The Stromata, or Miscellanies

” Again the Barbarian philosophy knows the world of thought and the world of sense—the former archetypal, and the latter the image of that which is called the model; and assigns the former to the Monad, as being perceived by the mind, and the world of sense to the number six. For six is called by the Pythagoreans marriage, as being the genital number; and he places in the Monad the invisible heaven and the holy earth, and intellectual light. For “in the beginning,” it is said, “God made the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible. ” And it is added, “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. ” And in the material cosmogony He creates a solid heaven (and what is solid is capable of being perceived by sense), and a visible earth, and a light that is seen. Does not Plato hence appear to have left the ideas of living creatures in the intellectual world, and to make intellectual objects into sensible species according to their genera? Rightly then Moses says, that the body which Plato calls “the earthly tabernacle” was formed of the ground, but that the rational soul was breathed by God into man’s face. For there, they say, the ruling faculty is situated; interpreting the access by the senses into the first man as the addition of the soul. Wherefore also man is said “to have been made in [God’s] image and likeness. ” For the image of God is the divine and royal Word, the impassible man; and the image of the image is the human mind. And if you wish to apprehend the likeness by another name, you will find it named in Moses, a divine correspondence. For he says, “Walk after the Lord your God, and keep His commandments. ” And I reckon all the virtuous, servants and followers of God. Hence the Stoics say that the end of philosophy is to live agreeable to nature; and Plato, likeness to God, as we have shown in the second Miscellany. And Zeno the Stoic, borrowing from Plato, and he from the Barbarian philosophy, says that all the good are friends of one another. For Socrates says in the Phœdrus , “that it has not been ordained that the bad should be a friend to the bad, nor the good be not a friend to the good;” as also he showed sufficiently in the Lysis , that friendship is never preserved in wickedness and vice. And the Athenian stranger similarly says, “that there is conduct pleasing and conformable to God, based on one ancient ground-principle, That like loves like, provided it be within measure. But things beyond measure are congenial neither to what is within nor what is beyond measure. Now it is the case that God is the measure to us of all things. ” Then proceeding, Plato adds: “For every good man is like every other good man; and so being like to God, he is liked by every good man and by God. ” At this point I have just recollected the following. In the end of the Timæus he says: “You must necessarily assimilate that which perceives to that which is perceived, according to its original nature; and it is by so assimilating it that you attain to the end of the highest life proposed by the gods to men, for the present or the future time. ” For those have equal power with these.

He, who seeks, will not stop till he find; and having found, he will wonder; and wondering, he will reign; and reigning, he will rest. And what? Were not also those expressions of Thales derived from these? The fact that God is glorified for ever, and that He is expressly called by us the Searcher of hearts, he interprets. For Thales being asked, What is the divinity? said, What has neither beginning nor end. And on another asking, “If a man could elude the knowledge of the Divine Being while doing aught? ” said, “How could he who cannot do so while thinking? ” Further, the Barbarian philosophy recognises good as alone excellent, and virtue as sufficient for happiness, when it says, “Behold, I have set before your eyes good and evil, life and death, that ye may choose life. ” For it calls good, “life,” and the choice of it excellent, and the choice of the opposite “evil. ” And the end of good and of life is to become a lover of God: “For this is thy life and length of days,” to love that which tends to the truth. And these points are yet clearer. For the Saviour, in enjoining to love God and our neighbour, says, “that on these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. ” Such are the tenets promulgated by the Stoics; and before these, by Socrates, in the Phœdrus , who prays, “O Pan, and ye other gods, give me to be beautiful within. ” And in the Theœtetus he says expressly, “For he that speaks well ( καλῶς ) is both beautiful and good. ” And in the Protagoras he avers to the companions of Protagoras that he has met with one more beautiful than Alcibiades, if indeed that which is wisest is most beautiful. For he said that virtue was the soul’s beauty, and, on the contrary, that vice was the soul’s deformity. Accordingly, Antipatrus the Stoic, who composed three books on the point, “That, according to Plato, only the beautiful is good,” shows that, according to him, virtue is sufficient for happiness; and adduces several other dogmas agreeing with the Stoics. And by Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who is mentioned by the composer of the epitome of the books of the Maccabees, there were abundant books to show that the Peripatetic philosophy was derived from the law of Moses and from the other prophets. Let such be the case. Plato plainly calls us brethren, as being of one God and one teacher, in the following words: “For ye who are in the state are entirely brethren (as we shall say to them, continuing our story). But the God who formed you, mixed gold in the composition of those of you who are fit to rule, at your birth, wherefore you are most highly honoured; and silver in the case of those who are helpers; and steel and brass in the case of farmers and other workers. ” Whence, of necessity, some embrace and love those things to which knowledge pertains; and others matters of opinion. Perchance he prophesies of that elect nature which is bent on knowledge; if by the supposition he makes of three natures he does not describe three politics, as some supposed: that of the Jews, the silver; that of the Greeks, the third; and that of the Christians, with whom has been mingled the regal gold, the Holy Spirit, the golden.

And exhibiting the Christian life, he writes in the Theætetus in these words: “Let us now speak of the highest principles. For why should we speak of those who make an abuse of philosophy? These know neither the way to the forum, nor know they the court or the senate-house, or any other public assembly of the state. As for laws and decrees spoken or written, they neither see nor hear them. But party feelings of political associations and public meetings, and revels with musicians [occupy them]; but they never even dream of taking part in affairs. Has any one conducted himself either well or ill in the state, or has aught evil descended to a man from his forefathers? —it escapes their attention as much as do the sands of the sea. And the man does not even know that he does not know all these things; but in reality his body alone is situated and dwells in the state, while the man himself flies, according to Pindar, beneath the earth and above the sky, astronomizing, and exploring all nature on all sides. Again, with the Lord’s saying, “Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay,” may be compared the following: “But to admit a falsehood, and destroy a truth, is in nowise lawful. ” With the prohibition, also, against swearing agrees the saying in the tenth book of the Laws: “Let praise and an oath in everything be absent. ” And in general, Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato say that they hear God’s voice while closely contemplating the fabric of the universe, made and preserved unceasingly by God. For they heard Moses say, “He said, and it was done,” describing the word of God as an act. And founding on the formation of man from the dust, the philosophers constantly term the body earthy. Homer, too, does not hesitate to put the following as an imprecation:— “But may you all become earth and water. ” As Esaias says, “And trample them down as clay. ” And Callimachus clearly writes:— “That was the year in which Birds, fishes, quadrupeds, Spoke like Prometheus’ clay. ” And the same again:— “If thee Prometheus formed, And thou art not of other clay. ” Hesiod says of Pandora:— “And bade Hephæstus, famed, with all his speed, Knead earth with water, and man’s voice and mind Infuse. ” The Stoics, accordingly, define nature to be artificial fire, advancing systematically to generation. And God and His Word are by Scripture figuratively termed fire and light. But how? Does not Homer himself, is not Homer himself, paraphrasing the retreat of the water from the land, and the clear uncovering of the dry land, when he says of Tethys and Oceanus:— “For now for a long time they abstain from Each other’s bed and love? ” Again, power in all things is by the most intellectual among the Greeks ascribed to God; Epicharmus—he was a Pythagorean—saying:— “Nothing escapes the divine. This it behoves thee to know. He is our observer. To God nought is impossible. ” And the lyric poet:— “And God from gloomy night Can raise unstained light, And can in darksome gloom obscure The day’s refulgence pure. ” He alone who is able to make night during the period of day is God. In the Phœnomena Aratus writes thus:— “With Zeus let us begin; whom let us ne’er, Being men, leave unexpressed. All full of Zeus, The streets, and throngs of men, and full the sea, And shores, and everywhere we Zeus enjoy. ” He adds:— “For we also are His offspring; . . .

. ” that is, by creation. “Who, bland to men, Propitious signs displays, and to their tasks Arouses. For these signs in heaven He fixed, The constellations spread, and crowned the year With stars; to show to men the seasons’ tasks, That all things may proceed in order sure. Him ever first, Him last too, they adore: Hail Father, marvel great—great boon to men. ” And before him, Homer, framing the world in accordance with Moses on the Vulcan-wrought shield, says:— “On it he fashioned earth, and sky, and sea, And all the signs with which the heaven is crowned. ” For the Zeus celebrated in poems and prose compositions leads the mind up to God. And already, so to speak, Democritus writes, “that a few men are in the light, who stretch out their hands to that place which we Greeks now call the air. Zeus speaks all, and he hears all, and distributes and takes away, and he is king of all. ” And more mystically the Bœotian Pindar, being a Pythagorean, says:— “One is the race of gods and men, And of one mother both have breath;” that is, of matter: and names the one creator of these things, whom he calls Father, chief artificer, who furnishes the means of advancement on to divinity, according to merit. For I pass over Plato; he plainly, in the Epistle to Erastus and Coriscus, is seen to exhibit the Father and Son somehow or other from the Hebrew Scriptures, exhorting in these words: “In invoking by oath, with not illiterate gravity, and with culture, the sister of gravity, God the author of all, and invoking Him by oath as the Lord, the Father of the Leader, and author; whom if ye study with a truly philosophical spirit, ye shall know. ” And the address in the Timœus calls the creator, Father, speaking thus: “Ye gods of gods, of whom I am Father; and the Creator of your works. ” So that when he says, “Around the king of all, all things are, and because of Him are all things; and he [or that] is the cause of all good things; and around the second are the things second in order; and around the third, the third,” I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father. And the same, in the tenth book of the Republic, mentions Eros the son of Armenius, who is Zoroaster. Zoroaster, then, writes: “These were composed by Zoroaster, the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth: having died in battle, and been in Hades, I learned them of the gods. ” This Zoroaster, Plato says, having been placed on the funeral pyre, rose again to life in twelve days. He alludes perchance to the resurrection, or perchance to the fact that the path for souls to ascension lies through the twelve signs of the zodiac; and he himself says, that the descending pathway to birth is the same. In the same way we are to understand the twelve labours of Hercules, after which the soul obtains release from this entire world. I do not pass over Empedocles, who speaks thus physically of the renewal of all things, as consisting in a transmutation into the essence of fire, which is to take place.

