Scholia on Proverbs 1 part 1/5

SCHOLIA ON THE PROVERBS. A proverb is a statement that signifies intelligible things by means of perceptible things.

"The kingdom of Israel" is spiritual knowledge, comprising the principles concerning God, incorporeal and corporeal beings, judgment, and providence; or it is that which reveals the contemplation concerning the ethical, the natural, and the theological.

"To know wisdom and instruction." For this reason, it says, he reigned in Israel: in order to know instruction and wisdom.

Now wisdom is the knowledge of corporeal and incorporeal beings, and of the judgment and providence contemplated within them;

but instruction is the moderation of the passions, contemplated with respect to the passible, or irrational, part of the soul.

"And to direct judgment." "To direct judgment" signifies that the criterion is right and unperverted.

There are three criteria in us: sense-perception, reason, and mind.

Sense-perception is of perceptible things; reason is of names, words, and things spoken; and mind is of intelligible things.

"And piety toward God is the beginning of perception." Just as the mind, through the senses, applies itself to perceptible things, so too, through the virtues, it beholds intelligible things;

"But the impious will despise wisdom and instruction." Those who acquire vice will despise wisdom and instruction;

but in word, as I suppose, no one despises wisdom and instruction.

"For you will have a crown of graces upon your head, and a golden chain about your neck." Just as here "the head" and "the neck" signify the mind, so too here "the crown" and "the chain" signify knowledge.

For this is the custom of the Holy Spirit: to call God and his angels, and the mind, and virtue, and knowledge, and vice, and ignorance, and the devil himself and his angels, by many names.

He does not, however, set down the names arbitrarily, as some suppose;

for they are marks of different operations: both of God working in us through the angels, and of us in him; and of the demons toward us, and of us toward them.

"Let us seize his costly possession;"

"and let us fill our houses with spoils." The possession of the righteous man is wisdom, understanding, and prudence;

for, it says, "acquire wisdom, and acquire understanding; and he who acquires prudence loves himself."

The impious seize this possession by persuading the righteous man to do something forbidden by God, so that the mind, blinded by sin, may fall away from these holy possessions.

These are the ones the demons plunder, whom they conquer, taking from them the armor of God — the helmet, the breastplate, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

"but cast your lot in with us;"

"and let us all acquire a common purse." These are co-heirs with the adversaries — those who share in the same vice as they do.

Now that is "common" which does not belong to the one God.

"for nets are not spread out unjustly for birds." The net is the eternal punishment brought by the righteous Judge upon impure souls, for the destruction of the wings that have wickedly grown out from them.

"Wisdom is hymned at the outgoings;"

"and in the broad places she speaks with boldness;"

"and she is proclaimed upon the tops of the walls;"

"and at the gates of the mighty she takes her seat." Here he calls "outgoing" the soul that has gone out from vice and ignorance.

Such too was the exodus of the sons of Israel, which came about after the birth that arose from the judgment and teaching of God.

He also calls this same soul "broad";

for, it says, "open wide your mouth, and I will fill it"; and Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says, "be you also widened."

And by the soul thus going out, wisdom is hymned;

but in the soul that is broadened through the virtues, she speaks with boldness.

By "the top of her wall" he means the summit of freedom from passion, since indeed those who love the law surround themselves with a wall, on behalf of which wall David also prays, saying:

"let the walls of Jerusalem be built" — that is, evidently, the walls of such a soul, which had fallen because of the affair of Uriah.

By "the gates of the mighty" he means the virtues of the wise;

for, it says, "open to me the gates of righteousness"; and "the mighty are prone to anger";

"let them not drink wine, lest, having drunk, they forget wisdom and be unable to judge the weak rightly."

"Therefore I too will laugh at your destruction;"

"and I will rejoice greatly, when ruin comes upon you." How then does Solomon say earlier:

"and he who rejoices over one who is perishing shall not go unpunished"? Perhaps, then, wisdom rejoices in this way — as she rejoiced at the "destruction" of Matthew the tax collector, and at the "destruction" of the robber who believed in Christ.

For wisdom destroyed, in the one man, the robber, and, in the other, the tax collector.

"and when confusion comes upon you suddenly, and destruction arrives like a storm" — or, "when affliction and siege come upon you." "Siege" is the ethical teaching that overthrows the soul that has been badly built.

"nor were they willing to attend to my counsels." If it is in our power both to will to attend to the counsels of wisdom, and to will not to attend, then we have come to be self-determining.

Similar to this is also: "if you are willing and obey me, you shall eat the good things of the land;"

"but if you are not willing and do not obey me, the sword shall devour you;"

"for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things."

