(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was 
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected as much as possible without 
benefit of the original text.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves 
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially 
before a vowel; 3 = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi = 
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute = 
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe, 
when necessary.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES, BOOKS VI-VIII.

BOOK VI.

CHAP. I.--PLAN.[1]

    THE sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in 
accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as possible 
the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited what the 
Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that he is by no 
means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly pious, by a 
compendious exhibition of the Gnostic's form of religion, as far as it is 
possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a book of reference. 
For the Lord enjoined "to labour for the meat which endureth to 
eternity."[2] And the prophet says," Blessed is he that soweth into all 
waters, whose ox and ass tread,"[3] [that is,] the people, from the Law and 
from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith.

    "Now the weak eateth herbs," according to the noble apostle.[4] The 
Instructor, divided by us into three books, has already exhibited the 
training and nurture up from the state of childhood, that is, the course of 
life which from elementary instruction grows by faith; and in the case of 
those enrolled in the number of men, prepares beforehand the soul, endued 
with virtue, for the reception of gnostic knowledge. The Greeks, then, 
clearly learning, from what shall be said by us in these pages, that in 
profanely persecuting the Godloving man, they themselves act impiously; 
then, as the notes advance, in accordance with the style of the 
Miscellanies, we must solve the difficulties raised both by Greeks and 
Barbarians with respect to the coming of the Lord.

    In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the 
plantations of fruittrees, are not separated according to their species 
from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have Composed 
learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; 
then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are 
expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the 
form of the Miscellanies is promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And 
such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the 
case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, 
research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For 
it is fight that labour should precede not only food but also, much more 
knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and 
blessed salvation by the "strait and narrow way," which is truly the 
Lord's.

    Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself; into 
whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from our old life, 
into the good land. And transplanting contributes to fruitfulness. The 
Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is the Light i and the 
true Knowledge.

    Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly 
so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and 
apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects; in 
which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational, share, 
which I would never term knowledge, inasmuch as the apprehension of things 
through the senses comes naturally. But that which par excellence is termed 
knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and reason, in the exercise of 
which there will be rational cognitions alone, applying purely to objects 
of thought, and resulting from the bare energy of the soul. "He is a good 
man," says David,[5] "who pities" (those ruined through error), "and lends" 
(from the communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for "he 
will dispense his words in judgment:" with profound calculation, "he hath 
dispersed, he hath given to the poor."

CHAP. II.THE SUBJECT OF PLAGIARISMS RESUMED. THE GREEKS PLAGIARIZED FROM 
ONE ANOTHER.

    Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to 
the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that 
the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our 
prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few 
of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the 
mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we 
advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first 
principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch 
of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought 
is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us in the Scriptures, 
taking it according to the sense, we have proved, not to say what is 
invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them.

    Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to 
the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish 
the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are 
detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth 
which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, 
they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic 
dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into 
sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that 
they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But 
after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of 
repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and 
selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows.

     Orpheus, then, having composed the line:--

    "Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,"

Homer plainly says:--

    "Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman."[1]

And Musaeus having written:--

    "Since art is greatly superior to strength,"

Homer says:--

    "By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior."[2]

Again, Musaeus having composed the lines:--

    "And as the fruitful field produceth leaves,
    And on the ash trees some fade, others grow,
    So whirls the race of man its leaf," [3]

Homer transcribes:--

    "Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground.
    The budding wood bears some; in time of spring,
    They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs."[4]

Again, Homer having said:--

    "It is unholy to exult over dead men,"[5]

Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:--

    "It is not noble at dead men to sneer;"

and Cratinus in the Lacones:--

    "For men 'tis dreadful to exult
    Much o'er the stalwart dead."

Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:--

    "I erred, nor say I nay: instead of many"[6]--

writes thus:--

    "I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another."

As certainly also that line:--

    "Even-handed[7] war the slayer slays."[8]

He also, altering, has given forth thus:--

                              "I will do it.
    For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded."[7]

Also, translating the following:--

    "The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,"[9]

he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic:--

    "Victory's issues on the gods depend."

Again, Homer having said:--

    "With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground," [10]

Euripides writes in Erechteus:--

    "Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep 
    Nor in the streams of water lave their feet."

    Archilochus having likewise said:--

    "But one with this and one with that His heart delights?

in correspondence with the Homeric line:--

    "For one in these deeds, one in those delights,"[11]

Euripides says in OEneus:--

    "But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight."

And I have heard Aeschylus saying:--

    "He who is happy ought to stay at home;
    There should he also stay, who speeds not well."

And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage:--

    "Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home."

Menander, too, on comedy, saying:--

    "He ought at home to stay, and free remain, Or be no longer rightly 
happy."

Again, Theognis having said:--

    "The exile has no comrade dear and true,"

Euripides has written:--

    "Far from the poor flies every friend."

And Epicharmus, saying:--

    "Daughter, woe worth the day
    Thee who art old I marry to a youth; "[1]

and adding:--

    "For the young husband takes some other girl, 
    And for another husband longs the wife,"

Euripides[2] writes:--

    "'Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth; 
    For he desires to share another's bed, 
    And she, by him deserted, mischief plots."

Euripides having, besides, said in the Medea:--

    "For no good do a bad man's gifts,"Sophocles in Ajax Flagellifer

utters this iambic:--

    "For foes' gifts are no gifts, nor any boon."[3]

Solon having written:--

    "For surfeit insolence begets,
    When store of wealth attends."

Theognis writes in the same way:--

    "For surfeit insolence begets,
    When store of wealth attends the bad."

Whence also Thucydides, in the Histories, says:-- "Many men, to whom in a 
great degree, and in a short time, unlookedfor prosperity comes, are wont 
to turn to insolence." And Philistus[4] likewise imitates the same 
sentiment, expressing himself thus:-- "And the many things which turn out 
prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an incredibly 
dangerous s tendency to misfortune. For those who meet with unlooked 
success beyond their expectations, are for the most part wont to turn to 
insolence." Again, Euripides having written:--

    "For children sprung of parents who have led
    A hard and toilsome life, superior are;"

Critias writes: "For I begin with a man's origin: how far the best and 
strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and eats in 
a hardy way, and subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if the mother of 
the future child be strong in body, and give herself exercise."

Again, Homer having said of the Hephaestus-made shield:--

    "Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made,
    And Ocean's rivers' mighty strength portrayed,"

Pherecydes of Syros says:-- "Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and 
works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus."

And Homer having said:--

    "Shame, which greatly hurts a man or he!ps,"[6]

Euripides writes in Erechtheus:--

    "Of shame I find it hard to judge;
    'Tis needed. 'Tis at times a great mischief."

Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from those who 
flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the Orestes of 
Euripides:--

    "Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease."

From the Eriphyle of Sophocies:--

    "Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease."

And from the Antigone of Sophocles:--

    "Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;"[2]

And from the Aleuades of Sophocles:--

    "Each good thing has its nature equal."

Again, in the Otimenus[3] of Euripides:--

    "For him who toils, God helps;"

And in the Minos of Sophocles;

    "To those who act not, fortune is no ally;"

And from the Alexander of Euripides:--

    "But time will show; and learning, by that test, I shall know whether 
thou art good or bad;"

And from the Hipponos of Sophocles:--

    "Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time,
    That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold."

But let us similarly run over the following; for Eumelus having composed 
the line,

    "Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,"

Solon thus begins the elegy:--

    "Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright."

Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:--

    "What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents, where?"[1]

employs the following iambics in Aegeus:--

    "What country shall we say that thou hast left
    To roam in exile, what thy land--the bound
    Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat?
    And of what father dost thou call thyself the son?"

And what? Theognis[2] having said:--

    "Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use
    It with discretion, 'tis not bad, but good,"--

does not Panyasis write?

    "Above the gods' best gift to men ranks wine,
    In measure drunk; but in excess the worst."

Hesiod, too, saying:--

    "But for the fire to thee I'll give a plague,[3]
    For all men to delight themselves withal,"--

Euripides writes:--

                          "And for the fire
    Another fire greater and unconquerable,
    Sprung up in the shape of women"[4]

And in addition, Homer, saying:--

    "There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
    Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men."[3]

Euripides says :--

    "Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome;
    From which all evils come."

Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:--

    "With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,"--

Menander, in the Poloumenoi, expresses himself similarly, saying:--

    "The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
    One sometimes must with others play[6] the fool."

And Antimachus of Teos having said:--

    "From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,"--

Augias composed the line:--

    "For gifts men's mind and acts deceive."

And Hesiod having said:--

    "Than a good wife, no man a better thing
    Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,"--

Simonides said:--

    "A better prize than a good wife no man
    Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse."

Again, Epicharmas having said :--

    "As destined Ion to live, and yet not long,
    Think of thyself."--

Euripides writes:--

    "Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
    Why don't we live as free from care, as pleasant
    As we may?"

Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:--

    "The life of men is prone to change,"--

Posidippus says:--

    "No man of mortal mould his life has passed
    From suffering free. Nor to the end again
    Has continued prosperous."

Similarly[7] speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to 
change.

Again, Euripides having said:--

    "Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
    How slippery in everything art thou I
    Now grow'st thou, and thou now decay'st away.
    And there is set no limit, no, not one,
    For mortals of their course to make an end,
    Except when Death's remorseless final end
    Comes, sent from Zeus,"--

Diphilus writes:--

    "There is no life which has not its own ills,
    Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
    And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
    Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep."[5]

Furthermore, Euripides having said:--

    "Many are fortune's shapes,
    And many things contrary to expectation the gods
    perform,"--

The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:--

    "The instability of mortals' fates."

And Bacchylides having said :--

    "To few[9] alone of mortals is it given
    To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
    And not meet with calamities,"--

Moschion, the comic poet, writes:--

    "But he of all men is most blest,
    Who leads throughout an equal life."

And you will find that, Theognis having said:--

    "For no advantage to a mall grown old
    A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
    The helm, obey,"--

Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:--

    "An old man to a young wife suits but ill."

For Anacreon, having written:--

    "Luxurious love I sing,
    With flowery garlands graced,
    He is of gods the king,
    He mortal men subdues,"--

Euripides writes :--

    "For love not only men attacks,
    And women; but disturbs
    The souls of gods above, and to the sea
    Descends."

    But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the 
propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us 
to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who 
discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: "Of these things some 
perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musaeus; some in one place, 
others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of 
the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by 
Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most 
importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new 
and varied."

    And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even 
rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right to adduce a few 
instances from them. For Alcmaeon of Crotona having said, "It is easier to 
guard against a man who is an enemy than a friend," Sophocles wrote in the 
Antigone :--

    "For what sore more grievous than a bad friend?"

And Xenophon said: "No man can injure enemies in any way other than by 
appearing to be a friend."

And Euripides having said in Telephus:--

    "Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians? "--

Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissaeans, says: "Shall we be slaves 
to Archelaus--Greeks to a Barbarian?"

And Orpheus having said:--

    "Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
    From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,
    And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;"

and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes 
thus:--

    "It is death for souls to become water, and death for water to become 
earth; and from earth comes water, and from water soul."

And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, "Thus was produced the beginning 
of the universe; and there are four roots--fire, water, air, earth: for 
from these is the origination of what is produced,"--Empedocles of 
Agrigentum wrote :--

    "The four roots of all things first do thou hear--
    Fire, water, earth, and ether's boundless height:
    For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes."

And Plato having said,"Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner 
from life those they value most,"

Menander wrote:--

    "Whom the gods love, dies young."

And Euripides having written in the OEnomaus:--

    "We judge of things obscure from what we see;"

and in the Phoenix:--

    "By signs the obscure is fairly grasped?--

Hyperides says, "But we must investigate things unseen by learning from 
signs and probabilities." And Isocrates having said, "We must conjecture 
the future by the past," Andocides does not shrink from saying, "For we 
must make use of what has happened previously as signs in reference to what 
is to be." Besides, Theognis having said :--

    "The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
    O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
    But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
    If he is false,[1] and has a treacherous heart within,
    This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
    And of all things the hardest to detect,"--

Euripides writes :--

    "Oh Zeus, why hast thou given to men clear tests
    Of spurious gold, while on the body grows
    No mark sufficing to discover clear
    The wicked man?"

Hyperides himself also says, "There is no feature of the mind impressed on 
the countenance of men."

