導師 第 1 章 第 4/15 段

"Gluing together a potsherd and teaching a fool," He says, bringing the earth to perception and sharpening the despairing one to understanding.

For this reason He distinctly added:

rousing the sleeper from deep slumber—which most of all resembles death.

And indeed the Lord Himself most clearly reveals concerning Himself, allegorizing His manifold and most beneficial therapy, when, having said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman," He then again added, "Every branch in me that bears no fruit He takes away, and every one that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

For the vine that is not pruned runs riot in foliage; and so too does man.

And the Word, the pruning-knife, cleanses away his insolent offshoots, compelling the appetites to bear fruit, not to lust.

And rebuke directed at sinners has salvation as its aim, the Word being harmoniously modulated to suit the proper character of each person—now intensifying, now relaxing.

At any rate, it is most clearly said through Moses:

"Be of good courage, for God has come in order to test you, that the fear of Him may be in you, that you may not sin."

Hence Plato too, having learned this aright, says, "For all who pay the penalty truly experience good things."

For they are benefited in that their soul becomes better when they are justly chastised.

And if those who are corrected experience good things at the hands of the just one—even according to Plato—then it is agreed that the just one is good.

At any rate, fear itself benefits and has been devised for the good of men, since "a spirit that fears the Lord shall live."

For their hope is upon Him who saves them.

And this same Word, in imposing the penalty, is a judge, concerning whom Isaiah also says, "The Lord delivered Him up for our sins"—that is, plainly, as the corrector and the setter-straight of sins.

For this reason He alone is able to forgive trespasses, having been appointed by the Father of all as our Pedagogue—He alone able to distinguish obedience from disobedience.

But He who threatens is plainly unwilling to do any evil, nor to carry out the very things He threatens.

Rather, having put men in dread, He checked their impulse toward sins and displays His love for mankind, still intending and clearly declaring beforehand what they will suffer if they persist as sinners; He did not, like a serpent fastening on, bite at once.

And the Lord, before acting, in many cases makes use of the word.

"For my arrows," He says, "shall make an end of them;"

"they shall be consumed with hunger and devoured by birds, and there shall be an incurable spasm;"

"I will send the teeth of wild beasts against them, with the rage of creatures that crawl upon the earth."

"From without the sword shall bereave them of children, and from within the storerooms there shall be terror."

So that the Deity is not angry, as some have supposed; rather, most things are threatened, but in all things He has exhorted humanity and shown what ought to be done—

to instill fear, that we may not sin.

"For the fear of the Lord drives away sins, and he who is without fear cannot be justified," says the Scripture.

And God brings on chastisement not out of anger, but looks to what is just, since it is not expedient that justice be set aside on our account.

Each of us chooses his own punishments by sinning of his own free will;

the responsibility lies with the one who chooses; God is without blame.

"But if our unrighteousness establishes the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who brings on the wrath? God forbid."

"I will whet my sword, and my hand shall take hold of judgment, and I myself will render vengeance to my enemies, and I will repay those who hate me;"

"I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh from the blood of the slain."

For it is clear here that those who are not at enmity with the truth, nor hate the Word, would not hate their own salvation, but would escape the penalties of enmity.

"The crown of wisdom," therefore, as Wisdom says, "is the fear of the Lord."

At any rate, most clearly through Amos the prophet the Word has made known His own dispensation, saying, "I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became as a brand plucked out of the fire; and even so you did not return to me, says the Lord."

See how God, out of His love of the good, seeks repentance, and amid the dispensation of His threat quietly displays His own love for mankind.

"I will turn away," He says, "my face from them, and I will show what shall befall them."

For where the face of the Lord looks upon, there is peace and gladness; but from where it is turned away, an intrusion of wickedness arises.

He does not wish, then, to look upon evils;

but when He of His own will overlooks them, evil gains its origin among men through human unbelief.

"Behold, then," says Paul, "the goodness and severity of God;"

"toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness"—that is, in faith in Christ.

And upon the good one, who is good by nature, there follows hatred of evil.

Wherefore I would acknowledge that He chastises the unbelieving—for chastisement is for the good and benefit of the one chastised, since it is the correction of one who resists—but that He does not wish to take vengeance.

Vengeance is a repayment of evil sent back for the advantage of the one being avenged upon.

But He who teaches us to pray on behalf of those who spitefully use us would not desire to take vengeance.

