55

Do you see how an intelligible serpent, as far as it concerned them, these studies are, separating man from God through deceit? But if he who came through all virtue also benefited from them, but by taking them down and dividing them and putting them together and using them with reason, as I myself propose, against whom you have wickedly chosen to speak, and not having grown old in the investigation of vanities, but having perceived what it was necessary to disdain, as also did Athanasius the Great, and having chosen beneficial learning and made a renunciation of the useless and harmful, as the great Basil says, Basil, who in the time of his youth well traded in the Egyptian wealth, that is, secular education, then, having advanced in age, renounced it, being clearly ashamed to be called a child, that is, a disciple of this holy one, according to what was said about Moses by his brother: “For if the barren and (p. 290) sterile daughter of a king, whom I think,” he says, “is properly understood as secular philosophy, were to adopt the youth and arrange for him to be called such a one's son, the argument allows him not to reject the relationship with the falsely-named mother for as long as one sees in himself the immaturity of his age; but he who has run up to the height, as we learned about Moses, will consider it a shame to be called a child of the barren one; for secular education is truly barren, always in labor but never bringing forth a living child from its birth pangs. For what fruit of its long labor has philosophy shown? Are not all its offspring wind-eggs and fruitless, miscarried before they come to the light of the knowledge of God, though perhaps able to become men, if they were not completely enfolded in the bosom of barren wisdom?”. Therefore let one live with it only so long as not to seem bereft of its venerable things.

Thus the saints think the same things with one another, and we safely follow them. But how could we accept you as their interpreter, you who clearly falsify even the sayings of the saints? For this one who does not even deem the wise men among the Greeks worthy of being called men, and who doubts their ability to become men, and this for no other reason than that they devoted their lives to this philosophy and to its philosophical studies, of this one, then, when he was discussing the man who had participated for a long time in the present life, how he "saw," heard, was instructed in geometry and astronomy and every method, and before these, the philosophy of the divinely-inspired Scripture, "which brings perfect purification to the soul," and through the singular case testifying that perfect purification belongs to the divinely-inspired Scripture alone, you yourself, having broken up the preceding words and changed the singular case into a plural verb, and instead of "which brings" having said "bring" (p. 292) and adding the word "these," and with a perverse mind having changed the preceding accusatives into nominatives, present the saint as saying that the knowledge of geometry and astronomy is the perfect purification of the soul. “Listen, then,” he says, “to what the divine Gregory of Nyssa says about these studies: for geometry and astronomy and the understanding through number, and before these, the philosophy of the divinely-inspired Scripture, these bring perfect purification to souls.” O most audacious hand and tongue and mind! And yet that theologian called only the philosophy of the divine Scripture "divinely-inspired," in order that he might show that those other studies are arranged by sense and contribute from themselves to piety, but that the sacred Scripture differs as much from those studies as divine things differ from human. But this man was not able, or rather, did not wish, to understand it so, but what he himself did at the beginning of his discourse, joining together in two ways the Greek studies and the divine Scripture and declaring their end to be one and the same, he now slanders the saint as having said this, although there he does not say that the knowledge of beings is purification, but the comprehension of the supremely Existent One from the knowledge of beings.

55

Ὁρᾷς ὅπως ὄφις νοητός, τό γε εἰς ἐκείνους ἧκον, ταυτί τά μαθήματα χωρίζοντα τοῦ Θεοῦ δι᾿ ἀπάτης τόν ἄνθρωπον; Εἰ δ᾿ ὁ διά πάσης ἀρετῆς ἥκων καί δι᾿ αὐτῶν ὤνατο, ἀλλά καθελών τε καί διελών καί συσκευασάμενος καί σύν λόγῳ χρησάμενος, ὡς αὐτός εἰσηγοῦμαι πρός ὅν ἀντιλέγειν κακῶς προήρησαι, πρός δέ μηδ᾿ ἐν τῇ τῶν ματαίων ἐρεύνῃ καταγηράσας, ἀλλά συνιδών ὧν ὑπερορᾶν δέον, ὡς καί Ἀθανάσιος ὁ μέγας, ἑλόμενός τε τήν ὠφέλιμον παιδείαν καί ἀποταγήν ποιησάμενος τῆς ἀνονήτου καί βλαβερᾶς, ὡς ὁ μέγας φησί Βασίλειος, Βασίλειος ὁ καλῶς τόν αἰγύπτιον πλοῦτον, τήν ἔξω δηλαδή παίδευσιν, κατά τόν τῆς νεότητος χρόνον ἐμπορευσάμενος, εἶτα τήν ἡλικίαν προήκων ἀποταξάμενος ταύτῃ δῆλος ὤν ἐν αἰσχύνῃ τιθέμενος τῆς ἁγίου ταύτης παῖς τουτέστι μαθητής ὀνομάζεσθαι, κατά τό περί Μωσέως ὑπό τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ εἰρημένον˙ «εἰ γάρ ἡ ἄγονός τε καί (σελ. 290) στεῖρα βασιλέως οὖσα θυγάτηρ, ἥν οἶμαι», φησί, «τήν ἐξω κυρίως νοεῖσθαι φιλοσοφίαν, ὑποβαλλομένη τόν νέον μήτηρ τοῦ τοιούτου κληθῆναι κατασκευάσειεν, ἕως τότε συγχωρεῖ ὁ λόγος μή ἀπωθεῖσθαι τήν τῆς ψευδωνύμου μητρός οἰκειότητα, ἕως ἄν τις τό ἀτελές τῆς ἡλικίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ βλέπῃ˙ὁ δέ πρός ὕψος ἀναδραμών, ὡς περί Μωσέως ἐμάθομεν, αἰσχύνην ἡγήσεται τῆς ἀγόνου παῖς ὀνομάζεσθαι˙ ἄγονος γάρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ ἔξωθεν παίδευσις, ἀεί ὠδίνουσα καί μηδέποτε ζωογονοῦσα τῷ τοκετῷ. Τίνα γάρ ἔδειξε καρπόν τῶν μακρῶν ὠδίνων ἡ φιλοσοφία; Οὐ πάντες ὑπηνέμιοί τε καί ἀτελεσφόρητοι, πρίν εἰς τό φῶς ἐλθεῖν τῆς θεογνωσίας ἀμβλίσκονται, δυνάμενοι ἴσως γενέσθαι ἄνθρωποι, εἰ μή διόλου τοῖς κόλποις τῆς ἀγόνου σοφίας ἐνεκαλύπτοντο;». Οὐκοῦν τοσοῦτόν τις ταύτῃ συζήσῃ, ὅσον μή δοκεῖν ἄμοιρος εἶναι τῶν παρά ταύτῃ σεμνῶν.

