the same way, a rational matter is submissive to the principle of reason. Understanding is a virtue, which tends to cognize many other things, and above all, what concerns itself personally. As for wisdom, the highest ability 861, it is nothing other than knowledge of the good of God and man.
The Lord's earth and everything that is on it, says Scripture (Ps. 23:1; 1 Cor. 10:26). convincing us that good gifts descend from above and are distributed among weak people for their benefit by the grace and omnipotence of the Divine.
Consider the various kinds of spiritual assistance that one being can receive from another, and you will find that there are three ways of providing spiritual services to each other. The first is to force them to imitate themselves. This is a mentor who influences the development of understanding even in a child. The second type of mutual spiritual assistance is to persuade someone to become like oneself. Thus, a husband, preceded by his example, leads another husband similar to himself along the path of progress. Thus, one helps the student in his work; the other, with his advice, encourages the one who is already learning. The third way to give help to another is to give orders. He practices e.g. when the teacher does not consider it necessary to personally influence the development of the student or give him an example to follow through struggle with himself: considering the student to be already strong enough, he simply orders him to fight.
So, when a true Gnostic is granted by God the ability to provide benefit and help to his brothers, he considers it his duty to be useful to them. He influences the development of some through accompaniment, representing them as an example to follow. He encourages others to become like himself. Finally, he teaches and corrects the third by the commandment. There is no doubt that the Lord helps the Gnostic himself in the same way. Do not the suggestions of Angels serve as evidence to us that the source of all the benefits we receive is in God?
Divine grace actually provides us with benefits through the mediation of Angels, both visible and invisible. This method of helping us was also common during the life of the Lord. God also gives help to man through other people: he “inspires” our thought and mind with their reflections and reasoning; then it directly “sends into the soul” of a famous person “overshadowing” and a more complete understanding of the subject; then it warms his heart with “readiness and liveliness” and inspires him to research and activity 862. The narration of the extraordinary and holy examples of virtue for which the righteous became famous serves as a sermon for us, which forces us to imitate and become like them. What is especially clear is the supply of help to us through the teachings contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Lord, as well as through the laws of which the Hellenes are the bearers and, finally, through the scientific positions of their philosophers.
But let's reduce everything said into two words. All the benefits that matter to life, according to some higher and wise dispensation, come from the Almighty God, the Father common to us all. The mediator between creation and the Father is the Son, who, in addition, as the Apostle says, is also the Savior of all people, and especially of the faithful (1 Tim. 4:10).
But there is something even closer to each of us in particular and more tangible for us; these are commandments and instructions left by Him who is connected with the First Cause by immediate proximity.
18. A true sage (gnostic) delves into Hellenic wisdom (philosophy) only in passing and as if for entertainment, hastening to the future, i.e. to devote oneself to Christian teaching, the source of all wisdom.
Our Gnostic is constantly busy with his main business. And when he has leisure and when he has time to rest from the sublime studies that occupy his spirit, then to restore his strength he touches Hellenic wisdom, like some kind of refined delicacy at a feast. He does this not because he neglected more essential food, but because, for the reasons stated above, he received his due share. Those who stretched out their hands to that in philosophy that is not necessary in it, but an element that is superfluous, and attacked with their minds empty sophisms and quarrels, they moved away from the necessary and main thing. Reckless! They were chasing shadow words. It is true, of course, that it is good to know everything. But whoever’s mind is weak to absorb the entire mass of learning, let him dwell only on the most important and most important. True knowledge, about which we affirm that it is the property of only the Gnostic, is a solid understanding, established on true and irresistible evidence, and it leads to the knowledge of the First Cause.
Those who have true knowledge regarding any subject, whatever the subject may be, immediately begin to have the concept of false knowledge regarding the same subject. Therefore, if someone asked me: So, should one philosophize, I would answer: It goes without saying. And if someone were to argue that it should not be, then I would answer: without prior knowledge of a thing it is impossible to pronounce either an affirmative or a negative answer to this question. Therefore, a philosophical element in judgments is necessary. And if this is so, then it follows that the Hellenes, from the law and the prophets, learned to honor the one, truly existing Almighty God. Then doesn’t the Apostle inspire them: As for us, we do not recognize any idols in the world (1 Cor. 8:4)? Because among created beings there is not a single one that could be an image of God. The Hellenes must further understand that their idols are not at all the images of the personalities they revered. Are souls really similar in shape to the statues formed by the Hellenes? No.
