Stromateis 1 part 10/42

They went down, then, with them into the water, and came up again.

But these went down alive, and came up alive again.

But those who had fallen asleep before went down dead, and came up alive.

For this reason they also came up together with them, and were fitted together into the building of the tower, and were built in together without being hewn.

For they fell asleep in righteousness and in great purity, but this seal alone they did not have.

'For when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves,' according to the apostle.

As to how the virtues follow reciprocally upon one another, what need is there to say more, since it has already been shown that faith follows upon repentance and hope, reverence upon faith, and that perseverance and discipline in these, together with learning, are brought to completion in love, which in turn is perfected by knowledge? But this must necessarily be noted, that only the Divine should be understood to be wise by nature.

Wherefore also Wisdom is the power of God that has taught the truth.

And here somewhere the perfection of knowledge is grasped.

The philosopher loves and cherishes the truth, being reckoned, from having been its genuine servant, now already its friend through love.

The beginning of this is wonder at things, as Plato says in the Theaetetus, and as Matthias exhorts in his Traditions, saying, 'Marvel at the things that are present,' laying this down as the first step toward the knowledge that lies beyond.

For this reason it is also written in the Gospel according to the Hebrews: 'He who has marveled shall reign, and he who has reigned shall rest.'

It is impossible, then, for the ignorant man, so long as he remains ignorant—that is, one who has not grasped a conception of wisdom—to philosophize, since philosophy is a desire for that which truly is, and for those branches of learning that tend toward this.

And even if right conduct has been practiced by some, yet to know how one must use it, and do it, and labor at it together—this is that whereby one becomes like God (I mean God the Savior), serving the God of the universe through the Word who is high priest, through whom the things that are truly good and just are beheld.

Piety is action that follows and accords with God.

Our own philosopher, then, holds fast to these three things: first, contemplation; second, the fulfillment of the commandments; and third, the formation of good men.

These, indeed, when they come together, constitute the true Gnostic.

But whatever of these is lacking, the things pertaining to knowledge go lame.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

'Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them:'

'I am the Lord your God.'

'You shall not do according to the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt.'

'Nor shall you do according to the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you.'

'And you shall not walk in their customs.'

'You shall do my judgments, and keep my ordinances, to walk in them.'

'And you shall keep all my ordinances, and you shall do them.'

'The man who does them shall live in them.'

Whether, then, Egypt and the land of the Canaanites are a symbol of the world and of deceit, or of passions and vices, from which we must abstain, the oracle shows us what sort of things we must instead pursue, as being divine and not worldly.

And when it says, 'The man who does them shall live in them,' it calls the correction of the Hebrews themselves, and likewise the training and progress of those near them—that is, of us—by the name of life, both theirs and ours.

For those who are dead in their trespasses are made alive together with Christ through our covenant.

And Scripture, by repeating so often 'I am the Lord your God,' both awes us most compellingly, teaching us to follow the God who gave the commandments, and also gently reminds us to seek God and to attempt, as far as possible, to know him—which would be the greatest contemplation, the epoptic vision, the knowledge that truly is, the knowledge that becomes unshakable through reason.

This alone would be the knowledge of wisdom, from which the practice of righteousness is never separated.

But the knowledge of those who merely fancy themselves wise—whether they be barbarian sects or the philosophers among the Greeks—puffs up, according to the apostle.

But faithful knowledge is that which would be a scientific demonstration of the things handed down according to true philosophy.

We would say that it is a reasoning which, for matters in dispute, derives conviction from things that are agreed upon.

We call demonstration twofold: the one scientific, the other opinionative—since knowledge and foreknowledge are likewise both said to be twofold, the one possessing its own nature with exact precision, the other deficient.

And is it not the case that the demonstration found among us alone would be true, seeing that it is supplied from the divine Scriptures, from the sacred writings, and from the wisdom taught by God, according to the apostle?

Learning, then, and obeying the commandments—this is what it means to believe God.

