Stromateis 1 part 25/42

the ox of nourishment, the horse of courage and boldness of speech, and the sphinx, in turn, of strength together with intelligence, having a body wholly of a lion, but the face of a man.

And likewise, along with these, man himself is engraved by them upon their sacred monuments, signifying understanding, memory, might, and skill.

Moreover, in what they call the processions of the gods, they carry about golden images — two dogs, one hawk, and one ibis — and they call these four idol-images 'four letters.'

The dogs, then, are symbols of the two hemispheres, as it were going about and keeping watch;

for it is fiery and destructive;

accordingly, they attribute pestilential diseases to the sun;

and the ibis is a symbol of the moon, its dark feathers likening the shadowy phases, and its white feathers the luminous ones.

There are those who hold that the tropics are signified by the dogs, which indeed keep guard over and act as gatekeepers of the sun's passage toward the south and toward the north;

and the equator, being lofty and scorched, is signified by the hawk, just as the ibis signifies the oblique circle;

for the ibis, above all animals, is thought by the Egyptians to have furnished the origin of the concept of number and measure, just as the oblique circle did among the heavenly circles.

But indeed, not only the most learned of the Egyptians, but also, among the other barbarians, as many as reached out after philosophy, emulated this symbolic form of expression.

They say, for instance, that Idanthyrsus, king of the Scythians, as Pherecydes the Syrian relates, when Darius had crossed the Ister and was threatening war, sent, instead of a letter, a symbol: a mouse, a frog, a bird, an arrow, and a plough.

And when perplexity arose over these things, as was natural, Orontopatas the commander said that they were surrendering their dominion to them, inferring from the mouse their dwellings, from the frog the waters, the air from the bird, from the arrow their weapons, and from the plough their land.

But Xiphodres interpreted it in the opposite way:

'Unless we fly up like birds, or go like mice beneath the earth, or dive like frogs beneath the water, we shall not escape their arrows, for we are not masters of the land.'

They also say that Anacharsis the Scythian, when he himself slept, held his private parts with his left hand and his mouth with his right hand, hinting that both must be mastered, but that it is a greater thing to control the tongue than pleasure.

But why should I linger over the barbarians, when I can present the Greeks themselves, who made ample use of concealment? Androcydes the Pythagorean, at any rate, says that the so-called 'Ephesian letters,' much talked of among many, have the character of symbols, and that 'Askion' signifies darkness, for this has no shadow;

and 'Kataskion' signifies light, since it illumines the shadow;

'Lix' is the earth, according to an ancient appellation, and 'Tetrax' is the year, on account of the seasons, and 'Damnameneus' is the sun that subdues, and 'Aisia' is the true utterance.

The symbol, then, signifies how divine things have been ordered — as darkness in relation to light, and the sun in relation to the year, and the earth in relation to every kind of generation of nature.

But also Dionysius the Thracian, the grammarian, in his work On Emphasis, speaks word for word concerning the symbol of the little wheels:

'Some, then, signified actions not only through words but also through symbols: through words, as in the so-called Delphic precepts, Nothing in excess and Know thyself, and things similar to these; through symbols, as the wheel that is turned in the sacred precincts of the gods, borrowed from the Egyptians, and the giving of the branches that are given to worshippers.'

For Orpheus the Thracian says:

'Of the branches — as many works as are of concern to mortals upon the earth — none holds a single fixed lot in mind, but all things revolve round about; and it is not lawful to stand still in one part, but each thing, just as it began, holds an equal portion of the course.'

...are burned up, so must they too quickly depart this life and become the prey of fire.

The form of symbolic interpretation is therefore most useful for many purposes: it contributes to correct theology, to piety, to the display of understanding, to the exercise of brevity, and to the demonstration of wisdom.

For it belongs to a wise man, says Didymus the grammarian, to use symbolic language skillfully, and to recognize what is signified by it.

Indeed, even the elementary instruction given to children comprises an interpretation of the four elements.

