雜記（八卷） 第 1 章 第 18/42 段

Whence, when reasonably called, the gnostic readily obeys, and even to one who demands his little body, brings it and gives it up, along with its sufferings, stripping these things off beforehand from his flesh—not insulting the one who tests him, but instructing and refuting him, I think, showing ‘from what honor and what length of bliss,’ as Empedocles says, he has come here and now consorts with mortals.

This man truly bears witness—to himself, that he is genuinely faithful toward God; to the tempter, that he has striven in vain against the one who is faithful through love; and again to the Lord, of his God-given conviction concerning the teaching, from which he will not depart out of fear of death; yes, and he confirms in deed the truth of the proclamation, showing that the God toward whom he hastens is powerful.

You might admire his love, which he clearly teaches by being thankfully united to his kindred, and moreover by shaming the unbelievers through his precious blood.

This man, then, will not turn away from denying Christ merely out of fear because of the commandment, so that he should become a martyr merely out of fear.

Nor indeed, selling his faith for the hope of prepared rewards, but out of love toward the Lord, he will be released from this life most gladly, knowing that he owes thanks, perhaps, even to the one who provided the occasion of his departure hence, and to the one who devised the plot against him, since he has received a reasonable pretext—one which he himself did not furnish—to show who he is: to the one, through endurance; but to the Lord, through love, by which he manifested to the Lord—who knew even before his birth the resolve of the one who was going to bear witness—his true character.

Taking courage, then, toward the Lord as a friend, for whose sake he has willingly given up even his body, and moreover his soul as well, contrary to what his judges expected, he comes to the Lord, hearing, poetically as it were, from our Savior, ‘dear brother,’ on account of the likeness of his life to Christ’s.

Thus we call martyrdom ‘perfection’—not because the man received the end of his life as others do, but because he displayed a perfect work of love.

And the ancients among the Greeks also praise the end of those who died in war—not advising that one should die by violence, but because the man who dies in battle, being unafraid of death, is released, severed from the body, without having grown weary beforehand in soul, nor having become enfeebled, as men suffer in cases of illness.

For they are released growing effeminate and longing to live.

For this reason they do not release the soul pure, but the soul departs carrying with itself its desires like leaden weights, unless some of these have become notable for virtue.

Even if they were wasting away with disease.

If, then, confession toward God is testimony, then every soul that has lived purely with the knowledge of God, obedient to the commandments, is a witness both in life and in word, whenever it is released from the body, pouring out its faith like blood throughout the whole of its life, and moreover at its departure as well.

Thus the Lord says in the Gospel:

‘Whoever leaves father or mother or brothers,’ and so on, ‘for the sake of the gospel and of my name, blessed is he’—not indicating the simple witness, but the gnostic one, as one who has lived according to the rule of the gospel through love toward the Lord.

For knowledge of the name and understanding of the gospel signify gnosis, not the bare title; it means to leave behind one’s worldly kindred, and to leave behind substance and every possession, on account of living without attachment.

Thus one’s fatherland is allegorically called mother and nurse, and the civic laws are called fathers.

These things the great-souled righteous man must indeed look beyond thankfully, for the sake of becoming a friend of God and obtaining the right-hand portions of the sanctuary, just as the apostles also have done.

Then again, Heraclitus says that gods and men honor those slain in war, and Plato writes in the fifth book of the Republic:

‘Of those, then, who die on campaign, whoever dies having won distinction—shall we not say, first of all, that he is of the golden race?’ ‘Yes, most certainly of all.’

But the golden race belongs to the gods who are in heaven and in the fixed sphere, who especially hold the leadership of providence over mankind.

But certain of the heretics, having misheard the Lord, both impiously and cowardly cling to their own life, saying that the true witness is the knowledge of the God who truly exists—which we too confess—but that the one who has confessed Christ through death is his own murderer and self-slayer, and bringing forward other such sophistries of cowardice.

To these it will be said, whenever the occasion demands it.

For they differ ... from us concerning first principles.

But we too blame those who rush headlong upon death.

For there are some who are not ours, sharing only in the name, who indeed hasten to hand themselves over out of hatred toward the Creator — wretched men, in love with death.

Of these we say that they lead themselves out of life without witness ... even if they are publicly punished.

For they do not preserve the character of the faithful martyr's testimony, since they have not known the true God, but give themselves up to an empty death, just as the naked philosophers of the Indians give themselves to a vain fire.