And faith is a certain power of God, being the strength of truth.

'If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will remove the mountain.'

'According to your faith be it done to you.'

And the one is healed, having received his cure by faith, while the other, though dead, is raised up through the power of the one who believed that he would rise.

But demonstration based on opinion is human, and comes about by means of rhetorical arguments, or indeed dialectical syllogisms.

For the highest demonstration—the one we have hinted is scientific—implants faith in the souls of those who long to learn, through the citation and unfolding of the Scriptures; and this would indeed be knowledge.

For if the premises taken up for the matter sought are accepted as true, inasmuch as they are divine and prophetic, it is surely clear that the conclusion drawn from them will likewise follow as true.

And so knowledge would rightly be, for us, demonstration.

When, accordingly, it was commanded that the memorial of the heavenly and divine food be consecrated in a golden jar, the gomor, it says, was the tenth part of the three measures.

For in us there are signified three measures, three criteria: sense-perception for things perceived by sense; reason for what is spoken—both names and words; and mind for things intelligible.

The Gnostic, then, will abstain from sins of word, of thought, and of sense-perception and action, having heard how the one who looked with desire committed adultery, and having taken to heart that blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, and knowing besides that it is not the things that enter the mouth that defile a man, but the things that go out through the mouth—those defile the man.

'For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts.'

This, I think, is the true and righteous measure according to God, by which all things measured are measured—the decad that holds man together, which the three measures mentioned above have signified in summary.

And this would be: body and soul, the five senses, and the faculty of speech, the generative faculty, and the intellectual—or, if you will, the spiritual—faculty, or whatever else you wish to call it.

One must, so to speak, rise above all the rest and take one's stand upon the mind—just as, of course, in the cosmos one leaps over the nine spheres: first the one composed of the four elements, set together in a single region because of their equal turning; then the seven wandering spheres, and the ninth, the fixed sphere; so as to arrive at the perfect number above the nine—the tenth sphere—and thus reach the knowledge of God, longing, in a word, for the Maker after the creation.

For this reason the tenths of the ephah and of the sacrificial victims were brought to God, and the feast of the Passover began from the tenth day, it being a passing-over of every passion and of everything perceived by sense.

The Gnostic, then, stands firm in faith, whereas he who is wise in his own conceit will not willingly lay hold of the truth, making use instead of unstable and unsettled impulses.

'And Cain went out from the presence of God and dwelt in the land of Nod, opposite Eden.'

Now Nod is interpreted 'tossing about,' and Eden 'delight.'

And delight is faith and knowledge and peace, and he who disobeys it is cast out; but he who is wise in his own conceit does not even wish, from the outset, to give heed to the divine commandments, but, as though self-taught, breaks free and willingly removes himself into a surging commotion, descending from the knowledge of the Unbegotten into things mortal and begotten, holding one opinion at one time and another at another.

'But those who have no guidance fall like leaves.'

Reason, and the ruling faculty that remains unstumbling and leads the soul, is called the soul's helmsman.

For truly it is by the unchangeable that the approach is made to the Unchangeable.

'He was still standing before the Lord, and drawing near he said...'

And to Moses it is said: '...but as for you, stand here with me.'

But the followers of Simon wish, in manner of life, to be made like unto 'the Standing One,' whom they worship.

Faith, then, and the knowledge of truth, render the soul that has chosen them ever constant and unchanging, in the very same state.

Akin to falsehood are shifting, deviation, and apostasy; just as akin to the Gnostic are stillness, rest, and peace.

Just as, then, empty conceit and self-opinion have brought philosophy into disrepute, so also has false knowledge—that called by the same name—brought knowledge into disrepute; concerning which the Apostle writes: 'O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you, turning away from profane babblings and the contradictions of the falsely-named knowledge, which some, professing, have missed the mark concerning the faith.'

Convicted by this very utterance, those of the heresies reject the epistles to Timothy.

