Preparation for the Gospel

^A — It seems to me entirely necessary. — Let any poet, my excellent friend, therefore cease to sing this to us:

*With foreign guise, the gods (80)* *In every shape, walk through our towns.*

Let no one henceforth tell lies about Proteus and Thetis; nor in tragedies or any other kind of poetry let anyone introduce Hera transformed into a priestess, gathering alms for the life-giving children of the Argive river Inachus; and let them not tell us many other such lies. And let not mothers, persuaded by these stories, terrify their children by recounting these myths badly, as if certain gods were wandering about at night in the likeness of many strangers of all kinds, so that they may not at the same time blaspheme the gods and make their children more cowardly. — They should not, he said. — But, I said, while the gods themselves are not such as to change, do they perhaps cause us to think that they appear in every guise, deceiving us and bewitching us? — Perhaps, he said. — What then? I said, would God wish to lie, whether in word or deed by putting forward phantoms? — I do not know, he said. — Do you not know, I said, that the true lie, if one can call it that, is hated by all gods and men? — How, he said, do you mean? — Thus, I said, that to lie in the most proper part of themselves and about the most important things, no one is willing, but of all things they most fear to possess it there. — Not even yet, he said, do I understand. — You think I am saying something profound; but I say that for the soul to be told lies about things that are, and to have been deceived, and to be ignorant, and to have and possess the lie there, all would least of all choose, and they hate it most in such a case. — Very much so, he said. — ^B But surely that which I was just now calling the true lie would most rightly be what I called the ignorance in the soul of the one who has been deceived; since that which is in words is a kind of imitation of the affection in the soul (81), and a subsequent image, not an altogether pure lie; or is it not so? — Certainly. — The lie which is in truth is hated not only by gods, but also by men. — It seems so to me. — ^C What then of the lie in words, when and to what extent is it useful, so that it is not worthy of hatred? Is it not useful as a medicine against enemies and some of those called friends, when through madness or some folly they attempt to do some evil, then for the sake of deterrence it becomes a useful remedy? And in the myths which we were just mentioning, because of not knowing where the truth lies regarding ancient things, by assimilating the lie to the truth, as far as we can, we make it useful; [does it not seem so]? ^D — It seems most useful in that way. — [As for him in whose soul the lie is present]… [index: entries preserved]

^A in what respect, then, is the lie useful to God? Is it perhaps because, being ignorant of things of old, he would lie by assimilating them to the truth? — That would be ridiculous, he said. Therefore, there is no poetical liar in God? — Far from it. — But what if he were fearing enemies? — By no means. — But what if it were due to the ignorance or madness of his own people? — But no one, he said, who is foolish or mad is dear to God. Therefore, there is no reason for which God would lie. — There is none. — The divine and the godhead are therefore in every way truthful. — Absolutely so, he said. — Therefore, God is altogether simple and truthful in deed and in word. And he neither changes himself, nor does he deceive others, neither by fantasies, nor by words, nor by the sending of signs, neither when awake nor in a dream. — In this way, he said, it appears to me as well, while you are saying it. — Do you agree, then, ^B he said, that this is the second type, in which one must both speak and act concerning the gods, so that they neither appear as wizards transmuting themselves, nor lead us astray with lies in word or in deed? — I agree. — Therefore, while we praise many other things about Homer, we shall not praise this, the sending of the dream by Zeus to Agamemnon; nor [shall we praise] Aeschylus, when Thetis says that Apollo sang at her nuptials:

To feast upon my noble children’s lot, And long-lived years, and all things, did he sing, And calling me dear to the gods, he spoke Of my prospects of fortune, cheering me, And the healer, Paean, sang in merry mood. I thought the sacred mouth of Phoebus was ^C Truthful, and teeming with prophetic art. But he who sang, he who was present at the feast, He who himself spoke these things, he himself is the one Who has killed my son.

When anyone speaks such things about the gods, we shall be indignant, and we shall not grant a chorus, nor shall we allow teachers to use such things for the education of the young, if our guardians are to be religious and godly, as far as it is possible for a man to be. — Absolutely, he said, I agree with these types, and I would use them as laws. » These things, then, are ^D from Plato. You would find that the Hebrew scripture contains no shameful myths about the God who governs the universe, nor even about his divine angels, nor yet about men who are dear to God, similar to the Greek mythologies; but you would find that the type established by Plato—that God happens to be good, and that

everything that has come to pass by Him is such—agrees with the truth. ^A Indeed, regarding each of the works of creation, the marvelous Moses adds: "And God saw that it was good," and concerning all things together, he summarizes the account of the whole, saying: "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." It is further a dogma of the Hebrews that God is not the author of evils; for if God did not make death, neither does He delight in the destruction of the living—for He created all things to be, and the generations of the world are wholesome in themselves. Nevertheless, "by the envy of the devil, death entered into the world." ^B Therefore, God is also introduced by the prophet expostulating in this manner with one who has become evil by his own choice: "But I planted you a fruitful vine, all true; how then have you turned into a strange vine?" If, however, it is ever said that evils happen to the wicked from God, it must be understood homonymously, in that those punishments are so called, which God, being good, is said to inflict—not for the destruction of those being punished, but for their benefit and advantage; just as a physician, who would apply a painful and severe method of treatment for the health of those suffering, might be considered to be bringing evils upon them. ^C Therefore, even in the divine Scriptures, wherever it is said that evils are inflicted upon men by God, what is said by Plato must be employed: that while God works what is just and good, and brings upon the deserving those things which are somber and commonly considered evils for men, those who are punished ^D benefit, not only according to the philosopher, but also according to the Hebrew Scripture, which says: "For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines; and He scourges every son whom He receives." But as for the notion that those who pay the penalty are miserable, and that God who beholds these things is the one who causes them—one must not allow this to be said of the Creator. But if, because they stood in need of chastisement, they might say that as miserable sinners paying the penalty they were benefited by God, this may be allowed; but that God, being good, should be the cause of evils to anyone must be resisted in every way. ^D Moreover, the Hebrew prophet teaches that God cannot change, where He speaks in His own person: "Since I am the Lord your God, and I do not change." Similarly, David in his theology exclaims, saying: "They shall all grow old like a garment, and as a cloak You shall roll them up, and they shall be changed. But You are the same, and Your years shall not fail." And if in any way the Hebrews' letters represent the Word of God as appearing in human form and shape, it must be said that it is not as the Greek fables tell of Proteus, Thetis, and Hera, nor as those gods we were just hearing about, who wander about at night looking like many and all kinds of animals, that the Hebrew writings introduce the Word of God appearing to men; but rather, just as Plato himself says it is sometimes necessary, for the benefit of friends, when they are attempting to do some evil because of madness or some folly, that the intervention of God to men should serve as a useful medicine for deterrence. Since, then, there was no race of earthly creatures more beloved by God than man, being akin and familiar to the Word of God, by whom even the rational nature of the soul had been fashioned, it is reasonable that, as a beloved creature...

it should be the object of the care of the heavenly Word, who is proclaimed to have come for the healing of the whole race, which had fallen into such insane disease and madness that it ^A neither knew God the Father, nor the essence of its own rational nature, nor the providence of God, the Savior of all, but had degenerated almost into the condition of a brute animal. Therefore, I say, they testify that the Savior and Physician came to men, yet in such a way that He neither stripped Himself of His own nature, nor offered any illusion to those who beheld Him, but preserved both things as true, both that which was invisible and that which was seen. For He was seen as a true man, and He was the true Word of God, not using sorcery, nor deceiving those who looked upon Him; since it seemed right also to Plato that the Divine is free from falsehood. ^B "The Word of God, therefore, being simple and true in both word and deed, neither changed Himself, nor deceived others, neither by fantasies, nor by words, nor by the showing of signs, neither in reality, nor in dreams."

