Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 247 from the section Kern heads Diathekai, the Orphic Testament tradition. The witness is Aristobulus as preserved by Eusebius, with a related form in the Tubingen Theosophy. Kern calls this the Aristobulian redaction.

Translation

Kern Fr. 247 — The Aristobulian Redaction

Aristobulus says:

One must take the divine voice not as a spoken word, but as a making of works. In the same way, through the lawgiving, Moses has spoken the whole coming-into-being of the world as words of God. For he says continually about each thing: "And God said, and it came to be."

Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato seem to me to have followed this very closely in all things, saying that they heard the voice of God when they contemplated the arrangement of the universe, which had come into being from God and is held together by him without ceasing.

Orpheus too, in the poems called his Holy Word, sets out in the following way how all things are held by divine power, how generated things exist, and how God is over all. He says this:

I will speak
to those for whom it is lawful.

Set the doors shut,
you profane ones,
as you flee the ordinances
of the just,
the ordinances set by God
as law for all alike.

But you, listen,
offspring of light-bearing Moon,
Musaeus.

For I will speak true things.
Do not let what appeared before
in your breast
rob you of dear life.

Look to the divine word.
Attend to it.
Guide the thinking vessel
of your heart.

Step well upon the path,
and look only
to the immortal shaper
of the world.

An ancient word
shines about him:

He is one,
self-complete.

Under him
all things are brought
to completion.

He himself moves
among them,
and no one sees him
with a mortal soul.

He is seen
by mind.

He himself
does not send evil
out of good things
to mortal human beings.

Yet grace and hatred
attend him,
and war,
and plague,
and tearful pains.

There is no other.
By him
all things would be
easy to see.

You could not see him
before someday,
here upon earth,
I show you,
my child,
when I behold
the traces
and strong hand
of the mighty God.

But I do not see him.
A cloud is fixed
around him.

For me,
and for all human beings,
there remains
a tenfold covering.

No mortal person
could see him
as he rules,
unless it were
some single-born shoot
from the race
of Chaldaeans above.

For he was skilled
in the course
of the star,
and in the motion
of the sphere,
how it turns
around the earth,
circular,
equal in balance,
upon its own axle.

He reins the breaths
around the air
and around
the stream of water.

He makes manifest
the strong-born
brightness of fire.

He himself
is fixed again
upon great heaven,
on a golden throne.

Earth has been set
beneath his feet.

He has stretched out
his right hand
to the limits
of Ocean.

The foundation
of the mountains
trembles inwardly
in its heart,
and cannot bear
his strong might.

He is everywhere,
heavenly
and upon earth,
and by him
all things are completed.

He himself holds
beginning,
middle,
and end,
as the word
of the ancients says,
as the water-born one
set it in order,
having received
from God,
in divine counsels,
the ordinance
of the two tablets.

It is not lawful
to speak otherwise.

I tremble greatly
in mind.

From the highest,
he brings all things
to pass
in one order.

My child,
draw near
to these things
with your thoughts.

Have firm command
over your tongue,
and set the saying
within your breast.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 247, in the section headed "Diathekai." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is Aristobulus as preserved by Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 13.12, with Kern's comparison to the Tubingen Theosophy.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 247 — Aristobulus in Eusebius

Aristobulus, as preserved by Eusebius:

δεῖ γὰρ λαμβάνειν τὴν θείαν φωνὴν οὐ ῥητὸν λόγον, ἀλλ' ἔργων κατασκευάς, καθὼς καὶ διὰ τῆς νομοθεσίας ἡμῖν ὅλην τὴν γένεσιν τοῦ κόσμου θεοῦ λόγους εἴρηκεν ὁ Μωσῆς. συνεχῶς γὰρ φησιν ἐφ' ἑκάστου "καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός, καὶ ἐγένετο."

δοκοῦσι δέ μοι περιεργασάμενοι πάντα κατηκολουθηκέναι τούτῳ Πυθαγόρας τε καὶ Σωκράτης καὶ Πλάτων, λέγοντες ἀκούειν φωνῆς θεοῦ, τὴν κατασκευήν τῶν ὅλων συνθεωροῦντες ἀκριβῶς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεγονυῖαν καὶ συνεχομένην ἀδιαλείπτως.

