Chapter XII.
Whether, then, there are cycles of time, and floods, or conflagrations which occur periodically or not, and whether the Scripture is aware of this, not only in many passages, but especially where Solomon [3719] says, "What is the thing which hath been? Even that which shall be. And what is the thing which hath been done? Even that which shall be done," [3720] etc., etc., belongs not to the present occasion to discuss. For it is sufficient only to observe, that Moses and certain of the prophets, being men of very great antiquity, did not receive from others the statements relating to the (future) conflagration of the world; but, on the contrary (if we must attend to the matter of time [3721] ), others rather misunderstanding them, and not inquiring accurately into their statements, invented the fiction of the same events recurring at certain intervals, and differing neither in their essential nor accidental qualities. [3722] But we do not refer either the deluge or the conflagration to cycles and planetary periods; but the cause of them we declare to be the extensive prevalence of wickedness, [3723] and its (consequent) removal by a deluge or a conflagration. And if the voices of the prophets say that God "comes down," who has said, "Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord," [3724] the term is used in a figurative sense. For God "comes down" from His own height and greatness when He arranges the affairs of men, and especially those of the wicked. And as custom leads men to say that teachers "condescend" [3725] to children, and wise men to those youths who have just betaken themselves to philosophy, not by "descending" in a bodily manner; so, if God is said anywhere in the holy Scriptures to "come down," it is understood as spoken in conformity with the usage which so employs the word, and, in like manner also with the expression "go up." [3726]
[3719] [Note this testimony to the authorship of Koheleth, and that it is Scripture.]
[3720] Cf. Eccles. i. 9.
[3721] ei chrn epistesanta tois chronois eipein.
[3722] anetlasan kata periodous tautotetas, kai aparallaktous tois idiois poiois kai tois sumbebekosin autois.
[3723] kakian eti pleion cheomenen.
[3724] Cf. Jer. xxiii. 24.
[3725] sunkatabainein.
[3726] [On this figure (anthropopathy) see vol. ii. p. 363, this series.]
Chapter XIII.
But as it is in mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire," and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea [3727] of the defence which disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is "a consuming fire," [3728] and that "He draws rivers of fire before Him;" [3729] nay, that He even entereth in as "a refiner's fire, and as a fuller's herb," [3730] to purify His own people. But when He is said to be a "consuming fire," we inquire what are the things which are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness, and the works which result from it, and which, being figuratively called "wood, hay, stubble," [3731] God consumes as a fire. The wicked man, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously-laid foundation of reason, "wood, and hay, and stubble." If, then, any one can show that these words were differently understood by the writer, and can prove that the wicked man literally [3732] builds up "wood, or hay, or stubble," it is evident that the fire must be understood to be material, and an object of sense. But if, on the contrary, the works of the wicked man are spoken of figuratively under the names of "wood, or hay, or stubble," why does it not at once occur (to inquire) in what sense the word "fire" is to be taken, so that "wood" of such a kind should be consumed? for (the Scripture) says: "The fire will try each man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss." [3733] But what work can be spoken of in these words as being "burned," save all that results from wickedness? Therefore our God is a "consuming fire" in the sense in which we have taken the word; and thus He enters in as a "refiner's fire," to refine the rational nature, which has been filled with the lead of wickedness, and to free it from the other impure materials, which adulterate the natural gold or silver, so to speak, of the soul. [3734] And, in like manner, "rivers of fire" are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil which is intermingled throughout the whole soul. [3735] But these remarks are sufficient in answer to the assertion, "that thus they were made to give expression to the erroneous opinion that God will come down bearing fire like a torturer."
[3727] geusai.
[3728] Cf. Deut. iv. 24; ix. 3.
[3729] Cf. Dan. vii. 10.
[3730] Cf. Mal. iii. 2.
[3731] Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 12.
[3732] somatikos.
[3733] Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 13-15.
[3734] ten tou chrusou (hin' houtos onomaso), phusin tes psuches, e ten argurou, dolosanton.
[3735] [See note supra, cap. x. S.]