Commentary on Ecclesiastes

The Practical Life and the Soul as City§1

1Commentaries on Ecclesiastes. 'Abundance of the earth is in everything, a king of the cultivated field is there' (Ecclesiastes 5:9). In the literal sense: no one is lord, master, or ruler of a field while it is being blamed for bearing 'thorns and thistles' (Gen 3:18); but of a cultivated field, there is a king. He calls the king the owner. In the literal sense: if you see a cultivated field, know that it has a master and a king; just as if you see a chariot being driven in the manner of a charioteer, you realize you are receiving the impression of a charioteer; and if you see a ship being rowed and it must be steered in a certain way, you receive the impression of a pilot, even if you do not see him.

And those who occasionally introduce the idea that God's providence rules all things, say, if they are constructing something, that it is providence; just as a fabric clearly shows that there is a weaver, even if the weaver does not appear, so one, seeing a cultivated field, receives the impression that it has a leader and a ruler. Furthermore: about whom then does he speak according to the literal sense? About the fields, saying regarding the king, the master, the owner, the one who cultivates: he names the king more appropriately. We sometimes call God lord and master. But it is also more powerful and more public to say so, if one sees a soul like a cultivated field, having been tilled, in bloom, with produce and trees and a multitude of produce. For 'one bore a hundred, another sixty, another thirty' (Matthew 13:8). When you see, therefore, a soul thus being farmed and having 'sown in tears' (Ps 126:5) and having itself ready for 'reaping in joy' (Ps 126:6), of this cultivated thing there is a king, a word meaning a leader, a word meaning one ruling and reigning.

But one should also take another analogy: the Church of God, according to the pious doctrines and the ethical works, and those who practice them, are called a field. When, therefore, one has according to the ecclesiastical canon and law and the mental dispositions and...

The practical life is a king for this field, because it has worked. But when you see false teachers and "churches committing adultery", know that this field has not worked truly; it does not have a king who praises it, but rather a tyrant or a robber. For robbers and tyrants especially pursue the wilderness.

And according to various thoughts, the soul is called sometimes a field and sometimes a city. And it is said concerning it: "The rivers of which the banks rejoice in the city of God" (Ps 46:4). And again: "You have been glorified, O city of God" (Ps 87:3). The soul, being thus disposed and having a straight canon of logic, is ready to receive the Word.

Indeed, it is sometimes guarded by the world of the word and from those received through induction, but sometimes in a way other than how the following intends, let us take some starting point to depart from the history. "He who loves silver will not be filled with silver" (Eccl 5:10). As for the literal sense: the one desiring material things is never filled, but if it were possible for him to have all things under his own control, he would have loved this; therefore he is not insatiable of these things. It can be said concerning silver here: "it is not praised". For the one loving "the words of the Lord" will also be filled with "refined silver". For he does not always know "in part", nor, having transitioned from "out of the fullness", does he remain in the "from the fullness", but he will encounter eventually to approach "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12) the truth and to acquire the very "fullness" of the mind of Christ. Therefore, the discourse is concerning fake silver.

True Goodness and Courage§2

The Body as Slave and the Soul's Resurrection§3

3He says, but someone is held back by that which he thinks is courage. Rather, this person is merely reckless. We often take courage as being something attached to certain things: courage regarding struggles, regarding wars, courage regarding seafaring; and this kind of courage has no praise. It is a weakness. Even if someone becomes weak in body, yet bears things that come upon him with endurance and patience—this is an underlining of this: Job, who was weak and having been struck all over his body and having almost come to death, had the same courage of the soul.

"The beginning of life is bread and water and a garment and a house surrounding one in unseemliness." These things are the causes of living. And so such natural things are called the beginning of life. And here the name 'beginning' signifies the cause. Therefore, the cause of seeing is sight, the eyes. So he says this—so that I might also understand in agreement—he says this: let it be said, someone acts courageously by using the natural senses; he has the beginning of perceiving from the senses, but he does not keep these by his own courage. For many both courageous and strong men cast away their sight and were deprived of hearing and of the other senses.

Furthermore, regarding the ascent: "And what courage?" I do not say again that the courage which is virtue is "someone's"—though it might be said once that the prudence of Joseph was "someone's"—but regarding the vain courage, I say "courage" of "someone," not as something perfected. For the ascent, "the eyes are the beginning of seeing." I say that there are eyes of the soul which are enlightened, concerning which the apostle writes, "the eyes of your heart having been enlightened" (Eph 1:18). Concerning these it is said, "To you I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven" (Psalm 123:1). Of these eyes is the beginning of seeing. If anyone does not have the "mind of Christ," he is not able to see rightly, if he has not been enlightened by the true Light.

Sweet is the sleep of the servant, whether he eats little or much; and to him who is filled, it is not possible to leave him to sleep. To sleep is taken from himself, but to eat and drink is taken from another. Even if little, therefore...

Eating, even in large amounts, happens because of the master's cause. Sleeping, however, is from its own nature. And since he sleeps without anxiety, having no care for possessions or the guarding of wealth, his sleep is sweet. But he who has much money does not enjoy even this. Furthermore, regarding the lifting up: 'sweet is the sleep of the slave.' We say this because the body is the slave of the soul. The body itself, as a body, has no care, or it has the appropriate sleep with rest. But the soul, when it has care for possessions, gathers much 'false knowledge'; those 'rejected' silver pieces destroy both wealth and sleep, the natural rest. For everyone's natural rest is called his own 'sleep' and slumber. Behold, he indeed says: 'Behold the reward,' he says, of the 'worker' who has become ungrateful, if he sleeps in the house of the owner, it accuses him. Not that the silver sleeps; he has said that staying in the house is his 'sleep.' The body therefore has the natural rest—I do not say the unrestrained, nor the insatiable desire for food, but the appropriate one.

This is to be understood: the things called morally good... since again they do not think about the soul as being the underlying reality. And some think that the allegories, of which Apollinaris is one, are mere re-paintings of those things happening sensuously. If one hears that 'a young lamb was raised up,' having cast away this very thing, the impious one has descended to ultimate death. The Savior, therefore, if he turns someone away from sin and impiety, has worked a resurrection. He who knows the soul—I say paradoxically, as an opponent currently thinking—knowing the magnitude of the soul and its salvation, sets nothing against the body, to restore a man to sight and to walk without hindrance from lameness. For the daughter of the chief synagogue, having been justified, 'has not died' (Luke 8:52). Again, those rising for the sake of the soul have it forever. Those things are vain, as regards a certain logic—not simply vain, but as regards the superiority of the greater things, just as the 'vanity of vanities' (Ecclesiastes 1:2) was given, that the temporary creations of God possess much beauty. Indeed, to him...

The Slavery of Wealth and the Sickness of Care§4

4In the body, one will see its harmonies, for it is impossible for anyone to do anything except God. However, regarding the invisible and the things above, it is vanity (Eccl 1:2). Therefore, the soul has not been subjected to it.

He says that in time, in a certain way, he is a slave, obedient and private in his knowledge—and he is rich, having gathered many observations—and the sleep of one who thinks himself a slave and a slave-servant is sweet, whether he perceives little or much. And if he has the practice, so that this slave may have the 'spirit' of 'slavery,' he is not yet a 'son.' He is subject to the fear of judgment and 'abstains' from evil—if it must be said that he abstains—from the 'fear of punishment.' This, then, is a slave moved by the fear of the law.

Another, thinking to be in many things, but having erred, has the care that does not permit him to sleep, a vain care. There is a sickness, which I saw under the sun (Ecclesiastes 5:13), a wealth guarded by one for his own wickedness, and that wealth will be lost in evil distraction. He says such things: For what is the purpose of someone's wealth? It is evident that even there the master of wealth is the wealth itself. This, then, is the one who has a sweetness from someone, and he himself is the master of the wealth; just as he is able to use the wealth well, holding it and not serving it, that is, the mammon (Matt 6:24), in this way wealth can hold the possessor; and woe to him, when he becomes a lover of silver, when he becomes a slave to mammon. He says, therefore, that such is 'wealth guarded by it.' He did not say simply the wealth itself, but 'guarded by it.' This is the wealth of the possessor. Thus also: how all painful things are endured for the sake of his acquisition.

And the terror of the sickness is this: neither he himself enjoys it, nor does any of his successors. Furthermore, is it not 'that wealth will be lost in evil distraction'? There is wealth being lost by suddenness or by being snatched away by wars or robbers having become strong and finding and taking it. This is not being taken in distraction. But when someone becomes a sailor or does other things for the sake of mobile wealth to gain much, often he is lost in the distraction. And we say to be distracted is to have thoughts about...

a deceptive snare

There was a time when we had in our hands: “God has given the sons of men an evil distraction” (Eccl 1:13). Often he buys slaves and they die; he builds ships and they are wrecked; he sows and loses even the seed. So in distraction it is lost — not in profligacy, not in idleness of hands. “And he begot a son, and there is nothing in his hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:14). “Just as he came out naked from his mother’s womb, he will return to go as he came” (Eccl 5:14). Men make children their excuse when they gather wealth; indeed they sometimes do wrong and plunder and do other things, saying, “I do this for the children’s sake.”

But just as the other pleasant things often […] many children […] into heaven, so that walking on earth he has his citizenship in heaven. I saw, then, one zealous for wealth, and the wealth profited him nothing: for he neither enjoyed it, nor became master of the son he had, but is altogether poor, just as he was when born — born without money, without clothing. Again, “in the hand of the son” means “in the son’s power there is nothing.” We are accustomed to say, “he has the wealth under his hand.” When, then, the day of death comes, he returns again without dignity, without authority, taking nothing from this life; only the soul’s goods can one take up.

But concerning sensible and human things it is said: “Do not fear when a man grows rich and the glory of his house is multiplied, for when he dies he will not take all things” (Psalm 49:16-17). Here the pretext that says “he will not take all things” is not a partial denial but a universal one — instead of “nothing.” And if you wish to take it literally as a partial privative denial, it says this: that there are things one does take — if, having money, he does good; if, having glory and office, he reaches out to the helpless and tries to help — from his zealous labors he takes these with him: beneficence […] just as he was born until death. If, then, “in his abundance he toils for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5:16), what he gathers does not remain. And indeed…

The Rich Fool and the Nature of His Loss§5

5in grief and anger

All his days are in darkness and in mourning and in much anger and sickness and gall (Ecclesiastes 5:17). These things can be said about the son, or about both. Again: “And he begot a son, and there is nothing in his hand. Just as he came out naked from his mother’s womb, he will return to go as he came” (Eccl 5:13-14).

Many who possessed the things of “falsely-named knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20) or of Greek philosophy did not have sons who were lovers of these things; rather their sons depart together with them, having acquired nothing in the same way. Many unlearned men, at any rate, have become sons of wise men. This son, then, departs as he came: he came without such instruction and departs without it. But this too is possible: that one begets him who is reputed wise in this way — begets someone in wickedness, in licentiousness, the other kinds of evil — and he comes out naked of what the father was zealous for. The father was zealous, though, not at all about the kinds of evil, but about glory and “falsely-named knowledge.”

He seems somehow, even if […] however these things may remain here. Again: of the father? Not called blameworthily, but at least instead of the praiseworthy he says […]. I say that wisdom is the mother of the wise man: “for wisdom was justified by her children” (Matt 11:19); and the children of wisdom are the wise. “And your mother will guide you” — wisdom. And again, habits — the worse and the better — are called mothers of the things done according to them. So too one is called “son of perdition” (John 17:12), “son of vipers” (Matt 3:7), “of death,” “son of light” (Luke 16:8), and another “son of peace” (Luke 10:6). Here we take the blameworthy mother, since the person under discussion is not an excellent one. According to the anagogy he has a blameworthy mother: just as his mother — wickedness — brought him forth, so he enters here having acquired nothing, in opposition to what his father — who gathered toilsome wealth — provided, and his mother, the habit that bore him.

