The Instructor (Paedagogus)

The Instructor (Paedagogus)

Clement of Alexandria

c. AD 190–200

The second book of Clement’s great trilogy (after the Exhortation). Here the Instructor is Christ the Word, who trains new Christians in daily life. Book 1 describes who the Instructor is and how he deals with us as children of God. Books 2 and 3 apply his teaching to eating and drinking, furniture and entertainment, dress and jewellery, marriage, and how Christians should behave in the city, in bath and at the banquet. The work ends with a short hymn to Christ.

A note for readers. Much of the Instructor is practical advice for wealthy Christians in Alexandria around AD 200: what to eat, how to dress, whether to wear jewellery or visit the baths. Clement draws on Stoic ideas about nature and self-control as well as on Scripture, and some of his rules (and his remarks about the body and about women) belong to his time. Read the long sections on food and dress as a window into daily church life, not as a rulebook.

Book 1

1.arg. Chapter headings of the first book. 1. What the Instructor promises. 2. That the Instructor takes charge of us because of our sins. 3. That the Instructor loves humanity. 4. That the Word is Instructor equally of men and of women. 5. That all who devote themselves to the truth are children before God. 6. Against those who suppose that the names “children” and “infants” point to teaching of the first elementary lessons. 7. Who the Instructor is, and about his instruction. 8. Against those who think that what is just is not good. 9. That it belongs to the same power to do good and to punish justly, and in this chapter, what the manner of the Word’s instruction is. 10. That the same God, through the same Word, both holds humanity back from sins by his threats and saves it by his encouragement. 11. That the Word gave instruction through the law and the prophets. 12. That the Instructor, in keeping with a father’s disposition, uses both sternness and kindness. 13. That just as right conduct comes about by right reason, so, conversely, sin is contrary to reason.

The Office of the Instructor.

1a What the Instructor promises. A foundation of truth has been laid for ourselves, you children: an unbreakable base of knowledge for the holy temple of the great God. It is a good exhortation, a longing for eternal life through reasonable obedience, laid down in a field of the mind. Now there are three things in a human being: character, actions and passions. The Exhortation has been given charge of his character. It guides us into reverence for God, and as a keel is laid beneath a ship, this Word is laid beneath us for the building up of faith. We rejoice greatly in it, renounce our old opinions and are made young again for salvation. We sing along with the prophecy that says in its psalm, “How good is God to Israel, to those who are upright in heart.” The Word that gives counsel oversees all our actions, and the Word that comforts heals our passions. Yet it is one and the same Word throughout. He snatches a person away from the habit that grew up with him and from the custom of the world, and trains him toward the single way of salvation, faith in God.

1b So when the heavenly guide, the Word, was calling people to salvation, his name was “Exhorter.” This stirring-up side of his work is singled out, so that the whole Word is named from a part. All true devotion to God is exhortation, because it produces in our kindred reason a longing for the life that now is and the life to come. But now he is both healer and counselor at once. Following his own earlier steps, he advises the one who has already been turned toward him, and above all he promises healing for the passions within us. So let us fittingly call him by one name, Instructor. He leads us on in practice and does not simply teach a method. His aim is to make the soul better, not to teach it, and to lead us into a self-controlled life, not a scholarly one. The same Word is indeed a teacher as well, but not here. The teaching Word is the one who explains and reveals in matters of doctrine. The Instructor is practical. First he urged us toward a settled disposition of good character. Now he calls us also to do what we ought, handing on pure counsels and showing to those who come later pictures of those who earlier went astray.

1c Both are most helpful. One is the form of counsel, which leads to obedience. The other is taken in the role of example, and it too is twofold, like the first pair. One kind of example is for us to imitate by choosing what is good. The other is for us to turn away by rejecting the opposite. From this the healing of the passions follows. The Instructor strengthens our souls through the comfort the examples bring. With his kindly counsels, as with gentle medicines, he puts the sick on a regimen that leads to full knowledge of the truth. Health and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge is gained by learning, health by healing. So a person who is still sick could not first learn any of the teachings before he is completely well. Nor is each instruction always spoken in the same way to those who are learning and to those who are sick. To the first it is spoken for knowledge, to the second for healing.

1d Just as sick bodies need a physician, so those who are weak in soul need an instructor to heal our passions. After that, a teacher will take over. He prepares the soul to be clean and fit for knowledge, able to receive the revelation of the Word. The Word, who loves humanity in every way, is eager to bring us to perfection by a step suited to salvation and to effective discipline. So he follows this fine arrangement: first he urges us on from the beginning, then he trains us, and finally he teaches us fully.

Our Instructor's Treatment of Our Sins.

2a Our Instructor watches over us because of our sins. He is like his Father, God, whose Son he is. You, my children, are the ones he instructs. He is sinless, blameless, and free from passion in his soul. He is God in human form, undefiled, serving his Father’s will. He is the Word who is God, who is in the Father and at the Father’s right hand, and who is God even in the form he took. He is our spotless image, and we must try with all our strength to make our souls like him. He is completely free from human passions. That is why he alone is judge, because he alone is without sin. We, as far as we are able, must try to sin as little as possible. For nothing is so urgent as, first, to be rid of our passions and sicknesses, and then to stop ourselves from slipping easily into the habit of sin.

2b It is best, then, not to sin at all, in any way. We say that this belongs to God alone. Second best is never to commit a wrong deliberately, which is the mark of a wise person. Third is not to fall into very many unintended offences, which belongs to those who have been well and nobly trained. Not to linger long in sins let us put last. Even this is a saving thing for those who are called back to repentance, so that they can take up the fight again. The Instructor, it seems to me, speaks very well through Moses: “If anyone dies suddenly beside him, at once the head of his vow will be defiled, and it shall be shaved.” He calls unintended sin “sudden death.” He says it defiles because it stains the soul. So he prescribes the cure at once, with all speed, advising that the head be shaved immediately. He is urging us to wipe away the hair of ignorance that shades the reasoning mind. Then the mind, which has its seat in the brain, is left bare of the thick growth of wickedness and can run back to repentance.

2c Then, after a few words in between, he adds, “The former days were without reason.” This clearly points to sins that were not done according to reason. The unintended act he called “sudden,” and sinning he called “irrational.” This is why the Word, the Instructor, has taken charge over us: to prevent irrational sin. Notice also this phrase in Scripture: “Therefore thus says the Lord.” The earlier sin is exposed by the words that follow, since just judgment comes after it. The prophets show this plainly. It is as if they were saying, “If you had not sinned, he would not have threatened this.” So they say, “Therefore thus says the Lord,” and “Because you did not listen to these words, therefore thus says the Lord,” and “Therefore, behold, says the Lord.” 2d This is why there is prophecy: because of obedience and disobedience. Through obedience we are saved, and through disobedience we are corrected. So our Instructor, the Word, heals through his exhortations the passions of the soul that are against nature. Strictly speaking, help for bodily diseases is called medicine, an art that human wisdom can teach. But the Word of the Father alone is the healer of human sicknesses, and the holy charmer who sings over the sick soul. “Save your servant, my God, who hopes in you,” it says. “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I will cry to you all day long.” For as Democritus says, “Medicine heals the diseases of the body, but wisdom takes the passions from the soul.” The good Instructor, who is Wisdom, the Word of the Father who made humanity, cares for his whole creation. He is the Physician who can cure every ill of humankind, and he heals both body and soul.

2e The Savior says to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take the bed you are lying on, and go home.” At once the sick man was made strong. And to the dead man he said, “Lazarus, come out.” The dead man came out of the tomb as he had been before he suffered, having practiced resurrection. He also heals the soul itself by commandments and by gifts of grace. As for his counsels, he perhaps holds them back for a time. But he is rich in gifts, and he says to us sinners, “Your sins are forgiven.” As soon as we thought of it, we became children, receiving the best and most secure order from his own good order. This order is first at work about the world and the heaven, the circuits of the sun, the circles and courses of the other stars, all for man’s sake. Then it is at work about man himself, on whom all its zeal is spent. Counting him its greatest work, it set his soul straight with prudence and self-control. It blended his body with beauty and fine proportion. And into the actions of mankind it breathed its own right-doing and good order.

The Philanthropy of the Instructor.

3a The Instructor loves humankind. The Lord benefits everything and helps everything, both as man and as God. As God he forgives our sins; as man he trains us along the way so that we do not sin. It is fitting, then, that man is a friend to God, since man is his own creation. The other things he made simply by command, but man he shaped with his own hands, and he breathed into him something of his own. Now what was formed by him and after his own pattern was either made by God because it was desirable for its own sake, or fashioned because it was desirable for the sake of something else. If man is desirable for his own sake, then God, being good, loved what is good. The love-charm is then within man himself, and this is what is called the breath of God. But if man became desirable for the sake of other things, God had no other reason for making him than this: without man it was not possible for one to be a good Creator, or for the other to arrive at the knowledge of God. (For God would not have accomplished the purpose for which man was made unless man had been made.) The power God had hidden within him, his willing, he carried further through the power that works outside him in making. He took from man what he made man; he saw what he had, and what he willed came to be. There is nothing that God cannot do.

3b Man, then, whom God made, is desirable for his own sake. What is desirable for its own sake is close to the one for whom it is so, and it is welcome and lovable to him. But can something be lovable to someone and yet not be loved by him? Man has been shown to be lovable, so man is loved by God. For how could he not be loved, for whose sake the only-begotten Word of faith is sent down from the Father’s bosom? Here is faith in overflowing measure: the Lord himself plainly confesses it and says, “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me.” And again he says, “And you have loved them, as you have loved me.” What the Instructor wants and promises is already clear. He is engaged in deed and word, directing what must be done and forbidding the opposite. 3c It is clear that the other kind of discourse is the teaching kind. It is plain and spiritual and concerned with exact statement. It belongs to the higher vision of divine things, and we will set it aside for now. What is fitting for us is to love in return the one who leads us, lovingly, to the best life. We should live according to the ordinances of his will. We should not only carry out what is commanded and keep from what is forbidden. We should also turn away from some of the examples set before us and imitate others as closely as we can. In this way we do the works of the Instructor in his likeness, so that “in the image and in the likeness” may be fulfilled. For we wander through life as in deep darkness, and we need a guide who does not stumble and who is exact. The best guide is not blind, as the Scripture says, leading the blind into the pit. He is the Word, who sees sharply and looks through the hidden things of the heart.

3d There is no light that does not give light, nothing that moves without moving something, nothing that loves without loving. In the same way nothing is good that does not do us good and guide us toward salvation. So let us love the commandments by way of the works of the Lord. For the Word himself became flesh and showed us plainly the same virtue, both in practice and in contemplation. Let us take the Word as our law, and let us recognize his commandments and counsels as short, direct roads to eternity. For his orders are full of persuasion, not of fear.

Men and Women Alike Under the Instructor's Charge.

4a (Heading: That the Word is Instructor of men and women alike.) Let us, then, embrace this good obedience all the more and give ourselves to the Lord. Let us fasten on to the surest cable, which is faith in him, and understand that the virtue of a man and of a woman is the same. If God is one for both, the Instructor is also one for both. There is one church, one self-control, one modesty. Their food is shared, and marriage is a yoke they bear together. Breathing, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience and love are all alike. Those whose life is shared also share grace and salvation, and so their virtue and their training are shared too. “For in this age,” he says, “they marry and are given in marriage.” Only in this age is the female distinguished from the male. “But in that age it is so no longer.” There the rewards of this shared and holy life, which comes from the union of marriage, are kept in store not for male and female but for the human being, who is set free from the desire that divides him.

4b So the name “human being” is common to men and women. For this reason, I think, the Attic Greeks used the word “paidarion” (“little child”) of both sexes, not only of boys but of girls, if the comic poet Menander in his play *The Girl Who Was Slapped* seems reliable to anyone. He says something like: “my little daughter . . . for the little child (paidarion) is by nature very affectionate.” In the same way, “lambs” is a common name, expressing harmlessness, for the male and the female animal. And “the Lord himself shepherds us” forever. Amen. “Without a shepherd, neither sheep nor anything else is to live, nor children without an instructor, nor servants without a master.”

All Who Walk According to Truth are Children of God.