"for because they wronged infants, they shall be slain." Just as infants stand between the righteous and the unrighteous, so also all human beings stand between angels and demons, being neither demons, nor reckoned as angels, until the consummation of the age.

"but he who hears me shall dwell in hope, and shall rest without fear from every evil." He who is free from passion rests without fear from every evil thought.

"Son, if, having received the saying of my commandment, you hide it within yourself... your ear shall obey wisdom." He who does the commandment of God hides it, since indeed the demons are said to snatch it away by not allowing us to do it.

"For if you call upon wisdom, and give your voice to understanding" — here he calls the freedom from passion of the soul "voice";

for it is its nature to call upon the knowledge of God.

"With my voice I cried out to the Lord;"

"attend to the voice of my supplication." ... "then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and will find the knowledge of God." Then you will understand how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and how it becomes the procurer of the knowledge of God.

Wisdom and understanding must pre-exist, in order for one to be able to understand the fear of the Lord.

And we shall bring these things forward against those who despise wisdom and understanding, yet wish to take refuge in the fear of God as though it were an easy matter.

"then you will understand righteousness and judgment, and you will make straight all the good axles." By "axles" he means the commandments of God that lead us to the knowledge of God.

"Therefore I directed myself aright toward all your commandments." ... "that it may deliver you from the evil way, and from the man who speaks nothing trustworthy." The holy angels speak all things trustworthy;

but human beings speak some things trustworthy, and some untrustworthy;

but the devil speaks nothing trustworthy — that is, nothing worthy of trust.

For here he calls the devil "a man," since indeed "an evil man sowed the tares."

"Son, let not an evil counsel overtake you, one that abandons the teaching of youth and has forgotten the divine covenant." If counsel is a certain movement of the mind, how has it abandoned the teaching of youth? And how has it forgotten the divine covenant? For he speaks to us of the evil counsel as though of a rational living being.

Or else, here he calls the devil "evil counsel."

For he took evil counsel when he said, "I will set my throne above the stars;"

And he also forgot the divine knowledge, abandoning the teaching of his youth — which "youth" signifies his former condition, according to which he was also enviable among the trees of paradise.

"All who walk in it shall not return, nor shall they overtake the straight paths;"

"for they are not overtaken by the years of life." For "he loves those who pursue righteousness"; and "so run that you may obtain it."

As many as are overtaken by the years of life, these overtake the straight paths.

"And your mercy," it says, "shall pursue me all the days of my life."

"the good shall be inhabitants of the earth;"

But the guileless will be left remaining in it. Those, he says, who remained in guilelessness were left in the land, that is, in knowledge.

But those who fell away through wickedness will return again through goodness.

Son, do not forget my precepts;

but let your heart keep my words. If the one who does not live according to the law forgets the law, then the one who lives according to it remembers the law.

And if the one who does them is the one who keeps the words of God, then the one who does not wish to do them destroys them.

For it is not the hearers of the law, he says, who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. — Be confident in the Lord with your whole heart;

but do not be exalted in your own wisdom. Do not be exalted, he says, having acquired the wisdom of God.

That here he speaks of the wisdom of God, and not human wisdom, he shows by what follows:

'For in all your ways, he says, know her, that she may make your paths straight' — 'then there will be healing for your body, and care for your bones.' When the powers of the soul obtain such care, then at that time they will say:

'Lord, who is like you?' For all my bones, he says, will say:

'Lord, Lord, who is like you?' For the memorial power of the soul, having obtained such care, will certainly say, 'I remembered God, and was glad.'

And likewise the visual power will say, 'I considered your works, and was amazed.'

And likewise also the desiring power:

'Lord, before you is all my desire.' And the reasoning power will also say, 'I meditated upon the days of old.'

Accordingly, the same will happen also with the other powers.

And she is more precious than costly stones;

no evil is set against her. Against wisdom alone the demons are unable to cast thoughts into the heart of the one who has been made wise, being denied leave to do so;

for the mind, being occupied with the contemplations of wisdom, becomes incapable of receiving impure thoughts.

she is well known to all who draw near to her. A pure mind draws near to wisdom;

but the impure mind will be removed far from her.

she is a tree of life to all who hold fast to her. From this tree, after the transgression, Adam is forbidden to partake, inasmuch as the tree of life grows from the fruits of righteousness.

And if the tree of life is the wisdom of God, he is justly forbidden to touch this tree;

'for wisdom, he says, will not enter a soul that devises evil.' — The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;

and he established the heavens by understanding;

by perception the depths were broken open;

and the clouds poured forth dew. What here he called 'earth,' holy Paul named 'breadth'; and what is here called 'heavens,' he calls 'height' in the epistle to the Ephesians; and what is figuratively called 'the depths,' he names 'depth'; and the dew-laden 'clouds' he calls 'length.'

