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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Let’s solve the problem of evil > Excerpts from 4 Maccabees | Forum Quick Jump
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Matthew Timothy Short
Huh?
Date Joined Apr 2002
Total Posts : 635
| Posted 4/15/2002 2:25 PM (GMT -6) |   | Excerpts from 4 Maccabees, chapters 1-3, which I edited
The subject I am about to discuss is most philosophical, that is whether devout reason is sovereign over the emotions. Therefore, it is right for me to advise you to pay earnest attention to philosophy. For the subject is essential to everyone who is seeking knowledge and in addition, it includes the praise of the highest virtue -- I mean of course rational judgment. If then, it is evident that reason rules over those emotions that hinder self-control, namely gluttony and lust. It is also clear that it masters the emotions that hinder one from justice, such as malice and those that stand in the way of courage, namely anger, fear, and pain.
Some might perhaps ask, "If reason rules the emotions, why is it not sovereign over forgetfulness and ignorance?" Their attempt at argument is ridiculous! For reason does not rule its own emotions, but those that are opposed to justice, courage, and self-control; and it is not for the purpose of destroying them, but so that one may not give way to them.
The inquiry accordingly is whether reason is sovereign over the emotions. To decide just what reason and emotion are, how many kinds of emotions there are and whether reason rules over all these.
Now reason is the mind that with sound logic prefers the life of wisdom. Wisdom next, is the knowledge of divine and human matters and the causes of these. This in turn, is education in the law of the one true living God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, by which we learn divine matters reverently and human affairs to our advantage.
Now the kinds of wisdom are rational judgment, justice, courage, and self-control. Rational judgment is supreme over all of these, since by means of it reason rules over the emotions.
The two most comprehensive types of the emotions are pleasure and pain; and each of these is by nature concerned with both body and soul. The emotions of both pleasure and pain have many consequences. Thus desire precedes pleasure and delight follows it. Fear precedes pain and sorrow comes after. Anger, as a man will see if he reflects on this experience, is an emotion embracing pleasure and pain. Even in pleasure, there exists an ill will tendency, being the most complex of all the emotions. In the soul, it is boastfulness, covetousness, and thirst for honor, rivalry, and malice. In the body, indiscriminate eating, gluttony, and solitary gormandizing.
Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants. Each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions. For reason is the guide of the virtues, but over the emotions, it is sovereign.
Observe now first, that rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions by virtue of the restraining power of self-control. Self-control then, is dominance over the desires. Some desires are mental; others are physical and reason obviously rules over both. Otherwise, how is it that when we are attracted to the forbidden, we abstain from the pleasure had from them? Is it not because reason is able to rule over appetites? I for one think so. Therefore, when we crave the forbidden to us by the law, we abstain because of domination by reason. For the emotions of the appetites are restrained, checked by the temperate mind and all the impulses of the body, bridled by reason.
Why is it amazing that the desires of the mind for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless? It is for this reason certainly, that the temperate Joseph gains praise, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire. For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy of the passions. Not only did reason prove to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but it also rules over every desire.
Thus the law says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife...or anything that is your neighbor's." In fact, since the law has told us not to covet, I could prove to you even more that reason is able to control desires. Just as it is with the emotions that hinder one from justice, someone who is habitually a solitary gormandizer, a glutton, or even a drunkard could learn a better way, unless reason is clearly lord of the emotions?
A man who adopts a way of life in accordance with the law, even though he is a lover of money, is forced to act contrary to his natural ways, to lend without interest to the needy and to cancel debt. If one is greedy, the law rules him through his reason so that he neither gleans his harvest nor gathers the last grapes from the vineyard.
In all other matters, we can recognize that reason rules the emotions.
For the law prevails even over affection for parents, so that virtue is not abandoned for their sakes. It is superior to love for one's wife, so that one rebukes her when she breaks the law. It takes precedence over love for children, so that one punishes them for misdeeds. It is sovereign over the relationship of friends, so that one rebukes friends when they act wickedly. Do not consider it paradoxical when reason through the law, can prevail even over enmity. The fruit trees of the enemy are not cut down, but one preserves the property of enemies from the destroyers and helps rise up what has fallen.
It is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it repels anger -- for it is sovereign over even this.
When Moses was angry with Dathan and Abiram he did nothing against them in anger, but controlled his anger by reason. For as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the emotions, to correct some, and to render others powerless.
Why else did Jacob, our most wise father, censure the households of Simeon and Levi for their irrational slaughter of the entire tribe of the Shechemites, saying, "Cursed be their anger"? For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus.
Now when God fashioned man, he planted in him emotions and inclinations, but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all. To the mind he gave the law; and one who lives subject to this will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous.
How is it then one might say that if reason is master of the emotions, it does not control forgetfulness and ignorance! This notion is entirely ridiculous, for it is evident that reason rules not over its own emotions, but over those of the body. Not one of us can eradicate that kind of desire, but reason can provide a way for us not to be slaves of desire. Not one of us can eradicate anger from the mind, but reason can help to deal with anger. Not one of us can eradicate malice, but reason can fight at our side so that we are not overcome by malice.
For reason does not uproot the emotions, but is their antagonist.
Now let me explain more clearly by the story of King David's thirst. David had been attacking the Philistines all day long and together with the soldiers of his nation, had slain many of them. Then when evening fell, he came sweating and quite exhausted to the royal tent, around which the whole army of our ancestors had encamped. Now all the rest were at supper, but the king was extremely thirsty and although springs were plentiful there, he could not satisfy his thirst from them.
Now a certain irrational desire for the water in the enemy's territory tormented and inflamed him, undid and consumed him.
When his guards complained bitterly because of the king's craving, two staunch young soldiers respecting the king's desire, armed themselves fully, and taking a pitcher climbed over the enemy's ramparts. Eluding the sentinels at the gates, they went searching throughout the enemy camp, found the spring, and from it boldly brought the king a drink.
David, although he was burning with thirst, considered it an altogether a fearful danger to his soul to drink what was regarded as equivalent to blood. Therefore, opposing reason to desire, he poured out the drink as an offering to God.
For the temperate mind can conquer the drives of the emotions and quench the flames of frenzied desires; it can overthrow bodily agonies even when they are extreme, and by nobility of reason spurn all domination of the emotions.
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