Souls are invisible, whether they are the souls of rational beings or irrational animals. As for those, these by no means constitute any part of the souls; they are only organs of souls, for some they are seats, for others they are something like a rattletrap, for others they are in one way or another something like estates. But we are not able to properly imitate even the images of these organs when they are reproduced by art. Is anyone able to depict for me, for example. the sun as he sees it? Draw me a colorful rainbow. And then, when the Greeks would have given up the veneration of their idols, they will hear the word of Scripture addressed to them: If your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20) - whose only righteousness consists in abstaining from evil - and if you do not rise above this still low degree of perfection, if you do not treat your neighbor lovingly, if you do not do good to him, then you cannot be considered disciples of the royal law (James 2:8).
And indeed, the righteousness of the Gnostic, compared with the righteousness under the law, is incomparably more intense. Because if over any true person his principles have such a determining power and strength as the head has over the rest of the body, and when he reaches the height of faith, that is, the height of knowledge itself, concentrating in itself the entire totality of feelings, then at the same time he can be considered to have already achieved the highest inheritance. That knowledge is of paramount importance, the Apostle openly declares this before everyone who can understand, for he writes to the Corinthian Greeks the following: We hope, as your faith in you increases, to be magnified much more according to our rule by preaching the Gospel and above you (2 Cor. 10:15-16). Here the Apostle does not at all express his intention to later extend his apostleship to other places, because, according to his own words, Achaia is filled with faith (1 Cor. 1:6). But here is another evidence for the same thing, stronger than what was just stated.
The Acts of the Apostles testify to us that the Apostle proclaimed the Logos in Athens (Acts 17). This sermon of Paul serves as proof that knowledge is a more perfect stage in comparison with faith and that it does not stop only at catechetical teaching. This is itself presupposed by the dictates of both the holy teaching itself and those universally valuable principles that are intended to be the standard for everyone and for everything. That is why a little lower in the same letter the Apostle adds: Although I am a simple man and little trained in the word, I cannot say the same about knowledge (2 Cor. 11:6).
But here's the thing. All of you Hellenes, so self-important and boasting as if you possess the truth, tell us: From whom did you learn it? Of course, you don’t dare say that God was your mentor. “The truth was conveyed to us by people,” you exclaim. But firstly it's too late; and then some of these people were some or from among you, which is what many of you boast about; or other people like you. But don’t you know that a person who speaks about God on his own behalf does not deserve any faith? Can a person, a weak and mortal being, decently reason about God, an immortal and eternal being, a creation about the Creator? And a person, even in a childish way, with hesitation and babbling, is not able to mutter anything sensible about himself: how can one believe him when he conceitedly enters into explanations about God?
To the extent that a person is abandoned by Divine grace, his speech about God becomes weaker, even if he did not make a claim to rise to the level of comprehension of the essence of God, but simply spoke about God and His Divine Logos. Our word regarding this subject is tongue-tied; we are not able on our own to say anything about God; and it's very natural. The point is not that we are powerless to define by His name: it is constantly on the lips of all sages and even poets. And the issue is not the inheritance of the Divine Being. We must completely abandon this, because such research is impossible. We are not able to even outline the properties of God and His wonderful works. Even those who testify to themselves that they were instructed by God himself, even from them, comprehending the idea of the Divine Being required extraordinary work and effort. But even after that they had a very weak knowledge of God, although the grace of God assisted them in this.
Meanwhile, they are already accustomed to penetrate into His will through the fulfillment of His will and to cognize the breath of the Holy Spirit through Him, for the Spirit of God explores everything, even the depths of God; But the spirit of the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:10-14).
So, this means that only the wisdom that Christians are the bearers of is the only one revealed by God. From here flow “all the springs” of 863 wisdom, ending in Truth. It is known that the coming of the Savior, who came to people to teach them, was predicted in countless ways: through signs, through messengers, through foretellers, through forerunners. All of them, starting from the very cradle of the world, either in deed or in words, predicted the coming of the Savior, where He would appear and when and by what miracles the miracle of His appearance would be accompanied. The law and prophecies already pointed to Him from afar. Then the Forerunner pointed to His appearance as an accomplished fact. After the Forerunner, the Apostles openly preached about the miracle of His incarnation.