Come, then: if the Lord is the truth and wisdom and power of God—as indeed he is—it will be shown that he who has truly come to know him, and through him his Father, is the true Gnostic.

For he shares the sentiment of the one who says:

'The lips of the righteous know lofty things.'

Now faith, like time, being twofold, we would find two virtues dwelling together with both its aspects.

For of time, memory belongs to the past, and hope to the future.

And we believe that past things have happened, and that future things will be.

And we love in turn, being persuaded by faith that past things are so, and awaiting future things with hope.

For love has pervaded the Gnostic through all things, since he knows the one God.

'And behold, all that he has made is very good'—this he knows and marvels at.

'Piety adds length of life,' and 'the fear of the Lord adds days.'

As, then, days are a portion of a life that advances by ascent, so also is fear the beginning of love, becoming, by gradual increase, faith, and then love.

But not as I fear a wild beast and hate it (fear being of two kinds), but as I also stand in awe of a father, whom I fear and love at the same time.

Again, fearing lest I be punished, I love myself, and so I choose fear.

But he who fears to offend his father loves him.

Blessed, then, is he who becomes a man of faith, tempered with love and fear.

And faith is strength unto salvation, and power unto eternal life.

Again, prophecy is foreknowledge, and knowledge is the understanding of prophecy—that is, knowledge of the things foreknown by those to whom they were revealed beforehand, through the Lord who makes all things known in advance.

The knowledge, then, of things foretold displays a threefold outcome: either having already happened long ago, or now taking place, or being about to happen.

Then the two extremes—of things fulfilled or things hoped for—fall under faith, while the activity now in progress provides conviction for the confirmation of both those extremes.

For if, prophecy being one, part of it is now being fulfilled and part has already been accomplished, it follows from this that what is hoped for is trustworthy, and that what has passed is true.

For it was formerly present, and then, for us, it passed away, so that faith concerning things past is a laying hold of what has passed, and hope concerning things to come is a laying hold of a thing that is yet to be.

Not only the followers of Plato, but also those of the Stoa, say that assents are within our power.

Every opinion, then, and judgment, and supposition, and item of learning, by which we live and are ever in fellowship with the human race, is an assent.

And this would be nothing other than faith; while unbelief, being an apostasy from faith, shows that assent, and faith, are possible.

For privation could not be predicated of a non-existent thing.

And if one considers the truth, one will find that man is by nature disposed against assent to falsehood, yet possesses resources toward faith in the truth.

The virtue, then, that holds the Church together, as the Shepherd says, is faith, through which the elect of God are saved.

And that which makes one manly is continence.

And there follow upon them simplicity, understanding, guilelessness, gravity, and love.

And all these are daughters of faith.

'One must fear the Lord,' he says, '...unto edification, but not the devil unto destruction.'

The works of the Lord, that is, his commandments, must be loved and done; but the works of the devil must be feared and not done.

For the fear of God instructs and restores one to love, whereas the fear of the works of the devil has hatred dwelling with it.

And the same author says also that repentance is great understanding.

For he who repents of what he has done no longer does or speaks it, and by tormenting his own soul over what he has sinned, he does his soul good.

Forgiveness of sins, then, differs from repentance, yet both show what lies within our own power.

He, then, who has received the forgiveness of sins ought no longer to sin.

For upon the first and only repentance of sins (this would be repentance for the sins that existed beforehand in one's pagan and former life—I mean the life lived in ignorance), repentance is set before those who are called at once, the repentance that purifies the place of the soul from its offenses, so that faith may be established.

But the Lord, being a discerner of hearts and one who foreknows things to come, foresaw from above, from the very beginning, both the changeableness of man and the fickle and cunning nature of the devil—namely, that, envying man on account of the forgiveness of sins, he would contrive to rub off upon the servants of God certain occasions for sinning, being shrewdly wicked, so that they too might fall together with him.

