(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was 
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

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.

THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES, BOOKS I-II

BOOK I

CHAP. I.--PREFACE--THE AUTHOR'S OBJECT--THE UTILITY OF WRITTEN 
COMPOSITIONS.(1)

    [Wants the beginning] ..........that you may read them under your hand, 
and may be able to preserve them. Whether written compositions are not to 
be left behind at all; or if they are, by whom? And if the former, what 
need there is for written compositions? and if the latter, is the 
composition of them to be assigned to earnest men, or the opposite? It were 
certainly ridiculous for one to disapprove of the writing of earnest men, 
and approve of those, who are not such, engaging in the work of 
composition. Theopompus and Timaeus, who composed fables and slanders, and 
Epicurus the leader of atheism, and Hipponax and Archilochus, are to be 
allowed to write in their own shameful manner. But he who proclaims the 
truth is to be prevented from leaving behind him what is to benefit 
posterity. It is a good thing, I reckon, to leave to posterity good 
children. This is the case with children of our bodies. But words are the 
progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who have instructed us, fathers. 
Wisdom is a communicative and philanthropic thing. Accordingly, Solomon  
says, "My son, if thou receive the saying of my commandment, and hide it 
with thee, thine ear shall hear wisdom."(2) He points out that the word 
that is sown is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the earth, and 
this is spiritual planting. Wherefore also he adds, "And thou shall apply 
thine heart to understanding, and apply it for the admonition of thy son." 
For soul, me thinks, joined with soul, and spirit with spirit, in the 
sowing of the word, will make that which is sown grow and germinate. And 
every one who is instructed, is in respect of subjection the son of his 
instructor. "Son," says he, "forget not my laws."(3)

    And if knowledge belong not to all (set an ass to the lyre, as the 
proverb goes), yet written compositions are for the many. "Swine, for 
instance, delight in dirt more than in clean water." "Wherefore," says the 
Lord, "I speak to them in parables: because seeing, they see not; and 
hearing, they hear not, and do not understand; "(4) not as if the Lord 
caused the ignorance: for it were impious to think so. But He prophetically 
exposed this ignorance, that existed in them, and intimated that they would 
not understand the things spoken. And now the Saviour shows Himself, out of 
His abundance, dispensing goods to His servants according to the ability of 
the recipient, that they may augment them by exercising activity, and then 
returning to reckon with them; when, approving of those that had increased 
His money, those faithful in little, and commanding them to have the charge 
over many things, He bade them enter into the joy of the Lord. But to him 
who had hid the money, entrusted to him to be given out at interest, and 
had given it back as he had received it, without increase, He said, "Thou 
wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have given my money to the 
bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own." Wherefore the 
useless servant "shall be cast into outer darkness."(5) "Thou, therefore, 
be strong," says Paul, "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the 
things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit 
thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."(6) And 
again: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

    If, then, both proclaim the Word--the one by writing, the other by 
speech--are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith active 
by love? It is by one's own fault that he does not choose what is best; God 
is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the business of some to 
lay out the word at interest, and of others to test it, and either choose 
it or not. And the judgment is determined within themselves. But there is 
that species of knowledge which is characteristic of the herald, and that 
which is, as it were, characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable 
in whatever way it operates, both by the hand and tongue. "For he that 
soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us 
not be weary in well-doing."(1) On him who by Divine Providence meets in 
with it, it confers the very highest advantages,--the beginning of faith, 
readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards the truth, 
a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it gives the means 
of salvation. And those who have been rightly reared in the words of truth, 
and received provision for eternal life, wing their way to heaven. Most 
admirably, therefore, the apostle says, "In everything approving ourselves 
as the servants of God; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having 
nothing, yet possessing all things. Our mouth is opened to you."(2) "I 
charge thee," he says, writing to Timothy, "before God, and Christ Jesus, 
and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring 
one before another, doing nothing by partiality."(3)

    Both must therefore test themselves: the one, if he is qualified to 
speak and leave behind him written records; the other, if he is in a right 
state to hear and read: as also some in the dispensation of the Eucharist, 
according to(4) custom enjoin that each one of the people individually 
should take his part. One's own conscience is best for choosing accurately 
or shunning. And its firm foundation is a right life, with suitable 
instruction. But the imitation of those who have already been proved, and 
who have led correct lives, is most excellent for the understanding and 
practice of the commandments. "So that whosoever shall eat the bread and 
drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood 
of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread 
and drink of the cup."(5) It therefore follows, that every one of those who 
undertake to promote the good of their neighbours, ought to consider 
whether he has betaken himself to teaching rashly and out of rivalry to 
any; if his communication of the word is out of vainglory; if the only 
reward he reaps is the salvation of those who hear, and if he speaks not in 
order to win favour: if so, he who speaks by writings escapes the reproach 
of mercenary motives. "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as 
ye know," says the apostle, "nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. 
Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we 
might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle 
among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children."(6)

    In the same way, therefore, those who take part in the divine words, 
ought to guard against betaking themselves to this, as they would to the 
building of cities, to examine them out of curiosity; that they do not come 
to the task for the sake of receiving worldly things, having ascertained 
that they who are consecrated to Christ are given to communicate the 
necessaries of life. But let such be dismissed as hypocrites. But if any 
one wishes not to seem, but to be righteous, to him it belongs to know the 
things which are best. If, then, "the harvest is plenteous, but the 
labourers few," it is incumbent on us "to pray" that there may be as great 
abundance of labourers as possible.(7)

    But the husbandry is twofold,--the one unwritten, and the other 
written. And in whatever way the Lord's labourer sow the good wheat, and 
grow and reap the ears, he shall appear a truly divine husbandman. 
"Labour," says the Lord, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that 
which endureth to everlasting life."(8) And nutriment is received both by 
bread and by words. And truly "blessed are the peace-makers,"(9) who 
instructing those who are at war in their life and errors here, lead them 
back to the peace which is in the Word, and nourish for the life which is 
according to God, by the distribution of the bread, those "that hunger 
after righteousness." For each soul has its own proper nutriment; some 
growing by knowledge and science, and others feeding on the Hellenic 
philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is not eatable. "And he that 
planteth and he that watereth," "being ministers" of Him "that gives the 
increase, are one" in the ministry. "But every one shall receive his own 
reward, according to his own work. For we are God's husbandmen, God's 
husbandry. Ye are God's building,"(10) according to the apostle. Wherefore 
the hearers are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. Nor is the 
word, given for investigation, to be committed to those who have been 
reared in the arts of all kinds of words, and in the power of inflated 
attempts at proof; whose minds are already pre-occupied, and have not been 
previously emptied. But whoever chooses to banquet on faith, is stedfast 
for the reception of the divine words, having acquired already faith as a 
power of judging, according to reason. Hence ensues to him persuasion in 
abundance. And this was the meaning of that saying of prophecy, "If ye 
believe not, neither shall ye understand."(1) "As, then, we have 
opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to the household of 
faith."(2) And let each of these, according to the blessed David, sing, 
giving thanks. "Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be 
cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Thou 
shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which have been 
humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins. Blot out mine 
iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in 
my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy 
Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and establish me 
with Thy princely spirit."(3)

    He who addresses those who are present before him, both tests them by 
time, and judges by his judgment, and from the others distinguishes him who 
can hear; watching the words, the manners, the habits, the life, the 
motions, the attitudes, the look, the voice; the road, the rock, the beaten 
path, the fruitful land, the wooded region, the fertile and fair and 
cultivated spot, that is able to multiply the seed. But he that speaks 
through books, consecrates himself before God, crying in writing thus: Not 
for gain, not for vainglory, not to be vanquished by partiality, nor 
enslaved by fear nor elated by pleasure; but only to reap the salvation of 
those who read, which he does, not at present participate in, but awaiting 
in expectation the recompense which will certainly be rendered by Him, who 
has promised to bestow on the labourers the reward that is meet. But he who 
is enrolled in the number of men(4) ought not to desire recompense. For he 
that vaunts his good services,  receives glory as his reward. And he who 
does any duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the custom 
of the world, either as one who has done well, hastening to receive a 
reward, or as an evil-doer avoiding retribution? We must, as far as we can, 
imitate the Lord.I And he will do so, who complies with the will of God, 
receiving freely, giving freely, and receiving as a worthy reward the 
citizenship itself. "The hire of an harlot shall not come into the 
sanctuary," it is said: accordingly it was forbidden to bring to the altar 
the price of a dog. And in whomsoever the eye of the soul has been blinded 
by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to the true light, to the 
truth, which shows by writing the things that are unwritten. "Ye that 
thirst, go to the waters,"(5) says Esaias, And "drink water from thine own 
vessels,"(6) Solomon exhorts. Accordingly in "The Laws," the philosopher 
who learned from the Hebrews, Plato, commands husbandmen not to irrigate or 
take water from others, until they have first dug down in their own ground 
to what is called the virgin soil, and found it dry. For it is right to 
supply want, but it is not well to support laziness. For Pythagoras said 
that, "although it be agreeable to reason to take a share of a burden, it 
is not a duty to take it away."

    Now the Scripture kindles the living spark of the soul, and directs the 
eye suitably for contemplation; perchance inserting something, as the 
husbandman when he ingrafts, but, according to the opinion of the divine 
apostle, exciting what is in the soul. "For there are certainly among us 
many weak and sickly, and many sleep. But if we judge ourselves, we shall 
not be judged."(7) Now this work of mine in writing is not artfully 
constructed for display; but my memoranda are stored up against old age, as 
a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those 
vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of 
blessed and truly remarkable men.

    Of these the one, in Greece, an Ionic ;(8) the other in Magna Graecia: 
the first of these from Coele-Syria, the second from Egypt, and others in 
the East. The one was born in the land of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew 
in Palestine.

    When I came upon the last(9) (he was the first in power), having 
tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the 
Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and 
apostolic meadow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a deathless 
element of knowledge.

    Well, they preserving the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived 
directly from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, the sons 
receiving it from the father (but few were like the fathers), came by God's 
will to us also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. And well I 
know that they will exult; I do not mean delighted with this tribute, but 
solely on account of the preservation of the truth, according as they 
delivered it. For such a sketch as this, will, I think, be agreeable to a 
soul desirous of preserving from escape the blessed tradition.(10) "In a 
man who loves wisdom the father will be glad."(1) Wells, when pumped out, 
yield purer water; and that of which no one partakes, turns to 
putrefaction. Use keeps steel brighter, but disuse produces rust in it. 
For, in a word, exercise produces a healthy condition both in souls and 
bodies. "No one lighteth a candle, and putteth it under a bushel, but upon 
a candlestick, that it may give light to those who are regarded worthy of 
the feast."(2) For what is the use of wisdom, if it makes not him who can 
hear it wise? For still the Saviour saves, "and always works, as He sees 
the Father."(3) For by teaching, one learns more; and in speaking, one is 
often a hearer along with his audience. For the teacher of him who speaks 
and of him who hears is one--who waters both the mind and the word. Thus 
the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath;(4) but 
allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy 
light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose 
to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew 
that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded 
according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to 
writing, as is the case with God.(5)

    And if one say that it is written, "There is nothing secret which shall 
not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,"(6) let him also 
hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall be 
manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle. And to him who is 
able secretly to observe what is delivered to him. that which is veiled 
shall be disclosed as truth; and what is hidden to the many, shall appear 
manifest to the few. For why do not all know the truth? why is not 
righteousness loved, if righteousness belongs to all? But the mysteries are 
delivered mystically, that what is spoken may be in the mouth of the 
speaker; rather not in his voice, but in his understanding. "God gave to 
the Church, some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and 
some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."(7)

    The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak when 
compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged to 
hear.(8) But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was 
struck with the thyrsus. For "speak," it is said, "to a wise man, and he 
will grow wiser; and to him that hath, and there shall be added to him." 
And we profess not to explain secret things sufficiently--far from it--but 
only to recall them to memory, whether we have forgot aught, or whether for 
the purpose of not forgetting. Many things, I well know, have escaped us, 
through length of time, that have dropped away unwritten. Whence, to aid 
the weakness of my memory, and provide for myself a salutary help to my 
recollection in a systematic arrangement of chapters, I necessarily make 
use of this form. There are then some things of which we have no 
recollection; for the power that was in the blessed men was great.(8) There 
are also some things which remained unnoted long, which have now escaped; 
and others which are effaced, having faded away in the mind itself, since 
such a task is not easy to those not experienced; these I revive in my 
commentaries. Some things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise 
selection, afraid to write what I guarded against speaking: not grudging--
for that were wrong--but fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble 
by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be 
found "reaching a sword to a child." For it is impossible that what has 
been written should not escape, although remaining unpublished by me. But 
being always revolved, using the one only voice, that of writing, they 
answer nothing to him that makes inquiries beyond what is written; for they 
require of necessity the aid of some one, either of him who wrote, or of 
some one else who has walked in his footsteps. Some things my treatise will 
hint; on some it will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to 
speak imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently. The 
dogmas taught by remarkable sects will be adduced; and to these will be 
opposed all that ought to be premised in accordance with the profoundest 
contemplation of the knowledge, which, as we proceed to the renowned and 
venerable canon of tradition, from the creation of the world,(9) will 
advance to our view; setting before us what according to natural 
contemplation necessarily has to be treated of beforehand, and clearing off 
what stands in the way of this arrangement. So that we may have our ears 
ready for the reception of the tradition of true knowledge; the soil being 
previously cleared of the thorns and of every weed by the husbandman, in 
order to the planting of the vine. For there is a contest, and the prelude 
to the contest; and them are some mysteries before other mysteries.

