雜記（八卷） 第 1 章 第 34/42 段

Therefore Solomon also says that Wisdom came to be for the Almighty before heaven and earth and all things that exist; and he teaches that participation in her — I mean participation according to power, not according to essence — makes one comprehendingly knowledgeable of things divine and human.

Having come to this point, it is necessary also to note these things in passing, since the discussion has turned incidentally to the hebdomad and the ogdoad;

for it appears likely that the ogdoad is, properly speaking, the hebdomad, while the hebdomad, so far as what is apparent goes, is a hexad; and that the former is properly the Sabbath, while the hebdomad is the working day;

the perfectings of seeds take place;

and they say that the embryo is exactly completed in the sixth month, that is, in one hundred and eighty-two and a half days, as Polybus the physician records in his work On the Eight-Month Children, and Aristotle the philosopher in his On Nature;

and it is from this, I think — from the coming-into-being of the world according to the Prophet — that the Pythagoreans consider the number six to be perfect, and call it 'meseuthys' [the straight mean] and also 'marriage,' because it is the mean of the straight number, that is, of ten and of two;

for it appears to be equidistant from both;

and as marriage begets from male and female, so six is begotten from the odd number three, called the male number, and the even number two, considered the female;

for twice three makes six.

Again, there are just as many most generic motions, according to which all coming-into-being is carried: upward, downward, to the right, to the left, forward, backward.

Reasonably, then, they reckon the number seven to be motherless and unbegetting, interpreting the Sabbath and allegorizing the form of rest, according to which men neither marry nor are given in marriage any longer;

for seven neither arises from any number multiplied by another within the decad, nor, being multiplied into any other, produces any other number within the decad.

And they call the ogdoad a cube, reckoning together with the seven wandering planets the fixed sphere as well, through which the Great Year comes about, as it were a certain cycle of the repayment of things promised.

Accordingly, the Lord, going up to the mountain as the fourth, becomes the sixth, and is illumined all around with spiritual light, laying bare the power that comes from him, so far as it was possible for those chosen to see it to behold — being proclaimed, by a seventh voice, to be the Son of God — so that some might find rest, having been persuaded concerning him, while he himself, through the generation which the hexad signified, might appear marked by the sign, being in reality the ogdoad, showing forth, as God in a little flesh, his power — being numbered as a man, yet concealing who he truly was;

For in the order of numbers, six too is reckoned along with the rest; but the sequence of the letters recognizes as the 'sign' that which is not written.

Here, according to the numbers themselves, each unit is preserved in order up to the hebdomad and the ogdoad; but according to the number of the letters, zeta becomes the sixth, and eta the seventh.

But since the 'sign' has, I do not know how, stolen its way into the writing, if we follow this reckoning, the hebdomad becomes the sixth, and the ogdoad the seventh;

Wherefore also man is said to have been made on the sixth day — the one who has become faithful with respect to the sign — so that he might immediately receive the rest of the Lord's inheritance.

Something of this sort the sixth hour also shows forth, of the saving economy, in which man was made perfect.

Indeed, moreover, of eight terms the means become seven, while of seven the intervals appear to be six.

for that is another matter, when the hebdomad glorifies the ogdoad, and the heavens declare to the heavens the glory of God.

The perceptible types of these are, among us, the vowel letters;

thus also the Lord himself is called Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, through whom all things were made, and without whom not one thing was made.

God, then, has not ceased from working, as some suppose concerning the rest of God;

for being good, if he should ever cease from doing good, he would also cease to be God — which it is not even lawful to say.

Rather, to have rested is this: to have ordained that the order of the things that came into being should be kept unchanged for all time, and that each of the creatures should have ceased from its former disorder.

For the acts of creation on the various days had received a most orderly sequence, so that, as it were, each thing should have its honor from what was prior, all the things that came into being having an order, though created together in a single thought, yet not being of equal honor;

nor, indeed, would the coming-into-being of each thing have been made clear by speech, had the creation been said to have taken place all at once;

for it was necessary that something also be named first.