For everything that he did, as a physician of rational souls, for the salvation of the whole race of men, he accomplished truly, and not in appearance, through the man whom He had assumed, bestowing upon us all, through the knowledge of God and true piety preached by Him, both friendship with and a return to His own Father. And such are our affairs. But as for those who speak otherwise, we shall take it ill, nor shall we grant them the power of a choir ^C of readers and teachers, nor shall we allow them to influence the younger generation, if we desire to have, as the philosopher most preferred, religious and divine guardians of our commonwealth.

CHAPTER IV

That the tales concerning the Greek gods contain nothing more than shameful myths, for whose sake the Athenians slew Socrates for not believing in them. From the Euthyphro.

"But they themselves," says Plato, "happen to believe that Zeus is the best and most just of the gods, and yet they admit that he bound his own father because he unjustly devoured his sons, ^D and that he himself in turn mutilated his own father for other similar misdeeds. And they are angry with me because I prosecute my father for wrongdoing. And thus they contradict themselves when they speak of the gods and when they speak of me." For indeed, the sort of words one has, such also are the deeds; and such as the deeds are, such is the life. Christ is the whole life of men, for those who have come to know Christ.

^A “...the true reason is this, Euthyphro, that it is because I find it hard to accept such things when someone speaks of the gods, that I am, as it seems, to be branded as a sinner. Since, therefore, you also agree with this — for you are an expert in such matters — it is necessary, I suppose, that we allow it to be so. For what are we to say, when we ourselves confess that we know nothing of these things? But tell me, by Zeus, the protector of friendship, do you truly believe that these things happened in this way?” — “And even more wonderful things than these, Socrates, which the many do not know. Do you therefore think that there is truly war among the gods, and grievous hatreds and battles and many other such things, of the kind that are told by the poets? And by good writers, just as our other sacred things are adorned, and indeed, even at the great Panathenaea, the robe full of such patterns is carried up to the Acropolis. Are we to say that these things are true, Euthyphro?” — “Not these alone, Socrates, but, as I just said, I will tell you many other things about the gods, if you wish, which I know well that you will be astonished to hear.” These are the things which Plato wrote in the *Euthyphro*. Numenius clarifies the meaning in his book *On the Secrets of Plato*, speaking somewhat as follows.

CHAPTER V.

From Numenius’s book *On the Secrets of Plato*. Concerning the same matter.

^C “If Plato, intending to write about the theology of the Athenians, had then spoken harshly against it and had accused it—containing, as it did, mutual dissension among the deities, and the unions or the devouring of children by their parents, and instead of these things, penalties imposed by children upon parents, or by brothers upon brothers, and celebrating other such things—if, I say, Plato had openly and plainly accused these things, it would seem to me that he would have provided the Athenians with an occasion for putting him to death, as they did Socrates. ^D But since he was not more desirous of life than of truth, and he saw that he could defend both safely, he introduced in the character of the Athenians Euthyphro, a man who was arrogant and foolish, and who, if anyone else did, discoursed about the gods in a wicked manner; and he exhibited Socrates himself, in his own character and in his own customary manner of discourse, which he used with everyone, refuting him.

CHAPTER VI.

That one must not yield to the opinions of the many, nor depart from one's own resolve due to fear of death. From the *Crito*.

“O friend Crito (90), your eagerness is of great value, if it were accompanied by some rectitude; but if not, the greater it is, the more troublesome it is. We must, therefore, consider whether these things are to be done or not. For I am not only now, but always, of such a mind that I will listen to nothing of my own, except to the reason which, upon calculation, appears to me best. The words which I used to say before, I cannot now cast away because

^A my fortune has become such as it is; indeed, they appear to me almost the same, and I hold them in the same honor and esteem as I did before. If we have nothing better to say at the present moment, know well that I will not agree with you, not even if the power of the many were to frighten us like children more than the present reality, by sending upon us bondages, and deaths, and confiscations of property. How then could we examine these matters most reasonably?

First, if we were to take up again that argument which you speak of, concerning opinions, whether it was well said each time or not: that one must pay heed to some opinions and not to others; or whether, before I was under the necessity of dying, it was well said, but now it has become clearly evident that it was spoken otherwise merely for the sake of argument, and was in truth only play and nonsense. I myself desire, Crito, to examine it in common with you, to see whether it appears any different to me now that I am in this state and fortune, or the same, and whether we shall bid it farewell or yield to it. It was said somehow, as I think, each time by those who imagine they have something to say—just as I was saying now—that of the opinions which men hold, one ought to value some and not others.

By the gods, Crito, does this not seem to you to be well said? For you, as far as human matters go, are outside the danger of dying tomorrow, and this present calamity would not lead you astray. Consider, then. Does it not seem sufficient to you to say that one should not honor all the opinions of men, but some and not others? Nor of all men, but of some and not others? What do you say? Is this not well said?

— It is well said. — Therefore, one should honor the good ones, and not the evil ones? — Yes. — And are the good ones not those of the wise, and the evil ones those of the foolish? — How could they be otherwise? — Come then, how again were such things said? A man exercising himself and doing this, does he pay heed to the praise and blame and opinion of every man, or of that one alone who happens to be a physician or a trainer? — Of that one alone. — Therefore, he ought to fear the blames and welcome the praises of that one alone, and not those of the many? — Clearly. — Therefore, he must act, and exercise, and eat, and drink in the way that seems right to that one who is his master and has more understanding, rather than to all the others. — This is so. — Very well. And if he disobeys that one and dishonors his opinion and his praises, while honoring those of the many and of those who have no understanding, will he not suffer some evil? ^{B C D}

^A — How could it be otherwise? — And what is this evil? And whither does it reach? And into which of the things belonging to the disobedient person? — Clearly, into the body; for this is what it destroys. — You are right. — Therefore, Crito, let us pass over the others in the same way, that we may not review everything. But as regards just and unjust things, and shameful and honorable, and good and evil — concerning which our present consultation is held — whether we ought to follow the opinion of the many and fear it, or that of the one, if there is anyone who understands, whom we ought to revere and fear more than all the rest together; ^B if we do not follow him, shall we not be destroying and ruining that which was made better by the just and destroyed by the unjust? Or is this nothing? — I think it is, Socrates. — Come, then, if we are to destroy that which is made better by what is healthy and ruined by what is diseased, by not obeying the opinion of those who understand, is life worth living for us once it is corrupted? And is this not the body, or is it not? — It is. — Then is life worth living for us with a wretched and corrupted body? — By no means. — But is life worth living for us once that is corrupted, ^C which the unjust harms and the just benefits? Or do we assume that what is ours, concerning which justice and injustice exist, is inferior to the body? — By no means. — But more precious? — Much more. — Therefore, my excellent friend, we must not consider at all what the many will say about us, but what the one who understands concerning just and unjust things will say, the one, and the truth itself. Hence, first of all, you are not rightly suggesting that we should care for the opinion of the many regarding just, honorable, and good things, and their opposites. ^D And the saving Word also says: "You seek glory from men, and the glory that is from the one alone, you do not seek." Wherefore we also, in the struggles undertaken for piety, rightly do not look to what the multitude may say about us, but only to what the one Word of God demands; for having once determined to fix our gaze upon Him, it is fitting that we should observe Him then, just as we did before, and never change, not even if the power of the multitude, as if to frighten children, should threaten us. Such were also those among the Hebrews of old who shone forth in martyrdom.

