On First Principles 1 part 3/4

And if we examine how men, hearing new teachings and strange words, received these men—being overcome in their wish to plot against them by a certain divine power that watched over them—we shall not disbelieve that they also wrought wonders, God bearing witness to their words both through signs and wonders and various powers.

And demonstrating in summary concerning the deity of Jesus, and using the prophetic words about Him, we at the same time demonstrate that the Scriptures prophesying about Him are inspired by God, and that the writings proclaiming His coming and teaching, spoken with all power and authority, have for this reason prevailed in the election from among the nations.

But it must be said that the divine inspiration of the prophetic words and the spiritual character of the law of Moses shone forth when Jesus came.

For it was not altogether possible to set forth clear examples of the old Scriptures' being inspired by God before the coming of Christ;

but the coming of Jesus brought into the open, as written by heavenly grace, the law and the prophets which could be suspected of not being divine.

But he who with care and attention reads the prophetic words, having experienced from the very reading a trace of inspiration, will through what he experiences be persuaded that what we believe to be words of God are not the writings of men.

And the light residing in the law of Moses, hidden away beneath a veil, shone forth together with the coming of Jesus, when the veil was taken away and the good things, of which the letter held a shadow, gradually came to be known.

But it would be a long task now to collect the most ancient prophecies concerning each of the things to come, so that through them the doubter, smitten as by inspired words, having laid aside all double-mindedness and distraction, might give himself with his whole soul to the words of God.

But if, in each of the writings, that which is beyond man in the conceptions does not seem to strike the unlearned, it is no wonder;

for even in the works of the providence that lays hold of the whole world, some things appear most evidently to be works of providence, while others are so hidden as to seem to give occasion for unbelief concerning the God who governs all things with unspeakable skill and power.

[As is the case] with the sun and moon and stars;

and [providence] is not so manifest in the chance occurrences touching human affairs as it is in the souls and bodies of living creatures, the 'toward what' and 'for the sake of what' being abundantly found by those who attend to such matters—concerning the impulses and impressions and natures of living creatures and the structures of their bodies.

But just as providence is not impeached on account of the things not understood, at least by those who have once rightly accepted it, so neither is the divinity of Scripture—which extends through all of it—[impeached] because our weakness is not able, in each expression, to descry the hidden splendor of the doctrines laid up in mean and contemptible language.

For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power of God may shine forth and not be thought to be from us men.

For if the well-worn paths of demonstrations among men, laid up in books, had prevailed over men, our faith would reasonably have been supposed to rest in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God;

but as it is, it is clear to him who lifts up his eyes that the word and the proclamation prevailed among the many not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of Spirit and of power.

Therefore, since a heavenly—or even supra-heavenly—power strikes us to worship only him who created us, let us, leaving behind the doctrine of the beginning of Christ, that is, of the elementary teaching, endeavor to press on toward perfection, so that the wisdom which is spoken among the perfect may be spoken also to us.

For he who possesses this wisdom professes to speak it among the perfect—a wisdom different from the wisdom of this age and from the wisdom of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing.

But this wisdom will be clearly impressed upon us according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept silent through eternal ages, but is now made manifest both through the prophetic Scriptures and through the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;

to whom be the glory unto all the ages.

How the divine Scripture is to be read and understood. After having said, as if in passing, concerning the divine Scriptures being God-inspired, it is necessary to go on to treat of the manner of reading and understanding them, since very many errors have arisen from the fact that the way in which one ought to approach the holy readings has not been found by most people.

For the hard-hearted and the unlearned among those of the circumcision have not believed in our Savior, supposing that they are following the letter of the prophecies concerning him; for they do not perceive him in a sensible manner proclaiming release to captives, nor building what they think is truly the city of God, nor cutting off chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, nor eating butter and honey, and choosing the good before he knew or preferred evil.

Moreover, supposing that a wolf—the four-footed animal—is prophesied as destined to feed with a lamb, and a leopard to lie down with a kid, and that a calf, a bull, and a lion shall feed together, led by a little child, and that an ox and a bear shall graze together while their young are reared with one another, and that a lion shall eat straw like an ox—and having seen none of these things come to pass in a sensible manner at the sojourn of the Christ who has been entrusted to us, they did not receive our Lord Jesus, but crucified him as one who, contrary to what was fitting, proclaimed himself Christ.

