Stromateis 1 part 30/42

The fourth, being examined as to for what reason they made Sabbas, though he was their ruler, revolt, answered:

wishing him either to live well or to die well.

The fifth, being asked whether he thought day or night came first, said:

'For to insoluble questions the answers must also of necessity be insoluble.'

The sixth, being asked how one might be most loved, said, 'If, being most powerful, he is not also feared.'

The seventh, being asked how a man might become a god, said, 'If he should do what it is not possible for a man to do.'

The eighth, being asked which is stronger, life or death, said, 'Life, since it bears so many evils.'

But the ninth, on being asked up to what point it is good for a man to live, said: Until he does not think that dying is better than living.

And when Alexander commanded the tenth to speak as well (for he was the judge), he said, 'Each one has answered worse than the other.'

And when Alexander said:

'Then will you not be the first to die, since you judge in this way?' 'And how, O king,' he said, 'could you be true to your word, having said you would first put to death the one who answered worst?' ... And that the Greeks are plunderers of every sacred writing has, I think, been sufficiently demonstrated through numerous proofs.

But that even the most highly regarded among the Greeks do not know God by true knowledge, but only by circumlocution, Peter says in the Preaching:

'Know, then, that there is one God, who made the beginning of all things and has authority over the end;'

'who contains all things, himself in need of nothing, he whom all things need and through whom all things exist; incomprehensible, everlasting, incorruptible, uncreated, who made all things by the word of his power'... of the gnostic Scripture, that is, of the Son.

'Worship this God, not after the manner of the Greeks;'

as showing clearly that those esteemed among the Greeks worship the same God as we do, though not according to full and complete knowledge, since they have not learned the tradition handed down through the Son.

'Do not, then,' he says, 'worship'—he did not say a god whom the Greeks worship, but 'not as the Greeks worship', changing the manner of the worship of God, and not proclaiming another God.

What, then, 'not as the Greeks' means, Peter himself will make clear by adding:

'That they, being carried along by ignorance and not knowing God as we do according to perfect knowledge, having fashioned into shapes the wood and stones, the bronze and iron, the gold and silver—things of which he gave them authority for use—forgetting their true material and use, and having raised up as objects of worship things that are mere slaves of existence, worship them; and the things which God gave them for food—the birds of the air, the swimming creatures of the sea, the creeping things of the earth, and the wild beasts along with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice, cats and dogs and monkeys.'

'And they offer their own foods as sacrificial victims to things that are themselves food, and by presenting dead things to dead things as though to gods, they show ingratitude toward God, thereby denying that he exists.'

And that it is indeed reported that both we ourselves and the Greeks have known the same God, though not in the same way, he will again add in this manner:

'Neither worship after the manner of the Jews;'

'for they too, thinking that they alone know God, do not truly understand him, since they serve angels and archangels, the month and the moon.'

'And if the moon does not appear, they do not keep the Sabbath that is called the first, nor do they keep the new moon, nor unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.'

Then he adds the crowning point of the matter under inquiry: 'So that you also, learning in a holy and righteous manner what we hand down to you, ... may keep it, worshiping God in a new way through Christ; for we found it written in the Scriptures, even as the Lord says:'

'Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your fathers on Mount Horeb.' He made a new covenant with us:

For the things of the Greeks and of the Jews are old; but we, who worship him in a new way as a third race, are Christians.

For, I think, he has clearly shown that the one and only God is known by the Greeks in a pagan manner, by the Jews in a Jewish manner, and by us in a new and spiritual manner.

He has also shown, moreover, that the same God is the giver of both covenants, and is also the one who bestowed Greek philosophy upon the Greeks, through which the Almighty is glorified among the Greeks.

At any rate, out of Greek learning, but also out of that of the Law, those who accept the faith are gathered into the one race of the people that is being saved; the three peoples are not divided in time in such a way that one might suppose there are three distinct natures, but they are instructed by different covenants of the one Lord, being nonetheless subject to the word of the one Lord.

Since it has been shown that, just as God willed the Jews to be saved by giving them the prophets, so too he raised up for the Greeks their most highly esteemed men as prophets suited to their own language—inasmuch as they were capable of receiving the benefit that comes from God—and thereby distinguished them from the common run of men, the apostle Paul, in addition to Peter's Preaching, will make this clear, saying:

'Take also the Greek books;'

'acquaint yourselves with the Sibyl, how she shows there is one God and things that are to come; and take up Hystaspes and read him, and you will find the Son of God written of far more vividly and clearly, and how many kings will draw up their armies against Christ, hating him and those who bear his name and his faithful ones, and you will learn of his endurance and his coming.'