Philosophers were liked only by the Hellenes, and even then not by everyone, but only by a few. So Plato liked Socrates, and he chose him as his teacher. Xenocrates rightfully fell in love with Plato, and he also chose him as his teacher. Theophrastus loved Aristotle, and Cleanthes loved Zeno. But all these mentors influenced only their students. Our Mentor’s word was not limited only to Judea, just as Hellenic philosophy was widespread within only Hellas. Having spread throughout the world, our teaching simultaneously and equally caused movements between tribes and in villages from among both Hellenes and barbarians; He began to turn entire cities, entire houses to obedience to himself, and among individuals he conquered everyone who listened to him; but it also led a considerable number of philosophers themselves to the truth. Hellenic wisdom, if any ruler imposed a ban on it, immediately froze.
Our teaching, from the very time it first began to be preached, has been tried to be suppressed by kings and tyrants, individual rulers, officials with a whole army of paid accomplices. They declared a formal war on us in order, as far as they have the strength to do so, to wipe us off the face of the earth. So what? Our holy teaching is blossoming more and more from day to day. Not like human teachings, it cannot die out, nor wither, as if it were some kind of internally flabby and rotten gift, no. There are no meager gifts of God. And this is why no obstacles can be put in front of him or his movement stopped, although, however, another promise is given to him: “You will constantly endure persecution.”
Plato said the following about poetic art: “The poet is a kind of airy and sacred being. He is not able to write poetry unless he is touched by the Spirit of God and loses his temper” 864. Democritus expresses himself in a similar way: “Everything that the poet writes under the influence of the Divine and Sacred Spirit is amazingly beautiful.” We know what your poets wrote about; and if you admire them, isn’t it all the more natural for you to be surprised and admire the prophets of God Almighty? They were instruments of the voice of the Divine!
By reproducing the image of the Gnostic that was presented to us, we depicted, as if in a picture, the greatness and beauty of his moral life. We will present his views on physical nature when we talk about the origin of the world.
Compare "Strom." 1 towards the end of ch. 1st.
According to Pausanias: on the island of Aegina.
Repetition of the argument given by Philo in the treatise “On the Decalogue”
A water clock is similar to the later hourglasses: a narrow-necked vessel with a wide, holey bottom.
Wearing sacred images on holidays and votive days.
Compare Strom. 1:19, and 5:14 towards the end.
Similar in Erma's Shepherd 2:1.
Compare last Barnabas ch. 6 and Strom. 5:10.
Distinguishing between three types of idolatry: 1) deification of things devoid of life; 2) animals; 3) respect for dead people.
According to Spencer, of course, it may not be so much Jews as the Judaizing disciples of Cerinthus, who have disgraced themselves by their exceptional veneration of Angels.
What follows, like the words of St. Peter, the essence of borrowing from some apocrypha.
Apocrypha; compare St. Justin in both Apologies.
Compare Eusebia Church ist. 5:18.
Compare about this. in Origen against Celsus 2:42; in The Shepherd of Erma 3:9; Strom. 2:9; Irin. 4:45–50.
St. Justin, observing not only the entire appearance, but also the essence of the matter, says about the only begotten Son of God that “He is the supreme Reason, in which the whole human race has a part. All who lived in accordance with this Reason are Christians. Among the ancient Hellenes, these were Socrates, Heraclitus and the like. Among the barbarians, these were Abraham, Ananias, Azariah, Misail, Elijah and many others, whose names and deeds would be too long to list.” Without a doubt, no one could ever achieve salvation without assimilating the merits and blood of Christ the Savior. And yet it was not at all necessary that all people who lived before the incarnation of Christ had complete and accurate knowledge of the Divine Intercessor and Mediator. Let's listen to what the blessed one says on this matter. Augustine: “From the very beginning of the world, all who believed in God, who knew Him to the best of their ability and lived according to His commandments in piety and righteousness, in whatever place and at whatever time they lived, were undoubtedly saved by Him.
