Stromateis 1 part 11/42

But we, it seems, do not cease to understand such things carnally when we read the Scriptures, being led on by our own passions and expecting the will of the impassible God to resemble our own domestic movements;

and, supposing that things stand with the Almighty just as we are able to hear them expressed, we go astray in an impious way.

For it was not possible for the divine to be spoken of just as it actually is;

but the prophets spoke to us in the manner that we, fettered as we are by the flesh, were capable of understanding, the Lord accommodating himself in a saving way to the weakness of men.

Since, then, it is the will of God that the one obedient to the commandments be saved, as well as the one who repents of his sins, and since we rejoice at our own salvation, the Lord who spoke through the prophets appropriated our joy as his own, just as in the Gospel, speaking in a manner full of love for mankind, he says:

'I was hungry and you gave me food to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink;'

'for whatever you have done to one of the least of these, you have done to me.'

just as he wills; thus he 'rejoiced,' without himself being changed, because the one who had repented came to be in joy, just as he willed.

Since, then, God, being good, shows mercy abundantly, giving his commandments through the law, through the prophets, and now more immediately through the coming of the Son, saving and showing mercy, as has been said, on those who have received mercy; and since it is properly the greater who shows mercy on the lesser - and one man could not be greater than another man, insofar as he is by nature a man, while God is greater than man in every respect - if, then, it is the greater who shows mercy on the lesser, God alone will show us mercy.

For man becomes sociable through righteousness, and shares what he has received from God, both because of natural goodwill and kinship, and because of the commandments to which he is obedient;

but God has no natural relationship to us, as the founders of the heresies would have it - whether he makes us out of things that do not exist, or fashions us out of matter, since the former is not a being at all, while the latter is in every way other than God - unless someone should dare to say that we are a part of him, and of one substance with God;

and I do not know how anyone who understands this and knows God could tolerate saying it, once he looks at our life, and at how many evils we are entangled in.

For in that case it would follow - which it is not even lawful to say - that God sins partially, if indeed the parts are parts of the whole and complete the whole; but if they do not complete it, then they would not even be parts.

But indeed, God, being by nature rich in mercy, cares for us because of his own goodness, even though we are neither parts of him nor his children by nature.

And indeed this is the greatest proof of God's goodness: that although we stand thus toward him, and are by nature entirely estranged from him, he nevertheless cares for us.

For the affection of animals toward their offspring is natural, as is the friendship that arises from habitual association among the like-minded; but God's mercy toward us is rich even though we are in no way akin to him - I mean, not in our substance, nor in nature, nor in any power belonging to our own substance - but only in that we are the work of his will;

and indeed he calls the one who, through discipline and instruction, has willingly taken up the knowledge of the truth, to adoption as a son - the greatest advancement of all.

'Transgressions ensnare a man, and each one is bound fast with the cords of his own sins'; and God is blameless for this.

And indeed, 'blessed is the man who is fearful and cautious in all things because of reverence.'

As, then, scientific knowledge is an apprehensive capacity from which the act of understanding results, and its apprehension, being reached through reason, is unchangeable, so also ignorance is a yielding impression, changeable by reason; and what is changeable - like what is trained together with it - depends on reason, and is in our own power.

Closely related to scientific knowledge are experience, and cognizance, understanding, intellection, and knowledge.

And cognizance would be the knowledge of universals according to their species.

Experience is comprehensive knowledge, such that it also investigates closely what each thing is.

And understanding (noesis) is knowledge of the intelligible.

And comprehension (synesis) is knowledge of what is comparable, or an unchangeable comparison, or a comparative faculty, of which prudence too is knowledge — knowledge both of one thing, and of each thing, and of all the things that come together into a single account.

And knowledge (gnosis) is knowledge of that which really is, or knowledge that is in harmony with the things that come to be.

And truth ... is knowledge of the true, while the settled possession of truth is knowledge of true things.

Knowledge is constituted through reason, and is unalterable by any other reason.

Here he inquires closely into knowledge.

The things we do not do, we do not do either because we are unable, or ... because we are unwilling, or on account of both.