For this reason, then, the first things were foretold, from which the second proceed, all things having come into being together, from one substance, by one power;

But how could creation have come to be in time, since time itself came into being together with the things that exist? And indeed, the whole world of all living creatures brought forth, and of all plants that grow, already revolves in periods of seven.

Seven, then, are the first-begotten rulers of angels who possess the greatest power; and those versed in the mathematical sciences say that there are seven wandering stars which accomplish the governance of things around the earth, by whose sympathetic influence the Chaldeans suppose that everything concerning mortal life comes to pass — for which reason they also profess to foretell certain things about the future. Of the fixed stars, the Pleiades are seven, and the Bears are seven-starred, by which agriculture and navigation are accomplished; and the moon, too, undergoes its transformations every seven days.

So, then, during the first week it becomes half; during the second, full moon; on the third, waning from its decline, it again becomes half; and on the fourth it disappears.

But indeed the moon itself, as Seleucus the mathematician relates, undergoes transformation seven times.

for from being without light, it becomes crescent-shaped, then half, then convex on both sides and full; and then, in its decline, again convex on both sides, likewise half, and crescent-shaped.

'With the seven-toned lyre we shall sing new hymns,' writes some not-undistinguished poet, teaching also that the ancient lyre was seven-stringed;

Seven, too, are the organs of the senses situated on our face: two of the eyes, two of the passages of hearing, two of the nostrils, and seventh, that of the mouth.

And that the changes of the ages of life occur according to periods of seven years, the elegies of Solon show, somewhat as follows:

'A boy, while still an infant not yet come to youth, growing the fence of teeth, sheds them first at seven years;'

'and when God has brought to completion another seven years, he shows forth the signs of coming puberty;'

'and in the third seven years, as his limbs grow, his chin becomes downy, the bloom of his complexion changing.'

In the fourth week of years every man is at the very peak of strength, which men hold as tokens of excellence.

In the fifth, it is fitting for a man to be mindful of marriage and to seek offspring, a posterity for the future.

In the sixth, a man's mind is in every respect brought to maturity, nor does he still wish, as before, to do vain deeds.

Through the seventh and eighth hebdomads together—that is, for fourteen years—he is at his very best in mind and speech.

In the ninth he is still capable, but his body and strength have become more moderate for great feats of excellence.

And in the tenth, when God has brought seven more years to completion, a man, being no longer untimely, might meet his allotted death.

Again, in the case of diseases, the seventh day and the fourteenth are critical . . . during which nature struggles against the causes that produce the sickness.

And countless things of this kind, hallowing the number, are set forth by Hermippus of Berytus in his treatise On the Hebdomad.

But the blessed David clearly hands down the mystical teaching concerning the hebdomad and the ogdoad to those who have understanding, singing somewhat as follows:

Our years have been meditated upon like a spider's web.

The days of our years—in them are seventy years, and if in strength, eighty years.

In order, then, that we might be taught that the world is generated, yet not suppose that God made it in time, the prophecy adds:

This is the book of the generation, and of the things therein, when it came to be:

in the day that God made heaven and earth.

For the phrase 'when it came to be' signifies an indefinite and timeless expression, whereas the phrase 'in the day that God made'—that is, 'in whom and through whom he made all things,' apart from whom not even one thing came to be—makes known the activity accomplished through the Son, of whom David says:

This is the day which the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it—that is, let us feast upon the divine banquet handed down through the knowledge that comes by him.

For 'day' has been used to designate the Word who illumines things hidden, through whom each of the created things came forth into light and being.

And indeed, the Decalogue, by means of the letter iota, signifies the blessed name, setting forth Jesus as being the Word.

The fifth commandment in order is the precept concerning the honor of father and mother.

By 'father' he clearly means the Lord God.

