The Law Behind Greek Ethics

It is clear, then, that all the other virtues as well, sketched out in Moses, supplied the Greeks with the first elements of the whole field of morals. I mean courage, self-restraint, prudence, righteousness, endurance, patience, dignity and self-control — and, on top of all these, reverence for God. [a]

But it is plain to everyone that reverence for God, which teaches us to worship and to honor, is the highest and the oldest cause of all. The law itself displays righteousness and teaches prudence, by holding us back from images we can see and inviting us to the Maker and Father of the universe. And out of that conviction, as out of a spring, every kind of understanding grows. “For the sacrifices of the wicked are detestable to the Lord, but the prayers of the upright are welcome to him,” since “righteousness is more acceptable to God than sacrifice.” We find things like this in Isaiah too: “What is the point to me of the crowd of your sacrifices? says the Lord” — and the whole passage. “Break every bond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice that pleases the Lord: a broken heart that seeks its Maker.” “Dishonest scales are detestable before God, but an honest weight is welcome to him.” That is where Pythagoras gets his rule not to step over the balance beam; and the teaching the sects put forward is called a counterfeit righteousness. “The tongue of the unrighteous will be destroyed, but the mouth of the righteous drips wisdom.” “For they call the wise and the shrewd worthless.” But it would take too long to bring in evidence about these virtues, since the whole of Scripture sings their praises.

Now they define courage as the knowledge of what is to be feared, what is not to be feared, and what lies between; and self-restraint as a settled state of mind which, by what it chooses and what it avoids, keeps the judgments of prudence safe. Joined to courage is patience, which is called endurance: the knowledge of what can be borne and what cannot. Greatness of soul is the knowledge that rises above whatever happens. Joined to self-restraint is carefulness, which is avoidance guided by reason. And the keeping of the commandments, which is guarding them so that they take no harm, is the securing of a safe life. There is no endurance without courage, and no exercise of self-control without self-restraint. These virtues follow one after another; and where the virtues come in sequence, there salvation is too, which is the keeping of a good condition. So it is right, in dealing with these virtues, to inquire into them all; for since they accompany one another, the man who has one of them with true knowledge has them all.

Self-control is the quality that does not step beyond what right reason shows. A man exercises self-control when he curbs the impulses that run against right reason, or curbs himself so as not to give in to desires that run against right reason. And self-restraint too is not found without courage, since out of the commandments spring both prudence, which follows the God who gives the commands, and the thing that imitates the divine character — that is, righteousness. By righteousness, exercising self-control, we set ourselves in purity toward reverence for God and the conduct that comes of it, in agreement with God; and so we are made like the Lord, as far as that is possible for us, who are mortal by nature. This is what it means to be righteous and holy with prudence.

For God has no needs and is not moved by passion, and so, strictly speaking, is not capable of self-control, since he is never subject to a disturbance he would have to control. Our nature, on the other hand, can be disturbed, and so needs self-restraint: by disciplining itself to need little, it works at coming near the divine nature in character. For the good man, standing on the boundary between an immortal and a mortal nature, has few needs. He has wants because of his body and because of his birth itself, but reasoned self-control has taught him to want few things.

What is the reason for the law forbidding a man to wear a woman’s clothing? Is it not that it wants us to be manly and not soft — not in our persons or our actions, not in our thoughts or our words? It wants the man who gives himself to the truth to be manly in acts of endurance and patience, in his life, his conduct, his speech and his training, by night and by day, even if the need should arise of bearing witness by the shedding of his own blood.

Again it is said: “If anyone has just built a house and has not yet lived in it, or has cultivated a newly planted vineyard and has not yet eaten its fruit, or is engaged to a girl and has not yet married her” — the law, in its kindness, orders men like these to be excused from military service. There are military reasons first: men whose minds are bent on what they want turn out slack in war, while it is men not tied down by desire who face danger boldly. And there are reasons of kindness, since, given how uncertain war is, the law judged it wrong that one man should not enjoy what he had worked for while another, who had taken no trouble at all, received what belonged to the man who had. The law seems also to be pointing to courage of soul when it lays down that the man who planted should gather the fruit, that the man who built should live in the house, and that the man who was engaged should marry. It is not empty hopes that it provides for people who work. As the word of true knowledge has it, Wisdom says:

“The hope of a good man, dead or alive, does not perish. I love those who love me, and those who look for me will find peace,” and so on.

What then? Did not the Midianite women, by their beauty, seduce the Hebrews away from wisdom into irreverence through loose living, at the very time the Hebrews were making war on them? For they lured them away from a serious way of life, and by their beauty trapped them in wanton pleasures, and drove them out of their minds over sacrifices to idols and foreign women. Beaten at once by women and by pleasure, they revolted from God and revolted from the law. The whole people came within a little of falling into enemy hands through a trick worked by women, until, when they were in danger, fear pulled them back with its warnings. Then the survivors took up the struggle for the worship of God bravely, and got the upper hand of their enemies. “The beginning of wisdom, then, is reverence for God, and the knowledge of holy things is understanding; and to know the law is the mark of a good mind.” So people who suppose the law produces a fear that shakes a man are neither good at understanding the law nor have they really taken it in; for “the fear of the Lord produces life, but the man who goes wrong will be afflicted with pains that knowledge never looks at.”

And so Barnabas says, in the hidden way he has: “May God, who rules the universe, grant to you as well wisdom, understanding, learning, knowledge of his statutes, and patience. Be taught by God, then, seeking out what the Lord seeks from you, so that he may find you on the day of judgment watching for these very things.” “Children of love and peace” is what he called them, as one who knows.

On giving and sharing, a great deal could be said, but let it be enough to remark on this: the law forbids a brother to take interest — and by “brother” it means not only the man born of the same parents, but the man of the same race and the same convictions, who shares in the same word. It holds it right not to take interest on money, but to give with open hand and open heart to people in need. For God, the author and the giver of such kindness, takes as his own suitable interest the most precious things to be found among people: mildness, gentleness, greatness of soul, good reputation, honor. Do you not see love for people stamped on that command?

And on this one too: “Pay the wages of the poor man the same day.” That teaches us to hand over what is owed for work without delay; for, as I think, a poor man’s readiness for tomorrow is crippled once he has gone hungry. Again it is said: “Let the creditor not go into the debtor’s house to take the pledge by force.” Let him ask for it to be brought out, and let the debtor, if he has it, not hold back. And in the harvest the owners are forbidden to take what falls from the handfuls; in reaping, too, the law orders a part to be left uncut. In this way it plainly trains people who own things to share and to be large-hearted, giving up some of their own to people in need and so providing the poor with a living. You see how the law announces God’s righteousness and his goodness at the same time, since he hands out food to everyone without grudging. And in the vintage it forbade the grape-pickers to go back over what had been left and to gather the fallen grapes, and it gave the same orders to those gathering olives.

Besides, the tithes of the crops and of the flocks taught both reverence for God and the refusal to grasp greedily at everything, but rather to share gifts of kindness with one’s neighbors. It was out of these, I reckon, and out of the firstfruits, that the priests were supported. So we now understand that we are instructed by the law in reverence for God, in generosity, in righteousness and in love for people. For does it not command that the land be left unworked in the seventh year, and tell the poor to use without fear the fruit that grows by God’s own doing, nature farming the ground for anyone and everyone? How, then, can anyone maintain that the law is not kind to people and is not the teacher of righteousness? Again, in the fiftieth year it ordered the same things to be done as in the seventh, and besides that ordered each man’s own land to be given back to him, if from any circumstance he had parted with it in the meantime. It set bounds to the desires of men who covet property by measuring out the length of time they might enjoy it, and it chose that men who had paid the penalty of long poverty should not suffer a lifelong punishment. “But acts of mercy and acts of faith are a king’s bodyguard, and a blessing is on the head of the man who gives; and the man who pities the poor will be blessed.” For he shows love to a man like himself because of his love for the Creator of the human race. The matters listed above have other explanations as well, drawn from the study of nature, both about rest and about the recovery of an inheritance; but they are not being discussed at present.

Now love is thought of in many forms: as gentleness, as mildness, as patience, as generosity, as freedom from envy, as freedom from hatred, as the forgetting of injuries. In all of them it cannot be divided or told apart; it is its nature to share. Again it is said: “If you see the animal of a relative, or of a friend, or in fact of anybody you know, straying in the wilderness, take it back and return it; and if the owner is far away, keep it among your own until he comes back, and then return it.” It teaches a natural sharing: that what is found is to be treated as something left in our keeping, and that we are not to bear malice against an enemy. “The command of the Lord is a fountain of life” — truly — and it “makes a man turn aside from the snare of death.” And what else? Does it not command us “to love foreigners not only as friends and relatives, but as ourselves, in body and in soul”? More than that, it gave the nations honor, and it holds no grudge against people who have done wrong. That is exactly why it is said, “You shall not detest an Egyptian, for you were a foreigner in Egypt” — the word “Egyptian” meaning either a man of that race or anyone at all in the world. And enemies, even when they are drawn up before the walls trying to take the city, are not to be treated as enemies until they have been summoned to peace by the voice of a herald.

Further, it forbids a man to sleep with a woman taken in war in a way that dishonors her. “Allow her thirty days,” it says, “to mourn as she wishes; and when she has changed her clothes, live with her as your lawful wife.” For it does not regard it as right that this should happen either in wantonness or for money, as with prostitutes, but only for the bearing of children. Do you see kindness combined with self-control? The master who has fallen in love with his captive girl is not allowed to satisfy his pleasure; the law puts a check on his lust by fixing an interval of time. And beyond that, it cuts the captive’s hair off, to shame a love that is disgraceful; for if it is reason that moves him to marry her, he will hold to her even after she has been made unlovely. Then, if a man has had his lust and does not care to live with the captive any longer, the law lays down that it shall not be lawful to sell her, or to keep her any longer as a servant, but wants her set free and released from service, so that she may not, once another wife is brought in, bear any of the unbearable miseries jealousy causes.

What more? The Lord commands us to relieve and lift up the animals of our enemies when they are laboring under their loads — teaching us at a distance not to take pleasure in a neighbor’s troubles or gloat over our enemies, so that people trained in these things may learn to pray for their enemies. For he does not allow us either to grieve at a neighbor’s good or to reap joy from a neighbor’s harm. And if you find any enemy’s animal straying, you are to pass over the promptings of your quarrel, take it back and return it. For the forgetting of injuries is followed by goodness, and goodness by the breaking up of enmity. From that we are made fit for agreement, and that leads on to happiness. And if you take a man to be a settled enemy, and then find out that he has gone wrong without reason, through lust or through anger, turn him toward goodness. Does the law, then, which leads us to Christ, look kind and mild? And does not the same God, good, and marked out by righteousness from the beginning to the end, use each kind of dealing as it fits, with salvation in view? The Lord says: “Be merciful, so that you may receive mercy. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you do, so it will be done to you; as you give, so it will be given to you; as you judge, so you will be judged; as you show kindness, so kindness will be shown to you. With the measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.”

On top of that, the law forbids branding with disgrace those who are in service in order to earn their keep, and it gives those who have been reduced to slavery through borrowed money a complete release in the seventh year. It also forbids handing over people who have come as suppliants to be punished. Truest of all, then, is that saying: “As gold and silver are tested in the furnace, so the Lord chooses men’s hearts. The merciful man is patient, and in everyone who takes trouble there is wisdom. For trouble will fall on a wise man; and thinking it through, he will seek life; and the man who seeks God will find knowledge along with righteousness; and those who have looked for him rightly have found peace.”

And Pythagoras, it seems to me, got his mildness toward creatures without reason from the law. For instance, he forbade the immediate use of the young in flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle, at the very moment of their birth, not even allowing it on the pretext of sacrifice, both for the sake of the young and for the sake of the mothers — training a man toward gentleness by way of what is beneath him, by means of the creatures without reason. He says: “Give up the young one to its mother, then, for at least the first seven days.” For if nothing happens without a cause, and milk comes down in a flood to animals that have just given birth, to feed their offspring, then the man who tears the newborn away from that supply of milk dishonors nature.

Let the Greeks feel ashamed, then, and anyone else who attacks the law, since the law shows mildness in the case of creatures without reason while they leave their own children outside to die. Long ago, and with foresight, the law threw a check in the way of their cruelty by the commandment just mentioned. For if it forbids the young of animals to be separated from their mother before they have sucked, how much more, in the case of human beings, does it provide a cure for cruelty and savagery of temper in advance — so that even if people despise nature, they may not despise teaching. They are permitted to fill themselves with kids and lambs, and there might perhaps be some excuse for separating the young from the mother there. But what reason is there for putting a child outside to die? A man who did not want to father children had no business marrying in the first place — and certainly no business becoming, through his loose living, the murderer of his own children.

Again, the law in its kindness forbids killing the offspring and the mother on the same day. That is where the Romans get their rule that a pregnant woman condemned to death is not allowed to undergo the punishment until she has given birth. The law also expressly forbids the killing of animals that are pregnant until they have given birth, holding back at a distance the readiness of one human being to wrong another. So it has stretched its mercy to the creatures without reason as well, so that by practicing kindness toward creatures of a different kind we might practice it in great abundance among creatures of our own. And those who kick the bellies of certain animals before they give birth, so as to feast on flesh mixed with milk, make the womb that was created for the birth of the young into its grave — though the law expressly commands, “You shall not boil a lamb in its mother’s milk.” The meaning is that the food of the living animal may not become sauce for the animal that has been robbed of life, and that what causes life may not help in consuming the body. And the same law commands “not to muzzle the ox that treads out the grain, for the worker must be counted worthy of his food.”

And it forbids an ox and a donkey to be yoked together at the plough, pointing perhaps to the animals’ inability to keep step, and at the same time teaching us not to wrong anyone belonging to another race by bringing him under the yoke, when there is no other cause to name than difference of race — which is no cause at all, being neither wickedness nor the result of wickedness. To me the allegory also seems to mean that the farming of the Word is not to be assigned on equal terms to the clean and the unclean, the believer and the unbeliever; for the ox is clean, while the donkey has been counted among the unclean animals. But the kind Word, overflowing with love for people, teaches that it is not right to cut down cultivated trees, or to cut the grain before harvest, out of spite; and that cultivated fruit is not to be destroyed at all, either the fruit of the soil or the fruit of the soul — for it does not permit the enemy’s country to be laid waste.

Farmers, besides, got the benefit of the law in matters like these. It orders newly planted trees to be nursed three years running, and the excess growth to be cut off, to keep them from being loaded and weighed down, and to keep their strength from being drained by want as the nourishment is frittered away; and it requires the ground to be tilled and dug around them, so that the tree may not check its own growth by sending out suckers. And it does not allow unripe fruit to be picked from immature trees, but only after three years, in the fourth year, dedicating the firstfruits to God once the tree has come to maturity.

This kind of farming can serve as a way of teaching: that we must cut off the growths of sin, and the useless weeds of the mind that spring up around the fruit that gives life, until the shoot of faith is completed and grows strong. For in the fourth year — since a man who is being solidly instructed needs time — the four virtues are dedicated to God, the third now joining onto the fourth, the person of the Lord. And a sacrifice of praise is above whole burnt offerings; “for he,” it is said, “gives strength to gain power.” And if your affairs stand in the sunshine of prosperity, gain strength and keep it, and acquire power in knowledge. For by these examples it is shown that both good things and gifts are supplied by God, and that we, becoming servants of the divine grace, ought to sow the benefits of God and make those who come to us noble and good — so that, as far as possible, the man of self-restraint may make others self-controlled, the courageous man may make them noble, the wise man may make them understanding, and the righteous may make them righteous.