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| Chapter VIII.—Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God.
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Chapter VIII.—Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God.
For Paul too, in the Epistles, plainly does not
disparage philosophy; but deems it unworthy of the man who has attained
to the elevation of the Gnostic, any more to go back to the Hellenic
“philosophy,” figuratively calling it “the rudiments
of this world,”3305
| 3305
Col. ii. 8. [This is an interesting comment on the apostles’
system, and very noteworthy.] | as being most rudimentary,
and a preparatory training for the truth. Wherefore also, writing to
the Hebrews, who were declining again from faith to the law, he says,
“Have ye not need again of one to teach you which are the first
principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat?”3306
So also to the Colossians, who
were Greek converts, “Beware lest any man spoil you by philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
this world, and not after Christ,”3307
—enticing them again to
return to philosophy, the elementary doctrine.
And should one say that it was through
human understanding that philosophy was discovered by the Greeks,
still I find the Scriptures saying that understanding is sent
by God. The psalmist, accordingly, considers understanding as
the greatest free gift, and beseeches, saying, “I am Thy
servant; give me understanding.”3308
And does not David, while
asking the abundant experience of knowledge, write, “Teach me
gentleness, and discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed in Thy
commandments?”3309
He confessed the covenants to be of the
highest authority, and that they were given to the more excellent.
Accordingly the psalm again says of God, “He hath not done thus
to any nation; and He hath not shown His judgments to them.”3310
The expression “He hath not done so” shows that He hath
done, but not “thus.” The “thus,” then, is
put comparatively, with reference to pre-eminence, which obtains in our
case. The prophet might have said simply, “He hath not done,”
without the “thus.”
Further, Peter in the Acts says, “Of a
truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every
nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted by
Him.”3311
The absence of respect of persons in God is not
then in time, but from eternity. Nor had His beneficence a beginning;
nor any more is it limited to places or persons. For His beneficence is
not confined to parts. “Open ye the gates of righteousness,”
it is said; “entering into them, I will confess to the Lord. This is the gate of the
Lord. The righteous shall
enter by it.”3312
Explaining the prophet’s saying,
Barnabas adds, “There being many gates open, that which is
in righteousness is the gate which is in Christ, by which all who
enter are blessed.” Bordering on the same meaning is also
the following prophetic utterance: “The Lord is on many waters;”3313
not the different covenants alone, but the modes of teaching,
those among the Greek and those among the Barbarians, conducing to
righteousness. And already clearly David, bearing testimony to the truth,
sings, “Let sinners be turned into Hades, and all the nations that
forget God.”3314
They forget, plainly, Him whom they formerly
remembered, and dismiss Him whom they knew previous to forgetting
Him. There was then a dim knowledge of God also among the nations. So
much for those points.
Now the Gnostic must be erudite. And since the
Greeks say that Protagoras having led the way, the opposing of one
argument by another was invented, it is fitting that something be
said with reference to arguments of this sort. For Scripture says,
“He that says much, shall also hear in his turn.”3315
And who
shall understand a parable of the Lord, but the wise, the intelligent, and
he that loves his Lord? Let such a man be faithful; let him be capable of
uttering his knowledge; let him be wise in the discrimination of words;
let him be dexterous in action; let him be pure. “The greater
he seems to be, the more humble should he be,” says Clement in
the Epistle to the Corinthians,—“such an one as is capable
of complying with the precept, ‘And some pluck from the fire,
and on others have compassion, making a difference,’”3316
The pruning-hook is made, certainly, principally
for pruning; but with it we separate twigs that have got intertwined,
cut the thorns which grow along with the vines, which it is not very
easy to reach. And all these things have a reference to pruning. Again,
man is made principally for the knowledge of God; but he also measures
land, practices agriculture, and philosophizes; of which pursuits,
one conduces to life, another to living well, a third to the study
of the things which are capable of demonstration. Further, let those
who say that philosophy took its rise from the devil know this, that
the Scripture says that “the devil is transformed into an angel
of light.”3317
When about to do what? Plainly, when about to
prophesy. But if he prophesies as an angel of light, he will speak what
is true. And if he prophesies what is angelical, and of the light, then
he prophesies what is beneficial when he is transformed according to the
likeness of the operation, though he be different with respect to the
matter of apostasy. For how could he deceive any one, without drawing
the lover of knowledge into fellowship, and so drawing him afterwards
into falsehood? Especially he will be found to know the truth, if not
so as to comprehend it, yet so as not to be unacquainted with it.
