Guidelines
for Footnotes and Bibliography
Exegesis
Passages
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Guide for Exam #1
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Guide for Exam #2
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Guide for Exam #3
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Guide for Final Exam
Life Settings for Gospel Stories
1. Actual Event in the time of Jesus
2. Oral transmission of the story in the early church
3. When the story is actually written down by a Gospel author
Carefully examining the details of a particular text in an attempt to
understand what its author meant to communicate. This usually involves
three steps:
(A) Observation
Who? What? When?
Where? How?
(B) Interpretation
Why?
(C) Application
How does it apply
today?
Deductive Bible Study
Reading the Bible using a set of beliefs as a guide for interpreting
what you read.
Problem: Denominational belief systems typically predetermine
what you see in particular passages. Deductive Study is often used
as a means of proving what you already believe (find what you look for).
Topical Bible Study
Looking up a number of verses to see what they say about a chosen topic.
Problem: verses are often read without considering their
context. This approach must be used cautiously, or you may grossly
misinterpret the biblical authors' intended meanings and reach erroneous
conclusions.
Socrates, speaking with Glaucon, tells the "Myth of the Cave"
And now, I said, let me show in a figure how
far our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living
in a underground den, which has a
mouth open towards the light and reaching
all along the den; here they have been
from their childhood, and have their legs
and necks chained so that they cannot
move, and can only see before them, being
prevented by the chains from turning
round their heads. Above and behind them a
fire is blazing at a distance, and
between the fire and the prisoners there is
a raised way; and you will see, if you
look, a low wall built along the way, like
the screen which marionette players have in
front of them, over which they show the puppets.
I see.
And do you see, I said, men passing along
the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and
statues and figures of animals made of wood
and stone and various materials, which
appear over the wall? Some of them are talking,
others silent.
You have shown me a strange image, and they
are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only
their own shadows, or the shadows of
one another, which the fire throws on the
opposite wall of the cave?
True, he said; how could they see anything
but the shadows if they were never
allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried
in like manner they would only see the
shadows?
Yes, he said.
And if they were able to converse with one
another, would they not suppose that
they were naming what was actually before
them?
Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an
echo which came from the other side,
would they not be sure to fancy when one of
the passers-by spoke that the voice
which they heard came from the passing shadow?
No question, he replied.
To them, I said, the truth would be literally
nothing but the shadows of the images.
That is certain.
And now look again, and see what will naturally
follow it' the prisoners are released
and disabused of their error. At first, when
any of them is liberated and compelled
suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round
and walk and look towards the light,
he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will
distress him, and he will be unable to see the
realities of which in his former state he
had seen the shadows; and then conceive
some one saying to him, that what he saw before
was an illusion, but that now, when
he is approaching nearer to being and his
eye is turned towards more real existence,
he has a clearer vision, -what will be his
reply? And you may further imagine that his
instructor is pointing to the objects as they
pass and requiring him to name them,
-will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy
that the shadows which he formerly saw
are truer than the objects which are now shown
to him?
Far truer.
And if he is compelled to look straight at
the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes
which will make him turn away to take and
take in the objects of vision which he can
see, and which he will conceive to be in reality
clearer than the things which are now
being shown to him?
True, he now
And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly
dragged up a steep and rugged
ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into
the presence of the sun himself, is he not
likely to be pained and irritated? When he
approaches the light his eyes will be
dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything
at all of what are now called realities.
Not all in a moment, he said.
He will require to grow accustomed to the
sight of the upper world. And first he will
see the shadows best, next the reflections
of men and other objects in the water, and
then the objects themselves; then he will
gaze upon the light of the moon and the
stars and the spangled heaven; and he will
see the sky and the stars by night better
than the sun or the light of the sun by day?
Certainly.
Last of he will be able to see the sun, and
not mere reflections of him in the water,
but he will see him in his own proper place,
and not in another; and he will
contemplate him as he is.
Certainly.
He will then proceed to argue that this is
he who gives the season and the years, and
is the guardian of all that is in the visible
world, and in a certain way the cause of all
things which he and his fellows have been
accustomed to behold?
Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
And when he remembered his old habitation,
and the wisdom of the den and his
fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that
he would felicitate himself on the change,
and pity them?
Certainly, he would.
And if they were in the habit of conferring
honours among themselves on those who
were quickest to observe the passing shadows
and to remark which of them went
before, and which followed after, and which
were together; and who were therefore
best able to draw conclusions as to the future,
do you think that he would care for
such honours and glories, or envy the possessors
of them? Would he not say with
Homer,
Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,
and to endure anything, rather than
think as they do and live after their manner?
Yes, he said, I think that he would rather
suffer anything than entertain these false
notions and live in this miserable manner.
Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming
suddenly out of the sun to be
replaced in his old situation; would he not
be certain to have his eyes full of
darkness?
To be sure, he said.