And most plainly of the same opinion is Heraclitus of Ephesus, who considered that there was a world everlasting, and recognised one perishable—that is, in its arrangement, not being different from the former, viewed in a certain aspect. But that he knew the imperishable world which consists of the universal essence to be everlastingly of a certain nature, he makes clear by speaking thus: “The same world of all things, neither any of the gods, nor any one of men, made. But there was, and is, and will be ever-living fire, kindled according to measure, and quenched according to measure. ” And that he taught it to be generated and perishable, is shown by what follows: “There are transmutations of fire,—first, the sea; and of the sea the half is land, the half fiery vapour. ” For he says that these are the effects of power. For fire is by the Word of God, which governs all things, changed by the air into moisture, which is, as it were, the germ of cosmical change; and this he calls sea. And out of it again is produced earth, and sky, and all that they contain. How, again, they are restored and ignited, he shows clearly in these words: “The sea is diffused and measured according to the same rule which subsisted before it became earth. ” Similarly also respecting the other elements, the same is to be understood. The most renowned of the Stoics teach similar doctrines with him, in treating of the conflagration and the government of the world, and both the world and man properly so called, and of the continuance of our souls. Plato, again, in the seventh book of the Republic, has called “the day here nocturnal,” as I suppose, on account of “the world-rulers of this darkness;” and the descent of the soul into the body, sleep and death, similarly with Heraclitus. And was not this announced, oracularly, of the Saviour, by the Spirit, saying by David, “I slept, and slumbered; I awoke: for the Lord will sustain me;“ For He not only figuratively calls the resurrection of Christ rising from sleep; but to the descent of the Lord into the flesh he also applies the figurative term sleep. The Saviour Himself enjoins, “Watch;” as much as to say, “Study how to live, and endeavour to separate the soul from the body. ” And the Lord’s day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: “And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they are to set out and arrive in four days. ” By the meadow is to be understood the fixed sphere, as being a mild and genial spot, and the locality of the pious; and by the seven days each motion of the seven planets, and the whole practical art which speeds to the end of rest. But after the wandering orbs the journey leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth motion and day. And he says that souls are gone on the fourth day, pointing out the passage through the four elements. But the seventh day is recognised as sacred, not by the Hebrews only, but also by the Greeks; according to which the whole world of all animals and plants revolve. Hesiod says of it:— “The first, and fourth, and seventh day were held sacred. ” And again:— “And on the seventh the sun’s resplendent orb. ” And Homer:— “And on the seventh then came the sacred day. ” And:— “The seventh was sacred.

” And again:— “It was the seventh day, and all things were accomplished. ” And again:— “And on the seventh morn we leave the stream of Acheron. ” Callimachus the poet also writes:— “It was the seventh morn, and they had all things done. ” And again:— “Among good days is the seventh day, and the seventh race. ” And:— “The seventh is among the prime, and the seventh is perfect. ” And:— “Now all the seven were made in starry heaven, In circles shining as the years appear. ” The Elegies of Solon, too, intensely deify the seventh day. And how? Is it not similar to Scripture when it says, “Let us remove the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us? ” when Plato, all but predicting the economy of salvation, says in the second book of the Republic as follows: “Thus he who is constituted just shall be scourged, shall be stretched on the rack, shall be bound, have his eyes put out; and at last, having suffered all evils, shall be crucified. ” And the Socratic Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance, “To whom have ye likened me? saith the Lord,” says that “God is like no one; wherefore no one can come to the knowledge of Him from an image. ” Xenophon too, the Athenian, utters these similar sentiments in the following words: “He who shakes all things, and is Himself immoveable, is manifestly one great and powerful. But what He is in form, appears not. No more does the sun, who wishes to shine in all directions, deem it right to permit any one to look on himself. But if one gaze on him audaciously, he loses his eyesight. ” “What flesh can see with eyes the Heavenly, True, Immortal God, whose dwelling is the poles? Not even before the bright beams of the sun Are men, as being mortal, fit to stand,”— the Sibyl had said before. Rightly, then, Xenophanes of Colophon, teaching that God is one and incorporeal, adds:— “One God there is ’midst gods and men supreme; In form, in mind, unlike to mortal men. ” And again:— “But men have the idea that gods are born, And wear their clothes, and have both voice and shape. ” And again:— “But had the oxen or the lions hands, Or could with hands depict a work like men, Were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods, The horses would them like to horses sketch, To oxen, oxen, and their bodies make Of such a shape as to themselves belongs. ” Let us hear, then, the lyric poet Bacchylides speaking of the divine:— “Who to diseases dire never succumb, And blameless are; in nought resembling men. ” And also Cleanthes, the Stoic, who writes thus in a poem on the Deity: — “If you ask what is the nature of the good, listen— That which is regular, just, holy, pious, Self-governing, useful, fair, fitting, Grave, independent, always beneficial, That feels no fear or grief, profitable, painless, Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly, Held in esteem, agreeing with itself: honourable, Humble, careful, meek, zealous, Perennial, blameless, ever-during. ” And the same, tacitly vilifying the idolatry of the multitude, adds:— “Base is every one who looks to opinion, With the view of deriving any good from it. ” We are not, then, to think of God according to the opinion of the multitude. “For I do not think that secretly, Imitating the guise of a scoundrel, He would go to thy bed as a man,” says Amphion to Antiope.

And Sophocles plainly writes:— “His mother Zeus espoused, Not in the likeness of gold, nor covered With swan’s plumage, as the Pleuronian girl He impregnated; but an out and out man. ” He further proceeds, and adds:— “And quick the adulterer stood on the bridal steps. ” Then he details still more plainly the licentiousness of the fabled Zeus:— “But he nor food nor cleansing water touched, But heart-stung went to bed, and that whole night Wantoned. ” But let these be resigned to the follies of the theatre. Heraclius plainly says: “But of the word which is eternal men are not able to understand, both before they have heard it, and on first hearing it. ” And the lyrist Melanippides says in song:— “Hear me, O Father, Wonder of men, Ruler of the ever-living soul. ” And Parmenides the great, as Plato says in the Sophist , writes of God thus:— “Very much, since unborn and indestructible He is, Whole, only-begotten, and immoveable, and unoriginated. ” Hesiod also says:— “For He of the immortals all is King and Lord. With God none else in might may strive. ” Nay more, Tragedy, drawing away from idols, teaches to look up to heaven. Sophocles, as Hecatæus, who composed the histories in the work about Abraham and the Egyptians, says, exclaims plainly on the stage:— “One in very truth, God is One, Who made the heaven and the far-stretching earth, The Deep’s blue billow, and the might of winds. But of us mortals, many erring far In heart, as solace for our woes, have raised Images of gods—of stone, or else of brass, Or figures wrought of gold or ivory; And sacrifices and vain festivals To these appointing, deem ourselves devout. ” And Euripides on the stage, in tragedy, says:— “Dost thou this lofty, boundless Ether see, Which holds the earth around in the embrace Of humid arms? This reckon Zeus, And this regard as God. ” And in the drama of Pirithous, the same writes those lines in tragic vein:— “Thee, self-sprung, who on Ether’s wheel Hast universal nature spun, Around whom Light and dusky spangled Night, The countless host of stars, too, ceaseless dance. ” For there he says that the creative mind is self-sprung. What follows applies to the universe, in which are the opposites of light and darkness. Æschylus also, the son of Euphorion, says with very great solemnity of God:— “Ether is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven; The universe is Zeus, and all above. ” I am aware that Plato assents to Heraclitus, who writes: “The one thing that is wise alone will not be expressed, and means the name of Zeus. ” And again, “Law is to obey the will of one. ” And if you wish to adduce that saying, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” you will find it expressed by the Ephesian to the following effect: “Those that hear without understanding are like the deaf. The proverb witnesses against them, that when present they are absent. ” But do you want to hear from the Greeks expressly of one first principle? Timæus the Locrian, in the work on Nature, shall testify in the following words: “There is one first principle of all things unoriginated. For were it originated, it would be no longer the first principle; but the first principle would be that from which it originated. ” For this true opinion was derived from what follows: “Hear,” it is said, “O Israel; the Lord thy God is one, and Him only shalt thou serve.