For he says that the Phrygians call water 'bedy', just as Orpheus also writes:

'and down flows bedy, the bright water of the nymphs.'

But Dion the sacrificer, too, appears to write likewise:

'and taking bedy, pour it over your hands, and turn to the inspection of the sacrificial victims.'

Conversely, Philyllius the comic poet knows 'bedy' as the air, being life-giving, through these lines:

'I pray to draw in saving bedy, which is the greatest part of health — to draw in the air pure and undefiled.'

In agreement with this same view is also Neanthes of Cyzicus, who writes that the priests of the Macedonians, in their prayers, invoke 'bedy' to be gracious to them

and to their children — which they interpret as 'air'.

As for 'zaps' meaning fire, some have ignorantly derived it from 'boiling' (zesis);

but the sea is called by this name, as Euphorion says in his Replies to Theodoridas:

'and zaps, the destroyer of ships, rages fiercely against the reefs.'

And Dionysius the Iambographer likewise writes:

'the salt zaps roars round about the raging deep.'

Similarly also Cratinus the younger, the comic poet:

'the zaps brings forth shrimp and small fish.'

'the salt zaps became the nurse of the Ignetes and the Telchines.'

And 'chthon' is the earth, spread out to its vast extent.

As for 'plectron' — some understand it as the celestial pole, others as the air, which strikes and moves all things toward generation and growth, or as that which fills all things.

But these have not read Cleanthes the philosopher, who plainly calls the sun 'plectron':

for at its risings, as it fixes its rays firmly — as though striking the world like a plectrum on strings — it leads the light forth into its harmonious course;

and from the sun it derives its signal ... and the rest of the stars as well.

'Sphinx' is not, as the poet Aratus understood it, the binding-together of the universe and the revolution of the cosmos; rather, it would perhaps be the pervasive spiritual tension that holds the world together;

but it is better to understand it as the aether, which holds together and binds tight all things, just as Empedocles too says:

'Come, I will tell you first of the sun's origin, from which all the things now beheld came to be — earth, and the many-waved sea, and the moist air, the Titan, and the aether binding all things fast in a circle round about.'

Apollodorus of Corcyra says that these verses were uttered by Branchus the seer while purifying the Milesians of a plague.

For he, sprinkling the multitude with branches of laurel, led off the hymn somewhat as follows:

'Sing, O children, of the Far-shooter and the Far-shooting Maiden!'

And the people, so to speak, chanted in response:

'bedy, zaps, chthom, plectron, sphinx;'

'knaxzbich, thyptes, phlegmo, drops.'

Callimachus, too, in his Iambics, records this story.

'Knaxzbich', by derivation, means disease, from 'knaiein' (to gnaw away) and 'diaphtheirein' (to destroy); and 'thypsai' means to blast with a thunderbolt.

Thespis the tragedian, however, says that something else is signified by these words, writing somewhat as follows:

'Behold, I pour out to you a libation of knaxzbich, the white milk pressed from the udders of tawny ewes;'

'behold, I set upon your holy altars, O two-horned Pan, thyptes cheese mixed with red honey;'

'behold, I pour out to you the fiery phlegmon of Bromius.'

He is hinting, I think, at the first, milk-like nourishment of the soul that comes from the twenty-four elements (letters), after which comes food that is milk already curdled, and last, the fiery wine — the blood of the Word's vine — teaching the gladness that brings the soul's training to completion.

'Drops' is the effective, active word, which from the first catechesis leads a man toward growth, to the full measure of stature, kindling and enlightening the man.

But a third children's exercise, too, has come down to us:

'Seize, sphinx, thief, by force!'

this becomes knowledge, eternal salvation being won by force and by toil;

for 'marpsai' means 'to apprehend'; 'sphinx' signifies the harmony of the world; 'zbychthedon' signifies difficulty; and 'thief' points at once to the hidden knowledge of the Lord and to 'day'.

