Stromateis 1 part 24/42

but as the assurances of our Muse bid, know it when the argument has been cut through within your inmost parts.

For this, says Empedocles, is customary among the wicked: to wish ... to overpower the truths by disbelieving them.

But that our doctrines are glorious and worthy of belief, the Greeks will come to know as the argument is more fully examined through what follows:

For like is taught by like.

Because, says Solomon, 'answer' the fool according to his ... folly.

Wherefore, to those who ask for wisdom, one must offer what is proper to them, so that they may most easily, through their own notions, reasonably ... arrive at faith in the truth:

'For I became all things to all men,' he says, 'that I might gain all,' since indeed the rain of divine grace is sent down upon the righteous ... and the unrighteous:

'Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also — since God is one,' cries the noble apostle.

But since they are unwilling to believe rightly either in the Good or, for salvation, in knowledge, let us ourselves — accounting what is theirs to be our own, since all things belong to God, and especially since the good things among the Greeks took their start from us — take them in hand, in the manner they are by nature disposed to listen.

For this great multitude judges what is prudent or just not by the truth, but by whatever gives it pleasure.

And it would take delight in nothing more than in things like itself.

For insofar as one is still blind and deaf, possessing neither understanding nor the undazzled and keen-sighted vision of a soul that loves to contemplate — which the Savior alone implants — such a one, like an uninitiated person amid the mysteries or one unversed in music amid the dances, being not yet pure nor worthy of holy truth, but discordant, disorderly, and material, must still stand outside the divine choir.

for we compare spiritual things with spiritual.

For this reason, then, the mode of concealment — being truly divine and most necessary for us, on account of the sacred word simply laid up in the inmost shrine of truth — the Egyptians hinted at by means of what they call the 'adyta,' and the Hebrews by means of the veil, through which alone it was permitted for their consecrated priests to enter — that is, for those set apart for God, those who have circumcised the desires of the passions on account of their love for the Divine alone.

For it seemed good also to Plato that it is not lawful for what is impure to touch what is pure.

From this practice, prophecies and oracles are uttered by way of riddles, and the mysteries are not shown indiscriminately to those who come upon them, but only after certain purifications and prior announcements.

'For the Muse was not yet greedy of gain, nor a hired laborer.'

'Nor yet were sweet, honey-voiced, soft-toned songs sold, their faces silvered over, at the hand of Terpsichore.'

For instance, those who are educated among the Egyptians learn first of all, before everything else, the method of Egyptian writing called the epistolographic (letter-writing script).

and second, the hieratic, which the sacred scribes employ.

and last and final, the hieroglyphic — of which one kind is literal, proceeding by the primary letters, and the other symbolic.

Of the symbolic kind, one expresses its literal meaning by direct imitation, another is written as it were figuratively, and yet another is expressed outright by allegory, by means of certain riddles.

Writing in this figurative way, by transferring and transposing things according to their affinity, altering some and transforming others in many ways, they inscribe their signs.

For example, entrusting the praises of kings to myths cast in theological terms, they record these by means of reliefs.

Let the following serve as an example of the third kind, that which proceeds by riddles:

For they likened the other stars, because of their slanting course, to the bodies of serpents, but the sun to the scarab beetle, since this creature, having formed a spherical shape out of ox-dung, rolls it while facing it.

They also say that this creature lives six months beneath the earth, and the other part of the year above the earth, that it deposits its seed into the ball and thereby engenders offspring, and that no female beetle exists.

All, then, so to speak, who have theologized — both barbarians and Greeks — have concealed the first principles of things, and have handed down the truth by riddles and symbols, and again by allegories and metaphors and certain such devices, of the very sort found among the Greeks in the oracles, where indeed Pythian Apollo is called 'Loxias' (the Ambiguous).

Indeed, even the sayings of those called the Wise Men among the Greeks display, in a few words, the disclosure of a much larger matter — as, for example, the saying 'spare time,' which means either that, since life is short, one ought not spend this time in vain, or, conversely, that one should be sparing of one's private expenditures, so that, he says, even should you live many years, your necessities may not fail you.

