Stromateis 1 part 19/42

For He Himself, being Life, willed to suffer for the sake of him for whom He suffered, that by His suffering we might live.

'Lord, Lord,' he says, 'and yet you do not do what I say?' For the people who love with their lips, but keep their heart far from the Lord, are other than they seem, persuaded by another, and to this other they have willingly sold themselves.

But as many as fulfill the commandments of the Savior bear witness by every deed, doing what He wills, consistently naming the Lord, and by their works testifying to Him whom they are persuaded to belong to — they who have crucified the flesh together with its desires and passions.

'If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit,' he says.

'He who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.'

But to the wretched among men, death by martyrdom for the Lord through blood seems the most violent of deaths, since they do not know that such a gate of death is the beginning of the life that truly is.

And they are unwilling to comprehend either the honors after death awaiting those who have lived piously, or the punishments awaiting those who have conducted themselves unjustly and licentiously — I do not mean only from our own Scriptures (for nearly all the commandments proclaim this), but they are unwilling even to obey the words of their own [pagan writers].

For Theano the Pythagorean writes:

'For life would indeed, in reality, be a feast for the wicked who have done evil...'

'...and then they come to their end — if the soul were not immortal, death would be a windfall.' And Plato too, in the Phaedo: 'For if death were a release from everything, it would be a windfall' — and so on.

It is not right, then, as in Aeschylus's Telephus, to imagine that a single path leads to Hades; rather, many are the roads leading thither — the manifold, wandering sins.

It is these faithless men, it seems, whom Aristophanes ridicules in comedy: 'Come,' he says, 'you men of dim and shadowy life, like unto the race of leaves, feeble, figures of wax, tribes shadow-like, strengthless, wingless, creatures of a day.'

And Epicharmus: 'This is the nature of men — inflated wineskins.'

'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'

'Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God' — the Apostle explains — 'for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.'

'And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.'

And expounding further, he adds this, lest anyone, like Marcion, ungratefully take the creation to be evil:

'But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.'

'For if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die.'

'For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory that is about to be revealed in us, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him, as fellow heirs of Christ.'

'And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.'

'Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.'

'And those whom He predestined, these He also called.'

'And those whom He called, these He also justified.'

'And those whom He justified, these He also glorified.'

You see how martyrdom is taught through love.

And should you wish to bear witness for the sake of a reward of good things, you will hear again:

'But hope that is seen is not hope.'

'For what a man sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.'

'But even if we suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed [are we],' says Peter.

...good, so that in the very matter in which you are slandered, those who abuse your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

'For it is better, if the will of God should so will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.'

And how is it possible for the weak flesh to withstand the powers and the spirits of the [ruling] authorities? But let him know this — that, taking courage in the Almighty and the Lord, we set ourselves against the rulers of darkness and against death.

'While you are yet speaking,' he says, 'He will say:'

Behold the unconquerable Helper, who shields us.

'Do not be astonished, therefore,' Peter says, 'at the fiery trial that comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; but insofar as you share the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice with exceeding gladness.'

'If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.'

'Just as it is written: \"For your sake we are put to death all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.\"'

'But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.'

'But as for what you seek to wring from my resolve — you shall not wring it out, not though you burn me, nor though you set cruel saws from the crown of my head down to the very tips of my feet, no, not even if you should lay upon me every kind of bond' — thus, fearlessly playing the man, a woman speaks in tragedy.

And Antigone too, despising the proclamation of Creon, boldly says:

'For it was not Zeus who proclaimed these things to me.'

But it is God who proclaims to us, and He must be obeyed.

'For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'

'Whoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame.' Fittingly, then, Simonides writes:

There is a saying that Virtue dwells upon rocks hard to climb, and that a holy chorus of swift nymphs attends her;

nor is she visible to the eyes of all mortals, save to him within whom heart-gnawing sweat has come from within, and who has arrived at the very summit of manly courage.

And the anxious cares of the young, revolving amid their toils, find glory; and in time, deeds once made radiant shine forth beyond the very heavens.

