Stromateis 1 part 38/42

...that he may hang upon the Lord through faith, through knowledge, and through love, and ascend together with him to where the God and guardian of our faith and love is.

Whence, in the end, knowledge is handed down to those who are fit and approved for it, since it requires greater preparation and prior training, both for hearing what is said, and for the ordering of life, and for having advanced with attentiveness further than the righteousness according to the law.

This leads to the end that is unending and perfect, teaching beforehand the dwelling that shall be ours, according to God, together with gods, once we have been released from all chastisement and punishment which, on account of our sins, we undergo unto salutary discipline;

after which redemption, the prize and the honors are given to those who have been made perfect, who have ceased from purification, and have ceased also from every other ministry, even though it be holy and among the holy;

then, having become pure in heart, in close nearness to the Lord, there awaits them a restoration unto eternal contemplation;

and they are called by the appellation 'gods,' destined to become enthroned together with the other gods who are ranked first under the Savior;

Knowledge, then, is swift unto purification, and fit for the well-accepted change unto the better;

Hence it also easily resettles man into that which is akin to the soul, divine and holy, and by means of a certain kindred light carries him forward through the mystical stages of advancement, until it establishes him in the highest place of rest — having taught the one who is pure in heart to behold God face to face, scientifically and comprehendingly.

For here, somewhere, is the perfection of the gnostic soul: having passed beyond all purification and ministry, it comes to be with the Lord, where ... it is immediately subordinated to him.

Faith, then, is, so to speak, a compendious knowledge of urgent things, while knowledge is a firm and sure demonstration of the things received through faith, being built up upon faith through the Lord's teaching so as to bring it to unshakeable steadfastness, and, together with true understanding, ... transmitting what is comprehensible.

And it seems to me that the first saving change is that from the nations into faith, as I said before, and the second is that from faith into knowledge;

and this knowledge, being brought to completion in love, from this point already ... presents the knower to the known, as friend to friend.

And perhaps such a one, already from this point, has anticipated and possesses the state of being equal to the angels.

After, then, the final excellence attained in the flesh, ever changing according to what is fitting for the better, he hastens through the holy hebdomad to the paternal court, to the truly Lordly abode, being about to become, so to speak, a light standing still and remaining eternally, altogether and in every way unchangeable.

The first mode of the Lord's activity is an example of the recompense we have spoken of with regard to piety toward God.

Though there are many such testimonies, I will set forth one summarily, spoken somehow here by the prophet David:

Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He who is guiltless in hands and pure in heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbor;

This one shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his savior.

This is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Briefly, I think, the prophet has indicated the gnostic.

But in passing, as it seems, David has shown to us that the Savior is God, calling him the face of the God of Jacob, ... the one who brought the good news and taught concerning the Father.

Wherefore also the apostle called the Son the exact expression of the Father's glory, he who taught the truth concerning God and made it manifest that God and Father is one and alone the Almighty, whom no one has known except the Son, and he to whom the Son should reveal him.

That God is one has been signified through the phrase 'those who seek the face of the God of Jacob,' whom our Savior and God characterizes as being the only good God and Father.

And the generation of those who seek him is the elect race, the one given to seeking unto knowledge.

This also the apostle says:

I shall profit you nothing, unless I speak to you either in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophecy, or in ... teaching.

And yet certain things are done rightly even by those who are not gnostics, ... but not according to reason, as, for example, in the case of courage.

For some, being by nature spirited, and then nourishing this without reason, rush irrationally into many things and do things similar to the brave, so that sometimes they accomplish the very same things, such as enduring tortures easily; but they do so neither from the same cause as the gnostic, nor with the same purpose, even if they should give up their whole body.

For they do not have love, according to the apostle, the love that is begotten through knowledge.

Every action, then, done through the man of understanding is well-doing, while that done through the man without understanding is ill-doing, even if it maintains constancy, since he does not act bravely from reasoning, nor does he direct his action toward anything useful among the things that lead toward, and away from, virtue.

And the same reasoning applies also with regard to the other virtues, so that it holds proportionately also with regard to piety.

Not only, then, is the gnostic such for us with regard to holiness, but the practices concerning the rest of his conduct also follow in accordance with his true piety toward God.

For it lies before us now to describe the life of the gnostic, not to set forth the theoretical contemplation of doctrines, which we shall expound later at the appropriate time, while at the same time preserving the sequence.

Concerning all things, then, he has understood truly and magnificently, inasmuch as he has received the divine teaching.

