The Gnostic

or

Towards Him Who Has Been Found Worthy of Gnosis

1 Men of praktike will comprehend words (logoi) concerning praktike; gnostics, however, will see
gnostic things. [Greek]

2 The man of praktike, on the one hand, is he who has acquired the passionate part of the soul alone
[so that it is] dispassionate. [Greek]

3 The gnostic, on the other hand, is he who takes the place of salt for those who are unclean, but
[the place] of light for those who are pure [cf. Matt. 5, 1314]. [Greek]

4 The gnosis which occurs to us from without, on the one hand, attempts by means of words (logoi)
to make a test of the materials. The gnosis which occurs from the grace of God, on the other hand,
presents the objects to the intellect [so that it sees them] with its own eyes, and the mind (nous),
seeing them, admits their reasons (logoi). <Delusion> stands against the first; anger and temper
<and those things which follow them> stand <against the second>. [Greek]

5 All the virtues make a road for the gnostic; freedom from anger is above all of them. For he who
has touched on gnosis and who is easily set in motion towards anger is similar to him who pierces
his own eyes with an iron needle. [Greek]

6 Let the gnostic secure himself, then, in his condescensions, lest the condescension become a habit
unawares, and let him also attempt ever to accomplish all the virtues, so that in him also they follow
each other in order, on account of the fact that it is natural for the mind (nous) to be betrayed by the
virtue which is diminished. [Greek]

7 The gnostic will exercise himself always to give alms and will be ready to be beneficent. And, if
he lacks money, he will put into action the instrument of his soul. For in every way it is of his nature
to give alms, that which the Five Virgins lacked whose lamps were extinguished [cf. Matt. 25, 1
13]. [French]

8 It is shameful for a gnostic to go to court both being wronged and committing a wrong: being
wronged, on the one hand, because he did not exercise patient endurance; committing a wrong, on
the other hand, because he committed an injustice. [Greek]

9 Gnosis which is conserved teaches him who participates in it how it might be guarded carefully
and advance towards the more. [Greek]

10 May the gnostic, at the moment that he teaches, be free from anger, rancour, sorrow, bodily
sufferings and cares! [French]

11 Before you have become perfect avoid meeting with many persons and frequenting them often,
for fear lest your intellect be filled with imaginations. [French]

12 Among those things which are related to the practical life [or, praktike], to natural
[contemplation] or to Theology, it is appropriate to say and to do until death that which is useful to
our salvation. But one must not say or do that which among these things is indifferent, on account
of those who are easily scandalized. [French]
13 It is just to discourse to monks and to seculars concerning the upright way of life and to clarify in
part as many dogmas of natural [contemplation] and Theology as without which no one will see the
Lord [Heb. 12, 14]. [Greek]

14 To the priests alone, those who among them are the best, reply, if they ask you, concerning what
the mysteries symbolize that are accomplished by them and that purify the interior man, the vessels
which they receive designating the passionate part of the soul and its rational part; concerning that
which is their inseparable mixture, the power of each one of them and the accomplishment of the
activities of each one of them in view of a single end. And tell them again who is the figure who
accomplishes these things and who are those who with him repel those who make an obstacle to a
pure conduct; and that, among living beings, some have memory and others do not. [French]

15 Know the reasons (logoi) and the laws of seasons and ways of life and occupations, so that you
are able to say easily to each man those things that are profitable. [Greek]

16 It is necessary that you have the material for the explication of that which is said and that you
encompass all things, even if a part should escape you. It is the property of the angel, in fact, that
nothing escape him of that which is on the earth. [French]

17 It is necessary to know the definitions of things, above all those of the virtues and of the vices.
There, indeed, is the source of gnosis and ignorance, of the Kingdom of the Heavens and of
torment. [French]

18 It is necessary to seek to know, on the subject of the allegorical passages and the literal passages,
whether they relate to the practical life or to natural [contemplation] or to Theology. If they relate to
the practical life, it is necessary to examine if they treat of irascibility and of what is born of it, or of
desire and of what follows it, or of the intellect and its movements. If they relate to natural
[contemplation], it is necessary to see if they make known some one of the doctrines concerning
nature, and which. And if it is an allegorical passage concerning Theology, one must as much as
possible examine whether it is giving information concerning the Trinity and whether the Trinity is
in view simply or whether it is in view in the Unity. But if it is none of these things, it is a simple
contemplation, or it even makes known a prophecy. [French]

19 It is also good to know the customs of the Divine Scripture and to establish them, as much as it is
possible, by the means of [textual] witnesses. [French]

