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De vita Mosis

CONCERNING THE LIFE OF MOSES THE LAWGIVER OR CONCERNING PERFECTION ACCORDING TO VIRTUE

1.1 Spectators at horse races are in a kind of transport. For those they support in the contests of the races, even if they lack no eagerness for speed, nevertheless out of zeal for victory they shout from above, moving their eye along with the course and urging on, as they at least think, the charioteer to a sharper impulse, shouting at the same time to the horses and instead of a whip stretching out and brandishing their hand at them. They do these things not because what is done contributes anything to the victory, but out of goodwill towards the contestants they indicate their zeal out of eagerness by their voice and gesture. Something like this I myself also seem to be doing, most honored of my friends and brothers, in that as you compete well in the stadium of virtue in the divine race and strain towards the prize of the upward call with frequent and light leaps, I both cheer you on and urge you on and exhort you to increase your speed with zeal. But I do these things, not being carried along to this by some irrational eagerness, but as granting gratifying things to a beloved child. 1.2 For since the letter which you sent before announced this request, that there should be from us some instruction for you for the perfect life, I thought it proper to provide it; perhaps nothing else useful for you from what is said, but this very thing is surely not useless: to become for you an example of ready obedience. For if we, who are placed in the position of fathers over so many souls, think it proper for this old age of ours to receive a command from a temperate youth, it is much more likely that the good deed of ready obedience will be strengthened in you, your youth having been trained by us for willing obedience. 1.3 So much for that; but we must now take in hand the matter before us, making God the guide of our discourse. You have sought, O dear friend, that what the perfect life is should be outlined in a sketch for you by us, evidently with a view to this, that if the object of your zeal were found by our discourse, you would transfer to your own life the grace revealed by the discourse. But I am at a loss in both respects equally; for I say that both of these are beyond my power: both to comprehend perfection in discourse and to show in life what the discourse might grasp. And perhaps not I alone, but many even of the great and pre-eminent in virtue will confess that such a thing is impossible for them. 1.4 But lest I should seem, to speak in the words of the psalmist, "to fear a fear there where there is no fear," I shall set before you more clearly what I mean. 1.5 Perfection, in the case of all other things which are measured by sense, is apprehended by certain defined limits, for instance in quantity, both the continuous and the discrete. For every measure of quantity is contained within its own particular bounds; and he who looks to the cubit or the decad of number knows that which has begun from something and ended in something, in which it is to have the perfect. But in the case of virtue, we have learned from the Apostle one limit of perfection, that it has no limit. For that great and sublime-minded one, the divine Apostle, ever running through virtue, never ceased stretching forth to the things that are before; for the stopping of his course was not safe for him. Why? Because every good thing by its own nature has no limit, but is limited by the juxtaposition of its opposite, as life by death and light by darkness; and every good thing at all ends in all those things which are conceived as opposite to good things. Just as, therefore, the end of life is the beginning of death, so too the stopping of the race of virtue becomes the beginning of the race of vice. 1.6 Therefore it is not

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De vita Mosis

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΒΙΟΥ ΜΩΥΣΕΩΣ ΤΟΥ ΝΟΜΟΘΕΤΟΥ Η ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤ' ΑΡΕΤΗΝ ΤΕΛΕΙΟΤΗΤΟΣ

1.1 Οἷόν τι πάσχουσιν οἱ τῶν ἱππικῶν ἀγώνων φιλοθεάμονες, οἳ τοῖς παρ'

