Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
lsayre
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by lsayre »

John T wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:53 pm
Perhaps the better question would be, When did the Hebrews settle on a montheistic God, i.e. YHWH?
The Jews who escaped to the island of Elephantine during the Babylonian conquest and built a temple there appear to have been polytheists.
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

Why Philo doesn't use phantasma in the same way as Josephus there are parallels nevertheless. As

Philo's interpretation of the meal eaten by Abraham's angelic visitors in Gen 18 offers a close parallel to Res. 2.14: It is a marvel indeed that though they neither ate nor drank, they presented the mere appearance (stopéYelv (povtootov) of both eating (śobióvtov) and drinking (tivóvtov). (Philo, Abr. 118)

And there are some who maintain that even Jesus himself appeared only as spiritual, and no longer in flesh, but presented the mere appearance of flesh (Qovtootov Šē oopkög Topæoymkévol). ([Ps.-]Justin, Res. 2.14)*

Philo's explanation of Gen 18 reflects a standard assumption among Hellenistic Jews that angels do not really eat.” This assumption is explicitly stated by [Ps.-]Justin's opponents a few lines earlier (Res. 2.11). The opponents also deny the physicality of Jesus's resurrection by employing the same construction (TopéYoo + (povtootov + genitive) that Philo uses to deny that the angels really ate and drank. Philo's understanding of Gen 18 not only represents a common interpretive tradition; the construction he uses seems to seems to reflect a conventional way of expressing that tradition. Josephus, for example, employs a similar construction, only substituting 6630 for povtooto: “but they presented an appearance of eating (oi öä 6óčov outd.) Topéoxov čobióvtov)” (A.J. 1.197). An Aramaic equivalent also appears in Tg.Neof. Gen 18:8: “they were giving the appearance as of eating and as of drinking (whvywn mthmyn hyk 'klyn whyk * When recounting OT angelophanies, https://books.google.com/books?id=cm6rD ... 22&f=false

And then as a footnote to the section:

Josephus regularly refers to the angels as (povtåopoto, e.g., A.J. 1.325, 331–334 (Gen 32); 3.62 (cf Exod 3); 5.213, 277 (cf Judg 6; 13) (so Kevin P. Sullivan, Wrestling with Angels: A Study of the Relationship between Angels and Humans in Ancient Jewish Literature and the New Testament [AGJU 55; Leiden: Brill, 2004], 49–50). Similarly, Philo refers to the story of the angels ascending and descending Jacob's ladder as a God-sent (povtooio (Somn. 1.133; cf. Gen 28). Testament of Reuben 5.6— 7 likewise refers to the outward appearance of the Watchers as φαντασία
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

As such Josephus's identification of angel theophanies as related to phantasia is not as isolated as it first may seem. I see 181 references to phantasia in Philo:

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤΑ ΜΩΥΣΕΑ ΚΟΣΜΟΠΟΙΙΑΣ
[57] τὸ δὲ μέγεθος τῆς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον δυνάμεως καὶ ἀρχῆς ἐμφανεστάτην πίστιν ἔχει τὴν λεχθεῖσαν ἤδη· εἷς γὰρ ὢν καὶ μόνος ἰδίᾳ καὶ καθ' αὑτὸν ἥμισυ τμῆμα τοῦ σύμπαντος χρόνου κεκλήρωται τὴν ἡμέραν, οἱ δ' ἄλλοι πάντες μετὰ σελήνης θάτερον ὃ κέκληται νύξ· καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἀνατείλαντος αἱ φαντασίαι τῶν τοσούτων ἀστέρων οὐκ ἀμαυροῦνται μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀφανίζονται τῇ τοῦ φέγγους ἀναχύσει, καταδύντος δὲ τὰς ἰδίας [58] ἄρχονται διαφαίνειν ἀθρόοι ποιότητας. γεγόνασι δ' ὅπερ αὐτὸς εἶπεν οὐ μόνον, ἵνα φῶς ἐκπέμπωσιν ἐπὶ γῆν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅπως σημεῖα μελλόντων προφαίνωσιν

(57) And the greatness of the power and sovereignty of the sun has its most conspicuous proof in what has been already said: for he, being one and single has been allotted for his own share and by himself one half portion of all time, namely day; and all the other lights in conjunction with the moon have the other portion, which is called night. And when the sun rises all the appearances of such numbers of stars are not only obscured but absolutely disappear from the effusion of his beams; and when he sets then they all assembled together, begin to display their own peculiar brilliancy and their separate qualities.

ἔστι [73] δὲ ἥδε. τῶν ὄντων τὰ μὲν οὔτ' ἀρετῆς οὔτε κακίας μετέχει, ὥσπερ φυτὰ καὶ ζῷα ἄλογα, τὰ μὲν ὅτι ἄψυχά τέ ἐστι καὶ ἀφαντάστῳ φύσει διοικεῖται, τὰ δ' ὅτι νοῦν καὶ λόγον ἐκτέτμηται· κακίας δὲ καὶ ἀρετῆς ὡς ἂν οἶκος νοῦς καὶ λόγος, ᾧ πεφύκασιν ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι

(73) Of existing things, there are some which partake neither of virtue nor of vice; as for instance, plants and irrational animals; the one, because they are destitute of soul, and are regulated by a nature void of sense; and the other, because they are not endowed with mind of reason.
This seems to develop from Aristotle's understanding of phantasia in animals = "imagination"
150 ἀκράτου γὰρ ἔτι τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως ὑπαρχούσης ἐν ψυχῇ καὶ μηδενὸς ἀρρωστήματος ἢ νοσήματος ἢ πάθους παρεισεληλυθότος, τὰς φαντασίας τῶν σωμάτων καὶ πραγμάτων ἀκραιφνεστάτας λαμβάνων εὐθυβόλους ἐποιεῖτο τὰς κλήσεις, εὖ μάλα στοχαζόμενος τῶν δηλουμένων, ὡς ἅμα λεχθῆναί τε καὶ νοηθῆναι τὰς φύσεις αὐτῶν. οὕτως μὲν ἐν ἅπασι τοῖς καλοῖς διέφερεν ἐπ' αὐτὸ τὸ πέρας φθάνων τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης εὐδαιμονίας.

For as the rational nature was as yet uncorrupted in the soul, and as no weakness, or disease, or affliction had as yet come upon it, man having most pure and perfect perceptions of bodies and of things, devised names for them with great felicity and correctness of judgment, forming very admirable opinions as to the qualities which they displayed, so that their natures were at once perceived and correctly described by him.

166 κηρῷ γὰρ ἐοικὼς δέχεται τὰς διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων φαντασίας, αἷς τὰ σώματα καταλαμβάνει δι' αὑτοῦ μὴ δυνάμενος, καθάπερ εἶπον ἤδη.

For the mind is like wax, and receives the impressions of appearances through the sensations, by means of which it makes itself master of the body, which of itself it would not be able to do, as I have already said.
All of this is derived from Aristotle.

ΝΟΜΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΝ ΑΛΛΗΓΟΡΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΞΑΗΜΕΡΟΝ ΤΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ
ὥστε ἀντίδοσιν ὁ νοῦς καὶ τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἀεὶ μελετῶσι, τὸ μὲν προϋποκείμενον αἰσθήσει ὡς ἂν ὕλη, ὁ δὲ κινῶν τὴν αἴσθησιν [30] πρὸς τὸ ἐκτὸς ὡς ἂν τεχνίτης, ἵνα γένηται ὁρμή. τὸ γὰρ ζῷον τοῦ μὴ ζῴου δυσὶ προὔχει, φαντασίᾳ καὶ ὁρμῇ· ἡ μὲν οὖν φαντασία συνίσταται κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἐκτὸς πρόσοδον τυποῦντος νοῦν δι' αἰσθήσεως, ἡ δὲ ὁρμή, τὸ ἀδελφὸν τῆς φαντασίας, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ νοῦ τονικὴν δύναμιν, ἣν τείνας δι' αἰσθήσεως ἅπτεται τοῦ ὑποκειμένου καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸ χωρεῖ γλιχόμενος ἐφικέσθαι καὶ συλλαβεῖν αὐτό.

(29) For a living animal is superior to that which is not a living animal in two points, imagination and appetite. Accordingly, imagination consists in the approach of the external object striking the mind by means of the sensations. And appetite is the brother of imagination, according to the intensive power of the mind, which the mind keeps on the stretch, by means of the sensation, and so touches the subject matter, and comes over to it, being eager to arrive at and comprehend it.

νῦν ἐν τῷ σώματί μου τὸ ἡγεμονικόν ἐστι κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, δυνάμει δὲ ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ ἢ Σικελίᾳ, ὁπότε περὶ τῶν χωρῶν τούτων ἐπιλογίζεται, καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ, ὁπότε περὶ οὐρανοῦ σκοπεῖ· παρὸ καὶ πολλάκις ἐν βεβήλοις ὄντες χωρίοις τινὲς κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐν ἱερωτάτοις ὑπάρχουσι φαντασιούμενοι τὰ ἀρετῆς, καὶ ἔμπαλιν ἐν τοῖς ἀδύτοις ὑπάρχοντες ἄλλοι τὴν διάνοιάν εἰσι βέβηλοι, τῷ τροπὰς πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον καὶ τύπους αὐτὴν λαμβάνειν φαύλους· ὥστε οὔτε ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ ἡ κακία ἐστὶν οὔτε οὐχί ἐστι· δύναται μὲν γὰρ εἶναι κατ' οὐσίαν, δυνάμει δὲ οὐ δύναται.

At this moment, the dominant part is in my body, according to its essence, but according to its power it is in Italy, or Sicily, when it applies its consideration to those countries, and in heaven when it is contemplating the heaven. On which principle it often happens that some persons who are in profane places, according to their essence, are in the most sacred places, thinking of those things which relate to virtue. And again, others who are in the temples of the gods, and profane in their minds, from the fact of their minds receiving a change for the worse, and evil impressions; so that vice is neither in the Paradise, nor not in it. For it is possible that it may be in it according to its essence, but it is not possible that it should be according to its power.
ΝΟΜΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΝ ΑΛΛΗΓΟΡΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΞΑΗΜΕΡΟΝ ΤΟ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΝ

ἔστι δὲ ἡ φύσις [23] ἕξις ἤδη κινουμένη. ψυχὴ δέ ἐστι φύσις προσειληφυῖα φαντασίαν καὶ ὁρμήν· αὕτη κοινὴ καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων ἐστίν· ἔχει δὲ καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς ἀναλογοῦν τι ἀλόγου ψυχῇ. πάλιν ἡ διανοητικὴ δύναμις ἰδία τοῦ νοῦ ἐστι, καὶ ἡ λογικὴ κοινὴ μὲν τάχα καὶ τῶν θειοτέρων φύσεων, ἰδία δὲ ὡς ἐν θνητοῖς ἀνθρώπου

and nature is a habit already put in motion, but the soul is a habit which has taken to itself, in addition, imagination and impetuosity; and this power also is possessed by man in common with the irrational animals; and our mind has something analogous to the soul of an irrational animal. Again, the power of comprehension is a peculiar property of the mind; and the reasoning power is perhaps common to the more divine natures, but is especially the property of the mortal nature of man: and this is a twofold power, one kind being that in accordance with which we are rational creatures, partaking of mind; and the other kind being that faculty by which we converse. (24) There is also another power in the soul akin to these, the power of sensation, of which we are now speaking; for Moses is describing nothing else on this occasion except the formation of the external sense, according to energy and according to reason.

[56] τούτου χάριν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς εἰς τὰ ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται ἐν τῷ ποδήρει (cf. Lev. 16, 1 ss.), ἀλλὰ τὸν τῆς δόξης καὶ φαντασίας ψυχῆς χιτῶνα ἀποδυσάμενος καὶ καταλιπὼν τοῖς τὰ ἐκτὸς ἀγαπῶσι καὶ δόξαν πρὸ ἀληθείας τετιμηκόσι γυμνὸς ἄνευ χρωμάτων καὶ ἤχων εἰσελεύσεται σπεῖσαι τὸ ψυχικὸν αἷμα καὶ θυμιᾶσαι ὅλον τὸν νοῦν τῷ [57] σωτῆρι καὶ εὐεργέτῃ θεῷ.

On this account the high priest "will not come into the holy of holies clad in a garment reaching to the feet; {13}{#le 16:1.} but having put off the robe of opinion and imagination of the soul, and having left that for those who love the things which are without, and who honour opinion in preference to truth, will come forward naked, without colours or any sounds, to make an offering of the blood of the soul, and to sacrifice the whole mind to God the Saviour and Benefactor; (57) and certainly Nadab and Abihu, {14}{#le 10:1.} who came near to God, and left this mortal life and received a share of immortal life, are seen to be naked, that is, free from all new and mortal opinion; for they would not have carried it in their garments and borne it about, if they had not been naked, having broken to pieces every bond of passion and of corporeal necessity, in order that their nakedness and absence of corporeality might not be adulterated by the accession of atheistical reasonings; for it may not be permitted to all men to behold the secret mysteries of God, but only to those who are able to cover them up and guard them; (58) on which account Mishael and his partisans concealed them not in their own garments, but in those of Nadab and Abihu, who had been burnt with fire and taken upwards; for having stripped off all the garments that covered them, they brought their nakedness before God, and left their tunics about Mishael.
ΝΟΜΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΝ ΑΛΛΗΓΟΡΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΞΑΗΜΕΡΟΝ ΤΟ ΤΡΙΤΟΝ
16 καὶ ἔκρυψεν Ἰακὼβ Λάβαν τὸν Σύρον τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι αὐτῷ ὅτι ἀποδιδράσκει. καὶ ἀπέδρα αὐτὸς καὶ τὰ αὐτοῦ πάντα, καὶ διέβη τὸν ποταμὸν καὶ ὥρμησεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος Γαλαάδ (Gen. 31, 20. 21). φυσικώτατόν ἐστι τὸ κρύπτειν ὅτι ἀποδιδράσκει καὶ μὴ ἀναγγέλλειν τῷ ἠρτημένῳ τῶν αἰσθητῶν λογισμῷ Λάβαν· οἷον ἐὰν κάλλος ἰδὼν αἱρεθῇς αὐτῷ καὶ μέλλῃς πταίειν περὶ αὐτό, φύγε λαθὼν ἀπὸ τῆς φαντασίας αὐτοῦ καὶ μηκέτι ἀναγγείλῃς τῷ νῷ, τουτέστι μὴ ἐπιλογίσῃ πάλιν μηδὲ μελετήσῃς

"And Jacob concealed himself from Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he was about to flee from him, and he fled from him, taking with him all that he had, and he crossed the river, and proceeded towards the Mount Gilead." It was most natural for him to conceal that he was about to flee, and not to inform Laban, who was a man depending wholly on thoughts such as arise from the outward senses, just as if you have seen some excellent beauty and are charmed with it, and are likely to be led into error in respect of it, you should privily flee from the imagination of it, and never tell it to your mind, that is to say, never think of it again nor give it any consideration, for continued recollections of anything are not without making some distinct impression, and injure the intellect and turn it out of the right way, even against its will.

πυνθάνεται μὲν γάρ τι περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρός, ἡ δὲ οὐ περὶ τούτου φησίν, ἀλλά τι περὶ ἑαυτῆς, [60] λέγουσα ὅτι ἔφαγον, οὐχ ὅτι ἔδωκα. μήποτ' οὖν ἀλληγοροῦντες λύσομεν τὸ ἀπορηθὲν καὶ δείξομεν τὴν γυναῖκα εὐθυβόλως πρὸς τὸ πύσμα ἀποκρινομένην. ἀνάγκη γάρ ἐστιν αὐτῆς φαγούσης καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα φαγεῖν· ὅταν γὰρ ἡ αἴσθησις ἐπιβάλλουσα τῷ αἰσθητῷ πληρωθῇ τῆς αὐτοῦ φαντασίας, εὐθὺς καὶ ὁ νοῦς συμβέβληκε καὶ ἀντελάβετο καὶ τρόπον τινὰ τροφῆς τῆς ἀπ' ἐκείνου πεπλήρωται. τοῦτ' οὖν φησιν· ἄκουσα δέδωκα τῷ ἀνδρί· προσβαλούσης γάρ μου τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ, ὀξυκίνητος ὢν αὐτὸς [61] ἐφαντασιώθη καὶ ἐτυπώθη. παρατήρει δ' ὅτι ὁ μὲν ἀνὴρ λέγει τὴν γυναῖκα δεδωκέναι, ἡ δὲ γυνὴ οὐχὶ τὸν ὄφιν δεδωκέναι, ἀλλὰ ἠπατηκέναι· ἴδιον γὰρ αἰσθήσεως μὲν τὸ διδόναι, ἡδονῆς δὲ τῆς ποικίλης καὶ ὀφιώδους τὸ ἀπατᾶν καὶ παρακρούεσθαι· οἷον τὸ λευκὸν τῇ φύσει καὶ τὸ μέλαν καὶ τὸ θερμὸν καὶ τὸ ψυχρὸν δίδωσιν ἡ αἴσθησις τῷ νῷ, οὐχὶ ἀπατῶσα ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν· τοιαῦτα γάρ ἐστι τὰ ὑποκείμενα, οἵα καὶ ἡ ἀπ' αὐτῶν προσπίπτουσα φαντασία, κατὰ τοὺς πλείστους τῶν μὴ φυσικώτερον φυσιολογούντων·

(59) And God said to the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" And she said, "The serpent beguiled me and I did eat." God asks one question of the outward sense, and she replies to a different one. For he is putting a question which has reference to the man; but she in her reply speaks not of the man but of herself, saying, "I ate," not I gave. (60) May we then by the use of allegory solve the question which was here put, and show that the woman gave a felicitous and correct answer to the question? For it follows of necessity that when she had eaten, her husband did also eat, for when the outward sense striking upon its object is filled with its appearance, then immediately the mind joins it and takes its share of it, and is in a manner made perfect by the nourishment which it receives form it. This therefore is what she says, I unintentionally gave it to my husband, for while I was applying myself to what was presented to me, he, being very easily and quickly moved, impressed its appearance and image upon himself. (61) But take notice that the man says that the woman gave it to him; but that the woman does not say that the serpent gave it to her, but that he beguiled her; for it is the especial property of the outward sense to give, but it is the attribute of pleasure which is of a diversified and serpent-like nature to deceive and to beguile. For instance, the outward sense presents to the mind the image of what is white by nature, or black, or hot, or cold, not deceiving it, but acting truly; for the subjects of the outward sense are of such a character, as also is the imagination which presents itself to man from them, in the case of the great majority of men who do not carry their knowledge of natural philosophy to any accurate extent. But pleasure does not present to the mind that the subject is such as it is in reality, but deceives it by its artifice, thrusting that, in which there is no advantage, into the class of things profitable.

παρὸ καὶ μόνῳ τούτῳ τὰ πράγματα καταλαμβάνομεν, αἰσθήσει δ' οὐκέτι, μόνα γὰρ τὰ σώματα φαντασιούμεθα [109] δι' αἰσθήσεως.

"Cursed indeed is he who causeth the blind man to wander in the road." This also is done by that most impious thing pleasure, for the outward sense, inasmuch as it is destitute of reason, is a thing blinded by nature, since the eyes of its reason are put out. In reference to which we may say that it is by reason alone that we attain to a comprehension of things, and no longer by the outward sense; for they are bodies alone that we acquire a conception of by means of the outward senses.
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΧΕΡΟΥΒΙΜ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΦΛΟΓΙΝΗΣ ΡΟΜΦΑΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΚΤΙΣΘΕΝΤΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΥ ΕΞ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΥ ΚΑΙΝ
ἀνάγκη δέ, ὅταν ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ φαντασίας ἐξέλθῃ διάνοια, ᾗ καλὸν καὶ συμφέρον ἦν ἐπερηρεῖσθαι, νεὼς αὐτίκα θαλαττευούσης τρόπον, ἀντιστατούντων βιαίων πνευμάτων, ὧδε κἀκεῖσε φέρεσθαι πατρίδα καὶ οἰκίαν λαχοῦσαν ‹σάλον καὶ› κλόνον, ἅπερ ἐναντιώτατά ἐστι βεβαιότητι [14] ψυχῆς, ἣν περιποιεῖ χαρὰ συνώνυμος Ἐδέμ.

"he went out from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod, in the front of Eden."{5}{#ge 4:16.} Now Nod being interpreted means commotion, and Eden means delight. The one therefore is a symbol of wickedness agitating the soul, and the other of virtue which creates for the soul a state of tranquillity and happiness, not meaning by happiness that effeminate luxury which is derived from the indulgence of the irrational passion of pleasure, but a joy free from toil and free from hardship, which is enjoyed with great tranquillity. (13) And it follows of necessity that when the mind goes forth from any imagination of God, by which it would be good and expedient for it to be supported, then immediately, after the fashion of a ship, which is tossed in the sea, when the winds oppose it with great violence, it is tossed about in every direction, having disturbance as it were for its country and its home, a thing which is the most contrary of all things to steadiness of soul, which is engendered by joy, which is a term synonymous with Eden.

τί δέ; τοὺς υἱοὺς ‑ υἱοὶ δέ εἰσιν οἱ κατὰ μέρος τῆς ψυχῆς λογισμοί ‑ φάσκων εἶναι σαυτοῦ σωφρονεῖς ἢ μέμηνας τοιαῦτα δοξάζων; αἱ γὰρ μελαγχολίαι σου καὶ παράνοιαι καὶ φρενῶν ἐκστάσεις καὶ εἰκασίαι ἀβέβαιοι καὶ φαντασίαι πραγμάτων ψευδεῖς καὶ κενοί τινες ἐννοημάτων ὀνείροις ἐοικότες ‹λογισμοὶ› ἑλκυσμοὺς καὶ σπασμοὺς ἐνδιδόντες ἐξ ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἡ σύντροφος ψυχῆς νόσος λήθη καὶ ἄλλα τῶν εἰρημένων πλείω τὸ ἐχυρόν σου τῆς δεσποτείας ἀφαιρεῖται καὶ ἐπιδείκνυται [70] ταῦτα ἑτέρου τινός, οὐχὶ σά, κτήματα.

"My daughter, and my sons, and my cattle, and all that you see, belong to me and to my Daughters."{21}{genesis 31:43.} For adding the word "my" to each of these articles, he never ceases from speaking and boasting about himself. (68) Your daughters now, tell me--and they are the arts and sciences of the soul--do you say that your daughters are your own property? How so? In the first place did you not receive them from the mind which taught them? in the second place it is naturally possible for you to lose these also, as you might lose anything else, either forgetting them through the greatness of your other cares, or through severe and lasting sicknesses of body, or because of the incurable disease which is at all events destined for those who grow old, namely old age, or through ten thousand other accidents, the number of which it is impossible to calculate. (69) And what will you say about the sons?--and the sons are the reasonings which take place in portions of the soul, --if you pronounce that the sons belong to you, are you speaking reasonably, or are you downright mad for thinking so? For melancholic thoughts, and follies, and frenzies of the mind, and untrustworthy conjectures, and false ideas about things, and empty attractions of the mind, resembling dreams, and bringing with them convulsive agitation, and the disease which is innate in the soul, namely forgetfulness, and many other things beyond those that I have mentioned, take away the stability of your master-like authority, and show that these are the possession of some one else and not of you. (70) Again, what will you say about the cattle?
ΠΕΡΙ ΓΕΝΕΣΕΩΣ ΑΒΕΛ ΚΑΙ ΩΝ ΑΥΤΟΣ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ Ο ΑΔΕΛΦΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΚΑΙΝ ΙΕΡΟΥΡΓΟΥΣΙΝ
δηλώσει δὲ ἐναργέστερον ταῦτα καὶ τὸ τῇ ὑπομονῇ χρησμῳδηθὲν Ῥεβέκκᾳ (Gen. 25, 21 ss.). τὰς γὰρ μαχομένας δύο φύσεις ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ συλλαβοῦσα καὶ ἑκατέραν ἄκρως φαντασιωθεῖσα κατὰ τὴν τῆς φρονήσεως ἐπικέλευσιν, ἀνασκιρτώσας αὐτὰς ἰδοῦσα καί τινα τοῦ μέλλοντος πολέμου δι' ἀκροβολισμῶν προάγωνα ποιουμένας, ἱκετεύει τὸν θεόν, τί τέ ἐστι τὸ πάθος αὐτῇ παραστῆσαι καὶ τίς ἂν ἴασις αὐτοῦ γένοιτο

And this will be more evidently shown by the oracle which was given to Perseverance, that is to Rebecca; {2}{#ge 25:24.} for she also, having conceived the two inconsistent natures of good and evil, and having considered each of them very deeply according to the injunctions of prudence, beholding them both exulting, and making a sort of skirmish as a prelude to the war which was to exist between them; she, I say, besought God to explain to her what this calamity meant, and what was the remedy for it. And he answered her inquiry, and told her, "Two nations are in thy womb." This calamity is the birth of good and evil. "But two peoples shall be divided in thy bowels." And the remedy is, for these two to be parted and separated from one another, and no longer to abide in the same place.

