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| Chapter XVIII.—The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs.
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Chapter XVIII.—The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs.2335
| 2335 [See p. 192, supra, and the note.] |
It is then clear also that all the other virtues, delineated in
Moses, supplied the Greeks with the rudiments of the whole department
of morals. I mean valour, and temperance, and wisdom, and justice, and
endurance, and patience, and decorum, and self-restraint; and in
addition to these, piety.
But it is clear to every one that piety, which
teaches to worship and honour, is the highest and oldest cause; and
the law itself exhibits justice, and teaches wisdom, by abstinence
from sensible images, and by inviting to the Maker and Father of
the universe. And from this sentiment, as from a fountain, all
intelligence increases. “For the sacrifices of the wicked are
abomination to the Lord;
but the prayers of the upright are acceptable before Him,”2336
since
“righteousness is more acceptable before God than sacrifice.”
Such also as the following we find in Isaiah: “To what purpose
to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the Lord;” and the whole section.2337
“Break every bond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice
that is acceptable to the Lord, a contrite heart that seeks its
Maker.”2338
“Deceitful balances are abomination
before God; but a just balance is acceptable to Him.”2339
Thence Pythagoras exhorts “not to step over the balance;”
and the profession of heresies is called deceitful righteousness; and
“the tongue of the unjust shall be destroyed, but the mouth of
the righteous droppeth wisdom.”2340
“For they call
the wise and prudent worthless.”2341
But it were tedious to adduce testimonies respecting these virtues, since
the whole Scripture celebrates them. Since, then, they define manliness
to be knowledge2342
| 2342 For
the use of knowledge in this connection, Philo, Sextus Empiricus, and
Zeno are quoted. | of things formidable, and not formidable,
and what is intermediate; and temperance to be a state of mind which by
choosing and avoiding preserves the judgments of wisdom; and conjoined
with manliness is patience, which is called endurance, the knowledge
of what is bearable and what is unbearable; and magnanimity is the
knowledge which rises superior to circumstances. With temperance also
is conjoined caution, which is avoidance in accordance with reason. And
observance of the commandments, which is the innoxious keeping of them,
is the attainment of a secure life. And there is no endurance without
manliness, nor the exercise of self-restraint without temperance. And
these virtues follow one another; and with whom are the sequences of
the virtues, with him is also salvation, which is the keeping of the
state of well-being. Rightly, therefore, in treating of these virtues,
we shall inquire into them all; for he that has one virtue gnostically,
by reason of their accompanying each other, has them all. Self-restraint
is that quality which does not overstep what appears in accordance with
right reason. He exercises self-restraint, who curbs the impulses that
are contrary to right reason, or curbs himself so as not to indulge
in desires contrary to right reason. Temperance, too, is not without
manliness; since from the commandments spring both wisdom, which follows
God who enjoins, and that which imitates the divine character, namely
righteousness; in virtue of which, in the exercise of self-restraint,
we address ourselves in purity to piety and the course of conduct thence
resulting, in conformity with God; being assimilated to the Lord as far
as is possible for us beings mortal in nature. And this is being just and
holy with wisdom; for the Divinity needs nothing and suffers nothing;
whence it is not, strictly speaking, capable of self-restraint, for
it is never subjected to perturbation, over which to exercise control;
while our nature, being capable of perturbation, needs self-constraint,
by which disciplining itself to the need of little, it endeavours
to approximate in character to the divine nature. For the good man,
standing as the boundary between an immortal and a mortal nature, has
few needs; having wants in consequence of his body, and his birth itself,
but taught by rational self-control to want few things.
