Stromateis 1 part 31/42

'The Lord is upon many waters'—not only referring to the various covenants, but also to the modes of teaching, both those among the Greeks and those among the barbarians, that lead to righteousness.

And David, too, already clearly testifying to the truth, sings:

'Let the sinners be turned back into Hades, all the nations that forget God.'

But clearly they forget that which they previously remembered, and the one whom they knew before forgetting, this one they now dismiss.

There was, then, some dim knowledge of God even among the nations.

And let these matters stand thus.

The gnostic must be widely learned; and since the Greeks say—Protagoras having first laid it down—that to every argument an opposing argument is opposed, he must be prepared, in the face of such arguments, to say what is fitting.

'He who speaks much shall also hear much in reply.'

But who will understand a parable of the Lord, except one who is wise and understanding and loves his Lord? Let such a one, then, be faithful; let him be able to declare knowledge; let him be wise in the discernment of words; let him be prompt in deeds; let him be pure.

'For the more he seems to be greater, by so much the more ought he to be humble-minded'—so says Clement in his letter to the Corinthians.

Such a one is able to obey that precept:

'And some snatch out of the fire; but on some have mercy, making a distinction.'

Of course the pruning-hook came into being primarily for the sake of pruning, yet with it we also part the tangled branches and cut away the thorns that have grown up together with the vines, to which it is not easy to draw near.

But all these things have reference to the act of pruning.

Again, man came into being primarily for the knowledge of God, but he also farms, and does geometry, and philosophizes—of which the first serves living, the second serves living well, and the third serves the practice of demonstrative reasoning.

...to do? It is quite clear, that he is to prophesy.

But if he prophesies as an angel of light, then he will speak true things.

If his words are angelic and full of light, he will then also prophesy things that are beneficial, at the very time when he transforms himself according to the likeness of that activity, even though he is other in respect to the underlying substance of his apostasy.

For how could he deceive anyone, if he did not first draw the lover of learning into familiarity by means of true things, and only afterward drag him down into falsehood? Besides, he will be found to have knowledge of the truth—even if not by full comprehension, yet certainly not without experience of it.

Philosophy, then, is not false, even though the thief and the liar, by a transformation of their activity, speak true things; nor indeed ought one, on account of the speaker, to condemn beforehand and ignorantly the things spoken as well—a point to be observed also concerning those now said to prophesy—but one must examine what is said, to see whether it holds to the truth.

And now, speaking also in general terms, we would not err in saying that all things necessary and profitable for life have come to us from God; and that philosophy, moreover, was given especially to the Greeks, as a covenant proper to them, being a foundation for the philosophy according to Christ—even though those among the Greeks who philosophize willfully stop their ears to the truth, holding in contempt the speech of the barbarians, or else fearing the danger of death that hangs over the believer under the civil laws.

But just as in the barbarian philosophy, so also in the Greek, the tares were sown by the farmer proper to tares.

Whence the heresies among us have sprung up together with the fruitful wheat; and those who proclaim the atheism of Epicurus, and the doctrine of pleasure, and whatever else has been sown contrary to right reason in Greek philosophy—these are the bastard fruits of that husbandry granted by God to the Greeks.

This is what the apostle calls 'the wisdom of this age'—the pleasure-loving, self-loving wisdom—inasmuch as it teaches only the things of this world and what pertains to it, and is consequently subject, in due order, to the rulers of this present age.

Wherefore this partial philosophy is a kind of elementary instruction, while the truly perfect knowledge occupies itself, beyond the world, with intelligible things, and further still with the more spiritual of these—things that eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man—before the Teacher made clear to us the account concerning them, having revealed the holy of holies, and, ascending yet further beyond these, the holier things still, to those who are genuine, and not spurious, heirs of the Lord's adoption.

For indeed we dare to say (for here is the gnostic faith) that the one who is truly gnostic has knowledge of all things and comprehends all things, employing a sure apprehension even in matters difficult for us—such a one as was...