Here, having acquired nothing, in opposition to what his father had — the one who gathered toilsome wealth — and his mother, the habit that bore him. He will turn back to go as he has come, and he will take nothing of his toil. The fact of the history is clear: he takes nothing of what he labored for. He lets them go and did not know at the time, even if they come upon his enemies. 'He stores up,' he says, 'and does not know for whom he gathers them' (Psalm 39:6). And the matter of the upward leading has been said already, that he does not take away anything of what his father and his mother, according to wickedness, make wealthy. Therefore, a praiseworthy mother may also be taken; here she has come to godliness, so that she may possess... [The text is damaged here.]...to enjoy... and indeed this is an evil sickness; for just as it came to be, so it will depart. — Thus it is necessary to take meaning: if the entering into a place signifies a local entrance, so also the exiting. For I do not say that the one who entered into this city went out from wickedness, but rather he entered here from another land or city. And what is his abundance, for which he toils toward the wind? His toil becomes wind, that is, his wealth is being overturned by nature; it is not becoming his own, not being held, so as even to be sent to a son. And indeed all his days are in darkness and in mourning. Darkness here means ignorance and the lack of clarity of things. And he mourns, missing those things which he hoped for, from which he thinks he has a pleasant life. And something stands before him. For mourning is raised up over death. In a certain way, therefore, he has died while living, 'and all his days are in darkness and he mourns' (Ecclesiastes 5:17). 'And the one who squanders,' he says, 'has died while living' (1 Tim 5:6). If he has died, he is not worthy of being mourned; it is not necessary to raise up mourning over her. For indeed the empty lives living, but he has died, having cast away the life of salvation, the blessed life, as if he had not squandered it living according to the human way.

The distinction between temporal and spiritual longevity§6

Proportional Distribution of Spiritual Gifts§7

7The power to eat from it, to take a part of it, and to be glad in its labor—this is a gift of God. Wealth was given to a man so that he might eat and be glad from it, and therefore this gift was from God.

Often one uses the gift and enjoys what is in it, but sometimes one fails to do so, either because he himself, through much stinginess, consumes nothing toward being glad, or because he is hindered by sickness or some other circumstance. This stated thing is this: if anyone receives money so that he may be useful, and this is to be a gift of God. And He gives according to the needs of those asking.

Furthermore, what is 'in labor'? We have said 'from labor.' Furthermore, if it was a gift of God? I was saying what even the apostle says: 'that I often intended to come to you' (Romans 1:13). For what reason then? 'That I might impart to you a spiritual gift' (Romans 1:11). And I was saying that not all things given by God are spiritual gifts. Whenever anyone receives a 'word of wisdom,' a 'word of knowledge,' and some other virtue, he has received a spiritual grace; but not if someone receives wealth or health or something of that kind; he has received a gift of God and a grace, but not a spiritual one.

The Lord 'causes death and makes alive' (1 Sam 2:6). If He 'makes alive,' meaning grain, wine, this very life, He has provided, but not a spiritual gift. The Lord 'appoints kings and removes them' (Dan 2:21). The authorities given to the rulers are certainly not 'spiritual gifts.' And the grace here, which is the gift, is not spiritual, being sensible and human.

Furthermore, the ascent: 'and indeed every man to whom God gave' (Ecclesiastes 5:19). I still have the end of the statement. If he has much money, if he has myriads of grain and much wine, he is not able to eat or drink everything, but he has a gift; which he is able to receive, the sufficient food, even until being satisfied, and that similarly, 'this is a gift of God.' If, therefore, anyone eats or drinks beyond what is necessary, he does not have these things as a gift of God, but as gifts of pleasure.

And toward the ascent, thus: God gives wisdom and the 'wealth' in wisdom. And the 'existing things,' the contemplations of wisdom, so that the man might eat and drink from which he received, the bread of wisdom.

so that its 'water' might be the 'wine' which he turned into a basin. And 'this' indeed is the 'house of God'. If one receives the spiritual thing as it ought, this gift is moreover a 'part of it'. You know that the parts are primarily given according to a proportion. Not everyone who possesses this, which I have said, a possession, and the 'existing things' interpreted allegorically and the 'wealth', holds it in the same way, but to each according to his ability it is distributed.

If, for example, a trainer provides food to athletes and to those around the contest—for he also has others like bodyguards—he gives to each according to a proportion: to one athlete seven pounds of meat—and this is his portion—to another four; and to the one not competing, he gives two. Thus, a portion is given to each according to his power and his capacity. In this way also the parable of the talents in the Gospel occurred. He gave to each of his slaves his own silver, 'to each according to his own ability, to the one five, to the other two, and to the other one' (Matthew 25:15).

Since a more human expression is sometimes used, you know that there are things called sensible comforts for prayers, not only for eating, but also for removing sorrows; and these, therefore, are the spiritual nourishments. And someone receives in order to be glad, and receives a 'portion' so that it may remain with him. He is not only gladdened and fed and drinks from a brief encounter, but also continuously. For he continues drinking from the spring and the water which Jesus gives, and it remains with him. For he has within himself a spring having become a source for eternal life.

And again: 'Open your eyes and be filled with bread' (Proverbs 20:13). The one who opens the eyes of the 'inner man' 'shall be filled with bread'. And the loaves, therefore, thus remain like 'the spring which changes into eternal life'. And this has become useful by way of history, when the widow in Sarepta of Sidon, having only a few drachmae, fed Elijah and she herself had nothing, until prosperity came from the rain (1 Kings 17:14). For he will not remember many of the days of his life, because God distracts him with the joy of his heart. It was necessary in the day of his life to remember many things after these, those who are diligent in these things.

The Corruption of Choice and Wealth§8

8Something greater happens. He does not remember many things, but has hope only for the present, saying, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die' (Isa 22:13). Therefore, is this what it means that 'God distracts him' (Ecclesiastes 5:20)? He distracts him in these things, since he does not want to acquire the preceding things, nor does he labor for the taking up of them. So that the soul does not become motionless, other things are given to it. And I said this at the beginning of the book, when I had it: 'God gave a wicked distraction.'

Therefore, the ascent: 'that he does not remember many of the days of his life, because God distracts him in the joy of his heart' (Ecclesiastes 5:20). To live according to philosophy and virtue is the chief and true life. And men do not remember many things, nor do they do much regarding that; they attend only to those who distract them and bring pleasant things, and they strive only about those things which they collect. But it was necessary to remember many things of those which will be useful to his life truly.

And here, then, is the common life, according to which we feel, according to which we have the soul yoked to the body, and according to which irrational animals move and perceive. The divine life, according to reason and contemplation, is the particular life of this man. Therefore, does he not remember this? He does not remember those things contributing to this life, if he has something futile.

Again, here 'heart' for us is the true mind, which sees God. For instance, the saint says 'with boldness' to God: 'my heart was not stuck to me through scandal' sic. Again, others have 'fleshly hearts, in which the Spirit of the living God writes.' And he says 'fleshly' meaning those receptive to the writing of the Spirit. It is also possible, according to the literal sense, that he rejoices in his own heart. For he desired to have a heart feeding on pleasure.

One must take the words toward those speaking. If the speaker is wise, one must listen to them wisely. If, being wise, he personifies another face and brings it appropriately to that man, one must again listen to the conversation in that person. Since the apostle himself says: 'whether we eat or whether we drink, we neither lack nor exceed' (1 Corinthians 8:8), whether we are Christians or wise.

Or 'slaves of Christ', we have neither addition nor subtraction from the eating of anything still. But when he says, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die' (1 Corinthians 15:32), it is the same scribe, the same one speaking, but not from his own person, not as an apostle speaks, but he took the persona of those saying that beyond this present life, there is no life after these things.

It is an evil that I saw under the sun (Ecclesiastes 6:1), and it is much among men; a man, to whom God will give wealth and substance and glory. These are held by evils; and this evil I 'saw under the sun' (Eccl 1:9) and especially it abounds among men. And in irrational animals one finds difference; not all horses are so loved as those standing by for contests or for wars. And likewise with donkeys and dogs.

But the difference is great concerning man. For those things indeed act differently. That kind of resting... is the one being expelled. Here, however, choice is a distracted choice, a choice unable to judge what is profitable and what is not profitable; knowledge is an error, to suppose that one is able to produce something from wealth and glory among men, when he sinks from opposites, from injustice and poverty. It is therefore great, since it is taken through choice. And it seems to take that which is neither good nor bad; but it does not bear this evil which one is able to take.

If he has a right thought, it seems that the 'man' has something advantageous compared to the whole race of men. The woman is not so as the man, nor the boy as the one who has come to manhood. If then the 'man' carries these things well, those who are inferior to the man have much more. 'There is' for him, he says, 'wealth and glory', and he has nothing more of these. He used to have more of them. The wise man, if he has 'wealth', uses the wealth differently than the many-man; the one having 'glory' does not think greatly upon the glory, but also adorns it along with himself. Joseph once had glory, and his own virtue adorned it. And the other wise men did this according to us. But he who has thought about the walls and otherwise about the passers-by, caring for them little, that one founders in these things.

The Illusion of Control over Wealth§9

9And in shipwrecks, one bears neither poverty well, nor wealth, nor glory; from which it is evident that these things, by the very word, are indifferent. For if anyone is able to use them well and for good, by the very word they are neither good nor evil. They are able to have a good use and a useful use, a graspable and praiseworthy one. And it is not surprising if we say this.

And that Egyptian whom they say, the Trismegistus, says that the wise light does not release fate; it is not under necessity, nor is it under the world, but it has become above the heaven; the intellect of the visible things has become above. Therefore they say that the foolish men are under it. Thus, the one who has ascended above human life and is able to say, 'I look not at the visible things, but at the invisible things' (2 Cor 4:18), knows that the visible things are temporary, but the invisible are eternal; he is not weakened by them, nor does wealth lift him up, nor does poverty sink him, nor does he seem to have acquired a great evil from a lack of glory. And from the honor and fame of the many, he does not consider himself to have anything.

But what of the ascent? They are rich and glorified in the 'wisdom of this age and of the rulers of this age that are passing away' (1 Cor 2:6). These do not rightly use either glory or prudence. And because of this, they are examined in great sin. For the wise man, even if he lacks one of these, conducting himself magnanimously, is not under evil; he is not at all sick but is healthy, and according to virtue he is healthy.

'Wealth' and 'possessions'—hear thus: as mostly 'possessions' is said of movable things; they even call them treasures. And not only these has this one acquired, but also 'wealth' in property, in estates, in lands, in houses. Toward wealth, therefore, both possessions and glory are given to him. But toward the intellect, it is said, that often someone will know in a false name and will be glorified in glory and in this...

To those thinking highly of themselves, believing they are wise and seeming to be prudent, and that they are not 'mastered by these things' (Ecclesiastes 6:2); sometimes they obtain what they desire. And it seems to them that 'nothing of theirs is lacking to the soul' (Ecclesiastes 6:2), thinking they have acquired all 'wealth' of the soul and all 'glory', yet they do not have the power to use them.

Take for me someone who has grasped a great position, but has fallen into misfortune, such that he is no longer progressing; the power of the position is of no use to him. And indeed, we have known such people many times.

To bring this to a point: it is to find a man who is rich, as it has been said allegorically, and yet they have nothing more. No one receives them, no one praises them, and they do not bring profit. And we have known many such men who are learned: observing that something is necessary, and seeing how they are. And there is nothing lacking to his soul from all things which he desires, and God does not permit him to eat from it. Nothing of what he desires is added to him. This he says, that God has not given him power over them empty, even if he uses them as he wishes, because he does not rightly satisfy the desire.

Thus the rich man, remembered with Lazarus (Luke 16:19), had everything, and 'possessions and wealth and glory' (Luke 16:19). And he received 'to master' them there, but after this, a deprivation of them occurred, and also of the pleasure upon them; and the one who heard: 'Fool, this very night they demand your soul from you (Luke 12:20). But what you have prepared, to whom will it belong?'

Others, having these things abundantly and very richly, are not permitted to be filled by them; they are prevented from having enjoyment, either through sickness or through some other circumstance. Because a stranger man eats him; and indeed this is also futility and sickness. These things, the 'wealth' which he accompanied, the 'possessions' eat him. And this happens in many ways; sometimes he falls to robbers and his wealth is taken from him. Many times the one summoned by the king...

The Multiplicity of Days and Virtue§10

10It is taken away, and his own things go to others and are overpowered by someone, and another enjoys those things which he himself worked for. By way of comparison: many have often used things which others have written about with words, not being of their own opinion or glory. Often indeed wise men find books, into which others have labored, and both they and others are nourished by them and are glorified, when they are able to overturn them.

