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ALL THE WORKS OF MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR * Volume One, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS I 1. To Theopemptos the Scholastic: An Interpretation of the 59th Psalm. Volume One, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS I * QUESTION, ANSWER *** *** and by the passions, and the assault diminishes the evil, and again it is restored to its former condition, that is, to the natural desire, if any *** is a striving and longing for God. And to put the hand "into the bosom" signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, becoming flesh in the workshop of our nature; for this is what the bosom and the white hand signify; and again, when the hand is restored to its former condition, it is made clear that after the resurrection the Lord, having shone forth, was restored to the Father's bosom. For Moses, having become a mediator between God and the people, sometimes holds the person of God the Father, and sometimes that of our nature. QUESTION: What does the tower built in the land of Shinar signify? ANSWER: We too build a tower whenever we move from the east, that is, whenever we depart from knowledge; and we come to the land of Shinar, that is, to the

The work of Saint Maximus was divided into volumes and the pages are recorded according to the order of "GREGORY PALAMAS" of the "TO BYZANTION" editions, Thessaloniki 1992, PHILOKALIA OF THE NEPTIC AND ASCETIC FATHERS, so that the reader can easily consult the translation. The text comes from three sources: 1) from the electronic library of Greek texts, ( :// ), 2) texts not included in the Patrologia of, volume and (typed by the mother of Fr. Arsenios Meskos), and 3) the commentaries on the works of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite from the BYZANTION editions; the text was passed through a scanner, followed by optical character recognition and checking. Volume and page for the BYZANTION editions are recorded in the following manner:, that is, the tenth page of volume B follows. There is also an indication of the page of the Patrologia when the text comes from there. * The text comes from the Patrologia of, in comparison with the text of the "TO BYZANTION" editions of the series "GREGORY PALAMAS" Thessaloniki 1992, PHILOKALIA OF THE NEPTIC AND ASCETIC FATHERS, volume A.

the passion of gluttony; for Sennaar is interpreted as "gnashing of teeth"; then we also build a tower, that is, we make much of the fleshly passions and build, joining passion to passion. "Even to heaven": for those who have their zeal set on vain things never wish to cease, but have an insatiable appetite for them. But God stops the building of the tower and "confuses the tongues" whenever, instructing us for our benefit, he hinders our wickedness; for whenever he chastens the man defeated by the disease of fornication, or disciplines with poverty the man enslaved to gluttony, he makes, as it were, a hindrance to the tower of the passions, at the same time "confusing" the tongues; for having subdued the fornicator, who is always meditating on fornication, by disease, and having made him occupy himself with the health of the body, he has, as it were, confused the voice of his continual meditation on the passion. QUESTION: What does it mean, "David singing and putting to rest the evil spirit of Saul"? ANSWER: Everyone who, like the blessed David, shepherds the sheep, that is, the rational faculty of the soul, and conquers anger and desire as he conquered the lion and the bear, this man, using the word of teaching with some lofty contemplation, sweetens the hearer and calms the passions of wickedness within him. QUESTION: Since it is written in the Gospel that "unless one is born of water and the Spirit," and in another place again, "he himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire," I ask to learn what the difference is.

ANSWER: In each person the Holy Spirit, when it comes to be, cleanses the defilement of the flesh as water, washes away the stains of the soul as spirit, suggests the ways of the virtues as Holy Spirit, and makes one a god by grace as fire, causing the divine marks of virtue to shine upon him. QUESTION: Since, according to Gregory the Theologian, who says in his oration on Pentecost, "the apostles received perfection through three gifts: first, healing diseases and driving out demons; second, the breathing upon them after the resurrection; third, the Spirit himself essentially in the form of fiery tongues," how can anyone, if he becomes equal to the apostles in virtue, receive the gifts that have been mentioned, and how should "essentially" be understood? I ask that it be explained by way of an example. ANSWER: It is possible for us too, if we hasten to become imitators of the apostles: first, through the practical life, to command the passions and heal the diseases of the soul; second, through natural contemplation, to restore nature to itself; third, through the teaching of the word—for this is what the tongues of fire become for those who hear, at once consuming their passions like fire and at the same time enlightening them. But how the Holy Spirit worked previously, and how he came upon the apostles essentially at the last, it is necessary to explain by way of an example. Just as a piece of wood placed on a frying pan, then, when the fire is kindled, through the medium of the pan the wood partakes of the heat of the fire, so previously the Spirit worked faintly in the saints;

But if someone, following the same illustration, sets the intervening pan directly over the fire, it will immediately lay hold of the wood and at once assimilate the wood to its own nature. In this way, as in perceptible illustrations, one may conjecture what "substantially" means. QUESTION: Since Scripture does not clearly say that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, and moreover, if he gave back everything, as he himself says that he did not take so much as "a thong of a sandal," from where did he give tithes? For he had not brought any property of his own to the war, since he set out in alarm. ANSWER: Since divine Scripture says that Melchizedek is "a priest of God," Abraham, holding the rank, as it were, of a layman, will fittingly be believed to have given the tithes to the priest. That he also had the means to provide them is clear from this: for the kings who marched against Sodom had not only taken the possessions of Sodom, but also had with them spoils from other regions, which they had taken captive beforehand. Abraham defeated them and took all these things; the possessions of the Sodomites he gave back, but the rest he kept for himself, and from these he also provided the tithes to Melchizedek.

QUESTION: For what reason were the priests according to the law not prevented from having wives, while the priests according to Christ are prevented, as far as custom is concerned? ANSWER: The immediate answer is that the Gospel is higher, and that virginity has become accessible to many ever since the Lord of all was pleased to be born through virginity, which was rare among the ancients. But since the priesthood of the Gospel is believed to be according to the order of Melchizedek and not according to the order of Aaron, and Melchizedek is not recorded as having had a wife, it necessarily follows that the bishops who serve as priests according to his order do not admit wives. QUESTION: Since it is written that the prophet Amos "was a goatherd and a nipper of sycamore figs," what is a "goatherd" and what is "nipping"? ANSWER: A "goatherd" is a shepherd of goats, and "nipping" is cutting. Since the sap of the sycamore is raw and thick and harmful, those who nip cut the sycamore with small knives and make the sap flow out. But small creatures creep in from within, and when the sun's ray shines in, they sweeten and soften it. This is according to the letter; but according to the manner of spiritual interpretation, a goatherd is one who shepherds with reason the desiring part of the soul. And he nips sycamores who subdues the body through self-control and drains away the moisture of the passions; for such a one, like the small creatures, receives divine thoughts and is sweetened and softened in soul by the "sun of righteousness" and is established by God as a prophet and teacher for others.

QUESTION: What does the bronze serpent mean, which at God's command was hung by Moses on high in the wilderness? ANSWER: Since the noetic serpent who from the beginning deceived man mixed the law of sin into us in the flesh through disobedience, crawling in us through pleasure like a serpent, for this reason the one who walks through the wilderness of the passions in virtue, if he turns back to Egypt, that is, to the darkness of sin, is struck by the noetic serpents; but if he fixes his gaze on the crucified Lord, whose flesh, hung on high, held the law of the serpent of sin in our flesh dead and inactive, he is saved. And the serpent is bronze because the nature of bronze admits neither diminution nor venom, just as the Lord did not take in the venom of sin, "nor did his flesh see corruption." Since Gregory the Theologian makes mention, saying, "The bronze serpent is hung up against the serpents that bite, not as a type of him who suffered for us, but as an antitype," and that "the one who believes puts to death the powers subject to him," it is necessary to clarify these things as well. The one who has purified the eye of the soul through virtue and knowledge knows clearly that evil is without subsistence and exists in none of the things that are, except only in being practiced. Since, then, the serpent, the originator of evil, mixed the crookedness of sin into man through disobedience, Moses is commanded to hang up the bronze serpent, hinting at what was to happen in the case of the Lord; for he alone, through the passion of the cross, exposed sin and showed it to be inactive and dead.

Whoever therefore fixes his gaze on him and believes that the enemy has been put to death and made inactive, this man also "puts to death with him the powers that are under him"; for no longer, either through the senses or through sensible things, through which he had his power, can he do harm. For this reason, then, it was said to the Father, "not as a type, but as an antitype," as indicating the putting to death of the devil. QUESTION: How ought we also, if indeed "the law is spiritual," to keep the sabbath of days and the sabbath of weeks, which is Pentecost, and the sabbath of years, the seven-year period, and the sabbath of the seven-year period, which is the Jubilee? ANSWER: We keep the sabbath of days when we cease from the activity of evils; and we keep the sabbath of weeks when we cease from the assents to evil thoughts. And we keep the sabbath of years when we do not accept the assault of desire, since the year has the sprouting of fruits and stirs up desire in these things. And we keep the Jubilee when we completely cease from the memories of evils and the fantasies that come upon us from preconception; for Jubilee is interpreted as "release of the bonds of the living" or "deliverance of the living from grief." For when someone has acquired perfect impassibility, then he is released from the bonds of sin, and, delivered from grief, he brings joy to dwell in his soul. QUESTION: What does Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite mean? ANSWER: Elisha the prophet signifies the Lord, and the child of the Shunammite signifies human nature.

For since she herself had become weak through the transgression and had been put to death by the devil's scorching heat, the Lord sent Moses working wonders with a rod, just as Elisha sent Gehazi, and he did not raise the man up, nor were the prophets able to do this. Therefore the Lord himself, out of love for mankind, took up our flesh, and through its sufferings he made alive our nature that had been put to death. QUESTION 12 Why is it that one of the evangelists makes the genealogy from the lower to the upper, while the other does the opposite? ANSWER I think they have done this not without purpose, but rather very mystically; for since some of the faithful are led down from the promises to the practice of the commandments, while others, beginning from the practice of the commandments, are led up to the promises, for this reason the one leads the genealogy down, and the other leads it up. QUESTION For what reason, in the setting forth of the precious body and blood of the Lord, is it the custom of the Church to set forth the loaves and the cups unequal? ANSWER All things that are accomplished in the Church have a transcendent meaning. Since these symbols are preeminently mysteries and representations of the divine essence, and this essence is without composition, while all creation is composite, and only, as has been said, the Holy Trinity is simple and without composition—for this reason, then, the Church sets forth the loaves and the cups unequal, marking the divine in these things.

QUESTION: Since some are perplexed, saying, "How is the Lord's becoming man said to have escaped the notice of all the heavenly powers, when we find that the prophecies concerning the Lord were given through angels, and Gabriel announces the conception of the virgin, and angels initiate the shepherds into the mystery?" What, then, is it that escaped the notice of the angels? ANSWER: That the angels knew beforehand the Lord's becoming man, which was to be for the salvation of men, there is no need to doubt. But this escaped them: the incomprehensible conception of the Lord, and the manner in which, being whole in the Father and whole in all things and filling all things, he was whole in the womb of the Virgin. QUESTION: Why ever, on Mount Gebal, where the curses were given, is Joshua the son of Nun commanded to build an altar and write the law? ANSWER: "Garizin" is interpreted as "circumcision," and "Gebal" as "mixture." In the mixture, then, of the accursed portion of the Gentiles, our Lord Jesus Christ sets up an altar—that is, the Church—inscribing the law not on "tablets of stone, but on tablets" "that are hearts of flesh." And he says that the altar was to be built of whole stones, "upon which no iron was laid," signifying the spiritual stones, the apostles, who became unhewn through the simplicity and plainness of their ways; from these the Church of the Gentiles was constituted.

QUESTION: What does it mean that the prophet threatens those who make "chaunoi for the host of heaven" with being handed over to Nebuchadnezzar, so that he sets up his throne in the gate of Jerusalem? ANSWER: Chaunoi are little cakes made from various kinds of grain, which the Jews and their women, when making them, used to place in the windows of their houses, receiving the light of the moon and of the morning star. Since, then, chaunoi is translated as "windows," this suggests the understanding that whoever through pleasure keeps his senses agreeably disposed toward sensible things, this man makes chaunoi. For this reason he also receives the noetic Nebuchadnezzar reigning in the gate of Jerusalem, that is, in the soul, oppressing it as subject; for Nebuchadnezzar is translated "prophesying the judgment of affliction." QUESTION: What do the five sacrifices brought according to the law signify: the sheep, the ox, the goat, the turtledove, and the pigeon? ANSWER: On one interpretation, the ram is taken as the ruling faculty in relation to the rational part, the bull in relation to the spirited part, the goat in relation to the desiring part, the turtledove in relation to chastity, and the pigeon in relation to sanctification. But if one must also inquire into the natural properties of each animal and apply the fitting contemplation of each of them, those who have examined such matters say that the sheep brings three things to its owner: wool, milk, and a lamb; and the pupil of its eye moves around with the sun, and each day it drops three hundred and sixty-five pellets.

The rational sheep is man, if indeed he has earnestly desired to offer himself as a sacrifice to God who possesses him; he owes it to give, as wool, his ethical practice, and as milk, his natural contemplation—for this is nourishing to the mind—and as a lamb, to bring forth the disciple through his own teaching, and to present him to God in all things like himself and perfect. But such a man also has the pupil of his eye revolving together with the sun, that is, his mind revolves together with the Sun of righteousness, who by his providential governance of things that exist carries our affairs along, that is, it follows after him; for both in afflictions and in prosperity, giving thanks, he follows the providence that rightly guides all things. And such a man casts off each day three hundred sixty-five droppings, that is, he continually throws away the things that are under time and generation as corruptible and superfluous. Concerning the ox, they say that it has a triangular heart, and a kidney of five lobes; it has also three stomachs, and by day it has eyes like light, but by night like fire, and at the third hour of the day and the third hour of the night, looking toward the east, it breathes by blowing; and its right nostril gives off a sweet odor, a calf, and its blood is destructive of all tame animals except the dog. It is necessary, then, that we too, like an ox bearing the yoke of Christ and handling the plow of the word, cut open stony hearts and root out the thorns of the passions, and broaden the earth of the heart for the reception of the divine word.