Then, in a single statement, he puts this question to us:

'And the whole world and everything in it, whose are they? Are they not God's?' ... For this reason Peter says that the Lord spoke to the apostles as follows:

'his sins will be forgiven him.'

'but after twelve years, go forth into the world'

'we did not hear.' ... But just as the proclamation has now arrived in its own proper season, so too, in their proper season, the Law and the prophets were given to the barbarians, and philosophy to the Greeks, accustoming their ears to the proclamation.

The Lord, then, who delivered Israel, says:

'In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you; I have given you as a covenant of the nations, to inhabit the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the desolate,' saying to those in bonds:

'Go forth,' and to those in darkness, 'be revealed.'

For if the Jews are the ones in bonds—concerning whom the Lord also said 'Go forth,' addressing those who were willing to come out from their bonds, speaking of those who had voluntarily bound themselves and had laid upon themselves burdens too heavy to bear through human interference—then it is clear that those in darkness would be those who have their governing faculty buried in idolatry.

For those who were righteous according to the Law lacked faith; wherefore the Lord, healing them as well, said:

but for those who were righteous according to philosophy, not only faith in the Lord was needed, but also that they should turn away from idolatry.

As soon as the truth was revealed, they too repented of what they had previously done;

wherefore the Lord preached the gospel also to those in Hades.

Hades says to Destruction:

'We did not see his form, but we heard his voice.'

It is surely not the place itself that took a voice and uttered the aforesaid words, but those who were assigned to Hades and had given themselves over to destruction, having cast themselves willingly into it, as it were, out of a ship into the sea; these, then, are the ones who heard the divine power and voice.

Since who, in his right mind, would suppose that the souls of the righteous and the souls of sinners lie under one and the same condemnation, thereby pouring injustice upon Providence? What then? Do they not make clear that the Lord preached the gospel to those who perished in the flood—or rather, who were held in chains—and to those confined in prison and in ward? And it has also been shown in the second Stromateus that the apostles, following the Lord, likewise preached the gospel to those in Hades:

For it was fitting, I think, that just as here, so also there, the best of the disciples should become imitators of the Teacher, so that one group might bring to conversion those of the Hebrews, and the others the Gentile nations—that is, those who had lived in righteousness according to the Law and according to philosophy, yet not perfectly, but had passed through life in some measure sinfully.

For this was fitting to the divine dispensation: that those who had possessed a greater measure of worth in righteousness, and had lived accordingly from the outset, and had repented of their transgressions—even if they happened to make their confession in another place—being nonetheless among the possessions of God the Almighty, should be saved according to each one's own degree of knowledge.

And the Savior, I think, is also at work, since to save is his work;

which indeed he has done, drawing to salvation, through the proclamation, those who were willing to believe in him, wherever they happened to be.

If, then, the Lord descended into Hades for no other reason than to preach the gospel—as indeed he did descend—he preached the gospel either to all, or only to the Hebrews.

If, then, to all, then all who believed will be saved, even if they should happen to be from among the Gentiles, having already made their confession there—since the punishments of God are salutary and educative, leading to conversion, and choosing the repentance of the sinner rather than his death; and this all the more since souls, once freed from bodies, are able to discern more clearly, even if they are darkened by their passions, because they are no longer obstructed by the flesh.

But if he preached the gospel only to the Jews, who lacked the knowledge and faith that come through the Savior, then it is surely clear that, since God is no respecter of persons, the apostles too, just as here, so also there, preached the gospel to those of the Gentiles who were fit for conversion; and it is well said in the Shepherd:

'They went down, then, with them into the water; but these went down alive and came up alive.'

Indeed, the Gospel also says that many bodies of those who had fallen asleep were raised up, clearly meaning that they were transferred into a better order.

There occurred, then, a certain universal movement and transposition, in accordance with the dispensation of the Savior.

The righteous man, then, does not differ from another righteous man, insofar as he is righteous, whether he be under the Law or a Greek;

for God is Lord not of the Jews only, but of all men, and more intimately the Father of those who have come to know him.

For if to live well is to live lawfully, and to live reasonably is to live according to law, and those who lived rightly before the Law was given were reckoned unto faith and judged to be righteous, then it is surely clear also that those who came to be outside the Law, on account of the peculiar character of their soul, having lived rightly—even though they happened to be in Hades and in confinement—having heard the voice of the Lord, whether his own authentic voice, or that operating through the apostles, were converted and believed with all speed.

For we recall that the Lord is the power of God;

and power could never grow weak.

Thus, I think, it is shown that God is good, and that the Lord is powerful to save, with righteousness and equity toward those who turn to him, whether here or elsewhere.