"And this too is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 6:2). Vanity is the not-retaining and not-enjoying of one's own. If a man should beget a hundred, and live many years and a multitude, because his days shall be many. He has said the external pursuits for men: "wealth, possessions, glory". Then he says also concerning childbearing: it becomes a great sickness. And he has used an excess: "if someone should beget a hundred".

No one at all begets a hundred. Let us say, even if someone is able to beget a hundred from various women; even this provides him no more. For kings indeed become fathers of many children, and this will not prevent deaths. For if he does not have one child, he certainly fails; and he does not have more than this, and even if he has a thousand; for they are not certainly saved in the wars. And he shall live many years.

Appropriately he has said such things, "wealth, possessions, glory" and the others. And he says the bodily goods. Even if someone is not born in sorrows and lives many years, since his life has remained a long time, it is vain, having the promise only until the present life. Because of this, he strives in vain.

But what about the comparison? If someone through instruction begets many and strives to have a long-lasting glory in life, he does not become unchangeable. It is possible to be taken away from the children; for example, this Arius who among us begot many according to teaching and imitation of life. For indeed all were almost by him, and they were turned away, and all left him, and he did not have other men hating him as those begotten by him.

A multitude shall be his days of years. This he says: "he lived a thousand years of days". A multitude of days has become his. But the many-dayed life will benefit him nothing, since thus he receives it according to this time measured by the sun.

Another becomes long-lived upon the good earth, and the multitude of days benefits him. Indeed, it is said in the manner of a promise: 'I will fill him with length of days.' If it is 'better to depart and be with Christ,' then he who remains in the body laments much time, saying, 'Woe, that my sojourning has been lengthened' (Psalm 120:5); how then is the long-liver and the multitude of days given in the manner of a blessing? This is what it means: whatever years a man may live in this life, they are written down; and the multitude of days will not benefit him at all. For sometimes in the multitude of his days, more sins of his are found and many transgressions.

But he, having those days increasing, preparing the sunrises of the sun of righteousness, as was said a little before, possesses an enjoyment of the things above that exceeds being under the sensible sun. To whatever extent one has approached virtue, he has been enlightened by it. And the days become many in proportion to how much virtue holds sway. If he turns away from this life, he has a multitude of days from this life. Thus we call the days those illuminated by the sun of righteousness. And just as regarding the sensible days, a multitude is said of the earth being often circumscribed and... many times the solar cycle... so also with virtue... according to itself. That is to say: from life with virtue, one becomes long-lived, long-lasting, and blessed. If he tests these days in virtue, he will not desire to remain for other years. If the vain life should turn away from life, since he has hope in God, he becomes victorious over all of them, and it is vain for him to live many years. For many years are written down, but the blessed life is greater; it is eternal.

I wish to bring forward the apostolic view, which some seem to think is according to history. 'Piety,' he says, 'is profitable for all things, having the promise of life, both of the present and of the one to come' (1 Timothy 4:8). When he says 'of the present,' he does not mean this one, concerning which the apostle says, 'If in this life we have hope only' (1 Corinthians 15:19), but the life able to exist here according to virtue, concerning which anyone might say it is 'in part.' Because

The Goodness of the Unborn§11

11The blessed ones receive this life from that source, which is clearly shown by the words: 'He who believes in me has eternal life' (John 6:47), and 'This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Him whom you sent, Jesus Christ' (John 17:3). The promise of piety does not possess this life alone—that is, to live blessed here, to live here in the practical and contemplative life—but it also receives this life as the whole receives a part, just as the 'through a mirror' receives the 'face to face' (1 Cor 13:12), if something is eternal or if something is long-lasting.

But another life does not receive this temporal life; I say this to those who think it is only this. For they said, 'hoping in this life alone', 'let us eat and drink' (1 Corinthians 15:32). And even if something is received in this way, it is not the long-lasting life. They go 'to the lake of fire' (Matt 25:41) and 'have a great penalty of fire' (Matt 25:46), where they have become part of the lot of death, clearly giving judgments against this life. And his soul will not be filled with goodness, and even a burial did not happen to him.

As it has happened, he says, 'wealth and possessions and glory'; he is not immersed in these. Just as he who loves wants to have even more silver and other things, so also he who wants to live luxuriously. For he does not yet want to encounter death. And his ascent is this: whoever is glorified as wise having 'falsely named' 'knowledge', still wants to be more greatly glorified. If he lives according to 'falsely named knowledge', he wished to always have it thus. And even a burial did not happen to him.

He says that 'he lived many years of descent'. A thousand years happened, filled with all things pleasant, he misses nothing; and often without burial he is cast away. 'Better the corpse than this', in which nothing pleasant existed; nor did the shroud have wealth, nor possessions, nor was he glorified, and it is better than this, because he has not experienced any of these at all. This is applied to the literal sense. But as an ascent, this is that he has become wealthy in many of those things, yet he did not find the reputation that describes the former life. He says, therefore: 'From the house of your God I will destroy the carved images and the bronze; I will set your burial as a place'. Some say thus...

Again, he says, 'I will set your burial as a carving,' and not 'I will destroy' these things. And when it is profitable for your soul, you set your burial as a theme. For he baptizes and buries together with the destroyed ones. Indeed, after 'I will set your burial,' he says, 'Judah, keep your feasts.' Therefore, in a feast, one strives for prayers.

He of old, being filled with carving and casting in a tomb, was cast so as to be 'buried with Christ' (Rom 6:4). Therefore, he has called to make it a feast, to do what is necessary; for a feast is nothing other than doing what is required, but we add to it this or that toil. Toward the upward leading, then, it is this: he strove much and grew rich, as if living in vanity with a false opinion, not knowing with clarity, being filled up, 'and there was no burial for him.'

The miscarriage spoke something good for him, that he came in vanity and walks in darkness (Ecclesiastes 6:4). According to the spoken word concerning the one who grew rich in all possessions, of whom nothing of the abundance remains—not moving, not still, not a glory, not a dignity—and if, having died, he is found outside all these, 'it is a good thing the miscarriage for this one,' which is the one who has not been fully tested by this life.

And toward such an upward leading, it should be taken thus, as it was also said previously regarding the little: 'it was good for him, if he had not been born.' Therefore, it is good for those more blessed, those who are still leading lives and those who have died, who have not yet been born. Because he came in vanity and walks in darkness (Ecclesiastes 6:4).

Other people, when they are well-born and well-reared, having used the things given to them badly, had this vanity; but the miscarriage had even its very birth in vanity; it was conceived not that it might live, not that it might become a fetus, but that the womb might immediately perish, immediately as the conception occurred. In darkness, therefore, again, he did not come to men; he was not known, that 'in vanity he came and in darkness he walks' (Ecclesiastes 6:4). He did nothing, nor thought, nor knew anything of human things. And because of this, as he came with ignorance and through not having experienced these things, so again he walks. Much is there concerning which the word is, and it is sought by many who are unclear as to whether, if the conceptions occur, in order that...

The Famine of Jerusalem and the Mother's Choice§12

12That men may be born—even if it is up to God whether to give a child or not, and whether to be for a long time or a short time—how can it not be brought about for certain ends, and not be wasted? And even this, having been done, lives for two or three hours; but let us say ten years. Do these things not happen in this way? Are these 'judgments' not resembling 'the great deep'? We only know in the whole that it has not happened in vain; even if it had possessed vanity in not being born or not being reared, especially our born one does not do these things in vain.

Why is that unknown thing? Because we have human calculations. But it happens for salvation and for this, which God gives to each one. The soul not giving the same due renders all these things void. For if it is sown together, all these things are vain. But the ends of things happen by the judgment of God; and God says to give children. And if ever indeed men ask children from him, the gifts of God are judged together. If any of them happened to have many, he prays by word, but by the word of wisdom and knowledge, that he may have gifts. Garbled text. Following the ascent, then, that some were born—perhaps the daughters of divine teaching—to be received, so that they might be brought forth, and immediately they were harmed.

Thus also that which is said in the Gospel was lifted up. Concerning much tribulation coming, it says: 'Woe to those with child and to those nursing' (Matthew 24:19). She who has in the womb, receiving the tribulation and not bringing forth, is harmed. And that was received in vain. And they indeed were born, but they did not become perfect, but they bore the nursing ones; and again, quickly, the soul having become into tribulation, they were harmed, having virtue newly born, having encountered first in catechesis. It is possible even to take this as history; the coming of that tribulation mentioned in the Gospel required flight. As for the whole, take it toward the spoken word: those having in the womb were being hindered, using a sharp run, and were being seized. And the war against the Hebrews is hinted at, even the Roman war. She having in the womb is not able to suffer evil or...

Whether in fleeing or in not being nourished like another nursing woman. The oppression of the famine and the great evils are thus pointed out in the laments, because even 'pitiful women' (Lam 4:10) ate 'their own children'. For she did not permit others, not being pitiful, to use simply the food that was being found, even if it were his child; but it signifies the oppression of the hardship and the sparing of the necessary things.

The ones sharing in the misery, therefore, ate their own children, not only toward the children, but also toward others. Such a thing is remembered in that Mary, in the accounts concerning the fall of Jerusalem. She was fond of children—and she had only a child—and she was also among the well-to-do and the very wealthy. Much, I think, of prosperity she had used for nourishment; at times she bought a goat or some meat. And by the plunderers during the insurrection and by hand through the wars, there became a lack. And if the insurrectionists had perceived the smoke, they were entering and casting down the meals.

Taking therefore her child—and he was about three years old—she gave him certain words, in which she also said this: 'It is more profitable for you to be eaten by me or to exchange something bad and endure slavery from your enemies. Go then and become my food.' And having slaughtered, she saw him. A little later the insurrectionists entered and she did not allow them to enter, but she was saying to them: 'Come, eat even the half.' And she as if conquered them.

And in darkness his name shall be covered, and indeed he did not see the sun and did not know rest, because of this one over this one. This says, that this one is nothing at all. And the 'darkness' denotes the unknown 'name', the ignorance of him because of not being known. He came to us neither perceived nor having been led in a dark way. The: 'and indeed he did not see the sun.' He will not even perceive; he had no other rest. For to see the sun is to behold. He did not see therefore this one; and if he did not have the perception of this sense, it is evident that he did not even of the others. And I do not say this at all: 'by this one over this one', the one who was beyond the one who had led them to wealth.

Hyperbolic Language and the Necessity of Love§13

13And he had glory and much instruction and a long life, because having been tested by all these things, he became an outcast and was not even quickly worthy. He had nothing from these things through his wound; that one did not even suffer the same things as himself.

Regarding the turning back: 'and even the sun did not know him' (Ecclesiastes 6:5). In agreement, you again take the turning back, because many, having been tested by the pleasures of those pursuing glory, another was not even tested at their beginning. This one is better than that one. For that one, for the sake of which he strove and possessed, 'he will give a word' and will be punished. But this one does not endure this, not even having entered the beginning through human thoughts or having had a trial of them.

Again, to consider a man who has died even in ignorance to be better than all, but one who has judged all in pseudonymous knowledge. Peter alludes in the second epistle: 'it was better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, or to have known and to have turned back from the holy commandment handed down to them' (2 Pet 2:21). For he does not say at all that it is good to not have known the way of righteousness, but rather it is better not to have known than to have known and to despise it.

He has not said other things as regarding Judas, just as the Savior said: 'it was good for him, if he had not been born' (Matt 26:24). It was good for him, if he had not been called; if he had not been called, he would not have betrayed. It would not have been otherwise good for Saul, if he had not been king; for he did not fall among the lawless, among whom he fell after becoming king. And what did he live for a thousand years of descents, and he did not see goodness? If he lived a thousand years of descents, then he was a father of a thousand children: 'if a man begets a hundred' (Ecclesiastes 6:3). To live, then, as a name consistent with begetting, let him take. But it would not be a conception of seed if, without the producing of offspring, there were no sowing of it; thus, not even...

These things would not have happened without a soul coming. According to the union that occurs, there are two causes: the marriage of the body, and the 'descent' of the soul. It is said similarly. Again, they say in this way 'descents' are cycles of years. Each year has a certain beginning, which we call his 'descent'.