Aeschylus too, taking hold of this same thought, says:

'But to him who toils, glory — the offspring of toil — is owed by the gods.'

For greater deaths obtain greater destinies, according to Heraclitus.

Who then is a slave, being unconcerned about death? ... For God did not give us again a spirit of slavery unto fear, but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

'Be not ashamed, then, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner' — thus he writes to Timothy.

Such would be the one who, according to the apostle, cleaves to the good, abhorring what is evil, having love unfeigned;

for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law;

But if the God of hope is he to whom we bear witness, as indeed he is, then we confess our hope, hastening toward that hope;

and 'they are filled with goodness,' he says, 'filled with all knowledge.'

The philosophers of the Indians say to Alexander the Macedonian:

'You will transport our bodies from place to place, but you will not compel our souls to do what we do not wish.'

'Fire is for men the greatest instrument of torment;'

'this we despise.'

And hence Heraclitus chose glory in place of everything, and confesses that he yields the rest to the many, who are glutted like cattle.

'For the body's sake are our many toils; for its sake we have devised the roofed house, and the digging of white silver, and the sowing of the earth, and all the other things which we know by name.'

Now for the many, this vain labor is a thing freely chosen; but to us the apostle says:

'We know this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we should no longer be enslaved to sin.'

Does not the apostle plainly go on to add this too, showing the shame that the faith suffers among the many? 'For I think God has exhibited us the apostles last, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men;'

'we hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and toil, working with our own hands;'

'being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being slandered, we entreat;'

'we have become as the offscourings of the world.'

Such too are the words of Plato in the Republic: that even should the just man be racked, even should his eyes be gouged out, he will nonetheless be happy.

The Gnostic, then, will never have his end resting upon fortune; rather, happiness and blessedness will lie within himself, as will his being a royal friend of God;

and even should someone surround him with dishonor, exile, confiscation of goods, and finally death itself, he will never be torn away from that freedom and most sovereign love toward God, which 'bears all things and endures all things;'

for love is persuaded that divine providence administers all things well.

'I entreat you, then,' he says, 'be imitators of me.'

Now the first step of salvation is instruction accompanied by fear, through which we abstain from wrongdoing; the second is hope, through which we aspire to the best things; but love brings us to perfection, as is fitting, already instructing us in the manner of one who knows.

For the Greeks, having somehow surrendered themselves to irrational necessity, confess that they submit unwillingly to what befalls them.

'What I counsel, then, receive from me, woman.'

'No mortal was ever born who does not toil; he buries children and begets other new ones, and he himself dies.'

'These things one must bear, which nature requires us to pass through;'

'Nothing that is necessary for mortals is dreadful.'

Now set before those who press on toward perfection is rational knowledge, whose foundation is the holy triad: faith, hope, and love;

'but the greatest of these is love.'

Indeed, 'all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable;'

'all things are lawful, but not all things build up,' says the apostle.

'And let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor,' so as to be able both to act and to teach at once, building up and building further.

For that 'the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof' is agreed; but the conscience of the one who is weak is thereby burdened.

'Conscience, I say, not one's own, but that of the other.'

'For why is my liberty judged by another's conscience? If I partake by grace, why am I spoken evil of for that for which I give thanks? Whether, then, you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.'

'For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh;'

'for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down reasonings and every high thing that is raised up against...'

Armed with these weapons, the Gnostic says: 'O Lord, grant me the trial, and receive from it the proof; let this terror come — I hold dangers in contempt, because of my love for you;'

'because virtue, alone among the things found among men, does not take its wages from outward things, but has itself as the prize of its labors.'

'Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; and above all these things, love, which is the bond of perfection.'

'And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body;'

'And be thankful' — you who are still in the body, just as the righteous of old, reaping impassibility of soul and freedom from disturbance;

For not only did the Aesopians, the Macedonians, and the Laconians endure steadfastly while being tortured, as Eratosthenes says in his work On Good and Evil Things, but Zeno of Elea too, when compelled to disclose one of his secrets, held out against the tortures, confessing nothing — and indeed, at the very end, biting off his own tongue, he spat it at the tyrant, whom some call Nearchus, others Demylus.