James, Peter, John, Paul, and the rest of the apostles.

For prophecy is full of knowledge, inasmuch as it was given by the Lord, and again made clear to the apostles through the Lord.

And is not knowledge, then, a distinctive property of the rational soul, trained for this very end, that through knowledge it may be enrolled unto immortality?

For both are powers of the soul: knowledge and impulse.

And impulse is found to be a movement that occurs after a certain assent;

for the one who is impelled toward some action first receives the knowledge of the action, and second, the impulse.

Let us consider this further point as well:

Since, then, learning is prior to acting (for by nature the one who does what he wishes to do learns it first), and knowledge comes from learning, while acting comes from being impelled, and knowledge from learning; and since impulse follows upon knowledge, and action follows upon impulse—knowledge would be the beginning and creator of every rational action, so that the distinctive character of the rational soul would reasonably be characterized by this alone.

For in truth, impulse is, as it were, a kind of knowledge set in motion with regard to existing things, while knowledge itself is a certain vision of the soul directed toward existing things—whether one thing or several—and, when perfected, toward the totality of all things.

...the things that are incomprehensible will remain incomprehensible.

which is a trait shared even by those with but little power of foresight.

for such a one asserts that certain things are incomprehensible.

But that Gnostic of whom I speak himself comprehends the things that seem incomprehensible to others, believing that nothing is incomprehensible to the Son of God, and hence nothing is untaught either.

For he who suffered because of his love toward us would withhold nothing in the teaching of knowledge.

This faith, then, becomes a sure demonstration, since truth follows upon the things handed down by God.

And if one longs for much experience, the disciple of wisdom knows the things of old and can conjecture the things to come; he understands the turns of speech and the solutions of riddles; he foreknows signs and wonders, and the outcomes of seasons and times.

For such is the Gnostic, that he falls only into those affections which occur for the maintenance of the body, such as hunger, thirst, and the like.

But as regards the Savior, it would be laughable to suppose that his body, as body, required the necessary services for its maintenance.

For he ate not for the sake of his body, which was sustained by a holy power, but so that those who were with him might not come to think otherwise of him—just as, indeed, some afterward supposed that he had appeared only in a docetic seeming.

But he himself was altogether without passion, into whom no passionate movement crept in, neither pleasure nor grief.

But the apostles, having through the Lord's teaching mastered anger, fear, and desire in a more Gnostic manner, did not even admit those affective movements that seem good—such as confidence, zeal, joy, cheerfulness—but, abiding in a certain firm condition of mind changed by nothing whatsoever, remained ever unaltered in the settled state acquired through discipline, at least after the Lord's resurrection.

For even if one grants that the aforementioned things are good when they occur in accordance with reason, still they must not be admitted in the case of the perfect man, who neither has need of confidence (for he does not find himself among terrors, considering nothing in this life terrible, nor can anything separate him from his love toward God), nor has need of cheerfulness (for he does not fall into grief, being persuaded that all things happen well), nor indeed does he grow angry (for there is nothing that could stir him to wrath, since he loves God always and is wholly turned toward him alone, and therefore hates none of God's creatures).

Nor does he feel zeal (for he lacks nothing needed to be made like the beautiful and good).

Nor, then, does he love anyone with this common kind of affection, but he loves the Creator through his creatures.

Therefore he neither falls into any desire or craving, nor is he, in his soul, in need of anything else, since he already dwells through love with the Beloved, to whom he has been made kin by his own choice, drawing ever nearer to him through the settled state acquired by discipline; and being blessed through the abundance of good things, he thereby feels compelled, for their sake, to be made like his Teacher in freedom from passion.

For the Word of God is intellectual; and it is in accordance with him that the image of the mind is seen in man alone, whereby the good man is, according to his soul, godlike and God-formed, and God, in turn, is man-formed.

For the mind is the form of each thing, by which we are characterized.

For this reason, those who sin against a man are both unholy and impious.