Even if someone has become many-years from the multitude of years, he continued in the life which he had with diligent care, which makes those pursuing him compassionate; he gains nothing from this, so that becoming a thousand years might be equal to living a thousand years of descent; here 'cycle' is used in order to be. But how is it according to the explicit text and improbable and impossible? It is not improbable nor impossible; it has been spoken in a hyperbolic manner. And things spoken by way of hyperbole are not improbable and impossible—impossible at times, but not improbable. For someone will say thus: if a man is able to beget ten, he is able to beget a hundred, and to live so many years, if he lived fifty. The former, Methuselah, lived near a thousand. Therefore, the word is a hyperbole for the sake of emphasis, exaggerating the truth.

When the height of the cities constructed by those before Israel who possessed the land is spoken of, saying, 'we saw cities there with walls, whose walls reached even to the heaven', it was spoken hyperbolically. And the apostle also knew the logic of hyperbole and the use of the name. 'And still, by way of hyperbole, I say to you: if I have all knowledge and know all the mysteries, but do not have love, I benefit nothing' (1 Cor 13:2). For it is not profitable to know knowledge and all the mysteries without divine love. 'If we have all the faith so as to remove mountains, not having love, the greatness of the faith is nothing' (Matt 17:20). He says love is greater and that it is faith; and he gives it the power to say the mountains are removed; this is not lying, even if it exaggerates.

Life as a Shadow§14

14the truth, so as to encounter unbelief. And he says again: 'and Ahaziah was swift in doing as the watchers in the field' (2 Samuel 2:18). He was fast. And according to allegory, often the life of men and their polity is called a sea. Here, waves are able to signify what happens to man. And he says that regarding the judgments happening to him, 'it ascends even unto the heavens' and 'it descends even unto the depths' (Psalm 107:26).

Gaps... in the following year... Gaps... what is superfluous to man?... so in general regarding man he says, Gaps... of the things... Gaps... when Gaps... Gaps... here also regarding Gaps... the Jews were stronger... Gaps... the words of God and... 'a part of him'. And those from the Greeks who believed were called... Gaps... the Jews being such as being a holy commonwealth and the others, but having made the things called Gaps subject to those on whom he was called... and so this is to say 'what is superfluous', if first someone is called and... Gaps... he took it for himself... Gaps... Gaps... and he speaks about the conduct and life here. This living we have while being in the flesh and passing through this. It is under time, it is under the number of days. But the truly living is eternal; and such a life is both eternal and without end. He speaks therefore about the life here, the life in heaven. And he made them in shadows; for who will announce to man what will be after him under the sun (Ecclesiastes 6:12). The life of men, which they lead here, is shadowy. You have in the Gospel said by the Savior: 'Seek', he says, 'first the righteousness...'

"...and the kingdom of God, and all these things will be set before you." It is impossible for a shadow to be without a pre-existing body. There must be a body so that a shadow may thus follow it. Therefore, the life here is a shadow, being a consequence of a preceding life, which the life occurring here follows. For this reason it is said, "our days are as a shadow." And Job also said previously, "the life of men on the earth is a shadow." The life on the earth, or the material life, the temporal, the one in the flesh, this is a "shadow" of the life above.

It is a possible thing, an easy thing, a productive thing. So also the apostle, wishing to show the shadowy life, said, "If in this life we have only hoped, we are more to be pitied than all men" (1 Cor 15:19). Let a man, having some hope, attend to a shadow appearing to help him; in a palace, if someone perceives the face of a king not present, will the shadow or the appearance benefit him? For it is not possible for that which can be present to him beside a true king who rules according to laws, to be the shadow itself. Therefore our life is shadowy. But having known this, beloved, that this life is shadowy, attend to it as to something not permanent, as to something dependent on another; and in this, observe that there is another life which the shadowy life follows, and live and act according to that.

For thus "one is able to please God." Because of "who will announce to man" (Ecclesiastes 6:12) what follows him while he still exists under the sun, all divination is refuted from that source, all human prophecy. For "under the sun" is not in vain. For those having ascended above the sun of the Son and having approached the sun of righteousness, as it is said of them that "they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father," it is not possible to announce "what will come after," or what receives them. And as I have said and now will say: we say that we have ignorance of the judgments of God, since they happen to be "unsearchable. The judgments of God are very deep" (Rom 11:33). And the abyss is incomprehensible or difficult to comprehend. And let it be said that even if some were judged by a most righteous king in a dream, each according to his own sin, we all know that they were judged justly, though not to this extent...

The Good Name and the True Light§15

15For what reason? We have this to say even here. Again, many among the rulers turned toward private interests. This same Ecclesiastes says: 'I saw slaves on horses and rulers riding about' (Eccl 10:7), and we cannot say for what reason he has this. But we can say in general that the things of men fall away. If, however, surpassing these, we become heavenly, no longer observing the temporal and apparent things, then we will lift ourselves to God, being able to know such things as follow after these.

For each one receives a reward according to his practice and his work. This is said regarding God by the Psalmist: 'You will render to each according to his works' (Psalm 62:12). And even if the works are manifest, we do not trust in what kind of disposition is performing them. Moreover: 'And he made them in shadow.' The upward leading? He says this: 'Those having shone like the sun in the kingdom of their own Father' lived in the true days. In a manner of promising, he spoke concerning someone: 'I will fill him with length of days' (Psalm 91:16). Indeed, these long days occurring toward the light of the truth are not shadowy; they are the prototypes. But the days which we can still receive while surrounded by flesh are shadowy.

Then one knows 'in part,' when 'the perfection has not yet come' (1 Corinthians 13:10), when he possesses the 'earnest of the Spirit' (Eph 1:14) and the light of the truth. Someone 'made these days in shadow,' but he did not know what would be behind him, whether he would surpass the shadow or fall down by it. And so that we may take the view from another example: the Jews have come to be in shadow, 'in the shadow' of days, not in the days themselves. For Moses, speaking the previous and true days, interprets: 'This is your life and this is the length of your days: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul' (Deut 6:5).

But the love toward God occurring 'from all the soul and from all the disposition' does not work an increase of these days. For many diligent and God-fearing men were quickly transferred from life, and others, the most mediocre, lived long. For who will announce to man what will be behind him under the sun? 196 Being of doubt...

One must take the word in two ways, so that this is both 'what shall be announced to him under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 6:12) and 'who else under the sun is able to announce'. Both are true. Furthermore, what is the leading up? This leading up is this: for both the man and the one striving to truly possess what is pleasant to him, it is asked 'who will announce to him, what will be after him under the sun'. It can be said here of the things that shine forth, those that lead up from the shadow, and those that guide from the temporal into the eternal. It is also possible to take this regarding the 'shadow' of righteousness, that 'who will announce to him, what will be to them under the sun', while still approaching righteousness. For he is no longer under the 'sun of righteousness' himself, having surpassed the shadow and having become in that truth seeing it 'face to face' (1 Cor 13:12).

A good name is preferred over oil, and the day of death over a day of birth. It exhorts to attend to a good reputation. For it has been said: 'A good reputation is praised by bones' (Proverbs 15:30). And we are accustomed to say that the one attending to virtue has acquired a good name, and the one living shamefully receives a bad name. Therefore, one is exhorted to attend to reputation. For this name, which seems to be sweet like oil, is good. Furthermore, is the spoken word clear? Those living well in life seem to be praised—but this can be with slander; such as the rich man remembered after Lazarus, and the one who heard: 'Fool, in this night they require your soul from you (Luke 12:20). But what you have prepared, what will it be?' Therefore, you prefer and choose this name of the seemingly good oil. But it is possible to take up the beautiful name, to make use of the chosen name of God. In order that the name not be bare, the good name consists according to virtue. And someone acquires this with toil and pain and sweat. But that which becomes sweet by chance often happens and is outside of their own striving. This is what the saint rejects, saying: 'Let not oil that sins anoint my head', which they think is sweet and oils themselves, but he says let it not be for me. For not every reputation is praiseworthy. The name here can be equal to reputation. Many are well-spoken of, who are able to exhaust others, claiming that they are rich, that they are rulers. This...

The Purpose of Mourning§16

16Therefore the name is not for the sake of mercy. For there is nothing else of mercy. But that which is truly to be chosen and brings to the possessor something beyond the pleasures of life is the true name.

Similarly he speaks concerning days, that those truly bringing the things of importance according to the inner man and those leading an 'unblemished life' (βίον ἀκηλίδωτον) have a good name. And this is that which is beyond mercy, beyond the pleasures.

But some acquire this name not from works, not from life, but from the pride and haste of certain people. That name is not more choice than mercy. One must have something to be pitied; but with this mercy, if he makes his life right, the true name, more choice, is to be preferred.

And the day of his death is preferred over the day of his birth. The day of birth is the beginning of tribulation and ill-doing. The day of birth introduces man into life, where there are many evils and bad things; but the day of death imposes an end upon the struggling life.

Therefore he who does not attend to the things at hand nor thinks great things upon them, but knowing that 'it is better to be dissolved with Christ' (κάλλιον ἀναλύσαντα σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι), prefers the day of death over the day of birth. For the one is the beginning of many evils, but the other is the end and the description of the evils.

And the evils we call here those of struggle, the indifferent things: poverty, vainglory, and those related to these. It is good to go into a house of mourning or to go into a house of wine (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Fluidity of character does not occur where mourning is. For there, boasting and laughing are turned away; this misfortune does not allow this to happen.

And at times, when we guard ourselves from misfortune through displeasure toward the unfortunate and the suffering, we are even permitted to appear joyful. But in the house of wine, what happens is contrary, bringing lust and songs, being a symptom of a coarse life.

Therefore, it is 'good' for the wise 'to go into a house of mourning or into a house of wine' (Ecclesiastes 7:2). This drinking together, when no evil is brought, brings neither good nor bad. Or is it so that we might not receive 'mourning' that is false? But that which the Savior makes blessed.

And regarding the spoken word, let us say that to be with those undergoing misfortune does not harm. The house of mourning, declaring our nature entirely, provides a reminder that we...

Not only the first ones are unhappy, but we also possess mourning; for mourning is common. But the ascent: the house is one of mourning, where there are doctrines of moral sins and the punishments upon them. For hearing these things, men both mourn and lament over themselves. So what, then, is the good in mourning? For it brings blessedness. For 'blessed are those who mourn now, for they shall be comforted' (Matt 5:4). Mourning is a prelude and a beginning of comfort. But the Savior does not bless those who mourn in just any way. For sometimes they also fall away, even while the word says: 'Do not weep for one dead, nor mourn him; but weep with a weeping for the one departing from the presence of the Lord, because he will not return again' (Jeremiah 22:10). This one is worthy of weeping. It is not necessary to mourn the one dead, but the one dead having fallen away from blessedness and eternal life. In many ways, one can mourn himself having become lost in sins, if he perceives it. And he is blessed, the one mourning himself, having made himself worthy of mourning and having fallen from the blessed life, so that he may be comforted. And he mourns others also, when he is a lover of children. Thus indeed Paul was saying: 'Not having entered, I shall mourn many.' 'Many' he says, those 'not having repented.' This one mourning does not mourn himself, but the others having been made dead, or rather his own children through discipline in any way.

And the house signifies a certain state and an ascent, not a place. He knew this, the end of every man, and the living one will give good to his heart. The one going into a 'house of mourning' knows that 'the end of every man' is to die. And if he knows that he will die, he will not think much of it, nor will he consider it a matter of great importance if he possesses such things which he is able to cast off having died—wealth, glory, rank—according to 'do not fear when a man becomes rich and when the glory of his house is multiplied, for he will not take all things in his dying' (Psalm 49:16-17). And the living one will give good to his heart. To the living belongs the hunting of what seems good to himself. This is the pleasant. For the one dead and enduring what is worthy of being mourned does not 'give good in his heart.' But if a beautiful and good thing is snatched away from life, the...

