Fragments on Proverbs

Allegorical Interpretation of Proverbs§1

1A proverb is such as, 'Sweet is war to the inexperienced,' and, 'A woman penetrating hollows bores through rock.' The proverb is said to be such: for in the beginning, when the things now called 'milestones' by the Romans were still insignificant, then called 'signs,' the ancients used to set up places along a certain road, and upon these they wrote certain matters. For they did this for two reasons: to make known to the traveler the distance of the road, and for the one reading the inscription, becoming acquainted with its clarity, to be relieved of his fatigue. For a milestone is called the road.

To know words of prudence is, principally, to make virtue manifest, just as the other interpreters clarify, having handed down them as words not of prudence, but of understanding. Either he says 'words of prudence' regarding those which are sophistical and cunning.

The word rebuking those who are imitating righteousness, and saying they have it as is necessary, says: 'If then you truly speak righteousness, judge uprightly, you sons of men' (Prov 2:9).

I hear the interpretation of Theodotus, which Symmachus also handed down, that they have presented a problem. What then is the obscure saying? That which is poured together according to logos and intellect and phrase; such as that with the prophet Isaiah: 'Woe to the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! He who sends a ship by sea, and letter-books upon the water' (Isa 19:2). For none of these has the word clear either in parables, or a manifest narration of history. And of the enigma, it is to understand the spoken thing, but of the obscure saying, not even the spoken thing. An obscure saying is generally a sound; but a parable is particular; and obscure is not according to a deprivation of light, but the hidden one, as to be darkened for the one who is ignorant. And beautiful sayings are aphorisms; but an enigma is a word with an interpretation.

The signs lift up the truth: such is the meaning of, 'Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire devour your cedars' (Song of Solomon 8:1).

Verse 6. For fear, that is piety according to reverence, is true; and understanding is good. This must be substantiated. For it is not sufficient for blessedness to know the good, unless one also does it; and piety toward God is the beginning of understanding.

Verse 7. God is the Father of the righteous. For everyone who does righteousness is from God. And our Mother is the Church, whose bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ. And the laws are the apostolic ordinances.

Even if the preceding words have an upward leading, they are also applied to parents according to nature, when they, being God-fearing, rear the children. And since there is a man, the teacher, who has fathered through the Gospel those being instructed, the Church is spouse to this man and mother of those born, or rather, the ecclesiastical opinion and way of life.

Therefore, says the proverbs-maker, if you, to me, now as a teacher and father, but now as wisdom and virtue instead of a mother you listen to, you shall be crowned with a crown of grace, and your neck shall be adorned with a golden collar, fashioned from intellectual gold and gems. For the head of the inner man, the domain of virtues, is revealed to be the material of a crown, which are called graces. In agreement with the crown, being intellectual, the golden collar placed upon the neck of the soul—that is, its submissive part—must also be included.

Verse 8. And regarding the head and neck, he speaks of the mind; and the golden collar, of knowledge and the intellectual adornment of the soul; or the golden collar, of the submission to God and the domain of the divine sayings.

Verse 9. And being with others indeed leads to sinning, it brings punishments; men indeed are impious, those perfect in wickedness.

Verse 10. Those whom they might persuade to think of earthly things, they hide in the earth; but a righteous man you will perceive to have a heavenly mindset. These things can also be understood in reference to Christ, and in reference to the...

Exegesis of Proverbs and the Soul§2

2to overwhelm

He speaks of things that are, and perceiving the precision of matters, such as the flint of God's judgments, he says these are clouds, or he calls the prophets clouds, chilling the teaching. Let it not be outside of the water of life which is profitable.