We do not fly, then, since we are neither able nor willing;

and we are not swimming, let us say, just now, since we are able, but are not willing;

but we are not as the Lord is, ... since we are willing, but are not able.

For no disciple is above his teacher; it is enough for us if we become like the teacher — not in essence (for it is impossible that what exists by position should be equal, in point of being, to what exists by nature) — but only in this: that we should have become everlasting, and have come to know the contemplation of the things that are, and be called sons, and behold the Father from what is proper to us alone.

The act of willing, then, precedes all things;

for the rational faculties are by nature servants of the will;

and in the case of the Gnostic, the will, the judgment, and the ... discipline are the same.

For if the purposes are the same, the doctrines and the judgments are also the same, so that for him his words, his life, and his character may all follow consistently upon his fixed resolve.

'A straight heart seeks out knowledge, and gives ear to it.'

'God has taught me wisdom, and I have known the knowledge of the holy ones.'

Manifest, then, are also all the other virtues recorded by Moses, which furnished the Greeks with the starting point for the whole subject of ethics — I mean courage, self-control, prudence, and justice, together with fortitude and endurance, and gravity, and continence, and, in addition to these, piety.

But piety is manifest to everyone, teaching us to revere and honor the highest and most venerable Cause ...

And the law itself likewise establishes justice, training prudence both through abstinence from sensible idols and through allegiance to the Maker and Father of all things, from whose glory, as from a spring, all understanding grows.

'For the sacrifices of the lawless are an abomination to the Lord, but the prayers of those who walk uprightly are acceptable to him.'

since ... righteousness is more acceptable to God than sacrifice.

Such also are the words in Isaiah:

'What are your many sacrifices to me?' says the Lord — and the whole passage that follows:

'Loose every bond of injustice;'

'for this is a sacrifice acceptable to God: a broken heart, seeking after him who fashioned it.'

'Deceitful scales are an abomination before God, but a just weight is acceptable to him.'

From this, Pythagoras exhorts men 'not to overstep the balance.'

And 'deceitful righteousness' is said of the profession of the heresies; and 'the tongue of the unjust shall perish, but the mouth of the righteous drops wisdom.'

but ... for they call the wise and the prudent worthless.

It would take too long to set out the testimonies concerning these virtues, since the whole of Scripture ... extols them.

Since, then, they define courage as knowledge of things terrible and not terrible and of what lies between, and self-control as a settled disposition preserving, in choice and avoidance, the judgments of prudence, allied to courage are endurance, which they call fortitude — knowledge of what must be persevered in and what must not — and also greatness of soul, a knowledge that rises above whatever befalls; and allied to self-control is caution (eulabeia), which is avoidance accompanied by reason.

The keeping of the commandments, being an unharmed observance of them, is the acquiring of security of life.

And it is not possible to be steadfast without courage, nor indeed to be continent without self-control.

The virtues follow reciprocally upon one another, and with whomever the sequence of the virtues is found, with that one is also salvation, which is the preservation of what is in a good state.

With good reason, then, having now treated of these virtues, we may be considered to have examined all of them, since he who possesses one virtue in the manner of knowledge possesses all, because of their reciprocal following.

For instance, continence is a disposition that does not overstep what has appeared right according to right reason.

And a man is continent who restrains the impulses that run counter to right reason, or who holds himself back so as not to be moved contrary to right reason.

And this self-control does not exist without courage, since prudence — which follows what is ordained by God — arises out of the commandments, as does the righteousness that imitates the divine disposition; in accordance with which, by being continent, we are made pure for piety and are set in order for the conduct that follows consistently upon God, being made like the Lord so far as is possible for us, who are perishable in our nature.

And this is to become just and holy, together with prudence.

For the divine is without need and without passion, and therefore is not, properly speaking, continent either;

for it never falls subject to passion, so as also to master it;

but our nature, being subject to passion, has need of continence, through which, by being trained toward having few needs, it endeavors to draw near, in disposition, to the divine nature.