But that God is good, even those who are unwilling—all of them—confess;

but that this same God is also just, I need no further words, having set forth the gospel utterance of the Lord:

"that all may be one, even as You, Father, are in me and I in You, that they also may be one in us, that the world also may believe that You sent me."

"And the glory which You gave me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one;"

"I in them and You in me, that they may be perfected into one."

And God is one, and beyond the one, and above the very monad itself.

Wherefore also the word "You," bearing a demonstrative force, points to the truly only Existing One, who was and is and shall be—God—over whom, throughout the three tenses of time, lies the one name, "He Who Is."

And that this same God, being alone, is also just, the Lord will testify in the same gospel, saying, "Father, those whom You have given me, I will that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory, which You gave me, because You loved me before the foundation of the world."

"Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent me;"

"and I have made known to them Your name, and will make it known."

This is He who renders the sins of the fathers upon the children to those who hate Him, and who shows mercy to those who love Him.

"A man," He says, "He will judge according to his works," since God has made known to us Jesus as the very face of righteousness, a good balance, through whom we have also come to know God, as it were from a scale of equal poise.

Concerning this, Wisdom also says expressly, "For mercy and wrath are with Him;"

for the Lord, this one alone, is the Lord of both;

"He is mighty in propitiations, and pours out wrath;"

"according to His great mercy, so also is His reproof;"

for the aim of both mercy and reproof is the good of those who are reproved.

Indeed, that God himself, the Father of our Lord Jesus, is good, the same reason will again confess; for he himself is kind toward the ungrateful and the wicked, and moreover he says, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; and yet again, when he plainly says, "None is good but my Father who is in heaven."

In addition to this he says again, "My Father makes his sun ... to rise upon all,"

Here it must be noted that he confesses his own Father to be both good and the Creator; and that the Creator is just is not disputed.

And again, "My Father," he says, "sends rain upon the just and the unjust."

And insofar as he sends rain, he is the Creator of the waters and the clouds; insofar as he sends it upon all, he holds the balance justly and without partiality; and as good, he sends it ... alike upon the just and the unjust.

Most clearly, then, we reason that there is one and the same God, somewhat in this way:

because "I shall behold the heavens, the works of your fingers," and "He who created the heavens dwells in the heavens," and "Heaven is your throne"—thus the Holy Spirit sang in the psalm;

and the Lord says in the prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven";

and the heavens belong to him who created the world;

it is therefore irrefutable that the Lord is indeed the Son of the Creator.

And if the Creator is acknowledged by all to be just, and the Lord is the Son of the Creator, then the Lord is the Son of the Just One.

For this reason Paul also says, "But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested"; and again, that you may all the more conceive of God as just, "even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe;

for there is no distinction." And further, bearing witness to the truth, a little later he adds, "in the forbearance of God, for the demonstration that he is just and the justifier of him who is of the faith ... of Jesus."

And that he knows the just to be also good, he plainly shows somewhere, saying, "So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good," assigning both ... names to one and the same power.

But also, "None is good but his Father";

therefore his Father is the same, who being one is made known through many powers;

and this was the meaning of "No one knew the Father"—who is all things—before the Son came;

so that it is truly evident that the God of the universe is one alone—good, just, Creator, the Son in the Father—to whom be the glory unto the ages ... of the ages. Amen.

But neither is it foreign to the saving Word to use rebuke out of tender care.

For indeed this too is a remedy of the divine love for humankind, by which the blush of shame breaks out and the sense of disgrace at sinning steals in.

For if one must censure, one must also rebuke, where it is timely to wound the soul that has grown callous—not mortally, but for salvation—since by a little ... pain it gains escape from everlasting death.

Great is the wisdom concerning his pedagogy, and the manner of his dispensation is manifold unto salvation.

For the Instructor bears witness to the good, summons the called toward what is better, turns aside from their impulse those who are eager to do wrong, and exhorts them to change ... to a better life.

For neither is left without testimony when the other is testified to; and the grace that comes from witness is greatest. But even the passionate quality of his anger—if indeed one must call his admonition anger—is a mark of love for humankind, since God descends to passions for the sake of man, for whose sake also the Word of God became man.

That it belongs to the same power both to benefit and to punish justly; wherein is set forth what is the manner of the Word's pedagogy.

With all his might, then, the Instructor of humanity, our divine Word, employing every device of wisdom, has set himself to save the little ones—admonishing, rebuking, censuring, reproving, threatening, healing, promising, granting favor—binding the irrational impulses of humanity, as it were, with many bridles.

