Thence Theognis writes:--
"For from the good you will learn good things;
But if you mix with the bad, you will destroy any mind you may have."
And when, again, it is said in the ode, "For He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea;" [3045] the many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted, who gives the reins to pleasures, "He has cast into the sea," throwing them away into the disorders of the world. Thus also Plato, in his book On the Soul, says that the charioteer and the horse that ran off--the irrational part, which is divided in two, into anger and concupiscence--fall down; and so the myth intimates that it was through the licentiousness of the steeds that Phaëthon was thrown out. Also in the case of Joseph: the brothers having envied this young man, who by his knowledge was possessed of uncommon foresight, stripped off the coat of many colours, and took and threw him into a pit (the pit was empty, it had no water), rejecting the good man's varied knowledge, springing from his love of instruction; or, in the exercise of the bare faith, which is according to the law, they threw him into the pit empty of water, selling him into Egypt, which was destitute of the divine word. And the pit was destitute of knowledge; into which being thrown and stript of his knowledge, he that had become unconsciously wise, stript of knowledge, seemed like his brethren. Otherwise interpreted, the coat of many colours is lust, which takes its way into a yawning pit. "And if one open up or hew out a pit," it is said, "and do not cover it, and there fall in there a calf or ass, the owner of the pit shall pay the price in money, and give it to his neighbour; and the dead body shall be his. [3046] Here add that prophecy: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not understood Me." [3047] In order, then, that none of those, who have fallen in with the knowledge taught by thee, may become incapable of holding the truth, and disobey and fall away, it is said, Be thou sure in the treatment of the word, and shut up the living spring in the depth from those who approach irrationally, but reach drink to those that thirst for truth. Conceal it, then, from those who are unfit to receive the depth of knowledge, and so cover the pit. The owner of the pit, then, the Gnostic, shall himself be punished, incurring the blame of the others stumbling, and of being overwhelmed by the greatness of the word, he himself being of small capacity; or transferring the worker into the region of speculation, and on that account dislodging him from off-hand faith. "And will pay money," rendering a reckoning, and submitting his accounts to the "omnipotent Will."
This, then, is the type of "the law and the prophets which were until John;" [3048] while he, though speaking more perspicuously as no longer prophesying, but pointing out as now present, Him, who was proclaimed symbolically from the beginning, nevertheless said, "I am not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord's shoe." [3049] For he confesses that he is not worthy to baptize so great a Power; for it behooves those, who purify others, to free the soul from the body and its sins, as the foot from the thong. Perhaps also this signified the final exertion of the Saviour's power toward us--the immediate, I mean--that by His presence, concealed in the enigma of prophecy, inasmuch as he, by pointing out to sight Him that had been prophesied of, and indicating the Presence which had come, walking forth into the light, loosed the latchet of the oracles of the [old] economy, by unveiling the meaning of the symbols.
And the observances practiced by the Romans in the case of wills have a place here; those balances and small coins to denote justice, and freeing of slaves, and rubbing of the ears. For these observances are, that things may be transacted with justice; and those for the dispensing of honour; and the last, that he who happens to be near, as if a burden were imposed on him, should stand and hear and take the post of mediator.
[3036] [Kaye, p. 181.]
[3037] This line has given commentators considerable trouble. Diodorus says that the Telchimes--fabled sons of Ocean--were the first inhabitants of Rhodes.
[3038] sunesis. Sylburgius, with much probability, conjectures sundesis, binding together.
[3039] Bedu, Zaps, Chthon, Plektron, Sphinx, Knaxzbi, Chthuptes, Phlegmos, Drops. On the interpretation of which, much learning and ingenuity have been expended.
[3040] [See valuable references and note on the Sibylline and Orphic sayings. Leighton, Works, vol. vi. pp. 131, 178.]
[3041] Orpheus.
[3042] Lev. xi; Deut. xiv.
[3043] Ps. xviii. 25, 26.
[3044] [Epistle of Barnabas, vol. i, p. 143, 144. S.]
[3045] Ex. xv. 1.
[3046] Ex. xxi. 33, 36.
[3047] Isa. i. 3.
[3048] Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16.
[3049] Mark i. 7; Luke iii. 16; John i. 27.