5a (Heading: That all who devote themselves to the truth are children with God.) It is clear from the name itself that paidagogia (“instruction”) is the training of children. What remains is to consider the children whom Scripture has in view, and then to put the Instructor in charge of them. We are the children. Scripture praises us in many ways and speaks of us in many figures, varying the simplicity of faith with different names. In the Gospel, for example, it says: “The Lord stood on the shore before the disciples (they happened to be fishing) and called out, ‘Children, do you have anything to eat?’” Here he addresses as children those who were already settled in the state of disciples. It also says: “They brought children to him” so that he might lay his hands on them in blessing. When the disciples tried to stop them, Jesus said, “Let the children be, and do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” The Lord himself makes clear what this means when he says, “Unless you turn and become like these children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” He is not speaking here in a figure about regeneration. He is setting before us the simplicity found in children, so that we may become like them.

5b The prophetic Spirit also singles out the children. It says: “The children cut branches of olive or palm and went out to meet the Lord, and they cried out, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” This is light, glory and praise offered to the Lord with supplication, for this is what “Hosanna” means when it is interpreted in the Greek language. And it seems to me that Scripture, hinting at the prophecy mentioned before, rebukes the careless: “Have you never read that out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have perfected praise?” In the same way the Lord in the Gospel goads his disciples, urging them to give heed to him as one already hurrying to the Father. He makes his hearers more eager by telling them beforehand that he will soon be gone. They must gather the fruit of the truth without holding back, he shows them, since the Word was just about to go up to heaven.

5c So again he calls them children, for he says, “Children, I am with you a little while longer.” And again he compares the kingdom of heaven to children “sitting in the marketplaces and saying, We piped for you, and you did not dance; we sang a funeral song, and you did not beat your breasts,” and whatever else he added that fits with this. It is not only the Gospel that thinks this way; prophecy agrees with it. David, for example, says, “Praise the Lord, you children; praise the name of the Lord.” And through Isaiah he says, “Look, I and the children whom God has given me.” Are you surprised to hear that men from the Gentiles are children before the Lord? You do not seem to understand the Attic Greek idiom. From it you can learn that beautiful, blooming and free-born young women are called “paidiskai,” and slave girls “paidiskaria,” who are also young women, honored with a diminutive form because of the fresh bloom of youth.

5d And when he says, “Let my little lambs stand on my right,” he is hinting at the simple-hearted, who are children, like lambs, and not grown men, like sheep by nature. He thought the little lambs worthy of special privilege, because he valued most highly the gentleness among people, the simplicity of mind, the freedom from malice. Again, when he says, “like suckling calves,” he is speaking of us figuratively once more; and “like a dove, without malice and without gall,” again he means us. Through Moses he also commands that two young doves, or a pair of turtledoves, be offered for sin. He is saying that the sinlessness, the harmlessness, and the readiness to forget wrongs of these tender young birds are acceptable to God, and he is showing that like cleanses like. The timidity of turtledoves also pictures a careful fear of sins. That he calls us the young birds, Scripture is witness: “As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,” so we are the Lord’s chicks. In this wonderful and mysterious way the Word sketches the simplicity of the soul as the age of childhood.

5e For in one place he calls us children, in another young birds, sometimes infants, elsewhere sons, and often offspring, and a young people and a new people. “My servants,” he says, “will be called by a new name” (by “new name” he means what is new and everlasting, undefiled, simple, childlike and true), “which will be blessed on the earth.” Speaking figuratively, he also calls us colts: free from the yoke of vice, untamed by wickedness, simple, and leaping only toward the Father himself. We are not “the horses that neigh after their neighbors’ wives,” the yoked beasts mad after females, but free and newborn colts, proud because of faith, running well toward the truth, quick toward salvation, trampling and stamping on the things of the world. 5f “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim it, daughter of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you, righteous and saving, and gentle himself, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt.” It was not enough for him to say “colt” alone; he added “young,” showing the youthfulness of humanity in Christ, and a simplicity that is eternal and never grows old. We little ones are such young colts, and our divine colt-tamer brings us up. Even if the young animal in Scripture is an ass, it is still a colt, the foal of an ass. “And he tied the colt to a vine.” He tied this simple, childlike people to the Word, whom he pictures as a vine. For the vine bears wine, as the Word bears blood, and both are a drink for people’s salvation: the wine for the body, the blood for the spirit.

5g That he calls us lambs as well, the Spirit is a reliable witness through Isaiah: “Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs.” Here lambs, even more tender than sheep, are a figure for simplicity. And indeed we ourselves honor the finest and most perfect things in life by a word taken from the child: we have named instruction “paideia” and guidance “paidagogia.” We hold that “paidagogia” is good guidance toward virtue, beginning from childhood. The Lord reveals the meaning of the name “child” to us more clearly. When a dispute arose among the apostles about which of them was greater, Jesus set a child in the middle and said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is greater in the kingdom of heaven.” So he does not use the name “children” as though it meant the age of those who cannot reason, as some have thought. And when he says, “Unless you become like these children, you will not enter the kingdom of God,” it must not be taken in an ignorant way.

5h So we who are infants no longer roll on the ground, and we no longer crawl on the earth as we did before, like snakes, wriggling with our whole body after senseless desires. Instead we stretch upward in mind, separated from the world and from sins, “touching the earth with only a small foot,” just enough to seem to be in the world, and we pursue holy wisdom. To those whose wits are sharpened for cunning, this seems foolishness. Rightly, then, those who know God alone as Father are called children: plain, infantile and pure, lovers of the horns of the unicorns. To those who have advanced in the Word he proclaimed this saying. He told them to be free of worry about the things of this world and urged them to give their attention to the Father alone, imitating children. So in the verses that follow he says, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for its own evil is enough for the day.” In this way he commands them to lay aside the cares of life and cling to the Father alone.

5i Whoever fulfils this commandment is truly an infant and a child, both to God and to the world: to the world as one who is deluded, and to God as one who is loved. Scripture says, “There is one teacher in heaven,” and this is agreed. So all those on earth will rightly be called disciples. For this is the truth: perfection belongs to the Lord, who always teaches, while childhood and infancy belong to us, who are always learning. For this reason prophecy honors the perfect by giving them the name “man.” For example, through David it says of the devil, “The Lord abhors a man of bloodshed.” It calls him a man because he is perfect in evil. And the Lord is also called man, because he is perfect in righteousness. 5j So, for instance, the apostle writes to the Corinthians: “For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” Whether he means them as infants or as holy ones, they are still presented to the Lord alone. Writing to the Ephesians, he explains the point at issue most clearly, speaking in this way: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the dice-play of men, by craftiness aimed at the scheming of error; but, speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in all things into him.” He says this “for the building up of the body of Christ,” “who is the head,” and who is the man who alone is perfect in righteousness.

5k But we who are infants must guard against the winds of the heresies, which blow upon us to puff us up. We must not put our trust in those who lay down other fathers for us. We are made perfect when we are the church, having received Christ as our head. Here it is right to look closely at the word “infant.” The Greek nēpion is not applied to fools. The foolish person is nēpytios, but nēpios comes from neēpios, just as ēpios is the tender-minded person. That is, the infant is one who has newly become gentle and mild in manner. The blessed Paul pointed this out most clearly when he said, “Though we could have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ, we became gentle among you, as a nurse cherishes her own children.” So the infant is gentle, and for that reason all the more tender: delicate, simple, guileless and without hypocrisy, straight and upright in purpose. This is the very substance of simplicity and truth.

5l “For on whom,” it says, “will I look, but on the gentle and quiet?” Such is the virgin word: tender and unfeigned. This is why a virgin bride is customarily called “tender” (atalē), and a child “tender-minded.” We are tender when we are soft toward persuasion, ready to be shaped toward goodness, free of bitterness, and unmixed with malice and crookedness. For the old generation was crooked and hard-hearted, but the company of infants, we who are the new people, is delicate like a child. In the letter to the Romans the apostle confesses that he rejoices over “the hearts of the innocent.” He also gives what we might call a definition of infants when he says, “I want you to be wise for what is good, but innocent for what is evil.” For we do not understand the name “infant” as expressing a lack, even though the pupils of the grammarians lay down that nē- is a negative prefix.

5m If those who run down childhood call us fools, see how they blaspheme against the Lord, since they take those who have fled to God for refuge to be fools. But if, as is rather the sense we should hear, they themselves take “children” to mean the simple, then let us rejoice in the name. For the new minds are “childlike” in the old folly: they have only just become wise, and they have dawned under the new covenant. God, at any rate, has only recently been known, through the coming of Christ. “For no one has known God except the Son, and the one to whom the Son reveals him.” So the new people are young, in contrast to the older people, because they have learned new blessings. Our age has its fullness in this youth that never grows old. In it we are always at our prime for understanding, always young, always gentle, always new. For those who have shared in a new Word must be new.

5n What shares in eternity tends to become like the incorruptible. So for us the name of childhood means a springtime for the whole of life, because the truth in us is ageless, and our character is poured out toward the truth. Wisdom is ever-blooming, always the same in the same way, and never changing. “Their children,” it says, “will be lifted on their shoulders and comforted on their knees. As a mother comforts someone, so I will comfort you.” The mother draws her children to herself, and we look for our mother, the Church. Everything weak and tender, since in its weakness it needs help, is welcome, sweet and delightful, and God does not withhold help from such as these. Fathers and mothers take more pleasure in seeing the foals of horses, the little calves of cattle, a lion’s cub, a deer’s fawn, and a human child. In the same way the Father of all welcomes those who have fled to him for refuge. He has been born them again by the Spirit into adoption as sons, and he knows them as gentle. He loves only these, helps them and fights on their behalf, and for this reason he calls them “child.”

5o I also trace Isaac back to the child. Isaac means “laughter.” The prying king saw him playing with his wife and helper, Rebecca. The king (his name was Abimelech) seems to me to represent a wisdom above the world, watching closely the mystery of the play. They interpret Rebecca as “endurance.” What a wise play this is: laughter helped by endurance, with the king looking on! The spirit of the children in Christ, who live as citizens in endurance, rejoices, and this too is the divine play. Heraclitus says that his Zeus plays a play like this. For what other work is fitting for a wise and perfect person than to play and rejoice together in the endurance of what is good, and in the ordering of what is good, keeping festival together with God? The prophecy can also be understood in another way: that we, like Isaac, laugh and rejoice in salvation.

5p Isaac also laughed, released from death, playing and rejoicing with his bride, the helper for our salvation, the Church. The firm name “endurance” is given to her, either because she alone remains forever, always rejoicing, or because she is made up of the endurance of believers, who are the members of Christ. The witness of those who endured to the end, and the thanksgiving for them, is the mystical play, and the salvation that helps us along with solemn gladness. So Christ the King looks down on our laughter from above. As the Scripture says, he “looks through the window.” He watches over his own Church: the thanksgiving, the blessing, the joy and gladness, and also the endurance that works with them, and the Church that binds them together. He shows only his face, which was lacking to the Church, now made perfect by her royal Head. 5q And where was the window through which the Lord showed himself? It was the flesh, through which he has been made visible. Isaac can also be taken another way, as a type of the Lord. He is a child, as a son (for he was Abraham’s son, as Christ is God’s Son), and he is an offering, as the Lord is. But unlike the Lord, he was not actually offered up. Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice, as the Lord carried the wood. And he laughed in a mystical way, prophesying that the Lord would fill us with joy, us who have been redeemed from corruption by the blood of the Lord. Isaac did not suffer. This was fitting, since he yielded the first place in suffering to the Word. But in not being slain he also hints at the Lord’s divinity. For Jesus rose again after his burial, as though he had not suffered, just as Isaac was released from the sacrifice.

5r I will offer one more very strong argument in support of the point before us. The Spirit himself calls the Lord a child, prophesying this through Isaiah: “Behold, a child has been born to us, a son has also been given to us, whose rule is upon his shoulder, and his name has been called Angel of Great Counsel.” Who, then, is this little child, in whose likeness we are little children? The same prophet describes his greatness: “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, by increasing instruction; and of his peace there is no end.” O the great God! O the perfect child! The Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. How could the instruction of that child not be perfect, reaching to all of us as children, guiding us, his little ones, as an instructor? 5s He has stretched out to us his hands, which we plainly believe. John, “the greatest prophet among those born of women,” also bears witness to this child: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Scripture calls young children lambs. So God the Word, who became man for our sake and wished to be made like us in every way, has been called the Lamb of God: the Son of God, the infant child of the Father.

The Name Children Does Not Imply Instruction in Elementary Principles.

6a The title “Children”: against those who think it means teaching in elementary lessons. We can answer those who love to find fault, and do so more than fully. We are not called children and infants because our learning is childish and worth despising, as those puffed up with “knowledge” have slandered us. On the contrary, the moment we were born again we received the perfection we were hurrying toward. For we were enlightened, and this means coming to know God. So the one who knows the perfect is not imperfect. Do not take me to be claiming that I have fully known God. It seemed right to the Word to say it in this way, and he is free. At the Lord’s baptism, a voice sounded from heaven, witnessing to the beloved one: “You are my beloved Son; today I have begotten you.” Let us ask the wise, then: was Christ, born again today, already perfect, or (which would be most absurd) lacking?

6b If he was lacking, he still has something to learn. But it is unthinkable that he should learn anything more, since he is God. No one could be greater than the Word, or be a teacher of the one and only Teacher. Will they not then admit, though unwillingly, that the Word, perfect and born of the perfect Father, was perfectly born again, according to the plan of the economy that was prefigured? And if he was perfect, why was the perfect one baptized? “It was necessary,” they say, “to fulfil what belongs to human beings.” Quite so. Then I ask: at the very moment he was baptized by John, did he become perfect? Clearly. Then he learned nothing more from John? Nothing. Is he perfected by the washing alone, and sanctified by the descent of the Spirit? That is how it is. The same thing happens to us, for whom the Lord became a pattern. When we are baptized we are enlightened; enlightened, we are made sons; made sons, we are made perfect; made perfect, we are made immortal. “I said,” it says, “you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” This work is called by many names: gift of grace, enlightenment, perfection, and washing. It is a washing, by which we are cleansed of our sins. It is a gift of grace, by which the penalties for our sins are cancelled. It is an enlightenment, by which we see that holy, saving light, that is, by which we see God clearly. And we call “perfect” the one who lacks nothing.

6c For what is still lacking to the one who has come to know God? It would be truly absurd for something incomplete to be called a gift of God’s grace. Since he is perfect, he will surely give perfect gifts. Just as everything comes into being the moment he commands it, so the completion of his grace follows as soon as he merely wills to give it. For the power of his will anticipates the time still to come. Besides, deliverance from evils is the beginning of salvation. So we who have first laid hold of the boundaries of life are already perfect, and we who have been separated from death already live. Salvation, then, is following Christ. “For what has come into being in him is life.” “Truly, truly, I say to you,” he says, “the one who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed over from death to life.” So to believe and be born again is, by itself, perfection in life, for God is never weak.

6d For just as his will is a work, and this work is called the world, so his purpose is the salvation of people, and this is called the church. He knows, then, those whom he has called, and those whom he has called he has saved. He called and saved them at the same moment. “For you yourselves,” says the apostle, “are taught by God.” So it is not right for us to think that what he teaches is incomplete. What is learned from him is the eternal salvation given by the eternal Savior, to whom be grace forever, amen. And the one who has simply been born again, as the very name implies, is enlightened. He is set free from the darkness at once and receives the light on the spot. Think of people who shake off sleep: they are immediately awake within. Or better, think of people who try to remove a cataract from the eyes. They do not supply from outside a light they lack, but remove the obstacle from the eyes and leave the pupil free. In the same way we who are baptized wipe away, by the divine Spirit, the sins that overshadow us like a mist. We then have the eye of the spirit free, unobstructed and full of light. By this eye alone we look upon the divine, since the Holy Spirit flows into us from heaven. This is a blending with an eternal radiance that is able to see the eternal light, for like is dear to like, and what is holy is dear to the source of holiness, which is properly called light: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” This is why I think the ancients called man “light.”

6e “But he has not yet received the perfect gift,” they say. I agree with that. Still, he is in the light, and the darkness does not overtake him. Between light and darkness there is nothing in the middle. The fulfillment is stored up for the resurrection of those who believe. This does not mean receiving something different, but obtaining the promise already declared. For we do not say that both things take place at the same time: the arrival at the goal, and the taking hold of it in advance. Eternity and time are not the same, and neither are the starting out and the end. Yet one and the same person is occupied with both, and with each of them. Faith, so to speak, is the starting out, born in time; the end is the obtaining of the promise, made secure forever. 6f The Lord himself has revealed most clearly that salvation is the same for all, when he said: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” As far as is possible in this world, which he hints at by “the last day,” we believe that we are made perfect. We are kept for that time, until this world comes to an end. For faith is the perfection of learning. This is why he says, “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life.” So if we who have believed have life, what more remains beyond possessing eternal life? Nothing is lacking to faith, since it is perfect and complete in itself. If anything were lacking to it, it would not be whole, and it would not be faith at all, but something limping in some respect. Nor, after we leave this life, does something else await those who have believed. Here we have been given the pledge without distinction, and because we have already grasped by faith what is to come, we receive it as present after the resurrection. In this way what was said is fulfilled: “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” Where faith is, there is the promise, and the completion of the promise is rest.

6g So knowledge lies in the illumination, and the end of knowledge is rest, which is understood to be the last thing we long for. Inexperience is ended by experience, and perplexity by finding a way through. In the same way darkness must vanish when we are illuminated. The darkness is ignorance, which makes us fall into sins because our sight of the truth is dim. Knowledge, then, is illumination. It makes ignorance vanish and gives us the power to see clearly. Throwing away what is worse also reveals what is better. What ignorance bound badly, full knowledge looses well. These bonds are quickly loosed by human faith and divine grace. Our offences are forgiven by one healing remedy, the baptism of the Word. We are washed from all our sins, and from that moment we are no longer evil. 6h This is the one grace of illumination: that our way of life is no longer what it was before we were washed. Knowledge dawns together with the illumination and flashes around the mind. At once we who were untaught hear and become disciples. Was it that this learning had come to us at some earlier time? You could not name the time. Instruction leads us around to faith, and faith is trained together with holy baptism by the Holy Spirit. Faith is the one salvation common to all humanity, and the same equality and fellowship with the righteous and loving God extends to everyone. The apostle explained this most clearly when he said: “Before faith came, we were guarded under the law, shut up for the faith that was about to be revealed. So the law has become our instructor to bring us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under an instructor.” Do you not hear that we are no longer under that law, which went with fear, but under the Word, the instructor of free choice?

6i Then Paul added a statement free of all partiality: “For you are all sons, through faith in God, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” So in the Word himself there are not some who are “knowers” and others who are merely “soulish.” All who have put away the desires of the flesh are equal, and spiritual before the Lord. Elsewhere he writes again: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all given one drink.” It is not out of place to use the very words of those who say that the remembrance of better things is a filtering of the spirit. 6j By “filtering” they mean the separating of the worse from the better, which comes from remembering the better things. Whoever is reminded of better things must then repent of the lesser. They agree, at any rate, that the spirit itself, once it has repented, runs back up. In the same way we too have repented of our sins and said farewell to their faults. We are filtered by baptism, and we run back to the eternal light, as children to the Father. So Jesus, rejoicing in the Spirit, says: “I give thanks to you, Father, God of heaven and earth, because you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.” Here the Instructor and Teacher calls us infants. He means that we are better suited to salvation than the wise of this world, who think themselves wise and are puffed up. Exulting and overjoyed, he cries out, as if lisping along with the infants: “Yes, Father, for so it was well pleasing before you.” That is why the things hidden from the wise and understanding of the present age were revealed to infants.

6k It is fitting, then, that the children of God are infants. They have put away the old man and stripped off the tunic of wickedness. They have put on over it the incorruption of Christ. So we become new, a holy people, born again, so that we may keep the man undefiled. We are infants, like God’s baby, cleansed from fornication and wickedness. The blessed Paul has settled this question for us most clearly in his first letter to the Corinthians, where he writes: “Brothers, do not become children in your thinking, but in evil be infants, and in your thinking become mature.” The words “When I was an infant, I thought as an infant, I spoke as an infant” hint at his life under the law. Then he was not yet simple but still senseless. With childish thoughts he persecuted, and with childish words he blasphemed the Word. 6l For the word “child” has two meanings. “Since I have become a man,” Paul says again, “I have put away the things of the child.” The apostle is not hinting at an immature stage of physical growth, nor at a fixed length of time, nor at some other secret teachings belonging to more manly and advanced instruction. He is the one who declares that he is putting childhood away, sending it off into exile. Rather, he calls “children” those who live under the law, who are thrown into panic by fear, as children are by bogeys. And he calls “men” those who obey the Word and are masters of themselves. We have believed and are saved by free and willing choice, and any fear that frightens us frightens us sensibly, not senselessly. The apostle himself will testify to this, when he calls the Jews heirs under the first covenant, and us heirs by promise. “I mean,” he says, “that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is lord of everything. But he is under guardians and stewards until the date set by the father.”

6m “So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of time came, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to buy back those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons through him.” See how he admits that those under fear and sins are children. Those under faith he calls sons, and so makes them men, in contrast with the children who were under the law. “For you are no longer a slave,” he says, “but a son. And if a son, then also an heir through God.” What, then, is still lacking to the son after the inheritance? So it is a fine way to explain “When I was a child” like this: “When I was a Jew” (for he was a Hebrew from the beginning), “I thought like a child,” because I followed the law. “But since I have become a man,” I no longer think the things of the child, that is, of the law, but the things of the man, that is, of Christ, whom alone Scripture, as we said before, calls a man. “I have put away the things of the child.” But childhood in Christ is maturity, in comparison with the law.

6n Having come to this point, we must speak in defense of our childhood. We must also explain further what the apostle said: “I gave you milk to drink, as to infants in Christ, not solid food. For you were not yet able, and even now you are not able.” It does not seem to me that this saying should be taken in a Jewish way. For I will set against it that other Scripture: “I will bring you into the good land, flowing with milk and honey.” So a very great difficulty arises when we put these passages side by side: what do they mean? If childhood on milk is the beginning of faith in Christ, yet it is belittled as childish and imperfect, how is it that the rest of the perfect man, the man of knowledge, which comes after the solid food, is again honored with the infant’s milk? Perhaps the word “as,” which signals a comparison, points to something like this, and the saying should be read in some such way as this: “I gave you milk to drink in Christ.” Then, pausing briefly, let us add, “as to infants.” By this pause in the reading we may take the sense to be: I instructed you in Christ with simple, true, naturally grown, spiritual nourishment. For such is the life-giving substance of milk, which flows from loving breasts. The whole meaning can then be understood like this: as nurses feed newborn children with milk, so I too, by the Word, which is Christ’s milk, drip spiritual nourishment into you.

6o In this way, then, milk is perfect nourishment. It is perfect and leads to the end that never ceases. That is why this same milk, along with honey, is promised in the rest. It is fitting that the Lord promises milk again to the righteous, so that the Word may be clearly shown to be both: “Alpha and Omega, beginning and end.” Homer, too, unwittingly prophesies something like this when he calls the righteous among men “milk-eaters.” The Scripture can also be taken this way: “And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to fleshly people, as to infants in Christ.” So the “fleshly” can be understood as those newly instructed, still infants in Christ. For he called “spiritual” those who had already believed in the Holy Spirit. He called “fleshly” those newly taught and not yet cleansed, whom he rightly calls “still fleshly,” since like the pagans they still think the things of the flesh.

6p “For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and do you not walk in a merely human way?” This is why he says, “I gave you milk to drink.” He means, “I poured knowledge into you,” the knowledge that comes from instruction and nourishes us up to eternal life. The word “gave to drink” is also a symbol of full sharing in the truth. For the mature are said to drink, while infants are said to nurse. “My blood,” says the Lord, “is true drink.” So when he said “I gave you milk to drink,” was he not hinting at the perfect joy found in the Word as milk, the knowledge of the truth? And what follows, “not solid food, for you were not yet able,” can hint at the clear revelation in the age to come, face to face, like solid food. For the same apostle says, “Now we see as through a mirror, but then face to face.” That is why he added, “But even now you are not able, for you are still fleshly.” They set their minds on the things of the flesh: they lust, they crave, they are jealous, angry and envious. He does not mean that we are still in the flesh, as some have supposed. For we shall have the flesh with us, and with a face like the angels’ face we shall see the promise face to face.

6q But suppose that promise really comes after we leave this life, the promise that “no eye has seen, and it has not entered into the mind of man.” How then do they say they know it? They have not conceived it by the Spirit but have received it by learning. They claim to know “what ear never heard,” when only that one who was caught up into the third heaven could say so. Yet even he was told at that time to keep silent. And if what is left to suppose is that this boasting about knowledge is human wisdom, hear the law of Scripture: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his strength, but let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” We are “taught by God,” and we boast in the name of Christ. So why should we not suppose that this is what the apostle means by the milk of infants? After all, those who lead the churches are shepherds after the image of the good Shepherd, and we are the sheep.

6r Does not the Lord keep the same consistency of figure when he also speaks of the milk of the flock? And so the saying must be fitted again to this sense: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able.” The apostle does not take the solid food to be something other than the milk, but the same thing in substance. For the same Word is either gentle and fluid, like milk, or firm and compact, like solid food. There is another way to take it. We can understand milk as the preaching of the gospel, poured out as widely as possible. Solid food is then faith, built up from instruction into a foundation. Faith is firmer than mere hearing, so it is compared to solid food, as it is made into body within the soul itself. Elsewhere, in the Gospel according to John, the Lord expressed this same nourishment in a different way through symbols. He said, “You shall eat my flesh and drink my blood.” By this figure he spoke of the clear evidence of faith, and of the promise as food and drink. Through these the Church, like a person made of many members, is watered and grows, and is knit and fitted together from both: faith as the body and hope as the soul, just as the Lord himself is made of flesh and blood.

6s For in truth hope is the blood of faith. By hope faith is held together, as by a soul. And when hope breathes its last, like blood flowing out, the life of faith drains away. Now some may want to argue further. They may say that milk means the first lessons, the first foods so to speak, and that solid food means the spiritual understanding to which they lift themselves up in “knowledge.” Let them know that when they call the solid food “solid nourishment” and also “the flesh and blood of Jesus,” their own boastful wisdom carries them back to the true simplicity. For blood is found to be the first-formed thing in a human being, and some have dared to call it the substance of the soul. When the mother conceives, this blood is changed by natural digestion. Through the sympathy of her tender love, it blossoms and ripens, so that the child has nothing to fear. Blood is moister than flesh, being a kind of liquid flesh. And milk is sweeter than blood and finer in texture.

6t Whether it is the blood supplied to the unborn child, sent first through the mother’s navel, or whether it is the menstrual blood itself, shut out from its usual course, God, who feeds all things and brings them to birth, commands it to flow back by a natural overflow to the breasts, which are by then swollen. There it is changed by warm breath and prepared as the food the infant longs for. Either way, what is being changed is blood. For of all the members, the breasts have the closest fellow-feeling with the womb. At birth the vessel that carried blood to the child is cut off. The passage closes, and the blood rushes toward the breasts. When a great flow arrives, the breasts are stretched, and the blood turns into milk, in a way comparable to blood turning into pus in a festering wound. Or else, the veins lying near the breasts are opened out during the stretching of pregnancy, and the blood is poured into the natural hollows of the breasts. The breath sent down from the neighboring arteries mingles with it, while the underlying substance of the blood stays unchanged. Stirred up like a wave, it turns white, and by this beating it is changed into froth. It is much like the sea, which, when the winds strike it, the poets say “spits out the foam of the salt.” Yet the substance is still blood.

6u In the same way, rivers rushing along are whipped by the surrounding air and murmur with foam. The moisture in our mouth also turns white with the breath. Why then should we not admit that blood, too, is turned by breath into this most shining and white substance? It undergoes a change of quality, not of substance. You will certainly find nothing more nourishing than milk, nor sweeter, nor whiter. Spiritual food is like it in every way: sweet because of grace, nourishing like life, white like the day of Christ. And the blood of the Word has been shown to us as milk. So, when the child is born, the milk is arranged and supplied to the baby. The breasts, which until then stood upright and looked toward the husband, now bend down toward the child. They are taught to offer, in an easily received form, the food that nature has worked on, for the nourishing of salvation. For the breasts are not full like springs, with ready-made milk flowing into them. They change the food within themselves, make it into milk, and give it out.

6v This food is fitted and suited to the newly formed, newly grown child, and it is prepared by God, the nourisher and Father of those who are born and born again. It is like the manna that flowed down from heaven for the ancient Hebrews, the heavenly food of angels. Even now, in fact, nurses call the first draught of milk by the same name as that food: manna. But women who have conceived become mothers and then their milk flows. The Lord Christ, the fruit of the Virgin, did not pronounce women’s breasts blessed, nor did he judge them to be his nurses. Instead, when the loving Father, who loves humankind, had rained down the Word, Christ himself became spiritual food for the self-controlled. O mystical wonder! There is one Father of all, and one Word of all, and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere, and there is only one virgin who becomes a mother. I like to call her the Church.

6w This mother alone had no milk, because she alone did not become a woman. She is both virgin and mother: undefiled as a virgin, loving as a mother. She calls her children to her and nurses them with holy milk, the Word suited to infants. Therefore she had no milk, because the milk was this child, fair and her own, the body of Christ. It feeds the young people of the Word, whom the Lord himself bore in the pains of the flesh and whom the Lord himself wrapped in swaddling clothes with his precious blood. O the holy births! O the holy swaddling clothes! The Word is everything to the infant: father and mother, instructor and nurse. “Eat my flesh,” he says, “and drink my blood.” The Lord gives us this fitting food. He holds out his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the children’s growth.

6x What a strange and wonderful mystery! He commands us to strip off our old, fleshly corruption, just as we strip off our old food. We are to share in a new and different way of life, the way of Christ. We are to take him into ourselves, if we can, and store him up there, and to hold the Saviour close to our hearts, so that we may put an end to the passions of our flesh. But you do not want to understand it this way. Perhaps you prefer the more common reading. Then hear it this way too. He speaks of the Holy Spirit allegorically as “flesh,” for the flesh was made by the Spirit. He hints at the Word as “blood,” for the Word has been poured out on our life like rich blood. The mixture of the two is the Lord, the food of infants. The Lord is Spirit and Word. The food, that is, the Lord Jesus, that is, the Word of God, is Spirit made flesh, heavenly flesh made holy.

6y The food is the Father’s milk, and on it alone we infants are nursed. The Word himself, the “beloved” one and our nourisher, poured out his own blood for us to save humanity. Through him we have believed in God, and we run for refuge to the Father’s “care-forgetting breast,” the Word. As it appears, he alone supplies us infants with the milk of love, and those who suckle at this breast are the only ones truly blessed. For this reason Peter also says: “So put away all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Like newborn babies, long for the milk of the word, so that by it you may grow into salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” But suppose someone granted these people that solid food is something other than milk. How then would they not run themselves through, since they have not understood nature?

6z In winter the surrounding air thickens and gives no way out, so the heat is shut up inside. The food is then cooked and digested, turned into blood, and passes into the veins. The veins get no ventilation, so they fill up, become very tense, and pulse. This is why nurses are fullest of milk at that time. A little earlier we showed that in pregnant women the blood turns into milk by a change in form, not a change in substance. In the same way, the fair hair of old people changes to grey. In summer it is the other way around. The body is more porous, so the food is dispersed more easily and there is very little milk, since there is not much blood either; not all the food is retained. So if the working-up of food produces blood, and the blood is turned into milk, then blood is the raw material for milk. It is like the seed of a human being, or the pip of a vine.

1.6aa So from the moment we are born, we are nursed with milk, the Lord’s food. And from the moment we are born again, we are honoured with the good news of the hope of rest, the Jerusalem above, where, it is written, milk and honey rain down. Through this material food we are already being betrothed to the holy food as well. For “foods will be done away with,” as the apostle himself says. But the nourishment of milk leads the way to the heavens, because it raises citizens of heaven and fellow dancers with the angels. The Word is a gushing spring of life and has been called a river of oil. So Paul speaks allegorically and names him milk, and then adds, “I gave you to drink.” For the Word is drunk; he is the food of truth. Indeed, a drink is called liquid food. The same thing can be both food and drink, depending on how we think of it. Cheese, for example, is curdled milk, or milk that has set.

1.6ab I am not concerned just now with hunting for exact words. My point is only that one substance serves as both kinds of nourishment. For babies at the breast, milk alone is enough to be both drink and food. The Lord says, “I have food to eat that you do not know about. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” You see here another food, which like milk is allegorical: the will of God. He also called the completion of his own suffering a “cup,” using the word loosely, because he alone had to drink it to the end and finish it. So for Christ the food was the fulfilment of the Father’s purpose. For us infants, who milk out the word of the heavens, Christ himself is the food. This is why seeking is called “mastevsai.” To infants who seek the Word, the Father’s breasts of loving kindness give milk.

1.6ac The Word also declares himself to be the bread of heaven. “For Moses did not give you the bread from heaven,” he says, “but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” Here we should note the mystery of the bread. He calls it flesh, and flesh that rises, as wheat rises from decay and sowing. It is also put together through fire, like bread being baked, for the joy of the Church. But this will be made clearer to us later, in the work On the Resurrection. He said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh.” Flesh is watered by blood, and blood is figuratively called wine. So we must understand this. Bread crumbled into a mixture of wine and water takes up the wine and leaves the watery part behind. In the same way the flesh of the Lord, the bread of heaven, drinks up the blood. It feeds the heavenly among men to incorruption, and leaves behind to corruption only the desires of the flesh.

1.6ad So the Word is described figuratively in many ways: as food, flesh, nourishment, bread, blood and milk. The Lord is all of these for the enjoyment of us who have believed in him. Let no one be surprised, then, when we say that the Lord’s blood is figuratively called milk. Is it not also figuratively called wine? “He who washes his robe in wine,” it says, “and his garment in the blood of the grape.” He means that he will adorn the body of the Word with his own blood. In the same way he will feed with his Spirit those who hunger for the Word. That the blood is the Word is shown by the blood of righteous Abel, which pleaded with God. Blood could never have uttered a voice unless “blood” is understood to mean the Word. The righteous man of old is a type of the new Righteous One. The blood of old that pleaded also pleads on behalf of the new blood.

1.6ae The blood, which is the Word, speaks to God, because it pointed to the Word who was to suffer. Flesh itself, and the blood in it, is watered and made to grow by milk, as though milk repaid it with a kind of returned care. Even the shaping of what is conceived happens when the seed is mixed with the pure residue left over from the monthly cleansing. The power in the seed curdles the nature of the blood, as rennet sets milk, and so produces the substance for forming the child. A balanced mixture flourishes, but extremes risk childlessness. The earth itself works the same way. When it is flooded by heavy rain, the seed is washed away. When it is dry for lack of moisture, the seed withers. But when the moisture is sticky, it holds the seed and makes it grow. Some suppose that the seed of a living creature is, in its substance, the foam of the blood. In intercourse, they say, the male’s inborn heat stirs the blood up and whips it into foam, and the foam is deposited in the seed-bearing veins. Diogenes of Apollonia wants the word “aphrodisia” (the acts of love) to come from this.

1.6af It is plain from all this that the substance of the human body is blood. In the womb, what is formed is at first a milky composition of fluid. Then it is turned to blood, and this composition becomes flesh. It sets in the womb by the natural, warm breath by which the embryo is shaped, and so it is brought to life. After birth the child is again fed by the same blood, for the flow of milk is blood in another form, and milk is the source of nourishment. By milk a woman is clearly shown to have truly given birth and to be a mother, and through it she also gains a charm that wins affection. For this reason the Holy Spirit in the apostle, using the Lord’s voice, says in a mystery, “I gave you milk to drink.” For if we have been born again into Christ, the one who has begotten us again feeds us with his own milk, the Word. Everything that begets seems to provide nourishment at once for what it has begotten.

1.6ag Just as our new birth is spiritual, so in the same way our nourishment has become spiritual. In every respect, then, and in everything, we have been made Christ’s own. We are bound to him by kinship, through his blood, by which we are redeemed. We are bound to him by sympathy, through the upbringing that comes from the Word. And we are bound to him for immortality, through his training of us. “Among mortals, bringing up children often wins more love than begetting them.” So the blood and the milk of the Lord are one and the same: a symbol of his suffering and of his teaching. Each of us who are infants may therefore boast in the Lord, and say, “I claim to be sprung from a good father and from his blood.” That milk comes from blood by a process of change is already clear, but we can also learn it from flocks and herds.

1.6ah In the season of the year we call spring, the air is moister, and the grass and pastures are juicy and damp. At that time these animals are first filled with blood, as the swelling of the veins and the bulging of the vessels shows. From the blood the milk then flows more abundantly. In summer, by contrast, the blood is scorched and dried up by the heat, and the change is checked, so less milk is drawn. Milk also has a very natural kinship with water, just as the spiritual washing has with spiritual food. People who sip a little cold water after drinking milk are helped at once. Its association with water keeps the milk from turning sour, not through any opposition between them, but because the water agrees with the milk and suits it. 1.6ai The partnership the Word has with baptism is the same as the bond between milk and water. Milk alone of liquids admits a mixture with water for the sake of cleansing, as baptism is taken for the forgiveness of sins. It also mixes naturally with honey, again for cleansing, along with sweet nourishment. For the Word, mixed with love for mankind, heals our passions and at the same time cleanses away our sins. The line “sweeter than honey flowed his speech” seems to me to have been said of the Word, who is honey. And prophecy in many places lifts him up as “above honey and the honeycomb.” Milk is also mixed with sweet wine. The mixture is beneficial, as when suffering is mixed in for the sake of incorruption. The wine draws off the whey and curdles the milk, and whatever in it is impure is drained away.

1.6aj In the same way, the spiritual fellowship of faith with suffering man draws off the fleshly desires. It gathers man together for eternity and makes him immortal through divine things. Many people also use the fatty part of milk, which they call butter, as lamp oil. By this clear riddle they show the rich oil of the Word, who alone rightly feeds, nourishes and enlightens the little ones. For this reason Scripture says of the Lord: “He fed them with the produce of the fields; they sucked honey from the rock and oil from the solid rock, butter of cattle and milk of sheep, with the fat of lambs.” And he gave them what follows after that. The prophet who foretells the birth of the child also says, “He will eat butter and honey.” 1.6ak I am even amazed that some dare to call themselves “perfect” and “gnostics,” thinking themselves above the apostle, puffed up and arrogant, when Paul himself admits about himself: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already been made perfect, but I press on to see if I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ. Brothers, I do not yet count myself to have laid hold of it. But one thing: forgetting what lies behind and stretching out toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, to the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.” Paul does count himself perfect, in that he has been set free from his former life and holds fast to the better one. He is not perfect in knowledge, but is reaching for what is perfect. So he adds, “Let us then, as many as are perfect, think this way.” By perfection he clearly means renouncing sins and being born again into faith in the One who alone is perfect, having forgotten the sins left behind.

Who the Instructor Is, and Respecting His Instruction.

7a Who the Instructor Is, and His Instruction. We have shown that Scripture calls all of us children. More than that, we who have followed Christ are called babes in a figure of speech. And the Father of all is the only one who is perfect, for the Son is in him and the Father is in the Son. So now, keeping to our order, it is time to say who our Instructor is. He is called Jesus. Sometimes he calls himself a shepherd and says, “I am the good shepherd.” The image is drawn from shepherds who lead their sheep. By it we are to understand the Instructor, who leads the children, the shepherd who cares for the babes. For babes are simple, and so they are pictured as sheep. “And they shall all become one flock and one shepherd,” he says. So the Word, who leads us children to salvation, is rightly called the Instructor.

7b The Word has spoken very plainly about himself through Hosea: “I am your instructor.” Now godliness is instruction. It is learning how to serve God, training toward the knowledge of the truth, and right guidance that leads up to heaven. The word “instruction” is used in several ways. There is the instruction of the one who is led and learns. There is that of the one who leads and teaches. Third, there is the guidance itself. Fourth, there are the things taught, such as the commandments. The instruction that comes from God is a straightening of the way by truth, toward the vision of God. It is also a pattern of holy deeds, set in lasting perseverance. A general directs his battle line out of concern for the safety of his hired soldiers, and a helmsman steers his ship because he wants to save those sailing with him. In the same way the Instructor leads the children toward a saving way of life, out of care for us. In general, whatever we reasonably ask God to do for us will be ours if we obey the Instructor.

7c A helmsman does not always give way to the winds. Sometimes he turns his bow into them and stands against the full force of the gales. In the same way the Instructor never gives way to the winds that blow in this world. He does not let the child, like a ship, be driven onto a bestial and licentious way of life. Instead he is carried along by the favoring wind of the Spirit of truth alone, and he holds the child’s rudder very firmly. By the rudder I mean the ears. He holds on until he brings the child safely into harbor in the heavens. What men call ancestral custom passes away almost at once, but divine guidance is a possession that stays forever. They say that Phoenix was the instructor of Achilles, Adrastus of the sons of Croesus, Leonidas of Alexander, and Nausithous of Philip. 7d But Phoenix was mad after women, and Adrastus was an exile. Leonidas did not remove the conceit of the Macedonian, and Nausithous did not cure the drunkenness of the man from Pella. The Thracian Zopyrus could not restrain the fornication of Alcibiades, but Zopyrus was a slave bought for money. And Sicinnus, the instructor of the sons of Themistocles, was a careless household slave. They say he invented the dance, and the dancing called “sicinnizing,” after his name. We are not unaware of the so-called royal instructors among the Persians. The kings of the Persians choose four of them for their excellence out of all the Persians and set them over their own sons. But the boys learn only to shoot the bow. When they come of age they sleep with sisters, mothers, wives and countless concubines, like boars trained for mating.

7e But our Instructor is the holy God Jesus, the Word who is the guide of all humanity. The God who loves humanity is himself our Instructor. Somewhere in the Song the Holy Spirit says of him: “He provided for the people in the wilderness, in thirst and burning heat, in a waterless land. He surrounded him, instructed him, and guarded him like the apple of his eye. Like an eagle he covered his nest and yearned over his young. He spread out his wings, received them, and took them up on his back. The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god with them.” I think Scripture clearly shows us the Instructor here, as it tells of his guidance. Again, when he speaks in his own person, he confesses himself to be the Instructor: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Who, then, has the authority to lead in and out?

7f Is it not the Instructor? This is the one who “appeared to Abraham and said to him: I am your God; be pleasing before me.” In the manner of a true instructor he shapes Abraham into a faithful child, saying, “And be blameless, and I will set my covenant between me and you and your seed.” Here is a fellowship of friendship, with the Instructor presiding over it. He shows himself most plainly as Jacob’s Instructor. He says to him, “Behold, I am with you, guarding you in every way you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done all that I spoke to you.” He is also said to have wrestled with Jacob. “And Jacob was left alone,” it says, “and a man wrestled with him”—the Instructor—“until morning.” This was the man who led him and carried him, who trained with him and anointed the athlete Jacob for the contest against the evil one.

7g That the Word was both Jacob’s trainer and the Instructor of humanity is shown here: “He asked him,” it says, “and said to him, Tell me your name. And he said, Why do you ask my name?” For he was keeping the new name for the new people, the infant people. God the Lord was still unnamed, since he had not yet become man. Even so, “Jacob called the name of that place the Face of God. For I have seen God face to face,” he says, “and my soul was saved.” The face of God is the Word, by whom God is lit up and made known. Then too he was given the name Israel, when he saw God the Lord. This is God, the Word, the Instructor, who later said to him again, “Do not be afraid to go down into Egypt.” 7h See how the Instructor follows the righteous man, and how he anoints the athlete, teaching him to trip up his opponent. This same Instructor also teaches Moses to be an instructor. For the Lord says, “If anyone has sinned before me, I will blot him out of my book. But now go and lead this people to the place I told you of.” Here he is the teacher of instruction. For in truth the Lord was the Instructor of the old people through Moses, but of the new people through himself, face to face. For he says to Moses, “Behold, my angel goes before you.” By this he sets over them the Word’s power as messenger and leader, while still guarding the Lord’s own dignity: “But on the day when I visit them,” he says, “I will bring their sin upon them.” That is, on the day when I sit as judge, I will pay them back what their sins deserve. For the same one is Instructor and judge, and he judges those who disobey him. Yet the Word, who loves humanity, does not stay silent about their sin. He reproves them so that they may repent, for “the Lord wants the repentance of the sinner rather than his death.” And let us, like infants who have only heard about the sins of others, hold back from the same offenses out of fear of the threat, so that we will not suffer the same things.

7i What, then, was the sin they committed? “For in their anger they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull. Cursed be their anger.” Who, then, could train us more lovingly than he does? Before this, the older people had an older covenant. The law trained the people with fear, and the Word was an angel. But to the new and young people a new covenant has been given. The Word has become flesh, fear has been turned into love, and that mystical angel, Jesus, is born. For this same Instructor said to them then, “You shall fear the Lord your God,” but to us he has urged, “You shall love the Lord your God.” This is why he also commands us, “Stop your works,” that is, your old sins; “learn to do good; turn away from evil and do good; you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” This is my new covenant, engraved in the old letter.

7j So the newness of the Word is nothing to be ashamed of. The Lord also says in Jeremiah: “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I set you apart.” This prophecy can hint at us. God knew us for faith before the foundation of the world, yet we are babes now, because his will has only recently been fulfilled, and in that sense we have only just been born to our calling and salvation. That is why he goes on: “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” He is saying that Jeremiah must prophesy, and that the name “younger” should not seem a reproach to those who are called babes. The law is an older grace, given by the Word through Moses. That is why Scripture says, “The law was given through Moses.” It does not say by Moses, but by the Word, through Moses his servant. For this reason the law was only for a time. “But eternal grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Notice the wording of Scripture. Of the law it says only “was given.”

7k But “truth” is the grace of the Father and the eternal work of the Word. It is no longer said to be given, but to “come to be through Jesus,” “without whom not one thing came to be.” So Moses, prophetically yielding to the Word as the perfect Instructor, foretells both his name and his work as Instructor, and puts the Instructor before the people, entrusting to them commands of obedience. “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers,” he says. He means Jesus the son of Nun, but hints at Jesus the Son of God. For the name Jesus, announced in advance in the law, was a sketch in shadow of the Lord. He then adds, counseling what is good for the people: “You shall listen to him,” and, “The man who will not listen to this prophet,” he threatens. 7l Such is the name that the prophecy foretells for our saving Instructor. That is why prophecy gives him a rod: a rod that trains, rules and holds authority. Those whom the obedient word does not heal, threatening will heal. Those whom threatening does not heal, the rod will heal. Those whom the rod does not heal, the fire will consume. “A rod will come out of the root of Jesse,” it says. See the care, the wisdom and the power of the Instructor: “He will not judge by reputation, nor reprove by talk, but he will judge the humble with justice and reprove the sinners of the earth.” And through David: “The Lord has trained me by discipline, and has not handed me over to death.” To be disciplined and instructed by the Lord is deliverance from death. The same prophet says: “You will shepherd them with an iron rod.” The apostle was moved by this when he wrote to the Corinthians: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?” Through another prophet he says, “The Lord will send out the rod of power from Zion.” And of this instructor’s rod, someone else said, “Your rod and your staff comforted me.” This is the power of the Instructor: dignified, comforting and saving.

Against Those Who Think that What is Just is Not Good.

8a Against Those Who Think that What Is Just Is Not Good. At this point some people spring up and say that the Lord is not good, because of the rod, the threatening and the fear. They have evidently misheard Scripture, which says somewhere, “He who fears the Lord turns back to his heart.” They have also forgotten the greatest proof of his love for humanity: that he became man for our sake. The prophet prays in words that fit him all the more: “Remember us, for we are dust.” That is, “Have sympathy with us, because you have felt the weakness of the flesh from your own experience.” In this way the Lord our Instructor is altogether excellent and beyond reproach, for in the abundance of his love he has sympathy with the nature of every human being. “For there was nothing that the Lord hates.” Surely he does not hate something and yet want what he hates to exist. Nor does he want something not to exist and yet cause the existence of what he wants not to exist. Nor, again, does he not want something to exist, and yet it exists.

8b If, then, the Word hates anything, he wishes it not to exist. But there is nothing for whose existence God does not supply the cause. So nothing is hated by God, and nothing is hated by the Word either, for the two are one, God. John says, “In the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If he hates nothing that he has made, it remains that he loves it. Much more than the rest, and with good reason, he will love man, the most beautiful of all the things he has made, a living creature who loves God. So God loves mankind, and therefore the Word loves mankind. Now whoever loves something wants to benefit it. What benefits is certainly better than what does not benefit, and nothing at all is better than the good. So the good benefits. God is acknowledged to be good, so God benefits.

8c The good, insofar as it is good, does nothing other than benefit. So God benefits all things. Surely he does not benefit man without also caring for him, nor care for him without also looking after him. For what benefits by deliberate choice is better than what does not benefit by deliberate choice, and nothing is better than God. To benefit by deliberate choice is nothing other than to look after. So God cares for man and looks after him. He shows this in action by instructing him through the Word, who is the genuine fellow-worker with God in his love for mankind. Now “good” is not said of righteousness because it possesses virtue. Righteousness is itself virtue. It is called good because it is good in itself and for its own sake. 8d The expedient is also called good in another sense, not because it gives pleasure but because it benefits. Righteousness is all of these. It is good as a virtue, as something to be chosen for its own sake, and as something that does not aim to please. It does not judge in order to win favor, but gives to each what he deserves. And what is beneficial goes with what is expedient. So righteousness is marked out by every aspect in which the good is examined, since the two share equally in the same qualities. Things marked by equal qualities are equal and alike. So righteousness is good. “How then,” they say, “if the Lord loves mankind and is good, does he get angry and punish?” We must deal with this too, as briefly as we can. This way of handling the question is useful for the right upbringing of children and serves as a needed aid.