καὶ γὰρ τοῦτό που φαντασίᾳ μὲν κατὰ τὴν πρόχειρον ἔντευξιν ἀργαλέον εἶναι δοκεῖ, μελέτῃ δὲ ἥδιστον καὶ ἐξ ἐπιλογισμοῦ συμφέρον. ἔστι δὲ ὁ ῥᾳστώνης ἐχθρὸς πόνος, πρῶτον καὶ μέγιστον ἀγαθόν, προσφερόμενος τὸν ἀκήρυκτον πρὸς ἡδονὴν πόλεμον

But I will speak with all freedom of that point in virtue which appears to have the greatest amount of difficulty and perplexity, for this, too, does appear to the imagination, at their first meeting, to be troublesome; but, on consideration, it is found to be very pleasant and, as arising from reason, to be suitable. But labour is the enemy of laziness, as it is in reality the first and greatest of good things, and wages an irreconcilable war against pleasure; for, if we must declare the truth, God has made labour the foundation of all good and of all virtue to man, and without labour you will not find a single good thing in existence among the race of men.

καὶ γὰρ Ἀβραὰμ μετὰ σπουδῆς καὶ τάχους καὶ προθυμίας πάσης ἐλθὼν παρακελεύεται τῇ ἀρετῇ Σάρρᾳ σπεῦσαι καὶ φυρᾶσαι τρία μέτρα σεμιδάλεως καὶ ποιῆσαι ἐγκρυφίας (Gen. 18, 6), ἡνίκα ὁ θεὸς δορυφορούμενος ὑπὸ δυεῖν τῶν ἀνωτάτω δυνάμεων ἀρχῆς τε αὖ καὶ ἀγαθότητος εἷς ὢν ὁ μέσος τριττὰς φαντασίας ἐνειργάζετο τῇ ὁρατικῇ ψυχῇ, ὧν ἑκάστη μεμέτρηται μὲν οὐδαμῶς ‑ ἀπερίγραφος γὰρ ὁ θεός, ἀπερίγραφοι δὲ καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ ‑ , μεμέτρηκε δὲ τὰ ὅλα

For Abraham also, having come with all haste and speech and eagerness, exhorts virtue, that is to say, Sarah, "to hasten and knead three measures of fine meal, and to make cakes upon the Hearth."{29}{#ge 18:6.} When God, being attended by two of the heavenly powers as guards, to wit, by authority and goodness, he himself, the one God being between them, presented an appearance of the figures to the visual soul; each of which figures was not measured in any respect; for God cannot be circumscribed, nor are his powers capable of being defined by lines, but he himself measures everything. His goodness therefore is the measure of all good things, and his authority is the measures of things in subjection, and the Governor of the universe himself, is the measure of all things to the corporeal and incorporeal. On which account, his powers also having been looked upon in the light of rules and models, have weighed and measured other things with reference to them.
This comes close to Josephus's notion of the angel that wrestled Jacob as being a phantasma.
Φαραὼ δὲ ὁ σκεδαστὴς τῶν καλῶν ἀχρόνων δυνάμεων φαντασίαν οὐχ οἷός τε ὢν δέξασθαι, τὰ ψυχῆς ὄμματα πεπηρωμένος, οἷς μόνοις αἱ ἀσώματοι καταλαμβάνονται φύσεις, οὐδὲ ὠφεληθῆναι δι' ἀχρόνων ὑπομένει, ἀλλὰ ταῖς ἀψύχοις δόξαις, λέγω δὲ βατράχοις, πιεσθεὶς ἦχον καὶ ψόφον ἔρημον καὶ κενὸν πραγμάτων ἀποτελούσαις, εἰπόντος Μωυσέως τάξαι πρὸς μέ, πότε εὔξομαι περὶ σοῦ καὶ τῶν θεραπόντων σου, ἀφανίσαι τοὺς βατράχους (Exod. 8, 9), δέον ἐν ἀνάγκαις σφοδραῖς ὄντα εἰπεῖν εὐθὺς εὔχου, ὑπερτίθεται λέγων εἰς αὔριον, ἵνα διὰ πάντων τὴν ὁμαλότητα τῆς ἀθεότητος διαφυλάξῃ.

But Pharaoh, the squanderer of all things, not being able himself to receive the imagination of virtues unconnected with time, inasmuch as he was mutilated as to the eyes of his soul, by which alone incorporeal natures are comprehended, would not endure to be benefited by virtues unconnected with time; but being weighed down by soulless opinions, I mean here by the frogs, animals which utter a sound and noise wholly void and destitute of reality, when Moses says, "appoint a time to me when I may pray for you and for your servants that God will make the frogs to Disappear,"{35}{#ex 8:9.} though he ought, as he was in very imminent necessity, to have said, Pray this moment, nevertheless postponed it, saying, "Pray to-morrow," in order that he might in every case preserve the folly of his impiety. (70) And this happens to nearly all those men who hesitate and vacillate between two opinions, even if they do not confess it in express words.

σκοπῶμεν δὲ ὅπως τήν τε ψυχὴν γυμνάσομεν, μὴ ὁλοσχερέσι καὶ ἀτυπώτοις φαντασίαις ὑποσυγχύτως ἀπατᾶσθαι, τομὰς δὲ καὶ διαιρέσεις ποιουμένην τῶν πραγμάτων διακύπτειν εἰς ἕκαστον ἔρευναν μετὰ πάσης ἀκριβείας ληψομένην, τόν τε λόγον, ὃς [οὐκ] ἀτάκτῳ ῥύμῃ φερόμενος ἀσάφειαν ἐργάσεται, τμηθεὶς δὲ εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα κεφάλαια καὶ τὰς εἰς ἕκαστον ἀποδείξεις ὥσπερ ζῷον ἐκ τελείων μερῶν συμπαγεὶς ἁρμοσθήσεται. χρὴ δέ, εἰ μέλλει ταῦτα παρ' ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς βεβαιοῦσθαι, μελέτην καὶ ἄσκησιν αὐτῶν ποιεῖσθαι συνεχῆ·

And let us consider how we may train the soul so that it may not, from being thrown into a state of confusion, be deceived by general and unintelligible appearances, but that by making proper divisions of things it may be able to inspect and examine each separate thing with all accuracy, adopting language which will not, through being borne forward by disorderly impetuosity, cause any indistinctness, but being divided into its appropriate headings and into the demonstrations suitable to each, will be compounded like some living animal of perfect parts, properly put together.
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΟ ΧΕΙΡΟΝ ΤΩΙ ΚΡΕΙΤΤΟΝΙ ΦΙΛΕΙΝ ΕΠΙΤΙΘΕΣΘΑΙ
Ῥεβέκκα γὰρ ἡ ὑπομονὴ πεύσεται τοῦ παιδὸς ἕνα ὁρῶσα καὶ ἑνὸς μόνου λαμβάνουσα φαντασίαν· τίς ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος ὁ πορευόμενος εἰς συνάντησιν ἡμῖν (ib. v. 65); ἡ γὰρ ἐπιμένουσα τοῖς καλοῖς ψυχὴ ἱκανὴ μέν ἐστι τὴν αὐτομαθῆ σοφίαν καταλαμβάνειν, ἐπίκλησιν Ἰσαάκ, [31] οὔπω δὲ δυνατὴ τὸν τῆς σοφίας ἡγεμόνα θεὸν ἰδεῖν.

Therefore the man, who saw the deceit, answered rightly, "They are departed hence." (27) And he shows here the mass of the body; clearly proving that all those by whom labour is practised for the sake of the acquisition of virtue, having left the regions of earth, have determined on contemplating only what is sublime, dragging with them no stain of the body. For he says, too, that he had heard them say, (28) "Let us go to Dotham:" and the name Dotham, being interpreted, means "a sufficient leaving;" showing that it was with no moderate resolution, but with extreme determination that they had decided on leaving and abandoning all those things which do not co-operate towards virtue, just as the customs of women had ceased any longer to affect Sarah. But the passions are female by nature, and we must study to quit them, showing our preference for the masculine characters of the good dispositions. Therefore the interpreter of divers opinions, the wandering Joseph, is found in the plain, that is to say, in a contention of words, having reference to political considerations rather than to useful truth; (29) but there are some adversaries who, by reason of their vigorous body, their antagonists having succumbed, have gained the prize of victory without a struggle, not having even had, to descend into the arena to contend for it, but obtaining the chief honours on account of their incomparable strength. Using such a power as this with reference to the most divine thing that is in us, namely, our mind, "Isaac goes forth into the Plain;"{12}{#ge 24:63.} not for the purpose of contending with any body, since all those who might have been his antagonists, are terrified at the greatness and exceeding excellence of his nature in all things; but only washing to meet in private, and to converse in private with the fellow traveller and guide of his path and of his soul, namely God. (30) And the clearest possible proof of this is, that no one who conversed with Isaac was a mere mortal. Rebecca, that is perseverance, asks her servant, seeing but one person, and having no conception but of one only, "Who is this man who is coming to meet us?" For the soul which perseveres in what is good, is able to comprehend all self-taught wisdom, which is named Isaac, but is not yet able to see God, who is the guide of wisdom. (31) Therefore, also, the servant confirming the fact that he cannot be comprehended who is invisible, and who converses with man invisibly, says, "He is my lord," pointing to Isaac alone. For it is not natural that, if two persons were in sight, he should point to one alone; but the person whom he did not point to, he did not see, inasmuch as he was invisible to all persons of intermediate character.
This is very significant. The section deals with the Man and his encounter with both Joseph and Rebecca in the field. Seems to imply you need special kind of imagination to see him as God.
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Ken Olson
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Ken Olson »

John T wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:41 pm
Ken Olson wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:15 pm The Perseus site has put the Greek text of Josephus Antiquities from Niese's critical edition (Flavii Iosephi opera. B. Niese. Berlin. Weidmann. 1892) online. The relevant passage from Antiquities Book I is (highlighting mine):

We can compare Patrick Rogers' English translation of the passage (which he says is an updated alternative to Whiston):

The English words 'apparition' and 'phantasm' are both fairly literal translations of the Greek φαντάσμα (which is a noun, not a verb) whereas 'angel' is not at all literal and highly interpretive.

Best,

Ken

PS Thackeray, in his Loeb Classics translation of Antiquities 1.331, renders φαντάσμα with 'phantom' and 'spectre'.
Once again, what Greek manuscript did Whiston use to translate compared to the other translators you mentioned? I have read the introduction in Whiston but do not see which Greek manuscript(s) he used.
Even so, your choice of Greek manuscript still says Jacob struggled with an angel who came in the appearance/apparition/phantom/specter of a man but it turns out he was really an angel of God. This implies it was a physical struggle with an angel not a mental,spiritual, or hologram image.


[333] ἐκέλευσέ τε καλεῖν αὐτὸν Ἰσραῆλον, σημαίνει δὲ τοῦτο κατὰ τὴν Ἑβραίων γλῶτταν τὸν ἀντιστάτην ἀγγέλῳ θεοῦ. ταῦτα μέντοι προύλεγεν Ἰακώβου δεηθέντος : αἰσθόμενος γὰρ ἄγγελον εἶναι θεοῦ, τίνα μοῖραν ἕξει σημαίνειν παρεκάλει. καὶ τὸ μὲν φάντασμα ταῦτ᾽ εἰπὸν ἀφανὲς γίνεται. [334] ἡσθεὶς δὲ τούτοις Ἰάκωβος Φανουῆλον ὀνομάζει τὸν τόπον, ὃ σημαίνει θεοῦ πρόσωπον. καὶ γενομένου διὰ τὴν μάχην ἀλγήματος αὐτῷ περὶ τὸ νεῦρον τὸ πλατὺ αὐτός τε ἀπέχεται τῆς τούτου βρώσεως καὶ δι᾽ ἐκεῖνον οὐδὲ ἡμῖν ἐστιν ἐδώδιμον.

333 He told him to take the name Israel, which in the Hebrew tongue means one who struggled with an angel of God. He foretold these things at Jacob's request, for recognizing him as an angel of God, he asked him to indicate what would happen to him later. After saying this to him, the apparition disappeared. 334 Delighted, Jacob named the place Phanuel, which means, the face of God. Since after the fight he felt pain around his broad sinew, he abstained later from eating that joint as food, and for his sake it is still not eaten by us.

Bold type, my emphasis.

John T
John T.,

Let me remind you and other readers of this thread what the original issue that I commented on was. You wrote:
John T wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 3:31 am
Secret Alias wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:36 pm The Man who Jacob wrestled with is said by Josephus to have been a "phantasm" (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 20. sect. 2) the same word Tertullian puts in the mouth of Marcion.
Not a phantasm but an angel.

Jacob was left behind; and meeting with an angel he wrestled with him, the angel beginning the struggle; but he prevailed over the angel,

The Antiquities of the Jews Book 1/Chapter 20 sect 2.

I placed angel in bold for emphasis.

Let's not put words into Jospehus mouth to make a point that is not there.
You were at least implying that Josephus had not said 'phantasm' (or a Greek word that could reasonably translated with that English word) and that Secret Alias (or perhaps someone else he was relying on) had misattributed that to him. The authority you cited in support was Whiston's 1737 translation of Josephus. You quoted Whiston's translation of Ant. 1.331, 'Jacob was left behind; and meeting with an angel he wrestled with him, the angel beginning the struggle; but he prevailed over the angel,' though you didn't cite it.

I'm not defending Secret Alias's conclusions. I'm dubious about his theory overall, and particularly his theory that the nomen sacrum Iota-Sigma in our early Christian manuscripts is derived from the Hebrew word Ish rendered in Greek as Iota-Sigma. But he was not making up the fact that Josephus referred to the man with whom Jacob wrestled as a 'phantasm'. That (or, rather, the Greek word φαντάσμα which it translates) is what is in our Greek manuscripts of Josephus' Antiquities.

It's fine that you did not initially accept Secret Alias claim about what Josephus said. His claims should be fact-checked. But so should yours.

I quoted Rogers' more recent translation and the Greek text he used and gave a link. You asked where that Greek text came from and what source I had if not Whiston (information which you could have found by following the link I gave).

I cited and linked Niese's critical edition of Josephus' works (I believe you can download all the volumes from Google books). Niese is not a translator. He's the editor of the standard critical edition of Josephus works. He's looked at the surviving manuscripts, collated the best witnesses, and published a critical text noting variants in the apparatus. It is Niese's critical edition that virtually all the work on Josephus for the last hundred years is based. For Ant. 1.331, Niese notes on orthographic (ie., spelling) variant for phantasm (in Greek of course) in one manuscript, but not the appearance of the word 'angel' in any.

I also cited Thackeray in the Loeb Classics series.

You've also now moved the goalposts by quoting v. 333, which was not the subject under discussion. Josephus did indeed refer to the man Jacob wrestled as a 'phantasm' in v. 331. Secret Alias was not putting words in his mouth. What Josephus meant by 'phantasm' is another matter.

Now you've demanded that I show what Greek manuscript(s) Whiston used. You have reversed the burden of proof. You should be the one trying to show that there *is* a Greek manuscript containing the reading in Whiston that you advocate. We have manuscripts supporting *phantasm* (you could look at Niese, if you chose). You admit you don't know what manuscript(s) Whiston used, so you haven't produced a single manuscript supporting the reading you advocate.

As it happens, Whiston did not use Greek manuscripts for his translation of Josephus. He used the edition of the Greek text published by Dutch Classicist Siwart (or Sijvert or Sigobertus) Haverkamp in 1726, as many editions of Whiston's work acknowledge (especially earlier printed editions; online editions frequently do not contain this information).

Fortunately, a digital library in Munich has put Haverkamp's Greek edition online and we can look at what it has in Ant. 1.331:

https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/v ... ge=142,143

Unfortunately, the system is not letting me load .jpeg images at the moment, but if you look at the page in the link, left hand page, section Beta, you can see φαντάσματι at the end of the third line, beginning of the fourth line of the paragraph and φαντάσματος in the middle of he fifth.

All of the manuscript evidence we have is that Josephus referred to the man who wrestled with Jacob as a phantasm in Ant. 1.331 and there is no known manuscript support for Whiston's tendentious interpretation of the word as 'angel'.

Best,

Ken
Last edited by Ken Olson on Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

ὁ μέντοι χρηστὸς θεὸς οὔτε ἁλωτὸν πάθει τὸ ἀτρώτου γένους εἶδος ἐργάσεται οὔτε τὴν ἀρετῆς ἄσκησιν ἐπ' ὀλέθρῳ [47] φονῶντι καὶ δαιμονῶντι ἐκδώσει. διὸ καὶ τὸ ἐπιφερόμενον ἀνέστη Κάιν ἐπὶ Ἄβελ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτὸν (Gen. 4, 8) κατὰ μὲν τὴν πρόχειρον φαντασίαν ὑποβάλλει, ὅτι Ἄβελ ἀνῄρηται, κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀκριβεστέραν ἐξέτασιν, ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ Κάιν ὑφ' ἑαυτοῦ· ὥσθ' οὕτως ἀναγνωστέον· ἀνέστη Κάιν καὶ ἀπέκτεινεν ἑαυτόν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ἕτερον.

However, the good God will neither allow that invulnerable species among created things to be subdued by passion, nor will he surrender the practice of virtue to bloody and raging destruction. (47) On which account we read in a subsequent passage, "Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew Him."{18}{#ge 4:8.} For according to the first imagination, he suggests the idea that Abel has been killed. But if you look at it according to the most accurate investigation, you will see that the intimates that Cain himself was slain by himself, so that we ought to read it thus: "Cain rose up and killed himself," and not the other.

πρῶτον μὲν γάρ φησιν αὐτῷ· καὶ νῦν ἐπικατάρατος σὺ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς (Gen. 4, 11), δηλῶν πρῶτον ὅτι οὐχὶ νῦν ὅτε ἐδολοφόνησεν ἐναγὴς καὶ ἐπάρατός ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρότερον [97] ὅτε ἐβούλευσε τὸν φόνον, τῆς γνώμης ἴσον τῷ τελείῳ δυναμένης. ἕως μὲν γὰρ τὰ αἰσχρὰ μόνον ἐννοοῦμεν κατὰ ψιλὴν τοῦ νοῦ φαντασίαν, τότε τῆς διανοίας ‹οὔκ› ἐσμεν ὕποχοι, δύναται γὰρ καὶ ἀκουσίως ἡ ψυχὴ τρέπεσθαι

But on him who is incapable of receiving repentance on account of the enormity of the pollution which he has incurred by the murder of his brother, namely, on Cain, he lays well-deserved and fitting curses; for in the first place he says to him, "And now, cursed art thou upon the Earth:"{32}{#ge 4:11.} showing first of all that he is polluted and accursed, not now for the first time when he has committed the murder, but that he was so before, the moment that he conceived the idea of it, the intention being of equal importance with the perfected action; (97) for as long as we only conceive wicked things in the bad imagination of our minds, still, during that time, we are guilty of thoughts only, for the mind is capable of being changed even against its will; but when performance is added to the intention that has been conceived, then our deliberate purpose becomes also guilty; for this is the chief distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin.

εἰ δ' ἄρα καὶ χρηστέον [158] αὐταῖς, οὐχ ὡς ἀγαθοῖς τελείοις χρηστέον, ἀλλὰ ὡς ποιητικοῖς ἀγαθοῦ. σὺ μὲν οὖν, ὦ καταγέλαστε, φῂς ὅτι τῶν σωματικῶν καὶ τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀφαιρεθεὶς πλεονεκτημάτων εἰς ὄψιν οὐκ ἀφίξῃ θεοῦ; ἐγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι, ἐὰν ἀφαιρεθῇς, πάντως ἀφίξῃ· λυθεὶς γὰρ τῶν ἀρρήκτων σώματος καὶ περὶ [159] σῶμα δεσμῶν φαντασιώσῃ τὸν ἀγένητον.

Do you therefore, O ridiculous man, affirm that if you are deprived of a superfluity of bodily advantages and external good things, you will not come into the sight of God? But I tell you that even if you are so deprived of them, you will by all means come into his sight; for when you have been released from the unspeakable bonds of the body and around the body, you will attain to an imagination of the uncreated God. (159) Do you not see in the case of Abraham that, "when he had left his country, and his kindred, and his father's House,"{49}{#ge 12:1.} that is to say, the body, the outward senses, and reason, he then began to become acquainted with the powers of the living God? for when he had secretly departed from all his house, the law says that, "God appeared unto Him,"{50}{#ge 12:7.} showing that he is seen clearly by him who has put off mortal things, and who has taken refuge from this body in the incorporeal soul
The same idea again as we saw earlier of a special kind of 'imagination' needed to recognize God or his power. We continue ...
ἀλλ' ὅταν μὲν τῷ ὄντι παραβάλληται, ἄνθρωπος εὑρεθήσεται θεοῦ, ὅταν δὲ ἄφρονι ἀνθρώπῳ, θεὸς πρὸς φαντασίαν καὶ δόκησιν, οὐ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν [163] καὶ τὸ εἶναι, νοούμενος. τί οὖν ματαιάζεις λέγων εἴ με ἐκβάλλεις ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, καὶ σὲ κρυβήσομαι (Gen. 4, 14)

on which account Moses taking his tent "pitches it without the Tabernacle,"{51}{#ex 33:7.} and settles to dwell at a distance from the bodily camp, for in that way alone could he hope to become a worthy suppliant and a perfect minister before God. And he says that this tent was called the tent of testimony, taking exceeding care that it may really be the tabernacle of the living God, and may not be called so only. For of virtues, the virtues of God are founded in truth, existing according to his essence: since God alone exists in essence, on account of which fact, he speaks of necessity about himself, saying, "I am that I Am,"{52}{exodus 3:14.} as if those who were with him did not exist according to essence, but only appeared to exist in opinion. But the tent of Moses being symbolically considered, the virtue of man shall be thought worthy of appellation, not of real existence, being only an imitation, a copy made after the model of that divine tabernacle, and consistent with these facts is the circumstance that Moses when he is appointed to be the God of Pharaoh, was not so in reality, but was only conceived of as such in opinion, "for I know that it is God who gives and bestows favours, (161) but I am not able to perceive that he is given, and it is said in the sacred scriptures, "I give thee as a God to Pharaoh," and yet what is given is the patient, not the agent; but he that is truly living must be the agent, and beyond all question cannot be the patient. (162) What then is inferred from these facts? Why, that the wise man is called the God of the foolish man, but he is not God in reality, just as a base coin of the apparent value of four drachmas is not a four drachma piece. But when he is compared with the living God, then he will be found to be a man of God; but when he is compared with a foolish man, he is accounted a God to the imagination and in appearance, but he is not so in truth and essence.
Moses = god. The idea here I think might go back to the Son being an image of the Father in Christianity. Something like that. It is worth noting that just as 'phantasma' is Marcion so too is 'docetic.' The two words stand here side by side. Was Marcion merely Philonic and then the terminology was taken out of context.