ἔτι δὲ καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἐν ποιήμασι τῶν κατὰ τὸν ἱερὸν λόγον αὐτῷ λεγομένων οὕτως ἐκτίθεται περὶ τοῦ διακρατεῖσθαι θείᾳ δυνάμει τὰ πάντα καὶ γενητὰ ὑπάρχειν, καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων εἶναι τὸν θεόν. λέγει δὲ οὕτως·

φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστί· θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βέβηλοι,
φεύγοντες δικαίων θεσμοὺς, θείοιο τεθέντος
πᾶσι νόμον· σὺ δ' ἄκουε, φαεσφόρου ἔκγονε Μήνης,
Μουσαῖε, ἐξερέω γὰρ ἀληθέα, μηδέ σε τὰ πρὶν
ἐν στήθεσσι φανέντα φίλης αἰῶνος ἀμέρσῃ.
εἰς δὲ λόγον θεῖον βλέψας τούτῳ προσέδρευε,
ἰθύνων κραδίης νοερὸν κύτος· εὖ δ' ἐπίβαινε
ἀτραπιτοῦ, μοῦνον δ' ἐσόρα κόσμοιο τυπωτὴν
ἀθάνατον. παλαιὸς δὲ λόγος περὶ τοῦδε φαείνει·
εἷς ἔστ' αὐτοτελής, αὐτοῦ δ' ὕπο πάντα τελεῖται,
ἐν δ' αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς περινίσσεται, οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν
εἰσοράᾳ ψυχὴν θνητῶν, νῷ δ' εἰσοράαται.
αὐτὸς δ' ἐξ ἀγαθῶν θνητοῖς κακὸν οὐκ ἐπιτέλλει
ἀνθρώποις· αὐτῷ δὲ χάρις καὶ μῖσος ὀπηδεῖ,
καὶ πόλεμος καὶ λοιμὸς ἰδ' ἄλγεα δακρυόεντα,
οὐδέ τις ἔσθ' ἕτερος· τῷ κεν ῥέα πάντ' ἐσόρηται.
οὐ κεν ἴδοις αὐτόν, πρὶν δή ποτε δεῦρ' ἐπὶ γαῖαν,
τέκνον ἐμόν, δείξω σοι, ὁπηνίκα δέρκομαι αὐτοῦ
ἴχνια καὶ χεῖρα στιβαρὴν κρατεροῖο θεοῖο.
αὐτὸν δ' οὐχ ὁρόω· περὶ γὰρ νέφος ἐστήρικται
λοιπὸν ἐμοὶ καὶ πᾶσι δεκάπτυχον ἀνθρώποισιν.
οὐ γὰρ κέν τις ἴδοι θνητῶν μερόπων κραίνοντα,
εἰ μὴ μουνογενής τις ἀπορρὼξ φύλου ἄνωθεν
Χαλδαίων· ἴδρις γὰρ ἔην ἄστροιο πορείης,
καὶ σφαίρης κίνημ' ἀμφὶ χθόνα ὡς περιτέλλει
κυκλοτερὲς ἴσῃ τε κατὰ σφέτερον κνώδακα.
πνεύματα δ' ἡνιοχεῖ περί τ' ἠέρα καὶ περὶ χεῦμα
νάματος· ἐκφαίνει δὲ πυρὸς σέλας ἰφιγενήτου.
αὐτὸς δὴ μέγαν αὖθις ἐπ' οὐρανὸν ἐστήρικται
χρυσέῳ εἰνὶ θρόνῳ· γαίη δ' ὑπὸ ποσσὶ βέβηκε·
χεῖρα δὲ δεξιτερὴν ἐπὶ τέρμασιν Ὠκεανοῖο
ἐκτέτακεν· ὀρέων δὲ τρέμει βάσις ἔνδοθι θυμῷ,
οὐδὲ φέρειν δύναται κρατερὸν μένος. ἔστι δὲ πάντῃ
αὐτὸς ἐπουράνιος καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ πάντα τελευτᾷ,
ἀρχὴν αὐτὸς ἔχων καὶ μέσσην ἠδὲ τελευτήν,
ὡς λόγος ἀρχαίων, ὡς ὑδογενὴς διέταξεν,
ἐκ θεόθεν γνώμῃσι λαβὼν κατὰ δίπλακα θεσμόν.
ἄλλως οὐ θεμιτὸν δὲ λέγειν· τρομέω δέ τε λίην
ἐν νόῳ. ἐξ ὑπάτου κραίνει περὶ πάντ' ἐνὶ τάξει.
ὦ τέκνον, σὺ δὲ τοῖσι νόοισι πελάζεο, γλώσσης
εὖ μάλ' ἐπικρατέων, στέρνοισι δὲ ἔνθεο φήμην.