Beginning, then, from wondering at creation, bringing from within himself a proof of his ability to receive knowledge, he becomes an eager disciple of the Lord, and having immediately heard ... he believed in God and providence from the very things he had wondered at.

Setting out from this point, then, he cooperates in every way toward learning, doing all those things by which he will be able to obtain the knowledge of what he longs for (and longing arises in proportion to the progress of faith, mixed together with inquiry); and his aim ... is to become worthy of so great and so lofty a contemplation.

Thus the gnostic will taste of the will of God:

For he presents not his ears, but his soul, to the realities signified by what is said.

Having thus received, through the words, the very realities themselves, he reasonably leads his soul also to what is required, understanding 'you shall not commit adultery' and 'you shall not murder' in his own particular way, as these are spoken to the gnostic, not as they are understood among others.

He advances, then, being trained in true contemplation, so as to contend with the things spoken in a more universal and more magnificent manner.

knowing full well that he who teaches man knowledge, according to the prophet, is the Lord, the Lord working through a human mouth;

For this reason he also assumed flesh.

Reasonably, then, he never chooses the pleasant before the profitable, not even if, taken by surprise in some circumstance, a beautiful woman should provoke him with harlot-like force; since not even his master's wife was able to lead Joseph away from his steadfast resistance, but he left his tunic to her as she forcibly held onto it, becoming naked of sin, while clothing himself with the decorum of good character.

For even if the eyes of his master—I mean the Egyptian—did not see Joseph, yet the eyes of the Almighty were watching over him.

For we hear the voice and observe the bodies, but God examines the reality from which speaking and seeing proceed.

Consequently, then, even if disease and some other circumstance should befall the gnostic, and indeed especially the most fearful thing, death, he remains unchanged in soul, knowing that all such things are a necessity of creation, but that even so, by the power of God, they become a remedy of salvation, benefiting through discipline those who are being reformed rather harshly, these things being apportioned according to merit by the truly good providence.

Using, then, created things, whenever reason chooses to do so, to the extent ... that it chooses, in accordance with thanksgiving toward the Creator, he becomes also lord of his enjoyment of them.

For he reveres the Maker, and loves his companion in life, pitying and praying on behalf of ... him because of his ignorance.

And indeed he suffers together with the body, being bound to a body that is by nature subject to suffering, but he does not suffer primarily with regard to passion.

In involuntary circumstances, then, drawing himself back from the pains to what belongs properly to himself, he is not swept away together with things foreign to him, but bears with the things necessary to him only to the extent that his soul is kept unharmed.

For he does not wish to be faithful in mere opinion, nor even in seeming, but in knowledge and in truth, which consists in steadfast deed and word, and ... in effective action.

Therefore he not only praises what is noble, but he himself strives to become noble, passing from being a good and faithful servant, through love, into being a friend, because of the perfection of his disposition, which he acquired purely from true learning and much joint discipline.

Striving, then, to arrive at the summit of knowledge, adorned in character, composed in bearing, possessing all those advantages that belong to the true gnostic, looking to the good examples—reckoning up for himself the many patriarchs who succeeded before him, the very many prophets, and the countless angels beyond number, and the Lord over all, who taught and demonstrated it to be possible to acquire that most excellent life—for this reason he does not love all the ready-at-hand good things of the world, so that he may not remain grounded, but rather loves the things hoped for, or rather, the things already known, ... yet still hoped for with respect to full attainment.

For this reason, then, he endures toils, tortures, and afflictions, not as the brave men among the philosophers do, in hope that the present pains will cease and that he will again share in pleasures, but knowledge has begotten in him a most firm conviction of the reception of the things hoped for in the future.

For this reason he despises not only the punishments here in this life, but also all pleasures.

They say, then, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his own wife led away to death, rejoiced because of her calling and her journey home, and called out to her very encouragingly and consolingly, addressing her by name: 'Remember, O woman, the Lord.'

Such was the marriage of the blessed ones, and such was their perfect disposition, extending even to their dearest ones.

For this reason also the apostle says that the one who marries should be as one who does not marry.

requiring marriage to be free from excessive attachment and undistracted from love toward the Lord—a love which the truly good husband exhorted his wife to hold fast to, as she was departing from this life to go to the Lord.

Was not, then, their faith in the hope after death manifest, seeing that even at the very height of their torments they gave thanks to God? For, I think, they possessed a firm faith, which faithful deeds also followed accordingly. The soul of the gnostic, then, is vigorous in every circumstance, just as the body of an athlete stands in the utmost good condition and strength.

