導師 第 1 章 第 5/15 段

For before he became Creator he was God, he was good; and for this reason he willed also to be Maker and Father;

and the disposition of that love became the beginning of justice, in that he makes his sun to shine and sends down his own Son;

and he, first, proclaimed the good justice from heaven, saying, No one knew the Son except the Father, nor the Father except the Son.

This mutually counterpoised knowledge, equally balanced, is a symbol of primeval justice.

Then justice descended upon men both in writing and in body, by the Word and by the law, compelling humanity to saving repentance;

but you do not obey God:

blame yourself, for it is you who draw the Judge upon yourself.

For the same God, through the same Word, both restrains men from their sins by threatening, and saves humanity by exhorting.

If, then, we have shown that the dispensation of bracing humanity—good and saving as it is, necessarily taken up by the Word—has proved well-suited both for repentance and for the prevention of sins, the next thing would be to consider the gentleness of the Word;

for he has been shown to be just, and he sets forth his own counsels, which are exhortations toward salvation, through which, in accordance with the Father's will, he wishes to make known to us both what is noble and what is profitable—

the noble belonging to the encomiastic (praising) mode, and the profitable to the consultative (advising) mode;

for indeed the consultative mode has as its branches the hortatory and the dehortatory (urging-toward and urging-away), while the encomiastic has the laudatory and the censorious.

For according to its disposition the consultative intent becomes hortatory, and according to another disposition dehortatory;

and likewise the encomiastic, according to one disposition becomes censorious, and according to another laudatory;

and it is chiefly with these that the just Instructor is occupied, he who aims at what is profitable to us.

But, in fact, the censorious and dehortatory mode has already been demonstrated to us earlier; now in turn we must handle the hortatory and laudatory mode, and, as upon a balance, let us weigh out the evenly poised scales of the just one.

Now in the exhortation toward what is profitable, the Instructor speaks through Solomon somewhat as follows:

I exhort you, O men, and send forth my voice to the sons of men;

hearken to me, for I will speak of solemn things, and what follows.

…he has not stood, nor sat in the seat of the pestilent;

but rather his delight is in the law of the Lord.

Now there are three parts of counsel: the one taking its examples from times past—for instance, what the Hebrews suffered when they committed idolatry with the golden calf, and what they suffered when they fell into fornication, and the like; the second considered from the present time, that is, grasped through perception—as that saying spoken to those who asked the Lord whether he himself was the Christ, or whether they should wait for another:

Go and tell John:

the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised; and blessed is he who is not offended in me.

This, then, was what David said in prophecy: As we have heard, so also have we seen.

And from things to come the third part of counsel is constituted, by which he commands men to guard against what is to befall them;

but those who have fallen into sins shall be cast into the outer darkness;

there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the like;

so that from these things it is evident that the Lord, proceeding through every kind of treatment, calls humanity to salvation.

And by consolation he soothes sins, both diminishing desire and at the same time imparting hope toward salvation:

If you turn back with all your heart and say, 'Father,' I will hear you as a holy people.

Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and what goes with this, which the Lord speaks in his own person.

And most clearly he calls men to goodness, saying through Solomon:

Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding.

For the good is found by him who seeks it, and loves to be seen by him who has found it.

Yes, indeed, through Jeremiah also he expounds understanding, saying, Blessed are we, O Israel, because what is pleasing to God is known to us—known, that is, through the Word, on account of whom we are blessed and prudent.

For understanding is the knowledge made known through the same prophet, who says, Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life; give ear to know understanding.

And through Moses, furthermore, he also promises in addition a gift, on account of his existing love for mankind, to those who hasten toward salvation:

and I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord swore to your fathers.

Moreover, He says through Isaiah, "I will also bring you to My holy mountain, and I will make you joyful."

There is yet another form of His instruction, namely the pronouncing of blessing.

And He calls that man blessed, saying through David, "He who has not sinned shall be like the tree planted by the streams of waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and whose leaf shall not wither." By this He also hinted at the resurrection; and "whatever he does shall prosper for him."

He wishes us to become such people, that we may be blessed.

On the contrary, setting forth the counterpoise of the balance of righteousness, He says, "Not so are the ungodly, not so; but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth."

Having shown the penalty of sinners, their flimsiness, and their being at the mercy of the wind, the Instructor turned them away from their guilt by means of the rebuke; and while holding over them the punishment they deserve, He displayed the kindness of His benevolence, most skillfully leading us to the use and acquisition of good things, that through this we might become good.

Indeed, He also invites us to knowledge, saying through Jeremiah:

"If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace forever."