Again, Stasinus having composed the line:--

    "Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,"--

Xenophon[2] says, "For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner, as if 
one who killed the father should spare his children." And Sophocles having 
written in the Antigone:--

    "Mother and father being in Hades now,
    No brother ever can to me spring forth?--

Herodotus says, "Mother and father being no more, I shall not have another 
brother." In addition to these, Theopompus having written:--

    "Twice children are old men in very truth;"

And before him Sophocles in Peleus:--

    "Peleus, the son of Aeacus, I, sole housekeeper,
    Guide, old as he is now, and train again,
    For the aged man is once again a child,"--

Antipho the orator says, "For the nursing of the old is like the nursing of 
children." Also the philosopher Plato says, "The old man then, as seems, 
will be twice a child." Further, Thucydides having said, "We alone bore the 
brunt at Marathon,"--Demosthenes said, "By those who bore the brunt at 
Marathon." Nor will I omit the following. Cratinus having said in the 
Pytine:[2]--

    "The preparation perchance you know,"

Andocides the orator says, "The preparation, gentlemen of the jury, and the 
eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know." Similarly also Nicias, 
in the speech on the deposit, against Ly-sias, says, "The preparation and 
the eagerness of the adversaries, ye see, O gentlemen of the jury." After 
him Aeschines says, "You see the preparation, O men of Athens, and the line 
of battle." Again, Demosthenes having said, "What zeal and what canvassing, 
O men of Athens, have been employed in this contest, I think almost all of 
you are aware;" and Philinus similarly, "What zeal, what forming of the 
line of battle, gentlemen of the jury, have taken place in this contest, I 
think not one of you is ignorant." Isocrates, again, having said, "As if 
she were related to his wealth, not him," Lysias says in the Orphics, "And 
he was plainly related not to the persons, but to the money." Since Homer 
also having  written:--

    "O friend, if in this war, by taking flight,
    We should from age and death exemption win,
    I would not fight among the first myself,
    Nor would I send thee to the glorious fray;
    But now--for myriad fates of death attend
     In any case, which man may not escape
    Or shun--come on. To some one we shall bring
    Renown, or some one shall to us,"

Theopompus writes, "For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were to pass 
the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would not be 
wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life, that death in 
battle seems preferable." And what? Child the sophist having uttered the 
apophthegm, "Become surety, and mischief is at hand," did not Epicharmus 
utter the same sentiment in other terms, when he said, "Suretyship is the 
daughter of mischief, and loss that of suretyship?"[4] Further, Hippocrates 
the physician having written, "You must look to time, and locality, and 
age, and disease," Euripides says in Hexameters:[5]--

    "Those who the healing art would practise well,
    Must study people's modes of life, and note
    The soil, and the diseases so consider."

Homer again, having written:--

    "I say no mortal man can doom escape,"--

Archinus says, "All men are bound to die either sooner or later;" and 
Demosthenes, "To all  men death is the end of life, though one should keep 
himself shut up in a coop."

    And Herodotus, again, having said, in his discourse about Glaucus the 
Spartan, that the Pythian said, "In the case of the Deity, to say and to do 
are equivalent," Aristophanes said :--

"For to think and to do are equivalent."

And before him, Parmenides of Elea said:--

    "For thinking and being are the same."

And Plato having said, "And we shall show, not absurdly perhaps, that the 
beginning of love is sight; and hope diminishes the passion, memory 
nourishes it, and intercourse preserves it;" does not Philemon the comic 
poet write :--

    "First all see, then admire;
    Then gaze, then come to hope;
    And thus arises love?"

Further, Demosthenes having said, "For to all of us death is a debt," and 
so forth, Phanocles writes in Loves, or The Beautiful:--

    "But from the Fates' unbroken thread escape
    Is none for those that feed on earth."

You will also find that Plato having said, "For the first sprout of each 
plant, having got a fair start, according to the virtue of its own nature, 
is most powerful in inducing the appropriate end;" the historian writes, 
"Further, it is not natural for one of the wild plants to become 
cultivated, after they have passed the earlier period of growth;" and the 
following of Empedocles:--

    "For I already have been boy and girl,
    And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,"--

Euripides transcribes in Chrysippus:--

    "But nothing dies
    Of things that are; but being dissolved,
    One from the other,
    Shows another form."

And Plato having said, in the Republic, that women were common, Euripides 
writes in the Protesilaus:--

    "For common, then, is woman's bed."

Further, Euripides having written :--

    "For to the temperate enough sufficient is "--

Epicurus expressly says, "Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all."

Again, Aristophanes having written :--

    "Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just
     And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,"--

Epicurus says, "The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity."

    Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such, 
stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of 
perceiving.

    And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts 
and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of the 
possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what is the 
production of others they have published it as their own; as Eugamon of 
Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musaeus, and Pisander 
of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis of 
Halicarnassus, the capture of OEchalia from Cleophilus of Samos.

    You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from 
the Disappearance of Dionysus, those words and what follows verbatim:--

    "As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive."[1]

And in the Theogony, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos:--

    "He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him
    All-conquering Sleep had seized."

These Homer transferrred to the Cyclops.[2] And Hesiod writes of 
Melampous:--

    "Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned
    To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;"

and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musaeus.

    And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the 
Thesmophoriazusoe, transferred the words from the Empiprameni of Cratinus. 
And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in Doeda-lus, steal from one 
another. Cocalus, composed by Araros,[3] the son of Aristophanes, was by 
the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the comedy called 
Hypobolimoens.

    Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of 
Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium and 
Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And, besides, 
there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed the writings 
of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristotle, and Leandrus, and 
Hellanicus, and Hecataeus, and Androtion, and Philochorus. Dieuchidas of 
Megara transferred the beginning of his treatise from the Deucalion of 
Hellanicus. I pass over in silence Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very 
great deal from Orpheus.

    From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from 
the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in

which they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and 
Aristotle, took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus 
also pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be 
so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject in 
detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim 
the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have received from 
us.

CHAP. III.--PLAGIARISM BY THE GREEKS OF THE  MIRACLES RELATED IN THE SACRED 
BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.

    And now they are convicted not only of borrowing doctrines from the 
Barbarians, but also of relating as prodigies of Hellenic mythology the 
marvels found in our records, wrought through divine power from above, by 
those who led holy lives, while devoting attention to us. And we shall ask 
at them whether those things which they relate are true or false. But they 
will not say that they are false; for they will not with their will condemn 
themselves of the very great silliness of composing falsehoods, but of 
necessity admit them to be true. And how will the prodigies enacted by 
Moses and the other prophets any longer appear to them incredible? For the 
Almighty God, in His care for all men, turns some to salvation by commands, 
some by threats, some by miraculous signs, some by gentle promises.

    Well, the Greeks, when once a drought had wasted Greece for a 
protracted period, and a dearth of the fruits of the earth ensued, it is 
said, those that survived of them, having, because of the famine, come as 
suppliants to Delphi, asked the Pythian priestess how they should be 
released from the calamity. She announced that the only help in their 
distress was, that they should avail themselves of the prayers of Aeacus. 
Prevailed on by them, Aeacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and stretching 
out pure[4] hands to heaven, and invoking the commons God, besought him to 
pity wasted Greece. And as he prayed, thunder sounded, out of the usual 
course of things, and the whole surrounding atmosphere was covered with 
clouds. And impetuous and continued rains, bursting down, filled the whole 
region. The result was a copious and rich fertility wrought by the 
husbandry of the prayers of Aeacus.

    "And Samuel called on the LORD," it is said, "and the LORD gave forth 
His voice, and rain in the day of harvest."[6] Do you see that "He who 
sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust"[1] by the subject powers is 
the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of instances of God, in 
reference to the prayers of the just, hearing and performing each one of 
their petitions.

    Again, the Greeks relate, that in the case of a failure once of the 
Etesian winds, Aristaeus once sacrificed in Ceus to Isthmian Zeus. For 
there was great devastation, everything being burnt up with the heat in 
consequence of the winds which had been wont to refresh the productions of 
the earth, not blowing, and he easily called them back.

    And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian 
priestess having made answer:--

    "O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,"--

they having erected an altar and performed sacrifice to the winds, had them 
as their helpers. For, blowing violently around Cape Sepias, they shivered 
the whole preparations of the Persian expedition. Empedocles of Agrigentum 
was called "Checker of Winds." Accordingly it is said, that when, on a 
time, a wind blew from the mountain of Agrigentum, heavy and pestiferous 
for the inhabitants, and the cause also of barrenness to their wives, he 
made the wind to cease. Wherefore he himself writes in the lines:--

    "Thou shalt the might of the unwearied winds make still,
    Which rushing to the earth spoil mortals' crops,
    And at thy will bring back the avenging blasts."

And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and some 
that had been long vexed by sore diseases.[2] They plainly, then, believed 
in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders, from our Scriptures. 
For if certain powers move the winds and dispense showers, let them hear 
the psalmist: "How amiable are; thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!"[3] This 
is the Lord of powers, and principalities, and authorities, of whom Moses 
speaks; so that we may be with Him. "And ye shall circumcise your hard 
heart, and shall not harden your neck any more. For He is Lord of lords and 
God of gods, the great God and strong,"[4] unit so forth. And Isaiah says, 
"Lift your eyes to the height, and see who hath produced all these 
things."[5]

    And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests, and the like, 
are wont to take place, not alone in consequence of material disturbance, 
but also through anger of demons and bad angels. For instance, they say 
that the

Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena of the skies, when the clouds are 
about to discharge hail, avert the threatening of wrath by incantations and 
sacrifices. And if at any time there is the want of an animal, they are 
satisfied with bleeding their own finger for a sacrifice. The prophetess 
Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence, 
effected a delay of the plague for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of 
Epimenides of Crete, put off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is 
considered to be all the same whether we call these spirits gods or angels. 
And those skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the 
temples have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Daemons, 
and teaching them to be wor-shipped by men; as having, in consequence of 
the purity of their life, by the divine foreknowledge, received the power 
of wandering about the space around the earth in order to minister to men. 
For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But of 
these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall 
discourse.

    Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial 
phenomena, was called "Wisdom" (Sophi'a). On his meeting a cordial 
reception from his brother Damasus, he predicted that there would be much 
rain, judging from certain stars. Some, accordingly, convinced by him, 
gathered their crops; for being in summer-time, they were stir on the 
threshing-floor. But others lost all, unexpected and heavy showers having 
burst down.

    How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance 
on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that 
grew on the mount; and the sound of trampets issued forth, breathed without 
instruments? For that which is called the descent on the mount of God is 
the advent of divine power, pervading the whole world, and proclaiming "the 
light that is inaccessible."[6]

    For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was 
seen, as Aristobulus[7] says, while the whole multitude, amounting to not 
less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around the 
mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days' journey. 
Over the whole place of the vision the burning fire was seen by them all 
encamped as it were around; so that the descent was not local. For God is 
everywhere.

    Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain s 
there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit; and 
that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes into the 
bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing musically. And 
often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of wind, a 
sound is emitted like the song of birds.

    Those also who composed the Persics relate that in the uplands, in the 
country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended plain, and 
that those who travel through the locality, on coming to the first 
mountain, hear a confused sound as of several myriads shouting, as if in 
battle array; and on reaching the middle one, they hear a clamour louder 
and more distinct; and at the end hear people singing a paean, as if 
victorious. And the cause, in my opinion, of the whole sound, is the 
smoothness and cavernous character of the localities; and the air, entering 
in, being sent back and going to the same point, sounds with considerable 
force. Let these things be so. But it is possible for God Almighty,[1] even 
without a medium, to produce a voice and vision through the ear, showing 
that His greatness has a natural order beyond what is customary, in order 
to the conversion of the hitherto unbelieving soul, and the reception of 
the commandment given. But there being a cloud and a lofty mountain, how is 
it not possible to hear a different sound, the wind moving by the active 
cause? Wherefore also the prophet says, "Ye heard the voice of words, and 
saw no similitude."[2] You see how the Lord's voice, the Word, without 
shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the Lord, the truth from 
heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the Church, wrought by the 
luminous immediate ministry.

CHAP. IV.--THE GREEKS DREW MANY OF THEIR PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS FROM THE 
EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN GYMNOSOPHISTS.

