Recognitions 2.69–3.17

And Peter said: “Do not think that we say these things are to be received by faith alone; they are also to be asserted by reason. For it is not safe to commit these things to bare faith without reason, since the truth certainly does not lack reason. And therefore he who has received these things fortified by reason can never lose them; but he who receives them without proofs, by assent to a simple statement, can neither keep them safely nor be certain whether they are true; for he who believes easily also departs easily. But he who has sought and received the reason for the things he has believed, bound as it were by the chains of reason itself, can never be torn away or separated from what he has believed. And therefore the more eager one is in seeking reason, the firmer he will be in keeping the faith.”

To this Simon said: “It is a great thing that you promise, that the eternity of the immense light can be shown from the law.” And when Peter had said, “Whenever you wish,” Simon said: “Since the hour is now late, tomorrow, with me present and resisting, if you can prove that this world was made and that souls are immortal, you will have me as a helper in your preaching.” When he had said this, he went out; and of all the people who had come with him, a third part followed him, about a thousand men; but the rest, bending their knees, prostrated themselves before Peter. And he, invoking the name of God over them, cured some who had demons and healed others who were sick, and so dismissed the people rejoicing, charging them to gather earlier the next day. But Peter, when the crowds had withdrawn, had places spread on the ground in the open air of the court where the disputation had taken place, and reclined with those eleven; but I took food reclining with certain others who had also received the beginnings of hearing the word of God and were very dear.

But the most kind Peter, considering that this separation might perhaps cause me sadness, said to me: “It is not from pride, Clement, that I do not share a meal with those who have not yet been purified. But I fear that I might harm myself and do them no good. For I want you to know this for certain: everyone who has at some time worshiped idols and adored those whom the pagans call gods, or has tasted of what was sacrificed to them, is not free of an unclean spirit; for he has become a table companion of demons, and has taken a share with that demon whose likeness he formed in his mind, either by fear or by love. And because of these things he is not clean of the unclean spirit, and therefore needs the purification of baptism, so that the unclean spirit may go out of him, which has settled in the inner affections of his soul; and, what is worse, it does not reveal that it lies hidden within, lest, being exposed, it be put to flight.”

“For these unclean spirits love to cling to the bodies of men, so that through their ministry they may fulfil their own desires, and, inclining the movements of the soul toward what they themselves desire, may compel them to obey their lusts, so that they become wholly vessels of demons. One of these is this Simon, who, seized by such a disease, can no longer be healed, because he is sick by will and purpose. Nor does the demon dwell in him against his will; and therefore, if anyone wished to put it to flight and expel it from him, since it is inseparable and, so to speak, has now become his soul, he would seem rather to kill him and incur the crime of murder. Let none of you, then, be saddened at being separated from our table; for each one must observe this for a time, as long as he himself chooses. He who wishes to be baptized quickly is separated for a short time, but he who wishes it later, for a long time. Each one, then, has it in his own power to make the time of his repentance short or long; and therefore it lies with you, when you wish, to come to our table, and not with us, to whom it is not permitted to take food with anyone unless he has been baptized. It is you, then, who rather keep us from your table, if you delay purification and are baptized later.” Having said this, he blessed and took food. And after this, when he had given thanks to God, he went in and rested, and likewise all of us; for it was now night.

Meanwhile Peter, rising at cockcrow and wishing to wake us, found us awake, with the evening lamp still burning; and when he had greeted us as usual and we had all sat down, he began thus: “Nothing is more difficult, my brethren, than to dispute about the truth before a mixed multitude of people. For what is may not be told to all as it is, because of those who listen maliciously and treacherously; yet it is not right to deceive, because of those who sincerely desire to hear the truth. What, then, shall one do who addresses an undiscriminating crowd? Conceal what is true? And how will he instruct those who are worthy? But if he sets forth the pure truth to those who do not desire to obtain salvation, he wrongs him by whom he was sent and from whom he received the command not to cast the pearls of his words before swine and dogs, who, struggling against them with arguments and sophisms, roll them in the mud of carnal understanding, and with their barking and filthy answers break and weary the preachers of the word of God. For this reason I too, in most matters, using a certain circumlocution, strove not to publish the principal understanding concerning the supreme Divinity to less worthy ears.” And after this, beginning with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he set it out to us briefly and clearly, so that all of us who heard wondered how men, forsaking the truth, have turned to vanity.

