The Gnostic
Gnosticus
Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399) wrote this treatise, The Gnostic, for a monk who has been trusted with knowledge. It is not The Practice.
The Gnostic and the Practical§1
1Practical men will understand practical words, but Gnostics will see Gnostic things.
A practical man is one who has made only the passionate part of the soul dispassionate.
A Gnostic, however, withholds the word of salt from the impure, but offers the word of light to the pure.
The knowledge that comes to us from without attempts to point out the subject-matters through words; but the knowledge that comes to be in us from the grace of God presents the realities to the intellect by its own vision, toward which the mind looks and admits their logoi; but error opposes the former, and wrath and anger the latter, and the things that follow upon these.
All virtues make the way for the Gnostic; but above them all is freedom from anger. For he who has grasped knowledge and is easily moved toward anger is like one piercing his own eyes with an iron probe.
Let the Gnostic be on his guard in his condescensions, lest the condescension, becoming a habit, escape his notice; and let him constantly test all the virtues equally, making them right, so that they may follow one another and be in him, since the mind is by nature prone to betrayal by diminution.
It is shameful for a Gnostic to be judged, both the one being wronged and the one doing wrong; the one being wronged because he did not endure, and the one doing wrong because he did wrong.
Knowledge, being preserved, teaches the one participating in it how he might be guarded and proceed toward greater things.
It is just for monks and for those in the world to discourse correctly concerning right conduct and to clarify in part those doctrines of natural or theological matters, without which no one will see the Lord.
Know the words and the laws of times, lives, and customs, so that you may easily say to each what is profitable.
Do not allegorize the words of false persons, nor seek anything spiritual in them, unless God has acted through economy, as in Balaam (Numbers 24:17) and Caiaphas (John 11:50-51), so that one speaks concerning the birth and the other concerning the death of our Savior.
Greek · §1
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Instructions for the Gnostic§2
2He should speak. It is necessary that the gnostic be neither surly nor unapproachable; for the one is ignorant of the words of things coming to pass, and the other is unwilling that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (2π 3:7). Pay attention to yourself, lest for the sake of gain, or to be well-liked, or for the sake of passing glory, you should say something of the secret things and be cast out from the sacred precincts, just as he himself in the temple was selling the pigeons' young (Matt 21:12). Do not theologize without reflection, and never define the divine; for terms are of things that have come to be and are composed.
.............................................. that he who has been tried by malice hates malice, and the trial of abandonment is a relative thing............................. The teachers should always say to you: 'Friend, ascend upward; for it is shameful for you, having ascended, to be dragged down again by those who hear.' The lover of silver is not the one possessing money, but the one being carried away by these; for they say the steward is a logical purse.
Exhort the elders to restrain anger, and the young to restrain the belly; for the former are fought by the psychic demons, and the latter mostly by the bodily demons. Bind the mouths of those babbling in your ears; and do not be amazed when being accused by many; for this is the temptation from demons; for the gnostic must be free from hatred and malice, and from being unwilling. It has perhaps been written that he who heals himself by healing men through the Lord is a certain type; for what the gnostic approaches as a medicine, he provides to his neighbor somewhat, but he heals himself by necessity. Let the one who is higher regarding judgment be hidden from the worldly and the young.
Greek · §2
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On Intellectual Error and the Four Virtues§3
3A word, producing contempt easily; for the rational soul will not equal the pain of being condemned for its ignorance.
Saint Paul, treating the body as a slave, says: do not neglect your diet in your life, and do not insult dispassion, humbling it with a fat body. Do not worry about food or clothing, but remember the Levite Abner who, having received the ark of the Lord, became rich from the poor and glorious from the worthless.
Every proposition or genus has either a predicate, or a difference, or a species, or a property, or an accident, or a composition of these; but nothing of the said things can be grasped regarding the Holy Trinity. Let the unspeakable be worshipped in silence.
A temptation of the knower is a false opinion standing regarding the existing as if it were not existing, the non-existing as if it were existing, and the existing as if it were something else.
We have learned from the righteous Gregory that there are four virtues and their contemplation: prudence and courage, temperance and justice; and he said the work of prudence is to contemplate the noetic and holy powers without words, for wisdom alone has handed them over to be made manifest; courage is to hold fast to the truths and to fight, and not to step into non-entities; temperance he defined as receiving the seeds from the first farmer and repelling the sower; justice, again, is to render to each according to his due, some announcing darkly, some signifying through riddles, and some even making things manifest for the benefit of...
Greek · §3
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Models of Knowledge and Discipline§4
4Of simpler things. Basil the Cappadocian is the pillar of truth. He says that diligent study and training hold fast the knowledge coming from men, while justice, freedom from anger, and mercy bring near the knowledge coming near from the grace of God. The former can even receive the passionate, but of the latter, only the dispassionate are receptive, who behold the inherent light of the mind even outside the time of prayer.
Of the Egyptians, the holy light Athanasius is. He says that Moses stands to set the table in the northern part (Exodus 40:22). Let the knowers recognize who is breathing against them, and let them bravely endure every temptation, and with readiness let them nourish those approaching.
Serapion, the angel of the church of the Themites, used to say that the mind, having been feathered, is perfectly purified by spiritual knowledge, but love heals the inflamed parts of anger; and self-control stops the flowing of evil desires.
Didymus, the great and gnostic teacher, says: always train yourself in the discourses concerning providence and judgment, and carry the subject-matters of these in memory; for almost all stumble in these things. And you will find the discourses concerning judgment in the distinction of bodies and worlds; but those concerning providence lead us back from the ways of evil and ignorance toward virtue or toward knowledge.
Looking always toward the archetype, I strive to write the icons, adding nothing of those who work toward gaining the falling one.
Greek · §4
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