” “Lo He all sure and all unerring is,” says the Sibyl. Homer also manifestly mentions the Father and the Son by a happy hit of divination in the following words:— “If Outis, alone as thou art, offers thee violence, And there is no escaping disease sent by Zeus,— For the Cyclopes heed not Ægis-bearing Zeus. ” And before him Orpheus said, speaking of the point in hand:— “Son of great Zeus, Father of Ægis-bearing Zeus. ” And Xenocrates the Chalcedonian, who mentions the supreme Zeus and the inferior Zeus, leaves an indication of the Father and the Son. Homer, while representing the gods as subject to human passions, appears to know the Divine Being, whom Epicurus does not so revere. He says accordingly:— “Why, son of Peleus, mortal as thou art, With swift feet me pursuest, a god Immortal? Hast thou not yet known That I am a god? ” For he shows that the Divinity cannot be captured by a mortal, or apprehended either with feet, or hands, or eyes, or by the body at all. “To whom have ye likened the Lord? or to what likeness have ye likened Him? ” says the Scripture. Has not the artificer made the image? or the goldsmith, melting the gold, has gilded it, and what follows. The comic poet Epicharmus speaks in the Republic clearly of the Word in the following terms:— “The life of men needs calculation and number alone, And we live by number and calculation, for these save mortals. ” He then adds expressly:— “Reason governs mortals, and alone preserves manners. ” Then:— “There is in man reasoning; and there is a divine Reason. Reason is implanted in man to provide for life and sustenance, But divine Reason attends the arts in the case of all, Teaching them always what it is advantageous to do. For it was not man that discovered art, but God brought it; And the Reason of man derives its origin from the divine Reason. ” The Spirit also cries by Isaiah: “Wherefore the multitude of sacrifices? saith the Lord . I am full of holocausts of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls I wish not;” and a little after adds: “Wash you, and be clean. Put away wickedness from your souls,” and so forth. Menander, the comic poet, writes in these very words:— “If one by offering sacrifice, a crowd Of bulls or kids, O Pamphilus, by Zeus. Or such like things; by making works of art, Garments of gold or purple, images Of ivory or emerald, deems by these God can be made propitious, he does err, And has an empty mind. For the man must prove A man of worth, who neither maids deflowers, Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor kills For love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus. Nay, covet not a needle’s thread. For God Thee sees, being near beside thee. ” . . . “I am a God at hand,” it is said by Jeremiah, “and not a God afar off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him? ” And again Menander, paraphrasing that Scripture, “Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and trust in the Lord,” thus writes:— “And not a needle even that is Another’s ever covet, dearest friend; For God in righteous works delights, and so Permits him to increase his worldly wealth, Who toils, and ploughs the land both night and day.

But sacrifice to God, and righteous be, Shining not in bright robes, but in thy heart; And when thou hear’st the thunder, do not flee, Being conscious to thyself of nought amiss, Good sir, for thee God ever present sees. ” “Whilst thou art yet speaking,” says the Scripture, “I will say, Lo, here I am. ” Again Diphilus, the comic poet, discourses as, follows on the judgment:— “Think’st thou, O Niceratus, that the dead, Who in all kinds of luxury in life have shared, Escape the Deity, as if forgot? There is an eye of justice, which sees all. For two ways, as we deem, to Hades lead— One for the good, the other for the bad. But if the earth hides both for ever, then Go plunder, steal, rob, and be turbulent. But err not. For in Hades judgment is, Which God the Lord of all will execute, Whose name too dreadful is for me to name, Who gives to sinners length of earthly life. If any mortal thinks, that day by day, While doing ill, he eludes the gods’ keen sight, His thoughts are evil; and when justice has The leisure, he shall then detected be So thinking. Look, whoe’er you be that say That there is not a God. There is, there is. If one, by nature evil, evil does, Let him redeem the time; for such as he Shall by and by due punishment receive. ” And with this agrees the tragedy in the following lines:— “For there shall come, shall come that point of time, When Ether, golden-eyed, shall ope its store Of treasured fire; and the devouring flame, Raging, shall burn all things on earth below, And all above. ” … And after a little he adds:— “And when the whole world fades, And vanished all the abyss of ocean’s waves, And earth of trees is bare; and wrapt in flames, The air no more begets the winged tribes; Then He who all destroyed, shall all restore. ” We shall find expressions similar to these also in the Orphic hymns, written as follows:— “For having hidden all, brought them again To gladsome light, forth from his sacred heart, Solicitous. ” And if we live throughout holily and righteously, we are happy here, and shall be happier after our departure hence; not possessing happiness for a time, but enabled to rest in eternity. “At the same hearth and table as the rest Of the immortal gods, we sit all free Of human ills, unharmed,” says the philosophic poetry of Empedocles. And so, according to the Greeks, none is so great as to be above judgment, none so insignificant as to escape its notice. And the same Orpheus speaks thus:— “But to the word divine, looking, attend, Keeping aright the heart’s receptacle Of intellect, and tread the straight path well, And only to the world’s immortal King Direct thy gaze. ” And again, respecting God, saying that He was invisible, and that He was known to but one, a Chaldean by race—meaning either by this Abraham or his son—he speaks as follows:— “But one a scion of Chaldean race; For he the sun’s path knew right well, And how the motion of the sphere about The earth proceeds, in circle moving Equally around its axis, how the winds Their chariot guide o’er air and sea. ” Then, as if paraphrasing the expression, “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool,” he adds:— “But in great heaven, He is seated firm Upon a throne of gold, and ’neath His feet The earth.

His right hand round the ocean’s bound He stretches; and the hills’ foundations shake To the centre at His wrath, nor can endure His mighty strength. He all celestial is, And all things finishes upon the earth. He the Beginning, Middle is, and End. But Thee I dare not speak. In limbs And mind I tremble. He rules from on high. ” And so forth. For in these he indicates these prophetic utterances: “If Thou openest the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains from Thy presence; and they shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire;” and in Isaiah, “Who hath measured the heaven with a span, and the whole earth with His fist? Again, when it is said:— “Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land, Who with Thy bolts Olympus’ strong-built home Dost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throng Of gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates obey, Relentless though they be. O deathless One, Our mother’s Sire! whose wrath makes all things reel; Who mov’st the winds, and shroud’st in clouds the world, Broad Ether cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,— Thine is the order ’mongst the stars, which run As Thine unchangeable behests direct. Before Thy burning throne the angels wait, Much-working, charged to do all things, for men. Thy young Spring shines, all prank’d with purple flowers; Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails; Thine Autumn noisy Bacchus distributes. ” Then he adds, naming expressly the Almighty God:— “Deathless Immortal, capable of being To the immortals only uttered! Come, Greatest of gods, with strong Necessity. Dread, invincible, great, deathless One, Whom Ether crowns. ” … By the expression “Sire of our Mother” ( μητροπάτωρ ) he not only intimates creation out of nothing, but gives occasion to those who introduce emissions of imagining a consort of the Deity. And he paraphrases those prophetic Scripture—that in Isaiah, “I am He that fixes the thunder, and creates the wind; whose hands have founded the host of heaven;” and that in Moses, “Behold, behold that I am He, and there is no god beside me: I will kill, and I will make to live; I will smite, and I will heal: and there is none that shall deliver out of my hands. ” “And He, from good, to mortals planteth ill, And cruel war, and tearful woes,” according to Orpheus. Such also are the words of the Parian Archilochus. “O Zeus, thine is the power of heaven, and thou Inflict’st on men things violent and wrong. ” Again let the Thracian Orpheus sing to us:— “His right hand all around to ocean’s bound He stretches; and beneath His feet is earth. ” These are plainly derived from the following: “The Lord will save the inhabited cities, and grasp the whole land in His hand like a nest;” “It is the Lord that made the earth by His power,” as saith Jeremiah, “and set up the earth by His wisdom. ” Further, in addition to these, Phocylides, who calls the angels demons, explains in the following words that some of them are good, and others bad (for we also have learned that some are apostate):— “Demons there are—some here, some there—set over men; Some, on man’s entrance [into life], to ward off ill. ” Rightly, then, also Philemon, the comic poet demolishes idolatry in these words:— “Fortune is no divinity to us: There’s no such god. But what befalls by chance And of itself to each, is Fortune called.