Likewise Theodotus the Pythagorean did the same, and so did Praylus, the associate of Lacydes, as Timotheus of Pergamum relates in his work On the Courage of the Philosophers, and Achaicus in his Ethics.

Moreover, he also placed his hand upon the fire and let it melt away as though it were bronze, with a countenance utterly unmoved.

For I pass over in silence the case of Anaxarchus, crying out, 'Pound away, pound the mere sack that is Anaxarchus!'

'For it is not Anaxarchus that you are pounding' — he said this at the very moment he was being pounded with iron pestles at the tyrant's command.

Neither, then, the hope of happiness nor love toward God chafes at whatever befalls it, but remains free; even should it fall among the most savage beasts, even should it fall into the all-devouring fire, even should it be put to death by tyrannical tortures, it hangs suspended from the divine friendship and, unenslaved, roams the heights above, having surrendered the body to those who are able to lay hold of the body alone.

The Getae, a barbarian nation not unacquainted with philosophy, choose an ambassador every year to send to the hero Zamolxis.

And Zamolxis was one of the disciples of Pythagoras.

So the one judged most worthy is put to death, while those who pursued philosophy but were not chosen grieve, as men rejected from a blessed service.

The whole Church, then, is full of those who throughout their whole life practiced for that life-giving death unto Christ — men, and likewise chaste women too.

For it is possible for one who lives according to our way of life to philosophize even without formal learning, whether he be barbarian or Greek, slave or old man, child, or woman;

for self-control is common to all human beings, at least to those who have chosen it;

And it has been agreed among us that each kind, sharing the same nature, likewise possesses the same virtue.

Woman, then, does not appear to possess a nature different from man's with respect to humanity, nor does man appear to possess one different from woman's;

but the same nature, so that virtue too is the same.

But if the virtue of man is, of course, self-control and justice and whatever else is reckoned to follow upon these, is it then fitting for man alone to be virtuous, while woman is licentious and unjust? But it is unseemly even to say such a thing.

Self-control, therefore, and justice, and every other virtue, must be cultivated equally by woman and equally by man, whether free or slave, since it happens that virtue, being one and the same, belongs to one and the same nature.

We do not, then, mean that the nature of the female is the same as that of the male insofar as she is female;

for surely some difference must exist between the two, on account of which the one has become female and the other male;

conceiving, at any rate, and giving birth belong to woman insofar as she is female, not insofar as she is a human being;

but if there were no difference at all between man and woman, each of the two would both do and undergo the very same things.

Insofar, then, as they are the same — namely as soul — in that respect they will arrive at the same virtue;

but insofar as they differ, according to the particularity of the body, in that respect they are directed toward childbearing and household management.

'For I want you to know,' says the apostle, 'that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is man;'

'for man is not from woman, but woman is from man.'

Only, neither is woman without man, nor man without woman, in the Lord.

For as we say that the man ought to be temperate and superior to pleasures,

so too we should likewise require the woman to be temperate, and to have trained herself to do battle against the pleasures;

'Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh' — this the apostolic commandment counsels;

'for the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.'

These, then, are opposed not as evil to good, but as things contending to profitable effect,

'so that you may not do the things you wish.'

'Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and things like these — of which I forewarn you, just as I also told you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.'

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, goodness, faith, gentleness.'

By 'flesh', I think, he has named sinners, just as he has named the righteous 'spirit'.

...to offer the other cheek as well, and to yield up the tunic too to the one who takes the cloak, vigorously mastering our anger,

for we do not train our women in the arts of war as though they were a kind of Amazons, since indeed we wish even the men to be peaceable.

But I myself have heard that Sauromatian women wage war no less than men, and other women, the Sacae, who shoot arrows backward while feigning flight, on equal terms with the men.

I know also that the women near Iberia engage in manly labor and toil, and even when they come to the point of childbirth they relax nothing of their tasks, but often, in the very midst of the struggle of their labors, the woman, having given birth to the infant, picks it up and carries it home.

Indeed, even female dogs guard the house, hunt, and watch over the flocks no less than the males.