For it is nonsense to say that the Gnostic and perfect man ought not to be deprived of anger and confidence—as if, without these, he would not rise up against circumstances nor endure hardships; or that, if we should take away his cheerfulness, he would surely be thrown into confusion by griefs, and thus come off worst.

And likewise, if he had no share in zeal, as some have supposed, he would not conceive any desire for works similar to those that are noble and good.

"If, then," they say, "all affinity for what is noble comes about together with craving, how does he who craves what is noble remain free of passion?" But these persons, it seems, do not know the divine nature of love.

For love, in the case of him who loves, is no longer a craving, but an affectionate affinity, which restores the Gnostic into the unity of faith, needing neither time nor place.

to those he already belongs, having through love become one with them, and having through knowledge already anticipated hope; nor does he crave anything further, since he already possesses, as far as is possible, the very object of desire itself.

Fittingly, then, he abides in one unchangeable condition, loving in a Gnostic manner; nor, then, will he feel zeal to be made like the noble, since through love he already possesses the very being of nobility.

What further need, then, has he of confidence and desire, who has already received, through love, affinity with the passionless God, and through love has enrolled himself among his friends? We must therefore remove the Gnostic and perfect man, so far as we are concerned, from every passion of the soul.

For knowledge produces sustained discipline, and sustained discipline produces a settled state or disposition, and such a condition works not moderation of the passions, but freedom from passion altogether.

For the complete excision of desire yields freedom from passion as its fruit.

But neither does the Gnostic partake of those much-vaunted goods, that is, the passionate goods lying alongside the passions—I mean cheerfulness (which lies alongside pleasure), and dejection (for this is yoked to grief), and cautious reverence (for it is subordinate to fear)—nor even righteous indignation (for this is ranked alongside anger)—even if some say that these are no longer evils but are now goods.

For it is impossible that one who has once been made perfect through love, and who feasts eternally and insatiably on the unfillable joy of contemplation, should still take delight in small and grovelling things.

For what reasonable cause is left to him for running back to worldly goods, who has already received the unapproachable light—even if not yet in respect of time and place, yet already through that Gnostic love through which both the inheritance and the complete restoration follow, the Rewarder confirming through works what the Gnostic, by choosing in a Gnostic manner through love, has already anticipated and taken hold of beforehand? For is it not so that, journeying away to the Lord out of love for him, even though his tabernacle is still seen on earth, he does not lead himself out of life (for this is not permitted him), yet he has led his soul out of the passions (for this is granted him); and he lives, having put his desires to death, and no longer makes common use of the body, but permits himself to use it only for necessities, lest he furnish an occasion for its dissolution? How, then, has he still any need of courage, since he is not found among terrors—at least not with respect to one absent, but rather one already wholly present with him, his Beloved? And what need has he of self-control, who has no need of it? For to have such desires as require self-control for their restraint belongs not yet to one who is pure, but to one still subject to passion; and courage, too, is adopted on account of fear and cowardice.

For it is no longer fitting that the friend of God, whom God predestined before the foundation of the world to be enrolled unto the highest adoption, should fall prey to pleasures or fears, and be preoccupied with the suppression of the passions.

Just as it lies predetermined by what means he will act and what he will obtain, so also he himself has predetermined, by knowledge, the one whom he loved; he does not have the future as something hard to divine, as the many live merely by conjecture, but he has already received, through Gnostic faith, that which is unclear to others.

And for him, through love, the future is already present.

For he has believed, both through prophecy and through the Lord's coming, in the God who does not lie; and what he has believed, he possesses and holds fast as the promise (for the one who made the promise is Truth itself); and he has, through the trustworthiness of the one who promised, already received with certain knowledge the fulfillment of the promise.

And knowing that the state in which he now is constitutes a sure apprehension of the things to come, he, through love, goes forth beforehand to meet the future.

At once, then, he who is persuaded that he will obtain the truly good things will not pray to obtain the things of this world, but will always hold fast to that faith which hits its mark and sets all things right.

