The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book II

Book II

• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.1 — Introductory. As Scripture has called the Greeks pilferers of the Barbarian philosophy, it will next have to be considered how this may be briefly demonstrated. For we shall not only show that they have imitated and…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.2 — The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith. “Be not elated on account of thy wisdom,” say the Proverbs. “In all thy ways acknowledge her, that she may direct thy ways, and that thy foot may not stumble.”…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.3 — Faith Not a Product of Nature. Now the followers of Basilides regard faith as natural, as they also refer it to choice, [representing it] as finding ideas by intellectual comprehension without demonstration; while…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.4 — Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge. But we, who have heard by the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men, rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.5 — He Proves by Several Examples that the Greeks Drew from the Sacred Writers. Accordingly all those above-mentioned dogmas appear to have been transmitted from Moses the great to the Greeks. That all things belong to…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.6 — The Excellence and Utility of Faith. “Lord, who hath believed our report?” Isaiah says. For “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” saith the apostle. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.7 — The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered. Those, who denounce fear, assail the law; and if the law, plainly also God, who gave the law. For these three elements are of necessity presented in the subject on hand: the…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.8 — The Vagaries of Basilides and Valentinus as to Fear Being the Cause of Things. Here the followers of Basilides, interpreting this expression, say, “that the Prince, having heard the speech of the Spirit, who was…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.9 — The Connection of the Christian Virtues. Such a fear, accordingly, leads to repentance and hope. Now hope is the expectation of good things, or an expectation sanguine of absent good; and favourable circumstances are…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.10 — To What the Philosopher Applies Himself. These three things, therefore, our philosopher attaches himself to: first, speculation; second, the performance of the precepts; third, the forming of good men;—which,…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.11 — The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All. But the knowledge of those who think themselves wise, whether the barbarian sects or the philosophers among the Greeks, according to the apostle, “puffeth…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.12 — Twofold Faith. Faith as also Time being double, we shall find virtues in pairs both dwelling together. For memory is related to past time, hope to future. We believe that what is past did, and that what is future…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.13 — On First and Second Repentance. He, then, who has received the forgiveness of sins ought to sin no more. For, in addition to the first and only repentance from sins (this is from the previous sins in the first and…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.14 — How a Thing May Be Involuntary. What is involuntary is not matter for judgment. But this is twofold,—what is done in ignorance, and what is done through necessity. For how will you judge concerning those who are said…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.15 — On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding. What is voluntary is either what is by desire, or what is by choice, or what is of intention. Closely allied to each other are these…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.16 — How We are to Explain the Passages of Scripture Which Ascribe to God Human Affections. Here again arise the cavillers, who say that joy and pain are passions of the soul: for they define joy as a rational elevation…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.17 — On the Various Kinds of Knowledge. As, then, Knowledge (ἐπιστήμη) is an intellectual state, from which results the act of knowing, and becomes apprehension irrefragable by reason; so also ignorance is a receding…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.18 — The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs. It is then clear also that all the other virtues, delineated in Moses, supplied the Greeks with the rudiments of the whole…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.19 — The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence. He is the Gnostic, who is after the image and likeness of God, who imitates God as far as possible, deficient in none of the things which contribute…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.20 — The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self-Restraint. Endurance also itself forces its way to the divine likeness, reaping as its fruit impassibility through patience, if what is related of Ananias be kept in mind;…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.21 — Opinions of Various Philosophers on the Chief Good. Epicurus, in placing happiness in not being hungry, or thirsty, or cold, uttered that godlike word, saying impiously that he would fight in these points even with…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.22 — Plato’s Opinion, that the Chief Good Consists in Assimilation to God, and Its Agreement with Scripture. Further, Plato the philosopher says that the end is twofold: that which is communicable, and exists first in the…vatican.va
• The Stromata, or Miscellanies II.23 — On Marriage. Since pleasure and lust seem to fall under marriage, it must also be treated of. Marriage is the first conjunction of man and woman for the procreation of legitimate children. Accordingly Menander the…vatican.va