And if there were a contest, and he had to
compete in measuring the shadows with
the prisoners who had never moved out of the
den, while his sight was still weak,
and before his eyes had become steady (and
the time which would be needed to
acquire this new habit of sight might be very
considerable) would he not be
ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he
went and down he came without his
eyes; and that it was better not even to think
of ascending; and if any one tried to
loose another and lead him up to the light,
let them only catch the offender, and they
would put him to death.
No question, he said.
This entire allegory, I said, you may now
append, dear Glaucon, to the previous
argument; the prison-house is the world of
sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and
you will not misapprehend me if you interpret
the journey upwards to be the ascent
of the soul into the intellectual world according
to my poor belief, which, at your
desire, I have expressed whether rightly or
wrongly God knows. But, whether true
or false, my opinion is that in the world
of knowledge the idea of good appears last
of all, and is seen only with an effort; and,
when seen, is also inferred to be the
universal author of all things beautiful and
right, parent of light and of the lord of light
in this visible world, and the immediate source
of reason and truth in the intellectual;
and that this is the power upon which he who
would act rationally, either in public or
private life must have his eye fixed.
I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand
you.
Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that
those who attain to this beatific vision
are unwilling to descend to human affairs;
for their souls are ever hastening into the
upper world where they desire to dwell; which
desire of theirs is very natural, if our
allegory may be trusted.
Yes, very natural.
And is there anything surprising in one who
passes from divine contemplations to the
evil state of man, misbehaving himself in
a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are
blinking and before he has become accustomed
to the surrounding darkness, he is
compelled to fight in courts of law, or in
other places, about the images or the
shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring
to meet the conceptions of those
who have never yet seen absolute justice?
Anything but surprising, he replied.
Any one who has common sense will remember
that the bewilderments of the eyes
are of two kinds, and arise from two causes,
either from coming out of the light or
from going into the light, which is true of
the mind's eye, quite as much as of the
bodily eye; and he who remembers this when
he sees any one whose vision is
perplexed and weak, will not be too ready
to laugh; he will first ask whether that
soul of man has come out of the brighter light,
and is unable to see because
unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned
from darkness to the day is dazzled by
excess of light. And he will count the one
happy in his condition and state of being,
and he will pity the other; or, if he have
a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from
below into the light, there will be more reason
in this than in the laugh which greets
him who returns from above out of the light
into the den.
That, he said, is a very just distinction.
But then, if I am right, certain professors
of education must be wrong when they say
that they can put a knowledge into the soul
which was not there before, like sight
into blind eyes.
They undoubtedly say this, he replied.
Whereas, our argument shows that the power
and capacity of learning exists in the
soul already; and that just as the eye was
unable to turn from darkness to light
without the whole body, so too the instrument
of knowledge can only by the
movement of the whole soul be turned from
the world of becoming into that of
being, and learn by degrees to endure the
sight of being, and of the brightest and
best of being, or in other words, of the good.
Very true.
And must there not be some art which will
effect conversion in the easiest and
quickest manner; not implanting the faculty
of sight, for that exists already, but has
been turned in the wrong direction, and is
looking away from the truth?
Yes, he said, such an art may be presumed.
And whereas the other so-called virtues of
the soul seem to be akin to bodily
qualities, for even when they are not originally
innate they can be implanted later by
habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than
anything else contains a divine element
which always remains, and by this conversion
is rendered useful and profitable; or,
on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did
you never observe the narrow intelligence
flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue
--how eager he is, how clearly his paltry
soul sees the way to his end; he is the reverse
of blind, but his keen eyesight is
forced into the service of evil, and he is
mischievous in proportion to his cleverness.
Very true, he said.
But what if there had been a circumcision
of such natures in the days of their youth;
and they had been severed from those sensual
pleasures, such as eating and
drinking, which, like leaden weights, were
attached to them at their birth, and which
drag them down and turn the vision of their
souls upon the things that are below --if,
I say, they had been released from these impediments
and turned in the opposite
direction, the very same faculty in them would
have seen the truth as keenly as they
see what their eyes are turned to now.
Very likely.
Yes, I said; and there is another thing which
is likely. or rather a necessary inference
from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated
and uninformed of the truth,
nor yet those who never make an end of their
education, will be able ministers of
State; not the former, because they have no
single aim of duty which is the rule of all
their actions, private as well as public;
nor the latter, because they will not act at all
except upon compulsion, fancying that they
are already dwelling apart in the islands
of the blest.
Very true, he replied.
Then, I said, the business of us who are the
founders of the State will be to compel
the best minds to attain that knowledge which
we have already shown to be the
greatest of all-they must continue to ascend
until they arrive at the good; but when
they have ascended and seen enough we must
not allow them to do as they do now.
What do you mean?
I mean that they remain in the upper world:
but this must not be allowed; they must
be made to descend again among the prisoners
in the den, and partake of their
labours and honours, whether they are worth
having or not.
