Praeparatio Evangelica 6 part 4/5

Among the Bactrians, the women use every kind of splendid ornament and every kind of perfume, being attended by maidservants and young men even more than their husbands are, going forth on horseback with great pomp, adorning their horses with much gold and precious stones; and they are not chaste, but consort indiscriminately with slaves and with strangers, having such license, and, not being accused by their husbands, they almost rule over them.

And it is not the case that, in every horoscope of the women in Bactria, laughter-loving Aphrodite is at mid-heaven together with Jupiter and Mars in their own bounds. But in Arabia and Osrhoene, not only are adulteresses put to death, but even those merely suspected are not let go unpunished.

Among the Parthians and Armenians, murderers are put to death, sometimes by the judges, sometimes by the blood-relatives of those murdered. And if anyone kills his own wife, or a childless brother, or an unmarried sister, or a son, or a daughter, he is accused by no one, such being the law in those lands; but among the Greeks and Romans, those who murder their relatives are subjected to greater punishment.

In Atra, one who steals something worth an obol is stoned to death; among the Bactrians, one who steals a little is spat upon; among the Romans, he is beaten with blows — such are their laws.

From the river Euphrates as far as the Ocean, toward the east, a man reviled as a murderer, or as a thief, is not greatly indignant; but one reviled as a sodomite avenges himself even to the point of murder. But among the Greeks, even the wise, though they have beloved boys, are not blamed.

In that same East, those who submit to such outrage, if they become known, are murdered by their brothers, or their fathers, and kinsmen, and are not even deemed worthy of a known burial.

But among the Gauls, the young men are 'married' openly, not regarding this as a reproach, because of the law prevailing among them. And it is not possible that all those in Gaul who are thus impiously abused should have had at their nativity Venus the Morning Star together with Mercury setting in the houses of Saturn and in the terms of Mars.

In Britain, many men share one wife; but in Parthia, many wives have one husband, and all remain chaste, obeying him according to the law.

But the Amazons, all of them, have no husbands; rather, like irrational animals, once a year, around the vernal equinox, they cross their own borders and consort with their neighbors, who regard this occasion as a kind of festival. Having conceived from this, they return, and of necessity all conceive at the same time, according to the law of nature; and the males born to them they cast away, while the females they rear. They are warlike, and take diligent care for physical exercises.

Mercury together with Venus, in the houses of Mercury, makes sculptors, painters, and bankers; but in the houses of Venus, perfumers, or singing-masters, and reciters of poems.

And among the Taeni and the Saracens, and in Upper Libya, and among the Moors and among the Nomads dwelling by the mouth of the Ocean, and in Outer Germany and in Upper Sarmatia, and in Scythia, and among all the nations in the northern regions from the Pontus, and throughout all Alania and Albania and Otene and Sounia, and in Chryse, one cannot find a single banker, sculptor, painter, architect, geometer, singing-master, or reciter of poems—rather, the very manner of the working of Mercury and Venus has been wholly wanting throughout this entire circuit of the inhabited world.

All the Medes cast their dead—while still breathing—to dogs bred with great care for the purpose; and yet not all of them, at a daytime nativity, have the moon together with Mars in Cancer, beneath the earth.

The Indians burn their dead, and along with them they burn their wives, who do so willingly, while still alive; yet surely not all the Indian women who are burned alive have, at a nighttime nativity, the sun together with Mars in Leo, in the terms of Mars, beneath the earth.

Most of the Germans die by the fate of the noose; and yet by no means does the whole multitude of the Germans have the moon and the ascendant hour beset on both sides by Saturn and Mars.

In every nation, on every day, and by every manner of nativity, men are born; yet in each portion of mankind, law and custom prevail, because of man's free will. Nativity does not compel the Chinese, though unwilling, to commit murder; nor the Brahmins to eat meat; nor the Persians to refrain unlawfully from marrying their own kin; nor the Indians not to be burned; nor the Medes not to be eaten by dogs; nor the Parthians not to practice polygamy; nor the women of Mesopotamia not to be chaste; nor the Greeks not to exercise their bodies unclothed; nor the Romans not to rule; nor the Gauls not to be 'married' to men; nor the other barbarian nations to share in what the Greeks call the Muses. But, as I said before, each nation, and each of mankind, makes use of his own freedom as he wishes and when he wishes, and is enslaved to nativity and to the nature belonging to the flesh which surrounds him—in some respects as he wishes, in others as he does not wish.