Divine Wrath vs. Human Mirth§17

17Truly he finds 'good' for himself, 'entering into the joy of the Lord' (Matthew 25:21). But if he is foolish, there too he 'endures weeping' (Matthew 25:21). 'For there is the weeping and the gnashing of teeth' (Matt 8:12). And it is possible even to call the living 'the one living according to God'. Such were those around Abraham, concerning whom it has been said: 'God is not of the dead, but of the living' (Matt 22:32). The one truly living, the one having the blessed life, finds good for his own soul.

For the ascent: 'he knew this is the end of every man' (Eccl 3:2). The foolish man is called a man according to a different meaning, as it has been said: 'but you indeed as men are dying' (Psalm 82:7), and: 'for where there is strife and jealousy among you, are you not men?' (1 Corinthians 3:3). The one having cast off this life, by which he is a real man, mourns blessedly. But the living one, by desiring such an ascent and life, preserves the sweetness for himself; he does not seek the salvation after these things, that which is made straight through much toil. 'For through many tribulations it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of the heavens' (Acts 14:22), and: 'being afflicted in all things' (2 Cor 4:8), these have no sweetness. The one having mourned, therefore, 'knew the end of every man' (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Thus indeed he mourns as it is described of him, of the living, of the one being published.

The living one will not, therefore, simply give the good, but toward 'his own heart' being fond of love. A good passion is over laughter, because in the wickedness of man he will be angry. And from what is at hand it is possible to see this: if anyone has obedient ones, such as children or slaves, when he thus becomes angry and is passionate toward them so as to prevent their wickedness, this 'passion' is 'good', not passion absolutely, but the father toward a child, the guardian toward those being cared for. 'Because in the wickedness of man he will be angry' (referring to the one seeking laughter, who becomes a fool there where the jesters are); but the one having 'passion' against those doing such things and will be angry for himself, whenever a calculation or a matter such as this comes to him, as we said recently, that he is angry for his own sake.

The text begins mid-sentence...setting aside the heart because of the wickedness of man. Or, is it for the purpose of leading one upward? Having read the divine writings and having known how God is indignant against sinners and that he 'stirs up wrath' (Ps 7:11), which the holy man was entreating, saying: 'Do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger' (Psalm 6:1)—this wrath is not better than living with virtue; rather, if one is worthy to be punished, it is preferable for him to be rebuked through wrath or to be disciplined by that punishment. For he who is able to punish rages before the actual punishing.

Do we not hear in the Scripture that a threat lies in store against sinners? If the thing announced is wrath, what then is a threat? And in the threat is the wrath, not in the fulfillment of the threat. Or, in the punishment, is the wrath not greater? But he does not speak of this as a good thing, if anyone is tested by it, but rather that if wrath is released, sins increase, so that punishment may follow. Therefore, the 'good' is 'wrath over laughter.' That is, to find pleasure in evils. 'Because in the wickedness of man he shall be made good.' Laughter is made good in the wickedness of man; and the maker of laughter brings wickedness to himself and to others.

Thus, he who hunts for pleasures is made good in the wickedness of man, he who prefers softness to a rigorous life. The face of this laughter seems to be cheerful in wickedness. But if we speak regarding the one being raged against, that the thing appearing in the threat is not a wickedness opposed to virtue, but a wickedness that punishes those who err, concerning which it is also written in the prophet Amos: 'If there is wickedness in the city, which the Lord did not make?' (Am 3:6). There is no evil occurring in a city by nature without God. The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, and the heart of the foolish is in a house of mirth (Eccl 7:4). Behold, he has shown how the face of 'wrath' is preferable to that of 'laughter' among the things being taken; for indeed, the heart of the wise is more toward a house...

The Rebuke of the Wise vs. the Laughter of Fools§18

18A person is driven by grief or toward a house of drinking and laughter. The comparison made is such that they choose some things and flee others in many ways, one of which is from those who choose. The wise man chooses virtue, piety, 'to please God', and strives for piety, even if he must die. But the many-sided man, the fool, does not choose these.

From the things chosen, virtue is preferred, because the wise choose it, not the coarse, not the exhausted, not the fool. And from the facts, again the comparison is taken, the beautiful thing said by those judging and comparing. The necessary thing is taken when we say that the soul is more excellent than the body, and it is more fitting to care for it rather than the body. From the matter, toward which the choice and comparison happen, the precious thing is taken, since the soul is more precious. He who is sparing and caring of it cares for the precious and the better according to truth.

And there is also when the preference happens from the things accompanying. Thus it is not necessary to prefer living simply over dying. For even if someone prefers living over the one about to die through clamor or the justice of a judge or something else pursuing Christianity and the truth, it is for a little while. For if he does not die by the murderer, sometimes a disease having seized him interrupts life; it has difference only in time, that he who is immediately subject to the wrath of a judge dies, but to be destroyed by disease, life's end is uncertain, when. However, this is not for an infinity, but in more time he may remain. And thus the judgment happens from the singularity or the speed of the matter.

It is good to hear the rebuke of a wise man rather than the songs of fools. It seems to many that the rebuke from the wise should be avoided, especially when they are lovers of sin. For he having the desire to enjoy and to sin avoids the one forbidding these things. He who has no opinion at all rejoices in flatteries; he wants rather to hear the songs of flattery than the words of rebuke. For it is the part of a wise man to love the one rebuking. For it is said in Proverbs: but the impious and the evil man hates the one rebuking. For he says: 'He who rebukes the impious will be blamed and himself.' For he blames himself, the one rebuking the impious...

For the impious man is to be rejected and forbidden. And just as a physician who subjects those unable to be cured by cutting or cautery to such things is not a physician, but an ignorant physician, so he who reproves the incorrigible reproaches himself more, for he provokes them to speak against him.

And they show that one having such a fault does not know whom to reprove and whom not to. Such is the rebuke of the wise over the laughter of fools. Flatterers sing in a certain way; even if they speak moral words, they wish more to please than to benefit those who hear. Laughter is a word that stirs up pleasure, but rebuke, being corrective and persuading one to cease former works, demonstrates them, making it clear that they are things to be avoided and forbidden.

Is it the wise man who rebukes or the one being rebuked? It is the rebuke of the wise, not that which he himself undergoes, but that which he imposes on others. If you wish to take it as 'the rebuke of the wise' being that which he himself undergoes, that is a violent interpretation, yet he says this: the wise man receiving rebuke corrects himself and casts away those things for which the rebuke happened to him, and this is good for him. But he does not mean this, but rather that which he brings to those worthy of rebuke, so that the saying might be similar to this: 'He who brings wisdom from his lips strikes a heartless man with a rod.'

Just as the sound of thorns under a cauldron is so, such is the laughter of fools. And this too is vanity. For the thorns, when they are burned under a cauldron, produce a great noise. And so the laughter of fools is such, until they produce noises; it is not for the sake of refreshing the soul. If the soul does not laugh, it has not yet reached the point of rebuking. Often in the writings, the cauldron signifies punishment. 'For a east wind shall burn from the face of the countenance upon those inhabiting the land' (Ezekiel 20:47), when the people mocked the prophet, they laughed. Fools do not laugh until they have made a noise and sounds; they are more like jesters. And just as the thorns themselves, being burned under the cauldron, emit a noise, so their laughter is from a scorched, evil soul.

The Beginning and End of Wisdom§19

19Bringing forward those things. Furthermore, the upward leading: 'It is good to hear a rebuke from the wise.' The divine word of the Scriptures is wise, and each one of those guarding it is wise according to God, is God-wise. When therefore one such rebukes, is the effort good or not? And he rebukes well. But many rebuke even regarding not allowing someone to be a buffoon, for the sake of not dancing and doing such things. But the wise man brings forward a check against sin. And the rebuke, being such a thing of the wise, being improving, even if the one being improved is not improved, it is good beyond the folly of the foolish, the punishment of the word and not rebuking. And even if a man is harmed through the folly of the foolish, it is not only a woman or a child.

The worldly cares are indeed thorns, the shameful desires, the unrestrained pleasures. This he says: that such things, which those playing the buffoon think they do with pleasure, are thorns, bringing and coming under punishment. And this is vanity. For they will gain nothing from laughter; as you would say to one living badly: 'It is in vain for you.' For slander carries away the wise and destroys the good disposition of his heart. The 'carries away' is thus: often someone accuses the wise man badly and finds many following him. And if he was not entirely well-disposed and perfect, at times he also is shaken.

Susanna, her wise soul not being carried away, was slandered regarding adultery. And the slander was not being said against one or two false accusers; those ruling the people and judges of such accusations were the accusers. All the people paid attention to them as judges and as those ruling the people. And almost no one was a forger of the slander. When therefore, being God-wise, she perceived that in vain the things of the accusation were for her—for she would not find the one listening—she fled to God and with the spoken word she was silent, but with the mind she cried out: 'O God, the Eternal One, the Knower of hidden things, who knows all things before their being, you know that they testify falsely against me.' Slander did not carry her away, nor did it establish her in misery, but it confirmed her in sobriety. And Joseph likewise. And in the time especially of the persecutions, many...

They were flattered and not driven about. Therefore, the wise one here does not speak of the perfect one, but of the one having the beginning, the new one. Thus we have also understood: 'rebuke the wise, and he will love you'. The perfect wise man is not subject to any rebukes. For when it says, 'the wise will not depart from the mouth of the Most High', it speaks of the perfect ones here.

Many indeed sacrificed without even having a choice, 'the loss of the straightness of their heart'. For it is possible for toil to drive out a heavy intention not entirely all-powerful. A good end of words concerning his beginning, a good long-suffering concerning a high spirit. The end of the words rather has already something good concerning the beginning of the words.

The one beginning the word, in order that you may take the word here as active, the real one, implicitly has it, if he completes the word, if he acts according to the word. But the one having already arrived at that very end of the words—the end of the word—for which it happens, not toward which the word is. It is said a word so that a thing may be born or so that... [The text is damaged here.]... they hear, therefore is an end... [The text is damaged here.]... the word forbids an end... [The text is damaged here.]... for it has been said, 'by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned' (Matt 12:37), so that the being justified... [The text is damaged here.]... is the end of the spoken words.

Therefore, of the introduction... [The text is damaged here.]... for it happens to the one beginning... [The text is damaged here.]... to be, for which the words. A good long-suffering concerning a high spirit. 'High spirit' he calls the boaster... [The text is damaged here.]... the Savior did not say... [The text is damaged here.]... and often it has been said that spirit signifies the mind according to the body, and the Virgin is holy in spirit; therefore to love... [The text is damaged here.]... is to be lofty in spirit. The long-suffering one does not become lofty in spirit, he is not proud. Often, indeed, when instructing someone without sharpening the intellect according to the understanding, he approaches long-sufferingly the...

Knowledge and the Inner Heart§20

20He teaches, and he rebukes in a similar way. He does not forbid by one rebuke or a second, but he also approaches health in another way. This long-suffering one is therefore better than the proud and the 'high in spirit'. Indeed, some say that if he speaks more slowly, it is a lesson, saying: 'Ah, a cleansing, go away, you are able to do nothing.' But what of the lifting up? The lifting up is that itself.

Because you desire this: the one believing in the Savior from among the Gentiles is long-suffering, but the people from the circumcision who say, 'We have no king but Caesar' sic and 'We are disciples of Moses' are high in spirit. Regarding this one who is high in spirit from the Hebrew people, the one from the Gentiles who became long-suffering because he has known the things concerning him—that 'having no hope and being without God in the world' (1 Thessalonians 4:13; Eph 2:12)—is a precursor there. Do not hasten in a spirit of anger, for anger rests in the foolishness of a mind in a rage.

[The text is damaged here.]... He who sins in the spirit... Gaps... For they are from the remaining... Gaps... and also having stood and... Gaps... they go about under pleasure... Gaps... do not hasten with a thought to be angry, for God is angry and says to me... Gaps... man is composed of soul and body... Gaps... becoming of soul alone... Gaps... wisdom is the presence of this spirit... Gaps... thus, thinking he bestows... Gaps... and if something is sent by God... Gaps... this 'psychic man' does not receive it, and so it is said of the one 'who does not receive the things of the Spirit'; it is not nature... Gaps... the things of the Spirit are considered 'folly' (1 Corinthians 2:14). For he seems not to want to be a fool. The foolish things do not receive him, as you think.

demonstrating. This one, then, does all things in the soul; but the one having ascended above this and doing with divine reasoning or sometimes with mere reasoning, this one does all things in the spirit.

