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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



9694
Porphyry, Letter To Marcella, 23-24


nanEven if they think they honour the gods, and are persuaded that they exist, yet neglect virtue and wisdom, they really have denied the divinities and dishonour them. Mere unreasoning faith without right living does not attain to God. Nor is it an act of piety to honour God without having first ascertained in what manner He delights to be honoured. For if He is gratified and won over by libations and sacrifices, it would not be just that, while all men make the same requests, they should not all obtain the same reward. But if He desires none of these things and delights only in the purification of the mind, which every man can attain of his own free choice, what injustice could there be? If however the divine nature delights in both kinds of service, it should receive honour by sacred rites according to each man's power, and by the thoughts of his mind even beyond that power. It is not wrong to pray to God, for ingratitude is a grievous wrong.


nanNo god is responsible for a man's evils, for he has chosen his lot himself. The prayer which is accompanied by base actions is impure, and |45 therefore not acceptable to God; but that which is accompanied by noble actions is pure, and at the same time acceptable. There are four first principles that must be upheld concerning God—faith, truth, love, hope. We must have faith that our only salvation is in turning to God. And having faith, we must strive with all our might to know the truth about God. And when we know this, we must love Him we do know. And when we love Him we must nourish our souls on good hopes for our life, for it is by their good hopes good men are superior to bad ones. Let then these four principles be firmly held.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

6 results
1. Plato, Alcibiades Ii, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

143a. King Zeus, give unto us what is good, whether we pray or pray not; But what is grievous, even if we pray for it, do thou avert. Anth. Pal. 10.108. Soc. So then, to my mind the poet spoke well and soundly; but if you have thought of an answer to his words, do not be silent. Alc. It is difficult, Socrates, to gainsay what has been well spoken: one thing, however, I do observe —how many evils are caused to men by ignorance, when, as it seems, we are beguiled by her not only into doing
2. Plato, Republic, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

3. Nag Hammadi, The Sentences of Sextus, 156 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

4. Porphyry, Letter To Marcella, 17, 24, 11 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)

11. Reason tells us that the Divine is present everywhere and in all men, but that only the mind of the wise man is sanctified as its temple, and God is best honoured by him who knows Him best. And this must naturally be the wise man alone, who in wisdom must honour the Divine, and in wisdom adorn for it a temple in his thought, honouring it with a living statue, the mind moulded in His image.....Now God is not in need of any one, and the wise man is in need of God alone. For no one could become good and noble, unless he knew the goodness and beauty which proceed from the Deity. Nor is any man unhappy, unless he has fitted up his soul as a dwelling-place for evil spirits. To a wise man God gives the authority of a god. And a man is purified by the knowledge of God, and issuing from God, he follows after righteousness. |37
5. Proclus, Theologia Platonica ( ), 1.25, 4.9 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)

6. Anon., Chaldean Oracles, 46-47, 45



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
body Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
contemplation Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
detachment Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
fortune (chance) Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
jackson, b.-d. Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
julian Hitch, Animal sacrifice in the ancient Greek world (2017) 280
justice Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
neoplatonism' Hitch, Animal sacrifice in the ancient Greek world (2017) 280
neoplatonism Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
offering Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
pan Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
plato Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34; Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
platonism Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
porphyry Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34; Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
prayer, criticism of Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
prayer, petitionary Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
prayer, usefulness of Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
proclus Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
pythagorean, pythagoreanism Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
pythagoreans Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
renunciation Pevarello, The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism (2013) 194
sacrifice Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
socrates Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
soul, virtues of the Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
union (mystical), virtue Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
wisdom Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34
zeus Dillon and Timotin, Platonic Theories of Prayer (2015) 34