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΔΟΚΗΣΙΣΟΦΟΥ ΚΑΙΝ ΕΓΓΟΝΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΩΣ ΜΕΤΑΝΑΣΤΗΣ ΓΙΓΝΕΤΑΙ
Ἐξῆλθε δὲ Κάιν ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ᾤκησεν ἐν γῇ Ναὶδ κατέναντι Ἐδέμ (Gen. 4, 16). νυνὶ διαπορῶμεν, εἰ χρὴ τῶν ἐν ταῖς διερμηνευθείσαις βίβλοις ὑπὸ Μωυσέως τροπικώτερον ἀκούειν, τῆς [2] ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασι προχείρου φαντασίας πολὺ τἀληθοῦς ἀπᾳδούσης

"And Cain went out from before the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod, opposite to Eden."{1}{#ge 4:16.} Now we may raise the question whether we are to take the expressions which occur in the books that have been handed down to us by Moses and to interpret them in a somewhat metaphorical sense, while the ideas which readily present themselves as derived from the names are very deficient in truth. (2) For if the living God has a face, and if he who desires to leave it can with perfect ease rise up and depart to another place, why do we repudiate the impiety of the Epicureans, or the godlessness of the Egyptians, or the mythical suggestions of which life is full? (3) For the face is a portion of an animal; but God is a whole, not a part: so that it becomes necessary to invent for him other parts also, a neck, and a chest, and hands, and moreover a belly, feet, and generative organs, and all the rest of the countless number of internal and external faculties. (4) And the fact of God's having passions like unto those of man follows of necessity from the fact of his having a form like that of man: since all those limbs are not superfluous and mere exuberances, but have been made by nature as assistants of the weakness of those who possess them, and she has adapted them in a manner suitable to and consistent with their natural necessities and offices. But the living God has need of nothing; so that as he does not at all require the assistance to be derived from the parts of the body, he cannot possibly have such parts at all.

8 εἰ τὸ ἐκ προσώπου μεταναστῆναι βασιλέως θνητοῦ χαλεπόν ἐστι, πῶς οὐ παγχάλεπον τὴν θεοῦ φαντασίαν καταλιπόντα οἴχεσθαι, μηκέτι εἰς ὄψιν ἀφικνεῖσθαι τὴν αὐτοῦ διεγνωκότα, τοῦτο δ' ἐστὶν ἀφάνταστον αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι τὸ ψυχῆς [9] ὄμμα πηρωθέντα

If it is hard to depart from before the face and out of the sight of a mortal king, how can it be anything but extremely difficult to depart and quit the appearance of God, and to determine no longer to come into his sight. This indeed is to be left without any idea of him, and to be mutilated as to the eyes of the soul, (9) and all those who of necessity have endured this fate, being weighed down by the might of irresistible and implacable power, are objects rather for pity than for hatred; but all those who voluntarily and of deliberated purposes have rejected the living God, exceeding even the bounds of wickedness itself, for what other evil of equal weight can possibly be found? Such men should suffer not the usual punishments of evil doers, but something new and extraordinary. And surely no one could invent a more novel or more terrible penalty than a departure and flight from the presence of the Ruler of the universe.

ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἀστέρες παραμείβονται τὰ κινούμενα καὶ αὐτοὶ κινούμενοι, ὁ δὲ θεός, τὸ [20] παραδοξότατον, ἑστὼς ἔφθακε πάντα. λέγεται δ' ὅτι καὶ ἐγγύτατα ὁ αὐτὸς ὢν καὶ μακράν ἐστιν, ἁπτόμενος μὲν ταῖς ποιητικαῖς καὶ κολαστηρίοις δυνάμεσι πλησίον ὑπαρχούσαις ἑκάστου, πορρωτάτω δὲ τῆς κατὰ τὸ εἶναι φύσεως αὑτοῦ τὸ γενητὸν ἀπεληλακώς, ὡς μηδὲ κατὰ τὰς ἀκραιφνεῖς [21] καὶ ἀσωμάτους τῆς διανοίας ἐπιβολὰς ψαῦσαι δύνασθαι. τοῖς μὲν οὖν φιλοθέοις τὸ ὂν ἀναζητοῦσι, κἂν μηδέποτε εὕρωσι, συγχαίρομεν ‑ ἱκανὴ γὰρ ἐξ ἑαυτῆς προευφραίνειν ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ ζήτησις, κἂν ἀτυχῆται τὸ τέλος ‑ , τῷ δὲ φιλαύτῳ Κάιν συναχθόμεθα, ὃς ἀφάνταστον τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν τοῦ ὄντος καταλέλοιπεν, τὸ ᾧ μόνῳ βλέπειν ἠδύνατο ἑκουσίως πηρώσας.

And it is said that he, at the same moment, is close to us and at a great distance, touching us with his creative or his punishing powers, which are close to each individual, and yet at the same time driving away the creature to an excessive distance from his nature as existing according to its essence, so that it cannot touch him without even the unalloyed and incorporeal efforts of the intellect. (21) Therefore we sympathise in joy with those who love God and seek to understand the nature of the living do, even if they fail to discover it; for the vague investigation of what is good is sufficient by itself to cheer the heart, even if it fail to attain the end that it desires. But we participate in indignation against that lover of himself, Cain; because he has left his soul without any conception whatever of the living God, having of deliberate purpose mutilated himself of that faculty by which alone he might have been able to see him.

ἡ μὲν οὖν προτέρα γίνεται κατ' ἀσθένειαν, εἶδος τῆς πολυμόρφου καὶ πολυτρόπου λέπρας οὖσα· ὅταν γὰρ ἡ ὄψις ταπεινοτέρα φαίνηται τὴν ὁμαλὴν καὶ εὔτονον κλασθεῖσα φαντασίαν, τὴν χαλεπὴν νόσον λέπραν ὁ νομοθέτης φησὶ γενέσθαι [48] (Lev. 13, 3).

Now the former kind of humiliation arises out of weakness, being a species of that multiform disease of many changes, leprosy. "For when his appearance seems more Humble,"{14}{#le 13:3.} being broken as to its level and fresh face, than the lawgiver says that that humble disease leprosy exists. (48) But the second kind of humiliation arises from the strength of perseverance, which is followed by propitiation, according to the perfect number of the decade

Ῥαμεσσὴ δὲ ἡ αἴσθησις καθάπερ γὰρ ὑπὸ σητὸς ὑφ' ἑκάστης τῶν αἰσθήσεων νοῦς ἐκβιβρώσκεται καὶ διεσθίεται, σειόμενος καὶ σπαραττόμενος· αἱ γὰρ ἐπεισιοῦσαι μὴ καθ' [57] ἡδονὴν φαντασίαι λυπηρὸν καὶ ἐπίπονον ἀποτίκτουσι τὸν βίον.

and Rameses is the inward sense; (56) for the mind is eaten out and destroyed by each separate one of the outward senses as by a moth, being shaken to pieces and lacerated; for the imaginations which enter it, not according to pleasure, make life itself mutilated and laborious.

ὁ γὰρ φιλάρετος ὑπὸ τῆς αὐγοειδοῦς τοῦ καλοῦ φαντασίας πυρωθεὶς καταφλέγει τὰς σωματικὰς ἡδονάς, εἶτα κατακόπτει καὶ ἐπιλεαίνει τῷ ἀπὸ διαιρέσεως λόγῳ χρώμενος, καὶ διδάσκει τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον ὅτι τῶν σωματικῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐστιν ὑγίεια ἢ κάλλος ἢ ἡ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἀκρίβεια ἢ τὸ ὁλόκληρον μετὰ ἰσχύος καὶ ῥώμης κρατερᾶς, ἅ γε πάντα καὶ τῶν ἐπαράτων καὶ ἐξαγίστων ἐστὶ κοινά, ὧν, εἴπερ ἦν ἀγαθά, φαῦλος οὐδενὸς οὐδεὶς ἂν [160] μετεῖχε.

This is the food of a soul which is inclined to the practice of virtue, to consider labour a very sweet thing instead of a bitter one, which, however, it is not allowed to all persons to participate in; but to those only by whom the golden calf, the animal made by the Egyptians, the body, is sprinkled over with water after having been burnt with fire, and broken to pieces. For it is said in the sacred scriptures, that "Moses having taken the calf burnt it with fire, and broke it up into small pieces, and threw the pieces into the water and caused the children of Israel to drink Thereof."{67}{#ex 32:20.} (159) For the love of virtue being inflamed and excited by the brilliant appearance of virtue, burns to ashes the pleasures of the body, and then cuts them to pieces and pounds them to nothing, using the divine word which can at all times divide everything.
ΠΕΡΙ ΓΙΓΑΝΤΩΝ
ἀλλ' οὐ παρόσον ἀδύνατος ἡ ὄψις ψυχῶν φαντασιωθῆναι τύπους, διὰ τοῦτ' οὔκ εἰσιν ἐν ἀέρι ψυχαί, καταλαμβάνεσθαι δ' αὐτὰς ἀναγκαῖον ὑπὸ νοῦ, ἵνα πρὸς τῶν ὁμοίων τὸ ὅμοιον θεωρῆται. ἐπεὶ καὶ τί φήσομεν

"And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they Chose."{2}{#ge 6:2.} Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air. (7) And let no one suppose, that what is here stated is a fable, for it is necessarily true that the universe must be filled with living things in all its parts, since every one of its primary and elementary portions contains its appropriate animals and such as are consistent with its nature; --the earth containing terrestrial animals, the sea and the rivers containing aquatic animals, and the fire such as are born in the fire (but it is said, that such as these last are found chiefly in Macedonia), and the heaven containing the stars: (8) for these also are entire souls pervading the universe, being unadulterated and divine, inasmuch as they move in a circle, which is the kind of motion most akin to the mind, for every one of them is the parent mind. It is therefore necessary that the air also should be full of living beings. And these beings are invisible to us, inasmuch as the air itself is not visible to mortal sight. (9) But it does not follow, because our sight is incapable of perceiving the forms of souls, that for that reason there are no souls in the air; but it follows of necessity that they must be comprehended by the mind, in order that like may be contemplated by like.

μένει μὲν γὰρ ἔστιν ὅτε, καταμένει δ' οὐκ εἰσάπαν παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡμῖν. τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἄλογος ἢ ἄψυχός ἐστιν, ὡς μηδέποτε ἔννοιαν τοῦ ἀρίστου μήθ' ἑκὼν μήτ' ἄκων λαβεῖν; ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ τοῖς ἐξαγίστοις ἐπιποτᾶται πολλάκις αἰφνίδιος ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ φαντασία, συλλαβεῖν δ' αὐτὴν καὶ φυλάξαι παρ' [21] ἑαυτοῖς ἀδυνατοῦσιν.

And, in all such matters, it is impossible for the spirit of God to remain and to pass all its time, as the law-giver himself shows. "For," says Moses, "the Lord said, My spirit shall not remain among men for ever, because they are Flesh."{4}{#ge 6:3.} (20) For, at times, it does remain; but it does not remain for ever and ever among the greater part of us; for who is so destitute of reason or so lifeless as never, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to conceive a notion of the all good God. For, very often, even over the most polluted and accursed beings, there hovers a sudden appearance of the good, but they are unable to take firm hold of it and to keep it among them; (21) for, almost immediately, it quits its former place and departs, rejecting those inhabitants who come over to it, and who live in defiance of law and justice, to whom it never would have come if it had not been for the sake of convicting those who choose what is disgraceful instead of what is good.
This is a theme in Philo.

ΟΤΙ ΑΤΡΕΠΤΟΝ ΤΟ ΘΕΙΟΝ
ψυχὴν δὲ φύσεως τρισὶ διαλλάττουσαν ὁ ποιῶν ἐποίει, αἰσθήσει, φαντασίᾳ, ὁρμῇ· τὰ μὲν γὰρ φυτὰ ἀόρμητα, ἀφάνταστα, αἰσθήσεως ἀμέτοχα, τῶν δὲ ζῴων [42] ἕκαστον ἀθρόων μετέχει τῶν εἰρημένων. αἴσθησις μὲν οὖν, ὡς αὐτό που δηλοῖ τοὔνομα, εἴσθεσίς τις οὖσα τὰ φανέντα ἐπεισφέρει τῷ νῷ· τούτῳ γάρ, ἐπειδὴ μέγιστόν ἐστι ταμεῖον καὶ πανδεχές, πάνθ' ὅσα δι' ὁράσεως καὶ ἀκοῆς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων αἰσθητικῶν ὀργάνων ἐντίθεται καὶ [43] ἐναποθησαυρίζεται. φαντασία δέ ἐστι τύπωσις ἐν ψυχῇ

(41) And the Creator has made the soul to differ from nature in these thingsùin the outwards sense, and imagination, and impetuosity; for plants are destitute of impetuosity and devoid of imagination, and without any participation in the outward sense. But every animal partakes of all these qualities above-mentioned, all together. (42) Now the outward sense, as indeed its name shows, in some degree is a kind of insertion, placing the things that are made apparent to it in the mind; for in the mind, since that is the greatest storehouse and receptacle for all things, is everything placed and treasured up which comes under the operation of the sense of seeing or hearing, or the other organs of the outward senses. (43) And imagination is an impression of figures in the soul; for the things which each of the outward senses has brought in, like a ring or a seal, on them it imprints its own character. And the mind, being like wax, having received the impression, keeps it carefully in itself until forgetfulness, the enemy of memory, has smoothed off the edges of the impression, or else has rendered it dim, or perhaps has completely effaced it. (44) And that which has been visible and has been impressed upon the soul at times affects the soul in a way consistent with itself, and at other times in a different way; and this passion to which it is subject is called appetite, which philosophers who define such things say is the first motion of the soul.
ΠΕΡΙ ΦΥΤΟΥΡΓΙΑΣ ΝΩΕ ΤΟ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΝ
τὰ δὲ ἀφαντάστῳ φύσει διοικούμενα, ἅπερ ἰδίως λέγεται φυτά, μεταβατικῆς κινήσεως ἀμέτοχα.

But those which are regulated according to a nature devoid of all sensation, which are peculiarly called plants, have no participation in that motion which involves a change of place.

λέγουσι γὰρ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ φυτὰ εἶναι μηδὲν ἐοικότα τοῖς παρ' ἡμῖν, ἀλλὰ ζωῆς, ἀθανασίας, εἰδήσεως, καταλήψεως, συνέσεως, καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ φαντασίας.

We must therefore have recourse to allegory, which is a favourite with men capable of seeing through it; for the sacred oracles most evidently conduct us towards and instigate us to the pursuit of it. For they say that in the Paradise there were plants in no respect similar to those which exist among us; but they speak of trees of life, trees of immortality, trees of knowledge, of comprehension, of understanding; trees of the knowledge of good and evil.
This translation is obviously inadequate. The only other one I found online:

En effet, les oracles nous fournissent très clairement des raisons valables pour y recourir [s c.à l’allégorie] : ils disent que les arbres du jardin ne sont nullement semblables à ceuxde chez nous, mais ce sont des arbres de vie, d’immortalité, de connaissance, de compréhension et d’intelligence de représentation du bien et du mal.

ΠΕΡΙ ΜΕΘΗΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ
κἂν τὸ στῖφος ἡμῶν τοῖς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπιτάγμασιν ἀδυνατοῦν ὑπηρετεῖν ἁλίσκηται, σύμμαχον οὐδὲν ἧττον ἕξει τὴν μητέρα, παιδείαν μέσην τὰ νομιζόμενα καὶ δοκοῦντα εἶναι δίκαια γράφουσαν κατὰ πόλεις καὶ [65] ἄλλα ἄλλοις νομοθετοῦσαν. εἰσὶ δέ τινες, οἳ τῶν μητρῴων ὑπερορῶντες περιέχονται παντὶ σθένει τῶν πατρῴων, οὓς καὶ τῆς μεγίστης τιμῆς, ἱερωσύνης, ὁ ὀρθὸς λόγος ἠξίωσε. κἂν τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν διέλθωμεν, ἐφ' αἷς τὸ γέρας τοῦτο εὕραντο, χλεύην ἴσως παρὰ πολλοῖς ὀφλήσομεν τοῖς ταῖς προχείροις φαντασίαις ἀπατωμένοις, τὰς δὲ ἀφανεῖς καὶ συνεσκιασμένας [66] δυνάμεις οὐ κατανοοῦσιν

But there are some persons who, neglecting the precepts of their mothers, adhere with all their might to the injunctions of their fathers, whom right reason has thought worthy of the greatest honour, namely, of the priesthood; and if we go through their actions, by which they have obtained this honour, we shall perhaps incur the ridicule of many, who are deceived by the first appearances which present themselves to them, and who do not perceive those powers which are invisible and kept in the shade.

εἰ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν τὰς αὐτὰς ἀεὶ συνέβαινε προσπίπτειν ἀπαραλλάκτους φαντασίας, ἦν ἴσως ἀναγκαῖον τά τε ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς φύσει κατασκευασθέντα διττὰ κριτήρια, αἴσθησίν τε καὶ νοῦν, ὡς ἀψευδῆ καὶ ἀδέκαστα θαυμάζειν καὶ περὶ μηδενὸς ἐνδοιάζοντας ἐπέχειν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἅπαξ φανεῖσι πιστεύοντας τὰ μὲν αἱρεῖσθαι, τὰ δὲ [170] ἔμπαλιν ἀποστρέφεσθαι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ διαφόρως ἀπ' αὐτῶν εὑρισκόμεθα κινούμενοι, βέβαιον περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδὲν ἂν ἔχοιμεν εἰπεῖν, ἅτε μὴ ἑστῶτος τοῦ φανέντος, ἀλλὰ πολυτρόποις καὶ πολυμόρφοις χρωμένου ταῖς μεταβολαῖς· ἀνάγκη γὰρ ἀνιδρύτου τῆς φαντασίας οὔσης ἀνίδρυτον [171] εἶναι καὶ τὴν ἐπ' αὐτῇ κρίσιν

Accordingly we must, on these accounts, remind the man who gives himself airs by reason of his power of deliberating, or of wisely choosing one kind of objects and avoiding others, that if the same unalterable perceptions of the same things always occurred to us, it might perhaps be requisite to admire the two faculties of judging which are implanted in us by nature, namely, the outward senses and the intellect, as unerring and incorruptible, and never to doubt or hesitate about anything, but trusting in every first appearance to choose one kind of thing and to reject the contrary kind. (170) But since we are found to be influenced in different manners by the same things at different times, we should have nothing positive to assert about anything, inasmuch as what appears has no settled or stationary existence, but is subject to various, and multiform, and ever-recurring changes. For it follows of necessity, since the imagination is unstable, that the judgment formed by it must be unstable likewise; (171) and there are many reasons for this.

οὐ γὰρ τὰ αὐτὰ ὑγιαίνουσι καὶ νοσοῦσι προσπίπτειν φιλεῖ, οὐδὲ ἐγρηγορόσι καὶ κοιμωμένοις, οὐδὲ ἡβῶσι καὶ γεγηρακόσι· καὶ ἑστὼς μέντοι καὶ κινούμενός τις ἑτέρας ἔλαβε φαντασίας, καὶ θαρρῶν καὶ δεδιὼς ἔμπαλιν, ἔτι μέντοι λυπούμενός τε καὶ χαίρων, καὶ φιλῶν καὶ [180] τοὐναντίον μισῶν. καὶ τί δεῖ μακρηγοροῦντα περὶ τούτων ἐνοχλεῖν; συνελόντι γὰρ φράσαι πᾶσα ἡ σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς κατὰ φύσιν τε αὖ καὶ παρὰ φύσιν κίνησις αἰτία τῆς περὶ τὰ φαινόμενα ἀστάτου φορᾶς [181] γίνεται μαχόμενα καὶ ἀσύμφωνα προσβαλλούσης ὀνείρατα. γίνεται δ' οὐχ ἥκιστα τὸ περὶ τὰς φαντασίας ἄστατον καὶ παρὰ τὰς θέσεις καὶ παρὰ τὰ διαστήματα καὶ παρὰ τοὺς τόπους, οἷς ἕκαστα ἐμπεριέχεται. [182] ἢ τοὺς κατὰ θαλάττης ἰχθῦς οὐχ ὁρῶμεν, ὁπότε τὰς πτέρυγας διατείνοντες ἐννήχοιντο, μείζους ἀεὶ τῆς φύσεως προφαινομένους; καὶ τὰς εἰρεσίας μέντοι, κἂν σφόδρα ὦσιν εὐθυτενεῖς, κεκλασμένας ὁρᾶσθαι συμβαίνει [183] καθ' ὕδατος. τά γε μὴν πορρωτάτω ψευδεῖς προσβάλλοντα φαντασίας τὸν νοῦν εἴωθεν ἀπατᾶν

For the same fancies do not strike the same men when they are well and when they are ill, nor when they are awake and when they are asleep, nor when they are young and when they are old. And a man who is standing still often conceives different ideas from those which he entertains when he is in motion; and also when he is courageous, or when he is alarmed; again when he is grieved, or when he is delighted, and when he is in love, he feels differently from what he does when he is full of hatred. (180) And why need I be prolix and deep dwelling on these points? For in short every motion of both body and soul, whether in accordance with nature or in opposition to nature, is the cause of a great variation and change respecting the appearances which present themselves to us; from which all sorts of inconsistent and opposite dreams arise to occupy our minds. (181) And that is not the least influential cause of the instability of one's perceptions which arises from the position of the objects, from their distance, and from the places by which they are each of them surrounded. (182) Do we not see that the fishes in the sea, when they stretch out their fins and swim about, do always appear larger than their real natural size? And oars too, even though they are very straight, look as if they were broken when they are under water; and things at a great distance display false appearances to our eyes, and in this way do frequently deceive the mind.

