A Spark From the Scriptures

But it seems that the philosophers of the Greeks name God without knowing him. Their reasonings, as Empedocles says, are “poured out over the tongues of the crowd, out of mouths that know little of the whole.” For just as a craftsman turns the light of the sun into fire by passing it through a glass vessel full of water, so philosophy, catching a spark from the divine Scriptures, shows up in a few people. And just as all animals breathe the same air, some in one way and some in another, and to different ends, so a good many people occupy themselves with the truth — or rather with talk about the truth. They say nothing about God himself; they explain him by hanging their own feelings on him. They spend their lives hunting for what is probable, not for what is true. But truth is not taught by copying. It is taught by instruction. It is not so that we may look good that we believe in Christ, any more than it is only to be seen in the light that we walk out into the sun. In the one case we go out to be warmed; in the other we are pressed to become Christians in order to be excellent and good. For the kingdom belongs above all to the violent, who by inquiry and study and discipline reap this harvest: they become kings. [a]

So a man who copies an opinion shows that he already had some notion of it beforehand. When someone has caught the scent of a subject and kindles it inside his own soul by longing and study, he then sets everything in motion in order to know it. What a man has no grasp of he does not long for, and he does not take hold of the good that comes from it. That is why the one who truly knows comes at last to imitate the Lord, as far as a man is allowed to, having received a sort of quality akin to the Lord’s own, so as to become like God. But people who have made no progress in knowledge cannot judge the truth by any rule. It is not possible, then, to share in the contemplation that knowledge brings unless we first empty ourselves of the notions we came in with. For the truth about every object, whether of the mind or of the senses, is stated in this plain and universal way. We can tell, for instance, truth in painting from what is cheap, and music that is fitting from music that is loose. So there is also a truth of philosophy, distinct from the other philosophies, and a real beauty, distinct from the counterfeit. It is not the partial truths — the things truth is said of — that we are to look into, but truth itself; and we are not out to learn names. For what has to be looked into about God is not one thing but ten thousand. There is a difference between saying what God is and saying things about God. To put it generally, in everything what merely happens to belong to a thing has to be told apart from what the thing itself is.

It is enough for me to say that the Lord of all is God — and I mean the Lord of all without qualification, with nothing whatever left out as an exception.

Since, then, truth comes in two forms, the names and the things, some people discuss names and busy themselves with the beauty of words: such are the philosophers among the Greeks. But we barbarians have the things. And it was not for nothing that the Lord chose to use a body of no great beauty, so that no one praising its charm and admiring its looks would turn his back on what was said, and by attending to what ought to be left behind would be cut off from what belongs to the mind. We must therefore occupy ourselves not with the wording but with the meaning.

To people who have no power of taking things in and are not inclined toward knowledge, the word is not entrusted; ravens, after all, imitate human voices without understanding a thing they say. And taking things in with the mind rests on faith. So Homer too said:

But he did not know who the Father is, or how he is Father. Just as it is natural for a man with hands to take hold of things, and for a man with sound eyes to see the light, so it is the natural privilege of a man who has received faith to take hold of knowledge, if he wants, on “the foundation” that has been laid, to work and to build up “gold, silver, precious stones.” Such a man does not announce that he wants a share; he begins to have one. It is not for him to intend, but to be kingly and enlightened and a man who knows. It is not for him to want to grasp things by their names, but in fact.

For God, being good, was moved to make everything else as well for the sake of the chief part of the whole creation, since he wants to save it, and he gave them at the outset this first gift, that they should exist at all. That to be is far better than not to be, everyone will grant. Then each thing was made, and is made, according to what its own nature can take, moving on toward what is better. So there is nothing absurd in philosophy’s having been given by divine providence as a training that comes before the completeness that is through Christ — unless philosophy is ashamed to learn from barbarian knowledge how to move on toward truth. But if “the very hairs are numbered,” and the smallest movements too, how shall philosophy not be taken into account? For Samson was given power in his hair, so that he might see that even the lowly crafts, the ones that have to do with the things of this life and that lie on the ground and stay there once the soul has gone, were not given without divine power.