For the earnest man has few needs, standing on the border between the immortal and the mortal nature; he has need on account of his body and on account of birth itself, but he has been taught, through rational continence, to need but few things.

and are our works, then, not to be effeminate either in thought ... or in speech? For he who devotes himself to the truth has been made manly — in endurance, in fortitude, in life, in character, in speech, in discipline, night and day; and, should the need arise, if it should fall to him to go forward to martyrdom through the shedding of blood, he is willing.

Again, it says, if anyone has newly built a house and has not yet had time to dwell in it, or has planted a new vineyard and has not yet partaken of its fruit, or has betrothed a virgin and has not yet married her, the benevolent law commands that these be released from military service — strategically, so that, not being distracted toward their desires, we should not serve half-heartedly in war (for those who strip for danger without hesitation are the ones free in their impulses); and philanthropically, since the outcomes of wars are uncertain, the law having reckoned it unjust that one man should not enjoy the fruits of his own labors, while another should take, without toil, the possessions of those who had labored.

And the law seems also to indicate the courage of the soul, in legislating that the one who has planted should enjoy the fruit, and the one who has built should dwell in it, and the one who has become betrothed should marry; for it does not render the hopes of those who have trained themselves according to the gnostic reason unfulfilled.

'For whether a good man dies or lives, his hope does not perish.'

'I,' says Wisdom, 'love those who love me, and those who seek me shall find peace,' and so on.

But what then? Did not the women of Midian, by their beauty, lead the Hebrews who were at war, through incontinence, from self-control into godlessness? For, having won them over, and having lured them by their beauty away from their solemn discipline into the pleasures of harlots, they drove them mad after both the sacrifices of idols and foreign women.

And being overcome at once by women and by pleasure, they departed from God, and they departed also from the law, and the whole people had all but come under the power of their enemies through a woman's stratagem, until fear, admonishing them in their peril, checked them.

At once those who were left, having boldly taken up the contest for piety, became masters over their enemies.

'The beginning of wisdom, then, is the reverence of God, and understanding is forethought concerning holy things, while to know the law belongs to a good understanding.'

Those, then, who suppose the law to be productive merely of a passionate fear, are neither good at comprehending, nor have they in truth understood the law at all.

'For the fear of the Lord produces life;'

'but he who goes astray shall be pained with sorrows which knowledge does not visit.'

Accordingly, Barnabas says in a mystical sense: 'And may God, who is Lord of the whole world, give to you also wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, and acknowledgment of his ordinances, and patience.'

'Be, then, taught of God, seeking out what the Lord requires of you, that you may find [reward] in the day of judgment.'

Those who partake of these things he called, in the manner of knowledge, children of love and of peace.

Concerning the sharing and communion of goods, though there is much that might be said, it suffices to say only this: that the law forbids lending to a brother at interest (calling 'brother' not only one born of the same parents, but also whoever is of the same tribe, of the same mind, and a sharer of the same reason), not deeming it right to exact interest on money, but rather, with open hands and open hearts, to bestow it freely on those in need.

For God is the author of such a grace.

And indeed the one who freely shares already receives interest well worth having — the most valuable of things among men: gentleness, goodness, magnanimity, good repute, good fame.

Does this precept not seem to you to be one of philanthropy, just as that other one, to pay the poor man's wage the same day? It teaches that the wage owed for services must be paid without delay;

for the poor man's eagerness, I think, is undone if he is left without food for the day to come.

Further, it says, let not the creditor come upon the debtor's house to take a pledge by force, but let him bid him bring it out from outside, while the one who has it should not shrink back from giving it.

...to advance something of one's own possessions to those in need, providing for the poor a resource of nourishment.

Do you see how the legislation proclaims both the righteousness and the goodness of God, who supplies food ungrudgingly to all? ...and again, at the vintage, it has forbidden going back a second time to gather what was left, and gathering the fallen berries;

and the same rules ... are ordained also for those who gather olives.

Indeed, the tithes also, both of the fruits and of the cattle, taught men to be pious toward the divine, and not to be wholly greedy for gain, but to share, in a spirit of philanthropy, with their neighbors as well.

For it was from these firstfruits, I think, that the priests also were sustained.

