Chapter 11

Chapter XI.—Ignorance, Knowledge, Foreknowledge.

“Wherefore, before all things, we must test the Prophet with all judgment by means of the prophetic promise; and having ascertained Him to be the Prophet, we must undoubtingly follow the other words of His teaching; and having confidence concerning things hoped for, we must conduct ourselves according to the first judgment, knowing that He who tells us these things has not a nature to lie.  Wherefore, if any of the things that are afterwards spoken by Him do not appear to us to be well spoken, we must know that it is not that it has been spoken amiss, but that it is that we have not conceived it aright.  For ignorance does not judge knowledge, and so neither is knowledge competent truly to judge foreknowledge; but foreknowledge affords knowledge to the ignorant.

Chapter XI.—Distinction Between Prediction and Prophecy.

“Whence it must before all things be known, that nowhere can truth be found unless from a prophet of truth.  But He is a true Prophet, who always knows all things, and even the thoughts of all men, who is without sin, as being convinced respecting the judgment of God.  Wherefore we ought not simply to consider respecting His foreknowledge, but whether His foreknowledge can stand, apart from other cause.  For physicians predict certain things, having the pulse of the patient as matter submitted to them; and some predict by means of having fowls, and some by having sacrifices, and others by having many various matters submitted to them; yet these are not prophets.

Chapter XI.—Truth and Custom.

“There is a certain great difference, O men of Greece, between truth and custom.  For truth is found when it is honestly sought; but custom, whatsoever be the character of the custom received, whether true or false, is strengthened by itself without the exercise of judgment; and he who has received it is neither pleased with it as being true, nor grieved with it as false.  For such an one has believed not by judgment, but by prejudice, resting his own hope on the opinion of those who have lived before him on a mere peradventure.  And it is not easy to cast off the ancestral garment, though it be shown to himself to be wholly foolish and ridiculous.

Chapter XI.—“All Uncleanness with Greediness.”

“‘But let all doors be opened to him, and let all baneful and arbitrary laws be set aside, which have been ordained by fanatical men, who, under the power of senselessness, and not willing to understand what is reasonable, and, moreover, suspecting those who are called adulterers, are with good reason mocked with arbitrary laws by Zeus himself, through Minos and Rhadamanthus.  For there is no restraining of Eros dwelling in our souls; for the passion of lovers is not voluntary.  Therefore Zeus himself, the giver of these laws, approached myriads of women; and, according to some wise men, he sometimes had intercourse with human beings, as a benefactor for the production of children.  But in the case of those to whom he knew that his being unknown would be a favour, he changed his form, in order that he might neither grieve them, nor seem to act in opposition to the laws given by himself.  It becomes you, therefore, who are debaters of philosophy, for the sake of a good life, to imitate those who are acknowledged to be the nobler, who have had sexual intercourse ten thousand times.

Chapter XI.—Clement Has Heard All This Before.

While Appion was allegorizing in this way, I became plunged in thought, and seemed not to be following what he was saying.  So he interrupted his discourse, and said to me, “If you do not follow what I am saying, why should I speak at all?”  And I answered, “Do not suppose that I do not understand what you say.  I understand it thoroughly; and that the more that this is not the first time I have heard it.  And that you may know that I am not ignorant of these things, I shall epitomize what you have said, and supply in their order, as I have heard them from others, the allegorical interpretations of those stories you have omitted.”  And Appion said:  “Do so.”

Chapter XI.—The Way of Salvation.

“Were I able to cause earthquakes, and do all that I wish, I assure you I would not destroy Simon and his friends (for not to destroy men am I sent), but would make him my friend, that he might no longer, by his slanders against my preaching the truth, hinder the salvation of many.  But if you believe me, he himself is a magician; he is a slanderer; he is a minister of evil to them who know not the truth.  Therefore he has power to bring diseases on sinners, having the sinners themselves to help him in his power over them.  But I am a servant of God the Creator of all things, and a disciple of His Prophet who is at His right hand.  Wherefore I, being His apostle, preach the truth:  to serve a good man I drive away diseases, for I am His second messenger, since first the disease comes, but after that the healing.  By that evil-working magician, then, you were stricken with disease because you revolted from God.  By me, if you believe on Him ye shall be cured:  and so having had experience that He is able, you may turn to good works, and have your souls saved.”

Chapter XI.—Cause of the Fall of Man.

“But they, because they had at first no experience of evils, being insensible to the gift of good things, were turned to ingratitude by abundance of food and luxuries, so that they even thought that there is no Providence, since they had not by previous labour got good things as the reward of righteousness, inasmuch as no one of them had fallen into any suffering or disease, or any other necessity; so that, as is usual for men afflicted on account of wicked transgression, they should look about for the God who is able to heal them.  But immediately after their despite, which proceeded from fearlessness and secure luxury, a certain just punishment met them, as following from a certain arranged harmony, removing from them good things as having hurt them, and introducing evil things instead, as advantageous.