Therefore he also proclaims those who have come to know him to be sons, and gods.

The Lord and Father, then, is the Creator of all things; but the mother is not, as some suppose, the substance out of which we came to be, nor, as others have taught, the Church, but rather divine knowledge and wisdom, as Solomon says, calling wisdom the mother of the righteous.

And she is to be chosen for her own sake.

And again, everything good and venerable is known from God through the Son.

Following upon this is the precept concerning adultery.

Adultery occurs whenever someone, having abandoned the true, ecclesiastical knowledge and the true conception concerning God, turns aside to an unfitting, false opinion—either deifying something created, or fashioning into an idol something that does not even exist—thereby transgressing, or rather departing from, knowledge.

But false opinion is alien to the true Gnostic, just as true opinion is akin to him and is his spouse.

For this reason the noble apostle also calls idolatry one of the forms of fornication, following the prophet who says:

He committed adultery with wood and with stone.

He said to the wood, 'You are my father.'

Then follows the precept concerning murder.

Murder is a violent taking away of life.

Whoever, then, wishes to abolish the true doctrine concerning God and his eternity, in order to establish falsehood in its place—saying either that the universe is without providence, or that the world is uncreated, or denying any of the certainties of true teaching—is the most utterly ruinous of all.

After this comes the precept concerning theft.

As, then, the one who steals another's property, doing great wrong, deservedly falls into the evils he merits, so too the one who appropriates the divine works to himself through art—whether sculpture or painting—claiming that he himself is the maker of animals and plants; and likewise those who merely imitate true philosophy . . . are thieves.

Even if one is a farmer, or the father of a child, he is only a minister of the sowing of seed, while it is God who, granting to all things their growth and perfection, brings what comes into being into conformity with nature.

But the majority, along with the philosophers, attribute growths and changes to the stars as the principal cause, thereby depriving—so far as lies in their power—the Father of all of his untiring power.

But the elements and the stars, that is, the governing powers, have been appointed to accomplish what is suited to the divine administration; and they themselves are persuaded and led by those set in authority over them, wherever the word of the Lord may lead, since the divine power is by its nature accustomed to work all things in a hidden manner.

Whoever, then, claims to have devised or made anything of what pertains to creation, shall render an account for his impious presumption.

The tenth is the precept concerning all desires.

Just as, then, one is held to account for improper desires, in the same way it is not permitted to desire false things, nor to suppose that, among things in the created order, animate beings can act of themselves while inanimate things absolutely cannot save or harm.

And if anyone says that the antidote cannot heal and that hemlock destroys of itself, in his sophistry he has failed to notice the truth.

For none of these things acts apart from the one who makes use of the herb or the drug, just as neither does the axe act apart from the one who cuts, nor the saw apart from the one who saws.

But just as these things do not act of themselves, yet possess certain natural qualities that, together with the craftsman's activity, contribute to their proper effect, so also, by the universal providence of God, the effective activity is transmitted, through the things that are moved more immediately, by a gradual descent down to particular things.

But, as it seems, the philosophers of the Greeks, in naming God, do not truly know him, since they do not worship God in a manner befitting God.

And the doctrines philosophized among them, in the words of Empedocles, having come through many a tongue, are poured out vainly from their mouths, though they have seen but a small portion of the whole.

For just as art, by means of a glass vessel full of water, somehow contrives to turn the sun's light into fire, so too philosophy, having caught its spark from the divine Scripture, displays but a faint reflection of it in a few things.

...toward some other purpose; and in the same way the majority pursue truth—or rather, the discourse about truth.

For they say nothing concerning God himself.

But rather, referring their own passions to God, they give their explanations.

For life has become for them a search after the plausible, not the true.

But truth is not taught by imitation, but by learning.

For it is not in order that we may seem to be upright that we believe in Christ, just as we do not stand in the sun merely for the sake of appearing to be in it; rather, in the one case it is for the sake of being warmed, and in the other, for the sake of being noble and good, that we strive to be Christians, because the kingdom belongs especially to those who use force—those who, through seeking, learning, and complete joint discipline, reap the reward of becoming a king.