But since these falsely-named men slander the body, let them learn that the body's good harmony also contributes ... to the mind's natural excellence.

For this reason Plato, in the third book of the Republic — whom they especially invoke as a witness when they revile creation — said that one must care for the body for the sake of the soul's harmony, through which it is possible both to live, and to live rightly, proclaiming the preaching of the truth.

For it is by traveling the road of life and health that we thoroughly learn knowledge.

But for one who cannot approach the heights at all without being among the necessities of life, and through them doing everything that tends toward knowledge, how should living well not be chosen by him? For it is in living that living well is achieved, and he who has practiced good life through the body is conveyed onward to a state of eternity.

It is also worth marveling at the Stoics, who say that the soul is in no way affected by the body — disposed neither toward vice by sickness nor toward virtue by health.

But they say that both of these are matters of indifference.

And yet Job too, by the excess of his self-control and the superiority of his faith — having become poor instead of rich, dishonored instead of glorious, unsightly instead of comely, and sick instead of healthy — is recorded for us as a good example, putting to shame the one who tempted him, blessing the one who formed him, bearing his second lot just as he had borne his first, teaching very well that the Gnostic can make good use of absolutely every circumstance.

He says that his bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole praetorium and to all the rest, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of his bonds, dared all the more boldly and fearlessly to speak the word of God — since indeed martyrdoms too are gloriously sanctified examples of conversion.

For whatever things were written, he says, were written for our instruction, that through the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have the hope of comfort.

It seems that in some way, when pain is present, the soul turns away from it and regards deliverance from the present distress as a precious thing.

Indeed, at that very time it grows negligent even of its studies, precisely when the other virtues too have been neglected.

And surely we do not say that virtue itself suffers — for virtue does not fall sick — but the one who partakes of both virtue and sickness is afflicted by the pressing distress.

And if he happens not to rise above it with a lofty mind, one who has not yet acquired the settled habit of self-control loses his composure, and not enduring is found to be equivalent to fleeing.

The same argument holds also concerning poverty, since it too — I mean of contemplation and of pure sinlessness — forces itself upon the soul and occupies it, being one of the necessities, compelling one who has not devoted himself wholly to God through love to spend his time on the means of livelihood; whereas, conversely, health and an abundance of what is needful keep the soul free and unhindered, so long as it knows how to make good use of what is present.

For such people, says the apostle, will have affliction in the flesh; but I would spare you.

For I want you to be free from care, with a view to what is seemly and to attending upon the Lord without distraction.

These things, then, are to be held to not for their own sake, but for the sake of the body; and the care of the body is undertaken for the sake of the soul, to which the reference is ultimately made.

For it is in the soul that one who lives as a true Gnostic must necessarily learn what is fitting, since it has been agreed that pleasure is not a good, from the fact that some pleasures are evil.

By this reasoning ... the good is shown to be evil, and the evil good.

Furthermore, if we choose some of the pleasures and flee others, then not every pleasure ... is a good.

Likewise the same reasoning applies also to pains: some we endure, others we flee, and this choosing and avoiding occurs according to knowledge.

So that knowledge is the good, not pleasure — for it is on account of knowledge that there are times when we shall even choose a particular pleasure.

For instance, the martyr chooses the pleasure that comes through hope by way of present pain.

And if pain is conceived in relation to thirst, and pleasure in relation to drinking, then the pain that existed beforehand becomes what produces the pleasure.

But evil could not be productive of good; therefore neither of the two is evil.

Simonides, then, just like Aristotle, writes that to be healthy is best for a man, second is to be born fair of form, and third is to be wealthy without deceit.

'One must, fleeing poverty, hurl oneself even into the deep-yawning sea, Cyrnus, and down from sheer, towering cliffs.'

But conversely Antiphanes the comic poet says, 'Wealth,' he says, 'more...'

...taking hold of those who see, makes them blind.

For instance, he is proclaimed by the poets to be blind from birth.

'And she bore him a son who never saw the sun,' says Euphorion of Chalcis.

'Wealth, then, was some evil training for men toward manly virtue, and excessive luxury as well' — thus Euripides has composed it in his Alexander.

Poverty has obtained wisdom as its lot, because of their kinship.

But the love of money would destroy not Sparta alone, but every city.

This coinage, then, is not only white silver or gold, but virtue also is a coinage for mortals, as Sophocles says.

Our holy Savior has ordained poverty and wealth and things like these, both with reference to the spiritual and with reference to the sensible.

For in saying, 'Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake' ... he clearly teaches us to seek the witness in every circumstance.