Chapter XI.—Unbelief the Demon’s Stronghold.

“But it is necessary in our prayers to acknowledge that we have had recourse to God, and to bear witness, not to the apathy, but to the slowness of the demon.  For all things are done to the believer, nothing to the unbeliever.  Therefore the demons themselves, knowing the amount of faith of those of whom they take possession, measure their stay proportionately.  Wherefore they stay permanently with the unbelieving, tarry for a while with the weak in faith; but with those who thoroughly believe, and who do good, they cannot remain even for a moment.  For the soul being turned by faith, as it were, into the nature of water, quenches the demon as a spark of fire.  The labour, therefore, of every one is to be solicitous about the putting to flight of his own demon.  For, being mixed up with men’s souls, they suggest to every one’s mind desires after what things they please, in order that he may neglect his salvation.

Chapter XI.—Why the Serpent Tempts to Sin.

“For he knows the original law, that if he bring you to the persuasion of the so-called gods, so that you sin against the one good of monarchy, your overthrow becomes a gain to him.  And that for this reason, because he being condemned eats earth, he has power to eat him who through sin being dissolved into earth, has become earth, your souls going into his belly of fire.  In order, therefore, that you may suffer these things, he suggests every thought to your hurt.

Chapter XI.—Immortality of the Soul.

“And though by the dissolution of the body you should escape punishment, how shall you be able by corruption to flee from your soul, which is incorruptible?  For the soul even of the wicked is immortal, for whom it were better not to have it incorruptible.  For, being punished with endless torture under unquenchable fire, and never dying, it can receive no end of its misery.  But perhaps some one of you will say, ‘You terrify us, O Peter.’  Teach us then how we can be silent about these things, and yet tell you things as they are, for not otherwise can we tell you them.  But if we should be silent, you should be ensnared by evils through ignorance.  But if we speak, we are suspected of terrifying you with a false theory.  How then shall we charm that wicked serpent that lurks in your soul, and subtilely insinuates suspicions hostile to God, under the guise of love of God?  Be reconciled with yourselves; for in order to your salvation recourse is to Him with well-doing.  Unreasonable lust in you is hostile to God, for by conceit of wisdom it strengthens ignorance.

Chapter XI.—The Afflictions of the Righteous.

But Peter, hearing this, wept through sympathy, and immediately said to the gentlemen who were present:  “If any worshipper of God had suffered these things, such as this man’s father hath suffered, he would immediately have assigned the cause of it to be his worship of God, ascribing it to the wicked one.  Thus also it is the lot of the wretched Gentiles to suffer; and we worshippers of God know it not.  But with good reason I call them wretched, because here they are ensnared, and the hope that is thine they obtain not.  For those who in the worship of God suffer afflictions, suffer them for the expiation of their transgressions.”

Chapter XI.—Mattidia Has Unintentionally Fasted One Day.

“But since your mother has real confidence in the efficacy of baptism, let her fast at least one day before her baptism.”  But she swore:  “During the two past days, while I related to the woman all the events connected with the recognition, I could not, in consequence of my excessive joy, partake of food:  only yesterday I took a little water.”  Peter’s wife bore testimony to her statement with an oath, saying:  “In truth she did not taste anything.”  And Aquila, who must rather be called Faustinianus in future, said:  “There is nothing, therefore, to prevent her being baptized.”  And Peter, smiling, replied:  “But that is not a baptismal fast which has not taken place on account of the baptism itself.”  And Faustinus answered:  “Perhaps God, not wishing to separate our mother a single day after our recognition from our table, has arranged beforehand the fast.  For as she was chaste in the times of her ignorance, doing what the true religion inculcated, so even now perhaps God has arranged that she should fast one day before for the sake of the true baptism, that, from the first day of her recognising us, she might take her meals along with us.”

Chapter XI.—Discussion on Genesis.

And Peter said:  “You did this according to your resolution.  But in regard to Genesis, were you merely playing a part when you affirmed it, or were you in earnest in asserting that it existed?”  Our father said:  “I will not speak falsely to you.  I was in earnest when I maintained that Genesis existed.  For I am not uninitiated in the science; on the contrary, I associated with one who is the best of the astrologers, an Egyptian of the name of Annubion, who became my friend in the commencement of my travels, and disclosed to me the death of my wife and children.”  And Peter said:  “Are you not now convinced by facts, that the doctrine of Genesis has no firm foundation?”  And my father answered:  “I must lay before you all the ideas that occur to my mind, that listening to them I may understand your refutation of them.  I know, indeed, that astrologers both make many mistakes, and frequently speak the truth.  I suspect, therefore, that they speak the truth so far as they are accurately acquainted with the science, and that their mistakes are the result of ignorance; so that I conjecture that the science has a firm foundation, but that the astrologers themselves speak what is false solely on account of ignorance, because they cannot know all things with absolute accuracy.”  And Peter answered:  “Consider whether their speaking of the truth is not accidental, and whether they do not make their declarations without knowing the matters accurately.  For it must by all means happen that, when many prophecies are uttered, some of them should come true.”  And the old man said:  “How, then, is it possible to be fully convinced of this, whether the science of Genesis has a sure foundation or not?”