8e Many of the passions are healed by punishment, by the imposing of stricter commands, and also by teaching certain doctrines. Rebuke is like surgery on the passions of the soul. The passions are a kind of festering growth that breaks away from the truth, and they must be exposed by cutting them open. Reproach is like medicine. It dissolves the hardened callouses of the passions, cleanses the filth of the life, meaning its lusts, and smooths down the swellings of pride, restoring a person to health and truth. Admonition is like the diet of a sick soul. It advises what to take and forbids what not to take. All of this aims at salvation and everlasting health. A general also does this. He lays fines on wrongdoers and inflicts beatings that reach the body itself, with chains and the worst disgrace, and sometimes even punishes some with death. Yet his aim is good, for he is training the soldiers under his command.

8f In the same way our great General, the Word, the Commander of all things, warns those who rebel against his law. He aims to free them from slavery, error, and captivity to the Adversary, and to restrain the passions of the soul. In this way he leads them peaceably into the holy harmony of the common life of his city. Alongside the counseling kind of speech there is the exhorting and encouraging form. In the same way, alongside the praising kind there is the abusive and reproachful form. This form is an art of blame, and blame is a sign of goodwill, not of hatred. Both a friend and a non-friend reproach, but the enemy does it to mock, while the friend does it out of goodwill. So the Lord does not revile people out of hatred. He could have destroyed them for their own faults, yet he even suffered for us. For like a good instructor, he skillfully slips into blame by way of rebuke. He uses abuse like a whip to rouse the dullness of the mind, and then in turn he tries to exhort the same people.

8g Those whom praise did not move to action, blame stirs up. Those whom blame did not call out to salvation, because they were like dead men, harsh words raise up to the truth. For “whips and discipline are wisdom at every time. He who glues a potsherd together is teaching a fool.” That is, he says, it is like bringing the earth to feeling, and sharpening a hopeless person to understanding. That is why he plainly added, “rousing a sleeper from deep sleep,” since sleep, more than anything else, resembles death. The Lord himself shows this very clearly about himself. He speaks in an allegory of his many-sided and richly beneficial care. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.” Then he added, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he cleans, so that it may bear more fruit.” A vine that is not pruned runs wild into wood, and so does a human being. The Word, like a knife, cuts away its unruly offshoots. He forces our appetites to bear fruit instead of lusting.

8h The rebuke given to sinners aims at their salvation. The Word adjusts himself, as a musician would, to each person’s own character, sometimes tightening and sometimes loosening. Moses says this very plainly: “Take courage. God has come to test you, so that the fear of him may be in you, so that you do not sin.” Plato learned from this source and says well: “All who pay the penalty truly suffer good things. They are benefited, because their souls become better when they are justly punished.” If those who are set right by the just one suffer good, even according to Plato, then it is agreed that the just one is good. Fear itself is beneficial and was devised for people’s good, because “a spirit that fears the Lord will live, for its hope is in the one who saves it.” This same Word, who imposes the penalty, is the judge. Isaiah also speaks of him: “The Lord handed him over to our sins.” He means, plainly, as one who corrects and directs us away from our sins.

8i For this reason he alone is able to forgive our offenses. The Father of all appointed him as our Instructor, and he alone can tell disobedience from obedience. When someone threatens, it is clear that he does not want to do any harm or carry out what he threatens. By setting fear in place, he stopped the rush toward sin, and he shows his love for people. He still holds back and makes clear what they will suffer if they remain sinners. He does not, like a snake, fasten on and bite immediately. So God is good. The Lord often uses words before the deed. He says, “For my arrows will finish them off. They will waste away with hunger and be devoured by birds, and with an incurable spasm of the back. I will send the teeth of wild beasts against them, together with the fury of things that crawl on the ground.”

8j “Outside, the sword will leave them childless, and inside the storerooms, there will be fear.” So the divine nature is not angry, as some have supposed. Most of what God says is threat, but in everything he has been advising humanity and showing what must be done. This is a good art: to frighten us so that we do not sin. “For the fear of the Lord drives away sins, but the one who has no fear will not be able to be justified,” says the Scripture. God does not bring punishment out of anger. He looks to what is just, since it is not good for us that justice be set aside. Each of us chooses his own penalties by sinning willingly: “The blame belongs to the one who chooses; God is blameless.” “But if our unrighteousness establishes the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous to bring his wrath upon us? By no means.” So he says in his threat: “I will sharpen my sword, and my hand will take hold of judgment. I myself will repay vengeance to my enemies, and I will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will eat flesh from the blood of the wounded.” It is plain here that those who are not enemies of the truth and do not hate the Word would never hate their own salvation, and so they would escape the penalties of that enmity.

8k “The crown of wisdom,” as Wisdom says, “is the fear of the Lord.” Very plainly, then, the Word has made known his own way of managing things through the prophet Amos, saying, “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand snatched out of the fire, and even so you did not turn back to me, says the Lord.” See how God, out of his love of what is good, seeks repentance. By the very method of his threat he quietly shows his love for humanity. “I will turn my face away from them,” he says, “and I will show what will happen to them.” Where the face of the Lord looks, there is peace and rejoicing; where it is turned away, evil creeps in. So he does not wish to look upon evil things, for he is good. But when he willingly looks away, because of human unbelief, evil comes into being.

8l “See then,” says Paul, “the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but kindness toward you, if you remain in that kindness,” that is, in faith in Christ. Hatred of evil follows upon the good, since he is good by nature. So I would agree that he punishes the unbelieving, for punishment is for the good and benefit of the one punished: it is the correction of one who resists. But I would not agree that he wants to take vengeance. Vengeance is the repayment of evil given for the benefit of the one who takes revenge. And he who teaches us to pray for those who abuse us would not desire to take vengeance. Everyone, even against their will, admits that God is good. That the same God is also just, I need no more words to show, once I set beside it the voice of the Lord in the Gospel. He speaks of God as one: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.”

8m “And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected into one.” God is one, and beyond the one, and above the very Monad. This is why the word “you,” which points directly at someone, shows the one who truly alone is, who was and is and will be, and for these three times there is one name: “the One who is.” That this same God, who alone is, is also just, the Lord will testify in the same Gospel, saying, “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” 8n “Righteous Father, the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these knew that you sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known.” This is the one “who repays the sins of fathers upon children for those who hate him, and shows mercy to those who love him.” He is the one who sets some on the right and others on the left. Insofar as he is thought of as Father, he is good, and he is called only what he is: good. Insofar as he is Son, his Word who is in the Father, he is called righteous. This comes from the loving relation of the two to each other, a name of power measured out by equality. Scripture says, “He will judge a man according to his works.” God has shown us Jesus as the face of a good balance, and through him we have come to know God, as from a scale whose two pans are equally weighted.

8o Of this same God Wisdom also speaks plainly: “For mercy and wrath are with him.” He alone is Lord of both: “mighty in propitiations, pouring out wrath. As great as his mercy, so great is his reproof.” The aim of both mercy and reproof is the salvation of those who are reproved. Now the Word himself will again declare that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus is good: “for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” He also says, “Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” And he says plainly, “No one is good except my Father in the heavens.” On top of this he says again, “My Father makes his sun shine on all.” Notice here that he acknowledges his own Father to be both good and Creator. No one disputes that the Creator is just. 8p And again he says, “My Father sends rain on the just and the unjust.” Insofar as he sends rain, he is the Creator of water and clouds. Insofar as he sends it on all, he holds the balance evenly and justly. Insofar as he is good, he does it for the just and the unjust alike. So we reason very plainly that God is one and the same, in this way. The Holy Spirit sang, “I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers,” and “The one who made the heavens dwells in the heavens,” and “Heaven is your throne.” The Lord says in his prayer, “Our Father in the heavens.” The heavens belong to the one who made the world. So it cannot be denied that the Lord is also the Son of the Creator. Everyone agrees that the Creator is just, and the Lord is the Son of the Creator. Therefore the Lord is the Son of the Just One.

8q This is why Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from law.” Again he says (so that you may understand it all the more as said of God), “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction.” Then, bearing witness to the truth, he adds a little later, “in the forbearance of God, to show that he is righteous and that he justifies the one who is of faith in Jesus.” He also knows that what is righteous is good, for he says somewhere, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” He places both names under the same power. And Scripture also says, “No one is good except his Father.” So it is the same Father of his, who is one, who is made known by many powers. This is what was meant by “No one knew the Father”: he was everything before the Son came. So it is truly plain that the God of all is one alone: good, righteous, Creator, and Son in the Father. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

8r It is not foreign to the saving Word to rebuke out of loving care. This too is a medicine of God’s love for humanity. It brings out the blush of modesty and slips in a shame at sinning. If censure is needed, then rebuke is needed too, when the time has come to wound a soul that has grown numb. The wound is not deadly but saving, for by a little pain the soul gains escape from eternal death. There is great wisdom in his training, and the manner of his dealing is varied, all aimed at our salvation. The Instructor bears witness to the good. He calls those who are called to better things. He turns back from their course those who are hurrying to do wrong, and he urges them to change to a better life. Neither side is left without witness, since the one is witnessed to alongside the other, and the grace that comes from such witness is very great. Even the passion of anger, if his admonition should be called anger, shows love for humanity. For God comes down to feelings for the sake of man, and for man’s sake the Word of God became man.

That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos.

9a That it belongs to the same power both to do good and to punish justly, and what the manner of the Word’s training is. With all his strength, then, the Instructor of humanity, our divine Word, makes use of every device of wisdom and sets himself to save the little children. He admonishes, scolds, rebukes, reproves, threatens, heals, promises, and gives gifts. As with “many reins,” so to speak, he “binds” the irrational impulses of humanity. To put it briefly, the Lord is toward us as we are toward our own children. “Do you have children? Train them,” Wisdom advises, “and bend them from their youth. Do you have daughters? Take care for their bodies, and do not show them a cheerful face.” Yet we love our children, sons and daughters, very much, above anything whatever. 9b People who speak to us only to please us have little love for us, since they do not grieve us. But those who speak sharply for our benefit may cause pain at the moment, yet they do us good for the age to come. So the Lord looked not to pleasure of the moment but to the delight that is coming. Let us now go through the manner of his loving training, with the witness of the prophets. Admonition, then, is loving censure that produces understanding. Such is the Instructor when he admonishes, as when he says in the Gospel, “How often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!” Scripture likewise admonishes when it says, “And they committed adultery with wood and stone, and burned incense to Baal.” It is the greatest proof of his love for humanity that, though he knew clearly the shamelessness of the people who had kicked against him and bolted away, he still calls them to repentance. He says through Ezekiel, “Son of man, you live in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless, speak to them, in case they will listen.” And to Moses he says, “Go and tell Pharaoh to send the people away, but I know that he will not send them away.”

9c For in this he shows both things: his divine foreknowledge of what would happen, and his love for humanity, in giving the soul’s free will occasions for repentance. He also admonishes through Isaiah, out of care for the people, when he says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” This is reproving censure. Then: “They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Here his loving care, having made the sin plain, shows salvation alongside it. Rebuke is censure for shameful things that draws people close to what is good. He shows this through Jeremiah: “They became horses mad for females; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the Lord. Or on such a people shall my soul not take vengeance?” Everywhere he weaves fear in, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of perception.”

9d And again, through Hosea, he says, “I will not visit them, because they themselves were mixed up with prostitutes and sacrificed with those who were initiated into the mysteries, and the people who understood were entangled with a prostitute.” He makes their sin plainer by declaring that they understood, so that they sinned willingly. Understanding is the eye of the soul. This is why Israel, “the one who sees God,” means the one who understands God. Complaint is blame directed at people who are thought to be despising or neglecting someone. The Instructor uses this method of training through Isaiah, saying: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and raised them high, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the manger of its lord, but Israel has not known me.” How terrible it is if the one who knows God will not know the Lord! The ox and the donkey, dull and foolish animals, will know the one who feeds them, but Israel will be found even less reasonable than these.