For here, by pointing out the reward of knowledge, He calls forth the prudent to love of it; and granting pardon to him who has gone astray, He says, "Return, return, like the grape-gatherer to his basket."

Do you see the goodness of righteousness, which counsels us to repent? Furthermore, through Jeremiah He sheds light upon the truth for those who go astray:

"... of the eternal Lord, which is the good path? Walk in it, and you shall find purification for your souls."

And He leads us to repentance for the sake of our salvation.

"If you repent, the Lord will thoroughly cleanse your heart and the heart of your offspring."

Now it would have been possible for us to summon as advocates of this inquiry the philosophers, who say that only the perfect man is praiseworthy, while the base man deserves blame.

But since certain people slander the notion of blessedness, alleging that it has no concern either for itself or for bestowing benefit on another—being incapable of understanding His love of mankind—it is for the sake of these, and of those who still do not attribute justice to the Good, that this discourse of ours has been undertaken.

For it followed that we should affirm that the reproving and censuring form of instruction is fitting for human beings, since they say that all men are base;

but God alone is wise, from whom wisdom comes, and He alone is perfect; for this reason He alone is praiseworthy.

But I do not make use of this argument; rather I say that praise or blame, or whatever resembles praise and blame, are of all things the most necessary remedies for human beings.

Those, then, who are hard to cure are driven on—just as iron is wrought by fire, hammer, and anvil—that is, by threat, refutation, and rebuke; while those who cleave to faith itself, being as it were self-taught and acting by their own choice, grow through praise:

for "virtue, when praised, grows like a tree."

And it seems to me that Pythagoras of Samos, perceiving this, gave the counsel:

"When you have done cowardly deeds, reproach yourself; but in good deeds take delight."

To reprove is also called admonishing; and admonition (nouthetēsis) is etymologically the implanting of mind (nous) in someone, so that the reproving form of instruction is one that procures understanding.

But indeed, countless precepts besides have been devised for the acquisition of good things and the avoidance of evils;

"for there is no peace for the ungodly," says the Lord.

For this reason He charges the little ones, through Solomon, to be on their guard:

"My son, let not sinners lead you astray, and do not walk with them in their ways; do not go, if they entreat you, saying:"

"Come with us, take part in shedding innocent blood; let us unjustly hide a righteous man in the earth, let us make away with him alive, like Hades."

Now this is also prophesied concerning the Lord's Passion;

and through Ezekiel, Life sets forth the commandments:

"The soul that sins shall die."

"But the man who shall be righteous, who does what is righteous, shall not eat upon the mountains, and has not set his eyes on the idols of the house of Israel, and shall not defile his neighbor's wife, nor approach a woman during her menstrual impurity, and shall not oppress any man, but shall restore the pledge of his debtor, and shall not seize plunder; he shall give his bread to the hungry and clothe the naked; he shall not lend his money at interest nor take any increase, and shall turn his hand away from injustice; he shall execute true judgment between man and man and between a man and his neighbor; he has walked in My ordinances and has kept My statutes to do them:"

this man is righteous; he shall surely live, says the Lord."

These words contain an outline of the Christian way of life and a notable exhortation to the blessed life—the reward of good living, eternal life.

That the Word gave instruction through the Law and the Prophets.

The manner, then, of His love for mankind and of His instruction has been pointed out to us as far as was possible.

Wherefore, most beautifully expounding Himself, He likened Himself to a grain of mustard seed, hinting at the spiritual quality of the word that is sown, the prolific nature of it, and at once the magnificence and the vigorous growth of the power of reason; and besides, that the pungency of His rebuke, by its sharpness, is biting yet cleansing and beneficial.

For honey, though most sweet, is productive of bile—just as the good thing, when treated with contempt, is the cause of sinning—whereas mustard both diminishes bile, that is, anger, and breaks up phlegm, that is, conceit;

and from this word arise the true health of the soul and its everlasting balance of temperament.

Of old, then, the Word gave instruction through Moses, and afterward also through the prophets;

for the Law is the instruction of unruly children.

"Having eaten their fill," Scripture says, "they rose up to play"—calling the irrational satisfying of the appetite a "fodder," not "food."

And since, having been irrationally gorged, they played irrationally, for this reason both the Law and fear attended them, to check their sins and to spur them on to upright deeds, fitting them for ready obedience to the true Instructor—that is, for docility; for the Word is one and the same, adapting Himself to what is pressing at the time;

for Paul says that the Law was given as a tutor leading to Christ; so that from this it is plain that there is but one true, good, and righteous One, the Son according to the image and likeness of the Father, Jesus, the Word of God, who is our Instructor, to whom God has handed us over, as a tender-loving Father entrusting His children to a true tutor, expressly charging us:

"This is My beloved Son; listen to Him."

