Stromateis 1 part 33/42

Therefore according to the likeness of God, the one who has been enrolled unto adoption and friendship with God becomes, by joint inheritance, one of the 'lords and gods,' if, as the Lord himself taught, he is perfected according to the Gospel.

The Gnostic, therefore, impresses upon himself the closest likeness — the mind of the Teacher — which he, understanding it, both commanded and counselled to the prudent and self-controlled; grasping this as the one who taught intended, and having personally taken up that magnificent understanding, teaching worthily upon the housetops those capable of being built up to lofty heights, while himself taking the lead in the practice of what was spoken, according to the pattern of his own manner of life;

For he commanded things possible; and it is truly necessary that the royal and Christian man be ruling and governing, since we have been appointed to have dominion not only over the wild beasts outside us, but also over the wild passions within ourselves.

By careful attention, then, as it seems, to the evil and the good life, the Gnostic is saved, understanding and acting more righteously than the scribes and Pharisees.

'Bend your bow, and go forth prosperously, and reign,' David writes, 'because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand shall guide you marvelously' — that is, the Lord shall guide you.

'Who then is wise, and will understand these things? Who is prudent, and will know them? For the ways of the Lord are straight,' says the prophet, indicating that only the Gnostic is able to understand and to explain clearly the things spoken by the Spirit in hidden fashion;

'And he who understands shall keep silence in that time,' says the Scripture, evidently silent toward those unworthy to be told, because the Lord says—

'He who has ears to hear, let him hear,' saying that hearing and understanding are not for everyone.

Thus David writes at once of 'dark water in the clouds of the air; from the brightness before him the clouds passed through, hail and coals of fire,' teaching that the sacred words are hidden ones;

and indeed he indicates that to the Gnostics these are sent down from God clear and radiant, like harmless hail, but to the many they are dark, like coals quenched from the fire — which, unless someone kindles and rekindles them, will neither burst into flame nor give light.

'The Lord,' therefore, he says, 'gives me a tongue of instruction, to know when it is needful to speak a word' — not only with respect to testimony, but also with respect to question and answer;

'and the instruction of the Lord opens my mouth.'

It belongs, then, to the Gnostic to know how to use speech, both when, and how, and toward whom to speak.

Moreover, the Apostle also, when he speaks of that which is 'according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ,' hands down that the Greek teaching is elementary, while that which is according to Christ is perfect, just as we have already indicated earlier.

At once, the wild olive is grafted into the richness of the cultivated olive tree, and indeed grows in the same form as the domestic olives;

for the graft uses, instead of soil, the tree into which it is planted;

and all plants alike have sprouted forth by divine command.

Therefore, even though the wild-olive wreath happens to come from the wild olive tree, yet it crowns the Olympic victors; and the elm, lifting up the vine on high, teaches it to bear good fruit.

We observe, moreover, that wild trees draw in a greater amount of nourishment, because they are unable to digest it.

The wild trees, then, are less able to digest than the cultivated ones, and the cause of their being wild is the lack of the power of digestion.

The grafted olive, then, receives more nourishment, because a wild shoot is implanted into it;

And it becomes accustomed to digest its nourishment, being assimilated to the richness of the cultivated tree; so too the philosopher, likened to the wild olive, has much that is undigested, because he is inquisitive and quick to follow and desirous of the richness of truth — if he receives in addition the divine power through faith, being implanted in good and cultivated knowledge, just as the wild olive, grafted onto the truly good and merciful Word, both digests the nourishment handed down to it and becomes a fine cultivated olive.

By the art of husbandry and by gnostic science, the farmer compels the unfruitful to become fruitful.

They say, then, that grafting takes place in four ways:

one, according to which the graft must be fitted between the wood and the bark, just as the untutored among the Gentiles are catechized, receiving the word superficially;

the other, when, having split the wood, they insert into it the noble plant — which is what happens in the case of those who have philosophized;

for when their doctrines have been split open, the full knowledge of the truth comes to be in them;

and so also, for the Jews, when the old Scripture has been opened up, the new and noble plant of the olive is grafted in.

