GOSPEL 10:1-55

On Sacred Symbolism

ON SACRED SYMBOLISM

10 ¹But the disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in metaphors? Explain to us the metaphor of the field.”

²Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this metaphor? How then will you understand any metaphor?

³What is mythology? Just frogs and donkeys and nonsense only fit to be swallowed by old women and children?” Jesus laughed. ⁴“In my view,” he said, “It is the works of the poet that seem most conducive to wisdom. ⁵All those old stories about Patriarchs, with miracles and signs and wonders, of which Holy Books are so fond, positively destroy the souls of their hearers, because the writers relate stories of outlandish passion and repeat nonsense against God and humans, of how they committed crimes of meanness, and quarreled with one another; ⁶and the affectation and pretense of reality leads emotional and jealous and tiny-minded and proud-hearted people even to try to imitate such stories!

⁷The poet, on the other hand, has the wisdom never to write such stuff, but rather takes a different path. ⁸Like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he makes use of humble incidents to teach great truths. ⁹In this way the poet is really more attached to truth than the theologians are. ¹⁰For the latter have to force their stories to seem true; but the poet, by pronouncing a story everyone knows not to be true, tells the truth by the very fact that he doesn’t claim to be relating real events at all.

¹¹Whereas the theologian, after telling his story, leaves a healthy-minded reader cudgeling his brains to know whether it ‘really happened,’ one who, like Aesop, tells a story which is false and does not pretend to be anything else, merely investing it with a good moral, shows that he has made use of the falsehood merely for its utility to his audience.

¹²For what is God really? ¹³It is not soul or mind. Neither is it word nor consciousness, per se. ¹⁴It cannot be spoken of and it cannot be grasped by the understanding. ¹⁵It is not number or order, greatness or smallness, equality or inequality, similarity or dissimilarity. ¹⁶It is not immovable, moving, or at rest. ¹⁷It is not power, nor is it light. It does not live nor is it life. It is not a substance, nor is it eternity or time. ¹⁸It cannot be grasped by the understanding since it is neither knowledge nor truth. ¹⁹It is not kingship. It is not wisdom. It is neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness. ²⁰Nor is it spirit (at least not in the sense that we understand the term). ²¹It is not sonship or fatherhood, and it is nothing known to us or to any other being. ²²It falls neither within the predicate of being nor non-being. Existing beings do not know it as it actually is. ²³There is no speaking of it, nor name nor knowledge of it. ²⁴Darkness and light, error and truth—it is none of these. It is simply beyond assertion and denial. ²⁵We make assertions and denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for it is both beyond every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things, and, by virtue of its preeminently simple and absolute nature, free of every limitation, beyond every limitation; it is also beyond every denial.

²⁶The fact is that, the more we take flight upward, the more our words are confined by the ideas we are capable of forming; so that now as we plunge into that darkness which is beyond intellect, we shall find ourselves not simply running out of words but actually speechless and unknowing!

²⁷But, for present purposes, what we do is this: We use whatever appropriate symbols we can for the things of God. And with these analogies we are raised upward toward the truth of the mind’s vision, a truth which is simple and unified.

²⁸Understanding these things, poets worship the Nameless One—even as they give it many names. ²⁹Indeed, they use all sorts of names, such as ‘I am Being,’ ‘Life,’ ‘Light,’ ‘God,’ and ‘Truth.’ ³⁰These same wise writers, when praising the Cause of everything that is, use names drawn from all the things caused: good, beautiful, wise, beloved, God of gods, Lord of Lords, Holy of Holies, eternal, existent, Cause of the ages. They call him source of life, wisdom, mind, word, knower, possessor beforehand of all the treasures of knowledge, power, powerful, and King of Kings, ancient of days, the unaging and unchanging, salvation, righteousness and sanctification, redemption, greatest of all and yet the one in the still breeze. ³¹They say he is in our minds, in our souls, and in our bodies, in heaven and on earth, that while remaining ever within himself he is also in and around and above the world, that he is above heaven and above all being, that he is sun, star, and fire, water, wind, and dew, cloud, stone, and rock; that he is All, and that he is Nothing.