And all these are symbols of the rational natures, which are distributed among worlds and bodies according to the proportion of their condition.

that your soul may live, and grace be about your neck. By 'neck' he meant the soul that has borne the yoke of the Lord.

that you may walk confidently in peace in all your ways, and your foot will not stumble. A stumbling-block of the rational nature is an impure thought or false knowledge.

...if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear terror when it comes, nor the onslaughts of the impious when they come upon you. From this we know that almsgiving removes the fearful phantasms that befall us by night.

And gentleness does the same, as do freedom from anger, and patience, and whatever is naturally apt to still an agitated temper, since it is from the disturbance of anger that fearful apparitions are wont to arise.

Do not needlessly love strife with a man, lest he do you some harm. This enmity toward one's neighbor produces some evil.

The curse of God is in the houses of the impious;

but the dwellings of the righteous are blessed. Ignorance of the Lord is in the souls of the impious;

but the knowledge of God is in the souls of the righteous.

The Lord opposes the proud;

but he gives grace to the humble. Just as the Lord opposes the unjust as righteousness, and liars as truth, so also he opposes the proud as humility.

The wise will inherit glory;

but the impious exalted dishonor. The wise will inherit knowledge;

but the impious honored ignorance.

For I give you a good gift. It should be noted here that he calls the law 'a good gift,' in contrast to the one who unjustly receives gifts in his bosom and does not prosper.

For there he calls the commandments of the evil one 'unjust gifts,' which the mind, when it receives them, does not prosper in its ways.

Do not forsake my law. The one who transgresses it, forsakes the law.

Fence her about, and she will exalt you. If it is in our power to fence wisdom about, and the virtues are in our power, then the fences here signify the virtues, which exalt the knowledge of God.

that she may set upon your head a crown of graces;

and shield you with a crown of delight. The crown of graces and the crown of delight is the knowledge of God, which shields us from every passion-laden thought, driving away also all false knowledge.

Hear, son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be multiplied, that many ways of life may be yours. These many ways lead to the one way which said:

'I am the way.' And by 'many ways' he meant the virtues that lead to the knowledge of Christ.

In whatever place they encamp, do not go there;

but turn aside from them, and pass them by. The place of this army is wickedness and falsely-named knowledge.

For they will not sleep unless they have done evil; sleep has been taken from them, they do not slumber. If the Lord gives sleep to his beloved, and the impious are not his beloved, then the Lord does not give sleep to the impious.

And from this it is also possible plausibly to show that the demons are not even by nature able to sleep.

for these eat the bread of impiety;

and are made drunk with lawless wine. From this we know with what the army of the opposing power is nourished:

for its bread, he says, is impiety, and its wine is lawlessness.

But the ways of the righteous shine like light; they go before and give light, until the day is fully established. The virtues go before us and give us light, until the sun of righteousness shines its own day upon us.

But the ways of the impious are dark; they do not know how they stumble. The impious understand neither the manner in which they sin, nor do they know the cause of their stumbling; indeed, they do not even know this, that they are transgressing the law — which is a mark of the utmost folly.

That your springs may not fail you, guard them in your heart. By 'springs' he means the virtues, from which is born the living water, which is the knowledge of Christ.

'The springs of the waters were seen, he says, and the foundations of the world were uncovered' — evidently at the coming of our Savior Christ.

Let your eyes look straight ahead;

and let your eyelids incline justly. As many as have thoughts free from passion and true doctrines, these see straight.

...do not turn aside to the right nor to the left;

but turn your foot away from an evil way. For virtue is a mean;

wherefore they also say that courage lies between rashness and cowardice.

But here he calls 'right' not the things that are right by nature, but the things that appear right to some because of pleasures;

for the north wind, he says, is a harsh wind;

yet by name it is called 'auspicious,' though he symbolically calls the north wind 'the evil one,' from whom all the evils on earth were kindled.

and he himself will make your paths straight;

and he will lead your journeys forth in peace. In harmony with this is: 'Unless the Lord builds the house and guards the city,' and so forth.

Do not give heed to a wayward woman;

"For honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who for a time makes your throat smooth, but afterward you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword." The richness signifies pleasure, from which uncleanness is born, whose offspring are vice and ignorance, than which nothing more bitter is to be found among the things that exist.

"For the feet of folly lead those who consort with her down to Hades together with death." What he called "harlot" above, he has now named "folly."