For everywhere, in every nation, there are rich and poor, rulers and ruled, healthy and sick—each according to the allotments of his own nativity. 'These things, O Bardesanes,' I said to him, 'have utterly convinced us.' But the astronomers say that this earth has been divided into seven climes, and that each clime is ruled by one of the seven planetary stars; and that men have not established their various laws for themselves, but rather that the will of each ruling star prevails in its own region—and that is the law which those who are ruled have come to regard as custom.

He answered: 'This distinction is not true, O Philip. For even though the inhabited world has been divided into seven parts, yet within a single portion we find many differences of laws. For there are not seven laws corresponding to the seven stars, nor twelve corresponding to the signs of the zodiac, nor thirty-six corresponding to the decans—but countless.'

You ought to remember what I said before: that even within one clime and in one and the same region of the Indians there are man-eating Indians, and also those who abstain from eating anything that has life; and that the Magusaeans do not marry their own daughters only in Persia, but in every nation wherever they may dwell, keeping the laws of their forefathers and the rites of their mysteries.

But we have also listed many barbarian nations, situated in the south and in the west, and in the east and in the north—that is, in different climes—which have no share in the science of Hermes.

How many wise men, do you suppose, have abrogated laws that were badly established? How many laws have been abolished on account of dire necessity? How many kings, having conquered nations, have abolished the laws that existed before them and established their own instead? And yet not one of the stars ever lost its own clime.

But yesterday the Romans, having conquered Arabia, changed the laws of the barbarians there; for free will follows upon free will. And I will now set forth for you that which can persuade even the unbelieving.

All the Jews who received the law through Moses cause the male children born to them to bleed by circumcising them on the eighth day, not waiting for the presence of any star, not paying heed to the authority of any clime, not being led by the law of a foreign land—but whether they happen to be in Syria, or in Gaul, or in Italy, or in Greece, or in Parthia, or wherever they may be, this is what they do.

This is not in accordance with nativity; for it is not possible that all the Jews should have one and the same nativity. Moreover, every seven days, all of them, wherever they may be, rest from all labor, and neither travel nor make use of fire; nor is it nativity that compels a Jew to refrain from building a house, or lodging travelers, or working, or selling, or buying, on the days of the Sabbath—even though on that very day Jews are being born, and giving birth, and falling ill, and dying.

For these things no longer belong to free will. In Syria and in Osrhoene, many used to castrate themselves for the goddess Rhea; but on this matter, by a single decree, King Abgar commanded that, of those who castrated themselves, both their private parts and their hands should be cut off; and from that time on, no one castrated himself in Osrhoene.

But what shall we say concerning the sect of the Christians? We who hold this belief, though many, have arisen in various climes, in every nation and clime; and though we are many, we are called by one single name.

And neither do the Christians in Parthia practice polygamy, though they are Parthians; nor do those in Media expose their dead to dogs; nor do those in Persia, though Persians, marry their own daughters; among the Bactrians and the Gelae they do not corrupt marriages; those in Egypt do not worship Apis, or the dog, or the goat, or the cat. But wherever they are, they are neither overcome by the badly established laws and customs, nor does the nativity administered by the ruling stars compel them to practice the evils forbidden by their Teacher; yet they remain subject to sickness, poverty, sufferings, and to the disgraces reckoned as such by the world.

For just as our free man is not compelled to be a slave, and even if compelled, resists those who compel him, so also that man among us who appears to be a slave cannot easily escape from his subjection.

For if we were capable of everything, we would be the All itself; so that, if we were capable of nothing, we would be, as I said before, the instruments of others and not our own. But when God gives His assent, all things become possible and unhindered; for nothing can withstand His will. Indeed, even those things that seem to resist do so only because He, being good, permits each nature to have its own particular character and the free will proper to its own volition.

So much, then, from the Syrian. But having recalled one more matter, I shall bring my discourse to a close. For since what is drawn from the writings outside Scripture has been set forth sufficiently, while what is drawn from the sacred writings is still lacking—which indeed we especially need for the Preparation of the Evangelical Demonstration—it would be well also to survey these, so that our discourse may in no respect fall short of what is to be considered concerning the subject before us.

Wherefore I shall make these things clear to you as well. Yet you would not be able to grasp the sacred oracles in their bare form, since most of them have been set forth in a veiled manner. For this reason I shall present to you their interpreter; and you—unless you bear ill will toward your betters—know, I think, the man: one who even now still dances in the choirs of Christ by means of the labors he has left behind, and who is certainly not unknown even to outsiders, on account of the zeal he has displayed also toward their studies. Consider, then, how much, and of what kind, the admirable Origen has determined concerning the subject before us in his Commentaries on Genesis, and how he has traversed the discourse concerning fate.

