箴言註解 第 1 章 第 1/4 段

Those readings to which the obeli are affixed were not found either among the other translators or in the Hebrew, but only among the Seventy alone.

And those readings to which the asterisks are affixed were found in the Hebrew and among the other translators, but no longer among the Seventy.

But the readings that are at once both asterisked and obelized are found among the Seventy, and are also found in the Hebrew and among the other translators, but the other translators and the Hebrew differ from the Seventy only in position.

Hence they are marked with both the obelus and the asterisk together, as being found in all of them, but not in the same places.

The book, then, follows the position and order of the Seventy, but the order of the others has also been noted, as the readings stand among them.

And where the rearrangement among them occurs in only a few readings, it is immediately evident from the signs placed alongside;

but where it occurs in more readings — which is also the last instance — it has the following order among the others:

After "But who shall know the punishments of both?" they join "But these things I say to you, the wise, that you may recognize them," continuing up to "And your want shall come like a good runner."

Then, "These are the instructions of Solomon," continuing up to "An abomination ("

abbreviated 'βδέλλ.') is the way that guides the lawless aright."

Then, "He who keeps the word shall be kept safe from being a son of destruction," continuing up to "And their poor from among men."

Then, "The leech had three daughters," continuing up to "But discern the poor and the weak."

We have set these things down so that, should such a copy be met with, the book may not seem to be at fault.

The others [read]: "But the punishments..."

Then, "These things I say," continuing up to "And your want."

Then, "These are the instructions," continuing up to "An abomination ("

Then, "He who keeps the word," continuing up to "And the poor."

Then, "The leech had three," continuing up to "But discern."

There are [scholia] which have a number set before them here — namely, those which have "Origen" inscribed by this single-syllable abbreviation, "Or.";

and they are found chiefly in the book of Job.

And the scholia that concern a disagreement of certain readings within the text, or of the editions, which have set before them a dotted mark inclined downward, belong to those who collated the book;

and the readings that lie doubtfully outside the text have set before them a dotted mark inclined outward; they were appended because of the scholia — inasmuch as the great teacher spoke with reference to them — so that the scholion might not seem to be directed at nothing, since in many of the manuscript copies the readings stand in this way, though in this copy they are not so placed, or are not found at all, and were for this reason appended.

A proverb is a discourse that, by means of sensible things, signifies intelligible things.

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

"He reigned in Israel, that he might know instruction and wisdom."

And wisdom is the knowledge of corporeal and incorporeal things, and of the judgment and providence contemplated within them;

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

[δ] "To direct judgment aright" signifies that the criterion is right and undistorted.

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

Sense-perception is of sensible things;

reason is of names and verbs and of the things said;

[α] Just as the mind, through the senses, apprehends sensible things, so also, through the virtues, it beholds intelligible things;

wherefore the wise Solomon also teaches us that they hold the function of sense-perception.

[β] "Those who acquire vice will despise wisdom and instruction";

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

[γ] Just as, here, the crown of the head and the neck signify the mind, so also, here, the garland and the collar 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.

But he does not set down the names arbitrarily, as some suppose;

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

[δ] "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."

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

[ε] The demons despoil those whom they conquer, taking from them the panoply of God — the helmet, and the breastplate, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

These are joint-heirs with the adversaries, they who partake of the same vice as they do.

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

The net is the eternal punishment brought by the righteous judge upon impure souls, for the destruction of the wings that have wickedly grown forth from them.

He now calls "exodus" the soul that has come forth from vice and ignorance;

and such also is the exodus of the sons of Israel, which came to pass after the generation that arose from the judgment of God and his teaching.

And he calls this same soul also "broad";

for it says, "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it";

and, "Be enlarged, you also" — Paul, in the letter to the Corinthians.

And by the soul that thus goes forth, wisdom is hymned;

but in the soul that is enlarged through the virtues, it speaks with boldness.

And "the top of its wall" he calls the utmost freedom from passion;

since indeed those who love the law surround themselves with a wall —

concerning which wall David also prays, saying:

"Let the walls of Jerusalem be built" — that is, the walls of such a soul that have fallen down, evidently because of the matter of Uriah.