    Our book will not shrink from making use of what is best in philosophy 
and other preparatory instruction. "For not only for the Hebrews and those 
that are under the law," according to the apostle, "is it right to become a 
Jew, but also a Greek for the sake of the Greeks, that we may gain all."(1) 
Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes, "Admonishing every man, 
and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect 
in Christ."(2) The nicety of speculation, too, suits the sketch presented 
in my commentaries. In this respect the resources of learning are like a 
relish mixed with the food of an athlete, who is not indulging in luxury, 
but entertains a noble desire for distinction.

    By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity. And as 
those who wish to address the people, do so often by the herald, that what 
is said may be better heard; so also in this case. For we have the word, 
that was spoken to many, before the common tradition. Wherefore we must set 
forth the opinions and utterances which cried individually to them, by 
which those who hear shall more readily turn.

    And, in truth, to speak briefly: Among many small pearls there is the 
one; and in a great take of fish there is the beauty-fish; and by time and 
toil truth will gleam forth, if a good helper is at hand. For most benefits 
are supplied, from God, through men. All of us who make use of our eyes see 
what is presented before them. But some look at objects for one reason, 
others for another. For instance, the cook and the shepherd do not survey 
the sheep similarly: for the one examines it if it be fat; the other 
watches to see if it be of good breed. Let a man milk the sheep's milk if 
he need sustenance: let him shear the wool if he need clothing. And in this 
way let me produce the fruit of the Greek erudition.(3)

    For I do not imagine that any composition can be so fortunate as that 
no one will speak against it. But that is to be regarded as in accordance 
with reason, which nobody speaks against, with reason. And that course of 
action and choice is to be approved, not which is faultless, but which no 
one rationally finds fault with. For it does not follow, that if a man 
accomplishes anything not purposely, he does it through force of 
circumstances. But he will do it, managing it by wisdom divinely given, and 
in accommodation to circumstances. For it is not he who has virtue that 
needs the way to virtue, any more than he, that is strong, needs recovery. 
For, like farmers who irrigate the land beforehand, so we also water with 
the liquid stream of Greek learning what in it is earthy; so that it may 
receive the spiritual seed cast into it, and may be capable of easily 
nourishing it. The Stromata will contain the truth mixed up in the dogmas 
of philosophy, or rather covered over and hidden, as the edible part of the 
nut in the shell. For, in my opinion, it is fitting that the seeds of truth 
be kept for the husbandmen of faith, and no others. I am not oblivious of 
what is babbled by some, who in their ignorance are frightened at every 
noise, and say that we ought to occupy ourselves with what is most 
necessary, and which contains the faith; and that we should pass over what 
is beyond and superfluous, which wears out and detains us to no purpose, in 
things which conduce nothing to the great end. Others think that philosophy 
was introduced into life by an evil influence, for the ruin of men, by an 
evil inventor. But I shall show, throughout the whole of these Stromata, 
that evil has an evil nature, and can never turn out the producer of aught 
that is good; indicating that philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine 
Providence.(3)

CHAP. II.--OBJECTION TO THE NUMBER OF EXTRACTS FROM PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS 
IN THESE BOOKS ANTICIPATED AND ANSWERED.

    In reference to these commentaries, which contain as the exigencies of 
the case demand, the Hellenic opinions, I say thus much to those who are 
fond of finding fault. First, even if philosophy were useless, if the 
demonstration of its uselessness does good, it is yet useful. Then those 
cannot condemn the Greeks, who have only a mere hearsay knowledge of their 
opinions, and have not entered into a minute investigation in each 
department, in order to acquaintance with them. For the refutation, which 
is based on experience, is entirely trustworthy. For the knowledge of what 
is condemned is found the most complete demonstration. Many things, then, 
though not contributing to the final result, equip the artist. And 
otherwise erudition commends him, who sets forth the most essential 
doctrines so as to produce persuasion in his hearers, engendering 
admiration in those who are taught, and leads them to the truth. And such 
persuasion is convincing, by which those that love learning admit the 
truth; so that philosophy does not ruin life by being the originator of 
false practices and base deeds, although some have calumniated it, though 
it be the clear image of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks;(4) nor does it 
drag us away from the faith, as if we were bewitched by some delusive art, 
but rather, so to speak, by the use of an ampler circuit, obtains a common 
exercise demonstrative of the faith. Further, the juxtaposition of 
doctrines, by comparison, saves the truth, from which follows knowledge.

    Philosophy came into existence, not on its own account, but for the 
advantages reaped by us from knowledge, we receiving a firm persuasion of 
true perception, through the knowledge of things comprehended by the mind. 
For I do not mention that the Stromata, forming a body of varied erudition, 
wish artfully to conceal the seeds of knowledge. As, then, he who is fond 
of hunting captures the game after seeking, tracking, scenting, hunting it 
down with dogs; so truth, when sought and got with toil, appears a 
delicious(1) thing. Why, then, you will ask, did you think it fit that such 
an arrangement should be adopted in your memoranda? Because there is great 
danger in divulging the secret of the true philosophy to those, whose 
delight it is unsparingly to speak against everything, not justly; and who 
shout forth all kinds of names and words indecorously, deceiving themselves 
and beguiling those who adhere to them. "For the Hebrews seek signs," as 
the apostle says, "and the Greeks seek after wisdom."(2)

CHAP. III.--AGAINST THE SOPHISTS.

    There is a great crowd of this description: some of them, enslaved to 
pleasures and willing to disbelieve, laugh at the truth which is worthy of 
all reverence, making sport of its barbarousness. Some others, exalting 
themselves, endeavour to discover calumnious objections to our words, 
furnishing captious questions, hunters out of paltry sayings, practisers of 
miserable artifices, wranglers, dealers in knotty points, as that Abderite 
says:--

    "For mortals' tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches;
    And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."

And--

    "Of whatever sort the word you have spoken, of the same sort you must 
hear."

Inflated with this art of theirs, the wretched Sophists, babbling away in 
their own jargon; toiling their whole life about the division of names and 
the nature of the composition and conjunction of sentences, show themselves 
greater chatterers than turtle-doves; scratching and tickling, not in a 
manly way, in my opinion, the ears of those who wish to be tickled.

    "A river of silly words--not a dropping;"

just as in old shoes, when all the rest is worn and is falling to pieces, 
and the tongue alone remains. The Athenian Solon most excellently enlarges, 
and writes:--

    "Look to the tongue, and to the words of the glozing man,
    But you look on no work that has been done;
    But each one of you walks in the steps of a fox,
    And in all of you is an empty mind."

This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, "The foxes 
have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head."(3) For on 
the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the 
Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind 
and gentle Word, "who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the LORD 
knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they axe vain;"(4) the Scripture 
calling those the wise (sophou's) who are skilled in words and arts, 
sophists (sofista's) Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative 
appellation of wise and sophists (sofoi', sofistai') to those who were 
versed in anything Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii 
enumerated the poets, said:--

    "Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."

And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Flute-playing Satyrs, says:--

    "For there entered
    A band of sophists, all equipped."

Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the 
divine Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the 
wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."(5)

CHAP. IV.--HUMAN ARTS AS WELL AS DIVINE KNOWLEDGE PROCEED FROM GOD.

    Homer calls an artificer wise; and of Margites, if that is his work, he 
thus writes:--

    "Him, then, the Gods made neither a delver nor a ploughman,
    Nor in any other respect wise; but he missed every art."

Hesiod further said the musician Linus was "skilled in all manner of 
wisdom;" and does not hesitate to call a mariner wise, seeing he writes:--

    "Having no wisdom in navigation."

And Daniel the prophet says, "The mystery which the king asks, it is not in 
the power of the wise, the Magi, the diviners, the Gazarenes, to tell the 
king; but it is God in heaven who revealeth it."(6)

    Here he terms the Babylonians wise. And that Scripture calls every 
secular science or art by the one name wisdom (there are other arts and 
sciences invented over and above by human reason), and that artistic and 
skilful invention is from God, will be clear if we adduce the following 
statement: "And the Lord spake to Moses, See, I have called Bezaleel, the 
son of Uri, the son of Or, of the tribe of Judah; and I have filled him 
with the divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to 
devise and to execute in all manner of work, to work gold, and silver, and 
brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and in working stone work, and in 
the art of working wood," and even to "all works."(1) And then He adds the 
general reason, "And to every understanding heart I have given 
understanding;"(2) that is, to every one capable of acquiring it by pains 
and exercise. And again, it is written expressly in the name of the Lord 
"And speak thou to all that are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the 
spirit of perception."(3)

    Those who are wise in mind have a certain attribute of nature peculiar 
to themselves; and they who have shown themselves capable, receive from the 
Supreme Wisdom a spirit of perception in double measure. For those who 
practise the common arts, are in what pertains to the senses highly gifted: 
in hearing, he who is commonly called a musician; in touch, he who moulds 
clay; in voice the singer, in smell the perfumer, in sight the engraver of 
devices on seals. Those also that are occupied in instruction, train the 
sensibility according to which the poets are susceptible to the influence 
of measure; the sophists apprehend expression; the dialecticians, 
syllogisms; and the philosophers are capable of the contemplation of which 
themselves are the objects. For sensibility finds and invents; since it 
persuasively exhorts to application. And practice will increase the 
application which has knowledge for its end. With reason, therefore, the 
apostle has called the wisdom of God" manifold," and which has manifested 
its power "in many departments and in many modes"(4)--by art, by knowledge, 
by faith, by prophecy--for our benefit. "For all wisdom is from the Lord, 
and is with Him for ever," as says the wisdom of Jesus.(5)

    For if thou call on wisdom and knowledge with a loud voice, and seek it 
as treasures of silver, and eagerly track it out, thou shalt understand 
godliness and find divine knowledge."(6) The prophet says this in 
contradiction to the knowledge according to philosophy, which teaches us to 
investigate in a magnanimous and noble manner, for our progress in piety. 
He opposes, therefore, to it the knowledge which is occupied with piety, 
when referring to knowledge, when he speaks as follows: "For God gives 
wisdom out of His own mouth, and knowledge along with understanding, and 
treasures up help for the righteous." For to those who have been 
justified(7) by philosophy, the knowledge which leads to piety is laid up 
as a help.

CHAP. V.--PHILOSOPHY THE HANDMAID OF THEOLOGY.

    Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to 
the Greeks for righteousness.(8) And now it becomes conducive to piety; 
being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through 
demonstration. "For thy foot," it is said, "will not stumble, if thou refer 
what is good, whether belonging to the Greeks or to us, to Providence."(9) 
For God is the cause of all good things; but of some primarily, as of the 
Old and the New Testament; and of others by consequence, as philosophy. 
Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, 
till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring 
"the Hellenic mind," as the law, the Hebrews, "to Christ."(10) Philosophy, 
therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in 
Christ.(8)

    "Now," says Solomon, "defend wisdom, and it will exalt thee, and it 
will shield thee with a crown of pleasure."(11) For when thou hast 
strengthened wisdom with a cope by philosophy, and with right expenditure, 
thou wilt preserve it unassailable by sophists. The way of truth is 
therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from 
all sides. It has been therefore said by inspiration: "Hear, my son, and 
receive my words; that thine may be the many ways of life. For I teach thee 
the ways of wisdom; that the fountains fail thee not,"(12) which gush forth 
from the earth itself. Not only did He enumerate several ways of salvation 
for any one righteous man, but He added many other ways of many righteous, 
speaking thus: "The paths of the righteous shine like the light."(13) The 
commandments and the modes of preparatory training are to be regarded as 
the ways and appliances of life.