He, then, who merely imitates, falsifies both the outward semblance and the preconception.

But when someone, having caught a spark of the matter, kindles it within, in the soul, by longing and by learning, he sets everything in motion in pursuit of it, toward attaining full knowledge.

For that which one does not apprehend, one neither longs for, nor welcomes the benefit that comes from it.

It is only afterward, then, at the culmination of his right actions, that the Gnostic imitates the Lord, so far as is attainable for men, having received a certain lordly quality unto the assimilation to God.

But those who do not possess knowledge are not even able to test and regulate the truth by any standard.

It is not possible, then, to partake of the Gnostic contemplations unless we first empty ourselves of our former notions.

For, simply put, 'truth' is used in a general sense of everything, both intelligible and perceptible.

For instance, one may at once observe a truth of painting as distinct from the vulgar kind, and a dignity of music as distinct from the licentious kind.

So too there is a certain truth belonging to philosophy, as distinguished from the other philosophers, and a genuine beauty, as distinguished from what is counterfeit.

One must, therefore, never busy oneself merely with the particular truths of which truth is predicated, but with truth itself, not seeking merely to learn names.

For the subject matter concerning God is not one thing, but countless things; and it makes a difference whether one seeks God himself, or merely the things concerning God.

In general, one must, concerning each and every thing, distinguish its accidents from its substance.

And it suffices for me to say that the Lord of all is God.

And I say 'Lord of all' in the absolute sense, with nothing whatsoever excepted or left out.

Since, then, there are two aspects of truth—words and realities—those who spend their time on the beauty of speech, the philosophers among the Greeks, deal with words, while the realities belong to us, the barbarians.

For instance, the Lord did not without purpose choose to make use of a lowly form of body, lest anyone, praising his comeliness and admiring his beauty, should fall away from the things spoken, and, clinging to what is left behind, be cut off from the things intelligible.

One must not, therefore, turn one's attention to the wording, but to the things signified.

To those, then, who merely grasp <the wording> and are not moved toward knowledge, the word is not entrusted, since even crows imitate human voices while having no understanding of the thing they utter; but intellectual apprehension ... belongs to faith.

So too Homer said, 'father of men and of gods' ... not knowing who the Father is, nor in what sense he is Father.

But just as it is natural for one who has hands to take hold, and for one who possesses sound eyes to see the light, so it is proper by nature for one who has received faith to partake also of knowledge, if he is eager to work further and build upon the foundation already laid, gold, silver, and precious stones.

He does not, then, merely promise that he wishes to partake, but he begins.

Nor is it fitting merely to be about to be royal, luminous, and gnostic, but actually to be so; nor is it fitting to wish to lay hold of the realities in name only, but in deed.

For God, being good by reason of his sovereignty over the whole creation, and wishing this creation to be preserved, turned to making the rest of things as well, having from the beginning granted them this first benefaction, namely, to come into being.

For everyone would agree that being is far better than not being.

So it is not absurd that philosophy too was given by divine providence as a preliminary discipline leading to the perfection that comes through Christ, provided that philosophy, in becoming a disciple, is not ashamed of barbarian knowledge, and so advances toward the truth.

But if even the hairs are numbered, and the most trifling movements, how is philosophy not also of account? Indeed, even to Samson power was given in his hair, so that one might understand that even the meanest of the arts of life, which lie and remain upon the ground after the departure of the soul, are given not without divine power.

Immediately, he says, providence extends from above, from the ruling principles as from a head, unto all, just as, he says, the ointment that descends upon the beard of Aaron and upon the fringe of his garment (that is, of the great high priest, through whom all things came into being, and apart from whom not even one thing came into being)—not for the adornment of the body ... but philosophy is, as it were, a garment surrounding the people from without.