οὐκοῦν ἄλλων παρ' ἄλλοις οὐ βραχεῖ μόνον διεστηκότων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ὅλοις ἀπᾳδόντων, ὡς ἀντιστατεῖν καὶ διαμάχεσθαι, ἀνάγκη καὶ τὰς προσπιπτούσας [197] διαφέρειν φαντασίας καὶ τὰς κρίσεις ἀλλήλαις πεπολεμῶσθαι. ὧν ὑπαρχόντων τίς οὕτως ἔκφρων ἐστὶ καὶ παράληρος, ὡς φάναι παγίως, ὅτι τὸ τοιόνδε ἐστὶ δίκαιον ἢ φρόνιμον ἢ καλὸν ἢ συμφέρον; ὃ γὰρ ἂν [198] οὗτος ὁρίσῃ, τἀναντία μεμελετηκὼς ἐκ παίδων ἕτερος ἀκυρώσει. ἐγὼ δ' οὐ τεθαύμακα, εἰ πεφορημένος καὶ μιγὰς ὄχλος, ἐθῶν καὶ νόμων τῶν ὁπωσοῦν εἰσηγμένων ἀκλεὴς δοῦλος, ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἔτι σπαργάνων ὑπακούειν ὡς ἂν δεσποτῶν ἢ τυράννων ἐκμαθών, κατακεκονδυλισμένος τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ μέγα καὶ νεανικὸν φρόνημα λαβεῖν μὴ δυνάμενος πιστεύει τοῖς ἅπαξ παραδοθεῖσι καὶ τὸν νοῦν ἐάσας ἀγύμναστον ἀδιερευνήτοις καὶ ἀνεξετάστοις συναινέσεσί τε καὶ ἀρνήσεσι χρῆται, ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ τῶν λεγομένων φιλοσόφων ἡ πληθὺς τὸ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι σαφὲς καὶ ἀψευδὲς ἐπιμορφάζουσα θηρᾶν κατὰ στίφη καὶ λόχους διακέκριται καὶ δόγματα ἀσύμφωνα, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἐναντία οὐ περὶ ἑνὸς τίθεται τοῦ τυχόντος, ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν περὶ πάντων μικρῶν τε καὶ μεγάλων, ἐν οἷς αἱ [199] ζητήσεις συνίστανται· οἱ γὰρ ἄπειρον τὸ πᾶν εἰσηγούμενοι τοῖς πεπερασμένον εἶναι λέγουσιν ἢ οἱ τὸν κόσμον ἀγένητον τοῖς γενητὸν ἀποφαινομένοις ἢ οἱ χωρὶς ἐπιστάτου καὶ ἡγεμόνος ἀλόγου καὶ ἀπαυτοματιζούσης ἐξάψαντες φορᾶς τοῖς ὑπολαμβάνουσι πρόνοιαν καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν ὅλου καὶ τῶν μερῶν θαυμαστήν τιν' εἶναι ἡνιοχοῦντος καὶ κυβερνῶντος ἀπταίστως καὶ σωτηρίως θεοῦ πῶς ἂν δύναιντο τὰς αὐτὰς [200] καταλήψεις τῶν ὑποκειμένων ποιεῖσθαι πραγμάτων; αἱ δὲ περὶ τὴν τἀγαθοῦ σκέψιν φαντασίαι ἆρ' οὐκ ἐπέχειν μᾶλλον ἢ ὁμολογεῖν βιάζονται τῶν μὲν ἀγαθὸν εἶναι νομιζόντων μόνον τὸ καλὸν καὶ θησαυριζομένων αὐτὸ ἐν ψυχῇ

Therefore, since there are some persons and things removed from other persons and things, not by a short distance only, but since they are utterly different, it then follows of necessity that the perceptions which occur to men of different things must also differ, and that their opinions must be at variance with one another. (197) And since this is the case, who is so foolish and ridiculous as to affirm positively that such and such a thing is just, or wise, or honourable, or expedient? For whatever this man defines as such, some one else, who from his childhood, has learnt a contrary lesson, will be sure to deny. (198) But I am not surprised if a confused and mixed multitude, being the inglorious slave of customs and laws, however introduced and established, accustomed from its very cradle to obey them as if they were masters and tyrants, having their souls beaten and buffeted, as it were, and utterly unable to conceive any lofty or magnanimous thoughts, believes at once every tradition which is represented to it, and leaving its mind without any proper training, assents to and denies propositions without examination and without deliberation. But even if the multitude of those who are called philosophers, pretending that they are really seeking for certainty and accuracy in things, being divided into ranks and companies, come to discordant, and often even to diametrically opposite decisions, and that too, not about some one accidental matter, but about almost everything, whether great or small, with respect to which any discussion can arise. (199) For when some persons affirm that the world is infinite, while others pronounce it to be confined within limits; or while some look upon the world as uncreated, and others assert that it is created; or when some persons look upon it as destitute of any ruler and superintendent, attributing to it a motion, deprived of reason, and proceeding on some independent internal impulse, while others think that there is a care of and providence, which looks over the whole and its parts of marvellous power and wisdom, God ruling and governing the whole, in a manner free from all stumbling, and full of protection. How is it possible for any one to affirm that the comprehension of such objects as are brought before them, is the same in all men? (200) And again, the imaginations which are occupied with the consideration of what is good, are not they compelled to suspend their judgment rather than to agree? While some think that it is only what is good that is beautiful, and treasure that up in the soul, and others divide it into numbers of minute particles, and extend it as far as the body and external circumstances.
ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΓΧΥΣΕΩΣ ΔΙΑΛΕΚΤΩΝ
δοκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἑστάναι καὶ βεβηκέναι ὡς ἐκείνη κατὰ τὰς τῆς αἰσθητῆς ὄψεως προσβολάς, κέχρηται δὲ ὠκυτάτῃ κινήσει καὶ τὰς ἐν [100] μέρει πάσας παραθεούσῃ. καὶ γὰρ μεθ' ἡμέραν ἡλίου καὶ νύκτωρ σελήνης φαντασίαν ὡς ἑστώτων οἱ σώματος ὀφθαλμοὶ λαμβάνουσι· καίτοι τίς οὐκ οἶδεν, ὅτι ‹τὸ› τῆς περὶ αὐτοὺς φορᾶς τάχος ἀνανταγώνιστόν ἐστιν, εἴ γε τὸν σύμπαντα οὐρανὸν μιᾷ περιπολοῦσιν ἡμέρᾳ

for the world appears to stand and to be firmly fixed like a brick in a house, as far as the vision of the sight of the outward senses can inform us, but it has a very swift motion, and one which is able to outstrip all particular motions. (100) For the eyes of our body look upon the appearance of the sun by day and of the moon by night as standing still, and yet who is there who does not know that the rapidity of movements of these two bodies is incomparable, since they go round the whole heaven in one day? Thus, indeed, the universal heaven itself also, while appearing to stand still, revolves in a circle; its movements being detected and comprehended by the invisible and more divine eye which is placed in our mind.

ἐλπὶς γάρ, ἐλπὶς τὰ βέβαια τῆς κακίας ἐρείσματα [105] κράτει θεοῦ διακοπῆναι. τοιγαροῦν ὁ δίκαιος καὶ ἐν τῷ μεγάλῳ καὶ ἐπαλλήλῳ τοῦ βίου κατακλυσμῷ, μήπω δυνάμενος δίχα αἰσθήσεως ψυχῇ μόνῃ τὰ ὄντα ὄντως ὁρᾶν, τὴν κιβωτόν, λέγω δὲ τὸ σῶμα, ἔνδοθέν τε καὶ ἔξωθεν ἀσφάλτῳ καταχρίσει (Gen. 6, 14) βεβαιούμενος τὰς δι' αὐτοῦ φαντασίας καὶ ἐνεργείας· λωφήσαντος δὲ τοῦ κακοῦ καὶ τῆς φορᾶς ἐπισχούσης ἐξελεύσεται χρησάμενος ἀσωμάτῳ διανοίᾳ πρὸς τὴν ἀληθείας [106] ἀντίληψιν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀστεῖος ἀπὸ γενέσεως ἀρχῆς φυτευθεὶς καὶ προσαγορευθεὶς τρόπος, ὄνομα Μωυσῆς, ὁ τὸν κόσμον ὡς ἄστυ καὶ πατρίδα οἰκήσας ἅτε κοσμοπολίτης γενόμενος, ἐνδεθείς ποτε τῷ ἐπαληλιμμένῳ ὡς ἂν ἀσφαλτοπίσσῃ (Exod. 2, 3) σώματι καὶ δοκοῦντι τὰς πάντων ‹τῶν› ὑποκειμένων ἐν αἰσθήσει φαντασίας ἀσφαλῶς δέχεσθαί τε καὶ κεχωρηκέναι, κατακλαίει (Exod. 2, 6) μὲν τὴν ἔνδεσιν ἀσωμάτου φύσεως πιεσθεὶς ἔρωτι, κατακλαίει δὲ καὶ τὸν πλάνητα καὶ τετυφωμένον τῶν πολλῶν ἄθλιον νοῦν, ὃς ψευδοῦς δόξης ἐκκρεμασθεὶς ᾠήθη τι παρ' ἑαυτῷ βέβαιον καὶ ἀσφαλὲς ἢ συνόλως παρά τινι τῶν γενομένων ἄτρεπτον ἱδρῦσθαι, τοῦ παγίως καὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος ἐστηλιτευμένου παρὰ μόνῳ τῷ θεῷ.

Therefore the just man, even in the great and incessant deluge of life, while he is not as yet able to see things really as they are by the energy of his soul alone without the assistance of the outward sense, will anoint "the ark," by which I understand the body, "both within and without the Pitch,"{32}{#ge 6:14.} strengthening his imaginations and energies by his own resources; but when the danger has ceased and the violence of the flood abated, then he will come forth, availing himself of his incorporeal mind for the comprehension of truth. (106) For the good disposition being from the very birth of the man planted in virtue, and being spoken as of such, its name being Moses, dwelling in the whole world as his native city and country, becoming, as it were, a cosmopolite, being bound up in the body, smeared over as with "bitumen and Pitch,"{33}{#ex 2:3.} and appearing to be able to receive and to contain in security all the imaginations of all things which might be subjected to the outward senses, Weeps{34}{#ex 2:6.} at being so bound up, being overwhelmed with a desire for an incorporeal nature. And he weeps over the miserable mind of men in general as being wandering and puffed up with pride, inasmuch as, being elated with false opinion, it thinks that it has in itself something firm and safe, and, as a general fact, that there something immutable in some creature or other, though the example of perpetual stability, which is at all times the same, is set up in God alone.

τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὑπεράνω τῶν δυνάμεων ὂν ἐπινοεῖται περιττεύειν, οὐ κατὰ τὸ εἶναι μόνον· τούτου δύναμις δέ, καθ' ἣν ἔθηκε καὶ διετάξατο τὰ πάντα, κέκληται μὲν ἐτύμως θεός, ἐγκεκόλπισται δὲ τὰ ὅλα καὶ διὰ [138] τῶν τοῦ παντὸς μερῶν διελήλυθε. τὸ δὲ θεῖον καὶ ἀόρατον καὶ ἀκατάληπτον καὶ πανταχοῦ ὂν ὁρατόν τε καὶ καταληπτὸν οὐδαμοῦ πρὸς ἀλήθειάν ἐστιν ὧδε στὰς ἐγὼ πρὸ τοῦ σέ (Exod. 17, 6), δείκνυσθαι καὶ καταλαμβάνεσθαι δοκῶν, πρὸ πάσης δείξεως καὶ φαντασίας [139] ὑπερβαλὼν τὰ γεγονότα.

But the power of this being which made and arranged everything is with perfect truth called God, and it contains everything in its bosom, and pervades every portion of the universe. (138) But the divine being, both invisible and incomprehensible, is indeed everywhere, but still, in truth, he is nowhere visible or comprehensible. But when he says, "I am he who stands before Thee"{38}{#ex 17:6.} he appears indeed to be displayed and to be comprehended, though before any exhibition or conception he was superior to all created things. (139) Therefore, no one of the word which implies a motion from place to place is appropriate to that god who exists only in essence; such expressions, I mean, as going upwards or downwards, to the right or to the left, forwards or backwards. For he is not conceived of in any one of the above mentioned ideas, inasmuch as he never turns around or changes his place.
ΠΕΡΙ ΑΠΟΙΚΙΑΣ
ἑαυτὸν γοῦν καὶ ὅσα ἂν ἐνθυμήματα τέκῃ, ὥσπερ ἐν οἴκῳ τῷ λόγῳ διαθεὶς καὶ διακοσμήσας ἐπιδείκνυται. μὴ θαυμάσῃς δέ, εἰ νοῦ τὸν λόγον ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ κέκληκεν οἶκον· καὶ γὰρ τὸν τῶν ὅλων νοῦν, τὸν [5] θεόν, οἶκον ἔχειν φησὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον. οὗ τὴν φαντασίαν ὁ ἀσκητὴς λαβὼν ἄντικρυς ὁμολογεῖ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο ἀλλ' ἢ οἶκος θεοῦ (Gen. 28, 17), ἴσον τῷ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ οἶκος οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο τῶν εἰς δεῖξιν ἐρχομένων ἢ συνόλως πιπτόντων ὑπ' αἴσθησιν, οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλ' ἀόρατος, [6] ἀειδής, ψυχῇ μόνον ὡς ψυχῇ καταλαμβανόμενος. τίς ἂν οὖν εἴη πλὴν ὁ λόγος ὁ πρεσβύτερος τῶν γένεσιν εἰληφότων, οὗ καθάπερ οἴακος ἐνειλημμένος ὁ τῶν ὅλων κυβερνήτης πηδαλιουχεῖ τὰ σύμπαντα, καὶ ὅτε ἐκοσμοπλάστει χρησάμενος ὀργάνῳ τούτῳ πρὸς τὴν ἀνυπαίτιον τῶν ἀποτελουμένων [7] σύστασιν; ὡς μὲν τοίνυν γῆν μὲν τὸ σῶμα, συγγένειαν δὲ τὴν αἴσθησιν, οἶκον δὲ πατρὸς τὸν λόγον αἰνίττεται, δεδηλώκαμεν

And speech is our father's house ' , ' father's ' because mind is our father, sowing in each of the parts of the body the faculties that issue from itself, and assigning to them their workings, being in control and charge of them all; house—because mind has speech for its house or living-room, secluded from the rest of the homestead. It is Mind’s living-place, just as the hearth-side is man’s. It is there that Mind displays in4 orderly form itself and all the conceptions to which it gives birth, treating it as a man treats a house. And marvel not at Moses having given to speech the title of Mind’s house in man; for indeed he says that God, the Mind of the universe, has for His house His own Word. It was the vision of this Word that the Self-trainer received when he emphatically declares “This is assuredly not the House of God”b (Gen. xxviii. 17), as much as to say “The House of God is not this that is all round me, consisting of things at which we can point or that fall under sense-perception generally, no, not such is God’s House, but invisible, withdrawn from sight, and apprehended only by soul as soul.c Who, then, can6 that House be, save the Word who is antecedent to all that has come into existence? the Word, which the Helmsman of the Universe grasps as a rudder to guide all things on their course? (Loeb)

Phantasma and phantasia associated with the same angel.

[19] τίνα οὖν τὰ ἄφθαρτα; ἡ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἀλλοτρίωσις τὴν λέγουσαν· συνευνασθῶμεν (Gen. 39, 7) καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπείων ἀπολαύσωμεν ἀγαθῶν, ἡ μετὰ καρτερίας ἀγχίνοια, δι' ἧς τὰ τῶν κενῶν δοξῶν νομιζόμενα ἀγαθὰ ὡς ἂν ἐνύπνια ὄντα διακρίνει καὶ διαστέλλει, ὁμολογῶν τὰς μὲν ἀληθεῖς καὶ σαφεῖς τῶν πραγμάτων συγκρίσεις εἶναι κατὰ θεόν (Gen. 40, 8), τὰς δὲ ἀδήλους καὶ ἀσαφεῖς φαντασίας κατὰ τὸν πλάνητα καὶ τύφου μεστὸν μήπω κεκαθαρμένων ἀνθρώπων βίον ταῖς διὰ σιτοπόνων [20] καὶ μαγείρων καὶ οἰνοχόων τέρψεσι χαίροντα, τὸ μὴ ὑπήκοον, ἀλλ' ἄρχοντα Αἰγύπτου πάσης, τῆς σωματικῆς χώρας, ἀναγραφῆναι (Gen. 41, 41), τὸ αὐχεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ γένος εἶναι Ἑβραίων (Gen. 40, 15), οἷς ἔθος ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπὶ τὰ νοητὰ μετανίστασθαι ‑ περάτης γὰρ ὁ Ἑβραῖος ἑρμηνεύεται ‑ , τὸ σεμνύνεσθαι ὅτι ὧδε οὐκ ἐποίησεν οὐδέν (ibid.) ‑ τὸ γὰρ μηδὲν τῶν ἐνταῦθα σπουδαζομένων παρὰ τοῖς φαύλοις ἐργάσασθαι, διαμισῆσαι δὲ καὶ ἀποστραφῆναι πάντα οὐ μετρίως [21] ἐπαινετόν ‑ , τὸ ἐμπαίζειν ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ πάντων παθῶν ἀμετρίαις, τὸ φοβεῖσθαι τὸν θεόν (Gen. 42, 18), εἰ καὶ μηδέπω γέγονεν ἀγαπᾶν ἱκανός, τὸ ζωῆς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ μεταποιεῖσθαι τῆς ἀληθοῦς ‑ ὃ δὴ θαυμάσας ὁ ὁρῶν, καὶ γὰρ ἄξιον ἦν καταπλαγῆναι, φησί

What then are the parts which are imperishable? In the first place, a perfect alienation from pleasure which says, "Let us lie down Together,"{8}{#ge 39:7.} and let us enjoy human enjoyments; secondly, presence of mind combined with fortitude, by means of which the soul separates and distinguishes from one another those things which by vain opinions are accounted good things, as so many dreams, confessing that "the only true and accurate explanations of things are found with God;"{9}{#ge 40:8.} and that all those imaginings, which exist in the unsteady, puffed up, and arrogant life of those men who are not yet purified, but who delight in those pleasures which proceed from bakers, and cooks, and wine-bearers, are uncertain and indistinct; (20) so that such a man is not a subject but a ruler of Egypt, that is to say of the whole region of the body; so that "he boasted of being of the race of the Hebrews,"{10}{#ge 40:15.} who were accustomed to rise up and leave the objects of the outward senses, and to go over to those of the intellect; for the name Hebrew, being interpreted, means "one who passes over," because he boasted that "here he had done Nothing."{11}{#ge 40:17.} For to do nothing of those things which are thought much of among the wicked, but to hate them all and reject them, is praiseworthy in no slight degree; (21) as it is to despise immoderate indulgence of the desires and all other passions; to fear God, if a man is not yet capable of loving him, and even while in Egypt to have a desire for real life.

διό, κἄν που τῆς νομοθεσίας λέγηται ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω (Deut. 4, 39), μηδεὶς ὑποτοπησάτω τὸν κατὰ τὸ εἶναι λέγεσθαι ‑ τὸ γὰρ ὂν περιέχειν ἀλλ' οὐ περιέχεσθαι θέμις ‑ , δύναμιν δ' αὐτοῦ, καθ' ἣν ἔθηκε καὶ διετάξατο [183] καὶ διεκόσμησε τὰ ὅλα. αὕτη δὲ κυρίως ἐστὶν ἀγαθότης, φθόνον μὲν τὸν μισάρετον καὶ μισόκαλον ἀπεληλακυῖα ἀφ' ἑαυτῆς, χάριτας δὲ γεννῶσα αἷς τὰ μὴ ὄντα εἰς γένεσιν ἄγουσα ἀνέφηνεν· ἐπεὶ τό γε ὂν φαντασιαζόμενον δόξῃ πανταχοῦ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν οὐδαμοῦ φαίνεται, ὡς ἀψευδέστατον ἐκεῖνον εἶναι τὸν χρησμόν, ἐν ᾧ λέλεκται· ὧδε ἐγώ, ἄδεικτος ὡς ἂν δεικνύμενος, ἀόρατος ὡς ἂν ὁρατὸς ὤν, πρὸ τοῦ σέ (Exod. 17, 6)

On which account even though it may be said somewhere in the declaration of the law, "God is in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath," let no one suppose that God is here spoken of according to his essence. For the living God contains everything, and it is impiety to suppose that he is contained by any thing, but what is meant is, that his power according to which he made, and arranged, and established the universe, is both in heaven and earth. (183) And this, to speak correctly, is goodness, which has driven away from itself envy, which hates virtue and detests what is good, and which generates those virtues by which it has brought all existing things into existence and exhibited them as they are. Since the living God is indeed conceived of in opinion everywhere, but in real truth he is seen nowhere; so that divine scripture is most completely true in which it is said, "Here am I," speaking of him who cannot be shown as if he were being shown, of "him who is invisible as if he were visible, before thou Existedst."{89}{#ex 17:6.} For he proceeds onward before the created universe, and outside of it, and not contained or borne onward in any of the things whose existence began after his.

ἧς δείγματα σαφῆ καὶ ἐν τοῖς σωματικοῖς καὶ ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐγκατειλημμένοι φωλεοῖς κατόψεσθε, τοτὲ μὲν ἐν τοῖς βαθέσιν ὕπνοις ‑ ἀναχωρήσας γὰρ ὁ νοῦς καὶ τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ὑπεξελθὼν ἑαυτῷ προσομιλεῖν ἄρχεται ὡς πρὸς κάτοπτρον ἀφορῶν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἀπορρυψάμενος πάνθ' ὅσα ἐκ τῶν κατὰ τὰς αἰσθήσεις φαντασιῶν ἀπεμάξατο τὰς περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἀψευδεστάτας διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων μαντείας ἐνθουσιᾷ [191] ‑ , τοτὲ δὲ κἀν ταῖς ἐγρηγόρσεσιν

And when you have thoroughly and perfectly considered the whole of your own habitation, and have understood what relative importance each of its parts possesses, then rouse yourselves up and seek to accomplish a migration from hence, which shall announce to you, not death, but immortality; (190) the evident proofs of which you will see even while involved in the corporeal cares perceptible by the outward senses, sometimes while in deep slumber (for then the mind, roaming abroad, and straying beyond the confines of the outward senses, and of all the other affections of the body, begins to associate with itself, looking on truth as at a mirror, and discarding all the imaginations which it has contracted from the outward senses, becomes inspired by the truest divination respecting the future, through the instrumentality of dreams), and at other times in your waking moments.

ἀγαπητὸν δὲ τῷ συνεχεῖ τῆς προσβολῆς εἱλικρινῆ [223] τῶν ζητουμένων λαβεῖν φαντασίαν

So that never, O my mind, do thou become effeminate and yield; but even if any thing does appear difficult to be discovered by contemplation, still opening the seeing faculties that are in thyself, look inwards and investigate existing things more accurately, and never close the eyes whether intentionally or unintentionally; for sleep is a blind thing as wakefulness is a sharp-sighted thing. And it is well to be content if by assiduity in investigation it is granted to thee to arrive at a correct conception of the objects of thy search.
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

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ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΙΣ Ο ΤΩΝ ΘΕΙΩΝ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΙΣΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΑ ΤΟΜΗΣ
ἐνθουσιώσης γὰρ καὶ οὐκέτ' οὔσης ἐν ἑαυτῇ διανοίας, ἀλλ' ἔρωτι οὐρανίῳ σεσοβημένης κἀκμεμηνυίας καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἠγμένης καὶ ἄνω πρὸς αὐτὸ εἱλκυσμένης, προϊούσης ἀληθείας καὶ τἀν ποσὶν ἀναστελλούσης, ἵνα κατὰ λεωφόρου βαίνοι [71] τῆς ὁδοῦ, κλῆρος οὗτος. πῶς οὖν μετανίστασο τῶν προτέρων ἐκείνων, λέγε θαρροῦσα ἡμῖν, ὦ διάνοια, ἣ τοῖς ἀκούειν τὰ νοητὰ δεδιδαγμένοις ἐνηχεῖς, ἀεὶ φάσκουσα ὅτι μετῳκισάμην τοῦ σώματος, ἡνίκα τῆς σαρκὸς ἠλόγουν ἤδη, καὶ τῆς αἰσθήσεως, ὁπότε τὰ αἰσθητὰ πάντα ὡς μὴ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ὄντα ἐφαντασιώθην καταγνοῦσα μὲν αὐτῆς τῶν κριτηρίων ὡς νενοθευμένων καὶ δεδεκασμένων καὶ ψευδοῦς ὑποπεπλησμένων δόξης, καταγνοῦσα δὲ καὶ τῶν κρινομένων, ὡς δελεάσαι καὶ ἀπατῆσαι καὶ ἐκ μέσης τῆς φύσεως ἁρπάσαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν εὐτρεπισμένων· μετανέστην καὶ τοῦ λόγου, ἡνίκα πολλὴν ἀλογίαν αὐτοῦ κατέγνων καίτοι μετεωρίζοντος [72] καὶ φυσῶντος ἑαυτόν

But, O mind! take confidence, and explain to us how you depart and emigrate from those former things, you who utter things perceptible only by the intellect to those who have been taught to hear rightly, always saying, I emigrated from my sojourn in the body when I learnt to despise the flesh, and I emigrated from the outward sense when I learnt to look upon the objects of outward sense as things which had no existence in reality--condemning its judicial faculties as spurious and corrupted, and full of false opinion, and also condemning the objects submitted to that judgment as speciously devised to allure and to deceive, and to snatch the truth from out of the middle of nature. Again, I departed from speech when I convicted it of great unreasonableness, although it talked of sublime subjects and puffed itself up

ἔλαβον γὰρ οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλ' ἐκείνῳ πάντα ταῦτα, ὥστε εἰκότως ὡμολόγησαν κατ' αὐτὸν εἶναι τὰς ἑκάστων ἐνεργείας, τοῦ νοῦ τὰς διανοήσεις, τοῦ λόγου τὰς ἑρμηνείας, τῆς αἰσθήσεως τὰς φαντασίας

But of those who really preserve their faith holy and inviolate, the number is very small. Such men attribute to God these three things: the soul, the external sense, and speech. For they have received all these things, not for themselves, but for him, in whose favour they naturally and appropriately confess that the energies according to each of these three things depend upon him, namely, the imaginations and apprehensions of the mind, the explanations of speech, and the perceptions of the outward senses.

