Symposium (The Banquet of the Ten Virgins) 8.2–8.13

“For those who have lost their wings and fallen into pleasures do not cease from grief and toil until, fulfilling the compulsion of incontinence by their passionate desire, they remain uninitiated and incomplete in the drama of truth, raging with the savage pleasures of lust instead of begetting children with modesty and self-control. But those who are well-winged and light, peering out from life into the place beyond the world and seeing from afar what no other human being has beheld, the very meadows of incorruption, which bear and are filled with indescribable beauties and flowers, are always turned toward them, recalling the sights there; and for this reason they think little of what are here thought good things, wealth, glory, birth, and marriage, and no longer value any of them more highly. Indeed, if anyone should wish to hand over their bodies to beasts or fire and punish them, they are ready to disregard the pains because of their longing for those things and their amazement at them, so that, though they are in the world, they seem not to be in the world, but already, in thought and in the impulse of desire, to be in the assembly of those in heaven. For it is not right that the wing of virginity should by its own nature be weighed down to earth, but it bears upward into the pure ether and the life that neighbours the angels. That is why, after the recall and departure from here, those who have kept their virginity rightly and faithfully for Christ are the first of all to carry off the prizes of victory, crowned by him with the flowers of incorruption. For the story is that as soon as their souls leave the world, angels meet the virgins with great acclamation and escort them to the meadows spoken of before, to which they had longed to come even earlier, having imagined them from afar at the time when, still living in their bodies, they glimpsed divine things.

“When they have come there, they see wonderful, brilliant, and blessed beauties, such as are hard to express to human beings. For there is righteousness itself and self-control itself, love itself and truth and prudence, and likewise the other bright flowers and plants of wisdom, of which we here, dreaming, think that only phantom shadows arise from human actions, because there is no clear image of them here, but only formless likenesses, which we too often perceive dimly by comparing them. For no one has ever seen with his eyes the size or shape or beauty of righteousness itself, or of understanding, or of peace; but there, in what truly is, they are seen whole and clear, as they are. For there is a tree of self-control itself, a tree of love, a tree of understanding, just as here there are plants of fruits, such as grapes or pomegranates or apples. So too the fruits of those are seen and eaten, yet they do not perish and waste away, but make those who pluck them grow into immortality and divinity; just as he from whom we all come, before he fell and his eyes were blinded, was in paradise and plucked its fruits, God having ordained that the man be set as worker and guardian of the plants of wisdom. For the first Adam too had been entrusted with tending such fruits. And Jeremiah also knows that these things are in a particular place, far removed from our inhabited world, where, pitying those who have slipped away from eternal goods, he says: ‘Learn where prudence is, where strength is, where understanding is, to know at the same time where length of life and life are, where the light of the eyes and peace are. Who has found her place, or who has entered into her treasuries?’ Into their treasuries, then, the story goes, the virgins pass and gather the fruits of the virtues, watered by many well-ordered lights, which God pours forth for them like a spring, illuminating that age with unsetting lights. And they dance harmoniously, honouring God; for a pure air is poured around them, not ridden over by the sun.

“Now, then, virgins, daughters of undefiled self-control, our zeal is for abundant life and the kingdom of heaven. You too, share eagerly in the same glory of chastity as those before you, caring little for this life. For chastity is no small thing for incorruption, lifting the flesh upward to the height and drying up its dampness and its muddy weight by a greater pull. Let not the filth of what is heard weigh you down, sinking toward the earth, nor let grief turn joy into sorrow, melting away the hopes of better things; but shake off unwearied the misfortunes that befall you, not clouding your reasoning with laments. Let faith conquer everywhere, and let its light drive away the phantoms of the evil one that hover round the heart. For just as, when the moon has shone out and filled the sky with radiance and the whole air has become clear, and suddenly envious clouds run up from somewhere in the west and overshadow her light for a little while, yet do not take it away, since they are at once driven off by the force of the wind; so you too, virgins, shining with chastity in the world, when troubled by afflictions and toils, do not sink down from your hopes. For the clouds from the evil one are driven away by the Spirit, if, like your mother, the virgin in heaven who bears the male child, you too do not fear the serpent that lies in wait and ambushes. About her I will now tell you in some fashion, for now is the time. ‘And a great sign appeared in heaven,’ says John, explaining the Revelation, ‘a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and being with child she cries out in labour and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems; and his tail drags a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. And she bore a male son, who is to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her for one thousand two hundred [and sixty] days.’ So much, in summary, for what is told about the woman and the dragon; but to find and state their interpretation is beyond us. Nevertheless we must dare, trusting him who commanded us to search ‘the Scriptures.’ If, then, what I say seems good to you both, it is no longer hard to undertake; for you will surely forgive me if I cannot fully match the precision of Scripture.