But is not this unjust? he said; ought we to
give them a worse life, when they might
have a better?
You have again forgotten, my friend, I said,
the intention of the legislator, who did
not aim at making any one class in the State
happy above the rest; the happiness
was to be in the whole State, and he held
the citizens together by persuasion and
necessity, making them benefactors of the
State, and therefore benefactors of one
another; to this end he created them, not
to please themselves, but to be his
instruments in binding up the State.
True, he said, I had forgotten.
Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice
in compelling our philosophers to
have a care and providence of others; we shall
explain to them that in other States,
men of their class are not obliged to share
in the toils of politics: and this is
reasonable, for they grow up at their own
sweet will, and the government would
rather not have them. Being self-taught, they
cannot be expected to show any
gratitude for a culture which they have never
received. But we have brought you into
the world to be rulers of the hive, kings
of yourselves and of the other citizens, and
have educated you far better and more perfectly
than they have been educated, and
you are better able to share in the double
duty. Wherefore each of you, when his
turn comes, must go down to the general underground
abode, and get the habit of
seeing in the dark. When you have acquired
the habit, you will see ten thousand
times better than the inhabitants of the den,
and you will know what the several
images are, and what they represent, because
you have seen the beautiful and just
and good in their truth. And thus our State
which is also yours will be a reality, and
not a dream only, and will be administered
in a spirit unlike that of other States, in
which men fight with one another about shadows
only and are distracted in the
struggle for power, which in their eyes is
a great good. Whereas the truth is that the
State in which the rulers are most reluctant
to govern is always the best and most
quietly governed, and the State in which they
are most eager, the worst.
Quite true, he replied.
And will our pupils, when they hear this,
refuse to take their turn at the toils of State,
when they are allowed to spend the greater
part of their time with one another in the
heavenly light?
Impossible, he answered; for they are just
men, and the commands which we
impose upon them are just; there can be no
doubt that every one of them will take
office as a stern necessity, and not after
the fashion of our present rulers of State.
Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the
point. You must contrive for your future
rulers another and a better life than that
of a ruler, and then you may have a
well-ordered State; for only in the State
which offers this, will they rule who are truly
rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue
and wisdom, which are the true blessings of
life. Whereas if they go to the administration
of public affairs, poor and hungering
after the' own private advantage, thinking
that hence they are to snatch the chief
good, order there can never be; for they will
be fighting about office, and the civil
and domestic broils which thus arise will
be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of
the whole State.
Most true, he replied.
And the only life which looks down upon the
life of political ambition is that of true
philosophy. Do you know of any other?
Indeed, I do not, he said.
And those who govern ought not to be lovers
of the task? For, if they are, there will
be rival lovers, and they will fight.
No question.
Who then are those whom we shall compel to
be guardians? Surely they will be the
men who are wisest about affairs of State,
and by whom the State is best
administered, and who at the same time have
other honours and another and a better
life than that of politics?
They are the men, and I will choose them, he
replied.
And now shall we consider in what way such
guardians will be produced, and how
they are to be brought from darkness to light,
--as some are said to have ascended
from the world below to the gods?
By all means, he replied.
----------------------------------
The Republic, Book X
Socrates tells the "Myth of Er"
These, then, are the prizes and rewards and
gifts which are bestowed upon the just
by gods and men in this present life, in addition
to the other good things which justice
of herself provides.
Yes, he said; and they are fair and lasting.
And yet, I said, all these are as nothing,
either in number or greatness in comparison
with those other recompenses which await both
just and unjust after death. And you
ought to hear them, and then both just and
unjust will have received from us a full
payment of the debt which the argument owes
to them.
Speak, he said; there are few things which
I would more gladly hear.
Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not
one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the
hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a
hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian
by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten
days afterwards, when the bodies of the
dead were taken up already in a state of corruption,
his body was found unaffected
by decay, and carried away home to be buried.
And on the twelfth day, as he was
lying on the funeral pile, he returned to
life and told them what he had seen in the
other world. He said that when his soul left
the body he went on a journey with a
great company, and that they came to a mysterious
place at which there were two
openings in the earth; they were near together,
and over against them were two
other openings in the heaven above. In the
intermediate space there were judges
seated, who commanded the just, after they
had given judgment on them and had
bound their sentences in front of them, to
ascend by the heavenly way on the right
hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden
by them to descend by the lower
way on the left hand; these also bore the
symbols of their deeds, but fastened on
their backs. He drew near, and they told him
that he was to be the messenger who
would carry the report of the other world
to men, and they bade him hear and see all
that was to be heard and seen in that place.