Gorgo, the Cretan hound, ran upon the track of the deer.

Women, then, must pursue philosophy just as men do, even though the males happen to be superior, carrying off the first place in all things — unless, that is, the men should be enervated by softness.

Education and virtue, then, are necessary for the whole human race, if indeed they are eager to attain happiness.

And somehow not without purpose does Euripides write in various ways:

at one time: 'For every wife is worse than her husband, even if the vilest man marries the woman of good repute;'

yet at another time: 'For every temperate wife is a slave to her husband, but the intemperate one surpasses in folly the man who lives with her.'

'For there is nothing greater or better than when husband and wife keep house together, being of one mind in their thoughts.'

The head, then, signifies the governing faculty.

'But if the Lord is the head of the man, and the head of the woman is the man,' then the man is lord of the woman, being the image and glory of God.

Wherefore also he writes in the letter to the Ephesians:

'submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God;'

'wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord, because the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body;'

'but as the church submits to Christ, so also let the wives submit to their own [husbands].'

'Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church;'

so also husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

'He who loves his own wife loves himself;'

for no one ever hated his own flesh —

and in the letter to the Colossians he says, 'Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.'

'Husbands, love your wives and do not become embittered against them.'

'Children, obey your parents in all things;'

for this is pleasing to the Lord.

'Fathers, ... do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.'

'Servants, obey in everything those who are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord;'

'and whatever you do, work at it from the soul, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance;'

for you serve the Lord Christ;

for the wrongdoer will receive back what he has done wrong, and there is no partiality.

'Masters, grant to your servants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.'

The earthly church is an image of the heavenly church, which is why we also pray that the will of God may come to pass on earth, as it is in heaven;

'having put on hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another;'

just as Christ also forgave us, so also must we.

And above all these things, love, which is the bond of perfection.

And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body;

For nothing prevents us from often citing the same Scripture, to the confounding of Marcion, in case he might somehow be persuaded to change his mind, upon learning that the man of faith ought to be grateful to the Creator God who called us and evangelized us in the body.

From these things it is clear to us what the unity that comes from faith is, and who has been shown to be the perfect man — so that, even against the will of some, and though they resist in most respects, even if punishments are held over them by the husband or by the master, both the household servant and the wife will nonetheless practice true philosophy.

Yes indeed, the free man too — even if death is threatened against him by a tyrant, even if he is dragged into the courts and drawn into the utmost dangers, and stands to risk the loss of all his possessions — will not abstain from the reverence of God in any way whatsoever;

nor will the wife who lives with a wicked husband ever grow faint, nor the son if he has a bad father, nor the household servant if he has a wicked master — none of them will grow weary, but will nobly hold fast to virtue;

but just as it is good for a man to die on behalf of virtue, freedom, and himself, so likewise also for a woman;

for this is not the peculiar property of the nature of males, but of the good.

Faithfully, then, both the old man and the young and the household servant, obeying the commandments, will live, and, if need be, will die — which would be to be brought to life through death.

We know, indeed, that children, household servants, and wives have often become excellent, even against the will of their fathers, masters, and husbands.

Those who are about to live piously toward God, then, must be no less eager whenever certain people seem to be trying to hinder them; rather, I think it far more fitting that they hasten and strive all the more, so that, not being overcome, they may not fall away from the best and most necessary resolves.

For I do not think it admits of comparison whether it is better to become a devotee of the Almighty, or to choose the darkness of the demons.

For as to the things done for the sake of others, we would on each occasion do them by trying to have regard to those for whose sake they seem to be done, considering as the measure that which is pleasing to them;

but as for the things that belong rather to ourselves than to certain others, these we would do with equal earnestness, whether or not it happens to please some people.

If, then, some of the indifferent things have obtained such honor that they seem choiceworthy even against the will of some, virtue must be considered far more worth contending for, with our eyes fixed on nothing else but on the very fact that it can be done nobly, whether or not it seems otherwise to some.

Well, then, Epicurus too writes to Menoeceus:

'Let no one, while young, delay the practice of philosophy, nor, when old, grow weary of philosophizing.'