³²And so it is the cause of all and, since transcending all, it is rightly nameless, and yet has the names of everything that is. ³³Truly he has dominion over all and all things revolve around him, for he is their cause, their source, and their destiny. He is ‘all in all,’ as Holy Books affirm, ³⁴and certainly he is to be praised as being for all things the creator and originator, the One who brings them the power which returns them to itself—and all this in the one single, irrepressible, and supreme act. ³⁵For the unnamed goodness is not just the cause or cohesion or life or perfection, so that it is from this or that providential gesture that it earns a name, ³⁶but it actually contains everything beforehand within itself—and this in an uncomplicated and boundless manner—and it is thus by virtue of the unlimited goodness of its single all-creative Providence. ³⁷Hence the songs of praise and the names for it are fittingly derived from the sum of all creation.

³⁸Like the statues of the gods in a temple, which one leaves behind upon entering the inner sanctum, so too are these the first things one sees after leaving the inner sanctum and the vision within. The intimate contact within is not with a statue or with an image, but with God himself. ³⁹The statue and the image are actually just secondary visions, whereas the experience of God is not even really a vision, per se, but something else entirely. ⁴⁰It is self-transcendence, simplification, surrender, a resting, concentration and alignment (if one is to have a vision of what is in the inner sanctum). ⁴¹If you are literally looking for some thing else, you will not find it. These, then, are images. And yet they provide to wise expositors of holy things a riddle-like hint as to how God is truly to be seen.

⁴²For we know that the nature of neither God nor soul can be seen. However, by a certain transformation, such things can be beheld, since divine Providence affords us figures and shapes for the incorporeal and the figureless and the bodiless, so that we might be guided to an approximate and partial knowledge of them—lest we remain in complete ignorance of God.

⁴³Depict, then, all these things, in words and in colors! ⁴⁴Rise up for me, O radiant painters of ambitious works, and magnify the icon by your arts!

⁴⁵Do not be afraid, do not fear. Do not hold matter in contempt. For it is not dishonorable. ⁴⁶I reverence it—not as God; ⁴⁷but I do reverence matter and hold it in respect. For it is filled with divine energy and grace.

⁴⁸In my opinion, it would be senseless and silly to look at words rather than at the power of what they are conveying. ⁴⁹Anyone seeking to understand divine things should never do this, for this is the interpretation followed by those who take the words literally and do not even wish to understand what a particular phrase means or how its sense might be conveyed through equivalent but more effective phrases. ⁵⁰People like this are concerned only with meaningless letters and lines, with syllables and terms which they do not understand, and which do not get as far as the thinking part of their souls, but make only empty sounds on their lips in their own hearing.

⁵¹It is as though it were wrong to express ‘four’ as ‘twice two,’ or ‘motherland’ as ‘fatherland,’ or to make any interchange between words that mean the same thing. ⁵²The truth, we have to understand, is that we use letters, syllables, phrases, written terms and words for the sake of the senses.

⁵³But when our souls are moved by mental energies in the direction of pure consciousness, then our senses and all that go with them are no longer needed. ⁵⁴So it is with our mental capacities, which, when the soul becomes Godlike, concentrate sightlessly and through an unknowing union on the rays of an unapproachable Light.”

⁵⁵So Jesus said to them. But they did not understand him.

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ON SACRED SYMBOLISM

10 ¹Καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ· Διὰ τί ἐν παραβολαῖς λαλεῖς αὐτοῖς; διασάφ-ησον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν τοῦ ἀγροῦ.

²καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· Οὐκ οἴδατε τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην, καὶ πῶς πάσας τὰς παραβολὰς γνώσεσθε;

³Τί γὰρ ὁ μυθολογία ἐστιν; βάτραχοι καὶ ὄνοι καὶ λῆροι γραυσὶν οἷοι μασᾶσθαι καὶ παιδίοις; ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐξεγέλασεν. ⁴καὶ μὴν ἐμοὶ ἔφη ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ἐπιτηδειότεροι πρὸς σοφίαν οἱ τοῦ ποιητοῦ φαίνονται· ⁵οἱ μὲν γὰρ περὶ τοὺς πατριάρχας, δυνάμεσιν καὶ τέρασιν καὶ σημείοις, ὧν γραφαὶ πᾶσαι ἔχεται, καὶ διαφθείρουσι τοὺς ἀκροω-μένους, ἐπειδὴ ἔρωτάς τε ἀτόπους οἱ συγ-γραφεῖς ἑρμηνεύουσι καὶ διαβολὰς θεόν καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ πανουργίας ἀνελευθέρους καὶ δίκας, ⁶καὶ τὸ ὡς γεγονὸς αὐτῶν ἄγει καὶ τὸν ἐρῶντα καὶ τὸν ζηλοτυποῦντα καὶ τὸν ἐπιθυμοῦντα πλουτεῖν ἢ τυραννεύειν ἐφ’ ἅπερ οἱ μῦθοι.

⁷ὁ ποιητής δὲ ὑπὸ σοφίας πρῶτον μὲν οὐκ ἐς τὸ κοινὸν τῶν ταῦτα ᾀδόντων ἑαυτὸν κατέστησεν, ἀλλ’ ἑαυτοῦ τινα ὁδὸν ἐτράπετο. ⁸εἶτα, ὥσπερ οἱ τοῖς εὐτελεστέροις βρώμασι καλῶς ἑστιῶντες, ἀπὸ σμικρῶν πραγμάτων διδάσκει μεγάλα. ⁹εἶτα τοῦ φιλαλήθους μᾶλλον ἢ οἱ γραμματείς ἥψατο· ¹⁰οἱ μὲν γὰρ βιάζονται πιθανοὺς φαίνεσθαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν λόγους, ὁ δ’ ἐπαγγ-έλλων λόγον, ὅς ἐστι ψευδής, πᾶς οἶδεν, ὅτι αὐτὸ τὸ μὴ περὶ ἀληθινῶν ἐρεῖν ἀληθεύει.

¹¹Καὶ ὁ μὲν γραμματεύς εἰπὼν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον καταλείπει τῷ ὑγιαίνοντι ἀκροατῇ βασανίζειν αὐτόν, εἰ ἐγένετο, ὁ δὲ εἰπὼν μὲν ψευδῆ λόγον, ἐπαγαγὼν δὲ νουθεσίαν, ὥσπερ ὁ Αἴσωπος, δείκνυσιν ὡς ἐς τὸ χρήσιμον τῆς ἀκροάσεως τῷ ψεύδει κέχρηται.