And in addition to these things, he will pray that as many as possible should become like him as far as possible, unto the glory of God, which is made perfect according to full knowledge.

For he who is made like the Savior, insofar as it is lawful for the image to be received by human nature, is himself in a manner a savior, unswervingly setting right all things according to the commandments.

And this consists in worshipping the divine through true righteousness, through works and through knowledge.

The Lord waits, saying, 'Ask, and I will do it.'

For in general, it is impossible for the unchangeable to take firm root and consistency in that which is changeable; and when, on account of continuous change, the governing faculty becomes unstable, the power of settled disposition is not preserved.

For that which is constantly changed by things stealing in and impinging upon it from without—how could it ever come to be in a settled state, a disposition, and, in short, in the possession of knowledge? And yet even the philosophers hold that the virtues are settled states, dispositions, and forms of knowledge.

As, then, knowledge is not innate in men but is acquired, and its learning requires attentiveness at the beginning for its nurture and growth, and thereafter, through unceasing practice, it comes into a settled state—so also, once it has been perfected into that mystical settled state, it remains, through love, unchangeable.

For he has apprehended not only the First Cause and the Cause begotten by him, and holds firmly to matters concerning them, possessing firmly-fixed, unchangeable, and immovable rational accounts—but also, concerning goods and evils, and concerning all coming-to-be, and, to put it briefly, concerning all the things of which the Lord spoke, he has learned from Truth itself the most exact truth, from the foundation of the world to its end; not preferring, before the truth itself, whatever might appear plausible or logically compelling according to Greek reasoning, but having received the things spoken by the Lord as clear and manifest.

Even if these things are still hidden to others, he has already received knowledge concerning all things.

For the oracles that are with us declare authoritatively both concerning things that are, as they are, and concerning things to come, as they will be, and concerning things that have happened, as they have happened.

And in matters of knowledge, being alone truly learned, he will excel and will be the champion of the doctrine concerning the Good, ever devoted to the things intelligible, transcribing his own governance of human affairs from those archetypes above, just as sailors steer their ship by a star; he is prepared to be ready for every fitting action, accustomed to look past all that is troublesome and dreadful whenever it must be endured, never doing anything rash or inconsistent, whether toward himself or toward the community; being foreseeing and unbending before pleasures, both those that come in waking life and those that come through dreams.

For, being habituated in a temperate manner to a simple diet and self-sufficiency, he is unassuming yet dignified, needing but few necessities to sustain life, pursuing nothing superfluous—nor even these necessities as if they were of primary importance—but accepting them, only insofar as necessity requires, from the common life, as needful for the sojourn of the flesh.

For knowledge takes precedence for him.

As a consequence, then, he also devotes himself to those studies that train him toward knowledge, taking from each discipline what is fitting for the truth: from music, then, pursuing the proportion found in things harmonized; in arithmetic, noting the increases and decreases of numbers, and their relations to one another, and how most things fall under some proportion of numbers; and in geometry, contemplating being itself in itself, and becoming accustomed to conceive a continuous extension, and an unchangeable being, distinct from these bodies.

And again, from astronomy, being raised aloft from the earth, he will be lifted up in mind together with heaven, and will circle round together with its revolution, ever observing the divine things and their mutual harmony—setting out from which, Abraham ascended to the knowledge of the Creator.

But the Gnostic will also make use of dialectic, choosing the division of genera into species, and he will apply himself to the discrimination of realities.

until he lays hold of the first and simple things.

But the many fear Greek philosophy just as children fear bogeymen, afraid that it might lead them astray.

But if such is the faith they hold (for I would not call it knowledge), such that it can be undone by mere plausible argument, let it be undone—for by this very fact they most of all confess that they will not possess the truth.

For truth, it is said, is unconquerable, whereas false opinion is overthrown.

By comparison with another, we choose the purple that is superior.

So that if anyone confesses that he does not have a well-articulated heart, he possesses neither the moneychangers' table nor the standard for testing arguments.