And it has a triangular heart, that is, to have the sound doctrine concerning the Trinity in the heart, so that just as the heart naturally distributes life to the body, so too piety toward God establishes the members of the soul; and it has a five-banded kidney, that is, the desiring faculty is not turned toward the passions, but through the five senses contemplates creation for the sole desire and love of the Creator; and it possesses three stomachs: the stomach first receives the food and, through the digestive power, sends the pure part of it to each of the members, and gives the rest to the belly. In this way, then, it is fitting that we too, being led through practical, natural, and theological contemplation and assigning what is suitable to all the members of the soul, should also take forethought for the lesser part, that is, the body—for this is the belly—and, looking three times by day and three times by night, should breathe toward the east, that is, looking to the threefold providence of God—preservative, converting, and disciplinary—both in the night of temptations and in the day of prosperity.

To give thanks; and to have eyes fiery in the night, but light-like in the day—that is, the contemplative power receiving in the day of the virtues the rays of knowledge from the sun of righteousness, and in the night of successive temptations brought on for the sake of virtue grasping the principles of abandonments; and to have the right nostril fragrant. The right part of man is the soul, since we are double, of soul and body. So the one who, through the virtues of the soul, has drawn to himself the grace of the Holy Spirit becomes fragrant to others. And the blood of such a one is destructive to tame animals—that is, anger turned aside is destructive to the men who imitate it, but food for the demons who bark against us. And the goat has this nature: easily ascending the mountains, it walks on cliffs and delights in musical melodies, and its right horn, if burned as incense in any place, produces the appearance of an earthquake; and it voids two hundred dung-pellets each day. It is necessary, then, that our soul also boldly leap over the cliffs of temptations and, ascending the prophetic mountains, hunt the height of knowledge and delight in it, and not only delight but also, through the reed—that is, the practical word—teaching, instill pleasure in those who hear. And the right horn signifies that the one who offers the contemplative part of the soul to God through prayer, becoming fragrant to those who hear, shakes the disposition of fleshly passions in them.

Such a person always casts off the error of the senses concerning sensible things; for the senses are entwined with sensible things; *** for example, the number four multiplied tenfold makes forty, and this multiplied fivefold produces two hundred. QUESTION: What is the double-drachma which the Lord also is required to pay, and what is the fish which Peter is commanded to catch and to take the stater in it and give to those who demand it? ANSWER: Those who demand the double-drachma bear the image of the natural passions within us; these came to Peter, that is, to the Lord's practical and humble faculty, which in the manner of a disciple obeyed the Father, demanding as from a man the things which they were accustomed to exact as tribute from all men. But the Lord showed Himself free as God and Master through the parable; yet since He put on our flesh and accepted its blameless passions, He endured also to pay these by nature without sin.

For since at the beginning he formed man and implanted in him two generic principles, one preceding, that of the soul, and the other by providence, that of the flesh, and he did not abide in either of these, but neglected the one by the transgression of the commandment and the other by the misuse of the bounds of nature, whatever principle he hid in his passion and left to swim in the sea of this troubled life—for this reason, when the Lord was required to pay the tax of nature, as Master and corrector of nature, through the principle of action he seized the slippery passion of sin that was swimming in the sea of life, and drawing up the principle swallowed within it, that is, the limit of need given from the beginning by concession, he restored it to nature free from the passion of misuse. QUESTION 19 Since Gregory of Nyssa in his own writings appears, to those who do not know the depth of his lofty contemplation, in many places to hint at restoration, I ask you to say what you know about this. ANSWER The Church knows three restorations: one, that of each person according to the principle of virtue, in which he is restored when he has fulfilled the principle of virtue that is in him; a second, that of the whole nature in the resurrection, the restoration to incorruption and immortality; and a third, which Gregory of Nyssa especially employs in his own discourses, is this: the restoration of the psychic powers that have fallen under sin to that for which they were created.

For just as the whole nature must receive in the resurrection the incorruption of the flesh in the time that is hoped for, so also the perverted powers of the soul must, through the extension of the ages, cast off the memories of evil implanted in it, and having passed through all the ages and finding no resting place, come to God, who has no end, and thus, by knowledge and not by participation in good things, recover the powers and be restored to the original state, and the Creator be shown to be blameless for sin. QUESTION: What does the story concerning Bel mean, and who is Daniel, and who is King Darius, who knew the footprints of those who entered, that they were of men and women and children? ANSWER: Every man who comes to be in the "confusion" of life—for Babylon is interpreted as confusion—makes his own soul a temple to Bel, that is, to the devil; in which, if Daniel comes to be—that is, the law of God; for Daniel is interpreted as "judgment of God"—he teaches Darius, that is, the king, the mind, that the footprints of those walking in the temple, that is, in the soul, are of men and women and children, that is, of anger and desire and ignorance; whence the king, the mind, knowing this, hands them over to judgment, to the law of God, so that all may be utterly destroyed. And the smitten clay signifies ascetic practice and humility; for through these the footprints of the passions running about in the soul become clearly manifest to the mind. QUESTION: How should one understand what was said by the Apostle, "Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's at his coming, then the end"?

ANSWER: "Christ the firstfruits" has come to be through the resurrection, "then those of Christ," those who believed in him, "then the end," the salvation of all the nations through faith. But if you wish to interpret what is said also in relation to each individual, "Christ the firstfruits" is faith in him, "then those of Christ" are the works of faith, "then the end" is to be separated from all things, both sensible and intelligible, and through knowledge to be joined to God. And the last enemy that is destroyed is death, whenever we ourselves also surrender our entire self-determining will to God; then the last enemy is also destroyed; and it is called death because God is life, and what is opposed to life is reasonably called death. QUESTION: What does the bow mean which God set in the cloud as a covenant with the human race? ANSWER: Since the bow is four-colored, it signifies the flesh of the Lord, which came to be from the four elements according to us and has no cause of composition, just as neither does the

The bow. He placed it in the cloud, that is, in the world; and the world is called a cloud because of the wrath of God, or rather the penalty of death. For sometimes "cloud" is taken in a good sense, as gently watering and casting shade from the heat, and sometimes also in the sense of wrath, as because of its rushing and violent nature it overturns and rains hail. In this sense, then, he says that the bow is placed in the cloud, that is, the incarnation of the Lord in the world of wrath, so that the human race might no longer be flooded by the waters of wickedness. And it is a bow for this reason, that we may know that the Lord's reconciliation with us is a war against our enemies and adversaries, or that the Lord's war against the enemy has become reconciliation for us. QUESTION: For what reason does the law forbid eating any blood of beasts and the rest? ANSWER: It calls "beasts" not only the untamed ones, but also the tame ones that are unclean under the law, such as the donkey and the pig and the like; and these are passions of wickedness more violent and untamed. It is not right, then, to employ these for the strengthening of our wickedness. But since blood is taken for the sustenance of life, and often also for anger because of murder, it suggests that we should understand that we must place our whole life before God and live not for ourselves but for God, as the law says, "you shall pour out the blood before the altar," or also that we should not keep the spirited part of the soul serving our own defense or our own passion, but only for holding fast to God and divine things with courage and intensity.

QUESTION: What is the horned bull according to the law, and why, though it is irrational, is it put to death? ANSWER: A horned bull is one who possesses zeal contrary to reason, as though for God, and uses it for defense against others. Such a passion must therefore be put to death, lest, having struck many, it kill them and cause its own master, that is, the soul, to share the danger. QUESTION: What is Joseph's many-colored tunic, and what does the fulfillment in the dream of the father's and brothers' bowing down signify? ANSWER: Every Israel, that is, "a mind that sees God," makes for his own son Joseph, that is, for the one born according to God, a many-colored tunic, that is, the ethical manner of life woven with the varied diversity of the virtues. To such a Joseph—for the name is interpreted as "addition"—father and mother and brothers bow down; for to everyone who adds and increases the measures of virtue and knowledge, the natural law and the nurturing sense bow down, submitting together with their natural and sensory principles. But since Joseph is also taken to refer to the Lord, God and the Father is reasonably said to make for his own and natural Son a many-colored tunic, namely the body he took from us for our sake, adorned with the divine virtues, as it is said in the Psalms, "but a body you prepared for me," which his brothers according to the flesh, the Jews, stripped off and defiled with the blood of his passion. And his father and mother and the twelve brothers bowed down to him, that is, the law and the worship and those from the twelve tribes who believed.

QUESTION: What does the pillar of cloud that led by day and the pillar of fire that gave light by night signify? ANSWER: By both, the Word of God is signified. For to those who journey by practice, refreshing them from the heat of temptations, he becomes a pillar of cloud; and to those who journey by knowledge, giving light and clearing away the mist of ignorance, he becomes a pillar of fire. QUESTION: What does the manna signify, and what does it mean that it bred worms in those who gathered it without sufficiency? ANSWER: The manna signifies the Word of God, which adapts itself fittingly to all through practice and knowledge and nourishes the soul. Whenever, then, someone uses it as is due and according to reason—that is, pursues the mean of the virtues, avoiding alike their excesses and deficiencies—this person gathers the manna sufficiently. But whenever someone uses the Word not as is due but in excess—for it is good to illustrate what is said from a single virtue: whenever someone pursuing chastity flees licentiousness but judges marriage abominable—then the word of chastity has already bred worms in him through the immoderation of excess, and not only bred worms but also brought forth maggots, that is, having generated other passions.

QUESTION: What is the meaning of the woman who is struck and miscarries, and that the law directs that if the child comes out fully formed, the one who struck her is to give "life for life," but if it comes out unformed, he is only fined? ANSWER: According to the letter we understand it thus: since murder pertains to the body—for the soul is never murdered, being immortal—therefore what is not fully formed into human shape does not bring the danger of death, or only a small penalty; but if the human image has been completed, such a one is reasonably exacted as for the murder of a perfected human being. But according to spiritual contemplation we understand this: that whoever causes a soul that has conceived the divine word and has formed the seed of virtue through habit to stumble, and makes it cast away such a formation of teaching, is guilty of death; but whoever causes a soul to stumble that has received the seed of the word but has not formed it through habit and activity is worthy of rebuke. QUESTION: What do the "six cities of refuge" signify, and why were three given in the land of promise, and the other three outside? ANSWER: Since the tribe of Gad, because it possessed many cattle, received its cities outside the land of promise, from these the law consecrated three for the involuntary manslayer to flee to, and the other three in the land of promise. This, then, is signified according to the manner of spiritual interpretation:

Since there are three ways in which we sin without deliberate intent—through the act of tyranny, through deceit, and through ignorance—the one caught in these must, before the attendant passion pursue and kill such a person by making him sin with deliberate intent, flee: the one sinning from tyranny to the city of self-control, the one from deceit to the city of experience and noble cunning, and the one from ignorance to the city of learning. These were assigned to the practical, because of their fertility and suitability for the grazing of cattle; for the practical life is fertile in virtues and is the shepherd of the more beast-like. The inner cities were assigned to the contemplative; for since the contemplative is occupied with three things—ethical, natural, and theological knowledge—the one who commits involuntary murder, that is, who applies himself without experience, must, when in ethical teaching he moves anger and desire contrary to reason, flee to the city of gentleness (for the end of ethical philosophy is gentleness); and the one who errs in natural contemplation and applies himself without understanding must flee to the city of knowledge; and the one who errs in theology must flee to the city of faith, lest the passion attendant upon ignorance prevail and destroy the one who partakes of it. But what is the meaning of "until the great high priest dies," that such a one must remain and then return to his inherited land, it is fitting to consider. The "great high priest" is our Lord Jesus Christ.

When, then, we come to perfect dispassion and no longer bring to him anything of this world, whether words or thoughts, and simply when we have come beyond sense and conception and "no longer know Christ according to the flesh," then the great high priest has died for us, no longer receiving from us worship from any of the things that have come to be; and thereafter we are restored to our inherited land, that is, to the land in God himself, in which are the principles of the virtues. QUESTION: What are the rods that Jacob, having peeled them, placed in the watering troughs, and who is Rachel who stole the idols, and what is the terebinth in which Jacob hid these things? ANSWER: Every Jacob—that is, "supplanter"—peels the rods, that is, making the principles of beings pure of the material forms that lie upon them, places them in the watering troughs, that is, in the habit of knowledge, so that those who are taught like sheep by the teaching, drinking from it, may be stamped in imitation of it. Every soul, then, that has been taught in this way steals the idols of its own father—of him who formerly gave birth to it badly through evil. And the idols are not things that exist naturally in the things seen, but forms fashioned as idols "from the evil father, the devil," for deception; these the one who, according to the Apostle, takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ steals well. And he hides them in the camels' packs; understand the camel here as the body, because of its crookedness and because the camel, imprinting its footprints entirely on the earth, signifies our body that has become crooked and passionate from transgression.