For his active power does not reach only here, but is everywhere, and always at work.

For instance, in the Preaching of Peter, the Lord says to the disciples after the resurrection:

'I chose you twelve, judging you disciples worthy of me, whom the Lord willed and considered to be faithful apostles, sending you into the world to preach the gospel to the men throughout the inhabited earth, that they may know that there is one God, making known through faith in me, Christ, the things that are to come, so that those who hear and believe may be saved, but those who hear and do not believe may bear witness against themselves, having no defense to offer, saying:'

'We did not hear.' What then? Was not the same dispensation also enacted in Hades, so that there too all the souls, on hearing the proclamation, might either show forth repentance, or confess that their punishment is just, on account of the very things through which they did not believe?

It would indeed be the work of no small unfairness, if those who had departed before the Lord's coming, without the gospel having been preached to them, and without having themselves furnished the cause—by believing or not believing—should nevertheless share either in salvation or in punishment.

For it is surely not right that some should be condemned without a fair hearing, while only those who lived after the Lord's coming should have enjoyed the benefit of divine justice.

And it was said from the very beginning to all rational souls:

'Whatever any of you has done in ignorance, not clearly knowing God, if he comes to know him and repents, all his sins shall be forgiven him.'

'I have set before you,' he says, 'death and life; choose life'—God saying this in order to set up a comparison for a free choice, not because he had made both equally binding.

And in another Scripture he says:

'If you listen to me and are willing, you shall eat the good things of the land;'

But if you do not hear me and are not willing, the sword shall devour you;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

And again, David [says] expressly:

or rather, the Lord [speaks] in the person of the holy one (and this is one and the same [figure] from the foundation of the world — everyone who at various times has been saved through faith, and will be saved):

'My heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;'

'moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope,' he says, 'for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you let your holy one see corruption;'

'You have made known to me the paths of life;'

'you will fill me with gladness in your presence.'

Just as, then, the people is precious to the Lord, so the whole holy people consists both of the Jew and of him who turns from among the nations — he who was prophesied as 'the proselyte.'

Fittingly, then, Scripture says that the ox and the bear shall be together;

for the Jew is called an ox, from the animal judged clean under the yoke according to the Law, since the ox both parts the hoof and chews the cud;

but the Gentile is signified by the bear, an unclean and savage beast;

and this creature bears unformed flesh, which it shapes into the likeness of the beast by its tongue alone;

[this signifies] the taming out of a bestial life: he who turns from the nations, having now been tamed, is himself likewise purified like an ox.

'Sirens shall bless me, and daughters of ostriches, and all the wild beasts of the field...'

the wild beasts of the field are recognized among the unclean animals — that is, [beasts] of the world — since he calls those 'beasts' who are savage toward the faith and impure in life, not even purified by the righteousness that is according to the Law.

yet, once changed from being beasts through faith in the Lord, they become men of God, advancing from that first willingness to be changed into actually becoming so.

For some the Lord exhorts, while to those who have already set their hand [to the task] he also stretches out his hand and draws them up; for the Master of all shows no partiality of person, nor is he overawed by greatness, since he himself made both small and great alike, and cares for all alike.

'And even if the nations were sunk in the corruption which they themselves wrought, their foot was caught in this very snare which they hid; yet the Lord became a refuge for the poor, a helper in season, and in tribulation.'

Fittingly, then, those who were in tribulation had the good news preached to them in due season.

'Declare among the nations his deeds...' so that they might not be judged unjustly.

If, then, he preached the good news to those in the flesh for this reason, that they might not be condemned unjustly, how could he not, for the very same reason, have preached it also to those who had passed away before his coming? 'For the Lord is righteous, and loved righteousness; his countenance beheld uprightness.'

'but he who loves iniquity hates his own soul.'

If, then, in the flood all sinful flesh perished, the punishment becoming for them a discipline, we must believe, first, that the will of God, being disciplinary and effective, saves those who turn back to it; and further, that the finer element, the soul, could never suffer anything dreadful from the coarser element, water, since it is not held fast by it, owing to its fineness and simplicity — for which reason it is also called incorporeal.

but whatever coarse element has become thickened by sin is cast away, together with the fleshly spirit that lusts against the soul.

Now, Valentinus, the foremost of those who advocate community [of goods], writes verbatim in his homily 'On Friends':

'Many things written in the public books are found written also in the church of God;'

'for these common things are the words that come from the heart, the law written in the heart;'

'this is the people of the beloved, the one who is loved and who loves him.'

for by 'public books' he means either the Jewish scriptures or those of the philosophers, and so he makes truth common [property].