    "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, as 
a hen her chickens!"(14) And Jerusalem is, when interpreted, "a vision of 
peace." He therefore shows prophetically, that those who peacefully 
contemplate sacred things are in manifold ways trained to their calling. 
What then? He "would," and could not. How often, and where? Twice; by the 
prophets, and by the advent. The expression, then, "How often," shows 
wisdom to be manifold; every mode of quantity and quality, it by all means 
saves some, both in time and in eternity. "For the Spirit of the Lord fills 
the earth."(1) And if any should violently say that the reference is to the 
Hellenic culture, when it is said, "Give not heed to an evil woman; for 
honey drops from the lips of a harlot," let him hear what follows: "who 
lubricates thy throat for the time." But philosophy does not flatter. Who, 
then, does He allude to as having committed fornication? He adds expressly, 
"For the feet of folly lead those who use her, after death, to Hades. But 
her steps are not supported." Therefore remove thy way far from silly 
pleasure. "Stand not at the doors of her house, that thou yield not thy 
life to others." And He testifies, "Then shall thou repent in old age, when 
the flesh of thy body is consumed." For this is the end of foolish 
pleasure. Such, indeed, is the case. And when He says, "Be not much with a 
strange woman,"(2) He admonishes us to use indeed, but not to linger and 
spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation 
advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the 
word of the Lord. "For already some men, ensnared by the charms of 
handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, 
some of them in music, some in geometry, others in grammar, the most in 
rhetoric."(3) "But as the encyclical branches of study contribute to 
philosophy, which is their mistress; so also philosophy itself co-operates 
for the acquisition of wisdom. For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and 
wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes." 
Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory 
culture. For if philosophy" professes control of the tongue, and the belly, 
and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But 
it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the 
honour and knowledge of God."(4) And Scripture will afford a testimony to 
what has been said in what follows. Sarah was at one time barren, being 
Abraham's wife. Sarah having no child, assigned her maid, by name Hagar, 
the Egyptian, to Abraham, in order to get children. Wisdom, therefore, who 
dwells with the man of faith (and Abraham was reckoned faithful and 
righteous), was still barren and without child in that generation, not 
having brought forth to Abraham aught allied to virtue. And she, as was 
proper, thought that he, being now in the time of progress, should have 
intercourse with secular culture first (by Egyptian the world is designated 
figuratively); and afterwards should approach to her according to divine 
providence, and beget Isaac."(5)

    And Philo interprets Hagar to mean "sojourning."(6) For it is said in 
connection with this, "Be not much with a strange woman."(7) Sarah he 
interprets to mean "my princedom." He, then, who has received previous 
training is at liberty to approach to wisdom, which is supreme, from which 
grows up the race of Israel. These things show that that wisdom can be 
acquired through instruction, to which Abraham attained, passing from the 
contemplation of heavenly things to the faith and righteousness which are 
according to God. And Isaac is shown to mean "self-taught;" wherefore also 
he is discovered to be a type of Christ. He was the husband of one wife 
Rebecca, which they translate "Patience." And Jacob is said to have 
consorted with several, his name being interpreted" Exerciser." And 
exercises are engaged in by means of many and various dogmas. Whence, also, 
he who is really "endowed with the power of seeing" is called Israel,(8) 
having much experience, and being fit for exercise.

    Something else may also have been shown by the three patriarchs, 
namely, that the sure seal of knowledge is composed of nature, of 
education, and exercise.

    You may have also another image of what has been said, in Thamar 
sitting by the way, and presenting the appearance of a harlot, on whom the 
studious Judas (whose name is interpreted "powerful"), who left nothing 
unexamined and uninvestigated, looked; and turned aside to her, preserving 
his profession towards God. Wherefore also, when Sarah was jealous at Hagar 
being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what was profitable in 
secular philosophy, said, "Behold, thy maid is in thine hands: deal with 
her as it pleases thee;"(9) manifestly meaning, "I embrace secular culture 
as youthful, and a handmaid; but thy knowledge I honour and reverence as 
true wife." And Sarah afflicted her; which is equivalent to corrected and 
admonished her. It has therefore been well said, "My son, despise not thou 
the correction of God; nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the 
LORD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."(1) 
And the foresaid Scriptures, when examined in other places, will be seen to 
exhibit other mysteries. We merely therefore assert here, that philosophy 
is characterized by investigation into truth and the nature of things (this 
is the truth of which the Lord Himself said, "I am the truth"(2)); and 
that, again, the preparatory training for rest in Christ exercises the 
mind, rouses the intelligence, and begets an inquiring shrewdness, by means 
of the true philosophy, which the initiated possess, having found it, or 
rather received it, from the truth itself.

CHAP. VI.--THE BENEFIT OF CULTURE.

    The readiness acquired by previous training conduces much to the 
perception of such things as are requisite; but those things which can be 
perceived only by mind are the special exercise for the mind. And their 
nature is triple according as we consider their quantity, their magnitude, 
and what can be predicated of them. For the discourse which consists of 
demonstrations, implants in the spirit of him who follows it, clear faith; 
so that he cannot conceive of that which is demonstrated being different; 
and so it does not allow us to succumb to those who assail us by fraud. In 
such studies, therefore, the soul is purged from sensible things, and is 
excited, so as to be able to see truth distinctly. For nutriment, and the 
training which is maintained gentle, make noble natures I; and noble 
natures, when they have received such training, become still better than 
before both in other respects, but especially in productiveness, as is the 
case with the other creatures. Wherefore it is mid, "Go to the ant, thou 
sluggard, and  become wiser than it, which provideth much and, varied food 
in the harvest against the inclemency of winter."(3) Or go to the bee, and 
learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces 
one honey-comb. And if "thou prayest in the closet," as the Lord taught, 
"to worship in spirit,"(4) thy management will no longer be solely occupied 
about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and 
how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured up in it; and 
when it ought to be produced, and to whom. For it is not by nature, but by 
learning, that people become noble and good, as people also become 
physicians and pilots. We all in common, for example, see the vine and the 
horse. But the husbandman will know if the vine be good or bad at fruit-
bearing; and the horseman will easily distinguish between the spiritless 
and the swift animal. But that some are naturally predisposed to virtue 
above others, certain pursuits of those, who are so naturally predisposed 
above others, show. But that perfection in virtue is not the exclusive 
property of those, whose natures are better, is proved, since also those 
who by nature are ill-disposed towards virtue, in obtaining suitable 
training, for the most part attain to excellence; and, on the other hand, 
those whose natural dispositions are apt, become evil through neglect.

    Again, God has created us naturally social and just; whence justice 
must not be said to take its rise from implantation alone. But the good 
imparted by creation is to be conceived of as excited by the commandment; 
the soul being trained to be willing to select what is noblest.

    But as we say that a man can be a believer without learning,(5) so also 
we assert that it is impossible for a man without learning to comprehend 
the things which are declared in the faith. But to adopt what is well said, 
and not to adopt the reverse, is caused not simply by faith, but by faith 
combined with knowledge. But if ignorance is want of training and of 
instruction, then teaching produces knowledge of divine and human things. 
But just as it is possible to live rightly in penury of this world's good 
things, so also in abundance. And we avow, that at once with more ease and 
more speed will one attain to virtue through previous training. But it is 
not such as to be unattainable without it; but it is attainable only when 
they have learned, and have had their senses exercised.(6) "For hatred," 
says Solomon, "raises strife, but instruction guardeth the ways of 
life;"(7) in such a way that we are not deceived nor deluded by those who 
are practised in base arts for the injury of those who hear. "But 
instruction wanders reproachless,"(8) it is said. We must be conversant 
with the art of reasoning, for the purpose of confuting the deceitful 
opinions of the sophists. Well and felicitously, therefore, does Anaxarchus 
write in his book respecting "kingly rule:" "Erudition benefits greatly and 
hurts greatly him who possesses it; it helps him who is worthy, and injures 
him who utters readily every word, and before the whole people. It is 
necessary to know the measure of time. For this is the end of wisdom. And 
those who sing at the doors, even if they sing skilfully, are not reckoned 
wise, but have the reputation of folly." And Hesiod:--

    "Of the Muses, who make a man loquacious, divine, vocal."

For him who is fluent in words he calls loquacious; and him who is clever, 
vocal; and "divine," him who is skilled, a philosopher, and acquainted with 
the truth.

CHAP. VII.--THE ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHY PAVES THE WAY FOR DIVINE VIRTUE.

    The Greek preparatory culture, therefore, with philosophy itself, is 
shown to have come down from God to men, not with a definite direction but 
in the way in which showers fail down on the good land, and on the 
dunghill, and on the houses. And similarly both the grass and the wheat 
sprout; and the figs and any other reckless trees grow on sepulchres. And 
things that grow, appear as a type of truths. For they enjoy the same 
influence of the rain. But they have not the same grace as those which 
spring up in rich soil, inasmuch as they are withered or plucked up. And 
here we are aided by the parable of the sower, which the Lord interpreted. 
For the husbandman of the soil which is among men is one; He who from the 
beginning, from the foundation of the world, sowed nutritious seeds; He who 
in each age rained down the Lord, the Word. But the times and places which 
received [such gifts], created the differences which exist. Further, the 
husbandman sows not only wheat (of which there are many varieties), but 
also other seeds--barley, and beam, and peas, and vetches, and vegetable 
and flower seeds. And to the same husbandry belongs both planting and the 
operations necessary in the nurseries, and gardens, and orchards, and the 
planning and rearing of all sorts of trees

    In like manner, not only the care of sheep, but the care of herds, and 
breeding of horses, and dogs, and bee-craft, all arts, and to speak 
comprehensively, the care of flocks and the rearing of animals, differ from 
each other more or less, but are all useful for life. And philosophy--I do 
not mean the Stoic, or the Platonic, or the Epicurean, or the Aristotelian, 
but whatever has been well said by each of those sects, which teach 
righteousness along with a science pervaded by piety, --this eclectic whole 
I call philosophy.(1) But such conclusions of human reasonings, as men have 
cut away and falsified, I would never call divine.

    And now we must look also at this, that if ever those who know not how 
to do well, live well;(2) for they have lighted on well-doing. Some, too, 
have aimed well at the word of truth through understanding. "But Abraham 
was not justified by works, but by faith."(3) It is therefore of no 
advantage to them after the end of life, even if they do good works now, if 
they have not faith. Wherefore also the Scriptures(4) were translated into 
the language of the Greeks, in order that they might never be able to 
allege the excuse of ignorance, inasmuch as they are able to hear also what 
we have in our hands, if they only wish. One speaks in one way of the 
truth, in another way the truth interprets itself. The guessing at truth is 
one thing, and truth itself is another. Resemblance is one thing, the thing 
itself is another. And the one results from learning and practice, the 
other from power and faith. For the teaching of piety is a gift, but faith 
is grace. "For by doing the will of God we know the will of God."(5) "Open, 
then," says the Scripture, "the gates of righteousness; and I will enter 
in, and confess to the LORD."(6) But the paths to righteousness (since God 
saves in many ways, for He is good) are many and various, and lead to the 
Lord's way and gate. And if you ask the royal and true entrance, you will 
hear, "This is the gate of the LORD, the righteous shall enter in by 
it."(7) While there are many gates open, that in righteousness is in 
Christ, by which all the blessed enter, and direct their steps in the 
sanctity of knowledge. Now Clemens, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, 
while expounding the differences of those who are approved according to the 
Church, says expressly, "One may be a believer; one may be powerful in 
uttering knowledge; one may be wise in discriminating between words; one 
may be terrible in deeds."(8)

CHAP. VIII.--THE SOPHISTICAL ARTS USELESS.

    But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic 
power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it 
produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and disputation for wrangling. 
These arts, therefore, if not conjoined with philosophy, will be injurious 
to every one. For Plato openly called sophistry "an evil art." And 
Aristotle, following him, demonstrates it to be a dishonest art, which 
abstracts in a specious manner the whole business of wisdom, and professes 
a wisdom which it has not studied. To speak briefly, as the beginning of 
rhetoric is the probable, and an attempted proof(9) the process, and the 
end persuasion, so the beginning of disputation is what is matter of 
opinion, and the process a contest, and the end victory. For in the same 
manner, also, the beginning of sophistry is the apparent, and the process 
twofold; one of rhetoric, continuous and exhaustive; and the other of 
logic, and is interrogatory. And its end is admiration. The dialectic in 
vogue in the schools, on the other hand, is the exercise of a philosopher 
in matters of opinion, for the sake of the faculty of disputation. But 
truth is not in these at all. With reason, therefore, the noble apostle, 
depreciating these superfluous arts occupied about words, says, "If any man 
do not give heed to wholesome words, but is puffed up by a kind of 
teaching, knowing nothing, but doting (nosw^n) about questions and strifes 
of words, whereof cometh contention, envy, railings, evil surmisings, 
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth."(1)

    You see how he is moved against them, calling their art of logic--on 
which, those to whom this garrulous mischievous art is dear, whether Greeks 
or barbarians, plume themselves--a disease (nosos). Very beautifully, 
therefore, the tragic poet Euripides says in the Phoenissoe,--

                                "But a wrongful speech
Is diseased in itself, and needs skilful medicines."(2)

    For the saving Word(3) is called "wholesome," He being the truth; and 
what is wholesome (healthful) remains ever deathless. But separation from 
what is healthful and divine is impiety, and a deadly malady. These are 
rapacious wolves hid in sheep-skins, men-stealers, and glozing soul-
seducers, secretly, but proved to be robbers; striving by fraud and force 
to catch us who are unsophisticated and have less power of speech.

