Questions on the Octateuch 1 part 2/17

for he has an eternal nature, while the angels have him as maker and creator, having received their being from him; and the demons, moreover, turned themselves willingly to wickedness.

...of wicked demons, and of the sea of goodness —

But the Jews ran aground upon another folly;

for they say that the God of all spoke to himself, 'Let us make man,' in imitation, as it were, of those entrusted with great offices;

for governors and generals too are accustomed to speak in the plural, saying 'we command,' 'we write,' 'we order,' and all such things;

and these deranged men did not perceive that the God of all speaks most things in the singular;

for, he says, 'the end of every man has come before me,' and 'I was grieved that I had made man,' and 'I will blot out man,' and 'you shall have no other gods besides me,' and 'behold, I make new things, which now spring forth,' and 'I will open fountains upon the mountains, and rivers upon the hills.'

And in nearly all of divine Scripture, for the most part, one may hear the God of all speaking in the singular;

but rarely does he shape his speech in the plural, thereby manifesting the number of the persons of the Trinity.

For indeed, when he confounded the tongues, he did not say in the singular, 'I will go down and confound the tongues,' but 'Come, let us go down and confound their tongues.'

And here too, since he was fashioning the rational creature which after many generations he was going to renew by the invocations of the Holy Trinity, accomplishing the all-holy baptism — being about to bring into being the nature that would receive those mysteries — he intimated, in a riddling manner, both the identity of the essence and the number of the persons;

for by saying, 'God said,' he indicated the commonality of the divine nature;

but by adding, 'let us make,' he manifested the number of the persons.

So again, by saying 'image' in the singular, he showed the identity of the nature;

for he did not say, 'according to images,' but 'according to image.'

but by saying 'our,' he indicated the number of the hypostases;

for the God of all, foreseeing all things — those not yet come to be as though already come to be — and foreseeing beforehand the incarnation and enanthropesis of the Only-begotten, and how he would take this nature from a virgin, and would so join and unite it to himself that it would be understood as one person of God and man, and that one act of worship would be offered to him by all creation — very fittingly deemed worthy of the greatest honor this very foundation of the race as well;

and first he set forth a counsel concerning the creation, so that he might signify beforehand the rational nature of the one being created;

then, having intimated the number of the persons, so that the one who was to offer hymns upon the earth might receive intimations of theology;

and having become, as it were, the very worker of his own molding, he showed the greater tenderness he held toward this creature.

This also the noble Job cries out to him, saying:

'Your hands made me and fashioned me.'

In addition to these, the Creator himself, both through Jeremiah and through Isaiah, says that we are clay, and he is our potter.

But we do not say that the divine has hands, nor that it needs any deliberation or forethought, so that, in accordance with the myths of Plato, it might fashion its work according to a form conceived in thought;

but each of these things shows the greater care of God for this living being.

What is 'according to image'? Some have called the invisible part of the soul the image of God;

But they have not spoken truly.

For if the invisible part of the soul is the image of God, then angels and archangels, and all the incorporeal and holy natures, would more properly be called images of God,

inasmuch as they are altogether set free from bodies, and possess what is invisible in unmixed purity.

But some, out of great foolishness, say that the human body was made according to the image of God,

since they give ear to the divine Scripture when it says:

'Open your eyes and see, and incline your ear and hear'; and 'the Lord smelled a scent of sweetness'; and 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things'; and 'in his hand are the ends of the earth'; and such other expressions.

And since we ourselves see by means of eyes, it names his power of sight 'eyes';

and again, in turn, it names his power of hearing 'ears', since it is by these members that we hear.

But they ought not to have listened only to these words, but also to those which teach the illimitable nature of God.

For it says: 'Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into Hades, you are present'; and so on.

And to the Samaritan woman the Lord said:

'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'

But if God is spirit, then he is simple, and uncompounded, and without shape.

But indeed it is superfluous to prolong this discussion.

As for 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness', some of the teachers have understood it thus:

that the God of all, having made both the sensible and the intelligible creation, formed man last, having set him, as it were a certain image of himself, in the midst of things inanimate and animate, and sensible and intelligible,

so that the inanimate and the animate things might render service to him, as it were a kind of tribute,

while the intelligible natures, in their solicitude for him, might display their goodwill toward the one who made him.

For this too the divine apostle said:

'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation?' And the Lord in the Gospels: 'See that you do not despise one of these little ones.'