What then? Does not Epigenes also, in his work On the Poetry of Orpheus, in setting out the peculiar expressions found in Orpheus, say that by 'shuttles of curving hue' plows are signified, and by 'warp-threads' furrows;

and that by 'thread' the seed is allegorized, and 'the tears of Zeus' signify the rain, and the Fates in turn signify the phases of the moon — the thirtieth day, the fifteenth, and the new moon;

wherefore Orpheus also calls them 'clad in white robes of light'.

Again, with the theologian Orpheus, spring is called 'anthion' (flowery) on account of its nature, night is called 'argis' on account of its rest, the moon is called 'Gorgonion' on account of the face within it, and Aphrodite signifies the season in which one must sow.

Such things the Pythagoreans, too, hinted at in riddles, allegorizing the planets as 'the hounds of Persephone' and the sea as 'the tear of Cronus'.

And we might find countless things upon countless things spoken enigmatically by both philosophers and poets, seeing that even whole books display the author's intention as something concealed, as does the work of Heraclitus On Nature, who for this very reason was called 'the Obscure'.

Similar to this book is also the Theology of Pherecydes the Syrian.

For Euphorion the poet, and Callimachus's Aetia, and Lycophron's Alexandra, and other things similar to these, are laid out as an exercise in interpretation for grammarians' pupils.

It is not, then, unlikely that the barbarian philosophy also — concerning which it is our present purpose to speak — prophesies in a hidden manner and through symbols in certain passages, as has been demonstrated.

Such things, at any rate, Moses too enjoins — these familiar precepts, namely:

'You shall not eat swine, nor eagle, nor hawk, nor raven.'

For the swine signifies a pleasure-loving and unclean craving for food, a gluttonous appetite for sexual pleasures, and a defiled licentiousness —

ever itching, material, wallowing in mire, and being fattened for slaughter and destruction.

But conversely, he permits the eating of that which parts the hoof and chews the cud, signifying — says Barnabas — that one must cleave to those who fear the Lord, and to those who ponder in their heart the distinction of the word they have received, with those who speak and keep the ordinances of the Lord, with those who know that meditation is a work of gladness, and who chew the cud, as it were, upon the word of the Lord.

But what is the parted hoof? It signifies that the righteous man both walks in this present world and at the same time awaits the holy age to come.

See how excellently Moses legislated!

But how could those ancient Israelites have understood or comprehended these things? We, having rightly understood the commandments, speak as the Lord willed.

For this reason he circumcised our ears and our hearts, that we might understand these things.

Indeed, when it says, 'You shall not eat the eagle, the hawk, the kite, and the raven', it means, Barnabas says, 'You shall not cleave to, nor be made like, these men, who know not how to procure their food by toil and sweat, but live by rapine and lawlessness';

for the eagle signifies rapine, the hawk injustice, and the raven signifies greed.

'With the innocent man you shall be innocent, and with the elect you shall be elect, and with the crooked you shall deal crookedly.'

It is fitting, then, to cleave to the saints, because those who cleave to them shall be sanctified.

Hence Theognis writes:

'for from the noble you will learn noble things;'

But if you mingle with the wicked, you will destroy even the understanding you possess.

And again, when in the ode it says, 'For he has been gloriously glorified; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea,' it means that he has thrown into the sea — that is, cast away into the disorders of the world — the many-legged, beast-like, and impulsive passion, namely desire, together with the charioteer mounted upon it who has surrendered the reins to pleasures.

Thus also Plato, in his treatise On the Soul, says that the charioteer and the horse that has rebelled — the irrational part, which is indeed divided in two, into spirit and desire — fall down.

The myth darkly hints at a falling from the young horses.

Yes, and indeed also in the case of Joseph:

His brothers, envying this young man for foreseeing something further with regard to knowledge, stripped off his coat of many colors and, taking him, cast him into a pit; and the pit was empty, having no water.