For it is well-counseled concerning human affairs, discerning by justice what must be done, having acquired its first principles from above, from God, and gentleness toward assimilation to the divine with respect to bodily pleasures and pains;

and it rises up above ... its fears, boldly and with confidence in God.

Simply, then, the gnostic soul is an earthly image of the divine power, adorned with perfect virtue, having grown together at once from all these: nature, discipline, and reason.

This beauty of the soul becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, when it acquires a disposition that agrees with the gospel in every aspect of ... its life.

Such a one, then, rises above every fear, every terrible thing—not only death, but also poverty, sickness, disgrace, and all things akin to these—becoming unconquered by pleasure and lord over irrational desires.

For he knows well what is to be done and what is not, having come to know with full mastery both what is truly terrible and what is not.

Poverty, and such things, which pertain to opinion rather than to truth.

This is the man who is truly good, the one outside the passions, who, by the disposition or condition of his virtuous soul, has transcended the whole life of passion.

For this man, all things are made to depend on himself, with a view to the attainment of the end.

For those things called terrible by chance are not fearful to the earnest man, since they are not evils; but the things that are truly terrible are foreign to the Christian gnostic, being diametrically opposed to good things, since they are evils, and it is impossible for opposites to meet in the same subject at the same time and with respect to the same time.

Playing, then, without blame, the drama of life which God has granted him to contend in, he knows both the things to be done and the things to be endured.

Is it not the case, then, that if cowardice arises from ignorance of what is terrible and what is not, the gnostic alone is truly courageous, knowing both the things that are good now and those that will be, and knowing along with these, as I said, also the things that are not truly terrible; since he knows that vice alone is the enemy and is destructive of those advancing toward knowledge, he, fortified with the weapons of the Lord, wages war against it.

For if something arises through folly and the activity of the devil—or rather, cooperation—this does not immediately mean that it is the devil or folly itself (since no activity is prudence itself;

for prudence is a disposition, and no activity is a disposition);

So, then, neither is an action that arises through ignorance thereby ignorance itself; rather, it is vice that arises through ignorance, yet it is not ignorance itself;

For neither are the passions, nor sins, themselves vices, even though they proceed from vice.

No gnostic, then, is brave without reason.

Since otherwise one might as well call children brave, who face fearful things out of ignorance of what is terrible (for they even touch fire), and call the wild beasts that charge straight at spears virtuous, on the grounds that they are irrationally brave.

Perhaps, in this way, they will also call brave the jugglers who tumble onto knives out of a certain acquired skill, plying their base art for a paltry wage.

But the man who is truly brave, though the danger is plainly evident to him because of the zeal of the many, courageously accepts everything that comes upon him, differing in this respect from those others who are called martyrs: some provide occasions for themselves and hurl themselves into dangers, I know not how (for it is right to speak charitably), while others restrain themselves according to right reason, and then, when God truly calls, eagerly give themselves up, confirming their calling by their consciousness of having done nothing rash, and thereby present the man as tested in true, ... rational courage.

They do not, then, like the rest, endure lesser terrors out of fear of greater ones, nor again do they abide in the confession of their calling because they suspect reproach from their equals and like-minded companions; but through love toward God they willingly obey the calling, choosing no other aim than to please God, and not for the sake of the prizes of their labors.

For some endure out of love of glory, others out of caution before some other, sharper punishment, and others still on account of certain pleasures and delights after death — children in the faith, blessed indeed, but not yet men in love toward God, as the gnostic has become (for there are, indeed there are, just as in the athletic games, so also in the church, crowns for men and for children).

But love ... is itself desirable for its own sake, not for the sake of anything else.

So then, for the gnostic, together with knowledge, the perfection of courage grows through the joint exercise of life, since he continually trains himself to master the passions.

Love, then, by anointing and training its own athlete, renders him fearless, undaunted, and trusting in the Lord, just as righteousness secures for him truthfulness throughout the whole of life.

For it was a summary of righteousness to say:

Let your yes be yes, and your no, no.

The same argument ... holds also for temperance.

Those who have worn away a life of toil, once they taste of pleasures, immediately ... shatter the unbending firmness of their self-control against pleasures.

Such also are those who are restrained by law and by fear:

For, once they get the opportunity, ... they steal past the law, running away from what is good.

But the temperance that is chosen for its own sake, perfected according to knowledge and ever abiding, renders a man lord and master of himself, so that the gnostic is temperate and free from passion, unmoved by pleasures and pains alike, just as they say adamant is unmoved by fire.

The cause of all this, then, is love, the most holy and most sovereign of all knowledge:

For through devotion to the Best and Most Excellent — who indeed is characterized by the One — love makes the gnostic both friend and son at once, a man who has truly grown up, as a perfect man, to the full measure of stature.