'For amen I say to you, that their angels continually behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.'

But some have said that man was made according to the image of God with respect to dominion, employing as their clearest proof the fact that the Maker went on to say: 'and let them rule the fish of the sea, and the birds of heaven, and the cattle, and all the earth, and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.'

For just as he himself has lordship over all things, so he gave man authority over the irrational animals; and one can find other examples too as imitations of the archetype.

For man too, in imitation of God who made him, fashions houses and walls and cities and harbors and ships and dockyards, and chariots and countless other things,

such as representations of heaven, and likenesses of sun and moon and stars, and images of men and irrational animals; but the difference between the two kinds of making is infinite.

For the God of all creates both out of things that exist and out of things that do not exist, and without toil or time;

for at the very moment of willing, he brings into being what he has determined.

But man needs matter, and he needs also tools, and deliberation, and reflection, and time, and toil, and other arts as well, for the making of what comes to be.

For the builder needs the smith, and the smith needs the miner, and the charcoal-burner;

and all of them together need the woodcutters, and the woodcutters need the planters and the farmers;

and thus each art begs from the other arts the service it needs for itself.

But even in creating in this way, man imitates, in some manner, the Maker, as an image imitates its archetype;

for indeed an image bears the likeness of its archetype,

but it has the form of the members, though it does not have their functions;

for it is deprived of the soul by which the body is moved.

So again, man both reigns and judges in imitation of the God of all;

but God, when passing judgment, needs neither accusers nor witnesses;

for thus he condemned Cain also, having become an eyewitness of his abominable deed;

but man, when judging, needs both witnesses and accusers;

Thus man has also been named god, since he has been called the image of God;

for it says, 'a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God';

but again, the God of all has a divine nature, not a bare title;

whereas man, as an image, has only the name, being deprived of the reality.

So too, illimitability truly and properly belongs to the God of all;

yet the human mind too imitates it in some such way;

for in an instant it roams over the regions of the east and the west, the north and the south, both the things above the heavens and the things beneath the earth,

yet not in substance, but only by the imagination of reasoning.

Whereas God possesses illimitability in essence, and in wisdom, and in power alike;

one might also find yet another, more precise imitation, again in the soul of man;

for it has within itself both the rational and the vital principle;

and the mind begets the word, while the breath goes forth together with the word — not begotten as the word is, but ever accompanying the word, and going forth together with it as it is begotten.

But these things belong to man only as to an image, and for this very reason the word and the breath in him have no independent subsistence.

But in the case of the Holy Trinity we conceive three hypostases, united without confusion, and each subsisting in itself.

For God the Word has been begotten of the Father before the ages;

yet he is inseparable from the one who begot him; and the all-holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father,

and is conceived also in his own proper hypostasis;

for it says, 'all these things the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one individually as he wills.'

But there is no need to prolong the discussion on this;

for one can find countless proofs of this in the divine Scripture.

Question: Why ever did God bless the seventh day above the rest? Answer: Each of the other days received a work of creation proper to itself;

since, then, he had by this day finished making the whole of creation, he gave to the seventh day, in place of a work of creation, the blessing, so that it alone should not remain unhonored in comparison with the others.

As for 'he sanctified it', he has put this in place of 'he set it apart';

for one can find this so understood in many places in the divine Scripture;

for indeed concerning the Medes it says, 'they are sanctified, and I am leading them' — that is, they have been set apart for this purpose.

Moreover, since he was writing these things for Jews, he necessarily put 'he sanctified it', so that they might render greater reverence to the Sabbath;

for this too he said when giving the Law: 'for in six days the Lord your God made heaven and earth;'

'but on the seventh day he rested from all his works which he had made, and he sanctified it.'

Question: What is meant by 'and a spring went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth'? Answer: Here again, in summary, the writer has recounted the account of creation, and has taught that God brought forth the elements out of what did not exist, and that he separated these from one another, and that he set each of them in order as he willed, and that, although man was not yet tilling the earth, nor the clouds yet travailing to bring forth rain, the earth put forth vegetation as the Creator willed, having for its irrigation the moisture and dampness that remained in it after the separation of the waters.

For thus Aquila also rendered it: 'and a gushing forth went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.'

Question: If the soul came into being from the divine breathing, is the soul, then, of the essence of God? Answer: Such a notion belongs to the utmost impiety and blasphemy;

For it was for this very reason that divine Scripture showed the ease of the creative act.