Once upon a time religion consisted of only a few names and signs, but now it consists of others, more numerous; at first its content was darker, but now with greater clarity; whether it manifested itself one way or another, in any case, it was all based on the same true religion.” In the same sense, this blessed Bishop of Hippo, speaking about the truths preserved by the pagans in a more or less pure form, exclaims: “Your property is this gold, my God, wherever it is found: Tuum est, Domine, avrum illud ubicunque est.” But in the opinion of Thomas Aquinas, the most profound theologian of the Western Church, if some people were saved, and having no concept of Divine revelation, through a special and deliberate Mediator, then they were nevertheless saved not without faith in this Mediator, because although their faith in Him was not distinguished by our certainty, they still clearly expressed faith in Divine Providence, expecting from God the liberation and salvation of people by means known to Him alone. They believed in this to the extent of their desire to know the truth and to the extent of its revelation to their spirit by the Divine Spirit. St.
John Chrysostom, and before him St. Irenaeus thought the same thing. This has always been the teaching of the church. This is what our writer gives expression to here.
This place has already been given in Strom. 2:9.
Similar in Strom. 2:18 towards the end.
Those. - that God revealed himself to the pagans no less than to the Jews, and therefore about the universality of revelation. According to Clement, no one is deprived of the light of revelation; This has always been the teaching of the church. Our writer therefore finds it among sectarians. And in this, of course, he is right. God is good to everyone equally. For a righteous life, the pagans had a natural law, the voice of conscience and a number of revelations, which the pagan world did not allow to completely perish. If all this were not enough to support the idea of God in humanity, then He would rather perform a miracle than allow the soul of a righteous man to perish.
Apocrypha, composed either by Basilides or some other heretic.
The writer has already given a similar definition of wisdom in Strom. 1, ch. 5th.
Compare Strom. 2, ch. 2 to the end
Similar to Athenagoras in Legat. and Clement Rome. in Becogn. 3:52. The birth here is of course eternal, according to which, as such, the Son of God is self-evidently superior to all Angels and people, who were all created in time.
Apparently from the apocryphal “Sermon” of St. Peter the Apostle.
Horace in the last 1, art. 41 and 42 also said: Sapientia prima est stultitia caruisse.
An allusion to the name "Jacob", meaning "quieter"
Lapsus memoriae scribes: not Barnabas, but Clement of Rome last. 1, ch. 68. This place has already been given in Strom. 1, ch. 7.
Words of Clement of Rome. Compare Strom. 1, ch. 7.
That is, the less perfect is communicated to everyone, but the more perfect, the most holy and gnosis - only to a few.
This and what follows is said in relation to the teachings of the Stoics, who demanded dispassion from their sage. Compare Educator 1, 2 and 13.
Seneca says something similar in his treatise “On Peace of Mind.”
That is, inclusion among the most perfect children, which few are awarded.
Borrowing from some apocrypha. Compare below in chap. 12 and Strom. 7:7–12.
Compare Strom. 7:12 towards the end.
In ancient times, there was a very widespread opinion that numbers, not only in the relationships of things, but also in the events of human life, are of great importance; To some extent, this opinion still exists today.
Because geometry deals with the measure of bodies detached from them. From here, through consideration of the nature of space, unshakable and unchanging, one can ascend to the contemplation of the Divine nature.
Compare Strom. 1:28: 2:4; 7:17.
Subsequently, the writer followed what St. said. Barnabas in the 9th chapter. his messages. Many of the ancients and others followed this allegory
The cross was undoubtedly the oldest of all symbols. The most ancient Egyptian statues already have it in their hands; under the name of the “Key of the Nile” in their hands it was a symbol of fertility and salvation. He was depicted sometimes with all four of its branches, in the form of , sometimes with only three, in the form of T. Tertullian in his work “De oratione” says that in all nature there is a certain tendency to form a cross, as if in order to honor the Creator or give thanks. Even birds, spreading their wings, form a cross. St. Justin the Martyr notes that there is not a single object on earth on which the cross would not be imprinted; there is not a single worker who does not have the image of a cross on his tools; Raising his hands, a person depicts a cross with his own body. Addressing the Sovereigns, Minucius Felix exclaims: “Your triumphal columns depict the instrument of our salvation, and the weapons you hang on them are the image of the Crucified One. Even a ship sailing across the sea with inflated sails depicts a cross and calls for help.” Finally blessed.