Concerning the fact that the luminaries have come to be for signs—being none other than the sun, the moon, and the stars—it is among the most necessary matters to discuss; not only because nations foreign to the faith of Christ go astray in the matter concerning fate, through the interweaving of the so-called wandering stars with those in the zodiac, supposing that all things on earth and concerning each man—and perhaps also irrational animals—come to pass for them accordingly; but also because many even of those thought to have believed are distracted, wondering whether the affairs of men have not perhaps been necessitated, and could not possibly turn out otherwise than as the stars accomplish according to their various configurations.

It follows for those who hold these doctrines that they utterly abolish what is 'up to us'; and consequently praise and blame likewise, and actions worthy of approval and, in turn again, actions worthy of censure.

If these things are so, then all that pertains to God's proclaimed judgment vanishes—along with the threats against those who have sinned, that they will be punished; and likewise the honors and states of blessedness for those who have devoted themselves to what is better. For none of these things will any longer come to pass reasonably.

And if one were to examine the consequences that necessarily follow from what one dogmatizes, then faith too would be vain, and the coming of Christ would accomplish nothing, and the whole dispensation through the law and the prophets, and the labors of the apostles for establishing the churches of God through Christ would likewise be in vain.

Unless indeed, according to those who dare say such things, Christ too—having come under the necessity of the motion of the stars because he assumed a nativity—did and suffered all things not because God the Father of all had bestowed upon him his extraordinary powers, but because of the stars. And from these godless and impious doctrines it follows that even those who believe would have to be said to believe in God only because they are led to do so by the stars.

We might well ask them what God, wishing what, made such a world—in which some, though men, suffer the things proper to women, in no way themselves responsible for having become subject to such licentiousness; while others, having taken on the disposition of wild beasts, because the motion of the universe made them such (since God had thus ordered the whole), give themselves over to the most savage and utterly inhuman deeds, to murders and to acts of piracy.

And what need is there for us to speak of the things that happen among men and the sins committed by them—countless as they are—which those who champion these doctrines, absolving the sinners of all blame, ascribe instead to God, as being the cause of all things done wickedly and reprehensibly?

But if some of them, as though defending God, say that the Good is one being, having no part in the origin of any of these things, while attaching such things instead to the demiurge of all—first of all, not even in this way will they be able to demonstrate what they wish, namely, that he is just. For how could the one who, according to them, is the father of so many evils, reasonably be called just?

Secondly, it must be examined what they will say concerning themselves—whether they are subject to the motion of the stars, or have been set free, and, being in this life, have nothing from that source operating upon them. For if they say they are subject to the stars, it is clear that the stars granted them the very capacity to think this; and the demiurge will turn out, through the motion of the universe, to have suggested to them the doctrine concerning the God fashioned above him—which is not what they wish to concede.

But if they will answer that they happen to be outside the laws of the demiurge that pertain to the stars—lest what is said by them be a mere unproven assertion—let them try to bring us to agreement more compellingly, by setting forth the difference between a certain mind that is subject to nativity and fate, and another mind that is free from these. For it is clear that such persons, when asked to give an account of this, will in no way be able to do so.

And besides what has been said, prayers too become superfluous, being offered up in vain. For if certain things have been necessitated to happen, and the stars bring them about, and nothing can come to pass apart from their mutual configuration with one another, then we are asking God, without any reason, to grant us certain things that are already fixed.

And what need is there to prolong the discourse any further, exposing the impiety of this well-worn topic concerning fate, accepted without examination by the majority? For what has been said suffices for a sketch of the matter.

But let us remind ourselves from what point, in examining the statement 'Let the lights be for signs,' we have arrived at these considerations. Those who learn the truth about certain things either become eyewitnesses of the facts themselves and thereby soundly declare certain things, having observed the experience and the activity of those who have suffered or acted, or else, hearing it reported by those who are in no way the cause of what has happened, they come to know certain things.

(Let it now be set aside from our discussion that those who have acted or suffered are able, by narrating what they have done or suffered, to lead one who was not present into knowledge of what was done.)

If, then, the one who is taught by someone who is in no way the cause of what happens — namely, that such-and-such has happened or will happen to such-and-such persons — does not discern that the teacher, in speaking of something as having happened or as going to happen, is not necessarily the cause of the matter turning out as it does, he will suppose that the one who set forth that such-and-such has happened, or that such-and-such will happen, has done or will do the things about which he teaches; and he will suppose this, obviously, mistakenly.