    We shall find another testimony in confirmation, in the fact that the 
best of the philosophers, having appropriated their most excellent dogmas 
from us, boast, as it were, of certain of the tenets which pertain to each 
sect being culled from other Barbarians, chiefly from the Egyptians--both 
other tenets, and that especially of the transmigration of the soul. For 
the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is principally shown 
by their sacred ceremonial. For first advances the Singer, bearing some one 
of the symbols of music. For they say that he must learn two of the books 
of Hermes, the one of which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the 
regulations for the king's life. And after the Singer advances the 
Astrologer,[3] with a horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of 
astrology. He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which are four in 
number, always in his mouth. Of these, one is about the order of the fixed 
stars that are visible, and another about the conjunctions and luminous 
appearances of the sun and moon; and the rest respecting their risings. 
Next in order advances the sacred Scribe, with wings on his head, and in 
his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink and the reed, with 
which they write. And he must be acquainted with what are called 
hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography, the position of 
the sun and moon, and about the five planets; also the description of 
Egypt, and the chart of the Nile; and the description of the equipment of 
the priests and of the places consecrated to them, and about the measures 
and the things in use in the sacred rites. Then the Stole-keeper follows 
those previously mentioned, with the cubit of justice and the cup for 
libations. He is acquainted with all points called Paedeutic(relating to 
training) and Moschophatic(sacrificial). There are also ten books which 
relate to the honour paid by them to their gods, and containing the 
Egyptian worship; as that relating to sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, 
prayers, processions, festivals, and the like. And behind all walks the 
Prophet, with the water-vase carried openly in his arms; who is followed by 
those who carry the issue of loaves. He, as being the governor of the 
temple, learns the ten books called "Hieratic;" and they contain all about 
the laws, and the gods, and the whole of the training of the priests. For 
the Prophet is, among the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the 
revenues. There are then forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; 
of which the six-and-thirty containing the whole philosophy of the 
Egyptians are learned by the forementioned personages; and the other six, 
which are medical, by the Pastophoroi(image-bearers),--treating of the 
structure of the body, and of diseases, and instruments, and medicines, and 
about the eyes, and the last about women.[4] Such are the customs of the 
Egyptians, to speak briefly.

    The philosophy of the Indians, too, has been celebrated. Alexander of 
Macedon, having taken ten of the Indian Gymnosophists, that seemed the best 
and most sententious, proposed to them problems, threatening to put to 
death him that did not answer to the purpose; ordering one, who was the 
eldest of them, to decide.

    The first, then, being asked whether he thought that the living were 
more in number than the dead, said, The living; for that the dead were not. 
The second, on being asked Whether the sea or the land maintained larger 
beasts, said, The land; for the sea was part of it. And the third being 
asked which was the most cunning of animals? The one, which has not 
hitherto been known, man. And the fourth being interrogated, For what 
reason they had made Sabba, who was their prince, revolt, answered, Because 
they wished him to live well rather than die ill. And the fifth being 
asked, Whether he thought that day or night was first, said, One day. For 
puzzling questions must have puzzling answers. And the sixth being posed 
with the query, How shall one be loved most? By being most powerful; in 
order that he may not be timid. And the seventh being asked, How any one of 
men could become God? said, If he do what it is impossible for man to do. 
And the eighth being asked, Which is the stronger, life or death? said, 
Life, which bears such ills. And the ninth being interrogated, Up to what 
point it is good for a man to live? said, Till he does not think that to 
die is better than to live. And on Alexander ordering the tenth to say 
something, for he was judge, he said, "One spake worse than another." And 
on Alexander saying, Shall you not, then, die first, having given such a 
judgment? he said, And how, O king, wilt thou prove true, after saying that 
thou wouldest kill first the first man that answered very badly?

    And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is, 
as I think, sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs.[1]

CHAP. V.- THE GREEKS HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD.

    And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by 
positive knowledge, but by indirect expression,[2] Peter says in the 
Preaching: "Know then that there is one God, who made the beginning of all 
things, and holds the power of the end; and is the Invisible, who sees all 
things; incapable of being contained, who contains all things; needing 
nothing, whom all things need, and by whom they are; incomprehensible, 
everlasting, unmade, who made all things by the 'Word of His power,' that 
is, according to the gnostic scripture, His Son."[3]

    Then he adds: "Worship this God not as the Greeks,"--signifying 
plainly, that the excellent among the Greeks worshipped the same God as we, 
but that they had not learned by perfect knowledge that which was delivered 
by the Son. "Do not then worship," he did not say, the God whom the Greeks 
worship, but "as the Greeks,"-- changing the manner of the worship of God, 
not announcing another God. What, then, the expression "not as the Greeks" 
means, Peter himself shall explain, as he adds: "Since they are carried 
away by ignorance, and know not God" (as we do, according to the perfect 
knowledge); "hut giving shape to the things[4] of which He gave them the 
power for use--stocks and stones, brass and iron, gold and silver--matter;-
-and setting up the things which are slaves for use and possession, worship 
them.[5] And what God hath given to them for food--the fowls of the air, 
and the fish of the sea, and the creeping things of the earth, and the wild 
beasts with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice, cats and 
dogs and apes, and their own proper food--they sacrifice as sacrifices to 
mortals; and offering dead things to the dead, as to gods, are unthankful 
to God, denying His existence by these things." And that it is said, that 
we and the Greeks know the same God, though not in the same way, he will 
infer thus: "Neither worship as the Jews; for they, thinking that they only 
know God, do not know Him, adoring as they do angels and archangels, the 
month and the moon. And if the moon be not visible, they do not hold the 
Sabbath, which is called the first;[6] nor do they hold the new moon, nor 
the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day."[7] Then 
he gives the finishing stroke to the question: "So that do ye also, 
learning holily and righteously what we deliver to you; keep them, 
worshipping God in a new way, by Christ." For we find in the Scriptures, as 
the Lord says: "Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with 
your fathers in Mount Horeb."[8] He made a new covenant with us; for what 
belonged to the Greeks and Jews is old. But we, who worship Him in a new 
way, in the third form, are Christians. For clearly, as I think, he showed 
that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile way, by the 
Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us.

    And further, that the same God that furnished both the Covenants was 
the giver of Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty is 
glorified among the Greeks, he shows. And it is clear from this. 
Accordingly, then, from the Hellenic training, and also from that of the 
law are gathered into the one race of the saved people those who accept 
faith: not that the three peoples are separated by time, so that one might 
suppose three natures, but trained in different Covenants of the one Lord, 
by the word of the one Lord. For that, as God wished to save the Jews by 
giving to them prophets, so also by raising up prophets of their own in 
their own tongue, as they were able to receive God's beneficence, He 
distinguished the most excellent of the Greeks from the common herd, in 
addition to "Peter's Preaching," the Apostle Paul will show, saying: "Take 
also the Hellenic books, read the Sibyl, how it is shown that God is one, 
and how the future is indicated. And taking Hystaspes, read, and you will 
find much more luminously and distinctly the Son of God described, and how 
many kings shall draw up their forces against Christ, hating Him and those 
that bear His name, and His faithful ones, and His patience, and His 
coming." Then in one word he asks us, "Whose is the world, and all that is 
in the world? Are they not God's? "[1] Wherefore Peter says, that the Lord 
said to the apostles: "If any one of Israel then, wishes to repent, and by 
my name to believe in God, his sins shall be forgiven him, after twelve 
years. Go forth into the world, that no one may say, We have not heard."

CHAP. VI.--THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO JEWS AND GENTILES IN HADES.[2]

    But as the proclamation [of the Gospel] has come now at the fit time, 
so also at the fit time were the Law and the Prophets given to the 
Barbarians, and Philosophy to the Greeks, to fit their ears for the Gospel. 
"Therefore," says the Lord who delivered Israel, "in an acceptable time 
have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. And I have 
given thee for a Covenant to the nations; that thou mightest inhabit the 
earth, and receive the inheritance of the wilderness; saying to those that 
are in bonds, Come forth; and to those that are in darkness, Show 
yourselves." For if the "prisoners" are the Jews, of whom the Lord said, 
"Come forth, ye that will, from your bonds," --meaning the voluntary bound, 
and who have taken on them "the burdens grievous to be borne"[3] by human 
injunction--it is plain that "those in darkness" are they who have the 
ruling faculty of the soul buried in idolatry.

    For to those who were righteous according to the law, faith was 
wanting. Wherefore also the Lord, in healing them, said, "Thy faith hath 
saved thee."[4] But to those that were righteous according to philosophy, 
not only faith in the Lord, but also the abandonment of idolatry, were 
necessary. Straightway, on the revelation of the truth, they also repented 
of their previous conduct.

    Wherefore the Lord preached the Gospel to those in Hades. Accordingly 
the Scripture says, "Hades says to Destruction, We have not seen His form, 
but we have heard His voice."[5] It is not plainly the place, which, the 
words above say, heard the voice, but those who have been put in Hades, and 
have abandoned themselves to destruction, as persons who have thrown 
themselves voluntarily from a ship into the sea. They, then, are those that 
hear the divine power and voice. For who in his senses can suppose the 
souls of the righteous and those of sinners in the same condemnation, 
charging Providence with injustice?

    But how? Do not [the Scriptures] show that. the Lord preached[6] the 
Gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather had been chained, and 
to those kept "in ward and guard"?[7] And it has been shown also,[8] in the 
second book of the Stromata, that the apostles, following the Lord, 
preached the Gospel to those in Hades. For it was requisite, in my opinion, 
that as here, so also there, the best of the disciples should be imitators 
of the Master; so that He should bring to repentance those belonging to the 
Hebrews, and they the Gentiles; that is, those who had lived in 
righteousness according to the Law and Philosophy, who had ended life not 
perfectly, but sinfully. For it was suitable to the divine administration, 
that those possessed of greater worth in righteousness, and whose life had 
been pre-eminent, on repenting of their transgressions, though found in 
another place, yet being confessedly of the number of the people of God 
Almighty, should be saved, each one according to his individual knowledge.

    And, as I think, the Saviour also exerts His might because it is His 
work to save; which accordingly He also did by drawing to salvation those 
who became willing, by the preaching [of the Gospel], to believe on Him, 
wherever they were. If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for no other end 
but to preach the Gospel, as He did descend; it was either to preach the 
Gospel to all or to the Hebrews only. If, accordingly, to all, then all who 
believe shall be saved, although they may be of the Gentiles, on making 
their profession there; since God's punishments are saving and 
disciplinary, leading to conversion, and choosing rather the repentance 
thorn the death of a sinner;[1] and especially since souls, although 
darkened by passions, when released from their bodies, are able to perceive 
more clearly, because of their being no longer obstructed by the paltry 
flesh.

    If, then, He preached only to the Jews, who wanted the knowledge and 
faith of the Saviour, it is plain that, since God is no respecter of 
persons, the apostles also, as here, so there preached the Gospel to those 
of the heathen who were ready for conversion. And it is well said by the 
Shepherd, "They went down with them therefore into the water, and again 
ascended. But these descended alive, and again ascended alive. But those 
who had fallen asleep, descended dead, but ascended alive."[2] Further the 
Gospel[3] says, "that many bodies of those that slept arose," --plainly as 
having been translated to a better state.[4] There took place, then, a  
universal movement and translation through the economy of the Saviour.[5]

    One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another 
righteous man, whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only 
Lord of the Jews, but of all men, and more nearly the Father of those who 
know Him. For if to live well and according to the law is to live, also to 
live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who lived 
rightly before the Law were classed under faith,[6] and judged to be 
righteous,--it is evident that those, too, who were outside of the Law, 
having lived rightly, in consequence of the peculiar' nature of the 
voice,[7] though they are in Hades and in ward,[8] on hearing the voice of 
the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting through His 
apostles, with all speed turned and believed. For we remember that the Lord 
is "the power  of God,"[9]  and power can never be weak.

    So I think it is demonstrated that the God being good, and the Lord 
powerful, they save with a righteousness and equality which extend to all 
that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere. For it is not here alone that 
the active power of God is beforehand, but it is everywhere and is always 
at work. Accordingly, in the Preaching of Peter, the Lord says to the 
disciples after the resurrection, "I have chosen you twelve disciples, 
judging you worthy of me," whom the Lord wished to be apostles, having 
judged them faithful, sending them into the world to the men on the earth, 
that they may know that there is one God, showing clearly what would take 
place by the faith of Christ; that they who heard and believed should be 
saved; and that those who believed not, after having heard, should bear 
witness, not having the excuse to allege, We have not heard.

