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Philo Judaeus, miniature, 9th cent. Greek
codex of works |
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Philo Judaeus, miniature, 9th cent. Greek
codex of works |
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Caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran |
THAT
EVERY
GOOD
MAN
is FREE:
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| φιλοσοφίας τε τὸ μὲν λογικὸν ὡς οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον εἰς κτῆσιν ἀρετῆς λογοθήραις, τὸ δὲ φυσικὸν ὡς μεῖζον ἢ κατὰ ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν μετεωρολέσχαις ἀπολιπόντες, πλὴν ὅσον αὐτοῦ περὶ ὑπάρξεως θεοῦ καὶ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς γενέσεως φιλοσοφεῖται, τὸ ἠθικὸν εὖ μάλα διαπονοῦσιν ἀλείπταις χρώμενοι τοῖς πατρίοις νόμοις, οὓς ἀμήχανον ἀνθρωπίνην ἐπινοῆσαι ψυχὴν ἄνευ κατοκωχῆς ἐνθέου. |
In the realm of philosophy they abandon the logical part to word-hunters as inessential for the acquisition of virtue, and the physical to star-gazing visionaries as beyond the scope of human nature, but make an exception of the part that treats philosophically of the existence of God and the birth of the universe. But the ethical part they carefully elaborate, utilizing as trainers their ancestral laws, which the human mind could not possibly have conceived without divine inspiration. |
| 81 τούτους ἀναδιδάσκονται μὲν καὶ παρὰ τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον, ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἑβδόμαις διαφερόντως. ἱερὰ γὰρ ἡ ἑβδόμη νενόμισται, καθ' ἣν τῶν ἄλλων ἀνέχοντες ἔργων, εἰς ἱεροὺς ἀφικνούμενοι τόπους, οἳ καλοῦνται συναγωγαί, καθ' ἡλικίας ἐν τάξεσιν ὑπὸ πρεσβυτέροις νέοι καθέζονται, μετὰ κόσμου 82 τοῦ προσήκοντος ἔχοντες ἀκροατικῶς. εἶθ' εἷς μέν τις τὰς βίβλους ἀναγινώσκει λαβών, ἕτερος δὲ τῶν ἐμπειροτάτων ὅσα μὴ γνώριμα παρελθὼν ἀναδιδάσκει·̈ |
In these laws they are instructed at all times, but especially on every seventh day. For the Seventh Day is held holy, and on it they refrain from all other work and proceed to sacred spots they call synagogues. There they sit arranged according to their ages, the young below the elders, with the proper decorum and with attentive ears. Then one takes up the books and reads aloud and another among the more practiced comes forward and explicates what is not understood. |
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τὰ γὰρ πλεῖστα διὰ συμβόλων ἀρχαιοτρόπῳ ζηλώσει 83 παρ' αὐτοῖς φιλοσοφεῖται. παιδεύονται δὲ εὐσέβειαν, ὁσιότητα, δικαιοσύνην, οἰκονομίαν, πολιτείαν, ἐπιστήμην τῶν πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν καὶ ἀδιαφόρων, αἱρέσεις ὧν χρὴ καὶ φυγὰς τῶν ἐναντίων, ὅροις καὶ κανόσι τριττοῖς χρώμενοι, τῷ τε φιλοθέῳ καὶ φιλαρέτῳ καὶ φιλανθρωπῳ.́ |
The greater part of their philosophical study is conveyed via symbols following an antique mode. They are trained to piety, holiness, justice, domestic and civic conduct, knowledge of what is truly good, evil, or indifferent, how to choose what they ought, and avoid the opposite, employing as their three definitive criteria love of God, love of virtue, love of men. |
THE
THERAPEUTAE:
THE
CONTEMPLATIVE
LIFE
(VITA
CONTEMPLATIVA)
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ALEXANDRIA |
Egyptian seaport; cosmopolitan intellectual center
Representatives of all known world’s major religions
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Alexandria, 2nd cent. Roman mosaic |
| [13] εἶτα διὰ τὸν τῆς ἀθανάτου καὶ μακαρίας ζωῆς ἵμερον τετελευτηκέναι νομίζοντες ἤδη τὸν θνητὸν βίον ἀπολείπουσι τὰς οὐσίας υἱοῖς ἢ θυγατράσιν εἴτε καὶ ἄλλοις συγγενέσιν ... [18] ὑπ' οὐδενὸς ἔτι δελεαζόμενοι φεύγουσιν ἀμεταστρεπτὶ ... [19] μετοικίζονται δὲ οὐκ εἰς ἑτέραν πόλιν ... [20] ἀλλὰ τειχῶν ἔξω ποιοῦνται τὰς διατριβὰς ἐν κήποις ἢ μοναγρίαις ἐρημίαν μεταδιώκοντες, οὐ διά τινα ὠμὴν ἐπιτετηδευμένην μισανθρωπίαν, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἐκ τῶν ἀνομοίων τὸ ἦθος ἐπιμιξίας ἀλυσιτελεῖς καὶ βλαβερὰς εἰδότες. |