And he calls "the gates of the mighty" the virtues of the wise;

for it says, "Open to me the gates of righteousness";

and, "The mighty are prone to wrath; let them not drink wine, lest, having drunk, they forget wisdom and be unable to judge the weak rightly."

How then does Solomon say earlier:

"He who rejoices over one perishing shall not be held guiltless"? Or perhaps wisdom rejoices in this way, just as it rejoiced over the ruin of Matthew the tax-collector, and over the ruin of the robber who believed in Christ;

for wisdom destroyed the robber in the one case, and the tax-collector in the other.

The siege is ethical teaching, which overturns the soul that has been badly built.

If it is in our power both to wish to attend to the counsels of wisdom and to wish 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, nor obey me, the sword shall devour you";

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

Just as infants stand between the righteous and the unrighteous, so also all men stand between angels and demons, being neither demons nor accounted as angels, until the consummation of the age.

He who is free from passion rests in quiet, without fear, from every evil thought.

This is the one who hides the commandment of God: he who does it — since indeed the demons too are said to snatch it away, by not permitting us to do it.

Here he calls "the voice" the soul's freedom from passion;

for it is its nature to invoke the knowledge of God,

"With my voice I cried out to the Lord," and again:

"Attend to the voice of my supplication."

But wisdom and understanding must exist beforehand, so that one may be able to understand the fear of the Lord;

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

He calls "axles" the commandments of God that lead us to the knowledge of God.

"Therefore I set myself right by all your commandments."

The holy angels speak all things that are trustworthy;

but men speak some things trustworthy and some untrustworthy;

but the devil speaks nothing trustworthy — the phrase standing for "not worthy of belief."

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

If counsel is a certain movement of the mind, how could it have abandoned the teaching of youth? And how did it also forget the divine covenant? For he speaks to us of the evil counsel as though of a rational living being.

Or else he here calls the devil "evil counsel";

for he counseled evilly, saying, "I will set my throne above the stars; I will be like the Most High."

and he also forgot the divine knowledge, having abandoned the teaching of his youth;

which "youth" signifies his former condition, in which he was also an object of envy among the trees of paradise.

"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 lay hold of straight paths;

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

"Those," it says, "who remained in innocence were left in the land" — that is, in knowledge;

but those who fell through vice shall, through goodness, return again. This is the one who forgets the law: he who does not live according to it;

this is the one who remembers the law: he who lives according to it;

and if it is he who keeps the words of God who does them, then it is he who destroys them who is unwilling to practice them;

for it is not the hearers of the law, it says, who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

"Do not be puffed up," it says, "having acquired the wisdom of God";

and that he here means both the wisdom of God and this same wisdom as human, he shows by what he adds next:

"For in all your ways," it says, "acknowledge her, that she may make straight your paths."

When the faculties of the soul receive due care, then they will say, "Lord, who is like you?" For it says, "All my bones shall say, Lord, Lord, who is like you?" For the memorial faculty of the soul, having received care, will certainly say, "I remembered God and rejoiced";

and likewise the visual faculty will say, "I considered your works and was amazed";

and likewise the desiring faculty will say, "Lord, before you is all my desire";

and the reasoning faculty will also say, "I considered the days of old."

and the same will hold in every respect for the other faculties as well.

In some manuscripts the phrase "abundance of grain" is found;

but "of grain" stands neither in the Hebrew nor in the text of the Seventy.

Against wisdom alone the demons are powerless, being denied permission to cast thoughts into the heart of the one made wise;

for the mind, occupied with the contemplations of wisdom, becomes incapable of receiving an unclean thought.

A pure mind draws near to wisdom;

but the impure mind will be removed far from it. From this tree, after the transgression, Adam is prevented from partaking, since indeed the tree of life grows from the fruits of righteousness;

and if the tree of life is the wisdom of God, he is justly prevented from touching this tree;

"for into a soul that devises evil," it says, "wisdom will not enter."

"God by wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding prepared the heavens;"

"and by his perception the depths were broken open, and the clouds poured out dew."