Do we not, then, already perceive that we are being trained by the law unto piety, unto fellowship, unto righteousness, and unto love of humanity? Is it not so? Does it not command that in the seventh year the land be released and lie fallow, and bid the poor use without fear the fruits that grow according to God's providence, since nature does the farming for those who are willing? ... How, then, is the law not good and a teacher of righteousness? Again, it commands that in the fiftieth year the same things be carried out as in the seventh, restoring to each his own possession if in the meantime anyone was deprived of a piece of land through some circumstance, thereby setting a limit, by a measured span of time for the enjoyment of its produce, upon the desire of those who long to acquire more, and willing that those who have paid the penalty of long poverty should not be punished for their whole life.

Almsgiving and good faith are royal safeguards, and a blessing rests upon the head of one who shares; and he who shows mercy to the poor shall be blessed, because he demonstrates love toward his fellow through the love he bears toward the Creator of the human race.

Now the aforesaid matters admit also of other, more natural interpretations concerning rest and the recovery of the inheritance, but these are not to be discussed at present.

Love is understood in many ways: through gentleness, through kindness, through patience, through generosity and freedom from envy, through freedom from hatred, through freedom from resentment.

It is undivided in all things, impartial, and given to sharing.

Again, it says, if you see a beast of burden belonging to your relatives or friends or, in general, to any people you know, wandering astray in the wilderness, lead it away and restore it.

And even if the owner happens to be far away, keep it safe among your own animals until he comes to claim it, and restore it.

It teaches a natural fellowship, namely to regard a found thing as a deposit held in trust, and not to bear a grudge against one's enemy.

The commandment of the Lord is truly a fountain of life; it causes one to turn away from the snare of death.

What then? Does it not command us to love sojourners, not only as friends and kinsmen, but as ourselves, in both body and soul? Indeed, it has also honored the nations, and does not bear malice even against those who have done evil.

'You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in the land of Egypt' — calling by the name 'Egyptian' either the heathen, or indeed every worldly person.

And as for enemies, even if they are already standing at the walls attempting to take the city, they are not yet to be regarded as enemies, until the defenders, having sent them a herald, have summoned them to peace.

Indeed, it also commands that one not consort with a female captive for the sake of outrage, but, having allowed her thirty days to mourn whom she wishes, and having afterward changed her garments, it says: 'then go in to her as a lawful wife, according to the law.'

For it requires that intercourse take place neither for the sake of outrage, nor for hire as with a courtesan, but only for the begetting of children.

Do you see love of humanity joined with self-control? To the man who has fallen in love and become master of the captive woman, it does not permit him to indulge his pleasure, but restrains his desire by a measured interval of time, and moreover shaves off the captive's hair as well, in order to check his outrageous passion.

For if reason still persuades him to marry her, he will hold fast to her even though she has become unsightly.

Then, if anyone, having become sated with desire, no longer deigns to have intercourse with the captive woman, it is ordained that he not be permitted to sell her, nor even to keep her still as a servant; rather, the law wills that she be free and released from servitude, so that, if another wife should come in, she may not suffer some irremediable harm on account of jealousy.

It commands us to help lighten the load and raise up beasts of burden struggling under their loads, the Lord thereby teaching us from afar not to embrace malicious joy nor to rejoice over our enemies, so that, having been trained through these things, he might teach us to pray for our enemies.

For it is fitting neither to envy and be grieved at the good fortunes of one's neighbor, nor indeed to reap pleasure from the misfortunes of one's neighbor.

And even if, it says, you find a beast of burden belonging to some enemy of yours wandering astray, set aside the kindling of enmity, lead it away, and restore it.

For nobility of character follows upon the forgetting of wrongs, and upon this follows the dissolution of enmity.

From this we are trained unto concord, and concord leads us by the hand unto happiness.

And even if you regard someone as an enemy out of habit, and you catch him acting irrationally, led astray either by desire or by anger, turn him back toward nobility of character.