The "saddles" are the various modes of ascetic practice, upon which the soul, sitting mounted, escapes the father of wickedness who searches out and seeks the idols devised by him for deception; these idols the soul, through the lofty spiritual interpretation and contemplation of them, has well torn away from him and hidden in the saddles of self-control that press upon our body. But when it comes into the land of promise, that is, into perfect knowledge, then it is commanded also to take these off—that is, the things well stolen for our spiritual ascent, whether the more ethical modes like a garment, or the natural principles heard from them like earrings. For these the discerning mind, having taken, hid in the terebinth, that is, in the mystery of the cross; for all practice and knowledge is hidden in it. And the cross is likened to a terebinth because in winter the tree is altogether unpleasant, but in spring it is very fragrant and very pleasant; so too the cross of the Lord in the present life seems to have a form of contempt, but in the life to come it sends forth a beauty of great fragrance and glory.

QUESTION: What does the story concerning Judah and Tamar mean? ANSWER: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who became "according to the flesh" from the tribe of Judah and came in the way of life that leads to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," found in the way of error the Church of the Gentiles, which had played the harlot "after other gods," and having joined himself to her he gave her a staff and a cord and a ring, that is, the mortification through the cross, the pious opinion concerning beings, and the grace of the Spirit, and, simply put, practical, natural, and theological knowledge. QUESTION: Of Saint Cyril of Alexandria concerning Naboth and Ahab. ANSWER: The things concerning Naboth are referred to Christ; and the vineyard is Israel, according to Isaiah; and Ahab is a type of the leaders of Israel, who wished to have it as a garden of vegetables, watering it with a muddy overthrow; but Christ, holding the person of Naboth, did not wish to give it as a paternal inheritance; whence the intelligible Jezebel, that is, the synagogue, having slandered him, put him to death.

QUESTION: In whose person are Jephthah and his daughter to be understood? ANSWER: Jephthah is understood in the person of the Lord, and his daughter in the person of his all-immaculate flesh. For just as Jephthah was born of a harlot and was driven out by his own people, and going out he made war and conquered his adversaries, promising God to bring to sacrifice the one who met him from his own household, so too the Lord, who came forth without sin according to the flesh from our nature that had played the harlot, and became the sower of his own flesh, was driven out by the Jews who seemed to be his own, and having won the war on our behalf, he brought his own flesh to God and the Father; for Jephthah is interpreted as "the opening of God." QUESTION: What does the passage in Proverbs mean, "In slothfulness the beam shall be brought low, and in idleness of hands the house shall drip"? ANSWER: The beam is understood as the natural powers of the soul; for just as beams, when neglected and bent by the weight laid upon them, fall down, so too the natural powers of the soul, when not cared for through the study of the divine oracles, being bent by the weight of voluntary and involuntary temptations, fall down toward sensible things. And "in idleness of hands the house shall drip" means that when the soul, having no practice of good works, receives through the senses the impressions of material things like drops, it drives away the grace that dwells within it. QUESTION: What does the marriage at Cana mean, and what are the mysteries accomplished in it?

ANSWER: Cana is interpreted as “possession,” and Galilee as “revelation.” Every mind, then, that has a revelatory habit of divine things, when it is joined to virtue or also to sense, needs the mediation of the Word, so that virtue, having been joined to the knowledge of the mind, may become concordant with it, and sense, submitting, may come under the authority of the mind, which naturally orders it. But since the gnostic habit was made watery through the diffusion of pleasure from the disobedience that had occurred, the Word came, restoring to the earth the firmness that was from the beginning. And the mother who asks is faith, or also humility, or also scientific wisdom; for each of these is naturally disposed to give birth to the supremely God-like habit in human beings. And “My hour has not yet come” indicates that the teaching precedes the signs; for because of those who disbelieve the teaching, the display of signs takes place, but he had not yet taught there and taken experience of their disbelief; for this reason he said, “My hour has not yet come.” And the servants signify the prophets, who [restored] the nature that had been emptied through transgression through their own teaching *** and the Lord, having come, changed it into spiritual knowledge and led nature up to what is above nature through faith. For she [faith] holds the person of the Mother of God; for just as the Mother of God, existing according to creation from the Lord and her Son, herself gave birth to him according to the flesh, so also faith, existing from the Word, through the activity of practice brings the Word into activity.

The water jars, since there are six, signify the productive habit of good things, because the Lord also created the visible world in six days. The steward of the feast is the discerning law; therefore it says: “Every man first sets out the good wine and then the lesser”; for the pure and discerning law, in discerning, says, “the mind ought first to run back in knowledge to the Cause and then thus to the things after him, which Adam did not do,” or also that “the teaching of the Lord ought to have been desired first, before the law and the prophets.” QUESTION: How should we understand the Gospel saying that “among those born of women none has arisen greater than John, yet the lesser than he in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”? ANSWER: Whoever humbles himself more than John—for this is the “lesser”—that one is greater than John. Or also otherwise: since John is believed to have attained the knowledge here attainable through contemplation, the small and last knowledge that will appear in the future state is greater than that here. Or also that the one who is foremost among men as a theologian is lesser than the last among angels. Or also that the one who holds the last rank in the evangelical conduct is greater than the one who is foremost in legal righteousness. QUESTION: What, then, do the unclean birds and land animals and water creatures in the law signify by the universal principle?

ANSWER: We have supposed that the birds indicate the general passion of vainglory and pride, divided into various modes according to the differences of the birds. But the land animals in general indicate the passion of avarice, split into differences according to the difference of each animal's character. And the water creatures in general indicate the passion of gluttony, because of their slipperiness and sluggishness and their wallowing in the earth and being phlegm—the fish unclean according to the law; but those having fins and scales the law defines as clean, signifying by the one having fins on its belly the one who has a lofty reason suspended over pleasure, not permitting him to walk upon his belly, and by the one having fins on its back the one who by endurance of what comes upon him manfully swims across the sea of this life, and by the one having fins on its tail the one who cleverly escapes the grasp of the hunting demons, and by the one having fins on its head on either side the one who secures his contemplative mind from every side. QUESTION: For what reason does the Scripture say that Esau was hated by God before he was born, but Jacob was loved?

ANSWER: According to the letter, it is clear that God, who knows all things before their coming into being, knew of what sort each of the two would be according to their free choice, and knowing this, he already hated the one and loved the other. But if one examines the matter at hand by way of spiritual interpretation, every mind is hated by God in the manner of Esau—hairy with worldly matter and rough with forbidden thoughts; and every Jacob is loved—a smooth mind, simple, immaterial, and single in its disposition. And in another sense, every Isaac has two sons, who before they were born, the one is hated and the other loved; and these are "the law of the spirit" and "the mind of the flesh"; and before they come into activity, the one is loved and the other hated. And in another sense, Isaac is taken as a type of God; he had two sons, the written law and the spiritual law; and the one was hairy and rough, the other smooth. For the law had many and countless observances, and it was hated according to Isaiah, for "my soul hates your feasts and sabbaths"; but the other was loved, for it was smooth; for the Gospel is smooth and concise, for it requires sincere faith toward God and a good conscience toward one's neighbor. [On the same matter, in another sense] Or, according to the interpretation of the names, every "despiser" and base person in matters of piety is hated by God—for this is what Esau means; and every "supplanter" of evil is loved, which is what Jacob means. QUESTION: Why is it that Abraham saw three angels, but Lot two?

ANSWER: The answer: Abraham, being perfected and having transcended things visible and illuminated with the knowledge of the Holy Trinity and Unity—for which reason he also receives the alpha as an addition to his name, as one who alone in knowledge drew near to the One alone—rightly sees three angels. But Lot, not yet having transcended things seen by knowledge, but worshipping the divine from things seen and imagining nothing beyond these, nor having become beyond the two, matter and form, from which things visible consist, nor having grasped in knowledge the account concerning Unity and Trinity—for this reason he sees two angels. Hence, when the angels urged him on and pressed him to be saved on the mountain, he shrank back from going up the mountain, but begged to reach Sigor, that is, the lesser knowledge; for Sigor is interpreted as "little." The angels who cast Lot out are taken to refer to the two Testaments, the written and the evangelical law; for through these a person is cast out and flees the error concerning sensible things and escapes the conflagration that comes from them. He has his companion, sense perception, going up with him; if therefore he turns back to the things behind, he becomes a pillar of salt, set forth as an example to all, bearing the unchangeable disposition of salt-like wickedness. And if he also brings wine from Sodom, which signifies the preconceptions of impure thoughts, his two daughters make such a one drunk so as to conceive; the first daughter, then, is desire; for when the mind stirs up the first memories of preconceptions, desire immediately consorts and conceives assent; immediately, then, the second also comes; and it is the

Pleasure; uniting with it, she conceives the activity. For this reason such conceptions are accursed, and they do not enter "into the assembly of the Lord until the third and fourth and tenth generation." QUESTION: Why ever, when there are many graver insults, does the Lord in the Gospels declare the one who calls his brother "fool" liable to Gehenna, but says that the one who says "raca" is subject to the council? ANSWER: The name "fool" they say is taken for the senseless and unintelligent, while "raca" is translated in the Hebrew tongue as "spat upon." Since, then, the name "fool" is spoken of the godless and unbelieving, according to "The fool said in his heart: 'There is no God,'" and according to Moses saying, "This people is foolish and not wise," whoever calls his brother—one of the same faith—godless and an idolater, or a heretic and unbeliever, this man says "fool" and justly becomes liable to Gehenna. But whoever says "raca," that is, "spat upon and unclean," this man slanders his brother's life and reasonably is subject to a lighter penalty. QUESTION: What does the story in Judges mean, concerning the Levite and the concubine whom the men of the tribe of Benjamin abused and killed? ANSWER: Since the sacred mind, which came from God in the beginning, put to death the natural law through transgression, it took the concubine, that is, the legal worship, which is not natural but introduced from without; then, when the natural impulses rose up like wolves, they killed her too.

But the sacred mind, indignant, dismembers her and sends her to every border of Israel, to the twelve tribes—that is, it divides the legal commandments and assigns each one to the fitting power of the soul, so that all may be stirred together toward the destruction of the thoughts that have fallen into disorder. Now the powers of the soul are three: the rational, the desiring, the spirited. And these need the four generic virtues; for without these there is neither destruction of vice nor achievement of virtue. Then, in order that the things rightly judged may also come into activity, they need the five senses as well, so that the number twelve may reach its fulfillment, the number that marks out all Israel. Or the number twelve also signifies time and nature; for time is hebdomadic, while nature is pentadic. And the fact that many of the Israelites fell in the war and afterward the few conquered signifies that the one who struggles against sin must be pure from every passion, since as long as he is mastered by pride or vainglory or conceit or boastfulness, or condemns others, or is entangled in any other passion whatsoever, while he wars, ostensibly against the passions, he is found ineffective and falls; but he must be pure from all things and then so array himself, and so the Lord grants the victory. And the fact that Israel was comforted concerning the remnant of Benjamin who fled to the rock Remmon signifies that the one fighting against the passions must not destroy the natural power together with the passions, but must preserve the things that are according to nature—

For example, someone struggles against the passion of gluttony, not needing to abolish entirely the necessary food that sustains life, but rather the luxurious and rabid way of life. And to flee to the rock signifies the faith in Christ, or the firm habit of the practical life, which easily puts to death the disorder of the passions; for Rhemmon is interpreted as "exaltation of death." QUESTION 42 What is it that the Apostle wrote in his letter to Timothy: "Be instant in season, out of season"? ANSWER Whether someone is entangled in evil, says he, and it is timely for him to be taught, instruct him through teaching in the flight from evil and the choice of the good; or whether someone is not entangled in evil, which seems untimely, instruct such a one in knowledge, says he, securing him against the coming uprising of temptations. QUESTION What does the parable of the ten virgins mean? ANSWER Since man has five intellectual senses that apprehend intelligible things, and five bodily senses that apprehend sensible things, the parable seems to hint at each individual man. Whoever therefore has the lamp of practical virtue, and also has the oil of knowledge enriching it—that is, his actions performed with knowledge—this one, having subjected the body and joined its senses to the intellectual senses, has become five prudent virgins. But whoever seems to pursue the practical life without having the oil of knowledge, but practices it foolishly either for empty glory or for gluttony or for love of money, this one, having turned the intellectual senses toward sensible and temporal things—

and having stripped these away from the earth, he has reasonably become five foolish virgins, being known from sensible things alone. QUESTION: What does the paradise planted toward the east signify in the anagogical sense? ANSWER: I think the paradise signifies the heart of man, planted in the east of the knowledge of God. In the very midst of it God planted "the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." And "the tree of life" is taken to mean the principle of intelligible things, while "the knowledge of good and evil" means the principle of sensible things; for this latter has knowledge of good and evil. For to those who, from the beauty of created things, conceive of the Creator and through them are led up to the cause of these things, it is knowledge of good; but to those who remain in sensation alone and are deceived by the surface appearance of sensible things, turning the whole desire of the soul toward matter, it is knowledge of evil. But if someone, being at a loss, should object: "How can this be taken of one man, so that the knowledge of one thing becomes at one time good and at another time evil?" — to him it must be said that, since it has been stated that the intelligible and the sensible world are the two trees, and man partakes of both, being composed of soul and body, whenever the ruling part of the soul inclines toward sensation and the body, behold, he has partaken of the tree and has come to know by experience good and evil — good, in that the body is naturally pleased by the enjoyment of sensible things; but evil, in that the soul begins to be corrupted by the inferior and its natural powers are weakened.