The third kind of grafting concerns the wild trees and the heretics — those who are brought over into the truth by force;

for having pared down each wedge-shaped end with a sharp pruning-knife, just enough to bare the pith without wounding it, they bind them together to one another.

The fourth mode of grafting is what is called 'budding' (inoculation);

for a bud is taken away from a noble stock, together with the bark circumscribed around it to about a hand's-breadth in length, and then the receiving stock is pared away at the point corresponding to the bud, equal to the circumscribed area.

And thus it is inserted, being bound round with cord and smeared over with clay, while the bud itself is kept unharmed and unsoiled.

This is a form of gnostic teaching, one capable of discerning things thoroughly; and indeed this method is most useful precisely in the case of cultivated trees.

Now the grafting spoken of by the Apostle can also refer to the grafting into the cultivated olive, which is Christ himself, when the untamed and unbelieving nature is implanted into Christ — that is, into those who believe in Christ;

but it is better that the faith of each person be grafted within his own soul itself;

for indeed the Holy Spirit too is in this way transplanted, being distributed according to the measure of each one, yet remaining uncircumscribed in itself.

And concerning knowledge, Solomon, discoursing, says the following:

'Radiant and unfading is wisdom, and she is easily beheld by those who love her;'

'she hastens to make herself known beforehand to those who desire her;'

'he who rises early to seek her shall not toil in vain;'

'for to think upon her is perfection of prudence, and he who keeps watch for her sake shall quickly be free from care;'

'because she herself goes about seeking those who are worthy of her (for knowledge is not for all), and in the paths she graciously appears to them;'

and the 'paths' are the conduct of one's life and the manifold diversity according to the covenants.

and in every thought she meets them, being contemplated in various ways — evidently through every kind of instruction.

Then he adds, setting forth the perfecting love, and, by way of a syllogistic argument and true premises, drawing a most demonstrative and true conclusion in some such manner as this:

'For the truest beginning of her is the desire for instruction (that is, for knowledge); and care for instruction is love; and love is the keeping of her laws; and attention to her laws is the assurance of incorruption; and incorruption makes one to be near to God;'

'Desire of wisdom, therefore, leads up to a kingdom.'

For he teaches, I think, that true instruction is a certain desire for knowledge; and the discipline of instruction consists through the love of knowledge; and love is the keeping of the commandments that lead to knowledge; and the keeping of them is the confirmation of the commandments, on account of which incorruption follows; and incorruption makes one to be near to God.

If, then, love of knowledge makes one incorruptible, and leads up the royal man to nearness to God the King, one must therefore seek knowledge unto its discovery.

Now seeking is an impulse toward apprehension, discovering the subject-matter by means of certain signs; and discovery is the end and rest of the seeking, occurring when apprehension takes place — which is precisely knowledge.

And this, properly speaking, is discovery — namely knowledge, being the apprehension that seeking aims at.

And they say that a sign is that which precedes, or coexists with, or follows the thing signified.

the testimonies concerning him perceptible to the senses, and moreover also his powers which, after the Ascension, are proclaimed and manifestly displayed.

A proof, then, that the truth is with us is the fact that the Son of God himself has taught it;

For if, with respect to every inquiry, these two universal elements are found — a person and a fact — then the truth in its reality is shown to be with us alone, since the person of the truth here displayed is the Son of God, and the fact is the power of faith, which prevails over every opponent whatsoever, even when the whole world itself stands in opposition.

But since it has been agreed that this has been confirmed by eternal works and words, and it has already been shown that everyone who does not believe there is providence, and is truly godless, deserves punishment rather than mere refutation — it remains for us to consider what we must do, and in what manner we must live, so that we may arrive at the full knowledge of the Almighty God, and how, by honoring the Divine, we may become the cause of our own salvation; not learning and knowing from the sophists what is well-pleasing to him, but from God himself, we undertake to do what is just and holy.