They supposed that, since the Demiurge is imperfect and not good, the Savior had come to proclaim a more perfect God, whom they say is not the Demiurge—being variously moved on this point;

and once they had departed from the Demiurge, who is the only unbegotten God, they gave themselves over to fabrications, inventing for themselves hypotheses according to which they suppose the visible things came into being, and also certain other invisible things which their soul has fashioned into idols.

But indeed, even the more simple-minded among those who boast of belonging to the Church have supposed that no one is greater than the Demiurge—rightly doing so in this;

yet they entertain such notions about him as one would not entertain even about the most savage and unjust of men.

And the cause for all the aforesaid false opinions and impieties, or unlearned statements about God, seems to be none other than this: that Scripture is not understood according to its spiritual sense, but is taken merely as to the bare letter.

Therefore, to those who are persuaded that the sacred books are not the compositions of men, but were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit according to the will of the Father of all things through Jesus Christ, and have so come down to us, we must point out the ways that appear right, holding fast to the rule of the heavenly Church of Jesus Christ according to the succession of the apostles.

And that there are certain mystical dispensations made known through the divine Scriptures, all—even the most simple of those who come to the word—have believed;

but what these are, the candid and the unconceited confess that they do not know.

For instance, if anyone should be perplexed about Lot's intercourse with his daughters, and the two wives of Abraham, and the two sisters married to Jacob, and the two handmaids who bore children by him, they will say nothing other than that these are mysteries not understood by us.

But also, when the construction of the tabernacle is read, being persuaded that the things written are types, they seek out that to which they may be able to fit each of the things said concerning the tabernacle;

in so far as they are persuaded that the tabernacle is a type of something, they do not go astray; but in so far as they fit the account to this or that thing worthily of Scripture—of which the tabernacle is a type—they sometimes fail.

And every narrative that is thought to report concerning marriages, or begettings of children, or wars, or whatever histories may be accepted among the many, they declare to be types;

but as to of what things they are types—partly because of a disposition not very well trained, partly because of rashness, and sometimes even when one happens to be well trained and not given to error—on account of the exceedingly difficult discovery of these matters for men, the account concerning each of these is not made altogether clear.

And what need is there to speak of the prophecies, which we all know are filled with riddles and dark sayings? And if we come to the Gospels, the exact understanding of these too—being the mind of Christ—needs the grace given to him who said,

"But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things freely given to us by God";

"which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit."

And as for the things revealed to John, who would not be astounded upon reading them at the concealment of the unspeakable mysteries, evident even to one who does not understand the things written? And to which of those who know how to test words would the epistles of the apostles seem clear and easily understood, since there too countless and very many of the greatest thoughts furnish, as it were, but a small opening through a chink? Therefore, since these things are so, and since countless people stumble, it is not without danger, in reading, lightly to declare that one understands the things that need the key of knowledge—which the Savior says is among the lawyers;

and let those who are unwilling to grant that the truth was among those before the sojourn of Christ tell us how the key of knowledge is said by our Lord Jesus Christ to be among those who—as they themselves say—do not possess books containing the unspeakable things of knowledge and the complete mysteries.

"Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge;

you did not enter in yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering."

Now the way that appears to us as to how one ought to engage with the Scriptures and grasp their meaning is as follows, tracked out from the oracles themselves.

In Solomon's Proverbs we find something of this sort enjoined concerning the recording of the divine teachings:

"And do you record them threefold in counsel and knowledge, that you may answer words of truth to those who set questions before you."

Therefore one must record the meanings of the holy writings into one's own soul in three ways:

so that the more simple person may be edified by what we call, as it were, the flesh of the Scripture—naming thus the ready-to-hand interpretation; and he who has ascended to a certain degree, by what is, as it were, its soul; and the perfect one, who is like those spoken of by the apostle:

"But we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages unto our glory"—edified from the spiritual law, which contains a shadow of the good things to come.

For just as man consists of body, soul, and spirit, in the same way also does the Scripture, which has been dispensed by God to be given for the salvation of men.