Jerome, in his interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, adds that “a person cannot address heaven with prayer except in the form of a cross, nor swim on water otherwise; the cross is a common form for all movements and for all living things; it’s even the world’s own species.” The Hellenic-Phoenician letter tav also represents a cross, T, and as a numerical sign it means 300. In the catacombs, the cross was depicted in various ways. Most often it is a square with four ends; This is the so-called Greek cross. It was very common in the Byzantine period, but comes from the times of the primacy of the church, when it was as much Greek as Roman. Often he is depicted anchored by faith or woven into the monogram of Christ between the alpha and omega.
The initial letters of the most holy name Jesus in Greek are “yuta” and “eta” (Ιη).
Compare Strom. 2:11. Also Philo.
Compare Strom. 6:18. And this is said by the writer in accordance with Philo.
And also 120 is eight fifteen.
Having wanted to draw an angle, the Greek mathematicians noticed what appears to be a bent knee; the word denoting a knee, γόνυ, therefore served to designate an angle, γόνη. A number is called triangular if its units can be arranged in the shape of triangles, where the sides and angles are equal, as for example. 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, etc. But how is the number 120 triangular when it only has two parts? It goes like this. Of the two parts 64 and 56, one is divisible by 8, the other by 7; but 8 and 7 are 15, and this number is already triangular, as it is said a little higher.
Although the numbers included in the sum that makes up 64 are odd, their total number is even, 8. The number 56 is odd, because it consists of a series of numbers, counting 7. But since 120 consists of these 7 and 8 smaller numbers, it is said that it is composed of the number 15. The first 8 begin with one and follow forward through the odd ones, 3, 5, etc. etc. The last 7 start from 2 and go forward with even numbers, 4, 6, etc.
Since repeating two squares gives 4 sides. – The next 7 numbers are already unequal; Since the number 7 is odd, one of the sides is not equal. Just as the addition of natural numbers produces a series of triangular ones, similarly the addition of odd numbers - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, etc., produces a progression through addition: 1, 7, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, etc. These numbers represent a series of square numbers and form the second row of polygons. They are called polygonal or square because their units can always be arranged in the shape of a square, as is evident from the figures applied to 1, 7, 9, 16, 25, 36, etc.
Because if turned into squares, they would give sides of unequal length: 3 4, 56, etc.
A number is called pentagonal when, by the arrangement of its units, it forms regular five-sided figures: 1, 5, 12, 22, 24, 51, etc. This is the 3rd type of polygonal numbers.
A number is called hexagonal when, by the arrangement of its units, it forms regular six-sided figures: 1, 6, 15, 28, 45, 66, etc. The same should be noted regarding the seven-, eight-, and nine-gonal numbers.
No doubt this was a popular tradition among the Jews; in the Holy Scriptures we find nothing of the kind. But this cannot be said about Hippocrates, who made the same calculation, reproduced by Endius in these two verses: Lex in lacte dies, tres sunt in sangvine terni, Bisseni carnem, tu seni membra figurant.
Because the letter T stood for the number 300 among the Greeks.
The Evangelist John (6:13) of course does not talk about the remains of fish, but Mark. (6:43) says.
That is, prudence, courage, justice, moderation.
Similar to Aristotle in Ithica to Nicomachus 2:7.
Socrates' expression in Plato's Crito
So it is in “Strom.” 3:6.–Compare “Shepherd” of Erma 1, view. 2, ch. 2; 3:9, ch. 11.
Both the Bible and common sense place this event before Sarah's fertility.
Εχινδύνευε. This verb means not only to be exposed to danger, but also to be brought to judgment. The Bible proves that Abraham was not in any danger from Abimelech, but that he was called before him to give an account of the motives that forced him to conceal the true connection that united him with Sarah.
Also the saying above in ch. 9. and Strom 7:7–12.
Righteousness is a square, says the original text. This expression is used by Plato and Aristotle to mean a person whose convictions are firm and who does not give any power over himself to passions, events, or public opinion. “A square husband,” that is, perfect in all respects. Compare about this Plato in “Protagoras”, Aristotle in “Ithica” to Nicomachus 1:10. Horace (2, sat. 7) also calls such a person rotundus.