This which he here called "earth," holy Paul named "breadth";

and what are here called "heavens" he calls, in the letter to the Ephesians, "height"; and the "depths" spoken of figuratively he names "depth"; and the dew-laden clouds he calls "length."

and all these are symbols of rational natures, distributed among worlds and bodies according to proportion.

he called her the one who bore the yoke of the Lord.

A stumbling-block for a rational nature is an unclean thought or false knowledge.

From this we know that mercy removes the fearful apparitions that befall us at night;

and gentleness, freedom from anger, and patience do the same, as do all things naturally apt to calm a disturbed temper;

since the fearful apparitions are indeed wont to arise from the disturbance of anger.

This enmity toward one's neighbor produces some evil.

Ignorance of the Lord is in the souls of the impious, but knowledge of God is in the soul of the righteous.

Just as the Lord opposes the unjust as righteousness, and liars as truth, so too he opposes the proud as humility.

The wise will inherit knowledge;

but the impious have honored ignorance.

It should be noted here that he calls the law "a good gift," on account of him who unjustly receives gifts in his bosom and does not prosper;

for there he calls "unjust gifts" the commands of the evil one, which, if the mind receives them, it does not prosper in its ways.

This is the one who forsakes the law: he who transgresses it.

If it is within our power to fence wisdom about, and the virtues are within our power;

then the palisades here signify the virtues, which exalt the knowledge of God.

"A crown of graces and a crown of delight" is the knowledge of God, which also shields us, repelling every thought tainted by passion and all false knowledge.

These many ways lead to one way — the one that said:

and by "many ways" he has meant the virtues that lead to the knowledge of Christ.

The place of this army is vice and falsely named knowledge.

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 to show plausibly that demons are not even capable of sleep by nature.

From this we know by what the army of the opposing power is nourished;

"for its food," it says, "is impiety, and its wine is lawlessness."

The virtues go before us and give us light, until the sun of righteousness shines his own day upon us.

Nor do the impious understand the manner in which they sin, nor do they know the cause of why they stumble;

but they do not even know this—that they transgress the law—which is the mark of the utmost folly.

He calls the virtues "springs," from which they beget the living water, which is the knowledge of Christ.

And David says, "The springs of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered"—clearly referring to the coming of our Savior Christ.

Those who have thoughts unmoved by passion, and true doctrines, these see rightly.

Therefore they also say that courage lies between rashness and cowardice;

but now he calls "right" not the things that are right by nature, but the things that appear right to some because of pleasures.

for he says the north wind is a harsh wind, yet it is called by the name "dexterous" [right-handed];

calling the north wind symbolically the evil one, from whom all the evils on earth were kindled.

In agreement with these is the verse, "Unless the Lord build the house and guard the city," and so on.

"Fat" signifies pleasure, from which impurity is born;

whose offspring are vice and ignorance, than which nothing more bitter can be found among created things.

The one whom above he called "harlot," now he has named "folly."

David prays on behalf of those who descend into Hades after death, saying:

"Let them go down alive into Hades."

If the paths are not easily known, it is well said, "They do not know how they stumble."

Here he called "the way" the mind that journeys toward virtue;

or perhaps he commands virtue to separate us from vice.

Here we know that the irascible part prevails in the demons;

"for wrath is merciless," he says, "and anger is sharp."

Through their vices the wicked wear away the flesh of Christ, and consume his blood, considering it a common thing;

"He who drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

There was a time when vice was not, and there will be a time when it will not be;

but there was no time when virtue was not, nor will there be a time when it will not be;

for the seeds of virtue are ineradicable.

And this man too persuades me—one who fell short by a little, and did not become wholly given to every evil: the rich man who came to be in Hades because of vice, yet had pity for his brothers;

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

Knowledge is both a well and a spring;

for to those who have just come to virtue it seems 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; it was about the sixth hour;

but the Samaritan woman calls it a well;

"Sir," she says, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep."

The woman here signifies the knowledge of God;

and this was given to us from youth, which above Solomon calls "the teaching of youth";

"Son," he says, "let not evil counsel overtake you"—speaking of the devil as one who counsels wickedly, she who abandoned the teaching of youth and forgot the divine covenant.