” And Sophocles the tragedian says:— “Not even the gods have all things as they choose, Excepting Zeus; for he beginning is and end. ” And Orpheus:— “One Might, the great, the flaming heaven, was One Deity. All things one Being were; in whom All these revolve fire, water, and the earth. ” And so forth. Pindar, the lyric poet, as if in Bacchic frenzy, plainly says:— “What is God? The All. ” And again:— “God, who makes all mortals. ” And when he says,— “How little, being a man, dost thou expect Wisdom for man? ’Tis hard for mortal mind The counsels of the gods to scan; and thou Wast of a mortal mother born,” he drew the thought from the following: “Who hath known the mind of the Lord , or who was His counsellor? ” Hesiod, too, agrees with what is said above, in what he writes:— “No prophet, sprung of men that dwell on earth, Can know the mind of Ægis-bearing Zeus. ” Similarly, then, Solon the Athenian, in the Elegies , following Hesiod, writes:— “The immortal’s mind to men is quite unknown. ” Again Moses, having prophesied that the woman would bring forth in trouble and pain, on account of transgression, a poet not undistinguished writes:— “Never by day From toil and woe shall they have rest, nor yet By night from groans. Sad cares the gods to men Shall give. ” Further, when Homer says,— “The Sire himself the golden balance held,” he intimates that God is just. And Menander, the comic poet, in exhibiting God, says:— “To each man, on his birth, there is assigned A tutelary Demon, as his life’s good guide. For that the Demon evil is, and harms A good life, is not to be thought. ” Then he adds:— “ Ἅπαντα δ᾽ ἁγαθὸν εἱναι τὸν Θεόν ,” meaning either “that every one good is God,” or, what is preferable, “that God in all things is good. ” Again, Æschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not shrink from calling Him the Highest, in these words:— “Place God apart from mortals; and think not That He is, like thyself, corporeal. Thou know’st Him not. Now He appears as fire, Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom; And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth, In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain; And minister to Him the seas and rocks, Each fountain and the water’s floods and streams. The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills, When on them looks the Sovereign’s awful eye: Almighty is the glory of the Most High God. ” Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, “At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles? ” In addition to these, the most prophetic Apollo is compelled—thus testifying to the glory of God—to say of Athene, when the Medes made war against Greece, that she besought and supplicated Zeus for Attica. The oracle is as follows:— “Pallas cannot Olympian Zeus propitiate, Although with many words and sage advice she prays; But he will give to the devouring fire many temples of the immortals, Who now stand shaking with terror, and bathed in sweat;” and so forth. Thearidas, in his book On Nature , writes: “There was then one really true beginning [first principle] of all that exist”—one. For that Being in the beginning is one and alone. ” “Nor is there any other except the Great King,” says Orpheus.

In accordance with whom, the comic poet Diphilus says very sententiously, the “Father of all, To Him alone incessant reverence pay, The inventor and the author of such blessings. ” Rightly therefore Plato “accustoms the best natures to attain to that study which formerly we said was the highest, both to see the good and to accomplish that ascent. And this, as appears, is not the throwing of the potsherds; but the turning round of the soul from a nocturnal day to that which is a true return to that which really is, which we shall assert to be the true philosophy. ” Such as are partakers of this he judges to belong to the golden race, when he says: “Ye are all brethren; and those who are of the golden race are most capable of judging most accurately in every respect. ” The Father, then, and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things, agreeably to all, by innate power and without teaching,—things inanimate, sympathizing with the animate creation; and of living beings some are already immoral, working in the light of day. But of those that are still mortal, some are in fear, and carried still in their mother’s womb; and others regulate themselves by their own independent reason. And of men all are Greeks and Barbarians. But no race anywhere of tillers of the soil, or nomads, and not even of dwellers in cities, can live, without being imbued with the faith of a superior being. Wherefore every eastern nation, and every nation touching the western shore; or the north, and each one towards the south, —all have one and the same preconception respecting Him who hath appointed government; since the most universal of His operations equally pervade all. Much more did the philosophers among the Greeks, devoted to investigation, starting from the Barbarian philosophy, attribute providence to the “Invisible, and sole, and most powerful, and most skilful and supreme cause of all things most beautiful;”—not knowing the inferences from these truths, unless instructed by us, and not even how God is to be known naturally; but only, as we have already often said, by a true periphrasis. Rightly therefore the apostle says, “Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Greeks? ”—not only saying prophetically that of the Greeks believing Greeks would know God; but also intimating that in power the Lord is the God of all, and truly Universal King. For they know neither what He is, nor how He is Lord, and Father, and Maker, nor the rest of the system of the truth, without being taught by it. Thus also the prophetic utterances have the same force as the apostolic word. For Isaiah says, “If ye say, We trust in the Lord our God: now make an alliance with my Lord the king of the Assyrians. ” And he adds: “And now, was it without the Lord that we came up to this land to make war against it? ” And Jonah, himself a prophet, intimates the same thing in what he says: “And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why dost thou snore? Rise, call on thy God, that He may save us, and that we may not perish. ” For the expression “thy God” he makes as if to one who knew Him by way of knowledge; and the expression, “that God may save us,” revealed the consciousness in the minds of heathens who had applied their mind to the Ruler of all, but had not yet believed.

And again the same: “And he said to them, I am the servant of the Lord ; and I fear the Lord , the God of heaven. ” And again the same: “And he said, Let us by no means perish for the life of this man. ” And Malachi the prophet plainly exhibits God saying, “I will not accept sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its going down, My name is glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place sacrifice is offered to Me. ” And again: “Because I am a great King, saith the Lord omnipotent; and My name is manifest among the nations. ” What name? The Son declaring the Father among the Greeks who have believed. Plato in what follows gives an exhibition of free-will: “Virtue owns not a master; and in proportion as each one honours or dishonours it, in that proportion he will be a partaker of it. The blame lies in the exercise of free choice. ” But God is blameless. For He is never the author of evil. “O warlike Trojans,” says the lyric poet, — “High ruling Zeus, who beholds all things, Is not the cause of great woes to mortals; But it is in the power of all men to find Justice, holy, pure, Companion of order, And of wise Themis The sons of the blessed are ye In finding her as your associate. ” And Pindar expressly introduces also Zeus Soter, the consort of Themis, proclaiming him King, Saviour, Just, in the following lines:— “First, prudent Themis, of celestial birth, On golden steeds, by Ocean’s rock, The Fates brought to the stair sublime, The shining entrance of Olympus, Of Saviour Zeus for aye to be the spouse, And she, the Hours, gold-diademed, fair-fruited, good, brought forth. ” He, then, who is not obedient to the truth, and is puffed up with human teaching, is wretched and miserable, according to Euripides:— “Who these things seeing, yet apprehends not God, But mouthing lofty themes, casts far Perverse deceits; stubborn in which, the tongue Its shafts discharges, about things unseen, Devoid of sense. ” Let him who wishes, then, approaching to the true instruction, learn from Parmenides the Eleatic, who promises:— “Ethereal nature, then, and all the signs In Ether thou shall know, and the effects, All viewless, of the sacred Sun’s clear torch And whence produced. The round-eyed Moon’s Revolving influences and nature thou Shall learn; and the ensphering heaven shall know; Whence sprung; and how Necessity took it And chained so as to keep the starry bounds. ” And Metrodorus, though an Epicurean, spoke thus, divinely inspired: “Remember, O Menestratus, that, being a mortal endowed with a circumscribed life, thou hast in thy soul ascended, till thou hast seen endless time, and the infinity of things; and what is to be, and what has been;” when with the blessed choir, according to Plato, we shall gaze on the blessed sight and vision; we following with Zeus, and others with other deities, if we may be permitted so to say, to receive initiation into the most blessed mystery: which we shall celebrate, ourselves being perfect and untroubled by the ills which awaited us at the end of our time; and introduced to the knowledge of perfect and tranquil visions, and contemplating them in pure sunlight; we ourselves pure, and now no longer distinguished by that, which, when carrying it about, we call the body, being bound to it like an oyster to its shell. The Pythagoreans call heaven the Antichthon [the opposite Earth].

And in this land, it is said by Jeremiah, “I will place thee among the children, and give thee the chosen land as inheritance of God Omnipotent;” and they who inherit it shall reign over the earth. Myriads on myriads of examples rush on my mind which might adduce. But for the sake of symmetry the discourse must now stop, in order that we may not exemplify the saying of Agatho the tragedian:— “Treating our by-work as work, And doing our work as by-work. ” It having been, then, as I think, clearly shown in what way it is to be understood that the Greeks were called thieves by the Lord, I willingly leave the dogmas of the philosophers. For were we to go over their sayings, we should gather together directly such a quantity of notes, in showing that the whole of the Hellenic wisdom was derived from the Barbarian philosophy. But this speculation, we shall, nevertheless, again touch on, as necessity requires, when we collect the opinions current among the Greeks respecting first principles. But from what has been said, it tacitly devolves on us to consider in what way the Hellenic books are to be perused by the man who is able to pass through the billows in them. Therefore “Happy is he who possesses the wealth of the divine mind,” as appears according to Empedocles, “But wretched he, who cares for dark opinion about the Gods. ” He divinely showed knowledge and ignorance to be the boundaries of happiness and misery. “For it behoves philosophers to be acquainted with very many things,” according to Heraclitus; and truly must “He, who seeks to be good, err in many things. ” It is then now clear to us, from what has been said, that the beneficence of God is eternal, and that, from an unbeginning principle, equal natural righteousness reached all, according to the worth of each several race,—never having had a beginning. For God did not make a beginning of being Lord and Good, being always what He is. Nor will He ever cease to do good, although He bring all things to an end. And each one of us is a partaker of His beneficence, as far as He wills. For the difference of the elect is made by the intervention of a choice worthy of the soul, and by exercise. Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance with the true philosophy be brought to a close. Elucidations. I. (Clement’s Hebrew, p. 446, note 8 . ) On this matter having spoken in a former Elucidation (see Elucidation VIII. p. 443), I must here translate a few words from Philo Judæus. He says, “Before Abram was called, such was his name; but afterward he was named Abraam , by the simple duplication of one letter, which nevertheless enfolds a great significance. For Abram is expounded to mean sublime father , but Abraam means elect father of sound . ” Philo goes on to give his personal fancies in explication of this whim. But, with Clement, Philo was an expert , to whom all knowledge was to be credited in his specialty. This passage, however, confirms the opinion of those who pronounce Clement destitute of Hebrew, even in its elements. No need to say that Abram means something like what Philo gives us, but Abraham is expounded in the Bible itself ( Genesis 17:3 ). The text of the LXX, seems to have been dubious to our author’s mind, and hence he fails back on Philo.

