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This is his preface: “Just as it is with health, so it is also with philosophy: for it is given directly from God and is found through diligence; and just as one kind of health is not given by God, and another kind comes about through medicine, but it is the same, so it is also with wisdom. God gives this to us, to prophets and apostles, and He has given us both the oracles through theurgists and the philosophical disciplines, through which we, in turn, seeking wisdom, find it.” These things are not yet very terrible, although he equates things that differ very greatly and almost indescribably. For God both heals the incurable and raises the dead from their tombs and wisdom for the prophets and apostles is the Word of the Father Himself, the wisdom before the ages, as Paul also says about Him: “who became for us wisdom from God.” But the wisdom from the external disciplines and the health that comes from physicians are not identical to those things, by as much as the prophets differ from the Hellenes, and the disciples of Christ from the Galens and Hippocrateses, or if you will, even Christ Himself, who deigned to be called Jesus for our sakes. Therefore, to me it seems the same to say these things and to say that the sun is similar to a firefly, since both show light in the air.

(p. 268) But “the theurgic oracles,” he says, “and the wisdom in them, along with the philosophy from the external disciplines, look to one goal and possess the same end, the discovery of truth. For truth through all things is one, given at the beginning directly from God to the apostles, but found by us through diligence; and indeed, toward this truth given from God to the apostles, the philosophical disciplines are naturally suited even of themselves and contribute most greatly to being led up without error to the immaterial archetypes of the sacred symbols.” Who, hearing these things, among those who are right-minded and know how great their difference is, will not be indignant, that the theurgic wisdom of the Spirit is ranked altogether with the philosophy from the external disciplines, and this by those who seem to think the same as we do and who accuse our refutations as being directed against those of like mind? Is not the one “barren and fruitless,” according to the God-inspired Gregory of Nyssa, giving no fruit from its long birth-pangs, nor leading forth into the light of the knowledge of God, while the other, of the Spirit, is most fertile and has many children, not suited by nature to bear two or three at a time, like the most prolific of animals, but regenerating whole thousands at once and transferring them from the terrible darkness into the wondrous light of God, as we have been taught from the Acts of the Apostles? Which the prophet also, foreseeing and being wholly caught up in the wonder, said: “Has the earth travailed suddenly, has a nation been born at once?” In the one, is not the truth debatable and mixed with falsehood, for which reason it is always by nature subject to contradiction, as even its own leaders would attest, while against the other no one, according to the divine voice of the gospel, is able to stand, as it puts forth the truth clear and completely unmixed with its opposite? Is not the truth of this wisdom of the divine oracles (p. 270) necessary for us and beneficial and salvific, while that of the wisdom that comes from without is not necessary, nor salvific? From which it is shown that the form of truth is twofold, of which the one is the end of the divinely inspired teaching, while the other, which is not necessary nor salvific, the external philosophy seeks, but attains it less. How then through both of these do we find one truth?

But we also, by transferring the investigative faculty of the external philosophical disciplines to the inquiry of necessary things and by using in some cases the learning from there for the clarification of the oracles could most easily be turned aside from the right path, not the only

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Ἔστι δή αὐτῷ τό προοίμιον τοῦτο˙ «Ὥσπερ ἐπί τῆς ὑγείας οὕτως ἔχει καί ἐπί τῆς φιλοσοφίας˙ αὐτόθεν μέν γάρ δίδοται παρά Θεοῦ καί δι᾿ ἐπιμελείας εὑρίσκεται˙ καί ὥσπερ οὐκ ἄλλο μέν εἶδος ὑγείας δίδοται παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἄλλο δέ διά τῆς ἰατρικῆς παραγίνεται, ἀλλά τό αὐτό, οὕτω κἀπί τῆς σοφίας˙ δίδωσι δέ ἡμῖν ταύτην προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις Θεός, δέδωκε δέ ἡμῖν τά τε διά τῶν θεουργῶν λόγια καί τά κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα, δι᾿ ὧν πάλιν τήν σοφίαν ζητοῦντες εὑρίσκομεν». Οὔπω ταῦτα πάνυ δεινά, καίπερ ἐξισάζοντος τά μακρῷ πάνυ καί ὅσον οὐκ ἄν εἴποι τις διαφέροντα˙ καί τά ἀνίατα γάρ ἰᾶται Θεός καί νεκρούς ἐκ τάφων ἀνίστησι καί σοφία προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Πατρός λόγος, ἡ πρό αἰώνων σοφία, ὡς καί Παῦλος περί αὐτοῦ λέγει˙ «ὅς ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν σοφία ἀπό Θεοῦ». Ἡ δ᾿ ἐκ τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων σοφία καί ἡ παρ᾿ ἰατρῶν προσγινομένη ὑγίεια, παρά τοσοῦτον οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκείναις ταὐτό, παρ᾿ ὅσον Ἑλλήνων προφῆται διενηνόχασι, καί Γαληνῶν καί Ἱπποκρατῶν οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μαθηταί, εἰ δέ βούλει καί Χριστός αὐτός, ὁ Ἰησοῦς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς κληθῆναι καταδεξάμενος. Ἴσον τοίνυν ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ ταὐτά τε λέγειν ταὐτά καί πυγολαμπίδι παραπλήσιον εἶναι τόν ἥλιον, ἐπειδήπερ ἄμφω φῶς ἐπ᾿ ἀέρος δεικνύουσιν.