QUESTION: What does the fish shown by the Lord after the resurrection, lying on the coals, signify? ANSWER: The fish signifies human nature swimming in the confusion of the passions, which the Lord, through his ineffable love for humanity, came down into the sea of this life and drew up, and having roasted it with the fire of the Holy Spirit and melted away all the clamminess of the passions, he made it food for himself and for the apostles. For the Word always hungers for our salvation together with those who follow him; whence, in imitation of him, they also chose to die for our salvation. QUESTION: What does Zacchaeus the tax collector in the Gospel signify, and what are the things concerning him? ANSWER: Zacchaeus the tax collector is the one who taxes God's creation for his own enjoyment. He hears the Word as he passes by and climbs up a sycamore tree whenever the word of repentance comes to be in him; for it persuades him to get above the mindset of the flesh—for this is the sycamore tree—so that from there he may easily behold the Word and hear him say, "Hurry, come down," that is, "If you desire to receive me wholly in your house, do not think it enough merely to get above the fleshly mindset, but also make your journey with me through the virtues.

But "I repay fourfold" signifies this: either that he uses each of the four generic virtues for the accomplishment of good works, or that he sets aside from himself the activity and the assent and the preconceptions of memories and the bare fantasies—the activity through self-control, the assent through attentiveness and the guarding of thoughts, the preconceptions through well-tuned reading, and the fantasies through earnest prayer. Or it means the practical, the natural, the theological, and the prayerful; for the prayerful is higher than the theological; for the one theologizes the divine from created things, while the other unites the soul to God unknowingly and ineffably. QUESTION: What does what is written in the song of Moses mean, "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah," and what is the wine which the Nazirite must not drink, and what is the vinegar and the strong drink and the grape and the pressed grapes? ANSWER: The vine of Sodom is unreason; for Sodom is interpreted as "turning away," that is, "blindness," and Gomorrah as "provocation"; for from unreason comes the provocation of sin and the ecstatic drunkenness of the wine of evil. Hence the word enjoins the Nazirite to abstain from such wine.

Nazirite" is interpreted as "fenced round"; for the one who has been secured by the law of God ought to abstain from this wine of irrationality, but also from the grape, that is, from anger, and from the raisin, that is, from the remembrance of wrongs—for this is the aging of anger—but also from vinegar, the grief that comes from failure in matters of pleasure, and from sikera, the sweetness that comes from the defense of neighbors; for all sikera is sweet, but not even the grape-skins, the inventive and constitutive forms of evil. But such a person does not even shear the hair, that is, the various reasonings that constitute the mind and provide it with adornment. For this reason Samson—interpreted, when written without the rough breathing, as "likening a likeness," but with the rough breathing as "their sun"—when he rested on the thigh of Delilah, that is, when he cast himself upon the passible part of pleasure, was deprived of his hair, that is, of the reasonings, which give him strength against the passions, and became a plaything of demons, blinded in both eyes, I mean of practical and contemplative knowledge. QUESTION: What is it according to the Apostle, "having your loins girded about in truth," and the rest of the weapons of the spiritual battle array? ANSWER:

Gregory, who is surnamed of theology, well interpreted the phrase "having girded your loins in truth," saying, "perhaps because the desiring faculty is restrained by the contemplative." And "having put on the breastplate of righteousness" means that since righteousness is a disposition that distributes equality, the three powers of the soul within us must be equally balanced, and through these the four generic virtues must be established with equal sway; for this is righteousness. And through prudence the rational faculty, moved toward the examination of beings, binds reason with reason like a chain-link breastplate; likewise one must secure oneself with temperance and the rest, joining the various principles into one, so as not to be wounded by the arrows sent by the enemy. And the shield of faith one must understand as the mortification of Jesus carried about in the body; for the shield, made of wood and hide, hints to us the mystery of the cross and the mortification in the body; for to those who possess these things they become a shield of faith. And "having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace" must be understood thus: since we have supposed the "Gospel of peace" to be the gift of impassibility, the Apostle exhorts the one who has not yet attained to it to shod the bases of the soul, for the preparation of such a gift, with the deadness of the body; for thus he remains unstruck by the thorn of the passions and unwounded by the serpents and scorpions, I mean the evil thoughts. And the "helmet" is "of salvation," namely hope.

For since the visible helmet is the casque, having its construction from bronze, and bronze is sturdy and shining and does not admit of diminution, and the head signifies faith, one must understand that what safeguards faith is hope; for this, being firm and undiminished, does not allow faith to be overlooked. For it hopes all things and does not depart from its confidence in God, but even if, according to Job, it seems to the many to be despised like poison, yet inwardly such a one is shining and bright, rejoicing in hope. And the "sword of the Spirit" is discernment, "which divides the better from the worse"; the Apostle enjoins us always to hold this in our hands, that is, through action always to wield it as active; for as the sword of iron, always handled, is fearful to adversaries, but if it is laid aside and left idle, it is consumed by rust, so too discernment, if it is not joined to action, is unprofitable and useless and is consumed by evil. QUESTION: What does Doek the Syrian mean, who killed the three hundred and fifty priests? ANSWER: Doek the Syrian is "the proud thought" or "the surge of the passions," according to the interpretation of the name. And fittingly such a Saul feeds the mules, the barren habit of virtue. And he is opposed to David, I mean the thought of humility; for David, according to one interpretation of his name, is interpreted as "despised.

This one kills the priests of Nob, that is, the divine and propitiatory thoughts that sit in virtue; for Nob is interpreted as "sitting in," and the three hundred and fifty, since through the senses we come into contact with the creation of God that was made in six days, and marveling exceedingly at its Creator we glorify him through the scientific knowledge of thoughts; and six times fifty makes the number three hundred; and again, fulfilling the ten commandments of the law through the senses, we complete the fifty. The proud thought, then, or even the surge of the passions, naturally kills the thoughts that from these minister to God and sit in virtue. QUESTION: How should one understand what is said in the Creed, "made flesh of the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin"? ANSWER: Some of the saints say that the soul was cast in from the Holy Spirit after the manner of a man's seed, but the flesh was formed from the virgin blood. QUESTION: What is the saying from Proverbs, "He who puts hand into hand shall not go unpunished"? ANSWER: He who mingles a base action with a virtuous action "shall not go unpunished." QUESTION: From the same: "Do not stand surety for your friend; for if you do not have" the means to repay, "they will take the bed from under your ribs." ANSWER: He calls the body a friend because of the soul's attachment to it; this, he says, do not stand surety for, that is, do not deem it worthy of indulgence, nor, when it ought to repay the labors for virtue, allow it to pursue ease.

For if the mind, applying itself to ascetic practice, begins to give way, not finding the reason for virtue to render, the demons take hold even of the ascetic practices in which it had rested from it; for the bed signifies this. QUESTION: What does the saying of Isaiah signify: "Who measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with a handful"? ANSWER: Since, according to the prophet Habakkuk, "the virtue of the Lord covered the heavens"—that is, his conduct in the flesh covered the virtue of the angels in the heavens—he himself by practice (for this is the hand) measured all knowledge, figuratively called water; for the nature united to the Word has comprehended all knowledge. And the heaven with a span: calling "heaven" the higher reason of things that exist, and "span" the knowledge of sensible things extended through practice, because the hand has five fingers; these reasons, then, the Lord measured out when he became man, summing up all things in himself. And "all the earth with a handful" signifies this: that the Lord so enclosed his own flesh, which was earthly, that he did not allow even the natural and blameless passions to be active.

QUESTION: Who is Hezekiah, and what is the illness, and what is the cake of figs by which the wound was healed? ANSWER: Hezekiah is taken as a figure of humanity; the wound in the thigh signifies the law of sin, because the generative parts lie adjacent to the thigh; and the cake of figs is the life-giving flesh of the Lord, which has no hole of sin, from which healing has come to us for the blow of transgression. QUESTION: What does the iron that fell into the Jordan from one of the sons of the prophets signify, which the prophet Elisha, casting in a piece of wood, caused to float up? ANSWER: Irenaeus says that the prophet showed “by deed,” in bringing up the iron, that “the solid Word of God, which we, having carelessly cast away, do not find, we shall receive back again through the economy of the wood. And that the Word of God is like an axe, John the Baptist teaches, saying, ‘And already the axe is laid to the root of the trees,’ and Jeremiah also, saying, ‘The Word of the Lord is like a axe cutting a rock.’

QUESTION: What does the number of the 153 fish in the Gospel signify? ANSWER: Since, beginning from one and proceeding by addition up to seventeen, you complete this number, it signifies that through the fulfillment of the ten commandments and the seven operations of the Holy Spirit those who are saved enter the kingdom of heaven, or also those saved through faith in the Holy Trinity and the hope of things to come; for the number fifty is beyond the hebdomadal time, and the operation through the commandments, which is signified by the number one hundred, and those deemed worthy of the kingdom. QUESTION: Who are the men and the women and the serpents for whom the Lord, according to Gregory of Nyssa, made the three days in Hades? ANSWER: There are three powers of the soul: the rational, the irascible, the appetitive. The men, then, are taken for the rational, the women for the appetitive, and the serpents for the irascible. These three powers, then, are restored in the age to come by knowledge; and for their sake the Lord also accepted the life-giving passion and the descent into Hades.

QUESTION: From Proverbs, how are we to understand "a discerning and sharp man must stand before kings"? ANSWER: The word intends that the man sharp in the practical and contemplative in the intellectual should stand before the three laws—the natural, the written, and the law of grace—so that, guided by them, he may rightly direct practical, natural, and theological philosophy. QUESTION: From the same: "Seven times shall the righteous fall and rise again." ANSWER: Here one must understand the righteous as the only truly righteous one, our Lord Jesus Christ. Since, then, he is said both to fall and to rise in us, as having in his love for mankind accepted all that is ours, our nature fell seven times: first in the transgression of the forefather; second, the murder of Cain that was dared, when he first by nature innovated killing; third, in the generation at the time of Noah, when the Spirit of God did not remain because they were flesh; fourth, at the building of the tower; fifth, in the generation at the time of Abraham, from which he alone was well-pleasing to God; sixth, at the time of Moses, when the generation in his day plunged into such godlessness that he was sent from God to aid such impiety; seventh, in the generation of the prophets, which surpassed all the preceding generations in the measure of wickedness. Since, then, as has been said, our nature fell seven times,

Moved by ineffable love for humanity, the Lord raised this up, uniting that very nature to himself in hypostasis. QUESTION: Whom does the Apostle mean when he says, writing to the Ephesians, "those who had previously hoped in Christ"? ANSWER: Any one of the saints before the coming of the Lord, practicing virtue in whatever way, even if he did not know the whole mystery of the economy, nevertheless, being moved naturally in part, hoped and expected that the one who made nature would himself also restore it when it had been corrupted. QUESTION: From the same: "that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power." ANSWER: "The hope of the calling" is freedom from passion through action in accordance with the Lord's own manner of life; "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" is the riches that come through knowledge of the truth; and "the surpassing greatness of his power" is the deification that will be granted to those who are worthy, since it is beyond nature and by grace makes its partakers gods from men. QUESTION: From the same Apostle: "For we are his workmanship, created for good works.

ANSWER: This was said by the Apostle, I believe, because God, having made man in the beginning, and man having fallen through transgression, restored him again through his incarnate visitation and re-established him in his original state. QUESTION: From the same: "He who made both one and broke down the middle wall of the barrier, the enmity in his flesh," and the rest. ANSWER: Whether he made the two peoples one by joining them, or joined things earthly and heavenly—for he joined these too, though they were set apart from one another—or whether you take it of each individual: he joined soul and body, which are always at variance with each other; for he subjected "the mind of the flesh to the law of the Spirit." "And having broken down the middle wall of the barrier": he called the middle wall either the flesh, or things perceptible, or the legal worship, and the barrier he called sin; for these, like a wall, when we used them neither knowingly nor with spiritual knowledge, walled us off from God and subjected us to sin. "The enmity in his flesh": calling sin enmity; for it is this that made us enemies of God. "Having abolished the law of commandments in dogmas": the law of the commandment is "You shall not murder" and the rest; but he who naturally applies himself to the commandment and knows the meaning of the commandment knows that one must abstain not only from bodily murder but from every passion that corrupts nature; for envy and slander and all the passions are destructive of nature. The Lord, then, having come, abolished the law "in dogmas," that is, "he stopped it," saying, "It was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' but I say to you:

Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment," but not only by teaching but also by doing. And the sacrifices according to the law, having established them as doctrine, he abolished, having prepared them to be understood spiritually; or rather, showing the many to be a type of the mystery concerning him, he brought them to an end. QUESTION From Proverbs: "Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? Who has bound up water in a garment? Who has grasped the ends of the earth? What is his name?" ANSWER Since in the beginning man was formed for this purpose, to ascend by desire to the Cause and then thus to descend to the creatures that come after the Cause and, having well surveyed them by knowledge, to lead them back up to their Maker, but he did not do this, but before being lifted up to God he inclined downward toward matter, our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, came and "recapitulated all things in himself" and showed for what purpose the first man was brought into being. For according to the assumption of human nature, he first ascended, being moved toward the Cause, then he also descended according to his divinity, putting on the "form of a servant," and again he ascended according to both natures in the assumption after the resurrection from the dead. Thus we too must first be lifted up to God and, sharpening the soul, stretch its whole desire toward him, and then thus descend to the investigation of beings and survey each one as it is by nature, and again through them be led back up by contemplative knowledge to their Creator. Such a person gathers "winds in his bosom";

For he gathers into the bosom of his own heart the various principles of beings, which are figuratively called winds. Since, then, the bosom is the navel, in which they say the first offspring receives its beginning, one must understand that in the fertile and contemplative part of the heart, gathering the various principles, he brings forth one principle of God; for the many principles of beings are gathered into one. But he also crushes water in a garment; water, as you will find Scripture saying in many places, is temptations; these, suffering them in his own body or also in the ethical part of philosophy with endurance, he crushes, sending them away without effect. And he holds also the ends of the earth, not permitting even the natural passions of the body to be borne along irrationally. QUESTION From Isaiah: "And those who are left shall be more precious than unalloyed gold." ANSWER Those who have been tested through temptations and left behind for greater experience, like Job, Joseph, and those like them—these are more precious than "unalloyed gold," more precious than Adam, who was fashioned upright like gold but was not tried by fire through temptations and did not endure.