But this of itself appears decisive as to Clement’s Hebrew scholarship. II. (The Beetle, cap. iv. p. 449, note 6 . ) Cicero notes the scarabæus on the tongue, as identifying Apis, the calf-god of the Egyptians. Now, this passage of our author seems to me to clear up the Scriptural word gillulim in Deut. xxix. 17 , where the English margin reads, literally enough, dungy-gods . The word means, things rolled about ( Lev. xxvi. 30 ; Hab. ii. 18, 19 ; 1 Kings xv. 12 ); on which compare Leighton ( St. Peter , pp. 239, 746, and note). Scripture seems to prove that this story of Clement’s about the beetle of the Egyptians, was known to the ancient Hebrews, and was the point in their references to the gillulim (see Herod. , book iii. cap. 28. , or Rawlinson’s Trans. , vol. ii. 353). The note in Migne ad loc. is also well-worthy to be consulted. III. (The Tetrad, cap. vi. p. 452, note 4 . ) It is important to observe that “the patriarchal dispensation,” as we too carelessly speak, is pluralized by Clement. He clearly distinguishes the three patriarchal dispensations, as given in Adam, Noah, and Abraham; and then comes the Mosaic. The editor begs to be pardoned for referring to his venerated and gifted father’s division (sustained by Clement’s authority), which he used to insist should be further enlarged so as to subdivide the first and the last, making seven complete, and thus honouring the system of sevens which runs through all Scripture. Thus Adam embraces Paradise , and the first covenant after the fall; and the Christian covenant embraces a millennial period . So that we have (1) Paradise , (2) Adam, (3) Noah (4) Abraham, (5) Moses, (6) Christ (7) a millennial period , preluding the Judgment and the Everlasting Kingdom. My venerated and most erudite instructor in theology, the late Dr. Jarvis, in his Church of the Redeemed , expounds a dispensation as identified by (1) a covenant, original or renewed, (2) a sign or sacrament, and (3) a closing judgment. (See pp. 4, 5, and elsewhere in the great work I have named. ) Thus (1) the Tree of Life, (2) the institution of sacrifice, (3) the rainbow, (4) circumcision, (5) the ark, (6) the baptismal and eucharistic sacraments, and (7) the same renewed and glorified by the conversion of nations are the symbols. The covenants and the judgments are easily identified, ending with the universal Judgment. Dr. Jarvis died, leaving his work unfinished; but the Church of the Redeemed is a book complete in itself, embodying the results of a vast erudition, and of a devout familiarity with Scripture. It begins with Adam, and ends with the downfall of Jerusalem (the typical judgment), which closed the Mosaic dispensation. It is written in a pellucid style, and with a fastidious use of the English language; and it is the noblest introduction to the understanding of the New Testament, with which I am acquainted. That such a work should be almost unknown in American literature, of which it should be a conspicuous ornament, is a sad commentary upon the taste of the period when it was given to the public. IV. (The Golden Candlestick, cap. vi. p. 452, note 6 . ) The seven gifts of the Spirit seem to be prefigured in this symbol, corresponding to the seven (spirits) lamps before the throne in the vision of St. John (see Rev. i. 4 , iii. 1, iv. 5, and v. 6; also Isa. xi. 1, 2 , and Zech. iii. 9 , and iv. 10).

The prediction of Isaiah intimates the anointing of Jesus at his baptism, and the outpouring of these gifts upon the Christian Church. V. (Symbols, cap. vi. p. 453, note 3 . ) Clement regards the symbols of the divine law as symbols merely, and not images in the sense of the Decalogue. Whatever we may think of this distinction, his argument destroys the fallacy of the Trent Catechism , which pleads the Levitical symbols in favour of images in “the likeness of holy things,” and which virtually abrogates the second commandment. Images of God the Father (crowned with the Papal tiara) are everywhere to be seen in the Latin churches, and countless images of all heavenly things are everywhere worshipped under the fallacy which Clement rejects. Pascal exposes the distinctions without a difference, by which God’s laws are evacuated of all force in Jesuit theology; but the hairsplitting distinctions, about “bowing down to images and worshipping them,” which infect the Trent theology, are equal to the worst of Pascal’s instances. It is with profound regret that I insert this testimony; but it seems necessary, because garblings of patristic authorities, which begin to appear in America, make an accurate and intelligent study of the Ante-Nicene Fathers a necessity for the American theologian. VI. (Perfection, cap. x. p. 459, note 2 . ) The τέλειοι of the ancient canons were rather the complete than the perfect, as understood by the ancients. Clement’s Gnostic is “complete,” and goes on to moral perfection. Now, does not St. Paul make a similar distinction between babes in Christ, and those “ complete in Him? ”(Col. ii. 10. ) The πεπληρωμένοι of this passage, referring to the “thoroughly furnished” Christian (fully equipped for his work and warfare), has thrown light on many passages of the fathers and of the old canons, in my experience; and I merely make the suggestion for what it may be worth. See Bunsen’s Church and Home Book ( Hippol. , iii. 82, 83, et seqq. ) for the rules (1) governing all Christians, and (2) those called “the faithful,” by way of eminence. So, in our days, not all believers are communicants . VII. (The Unknown God, cap. xii. p. 464, note 1 . ) Must we retain “too superstitious,” even in the Revised Version? (Which see ad loc. ) Bunsen’s rendering of δεισιδαιμονία , by demon-fear , is not English; but it suggests the common view of scholars, upon the passage, and leads me to suppose that the learned and venerable company of revisers could not agree on any English that would answer. That St. Paul paid the Athenians a compliment, as devout in their way , i. e. , God fearing towards their divinities, will not be denied. Clement seems to have so understood it, and hence his constant effort to show that we must recognise, in dealing with Gentiles, whatever of elementary good God has permitted to exist among them. May we not admit this principle, at least so far as to believe that Divine Providence led the Athenians to set up the very inscription which was to prompt Christ’s apostle to an ingenious interpretation, and to an equally ingenious use of it, so avoiding a direct conflict with their laws? This they had charged on him ( Acts xvii. 18 ), as before on Socrates. VIII. (Xenocrates and Democritus, cap. xiii. p. 465, note 3 . ) My grave and studious reader will forgive me, here, for a reference to Stromata of a widely different sort. Dulce est desipere , etc.

One sometimes finds instruction and relief amid the intense nonsense of “agnostic” and other “philosophies” of our days, in turning to a healthful intellect which “answers fools according to their folly. ” I confess myself an occasional reader of the vastly entertaining and suggestive Noctes of Christopher North, which may be excused by the famous example of a Father of the Church, who delighted in Aristophanes. To illustrate this passage of Clement, then, let me refer to Professor Wilson’s intense sympathy with animals. See the real eloquence of his reference to the dogs of Homer and of Sir Walter Scott. “The Ettrick Shepherd” somewhere wondered, whether some dogs are not gifted with souls; and, in the passage referred to, it is asked, whether the dog of Ulysses could have been destitute of an immortal spirit. On another occasion, Christopher breaks out with something like this: “Let me prefer the man who thinks so, to the miserable atheist whose creed is dust. ” He looks upon his dog “Fro,” and continues (while the noble animal seems listening), “Yes, better a thousand times, O Fro, to believe that ‘my faithful dog shall bear me company,’ than that the soul of a Newton perishes at death,” etc. How often have I regaled myself with the wholesome tonic of such dog loving sport, after turning with disgust from some God hating and mandestroying argument of “modern science,” falsely so called. IX. (Plato’s Prophecy, cap. xiv. p. 470, note 2 . ) My references at this point are worthy of being enlarged upon. I subjoin the following as additional. On this sublime passage, Jones of Nayland remarks, “The greatest moral philosopher of the Greeks declared, with a kind of prescience, that, if a man perfectly just were to come upon earth, he would be impoverished and scourged, and bound as a criminal; and, when he had suffered all manner of indignities, would be put to the shameful death of (suspension or) crucifixion. ” “Several of the Fathers,” he adds, “have taken notice of this extraordinary passage in Plato, looking upon it as a prediction of the sufferings of the Just One , Jesus Christ. ” He refers us to Grotius ( De Veritate , iv. sec. 12) and to Meric Casaubon ( On Credulity , p. 135). The passage from Plato ( Rep . , ii. 5) impressed the mind of Cicero. (See his Rep . , iii. 17. )