He speaks of 'will' as the movement concerning practical things; 'understanding' as that concerning theoretical things; 'neck' he says of the same soul, which bore the yoke of the Lord (Matt 11:29-30). Just as the neck encircles the breast-bands, so the soul carries the things of God in the kingdom, just as it does his commandments here. For the ungodly, even the prosperous things are cursed; but for the righteous, even the most humble things are blessed. He calls the powers of the rational soul a 'house'; and 'dwellings' the powers of the spirited and the appetitive; for within them the irrational suffer passions.

honor of wisdom is the keeping of the commandments; but wisdom is Christ, whose bride is the soul honoring him through virtues, which shall be received by him. As a certain infant always sets forth struggles with attentions, and wakes him up when he is wandering off. And the springs of life are the virtues, from which the living water is (John 4:14), namely the knowledge of Christ. To the one progressing according to wisdom, many springs become, and not only one; but according to the abundance of virtues. To those who guard these exhortations, he says, they become life; these are the contest.

correctly in the course according to life, he says. The impulses of this soul are its feet; for virtue is a mean. Not attend to a deceptive teaching, enticed through flattering speech, that is, heresy, and idolatry, and vain words. Il the hearing, their beauty. For such is the deception: the tructive is accustomed to hide, but the pleasant is set forth so as to be seen; otherwise they would have fled immediately. But God is not so; rather he hides the pleasant and sets forth the bitter. And he did not say, 'Flow away,' but, 'Recede,' so as not to encounter the bitterness, though later it is more bitter than bile; not so much the pleasant as the bitter, but much more.

says here the way for the mind leading to virtue (Prov 3:6); or perhaps virtue stands before us to separate us from evil. St. 11. That is, in old age; which, through the wearing out of the flesh, signifies incontinence.

The Nature of Wisdom and Creation§3

3Regarding some corruption. Prov 12, 14. He brings in the corrupted one, reproaching himself as one who hated instruction, and says: 'I would have perished even if I had not been corrupted, having wasted my flesh in dissipation, and having made this life small.' Therefore it became evident that my discipline was in the midst of the Church and the Synagogue. For the voice has repented, and not having occurred, it has become little by little. Similar is the saying, 'By little by little my waters were poured out' (Song 8:16). For having recovered and having perceived, he says: 'Where is the little by little?' How then can one console the madness which is from nature?

Prov 15. Knowledge is both a cistern and a fountain; to those coming to the virtues it is a cistern, but to those perfected by them, a fountain. And knowledge is called mother, and wife, and sister; mother, because through her we are born by the teacher; wife, because being joined it brings forth virtues and right doctrines; sister, because from one God we have become. And I called wisdom sister.

Prov 19, 17. See how it shows not only ease through abundance, but also having no one a partner in enjoyment; and it doubles itself and calls it possession; for one knows the pleasure of the matter.

Prov 6. Even if you imitate the natural work of the irrational: or be, that is, go forth. For many do good works from theory or hearing, and not from knowledge. A prophet and apostles say it is like bees, whose labors are useful to the great for their order and to the small; he says the matters are the wax, but the honey is the contemplation of these things. Just as the shepherd guides the goats, so the essence guides the bees. Therefore, in all things, order is good for life.

Prov 12. The fool is the atheist who has lost the theoretical, but the lawless one is he who has lost the practical.

Prov 1. Guard the common, so that it may be yours, he says, and to live an eternal life, and to become discerning. For the keeping of the divine commandments will shine for us much more brightly than the light of the eyes.

Prov 3. The hand is the whole action, but the finger is the more partial. Convinced, he says, you will have a wide heart for the reception of the virtues.

Prov 18. She makes it a point to dwell with a man, as if living according to law; and she rejects all things fearful and hindering, proposing a departure from the one dwelling with her.

Prov 27. For the house...

The ways of Hades, leading down into the chambers of death. For those who are persuaded by it, becoming earthly and mortal through it, thus they shall perish. But regarding 'Upon a moment of Hades,' the others spoke of a depth. Verse 22.

Signifying many things, as we have said, the principle now denotes the eternal, and the cause, and the productive. And the principle of some things is a principle, and signifies a relation, but not subsistence. For things toward something are such: as the right and the left. Therefore, the Wisdom of God, being a subsistence, is not a principle of any things; for before creation, Wisdom exists. But when it receives a relation toward created things, then it becomes a principle of the productive and providential ways of God, toward the works which have their existence from the Creator, having contributed nothing to it toward being Wisdom; but the relation through which it is called principle and creator, that came to be when the created things came to be. For a principle does not pre-exist those of which it is a principle; nor are these said to exist with it, if the creatures possess their subsistence in time. For Wisdom, being eternal, is not subject to time.