To put it briefly, then, the Lord deals with us just as we also deal with our children.

"Have you children? Instruct them," Wisdom counsels, "and bend them from their youth."

"Have you daughters? Take care of their body, and do not let your face beam upon them."

And yet our children, both sons and daughters, we love exceedingly and ... above anything whatsoever.

But since those who converse so as to please love but little that which causes no pain, while those who apply astringents for benefit—though for the moment painful—do good for the age to come, the Lord looked not to the present pleasure but to the future delight.

Let us now proceed to the manner of his loving pedagogy, together with prophetic testimony.

Admonition, then, is censure arising from tender care, productive of understanding.

Such is the Instructor when admonishing, as also in the Gospel he says, "How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!"

And again the Scripture admonishes, saying, "And they committed adultery with the wood and the stone, and burned incense to Baal."

For it is the greatest proof of his love for humankind that, although he plainly knew the shamelessness of the people who had kicked back and leapt away, he nevertheless calls them to repentance and says through Ezekiel:

"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless speak to them, in case they should listen."

But also to Moses he says, "Go and say to Pharaoh that he should send forth the people; yet I know that he will by no means send them away."

For he displays both: the divine quality, in foreknowing what would come to pass, and his own love for humankind, in granting the soul's free will occasions for repentance.

He admonishes also through Isaiah, caring for the people, when he says:

"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me"—this is reproving censure;

"and in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."

Here his tender care, having exposed the sin, points by way of contrast to salvation.

Rebuke is censure over shameful deeds that draws one toward what is honorable.

This he displays through Jeremiah:

"They have become as lustful stallions; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife."

"Shall I not visit them for these things?" says the Lord;

"or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a people?" And everywhere he interweaves fear, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of perception."

And again through Hosea he says, "Shall I not visit them? for they themselves mingled with harlots and sacrificed with the initiates, and the people that has understanding entangled itself with a harlot."

He shows their offense more plainly, conceding that they have understanding, as those who sin willingly.

And understanding is the eye of the soul.

Wherefore also Israel means "he who sees God," that is, "he who understands God."

Censure is reproof addressed to those who are heedless or careless.

He employs this manner of pedagogy through Isaiah, saying:

"Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken:

I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me.

The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib, ... but Israel has not known me."

For how is it not dreadful, if he who knows God shall not know the Lord, but the ox and the ass—dull and foolish animals—recognize the one who feeds them, while Israel is found to be more irrational even than these? And through Jeremiah, having much censured the people, he adds:

"and they forsook me, says the Lord."

Reproof is rebuke that strikes, or censure that smites; and this treatment too the Instructor employs through Isaiah, saying:

"Woe, rebellious children! thus says the Lord:

you have made a plan, but not by me, and covenants, but not through my Spirit."

And at every turn he applies fear as a most pungent astringent, at once opening up and turning the people through it toward salvation, just as dyed wool also is wont to be pretreated with an astringent so that it may be readied for a firm taking of the dye.

Reproof in the sense of conviction is a bringing forth of sin into the open.

This manner of pedagogy he employs especially, as a necessary one, because of the slackness of the faith of the many.

For he says through Isaiah, "You have forsaken the Lord, and provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel."

And he says also through Jeremiah:

"The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly;

for this people has committed two evils:

they forsook me, the fountain of living water, and dug out broken cisterns that can hold no water."

"Jerusalem has sinned a sin;

therefore she has become an object of derision;

all who glorified her have despised her, because they saw her shame."

And the severity and striking force of the reproof he tempers through Solomon, hinting—by what is left unspoken—at the loving care that pedagogy has for its children:

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, nor faint when you are reproved by him."

For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives; for a sinful man avoids reproof.

Accordingly, then, let a righteous man reprove me, as the Scripture says, and let him correct me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.

Now prudence-instilling reproof (phrenōsis) is censure that produces good sense.

Nor has He refrained from this mode of instruction, but through Jeremiah He says:

How long shall I cry out, and they will not hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.

O blessed forbearance!

All the nations are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart.

For it is a disobedient people, sons, He says, in whom there is no faith.

Visitation (episkopē) is vehement rebuke.

He has employed this kind ... in the Gospel:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you!

And the doubling of the name has made the rebuke forceful.

For how does one who knows God persecute the ... servants of God? Therefore He says:

Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you:

from now on you shall not see Me, until you say:

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

For if you do not accept His loving-kindness, you shall come to know His authority.