    "Often a man, impeded through want of words, carries less weight
    In expressing what is right, than the man of eloquence.
    But now in fluent mouths the weightiest truths
    They disguise, so that they do not seem what they ought to seem,"

says the tragedy. Such are these wranglers, whether they follow the sects, 
or practise miserable dialectic arts. These are they that "stretch the warp 
and weave nothing," says the Scripture;(4) prosecuting a bootless task, 
which the apostle has called "cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in 
wait to deceive."(5) "For there are," he says, "many unruly and vain 
talkers and deceivers:"(6) Wherefore it was not said to all, "Ye are the 
salt of the earth."(7) For there are some even of the hearers of the word 
who are like the fishes of the sea, which, reared from their birth in 
brine, yet need salt to dress them for food. Accordingly I wholly approve 
of the tragedy, when it says:--

    "O son, false words can be well spoken,
    And truth may be vanquished by beauty of words.
    But this is not what is most correct, but nature and what is right;
    He who practises eloquence is indeed wise,
    But I consider deeds always better than words."

    We must not, then, aspire to please the multitude. For we do not 
practise what will please them, but what we know is remote from their 
disposition. "Let us not be desirous of vainglory,," says the apostle, 
"provoking one another, envying one another."(8)

    Thus the truth-loving Plato says, as if divinely inspired, "Since I am 
such as to obey nothing but the word, which, after reflection, appears to 
me the best."(9)

    Accordingly he charges those who credit opinions without intelligence 
and knowledge, with  abandoning right and sound reason unwarrantably, and 
believing him who is a partner in falsehood. For to cheat one's self of the 
truth is bad; but to speak the truth, and to hold as our opinions positive 
realities, is good.

    Men are deprived of what is good unwillingly. Nevertheless they are 
deprived either by being deceived or beguiled, or by being compelled and 
not believing. He who believes not, has already made himself a willing 
captive; and he who changes his persuasion is cozened, while he forgets 
that time imperceptibly takes away some things, and reason others. And 
after an opinion has been entertained, pain and anguish, and on the other 
hand contentiousness and anger, compel. Above all, men are beguiled who are 
either bewitched by pleasure or terrified by fear. And all these are 
voluntary changes, but by none of these will knowledge ever be attained.

CHAP. IX.--HUMAN KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE 
SCRIPTURES.

    Some, who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch 
either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural 
science. They demand bare faith alone, as if they wished, without bestowing 
any care on the vine, straightway to gather clusters from the first. Now 
the Lord is figuratively described as the vine, from which, with pains and 
the art of husbandry, according to the word, the fruit is to be gathered.

    We must lop, dig, bind, and perform the other operations. The pruning-
knife, I should think, and the pick-axe, and the other agricultural 
implements, are necessary for the culture of the vine, so that it may 
produce eatable fruit. And as in husbandry, so also in medicine: he has 
learned to purpose, who has practised the various lessons, so as to be able 
to cultivate and to heal. So also here, I call him truly learned who brings 
everything to bear on the truth; so that, from geometry, and music, and 
grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith 
against assault. Now, as was said, the athlete is despised who is not 
furnished for the contest. For instance, too, we praise the experienced 
helmsman who "has seen the cities of many men," and the physician who has 
had large experience; thus also some describe the empiric.(1) And he who 
brings everything to bear on a fight life, procuring examples from the 
Greeks and barbarians, this man is an experienced searcher after truth, and 
in reality a man of much counsel, like the touch-stone (that is, the 
Lydian), which is believed to possess the power of distinguishing the 
spurious from the genuine gold. And our much-knowing gnostic can 
distinguish sophistry from philosophy, the art of decoration from 
gymnastics, cookery from physic, and rhetoric from dialectics, and the 
other sects which are according to the barbarian philosophy,  from the 
truth itself. And how necessary is it for him who desires to be partaker of 
the power of God, to treat of intellectual subjects by philosophising! And 
how serviceable is it to distinguish expressions which are ambiguous, and 
which in the Testaments are used synonymously! For the Lord, at the time of 
His temptation, skilfully matched the devil by an ambiguous expression. And 
I do not yet, in this connection, see how in the world the inventor of 
philosophy and dialectics, as some suppose, is seduced through being 
deceived by the form of speech which consists in ambiguity. And if the 
prophets and apostles knew not the arts by which the exercises of 
philosophy are exhibited, yet the mind of the prophetic and instructive 
spirit, uttered secretly, because all have not an intelligent ear, demands 
skilful modes of teaching in order to clear exposition. For the prophets 
and disciples of the Spirit knew infallibly their mind. For they knew it by 
faith, in a way which others could not easily, as the Spirit has said. But 
it is not possible for those who have not learned to receive it thus. 
"Write," it is said, "the commandments doubly, in counsel and knowledge, 
that thou mayest answer the words of truth to them who send unto thee."(2) 
What, then, is the knowledge of answering? or what that of asking? It is 
dialectics. What then? Is not speaking our business, and does not action 
proceed from the Word? For if we act not for the Word, we shall act against 
reason. But a rational work is accomplished through God. "And nothing," it 
is said, "was made without Him"--the Word of God.(3)

    And did not the Lord make all things by the Word? Even the beasts work, 
driven by compelling fear. And do not those who are called orthodox apply 
themselves to good works, knowing not what they do?

CHAP. X.--TO ACT WELL OF GREATER CONSEQUENCE THAN TO SPEAK WELL.

    Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then 
breaking the bread,(4) He presented it, that we might eat it, according to 
reason, and that knowing the Scriptures s we might walk obediently. And as 
those whose speech is evil are no better than those whose practice is evil 
(for calumny is the servant of the sword, and evil-speaking inflicts pain; 
and from these proceed disasters in life, such being the effects of evil 
speech); so also those who are given to good speech are near neighbours to 
those who accomplish good deeds. Accordingly discourse refreshes the soul 
and entices it to nobleness; and happy is he who has the use of both his 
hands. Neither, therefore, is he who can act well to be vilified by him who 
is able to speak well; nor is he who is able to speak well to be disparaged 
by him who is capable of acting well. But let each do that for which he is 
naturally fitted. What the one exhibits as actually done, the other speaks, 
preparing, as it were, the way for well-doing, and leading the hearers to 
the practice of good. For there is a saving word, as there is a saving 
work. Righteousness, accordingly,(6) is not constituted without discourse. 
And as the receiving of good is abolished if we abolish the doing of good; 
so obedience and faith are abolished when neither the command, nor one to 
expound the command, is taken along with us.(7) But now we are benefited 
mutually and reciprocally by words and deeds; but we must repudiate 
entirely the art of wrangling and sophistry, since these sentences of the 
sophists not only bewitch and beguile the many, but sometimes by violence 
win a Cadmean victory.(8) For true above all is that Psalm, "The just shall 
live to the end, for he shall not see corruption, when he beholds the wise 
dying."(9) And whom does he call wise? Hear from the Wisdom of Jesus: 
"Wisdom is not the knowledge of evil."(10) Such he calls what the arts of 
speaking and of discussing have invented. "Thou shalt therefore seek wisdom 
among the wicked, and shalt not find it."(11) And if you inquire again of 
what sort this is, you are told, "The mouth of the righteous man will 
distil wisdom."(12) And simi larly with truth, the art of sophistry is 
called wisdom.

    But it is my purpose, as I reckon, and not without reason, to live 
according to the Word, and to understand what is revealed;(1) but never 
affecting eloquence, to be content merely with indicating my meaning. And 
by what term that which I wish to present is shown, I care not. For I well 
know that to be saved, and to aid those who desire to be saved, is the best 
thing, and not to compose paltry sentences like gewgaws. "And if," says the 
Pythagorean in the Politicus of Plato, "you guard against solicitude about 
terms, you will be richer in wisdom against old age."(2) And in the 
Theaetetus you will find again, "And carelessness about names, and 
expressions, and the want of nice scrutiny, is not vulgar and illiberal for 
the most part, but rather the reverse of this, and is sometimes 
necessary."(3) This the Scripture(4) has expressed with the greatest 
possible brevity, when it said, "Be not occupied much about words." For 
expression is like  the dress on the body. The matter is the flesh and 
sinews. We must not therefore care more for the dress than the safety of 
the body. For not only a simple mode of life, but also a style of speech 
devoid of superfluity and nicety, must be cultivated by him who has adopted 
the true life, if we are to abandon luxury as treacherous and profligate, 
as the ancient Lacedaemonians adjured ointment and purple, deeming and 
calling them rightly treacherous garments and treacherous unguents; since 
neither is that mode of preparing food right where there is more of 
seasoning than of nutriment; nor is that style of speech elegant which can 
please rather than benefit the hearers. Pythagoras exhorts us to consider 
the Muses more pleasant than the Sirens, teaching us to cultivate wisdom 
apart from pleasure, and exposing the other mode of attracting the soul as 
deceptive. For sailing past the Sirens one man has sufficient strength, and 
for answering the Sphinx another one, or, if you please, not even one.(5) 
We ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory, to make broad the 
phylacteries. It suffices the gnostic(6) if only one hearer is found for 
him.(7) You may hear therefore Pindar the Boeotian,(8) who writes, "Divulge 
not before all the ancient speech. The way of silence is sometimes the 
surest. And the mightiest word is a spur to the fight." Accordingly, the 
blessed apostle very appropriately and urgently exhorts us "not to strive 
about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, but to shun 
profane and vain babblings, for they increase unto more ungodliness, and 
their word will eat as doth a canker."(9)

CHAP. XI.--WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY WHICH THE APOSTLE BIDS US SHUN?

    This, then, "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God," and of 
those who are "the wise the Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are 
vain."(10) Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human 
thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, "Let not the wise man glory in 
his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the 
rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that 
he understandeth and knoweth that I am the LORD, that executeth mercy and 
judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my 
delight, saith the LORD."(11) "That we should trust not in ourselves, but 
in God who raiseth the dead," says the apostle, "who delivered us from so 
great a death, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in 
the power of God." "For the spiritual man judgeth all things, but he 
himself is judged of no man."(12) I hear also those words of his, "And 
these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or 
one should enter in to spoil you."(13) And again, "Beware lest any man 
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, 
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;"(14) branding not 
all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the 
Apostles,(15) which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever 
other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the 
efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator.(16)

    The Stoics also, whom he mentions too, say not well that the Deity, 
being a body, pervades the vilest matter. He calls the jugglery of logic 
"the tradition of men." Wherefore also he adds, "Avoid juvenile(17) 
questions. For such contentions are puerile." "But virtue is no lover of 
boys," says the philosopher Plato. And our struggle, accOrding to Gorgias 
Leontinus, requires two virtues--boldness and wisdom,--boldness to undergo 
danger, and wisdom to understand the enigma. For the Word, like the 
Olympian proclamation, calls him who is wiring, and crowns him who is able 
to continue unmoved as far as the truth is concerned. And, in truth, the 
Word does not wish him who has believed to be idle. For He says, "Seek, and 
ye shall find."(1) But seeking ends in finding, driving out the empty 
trifling, and approving of the contemplation which confirms our faith. "And 
this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words,''(2) says the 
apostle, evidently as having learned to distinguish what was said by him, 
and as being taught to meet objections. "As ye have therefore received 
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and 
stablished in the faith."(3) Now persuasion is [the means of] being 
established in the faith. "Beware lest any man spoil you of faith in Christ 
by philosophy and vain deceit," which does away with providence, "after the 
tradition of men;" for the philosophy which is in accordance with divine 
tradition establishes and confirms providence, which, being done away with, 
the economy of the Saviour appears a myth, while we are influenced "after 
the elements of the world, and not after Christ."(4) For the teaching which 
is agreeable to Christ deifies the Creator, and traces providence in 
particular events,(5) and knows the nature of the elements to be capable of 
change and production, and teaches that we ought to aim at rising up to the 
power which assimilates to God, and to prefer the dispensation(6) as 
holding the first rank and superior to all training.