3 Therefore the principle is a spouse to the creatures. The Son of God, pre-existing the creation, being Wisdom, if he says, 'The Lord created me,' he does not have the thought of subsistence, but rather a relation toward the creatures. For he says he is created for works, being the principle of the productive and providential ways of God, that is to say, the cause, to speak more introductory. The Son of God has become man, taking the form of a slave; and being from before the ages and eternal, in that which God is the Word, he is said to be created because he had birth from Mary, becoming flesh; so that those who wish to walk according to God and toward God may use a teacher, providing a pattern of excellent life and instruction to those who follow.

That 'created' does not always signify subsistence, is shown by David saying, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Psalm 51:10). For he asks not as one not possessing, to receive, but as one having cast it away, to receive it again having been cleansed. And Paul, saying the two are created into one new man (Ephesians 2:15), does not signify the subsistence of men, but a union from concord; just as those who interpreted 'He created me' brought it forth. Verse 23. Instead of, He brought down both cause and foundation of the creatures; according to, 'All in...

Exegesis of Proverbs§4

4He stood by him, and he is before all things. And the Lord himself says: 'I am the beginning of the creation of God' (Rev 4:11). For just as a man undergoes becoming, desiring to be a foundation of the Church so that it might be established upon him without being shaken, so also, desiring to provide being to the creation, it has happened according to that, introducing the aforementioned relationship, becoming a beginning and a cause to those who are to come; but even if, he says, it was created according to these things, yet before all things God begets me, which is the Son.

He says that He takes the throne as his own kingdom, and the spiritual forces as winds; or just as David: 'He who walks on the wings of the winds' (Ps 135:6); desiring to present the less tangible part of his being as immaterial.

See the works being divided: wisdom and God. One was making, he says; but I was joining. And strong, how? We need no foundation, for it is upheld by the will of God alone.

Either that at the same time as appearing he provides life, or that he comes forth to reveal to someone descending toward the weakness of the mind there; for being life, and having come out to those able to see him, he gives life; and he says either will or love, or that he made us autonomous so as to be ready to do what is necessary.

Let him withdraw, that he may gain wisdom; for the imperfect is strengthened by the words and mysteries of wisdom.

The same food and meat are named both bread and milk and wine. Moreover, the foolish are said to partake of their own bread and of poured-out wine; if it is this, how shall we understand? 'A man ate the bread of angels' (Matt 4:4), meaning understand for me the solid commands of God as bread, and wine as the knowledge of him from the study of the divine Scriptures; likewise also his divine body and precious blood.

The natural thinker hears, 'The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night' (Ps 121:6). He calls the worldly cares a burning; and those being dried up by it he calls hay; but the Savior, through the parable, indicates the tribulations; and he called the persecutions according to the word a burning.

The wise man leads the heavy-hearted to perception by a rebuking word. Do you see that it is not to desire that is evil, but to desire such a thing, is evil? Of the

The ungodly have only evil hopes; for everything they hope for is destruction (Proverbs 10:28).

Verse 7. The phrase, “Instead of him,” does not mean as the subject of the pious man is subjected to judgment, but because the snare stands from the evil against the righteous; the pious one is rescued from it by God, but the ungodly, having been abandoned by divine providence, falls into it. Or, because the righteous man is subject to certain things as a man is to sins, but the ungodly having come and having done evil to the righteous, has rescued him from sins and from future punishments, while he himself received the punishments; and he is handed over not by anyone else, but by his own wickedness, as having previously handed himself over to an unproven mind.

Verse 4. Those who gather things are diminished from virtues; or, those gathering words and not transmitting them.

Verse 10. He who is harsh regarding each of the defects of his own house will be homeless; but a fool will serve a wise man.

Verse 13. An ungodly man, therefore, he says, is one who hates God; but a sinner is one who is evil regarding his actions; and a righteous man here he calls the practical man with word and knowledge; for the precision of righteousness is great.