But forgetfulness and abandonment come second, after knowledge and possession;

just as disease is the last stage of health, and death is second to life.

At the same time this too must be known, that the very same knowledge is called both mother and wife and sister;

"Mother," since the one who taught me begot me through her, as Paul begot the Galatians through the gospel;

"Wife," because, being with me, she bears virtues and right doctrines, if indeed wisdom bears prudence for a man;

"Sister," because both I and she have come to be from the one God and Father;

"For say," he says, "that wisdom is your sister."

If grace and friendship set free, and virtue and knowledge set free the rational soul, then grace and friendship are virtue and knowledge.

but if the hind is born of friendship, and the foal is born of grace, then the hind is a symbol of contemplation, and the foal a symbol of freedom from passion;

for the one [freedom from passion] naturally comes to be from the virtues, and the other [contemplation] from knowledge.

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

To be "the many-numbered" is to have a multitude of contemplative insights;

and "multitude" is also said of those who are benefited.

"Do not be much given to the strange woman"—some will suppose this is said concerning external wisdom, with which it is not necessary to linger long, because of the deceits hidden within it;

but others will understand it concerning vice, and will interpret "not to be much given to it" thus: that it is not possible for a man to abstain altogether from evil thoughts, yet it is possible not to linger in them;

and that he calls the evil thoughts "the strange embraces"—those that hold the soul fast, and do not escape the notice of God who knows the heart.

Everyone who becomes surety for Christ, the friend of the apostles, as for righteousness and truth, hands over his own soul to the enemies who are accustomed to make war on men because of their friendship toward the Savior;

for spiritual friendship is the knowledge of God, according to which the saints too 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 do I call you servants," he says.

Wherefore, he says, one must accordingly, through prayers and supplications, [come to the aid of] also the friend for whom you became surety, saying:

"Guard me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, and deliver me from the unjust man, and because of my enemies do not hand me over into the hands of those who afflict me;"

"for because of you we are put to death all the day long, we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter."

The sleep of the soul is sin in act;

but "drowsiness" is the first unclean notion that forms in the soul;

therefore the text calls it "sleep" before it mentions "drowsiness."

"For it was said," he says, "to the ancients:"

"You shall not murder"; but I say to you, "You shall not be angry."

for here too it seems to me that the law forbids "sleep";

while the gospel of Christ forbids "drowsiness";

if indeed the one cuts off sin in act, while the other cuts off the vice first forming in the mind.

It must be noted here that he calls the ant's natural, harmonious movement "wisdom";

for indeed one wiser than the wise is called wiser still.

are all things slaves of God? Or is God perhaps called "Master" in two ways: as Creator, and as one who is known? Therefore Paul also writes:

But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God (that is, according to virtue and knowledge), you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life.

But if the ant, being irrational, has no share in such an end, it is clear that it is also free from such servitude.

Rightly, then, is it said that the ant is not under a master, with respect to this kind of mastery;

and again, that it is under a master, inasmuch as it has God as its creator.

By the ant, Solomon seems to sketch out for us the practical way, but by the bee to signify the contemplation of the things that have come to be, and of him who made them — a contemplation which the pure and the impure, the wise and the foolish, alike bring to bear for the health of the soul.

And it seems to me that the wax holds the place 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, it says, heaven and earth will pass away;

but the honey will not pass away;

for neither will the words of our Savior Christ pass away.

Honeycombs of honey are good words, and their sweetness is the healing of the soul;

How sweet, it says, are your words to my throat, above honey to my mouth.

He named the outcome of toil "toils."

This sleep is by nature such as to befall the rational soul alone;

for here it signifies vice and ignorance;

Poverty is the privation of knowledge;

and want is the scarcity of the virtues.

One must attend here, lest perhaps through such movements of the body the adversaries come to know that their own thoughts are being nourished within us;

since we have believed that God alone is the knower of hearts.

Everyone who eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood acquires righteous blood, and the rational soul, deprived of this, is said to die;

For, it says, the soul that sins, it shall die.