Being abundantly merciful, therefore, he granted yet another—a second—repentance to those who, even while in the faith, fall into some offense, so that if anyone should be tried after the calling, having been forced and outwitted, he might still receive one further repentance that need not be repented of.

For if we sin willingly after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire ... that is about to consume the adversaries.

But continual and repeated acts of repentance for sins differ in no way from those who have not believed at all, except only in this, that they are conscious that they are sinning.

And I do not know which of the two is worse: to sin knowingly, or, having repented of the things in which one sinned, to transgress again.

For sin is convicted from both sides: the one, condemned by the doer of iniquity after it has been committed; the other, when the one who attempts it foreknows beforehand that the deed to be done is base.

And the one indulges perhaps his anger and pleasure, not being ignorant of what he is indulging.

But the other, repenting of the things he indulged in, and then running back again to pleasure, joins himself to the one who sinned willingly from the beginning.

For that for which someone has repented, if he does it again, doing it while condemning what he does, he thereby accomplishes it willingly.

Now he who has come from among the Gentiles, and from that former way of life, to set out toward the faith, has once for all obtained forgiveness of sins.

But he who sins even after these things, and then repents, even if he obtains pardon, ought to feel shame, since he is no longer being washed for the forgiveness of sins.

For the one who is regenerated—not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but in the Spirit—must abandon not only the idols which he formerly deified, but also the works of his former life.

This would be the meaning of repenting without being carried back into the same transgression.

For repeatedly repenting is, in reverse, a practicing of sins, and through lack of discipline it forms an aptitude for readiness in falling again.

Therefore, repeatedly asking forgiveness for the things in which we repeatedly transgress is a semblance of repentance, not repentance itself.

'But righteousness makes straight the paths of the blameless,' the Scripture cries out.

'The righteousness of the guileless will make his way straight.'

Indeed, David writes: 'As a father has compassion on his sons, so has the Lord had compassion on those who fear him.'

'Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy'—this refers to those who confess in repentance.

'For blessed are all who fear the Lord.'

Do you see the beatitude that resembles the one in the Gospel? 'Do not fear,' it says, 'when a man grows rich, and when the glory of his house is increased.'

'For when he dies he will carry nothing away, nor will his glory descend with him.'

'By your mercy I will enter your house; I will worship toward your holy temple in fear of you.'

'Lord, lead me in your righteousness.'

Impulse, then, is a movement of the mind toward something or away from something.

But passion is an impulse in excess, exceeding the measures set by reason, or an impulse carried away and disobedient to reason.

The passions, then, are a movement of the soul contrary to nature, in disobedience to reason (and departure, and derangement, and disobedience lie within our power, just as obedience also lies within our power);

wherefore also voluntary acts are the ones judged.

For instance, if one were to examine each of the passions individually, one would find them to be irrational desires.

The involuntary, then, is not judged (and this is twofold: the one occurring through ignorance, the other through necessity).

For how could one even pass judgment ... concerning those said to sin in involuntary ways? For either someone was ignorant of himself, as were Cleomenes and Athamas when they went mad; or ignorant of the deed he was doing, as Aeschylus (who, having disclosed the mysteries on the stage, was tried in the Areopagus and thus acquitted, having shown that he had not been initiated); or one might be ignorant of the person concerning whom the act is done, as the man who, letting his adversary go, killed a kinsman instead of the enemy; or ignorant of the instrument with which the deed is done, as the man training with ball-tipped spears who killed someone when the spear lost its ball-tip; or ignorant of the manner, as the one who killed his opponent in the stadium (for he was not contending for the sake of death, but for the sake of victory); or ignorant of the purpose for which the act is done, as when a physician gave a wholesome antidote and it killed the patient, though he did not give it for that purpose, but in order to save him.

The law, then, held sway at that time also over the one who killed involuntarily... as over the one who had an involuntary discharge, yet not to an equal degree as over the one who acted voluntarily.

And yet even that man will be punished as for a voluntary act, if one were to trace the case back to the truth of the matter.

