8

Not even knowledge itself of God who created them will be able to benefit anyone alone. "For what is the benefit of doctrines, when a God-loving life is absent," which the Lord came to plant on earth, says John the golden theologian. Rather, not only is there no benefit from this, but also the greatest harm, which these men have also suffered, from whom you heard the words you reported to me. For what, he who came not with excellence of speech, that the mystery of the cross might not be made void, he who spoke not "in persuasive words of human wisdom," he who knew nothing except the Lord Jesus, and him crucified, - what then does this man write to the Corinthians? "Knowledge puffs up." Did you see the pinnacle of evil, the most particular judgment of the devil, the pride born from knowledge? How then does every passion grow from ignorance? And how does knowledge purify the soul? "Knowledge therefore puffs up," he says, "but love builds up." Did you see what knowledge is without love, in no way purifying the soul, without love the summit and the root and the mean of every virtue? How then does knowledge that builds up nothing good - for this belongs to love - how then will this knowledge provide the "according to the image" of the good? And yet this kind of knowledge which according to the word of the apostle puffs up, is not of nature but of faith; (p. 62) and if this puffs up, how much more that one, about which our discourse is; for this is natural and of the old man. For secular learning assists this natural knowledge, but it could never become spiritual, unless it were joined with faith and with the love of God, or rather unless it were born again by love and the grace that comes from it and became other than it was before, new and godlike, pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of words that build up those who hear and of good fruits, which indeed is called wisdom from above and the wisdom of God, and as somehow spiritual, since it is subject to the wisdom of the spirit, it both knows and accepts the gifts of the spirit. But that which is not such is from below, psychic, demonic, as the brother of the Lord among the apostles says, which is why it does not accept the things of the Spirit according to what is written, "but the psychic man does not receive the things of the Spirit," but considers them foolishness and error and false opinion, and for the most part tries to completely subvert these things and makes an open struggle to distort and reteach them with as much power as it has, and there are some things it cunningly accepts, using them as poisoners do with sweet foods.

Thus the knowledge from secular learning is not only different, but is also opposed to the true and spiritual knowledge, even if some, themselves as it seems led astray by it and attempting to lead their listeners astray, speak as if about one and the same, declaring this to be the end of contemplation. And that I may uncover for you something of the terrible depth of the villainy of the secular philosophers, the evil one and those who were wickedly made wise by him have stolen (p. 84) a most beneficial precept of ours and they put it forward like some wicked bait by the identity of the words, the "take heed to thyself" and "know thyself," but if you seek the end of this precept for them, you will find a charybdis of false belief; for dogmatizing reincarnations, they think then that one has come to know himself and has sufficiently attained the precept, when he might know to what body he was formerly attached and where he was once dwelling and what he was doing and what he was called; and he learns these things, having rendered himself obedient to the wicked spirit that deceitfully whispered such things. Therefore, leading toward this through "know thyself," they are thought by those not sufficiently able to perceive the deceit to be speaking in harmony with our fathers. For this reason Paul and Barnabas, not ignorant of the thoughts of the evil one and of those initiated by him, did not at all accept the one saying about them that "these men are servants of the Most High God," although what could one say more pious than this saying? But they knew the one who transforms himself into an angel of light and his ministers