Abuse (loidoria) is intensified censure.

He has employed abuse as a kind of medicine, saying through Isaiah: Woe to the sinful nation, lawless sons, a people full of sins, an evil seed; and in the Gospel through John He says: Serpents, brood of vipers.

Accusation (enklēsis) is censure of those who do wrong.

He has employed this method of instruction through David, saying: A people whom I did not know served Me, and at the hearing of the ear they obeyed Me; alien sons lied to Me and went lame away from their paths; and through Jeremiah:

And I gave her a bill of divorce, and faithless Judah was not afraid; and again:

And the house of Israel dealt treacherously against Me, and the house of Judah lied to the Lord.

Complaint (mempsimoiria) is a covert censure, which by skillful aid likewise dispenses salvation under a veil.

He has employed it through Jeremiah:

How does the city that was filled with peoples sit solitary? She has become as a widow;

she who was a princess among the provinces has become tributary;

she has wept bitterly in the night.

Disparagement (diasyrsis) is censure that tears down.

This aid too the divine Instructor has employed, saying through Jeremiah:

You have had the face of a harlot; you have been shameless toward all.

A fair and gracious harlot, mistress of sorceries.

Having very skillfully insulted the virgin with the name of harlotry, He then, by shaming her, calls her back to dignity.

Indignation (katanemesēsis) is lawful reproof, or reproof of sons who exalt themselves beyond what is fitting.

With this He instructed through Moses, saying: Children worthy of blame, a crooked and perverse generation, do you thus repay the Lord? This is a foolish people and not wise.

Is not this very One the Father who acquired you? And through Isaiah He says:

Your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing recompense, not giving judgment for orphans.

In general, the discourse concerning the fear of Him is a fountain of salvation, and to save is indeed the mark of one who is good;

and the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh,

reproving and disciplining and teaching, as a shepherd tends his flock.

He has mercy on those who accept discipline and on those who eagerly press toward cleaving to Him;

and by this means of guidance He preserved the six hundred thousand foot-soldiers, those gathered together in the hardness of heart that they had, scourging, showing mercy, smiting, healing, keeping them safe in compassion and discipline.

For according to the greatness of His mercy, so also is His reproof.

For it is good not to sin, but it is also good for one who has sinned to repent—just as it is best ... always to be in health, yet it is good also to recover from disease.

In this way too it is enjoined through Solomon:

Strike your son with the rod, and deliver his soul from death.

Do not withhold discipline from a child; chastise him with the rod, ... for he will not die.

For reproof and rebuke—as indeed the very name hints—are blows to the soul, bringing the sins to their senses and warding off death, and leading those who are being carried down into licentiousness toward self-control.

In this way too Plato, knowing that reproof is the greatest power of correction and the most authoritative purification, consistently with reason holds that the man who is most greatly impure has become uninstructed and base through being unreproved, whereas he who is truly to be happy ought to have been most pure and most fair.

For if rulers are not a terror to good work, how shall God, who is by nature good, be a terror to one who does not sin? But if ... you do what is evil, be afraid, as the Apostle says.

For this reason too the Apostle himself, after the image of the Lord, on every occasion bracingly restrains the churches; and being conscious both of his own boldness of speech and of the weakness of his hearers, he says to the Galatians:

Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? But as those who are in health have no need of a physician, inasmuch as they are strong, while the sick stand in need of his art, so we too, who are diseased in our life with respect to the shameful lusts, the blameworthy intemperances, and the other inflammations of the passions, stand in need of the Savior;

and He sprinkles on not only soothing medicines but also astringent ones.

At any rate, the bitter roots of fear check the spreadings of the sins;

wherefore fear is also salutary, even though it be bitter.

Reasonably, then, we who are sick have need of a Savior, those who have gone astray of One to lead the way, the blind of One to bring them to the light, the thirsty of the fountain of life, from which those who partake shall thirst no more; the dead have need of life, the sheep of the shepherd, the children of the Instructor—indeed, all humanity has need of Jesus, so that we may not, as undisciplined and sinful, fall away into the end of condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff and heaped up into the Father's storehouse;

for the winnowing-fan is in the hand of the Lord, with which He separates from the wheat the chaff that is owed to the fire.

And it is possible for us, if you wish, to learn thoroughly the consummate wisdom of the all-holy Shepherd and Instructor, the almighty and paternal Word, where He speaks allegorically, calling Himself the shepherd of the sheep ...:

and He is the instructor of little children,

setting before them a certain saving pattern of well-reasoned care:

And I will bind up that which is lame, and I will heal that which is troubled, and I will turn back that which is straying, and I Myself will feed them upon My holy mountain.