For in reality the man who lacks self-control over the generative faculty ought to be punished, since this itself is an irrational passion of the soul, verging on unrestrained garrulity.

'But a faithful spirit conceals matters.'

Deliberate choices, then, are what is judged.

'For the Lord tests hearts and inmost parts.'

And the one who looks with lust is judged.

Wherefore it also says, 'You shall not desire'; and, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'

For God has regard to the very intention itself; since he also left Lot's wife—who merely turned back willingly toward worldly wickedness—insensate, displaying her as a pillar of salt and fixing her fast so that she might go no further; not a foolish and useless image, but one to season and give pungency of understanding to the one able to discern spiritually.

The voluntary is either that which accords with desire, or that which accords with deliberate choice, or that which accords with thought.

For instance, these lie somehow alongside one another: sin, misfortune, and wrongdoing.

And an example of a sin would be, say, to live luxuriously and licentiously; an example of a misfortune would be to strike a friend as an enemy through ignorance; and an example of a wrongdoing would be grave-robbing or temple-robbery.

To sin consists either in not knowing how to judge what ought to be done, or in being unable to do it—just as, for instance, someone falls into a pit, either through ignorance, or through being unable to step over it because of bodily weakness.

But it lies within our power both to present ourselves for our own instruction and to obey the commandments.

If we should be unwilling to partake of these, giving ourselves up as surrendered to anger and desire, we shall sin—or rather, we shall wrong our own soul.

For that Laius, in the tragedy, says:

'None of these things which you admonish me of has escaped my notice; but though I have understanding, nature does me violence.'

That is, to have become surrendered to passion.

And Medea herself likewise cries out on the stage:

'And I understand what evils I am about to do, but anger is stronger than my deliberations.'

Nor does Ajax remain silent; on the point of slaying himself, he cries out:

'There was, then, no calamity that so gnawed at the soul of a free man as dishonor;'

'Thus have I suffered, and a deep stain, gathering upon me, turns me back up from the depths, provoked by the bitter goads of madness.'

For as for that comic character Thrasonides, another scene has him say: 'A cheap little slave-girl has enslaved me.'

Misfortune, then, is sin contrary to reasonable expectation; sin is involuntary wrongdoing; and wrongdoing is voluntary wickedness.

Sin, then, is my own act, yet involuntary.

'For sin shall not have dominion over you.'

'For you are not under law but under grace,' he says to those who have already believed, ... for 'by his wound we have been healed.'

Misfortune, then, is an involuntary act of another against me; but wrongdoing alone is found to be voluntary, whether it be mine or another's.

The psalmist alludes to these distinctions among sins when he calls blessed those whose lawless deeds God has blotted out, and whose sins he has covered, and to whom he has not imputed some, and whom he has forgiven the rest.

'Blessed are they whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;'

'Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth there is no deceit.' This blessing came upon those chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

'For love covers a multitude of sins.'

But he who prefers the repentance of the sinner rather than his death blots out the sin.

But those sins are not imputed which do not arise from deliberate choice.

'For whoever has desired her has already committed adultery,' he says.

And the Word that enlightens also forgives sins: 'And in that time,' says the Lord, 'they shall seek the iniquity of Israel, and it shall not be there; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for who is like me? And who will stand against me face to face?' You see one God proclaimed as good, who both apportions according to merit and remits sins.

John also, in his longer epistle, appears to teach the distinctions among sins in the following words:

'If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and he will give him life'—he said this concerning those who sin not unto death.

'For there is sin unto death.'

'I do not say that one should pray for that.'

All unrighteousness ... is sin, and there is sin not unto death.

But both David, and before David Moses, show forth the knowledge of the three doctrines through these words:

Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly - just as the fish walk in darkness into the depths;

for those that have no scales, which Moses forbids to touch, feed down in the depths of the sea;

nor stood in the way of sinners - just as those who seem to fear the Lord sin like the swine;

for when hungry it squeals, but once filled it does not recognize its master;

nor sat in the seat of the scornful - as the birds ready for plunder do.

