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leads to heaven, that is, the eighth motion and day; but he says that souls depart on the fourth day, indicating the journey through the four elements. 13.13.34 But not only the Hebrews, but also the Greeks know the seventh day to be sacred, according to which the whole world of all living and growing things revolves. Hesiod, then, says this about it: The first, the fourth, and the seventh is a holy day; and again: and on the seventh again the bright light of the sun. And Homer: And then came the seventh, the holy day and: The seventh was holy; and again: It was the seventh day, and on it all things were accomplished; and again: and on the seventh morn we left the stream of Acheron. Indeed, Callimachus the poet also writes: And on the seventh morn all things were fashioned for him; and again: The seventh is among the good things, and the seventh is the day of birth and: The seventh is among the first, and the seventh is perfect and: And all seven things were fashioned in the starry heaven, appearing in cycles in the revolving years. 13.13.35 But also the elegies of Solon greatly extol the seventh day. And what of this? Does not Plato, almost prophesying the economy of salvation, say things very similar to the scripture that says, "Let us take away the just man from among us, because he is useless to us," when in the second book of the Republic he says thus: "Being so disposed, the just man will be scourged, bound, have his two eyes gouged out, and finally, after suffering all kinds of evil, he will be impaled." And Antisthenes the Socratic, paraphrasing that prophetic scripture, "To whom have you likened me? says the Lord," "says that God is like no one, wherefore no one can learn of him from an image." And Xenophon the Athenian says similar things word for word: "He who shakes and stills all things is manifest as being great and mighty, but what he is in form is unseen. Nor indeed does the sun, which seems to be all-shining, seem to allow himself to be seen, but if anyone gazes on him shamelessly, he takes away his sight." For what flesh can see with eyes the heavenly and true immortal God, who dwells in the heavens? But not even against the rays of the sun can men stand, being born mortal the Sibyl foretold. 13.13.36 Well then, Xenophanes of Colophon also, teaching that God is one and incorporeal, adds: One God, greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in body or in thought; and again: But mortals think that gods are born, and have their own clothing, voice, and body; and again: But if oxen or lions had hands, or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men, horses would draw the figures of the gods as like horses, and oxen as like oxen, and would make their bodies of such