This, then, I call knowledge, not being knowledge in the strict sense, but that which appears to those using it to be becoming bad. For a fool's passion rests in the heart. The one who is not a fool, but wise and attentive to prudence, even if something is ever seen or heard or moves the passion, it remains only until a passion occurs.

For the heart signifies the ruling principle in many of the divine lessons, as if it says: 'Their folly is in the land of Egypt in their heart' (Ps 106:27). So also it is said in other places that 'all things come into the heart of the unjust' (Prov 14:13). What he says is this: that he touches evils, and against his own ruling principle he brings harm and plague.

Again, if the holy man says: 'My prayer shall turn back into my heart,' the diligent man asks for that, sending a prayer to God, which is both beneficial for him to receive and proper for God to give. And his prayer turns back into his heart, bringing what he asked for. For he asks for nothing more than bodily strength or wealth, but for that which improves the mind.

If, therefore, it happens that what he asks for—since the things given do not remain outside of him, but in his disposition and in the ruling principle—his prayer turns back into his heart. Do not say: 'What happened that the former days were better than these?' (Ecclesiastes 7:10). 'Better than these' is not merely said, but also reasoned: he who is beginning virtue and 'the illumination of the knowledge of truth' and being shone upon by the 'sun of righteousness' (Mal 4:2) always receives by the light; and just as the diligent man 'stretches toward the prize of the higher calling' (Phil 3:14).

The things being given are left behind, forgetting those from whom they have come, so that he no longer turns back and returns; 'stretching forward to those that are before' (Philippians 3:13), he is made distant, he who began to be enlightened by the 'sun of righteousness' (Mal 4:2) and always receives by the light, as if to say that 'the first days were better than these' (Ecclesiastes 7:10). And we say this somewhat poorly, but perhaps...

Wisdom, the Sun of Righteousness, and the Shadow of Silver§21

21Speaking truthfully, we somewhat accuse ourselves that before this we were explaining well and we were approaching ourselves; we feared God. May it not be such a thing, he says, since the days to come are to be enlightened. But what of the one not knowing? He says this to himself, wondering, 'Why has this happened to me, that previously the days were good?' (Ecclesiastes 7:10) because he did not inquire about this in wisdom. The inquiry was in wisdom: 'Why, that I have received this?' I have become better than myself; they received something greater instead of something lesser. This, therefore, is praise, being the same as 'I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call' (Phil 3:14), in greater days toward the promises, 'that your latter end may be a good land, and you shall be long of life on the earth'.

These days must be interpreted thus: 'This is your life and this is the length of your days: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul' (Deut 6:5). This is the life of the ages, the length. He says this to the one being introduced here. Good wisdom with inheritance and abundance for those who look upon the sun. He says this: if this has become something improving the soul, approaching being in wisdom, it is good, if it possesses the inheritance. And I say: 'No one, he says, says Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit' (1 Cor 12:3), even though many call him Lord, but not truly, not in truth. For he says to them: 'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven' (Matt 7:21). This, therefore, is the one truly saying Lord Jesus through the participation of the Holy Spirit. The one having been persuaded of wisdom according to the Holy Spirit makes the wisdom of Jesus. And this one truly says Lord Jesus. Just as 'no one says Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit,' so no one is good in wisdom not having its inheritance.

an inheritance, which he receives as he happens to come to it. For they are wise in appearance only until they speak, but not until they act. The wisdom that follows inheritance is not that which is being made, and it carries the divine promise of becoming possessed by the wise. And there is abundance for those contemplating the sun.

Gapped text...inheritance. Something more happens to those contemplating the sun, this sensible sun. We do not see the sun as other men do, but they receive a vision of greatness and beauty and knowledge, and from knowledge they become again able to understand who the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2) is. And it is possible for those contemplating the sun to receive something more of the sun of righteousness itself. This sun is the same as wisdom. For wisdom is in its shadow as the shadow of silver. That shadow of wisdom is that of the world.

And so that the geometric lines may be used by me as a scientific theorem, the shadows of knowledge are those lines. For those sensory contemplations lead toward knowledge. And regarding a shadow, he does not speak of a representation composed from a body having this form, but of the precedence of the icon. And the shadow of an icon is a certain enigmatic sketching.

Therefore, he who is about to take silver receives a shadow; I do not say a sensible thing, but the logos. For often this is also demonstrated, that silver is praiseworthy and refined according to the immediate context and the thing called 'the tongue of the righteous' (Proverbs 10:20). For when it is said, 'refined silver, the tongue of the righteous' (Proverbs 10:20), he calls the tongue of the righteous his silver. When Gapped text...and energy... Gapped text...silver... Otherwise, those having refined silver are called 'silver,' so he says, 'call them tested silver.'

The Purpose of Creation and the Knowledge of God's Works§22

22That the Lord has tested them. And again: 'silver given with deceit is to be regarded as an earthenware vessel.' If this presents a clever deceit, it is not like one having been 'cleansed sevenfold' or being regarded as such, not being established by itself, like one having the word of one who has been refined. For those who present a word that is earthly and have an earthly nature do not speak concerning wisdom. First, they have received an earthly nature.

For human wisdom is in a shadow and upon the earth. He says that its shadow is in wisdom, as the wisdom of silver, in which the wisdom is in its own shadow. If, therefore, he praises the being of wisdom, and its shadow is the best. What then is 'in the shadow of wisdom'? He who is speaking while being in the shadow of the Gospel is in the original Gospel, or he who is in the shadow of the Law. And the abundance of knowledge of wisdom will vivify the one who is from it. And this is good, to always enjoy in the progress of the contemplation of wisdom. 'He will vivify the one who is from it.' For this reason it is to be preferred and is good, because it makes the one participating in it alive—'the one who is from it,' he says, the one who is wise according to it—for the wisdom of life is not to be set aside. It never brings death to the soul.

Behold the works of God: for who will be able to turn away whom God turns? Many also among the Greeks have opposed those saying that the cosmos consists of things from themselves, such as Epicurus, and according to some, Democritus. For they think that this cosmos did not come from God, because they do not posit providence. Since every necessity is that the one being provided for should provide for his own works, and God is the one providing, He provides for the cosmos which He Himself made. Give the rest: that which He Himself constructed, this also He protects by providence, so that it may stand. Some therefore argue: 'If the cosmos was made best, what is the use of the basilisk existing? If the usefulness of being is entirely given, it is necessary for the basilisk and the others, such as the rhinoceros, to exist.' And it is more pleasing to the Epicurean to make mockery than praise. Because of these things, he generally rejects providence. But those who oppose the...

They believe this godless dogma. Who would say to the world that a part of the world needs straightening? How else could it have happened? How could it have been driven? How could a world be without parts? If these things, what are the parts? For neither are they shown to be passing by or in excess, if the world is able to consist out of them.

But we say that it is possible to persuade by a probable demonstration, both the cause and that the wild things were created for uses. And these things contribute to hunting. By a first common and right reason, it is possible to say that all things are for humans. Many of these things contribute to the help of them and gap receiving gap and intending gap receiving gap. From this, it is possible for a generation to be made manifest according to which they came to be, so that we might use only these, so that we might not torture any remaining or other higher discourse, because for the sake of humans even these things have come to be.

Therefore God knows the causes of the things having happened, and He knows why He hid them. According to all this He says only: 'Do not say: For what purpose is this? Or for what purpose is this? For all things shall be sought in their time' (Sirach 39:17). And: 'Do not say: For what purpose is this? Or for what purpose is this? For all things were created for their use' (Sirach 39:21).

Behold the works of God. Understand the works of God—for this 'behold' says it—understand also their existence and the reason according to which they are, and, if it is what it is, and the cause. 'For who will be able to arrange the world?' Many things contribute to perfect knowledge, and it is not possible for all things to exist for all people; for example, to say, I say, to be God or to be a world. It is sufficient for me regarding the 'that it is' to know only, and what the name placed against it means. But the 'how' is not for everyone to know, but not even for the one knowing everything is it possible to say the 'how'. It is possible to know by which word and knowledge. For indeed the gap observing gap and gap the one knowing gap through what it is, and that it is, and how it is. And in these, not everyone knowing that it is, knows also how it is and why. 'Behold' therefore 'the works of God', understand them, know what each of them is and that it is.

Demonstrating through words and character§23

23And what is the name applied to this, and how they presented it, and why? For you will not have sufficient knowledge of the works of God if you stumble against them without agreeing. Indeed, study the works of God; what caused stumbling to others will give to you the knowledge of both the Maker and of the things made.

For who will be able to order the world? I remembered that they call it 'the cosmos' the ordered thing. And he who blames this is considered to be accepting it; according to this it is possible to say: 'Whom do you call parts of the world?' For they themselves are the cosmos. It is so that the world may not have accusations; especially these things are drawn toward providence. For not only are the creatures the works of God, but also those according to His judgment in providence. We say that now it appears to the Creator of the world, who is being provided for, to order it through death, he dies, and again he died. And he blames much of this. We say to him: 'How should it come to pass? Order re-order that which you think is disordered.' Therefore, no one has the power to say this. And indeed, it is for everyone to re-construct in this way, not saying the constructions. But reconstruction is after a construction, even if the man, having become through the word, does not call the construction the re-ordering. But nature is thus: whomsoever God turns away.

This is set down in the Levitical law concerning lepers. And this is the beginning of the law: if ever anyone receives a sensation of his body having become leprous, he shall approach the priest, and from the sign that one the priest would demonstrate, he would show him to be either a leper or not truly a leper, but a suspicion. And he says that the priest, having examined and finding that it is leprosy, 'shall defile him,' not that he performs the 'defiling' himself, but because he demonstrated him to be such a thing. But if he does not fall into it, he shall set him apart for a certain number of days. And after those, he shall be examined; if he remains healthy, the priest shall defile him. And a physician, indeed, observes a certain disease if the body is marked. And what he says, he does it as an unceasing remedy, demonstrating it as incurable. So, not always does the act of doing signify the actual performing, but sometimes...

To demonstrate. You also have in the Gospel what is said by the Jews, that 'being a man, you make yourself God' (John 10:33). For they do not say: 'Being a man, you are preparing yourself to be God', but rather 'From those things which you announce and promise to do, you demonstrate yourself to be God'. Thus, hearing also the phrase 'making himself equal to God', since 'he calls God his own father'. The offspring are equal to the one who begot, and by saying this one is father according to truth, you demonstrate that you have a father of your own as God.

Similarly, it should be taken when it says: 'God turns away' (2 Thess 2:11). For He does not reject by acting in that way, but demonstrates him to be such a person, as 'handing someone over to an unapproved mind', not by acting Himself. The handing them over to the unapproved demonstrates their state and that they have become such people by themselves. Therefore, when it is said that God turns away someone, He demonstrates him to be having been turned away.

Whom then God has rejected and demonstrated to be turned away, 'who is able to adorn them?'; 'but those turning away', He says, 'the Lord will lead away with the workers of lawlessness to the chains' (Psalm 125:5). For not He himself leads them away against their will with those working lawlessness, but by their turning away of will, He demonstrated them to be such people.

Live in goodness in a day of goodness, and in a day of evil, behold, and this is in agreement with that. 'In the day of goodness'. A day of goodness is when virtue is present. And this of life is life-giving. Thus, to live as good is to live as a partaker of life; he is blessed among the blessed. Be, having the life-giving disposition. You shall live in it.

Regarding: 'in the day of goodness'? The state of the one having it. For often also the states signify the name of seasons and times. In a day of evil. Just as it is from the 'day of goodness' to live in the good, so in a day of evil it is to live poorly. But the 'poorly' was silenced, so that the word might not be too much of a necessity. This is in agreement with that, just as to think from prudence and to act from folly is an analogy, they do not have similarity. For this agrees with that according to analogy, not according to quality or quantity, nor of the...

True Righteousness and the Peril of False Presumption§24

24Passing over these things. God made the world in such a way regarding speech, so that no man might find anything behind Him. 'All things I saw in the days of vanity' (Ecclesiastes 7:15). God made such a word in the things that exist, so that man might find nothing of those that are to follow him.