For this reason we likewise interpret in this manner that which is in the book despised by some, The Shepherd, concerning Hermas being commanded to write two books, and after these to announce to the elders of the church the things he had learned from the Spirit:

"You shall write two books, and you shall give one to Clement and one to Grapte;

and Grapte shall admonish the widows and the orphans, while Clement shall send to the cities outside, but you shall announce to the elders of the church."

For Grapte, who admonishes the widows and the orphans, is the bare letter itself, which admonishes those souls that are children and not yet able to inscribe God as Father, and on this account are called orphans; and it admonishes also those who no longer have dealings with the lawless bridegroom, but are widowed because they have not yet become worthy of the <heavenly> Bridegroom.

And Clement, who has already stepped beyond the letter, is said to send the things spoken to the cities outside, as if we should say to the souls that are outside the bodily and lower thoughts.

And no longer through writings, but through living words, the disciple of the Spirit himself is commanded to announce to the elders of the whole Church of God, those who are grey-haired with prudence.

But since there are certain Scriptures which possess nothing of the bodily sense at all, as we shall show in what follows, there are places where one must seek, as it were, only the soul and the spirit of the Scripture.

And perhaps for this reason the waterpots said to be set for the purification of the Jews, as we read in the Gospel according to John, hold two or three measures each;

the word hinting at those who, in the apostle's sense, are Jews in secret—that these are purified through the word of the Scriptures: in one case holding two measures, namely, so to speak, the psychic and the spiritual sense; in another, three, since some, in addition to the aforesaid, have also the bodily sense capable of edifying.

And six waterpots fittingly belong to those being purified in the world, which came into being in six days, a perfect number.

Now of the first interpretation, useful also in this respect that one may profit from it, the multitudes of those who have believed genuinely and more simply bear witness;

and of the exposition that is to be carried up, as it were, to the soul, an example is that which lies in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

For it is written, he says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing";

then, expounding this law, he adds:

"Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does he say it altogether for our sake? For our sake it was written, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of partaking."

And the spiritual exposition is for one who is able to show of what heavenly things in pattern and shadow the Jews after the flesh rendered service, and of what good things to come the law has a shadow.

And in short, in all cases, according to the apostolic profession, one must seek "the wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages unto the glory" of the righteous, "which none of the rulers of this age has known."

And the same apostle says somewhere, having made use of certain texts from Exodus and Numbers, that "these things happened to them as types, but were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come."

And he gives indications of what things those were types, saying:

"For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ."

And in another epistle, sketching the matters concerning the tabernacle, he made use of the text:

"You shall make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain."

But indeed also in the epistle to the Galatians, as if reproaching those who think they are reading the law and yet do not understand it, judging those not to understand who do not suppose that there are allegories in the things written:

"Tell me," he says, "you who wish to be under law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid and one by the freewoman.

But the one by the handmaid was born according to the flesh, while the one by the freewoman was born through the promise;

which things are spoken allegorically;

for these are two covenants," and what follows.

For one must carefully observe each of the things said by him, that he says:

"those who wish to be under law," not "those who are under the law"; and,

"do you not hear the law?"—where hearing is judged to consist in understanding and knowing.

And in the epistle to the Colossians, summing up briefly the intent of the whole legislation, he says:

"Let no one therefore judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of the things to come."

And further, in the epistle to the Hebrews, discoursing concerning those of the circumcision, he writes:

"who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things."

But it is likely that, on account of these things, those who once accept the apostle as a divine man would not doubt concerning the five books inscribed to Moses;

but as for the rest of the history, they wish to learn whether that too happened in a typical manner.

And one must observe from the epistle to the Romans the text:

"I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal"—which lies in the third book of Kingdoms—that Paul has taken it to refer to the Israelites according to election, since not only the Gentiles were benefited by the sojourn of Christ, but also some of the divine race.

Since these things are so, one must now sketch out the characteristics of the understanding of the Scriptures that appear to us.

And first this must be pointed out: that the aim for the enlightening Spirit, by God's providence, through the Word that was in the beginning with God, for the ministers of truth, the prophets and apostles, was primarily concerning the unspeakable mysteries of the affairs that pertain to men (by "men" I now mean the souls that make use of bodies), so that the one who is able to be taught, having searched and given himself to the depths of the meaning of the words, may become a partaker of all the teachings of his counsel.