Likewise the saying 'know thyself' indicates many things: that you are mortal, and that you have come to be human; and further, in comparison with the other pre-eminences of life, that you are of no account at all — speaking to one who is famous or rich — or, on the contrary, that even though you are rich and famous, you are not made honorable by an advantage that does not last.

'And know for what purpose you have come to be,' he says, 'and whose image you are, and what your essence is, and what your making is, and what your kinship to the Divine is' — and other such things.

And the Spirit also speaks through Isaiah the prophet:

'I will give you treasures hidden in darkness.'

And the treasures of God, that unfailing wealth, are wisdom — a wisdom hard to track down.

But even the poets who were taught theology by these prophets philosophize a great deal by way of hidden meaning — I mean Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, Homer and Hesiod, and the wise men of that school.

And for them, poetic enchantment serves as a veil before the multitude.

Dreams too, and symbols, are made more obscure for men — not out of envy (for it is not right to conceive of God as subject to passion), but so that inquiry, working its way into the meaning of the riddles, might run back up to the discovery of the truth.

Hence, indeed, Sophocles, the tragic poet, says somewhere:

'And such, I know well, is God:'

'to the wise, ever a speaker of oracles in riddles, but to the dull, plain, and, in brief, a teacher' — using the word phaulon (ordinarily 'mean' or 'base') in the sense of 'simple.'

Indeed, it is written outright in the Psalms concerning all our Scripture, that it is spoken as in a parable:

'Hear, my people, my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth.'

'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings from of old.'

And the noble apostle says similar things, somewhat in this manner:

'Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect — a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.'

'But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory.'

'which none of the rulers of this age has known.'

'For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.'

But the philosophers were not moved to insult the Lord's coming.

It remains, then, for the apostle to strike a blow against the conceit of those reputed wise among the Jews.

'But we proclaim,' he says, 'as it is written: what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not arisen in the heart of man — what God has prepared for those who love him.'

'For God has revealed them to us through the Spirit:'

'for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.'

a disciple of the Holy Spirit, who is furnished from God — which Spirit is the mind of Christ.

'But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit.'

For instance, the apostle, drawing a contrast with gnostic perfection, calls common faith at one point a foundation, and at another milk, writing in this manner:

'Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to fleshly people, as to infants in Christ.'

'I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.'

'for you were not yet ready; indeed, even now you are not yet ready, for you are still fleshly.'

'For where there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly ... and walking according to man?' Such things are the choice of sinful men, while those who abstain from them are minded toward what is divine, and partake of gnostic food.

'According to the grace given to me,' he says, 'as a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it' — gold and silver, precious stones.

These are the gnostic superstructures built upon the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, whereas the accretions of the heresies are stubble, wood, and hay.

'And the fire will test of what sort each one's work is.'

And hinting at this gnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the Romans, he says:

'For I long to see you, that I might impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.'

But it was not possible to set down such gifts openly, in unveiled fashion, in a letter.

For instance, the Pythagorean symbols depend, in a most thoroughly concealed way, upon the philosophy of the barbarians.

For instance, the Samian advises against keeping a swallow in the house — that is, a talkative, gossiping, glib-tongued person, incapable of keeping to himself whatever he takes part in — meaning that one should not admit such a person.

'For the swallow and the turtledove, sparrows of the field, have known the times of their coming,' says Scripture, and one ought never to dwell together with idle chatter.

Indeed, the murmuring turtledove, exhibiting the thankless slander of complaint, is fittingly banished from the household.

'So that you may not murmur at me, sitting about me, one here, another there.'

But the swallow, which alludes to the myth of Pandion, deserves to be shunned on account of the sufferings recounted of her, from which we have received the tradition that Tereus both suffered certain things and committed others.

Moreover, the swallow also pursues the musical cicadas — hence this persecutor of reasoned speech is justly to be driven away.