¹²Τί γὰρ ὄντως ὁ θεός ἐστιν; ¹³οὔτε ψυχή ἐστιν οὔτε νοῦς· οὐδὲ λόγος ἐστὶν οὔτε νόησις, ¹⁴οὔτε λέγεται οὔτε νοεῖται· ¹⁵οὔτε ἀριθμός ἐστιν οὔτε τάξις, οὔτε μέγεθος οὔτε σμικρότης, οὔτε ἰσότης οὔτε ἀνισότης, οὔτε ὁμοιότης ἢ ἀνομοιότης· ¹⁶οὔτε ἕστηκεν οὔτε κινεῖται οὔτε ἡσυχίαν ἄγει· ¹⁷δύναμίς ἐστιν οὔτε φῶς· οὔτε ζῇ οὔτε ζωή ἐστιν· οὔτε οὐσία ἐστὶν οὔτε αἰὼν οὔτε χρόνος· ¹⁸οὐδὲ ἐπαφή ἐστιν αὐτῆς νοητὴ οὔτε ἐπιστήμη, οὔτε ἀλήθειά ἐστιν ¹⁹οὔτε βασιλεία οὔτε σοφία, οὔτε ἓν οὔτε ἑνότης, οὔτε θεότης ἢ ἀγαθότης· ²⁰οὐδὲ πνεῦμά ἐστιν, ὡς ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι, ²¹οὔτε υἱότης οὔτε πατρότης οὔτε ἄλλο τι τῶν ἡμῖν ἢ ἄλλῳ τινὶ τῶν ὄντων συνεγνωσμένων· ²²οὐδέ τι τῶν οὐκ ὄντων, οὐδέ τι τῶν ὄντων ἐστίν, οὔτε τὰ ὄντα αὐτὴν γινώσκει, ᾗ αὐτή ἐστιν· ²³οὔτε λόγος αὐτῆς ἐστιν οὔτε ὄνομα οὔτε γνῶσις· ²⁴οὔτε σκότος ἐστὶν οὔτε φῶς, οὔτε πλάνη οὔτε ἀλήθεια· ²⁵οὔτε ἐστὶν αὐτῆς καθόλου θέσις οὔτε ἀφαίρεσις, ἀλλὰ τῶν μετ’ αὐτὴν τὰς θέσεις καὶ ἀφαιρέσεις ποιοῦντες αὐτὴν οὔτε τίθεμεν οὔτε ἀφαιροῦμεν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν θέσιν ἐστὶν ἡ παντελὴς καὶ ἑνιαία τῶν πάντων αἰτία καὶ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀφαίρεσιν ἡ ὑπεροχὴ τοῦ πάντων ἁπλῶς ἀπολελυμένου καὶ ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων.

²⁶Ἐπείπερ ὅσῳ πρὸς τὸ ἄναντες ἀνανεύομεν, τοσοῦτον οἱ λόγοι ταῖς συνόψεσι τῶν νοητῶν περιστέλλονται· καθάπερ καὶ νῦν εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ νοῦν εἰσδύνοντες γνόφον οὐ βραχυλογίαν, ἀλλ’ ἀλογίαν παντελῆ καὶ ἀνοησίαν εὑρήσομεν. ²⁷νῦν δέ, ὡς ἡμῖν ἐφικτόν, οἰκείοις μὲν εἰς τὰ θεῖα συμβόλοις χρώμεθα κἀκ τούτων αὖθις ἐπὶ τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἡνωμένην τῶν νοητῶν θεαμάτων ἀλήθειαν ἀναλόγως ἀνατεινόμεθα. ²⁸τοῦτο γοῦν εἰδότες οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ ὡς ἀνώνυμον αὐτὴν ὑμνοῦσι καὶ ἐκ παντὸς ὀνόματος. ²⁹πολυώνυμον δέ, ὡς ὅταν αὖθις αὐτὴν εἰσάγουσι φάσκουσαν· ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· ἡ ζωή· τὸ φῶς· ὁ θεός· ἡ ἀλήθεια. ³⁰καὶ ὅταν αὐτοὶ τὸν πάντων αἴτιον οἱ θεόσοφοι πολυωνύμως ἐκ πάντων τῶν αἰτιατῶν ὑμνοῦσιν ὡς ἀγαθόν, ὡς καλόν, ὡς σοφόν, ὡς ἀγαπητόν, ὡς θεὸν θεῶν, ὡς κύριον κυρίων, ὡς ἅγιον ἁγίων, ὡς αἰώνιον, ὡς ὄντα καὶ ὡς αἰώνων αἴτιον, ὡς ζωῆς χορηγόν, ὡς σοφίαν, ὡς νοῦν, ὡς λόγον, ὡς γνώστην, ὡς προέχοντα πάντας τοὺς θησαυροὺς ἁπάσης γνώσεως, ὡς δύναμιν, ὡς δυνάστην, ὡς βασιλέα τῶν βασιλευόντων, ὡς παλαιὸν ἡμερῶν, ὡς ἀγήρω καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον, ὡς σωτηρίαν, ὡς δικαιοσύνην, ὡς ἁγιασμόν, ὡς ἀπολύτρωσιν, ὡς μεγέθει πάντων ὑπερέχοντα καὶ ὡς ἐν αὔρᾳ λεπτῇ. ³¹καὶ γε καὶ ἐν νόοις αὐτὸν εἶναί φασι καὶ ἐν ψυχαῖς καὶ ἐν σώμασι καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐν γῇ καὶ ἅμα ἐν ταὐτῷ τὸν αὐτόν, ἐγκόσμιον, περικόσμιον, ὑπερκόσμιον, ὑπερουράνιον, ὑπερούσιον, ἥλιον, ἀστέρα, πῦρ, ὕδωρ, πνεῦμα, δρόσον, νεφέλην, αὐτολίθον καὶ πέτραν, πάντα τὰ ὄντα καὶ οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων.