    What then? Did not the same dispensation obtain in Hades, so that even 
there, all the souls, on hearing the proclamation, might either exhibit 
repentance, or confess that their punishment was just, because they 
believed not? And it  were the exercise of no ordinary arbitrariness, for 
those who had departed before the advent of the Lord (not having the Gospel 
preached to them, and having afforded no ground from themselves, in 
consequence of believing or not) to obtain either salvation or punishment. 
For it is not right that these should be condemned without trial, and that 
those alone who lived after the advent should have the advantage of the 
divine righteousness. But to all rational souls it was said from above, 
"Whatever one of you has done in ignorance, without clearly knowing God, 
if, on becoming conscious, he repent, all his sins will be forgiven 
him."[10] "For, behold," it is said, "I have set before your face death and 
life, that ye may choose life."[11] '' God says that He set, not that He 
made both, in order to the comparison of choice. And in another Scripture 
He says, "If ye hear Me, and be willing, ye shall eat the good of the land. 
But if ye hear Me not, and are not willing, the sword shall devour you: for 
the mouth of the LORD hath spoken these things."[12]

    Again, David expressly (or rather the Lord in the person of the saint, 
and the same from the foundation of the world is each one who at different 
periods is saved, and shall be saved by faith) says, "My heart was glad, 
and my tongue rejoiced, and my flesh shall still rest in hope. For Thou 
shalt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give Thine holy one to see 
corruption. Thou hast made known to me the paths of life, Thou wilt make me 
full of joy in Thy presence."[13] As, then, the people was precious to the 
Lord, so also is the entire holy people; he also who is converted from the 
Gentiles, who was prophesied under the name of proselyte, along with the 
Jew. For rightly the Scripture says, that "the ox and the bear shall come 
together."[14] For the Jew is designated by the ox, from the animal under 
the yoke being reckoned clean, according to the law; for the ox both parts 
the hoof and chews the cud. And the Gentile is designated by the bear, 
which is an unclean and wild beast. And this animal brings forth a 
shapeless lump of flesh, which it shapes into the likeness of a beast 
solely by its tongue. For he who is convened from among the Gentiles is 
formed from a beastlike life to gentleness by the word; and, when once 
tamed, is made clean, just as the ox. For example, the prophet says, "The 
sirens, and the daughters of the sparrows, and all the beasts of the field, 
shall bless me."[1] Of the number of unclean animals, the wild beasts of 
the field are known to be, that is, of the world; since those who are wild 
in respect of faith, and polluted in life, and not purified by the 
righteousness which is according to the law, are called wild beasts. But 
changed from wild beasts by the faith of the Lord, they become men of God, 
advancing from the wish to change to the fact. For some the Lord exhorts, 
and to those who have already made the attempt he stretches forth His hand, 
and draws them up. "For the Lord dreads not the face of any one, nor will 
He regard greatness; for He hath made small and great, and cares alike for 
all."[2] And David says, "For the heathen are fixed in the destruction they 
have caused; their foot is taken in the snare which they hid." s "But the 
LORD was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in affliction."[4] 
Those, then, that were in affliction had the Gospel seasonably proclaimed. 
And therefore it said, "Declare among the heathen his pursuits,"[5] that 
they may not be judged unjustly.

    If, then, He preached the Gospel to those in the flesh that they might 
not be condemned unjustly, how is it conceivable that He did not for the 
same cause preach the Gospel to those who had departed this life before His 
advent? "For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness: His countenance 
beholdeth uprightness."[6] "But he that loveth wickedness hateth his own 
soul."[7]

    If, then, in the deluge all sinful flesh perished, punishment having 
been inflicted on them for correction, we must first believe that the will 
of God, which is disciplinary and beneficent,[8] saves those who turn to 
Him. Then, too, the more subtle substance, the soul, could never receive 
any injury from the grosser element of water, its subtle and simple nature 
rendering it impalpable, called as it is incorporeal. But whatever is 
gross, made so in consequence of sin, this is cast away along with the 
carnal spirit which lusts against the soul.[9]

    Now also Valentinus, the Coryphaeus of those who herald community, in 
his book on The  Intercourse of Friends, writes in these words: "Many of 
the things that are written, though in common hooks, are found written in 
the church of God. For those sayings which proceed from the heart are vain. 
For the law written in the heart is the People[10]  of the Beloved --loved 
and loving Him." For whether it be the Jewish writings or those of the 
philosophers that he calls "the Common Books," he makes the truth common. 
And Isidore," at once son and disciple to Basilides, in the first hook of 
the Expositions of the Prophet Parchor, writes also in these words: "The 
Attics say that certain things were intimated to Socrates, in consequence 
of a daemon attending on him. And Aristotle says that all men are provided 
with daemons, that attend on them during the time they are in the body,-
having taken this piece of prophetic instruction and transferred it to his 
own books, without acknowledging whence he had abstracted this statement." 
And again, in the second book of his work, he thus writes: "And let no one 
think that what we say is peculiar to the elect, was said before by any 
philosophers. For it is not a discovery of theirs. For having appropriated 
it from our prophets, they attributed it to him who is wise according to 
them." Again, in the same: "For to me it appears that those who profess to 
philosophize, do so that they may learn what is the winged oak,'" and the 
variegated robe on it, all of which Pherecydes has employed as theological 
allegories, having taken them from the prophecy of Chum."

CHAP. VII.--WHAT TRUE PHILOSOPHY IS, AND WHENCE SO CALLED.

    As we have long ago pointed out, what we propose as our subject is not 
the discipline which obtains in each sect, but that which is really 
philosophy, strictly systematic Wisdom, which furnishes acquaintance with 
the things which pertain to life. And we define Wisdom to be certain 
knowledge, being a sure and irrefragable apprehension of things divine and 
human, comprehending the present, past, and future, which the Lord hath 
taught us, both by His advent and by the prophets. And it is irrefragable 
by reason, inasmuch as it has been communicated. And so it is wholly true 
according to [God's] intention, as being known through means of the Son. 
And in one aspect it is eternal, and in another it becomes useful in time. 
Partly it is one and the same, partly many and indifferent--partly without 
any movement of passion, partly with passionate desire--partly perfect, 
partly incomplete.

    This wisdom, then--rectitude of soul and of reason, and purity of life-
-is the object of the desire of philosophy, which is kindly and lovingly 
disposed towards wisdom, and does everything to attain it.

    Now those are called philosophers, among us, who love Wisdom, the 
Creator and Teacher of all things, that is, the knowledge of the Son of 
God; and among the Greeks, those who undertake arguments on virtue. 
Philosophy, then, consists of such dogmas found in each sect (I mean those 
of philosophy) as cannot be impugned, with a corresponding life, collected 
into one selection; and these, stolen from the Barbarian God-given grace, 
have been adorned by Greek speech. For some they have borrowed, and others 
they have misunderstood. And in the case of others, what they have spoken, 
in consequence of being moved, they have not yet perfectly worked out; and 
others by human conjecture and reasoning, in which also they stumble. And 
they think that they have hit the truth perfectly;  but as we understand 
them, only partially. They know, then, nothing more than this world. And it 
is just like geometry, which treats of measures and magnitudes and forms, 
by delineation on plane-surfaces; and just as painting appears to take in 
the whole field of view in the scenes represented. But it gives a false 
description of the view, according to the rules of the art, employing the 
signs that result from the incidents of the lines of vision. By this means, 
the higher and lower points in the view, and those between, are preserved; 
and some objects seem to appear in the foreground, and others in the 
background, and others to appear in some other way, on the smooth and level 
surface. So also the philosophers copy the truth, after the manner of 
painting. And always in the case of each one of them, their self-love is 
the cause of all their mistakes. Wherefore one ought not, in the desire for 
the glory that terminates in men, to be animated by self-love; but loving 
God, to become really holy with wisdom. If, then, one treats what is 
particular as universal, and regards that, which serves, as the Lord, he 
misses the truth, not understanding what was spoken by David by way of 
confession: "I have eaten earth [ashes] like bread."[1] Now, self-love and 
self-conceit are, in his view, earth and error. But if so, science and 
knowledge are derived from instruction. And if there is instruction, you 
must seek for the master. Cleanthes claims Zeno, and Metrodorus Epicurus, 
and Theophrastus Aristotle, and Plato Socrates. But if I Come to 
Pythagoras, and Pherecydes, and Thales, and the first wise men, I come to a 
stand in my search for their teacher. Should you say the Egyptians, the 
Indians, the Babylonians, and the Magi themselves, I will not stop from 
asking their teacher. And I lead you up to the first generation of men; and 
from that point I begin to investigate Who is their teacher. No one of men; 
for they had not yet learned. Nor yet any of the angels: for in the way 
that angels, in virtue of being angels, speak, men do not hear; nor, as we 
have ears, have they a tongue to correspond; nor would any one attribute to 
the angels organs of speech, lips I mean, and the parts contiguous, throat, 
and windpipe, and chest, breath and air to vibrate, And God is far from 
calling aloud in the unapproachable sanctity, separated as He is from even 
the archangels.

    And we also have already heard that angels learned the truth, and their 
rulers over them;[1] for they had a beginning. It remains, then, for us, 
ascending to seek their teacher. And since the unoriginated Being is one, 
the Omnipotent God; one, too, is the First-begotten, "by whom all things 
were made, and without whom not one thing ever was made."[3] "For one, in 
truth, is God, who formed the beginning of all things;" pointing out "the 
first-begotten Son," Peter writes, accurately comprehending the statement, 
"In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth."[4] And He is called 
Wisdom by all the prophets. This is He who is the Teacher of all created 
beings, the Fellow-counsellor of God, who foreknew all things; and He from 
above, from the first foundation of the world, "in many ways and many 
times,"[5] trains and perfects; whence it is rightly said, "Call no man 
your teacher on earth."[6]

    You see whence the true philosophy has its handles; though the Law be 
the image and shadow of the truth: for the Law is the shadow of the truth. 
But the self-love of the Greeks proclaims certain men as their teachers. 
As, then, the whole family runs back to God the Creator;[7] so also all the 
teaching of good things, which justifies, does to the Lord, and leads and 
contributes to this.

    But if from any creature they received in any way whatever the seeds of 
the Truth, they did not nourish them; but committing them to a barren and 
reinless soil, they choked them with weeds, as the Pharisees revolted from 
the Law, by introducing human teachings,--the cause of these being not the 
Teacher, but those who choose to disobey. But those of them who believed 
the Lord's advent and the plain teaching of the Scriptures, attain to the 
knowledge of the law; as also those addicted to philosophy, by the teaching 
of the Lord, are introduced into the knowledge of the true philosophy: "For 
the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, melted in the fire, tried in the 
earth,[1] purified seven times."[2] Just as silver often purified, so is 
the just man brought to the test, becoming the Lord's coin and receiving 
the royal image. Or, since Solomon also calls the "tongue of the righteous 
man gold that has been subjected to fire,"[3] intimating that the doctrine 
which has been proved, and is wise, is to be praised and received, whenever 
it is amply tried by the earth: that is, when the gnostic soul is in 
manifold ways sanctified, through withdrawal from earthy fires. And the 
body in which it dwells is purified, being appropriated to the pureness of 
a holy temple. But the first purification which takes place in the body, 
the soul being first, is abstinence from evil things, which some consider 
perfection, and is, in truth, the perfection of the common believer--Jew 
and Greek. But in the case of the Gnostic, after that which is reckoned 
perfection in others, his righteousness advances to activity in well-doing. 
And in whomsoever the increased force[4] of righteousness advances to the 
doing of good, in his case perfection abides in the fixed habit of well-
doing after the likeness of God. For those who are the seed of Abraham, and 
besides servants of God, are "the called;" and the sons of Jacob are the 
elect--they who have tripped up the energy of wickedness.

    If; then, we assert that Christ Himself is Wisdom, and that it was His 
working which showed itself in the prophets, by which the gnostic tradition 
may be learned, as He Himself taught the apostles during His presence; then 
it follows that the grinds, which is the knowledge and apprehension of 
things present, future, and past, which is sure and reliable, as being 
imparted and revealed by the Son of God, is wisdom.

    And if, too, the end of the wise man is contemplation, that of those 
who are still philosophers aims at it, but never attains it, unless by the 
process of learning it receives the prophetic utterance which has been made 
known, by which it grasps both the present, the future, and the past--how 
they are, were, and shall be.

    And the gnosis itself is that which has descended by transmission to a 
few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles. Hence, then, knowledge 
or wisdom ought to be exercised up to the eternal and unchangeable habit of 
contemplation.