But if there is righteous blood, then clearly there is also unrighteous blood;

which is what those gather in themselves who devour him who was given as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians, and who 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 the generation of righteous blood accompanies the destruction of unrighteous blood, and the generation of unrighteous blood accompanies the destruction of righteous blood.

But this is what naturally happens now; from the beginning it was not so;

for righteousness did not come into being through the destruction of vice, just as health did not come through the destruction of disease, since children are born with health from the beginning.

Brothers are those who have the gift of adoption and are under the same father, Christ; whom the witness of unrighteousness attempts to divide, casting disturbances and quarrels among them.

"He kindles," as I think, is 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 the holy Paul also called "the fiery darts of the evil one," which wound the soul and work death.

He commands us to bring in the mother, who is wisdom, begetting us according to God.

And yet he ought to have named the father;

for he is rather more fit for being together with the son.

But since it is not possible to know God before the contemplation of the things that have come to be, for this reason he commands us to bring in 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.

That the commandment of the law is a lamp and light, and perhaps the lamp is the old covenant;

for he was the lamp that burned and gave light;

For, it says, I am the light of the world.

For the pleasure of vice is as great as that of a single loaf of bread.

He binds fire in his bosom who allows the impure thought, lingering in the heart, to corrupt the right thoughts.

And this one walks on coals, who destroys his own soul through sin committed in deed.

He calls vice "a married woman";

for her husband is the devil, who begets with her the lawless sons.

And the Savior too, in the Gospels, says to the Jews: "You are of your father the devil."

But if he is caught by true knowledge, he who formerly, through lack of knowledge, was stealing from the wisdom that was made foolish by our Savior, will put away all false knowledge.

Everyone who has communion with vice is an adulterer against the devil, who first married vice and became a murderer from the beginning.

Here he shows that we shall have the devil as accuser of the things done by us on the day of judgment;

and this the holy Paul also says:

That the adversary may be ashamed, having nothing base to say concerning us.

If through transgression of the law one dishonors God, then clearly through doing the law one honors God.

Wisdom is our sister, because the Father, who made the incorporeal nature, made her also;

but here he means by "wisdom" not the Son of God, but the contemplation of bodies and incorporeal things, and of the judgment and providence at work in them;

of which prudence and knowledge, and instruction and understanding, are also species.

The words cast in to please are the passionate thoughts.

He here calls the flesh of man "a window";

for through this the evil one works deceptions upon men, upon those who wish to walk the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction.

But here one must attend to what Solomon says about vice: that at the beginning it does not lead the man away to vice itself, nor does it compel him to walk in the passageways of its houses, or to draw near a corner, or to speak in the darkness of evening;

but if it sees someone giving himself over to pleasures, immediately it meets him, having the appearance of a harlot, which causes the hearts of the young to be deceived.

He called the impure condition of the soul "nocturnal and murky quiet," in which, being inflamed, it works out sin through the body.

Those who wander about in the broad streets receive thoughts of adultery, fornication, and theft;

but those who wander outside these are moved contrary to nature, seeking intercourse with males, and receiving fantasies of certain other forbidden things.

If, of thoughts, some are pure, and others impure;

and if, of lines, some are called straight, and others broken straight lines;

and an angle is a broken straight line;

then an intelligible angle is an impure thought.

So the fact that vice lies in wait at every corner signifies that it deceives the soul through all the impure thoughts;

and a demonic kiss is a passionate notion, calling the soul forth to shameful activity.

Vice seeks to shame the face of our soul (

), through the cords, and the bed, and the coverlets, and the saffron, and the cinnamon;

which signify various evils and passions, occurring among the inventors of evils.

'If after many days he shall return to his house': Paul, gazing very spiritually upon the dispensation, writes that the last enemy to be abolished is death.

Of herons there are three kinds: the kepphos (a gull-like bird), the white one, and the one called the 'starry' heron.

Of these, the kepphos mates and copulates only with difficulty;

for while mating it cries out and, as they say, sheds blood from its eyes, and it lays its eggs badly and with pain.

These things, then, we have set down from Aristotle's History of Animals.