376 Plea Of Athenagoras
PLEA OF ATHENAGORAS
again, while withholding his assent on other points, also divides [superior beings] into the uncreated God and those produced by the uncreated One for the adornment of heaven, the planets, and the fixed stars,,and into demons ; concerning which demons, while he does not think fit to speak himself, he thinks that those ought to be listened to who have spoken about them. "To speak concerning the other demons, and to know their origin, is beyond our powers; but we ought to believe those who have before spoken, the descendants of gods, as they say—and surely they must be well acquainted with their own ancestors: it is impossible, therefore, to disbelieve the sons of gods, even though they speak without probable or convincing proofs; but as they profess to tell of their own family affairs, we are bound, in pursuance of custom, to believe them.
In this way, then, let us hold and speak as they do concerning the origin of the gods themselves. Of Gé and Ouranos were born Oceanus and Tethys; and of these
Phorcus, Kronos, and Rhea, and the rest; and of Kronos and Rhea, Zeus, Hera, and all the others, who, we know, are all called their brothers ; besides other descendants again of these."* Did, then, he who had contemplated the eternal
Intelligence and God who is apprehended by reason, and declared His attributes—His real existence, the simplicity of His nature, the good that flows forth from Him that is truth, and discoursed of primal power, and how "all things are about the King of all, and all things exist for His sake, and He is the cause of all ;" and about two and three, that He is
"the second moving about the seconds, and the third about the thirds ;"'—did this man think, that to learn the truth concerning those who are said to have been produced from sensible things, namely earth and heaven, was a task transcending his powers?
It is not to be believed for a moment.
But because he thought it impossible to believe that gods Leget and are brought forth, since everything that begins to be is followed by an end, and (for this is much more difficult) to change the views of the multitude, who receive the fables
1 Tim. p. 40, D. E.
Pseudo-Plat. Epist. ii. p. 812, D. E.
The meaning is very obscure.
LOR THE CHRISTIANS.
without examination, on this account it was that he declared it to be beyond his powers to know and to speak concerning the origin of the other demons, since he was unable either to admit or teach that gods were begotten. And as regards that saying of his, " The great sovereign in heaven, Zeus, driving a winged car, advances first, ordering and managing all things, and there follow him a host of gods and demons,"? this does not refer to the Zeus who is said to have sprung from Kronos; for here the name is given to the Maker of the universe.
This is shown by Plato himself: not being able to designate Him by another title that should be suitable, he availed himself of the popular name, not as peculiar to God, but for distinctness, because it is not possible to discourse of God to all men as fully as one might; and he adds at the same time the epithet " Great," so as to distinguish the heavenly from the earthly, the uncreated from the created, who is younger than heaven and earth, and younger than the Cretans, who stole him away, that he might not be killed by his father.
Cuar. xx1v.— Concerning the angels and giants.
What need is there, in speaking to you who have searched into every department of knowledge, to mention the poets, or to examine opinions of another kind?
Let it suffice to say thus much.
If the poets and philosophers did not acknowledge that there is one God, and concerning these gods were not of opinion, some that they are demons, others that they are matter, and others that they once were men,—there might be some show of reason for our being harassed as we are, since we employ language which makes a distinction between God and matter, and the natures of the two.
For, as we acknowledge a God, and a Son his Logos, and a Holy Spirit, united in essence,—the Father, the Son, the Spirit, because the Son is the Intelligence, Reason, Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit an effluence, as light from fire; so also do we apprehend the existence of other powers, which exercise dominion about matter, and by means of it, and one in par1 Plat. Phedr. p. 246, E.
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PLEA OF ATHENAGORAS
ticular, which is hostile to God: not that anything is really opposed to God, like strife to friendship, according to Empedocles, and night to day, according to the appearing and disappearing of the stars (for even if anything had placed itself in opposition to God, it would haye ceased to exist, its structure being destroyed by the power and might of God), but that to the good that is in God, which belongs of necessity to Him, and co-exists with Him, as colour with body, without which it has no existence (not as being part of it, but as an attendant property co-existing with it, united and blended, just as it is natural for fire to be yellow and the ether dark blue),—to the good that is in God, I say, the spirit which is about matter, who was created by God, just as the other angels were created by Him, and entrusted with the control of matter and the forms of matter, is opposed.
For this is _ the office of the angels,—to exercise providence for God over the things created and ordered by Him; so that God may have the universal and general providence of the whole, while the particular parts are provided for by the angels appointed over them.
Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice (for you would not either honour the good or punish the bad, unless vice and virtue were in their own power; and some are diligent in the matters entrusted to them by you, and others faithless), so is it among the angels.
Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them: namely, this ruler of matter and its various forms, and others of those who were placed about this first firmament (you know that we say nothing without witnesses, but state the things which have been declared by the prophets); these fell into impure love of virgins, and were subjugated by the flesh, and he became negligent and wicked in the management of the things entrusted to him.
Of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants.
And if something has been said by the poets, too, about the giants, be not surprised
FOR THE CHRISTIANS.
at this: worldly wisdom and diviné differ as much from each other as truth and plausibility: the one is of heaven and the other of earth ; and, indeed, according to the prince of matter,
'** We know we oft speak lies that look like truths." !
Cuap. xxv.—The poets and philosophers have denied a divine Providence.
These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged.
But the prince of matter, as may be seen merely from what transpires, exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God:
'¢ Ofttimes this anxious thought has crossed my mind, Whether 'tis chance or deity that rules The small affairs of men; and, spite of hope
As well as justice, drives to exile some Stripped of all means of life, while others still
Continue to enjoy prosperity."?
Prosperity and adversity, contrary to hope and justice, made it impossible for Euripides to say to whom belongs the administration of earthly affairs, which is of such a kind that one might say of it:
'¢ How then, while seeing these things, can we say There is a race of gods, or yield to laws?"
The same thing led Aristotle to say that the things below the heaven are not under the care of Providence, although the eternal providence of God concerns itself equally with us below— '' The earth, let willingness move her or not,
Must herbs produce, and thus sustain my flocks" *— 1 Hesiod, Theog. 27.
? Kurip.: from an unknown play.
3 Tbid.
4 Eurip. Cycl. 332 sq.