Chapter IX.—Human Knowledge Necessary for the Understanding of the Scriptures.

Some, who think themselves naturally gifted, do not wish to touch either philosophy or logic; nay more, they do not wish to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone, as if they wished, without bestowing any care on the vine, straightway to gather clusters from the first. Now the Lord is figuratively described as the vine, from which, with pains and the art of husbandry, according to the word, the fruit is to be gathered.

We must lop, dig, bind, and perform the other operations. The pruning-knife, I should think, and the pick-axe, and the other agricultural implements, are necessary for the culture of the vine, so that it may produce eatable fruit. And as in husbandry, so also in medicine: he has learned to purpose, who has practiced the various lessons, so as to be able to cultivate and to heal. So also here, I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth; so that, from geometry, and music, and grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against assault. Now, as was said, the athlete is despised who is not furnished for the contest. For instance, too, we praise the experienced helmsman who “has seen the cities of many men,” and the physician who has had large experience; thus also some describe the empiric.98    The empirics were a class of physicians who held practice to be the one thing essential.    Lev. xviii. 1–5. And he who brings everything to bear on a right life, procuring examples from the Greeks and barbarians, this man is an experienced searcher after truth, and in reality a man of much counsel, like the touch-stone (that is, the Lydian), which is believed to possess the power of distinguishing the spurious from the genuine gold. And our much-knowing gnostic can distinguish sophistry from philosophy, the art of decoration from gymnastics, cookery from physic, and rhetoric from dialectics, and the other sects which are according to the barbarian philosophy, from the truth itself. And how necessary is it for him who desires to be partaker of the power of God, to treat of intellectual subjects by philosophising! And how serviceable is it to distinguish expressions which are ambiguous, and which in the Testaments are used synonymously! For the Lord, at the time of His temptation, skilfully matched the devil by an ambiguous expression. And I do not yet, in this connection, see how in the world the inventor of philosophy and dialectics, as some suppose, is seduced through being deceived by the form of speech which consists in ambiguity. And if the prophets and apostles knew not the arts by which the exercises of philosophy are exhibited, yet the mind of the prophetic and instructive spirit, uttered secretly, because all have not an intelligent ear, demands skilful modes of teaching in order to clear exposition. For the prophets and disciples of the Spirit knew infallibly their mind. For they knew it by faith, in a way which others could not easily, as the Spirit has said. But it is not possible for those who have not learned to receive it thus. “Write,” it is said, “the commandments doubly, in counsel and knowledge, that thou mayest answer the words of truth to them who send unto thee.”99    Prov. xxii. 20, 21. The Septuagint and Hebrew both differ from the reading here.    Gal. iii. 12. What, then, is the knowledge of answering? or what that of asking? It is dialectics. What then? Is not speaking our business, and does not action proceed from the Word? For if we act not for the Word, we shall act against reason. But a rational work is accomplished through God. “And nothing,” it is said, “was made without Him”—the Word of God.100    John. i. 3.    “Them that are far off, and them that are nigh” (Eph. ii. 13).

And did not the Lord make all things by the Word? Even the beasts work, driven by compelling fear. And do not those who are called orthodox apply themselves to good works, knowing not what they do?