Οὕτω τά αὐτά φρονοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις οἱ ἅγιοι καί ἡμεῖς ἐκείνοις ἀσφαλῶς ἑπόμεθα. Σέ δέ τόν σαφῶς καί τάς ρήσεις τῶν ἁγίων παραχαράττοντα, πῶς ἐξηγητήν ἐκείνων δεξαίμεθα; Τούτου γάρ τοῦ μηδ᾿ ἀνθρώπους ἀξιοῦντος τούς καθ᾿ Ἕλληνας σοφούς καλεῖν καί τό δύνασθαι γενέσθαι τούτους κατ᾿ ἀνθρώπους ἐπιδιστάζοντος, καί ταῦτα παρ᾿ οὐδέν ἕτερον ὅτι μή τῷ διά βίου τῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ ταύτῃ προσέχειν καί τοῖς κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθήμασι, τούτου τοίνυν περί τοῦ μετασχόντος ἐπί πολύ τοῦ παρόντος βίου διεξιόντος, ὠς «εἶδεν», ἤκουσεν, ἐπαιδεύθη γεωμετρίαν τε καί ἀστρονομίαν καί πᾶσαν μέθοδον, καί πρό γε τούτων τήν τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς φιλοσοφίαν, τελείαν ἐπάγουσαν τῇ ψυχῇ κάθαρσιν», καί διά τῆς ἑνικῆς πτώσεως τῇ θεοπνεύστῳ Γραφῇ μόνῃ προσμαρτυροῦντος τήν τελείαν κάθαρσιν, αὐτός διαστήσας τόν λόγον τῶν πρό αὐτοῦ καί ἀμείψας εἰς πληθυντικόν ρῆμα τήν ἑνικήν πτῶσιν καί ἀντί τοῦ "ἐπάγουσαν" "ἐπάγουσιν" εἰπών (σελ. 292) καί προσγράψας τό " ταῦτα" καί τάς ἀνωτέρω αἰτιατικάς στρεβλῇ γνώμῃ πρός εὐθεῖαν μετενεγκών, ὡς τελείαν ψυχῆς κάθαρσιν τήν γεωμετρίας καί ἀστρονομίας εἴδησιν εἰπόντα παράγει τόν ἅγιον. «Ἄκουσον δή», φησί, «καί ἅ λέγει περί τῶν μαθημάτων ὁ θεῖος Γρηγόριος ὁ Νύσσης˙ γεωμετρία τε γάρ καί ἀστρονομία καί ἡ διά τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ κατανόησις καί πρό γε τούτων ἡ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς φιλοσοφία, τελείαν ἐπάγουσι ταῦτα κάθαρσιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς». Ὤ παντόλμου καί χειρός καί γλώττης καί διανοίας˙ καίτοι ὁ θεολόγος ἐκεῖνος καί θεόπνευστον μόνην προσεῖπε τήν τῆς θείας Γραφῆς φιλοσοφίαν, ἵν᾿ ἐκεῖνα μέν αἰσθήσει δείξῃ συντάττων καί ταῖς ἀπ᾿αὐτῆς πρός θεοσέβειαν συντελείαις, τήν δ᾿ ἱεράν Γραφήν τοσοῦτο διαφέρουσαν μαθημάτων, ὁπόσον καί τά θεῖα τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων διενήνοχεν, ὁ δέ οὐδέ οὔτως ἐδυνήθη, μᾶλλον δέ ἐβουλήθη, συνιέναι, ἀλλ᾿ ὅπερ αὐτός ἀρχόμενος τοῦ λόγους πεποίηκε, συνάψας δοίως τά ἑλληνικά μαθήματα καί τήν θείαν Γραφήν καί ἕν καί τό αὐτό τούτων ἀποφηνάμενος τέλος, τοῦτο νῦν ὡς εἰρηκότα διαβάλλει τόν ἅγιον, καίτοι ἐκεῖνος ἐνταῦθα οὐ τήν εἴδησιν τῶν ὄντων λέγει κάθαρσιν, ἀλλά τήν ἐξ εἰδήσεως τῶν ὄντων τοῦ καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ὄντος κατάληψιν.