Whoever is poor for righteousness' sake bears witness that righteousness, which he has loved, is a good; and if he hungers or thirsts for righteousness' sake, he bears witness that righteousness happens to be the highest good.

One who mourns ... for righteousness' sake bears witness that it is a fine thing to belong to the best law.

As, then, he calls the persecuted blessed, so too he calls blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness — he who welcomes genuine longing ... which not even famine has had the power to cut short.

And if they hunger for righteousness itself, they are blessed.

Blessed also are the poor, whether in spirit or in possessions ... clearly, for righteousness' sake.

Is it not, then, not simply the poor as such, but those who have willingly become poor for righteousness' sake, whom he calls blessed — those who have looked with lofty disdain upon the honors of this world for the acquiring of the good; and likewise also those who have become fair in character and body through purity, the noble and glorious ones, those who through righteousness have come to adoption as sons and have thereby received authority to become children of God, and to walk upon serpents and scorpions ... and to have dominion also over demons and over the army of the adversary?

And, in general, the Lord's own discipline leads the soul away from the body with thankfulness ... inasmuch as the soul itself also, by a kind of transposition, withdraws itself.

For 'he who finds his soul will lose it, and he who loses it will find it' — provided only that we cast our perishable part upon the incorruptibility of God.

And the will of God is the knowledge of God, which is communion with incorruptibility.

He, then, who recognizes his soul as sinful, according to the reasoning of repentance, will lose it from the sin from which it has been torn away; and having lost it, he will find it again through obedience, having come alive by faith, but having died to sin.

This, then, is what it means to find one's soul: to know oneself.

As for the conversion toward the divine, the Stoics say it comes about through a change, the soul changing into wisdom ... whereas Plato speaks of the soul's undergoing a turning to the better and a conversion, as it were, out of a certain night into day.

For instance, even the philosophers grant the virtuous man a reasonable departure from life, if something should so deprive him of the power to act that there no longer remains for him even the hope of acting.

But the judge who compels by force one who is beloved to deny him seems to me thereby to expose who is a friend to God and who is not.

Here there no longer remains even any comparison as to which one might rather choose ... a human threat, or the love of God.

And in some way, abstention from evil deeds is found to be a diminishing and quenching of the vices, since their activity is destroyed through inaction; and this is what 'Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and come, follow me' means — that is, follow the things spoken by the Lord.

But some say that by 'possessions' he meant the things alien to the soul, and yet they are unable to say how these are to be distributed to the poor.

But God, for he distributes all things ... to all according to worth, since his dispensation is just.

'Having despised, then,' he says, 'through your own magnanimity the possessions which God distributes, follow the things spoken by me' — hastening toward the ascent of the spirit, being justified not by abstention from evils alone, but also, in addition, being made perfect by the Lord's own beneficence.

For instance, he refuted the one who boasted of having perfectly fulfilled the commandments of the Law, showing that he had not loved his neighbor.

But love, which by a gnostic ascent has lordship over the Sabbath, promises beneficence.

But I think one ought to have come to the saving word neither through fear of punishment, nor because of certain promises of reward, but for the sake of the good itself.

Such persons stand at the right hand of the sanctuary.

But those who, by the giving of perishable things, suppose that they are exchanging them for the things of incorruption, are called, in the parable of the two brothers, hired servants; and does not the matter of likeness and image emerge here too — so that those who share citizenship according to their likeness to the Savior stand at his right, while those who stand at his left do so according to the image of these hired servants?

They are, then, third in rank from the truth, since a single root underlies both, though their choice is not equal — or rather, the difference according to their choice is not equal.

But I think there is a difference between one who chooses by imitation and one who chooses by knowledge, as between that which has been set on fire and that which has been illumined <as compared with fire itself and light itself>.

Israel, then, is the light corresponding to the likeness spoken of in Scripture, while the other is merely an image.

But what does the Lord mean by the parable of Lazarus, which sets forth the image of a rich man and a poor man? And what does it mean that no one can serve two masters, God and mammon, the Lord thus naming avarice? At once, when invited to the calling of the supper, those who love possessions, though called, do not come—not because they possess, but because they possess with inordinate attachment.

The foxes, then, have holes.

He called those wicked, earth-born men who spend their time about wealth that is mined and dug from the ground 'foxes.'

Likewise also concerning Herod: 'Go, tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected.'

For by 'birds of heaven' he called those distinguished from the other birds by their heaven-directed nature, truly clean, those able to fly upward to the knowledge of the heavenly Word.