Verse 6. “The better” is not comparative, but “instead of the good.”

Verse 9. The practical and the private man is more honorable than the one in word and elegant but inactive.

Verse 12. The roots of the righteous will not be uprooted, that is, the good dispositions.

Verse 7. Whatever he says, he says, is confirmed by works; and if it is more certain by work. Or, instead of saying “manifestly,” it is “established,” “unimpeachable,” to show it sufficiently himself. But a witness of the unrighteous is one who recommends and attempts what he would unrighteously do; and a deceitful man is one who has nothing upright.

Verse 10. The one speaking of punishments disturbs the one currently walking in a practical life; but the one speaking of promises rejoices. For the perfect righteous man will not be afraid from hearing evil, having fear of the Lord who exalts all (Proverbs 10:16).

Verse 16. The righteous, knowing human weakness, forgives, even if the offense is from a friend; or, because recognizing that the friend is according to the image of God, he is in agreement with himself, being moderate, and guarding himself, and having nothing of the enemy's malice, he holds his thoughts stable.

Verse 2. For the one will have the end of virtue, but the others will not have the fruit.

The Deceiver and the Nature of Good§5

5It is timely, but he will ruin himself, unable to stand with his own sin. Verse 14. Natural law is the source from which the cause of life flows; for law is not laid upon the righteous; but punishment is upon death for the one caught by evils; the fountain of life is the works of the commandments. To the righteous Gentiles, the wealth of the circumcised will be brought. Verse 16. The mind, when it perceives sin, causes pain to the soul; and the dwellings of the impious are habits and dispositions; and moral choices are tents; and there is a way, which seems to be right, that prioritizes what things seem to be. The practical matter is considered with endurance. They will divide a part, or they will share; for the bold one would not be a coward. Verses 20, 23. This seems to me as if he has not placed it in the order of exhortation, but reports what happens; then corrects what follows; namely, 'He who dishonors a poor man sins'; for the things themselves are obvious evils; no one is corrected, no one would recognize such things; and who would praise the others? He who cares for virtue will practice and know in abundance. For he who is always observing the practical matters will have something more; but the pleasant and unfeeling one, that is, the one turning away from labors, will be in want of virtues. Verse 19. The word 'nosia' sometimes signifies a place, sometimes the diseased animals. Either, therefore, the place of wisdom is the theorems in which it dwells, which is superior to false knowledge; or the dwellings of wisdom. For just as gold is superior to silver, so wisdom is to prudence; for the one is in knowing, and the other is in interpreting the things known. Or the 'nosia' of wisdom are the Churches, or the dwellings of the saints; and wisdom is Christ. Verse 17. For those who have the indivisible nature of actions have the length of a life that is harmonious, turning away from evils, that is, death. Verse 20.

There he calls a lawless man, a deceiver, who attempts to know which of the men are like him and desire to transgress; and he leads them into ways, that is, into deeds that are not good. He himself is the one fixing his eyes upon each of the men, perceiving accurately toward what kind of passion someone is leaning; and having known them from their movements, he sets his snares; and having seized them, he leads them into all evils. And he said to define it with his lips, because through his evil suggestions and works, he strives to complete all the inclinations of the man through the men; and this is the furnace of wickedness, the flame consuming the one who has received him with his baits into all wickedness.

St. 34. An eye seeing beautiful things, that is, distinguished things; but which are the beautiful things, must be sought; and not seeing gold, it is grieved; or a bright body, again it is struck down; but listen to what the beautiful things are: the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all creation; so that you see such things, as for example they gladden the soul; since what is the profit to have the eye delighted, but nothing more happening, but the soul to be corrupted?

St. 35. Having said many things of his wickedness above, we will add the remaining things to those already said. After all his excesses, he says also these things to those being persuaded by him: This thing is by necessity (the discerning one having become deaf to the evil), to be used. Natural pleasure is to be used; from God the things are, to enjoy them. But when he has persuaded his obedient one in all things, then he makes him boast in his mind, as if doing great righteousness, and that in old age he posits these things.