“The woman seen in heaven clothed with the sun and wearing a crown of twelve stars, who had the moon as the seat at her feet, and who was in labour and in pain to give birth, is properly, in the exact sense, our mother, virgins, being a power by herself distinct from her children, whom the prophets, according to the aspect of what they were describing, have called now Jerusalem, now bride, now Mount Zion, now temple and tabernacle of God. For the power that is urged to shine in the prophet, when the Spirit cries out to her, ‘Shine, shine, Jerusalem; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness and gloom will cover the earth, it will cover the nations; but the Lord will appear upon you, and the glory of the Lord will be seen upon you. And kings will walk in your light, and nations in your brightness. Lift up your eyes round about and see your children gathered. All your sons have come from afar, and your daughters will be carried on shoulders’: this power is the church, whose children, in baptism, after the resurrection, will come running to her from all sides in their whole company, while she rejoices, receiving the light that knows no evening and clothed with the brightness of the Word in the form of a robe. For with what other adornment more precious or more honourable was it fitting that the queen should be adorned when led as a bride to the Lord, having received light ‘as a garment,’ for which reason she was also called by the Spirit? Come, go up in thought and behold, like virgins at a wedding, a great woman, wholly pure and undefiled, with enduring beauty, flashing with a radiance in no way less than that of the lights, clothed with light itself instead of a robe, her head adorned with shining stars instead of precious stones. For what clothing is to us, light is to her; and what gold or transparent stones are to us, the stars are to her; not stars such as those placed in the visible region, but better and brighter, so that these are rather thought to be their images and likenesses.

“And she stands upon the moon: by the moon, I think, is meant figuratively the faith of those who are cleansed from corruption by the washing, because its light resembles lukewarm water more than anything, and all moist substance depends on it. The church, then, stands upon our faith and our reception, like the aspect of the moon, ‘until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,’ labouring and giving new birth to the natural as spiritual; and in this sense she is also a mother. For just as a woman, receiving a man's unformed seed, in the course of time brings forth a complete human being, so one might say that the church is always conceiving those who flee to the Word, and, forming them according to the likeness and form of Christ, in the course of time makes them citizens of those blessed ages. That is why she must stand over the washing, bearing those who are washed; for in this way her activity around the washing has also been called the moon, since those who are born again, being renewed, shine with a new gleam (selas), that is, a new light; and so they are also called, by a turn of phrase, ‘newly enlightened,’ the spiritual full moon always showing itself new to them in the yearly cycle of the passion and its remembrance, until the radiance and the perfect light of the great day rises.

“But if someone, indignant at what has been said (for nothing is hard now to say plainly), should say: ‘And how, virgins, is your explanation still in accord with the sense of Scripture, when the Revelation declares that the church bears a male child, while you have taken it that her fruitful labour pains are fulfilled in those who are washed?’ we will say: ‘But, fault-finder, neither can you show that the one born is Christ himself. For the mystery of the incarnation of the Word had been fulfilled long before the Revelation, and John prophesies about present and future things. And Christ, conceived long before, was not caught up to the throne of God when he was born, for fear that the serpent might harm him; rather, he was born and came down from the Father's thrones for this very purpose, that he might remain and overcome the dragon that assailed the flesh.’ So one must confess that it is the church that is in labour and gives birth to the redeemed, as the Spirit also says somewhere in Isaiah: ‘Before she who was in labour gave birth, and before the pain of labour came, she escaped and bore a male. Who has heard such a thing? And who has seen it thus? Did the earth labour in one day? Or would a nation be born at once? For Zion was in labour and bore a male.’ Whom did she escape, if not the dragon, so that the spiritual Zion might bear the male people, who have come from womanish passions and weakness to the unity of the Lord and have become manly by their zeal?

“Let us speak again, then, going back to the beginning, until we come in order to the end, explaining what was said. See, then, whether the argument seems to you too to be fulfilled creditably. For I think the church is said to bear a male child in this sense: that those who are enlightened receive purely the features, the impress, and the manliness of Christ, the form of the likeness of the Word being imprinted and born in them according to exact knowledge and faith, so that Christ is spiritually born in each one. And for this reason the church swells and is in labour until Christ, born, ‘is formed in us,’ so that each of the saints, by sharing in Christ, may be born a christ. In this sense it is said in a certain Scripture, ‘Do not touch my christs, and do my prophets no harm,’ as if those baptized into Christ had become christs by participation in the Spirit, the church contributing here their clear formation and transformation in the Word. Paul confirms this too, teaching plainly where he says: ‘For this reason I bow my knees to God and the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his goodness he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.’ For the word of truth must be stamped and imprinted on the souls of those who are born again.

