The library · Edition and sources
Philo: Appendix 2: Fragments
C. D. Yonge (1854–1855) · Translated text with edition notes
Opening
FRAGMENTS
EXTRACTED FROM THE PARALLELS OF JOHN OF DAMASCUS
About the unstable and changeable condition of human affairs.
Page 326. C. If one is to tell the plain truth, man is without real power in anything, never taking a firm hold of anything. I do not mean merely of common things, but not even of those which concern himself; neither of health, nor of a good condition of the outward senses, nor of soundness in respect of the other parts of his body, nor of his voice, nor of his presence of mind; for as to wealth, or glory, or friends, or power, or all the other things which depend on fortune, who is there who does not know how thoroughly unstable they are? So that we must of necessity confess that the supreme power over everything belongs to one being alone, the true Lord of all existing things.
About impious men, sinners, etc.
Page 341. D. If you wish to be governed under God as your king, take care not to sin; but if you commit sin, how can you be under the government of God as your king?
About those people who have renounced such and such a line of conduct, and then turning
back again, have adopted that very line which they had renounced.
Page 343. D. Some men, making improvement, have returned back to virtue before coming to the end, the ancient principle of oligarchy having destroyed the principle of aristocracy lately engendered in the soul, which having been quiet for a little while, has subsequently come up over again with greater power than before.
Page 343. D. When a man rightly establishes himself in a virtuous life, with meditation, and practice, and good government, and when having been known by all men as a pious man and one who fears God, he falls into sin, that is a great fall, for he has ascended up to the height of heaven, and fallen down into the abyss of hell.
About resurrection and judgment.
Page 349. A. It is not possible with God that a wicked man should lose his good reward for a single good thing which he may have done among a great number of evil actions; nor, on the other hand, that a good man should escape punishment, and not suffer it, if among many good actions he has done wickedly in anything, for it is infallibly certain that God distributes everything according to a just weight and balance.
Page 349. B. The mind is the witness to each individual of the things which they have planned in secret, and conscience is an incorruptible judge, and the most unerring of all judges.
About those who are ruled.
Page 359. A. He who has learnt how to submit to be ruled, immediately learns how to rule others; for even if a man were invested with the supreme power over all the earth and all the sea, he would not be a true ruler unless he had also learnt and been previously taught to submit to the rule of others.
About anarchy.
Page 359. D. Alas, how many and great evils are produced by anarchy! Famine, war, the devastation of lands, the deprivation of money, abductions, fears of slavery, and death.
About the foolish and senseless man, etc.
Page 362. E. No wicked man is rich, not even though he should be the owner of all the mines in the whole world; but all foolish men are poor. Every foolish man is straitened, being oppressed by covetousness, and ambition, and a love of pleasure, and things of that sort, which do not permit the mind to dwell at ease or to enjoy plenty of room.
Page 363. A. There is no greater evil to a man than folly, and the being deprived of the proper use of his reasoning powers and intellect.
Page 363. A. Ignorance is the cause of disease and destruction.
About deceit affecting the management of a household.
Page 367. D. Every stratagem is not blameable, since guardians of the night appear to act properly when they lie in wait for robbers, and generals when they form ambuscades against the enemy, whom they cannot catch without a stratagem; and the same principle is applicable to what are called manoeuvres, and to the artifices practised in the contests of wrestlers, for in such cases deceit is accounted honourable.
About impossible things.
Page 370. B. It is as impossible that the love of the world can co-exist with the love of God, as for light and darkness to co-exist at the same time with one another.
About holy men.
Page 372. E. The happy nature is that which rejoices on every occasion, and which is not discontented with anything whatever which exists in the world, but is pleased with whatever happens, as being good, and beautiful, and expedient.
About leisure and quiet.
Page 376. A. The wise man endeavours to secure quiet and leisure, and periods of rest from work, that he may devote himself peacefully to the meditations on divine matters.
About evil-speaking.
Page 369. D. Foul speakers and random accusers, who seek to make a display of their art with vain words, being slow to learn what is good, are very quick and ready at learning what is of the opposite character.
About counsel.
Page 397. D. Everything which is not done with reason is discreditable, just as what is done with reason is beautiful.
About old men.
Page 404. C. Old age is an unruffled harbour.
Page 404. C. Old age is the time when the vigour of the body is passed by; the period when the passions can be checked.
About gymnasia.
Page 405. D. Continued practice makes knowledge firm, just as want of practice engenders ignorance. And, again, practice in any matter increases experience.
Page 405. D. Study is the nurse of knowledge.
About calumny.
Page 436. D. Calumniators and men discarded from the divine grace, who are afflicted with the same evil disposition of calumny with him, are in all respects hated and detested by God, and removed to a distance from all happiness.
Page 436. D. What can be worse than calumny? for it seduces the ears and perplexes the minds of those who listen to it, and it makes them brutal and always on a watch for evil, like men engaged in hunting; but those who are well ballasted and restrained by prudent reason, hate the man who utters calumnies more than him against whom they are uttered, reproving and seeking to check all desire of blaming others until it be either proved by evidence or demonstrated by undeniable proof.
About justice and virtue.
Page 438. D. If any one embraces all the virtues with earnestness and sobriety, he is a king, even though he may be in a private station.
About voluntary and involuntary sins.
Page 526. B. As to sin intentionally is unjust, so to sin unintentionally and out of ignorance is not at once justifiable, but perhaps it is something between the two, that is between righteousness and unrighteousness, and is of what some persons call an indifferent character, for no sin can be an act of righteousness.
About initiation into divine mysteries.
Page 533. C. It is not lawful to speak of the sacred mysteries to the uninitiated.
About the sea.
Page 551. D. It is proper to marvel at the sea, by means of which countries requite one another for the good things which they receive from each other, and by which they receive what they are in need of, and export what they have a superfluity of.
About equality.
Page 556. D. To give equal things to unequal people is an action of the greatest injustice.
About physicians and medical science.
A good physician would not be inclined to apply every kind of salutary medicine at once and on the same day to a patient, as he would know that by such a course he would be doing him more harm than good, but he would measure out the proper opportunities, and then give saving medicines in a seasonable manner; and he would apply different remedies at different times, and so he would bring about the patient's restoration to health by gentle degrees.
About opportunity.
Page 563. C. Say what is right, and at the time when it is right, and you will not hear what is not right.
Page 563. C. It is well to economise time.
About mysteries.
Page 576. D. Chatterers divulging what ought to be kept buried in silence, do in a manner from a disease of the tongue pour forth into people's ears things which are not worthy of being heard.
About people who are in a state of pupillage.
Page 613. D. To inquire and put questions is the most useful of habits with a view to acquiring instruction.
Page 613. D. He who hungers and thirsts after knowledge, and who is eager to learn what he does not know, abandoning all other objects of care, is eager to become a disciple, and day and night watches at the doors of the houses of wise men.
Page 613. D. For any one to know that he is ignorant is a piece of wisdom, just as to know that one has done wrong is a piece of righteousness.
About reproach.
Page 630. C. Never reproach any one with misfortune, for nature is impartial, and the future is uncertain; lest if you yourself should fall into similar misfortunes, you should be found to be convicted and condemned by your own conscience.
About a proper constitution.
Page 657. C. It is advantageous to submit to one's betters.
About a blameable constitution.
From the fifth book of the Essays on Genesis.
Page 658. E. A shameless look, and a high head, and a continual rolling of the eyes, and a pompous strut in walking, and a habit of blushing at nothing, however discreditable, are signs of a most infamous soul, which stamps the obscure topics of the reproaches which belong to itself upon the visible body.
About familiarity and habituation.
Page 681. D. A change of all kinds of circumstances at once to the opposite direction is very harsh, especially when the existing powers are established by the length of time that they have lasted.
About correction.
Page 683. D. It is useful to be warned by the misfortunes of others.
Page 683. D. Punishment very often warns and corrects those who do wrong; but if it fails to do so to them, at all events it corrects the bystanders, for the punishments of others improve most people, from fear lest they should suffer similar evils.
About associating with wicked men.
Page 692. A. Associations with wicked men are mischievous, and very often the soul against its will receives the impression of the insane wickedness of one's associates.
About wisdom.
Page 693. E. Every wise man is a friend of God.
About haughty men.
Page 693. E. Self-conceit, as the proverb of the ancients has it, is the eradication of all improvement, for the man who is full of self-conceit is incapable of improvement.
Self-conceit is by nature an unclean thing.
About natural things.
Page 711. C. As it is difficult to inoculate anything in a manner contrary to nature, and to introduce anything into nature which does not belong to it, so likewise is it hard to change things which are of such and such a nature from that nature, and to restrain them; for it has been well said by some one, everything is vain if nature sets herself against it.
About man.
From the Questions arising in Genesis.
Page 748. A. What is the meaning of the expression, "Until"
{1}
{#ge 3:19.}
thou return to the dust from which thou wast taken? For man was not formed of the dust alone, but also of the divine Spirit; but since he did not continue in an unchanged condition, he neglected the divine command, and cutting off that constitution which imitated the heaven from his better part, he made himself over wholly to the earth; for if he had been a lover of virtue, which is immortal, he would beyond all question have received heaven for his inheritance, but since what he sought was pleasure, by means of which the death of the soul is brought upon mankind, he became appropriated to the earth.
About Adam.
From the Questions arising in Genesis.
Page 748. B. "And God brought all the animals to Adam, to see what he would call Them;"
{2}
{genesis 2:19.}
for God does not doubt, but since he has given mind to man, the first born and most excellent of his creatures, according to which he, being endowed with knowledge, is by nature enabled to reason; he excites him, as an instructor excites his pupil, to a display of his powers, and he contemplates the most excellent offspring of his soul. And, again, he visibly by the example of this man gives an outline of all that is voluntary in us, looking with disfavour on those who affirm that everything happens through necessity, by which some men must be influenced, he on that account commanded man to take upon himself the regulation of these things. And this is an employment peculiarly fitting for man, as being endowed with a very high degree of knowledge and most surpassing prudence, the giving of names to the animals being suited to him not only as being wise, but also as being the first nobly born creature.
For it was fitting that he should be the founder of the human race, and also the king of everything that is born of the earth, and that he should have this as an especial honour of his own, that, as he was the first who had any acquaintance with the animals, he might also be the first inventor and pronouncer of their names; for it would have been absurd for them to be left without names, and subsequently to have names given to them by some younger man, to the honour and glory of the elder.
And when Adam saw the figure of his wife, as the prophet says, and that it had been produced not by any connexion, nor out of a woman, as human beings in after times were produced, but that she was as it were a nature on the borders between these two kinds, like a graft from a shoot of another vine taken off and grafted into a second one, on which account he says, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall become one Flesh;"
{3}
{#ge 2:24.}
in saying which he used a most gentle expression, which was at the same time most perfectly true, meaning that they would be united by sympathy in their griefs and joys.
From the same book, or else from the last book of the Questions arising in Exodus.
Truly the divine place is inaccessible, and one which is hard to be approached, nor is it given even to the purest intellect to be able to ascend to such a height as to touch it. It is impossible for human nature to behold the face of the living God;