αὐτῶν σπουδαζομένοις ἐν ταῖς ἁμίλλαις τῶν δρόμων, κἂν μηδὲν προθυμίας εἰς τάχος ἐλλείπωσιν, ὅμως ὑπὸ τῆς περὶ νίκην σπουδῆς ἐπιβοῶσιν ἄνωθεν τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῷ δρόμῳ συμπεριάγοντες καὶ παρακινοῦσιν, ὥς γε νομί ζουσιν, εἰς ὀξυτέραν ὁρμὴν τὸν ἡνίοχον, ἐποκλάζοντες ἅμα τοῖς ἵπποις καὶ ἀντὶ μάστιγος τὴν χεῖρα κατ' αὐτῶν προ τείνοντές τε καὶ ἐπισείοντες, οὐχ ὅτι συντελεῖ τι τὰ γινό μενα πρὸς τὴν νίκην αὐτὰ ποιοῦντες, ἀλλ' εὐνοίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τοὺς ἀγωνιζομένους φωνῇ τε καὶ σχήματι τὴν σπουδὴν ὑπὸ προθυμίας ἐπισημαίνοντες, τοιοῦτόν τι δοκῶ καὶ αὐτὸς ποιεῖν, φίλων μοι καὶ ἀδελφῶν τιμιώτατε, ὅτι σου κατὰ τὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς στάδιον καλῶς ἐναγωνιζομένου τῷ θείῳ δρόμῳ καὶ πρὸς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως πυκνοῖς τε καὶ κούφοις συντεινομένου τοῖς ἅλμασιν ὑποφωνῶ τε καὶ ἐπισπεύδω καὶ ἐπιτείνειν τῇ σπουδῇ τὸ τάχος διακελεύομαι. Ποιῶ δὲ ταῦτα οὐκ ἀλόγῳ τινὶ προθυμίᾳ πρὸς τοῦτο φερό μενος, ἀλλ' ὡς ἀγαπητῷ τέκνῳ τὰ καθ' ἡδονὴν χαριζόμενος. 1.2 Τῆς γὰρ ἐπιστολῆς ἣν πρώην διεπέμψω ταύτην ἀπαγγελ λούσης τὴν αἴτησιν τὸ γενέσθαι σοί τινα παρ' ἡμῶν ὑποθήκην εἰς τὸν τέλειον βίον, πρέπειν ᾠήθην παρασχεῖν· ἄλλο μὲν σοί τι χρήσιμον ἴσως ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων οὐδέν, αὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο πάντως οὐκ ἄχρηστον τὸ γενέσθαι σοὶ τῆς εὐπειθείας ὑπόδειγμα. Εἰ γὰρ ἡμεῖς οἱ τοσούτων ψυχῶν ἐν πατέρων τάξει προτεταγμένοι πρέπειν οἰόμεθα τῇ πολιᾷ ταύτῃ νεότητος σωφρονούσης ἐπίταγμα δέχεσθαι, πολὺ μᾶλλον εἰκός ἐστιν ἐν σοὶ κρατυνθῆναι τὸ τῆς εὐπειθείας κατόρθωμα, πρὸς ὑπακοὴν ἑκούσιον δι' ἡμῶν παιδοτριβηθείσης σοι τῆς νεότητος. 1.3 Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τοσοῦτον· ἐγχειρητέον δὲ ἤδη τῷ προκειμένῳ, Θεὸν καθηγεμόνα ποιησαμένοις τοῦ λόγου. Ἐπεζήτησας, ὦ φίλη κεφαλή, τύπῳ ὑπογραφῆναί σοι παρ' ἡμῶν τίς ὁ τέλειός ἐστι βίος, δηλαδὴ πρὸς τοῦτο βλέπων ὡς, εἴπερ εὑρεθείη τῷ λόγῳ τὸ σπουδαζόμενον, μετενεγκεῖν εἰς τὸν ἴδιον βίον τὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου μηνυθεῖσαν χάριν. Ἐγὼ δὲ ἐν ἀμφοτέροις ἐπίσης ἀμηχανῶ· τό τε γὰρ περιλαβεῖν τῷ λόγῳ τὴν τελειότητα καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τοῦ βίου δεῖξαι ὅπερ ἂν ὁ λόγος κατανοήσῃ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἐμὴν δύναμιν ἑκάτερον τούτων εἶναί φημι· τάχα δὲ οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος, ἀλλὰ πολλοὶ καὶ τῶν μεγάλων τε καὶ κατ' ἀρετὴν προεχόντων ἀνέφικτον αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὸ τοιοῦτον ὁμολογήσουσιν. 1.4 Ὡς δ' ἂν μὴ δοκοίην, κατὰ τὸν ψαλμῳδὸν εἰπεῖν, ἐκεῖ φοβεῖσθαι φόβον ὅπου οὐκ ἔστι φόβος, σαφέστερον ὃ βούλομαι παρα στήσω σοι. 1.5 Ἡ τελειότης ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων ὅσα τῇ αἰσθήσει μετρεῖται πέρασί τισιν ὡρισμένοις διαλαμβάνεται, οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ ποσοῦ, τοῦ τε συνεχοῦς καὶ τοῦ διωρισμένου. Πᾶν γὰρ τὸ ἐν ποσότητι μέτρον ἰδίοις τισὶν ὅροις ἐμπεριέχεται· καὶ ὁ πρὸς τὸν πῆχυν ἢ τὴν τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ δεκάδα βλέπων οἶδε τὸ ἀπό τινος ἀρξάμενον καὶ εἴς τι καταλῆξαν, ἐν ᾧ ἐστι τὸ τέλειον ἔχειν. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἕνα παρὰ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου τελειότητος ὅρον ἐμάθομεν, τὸ μὴ ἔχειν αὐτὴν ὅρον· ὁ γὰρ πολὺς ἐκεῖνος καὶ ὑψηλὸς τὴν διάνοιαν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος ἀεὶ διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς τρέχων οὐδέποτε τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτει νόμενος ἔληξεν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀσφαλὴς αὐτῷ ἦν ἡ τοῦ δρόμου στάσις· διὰ τί; ὅτι πᾶν ἀγαθὸν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ φύσει ὅρον οὐκ ἔχει, τῇ δὲ τοῦ ἐναντίου παραθέσει ὁρίζεται, ὡς ἡ ζωὴ τῷ θανάτῳ καὶ τὸ φῶς τῷ σκότῳ· καὶ πᾶν ὅλως ἀγαθὸν εἰς πάντα τὰ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου νοούμενα λήγει· ὥσπερ οὖν τὸ τῆς ζωῆς τέλος ἀρχὴ θανάτου ἐστίν, οὕτως καὶ τοῦ κατ' ἀρετὴν δρόμου ἡ στάσις ἀρχὴ τοῦ κατὰ κακίαν γίνεται δρόμου. 1.6 Οὐκοῦν οὐ