You shall not eat swine, nor eagle, nor sharp-taloned bird, nor raven, nor any fish that has no scale on it.

Now I myself have heard a wise man interpret such things thus: that the 'counsel of the ungodly' means the nations, the 'way of sinners' the Jewish supposition, and the 'seat of the scornful' the heresies.

But another spoke more properly, saying that the first beatitude is set for those who have not followed the wicked opinions that have apostatized from God, and the second for those who have not persisted in the broad and spacious way - whether they were reared in the law, or, being from the nations, had repented;

And the 'seat of the scornful' might be the theatres and the law-courts - or, what is more likely, the following after wicked and corrupting authorities, and fellowship with them in their deeds.

but rather his delight is in the law of the Lord;

Peter, in the Preaching, addressed the Lord as 'law and word.'

It seems, moreover, that the lawgiver teaches abstinence from sin in three ways in yet another manner: abstinence from sin in word, through the voiceless fish;

for there is indeed a case in which silence is better than speech;

and there is also the safe and harmless reward of silence.

and abstinence from sin in deed, through the rapacious and flesh-devouring birds;

'the swine delights in mire and dung';

and one must not have a defiled conscience either.

Reasonably, then, the prophet says:

'The ungodly are not so,' he says, 'but are like the chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth.'

'Therefore the ungodly shall not rise up in the judgment' (they who are already condemned, since he who does not believe is already judged), 'nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous' (they who have already been condemned so as not to be united with those who have lived without stumbling), 'for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly shall perish.'

Again the Lord shows plainly that both our transgressions and our offences lie within our own power, prescribing modes of healing appropriate to the several passions, wishing us to be corrected through the shepherds; through Ezekiel he accuses, I think, certain of them, for that they did not keep the commandments:

'The weak you did not strengthen,' and so on, down to, 'and there was none that sought after, nor any that turned back the strayed.'

'For there is great joy with the Father over one sinner that is saved,' says the Lord.

In this respect Abraham is the more to be praised, because he went just as the Lord had spoken to him.

Drawing from this source, one of the sages among the Greeks uttered the maxim, 'Follow God.'

'But the pious,' says Isaiah, 'take counsel with understanding.'

Now counsel is an inquiry as to how we might rightly conduct ourselves in the matters at hand, while good counsel is prudence with respect to our deliberations.

What then? Does not God, after the forgiveness shown Cain, accordingly bring forward, not long after, Enoch as one who repented, thereby making clear that forgiveness by nature engenders repentance? And forgiveness consists not in remission, but in healing.

The same thing also happens in the case of the golden calf made by the people under Aaron.

From this source, too, one of the sages among the Greeks uttered the maxim, 'Forgiveness is better than punishment' - just as, of course, 'Give a pledge, and ruin is at hand' likewise comes from the voice of Solomon, who says:

'My son, if you become surety for your friend, you will deliver your hand over to an enemy;'

'for a man's own lips are a strong snare to him, and he is caught by the words of his own mouth.'

But now, in a more mystical sense, the maxim 'Know yourself' has been taken from that same source;

'You have seen your brother, you have seen your God.'

In this sense, somewhere it is said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your neighbour as yourself;'

'On these commandments,' he says, 'hang and depend the whole law and the prophets.'

'These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be fulfilled.'

'This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you;'

'for the Lord is merciful and compassionate, and the Lord is good to all.'

Yet more plainly, Moses, enjoining the precept 'Know yourself,' says repeatedly:

'By acts of mercy and by faithfulness, sins are purged away;'

'and by the fear of the Lord every man departs from evil.'

'And the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom.'

Here again our accusers attack us, alleging that joy and grief are passions of the soul, saying:

for they define joy as a reasonable elation, and rejoicing as delighting over good things,

and mercy as grief over one suffering undeservedly, and hold that such things are alterations and passions of the soul.