CHAPTER VII.

"Do we say," says Plato, "that one must never intentionally do wrong, or that in one way we must do wrong, and in another not? Or is it that to do wrong is never good nor noble, as has frequently been acknowledged by us in the past, and as was also just now being said? Or have all those former confessions of ours been discarded in these few days? And is it the case, Crito, that we, old men of such an age, debating seriously with one another, have unnoticed by ourselves been no different from children? Or is it the case that the matter stands absolutely as it was then argued by us, whether the multitude says so or not? And whether we are to suffer things even more grievous than these, or milder ones, do we nevertheless maintain that to do wrong is in every way both evil and shameful to the one who does it, or not?" — "We do." — "Therefore, in no way should one do wrong?" — "Certainly not." — "Neither should one, when wronged, retaliate with wrong, as the multitude believes, since it is in no way right to do wrong?" — "It does not appear so." — "What then? Should one do evil, Crito, or not?" — "One certainly should not, Socrates." — "What about retaliating with evil when one has suffered it, as the multitude says is just—is it just or not?" — "By no means. For, I suppose, doing evil to men differs in no way from doing wrong." — "You speak well." — "Therefore, one must neither retaliate with wrong, nor do evil to any man, not even if one should suffer something at their hands. But see, Crito, in agreeing to these things, that you do not agree contrary to your opinion. For I know that to a few this seems so, and will seem so. Thus, for those to whom it has seemed so, and for those to whom it has not, there is no common counsel; but it is necessary that these should despise one another, seeing each other's plans. Consider well, then, even you, whether you share this view and it likewise seems good to you, so that we may begin from this point to deliberate, that it is never right to do wrong, nor to retaliate with wrong, nor, when suffering evil, to defend oneself by doing evil in return; or do you secede, and not partake in this principle? For to me, as it has long seemed so, it still seems so now. And if it seems otherwise to you in any way, say so and teach me; but if you abide by what was said before, hear what follows." — "But I do abide by it, and it seems good to me. But speak." — "I say, then, again, the next thing, or rather I ask: whether what one has acknowledged to be just ought to be done, or is it to be disregarded?" — "It ought to be done." ^B To these things, set alongside: "Rendering to no one evil for evil"; and "Bless those who curse you; pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." And further, "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat," as is contained in our sacred scriptures. And the prophet also among the Hebrews says: "If I have repaid evil to those who repaid evil to me." And again: "With those who hate peace, I was peaceful." ^D

CHAPTER VIII.

"For then indeed you boasted—so the laws speak to Socrates—that you would not bear even death itself with an ill-will, which you even said was preferable to exile for you. But now, you neither fear the testimony of that speech, nor are you moved by our authority, so as to strive to infringe and overturn it. Furthermore, you are doing what the most wicked slave would do, while you think of flight against those compacts and conditions by which you agreed with us to live in the republic. First, therefore, answer us this: are we speaking truly, claiming that you agreed to live by our ways, not in word only, but in deed, or is it not true? What shall we answer to these things, Crito? Is it anything other than that we must agree? It is necessary, Socrates.

"What then, they will say, are you doing other than violating those compacts and agreements which you made with us? And this, when you did not approve them under any necessity or force, nor did you have a narrow window of time to deliberate, but seventy full years, in which you could have departed if we did not please you, or if our conditions did not seem just. Yet, you preferred neither Lacedaemon nor Crete, whose laws and institutions you often praise, nor any other Greek or barbarian city. Nay, you went abroad from it even less than the lame, the blind, and other such physically disabled men. ^B To such a degree did you, more than the other Athenians, find contentment in this city and in us ourselves. For to whom could any city please without laws? Now, however, you repudiate what you yourself agreed to—but you will surely keep them, if you listen to us, O Socrates."

CHAPTER IX.

"For whoever," the laws continue, "is clearly a corrupter of the laws themselves, he may very easily be considered a corrupter of youth and of ignorant men as well. ^C Whether, therefore, will you avoid well-ordered cities and the society of the most honorable men? Or will you, while doing this, think that life is to be retained for yourself? Or will you rather dwell with them, and will you not blush to engage with them in those discourses to which you, Socrates, have long been accustomed—concerning virtue, justice, laws, and those things which are practiced according to the prescription of the laws, as being of the greatest value ^D to men? And do you not think that the conduct of Socrates will appear shameful?"

should be regarded as having value? Or do you think Socrates' conduct would not appear base? Surely it must be thought so. But if you leave these places, obviously you are thinking of Thessaly, to go to Crito's friends. For there is a great deal of disorder and licentiousness there. And perhaps they would gladly hear from you how ridiculously you fled from the prison, having put on some disguise or taken a skin, or other such things as those who flee are accustomed to prepare, and having changed your appearance. And that an old man, with little time of life left, as is likely, has dared to desire to live so greedily, having violated the greatest laws; will there be no one who will reproach you? ^A Perhaps, if you do not offend anyone; if not, you will hear many things, Socrates, unworthy of yourself. You will live as an underling to all men, and acting as a slave; doing what? Or feasting in Thessaly? Just as if you had traveled to Thessaly for dinner. And those discourses of yours concerning justice and other virtues, where will they be for us? But are you wishing to live for the sake of your children, so that you may rear and educate them? Or, having brought them to Thessaly, will you rear and educate them, having made them foreigners, so that they might receive this benefit from you? Or is this not so; but if they are reared here while you are alive, will they be better reared and educated, even if you are not with them? For those who are your associates will take care of them. But whether, if you depart to Thessaly, will they take care of them, and if you depart to Hades, will they not take care of them? If those who claim to be your associates are of any use at all, one ought to think so. ^B But, O Socrates, being persuaded by us, your foster-parents, do not prioritize your children, nor life, nor anything else before what is just: so that when you arrive in Hades, you may have all these things to plead before the authorities there. For neither here does it appear to you that it is better to do these things, nor more just, nor to any other of your own, nor will it be better when you have arrived there. But now you will depart having been wronged (if you depart), not by us, the laws, but by men; but if you go out so shamefully, returning wrong for wrong and evil for evil, having violated your own agreements and covenants with us, and doing harm to those whom you least should, yourself, and your friends, and your fatherland, and us; we ourselves will be angry with you while you live, and there, our sisters, the laws of Hades, will not receive you kindly, knowing that you also attempted to destroy us, so far as in you lay. »

CHAPTER X. That one ought not to flee death for the sake of truth. From the Apology of Socrates.