CHAP. VIII.--PHILOSOPHY IS KNOWLEDGE GIVEN BY GOD.

    For Paul too, in the Epistles, plainly does not disparage philosophy; 
but deems it unworthy of the man who has attained to the elevation of the 
Gnostic, any more to go back to the Hellenic "philosophy," figuratively 
calling it '' the rudiments of this world,"[5] as being most rudimentary, 
and a preparatory training for the truth. Wherefore also, writing to the 
Hebrews, who were declining again from faith to the law, he says," Have ye 
not need again of one to teach you which are the first principles of the 
oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong 
meat?"[6] So also to the Colossians, who were Greek converts, "Beware lest 
any man spoil you by philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of 
men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ,"[7]--enticing 
them again to return to philosophy, the elementary doctrine.

    And should one say that it was through human understanding that 
philosophy was discovered by the Greeks, still I find the Scriptures saying 
that understanding is sent by God. The psalmist, accordingly, considers 
understanding as the greatest free gift, and beseeches, saying," I am Thy 
servant; give me understanding."s And does not David, while asking the 
abundant experience of knowledge, write, "Teach me gentleness, and 
discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed in Thy commandments?"[9] He 
confessed the covenants to be of the highest authority, and that they were 
given to the more excellent. Accordingly the psalm again says of God, "He 
hath not done thus to any nation; and He hath not shown His judgments to 
them."[10] The expression "He hath not done so" shows that He hath done, 
but not "thus." The "thus," then, is put comparatively, with reference to 
pre-eminence, which obtains in our case. The prophet might have said 
simply, "He hath not done," without the "thus."

    Further, Peter in the Acts says, "Of a truth, I perceive that God is no 
respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh 
righteousness, is accepted by Him."[11]

    The absence of respect of persons in God is not then in time, but from 
eternity. Nor had His beneficence a beginning; nor any more is it limited 
to places or persons. For His beneficence is not confined to parts. "Open 
ye the gates of righteousness," it is said; "entering into them, I will 
confess to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD. The righteous shall 
enter by it."[1] Explaining the prophet's saying, Barnabas adds, "There 
being many gates open, that which is in righteousness is the gate which is 
in Christ, by which all who enter are blessed." Bordering on the same 
meaning is also the following prophetic utterance: "The LORD is on many 
waters;"[2] not the different covenants alone, but the modes of teaching, 
those among the Greek and those among the Barbarians, conducing to 
righteousness. And already clearly David, bearing testimony to the truth, 
sings, "Let sinners be turned into Hades, and all the nations that forget 
God."[3] They forget, plainly, Him whom they formerly remembered, and 
dismiss Him whom they knew previous to forgetting Him. There was then a dim 
knowledge of God also among the nations. So much for those points.

    Now the Gnostic must be erudite. And since the Greeks say that 
Protagoras having led the way, the opposing of one argument by another was 
invented, it is fitting that something be said with reference to arguments 
of this sort. For Scripture says, "He that says much, shall also hear in 
his turn."[4] And who shall understand a parable of the Lord, but the wise, 
the intelligent, and he that loves his Lord? Let such a man be faithful; 
let him be capable of uttering his knowledge; let him be wise in the 
discrimination of words; let him be dexterous in action; let him be pure. 
"The greater he seems to be, the more humble should he be," says Clement in 
the Epistle to the Corinthians,--"such an one as is capable of complying 
with the precept, 'And some pluck from the fire, and on others have 
compassion, making a difference,'"[5]

    The pruning-hook is made, certainly, principally for pruning; but with 
it we separate twigs that have got intertwined, cut the thorns which grow 
along with the vines, which it is not very easy to reach. And all these 
things have a reference to pruning. Again, man is made principally for the 
knowledge of God; but he also measures land, practises agriculture, and 
philosophizes; of which pursuits, one conduces to life, another to living 
well, a third to the study of the things which are capable of 
demonstration. Further, let those who say that philosophy took its rise 
from the devil know this, that the Scripture says that "the devil is 
transformed into an angel of light."[6] When about to do what? Plainly, 
when about to prophesy. But if he prophesies as an angel of light, he will 
speak what is true. And if he prophesies what is angelical, and of the 
light, then he prophesies what is beneficial when he is transformed 
according to the likeness of the operation, though he be different with 
respect to the matter of apostasy. For how could he deceive any one, 
without drawing the lover of knowledge into fellowship, and so drawing him 
afterwards into falsehood? Especially he will be found to know the truth, 
if not so as to comprehend it, yet so as not to be unacquainted with it.

    Philosophy is not then false, though the thief and the liar speak 
truth, through a transformation of operation. Nor is sentence of 
condemnation to be pronounced ignorantly against what is said, on account 
of him who says it (which also is to be kept in view, in the case of those 
who are now alleged to prophesy); but what is said must be looked at, to 
see if it keep by the truth.

    And in general terms, we shall not err in alleging that all things 
necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that philosophy 
more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant peculiar to them--
being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy which is according to 
Christ--although those who applied themselves to the philosophy of the 
Greeks shut their ears voluntarily to the truth, despising the voice of 
Barbarians, or also dreading the danger suspended over the believer, by the 
laws of the state.

    And as in the Barbarian philosophy, so also in the Hellenic, "tares 
were sown" by the proper husbandman of the tares; whence also heresies  
grew up among us along with the productive  wheat; and those who in the 
Hellenic philosophy preach the impiety and voluptuousness of Epicurus, and 
whatever other tenets are disseminated contrary to right reason, exist 
among the Greeks as spurious fruits of the divinely bestowed husbandry. 
This voluptuous and selfish philosophy the apostle calls "the wisdom of 
this world;" in consequence of its teaching the things of this world and 
about it alone, and its consequent subjection, as far as respects 
ascendancy, to those who rule here. Wherefore also this fragmentary 
philosophy is very elementary, while truly perfect science deals with 
intellectual objects, which are beyond the sphere of the world, and with 
the objects still more spiritual than those which "eye saw not, and ear 
heard not, nor did it enter into the heart of men," till the Teacher told 
the account of them to us; unveiling the holy of holies; and in ascending 
order, things still holier than these, to those who are truly and not 
spuriously heirs of the Lord's adoption. For we now dare aver (for here is 
the faith that is characterized by knowledge[1]) that such an one knows all 
things, and comprehends all things in the exercise of sure apprehension, 
respecting matters difficult for us, and really pertaining to the true 
gnosis[2] such as were James, Peter, John, Paul, and the rest of the 
apostles. For prophecy is full of knowledge (gnosis), inasmuch as it was 
given by the Lord, and again explained by the Lord to the apostles. And is 
not knowledge (gnosis) an attribute of the rational soul, which trains 
itself for this, that by knowledge it may become entitled to immortality? 
For both are powers of the soul both knowledge and impulse. And impulse is 
found to be a movement after an assent. For he who has an impulse towards 
an action, first receives the knowledge of the action, and secondly the 
impulse. Let us further devote our attention to this. For since learning is 
older than action; (for naturally, he who does what he wishes to do learns 
it first; and knowledge comes from learning, and impulse follows knowledge; 
after which comes action;) knowledge turns out the beginning and author of 
all rational action. So that rightly the peculiar nature of the rational 
soul is characterized by this alone; for in reality impulse, like 
knowledge, is excited by existing objects. And knowledge (gnosis) is 
essentially a contemplation of existences on the part of the soul, either 
of a certain thing or of certain things, and when perfected, of all 
together. Although some say that the wise man is persuaded that there are 
some things incomprehensible, in such wise as to have respecting them a 
kind of comprehension, inasmuch as he comprehends that things 
incomprehensible are incomprehensible; which is common, and pertains to 
those who are capable of perceiving little. For such a man affirms that 
there are some things incomprehensible.

    But that Gnostic of whom I speak, himself comprehends what seems to be 
incomprehensible to others; believing that nothing is incomprehensible to 
the Son of God, whence nothing incapable of being taught. For He who 
suffered out of His love for us, would have suppressed no element of 
knowledge requisite for our instruction. Accordingly this faith becomes 
sure demonstration; since truth follows what has been delivered by God. But 
if one desires extensive knowledge, "he knows things ancient, and 
conjectures things future; he understands knotty sayings, and the solutions 
of enigmas. The disciple of wisdom foreknows signs and omens, and the 
issues of seasons and of times."[3]

CHAP. IX.--THE GNOSTIC FREE OF ALL PERTURBATIONS OF THE SOUL.

    The Gnostic is such, that he is subject only to the affections that 
exist for the maintenance of the body, such as hunger, thirst, and the 
like. But in the case of the Saviour, it were ludicrous [to suppose] that 
the body, as a body, demanded the necessary aids in order to its duration. 
For He ate, not for the sake of the body, which was kept together by a holy 
energy, but in order that it might not enter into the minds of those who 
were with Him to entertain a different opinion of Him; in like manner as 
certainly some afterwards supposed that He appeared in a phantasmal shape 
(<greek>dokhsei</greek>). But He was entirely impassible 
(<greek>apaqhg</greek>); inaccessible to any movement of feeling--either 
pleasure or pain. While the apostles, having most gnostically mastered, 
through the Lord's teaching, angel and fear, and lust, were not liable even 
to such of the movements of feeling, as seem good, courage, zeal, joy, 
desire, through a steady condition of mind, not changing a whit; but ever 
continuing unvarying in a state of training after the resurrection of the 
Lord.

    And should it be granted that the affections specified above, when 
produced rationally, are good, yet they are nevertheless inadmissible in 
the case of the perfect man, who is incapable of exercising courage: for 
neither does he meet what inspires fear, as he regards none of the things 
that occur in life as to be dreaded; nor can aught dislodge him from this--
the love he has towards God. Nor does he need cheerfulness of mind; for he 
does not fall into pain, being persuaded that all things happen well. Nor 
is he angry; for there is nothing to move him to anger, seeing he ever 
loves God, and is entirely turned towards Him alone, and therefore hates 
none of God's creatures. No more does he envy; for nothing is wanting to 
him, that is requisite to assimilation, in order that he may be excellent 
and good. Nor does he consequently love any one with this common affection, 
but loves the Creator in the creatures. Nor, consequently, does he fall 
into any desire and eagerness; nor does he want, as far as respects his 
soul, aught appertaining to others, now that he associates through love 
with the Beloved One, to whom he is allied by free choice, and by the habit 
which results from training, approaches closer to Him, and is blessed 
through the abundance of good things. So that on these accounts he is 
compelled to become like his Teacher in impassibility. For the Word of God 
is intellectual, according as the image of mind is seen 'in man alone. Thus 
also the good man is godlike in form and semblance as respects his soul. 
And, on the other hand, God is like man. For the distinctive form of each 
one is the mind by which we are characterized. Consequently, also, those 
who sin against man are unholy and impious. For it were ridiculous to say 
that the gnostic and perfect man must not eradicate anger and courage, 
inasmuch as without these he will not struggle against circumstances, or 
abide what is terrible. But if we take from him desire; he will be quite 
overwhelmed by troubles, and therefore depart from this life very basely. 
Unless possessed of it, as some suppose, he will not conceive a desire for 
what is like the excellent and the good. If, then, all alliance with what 
is good is accompanied with desire, how, it is said, does he remain 
impassible who desires what is excellent?

    But these people know not, as appears, the divinity of love. For love 
is not desire on the part of him who loves; but is a relation of affection, 
restoring the Gnostic to the unity of the faith,--independent of time and 
place. But he who by love is already in the midst of that in which he is 
destined to be, and has anticipated hope by knowledge, does not desire 
anything, having, as far as possible, the very thing desired. Accordingly, 
as to be expected, he continues in the exercise of gnostic love, in the one 
unvarying state.

    Nor will he, therefore, eagerly desire to be assimilated to what is 
beautiful, possessing, as he does, beauty by love. What more need of 
courage and of desire to him, who has obtained the affinity to the 
impassible God which arises from love, and by love has enrolled himself 
among the friends of God?