Ἔνιοι δὲ εὐφυεῖς οἰόμενοι εἶναι ἀξιοῦσι μήτε φιλοσοφίας ἅπτεσθαι μήτε διαλεκτικῆς, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν ἐκμανθάνειν, μόνην δὲ καὶ ψιλὴν τὴν πίστιν ἀπαιτοῦσιν, ὥσπερ εἰ μηδεμίαν ἠξίουν ἐπιμέλειαν ποιησάμενοι τῆς ἀμπέλου εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοὺς βότρυας λαμβάνειν. ἄμπελος δὲ ὁ κύριος ἀλληγορεῖται, παρ' οὗ μετ' ἐπιμελείας καὶ τέχνης γεωργικῆς τῆς κατὰ τὸν λόγον τὸν καρπὸν τρυγητέον. κλαδεῦσαι δεῖ, σκάψαι, ἀναδῆσαι καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ποιῆσαι, δρεπάνου τε, οἶμαι, καὶ μακέλλης καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὀργάνων τῶν γεωργικῶν πρὸς τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τῆς ἀμπέλου χρεία, ἵνα ἡμῖν τὸν ἐδώδιμον καρπὸν ἐκφήνῃ. καθάπερ δὲ ἐν γεωργίᾳ οὕτω καὶ ἐν ἰατρικῇ χρηστομαθὴς ἐκεῖνος ὁ ποικιλωτέρων μαθημάτων ἁψάμενος, ὡς βέλτιον γεωργεῖν τε καὶ ὑγιάζειν δύνασθαι, οὕτω κἀνταῦθα χρηστομαθῆ φημι τὸν πάντα ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀναφέροντα, ὥστε καὶ ἀπὸ γεωμετρίας καὶ μουσικῆς καὶ ἀπὸ γραμματικῆς καὶ φιλοσοφίας αὐτῆς δρεπόμενον τὸ χρήσιμον ἀνεπιβούλευτον φυλάσσειν τὴν πίστιν. παρορᾶται δὲ καὶ ὁ ἀθλητής, † ὡς προείρηται, ἀλλ' εἰς τὴν σύνταξιν συμβαλλόμενος. αὐτίκα καὶ κυβερνήτην τὸν πολύπειρον ἐπαινοῦμεν, ὃς πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων εἶδεν ἄστεα, καὶ ἰατρὸν τὸν ἐν πείρᾳ πολλῶν γεγενημένον· ᾗ τινες καὶ τὸν ἐμπειρικὸν ἀναπλάττουσιν. ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸν βίον ἀναφέρων ἕκαστα τὸν ὀρθὸν ἔκ τε τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν καὶ τῶν βαρβαρικῶν ὑποδείγματα κομίζων πολύπειρος οὗτος τῆς ἀληθείας ἰχνευτὴς καὶ τῷ ὄντι πολύμητις, δίκην τῆς βασάνου λίθου (ἣ δ' ἐστὶ Λυδὴ διακρίνειν πεπιστευμένη τὸ νόθον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰθαγενοῦς χρυσίου) καὶ ἱκανὸς ὢν χωρίζειν, ὁ πολύιδρις ἡμῶν καὶ γνωστικός, σοφιστικὴν μὲν φιλοσοφίας, κομμωτικὴν δὲ γυμναστικῆς καὶ ὀψοποιικὴν ἰατρικῆς καὶ ῥητορικὴν διαλεκτικῆς καὶ μετὰ τὰς ἄλλας [καὶ] τὰς κατὰ τὴν βάρβαρον φιλοσοφίαν αἱρέσεις αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας. πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον περὶ νοητῶν φιλοσοφοῦντα διαλαβεῖν τὸν ἐπιποθοῦντα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμεως ἐπήβολον γενέσθαι; πῶς δὲ οὐχὶ καὶ διαιρεῖσθαι χρήσιμον τάς τε ἀμφιβόλους φωνὰς τάς τε ὁμωνύμως ἐκφερομένας κατὰ τὰς διαθήκας; παρ' ἀμφιβολίαν γὰρ ὁ κύριος τὸν διάβολον κατὰ τὸν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ σοφίζεται χρόνον, καὶ οὐκέτι ἔγωγε ἐνταῦθα συνορῶ, ὅπως ποτὲ ὁ τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ τῆς διαλεκτικῆς εὑρετής, ὥς τινες ὑπολαμβάνουσιν, παράγεται τῷ κατ' ἀμφιβολίαν ἀπατώμενος τρόπῳ. Εἰ δὲ οἱ προφῆται καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι οὐ τὰς τέχνας ἐγνώκεσαν, δι' ὧν τὰ κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν ἐμφαίνεται γυμνάσματα, ἀλλ' ὁ νοῦς γε τοῦ προφητικοῦ καὶ τοῦ διδασκαλικοῦ πνεύματος ἐπικεκρυμμένως λαλούμενος διὰ τὸ μὴ πάντων εἶναι τὴν συνιεῖσαν ἀκοήν, τὰς ἐντέχνους ἀπαιτεῖ πρὸς σαφήνειαν διδασκαλίας. ἀσφαλῶς γὰρ ἐγνώκεσαν τὸν νοῦν ἐκεῖνον οἱ προφῆται καὶ οἱ τοῦ πνεύματος μαθηταί· ἐκ γὰρ πίστεως καὶ ὡς οὐχ οἷόν τε ῥᾳδίως γνῶναι τὸ πνεῦμα εἴρηκεν, ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως [ὡς] ἐκδέξασθαι μὴ μεμαθηκότας. τὰς δὲ ἐντολάς, φησίν, ἀπόγραψαι δισσῶς βουλήσει καὶ γνώσει τοῦ ἀποκρίνασθαι λόγους ἀληθείας τοῖς προβαλλομένοις σοι. τίς οὖν ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ ἀποκρίνασθαι; ἥτις καὶ τοῦ ἐρωτᾶν· εἴη δ' ἂν αὕτη διαλεκτική. τί δ'; οὐχὶ καὶ τὸ λέγειν ἔργον ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ἐκ τοῦ λόγου γίνεται; εἰ γὰρ μὴ λόγῳ πράττοιμεν, ἀλόγως ποιοῖμεν ἄν. τὸ λογικὸν δὲ ἔργον κατὰ θεὸν ἐκτελεῖται· καὶ οὐδὲν χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, φησί, τοῦ λόγου τοῦ θεοῦ. ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ὁ κύριος λόγῳ πάντα ἔπρασσεν; ἐργάζεται δὲ καὶ τὰ κτήνη ἐλαυνόμενα ἀναγκάζοντι τῷ φόβῳ. οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ οἱ ὀρθοδοξασταὶ καλούμενοι ἔργοις προσφέρονται καλοῖς, οὐκ εἰδότες ἃ ποιοῦσιν;