Now that we should be saved is well-pleasing to him, and salvation comes about both through right conduct and through knowledge, of both of which the Lord is teacher.

If, then, even according to Plato, it is possible to learn the truth thoroughly only from God or from the offspring of God, then we reasonably boast that, choosing our testimonies from the divine oracles, we are taught the truth through the Son of God — these oracles having first been prophesied, and afterward also made clear;

and the things that cooperate toward the discovery of truth are not themselves disapproved either.

Philosophy, for instance, proclaiming providence, and the reward of the happy life on the one hand and the punishment of the wretched life on the other, treats of divine matters in a comprehensive way, but no longer preserves the precise and particular details.

for it does not discourse in the same way as we do, either concerning the Son of God, or concerning the dispensation according to providence;

for it has not known the worship which is according to God.

For this reason, the sects that follow barbarian philosophy, even if they speak of one God, and even if they hymn Christ, speak only in a summary way, not with a view to the truth;

for they invent some other God, and they understand Christ not as the prophecies hand him down to be.

But surely the falsehoods among the doctrines they hold are not to be charged against us, so long as they are opposed to the conduct that accords with the truth.

For instance, Paul circumcised Timothy on account of those who believed from among the Jews, so that, in abolishing what had been taken up too carnally from the law, he might not cause those instructed in the law to fall away from the faith — knowing precisely that circumcision does not justify.

For he professed to become all things to all people, adapting himself in accommodation while preserving the essentials of the doctrines, so that he might gain them all.

And Daniel wore the collar of honor before the king of the Persians, not disregarding that the people would otherwise be afflicted.

Liars in truth, then, are not those who accommodate themselves for the sake of the economy of salvation, nor those who err in some particular matter, but those who fall away in the most essential matters, and who, as far as lies in them, set the Lord at nought, depriving men of the Lord's true teaching — those who speak of and hand down the Scriptures not in a manner worthy of God and of the Lord.

For the understanding and the diligent practice of the pious tradition according to the Lord's teaching through his apostles is a deposit rendered back to God.

But ‘what you hear in the ear’ (that is, hidden and in mystery, for such things are said allegorically to be spoken ‘in the ear’), ‘proclaim,’ he says, ‘upon the housetops’ — receiving it with a noble mind and handing it down with lofty speech, and expounding the Scriptures according to the rule of truth.

For neither prophecy nor the Savior himself uttered the divine mysteries so plainly as to be easily grasped by anyone who happened along, but spoke in parables.

The apostles, at any rate, say concerning the Lord that he spoke all things in parables, and ‘without a parable he spoke nothing to them.’

They are one; and therefore prophecy and the law also came into being through him, and were spoken in parables through him.

‘Yet all things are right before those who understand,’ says Scripture — that is, before those who, receiving the interpretation of the Scriptures as clarified by him, preserve it in accordance with the ecclesiastical rule.

The ecclesiastical rule is the concord and harmony of the law and the prophets with the covenant delivered at the coming of the Lord.

Prudence, then, follows upon knowledge, and temperance follows upon prudence.

For let it be said that prudence is a divine knowledge, present in those who are being deified, whereas temperance is a mortal virtue, existing among men who philosophize but are not yet wise.

For instance — if indeed it is a divine virtue and a knowledge of itself.

But temperance is, as it were, an imperfect prudence, desiring prudence yet laboring diligently in practice rather than being contemplative — just as, indeed, justice, being human and common to all, falls short of holiness, which is a divine justice.

For to the perfect man, righteousness consists not in civic contracts nor in the prohibitions of the law, but arises from the doing of one's own proper work and from love toward God.

For many reasons, then, the Scriptures conceal their meaning: first, so that we may be inquirers and always keep watch for the discovery of the saving words; and next, because it was not fitting for all to understand, lest, receiving otherwise the things said unto salvation by the Holy Spirit, they should be harmed.