    The elements are worshipped,--the air by Diogenes, the water by Thales, 
the fire by Hippasus; and by those who suppose atoms to be the first 
principles of things, arrogating the name of philosophers, being wretched 
creatures devoted to pleasure.(7) "Wherefore I pray," says the apostle, 
"that your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all 
judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent."(8) "Since, when 
we were children," says the same apostle, "we were kept in bondage under 
the rudiments of the world. And the child, though heir, differeth nothing 
from a servant, till the time appointed of the father."(9) Philosophers, 
then, are children, unless they have been made men by Christ. "For if the 
son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free,"(10) at 
least he is the seed of Abraham, though not of promise, receiving what 
belongs to him by free gift. "But strong meat belongeth to those that are 
of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to 
discern both good and evil."(11) "For every one that useth milk is 
unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe,"(12) and not yet 
acquainted with the word, according to which he has believed and works, and 
not able to give a reason in himself. "Prove all things," the apostle says, 
"and hold fast that which is good,"(13) speaking to spiritual men, who 
judge what is said according to truth, whether it seems or truly holds by 
the truth. "He who is not corrected by discipline errs, and stripes and 
reproofs give the discipline of wisdom," the reproofs manifestly that are 
with love. "For the right heart seeketh knowledge."(14) "For he that 
seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who have 
sought it rightly have found peace."(15) "And I will know," it is said, 
"not the speech of those which are puffed up, but the power." In rebuke of 
those who are wise in appearance, and think themselves wise, but are not in 
reality wise, he writes: "For the kingdom of God is not in word."(16) It is 
not in that which is not true, but which is only probable according to 
opinion; but he said "in power," for the truth alone is powerful. And 
again: "If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing 
yet as he ought to know." For truth is never mere opinion. But the 
"supposition of knowledge inflates," and fills with pride; "but charity 
edifieth," which deals not in supposition, but in truth. Whence it is said, 
"If any man loves, he is known."(17)

CHAP. XII.--THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH NOT TO BE DIVULGED TO ALL.

    But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives 
the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide in a 
mystery the wisdom spoken, which the Son of God taught. Now, therefore, 
Isaiah the prophet has his tongue purified by fire, so that he may be able 
to tell the vision. And we must purify not the tongue alone, but also the 
ears, if we attempt to be partaken of the truth.

    Such were the impediments in the way of my writing. And even now I 
fear, as it is said, "to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them 
under foot, and turn and rend us."(18) For it is difficult to exhibit the 
really pure and transparent words respecting the true light, to swinish and 
untrained hearers. For scarcely could anything which they could hear be 
more ludicrous than these to the multitude; nor any subjects on the other 
hand more admirable or more inspiring to those of noble nature. "But the 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are 
foolishness to him."(1) But the wise do not utter with their mouth what 
they reason in council. "But what ye hear in the ear," says the Lord, 
"proclaim upon the houses;"(2) bidding them receive the secret 
traditions(3) of the true knowledge, and expound them aloft and 
conspicuously; and as we have heard in the ear, so to deliver them to whom 
it is requisite; but not enjoining us to communicate to all without 
distinction, what is said to them in parables. But there is only a 
delineation in the memoranda, which have the truth sowed sparse(4) and 
broadcast, that it may escape the notice of those who pick up seeds like 
jackdaws; but when they find a good husbandman, each one of them will 
germinate and produce corn.

CHAP. XIII.--ALL SECTS OF PHILOSOPHY CONTAIN A GERM OF TRUTH.

    Since, therefore, truth is one (for falsehood has ten thousand by-
paths); just as the Bacchantes tore asunder the limbs of Pentheus, so the 
sects both of barbarian and Hellenic philosophy have done with truth, and 
each vaunts as the whole truth the portion which has fallen to its lot. But 
all, in my opinion,(5) are illuminated by the dawn of Light.(6) Let all, 
therefore, both Greeks and barbarians, who have aspired after the truth,--
both those who possess not a little, and those who have any portion,--
produce whatever they have of the word of truth.

    Eternity, for instance, presents in an instant the future and the 
present, also the past of time. But truth, much more powerful than 
limitless duration, can collect its proper germs, though they have fallen 
on foreign soil. For we shall find that very many of the dogmas that are 
held by such sects as have not become utterly senseless, and are not cut 
out from the order of nature (by cutting off Christ, as the women of the 
fable dismembered the man),(7) though appearing unlike one another, 
correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole. For they coincide 
in one, either as a part, or a species, or a genus. For instance, though 
the highest note is different from the lowest note, yet both compose one 
harmony. And in numbers an even number differs from an odd number; but both 
suit in arithmetic; as also is the case with figure, the circle, and the 
triangle, and the square, and whatever figures differ from one another. 
Also, in the whole universe, all the parts, though differing one from 
another, preserve their relation to the whole. So, then, the barbarian and 
Hellenic philosophy has torn off a fragment of eternal truth not from the 
mythology of Dionysus, but from the theology of the ever-living Word. And 
He who brings again together the separate fragments, and makes them one, 
will without peril, be assured, contemplate the perfect Word, the truth. 
Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes: "And I added wisdom above all who 
were before me in Jerusalem; and my heart saw many things; and besides, I 
knew wisdom and knowledge, parables and understanding. And this also is the 
choice of the spirit, because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of 
knowledge."(8) He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be pre-
eminently a gnostic.(9) Now it is written, "Abundance of the knowledge of 
wisdom will give life to him who is of it."(10) And again, what is said is 
confirmed more clearly by this saying, "All things are in the sight of 
those who understand"--all things, both Hellenic and barbarian; but the one 
or the other is not all. "They are right to those who wish to receive 
understanding. Choose instruction, and not silver, and knowledge above 
tested gold," and prefer also sense to pure gold; "for wisdom is better 
than precious stones, and no precious thing is worth it."(11)

CHAP. XIV.--SUCCESSION OF PHILOSOPHERS IN GREECE.

    The Greeks say, that after Orpheus and Linus, and the most ancient of 
the poets that appeared among them, the seven, called wise, were the first 
that were admired for their wisdom. Of whom four were of Asia--Thales of 
Miletus, and Bias of Priene, Pittacus of Mitylene, and Cleobulus of Lindos; 
and two of Europe, Solon the Athenian, and Chilon the Lacedaemonian; and 
the seventh, some say, was Periander of Corinth; others, Anacharsis the 
Scythian; others, Epimenides the Cretan, whom Paul knew as a Greek prophet, 
whom he mentions in the Epistle to Titus, where he speaks thus: "One of 
themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, 
evil beasts, slow bellies. And this witness is true."(12) You see how even 
to the prophets of the Greeks he attributes something of the truth, and is 
not ashamed,(13) when discours ing for the edification of some and the 
shaming of others, to make use of Greek poems. Accordingly to the 
Corinthians (for this is not the only instance), while discoursing on the 
resurrection of the dead, he makes use of a tragic Iambic line, when he 
said, "What advantageth it me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt 
good manners."(1) Others have enumerated Acusilaus the Argive among the 
seven wise men; and others, Pherecydes of Syros. And Plato substitutes Myso 
the Chenian for Periander, whom he deemed unworthy of wisdom, on account of 
his having reigned as a tyrant. That the wise men among the Greeks 
flourished after the age of Moses, will, a little after, be shown. But the 
style of philosophy among them, as Hebraic and enigmatical, is now to be 
considered. They adopted brevity, as suited for exhortation, and most 
useful. Even Plato says, that of old this mode was purposely in vogue among 
all the Greeks, especially the Lacedaemonians and Cretans, who enjoyed the 
best laws.

    The expression, "Know thyself," some supposed to be Chilon's. But 
Chamaeleon, in his book About the Gods, ascribes it to Thales; Aristotle to 
the Pythian. It may be an injunction to the pursuit of knowledge. For it is 
not possible to know the parts without the essence of the whole; and one 
must study the genesis of the universe, that thereby we may be able to 
learn the nature of man. Again, to Chilon the Lacedaemonian they attribute, 
"Let nothing be too much."(2) Strato, in his book Of Inventions, ascribes 
the apophthegm to Stratodemus of Tegea. Didymus assigns it to Solon; as 
also to Cleobulus the saying, "A middle course is best." And the 
expression, "Come under a pledge, and mischief is at hand," Cleomenes says, 
in his book Concerning Hesiod, was uttered before by Homer in the lines:--

    "Wretched pledges, for the wretched, to be pledged."(3)

The Aristotelians judge it to be Chilon's; but Didymus says the advice was 
that of Thales. Then, next in order, the saying, "All men are bad," or, 
"The most of men are bad" (for the same apophthegm is expressed in two 
ways), Sotades the Byzantian says that it was Bias's. And the aphorism, 
"Practice conquers everything,"(4) they will have it to be Periander's; and 
likewise the advice, "Know the opportunity," to have been a saying of 
Pittacus. Solon made laws for the Athenians, Pittacus for the Mitylenians. 
And at a late date, Pythagoras, the pupil of Pherecydes, first called 
himself a philosopher. Accordingly, after the fore-mentioned three men, 
there were three schools of philosophy, named after the places where they 
lived: the Italic from Pythagoras, the Ionic from Thales, the Eleatic from 
Xenophanes. Pythagoras was a Samian, the son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus 
says: cording to Aristoxenus, in his life of Pythagoras and Aristarchus and 
Theopompus, he was a Tuscan; and according to Neanthes, a Syrian or a 
Tyrian. So that Pythagoras was, according to the most, of barbarian 
extraction. Thaies, too, as Leander and Herodotus relate, was a Phoenician; 
as some suppose, a Milesian. He alone seems to have met the prophets of the 
Egyptians. But no one is described as his teacher, nor is any one mentioned 
as the teacher of Pherecydes of Syros, who had Pythagoras as his pupil. But 
the Italic philosophy, that of Pythagoras, grew old in Metapontum in Italy. 
Anaximander of Miletus, the son of Praxiades, succeeded Thales; and was 
himself succeeded by Anaximenes of Miletus, the son of Eurustratus; after 
whom came Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the son of Hegesibulus.(5) He 
transferred his school from Ionia to Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, 
whose pupil Socrates was.

    "From these turned aside, the stone-mason;
    Talker about laws; the enchanter of the Greeks,"

says Timon in his Satirical Poems, on account of his quitting physics for 
ethics. Antisthenes, after being a pupil of Socrates, introduced the Cynic 
philosophy; and Plato withdrew to the Academy. Aristotle, after studying 
philosophy under Plato, withdrew to the Lyceum, and founded the Peripatetic 
sect. He was succeeded by Theophrastus, who was succeeded by Strato, and he 
by Lycon, then Critolaus, and then Diodorus. Speusippus was the successor 
of Plato; his successor was Xenocrates; and the successor of the latter, 
Polemo. And the disciples of Polemo were Crates and Crantor, in whom the 
old Academy founded by Plato ceased. Arcesilaus was the associate of 
Crantor; from whom, down to Hegesilaus, the Middle Academy flourished. Then 
Carneades succeeded Hegesilaus, and others came in succession. The disciple 
of Crates was Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect. He was 
succeeded by Cleanthes; and the latter by Chrysippus, and others after him. 
Xenophanes of Colophon was the founder of the Eleatic school, who, Timaeus 
says, lived in the time of Hiero, lord of Sicily, and Epicharmus the poet; 
and Apollodorus says that he was born in the fortieth Olympiad, and reached 
to the times of Darius and Cyrus. Parmenides, accordingly, was the disciple 
of Xenophanes, and Zeno of him; then came Leucippus, and then Democritus. 
Disciples of Democritus were Protagoras of Abdera, and Metrodorus of Chios, 
whose pupil was Diogenes of Smyrna; and his again Anaxarchus, and his 
Pyrrho, and his Nausiphanes. Some say that Epicurus was a scholar of his.

    Such, in an epitome, is the succession of the philosophers among the 
Greeks. The periods of the originators of their philosophy are now to be 
specified successively, in order that, by comparison, we may show that the 
Hebrew: philosophy was older by many generations.(1)

    It has been said of Xenophanes that he was the founder of the Eleatic 
philosophy. And Eudemus, in the Astrological Histories, says that Thales 
foretold the eclipse of the sun, which took place at the time that the 
Medians and the Lydians fought, in the reign of Cyaxares the father of 
Astyages over the Medes, and of Alyattus the son of Croesus over the 
Lydians. Herodotus in his first book agrees with him. The date is about the 
fiftieth Olympiad. Pythagoras is ascertained to have lived in the days of 
Polycrates the tyrant, about the sixty-second Olympiad. Mnesiphilus is 
described as a follower of Solon, and was a contemporary of Themistocles. 
Solon therefore flourished about the forty-sixth Olympiad. For Heraclitus, 
the son of Bauso, persuaded Melancomas the tyrant to abdicate his 
sovereignty. He despised the invitation of king Darius to visit the 
Persians.