And how, then, can such a person still be called a money-changer, if he is unable to test and distinguish genuine coin from counterfeit? David cries out:

'The righteous shall never be moved forever.'

Therefore he will not be moved either by deceitful argument or by misleading pleasure, and hence he will not be shaken from his own inheritance.

'He shall not be afraid of any evil tidings.'

Therefore he will not be afraid of empty slander, nor of false opinion concerning himself; nor indeed will he who is able to discern crafty arguments, whether by asking rightly or answering rightly, be frightened by them.

For dialectic serves, as it were, as a protecting wall, so that truth may not be trampled underfoot by the sophists.

For we must, as the prophet says, glory in the holy name of the Lord, and let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

'Seek him, then, and be strengthened; seek his face continually in every way.'

For having spoken in many portions and in many ways, he is not made known simply, in a single manner.

The Gnostic, then, will not become widely learned by making use of these disciplines as virtues in themselves for us, but rather as certain helpers; and in distinguishing what is common and what is particular, he will apply himself to the truth.

For the cause of all error and false opinion is the inability to discern in what way existing things share community with one another, and in what way they differ.

But if one does not proceed with the argument according to the distinctions laid down, he will unwittingly confound both the common and the particular; and when this happens, he must necessarily fall into pathlessness and error.

The distinguishing of both names and things, even within the Scriptures themselves, engenders a great light in souls.

For it is necessary to attend both to words that signify several things, and to several words when they signify one thing.

Whence also arises the ability to answer rightly.

The great useless labor that busies itself with things in no way pertinent is to be avoided; rather, the studies are, as it were, contributory preliminary exercises for the Gnostic, both toward the exact handing-down of the truth, so far as attainable, without distraction, and toward guarding against those who craftily contrive arguments ... for the cutting away of the truth.

He, then, will not fall behind those who advance in the encyclical studies and Greek philosophy — yet he pursues these not as his chief aim, but as necessary, secondary, and occasional.

For whatever means those who labor over the heresies use craftily, these the Gnostic will turn to good use.

Since, then, the truth appearing in Greek philosophy is but partial, the truth which truly is — just as the sun, shining upon the colors, shows what each of them is, whether white or black — likewise refutes every sophistic plausibility.

Rightly, then, has this also been proclaimed beforehand even among the Greeks:

'Truth, sovereign queen, is the beginning of great excellence.'

Just as, then, in the case of astronomy we have Abraham as an example, so too in the case of arithmetic we have this same Abraham.

For when he heard that Lot had been taken captive, he numbered his own household servants — three hundred and eighteen — and going forth, overcame a very great number of the enemy.

They say, then, that the letter which stands for three hundred is, by its shape, a type of the sign of the Lord, while iota and eta signify by their name the Saviour.

It is thereby signified, then, that those of Abraham's household who belong to salvation — those who have taken refuge in the sign and the name — became masters over their captors and over the very many unbelieving nations that followed them.

Now, the number three hundred is a triad within the hundreds, while the decad is acknowledged to be perfect in every respect.

And eight is the first cube, [displaying] equality in all its dimensions — length, breadth, and depth.

'And the days of men,' it says, 'shall be a hundred and twenty years.'

But in another way, one hundred and twenty is also a triangular number, and it is composed on the one hand out of equality — sixty-four, whose successive parts, added together, generate the square numbers one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen — and on the other hand out of inequality, from the seven even numbers beginning with two, which generate the oblong numbers: two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen.

According to yet another signification, the number one hundred and twenty is composed of four numbers: the first, the triangular number fifteen; the second, the square number twenty-five; the third, the pentagonal number thirty-five; the fourth, the hexagonal number forty-five.

For according to the same proportion, the number five is taken up in each kind of figure.

For among the triangular numbers, counting from unity, the fifth is fifteen; among the square numbers, [the fifth] is twenty-five; and so proportionally for the rest that follow.