a sort as they themselves had a similar form. 13.13.37 Let us hear again, then, Bacchylides the lyric poet speaking about the divine: They are untamed by unseemly diseases and are blameless, in no way like men. And hear Cleanthes the Stoic, who wrote these things about God in a certain poem: You ask me what the good is? Listen then: ordered, just, holy, pious, self-controlled, useful, beautiful, proper, austere, impartial, always expedient, fearless, without grief, profitable, painless, helpful, well-pleasing, safe, friendly, honored, acknowledged, of good repute, without pride, diligent, gentle, vehement, long-lasting, blameless, ever-abiding. 13.13.38 And the same man, in a hidden way denouncing the idolatry of the many, adds: Unfree is everyone who looks to opinion, as if he would obtain some good thing from it. Therefore one must no longer think about the divine according to the opinion of the many; for I do not think he came to your bed in secret, imitating the form of an evil man, as a man Amphion says to Antiope. But Sophocles writes plainly: For Zeus married this one's mother, not in the form of gold, nor clad in swan's feathers, as when he impregnated the Pleuronian maiden, but as a complete man; then having come up secretly he indeed added: and swift with adulterous steps the adulterer stood over her; at which things even more clearly the
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οὐρανὸν ἄγει, τουτέστι τὴν ὀγδόην κίνησίν τε καὶ ἡμέραν· τεταρταίους δὲ τὰς ψυχὰς ἀπιέναι λέγει, δηλῶν τὴν διὰ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων πορείαν. 13.13.34 Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἑβδόμην ἱερὰν οὐ μόνον οἱ Ἑβραῖοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ Ἕλληνεςἴσασι, καθ' ἣν ὁ πᾶς κόσμος κυκλεῖται τῶν ζῳογονουμένων καὶ φυομένων ἁπάντων. Ἡσίοδος μὲν οὖν οὕτω περὶ αὐτῆς λέγει· πρῶτον ἕνη τετράς τε καὶ ἑβδόμη ἱερὸν ἦμαρ· καὶ πάλιν· ἑβδομάτη δ' αὖθις λαμπρὸν φάος ἠελίοιο. Ὅμηρος δέ· ἑβδομάτη δἤπειτα κατήλυθεν ἱερὸν ἦμαρ καί· ἑβδόμη ἦν ἱερή· καὶ πάλιν· ἕβδομον ἦμαρ ἔην καὶ τῷ τετέλεστο ἅπαντα· καὶ αὖθις· ἑβδομάτῃ δ' ἠοῖ λίπομεν ῥόον ἐξ Ἀχέροντος. ναὶ μὴν καὶ Καλλίμαχος ὁ ποιητὴς γράφει· ἑβδομάτῃ δ' ἠοῖ καί οἱ ἐτέτυκτο ἅπαντα· καὶ πάλιν· ἑβδόμη εἰν ἀγαθοῖς καὶ ἑβδόμη ἐστὶ γενέθλη καί· ἑβδόμη ἐν πρώτοισι καὶ ἑβδόμη ἐστὶ τελεία καί· ἑπτὰ δὲ πάντα τέτυκτο ἐν οὐρανῷ ἀστερόεντι, ἐν κύκλοισι φανέντ' ἐπιτελλομένοις ἐνιαυτοῖς. 