Then he beheld and saw on one side the
souls departing at either opening of heaven
and earth when sentence had been given
on them; and at the two other openings other
souls, some ascending out of the earth
dusty and worn with travel, some descending
out of heaven clean and bright. And
arriving ever and anon they seemed to have
come from a long journey, and they
went forth with gladness into the meadow,
where they encamped as at a festival; and
those who knew one another embraced and conversed,
the souls which came from
earth curiously enquiring about the things
above, and the souls which came from
heaven about the things beneath. And they
told one another of what had happened
by the way, those from below weeping and sorrowing
at the remembrance of the
things which they had endured and seen in
their journey beneath the earth (now the
journey lasted a thousand years), while those
from above were describing heavenly
delights and visions of inconceivable beauty.
The Story, Glaucon, would take too
long to tell; but the sum was this: --He said
that for every wrong which they had
done to any one they suffered tenfold; or
once in a hundred years --such being
reckoned to be the length of man's life, and
the penalty being thus paid ten times in a
thousand years. If, for example, there were
any who had been the cause of many
deaths, or had betrayed or enslaved cities
or armies, or been guilty of any other evil
behaviour, for each and all of their offences
they received punishment ten times over,
and the rewards of beneficence and justice
and holiness were in the same
proportion. I need hardly repeat what he said
concerning young children dying
almost as soon as they were born. Of piety
and impiety to gods and parents, and of
murderers, there were retributions other and
greater far which he described. He
mentioned that he was present when one of
the spirits asked another, 'Where is
Ardiaeus the Great?' (Now this Ardiaeus lived
a thousand years before the time of
Er: he had been the tyrant of some city of
Pamphylia, and had murdered his aged
father and his elder brother, and was said
to have committed many other abominable
crimes.) The answer of the other spirit was:
'He comes not hither and will never
come. And this,' said he, 'was one of the
dreadful sights which we ourselves
witnessed. We were at the mouth of the cavern,
and, having completed all our
experiences, were about to reascend, when
of a sudden Ardiaeus appeared and
several others, most of whom were tyrants;
and there were also besides the tyrants
private individuals who had been great criminals:
they were just, as they fancied,
about to return into the upper world, but
the mouth, instead of admitting them, gave
a roar, whenever any of these incurable sinners
or some one who had not been
sufficiently punished tried to ascend; and
then wild men of fiery aspect, who were
standing by and heard the sound, seized and
carried them off; and Ardiaeus and
others they bound head and foot and hand,
and threw them down and flayed them
with scourges, and dragged them along the
road at the side, carding them on thorns
like wool, and declaring to the passers-by
what were their crimes, and that they
were being taken away to be cast into hell.'
And of all the many terrors which they
had endured, he said that there was none like
the terror which each of them felt at
that moment, lest they should hear the voice;
and when there was silence, one by
one they ascended with exceeding joy. These,
said Er, were the penalties and
retributions, and there were blessings as
great.
Now when the spirits which were in the meadow
had tarried seven days, on the
eighth they were obliged to proceed on their
journey, and, on the fourth day after, he
said that they came to a place where they
could see from above a line of light,
straight as a column, extending right through
the whole heaven and through the earth,
in colour resembling the rainbow, only brighter
and purer; another day's journey
brought them to the place, and there, in the
midst of the light, they saw the ends of
the chains of heaven let down from above:
for this light is the belt of heaven, and
holds together the circle of the universe,
like the under-girders of a trireme. From
these ends is extended the spindle of Necessity,
on which all the revolutions turn.
The shaft and hook of this spindle are made
of steel, and the whorl is made partly of
steel and also partly of other materials.
Now the whorl is in form like the whorl used
on earth; and the description of it implied
that there is one large hollow whorl which
is quite scooped out, and into this is fitted
another lesser one, and another, and
another, and four others, making eight in
all, like vessels which fit into one another;
the whorls show their edges on the upper side,
and on their lower side all together
form one continuous whorl. This is pierced
by the spindle, which is driven home
through the centre of the eighth. The first
and outermost whorl has the rim broadest,
and the seven inner whorls are narrower, in
the following proportions --the sixth is
next to the first in size, the fourth next
to the sixth; then comes the eighth; the seventh
is fifth, the fifth is sixth, the third is
seventh, last and eighth comes the second. The
largest (of fixed stars) is spangled, and
the seventh (or sun) is brightest; the eighth (or
moon) coloured by the reflected light of the
seventh; the second and fifth (Saturn and
Mercury) are in colour like one another, and
yellower than the preceding; the third
(Venus) has the whitest light; the fourth
(Mars) is reddish; the sixth (Jupiter) is in
whiteness second. Now the whole spindle has
the same motion; but, as the whole
revolves in one direction, the seven inner
circles move slowly in the other, and of
these the swiftest is the eighth; next in
swiftness are the seventh, sixth, and fifth,
which move together; third in swiftness appeared
to move according to the law of
this reversed motion the fourth; the third
appeared fourth and the second fifth. The
spindle turns on the knees of Necessity; and
on the upper surface of each circle is a
siren, who goes round with them, hymning a
single tone or note. The eight together
form one harmony; and round about, at equal
intervals, there is another band, three
in number, each sitting upon her throne: these
are the Fates, daughters of Necessity,
who are clothed in white robes and have chaplets
upon their heads, Lachesis and
Clotho and Atropos, who accompany with their
voices the harmony of the sirens
--Lachesis singing of the past, Clotho of
the present, Atropos of the future; Clotho
from time to time assisting with a touch of
her right hand the revolution of the outer
circle of the whorl or spindle, and Atropos
with her left hand touching and guiding
the inner ones, and Lachesis laying hold of
either in turn, first with one hand and then
with the other.