Therefore the holy mysteries of the prophecies, being reserved for the elect among men, for those approved as advancing from faith to knowledge, are veiled in parables.

For the character of the Scriptures is parabolic, because the Lord too, though not being of the world, came to men as one of the world.

For he clothed himself with virtue entire, and was destined, through knowledge, to lead up man, the world's fellow-nursling, to the intelligible and true realities, out of this world into that world.

Therefore Scripture also makes use of metaphor.

For such is a parable: a saying drawn from something not in itself the primary matter, yet resembling that primary matter, which leads the one who understands to the true and essential thing; or, as some say, a form of speech that vividly presents, through other things, what is properly meant.

Indeed, the whole economy that was prophesied concerning the Lord truly appears as a parable to those who have not come to know the truth, whenever one speaks — and others hear — that the Son of God, who made all things, took on flesh and was carried in the womb of a virgin, in that his sensible flesh was thus born, and accordingly, in that he became this, that he suffered and was raised: to the Jews a stumbling block, but to the Greeks foolishness, as the apostle says.

But when the Scriptures are opened and manifest to those who have ears that very truth — namely, that which the flesh which the Lord assumed suffered — they proclaim the power and wisdom of God.

And besides all this, the parabolic form of Scripture, being most ancient, as we have shown, naturally abounded most especially among the prophets, so that the Holy Spirit might thereby demonstrate that the philosophers among the Greeks and the wise men among the other barbarians were ignorant of the Lord's coming, which was yet to be, and of the mystical teaching that was to be delivered by him.

Prophecy, then, in proclaiming the Lord, reasonably shaped the things signified in words that could also lead to other meanings, lest, by speaking contrary to the common suppositions of the many, it should seem to some to blaspheme.

For instance, all the prophets who foretold the coming of the Lord, and together with it the holy mysteries, were persecuted and slain — just as the Lord himself, who made clear their Scriptures, and likewise his disciples who proclaimed the word after him, also risked their lives.

Whence Peter also, in the Preaching, speaking concerning the apostles, says:

‘…the cross, and all the other punishments that the Jews inflicted upon him, and the resurrection and the assumption into the heavens, before Jerusalem was founded — just as it had been written, all these things that he was to suffer, and what should come after him.’

‘Having come to know these things, then, we believed God through the things written concerning him.’

And a little further on he adds again, showing that the prophecies came about by divine providence, as follows:

‘For we know that God truly ordained these things, and we say nothing apart from Scripture.’

The Hebrew dialect, then, has certain other peculiarities of its own, just as each of the other languages does, containing within it a certain form of speech that manifests a national character.

A dialect, at any rate, is defined as speech that is constituted by a national character.

But it is not by those dialects alone that prophecy is made known.

For among the Greek writers, the so-called alterations of figures produce their concealments deliberately, being brought back to the image of our own prophecies, except that the deviation from the direct sense is shown to be voluntary, occurring in metrical or improvised speech.

A figure, then, is speech that has been diverted from its proper sense to what is not proper, for the sake of composition and for the sake of the aptness of expression in speech.

But prophecy does not at all cultivate figures of speech for the sake of beauty of expression; rather, because the truth is not for all, it is concealed in manifold ways, causing the light to rise only for those initiated into knowledge, those who seek the truth out of love.

According to the barbarian philosophy, then, the proverb is called a form of prophecy, and so likewise is the parable, and the riddle besides these.

Moreover, it is also called wisdom, and, as distinct from it, instruction; and again, sayings of prudence, and turns of speech, and true righteousness, and the teaching of how to direct judgment rightly, and the shrewdness that accrues to the guileless through instruction, and the perception and understanding that comes to the newly catechized.

‘He who hears these things,’ it says, ‘being wise, will become wiser, and the intelligent man will acquire the art of governance, and will understand a parable and a dark saying, the sayings of the wise, and riddles.’

