장음표시 사용
391쪽
sor such is the parabie,-a narration based on somo subject
hicli is not the principes subjeci, but similar to the principalsubjeci, and leading him Who underetands to what is the trueand principat thing; or, as some say, a mode of speech pr senting mitti vigour, by means os other circumstances, Whatis the principat subjeci. d noW also the wholo economy whicli prophesiod of tho Lord appears indeed a parabis to thoso Who know not tho
But on the Scriptures being opened up, and declaring the
ing endured by the flesh, Whicli the Lord assumed, to bo the poWor and wisdom of God.' An d finalty, the parabolicstyle of Scripture being of the greatest antiqui , as We haVeshoWn, abounded most, as mas to be expected, in the pr phela, in order that tho Holy Spirit might show that thophilosophera among the Greeks, and the wise men among the Barbarians besides, were ignorant of the future coming of the Lord, and of the mystic Daching that was to be delivered by
Ηim. Rightly then, prophecy, in prociatming the Lord, in
der not to seem to somo to blaspheme while speising What was beyond tho ideas of tho multitude, embodied iis declar tions in expressions capable of leading to other conceptions.
NoW ali the propheta Who foretoid the Lord's coming, and ths holy mysteries accompanying it, mere persecuted and hilled. As also the Lord Himself, in explaining the Scriptures to them, and His discipies Who preached tho word liko Him, and subsequently to His lito used parabies. Whencoalso Peter, in his Preaehing, speising of the aposses, sus:
392쪽
coming and death, and crom, and ali the rest of the tortures whicli tho Jews inflicted on Him, and His resurrection and assumption to heaven previous to the capture of Jerusalem. , it is writton, These thius are ali that He behoved to suster,
and what should be after Him. Recognising them, thereiore, wo have belloved in God in consequenco of What is Writtenrespecting Him. And astor a littis again he dram tho infersnce that tho Scriptures oWod their orion to the divina providence, asserting as tollows: For Wo know that God enjoined thosothings, and we say nothing apari from the Scripturas.'Now tho Hobrow dialec like ali the rest, has certain properties, consisting in a modo os speech whicli Oxhibita thonationat character. Dialect is accordin y defined as a stylo M speech produced by the nationes character. But prophecyis not marhed by those dialecta. For in the Hellenic writ-ings, What are callud changes of figures purposely produco obscurations, deduced aster the style of our prophecies. Butthis is offected through the voluntary departure frem direct speech Which tahes place in motrical or offliand diction. Afigure, then, is a form of speech transferred from What is litoral to What is not litoral, for the sine of the composition, and on account of a diction usesul in speech. But prophecy does not emplV figurative forms in the o pressions sor the sahe of beauty of diction. But hom tho factstat truth appertains not in as, it is velled in manisold ways, causing the light to arise only on inose Who me initiatod intoknowledge, who seoli the truth through love. The proverb, according to the Barbarian philosophy, is called a mode os prophecy, and the parabis is so called, and the enigma in addition. Further also, they are called μ sdom; ' and again, as something difforent from it, instruction and wotas os prudence,V
393쪽
And ii it Was tho cras that tho Hollonio dialecis received their appellation from Hellen, the son os Zeus, surnamed Deucalion, hom the chronology Which We havs atready exhibitud, it is comparatively easy to perceive is hoW many generations tho dialecis that obtained among the Greeis areposterior to the language of the HebreWs. But as the work advances, we shali in each section, notingthe figures of speech mentioned above by the prophet, exhibit the gnostic modo of life, shoWing it systematicallyaccording to the rule of the truth. Did not the PoWor also, that appearod to Hermas in the Vision, in the form of the Church, ove for transcription thebook which sho wishod in bo mado known to tho eloci l Andthis, he says, he transcribed to tho letter, Without finding ho to complete the syllabios. And this signified that tho Serip
ing ; and that this is tho faith whieli occupies tho place of
the rudimenta. Wheroforo alio the figurativo expression is
and writo in it cortain things: tho Spirit propheVing that
394쪽
the Saviour has tanght tho apostles, the unWritten rendering of ths written ScriptureJ has been handed doWn also to us, inscribed by tho power of God on hearis nem according tollio renovation os tho book. Thus those of highest reputo among the Greeis, dedicate the fruit of the pomegranato in
iliis spectacle belo' Ming elevared by the Spirit, along also
with Calob. But both do not see similarly. But the onodoscended With greater speed, as is the weight ho carried Was great; Whilo the other, on descending after him, fu,
perceive more than tho other, as having grown purer; thenarrative, in my opinion, sho ing that knowledge is not thoprivilege of est. Since somo look at tho body of tho Scriptures, the expressions and the names as to the bob os Moses; while othors see through to the thoughis and what is signified by the namos, seehing the Moses that is mitti the angeis. Many also of thoso who called to the Lord said, Son os David, have mercy on me. A seW, too, knen Him as the Son os God; as Peter, Whom also He pronounced blessed, sor flesti and blood rovealed not tho truth to him, but His Father in heaven,' -shoWing that tho Gnostic recognises the Son of the omnipotent, not by His flesh conceived in tho vomb, but by the Father's own pomer. That it is thereiarenot only to those Who read simply that tho acquisition os thetruth is so difficuli, but that not even to those Whose prerog tivo tho knowledge of the truth is, is the contemplation os itvouchsased ali at oncs, the histo of Moses teaches, untii, accustomed to gage, as the Hebrems on the glory os Moses, and the propheta of Israel on the visions os angeis, so me also beeome able to look the splendours of truth in the face.
395쪽
LET the Decalogus bo set fortii cursortly by us as a specimen lax gnostic exposition. The number Ten. That ten is a sacred number, it is superfluous to say now. d is sto tables that were Written were the work of God,
And tho representation of the earili contains men, catile, reptiles, wild beasti; and of the inhabitants of the water, fishes and whales; and again, of the Winged tribes, thoso that are carnivomus, and those that use mild sood; and of planis lihewiso, both fruit-bearing and barron. This is thophysical Decalogue of the earth. And tho ark whieh holit thom in mill thon bo the knowlodgo os divino and human things and wisdom. And perhaps the two tables themselves may be the prophecy of the two covenanis. They vere accordingly mysti- catly rene ed, as ignorance along with sin abounded. Thocommandments are Written, then, doubly, as appears, sor
396쪽
tWosold spiriis, the ruling and tho subjeci. For tho flestilusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against tho flesti. δ d thoro is a ten in man himself: the five senses, and the poWer of speech, and that os reproduction; and thooioth is tho spiritual principio communicated at his creation ; and the ninth the xuling faculty os the foui; and tentii, there is the distinctivo characteristic of tho Hob Spirit, Whicli comes to him inrough faith. Besides, in addition to these ten human parta, the la appears to givo iis injunctions ' to sight, and hearing, and
smes, and touch, and inste, and to the organs subservient tothese, Whicli are double-tho hands and the feet. For suchis the formation of man. Αnd the foui is introduced, and provious to it the mling facul , by Which me reason, notproduced in procreation; so that Without it there is made up the number ten, of the faculties by Whicli est tho activity ol
ingly asseri that rational and ruling pomer is the cause of tho constitution of the living creaturo; also that this, theirrational pari, is animaled, and is a part os it. Now the vital forco, in Whicli is comprehended the power of nutritionand grοWth, and generalty of motion, is assigned to the camnat spirit, Which has great susceptibiliu of motion, and passes in ali directions through tho senses and the rest of the bo , and through tho body is ius primary subject of sensations. But the po er of choice, in Whicli investigation, and study, and knoWledge, reside, belongs to the ruling faculty. But alltho faculties are placed in relation to one-the ruling faculty:it is through that man lives, and lives in a certain Way. Through the corporeat spirit, then, man perceives, destres, rejoices, is angry, is nourished, grows. It is is it, ruo, that thoughis and conceptions advance to actions. And when itinasters the destres, the ruling faculty reigns. The commandment, then, Thou shali not lust,' says,
397쪽
thou shali not serve tho carnal spirit, but shali rulo ovor it; for the flesh lusioth against tho Spirit, in and excitos todisorderly conduci against nature; and the Spirit against the flesti ' exercisos sway, in ordor that tho conduci of theman may be according to nature.
foro sto iam to that which Was created, and to the rulingsaculty; and the movements of the senses are both copita intho mind, and manifested in the activity Which proceeda fremtho body. For apprehension resulta from both combined. Again, as sensation is related to the worid os sense, so isthought to that os intelleci. And actions aro tWonld-stoso of thought, those of act. The Hrat Comman erit. o fidit commandmont of tho Decalogue ahoms that them
398쪽
And tho fonrth word is that whita intimates that theworld Was created by God, and that He gavo us tho foventhday as a rest, on account of the troubio that thero is in lila. For God is incapabis of meariness, and suffering, and want. But wo who bear flesh need rest. The seventh dari ther fore, is proclaimed a rest-abstraction from ills-preparing for tho Primal Day, our true rest; Which, in truth, is the fidit creation os light, in Which ali things are vie ed and possessed. From this day the firat Wisdom and knowledge illuminato us. For the light of truth-a licti true, castinguo ahadoW, is tho Spirit os God indivisibly divided to ali, who are sanctified by faith, holding the place of a lumina ,
in order in the knowledge of reat existences. By folio ingΗim, thereiore, through our Whole lise, Wo beeomo impa sibio ; and this is to rest. Wherofore Solomon also says, that besore heaven, andearth, and ali existences, Wisdom had arisen in the Almighty; tho participation of Which-that whicli is by pοWer, I mean, not that by essence-teaches a man to know by apprehensionthings divine and humati. Ηaving reached this potnt, me must montion theso things by the way; since the discourso has turned on tho seventh and the eighth. For tho aioth may possibiy turn out in be properly the seventh, and the seventhmanifestly the stath, and the lalter properly the Sabbath,
and tho sevenili a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in fix days. For the motion of the sunirom solstice to solstice is completed in fix months-in thecourse of Whicli, at one time the leaves sali, and at another
planta bud and seeds come to maturi . And they say that the embryo is perfected exactly in the stath monili, that is, in one hundred and eighty duys in addition to the two and ahali, as Polybus the physician relates in his book On the
399쪽
ing to the prophet, and cali it Meseuthys y and Maresage, hom iis being the middie of the even numbers, that is, of
ten and two. For it is manifesti' at an equat distance homboth. d as mariago generates from male and femiae, so fixis generaled iram the odd number three, whicli is called tho masculino number, and the even number two, Which is considered the feminine. For tWice three are siX.
Such, again, is the number of the most generat motions, according to which ali origination tahes place-up, doWn, totho right, to the leti, forWard, bach ard. Rightin then, they rechon the number seven motherless and childiem, interpreting the Sabbath, and figuratively expressing the nature of the rest, in Which they neither maro nor are given in
number and adding to another of those Within ten is fovenproduced; nor When added to any number Within tho tendoes it mahe up any of them. And they catl eight a cube, counting the fixed spherealong With the seven revolving ones, by Which is produced the great year,' as a Lind of period of recomponse of Whathas been promised. Thus tho Lord, Who ascended the mountain, tho laurili,
becomes the fixth, and is illuminatod ali round with spirituallight, by laying bare the pomer proceeding from Him, as faras those selected to see mere able in belloid ii, by the Seventh, the Volce, proclaimed to be tho Son os God; in ordor statis , persuaded respecting Him, might havs rest; whilo Hoby His birin, Which Was indicated by the fix conspicuouslymarhed, becoming the eighth, might appear to bo God in a
400쪽
indoed as a man, but being concealed as to Who He Was. For fix is rectoned in tho order os numbers, but the succession of tho letters achnowledges the character Which is notwritten. In this case, in the numbere themselves, eachunit is preserved in iis order up to seven and eight. But in the number of the charactem, Zeta comes fix and Da
inheritance. Somo such thing also is indicared by ths sirili hour in tho schomo os salvation, in Whicli man Was perfected. Further, of the eight, the intermediates are seven; and of the seven, the intervias are Ahown in be sis. For that isanother νομα in Whicli seven glorifies right, and tho heavens declare in the heavens the glory of God.' 'The sensibie types of these, then, ure the founti WEpronounce. Thus tho Lord Himself is callod Alpha and Omega, ins Monning and tho Ond,' by Whom ali inius wero made, and Without Whom not even one ining Wasmade.' ' God's resting is not, then, as some concesVe, stat God coased from doing. For, being good, it m should evercease from doing good, then Would Ho ceras from being God, which it is sacrilego even to say. The resting is, ther fore, the ordering that tho order os creatia things inould bo preserved inviolato, and that each of the creatures aliould cease hom the ancient disordor. For the creations on the different days followed in a most important succession; sothat ali inings brouot into existenco might have honourhom priority, created together in thought, but not being of