Isidore too, the son and at the same time disciple of Basilides, in the first book of his Expositions of the Prophet Parchor, likewise writes verbatim:

'The Athenians say that certain things were revealed to Socrates by a daimon that accompanied him, and Aristotle says that all men make use of daimons who accompany them throughout the time of their embodiment' — having taken this prophetic teaching and set it down in his own books, without acknowledging whence he had pilfered this doctrine.

And again, in the second book of the same treatise he writes something like this:

'And let no one suppose that what we say is proper to the elect has already been stated beforehand by certain philosophers;'

'for this is not their own discovery; rather, having pilfered it from the prophets, they attributed it to a wise man of their own who, by their own reckoning, was not truly wise.'

'For it seems to me that those who pretend to philosophize, wishing to learn what the winged oak is and the embroidered robe upon it — all that Pherecydes theologized by way of allegory — took their subject matter from the prophecy of Ham;'

...things to come, which the Lord taught us both through his coming and through the prophets.

and it is unshakeable by [mere] argument, having been transmitted in this same [manner], by which it is also altogether true — by [divine] will, as having been made known through the Son.

and the one is eternal, while the other is profitable [only] for a time; the one is single and the same, while the others are many and undifferentiated; the one is free from any passionate impulse, while the other is accompanied by passionate desire; the one is perfect, while the other is deficient.

Philosophy, then, longs for this wisdom — the wisdom of the soul, of right reasoning, and of purity of life — being disposed toward wisdom with love and affection, and doing everything for the sake of attaining her.

Among us, those are called philosophers who love wisdom, the maker and teacher of all things — that is, the knowledge of the Son of God; among the Greeks, those who occupy themselves with discourses about virtue.

Philosophy, then, would be the unimpeachable doctrines held in each of the [philosophical] schools — I mean those pertaining to philosophy — together with the consistent conduct of life, gathered together into a single, well-chosen whole.

and these very things, stolen from the God-given grace of the barbarians, have been decked out in Greek eloquence;

for of some things they are thieves, while of others they even misheard.

and in other matters, some things they said under [a kind of divine] impulse, though they did not work them out fully; and other things they said by human conjecture and reasoning, in which they also go astray;

and these men suppose that they grasp the truth perfectly,

but as we understand it, they grasp it only partially.

At all events, they know nothing beyond this world.

And indeed, just as geometry, which deals with measures, magnitudes, and figures by means of representation on flat surfaces, and painting, which appears to take in the whole visual field in its scene-painting, yet in doing so falsifies the sight, employing, according to its technique, marks based on the convergence of visual lines (whence highlights, shadows, and appearances are preserved, and some things seem to project, others to recede, and others to appear otherwise on a surface that is level and smooth) — so too the philosophers, after the manner of a painting, [merely] imitate the truth.

and self-love is, for each person on every occasion, the cause of all sins.

Therefore one must not, by choosing glory among men, become self-loving, but rather, loving God, become truly holy along with prudence.

If, then, one happens to treat particular things as though they were universal, and honors the slave as lord and ruler, he strays from the truth, not understanding what was said by David in his confession:

'I ate earth and ashes as bread...'

self-love and conceit are, for him, [the] earth and error.

but if this is so, then knowledge and understanding come from learning.

and if there is learning, one must necessarily seek the teacher.

For Cleanthes claims Zeno [as his teacher], Theophrastus, Aristotle, Metrodorus, Epicurus, and Plato, Socrates;

but even if I come to Pythagoras and Pherecydes and Thales and the first sages, I still stand there asking who was their teacher; and even should you name the Egyptians, or the Indians, or the Babylonians, or the Magi themselves, I will not cease demanding their teacher. I lead you back even to the first generation of men, and from there I begin to ask: who was the teacher? Of men, no one — for they had not yet learned; nor was it any of the angels either, for men do not hear in the way that angels, as angels, communicate, nor do those beings have a tongue as we have ears.

nor could one attribute to angels organs of speech — I mean lips and their adjoining parts, and throat, and windpipe, and inward organs, and breath, and struck air.

Far be it that God should cry aloud [with a voice], separated as he is, by unapproachable holiness, even from the archangels themselves.

But indeed we have received [it as tradition] that even the angels themselves, and the rulers set over them, have learned the truth;

it remains, then, for us to ascend beyond these and to long after the teacher of these [angels] as well.

('In the beginning God made heaven and earth') — and this is he who is called Wisdom by all the prophets; this is the teacher of all created things, the counselor of God who foreknew all things.

he who, from above, from the very foundation of the world, has instructed [us] in many ways and by many parts, and continues to bring [us] to perfection.

'Call no one your teacher on earth.'