“And what was proclaimed from above by the Father himself to Christ when he came to the cleansing of the water in the Jordan seems especially to resemble and agree with what has been said: ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’ For we must observe that he declared that he is his Son indefinitely and timelessly; for he said to him, ‘You are,’ not ‘You have become,’ showing that he had neither recently obtained sonship nor, having existed before, received it afterwards, but that, having been begotten before, he both will be and is the same. But ‘Today I have begotten you’ means: ‘You who already existed in the heavens before the ages, I willed to beget for the world too,’ that is, to make known what was previously unknown. Indeed, for those human beings who have not yet perceived ‘the manifold wisdom of God,’ Christ has not yet been born, that is, has not yet been known, not yet been revealed, not yet appeared. But if they too should perceive the mystery of grace, then, when they have turned and believed, he is born in them too according to knowledge and understanding. That is why the church is fittingly said from this always to form and bear the male Word in those who are being cleansed. So much, as far as I can, about her labour pains; now we must pass on to the dragon and the rest. Let us try again to explain them in some way, virgins, not shrinking at all from the greatness of the riddles of Scripture; and if anything difficult falls in the way of our words, I will again carry you across it like a river.”

“The ‘great,’ ‘red’ ‘dragon,’ the many-turning, the many-cleft, the seven-headed, the horned, which ‘drags a third of the stars’ and ‘stood’ lying in wait to ‘devour’ ‘the child’ of the woman in labour, is the devil, who lies in ambush and waits to ruin the mind of the enlightened that has been seized by Christ, and the impress and clear form of the Word born in them. But he misses and fails of his prey, since those who are born again are caught up on high ‘to the throne of God’: that is, the mind of the renewed is lifted up around the divine seat and the firm, unstumbling foundation of truth, being trained to see and to picture the things there, so that it may not be deceived by the dragon, who weighs downward; for it is not permitted to him to destroy those who incline upward and look upward. And the stars, which he touches at the top with the tip of his tail and drags down to the earth, are the bands of the heresies. For we must say that the assemblies of those of other opinions are dark, dim, and downward-turning stars, since they too wish to be knowers of heavenly things, to have believed in Christ, to have the seat of their soul in the heavens, and to draw near the stars as ‘children of light.’ But they are dragged down, shaken off by the dragon's coils, because they did not stand within the triangles of piety, having stumbled concerning orthodox worship. That is why they were called a third part of the stars, as having erred about one of the numbers of the Trinity: sometimes about that of the Father, like Sabellius, who said that the Almighty himself suffered; sometimes about that of the Son, like Artemas, and those who declared that he appeared in mere semblance; sometimes about that of the Spirit, like the Ebionites, who contend that the prophets spoke by their own impulse. As for Marcion and Valentinus and the followers of Elchasai and the others, it is better not even to mention them.

“And she who has borne and bears the manly Word in the hearts of believers, and has come into the wilderness undefiled and unharmed by the wrath of the beast, is, as we have explained, our mother, the church. And the wilderness into which she came and is nourished for the thousand two hundred and sixty days, truly a wilderness of evils, barren and sterile of corruption, hard of access and hard to travel for the many, but fruitful, rich in pasture, flourishing, and easy to travel for the saints, full of wisdom and sprouting with life, is this very place of Arete, most beautiful, with beautiful trees and beautiful breezes, where ‘the south wind has awakened and the north wind has blown through, and the spices flow,’ and everything is filled with ambrosial dew and crowned with unfading shoots of immortal life. In it we are now gathering flowers and weaving for the queen, with untouched fingers, the purple and shining crown of virginity; for the bride of the Word is adorned with the fruits of Arete. And the thousand two hundred and sixty days, which we spend here in our sojourn, are, virgins, the exact and excellent understanding, straight and true, of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, in which our mother rejoices as it grows and exults during this time, until at the restoration of the new ages she comes into the assembly in the heavens and no longer beholds what is through knowledge, but, having entered with Christ, sees it clearly. For the thousand, being a hundred multiplied by ten, contains a perfect and full number, which is a symbol of the Father himself, who created all things from himself and holds all things together in himself; the two hundred is the number joined from two perfect numbers, which is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, since he gives the knowledge of the Son and of the Father; and the sixty contains the number six in tens, which is a symbol of Christ, since the number six, proceeding from the unit, is composed of its own parts, so that nothing is lacking in it and nothing is in excess; for when resolved into its own parts it is completed. For example, when six is cut into equal parts, the same quantity must again be made up from the divided sections. For, divided first in half, it makes three; then divided into three parts it makes two; then divided into six it makes one; and it is again completed into itself. For when divided into twice three, three times two, and six times one, the three, the two, and the one, added together, again make up the six. And everything perfect necessarily neither needs another for its completion nor ever exceeds itself. Of the other numbers, some are more than perfect, like twelve (for its half, six, its third, four, its fourth, three, its sixth, two, and its twelfth, one, the parts into which it can be divided, when added together exceed twelve, since it does not keep itself equal to its parts as six does), and others less than perfect, like eight. For its half, four, its quarter, two, and its eighth, one, the parts into which it is cut, when added together make seven, and it needs a unit for its completion, not being in every way in harmony with itself like six. That is why the number six has been referred to the Son of God, who came into life from the fullness ‘of the deity.’ For, having emptied himself and taken ‘the form’ of ‘a servant,’ he was filled up again to his own perfection and dignity. For, having been made small in himself and resolved into his own parts, from his own smallness and his own parts he was restored again to his own completeness and greatness, never diminished from being perfect. And the whole creation of the world is seen to be composed from this number and harmony, God having made ‘in six days’ ‘the heaven and the earth and the things in them,’ the creative power of the Word containing the number six, by which the triad is productive of bodies; for length, breadth, and depth make a body, and six is composed of triangles. But there is no fitting time at present to go through these things precisely, lest, leaving our subject, we consider a side issue.