Philosophy is not then false, though the thief
and the liar speak truth, through a transformation of operation. Nor
is sentence of condemnation to be pronounced ignorantly against what is
said, on account of him who says it (which also is to be kept in view,
in the case of those who are now alleged to prophesy); but what is said
must be looked at, to see if it keep by the truth.
And in general terms, we shall not err in alleging
that all things necessary and profitable for life came to us from God,
and that philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant
peculiar to them—being, as it is, a stepping-stone to the philosophy
which is according to Christ—although those who applied themselves
to the philosophy of the Greeks shut their ears voluntarily to the truth,
despising the voice of Barbarians, or also dreading the danger suspended
over the believer, by the laws of the state.
And as in the Barbarian philosophy, so also in the
Hellenic, “tares were sown” by the proper husbandman of the
tares; whence also heresies grew up among us along with the productive
wheat; and those who in the Hellenic philosophy preach the impiety and
voluptuousness of Epicurus, and whatever other tenets are disseminated
contrary to right reason, exist among the Greeks as spurious fruits of
the divinely bestowed husbandry. This voluptuous and selfish philosophy
the apostle calls “the wisdom of this world;” in consequence
of its teaching the things of this world and about it alone, and its
consequent subjection, as far as respects ascendancy, to those who rule
here. Wherefore also this fragmentary philosophy is very elementary, while
truly perfect science deals with intellectual objects, which are beyond
the sphere of the world, and with the objects still more spiritual than
those which “eye saw not, and ear heard not, nor did it enter into
the heart of men,” till the Teacher told the account of them to us;
unveiling the holy of holies; and
in ascending order, things still holier than these, to those who are
truly and not spuriously heirs of the Lord’s adoption. For we now
dare aver (for here is the faith that is characterized by knowledge3318
)
that such an one knows all things, and comprehends all things in
the exercise of sure apprehension, respecting matters difficult
for us, and really pertaining to the true gnosis3319
| 3319 γνωστικῶν,
for which Hervetus, reading γνωστικόν,
has translated, “qui vere est cognitione præditus.”
This is suitable and easier, but doubtful. | such as were James,
Peter, John, Paul, and the rest of the apostles. For prophecy is full
of knowledge (gnosis), inasmuch as it was given by the Lord,
and again explained by the Lord to the apostles. And is not knowledge
(gnosis) an attribute of the rational soul, which trains itself
for this, that by knowledge it may become entitled to immortality? For
both are powers of the soul, both knowledge and impulse. And impulse is
found to be a movement after an assent. For he who has an impulse towards
an action, first receives the knowledge of the action, and secondly the
impulse. Let us further devote our attention to this. For since learning
is older than action; (for naturally, he who does what he wishes to do
learns it first; and knowledge comes from learning, and impulse follows
knowledge; after which comes action;) knowledge turns out the beginning
and author of all rational action. So that rightly the peculiar nature
of the rational soul is characterized by this alone; for in reality
impulse, like knowledge, is excited by existing objects. And knowledge
(gnosis) is essentially a contemplation of existences on the
part of the soul, either of a certain thing or of certain things,
and when perfected, of all together. Although some say that the wise
man is persuaded that there are some things incomprehensible, in such
wise as to have respecting them a kind of comprehension, inasmuch as he
comprehends that things incomprehensible are incomprehensible; which is
common, and pertains to those who are capable of perceiving little. For
such a man affirms that there are some things incomprehensible.
But that Gnostic of whom I speak, himself
comprehends what seems to be incomprehensible to others; believing that
nothing is incomprehensible to the Son of God, whence nothing incapable
of being taught. For He who suffered out of His love for us, would
have suppressed no element of knowledge requisite for our instruction.
Accordingly this faith becomes sure demonstration; since truth follows
what has been delivered by God. But if one desires extensive knowledge,
“he knows things ancient, and conjectures things future; he
understands knotty sayings, and the solutions of enigmas. The disciple
of wisdom foreknows signs and omens, and the issues of seasons and
of times.”3320
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