οἱ δὲ λαβόντες μὴ ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλὰ θεῷ τούτων ἕκαστον αὐτῷ ἀνέθεσαν, ἱεροπρεπὲς καὶ ἅγιον ὄντως φυλάξαντες τῷ κτησαμένῳ, τὴν μὲν διάνοιαν, ἵνα μηδὲν ἄλλο ἢ περὶ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν ἀρετῶν αὐτοῦ διανοῆται, τὸν δὲ λόγον, ἵν' ἀχαλίνῳ στόματι ἐγκωμίοις καὶ ὕμνοις καὶ εὐδαιμονισμοῖς γεραίρῃ τὸν τῶν ὅλων πατέρα, τὰς πρὸς ἑρμηνείαν ἁπάσας ἀρετὰς εἰς ἓν τοῦτο μόνον ἔργον συγκροτῶν καὶ ἐπιδεικνύμενος, τὴν δὲ αἴσθησιν, ἵνα φαντασιουμένη τὸν αἰσθητὸν ἅπαντα κόσμον οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν καὶ τὰς μεταξὺ φύσεις, ζῷά τε καὶ φυτά, ἐνεργείας τε καὶ δυνάμεις αὐτῶν καὶ ὅσαι κινήσεις καὶ [111] σχέσεις, ἀδόλως καὶ καθαρῶς ψυχῇ διαγγέλλῃ

But those who take these things not for themselves but for God, attribute each one of them to him, guarding that which they have acquired in a truly holy and religious manner, keeping their mind, so that it shall think of nothing else but the things relating to God and to his excellencies, and their speech so as to make it, with unrestrained mouth, and with ecomiums, and hymns, and announcements of happiness, honour the father of the universe, collecting together and exhibiting all its power of interpretation and utterance in this one office; and regulating the external senses, so that forming a conception of the whole of that world which is perceptible by them, they may, in a guileless, honest, and pure manner, relate to the soul all the heaven and earth, and the natures whose home is between the two, and all animals and plants, and their respective energies and faculties, and all their motions and their stationary existence. (111) For God has implanted in the mind a power of comprehending that world, which is appreciable only by the intellect, by its own power, but the invisible world by means of the external senses. And if any one were able in all his parts to live to God rather than to himself, looking by means of the external senses into those things which are their proper objects, for the sake of finding out the truth; and through the medium of the soul, investigating in a philosophical spirit the proper objects of intelligence, and those things which have a real existence, and by means of his organs of voice, singing hymns in praise of the world and of its Creator, he will have a happy and a blessed life.

ὁ γὰρ διοιγνὺς τὴν μήτραν ἑκάστων, τοῦ μὲν νοῦ πρὸς τὰς νοητὰς καταλήψεις, τοῦ δὲ λόγου πρὸς τὰς διὰ φωνῆς ἐνεργείας, τῶν δὲ αἰσθήσεων πρὸς τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἐγγινομένας φαντασίας, τοῦ δὲ σώματος πρὸς τὰς οἰκείους αὐτῷ σχέσεις τε καὶ κινήσεις ἀόρατος καὶ σπερματικὸς καὶ τεχνικὸς θεῖός ἐστι λόγος, ὃς προσηκόντως ἀνακείσεται τῷ πατρί.

And in another passage we read "The Lord spake unto Moses saying, Sanctify to me all the first-born: all that is first brought forth, all that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, whether of man or beast is Mine,"{40}{#ex 13:2.} (118) so that it is openly asserted in these words, that all the first things, whether in point of time or of power, are the property of God, and most especially all the first-born; since the whole of that race which is imperishable shall justly be apportioned to the immortal God; and if there is anything, in short, which openeth the womb, whether of man which here means speech and reason, or of beast which signfies the outward sense and the body; (119) for that which openeth the womb of all these things, whether of the mind, so as to enable it to comprehend the things appreciable only by the intellect, or of the speech so as to enable it to exercise the energies of voice, or of the external senses, so as to qualify them to receive the impressions which are made upon them by their appropriate subjects, or of the body to fit it for its appropriate stationary conditions or motions, is the invisible, spermatic, technical, and divine Word, which shall most properly be dedicated to the Father.

διεῖλεν αὐτὰ μέσα, τὸ τίς μὴ προστιθείς, ἵνα τὸν ἄδεικτον ἐννοῇς θεὸν τέμνοντα τὰς τῶν σωμάτων καὶ τὰς τῶν πραγμάτων ἑξῆς ἁπάσας ἡρμόσθαι καὶ ἡνῶσθαι δοκούσας φύσεις τῷ τομεῖ τῶν συμπάντων ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ, ὃς [131] εἰς τὴν ὀξυτάτην ἀκονηθεὶς ἀκμὴν διαιρῶν οὐδέποτε λήγει. τὰ γὰρ αἰσθητὰ πάντα ἐπειδὰν μέχρι τῶν ἀτόμων καὶ λεγομένων ἀμερῶν διεξέλθῃ, πάλιν ἀπὸ τούτων τὰ λόγῳ θεωρητὰ εἰς ἀμυθήτους καὶ ἀπεριγράφους μοίρας ἄρχεται διαιρεῖν οὗτος ὁ τομεύς, καὶ τὰ πέταλα τοῦ χρυσίου τέμνει τρίχας (Exod. 36, 10), ὥς φησι Μωυσῆς, εἰς μῆκος [132] ἀπλατὲς ἀσωμάτοις γραμμαῖς ἐμφερές. ἕκαστον οὖν τῶν τριῶν διεῖλε μέσον, τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν εἰς λογικὸν καὶ ἄλογον, τὸν δὲ λόγον εἰς ἀληθές τε καὶ ψεῦδος, τὴν δὲ αἴσθησιν εἰς καταληπτικὴν φαντασίαν καὶ ἀκατάληπτον

And he divided them in the middle," not explaining who did so, in order that you may understand that it was the untaught God who divided them, and that he divided all the natures of bodies and of things one after another, which appeared to be closely fitted together and united by his word, which cuts through everything; which being sharpened to the finest possible edge, never ceases dividing all the objects of the outward senses, (131) and when it has gone through them all, and arrived at the things which are called atoms and indivisible, then again this divider begins from them to divide those things which may be contemplated by the speculations of reason into unspeakable and indescribable portions, and to "beat the gold into thin Plates,"{47}{#ex 39:3.} like hairs, as Moses says, making them into one length without breadth, like unsubstantial lines. (132) Each therefore of the three victims he divided in the midst, dividing the soul into the rational and the irrational part, speech into truth and falsehood, and the outward sense into imaginations which can be and cannot be comprehended; and these divisions he immediately places exactly opposite to one another, that is, the rational part opposite to the irrational, truth to falsehood, what is comprehensible to what is incomprehensible, leaving the birds undivided; for it was impossible to divide the incorporeal and divine sciences into contrarieties at variance with one another.

γῆ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἠπείρους καὶ νήσους διῃρεῖτο, ὕδωρ δὲ εἰς θάλασσαν καὶ ποταμοὺς καὶ ὅσον πότιμον, ἀὴρ δὲ εἰς τὰς θέρους καὶ χειμῶνος τροπάς, πῦρ δὲ εἰς τὸ χρειῶδες ‑ ἄπληστον δ' ἐστὶ καὶ φθαρτικὸν τοῦτο ‑ καὶ κατὰ τοὐναντίον εἰς τὸ σωτήριον, ὅπερ εἰς τὴν οὐρανοῦ σύστασιν ἀπεκληροῦτο. [137] ὥσπερ δὲ τὰ ὁλοσχερῆ, οὕτω καὶ τὰ κατὰ μέρος ἔτεμνεν, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἄψυχα, τὰ δ' ἔμψυχα ἦν· καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων τὰ μὲν ἐν ταὐτῷ μένοντα, ὧν δεσμὸς ἕξις, τὰ δ' οὐ μεταβατικῶς, ἀλλ' αὐξητικῶς κινούμενα, ἃ φύσις ἡ ἀφάνταστος ἐζῴου

But as he divided the things when entire, so also did he divide the particular divisions, some of which were animated and others inanimate; and of those which were inanimate he made a division into those which always remain in the same place, the bond of which is habit, and those which move, not indeed in the way of changing their place, but so as to grow, which indescribable nature has vivified. Again of these, those which are of wild materials are productive of wild fruits, which are the food of brute beasts; but others producing good fruit, the cultivation of which has been called forth diligent superintendence and care, and these produce fruit for the tamest of all animals, namely, for man, that he may enjoy them.

[301] χρὴ δὲ μὴ ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι ἀκολουθίαν μὲν καὶ εἱρμὸν καὶ ἐπιπλοκὰς αἰτιῶν ἅτε φιλόσοφος καὶ θεοφράδμων ἀνὴρ οἶδεν, τούτοις δ' οὐκ ἀνάπτει τὰς τῶν γινομένων αἰτίας. ἐφαντασιώθη γὰρ πρεσβύτερον ἄλλο ἐποχούμενον τοῖς ὅλοις ἡνιόχου τρόπον ἢ κυβερνήτου

"For the wickednesses of the Amorites are not yet Fulfilled."{96}{genesis 15:11.} And such words as these give an occasion to weaker brethren to fancy, that Moses represents fate and necessity as the causes of all things that exist or take place; (301) but we must not be ignorant that he was well acquainted with the consequences, and connection, and reciprocal dependence of the causes of things, inasmuch as he was a philosophical man, accustomed to converse with God: and he does not attribute the causes of things which exist, or which take place, to these powers; for he imagined to himself some other more ancient power, mounted upon the universe, like a charioteer, or like the pilot of a ship; for this power steers the whole common vessel of the world in which all things sail, and he bridles the course of the winged chariot, the entire heaven, exerting an independent and absolute sovereign authority.
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΑ ΠΡΟΠΑΙΔΕΥΜΑΤΑ ΣΥΝΟΔΟΥ
εἰ δή τις ἔτ' ἐν θνητῷ καὶ πολυμιγεῖ καὶ πολυμόρφῳ βίῳ διατρίβων καὶ κεχρημένος ἀφθόνοις ταῖς πρὸς περιουσίαν ὕλαις σκέπτεται καὶ ζητεῖ περὶ τῆς ἀμείνονος καὶ πρὸς τὸ καλὸν μόνον ἀφορώσης γενεᾶς, ἄξιος ἀποδοχῆς ἐστιν, ἂν μὴ πάλιν τὰ ὀνείρατα καὶ φαντάσματα τῶν νομιζομένων καὶ φαινομένων ἀγαθῶν ὑπαναπλεύσαντα παρευημερήσῃ.

for, says the scripture, "A man found Joseph in the plain, and asked him saying, What seekest thou; and he said, I am seeking my brothers; tell me where they are feeding their flocks: and the man said unto him, They are departed from hence; for I heard them saying, Let us go into Dothan; and Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan."{32}{#ge 37:15.} (128) The name Dothan is interpreted, "a sufficient abandonment," being a symbol of the soul which has in no slight degree but altogether escaped those vain opinions, which resemble the pursuits of women rather than those of men. On which account virtue, that is Sarah, is very beautifully described as having given up "the manner of Women,"{33}{#ge 18:11.} which is the object of pursuit to those men who live an unmanly and truly feminine life. But the wise man is also "added when Leaving,"{34}{#ge 25:17.} according to Moses, speaking most strictly in accordance with nature. For the deprivation of empty opinion must necessarily be the addition of true opinion. (129) But if any one, passing his days in a mortal, and promiscuous, and variously formed life, and having abundant resources of wealth and riches, considers and inquires concerning that better generation which looks only to what is good, he is worthy of being received, if the dreams and visions of those things, which are fancied to be and which appear to be good, do not again overwhelm him and immerse him in luxury.
The account here is of Joseph's encounter with Ish in the field.
πλήρης [144] γὰρ πραγμάτων, οὐκ ὀνειράτων καὶ κενῶν φαντασμάτων ἦν. οὐδ' οἱ τυφλοὶ διάνοιαν Σοδομῖται σπουδάσαντες ἐκθύμως αἰσχῦναι τοὺς ἱεροὺς καὶ ἀμιάντους λόγους εὗρον τὴν εἰς τοῦτ' ἄγουσαν ὁδόν, ἀλλ', ὥς φησι τὸ λόγιον, παρελύθησαν ζητοῦντες τὴν θύραν (Gen. 19, 11), καίτοι γε ἐν κύκλῳ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκίαν περιθέοντες καὶ πάντα κινήσαντες λίθον [145] πρὸς ἐκπλήρωσιν τῆς ἐκφύλου καὶ ἀσεβοῦς ἐπιθυμίας

Having now spoken at sufficient length on this point also, let us proceed in regular order to consider the third head of our subject, in which the seeking existed, but the finding did not follow it. At all events Laban, who examined the entire spiritual house of the practiser of virtue, "did not," as Moses says, "find the Images,"{40}{#ge 31:33.} for it was full of real things, and not of dreams and vain fantasies.
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΟΝΟΜΑΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΩΝ ΕΝΕΚΑ ΜΕΤΟΝΟΜΑΖΟΝΤΑΙ
ᾧ φησιν ὀφθῆναι [3] τὸν τῶν ὅλων κύριον. ἀλλὰ μὴ νομίσῃς τοῖς σώματος ὀφθαλμοῖς γίνεσθαι τὴν προσβολήν ‑ οἱ μὲν γὰρ τὰ αἰσθητὰ μόνα ὁρῶσι, τὰ δ' αἰσθητὰ σύγκριτα, φθορᾶς ἀνάμεστα, τὸ δὲ θεῖον ἀσύγκριτον, ἄφθαρτον ‑ , ἀλλὰ τὸ δεχόμενον τὴν θείαν φαντασίαν τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐστιν ὄμμα. [4] καὶ γὰρ ἄλλως ὅσα μὲν οἱ σώματος ὀφθαλμοὶ θεωροῦσι, συνεργῷ φωτὶ χρώμενοι καταλαμβάνουσιν, ὃ διαφέρει τοῦ θ' ὁρωμένου καὶ τοῦ ὁρῶντος· ὅσα δὲ ἡ ψυχή, αὐτὴ δι' ἑαυτῆς ἄνευ τινὸς ἄλλου συμπράξεως· αὐτὰ [5] γὰρ ἑαυτοῖς ἐστι φέγγος τὰ νοούμενα. τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ τὰς ἐπιστήμας διδασκόμεθα· ὁ γὰρ νοῦς τὸ ἄκλειστον καὶ ἀκοίμητον προσβαλὼν ὄμμα τοῖς δόγμασι καὶ τοῖς θεωρήμασιν εἶδεν αὐτὰ οὐ νόθῳ φωτί, γνησίῳ [6] δὲ ὅπερ ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἐξέλαμψεν. ὅταν οὖν ἀκούσῃς ὀφθέντα θεὸν ἀνθρώπῳ, τοῦτο γίνεσθαι νόει χωρὶς φωτὸς αἰσθητοῦ· νοήσει γὰρ τὸ νοητὸν εἰκὸς μόνον καταλαμβάνεσθαι. πηγὴ δὲ τῆς καθαρωτάτης αὐγῆς θεός ἐστιν· ὥσθ' ὅταν ἐπιφαίνηται ψυχῇ, τὰς ἀσκίους καὶ περιφανεστάτας [7] ἀκτῖνας ἀνίσχει. μὴ μέντοι νομίσῃς τὸ ὄν, ὅ ἐστι πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ὄν, ὑπ' ἀνθρώπου τινὸς καταλαμβάνεσθαι. ὄργανον γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχομεν, ᾧ δυνησόμεθα ἐκεῖνο φαντασιωθῆναι, οὔτ' αἴσθησιν ‑ αἰσθητὸν γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ‑ οὔτε νοῦν

"Abraham was ninety and nine years old; and the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said unto him, I am thy God."{1}{#ge 17:1.} The number of nine, when added to the number ninety, is very near to a hundred; in which number the self-taught race shone forth, namely Isaac, the most excellent joy of all enjoyments; for he was born when his father was a hundred years old. (2) Moreover the first fruits of the tribe of Levi are given up to the priests; {2}{#nu 18:26.} for they having taken tithes, offer up other tenths from them as from their own fruits, which thus comprise the number of a hundred; for the number ten is the symbol of improvement, and the number a hundred is the symbol of perfection; and he that is in the middle is always striving to reach the extremity, exerting the inborn goodness of his nature, by which he says, that the Lord of the universe has appeared to him. (3) But do not thou think that this appearance presented itself to the eyes of the body, for they see no things but such as are perceptible to the outward senses; but those objects of the outward senses are compounded ones, full of destruction; but the Deity is not a compound object, and is indestructible: but the eye which receives the impression of the divine appearance is the eye of the soul; (4) for besides this, those things which it is only the eyes of the body that see, are only seen by them because they take light as a coadjutor, and light is different, both from the object seen and from the things which see it. But all these things which the soul sees of itself, and through its own power, it sees without the cooperation of any thing or any one else; for the things which the soul does thus comprehend are a light to themselves, (5) and in the same way also we learn the sciences; for the mind, applying its never-closing and never-slumbering eye to their doctrines and speculations, sees them by no spurious light, but by that genuine light which shines forth from itself. (6) When therefore you hear that God has been seen by man, you must consider that this is said without any reference to that light which is perceptible by the external senses, for it is natural that that which is appreciable only by the intellect should be presented to the intellect alone; and the fountain of the purest light is God; so that when God appears to the soul he pours forth his beams without any shade, and beaming with the most radiant brilliancy. Do not, however, think that the living God, he who is truly living, is ever seen so as to be comprehended by any human being; for we have no power in ourselves to see any thing, by which we may be able to conceive any adequate notion of him; we have no external sense suited to that purpose (for he is not an object which can be discerned by the outward sense), nor any strength adequate to it:

καὶ μὴν εἰ ἄρρητον, καὶ ἀπερινόητον καὶ ἀκατάληπτον· ὥστε τὸ ὤφθη κύριος τῷ Ἀβραὰμ (Gen. 17, 1) λέγεσθαι ὑπονοητέον οὐχ ὡς ἐπιλάμποντος καὶ ἐπιφαινομένου τοῦ παντὸς αἰτίου ‑ τίς γὰρ ἀνθρώπειος νοῦς τὸ μέγεθος τῆς φαντασίας ἱκανός ἐστι χωρῆσαι; ‑ , ἀλλ' ὡς μιᾶς τῶν περὶ αὐτὸ δυνάμεων, τῆς βασιλικῆς, προφαινομένης· ἡ γὰρ [16] κύριος πρόσρησις ἀρχῆς καὶ βασιλείας ἐστί. νοῦς δὲ ἡμῶν ἡνίκα ἐχαλδάιζε μετεωρολεσχῶν, τῷ κόσμῳ τὰς δραστηρίους ἦν περιέπων δυνάμεις ὡς αἰτίας· γενόμενος δὲ μετανάστης ἀπὸ τοῦ Χαλδαϊκοῦ δόγματος ἔγνω ἡνιοχούμενον καὶ κυβερνώμενον αὐτὸν ὑπὸ ἡγεμόνος, οὗ τῆς ἀρχῆς φαντασίαν [17] ἔλαβε. διὸ λέγεται ὤφθη οὐ τὸ ὄν, ἀλλὰ κύριος· οἷον ἐφάνη ὁ βασιλεύς, ἐξ ἀρχῆς μὲν ὤν, οὔπω δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ γνωριζόμενος, ἣ καὶ ὀψιμαθὴς μέν, οὐ μὴν εἰσάπαν ἀμαθὴς διετέλεσεν, ἀλλ' ἐφαντασιώθη [18] τὴν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀρχὴν καὶ ἡγεμονίαν

(15) Therefore do not doubt either whether that which is more ancient than any existing thing is indescribable, when his very word is not to be mentioned by us according to its proper name. So that we must understand that the expression, "The Lord was seen by Abraham,"{9}{#ge 17:1.} means not as if the Cause of all things had shone forth and become visible, (for what human mind is able to contain the greatness of his appearance?) but as if some one of the powers which surround him, that is to say, his kingly power, had presented itself to the sight, for the appellation Lord belongs to authority and sovereignty. (16) But when our mind was occupied with the wisdom of the Chaldaeans, studying the sublime things which exist in the world, it made as it were the circuit of all the efficient powers as causes of what existed; but when it emigrated from the Chaldaean doctrines, it then knew that it was moving under the guidance and direction of a governor, of whose authority it perceived the appearance. (17) On which account it is said, "The Lord," not the living God, "was seen;" as if it had been meant to say, the king appeared, he who was from the beginning, but who was not as yet recognized by the soul, which, indeed, was late in learning, but which did not continue for ever in ignorance, but received a notion of there being an authority and governing power among existing things.
We're getting very close here.
ἆρά γε οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ διδαχθέντες ὁρῶσι; τί δ'; οἱ μυκτῆρες ὀσφραίνονται μαθήσει; ἅπτονται δ' αἱ χεῖρες ἢ οἱ πόδες προΐασι κατ' ἐπιτάγματα ἢ [257] παραινέσεις ὑφηγητῶν; αἱ δ' ὁρμαὶ καὶ φαντασίαι ‑ πρῶται δ' εἰσὶν αὗται κινήσεις καὶ σχέσεις ψυχῆς ‑ διδασκαλίᾳ συνέστησαν; παρὰ δὲ σοφιστὴν φοιτήσας ὁ νοῦς ἡμῶν νοεῖν καὶ καταλαμβάνειν ἔμαθε; πάντα ταῦτ' ἀφειμένα διδασκαλίας ἀπαυτοματιζούσῃ φύσει χρῆται πρὸς τὰς [258] οἰκείας ἐνεργείας. τί οὖν ἔτι θαυμάζεις, εἰ καὶ ἀρετὴν ἄπονον καὶ ἀταλαίπωρον ὁ θεὸς ὀμβρήσει μηδεμιᾶς δεομένην ἐπιστασίας, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁλόκληρον καὶ παντελῆ; εἰ ‹δὲ› καὶ μαρτυρίαν βούλει λαβεῖν, Μωυσέως ἀξιοπιστοτέραν εὑρήσεις; ὅς φησι τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις [259] ἀπὸ γῆς εἶναι τὰς τροφάς, μόνῳ δὲ ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ τῷ ὁρατικῷ.

And do not wonder, if God, who brings forth all good things, has also brought forth this race, which, though rare upon the earth, is very numerous in heaven. And you may learn this also from other things of which man consists: do the eyes see from having been taught to do so? And what do the nostrils do? Do they smell by reason of their having learnt? And do the hands touch, or the feet advance, in accordance with the commands or recommendations of instructors? (257) Again, do the appetites and imaginations (and these are the first moving powers and persuasions of the soul) exist in consequence of teaching? And has our mind gone as a pupil to any sophist, in order to learn to think and to comprehend? All these things repudiate all kinds of instruction, and avail themselves only of the spontaneous gifts of nature to exert their appropriate energies. (258) Why then do you any longer wonder if God showers upon men virtue, unaccompanied by any labour or suffering, such as stand in need of no superintending care or instruction, but is from the very beginning entire and perfect? And if you wish to receive any testimony in corroboration of this view, can you find any more trustworthy than that of Moses? And he says that the rest of mankind derive their food from earth, but that he alone who is endowed with the power of sight, derives his from heaven. (259) And men occupied in agriculture co-operate to produce the food from the earth; but God, the only cause and giver, rains down the food from heaven without the cooperation of any other being. And, indeed, we read in the scriptures, "Behold, I rain upon you bread from Heaven."{88}{#ex 16:4.} Now what nourishment can the scriptures properly say is rained down, except heavenly wisdom? (260) which God sends from above upon those souls which have a longing for virtue, God who possesses a great abundance and exceeding treasure of wisdom, and who irrigates the universe, and especially so on the sacred seventh day which he calls the sabbath
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

Not surprisingly, this is going to be an important book for our purposes.