For it is not only wealth and glory and marriage, but also poverty, for the one who does not bear it well, that brings countless cares; and did he not hint at these very cares in the parable of the four kinds of soil, saying that the seed of the word which fell among thorns and hedges was choked by them and was unable to bear fruit?

It is therefore necessary to learn how one must make use of each thing that befalls us, so that through a life of gnostic well-living we may be trained together into a settled disposition of eternal life.

'For I have seen,' he says, 'the ungodly greatly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by,' says the Scripture, 'and behold, he was not.'

'And I sought him, and his place was not found.'

'Keep innocence, and behold uprightness, for there is a remnant for the peaceable man.'

This would be the one who believes without hypocrisy with his whole heart, and is serene with his whole soul.

For the other people honor with their lips, but their heart is far removed from the Lord.

With their mouth they bless, but in their heart they curse.

'They loved him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him;'

'but their heart was not upright with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant.'

'Therefore let the deceitful lips become mute,'

'which speak iniquity against the righteous.'

'May the Lord utterly destroy all the deceitful lips, and the boastful tongue, of those who said,'

'We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own;'

'who is lord over us?' 'Because of the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now I will arise,' says the Lord;

'I will set him in safety; I will speak of it boldly.'

For Christ belongs to those who are humble-minded, not to those who exalt themselves over his flock.

'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break through and steal' — the Lord says this, perhaps reproaching those who love possessions, perhaps also simply those who are full of care and anxiety, and indeed also those who are lovers of the body.

For passionate desires and sicknesses and base reasonings dig through the reasoning faculty and the whole man, but our true treasure is there where is the kinship of the mind.

Furthermore he hands down the communal character of righteousness, showing that we must render back to the habit of our old manner of life the things which by it we have acquired around us, and run back to God, asking for mercy.

This is truly a purse that does not grow old, provision for eternal life, a treasure that does not fail in heaven, because 'in showing mercy I will show mercy on whomever I show mercy,' says the Lord.

He says these things also to those who wish to become poor for the sake of righteousness.

For they have heard through the commandment that the wide and broad way leads away to destruction, and many are those who pass through it.

He speaks of nothing else but dissoluteness and fondness for women, love of glory, love of rule, and the like passions.

For thus he said: 'Fool, this very night your soul is required of you;'

'and the things you have prepared for it, whose will they be?' And thus the commandment stands, word for word:

'Take heed, therefore, and beware of all covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'

'What is a man profited if he gains the whole world but forfeits his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' Therefore I say:

'Do not be anxious for your soul, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on;'

'for the soul is more than food, and the body more than clothing.'

'For your Father knows that you need all these things.'

'But seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, for these are great things, while the small things pertaining to livelihood shall be added to you.'

Does he not plainly enjoin us to pursue the gnostic life, and urge us to seek the truth both in deed and in word? Christ, therefore, who trains the soul, reckons as rich not the giving, but the intention.

Zacchaeus, then—though some say Matthias—the chief tax collector, having heard that the Lord deigned to come to him, said, 'Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I give as alms, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.'

Concerning whom the Savior also said:

'The Son of Man, having come today, has found that which was lost.'

And again, having observed at the treasury the rich man casting in an amount proportionate to his wealth, and the widow two copper coins, he said that the widow had cast in more than all.

For he contributed out of his abundance, but she out of her want.

And that he referred everything back to the education of the soul, he says: 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'

The meek are those who have brought to an end the truceless war within the soul—of anger and desire, and of the forms subordinate to these.

He praises as meek those who are meek by choice, not by necessity.

For with the Lord there are also rewards and many mansions, in proportion to ways of life;

'For whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward, and whoever receives one of these little ones as a disciple shall not lose his reward.'

Again, moreover, through the hours that were not equal in number, and further through the equal wage given to each of the laborers (that is, salvation, which the denarius signifies), he has made known the justice which is impartial for all, by means of those who worked during unmatched hours.

They will therefore labor according to the mansions proportionate to the honors of which they have been deemed worthy, fellow-workers in the ineffable dispensation and ministry.

'But those who are judged to have been exceptionally devoted to holy living,' says Plato, 'these are they who are set free from these earthly places and released as from prisons, and ascend to a pure dwelling above.'

And again, in clearer terms, he says the same thing somewhat as follows:

'Of these, those who have been sufficiently purified through philosophy live altogether without bodies for all time to come, though he assigns to some of them certain forms—airy ones to some, and fiery ones to others.'