As, for instance, if someone, having encountered a prophetic book that foretold the things concerning Judas the traitor, and having learned what would come to pass, and seeing it fulfilled, should suppose that the book was the cause of a certain thing later happening, because he had learned from the book what would afterward be done by Judas — or again, should suppose that the cause was not the book, but the one who first wrote it, or, let us say, the one who inspired it, namely God.

But just as, in the case of the things prophesied concerning Judas, the very words themselves, when examined, show that God did not become the author of Judas's betrayal, but only, having foreknown it, declared beforehand what would be done as a result of this man's wickedness, apart from any causality on God's part.

So too, if anyone should probe deeply into the account of God's foreknowing all things, and of those in whom he, as it were, impressed the words of his own foreknowledge, he would perceive that neither is the one who foreknows necessarily the cause of the things foreknown, nor are those who received the impressions of the words of the foreknower's foreknowledge.

That God, then, knows long in advance each of the things that will come to pass, is evident even apart from Scripture, of itself, from the very concept of God, to one who understands the dignity of the power of the mind of God.

But if it is necessary to establish this also from the Scriptures, the prophecies are full of such examples; and so too the account of Susanna, which speaks of God knowing all things before their coming to be, saying thus: 'O eternal God, who knowest what is hidden, who knowest all things before they come to be, thou knowest that these men have borne false witness against me.'

But most clearly of all, in the Third Book of Kingdoms, both the name of a reigning king and his deeds were recorded as prophesied many years before they came to pass, as follows: 'And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in the land of Judah. And he went up to the altar which was in Bethel, which he had made, together with the calves which he had made.' Then, a little later: 'And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer sacrifice. And he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and he shall burn men's bones upon you.” And he gave a sign on that day, saying, “This is the sign which the Lord has spoken, saying, Behold, the altar shall be split apart, and the fatness that is on it shall be poured out.”' And a little later it is shown that the altar was indeed split apart, and the fatness was poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man had given by the word of the Lord.

And in Isaiah, a prophet who lived long before the captivity into Babylon, after which captivity Cyrus, king of the Persians, later comes to assist in the building of the temple, which took place in the days of Ezra, these things are prophesied by name concerning him: 'Thus says the Lord God to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations might obey before him, and I will break the strength of kings; I will open doors before him, and cities shall not be shut. I will go before you, and level mountains; I will shatter doors of bronze, and break in pieces bars of iron; and I will give you dark, hidden treasures, and I will open to you things unseen, that you may know that I am the Lord God, who calls your name, the God of Israel. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen one, I will call you by my name, and I will accept you.'

For it is clearly shown by these things also that, for the sake of the people whom he benefited, the Lord God granted to one who did not know the piety practiced among the Hebrews the rule over many nations. And these things can also be learned from the Greek historians who have recorded the deeds of the Cyrus who was thus prophesied.

Furthermore, in Daniel too, while the Babylonians were then ruling, the kingdoms that would come after Nebuchadnezzar are shown to him. They are shown by means of the image, the gold being named for the Babylonian empire, the silver for that of the Persians, the bronze for that of the Macedonians, and the iron for that of the Romans.

And again, in the same prophet, the things concerning Darius and Alexander, and the four successors of Alexander king of the Macedonians, and Ptolemy who ruled Egypt, called Lagus, are thus prophesied: 'And I saw a he-goat of the goats coming from the west over the face of the whole earth; and the goat had a horn between its eyes. And it came as far as the ram that had the horns, which I saw standing before Ubal, and it ran at it in the fury of its strength. And I saw it reaching the ram, and it became enraged against it and struck the ram, and broke both its horns, and the ram had no strength to stand before it; and it cast it to the ground and trampled it, and there was none to deliver the ram out of its hand. And the he-goat became exceedingly great; and when it had grown strong, its great horn was broken, and four other horns came up under it toward the four winds of heaven, and out of one of them came forth a single strong horn, and it grew exceedingly great toward the south and the west.'

But why should we mention the prophecies concerning Christ — such as the place of his birth, Bethlehem, and the place of his upbringing, Nazareth, and his withdrawal into Egypt, and the marvelous works that he did, and in what manner he was betrayed beforehand by Judas, who had been called to the apostleship? For all these things are signs of God's foreknowledge.

But the Savior himself also foretold this, saying, 'When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you shall know that her desolation has drawn near.' For he foretold beforehand what afterward came to pass, the final destruction of Jerusalem.