As Peter was saying this, Aquila said: “You have spoken rightly; tell us, then, the things that belong to the truth.” And Peter said: “Ask me about whatever you wish.” And Aquila said: “Discuss the principle and the principles, and that which Simon censured as unfitting: that Christ is called the Son of God, lest God be thought to suffer things like plants and other inanimate things …”

Peter, seeing that all wished to hear this very thing, set out the whole account thus: “The name ‘principle’ is applied to many and diverse things, namely sensible and intelligible. But lest we seem to turn to intelligible things before experience of sensible ones, it is fitting to begin first from visible things, so that, taking an example from what is near, we may then come to the comprehension of intelligible things. Thus the sun, for example, was established as the principle or rule of the day, and the moon, on the other hand, of the night; these were established to hold rule, and received from him that they should be at the beginning. And he who composed these first founded heaven and earth, and besides these composed the land, water, and winged animals, trees too and plants, and after these man—not only giving them a beginning so that they might exist, but also that they might live according to the command of God. So there can indeed be many principles, but for him who is there are no principles. For there is one principle, and one principle without principle; the things after these are improperly called principles, if they are called so at all. I set out beforehand the reason for this example, from sensible to intelligible things, so that, using this way, we may possess a firm and certain safeguard in the teaching about intelligible things. We say, then, that God is without beginning, as ineffable providence shows, who was neither made by himself nor begotten by himself; for he is without beginning and unbegotten. The name ‘unbegotten’ does not give us to understand what he is, but that he was not made. But those who called that which is unbegotten ‘self-father’ and ‘self-begotten’, that is, father of himself and son of himself, tried to do it insult, serving doubtful reasonings. For, understanding like little children, they thought that what was before it was born needed birth; and, taking ‘that which was’ for ‘that it came to be’, they raved with madness in saying that it was made as if by itself, and dared, like men possessed, to compare what is unbegotten to plants. All these things, being set in impiety, have ignorance as their consequence. For they did not understand that in saying this very thing they say that he both was and was not. For inasmuch as he begot, he was; but inasmuch as he was born, he was not. It is established, then, that he was not insofar as he was born, and that he was insofar as he begot. But the profession of piety does not allow us to say that the same underwent both at once.”

“Then also our common notions carefully repel so great a blasphemy, paying due honor to the unbegotten. What, then, would any of those who used the impious names say if questioned? Only that he was before he was, father to himself, having being before he had furnished himself with being. By what reasoning could he be called ‘self-’, father of himself and son of himself, when what he would be did not yet exist—a sign of an understanding existing before? Do you dare to say that what is unmade was made by itself? They thought they said this with learning, like drunkards who take shadows for pits. Therefore, before all things, we who make inquiry into immortal things must begin from the traditions of the Lord, where, separating the condition of mortal things from immortal, he taught us to endure dangers and temptations even to death itself for the hope of the good things of the kingdom, saying: ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill souls; but fear him who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna.’ And truly, if the soul does not die with the body, it is certainly not divided, nor does it suffer anything else of what the body suffers, for example influx or efflux, thinness or thickness, health or sickness, severing or joining. And even in the very procreation of men the soul contributes nothing by way of efflux; in every movement its substance stands unchangeable, but by its diverse movement it stirs one body and another to be affected. The body, then, flows and is affected in its substance, as is known by experience, when after the forming of those born the womb is emptied, through the growth of the infant, pushing and pushed as if in a struggle, by the word of the Creator: for what has been formed hastens to come out, and what formed it desires to put it forth. This cause carries the passions themselves over to the succession of the same thing; and when the passion has occurred, a common danger occurs more often than a particular one.”

“And everything that serves the desires for women is advanced and prepared naturally according to each one's age—for example, in one way in the boy, in another in the youth, in another in the man. For the infant has the working of these in potency, but does not yet have in potency the movements of the soul as well; the youth is ready for the appointed end, but does not yet have the use of discernment; the man, consenting, possesses the purpose of completion. And it must be said that the soul is immortal and the body flowing not only from these things, but also from the commandments which apply to it as the common person, which the Lord speaks: ‘It was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery; but I say, Do not serve desire even in looking’—speaking very carefully. For if the body is naturally bound to intercourse with women, and is rather compelled to serve what it has received, so that it might exist and have it in its form—which is also the chief part of carnal procreation—how could anyone suppose that it was said to the body, ‘You shall not commit adultery; but I say, Do not serve desire,’ and not rather that the commandment of the better thing is intimated here to the soul, which is a free substance, having power to loosen or rein in such passions as the body works? So too, hoping for the things to come, we are not angry, we restrain wrath, and we disdain women, raising our minds by the hope of things to come; not, as I said, having all that we are servile to female operations, but one part serving by nature, which is the body, as we showed, and another free, the mind, which is the movement of the immortal soul.”

“These things being so, we have found the best track toward the comprehension of intelligible things, with God speaking. Let us go by it, then, without danger, using the immortal soul as our helm, no longer allowing carnal passion to rush upon that immortal and intelligible substance, and assigning to each of the intelligible beings only so much honor as God, who is established to be and to rule, permits it. For there is a first, which is unbegotten, to which the prophet also bears witness: ‘I God am first, and I after these, and besides me there is no God’; and by this is understood that he is without beginning and unbegotten.”

Clement and the others asked what this ‘Unbegotten’ is, wishing to hear. And Peter, noticing, said: “There is no small danger in speaking or hearing about that which is without beginning; but you, from desire for what has been said, risk rushing upon immensity; and you are trying, as I see, to make me suffer this, thinking you can steal from me something about that which is ineffable. I warn you, brethren and fellow servants, not to seek what he is, but only to desire to hear that he is. And more than this must not be said about it. The Unbegotten is to be honored not by the name alone, for it is also without beginning; and this which is without beginning and unbegotten is God, who is proclaimed only by the opinion of the things that have been made, but is comprehended by himself. For he will not find that something of him was first and see something of him made afterwards, since it is established that he is without beginning; that is the condition of the things that have been made. Therefore that which is ineffable has no interval for inquiring into itself, to foresee what it was before it was; for no curiosity follows upon him who is his own essence. He knows himself, then, who does not question himself about himself. But we have said even more of these things than is fitting; for that which is unbegotten loves to be honored by silence alone. You have received, then, without danger, as far as we could perceive it, that this substance is without beginning.”

“This God, then, who did not begin to be, begot the firstborn of all creation, as befitted God: not changing himself, not turning himself, not dividing himself, not flowing out, not extending anything. For remember that these are passions of bodies, which we avoid attributing even to the soul, for fear that its immortality be taken away by these attributes. God, then, begot that which we have also learned to call a thing made; and to call it both begotten and made, and the other words of this kind, allows us to posit that which, being without form, is the likeness of the begetter. For in those that differ in form, the begotten and the made must be distinguished. Remaining, then, God begot, suffering no division. For that which is is not more honorable to God and to this Unbegotten than that which is not, as if begotten. For when he willed, he did not have a power slow toward what he willed, nor did his power exceed his will; but such as was the measure he willed, such did he beget. For if bodies, remaining and not suffering, subject to the necessity of their thickness, make shadows exist, how much more shall we grant that the Only-begotten, proceeding by will, follows upon the unbegotten power. And as bodies are understood before shadows, so much more is the unbegotten substance understood before the begotten, even if he received from him who was that he should be. For this reason, then, he is truly and fittingly called begotten and made and created, because he is not the unbegotten substance. I remember indeed that Simon accused us of blasphemy because we said that Christ is the Son of God, as if we made God equal to men and plants; but you, from desire to learn, hasten on.”

When all gladly agreed, Peter said: “The way of this unbelief is plain, Aquila and the rest. For one who does not know for certain, but has received an opinion only as far as hearing, is afraid to believe; whereas he could easily cast off the excuse of his unbelief for joy at what is promised, and, carried away by the desire to learn, he does not hesitate to make public the unbelief he had about what is being sought. But discussion of this matter belongs to a second occasion, lest an uncertain hope of faith, drawing you away, be accepted in place of faith in the inquiry. Everywhere let God and the thought of him come first for us. God, being unbegotten, remains of his own nature inviolable, and he kept his operation by will in a virgin manner. But that which is not unbegotten cannot of its own nature be virgin; for it was made, as brought under the touch of its begetter and maker. Let it be understood how it befitted God to beget the Only-begotten and firstborn of all creation, but not as from some material; for that is the servitude of animate and inanimate things. Nor, coming into operation, did he beget something of himself; for he would not remain inviolable and impassible if he worked upon himself. It is full of impiety to suspect these things of the unbegotten; for we, sons of the impious, are in danger, thinking that we understand piously, of bringing a great blasphemy upon the Unbegotten by supposing him male-female. I remember indeed him who warned us, brethren.”

“Remaining, then, God begot, his will going before, as was said before. For this reason he is truly called Only-begotten; for he has what he is from the unbegotten, and he is truly called Son, for he was born of the unborn. Yet we gently and gradually loosen, by will, the harmful controversy of those who dare to say that the unmade differs from the made by name alone, and to affirm that what is distinguished as begotten is, over against the unborn, an unbegotten substance. If it is said so, what is said is not, and what is, is not said. For the unmade is substance; and if it is called made, it rejects what it was not called. Especially since God is of himself rational and of himself without beginning, which is not impossible; but it is more impious that that which is of itself rational and of itself unbegotten should not rather wish to be at one with itself than to submit to the order of duality, thinking birth more honorable than unborn permanence. For it is not one, nor does he command himself, saying: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ Nor does he contend against himself, so that some part of him should remain unbegotten and some part be subjected to birth; nor know and foreknow unbegottenly that some part of himself would be born and some part would beget; not at all unaware that he would be more honorable than himself, one part giving commands and the other receiving them—for example, what was said: ‘Sit at my right hand’; or what pertains to sending; or that he praised himself, preferring himself, saying: ‘And God saw that they were good,’ after the things which are known to have been made had been completed by the Only-begotten in six days, seeing his will unchanged in the completed works of the Only-begotten's divine operation.”

“But if the unbegotten Father was not made, nor is the maker of himself, as we have shown, how indeed would he make or beget from himself something that did not admit birth and making even in name? For what is does not have its being through these; and to say these things of God is impious. For to those who can see even a little, that unbegotten, impassible, unborn substance is manifest. And if even after the birth the substance never rose up to dissension, though distinct in number—for he is not Autopator, that is, father to himself—how would he not rather love, in an unborn agreement, that which was unbegotten in substance, but by begetting numbered into a duality? For of this incongruity the mother is ignorance about God, and its fellow worker and sister is negligence about the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, a pledge for the keeping of the things given us by the Lord (whom we received not many days after his ascension), has what he is from the Only-begotten, the fullest declaration of his power; just as the Only-begotten and firstborn of all is the unchangeable image of the unbegotten power—an image indeed unique, remaining spotless, which, being visible, affords the vision of the unbegotten to intelligible and sensible beings. It is as if someone wishing to show the sun, for example, or something else, to those who cannot see it by themselves, while they need to see the sun, tempering that necessity to their sight, hastens to show the sun by a mirror, and, bringing not the sun itself, casts it on the mirror; so too the Only-begotten himself is not unbegotten, but shows in himself the whole unbegotten power, since he is such and so great in deity. By those who did not inquire carefully he was suspected to be unbegotten; but those among whom the inquiry itself proceeds with the fear of God not only refuse to say any such thing but take care not even to think it. Since, then, there is one unbegotten and one begotten, the Holy Spirit cannot be called Son, nor firstborn; for he was made through the one who was made, and he is numbered beneath the Father and the Son, as the first seal of the power of the second, through the one who was made. For he, bearing by will the Father's equal weight, the working of unborn permanence in an image, is rightly numbered next after the unbegotten.” And he set out to us briefly and clearly many other things about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that all of us who heard wondered how men, forsaking the truth, have turned to vanity.

But when day had dawned, someone came in saying: “A very great multitude is waiting in the court, and in their midst stands Simon, wishing to preoccupy the ears of the people with very wicked persuasions.” And Peter at once went out and stood in the place where he had disputed the day before, and all the people turned to him and attended to him with joy. But when Simon perceived that the people rejoiced at the sight of Peter and were moved to affection for him, he said in confusion: “I wonder at the folly of men, who call me a magician and love Peter, though, having long known me, they ought rather to love me. And therefore from this sign those who have sense can understand that Peter may rather seem to be the magician, since affection is not paid to me, to whom it is almost due from long acquaintance, but is lavished on him, to whom it is due by no familiarity.”