Having spurned the manifold knowledge born of the studious man's love of learning, or content with the bare faith according to the Law alone, they cast him into the pit devoid of water, intending to sell him away into Egypt — a land destitute of the divine word.

The pit is empty of understanding, into which, having been cast and having stripped off his knowledge, the wise man who had concealed himself appeared, like his brothers, naked of knowledge.

According to another signification, the many-colored garment would be desire, leading away into a yawning abyss.

'And if anyone opens a pit, or digs one out,' it says, 'and does not cover it, and a calf or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall pay silver and give it to his neighbor, and the dead animal shall be his.'

Here let me bring in that prophecy:

'The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me.'

In order, then, that none of these, falling into the knowledge taught by you, should become unable to master the truth, and so disobey and fall away, 'be cautious,' it says, 'in the use of the word'; and to those who approach without reason close off the living spring in the depths, but offer drink to those who thirst for the truth.

Concealing it, then, from those who are not able to receive the depth of knowledge — 'cover over the pit.'

The owner of the pit, therefore — the Gnostic himself — will be penalized, it says, bearing the responsibility for him who has been scandalized, or even swallowed up by the greatness of the word while still of small understanding; or for him whom he has moved from his proper labor to contemplation and drawn away, under some pretext, from the simple faith spontaneously acquired.

And he shall give silver, rendering account and being held responsible to the almighty will.

This, then, is the type of the Law and the Prophets that extends up to John.

But he, though speaking more plainly, as one no longer prophesying but already pointing out as present him who from the beginning had been proclaimed symbolically, nevertheless says, 'I am not worthy to loose the strap of the Lord's sandal.'

For he confesses that he is not worthy to baptize so great a power, since it is necessary that those who purify should release the soul from the body and its sins, just as one releases the foot from its bond.

Perhaps he is also speaking of the Savior's final and immediate working toward us, that which comes through his presence, concealed under the riddle of prophecy.

For he who, by his own eyewitness, pointed out the one who had been prophesied, and announced the coming presence that had been journeying from afar toward manifestation, truly loosed the final limit of the oracles of the divine economy, having unveiled the meaning of the symbols.

And the practices customary among the Romans in the making of wills have likewise received their order: those scales and small coins used for the sake of justice, and the plucking of fruit, and the touching of the ears — the one so that it might be done justly, another for the apportioning of value, and the other so that the bystander, as if some weight were being laid upon him, might stand and listen and take the role of a mediating witness.

But, it seems, I have unwittingly, through a zeal for demonstration, digressed further than was necessary.

For my life would fail me were I to cite the multitude of those who philosophize symbolically.

For the sake, then, of memory and brevity, and of being stretched forth toward the truth, such, then, are certain writings of the barbarian philosophy.

For to those who have often drawn near to them and have given proof, both according to faith and according to life,

they wish all things to belong to them alone — the philosophy that truly is, and the true theology.

Yes indeed, they hold that we have need of some interpreter and guide.

For thus, they supposed, these things would be pursued with more earnestness and would benefit those worthy of them, and these would remain undeceived, receiving them from those who know well.

Besides, all things that are shown forth through some veil display the truth as greater and more august.

As the veils graciously lend them certain added significances,

For direct exposure to light is apt to invite refutation, in addition to the fact that even what is plainly stated comes to be understood in only a single way.

It is possible, then, to take several implied meanings.

Just as, then, we derive meanings from things spoken with concealment.

Since these things are so, the inexperienced and untaught man goes astray, but the Gnostic apprehends the truth.

Indeed, they were unwilling that all things should lie open indiscriminately even to chance persons, nor that the good things of wisdom should be made common to those who have not even in a dream had their souls purified.

For it is not lawful to offer to whoever happens along the things procured with such great labors, nor indeed to recount the mysteries of the Word to the profane.

They say, at any rate, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, being accused of having written down the doctrines of Pythagoras plainly, was expelled from the school, and that a gravestone was erected for him as though he were dead.