But it is said that providence reaches everything from above, from the part that matters most, as from the head — “like the ointment,” as it says, “that runs down onto Aaron’s beard, and onto the hem of his robe” (that is, of the great High Priest, “through whom all things were made, and without whom not one thing was made”) — and not down to the body’s ornament; for philosophy is outside the People, like clothing. The philosophers, then, who have been trained by the spirit of perception in their own particular power of perceiving, and who look into philosophy as a whole rather than one part of it, bear witness to the truth in a truth-loving and humble spirit — that is, if they advance to understanding even in the case of good things said by people who think differently, through God’s ordering of things and through the goodness beyond words, which always, as far as it can, leads the nature of existing things toward what is better. Then, by making themselves at home not only with Greeks but with barbarians as well, out of the ordinary exercise of their own intelligence, they are brought to faith. And once they have taken hold of the foundation of truth, they receive in addition the power to go further in their inquiry. From there they come to love being learners, and, reaching out after knowledge, they hurry toward salvation.

So Scripture says that “the spirit of perception” was given by God to the craftsmen. And this is nothing else than understanding: a faculty of the soul, able to study the things that exist, to tell apart and to compare what comes next as like or unlike, to require and to forbid, and to guess at the future. It reaches not only to the crafts but to philosophy itself. Why, then, is the serpent called wise? Because even in its tricks you can find connection, distinction, combination, and a guess at what is coming. That is how a great many crimes get hidden, since the wicked arrange things so as to escape punishment by every possible means.

And wisdom, being manifold, running through the whole world and all human affairs, changes its name in each case. When it applies itself to first causes, it is called insight. When it backs that up by proving it, it is called knowledge, and wisdom, and certain knowledge. When it is busy with what belongs to godliness, and takes in the first Word without argument because the work of it is kept up in it, it is called faith. In the field of the senses, settling what appears as the truest, it is right opinion. In work done by the skill of the hands, it is craft. But when, without any study of first causes, it makes some attempt or combination by watching what is similar and by shifting things around, it is called experience. And what belongs to it, supreme and at its heart, is the Holy Spirit, which a man receives after strong faith, once he has come to believe under God’s guidance. Philosophy, then, having a share in a finer perception, as has been shown from what was said above, has a share in wisdom. Reasoned discussion of the things the mind deals with, with choosing and agreeing, is called dialectic. It establishes by proof what is claimed about truth, and pulls down the doubts that are raised against it.

Those who say that philosophy did not come here from God all but say that God does not know each particular thing, and that he is not the cause of all good things — that is, if each of these belongs to the class of particular things. But nothing that exists could have come to be at all unless God willed it. And if he willed it, then philosophy is from God, since he willed it to be what it is, for the sake of people who would not keep away from evil by any other means. For God knows all things — not only what exists, but what is going to be, and how each thing will be. And foreseeing the particular movements, he “looks on all things and hears all things,” seeing the soul stripped bare inside; and he holds from all eternity the idea of each thing by itself. What is true of theaters, and of the parts of any object — looking at, looking around, and taking the whole in at one view — is true of God as well. In one glance he sees all things together and each thing on its own; but not all things by a first intention.

Now many things in life get their start from some exercise of human reason, having caught the kindling spark from God. Health by medicine, for instance, and soundness of body through athletic training, and wealth by trade, have their origin and their existence through divine providence, yes — but through human cooperation as well. Understanding, too, is from God. But God’s will is obeyed above all by the free choice of good men. Many advantages are shared by good and bad alike, and yet they are of use only to men of goodness and honesty, for whose sake God made them; it was for good men’s use that the power in God’s gifts came about in the first place. Besides, the thoughts of upright men are produced by God’s breathing on them, the soul being set in the state it is in, and the divine will being carried through to human souls, with particular divine servants helping in work of that kind. For whole regiments of angels are distributed over the nations and the cities. And perhaps some are assigned to individuals.