³²Οὕτως οὖν τῇ πάντων αἰτίᾳ καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντα οὔσῃ καὶ τὸ ἀνώνυμον ἐφαρμόσει καὶ πάντα τὰ τῶν ὄντων ὀνόματα, ³³ἵνα ἀκριβῶς ᾖ τῶν ὅλων βασίλεια καὶ περὶ αὐτὴν ᾖ τὰ πάντα καὶ αὐτῆς ὡς αἰτίας, ὡς ἀρχῆς, ὡς πέρατος ἐξηρτημένα καὶ αὐτὴ κατὰ τὸ λόγιον ᾖ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσι ³⁴καὶ ἀληθῶς ὑμνῆται πάντων ὑποστάτις, ἀρχηγικὴ καὶ τελειωτικὴ καὶ συνεκτική, φρουρὰ καὶ ἑστία καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐπιστρεπτικὴ καὶ ταῦτα ἡνωμένως, ἀσχέτως, ἐξῃρημένως. ³⁵οὐ γὰρ συνοχῆς ἢ ζωῆς ἢ τελειώσεως αἰτία μόνον ἐστίν, ἵνα ἀπὸ μόνης ταύτης ἢ τῆς ἑτέρας προνοίας ἡ ὑπερώνυμος ἀγαθότης ὀνομασθείη. ³⁶πάντα δὲ ἁπλῶς καὶ ἀπεριορίστως ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὰ ὄντα προείληφε ταῖς παντελέσι τῆς μιᾶς αὐτῆς καὶ παναιτίου προνοίας ἀγαθότησι ³⁷καὶ ἐκ τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων ἐναρμονίως ὑμνεῖται καὶ ὀνομάζεται.

³⁸Ὥσπερ τις εἰς τὸ εἴσω τοῦ ἀδύτου εἰσδὺς εἰς τοὐπίσω καταλιπὼν τὰ ἐν τῷ νεῷ ἀγάλματα, ἃ ἐξελθόντι τοῦ ἀδύτου πάλιν γίνεται πρῶτα μετὰ τὸ ἔνδον θέαμα καὶ τὴν ἐκεῖ συνουσίαν πρὸς οὐκ ἄγαλμα οὐδὲ εἰκόνα, ἀλλὰ αὐτό· ³⁹ἃ δὴ γίγνεται δεύτερα θεάματα. τὸ δὲ ἴσως ἦν οὐ θέαμα, ἀλλὰ ἄλλος τρόπος τοῦ ἰδεῖν, ⁴⁰ἔκστασις καὶ ἅπλωσις καὶ ἐπίδοσις αὐτοῦ καὶ στάσις καὶ περινόησις πρὸς ἐφαρμογήν, εἴπερ τις τὸ ἐν τῷ ἀδύτῳ θεάσεται. ⁴¹εἰ δ’ ἄλλως βλέποι, οὐδὲν αὐτῷ πάρεστι. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν μιμήματα· καὶ τοῖς οὖν σοφοῖς τῶν προφητῶν αἰνίττεται, ὅπως θεὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁρᾶται·

⁴²Οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι οὔτε θεοῦ οὔτε ψυχῆς δυνατὸν θεαθῆναι φύσιν, ἀλλ’ ἐν μετα-σχηματισμῷ τινι θεωροῦνται ταῦτα τῆς θείας προνοίας τύπους καὶ σχήματα περιτιθείσης τοῖς ἀσωμάτοις καὶ ἀτυπώτοις καὶ μὴ ἔχουσι σχηματισμὸν σωματικῶς πρὸς τὸ χειρα-γωγηθῆναι ἡμᾶς καὶ πρὸς παχυμερῆ καὶ μερικὴν αὐτῶν γνῶσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἐν παντελεῖ ἀγνοίᾳ ὦμεν θεοῦ.