Those philosophers, then, who have been trained by a perceptive spirit to their own inward awareness, whenever they occupy themselves not with a part of philosophy but with philosophy entire, bearing witness to the truth in a truth-loving and unpretentious way, even among those of different opinion, wherever things are well said—these advance in understanding, according to the divine governance, the ineffable goodness, which continually leads the nature of existing things, so far as is possible, toward the better.

Then, having conversed not with the Greeks only, but with barbarians as well, they are led, through this common training, to faith and to their own particular understanding.

And having received the foundation of truth, they gain the power to advance further in the search; and from this point, having become disciples, they love, and reaching out after knowledge, they hasten toward salvation.

For this reason, Scripture says, a spirit of perception was given by God to the craftsmen; and this is nothing other than prudence, a faculty of the soul that contemplates existing things, and that discerns what is consequent, similar and dissimilar, and again is capable of composing, of commanding, of forbidding, and of conjecturing future things.

And it extends not to the arts alone, but also to philosophy itself.

Why, then, is even the serpent called prudent? Because even in wicked deeds one can find a certain consistency, discernment, composition, and a conjecturing of future things.

And most wrongdoings escape notice for this reason, that the wicked contrive for themselves, in every way, altogether to escape punishment.

Prudence, being manifold, extended throughout the whole world and through all human affairs, changes its designation according to each of these: whenever it fastens upon the first causes, it is called intellection; when it confirms this by demonstrative reasoning, it is named knowledge, wisdom, and science; when it occurs in matters tending toward piety, and, without contemplation, receives the governing principle, according to the observance maintained in working it out, it is called faith; and when, among sensible things, it gives assurance to what seems, within that sphere, most true, it is called right opinion; and again, in actions accompanied by manual craft, it is called art; and where, without contemplation of the first causes, by the observance of similar things and by transition, it produces some impulse and constitution, it is called experience.

But that is distinctive, and truly sovereign and ruling, which, beyond all these, the one who has believed receives after firm faith—namely, the Holy Spirit, by way of visitation.

Philosophy, then, having partaken of a more excellent perception, as has been shown from what was said before, participates also in prudence.

The rational exposition, then, concerning things understood, accompanied by choice and assent, is called dialectic—confirmatory, on the one hand, of what is said concerning truth, through demonstration, and repellent, on the other, of the difficulties that are brought against it.

Those, then, who assert that philosophy has not come here from God run the risk of saying that it is impossible for God to know all things in their particulars, nor indeed that he is the cause of all good things, even though each of them happens to be a particular thing.

...if these things exist while God is unwilling regarding them; but if he is willing, then philosophy is from God, he having willed it to be such as it is, for the sake of those who would not otherwise abstain from evils except in this way.

For God indeed knows all things, not only the things that are, but also the things that will be, and how each thing will come to be; and foreseeing the individual movements, he oversees all things and hears all things ... seeing the soul naked from within, and he holds throughout eternity the conception of each particular thing.

And what happens in theaters with regard to each of the parts—by way of direct viewing, viewing around, and viewing together—this same thing happens in the case of God.

For with a single glance he looks upon all things together and each thing individually, yet not all things ... with the same primary intentness.

Indeed, many things in life come into being even through some process of human reasoning, having nonetheless received their kindling from God.

For example, health comes about through the medical art, good bodily condition through the art of physical training, and wealth through the art of money-making; these receive their origin and presence according to divine providence, but according to human cooperation.

Indeed, it is especially the moral choice of good men that obeys the will of God.

For this reason many advantages are common to good and evil men alike, yet they become beneficial only to the good and excellent, for whose sake God made them.

For the power of things divinely bestowed is by nature directed toward the use of good men.

Moreover, even the conceptions of virtuous men come about through divine inspiration, the soul being disposed in a certain way, and the divine will being transmitted into human souls, the particular divine ministers cooperating in such acts of service.