The divine Instructor is worthy of trust, adorned with three most excellent qualities: knowledge, goodwill, and frankness of speech:

with knowledge, because He is the Father's wisdom—"All wisdom is from the Lord, and is with Him forever";

with frankness, because He is God and Creator—"for all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being";

with goodwill, because He alone gave Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf; "for the good shepherd lays down his own life for the sheep"—and indeed He did lay it down.

And goodwill is nothing other than the willing of good for one's neighbor, for that neighbor's own sake.

That the Instructor, in keeping with a father's disposition, employs both severity and kindness.

Now that these matters have been concluded beforehand, it would follow that our Instructor, Jesus, should sketch out for us the true life and train up the man who is in Christ.

His character is neither excessively fearsome nor altogether lax through kindness.

At the same time He both gives commandments and shapes them in such a way that we are able to carry them out ourselves.

And it seems to me that this very One both formed man out of dust, regenerated him by water, made him grow by the Spirit, and trained him by the word — guiding him by holy commandments toward adoption as sons and toward salvation; so that, having refashioned the earth-born man, by his approach, into a holy and heavenly being, He might most fully accomplish that divine utterance:

"Let us make man in our image and after our likeness."

And indeed Christ has become the full realization of that which God spoke; whereas the other man is conceived as being only according to the image.

But let us, O children of a good Father, the nurslings of a good Instructor, fulfill the Father's will, listen to the Word, and truly take the impress of our Saviour's saving life;

and from this present life already practicing the heavenly citizenship by which we are deified, let us anoint ourselves with the ever-blooming oil of gladness and the undefiled chrism of fragrance, holding the Lord's manner of life as a clear pattern of incorruptibility, and following hard after the footsteps of God;

to whom alone it belongs to consider — indeed who cares — how and in what manner the life of men might become more wholesome.

But He also prepares us for self-sufficiency in life and for freedom from excess, and moreover for a nimble and unencumbered readiness for the journey, leading to the perpetuity of a good life, teaching each one of us to be his own storehouse.

For it is not in war, but in peace, that we are being trained.

War indeed requires much preparation, and luxury craves abundance;

but peace and love, those simple and untroubled sisters, have no need of weapons nor of prodigal preparation;

the Word is their nourishment — the Word that has been allotted the office of guidance, both instructive and educative — from whom we thoroughly learn frugality and freedom from pride, and in a word all that is liberal, humane, and noble, being made like to God, in one word, through kinship of virtue.

But labor on, and do not grow weary;

for you will become such as you neither hope for nor could even guess.

And just as there is one mode of training for philosophers, another for orators, and another for wrestlers, so there is a noble disposition, suited to a love of the noble, that arises from the instruction of Christ; and trained in their workings, these venerable habits stand out conspicuously — one's gait, reclining at table, food, sleep, the bed, daily regimen, and the rest of one's discipline;

for the training given by the Word in such matters is not overstrained, but well-toned.

For this reason the Word has also been called Saviour, since He has devised for men these rational remedies leading to right perception and salvation: watching for the right moment, exposing what is harmful, explaining the causes of the passions, cutting out the roots of irrational desires, prescribing what must be abstained from, and offering to the sick all the antidotes of salvation;

for this is the greatest and most kingly work of God: to save mankind.

Now sick men are vexed at the physician who advises them nothing for their health; but to the divine Instructor — who neither keeps silent nor casually overlooks the disobediences that lead to ruin, but rather exposes these, checks the impulses that strain toward them, and teaches the counsels befitting the right manner of life — how could we fail to acknowledge the greatest gratitude? The utmost thanks, then, must be confessed to Him.

For of the rational living being — I mean man — do we say anything other than that he must behold the divine? And I affirm that he must also contemplate human nature and live as the truth directs, marveling beyond measure both at the Instructor Himself and at His commandments, how fittingly and harmoniously they correspond to one another;

according to which image we too, having harmonized ourselves with the Instructor and made our word consonant with our works, ought to live in reality.

That, just as right action comes about in accordance with right reason, so conversely sin is contrary to reason.

Everything that is contrary to right reason — this is sin.

Accordingly, the philosophers think fit to define the most generic passions somewhat thus: desire as an appetite disobedient to reason, fear as an avoidance disobedient to reason, pleasure as an elation of the soul disobedient to reason, and grief as a contraction of the soul disobedient to reason.

If, then, disobedience to reason is the begetter of sin, how shall not obedience to reason — which indeed we call faith — of necessity be the producer of what is termed duty? For virtue itself is a disposition of the soul concordant with reason throughout the whole of life.