St. 36. The faithful not hurrying concerning the sensible things, as if having all; but the one hurrying concerning these things,

The Corruption of Praise and the Nature of Wisdom§6

6It is as if he has nothing; for he who loves silver will never be satisfied with silver. Or indeed, the faithful person will see the words of this world as if they were spoken metaphorically as matters of the mind; but the unfaithful person will not even touch the words of a chance matter because of the impurity of the soul.

Stanza 26. Regarding one who hides his own ignorance or his passion by silence, it seems to be near.

Stanza 27. He does not carry out all evil (for it is impossible), but performs those things capable of co-existing; and even while doing evil, he did not cease. Or he speaks of Christ as a good concept; for He himself guarantees it; and everyone doing good things will find Him; for he speaks of the one doing every good work as prudent.

Stanza 24. He who does not live rightly hides the hands unjustly in the soul; not wishing to work his own land, how shall he be filled with bread? For the practical virtues have a connection to the hands, bringing our bread to the mouth which has come down from heaven (Matt 6:11). Therefore, this one, being slothful, cannot even benefit from the beginning.

Stanza 10. For indeed the judgment covers the defense of the ungodly. For God exceeds those doing good in rewards.

Stanza 16. Do not give yourself over to being too ashamed to repent. For if you die and do not have time to repent, you will no longer have rest.

Stanza 23. And he who acts with vainglory or human-pleasing in doing something of the good works brings the devil, the snare, in with him, and eats his own morsel with him; for such a one withholds his own reward. And indeed the devil...

He offers these things to men, so that through the praise of the man-pleaser he may be defiled and be deprived of the eternal goods. Verse 4. Evil men will not produce virtues and right doctrines (for these are the offspring of the soul), because they do not fear the Lord; but those being in the fear of the Lord will have offspring all their days, and their hope will not be removed (Psalm 128:3). And these things follow what was said. For the enemies, he says, being evil, find advantage in the falls of others; but that which you reproach, do not envy. For their bright thing is bound and deceptive, until this life, and it is extinguished at the end; and often even while living it was exposed and was extinguished.

Verse 7. The wise man says these things by wisdom, or the slave of Christ to the Lord. And having said two, he asks concerning more; but what seems to be first is a prerequisite to the chance of obtaining what he asks, saying: Do not pass me by, but give grace; whereupon the first brought a request: Do not make my word a vain, long-winded falsehood, so that, not being filled, I may become a liar. The boy makes pride, and the appearance of being wise to be instead of an examination; by word and deed as if without sin. For the phrase, 'Who sees me?', instead of 'Reprove me', he says; so that, not being filled with wisdom, he may be incomprehensible in glory to others, or even appear a liar speaking concerning these things.

Verse 15. The leech is born indeed in the sweet waters, being a worm-like creature; and it is most smooth to the touch, which, taking hold of the grain of the water, enters unnoticed by its smoothness; then, having entwined itself within some...

The Devil's Methods and the Soul's Flight§7

7The veins of the body are not ruptured before the shedding of blood kills the man; for it drinks blood, and from this it is nourished and grows. In this way he now resembles the parasite. He is the one who is unable to rule by the force of men; for he has made use of three main impulses against them: pleasure, seduction, and deception, and because of this, having undermined them little by little, he overthrows them. First, indeed, he leads them into the paths of false doctrine toward destruction, which is indeed called 'sweetness,' showing the magnitude of sin at its end; then, surrounding them with the pleasure of lawlessness, which is indeed called the lust for women. Upon these is added love of money, that is, greed, which he said cannot even fill the earth with water; for such is the sandy, insatiable thing. These, then, are the passions which the evil one has discovered for the destruction of men, whom he loves and cherishes as if they were his own daughters.