And with regard to the matters concerning souls—which cannot otherwise attain perfection apart from the rich and wise truth concerning God—the matters concerning God have necessarily been arranged as primary, together with those concerning his only-begotten:

of what nature he is, and in what manner he is the Son of God, and what are the causes of his having descended even to human flesh and having assumed completely a man, and what too is his activity, and toward whom and when it comes to be.

How great a thing it is upon the earth—and whether not only upon the earth, but also elsewhere—it is necessary for us to learn.

Now, these and similar matters being set before the Spirit that enlightens the souls of the holy ministers of truth, a second aim was, for the sake of those unable to bear the toil involved in finding out such great things, to hide the discourse concerning the aforesaid matters within expressions which display a narrative containing an account about the sensible creations, and the creation of man, and those who, in succession from the first, came to be down to the many; and within other histories that report the deeds of the righteous, and also the sins these same men once committed, being human, and the wickednesses, licentiousnesses, and greed of lawless and impious men.

And most paradoxically, through the history concerning wars, and victors and the vanquished, certain unspeakable things are made clear to those who are able to test these matters.

And still more wonderfully, through written legislation the laws of truth are prophesied, all these things being recorded in a connected sequence with a power truly befitting the wisdom of God.

For it was also intended to make the garment of the spiritual things—I mean the bodily aspect of the Scriptures—in many cases not unprofitable, and able to improve the many, in so far as they have capacity.

But since, if the usefulness of the legislation and the coherence and elegance of the history had appeared straightforwardly throughout, we would have disbelieved that anything other than the obvious sense could be understood in the Scriptures, the Word of God arranged, as it were, certain stumbling-blocks and offenses and impossibilities to be inserted in the midst of the law and the history, so that we might not be wholly drawn along by the letter's unmixed attractiveness, and either, learning nothing worthy of God, utterly withdraw from the doctrines, or, not being moved away from the letter, learn nothing more divine.

And one must also know this: that since the primary aim is to announce the coherence in the spiritual things, in the things that have happened and the things to be done, wherever the Word found things that had happened according to the history able to be fitted to these mystical matters, he made use of them, concealing the deeper sense from the many;

but wherever, in the narrative of the sequence concerning intelligible things, the action of certain persons previously recorded did not follow, on account of the more mystical things, the Scripture wove into the history that which did not happen—in one case what is not even possible to happen, in another what is possible to happen but did not in fact happen; and sometimes a few expressions are interspersed which are not true as to the bodily sense, and sometimes more.

And the analogous thing must be understood also in the case of the legislation, in which one may frequently find both that which is useful in itself, fitting to the circumstances of the legislation;

but sometimes no useful sense is apparent;

and at other times even impossibilities are legislated, for the sake of the more acute and inquiring, so that, giving themselves to the testing examination of the things written, they may receive a worthy conviction concerning the necessity of seeking, in such matters, a sense worthy of God.

And not only concerning the things before the coming did the Spirit dispense these things, but indeed, being the same and from the one God, it did the like also in the case of the Gospels and in the case of the apostles—these too not having their history entirely unmixed as to the bodily sense in the things woven in that did not happen, nor their legislation and commandments altogether displaying what is reasonable in itself.

Who, possessing intelligence, will suppose that the first and second and third day, and the evening and the morning, came to be without sun and moon and stars? And that the first, so to speak, was even without a heaven?

Who is so simple as to suppose that God, like a farmer, planted a paradise in Eden toward the east, and made in it a tree of life, visible and sensible, so that one tasting of the fruit with bodily teeth might receive life;

and again, that someone partakes of good and evil by chewing what is taken from this tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the cool of the day, and Adam to hide under the tree, I do not suppose anyone will doubt that these things, by way of an apparent history that did not take place in a bodily manner, signify certain mysteries figuratively.

And Cain going out from the presence of God clearly appears, to those who attend to it, to move the reader to inquire <what> is the presence of God, and what it is for someone to go out from it.