When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty
was to go at once to Lachesis; but first of
all there came a prophet who arranged them
in order; then he took from the knees
of Lachesis lots and samples of lives, and
having mounted a high pulpit, spoke as
follows: 'Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter
of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold
a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius
will not be allotted to you, but you
choose your genius; and let him who draws
the first lot have the first choice, and the
life which he chooses shall be his destiny.
Virtue is free, and as a man honours or
dishonours her he will have more or less of
her; the responsibility is with the chooser
--God is justified.' When the Interpreter
had thus spoken he scattered lots
indifferently among them all, and each of
them took up the lot which fell near him, all
but Er himself (he was not allowed), and each
as he took his lot perceived the
number which he had obtained. Then the Interpreter
placed on the ground before
them the samples of lives; and there were
many more lives than the souls present,
and they were of all sorts. There were lives
of every animal and of man in every
condition. And there were tyrannies among
them, some lasting out the tyrant's life,
others which broke off in the middle and came
to an end in poverty and exile and
beggary; and there were lives of famous men,
some who were famous for their form
and beauty as well as for their strength and
success in games, or, again, for their
birth and the qualities of their ancestors;
and some who were the reverse of famous
for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise;
there was not, however, any
definite character them, because the soul,
when choosing a new life, must of
necessity become different. But there was
every other quality, and the all mingled
with one another, and also with elements of
wealth and poverty, and disease and
health; and there were mean states also. And
here, my dear Glaucon, is the supreme
peril of our human state; and therefore the
utmost care should be taken. Let each
one of us leave every other kind of knowledge
and seek and follow one thing only, if
peradventure he may be able to learn and may
find some one who will make him
able to learn and discern between good and
evil, and so to choose always and
everywhere the better life as he has opportunity.
He should consider the bearing of
all these things which have been mentioned
severally and collectively upon virtue; he
should know what the effect of beauty is when
combined with poverty or wealth in a
particular soul, and what are the good and
evil consequences of noble and humble
birth, of private and public station, of strength
and weakness, of cleverness and
dullness, and of all the soul, and the operation
of them when conjoined; he will then
look at the nature of the soul, and from the
consideration of all these qualities he will
be able to determine which is the better and
which is the worse; and so he will
choose, giving the name of evil to the life
which will make his soul more unjust, and
good to the life which will make his soul
more just; all else he will disregard. For we
have seen and know that this is the best choice
both in life and after death. A man
must take with him into the world below an
adamantine faith in truth and right, that
there too he may be undazzled by the desire
of wealth or the other allurements of
evil, lest, coming upon tyrannies and similar
villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to
others and suffer yet worse himself; but let
him know how to choose the mean and
avoid the extremes on either side, as far
as possible, not only in this life but in all that
which is to come. For this is the way of happiness.
And according to the report of the messenger
from the other world this was what
the prophet said at the time: 'Even for the
last comer, if he chooses wisely and will
live diligently, there is appointed a happy
and not undesirable existence. Let not him
who chooses first be careless, and let not
the last despair.' And when he had
spoken, he who had the first choice came forward
and in a moment chose the
greatest tyranny; his mind having been darkened
by folly and sensuality, he had not
thought out the whole matter before he chose,
and did not at first sight perceive that
he was fated, among other evils, to devour
his own children. But when he had time
to reflect, and saw what was in the lot, he
began to beat his breast and lament over
his choice, forgetting the proclamation of
the prophet; for, instead of throwing the
blame of his misfortune on himself, he accused
chance and the gods, and everything
rather than himself. Now he was one of those
who came from heaven, and in a
former life had dwelt in a well-ordered State,
but his virtue was a matter of habit
only, and he had no philosophy. And it was
true of others who were similarly
overtaken, that the greater number of them
came from heaven and therefore they
had never been schooled by trial, whereas
the pilgrims who came from earth, having
themselves suffered and seen others suffer,
were not in a hurry to choose. And
owing to this inexperience of theirs, and
also because the lot was a chance, many of
the souls exchanged a good destiny for an
evil or an evil for a good. For if a man
had always on his arrival in this world dedicated
himself from the first to sound
philosophy, and had been moderately fortunate
in the number of the lot, he might, as
the messenger reported, be happy here, and
also his journey to another life and
return to this, instead of being rough and
underground, would be smooth and
heavenly. Most curious, he said, was the spectacle
--sad and laughable and strange;
for the choice of the souls was in most cases
based on their experience of a previous
life. There he saw the soul which had once
been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan
out of enmity to the race of women, hating
to be born of a woman because they had
been his murderers; he beheld also the soul