'Yea, by sceptered Hera who looks down upon Olympus, I have a faithful storehouse set upon my tongue' — so poetry says.

'But I too have a key set as a guard upon my tongue.'

Again, Pythagoras commanded that, when the pot is taken from the fire, one should not leave its mark in the ashes but stir it up and blot it out; and likewise, that those rising from bed should rumple their bedclothes.

For he was hinting not merely that one must dispel vanity, but that one must leave not even a trace of anger; and that when anger, having boiled up, subsides, it should settle down completely, wiping away every remembrance of wrong.

But let not the sun go down upon your wrath, Scripture says;

and he who said, 'You shall not covet,' has thereby taken away all rancor;

for anger proves to be an impulse of desire belonging to a gentle soul, an irrational craving directed above all toward retaliation,

in like manner it is also enjoined that the bed be tossed, so that neither any nocturnal emission nor sleep by day, nay, not even the pleasure of the night, should any longer be called to mind;

perhaps it also hinted that the gloomy fantasy must be blotted out by the light of truth;

'Be angry, and sin not,' says David, teaching that one must not give assent to the fantasy, nor bring the deed to completion so as to confirm the anger.

Again, 'not to sail upon the land' is a Pythagorean symbol, and it signifies that one must renounce tolls and similar kinds of hire, as being troublesome and unstable;

for this very reason the Word says that tax-collectors will be saved only with difficulty.

Again, moreover, Pythagoras enjoins not to wear a ring, nor to engrave images of gods upon it, just as Moses long before had expressly legislated that no carved, molten, molded, or painted image or likeness should be made at all, so that we might not cling to things perceived by the senses, but might pass on to the things perceived by the mind;

wherefore also the wisest of the Egyptian priests set apart the seat of Athena in the open air, roofless, just as the Hebrews established their temple without any image.

But there are also those who, in worshiping God, fashion an imitation of heaven encompassing the stars, and prostrate themselves before it.

Indeed, since Scripture says, 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness,' I think it worthwhile to cite also the words of Eurysus the Pythagorean, which run as follows — he, in his treatise On Fortune, having said that the Creator made man using himself as pattern, went on to add:

'But the tabernacle is like the rest, seeing it has come to be from the same matter, yet wrought by the best of craftsmen, who fashioned it using himself as archetype.'

And, in general, Pythagoras and his followers, together with Plato most of all the other philosophers, held close converse with the Lawgiver, as one may gather from their very doctrines;

and, in accordance with a certain report of divination that hit its mark, having converged, not without divine aid, upon certain prophetic utterances, distinguishing the truth part by part and kind by kind, they honored it with appellations that were not obscure nor foreign to the manifestation of the realities themselves, having received an impression of their kinship with the truth.

Hence Greek philosophy resembles the gleam that comes from a wick, which men kindle, cunningly stealing the light from the sun;

but once the Word was proclaimed, all that holy light shone forth.

Then again, within houses at night the stolen light is of use, but by day the fire is outshone, and the whole night is illumined by so great a sun of the intelligible light.

For instance, Pythagoras has made a summary of what was said by Moses concerning justice, when he says, 'do not overstep the balance,' that is to say, do not transgress what is equal in distributions, so honoring justice,

which forever binds friend to friend, city to city, and ally to ally;

for equality is by nature the law among men, but the greater portion is ever set at war with the lesser, and it inaugurates a day of enmity — as the poet's grace has phrased it.

For this reason the Lord says, 'Take my yoke upon you';

for, he says, it is kind and not burdensome.

And to his disciples who were contending about who held first rank, he enjoins equality along with simplicity, saying that they must become like little children.

Likewise the Apostle also writes that in Christ there is neither slave nor free, neither Greek nor Jew;

for the new creation that is in Christ is free of contentiousness, free of covetousness, and is a righteous equality;

for envy stands outside the divine chorus, and so do jealousy and grief — with reference to which the initiates also forbid 'eating one's own heart,' teaching that one ought never to gnaw and devour the soul with despondency and pain over things that happen against one's will.