On behalf of those who go down to Hades together with death, David prays, saying:

"Let them go down to Hades alive." "For she does not walk in the paths of life;"

"and her paths are treacherous and not easily known." If her paths are not easily known, it is well said, "they do not know how they stumble."

"Make your way far from her;"

"do not draw near the doors of her house." Here by "way" he means the mind that journeys toward virtue.

Or perhaps he is bidding virtue to separate us from vice.

"lest you give your life over to others, and your livelihood to the merciless." From this we know that the irascible part predominates among the demons:

"For wrath, it says, is merciless, and anger is sharp." "...when the flesh of your body has been consumed" — Through their vices the wicked wear away the flesh of Christ, and drink up his blood, holding it to be a common thing;

"For he who eats my flesh, he says, and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." "I was almost involved in every evil, in the midst of the church and the congregation." There was a time when vice did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist:

but there was never a time when virtue did not exist, nor will there be a time when it will not exist:

for the seeds of virtue are ineradicable.

And I am persuaded of this also by this man, who was "almost" but not entirely involved in every evil, and by the rich man who, though judged in Hades on account of vice, still has pity on his brothers.

And to show mercy happens to be the finest seed of virtue.

"Drink waters from your own vessels, and from the springs of your own well." Knowledge is both a well and a spring.

For to those who have but recently approached the virtues it appears to be a deep well, but to those who are free from passion and pure, a spring.

Thus also the Savior sat by the spring, and it was about the sixth hour.

But the Samaritan woman calls it a well:

"For Lord, she says, you have no vessel to draw with, and the well is deep." "Let your fountain of water be your own, and rejoice together with the wife of your youth." If the "wife" here signifies the knowledge of God, and this was given to us from our youth, then the knowledge of God was given to us from the beginning — which above Solomon calls "the teaching of youth":

"For, son," it says, "let not evil counsel overtake you" — meaning the devil, as one whose counsel is evil — "she who forsakes the teaching of her youth, and has forgotten the divine covenant." Now forgetting and forsaking are secondary in relation to knowledge and possession, just as sickness is the last stage relative to health, and death is secondary relative to life.

At the same time it should also be known that this same knowledge is called both mother and wife and sister.

Mother, since he who taught me begot me through her, as Paul begot the Galatians through the gospel.

Wife, since being joined with me she bears virtues and right doctrines, if indeed wisdom bears prudence for a man.

and both she and I have come to be from the one God and Father:

"For say," it says, "that wisdom is your sister." "Let the deer of friendship and the foal of your graces converse with you;"

"and let her who is your own lead you, and be with you at every season;"

"for going about in this friendship, you will become many." If grace and friendship set free, and virtue and knowledge set free the rational soul, then grace and friendship are virtue and knowledge.

And if the deer is born of friendship, and the foal of grace, then the deer is a symbol of contemplation, and the foal of freedom from passion:

for the one is by nature from the virtues, and the other from knowledge.

Virtue, and the knowledge of God, are proper to the rational nature.

To be "many" is to possess a multitude of contemplative insights.

And "multitude" refers to those who are benefited.

"Do not be much occupied with a strange woman, nor be held fast in arms that are not your own." As for "do not be much occupied with a strange woman" — some will suppose this is said concerning worldly wisdom, with which it is not necessary to linger, on account of the deceits hidden within it;

but others will take it as concerning vice, and will interpret "not being much occupied with it" thus: that it is not possible for a human being to abstain altogether from evil thoughts, yet it is possible not to linger in them; and that by "arms not one's own" he means the evil thoughts that hold the soul fast, and which do not escape the notice of God who knows the heart.

"Son, if you become surety for your friend, you will hand over your hand to an enemy." Everyone who becomes surety for Christ, the friend of the apostles, as righteousness and truth, hands over his own soul to the enemies who are accustomed to make war on men on account of their friendship toward the Savior;

for friendship is the spiritual knowledge of God, according to which the saints also are called friends of God.

Thus also John the Baptist was a friend of the bridegroom, as were Moses and the apostles:

"For no longer, he says, do I call you servants, but friends." "Urge on," it says, "through prayers and supplications, also your friend for whom you became surety, saying:"

"Keep me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, and deliver me from the unjust man, and because of my enemies do not deliver me into the hands of those who afflict me; for on your account we are put to death the whole day long:"

"we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

"Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids." Sleep is sin committed in act belonging to the soul;

while slumber is the unclean thought first taking shape in the soul.

Therefore, even before slumber, Scripture forbids sleep:

"For it was said, he says, to the men of old:"

"You shall not be angry." For here too it seems to me that the Law forbids sleep, while the Gospel of Christ forbids slumber, since the one cuts off sin committed in act, while the other cuts off the vice that first takes shape according to the mind.