What reason is there in the law’s prohibiting
a man from “wearing woman’s clothing “?2343
Is it not that it would have us to be manly, and not to be effeminate
neither in person and actions, nor in thought and word? For it would
have the man, that devotes himself to the truth, to be masculine both in
acts of endurance and patience, in life, conduct, word, and discipline by
night and by day; even if the necessity were to occur, of witnessing by
the shedding of his blood. Again, it is said, “If any one who has
newly built a house, and has not previously inhabited it; or cultivated
a newly-planted vine, and not yet partaken of the fruit; or betrothed
a virgin, and not yet married her;”2344
—such the
humane law orders to be relieved from military service: from military
reasons in the first place, lest, bent on
their desires, they turn out
sluggish in war; for it is those who are untrammelled by passion
that boldly encounter perils; and from motives of humanity, since,
in view of the uncertainties of war, the law reckoned it not right
that one should not enjoy his own labours, and another should without
bestowing pains, receive what belonged to those who had laboured. The
law seems also to point out manliness of soul, by enacting that he who
had planted should reap the fruit, and he that built should inhabit,
and he that had betrothed should marry: for it is not vain hopes which it
provides for those who labour; according to the gnostic word: “For
the hope of a good man dead or living does not perish,”2345
says Wisdom; “I love them that love me; and they who seek me shall
find peace,”2346
and so forth. What then? Did not the women
of the Midianites, by their beauty, seduce from wisdom into impiety,
through licentiousness, the Hebrews when making war against them? For,
having seduced them from a grave mode of life, and by their beauty
ensnared them in wanton delights, they made them insane upon idol
sacrifices and strange women; and overcome by women and by pleasure at
once, they revolted from God, and revolted from the law. And the whole
people was within a little of falling under the power of the enemy
through female stratagem, until, when they were in peril, fear by its
admonitions pulled them back. Then the survivors, valiantly undertaking
the struggle for piety, got the upper hand of their foes. “The
beginning, then, of wisdom is piety, and the knowledge of holy things
is understanding; and to know the law is the characteristic of a good
understanding.”2347
Those, then, who suppose the law to
be productive of agitating fear, are neither good at understanding
the law, nor have they in reality comprehended it; for “the
fear of the Lord causes
life, but he who errs shall be afflicted with pangs which knowledge
views not.”2348
Accordingly, Barnabas says mystically,
“May God who rules the universe vouchsafe also to you wisdom,
and understanding, and science, and knowledge of His statutes, and
patience. Be therefore God-taught, seeking what the Lord seeks from you,
that He may find you in the day of judgment lying in wait for these
things.” “Children of love and peace,” he called
them gnostically.2349
Respecting imparting and communicating, though much
might be said, let it suffice to remark that the law prohibits a
brother from taking usury: designating as a brother not only him who is
born of the same parents, but also one of the same race and sentiments,
and a participator in the same word; deeming it right not to take usury
for money, but with open hands and heart to bestow on those who need.
For God, the author and the dispenser of such grace, takes as suitable
usury the most precious things to be found among men—mildness,
gentleness, magnanimity, reputation, renown. Do you not regard this
command as marked by philanthropy? As also the following, “To pay
the wages of the poor daily,” teaches to discharge without delay
the wages due for service; for, as I think, the alacrity of the poor
with reference to the future is paralyzed when he has suffered want.
Further, it is said, “Let not the creditor enter the
debtor’s house to take the pledge with violence.” But let
the former ask it to be brought out, and let not the latter, if he have
it, hesitate.2350
And in the harvest the owners are prohibited
from appropriating what falls from the handfuls; as also in reaping
[the law] enjoins a part to be left unreaped; signally thereby training
those who possess to sharing and to large-heartedness, by foregoing of
their own to those who are in want, and thus providing means of
subsistence for the poor.2351
You see how the law
proclaims at once the righteousness and goodness of God, who dispenses
food to all ungrudgingly. And in the vintage it prohibited the
grape-gatherers from going back again on what had been left, and from
gathering the fallen grapes; and the same injunctions are given to the
olive-gatherers.2352
Besides, the tithes of the fruits and of the
flocks taught both piety towards the Deity, and not covetously to grasp
everything, but to communicate gifts of kindness to one’s
neighbours. For it was from these, I reckon, and from the first-fruits
that the priests were maintained. We now therefore understand that we
are instructed in piety, and in liberality, and in justice, and in
humanity by the law. For does it not command the land to be left fallow
in the seventh year, and bids the poor fearlessly use the fruits that
grow by divine agency, nature cultivating the ground for behoof of all
and sundry?2353
How, then, can it be maintained that the law
is not humane, and the teacher of righteousness? Again, in the fiftieth
year, it ordered the same things to be performed as in the seventh;
besides restoring to each one his own land, if from any circumstance he
had parted with it in the meantime; setting bounds to the desires of
those who covet possession, by measuring the period of enjoyment, and
choosing that those who have paid the penalty of protracted penury
should not suffer a life-long punishment. “But alms and acts of
faith are royal guards, and blessing is on
the head of him who bestows; and he who pities the poor
shall be blessed.”2354
For he shows love to one like himself, because of his
love to the Creator of the human race. The above-mentioned particulars
have other explanations more natural, both respecting rest and the
recovery of the inheritance; but they are not discussed at present.