20 It is necessary also to know this, that every text of an ethical character does not admit of a
contemplation of an ethical character, and no more does a text concerning nature [admit of] a
contemplation of nature; but such a passage that is of an ethical character admits of a contemplation
of nature and such a passage that treats of nature admits of a contemplation of ethics, and in the
same way for Theology. That which is said, in fact, concerning the fornication and the adultery of
Jerusalem [cf. Ezek. 16, 1534], concerning the animals of the dry land and the waters, and
concerning the birds, the pure and the impure [cf. Lev. 11, 219], the sun which rises, sets, and
returns to its place [Eccl. 1, 5] correspond in the first place to Theology, in the second place to
ethics and in the third place to natural [contemplation]. For the first text answered to ethics and the
other two to natural [contemplation]. [French]

21 You will not interpret allegorically the words (logoi) of blameable persons, nor will you seek
something spiritual in them, except unless God acted on account of the Dispensation, as in the case
of Balaam [cf. Num. 24, 1719] and in the case of Caiaphas [cf. John 11, 4951], so that the former
would speak beforehand concerning the birth, the latter concerning the death, of our Saviour.
[Greek]

22 The gnostic must not be either gloomy or difficult to approach. For the first is of one who is
ignorant of the reasons (logoi) of things which come to be; the second is of one who does not wish
all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2, 4]. [Greek]

23 It is sometimes necessary to feign ignorance, because those who ask are not worthy of hearing.
And you will be truthful because you are bound to a body and because you do not now have a
complete knowledge of things. [French]

24 Take care to yourself lest on account of profit or ease, or for the sake of a glory which passes,
you say something of the secret things and you be cast out of the sacred precincts, as yourself also
selling in the Temple the offspring of the Dove. [Greek]

25 It is necessary to make those who dispute without having gnosis to approach the truth not from
the end but from the beginning. And it is necessary not to say anything to young men concerning
gnostic things, nor to permit them to touch books of that sort, for they are not able to resist the falls
that this contemplation entails. That is why it is necessary to say to those who are combated by the
passions not the words of peace, but how they will triumph over their adversaries. In fact, as the
Ecclesiast says, There is no discharge in the day of battle. [Eccl. 8, 8.] Those, then, who are
combated by the passions and who examine the reasons of bodies and of the bodiless [powers]
resemble those sick men who debate over health. But it is when the soul is moved with difficulty by
the passions that it is appropriate to taste these sweet honeycombs. [French]

26 The time of explanation is not the same as the time of discussion. It is also necessary to
reprimand those who prematurely make objections. That, indeed, is the habit of heretics and
disputers. [French]

27 Do not speak of God [i.e. theologize] incautiously, and never define the Divine. For definitions
are <of things which have come to be and> of things which are composite. [Greek]

28 Remember the five causes of abandonment, so that you can raise up the weak in spirit who are
battered by affliction. Indeed, the virtue that is hidden is revealed by abandonment. When virtue has
been neglected, abandonment restores it by chastisement. And it [i.e. abandonment] becomes a
cause of salvation for others. And when virtue has become pre-eminent, it [i.e. abandonment]
teaches humility to those who share in it. In fact, he who has had experience of it [i.e. abandonment]
hates evil; for experience is an offspring of abandonment, and this abandonment is the daughter of
dispassion. [French]

29 Let those who are being taught ever say to you Friend, go up higher. [Luke 14, 10.] For it is
shameful for you, having gone up, to be brought down again by those who hear. [Greek]

30 The avaricious man is not he who has money but he who desires it. For they say that the steward
is a purse endowed with reason. [Greek]

31 Exhort the elders, on the one hand, to control the temper; the young men, on the other hand, to
control the belly. For the demons which pertain to [the passions of] the soul battle the former more;
the demons, however, which pertain to [the passions of] the body, more the latter. [Greek]

32 Stop the mouths of those who give an evil report [of others] in your hearing. And do not wonder
if you are condemned by most men, for this is the temptation which comes from demons. It is
necessary that the gnostic be free of hatred and remembrance of wrongs, even of those who do not
wish. [Greek]

33 He who heals men for the sake of the Lord ministers equally to himself unawares. For the drug
that the gnostic brings forward perhaps heals the neighbour but <necessarily> heals himself.
[Greek]

34 You will not interpret spiritually everything which is amenable to allegory, but only that which is
appropriate to the subject; for if you do not proceed thus, you will spend much time on the boat of
Jonah [cf. Jonah 1, 5] in explicating each piece of its rigging. And you will make your hearers laugh
instead of being useful to them, all those who will be seated around you recalling to you this or that
piece of rigging and producing with laughter that piece of rigging which you will have forgotten.
[French]