"Go to the ant, O sluggard, and having observed his ways, be filled with zeal, and become wiser than he;"

"for though he has no farming, nor anyone to compel him, nor is under a master, he prepares his food in summer." It should be noted here that he calls the ant's natural and harmonious movement "wisdom":

for indeed "wiser" is said of one who is wiser than a wise man.

But how is it that the ant is not under a master, if indeed all things are servants of God? Or is it perhaps that God is called "master" in two ways, as creator, and as one who is known?

"But now, having been set free from sin and enslaved to God" — that is, according to virtue and knowledge — "you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life." Now if the ant has no share in such an end, being irrational, it is clear that it is also free from such servitude; rightly, then, it is said that the ant is not under a master with respect to this mastery, but is again under a master insofar as it has God as its creator.

"Or go to the bee"

"and kings and private persons use it for health." Through the ant, Solomon seems to sketch out for us the practical way, and through the bee to signify the contemplation of the things that have come to be, and of him who made them — which contemplation both the pure and the impure, the wise and the foolish, apply toward the health of the soul.

And it seems to me that the wax holds the place of the inner principle of the things themselves, while the honey stored within it is a symbol of the contemplation of them.

And the wax will pass away:

"for heaven, he says, and earth will pass away;"

but the honey will not pass away.

For neither will the words of our Savior Christ pass away, concerning which Solomon says:

"Good words are honeycombs, and their sweetness is healing for the soul;"

"How sweet, he says, are your words to my throat — more than honey to my mouth." He has called the product of toil "toil."

"How long, O sluggard, will you lie down? And when will you rise from sleep?" This sleep is naturally apt to befall only the rational soul:

for here it signifies vice and ignorance, from wakefulness concerning which one becomes like a sparrow alone upon the housetop.

"Then poverty will come upon you like an evil traveler, and want like a good runner." Poverty is the privation of knowledge:

and want is the scarcity of the virtues.

"and the same man winks with his eye, signals with his foot, teaches with the noddings of his fingers." Here it must be carefully noted, lest perhaps through such movements of the body the adversaries come to know that their own thoughts are being nurtured in us, since we have believed that God alone is the knower of hearts.

"the eye of the arrogant, an unjust tongue, hands that pour out righteous blood." Everyone who eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood acquires righteous blood, of which the rational soul, when deprived, is said to die:

"For the soul, he says, that sins shall itself die." And if there is righteous blood, clearly there is also unrighteous blood, which those gather within themselves who devour the food given to the Ethiopian peoples, and are nourished by the bread of falsehood.

And those who sacrifice to strange gods consume their own righteous blood;

while those who offer themselves as a sacrifice to the one God destroy the unrighteous blood.

And it will altogether follow that upon the destruction of unrighteous blood comes the generation of righteous blood, and upon the destruction of righteous blood comes the generation of unrighteous blood.

But this indeed is now wont by nature to happen; yet from the beginning it was not so:

For righteousness did not come into being through the corruption of evil, just as health did not come into being through the corruption of disease, since from the beginning children are born together with health.

"An unjust witness kindles falsehoods, and sends forth quarrels between brothers." Brothers are those who possess the grace of adoption as sons, and who are under the same Father, Christ; the witness of injustice attempts to divide them, casting disturbances and quarrels among them.

But "kindles," I think, has been added on account of the passionate thoughts which inflame the irascible part toward anger and hatred, and the desiring part toward shameful deeds.

These thoughts holy Paul also called "the flaming darts of the evil one," wounding the soul and working death.

"Keep, my son, the laws of your father, and do not reject the ordinances of your mother."

"Whenever you walk, take her with you, and let her be with you." He commands us to take along the mother, who is wisdom, begetting us according to God.

And yet it would have been more fitting for him to name the father:

for he is better suited to being together with the son.

But since it is not possible to know God himself prior to the contemplation of the things that have come into being, for this reason he commands us to take along the mother and not the father, so that through the mother the son may see the father:

for if she does not beget him, he does not see the light, which is the knowledge of God himself.

"For the commandment of the law is a lamp, and light, and the way of life, reproof and instruction." That the commandment of the law is a lamp and light—

and perhaps the lamp is the old covenant:

the lamp that is lit and shines:

"For I," he says, "am the light of the world." ... "For the price of a harlot is as much as one loaf of bread." For the pleasure of evil is only as much as that of a single loaf of bread.

"Will a man bind fire in his bosom, and not burn his garments? Or will a man walk upon coals of fire, and not burn his feet?" This is the one who binds fire in his bosom: he who allows the unclean thought, lingering in his heart, to corrupt the right thoughts.