And in addition to this, it also hints at the nature of the soul: that it is a created spirit, invisible and intelligent, freed from the coarseness of bodies.

And this too one must observe: that one must first conceive of a lung, and the muscles that press upon it and contract it, and the windpipe naturally joined to the lung, and the palate and the mouth—and only then can the 'breathing in' be received.

But if the divine is incorporeal, then this 'breathing in' too must be understood in a manner befitting God.

Why ever did God plant paradise, when he was about immediately to banish Adam from it on account of sin?

First, the Lord God does not permit condemnation on the basis of mere foreknowledge;

therefore, even while foreseeing the transgression, he nonetheless imparted the good things to him.

Then, too, he wished him to come to know the divine gifts, so that, once deprived of them, he might hate sin, seeing that it had stripped him of so many good things.

Furthermore, it was fitting that the just president of the games set before the athletes of virtue the prizes of victory;

for this very reason he also spoke concerning the kingdom of the heavens, saying:

'the kingdom [prepared] from the foundation of the world.' Some say that paradise is in heaven.

Since divine Scripture says, 'And God caused to spring up yet more out of the earth every tree beautiful to behold and good for food,' it is exceedingly rash to abandon the teaching of the Spirit and follow one's own private reasonings.

Must the tree of life and the tree of knowing the knowledge of good and evil be called intelligible, or perceptible to the senses? Divine Scripture said that these too had sprouted out of the earth;

therefore they possess no nature different from the other plants.

For just as the wood of the cross is wood, yet is called 'saving' because of the salvation that accrues through faith concerning it, so also these trees are plants that have sprouted from the earth;

but on account of the divine ordinance, one of them was named the tree of life,

while the other, because the perception of sin came about in connection with it, was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And it was concerning this latter tree that the contest was set before Adam,

while the tree of life lay before him as a kind of prize for one who had kept the commandment.

In the same way the patriarchs also gave names to places and to wells;

and one they called 'the well of vision,' not because it bestowed the power of sight, but because the Lord of all appeared beside it;

and 'the well of ample room,' because, whereas the men of Gerar often contended over the other wells, they did not trouble those who had dug this one;

thus also 'the well of the oath,' because the oaths were made beside it.

In this way Luz was named Bethel, that is, 'house of God,' because the Maker of all appeared to Jacob in that very place;

not because the hill itself was ensouled, but because in that place they had made covenants with one another.

In like manner baptism is called 'living water,' not because the water of baptism has some other nature, but because through that water divine grace bestows eternal life.

Thus it was called the tree of life on account of the divine ordinance, and the tree of knowledge on account of the perception of sin that came about in connection with it;

for, not having yet had any experience of sin, once they had partaken of the forbidden fruit, having thereby transgressed the commandment, they received the stings of conscience.

Did they, then, possess the knowledge of good and evil even before their partaking of the forbidden fruit? And how indeed could it be that those honored with reason and made according to the divine image did not possess the discernment of good and evil? And how could that unfathomable law of righteousness have been set for them, if they did not possess this knowledge in their nature, nor knew that to keep the commandment was good, but to transgress it was ruinous? They had, then, the knowledge;

but they acquired the actual experience of it only afterward.

How then, after eating, did they come to know that they were naked, since before eating they had no such perception? Not even quite young children are naturally inclined to blush when stripped of clothing;

but as the body grows little by little, and the mind then begins to display its own proper nature, nakedness is no longer bearable for the young; rather, they blush and clothe themselves, and if someone should take away their garment, they cover their generative parts with their hands;

yet in many people habit also removes this sense of shame;

for indeed sailors, sailing while naked, and bathers, seen naked by one another, do not feel this shame in that setting;

but if someone is naked outside the baths, he blushes exceedingly.

In just this way, Adam and his companion, immediately upon being formed, being as it were infants, freshly born, and uninitiated into sin, were not ashamed to live without garments;

but after their experience of sin, they covered certain parts of the body with leaves.

How does Moses say that the Tigris and the Euphrates flow out from paradise, when some say these gush forth from the mountains of Armenia? One may also observe other rivers that issue forth in one place, then pass into the earth through certain sinkholes, and gush forth again from above elsewhere;

for they do issue forth from that place, as divine Scripture says,

and then, passing through certain subterranean channels, they take on other sources here.