^D «But perhaps, ^D one might say: "Are you not ashamed, O Socrates, to have pursued such a way of life, from which you are now in danger of dying?" To this man I would make a just reply, that you do not speak well, O man, if you think that one ought to calculate the danger of living or dying; ^C if there is any merit in a man, he ought not to consider this, but only whether he is acting justly or unjustly in what he does, and doing the deeds of a good or a bad man.

^A For according to your own argument, those demigods who died at Troy would be contemptible, as well as others, and especially the son of Thetis, who so despised danger compared to enduring any disgrace that, when his mother, who was a goddess, said to him when he was eager to slay Hector, "My son, if you avenge the murder of your comrade Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself will die; for immediately after Hector," she said, "a ready fate awaits you," he, upon hearing this, made light of death and danger, and fearing much more to live as a coward and not to avenge his friends, he said straightway, "May I die at once after having exacted justice from the wrongdoer, that I may not remain here by the curved ships, a laughingstock, a burden to the earth." Do you think that he took thought of death and danger? For so it is in truth, O men of Athens: in whatever station a man has placed himself, believing it to be best, or has been placed by a commander, there he ought, as it seems to me, to remain and face danger, taking no account of death or anything else before dishonor. I would be having done a terrible thing, O men of Athens, if, when the commanders whom you chose to rule over me stationed me—both at Potidaea and at Amphipolis and at Delium, and elsewhere too where they commanded—I remained ^B where they stationed me like anyone else and ran the risk of dying, yet when God stationed me, as I supposed and believed, to live the life of a philosopher and to examine myself and others, I were then to abandon my station out of fear of death or any other thing whatsoever. That would indeed be a terrible thing, and one for which someone could justly bring me to court on the charge that I do not believe there are gods, by disobeying the oracle, fearing death, and thinking myself to be wise when I am not. For to fear death, O men of Athens, is nothing other than to seem to be wise when one is not. It is the pretense of knowing what one does not know. For no one knows death, not even if it happens to be the greatest of all goods for man, but they fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of evils. And yet, how is this not that most shameful ignorance: to think that one knows what one does not know? I, O men of Athens, perhaps differ from the majority of men in this, and if I were to say that I am wiser than anyone in anything ^C it would be in this: that, not knowing enough about what is in Hades, I also think that I do not know. But that it is an evil and shameful thing to commit injustice and to disobey one who is better, whether God or man, I do know. Therefore, I will never fear or flee from those things which I do not know, in preference to those evils which I know to be evil. So, even if you were to acquit me now, contrary to Anytus—who said that either I should not have come here in the first place, or, since I have come, it is impossible not to put me to death, saying to you that if I should escape, your sons, by practicing what Socrates teaches, would all be utterly corrupted—if you were to say to me concerning this, "O Socrates, we will not listen to Anytus now, but we acquit you, upon this condition, however, that ^D

you no longer spend your time in this inquiry nor go on philosophizing; but if you are caught doing this again, you shall die." If, then, as I said, you were to acquit me on these terms, I would say to you: "I, O men of Athens, greet you and love you, but I will obey God rather than you; and as long as I breathe and am able, I will never cease philosophizing, and exhorting you, and pointing out to whomsoever of you I may always happen to meet, saying just what I am accustomed to say." ^A And after a little he adds further: "Let us consider, then, also in this way, how great a hope there is that it is a good thing. For to die is one of two things: for it is either as if one were nothing, and the dead person has no perception at all; or, according to what is said, it is a kind of change, and a migration of the soul from this place to another place. And if there is no perception, but it is like a sleep in which he who is sleeping sees not even a dream, death would be a wondrous gain. For I think, if one had to select this night in which he had slept so soundly as to see no dream, and compare to this night all the other nights and days of his own life, and if one had to consider and say how many days and nights he had lived in his own life better and more pleasantly than this night, I think that not a private individual, but the great king ^B himself would find these to be easily countable in comparison with the other days and nights. If, therefore, death is something like this, I call it gain; for thus the whole of time appears to be nothing more than one night. But if, again, death is like a journey from here to another place, and the things that are said are true, that all the dead are there, what greater good could there be than this, O men and judges? For if one, having arrived in Hades, and having been delivered from these who claim to be judges, shall find those who are truly judges, who are also said to judge there—Minos, and Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus, and Triptolemus, and as many others of the demigods as were just in their own lives—would this migration be a paltry one? Or again, to consort with Orpheus and Musaeus, and Hesiod, and Homer, for how much would one of you be willing to pay? For my part, I am willing to die many times over if these things are true. ^C Since to me myself the life there would be wonderful, when I should meet Palamedes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and any other of the ancients who died through an unjust judgment; and to compare my own sufferings with theirs, as I think, would not be unpleasant. And indeed the greatest thing, to spend my time in examining and searching those there, just as I do those here, as to who among them is wise, and who thinks himself to be so, but is not." And among us it has been said: "We must obey God rather than men," and, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot ^D kill the soul."

We must also know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord; who also promises to all who have hoped in Him that they shall rest in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in the company of the other prophets and just men who were dear to God among the Hebrews, and spend the long age in blessed life.

CHAPTER XI.

^B "But, come now," says Plato, "regarding those who have died in war, whoever ends his life having won renown, shall we not first say that he is of that golden race?" "Most certainly." "And shall we not believe Hesiod, when others of such a race end their lives, that they become,

Pure, earthly spirits, noble, averters of evils, Guardians of mortal men?"

"We shall indeed believe him. And so, having consulted the Divinity as to how we ought to account the demonic and divine ones, and by what distinction, we shall establish it in that way which He dictates." "Why should we not?" "And for the rest of time, we shall treat them as having become spirits, and we shall worship their tombs. And we shall consider these same terms to apply whenever anyone dies of old age or in any other way, of those who are judged to have been exceptionally good in life."

^C These things also fit well with the death of those beloved of God, whom you would not be wrong to call soldiers of true piety. Hence, it is our custom to go to their tombs and to offer prayers there, and to honor their blessed souls, in the belief that these things are rightly done by us. Now, these are the passages we have culled from the works of Plato; any studious person might find even more than these in him, and perhaps in others as well, which are in harmony with our doctrines. And since others before us have ^D also occupied themselves with this same subject, it seems to me worthwhile to examine what has been worked out by them as well. I shall put forward first—

^A of Aristobulus, the Hebrew philosopher, words which are thus expressed.

