The Ignorance of the Greeks and the Limits of Job's Knowledge

You have departed from the Lord because of the sins you committed (Job 1:15). He says he is still engaging in the same kind of reasoning as if speaking to one who has sinned, that if the Lord were to speak to you and make you understand according to his own wisdom, from which having known his superiority you would learn, 'that you have departed from the Lord because of the sins you committed.' And he speaks these things with presumption, not knowing the causes of those things which happen under God, toward the one being addressed, that because of manliness he endured these things, awaiting the praise from God, expecting the one who said: 'Do you intend to use me differently than that you might appear righteous?' (Job 13:28). For he himself, 'the one doing all things and transforming them,' knows the judgment of each. You will not find a trace of the Lord, nor will you reach the ends, which the Pantokrator has made.

He reasons with the holy man with a certain plausible boldness; for since he knew that the administrations of providence are great to grasp, he makes a discourse to him, saying: 'You will not find a trace of the Lord, nor will you reach the ends,' saying 'ends' in reference to the outcomes of things happening. And this one and the other friends are also rebuked; for as having grasped that he suffers these things through sin, they were running against him. But it is also possible to understand 'the ends' in another way; as it has been said: 'Bringing up clouds from the ends of the earth' (Psalm 104:2). And the end is also such a thing, for the sake of which all other things exist, but it is not for the sake of anything else. And by way of an example: the end is health; for because of this, I say, all other things, helps, and labors and efforts, are for this.

And the boundaries of the world are also called 'ends'; as it has been said: 'An infinite ocean and the worlds with it are driven by the same reins of the Master' (Psalm 104:10). The psalmist, having a concept of God as encompassing both the beginnings and the ends and altogether all things happening under him, was saying: 'Behold, You, Lord, have made all things, the ends and the ancient' (Psalm 102:18). The heaven is high, and what will you do? And what do you know of things deeper than those in Hades? Or shorter in measure than the earth or wider than the sea? He wishes to show through all these things that the knowledge of men is measured, not reaching the judgments of God. And now indeed: heaven, he says, is deeper and more distant than Hades, and the earth and the breadth of the sea; say something about them, if you are able. And he perhaps alludes to the fact that even if someone attempts concerning the earth...

They do not speak of the sea and heaven, but are ignorant of the things beyond. This can be used to refute those experienced in Greek philosophy who are said to speak of the nature of heaven, earth, or sea, when they are actually empty regarding these things and say much about Hades, claiming it is a place for souls and other things, seizing words whose demonstration they cannot make manifest; for being unparticipating in the Spirit, they do not possess the precise knowledge of these things of the holy ones who walk upon the earth and have their citizenship in heaven (Phil 3:20), so as to say: 'God has given to me unerroneous knowledge of existing things, to know the constitution of the world and the energy of the elements, the beginning, the end, and the middle of times' and the following.

But if he searches out all things, who will say to him: 'What have you done?' and this he truly says, even if he does not look toward the proper goal. 'For who resists the will of God?' (Job 41:11) It is like this: 'Does the creature say to the Creator: Why have you made me thus?' But he speaks boldly to him regarding 'if he searches out all things.' It is possible to speak regarding administration, perhaps alluding to Job, that even if he suffers, he cannot say: 'What have you done?' for it has happened justly, because we have sinned. Regardless, his perception of this is not certain. For he himself knows the works of the lawless; having seen the absurd, he will not pass them by. It is clear, then, that he spoke through the 'if he searches out all things'; for he says he knows the works of men, not being indifferent to their faults—demonstrating the unrequited justice of God—and he sees them among the foolish.

The saying is useful for the negligent. But a man is differently sounded by words, and a mortal born of woman is equal to a donkey in the wilderness. He says that those who compare the secure knowledge of God to the impositions of men are sounded in vain, comparing him to a donkey, thereby presenting the extreme slowness of men toward the apprehension of judgments, using the word excessively. For those who are accustomed to donkeys and are in the city have some experiential knowledge of the hermit from habit, and because of being naturally slow, and having the wildness and the habits of the days removed, which encourages the human race toward the knowledge of judgments. This is also confirmed by...