ΑΠΑΝΤΑ, ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ τοῦ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ * ος Τόμος Δ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΑ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΑ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΚΑ ΕΤΕΡΑ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΣΧΟΛΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΡΕΟΠΑΓΙΤΟΥ ος Τόμος Δ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΑ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΑ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΚΑ * ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΡΕΤΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΚΙΑΣ ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ (α΄) Ἕν ἐστι τό ὑπεράναρχον καί ὑπερούσιον ἀγαθόν, ἡ ἁγία τρισυπόστατος Μονάς, Πατήρ καί Υἱός καί ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· τριῶν ἀπείρων ἄπειρος συμφυΐα τόν τε τοῦ εἶναι, καί πῶς, καί τί, καί ποῖον εἶναι λόγου πάμπαν τοῖς οὖσιν ἄβατον ἔχουσα. Πᾶσαν γάρ διαφεύγει νόησιν τῶν νοούντων τῆς κατά φύσιν οὐδαμῶς κρυφίας ἐνδότητος ἐξιοῦσα, καί πάσης πασῶν γνώσεων ἀπείρως ὑπερεκτείνεται γνώσεως.
(β΄) Τό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν κυρίως ὅν ἀγαθόν, ἐστί τό μήτε ἀρχήν, μήτε τέλος, μήτε αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι τινά κίνησιν ἔχον. Τό δέ μή οὕτως ἔχον, οὐδέ κυρίως ὄν, ὡς ἀρχήν καί τέλος καί αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι, καί τήν κατά τό εἶναι πρός αἰτίαν κίνησιν ἔχον. Τό δέ κυρίως οὐκ ὄν, κἄν εἶναι λέγηται, κατά μέθεξιν βουλήσει τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος, καί ἔστι καί λέγεται.
ALL THE WORKS OF MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR * Volume 4: VARIOUS CHAPTERS, BOTH THEOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC; OTHER CHAPTERS; SCHOLIA ON THE LETTERS OF SAINT DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE * Volume 4: VARIOUS CHAPTERS, BOTH THEOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC * AND ON VIRTUE AND VICE, THE FIRST HUNDRED (1)
(1) One is the super-original and super-essential good, the holy tri-hypostatic Monad, Father and Son and Holy Spirit: an infinite conjunction of three infinites, possessing the principle of their being, and how, and what, and of what sort they are, utterly inaccessible to things that exist. For it escapes every conception of those who conceive, in no way going forth from its natural hiddenness of giving, and it extends infinitely beyond every knowledge of all knowledges.
(2) The good that truly exists according to essence is that which has neither beginning nor end nor any motion of cause for its being. That which is not so is not truly existent either, as having a beginning and end and cause of its being, and a motion according to being toward a cause. That which is truly non-existent, even if it is said to exist, exists and is said to exist by participation, by the will of the truly existent.
(γ΄) Εἰ Λόγος προκαθηγεῖται τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως, οὔτε ἦν, οὔτε ἔστιν, οὔτε ἔσται τοῦ Λόγου λόγος ἀνώτερος. Λόγος δέ, οὐκ ἄνους ἤ ζωῆς ἄμοιρος· ἀλλ᾿ ἔννους καί ζῶν, ὡς γεννῶντα Νοῦν ἔχων οὐσιωδῶς
*
Τό ἔργο τοῦ ἁγίου Μαξίμου χωρίστηκε σέ τόμους καί ἀναγράφονται οἱ σελίδες σύμφωνα μέ τή σειρά "ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΣ Ο ΠΑΛΑΜΑΣ" τῶν ἐκδόσεων "ΤΟ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΝ" Θεσσαλονίκη 1992, ΦΙΛΟΚΑΛΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΝΗΠΤΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΣΚΗΤΙΚΩΝ, γιά νά μπορεῖ εὔκολα ὁ ἀναγνώστης νά συμβουλεύεται μετάφραση. Τό κείμενο προέρχεται ἀπό τρεῖς πηγές: 1) ἀπό τήν ἠλεκτρονική βιβλιοθήκη ἑλληνικῶν κειμένων,, ( :// ), 2) κείμενα πού δέν περιλαμβάνονται στό ἀπό τήν πατρολογία τοῦ, τόμος ος καί ος (τά δακτυλογράφησε ἡ μητέρα τοῦ π. Ἀρσενίου Μέσκου), καί 3) τά σχόλια στά ἔργα τοῦ ἁγίου Διονυσίου τοῦ Ἀρεοπαγίτη ἀπό τίς ἐκδόσεις ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟ, τό κείμενο περάστηκε ἀπό σκάνερ, ἀκολούθησε ὀπτική ἀναγνώριση χαρακτήρων καί ἔλεγχος. Τόμος καί σελίδα γιά τίς ἐκδόσεις ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟ ἀναγράφονται μέ τόν ἀκόλουθο τρόπο:, δηλαδή ἀκολουθεῖ ἡ δέκατη σελίδα τοῦ Β τόμου. Ἐπίσης ὑπάρχει καί ἔνδειξη γιά τήν σελίδα τῆς πατρολογίας ὅταν τό κείμενο προέρχεται ἀπό ἐκεῖ.
(3) If the Logos presides over the generation of beings, there neither was, nor is, nor will be a logos higher than the Logos. And the Logos is not without intellect or devoid of life, but is intelligent and living, as having essentially a Son-begotten Intellect.
* Τό κείμενο προέρχεται ἀπό τήν πατρολογία τοῦ, τόμος ος (τό δακτυλογράφησε ἡ μητέρα τοῦ π. Ἀρσενίου Μέσκου), σέ ἀντιπαράθεση μέ τό κείμενο τῶν ἐκδόσεων "ΤΟ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΝ" τῆς σειρᾶς "ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΣ Ο ΠΑΛΑΜΑΣ" Θεσσαλονίκη 1992, ΦΙΛΟΚΑΛΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΝΗΠΤΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΣΚΗΤΙΚΩΝ, τόμος Δ.
ὑφεστῶτα, τόν Πατέρα· καί Ζωήν ὑφεστῶσαν οὐσιωδῶς συνυπάρχουσαν, τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον.
(δ΄) Εἷς Θεός, ἑνός Υἱοῦ γεννήτωρ, Πατήρ, καί Πνεύματος ἑνός ἁγίου πηγή· μονάς ἀσύγχυτος, καί Τριάς ἀδιαίρετος· Νοῦς ἄναρχος, μόνου μόνος οὐσιωδῶς ἀνάρχου Λόγου Γεννήτωρ· καί μόνης ἀϊδίου Ζωῆς, ἤγουν Πνεύματος ἁγίου, πηγή. (ε΄) Εἷς Θεός, ὅτι μία Θεότης. Μονάς ἄναρχος, καί ὑπερούσιος, καί ἀμερής καί ἀδιαίρετος· ἡ αὐτή μονάς καί Τριάς, καί τά ἑξῆς. (στ΄) Εἰ πᾶσα μετοχή τῶν μετεχόντων προεπινοεῖται· πάντων δηλαδή σαφῶς ὑπέρκειται τῶν ὄντων ἀσυγκρίτως κατά πάντα τρόπον ἡ τῶν ὄντων αἰτία, κατά φύσιν προϋπάρχουσά τε καί προεπινοουμένη τῶν ὄντων· οὐχ ὡς οὐσία συμβεβηκότων· ἐπεί σύνθετον ἀποδειχθήσεται τό Θεῖον, εἰς συμπλήρωσιν ἔχον τῆς οἰκείας ὑπάρξεως τήν τῶν ὄντων ὑπόστασιν· ἀλλ' ὡς οὐσίας, τό ὑπερούσιον. Εἰ γάρ αἱ μέν τέχναι, τῶν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐφεῦρον τά σχήματα, ἡ δέ καθόλου φύσις, τά εἴδη τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτήν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ Θεός τάς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας ἐκ μή ὄντων ὑπέστησεν, ὡς ὑπερούσιος, καί ἔτι μᾶλλον τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερουσιότητα θέσεως, ἀπείρως ἐξῃρημένος· ὁ καί τάς τέχνας συζεύξας πρός ἐξεύρεσιν σχημάτων τάς ἐπιστήμας, καί τῇ φύσει δούς τήν ἀπεργαστικήν τῶν εἰδῶν ἐνέργειαν, καί αὐτό τό εἶναι τῶν οὐσιῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὑποστησάμενος.
the Father, subsisting; and a Life subsisting substantially and coexisting, the Holy Spirit.
(4) One God, the begetter of one Son, the Father, and the source of one Holy Spirit; a Monad unconfused, and a Trinity undivided; an Intellect without beginning, the sole begetter, substantially, of the only Logos without beginning; and the source of the only eternal Life, that is, of the Holy Spirit. (5) One God, because one Godhead. A Monad without beginning, and supersubstantial, and indivisible and undivided; the same Monad and Trinity, and so on. (6) If every participation of the participants is conceived beforehand, then clearly the cause of beings surpasses all beings incomparably in every way, preexisting by nature and conceived beforehand of beings; not as substance of accidents—for then the Divine would be shown to be composite, having the subsistence of beings as a complement to its own existence—but as the supersubstantial of substance. For if the arts invented the forms of the things that come from them, and universal nature the species of things under it, much more did God establish the substances of beings from non-being, as supersubstantial, and still more, infinitely removed from the position according to supersubstantiality; he who also joined the arts to the sciences for the discovery of forms, and gave to nature the productive activity of species, and himself subsisted the very being of substances, which it is.
(ζ΄) Ὁ τοῖς οὖσι μή κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων μεθεκτός, κατ᾿ ἄλλον δέ τρόπον μετέχεσθαι τοῖς δυναμένοις βουλόμενος, τοῦ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν κρυφίου παντελῶς οὐκ ἐξίσταται· ὁπότε καί αὐτός ὁ τρόπος, καθ᾿ ὅν θέλων μετέχεται, μένει διηνεκῶς τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀνέκφαντος. Οὐκοῦν, ὥσπερ ὁ Θεός θέλων μετέχεται, καθ᾿ ὅν αὐτός οἶδε τρόπον· οὕτω καί θέλων ὑπέστησε τά μετέχοντα, καθ᾿ ὅν αὐτός ἐπίσταται λόγον, δι᾿ ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀγαθότητος δύναμιν. Οὐκοῦν τό θελήσει τοῦ πεποιηκότος γενόμενον, οὐκ ἄν εἴη ποτέ θελήσαντι αὐτό γενέσθαι, συναΐδιον. (η΄) Ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐφάπαξ κατά σάρκα γεννηθείς, ἀεί γεννᾶται θέλων κατά πνεῦμα διά φιλανθρωπίαν τοῖς θέλουσι· καί γίνεται βρέφος, ἑαυτόν ἐν ἐκείνοις διαπλάττων ταῖς ἀρεταῖς· καί τοσοῦτον φαινόμενος, ὅσον χωρεῖν ἐπίσταται τόν δεχόμενον· οὐ φθόνῳ σμικρύνων τοῦ οἰκείου μεγέθους τήν ἔκφανσιν, ἀλλά μέτρῳ σταθμίζων τῶν ὁρᾷν ποθούντων τήν δύναμιν. Οὕτως ἀεί καί φαινόμενος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος τοῖς τρόποις τῶν μετόχων, ἀεί διαμένει κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τοῦ μυστηρίου, τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀθέατος. Ὅθεν σοφῶς τοῦ μυστηρίου τήν δύναμιν διασκοπήσας ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, φησίν· Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, χθές καί σήμερον, ὁ αὐτός καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας· εἰδώς ἀεί καινόν τό μυστήριον, καί μηδέποτε περιλήψει νοός παλαιούμενον. (θ΄) Γεννᾶται Χριστός ὁ Θεός, προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης νοεράν γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος· ὁ παρασχόμενος τοῖς οὖσιν ἐκ μή ὄντων τήν γένεσιν· ὅν Παρθένος ὑπερφυῶς τεκοῦσα, παρέλυσεν οὐδέν τῆς παρθενίας τεκμήριον. Ὡς γάρ αὐτός ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, οὐκ ἀλλοιώσας τήν φύσιν, οὐδ᾿ ἀμείψας τήν δύναμιν·
(7) He who exists for beings not according to essence is partaken of, but wishing to be partaken of in another manner by those who are able, he does not at all depart from that which is hidden according to essence; since even the manner itself, according to which he is partaken of willingly, remains forever unrevealed to all. Therefore, just as God is partaken of willingly, in the manner he himself knows, so also willingly he established the things that partake, according to the principle he himself understands, through the surpassing power of goodness. Therefore, what has come to be by the will of the Maker could never be coeternal with him who willed it to come to be. (8) The Word of God, once begotten in the flesh, is always begotten willingly in the spirit, through love for mankind, in those who will it; and he becomes a babe, forming himself in them by the virtues; and he appears to the extent that the receiver knows how to contain him; not diminishing the manifestation of his own greatness by envy, but measuring by the capacity of those who long to see. Thus always, even when appearing in the manners of the partakers, the Word of God always remains, by the surpassing nature of the mystery, invisible to all. Hence the divine Apostle, wisely examining the power of the mystery, says: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same and unto the ages; knowing the mystery to be always new, and never made old by the comprehension of a mind. (9) Christ God is begotten, having become man by the assumption of flesh having a rational soul; he who granted to beings their coming to be from non-being; whom a Virgin bore in a manner beyond nature, yet destroyed no proof of virginity. For as he himself has become man, not altering nature, nor changing power;
οὕτω τήν τεκοῦσαν καί μητέρα ποιεῖ, καί παρθένον διατηρεῖ, θαύματι θαῦμα κατά ταυτό διερμηνεύων ἅμα, καί θατέρῳ κρύπτων τό ἕτερον. Ἐπειδή δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὁ Θεός ἀεί κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχει μυστήριον, τοσοῦτον ἑαυτόν ἐξάγων τῆς φυσικῆς κρυφιότητος, ὅσον ταύτην πλέον διά τῆς ἐκφάνσεως κρυφιωτέραν ἐργάζεσθαι· καί τοσοῦτον πάλιν μητέρα τήν τεκοῦσαν παρθένον ποιούμενος, ὅσον τήν κύησιν ἄλυτον τῆς παρθενίας δεσμόν ἀπεργάζεσθαι. (ι΄) Καινοτομοῦνται φύσεις, καί Θεός ἄνθρωπος γίνεται· οὐ μόνον ἡ θεία καί σταθερά καί ἀκίνητος, κινουμένη πρός τήν κινουμένην καί ἄστατον, ἵνα στήσῃ τοῦ φέρεσθαι· οὐδέ μόνον ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη δίχα σπορᾶς ὑπέρ φύσιν γεωργοῦσα σάρκα τῷ Λόγῳ τελεσφορουμένην, ἵνα στῇ τοῦ φέρεσθαι· ἀλλά καί ἀστήρ ἐξ ἀνατολῶν ἐν
ἡμέρᾳ φαινόμενος, καί τούς μάγους ὁδηγῶν εἰς τόν τόπον τῆς τοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως, ἵνα δείξῃ μυστικῶς νικῶντα τήν αἴσθησιν, τόν ἐν νόμῳ καί προφήταις λόγον, καί ὁδηγοῦντα τά ἔθνη πρός τό μέγιστον φῶς τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως. Πρός γάρ ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Λόγου σαφῶς ὁ νομικός τε καί προφητικός λόγος, καθάπερ ἀστήρ εὐσεβῶς κατανοούμενος, ὁδηγεῖ τούς κατά πρόθεσιν τῇ δυνάμει κεκλημένους τῆς χάριτος.
Thus he makes her who gave birth also a mother, and keeps her a virgin, interpreting a wonder by a wonder at one and the same time, and by the one concealing the other. Since God always exists as a mystery in essence for his own sake, he brings himself out of his natural hiddenness to the extent that by the manifestation he makes that hiddenness more hidden still; and again he makes her who gave birth a mother and a virgin to the extent that he renders the conception an indissoluble bond of virginity. (10) Natures are innovated, and God becomes man; not only the divine and stable and immovable nature being moved toward the moved and unstable, so that it may stand still from being carried along; nor only the human nature, without seed and beyond nature, cultivating flesh that is brought to perfection by the Word, so that it may stand still from being carried along; but also a star appearing from the east in the day, and guiding the magi to the place of the Word's incarnation, so that it might show mystically the word in the law and the prophets conquering the senses, and leading the nations to the greatest light of knowledge. For toward knowledge of the incarnate Word, clearly the legal and prophetic word, understood piously like a star, guides those who are called in purpose by the power of grace.
(ια΄) Ἐπειδή θέλων ἐγώ, τήν θείαν ἐντολήν παρέβην ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καί τό στεῤῥόν μου τῆς φύσεως, θεότητος ἐλπίδι δελεάσας πρός ἡδονήν κατέσυρεν ὁ διάβολος, δι᾿ ἧς ὑποστήσας τόν θάνατον ἡμβρύνετο τρυφῶν τήν φθοράν τῆς φύσεως· διά τοῦτο γίνεται τέλειος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Θεός, μηδέν παραμείψας τῆς φύσεως, πλήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας· ἐπεί μηδέ τῆς φύσεως ἦν· ἵνα σαρκός προβλήματι δελεάσας, ἐρεθίσῃ τόν ἄπληστον δράκοντα περιχανόντα τήν σάρκα καταπιεῖν, γενησομένην αὐτῷ μέν δηλητήριον, τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ θεότητος παντελῶς αὐτόν διαφθείρουσαν· τῇ δέ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀλεξητήριον, πρός τήν ἐξ ἀρχῆς χάριν δυνάμει τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ θεότητος ἀνακαλουμένην. Ὡς γάρ αὐτός τόν ἰόν αὐτοῦ τῆς κακίας τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς γνώσεως ἐγχέας τήν γευσαμένην διέφθειρε φύσιν, οὕτω καί αὐτός ἐμφαγεῖν βουληθείς τῆς σαρκός τοῦ Δεσπότου, τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ θεότητος διεφθάρη.
(ιβ΄) Τό μέγα τῆς θείας ἐνανθρωπήσεως μυστήριον, ἀεί μένει μυστήριον· οὐ μόνον ὅτι συμμέτρως τῇ δυνάμει τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ σωζομένων ἐκφαινόμενον, ἔχει μεῖζον τοῦ ἐκφανθέντος τό μήπω ὁρώμενον, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί τό αὐτό τό φανέν, ἔτι μένει πάμπαν ἀπόκρυφον, οὐδενί λόγῳ καθώς ἔστι γινωσκόμενον. Καί μή τῷ δόξῃ παράδοξον τό λεγόμενον. Ὁ γάρ Θεός ὑπερούσιος ὤν, καί ὑπερουσιότητος ἁπάσης ὑπερανεστηκώς, εἰς οὐσίαν ἐλθεῖν βουληθείς, ὑπερουσίως οὐσιώθη. Διό καί ὑπέρ ἀνθρώπων, ὡς φιλάνθρωπος, ἐκ τῆς ἀνθρώπων οὐσίας ἀληθῶς ἄνθρωπος γεγονώς, τόν τοῦ πῶς ἄνθρωπος γέγονε τρόπον, μένει διά παντός ἔχων ἀνέκφαντον· ὑπέρ ἄνθρωπον γάρ γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος.
(11) Because I, man, willingly transgressed the divine commandment, and the devil, luring the firmness of my nature toward pleasure with the hope of divinity, dragged it down, whereby, having brought death into being, he exulted, luxuriating in the corruption of nature—for this reason God becomes a perfect man, passing over nothing of nature except sin; since it was not of nature either—so that, luring by the bait of flesh, he might provoke the insatiable dragon, which gaped wide to swallow the flesh, to become poison for him, utterly destroying him by the power of the divinity in it, but a remedy for the nature of men, calling it back by the power of the divinity in it to the grace from the beginning. For just as he, pouring out his own venom of wickedness into the tree of knowledge, corrupted the nature that tasted it, so too he, wishing to eat of the Master's flesh, was destroyed by the power of the divinity in it.
(12) The great mystery of the divine incarnation always remains a mystery; not only because, revealed in measure to the power of those being saved by it, it has the unseen greater than what has been revealed, but also because even the very thing that has appeared remains entirely hidden, known by no account as it is. And let not what is said seem paradoxical. For God, being supersubstantial and standing above all supersubstantiality, wishing to come into substance, was made substantial in a supersubstantial way. Therefore also, for the sake of men, as a lover of mankind, having truly become man from the substance of men, he keeps forever unmanifest the manner of how he became man; for he became man beyond man.
(ιγ΄) Σκοπήσωμεν πιστῶς τό μυστήριον τῆς θείας ἐνανθρωπήσεως, καί μόνον δοξάσωμεν ἀπεριέργως τόν τοῦτο γενέσθαι δι᾿ ἡμᾶς εὐδοκήσαντα. Τίς γάρ δυνάμει θαῤῥῶν λογικῆς ἀποδείξεως, ἐξειπεῖν δύναται, πῶς Θεοῦ Λόγου γίνεται σύλληψις· πῶς γένεσις σαρκός ἄνευ σπορᾶς· πῶς γέννησις ἄνευ φθορᾶς· πῶς μήτηρ, ἡ καί μετά τόκον διαμείνασα παρθένος· πῶς ὁ ὑπερτελής, καθ᾿ ἡλικίαν προέκοπτε· πῶς ὁ καθαρός, ἐβαπτίζετο· πῶς διέτρεφεν, ὁ πεινῶν· πῶς ὁ κοπιῶν, ἐχαρίζετο δύναμιν· πῶς ὁ πάσχων, ἐδίδου ἰάματα· πῶς ὁ θνήσκων, ἐζωοποίει· καί ἵνα τό πρῶτον τελευταῖον εἴπω, πῶς Θεός ἄνθρωπος γίνεται· καί τό δή πλέον μυστηριωδέστερον, πῶς οὐσιωδῶς ἐν σαρκί καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ὁ Λόγος, ὁ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑποστατικῶς ὅλος ὑπάρχων ἐν τῷ Πατρί; Πῶς ὁ αὐτός, καί ὅλος ἐστί Θεός κατά φύσιν, καί ὅλος γέγονε κατά φύσιν ἄνθρωπος, μηδεμίαν φύσιν ἠρνημένος παντάπασι, μήτε τήν θείαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ὑπάρχει Θεός, μήτε τήν ἡμετέραν, καθ᾿ ἥν γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος; Ταῦτα πίστις μόνη χωρεῖ τά μυστήρια, τῶν ὑπέρ νοῦν καί λόγου ὑπάρχουσα πραγμάτων ὑπόστασις. (ιδ΄) Ὁ Ἀδάμ παρακούσας, ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἄρχεσθαι τήν τῆς φύσεως ἐδίδαξε γένεσιν· Ὁ Κύριος ταύτην ἐξοικίζων τῆς φύσεως, τήν ἐκ σπορᾶς οὐ προσήκατο σύλληψιν. Ἡ γυνή παραβᾶσα τήν ἐντολήν, ἐξ ὀδύνης ἄρχεσθαι τήν τῆς φύσεως κατέδειξε γέννησιν· Ὁ Κύριος ταύτης ἀποτινάσσων τῆς φύσεως, γεννηθείς, φθοράν ὑπομεῖναι τήν τεκοῦσαν οὐ συνεχώρησεν· ἵν᾿ ὁμοῦ τήν τε ἑκούσιον ἡδονήν, καί τήν δι᾿ αὐτήν ἀκούσιον ὀδύνην, ἐξέλῃ τῆς φύσεως, ὧν οὐκ ἦν δημιουργός, ἀναιρέτης γενόμενος·
(13) Let us faithfully contemplate the mystery of the divine incarnation, and let us glorify without curiosity the One who was well pleased that this should come to be for our sake. For who, trusting in the power of rational demonstration, can declare how the conception of God the Word takes place; how the generation of flesh is without seed; how the birth is without corruption; how she who remained a virgin even after childbirth is a mother; how the One who is beyond perfection advanced in age; how the pure One was baptized; how the One who hungers gave nourishment; how the One who labors granted power; how the One who suffers gave healings; how the One who dies gives life; and, to put the first last, how God becomes man; and what is even more mysterious, how the Word, who wholly exists substantially in the Father according to essence, is substantially in the flesh according to hypostasis? How is the same One both wholly God by nature and wholly become man by nature, having denied no nature at all, neither the divine, according to which he exists as God, nor our own, according to which he has become man? These mysteries faith alone can contain, being the substance of things that are beyond mind and reason. (14) Adam, having disobeyed, taught that the generation of nature begins from pleasure; the Lord, banishing this from nature, did not accept conception from seed. The woman, having transgressed the commandment, demonstrated that the birth of nature begins from pain; the Lord, shaking this off from nature, when he was born did not permit her who gave birth to undergo corruption; so that he might at once remove from nature both the voluntary pleasure and the involuntary pain that comes through it, becoming the destroyer of those things of which he was not the creator.
καί διδάξῃ μυστικῶς κατά γνώμην, ἄλλης ἀπάρχεσθαι ζωῆς,
ἐξ ὀδύνης μέν τυχόν ἀρχομένης καί πόνων, ληγούσης δέ πάντως εἰς ἡδονήν θείαν καί εὐφροσύνην ἀπέραντον. Διά τοῦτο γίνεται ἄνθρωπος, καί γεννᾶται ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ὁ ποιήσας τόν ἄνθρωπον, ἵνα σώσῃ τόν ἄνθρωπον, καί πάθη πάθεσιν ἰασάμενος, πάθος αὐτός ὑπάρχων ἀποδειχθῇ τῶν ἡμετέρων παθῶν, ὑπερφυῶς ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κατά σάρκα στερήσεσι, τάς ἡμῶν φιλανθρώπως κατά πνεῦμα ἕξεις ἀνανεούμενος.
(ιε΄) Ὁ τῷ θείῳ πόθω νικήσας τήν πρός τό σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς διάθεσιν, ἀπερίγραφος γέγονε, κἄν ἐστιν ἐν σώματι. Ὁ γάρ ἕλκων τήν τοῦ ποθοῦντος ἔφεσιν Θεός, πάντων ἀσυγκρίτως ἐστίν ὑψηλότερος, οὐκ ἐῶν τόν ποθοῦντα τινί τῶν μετά Θεόν προσηλῶσαι τήν ἔφεσιν. Ποθήσωμεν οὖν τόν Θεόν καθ᾿ ὅλην ἡμῶν τήν τῆς φύσεως δύναμιν, καί πᾶσι τοῖς σωματικοῖς τήν προαίρεσιν ἀκράτητον ποιησώμεθα, καί πάντων τῶν ὄντων αἰσθητῶν τε καί νοητῶν ὑπεράνω τῇ διαθέσει γενώμεθα, καί οὐδέν κατά τήν γνώμην πρός τό συνεῖναι Θεῷ τῷ κατά φύσιν ἀπεριγράφῳ, παντελῶς ὑπό τῆς φυσικῆς περιγραφῆς ζημιωθησώμεθα. (ιστ΄) Ἀγών ἐστι φθόνου καί ἀρετῆς, ἡ τῶν ἁγίων δυσπάθεια· τοῦ μέν, ὅπως κρατήσῃ φιλονεικοῦντος· τῆς δέ, ὅπως ἀήττητος διαμείνῃ, πάντα φερούσης· καί τοῦ μέν, ὅπως εὐοδώσῃ κακία ἀγωνιζομένου, διά τῆς τῶν κατορθούντων κολάσεως· τῆς δέ, ὅπως κατάσχῃ τούς ἀγαθούς κἀν ταῖς συμφοραῖς τό πλέον ἔχοντας.
and secretly teach according to his purpose that one should begin another life, a life that perhaps starts from pain and toil, but ends altogether in divine pleasure and boundless joy. For this reason the one who made man becomes man and is born as man, in order to save man; and having healed passions by his passions, he is shown to be himself a passion for our passions, renewing in a manner beyond nature, by his own bodily privations, our spiritual dispositions in a humane way.
(15) He who by divine longing has conquered the soul's disposition toward the body has become uncircumscribed, even if he is in a body. For God, who draws the desire of the one who longs, is incomparably higher than all things, not allowing the one who longs to fix his desire on any of the things after God. Let us therefore long for God with our whole natural power, and let us make our choice unmastered by all bodily things, and let us become in disposition above all things, both sensible and intelligible; and let us not, in our purpose, be harmed at all by natural circumscription with respect to being with God, who is by nature uncircumscribed. (16) The endurance of the saints in suffering is a contest between envy and virtue: the one strives to prevail, the other to remain unconquered, bearing all things; the one struggles that evil may prosper through the punishment of those who succeed, the other that it may hold the good, even in misfortunes, as having the greater share.
(1188) (ιζ΄) Ἀρετῆς ἆθλόν ἐστι, τό τοῖς πόνοις ἐναγωνίζεσθαι· νίκης ἔπαθλον φερούσης τοῖς ὑπομένουσι, τῆς ψυχῆς τήν ἀπάθειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἑνουμένη Θεῷ, σώματος καί κόσμου τῇ διαθέσει χωρίζεται. Ψυχῆς γάρ ῥῶσίς ἐστι τοῖς ὑπομένουσιν, ὁ τοῦ σώματος αἰκισμός. (ιη΄) Ἡδονῆς ἀπάτῃ κλαπέντες τό ἀπαρχῆς, τόν θάνατον τῆς ὄντως ζωῆς προεκρίναμεν. Ταύτης οὖν τόν φονευτήν εὐχαρίστως ἐνέγκωμεν πόνον τοῦ σώματος, ὅπως τοῦ ταύτης θανάτου ἑαυτῶ συναφανίσαντος τόν δι᾿ αὐτήν γενόμενον θάνατον, ἀπολάβωμεν ἡμῖν ἐπανατρέχουσαν τήν ἡδονῇ πραθεῖσαν ζωήν, μικροῖς πόνοις σαρκός ἀγορασθεῖσαν.
(ιθ΄) Εἰ σαρκός εὐπαθούσης, ὁ τῆς ἁμαρτίας εἴωθε πιαίνεσθαι τόνος, δῆλον ὅτι ταύτης δυσπαθούσης, ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀνηβᾷν εἰκότως πέφυκε. Γενναίως οὖν ἐνέγκωμεν τῆς σαρκός τήν δυσπάθειαν, τῶν κατά ψυχήν οὖσαν ῥυπτικήν μολυσμῶν, καί τῆς μελλούσης δόξης πρόξενον. Οὐκ ἄξια γάρ τά παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ, πρός τήν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἡμῖν ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι. (κ΄) Οὔτε σῶμα θεραπεύοντες ἰατροί, ἕν καί τό αὐτό πᾶσιν προσφέρουσι φάρμακον, οὔτε Θεός ψυχῶν ἰατρεύων νοσήματα, ἕν μόνον θεραπείας οἶδε τρόπον πάσαις ἁρμόδιον· ἀλλ᾿ ἑκάστῃ τόν πρόσφορον ἀπονείμας, τάς ἰάσεις ἐργάζεται. Εὐχαριστήσωμεν οὖν θεραπευόμενοι, κἄν ἔχῃ βάσανον τό γινόμενον· τό γάρ τέλος, μακάριον.
(17) It is the prize of virtue to strive amid toils, since victory brings to those who endure the soul's dispassion, through which, being united to God by love, it is separated from the body and the world in its disposition. For the body's torment is the soul's strength for those who endure. (18) Deceived by the deceit of pleasure from the beginning, we preferred death to the life that truly is. Let us therefore bear with thanksgiving the pain of the body, the slayer of that pleasure, so that, when the death of that pleasure has destroyed along with itself the death that came about because of it, we may recover the life that was sold to pleasure running back to us, bought with small pains of the flesh.
(19) If, when the flesh is pampered, the tension of sin is accustomed to grow fat, it is clear that when it is afflicted, the vigor of virtue naturally flourishes again. Let us therefore bear nobly the affliction of the flesh, which cleanses away the defilements of the soul and is the procurer of the glory to come. For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (20) Just as physicians who treat the body do not offer one and the same remedy to all, neither does God, who heals the diseases of souls, know only one manner of healing suited to all; but having assigned to each the appropriate one, he works the cures. Let us therefore give thanks while being healed, even if what is done involves torment; for the end is blessed.
(κα΄) Οὐδέν οὕτω ψυχῆς ἐλέγχει διάθεσιν, ὡς σαρκός δυσπαθούσης ἐπαναστήματα· οἷς, ἐάν μέν ὑπενδῷ, Θεοῦ πλέον στέργουσα τήν σάρκα φανήσεται· ἐάν δέ τοῖς τούτων διαμείνῃ τινάγμασιν ἄσειστος, σαρκός πλέον ἀρετήν τιμῶσα δειχθήσεται· δι᾿ ἧς τόν Θεόν ἔνοικον ὑποδέξεται, τόν δι᾿ αὐτήν παθεῖν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀνασχόμενον, βοῶντα, καθάπερ πάλαι τοῖς μαθηταῖς· Θαρσεῖτε, ἐγώ νενίκηκα τόν κόσμον.
(κβ΄) Εἰ πάντες παιδείας οἱ ἅγιοι γεγόνασι μέτοχοι, καί ἡμεῖς εὐχαριστήσωμεν σύν αὐτοῖς παιδευόμενοι, ἵνα τῆς αὐτῆς μέτοχοι γενέσθαι δόξης ἀξιωθῶμεν. Ὅν γάρ ἀγαπᾶ Κύριος, παιδεύει· μαστιγοῖ δέ πάντα υἱόν, ὅν παραδέχεται.
(κγ΄) Ὁ μέν Ἀδάμ τήν πλευράν ἡδονήν προτείνουσαν παραδεξάμενος, ἔξω τοῦ παραδείσου ποιεῖ τό ἀνθρώπινον· ὁ δέ Κύριος πόνῳ ταύτην διά τῆς λόγχης ἀνασχισθείς, τόν λῃστήν ἔσω τοῦ παραδείσου ἐποίησεν. Ἀγαπήσωμεν τοίνυν τόν πόνον τῆς σαρκός· μισήσωμεν δέ ταύτης τήν ἡδονήν· ὁ μέν γάρ εἰσάγει καί τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀποκαθίστησιν· ἡ δέ ἐξάγει καί τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀποδιίστησιν. (κδ΄) Εἰ Θεός πάσχει σαρκί, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος τίς πάσχων οὐ γέγηθε Θεόν ἔχων τοῦ πάθους συμμέτοχον; ᾧ τό συμπάσχειν, βασιλείας πρόξενον γίνεται. Ἀληθής γάρ ὁ εἰπών· Εἴπερ συμπάσχομεν, ἵνα καί συνδοξασθῶμεν. (κε΄) Εἰ πάντως πονῆσαι δεῖ, διά τήν ἐμφυρεῖσαν τῇ φύσει διά τοῦ Προπάτορος ἡδονήν, γενναίως τούς προσκαίρους καρτερήσωμεν πόνους, τῆς τε ἡδονῆς τό κέντρον ἡμῖν ἀμβλύνοντας, καί τῶν δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἡμᾶς αἰωνίων ἐλευθεροῦντας κολάσεων.
(21) Nothing so exposes the disposition of the soul as the uprisings of the flesh when it suffers distress; for if it yields to them, it will be shown to cherish the flesh more than God; but if it remains unshaken by their stings, it will be shown to honor virtue more than the flesh; through virtue it will receive God as its indweller, who for its sake endured to suffer as we do, crying out as once to the disciples: Take courage, I have overcome the world.
(22) If all the saints have become partakers of discipline, let us too give thanks, being disciplined together with them, so that we may be deemed worthy to become partakers of the same glory. For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; and he scourges every son whom he receives.
(23) Adam, having accepted the rib that proffered pleasure, puts humanity outside paradise; but the Lord, having had his side opened by the spear in toil, brought the robber inside paradise. Let us therefore love the toil of the flesh, and hate its pleasure; for the one leads in and restores to good things, while the other leads out and separates from good things. (24) If God suffers in the flesh, having become man, what sufferer has not rejoiced, having God as a partaker of his suffering? For to suffer with him becomes the pledge of the kingdom. True is the one who said: If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. (25) If we must by all means toil, because of the pleasure implanted in nature through the first parent, let us bravely endure these temporary toils, both blunting for ourselves the sting of pleasure and freeing us from the eternal punishments that come through it.
(κστ΄) Πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν τέλος ἐστίν ἡ ἀγάπη, ὡς πρός Θεόν τό τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀκρότατον, καί παντός αἴτιον ἀγαθοῦ, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ περιπατοῦντας ἄγουσα καί προσάγουσα καί συνάγουσα, ὡς πιστή καί ἀδιάπτωτος καί μένουσα. Ἡ πίστις γάρ, βάσις ἐστί τῶν μετ᾿ αὐτήν, ἐλπίδος λέγω καί ἀγάπης, βεβαίως τό ἀληθές ὑφεστῶσα. Ἡ δέ ἐλπίς, τῶν ἄκρων ἐστίν ἰσχύς, ἀγάπης λέγω καί πίστεως, τό πιστόν τε δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς καί τό ἐραστόν ἀμφοῖν ὑποφαίνουσα, καί πρός αὐτό τόν δρόμον δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ποιεῖσθαι διδάσκουσα. Ἡ δέ ἀγάπη, τούτων ἐστί συμπλήρωσις, τό ἔσχατον ὀρεκτόν ὅλον ὅλη περιπτυσσομένη, καί ταύταις τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτό κινήσεως στάσιν παρεχομένη, τοῦ πιστεύειν εἶναι, καί ἐλπίζειν παρέσεσθαι, τό ἀπολαύειν παρόντος δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἀντεισάγουσα.
(κζ΄) Ἔργον τῆς ἀγάπης τελειότατον, καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐνεργείας πέρας, δι᾿ ἀντιδόσεως σχετικῆς τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν συνημμένων, ἀλλήλοις ἐμπρέπειν τά ἰδιώματα, καί τάς κλήσεις παρασκευάζειν· καί θεόν μέν τόν ἄνθρωπον ποιεῖν, ἄνθρωπον δέ τόν Θεόν χρηματίζειν καί φαίνεσθαι, διά τήν μίαν καί ἀπαράλλακτον ἀμφοτέρων κατά τό θέλημα βούλησίν τε καί κίνησιν. (κη΄) Εἰ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ πάντως ἡμεῖς γενώμεθα ἑαυτῶν καί τοῦ Θεοῦ· μᾶλλον δέ, μόνου καί ὅλου Θεοῦ, καί ὅλοι μηδέν ἐπίγειον ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς φέροντες, ἵνα Θεῶ πλησιάσωμεν, καί θεοί γενώμεθα, ἐκ Θεοῦ τό θεοί εἶναι λαβόντες. Οὕτω γάρ τιμᾶται τά θεῖα δωρήματα, καί ἡ τῆς θείας εἰρήνης φιλοφρονεῖται παρουσία.
(26) Love is the end of all good things, as being the highest of good things in relation to God and the cause of every good thing, leading and bringing and gathering together those who walk in it, as being faithful and unfailing and abiding. For faith is the foundation of the things that come after it—I mean hope and love—firmly establishing the truth. And hope is the strength of the extremes—I mean love and faith—showing forth through itself both the faithfulness and the lovableness of the two, and teaching that the course toward it be made through itself. And love is the fulfillment of these, embracing wholly with the whole the final object of desire, and providing to these a cessation of the movement toward it, substituting through itself the enjoyment of the present for believing that it is, and hoping that it will be present.
(27) The most perfect work of love, and the limit of the activity according to it, is that through a relative interchange of the things joined together according to it, the properties shine forth in one another and prepare the callings; and that it makes God a human being, and causes a human being to be called and to appear God, because of the one and unvarying will and motion of both according to the will. (28) If we become altogether according to the image of God, belonging to ourselves and to God—or rather, to God alone and wholly—and bearing nothing earthly at all in ourselves, so that we may draw near to God and become gods, having received from God the being gods. For in this way the divine gifts are honored, and the presence of the divine peace is welcomed.
(κθ΄) Μέγα ἀγαθόν ἡ ἀγάπη, καί τῶν ἀγαθῶν τό πρῶτον καί ἐξαίρετον ἀγαθόν, ὡς Θεόν καί ἀνθρώπους δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς περί τόν αὐτήν ἔχοντα συνάπτουσαν καί ὡς ἄνθρωπον τόν ποιητήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φανῆναι παρασκευάζουσα, διά τήν τοῦ θεουμένου πρός τόν Θεόν κατά τό ἀγαθόν ὡς ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώπῳ ἀπαραλλαξίαν· ἥν ἐνεργεῖν ὑπολαμβάνω τό, Ἀγαπῆσαι Κύριον τόν Θεόν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας, καί ψυχῆς καί δυνάμεως· καί τόν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτόν. (λ΄) Ἰστέον, ὡς δόλῳ κακούργως μεμηχανημένῳ διά φιλαυτίας, καθ᾿ ἡδονῆς προσβολήν ἀπατήσας ἡμᾶς ὁ διάβολος, Θεοῦ καί ἀλλήλων κατά γνώμην διέστησε, τό εὐθές διαστρέψας, καί τήν φύσιν κατά τόν τρόπον τοῦτον μερίσας, καί κατατεμών εἰς πολλάς δόξας καί φαντασίας. (λα΄) Τρία ἐστί τά μέγιστα καί ἀρχέκακα, καί πάσης ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, κακίας γεννητικά· ἄγνοια, φημί, καί φιλαυτία καί τυραννίς· ἀλλήλων ἐξηρτημένα καί δι᾿ ἀλλήλων συνιστάμενα. Ἐκ γάρ τῆς περί Θεοῦ ἀγνοίας, ἡ φιλαυτία· ἐκ δέ ταύτης, ἡ πρός τό συγγενές τυραννίς ἐστι. Καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ λόγος, μή οὐχί τῷ κατά παράχρησιν τρόπῳ τῶν οἰκείων δυνάμεων, λόγου τε καί ἐπιθυμίας καί θυμοῦ, ταύτας ἐν ἡμῖν τόν πονηρόν ὑποστήσασθαι.
(29) Love is a great good, and the first and choicest good among goods, since through itself it joins God and men to one another, and it prepares man to be shown forth as the maker of men, because of the deified man's unchangeableness toward God in goodness, as far as is attainable by man. This I understand to be wrought by the words, "To love the Lord God with all one's heart and soul and strength, and one's neighbor as oneself." (30) It must be known that the devil, having craftily contrived a snare through self-love, by an assault of pleasure deceived us and set us apart from God and from one another in will, perverting what is upright, and in this manner dividing our nature and cutting it up into many opinions and fantasies. (31) There are three greatest and primal evils, and, simply put, generative of every wickedness: ignorance, I mean, and self-love, and tyranny, which depend on one another and are established through one another. For from ignorance concerning God comes self-love; and from this comes tyranny toward one's kindred. And no argument will contradict that the evil one has established these in us by the misuse of our own powers—reason, desire, and anger.
(λβ΄) Δέον, λόγῳ μέν, ἀντί τῆς ἀγνοίας, πρός τόν Θεόν διά γνώσεως κατά ζήτησιν μονώτατον κινεῖσθαι· δι᾿ ἐπιθυμίας δέ, τοῦ τῆς φιλαυτίας πάθους καθαρᾶς, κατά πόθον πρός τόν Θεόν μόνον ἐλαύνεσθαι· καί τῷ θυμῷ τυραννίδος κεχωρισμένῳ, πρός τό τοῦ Θεοῦ μόνου τυχεῖν ἀγωνίζεσθαι, καί τήν ἐκ τούτων καί δι᾿ ἥν ταῦτα θείαν καί μακαρίαν ἀγάπην δημιουργῆσαι, τῷ Θεῷ συνάπτουσάν τε καί θεόν ἀποφαίνουσαν τόν φιλόθεον. (λγ΄) Τῆς φιλαυτίας ὡς ἀρχῆς, καθώς εἶπον, καί μητρός τῶν κακῶν ἀποτιλείσης, πάντα τά ἐξ αὐτῆς τε καί μετ᾿ αὐτήν, συναποτίλλεσθαι εἴωθεν ἐπειδή ταύτης μή οὔσης, οὐδέ οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν κακίας εἶδος ἤ ἴχνος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται.
(λδ΄) Δέον ἐστίν, ἑαυτῶν καί ἀλλήλων τοσοῦτον ἀντέχεσθαι, ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ὁ Χριστός προλαβών ἀπεδείξατο, ὑπέρ ἡμῶν παθεῖν ἀνασχόμενος. (λε΄) Διά τήν ἀγάπην οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἀντικατέστησαν, τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς οὐδένα λόγον ποιησάμενοι· καί τούς πολυειδεῖς τοῦ θανάτου τρόπους ὑπέστησαν, ἵνα πρός ἑαυτούς ἀπό τοῦ κόσμου καί τόν Θεόν συναχθῶσι, καί τά τῆς φύσεως ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἑνώσωσι ῥήγματα. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀληθής καί ἀμώμητος τῶν πιστῶν θεοσοφία· ἧς τέλος, τό ἀγαθόν ἐστι καί ἡ ἀλήθεια· εἴπερ ἀγαθόν τό φιλάνθρωπον, καί ἀληθές τό κατά πίστιν φιλόθεον, τά τῆς ἀγάπης γνωρίσματα· ὡς Θεῷ καί ἀλλήλοις τούς ἀνθρώπους συνάπτουσα, καί διά τοῦτο τῶν ἀγαθῶν τήν διαμονήν ἀδιάπτωτον ἔχουσα.
(32) It is necessary, by reason, instead of ignorance, to be moved toward God alone through knowledge in seeking; and by desire, purified of the passion of self-love, to be driven toward God alone in longing; and with the irascible part separated from tyranny, to struggle to attain God alone, and to produce from these and through them divine and blessed love, which joins man to God and shows the lover of God to be a god. (33) When self-love, as I said, the beginning and mother of evils, has been utterly rooted out, all things that come from it and after it are customarily rooted out with it, since when it is not present, no form or trace of evil whatsoever can subsist at all.
(34) It is necessary to hold fast to ourselves and to one another to such a degree as Christ himself demonstrated by his own example, enduring to suffer for our sake. (35) For the sake of love all the saints stood against sin, making no account of the present life; and they endured manifold forms of death, so that they might be gathered together with themselves from the world and with God, and might unite in themselves the ruptures of nature. For this is the true and blameless wisdom of God among the faithful; its end is the good and the truth—since the love of man is good, and the love of God according to faith is true, these being the marks of love; as it joins men to God and to one another, and for this reason has the abiding of goods without fall.
(λστ΄) Ἐνέργεια καί ἀπόδειξις τῆς πρός Θεόν τελείας ἀγάπης ἐστίν, ἡ γνησία δι᾿ εὐνοίας ἑκουσίου πρός τόν πλησίον διάθεσις. Ὁ γάρ μή ἀγαπῶν τόν ἀδελφόν αὐτοῦ, ὅν ἐώρακε, φησίν ὁ θεῖος Ἰωάννης, τόν Θεόν ὅν οὐχ ἐώρακεν, οὐ δύναται ἀγαπᾷν.
(λζ΄) Ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁδός, ἡ ἀγάπη ἐστίν, ἥν ἑαυτόν ὀνομάσας ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ ὁδεύοντας, τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί καθαρούς παντοίων γενομένους παρίστησιν.
(λη΄) Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ θύρα, δι᾿ ἧς ὁ εἰσερχόμενος, εἰς τά Ἅγια γίνεται τῶν ἁγίων, καί τοῦ ἀπροσίτου κάλλους τῆς ἁγίας καί βασιλικῆς Τριάδος καθίσταται ἄξιος θεατής γενέσθαι.
(λθ΄) Φοβερόν ὄντως καί πάσης κατακρίσεως ὑπερέκεινα, τό τήν δοθεῖσαν ἡμῖν παρά Θεοῦ κατά δωρεάν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἑκουσίως νεκρῶσαι ζωήν, διά τῆς πρός τά φθειρόμενα ἀγάπης· καί ἴσασι πάντως τοῦτον τόν φόβον, οἱ τήν ἀλήθειαν τῆς φιλαυτίας προτιμᾷν μελετήσαντες. (μ΄) Χρησώμεθα εἰς δέον τῇ εἰρήνῃ, καί τήν πρός τόν κόσμον, καί τόν κοσμοκράτορα κακῶς ἡμῖν ἐνυπάρξασαν ἀθετήσαντες φιλίαν, τόν διά τῶν παθῶν πρός τόν Θεόν συνιστάμενον, κἄν ὀψέ ποτε καταλύσωμεν πόλεμον· καί σπονδάς ἀλύτους τῆς πρός αὐτόν εἰρήνης ποιήσαντες, ἐν τῇ καταργήσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τῆς πρός αὐτόν ἔχθρας παυσώμεθα. (μα΄) Ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν ἡμᾶς φιλιωθῆναι Θεῷ, διά τῶν παθῶν πρός αὐτόν στασιάζοντας, καί τῷ πονηρῷ τυράννῳ καί φονευτῇ τῶν ψυχῶν διαβόλῳ διά κακίας δασμοφορεῖν ἀνεχομένους, μή πρότερον διόλου πολεμωθέντας τῷ πονηρῷ.
(36) The energy and proof of perfect love toward God is the genuine disposition toward one's neighbor through voluntary goodwill. For the divine John says, "He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen."
(37) The way of truth is love, which the Word of God, naming Himself, presents to God and the Father those who walk in it, having become pure of all things.
(38) This is the door through which the one who enters becomes [one] in the Holy of Holies, and is made worthy to become a beholder of the unapproachable beauty of the holy and royal Trinity.
(39) Truly fearful and beyond all condemnation is it to voluntarily put to death the life of the Holy Spirit given to us by God as a gift, through love for corruptible things; and all who have practiced preferring the truth of self-love know this fear. (40) Let us use peace as is fitting, and having renounced the friendship toward the world and the ruler of this world that existed in us for evil, let us at last dissolve the war that is maintained against God through the passions; and having made unbreakable treaties of peace with Him, in the destruction of the body of sin, let us cease from the enmity toward Him. (41) It is impossible for us to be reconciled to God while we are in revolt against Him through the passions, and while we endure paying tribute through vice to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been wholly at war with the evil one.
Μέχρι γάρ τότε τοῦ Θεοῦ καθεστήκαμεν ἐχθροί καί πολέμιοι, κἄν πιστῶν προσηγορίαν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς περιπλάττωμεν, μέχρις οὗ πάθεσιν ἀτιμίας δουλεύειν βουλόμεθα· καί οὐδέν ὄφελος ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς κατά τόν κόσμον εἰρήνης λοιπόν περιγενήσεται, τῆς ψυχῆς κακῶς διακειμένης, καί πρός τόν ἴδιον ποιητήν στασιαζούσης, καί ὑπό τήν αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν γενέσθαι οὐκ ἀνεχομένης· ἔτι μυρίοις πεπραμένης ὠμοῖς δεσπόταις εἰς
κακίαν αὐτήν κατεπείγουσι, καί τήν εἰς ἀπώλειαν φέρουσαν ὁδόν, τῆς σωζούσης μᾶλλον ἀπατηλῶς αἱρεῖσθαι παρασκευάζουσιν. (μβ΄) Εἰς τοῦτο ἡμᾶς πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός, ἵνα γενώμεθα θείας κοινωνοί φύσεως, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀϊδιότητος μέτοχοι, καί φανῶμεν αὐτῷ ὅμοιοι κατά τήν ἐκ χάριτος θέωσιν, δι᾿ ἥν πᾶσάν τε τῶν ὄντων ἡ σύστασίς ἐστι καί διαμονή, καί ἡ τῶν μή ὄντων παραγωγή καί γένεσις.
(μγ΄) Εἰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ὀνομάζεσθαί τε καί εἶναι ἐφιέμεθα, ἀγωνισώμεθα μή προδοῦναι τοῖς πάθεσι τόν Λόγον, κατά τόν Ἰούδαν· ἤ μή ἀρνήσασθαι, κατά τόν Πέτρον. Ἄρνησις γάρ ἐστι τοῦ Λόγου, ἡ τοῦ πράττειν τό ἀγαθόν διά φόβον παραίτησις· προδοσία δέ, ἡ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἐμπρόθετος ἁμαρτία, καί ἡ πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ὁρμή.
For until then we have stood as enemies and adversaries of God, even if we plaster ourselves with the name of the faithful, as long as we wish to be slaves to dishonorable passions; and no benefit from the peace according to the world will any longer accrue to us, since the soul is in a bad state and is in revolt against its own Maker, and does not endure to come under his kingdom; while it is still sold to countless cruel masters who drive it on to wickedness, and who prepare it to choose, deceptively, the road that leads to destruction rather than the one that saves. (42) God has made us for this: that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers in his eternity, and that we might appear like him in the deification that comes from grace, through which is both the constitution and the persistence of all things that exist, and the production and generation of things that do not exist.
(43) If we desire both to be called and to be of God, let us strive not to betray the Logos to the passions, as Judas did; or not to deny him, as Peter did. For denial of the Logos is the refusal to do good because of fear; and betrayal is deliberate sin in act, and the impulse toward sin.
(μδ΄) Πάσης θλίψεως τέλος ἐστίν ἡ χαρά· καί παντός κόπου, ἡ ἀνάπαυσις· καί πάσης ἀτιμίας, ἡ δόξα. Καί ἁπλῶς, πάντων τῶν ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς ἀλγεινῶν τέλος ἐστί, τό μετά Θεοῦ γενέσθαι καί εἶναι διαπαντός, καί τῆς αἰωνίου καί πέρας μή ἐχούσης ἀνέσεως ἀπολαῦσαι.
(με΄) Ὁ Θεός πρός τῇ φύσει, καί γνώμῃ ἀλλήλοις ἡμᾶς ἑνῶσαι βουλόμενος, καί πρός τοῦτο ἅπαν ὡς ἀληθῶς ὠθῶν τό ἀνθρώπινον, τάς σωτηρίους φιλανθρώπως ἡμῖν ἐντολάς διεχάραξε, καί τούτου χάριν ἐλεεῖν καί ἐλεεῖσθαι ἁπλῶς ἐνομοθέτησεν.
(μστ΄) Ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φιλαυτία καί σύνεσις, ἀλλήλους καί τόν νόμον, ἤ ἀπωσαμένη, ἤ σοφισαμένη, εἰς πολλάς μοίρας τήν μίαν φύσιν κατέτεμε· καί τήν νῦν ἐπικρατοῦσαν αὐτῆς ἀναλγησίαν εἰσηγησαμένη, αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς τήν φύσιν διά τῆς γνώσεως ἐξώπλισε. Διά τοι τοῦτο, πᾶς ὅστις σώφρονι λογισμῷ καί φρονήσεως εὐγενείᾳ, ταύτην λῦσαι δεδύνηται τῆς φύσεως τήν ἀνωμαλίαν, ἑαυτόν πρό τῶν ἄλλων ἐλέησε, τήν γνώμην κατά τήν φύσιν δημιουργήσας, καί Θεῷ κατά τήν γνώμην διά τήν φύσιν προσχωρήσας, καί δείξας ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῷ, τίς τοῦ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα λόγου ὁ τρόπος, καί πῶς ἑαυτῷ ὁ Θεός πρεπόντως κατ᾿ ἀρχάς ὁμοίαν τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν, καί τῆς ἰδίας ἀγαθότητος ἀρίδηλον ἀπεικόνισμα δημιουργήσας, κατέστησεν αὐτήν ἑαυτῇ καί πάντα ταυτήν, ἄμαχον, εἰρηνικήν, ἀστασίαστον, πρός τε Θεόν καί ἑαυτήν δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἐσφιγμένην, καθ᾿ ἥν Θεοῦ μέν ἐφετῶς, ἀλλήλων δέ συμπαθῶς ἀντεχόμεθα.
(44) The end of every affliction is joy; and of every toil, rest; and of every dishonor, glory. And simply put, the end of all the pains endured for the sake of virtue is to become and to be forever with God, and to enjoy the eternal and endless relaxation.
(45) God, wishing to unite us to one another both in nature and in disposition, and truly impelling the whole of humanity toward this, has in a humane way traced out for us the saving commandments, and for this reason has simply legislated that we show mercy and receive mercy.
(46) The self-love and the understanding of human beings, having either thrust aside one another and the law, or having cleverly reasoned them away, has cut the one nature into many parts; and having introduced the insensibility that now prevails over it, it has armed nature through knowledge against itself. For this reason, whoever has been able, by sound reasoning and by the nobility of prudence, to dissolve this irregularity of nature, has shown mercy to himself before others, having fashioned his disposition according to nature, and having drawn near to God in disposition because of nature, and having shown in himself what is the manner of the reason according to the image, and how God, having in the beginning fittingly created our nature similar to himself and a manifest likeness of his own goodness, established it in relation to itself and to all things—free from conflict, peaceful, without faction, bound fast to God and to itself through love, by which we cling to God as something desirable, and to one another with mutual affection.
(μζ΄) Ὁ φιλάνθρωπος Θεός διά τοῦτο γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρός ἑαυτόν συναγάγῃ, καί στῄση τοῦ φέρεσθαι κακῶς, πρός ἑαυτήν, μᾶλλον δέ καθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς σταστιάζουσάν τε καί μεμερισμένην· καί μηδεμίαν ἔχουσαν στάσιν, διά τήν περί ἕκαστον τῆς γνώμης ἀστάθμητον κίνησιν. (μη΄) Οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν μετά Θεόν τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσι τιμιώτερον, μᾶλλον δέ τῷ Θεῷ προσφιλέστερον, τῆς τελείας ἀγάπης, ὡς τούς διῃρημένους εἰς ἕν συναγούσης, καί μίαν ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς ἤ τοῖς πᾶσιν, ἀστασίαστον κατά τήν γνώμην δημιουργῆσαι δυναμένης ταὐτότητα. Καί γάρ ἴδιον τῆς ἀγάπης, τῶν τά κατ᾿ αὐτήν ζητούντων, μίαν ἀποδεῖξαι τήν γνώμην. (μθ΄) Εἰ φύσει τό καλόν ἐστιν ἑνοποιητικόν τῶν διῃρημένων καί συνεκτικόν, τό κακόν δηλονότι τῶν ἡνωμένων ἐστί διαιρετικόν τε καί φθαρτικόν. Καί γάρ φύσει τό κακόν σκεδαστόν ὑπάρχει, καί ἄστατον καί πολύμορφον καί διαιρετικόν.
(ν΄) Πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἀπαλλαγή καί σύντομος πρός σωτηρίαν ὁδός, ἡ ἀληθής τοῦ Θεοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀγάπη ἐστί, καί ἡ καθόλου τῆς κατά ψυχήν πρός τε τό σῶμα καί τόν κόσμον τοῦτον στοργῆς ἐξάρνησις, καθ᾿ ἥν, τῆς μέν ἡδονῆς ἐπιθυμίαν, τῆς ὀδύνης δέ τό φόβον ἀποβαλλόμενοι, τῆς κακῆς ἐλευθερούμεθα
(47) God, who loves humanity, became man for this reason: to gather the nature of human beings to himself, and to put an end to its being carried about badly, and to bring it to himself—or rather, it was at war with itself and divided, and had no stability, because of the unstable motion of the will concerning each thing. (48) For those who have understanding, nothing after God is more honorable, or rather more dear to God, than perfect love, since it gathers those who are divided into one, and is able to create in the many or in all a single, unvarying identity of will. For it is proper to love, for those who seek the things that pertain to it, to show forth a single will. (49) If by nature the good is that which unifies things divided and holds them together, then clearly evil is that which divides and destroys things united. For by nature evil is scattered, unstable, multiform, and divisive.
(50) The release from all evils and the short road to salvation is true love of God in knowledge, and the complete renunciation of the affection of the soul for the body and for this world, through which, casting off the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, we are freed from the evil
φιλαυτίας, πρός τήν γνῶσιν ἀναβιβασθέντες τοῦ Κτίσαντος· καί πονηρᾶς ἀγαθήν ἀντιλαβόντες νοεράν φιλαυτίαν σωματικῆς κεχωρισμένην στοργῆς, οὐ παυόμεθα λατρεύοντες τῷ Θεῷ διά ταύτης τῆς καλῆς φιλαυτίας, ἐκ Θεοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀεί ζητοῦντες τήν σύστασιν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθής λατρεία, καί ὄντως θεάρεστος, ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς διά τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀκριβής ἐπιμέλεια. (να΄) Ὁ σωματικῆς ἡδονῆς μή ἐφιέμενος, καί ὀδύνην παντελῶς μή φοβούμενος, γέγονεν ἀπαθής. Ταύταις γάρ μετά τῆς τεκούσης αὐτάς φιλαυτίας, πάντα τά δι᾿ αὐτάς τε καί ἐξ αὐτῶν μετά τῆς ἀρχηγικωτάτης τῶν κακῶν ἀγνοίας, ὁμοθυμαδόν συναπέκτεινε πάθη, καί ὅλος γέγονε τοῦ ἑστῶτος καί μένοντος καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος φύσει καλοῦ, παντάπασιν αὐτῷ συνδιαμένων ἀκίνητος, καί ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τήν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κατοπτριζόμενος· ἐκ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ φωτοειδοῦς λαμπρότητος, τήν θείαν καί ἀπρόσιτον δόξαν θεώμενος. (νβ΄) Τήν ἡδονήν τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς καί τήν ὀδύνην, ὅση δύναμις, ἀρνησώμεθα, καί πάσης παθῶν ἐπινοίας καί δαιμονιώδους κακουργίας παντελῶς ἀπαλλαγησόμεθα. Διά γάρ τήν ἡδονήν ἀγαπῶμεν τά πάθη, καί διά τήν ὀδύνην φεύγομεν τήν ἀρετήν.
of self-love, having been raised up to the knowledge of the Creator; and having received in place of the evil self-love a good, spiritual self-love separated from bodily affection, we do not cease to serve God through this noble self-love, always seeking from God the constitution of the soul. For this is true worship, and truly pleasing to God: the exact care of the soul through the virtues. (51) He who does not desire bodily pleasure, and does not fear pain at all, has become passionless. For with these, together with the self-love that gave birth to them, he has slain together all the passions that exist because of them and from them, along with the most ruling ignorance of evils, and has become wholly of the good that stands and remains and is always the same by nature, remaining with it altogether unmoved, and with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of God; from the light-like brightness within him, contemplating the divine and unapproachable glory. (52) Let us deny the pleasure and the pain of the present life, as much as we are able, and we shall be wholly delivered from every conception of the passions and from demonic wickedness. For because of pleasure we love the passions, and because of pain we flee virtue.
(νγ΄) Ἐπειδή πᾶσα κακία πέφυκε τοῖς συνιστῶσιν αὐτήν συμφθείρεσθαι τρόποις, εὑρίσκων δι᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς πείρας ὁ ἄνθρωπος, πάσης ἡδονῆς εἶναι πάντως τήν ὀδύνην διάδοχον, πρός μέν τήν ἡδονήν, τήν ὅλην ἔσχεν ὁρμήν· πρός δέ τήν ὀδύνην, τήν ὅλην ἀποφυγήν· τῆς μέν, κατά πᾶσαν ὑπεραγωνιζόμενος δύναμιν· τῆς δέ, κατά πᾶσιν σπουδήν καταγωνιζόμενος, οἰόμενος, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, διά τῆς τοιαύτης μεθοδείας, ἀλλήλων ταύτας διαστῆσαι, καί μόνῃ τῇ ἡδονῇ συνημμενην τήν φιλαυτίαν ἔχειν παντελῶς ὀδύνης ἀπείρατον, ἀγνοήσας ὑπό τοῦ πάθους, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὡς οὐκ ἐνδέχεταί ποτε χωρίς ὀδύνης εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν. Ἐγκέκραται γάρ τῇ ἡδονῇ τῆς ὀδύνης ὁ πόνος, κἄν λανθάνειν δοκῇ τούς ἔχοντας, διά τήν κατά τό πάθος τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐπικράτειαν· ἐπειδή δέ τό ἐπικρατοῦν, ἀεί διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκε, καλύπτον τοῦ παρακειμένου τήν αἴσθησιν. Ἡδονῆς οὖν διά τήν φιλαυτίαν ἀντιποιούμενοι, καί ὀδύνην διά τήν αὐτήν αἰτίαν πάλιν φεύγειν σπουδάζοντες, τάς ἀμυθήτους τῶν φθοροποιῶν παθῶν ἐπινοοῦμεν γενέσεις. (νδ΄) Ἀγνοεῖ τις τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὀδύνην τῆς αἰσθήσεως πεῖραν, ὅταν τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ὄντως ἀγαπητῷ καί ἐραστῷ καί ἐφετῷ προσδήσῃ, μᾶλλον δέ κολλήσῃ τόν νοῦν, τῆς σωματικῆς γενόμενον ἐλεύθερον σχέσεως. (νε΄) Ὥσπερ οὐ δύναταί τις ἄλλως λατρεύειν τῷ Θεῷ καθαρῶς, μή τήν ψυχήν ἄρδην ἐκκαθαίρων· οὕτως οὔτε τῇ κτίσει λατρεύειν, μή τό σῶμα περιποιούμενος·
(53) Since every evil is by nature destroyed together with the ways that constitute it, man, finding through experience itself that pain is in every case the successor of every pleasure, directed his whole impulse toward pleasure and his whole avoidance toward pain; fighting for the one with all his strength and struggling against the other with all zeal, supposing—which was impossible—that by such a method he could separate them from each other and keep self-love joined to pleasure alone, entirely without experience of pain, not knowing, as it seems, because of the passion, that pleasure can never be without pain. For the toil of pain is mixed into pleasure, even if it seems to escape the notice of those who have it, because of the dominance of pleasure in the passion; since that which dominates is by nature always visible, covering the perception of what lies alongside it. So, claiming pleasure because of self-love, and again striving to flee pain for the same cause, we devise the unspeakable generations of the destructive passions. (54) Does anyone not know the experience of the senses in pleasure and pain, when he binds—or rather, glues—the mind to God, who is truly beloved and loved and desired, having become free of bodily attachment? (55) Just as no one can otherwise serve God purely without thoroughly cleansing the soul, so neither can he serve the creature without caring for the body.
καθ᾿ ὅ σῶμα τήν φθοροποιόν ἐπιτελῶν λατρείαν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καί κατ᾿ αὐτό γενόμενος φίλαυτος, ἡδονήν εἶχεν ἀπαύστως καί ὀδύνην ἐνεργουμένην, ἐσθίων ἀεί τό ξύλον τῆς παρακοῆς, τό καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ, κατά ταὐτόν μεμιγμένην κατά τήν αἴσθησιν διά τῆς πείρας ἔχον τήν γνῶσιν. Καί τάχα ξύλον εἶναι γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, τήν φαινομένην κτίσιν εἰπών τις, οὐχ ἁμαρτήσει τῆς ἀληθείας· ἡδονῆς γάρ καί ὀδύνης ποιητικήν ἔχει φυσικῶς τήν μετάληψιν. (νστ΄) Ἔνθα λόγος οὐ κρατεῖ, τό κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πέφυκεν ἐπιγίνεσθαι κράτος, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας πέφυρταί πως ἡ δύναμις, πρός οἶκτον τῆς συγγενοῦς σαρκός καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, τήν ψυχήν δι᾿ ἡδονῆς ὑποσύρουσα· καθ᾿ ἥν ὡς ἔργον αὐτῇ φυσικόν ἐγχειρίσασα τήν ἐμπαθῆ καί καθήδονον τῆς σαρκός ἐπιμέλειαν, ἀπάγει τῆς κατά φύσιν ζωῆς, καί πείθει τῆς ἀνυποστάτου κακίας γενέσθαι ταύτην δημιουργόν. (νζ΄) Κακία ἐστί ψυχῆς νοερᾶς, ἡ λήθη τῶν κατά φύσιν καλῶν, ἥτις ἐκ τῆς περί τήν σάρκα τε καί κόσμον, ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπιγίνεται σχέσεως, ἥν ἀφανίζει στρατηγῶν ὁ λόγος κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην πνευματικήν, τήν τε τοῦ
(53) Insofar as man, in the body, carries out the destructive service and becomes in this very respect a lover of self, he had pleasure unceasingly and pain actively at work, always eating the tree of disobedience, the knowledge of good and evil, which has its knowledge mixed together in the same act, according to perception, through experience. And perhaps someone who called the visible creation the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would not miss the truth; for by nature it has the partaking of it productive of pleasure and pain. (56) Where the word does not hold sway, the power that comes about according to perception naturally supervenes, in which the power of sin is in some way mingled, dragging the soul by pleasure toward pity for the kindred flesh according to subsistence; and by this, having entrusted to it as though it were a natural work of its own the passionate and pleasure-bound care of the flesh, it leads it away from the life according to nature and persuades it to become the maker of non-subsistent evil. (57) Evil is of the rational soul: the forgetfulness of the good things according to nature, which comes about from the passionate attachment to the flesh and the world, which the word, commanding according to spiritual knowledge, destroys, and the
κόσμου καί τῆς σαρκός διερευνώμενος γένεσίν τε καί φύσιν, καί πρός τήν συγγενῆ τῶν νοητῶν χώραν τήν ψυχήν ἐλαύνων· πρός ἥν οὐδεμίαν ὁ νόμος τῆς ἁμαρτίας ποιεῖται διάβασιν, οὐκ ἔχων καθάπερ γέφυραν πρός τόν νοῦν διαβιβάζουσαν αὐτόν ἔτι τήν αἴσθησιν, διαλυθεῖσαν ἤδη πρός τήν ψυχήν κατά τήν σχέσιν, καί τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐναποῤῥιφεῖσαν θεάμασιν, ὧν διαβάς τήν σχέσιν καί τήν φύσιν ὁ νοῦς παντελῶς οὐκ αἰσθάνεται.
(νη΄) Καθάπερ ὁ λόγος κρατῶν τῶν παθῶν, ἀρετῆς ὄργανον ποιεῖται τάς αἰσθήσεις· οὕτω καί τά πάθη κρατοῦντα τοῦ λόγου, μορφοῦσι τάς αἰσθήσεις πρός ἁμαρτίαν. Καί χρή νηφόντως σκοπεῖν τε καί μελετᾷν, πῶς ἡ ψυχή τήν καλήν ποιήσεται δεόντως ἀντιστροφήν, τοῖς δι᾿ ὧν τό πρίν ἐπλημμέλει χρωμένη πρός γένεσιν ἀρετῶν καί ὑπόστασιν.
(νθ΄) Τό ἅγιον Εὐαγγέλιον, σαρκικῆς μέν εἰσηγεῖται ζωῆς ἄρνησιν, πνευματικῆς δέ ὁμολογίαν. Περί τούτων δέ λέγω, τῶν ἀεί μέν κατά τόν ἄνθρωπον, λέγω δέ τήν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐν σαρκί κατά τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ζωήν, ἀποθνησκόντων, ζώντων δέ κατά Θεόν μόνῳ τῷ Πνεύματι, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον καί τούς ἀμφ᾿ αὐτόν, τούς ζῶντας μέν οὐδαμῶς ἰδίαν ζωήν, ζῶντα δέ τόν Χριστόν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς κατά μόνην ἔχοντας τήν ψυχήν. Οὕτως οἱ διά τόν Θεόν ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ νεκροί σαρκί, κρίνονται, θλίψεις καί βασάνους πολλάς καί στενοχωρίας ἔχοντες, καί διωγμούς, καί μυρία πειρασμῶν εἴδη μετά χαρᾶς ὑπομένοντες. (ξ΄) Πᾶν πάθος κατά συμπλοκήν πάντως αἰσθητοῦ τινος καί αἰσθήσεως, καί φυσικῆς δυνάμεως, θυμοῦ λέγω τυχόν, ἤ ἐπιθυμίας, ἤ λόγου παρατραπέντος τοῦ κατά φύσιν, συνίσταται.
(58) Just as reason, when it rules the passions, makes the senses an instrument of virtue, so too the passions, when they rule reason, shape the senses toward sin. And one must watch soberly and consider how the soul will make the good reversal as it ought, using the very things through which it formerly went astray for the generation and subsistence of virtues.
(59) The holy Gospel introduces the denial of the fleshly life and the confession of the spiritual life. I speak of these things—of those who are always, in respect of the man, dying, I mean the human life in the flesh in this age, yet living unto God by the Spirit alone, according to the divine Apostle and those around him, who live no longer their own life but have Christ living in them, in respect of the soul alone. Thus those who are dead in the flesh in this age for God's sake are judged, having afflictions and many torments and distresses, and persecutions, and enduring with joy countless forms of temptations.
(60) Every passion consists altogether in the conjunction of something sensible and sensation, and of a natural power—of anger, say, or of desire, or of reason turned aside from what is according to nature.
Ἐάν οὖν τό πρός ἄλληλα κατά σύνθεσιν τέλος, τοῦ τε αἰσθητοῦ καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ φυσικῆς δυνάμεως θεωρήσας ὁ νοῦς, δυνηθῇ πρός τόν οἰκεῖον φύσει λόγον, τούτων ἕκαστον διακρίνας ἐπαναγαγεῖν, καί θεωρῆσαι καθ᾿ ἑαυτό τό αἰσθητόν, ἄνευ τῆς πρός αὐτό τῆς αἰσθήσεως σχέσεως, καί τήν αἴσθησιν δίχα τῆς τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ πρός αὐτήν οἰκειότητος· καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἤ ἄλλην τινά τῶν κατά φύσιν δυνάμεων χωρίς τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπ᾿ αἰσθήσει τε καί αἰσθητῷ διαθέσεως· ὡς ἡ τοῦ πάθους ποιά παρασκευάζει τήν θεωρίαν γίνεσθαι κίνησις, διεσκέδασε καί ἐλέπτυνε, κατά τόν πάλαι τοῦ Ἰσραήλ μόσχον, τοῦ οἱοδήποτε συμβαίνοντος πάθους τήν σύστασιν, καί ὑπό τό ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως ἔσπειρεν, ἀφανίσας παντελῶς καί αὐτήν τῶν παθῶν τήν ψιλήν φαντασίαν, διά τῆς πρός ἑαυτά τῶν ἀποτελούντων αὐτό κατά φύσιν πραγμάτων ἀποκαταστάσεως.
(ξα΄) Ὁ πολλοῖς πλημμελήμασι τῶν ἐκ τῆς σαρκός παθημάτων κεκηλιδωμένος βίος, χιτών ἐστιν ἐσπιλωμένος. Ὡς ἔκ τινος γάρ ἐνδύματος τῆς κατά τόν βίον ἀναστροφῆς, ἕκαστος τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, εἴτε δίκαιος, εἴτε ἄδικος· ὁ μέν, χιτῶνα καθαρόν ἔχων, τόν ἐνάρετον βίον· ὁ δέ, πονηροῖς ἐσπιλωμένην ἔργοις τήν ζωήν κεκτημένος. Ἤ μᾶλλον, ἐσπιλωμένος ἀπό τῆς σαρκός ἔστι χιτών, ἤ κατά συνείδησιν μορφοῦσα διά τῆς μνήμης τῶν ἐκ τῆς σαρκός πονηρῶν κινημάτων τε καί ἐνεργημάτων τήν ψυχήν, ἕξις τε καί διάθεσις, ἥν ὁρῶσα διαπαντός καθάπερ χιτῶνά τινα περί ἑαυτήν, δυσωδίας πληροῦται παθῶν.
If, then, the mind, having contemplated the end of things in relation to one another by composition—both of the sensible object and of sensation, and of the natural power directed toward it—is able to reduce each of these, having distinguished them, to its own principle according to nature, and to contemplate the sensible object by itself, apart from sensation's relation to it, and sensation apart from the sensible object's affinity to it, and, say, desire or some other of the natural powers apart from the passionate disposition toward sensation and the sensible object—so that the qualified movement of passion prepares contemplation to come into being—it scatters and refines the constitution of whatever passion may occur, like the ancient calf of Israel, and sows it beneath the water of knowledge, utterly destroying even the bare fantasy of the passions, through the restoration of the natural things that constitute it to themselves.
(61) The life defiled by many transgressions of the passions that come from the flesh is a stained garment. For as if from some clothing of one's conduct in life, each person is naturally made manifest, whether just or unjust: the one having a clean garment, the virtuous life; the other having acquired a life stained with evil deeds. Or rather, the garment stained from the flesh is the habit and disposition that forms the soul through the memory of the evil motions and activities that come from the flesh, which, seeing it always around itself like a garment, it is filled with the foul odor of the passions.
Ὡς γάρ ἀπό τοῦ Πνεύματος, διά τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀλλήλαις κατά λόγον συνυφαινομένων, ἀφθαρσίας γίνεται τῇ ψυχῇ χιτών, ὅν ἐνδυσαμένη γίνεται καλή καί ἐπίδοξος· οὕτω καί ἀπό τῆς σαρκός, τῶν παθῶν ἀλλήλοις κατά ἀναλογίαν συνυφαινομένων, γίνεταί τις χιτών ἀκάθαρτος καί ἐσπιλωμένος, ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ δεικνύς γνώριμον τήν ψυχήν, μορφήν ἄλλην αὐτῇ καί εἰκόνα παρά τήν θείαν ἐνθέμενος. (ξβ΄) Βεβαία πίστις ἐστί τῆς πρός ἐκθέωσιν ἐλπίδος τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐνανθρώπησις, τοσοῦτον θεόν ποιοῦσα τόν
ἄνθρωπον, ὅσον αὐτός γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος. Ὁ γάρ χωρίς ἁμαρτίας γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, δῆλον ὅτι χωρίς τῆς εἰς θεότητα μεταβολῆς, τήν φύσιν θεοποιήσει· καί τοσοῦτο ἀναβιβάσει δι᾿ ἑαυτόν, ὅσον αὐτός διά τόν ἄνθρωπον ἑαυτόν κατεβίβασεν. Ὅπερ μυστικῶς διδάσκων ἑαυτόν ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, φησίν, ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις, τόν εἰς ἡμᾶς ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ χρηστότητος δειχθήσεσθαι.
(ξγ΄) Τοῦ μέν θυμοῦ καί τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐπιστατῶν ὁ λόγος, ποιεῖ τάς ἀρετάς· ὁ δέ νοῦς τοῖς λόγοις ἐπιβάλλων, τῶν γεγονότων τήν ἄπταιστον συλλέγεται γνῶσιν. Ὅταν οὖν ὁ λόγος μετά τήν τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀποβολήν, εὕρῃ τό κατά φύσιν ἑραστόν, καί ὁ νοῦς μετά τήν τῶν γινωσκομένων διάβασιν λάβηται τῆς ὑπέρ οὐσίαν καί γνῶσιν τῶν ὄντων Αἰτίας, τηνικαῦτα τό τῆς θεώσεως κατά χάριν ἐπιγίνεται πάθος, τόν μέν λόγον ἀπάγον τῆς φυσικῆς διακρίσεως, ἔνθα τό διακρινόμενον οὐκ ἔστι·
For just as from the Spirit, through the virtues woven together with one another according to reason, there comes to be for the soul a tunic of incorruption, which, having put it on, she becomes beautiful and glorious; so too from the flesh, when the passions are woven together with one another by analogy, there comes to be a certain unclean and defiled tunic, showing the soul from itself to be recognizable, implanting in it another form and image besides the divine. (62) A sure pledge of the hope of deification for the nature of human beings is the becoming-human of God, making the human being God to the same extent as he himself became human. For the one who became human without sin will clearly deify nature without the change into divinity; and he will raise it up through himself as far as he himself lowered himself through the human being. The great Apostle, mystically teaching this himself, says that in the ages to come the surpassing wealth of the goodness of God toward us will be shown. (63) The reason, presiding over anger and desire, produces the virtues; and the mind, applying itself to the principles, gathers the faultless knowledge of created things. When, then, the reason, after the casting away of things opposed, finds the object of natural love, and the mind, after the passage through things known, lays hold of the Cause of beings that is beyond essence and knowledge, then the experience of deification by grace supervenes, leading the reason away from natural discrimination, where that which is discriminated does not exist.
τόν δέ νοῦν καταπαῦον τῆς κατά φύσιν νοήσεως, ἔνθα μή ἔστι τό γινωσκόμενον, καί ποιοῦν τῇ κατά τήν στάσιν ταὐτότητι θεόν, τόν ἀξιούμενον τῆς θείας μεθέξεως.
(ξδ΄) Κατιωθεῖσαν τήν ψυχήν τῷ ῥύπῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς, ἀποκαθαίρει πόνος, καί ἀφηλοῖ παντελῶς αὐτῆς τήν σχέσιν τῶν ὑλικῶν, τῆς πρός αὐτά φιλίας τήν ζημίαν μεταμαθοῦσαν· δι᾿ ἥν αἰτίαν ὁ Θεός συγχωρεῖ τῷ διαβόλῳ, κατά κρίσιν δικαίαν τούς ἀνθρώπους βασάνοις καταπιέζειν. (ξε΄) Ἡδονή καί λύπη, ἐπιθυμία καί φόβος, καί τά τούτοις ἑπόμενα, τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων προηγουμένως οὐ συνεκτίσθη· ἐπεί καί εἰς τόν ὅρον ἄν συνετέλουν τῆς φύσεως. Λέγω δή παρά τοῦ Νυσαέως μεγάλου Γρηγορίου μαθών, ὅτι διά τήν τῆς τελειότητος ἔκπτωσιν, ἐπεισήχθη ταῦτα, τῷ ἀλογοτέρῳ μέρει προσφυέντα τῆς φύσεως· δι᾿ ὧν, ἀντί τῆς μακαρίας καί θείας εἰκόνος, εὐθύς ἅμα τῇ παραβάσει, διαφανής καί ἐπίδηλος ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γέγονεν ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων ὁμοίωσις. Ἔδει γάρ τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ λόγου καλυφθείσης, ὑφ᾿ ὧν ἐπεσπάσατο τῆς ἀλογίας γνωρισμάτων, ἐνδίκως τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων κολάζεσθαι· σοφῶς εἰς συναίσθησιν τῆς λογικῆς μεγαλονοίας ἐλθεῖν οἰκονομοῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τόν ἄνθρωπον.
And it puts the mind to rest from natural understanding, where the object of knowledge is not present, and makes it God by its sameness in stability, the mind deemed worthy of divine participation.
(64) The soul, corroded by the filth of pleasure, is cleansed by toil, and toil wholly strips away its attachment to material things, once it has learned by loss the harm of its friendship with them; for which reason God permits the devil, by just judgment, to oppress men with torments. (65) Pleasure and pain, desire and fear, and the things that follow upon these, were not originally created together with the nature of men; for otherwise they would have contributed to the definition of nature. I say this, having learned it from the great Gregory of Nyssa, that because of the fall from perfection these things were introduced, having grown attached to the more irrational part of nature; through which, instead of the blessed and divine image, immediately at the very moment of transgression, the likeness of irrational animals became manifest and evident in man. For it was necessary that, once the dignity of reason was covered over, by the marks of irrationality that he had drawn upon himself, the nature of men should be justly punished; God wisely arranging that man come to a consciousness of his rational high-mindedness.
(ξστ΄) Καλά γίνεται καί τά πάθη ἐν τοῖς σπουδαίοις, ὁπηνίκα σοφῶς αὐτά τῶν σωματικῶν ἀποστήσαντες, πρός τήν τῶν οὐρανίων μεταχειριζώμεθα κτῆσιν· οἷον, ὅτε τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν, τῆς νοερᾶς τῶν θείων ἐφέσεως ὀρεκτικήν ἐργασόμεθα κίνησιν· τήν ἡδονήν δέ, τῆς ἐπί τοῖς θείοις χαρίσμασι τοῦ νοῦ θελκτικῆς ἐνεργείας εὐφροσύνην ἀπήμονα· τό δέ φόβον, τῆς μελλούσης ἐπί πλημμελήμασι τιμωρίας προφυλακτικήν ἐπιμέλειαν· τήν δέ λύπη, διορθωτικήν ἐπί παρόντι κακῷ μεταμέλειαν. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, κατά τούς σοφούς τῶν ἰατρῶν, σώματι φθαρτικοῦ θηρός τῆς ἐχίδνης, τήν οὖσαν ἤ μελετωμένην ἀφαιρουμένους λώβησιν, τοῖς πάθεσι τούτοις πρός ἀναίρεσιν χρώμενοι παρούσης κακίας ἤ προσδοκωμένης, καί κτῆσιν καί φυλακήν ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως. (ξζ΄) Ὁ μέν τῆς πρώτης Διαθήκης νόμος, διά τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας, παντός μολυσμοῦ τήν φύσιν ἀποκαθαίρει. Ὁ δέ τῆς Καινῆς, διά τῆς θεωρητικῆς μυσταγῳγίας, ἀπό τῶν σωματικῶν πρός τά συγγενῆ τῶν νοητῶν θεάματα, τόν νοῦν γνωστικῶς ἀναβιβάζει.
(65) Passions also become good in the zealous, whenever we wisely separate them from bodily things and employ them for the acquisition of heavenly things: for example, when we make desire a faculty of longing for the noetic aspiration toward divine things; and pleasure, a harmless gladness of the mind's attractive activity in the divine gifts; and fear, a precautionary care regarding the future punishment for transgressions; and grief, a corrective repentance over a present evil. And to speak briefly, in the manner of wise physicians, removing the existing or cultivated injury from the body by means of the destructive beast, the viper, we use these passions for the removal of present or expected evil, and for the acquisition and guarding of virtue and knowledge. (66) The law of the first Covenant, through practical philosophy, purifies nature from all defilement. But the law of the New Covenant, through contemplative mystagogy, raises the mind up in a knowing way from bodily things to the kindred visions of intelligible things.
(ξη΄) Ἡ θεία Γραφή, τούς μέν εἰσαγομένους, καί ἐπί τά προπύλαιά που τυγχάνοντας τῆς θείας αὐλῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν, φοβουμένους καλεῖ· τούς δέ κτησαμένους σύμμετρον ἕξιν τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν λόγων τε καί τρόπων, οἶδεν ὀνομάζειν προκόπτοντας· τούς δέ κατ᾿ αὐτήν γνωστικῶς ἤδη γεγενημένους τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐκφαντικῆς ἀληθείας τήν κορυφήν, προσαγορεύει τελείους. Ὁ τοίνυν
τήν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ἀρχαίαν ἀναστροφήν ἀποστραφείς, καί πᾶσαν ἑαυτοῦ τήν διάθεσιν διά τόν φόβον ἐκδεδωκώς τοῖς θείοις προστάγμασιν, οὐδενός καλοῦ τῶν εἰσαγομένοις πρεπόντων καθυστερεῖ· κἄν οὔπω τήν ἐν ἀρεταῖς ἕξιν ἐκτήσατο, καί τῆς ἐν τοῖς τελείοις λαλουμένοις σοφίας γέγονε μέτοχος. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ ὁ προκόπτων, τῶν ἐπιβεβλημένων αὐτοῦ τῷ βαθμῷ καλῶν τινος ὑστερεῖ· κἄν τήν αὐτήν οὔπω τοῖς τελείοις ὑπερέχουσαν τῶν θείων ἐκτήσατο γνῶσιν. Οἱ γάρ τέλειοι, τῆς θεωρητικῆς ἤδη μυστικῶς ἀξιωθέντες θεολογίας, καί πάσης φαντασίας ὑλικῆς τόν νοῦν καθαρόν καταστήσαντες, καί εἰκόνος τῆς θείας ὡραιότητος ὅλην ἀνελλιπῶς φέρουσαν τήν ἐκμίμησιν, τήν θείαν ἀγάπης ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐνστερνισάμενοι φαίνονται. (ξθ΄) Διττός ἐστιν ὁ φόβος· ὁ μέν ἁγνός· ὁ δέ οὐχ ἁγνός. Ὁ μέν γάρ ἐπί πλημμελήμασι κατ᾿ ἐκδοχήν κολάσεως συνιστάμενος φόβος, αἰτίαν ἔχων τῆς οἰκείας γενέσεως τήν ἁμαρτίαν, οὐχ ἁγνός, οὐδέ ἔσται διαπαντός, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ διά τῆς μετανοίας συναφανιζόμενος. Ὁ δέ δίχα τῆς ἐπί πλημμελήμασι λύπης ἀεί συνεστώς, οὗτος φόβος ἁγνός, καί οὐκ ἀπογενήσεταί ποτε·
(66) Divine Scripture calls those who are being introduced and are somewhere at the vestibules of the divine court of the virtues "those who fear"; those who have acquired a moderate habit of the principles and manners of virtue it knows how to name "those who are advancing"; and those who have already come to the very summit of the truth that reveals the virtues, in a gnostic manner, it addresses as "perfect." Therefore the one who has turned away from the old way of life in the passions, and who through fear has handed over his whole disposition to the divine commandments, falls short of none of the good things befitting those who are being introduced, even if he has not yet acquired the habit in the virtues, and has become a partaker of the wisdom spoken among the perfect. But neither does the one who is advancing fall short of any of the good things that belong to his rank, even if he has not yet acquired the same knowledge of divine things that surpasses in the perfect. For the perfect, having already been mystically deemed worthy of contemplative theology, and having made their mind pure of all material imagination, and bearing the imitation of the divine beauty wholly and without defect, appear to have embraced divine love within themselves. (69) Fear is twofold: the one is pure, the other is not pure. For the fear that arises in the case of transgressions, in expectation of punishment, having sin as the cause of its own origin, is not pure, nor will it ever be, since it is destroyed together with sin through repentance. But the fear that exists always without the grief over transgressions—this is pure fear, and it will never cease to be.
διότιπερ οὐσιωδῶς ἐμπέφυκέ πως τῷ Θεῷ πρός τήν κτίσιν, ποιούμενος ἔκδηλον αὐτοῦ πᾶσιν τήν φυσικήν αἰδεσιμότητα, τῆς ὑπέρ πᾶσαν βασιλείαν καί δύναμιν ὑπεροχῆς. (ο΄) Ὁ μή φοβούμενος τόν Θεόν ὡς κριτήν, ἀλλ᾿ αἰδούμενος αὐτόν διά τήν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς ἀπείρου δυνάμεως ὑπεροχήν, οὐκ ἔχει δικαίως ὑστέρημα, τέλειος ὑπάρχων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, μετ᾿ αἰδοῦς καί τῆς πρεπούσης σεβασμιότητος ἀγαπῶν τόν Θεόν· καί οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κτησάμενος τόν διαμένοντα φόβον εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος, καί οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῷ ὑστέρημα τοπαράπαν οὐδέν. (οα΄) Ἐκ τῶν ὄντων, τόν τῶν ὄντων γινώσκομεν αἴτιον· καί ἐκ τῆς διαφορᾶς τῶν ὄντων, τήν ἐνυπόστατον τοῦ ὄντος διδασκόμεθα σοφίαν· καί ἐκ τῆς τῶν ὄντων φυσικῆς κινήσεως, τήν ἐνυπόστατον τοῦ ὄντος μανθάνομεν ζωήν, τήν τῶν ὄντων ζωοποιόν δύναμιν, τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον. (οβ΄) Τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον οὐδενός ἄπεστι τῶν ὄντων, καί μάλιστα τῶν λόγου καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν μετειληφότων. Συνεκτικόν γάρ ὑπάρχει τῆς ἑκάστου γνώσεως, ὅτι Θεός καί Θεοῦ Πνεῦμα, κατά δύναμιν προνοητικῶς διά πάντων χωροῦν, καί τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ λόγον κατά φύσιν ἀνακινοῦν, καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ πρός συναίσθησιν τῶν πλημμελῶς παρά τόν θεσμόν τῆς φύσεως πεπραγμένων, ἄγον τόν αἰσθανόμενον· καί τήν προαίρεσιν εὔεικτον ἔχοντα, πρός ὑποδοχήν τῶν ἐκ φύσεως ὀρθῶν λογισμῶν. Διό καί πολλούς εὑρίσκομεν καί τῶν ἄγαν βαρβάρων καί νομάδων ἀνθρώπων, καλοκαγαθίας μεταποιουμένους, καί τούς ἀνέκαθεν κρατήσαντες ἐν αὐτοῖς θηριώδεις ἀθετοῦντας νόμους.
because in a certain way he is essentially implanted in God in relation to creation, making manifest to all his natural venerability, of the superiority that is above every kingdom and power. (70) He who does not fear God as a judge, but reveres him because of the surpassing excellence of his infinite power, does not rightly have any deficiency, being perfect in love, loving God with reverence and the fitting augustness; and this is the one who has acquired the fear that abides for ever and ever, and there is no deficiency at all in him. (71) From the things that exist, we know the cause of existing things; and from the difference among existing things, we are taught the subsistent wisdom of the One who is; and from the natural motion of existing things, we learn the subsistent life of the One who is, the life-giving power of existing things, the Holy Spirit. (72) The Holy Spirit is absent from none of existing things, and especially not from those that have partaken of reason in any way. For it is cohesive of the knowledge of each thing, because it is God and the Spirit of God, passing through all things providentially according to power, and stirring up the principle in each thing according to nature, and through it leading the one who perceives to a consciousness of the things that have been done wrongly contrary to the ordinance of nature; and holding the choice easily pliable for the reception of the thoughts that are right according to nature. Therefore we find many even of the utterly barbarous and nomadic men laying claim to nobility of character, and rejecting the bestial laws that had prevailed in them from the beginning.
(ογ΄) Ἔστι μέν ἐν πᾶσιν ἁπλῶς τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, καθό πάντων ἐστί συνεκτικόν καί προνοητικόν, καί τῶν φυσικῶν σπερμάτων ἀνακινητικόν. Προσδιωρισμένως δέ, καί ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν νόμῳ, καθότι τῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐστιν ὑποδεικτικόν παραβάσεως, καί τῆς κατά Χριστόν προαγορευθείσης ἐπαγγελίας, φωτιστικόν· ἐν δέ πᾶσι τοῖς κατά Χριστόν πρός τοῖς εἰρημένοις, καί ὡς υἱοθετικόν. Ὡς δέ σοφίας ποιητικόν, ἐν οὐδενί τῶν εἰρημένων ἐστίν ἁπλῶς, πλήν τῶν συνιέντων, καί ἑαυτούς διά τῆς ἐνθέου πολιτείας ἀξίους ποιησαμένων τῆς αὐτοῦ θεωτικῆς ἐνοικήσεως. Πᾶς γάρ μή ποιῶν τά θεῖα θελήματα, κἄν πιστός ᾗ, ἀσύνετον ἔχει τήν καρδίαν, ὡς πονηρῶν λογισμῶν ἐργαστήριον, καί τό σῶμα κατάχρεων ἁμαρτίαις, ὡς διαπαντός μολυσμοῖς παθῶν ἐνεχόμενον. (οδ΄) Ὁ τῆς σωτηρίας ὀρεγόμενος πάντων ἀνθρώπων Θεός, καί πεινῶν αὐτῶν τήν ἐκθέωσιν, τήν τούτων οἴησιν ὡς τήν ἄκαρπον καταρώμενος ἀποξηραίνει συκῆν, ὅπως τοῦ δοκεῖν εἶναι δίκαιοι, τό εἶναι μᾶλλον προκρίνατες, τόν μέν καθ᾿ ὑπόκρισιν τῆς ἠθικῆς ἐπιδείξεως ἐκδυσάμενοι χιτῶνα, τόν ἐνάρετον δέ,
(73) The Holy Spirit is present in all things simply, insofar as he is the sustaining and provident principle of all things, and the one who stirs up natural seeds. But specifically, he is also in all those who are under the law, insofar as he is the one who points out the transgression of the commandments, and the illuminator of the promise foretold in Christ. And in all those who are in Christ, in addition to what has been said, he is also the one who confers adoption as sons. But as the one who produces wisdom, he is not present simply in any of those mentioned, except in those who understand and who have made themselves worthy, through a life lived in God, of his deifying indwelling. For everyone who does not do the divine wills, even if he is a believer, has an unintelligent heart, as a workshop of evil thoughts, and a body wholly indebted to sins, as one continually held fast by the defilements of the passions. (74) God, who desires the salvation of all human beings and hungers for their deification, cursing their conceit as a barren fig tree, dries it up, so that those who have preferred being to seeming to be righteous, having stripped off the garment of moral display that comes from hypocrisy, and having put on the virtuous
καθώς ὁ θεῖος βούλεται λόγος, ἀνοθεύτως μετελθόντες βίον, εὐσεβῶς τήν ζωήν διενέγκωσι, Θεῷ μᾶλλον τῆς ψυχῆς τήν διάθεσιν, ἤ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τόν ἐκτός ἐπιδεικνύμενοι περί τά ἤθη σχηματισμόν.
(οε΄) Ἕτερός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ ποιεῖν, καί ἕτερος ὁ τοῦ πάσχειν λόγος· καί ὁ μέν τοῦ ποιεῖν λόγος ἐστίν, ἡ φυσική πρός ἀρετῶν ἐνέργειαν δύναμις· ὁ δέ τοῦ πάσχειν, ἤ χάρις τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἤ σύμβασις τῶν παρά φύσιν. Ὡς γάρ τοῦ ὑπερόντος φυσικήν οὐκ ἔχομεν δύναμιν, οὕτως οὔτε τοῦ μή ὄντος ἔχομεν φύσει τήν δύναμιν. Πάσχομεν οὖν ὡς ὑπέρ φύσιν οὖσαν κατά χάριν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τήν θέωσιν· οὐ γάρ ἔχομεν φύσει δεκτικήν τῆς θεώσεως δύναμιν. Καί πάσχομεν πάλιν ὡς παρά φύσιν, γνώμῃ κατά σύμβασιν τήν κακίαν· οὐ γάρ ἔχομεν πρός γένεσιν κακίας φυσικήν δύναμιν. Ποιοῦμεν οὖν ἐνταῦθα φύσει ὄντες τάς ἀρετάς, πρός τό ταύτας ποιεῖν ἔχοντες φυσικήν τήν δύναμιν· πάσχομεν δέ κατά τό μέλλον τήν θέωσιν, τήν πρός τό παθεῖν ταύτην κατά δωρεᾶς χάριν δεχόμενοι. (οστ΄) Ποιοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, ἐφ᾿ ὅσον τήν τε τῶν ἀρετῶν ποιητικήν φύσει λογικήν ἔχομεν δύναμιν ἐνεργουμένην· καί τήν πάσης γνώσεως δεκτικήν νοεράν ἀσχέτως δύναμιν, πᾶσαν τῶν ὄντων καί γινωσκομένων φύσιν διαβαίνουσαν, καί πάντας κατόπιν ἑαυτῆς τούς αἰῶνας ποιουμένην· πάσχομεν δέ, ἡνίκα τῶν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τούς λόγους τελείως περάσαντες, εἰς τήν τῶν ὄντων ἀγνώστως ἔλθωμεν Αἰτίαν, καί συγκαταπαύσωμεν τοῖς φύσει πεπερασμένοις τάς οἰκείας δυνάμεις, ἐκεῖνο γινόμενοι, ὅπερ τῆς κατά φύσιν δυνάμεως οὐδαμῶς ὑπάρχει κατόρθωμα·
...as the divine word wills, having passed through life without corruption, they may live out their life in piety, displaying the disposition of their soul to God rather than to men the outward conformation of their manners.
(75) One thing is the principle of acting, and another the principle of being acted upon; and the principle of acting is the natural power directed toward the activity of the virtues; while the principle of being acted upon is either the grace of things beyond nature, or a concurrence of things contrary to nature. For just as we do not have a natural power for what surpasses nature, so neither do we have by nature the power for what is not. We are acted upon, then, as grace is beyond nature, but we do not produce deification; for we do not have by nature a power receptive of deification. And again we are acted upon as being contrary to nature, when by choice, through concurrence, we take on vice; for we do not have a natural power for the generation of vice. Here, then, we do the virtues by nature, having the natural power to do them; but we are acted upon in the deification that is to come, receiving this grace of the gift for the purpose of being acted upon. (76) We act, insofar as we have the rational power that is by nature productive of the virtues, being energized, and the intellectual power receptive of all knowledge, unhindered, passing through the whole nature of beings and of things known, and making all the ages to follow after itself; but we are acted upon when, having perfectly passed through the principles of things that come from non-being, we come in an unknowing way to the Cause of beings, and we bring our own powers to rest together with things that are by nature limited, becoming that which is in no way an achievement of natural power.
ἐπειδή τοῦ ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἡ φύσις καταληπτικήν οὐ κέκτηται δύναμιν· θεώσεως γάρ οὐδέν γενητόν κατά φύσιν ἐστί ποιητικόν, ἐπειδή μηδέ Θεοῦ καταληπτικόν· μόνης γάρ τῆς θείας χάριτος ἴδιον τοῦτο πέφυκεν εἶναι, τό ἀναλόγως τοῖς οὖσι χαρίζεσθαι θέωσιν· τῆς λαμπρυνούσης τήν φύσιν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν φωτί, καί τῶν οἰκείων ὅρων αὐτήν ὑπεράνω, κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τῆς δόξης, ποιουμένης.
(οζ΄) Τάς ἀρετάς ποιοῦντες, μετά τήνδε παυόμεθα τήν ζωήν· τήν δέ κατά χάριν ὑπέρ αὐτῶν οὐ παυόμεθα πάσχοντες θέωσιν. Τό γάρ ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἀνύπαρκτον, ὅτι καί ἀδρανές.
(οη΄) Τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν τύποι, οἵ τε κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόποι, καί οἱ τῶν ὄντων λόγοι· οἷς ὁ Θεός διαπαντός ἄνθρωπος γίνεται, ὡς μέν σῶμα, τούς τρόπους ἔχων τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὡς δέ ψυχήν, τούς ἐν πνεύματι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, οἷς τούς ἀξίους θεοποιεῖ, χαρακτῆρα διδούς ἀρετῆς ἐνυπόστατον, καί ἀπλανοῦς γνώσεως ἐνούσιον χαριζόμενος ὕπαρξιν.
(οθ΄) Ὁ πιστός, κατά τόν ἅγιον Πέτρον, καί πρακτικός νοῦς, ὑπό Ἡρώδου κρατούμενος, τοῦ δερματίνου νόμου· δερμάτινος γάρ ὁ Ἡρώδης ἑρμηνεύεται, ὅπερ ἐστί τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός· ὑπό δύο συγκλείεται φυλακάς, καί μίαν πύλην σιδηρᾶν, πολεμούμενος ἔκ τε τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας, καί τῆς κατά διάνοιαν ἐπί τοῖς πάθεσι συγκαταθέσεως, ἅς τινας καθάπερ φυλακάς, ἤγουν εἰρκτάς, διά τοῦ λόγου τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας, ὡς δι᾿ ἀγγέλου διαπεράσας, ἔρχεται ἐπί τήν πύλην τήν σιδηρᾶν τήν φέρουσαν εἰς τήν πόλιν· τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά λέγω τῶν αἰσθήσεων, στεῤῥάν καί ἀπότομον καί δυσκαταμάχητον σχέσιν·
Since nature does not possess a power capable of comprehending what is above nature; for nothing created is by nature capable of producing deification, since it is not even capable of comprehending God. For this belongs by nature to divine grace alone, to bestow deification on beings in proportion to their capacity, by the light that is above nature illuminating nature and placing it beyond its own limits, according to the surpassingness of glory.
(77) By practicing the virtues we cease from this life, but we do not cease from the deification that comes by grace on their account. For what is above nature, if it does not exist, is also without power.
(78) The types of divine goods are both the modes of virtue and the principles of beings; by these God becomes wholly man, having as body the modes of the virtues, and as soul the spiritual principles of knowledge, by which he deifies those who are worthy, giving them a substantial character of virtue and granting them the essential existence of unerring knowledge.
(79) The faithful man, according to Saint Peter, and the practical intellect, is held by Herod, the law of leather; for Herod is interpreted as "leathery," which is the mind of the flesh. He is confined by two prisons and one iron gate, being assailed both by the activity of the passions and by the mind's consent to the passions; passing through these, as it were prisons or dungeons, by the word of practical philosophy as through an angel, he comes to the iron gate that leads into the city—I mean the firm, steep, and hard-to-conquer attachment of the senses to sensible things.
ἥν ὁ τῆς φυσικῆς ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίας διανοίγων λόγος αὐτομάτην, πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά λοιπόν ἀφόβως τόν νοῦν παραπέμπει τῆς Ἡρώδου μανίας ἐλεύθερον. (π΄) Ὁ διάβολος καί ἐχθρός ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί ἐκδικητής· ἐχθρός μέν, ὅταν ὡς μισῶν αὐτόν, δοκεῖ πως τήν ὀλέθριον κεκτῆσθαι πρός ἡμᾶς τούς ἀνθρώπους ἀγάπην, τοῖς τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν τρόποις, διά τῆς ἡδονῆς πείθων ἡμῶν τήν προαίρεσιν τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν, προκρίνειν τά
πρόσκαιρα· δι᾿ ὧν κλέπτων ὅλην τῆς ψυχῆς τήν ἔφεσιν, τῆς θείας παντελῶς ἀγάπης ἡμᾶς ἀφίστησιν, ἑκουσίους ἐχθρούς ποιῶν τοῦ ποιήσαντος· ἐκδικητής δέ, ὅταν γυμνώσας τό πρός ἡμᾶς μῖσος, ὡς ἤδη γενομένους αὐτῷ διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν ὑποχειρίους, ἐξαιτῆται τήν καθ᾿ ἡμῶν τιμωρίαν. Οὐδέν γάρ οὕτω φίλον τῷ διαβόλῳ καθέστηκεν, ὡς ἄνθρωπος τιμωρούμενος. Τοῦτο δέ συγχωρηθείς, τάς ἀπαλλήλους ἐπινοῶν τῶν ἀκουσίων παθῶν ἐπαγωγάς, λαίλαπος δίκην ἀπηνῶς ἐπιφέρεται τοῖς καθ᾿ ὧν ἐκομίσατο συγχωρήσει Θεοῦ τήν ἐξουσίαν· οὐ τό πρόσταγμα τό θεῖον ἐκπληρῶσαι βουλόμενος, ἀλλά τό οἰκεῖον τοῦ καθ᾿ ἡμῶν μίσους διαθρέψαι πάθος ἐπιθυμῶν· ἵνα τῷ πολλῷ βάρει τῶν ὀδυνηρῶν συμφορῶν, ἡ ψυχή δι᾿ ἀτονίαν ὀκλάσασα, τῆς θείας ἐλπίδος ἑαυτῆς περικόψῃ τήν δύναμιν, ἀντί νουθεσίας, ἀθεΐας αἰτίαν ποιουμένη τήν τῶν ἀλγεινῶς συμβαινόντων ἐπαγωγήν. (πα΄) Ὅταν οἱ τήν πρακτικήν ἕξιν, καί τήν θεωρητικήν ἐπιστήμην ἀπειληφότες, πρός τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ταύτας μετέρχωνται δόξαν, ἤθη μέν ἀρετῶν τῷ φαινομένῳ τρόπῳ σκιαγραφοῦντες· λόγους δέ σοφίας καί γνώσεως μόνον λαλοῦντες, δίχα τῶν κατά δικαιοσύνην ἔργων·
The word of natural contemplation in the Spirit, opening this out, thereafter sends the mind without fear, free from Herod's madness, spontaneously toward the kindred intelligible realities. (80) The devil is both an enemy of God and an avenger: an enemy, when, as one hating him, he seems in some way to have acquired a destructive love for us human beings, persuading our free choice by the modes of voluntary passions, through pleasure, to prefer temporal things to eternal goods; by which, stealing the whole desire of the soul, he removes us entirely from divine love, making us voluntary enemies of our Maker. And an avenger, when, having laid bare his hatred toward us, since we have already become subject to him through sin, he demands the punishment against us. For nothing is so dear to the devil as a human being being punished. And when this is permitted him, devising relentless onsets of involuntary passions, he is borne fiercely like a tempest against those over whom he has received authority by God's permission—not wishing to fulfill the divine command, but desiring to nourish his own passion of hatred against us; so that, by the great weight of painful calamities, the soul, growing weak through feebleness, might cut off from itself the power of divine hope, making the onset of grievous events a cause of godlessness instead of admonition. (81) When those who have received the practical habit and the contemplative knowledge pursue these for the glory of men, sketching out the characters of virtues in outward manner, and speaking words of wisdom and knowledge only, apart from works of righteousness—
καί τόν ὡς ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιδείκνυνται τύφον, εἰκότως πρέπουσι παραδίδονται πόνοις, διά τοῦ πάσχειν τήν ἀγνοηθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς ματαίας οἰήσεως ταπεινοφροσύνην μεταμανθάνοντες.
(πβ΄) Ἕκαστος τῶν δαιμόνων κατά τήν ἐνδιαθέτως ὑποκειμένην ἐπιτηδειότητα, πρός τήνδε ἤ τήνδε τῶν πειρασμῶν τήν ἐπαγωγήν τυγχάνει λειτουργῶν· ἄλλος γάρ ἄλλης ἐστί ποιητικός κακίας, καί ἄλλος ἄλλους σαφῶς ἐστι μιαρώτερος, καί πρός τόδε μᾶλλον τῆς κακίας τό εἶδος ἐπιτηδειότερος. (πγ΄) Ἄνευ τῆς θείας συγχωρήσεως, οὐδέ αὐτοί οἱ δαίμονες κατ᾿ οὐδέν ὑπουργεῖν δύνανται τῷ διαβόλῳ. Οἶδε γάρ αὐτός ὁ Θεός ὅπως μετά τῆς δεούσης φιλανθρώπου καί ἀγαθῆς προνοίας συγχωρεῖ τῷ διαβόλῳ διά τῶν αὐτοῦ ὑπουργῶν, τάς ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἡμάρτομεν, διαφόρους ποιεῖσθαι τιμωρίας· καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο σαφῶς, ἡ περί τοῦ Ἰώβ συγγραφή μή δυνάμενον τῷ Ἰώβ παντελῶς προσπελάσαι τόν διάβολον ἀναγραφομένη, δίχα τοῦ θείου βουλήματος.
(πδ΄) Ἐνυπόστατος πίστις ἐστίν, ἡ ἐνεργής καί ἔμπρακτος, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγος ἐν τοῖς πρακτικοῖς δείκνυται, ταῖς ἐντολαῖς σωματούμενος, δι᾿ ὧν ὡς Λόγος πρός τόν ἐν ᾧ κατά φύσιν ἐστίν, ἀνάγει Πατέρα τούς πράττοντας. (πε΄) Ζωῆς μετάθεσιν καί λατρείαν ἀγγελικήν, καί πρός σῶμα ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον ἀλλοτρίωσιν, καί τῆς ἐν πνεύματι θείας μεταποιήσεως γένεσιν, τό τῆς Νέας Διαθήκης καταγγέλλει μυστήριον. Πνευματικήν δέ περιτομήν ὁ λόγος οἶδε καλεῖν, τήν τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς σχέσεως πρός σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκτομήν.
And the conceit which they display before others as though grounded in virtue and knowledge is rightly handed over to fitting labors, so that by suffering they may relearn the humility they ignored because of their vain presumption.
(82) Each of the demons, according to the disposition inwardly underlying him, happens to minister to this or that inducement of temptations; for one is the producer of one vice and another of another, and one is clearly more polluted than others, and more suited to this particular form of vice. (83) Without the divine permission, not even the demons themselves can render any service to the devil. For God himself knows how, with the fitting philanthropic and good providence, he permits the devil, through his ministers, to bring about various punishments for the things in which we have sinned; and the writing concerning Job makes this clear, recording that the devil was wholly unable to come near Job apart from the divine will.
(84) Substantial faith is the active and practical faith, by which the Word of God is shown forth in those who practice virtue, being embodied in the commandments, through which, as Word, he leads those who practice them up to the Father, in whom he is by nature. (85) The mystery of the New Covenant proclaims a translation of life and an angelic worship, and a voluntary alienation of the soul from the body, and the birth of divine transformation in the Spirit. The word knows how to call spiritual circumcision the cutting off of the soul's passionate attachment to the body.
(πστ΄) Ἀγαθός ὑπάρχων ὁ Θεός, καί θέλων ἡμῶν ἐκτῖλαι παντελῶς τό τῆς κακίας σπέρμα τήν ἡδονήν, τήν τόν νοῦν τῆς θείας ἀποσυλήσασαν ἀγάπης, συγχωρεῖ τῷ διαβόλῳ πόνους ἡμῖν καί τιμωρίας ἐπαγαγεῖν· κατά ταὐτόν καί τῆς προλαβούσης ἡδονῆς τόν ἰόν, διά τῶν πόνων τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποξέων, καί πρός τά παρόντα καί μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν σαίνοντα, μῖσος ἡμῖν καί τελείαν ἀποδιάθεσιν, ὡς μηδέν τιμωρίας πλέον εἰς κέρδος κεκτημένα κατά τήν χρῆσιν, ἐμποιῆσαι βουλόμενος, καί τήν ἐκείνου τιμωρόν δύναμιν καί μισάνθρωπον, τῆς πρός ἀρετήν ἐπαναγωγῆς περιστατικήν αἰτίαν ποιήσασθαι τῶν αὐτῆς ἑκουσίως ἀπολισθησάντων.
(πζ΄) Πρέπον ἐστί καί δίκαιον ὑπό τοῦ διαβόλου κολάζεσθαι, τούς τάς αὐτοῦ πονηράς ὑποθήκας τῶν ἑκουσίων ἁμαρτημάτων ἡδέως δεξαμένους. Καί γάρ καί ἡδονῆς ἐστι διά τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν σπορεύς ὁ διάβολος, καί ὀδύνης διά τῶν ἀκουσίων ἐπαγωγεύς.
(πη΄) Ὁ θεωρητικός νοῦς καί γνωστικός, πρός τιμωρίαν ἐκδίδοται διά τοῦτο πολλάκις τῷ διαβόλῳ, πόνους αὐτῷ δικαίως ἐπάγοντι καί συμφοράς, ἵνα μάθῃ πάσχων περί καρτερίας μᾶλλον καί πόνων ὑπομονῆς φιλοσοφεῖν, ἤ διακενῆς τοῖς οὐκ οὖσιν ὑπερηφάνως ἐμματαιάζειν.
(86) God, being good and wishing to utterly root out the seed of evil—that is, pleasure, which despoiled the mind of divine love—permits the devil to bring labors and punishments upon us; at the same time scraping away the venom of the pleasure that came before through the soul's labors, and wishing to implant in us hatred and complete aversion toward present things, which merely flatter the senses, since nothing more than punishment has been gained for us as an advantage in their use, and to make that punishing and man-hating power of his a circumstantial cause of the return to virtue for those who have willingly slipped away from it.
(87) It is fitting and just that those who have gladly received his wicked suggestions of voluntary sins be punished by the devil. For the devil is both a sower of pleasure through the voluntary passions and a bringer-on of pain through the involuntary ones.
(88) The contemplative and knowing mind is often handed over to the devil for punishment for this reason, since he justly brings labors and calamities upon it, so that by suffering it may learn to philosophize about endurance and the patience of labors, rather than to vainly babble in pride about things that do not exist.
(πθ΄) Ὁ πάσχων ὑπό χάριτος [ ὑπέρ θείας ἐντολῆς] Θεοῦ παραβαθείσης, ἐάν ἐπιγνῶ τῆς ἰωμένης αὐτόν θείας προνοίας τόν λόγον τήν τε συμφοράν εὐχαρίστως δέχεται χαίρων, καί τήν ὑπέρ ἧς παιδεύεται διορθοῦται πλημμέλειαν· ὁ δέ ταύτης ἀναισθητῶν τῆς ἰατρείας, τῆς τε δοθείσης ἐνδίκως ἀπάγεται χάριτος καί τῇ συγχύσει τῶν παθῶν παραδίδοται, πρός τήν πρᾶξιν ἐλθεῖν καταλιμπανόμενος, ὧν ἐνδιαθέτως εἶχε τήν ἔφεσιν. ( ΄) Πᾶς ἀνεχόμενος ἑκουσίως ἐκ τῆς τῶν αὐτῷ πεπραγμένων συναισθήσεως, δέξασθαι τάς ἐπιπόνους τῶν ἀκουσίων ἐπιφοράς πειρασμῶν, μετά τῆς δεούσης εὐχαριστίας, οὐκ ἐξοικίζεται τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἕξεώς τε καί χάριτος, ὡς ὑπελθών ἑκουσίως τόν ζυγόν βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος, καί ὡς χρέος ἀποτιννύς, τάς τῶν βασάνων ἐπιφοράς καταδεχόμενος· ἀλλ᾿ ἐν αὐταῖς μένων, τελεῖ τῷ μέν βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος, τούς ἐκ τοῦ παθητοῦ τῆς φύσεως βιαίους πόνους, καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς, κατά διάνοιαν ὡς ὀφειλέτης αὐτῶν διά τάς προλαβούσας πλημμελίας, συγκατάθεσιν· τῷ δέ Θεῷ, προσφέρων διά λατρείας ἀληθινῆς, τῆς ταπεινῆς λέγω διαθέσεως, τήν τῶν παρημελημένων διόρθωσιν. ( α΄) Ὁ τήν κατά συγχώρησιν Θεοῦ πρός διόρθωσιν ἐπαγομένην αὐτῷ διά τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμφοράν, εὐχαρίστως μή καταδεχόμενος καί τήν ἐπί τῷ δοκεῖν δίκαιος εἶναι, μεταγνούς, οὐκ ἀποτιθέμενος οἴησιν, ὡς τοῖς θείοις τῶν δικαίων κριμάτων ἀντιπίπτων θεσπίσματα, καί μή καταδεχόμενος ἑκουσίως ὑπό τόν ζυγόν γενέσθαι τοῦ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος κατά τήν θείαν διαταγήν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν παραδίδοται·
(89) One who suffers under grace [for a divine commandment] of God that has been transgressed, if he recognizes the reason of the divine providence that heals him, both receives the misfortune with thanksgiving, rejoicing, and corrects the transgression for which he is being disciplined; but one who is insensible to this healing is both justly deprived of the grace that was given and handed over to the confusion of the passions, being abandoned to come to the practice of those things whose desire he had inwardly. (90) Everyone who willingly endures, from the consciousness of what he himself has done, to accept the painful onsets of involuntary temptations, with the thanksgiving that is due, is not driven out from his state and grace according to virtue, as one who has willingly come under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and as one paying a debt, accepting the onsets of torments; but remaining in them, he renders to the king of Babylon the violent pains of the passible part of nature, and his consent to them in his mind, as being their debtor because of his preceding transgressions; and to God, offering through true worship—I mean of the humble disposition—the correction of the things neglected. (91) One who does not thankfully accept the misfortune brought upon him by God's forgiveness for correction through involuntary temptations, and who, having repented of his seeming righteousness, does not lay aside his conceit, as one who opposes the divine ordinances of the righteous judgments, and who does not willingly accept to come under the yoke of the king of Babylon according to the divine appointment, is handed over to captivity.
καί κλοιούς καί δεσμά καί λοιμόν καί θάνατον καί μάχαιραν, καί τῆς ἰδίας παντελῶς ἀποικίζεται γῆς. Πάντα γάρ ταῦτα, καί τούτων πλείονα, ὁ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ὡς ἰδίας τῆς ἐξοικιζόμενος ἕξεως πάσχει· διά τό μή θέλειν αὐτόν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας καί ματαίας οἰήσεως τάς ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐπλημμέλησεν ἐκτιννύς δίκας, ἐν θλίψεσιν εὐδοκῆσαι καί ἀνάγκαις καί στενοχωρίαις κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον. Ἤδει γάρ ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, φυλακτικήν τῶν θείων κατά ψυχήν θησαυρῶν ὑπάρχουσαν, τήν ἐκτός περί τό σῶμα συνισταμένην διά τῶν πόνων ταπείνωσιν· καί διά τοῦτο στέργων ὑπέμενε, καί διά ἑαυτόν, καί τούς οἷς ἀρετῆς καί πίστεως προέκειτο τύπος· ἵνα κἄν ὡς ὑπεύθυνοι πάσχωσι κατά τόν ἐπιτιμηθέντα Κορίνθιον, εἰς παρηγορίαν ἔχωσι καί ὑπομονῆς μίμησιν τόν ἀνευθύνως πάσχοντα. ( β΄) Ὁ μή τοῖς σχήμασι τῶν ὁρατῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλά κατά νοῦν τούς λόγους αὐτῶν ἀναζητῶν, ὡς νοητῶν τύπους ἤ λόγους αἰσθητῶν θεώμενος κτισμάτων, οὐδέν ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι τῶν ὁρωμένων διδάσκεται· πάντα γάρ φύσει καλά λίαν καθέστηκεν.
and chains and bonds and plague and death and sword, and he is wholly deported from his own land. For all these things, and more than these, does he suffer who is deported from his own state of virtue and knowledge; because he does not wish, out of pride and vain conceit, to pay the just penalties for the things in which he has transgressed, and to be well pleased in afflictions and necessities and straits, according to the divine Apostle. For the great Apostle knew that the humiliation of the body, established through labors, is a safeguard of the divine treasures of the soul; and for this reason, cherishing it, he endured it, both for his own sake and for those to whom he was set forth as a pattern of virtue and faith; so that even if they suffer as those liable, like the rebuked Corinthian, they might have for consolation and for imitation of endurance the one who suffers without guilt. (2) He who does not remain in the shapes of visible things because of sensation, but seeks out their reasons by the mind, beholding them as types or reasons of intelligible or sensible created things, is taught that nothing of the things seen is unclean; for all things are by nature very beautiful.
( γ΄) Ὁ τῇ κινήσει τῶν αἰσθητῶν μή συναλλοιούμενος, ἀκίβδηλον τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν μετέρχεται πρᾶξιν. Ὁ δέ τοῖς αὐτῶν σχήμασι μή διατυπώσας τόν νοῦν, τήν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων ἀπείληφε δόξαν. Ὁ δέ καί αὐτήν τήν οὐσίαν τῶν ὄντων τῇ διανοίᾳ παραδραμών, ὡς ἄριστος θεολόγος, μετά ταύτην ἀγνώστως τῇ μονάδι προσέβαλε.
( δ΄) Πᾶς θεωρητικός νοῦς, ἔχων τήν μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα Θεοῦ, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῆς φαινομένης κτίσεως ἀποκτείνας τήν κίνησιν, κατώρθωσεν ἀρετήν· καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἑαυτοῦ τήν φαντασίαν ἀποτεμών, τήν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων εὗρεν ἀλήθειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν φυσική θεωρία συνέστηκε· καί
τῆς οὐσίας τῶν ὄντων ὑπεράνω γενόμενος, τόν τῆς θείας καί ἀμάχου μονάδος δέχεται φωτισμόν, καθ᾿ ὅν τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεολογίας συνέστηκε τό μυστήριον. ( ε΄) Ἑκάστῳ κατά τήν ὑποκειμένην αὐτῷ περί Θεοῦ δόξαν, ὁ Θεός ἐμφανίζεται· τοῖς μέν κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν τήν ὑλικήν περάσασι σύνθεσιν, καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς ἰσοδυναμούσας ἀλλήλαις κεκτημένοις κατά μίαν καί τήν αὐτήν ἀεικινησίαν περί Θεόν, ὡς μονάς ἐκφαίνεται καί Τριάς, ἵνα καί τήν οἰκείαν ὕπαρξιν παραδείξειε, καί τόν αὐτῆς τρόπον μυστικῶς ἐκδιδάξειε. Τοῖς δέ περί μόνην τήν ὑλικήν σύνθεσιν ἔχουσι κινουμένην τήν ἔφεσιν, καί ἀλλήλαις ἀσυνδέτους τάς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις κεκτημένοις, οὐχ ὡς ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς εἰσίν ἐμφανίζεται, δεικνύς ὅτι τῆς ὑλικῆς δυάδος ἀμφοῖν ἐπελάβοντο ταῖν χεροῖν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ σωματικός, ὡς ἐξ ὕλης καί εἴδους, συνέστηκε κόσμος.
(3) He who is not changed along with the motion of sensible things pursues the practice of the virtues without alloy. He who has not molded his mind by their forms has received the true opinion of beings. And he who has run past in thought even the very substance of beings, as the best theologian, after this has unknowingly attained to the Monad.
(4) Every contemplative mind, having the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, having slain within itself the motion of the visible creation, has set virtue aright; and having cut off from itself the imagination of sensible forms, it has found the truth in the principles of beings, in which natural contemplation consists; and having become above the substance of beings, it receives the illumination of the divine and unvanquished Monad, in which the mystery of true theology consists. (5) To each one, according to the opinion concerning God that underlies in him, God appears: to those who have passed beyond material composition in accordance with desire, and who possess the powers of the soul equal in strength to one another in one and the same ceaseless motion toward God, He appears as Monad and Triad, so as both to display His own existence and mystically to teach the manner of it. But to those whose desire is moved only around material composition, and who possess the powers of the soul unlinked from one another, He appears not as He is, but as they are, showing that with both hands they have grasped the material dyad, according to which the bodily world consists, as of matter and form.
( στ΄) Ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, τάς διαφόρας ἐνεργείας τοῦ ἑνός ἁγίου Πνεύματος, χαρίσματα λέγει διάφορα, ὑφ᾿ ἑνός δηλονότι καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐνεργούμενα Πνεύματος. Εἰ τοίνυν κατά τό μέτρον τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ πίστεως δίδοται ἡ φανέρωσις τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν τῇ μετοχῇ τοῦ τοιοῦδε χαρίσματος, ἕκαστος τῶν πιστῶν δηλονότι κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς πίστεως, καί τῆς ὑποκειμένης αὐτῷ κατά ψυχήν διαθέσεως, συμμεμετρημένην δέχεται τοῦ Πνεύματος τήν ἐνέργειαν, χαριζομένην αὐτῷ τῆσδε ἤ τῆσδε τῆς ἐντολῆς τήν ἁρμόζουσαν πρός ἐνέργειαν ἕξιν. ( ζ΄) Ὥσπερ ὁ μέν λαμβάνει λόγον σοφίας, ὁ δέ λόγον γνώσεως, ἕτερος δέ, πίστεως, καί ἄλλος ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων τῷ μεγάλῳ Ἀποστόλῳ χαρισμάτων τοῦ Πνεύματος· οὕτως ὁ μέν δέχεται διά τοῦ Πνεύματος χάρισμα τῆς τελείας καί ἀμέσου πρός Θεόν καί μηδέν ἐχούσης ὑλικόν ἀγάπης, κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς πίστεως· ἕτερος δέ διά τοῦ αὐτοῦ Πνεύματος, τῆς τελείας ἀγάπης πρός τόν πλησίον χάρισμα· ἄλλος δέ ἄλλο τι, κατά τό αὐτό Πνεῦμα, ὡς ἔφην, ἔχοντος ἑκάστου ἐνεργούμενον τό οἰκεῖον χάρισμα. Πᾶσαν γάρ ἐντολῆς ἕξιν ἐνεργουμένην, Πνεύματος εἶναι χάρισμα λέγει. ( η΄) Τό τοῦ Κυρίου βάπτισμά ἐστιν, ἡ παντελής πρός τόν αἰσθητόν κόσμον τῆς προαιρέσεως ἡμῶν νέκρωσις· τό δέ ποτήριον, καί αὐτῆς ἡμῶν τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ὑπέρ ἀληθείας καθέστηκεν ἄρνησις. ( θ΄) Τό τοῦ Κυρίου βάπτισμα, τῶν ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς κατά πρόθεσιν ἑκουσίων καί ἡμετέρων πόνων, τύπος ὑπάρχει· δι᾿ ὧν τάς κατά συνείδησιν ἀποῤῥύπτοντες κηλῖδας, τόν πρός τά φαινόμενα τῆς προαιρέσεως ἑκούσιον καταδεχόμεθα θάνατον·
(6) The divine Apostle calls the diverse activities of the one Holy Spirit diverse charisms, clearly being worked by one and the same Spirit. If, then, the manifestation of the Spirit is given in the participation of this or that charism according to the measure of faith in each person, each of the faithful clearly, in proportion to his faith and to the disposition of soul that underlies it in him, receives the activity of the Spirit measured out to him, granting him the habitual state suited to the activity of this or that commandment. (7) Just as one receives a word of wisdom, another a word of knowledge, another faith, and another something else of the charisms of the Spirit enumerated by the great Apostle, so one receives through the Spirit the charism of perfect and immediate love toward God, having nothing material, according to the proportion of faith; another, through the same Spirit, the charism of perfect love toward neighbor; and another something else, according to the same Spirit, as I said, each having his own charism worked in him. For he says that every habitual state of a commandment that is worked is a charism of the Spirit. (8) The Lord's baptism is the complete putting to death of our free choice toward the sensible world; and the cup is the denial of our present life itself for the sake of truth. (9) The Lord's baptism is a type of our voluntary and our own labors for the sake of virtue according to purpose; through which, washing away the stains of conscience, we accept the voluntary death of our free choice toward things that appear.
τό δέ ποτήριον, τῶν ἐκ περιστάσεως παρά προαίρεσιν ἐπανισταμένων ἡμῶν ὑπέρ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν τύπος ἐστί· δι᾿ ὧν καί αὐτῆς προκρίνοντες τόν θεῖον πόθον τῆς φύσεως, ἑκόντες τόν περιστατικόν ὑπερχόμεθα τῆς φύσεως θάνατον.
(ρ΄) Ταύτην ἔχει τήν διαφοράν τό βάπτισμα πρός τό ποτήριον· ὅτι τό μέν βάπτισμα, ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς πρός τά ἡδέα τοῦ βίου νεκράν ἐργάζεται τήν προαίρεσιν· τό δέ ποτήριον, τήν ἀλήθειαν καί αὐτῆς προκρίνειν πείθει τῆς φύσεως τούς εὐσεβεῖς.
ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ (α΄) Πρότερον τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἔθετο τό ποτήριον, ὅτι διά τήν ἀλήθειάν ἐστιν ἡ ἀρετή, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διά τήν ἀρετήν ἡ ἀλήθεια. Ὅθεν ὁ διά τήν ἀλήθειαν πράττων τήν ἀρετήν, κενοδοξίας οὐ τιτρώσκεται βέλεσιν· ὁ δέ τήν ἀλήθειαν ἀρετῆς ἕνεκεν ἐπιτηδεύων, σύνοικον ἔχει τῆς κενοδοξίας τήν οἴησιν.
(β΄) Ἀλήθειαν μέν εἶναι λέγει, τήν θείαν γνῶσιν· ἀρετήν δέ, τούς ὑπέρ ἀληθείας τῶν ἐφιεμένων αὐτῆς ἀγῶνας. Ὁ τοίνυν γνώσεως ἕνεκεν, ἀρετῆς ὑπομένων πόνους, οὐ κενοδοξεῖ, γινώσκων ἀπερίληπτον εἶναι φύσει τοῖς πόνοις τήν ἀλήθειαν· τοῖς δευτέροις γάρ οὐ περιγράφεται φύσει τό πρῶτον. Ὁ δέ τήν γνῶσιν διά τούς ὑπέρ αὐτῆς ἀγῶνας ἐπιτηδεύων, πάντως κενόδοξος ὡς εἰληφέναι δοκῶν τούς στεφάνους πρό τῶν ἱδρώτων· οὐκ εἰδώς ὅτι διά τούς στεφάνους οἱ πόνοι, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διά τούς πόνους οἱ στέφανοι· φύσει γάρ ἀμελέτητος πᾶσα καθέστηκε μέθοδος, τοῦ δι᾿ ὅ πέφυκεν ἐξανυσθέντος, ἤ ἀνυσθῆναι δόξαντος. (γ΄) Ὁ μόνον τῆς γνώσεως τήν μορφήν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ ψιλός λόγος·
The cup is a type of the involuntary temptations that rise up against us for the sake of the truth from circumstances, contrary to our choice; through these, preferring the divine longing itself to nature, we willingly pass over the death that comes from circumstances, which is beyond nature.
(100) The baptism has this difference from the cup: baptism makes the choice dead to the pleasant things of life for the sake of virtue; but the cup persuades the pious to prefer the truth even to nature itself.
101 (1) He placed the cup before baptism, because virtue exists for the sake of the truth, but not the truth for the sake of virtue. Therefore, the one who practices virtue for the sake of the truth is not wounded by the arrows of vainglory; but the one who pursues the truth for the sake of virtue has presumption as a companion of vainglory.
(2) He says that the truth is divine knowledge, and virtue is the struggles of those who desire it on behalf of the truth. Therefore, the one who endures labors of virtue for the sake of knowledge is not vainglorious, knowing that the truth is by nature incomprehensible by labors; for the first is not encompassed by nature by the second. But the one who pursues knowledge for the sake of the struggles on its behalf is altogether vainglorious, as though thinking he has received the crowns before the sweats; not knowing that the labors are for the sake of the crowns, but not the crowns for the sake of the labors; for by nature every method is unstudied when that for the sake of which it exists has been accomplished, or has seemed to be accomplished. (3) The one who has only the form of knowledge, which is the bare word—
καί ὁ τήν εἰκόνα τῆς ἀρετῆς, ὅπερ ἐστί τό ψιλόν ἦθος, ἐπιτηδεύων, Ἰουδαῖός ἐστι καί αὐτός ἀληθείας τύποις φυσιούμενος.
(δ΄) Ὁ πᾶσαν τήν φαινομένην τοῦ νόμου λατρείαν μή κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ὁρῶν, ἀλλά ταῖς κατά νοῦν ἐφόδοις ἕκαστον τῶν ὁρωμένων συμβόλων διασκοπήσας, τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ κεκρυμμένον θεοτελῆ Λόγον ἐκδιδασκόμενος, ἐν τῷ νόμῳ τόν Θεόν εὑρίσκει, καλῶς ψηλαφῶν διά τῆς νοερᾶς δυνάμεως ὡς ἐν φορυτῷ, τῇ ὕλῃ τῶν νομικῶν διατάξεων, εἴ που κεκρυμμένον εὕροι τῇ σαρκί τοῦ νόμου τόν τήν αἴσθησιν διαφεύγοντα παντελῶς μαργαρίτην Λόγον. (ε΄) Καί ὁ τήν φύσιν δέ τῶν ὁρωμένων μή τῇ αἰσθήσει μόνῃ περιγράφων, ἀλλά κατά νοῦν σοφῶς τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ κτίσματι λόγον ἐρευνώμενος, εὑρίσκει Θεόν, ἀπό τῆς προβεβλημένης τῶν ὄντων μεγαλουργίας, τήν αὐτῶν τῶν ὄντων διδασκόμενος αἰτίαν.
(στ΄) Ἐπειδή τοίνυν ἴδιον τοῦ ψηλαφῶντος ἡ διάκρισίς ἐστιν· ὁ τά νομικά σύμβολα γνωστικῶς ἐπερχόμενος, καί τήν φαινομένην τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ἐπιστημονικῶς θεώμενος, διακρίνων τήν Γραφήν καί τήν κτίσιν καί ἑαυτόν, τήν μέν Γραφήν, εἰς γράμμα καί πνεῦμα· τήν δέ κτίσιν, εἰς λόγον καί ἐπιφάνειαν· ἑαυτόν δέ, εἰς νοῦν καί αἴσθησιν· καί τῆς μέν Γραφῆς, τό πνεῦμα· τῆς δέ κτίσεως, τόν λόγον· ἑαυτοῦ δέ, τόν νοῦν λαβών, καί ἀλλήλοις ἀλύτως ἑνώσας, εὗρε Θεόν· ὡς ἐπιγνούς καθώς δεῖ, καί δυνατόν ἐστι, τόν Θεόν, τόν ἐν Νῷ καί Λόγῳ καί Πνεύματι· πάντων τῶν πλανώντων καί εἰς μυρίας δόξας κατασυρόντων ἀπαλλαγείς, λέγω δέ γράμματος καί ἐπιφανείας καί αἰσθήσεως, ἐν οἷς ἡ διάφορος ὑπάρχει ποσότης, καί τῆς μονάδος ἀντίθετος.
And he who cultivates the image of virtue, which is the bare moral character, is himself a Jew, and is puffed up with the types of truth.
(4) He who does not look upon all the outward service of the law according to sense, but examines each of the visible symbols by the approaches of the mind, being taught the God-perfect Word hidden in each, finds God in the law, rightly groping by the noetic power as in refuse, in the material of the legal ordinances, if anywhere he might find hidden in the flesh of the law the pearl of the Word that wholly escapes sense. (5) And he who does not circumscribe the nature of visible things by sense alone, but wisely searches out by the mind the reason in each creature, finds God, being taught the cause of the things that are from the surpassing mighty work of the things that exist.
(6) Since, then, discernment is proper to him who gropes, he who approaches the legal symbols in a gnostic manner, and contemplates the apparent nature of things scientifically, discerning Scripture and creation and himself—Scripture into letter and spirit; creation into reason and appearance; himself into mind and sense—and taking the spirit of Scripture, the reason of creation, and his own mind, and uniting them to one another indissolubly, has found God; as having known God as it is fitting and possible, God who is in Mind and Word and Spirit; having been delivered from all things that lead astray and drag men down into countless opinions—I mean letter and appearance and sense, in which there is differing quantity and what is opposed to the monad.
Εἰ δέ τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου, καί τήν τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐπιφάνειαν καί τήν οἰκείαν αἴσθησιν ἀλλήλοις τις προσπλέξας συμφύρῃ, τυφλός ἐστι μυωπάζων, τήν τῆς Αἰτίας τῶν ὄντων ἀγνωσίαν νοσῶν. (ζ΄) Ὁ θεῖος καί μέγας Ἀπόστολος, τί ἐστι πίστις ὁρίζων, φησί· Πίστις ἐστίν, ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις, καί πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων. Εἰ δέ τις καί ἐνδιάθετον αὐτήν ἀγαθόν ὁρίσαιτο, ἤ γνῶσιν ἀληθῆ τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων ἀγαθῶν ἀποδεικτικήν, τῆς ἀληθείας οὐ διήμαρτεν.
(η΄) Ἡ πίστις, δύναμίς ἐστι σχετική, ἤ σχέσις δραστική τῆς ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀμέσου τοῦ πιστεύοντος πρός τόν πιστευόμενον Θεόν, τελείας ἑνώσεως. (θ΄) Ἐπειδή τοίνυν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ ψυχῆς ὑπάρχων καί σώματος, δυσί σαλεύεται νόμοις, σαρκός λέγω καί πνεύματος· καί ὁ μέν τῆς σαρκός νόμος, κατά τήν αἴσθησιν· ὁ δέ τοῦ πνεύματος, κατά τόν νοῦν κέκτηται τήν ἐνέργειαν· καί ὁ μέν τῆς σαρκός ὕλῃ συνδεῖν πέφυκε, κατά τήν αἴσθησιν ἐνεργούμενος, ὁ δέ τοῦ πνεύματος κατά νοῦν ἐνεργούμενος, πρός τόν Θεόν ἀμέσως ποιεῖται τήν ἕνωσιν· εἰκότως Ὁ μή διακριθείς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ· τουτέστιν, ἐν τῷ νοΐ μή διακρίνας, ἤγουν διατεμών τήν διά τῆς πίστεως πρός τόν Θεόν γεγενημένην ἄμεσον ἕνωσιν, ὡς ἀπαθής, μᾶλλον δέ θεός ἤδη διά τῆς πίστεως τῇ ἑνώσει γεγενημένος, ἐρεῖ τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ μεταβῆναι, καί μεταβήσεται· δεικτικῶς διά τοῦ τοῦτο φάναι, τό
But if someone weaves together the letter of the law, and the outward appearance of things seen, and his own sense-perception, and confuses them with one another, he is blind, near-sighted, suffering from ignorance of the Cause of beings. (7) The divine and great Apostle, defining what faith is, says: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And if someone should define it also as an inward good, or as true knowledge that demonstrates the hidden goods, he has not missed the truth.
(8) Faith is a power that holds, or a active relation of the one who believes to the God in whom he believes, beyond nature and immediate, of perfect union. (9) Since, then, man consists of soul and body, he is shaken by two laws, I mean that of the flesh and that of the spirit; and the law of the flesh has its activity according to sense-perception, while that of the spirit has its activity according to the mind; and the law of the flesh is naturally disposed to bind to matter, being energized according to sense-perception, while the law of the spirit, being energized according to the mind, effects union with God immediately. Rightly, then, he who has not been divided in his heart—that is, who has not in his mind distinguished, or rather cut apart, the immediate union with God that has come about through faith—as one impassible, or rather as one who has already become God through faith by that union, will say to this mountain, "Be moved," and it will be moved; by saying this, he shows that
φρόνημα καί τόν νόμον δηλῶν τῆς σαρκός, τόν βαρύν ὄντως καί δυσμετακίνητον, καί ὅσον πρός δύναμιν φυσικήν, παντελῶς ἀκίνητον καί ἀσάλευτον. (ι΄) Τοσοῦτον ἐῤῥίζωται τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων διά τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἡ τῆς ἀλογίας δύναμις, ὥστε τούς πολλούς μηδ᾿ ἄλλο τι νομίζειν εἶναι τόν ἄνθρωπον, ἤ σάρκα, δύναμιν πρός ἀπόλαυσιν τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς τήν αἴσθησιν ἔχουσαν. (ια΄) Πάντα, φησί, δυνατά τῷ πιστεύοντι, καί μή διακρινομένῳ, τουτέστι μή διαιρουμένῳ τῆς κατά νοῦν διά πίστεως γεγενημένης αὐτῷ πρός τόν Θεόν ἑνώσεως, διά τήν πρός τό σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς κατά τήν αἴσθησιν σχέσιν· ὅσα κόσμου καί σαρκός τόν νοῦν ἀλλοτριοῖ· Θεῷ δέ προσοικειοῖ, τετελειωμένον τοῖς κατορθώμασι. Τοῦτο γάρ προσυπακουστέον τῷ, Πάντα δυνατά τῷ πιστεύοντι. (ιβ΄) Ἡ πίστις ἀναπόδεικτος γνῶσίς ἐστιν. Εἰ δέ γνῶσίς ἐστιν ἀναπόδεικτος, ἄρα σχέσις ἐστίν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἡ πίστις, δι᾿ ἧς ἀγνώστως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀποδεικτικῶς ἑνούμεθα τῷ Θεῷ κατά τήν ὑπέρ νόησιν ἕνωσιν. (ιγ΄) Τήν ἄμεσον λαβών ἕνωσιν πρός τόν Θεόν ὁ νοῦς, τήν τοῦ νοεῖν καί νοεῖσθαι παντελῶς δύναμιν ἔχει σχολάζουσαν. Ὁπηνίκα γοῦν ταύτην λύσει, νοήσας τι τῶν μετά Θεόν, διεκρίθη, τεμών τήν ὑπέρ νόησιν ἕνωσιν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἕως ἐστί τῷ Θεῷ συνημμένος, ὡς ὑπέρ φύσιν καί τῇ μεθέξει Θεός γεγενημένος, καθάπερ ὄρος ἀκίνητον, ἑαυτοῦ τόν τῆς φύσεως μετατίθησι νόμον. (ιδ΄) Ὁ πρός εὐσέβειαν εἰσαγόμενος, περί τῶν ἔργων διδασκόμενος τῆς δικαιοσύνης, τήν πρᾶξιν μόνην ἐπιτελεῖ, μετά πάσης ὑπακοῆς καί πίστεως, καθάπερ σάρκας ἐσθίων τῶν ἀρετῶν τά φαινόμενα, τήν ἠθικήν δηλονότι παιδαγωγίαν·
declaring the mind and the law of the flesh, which is truly heavy and hard to move, and, as far as natural power goes, wholly immovable and unshakable. (10) So deeply rooted in the nature of human beings through sense-perception is the power of irrationality that most people think a human being is nothing other than flesh, possessing sense-perception as a power for the enjoyment of the present life. (11) "All things," he says, "are possible to the one who believes" and does not make distinctions—that is, does not divide the union with God that has come to be in his intellect through faith, on account of the soul's relation to the body through sense-perception—as many things as alienate the intellect from the world and the flesh, but rather draws it near to God, perfected in right actions. For this must be understood in addition to "All things are possible to the one who believes." (12) Faith is undemonstrated knowledge. And if it is undemonstrated knowledge, then faith is a relation beyond nature, through which we are united to God in an unknowing way, not demonstratively, according to the union that surpasses thought. (13) The intellect, having received direct union with God, has the power of thinking and being thought wholly at rest. Whenever, then, it dissolves this by thinking something of the things after God, it has been divided, cutting off the union that surpasses thought, in which, as long as it remains joined to God—as being beyond nature and having become God by participation—like an immovable mountain, it sets aside the law of its own nature. (14) The one being introduced to piety, being taught about the works of righteousness, performs action alone, with all obedience and faith, as it were eating the visible parts of the virtues—that is, the ethical training—
τούς δέ τῶν ἐντολῶν λόγους, ἐν οἷς ἡ τῶν τελείων ὑπάρχει γνῶσις, τῷ Θεῷ παραχωρεῖ διά τῆς πίστεως, μή δυνάμενος συνεπεκταθῆναι τέως τῷ μήκει τῆς γνώσεως. (ιε΄) Ὁ τέλειος, οὐ μόνον τήν τῶν εἰσαγομένων τάξιν, ἀλλά καί τήν τῶν προκοπτόντων διαδραμών, οὐκ ἀγνοεῖ τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ ἐντολήν γινομένων τούς λόγους, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκείνους πνεύματι πρῶτον διαπιών, πᾶσαν ἐσθίει διά τῶν ἔργων τήν σάρκα τῶν ἀρετῶν, πρός τήν κατά νοῦν γνῶσιν ἀναβιβάζων, τήν τῶν γινομένων κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν κίνησιν.
(ιστ΄) Ὁ Κύριος εἰπών, Ζητεῖτε πρῶτον τήν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί τήν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ· τουτέστι, πρό πάντων τήν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας, καί οὕτω τήν τῶν καθηκόντων τρόπων ἐξάσκησιν· σαφῶς ἔδειξε, περί μόνης τῆς θείας γνώσεως δεῖν ζητεῖν τούς πιστεύοντας, καί τῆς αὐτήν κοσμούσης διά τῶν ἔργων ἀρετῆς.
(ιζ΄) Ἐπειδή πολλά τυγχάνει τά πρός γνῶσιν Θεοῦ καί ἀρετήν ζητούμενα τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἀπαλλαγή παθῶν, ὑπομονήν πειρασμῶν, ἀρετῶν λόγοι, τρόποι ἐνεργειῶν, ἐξήλωσις τῆς πρός σάρκα τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεως, ἀποξένωσις τῆς πρός τά αἰσθητά τῆς αἰσθήσεως σχέσεως, τοῦ νοῦ παντελής ἀπό πάντων τῶν γεγονότων ἀναχώρησις. Καί ἁπλῶς μυρία ἄλλα εἰσί, τά πρός ἀποχήν μέν κακίας καί ἀγνωσίας, κατόρθωσιν δέ γνώσεως καί ἀρετῆς· εἰκότως ὁ Κύριος ἔφησεν, Πάντα ὅσα ἄν αἰτῆσθε πιστεύοντες, λήψεσθε· πάντα ἁπλῶς, τά πρός ἐπίγνωσιν Θεοῦ καί ἀρετήν συντείνοντα μόνα καί ζητεῖν καί αἰτεῖν μετ᾿ ἐπιστήμης καί πίστεως δεῖν εἰπών τούς εὐσεβεῖς. Ταῦτα γάρ πάντα συμφέρει, καί πάντως δίδωσιν αὐτά τοῖς αἰτοῦσιν ὁ Κύριος.
But the principles of the commandments, in which the knowledge of the perfect consists, he yields to God through faith, being unable as yet to be stretched out along the length of knowledge. (15) The perfect man, having run through not only the order of those being initiated but also that of those advancing, does not ignore the principles of the things done by him according to the commandment, but having first drunk them in by the Spirit, he eats through his works all the flesh of the virtues, leading up to the knowledge according to the mind the motion of things done according to sense.
(16) The Lord, having said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness—that is, before all things the knowledge of the truth, and so the practice of the fitting ways of life—clearly showed that the faithful ought to seek concerning divine knowledge alone, and concerning the virtue that adorns it through works.
(17) Since there happen to be many things sought by the faithful for the knowledge of God and virtue—release from passions, endurance of temptations, the principles of virtues, the ways of activities, the eager emulation of the soul's disposition toward the flesh, the estrangement of sense from its relation to sensible things, the mind's complete withdrawal from all created things. And simply, there are countless other things that pertain to abstinence from evil and ignorance, and to the right accomplishment of knowledge and virtue—reasonably the Lord said, All things whatsoever you ask believing, you shall receive—saying that the pious ought, simply, to seek and ask with knowledge and faith those things alone which contribute to the knowledge of God and virtue. For all these things are profitable, and the Lord altogether gives them to those who ask.
(ιη΄) Ὁ τοίνυν διά μόνην τήν πίστιν, ἤγουν τήν πρός Θεόν ἄμεσον ἕνωσιν, πάντα ζητῶν τά πρός τήν ἕνωσιν, πάντως λήψεται· ὁ δέ ταύτης δίχα τῆς αἰτίας, κἄν ἄλλα, κἄν τά προειρημένα ζητῇ, οὐ λήψεται. Οὐ γάρ πιστεύει, ἀλλ᾿ οἰκείαν ὡς ἄπιστος διά τῶν θείων πραγματεύεται δόξαν.
(ιθ΄) Ὁ γνώμῃ τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν καθαρεύων φθορᾶς, φθείρει τήν τῶν φθείρειν πεφυκότων φθοράν. Ἡ γάρ ἀφθαρσία τῆς προαιρέσεως, τήν φθοράν συντηρεῖν τῆς φύσεως πέφυκεν ἄφθαρτον, κατά πρόνοιαν, διά τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτος, μή συγχωροῦσα ταῖς ἐναντίαις ποιότησιν αὐτήν διαφθείρεσθαι. (κ΄) Ἐπειδή φύσεως καί χάριτος εἷς καί ὁ αὐτός οὐκ ἔστι λόγος, οὐκ ἔστιν ἀπορίας ἄξιον, πῶς τινες τῶν ἁγίων, ποτέ μέν παθῶν ὑπερεῖχον, ποτέ δέ μᾶλλον ὑπέπιπτον πάθεσι· γινωσκόντων ἡμῶν, ὅτι τό μέν θαῦμα, τῆς χάριτος ἦν· τό δέ πάθος, τῆς φύσεως.
(κα΄) Ὁ διά μιμήσεως τήν μνήμην ἔχων τῆς τῶν ἁγίων ἀναστροφῆς, τήν μέν τῶν παθῶν ἀποτίθεται νέκρωσιν· τήν δέ τῶν ἀρετῶν ζωήν ὑποδέχεται. (κβ΄) ᾯ τρόπῳ βούλεται ὁ τήν ἑκάστου διορίσας ζωήν πρό τῶν αἰώνων Θεός, ἕκαστον πρός τό οἰκεῖον τῆς ζωῆς ἄγει τέλος, εἴτε δίκαιον, εἴτε ἄδικον. (κγ΄) Τόν τῷ μακαρίῳ Παύλῳ συμβάντα ζοφερόν χειμῶνα, τό βάρος εἶναι τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν τεκμαίρομαι· τήν δέ νῆσον, τήν παγίαν ἕξιν τῆς θείας ἐλπίδος καί ἄσειστον· τήν δέ πυράν τήν ἕξιν τῆς γνώσεως· τά δέ φρύγανα, τήν τῶν ὁρωμένων φύσιν·
(18) He, then, who seeks all things that lead to union for the sake of faith alone—that is, direct union with God—will certainly receive them; but he who seeks other things, or even the things previously mentioned, apart from this cause, will not receive them. For he does not believe, but as an unbeliever he busies himself with the divine things for his own glory.
(19) He who in his judgment is pure of the corruption that comes from sin destroys the corruption of those things that are naturally capable of corrupting. For the incorruptibility of his free choice naturally preserves the corruption of his nature incorrupt, by providence, through the grace of the Spirit within it, not allowing it to be corrupted by contrary qualities. (20) Since the principle of nature and of grace is not one and the same, it is not a matter for perplexity how some of the saints at one time rose above the passions, and at another time fell rather under the passions; for we know that the wonder was of grace, but the passion was of nature.
(21) He who through imitation keeps the memory of the conduct of the saints puts off the deadness of the passions and receives the life of the virtues. (22) In the manner in which God, who before the ages determined the life of each one, wills, he leads each one to the proper end of his life, whether just or unjust. (23) The gloomy storm that befell the blessed Paul I judge to be the weight of involuntary temptations; the island, the firm and unshaken habit of divine hope; the fire, the habit of knowledge; the brushwood, the nature of things visible.
ἥν συνέστρεφε μέν τῇ χειρί, τῇ κατά θεωρίαν λέγω ψηλαφητικῇ τοῦ νοῦ δυνάμει, διατρέφων τοῖς ἐξ αὐτῆς νοήμασι τήν ἕξιν τῆς γνώσεως, τήν θεραπεύουσαν τήν ἐκ τοῦ χειμῶνος τῶν πειρασμῶν προστριβεῖσαν τῇ διανοίᾳ κατήφειαν· τήν δέ ἔχιδναν, τήν λανθανόντως ἐγκεκρυμμένην τῇ φύσει τῶν αἰσθητῶν πονηράν καί ὀλέθριον δύναμιν· δήξασαν μέν τήν χεῖρα, τουτέστι, τήν κατά νοῦν ψηλαφητικήν τῆς θεωρίας ἐνέργειαν· οὐ βλάψασαν δέ τόν διορατικόν νοῦν, τῷ φωτί τῆς γνώσεως αὐτήν εὐθύς ὡς ἐν πυρί διαφθείραντα, τήν τῷ πρακτικῷ κινήματι τοῦ νοῦ, προσαφθεῖσαν ἐκ τῆς τῶν αἰσθητῶν θεωρίας, ὀλέθριον δύναμιν. (κδ΄) Ὀσμή ἦν ἀπό ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ὡς τούς πιστούς τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑποδείγματι, διά πράξεως πρός τήν εὐωδίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν κινεῖσθαι, παρασκευάζων· ἤ τούς πειθομένους τῷ λόγῳ τῆς χάριτος, ὡς κήρυξ ἀπό τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ζωῆς, εἰς τήν ἐν πνεύματι μετάγων ζωήν. Ὀσμή δέ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον, τοῖς ἀπό τοῦ θανάτου τῆς ἀγνοίας εἰς τόν τῆς ἀπιστίας ἐλάσασι θάνατον, διδούς αὐτοῖς αἴσθησιν τῆς μενούσης αὐτοῦ κατακρίσεως. Ἤ πάλιν ὀσμή ἀπό ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν, τοῖς ἀπό πράξεως εἰς θεωρίαν ἀναγομένοις· ὀσμή δέ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον, τοῖς ἀπό νεκρῶσαι τῇ καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀργίᾳ τά μέλη τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, εἰς τήν τῶν ἐμπαθῶν νοημάτων τε καί φαντασιῶν ἐπαινουμένην μεταβαίνουσι νέκρωσιν. (κε΄) Τρεῖς εἰσιν αἱ τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις, λόγος, θυμός, καί ἐπιθυμία. Τῷ μέν λόγῳ, ζητοῦμεν· τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ δέ, ποθοῦμεν τό ζητηθέν ἀγαθόν· τῷ δέ θυμῷ, ὑπεραγωνιζόμεθα.
This he gathered together with his hand—I mean, with the tactile power of the intellect in contemplation—nourishing the habit of knowledge with the thoughts derived from it, the habit that heals the dejection brought upon the mind by the winter of temptations. But the viper—the evil and deadly power secretly hidden in the nature of sensible things—bit the hand, that is, the tactile activity of contemplation according to the intellect, yet did not harm the discerning intellect, since it immediately destroyed it by the light of knowledge as if by fire—the deadly power that had attached itself to the practical movement of the intellect from the contemplation of sensible things. (24) The Apostle was a fragrance from life to life, as he prepared the faithful by his own example to be moved through practice toward the sweetness of the virtues; or, as a herald, he led those who obeyed the word of grace from the life according to sense to the life in the spirit. But a fragrance of death to death, to those who have rushed from the death of ignorance to the death of unbelief, giving them a sense of his condemnation that abides. Or again, a fragrance from life to life, to those who are led up from practice to contemplation; and a fragrance of death to death, to those who pass from mortifying the members that are upon the earth by inactivity in sin to the praised death of passionate thoughts and fantasies. (25) There are three powers of the soul: reason, spiritedness, and desire. By reason we seek; by desire we long for the good that has been sought; by spiritedness we struggle in its defense.
Κατά ταύτας δή τάς δυνάμεις προσμένοντες οἱ τόν Θεόν ἀγαπῶντες, τῷ θείῳ λόγῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως· τῇ μέν, ζητοῦντες· τῇ δέ, ποθοῦντες· τῇ δέ, ὑπεραγωνιζόμενοι, δέχονται τροφήν ἄφθαρτον, καί τόν νοῦν πιαίνουσαν τῇ γνῶσιν τῶν γεγονότων.
(κστ΄) Τήν κενωθεῖσαν τῆς δοθείσης γνώσεως φύσιν, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, πάλιν ἐπλήρωσε γνώσεως· καί στομώσας πρός ἀτρεψίαν, οὐ φύσει, ποιότητι δέ, ταύτην ἐθέωσεν· ἀνελλιπῶς αὐτήν τῷ οἰκείῳ χαρακτηρίσας Πνεύματι καθάπερ ὕδωρ, οἴνου ποιότητι πρός τόνον μετακεράσας. Διά τοῦτο γάρ καί γίνεται κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα κατά χάριν ἡμᾶς καταστήσῃ θεούς.
(κζ΄) Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας Θεός, ἅμα βουλήσει τό εἶναι αὐτῇ δέδωκεν, συνήρμοσεν αὐτῇ καί δύναμιν τῶν καθηκόντων ποιητικήν· δύναμιν δέ λέγω, τήν οὐσιωδῶς μέν κατεσπαρμένην τῇ φύσει, πρός ἀρετῶν
ἐνέργειαν κίνησιν· γνωμικῶς δέ, πρός τήν τοῦ κεκτημένου βούλησιν, κατά τήν χρῆσιν ἐκφαινομένην.
Abiding by these powers, those who love God, through the divine word of virtue and of knowledge—by the one seeking, by the other desiring, by the other striving exceedingly—receive food incorruptible, and fattening the intellect with the knowledge of created things.
(26) The nature that had been emptied of the knowledge given to it, the Word of God, having become man, filled again with knowledge; and having sharpened it toward immutability, not by nature but by quality, he deified it, having marked it out without deficiency by his own Spirit, just as water blended with the quality of wine to its intensity. For this reason he truly becomes man, in order that by grace he might make us gods.
(27) God, who created the nature of men, at once by his will gave it being, and joined to it also a power productive of what is fitting—a power, I mean, that is substantially sown in nature, a motion toward the activity of virtues, but by inclination, toward the will of the one who possesses it, being manifested according to use.
(κη΄) Φυσικόν ἔχομεν κριτήριον, τόν κατά φύσιν νόμον, διδάσκοντα ἡμᾶς, ὅτι πρός τῆς ἐν ὅλοις σοφίας, ἔδει πρός τήν τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν ὅλων μυσταγωγίαν ἡμῶν κινεῖσθαι τήν ἔφεσιν.
(κθ΄) Τό φρέαρ ἐστί τοῦ Ἰακώβου, ἡ Γραφή· τό δέ ὕδωρ ἐστίν, ἡ ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ γνῶσις· τό δέ βάθος, ἡ τῶν Γραφικῶν αἰνιγμάτων δυσδιεξίτητος θέσις· τό δέ ἄντλημά ἐστιν, ἡ διά τῶν γραμμάτων τοῦ θείου λόγου μάθησις, ἥν οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ Κύριος Αὐτολόγος ὑπάρχων, καί οὐ τήν ἐκ μαθήσεως καί μελέτης διδούς γνῶσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἀλλά τήν ἐκ χάριτος πνευματικῆς ἀένναον σοφίαν, καί μηδέποτε λήγουσαν τοῖς ἀξίοις δωρούμενος. Τό γάρ ἄντλημα, τουτέστιν ἡ μάθησις, μέρος ἐλάχιστον λαμβάνουσα γνώσεως, τό πᾶν ἐᾷ μηδενί λόγῳ κρατούμενον. Ἡ δέ κατά χάριν γνῶσις, ὅλην ἔχει καί δίχα μελέτης, τήν ἐφικτήν ἀνθρώποις σοφίαν, πρός τάς χρείας ποικίλως βλυστάνουσαν.
(λ΄) Τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, καί τό μή τοιοῦτον, ἐξ αὐτοῦ μόνου, τοῦ, τό μέν ζωῆς ξύλον ὀνομασθῆναι· τό δέ, οὐ ζωῆς, ἀλλά μόνον γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, πολλήν καί ἄφατον ἔχουσι τήν διαφοράν. Τό γάρ τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, πάντως καί ζωῆς ἐστι ποιητικόν· τό δέ μή τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, δῆλον ὅτι θανάτου ποιητικόν. Τό γάρ μή ποιητικόν ζωῆς, ἐκ τοῦ μή προσαγορευθῆναι ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, θανάτου σαφῶς ἄν εἴη ποιητικόν· ἄλλο γάρ οὐδέν τῇ ζωῇ κατ᾿ ἐναντίωσιν ἀντιδιαιρεῖται. (λα΄) Τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, καί ὡς σοφία, πλείστην ἔχει διαφοράν πρός τό ξύλον τό γνωστικόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, τό μήτε ὄν σοφία, μήτε ὠνομασμένον.
(28) We have a natural criterion, the law according to nature, which teaches us that, in accordance with the wisdom that is in all things, our desire ought to be moved toward the mystical guidance of the Maker of all things.
(29) The well is Jacob's, namely the Scripture; the water is the knowledge that is in the Scripture; the depth is the hard-to-traverse setting of the Scriptural enigmas; the bucket is the learning of the divine word through the letters, which the Lord did not have, being the Word Himself, and He does not give to believers the knowledge that comes from learning and study, but rather the ever-flowing wisdom that comes from spiritual grace, and He grants to those who are worthy that which never ceases. For the bucket, that is, learning, taking a very small part of knowledge, leaves the whole unheld by any account. But the knowledge that is according to grace has the whole wisdom attainable by humans, even without study, bubbling up in various ways for their needs.
(30) The tree of life, and the one that is not such, have a great and ineffable difference from this alone: that the one is called a tree of life, while the other is called not of life but only of the knowledge of good and evil. For the tree of life is altogether also productive of life; but the tree that is not of life is clearly productive of death. For that which is not productive of life, from the fact that it is not called a tree of life, would clearly be productive of death; for nothing else is set in opposition to life by way of contrariety. (31) The tree of life, also as wisdom, has the greatest difference from the tree called gnostic of good and evil, which is neither wisdom nor so named.
Τῆς μέν γάρ σοφίας ἴδιον νοῦς καί λόγος, τῆς δέ τῇ σοφίᾳ κατά τό ἐναντίον ἀντικειμένης ἕξεως ἴδιον ἀλογία καί αἴσθησις. (λβ΄) Ἐπειδή ἐκ ψυχῆς νοερᾶς καί σώματος αἰσθητικοῦ συνεστώς πρός γένεσιν ἦλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἔστω κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν ξύλον ζωῆς ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς, ἐν ᾧ τῆς σοφίας ὑπάρχει τό χρῆμα· ξύλον δέ γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, ἡ τοῦ σώματος αἴσθησις, ἐν ᾗ τῆς ἀλογίας ὑπάρχει σαφῶς ἡ κίνησις, ἧς κατά τήν πεῖραν, μή ἅψασθαι δι᾿ ἐνεργείας ὁ ἄνθρωπος τήν θείαν λαβών ἐντολήν, οὐκ ἐφύλαξεν.
(λγ΄) Ἀμφότερα τά ξύλα κατά τήν Γραφήν, τινῶν εἰσι διακριτικά, ἤγουν ὁ νοῦς καί ἡ αἴσθησις· οἷον, ὁ μέν νοῦς, ἔχει δύναμιν διακριτικήν, νοητῶν καί αἰσθητῶν, προσκαίρων καί αἰωνίων· μᾶλλον δέ ψυχῆς ὑπάρχων δύναμις διακριτική, τῶν μέν, αὐτήν ἀντέχεσθαι πείθει· τῶν δέ, ὑπεραίρεσθαι. Ἡ δέ αἴσθησις ἔχει δύναμιν διακριτικήν ἡδονῆς σωμάτων καί ὀδύνης· μᾶλλον δέ δύναμις ὑπάρχουσα ἐμψύχων καί αἰσθητικῶν σωμάτων, τήν μέν ἡδονήν ἐπισπᾶσθαι πείθει, τήν δέ ὀδύνην ἀποπέμπεσθαι.
For wisdom's own properties are intellect and reason, while the property of the habit opposed to wisdom is irrationality and sense perception. (32) Since man came into being composed of a rational soul and a sentient body, let the tree of life, in one conception, be the intellect of the soul, in which lies the possession of wisdom; and let the tree known as that of good and evil be the sense perception of the body, in which clearly lies the motion of irrationality—which, when man had received the divine commandment not to touch it in act by experience, he did not keep.
(33) Both trees, according to Scripture, are discriminative of certain things—that is, the intellect and the sense perception. For example, the intellect has the power to discriminate between intelligible and sensible things, between temporal and eternal; or rather, being a discriminative power of the soul, it persuades it to cleave to the one and to rise above the other. And sense perception has the power to discriminate between the pleasure of bodies and pain; or rather, being a power of ensouled and sentient bodies, it persuades one to draw pleasure to oneself and to thrust pain away.
(λδ΄) Ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐάν μέν μόνης τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὀδύνην αἰσθητικῆς τῶν σωμάτων γένηται διακρίσεως, τήν θείαν παραβάς ἐντολήν, ἐσθίει τό ξύλον τό γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ· τουτέστι, τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀλογίαν· ἔχων μόνην τήν συστατικήν τῶν σωμάτων διάκρισιν, καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς μέν καλοῦ, τῆς ἡδονῆς ἀντέχεται· ὡς δέ κακοῦ, τῆς ὀδύνης ἀπέχεται. Ἐάν δέ μόνης τῆς τῶν αἰωνίων διακρινούσης τά πρόσκαιρα δι᾿ ὅλου γένηται νοερᾶς διακρίσεως, τήν θείαν φυλάξας ἐντολήν, ἐσθίει τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς· τήν κατά νοῦν λέγω συνισταμένην σοφίαν· μόνης ἔχων τήν συστατικήν τῆς ψυχῆς διάκρισιν· καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς μέν καλοῦ, τῆς τῶν αἰωνίων ἀντέχεται δόξης· ὡς δέ κακοῦ, τῆς τῶν προσκαίρων ἀπέχεται φθορᾶς. (λε΄) Νοῦ μέν καλόν ἐστιν, ἡ ἀπαθής πρός τό πνεῦμα διάθεσις· κακόν δέ, ἡ ἐμπαθής πρός τήν αἴσθησιν σχέσις· αἰσθήσεως δέ καλόν
ἐστιν, ἡ καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐμπαθής πρός σῶμα κίνησις· κακόν δέ, ἡ κατά στέρησιν ταύτης ἐπιγινομένη διάθεσις.
(34) If man becomes [governed by] only the sensory discrimination of bodies that consists in pleasure and pain, then, having transgressed the divine commandment, he eats of the tree known as that of good and evil—that is, the irrationality that is according to sense perception—having only the discrimination that constitutes bodies, by which, as of something good, he cleaves to pleasure, and, as of something evil, he keeps away from pain. But if he becomes wholly [governed by] the noetic discrimination alone that distinguishes eternal things from transient things, then, having kept the divine commandment, he eats of the tree of life—I mean the wisdom that is constituted according to the intellect—having only the discrimination that constitutes the soul, by which, as of something good, he cleaves to the glory of eternal things, and, as of something evil, he keeps away from the corruption of transient things. (35) Of the intellect, the good is the impassioned-free disposition toward the spirit, and the evil is the passionate relation toward sense perception. Of sense perception, the good is the passionate motion toward the body that is according to pleasure, and the evil is the disposition that arises upon the deprivation of this.
(λστ΄) Ὁ πείσας τό συνειδός ὡς φύσει καλόν, πραττόμενον ἔχειν τό κάκιστον, οὗτος χειρός δίκην ἐκτείνας τό πρακτικόν, ἔλαβε ψεκτῶς τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς, ἀθάνατον ἡγησάμενος φύσει τό κάκιστον. Διόπερ τήν κατά τό συνειδός τοῦ κακοῦ διαβολήν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ φυσικῶς ἐνθέμενος ὁ Θεός, διέκρινεν αὐτόν τῆς ζωῆς, κακόν τῇ προαιρέσει γεγενημένον· ἵνα μή τό κακόν πράττων, δύνηται πεῖσαι τήν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν, ὅτι φύσει καλόν ὑπάρχει τό κάκιστον. (λζ΄) Ἡ ἄμπελος, οἶνον ποιεῖ· ὁ οἶνος, μέθην· ἡ μέθη, ἔκστασιν. Οὐκοῦν ὁ ἐνεργής λόγος, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ ἄμπελος, γεωργούμενος ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, γεννᾷ τήν γνῶσιν· ἡ δέ γνῶσις, γεννᾷ τήν καλήν ἔκστασιν, τήν τόν νοῦν τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν σχέσεως ἐξιστῶσαν.
(λη΄) Τοῖς τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοήμασιν εἴωθε κακούργως ὁ πονηρός συμβάλλειν τά τῶν αἰσθητῶν εἴδη καί σχήματα, δι᾿ ὧν πέφυκε τά πάθη δημιουργεῖσθαι περί τάς ἐπιφανείας τῶν ὁρατῶν, στάσιν λαμβανούσης διά τῆς μέσης αἰσθήσεως τῆς περί τά νοητά διαβάσεως, τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν λογικῆς ἐνεργείας. Διό καί κατισχύει πορθεῖν τήν ψυχήν, καί εἰς τήν τῶν παθῶν σύγχυσιν κατασύρειν. (λθ΄) Λύχνος ἐστί, κατά ταυτόν ὁμοῦ καί φῶς, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγος, καί ὡς φωτίζων τούς κατά φύσιν λογισμούς τῶν πιστῶν, καί ὡς καίων τούς παρά φύσιν· καί ὡς λύων τόν ζόφον τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ζωῆς, τοῖς διά τῶν ἐντολῶν πρός τήν ἐλπιζομένην ἐπειγομένοις ζωήν, καί ὡς κολάζων τῇ καύσει τῆς κρίσεως τούς ταύτης τῆς σκοτεινῆς τοῦ βίου νυκτός κατά γνώμην διά φιλίαν σαρκός ἐντεχομένους.
(36) He who has persuaded his conscience that what is by nature good is the worst thing when practiced—this man, stretching out his practical faculty as it were a hand, has wickedly taken of the tree of life, having deemed the worst thing to be by nature immortal. Therefore God, having naturally implanted in man the conscience's accusation of evil, separated him from life, since he had become evil by choice—lest, while practicing evil, he should be able to persuade his own conscience that the worst thing is by nature good. (37) The vine produces wine; wine, drunkenness; drunkenness, ecstasy. Therefore the active principle, which is the vine, when cultivated by the virtues, begets knowledge; and knowledge begets the good ecstasy, which transports the mind out of its relation to sense perception.
(38) The evil one is accustomed craftily to join the forms and shapes of sensible things to the thoughts of sensible things, through which the passions are naturally produced around the surfaces of visible things, the passage of the rational activity within us toward intelligible things being halted by means of the intermediate sense perception. Therefore he prevails to ravage the soul and to drag it down into the confusion of the passions. (39) The Word of God is a lamp, at one and the same time also a light—both as illuminating the natural thoughts of the faithful and as burning up those contrary to nature; and as dispelling the gloom of the life according to sense perception for those who press on through the commandments toward the hoped-for life, and as punishing by the burning of judgment those who are held by choice in this dark night of life through friendship with the flesh.
(μ΄) Ὁ μή πρός ἑαυτόν, φησί, πρότερον ἀναχθείς διά τῆς ἀποβολῆς τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν, πρός τήν ἰδίαν αἰτίαν, ἤγουν τόν Θεόν, διά τῆς ἐν χάριτι τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀγαθῶν ἐπικτήσεως, οὐκ ἀναχθήσεται. Τῶν γάρ πεποιημένων χωρισθῆναι δεῖ κατά διάνοιαν, τόν πρός Θεόν ἀληθῶς συναγόμενον. (μα΄) Τοῦ μέν γραπτοῦ νόμου ἔργον ἐστίν, ἡ τῶν παθῶν ἀπαλλαγή· φυσικοῦ δέ νόμου, ἡ κατ᾿ ἰσονομίαν πρός πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἰσοτιμία· πνευματικοῦ δέ νόμου τελείωσις, ἡ πρός τόν Θεόν, ὡς ἔστιν ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν ἐξομοίωσις. (μβ΄) Τῆς μέν τῶν σωμάτων καί ἀσωμάτων γνώσεως, δεκτική κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ νοῦ δύναμις· τῆς δέ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, κατά μόνην τήν χάριν δέχεται τάς ἐμφάσεις· ὅτι ἐστί μόνον πιστεύσουσα, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τί ποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν αὐθαδιζομένη, ὡς δαιμόνιος νοῦς. Ὁ γάρ γνώσεως ἄμοιρος, τόν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ῥυπτικόν τῆς κακίας οὐδαμῶς ἐπίσταται τρόπον. (μγ΄) Ὁ τό ψεῦδος ἀγαπῶν, αὐτῷ παραδίδοται πρός ἀπώλειαν, ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ὅπερ ἑκών περιεῖπε, καί μάθῃ κατά τήν πεῖραν γενόμενος, ὡς ἐλάνθανεν ἀντί ζωῆς περιπτυσσόμενος θάνατον.
(40) He who has not first been led back to himself, it says, through the casting off of the passions contrary to nature, to his own cause—that is, to God—through the acquisition in grace of the goods that are above nature, will not be led back. For the one who is truly gathered to God must be separated from created things in his understanding. (41) The work of the written law is release from the passions; of the natural law, equality of honor toward all men according to equity; and the perfection of the spiritual law is likeness to God, insofar as it is possible for man. (42) The power of the intellect is by nature receptive of the knowledge of bodies and of incorporeal things; but it receives the impressions of the Holy Trinity by grace alone, believing only that it is, but not presuming to say what it is in essence, like a demonic intellect. For he who has no share in knowledge does not at all understand the manner of virtue that washes away evil. (43) He who loves falsehood is handed over to it for destruction, so that by suffering he may know what he willingly embraced, and may learn by experience what had escaped him—that instead of life he was clasping death.
(μδ΄) Μόνην ἔχει τοῦ καλοῦ τήν γνῶσιν ὁ Θεός, ὡς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τοῦ καλοῦ φύσις τέ καί γνῶσις ὑπάρχων· τοῦ δέ κακοῦ, τήν ἄγνοιαν, ὡς τήν αὐτοῦ ἔχων ἀδυναμίαν· ὧν γάρ ἔχει τήν δύναμιν φυσικῶς, τούτων οὐσιωδῶς κέκτηται τήν γνῶσιν.
(με΄) Τό ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ στηθύνιον, τήν ἀμείνω καί ὑψηλήν θεωρίαν δηλοῖ· ὁ δέ βραχίων, τήν πρᾶξιν, ἤγουν τοῦ διανοητικοῦ τήν ἕξιν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν, ἤ τήν γνῶσιν καί τήν ἀρετήν· ὡς τῆς μέν γνώσεως, αὐτῷ προσαγούσης ἀμέσως τόν νοῦν τῷ Θεῷ· τῆς ἀρετῆς δέ, κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πάσης ἀφαιρουμένης αὐτόν τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως· ἅπερ ἱερεῦσιν ἀφώρισεν ὁ λόγος,
τοῖς μόνον τόν Θεόν διά πάντων κτησαμένοις κληρονομίαν, καί μηδέν τό σύνολον κεκτημένοις ἐπίγειον.
(μστ΄) Ἐπειδή τάς ἄλλων καρδίας διά τοῦ λόγου τῆς διδασκαλίας, οἱ γνώσει καί ἀρετῇ δι᾿ ὅλου ποιωθέντες τῷ πνεύματι, εὐσεβείας καί πίστεως ποιοῦνται δεκτικάς, καί τήν πρακτικήν αὐτῶν ἕξιν καί δύναμιν ἀφαιρούμενοι, τῶν ἐπί τῇ φθαρτῇ φύσει σπουδασμάτων, πρός τήν τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀφθάρτων ἐνέργειαν ἀγαθῶν μεταφέρουσιν· εἰκότως τῶν προσαγομένων εἰς θυσίαν Θεοῦ, τό στηθύνιον τοῦ ἐπιθέματος· τουτέστι, τῶν προσαγομένων τήν καρδίαν· καί τόν βραχίονα, τῶν αὐτῶν δηλονότι τήν πρᾶξιν· προσέταξεν ἀφιεροῦσθαι τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ὁ Λόγος. (μζ΄) Πᾶσα ἡ ἐνταῦθα δικαιοσύνη συγκρινομένη πρός τήν μέλλουσαν, ἐσόπτρου λόγον ἐπέχει, τήν τῶν ἀρχετύπων πραγμάτων εἰκόνα, οὐκ αὐτά δέ τά πράγματα κατ᾿ εἶδος ὑφιστάμενα ἔχουσα·
(44) God alone has knowledge of the good, since he is by essence both the nature and the knowledge of the good; and of evil he has ignorance, since he possesses its impotence. For whatever things he has power over naturally, these he possesses essentially the knowledge of.
(45) The breastpiece in Leviticus signifies the better and higher contemplation; and the arm, the practice, that is, the habit and activity of the intellective faculty, or knowledge and virtue—since knowledge brings the mind directly to God, while virtue, through practice, removes it from all generation of beings. These things the Word set apart for priests, for those who have acquired God alone as their inheritance through all things, and who possess nothing at all earthly.
(46) Since those who have been wholly conformed in spirit by knowledge and virtue make the hearts of others receptive of piety and faith through the word of teaching, and removing their practical habit and power from pursuits concerned with corruptible nature, transfer them to the activity of incorruptible goods beyond nature—with good reason the Word commanded that of the things brought for sacrifice to God, the breastpiece of the offering—that is, the heart of those who are brought—and the arm, clearly the practice of the same, be consecrated to the priests. (47) All righteousness here, compared with that which is to come, holds the place of a mirror, having the image of the archetypal realities, but not the realities themselves subsisting in their form.
καί πᾶσα γνῶσις ἐνταῦθα τῶν ὑψηλῶν συγκρινομένη πρός τήν μέλλουσαν, αἴνιγμά ἐστιν, ἔμφασιν τῆς ἀληθείας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτήν ὑφισταμένην ἔχουσα τήν φανήσεσθαι μέλλουσαν ἀλήθειαν. (μη΄) Ἐπειδή ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει τά θεῖα συνέχεται, τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν πρωτοτύπων ἐστίν ἐνδεικτικόν τό ἔσοπτρον, καί τῶν κατά γνῶσιν ἀρχετύπων ἐκφαντικόν ὑπάρχει τό αἴνιγμα.
(μθ΄) Ὁ διά πράξεως εὐαρεστήσας τῷ Θεῷ, διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν χώραν, τόν νοῦ δηλαδή μετατίθησιν· ἵνα μή διά φαντασίας τινος τόν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι θεάσηται θάνατον κατά τήν αἴσθησιν, ὡς ὑπό μηδενός τῶν ἑλεῖν βουλομένων παντελῶς εὑρισκόμενος.
(ν΄) Ὁ καθαρῷ πίστεως ὀφθαλμῷ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἰδών τήν εὐπρέπειαν, ὑπακούει γῆς καί συγγενείας καί οἴκου πατρικοῦ προθύμως ἐξελθεῖν, καταλιπών τήν πρός σάρκα καί αἴσθησιν καί αἰσθητά σχέσιν τε καί προσπάθειαν· καί φύσεως ἐν καιρῶ πειρασμοῦ καί ἀγώνων ὑψηλότερος ὤν, προτιμήσας τήν αἰτίαν τῆς φύσεως, ὡς τοῦ Ἰσαάκ, τόν Θεόν, ὁ μέγας Ἀβράαμ. (να΄) Ὁ μήτε δόξης ἕνεκεν, μήτε προφάσει πλεονεξίας, μήτε κολακείας χάριν, καί ἀνθρωπαρεσκίας καί ἐπιδείξεως, τήν ἀρετήν, ἤ τήν μελέτην τῶν θείων λόγων μετελθεῖν ἐπιτηδεύων, ἀλλά πάντα διά τόν Θεόν καί ποιῶν καί λέγων καί διανοούμενος, οὗτος ἐν τῆ ὁδῷ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν γνώσει πορεύεται. Τρίβοις γάρ οὐκ εὐθείαις ὁ Θεῖος οὐ πέφυκεν ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν λόγος, κἄν εὕρῃ τήν ὁδόν ἔν τισιν ἕτοιμον.
And all knowledge here of lofty things, compared with the knowledge that is to come, is a riddle, a faint show of the truth, but it does not possess the truth itself subsisting, which is going to be revealed. (48) Since divine things are held together by virtue and knowledge, the mirror is indicative of the archetypes according to virtue, and the riddle is declarative of the archetypes according to knowledge.
(49) He who has pleased God through practice transfers his mind through contemplation to the region of intelligible things; so that he may not behold death in the passions through some fantasy by sense-perception, as one altogether unfound by any of those who wish to seize him.
(50) He who with the pure eye of faith has seen the comeliness of the good things to come, obediently and eagerly goes out from land and kindred and his father's house, having left behind the relation and attachment to flesh and sense and sensible things; and being higher than nature in the time of trial and struggles, having preferred the cause of nature, God, as Isaac did, the great Abraham. (51) He who neither for the sake of glory, nor on the pretext of gain, nor for the sake of flattery and pleasing men and display, endeavors to pursue virtue or the study of divine words, but does and says and thinks all things for God's sake, this man walks in the way of truth in knowledge. For the divine word does not naturally linger in crooked paths, even if it finds the way ready in some.
(νβ΄) Νηστεύει τις, καί ἀπέχεται τῆς ἐξαπτικῆς τῶν παθῶν διαίτης· τά ἄλλα τε ποιεῖ, ὅσα πρός ἀπαλλαγήν κακίας συμβάλλεσθαι δύναται· τήν λεγομένην ὁδόν οὗτος ἡτοίμασε· κενοδοξίας, ἤ κολακείας, ἤ ἀνθρωπαρεσκίας, ἤ ἄλλης τινός ἕνεκεν αἰτίας, δίχα τῆς θείας εὐαρεστήσεως τούς τοιούτους ἐπιτηδεύει τρόπους, οὗτος οὐκ ἐποίησεν εὐθείας τάς τρίβους τοῦ Θεοῦ· καί τόν μέν τῆς ἑτοιμασίας τῆς ὁδοῦ πόνον ὑπέμεινεν, τόν δέ Θεόν οὐκ ἔσχε ταῖς αὐτοῦ τρίβοις ἐμπεριπατοῦντα. (νγ΄) Πᾶσα φάραγξ πληρωθήσεται· οὐχ ἁπλῶς πᾶσα, οὐδέ πάντων· οὔτε γάρ τῶν μή ἑτοιμασάντων τήν ὁδόν τοῦ Κυρίου, καί εὐθείας ποιησάντων τάς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. Ὁπηνίκα οὖν φάραγξ, ἤγουν σάρξ ἤ ψυχή, τῶν ἑτοιμασάντων, ὡς εἶπον, τήν ὁδόν τοῦ Κυρίου, καί εὐθείας ποιησάντων τάς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, διά τῆς τοῦ περιπατοῦντος ἐν αὐτοῖς διά τῶν ἐντολῶν Θεοῦ Λόγου παρουσίας, πληρωθῇ γνώσεώς τε καί ἀρετῆς, πάντα τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως καί κακίας τά πνεύματα ταπεινοῦται, πατοῦντος αὐτά τοῦ Λόγου καί ὑποτάττοντος, καί τό ἐπαιρόμενον κατά τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, πονηρόν κράτος καταβάλλοντος, καί οἷον τό μέγεθος καί τό ὕψος τῶν ὀρέων καί τῶν βουνῶν κατασκάπτοντος· καί εἰς τήν τῶν φαράγγων ἄγοντος πλήρωσιν. Ἡ γάρ τῶν παρά φύσιν ἀποβολή παθῶν, καί ἡ τῶν κατά φύσιν
(52) Someone fasts and abstains from the diet that inflames the passions; he also does all the other things that can contribute to deliverance from evil. This person has prepared what is called the way. But if he practices such ways for the sake of vainglory, or flattery, or people-pleasing, or any other cause, apart from the divine good pleasure, then this person has not made straight the paths of God. He has endured the labor of preparing the way, but he did not have God walking about in his paths. (53) Every valley shall be filled—not simply every valley, nor those of all people; for it is not the valleys of those who have not prepared the way of the Lord and made straight his paths. Whenever, then, a valley—that is, a flesh or a soul—of those who, as I said, have prepared the way of the Lord and made straight his paths, is filled with knowledge and virtue through the presence of the Word of God who walks in them through the commandments, then all the spirits of falsely named knowledge and of evil are humbled, as the Word tramples them down and subjects them, and casts down the evil power that exalts itself against human nature, and as it were demolishes the greatness and height of the mountains and hills, and leads to the filling of the valleys. For the casting off of the passions that are contrary to nature, and the [restoration] of those according to nature
ἀρετῶν ἐπιβολή, τήν φαραγγωθεῖσαν ψυχήν ἀναπληροῖ, καί τήν ὀρινομένην τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ταπεινοῖ δυναστείαν.
(νδ΄) Αἱ τραχεῖαι (τουτέστιν, αἱ τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπιφοραί) ἔσονται εἰς ὁδούς λείας, ὅταν μάλιστα χαίρων καί εὐφραινόμενος ὁ νοῦς, ἐν ἀσθενείαις εὐδοκῇ καί θλίψεσι καί ἀνάγκαις, διά τῶν ἀκουσίων πόνων, τήν ὅλη τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν ἀφαιρούμενος δυναστείαν. Τραχείας γάρ κέκλικε, τάς τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμβάσεις, εἰς ὁδούς λείας διά τῆς κατά τῆς εὐχαριστίαν ὑπομονῆς μεταπιπτούσας.
(νε΄) Ὁ τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἐφιέμενος ζωῆς, γνούς ὅτι πᾶς πόνος, εἴτε ἑκούσιος, εἴτε ἀκούσιος, τῆς τοῦ θανάτου μητρός ἡδονῆς γίνεται θάνατος, πάσας τάς τραχείας τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπιφοράς δέξεται μετ᾿ εὐφροσύνης χαίρων· διά τῆς ὑπομονῆς, ὁδούς εὐμαρεῖς τε καί λείας, τάς θλίψεις ποιούμενος, καί πρός τό βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως ἀπλανῶς παραπεμπούσας αὐτόν, εὐσεβῶς ἐν αὐταῖς τόν θεῖον δρόμον ποιούμενον. Καί γάρ, τοῦ μέν θανάτου μήτηρ ἐστίν ἡ ἡδονή· τῆς ἡδονῆς δέ θάνατός ἐστιν, ὁ πόνος· ὅ τε προαιρετικός, καί ὁ παρά προαίρεσιν.
The assault of the virtues fills up the soul that has been made rugged, and humbles the dominion of the evil spirits that is stirred up against it.
(54) The rough ways (that is, the onsets of involuntary trials) will become smooth paths, when especially the mind, rejoicing and gladdened, takes good pleasure in weaknesses and afflictions and constraints, and through involuntary labors removes the whole dominion of voluntary passions. For he has called the encounters of involuntary trials rough, which through thanksgiving and endurance are changed into smooth paths.
(55) The one who aspires to true life, knowing that every labor, whether voluntary or involuntary, becomes the death of pleasure, the mother of death, will receive all the rough onsets of involuntary trials with gladness, rejoicing; through endurance making his afflictions smooth and easy paths, which send him on without error to the prize of the upward calling, as he piously makes his divine course in them. For pleasure is the mother of death, and pain is the death of pleasure—both the pain that is by choice and the pain that is against choice.
(νστ΄) Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν ὁ τήν πολυέλικτόν τε καί πολύπλοκον ἡδονήν, καί πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς πολυτρόπως συμπεπλεγμένην τῇ ἐγκρατείᾳ διαλύσας, τά σκολιά εἰς εὐθείας ἐποίησε· καί ὁ τήν δύσβατον καί τραχεῖαν τῶν πόνων ἐπιφοράν δι᾿ ὑπομονῆς πατήσας, τάς τραχείας ἐποίησεν εἰς ὁδούς λείας. Ὅθεν ὥσπερ ἔπαθλον ἀρετῆς καί τῶν ὑπέρ αὐτῆς καμάτων, οἷα καλῶς τε καί νομίμως ἀθλήσας, καί τήν ἡδονήν νικήσας, τῷ πόθῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί τήν ὀδύνην πατήσας τῷ τῆς γνώσεως ἔρωτι, καί δι᾿ ἀμφοτέρων γενναίως τούς θείους διενέγκας ἀγῶνας, Ὄψεται, κατά τό γεγραμμένον, τό σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ. (νζ΄) Ὁ τήν ἀρετήν ἀγαπῶν, τήν τῶν ἡδονῶν ἑκουσίως ἀπομαραίνει κάμινον· ὁ δέ τῇ γνώσει τῆς ἀληθείας πεποιωμένος τόν νοῦν, ἀκουσίοις οὐκ ἐπέχεται πόνοις, τῆς κατά τήν ἔφεσιν πρός τόν Θεόν φερούσης ἀεικινησίας. (νη΄) Ὁ τά σκολιά τῶν ἑκουσίων παθῶν, ἤγουν τῆς ἡδονῆς τά κινήματα διά τῆς ἐγκρατείας εὐθύνας, καί τά τραχείας, τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν συμφοράς, ἤγουν τούς τρόπους τῆς ὀδύνης διά τῆς ὑπομονῆς ὁμαλίσας, καί εἰς ὁδούς λείας καταστήσας· ὁ τοιοῦτος εἰκότως ὄψεται τό σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ, καθαρός τῇ καρδίᾳ γενόμενος· καθ᾿ ἥν διά τῶν ἀρετῶν καί τῶν εὐσεβῶν θεωρημάτων, ὁρᾷ τόν Θεόν ἐπί τέλει τῶν ἄθλων, κατά τό, Μακάριοι οἱ καθαροί τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοί τόν Θεόν ὄψονται· τῶν ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς πόνων, τῆς ἀπαθείας τήν χάριν ἀντιλαβών, ἧς οὐδέν πλέον τόν Θεόν ἐμφανίζει τοῖς ἔχουσι.
(55) Therefore everyone who by self-control has dissolved the many-wreathed and many-twisted pleasure, which is intertwined in manifold ways with all things perceptible alike, has made the crooked things straight; and he who by endurance has trampled down the hard-to-pass and rough onset of labors has made the rough ways into smooth roads. Hence, as a prize of virtue and of the toils endured for its sake, as one who has contended well and lawfully and has conquered pleasure by the longing for virtue, and has trampled down pain by the love of knowledge, and has bravely gone through the divine contests by both, he will see, as it is written, the salvation of God. (57) He who loves virtue willingly withers the furnace of pleasures; but he whose mind has been made pure by the knowledge of the truth is not held back by involuntary pains, since the ever-moving impulse of the desire that leads to God carries him on. (58) He who has made straight by self-control the crooked things of the voluntary passions—that is, the motions of pleasure—and has leveled by endurance the rough things, the calamities of involuntary trials—that is, the modes of pain—and has brought them into smooth roads: such a one will reasonably see the salvation of God, having become pure in heart; and by this, through the virtues and the pious contemplations, he sees God at the end of his contests, according to the saying, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; receiving in return for the toils endured for virtue the grace of dispassion, than which nothing more clearly reveals God to those who possess it.
(νθ΄) Λάκκους καλεῖ ἡ Γραφή, τάς δεκτικάς τῶν οὐρανίων χαρισμάτων τῆς ἁγίας γνώσεως καρδίας, λατομουμένας τῷ στερῷ λόγῳ τῶν ἐντολῶν, καί ἀποβαλλομένας καθάπερ πωρώματα, τήν τε πρός τά πάθη φιληδονίαν, καί τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῆς φύσεως σχέσιν, καί πληρουμένας τῆς ἄνωθεν φερομένης ῥυπτικῆς τε τῶν παθῶν, καί ζωοποιητικῆς καί οἷον θρεπτικῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐν πνεύματι, γνώσεως.
(ξ΄) Λάκκους λατομεῖ ὁ Κύριος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· λέγω δέ τῷ κόσμῳ, καί τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων· τάς τῶν ἀξίων καρδίας ἐκχοΐζων, καί ἀποκαθαίρων τοῦ ὑλικοῦ βάρους τε καί φρονήματος, καί ποιῶν εὑρυχώρους πρός ὑποδοχήν τῶν θείων τῆς σοφίας καί τῆς γνώσεως ὑετῶν, ἵνα ποτίζουσι τά κτήνη τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τούς δεομένους λέγω διά ψυχῆς νηπιότητα, τῆς ἠθικῆς διδασκαλίας.
(ξα΄) Ὀρεινήν ἡ Γραφή, τήν ὑψηλήν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν τῆς φύσεως λέγει, ἥν γεωργοῦσιν οἱ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀπογενόμενοι φαντασιῶν, καί πρός τούς αὐτῶν νοητῶς διά μέσου τῶν ἀρετῶν διαβάντες λόγους. (ξβ΄) Ὁ νοῦς ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἔχει ζῶσαν ἐν ἑαυτῶ τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ μνήμην, διά τῆς θεωρίας ἐκζητεῖ τόν Κύριον· καί οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν φόβῳ Κυρίου· τουτέστιν, ἐν τῇ πράξει τῶν ἐντολῶν. Ὁ γάρ ἐκζητῶν διά θεωρίας τόν Κύριον χωρίς πράξεως, οὐκ εὑρίσκει αὐτόν, ὅτι οὐκ ἐν φόβῳ Κυρίου τόν Κύριον ἐξεζήτησε. Καί εὐώδωσεν αὐτῷ ὁ Κύριος· παντί γάρ τῷ μετά γνώσεως πράττοντι, εὐοδοῖ ὁ Κύριος, τούς τε τῶν ἐντολῶν διδάσκων τρόπους, καί τούς τῶν ὄντων ἀληθεῖς λόγους ἀποκαλύπτων. (ξγ΄) Ὁ περί θεότητος ὑψηλός λόγος, πύργος ἐστί κατά ψυχήν, ταῖς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐνεργείαις ὠχυρωμένος.
(59) Scripture calls “cisterns” the hearts that receive the heavenly gifts of holy knowledge, hewn out by the firm word of the commandments and casting off, like hardened calluses, both the love of pleasure that is directed toward the passions and the attachment of nature to things perceptible, and filled with the cleansing knowledge that comes from above, which purges the passions and gives life and, as it were, nourishes the virtues in the Spirit.
(60) The Lord hews out cisterns in the desert—I mean in the world and in the nature of human beings—pouring out and cleansing the hearts of those who are worthy from material weight and mindset, and making them spacious to receive the divine rains of wisdom and knowledge, so that they may water the cattle of Christ—I mean those who need, through the childlikeness of their soul, ethical teaching.
(61) Scripture calls “mountainous country” the lofty spiritual contemplation of nature, which those who have died to perceptible fantasies cultivate, and who have passed over in understanding to its principles by means of the virtues. (62) The intellect, insofar as it keeps alive within itself the remembrance of God, seeks the Lord through contemplation; and not simply so, but in the fear of the Lord—that is, in the practice of the commandments. For the one who seeks the Lord through contemplation without practice does not find him, because he has not sought the Lord in the fear of the Lord. And the Lord prospered him; for to everyone who acts with knowledge, the Lord gives prosperity, teaching the ways of the commandments and revealing the true principles of beings. (63) The lofty doctrine concerning the Godhead is, for the soul, a tower fortified by the active workings of the commandments.
Καί τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ φησιν, ὅτι ᾨκοδόμησεν Ὀζίας πύργους ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ. Ὁ γάρ καλῶς εὐοδούμενος ἐπί τήν διά θεωρίας ἐκζήτησιν τοῦ Κυρίου, μετά τοῦ ἐπιβεβλημένου φόβου, τουτέστι τῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν πράξεως, οἰκοδομεῖ πύργους ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, κατά τήν ἁπλῆν δηλαδή καί ἡρεμαίαν τῆς ψυχῆς κατάστασιν, τούς περί θεότητος ἀνυψῶν λόγους. (ξδ΄) Οἱ τῶν ἐπί μέρους λόγοι, τοῖς καθόλου προσχωροῦντες, τά τῶν διῃρημένων ἑνώσεις ποιοῦνται· διότι τῶν μερικωτέρων ἑνοειδῶς οἱ καθολικώτεροι τούς λόγους περιλαμβάνουσι, πρός οὕς φυσικῶς τήν ἀναφοράν ἔχει τά κατά μέρος. Ἀλλά καί νοῦ πρός αἴσθησιν, καί οὐρανοῦ πρός γῆν, καί αἰσθητῶν πρός νοητά, καί φύσεως πρός λόγον, ἔστι τις καί τούτων σχετικός ἐν πνεύματι λόγος, τήν πρός ἄλληλα διδούς αὐτοῖς ἕνωσιν.
(ξε΄) Ὁ τῶν παθῶν δυνηθείς ἐξηλῶσαι τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί τῆς τῶν αἰσθήσεων σχέσεως τήν ψυχήν ἀποδιαστείλας, κατίσχυσεν ἀποτειχίσαι τήν γενομένην τοῦ διαβόλου πρός τόν νοῦν διά μέσων τῶν αἰσθήσεων εἴσοδον· καί διά τοῦτο κατά τήν ἔρημον, φημί δέ τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, οἱονεί πύργους ἀσφαλεῖς, τάς εὐσεβεῖς περί τῶν ὄντων ᾠκοδόμησε δόξας· ἐν αἷς ὁ καταφεύγων, οὐ φοβεῖται τούς κατά τήν ἔρημον ταύτην· λέγω δέ τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρωμένων, λῃστεύοντας δαίμονας, καί πλανῶντας τόν νοῦν διά τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καί πρός ἀγνοίας κατασύροντας ζόφον. Ὁ γάρ τήν εὐσεβῆ περί ἕκαστον δόξαν κτησάμενος, οὐ δέδοικε τούς διά τῶν φαινομένων πλανῶντας τούς ἀνθρώπους δαίμονας.
And this is what it says, that Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem. For he who is well guided toward the inquiry into the Lord through contemplation, together with the fear that is laid upon him—that is, the practice of the commandments—builds towers in Jerusalem, that is, according to the simple and tranquil state of the soul, raising up the words concerning divinity. (64) The words of particular things, when they join themselves to universals, effect the unifications of divided things; for the more universal words encompass in a unified way the words of the more particular things, toward which the things that are partial have a natural reference. But there is also a certain relational word in the Spirit of intellect to sense, and of heaven to earth, and of sensible things to intelligible things, and of nature to word, giving them their union with one another.
(65) He who has been able to expel the senses from the passions, and has separated the soul from the relation of the senses, has prevailed to wall off the entrance that the devil made to the intellect through the medium of the senses; and for this reason, in the desert—I mean natural contemplation—he built, as it were, safe towers, the pious opinions concerning the things that exist; fleeing into these, one does not fear the demons who plunder in this desert—I mean the nature of visible things—and who lead the intellect astray through sense, and drag it down into the darkness of ignorance. For he who has acquired the pious opinion concerning each thing does not fear the demons who lead men astray through appearances.
(ξστ΄) Πᾶς νοῦς ἰσχύν πρός θεωρίαν ἔχων, ἀληθής ἐστι γεωργός, καθαρά ζιζανίων διά τῆς οἰκείας σπουδῆς καί ἐπιμελείας τά θεῖα τῶν ἀγαθῶν διαφυλάττων σπέρματα, μέχρις οὗ συντηροῦσαν αὐτόν ἔχῃ τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ μνήμην. Φησί γάρ· Καί ἦν ἐκζητῶν τόν Κύριον ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ζαχαρίου ἐν φόβῳ Κυρίου. Ζαχαρίαν δέ, μνήμην Θεοῦ πρός τήν ἑλλάδα φωνήν μεταφερόμενον οἶδεν ὁ λόγος. Διό πάντοτε δεηθῶμεν τοῦ Κυρίου, τήν σωτηρίαν αὐτοῦ φυλαχθῆναι ἡμῖν μνήμην, ἵνα μή καί αὐτό διαφθείρῃ τήν ψυχήν τό κατορθούμενον, πρός ὕψος ἀρθεῖσαν, καί τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν, ὡς ὁ Ὀζίας, κατατολμήσασαν. (ξζ΄) Ἡ τῶν ὄντων ἀπλανής θεωρία, παθῶν ἀπηλλαγμένης δεῖται ψυχῆς· ἥτις Ἱερουσαλήμ λέγεται, διά τε τήν ἄρτιον ἀρετήν καί τήν ἄϋλον γνῶσιν· ἥτις οὐ μόνον κατά στέρησιν παθῶν, ἀλλά καί φαντασιῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπιγίνεται. (ξη΄) Χωρίς πίστεως καί ἐλπίδος καί ἀγάπης, οὐδέν οὔτε τῶν κακῶν καταργεῖται παντελῶς, οὔτε τῶν καλῶν κατορθοῦται τό σύνολον. Ἡ μέν γάρ πίστις, πείθει τῷ Θεῷ προσχωρεῖν τόν νοῦν πολεμούμενον, πάσης αὐτῷ γινομένη παρασκευῆς ὅπλων πνευματικῶν πρός τό θαῤῥεῖν παραμύθιον. Ἡ δέ ἐλπίς, τῆς θείας αὐτῷ καθίσταται βοηθείας ἐγγυητής ἀψευδέστατος, τήν τῶν ἐναντίων καθαίρεσιν ἐπαγγελλομένη δυνάμεων. Ἡ δέ ἀγάπη, δυσμετακίνητον, μᾶλλον δέ, πάμπαν
(66) Every intellect that has strength for contemplation is a true farmer, keeping the divine seeds of good things pure from weeds through its own zeal and care, until it has the remembrance of God preserving it. For it says: "And he was seeking the Lord in the days of Zechariah in the fear of the Lord." The text knows that Zechariah, translated into the Greek tongue, means remembrance of God. Therefore let us always entreat the Lord that His salvation be kept as remembrance for us, lest what has been rightly achieved also corrupt the soul, lifted up to a height and, like Uzziah, daring to attempt things beyond nature. (67) The unerring contemplation of beings requires a soul freed from passions—which is called Jerusalem, both because of its perfect virtue and its immaterial knowledge; which comes about not only by the privation of passions but also of sensory impressions. (68) Without faith and hope and love, nothing of evils is completely abolished, nor is the whole of good things accomplished at all. For faith persuades the intellect, when it is under attack, to draw near to God, becoming for it a preparation of all spiritual weapons and a consolation for confidence. And hope stands as the most truthful guarantor of divine help for it, promising the destruction of the opposing powers. And love, hard to move, or rather, entirely
ἀκίνητον, τῆς θείας στοργῆς αὐτόν εἶναι παρασκευάζει καί πολεμούμενον, προσηλοῦσα τῷ θείῳ πόθῳ πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τήν τῆς ἐφέσεως δύναμιν. (ξθ΄) Ἡ πίστις παραμυθεῖται τόν νοῦν πολεμούμενον, βοηθείας ἐλπίδι ῥωννύμενον· ἡ δέ ἐλπίς ὑπ᾿ ὄψιν ἄγουσα τήν πιστευθεῖσαν βοήθειαν, ἀποκρούεται τήν τῶν ἀντικειμένων καταδρομήν· ἡ δέ ἀγάπη, νεκράν καθίστησι τῷ φιλοθέῳ νῷ τῶν πολεμίων τήν προσβολήν, τῇ πρός Θεόν ἐφέσει παντελῶς ἀμαυρουμένην. (ο΄) Θείας ὄντως μερίδος, ἤγουν γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς, υἱός, πρῶτός τε καί μόνος, ὁ κατά τήν πίστιν τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν θείας ἀναστάσεώς ἐστι λόγος, μετά τῆς δεούσης κατά τήν γνώμην οἰκονομίας, ἤγουν διακρίσεως, καλῶς διαφέρων τάς τε τῶν ἑκουσίων καί ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπαναστάσεις. Καί γάρ πρώτη ἐν ἡμῖν ἀνάστασις τοῦ διά τῆς ἀγνοίας ἡμῖν νεκρωθέντος Θεοῦ, ἡ πίστις ἐστί, καλῶς τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν ἐντολῶν οἰκονομουμένη.
(οα΄) Ἡ πρός Θεόν ἐπιστροφή, σαφῶς μηνύει δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς τόν πληρέστατον τῆς θείας ἐλπίδος λόγον, οὗ χωρίς, οὐδαμῶς οὐδενί καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν πρός Θεόν ἐπίνευσις γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν· εἴπερ ἐλπίδος ἴδιον, τό ὑπ᾿ ὄψιν ἄγειν ὡς παρόντα τά μέλλοντα· καί μηδαμῶς ἀπεῖναι πείθειν τῶν πολεμουμένων ὑπό τῆς ἀντικειμένης δυνάμεως, τόν ὑπερασπίζοντα Θεόν· ὑπέρ οὗ, καί δι᾿ ὅν ἁγίοις ὁ πόλεμος. Χωρίς γάρ τινος προσδοκίας ἤ δυσχεροῦς ἤ εὐχεροῦς, ἐπιστροφή πρός τό καλόν οὐδενί ποτε πέφυκε γίνεσθαι.
immovable, it prepares him to be [so] even when warred against, nailing fast all the power of his longing to the divine desire. (69) Faith comforts the intellect when it is warred against, strengthened by the hope of help; and hope, bringing the help that was believed before the eyes, repels the assault of the adversaries; and love makes the attack of the enemies dead to the God-loving intellect, utterly darkened by its longing toward God. (70) The son of the truly divine portion—that is, of true knowledge—first and alone, is the principle of the divine resurrection in us according to faith, together with the fitting economy according to judgment—that is, discernment—well distinguishing the uprisings of temptations both voluntary and involuntary. For the first resurrection in us of the God who was put to death in us through ignorance is faith, well administered by the works of the commandments.
(71) The turning toward God clearly reveals through itself the most complete principle of divine hope, without which no inclination toward God whatsoever is ever naturally able to come about in anyone; since it is the property of hope to bring future things before the eyes as though present, and to persuade that the God who defends is in no way absent from those warred against by the opposing power—for whom and on whose account is the war of the saints. For without some expectation, whether difficult or easy, a turning toward the good has never naturally come about in anyone.
(οβ΄) Οὐδέν ὄντως οὕτως ἡ ἀγάπη συνάγει τούς ἐσκορπισμένους, καί μίαν αὐτοῖς δημιουργεῖ τήν γνώμην συμπνοίᾳ κρατουμένην, ἧς ὁ χαρακτήρ, τό τῆς ἰσοτιμίας καθέστηκε κάλλος. Οὐκοῦν τῆς κατά τό αὐτό περί τά θεῖα συναγωγῆς τε καί ἑνώσεως τῶν ψυχικῶν δυνάμεων· τουτέστι, τῆς λογικῆς καί θυμικῆς καί ἐπιθυμητικῆς, ἡ ἀγάπη καθέστηκε γέννημα· καθ᾿ ἥν ἐγγράφοντες τῇ μνήμῃ τό τῆς θείας ὡραιότητος κάλλος, οἱ τό ἱσότιμον ἤδη πρός Θεόν διά τῆς χάριτος κομισάμενοι, ἀνεπίληστον ἔχουσι· τῆς τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπομνηματογραφούσης τε καί ἐντυπούσης τό ἀκήρατον κάλλος, τῆς θείας ἀγάπης τήν ἔφεσιν.
(ογ΄) Πᾶς νοῦς θείῳ κράτει διεζωσμένος, καθάπερ πρεσβυτέρους τινάς καί ἄρχοντας κέκτηται, τήν τε λογικήν δύναμιν, ἐξ ἧς ἡ γνωστική γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκε πίστις, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀεί παρόντα τόν Θεόν ἀῤῥήτως διδάσκεται, καί ὡς παροῦσι συγγίνεται διά τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῖς μέλλουσι· καί τήν ἐπιθυμητικήν δύναμιν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ θεία συνέστηκεν ἀγάπη, δι᾿ ἥν ἑκουσίως προσηλώσας τῷ πόθῳ τῆς ἀκηράτου θεότητος, ἄλυτον ἔχει τοῦ ποθουμένου τήν ἔφεσιν· ἔτι μήν καί τήν θυμικήν δύναμιν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀπρίξ τῆς θείας εἰρήνης ἀντέχεται, ἐπιστύφων πρός τόν θεῖον ἔρωτα τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τήν κίνησιν. Ταύτας δέ ἔχει τάς δυνάμεις πᾶς νοῦς, συνεργοῦσας αὐτῷ πρός τε τήν τῆς κακίας καθαίρεσιν, καί τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς σύστασίν τε καί συντήρησιν.
(72) Truly nothing so gathers together those who have been scattered as love, and creates in them a single judgment held together by concord, whose character is the beauty of equal honor. Therefore love is the offspring of the gathering together and unification of the soul's powers in the same [direction] regarding divine things—that is, of the rational, the irascible, and the appetitive [powers]. Inscribing in memory the beauty of the divine loveliness through this love, those who have already received equal honor toward God through grace possess it unforgettably, while the governing part of the soul records and imprints the undefiled beauty, the longing of divine love.
(73) Every intellect girded by divine power possesses, as it were, certain elders and rulers: the rational power, from which the cognitive faith is naturally born, by which it is ineffably taught that God is always present, and through hope it associates with future things as though present; and the appetitive power, in which divine love consists, through which, having willingly nailed itself to the longing of the undefiled divinity, it holds the longing of the beloved unbroken; and further also the irascible power, by which it clings firmly to divine peace, sharpening the motion of desire toward divine love. Every intellect has these powers cooperating with it for the destruction of vice and for the establishment and preservation of virtue.
(οδ΄) Δίχα λογικῆς δυνάμεως, ἐπιστημονική γνῶσις οὐκ ἔστι· καί γνώσεως χωρίς, οὐ συνίσταται πίστις, ἀφ᾿ ἧς τό καλόν γέννημα πρόεισιν ἡ ἐλπίς, καθ᾿ ἥν ὡς παροῦσι συγγίνεται τοῖς μέλλουσιν ὁ πιστός. Καί δίχα τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν δυνάμεως, οὐ συνίστατι πόθος, οὗ τέλος ἐστίν ἡ ἀγάπη· τό γάρ ἐρᾷν τινος, ἴδιόν ἐστιν ἐπιθυμίας. Καί δίχα θυμικῆς δυνάμεως νευρούσης τήν ἐπιθυμίαν πρός τήν τοῦ ἡδέος ἕνωσιν, οὐδαμῶς γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν εἰρήνη· εἴπερ ἀληθῶς εἰρήνη ἐστίν ἡ ἀνενόχλητος καί παντελής τοῦ καταθυμίου κατάσχεσις. (οε΄) Οὐ δεῖ τόν μή πρότερον καθαρθέντα παθῶν, φυσικῆς ἅπτεσθαι θεωρίας, διά τάς εἰκόνας τῶν αἰσθητῶν, δυναμένας τυπῶσαι πρός πάθος τόν νοῦν τοῦ μή τελείως ἀπαλλαγέντος παθῶν. Ὁ γάρ κατά φαντασίαν ταῖς ἐπιφανείαις τῶν
αἰσθητῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν νοῦς, ἀκαθάρτων γίνεται παθῶν δημιουργός, διά θεωρίας πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά μή δυνάμενος διαβῆναι. (οστ΄) Ὁ ἐν καιρῷ τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστάσεως γενναίως μύσας τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί τήν τῶν αἰσθητῶν φαντασίαν τε καί μνήμην παντελῶς ἀπωσάμενος, καί συστείλας πάντη τάς τοῦ νοῦ περί τήν τῶν ἐκτός ἔρευναν φυσικάς κινήσεις, κατῄσχυνε νικήσας διά τῆς θείας χειρός, τήν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ πονηράν καί τυραννικήν δυναστείαν.
(74) Without the rational faculty there is no scientific knowledge; and without knowledge faith is not established, from which the noble offspring hope proceeds, through which the faithful one consorts with things to come as though they were present. And without the faculty of desire, longing is not established, whose end is love; for to love something is proper to desire. And without the spirited faculty, which strengthens desire toward union with the pleasant, peace can in no way come to be—if indeed peace truly is the undisturbed and complete possession of what is desired. (75) One who has not first been purified of the passions must not touch natural contemplation, on account of the images of sensible things, which are able to imprint the mind with passion if it has not been completely freed from the passions. For the mind that dwells upon the appearances of sensible things through imagination because of sensation becomes a maker of impure passions, being unable to pass over through contemplation to the kindred intelligible realities. (76) Whoever in the time of the uprising of the passions has nobly closed the senses, and has completely thrust away both the imagination and the memory of sensible things, and has wholly concentrated the natural movements of the mind concerning the investigation of external things, has put to shame and, by the divine hand, conquered the evil and tyrannical dominion that rose up against him.
(οζ΄) Ὅταν ἄνους ὁ λόγος γένηται, καί προπετής ὁ θυμός καί ἄλογος ἡ ἐπιθυμία, καί ἄγνοια καί τυραννίς καί ἀκολασία κρατῶσι τῆς ψυχῆς, τότε ἡ τῆς κακίας ἕξις ἔμπρακτος γίνεσθαι πέφυκε, συμπλακεῖσα τῇ διαφόρῳ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἡδονῇ.
(οη΄) Χρή τόν γνωστικῶς τάς ἀοράτους συμπλοκάς, ὑπαλύσκειν ἐπιστάμενον νοῦν, μήτε φυσικήν μετιέναι θεωρίαν, μηδ᾿ ἄλλο τι ποιεῖν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων προσβολῆς, ἤ μόνον προσεύχεσθαι, καί τό σῶμα πόνοις δαμάζειν, καί τήν τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φρονήματος διά πάσης σπουδῆς ποιεῖσθαι καθαίρεσιν, καί φυλάττειν τά τείχη τῆς πόλεως· λέγω δέ τάς φρουρητικάς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετάς, ἤ τάς τῶν ἀρετῶν φυλακτικάς μεθόδους· ἐγκράτειαν λέγω καί ὑπομονήν· μήπως διά τῶν δεξιῶν ἀπατήσας, ἀποστήσῃ Θεοῦ κλέψας τήν ἔφεσιν, ὁ τήν ψυχήν ποτίζων ἀνατραπήν θολεράν, καί διά τῶν νομιζομένων καλῶν, πρός τά χείρονα τήν τά καλά ζητοῦσαν ὑποσύρῃ διάνοιαν.
(οθ΄) Ὁ γενναίως διά τῆς λελογισμένης καί περιεκτικῆς ἐγκρατείας καί ὑπομονῆς μύσας τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί διά τῶν κατά ψυχήν δυνάμεων τάς πρός τόν νοῦν τῶν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἀποτειχίσας εἰσόδους, εὐχερῶς τοῦ διαβόλου τάς πονηράς διόλλυσι μηχανάς, ὑποστρέφων αὐτόν μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἦλθεν. Ὁδός δέ δι᾿ ἧς ὁ διάβολος ἔρχεται, ἐστί τά πρός σύστασιν τοῦ σώματος εἶναι δοκοῦντα ὑλικά.
(77) When the reason becomes mindless, and the temper rash and the desire irrational, and ignorance and tyranny and licentiousness rule over the soul, then the habit of vice naturally becomes active, having been entwined with the varied pleasure of the senses.
(78) It is necessary that the mind, knowing how to escape the invisible entanglements in a gnostic manner, neither pursue natural contemplation nor do anything else in the time of the assault of the evil powers, but only pray, and subdue the body with labors, and with all zeal effect the destruction of the earthly-mindedness, and guard the walls of the city—I mean the protective virtues of the soul, or the methods that guard the virtues; I mean self-control and endurance—lest, having deceived through the things on the right, he steal away the soul's longing from God, he who pours out a turbid overthrow for the soul, and through things thought to be good drag down the understanding that seeks the good toward the worse.
(79) He who bravely, through reasoned and comprehensive self-control and endurance, has closed the senses, and through the powers of the soul has walled off the entrances of sensible forms to the mind, easily destroys the evil machinations of the devil, turning him back with shame by the way he came. The way by which the devil comes is the material things that seem to contribute to the constitution of the body.
(π΄) Νοῦς ἑαυτῷ κατά φύσιν διά μέσου λόγου συνάψας τήν αἴσθησιν, τήν ἐκ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας ἀληθῆ συλλέγεται γνῶσιν. (πα΄) Πηγαί εἰσιν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως· τουτέστι τῆς ψυχῆς· ἅς Ἐζεκίας ἐμφράττει· τά αἰσθητά πάντα· ὕδατα δέ τούτων τυγχάνουσι τῶν πηγῶν, τά τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοήματα· ποταμός δέ διορίζων διά μέσης τῆς πόλεώς ἐστιν, ἡ κατά φυσικήν θεωρίαν ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοημάτων συναγομένη γνῶσις, διά μέσης διερχομένη τῆς ψυχῆς, ὡς νοῦ καί αἰσθήσεως οὖσα μεθόριος. Ἡ γάρ γνῶσις τῶν αἰσθητῶν, οὔτε πάντη νοερᾶς ἀπεξένωται δυνάμεως, οὔτε διόλου προσνενέμηται τῇ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείᾳ· ἀλλ᾿ οἷον τῆς τε τοῦ νοῦ πρός τήν αἴσθησιν, καί πρός τόν νοῦν τῆς αἰσθήσεως συνόδου, μέση τυγχάνουσα, δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ποιεῖται τήν πρός ἄλληλα τούτων συνάφειαν· κατά μέν τήν αἴσθησιν, κατ᾿ εἶδος τυπουμένη τοῖς σχήμασι τῶν αἰσθητῶν· κατά δέ τόν νοῦν, εἰς λόγους τῶν σχημάτων τούς τύπους μεταβιβάζουσα. Διό ποταμός διορίζων διά μέσης τῆς πόλεως, εἰκότως προσηγορεύθη τῶν ὁρωμένων ἡ γνῶσις, ὡς τῶν ἄκρων, λέγω δέ νοῦ καί αἰσθήσεως, οὖσα μεταίχμιος.
(80) The mind, having joined perception to itself according to nature through reason, gathers the true knowledge that comes from natural contemplation. (81) There are springs outside the city—that is, outside the soul—which Hezekiah stops up: all things perceptible to the senses. And the waters of these springs are the concepts of perceptible things; and the river that runs through the middle of the city is the knowledge gathered from the concepts of perceptible things through natural contemplation, passing through the middle of the soul, since it is the boundary between mind and perception. For the knowledge of perceptible things is neither wholly estranged from the intellectual power, nor entirely assigned to the activity of perception; but as it were occupying the middle place at the meeting of the mind with perception and of perception with the mind, it effects through itself their union with one another—being stamped in respect of perception by the forms of perceptible things, and in respect of the mind transferring the impressions into the principles of the forms. Therefore the knowledge of things seen was reasonably called a river running through the middle of the city, since it lies between the extremes—I mean mind and perception.
(πβ΄) Ὁ κατά τόν καιρόν τῆς τῶν πειρασμῶν ἐπαναστάσεως, τῆς μετά φυσικῆς ἀπεχόμενος θεωρίας, τῆς δέ προσευχῆς κατά τήν ἐκ πάντων πρός ἑαυτόν τε καί τόν Θεόν τοῦ νοῦ συστολήν ἀντεχόμενος, ἀποκτείνει τήν ποιητικήν τῆς κακίας ἕξιν, καί ἀποστρέφει μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης τόν διάβολον, ὑποβαλλόμενον τήν εἰρημένην ἕξιν, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ πεποιθώς μετά τῆς οἰκείας ἀλαζονείας ἦλθε πρός τήν ψυχήν, διά τῶν ὑπερηφάνων λογισμῶν τῆς ἀληθείας κατεπαιρόμενος· ὅπερ τυχόν καί γνούς καί παθών καί ποιήσας ὁ μέγας Δαβίδ, ὁ πάντων μάλιστα πεῖραν ἔχων τῆς τῶν νοητῶν
πολέμων παρατάξεως, Ἐν τῷ συστῆναι, φησί, τόν ἁμαρτωλόν ἐναντίον μου, ἐκωφώθην καί ἐταπεινώθην, καί ἐσίγησα ἐξ ἀγαθῶν· καί μετ᾿ αὐτόν ὁ θεῖος Ἱερεμίας, προστάσσων τῷ λαῷ μή ἐκβῆναι τῆς πόλεως, διά τήν κύκλωσιν παροικοῦσαν τῶν ἐχθρῶν ῥομφαίαν.
(πγ΄) Καί ὁ μακάριος τοίνυν Ἄβελ, εἴπερ ἐφυλάξατο, καί μή συνεξῆλθε τῷ Κάϊν ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ· τουτέστιν ἐν τῷ πλάτει τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας· πρό τῆς ἀπαθείας, οὐκ ἄν ἐπαναστάς ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτόν μετά δόλου, κλέψας τοῖς δεξιοῖς κατά τήν τῶν ὄντων θεωρίαν πρό τῆς τελαίας ἕξεως, ὁ τῆς σαρκός νόμος, ὁ Κάϊν καί ὤν καί καλούμενος.
(82) Whoever, at the time of the uprising of temptations, refrains from natural contemplation and holds fast to prayer through the concentration of the mind upon itself and upon God out of all things, puts to death the habit that produces evil, and turns back with shame the devil, who suggests the said habit, in reliance upon which he came to the soul with his own boastfulness, exalting himself against the truth through proud thoughts. The great David, who more than all others had experience of the array of the intellectual warfare, perhaps both knew and suffered and did this very thing, saying: When the sinner stood against me, I was struck dumb and was humbled, and I kept silence from good things. And after him the divine Jeremiah, commanding the people not to go out of the city, because of the sword of the enemies that surrounds and encamps round about.
(83) And so the blessed Abel too, if he had kept guard and had not gone out with Cain into the field—that is, into the breadth of natural contemplation—before impassibility, the law of the flesh, which is and is called Cain, would not have risen up against him and killed him with deceit, stealing by the right hand, as it were, in the contemplation of beings before the perfect state.
(πδ΄) Ὁμοίως καί Δίνα, ἡ τοῦ μεγάλου θυγάτηρ Ἰακώβ, εἰ μή συνεξῆλθε ταῖς θυγατράσι τῶν ἐγχωρίων· τουτέστι, ταῖς αἰσθητικαῖς φαντασίαις· οὐκ ἄν Συχέμ ὁ υἱός Ἐμμόρ ἐπαναστάς αὐτήν ἐταπείνωσε.
(πε΄) Καλόν ἐστι πρό τῆς τελείας ἕξεως, μή ἅπτεσθαι ἡμᾶς τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ἵνα μή λόγους ἐπιζητοῦντες πνευματικούς ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων κτισμάτων, λάθωμεν πάθη συλλέγοντες. Πλέον γάρ ἐν τοῖς ἀτελέσι δυναστεύει πρός τήν αἴσθησιν τά φαινόμενα σχήματα τῶν ὁρωμένων, ἤ πρός τήν ψυχήν οἱ κεκρυμμένοι τοῖς σχήμασι λόγοι τῶν γεγονότων. Οἱ μέντοι μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι προσδήσαντες Ἰουδαϊκῶς τήν διάνοιαν, κατά τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ἐκδέχονται τάς ἐπαγγελίας τῶν ἀκηράτων ἀγαθῶν, ἀγνοοῦντες τά κατά φύσιν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀγαθά. (πστ΄) Ὁ τήν εἰκόνα φορέσας τοῦ ἐπουρανίου, τῷ πνεύματι διά πάντων ἕπεσθαι σπεύδει τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς, ἐν ᾧ δι᾿ ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως, ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπάρχει συντήρησις· ὁ δέ τήν εἰκόνα φορῶν τοῦ χοϊκοῦ, τό γράμμα μόνον περιέπει· ἐν ᾧ ἡ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός σῶμα λατρεία συνέστηκε τά πάθη δημιουργοῦσα. (πζ΄) Κράτος Θεοῦ καθέστηκεν, ἡ ἀναιρετική τῶν παθῶν ἀρετή, καί τῶν εὐσεβῶν φρουρητική λογισμῶν, ἥν γεννᾷ πρᾶξις ἐντολῶν, δι᾿ ἧς τάς ἀντικειμένας τῷ ἀγαθῷ πονηράς δυνάμεις, συνεργείᾳ Θεοῦ· μᾶλλον δέ μόνῃ δυνάμει Θεοῦ διαφθείρομεν. Ὕψος δέ Θεοῦ ἐστιν ἡ γνῶσις τῆς ἀληθείας, ἥν γεννᾷ τῆς τῶν γεγονότων θεωρίας ὁ πόνος, καί οἱ ἐπί τῇ πράξει τῶν ἀρετῶν ἱδρῶτες πόνου πατέρες γινόμενοι·
(84) Likewise Dinah, the daughter of the great Jacob, if she had not gone out with the daughters of the natives—that is, with the sensory fantasies—Shechem the son of Emmor would not have risen up against her and humbled her.
(85) It is good, before perfect habit, that we not touch natural contemplation, lest, seeking spiritual meanings from the visible creatures, we unwittingly gather passions. For in the imperfect, the apparent forms of things seen have more power over the senses than the meanings of created things hidden within the forms have over the soul. But those who, in a Jewish manner, bind their mind to the letter alone, expect in this age the promises of the undefiled goods, ignorant of the natural goods of the soul. (86) He who bears the image of the heavenly one strives to follow the Spirit through all of Holy Scripture, in which, through virtue and knowledge, lies the preservation of the soul; but he who bears the image of the earthly one cherishes the letter only, in which consists the sensory service toward the body, generating the passions. (87) The power of God is the virtue that destroys the passions and guards the pious thoughts, which the practice of the commandments gives birth to, through which, by the cooperation of God—or rather by the power of God alone—we destroy the evil powers opposed to the good. And the height of God is the knowledge of the truth, which the labor of the contemplation of created things gives birth to, and the sweats of toil in the practice of the virtues, becoming fathers of toil;
δι᾿ ἧς τήν ἀντικειμένην τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τοῦ ψεύδους δύναμιν, παντελῶς ἐξαφανίζομεν, πᾶν ὕψωμα τῶν ἐπαιρομένων κατά τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ταπεινοῦντες καί καταβάλλοντες. Καί γάρ ὥσπερ ἡ πρᾶξις γεννᾷ τήν ἀρετήν, οὕτως ἡ θεωρία τήν γνῶσιν.
(πη΄) Ἡ ἄληστος γνῶσις, ἀόριστον ἔχουσα περί τήν θείαν ἀπειρίαν τήν κατά νοῦν ὑπέρ νόησιν κίνησιν, εἰκονίζει διά τῆς ἀοριστίας τήν ὑπεράπειρον δόξαν τῆς ἀληθείας· ἡ δέ τῆς κατά τήν πρόνοιαν σοφῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐθαίρετος μίμησις, τιμήν φέρει τήν πρός τόν Θεόν τοῦ νοῦ κατά τήν διάθεσιν ἀρίδηλον, ὡς ἔστι δυνατόν, ἐξομοίωσιν.
(πθ΄) Ἡ γλῶσσα τῆς κατά ψυχήν γνωστικῆς ἐνεργείας ἐστί σύμβολον· ὁ δέ λάρυγξ, τῆς πρός τό σῶμα φυσικῆς φιλαυτίας τεκμήριον. Ὁ γοῦν ταῦτα ψεκτῶς κολλήσας ἀλλήλοις, μνησθῆναι τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν εἰρηνικῆς ἕξεως οὐ δύναται, τῇ συγχύσει διά σπουδῆς τῶν σωματικῶν ἡδόμενος παθῶν. ( ΄) Αἱ κατά φύσιν ὀρέξεις καί ἡδοναί, μή φέρουσαι τοῖς κεκτημένοις διαβολήν, ὡς ἀναγκαῖον παρακολούθημα τῆς φυσικῆς ὀρέξεως καθεστήκασιν. Ἡδονήν γάρ κατά φύσιν ποιεῖ καί μή βουλομένων ἡμῶν, καί ἡ τυχοῦσα τροφή, προλαβοῦσαν ἔνδειαν παραμυθουμένη· καί πόσις, ἀποκρουομένη τοῦ δίψους τήν ὄχλησιν· καί ὕπνος, τήν ἐκ τῆς ἐγρηγόρσεως δαπανηθεῖσαν ἀνανεούμενος δύναμιν· καί ὅσα τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φυσικῶν ἕτερα τυγχάνει, πρός μέν σύστασιν φύσεως, ἀναγκαῖα· πρός δέ κτῆσιν ἀρετῆς, ὑπάρχοντα χρήσιμα τοῖς σπουδαίοις. Ἅπερ
Through which we utterly obliterate the opposing power of falsehood against the truth, humbling and casting down every high thing of the evil spirits that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. For just as practice begets virtue, so contemplation begets knowledge.
(88) Knowledge that never ceases to wander, having a movement of the mind beyond understanding, undefined, concerning the divine infinity, images through its indefiniteness the transcendent glory of the truth; while the voluntary imitation of the wise goodness that belongs to providence brings as its honor the mind's assimilation to God, according to its disposition, as far as is possible, made manifest.
(89) The tongue is a symbol of the soul's gnostic activity; but the throat is a token of natural self-love toward the body. Whoever has blameworthily joined these to one another cannot remember the peaceful state of virtue and knowledge, delighting with zeal in the confusion of bodily passions. (90) Natural appetites and pleasures, bringing no reproach to those who possess them, stand as a necessary consequence of natural appetite. For even against our will, ordinary food produces natural pleasure, relieving the preceding want; and drink, driving away the annoyance of thirst; and sleep, renewing the strength spent by wakefulness; and whatever else of our natural faculties there are, necessary for the constitution of nature, and useful to the zealous for the acquisition of virtue. Which things
συνεκβαίνει παντί νοΐ φεύγοντι τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν σύγχυσιν· ἵνα μή δι᾿ αὐτά μείνῃ κρατούμενος εἰς δουλείαν τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν καί διαβεβλημένων, καί παρά φύσιν παθῶν, οὐκ ἐχόντων ἄλλην ἀρχήν ἐν ἡμῖν πλήν τῆς κινήσεως τῶν κατά φύσιν παθῶν, τῶν μηδέ πεφυκότων πρός τήν ἀθάνατον καί μακραίωνα ζωήν συμμεταβαίνειν ἡμῖν. ( α΄) Οἱ λόγοι τοῦ Θεοῦ, ψιλῶς κατά μόνην λαλούμενοι τήν προφοράν, οὐκ ἀκούονται, φωνήν τήν τῶν αὐτούς λαλούντων πρᾶξιν οὐκ ἔχοντες. Εἰ δέ τῇ πράξει τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐκφωνοῦνται, τούς τε δαίμονας ἔχουσι τῇ τοιαύτῃ διατηκομένους φωνῇ, καί τούς ἀνθρώπους τῇ προκοπῇ τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης, εὐπειθῶς τόν θεῖον τῆς καρδίας οἰκοδομοῦντας ναόν. ( β΄) Ὥσπερ ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ οὐσίαν οὐχ ὑποπέπτωκε γνώσει, οὕτως οὔτε ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ γνώσει τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς περιλαμβάνεται. Ὁ γάρ τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς λόγος, κἄν εἰ δέχηται περιγραφήν κατά τό γράμμα, τοῖς χρόνοις τῶν ἱστορουμένων πραγμάτων συναπολήγων· ἀλλά κατά τό πνεῦμα ταῖς τῶν νοουμένων θεωρίαις μένει διαπαντός ἀπερίγραφος.
It goes out together with every mind that flees the confusion of sin, so that it may not, on account of these things, remain held in slavery to the passions that are in our power and have been slandered, and that are contrary to nature, having no other beginning in us than the movement of the passions that are according to nature—passions that were never even naturally disposed to pass over with us into the immortal and long-lived life. (1) The words of God, spoken merely by utterance alone, are not heard, since they do not have as their voice the action of those who speak them. But if they are uttered by the practice of the commandments, they have both the demons dissolved by such a voice and men, who by the progress of the works of righteousness obediently build the divine temple of the heart. (2) Just as God in essence does not fall under knowledge, so neither is his word comprehended by our knowledge. For the word of Holy Scripture, even if it admits of circumscription according to the letter, ending together with the times of the events narrated, yet according to the spirit it remains forever uncircumscribed by the contemplations of the things understood.
( γ΄) Χρή τόν γνωστικῶς πρός ψυχήν τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν κατά Χριστόν ἐκδεχόμενον, ἀσκηθῆναι φιλοπόνως καί τῶν ὀνομάτων τήν ἑρμηνείαν, αὐτόθεν δυνάμενον ὅλην τήν τῶν γεγραμμένων σαφηνίσαι διάνοιαν, εἴπερ μέλει αὐτῷ τῆς ἀκριβοῦς τῶν γεγραμμένων κατανοήσεως· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ Ἰουδαϊκῶς πρός σῶμα καί γῆν κατάγειν τό ὕψος τοῦ πνεύματος, καί τάς θείας καί ἀκηράτους τῶν νοητῶν ἀγαθῶν, τῇ τῶν παρεχομένων φθορᾶ περιγράφειν ἐπαγγελίας. ( δ΄) Ὥσπερ εὐχή ἐστιν, ὑπόσχεσις τῶν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων Θεῷ κατ᾿ ἐπαγγελίαν προσαγομένων καλῶν, οὕτω προσευχή κατά τόν εἰκότα λόγον ἔσται σαφῶς, ἡ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ πρός σωτηρίαν χορηγουμένων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀγαθῶν ἐξαίτησις, ἀντίδοσιν φέρουσα τῆς τῶν προηγμένων καλῆς διαθέσεως. Βοή δέ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἐναρέτων τρόπων, καί τῶν κατά τήν θεωρίαν γνωστικῶν θεωρημάτων, ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ἐπαναστάσεως, ἐπίδοσίς τε καί ἐπαύξησις, ἧς πάντων οὐχ ἥκιστα φυσικῶς ἀκούει Θεός, ἀντί μεγάλης φωνῆς, τήν τῶν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως ἐπιμελουμένων διάθεσιν. ( ε΄) Ἡ πονηρά καί ὀλέθριος τοῦ διαβόλου βασιλεία, διά τῆς τῶν Ἀσσυρίων τυπουμένη βασιλείας, τόν κατά τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως συναγείρουσα πόλεμον, διά τῶν αὐτῆς ἐμφύτων δυνάμεων τροποῦσθαι μηχανᾶται τήν ψυχήν· τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν πρῶτον, εἰς ὄρεξιν τῶν παρά φύσιν διερεθίζουσα, καί τά αἰσθητά τῶν νοητῶν προτιμᾶν ἀναπείθουσα· τόν δέ θυμόν, ὑπεραγωνίζεσθαι τοῦ αἱρεθέντος ὑπό τῆς ἐπιθυμίας αἰσθητοῦ διεγείρουσα· τό δέ λογικόν, τούς τρόπους ἐπινοεῖν τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἡδονῶν ἐκδιδάσκουσα.
(3) One who receives the Holy Scripture in a spiritual sense according to Christ must diligently practice the interpretation of names as well, since this is itself able to clarify the whole meaning of what is written, if indeed he cares about an accurate understanding of what is written. But he must not, in a Jewish manner, drag the height of the Spirit down to body and earth, nor circumscribe the divine and undefiled promises of intelligible goods by the corruption of the things that are provided. (4) Just as a vow is a promise of good things offered by men to God according to a pledge, so prayer, by a reasonable account, will clearly be the petition of the good things supplied by God to men for salvation, bringing a return for the good disposition of those who have gone before. And a cry is the giving and increase of virtuous modes of action and of spiritual contemplations in the time of the uprising of the wicked demons, which God naturally hears above all, instead of a loud voice, as the disposition of those who care for virtue and knowledge. (5) The wicked and destructive kingdom of the devil, prefigured by the kingdom of the Assyrians, gathering war against virtue and knowledge, contrives through its innate powers to wound the soul: first provoking desire to an appetite for things contrary to nature, and persuading it to prefer sensible things to intelligible things; then rousing anger to fight excessively for the sensible thing chosen by desire; and teaching the rational faculty to devise the modes of pleasures that come through the senses.
( στ΄) Τῆς ἄκρας ἀγαθότητος ἴδιον, τό, μή μόνον τάς θείας καί ἀσωμάτους τῶν νοητῶν οὐσίας, τῆς ἀποῤῥήτου καί θείας ἀπεικονίσματα καταστῆσαι δόξης, ὅλην κατά τό θεμιτόν ἀναλόγως αὐταῖς εἰσδεχομένας τήν ἀπερινόητον ὡραιότητα τοῦ ἀπροσίτου κάλλους· ἀλλά καί τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς, καί τῶν νοητῶν οὐσιῶν κατά πολύ ἀποδέουσιν, ἀπηχήματα τῆς οἰκείας ἐγκαταμίξαι μεγαλειότητος, δυνάμενα τόν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν ἐποχούμενον αὐτοῖς, πρός Θεόν ἀπλανῶς διαπορθμεύειν, ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν ὁρωμένων γινόμενον, οἷα τῆς ἄκρας ἐπιβάντα μακαριότητος.
( ζ΄) Πᾶς νοῦς ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει κατεστεμμένος, οἷα δή κατά τόν μέγαν Ἐζεκίαν βασιλεύειν λαχών τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ· τουτέστι, τῆς εἰρήνην μόνην ὁρώσης ἕξεως, ἤγουν τῆς παντοίων παθῶν ἐστερημένης καταστάσεως· ὅρασις γάρ εἰρήνης Ἱερουσαλήμ ἑρμηνεύεται· πᾶσαν ἔχει τήν κτίσιν ὑποχείριον· διά τῶν αὐτήν συμπληρούντων εἰδῶν, τῷ μέν Θεῷ δι αὐτοῦ τούς ἐν αὐτῇ πνευματικούς τῆς
γνώσεως καθάπερ δῶρα προσκομίζουσαν λόγους· αὐτῷ δέ καθάπερ δόματα, τούς ἐνυπάρχοντας αὐτῇ κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον πρός ἀρετήν τρόπους παρέχουσαν, καί διά τῶν ἀμφοτέρων δεξιουμένην, τόν κατ᾿ ἀμφότερα κρατίστως εὐδοκιμεῖν δυνάμενον· λέγω δέ, τόν κατά λόγον καί βίον, διά πράξεώς τε καί θεωρίας τελειωθέντα φιλόσοφον νοῦν.
(6) It is proper to the highest goodness not only to establish the divine and incorporeal essences of intelligible things as images of the ineffable and divine glory, receiving wholly, as is lawful, in proportion to themselves the incomprehensible beauty of the inaccessible loveliness, but also to mingle with sensible things—which fall far short of intelligible essences—echoes of its own majesty, able to carry the human mind, borne upon them, unfailingly across to God, as it comes to be above all things seen, inasmuch as it has stepped upon the highest blessedness.
(7) Every mind crowned with virtue and knowledge, as having obtained by lot to reign over Jerusalem according to the great Hezekiah—that is, over the state that sees peace alone, or rather the condition that is deprived of all manner of passions; for Jerusalem is interpreted as "vision of peace"—has all creation subject to it; through the forms that complete it, it brings to God, as it were gifts, the spiritual reasons of knowledge that are within it, and to itself, as it were gifts, it offers the modes toward virtue that exist within it according to the natural law, and through both it welcomes the one who is able to be most excellently approved in both—I mean the philosophical mind perfected through action and contemplation, in reason and life.
( η΄) Ὁ διά πράξεως καί θεωρίας κατορθώσας εἰς ἄκρον τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν, εἰκότως ὑπεραίρεται πάντων, τῶν σαρκικῶν καί διαβεβλημένων παθῶν ὑπεράνω κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γινόμενος, καί τῶν φυσικῶν λεγομένων σωμάτων, λέγω δή, τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν ὄντων καί φθοράν· καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντων τῶν ὑπό αἴσθησιν εἰδῶν, κατά τήν θεωρίαν, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντας γνωστικῶς διαπεράσας λόγους, τόν νοῦν ὁ τοιοῦτος πρός τά συγγενῆ καί θεῖα ἀνήγαγεν.
( θ΄) Ὁ τήν ἀπάθειαν καθάπερ Ἱερουσαλήμ οἰκεῖν διά τῶν κατά τήν πρᾶξιν πόνων λαχών, καί πάσης τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπηλλαγμένος ὀχλήσεως, καί μόνην εἰρήνην καί πράττων καί λαλῶν, καί ἀκούων καί λογιζόμενος· μετά τό δέξασθαι διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρατῶν, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ θειοτέρους καθάπερ δῶρα τῷ Κυρίῳ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ προσκομίζουσα λόγους καί τούς ἐν αὐτῇ νόμους αὐτῷ καθάπερ βασιλεῖ δόματα φέρουσαν, κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ἐπαίρεται πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὑπεράνω γινόμενος πάντων, δηλονότι τῶν τε κατά σάρκα παθῶν διά τῆς πράξεως, τῶν τε φυσικῶν σωμάτων, καί τῶν ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν πάντων εἰδῶν διά τῆς θεωρίας, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς πνευματικούς διαβάς λόγους τε καί τρόπους. (ρ΄) Ἡ πρακτική φιλοσοφία, τόν πρακτικόν ὑπεράνω ποιεῖ τῶν παθῶν· ἡ θεωρία δέ, τόν γνωστικόν, ὑπεράνω τῶν ὁρωμένων καθίστησιν, ἀναβιβάσασα τόν νοῦν πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά.
(8) He who by practice and contemplation has brought virtue and knowledge to the highest point is rightly raised above all things, becoming, in his practice, above the carnal and reprehensible passions, and above what are called natural bodies—I mean those that are subject to generation and corruption; and, to speak concisely and sum it up, in his contemplation he has passed through all the forms subject to sense, penetrating all the principles in them in a manner of knowledge, and such a man has raised his intellect to the things that are akin and divine.
(9) He who has been allotted to dwell in impassibility as in Jerusalem through his labors in practice, and has been delivered from every disturbance that comes from sin, and both does and speaks, hears and thinks only peace—after receiving through natural contemplation the nature of things visible, he is lifted up before the eyes of all the nations, becoming above all things: clearly above the passions of the flesh through practice, above natural bodies, and above all the forms subject to sense through contemplation, having passed through the spiritual principles and modes in them. (100) Practical philosophy makes the practical man to be above the passions; and contemplation sets the man of knowledge above the things that are seen, leading the intellect up to the intelligible things that are akin to it.
ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΤΡΙΤΗ (α΄) Ὁ μετά πράξεως γινώσκων, καί μετά γνώσεως πράττων, θρόνος καί ὑποπόδιόν ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ· θρόνος μέν, διά τήν γνῶσιν· ὑποπόδιον δέ, διά τήν πρᾶξιν. Εἰ δέ καί τόν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν φαίη τις εἶναι οὐρανόν, πάσης μέν ὑλικῆς καθαιρόμενον φαντασίας, τοῖς δέ θείοις τῶν νοητῶν ἐνασχολούμενον, μᾶλλον δέ κατακοσμούμενον λόγοις, οὐκ ἔξω τῆς ἀληθείας, ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, βέβηκε. (β΄) Πᾶς φιλόσοφος δηλονότι καί εὐσεβής, ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει, ἤ πράξει καί θεωρίᾳ φρουρούμενος, ἐπειδάν ἴδῃ διά τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ τήν πονηράν δύναμιν, καθάπερ τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ ὁ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων βασιλεύς, μίαν ἔχει πρός τήν τῶν κακῶν λύσιν βοήθειαν, τόν Θεόν, ὅν ἱλεοῦται βοῶν ἀλαλήτως διά τῆς κατά τήν ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν πλείονος ἐπιτάσεως· καί δέχεται πρός συμμαχίαν, μᾶλλον δέ πρός σωτηρίαν, ἄγγελον, δηλονότι μείζονα σοφίας καί γνώσεως λόγον, ἐκτρίβοντα πάντα δυνατόν καί πολεμιστήν καί ἄρχοντα καί στρατηγόν ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ. (γ΄) Παντός πέφυκε πάθους ἄρχειν τό προσφυές αἰσθητόν. Ἄνευ γάρ τινος ὑποκειμένου, καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς διά μέσης τινός αἰσθήσεως ἐπικινοῦντος πρός ἑαυτό, πάθος οὐκ ἄν συσταίη ποτέ. Χωρίς γάρ αἰσθητοῦ πράγματος, πάθος οὐ συνίσταται. Μή γάρ οὔσης γυναικός, οὐκ ἔστι πορνεία· καί βρωμάτων οὐκ ὄντων, οὐκ ἔσται γαστριμαργία· καί χρυσοῦ μή ὄντος, οὐκ ἔσται φυλαργυρία. Οὐκοῦν πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς κινήσεως τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων ἄρχει τό αἰσθητόν, ἤγουν, δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τήν ψυχήν διερεθίζων πρός ἁμαρτίαν δαίμων. (δ΄) Ἡ τρίψις, τήν ἐνέργειαν·
One Hundred and Thirty-Three (1) He who knows with practice and acts with knowledge is a throne and footstool of God: a throne, through knowledge; a footstool, through practice. And if someone should say that the human mind is a heaven, being purified from every material fantasy and occupied with the divine realities of things intelligible, or rather adorned with their principles, he seems to me to have spoken not outside the truth. (2) Every philosopher, clearly, and every pious man, guarded by virtue and knowledge, or by practice and contemplation, whenever he sees the evil power risen up against him through the passions, as the king of the Assyrians rose against Hezekiah, has one help for the dissolution of evils: God, whom he propitiates by crying out without speech through the greater intensification of virtue and knowledge; and he receives for alliance, or rather for salvation, an angel—clearly a word greater than wisdom and knowledge—wiping out every mighty man and warrior and ruler and commander in the camp. (3) The sensible object that is connatural is by nature the ruler of every passion. For without some underlying subject, and one that stirs the powers of the soul through some sense toward itself, a passion could never be constituted. For apart from a sensible thing, passion is not constituted. For if there were no woman, there would be no fornication; and if there were no foods, there would be no gluttony; and if there were no gold, there would be no love of money. Therefore the sensible object is the ruler of every passionate movement of the natural powers within us—that is, the demon who through it stirs the soul to sin. (4) The friction, the activity;
ἡ ἔκτριψις δέ, καί αὐτήν ἀφανίζει τῆς κακίας τήν ἐνθύμησιν. Ἡ μέν γάρ τρίψις, τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν μόνης ὑπάρχει
πράξεως κατάργησις· ἡ δέ ἔκτριψις, καί τῶν κατά διάνοιαν πονηρῶν κινημάτων παντελής ἐστιν ἀφανισμός.
(ε΄) Μέσα εἰσί Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων τά αἰσθητά καί τά νοητά· ὧν ὑπεράνω γίνεται χωρῶν πρός Θεόν ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς· τοῖς μέν αἰσθητοῖς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν μή δουλούμενος, τοῖς δέ νοητοῖς κατά τήν θεωρίαν μηδόλως κρατούμενος. (στ΄) Κατήγορος ἡ κτίσις γίνεται τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνθρώπων· διά μέν τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ λόγων, τόν ἑαυτῆς κηρύττουσα ποιητήν· διά δέ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ κατ᾿ εἶδος ἕκαστον φυσικῶν νόμων, πρός ἀρετήν παιδαγωγοῦσα τόν ἄνθρωπον. Οἱ μέν οὖν λόγοι, ἐν τῇ συνοχῇ τῆς τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἴδους γνωρίζονται μονιμότητος· οἱ δέ νόμοι, ἐν τῇ ταυτότητι φαίνονται τῆς τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον εἴδους φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας· οἷς μή ἐπιβάλλοντες κατά τήν ἐν ἡμῖν νοεράν δύναμιν, τήν τε τῶν ὄντων ἠγνοήσαμεν αἰτίαν, καί πᾶσι τοῖς παρά φύσιν προστετήκαμεν πάθεσι. (ζ΄) Δῶρα τῷ Θεῷ προσφέρεσθαι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ λόγος διακελεύεται, ἵνα παραστήσῃ τό τῆς θείας ἀγαθότητος ἄπειρον, ὡς μηδέν προεισενεγκούσης δέχεσθαι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ὡς δῶρα τά δόματα, τό πᾶν ἡμῖν λογιζομένης τῆς εἰσφορᾶς, πολλήν καί ἄφατον εἶναι περί ἡμᾶς δεικνύων τοῦ Θεοῦ τήν ἀγαθότητα, δεχομένου ὡς ἡμῶν τά ἑαυτοῦ, ἐξ ἡμῶν αὐτῷ προσφερόμενα, καί τήν ὑπέρ αὐτῶν ὡς ἀλλοτρίων ὀφειλήν ὁμολογοῦντος.
The wearing away also destroys the very thought of evil. For rubbing is the removal of passionate activity alone; but wearing away is the complete destruction of the evil motions of the mind as well.
(5) Sensible and intelligible things are the means between God and men; the human mind rises above them, journeying toward God: not enslaved to sensible things through practice, and not at all mastered by intelligible things through contemplation. (6) Creation becomes an accuser of impious men: through the principles within it, proclaiming its own Maker; and through the natural laws within it, each according to its kind, educating man toward virtue. The principles, then, are recognized in the permanence of the stability of each kind; and the laws are shown in the sameness of the natural activity of each kind. Not applying ourselves to these according to the intellectual power within us, we have both ignored the cause of beings and cleaved to all the passions contrary to nature. (7) The Word commands that gifts be offered to God by us, in order to set forth the infinity of divine goodness—that, having brought nothing beforehand, He receives from us His own gifts as gifts, reckoning the whole offering as ours—showing the great and ineffable goodness of God toward us, receiving as ours His own things when they are offered to Him by us, and acknowledging the debt on their behalf as though of things belonging to another.
(η΄) Ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τούς πνευματικούς τῶν ὁρωμένων λόγους κατανοῶν, διδάσκεται, ὡς ἔστι τις τῶν φαινομένων ποιητής· τήν τοῦ ὁποῖός ἐστιν ἔννοιαν, ὡς ἀνέφικτον ἀφείς ἀνεξέταστον. Τήν γάρ ὅτι Ποιητής, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὁποῖός ἐστιν ὁ ποιητής, ὁρωμένη σαφῶς ἡ κτίσις, παρέχει κατάληψιν. (θ΄) Ὀργή Θεοῦ ἐστιν, ἡ τῶν παιδαγωγουμένων ἐπίπονος αἴσθησις. Ἐπίπονος δέ καθέστηκεν αἴσθησις, ἡ τῶν ἀκουσίων πόνων ἐπαγωγή, δι᾿ ἧς τόν ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει φυσιούμενον νοῦν, ὁ Θεός ἄγει πολλάκις πρός συστολήν καί ταπείνωσιν· αὐτόν ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι διδούς ἐπιγνώμονα, καί τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας συνίστορα· ἧς ἐπαισθόμενος, τό μάταιον οἴδημα τῆς καρδίας ἀποτίθεται. (ι΄) Ὀργή Κυρίου ἐστίν, ἡ ἀνακωχή τῆς τῶν θείων χαρισμάτων χορηγίας· ἤ τις συμφερόντως ἐπί πάντα γίνεται νοῦν ὑψηλόν καί μετέωρον· καί τοῖς δοθεῖσιν αὐτῷ θεόθεν καλοῖς, ὡς ἐπί ἰδίοις κατορθώμασι μεγαλαυχούμενον. (ια΄) Πᾶς γνωστικός καί φιλόσοφος νοῦς, καί τόν Ἰούδαν ἔχει καί τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ· τόν μέν Ἰούδαν, ὡς πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν· τήν δέ Ἱερουσαλήμ, ὡς θεωρητικήν μυσταγωγίαν. Ὁπηνίκα οὖν διά τῆς θείας χάριτος ὁ φιλόθεος νοῦς, κατά τε τήν πρακτικήν καί θεωρητικήν φιλοσοφίαν, πᾶσαν ἀντικειμένην ἀρετῇ καί γνώσει διακρουσάμενος δύναμιν, τελείως τό κατά τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας ἀναδήσηται κράτος, καί μή τήν δέουσαν εὐχαριστίαν ἀνάθηται τῷ αἰτίῳ τῆς νίκης Θεῷ, ἀλλ᾿ ὑψωθῇ τήν καρδίαν, ἑαυτόν τοῦ παντός κατορθώματος ἡγησάμενος αἴτιον·
(8) Man, understanding the spiritual principles of things seen, is taught that there is a maker of things that appear; but the conception of what kind he is, he leaves unexamined as unattainable. For the creation, clearly seen, provides the apprehension that he is a Maker, but not what kind of maker he is. (9) The wrath of God is the painful sensation of those being disciplined. And a painful sensation is the infliction of involuntary pains, through which God often leads the mind, puffed up over virtue and knowledge, to compunction and humility, allowing it to become a discerner of itself and conscious of its own weakness; perceiving which, it lays aside the vain swelling of the heart. (10) The wrath of the Lord is the withholding of the supply of divine gifts, or that which comes advantageously upon every lofty and elevated mind that boasts greatly over the good things given to it from God, as though over its own achievements. (11) Every gnostic and philosophical mind has both its Judah and its Jerusalem: Judah, as practical philosophy; Jerusalem, as contemplative initiation. Whenever, then, through divine grace, the God-loving mind, in both practical and contemplative philosophy, having beaten off every power opposed to virtue and knowledge, perfectly binds upon itself the dominion over the spirits of wickedness, and does not render the due thanksgiving to God, the cause of the victory, but is lifted up in heart, deeming itself the cause of the whole achievement—
τηνικαῦτα ὡς μή ἀνταποδούς τῷ Θεῷ, κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα, ὅ ἀνταπέδωκεν αὐτῷ, δέχεται οὐ μόνον αὐτός γινομένην ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν τήν ὀργήν τῆς ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἀλλά καί Ἰούδας καί Ἱερουσαλήμ· τουτέστιν, ἡ τῆς πράξεως ἕξις καί τῆς θεωρίας παθῶν ἀτιμίας εὐθέως, συγχωρήσει Θεοῦ, κατεπανισταμένων τῆς πράξεως, καί τήν τέως καθαράν μολυνόντων συνείδησιν· καί ψευδῶν ἐννοιῶν, συνεπιπλεκομένων τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν ὄντων, καί τήν τέως ὀρθήν διαστρεφουσῶν δόξαν τῆς γνώσεως. Τόν γάρ ἐπαιρόμενον ἐπί πράξει, παθῶν ἀτιμία διαδέχεται· τόν δέ ἐπί γνώσει ὑψούμενον, περί τήν ἀληθῆ θεωρίαν πταίειν ἡ δικαία κρίσις συγχωρεῖ. (ιβ΄) Θεῖος ὡς ἀληθῶς ὅρος τε καί νόμος κατά τήν Πρόνοιαν ἐνυπάρχει τοῖς οὖσι, παιδεύεσθαι διά τῶν ἐναντίων ἐπιτρέπων πρός εὐγνωμοσύνην, τούς ἐπί κρείττοσι φανέντας ἀγνώμονας, καί τήν πεῖραν τῶν ἀντικειμένων τῆς τῶν καλῶν
κατορθωτικῆς θείας ἐπίγνωσιν ποιεῖσθαι δυνάμεως· ὡς ἄν μή παντελῶς ἐπί τοῖς ἀμείνοσιν ἀκαθαίρετον παρά τῆς Προνοίας ἔχειν συγχωρηθέντες τήν οἴησιν, εἰς τήν ἀντίθεον τῆς ὑπερηφανίας διάθεσιν κατολισθήσωμεν, ἑαυτῶν κατά φύσιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπίκτητον χάριτι τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως κτῆσιν εἶναι νομίζοντες· καί εὑρεθῶμεν τῷ καλῷ πρός τήν τοῦ κακοῦ χρώμενοι γένεσιν, καί δι᾿ ὧν ἔδει πλέον διασφιγχθεῖσαν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσάλευτον μένειν τήν θείαν ἐπίγνωσιν, δι᾿ ἐκείνων ὡς οὐκ ὤφελον τήν ταύτης νοσήσαντες ἄγνοιαν.
At that time, as one who has not repaid God according to the recompense with which he repaid him, he receives—not only he himself—the anger of abandonment coming upon him, but so do Judas and Jerusalem; that is, the habit of action and, immediately by God's permission, the dishonor of passions in contemplation, rising up against the action and defiling the conscience that was until then pure; and false notions, entangled together with the contemplation of beings, perverting the formerly right opinion of knowledge. For the one exalted by action is succeeded by the dishonor of passions; but the one lifted up by knowledge, the just judgment permits to stumble in true contemplation. (12) A truly divine boundary and law exists among beings according to Providence, allowing those who appeared ungrateful for better things to be disciplined through opposites toward gratitude, and to gain from the experience of things opposed a divine knowledge of the power that accomplishes good things; so that, having been permitted by Providence not to hold their conceit entirely unassailable in better things, we might not slip down into the god-opposing disposition of pride, thinking the possession of virtue and knowledge to be our own by nature and not acquired by grace; and so that we might not be found using the origin of evil for good, and through those things by which the divine knowledge ought rather to have remained in us, bound fast and unshaken, through those very things—as it ought not to have been—we might have fallen sick with ignorance of it.
(ιγ΄) Ὅρον καί νόμον ἐνυπάρχοντα θεῖον τοῖς οὖσιν ἴσμεν, τήν τῶν ὄντων συνεκτικήν πρόνοιαν, κατά κρίσιν δικαίαν τῇ σπάνει τῶν ἀγαθῶν παιδεύουσαν πρός εὐγνωμοσύνην, τούς ἐπί τῇ ἀφθονίᾳ τῶν ἀγαθῶν πρός τόν ταύτης χορηγόν φανέντας ἀγνώμονας, διά τῶν ἐναντίων αὐτούς πρός συναίσθησιν ἄγουσαν τῆς τοῦ χαριζομένου τά καλά διαγνώσεως. Ἡ ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ γάρ οἴησις, ἀπαιδαγώγητος μένουσα, τό τῆς ὑπερηφανίας γεννᾷν πέφυκε νόσημα, τό τήν ἀντικειμένην τῷ Θεῷ φέρον διάθεσιν.
(ιδ΄) Ὁ οἰόμενος ἑαυτόν κατειληφέναι τό τέλος τῆς ἀρετῆς, οὐδαμῶς ζητήσει λοιπόν τήν πηγαίαν τῶν καλῶν αἰτίαν, ἑαυτῷ μόνῳ περιγράψας τήν τῆς ἐφέσεως δύναμιν, καί αὐτόν τῆς σωτηρίας τόν ὅρον ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, φημί δέ τόν Θεόν, ζημιούμενος. Ὁ δέ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ περί τά καλά φυσικῆς συναισθόμενος πενίας, οὐ παύεται προτροπάδην τρέχων πρός τόν δοῦναι δυνάμενον τῆς ἐνδείας τήν πλήρωσιν.
(ιε΄) Ὁ τήν ἀπειρίαν τῆς ἀρετῆς διαγνούς, οὐδέποτε τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν παύεται δρόμου, ἵνα μή ζημιωθῇ αὐτήν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν ἀρχήν καί τό τέλος, τόν Θεόν λέγω, περί ἑαυτόν στήσας τήν κίνησιν τῆς ἐφέσεως· καί λάθῃ νομίζων ἐπειλῆφθαι τῆς τελειότητος, ὑπομένων τοῦ ἀληθῶς ὄντος τήν ἔκπτωσιν, πρός ὅπερ ἐπείγεται πᾶσα σπουδαίου κίνησις.
(13) We know that a divine boundary and law is present in existing things—the providence that holds existing things together, which by a just judgment, through the scarcity of good things, disciplines toward gratitude those who have shown themselves ungrateful toward the provider of that abundance, leading them through opposites to an awareness of the discernment of the one who grants good things. For the conceit that rests on virtue, remaining undisciplined, naturally gives birth to the disease of pride, which carries with it a disposition opposed to God.
(14) One who thinks he has grasped the goal of virtue will no longer seek the source-like cause of good things at all, having confined the power of his striving to himself alone, and thereby depriving himself of the very boundary of salvation—I mean God. But one who is aware of his own natural poverty regarding good things does not cease running eagerly toward the one who is able to give the fulfillment of his need.
(15) One who has recognized his inexperience of virtue never ceases his course toward it, lest he be deprived of virtue's beginning and end—I mean God—by having set the motion of his striving around himself, and lest he unknowingly suppose he has attained perfection while in fact undergoing the loss of the truly existing one, toward whom every earnest motion presses.
(στ΄) Γίνεται δικαίως ἐπί τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν ὀργή· τουτέστιν, ἐγκατάλειψις, καθά εἴρηται· ἤγουν ἡ τοῦ διοχληθῆναι αὐτόν κατά τε τήν πρᾶξιν, κατά τε τήν θεωρίαν ὑπό δαιμόνων συγχώρησις· ἵνα λάβῃ, τῆς μέν ἑαυτοῦ φυσικῆς ἀσθενείας, συναίσθησιν· τῆς δέ σκεπούσης αὐτόν, καί τό πᾶν κατορθούσης τῶν ἀγαθῶν θείας δυνάμεώς τε καί χάριτος, τήν ἐπίγνωσιν· καί ταπεινωθῇ, πόῤῥω παντελῶς ἑαυτοῦ τό ἀλλότριον καί παρά φύσιν ὕψος ποιούμενος· ὥστε μή ἐπελθεῖν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν τήν ἄλλην ὀργήν, τῆς τῶν δοθέντων χαρισμάτων ἀφαιρέσεως, ταπεινωθέντα καί γενόμενον τῆς τοῦ παρέχοντος τά καλά συναισθήσεως. (ιζ΄) Ὁ μή σωφρονισθείς τῷ πρώτῳ εἴδει τῆς ὀργῆς, ἤγουν ἐγκαταλείψεως, ἐλθεῖν πρός ταπείνωσιν, ἡγησάμενος αὐτήν τῆς καλῆς ἐπιγνωμοσύνης διδάσκαλον, τήν ἄλλην δέχεται σαφῶς ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ἐρχομένην ὀργήν, ἀφαιρουμένην αὐτοῦ τήν τῶν χαρισμάτων ἐνέργειαν, καί ἔρημον αὐτόν καθιστῶσαν τῆς τέως φρουρούσης δυνάμεως. Ἀφελῶ γάρ, φησί, τόν φραγμόν αὐτοῦ, περί τοῦ ἀγνώμονος Ἰσραήλ ὁ Θεός λέγων, καί ἔσται εἰς διαρπαγήν· καί καθελῶ τόν τοῖχον αὐτοῦ, καί ἔσται εἰς καταπάτημα· καί ἀνήσω τόν ἀμπελῶνά μου, καί οὐ μή τιμηθῇ, οὐδέ μή σκαφῇ· καί ἀναβήσεται εἰς αὐτόν ὡς εἰς χέρσον ἄκανθα, καί ταῖς νεφέλαις ἐντελοῦμαι τοῦ μή βρέξαι εἰς αὐτόν. (ιη΄) Ὅτι πρός ἀσέβειαν πρανής καθέστηκεν ὁδός, ἡ περί τήν ζημίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναισθησία. Ὁ γάρ ἐθίσας ἑαυτόν διά τάς ἡδονάς τῆς σαρκός Θεοῦ παρακούειν, καί αὐτόν ἀρνήσεται τόν Θεόν, καλούσης προφάσεως· Θεοῦ τήν σαρκός ζωήν προτιμῶν, ἧς καί μόνης τάς ἡδονάς τῶν θείων κρείττους ἔσχηκε θελημάτων.
(16) Anger comes justly upon the high-minded mind—that is, abandonment, as it has been said; that is, the permission granted by demons for him to be harassed both in practice and in contemplation, so that he may receive a sense of his own natural weakness, and knowledge of the divine power and grace that shelters him and sets all good things right, and so that he may be humbled, putting far away from himself entirely the alien and unnatural height; so that the other anger may not come upon him—the removal of the gifts given—once he has been humbled and has come to a sense of the one who provides good things. (17) He who has not been disciplined by the first kind of anger—that is, abandonment—to come to humility, having considered it the teacher of good discernment, clearly receives the other anger coming upon him, which removes from him the working of the gifts and leaves him desolate of the power that formerly guarded him. For I will take away, he says, his hedge, God speaking concerning the ungrateful Israel, and it shall be for plundering; and I will throw down his wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will let go my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned, nor shall it be dug; and thorns shall come up upon it as upon dry land, and I will command the clouds not to rain upon it. (18) For the road to impiety is steep, namely the insensibility regarding the loss of the virtues. For he who has accustomed himself through the pleasures of the flesh to disobey God will also deny God himself, when a pretext calls, preferring the life of the flesh to God, whose pleasures alone he has held to be mightier than the divine wills.
(ιθ΄) Ὅταν τι καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον τόν νοῦν πεπονθέναι νομίσωμεν, τῷ τοιούτῳ νοΐ, τήν τε πρακτικήν αὐτοῦ καί θεωρητικήν δύναμιν, κατά τούς φυσικούς αὐτῶν λόγους συμπεπονθέναι πάντως πιστεύσομεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι δυνατόν παθεῖν τό ὑποκείμενον, τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ μή πασχόντων· ὑποκείμενον δέ λέγω τόν νοῦν, ὡς ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως δεκτικόν· ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ δέ, τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν, αἵτινες πρός τόν νοῦν συμβεβηκότων λόγον ἐπέχουσι. Διό κατά πάντα τρόπον, καί συμπάσχουσι πάσχοντι, τήν αὐτοῦ ποιάν κίνησιν, ἀρχήν τῆς οἰκείας ἀλλοιώσεως ἔχουσαι.
(κ΄) Πᾶς θεοφιλής καί ἐνάρετος ἄνθρωπος κατά τόν Ἐζεκίαν, γνωστικῶς τε κατά τῶν δαιμόνων διαζωσάμενος κράτος, ἄν γένηταί τις αὐτῷ προσβολή πνευμάτων πονηρῶν, ἀοράτως κατά νοῦν πρός αὐτόν συμπλεκόντων τόν πόλεμον, καί διά προσευχῆς δέξηται θεόθεν αὐτῷ πεμπόμενον ἄγγελον· λέγω δέ σοφίας λόγον μείζονα· καί πᾶσαν ἐκτρίψας διασκεδάσῃ τοῦ διαβόλου τήν φάλαγγα· καί τῆς τοιαύτης νίκης τε καί σωτηρίας αἴτιον τόν Θεόν μή ἐπιγράψηται, ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτῷ τήν ὅλην ἀνάθηται νίκην, ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐκ ἀνταπέδωκε τῷ Θεῷ κατά τό ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοῦ, μή ἐξισώσας τῷ μεγέθει τῆς σωτηρίας, τό πλῆθος τῆς εὐχαριστίας· μηδέ τῇ εὐεργεσίᾳ τοῦ σώσαντος, ἀντιμετρήσας τήν οἰκείαν διάθεσιν. (κα΄) Φωτίσωμεν τόν νοῦν τῆς θείοις νοήμασι· τό δέ σῶμα τοῖς τῶν νοηθέντων θειοτέρων λόγων τρόποις φαιδρύνωμεν, ἀρετῆς αὐτόν ποιοῦντες λογικόν ἐργαστήριον, τῇ ἀποβολῆ τῶν παθῶν· τά γάρ ἔμφυτα πάθη τοῦ σώματος, λόγῳ μέν κυβερνώμενα, οὐκ ἔχει διαβολήν· κινούμενα δέ τούτου χωρίς, φέρει διαβολήν.
(19) Whenever we think that the mind has been affected in any way whatsoever, we shall certainly believe that its practical and contemplative power has been affected together with such a mind, according to their natural principles. For it is not possible for the subject to be affected while the things in the subject are not affected; and I call the subject the mind, as being receptive of virtue and knowledge; and the things in the subject, practice and contemplation, which hold the rank of accidents in relation to the mind. Therefore in every way they also suffer together with it when it suffers, having his particular movement as the beginning of their own alteration.
(20) Every God-loving and virtuous man, after the manner of Hezekiah, having girt himself with power against the demons in a gnostic way, if any assault of evil spirits comes upon him, invisibly joining battle against him in his mind, and through prayer he receives an angel sent to him from God—I mean a word of wisdom greater than he—and having utterly crushed and scattered the phalanx of the devil, and does not ascribe to God the cause of such victory and salvation, but dedicates the whole victory to himself, such a man has not repaid God according to his recompense, not having equaled the abundance of his thanksgiving to the greatness of the salvation, nor having measured his own disposition against the beneficence of the one who saved him. (21) Let us enlighten the mind with divine thoughts; and let us make the body bright with the modes of the more divine words of the things thought, making it a rational workshop of virtue, by the casting off of the passions; for the natural passions of the body, when governed by reason, have no reproach; but when moved apart from it, they bring reproach.
Τούτων οὖν λέγει γένεσθαι δεῖν ἀποβολήν, ὧν ἔμφυτος μέν ἡ κίνησις, παρά φύσιν δέ γίνεται πολλάκις ἡ χρῆσις, λόγῳ μή κυβερνωμένη. (κβ΄) Πᾶς ὁ ὑψώσας ἑαυτοῦ τήν καρδίαν, ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἔλαβε χαρίσμασι, μέγα φρονήσας, ὡς μή λαβών, ἐνδίκως δέχεται γινομένην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ τήν ὀργήν, συγχωροῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ νοητῶς αὐτῷ συμπλακῆναι· καί τούς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν παρασαλεῦσαι τρόπους τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί τούς κατά θεωρίαν διαυγεῖς ἐπιθολῶσαι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, ἵνα μαθών τήν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, ἐπιγνῷ τήν μόνην δύναμιν, τήν τά πάθη ἐν ἡμῖν καταπαλαίουσαν, καί ταπεινωθῇ μετανοήσας, τόν ὄγκον ἀποβαλών τῆς οἰήσεως, καί τόν Θεόν ἱλεώσηται, καί ἀποστρέψῃ τήν ἐπερχομένην τοῖς μή μετανοοῦσιν ὀργήν, τήν ἀφαιρουμένην τήν φρουροῦσαν τήν ψυχήν χάριν, καί ἔρημον καταλιμπάνουσαν τόν ἀγνώμονα νοῦν. (κγ΄) Ὀργή σωτήριός ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τό πολεμεῖσθαι τόν ὑψηλόφρονα νοῦν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὑπό τῶν δαιμόνων, θεία συγχώρησις· ἵνα γνῷ πάσχων ἀτίμως, ἐπ᾿ ἀρεταῖς μεγαλαυχούμενος, τίς ὁ τούτων ὑπάρχει δοτήρ· ἤ γένηται τῶν ἀλλοτρίων γυμνός, ἅπερ ὡς μή λαβών, ἔχειν ἐνόμιζε. (κδ΄) Μακάριος ὄντως ἐκεῖνος ὁ νοῦς, ὁ τοῖς οὖσιν ἅπασιν ἐπαινετῶς ἀποθανών· τοῖς μέν αἰσθητοῖς, τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείας· τοῖς δέ νοητοῖς τῇ τῆς νοερᾶς ἀποπαύσει κινήσεως. Σημείωσαι δέ ὅτι νοῦ θανάτον ἐπαινούμενον λέγει, τήν πρός πάντα τά ὄντα γνωμικήν ἀπογένεσιν, μεθ᾿ ἥν τήν θείᾳ χάριτι ζωήν ὑποδέχεσθαι πέφυκεν· ἀντί τῶν ὄντων, τό αἴτιον τῶν ὄντων ἀνεννοήτως ἀπολαβών.
He says, then, that there must be a casting off of these things whose motion is innate, but whose use often becomes contrary to nature, not being governed by reason. (22) Everyone who exalts his own heart over the gifts he has received, thinking great things as though he had not received them, justly receives the wrath that comes upon him, God permitting the devil to wrestle with him mentally, and to shake the ways of virtue in practice, and to obscure the bright principles of knowledge in contemplation, so that, having learned his own weakness, he may recognize the only power that overthrows the passions in us, and be humbled by repenting, casting off the bulk of presumption, and propitiate God, and turn away the wrath that comes upon those who do not repent—the wrath that takes away the grace guarding the soul and leaves the ungrateful mind desolate. (23) Saving wrath is the divine permission for the proud-minded mind to be warred against by the passions at the hands of the demons, so that, suffering dishonorably while boasting greatly in virtues, it may learn who is the giver of these things; or that it may be stripped of what belongs to others, which it thought it had as though it had not received them. (24) Truly blessed is that mind which has died praiseworthily to all things that exist: to sensible things by the setting aside of sensible activity, and to intelligible things by the cessation of intelligible motion. Note that he calls the praiseworthy death of the mind a deliberate turning away from all things that exist, after which it is naturally disposed to receive life by divine grace, receiving in place of the things that exist the Cause of things that exist, beyond all conception.
(κε΄) Μακάριος ὁ συνάψας τό μέν πρακτικόν τῷ κατά φύσιν ἀγαθῷ· τό δέ θεωρητικόν, τῇ κατά φύσιν ἀληθείᾳ. Πᾶσα γάρ πρᾶξις, διά τό ἀγαθόν γίνεσθαι πέφυκε· καί πᾶσα θεωρίαν, τήν γνῶσιν διά μόνην ζητεῖ τήν ἀλήθειαν· ὧν διανυσθέντων, οὐδέν ἔσται τό σύνολον τό πλῆττον τῆς ψυχῆς τό πρακτικόν, οὔτε μήν τό θεωρητικόν αὐτῆς, διά ξένων δριμύττον θεωρημάτων· παντός ἐπέκεινα
γενομένης καί ὄντος, καί νοουμένου, καί εἰς αὐτόν εἰσδυσάσης τόν Θεόν τόν μόνον ἀγαθόν καί ἀληθινόν, καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν ὄντα καί νόησιν. (κστ΄) Πρακτικῆς ἀρετῆς τέλος εἶναί φασι τό ἀγαθόν. Τοῦτο δέ, θείας ἐνεργείας ὑπάρχει συμπλήρωσις, πρός ἥν ἄγει τό λογικόν τῆς ψυχῆς, τῷ θυμῷ καί τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ χρώμενον κατά φύσιν· ἐν ᾗ τό καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν ἀναφαίνεσθαι πέφυκε κάλλος· θεωρητικῆς δέ φασι φιλοσοφίας εἶναι τήν ἀλήθειαν, τέλος· ἥτις ἀμερῶς τῶν περί Θεόν ἁπάντων ἑνοειδής ἐστι γνῶσις, πρός ἥν ὁ καθαρός φέρεται νοῦς· ἀποσβέσας ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν κρίσιν· ἐν ᾗ (γνώσει δηλονότι) ἀκίβδηλον τό τῆς θείας εἰκόνος ἀξίωμα δείκνυται. (κζ΄) Οὐδείς δύναται τόν Θεόν εὐλογεῖν ἀληθῶς, μή τό σῶμα καθαγιάσας ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, καί τήν ψυχήν καταφωτίσας ταῖς γνώσεσιν. Ἡ γάρ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διάθεσις, πρόσωπόν ἐστι τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ νοός, ὡς εἰς οὐρανόν πρός τό ὕψος τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἐπαιρόμενον γνώσεως.
(25) Blessed is the one who has joined the practical to the good that is according to nature, and the contemplative to the truth that is according to nature. For every action naturally comes to be for the sake of the good, and every contemplation seeks knowledge for the sake of truth alone. Once these have been accomplished, nothing at all will remain to strike the practical part of the soul, nor indeed its contemplative part, sharpened as it is by foreign speculations, since it has come to be beyond every being and every intelligible thing, and has entered into God himself, who alone is good and true, and who is beyond all substance and thought. (26) They say that the end of practical virtue is the good. And this is the fulfillment of divine activity, to which the rational part of the soul is led when it uses the spirited and the desiring parts according to nature; in this, the beauty of the likeness is naturally made manifest. And they say that the end of contemplative philosophy is truth, which is the undivided, unified knowledge of all things pertaining to God, to which the pure intellect is carried, having completely extinguished its own judgment according to sense; in this knowledge, clearly, the unadulterated dignity of the divine image is shown. (27) No one can truly bless God without having sanctified the body by the virtues and illumined the soul by the forms of knowledge. For the disposition according to virtue is the face of the contemplative intellect, as it is raised up to heaven, to the height of true knowledge.
(κη΄) Μακάριος ὁ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ εἰδώς, ὅτι πᾶσαν ἐν ἡμῖν ὡς ὀργάνοις ὁ Θεός ἐπιτελεῖ πρᾶξιν καί θεωρίαν, ἀρετήν τε καί γνῶσιν, καί νίκην καί σοφίαν, καί ἀγαθότητα καί ἀλήθειαν, μηδέν ἡμῶν συνεισφερόντων τό σύνολον, πλήν τῆς θελούσης τά καλά διαθέσεως· ἥν ἔχων ὁ μέγας Ζοροβάβελ, πρός τοῖς εἰρημένοις, φησίν, Εὐλογητός εἶ, πρός τόν Θεόν λέγων, ὅς ἔδωκάς μοι σοφίαν, καί σοί ὁμολογῶ, Δέσποτα τῶν πατέρων· παρά σοῦ ἡ νίκη καί παρά σοῦ ἡ σοφία, καί σοί ἡ δόξα, καί ἐγώ σός οἰκέτης. Ὡς εὐγνώμων ὄντες οἰκέτης, πάντα τῷ Θεῷ ἀνέθετο τῷ πάντα δωρησαμένῳ, ἐξ οὗ λαβών εἶχε τήν σοφίαν, αὐτῷ ὁμολογῶν ὡς Δεσπότῃ πατέρων τῶν κεχαρισμένων ἀγαθῶν τήν δύναμιν, ἅπερ εἰσίν, ἕνωσις νίκης, ὡς εἴρηται, καί σοφίας, ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως, πράξεως καί θεωρίας, ἀγαθότητός τε καί ἀληθείας· αὗται γάρ ἀλλήλαις ἑνούμεναι, μίαν ἀπαστράπτουσιν δόξαν καί αὐτήν Θεοῦ.
(κθ΄) Πάντα τά τῶν ἁγίων κατορθώματα, Θεοῦ προδήλως ὑπῆρχον χαρίσματα· μηδενός τό παράπαν ἔχοντος μηδέν, ἤ τό δοθέν ἀγαθόν· ὡς παρά Δεσπότου τοῦ Θεοῦ, πρός ἀναλογίαν τῆς εὐγνωμοσύνης τε καί εὐνοίας τοῦ δεχομένου μετρούμενον· κἀκεῖνα μόνα κεκτημένου, ὅσα τῷ Δεσπότῃ δωρουμένῳ παρίσταται.
(28) Blessed is the one who truly knows that God accomplishes every action and contemplation in us as in instruments—virtue and knowledge, victory and wisdom, goodness and truth—with us contributing nothing at all except the disposition that wills the good. Possessing this, the great Zerubbabel, in addition to what has been said, says, addressing God: Blessed are you, who have given me wisdom, and to you I give thanks, Master of the fathers; from you is victory and from you is wisdom, and to you be glory, and I am your servant. As one grateful, being a servant, he dedicated all things to God who has bestowed all things, from whom he received the wisdom he had, confessing to him as Master of the fathers the power of the good things graciously given—which are, as has been said, the union of victory and wisdom, of virtue and knowledge, of action and contemplation, of goodness and truth; for these, united to one another, flash forth a single glory, and that glory is God's.
(29) All the achievements of the saints were plainly gifts of God, since no one has anything at all except the good that has been given—measured, as from God the Master, in proportion to the gratitude and goodwill of the one who receives it—and possessing only those things that stand ready for the Master who bestows them.
(λ΄) Ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως προϊστάμενος νοῦς, καί τῆς κακῆς τῶν παθῶν δουλείας τήν ψυχήν στερηθῆναι βεβουλημένος, φησίν, Ὑπερισχύουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες, καί ὑπερνικᾷ ἡ ἀλήθεια· γυναῖκας μέν εἰπών, τάς θεοποιούς ἀρετάς, ἐξ ὧν ἡ πρός Θεόν καί ἀλλήλους τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἑνοποιός ἀγάπη συνέστηκεν· ἁπάντων τήν ψυχήν ἐξαρπάζουσα τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν, καί τῶν ὑπέρ αὐτά νοητῶν οὐσιῶν, καί αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ κατ᾿ ἐρωτικήν τινα σύγκρασιν περιπλέκουσα, καθ᾿ ὅσον ἐστί δυνατόν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, καί τήν ἄχραντον καί θείαν μυστικῶς δημιουργοῦσα συμβίωσιν. Ἀλήθειαν δέ φήσας, τήν μόνην καί μίαν αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων, καί ἀρχήν καί βασιλείαν καί δύναμιν καί δόξαν, ἐξ ἧς καί δι᾿ ἥν πάντα γέγονέ τε καί γίνεται, καί πρός τό εἶναι ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς καί δι᾿ αὐτῆς συγκρατεῖται· καί ὑπέρ ἧς πᾶσα τοῖς φιλοθέοις ἐστί σπουδή τε καί κίνησις. (λα΄) Διά μέν τῶν γυναικῶν, τό τέλος ἐνδείξατο τῶν ἀρετῶν, τήν ἀγάπην· ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν τοῦ φύσει ἀγαθοῦ τῶν μετεχόντων ἀδιάπτωτος ἡδονή καί ἀδιαίρετος ἕνωσις. Διά δέ τῆς ἀληθείας, τό πέρας πασῶν ἐπεσήμανε τῶν γνώσεων, καί αὐτῶν γινωσκομένων· εἰς ὅπερ, ὡς ἀρχήν καί πέρας πάντων τῶν ὄντων, αἱ κατά φύσιν κινήσεις γενικῷ τινι λόγῳ συνέλκονται· πάντα νικώσης κατά φύσιν ὡς ἀληθείας τῆς τῶν ὄντων ἀρχῆς καί αἰτίας, καί πρός ἑαυτήν συνελκούσης τῶν γεγονότων τήν κίνησιν.
(30) The mind that presides over virtue and knowledge, and that has willed the soul to be deprived of the evil slavery of the passions, says, "Women prevail, and truth conquers"—calling "women" the deifying virtues, from which the love that unites humans to God and to one another is constituted, snatching the soul away from all things subject to generation and corruption, and from the intelligible essences above them, and entwining it with God himself in a certain erotic union, insofar as it is possible for human nature, and mystically bringing about the undefiled and divine cohabitation. And by saying "truth," he means the one and only cause of beings, and the beginning and kingdom and power and glory, from which and through which all things have come to be and do come to be, and are held in being by it and through it; and for the sake of which every zeal and motion belongs to those who love God. (31) Through the "women," he indicated the end of the virtues—love, which is the unfailing pleasure and undivided union of those who partake, in accordance with their desire for the naturally good. And through the "truth," he marked the limit of all knowledges, and of the things known themselves; into which, as the beginning and end of all beings, the natural motions are drawn together by a certain generic principle—the beginning and cause of beings, as truth, by nature conquering all things and drawing to itself the motion of created things.
(λβ΄) Τῇ καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν στερήσει τῶν πολλῶν, ὡς ἕν καί μόνον ἡ ἀλήθεια πέφυκεν ἀναφαίνεσθαι, καλύπτουσα πάντων τῶν νοεῖν ἤ νοεῖσθαι δυναμένων τάς γνωστικάς δυνάμεις, ὡς ὑπέρ τά νοοῦντά τε καί νοούμενα καθ᾿ ὕπαρξιν ὑπερούσιον οὖσα· καί ἀπείρῳ δυνάμει τάς κατά τήν ἀρχήν καί τό τέλος τῶν ὄντων ἀκρότητας περιγράφουσα, πᾶσαν πάντων πρός ἑαυτήν συνέλκει κίνησιν· τοῖς μέν παρεχομένη γνῶσιν ἀρίδηλον ἧς ἐστερήθησαν χάριτος· τοῖς δέ δωρουμένη κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἄῤῥητον, ἧς εἶχον τήν ἔφεσιν ἀγαθότητος, τῇ μεθέξει φανεράν τήν ἐπίγνωσιν.
(λγ΄) Ὁ νοῦς, σοφίας ὄργανον, φησίν· ὁ λόγος, γνώσεως· ἡ κατ᾿ ἄμφω φυσική πληροφορία, τῆς κατ᾿ ἄμφω συνισταμένης πίστεως· τοῦ δέ τῶν ἰαμάτων χαρίσματος ἡ φυσική φιλανθρωπία. Πᾶν γάρ χάρισμα θεῖον, ἐπιτήδειον ἐν ἡμῖν ἔχει καί προσφυές, ὥσπερ δύναμιν, ἤ ἕξιν ἤ διάθεσιν, ὄργανον δεκτικόν. Οἷον, ὁ τόν νοῦν πάσης αἰσθητῶν φαντασίας ποιήσας καθαρόν, δέχεται σοφίαν· ὁ δέ τόν λόγον τῶν ἐμφύτων παθῶν, θυμοῦ λέγω καί ἐπιθυμίας, καταστήσας δεσπότην, δέχεται γνῶσιν· ὁ δέ τήν κατά νοῦν καί λόγον περί τά θεῖα ἀσάλευτον πληροφορίαν ἔχων, τήν πάντα δυναμένην δέχεται πίστιν· ὁ δέ τήν φυσικήν κατορθώσας φιλανθρωπίαν μετά τήν τελείαν τῆς φιλαυτίας ἀναίρεσιν, ἰαμάτων δέχεται χαρίσματα.
(32) By the transcendent privation of the many, truth is naturally disposed to appear as one and only, covering the cognitive powers of all things capable of thinking or being thought, since in existence it is supersubstantial beyond things thinking and things thought; and with infinite power it circumscribes the extremities of beings at their beginning and their end, and draws every motion of all things to itself; to some it grants manifest knowledge of the grace of which they were deprived; to others it gives in perception that which is ineffable, making known through participation, by goodness, the knowledge of which they had the desire.
(33) The mind, he says, is an instrument of wisdom; the reason, of knowledge; the natural assurance in both, of the faith constituted in both; and natural philanthropy, of the gift of healings. For every divine gift has in us a suitable and connatural instrument receptive of it, such as a power, or a state, or a disposition. For example, he who has made the mind pure of every fantasy of sensible things receives wisdom; he who has established the reason as master of the innate passions—I mean of anger and desire—receives knowledge; he who has the unshaken assurance concerning divine things according to mind and reason receives the faith that can do all things; he who has set right natural philanthropy after the complete removal of self-love receives the gifts of healings.
(λδ΄) Ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ πίστεως, φανερουμένην κέκτηται τοῦ Πνεύματος τήν ἐνέργειαν. Ὥστε ταμίας ὑπάρχει τῆς χάριτος ἕκαστος ἑαυτοῦ· καί οὔποτ᾿ ἄν εὖ φρονῶν ἄλλῳ φθονήσειεν ἐνευδοκιμοῦντι ταῖς χάρισιν, ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κειμένης τῆς δεκτικῆς τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν διαθέσεως. (λε΄) Αἴτιον εἶναί φησι τῆς τῶν θείων διανομῆς ἀγαθῶν, τό μέτρον τῆς ἑκάστου πίστεως. Καθώς γάρ πιστεύομεν, καί τήν ἐπί τό πράττειν τῆς προθυμίας ἐπίδοσιν ἔχομεν. Ὁ γοῦν πράττων, κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς πράξεως ἐπιδείκνυται τό μέτρον τῆς πίστεως, δεχόμενος ὡς ἐπίστευσε τό μέτρον τῆς χάριτος· ὁ δέ μή πράττων, κατά τήν ἀναλογίαν τῆς ἀπραξίας ἐπιδείκνυται τό μέτρον τῆς ἀπιστίας, δεχόμενος ὡς ἠπίστησε, τῆς χάριτος τήν στέρησιν. Οὐκοῦν κακῶς ποιεῖ βασκαίνων τοῖς κατορθοῦσιν ὁ φθονερός ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ σαφῶς, οὐκ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλῳ κειμένης τῆς τῶν πιστεύειν τε καί πράττειν, καί πρός τό μέτρον τῆς πίστεως ἐρχομένην δέξασθαι τήν χάριν, ἐπιλογῆς.
(34) Each of us, according to the proportion of the faith that is in him, possesses the energy of the Spirit made manifest. So each is a steward of grace for himself; and never, if he is of sound mind, would he envy another who is distinguished by his gifts, since the disposition that receives the divine goods lies with himself. (35) He says that the measure of each one's faith is the cause of the distribution of the divine goods. For as we believe, so also do we have the increase of readiness for action. Therefore the one who acts demonstrates, according to the proportion of his action, the measure of his faith, receiving the measure of grace as he believed; but the one who does not act demonstrates, according to the proportion of his inaction, the measure of his unbelief, receiving the deprivation of grace as he disbelieved. So the envious man does evil in envying those who succeed, since it clearly lies with himself, not with another, to believe and to act, and to come to the measure of faith so as to receive grace, by his own choice.
(λστ΄) Ὁ τῶν καλῶν ἐραστής, κατά πρόνοιαν σοφίας λόγοις ἑκουσίως ἐπείγεται πρός τήν τῆς θεώσεως χάριν· ὁ δέ τούτων ἀνέραστος, κατά τήν δικαίαν κρίσιν, παιδείας τρόποις ἀκουσίως κακίας ἀπάγεται· ὁ μέν, ὡς φιλόθεος διά τῆς προνοίας θεούμενος· ὁ δέ, διά τῆς κρίσεως, ὡς φιλόϋλος εἰς κατάκρισιν ἐλθεῖν μή συγχωρούμενος. Ὁ γάρ Θεός ὡς ἀγαθός, σοφίας μέν λόγοις θεραπεύει τούς θέλοντας· παιδείας δέ τρόποις τούς πρός ἀρετήν δυσκινήτους ἰᾶται. (λζ΄) Ἡ μέν ὄντως πίστις, ἀλήθεια ἐστι συνεκτική τε καί συστατική, ψεῦδος οὐκ ἔχουσα· ἡ δέ ἀγαθή συνείδησις, τήν τῆς ἀγάπης ἐπιφέρεται δύναμιν, ὡς μηδεμίαν ἔχουσα παράβασιν ἐντολῆς.
(λη΄) Καί ἐπαναπαύσεται, φησίν, ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, ἑπτά πνεύματα· πνεῦμα σοφίας, πνεῦμα συνέσεως, πνεῦμα γνώσεως, πνεῦμα ἐπιστήμης, πνεῦμα βουλῆς, πνεῦμα ἰσχύος, πνεῦμα φόβου Θεοῦ. Ἔστι δέ ἴδιον τῶν πνευματικῶν τούτων χαρισμάτων, φόβου μέν, ἡ ἀποχή τῶν κακῶν· ἰσχύος δέ, ἡ πρᾶξις τῶν ἀγαθῶν· βουλῆς δέ, ἡ τῶν ἀντικειμένων διάκρισις· ἐπιστήμη δέ, ἡ τῶν καθηκόντων ἀνόθευτος εἴδησις· γνώσεως δέ, ἡ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς θείων λόγων περίληψις· συνέσεως δέ, ἡ πρός τά γνωσθέντα διόλου τῆς ψυχῆς συνδιάθεσις· σοφίας δέ, ἡ πρός Θεόν ἀδιάγνωστος ἕνωσις, καθ᾿ ἥν τοῖς ἀξίοις ἡ ἔφεσις ἀπόλαυσις γίνεται,
(36) The lover of good things, through the providence of wisdom, is willingly urged on by words toward the grace of deification; but the one who does not love these things, through the just judgment, is unwillingly led away from evil by means of discipline; the one, as a lover of God, is deified through the providence of God; the other, through the judgment, as a lover of matter, is not permitted to come into condemnation. For God, as good, heals those who will it by the words of wisdom; and by the means of discipline he cures those who are slow to move toward virtue. (37) True faith is truth, cohesive and constitutive, having no falsehood; and a good conscience brings with it the power of love, as having no transgression of a commandment.
(38) And there shall rest upon him, it says, seven spirits: a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of understanding, a spirit of knowledge, a spirit of science, a spirit of counsel, a spirit of strength, a spirit of the fear of God. And it is proper to these spiritual gifts: to fear, abstinence from evils; to strength, the practice of good things; to counsel, the discernment of things opposed; to science, the unadulterated knowledge of things fitting; to knowledge, the comprehensive grasp, in actuality, of the divine principles in the virtues; to understanding, the entire co-disposition of the soul toward things known; to wisdom, the undivided union with God, according to which the longing of those who are worthy becomes enjoyment,
μεθέξει ποιοῦσα θεόν τόν μετέχοντα, καί τῆς θείας αὐτόν ὑποφήτην καθιστῶσα μακαριότητος, κατά τήν ἀένναον πρός τούς δεομένους τῶν θείων μυστηρίων, ἀνεκπόμπευτον προβολήν καί διέξοδον.
(λθ΄) Τό πνεῦμα τοῦ φόβου τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῶν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν κακῶν ἐστιν ἀποχή· τό δέ πνεῦμα τῆς ἰσχύος, ἡ πρός ἐνέργειαν καί πρᾶξιν τῶν ἐντολῶν πρόθυμος ὁρμή καί κίνησις· τό δέ πνεῦμα τῆς βουλῆς, ἡ ἕξις τῆς διακρίσεως, καθ᾿ ἥν σύν λόγῳ τάς θείας πράττομεν ἐντολάς, καί τῶν κρειττόνων διαιροῦμεν τά χείρονα· τό δέ πνεῦμα τῆς ἐπιστήμης, ἡ τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῆς πράξεως τρόπων ἄπτωτος εἴδησις· καθ᾿ ἥν πράττοντες, τῆς ὀρθῆς τοῦ λόγου κρίσεως οὐδαμῶς πίπτομεν· τό δέ πνεῦμα τῆς γνώσεως, ἡ τῶν ἐντολῶν καί τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς λόγων περίληψις, καθ᾿ οὕς οἱ τρόποι τῶν ἀρετῶν συνεστήκασι· πνεῦμα δέ συνέσεώς ἐστιν, ἡ πρός τούς τρόπους καί τούς λόγους τῶν ἀρετῶν συγκατάθεσις, ἤ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, μεταποίησις, καθ᾿ ἥν σύγκρασις γίνεται τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων δυνάμεων πρός τούς τρόπους καί τούς λόγους τῶν ἐντολῶν· πνεῦμα δέ σοφίας ἐστίν, ἡ πρός τήν αἰτίαν τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἐντολαῖς πνευματικωτέρων λόγων ἀνάληψίς τε καί ἕνωσις, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀγνώστως τούς ἐν Θεῷ, κατά τό θεμιτόν ἀνθρώποις, ἁπλῶς μυούμενοι τῶν ὄντων λόγους, ὡς ἔκ τινος βλυστανούσης πηγῆς τῆς καρδίας, τήν ἐν τοῖς ὅλοις ἀλήθειαν ποικίλως τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις προσφέρομεν.
causing the participant to be God by participation, and establishing him as an expounder of divine blessedness, according to the ceaseless, unparaded projection and outgoing toward those who need the divine mysteries.
(39) The spirit of the fear of God is abstinence from evils in actual operation; and the spirit of strength is the eager impulse and movement toward the operation and practice of the commandments; and the spirit of counsel is the habit of discernment, according to which we perform the divine commandments with reason, and separate the worse from the better; and the spirit of knowledge is the unerring understanding of the ways of practice according to virtue, according to which, when we act, we in no way fall from the right judgment of reason; and the spirit of knowledge is the comprehension of the commandments and of the reasons in them, according to which the ways of the virtues consist; and the spirit of understanding is the assent to the ways and reasons of the virtues, or, to speak more properly, the transformation, according to which there is a commingling of the natural powers toward the ways and reasons of the commandments; and the spirit of wisdom is the reception and union with the cause of the more spiritual reasons in the commandments, according to which, being initiated in an unknowable way into the reasons of beings in God, as far as is lawful for humans, we offer the truth in all things in various ways to other humans, as from some gushing spring of the heart.
(μ΄) Ἀπό μέν τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ τελευταίων, ἡμῖν δέ προσεχῶν, ἐπί τά πρῶτα, καί ἡμῶν μέν πόῤῥω, τῷ δέ Θεῷ προσεχῆ, καθ᾿ ὁδόν καί τάξιν ἀναβαίνομεν. Ἀπό γάρ τῆς ἀργίας τῶν κακῶν διά φόβου, ἐπί τήν τῶν ἀρετῶν δι᾿ ἰσχύος ἐρχόμεθα πρᾶξιν· ἀπό δέ τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν πράξεως, ἐπί τήν διάκρισιν τῆς βουλῆς· ἀπό δέ τῆς διακρίσεως, ἐπί τήν ἕξιν τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἤγουν ἐπιστήμην· ἀπό δέ τῆς ἕξεως τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἐπί τήν γνῶσιν τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς ἀρεταῖς λόγων· ἀπό δέ ταύτης, εἰς τήν πρός τούς ἐγνωσμένους λόγους τῶν ἀρετῶν μεταποιητικήν ἕξιν· φημί δέ τήν σύνεσιν· καί ἀπό ταύτης, εἰς τήν ἁπλῆν τῆς ἐν ὅλοις ἀληθείας ἀκριβῆ θεωρίαν· ἀφ' ἧς ὁρμώμενοι, πολλούς καί ποικίλους ἐκ τῆς τῶν ὄντων αἰσθητῶν τε καί νοητῶν οὐσιῶν σοφῆς θεωρίας, εὐσεβεῖς λόγους περί τῆς ἀληθείας ἀποδώσομεν. (μα΄) Τό πρός ἡμᾶς κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν πρῶτον ἀγαθόν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ φόβος, τελευταῖον ἀπηριθμήσατο τῆς Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, ὡς σοφίας ἀρχήν, ἀφ᾿ οὗ κινούμενοι, πρός τό τῆς σοφίας τέλος τήν σύνεσιν, ἀναβαίνομεν, μεθ᾿ ἥν προσεχεῖς αὐτῷ γινόμεθα τῷ Θεῷ, μόνην τήν σοφίαν τῆς πρός αὐτόν ἑνώσεως μεσιτεύουσαν ἔχοντες. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι δυνατόν ἐπιλαβέσθαι σοφίας, τόν μή πρότερον διά τοῦ φόβου, καί τῶν διά μέσου λοιπῶν χαρισμάτων, τήν τε λήμην τῆς ἀγνοίας, καί τόν τῆς κακίας κονιορτόν, ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς ἀποσεισάμενον. Διά τοῦτο Θεῷ μέν, προσεχῆ τήν σοφίαν, ἡμῖν δέ, τόν φόβον ἡ γραφική τάξις διέθηκεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς εὐταξίας μάθωμεν ὅρον καί νόμον.
(40) From the last things that are from God, but near to us, we ascend to the first things, which are far from us but near to God, in the way and order. For from the inactivity of evils, through fear, we come to the practice of virtues through strength; and from the practice of virtues, to the discernment of counsel; and from discernment, to the habit of virtues, that is, knowledge; and from the habit of virtues, to the knowledge of the principles in the virtues themselves; and from this, to the transformative habit toward the known principles of the virtues—I mean understanding; and from this, to the simple and precise contemplation of the truth in all things; starting from which, we shall render pious accounts concerning the truth from the many and varied wise contemplation of beings, both sensible and intelligible substances. (41) The first good in relation to us according to activity, which is fear, the word of Scripture has enumerated last, as the beginning of wisdom, from which, being moved, we ascend to the end of wisdom, understanding, after which we become near to God himself, having only wisdom mediating the union with him. For it is not possible for one to grasp wisdom who has not first, through fear and the remaining gifts in between, wholly shaken off from himself the rheum of ignorance and the dust of vice. Therefore the scriptural order has placed wisdom near to God, but fear near to us, so that we might learn the limit and law of good order.
(μβ΄) Διά τούτων οὖν ἀναβαίνοντες τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τῆς πίστεως, ἤγουν φωτισμῶν, πρός τήν θείαν τῆς σοφίας συναγόμεθα μονάδα· τήν γεγενημένην δι᾿ ἡμᾶς τῶν χαρισμάτων διαίρεσιν, πρός τήν αἰτίαν τῶν χαρισμάτων συνάγοντες, ταῖς κατά μέρος τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναβάσεσι, μηδέν τῶν εἰρημένων συνεργίᾳ Θεοῦ παραλιμπάνοντες, ἵνα μή κατ᾿ ὀλίγον ἀμελοῦντες, τυφλήν ἡμῶν τήν πίστιν και ἀνόμματον καταστήσωμεν, οὐκ ἔχουσαν τούς διά τῶν ἔργων τοῦ Πνεύματος φωτισμούς, καί κολασθῶμεν δικαίως εἰς ἀπείρους αἰῶνας, ὡς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς κατά τήν πίστιν ὅσον τό ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν, τούς θείους ἐκτυφλώσαντες ὀφθαλμούς. (μγ΄) Πᾶς ὁ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ἑαυτῷ διά τῆς ἀργίας τῶν ἐντολῶν τούς τοιούτους ἀνορύξας ὀφθαλμούς, πάντως κατάκριτος, μηκέτι τόν Θεόν ἔχων εἰς αὐτόν ἐπιβλέποντα. Εἰ γάρ τάς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Πνεύματος, φησίν, ὀφθαλμούς Κυρίου
προσαγορεύει ὁ λόγος, ὁ μή τούτους τῇ πράξει τῶν ἐντολῶν διανοίγων, ἐπιβλέποντα τόν Θεόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν οὐκ ἔχει. Δι᾿ ἄλλων γάρ, ὡς εἰκός, ὀφθαλμῶν ἐπισκοπεῖν τούς ἐπί γῆς οὐ πέφυκεν ὁ Θεός, εἴπερ θείας ὁράσεως ἀκτίς ἐστιν, ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἡμῶν φωτισμός.
(42) Ascending, then, through these eyes of faith—that is, these illuminations—we are gathered to the divine unity of wisdom, gathering the division of the gifts that came to be for our sake back to the cause of the gifts, by our ascents through the virtues one by one, leaving nothing of what has been said undone with God's cooperation, lest by neglecting little by little we make our faith blind and eyeless, having no illuminations from the works of the Spirit, and be justly punished for endless ages, as having, so far as lay in us, blinded within ourselves the divine eyes by our faith. (43) Everyone who by the idleness of the commandments has dug out such eyes of faith in himself is altogether condemned, no longer having God looking upon him. For if, he says, the workings of the Spirit are called eyes of the Lord by the word, then he who does not open them by the practice of the commandments does not have God looking upon him. For it is not, as is likely, by other eyes that God is by nature wont to watch over those on earth, since the ray of divine vision is our illumination according to virtue.
(μδ΄) Ἡ σοφία μονάς ἐστι, ταῖς ἐξ αὐτῆς διαφόροις ἀρεταῖς ἀτμήτως ἐνθεωρουμένη· καί μονοειδῶς ταῖς αὐτῶν ἐνεργείαις ἐπινοουμένη· καί πάλιν ἁπλῆ μονάς ἀποδεικνυμένη, ταῖς πρός αὐτήν τῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀρετῶν ἀποκαταστάσεσιν· ὅταν ἡμεῖς, δι᾿ οὕς κατά τήν ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς γένεσιν ποιεῖται τήν πρόοδον, ἀνατατικῶς δι᾿ ἑκάστης ἀρετῆς πρός αὐτήν συναγόμεθα.
(με΄) Τυφλήν ἔχει τήν πίστιν, ὁ τά κατά τήν πίστιν θεῖα προστάγματα μή ἐργαζόμενος. Εἰ γάρ φῶς εἰσι τά τοῦ Θεοῦ προστάγματα, δῆλον ὅτι δίχα θείου φωτός ἐστιν, ὁ μή πράττων τά θεῖα προστάγματα, καί ψιλήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀληθῆ τήν θείαν περιφέρεται κλῆσιν.
(μστ΄) Οὐδείς ἁμαρτάνων δύναται τῆς ἁμαρτίας συνήγορον ἔχειν τῆς σαρκός τήν ἀσθένειαν. Ἡ γάρ πρός τόν Θεόν Λόγον ἕνωσις, ὅλην τήν φύσιν τῇ λύσει τῆς κατάρας ἀνέῤῥωσεν, ἀπροφάσιστον ἡμῖν ποιησαμένη τήν πρός τά πάθη τῆς γνώμης προσπάθειαν. Ἡ γάρ τοῦ Λόγου θεότης, κατα χάριν ἀεί συνοῦσα τοῖς εἰς αὐτόν πιστεύουσι, τόν ἐν τῆ σαρκί νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπομαραίνει. (μζ΄) Ὁ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν διά τῆς εἰς Θεόν πίστεως καί ἀγάπης νικήσας τάς παραλόγους ἐπιθυμίας, εἴτουν κινήσεις, καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἔξω γίνεται νόμου, καί πρός τήν χώραν τῶν νοητῶν ὅλος μεταβιβάζεται, καί τό κατά φύσιν ὁμόφυλον, μετά τῶν προσγενομένων αὐτῷ, τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ἑαυτῷ συνεκβάλλει δουλείας.
(44) Wisdom is a unity, contemplated indivisibly in the diverse virtues that come from it, and conceived in a single form in their activities, and again shown to be a simple unity in the restoration of the virtues that come from it back to itself—when we, for whose sake it makes its procession at the genesis of each virtue, are gathered up to it through each virtue in an ascending way.
(45) He has a blind faith who does not perform the divine commandments that pertain to faith. For if God's commandments are light, it is clear that he who does not practice the divine commandments is without divine light, and carries about the divine name in vain, and not truly.
(46) No one who sins can have the weakness of the flesh as an advocate for his sin. For union with God the Word restored all nature by the dissolution of the curse, making our inclination of will toward the passions without excuse. For the divinity of the Word, always present by grace to those who believe in him, withers away the law of sin that is in the flesh. (47) He who by faith in God and love has conquered the irrational desires, that is, the motions, of the passions contrary to nature, comes to be outside the law of nature itself, and is wholly transferred to the region of things intelligible, and, together with what has been added to him, casts out from himself the alien slavery of what is akin to him by nature.
(μη΄) Μή χαλινουμένη τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ἡ γνῶσις, τύφον ἐργάζεται, ὡς οἰκεῖον τό δεδανεισμένον προβάλλεσθαι πείθουσα τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆ τυφωθέντα, πρός οἰκεῖον ἔπαινον τόν ἔρανον τοῦ λόγου ποιούμενον. Ἡ δέ πρᾶξις τῷ θείῳ συναυξάνουσα πόθῳ, τήν ὑπέρ τά πρακτέα μή λαμβάνουσα γνῶσιν, τόν πρακτικόν ἐργάζεται ταπεινόφρονα, τοῖς ὑπέρ τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν λόγοις πρός ἑαυτόν συστελλόμενον.
(μθ΄) Οὐράνιον οἰκητήριον ἐστιν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἀπαθής ἕξις, καί ἡ μηδέν ἔχουσα πλάνης πολεμοῦν αὐτῇ νόημα γνῶσις. (ν΄) Ὥσπερ τέλος κινηθείσης μονάδος ἐστίν ἡ μυριάς, καί ἀρχή μή κινηθείσης μυριάδος ἐστίν ἡ μονάς· ἀρχή γάρ παντός τέλους, ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτό σαφῶς ἀκινησία καθέστηκε· καί τέλος πάσης ἀρχῆς, ἡ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν κινήσεως ὑπάρχει συμπλήρωσις· οὕτω καί ἡ πίστις, ἀρχή κατά φύσιν ἀρετῶν ὑπάρχουσα, τέλος ἔχει τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτῶν ἀγαθοῦ τήν συμπλήρωσιν· καί τό κατά φύσιν ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀρετῶν τέλος, ἀρχήν ἔχον τήν πίστιν, πρός αὐτήν ἐνδιαθέτως συνάγεται. Πίστις γάρ ἐστιν ἐνδιαθέτον ἀγαθόν, καί ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ἐνεργηθεῖσα πίστις. Πιστός δέ κατά φύσιν, καί ἀγαθός ἐστίν ὁ Θεός· τό μέν, ὡς πρῶτον ἀγαθόν· τό δέ, ὡς ἔσχατον ὀρεκτόν. Ταὐτόν δέ ταῦτα καθέστηκε παντί τρόπῳ ἀλλήλοις ὄντα, μηδενί λόγῳ πλήν τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν ἀλλήλων διαιρούμενα παντελῶς, διά τήν τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἀρχομένων, καί εἰς αὐτόν ληγόντων, κίνησιν. Ἄρα ἡ μυριάς ἐσχάτου ὀρεκτοῦ φέρουσα τύπον, τῶν πρός αὐτό κινουμένων τελείαν περιγράφει τήν ἔφεσιν· καί ἡ μονάς, πρώτου ἀγαθοῦ φέρουσα σύμβολον, τῶν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων τελείαν ἐπιφέρεται βάσιν.
(44) Knowledge, when it is not restrained by divine fear in the domain of practice, produces conceit, persuading the one puffed up with pride in it to put forward what has been lent as if it were his own, making the contribution of reason serve his own praise. But practice, growing together with divine longing and not receiving knowledge that surpasses what is to be done, produces a humble-minded practitioner, who restrains himself from words beyond his own capacity.
(45) A heavenly dwelling place is the passionless state of virtue, and the knowledge that has no thought of error warring against it. (46) Just as the end of a unit that has been moved is the myriad, and the beginning of a myriad that has not been moved is the unit; for the beginning of every end is clearly the immobility in relation to it, and the end of every beginning is the completion of the movement in relation to it; so too faith, being by nature the beginning of the virtues, has as its end the completion of the good that comes through them; and the good according to nature, as the end of the virtues, having faith as its beginning, is gathered back to it in an inward disposition. For faith is an inward good, and an inward good is faith put into action. And God is faithful by nature and good: the one, as the first good; the other, as the last object of desire. And these are established as the same in every way, being to one another, and are divided from one another by no principle except that of conception alone, on account of the movement of those who begin from him and end in him. Therefore the myriad, bearing the type of the last object of desire, circumscribes the perfect striving of those who are moved toward it; and the unit, bearing the symbol of the first good, brings about the perfect foundation of those who are moved from it.
(να΄) Πρώτη ἐστίν ἀπάθεια, ἡ παντελής ἀποχή τῶν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν κακῶν, ἐν τοῖς εἰσαγομένοις θεωρουμένη· δευτέρα δέ, ἡ παντελής κατά διάνοιαν περί τήν τῶν κακῶν συγκατάθεσιν ἀποβολή λογισμῶν, ἐν τοῖς μετά λόγου τήν ἀρετήν μετιοῦσι γινομένη, τρίτη δέ, ἡ κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν περί τά πάθη παντελής
ἀκινησία, ἐν τοῖς διά τῶν σχημάτων τούς λόγους νοητῶς θεωμένοις τῶν ὁρωμένων· τετάρτη δέ ἐστιν ἀπάθεια, ἡ καί αὐτῆς τῆς ψιλῆς φαντασίας παντελής κάθαρσις, ἐν τοῖς διά γνώσεως καί θεωρίας καθαρόν καί διειδές ἔσοπτρον τοῦ Θεοῦ ποιησαμένοις τό ἡγεμονικόν, συνισταμένη. Ὁ τοίνυν καθάρας ἑαυτόν ἐνεργείας παθῶν, καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά διάνοιαν συγκαταθέσεως ἐλευθερωθείς, καί τῆς περί αὐτά κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν κινήσεως στάσιν λαβών, καί τῆς αὐτῶν ψιλῆς φαντασίας τόν νοῦν καταστήσας ἀμόλυντον, τάς τέσσαρας γενικάς ἀπαθείας ἔχων, ἐξέρχεται τῆς ὕλης καί τῶν ὑλικῶν, καί πρός τήν νοεράν καί θείαν καί εἰρηνικήν τῶν νοητῶν ἐπείγεται λῆξιν.
(51) The first impassibility is the complete abstention from evils in actual deed, observed in those being introduced to the faith; the second is the complete rejection of thoughts concerning consent to evils in the mind, occurring in those who pursue virtue with reason; the third is the complete immobility of desire with respect to the passions, in those who contemplate intellectually the principles of visible things through their forms; and the fourth impassibility is the complete purification of even the bare imagination itself, established in those who have made their governing faculty a pure and translucent mirror of God through knowledge and contemplation. Therefore, the one who has purified himself from the activity of the passions, and has been freed from consent to them in the mind, and has attained a standstill from the movement of desire toward them, and has set his intellect unmixed from even the bare imagination of them, possessing the four generic impassibilities, departs from matter and material things, and hastens toward the intelligible and divine and peaceful destination of things intelligible.
(νβ΄) Πρώτην ἀπάθειαν λέγει, τήν πρός ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ σώματος κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἀνέπαφον κίνησιν· δευτέραν δέ, τήν κατά ψυχήν τῶν ἐμπαθῶν λογισμῶν τελείαν ἀποβολήν, δι᾿ ἧς τῶν παθῶν ἀπομαραίνεται κατά τήν πρώτην ἀπάθειαν κίνησιν, ἐξάπτονας αὐτήν πρός ἐνέργειαν οὐκ ἔχουσα τούς ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς· τρίτην δέ, τήν περί τά πάθη τελείαν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀκινησίαν, δι᾿ ἥν καί ἡ δευτέρα γίνεσθαι πέφυκε, τῇ τῶν λογισμῶν καθαρότητι συνισταμένη· τετάρτην δέ λέγει ἀπάθειαν, τήν κατά διάνοιαν πασῶν τῶν αἰσθητῶν φαντασιῶν τελείαν ἀπόθεσιν καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τρίτη τήν γένεσιν εἴληφεν, οὐκ ἔχουσα τάς φαντασίας τῶν αἰσθητῶν εἰδοποιούσας αὐτῇ τῶν παθῶν τάς εἰκόνας. (νγ΄) Παντί πρακτικῷ, παιδός καί παιδίσκης δίκην, ὁ λόγος καί ἡ διάνοια μοχθοῦσι, τούς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῆς πράξεως τρόπους ἐπινοοῦντές τε καί δημιουργοῦντες, καί οἷον πᾶσαν ἑαυτῶν κατά τῶν ἀντικειμένων τῇ πρακτικῇ πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας τήν δύναμιν ἔχοντες ἀντιτεταγμένην· πληρώσαντες δέ τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν, ἥν ὁ ἕκτος τῶν ἐνιαυτῶν παρεδήλωσεν ἀριθμός· εἴρηται γάρ ὅτι ὁ ἕξ ἀριθμός, τήν πρακτικήν σημαίνει φιλοσοφίαν· ἐλεύθεροι πρός τήν πνευματικήν ἀπολύονται, δηλονότι τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι συγγενῶν λόγων θεωρίαν ἐπανερχόμενον, ὅ τε λόγος καί ἡ διάνοια.
(52) He calls the first impassibility the untouched motion of the body toward sin in actual deed; the second, the complete casting off of the passionate thoughts in the soul, through which the motion of the passions is withered away according to the first impassibility, since it no longer has the passionate thoughts kindling it toward action; the third, the complete immobility of desire concerning the passions, through which the second also naturally comes to be, constituted by the purity of thoughts; and he calls the fourth impassibility the complete setting aside of all sensible fantasies in the mind, according to which the third has received its generation, since it no longer has the fantasies of sensible things fashioning for it the images of the passions. (53) For every practical man, like a boy and a girl, the reason and the mind labor, devising and producing the ways of action according to virtue, and as it were having all their power arrayed against the spirits of wickedness that oppose the practical life; but when they have fulfilled the practical philosophy, which the number six of the years indicated—for it has been said that the number six signifies the practical philosophy—the reason and the mind are released free for the spiritual contemplation, clearly returning to the contemplation of the rational principles kindred to the things that exist.
(νδ΄) Ἀλλόφυλος παῖς ἐστι καί παιδίσκη, ὁ θυμός καί ἡ ἐπιθυμία· οὕς ὑποζεύγνυσι διά παντός τῇ δεσποτείᾳ τοῦ λόγου, πρός ὑπηρεσίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν, δι᾿ ἀνδρίας καί σωφροσύνης ὁ θεωρητικός νοῦς, μή διδούς αὐτοῖς παντελῶς τήν πρός ἐλευθερίαν ἄφεσιν, ἕως ἄν καταποθῇ τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ πνεύματος τελείως ὁ τής φύσεως νόμος, καθάπερ ὑπό ζωῆς ἀπείρου, σαρκός δυστήνου θάνατος, καί πᾶσα δειχθῇ καθαρῶς ἡ τῆς ἀνάρχου βασιλείας εἰκών, πᾶσαν ἔχουσα τοῦ ἀρχετύπου διά μιμήσεως τήν μορφήν· καθ᾿ ἥν γενόμενος ὁ θεωρητικός νοῦς, ἐλευθέρους ποιεῖται τόν τε θυμόν καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν· τήν μέν, πρός τήν ἀκήρατον τοῦ θείου ἔρωτος ἡδονήν καί τήν ἄχραντον θέλξιν μετασκευάζων· τήν δέ, πρός ζέσιν πνευματικήν καί διάπυρον ἀεικινησίαν καί σώφρονα μανίαν μεταβιβάζων. (νε΄) Ἀνάρχου βασιλείας ἐστίν εἰκών, ἡ τοῦ νοῦ περί τήν ἀληθῆ γνῶσιν ἀτρεψία, καί ἡ τῆς αἰσθήσεως περί τήν ἀρετήν ἀφθαρσία· τῆς ψυχῆς καί τοῦ σώματος, κατά τήν ἐν πνεύματι πρός τόν νοῦν τῆς αἰσθήσεως μεταποίησιν, μόνῳ τῷ θείῳ νόμῳ τοῦ πνεύματος ἀλλήλοις συνδεδεμένων, καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἀεικίνητον τοῦ λόγου καί ζῶσαν διαπαντός ἔχουσι διικνουμένην ἐνέργειαν· ἐν ᾗ πᾶσα παντελῶς ἄπεστι πρός τό Θεῖον ἀπέμφασις.
(54) The foreign slave-boy and slave-girl are anger and desire; these the contemplative mind, through courage and self-control, yokes continually to the mastery of the word, for the service of the virtues, not at all granting them release toward freedom, until the law of nature is perfectly swallowed up by the law of the spirit, as death is by endless life—the death, that is, of wretched flesh—and the whole image of the unbegun kingdom is shown clearly, possessing the entire form of the archetype through imitation; having come to be in accordance with it, the contemplative mind makes both anger and desire free, transforming the one toward the undefiled pleasure of divine love and the stainless allurement, and transferring the other toward a spiritual boiling and a fiery, ever-moving activity and a self-controlled madness. (55) An image of the unbegun kingdom is the mind's immutability concerning true knowledge, and the senses' incorruptibility concerning virtue—soul and body, through the transformation of the senses toward the mind in the spirit, being bound to one another by the divine law of the spirit alone, according to which they possess the ever-moving and living energy of the word penetrating throughout; in which all dissimilarity toward the Divine is entirely absent.
(νστ΄) Ἐνεργουμένην ἐπιθυμίαν φασίν εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν, εἴπερ παρόν ἀγαθόν, κατά τόν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν· ἀνενέργητον δέ ἡδονήν, τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, εἴπερ μέλλον ἀγαθόν, κατά τόν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν· τόν δέ θυμόν, μανίας μελετωμένην κίνησιν, καί τήν μανίαν θυμόν ἐνεργούμενον. Ὁ γοῦν ταύτας ὑποτάξας τῷ λόγῳ τάς δυνάμεις, εὑρήσει, τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν, αὐτῷ γινομένην ἡδονήν, κατά τήν ἐν χάριτι πρός τό Θεῖον τῆς ψυχῆς ἄχραντον
συμπλοκήν· τόν δέ θυμόν, ζέσιν ἀκήρατον, τῆς περί τό Θεῖον ἡδονῆς φρουρητικήν, καί σώφρονα μανίαν, τῆς κατά τήν ἔφεσιν τῆς ψυχῆς θελκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀπό τῶν ὄντων τελείως ἐκστατικήν. Οὐκοῦν ἕως ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ κόσμος ζῇ, καί ἡ πρός τά ὑλικά τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκούσιος σχέσις, οὐ δεῖ ταύταις παρέχειν ἐλευθερίαν ταῖς δυνάμεσι, μήπως μιγεῖσαι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ὡς ὁμοφύλοις, πολεμήσωσι τήν ψυχήν, καί λάβωσιν αὐτήν δορυάλωτον γεγενημένην τοῖς πάθεσιν, ὡς πάλαι τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ, οἱ Βαβυλώνιοι. Τόν γάρ αἰῶνα καθ᾿ ὅν τούς ἀλλοφύλους παῖδας δουλεύειν ὁ νόμος ἐκέλευσε, τήν πρός τόν κόσμον τοῦτον, ἤγουν τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν, γνωμικήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐσήμανε σχέσιν ὁ λόγος, διά τῶν ἱστορουμένων παραδεικνύς τά νοούμενα. (νζ΄) Ἠργμένον λέγει, τό κακόν· ἀρχήν γάρ ἔχει τήν ἡμῶν παρά φύσιν κίνησιν· οὐκ ἠργμένον δέ, τό ἀγαθόν· πρό παντός γάρ αἰῶνος καί χρόνου, φύσει τό ἀγαθόν. Νοητόν λέγει τό ἀγαθόν, ὅ δεῖ μόνον νοεῖν· ῥητόν δέ λέγει τό ἀγαθόν, αὐτό γάρ δεῖ μόνον λαλεῖσθαι. Καί γινόμενον λέγει τό ἀγαθόν·
(56) They say that pleasure is desire in operation, since it is a present good, according to its own definition; and that desire is pleasure not in operation, since it is a future good, according to its own definition; and that anger is a movement of madness that is practiced, and madness is anger in operation. So then, whoever subjects these powers to the word will find that desire becomes pleasure to him, in accordance with the soul's undefiled union with the Divine in grace; and that anger becomes a pure boiling, a guardian of the pleasure that pertains to the Divine, and a self-controlled madness, wholly ecstatic from existing things through the soul's attractive power of longing. Therefore, as long as the world lives in us, and the soul's voluntary attachment to material things, we must not give these powers freedom, lest, mingled with sensible things as though of the same kind, they make war on the soul and take it captive, having become a slave to the passions, as the Babylonians once took Jerusalem. For the age in which the law commanded the foreign slave-boys to serve signified the soul's disposition of will toward this world, that is, the present life; the word, through the things recorded, sets forth the things understood. (57) He says that evil is begun; for it has its beginning in our movement contrary to nature. But the good is not begun; for the good is by nature before every age and time. He says that the good is intelligible, which one must only understand; and he says that the good is speakable, for it must only be spoken. And he says that the good is becoming;
κατά φύσιν γάρ ὑπάρχον ἀγέννητον, κατά χάριν διά φιλανθρωπίαν παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀνέχεται γίνεσθαι, πρός τήν ἡμῶν τῶν ποιούντων καί λαλούντων ἐκθέωσιν, ὅπερ δεῖ μονώτατον γίνεσθαι· οὐ ποιούμενον δέ τό κακόν, ὅπερ δεῖ μόνον μή γίνεσθαι. Φθαρτόν λέγει τό κακόν· φθορά γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ κακοῦ φύσις, οὐδαμῶς κατ᾿ οὐδέν ὕπαρξιν ἔχουσα· ἄφθαρτον δέ τό ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀεί ὄν, καί μηδέποτε τοῦ εἶναι παυόμενον, καί πάντων οἷς ἐγγίνηται, φρουρητικόν. Τοῦτο γοῦν, τῷ μέν λογιστικῷ, ζητοῦμεν· τῷ δέ ἐπιθυμητικῷ, ποθοῦμεν· τῶ δέ θυμικῷ φυλάττομεν ἄσυλον· τῷ δ᾿ αἰσθητικῷ κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην, ἀμιγές αὐτό τῶν ἐναντίων διακρίνομεν· τῷ δέ φωνητικῷ, λαλοῦντες αὐτό ποιοῦμεν τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσι φανερόν· καί τῷ γονίμῳ, πληθύνομεν αὐτό· μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἀληθές εἰπεῖν, ἡμεῖς κατ᾿ αὐτό πληθυνόμεθα. (νη΄) Δεῖ τόν θεωρητικόν νοῦν, βασιλεύοντα τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι νοημάτων τε καί θεαμάτων, καί τῶν οἰκείων κινημάτων, ἕξιν ἄγονον ἔχειν κακίας· τουτέστι, κακίαν μήτε συλλαμβάνουσαν παντελῶς, μήτε τίκτουσαν· ἐφ᾿ ἧς αὐτόν δεῖ περί θεωρίαν κινούμενον φέρεσθαι, μήπως πνευματικήν ποιούμενος τήν τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν, λαθών περιπέσῃ τινί τῶν παραφθείρειν διά τινός τῶν αἰσθητῶν πεφυκότων πονηρῶν πνευμάτων, τήν ἁγνή τῆς καρδίας διάθεσιν. (νθ΄) Ὁ κενοδοξίᾳ τινί, δι᾿ ἀρετήν ἤ γνῶσιν τρωθείς, τήν κόμην ματαίως διατρέφων, καθάπερ Ἀβεσαλών, τῆς οἰήσεως, ἐπιτετεχνασμένην τε καί μικτήν ὥσπερ ἡμίονον πρός ἀπάτην τῶν θεωμένων, τήν ἠθικήν ἐπιδείκνυται πολιτείαν·
For being unbegotten by nature, through grace and out of love for humanity he accepts becoming from us, for our deification—we who do and speak—which is the one thing that must come to be; but evil is not made, which alone must not come to be. He calls evil corruptible; for the nature of evil is corruption, having existence in no way at all; but the good is incorruptible, as always existing and never ceasing to be, and a guard over all things to which it draws near. This, then, we seek with the rational faculty; we desire it with the appetitive faculty; we keep it inviolate with the spirited faculty; with the perceptive faculty, by knowledge, we discern it unmixed with contraries; with the vocal faculty, by speaking, we make it manifest to the ignorant; and with the generative faculty, we multiply it—or rather, to speak truly, we are multiplied according to it. (58) The contemplative mind, reigning over the thoughts and visions among beings and over its own movements, must have a habit barren of evil—that is, an evil that neither conceives at all nor gives birth; moving in contemplation, it must be borne along on this, lest, making its examination of beings spiritual, it escape notice and fall into some of the evil spirits that are naturally disposed to corrupt through some of the sensible things the pure disposition of the heart. (59) He who has been wounded by some vainglory on account of virtue or knowledge, vainly nourishing his hair like Absalom, displays his ethical conduct as an artificial and mixed presumption, like a mule, for the deception of onlookers.
ἐφ᾿ ἧς αἰωρούμενος, οἴεται τόν γεννήσαντα διά τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ λόγου πατέρα χειρώσασθαι, πᾶσαν βουλόμενος τήν τῷ πατρί προσοῦσαν θεόθεν δόξαν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως, ὡς ὑπερήφανος εἰς ἑαυτόν τυραννικῶς ἐφελκύσασθαι. Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐξελθών εἰς τό πλάτος τῆς ἐν πνεύματι φυσικῆς θεωρίας, πρός τόν ὑπέρ ἀληθείας λογικόν πόλεμον, διά τήν ζῶσαν αἴσθησιν, τῷ δάσει τῆς δρυός τῶν ὑλικῶν θεαμάτων κρατεῖται τῆς κόμης, αὐτήν ἔχων συνδεσμοῦσαν πρός θάνατον, τήν διάκενον οἴησιν, τήν κρεμνοῦσαν αὐτόν ἀναμέσον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καί ἀναμέσον τῆς γῆς. Οὐ γάρ ἔχει γνῶσιν ὁ κενόδοξος, καθάπερ οὐρανόν ἐνέλκουσαν αὐτόν τῆς κατασπώσης οἰήσεως· οὐδ᾿ αὖ πάλιν γῆν, τήν ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει λέγω βάσιν τῆς πράξεως, καθέλκουσαν αὐτόν τῆς ἀνασπώσης φυσιώσεως· ὅν πενθεῖ καί θανόντα διά φιλανθρωπίαν ὡς φιλόθεος ὁ γεννήσας διδάσκαλος, μιμήσει Θεοῦ, μή βουλόμενος τόν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ὡς τό ἐπιστρέψει, καί ζῇν αὐτόν.
(ξ΄) Ἀρχή καί τέλος ἐστί τῆς ἑκάστου σωτηρίας, ἡ σοφία· φόβον μέν ἀρχομένη πρῶτον δημιουργοῦσα, καί πόθον ὕστερον τελειουμένη συνιστῶσα· μᾶλλον δέ φόβος αὐτή κατ᾿ ἀρχάς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομικῶς γινομένη, ἵνα παύσῃ κακίας
Suspended on this, he thinks to capture the father who begot him through the teaching of the word, wishing to draw to himself tyrannically, as one proud, all the glory of virtue and knowledge that belongs to the father from God. But such a one, having gone out into the breadth of natural contemplation in the Spirit, for the rational war on behalf of truth, because of his living sensation, is seized by the hair by the thicket of the oak of material spectacles, having that which binds him to death—empty conceit—hanging him midway between heaven and earth. For the vainglorious man has no knowledge, as it were a heaven, drawing him up from the conceit that drags him down; nor again, on the other hand, a earth—I mean the foundation of action in humility—pulling him down from the inflation that draws him up. Him, even when dead, the teacher who begot him mourns out of love for humanity, as a lover of God, in imitation of God, not willing the death of the sinner, but rather that he turn and live.
(60) The beginning and end of each one's salvation is wisdom: beginning with fear first, creating it, and later, being perfected, establishing desire; or rather, fear itself at the beginning, becoming by economy for our sake, that it may put an end to vice
τόν ἐραστήν, καί πόθος ὕστερον φυσικῶς εὑρισκομένη δι᾿ ἑαυτήν κατά τό τέλος, ἵνα πληρώσῃ γέλωτος νοητοῦ, τούς τήν αὐτῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀλλαξαμένους συμβίωσιν.
(ξα΄) Ἡ σοφία καί φόβος ἐστί, κατά τήν ἀποφυγήν γινομένη στέρησις, τοῖς οὐκ ὀρεγομένοις αὐτῆς· καί πόθος ἐστίν, ἕξις ἀπολαυστικῆς ἐνεργείας εὑρισκομένη τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτήν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐλπίδι κολάσεως παθῶν ἀπαλλάσσουσα, καί φόβον ποιεῖ· καί πόθον ἐργάζεται, τῇ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπικτήσει τόν νοῦν ἐθίζουσα βλέπειν τά μέλλοντα.
(ξβ΄) Πᾶσα ἐξομολόγησις, ταπεινοῖ τήν ψυχήν· ἡ μέν, χάριτι Θεοῦ δικαιωθεῖσαν· ἡ δέ, ῥαθυμίᾳ γνώμην οἰκείας ἐπ᾿ ἐγκλήμασιν ἐνεχομένην, αὐτήν ἐκδιδάσκουσα.
(ξγ΄) Διττός ὁ τῆς ἐξομολογήσεως λόγος· ὁ μέν, ἐπ᾿ εὐχαριστίᾳ τῶν δεδωρημένων ἀγαθῶν γινόμενος· ὁ δέ, ἐπ᾿ ἐλέγχῳ καί ἐτασμῶ τῶν κακῶς πεπραγμένων λεγόμενος. Ἐξομολόγησις γάρ λέγεται, καί ἡ τῶν εὖ πεπονθότων μετ᾿ εὐχαριστίας τῶν θείων εὐεργεσιῶν ἀπαρίθμησις, καί ἡ τῶν κακῶς πεπραγμένων παρά τῶν ὑπαιτίων ἐξαγόρευσις· ἀμφότερα δέ, ταπεινώσεως ὑπάρχει ποιητικά. Ὅ τε γάρ ἐπ᾿ ἀγαθοῖς εὐχαριστιῶν ὁμοῦ, καί ὁ ἐπ᾿ ἐγκλήμασιν ἐταζόμενος, ταπεινοῦται· ὁ μέν, ἑαυτόν ἀνάξιον κρίνων τῶν δοθέντων καλῶν· ὁ δέ, λαβεῖν ἄφεσιν τῶν πλημμεληθέντων δεόμενος.
the lover, and desire, which is later found naturally for its own sake at the end, so that it may fill with intelligible laughter those who have exchanged their dwelling with all beings for its sake.
(61) Wisdom is also fear, becoming a deprivation through avoidance for those who do not strive for it; and it is desire, a possession of enjoyable activity found by those who love it. For this, releasing from passions by the hope of punishment, produces fear; and it works desire, accustoming the mind through the acquisition of virtues to see the things to come.
(62) Every confession humbles the soul; the one, having been justified by the grace of God; the other, teaching itself to a disposition held liable for its own faults through negligence.
(63) The word of confession is twofold: the one occurring in thanksgiving for the good things granted; the other spoken for the conviction and examination of things done badly. For confession is said both of the enumeration with thanksgiving of the divine benefits by those who have been well treated, and of the declaration of things done badly by those who are guilty; and both are productive of humility. For both the one giving thanks for good things and the one examined for faults is humbled; the one judging himself unworthy of the good things given; the other begging to receive forgiveness of his transgressions.
(ξδ΄) Τό τῆς ὑπερηφανίας πάθος, ἐκ δύο συνέστηκεν ἀγνοιῶν. Δύο δέ συνελθοῦσαι πρός ἕνωσιν ἄγνοιαι, μίαν φρόνησιν συγκεχυμένην ἀποτελοῦσι. Μόνος γάρ ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν ὑπερήφανος, ὁ καί τήν θείαν βοήθειαν, καί τήν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀγνοήσας ἀσθένειαν. Οὐκοῦν ὑπερηφανία ἐστί, θείας καί ἀνθρωπίνης γνώσεως στέρησις. Τῇ γάρ τῶν ἀληθῶν ἄκρων ἀποφάσει, μία καί ψευδής ὑπάρχει κατάφασις. (ξε΄) Ἡ κενοδοξία, σκοποῦ μέν τοῦ κατά Θεόν ἐστιν ἔκστασις· πρός δέ ἄλλον σκοπόν παρά τόν θεῖον ὑπάρχει μετάβασις. Κενόδοξος γάρ ἐστιν, ὁ τῆς οἰκείας, ἀλλά μή τῆς θείας ἕνεκα δόξης, τήν ἀρετήν ἐπιτηδεύων, καί πόνοις οἰκείοις τούς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀνυποστάτους ἐπαίνους ὠνούμενος. (ξστ΄) Ὁ ἀνθρωπάρεσκος, μόνων ἐπιμελεῖται τῶν φαινομένων ἠθῶν, καί μήν καί λόγου τοῦ κόλακος· ἵνα τοῖς μέν τήν ὅρασιν, τῷ δέ τήν ἀκοήν σφετερίζηται, τῶν μόνοις ἡδομένων ἤ καί καταπληττομένων τοῖς φαινομένοις τε καί ἀκουομένοις, καί μόνῃ τῇ αἰσθήσει περιγραφόντων τήν ἀρετήν. Ἀνθρωπαρέσκειαν οὖν φαμεν, τήν ὡς ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ δι᾿ ἀνθρώπους γινομένην τῶν ἠθῶν τε λόγων ἐπίδειξιν.
(64) The passion of pride is composed of two ignorances. And two ignorances coming together into unity produce one confused way of thinking. For that one alone is proud, who has ignored both the divine help and human weakness. Pride, therefore, is the deprivation of divine and human knowledge. For by the denial of the true extremes, there is one false affirmation. (65) Vainglory is a departure from the goal according to God; and it is a transition to another goal beside the divine one. For vainglorious is the one who pursues virtue for the sake of his own glory and not God's, and who by his own labors buys the praises of men, which have no substance. (66) The man-pleaser takes care only of the outward appearances of character, and indeed of flattering speech, so that by the one he may win over sight and by the other hearing—among those who take pleasure only in, or are even struck by, things seen and heard, and who circumscribe virtue by sense perception alone. We call man-pleasing, then, the display of character and speech that is done for the sake of virtue, but for the sake of men.
(ξζ΄) Ὑπόκρισίς ἐστι, φιλίας προσποίησις· ἤ μῖσος, σχήματι φιλίας κεκαλυμμένον· ἤ ἔχθρα, δι᾿ εὐνοίας ἐνεργουμένη· ἤ φθόνος, ἀγάπης χαρακτῆρα μιμούμενος· ἤ βίος, ἀρετῆς πλάσματι, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πράγματι τό κόσμιον ἔχων· ἤ δικαιοσύνης προσποίησις, τῇ τοῦ εἶναι δοκήσει συντηρουμένη· ἤ ἀπάτη, ἀληθείας ἔχουσα μόρφωσιν· ἥν οἱ τόν ὄφιν τῇ τῶν ἠθῶν σκολιότητι μιμούμενοι, ἐπιτηδεύουσιν.
(ξη΄) Ἡ τῶν ὄντων αἰτία, καί τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀγαθῶν, ἐστίν ὁ Θεός. Ὁ τοίνυν περί τήν ἀρετήν ἤ τήν γνῶσιν ἐπαιρόμενος, καί μή τῷ μέτρῳ τῆς ἐν χάριτι ἀρετῆς ἤτοι προκοπῆς, συνεπεκτείνων τῆς οἰκείας ἀσθενείας τήν ἐπιγνωμοσύνην, τό τῆς ὑπερηφανίας κακόν οὐ διέφυγεν. Ὁ δέ δόξης ἕνεκεν ἰδίας τό καλόν ἐπιτηδεύων, ἑαυτόν τοῦ Θεοῦ προτετίμηκε, τῷ τῆς κενοδοξίας ἥλῳ περιπαρείς. Ὁ δέ πρός τό θεαθῆναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ποιῶν ἤ λαλῶν τήν ἀρετήν, τῆς θείας πολλῷ τήν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀποδοχήν ὑπερέθηκε, τῷ τῆς ἀθρωπαρεσκείας πάθει νοσηλευόμενος· ὁ δέ μόνον τῇ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν σεμνότητι πρός ἀπάτην κακούργως ἐπιχρώσας τά ἤθη, καί
(67) Hypocrisy is a pretence of friendship; or hatred concealed under the appearance of friendship; or enmity worked through goodwill; or envy imitating the stamp of love; or a life possessing respectability by a fiction of virtue, but not in reality; or a pretence of righteousness, maintained by the mere appearance of being; or deceit, having the form of truth—which those who imitate the serpent in the crookedness of their ways practice.
(68) God is the cause of beings and of the good things that are among beings. Therefore whoever exalts himself over virtue or knowledge, and does not extend the recognition of his own weakness to the measure of virtue or progress in grace, has not escaped the evil of pride. And whoever practices the good for the sake of his own glory has preferred himself to God, pierced by the nail of vainglory. And whoever does or speaks virtue in order to be seen by men has set human approval far above divine approval, being sick with the passion of men-pleasing. And whoever, by the mere dignity of virtue, craftily colors his ways for deceit, and
τήν πονηράν τῆς γνώμης διάθεσιν τῷ φαινομένῳ σχήματι καλύπτων τῆς εὐλαβείας, τῷ τῆς ὑποκρίσεως ἐξωνεῖται δόλῳ τήν ἀρετήν. Οὐκοῦν ὁ τοιοῦτος, ἐπ᾿ ἄλλα παρά τήν αἰτίαν ἑκάστου τούτων ἀπήγαγε τόν σκοπόν. (ξθ΄) Οὐδείς τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων, τοῦ ἐναρέτου ποτέ κωλύει τό πρόθυμον· ἀλλά καί μᾶλλον τάς ἐλλείψεις δολερῶς περικόψας τῶν ἀρετῶν, τάς ἐπιτάσεις ὑπαγορεύει, τοῖς ἀγωνισταῖς συμπροθυμούμενος· ἵνα πρός ἑαυτόν ὅλην ποιήσηται τοῦ ἀσκουμένου τήν ἔννοιαν, παραπολέσασαν τό ἴσον τῆς μεσότητος στάθμισιν, καί λάθῃ πρός ἄλλο παρά τό δοκοῦν ὁδεύουσα καταγώγιον. (ο΄) Οἱ δαίμονες οὔτε σωφροσύνην μισοῦσιν, οὔτε νηστείαν βδελύσσονται· οὐ χρημάτων διάδοσιν, οὐ φιλοξενίαν, οὐ ψαλμῳδίαν, οὐ σχολήν ἀναγνώσεως, οὐχ ἡσυχίαν, οὐ τῶν μαθημάτων τά ὑψηλότατα, οὐ χαμευνίαν, οὐκ ἀγρυπνίαν, οὐ τά λοιπά πάντα, δι᾿ὧν ὁ κατά Θεόν χαρακτηρίζεται βίος, ἕως πρός αὐτούς νένευκεν ὁ σκοπός καί ἡ αἰτία τῶν γινομένων. (οα΄) Τούς μέν ἄλλους δαίμονας, τάχιον ἴσως ὁ ἀσκητής καταλαβόμενος, ῥᾳδίως τήν ἐξ αὐτῶν βλάβην διαδιδράσκει· τούς δέ δοκοῦντας συνεργεῖν τῷ δρόμῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς, καί οἷον συνοικοδομεῖν βουλομένους τόν ναόν Κυρίῳ, τίς ἄν τῶν ἄγαν ὑψηλῶν καταλάβοι νοῦς, χωρίς τοῦ διά πάντων χωροῦντος ἐνεργοῦς λόγου καί ζῶντος, καί διικνουμένου ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καί πνεύματος, τουτέστι, διαγινώσκοντος τίνα τῶν ἔργων ἤ νοημάτων εἰσί ψυχικά, τουτέστιν εἶδη φυσικά τῆς ἀρετῆς ἤ κινήματα, καί τίνα τυγχάνει πνευματικά, τουτέστιν, ὑπέρ φύσιν καί Θεόν χαρακτηρίζοντα· τῇ φύσει δέ κατά χάριν διδόμενα·
(68) Concealing the evil disposition of his mind under the outward appearance of piety, he buys virtue by the deceit of hypocrisy. Such a man, then, diverts the aim of each of these things to other ends contrary to their purpose. (69) None of the wicked demons ever hinders the zeal of the virtuous man; but rather, having craftily cut away the deficiencies of the virtues, it suggests their intensifications, joining in zeal with the contestants, so that it may draw the whole intention of the ascetic to itself, after it has been led astray from the equal balance of the mean, and so that it may escape notice as it journeys toward a dwelling other than the one intended. (70) The demons neither hate chastity nor loathe fasting; nor the distribution of money, nor hospitality, nor psalmody, nor leisure for reading, nor stillness, nor the loftiest of studies, nor sleeping on the ground, nor vigil, nor all the rest of the things by which the life according to God is characterized—so long as the aim and the cause of what is done inclines toward them. (71) The other demons, perhaps, the ascetic, having quickly grasped, easily escapes the harm from them; but those who seem to cooperate with the course of virtue, and who wish, as it were, to build up together the temple to the Lord—what mind, even of the very lofty, could grasp them, apart from the active and living Word that passes through all things and reaches even to the division of soul and spirit, that is, which discerns which of works or thoughts are soulish, that is, natural forms of virtue or movements, and which happen to be spiritual, that is, those that characterize what is above nature and God, but are given to nature by grace?
ἁρμῶν τε καί μυελῶν, τήν πρός τούς πνευματικούς λόγους τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόπων, ἁρμόδιον ἤ ἀναρμόδιον διόλου σύννευσιν ἐπισταμένου, κρίνοντός τε τάς ἐνθυμήσεις καί τάς ἐννοίας τῶν καρδιῶν, τουτέστι, τάς ἐπί τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἀφανεῖς κατά τό βάθος σχέσεις, ᾧ οὐκ ἔστι κτίσις ἀφανής, ἐν ἡμῖν τοῖς λανθάνειν δοκοῦσι· πάντα δέ γυμνά καί τετραχηλισμένα, οὐ μόνον τά γεγενημένα τε καί νενοημένα, ἀλλ᾿ ἤδη καί τά γεννησόμενα παρ᾿ ἡμῶν καί νοηθησόμενα.
(οβ΄) Μερισμόν ψυχῆς καί πνεύματος λέγει, τήν διαφοράν τῶν ἐκ φύσεως ἀρετῶν, ὧν φυσικῶς ἔχομεν τούς λόγους· καί τῶν ἐκ πνεύματος, ὧν κατά δωρεάν δεχόμεθα τήν χάριν. Τούτων γάρ εὐκρινῶς τήν διαστολήν ποιεῖται κρίνων ὁ λόγος.
(ογ΄) Τάς ἐνθυμήσεις καί τάς ἐννοίας, ὧν ἐστι κριτικός ὁ λόγος, φησίν εἶναι τάς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπί τε τοῖς θείοις λόγοις καί τοῖς λογισμοῖς σχέσεις, καί τάς αὐτῶν δηλαδή τῶν σχέσεων αἰτίας. Ἡ γάρ ἐνθύμησις, κινεῖ μνήμην, ἧς οἰκεῖον ἡ σχέσις· ἡ δέ ἔννοια πέρας ἀποσκοπεῖ, ὅπερ αἰτίαν χαρακτηρίζει. (οδ΄) Εἰ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν γνῶσίς ἐστιν ὁ Θεός, προηγεῖται δέ σαφῶς πάσης γνώσεως νοῦς, ᾧ καί ὑποπίπτειν πέφυκεν· ἅρα ὑπέρ ταύτην ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, ὅτι καί ὑπέρ πάντα νοῦν, ᾧ γνῶσις καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν πέφυκεν ὑποπίπτειν, ὑπεραπείρως καθέστηκε.
of joints and marrows, knowing the concordant or discordant agreement, wholly, of the modes of virtue with the spiritual principles, and judging the thoughts and intents of the hearts, that is, the hidden dispositions in the depth concerning the things said, with whom no creature is hidden, even in us who seem to escape notice; but all things are naked and laid bare, not only the things that have come to be and been thought, but already also the things that will be born from us and will be thought.
(72) He speaks of the division of soul and spirit as the difference between the virtues that are by nature, of which we possess the principles naturally, and those that are by the Spirit, of which we receive the grace as a gift. For the word, judging, makes the distinction between these clearly.
(73) The thoughts and intents, of which the word is judge, he says are the dispositions of the soul toward the divine words and the reasonings, and clearly the causes of those very dispositions. For the thought moves memory, to which the disposition belongs; and the intent looks toward the end, which characterizes the cause. (74) If God is knowledge according to essence, and intellect clearly precedes all knowledge, to which it is natural also to fall under it, then God is beyond this, because he is also beyond all intellect, to which knowledge is naturally subject in any respect, he is established beyond experience.