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| What the Wisdom is of Which We are Here to Treat. Whence the Name of Philosopher Arose. What Has Been Already Said Concerning the Distinction of Knowledge and Wisdom.
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Chapter 1.—What the Wisdom is of Which We are Here to
Treat. Whence the Name of Philosopher Arose. What Has Been Already
Said Concerning the Distinction of Knowledge and Wisdom.
1. We must now discourse concerning
wisdom; not the wisdom of God, which without doubt is God, for His
only-begotten Son is called the wisdom of God;855
but we will speak of the wisdom of
man, yet of true wisdom, which is according to God, and is His true
and chief worship, which is called in Greek by one term,
θεοσέβεια.
And this term, as we have already observed, when our own countrymen
themselves also wished to interpret it by a single term, was by
them rendered piety, whereas piety means more commonly what the
Greeks call
εὐσέβεια. But
because θεοσέβεια
cannot be translated perfectly by any one word, it
is better translated by two, so as to render it rather by “the
worship of God.” That this is the wisdom of man, as we have
already laid down in the twelfth book856
of this work, is shown by the
authority of Holy Scripture, in the book of God’s servant Job,
where we read that the Wisdom of God said to man, “Behold piety,
that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is knowledge;”857
or, as some
have translated the Greek word
ἐπιστήμην, “learning,”858
which
certainly takes its name from learning,859
whence also it may be called
knowledge. For everything is learned in order that it may be known.
Although the same word, indeed,860
is employed in a different sense,
where any one suffers evils for his sins, that he may be corrected.
Whence is that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “For what son is he
to whom the father giveth not discipline?” And this is still more
apparent in the same epistle: “Now no chastening861
for the
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby.”862
Therefore God Himself is the
chiefest wisdom; but the worship of God is the wisdom of man, of
which we now speak. For “the wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God.”863
It is in
respect to this wisdom, therefore, which is the worship of God,
that Holy Scripture says, “The multitude of the wise is the
welfare of the world.”864
| 864 Wisdom 6.26" id="iv.i.xvi.i-p12.1" parsed="|Wis|6|26|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.6.26">Wisd. vi. 26 |
2. But if to dispute of wisdom
belongs to wise men, what shall we do? Shall we dare indeed to
profess wisdom, lest it should be mere impudence for ourselves to
dispute about it? Shall we not be alarmed by the example of
Pythagoras?—who dared not profess to be a wise man, but answered
that he was a philosopher, i.e., a lover of wisdom; whence
arose the name, that became thenceforth so much the popular name,
that no matter how great the learning wherein any one excelled,
either in his own opinion or that of others, in things pertaining
to wisdom, he was still called nothing more than philosopher. Or
was it for this reason that no one, even of such as
these, dared to profess himself a wise man,—because they imagined
that a wise man was one without sin? But our Scriptures do not say
this, which say, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”865
For
doubtless he who thinks a man ought to be rebuked, judges him to
have sin. However, for my part, I dare not profess myself a wise
man even in this sense; it is enough for me to assume, what they
themselves cannot deny, that to dispute of wisdom belongs also to
the philosopher, i.e., the lover of wisdom. For they have
not given over so disputing who have professed to be lovers of
wisdom rather than wise men.
3. In disputing, then, about
wisdom, they have defined it thus: Wisdom is the knowledge of
things human and divine. And hence, in the last book, I have not
withheld the admission, that the cognizance of both subjects,
whether divine or human, may be called both knowledge and wisdom.866
But
according to the distinction made in the apostle’s words, “To
one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of
knowledge,”867
this
definition is to be divided, so that the knowledge of things divine
shall be called wisdom, and that of things human appropriate to
itself the name of knowledge; and of the latter I have treated in
the thirteenth book, not indeed so as to attribute to this
knowledge everything whatever that can be known by man about things
human, wherein there is exceeding much of empty vanity and
mischievous curiosity, but only those things by which that most
wholesome faith, which leads to true blessedness, is begotten,
nourished, defended, strengthened; and in this knowledge most of
the faithful are not strong, however exceeding strong in the faith
itself. For it is one thing to know only what man ought to believe
in order to attain to a blessed life, which must needs be an
eternal one; but another to know in what way this belief itself may
both help the pious, and be defended against the impious, which
last the apostle seems to call by the special name of knowledge.
And when I was speaking of this knowledge before, my especial
business was to commend faith, first briefly distinguishing things
eternal from things temporal, and there discoursing of things
temporal; but while deferring things eternal to the present book, I
showed also that faith respecting things eternal is itself a thing
temporal, and dwells in time in the hearts of believers, and yet is
necessary in order to attain the things eternal themselves.868
I argued
also, that faith respecting the things temporal which He that is
eternal did and suffered for us as man, which manhood He bare in
time and carried on to things eternal, is profitable also for the
obtaining of things eternal; and that the virtues themselves,
whereby in this temporal and mortal life men live prudently,
bravely, temperately, and justly, are not true virtues, unless they
are referred to that same faith, temporal though it is, which leads
on nevertheless to things eternal.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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