CHAPTER XII

"It is sufficiently clear," he says, "that Plato followed our system of laws, and it is manifest that he diligently and studiously read through each of their chapters. For even before that Demetrian of Phalerum, and indeed before the empire of Alexander and the Persians, those things that concerned the exodus of the Hebrews, our citizens, from Egypt, as well as the revelation of all that happened to them, the taking of the land, and the exposition of the whole Law, had already been translated into Greek by others, so that it can be doubtful to no one that the aforementioned philosopher derived many things from there for his own books. For he was a man of much learning, just as Pythagoras was also, who incorporated into his own doctrinal system many things he had taken from our stores. Later, in the time of King Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, your grandfather, who surpassed all others in this kind of zeal and magnificence, they elaborated the entire translation of all things that pertained to our laws, with Demetrius of Phalerum chiefly managing the whole business." ^B Then, having said some things in between, he continues, saying: "For we must take the 'divine voice' not as some speech enclosed and expressed in set words, but as the very bringing to pass of works, in which sense that legislator Moses speaks of the voice of God in the creation of the whole world. For with regard to each work he says continuously: 'And God said, and it was made.' I think that Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, having curiously searched into all our affairs, followed this entirely, when they said that they heard the voice of God, fixing their gaze upon the contemplation of the construction of the universe, which, having been so accurately perfected by God, persists forever like to itself and entire." Furthermore, Orpheus also, in those poems which he composed after the manner and principle of sacred discourse, sang in this manner that all things are contained by divine power, and that they have had their origin, and that God presides over all:

^C I will speak to those whom it is lawful; ^D but close the doors, you profane, Who hold in hatred the sacred laws which the author, God himself, has brought and established for all. But you, Offspring of the shining Muse, take this into your ears. For I will sing true things. Do not let your former Error deprive you of the happy ages of eternal life. But rather, taking the divine oracles into your settled mind, Store them deep within your chaste breast. Therefore come, take the way, and look only to the maker of the world, Who is exempt from destruction.

Orpheus, then, who became, as one might say, the first teacher of your polytheism, ^D I must remind you, later preaches regarding one and only God, saying just this to his son Musaeus and the rest of his genuine hearers.

^A Immortal. An ancient story regarding this shines forth. One is self-complete, and under him all things are perfected; His offspring are all things that have been made. One exists, and out of himself he is self-complete, and under him all things are perfected. He is invisible to the eyes of mortals, but is seen by the soul. He himself sows no evil for mortals, Nor war, nor grievous griefs. But he bestows good upon mortals, And war, and grievous griefs. ^B But he himself moves around within them, and no one Among mortal souls beholds him, but by him he is beheld. He himself does not send evil to mortal Men; but grace and hatred attend him, And war, and plague, and tearful griefs. Neither is there any other. And you, if you see him Before you ever see him here upon the earth— My son, I will show you, when I see His footprints, and the strong hand of the powerful God. But him I do not see; for a cloud is set about him. (19) What remains for me; but ten veils stand before men. For no one of mortal men could see him who rules, Unless he is a unique one, of a lineage from above, Of the Chaldeans. For he was wise in the movement of the stars, And how the sphere moves round the earth, Turning in a circle evenly, and according to its own Creature; and he steers the winds, and around the air, and around the stream Of the water (21): and brings forth the gleam of fire inexpres- sible. He himself again establishes the great one on high, On a golden throne; and the earth is beneath his feet (23) He has extended his right hand to the ends of Ocean; The base of the mountains trembles within in its spirit, Nor can it bear his mighty strength. And he is entirely ^C He himself is heavenly, and accomplishes all things upon the earth, Having the beginning in himself, and the middle (25), and the end, As the story of the ancients, as the unique one ordained, Receiving from God by his counsels according to the twofold decree.

^D [Interpretations and variants omitted]

^A That is a sin to speak of otherwise: with limbs loosened, Revolving in my mind with trembling, for he himself rules all things From above in order. You, son, turn your mind, Powerful in a bridled tongue, keep the matter in your breast. To which Aratus also sings in this manner: From Jove is the beginning, whom at no time Shall we be able to pass by: whose divinity fills all things far and wide, Crossroads, and every forum, and the depths of the swelling sea, And all harbors, and no one could be able to lack his powerful Aid. For every race draws its origin from him Who, cherishing men with gentle piety, Grants them happy signs with his hand, and of his own accord Arms the frequent peoples for work, captivated by the sweetness of life. He teaches what is useful for oxen, for the clod, and for the hard mattock Beforehand, and also under what star it is safe To hide plants in trenches, and seed in the earth.

Clearly, I believe it has been shown that the power of God is through all things. And as we have remarked, we set aside the Zeus and Jupiter who are spoken of through the poets; for their mental conception refers back to God; and therefore it has been stated by us in this way. Not unsuitably, then, have we brought forward these things for those who are searching. For it is agreed by all philosophers that one must have holy conceptions concerning God, which the persuasion that is among us most especially commends. And the entire construction of our law is set down concerning piety, justice, and self-restraint, and the rest of the virtues that are according to truth. ^B Following these, he adds other things: "In sequence, it is said that God, having fashioned the whole world, and because life is full of suffering for all, gave us the seventh day for rest, which day might also be called the first, naturally, the genesis of light, in which all things are grasped together. It could also be transferred to wisdom. For the entire light is from it. And some have said, among those of that sect from the Peripatos, that it holds the rank of a lamp; for those who follow it continually will be rendered untroubled throughout their whole life. But someone of our ancestors, Solomon, said more clearly and better that it existed before heaven and earth. And this is consistent with what was said before. But as for what is made clear through the legislation, that God rested on it, this is not to be understood, as some suppose, that God is established as no longer doing anything, ^C but rather that He had completed the order of them, and thus ordained them for all time. For it signifies that in six days He made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, so that He might declare the times and foretell the order of what takes precedence over what. For having ordained them, thus He holds them together and does not alter them. He has clarified for us that this is legal for the sake of the sign of the seventh-day principle established among us, in which we have knowledge of human and divine affairs. And by weeks the whole world of all living and growing things is cycled. And for it to be called the Sabbath is interpreted as being a rest. And Homer and Hesiod also ^D declare it to be sacred, having drawn from our books. Hesiod, indeed, thus...

[Line 1] First, the fourth, and the seventh, a sacred day. [Item 6] And again he says: [Line 3] Seventh again, the bright light of the sun. [Line 4] And Homer says thus: [Line 5] The seventh then came down, a sacred day. [Line 6] And again: [Line 7] The seventh day it was, and by it all things were completed. [Line 8] And: [Line 9] The seventh day we left the stream of Acheron. [Line 10] By this he signifies that by the truly seventh Word, that oblivion and vice of the soul is abandoned, and we receive the knowledge of the truth, as has been said before. Linus ^B also says thus: [Line 13] On the seventh day all things accomplished are made perfect. [Line 14] And again: [Line 15] The seventh is among the good, and the seventh is a birth. [Line 16] The seventh is among the first, and the seventh is perfect. [Line 17] And: [Line 18] All things are perfected in the starry heaven by the seven, [Line 19] Appearing in the cycles of the revolving years.

Such are the words of Aristobulus. What Clement has also said concerning the same subject, you may understand through these things.

CHAPTER XIII

That Clement also shows how the things well said by the Greeks are in agreement with the doctrines of the Hebrews. From the fifth Stromateus of Clement.