QUESTION: What does "the coal and the green stone" in Genesis mean? ANSWER: Both signify the Lord: the coal, as being illuminating and burning, because the Lord is the giver of knowledge and the consumer of wickedness; and the green stone, since it is strengthening to the power of sight, also itself signifies the Lord, as the one who produces the tone of the soul's contemplative faculty. QUESTION: What does the blinding of Samson mean in the way of contemplation? ANSWER: Samson is interpreted as "sun," and Dalila as "impoverished." Samson, then, fell upon the thigh of Dalila, that is, upon the passive part of pleasure, and became impoverished of the virtue that enlightened him. Then he brought a barber and a razor and shaved off his seven locks. The barber is the devil, and the razor is deceit, according to what is written: "you made deceit like a sharpened razor," and the seven locks are the seven energies of the Spirit, according to the prophet Isaiah. When, therefore, his hairs began to grow, that is, when he came to repentance for what he had done, then the little child leads him by the hand, that is, the law of God, and brings him to the pillars on which the house of the foreigners was supported, which are anger and desire, by which every foreign-minded intellect is captured. And Samson's dying together with the foreigners signifies the consummation, that is, the mortification, of the fleshly mindset.

QUESTION: What does it mean that Samson himself, having killed the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey? ANSWER: Here Samson bears the type of the true Nazirite, Christ; for he, having taken our flesh, dry of every sin, destroyed the Philistines, that is, the demons. And that Samson was bound by his own people and handed over to the Philistines has been clearly fulfilled in the Lord; for those who seemed to be his own, the Jews, bound him and handed him over to the nations. But also from the body of the Lord, as from the jawbone, gushed forth the water of knowledge, of which he thirsted when he said, "that they may know you, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." But also each Samson, that is, each Nazirite, through the jawbone, that is, through self-control of the body, which is of a different kind from the soul, just as the donkey is of the Gentile portion under the law, kills the passions through the practical life. Then he also thirsts for divine knowledge, and through the invocation, from the virtuous action itself, divine knowledge is sent down to him, watering him and refreshing him. And if he is also confined within the walls of Gaza, that is, by things perceptible to the senses, on the shoulders of the practical life he takes up the gates, that is, the senses, and leads them up to the mountain of lofty knowledge.

QUESTION: For what reason does God command the sons of Israel to destroy the seven nations, but not at all the five satrapies? ANSWER: God, hating all passions that are contrary to nature, commands them to be destroyed; but the natural powers of the five senses he does not will to be abolished, but if ever they are moved contrary to nature, that their activities be put to death. QUESTION: What does it mean that the Gospel says, "Wash your face and anoint your head"? ANSWER: Our face is our life, characterizing, just as the countenance does, what sort of persons we are in the inner man. This, then, the word exhorts us to wash, that is, to cleanse our life from every stain of sins. And the head is our mind, which the word commands us to anoint, that is, to make radiant with divine knowledge. QUESTION 71: What is the Lord's answer when he says, "Tell that fox," speaking about Herod, that "today and tomorrow I perform healings and on the third day I am made perfect"? ANSWER: Herod is interpreted as "leathern"; it is necessary, then, to loathe the fleshly thoughts that wish to draw the mind away from practical virtue, and to say to them, "Today and tomorrow I perform healings and on the third day I am made perfect," that is, I heal my own members first through practice, then also the senses, so as to apply them soundly to things perceptible, and on the third day I am made perfect, receiving perfection in the contemplation of divine knowledge.

QUESTION: What is it that the Apostle means when he says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God"? ANSWER: Flesh is the desire, and blood is the anger; and reasonably, the one who is not pure from these cannot inherit the kingdom of God. QUESTION: What does Mount Sinai in Horeb signify, and what are the mysteries that took place in it? ANSWER: Sinai is interpreted as "temptation," and Horeb as "renewal." It is necessary, then, that the one who aspires to the height of knowledge first be in endurance of temptations and renew himself and sow the fruit of knowledge and righteousness and be purified from every passion, and for three days—that is, the three powers of the soul—be cleansed from every fleshly pleasure, and not take along the female, nor indeed the irrational; the word indicating this, that the one who wishes to become worthy of the divine voice must have nothing effeminate nor irrational, but clothed in the bright garments of virtue, ascend the mountain of knowledge. For thus, according to the inspired Moses, through natural contemplation and the peculiarity of time—which signifies the seventy elders—having become and passed beyond the voices and the sounds, the manifestations from things that appear, he brings with himself only Aaron and his two sons Nadab and Abihu, that is, Aaron the reason and his sons anger and desire.

But it is necessary to leave these also behind, like smoke and tempest, and to keep only Aaron—I mean the simple word with respect to understanding—illumined like lightning flashes by the divine illuminations, and then to leave this too outside and to enter into the darkness of ignorance, where all is irrationality and folly. But those of the people who were purified beneath the mountain I think signify the practical, the seventy elders those who pursue natural contemplation, those around Aaron those who pursue theology, and those after the likeness of Moses those who are united to God through negation and ignorance. QUESTION: What is a diapsalma? ANSWER: I think it is either a change from one meaning to another, or a change from one manner of teaching to another. QUESTION: What is the meaning of "It were better for him that a millstone of an ass were hung about his neck and that he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of the little ones to stumble"? ANSWER: By "little ones," I think, he means those who are simple in mind and, through smallness of understanding, are unable to discern the judgments of providence. Whoever, then, causes such as these to stumble, it were better for him to be of the Greek portion, who, like an ass in a mill, are occupied with the motion of the world alone, and that he be cast into the open sea, that is, into the confusion of life. And the apostle Peter also confirms this, saying, "It were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back.

QUESTION: For what reason, after the man who gathered wood on the Sabbath was stoned by the command of God, does he command a fringe of blue thread to be bound to the edges of garments? ANSWER: The one who keeps the Sabbath in practice and knowledge, and then grows slack and begins to gather for himself, like wood, the materials that kindle the passions, or even the one who is knowledgeable but turns to the surface of visible things—such passions are reasonably put to death by the divine words as if by stones. But since God saw the slackness and easy slipping of men, so that, held fast by forgetfulness, they might not fall away from the commandment, he commands a fringe of blue thread to be bound to the edges of garments, so that, looking at it, they may come to remember the commandment. This is the apparent purpose of the law, but the spiritual one, which purifies the depths, is this: since the fringe is from the warp of the garment, this signifies that the faith of practical and ethical philosophy must be attached to the garment—for this is the warp—and, simply put, that faith and practice be interwoven, and that from these knowledge, or wisdom, be bound on in the manner of blue; for wisdom is called wisdom according to those who derive its etymology, which the color of the blue indicates through its darkness. QUESTION: What is the anagogical contemplation concerning Abel and Cain? ANSWER: Cain is taken to mean the mind of the flesh, and Abel to mean mourning, that is, repentance.

When, therefore, the mind has not yet perfectly accomplished the practical habit and is mocked by the mindset of the flesh, and goes out with it into the plain—that is, into the breadth of natural contemplation—it is killed, being unable to pass through the outward appearances of beings but remaining in them. Whoever, then, kills Cain—that is, the mindset of the flesh, which is consent (for he who slays grief consents to evil)—shall be avenged sevenfold, that is, he destroys the seven spirits of wickedness, or also the seven passions of evil that are wrought by them. And the curse of Cain's groaning signifies the uprising of conscience that ever strikes and shakes his mind. QUESTION: What does the story concerning Lamech signify? ANSWER: Some of those educated in divine things say that in the times of Lamech, when there was disorder and anarchy, the strong tyrannized the weak. This Lamech, then, encountering a man with his wife, killed him and took his wife. And encountering also a brother with a sister, he killed him too and took his sister. And the Scripture called the one a man, and the other a young man. These things are so according to the history; but according to contemplation, Lamech is taken as representing the activity of evil. For he killed in us the man—the natural law,

And he took from him the perception; and he killed also the young man, I mean the spiritual law, and took from him the understanding, so that the sower of evil, mingling with these, might cause sin to be brought forth. From this Lamech, therefore, vengeance is exacted seventy times seven, that is, he is punished for the consent and the activity. Whence, when Peter said to the Lord, "How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?" the Lord answered, "Not only until seven times, but until seventy times seven," that is, "to you who repent, you shall forgive not only the small things that come about in consent, but also the activities." QUESTION: What do the molten image and the carved image and the teraphim signify, which they made in the time of Gideon, and what are the earrings and the crescents which Gideon made into an ephod and set up in the gate, and it became a snare to his house? ANSWER: He makes a molten image according to the Scripture who has the types of evil from external preconceptions, and from these melts them down and brings sin into activity; and he makes a carved image who fashions the passion from himself; and he makes a teraphim who possesses the habit of the passions as a vessel; for they say that the teraphim is a vessel of the blood of the sacrificed.

But Gideon's making an ephod from the earrings and the crescents signifies this: that whoever of the teachers, taking a word or a doctrine from each one—for the earrings and crescents are concerning something of the things that appear in creation—and then gathering from all of them one mystical word of contemplation, and setting this forth openly or depositing it in books—for this is the gate—as many as are unable to understand from an infantile mind the mystical and unified meaning of the word are scandalized at the teacher who spoke it. QUESTION: What does the history concerning Gideon himself signify, and the fleece, and the war against the Midianites, and the rest? ANSWER: Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah, is taken to mean the senses; she, conceiving through natural contemplation, gives birth to the natural law. But if she rises up against the mind, as that one did against Sarah—and Sarah is interpreted as "ruling"—the senses are thrust aside, and the mind conceives Isaac, the spiritual law, from whom comes Israel, that is, "the mind that sees God." This one, when he is tyrannized by Midian, that is, by fornication, is handed over by permission for seven years, that is, in the temporal and seasonal passions. "And the sons of Israel," it says, "made for themselves holes and caves in the mountains"; for the mind, when warred upon, seems to devise hardships and toils, but doing these without knowledge, it labors to no profit. "For a man of Israel," it says, "sowed, and Midian and Amalek and the sons of the east came up and destroyed the fruit of the land"; for Amalek is gluttony, and Midian is fornication, and the sons of the east are vainglory.

They destroy all the seed of the heart, which he seems to pursue without knowledge. "And there was not left any substance of life in Israel," he says, from flock and calf and donkey, that is, from the rational, the irascible, and the concupiscible. "And their possessions and their tents went up with their camels, of which there was no number," that is, the various kinds of the passions and their memories and imaginations. "And Israel became poor," he says, "from the face of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord sent out a man, a prophet." For whenever the mind becomes poor of every virtue, and its thoughts cry out to the Lord from repentance, the Lord will send out a word that reminds of the exodus from Egypt, that is, the redemption from the darkness of sins. "And the angel of the Lord came," he says, "and sat under the terebinth," hinting at the mystery of the cross, "and Gideon," he says, "was threshing grain in the winepress," that is, pursuing the practical life together with knowledge; for this is the winepress of wine. "And the angel appeared to him and said to him: 'The Lord is with you, mighty in strength.'" For the one who has subjected and enslaved the passions and has the authority through practice and knowledge according to him, he calls him from his own qualities: "The Lord is with you." And the humility of such a mind is shown from the answer; for he said: "And if the Lord is among us, for what purpose have these evils found us?" "And the angel said to him: 'Go in your strength; by this you shall save Israel,'" that is, in the strength of action and knowledge.

And he said to the angel, 'If I have found favor in your eyes, do not move from here until I come to you.'" "And Gideon went in and prepared a kid of the goats, and took an ephah of fine flour and unleavened cakes, and put the meat in the basket, and put the broth in the pot, and brought it out to him under the terebinth; and the angel said to him, 'Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and place them on that rock, and pour out the broth upon it.' And he did so." For whenever a spiritual thought is sent down to the mind, and the mind finds that it can fit what is fitting to such knowledge through actions that are naturally suited, knowledge does not move away. And bringing out the meat and the unleavened cakes and the broth signifies action together with freedom from vainglory poured around knowledge; for the broth makes this clear. And he commanded these to be placed on the rock; for knowledge and action must be joined to faith in Christ. "And the angel stretched out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat, and fire rose up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel departed from his eyes." For whenever such action and knowledge are perfected by faith, then the fire of the Spirit makes them luminous, and the word of the beginning of knowledge flies up together with them; for no longer does it follow along as before, reminding; for the mind, having been wholly kindled by the light of the Spirit, no longer sits by the things that were begun.