The Stromata, or Miscellanies Book VI. Chapter I. —Plan. The sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as possible the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited what the Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that he is by no means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly pious, by a compendious exhibition of the Gnostic’s form of religion, as far as it is possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a book of reference. For the Lord enjoined “to labour for the meat which endureth to eternity. ” And the prophet says, “Blessed is he that soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread,” [that is,] the people, from the Law and from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith. “Now the weak eateth herbs,” according to the noble apostle. The Instructor , divided by us into three books, has already exhibited the training and nurture up from the state of childhood, that is, the course of life which from elementary instruction grows by faith; and in the case of those enrolled in the number of men, prepares beforehand the soul, endued with virtue, for the reception of gnostic knowledge. The Greeks, then, clearly learning, from what shall be said by us in these pages, that in profanely persecuting the God-loving man, they themselves act impiously; then, as the notes advance, in accordance with the style of the Miscellanies , we must solve the difficulties raised both by Greeks and Barbarians with respect to the coming of the Lord. In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruit trees, are not separated according to their species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the form of the Miscellanies is promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is right that labour should precede not only food but also, much more knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and blessed salvation by the “strait and narrow way,” which is truly the Lord’s. Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself; into whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from our old life, into the good land. And transplanting contributes to fruitfulness. The Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is the Light and the true Knowledge. Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects; in which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational, share, which I would never term knowledge, inasmuch as the apprehension of things through the senses comes naturally. But that which par excellence is termed knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and reason, in the exercise of which there will be rational cognitions alone, applying purely to objects of thought, and resulting from the bare energy of the soul.

“He is a good man,” says David, “who pities” (those ruined through error), “and lends” (from the communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for “he will dispense his words in judgment:” with profound calculation, “he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. ” Chapter II. —The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another. Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us in the Scriptures, taking it according to the sense, we have proved, not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them. Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows. Orpheus, then, having composed the line:— “Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,” Homer plainly says:— “Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman. ” And Musæus having written:— “Since art is greatly superior to strength,”— Homer says:— “By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior. ” Again, Musæus having composed the lines:— “And as the fruitful field produceth leaves, And on the ash trees some fade, others grow, So whirls the race of man its leaf,” — Homer transcribes:— “Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground. The budding wood bears some; in time of spring, They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs. ” Again, Homer having said:— “It is unholy to exult over dead men,” Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:— “It is not noble at dead men to sneer;” and Cratinus in the Lacones: — “For men ’tis dreadful to exult Much o’er the stalwart dead. ” Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:— “I erred, nor say I nay: instead of many” — writes thus:— “I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized another. ” As certainly also that line:— “Even-handed war the slayer slays. ” He also, altering, has given forth thus:— “I will do it. For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded.

” Also, translating the following:— “The issues of victory among men depend on the gods,” he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic:— “Victory’s issues on the gods depend. ” Again, Homer having said:— “With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground,” Euripides writes in Erechtheus: — “Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep, Nor in the streams of water lave their feet. ” Archilochus having likewise said:— “But one with this and one with that His heart delights,”— in correspondence with the Homeric line:— “For one in these deeds, one in those delights,” — Euripides says in Œneus: — “But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight. ” And I have heard Æschylus saying:— “He who is happy ought to stay at home; There should he also stay, who speeds not well. ” And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage:— “Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home. ” Menander, too, on comedy, saying:— “He ought at home to stay, and free remain, Or be no longer rightly happy. ” Again, Theognis having said:— “The exile has no comrade dear and true,”— Euripides has written:— “Far from the poor flies every friend. ” And Epicharmus, saying:— “Daughter, woe worth the day! Thee who art old I marry to a youth;” and adding:— “For the young husband takes some other girl, And for another husband longs the wife,”— Euripides writes:— “’Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth; For he desires to share another’s bed, And she, by him deserted, mischief plots. ” Euripides having, besides, said in the Medea: — “For no good do a bad man’s gifts,”— Sophocles in Ajax Flagellifer utters this iambic:— “For foes’ gifts are no gifts, nor any boon. ” Solon having written:— “For surfeit insolence begets, When store of wealth attends. ” Theognis writes in the same way:— “For surfeit insolence begets, When store of wealth attends the bad. ” Whence also Thucydides, in the Histories , says: “Many men, to whom in a great degree, and in a short time, unlooked-for prosperity comes, are wont to turn to insolence. ” And Philistus likewise imitates the same sentiment, expressing himself thus: “And the many things which turn out prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an incredibly dangerous tendency to misfortune. For those who meet with unlooked success beyond their expectations, are for the most part wont to turn to insolence. ” Again, Euripides having written:— “For children sprung of parents who have led A hard and toilsome life, superior are;” Critias writes: “For I begin with a man’s origin: how far the best and strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and eats in a hardy way, and subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if the mother of the future child be strong in body, and give herself exercise. ” Again, Homer having said of the Hephæstus-made shield:— “Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made, And Ocean’s rivers’ mighty strength portrayed,” Pherecydes of Syros says:—“Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus. ” And Homer having said:— “Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps,” — Euripides writes in Erechtheus: — “Of shame I find it hard to judge; ’Tis needed. ’Tis at times a great mischief. ” Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from those who flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the Orestes of Euripides:— “Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease.

” From the Eriphyle of Sophocles:— “Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease. ” And from the Antigone of Sophocles:— “Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal;” And from the Aleuades of Sophocles:— “Each good thing has its nature equal. ” Again, in the Ctimenus of Euripides:— “For him who toils, God helps;” And in the Minos of Sophocles; “To those who act not, fortune is no ally;” And from the Alexander of Euripides:— “But time will show; and learning, by that test, I shall know whether thou art good or bad;” And from the Hipponos of Sophocles:— “Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time, That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold. ” But let us similarly run over the following; for Eumelus having composed the line, “Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,” Solon thus begins the elegy:— “Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright. ” Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:— “What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents, where? ” employs the following iambics in Ægeus: — “What country shall we say that thou hast left To roam in exile, what thy land—the bound Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat? And of what father dost thou call thyself the son? ” And what? Theognis having said:— “Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use It with discretion, ’tis not bad, but good,”— does not Panyasis write? “Above the gods’ best gift to men ranks wine, In measure drunk; but in excess the worst. ” Hesiod, too, saying:— “But for the fire to thee I’ll give a plague, For all men to delight themselves withal,”— Euripides writes:— “And for the fire Another fire greater and unconquerable, Sprung up in the shape of women” And in addition, Homer, saying:— “There is no satiating the greedy paunch, Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men. ” Euripides says:— “Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome; From which all evils come. ” Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:— “With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,”— Menander, in the Poloumenoi , expresses himself similarly, saying:— “The presence of wisdom is not always suitable: One sometimes must with others play the fool. ” And Antimachus of Teos having said:— “From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,”— Augias composed the line:— “For gifts men’s mind and acts deceive. ” And Hesiod having said:— “Than a good wife, no man a better thing Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,”— Simonides said:— “A better prize than a good wife no man Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse. ” Again, Epicharmas having said:— “As destined long to live, and yet not long, Think of thyself. ”— Euripides writes:— “Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is, Why don’t we live as free from care, as pleasant As we may? ” Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:— “The life of men is prone to change,”— Posidippus says:— “No man of mortal mould his life has passed From suffering free. Nor to the end again Has continued prosperous. ” Similarly speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to change. Again, Euripides having said:— “Oh life to mortal men of trouble full, How slippery in everything art thou! Now grow’st thou, and thou now decay’st away.

And there is set no limit, no, not one, For mortals of their course to make an end, Except when Death’s remorseless final end Comes, sent from Zeus,”— Diphilus writes:— “There is no life which has not its own ills, Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease; And Death, as a physician, coming, gives Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep. ” Furthermore, Euripides having said:— “Many are fortune’s shapes, And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,”— The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:— “The instability of mortals’ fates. ” And Bacchylides having said:— “To few alone of mortals is it given To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while, And not meet with calamities,”— Moschion, the comic poet, writes:— “But he of all men is most blest, Who leads throughout an equal life. ” And you will find that, Theognis having said:— “For no advantage to a man grown old A young wife is, who will not, as a ship The helm, obey,”— Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:— “An old man to a young wife suits but ill. ” For Anacreon, having written:— “Luxurious love I sing, With flowery garlands graced, He is of gods the king, He mortal men subdues,— Euripides writes:— “For love not only men attacks, And women; but disturbs The souls of gods above, and to the sea Descends. ” But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: “Of these things some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musæus; some in one place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new and varied. ” And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmæon of Crotona having said, “It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a friend,” Sophocles wrote in the Antigone: — “For what sore more grievous than a bad friend? ” And Xenophon said: “No man can injure enemies in any way other than by appearing to be a friend. ” And Euripides having said in Telephus: — “Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians? ”— Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissæans, says: “Shall we be slaves to Archelaus—Greeks to a Barbarian? ” And Orpheus having said:— “Water is the change for soul, and death for water; From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water, And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;” and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes thus:— “It is death for souls to become water, and death for water to become earth; and from earth comes water, and from water soul. ” And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, “Thus was produced the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots—fire, water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is produced,”—Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote:— “The four roots of all things first do thou hear— Fire, water, earth, and ether’s boundless height: For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes.