"Let us also weave together what follows, and let us more clearly display the Hellenic theft from the barbarian philosophy. For the Stoics say that God is a body, and spirit by essence, just as indeed they say of the soul. You will find all these things explicitly in the Scriptures. For do not think of their allegorical meanings for me now, as the Gnostic truth delivers it—if they show one thing, as is usually done by skilled wrestlers ^C, but in reality signify another. But they say that God permeates through the whole essence, while we call Him solely the Maker, and the Maker by the Word. They were led astray by that which is said in Wisdom: 'It pervades and reaches through all things by its purity,' not understanding that this was said concerning that Wisdom which God, the Prince of all, created first. Indeed, they say, but the philosophers also posit matter in the beginning, both the Stoics, and Plato, and Pythagoras, but also Aristotle the Peripatetic, and do not posit one principle. Let them know, however, that what is called matter, ^D being without quality and without form, is said..."

by Plato also not to be a certain thing, or that which is not, and therefore not something; which indeed must be considered very mystical and recondite. For he who recognized that true one principle has these very words in the Timaeus: “But now,” he says, “let our account of this be as follows: as to the one principle or principles of the universe, or however one may think about them, it is not to be spoken of now, for no other reason than that it is difficult ^A in our present mode of discourse to explain what seems to us to be the case.” Moreover, that prophetic utterance: “And the earth was invisible and unarranged,” provided them an occasion for fashioning this material substance. And Epicurus, indeed, so that he might say that all things happen by chance and fortuity, brought into his mind that which did not grasp the force of that saying: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity;” just as Aristotle, in order to limit Providence to the lunar sphere, drew from that Psalm: “O Lord, in heaven is thy mercy, and thy truth unto the clouds.” For the meaning of the prophetic mysteries was not yet revealed before the coming of the Lord. And the punishments to be endured after death and those torments of fire were stolen by the entire poetic Muse, ^B and also by Greek philosophy, from the philosophy of the barbarians. Plato, for instance, in the last book of the Republic, says in these very words: “Then indeed,” he says, “savage men, fiery to behold, standing by and discerning the cry, seized some and led them away; but Aridaeus and the others they bound hand and foot, and having cast down their heads and flayed them, they dragged them outside the road, turning them over thorns.” For these fiery men signify, in his view, the angels who seize and punish the wicked: according to the text: “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire.” And from these things it follows that the soul is immortal. For that which is punished or disciplined, ^C being in a state of sensation, lives, even if it is said to suffer. What then? Does Plato not also know of rivers of fire and the depth of the earth, which is called Gehenna by the barbarians, while he himself poetically named it Tartarus, as well as Cocytus and Acheron and Pyriphlegethon, and introduces such things as instruments of punishment for the sake of sobering discipline? And regarding the small and least things, according to Scripture...

^A, which see God Himself and the diligent and watchful care which is derived unto us from the presiding and guardian angels, he does not hesitate to write: "When, however, as each soul had chosen its own kind of life, according as its lot had fallen, then they approached Lachesis in order; and she sent with each one the guardian of his life that he himself had chosen, to be the fulfiller of what had been selected." Perhaps the daemon of Socrates also hinted at something like this. Furthermore, the philosophers accepted from Moses the account of the origin of the world, and taught it. Regarding which Plato says expressly: "Whether it had no beginning of generation, or whether it has come into being, starting from some beginning; for it is visible, and tangible, and has a body." And again, when he says: "To discover the creator and father of this whole universe is a task," he shows not only that the world is generated, but also signifies that it came into being from Him, as if from the only one who has come into being, and existing from what was not. The Stoics also consider the world to be generated. Moreover, the devil, whom you hear spoken of so often in the barbarian philosophy as the prince of the daemons, Plato in the tenth book of the *Laws* calls a maleficent soul in these words: "Must we not say that the soul which governs and dwells in all things that are moved in every direction, also governs the heaven itself? — Undoubtedly. — One, or more? — More, I shall answer on your behalf. Let us not posit fewer than two: one the beneficent, and the other capable of working the opposite." ^B Similarly, in the *Phaedrus*, he writes these things: "There are indeed other evils, but some daemon has mingled present pleasure with most of them." But also in the tenth book of the *Laws*, he clearly demonstrates that apostolic truth: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the spiritual things of those in the heavens" (Eph. vi, 12), writing in this way: "For since we have agreed among ourselves that the heaven is indeed full of many good things, and also full of their contraries—and these, more numerous—we therefore say that such a conflict is immortal, and stands in need of marvelous ^C guardianship." Barbarian philosophy also recognizes that the world is once again twofold: one perceived by the intellect, and one perceived by the senses; the former being the archetype, and the latter an image of the fair pattern. And it assigns the former to the monad, as being intelligible, and the latter to the hexad; for among the Pythagoreans, the six is called marriage, as being a generative number. And in the monad it establishes an invisible heaven, and a holy earth, and an intelligible light: "For in the beginning," it says, "God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible." Then it adds: "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." And in the sensible cosmogony, He fashioned ^D a solid heaven (the solid signifies the sensible—just as he is called son, but his father is said to be from the only generated one).

^A Does it not seem from this that Plato leaves behind the ideas of living things in the intelligible world, and that the sensible forms are created by the intelligible ones according to their kinds? ^B Rightly, therefore, does Moses say that the body was fashioned from the earth, and Plato calls it the earthy tabernacle; but the rational soul ^C was "breathed in from above by God into the face." For they say that the ruling faculty is established here, interpreting the soul's ingress through the senses into the first-formed man. And for this reason, man is said to have been made "according to the image and likeness of God." For the image of God is the divine and kingly Word, man impassible; but the image of the human image is the mind. If, however, you wish to adopt another term for this assimilation, you might find it in Moses called a divine following. For he says: "Walk after the Lord your God, and keep His commandments." ^D And I consider that all who are virtuous are followers and servants of God. From this, the Stoics have declared the end of philosophy to be living in accordance with nature; but Plato, assimilation to God, as we have shown in the second *Stromateis*. And Zeno the Stoic, having taken it from Plato, while Plato took it from the barbarian philosophy, says that all good men are friends to one another. For Socrates says in the *Phaedrus* (46): "As it is fated not for the bad to be a friend to the bad, nor for the good not to be a friend to the good." Which he also demonstrated sufficiently in the *Lysis* (47), that friendship could never be maintained alongside injustice and wickedness. And the Athenian stranger (48) likewise says that an action is friendly and follows God, and possesses one ancient reason: when the like is a friend to the like, being in due measure, but things without measure are friends to neither the unmeasured nor the measured; and God would be the measure of all things for us. Then, following up, Plato adds: "For every good man is like the good man; and according to this, being also like God, he is a friend to every good man and to God." ^A Arriving here, I remembered this too: for at the end of the *Timaeus*, he says that the observing one must assimilate the observer to the object of observation, according to the ancient nature; and upon assimilating, one reaches the end of the best life proposed by the gods to men, both for present and future time. And after a few words (49) he adds: "That we are brothers, as being of the one God and one teacher, this too appears to be stated well by Plato somewhat in this way: 'For you are all brothers, as we shall say to them in our mythological account. But God, in fashioning you, mixed ^B gold into such of you as are fit to rule—therefore they are most precious; but to the helpers, silver; and iron and bronze to the farmers and other craftsmen.'" Whence of necessity, he says, it has come to pass that ^C and ^D [index: entries preserved]