9e Through Jeremiah, after complaining against the people on many counts, he adds: “And they have forsaken me, says the Lord.” Rebuke is a stinging reproof, or blame that strikes hard. The Instructor uses this remedy too, through Isaiah, saying: “Woe to you, rebellious children. Thus says the Lord: you made a plan, but not through me, and agreements, but not through my Spirit.” In each case he applies fear like a very sharp astringent. It opens their mouths and, at the same moment, turns the people through it toward salvation. In the same way, wool that is to be dyed is usually treated first with a mordant, to prepare it to take the dye firmly. Reproof is bringing a sin out into the open. He uses this method most of all, as necessary because the faith of many is slack. For he says through Isaiah, “You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.” And he says through Jeremiah: “The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered all the more. For this people has done two evil things: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and they have dug broken cisterns for themselves that cannot hold water.” And again through the same prophet: “Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become an object of tossing and shaking. All who glorified her have dishonored her, because they have seen her shame.” He softens the severity of the reproof and the rebuke through Solomon, hinting by what he leaves unsaid at the fatherly love in his training: “My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when you are reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.” For “a sinful man turns away from reproof.”

9f Accordingly, Scripture says, “Let the righteous man reprove me and discipline me, but let the oil of the sinner not anoint my head.” Calling to one’s senses is blame that puts sense into a person. He does not hold back from this method of training either, but says through Jeremiah: “How long shall I cry out and they will not listen? Look, their ears are uncircumcised.” What blessed patience! And again through the same prophet: “All the nations are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart.” And, “The people are disobedient, sons,” he says, “who have no faith.” Visitation is a sharp rebuke. He uses this kind in the Gospel: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you.” The doubling of the name makes the rebuke strong. For how can one who knows God persecute God’s servants? 9g This is why he says: “Your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, from now on you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” For if you do not accept his kindness, you will come to know his power. Abuse is intensified blame. He uses abuse as a kind of medicine, through Isaiah, saying, “Woe to a sinful nation, lawless sons, a people full of sins, an evil seed.” In the Gospel, through John, he says, “Serpents, brood of vipers.” Accusation is blame of those who do wrong. He uses this training method through David, saying: “A people whom I did not know served me, and at the hearing of the ear obeyed me. Foreign sons lied to me and limped away from their paths.” And through Jeremiah: “And I gave her a certificate of divorce, and treacherous Judah was not afraid.” And again: “The house of Israel acted faithlessly against me, and the house of Judah lied to the Lord.” Complaining of one’s lot is hidden blame. It too arranges salvation by skillful help, under a covering.

9h He uses this kind of speech through Jeremiah: “How does the city sit alone, she who was full of people? She has become like a widow. She who ruled over the regions has become subject to tribute. Weeping, she has wept in the night.” Mockery is censure that holds a person up to ridicule. The divine Instructor used this remedy too, through Jeremiah, saying: “You have the face of a prostitute; you have become shameless toward everyone. Did you not call me your house, your father, and the guide of your virginity?” And again: “a beautiful and charming prostitute, mistress of drugs.” With great skill he insults the virgin with the name of prostitution, and then, by shaming her, calls her back to modesty. Indignation is lawful rebuke, or rebuke of those who are exalted in their ways beyond what is fitting. In this way he trained them through Moses, speaking of “blameworthy children, a crooked and perverse generation: is this how you repay the Lord?

9i “This is a foolish people, not a wise one. Is not he himself your father, who acquired you?” He says also through Isaiah: “Your rulers are disobedient, partners of thieves, lovers of bribes, chasers after payment; they do not give justice to orphans.” In general, then, his skilful handling of people through fear is a fountain of salvation, and saving is the work of a good being: “The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, as he reproves, disciplines and teaches, like a shepherd with his flock. He has mercy on those who accept discipline and on those who earnestly seek to cling to him.” By this same training, “he kept safe the six hundred thousand foot soldiers who had been gathered together in their hardness of heart, by scourging and pitying, striking and healing, in compassion and discipline.” “For as great as his mercy is, so great is his reproof.” It is good not to sin, but it is also good for the sinner to repent. In the same way, the best thing is to be always healthy, but it is also good to recover from illness.

9j For this reason Solomon too gives the command: “Strike your son with the rod, and rescue his soul from death.” And again: “Do not hold back from disciplining a child. Correct him with the rod, for he will not die.” Reproof and rebuke, as the very word hints, are blows to the soul. They bring sins to their senses, keep death away, and lead to self-control those who are being swept along into licentiousness. In the same way Plato knew that reproof is the greatest power for setting people right and the most authoritative purification. Following this line of argument, he holds that the man who is most deeply impure is uneducated and ugly because he has never been reproved, whereas the man who is truly to be happy ought to be as pure and as beautiful as possible. For if “rulers are no terror to good work,” how could God, who is good by nature, be a terror to the one who does not sin?

9k “But if you do evil, be afraid,” as the apostle says. That is why the apostle himself, after the Lord’s likeness, tightened the reins on the churches on every occasion. Aware of his own boldness and of the weakness of his hearers, he says to the Galatians: “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Those who are healthy do not need a doctor, because they are strong, but the sick need his skill. In the same way we, who are sick in our way of life, with shameful desires, blameworthy lack of self-control and the other inflammations of the passions, need the Saviour. He applies not only soothing medicines but also astringent ones. The bitter roots of fear halt the spread of sins, which feed like a creeping sore. So fear is saving, even if it is bitter. 9l It is right, then, that we who are sick need a saviour; that we who have gone astray need someone to guide us; that the blind need someone to lead them to the light; and that the thirsty need the fountain of life, from which those who drink will never thirst again. The dead need life, the sheep need the shepherd, and children need the instructor. Indeed all humanity needs Jesus, so that we do not fall into final condemnation as undisciplined sinners, but are sifted out from the chaff and heaped up in the Father’s storehouse. For the winnowing fork is in the Lord’s hand, and with it the chaff, which is due to the fire, is separated from the wheat. And if you wish, we may learn the highest wisdom of the all-holy Shepherd and Instructor, the almighty Word of the Father, in the place where he speaks in figure and calls himself the shepherd of the sheep. He is also the instructor of little children.

9m He says, then, through Ezekiel, addressing the elders and setting before them a saving pattern of wise care: “I will bind up the lame, and heal the one who is troubled, and bring back the one who has wandered, and I myself will feed them on my holy mountain.” These are the promises of a good shepherd. Feed us, who are children, like sheep. Yes, Master, fill us with your pasture, which is righteousness. Yes, Instructor, shepherd us to your holy mountain, to the Church, which is lifted high, which is above the clouds, which touches the heavens. “And I will be their shepherd,” he says, “and I will be near them,” as close as a tunic to their skin. He wants to save my flesh, clothing it in the tunic of incorruption, and he has anointed my skin. “They will call me,” he says, “and I will say, ‘Here I am.’” You answered sooner than I expected, Master. “And if they pass over, they will not slip, says the Lord.” For we who are passing over into incorruption will not fall into corruption, because he himself will hold on to us. For he himself has spoken, and he himself has willed it.

9n Such is our Instructor, and he is rightly called good. “I did not come,” he says, “to be served, but to serve.” For this reason he is shown in the Gospel as weary, because he toils for us, and he promises “to give his life as a ransom in place of many.” For this is the only one he acknowledges to be a good shepherd. He is generous, then, who gives the greatest gift for us, his own life. He is greatly beneficial and loving toward humanity, because, though he could have been Lord, he chose to be a brother of human beings. He is so good that he even died on our behalf. His righteousness also cries out: “If you come to me straight, I also will be straight toward you; if you walk crookedly, I also will be crooked, says the Lord of hosts.” By the crooked ways he hints at the rebukes given to sinners. For the straight way, the natural one, which the iota of “Jesus” hints at, is his goodness, which is unmoved and unwavering toward those who have believed through obedience.

9o “Since I called and you did not obey, says the Lord, but made my counsels void and paid no attention to my reproofs.” In this way the Lord’s reproof is most beneficial. Concerning these people he also says through David: “A crooked and embittering generation, a generation that did not set its heart straight, and whose spirit was not faithful toward God. They did not keep God’s covenant, and they were unwilling to walk in his law.” These are the causes of the embitterment, and for them the Judge comes to bring judgment on those who were unwilling to choose a good life. For this reason he dealt with them more harshly from that point on, to see whether he could hold them back from their rush toward death. Through David he gives the very clear reason for his threat: “They did not believe in his wonders. When he killed them, they sought him, and turned back, and rose early to seek God, and remembered that God is their helper and God the Most High is their redeemer.” In this way he knows that they turn back through fear, but have despised his kindness.

9p For goodness that is always gentle is generally neglected, but it is respected when it reminds us through the humane fear that comes from righteousness. The kind of fear is twofold. One kind comes with reverence, which citizens show toward good rulers, and we toward God, as well-behaved children do toward their fathers: “For an untamed horse,” it says, “turns out stubborn, and a son left unrestrained turns out reckless.” The other kind of fear comes with hatred, which slaves feel toward harsh masters, and which the Hebrews felt when they made God their master instead of their father. In matters of godliness, I think, what is willing and chosen differs greatly, indeed completely, from what is forced. “For he himself is compassionate,” it says, “he will heal their sins and not destroy them; and he will multiply his turning away of his anger, and will not kindle all his wrath.” See how the Instructor’s justice is shown in his corrections, and God’s goodness in his acts of compassion.

9q For this reason David, that is, the Spirit speaking through him, takes in both together and sings of the one God: “Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of your throne; mercy and truth will go before your face.” He acknowledges that it belongs to the same power both to judge and to do good. For authority over both belongs together, and the judgment of the just one distinguishes between opposites. The same God is just and good. He is truly God, who is himself all things, and all things are the same to him, because he is God, the only God. A mirror is not bad to an ugly person because it shows him what he looks like. A physician is not bad to a sick person because he reports the fever. The physician is not the cause of the fever; he only exposes it. In the same way, the one who reproves is not ill-disposed toward the person who is sick in soul. He does not put the faults into him. He shows the sins that are already there, so that the person may turn away from similar practices.

9r So God is good for his own sake, and just for our sake, and he is just because he is good. His justice is shown to us through his own Word, from above, from the place where he became Father. For before he became Creator he was God, and he was good. For that reason he also wished to be Creator and Father. The disposition of that love became the beginning of justice. It is the reason he makes his own sun shine and sends down his own Son. And this Son was the first to announce the good righteousness that comes from heaven, when he said, “No one knew the Son except the Father,” and “no one knew the Father except the Son.” This knowledge, balanced equally on both sides, is the sign of an ancient, impartial justice. Then justice came down to human beings, in letter and in body, that is, in the Word and in the law. It pressed humanity toward saving repentance, for it was good. But you do not obey God? Then blame yourself, for you are drawing the judge down on you.

That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and Saves Humanity by Exhorting.

10a That the same God, by the same Word, both restrains from sins by threatening and saves humanity by exhorting. We have shown that the plan of dealing sharply with humanity is good and saving. We have shown that the Word necessarily adopts it, and that it is well suited to bring repentance and to prevent sins. Next we should look at the gentleness of the Word. For he has been shown to be just, and he sets before us his own counsels, which call us to salvation. Through them, by his Father’s will, he wants to make known to us what is noble and what is beneficial. Consider this: the noble belongs to the style of praise, and the beneficial to the style of advice. Exhortation and dissuasion belong to the style of advice. Commendation and censure belong to the style of praise. 10b For advice becomes exhortation in one state of mind and dissuasion in another. In the same way the style of praise becomes censure in one state and commendation in another. The just Instructor, who aims at what is good for us, is chiefly occupied with these. We have already been shown the censuring and dissuading kind. Now we must deal with the exhorting and commending kind, and, as on a balance, set the equal pans of the just one against each other. The Instructor uses exhortation toward what is beneficial through Solomon, somewhat as follows: “I call on you, people, and I send out my voice to the sons of men. Listen to me, for I will speak solemn things,” and so on. He advises what saves, because advice is suited to choosing and avoiding. He does this through David when he says, “Blessed is the man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit in the seat of the pestilent, but his desire is in the law of the Lord.” There are three parts to advice. One takes its examples from past times: for instance, what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped an idol in the golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed fornication, and the like. The second is observed in the present time, grasped by the senses, as in what was said to those who asked the Lord, “Are you the Christ, or are we to wait for another?” He said, “Go away.

10c “...and tell John: the blind see again, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and blessed is the one who is not offended in me.” This is what David meant when he prophesied, “As we have heard, so also we have seen.” The third part of counsel is made up of things to come. By it the Instructor commands us to guard against what will result. So it was said: “Those who fall into sins will be thrown into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and similar words. From these it is plain that the Lord goes through every kind of treatment to call humanity to salvation. By consolation he comforts us in our sins, lessening desire and at the same time giving hope of salvation. For he says through Ezekiel, “If you turn back with your whole heart and say, ‘Father,’ I will listen to you as to a holy people.” And again he says, “Come to me, all who labor and are weighed down, and I will give you rest,” and the words that follow, which the Lord speaks in his own person.