of Thamyras choosing the life of a
nightingale; birds, on the other hand, like
the swan and other musicians, wanting to
be men. The soul which obtained the twentieth
lot chose the life of a lion, and this
was the soul of Ajax the son of Telamon, who
would not be a man, remembering the
injustice which was done him the judgment
about the arms. The next was
Agamemnon, who took the life of an eagle,
because, like Ajax, he hated human
nature by reason of his sufferings. About
the middle came the lot of Atalanta; she,
seeing the great fame of an athlete, was unable
to resist the temptation: and after her
there followed the soul of Epeus the son of
Panopeus passing into the nature of a
woman cunning in the arts; and far away among
the last who chose, the soul of the
jester Thersites was putting on the form of
a monkey. There came also the soul of
Odysseus having yet to make a choice, and
his lot happened to be the last of them
all. Now the recollection of former tolls
had disenchanted him of ambition, and he
went about for a considerable time in search
of the life of a private man who had no
cares; he had some difficulty in finding this,
which was lying about and had been
neglected by everybody else; and when he saw
it, he said that he would have done
the had his lot been first instead of last,
and that he was delighted to have it. And not
only did men pass into animals, but I must
also mention that there were animals tame
and wild who changed into one another and
into corresponding human natures --the
good into the gentle and the evil into the
savage, in all sorts of combinations.
All the souls had now chosen their lives, and
they went in the order of their choice to
Lachesis, who sent with them the genius whom
they had severally chosen, to be the
guardian of their lives and the fulfiller
of the choice: this genius led the souls first to
Clotho, and drew them within the revolution
of the spindle impelled by her hand,
thus ratifying the destiny of each; and then,
when they were fastened to this, carried
them to Atropos, who spun the threads and
made them irreversible, whence without
turning round they passed beneath the throne
of Necessity; and when they had all
passed, they marched on in a scorching heat
to the plain of Forgetfulness, which was
a barren waste destitute of trees and verdure;
and then towards evening they
encamped by the river of Unmindfulness, whose
water no vessel can hold; of this
they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity,
and those who were not saved by
wisdom drank more than was necessary; and
each one as he drank forgot all things.
Now after they had gone to rest, about the
middle of the night there was a
thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an
instant they were driven upwards in all
manner of ways to their birth, like stars
shooting. He himself was hindered from
drinking the water. But in what manner or
by what means he returned to the body he
could not say; only, in the morning, awaking
suddenly, he found himself lying on the
pyre.
And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved
and has not perished, and will save us if
we are obedient to the word spoken; and we
shall pass safely over the river of
Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled.
Wherefore my counsel is that we hold
fast ever to the heavenly way and follow after
justice and virtue always, considering
that the soul is immortal and able to endure
every sort of good and every sort of evil.
Thus shall we live dear to one another and
to the gods, both while remaining here
and when, like conquerors in the games who
go round to gather gifts, we receive our
reward. And it shall be well with us both
in this life and in the pilgrimage of a
thousand years which we have been describing.
Pharisees (means "Separated Ones")
Believe the following are inspired:
1. Law
2. Prophets
3. Writings
4. Traditions of the Elders
Believe in the following:
(A) the resurrection of the body
(B) last judgment of the dead
(C) angels and demons
Sadducees (means "Sons of Zadok")
1. Believe that only the Law of Moses (Pentateuch) is inspired.
2. Believe that all go to Sheol after death.
3. Do not believe in the last judgment, resurrection of the body, or
angels and demons.
Concerning the Order of the Gospels
This extract from Clement I have inserted here for the
sake of the history and for the benefit of my
readers. Let us now point out the undisputed writings
of this apostle [i.e., John]. And in the first place his
Gospel, which is known to all the churches under heaven,
must be acknowledged as genuine.
That it has with good reason been put by the ancients
in the fourth place, after the other three
Gospels, may be made evident in the following way. Those
great and truly divine men, I mean the
apostles of Christ, were purified in their life, and
were adorned with every virtue of the soul, but
were uncultivated in speech. They were confident
indeed in their trust in the divine and
wonder-working power which was granted unto them by the
Saviour, but they did not know
how, nor did they attempt to proclaim the doctrines
of their teacher in studied and artistic
language, but employing only the demonstration
of the divine Spirit, which worked with them, and
the wonder-working power of Christ, which was displayed
through them, they published the
knowledge of the kingdom of heaven throughout the whole
world, paying little attention to the
composition of written works. And this they did
because they were assisted in their ministry by
one greater than man. Paul, for instance, who surpassed
them all in vigor of expression and in
richness of thought, committed to writing no more
than the briefest epistles, although he had
innumerable mysterious matters to communicate, for he
had attained even unto the sights of the
third heaven, had been carried to the very paradise of
God, and had been deemed worthy to 'hear
unspeakable utterances there.' And the rest of
the followers of our Saviour, the twelve apostles,
the seventy disciples, and countless others besides,
were not ignorant of these things.