some grasp at those things which belong to knowledge, others at those which belong to belief. For perhaps he divines that this elect nature longs for knowledge; unless one, positing three natures, should describe three regimes, as some have conjectured; the silver one for the Jews, the third for the Greeks, and for the Christians, in whom the royal gold, the Holy Spirit, is intermingled. And displaying the life of Christians, he writes verbatim in the *Theaetetus*: "Let us speak, then, of the chief ones; for what indeed could one say of those who waste their time in philosophy? These men, for instance, do not know the way to the market, nor to the court-house, nor ^B to the senate-house, or to any other common council of the city. Laws and decrees enacted or written, they neither see nor hear. The rivalries of factions, and meetings for the sake of offices, and revels with flute girls, do not even enter into their dreams to undertake. But if anything has happened ill in the city, or if any evil has occurred to anyone from his ancestors, it escapes them more than the so-called drops of the sea. And even these things they do not know that they know not. But in truth, only their body lies in the city and has its residence there, while they themselves fly, according to Pindar, underneath the earth, and above the heavens, studying astronomy, and searching out ^C every nature everywhere." Again, to the word of the Lord, "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; and Nay, nay," one may liken those things: "But it is in no way right for me to concede a falsehood, or to destroy the truth." And this statement in the tenth book of the *Laws* conforms to the prohibition about swearing: "Let praise and the oath be absent from everything." And in general, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, saying that they hear the voice of God, contemplating the construction of the universe, as it has been precisely brought into being by God and is held together without ceasing, have heard Moses saying: "He spoke, and it was done," describing the Word of God as being the work. And as they dwell upon the formation of man out of dust, the philosophers everywhere declare the body to be earthly; but Homer does not hesitate ^D to place it in a location of a curse:

^A *But you all, may you return to earth and water.* Just as Isaiah says: *And trample them like mud.* And Callimachus writes explicitly:

"That was the year in which the tribe of those that fly, And those beneath the waves, and the four-footed, thus Spoke with a voice, like the mud of Prometheus."

And the same author again:

"...If Prometheus himself Molded you, and you were not made of other mud."

Hesiod says of Pandora:

"And he ordered the renowned Hephaestus, with all speed, To moisten earth with water, and to place in it a human voice And mind."

The Stoics define nature as an artificial fire, proceeding by a path towards generation; while Scripture allegorically signifies God, or His Word, by the name of fire and light. What then? Does not Homer himself paraphrase the water separated from the earth, and the manifest uncovering of the dry land, when he speaks of the discord between Tethys and Ocean:

"For now, for a long time, bitter discord keeps them From their bed and love"?

Again, the most learned among the Greeks attach to God the power over all things. Epicharmus (who was a Pythagorean) says in these verses:

"Nothing escapes the Divine; you must know this: He himself is the onlooker of us; God lacks nothing."

And the lyric poet [says] thus:

"To God it is possible out of dark Night to call forth pure day, And to cloak in black shadows The bright radiance of the day."

He who alone, he says, is able to make night when day is present, this is God. And Aratus, in the work inscribed *Phaenomena*, says:

"From Zeus let us begin, whom we men never Leave unspoken. For full of Zeus are all the paths, Full are the marketplaces of men; and full is the sea, And the harbors. And in every way we all have need of Zeus."

He adds:

"For we are also his offspring," (meaning his creation).

^C And if he is kind to men, he signifies it by prosperity:

"For he himself fixed those signs in heaven, Discerning the stars; and for a year he marked out The stars, which might most clearly indicate to men The seasons, so that all things might grow steadily. And they always pray to him first and last."

^D

^A Hail, Father, great wonder, great to men, skilled craftsman, boon. And before this, Homer, in that shield which Vulcan wrought, describing the creation of the world after the archetype of Moses, says: He made the earth, and the heaven, and the salt, deep [sea, And all the constellations wherewith heaven is crowned. For Zeus, who is celebrated through the voices of poets and prose writers, altogether signifies God. Already, too, as one might say, Democritus writes that there are but few among men who raise their hands to that which we Greeks now call the air. For Zeus speaks all, and knows all, and gives and takes away, and he is the king of all things. More mystically, however, the Boeotian Pindar, as a Pythagorean, [teaches] of the primeval matter, and calls the one creator of these things the "skilled craftsman" and Father, who has also bestowed advancements according to desert regarding divinity. For I pass over Plato, who appears openly and clearly, in the letter which he writes to Erastus and Coriscus, to be revealing the Father and the Son, I know not how, from Hebrew writings, exhorting them verbatim thus: "Swearing by, with a zeal by no means graceless, and by the sister of that zeal, philosophy, the God who is the cause of all things, and swearing by the Lord, the Father of the ruler and cause, whom, if you philosophize rightly, you shall know." And in his discourse in the *Timaeus*, he calls the creator Father, speaking in this wise: "Gods of gods, of whom I am the Father and the creator of works." So even when he says, "Around the King of all are all things, and because of him are all things, and he is the cause of all ^B good things; and the second around the second, and the third around the third," I myself understand nothing else than the holy Trinity being signified. For the third is the holy Spirit, and the second is the Son, through whom all things came to be according to the will of the Father. And the same [Plato], in the tenth book of the *Republic*, mentions Erus, the son of Armenius, of the race of Pamphilus, who is Zoroaster. Zoroaster himself indeed writes thus about himself: "These things wrote Zoroaster, son of Armenius, Pamphylian by race; when I had fallen in war, I learned these things from the gods among the dead." This Zoroaster, then, Plato says rose to life on the twelfth day, lying upon the pyre. Perhaps it is not the resurrection, but he hints at those things: that the path for souls to their ascent becomes through the twelve signs of the zodiac. And he says that the same descent also occurs for birth. These things are to be understood, as well as the labors of Hercules, as being fifteen, after which the soul attains to the release from all this world. ^{C D}

To the Olympian, in this manner he refers:

^A I do not overlook Empedocles either. This physicist mentions the restoration of all things, as though a transformation into the substance of fire will one day occur. Heraclitus the Ephesian is most clearly of this opinion, having judged one world to be eternal, while another—the one consisting of ordered arrangement—is perishable, though he knows these are not distinct from one another, but somehow the same. But that he recognizes a world, produced eternally from the whole of substance, he already makes clear, speaking thus: "The same world of all things, neither any god nor man has made, but it ever was, and is, and shall be, an ever-living fire, kindled by measure, and extinguished by measure." That he also taught that it is generated and perishable, he indicates by what follows: "Turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea the half is earth, the half is a lightning-flash." For in effect he says that fire, by the governing Word and God of all things, is turned through air into moisture, which he calls "sea," as the seed of the ordered arrangement, and from this, in turn, come heaven and earth and the things they contain. How it is taken up again and burned, he clearly reveals through these words: "Sea is dispersed and is measured to the same account as it was before it became." And he says the same regarding the other elements. Those most learned among the Stoics dogma- ^B tize in a way similar to this, discussing both the conflagration and the government of the world, and what the world and man are in their own specific character, and the persistence of our souls.