(σελ. 268) Ἀλλά «τά τῶν θεουργῶν», φησί, «λόγις καί ἡ ἐν τούτοις σοφία τῇ παρά τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίᾳ πρός ἕνα σκοπόν ὁρᾷ καί τό αὐτό κέκτηται τέλος, τήν τῆς ἀληθείας εὕρεσιν. Μία γάρ ἡ διά πάντων ἀλήθεια, τοῖς μέν ἀποστόλοις ἀμέσως ἐκ Θεοῦ δοθεῖσα τήν ἀρχήν, παρ᾿ ἡμῶν δέ δι᾿ ἐπιμελείας εὑρισκομένη˙ πρός δή ταύτην τήν θεόθεν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις δεδομένην ἀλήθειαν καί παρ᾿ ἑαυτῶν πέφυκε τά κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήματα κἀπί τάς ἀΰλους ἀρχετυπίας ἀνάγεσθαι τῶν ἱερῶν συμβόλων ἀπλανῶς τά μέγιστα συμβάλλεται». Τίς ταῦτ᾿ ἀκούων οὐ νεμεσήσει τῶν εὖ φρονούντων καί τό διάφορον αὐτῶν ὅσον ἐπισταμένων, ὅτι καί συντάττεται γοῦν ὅλως ἡ θεουργική σοφία τοῦ Πνεύματος τῇ παρά τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίᾳ, καί ταῦτα παρά τῶν ταὐτά φρονεῖν δοκούντων ἡμῖν καί τάς ἀντιρρήσεις αἰτιωμένων ὡς πρός ὁμόφρονας; Οὐχ ἡ μέν «ἄγονός τε καί ἄκαρπος», κατά τόν Νύσσης θεηγόρον Γρηγόριον, μηδέν δοῦσα τῶν μακρῶν ὠδίων καρπόν, μηδ᾿ εἰς τό φῶς τῆς θεογνωσίας προάγουσα, ἡ δέ τοῦ Πνεύματος γονιμωτάτη τε καί πολύτεκνος, οὐ σύνδυο καί σύντρεις, κατά τά πολυτόκα τῶν ζώων, πεφυκυῖα τίκτειν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλας χιλιάδας εἰσάπαξ ἀναγεννῶσα κἀκ τοῦ δεινοῦ σκότους, εἰς τό θαυμαστόν τοῦ Θεοῦ μετατιθεῖσα φῶς, ὡς ἐκ τῶν Ἀποστολικῶν πράξεως ἐδιδάχθημεν; Ὅ καί ὁ προφήτης προϊδών καί τοῦ θαύματος γεγονώς ὅλος ἔλεγεν˙ «εἰ ὤδινεν ἡ γῆ αἴφνης, εἰ ἐτέχθη ἔθνος εἰσάπαξ;». Οὐχί τῇ μέν ἀμφισβητήσιμον ἔνεστι τἀληθές καί τῷ ψεύδει συμμιγές, διό καί ἀεί ἐντιλέγεσθαι πέφυκεν, ὡς καί οἱ καθηγεμόνες αὐτῆς συμμαρτυρήσαιεν ἄν, τῇ δέ οὐδείς, κατά τήν θεσπεσίαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου φωνήν, ἀντιστῆναι δύναται, σαφές καί τοῦ ἐναντίου παντάπασιν ἄμικτον προβαλλομένῃ τό ἀληθές; Οὐχί ταύτης μέν τῆς τῶν θείων λογίων σοφίας τό (σελ. 270) ἀληθές ἀναγκαῖον ἡμῖν ἐστι καί λυσιτελές καί σωτήριον, ἐκείνης δέ τῆς ἔξωθεν προσγινομένης οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον, οὐδέ σωτήριον; Ὅθεν δείκνυται καί διπλοῦν εἶναι τό εἶδος τῆς ἀληθείας, ὧν τό μέν τέλος ἐστί τῆς θεοπνεύστου διδασκαλίας, τό δέ μή ἀναγκαῖον μηδέ σωτήριον ζητεῖ μέν ἡ ἔξω φιλοσοφία, ἐπιτυγχάνει δέ ἧττον. Πῶς οὖν δι᾿ ἀμφοτέρων τούτων μίαν εὑρίσκομεν τήν ἀλήθειαν;

Ἀλλά καί ἡμεῖς ἐπί τήν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ζήτησιν τό ἐξεταστικόν μεταφέροντες τῆς τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων φιλοσοφίας καί πρός τήν τῶν λογίων σαφήνειαν ἔστιν οἷς τῆς ἐκεῖθεν παιδείας χρώμενοι ρᾷστ᾿ ἄν ἐκτραπείημεν τοῦ ὀρθοῦ, μή τήν μόνην