35 Invite the monks who come to your house to speak concerning ethics, but not concerning
dogmas, at least if there not be found one who might be able to give himself over to such matters.
[French]

36 Let the more elevated reason (logos) concerning judgement be hidden from the seculars and the
young, since it easily gives birth to contempt. For they do not know the suffering of a reasonable
soul condemned to ignorance. [Greek]

37 St Paul subjugated his body in mortifying it [cf. 1 Cor. 9, 27]. Therefore do not be negligent of
your diet in your life and do not greatly outrage dispassion, <humbling> it with a gross body.
[Greek]

38 Do not take anxious care concerning foods and clothes [cf. Matt. 6, 25], but remember Abner the
Levite who, having received the ark of the Lord [into his house], has become rich from among the
poor and glorious from among those without honour [cf. 2 Kgs. 6, 1011]. [Greek]

39 The conscience of the gnostic is for him a bitter accuser, and he cannot hide anything from it for
it knows [everything] up to the secrets of his heart. [French]

40 Take care to the fact that, for each created thing, there is not just one reason, but a great number,
and according to the measure of each person. The holy powers alone attain to the true reasons of
objects, but not the first, that which is known only by the Christ. [French]

41 Every proposition has as predicate, either genus or difference or species or property or accident
or that which is composed of these. None of the things that have been said, however, can be taken
with regard to the Holy Trinity. Let the unspeakable be worshipped in silence. [Greek]

42 The temptation of the gnostic is the false conception standing about the mind (nous) of that
which exists <as not existing; of that, then, which does not exist as existing; and of that, then, which
does in fact exist> as not, however, existing in the same manner just as it has come to be. [Greek]

43 The sin of the gnostic is the false gnosis of objects themselves, or of their contemplation, which
is engendered by any passion whatsoever or because it is not in view of the good that he has made
the investigation. [French]

44 We have learned from the just Gregory that there are also four virtues of contemplation itself:
prudence, manliness, chastity and justice. And, on the one hand, he used to say that the work
(ergon) of prudence is to contemplate the spiritual (noeras) and holy powers without reasons
(logoi), for he has transmitted that these reasons (logoi) are declared by wisdom alone. Of
manliness, on the other hand, to persevere in the truths even when we are warred against and not to
enter into those things which do not exist. He replied, then, that the property of chastity is to accept
the seeds from the first Gardener and to repel him who sows afterwards. Of justice, then, again, to
render the reasons (logoi) to each man according to his worth, announcing some things obscurely,
indicating other things by enigmas and making some things clear for the benefit of the more simple.
[Greek]

45 The pillar of the truth, Basil the Cappadocian: Careful study and exercise, on the one hand,
master the gnosis that comes from men; justice and freedom from anger, and mercy, on the other
hand, that which comes from the grace of God. And it is possible for the passionate to take upon
himself the first; the dispassionate alone, however, are receptive of the second, those who also
during the time of prayer see shining on them the native light of the mind (nous). [Greek]

46 The holy illuminator of the Egyptians, Athanasios, says: Moses is ordered to set the table on the
Northern side [cf. Exod. 26, 35]. Let the gnostics know who it is who is blowing against them, and
let them patiently endure every temptation with nobility, and let them nourish with zeal those who
approach. [Greek]

47 The angel of the Church of Thmuis, Serapion, used to say that the mind (nous) which has drunk
[of] spiritual gnosis is completely purified, that charity (agape) cures the inflamed parts of the
temper, and that continence stops the fresh-flowing evil desires. [Greek]

48 The great and gnostic teacher Didymus said: Ever exercise the reasons (logoi) concerning
providence and the judgement when you are by yourself and try to carry about the materials of these
by means of the memory, for almost all stumble on these things. And you will find the reasons
(logoi) concerning judgement in the difference of bodies and worlds, the reasons (logoi) concerning
providence, however, in the ways which lead us from vice and ignorance back to virtue and gnosis.
[Greek]

49 The goal of the practical life is to purify the intellect and to render it dispassionate; that of the
natural [contemplation] is to reveal the truth hidden in all the beings; but to remove the intellect
from materials and to turn it towards the First Cause is a gift of Theology. [French]

50 Looking towards the Archetype, ever attempt to draw the images, overlooking nothing of those
things that contribute towards the gaining of it [i.e. the image] which has fallen. [Greek]