Does it not now appear evident that the law is loving to humanity and good, leading as a tutor unto Christ, and that God is one and the same, good together with righteousness, having dealt fittingly with each generation from beginning to end unto salvation? 'Show mercy,' says the Lord, 'that you may be shown mercy.'

As you do, so shall it be done to you.

As you give, so shall it be given to you.

As you judge, so shall you be judged.

As you show kindness, so shall kindness be shown to you.

With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you.

Moreover, it forbids that those who serve for their sustenance be treated with dishonor, and it grants a complete release, in the seventh year, to those who have been enslaved on account of debts.

But it also forbids handing over suppliants for punishment.

More true than anything else, then, is that saying:

As gold and silver are tested in the furnace, so the Lord tests the hearts of men.

And the merciful man is longsuffering, and in one who is careful about everything there is wisdom.

For care will fall upon the man of understanding, and being thoughtful he will seek life.

And he who seeks God will find knowledge together with righteousness, and those who have sought him rightly have found peace.

It seems to me that Pythagoras too derived his gentleness toward irrational animals from the law.

For instance, it ordained that people abstain from the immediate enjoyment of the newborn young among the flocks, the goat-herds, and the cattle-herds — not even taking them on the pretext of sacrifices — for the sake of both the offspring and the mothers, thereby nurturing humanity in gentleness from the ground up, beginning even with the irrational animals.

Grant, it says, the offspring to its mother for at least the first seven days.

For if nothing happens without cause, and milk is showered upon those that have given birth for the nourishment of their offspring, then he who tears the newborn away from the natural provision of milk dishonors nature.

Let the Greeks, then, be put to shame — and anyone else who runs down the law — seeing that it shows kindness even toward irrational animals, while they expose even their own human offspring, even though the law, from afar and in a manner foretelling what was to come, checked their savagery through the aforementioned commandment.

For if it forbids the young of irrational animals to be separated from the one who bore them before the time of suckling, how much more does it, in the case of human beings, forestall and heal beforehand their raw and untamed disposition, so that, even if they disregard nature, they may at least not disregard instruction.

For it is permitted to feed upon kids and lambs, and perhaps there is some excuse for one who separates the offspring from the one who bore it.

But what excuse does the exposure of an infant have? For the man who has no desire to beget children ought not to have married in the first place, rather than become, through incontinence in pleasure, a murderer of his own child.

Again, the good law forbids sacrificing offspring and mother together on the same day.

For this reason the Romans too, even if a pregnant woman is condemned to death, do not allow her to undergo the punishment before she has given birth.

Indeed, the law expressly does not permit even those animals that are pregnant to be slaughtered until they have given birth, thereby checking from afar the readiness of those who commit wrong against fellow human beings.

Thus it extended equity even as far as irrational animals, so that, having trained ourselves in the case of beings of a different kind, we might treat those of our own kind with all the more abundant love of humanity.

But in order that they might feast on flesh mixed with milk, certain people have made the womb, which was created for the generation of life, into a tomb for those it carries — even though the lawgiver expressly commands: 'you shall not boil a lamb in its mother's milk.'

For let not, it says, the nourishment of the living creature — the milk — become a seasoning for the flesh of the animal that has been slain, nor let that which is the cause of life become an accomplice in the consumption of the body.

The same law also declares that you shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.

For the laborer too must be deemed worthy of his food.

It forbids yoking together an ox and a donkey for plowing the earth, perhaps having in view the incompatibility between these animals, but at the same time also showing that one ought not to wrong any of a different nation and bring them under the yoke, having no charge against them except that they are of a different race — which is no fault at all, being neither wickedness nor proceeding from wickedness.

It seems to me that the allegory also signifies that one ought not to impart the cultivation of the word equally to the clean and the unclean, to the faithful and the unfaithful, since the ox is reckoned a clean animal, while the donkey is reckoned among the unclean.

And the good word, lavishing love of humanity, teaches that it is not fitting even to cut down whatever belongs to cultivated timber, nor indeed to cut down the grain to destroy it before the harvest, but altogether not to destroy any cultivated fruit, whether of the earth or of the soul.

For it does not even allow the cutting down of the enemies' land.

