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Banquet of the Ten Virgins

Methodius of Olympus

Chapter 3

About this work

A literary symposium in which ten women offer speeches on virginity, creation, Scripture, virtue, and Christian perfection, consciously adapting the form of a classical philosophical banquet.

Author: Methodius of Olympus
Date: Late 3rd century
Origin: Eastern Mediterranean
Genre: Dialogue

Chapter III.—The Bramble and the Agnos the Symbol of Chastity; The Four Gospels, that Is, Teachings or Laws, Instructing to Salvation.

Now the bramble commends chastity, for the bramble

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and

the

agnos

is

the

same

tree

:

by

some

it

is

called

bramble

,

by

others

agnos

.

Perhaps

it

is

because

the

plant

is

akin

to

virginity

that

it

is

called

bramble

and

agnos

;

bramble

,

because

of

its

strength

and

firmness

against

pleasures

;

agnos

,

because

it

always

continues

chaste

.

Hence

the

Scripture

relates

that

Elijah

,

fleeing

from

the

face

of

the

woman

Jezebel

,

at

first

came

under

a

bramble

,

and

there

,

having

been

heard

,

received

strength

and

took

food

;

signifying

that

to

him

who

flies

from

the

incitements

of

lust

,

and

from

a

woman

—

that

is

,

from

pleasure

—

the

tree

of

chastity

is

a

refuge

and

a

shade

,

ruling

men

from

the

coming

of

Christ

,

the

chief

of

virgins

.

For

when

the

first

laws

,

which

were

published

in

the

times

of

Adam

and

Noah

and

Moses

,

were

unable

to

give

salvation

to

man

,

the

evangelical

law

alone

has

saved

all

.

And this is the cause why the fig-tree may be said not to have obtained the kingdom over trees, which, in a spiritual sense, mean men; and the fig-tree the command, because man desired, even after the fall, again to be subject to the dominion of virtue, and not to be deprived of the immortality of the paradise of pleasure. But, having transgressed, he was rejected and cast far away, as one who could no longer be governed by immortality, nor was capable of receiving it. And the first message to him after the transgression was preached by Noah, to which, if he had applied his mind, he might have been saved from sin; for in it he promised both happiness and rest from evils, if he gave heed to it with all his might, just as the vine promises to yield wine to those who cultivate it with care and labour. But neither did this law rule mankind, for men did not obey it, although zealously preached by Noah. But, after they began to be surrounded and drowning by the waters, they began to repent, and to promise that they would obey the commandments. Wherefore with scorn they are rejected as subjects; that is, they are contemptuously told that they cannot be helped by the law; the Spirit answering them back and reproaching them because they had deserted those men whom God had commanded to help them, and to save them, and make them glad; such as Noah and those with him. “Even to you, O rebellious,” said he, “I come, to bring help to you who are destitute of prudence, and who differ in nothing from dry trees, and who formerly did not believe me when I preached that you ought to flee from present things.”

Notes

1
Jahn’s reading is here followed. [This is a puzzle as well as a parable; the Seventy give ῥάμνος, which is not = ἄγνος. It spoils the force of Jotham’s caustic satire to adopt this conception of our author.]
2
1 Kings xix. 4.
3
Gen. v. 29.