Indeed, the most crowning point of all: they define philosophy itself as the pursuit of rightness of reason; so that, of necessity, everything done amiss, coming about through an error of reason, is rightly called sin.

Accordingly, when the first man sinned and disobeyed God, "he was made like," it says, "to the beasts."

Man, having sinned against reason, is fittingly reckoned irrational and is likened to the beasts.

Hence Wisdom also says:

The pleasure-lover and the adulterer is "a horse for mounting," likened to a senseless beast; wherefore she also adds:

"He neighs at everyone that sits upon him."

"The man no longer speaks," it says;

he is indeed irrational, given over to lusts, upon whom all pleasures sit astride.

But that which is rightly done according to obedience to reason, the disciples of the Stoics call "the becoming" and "the befitting" (duty);

duty, then, is what is becoming; and obedience is grounded upon the commandments;

and these commandments, being the same as the counsels and having the truth as their aim, guide us as by a tutor toward the ultimate object of desire, which is conceived as the end;

and the end of piety is the eternal rest in God, while the beginning of the age to come is our end.

The right achievement of piety, however, fulfills duty through works;

whence duties consist fittingly in deeds, not in words;

and the action of the Christian is the activity of a rational soul, accomplished according to upright judgment and a desire for truth, by means of the body which is its kindred and fellow-combatant;

duty, moreover, is a single will consequent upon a life lived for God and Christ, brought to right fulfillment in eternal life;

for the life of Christians, in which we are now being trained, is a certain system of rational actions — that is, the unceasing activity of the things taught by the Word — which indeed we have called faith.

And this system consists of the Lord's commandments, which, being divine teachings, have been inscribed as spiritual counsels for our very selves, well-fitted both for our own selves and for our neighbors;

and indeed these in turn rebound back to us, just as a ball, thrown against a wall, runs back to the one who threw it because of the resistance;

whence the duties are also necessary for divine instruction, as being commanded by God and ordained for [our salvation].

And since, of necessary things, some pertain only to living here in this present world, while others lead us aloft from here toward living well in that other world, in like manner of duties too, some are appointed for mere living, and others for living well.

Now whatever is enjoined for living as the heathen live has also been made common among the multitude; but those things which are suited to living well — from which is gained that eternal life — let it be permitted to examine these, in the manner of an outline, gathering them from the Scriptures themselves.

How One Ought to Conduct Oneself with Regard to Food

Holding fast, then, to our aim, and selecting from the Scriptures whatever serves the practical benefit of our instruction, we must sketch in summary form what sort of person he ought to be throughout his whole life who bears the name of Christian.

We must begin, then, with ourselves, and with how we ought rightly to order our conduct.

Aiming, then, at the proper proportion of our treatise, we must speak of what each of us ought to offer to his own body—or rather, how he ought to direct it aright.

For whenever a man, led by Reason away from external things—and indeed even from the mere training of the body—up to the mind, has accurately learned the contemplation of those things that naturally happen to man, he will know that he must not be eager about external matters, but must thoroughly cleanse what is proper to man, the eye of the soul, and must also sanctify the flesh itself.

For the man who has been purely set free from those things by which he is still but dust—what could he have more profitable to himself for journeying along the road to the apprehension of God? Now other men live in order to eat, just like the irrational beasts, for whom life is nothing but the belly; but to us the Instructor commands that we eat in order to live.

For food is not our occupation, nor is pleasure our aim; rather, food is admitted for the sake of our continuance here, which the Word trains up toward incorruption.

Let this food be simple and unelaborate, suited to truth, fitting for children who are simple and unfussy—suitable, as it were, for living, not for luxury.

It is serviceable for lightness, and from it come growth, health, and a sound strength—not an unsound, perilous, and wretched strength like that of athletes, which arises from forced feeding.

The manifold sorts of dishes, then, are to be spat out, for they breed varied harms—poor bodily conditions and disorders of the stomach—since the palate is prostituted through a certain ill-starred craft, that of cookery, and through the vain artistry concerned with pastries.

For they dare to call "food" that pursuit of luxuries which slides off into harmful pleasures.

Antiphanes the Delian, a physician, also named this as one of the causes of disease—the great variety of foods—since those who are discontented with truth, in their many-colored vainglory, forswear the temperance of a simple diet and busy themselves over foods brought from across the seas.