CHAP. XV.--THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN GREAT PART DERIVED FROM THE BARBARIANS.

    These are the times of the oldest wise men and philosophers among the 
Greeks. And that the most of them were barbarians by extraction, and were 
trained among barbarians, what need is there to say? Pythagoras is shown to 
have been either a Tuscan or a Tyrian. And Antisthenes was a Phrygian. And 
Orpheus was an Odrysian or a Thracian. The most, too, show Homer to have 
been an Egyptian. Thales was a Phoenician by birth, and was said to have 
consorted with the prophets of the Egyptians; as also Pythagoras did with 
the same persons, by whom he was circumcised, that he might enter the 
adytum and learn from the Egyptians the mystic philosophy. He held converse 
with the chief of the Chaldeans and the Magi; and he gave a hint of the 
church, now so called, in the common hall(2) which he maintained.

    And Plato does not deny that he procured all that is most excellent in 
philosophy from the barbarians; and he admits that he came into Egypt. 
Whence, writing in the Phoedo that the philosopher can receive aid from all 
sides, he said: "Great indeed is Greece, O Cebes, in which everywhere there 
are good men, and many are the races of the barbarians."(3) Thus Plato 
thinks that some of the barbarians, too, are philosophers. But Epicurus, on 
the other hand, supposes that only Greeks can philosophise. And in the 
Symposium, Plato, landing the barbarians as practising philosophy with 
conspicuous excellence,(4) truly says: "And in many other instances both 
among Greeks and barbarians, whose temples reared for such sons are already 
numerous." And it is clear that the barbarians signally honoured their 
lawgivers and teachers, designating them gods. For, according to Plato, 
"they think that good souls, on quitting the supercelestial region, submit 
to come to this Tartarus; and assuming a body, share in all the ills which 
are involved in birth, from their solicitude for the race of men;" and 
these make laws and publish philosophy, "than which no greater boon ever 
came from the gods to the race of men, or will come."(5)

    And as appears to me, it was in consequence of perceiving the great 
benefit which is conferred through wise men, that the men themselves Were 
honoured and philosophy cultivated publicly by all the Brahmins, and the 
Odrysi, and the Getae. And such were strictly deified by the race of the 
Egyptians, by the Chaldeans and the Arabians, called the Happy, and those 
that inhabited Palestine, by not the least portion of the Persian race, and 
by innumerable other races besides these. And it is well known that Plato 
is found perpetually celebrating the barbarians, remembering that both 
himself and Pythagoras learned the most and the noblest of their dogmas 
among the barbarians. Wherefore he also called the races of the barbarians, 
"races of barbarian philosophers," recognising, in the Phaedrus, the 
Egyptian king, and shows him to us wiser than Theut, whom he knew to be 
Hermes. But in the Charmides, it is manifest that he knew certain Thracians 
who were said to make the soul immortal. And Pythagoras is reported to have 
been a disciple of Sonches the Egyptian arch-prophet; and Plato, of 
Sechnuphis of Heliopolis; and Eudoxus, of Cnidius of Konuphis, who was also 
an Egyptian. And in his book, On the Saul,(6) Plato again manifestly 
recognises prophecy, when he introduces a prophet announcing the word of 
Lachesis, uttering predictions to the souls whose destiny is becoming 
fixed. And in the Timoeus he introduces Solon, the very wise, learning from 
the barbarian. The substance of the declaration is to the following effect: 
"O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children.  And no Greek is an old 
man. For you have no learning that is hoary with age."(1)

    Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said 
to have combined with his own compositions a translation of the column of 
Acicarus.(2) And you may find the distinction notified by him when he 
writes, "Thus says Democritus." About himself, too, where, pluming himself 
on his erudition, he says, "I have roamed over the most ground of any man 
of my time, investigating the most remote parts. I have seen the most skies 
and lands, and I have heard of learned men in very great numbers. And in 
composition no one has surpassed me; in demonstration, not even those among 
the Egyptians who are called Arpenodaptae, with all of whom I lived in 
exile up to eighty years." For he went to Babylon, and Persis, and Egypt, 
to learn from the Magi and the priests.

    Zoroaster the Magus, Pythagoras showed to be a Persian. Of the secret 
books of this man, those who follow the heresy of Prodicus boast to be in 
possession. Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that 
Pythagoras was a pupil of Nazaratus the Assyrian a (some think that he is 
Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterwards be shown), and will have it 
that, in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatae and the 
Brahmins. Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated 
with Aristotle.(4) Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God's 
aid, the Sibyl spoke.(5) They say, accordingly, that at Delphi a stone was 
shown beside the oracle, on which, it is said, sat the first Sibyl, who 
came from Helicon, and had been reared by the Muses. But some say that she 
came from Milea, being the daughter of Lamia of Sidon.(6) And Serapion, in 
his epic verses, says that the Sibyl, even when dead ceased not from 
divination. And he writes that, what proceeded from her into the air after 
her death, was what gave oracular utterances in voices and omens; and on 
her body being changed into earth, and the grass as natural growing out of 
it, whatever beasts happening to be in that place fed on it exhibited to 
men an accurate knowledge of futurity by their entrails. He thinks also, 
that the face seen in the moon is her soul. So much for the Sibyl.

    Numa the king of the Romans was a Pythagorean, and aided by the 
precepts of Moses, prohibited from making an image of God in human form, 
and of the shape of a living creature. Accordingly, during the first 
hundred and seventy years, though building temples, they made no cast or 
graven image. For Numa secretly showed them that the Best of Beings could 
not be apprehended except by the mind alone. Thus philosophy, a thing of 
the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding 
its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its 
ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the 
Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanaeans among the 
Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, 
who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided 
by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other 
barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them 
called Sarmanae,(7) and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are 
called Hylobii(8) neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are 
clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. 
Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor 
begetting of children.

    Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha;(9) whom, on 
account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours.

    Anacharsis was a Scythian, and is recorded to have excelled many 
philosophers among the Greeks. And the Hyperboreans, Hellanicus relates, 
dwelt beyond the Riphaean mountains, and inculcated justice, not eating 
flesh, but using nuts. Those who are sixty years old they take without the 
gates, and do away with. There are also among the Germans those called 
sacred women, who, by inspecting the whirlpools of rivers and the eddies, 
and observing the noises of streams, presage and predict future events.(10) 
These did not allow the men to fight against Caesar till the new moon 
shone.

    Of all these, by far the oldest is the Jewish race; and that their 
philosophy committed to writing has the precedence of philosophy among the 
Greeks, the Pythagorean Philo(11) shows at large; and, besides him, 
Aristobulus the Peripatetic, and several others, not to waste time, in 
going over them by name. Very clearly the author Megasthenes, the 
contemporary of Seleucus Nicanor, writes as follows in the third of his 
books, On Indian Affairs: "All that was said about nature by the ancients 
is said also by those who philosophise beyond Greece: some things by the 
Brahmins among the Indians, and others by those called Jews in Syria." Some 
more. fabulously say that certain of those called the Idaean Dactyli were 
the first wise men; to whom are attributed the invention of what are called 
the "Ephesian letters," and of numbers in music. For which reason dactyls 
in music received their name. And the Idaean Dactyli were Phrygians and 
barbarians. Herodotus relates that Hercules, having grown a sage and a 
student of physics, received from the barbarian Atlas, the Phrygian, the 
columns of the universe; the fable meaning that he received by instruction 
the knowledge of the heavenly bodies. And Hermippus of Berytus calls Charon 
the Centaur wise; about whom, he that wrote The Battle of the Titans says, 
"that he first led the race of mortals to righteousness, by teaching them 
the solemnity of the oath, and propitiatory sacrifices and the figures of 
Olympus." By him Achilles, who fought at Troy, was taught. And Hippo, the 
daughter of the Centaur, who dwelt with AEolus, taught him her father's 
science, the knowledge of physics. Euripides also testifies of Hippo as 
follows:--

    "Who first, by oracles, presaged,
    And by the rising stars, events divine."

By this AEolus, Ulysses was received as a guest after the taking of Troy. 
Mark the epochs by comparison with the age of Moses, and with the high 
antiquity of the philosophy promulgated by him.

CHAP. XVI.--THAT THE INVENTORS OF OTHER ARTS WERE MOSTLY BARBARIANS.

    And barbarians were inventors not only of philosophy, but almost of 
every art. The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology among men. 
Similarly also the Chaldeans. The Egyptians first showed how to burn lamps, 
and divided the year into twelve months, prohibited intercourse with women 
in the temples, and enacted that no one should enter the temples(1) from a 
woman without bathing. Again, they were the inventors of geometry. There 
are some who say that the Carians invented prognostication by the stars. 
The Phrygians were the first who attended to the flight of birds. And the 
Tuscans, neighbours of Italy, were adepts at the art of the Haruspex. The 
Isaurians and the Arabians invented augury, as the Telmesians divination by 
dreams. The Etruscans invented the trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute. 
For Olympus and Marsyas were Phrygians. And Cadmus, the inventor of letters 
among the Greeks, as Euphorus says, was a Phoenician; whence also Herodotus 
writes that they were called Phoenician letters. And they say that the 
Phoenicians and the Syrians first invented letters; and that Apis, an 
aboriginal inhabitant of Egypt, invented the healing art before Io came 
into Egypt. But afterwards they say that Asclepius improved the art. Atlas 
the Libyan was the first who built a ship and navigated the sea. Kelmis and 
Damnaneus, Idaean Dactyli, first discovered iron in Cyprus. Another Idaean 
discovered the tempering of brass; according to Hesiod, a Scythian. The 
Thracians first invented what is called a scimitar (a'rph),--it is a curved 
sword,--and were the first to use shields on horseback. Similarly also the 
Illyrians invented the shield (pe'lth). Besides, they say that the Tuscans 
invented the art of moulding clay; and that Itanus (he was a Samnite) first 
fashioned the oblong shield (thure'os). Cadmus the Phoenician invented 
stonecutting, and discovered the gold mines on the Pangaean mountain. 
Further, another nation, the Cappadocians, first invented the instrument 
called the nabla,(2) and the Assyrians in the same way the dichord. The 
Carthaginians were the first that constructed a triterme; and it was built 
by Bosporus, an aboriginal.(3) Medea, the daughter of AEetas, a Colchian, 
first invented the dyeing of hair. Besides, the Noropes (they are a 
Paeonian race, and are now called the Norici) worked copper, and were the 
first that purified iron. Amycus the king of the Bebryci was the first 
inventor of boxing-gloves.(4) In music, Olympus the Mysian practised the 
Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca,(5) 
a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented by 
Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise also diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian 
too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and 
the half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same 
region as those mentioned above. And the Doric was invented by Thamyris the 
Thracian. We have heard that the Persians were the first who fashioned the 
chariot, and bed, and footstool; and the Sidonians the first to construct a 
trireme. The Sicilians, close to Italy, were the first inventors of the 
phorminx, which is not much inferior to the lyre. And they invented 
castanets. In the time of Semiramis queen of the Assyrians,(1) they relate 
that linen garments were invented. And Hellanicus says that Atossa queen of 
the Persians was the first who composed a letter. These things are reported 
by Seame of Mitylene, Theophrastus of Ephesus, Cydippus of Mantinea also 
Antiphanes, Aristodemus, and Aristotle and besides these, Philostephanus, 
and also Strato the Peripatetic, in his books Concerning Inventions. I have 
added a few details from them, in order to confirm the inventive and 
practically useful genius of the barbarians, by whom the Greeks profited in 
their studies. And if any one objects to the barbarous language, Anacharsis 
says, "All the Greeks speak Scythian to me." It was he who was held in 
admiration by the Greeks, who said, "My covering is a cloak; my supper, 
milk and cheese." You see that the barbarian philosophy professes deeds, 
not words. The apostle thus speaks: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the 
tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall ye know what is spoken? for 
ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kind of voices 
in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I 
know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a 
barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." And, "Let 
him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."(2)