Wretched, at any rate, was that man of whom Homer too says that, wandering alone, he devoured his own heart.

Again, since the Gospel and the Apostles, like all the prophets before them, posit two ways, calling the one narrow and constricted — the way hedged in by the commandments and prohibitions — and the other, its opposite, the one leading to destruction, broad and spacious, unhindered by pleasures and passion; and since they declare, 'Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners' — so too proceeds the myth of Prodicus of Ceos concerning Virtue and Vice, and Pythagoras likewise does not hesitate to forbid the treading of the public highways, commanding that one ought not to follow the opinions of the multitude, which are undiscerning and inconsistent with one another.

And Aristocritus, in the first book of his Contradictions against Heracleodorus, records a certain letter that runs as follows:

Atoias, king of the Scythians, to the people of Byzantium:

'Do not injure my revenues, lest my horses drink your water.'

For the barbarian was symbolically indicating that he would bring war upon them in time to come.

Likewise also Euphorion the poet brings in Nestor speaking thus:

'We have not yet watered our Achaean horses at the Simois.'

one must also fear the divine, loving it as gentle and gracious toward the holy, yet dreading it as inexorably just toward the unholy;

for the Sphinx hints at the image of beast and man together.

It would take too long to go through all the prophetic and legal sayings that have been uttered in riddles, expounding them one by one;

for almost the whole of Scripture is uttered oracularly in this manner.

It suffices, I think, for one who possesses understanding, that a few examples set forth here serve to demonstrate the point at hand.

For instance, the concealment of hidden meaning is confirmed by the account, recorded among the Hebrews, of the seven enclosures surrounding the ancient temple as bearing some reference to higher realities, and likewise by the arrangement of the ankle-length robe, which, through various symbols drawn from visible things, hints at the covenant extending from heaven down to earth;

and the veil and the curtain were embroidered with hyacinth-blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and thereby hinted, as the nature of the elements itself indicates, at the revelation of God:

for purple comes from water, fine linen from earth, and hyacinth-blue, being dusky, is likened to air, just as scarlet is likened to fire.

and midway between the veil and the curtain, where it was permitted for the priests to enter, stood the altar of incense, a symbol of the earth situated in the middle of this world, from which the exhalations arise;

and that place is likewise midway — between the space within the inner veil, where only the high priest was permitted to enter on appointed days, and the outer court that surrounded it, which was open to all the Hebrews;

wherefore some say it is the very midpoint of heaven and earth, while others say it is a symbol of the intelligible and the sensible world.

The veil, then, was stretched before the five pillars as a barrier against the unbelief of the laity, keeping off those who remained in the outer enclosure;

in accordance with this, most mystically, five loaves are broken by the Savior and multiplied for the crowd of those who listened to him.

For great is the multitude that clings to sensible things as though they alone existed.

'Look carefully about you,' says Plato, 'lest any of the uninitiated should overhear.'

These are they who suppose that nothing else exists except what they can grasp firmly with both hands, and who refuse to admit actions, comings-into-being, and everything invisible as belonging to the realm of true being;

for such are those who cling only to the fivefold array of the senses.

But the conception of God is inaccessible to the ears and to their kindred senses.

Hence the Son is called the face of the Father, having become accessible to the five senses by bearing flesh — the Word who declares the Father's own distinctive attribute.

'But if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.'

'We walk by faith, not by sight,' says the noble Apostle.

Within the veil, then, the priestly ministry lies hidden, and it separates far off those who labor in it from those who are outside;

again, the curtain of the passage into the Holy of Holies — there being four pillars there — is a sign of the sacred tetrad of the old covenants; and moreover the mystical four-lettered Name, which was worn about them by those alone for whom the inner sanctuary was accessible;

it is pronounced Iaoue, which, translated, means 'He who is and who shall be.'