Here he invalidates human foreknowledge; man finds nothing of those who will receive him. And concerning human things he says: for the diligent man knows that he will receive a blessed state, which is clear everywhere. If not—if the human designation, being present, submits another through thought, and if he calls man not the mortal rational animal, but the one 'walking according to the flesh' and pleasures—such a man, being such, will not be recognized by those who are to follow, as long as he lives by sensation alone. For sensation recognizes only the present things. Since such a man is entirely of sensation, walking 'according to the flesh' and pleasures and other evils, he does not know the 'behind', the things that are to follow. For it is the intellect to know this.

In the days of my vanity, therefore, I saw all things. And 'the days of vanity' (Ecclesiastes 7:15) he means the days of this life, upon which he must not hope. For he prepares those who expect to be miserable. There is a righteous man perishing in his own righteousness; and there is an ungodly man remaining in his own wickedness. There is simply righteous, and there is someone's righteous. When therefore the Divine, in that word, says 'to pursue the righteous thing justly', he does not say to each one, 'pursue your own righteous thing justly', but the simply and principally righteous. Since every man seems righteous to himself and 'the last ways seem to be right to man, looking into the pits of Hades', one must not remain in that subjective righteousness. For he who has this destroys him, and he withholds from the one who has it. There is therefore a righteous man perishing in his own righteousness. But those who are righteous according to truth, about whom much has been written, such as: 'the righteous shall do in wealth many years' (Ps 112:9), these do not remain in their own righteousness; they do not trust in their own righteousness. Therefore he does not perish in righteousness, as the hymnodist says: 'in your righteousness I shall live' (Psalm 119:40). Paul, then, being a great man and finding himself in Christ, to whom was the revelation of yours...

It has become a matter of truth, he says: 'I do not know anything to myself, but not in this have I been justified.' For it enters into me, that I do not truly possess righteousness, and not because of this—that I have known nothing to myself of those things that harm—am I justified. And again the holy David says: 'If I saw iniquity in my heart, let not the Lord hear' (Psalm 66:18). A sign of having or not having iniquity is whether one is heard by God or not heard.

And it is possible also to take this in another way according to a second explanation: it is to cause someone to perish from his own righteousness; someone thinking himself righteous in his own righteousness, if... he knows that it is not the truth and the Lord of righteousness, he pulls himself away from this and perishes from his own righteousness. And this destruction does not corrupt. For just as we say of one departing from virtue that he has perished by virtue, so we say of one having changed from the presumption he formerly held, that he has perished from that presumption.

And there is an impious man remaining in his own wickedness, living in wickedness not recognizing his own wickedness, even though he was previously recognized as a righteous man before he was justifying himself. Is it then the same mind? That mind, even though being in righteousness, yet being less than the truly righteous, perishes from it, so that he may have the truly righteous. For example, let someone have a mistaken presumption, or let someone have a presumption that is not mistaken, but not in word, not in precision. If he knows the precision, he perishes himself, so that he may succeed in that intention by the better thing.

Furthermore, how does he call the perversion? To demonstrate that he is such a person, one who has turned aside; for example, many encounter the Scriptures and understand them as they ought not to. And no one else turned them aside except their own laziness. When someone therefore demonstrates such a person, that 'do not pay attention to him; he speaks errantly, what he says,' he has shown him to be turned aside, he has demonstrated him to be such. Do not become much righteous and do not philosophize excessively, lest you be struck with amazement. Do not be impiously much and do not become hard, so that you do not die not in your time (Ecclesiastes 7:16). And it has been said to us many times, that virtues are mediations, while their excesses and deficiencies are wickednesses. We say that wisdom...

The limits of inquiry and the danger of impiety§25

25Folly has become a middle point between cunning and wickedness. Cunning is a surplus of wisdom. But cunning is praised in the Scripture, while among the Greeks it is reproached. And it is being reproached as cunning, and the Scripture calls it craftiness: 'O full of deceit and of all craftiness, son of the devil' (Acts 13:10). And even more, the New Testament reproaches cunning: 'For I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve in his cunning' (2 Corinthians 11:3); and also: 'But being a cunning man, I caught you by deceit' (2 Corinthians 12:16). And still, concerning the heretics, he says that 'they walk in cunning, deceiving the word of the Lord' (2 Corinthians 4:2). Folly is a deficiency of wisdom.

And concerning all the virtues, this has been shown to us many times. We say, therefore, that piety exceeds reverence, but lacking it, one is the impious. And here, therefore, he intends to say: do not be too just; do not go outside of justice; seek to remain according to the standard, taking care of equality. Do not become too just; for many indeed have been accustomed to say: do not be strictly just, do not seek more than what is just. And it is possible also to take it this way, so that it may be most acceptable according to the will of Christianity. If it were to happen that you were wronged or that you should do wrong, do not be very just in giving what is just, since you do not do wrong. Desire rather to be wronged than to do wrong. Do not become, indeed, very just for the sake of not being wronged, but rather give yourself over. For in this way neither you will do wrong nor he, toward whom you have the grievance.

And do not philosophize excessively, lest you be astonished. We say the same thing: do not philosophize beyond what is necessary, do not become outside of what is permitted to men. Such are those saying that we know God in the same way that He knows Himself. These philosophize excessively. Therefore also they are astonished, they become outside of their senses, they are found outside of logical observation. Do not philosophize excessively.

By logical reasoning, it is sometimes a discussion held for the sake of not letting the communion be broken, until I arrive at the right place and it is glorious and I am discussed with it. But if anyone thinks he succeeds in sophistry, he ought not to remain in sophistry. 'Do not sophistize excessively,' do not become too wise and be astonished. Do not be very impious, do not become hard.

We say that there is something known of God, which if we speak of, we are impious. But that which God has revealed to us, if we know it and wish to have it, we are not harmed. But if we also wish to intellectually grasp those things which are not attainable for us, we are astonished and we are very impious. And it is possible also to say this: if anything of the others seems difficult and hard to find for us, regarding this you should attempt to discuss; it does not harm; one should attempt regarding the separate things. But when the word is about God, and the one wishing to know about God reaches into those things which he is not able to, he is very impious by reaching beyond what is necessary.

For example, the stars are a multitude. And every multitude is either superfluous or exact. And the exact is divided into two, but the superfluous has one part having more than the other. If we wish to attempt and speak regarding the stars, first saying they are superfluous or exact, we are not very impious. It was necessary not to attempt regarding those things of which we do not know. However, we are not very impious. For we do this, because the heaven is circular and is cut into two equal hemispheres by a straight diameter being drawn. And since the heaven is starry everywhere, someone will say that the semicircles being equal, there are as many in each semicircle as in the rest. And from this we construct them to be exact. And we are not impious, whether it is so or not. The attempt has happened for the sake of exercise.

Again, since those having studied about numbers say that the superfluous is stronger—for it is active—and the exact is more material—for it consists of matter; and matter is divisible; for first...

The End and the Fear of God§26

26The division in verse 217 occurs thus: for this reason they say that matter is a dyad—we were saying that it was necessary for the better of those seen by others to be subjected to the better number, and we construct from this that they are abundant. We do not act impiously in any way.

However, if someone says that we shall seek whether God is without beginning or not, the other part of the argument brings much impiety. Indeed, dialectic itself says that not all problems are dialectical. For those which are followed by punishment are not dialectical. For dialectical things aim at the two sides. No one wants to attempt whether God is or is not, or whether the laws should be kept beforehand or not; for these things have punishment following them in another form of the contradiction. For it brings shameful reputation to the one leading the other form of the contradiction.

And do not become hard. He who chooses evil becomes hard. For he constructs hardness for the one possessing it. 'For according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath' (Rom 2:5). You see that: having an unrepentant heart, one is found hard. And thus it happens to the heart of Pharaoh, which has been written of many times, having been hardened. 'Do not be excessively wise, do not become hard, so that you do not die in your time' (Ecclesiastes 7:16-17).

This can be applied to everything; according to the intellect, it says: 'Do not become very hard; do not become, do not...' [The text is damaged here.]. It was found. It is good to hold fast to this, and not to let go of your hand from it. In each of the things said, you heard: do not become very righteous; hold fast to this. It has said, 'Do not be excessively wise.' In all the things said, hold fast as if in one genus.

Therefore, from what I have said, that it is also necessary to hold fast, do not let your practice cease. Persist in them, as the apostle says: 'Hold these things, be in these, so that your progress may become evident' (1 Tim 4:15), in the virtues. Meditating on these, it is necessary to remain in them, not to depart further from them. For it is not good to remain in other studies which are according to science and are conducted in an orderly fashion. And so that the demonstration may be from a ready example, the learning of letters of the first elements...

Let us take it. It is not good to remain in the study of characters, but to run quickly toward the next progress. Regarding virtues, practice brings progress: practice brings temperance, and one remains in temperance; practice brings justice, and one remains in justice; for in this way one is able to be shown to be diligent.

For he who fears God will come out of all things (Ecclesiastes 7:18). Even if you have much help—help for coming out—it does not say that he becomes outside of all things. But 'to come out' signifies the end and the outcome, as we say that the holy voices that occurred regarding the coming of the Savior have attained an outcome. And this is 'so that it might be fulfilled' (Matthew 2:15). For those from the heterodox, either maliciously or through ignorance, think that this fulfillment is to be taken in this way: that it might be fulfilled so that it might not be empty. And they say that the Old Testament was empty in itself and required fulfillment from without. Not this, but he speaks regarding an outcome: because of this Mary gave birth, 'so that it might be fulfilled; behold, she shall hold in her womb' (Matthew 1:23). Because of this the Savior was crucified, because of 'they have pierced my hands and my feet' (Ps 22:16). He who fears God does not become outside of them, but reaches their end.

This is similar to what the apostolic text says: 'not of him who runs nor of him who wills, but of God who shows mercy' (Rom 9:16). Therefore, he who fears God 'comes out of all things' (Ecclesiastes 7:18). For 'the fear of the Lord surpasses all things' (Sirach 25:11). And if it surpasses all things, 'there is nothing above him.' For it is not the fear of punishment that is spoken of, but that one, about whom we say: 'there is no lack to those who fear him' (Ps 34:9). And 'He' is God. For He says: 'be holy to Him, for He is your fear' (Isaiah 8:13). Just as the one desiring wisdom becomes wisdom in Christ, and the righteousness of the righteous becomes righteousness in Christ, so also fear becomes so.

Wisdom will help the wise, while those exercising authority in the city are being overcome. Let us say that he who worships clings to all at once to those who are helping and to those who seem to be so to the many, being human things. For according to the true word, since all things are governed by the will of God, even things that seem to happen humanly are a gift from God. To have wealth is human, but 'the Lord makes rich' (1 Sam 2:7); to have the beginning is human, but the Lord 'establishes kings and deposes them' (1 Sam 2:7). However, when these things happen by themselves under the...

The Necessity of Error in Learning§27

27As we are performing the work of providence, we say: some of these things are divine and god-befitting, while others are human.

Since he who says these things is most especially a king, he anoints all things toward piety; he says this because even if there are ten in authority in the city, and many are helping, and they surpass the opponents in number and power, if they do not have wisdom, they are not able to help the city.

Therefore, always seek the power of this general in his wisdom rather than in the multitude of his array.

"So then wisdom will help the wise one among the ten exercising authority in the city."

What is at hand to us has been given regarding history. If a city has many powerful men, but wisdom is lacking, they are not able to help the city.

And for the sake of an analogy, the world, the place around us, is called a city. If divine wisdom is not given, no one is able to pass through safely.

If wisdom does not help, those in authority can do nothing, even if they should be angels or holy men. If wisdom does not help, the city is not saved.

And each person's soul can also be called a city. If indeed someone has a myriad of human thoughts capable of helping this city, but divine wisdom does not help it and lead it and guard it toward the lawful, it is not able to be helped.

And observe "those who are in the city." You know that many times authority is taken from without. And you have in the histories of the Scriptures that many times those who were acting against Israel and its kings hired other kings.

But the ones hired from without do not contribute to helping the city as the natives do. Indeed, when they see that the matter is weak, they withdraw and are favorable toward the opponents.

"Therefore, those who are in the city"; even if they are rich and are well-disposed toward it and are even well-prepared for this very thing, to help the city, in the absence of wisdom they are not able to endure what is urgent.