    Nay more, it was late before the teaching and writing of discourses 
reached Greece. Alcmaeon, the son of Perithus, of Crotona, first composed a 
treatise on nature. And it is related that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the 
son of Hegesibulus, first published a book in writing. The first to adapt 
music to poetical compositions was Terpander of Antissa; and he set the 
laws of the Lacedaemonians to music. Lasus of Hermione invented the 
dithyramb; Stesichorus of Himera, the hymn; Alcman the Spartan, the choral 
song; Anacreon of Tees, love songs; Pindar the Theban, the dance 
accompanied with song. Timotheus of Miletus was the first to execute those 
musical compositions called no'moi on the lyre, with dancing. Moreover, the 
iambus was invented by Archilochus of Pares, and the choliambus by Hipponax 
of Ephesus. Tragedy owed its origin to Thespis the Athenian, and comedy to 
Susarion of Icaria. Their dates are handed down by the grammarians. But it 
were tedious to specify them accurately: presently, however, Dionysus, on 
whose account the Dionysian spectacles are celebrated, will be shown to be 
later than Moses. They say that Antiphon of Rhamnusium, the son of 
Sophilus, first invented scholastic discourses and rhetorical figures, and 
was the first who pied causes for a fee, and wrote a forensic speech for 
delivery,(3) as Diodorus says. And Apollodorus of Cuma first assumed the 
name of critic, and was called a grammarian. Some say it was Eratosthenes 
of Cyrene who was first so called, since he published two books which he 
entitled Grammatica. The first who was called a grammarian, as we now use 
the term, was Praxiphanes, the son of Disnysophenes of Mitylene. Zeleucus 
the Locrian was reported to have been the first to have framed laws (in 
writing) Others say that it was Menos the son of Zeus, in the time of 
Lynceus. He comes after Danaus, in the eleventh generation from Inachus and 
Moses; as we shall show a little further on. And Lycurgus, who lived many 
years after the taking of Troy, legislated for the Lacedaemonians a hundred 
and fifty years before the Olympiads. We have spoken before of the age of 
Solon. Draco (he was a legislator too) is discovered to have lived about 
the three hundred and ninth Olympiad. Antilochus, again, who wrote of the 
learned men from the age of Pythagoras to the death of Epicurus, which took 
place in the tenth day of the month Gamelion, makes up altogether three 
hundred and twelve years. Moreover, some say that Phanothea, the wife of 
Icarius, invented the heroic hexameter; others Themis, one of the 
Titanides. Didymus, however, in his work On the Pythagorean Philosophy, 
relates that Theano of Crotona was the first woman who cultivated 
philosophy and composed poems The Hellenic philosophy then, according to 
some, apprehended the truth accidentally, dimly, partially; as others will 
have it, was set a-going by the devil. Several suppose that certain powers, 
descending from heaven, inspired the whole of philosophy. But if the 
Hellenic philosophy comprehends not the whole extent of the truth, and 
besides is destitute of strength to perform the commandments of the Lord, 
yet it prepares the way for the truly royal teaching; training in some way 
or other, and moulding the character, and fitting him who believes in 
Providence for the reception of the truth.(4)

CHAP. XVII.--ON THE SAYING OF THE SAVIOUR, "ALL THAT CAME BEFORE ME WERE 
THIEVES AND ROBBERS."(5)

    But, say they, it is written, "All who were before the Lord's advent 
are thieves and robbers." All, then, who are in the Word (for it is these 
that were previous to the incarnation of the Word) are understood 
generally. But the prophets, being sent and inspired by the Lord, were not 
thieves, but servants. The Scripture accordingly says, "Wisdom sent her 
servants, inviting with loud proclamation to a goblet of wine."(1)

    But philosophy, it is said, was not sent by the Lord, but came stolen, 
or given by a thief. It was then some power or angel that had learned 
something of the truth, but abode not in it, that inspired and taught these 
things, not without the Lord's knowledge, who knew before the constitution 
of each essence the issues of futurity, but without His prohibition.

    For the theft which reached men then, had some advantage; not that he 
who perpetrated the theft had utility in his eye, but Providence directed 
the issue of the audacious deed to utility. I know that many are 
perpetually assailing us with the allegation, that not to prevent a thing 
happening, is to be the cause of it happening. For they say, that the man 
who does not take precaution against a theft, or does not prevent it, is 
the cause of it: as he is the cause of the conflagration who has not 
quenched it at the beginning; and the master of the vessel who does not 
reef the sail, is the cause of the shipwreck. Certainly those who are the 
causes of such events are punished by the law. For to him who had power to 
prevent, attaches the blame of what happens. We say to them, that causation 
is seen in doing, working, acting; but the not preventing is in this 
respect inoperative. Further, causation attaches to activity; as in the 
case of the shipbuilder in relation to the origin of the vessel, and the 
builder in relation to the construction of the house. But that which does 
not prevent is separated from what takes place. Wherefore the effect will 
be accomplished; because that which could have prevented neither acts nor 
prevents. For what activity does that which prevents not exert? Now their 
assertion is reduced to absurdity, if they shall say that the cause of the 
wound is not the dart, but the shield, which did not prevent the dart from 
passing through; and if they blame not the thief, but the man who did not 
prevent the theft. Let them then say, that it was not Hector that burned 
the ships of the Greeks, but Achilles; because, having the power to prevent 
Hector, he did not prevent him; but out of anger (and it depended on 
himself to be angry or not) did not keep back the fire, and was a 
concurring cause. Now the devil, being possessed of free-will, was able 
both to repent and to steal; and it was he who was the author of the theft, 
not the Lord, who did not prevent him. But neither was the gift hurtful, so 
as to require that prevention should intervene.

    But if strict accuracy must be employed in dealing with them, let them 
know, that that which does not prevent what we assert to have taken place 
in the theft, is not a cause at all; but that what prevents is involved in 
the accusation of being a cause. For he that protects with a shield is the 
cause of him whom he protects not being wounded; preventing him, as he 
does, from being wounded. For the demon of Socrates was a cause, not by not 
preventing, but by exhorting, even if (strictly speaking) he did not 
exhort. And neither praises nor censures, neither rewards nor punishments, 
are right, when the soul has not the power of inclination and 
disinclination, but evil is involuntary. Whence he who prevents is a cause; 
while he who prevents not judges justly the soul's choice. So in no respect 
is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate 
sins, and a mistaken judgment sometimes prevails, from which, since it is 
ignorance and stupidity, we do not take pains to recede, punishments are 
rightly inflicted. For to take fever is involuntary; but when one takes 
fever through his own fault, from excess, we blame him. Inasmuch, then, as 
evil is involuntary,--for no one prefers evil as evil; but induced by the 
pleasure that is in it, and imagining it good, considers it desirable;--
such being the case, to free ourselves from ignorance, and from evil and 
voluptuous choice, and above all, to withhold our assent from those 
delusive phantasies, depends on ourselves. The devil is called "thief and 
robber;" having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the 
wheat. "All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;" 
not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not 
properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prophetic name 
dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar. For the Lord says, 
"Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do. 
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because 
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; 
for he is a liar, and the father of it."(2)

    But among the lies, the false prophets also told some true things. And 
in reality they prophesied "in an ecstasy," as(3) the servants of the 
apostate. And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermas, of the 
false prophet: "For he speaks some truths. For the devil fills him with his 
own spirit, if perchance he may be able to cast down any one from what is 
right." All things, therefore, are dispensed from heaven for good, "that by 
the Church may be made known the manifold wisdom of God, according to the 
eternal foreknowledge,(1) which He purposed in Christ."(2) Nothing 
withstands God: nothing opposes Him: seeing He is Lord and omnipotent. 
Further, the counsels and activities of those who have rebelled, being 
partial, proceed from a bad disposition, as bodily diseases from a bad 
constitution, but are guided by universal Providence to a salutary issue, 
even though the cause be productive of disease. It is accordingly the 
greatest achievement of divine Providence, not to allow the evil, which has 
sprung from voluntary apostasy, to remain useless, and for no good, and not 
to become in all respects injurious. For it is the work of the divine 
wisdom, and excellence, and power, not alone to do good (for this is, so to 
speak, the nature of God, as it is of fire to warm and of light to 
illumine), but especially to ensure that what happens through the evils 
hatched by any, may come to a good and useful issue, and to use to 
advantage those things which appear to be evils, as also the testimony 
which accrues from temptation.

    There is then in philosophy, though stolen as the fire by Prometheus, a 
slender spark, capable of being fanned into flame, a trace of wisdom and an 
impulse from God. Well, be it so that "the thieves and robbers" are the 
philosophers among the Greeks, who from the Hebrew prophets before the 
coming of the Lord received fragments of the truth, not with full 
knowledge, and claimed these as their own teachings, disguising some 
points, treating others sophistically by their ingenuity, and discovering 
other things, for perchance they had "the spirit of perception."(3) 
Aristotle, too, assented to Scripture, and declared sophistry to have 
stolen wisdom, as we intimated before. And the apostle says, "Which things 
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth."(4) For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received 
of His fulness,"(5) that is, of Christ's. So that the prophets are not 
thieves. "And my doctrine is not Mine," saith the Lord, "but the Father's 
which sent me." And of those who steal He says: "But he that speaketh of 
himself, seeketh his own glory."(6) Such are the Greeks, "lovers of their 
own selves, and boasters."(7) Scripture, when it speaks of these as wise, 
does not brand those who are really wise, but those who are wise in 
appearance.

CHAP. XVIII.--HE ILLUSTRATES THE APOSTLE'S SAYING, "I WILL DESTROY THE 
WISDOM OF THE WISE."

    And of such it is said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will 
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." The apostle accordingly 
adds, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of 
this world?" setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers(8) 
of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made foolish 
the wisdom of the world?"(9) which is equivalent to, showed it to be 
foolish, and not true, as they thought. And if you ask the cause of their 
seeming wisdom, he will say, "because of the blindness of their heart;" 
since "in the wisdom of God," that is, as proclaimed by the prophets, "the 
world knew not," in the wisdom "which spake by the prophets," "Him,"(10) 
that is, God,--"it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching"--what 
seemed to the Greeks foolishness--"to save them that believe. For the Jews 
require signs," in order to faith; "and the Greeks seek after wisdom," 
plainly those reasonings styled "irresistible," and those others, namely, 
syllogisms. "But we preach Jesus Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumbling-
block," because, though knowing prophecy, they did not believe the event: 
"to the Greeks, foolishness;" for those who in their own estimation are 
wise, consider it fabulous that the Son of God should speak by man and that 
God should have a Son, and especially that that Son should have suffered. 
Whence their preconceived idea inclines them to disbelieve. For the advent 
of the Saviour did not make people foolish, and hard of heart, and 
unbelieving, but made them understanding, amenable to persuasion, and 
believing. But those that would not believe, by separating themselves from 
the voluntary adherence of those who obeyed, were proved to be without 
understanding, unbelievers and fools. "But to them who are called, both 
Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Should 
we not understand (as is better) the words rendered, "Hath not God made 
foolish the wisdom of the world?" negatively: "God hath not made foolish 
the wisdom of the world?"--so that the cause of their hardness of heart may 
not appear to have proceeded from God, "making foolish the wisdom of the 
world." For on all accounts, being wise, they incur greater blame in not 
believing the proclamation. For the preference and choice of truth is 
voluntary. But that declaration, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," 
declares Him to have sent forth light, by bringing forth in opposition the 
despised and contemned barbarian philosophy; as the lamp, when shone upon 
by the sun, is said to be extinguished, on account of its not then exerting 
the same power. All having been therefore called, those who are willing to 
obey have been named(1) "called." For there is no unright-eousness with 
God. Those of either race who have believed, are "a peculiar people."(2) 
And in the Acts of the Apostles you will find this, word for word, "Those 
then who received his word were baptized;"(3) but those who would not obey 
kept themselves aloof. To these prophecy says, "If ye be willing and hear 
me, ye shall eat the good things of the land;"(4) proving that choice or 
refusal depends on ourselves. The apostle designates the doctrine which is 
according to the Lord, "the wisdom of God," in order to show that the true 
philosophy has been communicated by the Son. Further, he, who has a show of 
wisdom, has certain exhortations enjoined on him by the apostle: "That ye 
put on the new man, which after God  is renewed in righteousness and true 
holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth. Neither 
give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let 
him labour, working that which is good" (and to work is to labour in 
seeking the truth; for it is accompanied with rational well-doing), "that 
ye may have to give to him that has need,"(5) both of worldly wealth and of 
divine wisdom. For he wishes both that the word be taught, and that the 
money be put into the bank, accurately tested, to accumulate interest. 
Whence he adds, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,"--
that is "corrupt communication" which proceeds out of conceit,--"but that 
which is good for the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the 
hearers." And the word of the good God must needs be good. And how is it 
possible that he who saves shall not be good?

CHAP. XIX.--THAT THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME PORTION OF TRUTH.

    Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have laid down some true 
opinions, we may from this point take a glance at the testimonies. Paul, in 
the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded to have said to the Areopagites, "I 
perceive that ye are more than ordinarily religious. For as I passed by, 
and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription, To The 
Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. 
God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of 
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with  hands; neither is 
worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth 
to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined 
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they 
should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him; though 
He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have 
our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we also are His 
offspring."(6) Whence it is evident that the apostle, by availing himself 
of poetical examples from the Phenomena of Aratus, approves of what had 
been well spoken by the Greeks; and intimates that, by the unknown God, God 
the Creator was in a roundabout way worshipped by the Greeks; but that it 
was necessary by positive knowledge to apprehend and learn Him by the Son. 
"Wherefore, then, I send thee to the Gentiles," it is said, "to open their 
eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among 
them that are sanctified by faith which is in Me."(7) Such, then, are the 
eyes of the blind which are opened. The knowledge of the Father by the Son 
is the comprehension of the "Greek circumlocution;"(8) and to turn from the 
power of Satan is to change from sin, through which bondage was produced. 
We do not, indeed, receive absolutely all philosophy, but that of which 
Socrates(9) speaks in Plato. "For there are (as they say) in the mysteries 
many bearers of the thyrsus, but few bacchanals;" meaning, "that many are 
called, but few chosen." He accordingly plainly adds: "These, in my 
opinion, are none else than those who have philosophized right; to belong 
to whose number, I myself have left nothing undone in life, as far as I 
could, but have endeavoured in every way. Whether we have endeavoured 
rightly and achieved aught, we shall know when we have gone there, if God 
will, a little afterwards." Does he not then seem to declare from the 
Hebrew Scriptures the righteous man's hope, through faith, after death? And 
in Demodocus(10) (if that is really the work of Plato): "And do not imagine 
that I call it philosophizing to spend life pottering about the arts, or 
learning many things, but something different; since I, at least, would 
consider this a disgrace." For he knew, I reckon, "that the knowledge of 
many things does not educate the mind,"(1) according to Heraclitus. And in 
the fifth book of the Republic.(2) he says, "' Shall we then call all 
these, and the others which study such things, and those who apply 
themselves to the meaner arts, philosophers?'  'By no means,' I said, 'but 
like philosophers.' 'And whom,' said he, 'do you call true?' 'Those,' said 
I,' who delight in the contemplation of truth. For philosophy is not in 
geometry, with its postulates and hypotheses; nor in music, which is 
conjectural; nor in astronomy, crammed full of physical, fluid, and 
probable causes. But the knowledge of the good and truth itself are 
requisite,--what is good being one thing, and the ways to the good 
another.'"(3) So that he does not allow that the curriculum of training 
suffices for the good, but co-operates in rousing and training the soul to 
intellectual objects. Whether, then, they say that the Greeks gave forth 
some utterances of the true philosophy by accident, it is the accident of a 
divine administration (for no one will, for the sake of the present 
argument with us, deify chance); or by good fortune, good fortune is not 
unforeseen. Or were one, on the other hand, to say that the Greeks 
possessed a natural conception of these things, we know the one Creator of 
nature; just as we also call righteousness natural; or that they had a 
common intellect, let us reflect who is its father, and what righteousness 
is in the mental economy. For were one to name "prediction,"(4) and assign 
as its cause "combined utterance,"(5) he specifies forms of prophecy. 
Further, others will have it that some truths were uttered by the 
philosophers, in appearance.

    The divine apostle writes accordingly respecting us: "For now we see as 
through a glass;"(6) knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simul-
taneously contemplating, as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, 
in us, is divine. For it is said, "Having seen thy brother, thou hast seen 
thy God:" methinks that now the Saviour God is declared to us. But after 
the laying aside of the flesh, "face to face,"--then definitely and 
comprehensively, when the heart becomes pure. And by reflection and direct 
vision, those among the Greeks who have philosophized accurately, see God. 
For such, through our weakness, are our true views, as images are seen in 
the water, and as we see things through pellucid and transparent bodies. 
Excellently therefore Solomon says: "He who soweth righteousness, worketh 
faith."(7) "And there are those who, sewing their own, make increase."(8) 
And again: "Take care of the verdure on the plain, and thou shalt cut grass 
and gather ripe hay, that thou mayest have sheep for clothing."(9) You see 
how care must be taken for external clothing and for keeping. "And thou 
shalt intelligently know the souls of thy flock."(10) "For when the 
Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the 
law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; uncircumcision 
observing the precepts of the law,"(11) according to the apostle, both 
before the law and before the advent. As if making comparison of those 
addicted to philosophy with those called heretics,(12) the Word most 
clearly says: "Better is a friend that is near, than a brother that 
dwelleth afar off."(13) "And he who relies on falsehoods, feeds on the 
winds, and pursues winged birds."(14) I do not think that philosophy 
directly declares the Word, although in many instances philosophy attempts 
and persuasively teaches us probable arguments; but it assails the sects. 
Accordingly it is added: "For he hath forsaken the ways of his own 
vineyard, and wandered in the tracks of his own husbandry." Such are the 
sects which deserted the primitive Church.(12) Now he who has fallen into 
heresy passes through an arid wilderness, abandoning the only true God, 
destitute of God, seeking waterless water, reaching an uninhabited and 
thirsty land, collecting sterility with his hands. And those destitute of 
prudence, that is, those involved in heresies, "I enjoin," remarks Wisdom, 
saying, "Touch sweetly stolen bread and the sweet water of theft;"(15) the 
Scripture manifestly applying the terms bread and water to nothing else but 
to those heresies, which employ bread and water in the oblation, not 
according to the canon of the Church. For there are those who celebrate the 
Eucharist with mere water. "But begone, stay not in her place:" dace is the 
synagogue, not the Church. He calls it by the equivocal name, place. Then 
He subjoins: "For so shalt thou pass through the water of another;" 
reckoning heretical baptism not proper and true water. "And thou shalt pass 
over another's river," that rushes along and sweeps down to the sea; into 
which he is cast who, having diverged from the stability which is according 
to truth, rushes back into the heathenish and tumultous waves of life.

CHAP. XX.--IN WHAT RESPECT PHILOSOPHY CONTRIBUTES TO THE COMPREHENSION OF 
DIVINE TRUTH.

    As many men drawing down the ship, cannot be called many causes, but 
one cause consisting of many;--for each individual by himself is not the 
cause of the ship being drawn, but along with the rest;--so also 
philosophy, being the search for truth, contributes to the comprehension of 
truth; not as being the cause of comprehension, but a cause along with 
other things, and co-operator; perhaps also a joint cause. And as the 
several virtues are causes of the happiness of one individual; and as both 
the sun, and the fire, and the bath, and clothing are of one getting warm: 
so while truth is one, many things contribute to its investigation. But its 
discovery is by the Son. If then we consider, virtue is, in power, one. But 
it is the case, that when exhibited in some things, it is called prudence, 
in others temperance, and in others manliness or righteousness. By the same 
analogy, while truth is one, in geometry there is the truth of geometry; in 
music, that of music; and in the right philosophy, there will be Hellenic 
truth. But that is the only authentic truth, unassailable, in which we are 
instructed by the Son of God. In the same way we say, that the drachma 
being one and the same, when given to the shipmaster, is called the fare; 
to the tax-gatherer, tax; to the landlord, rent; to the teacher, fees; to 
the seller, an earnest. And each, whether it be virtue or truth, called by 
the same name, is the cause of its own peculiar effect alone; and from the 
blending of them arises a happy life. For we are not made happy by names 
alone, when we say that a good life is happiness, and that the man who is 
adorned in his soul with virtue is happy. But if philosophy contributes 
remotely to the discovery of truth, by reaching, by diverse essays, after 
the knowledge which touches close on the truth, the knowledge possessed by 
us, it aids him who aims at grasping it, in accordance with the Word, to 
apprehend knowledge. But the Hellenic truth is distinct from that held by 
us (although it has got the same name), both in respect of extent of 
knowledge, certainly of demonstration, divine power, and the like. For we 
are taught of God, being instructed in the truly "sacred letters"(1) by the 
Son of God. Whence those, to whom we refer, influence souls not in the way 
we do, but by different teaching. And if, for the sake of those who are 
fond of fault-finding, we must draw a distinction, by saying that 
philosophy is a concurrent and cooperating cause of true apprehension, 
being the search for truth, then we shall avow it to be a preparatory 
training for the enlightened man (<greek>tou</greek> 
<greek>gnwstikou</greek>); not assigning as the cause that which is but the 
joint-cause; nor as the upholding cause, what is merely co-operative; nor 
giving to philosophy the place of a sine qua non. Since almost all of us, 
without training in arts and sciences, and the Hellenic philosophy, and 
some even without learning at all, through the influence of a philosophy 
divine and barbarous, and by power, have through faith received the word 
concerning God, trained by self-operating wisdom. But that which acts in 
conjunction with something else, being of itself incapable of operating by 
itself, we describe as co-operating and concausing, and say that it becomes 
a cause only in virtue of its being a joint-cause, and receives the name of 
cause only in respect of its concurring with something else, but that it 
cannot by itself produce the right effect.

    Although at one time philosophy justified the Greeks,(2) not conducting 
them to that entire righteousness to which it is ascertained to cooperate, 
as the first and second flight of steps help you in your ascent to the 
upper room, and the grammarian helps the philosopher. Not as if by its 
abstraction, the perfect Word would be rendered incomplete, or truth 
perish; since also sight, and hearing, and the voice contribute to truth, 
but it is the mind which is the appropriate faculty for knowing it. But of 
those things which co-operate, some contribute a greater amount of power; 
some, a less. Perspicuity accordingly aids in the communication of truth, 
and logic in preventing us from falling under the heresies by which we are 
assailed. But the teaching, which is according to the Saviour, is complete 
in itself and without defect, being "the power and wisdom of God;"(3) and 
the Hellenic philosophy does not, by its approach, make the truth more 
powerful; but rendering powerless the assault of sophistry against it, and 
frustrating the treacherous plots laid against the truth, is said to be the 
proper "fence and wall of the vineyard." And the truth which is according 
to faith is as necessary for life as bread; while the preparatory 
discipline is like sauce and sweetmeats. "At the end of the dinner, the 
dessert is pleasant," according to the Theban Pindar. And the Scripture has 
expressly said, "The innocent will become wiser by understanding, and the 
wise will receive knowledge."(4) "And he that speaketh of himself," saith 
the Lord, "seeketh his own glory; but He that seeketh His glory that sent 
Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."(5) On the other hand, 
therefore, he who appropriates what belongs to the barbarians, and vaunts 
it is his own, does wrong, increasing his own glory, and falsifying the 
truth. It is such an one that is by Scripture called a "thief." It is 
therefore said, "Son, be not a liar; for falsehood leads to theft." 
Nevertheless the thief possesses really, what he has possessed himself of 
dishonestly,(1) whether it be gold, or silver, or speech, or dogma. The 
ideas, then, which they have stolen, and which are partially true, they 
know by conjecture and necessary logical deduction: on becoming disciples, 
therefore, they will know them with intelligent apprehension.

CHAP. XXI.--THE JEWISH INSTITUTIONS AND LAWS OF FAR HIGHER ANTIQUITY THAN 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.

    On the plagiarizing of the dogmas of the philosophers from the Hebrews, 
we shall treat a little afterwards. But first, as due order demands, we 
must now speak of the epoch of Moses, by which the philosophy of the 
Hebrews will be demonstrated beyond all contradiction to be the most 
ancient of all wisdom. This has been discussed with accuracy by Tatian in 
his book To the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. 
Nevertheless our commentary demands that we too should run over what has 
been said on the point. Apion, then, the grammarian, surnamed Pleistonices, 
in the fourth book of The Egyptian Histories, although of so hostile a 
disposition towards the Hebrews, being by race an Egyptian, as to compose a 
work against the Jews, when referring to Amosis king of the Egyptians, and 
his exploits, adduces, as a witness, Ptolemy of Mendes. And his remarks are 
to the following effect: Amosis, who lived in the time of the Argive 
Inachus, overthrew Athyria, as Ptolemy of Mendes relates in his Chronology. 
Now this Ptolemy was a priest; and setting forth the deeds of the Egyptian 
kings in three entire books, he says, that the exodus of the Jews from 
Egypt, under the conduct of Moses, took place while Amosis was king of 
Egypt. Whence it is seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus. And 
of the Hellenic states, the most ancient is the Argolic, I mean that which 
took its rise from Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his 
Times. And younger by forty generations than it was Attica, founded by 
Cecrops, who was an aboriginal of  double race, as Tatian expressly says; 
and Arcadia, founded by Pelasgus, younger too by nine generations; and he, 
too, is said to have been an aboriginal. And more recent than this last by 
fifty-two generations, was Pthiotis, rounded by Deucalion. And from the 
time of Inachus to the Trojan war twenty generations or more are reckoned; 
let us say, four hundred years and more. And if Ctesias says that the 
Assyrian power is many years older than the Greek, the exodus of Moses from 
Egypt will appear to have taken place in the forty-second year of the 
Assyrian empire,(2) in the thirty-second year of the reign of Belochus, in 
the time of Amosis the Egyptian, and of Inachus the Argive. And in Greece, 
in the time of Phoroneus, who succeeded Inachus, the flood of Ogyges 
occurred; a