“So the church, coming here into this wilderness that is barren of evils, as we said before, is nourished, winged with the heaven-traversing wings of virginity, which the word called ‘the wings of the great eagle,’ having conquered the serpent and driven away the stormy clouds from her full moon. For the sake of these things all these intervening words have been brought in, to teach you, fair virgins, to imitate your mother with all your might, and not to be troubled by the vexations and changes and afflictions of life, so that you may enter proudly with her into the bridal chamber, showing forth your lamps. Do not, then, lose heart at the ‘schemes’ and slanders of the beast, but equip yourselves strongly for the battle, armed with the helmet ‘of salvation’ and ‘the breastplate’ and the greaves. For you will cause him countless terror if you attack him with great spirit and courage, and he will not stand at all, seeing his opponents drawn up from a stronger position; but at once the many-headed and many-faced beast will let you carry off the prizes of the seven bouts, the beast that is ‘in front a lion, behind a serpent, in the middle a Chimaera, breathing out the terrible might of blazing fire. And her Christ the king slew, trusting the signs of his Father.’ For she destroyed many, and no one endured her as she belched out deadly foam from her jaws, until Christ first loosened her and overcame her, and made her altogether weak and contemptible for us.

“Therefore, taking a manly and sober spirit, set your weapons against the swelling beast, and do not retreat at all, troubled at the things he boasts of. For you will have countless glory if, having conquered, you take away the seven crowns upon him, for which the contest and the wrestling lie before us, according to our teacher Paul. For she who has first fought down the devil and put to death his seven heads becomes master of the seven crowns of virtue, having contended through the seven great contests of chastity. For one head of the dragon is incontinence and luxury: whoever crushes it wears the crown of self-control. Another head is cowardice and softness: whoever tramples it takes the crown of martyrdom. Other heads are unbelief and folly and the other advantages of wickedness in the same way: whoever overcomes and destroys them carries off the honours for them, as the dragon's strength is in many ways de-horned. For the ten horns and stings, which he was said to carry on his heads, are, fair virgins, the ten contraries of the Decalogue, with which he is accustomed to gore and strike the souls of most people, thinking and contriving the opposite of the commandment ‘You shall love the Lord your God’ and of the laws that follow. See one horn of his, fiery and bitter, sexual immorality, with which he strikes the incontinent; see adultery, see falsehood, see love of money, see theft and the other things akin and related to these, which grow strong on his man-slaying heads. When you have de-horned these with Christ fighting at your side, you will take them, garlanding your divine heads with your crowns won against the dragon. For it is ours to prefer the better things and set them before earthly ones, having received a reason that is sovereign and free, beyond all compulsion, to choose by our own authority what is pleasing, not being slaves to fate and fortune … as not a man, but blessed and good he would be, if, using the human example of Christ, and painting himself after him and imitating him, he lives. For the greatest of all evils, innate in most people, is to refer the causes of sins to the movements of the stars and to say that our life is steered by the compulsions of fate, as those do who have studied the stars with great arrogance; for, trusting in supposition rather than understanding, which is something between truth and falsehood, they have been greatly deceived about the contemplation of what truly is. So, if you would allow me, Arete, now that the speech you bade me give is completed, my lady, I will try, with you contending alongside and inspiring me, to show clearly, against those who are angry and dispute with us, saying that we do not speak truly in declaring that man is free, that ‘by their own wickedness they have sorrows beyond their lot,’ choosing what is pleasant before what is profitable.” ARETE: I allow it and will contend alongside you; for the speech will be perfectly adorned when these things too have been added.