A Place Far Off

Πάλιν· Ὁ Ἀβραὰμ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν τόπον ὃν εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ θεὸς τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναβλέψας ὁρᾷ τὸν τόπον μακρόθεν· πρώτη μὲν γὰρ ἡ δι´ ὄψεως τῶν καλῶν ἡμέρα, δευτέρα δὲ ἡ ψυχῆς τῶν ἀρίστων ἐπιθυμία, τῇ τρίτῃ δὲ ὁ νοῦς τὰ πνευματικὰ διορᾷ, διοιχθέντων τῶν τῆς διανοίας ὀμμάτων πρὸς τοῦ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ διαναστάντος διδασκάλου. Eἶεν δ´ ἂν καὶ αἱ τρεῖς ἡμέραι τῆς σφραγῖδος μυστήριον, δι´ ἧς ὁ τῷ ὄντι πιστεύεται θεός. μακρόθεν οὖν ἀκολούθως ὁρᾷ τὸν τόπον· δυσάλωτος γὰρ ἡ χώρα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὃν χώραν ἰδεῶν ὁ Πλάτων κέκληκεν, παρὰ Μωυσέως λαβὼν τόπον εἶναι αὐτόν, ὡς τῶν ἁπάντων καὶ τῶν ὅλων περιεκτικόν. Ἀτὰρ εἰκότως πόρρωθεν ὁρᾶται τῷ Ἀβραὰμ διὰ τὸ ἐν γενέσει εἶναι, καὶ δι´ ἀγγέλου προσεχῶς μυσταγωγεῖται. Ἐντεῦθεν ὁ ἀπόστολος, Βλέπομεν νῦν ὡς δι´ ἐσόπτρου, φησί, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον, κατὰ μόνας ἐκείνας τὰς ἀκραιφνεῖς καὶ ἀσωμάτους τῆς διανοίας ἐπιβολάς. Δυνατὸν δὲ κἀν τῷ διαλέγεσθαι τὸ καταμαντεύεσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐὰν ἐπιχειρῇ τις ἄνευ πασῶν τῶν αἰσθήσεων διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἐπ´ αὐτὸ ὅ ἐστιν ἕκαστον ὁρμᾶν καὶ μὴ ἀποστατεῖν τῶν ὄντων, πρὶν ἄν, ἐπαναβαίνων ἐπὶ τὰ ὑπερκείμενα, αὐτὸ ὅ ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν αὐτῇ νοήσει λάβῃ, ἐπ´ αὐτῷ γινόμενος τῷ τοῦ νοητοῦ τέλει κατὰ Πλάτωνα. Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Στρωματεων, Λογος Ε' Κεφ IA' Source: Migne PG 9.109c-112b

Again: 'Abraham, coming to the place which God told him of on the third day, looking up, saw the place far off.' 1 For the first day is the sight of good things, and the second is the soul's desire for best things, and on the third the mind perceives spiritual things, the eyes of the understanding being opened by the teacher who rose on the third day. The three days may be the mystery of the seal, in which God is really believed. 2 In consequence he sees the place far off. For the place of God is hard to attain, which Plato called the place of ideas, taking from Moses that it was a place which contained all things universally. But it is rightly seen by Abraham far off since he is in the realms of generation, and he is immediately initiated into the mystery by an angel. Thence says the Apostle: 'Now we see as through a mirror, but then face to face,' 3 which latter is achieved only by the pure and incorporeal workings of the intellect. 'It is possible by reasoning to come to an understanding of God, if it is attempted without any of the senses, and by reason to strive to what is individual and does not perish from being, until, rising up to the things which which are above, by the mind itself man grasps what is good, being within the bounds of intellectual things,' according to Plato. 4 Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 5, Chapter 11 1 Gen 22.3-4 2 Baptism, The Three Persons 3 1 Cor 13.12 4 Plato, Repub Bk 7, 532a-b