For no one is either too young or too old for the health of the soul.

But he who says that the time for philosophizing has not yet come, or that it has already passed, is like the one who says, concerning happiness, either that its time is not yet present, or that its time no longer exists.

So then, both the younger and the older must practice philosophy: the one, so that as he grows old he may grow young again in good things, through gratitude for what has come to pass; the other, so that he may be at once young and old, through fearlessness of what is to come.

Now concerning martyrdom the Lord has spoken explicitly; let us arrange together the passages that have been recorded in various forms:

'But I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God;'

'but the one who denies me before men, I will deny him before the angels.'

'For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with his angels.'

'Everyone, then, who confesses me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven.'

But when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious beforehand about how you will make your defense or what you will say;

for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you must say.

In expounding this passage, Heracleon, the most esteemed member of the school of Valentinus, says word for word that confession is of two kinds: one in faith and conduct, the other in speech.

But this saying will not be found to have been spoken in a universal sense;

for not all who are being saved made the confession by speech and so departed this life, as with Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi, and many others.

And the confession made by speech is not universal, but partial.

But the universal confession of which he now speaks is that consisting in works and deeds corresponding to faith in him.

And upon this confession there follows also the partial confession before the authorities, should there be need and reason so demand.

For such a one will confess also with the voice, having already rightly made confession beforehand in disposition.

And rightly, in the case of those who confess he said 'in me,' whereas in the case of those who deny he added simply 'me.'

For these, even if they confess him with the voice, deny him by not confessing him in deed.

Only those confess in him who live in the conduct and practice that befits him — those in whom he himself also confesses, being enfolded by them and held fast by them.

Wherefore such persons can never deny him;

but those who are not in him deny him.

For he did not say, 'whoever shall deny in me,' but 'me';

for no one who is in him ever denies him.

And the phrase 'before men' applies likewise both to those being saved and to the nations — before some by conduct, before others also by speech.

Wherefore they can never deny him;

but those who are not in him deny him.

Now in other respects he appears to agree with us as regards this passage; but he failed to notice this: that even if some did not confess Christ before men by deed and manner of life, yet by confessing him with the voice in the courts and by not denying him though tortured even unto death, they clearly appear to have believed from disposition of heart.

And a disposition thus confessed, especially one that is not turned aside even by death, effects at one stroke the cutting off of all the passions engendered through bodily desire;

for it is, so to speak, a sudden repentance in deed at the close of life, and a true confession of Christ, the voice bearing further witness to it.

But if the Spirit of the Father bears witness in us, how then are they still hypocrites, of whom it is said that they bear witness by the voice alone? And it will be granted to some, should it be expedient, to make their defense, so that through both the testimony and the confession all may profit — those of the Church being strengthened, while those of the nations, marveling and being drawn to faith, inquire earnestly into salvation, and the rest are held fast by amazement.

So that confession is required of us in every case, for it lies within our power; but making a defense is not required in every case, for this does not lie within our power.

But he who endures to the end, this one shall be saved;

for who among those of sound mind would not choose to reign with God rather than to be enslaved? Some, according to the Apostle, profess to know God, but by their works deny him, being abominable and disobedient and unfit for any good work; but others, even if they confess this alone, have accomplished at the last one good work.

Martyrdom, then, seems to be a purification of sins accompanied by glory.

You will escape the working of the savage beast if your heart becomes pure and blameless.

But the Lord himself also said, 'Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat';

The Lord alone, then, drank the cup on account of the folly of those who plotted against him and for the purification of the unbelieving;

and in imitation of him the apostles, as being truly Gnostics and perfect, suffered for the churches which they had founded.

So then, those true Gnostics who walk in the apostolic footsteps ought both to be sinless and, out of love for the Lord, to love their neighbor also, so that, should occasion call for it, they may drink the cup on behalf of the Church, enduring afflictions without stumbling.

But as many as bear witness by deed throughout their life, and also by word in the tribunal — whether looking for hope or apprehending fear — these are better than those who confess salvation with the mouth alone.