The fourth method he calls the friction and habit of these; for not even one who has falsely believed, or committed fornication, or desired more, immediately fell into these passions, but having been defeated in the remainder by habit and sensation; for such people you would find buried in false doctrines, never receiving a child, but always promoting the passions, as well as inciting others to these things. Just as indeed neither water nor fire ceases at the supply of what is being poured out, nor does it say, 'It is enough,' but rather it becomes an overflowing; the water, by the pouring in of water, does not stop, but increases; which also you, he says, O child, knowing, should abstain from, so that you may not be lost in a short time, like the finest thief, plundering life through pleasure.

The tracks of a soaring eagle are the soul of the wise, which, being wise, is unable to know from itself the flights of the intellectual eagle; about which it is written: 'The great eagle and he who has long wings and is full of claws' (Job 39:26), not having a trace of the presence of the devil, although I did not know from where he flew before me; for the evil one departing from me, I did not know, because I did not have desire toward him. Such is the path of the harlot, the corrupted teaching.

The people from the Gentiles, being formerly a slave to sin and to the devil; thus: 'I greatly vex you with my fury' (Gal 5:20); and, 'O foolish one, filled with the foods of life' (Prov 9:2); and, 'Harlot woman,' which is a prostitute; for the Church from the Gentiles was a prostitute, walking after foreign gods; and a maidservant who casts out her own mistress, the Church of the Gentiles being the Synagogue as mistress; for of this, the law and the prophets are required. The literal investigation is a slave to the intellectual contemplation, which the Jews preferred as a mistress; but the Gentiles, receiving the literal as the spiritual, cast off the physical observance of the law as a mistress among them. He says the Gentiles, who have no strength, and treasure for themselves eternal life through good works. And the pig-rollers; a kind of fish, that is, the so-called hares, the oysters, the former...

Proverbial Exegesis§8

8Weak nations fleeing to Christ; for a rock is a refuge for swine who made dwellings in rocks. And you, he says, even if you are a weak animal, take hold of the rock of true faith, and direct your life toward it. One entering the kingdom is said to rely on a deed.

Surely you, he says, do not through weakness of faith become unbelieving toward the kingdom of the heavens, but believing in the promise concerning it, participate in the precepts of this that are doing the work. Lion Christ; for all rational things are cattle to him; for Moses says, 'But I am irrational' (Exodus 4:10). It is said to pass through natural energy without hindrance.

is drawn toward sin and walks in pride has the flock clinging to him. 'For when I am exalted,' he says, 'I will draw all things toward myself.' The rooster bears the face of the teacher, who strongly proclaims the light, sowing the word in the souls. 'Repent; for the kingdom of heaven has come near' (Matthew 4:17). This was he who from the beginning was piercing the hearts of men, and through many was foretelling the day of his incarnate presence; and driving out darkness, and clearly showing the eternal light to all. Walking among females churches cheerfully, that is, in the Churches, cheerfully and bravely, as he says, 'Behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age' (Matthew 28:20).

ou bring yourself into the mind of the Scriptures; or, if you do not have a student's ear, but are argumentative, do you hear? 'And if you are a man of contention, we do not have such a habit.' give your wealth to strange pleasures or teachings. To drink wine with intention. He who drinks the wine of the true vine, the interpretation of the Scriptures, and the contemplation of existing things, with much approaching discernment of the intellect's oversight.

[St. 6] Now he called pain 'toil.' Therefore those who toil and suffer for God, even if they become intoxicated with the drink of the Lord's house, forget the pains. [St. 7] Have your will toward attending to my words, spoken by God. [St. 23] The North Wind, the devil, stirring up and tempting the saints who are lofty, and not wanting to work; or stirring up words against his own dogmas. S these things are rather transferred to the benefit of animals, so the rod, that is, rebuke, regulates the lawless nation.

[St. 7] Of such things, he says, he rather strips away the power, and neither pours out a practical principle nor a rational one to these. [St. 14] If a tree of life is nourished from fruits of righteousness, everyone hiding righteousness with injustice, which is called a hand, will not eat from the tree of life. [St. 23] Of your disciples, so that you do not lead the teaching toward outward appearance. [St. 22] He says that the contemplation of events, and the contemplation of the Holy Trinity, is a garment for a pure mind, of fine linen and purple (Revelation 19:8).