But the fleece signifies the Jewish worship; for the dew came upon it, for it had the ordinances of worship. But "upon all the earth dryness"; for all the nations were dry of the knowledge of God. And the wringing out of the water into the basin signified the coming grace of baptism; for the Old Testament had in many things types of holy baptism; these, then, having been wrung out into the basin of baptism, showed forth to us the mystery itself. And the second time, and again, that the fleece had dryness and all the earth dew, signified the grace of the Gospel; for all the earth was filled with the dew of the Gospel; but the people of the Jews was left dry of all faith. And in the individual sense: the fleece is ethical philosophy wrung out into the basin of knowledge; and that all the earth has the dew signifies that after the right accomplishment of ethical philosophy, all the earth of the heart is filled with divine knowledge. But if one is exalted on the mere right accomplishment of morals without the knowledge that grows from it, such a one has the earth of his own heart without moisture, and appears to be adorning the outer tent like a fleece.

But Gideon's returning to the camp with the ten thousand who went out signifies those who out of cowardice flee the toilsome labor of virtue, betraying their senses and their activities. And the twenty thousand who bow down on their belly and drink this water are those who have betrayed sensible things along with their senses; for the four elements combined with the five senses make twenty. These, rolling on the ground—that is, defeated by earthly attachment—try to drink the water of knowledge; these the Word rejects, since they are cast out of the spiritual camp. But he chooses only the three hundred who shone forth; these are those who have crucified themselves and have kept intact the three powers of the soul with the hundred of perfection; for a hundred is the ten of the commandments multiplied tenfold, each commandment containing the other, and to speak more clearly, the one being ten; whence also to Sarah when she had advanced, the rho was added, the word indicating her perfection in virtue. And these, shining, drink the water with their hands; for through the labors of action they draw the water of knowledge.

The commander of the spiritual battle array orders them to hold in the left hand jars containing lamps within, and in the right hand a horn, and thus to engage the enemies, signifying by these things that one who is about to array himself against the invisible enemies must do so through the practical life—for this is what the left hand means—already casting off through ascetic practice every moisture of the passions from the body and becoming dry like a potsherd, having within the light of knowledge; and in the right hand, that is, in contemplation, to hold the teaching of the word—for this is the horn. And the breaking of the jars signifies that the perfect mortification of the flesh and the contempt for it unveils to us the light of knowledge. And the saying "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon" signifies that one who bears the word of the Lord, which is cutting, together with his own zeal, destroys the passions. And the dream that the Midianites saw declares that whenever the mind begins to give itself over to ascetic practice and to maltreat the body, the demons of fornication surmise, as it were through a dream, that "if the mind prevails to extend itself in such ascetic practice, it will kill us"; for a barley cake rolling, that is, ascetic practice advancing, overturns the tents of the foreigners, that is, the passions that constitute the demons.

QUESTION: What is the meaning of what the Lord said to the apostles, "Behold, I am with you until the end of the age"? ANSWER: The Lord himself is said to be with us in the present age, but in the age to come the saints will be with him, having been deified by grace. QUESTION: What does Jericho signify, and who is Achar who stole from the accursed thing, and why does God command that he be burned, while Joshua stoned him? ANSWER: Whoever has been enrolled in the divine battle array encircles Jericho with seven circuits, sounding the trumpet—that is, traversing the sevenfold age of this time with the trumpet of the Gospel—and is taught to dedicate all things of this age to God. But whoever purloins a tongue and hides it in the earth—that is, the word in the earthly wisdom of the world—or even a mere garment, that is, cultivating character for the pleasing of onlookers, and two hundred gold pieces, that is, all perceptible things together with the senses, which gold pieces he hides in the earth of his own fleshly indulgence—this man is first seared as it were by fire at the hand of the governing word, and then, struck as with stones by divine words, is put to death.

QUESTION: Concerning the various wills of God. ANSWER: Three wills ought to be understood in God: according to good pleasure, according to economy, and according to permission. The will according to good pleasure makes clear the things concerning Abraham, when he said to him, "Go out from your land"; the will according to economy makes clear the things arranged concerning Joseph for the fulfillment of what was to come; and the will according to permission makes clear the things that happened concerning Job. QUESTION: What is this: "Do not bless a man before his end"? ANSWER: According to the ready understanding of the many, because of the uncertainty and the slippery nature of human choice, one ought not to bless anyone until, having passed through every virtue, he closes his life with an incontestable end. But according to the higher understanding, the one who has begun through repentance and ascetic practice to humble and weaken the earthly-mindedness that lives in him is not yet blessed until, through the intense labor of ascetic practice, it has been put to death and has reached its completion; for such a person is blessed, as one who has died together with Christ through the cessation from evils and is raised together with him again through the height of the virtues. For the psalmist also signifies this when he says, "Blessed are the blameless in the way," clearly those pure from evil, "who walk in the law of the Lord," those who journey through good deeds.

QUESTION: What does the psalmist mean when he says concerning enemies, "of those who attack on every side"? ANSWER: "On every side" means what is in front, behind, on the right, and on the left. The demons attack us in front when they entice us through the appearances of matter; behind, when they stir up the memory of evil through preconceptions in our thoughts; on the left, when they pry the soul loose through fleshly and dissolute passions; and on the right, when they attack the soul through vainglory and pride. QUESTION: What is this: "Take a psalm and give a timbrel"? ANSWER: Take divine teaching and give virtuous action through the mortification of the body. QUESTION: What is elemental composition? ANSWER: They say that three kinds of bodies are spoken of: first, that of the four elements—fire, water, earth, air; then, from these, second bodies—all growing things, both trees and vegetables; and from these, a third body—the human body and that of irrational animals; for by eating these they become flesh. Therefore, just as the four elements are the beginning and elemental composition of our bodies, so also the elemental composition and beginning of the soul from the four generic virtues produces the right ordering of character; then, as it were, from this comes a second body—the habitual state of the virtues; then from this knowledge, that is, contemplation, is embodied; "for action is the stepping-stone to contemplation." QUESTION 88

What does the ladder seen by Jacob mean, and who are the angels descending and ascending? ANSWER: We consider the ladder to be piety toward God. The angels descending and ascending: those ascending are the principles of the virtues, being exalted through us; those descending are the principles of knowledge, coming down because of the exaltation of our virtues. QUESTION: What does the denarius handed to the Lord by the Pharisees mean? ANSWER: The denarius is the law of the body's need given by concession; when the Pharisees, who are a type of the demons, bring this to us, we must master it and examine it through discernment, and assign to nature the things of need—for this is to give the things of Caesar to Caesar—but assign the whole desire of the soul to God. QUESTION: What does "if they persecute you from this city, flee to the other" signify? ANSWER: Cities are for guard and security and protection of precious things; a city, then, in the manner of allegory, is the ascetic practice devised from various modes—for instance, abstinence from wine, fasting from foods, intense vigil, and the like, which are a guard and security. If, then, the demons persecute us from one of these, bringing in vainglory or conceit through such a form of ascetic practice, it is better to withdraw from such a mode of conduct that seems more exact, lest you fall into pride, and to flee to another virtue free of vainglory, until the principle of dispassion comes.

Or, to put it another way: he calls human souls "cities." For the apostolic words, sent from the Savior, when received by those who are worthy, dwell in them; but when those who are unworthy have judged themselves, they are driven out and migrate to the souls of others, which have become receptive of their teaching. And such cities of Israel they will certainly not finish, truly dwelling in them and at one time settling in, at another being driven from them, until the Son of Man comes in his glorious presence, filling all things. QUESTION: What is this: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering flax he will not quench"? ANSWER: He who in imitation of the Lord employs the principle of compassion neither causes the one bruised by sin through despair to be broken utterly, nor quenches the one whose rational faculty has been smoldered by vainglory over certain virtues, but allows him to keep his zeal until he comes to the perfection of knowledge. For this, I think, is also what it means to grow the tares together with the good seed—that is, to let the passion of people-pleasing and vainglory spring up together with the virtues. Hence the farmer of souls commands that these not be pulled up until the virtues have taken firm root, lest someone, wishing to uproot such passions, pull up the zeal for virtue along with them.

QUESTION 92 What does the prophetic riddle mean when it says, "Sound the trumpet on the new moon, on the notable day of our feast"? What, then, is the notable feast? ANSWER: The Word exhorts the teachers of the Church to sound the trumpet through the word of teaching; and to sound with a trumpet, that is, with the mortification of the body; on the new moon, that is, according to the moon; for the month is called the moon. And the "notable feast" among the Jews was celebrated in the seventh month, the feast of trumpets; and on the tenth of the same month they celebrated the fast of the Atonement, and on the fifteenth the Tabernacles. But we celebrate spiritually in this way: in the seventh month, that is, in the seventh law of grace, performing the notable day of the Gospel; for God of all from the beginning gave seven laws to nature: to Adam two—not to eat of the fruit of the tree before the transgression, and after the transgression to eat bread "in the sweat of his face"; a third to Noah; a fourth to Abraham, that of circumcision; a fifth through Moses; a sixth the prophetic; a seventh the evangelical, in which we offer to God the firstfruits of the fruits of virtue at the beginning of our illuminations; for on the first day of the month those under the law offered the firstfruits of the fruits. And on the tenth of the month we perform the fast of the Atonement, being mystagogically instructed through the name of our Lord Jesus, who became our atonement, fasting from all evil; and on the fifteenth we keep the Tabernacles.

For when we add to the mystery according to our Lord Jesus the five receptive powers of the soul, which are occupied with none of the sensible things but are united to the Lord himself, we receive in him the fixing of the virtues. QUESTION From the Ethics of Saint Basil, a difficulty in the discourse On Fasting: "When," he says, "perfection was despaired of, then indulgence was permitted." ANSWER: Perfection was despaired of when man perverted through disobedience the natural powers given to him. It was impossible, then, for nature, once entangled in material attachment, to return to perfection, until the Maker of nature, becoming man beyond nature, brought nature back to what is according to nature. He says that indulgence was permitted instead of being handed over to the autonomy of error. QUESTION From the same, on the first psalm: for what reason, at the beginning of the psalms, did he take as an example the foundations of a house, the keel of a ship, and the heart of a living creature? ANSWER: Since a house composed of stones becomes a refuge from cold and heat, and further a shelter and guard for man, from this we learn, following natural contemplation, that the house is the ascetic practice composed of the principles according to virtue, providing us shelter from the diabolical heat of temptations, and warmth from his coldness in despair, and a guard from the demons who plot against us.

The ship took the soul of each person, having as it were a keel—the fixity that comes from prudence—and planks fitted on, the mortification of the body, securing the joints of the soul with exactness like asphalt, and not permitting anything of the briny evil to seep in, as it traverses the sea of this life and passes through this age, giving the things present in the manner of a merchant and acquiring in exchange the things to come. And it took the heart of an animal, faith, woven all around with virtues. QUESTION: From the discourse of Saint Gregory the Theologian "On Baptism," a difficulty in a prophetic saying: "Blessed is the one who sows upon every water and every soul—tomorrow to be plowed and watered, which today an ox and a donkey tread." ANSWER: The soul that is plowed through the practical life and cleansed of the thorns of the passions, and watered through knowledge—which today an ox and a donkey were treading, calling the ox the Jewish law and the donkey the Gentile portion, that is, the one that abides by the letter and is pressed down by unreason—today, but tomorrow changed through action and knowledge; blessed is the one who sows the seeds of virtue in it.

QUESTION From the same: "Blessed is he who, though he be a torrent of reeds, is watered from the house of the Lord." ANSWER The torrent of reeds is the flesh, which by the winter of the passions drags along the powers of the soul and, like a reed, strikes with the roughness of sins. And it is watered from the house of the Lord whenever it is irrigated from the commandments of the Lord, who took up our flesh, from which, having come into the path of life, he drank the passion for our sake and became for us a house of refuge. QUESTION From the same: "Yesterday you were dried up, flourishing with the flow of blood; for you were gushing forth the crimson sin." ANSWER Yesterday, he says, you were dried up in virtue, but you were flourishing in sin; today you have sprouted anew in virtue, having been dried up in sin; "for I touched the hem of Christ's garment." The hems of Christ are the various ascetic practices, since just as the hems hang from the garment, so the ascetic practices depend on the ethical philosophy; these, when practiced with humility, are by nature able to check the flow of the passions.

QUESTION From the same: "Yesterday you were cast upon a bed, relaxed and dissolved," and the rest. ANSWER He calls the bed the rest of the body, and "relaxed" in pleasures. "And you had not," he says, "a man," that is, a manly reason, "so that when the water was troubled, he might cast you into the pool," that is, whenever a reason arises in you that troubles you toward the discernment of the good and the worse, it might cast you into the water of purification. "Today you have found a man who is the same and God"; for whenever someone by using teaching purifies, God is the one who works, but man is the instrument he has used for the salvation of the sick. "You were taken up from the bed, or rather you took up the bed," that is, through the practical life you carried the body, no longer being dragged down by it. QUESTION From the same: "I know a fire, not purifying but punishing, either Sodomitic, which rains upon all sinners with sulfur and mingled with a tempest, or the one prepared for the devil and his angels, or the one which goes before the face of the Lord and will set his enemies ablaze round about, or the one more fearful than these, which is joined with the unceasing worm, not being quenched but enduring forever for the wicked." ANSWER Upon those who have trampled the law of nature by misuse, that "Sodomitic fire" rains; and this is the conviction of conscience, whenever it burns it like fire. And sulfur is the various circumstantial occurrences, and tempests are the sudden circumstances, which, being mingled together, pain more violently.