An allusion to the words of Musonius quoted by Gellius at the beginning of the book. 16th: “If you work diligently and properly on something, then your labors will quickly disappear from you, and the good you did in seven will not leave you throughout your entire life. If, out of motives of dirty pleasure, you do something obscene, then the pleasure will quickly disappear, but the obscenity committed by you will always remain with you.”
According to Diogenes Laertius (10:139), the main provisions in the teachings of Epicurus were: “A blessed and immortal being neither cares for anything nor does it cause worries to others.” Cicero repeats the same formula in the book. 1 of his discussion “On the nature of the gods.” Quod beatum et immortale est, id non habet, non exhibet cuiquam negotiam.”
An allusion to the heretics who taught that people are different by nature and that salvation is granted only in this sense to the most perfect. The writer has already refuted them earlier.
The writer teaches that at any other time one can rise to apostolic dignity as soon as one inherits the place and dignity of the Apostles. Receiving a bishopric and achieving an apostleship in this way is one and the same thing for our writer. Therefore, he immediately mentions the degrees subordinate to the bishop, that is, the presbyters, who did not receive chairmanship, and the deacons. It is not in any other sense that Theodoret speaks about this. on 1 Cor. 12:28 and other places: “The leading Christians called the so-called bishops apostles.” Also in the comments. on Philip. 1:1-2, where he concludes that Epaphrotides was invested with the episcopate, for St. Paul calls him an Apostle. Conversely, apostolate is called bishopric in Acts. 1:20. The ancient apostles were indeed often called bishops. So Epiphanius in heresy 27, § 6: “The first Apostles Peter and Paul, they were also bishops.” - Compare Cyprian in a letter to Rogatian; Ambrose on Eph. 4:2 and others, very many.
Of course, there is a double number of Apostles, represented by 24 elders.
The rest of the seventh day is here allegorically called rest from evil. The eight-numbered heritage is further called virtue, mastered by diligence. Compare Strom. 4:7 towards the end.
Our writer, not only in this one, but also in other places, asserts that those who have stained themselves with sins and vices after baptism will be subject to cleansing by some kind of punishment after death. So in Strom. 4:24 at the end; Strom. 7:14, 10. For a person so well acquainted with the Jewish and philosophical schools of traditions, especially Platonic and Pythagorean, and who gave them so much attention, it was not surprising to internalize this opinion himself. It is known that similar teachings were developed by Jewish scholars. Plato, in his Phaedo and Gorgias and in his other dialogues, holds a similar opinion. Virgil expresses it in Aeneid 6:735 et al. Origen shares the opinion of his teacher in many places in his works, for example. in demon. on Ex. and in in. places, for example in the book 4 against Celsus ch. 10. From Ch. 17th 1st book. Strom. It turns out that our writer seems to be not averse to holding such an opinion regarding the devil.
The writer in Strom expresses his thoughts at greater length. 7, ch. 10th. He distinguishes three stages of ascent to glory. The first, in which passions and intemperance are also mixed with faith. From them, such faithful ones, before being admitted to heaven or to the eternal abodes, are washed with punishments. The second stage is represented by those faithful who, after putting aside sins as a result of devotion to virtue in this temporary life or through suffering punishments after death, although they are worthy of being among the blessed, they still do not receive the highest glorification. Finally, the Gnostics, or perfect ones, are awarded the third level of glory, to whom God determines the highest level of glory or bliss, to be equal to the angels.
The writer apparently admits that some, after serving their purifying punishment, are awarded the highest degree of glory; others remain forever in places of lower glorification.
The allusion to this passage in Deuteronomy is somewhat bold.
The writer distinguishes three types of actions: 1) χδτόρϑωμδ, or a perfect action, characteristic only of a Gnostic, or a perfect Christian; it elevates him to the very pinnacle of supreme glory. The second type of action belongs to the middle ones; this kind of action is characteristic of less perfect Christians; however, by virtue of them they inherit salvation and are awarded lower degrees of glory. In third place the writer places sinful actions that make salvation impossible. In distinguishing this, our writer followed those philosophers who distinguished between two types of actions and whose opinion about this Cicero sets out in “De officiis” 1.3.
A place borrowed from Aristophanes’ comedy “The Acharnians”, repeated by Cicero in the 8th letter to Atticus.