Indeed, the number twenty-five, being the fifth from unity, is said to be a symbol of the Levitical tribe; and thirty-five likewise belongs to the diagram of doubles composed of the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic means — six, eight, nine, twelve — whose sum produces thirty-five.

The Jews say that within this number of days seven-month children are formed.

And forty-five belongs to the diagram of triples — six, nine, twelve, eighteen — whose sum produces forty-five; and they say that likewise within this number of days nine-month children are formed.

This, then, is the kind of arithmetical example we have given.

Let the tabernacle that was constructed and the ark that was fashioned be a testimony to geometry, built according to certain most rational proportions by divine conceptions, in accordance with the gift of understanding — proportions that lead us from things perceptible to things intelligible, or rather, from these to the holy places, and from the holy places to the holy of holies.

For the square timbers, in that the square shape stands firm on every side, forming right angles, indicate security.

And the length of the structure was three hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the depth thirty.

And the ark is finished above to a single cubit, tapering from its broad base after the manner of a pyramid — a symbol of those who are purified and tested through fire.

This geometrical proportion is provided as a means of leading us on to those holy abodes, whose distinctions are signified by the distinctions of the underlying numbers.

And the ratios involved are sixfold, as three hundred is to fifty; tenfold, as three hundred is ten times thirty; and in the ratio of five to three.

For fifty stands to thirty in the ratio of five to three.

There are some who say that the three hundred cubits are a symbol of the sign of the Lord; the fifty, of hope and of the release granted at Pentecost; and the thirty — or, as in some texts, twelve — they relate as signifying the preaching, since the Lord preached in his thirtieth year and the apostles were twelve; and that the structure is completed to a single cubit because the progress of the righteous man culminates in unity, and in the unity of the faith.

And the table in the temple was six cubits, and its four legs were each a cubit and a half.

Together, then, they add up to twelve cubits in all, in accord with the revolution of the twelve months in the yearly cycle, during which the earth, adapting itself to the four seasons, both brings forth and brings to completion all things.

The table, I think, signifies an image of the earth, resting upon four feet — summer, autumn, spring, winter — through which the year runs its course.

Wherefore it also says that the table has twisted wave-mouldings, either because all things move in cycles through the seasons, or perhaps because it thereby signified the earth encircled by the ocean.

Furthermore, let David be set forth as an example of music, who both sang psalms and prophesied at once, hymning God melodiously.

And the enharmonic genus is very well suited to the Dorian mode, and the diatonic to the Phrygian, ... as Aristoxenus says.

The harmony, then, of the barbarian psaltery, which displays the solemn dignity of its melody and is most ancient, becomes above all a model for Terpander, who, hymning Zeus in the Dorian mode, sang somewhat as follows:

'Zeus, beginning of all things, leader of all — Zeus, to you I send this beginning of hymns.'

The cithara, allegorically applied to the psalmist, would be, according to its primary meaning, the Lord; and according to the secondary, those who, under the Lord as leader of the choir, closely strike upon souls.

...glorifying God musically, is heard clearly, being struck into faith by the Word.

You might also, in another way, take as a musical concord the ecclesiastical harmony of the Law and the Prophets together with the Apostles and the Gospel besides, as well as the subordinate concord found in each individual prophet, according to the shifts of the speaking persons.

But, as it seems, most of those who take the name upon themselves, like the companions of Odysseus, pursue the argument in a boorish manner, passing by not the Sirens but rhythm and melody, having stopped up their ears with ignorance, since they know that, once they have exposed their hearing to Greek studies, they will thereafter be unable to attain their homeward return.

But for the one who gathers, as it were, the flower of what is useful for the benefit of catechumens — especially those who are Greeks (for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof) — one must not abstain from the love of learning after the manner of irrational animals; rather, as many helps as possible are to be gathered for those who understand.

Yet one must in no way linger over these studies, except only for the useful element to be drawn from them, so that, having taken and acquired this, one may be able to depart home to true philosophy, having procured for the soul a firm mooring-cable — the security gathered from all sources.