Now love is conceived in many ways, in the form of
meekness, of mildness, of patience, of liberality, of freedom from
envy, of absence of hatred, of forgetfulness of injuries. In all it is
incapable of being divided or distinguished: its nature is to
communicate. Again, it is said, “If you see the beast of your
relatives, or friends, or, in general, of anybody you know, wandering
in the wilderness, take it back and restore it;2355
and if the owner be far
away, keep it among your own till he return, and restore it.” It
teaches a natural communication, that what is found is to be regarded
as a deposit, and that we are not to bear malice to an enemy.
“The command of the Lord being a fountain of life” truly,
“causeth to turn away from the snare of death.”2356
And
what? Does it not command us “to love strangers not only as
friends and relatives, but as ourselves, both in body and soul?”2357
Nay more, it honoured the nations, and bears
no grudge2358
| 2358 μνησιπονηρεῖ
(equivalent to μνησικακεῖ
in the passage of Philo from which Clement is quoting) has been
substituted by Sylb. for μισοπονηρεῖ. | against those who have done ill. Accordingly
it is expressly said, “Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, for thou
wast a sojourner in Egypt;”2359
designating by the term
Egyptian either one of that race, or any one in the world. And enemies,
although drawn up before the walls attempting to take the city, are not
to be regarded as enemies till they are by the voice of the herald
summoned to peace.2360
Further, it forbids intercourse with a female captive so
as to dishonour her. “But allow her,” it says,
“thirty days to mourn according to her wish, and changing her
clothes, associate with her as your lawful wife.”2361
For it
regards it not right that this should take place either in wantonness
or for hire like harlots, but only for the birth of children. Do you
see humanity combined with continence? The master who has fallen in
love with his captive maid it does not allow to gratify his pleasure,
but puts a check on his lust by specifying an interval of time; and
further, it cuts off the captive’s hair, in order to shame
disgraceful love: for if it is reason that induces him to marry, he
will cleave to her even after she has become disfigured. Then if one,
after his lust, does not care to consort any longer with the captive,
it ordains that it shall not be lawful to sell her, or to have her any
longer as a servant, but desires her to be freed and released from
service, lest on the introduction of another wife she bear any of the
intolerable miseries caused through jealousy.
What more? The Lord enjoins to ease and raise up the
beasts of enemies when labouring beneath their burdens; remotely
teaching us not to indulge in joy at our neighbour’s ills, or
exult over our enemies; in order to teach those who are trained in
these things to pray for their enemies. For He does not allow us either
to grieve at our neighbour’s good, or to reap joy at our
neighbour’s ill. And if you find any enemy’s beast
straying, you are to pass over the incentives of difference, and take
it back and restore it. For oblivion of injuries is followed by
goodness, and the latter by dissolution of enmity. From this we are
fitted for agreement, and this conducts to felicity. And should you
suppose one habitually hostile, and discover him to be unreasonably
mistaken either through lust or anger, turn him to goodness. Does the
law then which conducts to Christ appear humane and mild? And does not
the same God, good, while characterized by righteousness from the
beginning to the end, employ each kind suitably in order to salvation?
“Be merciful,” says the Lord, “that you may receive
mercy; forgive, that you may be forgiven. As ye do, so shall it be done
to you; as ye give, so shall it be given to you; as ye judge, so shall
ye be judged; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness be shown to you:
with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again.”2362
Furthermore, [the law] prohibits those, who
are in servitude for their subsistence, to be branded with disgrace;
and to those, who have been reduced to slavery through money borrowed,
it gives a complete release in the seventh year. Further, it prohibits
suppliants from being given up to punishment. True above all, then, is
that oracle. “As gold and silver are tried in the furnace, so the
Lord chooseth men’s hearts. The merciful man is long-suffering;
and in every one who shows solicitude there is wisdom. For on a wise
man solicitude will fall; and exercising thought, he will seek life;
and he who seeketh God shall find knowledge with righteousness. And
they who have sought Him rightly have found peace.”2363
And
Pythagoras seems to me, to have derived his mildness towards irrational
creatures from the law. For instance, he interdicted the immediate use
of the young in the flocks of sheep, and goats, and herds of cattle, on
the instant of their
birth; not even on the pretext of sacrifice
allowing it, both on account of the young ones and of the mothers;
training man to gentleness by what is beneath him, by means of the
irrational creatures. “Resign accordingly,” he says,
“the young one to its dam for even the first seven days.”