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΠΕΜΠΤΟΥΣ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΤΟΥΣ ΟΝΕΙΡΟΥΣ
[1] Ἡ μὲν πρὸ ταύτης γραφὴ περιεῖχε τῶν θεοπέμπτων ὀνείρων τοὺς κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον εἶδος ταττομένους, ἐφ' οὗ τὸ θεῖον ἐλέγομεν κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ἐπιβολὴν τὰς ἐν τοῖς ὕπνοις ἐπιπέμπειν φαντασίας. ἐν ταύτῃ [2] δ', ὡς ἂν οἷόν τε ᾖ, δηλώσομεν τοὺς ἐφαρμόττοντας τῷ δευτέρῳ. δεύτερον δ' εἶδος, ἐν ᾧ ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς τῷ τῶν ὅλων συγκινούμενος ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ κατέχεσθαί τε καὶ θεοφορεῖσθαι δοκεῖ, ὡς ἱκανὸς εἶναι προλαμβάνειν καὶ προγινώσκειν τι τῶν μελλόντων. ὄναρ δ' ἐστὶ πρῶτον οἰκεῖον [3] εἴδει τῷ σημαινομένῳ τὸ φανὲν ἐπὶ τῆς οὐρανοῦ κλίμακος τόδε· καὶ ἐνυπνιάσθη· καὶ ἰδοὺ κλῖμαξ ἐστηριγμένη ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἧς ἡ κεφαλὴ ἀφικνεῖτο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνέβαινον καὶ κατέβαινον ἐπ' αὐτῆς· ὁ δὲ κύριος ἐπεστήρικτο ἐπ' αὐτῆς· καὶ εἶπεν· ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ τοῦ πατρός σου καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰσαάκ· μὴ φοβοῦ· ἡ γῆ, ἐφ' ἧς σὺ καθεύδεις, σοὶ δώσω αὐτὴν καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου, καὶ ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς γῆς, καὶ πλατυνθήσεται ἐπὶ θάλασσαν καὶ λίβα καὶ βορρᾶν καὶ ἀνατολάς· καὶ ἐνευλογηθήσονται ἐν σοὶ πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ‹ἐν› τῷ σπέρματί σου. καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μετὰ σοῦ, διαφυλάσσων σε ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ πάσῃ, ᾗ ἂν πορευθῇς· καὶ ἀποστρέψω σε εἰς τὴν γῆν ταύτην, ὅτι οὐ μή σε ἐγκαταλίπω, ἕως τοῦ ποιῆσαί με πάντα [4] ὅσα ἐλάλησα σοι (Gen. 28, 1215). προκατασκευὴ δ' ἐστὶ τῆς φαντασίας ἀναγκαία, ἣν ἀκριβώσαντες εὐμαρῶς ἴσως δυνησόμεθα καὶ τὰ δηλούμενα ὑπὸ τῆς φαντασίας καταλαβεῖν. τίς οὖν ἡ προκατασκευή; καὶ ἐξῆλθε φησίν Ἰακὼβ ἀπὸ τοῦ φρέατος τοῦ ὅρκου καὶ ἐπορεύθη εἰς Χαρράν, καὶ ἀπήντησε τόπῳ· ἔδυ γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος· καὶ ἔλαβεν ἀπὸ τῶν λίθων τοῦ τόπου καὶ ἔθηκε πρὸς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκοιμήθη ἐν τῷ [5] τόπῳ ἐκείνῳ (ibid. 10. 11)

I. (1.1) The treatise before this one has contained our opinions on those visions sent from heaven which are classed under the first species; in reference to which subject we delivered our opinion that the Deity sent the appearances which are beheld by man in dreams in accordance with the suggestions of his own nature. But in this treatise we will, to the best of our power, describe those dreams which come under the second species. (1.2) Now the second species is that in which our mind, being moved simultaneously with the mind of the universe, has appeared to be hurried away by itself and to be under the influence of divine impulses, so as to be rendered capable of comprehending beforehand, and knowing by anticipation some of the events of the future. Now the first dream which is akin to the species which I have been describing, is that which appeared on the ladder which reached up to heaven, and which was of this kind. (1.3) "And Jacob dreamed, and behold a ladder was firmly planted on the earth, the head of which reached up to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold there was a ladder firmly planted on the earth, and the Lord was standing steadily upon it; and he said, I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: be not afraid. The earth on which thou art sleeping I will give unto thee and unto thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and it shall be multiplied as the sand on the seashore, and shall spread to the south, and to the north, and to the east; and in thee shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed, and in thy seed also. And, behold, I am with thee, keeping thee in all thy ways, by whichever thou goest, and I will bring thee again into this land; because I will not leave thee until I have done everything which I have said unto Thee."{1}{genesis 28:12.} (1.4) But the previous considerations of the circumstances of this vision require that we should examine them with accuracy, and then perhaps we shall be able to comprehend what is indicated by the vision. What, then, are the previous circumstances? The scripture tells us, "And Jacob went up from the well of the oath, and came to Charran, and went into a place and lay down there until the sun arose. And he took one of the stones of the place and placed it at his head, and went to sleep in that place." And immediately afterwards came the dream. (1.5) Therefore it is well at the outset to raise a question on these three points:--One, What was the well of the oath, {2}{#ge 26:33.} and why was it called by this name? Secondly, What is Charran, and why, after Jacob had departed from the well beforementioned, did he immediately go to Charran? Thirdly, What was the place, and why, when he was in it, did the sun at once set, and did he go to sleep?

λέγεται γάρ· ἀπῆλθε κύριος, ὡς ἐπαύσατο λαλῶν τῷ Ἀβραάμ, καὶ Ἀβραὰμ ἀπέστρεψεν εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ (Gen. 18, 33)· δι' οὗ συνάγεται τὸ λόγοις τοιούτοις ἐντυγχάνειν ἱεροῖς, ὧν ὁ πρὸ τῶν ὅλων θεὸς ἀπήλλακται, μηκέτι τὰς ἀφ' αὑτοῦ τείνων φαντασίας, ἀλλὰ [71] τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν μεθ' αὑτὸν δυνάμεων. ὑπερφυέστατα δ' ἔχει τὸ μὴ φάναι ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸν τόπον, ἀλλ' ἀπαντῆσαι τόπῳ

Very properly, therefore, when he has arrived at the external sense, he is represented no longer as meeting God, but only the divine word, just as his grandfather Abraham, the model of wisdom, did; for the scripture tells us, "The Lord departed when he had finished conversing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his Place."{13}{#ge 18:33.} From which expression it is inferred, that he also met with the sacred words from which God, the father of the universe, had previously departed, no longer displaying visions from himself but only those which proceed from his subordinate powers. (1.71) And it is with exceeding beauty and propriety that it is said, not that he came to the place, but that he met the place: for to come is voluntary, but to meet is very often involuntary; so that the divine Word appearing on a sudden, supplies an unexpected joy, greater than could have been hoped, inasmuch as it is about to travel in company with the solitary soul; for Moses also "brings forward the people to a meeting with God,"{14} {#Ex 19:17.} well knowing that he comes invisibly towards those souls who have a longing to meet with him.

Τὸ μὲν δὴ προοίμιον τῆς θεοπέμπτου φαντασίας ὧδ' ἔχει, τρέπεσθαι δ' ἐπ' αὐτὴν καιρὸς ἤδη καὶ τῶν ἐμφερομένων ἀκριβοῦν ἕκαστον. ἐνυπνιάσθη φησί καὶ ἰδοὺ κλῖμαξ ἐστηριγμένη ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἧς ἡ κεφαλὴ ἀφικνεῖτο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνέβαινον καὶ κατέβαινον ἐπ' αὐτῆς· ὁ δὲ κύριος ἐπεστήρικτο ἐπ' αὐτῆς [134] (Gen. 28, 12. 13). κλῖμαξ τοίνυν ἐν μὲν τῷ κόσμῳ συμβολικῶς λέγεται ὁ ἀήρ, οὗ βάσις μέν ἐστι γῆ, κορυφὴ δ' οὐρανός· ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς σεληνιακῆς σφαίρας, ἣν ἐσχάτην μὲν τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν κύκλων, πρώτην δὲ τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀναγράφουσιν οἱ φροντισταὶ τῶν μετεώρων, [135] ἄχρι γῆς ἐσχάτης ὁ ἀὴρ πάντῃ ταθεὶς ἔφθακεν. οὗτος δ' ἐστὶ ψυχῶν ἀσωμάτων οἶκος, ἐπειδὴ πάντα τῷ ποιητῇ τὰ τοῦ κόσμου μέρη καλὸν ἔδοξεν εἶναι ζῴων ἀναπληρῶσαι. διὰ τοῦτο γῇ μὲν τὰ χερσαῖα ἐγκατεσκεύαζε, θαλάτταις δὲ καὶ ποταμοῖς τὰ ἔνυδρα, οὐρανῷ δὲ τοὺς ἀστέρας ‑ καὶ γὰρ ἕκαστος τούτων οὐ μόνον ζῷον, ἀλλὰ καὶ νοῦς ὅλος δι' ὅλων ὁ καθαρώτατος εἶναι λέγεται ‑ · ὥστε καὶ ἐν τῷ λοιπῷ τμήματι τοῦ παντός, ἀέρι, ζῷα γέγονεν. εἰ δὲ μὴ αἰσθήσει [136] καταληπτά, τί τοῦτο; καὶ ψυχὴ γὰρ ἀόρατον. καὶ μὴν εἰκός γε ἀέρα γῆς μᾶλλον καὶ ὕδατος ζῳοτροφεῖν, διότι καὶ τὰ ἐν ἐκείνοις οὗτος ἐψύχωσεν· ἐποίει γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ τεχνίτης ἀκινήτων μὲν σωμάτων ἕξιν, κινουμένων δὲ ἀφαντάστως φύσιν, ἤδη δὲ ὁρμῇ καὶ φαντασίᾳ χρῆσθαι [137] δυναμένων ψυχήν.

(1.133) Such then may be said, by way of preface, to the discussion of that description of visions which are sent from God. But it is time now to turn to the subject itself, and to investigate, with accuracy, every portion of it. The scripture therefore says, "And he dreamed a dream. And behold a ladder was planted firmly on the ground, the head of which reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending along It."{35}{#ge 28:12.} (1.134) By the ladder in this thing, which is called the world, is figuratively understood the air, the foundation of which is the earth, and the head is the heaven; for the large interior space, which being extended in every direction, reaches from the orb of the moon, which is described as the most remote of the order in heaven, but the nearest to us by those who contemplate sublime objects, down to the earth, which is the lowest of such bodies, is the air. (1.135) This air is the abode of incorporeal souls, since it seemed good to the Creator of the universe to fill all the parts of the world with living creatures. On this account he prepared the terrestrial animals for the earth, the aquatic animals for the sea and for the rivers, and the stars for the heaven; for every one of these bodies is not merely a living animal, but is also properly described as the very purest and most universal mind extending through the universe; so that there are living creatures in that other section of the universe, the air. And if these things are not comprehensible by the outward senses, what of that? For the soul is also invisible. (1.136) And yet it is probable that the air should nourish living animals even more than the land or the water. Why so? Because it is the air which has given vitality to those animals which live on the earth and in the water. For the Creator of the universe formed the air so that it should be the habit of those bodies which are immovable, and the nature of those which are moved in an invisible manner, and the soul of such as are able to exert an impetus and visible sense of their own. (1.137) Is it not then absurd that that element, by means of which the other elements have been filled with vitality, should itself be destitute of living things? Therefore let no one deprive the most excellent nature of living creatures of the most excellent of those elements which surrounds the earth; that is to say, of the air. For not only is it not alone deserted by all things besides, but rather, like a populous city, it is full of imperishable and immortal citizens, souls equal in number to the stars.
Very important. Paul is also accused of having 'visions' of Jesus.
[144] παγκάλως δὲ ἐστηριγμένον ἐν τῇ γῇ διὰ συμβόλου κλίμακος φαντασιοῦται τὸν ἀέρα· τὰς γὰρ ἀναδιδομένας ἐκ γῆς ἀναθυμιάσεις λεπτυνομένας ἐξαεροῦσθαι συμβέβηκεν, ὥστε βάσιν μὲν καὶ ῥίζαν ἀέρος εἶναι [145] γῆν, κεφαλὴν δὲ οὐρανόν. λέγεται γοῦν, ὅτι σελήνη πίλημα μὲν ἄκρατον αἰθέρος οὔκ ἐστιν, ὡς ἕκαστος τῶν ἄλλων ἀστέρων, κρᾶμα δὲ ἔκ τε αἰθερώδους οὐσίας καὶ ἀερώδους

There are others, again, the purest and most excellent of all, which have received greater and more divine intellects, never by any chance desiring any earthly thing whatever, but being as it were lieutenants of the Ruler of the universe, as though they were the eyes and ears of the great king, beholding and listening to everything. (1.141) Now philosophers in general are wont to call these demons, but the sacred scripture calls them angels, using a name more in accordance with nature. For indeed they do report (diangellousi) the injunctions of the father to his children, and the necessities of the children to the father. (1.142) And it is in reference to this employment of theirs that the holy scripture has represented them as ascending and descending, not because God, who knows everything before any other being, has any need of interpreters; but because it is the lot of us miserable mortals to use speech as a mediator and intercessor; because of our standing in awe of and fearing the Ruler of the universe, and the all-powerful might of his authority; (1.143) having received a notion of which he once entreated one of those mediators, saying: "Do thou speak for us, and let not God speak to us, lest we Die."{36}{#ex 20:19.} For not only are we unable to endure his chastisements, but we cannot bear even his excessive and unmodified benefits, which he himself proffers us of his own accord, without employing the ministrations of any other beings. (1.144) Very admirably therefore does Moses represent the air under the figurative symbol of a ladder, as planted solidly in the earth and reaching up to heaven. For it comes to pass that the evaporations which are given forth by the earth becoming rarefied, are dissolved into air, so that the earth is the foundation and root of the air, and that the heaven is its head. (1.145) Accordingly it is said that the moon is not an unadulterated consolidation of pure aether, as each of the other stars is, but is rather a combination of the aether-like and air-like essence. For the black spot which appears in it, which some call a face, is nothing else but the air mingled with it, which is by nature black, and which extends as far as heaven.

ἴσως γάρ, ἴσως ὃν ὁ κόσμος ἅπας, καὶ σὺ οἰκοδεσπότην σχήσεις ἐπιμελούμενον τῆς ἰδίας οἰκίας, ὡς εὐερκεστάτη καὶ ἀπήμων [150] εἰσαεὶ διαφυλάττοιτο. ἴσως δὲ καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον ὁ ἀσκητὴς φαντασιοῦται κλίμακι ἐοικότα

Do thou, therefore, O my soul, hasten to become the abode of God, his holy temple, to become strong from having been most weak, powerful from having been powerless, wise from having been foolish, and very reasonable from having been doting and childless. And perhaps too the practiser of virtue represents his own life as like to a ladder; for the practice of anything is naturally an anomalous thing, since at one time it soars up to a height, and at another it turns downwards in a contrary direction; and at one time has a fair voyage like a ship, and at another has but an unfavourable passage; for, as some one says, the life of those who practise virtue is full of vicissitudes: being at one time alive and waking, and at another dead or sleeping.

ἐπερείδοντος γὰρ καὶ συστηρίζοντος αὐτοῦ μένει [159] τὰ συσταθέντα ἀνώλεθρα κραταιῶς. ὁ τοίνυν ἐπιβεβηκὼς τῇ οὐρανοῦ κλίμακι λέγει τῷ φαντασιουμένῳ τὸ ὄναρ· ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ τοῦ πατρός σου καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰσαάκ· μὴ φοβοῦ (Gen. 28, 13).

Therefore he who stands upon the ladder of heaven says to him who is beholding the dream, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; be not Afraid."{38}{#ge 28:13.} This oracle and this vision were also the firmest support of the soul devoted to the practice of virtue, inasmuch as it taught it that the Lord and God of the universe is both these things also to his own race, being entitled both the Lord and God of all men, and of his grandfathers and ancestors, and being called by both names in order that the whole world and the man devoted to virtue might have the same inheritance; since it is also said, "The Lord himself is his Inheritance."{39}{deuteronomy 10:9.}

ὡς γὰρ οἱ βουλόμενοι τὰς πόλεις θεάσασθαι διὰ πυλῶν εἰσίασιν, οὕτως ὅσοι τὸν ἀειδῆ κόσμον καταλαβεῖν ἐθέλουσιν, ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ ὁρατοῦ φαντασίας ξεναγοῦνται. [ὁ δὲ νοητῆς ὑποστάσεως κόσμος ἄνευ ἡστινοσοῦν σχημάτων ὄψεως, μόνης δὲ διὰ τῆς ἀρχετύπου ἰδέας τῆς ἐν τῷ διαχαραχθέντι πρὸς τὸ θεαθὲν αὐτῷ εἶδος ἄνευ σκιᾶς μετακληθήσεται, πάντων αὐτῷ τειχῶν καὶ πάσης πύλης ἀπαρθέντων εἰς τὸ μὴ ἀπό τινος ἀθρῆσαι, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ καθ' αὑτὸ ἀλέκτῳ τινὶ καὶ δυσερμηνεύτῳ θέᾳ διιδεῖν κάλλος ἀναλλοίωτον.] [189]    Περὶ μὲν δὴ τούτων ἅλις. ἐφαρμόζει δὲ τῷ αὐτῷ εἴδει καὶ ἕτερος ὄνειρος, ὁ περὶ τῆς ποικίλης ἀγέλης, ὃν περιαναστὰς ὁ φαντασιωθεὶς διηγεῖται φάσκων·

(1.188) According to analogy, therefore, the knowledge of the world appreciable by the intellect is attained to by means of our knowledge of that which is perceptible by the outward senses, which is as it were a gate to the other. For as men who wish to see cities enter in through the gates, so also they who wish to comprehend the invisible world are conducted in their search by the appearance of the visible one. And the world of that essence which is only open to the intellect without any visible appearance or figure whatever, and which exists only in the archetypal idea which exists in the mind, which is fashioned according to its appearance, will be brought on without any shade; all the walls, and all the gates which could impede its progress being removed, so that it is not looked at through any other medium, but by itself, putting forth a beauty which is susceptible of no change, presenting an indescribable and exquisite spectacle.

ποῦ εἶ (Gen. 3, 9), πρὸς ὃ ἀποκρίναιτ' ἄν τις οἰκείως οὐδαμοῦ, τῷ τἀνθρώπεια πάντα ἐν ὁμοίῳ μὴ μένειν, ἀλλὰ κινεῖσθαι καὶ ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι καὶ τοῖς ἐκτός. ἀνίδρυτοι μὲν γὰρ οἱ λογισμοί, φαντασίας ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν πραγμάτων οὐχὶ τὰς αὐτὰς ἀλλ' ἐναντίας ἔχοντες, ἀνίδρυτον δὲ καὶ τὸ σῶμα, ὡς μηνύουσιν αἱ ἐκ βρέφους ἄχρι γήρως τῶν ἡλικιῶν ἁπασῶν τροπαί, ἀνίδρυτα δὲ καὶ τὰ [193] ἐκτὸς ἐπῃωρημένα φορᾷ τύχης ἀεὶ σαλευούσης.

For at times it asks some persons, as for instance, Adam, "Where art thou?" And any one may properly answer to such a question, "No where?" Because all human affairs never remain long in the same condition, but are moved about and changed, whether we speak of their soul or their body, or of their external circumstances; for their minds are unstable, not always having the same impressions from the same things, but such as are diametrically contrary to their former ones. The body also is unstable, as all the changes of the different ages from infancy to old age show; their external circumstances also are variable, being tossed up and down by the impetus of everagitated fortune.

XXXIV. (1.193) When, however, he comes into an assembly of friends, he does not begin to speak before he has first accosted each individual among them, and addressed him by name, so that they prick up their ears, and are quiet and attentive, listening to the oracles thus delivered, so as never to forget them or let them escape their memory: since in another passage of scripture we read, "Be silent and Listen."

[232] ταῖς μὲν οὖν ἀσωμάτοις καὶ θεραπευτρίσιν αὐτοῦ ψυχαῖς εἰκὸς αὐτὸν οἷός ἐστιν ἐπιφαίνεσθαι διαλεγόμενον ὡς φίλον φίλαις, ταῖς δὲ ἔτι ἐν σώματι ἀγγέλοις εἰκαζόμενον, οὐ μεταβάλλοντα τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν ‑ ἄτρεπτος γάρ ‑ , ἀλλὰ δόξαν ἐντιθέντα ταῖς φαντασιουμέναις ἑτερόμορφον, ὡς τὴν εἰκόνα οὐ μίμημα, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον ἐκεῖνο εἶδος [233] ὑπολαμβάνειν εἶναι. παλαιὸς μὲν οὖν ᾄδεται λόγος, ὅτι τὸ θεῖον ἀνθρώποις εἰκαζόμενον ἄλλοτε ἄλλοις περινοστεῖ τὰς πόλεις ἐν κύκλῳ, τάς τε ἀδικίας καὶ παρανομίας ἐξετάζον

(1.231) And a proof of this may be found in the oracular answer given by God to the person who asked what name he had, "I am that I Am,"{54}{#ex 3:14.} that the questioner might know the existence of those things which it was not possible for man to conceive not being connected with God. (1.232) Accordingly, to the incorporeal souls which are occupied in his service, it is natural for him to appear as he is, conversing with them as a friend with his friends; but to those souls which are still in the body he must appear in the resemblance of the angels, though without changing his nature (for he is unchangeable), but merely implanting in those who behold him an idea of his having another form, so that they fancy that it is his image, not an imitation of him, but the very archetypal appearance itself. (1.233) There is then an old story much celebrated, that the Divinity, assuming the resemblance of men of different countries, goes round the different cities of men, searching out the deeds of iniquity and lawlessness; and perhaps, though the fable is not true, it is a suitable and profitable one. (1.234) But the scripture, which at all times advances its conceptions with respect to the Deity, in a more reverential and holy tone, and which likewise desires to instruct the life of the foolish, has spoken of God under the likeness of a man, though not of any particular man; (1.235) attributing to him, with this view, the possession of a face, and hands, and feet, and of a mouth and voice, and also anger and passion, and moreover, defensive weapons, and goings in and goings out, and motions upwards and downwards, and in every direction, not indeed using all these expressions with strict truth, but having regard to the advantage of those who are to learn from it; (1.236) for the writers knew that some men are very dull in their natures, so as to be utterly unable to form any conception whatever of God apart from a body, whom it will be impossible to admonish if they were to speak in any other style than the existing one, of representing God as coming and departing like a man; and as descending and ascending, and as using his voice, and as being angry with sinners, and being implacable in his anger; and speaking too of his darts and swords, and whatever other instruments are suitable to be employed against the wicked, as being all previously ready. (1.237) For we must be content if such men can be brought to a proper state, by the fear which is suspended over them by such descriptions; and one many almost say that these are the only two paths taken, in the whole history of the law; one leading to plain truth, owing to which we have such assertions as, "God is not as a Man;"{55}{#nu 23:19.} the other, that which has regard to the opinions of foolish men, in reference to whom it is said, "The Lord God shall instruct you, like as if a man instructs his Son."{56}{#de 1:31.}
Very significant
σὺ ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐπιδών με (Gen. 16, 13); οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἱκανὴ τὸ πρεσβύτατον ἰδεῖν αἴτιον, γένος οὖσα τῶν ἀπ' Αἰγύπτου. νυνὶ δὲ ὁ νοῦς ἄρχεται βελτιούμενος τὸν ἡγεμόνα πασῶν τῶν τοιούτων δυνάμεων φαντασιοῦσθαι.