Now the God of all did not arrange this in vain, but in order to cut short humanity's excessive meddlesome curiosity;

for if the whole course of these rivers were plainly evident, some, journeying along their banks, would have attempted to survey the region of paradise,

but they would have missed what they longed for, being worn out by the length of the journey and perishing from the scarcity of necessities;

falling now into rugged terrain, now into deserts, and sometimes even encountering harsh and barbarous men.

Providing, then, against these dangers, the compassionate God rendered the sources of these rivers unknown.

Why did he form the woman from the rib of Adam? The Maker of nature wished to bring the two sexes together into concord;

for this reason he formed Adam from the earth, but the woman from Adam, so as both to display the sameness of their nature and to instill in them a certain natural affection for one another;

for if, even with things having come about in this way, men still quarrel with women and women with men, what would they not have done had he formed the woman from some other source altogether? Wisely, then, did he both divide them and again join them together;

for marriage brings the two sexes together into one;

for it says, 'the two shall become one flesh';

and that this is true, the very outcome bears witness;

for through the marital union a single fruit springs forth from both, sown by the one, nourished by the other, and brought to completion by the Maker of nature.

If the serpent is 'prudent,' is it then to be praised, since prudence is a part of virtue? Many names are used in more than one sense;

for indeed the idols of the nations too have been called 'gods';

but this is said more precisely with reference to the demon who worked within it.

And ignorantly the foolish have likewise called those who occupy themselves with myths 'wise men';

thus also divine Scripture says:

'God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise to shame';

'Where is the wise man?' And through the prophet:

'They are wise in doing evil.'

Therefore here too it named the serpent 'prudent' in the sense of 'cunning';

for thus Aquila also translated it:

'And the serpent was more cunning than every animal of the field which the Lord God had made.'

Since the serpent is irrational, how did it converse with Eve? It was itself an instrument of the enemy of truth;

and the Lord has made this clear in the divine Gospels;

for having said to the Jews, 'You are of your father the devil,' he added, 'He was a murderer from the beginning.'

It was this one, then, who conversed with Eve through the serpent;

for since they had received from the God of all dominion over all irrational creatures, he brought the trap to her through one of her own subjects, thereby making the deception more plausible.

And that divine Scripture also calls by the name 'serpent' the very one who worked through the serpent, the prophet Isaiah is witness, crying out:

'In that day the Lord will bring his holy sword, the great and mighty sword, upon the dragon, the serpent, the crooked and mighty one, upon the dragon, the serpent, the fleeing one, that is in the sea.'

And the Lord likewise said to his holy disciples:

'Behold, I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.'

What is the meaning of 'the eyes of the two were opened'? It is plain to those willing to attend that even before the eating they did not have their eyes shut;

for how did the woman see that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes to behold, and desirable to contemplate, if she did not have her eyes open? Therefore divine Scripture has called by this name the perception that came after the sin;

for immediately after the sin the conscience is pricked.

Why, when it was the devil who brought forward the deception, is the serpent the one punished? Properly speaking, God brought the curse upon the one who actually worked the deed;

for he did not receive this nature from the God of the universe;

for he was created good, and was made together with the incorporeal powers;

but since he willingly inclined toward wickedness, he was deprived of the honor he had obtained from the beginning, and was cast down to the earth.

And the animal itself received the curse for the benefit of mankind;

for when we see the serpent dragging itself and writhing upon the earth, we are reminded of the ancient curse;

and we learn how great are the evils that sin brings about, not only for those who commit it, but also for those who serve as its instruments.

And the serpent itself suffers no harm from this, being by nature accustomed to move in this manner;

for it has this kind of movement in its very nature;

and nothing that belongs to nature is thought to be burdensome.

But man reaps much benefit from this.

For he foreknew that he too would transgress the commandment;

besides, it would have been easy for the devil to bring about the deception through some other beast as well;

but self-determination is the property of the rational being.

Of these, some kept their goodwill toward their Maker, while others inclined toward wickedness;

and this same thing can be found also among human beings;

for some are lovers of virtue, while others are workers of vice.

If, then, anyone finds fault with the creation of the wicked, he thereby robs the athletes of virtue of the prizes of victory;

for if they possessed their longing for virtue not by the choice of their own will, but as an innate immutability, then the contestants of piety worthy of the prize would have gone unnoticed;

but since the will possesses the choice between good things and their opposites, these justly obtain the crowns of victory, while those pay the penalty for the sins they committed by their own choice.