Compare in Exhortation Ch. 11th; Strom. 7, ch. 3rd and 10th, as well as 16th and many more. Friend. places.
The words of the original text here are identical with the Greek words of the great doxology sung at Matins: “We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we glorify Thee.”
Compare "Admonition." in ch. 10th.
Compare "Strom." 4, in ch. 23 and in “Admonition.” in ch. 11th.
Christ made us kings and priests to His God and Father, writes St. John (Apoc. 1:6). For our writer, who thinks biblically, a Christian and a king are therefore one and the same.
The term is dialectical. Nowadays the Latin word praesumptio is used instead. “A sign,” says Aristotle, is a proposition indicating, necessary or only probable. That with which the existence of an object is connected or that which determines it in the past or future is a sign that an event has occurred or that the object exists” (Aristotle, Analyt. prior, lib. And cap. 26).
Aristotle writes something similar in Topic, lib. And at the end of ch. 11th: “Every problem or every situation should not be investigated; If someone began to doubt such generally accepted truths, such as, for example, whether it is necessary to honor the gods or love parents, then he should be considered devoid of reason and deserving of punishment, not by evidence.”
The writer often calls holy people gods. Similar things are found in other fathers, for example, in St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in Theophilus "to Autol." and others.
Plato and the Pythagoreans already discussed the relationship between holiness and righteousness, and our writer follows them
An indication of the most ancient way of writing both books and inscriptions on marble and copper: without separating words from one another, in continuous rows of letters.
As in general, in those cases where the ancient law is concerned, so in this chapter our writer follows in the footsteps of Philo.
Compare Pedagogy 2, ch. 2, in the middle.
This is the spirit of life God breathed into man at his creation (Gen. 2:7). Above, the writer refers to it as a “subordinate” spirit, and below as a “carnal, bodily” spirit.
Of course, Christ, who gives us existence and light and peace.
Clement only shortens what Philo says in his essay “On the Creation of the World.” This one writes: “The Sun, the leader of the day, having arranged for us two equinoxes annually, in spring and autumn, in spring in the sign of Aries, and in autumn in the sign of Libra, clearly demonstrates the Divine greatness of the seven. Because both of the equinoxes occur at the beginning of the 7th month; in these two periods of time the law established two main holidays, etc.
“A perfect number, according to Euclid, is one that is divided into equal parts and can be restored from them again.” The number six meets these conditions because its parts, 1, 2, 3, when added together, make 6.
Therefore, Juno was known in ancient times under the number 2, and this very number was sometimes called “fertile.”
Seven is the first of the numbers, derived from the perfect number, that is, the sum of 6 and 1. Moreover, for some special reason, numbers below 10 are either produced by the lower ten, or they themselves are produced, or both together. The number 7 neither produces anything nor is it produced. The followers of Pythagoras therefore likened him to Minerva, born without a mother and forever preserving her virginity. Philo discusses this in detail in his work “On the Seventh Day and the Feasts.”
Some of the ancient oo. The churches thought that the world would end its existence in 6000 years, which correspond to the 6 days of creation. On the 7th day they appointed a trial, and on the 8th a general retribution (Compare the epistles of Barnabas, chapter 15).
Accompanied by Peter, James and John.
Through the appearance of Moses and Elijah.
The place is wonderful. Everything is there: the Divinity of Christ Jesus and His origin and the difference of persons.
We are talking about the numerical sign s, which is not in the Greek alphabet, because after its transformation from the Phoenician, the letter vav was first represented in ancient times as a digamma, and then from the alphabet and it was thrown out.
The writer wants to say that the creation of the world continues.
Iota is at the same time both the initial letter of the name Jesus and a sign that represents the number 10 in the Greek numeral. Hence, many of the ancient writers considered Iota to be a sign representing Christ Jesus. Compare Educator 2:4; 2:12.
Compare "Admonition." in ch. 11th.
Compare "Admonition." at the end of ch. 4th.
The same thought at the beginning of Chapter 2. 4th book. "Stromat".
Compare "Strom." 3:17; "Ped." 3:1.
For the definition of wisdom, see Pedagog. 2:2.
Homeric phrases are marked. Compare Il. 10:482; 17:570; 5:1–2.
In Jonah and Apology of Socrates.