13.13.35 Ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ Σόλωνος ἐλεγεῖαι σφόδρα τὴν ἑβδομάδα ἐκθειάζουσι. Τί δέ; οὐχὶ παραπλήσια τῇ λεγούσῃ γραφῇ· «Ἄρωμεν ἀφ' ἡμῶν τὸν δίκαιον, ὅτι δύσχρηστος ἡμῖν ἐστιν» ὁ Πλάτων μονονουχὶ προφητεύων τὴν σωτήριον οἰκονομίαν ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ τῆς Πολιτείας οὕτω φησίν· «Οὕτω δὲ διακείμενος ὁ δίκαιος μαστιγώσεται, δεδήσεται, ἐκκοπήσεται τὼ ὀφθαλμώ, τελευτῶν πάντα κακὰ παθὼν ἀνασκινδυλευθήσεται.» Ὅ τε Σωκρατικὸς Ἀντισθένης παραφράζων τὴν προφητικὴν ἐκείνην γραφήν· «Τίνι με ὡμοιώσατε; λέγει κύριος» «θεὸν οὐδενὶ ἐοικέναι φησί, διόπερ αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐκμαθεῖν ἐξ εἰκόνος δύναται.» τὰ δὲ ὅμοια καὶ Ξενοφῶν ὁ Ἀθηναῖος κατὰ λέξιν λέγει· «Ὁ γοῦν πάντα σείων καὶ ἀτρεμίζων ὡς μὲν μέγας τις καὶ δυνατὸς φανερός, ὁποῖος δ' ἐστὶ μορφὴν ἀφανής. οὐδὲ μὴν ὁ παμφαὴς δοκῶν εἶναι ἥλιος, οὐδ' οὗτος ἔοικεν ὁρᾶν αὑτὸν ἐπιτρέπειν, ἀλλ' ἤν τις ἀναιδῶς αὐτὸν θεάσηται, τὴν ὄψιν ἀφαιρεῖται.» τίς γὰρ σὰρξ δύναται τὸν ἐπουράνιον καὶ ἀληθῆ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἰδεῖν θεὸν ἄμβροτον, ὃς πόλον οἰκεῖ; ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἀκτίνων κατ' ἐναντίον ἠελίοιο ἄνθρωποι στῆναι δυνατοί, θνητοὶ γεγαῶτες προεῖπεν ἡ Σίβυλλα. 13.13.36 εὖ γοῦν καὶ Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος διδάσκων ὅτι εἷς καὶ ἀσώματος ὁ θεὸς ἐπιφέρει· εἷς θεὸς ἔν τε θεοῖσι καὶ ἀνθρώποισι μέγιστος, οὔ τι δέμας θνητοῖσιν ὁμοίιος, οὐδὲ νόημα· καὶ πάλιν· ἀλλ' οἱ βροτοὶ δοκοῦσι γεννᾶσθαι θεούς, τὴν σφετέρην δ' ἐσθῆτα ἔχειν φωνήν τε δέμας τε· καὶ πάλιν· ἀλλ' εἰ χεῖρας ἔχον βόες ἠὲ λέοντες ἢ γράψαι χείρεσσι καὶ ἔργα τελεῖν ἅπερ ἄνδρες, ἵπποι μέν θ' ἵπποισι, βόες δέ τε βουσὶν ὅμοιοι, καί κε θεῶν ἰδέας ἔγραφον καὶ σώματ' ἐποίουν τοιαῦθ', οἷόν περ καὶ αὐτοὶ δέμας εἶχον ὅμοιον. 13.13.37 ἀκούσωμεν οὖν πάλιν Βακχυλίδου μὲν τοῦ μελοποιοῦ περὶ τοῦ θείου λέγοντος· οἱ μὲν ἀδμῆτες ἀεικελίων νούσων εἰσὶ καὶ ἀναίτιοι, οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις εἴκελοι. Κλεάνθους τε τοῦ Στωϊκοῦ ἔν τινι ποιήματι περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ταῦτα γεγραφότος ἄκουε· τἀγαθὸν ἐρωτᾷς με οἷόν ἐστ'; ἄκουε δή· τεταγμένον, δίκαιον, ὅσιον, εὐσεβές, κρατοῦν ἑαυτοῦ, χρήσιμον, καλόν, δέον, αὐστηρόν, αὐθέκαστον, ἀεὶ συμφέρον, ἄφοβον, ἄλυπον, λυσιτελές, ἀνώδυνον, ὠφέλιμον, εὐάρεστον, ἀσφαλές, φίλον, ἔντιμον, ὁμολογούμενον, εὐκλεές, ἄτυφον, ἐπιμελές, πρᾶον, σφοδρόν, χρονιζόμενον, ἄμεμπτον, ἀεὶ διαμένον. 13.13.38 ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς κατὰ τὸ σιωπώμενον τὴν τῶν πολλῶν διαβάλλων εἰδωλολατρίαν ἐπιφέρει· ἀνελεύθερος πᾶς ὅστις εἰς δόξαν βλέπει, ὡς δὴ παρ' ἐκείνης τευξόμενός τινος καλοῦ. οὔκουν ἔτι κατὰ τὴν τῶν πολλῶν δόξαν περὶ τοῦ θείου ὑποληπτέον· οὐδὲ γὰρ λάθρᾳ δοκῶ φωτὸς κακούργου σχήματα ἐκμιμούμενον σοὶ τήνδ' ἐς εὐνὴν ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπον μολεῖν Ἀμφίων λέγει τῇ Ἀντιόπῃ. ὁ Σοφοκλῆς δὲ εὐθυρρημόνως γράφει· τὴν τοῦδε γάρ τοι Ζεὺς ἔγημε μητέρα, οὐ χρυσόμορφος οὐδ' ἐπημφιεσμένος πτίλον κύκνειον, ὡς κόρην Πλευρωνίαν ὑπημβρύωσεν, ἀλλ' ὁλοσχερὴς ἀνήρ· εἶτα ὑπελθὼν καὶ δὴ ἐπήγαγε· ταχὺς δὲ βαθμοῖς μοιχικοῖς ἐπεστάθη ὁ μοιχός· ἐφ' οἷς ἔτι φανερώτερον τὴν