Chapter XI.—Exposition of the True Religion Promised.

And Peter said:  “Since, then, you are eager henceforth to learn what relates to our religion, I ought to explain it in order, beginning with God Himself, and showing that we ought to call Him alone God, and that we neither ought to speak of the others as gods nor deem them such, and that he who acts contrary to this will be punished eternally, as having shown the greatest impiety to Him who is the Lord of all.”  And saying this, he laid his hands on those who were vexed by afflictions, and were diseased, and possessed by demons; and, praying, he healed them, and dismissed the multitudes.  And then entering in this way, he partook of his usual food, and went to sleep.

Chapter XI.—Gen. I. 26 Appealed to by Simon.

And Simon said:  “Since I see that you frequently speak of the God who created you, learn from me how you are impious even to him.  For there are evidently two who created, as the Scripture says:  ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’  Now ‘let us make,’ implies two or more; certainly not one only.”

Chapter XI.—The Fear of God.

“But some who are strangers to the truth, and who give their energies to the service of evil, on pretext of glorifying God, say that He has no figure, in order that, being shapeless and formless, He may be visible to no one, so as not to be longed for.  For the mind, not seeing the form of God, is empty of Him.  But how can any one pray if he has no one to whom he may flee for refuge, on whom he may lean?  For if he meets with no resistance, he falls out into vacuity.  Yea, says he, we ought not to fear God, but to love Him.  I agree; but the consciousness of having done well in each good act will accomplish this.  Now well-doing proceeds from fearing.  But fear, says he, strikes death into the soul.  Nay, but I affirm that it does not strike death, but awakens the soul, and converts it.  And perhaps the injunction not to fear God might be right, if we men did not fear many other things; such, for instance, as plots against us by those who are like us, and wild beasts, serpents, diseases, sufferings, demons, and a thousand other ills.  Let him, then, who asks us not to fear God, rescue us from these, that we may not fear them; but if he cannot, why should he grudge that we should be delivered from a thousand fears by one fear, the fear of the Just One, and that it should be possible by a slight faith in Him to remove a thousand afflictions from ourselves and others, and receive instead an exchange of blessings, and that, doing no ill in consequence of fear of the God who sees everything, we should continue in peace even in the present life.

Chapter XI.—Simon Professes to Utter His Real Sentiments.

And Simon said:  It contributes much to victory, if the man who wars uses his own weapons; for what one loves he can in real earnest defend, and that which is defended with genuine earnestness has no ordinary power in it.  Wherefore in future I shall lay before you my real opinions.  I maintain that there is some unrevealed power, unknown to all, even to the Creator himself, as Jesus himself has also declared, though he did not know what he said.  For when one talks a great deal he sometimes hits the truth, not knowing what he is saying.  I am referring to the statement which he uttered, ‘No one knows the Father.’”  And Peter said:  “Do not any longer profess that you know His doctrines.”  And Simon said:  “I do not profess to believe his doctrines; but I am discussing points in which he was by accident right.”  And Peter said:  “Not to give you any pretext for escape, I shall carry on the discussion with you in the way you wish.  At the same time, I call all to witness that you do not yet believe the statement which you just now made.  For I know your opinions.  And in order that you may not imagine that I am not speaking the truth, I shall expound your opinions, that you may know that you are discussing with one who is well acquainted with them.

Chapter XI.—The Application of the Attributes of Man to God.

And Simon, hearing this, said:  “You will not force me through shame to remain silent in regard to His substance, and to inquire into His will alone.  For it is possible both to think and to speak of His substance.  I mean from the good attributes that belong to man.  For instance, life and death are attributes of man; but death is not an attribute of God, but life, and eternal life.  Furthermore, men may be both evil and good; but God can be only incomparably good.  And, not to prolong the subject too much, the better attributes of man are eternal attributes of God.”  And Peter said:  “Tell me, Simon, is it an attribute of man to beget evil and good, and to do evil and good?”  And Simon said:  “It is.”  And Peter said:  “Since you made this assertion, we must assign the better attributes of man to God; and so, while men beget evil and good, God can beget good only; and while men do evil and good, God rejoices only in doing good.  Thus, with regard to God, we must either not predicate any of the attributes of man and be silent, or it is reasonable that we should assign the best of the good attributes to Him.  And thus He alone is the cause of all good things.”