And what need is there to say more, when those who are not at all dull can gather countless such things, recorded as having happened but which did not happen according to the letter? But the Gospels too are filled with the same kind of expressions, as when the devil takes Jesus up onto a high mountain, in order to show him from there the kingdoms of the whole world and their glory.

For who, among those who do not read such things carelessly, would not condemn those who suppose that with the eye of the flesh—which needed height in order to be able to discern the things lying below and beneath—the kingdom of the Persians and Scythians and Indians and Parthians was seen, and how those who reign are glorified among men? And in a manner similar to these, one who is exact can observe countless other things in the Gospels, so as to agree that there are interwoven with the histories that happened according to the letter other things that did not occur.

And if we come also to the legislation of Moses, many of the laws, in so far as they are to be kept according to themselves, display what is irrational, and others what is impossible.

The irrational, in the prohibition against eating vultures, since no one, even in the greatest famines, was forced by want to come to this animal;

and in the command that eight-day-old uncircumcised infants be cut off from their people, when, if it were at all necessary that anything be legislated about these according to the letter, their fathers ought to have been commanded to be put to death, or those among whom they are raised:

"Every uncircumcised male who shall not be circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from his people."

And if you wish to see also things legislated that are impossible, let us consider that the goat-stag is an animal that is impossible to exist, which Moses commands us to offer as clean;

and the griffin is never recorded as having come under the hand of a man, which the lawgiver forbids to be eaten.

But also the famous sabbath, to one who is exact about the text:

"You shall sit each in your own houses;

let none of you go out from his place on the seventh day"—it is impossible to keep this according to the letter, since no living creature is able to sit the whole day and remain motionless from sitting.

Therefore those of the circumcision, and as many as wish nothing more than the letter to be disclosed, make no inquiry at all into some matters—such as those concerning the goat-stag and the griffin and the vulture—while concerning others they talk nonsense, being inventive of arguments and bringing forward frigid traditions, as in the case of the sabbath, asserting that each person's "place" is two thousand cubits; but others—among whom is Dositheus the Samaritan—condemning such an exposition, suppose that in whatever posture one is caught on the day of the sabbath, one must remain until evening.

But also the not lifting of a burden on the day of the sabbath is impossible;

therefore the teachers of the Jews have come to endless babbling, asserting that such-and-such a sandal is a burden, but not such-and-such, and that a sandal having nails is, but not one without nails, and that what is carried thus on one shoulder is, but not on two shoulders.

And if, coming to the Gospel, we should seek similar things, what could be more irrational than the saying ["If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also"]?

But indeed also the right cheek being said to be struck is most improbable, since everyone who strikes—unless he happens to be suffering from something contrary to nature—strikes the left cheek with the right hand.

And it is impossible to take from the Gospel the matter of the right eye causing offense;

for even granting that someone can be made to stumble through seeing, how, when both eyes see, is the cause to be referred to the right one? And who, condemning himself for having looked at a woman to lust after her, referring the cause to the right eye alone, would reasonably cast it away? But the apostle too legislates, saying:

"Was anyone called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised."

In the first place, he who wishes will see that he says these things apart from the discourse set before him; for how, while legislating concerning marriage and chastity, will he not seem to have inserted these things at random? And in the second place, who will say that one does wrong—if it were possible—who gives himself to becoming uncircumcised on account of the unseemliness reckoned among the many in being circumcised? .. Now all these things have been said by us in order to show that the aim, for the divine power that has granted us the sacred Scriptures, is not to take up only the things presented by the letter—since these are sometimes, as far as the literal sense goes, not even true, but irrational and impossible—and that certain things are woven in with the history that happened and with the legislation useful according to the letter.

But lest anyone suppose that we say this in all cases—that no history really took place because some did not take place, and that no legislation is to be kept according to the letter because some, according to the letter, is irrational or impossible, or that the things written concerning the Savior are not true according to the perceptible sense, or that no legislation and commandment of his is to be observed—

it must be said that it is clearly evident to us, concerning certain things, that the history is true: as that Abraham was buried in the double cave at Hebron, along with Isaac and Jacob, and one wife of each of these; and that Shechem was given as a portion to Joseph; and that Jerusalem is the metropolis of Judea, in which a temple of God was built by Solomon; and countless other things.