But those are burned in their conscience, in imitation of the devil and his angels, as many as through pride enviously slander God's providence and practice deceit toward their neighbor. And the fire that "goes before the face of the Lord" and flames "his enemies" is the energies of God; for these mark the face of God—namely, the good, the philanthropic, the gentle, and things like these—which enlighten those who are disposed toward them, but burn those who are disposed contrarily and alienated from likeness. And these forms of fire he did not say are everlasting, because, according to Gregory of Nyssa, nature must recover its own powers and be restored by knowledge to what it was from the beginning, so that the Creator may be shown to be not the cause of sin. But that fire he called more fearful, which is joined with the eternal worm, not extinguished but also everlasting for the wicked; which, when the divine appears and is set forth for the enjoyment of the worthy, devours and torments endlessly and continually those who do not make themselves bright through good works—like a worm always stirring up the memory—and who reckon up their failure and deprivation of the good, more fiercely than fire. QUESTION From the same, on the discourse "On Hail," on the words "I do not accept that a spring be stopped and a torrent be borne along.

ANSWER: The teaching of the Gospel is a spring, always gushing forth through faith, while the philosophy outside is a winter torrent, having its persuasiveness in the word alone. And in another sense: a spring is the one whose life is in harmony with his word, while a winter torrent is the word without action, enchanting the ear with its utterance alone. Or also in another sense: a spring is the one who makes the transmission of the things that lie in the minds of those who learn, while a winter torrent is the one who teaches according to the letter. QUESTION: From the same: "concerning the righteous judgments of God, whether we comprehend them or are ignorant of the great abyss." ANSWER: An abyss is said to be the incomprehensibility that comes from closing, that is, from shutting, according to what is said in the psalm about the asp that stops its ears, meaning "that shuts." As, then, in relation to us who are unable to come into comprehension of the providence that gushes forth judgments, they are incomprehensible, but in another way they are graspable. QUESTION: From the same: "how is almsgiving also into balances, according to Saint Isaiah? For the good is not without judgment, even if it seemed so to those in the vineyard." ANSWER: If the almsgiving of God is weighed, it is also reasonably circumscribed. Rather, then, one should suppose this, that just as we have the power of sight and of hearing

And those who breathe do not receive the whole air, or the light, or the voice, since otherwise the participation in these would be left to no other; but each partakes according to the power that is present to it proportionally. So also the mercy of God gives both forgiveness and grace according to the quality of each one's disposition among those subject to it. For example, if someone has repented perfectly, he is forgiven perfectly; if he has repented partially, he is forgiven partially. The same holds also in the case of one who loves. QUESTION From the same: "And the wrath, according to the measure of the sins, and the cup in the hand of the Lord that is so called, and the blow of falling that is drunk down, even if it takes away something from the dignity of all and, by his love for mankind, mixes the unmixed wine of wrath, inclining from the harsh to the yielding." ANSWER The "hand of the Lord" is the creative and sustaining power, both the power that does good and the power that rejects evil. Every sin, as soon as it exists, has the judgment from its end fixed alongside it. And it will incline from the harsh to the yielding, through the saving commandments suggesting to the soul the repentance that empties out such a judgment. QUESTION A question of difficulty from the discourse "On Good Order" of Saint Gregory the Theologian: "How is the word a offspring of the mind and begets a word in another mind?" About what sort of word, then, does he speak—the word in the mind or the word spoken aloud? ANSWER Our fathers say that the unbegotten and simple according to essence is either only the Divine, while all other things, as many as have their being after God and from God, are from essence and quality, that is, from essence and accident.

But if this is so, then certainly the soul also, being intellect according to its power, has itself as unbegotten, generating for itself in a generated manner, so that the word in the intellect and generated from the intellect is another beside that generating intellect, together with the property belonging to the generation, which in no way admits of reversal. This same word, then, which thus both is and is generated, taking the voice of the ministering nature, is brought forth and generates a word in another intellect, being conveyed to the intellect through the hearing of the receiver. And it generates a word in another intellect, not creating a word in another but giving the power of form and, so to speak, of shape to fashion a thought in the hearer. QUESTION From the word of the peacemaker, the same holy Gregory: "A perfect Trinity from three perfect things, the Monad having been moved because of its richness, the Dyad having been surpassed because of matter and form, from which bodies also come, the Triad having been defined because of perfection; for the first surpasses the composition of the Dyad." ANSWER It is not the cause of the being of the divine and blessed Trinity that is placed here—that which is beyond cause and reason—but the guidance of our own selves by the holy Trinity toward the truest piety. For just as from the substance of existing things we conceive the Creator, so also we are mystically taught the manner of the existence of the ineffable divinity from certain symbols among existing things, clearly the holy divinity itself moving us to knowledge of itself and providing pious occasions for us to dare to examine the manner of its supernatural existence.

It is said, then, that it is moved either because of us who are moved toward it, or as the cause of our movement toward the knowledge of it. It moved itself, then, within us toward knowing that there is some cause of all things; which is the case of a monad having been moved. But when the dyad has been surpassed, it has been said that the divine nature is beheld outside of composition. And when the triad has been defined, it has been said on account of the perfect that being itself is not outside of wisdom and life; which, having understood, we defined the Son and Word of God as wisdom, and the Holy Spirit as life, since our soul too, created in the image of God, is beheld in these three: in intellect, word, and spirit. QUESTION: What does what is said in Esdras mean, "Make them fearful in the law of the Lord"? ANSWER: "Make them fearful" is said instead of "strike them with amazement," not from the good things promised, but from the fearful things threatened; for this is servile and fitting for Jews. QUESTION: From the Ethics of Saint Basil on the first psalm: "so that, as in a common hospital of souls, all people, each choosing the remedy for his own passion; for 'a remedy,' he says, 'shall put an end to great sins.'" For what reason did the teacher here not follow the Scripture? For that passage rendered "remedy" as leaving the evil thought that has entered in and not receiving it, but he rendered the word as "healing.

ANSWER: Since every beginning has an end, and every utterance has a response, and every action has a result, the more precise of the teachers often make the beginning of their own discourse from the results, just as the teacher did here as well; for the end of leaving evil alone and not accepting it is healing and health. QUESTION: From the same: "Other things, then, the prophets teach, and other things the historians, and the law different things, and different is the form of proverbial exhortation." ANSWER: The prophets teach things foreknown, the historians the recollection and setting forth of good things, and the law the knowledge of good and evil; but the form of proverbial exhortation provides counsel of judgment, that is, it suggests the ways of things to be done. QUESTION: From the same: "And where is one of those utterly brutalized by rage, when he begins to be enchanted by the psalm, who departed immediately, having lulled to sleep the wild part of the soul by the melody?

ANSWER: The teacher spoke not of the one who simply sings psalms, but of the one who knows how to sing psalms; for in this way Elisha too asked the kings for a young man who knew how to play, that is, one who understood and was able through the mediation of the spoken word to convey and imprint the meaning contained in it upon the soul. For such a person is able not only to lull anger to sleep but also to drive out demons, that is, not only to quench the passions of the flesh but also to drive away the demons who stir them up, like the great David driving out the evil spirit of Saul. QUESTION: From the same: "a weapon in the terrors of the night, a rest from the labors of the day." ANSWER: He called the hidden and deceitful assaults of the enemy "night," and the open and manifest temptations "day." Therefore the one who has received the habit of divine knowledge and is ignorant of none of the enemy's designs fears none of the enemy's hidden assaults; for fear is nothing other than an expected evil. But indeed he also regards the labors of manifest temptations as a rest, because of the testing that comes to the soul from its engagement with them and the blessed hope of the crown of incorruption that is expected from it.

QUESTION From the Apostle to the Romans: "For God shut up all in disobedience." ANSWER Just as a master pursues his own beast that has run away and gone astray, and when he has shut it up with those who pursue it and finds it wounded, he cares for it, so also the Word of God, having become man, shut up—instead of "laid hold of"—and found all disobedient and sinful, and having mercy he saved them. QUESTION From the same: "But the one who is weak eats vegetables." ANSWER This was not said by the Apostle concerning bodily sickness—for he always rejoiced in the sicknesses of the body—but he commands the one who is weak in soul to eat vegetables, that is, things simple and plain and easily prepared and not fattening the flesh. And this is the ready meaning; but according to contemplation, that one is weak and eats vegetables who is unable to ascend to the height of knowledge and, like Moses, to draw near to the very darkness where God is, but is still either one of the people or even one of those higher seventy elders, and is fed on natural contemplation as on vegetables. QUESTION From the same: "I say that Christ has become a servant of circumcision for the sake of truth.

ANSWER Since in the beginning man was deceived and came to be in transgression, he was likened to the beasts and was condemned to both be born and to die in their manner. But the Lord, not enduring that his own handiwork should be utterly destroyed, worked out his salvation at different times, and in Abraham he made more manifest the salvation that was to come through his incarnate visitation. Therefore, after all the promises made to him, he gave him circumcision, which signified the removal of the passible part of the soul. Since, then, all the saints circumcised the passible part of the soul, yet did not remove it completely—for they were subject to the condemnation of nature, having been born from intercourse—the Lord himself came, who is also Master of nature, who also gave Abraham circumcision, and truly became its servant and fulfiller, effecting the complete removal of passible generation; for without seed he was conceived and without corruption he was born.

QUESTION From the same: "And this, knowing the time, that the hour has already come for you to be awakened from sleep." ANSWER He calls "time" that of the gospel preaching, and that those who have believed and been justified ought eagerly to cling to the practice of the virtues for the guarding of the justification that comes from faith and grace, and that we who sleep through the inactivity of the commandments, and who keep our mind inactive toward spiritual and divine things, should be awakened in heart and keep the mind watchful toward the heavenly and intelligible beauties, having lulled all sense perception to sleep toward sensible things, so that it may be possible for us to say, according to Solomon, "I sleep, and my heart keeps watch." QUESTION From the same: "If the dead are not raised at all, why are they also baptized for them?" ANSWER Since he is speaking about dead bodies—for these are the things that fall and rise—we are baptized for their resurrection; for baptism bears the type of burial and resurrection. For the immersion and the emergence signify this. The Apostle, silencing those who doubt about the resurrection, said: "Why are they also baptized for them?" For the one who here accomplishes through baptism the type of burial and resurrection will await in its own times also the complete resurrection that will truly be.

QUESTION What does the sheet shown to Peter in the Acts mean, and the beasts and reptiles and four-footed animals in it? ANSWER Since, according to what was seen by the prophet Ezekiel, "their work was as a wheel within a wheel," and by these things both the sensible and the intelligible world are indicated as existing in one another — for the intelligible world is in the sensible by its types, and the sensible world is in the intelligible by its principle — therefore all things of the sensible world were shown to the Apostle; for "let down by four corners" indicates the world composed of the four elements, existing in the intelligible world pure according to the principle indwelling in them. And he heard, "Rise, kill and eat," that is, "Be minded in your intellect toward the things of sense, and kill and eat, dividing sense by the division of the principle, and receiving these spiritually, make them your own." Or it also indicates the Church, established upon the four corners of the Gospels, or also upon the four generic virtues. And the beasts and reptiles indicate the various characters of men among the nations who were about to come to the faith of Christ. And "kill and eat" indicates that "first by the principle of teaching, put to death the evil in them, and then eat, making their salvation your own, just as the Lord also made this food for Himself.

QUESTION What does the number of the five ten-thousands of books that were burned in the same Acts signify? ANSWER Since the number of a ten-thousand is the end of every number, it is signified by this that the end of all magic and meddlesome curiosity is nothing other than the deception of sensible things, which those who recognize it burn up with the fire of the apostolic teaching. QUESTION What is the reason that the Lord expired on the cross before the robbers, and what do the robbers and the breaking of the legs signify? ANSWER Since our Lord Jesus Christ, being God by nature, having taken up our flesh, has truly become the only man, alone preserving in himself the purpose of God, which he spoke: "Let us make man in our image and likeness," and just as the first man was molded by the divine hands, so also the Lord, dying the death on his behalf, alone and first placed his own soul in the Father's palms. And just as he was and became the only-begotten and firstborn among many brothers, so also he alone and first deigned to undergo the death that slays death, so that he might become the firstborn from the dead and in all things himself have the first place.

The robbers are taken in relation to our nature as divided into the righteous and the sinful. And the breaking of the legs signifies that all men, when they die, are found not without transgressions and the crushing of sin, but only the Lord died whole and without any sin whatsoever. And in the case of each person the robbers are taken in many ways; for they are taken in relation to body and soul, and in relation to the fleshly and the spiritual mind, but also in relation to anger and desire, and in relation to the sensible world and the intelligible, and in relation to the written law and the law of grace. And since, both when we sin and when we do righteousness, the Word, condescending, is always crucified in our midst, whenever, then, through our evil conduct and ignorance we make the Word inactive and inclining downward, immediately the demons, leaping upon us, break the onward-moving and passable powers of the soul. QUESTION What is the discrepancy between the things recorded in the Acts in the vision of Paul? For in the vision on the road Luke records that those who were with him heard the voice but saw no one; but when Paul recounts the same vision at the steps, he says that those who were with him saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one speaking. ANSWER According to the history, Chrysostom, having interpreted the passage very knowledgeably, said that the first explanation, which says "those who were with him heard the voice," means that they heard the voice of Paul, which said "Who are you, Lord?" but they saw no man except Paul.