Furthermore, Plato, in the seventh book of the Republic, called the day here a "nocturnal day," on account of the rulers of this darkness, I suppose; and he called the path to the body an "ascent of the soul" as sleep and death, following Heraclitus. And might not the Spirit have prophesied this concerning the Savior, through David saying: "I laid me down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord will take me to himself"? For he allegorizes not only the resurrection of the Savior Christ from sleep as the Lord’s descent into flesh. Immediately the same Savior exhorts, "Watch," that is, study to live, and attempt to separate the soul from the body. ^C Plato also surmises the Lord’s Day in the tenth book of the Republic through these words: "Since for those in the meadow each had seven days, they must rise from there on the eighth and journey, and arrive in four days." We must understand the "meadow" to be the fixed sphere, as a gentle and pleasant place, and a region of the holy; and the "seven days" as each of the seven movements, and every practical art, hastening to the end of rest. The journey after the wandering [planets] leads to the heaven, that is, the eighth movement and day. And he says the souls arrive "in four days," signifying the journey through the four elements. But also the seven- ^D [day period...].

is known to be sacred not only by the Hebrews, but also by the Greeks, by which the whole universe of all living and growing things is cycled. Consequently Hesiod speaks of it thus: ^A

First comes the next day, the fourth and the seventh, a sacred day. And again: And the seventh day again, the bright light of the sun. And Homer: And then the seventh day came, a sacred day. And: The seventh was sacred. And again: The seventh day was here, by which all things were brought to completion. And again: When the seventh day had risen, we left the waves of Acheron. The poet Callimachus matches these sentiments: The seventh day it was, and all things were accomplished. And again: The seventh is among the good, and the seventh is a birthday. And: The seventh is among the first, and the seventh is perfect. And: And that the changes of the sun occur according to a week, the Elegies of Solon show, in this way: A child, while still an infant, not yet having grown pubic hair, As the barrier of his teeth grows, he sheds the first ^B in seven years; And others, when God has completed seven years, He fulfills the seeds of coming youth, etc. And all things in the starry heaven were fashioned in sevens, Appearing in cycles of revolving years. But even the Elegies of Solon greatly divinize the week. And are these not similar to what the Scripture says: "Let us take away the righteous man from us, because he is troublesome to us"? ^C Plato, all but prophesying the saving dispensation of Christ, speaks thus in the second book of the *Republic*: "The righteous man, being so disposed, will be scourged, will be bound, will have his eyes put out, and at last, after having suffered all manner of evil, will be crucified." Moreover, the Socratic philosopher Antisthenes, paraphrasing that prophetic utterance, "To whom have you likened Me? says the Lord," explains it by saying that God is like no one; for which reason no one can learn Him from an image. ^D And Xenophon the Athenian says similar things in his own words: "For the one who orders and holds together the whole world, though he is seen doing the greatest things, is yet invisible to us. And consider that even the sun, which seems visible to all, does not allow men to look at it accurately; but if one attempts to look at it insolently, he is deprived of his sight."

shaking and calming all things, as a great and mighty being, is manifest; but what he is in form, is invisible.» Nor indeed does even the sun, which seems to be all-radiant, permit itself to be looked upon; but if one should look at it brazenly, he is deprived of his sight.

For what flesh is able with its eyes to see the heavenly and true immortal God, who dwells in the heavens? And not even directly against the rays of the sun are human beings capable of standing, mortals as they are, predicted the Sibyl. Correctly, then, Xenophanes the Colophonian, teaching that God is one and incorporeal, adds: ^A

One God is greatest among gods and men, In no way like to mortals in body, nor in thought.

And again: ...But mortals believe that gods are born, And have their own clothing, and voice, and form.

And again: ...But if oxen or lions had hands, Or could draw with their hands, and execute works just as men, Horses like to horses, and oxen like to oxen, Would depict the forms of the gods, and make their bodies Just such as the form they themselves possessed.

Let us hear then again what Bacchylides the lyric poet says concerning the Divine: They are always free from painful diseases, And blameless, and in no way like to mortals.

And hear what Cleanthes the Stoic written in a certain poem concerning God: ^B

You ask me what is good? Listen then. Ordered, just, holy, pious, Self-controlled, useful, noble, necessary, Severe, self-sufficient, always beneficial, Fearless, painless, advantageous, painless, Useful, secure, friendly, honorable, satisfying, agreeable, Glorious, unhaughty, diligent, gentle, vigorous, Enduring, blameless, always remaining the same.

And the same man, tacitly rebuking the idolatry of the many, adds: He is not free, whoever looks to reputation, As though he might obtain some good from it.

Therefore one ought no longer to form a judgment concerning the Divine according to the opinion of the many: ^C ...For I do not think that the Divine Takes on the likeness of a wicked man, To enter thy chamber, as men are wont to do; And possesses the same feeling, voice, and form. ^D

^A Amphion says to Antiope. But Sophocles writes yet more boldly: For Zeus did wed the mother of this child, Not gold-transformed, nor adorned in wings Of swan, as he did force the Pleuronian maid, But as a man in every way complete. Then, approaching, he adds: And quickly he stood upon the adulterous steps, The adulterer. Whereupon, still more clearly, he sets forth the incontinence of the fabled Zeus, speaking thus: But he, touching neither food nor water, Went to the bed with heart stung sore, And spent that whole night in revelry.

Let these things, then, be left to the madness of the theaters. ^B Heraclitus says clearly that men are ever without understanding of the necessary Word, both before they hear it, and when they have heard it for the first time. And the lyric poet Melanippides sings: Hear me, O Father, wonder of mortals, Who governest the ever-living soul. And the great Parmenides, as Plato says in the *Sophist*, writes thus concerning the Divine: Much like, as being unborn and imperishable, it is Sole, monogenetic, and unshaken, and unborn.

But also Hesiod: For he himself, he says, is king and sovereign of all The immortals, and no other shares his power.

Indeed, even tragedy itself, by drawing us away from the worship of idols, teaches us to look up to the heavens. ^C For Sophocles, as sayeth Hecataeus the historian in the book he wrote concerning Abraham and the Egyptians, cries out plainly from the stage: In truth, there is one, one God alone, Who fashioned heaven and the wide regions of earth, The sea’s glaucous swell, and the violence of the winds. But we, miserable ones, wandering in heart, Have fashioned as a solace for our woes Images of gods out of stone or bronze, Or of molten gold, or of elephantine ivory. And by sacrificing to these, and observing fair festivals, We think we are being pious.

Euripides, in the same tragedy, performs upon the stage: Seest thou, he says, this boundless ether on high, Which encompasses the earth in its moist embrace? Consider this to be Zeus, deem this to be God. ^D And in the drama which he entitles *Pirithous*, he also writes these tragic lines: Thee, self-begotten, thee, who in the ethereal Whirlwind dost involve the nature of all things: Whom brilliant day, whom the dark night...