But concord too is agreement about the same thing, and the same is one; and friendship is achieved through likeness, since community rests in the one.

The gnostic, therefore, being one who loves the one true God, is truly a perfect man and a friend of God, enrolled in the rank ... of a son.

For these are names of nobility and knowledge and perfection with respect to the contemplation of God, which the gnostic soul receives as its most consummate advance, once it has become perfectly pure, being counted worthy, it is said, to see face to face and forever the almighty God.

For having become wholly spiritual, and having passed over to what is akin to it, it abides in the spiritual church, unto the rest of God.

The gnostic, being so disposed toward body and soul, is found equal and alike also toward his neighbors, whether one be a household slave, or one who has by law become an enemy, or whoever he may be.

For he does not despise the brother who, by the divine law, is of the same father and the same mother:

Indeed, he lightens the burden of the afflicted with comfort and encouragement, helping with life's necessities, giving to all who are in need — not equally, however, but justly and according to worth — and even to the one who persecutes and hates him, should he need it, caring little for those who allege that he gave out of fear; and if it is not out of fear, then he would do this out of a desire to help.

For those who are free of love of money and unmindful of wrongs even toward enemies — how much more are they full of love toward their own household? Such a one thereby comes to know exactly to whom above all, and how much, and ... when and how he should give.

But who could reasonably become the enemy of a man who ... gives no occasion whatsoever for enmity? Is it not, then, just as in the case of God we say that God is opposed to no one, nor is the enemy of anyone (for he is the creator of all, and there is nothing among existing things that he does not will), yet we say that his enemies are the disobedient, those who do not walk according to his commandments, such as those who wage war against his covenant — might we not find the same thing true in the case of the gnostic as well?

For he himself would never, in any way, become anyone's enemy; but those who turn to the opposite path would be reckoned his enemies — especially since the disposition we possess is also called a sharing righteousness:

But also that discernment according to worth, of more and less, wherever it is proper for it to be exercised according to knowledge, is itself a form of the highest righteousness.

There are, then, some things which are also rightly done by certain people in an untrained, ordinary way, such as self-control over pleasures.

For just as among the nations some abstain from what they desire either because they cannot obtain it, or out of fear of men, while others abstain from the pleasures at hand for the sake of greater pleasures, so also within the faith some exercise self-control either through hope of a promise, or through fear ... of God.

But such self-control is a foundation of knowledge, and a kind of approach and impulse toward what is better and toward perfection.

For, it is said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

But the perfect man, out of love, bears all things and endures all things, not seeking to please man, ... but God.

And yet praise, too, follows him as a consequence — not for his own benefit, but for the imitation and ... use of those who praise him.

'Self-controlled' signifies not only the one who masters the passions, but also the one who has gained mastery over good things and has firmly acquired the great treasures of knowledge, from which he bears the fruit of works in accordance with virtue.

For this reason the gnostic, whatever circumstance may arise, never departs from his own settled disposition.

For the scientific possession of the good is firm and unchangeable, being knowledge of divine and ... human affairs.

Knowledge, then, never becomes ignorance, nor does the good change into evil:

Therefore he also eats and drinks and marries, not as a primary aim, but out of necessity.

As for marrying — I mean, if reason approves it and as is fitting:

For having become perfect, he has ... the apostles as his models.

And indeed a man does not show himself to be a man by choosing to lead a solitary life; rather, that man surpasses others who, having disciplined himself through marriage, the begetting of children, and the care of his household, without being swayed by pleasure or grief, remains — together with the care of his household — undivided from the love of God, and rises above every trial brought upon him through children, ... wife, servants, and possessions.

But it has befallen the man without a household to remain, in most respects, untested.

At any rate, the man who cares only for himself is surpassed by the one who, though he falls somewhat short in regard to his own salvation, abounds all the more in the management of life's affairs, thereby simply preserving a small image of true providence.

But we, for our part, must as far as possible train the soul beforehand in various ways, ... so that it may become well-suited to the reception of knowledge.

Do you not see how wax is softened, and bronze is cleansed, so that it may receive the impression that is coming upon it? Even so, just as death is the separation of soul from body, so knowledge is, as it were, a rational death, leading the soul away from the passions and separating it from them, and bringing it forward into the life of well-doing, so that it may then say to God with boldness:

For the one who chooses to please men cannot please God, since most men choose not what is beneficial, but what gives pleasure:

But one who pleases God becomes, as a consequence, pleasing also ... to the serious-minded among men.