Wherefore also, in the barbarian philosophy, they call 'dead' those who have fallen away from the doctrines and have subjected their mind to the passions of the soul.

'For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness,' according to the divine apostle, 'or what communion has light with darkness? And what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?' For the honors of the Olympian gods and of the dead are distinct.

'Wherefore come out from among them, and be separated,' says the Lord, 'and touch nothing unclean.'

'And I will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me.'

Not only, then, did the Pythagoreans and Plato conceal many things, but the Epicureans too say that there were certain secret matters even from him, and that they do not permit everyone access to these writings.

But the Stoics also say that certain things were written by Zeno, their founder, which they do not readily permit their disciples to read, unless these have first given proof of whether they philosophize genuinely.

And the followers of Aristotle likewise say that some of his writings are esoteric, and others common and exoteric.

Moreover, those who established the mysteries, being philosophers, buried their own doctrines in myths, so that they would not be plain to all.

If, then, some men, having concealed merely human opinions, prevented the unlearned from having access to them, was it not far more fitting that the truly holy and blessed contemplation of the things that really are should be concealed above all else? Yet neither the writings of the barbarian philosophy, nor the Pythagorean myths, nor even those in Plato — the myth of Er the Armenian in the Republic, and that of Aeacus and Rhadamanthus in the Gorgias, and that of Tartarus in the Phaedo, and that of Prometheus and Epimetheus in the Protagoras, and besides these, that of the war between the Atlantics and the Athenians in the Atlanticus — are to be allegorized simply in every single name, but only so far as they signify something of the general sense; and indeed these things we shall discover to be indicated through symbols, under the veil of allegory.

Yes, indeed, and also the fellowship of Pythagoras and his twofold communion with his associates — calling the many 'akousmatikoi' (hearers) and certain others 'mathematikoi' (learners), those who genuinely laid hold of philosophy — the one teaching was spoken openly, while the other remained hidden, thus hinting darkly to the many.

And perhaps too that twofold kind belonging to those of the Peripatetic school — called in their discourses 'exoteric' and 'scientific' — is likewise not free from distinguishing opinion from both renown and truth.

Nor let the flowers of honor esteemed by mortals compel you to gather them, at the cost of speaking more than is right.

The Ionic Muses, at any rate, say explicitly that the many, who merely seem wise, follow the singers of the peoples and make use of common customs, knowing that the many are bad, and the good are few.

But the best pursue glory instead.

'For the best,' he says, 'choose one thing above all: everlasting glory among mortals; but the many are glutted like cattle,' having measured happiness by the belly and the private parts and the basest things within us.

And Parmenides the great, of Elea, teaches a twofold path, writing something like this:

'Both the unshaken heart of well-persuasive Truth, and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true trust.'

He says, 'the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly, by which, when you read, you are able to perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets.'

For there is also a certain teaching for the perfect, concerning which, writing to the Colossians, he says:

'We do not cease praying and asking on your behalf, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so as to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory.'

And again he says, 'according to the stewardship of God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God — the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.'

So that the mysteries hidden until the apostles, and handed down by them as they had received them from the Lord (mysteries hidden in the Old Testament), which have now been made manifest to the saints, are one thing; and the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles — which is the faith and hope directed toward Christ, whom elsewhere he has called the foundation — is another thing.

And again, as though striving earnestly to display the knowledge, he writes something like this:

'Admonishing every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.'

Not simply every man — for then no one would be an unbeliever — nor indeed every believer as perfect in Christ, but he means 'every man' in the sense of the whole man, that is, one purified in both body and soul; and that knowledge does not belong to all, he adds explicitly:

'Being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'

'Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.'

And thanksgiving occurs not only for the soul and its spiritual goods, but also for the body and the goods of the body.

And still more clearly he reveals that knowledge does not belong to all, adding:

'Praying at the same time also for us, that God may open to us a door to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also bound, that I may reveal it as I ought to speak.'