Nevertheless, of all the disciples of the Lord, only
Matthew and John have left us written
memorials, and they, tradition says, were led to write
only under the pressure of necessity. For
Matthew, who had at first preached to the Hebrews, when
he was about to go to other peoples,
committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue,
and thus compensated those whom he was
obliged to leave for the loss of his presence. And when
Mark and Luke had already published
their Gospels, they say that John, who had employed all
his time in proclaiming the Gospel orally,
finally proceeded to write for the following reason.
The three Gospels already mentioned having
come into the hands of all and into his own too, they
say that he accepted them and bore witness
to their truthfulness; but that there was lacking
in them an account of the deeds done by Christ at
the beginning of his ministry.
And this indeed is true. For it is evident that the three
evangelists
recorded only the deeds done by the Saviour for one year
after the imprisonment of John the
Baptist, and indicated this in the beginning of their
account. For Matthew, after the forty days' fast
and the temptation which followed it, indicates the chronology
of his work when he says: "Now
when he heard that John was delivered up he withdrew
from Judea into Galilee." Mark likewise
says: "Now after that John was delivered up Jesus came
into Galilee." And Luke, before
commencing his account of the deeds of Jesus, similarly
marks the time, when he says that Herod,
"adding to all the evil deeds which he had done, shut
up John in prison."
They say, therefore, that
the apostle John, being asked to do it for this reason,
gave in his Gospel an account of the period
which had been omitted by the earlier evangelists, and
of the deeds done by the Saviour during
that period; that is, of those which were done before
the imprisonment of the Baptist. And this is
indicated by him, they say, in the following words: "This
beginning of miracles did Jesus "; and
again when he refers to the Baptist, in the midst of
the deeds of Jesus, as still baptizing in non near
Salim; where he states the matter clearly in the words:
"For John was not yet cast into prison."
John accordingly, in his Gospel, records the deeds of
Christ which were performed before the
Baptist was cast into prison, but the other three evangelists
mention the events which happened
after that time. One who understands this can no longer
think that the Gospels are at variance with
one another, inasmuch as the Gospel according to John
contains the first acts of Christ, while the
others give an account of the latter part of his life.
And the genealogy of our Saviour according to
the flesh John quite naturally omitted, because it had
been already given by Matthew and Luke,
and began with the doctrine of his divinity, which
had, as it were, been reserved for him, as their
superior, by the divine Spirit. These things may
suffice, which we have said concerning the Gospel
of John.
The cause which led to the composition of the Gospel of
Mark has been already stated
by us. But as for Luke, in the beginning of his Gospel,
he states that since many others had more
rashly undertaken to compose a narrative of the events
of which he had acquired perfect
knowledge, he himself, feeling the necessity of freeing
us from their uncertain opinions, delivered in
his own Gospel an accurate account of those events in
regard to which he had learned the full
truth, being aided by his intimacy and his stay with
Paul and by his acquaintance with the rest of
the apostles. So much for our own account of these things.
But in a more fitting place we shall
attempt to show by quotations from the ancients, what
others have said concerning them. But of
the writings of John, not only his Gospel,
but also the former of his epistles, has been accepted
without dispute both now and in ancient times. But
the other two are disputed. In regard to the
Apocalypse, the opinions of most men are still
divided. But at the proper time this question
likewise shall be decided from the testimony of the
ancients.
CHAPTER 25
The Divine Scriptures that are accepted and those that are not
Since we are dealing with this subject it is proper to
sum up the writings of the New Testament
which have been already mentioned. First then must be
put the holy quaternion of the Gospels;
following them the Acts of the Apostles. After this must
be reckoned the epistles of Paul; next in
order the first epistle of John, and likewise the epistle
of Peter, must be maintained.
After them is to be placed, if it really seem proper,
the Apocalypse of John, concerning which we
shall give the different opinions at the proper
time. These then belong among the accepted
writings. Among the disputed writings,
which
are nevertheless recognized by many, are extant the
so-called epistle of James and that of Jude,
also the second epistle of Peter, and those that are
called the second and third of John, whether
they belong to the evangelist or to another person of
the same name.