8

Οὐδ᾿ αὐτή ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτά Θεοῦ δυνήσεταί τινα ὀνῖναι μόνη. «Τί γάρ ὄφελος δογμάτων, θεοφιλοῦς ἀπόντος βίου», ὅν ἦλθε φυτεῦσαι ἐπί γῆς ὁ Κύριος, ὁ χρυσοῦς θεολόγος Ἰωάννης φησί. Μᾶλλον δέ οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἔστι ταύτης ὄφελος, ἀλλά καί μεγίστη βλάβη, ἥν καί οὗτοι πεπόνθασι, παρ᾿ ὧν ἤκουσας οὕς ἀνήγγελάς μοι λόγους. Τί γάρ, ὁ μή καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἐλθών λόγου, ἵνα μή κενωθῇ τό μυστήριον τοῦ σταυροῦ, ὁ μή «ἐν πειθοῖς λαλῶν ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λόγοις», ὁ μηδέν εἰδώς εἰ μή Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, καί τοῦτον ἐσταυρωμένον, - τί οὖν οὗτος γράφει πρός τούς Κορινθίους; «Ἡ γνῶσις φυσιοῖ». Εἶδες τόν κολοφῶνα τῆς κακίας, τό ἰδιαίτατον τοῦ διαβόλου κρῖμα, τόν τῦφον ἐκ τῆς γνώσεως τικτόμενον; Πῶς οὖν πᾶν πάθος ἐξ ἀγνοίας φύεται; Πῶς δ᾿ ἡ γνῶσις καθαίρει τήν ψυχήν; «Ἡ γνῶσις οὖν φυσιοῖ», φησίν, «ἡ δέ ἀγάπη οἰκοδομεῖ». Εἶδες ὅ τί ἐστι χωρίς ἀγάπης γνῶσις, μηδαμῶς καθαίρουσα τήν ψυχήν, ἀγάπης τῆς κορυφῆς καί τῆς ρίζης καί μεσότητος πάσης ἀρετῆς; Πῶς οὖν ἡ μηδέν ἀγαθόν οἰκοδομοῦσα γνῶσις - τῆς γάρ ἀγάπης τοῦτο - πῶς οὖν ἡ γνῶσις αὕτη τό κατ᾿ εἰκόνα παρέξεται τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ; Καίτοι τό εἶδος τοῦτο τῆς γνώσεως τό κατά τόν τοῦ ἀποστόλου λόγον φυσιοῦν, οὐ τῆς φύσεως ἀλλά τῆς πίστεώς ἐστιν˙ (σελ. 62) εἰ δέ αὕτη φυσιοῖ, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐκείνη, περί ἧς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος˙ φυσική γάρ ἐστιν αὕτη καί τοῦ παλαιοῦ ἀνθρώπου. Τῇ γάρ φυσικῇ ταύτῃ ἡ ἔξω παιδείᾳ βοηθεῖ, πνευματική δ᾿ οὔποτε γένοιτ᾿ ἄν, εἰ μή μετά τῆς πίστεως καί τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ συγγένοιτο ἀγάπῃ, μᾶλλον δέ εἰ μή πρός τῆς ἀγάπης καί τῆς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐγγινομένης χάριτος ἀναγεννηθείη καί ἄλλη παρά τήν προτέραν γένοιτο, καινή τε καί θεοειδής, ἁγνή, εἰρηνική, ἐπιεικής, εὐπειθής, μεστή τε λόγων τούς ἀκούοντας οἰκοδομούντων καί καρπῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἥτις δή καί ἄνωθεν σοφία καί Θεοῦ σοφία κατονομάζεται, καί ὡς πνευματική πως, ἅτε τῇ τοῦ πνεύματος ὑποτεταγμένη σοφίᾳ, τά τοῦ πνεύματος χαρίσματα καί γινώσκει καί ἀποδέχεται. Ἡ δέ μή τοιαύτη, κάτωθεν, ψυχική, δαιμονιώδης, καθάπερ ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀδελφόθεος λέγει, διό καί τά τοῦ Πνεύματος οὐ προσίεται κατά τό γεγραμμένον, «ψυχικός δέ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τά τοῦ Πνεύματος», ἀλλά μωρίαν αὐτά καί πλάνην καί ψευδοδοξίαν λογίζεται, καί τά πλείω μέν τούτων τελέως ἀνατρέπειν πειρᾶται καί φανερόν ἀγῶνα ποιεῖται διαστρέφειν τε καί μεταδιδάσκειν ὁπόση δύναμις, ἔστι δ᾿ ἅ καί πανούργως προσίεται, συγχρωμένη τούτοις, οἷά περ φαρμακοί τοῖς γλυκέσι τῶν ἐδωδίμων.

Οὕτως οὐκ ἄλλη μόνον ἡ παρά τῆς ἔξω παιδείας γνῶσις, ἀλλά καί ἐναντίως πρός τήν ἀληθῆ καί πνευματικήν διάκειται γνῶσιν, εἰ καί τινες αὐτοί τε παρ᾿ αὐτῆς ὡς ἔοικε παρηγμένοι καί τούς αὐτῶν ἀκροωμένους παράγειν ἐγχειροῦντες, ὡς περί μιᾶς καί τῆς αὐτῆς διαλέγονται, τέλος τῆς θεωρίας ἀποφαινόμενοι ταύτην. Ἵνα δέ καί τι τοῦ δεινοῦ βάθους τῆς τῶν ἔξω φιλοσόφων ποηρίας ἀνακαλύψω σοι, κέκλοφε μέν ὁ πονηρός καί οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ πονηρῶς σοφισθέντες ἐκεῖνοι (σελ. 84) παράγγελμά τι τῶν ἡμετέρων λυσιτελέστατον καί καθάπερ τι πονηρόν προβάλλονται δέλεαρ τῇ τῶν ρημάτων ταυτότητι, τό «σαυτῷ πρόσεχε» καί «γνῶθι σαυτόν», ἀλλ᾿ ἄν ζητήσῃς τι τό τέλος ἐκείνοις τούτου τοῦ παραγγέλματος, κακοδοξίας εὑρήσεις χάρυβδιν˙ μετεμψυχώσεις γάρ δογματίζοντες, τότ᾿ οἴονταί τινα σχεῖν ἑαυτόν γνῶναι καί τοῦ παραγγέλματος ἱκανῶς ἐφικέσθαι, ἡνίκ᾿ ἄν τινι προσυνῆπτο σώματι γνοίη καί ποῦ ποτε ἦν οἰκῶν καί τί πράττων καί τίς ἤκουε˙ μανθάνει δέ ταῦτα, πειθήνιον ἑαυτόν παρασχών τῷ τά τοιαῦθ᾿ ὑποψιθυρίσαντι δολίως πονηρῷ πνεύματι. Πρός τοῦτο τοίνυν ἐνάγοντες διά τοῦ γνῶθι σαυτόν τοῖς οὐχ ἱκανῶς ἔχουσιν ἐπαΐειν τοῦ δόλου συνῳδά τοῖς ἡμετέροις πατράσι λέγειν νομίζονται. ∆ιό Παῦλος καί Βαρνάβας, τά τοῦ πονηροῦ νοήματα μή ἀγνοοῦντες καί τῶν ἐπ᾿ ἐκείνου μεμυημένων, τήν λέγουσαν περί αὐτῶν ὡς «οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι δοῦλοι τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου εἰσίν» ἥκιστα παρεδέξαντο, καίτοι τί τούτου τοῦ ρήματος εὐσεβέστερον εἴποι τις ἄν; Ἀλλ᾿ ἤδεισαν ἐκεῖνοι τόν εἰς ἄγγελον φωτός μετασχηματιζόμενον καί τούς διακόνους αὐτοῦ