But if it happened that the Greek dialects were named after Hellen, the son of Zeus, surnamed Deucalion, then, from the chronology we have already set forth, it is easy to perceive by how many generations the dialects among the Greeks are later than the Hebrew tongue.

As the treatise proceeds, we shall note down, in each passage, the figures previously mentioned as used by the prophet, and set them forth, skillfully exhibiting the gnostic method in accordance with the rule of truth.

For was it not also in a vision to Hermas that the Power, appearing in the form of the Church, gave him the book to be transcribed, which she wished to be announced to the elect? And he, it says, transcribed it letter by letter, not being able to make out the syllables.

This showed, then, that Scripture, taken according to a bare reading, is manifest to all, and that this is faith, having the order of the letters; wherefore also reading according to the letter is here spoken of allegorically.

And we understand the gnostic unfolding of the Scriptures, once faith is already advancing, to be likened to reading by syllables.

But the prophet Isaiah too is bidden to take a new book and write certain things in it, the Spirit prophesying that the holy knowledge — which at that time was still unwritten, because it was not yet known — was afterward to come through the exposition of the Scriptures.

For it had been said from the beginning, only to those who understand.

For instance, when the Savior had taught the apostles, the unwritten tradition of what is written is now handed down even to us, inscribed by the power of God upon new hearts, in accordance with the renewal of the book.

In this connection, the most learned among the Greeks consecrate the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, whom indeed they say to be the Word, on account of its power of interpretation.

…with angels…; and he being deemed worthy of burial upon the mountains, near the ravines.

Now Joshua, lifted up in spirit, saw this vision from below, together also with Caleb; yet the two did not behold it in like manner. The one came down more quickly, bearing a heavy burden, while the other, coming down afterward, related the glory that he had beheld, having been able to discern it more clearly than the other, inasmuch as he had become purer. The narrative, I think, shows thereby that knowledge does not belong to all; for some look only at the body of the Scriptures — the words and the names — just as at the body of Moses, while others discern the meanings and what is signified by the names, busying themselves with Moses as he was together with the angels.

Indeed, of those who cried out to the Lord himself, the many said, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me,’ but few recognized him as the Son of God, as Peter did — whom he also blessed, because flesh and blood had not revealed the truth to him, but rather his Father who is in the heavens; showing that the one who knows comes to recognize the Son of the Almighty not through his flesh that was born, but through the very power of the Father.

Not only, then, is the acquisition of truth difficult for those who happen upon it simply so, but the narrative concerning Moses teaches that not even to those to whom the knowledge properly belongs is contemplation given all at once, until, having become accustomed to look directly upon it — just as the Hebrews upon the glory of Moses, and the holy ones of Israel upon the visions of angels — we too might likewise be able to gaze upon the flashings of truth.

Let the Decalogue, then, be set forth for us in passing as an example for the sake of gnostic clarity.

And that the number ten is sacred, it is superfluous to say at present.

But if the tablets that were inscribed are the work of God, they will be found to manifest the natural creation.

For ‘the finger of God’ is understood to be the power of God, through which the creation of heaven and earth is completed; and the tablets will be understood as symbols of both these.

For the writing of God and the giving of form deposited in the tablet is, in fact, the creation of the world.

The Decalogue, then, according to the heavenly image, contains the sun and the moon, the stars, the clouds, light, spirit, water, air, darkness, fire.

This is the natural decalogue of heaven.

But the image of the earth contains men, cattle, creeping things, wild beasts, and among aquatic creatures fish and sea monsters, and likewise among birds both the carnivorous and those that feed on gentle food, and likewise among plants both the fruit-bearing and the fruitless.

This is the natural decalogue of earth.

And the ark, which contains these things, would be the knowledge and wisdom of things both divine and human.

And perhaps these two tablets would be a prophecy of the two covenants.

They were renewed, then, in a mystical sense, when ignorance and sin alike had increased.