And when Simon was saying many such things, Peter, having greeted the people as usual, answered thus: “Each one's own conscience is enough, Simon, to refute him; but if you wonder at this, that those who know you not only do not love you but even hate you, learn the reason from me. Though you are a seducer, you profess to preach the truth; for this reason you had many friends who desired to learn the truth. But when they saw in you things contrary to what you professed, since, as I said, they were lovers of truth, they began not only not to love you but to hate you. Yet you were not at once deserted by them, because you still promised that you could show them what is true. So as long as no one was present who could show it, they put up with you; but when the hope of better teaching smiled on them, they despised you and desire to know what they understand to be better. And you, acting by wicked arts, believed at first that you could escape notice; but you do not; for you are pressed and, against your hope, exposed, because you not only did not know the truth but would not even hear it from those who knew it. For if you had been willing to hear, that saying of his would surely have become known to you, who said that nothing is hidden that will not be known, nor covered that will not be revealed.”

While Peter was saying these and similar things, Simon answered: “I do not want you to keep me busy with words, Peter; I demand from you what you promised yesterday. For you said you could show that the law teaches about the immensity of the eternal light, and that there are only two heavens, and these created, but that the higher is the seat of that light, in which the ineffable Father alone dwells forever; and that after the likeness of that heaven this visible heaven too was made, which you also affirmed will pass away. You said, then, that the Father of all is one, because there cannot be two immense beings; otherwise neither of them will be immense, because in that in which the one subsists he sets a limit to the subsistence of the other. If, then, you not only promise these things but can also show them from the law, leave off saying more and begin from here.” And Peter said: “If I were asked to speak about these things for your sake, who come only to contradict, you would never hear even one word from me; but since a farmer who wishes to sow good ground must lose some seeds, either on rocky places, or on places to be trodden by men, or in thorny places full of briers—as our Master too explained, indicating by these the different dispositions of each soul—I will not delay.”

Then Simon said: “You seem to me to be angry; and if so, there is no need to enter into the contest.” And Peter said: “I see that you perceive that you are going to be refuted, and you wish politely to escape the contest. For what have you seen that should have made me angry with you—a man who wishes to deceive so great a people and, when he has nothing to say, feigns moderation, and who also commands by his own authority that the controversy be conducted as he himself wishes and not as order demands?” And Simon said: “I will command myself to be patient with your ignorance, so as to show that you wish to seduce the people, but that I teach what is true. But now I leave off discussing the immense light; answer me what I ask you: since God made all things, as you say, whence is evil?” And Peter said: “To ask in this way is not the part of an opponent but of a learner. If, then, you wish to learn, confess it, and I will first teach you how you ought to learn; and when you have learned to listen, then I will begin to teach you in order. But if you do not wish to learn, as one who knows everything, I will first set out the faith I preach; you too set out what seems true to you; and when the profession of each of us has been made plain, let the hearers judge whose discourse rests on truth.” And Simon answered to this: “That is a joke: here is one who promises to teach me! Nevertheless I will put up with you and bear your ignorance and arrogance. I confess it: I wish to learn; let us see how you can teach me.”

And Peter said: “If you truly wish to learn, learn this first: how ignorantly you have asked. For you say, ‘Since God created all things, whence is evil?’ But before you asked this, three kinds of question should have come first: first, whether evil exists; second, what evil is; third, to whom it belongs, and whence it comes.” To this Simon said: “O most ignorant and most uneducated man, is there anyone who does not confess that there is evil in this life? Hence I, thinking that you had at least the common sense of all men, asked whence evil is—not wishing to learn, I who know everything, least of all from you, who know nothing, but to show you ignorant of everything. And lest you think that I speak to you so harshly because I am angry: I am moved by pity for those present, whom you are trying to deceive.” And Peter said: “You are very wicked if you do such great wrongs without being angry; but it is impossible for smoke not to rise where there is fire. Nevertheless I will speak, lest I seem to keep you busy with words so as to avoid answering what you have said unfittingly. You say that all confess that evil exists, which is certainly false; for, first of all, the whole nation of the Hebrews denies that evil subsists.”

And Simon, interrupting him, said: “They do rightly who say that there is no evil.” And Peter said: “We did not now propose to speak of this, but only that not all say there is evil. The second thing was to ask you what evil is: a substance, an accident, or an act? And many other things of this kind. And after this, in respect of what and how it is, or to whom evil belongs: to God or to angels or to men, to the godly or the ungodly, to all or to some, to itself or to none. And then you might ask whence it is: from God or from nothing; whether it always was, or began in time; whether it is useful or useless; and many other things that such a question requires.” To this Simon answered: “Forgive me; I erred in the first question. But suppose that I now ask first: does evil exist or not?”