(1.238) Why then do we any longer wonder, if God at times assumes the likeness of the angels, as he sometimes assumes even that of men, for the sake of assisting those who address their entreaties to him? so that when he says, "I am the God who was seen by thee in the place of God;"{57}{#ge 31:13.} we must understand this, that he on that occasion took the place of an angel, as far as appearance went, without changing his own real nature, for the advantage of him who was not, as yet, able to bear the sight of the true God; (1.239) for as those who are not able to look upon the sun itself, look upon the reflected rays of the sun as the sun itself, and upon the halo around the moon as if it were the moon itself; so also do those who are unable to bear the sight of God, look upon his image, his angel word, as himself. (1.240) Do you not see that encyclical instruction, that is, Hagar, says to the angel, "Art thou God who seest Me?"{58}{#ge 16:13.} for she was not capable of beholding the most ancient cause, inasmuch as she was by birth a native of Egypt. But now the mind begins to be improved, so as to be able to contemplate the governor of all the powers; (1.241) on which account he says himself, "I am the Lord God,"{59}{#ge 31:13.} I whose image you formerly beheld instead of me, and whose pillar you set up, engraving on it a most sacred inscription; and the inscription indicated that I stood alone, and that I established the nature of all things, bringing disorder and irregularity into order and regularity, and supporting the universe firmly, so that it might rest on a firm and solid foundation, my own ministering word.
Also very significant.
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΠΕΜΠΤΟΥΣ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΤΟΥΣ ΟΝΕΙΡΟΥΣ (Book 2) We've reached the halfway point of references:

Τὸ τρίτον εἶδος τῶν θεοπέμπτων ὀνείρων ἀναγράφοντες εἰκότως ἂν ἐπίμαχον Μωυσῆν καλοῖμεν, ἵν', ὡς ἔμαθεν οὐκ εἰδώς, ἀγνοοῦντας καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀναδιδάξῃ περὶ τῶν σημείων, ἕκαστον αὐγάζων. συνίσταται δὲ τὸ τρίτον εἶδος, ὁπόταν ἐν τοῖς ὕπνοις ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ἡ ψυχὴ κινουμένη καὶ ἀναδονοῦσα ἑαυτὴν κορυβαντιᾷ καὶ ἐνθουσιῶσα δυνάμει [2] προγνωστικῇ τὰ μέλλοντα θεσπίζῃ. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον ἦν ἄρχοντος τῆς κινήσεως θεοῦ καὶ ὑπηχοῦντος ἀοράτως τὰ ἡμῖν μὲν ἄδηλα, γνώριμα δὲ ἑαυτῷ· τὸ δὲ δεύτερον τῆς ἡμετέρας διανοίας τῇ τῶν ὅλων συγκινουμένης ψυχῇ καὶ θεοφορήτου μανίας ἀναπιμπλαμένης, ᾗ θέμις [3] πολλὰ τῶν ἀποβησομένων προαγορεύειν. διὸ ὁ ἱεροφάντης τὰς μὲν κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον σημαινόμενον φαντασίας τρανῶς πάνυ καὶ ἀριδήλως ἐμήνυσεν, ἅτε τοῦ θεοῦ χρησμοῖς σαφέσιν ἐοικότα διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων ὑποβάλλοντος, τὰς δὲ κατὰ τὸ δεύτερον οὔτε σφόδρα τηλαυγῶς οὔτε σκοτίως ἄγαν· ὧν ὑπόδειγμα ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς οὐρανοῦ κλίμακος φανεῖσα ὄψις. αὕτη γὰρ αἰνιγματώδης μὲν ἦν, τὸ δὲ αἴνιγμα οὐ λίαν τοῖς ὀξὺ καθορᾶν [4] δυναμένοις ἀπεκρύπτετο. αἱ δὲ κατὰ τὸ τρίτον εἶδος φαντασίαι μᾶλλον τῶν προτέρων ἀδηλούμεναι διὰ τὸ βαθὺ καὶ κατακορὲς ἔχειν τὸ αἴνιγμα ἐδεήθησαν καὶ τῆς ὀνειροκριτικῆς ἐπιστήμης. πάντες γοῦν οἱ κατ' αὐτὸ ἀναγραφέντες ὄνειροι τῷ νομοθέτῃ διακρίνονται πρὸς σοφῶν τὴν λεχθεῖσαν [5] τέχνην ἀνδρῶν. τίνος οὖν εἰσιν οἱ ὄνειροι; ἢ παντί τῳ δῆλον, ὅτι οἱ τοῦ Ἰωσήφ, οἱ τοῦ βασιλέως Αἰγύπτου Φαραὼ καὶ οὓς ὅ τε ἀρχισιτοποιὸς [6] καὶ ἀρχιοινοχόος εἶδον αὐτοί; πρέποι δ' ἂν ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων ἀεὶ τῆς διδασκαλίας ἀπάρχεσθαι· πρῶτοι δ' εἰσὶν οὓς ἐθεάσατο Ἰωσήφ, ἀπὸ δυεῖν τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν, οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ γῆς, διττὰς φαντασίας λαβών· ἀπὸ μὲν γῆς τὸ περὶ τὸν ἀμητὸν ὄναρ ‑ τοιοῦτον δ' ἐστίν· ᾤμην ἡμᾶς δεσμεύειν δράγματα ἐν μέσῳ τῷ πεδίῳ, ἀνέστη δὲ τὸ ἐμὸν δράγμα (Gen. 37, 7), ‑ τὸ δὲ περὶ τὸν ζῳδιακὸν κύκλον ὥσπερ ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ἡ σελήνη καὶ ἕνδεκα ἀστέρες προσεκύνουν [7] με (ibid. 9). διάκρισις δὲ τοῦ μὲν προτέρου μετὰ σφοδρᾶς ἐπανατάσεως τοιαύτη· μὴ βασιλεύων βασιλεύσεις ἐφ' ἡμῖν; ἢ κυριεύων κυριεύσεις ἡμῶν (ibid. 8); τοῦ δὲ ὑστέρου ὀργὴ πάλιν δικαία· ἆρά γε ἐλευσόμεθα ἐγὼ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου προσκυνῆσαί σοι ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν (ibid. 10);

I. (2.1) In describing the third species of dreams which are sent from God, we very naturally call on Moses as an ally, in order that as he learnt, having previously been ignorant, so he may instruct us who are also ignorant, concerning these signs, illustrating each separate one of them. Now this third species of dreams exists, whenever in sleep the mind being set in motion by itself, and agitating itself, is filled with frenzy and inspiration, so as to predict future events by a certain prophetic power. (2.2) For the first kind of dreams which we mentioned, was that which proceeded from God as the author of its motion, and, as some invisible manner prompted us what was indistinct to us, but well known to himself. The second kind was when our own intellect was set in motion simultaneously with the soul of the universe, and became filled with divine madness, by means of which it is allowed to prognosticate events which are about to happen; (2.3) and for this reason the interpreter of the sacred will very plainly and clearly speaks of dreams, indicating by this expression the visions which appear according to the first species, as if God, by means of dreams, gave suggestions which were equivalent to distinct and precise oracles. Of the visions according to the second species he speaks neither very clearly nor very obscurely; an instance of which is afforded by the vision which was exhibited of the ladder reaching up to heaven; for this version was an enigmatical one; nevertheless, the meaning was not hidden from those who were able to see with any great acuteness. (2.4) But these visions which are afforded according to the third species of dreams, being less clear than the two former kinds by reason of their having an enigmatical meaning deeply seated and fully coloured, require the science of an interpreter of dreams. At all events all the dreams of this class, which are recorded by the lawgiver, are interpreted by men who are skilled in the aforesaid art. (2.5) Whose dreams then am I here alluding to? Surely every one must see to those of Joseph, and of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to those which the chief baker and chief butler saw themselves; (2.6) and it may be well at all times to begin our instruction with the first instances. Now the first dreams are those which Joseph beheld, receiving two visions from the two parts of the world, heaven and earth. From the earth the dream about the harvest; and that is as follows, "I thought that we were all binding sheaves in the middle of the field; and my sheaf stood Up."{64}{#ge 37:7.} (2.7) And the other relates to the circle of the zodiac, and is, "They worshipped me as the sun and the moon and the eleven stars." And the interpretation of the former one, which was delivered with great violence of reproof, is as follows, "Shall you be a king and reign over us? or shall you be a lord and lord it over us?" The interpretation of the second is again full of just indignation, "Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren come and fall down upon the ground and worship thee?"

ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁ ἀσκητὴς Ἰακὼβ ᾤμην ἐρεῖ, ἀλλ' ἰδοὺ κλῖμαξ ἐστηριγμένη, ἧς ἡ κεφαλὴ ἀφικνεῖτο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν (Gen. 28, 12), καὶ πάλιν· ἡνίκα ἐνεκίσσων τὰ πρόβατα, εἶδον τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτὰ ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ, καὶ ἰδοὺ οἱ τράγοι καὶ οἱ κριοὶ ἀνέβαινον ἐπὶ τὰ πρόβατα καὶ τὰς αἶγας, διάλευκοι καὶ ποικίλοι καὶ σποδοειδεῖς [20] ῥαντοί (Gen. 31, 10. 11). τῶν γὰρ τὸ καλὸν δι' ἑαυτὸ αἱρετὸν νομιζόντων καὶ τὰς ἐν τοῖς ὕπνοις φαντασίας εἱλικρινεστέρας καὶ καθαρωτέρας ἐξ ἀνάγκης εἶναι συμβέβηκεν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰς μεθ' ἡμέραν δοκιμωτέρας πράξεις.

And the practiser of virtue, Jacob, does not say, "I thought," but his language is, "Behold, a ladder firmly set, the head of which reached up to Heaven."{66}{#ge 28:12.} And again he says, when "the sheep conceived I saw them with my eyes in my sleep, and behold the he-goats and the rams leapt upon the ewes and upon the she-goats, white, and variegated, and ring-straked, and Speckled."{67}{#ge 31:10.} (2.20) For it happens of necessity that the sleeping conceptions also of those who think what is honourable and eligible for its own sake and more distinct and more pure, just as their waking actions are also more deserving of approbation. But when I hear Jacob relating his dream I marvel at his having fancied that he was binding up the sheaves, and not reaping the corn; for the one is the task of the lower classes and of servants, but the other is the occupation of the employers, and of men more skilled in agriculture.

καὶ οὐδεὶς εὖ φρονῶν ἐπὶ τούτῳ μέμψαιτ' ἄν με τῷ τὰς πλειόνων γνώμας [105] τε καὶ ψήφους ἀεὶ νικᾶν. ἐπειδὰν δὲ πρὸς ἀμείνω βίον μεταβάλῃ καὶ μηκέτ' ἐνυπνιάζηται μηδὲ ταῖς κεναῖς τῶν κενοδόξων φαντασίαις ἰλυσπώμενος κακοπαθῇ μηδὲ νύκτα καὶ σκότος καὶ πραγμάτων ἀδήλων [106] καὶ ἀτεκμάρτων συντυχίας ὀνειροπολῇ, περιαναστὰς δὲ ἐκ τοῦ βαθέος ὕπνου διατελῇ μὲν ἐγρηγορώς, ἐνάργειαν δὲ πρὸ ἀσαφείας καὶ πρὸ ψευδοῦς ὑπολήψεως ἀλήθειαν καὶ πρὸ νυκτὸς ἡμέραν καὶ φῶς πρὸ σκότους ἀποδέχηται καὶ τὴν μὲν γυναῖκα τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου, σώματος ἡδονήν, εἰς αὐτὴν εἰσελθεῖν καὶ τῆς ὁμιλίας αὐτῆς ἀπολαῦσαι παρακαλοῦσαν ἀποστρέφηται (Gen. 39, 7) διὰ πόθον ἐγκρατείας καὶ ζῆλον εὐσεβείας [107] ἄλεκτον, ὧν δὲ ἔδοξεν ἀλλοτριωθῆναι συγγενικῶν καὶ πατρῴων ἀγαθῶν μεταποιῆται πάλιν τὸ ἐπιβάλλον ἀρετῆς ἑαυτῷ μέρος δικαιῶν ἀνακτᾶσθαι καὶ ταῖς κατὰ μικρὸν ἐπανιὼν βελτιώσεσιν ὡς ἐπὶ κορυφῆς τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ βίου καὶ τέλους ἱδρυθεὶς ἀναφθέγξηται, ὃ παθὼν ἀκριβῶς ἔμαθεν, ὅτι τοῦ θεοῦ (Gen. 50, 19) ἐστιν, ἀλλ' οὐδενὸς ἔτι τῶν εἰς [108] γένεσιν ἡκόντων αἰσθητοῦ τὸ παράπαν, οἱ μὲν ἀδελφοὶ καταλλακτηρίους ποιήσονται συμβάσεις, τὸ μῖσος εἰς φιλίαν καὶ τὸ κακόνουν εἰς εὔνοιαν μεταβαλόντες, ἐγὼ δ' ὁ τούτων ὀπαδὸς ‑ πείθεσθαι γὰρ ὡς δεσπόταις [109] οἰκέτης ἔμαθον ‑ ἐπαινῶν οὐκ ἐπιλείψω τῆς μετανοίας ἐκεῖνον

but when he changes to a better course of life, and no longer dreams, and no longer worries himself by entangling himself in the vain imaginations of the slaves of vain opinion, and when he no longer dreams about night, and darkness, and the changes of uncertain matters which cannot be guessed at;

ἆρά γε ἐλθόντες ἐλευσόμεθα ἐγὼ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου προσκυνῆσαί σοι ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν; ἐζήλωσαν δὲ αὐτὸν οἱ ἀδελφοί, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ διετήρησε τὸ ῥῆμα (Gen. 37, 911). [112] φασὶ τοίνυν οἱ μετεωρολογικοί, τὸν ζῳδιακὸν κύκλον μέγιστον ὄντα τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν δυοκαίδεκα ζῳδίοις, ἀφ' ὧν καὶ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ἔσχε, κατηστερίσθαι, ἥλιον δὲ καὶ σελήνην ἀεὶ περὶ αὐτὸν εἱλουμένους ἕκαστον διεξέρχεσθαι τῶν ζῳδίων, οὐκ ἰσοταχεῖς, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀριθμοῖς καὶ χρόνοις ἀνίσοις, τὸν μὲν ἐν ἡμέραις τριάκοντα, τὴν δὲ δωδεκατημορίῳ τούτων [113] μάλιστα, ὅπερ ἡμερῶν δυεῖν καὶ ἡμίσους ἐστίν. ἔδοξεν οὖν ὁ τὴν θεόπεμπτον φαντασίαν ἰδὼν ὑπ' ἀστέρων ἕνδεκα προσκυνεῖσθαι, δωδέκατον [114] συντάττων ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὴν τοῦ ζῳδιακοῦ συμπλήρωσιν κύκλου. μέμνημαι δὲ καὶ πρότερόν τινος ἀκούσας ἀνδρὸς οὐκ ἀμελῶς οὐδὲ ῥᾳθύμως τῷ μαθήματι προσενεχθέντος, ὅτι οὐκ ἄνθρωποι μόνοι δοξομανοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἀστέρες καὶ περὶ πρωτείων ἁμιλλώμενοι δικαιοῦσιν οἱ [115] μείζους ἀεὶ πρὸς τῶν ἐλαττόνων δορυφορεῖσθαι.

The studiers of sublime wisdom now say that the zodiac, the greatest of all circles in heaven, is studded with twelve animals (zoľdia), from which it has derived its name. And that the sun and the moon are always revolving around it, and go through each of the animals, not indeed with equal rapidity, but in unequal numbers and periods; the one doing so in thirty days, and the other in as near as may be a twelfth part of that time, that is in two days and a half; (2.113) therefore, he who saw this heaven-sent vision, thought that he was being worshipped by eleven stars, ranking himself among them as the twelfth, so as to complete the whole circle of the zodiac.

εἰ μὴ ἄρα κράτει θεοῦ τοῦ μόνου πάντα δυνατοῦ, ᾧ καὶ τὰ ἀκίνητα κινεῖν καὶ τὰ φορούμενα θέμις ἱδρύσασθαι, [137] μεταβολὴ τῶν καθεστώτων γένοιτο πρὸς τἀναντία. ἐπεὶ τίνα ἕξει λόγον τὸ ὀργίζεσθαι καὶ ἐπιτιμᾶν τῷ τὴν καθ' ὕπνον φαντασίαν ἰδόντι; μὴ γὰρ ἑκὼν εἶδον αὐτήν

What is this dream which thou hast dreamt?" but thou hast not seen any dream at all; hast thou fancied that things which are free by nature are to be of necessity slaves to human things, and that things which are rulers are to become subjects? and, what is more paradoxical still, subject, not to anything else but to the very things which they govern? and to be the slaves of no other things except those very things which are their own slaves? unless indeed a change of all the established things to their direct contraries is to take place, by the power of God, who is able to effect all things, and to move what is immovable, and to fix what is in a constant state of agitation. (2.137) Since on what principle can you be angry with or reproach a man who sees a vision in his sleep? For he will say, I did not see it intentionally, why do you bring accusations against me, for errors which I have not committed from any deliberate purpose? I have related to you what fell upon me and made an impression on my mind suddenly, and without my desiring it. (2.138) But the present question is not about dreams, but about things which resemble dreams; which, to those whose minds are not highly purified appear great, and beautiful, and desirable things; while they are, in reality, trifling, and obscure, and deserving of ridicule, in the eyes of honest judges of the truth.

Τὰ μὲν δὴ τῆς κενῆς δόξης ὀνείρατα ὧδε ἠκριβώσθω· τὰ δὲ τῆς γαστριμαργίας εἴδη πόσις τε καὶ βρῶσις, ἀλλὰ τῇ μὲν οὐ ποικίλων, τῇ δὲ μυρίων ὅσων ἡδυσμάτων καὶ παραρτυμάτων χρεία. ταῦτα μέντοι δυσὶ φροντισταῖς ἐπανατίθεται, τὰ μὲν τῆς περιέργου πόσεως ἀρχιοινοχόῳ, τὰ δὲ τῆς ἀναγκαιοτέρας ἐδωδῆς ἀρχισιτοποιῷ. [156] σφόδρα δ' ἐξητασμένως μιᾷ νυκτὶ φαντασιούμενοι τοὺς ὀνείρους εἰσάγονται· πρὸς γὰρ τὴν αὐτὴν χρείαν σπεύδουσιν ἀμφότεροι, τροφὴν οὐχ ἁπλῆν, ἀλλὰ τὴν μεθ' ἡδονῆς καὶ τέρψεως εὐτρεπιζόμενοι. καὶ ἑκάτερος [157] μὲν περὶ τροφῆς ἥμισυ πονεῖται, ἀμφότεροι δὲ περὶ πᾶσαν. ἔστι δὲ καὶ θάτερον μέρος ὁλκὸν θατέρου· καὶ γὰρ οἱ φαγόντες εὐθὺς ὀρέγονται ποτοῦ καὶ αὐτίκα ἐδωδῆς οἱ πιόντες· ὥστε οὐχ ἥκιστα καὶ διὰ [158] τοῦτο χρόνον τὸν αὐτὸν τῆς φαντασίας ἀμφοτέροις ἀναγεγράφθαι. ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀρχιοινοχόος οἰνοφλυγίαν, ὁ δὲ ἀρχισιτοποιὸς λαιμαργίαν ἔλαχε. φαντασιοῦται δὲ ἑκάτερος τὰ οἰκεῖα, ὁ μὲν οἶνον καὶ τὸ γεννητικὸν οἴνου φυτόν, ἄμπελον, ὁ δ' ἐπὶ κανῶν διακειμένους ἐκκεκαθαρμένους [159] ἄρτους καὶ κανηφοροῦντα ἑαυτόν (Gen. 40, 16. 17).

XXIII. (2.155) We have now, then, spoken with sufficient accuracy about the dreams of vain opinion. Now, the different species of gluttony are conversant about drinking and eating. But the one has no need of any great variety, while the other requires a countless number of seasonings and sauces. These things, then, are referred to two managers. The matters relating to excessive drinking are referred to the chief butler, and those which belong to luxurious eating to the chief baker. (2.156) Now these men are, with excessive propriety, recorded to have seen visions of dreams one night; for they, each of them, labour to gratify the same need of their master, providing not simple food, but such as is accompanied with pleasure and extraordinary gratification; and each of them, separately, labours about half the food, but the two together are employed about the whole, and the one part draws on the other; (2.157) for men, when they have eaten, immediately desire drink; and men who have drunk immediately wish to eat; so that it is in no slight degree on this account that a vision is ascribed to them both at the same time. (2.158) Therefore the chief butler has the office of ministering to the appetite for wine, and the chief baker to the voracity. And each of them sees in his vision what relates to his own business: the one sees wine and the plant which engenders wine, namely the vine; the other sees white bread lying on dishes, and himself serving up the Dishes.{84}{#ge 40:16.} (2.159)

ἡττημένος δὲ τυφλὴν καὶ ἀχειραγώγητον, οὐχ ὁδόν, ἀλλ' ἀνοδίαν τοῦ βίου διεξέρχεται, βάτοις καὶ τριβόλοις περιπειρόμενος, ἔστι δ' ὅτε καὶ κατὰ κρημνῶν κυλιόμενος καὶ ἄλλοις ἐπιφερόμενος, ὡς ἐκείνους τε καὶ ἑαυτὸν οἰκτρῶς διαφθείρειν. [162] ὁ δὲ βαθὺς καὶ διωλύγιος ὕπνος, ᾧ πᾶς κατέχεται φαῦλος, τὰς μὲν ἀληθεῖς καταλήψεις ἀφαιρεῖται, ψευδῶν δὲ εἰδώλων καὶ ἀβεβαίων φαντασμάτων ἀναπίμπλησι τὴν διάνοιαν, τὰ ὑπαίτια ‹ὡς› ἑπαινετὰ ἀναπείθων ἀποδέχεσθαι.

But the deep and long-enduring sleep in which every wicked man is held, removes all true conceptions, and fills the mind with all kinds of false images, and unsubstantial visions, persuading it to embrace what is shameful as praiseworthy.

[195]    Ὁ δὲ εὐνοῦχος ἅμα καὶ ἀρχιοινοχόος τοῦ Φαραὼ τὸ ἀφροσύνης γεννητικὸν φυτόν, ἄμπελον, φαντασιωθεὶς προσαναζωγραφεῖ τρεῖς πυθμένας, ἵνα τὰς ἐν τῷ διαμαρτάνειν κατὰ τοὺς τρεῖς χρόνους ἐσχατιὰς [196] παρεμφήνῃ· πυθμὴν γὰρ τὸ ἔσχατον. ἐπειδὰν οὖν ἀφροσύνη πᾶσαν ψυχὴν ἐπισκιάσῃ καὶ κατασχῇ καὶ μηδὲν αὐτῆς ἄφετον μηδὲ ἐλεύθερον μέρος ἐάσῃ, οὐ μόνον ὅσα τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἰάσιμα δρᾶν [197] ἀναγκάζει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσα ἀνίατα. τὰ μὲν οὖν θεραπείαν ἐνδεχόμενα ῥᾷστα καὶ πρῶτα γράφεται, τὰ δὲ ἀθεράπευτα παγχάλεπα καὶ ὕστατα, [198] πυθμέσιν ἀναλογοῦντα.

But the eunuch and chief butler of Pharaoh, having beheld the plant generative of folly, namely, the vine, adds besides to his delineation there stocks, that he may signify the three extremities of error according to the three different times; for a root is equivalent to extremity.