The second explanation, which says that they saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one speaking, says that they did not hear the voice of the Lord that came to Paul, but only saw the light. According to the contemplative interpretation, the passage must be understood thus: the gnostic intellect, after the manner of Paul, has the thoughts accompanying it. Therefore, at the first manifestation of the Word to the intellect, the thoughts hear only echoes and images of knowledge, but they contemplate nothing clearly articulated. But as the intellect advances and comes to the steps, that is, to the high contemplation, the thoughts are no longer partakers of images but of the light of knowledge perfectly. QUESTION: How should the repentance of God that lies in Scripture be piously understood? ANSWER: Those who have determined to think piously about divine things say that it is impossible for God, who is by nature the Creator, not to be by nature the Provider of the things created. And if this is so, it is altogether necessary that, since God by nature provides for humanity, there are many ways of salvation with him concerning the nature that is provided for.

For since man is a creature that turns quickly and easily changes along with times and circumstances, it is entirely necessary that divine providence too, being one and the same, changes along with our dispositions, finding a way through the means that are naturally suited to the evils that spring up in our nature. And just as in medicine the diseases that underlie it are many, and the skilled physician must, when the body before him falls into many and various affections, himself pass over from lesser methods to better ones, so too with God the transition of providence from one kind of method to another is customarily called in Scripture the repentance of God. QUESTION: What does the passage of the 104th psalm mean, "He turned their heart to hate his people"? ANSWER: God knows the things that exist before the ages as existing in himself in truth itself, even if all things, both those that are and those that will be, did not receive their own being at the same moment they were known, but each at its suitable time—for it is not possible for the infinite and the finite to be simultaneous—but also the end of each one's disposition according to its movement; for there is no time or age that interrupts this between God, for nothing in him is recent, but future things are present. Times and ages are indicative to us, not to God, of the things that are in God. For let us not suppose that when we see God doing something, then he has also begun the knowledge concerning it.

But if this is true, as indeed it is, he knew altogether that the future wickedness of the Egyptians was already present, and their disposition of will that was disobedient to every good work and ready for the avenging of the evils done to the Israelites by the custom in Egypt, and also the readiness of the Israelites to come over obediently to the word of piety through faith. Since, then, he permitted such hidden dispositions, even those formerly disgraced by him, to come into action, in this respect he is said to have turned them; for just as a man, should he happen to turn a closed sluice that holds back the rush of water by force, the water immediately gives forth its hidden rush, so also the wicked and the good dispositions, when providence permits, are brought into the open through intermediate things. QUESTION: Of what were Moses and Pharaoh types in the Exodus, and what is Egypt, and how were the plagues for some and not for others? And who is the destroyer, and what is the death of the firstborn, and why does the Scripture say in one place "to lead up out of Egypt" and in another "to lead out"?

ANSWER: Moses is a type of the pious and of their end, and Pharaoh of the impious and of their end; for to the extent that Moses was obedient and tender toward the impression of the divine commandments, to that extent Pharaoh was disposed toward the opposite. Egypt, according to one of the interpretations concerning it, is translated "darkening," and it is taken to mean this present age. The geographers say that Egypt is the lowest-lying of all the earth; therefore Scripture says not only "he brought out" but also "he brought up," "bringing out" signifying those who come from the attachment to the flesh to the spirit, and "bringing up" those who are led up from material things to intelligible things. All the pleasure-loving and world-loving are Egyptians, even if they are noble in body; and all the God-loving and world-hating are Israelites. For the former, then, the water is blood, but for the latter water according to nature; for since water is nourishing and life-giving, it shows that whoever makes the starting-point of this life a matter of injustice and robbery and greed, being a murderer of those he wrongs, has his water as blood; but whoever has the starting-point of life from righteous labors, for him the water is the water of life. And the firstborn of the Egyptians are killed because they do not have their doorposts smeared with the blood of the lamb. The firstborn are the first offspring and thoughts of the mind, the doorposts are the senses, and the destroyer is the devil, who through the senses binds the soul to sensible things and abolishes every divine movement of it.

The firstborn of the Israelites too are preserved by the anointing of blood, that is, the divine movements of the mind are preserved by the mortification of the senses. QUESTION: What is the meaning of what is said in the seventy-fifth psalm, that "the thought of man will give thanks to you, and the remnant of thought will keep festival to you"? ANSWER: Festival belongs to those who rejoice, but confession to those who are examined; and the one is of grief, the other of joy. This, then, is what he says: that in the judgment the transient and imperfect thought of good, when weighed against the evil and complete thought, has the advantage; for the one is examined, while the other becomes the cause of festival and joy. QUESTION: What does the Apostle indicate when he says, "I would rather speak five words in the Church than ten thousand words in a tongue"? ANSWER: He speaks five words, even if it is one word that is spoken, when he speaks a word of instruction concerning the five senses; but he speaks ten thousand words in a tongue who through his own word makes an invitation to the passions. And again: he speaks five words who through the spiritual contemplation of beings points out the Creator; for the nature composed of form and the four elements is fivefold; but he speaks ten thousand words who makes ornate words and persuasive combinations concerning the activity of things seen, for his own glory and enjoyment, and deifies creation contrary to the Creator; for creation was not given in order to be deified, but in order to teach God.

QUESTION: What is the meaning of those in the Gospel who excuse themselves from the call because of the field, the marriage, and the pairs of oxen? ANSWER: By the woman is signified the love of pleasure, by the pair of oxen the love of possessions, and by the field gluttony; occupied with these, every man falls away from the divine promises. QUESTION: What is the etymology of gluttony? ANSWER: Neither the grammarians nor the rhetoricians have mentioned it. But Aristotle in his On Animals mentions an animal called the margos, and that it is born from putrefaction between the earth and the water; and from the time it is born, it does not cease eating earth until, having bored through the earth, it comes to the surface; and having come forth it dies for three days, and after three days a rain cloud comes and rains upon it and it revives, no longer being an earth-eater. And from this, I think, the ancient philosophers, taking their start, called those who eat much gluttons. But one may piously apply these things, knowing how, and understand what is said according to spiritual contemplation. For every passion is naturally born from putrefaction, and once it is born it does not cease eating the heart that gave it substance until through the ascetic habit it comes into the open; and having come forth it dies by the three powers of the soul, and thus the grace of the Holy Spirit, appearing as through a cloud of teaching, gives drops of knowledge and brings to life, not according to the former passionate life, but according to the virtuous life that is proper to God.

QUESTION: What is the parable of the laborers hired into the vineyard in the Gospel, and what is the apparent inequality? ANSWER: God's judgment does not take place according to time and body, because the soul also, being timeless and bodiless, since it does not receive growth and its end according to time, makes the movements of its disposition timelessly. It is good to clarify what is said by means of an example: often there is someone who has seventy years in the monastic life, and another one day; since the goal of the profession is that, having drawn the soul away from attachment and relation to material things, he may transfer the whole soul to God—the one, then, who has seventy years, having taken no care at all for such dispassion, died, while the one who has one day, having drawn away his whole passionate thought toward material things and having embraced it wholly in God, was perfected. In the distribution, then, that takes place at the judgment, the one receives his reward worthily, as having brought the goal of his profession to completion, while the other receives it according to grace alone, for the sake of which he endured the labor of asceticism.

QUESTION: Was grief then unacceptable to Job in the things that befell him? ANSWER: We say that Job was not subject to grief; for he who once made the contemplation of things in a pious manner and confirmed in himself hatred toward things that pass away and love toward things that do not pass away, how could he grieve at passing things through a change of disposition, which things are naturally accustomed to suffer? QUESTION: Why then did none of the saints receive grief, and how is it said of many saints that they had grief, just as Paul also says, "Grief is to me unceasing," and the rest? ANSWER: He who is occupied with practical matters, as long as conscience goads and strikes him through fantasies in memory, grieves altogether with the praiseworthy grief; but he who has reached the measure of perfection becomes beyond this; for he who has been illumined through knowledge, having stretched out the noetic part of the soul to God indivisibly in the equal sameness of motion, and having acquired the ineffable joy in the continual delight of the divine beauty, how could he receive the grief that is opposed to this? But sometimes the saints are said to grieve in imitation of their own Master; for grief and joy are said of God in accordance with providence, grief over those who are perishing, and joy over those who are being saved. One therefore is the principle of grief, but it admits many modes of disposition. The grief then that is spoken of in the case of the saints is mercy and

Sympathy and an abundance of joy, with a Godlike perfection stored within and providentially distributed to things outside. QUESTION: Does contemplation precede practice? ANSWER: The mode of contemplation is twofold: one defines what is fitting for practical matters, and this one precedes practical actions; the other understands the things that are done, and this one is conceived after the action. QUESTION: From Isaiah: "I planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it," and the rest. ANSWER: The planting of the vineyard signifies creation, the hedge the natural law, and the wall the written law; by these the Creator secured nature. Whoever genuinely cultivates the natural seed of the good by choice, that one has produced fruit for the planter; but whoever is borne irrationally toward non-being, that one produces thorns, that is, the passions, and is trampled by the demons who work these things. QUESTION: From the Song of Songs: "Come from Lebanon, bride, come from Lebanon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

ANSWER: God the Word says to the soul that is espoused to him through good works, or also to the whole nature of humanity, to come out from idolatry—for this is what Lebanon signifies—and from ill habit, which the lairs of lions signify; for the lion always rushes upon the shoulders, that is, upon the practical faculty, and from the mountains of leopards, that is, from ignorance; for this animal naturally makes its attack upon the eyes, and the eyes are evidently taken to mean knowledge. QUESTION: From Isaiah: "I will enter into judgment with you upon the mountains and the hills." ANSWER: Since angels have been entrusted with the providential care of the life of soul and body and of this earthly region, ministering to us the divine words, and likewise the prophets conveyed to us the ways of salvation through their own words, he says that he will judge with us upon these, calling the angels mountains and the patriarchs and prophets hills. QUESTION: What does the psalm mean: "He will take up the orphan and the widow, and he will destroy the way of sinners"?

ANSWER: A widow is a soul that has died to the natural law, and an orphan is the stealthy manner of life that is pursued for the sake of vainglory and richer gains, having not God as its father. Therefore, through this conditional counsel, the Lord gives life to the natural law and corrects the stealthy manner of life, so that it may be done for the sake of the good itself and not for corruptible glory; he takes it up, destroying the ways of sinners, that is, the former conduct in which it walked. QUESTION 135 From Job: "Because they had no covering, they wrapped themselves in a rock." ANSWER: Those who previously had no covering, that is, faith, were the nations; but they wrapped themselves in a rock, the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. QUESTION: Is it possible to find a natural proof concerning the Holy Trinity? ANSWER: All beings are believed to exist in three modes: in substance, in difference, and in life. And from the principle of the substance of beings we are convinced that there is a certain substance, which is the Father; from the difference of beings, the wisdom, that is, the Son—for it belongs to wisdom to assign to each nature its proper characteristic and to preserve each of created things distinct and unmixed, both in relation to itself and in relation to the rest; and from life, the Holy Spirit. But in the case of God these are enhypostatic and are so called, while in the case of created things they are accidents. QUESTION: From Saint Gregory the Theologian, on the passage "All brought what was proclaimed to them, but some were self-appointed"—and what do the things brought signify?

ANSWER: Those who come to the good from the natural seeds within them are self-summoned; those who come to the good through teaching are called proclaimed. And he who makes the discourse concerning theology in a pious manner offers gold; he who offers a pure life and bright and transparent teaching offers silver; he who adorns the practical dominion with divine words offers precious stones; he who keeps the habit of virtue unshaken in involuntary temptations and through them washes away and cleanses, in the manner of water, the thoughts that arise in the soul from sin offers twisted linen; he who destroys the pleasures and passions that are in our power through the abundance of the word, through the mortification of the members of the body, offers spun scarlet; he who has embraced the knowledge of beings accurately and without error offers purple; for purple is taken for knowledge in a single casting, for it is composed of many and various forms, just as knowledge is composed of many and various contemplations. He who has been completely deadened to sense perception offers reddened skins; he who has acquired complete insensibility toward present things offers hair. QUESTION: What is the meaning of the psalm's "Serve the Lord in fear and rejoice in him with trembling," and how is it possible at the same time both to tremble and to rejoice? And how again does it say in the eighteenth (18) psalm, "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever and ever," while John says, "Love casts out fear"? And if it is cast out, how does it endure?

ANSWER: Fear is twofold: the one is on account of transgressions, the other is according to the worth of the beloved. Love, then, sets aside the fear that is on account of transgressions, but preserves the fear that is according to the worth of the beloved. And exultation is the rejoicing disposition at the acquisition of certain things, while gladness is the enjoyment of the things acquired. QUESTION: What do the cows and the ears of grain shown to Pharaoh in sleep signify? ANSWER: Here Pharaoh is taken as representing nature; the good cows signify practice, and the ears of grain signify knowledge; for in this sevenfold time knowledge and practice are operative. And the other cows and ears of grain, the ugly and blighted ones, signify ignorance and vice, which had strength to swallow up both the prime vigor of the cows' practice and the knowledge signified by the good ears of grain. But our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Joseph, the only foreknower and corrector of such a famine, taking faith as gold and a radiant life as silver and ethical philosophy as sheep and the swift and eager course of the life according to God as horses, provides the grain, that is, the true knowledge.