And for my part, pity comes over me at their disease; but they are not ashamed to hymn their own gluttonous indulgences, busying themselves over the lampreys of the Sicilian strait, the eels of the Maeander, the kids of Melos, the mullets of Sciathus, the Pelorian mussels and the oysters of Abydos, not omitting the sprats of Lipara nor the turnip of Mantinea, nor even the beets among the Ascraeans; they hunt out the scallops of Methymna and the flatfish of Attica and the thrushes of Daphnis and the dried Chelidonian figs—those very figs for which that ill-fated Persian set out for Greece with five million men.

Besides these, they buy together birds—those from the Phasis, Egyptian francolins, and the Median peacock.

Varying these with relishes, the gluttons gape after dainties—whatever the earth, the depths of the sea, and the immeasurable expanse of the air nourish—procuring all this for their own ravenousness.

These greedy and meddlesome men quite simply seem to be dragging the whole world with a dragnet into their voluptuousness, surrounded by the sizzling of frying-pans, wearing away their whole life around the mortar and the pestle—these all-devourers, clinging to it as fire clings to its fuel.

Nay, they even emasculate bread, that wholesome food, by sifting away the nourishing part of the wheat, so that what is a necessity of nourishment becomes a reproach of pleasure.

Daintiness among men knows no bound.

For it has run aground upon pastries and honey-cakes, and moreover upon sweetmeats, devising a multitude of desserts and hunting after all manner of flavors.

And it seems to me that such a man is nothing but a jaw.

"Do not desire," says the Scripture, "the dainties of the rich;"

"for these belong to a false and shameful manner of life."

For while those men cling to their dainties—which a short while after the dung-heap awaits—we who hunt after the heavenly food must rule over the belly that is under heaven, and still more over the things dear to it, which God will bring to nothing, says the Apostle, fittingly calling down a curse upon ravenous lusts.

For "foods are for the belly," upon which depends this truly fleshly and corruptible manner of life.

But if some, using an unbridled tongue, dare to call "love-feast" certain paltry suppers reeking of fatty smoke and broths, they insult the noble and saving work of the Word—sanctified love—with little pots and the flowing of broth, blaspheming the name with drink and luxury and smoke; and they err in their notion, supposing that the promise of God can be bought with petty suppers.

For the gatherings held for the sake of good cheer—these very assemblies we might fittingly call, following the Word, suppers and luncheons and entertainments; but such feastings the Lord has not named "love-feasts."

"When you are invited to a wedding, do not recline in the chief place, but when you are invited, go and take the lowest place;" and elsewhere:

"When you make a luncheon or a supper;" and again:

"But when you give a feast, invite the poor"—and it is for these above all that a supper ought to be made; and further:

"A certain man made a great supper and invited many."

Comely indeed has flowed the name of "suppers"—from the throats and from a frequenting madness toward the supper, as the comic poet has it.

For truly, with the many, most things are done for the sake of the supper.

For somehow they have not learned that God prepared for His creature—man, I mean—foods and drinks for the sake of preservation, not for the sake of pleasure;

since indeed our bodies are not by nature benefited from the costliness of foods.

For quite the contrary, those who use the cheapest foods are stronger and healthier and nobler, as servants are than their masters and farmers than landowners;

and they are not only more robust, but also more prudent, as philosophers are than the rich;

for they did not bury the mind under food, nor did they deceive it with pleasures.

Love, in truth, is a heavenly food, a banquet of reason;

"it bears all things, endures all things, hopes all things."

"Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God."

And the most grievous of all falls is that love, which never falls, should be cast down from on high out of the heavens upon the broths, to the ground.

Do you then suppose that I count as a supper that which is being brought to nothing? "For if," he says, "I give away all my possessions, but have not love, I am nothing."

Upon this love hang the whole Law and the Word;

and if you love the Lord your God and your neighbor, this heavenly feasting is in the heavens; but the earthly one is called a "supper," as has been shown from the Scripture—the supper coming about for the sake of love, yet the supper is not itself love, but a token of fellowship-loving goodwill and of generous open-handedness.

Let not, then, that which is good among us be blasphemed.

"For the kingdom of God is not food and drink," says the Apostle—lest a transient luncheon be imagined—"but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

He who eats of this luncheon shall obtain the best of all things that exist, the kingdom of God, having practiced from this present life the holy gathering of love, the heavenly Church.

Love, then, is a pure thing and worthy of God, and its work is sharing.

"And the care for instruction is love," says Wisdom, "and love is the keeping of her laws."

And these festivities have in them a certain kindling of love, accustoming us, by way of this common food, toward the eternal food.

Love ... is indeed not a dinner; but let the banquet depend upon love.

"For let your children learn," it says, "whom you have loved, O Lord, that it is not the produce of fruits that nourishes man, but it is your word that preserves those who believe in you."