Knowledge And Union

Ὅλβιος, ὁστις τῆς ἱστορίας ἔσχε μάθησιν, μήτε πολιτῶν ἐπιπημοσύνῃ, μήτ' εἰς ἀδίκους πράξεις ὁρμῶν, ἀλλ' ἀθανάτου καθορῶν φύσεως κόσμον ἀγήρω. πῇ τε συνέστη, καὶ ὅπη, καὶ ὅπως, τοῖς δὲ τοιοὺτοις, οὐδέ ποτ' αἰσχρῶν ἔργων μελέτημα προσίζει.' Εἰκότως οὖν καὶ Πλάτων ' τὸν τῶν ἰδεῶν θεωρητικὸν Θεὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ζήσεσθαί φησι· νοῦς δὲ χώρα ἰδεῶν· νοῦς δὲ ὁ Θεός.' Τὸν ἀοπάτου Θεοῦ θεωρητικὸν Θεὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ζῶντα εἴρηκεν. Καὶ ἐν τῷ 'Σοφιστῇ' δὲ τὸν Ἐλεάτην ξένον, διαλεκτικὸν ὄντα, ὁ Σωκράτης 'Θεὸν' ὠνόμασεν· 'οἴους τοὺς Θεοὺς ξείνοισιν ἐοικότας ἀλλοδα ποῖσιν, ἐπιφοιτῶντας τοῖς ἄστεσιν. Ὅταν γὰρ ψυχὴ γενέσεως ὑπεξαβᾶσα, καθ' ἑαυτήν γε ᾖ, καὶ ὁμιλῇ τοῖς εἰδεσιν· 'οἶός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ ' Θεαιτήτῳ' κορυφαῖος· οἶον ἀγγελος ἤδη γενόμενος, σὺν Χριστῷ τε ἔσται, θεωρητικὸς ὤν, ἀεὶ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ σκοπῶν, τῷ ὄντι. Οἴος πεπνυμένος, τοὶ δ' ὡς σκιαὶ ἀῖσσουσιν. Νεκροὶ γὰρ τοὺς ἑαυτῶν θάπτουσι νεκρούς. Ὅθεν Ἰερεμίας λέγει· 'Πληρώσω αὐτὴν νεκρῶν γηγενῶν, οὐς ἔπαισεν ἡ ὀργή μου. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Θεὸς ἀναπόδεικτος ὦν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπιστημονικός· ὁ δὲ Υἰὸς σοφία τέ ἐστι, καὶ ἐπιστήμη, καὶ ἀλήθεια, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τούτῳ συγγενῆ. Καὶ δὴ καὶ ἀπόδειξιν ἔχει, καὶ διέξοδον· πᾶσαι δὲ αἱ δυνάμεις Πνεύματος, συλλήβδην μὲν ἔν τι πρᾶγμα γενόμεναι, συντελοῦσιν εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ, τὸν Υἰόν· ἀπαρέμφατος δέ ἐστι τῆς περὶ ἐκάστης αὐτοῦ τῶν δυνάμεων ἐννοίας. Καὶ δὴ οὐ γένεται ἀτεχνῶς ἕν ὡς ἔν, ούδὲ πολλὰ ὡς μέρη ὁ Υἱὸς, ἀλλ' ὡς πάντα ἕν· ἔνθεν καὶ πάντα· κύκλος γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς πασῶν τῶν δυνάμεων εἰς ἕν εἰλουμένων καὶ ἐνουμένων· διὰ τοῦτο 'Α καὶ Ω' ὁ Λόγος εἴρηται· οὖ μόνου τὸ τέλος ἀρχὴ γίνεται, καὶ τελευτᾷ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἄνωθεν ἀρχὴν, οὐδαμοῦ διάστασιν λαβών. Διὸ δὴ καὶ τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν καὶ τὸ δι' αὐτοῦ πιστεῦσαι μοναδικόν ἐστι γενέσθαι, ἀπερισπάστως ἐνούμενον ἐν αὐτῷ· τὸ δὲ ἀπιστῆσαι διστάσαι ἐστὶ, καὶ διαστῆναι, καὶ μερισθῆναι. Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Στρωματεων, Λόγος Τέταρτος, Κεφ ΚΕ' Source: Migne PG 8.1364b-1365c

Happy the one who has the culture of knowledge, and is not driven to the injury of neighbours or to unjust deeds, but beholds the undecaying order of immortal nature, the way it is and how it is and by what, to such a man the care for base deeds does not adhere. Rightly, then, Plato says, 'The man who contemplates the ideas will live as a god among men, and the mind is the place of ideas, and God is mind.' He says that he who contemplates the unseen God lives as a god among men. And in the Sophist, Socrates names the stranger of Elea, who was a dialectician, 'god': 'Such are the gods who, making themselves like foreign guests, come often to cities.' For when the soul, rising above the place of origin, is by itself apart, and is in the company of the ideas, like the Coryphæus in Theaetetus, now being like an angel, it will be with Christ, in contemplation, ever regarding the will of God in reality. 'Alone wise, while others fleet like shadows.' 1 'For the dead bury their dead.' 2 Whence Jeremiah says: 'I will fill it with the earth-born dead whom my anger has struck down.' 3 God, then, being not demonstrable, cannot be the object of knowledge, but the Son is wisdom and knowledge and truth, and all else that has affinity to this. And has demonstration and description, and all the powers of the Spirit, becoming collectively one thing, come to an end in the same, that is, in the Son, but He is not able to be declared, in the ideas of each of His powers. And He is neither simply one thing as one thing, nor is the Son many parts, but he is one thing in all, whence He is all things. For He is the circle of all powers rolled and united into one, by which the Word is called the Alpha and the Omega, of whom alone end becomes beginning, and ends again at the original beginning, having no rupture. Thus to believe in Him and by Him is to become a unit, being indissolubly united in Him, and to disbelieve is to be cut off, disjoined, divided. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, Book 4, Ch 25 1 Hom. Odyssey, 10.495 2 Mt 8.22 3 Jerem 33.5