” And Plato having said, “Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner from life those they value most,” Menander wrote:— “Whom the gods love, dies young. ” And Euripides having written in the Œnomaus: — “We judge of things obscure from what we see;” and in the Phœnix: — “By signs the obscure is fairly grasped,”— Hyperides says, “But we must investigate things unseen by learning from signs and probabilities. ” And Isocrates having said, “We must conjecture the future by the past,” Andocides does not shrink from saying, “For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs in reference to what is to be. ” Besides, Theognis having said:— “The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable, O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection; But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast, If he is false, and has a treacherous heart within, This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God, And of all things the hardest to detect,”— Euripides writes:— “Oh Zeus, why hast thou given to men clear tests Of spurious gold, while on the body grows No mark sufficing to discover clear The wicked man? ” Hyperides himself also says, “There is no feature of the mind impressed on the countenance of men. ” Again, Stasinus having composed the line:— “Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,”— Xenophon says, “For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner, as if one who killed the father should spare his children. ” And Sophocles having written in the Antigone: — “Mother and father being in Hades now, No brother ever can to me spring forth,”— Herodotus says, “Mother and father being no more, I shall not have another brother. ” In addition to these, Theopompus having written:— “Twice children are old men in very truth;” And before him Sophocles in Peleus: — “Peleus, the son of Æacus, I, sole housekeeper, Guide, old as he is now, and train again, For the aged man is once again a child,”— Antipho the orator says, “For the nursing of the old is like the nursing of children. ” Also the philosopher Plato says, “The old man then, as seems, will be twice a child. ” Further, Thucydides having said, “We alone bore the brunt at Marathon,” —Demosthenes said, “By those who bore the brunt at Marathon. ” Nor will I omit the following. Cratinus having said in the Pytine: — “The preparation perchance you know,” Andocides the orator says, “The preparation, gentlemen of the jury, and the eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know. ” Similarly also Nicias, in the speech on the deposit, against Lysias, says, “The preparation and the eagerness of the adversaries, ye see, O gentlemen of the jury. ” After him Æschines says, “You see the preparation, O men of Athens, and the line of battle. ” Again, Demosthenes having said, “What zeal and what canvassing, O men of Athens, have been employed in this contest, I think almost all of you are aware;” and Philinus similarly, “What zeal, what forming of the line of battle, gentlemen of the jury, have taken place in this contest, I think not one of you is ignorant. ” Isocrates, again, having said, “As if she were related to his wealth, not him,” Lysias says in the Orphics , “And he was plainly related not to the persons, but to the money.

” Since Homer also having written:— “O friend, if in this war, by taking flight, We should from age and death exemption win, I would not fight among the first myself, Nor would I send thee to the glorious fray; But now—for myriad fates of death attend In any case, which man may not escape Or shun—come on. To some one we shall bring Renown, or some one shall to us,” — Theopompus writes, “For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were to pass the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would not be wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life, that death in battle seems preferable. ” And what? Child the sophist having uttered the apophthegm, “Become surety, and mischief is at hand,” did not Epicharmus utter the same sentiment in other terms, when he said, “Suretyship is the daughter of mischief, and loss that of suretyship? ” Further, Hippocrates the physician having written, “You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease,” Euripides says in Hexameters: — “Those who the healing art would practice well, Must study people’s modes of life, and note The soil, and the diseases so consider. ” Homer again, having written:— “I say no mortal man can doom escape,”— Archinus says, “All men are bound to die either sooner or later;” and Demosthenes, “To all men death is the end of life, though one should keep himself shut up in a coop. ” And Herodotus, again, having said, in his discourse about Glaucus the Spartan, that the Pythian said, “In the case of the Deity, to say and to do are equivalent,” Aristophanes said:— “For to think and to do are equivalent. ” And before him, Parmenides of Elea said:— “For thinking and being are the same. ” And Plato having said, “And we shall show, not absurdly perhaps, that the beginning of love is sight; and hope diminishes the passion, memory nourishes it, and intercourse preserves it;” does not Philemon the comic poet write:— “First all see, then admire; Then gaze, then come to hope; And thus arises love? ” Further, Demosthenes having said, “For to all of us death is a debt,” and so forth, Phanocles writes in Loves , or The Beautiful: — “But from the Fates’ unbroken thread escape Is none for those that feed on earth. ” You will also find that Plato having said, “For the first sprout of each plant, having got a fair start, according to the virtue of its own nature, is most powerful in inducing the appropriate end;” the historian writes, “Further, it is not natural for one of the wild plants to become cultivated, after they have passed the earlier period of growth;” and the following of Empedocles:— “For I already have been boy and girl, And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”— Euripides transcribes in Chrysippus: — “But nothing dies Of things that are; but being dissolved, One from the other, Shows another form. ” And Plato having said, in the Republic , that women were common, Euripides writes in the Protesilaus: — “For common, then, is woman’s bed. ” Further, Euripides having written:— “For to the temperate enough sufficient is”— Epicurus expressly says, “Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all. ” Again, Aristophanes having written:— “Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”— Epicurus says, “The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity.

” Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such, stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of perceiving. And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of the possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what is the production of others, they have published it as their own; as Eugamon of Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musæus, and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the capture of Œchalia from Cleophilus of Samos. You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took from Orpheus, from the Disappearance of Dionysus, those words and what follows verbatim:— “As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive. ” And in the Theogony , it is said by Orpheus of Kronos:— “He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him All-conquering Sleep had seized. ” These Homer transferrred to the Cyclops. And Hesiod writes of Melampous:— “Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;” and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musæus. And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of the Thesmophoriazusæ , transferred the words from the Empiprameni of Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes in Dædalus , steal from one another. Cocalus , composed by Araros, the son of Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the comedy called Hypobolimœns . Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium and Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And, besides, there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed the writings of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristotle, and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecatæus, and Androtion, and Philochorus. Dieuchidas of Megara transferred the beginning of his treatise from the Deucalion of Hellanicus. I pass over in silence Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus. From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in which they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and Aristotle, took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurus also pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have received from us. Chapter III. —Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles Related in the Sacred Books of the Hebrews. And now they are convicted not only of borrowing doctrines from the Barbarians, but also of relating as prodigies of Hellenic mythology the marvels found in our records, wrought through divine power from above, by those who led holy lives, while devoting attention to us. And we shall ask at them whether those things which they relate are true or false. But they will not say that they are false; for they will not with their will condemn themselves of the very great silliness of composing falsehoods, but of necessity admit them to be true. And how will the prodigies enacted by Moses and the other prophets any longer appear to them incredible?

For the Almighty God, in His care for all men, turns some to salvation by commands, some by threats, some by miraculous signs, some by gentle promises. Well, the Greeks, when once a drought had wasted Greece for a protracted period, and a dearth of the fruits of the earth ensued, it is said, those that survived of them, having, because of the famine, come as suppliants to Delphi, asked the Pythian priestess how they should be released from the calamity. She announced that the only help in their distress was, that they should avail themselves of the prayers of Æacus. Prevailed on by them, Æacus, ascending the Hellenic hill, and stretching out pure hands to heaven, and invoking the common God, besought him to pity wasted Greece. And as he prayed, thunder sounded, out of the usual course of things, and the whole surrounding atmosphere was covered with clouds. And impetuous and continued rains, bursting down, filled the whole region. The result was a copious and rich fertility wrought by the husbandry of the prayers of Æacus. “And Samuel called on the Lord ,” it is said, “and the Lord gave forth His voice, and rain in the day of harvest. ” Do you see that “He who sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust” by the subject powers is the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of instances of God, in reference to the prayers of the just, hearing and performing each one of their petitions. Again, the Greeks relate, that in the case of a failure once of the Etesian winds, Aristæus once sacrificed in Ceus to Isthmian Zeus. For there was great devastation, everything being burnt up with the heat in consequence of the winds which had been wont to refresh the productions of the earth, not blowing, and he easily called them back. And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian priestess having made answer:— “O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,”— they having erected an altar and performed sacrifice to the winds, had them as their helpers. For, blowing violently around Cape Sepias, they shivered the whole preparations of the Persian expedition. Empedocles of Agrigentum was called “Checker of Winds. ” Accordingly it is said, that when, on a time, a wind blew from the mountain of Agrigentum, heavy and pestiferous for the inhabitants, and the cause also of barrenness to their wives, he made the wind to cease. Wherefore he himself writes in the lines:— “Thou shalt the might of the unwearied winds make still, Which rushing to the earth spoil mortals’ crops, And at thy will bring back the avenging blasts. ” And they say that he was followed by some that used divinations, and some that had been long vexed by sore diseases. They plainly, then, believed in the performance of cures, and signs and wonders, from our Scriptures. For if certain powers move the winds and dispense showers, let them hear the psalmist: “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! ” This is the Lord of powers, and principalities, and authorities, of whom Moses speaks; so that we may be with Him. “And ye shall circumcise your hard heart, and shall not harden your neck any more. For He is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great God and strong,” and so forth. And Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes to the height, and see who hath produced all these things.