For the guardianships of the angels have been apportioned according to nations and cities, and perhaps also over individuals, to some of whom certain angels have been assigned.

The shepherd, indeed, cares also for each of the sheep individually, and a more attentive oversight attends especially those who are outstanding in nature and capable of benefiting the multitudes.

These are the men of leadership and of teaching, through whom the working of providence is clearly manifested, whenever God wishes to benefit men either through education or through some form of rule and administration.

Therefore he stirs up those who are fit for the beneficial accomplishment of the things that tend toward virtue, peace, and well-doing.

And everything virtuous both proceeds from virtue and is referred back to virtue, and is given either that men may become excellent, or that, already being such, they may make use of their natural advantages.

For it cooperates both in things as a whole and in particular things.

How then is it not absurd, while assigning disorder and injustice to the devil, to make him nonetheless the giver of a virtuous thing—philosophy? For it appears that divine providence and purpose has proved more favorable to the Greeks in respect of their becoming good men than the devil could have been.

On the contrary, I think, it is the property of law, and of all right reason, to render to each what is fitting, what is proper, and what is due.

For just as the lyre belongs only to the harpist, and the flute to the flute-player, so the advantages of good men are their own possessions, just as it is the nature of the doer of good to do good, as it is of fire to give heat, and of light to give light.

But a good man could not do evil, any more than light could produce darkness, or fire produce cold.

So, conversely, vice could not produce anything virtuous.

For its activity is to do evil, just as the activity of darkness is to confound the sight.

Philosophy, then, which makes men virtuous, is not the work of vice.

It remains, then, that it is of God, whose work alone is to do good; and everything that is given by God is both well given and well received.

Indeed, the true use of philosophy does not belong to wicked men.

But if it has been given to the best of the Greeks, it is clear also from where it has been bestowed as a gift—evidently from that providence which distributes to each what is fitting, according to merit.

...of his coming. And from this comes the universal calling, gathering, through the one Lord who is the sole God of both Greeks and barbarians—or rather of the whole race of mankind—a people set apart as his own for righteousness, according to the teaching that is of faith.

We have often said that philosophy is that which, in accordance with philosophy, is able to attain truth, even if what it attains happens to be only partial.

Moreover, even the good things found within the arts have, as belonging to the arts, their origin from God.

For just as doing something skillfully is comprehended within the principles of the art, so acting prudently is ranged under prudence.

And it is characteristic of it to know other things, and much more, first of all, to know the things concerning itself.

And wisdom, being a faculty, is nothing other than the knowledge of divine and human goods.

'The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof'—Scripture has said this, teaching that good things come to men from God, since by divine power and strength the distribution reaches down to human assistance.

Now there are three modes of every benefit and communication of one thing to another from another: one is by way of accompaniment, as the trainer who shapes the boy by hand; another is by way of imitation, as one who urges another toward progress by having himself progressed beforehand; and the one cooperates with the learner, while the other benefits together with the one who receives.

The third mode is that according to command, whenever the trainer no longer molds the learner by hand nor demonstrates the wrestling-hold himself for the boy to imitate, but, treating him now as already more experienced, simply prescribes the hold by name.

The Gnostic, then, having received from God the power to benefit others, does good to some by shaping them through accompaniment, to others by exhorting them through likeness, and to still others by instructing and teaching them through command.

Indeed, he himself has also been benefited by the Lord in these same ways.

Thus, then, the benefit that extends from God to men becomes known as well, with the angels joining in the summons.

For even through angels the divine power supplies good things, whether they are seen or not seen.

Such also is the manner connected with the appearing of the Lord.

And at times, too, in accordance with men's own conceptions and reasonings, this power breathes something into them, and implants in their minds strength and a more precise perception, furnishing vigor and confident eagerness both for their inquiries and for their works.

There are, nonetheless, set before us for imitation and assimilation examples of virtue, truly wonderful and holy, presented through the deeds that have been recorded.