Since, then, it has been demonstrated by us — not without relevance to our purpose — that God is one who foreknows, in order that we might explain how the stars come to be for signs, we must understand that the stars are so ordered in their motion, the so-called wandering planets moving contrary to the fixed stars, so that from the configuration of the stars, taking the signs of all the things that come to pass concerning each particular and concerning things in general, they might come to know — not men, for it is far too great a thing for a human to be able truly to grasp from the motion of the stars what pertains to each of those, whatever they may be, who act or are acted upon — but the powers, which it is necessary for many reasons to know, as we shall show, so far as we are able, in what follows.

But men, having come to understand this from certain observations, or even from the teaching of angels who had transgressed their own proper order and, to the detriment of our race, had taught certain things about these matters, supposed that the heavenly bodies from which they think the signs are taken are the causes of these things which our discourse says are merely signified. Concerning these very matters we shall at once, as it were in summary, give a more careful account, so far as we are able.

The following problems, then, will be set before us: (1) how, given that God is from eternity foreknowing concerning the things supposed to be done by each person, what is 'up to us' is preserved; (2) and in what manner the stars are not the makers of the things among men, but only signify them; (3) and that men cannot have exact knowledge concerning these things, but the signs are set forth for powers superior to men; (4) for what reason God has made the signs for the knowledge of the powers — this will be examined as the fourth point.

And let us then examine the first point, which many of the Greeks, being cautious about it and supposing that events would be rendered necessary and what is up to us in no way preserved, if God foreknows future things, dared to embrace an impious doctrine rather than accept what those men call a glorious belief concerning God, but one which does away with what is up to us, and, consequently, praise and blame, and the acceptability of virtues and the blameworthiness of vices.

And they say: if God knew from eternity that a certain man would do wrong and commit such-and-such acts of injustice, and God's knowledge is not false, then this man, having been foreseen to be such, will certainly become unjust by committing these acts of injustice, and it is impossible for him not to do wrong; and if it is impossible for him not to do wrong, then his doing wrong has been made necessary, and it will be impossible for him to do anything other than what God knew he would do. And if it is impossible for him to do anything else, and no one is blameworthy for not doing what is impossible, then we blame the unjust in vain.

And from the case of the unjust man and his acts of injustice, they proceed also to the other sins, and then, on the contrary side, to the things reckoned as right actions; and they say that it follows from God's having foreknown future things that what is up to us cannot be preserved.

To these we must reply that God, applying his attention to the beginning of the creation of the world — since nothing comes to pass without a cause — traverses in his mind each of the things that will be, seeing that, since this has come to pass, that follows; and if this comes to pass, then that which follows upon it ensues; and once that has come about, this in turn will be; and thus, having proceeded in this way to the very end of all things, he knows what will be, without being, in every case, the cause of each of the things known coming to pass.

For just as, if someone, seeing a certain man who, because of ignorance, is rash, and because of his rashness recklessly steps onto a slippery road, and perceives that he will fall by slipping, does not thereby become the cause of that man's slip, so must we understand that God, having foreseen what sort of person each will be, and discerning the causes of his becoming such, foresees both that he will commit such-and-such sins, or accomplish such-and-such right actions.

And if we must say that foreknowledge is not the cause of the things that happen (for God does not lay hold of the one foreknown to sin at the moment when he sins), we shall rather say something more paradoxical, yet true: that the future event is the cause of the foreknowledge concerning it being of such a kind.

For it is not because it has been known that it comes to pass, but because it was going to come to pass that it was known. But this requires a distinction. For if someone interprets 'it will certainly be' in such a way as to mean that it is necessary for the foreknown thing to happen, we do not grant him this; for we shall not say that, since it was foreknown that Judas would become a traitor, it was therefore altogether necessary that Judas become a traitor.

In any case, in the prophecies concerning Judas, reproaches and accusations against Judas are recorded, demonstrating to everyone his blameworthiness. But no blame would attach to him if he were by necessity a traitor, and it were not possible for him to have become like the rest of the apostles.

See whether this is not made evident by the very words which we shall now cite, which run thus: 'And let there be none to have pity on his orphans, because he did not remember to show mercy; and he pursued a poor and needy man, and one broken in heart, to put him to death; and he loved cursing, and it shall come upon him; and he did not desire blessing, and it shall be far from him.'

But if someone shall explain 'it will certainly be' in the sense that it signifies that such-and-such will indeed be, but that it was also possible for it to happen otherwise, this we grant as true. For it is not possible for God to lie, but it is possible for him, concerning things that are contingent — that is, capable of happening or not happening — to know their coming to be or not coming to be as such.