⁴³Πάντα γράφε καὶ λόγῳ καὶ χρώμασι. ⁴⁴ἀνάστητέ μοι, ὦ λαμπροὶ τῶν ἀθλητικῶν κατορθωμάτων ζωγράφοι, τὴν εἰκόνα ταῖς ὑμετέραις μεγαλύνατε τέχναις· ⁴⁵μὴ φοβοῦ, μὴ δέδιθι· μὴ κάκιζε τὴν ὕλην· οὐ γὰρ ἄτιμος. ⁴⁶σέβω δὲ οὐχ ὡς θεόν· ⁴⁷τὴν δέ γε ὕλην σέβω καὶ δι’ αἰδοῦς ἄγω, ὡς θείας ἐνεργείας καὶ χάριτος ἔμπλεων.

⁴⁸Ἔστι μὲν γὰρ ἄλογον, ὡς οἶμαι, καὶ σκαιὸν τὸ μὴ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ σκοποῦ προσέχειν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς λέξεσιν. ⁴⁹καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστι τῶν τὰ θεῖα νοεῖν ἐθελόντων ἴδιον, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἤχους ψιλοὺς εἰσδεχομένων καὶ τούτους ἄχρι τῶν ὤτων ἀδιαβάτους ἔξωθεν συνεχόντων καὶ οὐκ ἐθελόντων εἰδέναι, ⁵⁰τί μὲν ἡ τοιάδε λέξις σημαίνει, πῶς δὲ αὐτὴν χρὴ καὶ δι’ ἑτέρων ὁμοδυνάμων καὶ ἐκφαντικωτέρων λέξεων διασαφῆσαι, προσπασχόντων δὲ στοιχείοις καὶ γραμμαῖς ἀνοήτοις καὶ συλλαβαῖς καὶ λέξεσιν ἀγνώστοις μὴ διαβαινούσαις εἰς τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῶν νοερόν, ἀλλ’ ἔξω περὶ τὰ χείλη καὶ τὰς ἀκοὰς αὐτῶν διαβομβουμέναις.

⁵¹Ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔξον τὸν τέσσαρα ἀριθμὸν διὰ τοῦ δὶς δύο σημαίνειν ἢ τὴν μητρίδα διὰ τῆς πατρίδος ἢ ἕτερόν τι τῶν πολλοῖς τοῦ λόγου μέρεσι ταὐτὸ σημαινόντων. ⁵²δέον εἰδέναι κατὰ τὸν ὀρθὸν λόγον, ὅτι στοιχείοις καὶ συλλαβαῖς καὶ λέξεσι καὶ γραφαῖς καὶ λόγοις χρώμεθα διὰ τὰς αἰσθήσεις.

⁵³Ὡς ὅταν ἡμῶν ἡ ψυχὴ ταῖς νοεραῖς ἐνεργείαις ἐπὶ τὰ νοητὰ κινεῖται, περιτταὶ μετὰ τῶν αἰσθητῶν αἱ αἰσθήσεις ⁵⁴ὥσπερ καὶ αἱ νοεραὶ δυνάμεις, ὅταν ἡ ψυχὴ θεοειδὴς γενομένη δι’ ἑνώσεως ἀγνώστου ταῖς τοῦ ἀπροσίτου φωτὸς ἀκτῖσιν ἐπιβάλλει ταῖς ἀνομμάτοις ἐπιβολαῖς.

⁵⁵Ὡς εἶπεν οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς. καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐ συνῆκαν τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς.

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