In a twofold manner, it seems, the commandments are written for the two spirits — the ruling spirit and the subject spirit — since the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

There is also a certain decad pertaining to man himself: the five senses, then the faculty of speech, and the generative faculty, and this — the eighth — the spiritual element according to the formation of man; ninth, the ruling faculty of the soul; and tenth, the distinctive property of the Holy Spirit that accrues through faith.

Furthermore, in addition to these, the legislation appears to give commands with respect to ten human parts.

by sight and hearing and smell, touch and taste, and by the organs that serve these, which are twofold — namely, hands and feet;

for this… is the formation of man.

And the soul is infused, and further infused is the ruling faculty by which we reason — not begotten according to the deposit of seed — so that the number ten is made up even without this, these being the faculties through which the whole activity of man is accomplished.

For man, having immediately come into being in due order, takes the beginning of his life from the passible parts.

We say, then, that the rational and ruling faculty is the cause of the constitution of the living being, but also of the fact that the irrational part is ensouled and is a portion of it.

the fleshly spirit has obtained the power in which the nutritive, the augmentative, and, in general, the motive faculty are comprised, being quick-moving and traveling everywhere through the senses and the rest of the body, and being the first to be affected through the body;

But the ruling faculty possesses the power of deliberate choice, with which inquiry, learning, and knowledge are concerned.

But indeed the reference of all things is ordered together toward one thing, the ruling faculty; and it is because of that faculty that man both lives, and lives in a certain manner.

Through the bodily spirit, then, man perceives, desires, takes pleasure, is angered, is nourished, and grows;

and indeed through this he proceeds also to the actions that accord with conception and thought; and whenever it masters the desires, the ruling faculty reigns as king.

'Thou shalt not covet,' then, means: you shall not be enslaved to the fleshly spirit, but shall rule over it, since the flesh desires against the spirit and rises up to be disorderly, contrary to nature, while the spirit prevails against the flesh unto that conduct of man which is according to nature;

Is it not, then, reasonably said that man has come to be according to the image of God — not with respect to the shape of his bodily frame, but because, as God creates all things by the Word, so man, having become a knower, accomplishes good actions by his rational faculty?

Reasonably, then, the two tablets are said elsewhere to signify the commandments given to the two spirits — to the one that was formed and to the ruling one — the commandments handed down before the Law.

And the movements of the senses are impressed according to thought, and are made manifest according to the activity that comes from the body;

for comprehension arises from both.

And again, conversely, as sensation is to the sensible, so is thought to the intelligible.

And actions, too, are twofold: some according to conception, others according to actual activity.

And the first commandment of the Decalogue establishes this:

that there is only one God, the Almighty, who led the people out of Egypt through the wilderness into the ancestral land, so that they might apprehend, through his divine works, as far as they were able, his power, and might depart from the idolatry of created things, setting all their hope upon the God who truly is.

And the second word signified that one must not take up, nor apply, the majestic power of God (that is, the Name —

for this alone they were able to grasp, as indeed most people still are even now — that one must not bring the invocation of this Name upon things created and vain,

which indeed the craftsmen among men have made, and with which He who Is is not to be classed;

for He who Is subsists alone in unbegotten sameness.

The third word is that which signifies that the world came into being from God, and that he has given us the seventh day as a rest, on account of the hardship attendant on this life;

for God is untiring, impassible, and in need of nothing; but we who bear the flesh are in need of rest.

The seventh day, then, is proclaimed a rest, preparing, through abstinence from evils, that primordial day which is truly our rest — which is indeed also, in reality, the first coming-into-being of light, in which all things are seen together and all things are inherited.

From this day, the primal wisdom and knowledge shines forth upon us;

for the light of truth is a true light, shadowless, the Spirit of the Lord, distributed without division to those sanctified through faith, holding the place of a lamp for the recognition of the things that truly are.

Following him, then, throughout the whole of life, we become free from passion; and this… is what it means to find rest.