Among the rejected writings must be reckoned
also the Acts of Paul, and the
so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter, and
in addition to these the extant epistle of
Barnabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles;
and besides, as I said, the Apocalypse of
John, if it seem proper, which some, as I said, reject,
but which others class with the accepted
books. And among these some have placed also the
Gospel according to the Hebrews, with
which those of the Hebrews that have accepted Christ
are especially delighted. And all these may
be reckoned among the disputed books. But we have nevertheless
felt compelled to give a
catalogue of these also, distinguishing those works which
according
to ecclesiastical tradition are
true and genuine and commonly accepted, from those others
which, although not canonical but
disputed, are yet at the same time known to most ecclesiastical
writers -- we have felt compelled
to give this catalogue in order that we might be able
to know both these works and those that are
cited by the heretics under the name of the apostles,
including, for instance, such books as the
Gospels of Peter, of Thomas, of Matthias, or of any others
besides them, and the Acts of Andrew
and John and the other apostles, which no one belonging
to the succession of ecclesiastical writers
has deemed worthy of mention in his writings.
And further, the character of the style is at variance
with apostolic usage, and both the thoughts and the
purpose of the things that are related in them
are so completely out of accord with true orthodoxy
that they clearly show themselves to be the
fictions of heretics. Wherefore they are not to
be placed even among the rejected writings, but are
all of them to be cast aside as absurd and impious. (Book
3, chapters 24-25)
Concerning the authority of other books:
Book 3, CHAPTER 38
The Epistle of Clement and the Writings falsely ascribed to him
Thus Ignatius has done in the epistles which we have
mentioned, and Clement in his epistle which
is accepted by all, and which he wrote in the
name of the church of Rome to the church of
Corinth. In this epistle he gives many thoughts drawn
from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and also
quotes verbally some of its expressions, thus showing
most plainly that it is not a recent
production. Wherefore it has seemed reasonable to reckon
it with the other writings of the
apostle. For as Paul had written to the Hebrews in
his native tongue, some say that the evangelist
Luke, others that this Clement himself, translated
the epistle. The latter seems more probable,
because the epistle of Clement and that to the Hebrews
have a similar character in regard to style,
and still further because the thoughts contained in the
two works are not very different.
But it must be observed also that there is said to be
a second epistle of Clement. But we do not
know that this is recognized like the former, for we
do not find that the ancients have made any
use of it. And certain men Lengthy writings under
his name, containing dialogues of Peter and
Apion. But no mention has been made of these by the ancients;
for they do not even preserve the
pure stamp of apostolic orthodoxy. The acknowledged
writing of Clement is well known. We
have spoken also of the works of Ignatius and Polycarp.
CHAPTER 39
The Writings of Papias
There are extant five books of Papias, which bear the
title Expositions of Oracles of the Lord.
Irenaeus makes mention of these as the only works written
by him, in the following words: "These
things are attested by Papias, an ancient man who was
a hearer of John and a companion of
Polycarp, in his fourth book. For five books have been
written by him." These are the words of
Irenaeus. But Papias himself in the preface to his discourses
by no means declares that he was
himself a hearer and eye-witness of the holy apostles,
but he shows by the words which he uses
that he received the doctrines of the faith from those
who were their friends.
[Of Mark's Gospel, Eusebius quotes Papias as follows] This, too, the presbyter [=elder] used to say. `Mark, who had been Peter's interpreter, wrote down carefully, but not in order, all that he remembered of the Lord's sayings and doings. For he had not heard the Lord or been one of His followers, but later, as I said, one of Peter's. Peter used to adapt his teaching to the occasion, without making a systematic arrangement of the Lord's sayings, so that Mark was quite justified in writing down some things just as he remembered them.' (trans. by G.A. Williamson)
Farther on he says: "But now, as the blessed presbyter
said, since the Lord being the apostle of
the Almighty, was sent to the Hebrews, Paul, as sent
to the Gentiles, on account of his modesty
did not subscribe himself an apostle of the Hebrews,
through respect for the Lord, and because
being a herald and apostle of the Gentiles he wrote to
the Hebrews out of his superabundance."
Again, in the same books, Clement gives the tradition
of the earliest presbyters, as to the order of
the Gospels, in the following manner: The Gospels containing
the genealogies, he says, were
written first. The Gospel according to Marks had this
occasion. As Peter had preached the Word publicly at
Rome, and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who
were present requested that Mark, who
had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings,
should write them out. And having
composed the Gospel he gave it to those who had requested
it. When Peter learned of this, he neither directly forbade nor encouraged
it. But, last of all, John, perceiving that the external facts had been
made plain in the Gospel, being urged by his friends, and inspired by the
Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel. This is the account of Clement.
Concerning copying of manuscripts:
At that time Origen began his commentaries on the Divine
Scriptures, being urged thereto by
Ambrose, who employed innumerable incentives, not only
exhorting him by word, but also
furnishing abundant means. For he dictated to more
than seven amanuenses, who relieved each
other at appointed times. And he employed no fewer
copyists, besides girls who were skilled in
elegant writing. For all these Ambrose furnished
the necessary expense in abundance, manifesting
himself an inexpressible earnestness in diligence and
zeal for the divine oracles, by which he
especially pressed him on to the preparation of his commentaries.
(Book 6, chapter 23)