For there were certain things handed down without being written.

For example, to the Hebrews — for, he says, though by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, since you have grown old in the Old Testament — 'you have need again for someone to teach you what are the elementary principles of the beginning of the oracles of God, and you have come to have need of milk, and not of solid food.'

For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, entrusted only with the first lessons.

But solid food belongs to the perfect, to those who through practice have their senses trained for the discernment of good and evil.

Therefore, leaving behind the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to perfection.

But Barnabas too, who himself proclaimed the word together with the Apostle in the ministry to the Gentiles, says, 'I write to you more simply, that you may understand.'

Then, proceeding further, and now setting forth more clearly a trace of the gnostic tradition, he says:

What does the other prophet, Moses, say to them? 'Behold, thus says the Lord God:'

'Enter into the good land which the Lord God swore, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and inherit it, a land flowing with milk and honey.' What does knowledge say? Learn.

'Hope,' it says, 'in him who is about to be manifested to you in the flesh, Jesus.'

For man is earth that suffers.

For from the face of the earth came the forming of Adam.

into the good land, a land flowing with milk and honey? Blessed be our Lord, brethren, who has placed in us wisdom and understanding of his hidden things.

Who will understand a parable of the Lord, except one who is wise and knowledgeable and loves his Lord? Since these things are for few to grasp.

For not out of envy, it says, did the Lord command in a certain gospel:

'My mystery is for me and for the sons of my house,' making the choice in security and freedom from care, that the soul, having received what is proper to it and which he chose, might rise above envy.

For he who does not have knowledge of the good is wicked, because One alone is good, the Father.

But to be ignorant of the Father is death, just as to know him is eternal life, through participation in the power of the incorruptible One.

And not to be corrupted is to share in divinity, whereas corruption is brought about by apostasy from the knowledge of God.

'And I will give you hidden treasures, dark and unseen, that they may know that I am the Lord God.'

Things fitting to these David also sings:

'For behold, you have loved truth; you have made known to me the hidden and secret things of your wisdom.'

'For day unto day utters speech' — the very thing plainly written — 'and night unto night declares knowledge' — the knowledge mystically hidden — 'and there are no words nor speeches whose voices are not heard,' addressed to the God who said:

'Shall a man do something in secret, and shall I not see him?' For this reason discipleship has been called illumination, since it makes manifest the things that are hidden, the Teacher alone having uncovered the lid of the ark — the reverse of what the poets say of Zeus, that he took hold of the jar of good things but opened the one of evil things.

I know that, in coming to you, says the Apostle, 'I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ' — meaning the spiritual gift and the gnostic tradition, which, present with those present, he longs to impart to them (for these things could not be conveyed by letter), calling it 'the fullness of Christ' — according to the revelation of a mystery kept silent through ages eternal, but now made manifest through the prophetic scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, made known unto the obedience of faith to all the nations, that is, to those believing from among the Gentiles, that it exists.

But to only a few of these is it further shown what these things are that lie within the mystery.

Fittingly, then, Plato too, in the Epistles, discoursing concerning God, says, 'I must express it to you in riddles, so that, should the tablet suffer some mishap in the folds of sea or land, whoever reads it may not understand.'

For the God of the universe, who is above every voice and every thought and every conception, could never be committed to writing, being by his own power ineffable.

This very thing Plato himself also made clear, saying:

'Looking, then, to these things, be on your guard, lest you should ever come to regret what has now unworthily fallen out.'

'The greatest safeguard is not to write it down, but to learn it by heart.'

'For it is not possible — it is not possible — that what has been written should not get abroad.'

Things akin to these the holy apostle Paul also says, guarding the prophetic and truly ancient concealment, from which the good doctrines flowed to the Greeks.

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

'But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden.'

Then, further on, he teaches somewhat as follows concerning the caution needed against letting these words spread abroad to the many: