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QUESTION: What is the judge of injustice in the Gospel, and who is the widow woman? ANSWER: He calls the judge of injustice the natural law, hardened by transgression and reverencing neither God nor man, and the widow the soul widowed of good works. For if this soul comes to repentance, she constrains the natural law by troubling it through ascetic practice and self-control to abstain from what is contrary to nature. And if, he says, the mind through earnest and laborious perseverance prevails to accomplish even things beyond nature, how much more, he says, will God listen to those who cry out to him through the persistent and shameless perseverance of prayer? QUESTION: What is the scroll given to Ezekiel the prophet, on which was written "lamentation and song and woe," and how was it made sweet in his mouth? ANSWER: The scroll is the divine Word; and in it is written lamentation, that is, the threats of punishments, song, the promises of good things, and woe, in that those who are disciplined neither by the fear of punishments nor by the encouragement of promises and become better will certainly receive the woe of eternal punishment. And the scroll being made sweet in the mouth of the prophet signifies this, that the one who always meditates on the things foretold and attends to the things threatened and promised is made sweet by hope.

QUESTION: For what reason did the Spirit descend ten days after the Lord's ascension? ANSWER: Some of those learned in divine things say that, since according to Dionysius the Areopagite the angelic powers are nine orders, the Lord, ascending in his human nature—for according to his divine nature he fills all things—assigned one day to each rank, from the last to the final one; for these too had need of the Lord's visitation to them; for in him, according to the Apostle, all things were summed up, not only those on earth but also those in heaven. And after this he appeared to God the Father, and thus the Spirit descends. But it is possible to contemplate the present matter in another mode of contemplation as well: since the Word of God is hidden in his ten commandments, and is embodied in us, descending to us through practice, and again leads us up through knowledge, raising us until we come to the highest of all the commandments, which says, "The Lord your God, the Lord is one"; for when our mind, released from all things—or rather, having let go of all things—reaches God himself, then it receives the tongues of fire, becoming God by grace. QUESTION 143

QUESTION: Why is it that, when Luke says in the Acts concerning Paul that "he hastened, if it were possible for him, to make the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem," he appears to have knelt, which is forbidden by the canons? ANSWER: He is not speaking about Pentecost itself, on which the Spirit descended, but since the fifty days are called the day of Pentecost, Paul hastened to make the first day from the Passover in Jerusalem, as it is clear that he bent the knee during the fasts. QUESTION: Why is it that the apostle Paul calls himself a Roman and, speaking to the chiliarch, said, "But I was also born"? ANSWER: Those throughout every land, thinking it something great to be called Romans, by giving payments were enrolled as Romans, and the name ran to their family; since, therefore, the parents of the apostle, being in Tarsus, were enrolled to be called Romans, reasonably the apostle, as born of them, says, "But I was also born.

QUESTION: From the prophet Amos: "And two or three cities shall be gathered into one city to drink water, and they shall not be filled." What do the cities signify? ANSWER: Here the cities must be understood as souls, because they are composed as it were of houses and are receptive of the virtues. Two cities are souls that have been ordered by practice and contemplation; three are those that accomplish theology through unwavering faith. Since, then, the prophet set this down in the form of a curse, it signifies that when a famine comes—not of bread and water, but "a famine of hearing the word of the Lord"—even if such souls reach the measure of the virtues mentioned, yet if they grow negligent, they seem indeed to seek knowledge, but since they do not pursue practice, they fail; and even if they seem to be gathered into one city, that is, to the teacher, they are not filled with knowledge; for the grace of teaching is not given to him either, so as to be able to give the divine knowledge to drink to those in need. QUESTION: From the same: "A city from which a thousand went forth, a hundred shall be left; and from which a hundred went forth, ten shall be left.

ANSWER: Since every number is contained within four tens—for example, the first ten from the unit, then again this same is the unit of the hundred, then the hundred is the unit of the thousand, and again the thousand is the unit of the ten-thousand—since, then, the number of virtue is also multiplied by increase and receives addition, this, I think, is signified through the numbers: that one who has so set right the ten commandments that each commandment is contained in the rest, this one, having multiplied them tenfold, came to the hundred and, in the manner of Sarah, received the addition of "rho." And whoever has also set right the knowledge that comes after these, having multiplied the hundred tenfold, came to the thousand. But since this too was spoken by the prophet in the form of a curse, it shows that through negligence the one who has come to the measure of the thousand in virtue is let down and comes to the hundred; likewise also the one who comes from the hundred in practice to the mere observance of the commandments in character, or even fulfills them in a Jewish manner.

QUESTION From the same: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord, and this is darkness and not light, as when a man flees from the face of the lion and a bear meets him, and he leaps into his house and rests his hands against the wall and a serpent bites him." ANSWER The day of the Lord is the illumination and knowledge of the Lord. Whoever, then, desires to attain the knowledge of God without practice, this man is rightly called wretched; for, harassed by the passions, both anger and desire, while seeking to escape being bitten by the lion—that is, by anger—he falls into the bear of desire; then, pressed hard by these, he leaps into the house and rests his hands against the wall, and a serpent bites him. The house is the soul, and the wall is the body. Whenever, then, he rests the practical powers of the soul upon the enjoyment of the body, pleasure comes forth—for this is the serpent—and bites him; for through each sense of the body, as through a hole, pleasure creeping in bites the wretched soul. To the man, therefore, who is thus weak in the eyes of the soul, the sun of knowledge is darkness and blinding.

QUESTION From the Psalter: "The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in the fire, tested upon the earth, purified sevenfold." ANSWER They are called pure because they purify us from every stain of sins; and "silver tried in the fire" because of their transparency and illuminating power, as it were in silver; and because of their divine and testing power over our hearts—for the heart is called "earth" in the Gospel; and "purified sevenfold" when we purify each commandment sevenfold. It is good to clarify what is said by means of one commandment. The law declares, "You shall not murder." Whoever therefore wishes to purify this commandment sevenfold not only abstains from murder by the hand, but if he sees one who is hungry, he feeds him; if he sees one who is thirsty, he gives him drink; if he sees one who is naked, he clothes him; if he sees a stranger, he takes him in; if he sees one who is sick, he does not overlook him; if he sees one in prison, he runs to him; and simply put, whoever neglects one of these has committed murder against that person—for he has left him, as far as lies in his power, to die, though he was able to restore the one who needed him. Therefore, when one joins the six commandments of the Lord that have been enumerated to the legal commandment "You shall not murder," he purifies the word of the Lord sevenfold; and this can be applied to each commandment.

QUESTION From Proverbs: "Rarely set your foot toward your own friend, lest, having had his fill of you, he hate you." ANSWER Here it calls our body a "friend" because of the natural union and affection we have toward it. The word therefore advises that we should not take anxious care for the body, but should exercise providence over it only by the mere track of the soul, and that rarely, lest, when you make much of its rest, it display in you the things of the enemies and those who hate. QUESTION What does it mean, the saying from the patriarch Jacob: "I was paying for thefts of the day and thefts of the night"? ANSWER Understand "thefts of the day" as the defeats that come to us from the evil one through the outward senses, for which the patriarch paid off the labors of asceticism. And "thefts of the night" are those things which the enemy steals from us through inward thoughts, for which we must, like the patriarch, pay off labors and vigils and the remaining forms of asceticism.

QUESTION What does the heifer, hamstrung in the valley according to the law concerning unknown murder, signify? ANSWER By these things the spiritual intent of the Scripture signifies that we must fear not only for manifest sins, as those who will give account for them, but also, fearing for things done by us unknowingly, we must always hamstring the heifer—that is, our flesh—in the valley of continence and ascetic practice. For this reason they left the heifer alive, so that we too might learn not to kill the body, but to hamstring and tame the pleasures that rise up against us. QUESTION What do Nadab and Abiud signify, who "offered strange fire" and were therefore consumed? ANSWER Those who always serve God as priests, and offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice, and have within themselves the fervor of the Holy Spirit, like Cleopas, offer their own fire to God; but whenever, growing slack, they fall outside this state and gather up within themselves the kindling of the passions, then they have brought in strange fire and are consumed in conscience by the fire of reproofs. QUESTION For what reason is fine flour always included with the sacrifices of the law, and sometimes kneaded with oil, sometimes baked in an oven, sometimes in a pan? ANSWER Fine flour is to be understood as referring to the word, since it is the food of rational beings; and when kneaded with oil, it signifies the word together with the illumination of knowledge; when in a pan, it signifies the word tested and consolidated by the pleasurable temptations that assail us from within;

But when it means into an oven, it signifies the word that is firm through the testing in endurance of the temptations that fall upon us from outside. QUESTION Why, in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day, when those according to the law were celebrating seven days, did they bring on the first day fourteen calves, and each day diminish one calf until they came to seven? ANSWER Since according to the word of the Lord one must turn and become like children, and the child is wholly deprived of the passionate motion, but when he becomes fourteen years old the passionate motion immediately begins to be stirred in him, this, then, as I think, is what the mystical meaning of the law intimates: that one must consecrate to God also the diminution of the natural motion, until we come to perfect dispassion. QUESTION 155 What do the two hundred and fifty men signify who rose up against Moses and, while offering incense, fire came out from the Lord and devoured them, and the Lord commanded Eleazar to take up their censers and make them into hammered plates and attach them to the altar? ANSWER The number fifty is always taken in divine matters as transcending things under time; and the number two hundred in the case of sensible things and senses, because of the composition of the number four with five. Therefore as many as receive sensible things sensibly and pursue the divine virtues because of sensible things, these rise up against the divine law and are burned in their conscience by the fire of reproofs.

And then the priestly word of teaching takes their fire-pans, that is, the mind in which they thought they were offering to God a zeal not according to knowledge, and through teaching it drives out and thins the thickness that lies upon it, and brings it to the altar, that is, to the divine knowledge. QUESTION For what reason does the law forbid "the exchange of a dog and the hire of a harlot"? ANSWER By these things it signifies that one must offer to God the virtues unmixed with anger and desire, calling anger a dog, and desire a harlot. QUESTION Since the twenty-first psalm clearly refers to the Lord, how are we to understand "But I am a worm and not a man"? ANSWER Our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his ineffable love for mankind toward us, became and was called a worm; for just as the worm is born without intercourse, so too the Lord was conceived without seed. But also as a worm he became bait for the devil; for gaping wide open at his flesh as at a worm, he was caught fast by his divinity. But he is also a worm to his enemies; for by wisdom the wise man is immediately found, but to the fool he is crooked. But he also becomes a worm in us whenever we sin, convicting and gnawing at our conscience. QUESTION What is that which is written in Genesis, "and he appointed the cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life"? ANSWER Just as the perceptible tree becomes food for the flesh, so too the tree of life, which is the Lord, becomes food and life for our souls. And the way that leads to him is the virtues;

It is guarded by the cherubim and the flaming sword; and "cherubim" is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge." Through knowledge, our longing toward God comes to be in us; through the flaming sword, that is, through discernment that consumes wicked things, fear comes to be added to us. Therefore fear and longing are what guard the way of the tree of life. The sword is said to turn: for whenever we sin, it meets us face to face, convicting us through our conscience; but whenever we repent, it gives us passage. QUESTION From the Apostle: "Whoever builds on this foundation gold or silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—the fire will test them. If anyone's work which he built remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire." ANSWER The foundation is faith in Christ. One builds on it, as it were, gold—theological mystical teaching; silver—a transparent life; precious stones—pious thoughts; wood—attachment to perceptible things; hay—one who feeds on irrationality; stubble—one who works corruption. And in the case of those who have good deeds, the day of knowledge shows that their revelation has occurred in fire, that is, in the Spirit. But in those who sin, their works are burned up, while discernment justifies the conscience and diminishes sins through repentance and saves the man, but penalizes the idleness of the virtues of the preceding time.

But even in the age to come the works of sin pass into non-existence, while nature receives back its own powers intact through the fire of judgment. QUESTION: What is it that David sings, saying, "Give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your handmaid"? ANSWER: Since by nature we are servants of God, but sons of his handmaid, Wisdom, he prays that strength be given to us first, that is, dominion over the passions, and then through this salvation comes to us. QUESTION: Since in the Kingdoms it is written that God "incited David" to number the people, but in the Chronicles it says the devil did, how then will the divine Scripture be shown to be in agreement with itself? ANSWER: Since the Apostle calls the devil the god of this age, the passage in the Kingdoms must be understood in that sense. Or also otherwise: since nothing happens without the providence of God, but all things happen either by good pleasure, or by economy, or by permission, it is pious to understand what is written in the Kingdoms, that God incited, in place of "he permitted," while in the Chronicles it is the devil who worked and became the cause. And the seventy thousand fall either as those found with Abessalom or as those who have the passion of conceit and pride. And according to contemplation, this signifies that every David who has begotten a thought not by disposition but by a snatching away of elation, on repenting asks God, and the thoughts concerned with temporal and transient things die;

For the number seventy signifies temporal motion because of the seven-day cycle. For this reason it is better to decline being pursued by the hostile demons and to endure a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. QUESTION: What does the paralytic mean, who is let down through the roof by four men, and is it possible, according to the historical account, for the house to have been unroofed? ANSWER: According to the historical account, the house was certainly unroofed, since those who were eyewitnesses of those places say that the roofs of the houses there are made of pumice stone, which is very light, so that one who wishes to unroof it can easily and quickly do so. But according to the manner of spiritual interpretation, every mind is a paralytic that is sick in sins and unable through natural contemplation—for this is the door—to see the Word; having unroofed through faith the covering of the coarseness of the legal letter, it is let down through the four virtues from the vain height to the Word who emptied himself, and through faith and action it receives healing. QUESTION: What does the Babylonian furnace mean?

ANSWER: Temptations come upon us in two ways: voluntarily, through the pleasurable passions within us, and involuntarily, through afflictions from without. And when voluntarily—at the urging of Nebuchadnezzar, that is, the devil—we kindle for ourselves the furnace of the passions, fueling it with anger as with a vine-branch, with desire as with pitch, with pleasure as with naphtha, and with the perversion of the reason as with tow; for flax is taken to mean the reason, which is why the priests, when serving as priests, wore linen garments. So whenever the reason is perverted, it becomes tow, and through it the remaining passions are easily kindled. But if someone, like the blessed children, calls upon God through humility and earnest prayer, he is loosed from the bonds of hands and feet—that is, from the practical life and the journey according to God—and is refreshed by the visitation of the Holy Spirit. And when we are tempted involuntarily and the intelligible Nebuchadnezzar kindles the furnace for us through afflictions from without—sickness and other unwanted circumstances—even so we are able, through endurance and thanksgiving, to be refreshed by the hope of the good things laid up in store. QUESTION: For what reason, when the prophet Elisha was mocked by the children, did he pray and bears came out and tore apart forty-two (42) children? ANSWER: Some say that the children were not Israelites but from among the foreigners, and that they were not children in age but in understanding.

Since, then, they heard the prophet performing many signs and did not believe but mocked him, and there were present some who did not share their vain opinion—so that these might not be harmed and the blasphemy against God might not be attributed to them—God came out against them. In contemplation, every intellect is bald, according to Elisha—that is, pure of material concepts—yet in the ascent of knowledge it is much mocked by the reasonings concerned with sensible things, matter, and form, since the number forty indicates sensible things; and matter and form added together produce the number forty-two. The intellect, then, is mocked by such reasonings so as to be cast into hesitation regarding virtue. These, therefore, he destroys through prayer by means of the two bears—that is, through pleasure and desire; for when such passions are handled in reverse for the better, they will kill the mocking reasonings. QUESTION: What does the Gospel parable mean that contains the symbol of the kings with twenty and the ten thousand? ANSWER: The king arrayed with the ten thousand signifies the king in us, the intellect, warring with the ten commandments against the other king who has the twenty thousand—that is, against the ruler of this world, who is arrayed with sensible things and the senses; for the five senses inclined toward sensible things, which are from four elements, make twenty; for through these the enemy is arrayed against us. And to sit down and take counsel signifies whether it is possible to undertake every hardship and toil for the sake of virtue.

If not, he says, entreat for the things that make for peace, that is, by submitting to the natural ordinances imposed on us after the transgression, since we are unable to pursue the way of life according to the Gospel. QUESTION: What does the deaf demon in the Gospel mean? ANSWER: A soul disobedient to the commandments of the Lord is troubled by the deaf demon; but whenever the Word of God comes to be in it through the working of the commandments, then it not only hears but also speaks through the knowledge of God. QUESTION: What does the tower in the Gospel, in the Lord's parable, mean—the one that the man unable to finish it is mocked for by those who pass by? ANSWER: The tower signifies the perfection of the virtues, built up together with knowledge. Whoever, then, after practical dispassion has a fitness for acquiring the natural, contemplative, and theological principles, through which perfect knowledge is completed—this man completes the building of the tower; but the one lacking any one of these, as unable to bring the building to completion, is mocked by those who pass by. QUESTION 168 *** will be shown to be evangelists. ANSWER: They say that universal things are significant of particular things, and particular things of universal things. He, then, who said, "I came to seek the lost," signified the universal nature—Israel, which according to the principle of Genesis both is and always "sees God"; but he who said that he was sent only to the sheep of the house of Israel, he too through the particular signified the universal.

For since in Abraham the good of nature that had been dissipated in the forefather through disobedience was restored through knowledge, God gives him the promise that he will be father of many nations—of those who through knowledge arrive at the same faith as his and are adopted as sons to him; for it is clear that if they are adopted as sons, they are also of the house of Israel and co-heirs and members of the same body. And the Canaanite woman's request for the crumbs indicates the teaching suited to those being introduced into the life according to virtue from unbelief; for the simple and most perfect word of knowledge is divided into many parts according to the condition of those who receive it. Therefore catechesis is suited to those being introduced, which is likened to crumbs. And the dog, since it is a barking animal, driving away strangers but fawning on its own, is taken to mean the practical condition, which drives away the vices contrary to nature but fawns on the natural virtues, guarding them with vigor. QUESTION: What does the story concerning Joab mean, when he pursued Sheba the son of Bichri, "lifting up his hand against David," and who is the woman who threw his head from the wall?

ANSWER: Joab, when aspirated, is interpreted as "outside" or "pursuing," but when unaspirated, as "giving" or "supplying." Here Joab must be understood as courage, and Sheba as pride, which, like a head, contains the rest of the passions in the manner of a little house. Whenever, therefore, the virtuous mind perceives the uprising of pride, it sends Joab, that is, courage, which drives out and urges on the powers of the soul toward its destruction. Fleeing, then, it hides itself as if in some city, in one of the virtues; courage sacks it, seeking to bring about the destruction of pride. But the wise woman, which is wisdom, by discovering the constituent causes of virtue, brings about the destruction of the productive causes of the passions, through which every constitution of evil comes to be in the soul. QUESTION: What does the story concerning Amasa mean, when Joab killed him? ANSWER: Amasa is interpreted as "anointed" or "anointing"; he is therefore taken as impassibility, as one who easily escapes every grasp of the adversaries through perfection, while Joab is taken as courage. Whenever, then, the soul, through courage, after the perfect impassibility in habit, having abandoned prayer, busies itself vainly with some passion, it kills him, that is, it makes the more perfect mode of contemplation inactive, busying itself with defeated enemies.

QUESTION: What does the story concerning the same Joab mean, when he killed Abner, and what is the curse that was brought upon him? ANSWER: Here Joab is taken to mean the resentful thought, against which he also receives the curse—namely, to be leaned upon a staff and to fall by the sword—the account indicating, I think, through the staff the resentful thought's hope in things perceptible (for every resentful thought, always rolling about in material things, has its leaning upon them too), and through "falling by the sword" the removal of such a disposition by the most incisive word. QUESTION: Whose person does Hushai represent when David sent him "to scatter the counsel of Ahithophel"? ANSWER: Since Hushai was the son of Jemini, in his own person he is interpreted as "spinning," but in relation to his father he is called "a right son"; and he is taken to mean discernment; for this, by its discerning power, makes subtle and scatters the counsels of the adversaries. QUESTION: What does what was said by the Apostle mean, "the fullness of him who fills all things in all things"?

ANSWER: God, according to His essence, is removed in a negative sense from all beings; for He is neither spoken of, nor conceived, nor participated in by anyone in any way. But according to His providential procession, being participated in by many, He is also filled by them. For each of the things that have come to be, according to its own principle (logos) that exists in God, is said to be a member of God and to have a place in God. Indeed, if it is moved according to that principle wisely and with reason, it will come to be in God, fulfilling its own place and working out its proper order in the body of Christ as a useful member. But whoever abandons his own principle and is carried irrationally toward things that do not exist will justly undergo eternal punishment for the blame that has come about, as far as he is concerned, in the body of Christ. QUESTION 174 What does Adonibezek mean, when he was hanged by Joshua the son of Nun "on a double tree"? ANSWER: The double tree bears the type of the activity and relation toward perceptible things, both of soul and body. Whoever, then, in the manner of Joshua, cutting the path of virtue through the commandments, makes evil inactive both in soul and body, both as regards perception and as regards things contrary to nature, this man has hanged the ruler of this world on a double tree.

QUESTION: What does the story concerning Ahab mean, when the prophet saw the angelic powers on the right and on the left? ANSWER: The prophet here weaves the universal account of providence, knowing that the governing principle has been mingled with all things; and by the right he introduces the principles of the actions that are fitting and conditional, while by the left he introduces those of judgment, that is, of things not in our power. But whoever is led to what is right neither by the teaching of the divine law nor by the onset of afflictions that befall him, this one is handed over, being abandoned to self-love, that is, to the sin within him, which, thrusting him into a deeper depth of evils, does not stop until, having killed him, it sends him unrepentant to the tribunal there. QUESTION: What does the woman in the Gospel who was bent double for eighteen years mean? ANSWER: A soul entangled in sensible things is signified through this woman bent double, by means of its three powers. For the number six, in which the sensible world was brought into generation, tripled makes eighteen. If, then, through repentance it comes to the Word and God, it becomes healthy, no longer bending down to earthly things but gazing around at the beauties of heaven. QUESTION: What does the song of Habakkuk mean, which says, "The sheep failed from food, and there are no oxen at the manger"?

ANSWER: The thoughts and movements of the mind are sheep, and the oxen are spiritual teaching, and the manger is the impassibility that comes through practice; when this is absent, spiritual teaching fails, and when this fails, the thoughts and movements that are established in our mind through it naturally fail along with it, since the soul descends to the affairs of life because of the famine of the word. Or, in another way: the rational sheep have failed because they do not feed on the spiritual food of teaching, since the spiritual oxen—the teachers—are not present at the manger of the Church. QUESTION: What does the Lord's command mean in an anagogical sense, "If anyone compels you to go one mile, go with him two"? ANSWER: The one who compels us is the Lord through his teaching—the one mile of his commandment. It is good, then, for us to hear him commanding and to go two miles, that is, to obey the commandment and to add the other mile through works.

Or, put differently: we are compelled to go the mile of faith, and we are also required to perform the works of faith. QUESTION: What is the meaning of "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also"? ANSWER: If, he says, the demons strike you on the right cheek through your thoughts, lifting you up through right works, turn the other, that is, bring into view the works of the left action, as many as we have done. QUESTION: What does the saying of the Lord to the disciples mean, that "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father"? ANSWER: Since our salvation is food and drink for God, as it is written, and the Lord fulfilled this through the economy according to the flesh and brought the saving purpose concerning us ourselves to completion through his own teaching and conduct, having made his disciples to become beyond sense perception, he says, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine, that is, of the salvation that has been dispensed to men through his sojourn among us. But in the age to come he drinks this new, that is, renewed through the Holy Spirit and making those who are worthy gods by grace through the ecstatic and drunken participation in good things.

QUESTION: What is the meaning of "My Spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh; but their days shall be a hundred and twenty years"? ANSWER: God, caring for the salvation of men at that time, foretold that their life would be a hundred and twenty years. For twenty years passed from when Noah was commanded to build the ark; and for a hundred years he remained building the ark, so that by its presence they might come to correction. After this, however, he brought on the flood and swept them all away. And the Scripture is true that a hundred and twenty years would be given to that generation from the time he threatened them. QUESTION: What does Eutychus signify in the Acts, when he fell "from the third story, while Paul was discoursing"? ANSWER: Every mind that has ascended through the practical life as a first story, and has established itself in natural contemplation as a second story, and by undoubting faith has mounted itself up to the height of theology as a third story, and then neglects the divine word and grows drowsy, falls from the said third story. But if the word of teaching, falling upon him, finds in him something living and he has not been wholly deadened through despair, he is made alive again through repentance. QUESTION: How is it said in the Gospel that one denarius is given by the householder to those who labored in the vineyard, though their intention was not the same, and that the callings are different?

ANSWER Some of the holy fathers say that the different callings signify the different ages, while others say they signify the different dispositions. Understand the denarius to be chastity, but its differences are many: for the man who has his own wife, having obtained her, preserves chastity in this respect; but there is another higher than he, because he does not continuously make use of the freedom of the law; another makes use of it only for the procreation of the race through succession; another, after obtaining one or two children, completely abstains from marital intercourse; and there is one higher than all these, who has not given himself to marriage at all but practices virginity for love of the Lord. The account has therefore shown five dispositions, one higher than another, in which the five callings and the one denarius of chastity are made clear; and understand this also in the case of the other virtues. QUESTION: What do the events concerning the prophet Jonah signify, and what is Joppa, from which he flees? ANSWER: Jonah, fleeing from the face of the Lord, is taken to signify our nature; for this nature, being in Joppa—which is interpreted as "observation of joy"—and meaning Paradise, fled through disobedience and gave itself to the sea of life and is storm-tossed and swallowed by the spiritual sea-monster and vomited up through the Lord's three-day burial in Hades. He is taken again also to signify the prophetic grace, and he preaches in Nineveh, that is, to the Gentiles, and is distressed over the gourd.

The gourd is the bodily worship of the law, which the worm dried up—the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "I am a worm and not a man"; for by his coming he abolished the temporary worship of the law. And the fact that there were in the city twelve thousand who did not know right or left signifies those who pursue virtue neither by excess nor by deficiency but by the mean and the royal road. QUESTION: Why is it that a raven feeds Elijah with bread in the morning and meat in the evening? ANSWER: The raven is taken to mean the nature that has been blackened by disobedience, while Elijah, sitting by the brook, is taken to mean the knowing mind established in the brook of temptations and the labors of ascetic practice. He is fed from the blackened nature with bread in the morning—that is, gathering knowledge from the natural contemplation of beings—and with meat in the evening; for he is initiated into the mystery of the Lord's incarnation that will come at the last, that he who established nature out of nothing will surely restore it when it has been corrupted. Or otherwise: Elijah is taken as a type of the Lord; for when an intelligible famine held all hearts, he came to the brook—that is, to this life—willingly enduring temptations and passions, and his own people, though he came to his own, did not receive him or feed him, but the nations, blackened by idolatry, welcomed him and fed him through knowledge and practice, knowledge being signified by the bread and practice by the meat. QUESTION: What is the meaning of what is said in the psalm, "He will rejoice like a giant to run his course"?

ANSWER: "Giant" is interpreted as "one who falls upon," and it is taken to refer to the Lord; for he rejoiced, having accomplished our salvation along the path of his dispensation, and he fell upon the demonic phalanxes, abolishing their dominion against us. QUESTION: From the 71st Psalm: "In his days righteousness shall spring up and abundance of peace, until the moon be removed." ANSWER: It is clear to all that the prophet foretold these things by the Spirit concerning the Lord's life in the flesh. And the Lord's days are not those he spent bodily on earth, but the virtues, which, illuminating like days, cause righteousness to spring up in us. What righteousness, if not the distributive habit that does not allow the lesser to rise up against the greater, that is, "the mind of the flesh against the law of the spirit"? And "abundance of peace" comes to be in us when the passions, having been calmed, remain free from rebellion toward the soul; and "until the moon be removed" signifies this: that such great knowledge of God comes to the soul, springing up righteousness in us, that even the bare fantasies of our mutable nature—for this is the moon—are completely removed. "And he shall have dominion," it says, "from sea to sea": here it indicates the sea as practice, from which beginning he rules over those subject to his law "to the sea," that is, clearly to the boundless knowledge, in which those who partake of it swim through the contemplation of beings.

Or understand the sea as baptism, in which, according to the prophet, the face of the adversary is destroyed into the first sea and his back parts into the last sea, calling the first sea, as has been said, baptism, and the last the resurrection, in which the back parts of the enemy are abolished; for then our nature fully puts off the law of sin that was implanted through transgression. Or otherwise: the face of the devil is destroyed, that is, his evil deeds, through the practical life; for this, as has been said, is the first sea; and his back parts are also destroyed, that is, the preconceptions of evils and the fantasies, through the second sea, that is, knowledge. QUESTION: The conversation that took place from the Lord with Nicodemus, in which he says that the Spirit blows where he wishes and you hear his voice—about what spirit does he say this? ANSWER: Some think that the Lord is speaking about the airy wind, but to me it rather appears that he is speaking about the Holy Spirit. For this Spirit blows where he wishes with authority, and he wishes in those who are receptive and pure in mind.

For these, being inspired with the divine charisms, do not know from where any charism at all was given to them, or for what cause, nor to what end the gift of the charism arrives, but they only hear the voice—that is, the very activity of the charism made manifest through the purity of life, and in some manner emitting a voice—whether it is a charism of teaching or of healings or yet *** *** *** QUESTION: What is the blasphemy against the Spirit, and how is it that "every sin will be forgiven to men, but to those who blaspheme against it it will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the one to come"? ANSWER: The difficulty concerning the blasphemy against the Spirit has its solution from the very matter itself; for when the Lord was performing various healings, the Jews attributed the energies of the Spirit to the ruler of the demons. But that there is no forgiveness for those who blaspheme, neither here nor in the age to come, must be examined next. Some of those who have accurately understood such matters through the Spirit say that there are four ways by which forgiveness of sins comes about, two here and two in the age to come. For since memory does not reach so far as to remember the sins of the whole of time, so that a man might repent of them here, the Master of nature, being philanthropic, arranged ways of repentance even when we do not repent; in the age to come, as has been said, two;

Whenever someone here sins indifferently and again does good indifferently, whether moved to pity and compassion toward his neighbor or to whatever else pertains to philanthropy, these things are weighed in the balance in the age to come at the time of judgment, and forgiveness is granted for whatever the inclination favors. This is the one way. The second is this: whenever someone entangled in sins, hearing the Lord say, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged," fears and judges no one, in the examination of his life he is not judged, as one who has kept the commandment; for the most truthful one is not forgetful of his own commandment. The other two ways have their forgiveness here: whenever someone in sins is administered by providence in calamities, in necessities, in illnesses—for God purifies him through such things in a way he does not know—and if he gives thanks while being tested, he receives the reward for his thanksgiving; but if he is ungrateful, he is purified from these things for the sins for which he is disciplined, but he is exacted the penalty for his ingratitude. Since, therefore, whatever sins someone commits against men, as the account has shown, has many occasions for forgiveness—for in sinning against a man, and doing good to another man, he has made his defense to the very nature against which he sinned—but the blasphemy against the Spirit, which is unbelief, has no other occasion for forgiveness except to become faithful, reasonably for the one who has shut up his life in unbelief, neither here nor in the age to come will the sin of his unbelief and godlessness be forgiven.

QUESTION From the Gospel: "Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God having come in power." Mark says this, but Matthew says: "until they see the Son of Man coming in his glory." ANSWER Since the Word of God is not circumscribed by things that happen according to history, but being always active, like the sun, shines forth its own light, he spoke to the disciples not only according to history when he said "there are some of those standing here," but he also speaks concerning all those who shone in virtue in their time, meaning instead "those who have their standing near me on the foundation of the virtues." And "they will not taste death" was said also concerning the apostles, that they will not taste natural death until they see through the Transfiguration the image of the brightness that will belong to the saints. But since the word knows different deaths—for the mortification of the passions is also called death—and also the practical life, when, having ceased the battle against the passions, it comes to natural contemplation, it has died to its former state, being occupied with the contemplation of beings, having become idle from the agonistic battle of the practical life.

But also the one who has passed beyond natural contemplation and has left behind all caused things and has come to the Cause through theological negation—this one too has died to his former state, no longer being moved among things made but having transferred his movement to the Maker of all things. Concerning the death, then, that comes about through the removal of all things, he says that they will not taste it—that is, they will not suffer it—namely those equal to the apostles in virtue, until the Lord, having been transfigured, shows himself no longer spoken of affirmatively from the positing of existing things, but by the theology according to negation displaying the inaccessible hiddenness of the Godhead. And the fact that one of the evangelists says "the Son of Man coming in his glory," while the other says "until they see the kingdom of God having come in power," means this: since according to the Godhead he is the Son of God, but according to the human nature he became for our sake the Son of Man—according to what he is, then, as Son of God he always possesses the glory, but according to his becoming Son of Man he is said to come in his glory. For in this way he glorified the humanity he assumed, so that just as, being in a passible body, he was seen transfigured on the mountain, so we, receiving an incorruptible body in the resurrection, will be. For the phrase "having come in power" indicated that the hoped-for incorruptible and eternal kingdom of the saints is not yet present in actual operation.

QUESTION: "And after six days Jesus takes Peter and James and John and brings them up into a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light." ANSWER: "After six days" means that, since in six days God brought the visible creation into being, those who by the abundance of virtues and knowledge have passed beyond all visible things ascend together with the Word on the mountain of theology. But since Luke mentioned eight days and seems to show a contradiction among the evangelists, I think this difficulty admits of a solution, and that the history harmonizes fittingly with the contemplation. For just as, according to the history, the one who said "six days" meant the days in between, while the one who said "eight" indicated both the beginning, in which the Lord spoke, and the end, in which the Transfiguration took place, so also according to the contemplation. For since man, through transgression, slipped away into what is contrary to nature, the one who wishes to ascend with the Word to the mountain of theology must first pass through what is contrary to nature as though it were one day, and pass through nature as though it were six days, and come to be in what is above nature, which is the eighth; for this is beyond time and marks out the state that is to come.

Why does he take "Peter and James and John" alone by themselves? Because the Word always withdraws from the crowded and disturbance-filled condition, and since Peter, according to the first name of Simon, is interpreted as "obedience," and according to "Peter" it signifies immutability, and by these is signified the immutable and immovable faith toward God that comes from obedience to the commandments; and James is interpreted as "supplanter," and by this is signified hope—for unless one hopes, in taking hold of these passing and corruptible things, to receive the untrodden and incorruptible things, he cannot supplant the devil, who always has his deceit in sensible things; and John is interpreted as "dove," and by this is signified love, since meekness is nothing other than the stillness of anger and desire toward things contrary to nature, and the one who, neither through desires nor through failure to obtain what he desires, comes into anger, clearly loves all. To those, then, who have acquired faith, hope, and love, the Word goes up with them to the mountain of theology and is transfigured before them, no longer being affirmed as God and holy and king and the like, but being denied according to what is beyond God and beyond holy and all things said by way of preeminence.

The face of the Word, which shone like the sun, is the hiddenness that characterizes His essence, at which it is impossible to gaze directly through the interpretation of thoughts, just as it is impossible to gaze at the brightness of the sun, even if one has thoroughly purified one's power of sight. But since Scripture has mentioned a garment, it is necessary, following the sequence of the passage, to make mention also of the body. The body of the Word, then, is the essence of the virtues—for example, goodness, meekness, and the like; and the garments of the Word are the words of Scripture and the ordered creation that has been brought forth and received its being from God, which those see as white who scrape off the letter of the divine Scripture from the thickness that lies upon it and, by the contemplation of the Spirit, behold the radiant beauty of the meanings, and who behold the sensible creation radiantly by stripping away the deception that comes through the senses and who, from the greatness of its beauty, proportionally infer its Creator. QUESTION: "And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared, conversing with Him. And Peter answered and said to Jesus: 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You will, let us make three tents: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'" ANSWER: For those who pass from the letter to the spirit see both the Law and the Prophets in company with the Word and proclaiming His presence with a voice that rings out clearly. For what reason did Peter mention tents? Because all knowledge and all virtue, compared with the state that is to come, differs in no way from a tent that is easily taken down, according to the Apostle who says, "whether prophecies, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall be done away.

There are three tents: the practical, the natural, and the theological. The theological he assigned to the Lord God, the natural contemplation to Moses, since he wrote the generation of all things, and the practical to Elijah, as a virgin, a zealot, and an ascetic. QUESTION: What is the reason that Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, and why did the Lord, as if sealing the things of his servants, deign himself also to remain without food the same forty days? And what does the number forty signify? ANSWER: The number forty is taken in many places in the divinely inspired Scripture as productive of affliction, as when the Israelites suffered hardship in the desert forty years, and the same people served in Egypt four hundred years. But this world also, in which we endure affliction, consists of four elements. Moses, then, as the first lawgiver and as one who delivered the law to the Jews while they were infants, fasts forty days, signifying that the legislation given through him legislates abstinence from sins committed in practice; for every sin is naturally constituted from sensible things and the senses. Elijah, bearing the type of the prophetic gift as one who has transcended the legal precepts, fasts forty days, signifying that the prophetic gift legislates abstinence from assents. The Lord, as the fulfiller of the law and the only one who took away the sin of the world, having fasted the forty days, gave us power not only to abstain from sins in practice and assent but also to become superior to the bare fantasies themselves.

QUESTION: What does it mean in the Gospel when, after the Lord had repelled every temptation of the devil, the evangelist notes that "the devil departed from him until a time"? What sort of time? ANSWER: Since temptations are of two kinds, voluntary and involuntary—that is, those of pleasure and those of pain—the devil first tempted the Lord through those of pleasure, through gluttony and love of money and vainglory (for all these are productive of pleasure), and having been repelled, he departed until a time. What sort of time? The time of the passion at the cross, so that by assailing the Lord also through involuntary and painful temptations, as he supposed, he might be able to find in him some of the human passions. But he was repelled through these as well, and having been triumphed over in the cross, he was brought to nothing. QUESTION: Since John has been testified by the Lord himself to be greater than all those born of women—for indeed his life was pure and separated from all sin—of what *** *** missing VARIANT OF THE FIRST BOOK OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: various questions and selections of various chapters that are puzzling ( QUESTION 1,1: Which are the virtues of the soul and which of the body?

ANSWER: The virtues of the soul are these: love, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness of injuries, freedom from anger, freedom from despondency, freedom from envy, freedom from rash judgment, freedom from vainglory, almsgiving, chastity, freedom from love of money, compassion, freedom from pride, freedom from arrogance, compunction. And the virtues of the body are these: fasting, sleeping on the ground, vigil, self-control, poverty, freedom from distraction. QUESTION 1.2: What is it that is said in the Apostle, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also"? ANSWER: One "sings with the spirit" when he merely utters the pronunciation of the things sung with the tongue; and he "sings with the mind" when, knowing the power of the things sung, he rejoices in contemplation. QUESTION 1.3: What is this: "In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother brought me forth"? ANSWER: Since the prior purpose of God was that we should not be born through marriage and corruption, but the transgression of the commandment introduced marriage because Adam acted lawlessly, that is, rejected the law given to him by God, therefore all who are born from Adam are conceived in iniquities, falling under the condemnation of the forefather. And "in sins my mother brought me forth" signifies that Eve, the mother of us all, first brought forth sin, as it were teeming with pleasure. For this reason we too, falling under the condemnation of our mother, are said to be brought forth in sins.

QUESTION 1.4: What is the meaning of what the Apostle says, "I could wish to be anathema from Christ for my kinsmen"? ANSWER: "I could wish," he says, to be handed over by Christ to the devil, so as to be scourged and to endure the punishments on behalf of Israel, which by justice they owed for their unbelief toward God, only that they might be saved; in the same way as the Lord also "gave himself up and became a curse for us." QUESTION 1.5: In how many ways does a man sin? ANSWER: I think a man sins in four ways: by seizure, by deception, by ignorance, by disposition. And the first three come easily to recognition and repentance, but the one who sins from disposition and comes to repentance neither through experience nor through time has an incurable punishment. QUESTION 1.6: What does the Lord signify in the Gospel when he says that "two sparrows are sold for an assarion"? ANSWER: They say that the assarion is worth ten nummi; and by the ten is indicated the letter iota; and this is the beginning of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore through the name of the Lord both the old and the new people are redeemed, and the inner and the outer man.

QUESTION 1.7: What is the meaning of what was said by Elisha, when Elijah was taken up, "Where is the God of Aphpho?" ANSWER: It is interpreted in three senses: either "Where is the God of my father?" or "Where is the God of my great one?" or "Where is the God of the hidden one?" QUESTION 1.8: In how many ways are allegories [used], and what is tropology? ANSWER: Allegory is [the application of figurative language] to inanimate things, such as mountains, hills, trees, and the rest. Tropology is [the application of figurative language] to our own members, such as the head, eyes, and the rest; for tropology is so called from "turning." ( QUESTION 1.9: What is the meaning of what is said in the psalm, "You sat and spoke against your brother, and you set a stumbling block before the son of your mother"? ANSWER: He who slanders the deed of a fellow believer and, as it were, sits down to revile him, is rightly said to speak against his brother. But he who, carried away by envy, slanders the son who is adorned with wisdom and causes all to stumble—this is the one who "sets a stumbling block before the son of his mother." QUESTION 1.10: Since it is written in Saint Diadochus, in the hundredth chapter, that "some will be judged through fire and purified in the age to come," I beg that the intention of the father be revealed to me through clarity. ANSWER: Those who have acquired the perfection of love toward God and have raised the wing of the soul on high through the virtues are, according to the Apostle, caught up in the clouds and do not come into judgment. ( But those who have not altogether acquired perfection but possess both sins and right actions—these, in the tribunal of judgment

They come there also through the examination of good and evil deeds, being as it were purified by fire, if indeed the scale of good deeds weighs more heavily, and they are cleansed of punishment. QUESTION 11: Concerning different righteousnesses. ANSWER: Those wise in divine things say that there are three righteousnesses: human, angelic, and divine. They call the human righteousness the equality and fair-mindedness among the sensible things of this world; the angelic, the ungrudging imparting of divine knowledge; and they define divine righteousness as suffering on behalf of those who sin. QUESTION 12: For what reason did the Lord, when he rebuked Peter, call him Satan? ANSWER: The Lord does not call Peter Satan insultingly, as some suppose, but because the Lord's privations became our possessions—for example, his death became life for us, his dishonor became glory for us. So the apostle Peter, when the Lord said that he was about to suffer, supposed, following the nature of things, that it was impossible for life to die or for such great glory to be dishonored. The Lord, then, refuting this supposition—since one ought not to seek the sequence of nature in things that are above nature; for by contraries he accomplished these things, having purposed life through death and glory through dishonor—says, as this supposition of his was opposed to him, "Get behind me," instead of "Follow my purpose and do not preemptively seek the sequence of things." And they say the name Satan is interpreted as "opponent," which the Lord brought forward not insultingly but as if he were saying, "You who are opposed to my purpose.

QUESTION 1,25: How should we piously understand the Gospel saying, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son," and how does he say in another place, "I judge no one, but the word which I have spoken, that will judge him"? ANSWER: Insofar as he is God, neither the Father nor the Son will judge anyone; for a human being does not become a judge of irrational creatures, but of human beings. The Father has given judgment to the Son, not insofar as the Son is God, but insofar as he has become man. He will judge all, comparing his own conduct as a man with ours. Again, his word will judge—that is, the teaching which he demonstrated through his deeds, according to what is written: "which Jesus began to do and to teach." QUESTION 1,27: What does the riddle of Proverbs signify: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head"? ANSWER: We have as an enemy against the soul our own body, which always wages war against us through the uprising of the passions. If, then, the mind of the flesh, pressed by conscience, is hungry—that is, desires salvation—or is thirsty for divine knowledge, it is fitting to feed it through self-control and labors and to give it drink through the meditation of the divine oracles. For in this way there is heaped upon its head—that is, upon the mind—coals of fire, divine and spiritual thoughts.

QUESTION 1,28: What does the statement in the hundred and first psalm mean, "I have become like a solitary pelican"? ANSWER: This pelican is a bird, and the serpent greatly hates its nestlings. What does it contrive? It builds its nest on high, fencing it in on every side because of the serpent. What then does the crafty serpent do? It looks around to see from where the wind blows, and from there breathes its venom upon the nestlings, and they die. Then the pelican comes and sees that its children are dead, and it looks for a cloud and flies up on high, and with its wings strikes its own sides, and blood comes out, and through the cloud it sprinkles it upon them, and they are raised up. The pelican, then, is taken as the Lord; and its children, Adam and Eve, our nature; and its nest, paradise; and the serpent, the apostate devil. The author of evil, then, the serpent, breathed through disobedience upon the first-formed, and they became dead in sin. Therefore our Lord and God, because of his love for us, is lifted up on the precious cross, and having been pierced in the side, through the cloud of the Holy Spirit he granted us eternal life. QUESTION 1,29: What is this, "There the sparrows will build their nests"? ANSWER: He calls the sparrows either the souls or the various virtues. QUESTION 1,30: What does this mean, "The dwelling of the heron leads them"? ANSWER: They say that the heron is a bird, and that it lives with such chastity that whenever it is about to come together for intercourse, it mourns for forty days, and again after these, another forty.

It fixes its nest in the trees where it is not overshadowed by anything but has the air clear. By these things it signifies chastity; for this leads the way among all the virtues; and it is also driven away from sensible things, overshadowed by none of the things that are temporary; for the number forty contains the perfection of each of the four elements. QUESTION 1,31: What is the meaning of "repaying the sins of parents upon children to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me"? ANSWER: We have understood the first generation to be the sowing of evil, that is, the assault; the second, desire; the third, the habit of evil, that is, consent; and the fourth, activity, that is, action. It is repaid, then, to the third and fourth generation, that is, on account of consent and action; for the assault and the desire are not blameworthy, since the evil has not proceeded to its end. QUESTION 1,33: What does it mean, "For three or four impieties of Tyre I will not turn away"?

I think the prophetic word intimates four forms of impiety: the assault, the desire, the habit of evil, and the activity. In the case of the first and second, that is, the assault and the desire, God exercises forbearance, since the evil has not advanced to completion. But in the case of the third and fourth forms of impiety, that is, habit and activity—in other words, consent and practice—the word reasonably sets forth the threat. QUESTION 34 That Christ cannot be said to be of the Spirit, as is said of the Father and the Son, since Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ are said without distinction. ANSWER: Just as the mind is the cause of the word, so it is also of the spirit, but through the word; and just as we cannot say that the word is of the voice, so neither can we say that the Son is of the Spirit. QUESTION 35: What does what is said by the Lord signify: "If your eye or your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut them off and cast them from you"? ANSWER: It is possible to surmise that the parable intimates, in its obvious sense, things also concerning friends, as though they were eyes, and relatives, as though they were our necessary hands, and companions who serve us in the manner of feet; and if these cause us to stumble and harm the soul, the word has enjoined us to cut them off. But it is also possible to take the command in another way, according to the manner of spiritual interpretation: if you have contemplative knowledge, as it were an eye, but it lifts you up toward vainglory and pride, cut it off; and if you have a refined practice, and it becomes a cause of exaltation for you, cut it off.

Likewise, if you have a capacity for service, which is the foot, and are puffed up as a result, renounce it. For it is better for you to become free of these apparent virtues than through elation and pride to proceed to utter destruction. QUESTION 36: What does "the sun was lifted up and the moon stood in its order" signify? ANSWER: Whenever the sun of righteousness is exalted in us through good works and true knowledge, then the moon stands in its order—that is, our nature, which is subject to turning and change, receives a stable order. QUESTION 37: What is that which is written in the Catholic Epistle of Peter, "that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit"? ANSWER: Since these things were said concerning those in the flood, and they had complete ignorance of God and lived together with evil practices, therefore whatever sins they committed against themselves through the temptations that befell them each day—wars and invasions and various encounters—he forgave them; but the sins of ignorance and impiety toward him he did not forgive them, so that through faith in him, when by his love for humanity he came into the region of Hades, as many as would believe, the sin of impiety might be forgiven them and they might live according to God in the spirit, having been judged, clearly, in the flesh, as has been said, for their transgressions against men. QUESTION 45: What is that which is said in the Psalms, "Be at leisure and know that I am God"? ANSWER: There are six forms of leisure, by cultivating which we can come to know God.

The first is the activity of sin; the second, the inflammatory manner of life; the third, the place of mingling with those who live carelessly; the fourth, the unsuitable pursuit of the life according to God; the fifth, existence that is slandered and distracts the mind in many directions; the sixth, not having one's own will at all. And this is both renunciation and true submission according to God. (Question 1,67 How ought we to understand the ignorance concerning the consummation of the Son? Answer: Ignorance is twofold: the one is blameworthy, the other blameless; and the one is in our power, the other not in our power. The blameworthy one and the one in our power is ignorance concerning virtue and piety; the blameless one and the one not in our power is whatever we do not know though we wish to know it—for example, things happening far away, things about to happen. If, then, things far away were known among the holy prophets, and that not by our power but by grace, how much more did the Son of God know all things, and therefore the human element, not by nature but by union with the Word? For just as iron heated to glowing has all the properties of fire—for it enlightens and burns—yet is not by nature fire but iron, so too the human element of the Lord, insofar as it was united to the Word, knew all things and all things befitting God were displayed in it, but insofar as a human nature was united in it, it is said to be ignorant. Question 1,68 What does the monastic habit signify, and before this, what is the cutting off of the hair? Answer: Just as the head takes precedence over all the members in the body, so also in the soul the mind holds the place of the head;

This, then, must be cut off from all worldly thoughts. The kolobion, since it covers the whole body but leaves only the hands bare, signifies that we must be clothed in ethical philosophy, having stripped away the practical activities of sin; for the hands are admittedly a symbol of action and activity. The belt, since it is made from dead skins and girds the loins and the navel, signifies mortification through self-control, and that this must always be applied to the power and activity of evil; for the power of the opposing tyranny of the wicked one is, according to Job, "upon the navel of the belly," and "the loins," according to the blessed David, are filled with demonic mockeries; and "mockeries" are the various activities of fornication. The analabos, since it has the cross both in front and behind, signifies that, according to the Apostle, not only must we be crucified to the world but the world to us, so that, as we flee the world, we may have nothing as an obstacle, nor be held fast by our attachment to it through the deception that appears, nor again, being pursued from behind by the world, may we yield the tension of piety through involuntary temptations, but may we remain insensible and dead to both involuntary and voluntary passions.

The koukoulion signifies the grace of God that guards and covers our mind. For the one who has cut away the thoughts of the world receives the helmet of salvation. The sandals have this meaning: since they are made of dead skins and are placed under a small part of the body (in the same way that the whole body stands in relation to the footprints of the sandal), so the soul must make use of the body, and this body dead to the passions contrary to nature. The cloak, since it is four-cornered, and the world is made of four elements, signifies that we must be clothed in natural contemplation, so as not to look upon visible things in relation to sensation and the passions, but through the principle within them to be led up to their Creator. The baring of the left hand signifies that our good deeds must be shown forth in us according to the word of the Savior, so that people may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.

That the garments are black signifies that we must be invisible to the world, since we have our citizenship in heaven. But if one should take the pallium, being four-sided, as referring to the four general virtues, he will not miss the probable meaning. QUESTION 69 ANSWER [The priest proclaims peace to the Church from the height of the seat, imitating the Lord of the seat when he was taken up, both leaving and giving his own peace. And the response of the people, "and with your spirit," signifies this: you have granted us peace, Lord, and concord with one another; grant us also the peace of undivided union with you, so that, being at peace through your Spirit, which you placed in us at the beginning of creation, we may be inseparable from your love.] QUESTION 70 ANSWER [If the dead are not raised at all, why are they also baptized on their behalf? said the divine Apostle. If, he says, our bodies do not rise at all, why do we believe that in baptism they are transformed to incorruption?] QUESTION 71

ANSWER [If you seek the clarification of the scriptural music, it must be understood thus. “Praise the Lord with the sound of the trumpet”: in the remembrance of the resurrection, the earth shaken by the trumpet, as it is written. “Praise him with psaltery and harp”: with our tongue and mouth, as with a certain plectrum, struck by the Spirit. “Praise him with timbrel and dance”: in flesh and soul, from which, as dances, the petitions that pass to God go up. “Praise him with strings and organ”: in the heart and in every inward part and sinew, which he has called an organ. “Praise him with cymbals of good sound”: with the lips, through which the harmonious strains of psalmody are woven.] QUESTION 73 Since in one of the copies of the Apostle it is contained that “we shall all indeed sleep, but we shall not all be changed,” and in another that “we shall not all indeed sleep, but we shall all be changed,” I ask to learn which of the editions one ought to approve, and what is signified by these things. ANSWER I think that according to either edition, since the ancient copies contain both, one who takes them piously will not fall away from the apostolic purpose. According to “we shall all indeed sleep, but we shall not all be changed,” it must be understood thus: that we shall all undergo the sleep through death, but we shall not all exchange glory and boldness of speech; which the same Apostle sets forth more clearly in another place, saying, “if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

According to the saying, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," it must be understood thus: that we shall not all sleep the temporal sleep, so as to require burial and release into corruption; but those found at that time will endure a brief death, not needing temporal sleep because of the resurrection that occurs instantly; and all shall be changed, that is, shall put on incorruption. There is also an approach of another contemplation concerning this: "We shall not all sleep," having made cessation and inactivity in sins, nor shall we put our own passions to sleep, according to "I sleep, but my heart keeps watch." For the writer of the Song of divine loves signifies that he who has become entirely inactive toward all things sensible and intelligible, this man keeps watch with his heart alone, rejoicing in the contemplation of God alone. And "we shall all be changed" declares the common change into incorruption. QUESTION 77: What is the saying in the Apostle, "Would that they would even cut themselves off"? ANSWER: This is said in place of "they will lament and beat their breasts," coming to repentance for the sins by which they overturned the faithful. QUESTION 78: For what reason are the Moabites and Ammonites forbidden to enter into the temple of the Lord, "until the third and fourth and tenth generation, and forever"?

ANSWER: Since "Moabite" is interpreted as "bowel of a father," and "Ammonite" as "father of a mother," it is signified by these that whoever receives an example of wickedness from another has made manifest the bowel of the father; but whoever gives birth to sin from himself, this one is father of a mother, that is, of his own sin. Such people, therefore, shall not enter the house of the Lord until the third and fourth and tenth generation, and until eternity—that is, the one who does not, through good habit and action (for this is the third and fourth generation of the virtues), and through the name and faith of the Lord Jesus, and through the ten commandments of the law, and through the regeneration that will be in the age to come, make himself at home with God, shall not enter the house of God, that is, into the heavenly city, "in which is the dwelling of all who rejoice." QUESTION 79: Why is it that in part a leper is unclean according to the law, but one who is wholly leprous is clean? ANSWER: The one who is leprous in some part has that part in which the leprosy is dead; for when the life-giving blood withdraws, the place becomes hollow, and whenever the hollow of the leprosy submitted to the touch of the priest, it defiled such a person. So too, the one who has become leprous in some part of the soul, when the soul has been hollowed out—that is, humbled through the withdrawal of the life-giving power of virtue—becomes unclean. But the wholly leprous one has the color of the leper, yet has the life-giving blood scattered over the surface throughout the whole body.

This therefore signifies that the one who has come to the furthest limit of wickedness, and then, having repented, recovers the life-giving power of virtue, has only his conscience stained by his former preconceptions; for he cannot fail to reckon what he has done as not done. For this reason, then, the law declares such a person clean. QUESTION 81: Why did Ham sin and Canaan be cursed? And if one were to take the meaning of the Scripture according to the letter, the righteous Noah will appear unjust in this, bringing a curse upon one person for another's sin; and besides, if Canaan was cursed, his offspring from him ought certainly also to be cursed—yet we find his offspring, more than the others, running to faith in Christ. ANSWER: We find everywhere that God and all the saints strive against wickedness and curse it. Since, then, wickedness first takes its origin in a person according to habit, and from this the sin according to activity proceeds, Canaan, as representing the sin according to activity, has reasonably met with the curse. But if you wish to consider this according to the mere movement of the soul—which is in the composite of both, I mean body and soul—a habit that has not proceeded to its end is an activity in the soul.

QUESTION 1,82 RESPONSE: Providence, then, is the care that comes from God to existing things; providence is the will of God, through which all existing things receive their fitting guidance. (QUESTION 1,83 RESPONSE: He appeared to Abraham through an angel, to Moses through fire in the bush, to Isaiah through the seraphim, to Ezekiel through the cherubim; all these have testified that they saw him in different ways. VARIANT 2 OF THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (QUESTION 2,6: What is "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, but for brothers to dwell together in unity"? RESPONSE: In the immediate sense, when they are of the same faith, "behold, the good"; and when they are in agreement also in works, "behold, the pleasant." Understand "brothers dwelling together in unity" as the three powers of the soul, or the soul and the body, when they are in agreement concerning the knowledge of divine things and concerning good deeds; for when they act well, "behold, the good"; and when knowledge also agrees, "behold, the pleasant." (QUESTION 2,7: "As ointment upon the head, running down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down upon the hem of his garment." RESPONSE: The ointment is the Holy Spirit, the head is the intellect, the beard is the word; for the word encompasses the heart. The beard of Aaron is the word that slays the passions and consecrates the virtues to God. And the grace of the Spirit descends also upon the hem of the garment, that is, it is distributed through the practical life also to ethical philosophy; for the hem of the garment is the extremity. QUESTION 2,8: As "the dew of Hermon that descends upon the mountains of Zion.

RESPONSE: The mountains of Zion are the saints who look to the heights; upon them the dew of Hermon descends. And Hermon is interpreted as “turning away of beasts.” They say also that the river Jordan is born there; and by these things he signifies the grace of holy baptism; for this always descends upon the saints, and through it comes the turning away of the noetic beasts. QUESTION 2,9 That “there the Lord commanded the blessing, life unto the age.” RESPONSE: For Arrabo is the grace given through holy baptism, of all good things and of eternal life, of which may we become partakers by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. QUESTION 2,14 How shall we understand what is written in Saint Dionysius, that “even that which is not desires” God? RESPONSE: Since God is none of existing things but is above all existing things, in this respect even that which is not takes its place; for strictly it is said of him that he is that which is not, since he is none of existing things. QUESTION 2,18 What is this: “It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man into the kingdom of the heavens”? RESPONSE: It is easier, he says, for the crookedness of the nations—for this is the camel—to enter through the narrow and constricted way, which is the eye of the needle, into the kingdom of the heavens, than for the people of the Jews, having the law and the prophets. And just as the needle falls into two splits and produces one, so also our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the needle, joined the two peoples, according to the Apostle, making both one.

But also the one who has made himself thin through self-control and has become more easily broken enters through the narrow gate into the kingdom of heaven than the rich man who continually widens himself with table and human glory. QUESTION 2.23: Why did the people of former times live many years, but the last ones few? RESPONSE: Since the people of former times were thoroughly sick with godlessness, God arranged for them to be kept in this life for a long time, so that through successive covenants he might bring them to the perception that there is a providence which directs the varied motion of things that come to be. But the last generation, since it received knowledge of both the written law and the spiritual law, is for this reason not kept in long-lived life. VARIANT OF THE THIRD BOOK OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ( QUESTION 3.1: What is “Let us make man according to the image of God and likeness,” and then, coming down, he says “And God made man, according to the image of God he made him,” and omitted the “according to the likeness”? RESPONSE: Since God's first purpose was that man become “according to the image of God and likeness,” and “according to the image” is incorruption, immortality, invisibility—things which image the divine—these he gave the soul to have, having given it along with these also self-mastery and free will, all of which are images of God's essence. But “according to the likeness” is impassibility, gentleness, long-suffering, and the remaining marks of God's goodness, all of which are indicative of God's activities. Therefore the things of his essence, which the “according to the image” makes clear, he gave naturally to the soul; but the things which are of God's activity—the “according to the likeness”—

He left these things to our self-determining will, awaiting man's end, to see whether by imitation of the God-befitting marks of virtue he might make himself like God. For this reason, then, divine Scripture, in what was said afterward, omitted the phrase "according to the likeness." (1393) TO THEOPEMPTOS THE SCHOLASTIC, who asked about the unjust judge, and about "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek," and about "do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." For those to whom the Word is the object of worship, the life that manifests the Word is also what is accomplished; so that, having received experience of action as a seal of true knowledge, they may learn from what they have, as is fitting, suffered, that becoming is greater than knowing what one is—and, more than this, the ever and increasingly so, until their unwavering attachment to the Cause is accomplished, circumscribing motion by rest and desire by unchangeableness of will; to whom also deification by grace is given as the prize of a sacred and God-like conduct in this life. Directing his own life wisely toward these things, God-guarded master, you are eager to seek what lies before all by reason of goodness, and yet escapes all by reason of inexperience—the one, that it may draw them to itself, goading desire with the ineffable sting of beauty; the other, that it may sharpen them, by the astonishment of the utterly boundless and divine transcendence restraining satiety, which is the father of insolence and the offspring of dissipation, for those who do not look beforehand at the flaming sword stationed and turning with the Cherubim, and who turn to virtue for no other reason than without fear.

From this, extending the moderate measure to the greatness of your progress toward good things, by which you increase your advance all the more with safety, you have deemed worthy to know me, who am unknown and lowly, through which nature was provided with the manner corresponding to it. I mean the letter, which is the connecting word of those absent and the revealer of things not seen, handing over to the understanding and joining to it as much as the one previously not known by sense perception is thickened and embodied by being itself delineated through it. By this you have also brought my nothingness into your desire more, or rather you have moved your own vision incorporeally, having shown beforehand that he has more equality in both these things concerning the word, or as much as others have concerning you in the preeminence of the grace of the word beyond others. Adorned by these throughout life, how have you ever been eager to lead my dim-sightedness toward contemplation, and these things of sacred words, whose ascent is beyond what is human, for one who has not yet perfectly transcended the nature and generation of unstable and dimensional things—not to mention me, who willingly mingle with their refuse and, like a worm, roll in the putrefaction of unclean passions and take pleasure in them. Nevertheless, for the sake of obedience and in honor of your love, daring to attempt things beyond my worth, I speak of those things about which you commanded—by conjecture, but not by assertion.

The passage comes from the Patrologia, volume 91 (typed by the mother of Fr. Arsenios Meskos), in comparison with the text of the editions "TO BYZANTION" of the series "GREGORY PALAMAS" Thessaloniki * 1992, PHILOKALIA OF THE NEPTIC AND ASCETIC FATHERS, volume I. That the judge of injustice in the Gospel exists and is spoken of in parable as our own reasoning, which from the beginning through transgression has made judgment unjust; as having not received the commandment of the Creator, but having chosen the counsel of the corrupter; from which also it preferred being earthy, and being, and becoming god, by far. And that his city is the senses, or the visible world; in which, resting unreasonably by relation, it exchanged the sojourning for the dwelling; neither fearing God, nor indeed revering the man who became the same for our sake; the one, because of folly; the other, because of contempt; that one not foreseeing the magnitude of the judgments, and this one not being restrained, which for a time the goodness, awaiting the change, holds back—the torment; with which it boldly wrapped itself around, having misused the self-determining honor given by the Creator for the accomplishment of what is fitting, contrary to what is right; and having judged the apparent good of the intelligible to be preferable, which was not lawful. And the widow who kept troubling him is the rational soul, as having no word that sows good things by nature for the fruit-bearing of sacred and holy works. Held by this whole affection and disposition toward it alone; but not waiting because of the turning away, and the self-chosen inclination toward things here.

But its adversary, I mean the material motion and disposition of the wretched flesh, through which the unclean demons strive to defile the beauty of the divine image in us and of the dignity that accords with it, and to darken its radiance—whenever, through pleasure, they fall upon us, they will terribly thrust upon us the shame and passions of dishonor; through these, death was also condemned for our nature, since it did not choose from the beginning to delight in the truly living life. And by "bruises" I mean the chastisements that come from conscience, with a certain encouraging undertone, by which, when they are struck forth from the soul, the severity of the reasoning is somehow gently bent, and which it does not endure when it is unyielding toward good things because of a more long-standing habit, since the torment lies hidden within and, as it were, constantly scourges and troubles it—until the passions that corrupt the soul are destroyed through self-control and the voluntary mortification of the members of the flesh. Then may he lead us also to kinship with the Word himself through piety and the more perfect zeal for things that are better; and since these things are accomplished naturally, comparing his own and the Father's, our Lord Jesus Christ, God beyond essence and nature, says, "And shall God not surely execute," says he, "your vengeance," through me who was made flesh, and who brings about the destruction of the destroyer of nature. Thus, then, I have gone through these matters concerning him briefly, insofar as the measure of my understanding has sufficed; although others have understood the place differently: some referring it to Christ, others on the contrary to the Antichrist. But I fear to think or to speak either of the two: the one, as being incomparable—

For the vengeance is not less than the Son, and greater than the Father; nor is it through another, and another altogether, apart from the Son. And how does he say this in the same passage by way of comparison, the phrase “but God,” he says, “will he not avenge you”? For it has no place; or it will be shown to be altogether different, and with the nature unable to do the equal thing; and for this reason no longer being ranked together; but only imaging, as that which is above, the surpassing thing. And the phrase, as being inadmissible and impossible, that the inventor and teacher of evil should do the good: “For a corrupt tree,” he says, “cannot bring forth good fruits”; and the vengeance is good, and to set aside the annoyance duly of the one who approaches; or perhaps to compare the Father to this, which is not lawful, the Father who is the provider of every virtue and life from the Son, and that of the only-begotten, and equal in nature and goodness. For good things are not naturally made known through evil things, just as neither is light through darkness, or life through death; and the existent through that which in no way exists. And I do not say these things for the rejection of their teaching; for I hold and cling to life more than the teaching of those who affirm it; but safeguarding my own measure through extreme timidity. But the reading of “to keep under” and “to regulate” is not fitting for me, because of my ignorance in these matters, or for those who have been trained and have chosen education with zeal; who say that this ought to be regulated with the grave accent rather than with the circumflex, because, they say, none of the verbs is circumflexed, unless it has come to be from a contraction of a grave-accented form, as “I think,” and “I do,” and “I gild,” and as many such things, keeping the same accent also with a preposition.

The right cheek—I mean the right action—and the whole life that is established in us by God through the commandments and that marks us out, is struck by the evil one through the preconception of the good that is being worked in us; and by the blow of the conceit that comes from this, it is inflamed, as it were, through vainglory, and is lifted up against those who have acquired nothing, or perhaps not an equal measure; for which reason one ought to turn, as it were, the other cheek, that is, the life that previously defiled us according to the deception of this age, and to be struck by this continually through memory; and to be restrained and to be moderate rather than to be exalted as holy, and to fall through pride, not having humility as a sacred foundation. But let it be honored along with the things that are understood in contemplation; or rather even before these, for a sacred preparation and preliminary purification, these things being accomplished also bodily because of the Lord who commanded it; granting from this a disposition of attachment to those who succeed, and a circumscription of the unbelief of the one who strikes, checking the eagerness of the blow by the readiness of acceptance, since he is perhaps ashamed, if nothing else, of the excess of submission; and of not resisting at all, when one is able to do this, but being restrained because of the offering.

The "Do not touch me" was said to Mary Magdalene by the Lord, she who supposed him to be a gardener; the mystery indicating and hinting that every rational soul, not yet having risen above the body that is connatural to it, and for this reason [concerned] only with things in generation and corruption, which in no way differ at all from cultivated vegetables—for the flow and outflow are equal in both, and the circumscription and cycle of time—supposing the Word to be a craftsman because of his procession and condescension concerning these things and up to these things, is not worthy of his spiritual touch, and this even though she sought him among things visible and knew him only as one who had become flesh for our sake, but did not fittingly know him as God begotten of God the Father. For this, as is likely, is what the words "I have not yet ascended to my Father" suggest: that he was not exalted by thorough theology and faith—by which the nature of things seen is circumscribed—by the soul thus disposed, but that she still needed, in a pedagogical way, to run back through contemplation to the revelatory state of divine things, as it were to some Galilee, and together with the principles prefigured and set forth by him, to be encompassed wholly as is fitting, and to become as much what he was who became what we are, insofar as he was shown to have become this apart from sin alone, as we also [become] that one apart from nature alone, when we obtain the gift; which now receiving in hope, and duly honoring with the fitting works of the commandments, may you enjoy as much as you believed, and delight as much as you labored.

Rather, to a greater and incomparably higher degree, inasmuch as the Giver of it transcends in a superessential manner both the motion of nature and the comprehension of every age. INTERPRETATION OF THE 59TH PSALM: "For the end, for those who shall be changed, for an inscription on a pillar to David, for instruction, when he burned Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah, and Joab returned and struck the valley of salt, twelve thousand." "For the end, for those who shall be changed" is the present psalm inscribed, both because of the change and alteration that came to men at the end of the times through the advent of Christ, from unbelief to faith and from vice to virtue and from ignorance to the knowledge of God—a change of judgment and of choice—and because of the universal, natural change and renewal of the whole race of men that will afterward come to pass at the end of the ages, through our Savior God himself, from death and corruption to immortal life and incorruption, through the resurrection that is awaited; and "for an inscription on a pillar" to "David," that is, to Christ himself, both because of the destruction of vice that has already come to pass through his divine incarnation, as it were a pillar, in him as leader and Savior, and after him in those who live piously according to him, and because of the complete obliteration of death and corruption that will yet come to pass through him. And "for instruction," when "he burned Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah." For instruction to us who are being changed and who shall be changed—namely, the praiseworthy and divine change—the psalm is inscribed by David the spiritual, I mean Christ our God.

For he alone is the true king of Israel and of the one who sees God, and as the destroyer of all evil and ignorance and the conqueror of all time and nature, through the things by which evil is naturally established in us, he set Mesopotamia on fire, having conversed with us through the flesh—that is, the habit of evil in the flesh that is flooded by passions contrary to nature—and "Syria of Zobah," that is, the disposition enslaved to time, or rather deceived by this age; for Zobah is interpreted as seven, and this clearly indicates the property of time, for time is hebdomadal. For the devil is accustomed to stir up nature and time together with himself against virtue and knowledge, weaving unseen wars, as Adraazar did against David with the two Syrias. For Adraazar, translated into the Greek tongue, is interpreted as loosing strength or overthrowing power, who is the devil, who by deceit at the beginning dissolved the spiritual strength of our nature through the transgression of the divine commandment, and enslaved man to time and nature; for without fighting by means of things under nature and time, he is altogether unable to wage war against men. "And Joab returned and struck the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand.

For everyone who serves as a general under the spiritual king David—that is, under our Lord Jesus—against the opposing powers strikes down twelve thousand in the Valley of Salt. The Valley of Salt is the flesh, which became a place of dishonorable passions through disobedience, in which, as in a valley, every pious and God-loving person, through reason and contemplation, strikes down nature and time—that is, the irrational preconception of the soul concerning them—never remaining subject to the laws of nature and time because of the height of virtue and knowledge. For the number twelve signifies nature and time, since nature is fivefold because of the senses, and time is sevenfold, as is evident to all; and adding five to seven, you would clearly complete the number twelve. Perhaps also the number of those slain signifies the triad of the soul's powers wrongly entangled through deceit, contrary to nature, with the tetrad of sensible things in their relation—through which every sin naturally comes to be—which number the one who serves the spiritual David well in his struggles for the truth slays, and who joins invisible battles in a knowing way and arrays himself spiritually against the evil powers. For every power of the soul, when moved contrary to nature, is naturally inclined to become entangled with sensible things.

When, therefore, the reason and the spiritedness and the desire—three in number, being the generic powers of the soul—are defeated by the sensible things, which are four, they complete the number twelve; for four times three and three times four, added together, fill up this number, which he destroys who faithfully comes to the Lord and nobly plays the champion against every invisible and hostile spirit. At any rate, the present psalm is inscribed "for us who shall be changed, for instruction" in the good things that have come to us from the noetic David, and "for a pillar-inscription for David," that is, for the proclamation of his divine and saving achievements on our behalf; for a pillar-inscription signifies the proclamation of achievements, according to those who are learned in the interpretation of such names. "O God, you have thrust us away and cast us down; you were angry and you had mercy on us." God thrust us away when, not having kept the commandment in the beginning, we appeared unworthy of converse with him face to face; he cast us down when, because of our wickedness, he estranged us from the height of the glory in paradise; he was angry when, for the punishment and chastisement of wickedness, he subjected us to the penalty of death; he had mercy on us when, through his only-begotten Son, God the Word, who was made flesh and accepted the debt on behalf of us all, he redeemed us from death and led us back again to his own glory. "You shook the earth and troubled it; heal its fractures, for it has been shaken.

He shook our earth and troubled it—that is, our heart—giving us the sword of the Spirit, which discerns in a knowing way the worse from the better, and rouses the law of the Spirit against the law of the flesh, and creates in us the praiseworthy war against the passions, and shakes and troubles the continuity of the passions within us, and troubles the conscience by the untimely memories of preconceptions; and he heals the fractures of our heart, which, having been shaken and having slipped through disobedience at the beginning from the transgression in paradise, it endured, through the spiritual regeneration in grace. "You showed your people hard things; you gave us to drink the wine of compunction; you gave to those who fear you a sign to flee from the face of the bow, so that your beloved might be delivered." God shows hard things to those who fear him through the commandments, setting forth, according to the practical philosophy, the modes of the mortification of the body, or conversely, through his varied providence and judgment, in a humane way for our benefit, training us—we who do not willingly endure to come under the divine yoke of the law of the commandments; and he gives to drink the wine of compunction, that is, granting the knowledge that follows the purification through the practical life according to spiritual contemplation; for all spiritual knowledge brings compunction to the heart, leading it to a sense of the greatness of the divine benefits bestowed upon us; and he gives to those who fear him a sign to flee from the face of the bow—the mortification of the

Teaching those who fear him to carry Jesus in the body, by which the complete inactivity of sin is established; for a true sign is the power that puts to death through the cross the mindset of the flesh. "To flee from the face of the bow." That is, from the deceptive appearance that shows itself in existing things; for the face of the bow—I mean of each demonic passion—is the outward appearance of bodies that provokes the senses, wounding the senses like the barb of an arrow and improperly stirring the soul toward the passions. Therefore the word says that those who fear the Lord will flee from the face of the bow, but not from the bow; for the bow of sin, perhaps without a face, would do nothing against those who fear the Lord. "By which to be delivered the beloved of God." And the beloved of God are the thoughts that, in contemplation, are cohesive of divine knowledge, which the modes of the virtues established in the practical life deliver from all error and from all the memories that trouble the soul through the preconception of sin.

Save with your right hand and hear me. God has spoken in his holy one: I will rejoice and divide Shechem, and I will measure out the valley of tents." God saves with his right hand, giving his only-begotten Son; for the Son is the right hand of the Father, a ransom for the salvation of the world. And he hears, giving to the righteous, in addition to the forgiveness of sins, spiritual gifts as well; for God hears the one who supplicates him, first giving forgiveness of sins through repentance, and he hears, in addition to the forgiveness of sins, also giving the workings that come through spiritual grace. And he speaks in his holy one, that is, in his incarnate Word, [declaring] his divine purpose, which was hidden from the ages and from the generations according to the incarnate economy of Christ, through his conduct among us, which is befitting to man, as it were crying aloud and giving in his life, as a pattern of eternal life, an image louder than any voice—the demonstration of good works. And he "speaks" also "in" each "holy one" who keeps his commandments, showing the words, as it were, to be alive through the works and louder than any voice. And the righteous man rejoices when, perfected by the grace of the Only-Begotten, he becomes able to "divide" "Shechem," that is, to set before others, in proportion to experienced knowledge, the manly ways of the virtues according to the practical life; for Shechem is interpreted as "shoulder," which is the habit that restrains all the passions and activates all the virtues; for they say that the shoulder is a symbol of action.

And he measures out the valley of tents, assigning to each of existing things the principles suited to it according to natural contemplation; for the present world is the "valley of tents," in which the present life, like tents, is unstable and temporary for all, according to each one's differing opinion and disposition. Or again, the tents of the present valley are the modes of the virtues, which he divides in a gnostic manner among those being taught, giving to each a mode of conduct suited to his state and a guardianship of things precious—he who knows how to distribute to each through good teaching the path fitting for salvation. Or the tents of the valley are the Churches of the believing nations, established through Christ our Savior God throughout the whole inhabited world, which, as I think, is more manifest than the others. Or again, "he measures out the valley of tents" means he who comprehends the world of bodies by knowledge as a valley of tents; for "tent" is used in many places of Scripture to name the body.

Mine is Gilead and mine is Manasseh, and Ephraim is the strengthening of my head." Gilead, according to one of the interpretations of this name, means revelation, and Manasseh is interpreted as forgetfulness. Revelation and forgetfulness reasonably come to the righteous man: he receives initiation through contemplation of the ineffable things, and forgetfulness of the labors of virtue through the gladness of spiritual contemplation that succeeds the labors of the virtues. And Ephraim is interpreted as enlargement, which is the unfailing hope, according to faith, in the good things to come; this is the support of the righteous man's "head," that is, of faith. For the head of every righteous man and of every good work is faith, and the "strengthening" of it is the secure, unfailing hope of the good things to come. Through this hope, contemplating future things as present, we are enlarged in afflictions, remaining unshaken in temptations. "Judah is my king, Moab is the cauldron of my hope." Judah is interpreted as confession; for confession through prayers governs every good thing among the saints. And Judah can also be understood as referring to the Lord, who is the true king of the spiritual Israel and of him who sees God, who for our sake, when he became man, confessed to the Father, saying, "I confess to you, holy Father." And Moab is interpreted as "his father's thigh," and it is understood as our body, through which, according to the practical philosophy, purification from sins naturally takes place, like a bath—which the cauldron clearly indicates.

For cleansing is the "cauldron of hope," that is, the readiness, through one's life in accordance with cleansing, for the inheritance of the good things laid up for us according to hope. But "Moab" can again be understood also with reference to the incarnation of the Lord. For the true "cauldron of our hope" became and was called a Son of Man for our sake, that is, the one who washes away and cleanses the stains and defilements that come from our sin. "Upon Edom I will stretch out my sandal; foreigners have been subjected to me." Edom is interpreted as bloody clay. But it can be taken also with reference to the flesh of the Lord, through which, as through a "sandal," he trod upon human things, since creation could not otherwise contain the Maker, who is by nature infinite and uncircumscribable. But it can again be understood also with reference to the flesh of each one of us, upon which we "stretch out the sandal," that is, the discipline and self-control that guard the soul from the evil thorns and briers of the devil—for this is what the sandal must be understood to mean. For without discipline and exact self-control it is impossible for the ascetic of piety to subdue the passions of the flesh. But the sandal of the soul can again be understood as the perception that has been put to death through reason and contemplation, by which the soul, treading upon sensible things, passes through this age unharmed, imagining the principles of this age through perception itself as through a sandal, and gathering up the differences of visible things according to species and shape for the understanding and knowledge of the one only and originating Word. "Foreigners have been subjected to me.

For when the Lord came to our regions through the flesh, not only were the spirits of wickedness abolished and subjected to the might of his strength, but all the nations also, having received through the calling the saving proclamation of the Gospel, bowed down beneath it. And the "foreigners" are subjected to every righteous man whenever, having placed upon the earth of his flesh, as it were a sandal, the continence that puts to death the law of sin, he will tame not only the unclean passions that lurk within it, but will also abolish the wicked demons who activate them. "Who will lead me into the city of encompassment?" The city of encompassment is the wisdom gathered together from many divine and mystical contemplations, encompassed—that is, fenced round about, as another of the expositors said—by the fortifications of the virtues. Or again, the "city of encompassment" is the state in which the truly God-fearing and God-loving man becomes impregnable and inaccessible to the enemies, through the surrounding protection of the holy powers that guards him. Or again, the "city of encompassment" is the soul walled about by reason and life, and abounding in all the graces of the virtues. Or again, the "city of encompassment" is the habit of true and unerring knowledge, encompassed by all ethical, natural, and theological contemplations, to which every pious man is led—by no other than God alone, who draws all to himself through the ineffable magnitude of his goodness. "Or who will guide me as far as Idumea?

Edom, as the preceding discourse showed, is the constitution of all sensible created things, around which the natural contemplation in the Spirit is by nature established, through which, from the beauty and magnitude of created things, the Creator is proportionally contemplated by the one who piously gathers the knowledge of beings. Or perhaps it is the practical philosophy according to virtue through the flesh, through which our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, built up together with the beauties of the commandments, to which the same Lord again "leads the way," granting to those who love him both the knowledge of things seen and teaching the mortification of the members of this earthly and corruptible flesh. Or, to speak concisely, "a city of encompassment" is the gnostic contemplation of intelligible things, and "Edom" is the knowledge of sensible things, to which the only Wisdom of God and the Father, the only-begotten Son, "leads away" and "guides." Therefore the prophet adds: "Was it not you, O God, who cast us off?" That is, you, O God, who in the beginning "cast us off" because of sin, yourself, in the compassion of your mercy having taken pity, "lead us away into a city of encompassment" and "guide us as far as Edom," according to the interpretation given above. "And you will not go forth, O God, in our hosts." For God will not "go forth" in the one who trusts in himself and hopes in his bow and inscribes his own sword as his salvation, but in those who gore their enemies in God himself and in his name bring to nothing those who rise up against them, God will reasonably go forth to the war against the invisible enemies.

Give us help from tribulation, and vain is the salvation of man." The prophet, in the manner of prayer, entreats God and Savior on behalf of the common nature, that "help be given to us from" the "tribulation," that is, from the tribulation that has been scattered throughout nature because of sin and has swallowed it down even to the gates of Hades. For "tribulation," to speak according to my understanding, is the tyranny and dominion of death and corruption, while "help" is the sure hope of resurrection through grace, looking toward which the pious bear the dejection of death without pain. Or again, "tribulation" is the labor for virtue, and "help" is the dispassion that succeeds it according to the grace of God, compared with which every human salvation is vanity and complete non-existence; for this is what it is right to understand by vanity. "In God we shall do power, and he will bring to nothing those who afflict us." Those who do power in God are those who do not ascribe to themselves the achievements of the virtues, nor to their own wisdom the comprehension of the divine mysteries, in which God himself, alone and wholly containing them, works every virtue and grants knowledge, "bringing to nothing" all the evil demons who oppose both virtue and knowledge and who through wickedness and ignorance attempt to "afflict" those who fear him. For he is the Savior of all, since he is also the Creator of all. To him be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages, amen.