    We must therefore rescue the gnostic and perfect man from all passion 
of the soul. For knowledge (gnosis) produces practice, and practice habit 
or disposition; and such a state as this produces impassibility, not 
moderation of passion. And the complete eradication of desire reaps as its 
fruit impassibility. But the Gnostic does not share either in those 
affections that are commonly celebrated as good, that is, the good things 
of the affections which are allied to the passions: such, I mean, as 
gladness, which is allied to pleasure; and dejection, for this is conjoined 
with pain; and caution, for it is subject to fear. Nor yet does he share in 
high spirit, for it takes its place alongside of wrath; although some say 
that these are no longer evil, but already good. For it is impossible that 
he who has been once made perfect by love, and feasts eternally and 
insatiably on the boundless joy of contemplation, should delight in small 
and grovelling things. For what rational cause remains any more to the man 
who has gained "the light inaccessible,"[2] for revering to the good things 
of the world? Although not yet true as to time and place, yet by that 
gnostic love through which the inheritance and perfect restitution follow, 
the giver of the reward makes good by deeds what the Gnostic, by gnostic 
choice, had grasped by anticipation through love.

    For by going away to the Lord, for the love he bears Him, though his 
tabernacle be visible on earth, he does not withdraw himself from life. For 
that is not permitted to him. But he has withdrawn his soul from the 
passions. For that is granted to him. And on the other hand he lives, 
having put to death his lusts, and no longer makes use of the body, but 
allows it the use of necessaries, that he may not give cause for 
dissolution.

    How, then, has he any more need of fortitude, who is not in the midst 
of dangers, being not present, but already wholly with the object of love? 
And what necessity for self-restraint to him who has not need of it? For to 
have such desires, as require self-restraint in order to their control, is 
characteristic of one who is not yet pure, but subject to passion. Now, 
fortitude is assumed by reason of fear and cowardice. For it were no longer 
seemly that the friend of God, whom "God hath fore-ordained before the 
foundation of the world"[3] to be enrolled in the highest "adoption," 
should fall into pleasures or fears, and be occupied in the repression of 
the passions. For I venture to assert, that as he is predestinated through 
what he shall do, and what he shall obtain, so also has he predestinated 
himself by reason of what he knew and whom he loved; not having the future 
indistinct, as the multitude live, conjecturing it, but having grasped by 
gnostic faith what is hidden from others. And through love, the future is 
for him already present. For he has believed, through prophecy and the 
advent, on God who lies not. And what he believes he possesses, and keeps 
hold of the promise. And He who hath promised is truth. And through the 
trustworthiness of Him who has promised, he has firmly laid hold of the end 
of the promise by knowledge. And he, who knows the sure comprehension of 
the future which there is in the circumstances, in which he is placed, by 
love goes to meet the future. So he, that is persuaded that he will obtain 
the things that are really good, will not pray to obtain what is here, but 
that he may always cling to the faith which hits the mark and succeeds. And 
besides, he will pray that as many as possible may become like him, to the 
glory of God, which is perfected through knowledge. For he who is made like 
the Saviour is also devoted to saving; performing unerringly the 
commandments as far as the human nature may admit of the image. And this is 
to worship God by deeds and knowledge of the true righteousness. The Lord 
will not wait for the voice of this man in prayer. "Ask," He says, "and I 
will do it; think, and I will give."[1]

    For, in fine, it is impossible that the immutable should assume 
firmness and consistency in the mutable. But the ruling faculty being in 
perpetual change, and therefore unstable, the force of habit is not 
maintained. For how can he who is perpetually changed by external 
occurrences mad accidents, ever possess habit and disposition, and in a 
word, grasp of scientific knowledge (<greek>episthmh</greek>)? Further, 
also, the philosophers regard the virtues as habits, dispositions, and 
sciences. And as knowledge (gnosis) is not born with men, but is 
acquired,[2] and the acquiring of it in its elements demands application, 
and training, and progress; and then from incessant practice it passes into 
a habit; so, when perfected in the mystic habit, it abides, being 
infallible through love. For not only has he apprehended the first Cause, 
and the Cause produced by it, and is sure about them, possessing firmly 
firm and irrefragable and immoveable reasons; but also respecting what is 
good and what is evil, and respecting all production, and to speak 
comprehensively, respecting all about Which the Lord has spoken, he has 
learned, from the truth itself, the most exact truth from the foundation of 
the world to the end. Not preferring to the truth itself what appears 
plausible, or, according to Hellenic reasoning, necessary; but what has 
been spoken by the Lord he accepts as clear and evident, though concealed 
from others; and he has already received the knowledge of all things. And 
the oracles we possess give their utterances respecting what exists, as it 
is; and respecting what is future, as it shall be; and respecting what is 
past, as it was.

    In scientific matters, as being alone possessed of scientific 
knowledge, he will hold the pre-eminence, and will discourse on the 
discussion respecting the good, ever intent on intellectual objects, 
tracing out his procedure in human affairs from the archetypes above; as 
navigators direct the ship according to the star; prepared to hold himself 
in readiness for every suitable action; accustomed to despise all 
difficulties and dangers when it is necessary to undergo them; never doing 
anything precipitate or incongruous  either to himself or the common weal; 
fore-seeing; and inflexible by pleasures both of waking hours and of 
dreams. For, accustomed to spare living and frugality, he is moderate, 
active, mad grave; requiring few necessaries for life; occupying himself 
with nothing superfluous. But desiring not even these things as chief, but 
by reason of fellowship in life, as necessary for his sojourn in life, as 
far as necessary.

CHAP. X.--THE GNOSTIC AVAILS HIMSELF OF THE HELP  OF ALL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

    For to him knowledge (gnosis) is the principal thing. Consequently, 
therefore, he applies to the subjects that are a training for knowledge, 
taking from each branch of study its contribution to the truth. 
Prosecuting, then, the proportion of harmonies in music; and in arithmetic 
noting the increasing and decreasing of numbers, and their relations to one 
another, and how the most of things fall under some proportion of numbers; 
studying geometry, which is abstract essence, he perceives a continuous 
distance, and an immutable essence which is different from these bodies. 
And by astronomy, again, raised from the earth in his mind, he is elevated 
along with heaven, and will revolve with its revolution; studying ever 
divine things, and their harmony with each other; from which Abraham 
starting, ascended to the knowledge of Him who created them. Further, the 
Gnostic will avail himself of dialectics, fixing on the distinction of 
genera into species, and will master[3] the distinction of existences, till 
he come to what are primary and simple.

    But the multitude are frightened at the Hellenic philosophy, as 
children are at masks, being afraid lest it lead them astray. But if the 
faith (for I cannot call it knowledge) which they possess be such as to be 
dissolved by plausible speech, let it be by all means dissolved,[4] and let 
them confess that they will not retain the truth. For truth is immoveable; 
but false opinion dissolves. We choose, for instance, one purple by 
comparison with another purple. So that, if one confesses that he has not a 
heart that has been made right, he has not the table of the money-changers 
or the test of words.[5] And how can he be any longer a money-changer, who 
is not able to prove and distinguish spurious coin, even offhand?

    Now David cried, "The righteous shall not be shaken for ever;"[6] 
neither, consequently, by deceptive speech nor by erring pleasure. Whence 
he shall never be shaken from his own heritage. "He shall not be afraid of 
evil tidings; "[1] consequently neither of unfounded calumny, nor of the 
false opinion around him. No more will he dread cunning words, who is 
capable of distinguishing them, or of answering rightly to questions asked. 
Such a bulwark are dialectics, that truth cannot be trampled under foot by 
the Sophists. "For it behoves those who praise in the holy name of the 
Lord," according to the prophet, "to rejoice in heart, seeking, the Lord. 
Seek then Him, and be strong. Seek His face continually in every way."[2] 
"For, having spoken at sundry times and in divers manners,"[3] it is not in 
one way only that He is known.

    It is, then, not by availing himself of these as  virtues that our 
Gnostic will be deeply learned.  But by using them as helps in 
distinguishing what is common and what is peculiar, he will admit the 
truth. For the cause of all error and false opinion, is inability to 
distinguish in what respect things are common, and in what respects they 
differ. For unless, in things that are distinct, one closely watch speech, 
he will inadvertently confound what is common and what is peculiar And 
where this takes place, he must of necessity fall into pathless tracts and  
error.

    The distinction of names and things also in the Scriptures themselves 
produces great light in men's souls. For it is necessary to understand 
expressions which signify several things, and several expressions when they 
signify one thing. The result of which is accurate answering. But it is 
necessary to avoid the great futility which occupies itself in irrelevant 
matters; since the Gnostic avails himself of branches of learning as 
auxiliary preparatory exercises, in order to the accurate communication of 
the truth, as far as attainable and with as little distraction as possible, 
and for defence against reasonings that plot for the extinction of the 
truth. He will not then be deficient in what contributes to proficiency in 
the curriculum of studies and the Hellenic philosophy; but not principally, 
but necessarily, secondarily, and on account of circumstances. For what 
those labouring in heresies use wickedly, the Gnostic will use tightly.

    Therefore the truth that appears in the Hellenic philosophy, being 
partial, the real truth, like the sun glancing on the colours both white 
and black, shows what like each of them is. So also it exposes all 
sophistical plausibility. Rightly, then, was it proclaimed also by the 
Greeks:--

    "Truth the queen is the beginning of great virtue."[4]

CHAP. XI.--THE MYSTICAL MEANINGS IN THE PROPORTIONS OF NUMBERS,       
GEOMETRICAL RATIOS, AND MUSIC.

    As then in astronomy we have Abraham as an instance, so also in 
arithmetic we have the same Abraham. "For, hearing that Lot was taken 
captive, and having numbered his own servants, born in his house, 318 
(tih`[5]),"  he defeats a very great number of the enemy.

    They say, then, that the character representing 300 is, as to shape, 
the type of the Lord's sign,[6] and that the Iota and the Eta indicate the 
Saviour's name; that it was indicated, accordingly, that Abraham's 
domestics were in salvation, who having fled to the Sign and the Name 
became lords of the captives, and of the very many unbelieving nations that 
followed them.

    Now the number 300 is, 3 by 100.  Ten is allowed to be the perfect 
number. And 8 is the first cube, which is equality in all the dimensions --
length, breadth; depth. "The days of men shall be," it is said, "120 (rk') 
years."[7] And the sum is made up of the numbers from r to 15 added 
together.[8] And the moon at 15 days is full.

    On another principle, 120 is a triangular[9] number, and consists of 
the equality[10] of the number 64, [which consists of eight of the odd 
numbers beginning with unity],[12] the addition of which (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 
11, 13, 15) in succession generate squares;[12] and of the inequality of 
the number 56, consisting of seven of the even numbers beginning with 2 (2, 
4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14), which produce the numbers that are not squares[13]

    Again, according to another way of indicating. the number 120 consists 
of four numbers--of one triangle, 15; of another, a square, 25; of a third, 
a pentagon, 35; and of a fourth, a hexagon, 45. The 5 is taken according to 
the same ratio  in each mode. For in triangular numbers, from the unity 5 
comes 15; and in squares, 25; and of those in succession, proportionally. 
Now 25, which is the number 5 from unity, is said to be the symbol of the 
Levitical tribe. And the number 35 depends also on the arithmetic, 
geometric, and harmonic scale of doubles--6, 8, 9, 12; the addition of 
which makes 35. In these days, the Jews say that seven months' children are 
formed. And the number 45 depends on the scale of triples--6, 9, 12, 18--
the addition of which makes 45; and similarly, in these days they say that 
nine months' children are formed.

    Such, then, is the style of the example in arithmetic. And let the 
testimony of geometry be the tabernacle that was constructed, and the ark 
that was fashioned,--constructed in most regular proportions, and through 
divine ideas, by the gift of understanding, which leads us from things of 
sense to intellectual objects, or rather from these to holy things, and to 
the holy of holies. For the squares of wood indicate that the square form, 
producing fight angles, pervades all, and points out security. And the 
length of the structure was three hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty, 
and the height thirty; and above, the ark ends in a cubit, narrowing to a 
cubit from the broad base like a pyramid, the symbol of those who are 
purified and tested by fire. And this geometrical proportion has a place, 
for the transport of those holy abodes, whose differences are indicated by 
the differences of the numbers set down below.

    And the numbers introduced are sixfold, as three hundred is six times 
fifty; and tenfold, as three hundred is ten times thirty; and containing 
one and two-thirds (<greek>epidimoiroi</greek>), for fifty is one and two-
thirds of thirty.

    Now there are some who say that three hundred cubits are the symbol of 
the Lord's sign;[1] and fifty, of hope and of the remission given at 
Pentecost; and thirty, or as in some, twelve, they say points out the 
preaching [of the Gospel]; because the LOrd preached in His thirtieth year; 
and the apostles were twelve. And the structure's terminating in a cubit is 
the symbol of the advancement of the righteous to oneness and to "the unity 
of the faith."[2]

    And the table which was in the temple was six cubits;[3] and its four 
feet were about a cubit and a half.