These are the promises of a good shepherd;

feed us ... the little children as sheep.

Yes, Master, fill us with Your own pasture, with righteousness;

yes, Instructor, shepherd us unto Your holy mountain, to the Church, the exalted, the one above the clouds, the one that touches the heavens.

And I will be, He says, their shepherd, and I will be near them as the tunic upon their skin;

He wills to save my flesh, having clothed me in the ... tunic of incorruption, and He has anointed my skin.

They shall call upon Me, He says, and I will say:

You have answered more quickly than I expected, Master;

and if they pass over, they shall not slip, says the Lord.

For we who pass over into incorruption shall not fall into corruption, because He Himself will hold fast to us;

for He Himself has spoken it and He Himself has willed it.

Such is our Instructor—justly good.

I came not, He says, to be served, but to serve.

For this reason He is introduced in the Gospel as wearied—He who toils on our behalf and promises to give His own life as a ransom in exchange for many ...

For this one alone does he confess to be the good shepherd.

Bountiful, then, is he who gives up the greatest thing on our behalf, his own life; and greatly beneficial and loving toward mankind, since, though it was open to him to be Lord of men, he chose rather to be their brother.

And he was good to such a degree that he even consented to die on our behalf.

But his justice also cries aloud:

If you come to me upright, I too will be upright toward you;

if you walk crookedly, I too will be crooked, says the Lord of hosts—hinting by this at the crooked ways of sinners as the rebukes they incur.

For the straight way, the way according to nature, which the iota of "Jesus" (Iesous) symbolizes, is his goodness—unmovable and unswerving toward those who have believed out of obedience.

Because I called and you did not obey, says the Lord, but made my counsels of no effect, and gave no heed to my reproofs.

Thus the Lord's reproof is most beneficial.

Concerning these things he speaks also through David:

A crooked and embittering generation, a generation that did not make its heart straight, and whose spirit was not faithful with God.

They did not keep the covenant of God, and would not walk in his law.

These are the causes of provocation, on account of which the Judge comes to bring judgment upon those who were unwilling to choose the good life.

For this reason he has from here on dealt with them more harshly, in the hope of somehow checking their headlong rush toward death.

At any rate, through David he states most clearly the cause of his threat:

They did not believe in his wonders.

When he slew them, they sought him out, and turned back, and rose early to seek God, and remembered that God is their helper, and God the Most High is their redeemer.

Thus he knows them to be turning back out of fear, while they have despised his loving-kindness.

For the good, when it is forever showing kindness, is for the most part disregarded; but it is heeded when it reminds men, by the fear of justice, of the One who loves mankind.

There are two kinds of fear: the one arises together with reverence, such as good citizens feel toward good rulers, and as we feel toward God, just as prudent children feel toward their fathers;

for an untamed horse, he says, turns out hard-mouthed, and a son left to himself turns out headstrong;

but the other kind of fear arises together with hatred, such as slaves feel toward harsh masters, and the Hebrews felt, who made God a master, not a father.

And by far, I think—indeed in every respect—what is voluntary and according to free choice differs, in regard to godliness, from what is by compulsion.

For he himself, it says, is compassionate; he will heal their sins and will not destroy them;

and he will be abundant in turning away his anger, and will not kindle all his wrath.

He shows the justice of the Instructor in regard to his rebukes, and the goodness of God in regard to his acts of compassion.

For this reason David—that is, the Spirit speaking through him—embracing both, sings concerning one and the same God:

Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of your throne;

mercy and truth shall go before your face.

He acknowledges that it belongs to one and the same power both to judge and to do good;

for the authority of both is at once present in the just one's verdict, which discriminates between contraries.

And the same one is both just and good—he who is truly God, who is himself all things and all things are himself, because he is God, the only God.

For as the mirror is not evil to the ugly man because it shows him as he is, and as the physician is not bad to the sick man when he announces to him his fever—for the physician is not the cause of the fever but is the detector of the fever—so neither is he who reproves ill-disposed toward the one whose soul is ailing;

for he does not implant the transgressions, but points out the sins that are already present, for the turning away from like practices.

So that God is good for his own sake, but just now on our account—and this too because he is good.

And his justice he displays to us through his own Word from there, from on high, from whence he became Father.