PREFACE — CHAPTER III. | ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE BOOK OF STEPS — II. ON CREATURES.

original: parentibus in terra contra Deum movere intendebat. intended to move against God on earth¹. Iscariot, the apostate apostle, is a type of the rebellious Satan². The temptation of Christ is a type of the first Adam tempted by the Devil³, for the creature Adam was made new in Christ⁴.

6. The doctrine just outlined in the Book of Steps regarding the invisible world and its visible image is the root of the theology of the whole Work and the foundation of the rigorous ascesis ascetic discipline which the Author commends everywhere. For in his view, original sin was nothing other than a defection from the heavenly, invisible order to the material world; in a similar way, the justification of man is nothing but a return to the invisible order to be effected by means of "renunciation," that is, by means of asceticism.

It remains to ask: what is the origin of this doctrine? At first glance, the question appears plain and easy. If the Author calls the invisible world an "exemplar" and the visible world its "type" or "likeness" or "shadow," he seems to Platonize, inasmuch as for Plato the invisible world of ideas, possessing real and true subsistence⁵, is an paradeigma archetypal pattern/model⁶, like an archetype of visible things, which are its mimema imitation⁷ and homoioma likeness⁸ according to his well-known words: "there is every necessity for this world to be an image of something"⁹. Nevertheless, no immediate connection between the doctrine of the Book of Steps and the aforementioned philosopher¹⁰ can be demonstrated, nor is it otherwise likely. For the Author expressly rejects the Platonic trichotomy and is entirely ignorant of the Platonists' doctrine of the pre-existence of souls. Indeed, the doctrine outlined above concerning "pre-established harmony" was so ancient and widespread in the first centuries of the Christian era that its presence in our Author is well explained without having to recur immediately to the works of Plato. Traces of it already occur in cuneiform documents¹¹; the same doctrine is found in some Old Testament writings¹, apocryphal books², and also in the Talmud³, independently of Greek philosophy.

¹ Serm. XXIII, 8. — ² Serm. XXIII, 1 sq., 5. — ³ Serm. XXI, 4.
⁴ Serm. XXI, 3-5, 7. — ⁵ Phaedrus 247 C. — ⁶ Timaeus 28 C.
⁷ Timaeus 48 E, 50 C. — ⁸ Timaeus 30 C. — ⁹ Phaedrus 250 A.
¹⁰ Concerning this matter cf. Drummond, Philo Iudaeus, London, 1888, vol. I, p. 57-68. Willmann, Geschichte des Idealismus [History of Idealism], Braunschweig, 1894, vol. I, p. 424-435. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte [History of Dogma]³, I, 97-99, 755-764.
¹¹ Hammurabi already says that the temple of the sun in Sippar is like the dwelling place of heaven (Cod. II, 30-31: bit e-bar ša ki šu-ba-at ša-ma-i; v. Ungnad, Keilschrifttexte der Gesetze Hammurabis, Leipzig, 1909, p. 1 c). Sennacherib teaches that the city of Nineveh was built in accordance with a heavenly plan (it-ti ši-ṭir-ti šamê) (Bell. 35; cf. Jeremias, Babylonisches im Neuen Testament [Babylonian elements in the New Testament], Leipzig, 1905, p. 62). Nebuchadnezzar boasts that he adorned the temple of Ezida in Babylon kima ši-ṭir-ti šamami, i.e., in accordance with a heavenly plan. (See the text of the great inscription I, 39, ed. A. Winckler, Altbabylonische Keilschrifttexte, Leipzig, 1892, p. 32). In a cuneiform fragment of the creation history (Br. Museum 82-5-22, 1048; for its text v. Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum, XIII, 35-37; for transcriptions in Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Band VI: Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen v. P. Jensen, Berlin, 1901, p. 38-43; P. Dhorme O. P., Choix de textes religieux assyro-babyloniens, Paris, 1907, p. 82-89 cf. Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients [The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient Near East], Leipzig, 1904, p. 50 sq.) it is not obscurely indicated that the corporeal world was formed in the image of the heavenly world, the seat of the gods. You have traces of the same doctrine in tablet IV, 141-144 of the Chaldean Genesis (cf. Jensen, o. c. p. 30 et 344; Jeremias, Das Alte Test. p. 55).

On the other hand, the doctrine of the Book of Steps outlined above bears a great resemblance to the tenets of St. Irenaeus concerning the recapitulation of the first Adam made through the second Adam, that is, Christ, and even more to the comments of some Gnostics, who, using the same speculative method, fell into singular errors.

St. Irenaeus, relying on the words of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians 1:10⁴, established that the end of Christ's advent was the recapitulation of the first Adam⁵, that is, an iteration of the same original state⁶, by renewing man and uniting those things that were separated on account of Adam's sin⁷. By virtue of this notion, St. Irenaeus teaches that some congruence and likeness is found between Adam and Christ⁸, between Eve and the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary⁹. In this respect, the doctrine of the Book of Steps is very similar to these Irenaean tenets. However, the Author of the Book of Steps proceeds even further and teaches not only that the life of Christ is the recapitulation of the first Adam, but—according to the Platonic axiom that visible things are an image of invisible things—from visible events in Sacred History he draws bold conclusions regarding corresponding invisible events, and having abandoned the positive basis of revelation, he applies himself to false speculations concerning the fall of the first-formed beings and the idea of redemption, which are very similar to the assertions of certain Gnostics who, as St. Irenaeus testifies, while insisting that all things were recapitulated in Christ by God¹, interpreted every single moment of the Savior's earthly life allegorically and from there sought fantastic arguments for their false doctrine concerning the origin of the Aeons, the fall of Sophia, etc.².

In most recent times, H. Winckler, a professor in Berlin, contends that the entire religious doctrine of the Babylonians can be comprised by this formula: the terrestrial world is an image of the heavenly world ("Himmelsbild gleich Weltbild"), and he teaches that this putative axiom is the foundation of astrology, history, and indeed all the sciences of the ancient Orient. On this matter, consult his works: Himmels und Weltenbild der Babylonier² [Heavenly and World View of the Babylonians] (in the collection Der Alte Orient, vol. III, fasc. 2-3), Leipzig, 1903. Die Weltanschauung des alten Orients [The Worldview of the Ancient Orient], Leipzig, 1904. Altorientalische Geschichts-Auffassung [Ancient Oriental Conception of History], Leipzig, 1906. Die babylonische Geisteskultur [Babylonian Intellectual Culture], Leipzig, 1907.

¹ Exodus 25:9, 40; 26:30; 27:8; Num. 8:4, where it concerns the heavenly exemplar (תבנית) of sacred vessels. In Job 38:33 we read: "Can you establish its rule on the earth?"—in which words A. Jeremias (Babylonisches im N. T., p. 63) wrongly teaches that the same sense underlies them; but the translation which he added l. c. is entirely false.
² Apocalypse of Baruch (Syriac) 4:3-5; Ascension of Isaiah 7:10.
³ That idea is found most openly proposed in the Commentary Midrash Aggadah where the opinion of R. Abahu is cited: "Whatever exists above, exists also below." For other examples of this doctrine, see Erich Bischoff, Babylonisch-Astrales im Weltbilde des Talmud und Midrash [Babylonian-Astral elements in the world-view of the Talmud and Midrash], Leipzig, 1907.
⁴ Adv. Haereses III, 30 (Harvey II, 120).
⁵ Ib. III, 19, 1 (Harvey II, 95). — ⁶ Ib. III, 31, 1 (Harvey II, 120. Cf. Molwitz, o. c. p. 8-10). — ⁷ Ib. III, 17, 6 (Harvey II, 87).
⁸ Ib. III, 32, 2 (Harvey II, 125; cf. Wirtz, Die Lehre von der Apolytrosis [The doctrine of redemption], Trier, 1906, p. 96).
⁹ Ib. V, 19, 1 (Harvey II, 375). Cf. the work of St. Irenaeus recently discovered in Armenian: Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, n. 33 sq., edited in Armenian and German by Karapet Ter-Měkĕrttschian and Erwand Ter-Minassiantz, Leipzig, 1907, p. 19 [Text and Investigations, ed. by A. Harnack and C. Schmidt, III series, first volume].