For if nothing takes place without a cause, and milk comes in a shower
to animals in parturition for the sustenance of the progeny, he that
tears that, which has been brought forth, away from the supply of the
milk, dishonours nature. Let the Greeks, then, feel ashamed, and
whoever else inveighs against the law; since it shows mildness in the
case of the irrational creatures, while they expose the offspring of
men; though long ago and prophetically, the law, in the above-mentioned
commandment, threw a check in the way of their cruelty. For if it
prohibits the progeny of the irrational creatures to be separated from
the dam before sucking, much more in the case of men does it provide
beforehand a cure for cruelty and savageness of disposition; so that
even if they despise nature, they may not despise teaching. For they
are permitted to satiate themselves with kids and lambs, and perhaps
there might be some excuse for separating the progeny from its dam. But
what cause is there for the exposure of a child? For the man who did
not desire to beget children had no right to marry at first; certainly
not to have become, through licentious indulgence, the murderer of his
children. Again, the humane law forbids slaying the offspring and the
dam together on the same day. Thence also the Romans, in the case of a
pregnant woman being condemned to death, do not allow her to undergo
punishment till she is delivered. The law too, expressly prohibits the
slaying of such animals as are pregnant till they have brought forth,
remotely restraining the proneness of man to do wrong to man. Thus also
it has extended its clemency to the irrational creatures; that from the
exercise of humanity in the case of creatures of different species, we
might practice among those of the same species a large abundance of it.
Those, too, that kick the bellies of certain animals before
parturition, in order to feast on flesh mixed with milk, make the womb
created for the birth of the fœtus its grave, though the law
expressly commands, “But neither shalt thou seethe a lamb in its
mother’s milk.”2364
For the nourishment of
the living animal, it is meant, may not become sauce for that which has
been deprived of life; and that, which is the cause of life, may not
co-operate in the consumption of the body. And the same law commands
“not to muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn: for the
labourer must be reckoned worthy of his food.”2365
And it prohibits an ox and ass to be yoked in the plough
together;2366
pointing perhaps to the want of agreement in
the case of the animals; and at the same time teaching not to wrong any
one belonging to another race, and bring him under the yoke, when there
is no other cause to allege than difference of race, which is no cause
at all, being neither wickedness nor the effect of wickedness. To me
the allegory also seems to signify that the husbandry of the Word is
not to be assigned equally to the clean and the unclean, the believer
and the unbeliever; for the ox is clean, but the ass has been reckoned
among the unclean animals. But the benignant Word, abounding in
humanity, teaches that neither is it right to cut down cultivated
trees, or to cut down the grain before the harvest, for mischiefs sake;
nor that cultivated fruit is to be destroyed at all—either the
fruit of the soil or that of the soul: for it does not permit the
enemy’s country to be laid waste.
Further, husbandmen derived advantage from the law in
such things. For it orders newly planted trees to be nourished three
years in succession, and the superfluous growths to be cut off, to
prevent them being loaded and pressed down; and to prevent their
strength being exhausted from want, by the nutriment being frittered
away, enjoins tilling and digging round them, so that [the tree] may
not, by sending out suckers, hinder its growth. And it does not allow
imperfect fruit to be plucked from immature trees, but after three
years, in the fourth year; dedicating the first-fruits to God after the
tree has attained maturity.
This type of husbandry may serve as a mode
of instruction, teaching that we must cut the growths of sins,
and the useless weeds of the mind that spring up round the vital
fruit, till the shoot of faith is perfected and becomes strong.2367
| 2367 [See Hermas, Visions,
note 2, p. 15, this volume.] | For in
the fourth year, since there is need of time to him that is being
solidly catechized, the four virtues are consecrated to God, the third
alone being already joined to the fourth,2368
| 2368 So Clement seems to designate the human nature of
Christ,—as being a quartum quid in addition to the three
persons of the Godhead. [A strange note: borrowed from ed. Migne. The
incarnation of the second person is a quartum quid, of course;
but not, in our author’s view, “an addition to the three
persons of the Godhead.”] | the person of the Lord. And a
sacrifice of praise is above holocausts: “for He,” it is said,
“giveth strength to get power.”2369
And if your affairs are in
the sunshine of prosperity, get and keep strength, and acquire power in
knowledge. For by these instances it is shown that both good things and
gifts are supplied by God; and that we, becoming ministers of the divine
grace, ought to sow the benefits of God, and make those who approach us
noble and
good; so that, as far as possible,
the temperate man may make others continent, he that is manly may make
them noble, he that is wise may make them intelligent, and the just may
make them just.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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