10d Most plainly he calls us to goodness through Solomon, saying, “Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding.” For the good is found by the one who seeks it, and it likes to be seen by the one who has found it. Through Jeremiah also he explains understanding. He says, “We are blessed, Israel, because what pleases God is known to us.” It is known through the Word, through whom we are blessed and wise. For through the same prophet knowledge is shown to be understanding, when he says, “Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; listen closely, so as to know understanding.” Through Moses, too, because of his love for humanity, he promises in advance a gift to those who hurry toward salvation. For he says, “I will bring you into the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers.” And in addition, through Isaiah he says, “I will bring you into the holy mountain and make you glad.”

10e There is another form of his instruction as well: pronouncing blessing. Through David he says, “Blessed is the one who has not sinned, and he will be like the tree planted beside the streams of water, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall off” (by this he also hinted at the resurrection), “and everything he does will prosper.” He wants us to become such people, so that we may be blessed. Then, to show the opposite pan of the scale of justice, he says, “Not so the ungodly, not so; they are like the chaff which the wind blows off the face of the earth.” The Instructor shows the penalty of sinners, how easily they are scattered and how they are at the mercy of the wind. In this way he turns us away from the cause of sin by the threat of penalty. By holding up the punishment they deserve, he shows the goodness of his kindness. With great skill he leads us by this means to the use and possession of good things.

10f He also urges us toward knowledge. Through Jeremiah he says, “If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived in peace forever.” By pointing here to the reward of knowledge, he calls the thoughtful to love it. And to the one who has strayed he grants forgiveness: “Turn back, turn back,” he says, “like a grape-gatherer to his basket.” Do you see the goodness of justice, which counsels repentance? Further, through Jeremiah he lights up the truth for those who wander: “Thus says the Lord: Stand at the roads and look, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, which is the good path, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” He leads us to repentance for the sake of our salvation. This is why he says, “If you repent, the Lord will cleanse your heart and the heart of your offspring.” We could have called in the philosophers as advocates for this inquiry, who say that only the perfect person deserves praise, and the worthless person deserves blame.

10g But some people misrepresent the blessed life. They say it takes no trouble over anything itself and brings none to anyone else, and so they fail to understand its love for humanity. For their sake, and for the sake of those who still do not join justice to goodness, I set this argument aside. For it would follow that we should say the rebuking and censuring side of instruction suits human beings, since the philosophers say that all men are bad. God alone is wise, since wisdom comes from him, and he alone is perfect, and therefore he alone is worthy of praise. But I do not use this argument. I say instead that praise, blame, or anything like praise or blame is, above all else, the most necessary medicine for people. Some are hard to cure. Like iron, they are driven into shape by fire, hammer and anvil, that is, by threat, exposure and rebuke. Others give their attention to faith itself. They are, as it were, self-taught and willing, and they grow by praise: “For virtue that is praised grows like a tree.”

10h It seems to me that Pythagoras of Samos understood this when he gave the command: “When you have done shameful things, rebuke yourself; but delight in what is good.” Rebuking is also called admonishing. The word for admonition (nouthetesis) is explained as “putting sense into the mind” (nou enthematismos), so that the rebuking kind of instruction is what produces understanding. But countless other commands have been found for gaining good and avoiding evil: “There is no peace for the ungodly, says the Lord.” For this reason he commands the little children, through Solomon, to be on guard: “My son, do not let sinners lead you astray. Do not walk their roads with them. Do not go if they urge you, saying, ‘Come with us, share in the shedding of innocent blood, let us bury a righteous man in the earth for no reason, let us wipe him out like Hades, alive.’” This is also a prophecy about the Lord’s suffering. And through Ezekiel Life lays down commands: “The soul that sins shall die.

10i But the man who is righteous, who does righteousness, will not eat on the mountains. He has not set his eyes on the idle fancies of the house of Israel. He will not defile his neighbor’s wife. He will not come near a woman while she is set apart for her uncleanness. He will not oppress anyone. He will return the pledge of a debtor. He will not seize plunder. He will give his bread to the hungry and clothe the naked. He will not lend his money at interest or take extra profit. He will keep his hand from injustice, and will make a just judgment between a man and his neighbor. He has walked in my commands and kept my ordinances to do them. This man is righteous. He will surely live, says the Lord.” These words contain an outline of the Christian way of life and a notable encouragement toward the blessed life, the prize of a good life: eternal life.

That the Word Instructed by the Law and the Prophets.

11a That the Word instructed through the Law and the Prophets. We have shown, as well as we could, the manner of his love for humanity and of his instruction. So, explaining himself very beautifully, he compared himself to a “grain of mustard seed.” By this he hinted at several things: the spiritual nature of the word that is sown, its fruitful and many-sided character, and the greatness and easy growth of the power of the Word. He also hinted that the biting and cleansing effect of rebuke does good because of its sharpness. So through the little seed, which is an allegory, he freely gives to all humanity a very great thing, salvation. Honey, though very sweet, produces bile, just as kindness produces contempt, which is the cause of sinning. Mustard, on the other hand, reduces bile (that is, anger) and cuts through phlegm (that is, pride). From this Word comes true health of the soul and its lasting, well-balanced condition.

11b Long ago, then, the Word trained us through Moses, and afterward through the prophets. Moses was himself a prophet. For the law is the training of unruly children. Scripture says, “Having been filled, they rose up to play.” The word it uses is “fodder,” not “food,” meaning a mindless stuffing of the belly. They had been filled without thought, and they played without thought. So the law followed them, and fear with it, to check their sins and urge them toward right conduct. It prepared them to listen to the true Instructor and to obey him. He is one and the same Word, fitting himself to what each moment requires. Paul says that the law was given as “a tutor to bring us to Christ.” From this it is plain that there is only one Instructor of ours who is true, good and just: the Son, Jesus, the Word of God, in the image and likeness of the Father. God has handed us over to him, as a loving father entrusts his children to a faithful tutor. God gave an explicit command: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” The divine Instructor deserves our trust, because he is adorned with three of the finest qualities: knowledge, goodwill and boldness of speech. He has knowledge, because he is the Father’s wisdom: “All wisdom is from the Lord and is with him forever.” He has boldness, because he is God and Creator: “All things were made through him, and without him not one thing was made.” He has goodwill, because he alone gave himself as a sacrifice for us: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” and he did lay it down. Goodwill is nothing other than wishing good for one’s neighbor for that neighbor’s own sake.

The Instructor Characterized by the Severity and Benignity of Paternal Affection.

12a The Instructor shows both sternness and kindness, in keeping with a father’s affection. With these points already covered, the next step is for our Instructor Jesus to sketch for us the true life and to train the person who is in Christ. His character is not excessively fearsome, nor is it wholly slack through kindness. He gives commands and at the same time shapes them so that we are able to carry them out. It seems to me that this same one formed man from the dust, gave him new birth by water, made him grow by the Spirit, and trained him by the Word. He guides us by holy commands toward adoption as sons and toward salvation. His purpose is to remake the earth-born man into a holy and heavenly man, raised up by ascent, and so to fulfil most completely that divine saying, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Christ has become the full realization of what God said, while the rest of humanity is understood to be made only “in the image.”

12b But let us, children of a good Father and nurslings of a good Instructor, fulfil the Father’s will. Let us listen to the Word and take the impress of the truly saving life of our Savior. From now on let us practice the heavenly way of life, by which we are made divine. Let us anoint ourselves with the ever-fresh ointment of joy and the unspoiled ointment of sweet fragrance. We have the Lord’s way of life as a clear example of incorruption, and we follow in the footsteps of God. He alone is fit to consider, and does care, how and in what manner the life of human beings may become healthier. He also prepares us for a life of self-sufficiency and simplicity, and for being ready to travel lightly and unencumbered toward the endless blessedness of the good life. He teaches each of us to be our own storehouse. For he says, “Do not worry about tomorrow.” He means that the person enrolled in Christ’s service should be self-sufficient, his own servant, and should live a life that takes up each day as it comes.

12c For we are trained in peace, not in war. War requires heavy preparation, and luxury demands lavish supply. But peace and love are plain, quiet sisters. They need no weapons and no wasteful provision. The Word is their food. He has been given the leadership that shows us the way and trains us. From him we learn simplicity, freedom from pride, and in sum everything that belongs to a love of freedom, a love of humanity and a love of what is good. In a word, through a kinship of virtue we become like God. So work hard and do not grow weary, for you will become what you do not hope for and could not even imagine. Philosophers have one kind of training, orators another, wrestlers another. In the same way there is a noble character, matching a choice to love what is good, that comes from the training of Christ. In those trained by it, the activities of life show a worthy dignity: how they walk, how they recline at table, their food, sleep, bed, daily regimen, and the rest of their training. For this training by the Word is not overstrained but properly tuned.

12d For this reason the Word is also called Saviour. He has discovered for people these rational remedies, which bring sharp perception and salvation. He watches for the right moment, exposes the harm, explains the causes of the passions, and cuts out the roots of irrational desires. He commands what we must keep away from, and he brings every antidote of salvation to the sick. For this is God’s greatest and most kingly work: to save humanity. Sick people resent a doctor who gives them no advice for their health. How then could we fail to give the greatest thanks to the divine Instructor? He does not keep silent, and he does not overlook the acts of disobedience that lead to destruction. He exposes them, checks the impulses that stretch toward them, and teaches the fitting counsels for a right way of life. 12e We must therefore confess the very greatest thanks to him. What else do we say the rational creature, I mean man, must do, if not contemplate the divine? I say he must also contemplate human nature, and live as the truth leads. He must greatly admire both the Instructor himself and his commands, because they are fitting and in harmony with each other. After this pattern we too must fit ourselves to the Instructor, make our words agree with our deeds, and truly live.

Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational.

13a Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational. Just as right conduct comes about according to right reason, so, in the opposite way, sin comes about against reason. Everything that goes against right reason is sin. For example, the philosophers see fit to define the most general passions in this way. Desire is an appetite that disobeys reason. Fear is an avoidance that disobeys reason. Pleasure is an elation of the soul that disobeys reason. Grief is a contraction of the soul that disobeys reason. Now if disobedience to reason produces sin, then obedience to reason, which we call faith, must surely bring about what is called duty. For virtue itself is a condition of the soul that is in harmony with reason throughout the whole of life. Above all, they define philosophy itself as the pursuit of right reason. So everything done wrongly must come about through a failure of reason, and it is rightly called a “sin.”

13b So when the first man sinned and disobeyed God, Scripture says, “man was likened to the beasts.” He had sinned against reason, and so he was counted irrational and compared to beasts. This is why Wisdom also says, “The pleasure-lover and the adulterer is a horse for mating.” He is compared to a senseless animal, and so it adds, “He neighs under everyone who sits on him.” Man, it says, no longer speaks. Whoever sins against reason is no longer rational. He is an irrational beast, handed over to his desires, with every pleasure sitting on his back. But what is done rightly through obedience to reason, the heirs of the Stoics call “fitting” and “duty.” Now duty is what is fitting, and obedience is built on commands. These commands are the same as the counsels, and they have truth as their aim. They train us toward the final object of desire, which is understood as the end. The end of godliness is eternal rest in God, and our end is the beginning of the age to come.

13c Now the right accomplishment of godliness fulfils duty through works. So duties rightly consist in actions, not in words. An action is the activity of the rational Christian soul. It follows a refined judgment and a desire for truth, and it is carried out through the body, the soul’s natural partner and fellow-combatant. A duty is a single purpose in life that follows God and Christ, and it is rightly completed in eternal life. For the Christian life, in which we are now being trained, is a system of rational actions. That means the unfailing activity of what the Word teaches, which we have called faith. The system is the Lord’s commandments. They are divine decisions and spiritual counsels, written down for us, and they are suited both to ourselves and to our neighbours. They also come back to us again, as a ball bounces back to the one who threw it when it strikes something solid. For this reason duties are necessary for divine training, since God commanded them and provided them for our salvation.

13d And some necessary things serve only for life here, while others lift us on wings from here toward the good life there. In the same way, some duties are laid down for living, and others for living well. The commands given for ordinary, worldly living are common knowledge among the many. But what is fitting for living well, which is how that eternal life is gained, we may consider in outline by gathering it from the Scriptures themselves.