And indeed, even among the Greeks, the word 'theos' contains a tetrad of letters.

But into the intelligible world the Lord alone enters, having become high priest, slipping through his sufferings into the knowledge of the ineffable, withdrawing beyond every name that is made known by speech.

Indeed, the lampstand was placed to the south of the altar of incense, by which the movements of the seven light-bearers are signified, since they make their circuits toward the south;

for three branches spring forth on each side of the lampstand, and upon them the lamps — since the sun too, like the lampstand, being set in the middle of the other planets, imparts light, according to a certain divine harmony, both to those above it and to those below it;

and the golden lampstand contains yet another riddle of the sign of Christ, not in its shape alone, but also in that it casts light in many ways and many parts upon those who believe in him, who hope in him, and who see through the ministry of the first-created beings.

And they say that the seven eyes of the Lord are the seven spirits resting upon the rod that blossoms forth from the root of Jesse.

To the north of the altar of incense the table had its place, on which the loaves were set forth, because the winds from the north are the most nourishing of the winds.

And these might be certain dwelling-places, gathered into one body and a single assembly of churches that breathe together as one.

And the things recorded concerning the holy ark signify the things of the intelligible world, which is hidden and shut off from the many.

Indeed, those golden images also, each of them six-winged, either represent, as some would have it, the two Bears, or, more likely, the two hemispheres; and the name 'Cherubim' is meant to signify 'much knowledge.'

But together the two of them have twelve wings, and through the circle of the zodiac and the time that moves according to it, they signify the sensible world.

Concerning these things, I think, tragedy also speaks, treating of nature, when it says:

'Untiring time, full with ever-flowing stream, goes about begetting itself, and the twin bears, with the swift-wandering beat of their wings, guard the Atlantean pole.'

Now Atlas, the pole that suffers no change, may indeed be the sphere of the fixed stars ... but it is perhaps better to understand it as immovable eternity.

But I think it better that the ark, called by the Hebrew name thebotha, signifies something else.

It is translated literally, one word for one word, as 'of all places.'

Whether, then, the ogdoad and the intelligible world are meant, or the God who encompasses all things, formless and invisible, is signified, let this be set aside to discuss for now;

but it points to the rest that comes with the glorifying spirits, which the Cherubim symbolize;

for he who forbade even the making of a graven image would never himself have fashioned an image of the holy things; nor is there from the beginning any composite, sense-perceptible living creature existing in heaven in this manner. Rather, the face is a symbol of the rational soul, the wings are the ministries and the lofty energies of the powers on the right hand and on the left alike, and the voice is thankful glory offered in unceasing contemplation.

It is enough that the mystical interpretation should proceed thus far;

The high priest's robe reaching to the feet is a symbol of the sensible world; the five stones represent five of the seven planets, and the two carbuncles represent Saturn and the Moon;

for the one [Saturn] is southern, moist, earthy, and heavy, while the other [the Moon] is airy;

wherefore Artemis is said by some to be a certain 'cutter of the air,' since the air is dark and gloomy.

He fittingly depicts those set over the planets by divine providence, who cooperate in the generation of things here below, as established upon the breast and shoulders, through which comes the activity that produces generation, the first hebdomad;

and the breast is the dwelling-place of the heart and of the soul.

Otherwise, the various stones might also be understood as the modes of salvation, some set in the higher parts, others in the lower parts, of the whole body that is being saved.

And the three hundred and sixty bells hanging from the robe are the span of a year, the acceptable year of the Lord, proclaiming and announcing the greatest manifestation of the Savior.

But also the golden mitre raised aloft signifies the royal authority of the Lord, since indeed the Savior is the head of the Church;

for the mitre set above it is a sign of the most sovereign rule;

moreover we have heard, as it is said:

'And the head of Christ is God,' even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And indeed the breastpiece is composed both of the ephod, which is a symbol of work, and of the oracle (which hints at the Word), by which it is held together; and it is an image of heaven, which came into being through the Word, subject to Christ, the head of all things, and moved always in the same manner and consistently.