The Shepherd, then, cares for each of his sheep, and looks most closely after those whose natures are excellent and who are able to be of most use. Such are the ones fit to lead and to teach, in whom the working of providence stands out plainly, whenever God wants to do good by teaching, or by governing, or by managing. And he wants to at all times. So he moves the men who are suited to useful effort in the things that have to do with virtue and peace and doing good. Everything marked by virtue comes from virtue and leads back to virtue; and it is given either so that men may become good, or so that those who already are may make use of what they naturally have, for it works together both in what is general and in what is particular. How absurd it is, then, for people who put disorder and wickedness down to the devil to make him the giver of philosophy, a virtuous thing! That all but makes him kinder to the Greeks, as far as making men good goes, than divine providence and mind are.

Again, I take it to be the business of law and of right reason to assign to each one what suits him, and belongs to him, and falls to him. For as the lyre is only for the harper and the flute for the flute-player, so good things are the property of good men. It is the nature of a doer of good to do good, as it is of fire to warm and of light to give light; and a good man will not do evil, any more than light will produce darkness or fire produce cold. In the same way vice cannot do anything virtuous. Its work is to do evil, as the work of darkness is to dim the eyes. Philosophy, then, is not the product of vice, since it makes men virtuous. It follows that it is God’s work, and God’s only work is to do good. And all things given by God are given well and received well. Further, if the practice of philosophy does not belong to the wicked, but was granted to the best of the Greeks, then it is clear where it was bestowed from: plainly from providence, which assigns to each what is fitting according to what he deserves.

Rightly, then, the law belonged to the Jews and philosophy to the Greeks, until the coming; and after that came the calling of all men to be a people of God’s own, marked by righteousness, through the teaching that flows from faith, brought together by one Lord, the only God of Greeks and of barbarians — or rather of the whole human race. We have often given the name philosophy to that portion of truth that is reached through philosophy, even though it is only a part.

What is good in the arts as arts, too, has its beginning from God. For just as doing a thing artfully is covered by the rules of art, so acting with good sense is classed under practical wisdom. Now practical wisdom is a virtue, and it is its business to know other things, but far more what belongs to itself. And wisdom, being a power, is nothing else than the knowledge of good things, divine and human. But “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,” says the Scripture, teaching that good things come to men from God, and that it is by divine power and might that the handing of them out comes to a man’s help.

Now there are three ways in all of helping and passing something on from one person to another. The first is by attending to the other, as a trainer does in working a boy. The second is by likeness, as when a man urges another on to kindness by practicing it in front of him: the first works together with the learner, the second benefits the man who takes it in. The third way is by command, when the trainer no longer works the learner through the exercise, and no longer shows it in his own body for the boy to copy, but names the exercise and prescribes it to him as to someone already good at it. The one who truly knows, accordingly, having received from God the power to be of service, benefits some by disciplining them and giving them attention, others by urging them on, by likeness, and others by training and teaching them, by command. And he himself is benefited by the Lord just as much. This is how the good that comes to men from God becomes known — with angels lending their encouragement at the same time. For by angels, whether seen or unseen, the divine power gives good things. That was the way it was done at the coming of the Lord. And sometimes, too, the power “breathes” into men’s thoughts and reasonings, and “puts” into their hearts “strength” and a keener perception, and supplies “prowess” and “boldness of eagerness” both for inquiries and for deeds.

And set out for imitation and for likeness are examples of virtue that are truly admirable and holy, in the deeds put on record. Further, the side of things that has to do with action stands out most plainly both in the Lord’s covenants and in the laws in force among the Greeks, and in the rules of philosophy as well. To put it all together: every benefit that has to do with life, in its highest reason, proceeds from the Sovereign God, the Father who is over all, and is brought to completion by the Son, who for this reason also “is the Savior of all men,” says the apostle, “but especially of those who believe.” But in its immediate reason it comes from those nearest to each of us, according to the command and direction of the one who is nearest to the First Cause — that is, the Lord.