THROUGH (13-20) their yearning for the deathless and blessed life, believing their mortal existence is already over, they leave their property to their sons or daughters or even to other kinsfolk ... they flee without turning to look back ... They do not emigrate to another city, ... (rather) They spend their time outside the walls in gardens or solitary places, (monagriais eremian) not from having cultivated a cruel hatred of men, but because they know that intercourse with persons of dissimilar character is unprofitable and injurious. |
| [24] αἱ δὲ οἰκίαι τῶν συνεληλυθότων σφόδρα μὲν εὐτελεῖς εἰσι, ... οὔτε δὲ ἐγγύς, ὥσπερ αἱ ἐν τοῖς ἄστεσιν, - ὀχληρὸν γὰρ καὶ δυσάρεστον τοῖς ἐρημίαν ἐζηλωκόσι καὶ μεταδιώκουσιν αἱ γειτνιάσεις - οὔτε πόρρω, δι' ἣν ἀσπάζονται κοινωνίαν ... |
The houses of those thus banded together are quite simple ... neither near together as in towns, since close proximity is troublesome and displeasing to those assiduously striving for solitude, (eremian) nor yet far apart, because of the fellowship (koinonian) to which they cleave... |
| [25] ἐν ἑκάστῃ δέ ἐστιν οἴκημα ἱερόν, ὃ καλεῖται σεμνεῖον καὶ μοναστήριον, ἐν ᾧ μονούμενοι τὰ τοῦ σεμνοῦ βίου μυστήρια τελοῦνται, μηδὲν εἰσκομίζοντες, μὴ ποτόν, μὴ σιτίον, μηδέ τι τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα πρὸς τὰς τοῦ σώματος χρείας ἀναγκαῖα, ἀλλὰ νόμους καὶ λόγια θεσπισθέντα διὰ προφητῶν καὶ ὕμνους καὶ τὰ ἄλλα οἷς ἐπιστήμη καὶ εὐσέβεια συναύξονται [26] καὶ τελειοῦνται. |
IN each house (25-28) there is a sacred chamber, which is called a sanctuary or chamber, (semneion kai monasterion) in which in isolation they are initiated into the mysteries of the holy life. They take nothing into it, neither drink, nor food, nor anything else necessary for bodily needs, but laws and oracles delivered by the prophets, and psalms and the other books by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected. |
| ἀεὶ μὲν οὖν ἄληστον ἔχουσι τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ μνήμην, ὡς καὶ δι' ὀνειράτων μηδὲν ἕτερον ἢ τὰ κάλλη τῶν θείων ἀρετῶν καὶ δυνάμεων φαντασιοῦσθαι· πολλοὶ γοῦν καὶ ἐκλαλοῦσιν ἐν 27 ὕπνοις ὀνειροπολούμενοι τὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς φιλοσοφίας ἀοίδιμα δόγματα. |
THEY keep the memory of God alive and never forget him, so that even in their dreams no images are formed other than the loveliness of divine excellences and power thus many of them, dreaming in their sleep, divulge the glorious teachings of their divine philosophy. |
| δὶς δὲ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν εἰώθασιν εὔχεσθαι, περὶ τὴν ἕω καὶ περὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν, ἡλίου μὲν ἀνίσχοντος εὐημερίαν αἰτούμενοι τὴν ὄντως εὐημερίαν, φωτὸς οὐρανίου τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν ἀναπλησθῆναι, δυομένου δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ αἰσθητῶν ὄχλου παντελῶς ἐπικουφισθεῖσαν, ἐν τῷ ἑαυτῆς συνεδρίῳ καὶ βουλευτηρίῳ γενομένην, 28 ἀλήθειαν ἰχνηλατεῖν. |
Twice daily they pray, at dawn and at eventide; at sunrise they pray for a joyful day, joyful in the true sense, that their minds may be filled with celestial light. At sunset they pray that the soul may be fully relieved from the disturbance of the senses and the objects of sense, and that retired to its own consistory and council chamber it may search out the truth. |
| τὸ δὲ ἐξ ἑωθινοῦ μέχρις ἑσπέρας διάστημα σύμπαν αὐτοῖς ἐστιν ἄσκησις· ἐντυγχάνοντες γὰρ τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασι φιλοσοφοῦσι τὴν πάτριον φιλοσοφίαν ἀλληγοροῦντες, ἐπειδὴ σύμβολα τὰ τῆς ῥητῆς ἑρμηνείας νομίζουσιν ἀποκεκρυμμένης φύσεως ἐν ὑπονοίαις 29 δηλουμένης |
THE entire interval between early morning and evening is devoted to [spiritual] exercise. They read the Holy Scriptures and apply themselves to their ancestral philosophy by means of allegory, since they believe that the words of the literal text are symbols of a hidden nature, revealed through its underlying meanings. |
| . ἔστι δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ συγγράμματα παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν, οἳ τῆς αἱρέσεως ἀρχηγέται γενόμενοι πολλὰ μνημεῖα τῆς ἐν τοῖς ἀλληγορουμένοις ἰδέας ἀπέλιπον, οἷς καθάπερ τισὶν ἀρχετύποις | χρώμενοι μιμοῦνται τῆς προαιρέσεως τὸν τρόπον· |
(29) They have also writings of men of old who were the founders of their sect, and had left behind many memorials of the type of treatment employed in allegory, and taking these as a sort of archetype they imitate the method of this principle of interpretation. |
| ὥστε οὐ θεωροῦσι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποιοῦσιν ᾄσματα καὶ ὕμνους εἰς τὸν θεὸν διὰ παντοίων μέτρων καὶ μελῶν, ἃ [30] ῥυθμοῖς σεμνοτέροις ἀναγκαίως χαράττουσι. | And so they not only apply themselves to contemplation (theorousi) but also compose chants and hymns to God which they then notate for solemn performance. |
| τὰς μὲν οὖν ἓξ ἡμέρας χωρὶς ἕκαστοι μονούμενοι παρ' ἑαυτοῖς ἐν τοῖς λεχθεῖσι μοναστηρίοις φιλοσοφοῦσι, τὴν αὔλειον οὐχ ὑπερβαίνοντες, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀπόπτου θεωροῦντες· ταῖς δὲ ἑβδόμαις συνέρχονται καθάπερ εἰς κοινὸν σύλλογον ... [31] παρελθὼν δὲ ὁ πρεσβύτατος καὶ τῶν δογμάτων ἐμπειρότατος διαλέγεται ...τὴν ἐν τοῖς νοήμασι διηρευνηκὼς καὶ διερμηνεύων ἀκρίβειαν, ἥτις οὐκ ἄκροις ὠσὶν ἐφιζάνει, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀκοῆς ἐπὶ ψυχὴν ἔρχεται καὶ βεβαίως ἐπιμένει. καθ' ἡσυχίαν δὲ οἱ ἄλλοι πάντες ἀκροῶνται ... |
FOR (30) six days (of each week) they live apart in seclusion in the aforementioned chambers and pursue philosophy, without stepping beyond the outer door or even seeing it from afar. But on the seventh day they come together as for a general assembly ... Then the eldest who is also best versed in their doctrines comes forward, and...after close examination he carefully expounds the precise meaning of his thoughts, which does not settle on the edge of the audience's ears, but passes through the hearing into the soul, and there remains securely ensconced, [while] the others listen quietly ... |
| [75] μετὰ δὲ τὸ κατακλιθῆναι μὲν τοὺς συμπότας ἐν αἷς ἐδήλωσα τάξεσι, ... <ὁ πρόεδρος αὐτῶν, πολλῆς ἁπάντων ἡσυχίας γενομένης> ... ζητεῖ τι τῶν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασιν ἢ καὶ ὑπ' ἄλλου προταθὲν ἐπιλύεται ... καὶ ὁ μὲν σχολαιοτέρᾳ χρῆται τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ, διαμέλλων καὶ βραδύνων ταῖς ἐπαναλήψεσιν, ἐγχαράττων ταῖς ψυχαῖς τὰ νοήματα |
(75-77) When the banqueters have taken their places...the president, after all are hushed in deep silence...makes inquiry into some problem arising in the Holy Scriptures...he employs a leisurely mode of instruction, lingering and drawing things out through constant recapitulation, thus imprinting the thoughts in the souls of his hearers. |
| [78] αἱ δὲ ἐξηγήσεις τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων γίνονται δι' ὑπονοιῶν ἐν ἀλληγορίαις· ἅπασα γὰρ ἡ νομοθεσία δοκεῖ τοῖς ἀνδράσι τούτοις ἐοικέναι ζῴῳ καὶ σῶμα μὲν ἔχειν τὰς ῥητὰς διατάξεις, ψυχὴν δὲ τὸν ἐναποκείμενον ταῖς λέξεσιν ἀόρατον νοῦν, |
THE (78) interpretations of the Holy Scripture are made in accordance with the deeper meanings conveyed in allegory. For the whole of the Law seems to these people to resemble a living being with the literal commandments for its body and for its soul the invisible meaning (nous) stored away in its words. |
| ἐν ᾧ ἤρξατο ἡ λογικὴ ψυχὴ διαφερόντως τὰ οἰκεῖα θεωρεῖν, ὥσπερ διὰ κατόπτρου τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐξαίσια κάλλη νοημάτων | ἐμφαινόμενα κατιδοῦσα καὶ τὰ μὲν σύμβολα διαπτύξασα καὶ διακαλύψασα, γυμνὰ δὲ εἰς φῶς προαγαγοῦσα τὰ ἐνθύμια τοῖς δυναμένοις ἐκ μικρᾶς ὑπομνήσεως [79] τὰ ἀφανῆ διὰ τῶν φανερῶν θεωρεῖν. |
It is in the latter that the rational soul begins especially to contemplate the things akin to itself and, beholding the extraordinary beauty of the concepts through the polished glass of the words, unfolds and reveals the symbols, and brings forth the thoughts bared into the light for those who are able by a slight jog to their memory to view the invisible through the visible. |
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1994....x.... .