You call God good — how then do you attach to him such severity? For it is a mark of cruelty and harshness to inflict so great a punishment on account of a small act of eating, not only upon those who sinned, but also upon those who sprang from them.

First, it is fitting for those who purpose to live piously to be persuaded that whatever is done or commanded by the God of the universe is holy, just, good, and benevolent toward mankind;

for if we confess that he possesses all these attributes, we must also consider that what is administered and commanded by him must be of the same character.

Next, one must know that every law, even if it legislates concerning small matters, has the same force as one that commands the doing of the greatest things or forbids their doing;

and this is especially true of every divine law.

For instance, the law commanding circumcision, when transgressed, works no harm to one's neighbor;

but nevertheless the lawgiver says that every uncircumcised male, who is not circumcised on the eighth day, shall be utterly destroyed.

And the very punishment he ordained for murderers and adulterers, this he also allotted to this transgressor.

But since it is likely that the ill-named heretics, who openly war against the Old Testament Scripture, will also accuse this law, I shall draw my proofs from the legislation of the Gospel;

for we find in those laws that the one who looks upon a woman with lust is judged guilty of adultery;

and the one who is angry without cause is liable to judgment;

and the one who calls his brother 'Raca' is again answerable to the council;

and the one who calls him 'fool' is deserving of Gehenna;

and the one who swears an oath, even if he swears truthfully, belongs to the devil's own faction.

Why then do they call this lawgiver good, but the lawgiver of the Old Testament harsh? For by their own standard these precepts are more severe than those.

But these are but the audacity of their blasphemy;

we, however, know that both those laws and these belong to one and the same God;

and the difference was brought about by the character of those for whom the laws were given.

For, like a wise teacher, he offered imperfect things to the imperfect, and perfect things to the perfect.

...penalties allowing no pardon, so that the rest, seeing the chastisement, might not dare the transgression.

This also came to pass with regard to the legislation of the Sabbath;

for the whole people stoned to death the one who had dared to gather sticks on the Sabbath, being the first to transgress the law concerning it;

God having ordered this, so that, becoming with their own hands the agents of the punishment, they might shudder at the lawlessness as that which brings on such punishment;

but at a later time, when many had transgressed the law concerning the Sabbath, the lawgiver bore the transgression with longsuffering;

thus he subjected Cain, the first to commit murder, to irremediable punishments, so that he might make those living in his time and after him afraid to dare the like;

but when many murderers arose afterward, he did not immediately bring on the punishments;

it was fitting, then, that Adam also, as the first to receive a law—and a most light law at that—...

for he had given him abundance of fruits of every kind, and had forbidden the eating of one alone—should pay the penalty for his offense for the benefit of the race;

But if, being prone to wrath, as the ill-named Marcion said, he inflicted the punishment of death on account of a small act of eating, how is it that when all men had run aground into impiety and utter lawlessness, he did not bring on total destruction, but gave his Son and granted salvation through the cross and the passion? And I say these things against those who suppose that the God of the universe did these things out of some wrath, and who are ignorant of the mystery of the economy of salvation;

for I think it is clear to those instructed in divine things that the God of the universe is not accustomed to do anything out of a change of mind;

for this experience is proper to those who have a mutable nature, who are pleased now with these things, now with those, and are wholly ignorant of what is to come;

but the God of the universe has an immutable nature;

and he knows the things not yet come to pass as though they had already come to pass.

For instance, foreseeing and foreknowing the things concerning Adam—that he would become mortal by transgressing the commandment—he prepared his nature accordingly beforehand;

for he fashioned the formation of the body into male and female;

and such a constitution of bodies belongs to mortal beings, who need procreation for the continuance of the race;

for immortal nature has no need of the female.

For this reason the Maker brought forth the whole number of the incorporeal beings all at once;

but of the mortal living creatures he made two of each kind, male and female;

and he bestowed on them the blessing of increase;

'Be fruitful,' he says, 'and multiply.'

So too he formed man male and female, and gave them the same blessing: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it.'

Foreseeing these things, then, the God of the universe not only formed them in this way, but also gave them a law concerning food;

'Behold,' he says, 'I have given you every seed-bearing herb that sows seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree which has in itself fruit of seed that sows seed; it shall be for food to you, and to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of heaven, and to every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, which has in itself a living soul;'

'and I have given you every green herb for food.'

For these things the God of all said to Adam before the commandment:

But food belongs to mortal beings, for an immortal nature has no need of nourishment.