Περὶ μὲν δὴ τούτων ἅλις. ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ μόνον στάσιν καὶ ποταμόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ χείλη ποταμοῦ φαντασιωθῆναι ὁμολογεῖ φάσκων· ᾤμην ἑστάναι παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τοῦ ποταμοῦ (Gen. 41, 17), ἀναγκαῖον [262] ἂν εἴη καὶ περὶ χείλους τὰ καίρια ὑπομνῆσαι. φαίνεται τοίνυν ἕνεκα δυεῖν τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων ἡ φύσις χείλη ζῴοις καὶ μάλιστα ἀνθρώποις ἁρμόσασθαι· ἑνὸς μὲν ἡσυχίας ‑ ἔρυμα γὰρ ταῦτα καὶ φραγμὸς ὀχυρώτατος φωνῆς ‑ , ἑτέρου δὲ ἑρμηνείας·

(2.261) We have now then said enough on these subjects. But since he not only confesses that he saw in his dream, a standing and a river, but also the banks of a river, as his words are, "I thought that I was standing by the bank (cheilos) of the River."{116}{#ge 41:17.} It must be desirable to say a few seasonable things also about the bank. (2.262)
Secret Alias
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Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

Here's what I have come up with since starting on this adventure.

1. phantasia had many shades of meaning. Philo uses it to mean 'fantasy' i.e. an imagination which isn't real. But he also holds a special meaning where it means a kind of mental state that comes from heaven that ultimately allows humanity to 'see' God.
2. Paul is associated with a 'visionary' state where he experienced Jesus
3. the Marcionites called 'Jesus' a phantasma
4. I think this phantasma was likely related to the phantasia dream state that Philo holds in such high regard.
Secret Alias
Posts: 18321
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Stephan Huller's recent interview by Jacob Berman

Post by Secret Alias »

ΒΙΟΣ ΣΟΦΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΙΑΝ ΤΕΛΕΙΩΘΕΝΤΟΣ Η ΝΟΜΩΝ ΑΓΡΑΦΩΝ ‹ΤΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ› Ο ΕΣΤΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΒΡΑΑΜ
εἰ γὰρ χρὴ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ὁ μὴ τυφλὸς ἀλλ' ὀξὺ βλέπων πλοῦτος ἡ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐστι περιουσία, ἣν εὐθὺς γνήσιον καὶ εὔνομον παρὰ τὰς νόθους καὶ ψευδωνύμους ἀρχὰς ὑποληπτέον [26] ἡγεμονίαν ἐνδίκως ἅπαντα πρυτανεύουσαν. οὐ δεῖ δὲ ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι τὰ δευτερεῖα φέρεται μετάνοια τελειότητος, ὥσπερ καὶ ἀνόσου σώματος ἡ πρὸς ὑγείαν ἐξ ἀσθενείας μεταβολή. τὸ μὲν οὖν διηνεκὲς καὶ τέλειον ἐν ἀρεταῖς ἐγγυτάτω θείας ἵσταται δυνάμεως, ἡ δ' ἀπό τινος χρόνου βελτίωσις ἴδιον ἀγαθὸν εὐφυοῦς ψυχῆς ἐστι μὴ τοῖς παιδικοῖς ἐπιμενούσης ἀλλ' ἁδροτέροις καὶ ἀνδρὸς ὄντως φρονήμασιν ἐπιζητούσης εὔδιον κατάστασιν [ψυχῆς] καὶ τῇ φαντασίᾳ τῶν καλῶν ἐπιτρεχούσης.

For if one may speak the plain truth, that wealth which is not blind, but which is clear-sighted, is the abundance of virtues, which we must at once conclude to be the genuine and legitimate predominance of good in comparison of all other bastard and falsely named powers, and to be the just and lawful superior of them all. (26) But we must not be ignorant that repentance occupies the second place only, next after perfection, just as the change from sickness to convalescence is inferior to perfect uninterrupted health. Therefore, that which is continuous and perfect in virtues is very near divine power, but that condition which is improvement advancing in process of time is the peculiar blessing of a welldisposed soul, which does not continue in its childish pursuits, but by more vigorous thoughts and inclinations, such as really become a man, seeks a tranquil steadiness of soul, and which attains to it by its conception of what is good.

ταύτῃ τοι τῇ δόξῃ συντραφεὶς καὶ χαλδαΐσας μακρόν τινα χρόνον, ὥσπερ ἐκ βαθέος ὕπνου διοίξας τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα καὶ καθαρὰν αὐγὴν ἀντὶ σκότους βαθέος βλέπειν ἀρξάμενος ἠκολούθησε τῷ φέγγει καὶ κατεῖδεν, ὃ μὴ πρότερον ἐθεάσατο, τοῦ κόσμου τινὰ ἡνίοχον καὶ κυβερνήτην ἐφεστῶτα καὶ σωτηρίως εὐθύνοντα τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον, ἐπιμέλειάν τε καὶ προστασίαν [71] καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ μερῶν ὅσα θείας ἐπάξια φροντίδος ποιούμενον. ὅπως οὖν βεβαιώσηται τὴν φανεῖσαν ὄψιν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ παγιώτερον, αὖθίς φησιν ὁ ἱερὸς λόγος αὐτῷ· τὰ μεγάλα, ὦ οὗτος, ὑποτυπώσει βραχυτέρων πολλάκις γνωρίζεται, πρὸς ἅ τις ἀπιδὼν ηὔξησε τὴν φαντασίαν ἀπεριγράφοις μεγέθεσι. παραπεμψάμενος οὖν τούς τε κατ' οὐρανὸν περιπολοῦντας καὶ τὴν Χαλδαϊκὴν ἐπιστήμην μετανάστηθι πρὸς ὀλίγον χρόνον ἀπὸ τῆς μεγίστης πόλεως, τοῦδε τοῦ κόσμου, πρὸς βραχυτέραν, δι' ἧς δυνήσῃ μᾶλλον [72] καταλαβεῖν τὸν ἔφορον τοῦ παντός

But while they were busied in investigating the arrangement existing in them with reference to the periodical revolutions of the sun, and moon, and the other planets, and fixed-stars, and the changes of the seasons of the year, and the sympathy of the heavenly bodies with the things of the earth, they were led to imagine that the world itself was God, in their impious philosophy comparing the creature to the Creator. (70) The man who had been bred up in this doctrine, and who for a long time had studied the philosophy of the Chaldaeans, as if suddenly awakening from a deep slumber and opening the eye of the soul, and beginning to perceive a pure ray of light instead of profound darkness, followed the light, and saw what he had never see before, a certain governor and director of the world standing above it, and guiding his own work in a salutary manner, and exerting his care and power in behalf of all those parts of it which are worthy of divine superintendence. (71) In order, therefore, that he may the more firmly establish the sight which has thus been presented to him in his mind, the sacred word says to him, My good friend, great things are often made known by slight outlines, at which he who looks increases his imagination to an unlimited extent; therefore, having dismissed those who bend all their attention to the heavenly bodies, and discarding the Chaldaean science, rise up and depart for a short time from the greatest of cities, this world, to one which is smaller; for so you will be the better able to comprehend the nature of the Ruler of the universe. (72) It is for this reason that Abraham is said to have made this first migration from the country of the Chaldaeans into the land of Charran.

ἐπεὶ δὲ μετεχώρησε καὶ μεθωρμίσατο, κατὰ τἀναγκαῖον ἔγνω τὸν κόσμον ὑπήκοον ἀλλ' οὐκ αὐτοκράτορα, οὐ πρυτανεύοντα ἀλλὰ πρυτανευόμενον ὑπ' αἰτίου τοῦ [79] πεποιηκότος, ὅπερ ἡ διάνοια τότε πρῶτον ἀναβλέψασα εἶδε. πολλὴ γὰρ αὐτῆς πρότερον ἀχλὺς ὑπὸ τῶν αἰσθητῶν κατεκέχυτο, ἣν ἐνθέρμοις καὶ διαπύροις δόγμασιν ἀνασκεδάσασα μόλις ἴσχυσεν ὡς ἐν αἰθρίᾳ καθαρᾷ τοῦ πάλαι κρυπτομένου καὶ ἀειδοῦς φαντασίαν λαβεῖν

But after he changed his abode and went into another country he learnt of necessity that the world was subject, and not independent; not an absolute ruler, but governed by the great cause of all things who had created it, whom the mind then for the first time looked up and saw; (79) for previously a great mist was shed over it by the objects of the external senses, which she, having dissipated by fervent and vivid doctrines, was scarcely able, as if in clear fine weather, to perceive him who had previously been concealed and invisible. But he, by reason of his love for mankind, did not reject the soul which came to him, but went forward to meet it, and showed to it his own nature as far as it was possible that he who was looking at it could see it. (80) For which reason it is said, not that the wise man saw God but that God appeared to the wise man; for it was impossible for any one to comprehend by his own unassisted power the true living God, unless he himself displayed and revealed himself to him.

[113] τότε μοι δοκεῖ πρῶτον οὐκέθ' ὁμοίαν τῶν ὁρωμένων λαβεῖν φαντασίαν, ἀλλὰ σεμνοτέραν ἢ προφητῶν ἢ ἀγγέλων μεταβαλόντων ἀπὸ πνευματικῆς [114] καὶ ψυχοειδοῦς οὐσίας εἰς ἀνθρωπόμορφον ἰδέαν. τὸ μὲν οὖν φιλόξενον τοῦ ἀνδρὸς εἴρηται, πάρεργον ὂν ἀρετῆς μείζονος·

Nevertheless he did not completely believe them even when they made him this promise, by reason of the incredible nature of the thing promised; for both he and his wife, through extreme old age, were so old as utterly to have abandoned all hope of offspring; (112) therefore the scriptures record that Abraham's wife, when she first heard what they were saying, laughed; and when they said afterwards, "Is anything impossible to God?" they were so ashamed that they denied that they had laughed; for Abraham knew that everything was possible to God, having almost learnt this doctrine as one may say from his cradle; (113) then for the first time he appears to me to have begun to entertain a different opinion of his guests from that which he conceived at first, and to have imagined that they were either some of the prophets or of the angels who had changed their spiritual and soul-like essence, and assumed the appearance of men.
Clearly the experience with Ish is rooted in phantasia for Philo.
τὸ δὲ συμπόσιον οἷον εἰκὸς γενέσθαι, τὴν ἐν εὐωχίαις ἀφέλειαν ἐπιδεικνυμένων πρὸς τὸν ἑστιάτορα τῶν ἑστιωμένων καὶ γυμνοῖς ἤθεσι προσαγορευόντων καὶ ὁμιλίας τὰς ἁρμοττούσας τῷ καιρῷ ποιουμένων. [118] τεράστιον δὲ καὶ τὸ μὴ πίνοντας πινόντων καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐσθίοντας ἐσθιόντων παρέχειν φαντασίαν. ἀλλὰ ταυτί γε ὡς ἀκόλουθα· τὸ δὲ πρῶτον ἐκεῖνο τερατωδέστατον, ἀσωμάτους ὄντας [τοῦδε σώματος] εἰς ἰδέαν ἀνθρώπων μεμορφῶσθαι χάριτι τῇ πρὸς τὸν ἀστεῖον· τίνος γὰρ ἕνεκα ταῦτα ἐθαυματουργεῖτο ἢ τοῦ παρασχεῖν αἴσθησιν τῷ σοφῷ διὰ τρανοτέρας ὄψεως, ὅτι οὐ λέληθε τὸν πατέρα τοιοῦτος ὤν; [119]    Τὰ μὲν οὖν τῆς ῥητῆς ἀποδόσεως ὡδὶ λελέχθω· τῆς δὲ δι' ὑπονοιῶν ἀρκτέον. σύμβολα τὰ ἐν φωναῖς τῶν διανοίᾳ μόνῃ καταλαμβανομένων ἐστίν· ἐπειδὰν οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ καθάπερ ἐν μεσημβρίᾳ θεῷ περιλαμφθῇ καὶ ὅλη δι' ὅλων νοητοῦ φωτὸς ἀναπλησθεῖσα ταῖς ἐν κύκλῳ κεχυμέναις αὐγαῖς ἄσκιος γένηται, τριττὴν φαντασίαν ἑνὸς ὑποκειμένου καταλαμβάνει, τοῦ μὲν ὡς ὄντος, τῶν δ' ἄλλων δυοῖν ὡς ἂν ἀπαυγαζομένων ἀπὸ τούτου σκιῶν

It is a marvel indeed that though they neither ate nor drank they gave the appearance of both eating and drinking. But that is a secondary matter; the first and greatest wonder is that, though incorporeal, they assumed human form to do kindness to the man of worth. For why was this miracle worked save to cause the Sage to perceive with clearer vision that the Father did not fail to recognize his wisdom? This then is sufficient to say by way of a literal explanation of this account; we must now speak of that which may be given if the story be looked at as figurative and symbolical. The things which are expressed by the voice are the signs of those things which are conceived in the mind alone; when, therefore, the soul is shone upon by God as if at noonday, and when it is wholly and entirely filled with that light which is appreciable only by the intellect, and by being wholly surrounded with its brilliancy is free from all shade or darkness, it then perceives a threefold image of one subject, one image of the living God, and others of the other two, as if they were shadows irradiated by it. And some such thing as this happens to those who dwell in that light which is perceptible by the outward senses, for whether people are standing still or in motion, there is often a double shadow falling from them.
In Josephus’s renarration, the visitors made Abraham believe that they did eat (Josephus, Ant. 197: οἱ δὲ δόξαν αὐτῷ παρέσχον ἐσθιόντων). T. Abr. A 4–5 has a humoristic account of this idea. Rabbis agree; see Pesiqta Rabbati 42 Bl 179 b; Tg. Yer. I at Gen 18:8; B. Mes 86b; Rab. Gen. 48:16. See also Warren, Food, 9–10. The same concept is used in Tob 12:19.
προσαγορεύεται δὲ ἡ μὲν ποιητικὴ θεός, ταύτῃ γὰρ ἔθηκέ τε καὶ διεκόσμησε τὸ πᾶν, ἡ δὲ βασιλικὴ κύριος, θέμις [122] γὰρ ἄρχειν καὶ κρατεῖν τὸ πεποιηκὸς τοῦ γενομένου. δορυφορούμενος οὖν ὁ μέσος ὑφ' ἑκατέρας τῶν δυνάμεων παρέχει τῇ ὁρατικῇ διανοίᾳ τοτὲ μὲν ἑνὸς τοτὲ δὲ τριῶν φαντασίαν, ἑνὸς μὲν ὅταν ἄκρως τύχῃ καθαρθεῖσα καὶ μὴ μόνον τὰ πλήθη τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν γείτονα μονάδος δυάδα ὑπερβᾶσα πρὸς τὴν ἀμιγῆ καὶ ἀσύμπλοκον καὶ καθ' αὑτὴν οὐδενὸς ἐπιδεᾶ τὸ παράπαν ἰδέαν ἐπείγηται, τριῶν δὲ ὅταν μήπω τὰς μεγάλας τελεσθεῖσα τελετὰς ἔτι ἐν ταῖς βραχυτέραις ὀργιάζηται καὶ μὴ δύνηται τὸ ὂν ἄνευ ἑτέρου τινὸς ἐξ αὐτοῦ μόνου καταλαβεῖν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῶν [123] δρωμένων, ἢ κτίζον ἢ ἄρχον. δεύτερος μὲν οὖν, ὥς φασι, πλοῦς οὗτος, μετέχει δ' οὐδὲν ἧττον δόξης θεοφιλοῦς· ὁ δὲ πρότερος τρόπος οὐ μετέχει, ἀλλ' αὐτός ἐστι θεοφιλὴς δόξα, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ δόξης πρεσβυτέρα καὶ παντὸς τιμιωτέρα τοῦ δοκεῖν ἀλήθεια. γνωριμώτερον δὲ τὸ δηλούμενον [124] παραστατέον. τρεῖς εἰσιν ἠθῶν ἀνθρωπίνων τάξεις, ὧν ἑκάστη διακεκλήρωται μίαν τῶν εἰρημένων φαντασιῶν, ἡ μὲν ἀρίστη τὴν μέσην τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος, ἡ δὲ μετ' ἐκείνην τὴν ἐπὶ δεξιά, τὴν εὐεργέτιν, ᾗ θεὸς ὄνομα, ἡ δὲ τρίτη τὴν ἐπὶ θάτερα, τὴν ἀρχικήν, ἣ καλεῖται κύριος.

Since this is not the actual truth, but in order that one may when speaking keep as close to the truth as possible, the one in the middle is the Father of the universe, who in the sacred scriptures is called by his proper name, I am that I am; and the beings on each side are those most ancient powers which are always close to the living God, one of which is called his creative power, and the other his royal power. And the creative power is God, for it is by this that he made and arranged the universe; and the royal power is the Lord, for it is fitting that the Creator should lord it over and govern the creature. (122) Therefore, the middle person of the three, being attended by each of his powers as by body-guards, presents to the mind, which is endowed with the faculty of sight, a vision at one time of one being, and at another time of three; of one when the soul being completely purified, and having surmounted not only the multitudes of numbers, but also the number two, which is the neighbour of the unit, hastens onward to that idea which is devoid of all mixture, free from all combination, and by itself in need of nothing else whatever; and of three, when, not being as yet made perfect as to the important virtues, it is still seeking for initiation in those of less consequence, and is not able to attain to a comprehension of the living God by its own unassisted faculties without the aid of something else, but can only do so by judging of his deeds, whether as creator or as governor. (123) This then, as they say, is the second best thing; and it no less partakes in the opinion which is dear to and devoted to God. But the firstmentioned disposition has no such share, but is itself the very God-loving and God-beloved opinion itself, or rather it is truth which is older than opinion, and more valuable than any seeming. But we must now explain what is intimated by this statement in a more perspicuous manner. There are three different classes of human dispositions, each of which has received as its portion one of the aforesaid visions. The best of them has received that vision which is in the centre, the sight of the truly living God. The one which is next best has received that which is on the right hand, the sight of the beneficent power which has the name of God. And the third has the sight of that which is on the left hand, the governing power, which is called lord.

οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοῶ, διότι πρὸς τῷ χείρους μὴ γίγνεσθαι καὶ βελτίους ἔσονται τῷ συνεχεῖ τῆς [130] θεραπείας εἱλικρινῆ καὶ καθαρὰν εὐσέβειαν ἀσκήσαντες. εἰ γὰρ καὶ μάλιστα οἱ τρόποι διαφέρουσιν, ἀφ' ὧν ποιοῦνται τὰς πρὸς τὴν ἀρέσκειαν ὁρμάς, οὐκ αἰτιατέον, ὅτι σκοπὸς εἷς καὶ τέλος ἕν ἐστιν αὐτοῖς, τὸ [131] θεραπεύειν ἐμέ. ὅτι δ' ἡ τριττὴ φαντασία δυνάμει ἑνός ἐστιν ὑποκειμένου, φανερὸν οὐ μόνον ἐκ τῆς ἐν ἀλληγορίᾳ θεωρίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ῥητῆς γραφῆς τάδε περιεχούσης

But that which is seen is in reality a threefold appearance of one subject is plain, not only from the contemplation of the allegory, but also from that of the express words in which the allegory is couched. (132) For when the wise man entreats those persons who are in the guise of three travellers to come and lodge in his house, he speaks to them not as three persons, but as one, and says, "My lord, if I have found favour with thee, do not thou pass by thy Servant."{12}{#ge 18:3.} For the expressions, "my lord," and "with thee," and "do not pass by," and others of the same kind, are all such as are naturally addressed to a single individual, but not to many.

ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὸ σῳζόμενον μέρος οὐχ ὁλοκλήρους καὶ παντελεῖς εἶχεν ἀρετάς, δυνάμει μὲν τοῦ ὄντος εὐεργετεῖτο, προηγουμένως δὲ τῆς ἐκείνου φαντασίας ἀνάξιον ἐνομίσθη τυχεῖν.

But since, of the two powers of God, one is a beneficent power and the other a chastising one, each of them, as is natural, is manifested to the country of the people of Sodom. Because of the five finest cities in it four were about to be destroyed by fire, and one was destined to be left unhurt and safe from every evil. For it was necessary that the calamities should be inflicted by the chastising power, and that the one which was to be saved should be saved by the beneficent power. (146) But since the portion which was saved was not endowed with entire and complete virtues, but was blessed with kindness by the power of the living God, it was deliberately accounted unworthy to have a sight of his presence afforded to it.

ἔθος μὲν οὖν τὸ ἐπὶ παιδοκτονίᾳ Βαβυλὼν καὶ Μεσοποταμία καὶ τὸ Χαλδαίων ἔθνος οὐ παραδέχεται, ἐν οἷς ἐτράφη καὶ ἐπεβίωσε τὸν πλείονα χρόνον, ὡς τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῶν δρωμένων ἀμβλυτέραις [189] ταῖς τῶν δεινῶν φαντασίαις κεκρατῆσθαι δοκεῖν. καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ φόβος τις ἦν ἀπ' ἀνθρώπων ‑ οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ χρησθὲν αὐτῷ μόνῳ λόγιον ᾔδει τις ‑ , οὐδέ τις συμφορὰ κοινὴ κατείληφεν, ἧς ἔδει τὴν θεραπείαν [190] ἀναιρέσει γενέσθαι τοῦ δοκιμωτάτου παιδός. ἀλλὰ θηρώμενος ἔπαινον τῶν πολλῶν ἐπὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν ὥρμησε

We must investigate, therefore, whether Abraham was under the influence of any one of the aforesaid motives, custom, or love of glory, or fear, when he was about to sacrifice his son. Now Babylon and Mesopotamia, and the nation of the Chaldaeans, do not receive the custom of sacrificing their children; and these are the countries in which Abraham had been brought up and had lived most of his time; so that we cannot imagine that his sense of the misfortune that he was commanded to inflict upon himself was blunted by the frequency of such events. (189) Again, there was no fear from men which pressed upon him, for no one knew of this oracular command which had been given to him alone, nor was there any common calamity pressing upon the land in which he was living, such as could only be remedied by the destruction of his most excellent son. (190) May it not have been, however, from a desire to obtain praise from the multitude that he proceeded to this action?

ἔπειτ' οὐκ ὄντος ἔθους ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ, καθάπερ ἴσως παρ' ἐνίοις ἐστίν, ἀνθρωποθυτεῖν, ὃ τῇ συνεχείᾳ τὰς τῶν δεινῶν φαντασίας εἴωθεν ἐκλύειν, αὐτὸς ἔμελλε πρῶτος ἄρχεσθαι καινοτάτου καὶ παρηλλαγμένου πράγματος, ὅ μοι δοκεῖ μηδεὶς ἂν ὑπομεῖναι, καὶ εἰ σιδήρου τὴν ψυχὴν ἢ ἀδάμαντος κατεσκεύαστο· φύσει γὰρ ὡς [194] εἶπέ τις ἔργον μάχεσθαι.

In the second place, though it was not the custom in the land in which he as living, as perhaps it is among some nations, to offer human sacrifices, and custom, by its frequency, often removes the horror felt at the first appearance of evils, he himself was about to be the first to set the example of a novel and most extraordinary deed, which I do not think that any human being would have brought himself to submit to, even if his soul had been made of iron or of adamant; for as some one has said, "Tis a hard task with nature to contend."

ὡς τόν γε μὴ φύσει βάσκανον καὶ φιλοπόνηρον καταπλαγῆναι καὶ θαυμάσαι τῆς περιττῆς ἄγαν εὐσεβείας, οὐχ ἅπαντα ὅσα εἶπον ἀθρόα εἰς νοῦν βαλλόμενον, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἕν τι τῶν πάντων· ἱκανὴ γὰρ καὶ ἡ ἑνὸς φαντασία τύπῳ τινὶ βραχεῖ ‑ βραχὺ δ' οὐδὲν ἔργον σοφοῦ ‑ μέγεθος ψυχῆς καὶ ὕψος ἐμφῆναι.

Now of all the circumstances which we have enumerated what is there which others have in common with Abraham? What is there which is not peculiar to him, and excellent beyond all power of language to praise? So that every one who is not struck by nature envious and a lover of evil must be struck with amazement and admiration for his excessive piety, even if he should not call at once to mind all the particulars on which I have been dwelling, but only some one of the whole number; for the conception of any one of these particulars is sufficient by a brief and faint outline to display the greatness and loftiness of the father's soul; though there is nothing petty in the action of the wise man.
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