Indeed, farmers too have been benefited by the law in these very matters.

For it commands that newly planted trees be tended for three successive years, cutting away the superfluous growths, so that they may not be weighed down and oppressed, and so that, their nourishment being fragmented, they may not be weakened through deficiency; and it commands that a trench be formed and the ground dug around them, so that nothing sprouting up alongside may hinder their growth.

Nor does it allow the fruit to be plucked while imperfect from trees that are themselves imperfect, but after three years, in the fourth year, it commands that the firstfruit be consecrated to God once the tree has reached maturity.

This type of husbandry might well be a manner of teaching, instructing us that we must cut away the outgrowths of sins and the vain weeds of thought that spring up together with the fruitful crop, until the young shoot of faith is brought to maturity and becomes steadfast.

For in the fourth year — since the catechumen too has need of a settled span of time — the tetrad of the virtues is consecrated to God, the third stage already joining on to the fourth station of the Lord.

A sacrifice of praise is better than whole burnt-offerings.

For it is he, it says, who gives you the strength to gain power.

But if matters are illumined for you, ... having received and acquired strength, use it in knowledge to produce wealth.

For through these things it shows that both the good things and the gifts are supplied by God, and that we, having become ministers of divine grace, must sow the good works of God and fashion those who draw near to us to be noble and good, so that, as far as possible, the self-controlled man may make others self-controlled, the brave man may make others noble, the prudent man may make others intelligent, and the just man may make others just.

This is the one who is according to image and likeness — the Gnostic, who imitates God so far as is possible, omitting nothing that pertains to the likeness that can be attained: practicing self-control, enduring patiently, living justly, ruling over the passions, sharing what he has as far as he is able, doing good both in word and in deed.

This one, it says, is greatest in the kingdom, whoever does and teaches, imitating God by bestowing like gifts.

For the gifts of God are for the common benefit of all.

But whoever undertakes to do anything with arrogance provokes God, it says.

For boastfulness is a vice of the soul, and it is from this, along with the other vices, that the law bids repentance to those who are adjusting their life from disharmony to a better change, by means of these three: mouth, heart, and hands.

These would be symbols: the hands of action, the heart of intention, and the mouth of speech.

Well, then, it was fittingly said of those who repent, that oracle:

'You have chosen God today to be your God, and the Lord has chosen you today to become his people.'

For the one who hastens to serve ... the One who Is, being a suppliant, God makes his own kinsman.

And even if he is one in number, he is honored equally with the whole people;

for being a part of the people, he becomes what completes it, restored to that from which he came, and even from a part... the whole is named.

And this nobility of birth is shown forth in the choosing and the joint practice of the noblest things.

Since what, indeed, did such nobility of birth profit Adam? Yet he had no mortal father at all—

for he himself is the father of men in their coming into being.

He eagerly chose the shameful things, following the woman, but he neglected the true and noble things;

in exchange for which he took on a mortal ... life in place of the immortal one—yet not for ever.

But Noah, who did not become such as Adam did, is preserved by divine oversight;

for bearing himself along, he dedicated himself to God.

And of Abraham, who begat children by three women not for the enjoyment of pleasure but, I think, for the hope of multiplying his race at the beginning, only one alone succeeds as heir of the paternal goods, while the others were removed from the kinship;

and of the twins born from him, the younger inherits, having become pleasing to his father, and he receives the blessings, while the elder serves him;

for the greatest good for the base man is not to be self-governing.

And this dispensation is both prophetic and typological.

And that all things belong to the wise man, he clearly signifies, saying:

'Because God has had mercy on me, I have all things.'

For he teaches that one must desire the One alone, through whom all things came into being, and to the worthy the things promised are apportioned.

He therefore enrolls the virtuous man, become heir of the kingdom, as a fellow citizen through divine wisdom also of the righteous of old, who lived lawfully both under the law and before the law, whose deeds have become laws for us.

Again, teaching that the wise man is a king, he makes even those not of his own race say to him:

'You are a king from God among us,' with the willing consent of those ruled, who obey the virtuous man out of zeal for virtue.