    They add, then, the twelve cubits, agreeably to the revolution of the 
twelve months, in the annual circle, during which the earth produces and 
matures all things; adapting itself to the four seasons. And the table, in 
my opinion, exhibits the image of the earth, supported as it is on four 
feet, summer, autumn, spring, winter, by which the year travels. Wherefore 
also it is said that the table has "wavy chains;"[4] either because the 
universe revolves in the circuits of the times, or perhaps it indicated the 
earth surrounded with ocean's tide.

    Further, as an example of music, let us adduce David, playing at once 
and prophesying, melodiously praising God. Now the Enarmonic s suits best 
the Dorian harmony, and the Diatonic the Phrygian, as Aristoxenus says. The 
harmony, therefore, of the Barbarian psaltery, which exhibited gravity of 
strain, being the most ancient, most certainly became a model for 
Terpander, for the Dorian harmony, who sings the praise of Zeus thus:--

    "O Zeus, of all things the Beginning, Rule, of, all;
    O Zeus, I send thee this beginning of hymns."

The lyre, according to its primary signification, may by the psalmist be 
used figuratively for the Lord; according to its secondary, for those who 
continually strike the chords of their souls under the direction of the 
Choir-master, the Lord. And if the people saved be called the lyre, it will 
be understood to be in consequence of their giving glory musically, through 
the inspiration of the Word and the knowledge of God, being struck by the 
Word so as to produce faith. You may take music in another way, as the 
ecclesiastical symphony at once of the law and the prophets, and the 
apostles along with the Gospel, and the harmony which obtained in each 
prophet, in the transitions of the persons.

    But, as seems, the most of those who are inscribed with the Name,[6] 
like the companions of Ulysses, handle the word unskilfully, passing by not 
the Sirens, but the rhythm and the melody, stopping their ears with 
ignorance; since they know that, after lending their ears to Hellenic 
studies, they will never subsequently be able to retrace their steps.

    But he who culls what is useful for the advantage of the catechumens, 
and especially when they are Greeks (and the earth is the Lord's, and the 
fulness thereof[7]), must not abstain from erudition, like irrational 
animals; but he must collect as many aids as possible for his hearers. But 
he must by no means linger over these studies, except solely for the 
advantage accruing from them; so that, on grasping and obtaining this, he 
may be able to take his departure home to the true philosophy, which is a 
strong cable for the soul, providing security from everything.

    Music is then to be handled for the sake of the embellishment and 
composure of manners. For instance, at a banquet we pledge each other while 
the music is playing;[8] soothing by song the eagerness of our desires, and 
glorifying God for the copious gift of human enjoyments, for His perpetual 
supply of the food necessary for the growth of the body and of the soul. 
But we must reject superfluous music, which enervates men's souls, and 
leads to variety,--now mournful, and then licentious and voluptuous, and 
then frenzied and frantic.

    The same holds also of astronomy. For treating of the description of 
the celestial objects, about the form of the universe, and the revolution 
of the heavens, and the motion of the stars, leading the soul nearer to the 
creative power, it teaches to quickness in perceiving the seasons of the 
year, the changes of the air, and the appearance of the stars; since also 
navigation and husbandry derive from this much benefit, as architecture and 
building from geometry. This branch of learning, too, makes the soul in the 
highest degree observant, capable of perceiving the true and detecting the 
false, of discovering correspondences and proportions, so as to hunt out 
for similarity in things dissimilar; and conducts us to the discovery of 
length without breadth, and superficial extent without thickness, and an 
indivisible point, and transports to intellectual objects from those of 
sense.

    The studies of philosophy, therefore, and philosophy itself, are aids 
in treating of the truth. For instance, the cloak was once a fleece; then 
it was shorn, and became warp and woof; and then it was woven. Accordingly 
the soul must be prepared and variously exercised, if it would become in 
the highest degree good. For there is the scientific and the practical 
element in truth; and the latter flows from the speculative; and there is 
need of great practice, and exercise, and experience.

    But in speculation, one element relates to one's neighbours and another 
to one's self. Wherefore also training ought to be so moulded as to be 
adapted to both. He, then, who has acquired a competent acquaintance with 
the subjects which embrace the principles which conduce to scientific 
knowledge (gnosis), may stop and remain for the future in quiet, directing 
his actions in l conformity with his theory.

    But for the benefit of one's neighbours, in the case of those who have 
proclivities for writing, and those who set themselves to deliver the word, 
both is other culture beneficial, and the reading of the Scriptures of the 
Lord is necessary, in order to the demonstration of what is said, and 
especially if those who hear are accessions from Hellenic culture.

    Such David describes the Church: "The queen stood on thy right hand, 
enveloped in a golden robe, variegated; "[1] and with Hellenic and 
superabundant accomplishments, "clothed variegated with gold-fringed 
garments."[2] And the Truth says by the Lord, "For who had known Thy 
counsel, hadst Thou not given wisdom, and sent Thy Holy Spirit from the 
Highest; and so the ways of those on earth were corrected, and men learned 
Thy decrees, and were saved by wisdom?" For the Gnostic knows things 
ancient by the Scripture, and conjectures things future: he understands the 
involutions of words and the solutions of enigmas. He knows beforehand 
signs and wonders, and the issues of seasons and periods, as we have said 
already. Seest thou the fountain of instructions that takes its rise from 
wisdom? But to those who object, What use is there in knowing the causes of 
the manner of the sun's motion, for example, and the rest of the heavenly 
bodies, or in having studied the theorems of geometry or logic, and each of 
the other branches of study?--for these are of no service in the discharge 
of duties, and the Hellenic philosophy is human wisdom, for it is incapable 
of teachings the truth--the following remarks are to be made. First, that 
they stumble in reference to the highest of things--namely, the mind's free 
choice. "For they," it is said, "who keep holy holy things, shall be made 
holy; and those who have been taught will find an answer."[4] For the 
Gnostic alone will do holily, in accordance with reason all that has to be 
done, as he hath learned through the Lord's teaching, received through men.

    Again, on the other hand, we may hear: "For in His hand, that is, in 
His power and wisdom, are both we and our words, and all wisdom and skill 
in works; for God loves nothing but the man that dwells with wisdom."[5] 
And again, they have not read what is said by Solomon; for, treating of the 
construction of the temple, he says expressly, "And it was Wisdom as 
artificer that framed it; and Thy providence, O Father, governs 
throughout."[6] And how irrational, to regard philosophy as inferior to 
architecture and shipbuilding! And the Lord fed the multitude of those that 
reclined on the grass opposite to Tiberias with the two fishes and the five 
barley loaves, indicating the preparatory training of the Greeks and Jews 
previous to the divine grain, which is the food cultivated by the law. For 
barley is sooner ripe for the harvest than wheat; and the fishes signified 
the Hellenic philosophy that was produced and moved in the midst of the 
Gentile billow, given, as they were, for copious food to those lying on the 
ground, increasing no more, like the fragments of the loaves, but having 
partaken of the Lord's blessing, and breathed into them the resurrection of 
Godhead[1] through the power of the Word. But if you are curious, 
understand one of the fishes to mean the curriculum of study, and the other 
the philosophy which supervenes. The gatherings' point out the word of the 
Lord.

    "And the choir of mute fishes rushed to it,"

says the Tragic Muse somewhere.

    "I must decrease," said the prophet John,[3] and the Word of the Lord 
alone, in which the law terminates, "increase." Understand now for me the 
mystery of the truth, granting pardon if I shrink from advancing further in 
the treatment of it, by announcing this alone: "All things were made by 
Him, and without Him was not even one thing."[4] Certainly He is called 
"the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, 
groweth into an holy temple of God,"[5] according to the divine apostle.

    I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel: 
"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea and out of 
the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the better 
ones."[6]

    And now the wisdom which we possess announces the four virtues[7] in 
such a way as to show that the sources of them were communicated by the 
Hebrews to the Greeks. This may be learned from the following: "And if one 
loves justice, its toils are virtues. For temperance and prudence teach 
justice and fortitude; and than these there is nothing more useful in life 
to men."

    Above all, this ought to be known, that by nature we are adapted for 
virtue; not so as to be possessed of it from our birth, but so as to be 
adapted for acquiring it.

CHAP. XII.--HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION; THE     
GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT.

    By which consideration s is solved the question propounded to us by the 
heretics, Whether Adam was created perfect or imperfect? Well, if 
imperfect, how could the work of a perfect God--above all, that work being 
man--be imperfect? And if perfect, how did he transgress the commandments? 
For they shall hear from us that he was not perfect in his creation, but 
adapted to the reception of virtue. For it is of great importance in regard 
to virtue to be made fit for its attainment. And it is intended that we 
should be saved by ourselves. This, then, is the nature of the soul, to 
move of itself. Then, as we are rational, and philosophy being rational, we 
have some affinity with it. Now an aptitude is a movement towards virtue, 
not virtue itself. All, then, as I said, are naturally constituted for the 
acquisition of virtue.

    But one man applies less, one more, to learning and training. Wherefore 
also some have been competent to attain to perfect virtue, and others have 
attained to a kind of it. And some, on the other hand, through negligence, 
although in other respects of good dispositions, have turned to the 
opposite. Now much more is that knowledge which excels all branches of 
culture in greatness and in truth, most difficult to acquire, and is 
attained with much toil. "But, as seems, they know not the mysteries of 
God. For God created man for immortality, and made him an image of His own 
nature;"[9] according to which nature of Him who knows all, he who is a 
Gnostic, and righteous, and holy with prudence, hastes to reach the measure 
of perfect manhood. For not only are actions and thoughts, but words also, 
pure in the case of the Gnostic: "Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast 
visited me by night," it is said; "Thou hast subjected me to the fire, and 
unrighteousness was not found in me: so that my mouth shall not speak the 
works of men."[10]

    And why do I say the works of men? He recognises sin itself, which is 
not brought forward in order to repentance (for this is common to all 
believers); but what sin is. Nor does he condemn this or that sin, but 
simply all sin; nor is it what one has done ill that he brings up, but what 
ought not to be done. Whence also repentance is twofold: that which is 
common, on account of having transgressed; and that which, from learning 
the nature of sin, persuades, in the first instance, to keep from sinning, 
the result of which is not sinning.

    Let them not then say, that he who does wrong and sins transgresses 
through the agency of demons; for then he would be guiltless. But by 
choosing the same things as demons, by sinning; being unstable, and light, 
and fickle in his desires, like a demon, he becomes a demoniac man. Now he 
who is bad, having become, through evil, sinful by nature, becomes 
depraved, having what he has chosen; and being sinful, sins also in his 
actions. And again, the good man does right. Wherefore we call not only the 
virtues, but also right actions, good. And of things that are good we know 
that some are desirable for themselves, as knowledge; for we hunt for 
nothing from it when we have it, but only [seek] that it be with us, and 
that we be in uninterrupted contemplation, and strive to reach it for its 
own sake. But other things are desirable for other considerations, such as 
faith, for escape from punishment, and the advantage arising from reward, 
which accrue from it. For, in the case of many, fear is the cause of their 
not sinning; and the promise is the means of pursuing obedience, by which 
comes salvation. Knowledge, then, desirable as it is for its own sake, is 
the most perfect good; and consequently the things which follow by means of 
it are good. And punishment is the cause of correction to him who is 
punished; and to those who are able to see before them he becomes an 
example, to prevent them failing into the like.

    Let us then receive knowledge, not desiring its results, but embracing 
itself for the sake of knowing. For the first advantage is the habit of 
knowledge (gnwstikh'), which furnishes harmless pleasures and exultation 
both for the present and the future. And exultation is said to be gladness, 
being a reflection of the virtue which is according to truth, through a 
kind of exhilaration and relaxation of soul. And the acts which partake of 
knowledge are good and fair actions. For abundance in the actions that are 
according to virtue, is the true riches, and destitution in decorous[1] 
desires is poverty. For the use and enjoyment of necessaries are not 
injurious in quality, but in quantity, when in excess. Wherefore the 
Gnostic circumscribes his desires in reference both to possession and to 
enjoyment, not exceeding the limit of necessity. Therefore, regarding life 
in this world as necessary for the increase of science (episth'mh) and the 
acquisition of knowledge (gnw^sis), he will value highest, not living, but 
living well. He will therefore prefer neither children, nor marriage, nor 
parents, to love for God, and righteousness in life. To such an one, his 
wife, after conception, is as a sister, and is judged as if of the same 
father; then only recollecting her husband, when she looks on the children; 
as being destined to become a sister in reality after putting off the 
flesh, which separates and limits the knowledge of those who are spiritual 
by the peculiar characteristics of the sexes. For souls, themselves by 
themselves, are equal. Souls are neither male nor female, when they no 
longer marry nor are given in marriage. And is not woman translated into 
man, when she is become equally unfeminine, and manly, and perfect? Such, 
then, was the laughter of Sarah[2] when she received the good news of the 
birth of a son; not, in my opinion, that she disbelieved the angel, but 
that she felt ashamed of the intercourse by means of which she was destined 
to become the mother of a son.