How, then, could the things concerning food and drink and the pleasures of sex any longer be pleasant to such a one?

Seeing that he views with suspicion even a pleasure carried by mere reasoning, and a movement of thought, and ... any pleasant activity? For no one can serve two masters, God and mammon.

In saying this he does not speak of money merely as such, but of the provision that money makes for various pleasures:

For indeed it is not possible for one who has come to know God in a noble and true way to be enslaved to opposing pleasures.

One alone, then, has been from the beginning without desire — the Lord, the lover of mankind, who for our sake also became man:

But as many as are eager to be made like the character given by him strive, through ascetic discipline, to become free from desire.

For the one who has felt desire and yet has mastered himself is, just as ... even the widow, through self-control, again becomes a virgin.

This is the reward of knowledge rendered to the Savior and Teacher, which he himself asked for: abstinence from evils ... and the exercise of well-doing, through which salvation is attained.

Just as, then, those who have learned trades provide their sustenance by the very skills in which they were trained, so the gnostic, providing for his life by what he knows, is saved.

For the one who has not willed to cut off the passion of the soul has killed himself.

But, as it seems, ignorance is malnutrition of the soul, while knowledge ... is its nourishment.

These are the gnostic souls, whom the Gospel likened to the sanctified virgins who await the Lord.

For they are virgins, in that they have abstained from evils, and they await the Lord because of love, kindling their own lamp for the contemplation ... of things — prudent souls saying, 'We long for you, O Lord,' longing at last to receive you, having lived according to what you commanded, having transgressed none of your precepts:

Therefore we also claim the promises, and we pray for what is beneficial, not <for what is pleasant>, since it is fitting to ask from you for the best things:

...so that the coming trials may seem [good to us] — trials which your providence offers us for the exercise of steadfastness. ... The gnostic, then, because of his surpassing holiness, is more ready to ask and fail than to obtain without having asked.

For his whole life is prayer and communion with God, and if he is pure of sins, he will assuredly obtain what he wishes.

For God says to the righteous man:

Ask, ... and I will give to you:

If, then, the things asked are beneficial, he will receive them at once:

But he will never ask for what is not beneficial, and therefore he will not receive it.

And if anyone tells us that some even among sinners succeed in their requests, this happens but rarely, owing to the just goodness of God, and it is given to those who are also able ... to do good to others.

Hence the gift is given not for the sake of the one who asked, but providence, foreseeing the one who is to be saved through him, thereby makes the gift just once more.

But to all who are worthy, the truly ... good things are given even without their asking.

When, then, one is righteous not out of necessity or fear or hope, but by deliberate choice, this way is called the royal way, which the royal race travels, while the other ... deviations are slippery and precipitous.

If, then, one were to remove fear and honor, I do not know whether those noble philosophers who speak with such boldness would still endure their afflictions.

And desires, along with the other sins, are called thorns and thistles.

The Gnostic, then, labors in the Lord's vineyard, planting, pruning, watering, truly being a divine husbandman of those who have been planted for faith.

Those, then, who have not done evil deem themselves worthy to receive the wage of idleness, whereas he who has done good out of bare choice demands his wage as a good workman.

Indeed, he shall receive double ... for both the evils he did not commit and in return for the good he did.

This Gnostic is tempted by no one, unless God should permit even this, for the benefit of those who are with him.

They are indeed strengthened toward faith, being encouraged through manly endurance.

Indeed, for this reason also the blessed apostles were led into trial and the testimony of perfection, for the establishing and confirming of the churches.

The Gnostic, then, having ever ringing in his ears the voice that says, 'Him whom I strike, do you have mercy on,' also asks that those who hate him might repent.

For it is fitting even for children not to watch the punishment of evildoers carried out in the stadiums.

For there is no way that the Gnostic could ever be instructed or delighted by such things, since he has trained himself by deliberate choice to be noble and good, and by this has become unyielding to pleasures.

Never falling into sins, he is not instructed by examples of others' evils.

Far, indeed, is he from being pleased with earthly pleasures and spectacles, seeing that he has looked down with lofty disdain even upon the worldly promises, though they be divine.

Not everyone, then, who says, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of God, but he who does the will of God.

This, then, would be the Gnostic workman: he who, while still in the flesh, masters worldly desires, and concerning the things he has come to know -- the things that are future and still unseen -- is exactly persuaded to regard them as more present than the things right at his feet.

This is a fit workman, rejoicing in what he has come to know, yet restrained in regard to the things in which he is entangled by the necessity of life, not yet being deemed worthy of the active participation in those things he has known.