'And they arrive at dwellings still more beautiful than these, which it is neither easy to describe, nor is the time sufficient for it at present.'

Whence fittingly, 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.'

For those who repent of the evil life they have previously led shall be present at the calling;

for this is what it means to be comforted.

Now there are two ways of repenting: the more common one is fear on account of the things done; the more particular one is the soul's shame before itself, arising from conscience, whether here or elsewhere—since no place is void of the good working of God.

'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.'

But mercy is not, as some of the philosophers have supposed, grief over another's misfortunes; rather, it is something gracious and refined, as the prophets say.

'For I desire mercy,' he says, 'and not sacrifice.'

He wishes those to be merciful not only who perform acts of mercy, but also those who desire to show mercy even if they are unable, since for them the acting is present according to their intention;

—to act, as in supplying one in need, or attending a sick person, or standing by one who has fallen into distress—and we are not able, whether because of poverty or sickness or old age (for this too is a kind of natural sickness), to carry out in service the intention toward which we set out, not having been able to bring to completion what we had resolved.

Those who have resolved to do good, then, shall share the same honor with those who were able to do it, since their intention is equal, even if others surpass them in abundance of means.

Now since there are found to be two roads leading to the perfection of salvation, namely works and knowledge, he called blessed 'the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

And indeed, if we truly examine the matter, knowledge—by which comes the purification of the soul's ruling faculty—is itself also a good activity.

Now some things are good in themselves, and others share in the good, as we say of good actions;

but without the intermediate things, which indeed occupy the rank of matter, neither good nor evil actions can come into being—I mean, for instance, life and health, and the other things which are necessary or circumstantial.

He wishes those to be pure with respect to bodily desires, and their reasonings holy which arrive at the knowledge of God, so that the ruling faculty may have nothing spurious obstructing its own power.

When, therefore, he who partakes gnostically of the holy quality abides in contemplation, communing purely with the divine, he comes more closely into a settled state of impassible identity, so that he no longer merely has knowledge and possesses understanding, but himself becomes knowledge and understanding.

Blessed, therefore, are the peacemakers.

those who have tamed and civilized the law that campaigns as counter-general against the disposition of our mind — the threats of anger, the baits of desire, and the other passions, all that make war on reason — and who have lived their lives with knowledge, good works, and true reason, shall be restored to that most beloved adoption as sons...

Perfect peacemaking would be that which preserves the peaceful disposition unchanged amid every occurrence, calling the administration [of the world] holy and good, being established in the knowledge of divine and human affairs, through which it reckons the contrarieties in the world to be the most beautiful harmony of creation.

And they make peace also for those who here are warred upon by the stratagems of sin, by teaching them anew to pass over to faith and to peace.

The sum, I think, of all virtue, the Lord teaches us, is that we must, in a more gnostic manner, despise death for love's sake toward God.

'Blessed,' he says, 'are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall be called sons of God' — or, as some who alter the Gospels have it:

'Blessed,' he says, 'are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall be perfect.'

'And blessed are they who have been persecuted for my sake, ... for they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted.'

'And blessed are you when men hate you, when they separate you, when they cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.'

provided, of course, that we do not abhor those who persecute us, and that we endure the punishments inflicted by them without hating them, considering that we have been tried more slowly than we expected, but also knowing this — that whatever trial it may be is an occasion for martyrdom.

Then he who has lied and shown himself faithless and gone over to the army of the devil — in what evil, do we suppose, is he? ... He, then, who does not believe God lies against the Lord, or rather has cheated himself of his own hope.

He does not believe who does not do what He commanded.

What then? Does not he who denies the Lord deny himself? For he does not, indeed, take the Master away from His lordship — this man who [merely] deprives himself of his kinship with Him.

He, then, who denies the Savior denies life, for the light was life.

He does not call these 'of little faith,' but faithless and hypocrites — inscribed with the name, but in reality denying that they are faithful.

And he is called both faithful servant and friend.

So that if anyone loves himself, he loves the Lord and confesses [Him] unto salvation, ... that he may save his soul.

...love, and you should suppose the Savior to be our neighbor (for God who saves was said to draw near to the one being saved) — you will die, having chosen death for the sake of life, and suffering for your own sake rather than for His.

And is it not for this reason that he is called 'brother'?

[Because] he who suffers on account of love toward God suffers for his own salvation; and again, he who dies for his own salvation endures it on account of love for the Lord.