    And did not Abraham, when he was in danger on account of Sarah's 
beauty, with the king of Egypt, properly call her sister, being of the same 
father, but not of the same mother?[3]

    To those, then, who have repented and not firmly believed, God grants 
their requests through their supplications. But to those who live sinlessly 
and gnostically, He gives, when they have but merely entertained the 
thought. For example, to Anna, on her merely conceiving the thought, 
conception was vouchsafed of the child Samuel.[4] "Ask," says the 
Scripture, "and I will do. Think, and I will give." For we have heard that 
God knows the heart, not judging [5] the soul from [external] movement, as 
we men; nor yet from the event, For it is ridiculous to think so. Nor was 
it as the architect praises the work when accomplished that God, on making 
the light and then seeing it, called it good. But He, knowing before He 
made it what it would be, praised that [which was made, He having 
potentially made good, from the first by His purpose that had  no 
beginning, what was destined to be good actually. Now that which has future 
He already  said beforehand was good, the phrase concealing the truth by 
hyperbaton. Therefore the Gnostic prays in thought during every hour, being 
by love allied to God. And first he will ask forgiveness of sins; and 
after, that he may sin no more; and further, the power of well-doing and of 
comprehending the whole creation and administration by the Lord, that, 
becoming pure in heart through the knowledge, which is by the Son of God, 
he may be initiated into the beatific vision face to face, having heard the 
Scripture which says, "Fasting with prayer is a good thing."[6]

    Now fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both in 
action and in word, and in thought itself. As appears, then, righteousness 
is quadrangular;[7] on all sides equal and like in word, in deed, in 
abstinence from evils, in beneficence, in gnostic perfection; nowhere, and 
in no respect halting, so that he does not appear unjust and unequal. As 
one, then, is righteous, so certainly is he a believer. But as he is a 
believer, he is not yet also righteous--I mean according to the 
righteousness of progress and perfection, according to which the Gnostic is 
called righteous.

    For instance, on Abraham becoming a believer, it was reckoned to him 
for righteousness, he having advanced to the greater and more perfect 
degree of faith. For he who merely abstains from evil conduct is not just, 
unless he also attain besides beneficence and knowledge; and for this 
reason some things are to be abstained from, others are to be done. "By the 
armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,"[1] the apostle 
says, the righteous man is sent on to the inheritance above,--by some 
[arms] defended, by others putting forth his might. For the defence of his 
panoply alone, and abstinence from sins, are not sufficient for perfection, 
unless he assume in addition the work of righteousness--activity in doing 
good.

    Then our dexterous man and Gnostic is revealed in righteousness already 
even here, as Moses, glorified in the face of the soul,[2] as we have 
formerly said, the body bears the stamp of the righteous soul. For as the 
mordant of the dyeing process, remaining in the wool, produces in it a 
certain quality and diversity from other wool; so also in the soul the pain 
is gone, but the good remains; and the sweet is left, but the base is wiped 
away. For these are two qualities characteristic of each soul, by which is 
known that which is glorified, and that which is condemned.

    And as in the case of Moses, from his righteous conduct, and from his 
uninterrupted intercourse with God, who spoke to him, a kind of glorified 
hue settled on his face; so also a divine power of goodness clinging to the 
righteous soul in contemplation and in prophecy, and in the exercise of the 
function of governing, impresses on it something, as it were, of 
intellectual radiance, like the solar ray, as a visible sign of 
righteousness, uniting the soul with light, through unbroken love, which is 
God-bearing and God-borne. Thence assimilation to God the Saviour arises to 
the Gnostic, as far as permitted to human nature, he being made perfect "as 
the Father who is in heaven."[3]

    It is He Himself who says, "Little children, a little while I am still 
with you."[4] Since also God Himself remains blessed and immortal, neither 
molested nor molesting another;[5] not in consequence of being by nature 
good, but in proving Himself actually, both Father and good, continues 
immutably in the self-same goodness. For what is the use of good that does 
not act and do good?

CHAP. XIII.--DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN CORRESPONDING WITH THE DIGNITIES OF 
THE CHURCH BELOW.

    He, then, who has first moderated his passions and trained himself for 
impassibility, and developed to the beneficence of gnostic perfection, is 
here equal to the angels. Luminous already, and like the sun shining in the 
exercise of beneficence, he speeds by righteous knowledge through the love 
of God to the sacred abode, like as the apostles. Not that they became 
apostles through being chosen for some distinguished peculiarity of nature, 
since also Judas was chosen along with them. But they were capable of 
becoming apostles on being chosen by Him who foresees even ultimate issues. 
Matthias, accordingly, who was not chosen along with them, on showing 
himself worthy of becoming an apostle, is substituted for Judas.

    Those, then, also now, who have exercised themselves in the Lord's 
commandments, and lived perfectly and gnostically according to the Gospel, 
may be enrolled in the chosen body of the apostles. Such an one is in 
reality a presbyter of the Church, and a true minister (deacon) of the will 
of God, if he do and teach what is the Lord's; not as being ordained[7] by 
men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but enrolled in the 
presbyterate s because righteous. And although here upon earth he be not 
honoured with the chief seat,[9] he will sit down on the four-and-twenty 
thrones,[10] judging the people, as John says in the Apocalypse.

    For, in truth, the covenant of salvation, reaching down to us from the 
foundation of the world, through different generations and times, is one, 
though conceived as different in respect of gift. For it follows that there 
is one unchangeable gift of salvation given by one God, through one Lord, 
benefiting in many ways. For which cause the middle wall[11] which 
separated the Greek from the Jew is taken away, in order that there might 
be a peculiar people. And so both meet in the one unity of faith; and the 
selection out of both is one. And the chosen of the chosen are those who by 
reason of perfect knowledge are called [as the best] from the Church 
itself, and honoured with the most august glory--the judges and rulers--
four-and-twenty (the grace being doubled)equally from Jews and Greeks. 
Since, according to my opinion, the grades[1] here in the Church, of 
bishops, presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory, and of 
that economy which, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the 
footsteps of the apostles, have lived in perfection of righteousness 
according to the Gospel. For these taken up in the clouds, the apostle[2] 
writes, will first minister [as deacons], then be classed in the 
presbyterate, by promotion in glory (for glory differs[3] from glory) till 
they grow into "a perfect man."[4]

CHAP. XIV.--DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.

    Such, according to David, "rest in the holy hill of God,"[5] in the 
Church far on high, in which are gathered the philosophers of God, "who are 
Israelites indeed, who are pure in heart, in whom there is no guile; "[6] 
who do not remain in the seventh seat, the place of rest, but are promoted, 
through the active beneficence of the divine likeness, to the heritage of 
beneficence which is the eighth grade; devoting themselves to the pure 
vision[7] of insatiable contemplation.

    "And other sheep there are also," saith the Lord, "which are not of 
this fold "[8]--deemed worthy of another fold and mansion, in proportion to 
their faith. "But My sheep hear My voice,"[9] understanding gnostically the 
commandments. And this is to be taken in a magnanimous and worthy 
acceptation, along with also the recompense and accompaniment of works. So 
that when we hear, "Thy faith hath saved thee,[10] we do not understand Him 
to say absolutely that those who have believed in any way whatever shall be 
saved, unless also works follow. But it was to the Jews alone that He spoke 
this utterance, who kept the law and lived blamelessly, who wanted only 
faith in the Lord. No one, then, can be a believer and at the same time be 
licentious; but though he quit the flesh, he must put off the passions, so 
as to be capable of reaching his own mansion.

    Now to know is more than to believe, as to be dignified with the 
highest honour after being saved is a greater thing than being saved. 
Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting himself of 
the passions, passes to the mansion which is better than the former one, 
viz., to the greatest torment, taking with him the characteristic of 
repentance from the sins he has committed after baptism. He is tortured 
then still more--not yet or not quite attaining what he sees others to have 
acquired. Besides, he is also ashamed of his transgressions. The greatest 
torments, indeed, are assigned to the believer. For God's righteousness is 
good, and His goodness is righteous. And though the punishments cease in 
the course of the completion of the expiation and purification of each one, 
yet those have very great and permanent grief who[11] are found worthy of 
the other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been 
glorified through righteousness.

    For instance, Solomon, calling the Gnostic,  wise, speaks thus of those 
who admire the dignity of his mansion: "For they shall see the end of the 
wise, and to what a degree the Lord has established him."[12] And of his 
glory they will say, "This was he whom we once held up to derision, and 
made a byword of reproach; fools that we were! We thought his life madness, 
and his end dishonourable. How is he reckoned among the sons of God, and 
his inheritance among the saints ?"[13]

    Not only then the believer, but even the heathen, is judged most 
righteously. For since God knew in virtue of His prescience that he would 
not believe, He nevertheless, in order that he might receive his own 
perfection gave him philosophy, but gave it him previous to faith. And He 
gave the sun, and the moon, and the stars to be worshipped; "which God," 
the Law says,[14] made for the nations, that they might not become 
altogether atheistical, and so utterly perish. But they, also in the 
instance of this commandment, having become devoid of sense, and addicting 
themselves to graven images, are judged unless they repent; some of them 
because, though able, they would not believe God; and others because, 
though willing, they did not take the necessary pains to become believers. 
There were also, however, those who,  from the worship of the heavenly 
bodies, did not return to the Maker of them. For this was the sway given to 
the nations to rise up to God, by means of the worship of the heavenly 
bodies. But those who would not abide by those heavenly bodies assigned to 
them, but fell away from them to stocks and stones, "were counted," it is 
said, "as chaff-dust and as a drop from a jar,"[15] beyond salvation, cast 
away from the body.

    As, then, to be simply saved is the result of medium[1] actions, but to 
be saved tightly and becomingly[2] is right action, so also all action of 
the Gnostic may be called tight action; that of the simple believer, 
intermediate action, not yet perfected according to reason, not yet made 
right according to knowledge; but that of every heathen again is sinful. 
For it is not simply doing well, but doing actions with a certain aim, and 
acting according to reason, that the Scriptures exhibit as requisite.[3]

    As, then, lyres ought not to be touched by those who are destitute of 
skill in playing the lyre, nor flutes by those who are unskilled in flute-
playing, neither are those to put their hand to affairs who have not 
knowledge, and know not how to use them in the whole[4] of life.

    The struggle for freedom, then, is waged not alone by the athletes of 
battles in wars, but also in banquets, and in bed, and in the tribunals, by 
those who are anointed by the word, who are ashamed to become the captives 
of pleasures.

    "I would never part with virtue for unrighteous gain." But plainly, 
unrighteous gain is pleasure and pain, toil and fear; and, to speak 
comprehensively, the passions of the soul, the present of which is 
delightful, the future vexatious. "For what is the profit," it is said, "if 
you gain the world and lose the soul ?"[5] It is clear, then, that those 
who do not perform good actions, do not know what is for their own 
advantage. And if so, neither are they capable of praying aright, so as to 
receive from God good things; nor, should they receive them, will they be 
sensible of the boon; nor, should they enjoy them, will they enjoy worthily 
what they know not; both from their want of knowledge how to use the good 
things given them, and from their excessive stupidity, being ignorant of 
the way to avail themselves of the divine gifts.

    Now stupidity is the cause of ignorance. And it appears to me that it 
is the vaunt of a boastful soul, though of one with a good conscience, to 
exclaim against what happens through circumstances:--

    "Therefore let them do what they may;[6]
     For it shall be well with me; and Right
     Shall be my ally, and I shall not be caught doing evil."

    But such a good conscience preserves sanctity towards God and justice 
towards men; keeping the soul pure with grave thoughts, and pure. words, 
and just deeds. By thus rec