You see, then, whence true philosophy derives its foothold.

And even though the Law is but an image and shadow of the truth — the Law is indeed a shadow of the truth — yet the self-love of the Greeks proclaims certain men as teachers [of it].

As, then, every family traces itself back to God the Maker, so too every teaching of what is good, and whatever justifies, traces back to the Lord, who leads by the hand and assists us toward this end.

But if some, having received the seeds of truth from some poetic source, in whatever way, failed to nurture them, and instead consigned them to barren, unwatered soil where they were choked with wild weeds — just as the Pharisees turned aside from the Law by introducing human teachings — the teacher is not to blame for this, but rather those who chose to disregard him.

But those of them who are persuaded, both by the coming of the Lord and by the clarity of the scriptures, come to full knowledge of the Law — just as those [who came] from philosophy, through the teaching of the Lord, are established in the full knowledge of true philosophy.

For the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried in the furnace, tested, purified from the earth seven times.

Either it means that, as silver often purified becomes fit for testing, so the righteous man, having become a coin of the Lord and having received the royal stamp; or, since Solomon also says that the tongue of the righteous is refined silver, he means to signify that tested and wise teaching is praiseworthy and acceptable, when it happens to be richly purified from the earth—that is, whenever the gnostic soul is sanctified in many ways through abstinence from earthly, fiery passions.

And the body too, in which the soul dwells, is purified, being appropriated to the purity of a holy temple.

Now this purification of the soul while still in the body is, first of all, this: abstinence from evils, which some consider to be perfection; and this perfection is simply that of the common believer, whether Jew or Greek.

But for the gnostic, after the perfection reckoned sufficient by others, righteousness advances further into the activity of well-doing.

And for the one in whom the intensification of righteousness has advanced into doing good, for him perfection abides in an unchangeable habit of well-doing, according to likeness to God.

For those who are the seed of Abraham, still servants of God, these are the called;

but the sons of Jacob are his elect, those who have tripped up the activity of vice.

If, then, we say that Christ himself is wisdom, and likewise his activity through the prophets—by which one can thoroughly learn the gnostic tradition, just as he himself at his coming taught the holy apostles—then knowledge would be wisdom, being a firm and certain science and apprehension of things present, future, and past, inasmuch as it was delivered and revealed by the Son of God.

And indeed, if the goal of the wise man is contemplation, then he who is still only philosophizing reaches out for divine knowledge, but does not yet attain it,

unless he receives by instruction the prophetic voice made clear to him, through which he grasps the things that are, the things that will be, and the things that were before—how they are, and were, and will be.

And this knowledge, handed down by succession, unwritten, from the apostles to a few, has come down to us.

From this, then, knowledge or wisdom must be trained together into an eternal and unchangeable habit of contemplation;

since Paul too, in his letters, does not appear to be disparaging philosophy, but rather requires that one who has partaken of the gnostic height should no longer run back to Greek philosophy—which he allegorically calls the 'elements of the world'—it being a kind of elementary instruction and preliminary education for the truth.

'You have come to have need of milk, and not of solid food.'

And likewise also to the Colossians, who were converts from among the Greeks:

'See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ'—luring them once more to run back to philosophy, that elementary teaching.

And even if someone says that philosophy was discovered by the Greeks according to human understanding, yet I find the Scriptures saying that understanding is sent from God.

The psalmist, at any rate, regards understanding as the greatest gift, and asks for it, saying:

And is it not the case that David, asking for the rich fullness of knowledge, writes:

'Teach me goodness, and instruction, and knowledge, for I have believed your commandments.'

It is agreed that testaments are authoritative, and are given to those held in greater honor.

The psalm, at any rate, again says concerning God:

'He has not dealt thus with any other nation, and he has not made known to them his judgments.'

Now the phrase 'he has not dealt thus' shows that he has indeed dealt with them, only not in this way.

The word 'thus,' at any rate, is used in comparison with the surpassing favor that has come to be in our case.

For it was surely possible for the prophet to say simply 'he has not dealt with them,' without the addition of 'thus.'

Yes indeed, Peter too, in the Acts, says: 'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation the one who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.'

Therefore God's impartiality is not a matter of time but is from eternity; nor indeed did his beneficence ever have a beginning; nor is it confined to certain places or certain persons, for his well-doing is not partial.

'Open to me the gates of righteousness,' he says;

'entering by them I will give thanks to the Lord.'

'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it.'

And Barnabas, in explaining this saying of the prophet, adds:

'Though many gates stand open, this one, the gate in righteousness, is the one in Christ, in which all who enter are blessed.'

That prophetic saying too holds to the same thought: