Miscellanies 6.15.115–6.15.132

The one who knows, then, is stamped with the closer likeness, the mind of the teacher. Understanding that mind, with which he gave his commands and counsel to the prudent and self-restrained, as the one who taught wished, and taking up for himself its magnificent meaning, he teaches worthily on the housetops those able to be built up to a height, and he leads the way in doing what is said, according to the pattern of conduct. For the commands he gave are possible; and in truth the kingly person, the Christian, must be one who rules and leads, since we were appointed to be lords not only over the wild beasts outside but also over the savage passions within ourselves. By understanding of the evil and the good life, then, it seems, the one who knows is saved, understanding and doing more than the scribes and Pharisees. “Bend your bow, prosper, and reign,” David writes, “for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully,” that is, the Lord. “Who, then, is wise and will understand these things? Who is understanding and will know them? For the ways of the Lord are straight,” says the prophet, showing that only the one who knows can understand and explain what was spoken in a hidden way by the Spirit. “And the one who understands will keep silent at that time,” says Scripture, that is, about speaking out to the unworthy; since the Lord says, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear,” saying that hearing and understanding do not belong to all.

For instance, David writes, “Dark water in clouds of the air; at the brightness before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire,” teaching that the holy words are hidden. And he indicates that to those who know they are sent down from God transparent and bright, like harmless hail, but to the many they are dark, like coals quenched from fire, which, unless someone kindles and rekindles them, will not blaze up or give light. “The Lord,” then, he says, “gives me a tongue of instruction, to know in season when I must speak a word”—not only in bearing witness, but also in question and answer—“and the instruction of the Lord opens my mouth.” It belongs, then, to the one who knows to know how to use speech: when, how, and to whom.

And already the apostle too, saying “according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ,” teaches that Greek teaching is elementary and that according to Christ is perfect, as we have already indicated before. For instance, the wild olive is grafted into the richness of the olive and indeed grows like the cultivated olives; for the grafted shoot uses the tree in which it is planted in place of soil. And all plants together sprouted at the divine command. Therefore, even though the kotinos is a wild olive, it crowns the Olympic victors; and the elm, raising the vine to a height, teaches it to bear good fruit. We see too that wild trees draw in more nourishment because they cannot digest it. Wild trees, then, digest less well than cultivated ones, and the cause of their wildness is a lack of digestive power.

The grafted olive, then, takes in more nourishment because it is grafted onto a wild stock; and it becomes accustomed, as it were, to digest the food, being made like the richness of the cultivated olive. So too the philosopher, likened to a wild olive, has much that is undigested because he is inquiring, quick to follow, and eager for the richness of the truth; if he takes on the divine power through faith, planted into the good and cultivated knowledge, like the wild olive grafted into the truly good and merciful Word, he both digests the food handed on to him and becomes a fine olive. For grafting makes worthless trees noble and forces barren ones to become fruitful, by the art of husbandry and by the science of knowledge.

They say that grafting is done in four ways. One is that in which the graft must be fitted between the wood and the bark; so the uneducated from the Gentiles are catechized, receiving the Word superficially. The second is when they split the wood and insert the noble shoot into it; this happens with those who have studied philosophy, for when their doctrines are cut through, the knowledge of the truth grows in them. So too with the Jews: when the old Scripture is opened up, the new and noble shoot of the olive is grafted in. The third grafting concerns wild plants and the heretics who are brought over to the truth by force; for, having shaved each piece to a wedge with a sharp pruning knife until the pith is laid bare but not wounded, they bind them to each other. The fourth way of grafting is what is called budding: an eye is removed from a noble stem, with the bark around it cut out in a circle about a palm's breadth long; then the stem to be budded is scraped out at an eye to match the cut-out piece, and so the bud is inserted, bound round with cord and plastered with clay, the eye being kept unhurt and unsoiled. This is a figure of the knower's teaching, which is able to look into things; and indeed this form is most useful with cultivated trees.

The grafting into the good olive spoken of by the apostle can be into Christ himself, the untamed and unbelieving nature being planted into Christ, that is, the nature of those who believe in Christ. But it is better to say that each one's faith is grafted into the soul itself. For the Holy Spirit too is in some way transplanted in this manner, distributed without limit according to each one's limit. And Solomon, discussing knowledge, says this: “Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and is easily seen by those who love her; she is quick to make herself known to those who desire her. Whoever rises early for her will not labor; for to think about her is perfection of prudence, and whoever keeps vigil for her will soon be free from care. For she goes about seeking those worthy of her” (for knowledge does not belong to all) “and appears to them graciously in the paths.” The paths are the conduct of life and the variety according to the covenants. Then he adds:

“and meets them in every thought,” being contemplated in various ways, that is, through all education. Then he goes on, setting forth the perfecting love through a syllogistic argument with true premises, and drawing a most demonstrative and true conclusion somewhat as follows: “For her truest beginning is the desire for instruction” (that is, for knowledge), “and care for instruction is love, and love is the keeping of her laws, and attention to laws is the assurance of incorruption, and incorruption brings one near to God. So the desire for wisdom leads up to a kingdom.” He teaches, I think, that true instruction is a desire for knowledge, and that the practice of instruction consists in love of knowledge. And love is the keeping of the commandments that lead up to knowledge, and keeping them is the confirmation of the commandments, from which incorruption follows; and incorruption brings one near to God. If, then, love of knowledge makes one incorruptible and leads the kingly person near to God the King, knowledge must be sought until it is found. Seeking is an impulse toward grasping, discovering the underlying object through certain signs; finding is the end and rest of seeking, when it has come to grasp, which is knowledge. And this knowledge is finding in the proper sense, being the grasp of what was sought. They say that a sign is what precedes, coexists, or follows.

Of the seeking after God, then, the finding is the teaching through the Son; and the signs that our Savior is that very Son of God are the prophecies that preceded his coming and proclaimed him, the testimonies about him that accompanied his birth in the flesh, and besides these the powers of his that have been proclaimed and plainly shown after his ascension. The proof, then, that the truth is with us is that the Son of God himself taught it. For if in every inquiry these general things are found, a person and a matter, the real truth is shown to be with us alone, since the person of the truth shown is the Son of God, and the matter is the power of faith, which prevails over every opponent whatever and over the whole world set against it. But since this is agreed to have been confirmed in everlasting works and words, and since everyone who does not believe that there is providence has already been shown to deserve punishment rather than refutation, and to be truly godless, what lies before us is this: by doing what, and living in what way, might we arrive at the full knowledge of God Almighty, and how, by honoring the divine, might we become the cause of our own salvation, as we undertake to do what is just and holy, having learned what pleases him not from the sophists but from God himself? Our being saved pleases him, and salvation comes through right conduct and through knowledge, of both of which the Lord is the teacher.

If, then, according to Plato too, it is possible to learn the truth only from God or from the offspring of God, we are right to boast, when we select testimonies from the divine oracles, that we are taught the truth by the Son of God, what was first prophesied being afterward made clear. And the things that contribute to the discovery of the truth are not themselves to be rejected either. Philosophy, at any rate, proclaiming providence, and the reward of the happy life and the punishment of the unhappy, speaks of God in outline, but it does not preserve precision and particulars. For it does not treat of the Son of God as we do, nor of the dispensation according to providence; for it did not know the worship according to God. That is why the heresies within the barbarian philosophy, even if they say that God is one and even if they hymn Christ, speak in outline, not truly; for they invent another God, and they do not understand Christ as the prophecies hand him down. But their false doctrines, insofar as they oppose the teaching that accords with the truth, do not count against us.

For instance, Paul circumcised Timothy because of those who had believed from among the Jews, so that the catechumens from the law might not fall away from the faith if he did away with what they had taken up in a rather fleshly way from the law, though he knew well that circumcision does not justify. For he confessed that he became all things to all, preserving the chief doctrines while accommodating himself, so that he might gain all. And Daniel wore the chain under the king of the Persians, not looking on indifferently while the people were afflicted. Liars in truth, then, are not those who accommodate themselves for the sake of the plan of salvation, nor those who err on some particular point, but those who fall away in the most essential matters, who reject the Lord as far as in them lies and deprive the Lord of his true teaching, who do not speak and hand on the Scriptures in a manner worthy of God and the Lord. For the deposit rendered to God is the understanding and practice of the godly tradition according to the Lord's teaching through his apostles. “And what you hear in the ear” (in a hidden way, clearly, and in mystery; for such things are allegorically said to be spoken in the ear) “proclaim,” it says, “on the housetops,” receiving them magnanimously and handing them on in lofty speech, and explaining the Scriptures according to the rule of truth. For neither prophecy nor the Savior himself uttered the divine mysteries simply, so as to be easily grasped by anyone who comes along; he spoke in parables.

The apostles, at any rate, say of the Lord that he spoke all things in parables and spoke nothing to them without a parable. And if “all things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be,” then prophecy and the law too came to be through him and were spoken through him in parables. “But all things are straight before those who understand,” says Scripture; that is, those who receive the interpretation of the Scriptures made clear by him and preserve it according to the church's rule. And the church's rule is the concord and harmony of the law and the prophets with the covenant handed on at the Lord's coming. Knowledge, then, is followed by prudence, and prudence by self-restraint. For let it be said that prudence is divine knowledge and exists in those who are being made divine, while self-restraint is mortal and exists in human beings who philosophize but are not yet wise. For if virtue is divine, so is the knowledge of it; and self-restraint is like an imperfect prudence, desiring prudence but laboriously practical and not contemplative; just as righteousness, being human, is common, but ranks below holiness, which is divine righteousness. For the perfect man, righteousness does not lie in civil contracts or in the prohibitions of law, but comes from doing his own work and from love toward God.

For many reasons, then, the Scriptures conceal their sense: first, so that we may be inquirers and always keep awake for the discovery of the words of salvation; then, because it was not fitting for all to understand, lest they be harmed by taking in another sense what the Holy Spirit said for salvation. That is why the holy mysteries of the prophecies, kept for the chosen among men and for those selected from faith to knowledge, are veiled in parables. For the character of the Scriptures is parabolic, because the Lord too, though not of the world, came to men as one of the world. For he wore the whole of virtue, and he was to lead man, the nursling of the world, up through knowledge to the intelligible and proper realities, from world to world. That is why he used metaphorical writing. For such is the parable: a speech taken from something that is not the proper thing but resembles the proper thing, leading the one who understands to the true and proper thing; or, as some say, a diction that presents vividly through other terms what is meant in the proper sense.

Indeed, the whole dispensation concerning the Lord that was prophesied appears truly a parable to those who have not known the truth, when someone says, and others hear, that the Son of God, of the one who made all things, took flesh and was carried in a virgin's womb, insofar as his sensible flesh was born, and consequently, insofar as it came to be, suffered and rose again—“to Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness,” as the apostle says. But the Scriptures, once opened and showing the truth to those who have ears, proclaim that very thing which the flesh the Lord assumed suffered to be the power and wisdom of God. And above all, the parabolic form of Scripture, being most ancient, as we have shown, fittingly abounded most among the prophets, so that the Holy Spirit might show that the philosophers among the Greeks and the wise among the other barbarians were ignorant of the Lord's future coming and of the mystical teaching to be handed on by him. Fittingly, then, prophecy, in proclaiming the Lord, lest it should seem to some to blaspheme by speaking against the assumptions of the many, shaped what it meant in words that can also lead to other ideas. For instance, all the prophets who foretold the coming of the Lord, and with it the holy mysteries, were persecuted and killed; so too the Lord himself, who made their writings clear, and likewise his disciples, who preached the Word, risked their lives after him.

That is why Peter too, in the Preaching, speaking about the apostles, says: “But we, having unrolled the books of the prophets that we had, which name Christ Jesus partly in parables, partly in riddles, and partly authoritatively and in so many words, found his coming, his death, the cross, and all the other punishments the Jews inflicted on him, and his raising and his taking up into heaven before Jerusalem was † founded, as all these things had been written, what he had to suffer and † what would be after him. Recognizing these things, then, we believed God through what had been written about him.” And a little later he adds again, showing that the prophecies came about by divine providence: “For we know that God truly ordained them, and we say nothing without Scripture.”

The Hebrew language, then, has certain other peculiarities too, as each of the others does, containing a certain character that displays the nation's stamp. A dialect, at any rate, is defined as a diction shaped by a national character. But prophecy is not made known by those dialects. For in the Greek dialects the so-called alterations of the tropes produce concealments by design, in imitation of our prophecies, † being referred back; except that the turning aside from the proper sense is shown to happen voluntarily, in metrical or in extempore speech. A trope, at any rate, is a diction carried over from the proper sense to what is not proper, for the sake of elaboration and of usefulness of expression in speech. But prophecy does not cultivate figures of speech at all for the beauty of expression; rather, because the truth does not belong to all, it is hidden in many ways, making the light rise only for those initiated into knowledge, those who seek the truth through love.

In the barbarian philosophy, then, the proverb is said to be a kind of prophecy, and so is the parable, and the riddle besides these. Moreover, wisdom too is spoken of, and instruction as something different from it, and again words of prudence, turns of speech, true righteousness, and teaching how to direct judgment, and shrewdness that comes to the innocent through instruction, and perception and understanding that come to the newly instructed. “The one who hears these,” it says—the prophets—“being wise will become wiser, and the one who understands will acquire guidance, and will understand a parable and a dark word, and the sayings of the wise and riddles.” And if the Greek dialects came to be so named from Hellen, the son of Zeus, who was called son of Deucalion, it is easy to see from the dates we set out earlier by how many generations the dialects among the Greeks are later than the Hebrew language.

As Scripture proceeds, we will note the figures mentioned by the prophet passage by passage and set them out, carefully displaying the knower's way of life according to the rule of truth. For did not the power that appeared to Hermas in the vision, in the form of the church, give him the book to copy, which she wished to be announced to the elect? And this he copied, he says, letter by letter, not finding how to complete the syllables. This indicated, then, that Scripture is plain to all when taken in its bare reading, and that this is faith, which has the rank of the elementary letters; that is why reading letter by letter is used as an allegory. But the knower's unfolding of the Scriptures, when faith is already advancing, we understand to be likened to reading by syllables. And Isaiah the prophet too is commanded to take a new book and write certain things in it, the Spirit prophesying that the holy knowledge would come afterward through the interpretation of the Scriptures, knowledge that at that time was still unwritten because it was not yet known; for from the beginning it had been spoken only to those who understood. So when the Savior taught the apostles, the unwritten tradition of the written word was handed down now to us too, written on new hearts by the power of God, according to the renewal of the book.

In this way the most learned among the Greeks dedicate the fruit of the pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is speech, because of interpretation; for speech has many hiding places. Fittingly, then, Joshua the son of Nun saw Moses, when he was taken up, as double: one with the angels, and the other being honored with burial on the mountains, in the ravines. Joshua saw this sight below, lifted up by the Spirit, together with Caleb. But the two did not see alike: one came down more quickly, bearing much weight, while the other, coming down afterward, described the glory he had seen, having been able to discern more than the other, since he had become purer. The story shows, I think, that knowledge does not belong to all, since some look at the body of the Scriptures, the words and the names, as at the body of Moses, while others see through to the meanings and to what the names signify, searching after the Moses who is with the angels. Indeed, of those who called upon the Lord himself, the many said, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” but few knew him as the Son of God, like Peter, whom he also called blessed because flesh and blood had not revealed the truth to him, but his Father who is in heaven; this shows that the one who knows recognizes the Son of the Almighty not through his flesh that was conceived but through the Father's power itself. Not only, then, for those who happen upon it simply as it comes is the acquisition of the truth difficult; the story of Moses teaches that even to those to whom understanding is proper, contemplation is not given all at once, until, having grown used to looking straight at it, as the Hebrews at the glory of Moses and the saints of Israel at the visions of angels, so we too can look straight at the flashing rays of the truth.