” And some say that plagues, and hail-storms, and tempests, and the like, are wont to take place, not alone in consequence of material disturbance, but also through anger of demons and bad angels. For instance, they say that the Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena of the skies, when the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices. And if at any time there is the want of an animal, they are satisfied with bleeding their own finger for a sacrifice. The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence, effected a delay of the plague for ten years. The sacrifices, too, of Epimenides of Crete, put off the Persian war for an equal period. And it is considered to be all the same whether we call these spirits gods or angels. And those skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the temples have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of these Dæmons, and teaching them to be worshipped by men; as having, in consequence of the purity of their life, by the divine foreknowledge, received the power of wandering about the space around the earth in order to minister to men. For they knew that some souls were by nature kept in the body. But of these, as the work proceeds, in the treatise on the angels, we shall discourse. Democritus, who predicted many things from observation of celestial phenomena, was called “Wisdom” ( Σοφία ). On his meeting a cordial reception from his brother Damasus, he predicted that there would be much rain, judging from certain stars. Some, accordingly, convinced by him, gathered their crops; for being in summer-time, they were still on the threshing-floor. But others lost all, unexpected and heavy showers having burst down. How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that grew on the mount; and the sound of trumpets issued forth, breathed without instruments? For that which is called the descent on the mount of God is the advent of divine power, pervading the whole world, and proclaiming “the light that is inaccessible. ” For such is the allegory, according to the Scripture. But the fire was seen, as Aristobulus says, while the whole multitude, amounting to not less than a million, besides those under age, were congregated around the mountain, the circuit of the mount not being less than five days’ journey. Over the whole place of the vision the burning fire was seen by them all encamped as it were around; so that the descent was not local. For God is everywhere. Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit; and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds.

Those also who composed the Persics relate that in the uplands, in the country of the Magi, three mountains are situated on an extended plain, and that those who travel through the locality, on coming to the first mountain, hear a confused sound as of several myriads shouting, as if in battle array; and on reaching the middle one, they hear a clamour louder and more distinct; and at the end hear people singing a pæan, as if victorious. And the cause, in my opinion, of the whole sound, is the smoothness and cavernous character of the localities; and the air, entering in, being sent back and going to the same point, sounds with considerable force. Let these things be so. But it is possible for God Almighty, even without a medium, to produce a voice and vision through the ear, showing that His greatness has a natural order beyond what is customary, in order to the conversion of the hitherto unbelieving soul, and the reception of the commandment given. But there being a cloud and a lofty mountain, how is it not possible to hear a different sound, the wind moving by the active cause? Wherefore also the prophet says, “Ye heard the voice of words, and saw no similitude. ” You see how the Lord’s voice, the Word, without shape, the power of the Word, the luminous word of the Lord, the truth from heaven, from above, coming to the assembly of the Church, wrought by the luminous immediate ministry. Chapter IV. —The Greeks Drew Many of Their Philosophical Tenets from the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists. We shall find another testimony in confirmation, in the fact that the best of the philosophers, having appropriated their most excellent dogmas from us, boast, as it were, of certain of the tenets which pertain to each sect being culled from other Barbarians, chiefly from the Egyptians—both other tenets, and that especially of the transmigration of the soul. For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. For first advances the Singer, bearing some one of the symbols of music. For they say that he must learn two of the books of Hermes, the one of which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regulations for the king’s life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer, with a horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of astrology. He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which are four in number, always in his mouth. Of these, one is about the order of the fixed stars that are visible, and another about the conjunctions and luminous appearances of the sun and moon; and the rest respecting their risings. Next in order advances the sacred Scribe, with wings on his head, and in his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink and the reed, with which they write. And he must be acquainted with what are called hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography, the position of the sun and moon, and about the five planets; also the description of Egypt, and the chart of the Nile; and the description of the equipment of the priests and of the places consecrated to them, and about the measures and the things in use in the sacred rites. Then the Stole-keeper follows those previously mentioned, with the cubit of justice and the cup for libations. He is acquainted with all points called Pædeutic (relating to training) and Moschophatic (sacrificial).

There are also ten books which relate to the honour paid by them to their gods, and containing the Egyptian worship; as that relating to sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and the like. And behind all walks the Prophet, with the water-vase carried openly in his arms; who is followed by those who carry the issue of loaves. He, as being the governor of the temple, learns the ten books called “Hieratic;” and they contain all about the laws, and the gods, and the whole of the training of the priests. For the Prophet is, among the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the revenues. There are then forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; of which the six-and-thirty containing the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are learned by the forementioned personages; and the other six, which are medical, by the Pastophoroi (image-bearers),—treating of the structure of the body, and of diseases, and instruments, and medicines, and about the eyes, and the last about women. Such are the customs of the Egyptians, to speak briefly. The philosophy of the Indians, too, has been celebrated. Alexander of Macedon, having taken ten of the Indian Gymnosophists, that seemed the best and most sententious, proposed to them problems, threatening to put to death him that did not answer to the purpose; ordering one, who was the eldest of them, to decide. The first, then, being asked whether he thought that the living were more in number than the dead, said, The living; for that the dead were not. The second, on being asked whether the sea or the land maintained larger beasts, said, The land; for the sea was part of it. And the third being asked which was the most cunning of animals? The one, which has not hitherto been known, man. And the fourth being interrogated, For what reason they had made Sabba, who was their prince, revolt, answered, Because they wished him to live well rather than die ill. And the fifth being asked, Whether he thought that day or night was first, said, One day. For puzzling questions must have puzzling answers. And the sixth being posed with the query, How shall one be loved most? By being most powerful; in order that he may not be timid. And the seventh being asked, How any one of men could become God? said, If he do what it is impossible for man to do. And the eighth being asked, Which is the stronger, life or death? said, Life, which bears such ills. And the ninth being interrogated, Up to what point it is good for a man to live? said, Till he does not think that to die is better than to live. And on Alexander ordering the tenth to say something, for he was judge, he said, “One spake worse than another. ” And on Alexander saying, Shall you not, then, die first, having given such a judgment? he said, And how, O king, wilt thou prove true, after saying that thou wouldest kill first the first man that answered very badly? And that the Greeks are called pilferers of all manner of writing, is, as I think, sufficiently demonstrated by abundant proofs. Chapter V. —The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God.

And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by positive knowledge, but by indirect expression, Peter says in the Preaching: “Know then that there is one God, who made the beginning of all things, and holds the power of the end; and is the Invisible, who sees all things; incapable of being contained, who contains all things; needing nothing, whom all things need, and by whom they are; incomprehensible, everlasting, unmade, who made all things by the ‘Word of His power,’ that is, according to the gnostic scripture, His Son. ” Then he adds: “Worship this God not as the Greeks,”—signifying plainly, that the excellent among the Greeks worshipped the same God as we, but that they had not learned by perfect knowledge that which was delivered by the Son. “Do not then worship,” he did not say, the God whom the Greeks worship, but “as the Greeks,”—changing the manner of the worship of God, not announcing another God. What, then, the expression “not as the Greeks” means, Peter himself shall explain, as he adds: “Since they are carried away by ignorance, and know not God” (as we do, according to the perfect knowledge); “but giving shape to the things of which He gave them the power for use—stocks and stones, brass and iron, gold and silver—matter;—and setting up the things which are slaves for use and possession, worship them. And what God hath given to them for food—the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the creeping things of the earth, and the wild beasts with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice, cats and dogs and apes, and their own proper food—they sacrifice as sacrifices to mortals; and offering dead things to the dead, as to gods, are unthankful to God, denying His existence by these things. ” And that it is said, that we and the Greeks know the same God, though not in the same way, he will infer thus: “Neither worship as the Jews; for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring as they do angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day. ” Then he gives the finishing stroke to the question: “So that do ye also, learning holily and righteously what we deliver to you; keep them, worshipping God in a new way, by Christ. ” For we find in the Scriptures, as the Lord says: “Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your fathers in Mount Horeb. ” He made a new covenant with us; for what belonged to the Greeks and Jews is old. But we, who worship Him in a new way, in the third form, are Christians. For clearly, as I think, he showed that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile way, by the Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us. And further, that the same God that furnished both the Covenants was the giver of Greek philosophy to the Greeks, by which the Almighty is glorified among the Greeks, he shows. And it is clear from this.