The bright emerald stones upon the ephod, then, signify the sun and moon, the co-workers of nature.

and the shoulder, I think, is the beginning of the arm.

The twelve stones arranged in four rows upon the breast depict for us the zodiacal circle, according to the four turnings of the year.

Moreover it was fitting that, under the Lord's head, the Law and the Prophets should be subject, through whom the righteous are signified according to each of the two covenants;

...of all things ... by the Holy Spirit.

And as the Lord is above the whole world, or rather beyond the intelligible realm, so also the name inscribed on the plate has been deemed worthy to be above every rule and authority; and it is inscribed both because of the written commandments and because of his sense-perceptible presence.

since, as he beholds the goodness of the Father, the Son acts, being called God the Savior, the first principle of all things, which was imaged forth from the invisible God, first and before the ages, and has stamped the form of all things that came into being after itself.

And indeed the oracle signifies the prophecy that cries aloud through the Word and proclaims, and also the judgment that is to come, since it is the same Word who prophesies, and who at once judges and distinguishes each thing.

And they say that the garment, the robe reaching to the feet, prophesies the dispensation according to the flesh, through which he appeared more directly in the world.

For this reason the high priest, having taken off the sanctified tunic (for the world, and the creation within the world, has been sanctified by him who approved as good the things that came to be), washes himself and puts on the other tunic — holy, so to speak, of the Holy One — the tunic that enters with him into the innermost sanctuary; showing, as it seems to me, the Levite and the man of true knowledge as ruler, as it were, over the other priests. While those others are washed with water only and are clothed only in faith and await their own proper abode, he himself distinguishes the intelligible from the sensible, and, by an advancement beyond the other priests, hastens toward the passage into the intelligible realm, washing himself of the things of this world no longer with water — as he was formerly purified when being enrolled into the Levitical tribe — but now already by the reason of true knowledge.

Being, then, pure in his whole heart, and having rightly ordered his conduct to the utmost, having grown to something greater than the priest, truly purified both in word and in life, having put on the radiant glow of glory, and having received the ineffable inheritance of that spiritual and perfect man — which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man — having become a son and a friend, he is now filled, face to face, with insatiable contemplation.

But there is nothing like hearkening to the Word itself, as it imparts a fuller understanding through the Scripture.

'And he shall take off the linen robe which he had put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave it there.'

'And he shall bathe his body in water in the holy place, and put on his own garment.'

But in another sense, I think, the Lord strips off and puts on garments when he descends into the realm of sense-perception; in another sense, he who has believed through him strips off the old and puts on over it, as the apostle also indicated, the sanctified robe.

Hence, in accordance with the image of the Lord, high priests were chosen from among the most approved of the sanctified tribe, and those chosen for kingship and for prophecy were anointed.

Whence also the Egyptians did not entrust their mysteries to just anyone who happened along, nor did they divulge the knowledge of divine things to the profane, but only to those who were about to proceed to kingship, and to those of the priests judged most approved by reason of their upbringing, education, and lineage.

The riddles of the Egyptians, then, are similar to those of the Hebrews, at least in their manner of concealment.

Of the Egyptians, some depict the sun upon a boat, others upon a crocodile.

They signify by this that the sun, making its course through the sweet and moist air, begets time, which the crocodile hints at for some other priestly reason.

And indeed, in Diospolis in Egypt, on the so-called sacred gateway, a child has been depicted as a symbol of birth, an old man of decay, and again a hawk of god, as the fish of hatred, and — signifying yet another thing — the crocodile of shamelessness.

The whole symbol, then, when put together, appears to signify the following:

'O you who are coming into being and passing out of being, God hates shamelessness.'

Those who craft ears and eyes out of precious material consecrate them to the gods, dedicating them in the temples, thereby hinting, no doubt, that God sees and hears all things.

Besides these, the lion is for them a symbol of strength and might;