For man is not righteous in the land (Ecclesiastes 7:20). He did not say at once that a man is not righteous, but in the land. And as is at hand, I am not speaking regarding history, but regarding moral instruction as regarding a way of speaking; I say this, that those...

The man on earth is the one 'walking according to the flesh' (Rom 8:4), according to 'you indeed die as men' (Psalm 82:7). This one is on earth not only in body, but also in heart. He 'sets his mind on earthly things' (Philippians 3:19), and 'sinks himself into his seat'. No one of such people is righteous.

I say 'man' not simply, but the one not being on earth who is able to be righteous. 'If one walks on earth, having his portion in heaven', he is wise not on earth. Because of this, the one having righteousness is not prevented from being called a lawbreaker from it. Furthermore, why do you not stand according to history? If you wish to take it according to history, you descend into a dogma, that there is no man born on earth without sin.

I said, that this brings us labor regarding John and regarding this Jeremiah, unless indeed you take that sin, according to which it has been said: 'all have sinned' (Rom 3:23). You know, however, that I once omitted this and said that not every sin brings harm to the one doing it, when I also use an icon such as this, that a painter is learning the art: many icons are drawn not well, and this sin bringing them is not a mockery. Because of this, he draws not well, so that he may learn to draw well. And many things must be done sinfully, so that someone might thus correctly achieve the goal of his work.

They also say concerning the inventors, that the inventors were not such as those who had existed before them when they were practicing. The painters are called indeed 'old', because they drew so much deviated from the original forms, so that the icon might happen to be less than the writing. Thus, therefore, you would say that everyone becoming on earth has this sin, not the one opposing virtue, but the one bringing it upon virtue.

Indeed, regarding the one striving to draw an icon, having begun the art, we sometimes say of the one drawing badly that the one already seasoned in the art draws better, if that one draws carelessly out of laziness; and if you compare the work to the work, the one of the careless is better; but if you look toward the intention, he who wrote by hand wrote more. Thus, therefore, we take it by analogy of quantity. The one able to learn in ten years, having learned, we say he has learned twelve; we have learned much.

The Teacher's Progress and the Veil of Sin§28

28Regarding the one called fifty, having learned forty, we say that nothing has been learned out. He who will do good and will not sin—such a man does not exist on the earth. I desire to attain a higher intellect; but do not write an unasked-for reproach upon me. Concerning Jesus alone it has been said: 'Before evil things come, he chooses the good' (Isaiah 7:15). Only the Child, according to Jesus, who 'did not know sin' (2 Corinthians 5:21), by the choice of the evil ones, chose the good; but all the others, after knowing this evil—the kind that is punished, not the kind that is merely falling into it, failed. 'Therefore there is no man who will do good and will not sin.' All possess the good along with sin, but sin is that which has been spoken of, that which exists prior to virtue.

Behold, many, thinking they have an alertness of intellect and having surrendered to their own alertness, imagine they know all things; and when they begin to rise up regarding those things they think they know, they fall into such ignorance as to say they have unlearned the learning. And we know by experience: many times I have reasoned about a certain thing, thinking it was easy to understand, and it appeared more difficult to all those with individual intellects. This ignorance is before knowledge; and it is not contrary to knowledge, but before knowledge. He who thus thinks he knows, if he does not find himself as one who knows nothing, he is unable to receive knowledge.

Therefore, there is only one, concerning whom this has been said: 'Before evil things come, he chose the good' (Isaiah 7:15-16). Even if it does not seem so to Apollinarius and those with him, their doctrine is refuted. 'Before evil things come to pass'; he was never able to sin, because until he became subject to passion, he did not extend this into a disposition. He is able, therefore, to be led to the same state, but it can also be understood otherwise: that in the human temple, the God Logos has come to be. And the God Logos is wisdom, and from this intellect all improvement is. Since, then, I am speaking of the things of the economy, this ought to be shown here. Being a child, he did not say those things which he would have said having become a perfect man. He was therefore progressing in advancement. Thus it should be taken: a teacher, or another similarly having the nature of instruction.

When six disciples have come and are filled with knowledge, he descends with them and says those things which those being led in are able to hear, not what he himself is able to say, and it is shaped according to the ignorance of those being led, and as if he instructs them knowing only those things. Just as much as the child progresses, so the teacher progresses; but while the child progresses by the reception of lessons, the teacher progresses by the manifestation of the power that is present.

Take for me the sun having descended upon this sensible horizon; but run and get a covering to quickly obstruct the sight, as if the covering were not there. Just as much as a revelation becomes regarding sight, so much also happens of the sun. And I say the sun progresses, not by the reception of light, but by the ability to illuminate the remainder, which previously was not able to shine in this way. Sin, therefore, is a covering of the soul. If, therefore, one does not cast off wickedness, the light shows itself more clearly to itself. Thus, therefore, I say the teacher progresses in wisdom, not by the reception of wisdom, but by the manifestation of greater wisdom.

In reality, every progress was hindered, unless—come now—the worthy saints, being visible, were able to work and to know so many things. If indeed men, being known, have done and have spoken great things, this is for the progress of virtue and its manifestation. And indeed, regarding all words which they will speak, do not give your heart, so that you may not hear your slave as he is rebuking you, because many times he will act wickedly. And indeed, regarding many words which men will speak, there is a certain ignorance and sin;... of those beginning the discoveries of the learned.

And saying, 'do not give your heart,' he passes into a moral lesson. You know that the... sins and iniquities occurring against someone, provoke him to indignation. If therefore you command, and the slaves are easy-tempered toward those commanding, do not 'give your heart' to this, because you also will be harmed there. If, therefore, a slave curses you, observe him: whether he does what was commanded or does not do it, not how he does it or does not do it. For later you want to know this, so that you may honor freedom, so that you may give to him that which he did not have before. Observe.

The Testing Nature of Dialectic§29

29Therefore so also you, if you have not sinned at all. For this also the apostle writes, exhorting the slaves to lie under the masters, not by eye-service, but as slaves of Christ. He says: 'And you masters, have equality toward the slaves' (Col 4:1). The one who treats slaves fairly does not examine their inner character, but the work, what has become, and we shall not use them unsuitably.

We bring therefore in some gospels: a woman, he says, was judged by the Jews on account of sin and was being sent to be stoned in the place where it was customary to happen. The Savior, he says, having seen her and having perceived that they were ready to stone her, said to those about to cast stones at her: 'He who has not sinned, let him take a stone and cast it at herself' (John 8:7). If anyone understood to himself that he had not sinned, having taken a stone, let him strike her. And no one dared; having realized for themselves and knowing that they also are responsible in some way, they did not dare to strike her.

Because many times it will do evil. 'Many times it will do evil' to harm. But do not look at that, until the matter stands by his will. And if ever to the existing thing of that kind something should appear as him truly daring, then it is to be prevented, then it is to be supervised, by the intentions which he has. And many descents will harm your heart, because just as you also cursed others. 'Many descents' he says, which come many times. And the 'many times'... what it does not work. And when I say concerning someone, that: many times you... I signify that I did not fail. Until to speak evil to your heart... because just as you also cursed others. 'All that you want, so that men may do to you, and also do to them' (Matt 7:12). 'What you hate, you will not do to another.' As you will hate, when many times you curse, he himself will be hated to be cursed. And to do to the slave to be known...

In this, many things are taken away; take from yourself the capacity for endurance. I attempted all these things in wisdom; I said, 'I will become a sophist,' and it itself moved far away from me, further than it was.

In the wisdom given to me, being God-sent, I attempted these things—I, the one preaching, I, the wise, the instructor of the sciences, the one who thus drives the arguments so that they are effective to those learning. In order that we may take the test, as the prudent say, a testing attempt and a testing syllogism is this, when we take the propositions from the opinions of the one being argued with. For example, if we say whether wealth is good or not good, we do not take the propositions from the opinions of this person to whom I have the argument, but not from the general. And we say that it is necessary to use wealth properly: to do good to neighbors, to support wise men, whom the apostle said, 'participating in the needs of the saints' (Romans 12:13). And from this we construct that it is good to use wealth properly.

The other, saying that it is not good, says: many have become lawless from wealth, adulterers were seen, and that the rich man idles with drinking, and that he will often plot greedily. For from the opinions of the one responding we make our attempts, even if others do not so suppose, but he alone. And this syllogism is called testing; for it is brought forward for the sake of a test. And it is similar to what is said by the geometers regarding a false figure: to those learning and capable of sometimes making evident whether a science exists or not. The geometer makes a false figure and two falsehoods and gives them to that person to solve. If in the solution he found the truth and showed a proof of perfection. For he is this, because having placed certain premises between the premises, he places them there...

The Unity of the Person and the Nature of Sin§30

30I said: I shall become wise. The 'I said' here signifies not only the vocalizing, but the disposition of being in such a state as 'no one says: Lord, Lord, unless he be in the Holy Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:3). To say here is to truly confess, to truly say that he serves Him as Lord. And here 'I said': I added this to become wise. The fully spoken example becomes clear; in this, as much as we thought we had wisdom, we did not say: 'I shall become wise.' But now, instead of saying: 'I lack wisdom,' I say: 'I shall become wise; but it has become far from me, beyond what it was.'

We thought it was not at all near to be mine, and for this reason I strove to do all things to receive it now. And when I have done this, it has become far from me. But in reality it has not become far from me, rather to me it appeared to become far, exceeding the distance, a deep depth; who will find it? Instead of: 'one is not finding it.'

Furthermore, you do not say of an ascent: 'do not give your heart'; it is indeed ethical. One must take this: the body is a slave of the soul. Therefore, this says: 'do not give your heart' to be controlled by the evil impulses of the body. Let us say, if it ever controls, that the body is able to rise up against the soul through desires, through passions. Do not, therefore, understand this in such a way as to know what he says or what he was saying. His starting point must be examined. This word harms; it is a curse. And if the word is a curse, it is a prayer for evils.

'He who subdues the body and enslaves it' does not allow it to know his heart through investigation. I and my heart have encircled the goal to know and to contemplate and to seek wisdom and judgment. The heart has often already been said to signify the mind. But the mind does not deviate, nor does it fit into a straight line, but it turns around itself. Indeed, even some of those from the outside have said that thoughts are like wheels and turning circles. For when the mind reaches out toward external things and wishes to receive the imagination of the sensible things, it is not about itself, it does not turn about itself. But when it thinks and stands upon itself, it is both the thinking and the thing being thought. For the mind in its activity is always the act of thinking.

It has this property, and it is not the case when it lies upon the external things. What about 'I and my heart'? Each of the many things lying together or being thought of is called the whole. Man consists of soul and body and spirit, as if he says, 'your whole spirit and soul and body,' not saying all other things of the man. But each is a different thing of him, yet the man is all at once.

The apostle has done this also regarding the body, even if he mentioned something intelligible: 'if the whole is an eye, and if the whole is an ear, where is the body?' (1 Corinthians 12:17-19) and he says that each member is by itself, but all together the body. And it is seen in a similar way. The name of the 'vote' here signifies the number. The meanings are many; the many things divide a greatest theory. And one might say 'vote' as if it were a number.

But if someone wishes to take the 'vote' as the thing said: 'and when they were being removed, he brought a vote' (Acts 26:10), the testimony, and thus he desired 'to know wisdom and a vote.' If wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human things and the causes of these, each ought to perceive, and thus the whole knowledge is already decided. And to know the impiety, folly, and confusion of the impious. It is a great thing to know the inferior things, not necessarily to perform them. It is impossible to turn away from evil without having thought it.

On the other hand, we say 'not knowing sin' of the one not sinning, instead of 'he has no experience of sin.' Thus Jesus did not 'know sin,' that is, he was not tested. But he who intends to abstain from evil will know it, because it is bad and because it will bring evil to the one acting, and because 'it brings down unto death' (Prov 5:5) and because it is elective and can be released by us. It does not exist by essence, nor is it produced by the movement of the stars. If, therefore, he knows this folly of the fool, I stand away from it, casting it out. And to know through the impious the joy. This says: if I know who the impious is, and I abstain from him, I know the joy. For the 'because of what' must be heard thus: 'for through law is the knowledge of sin' (Rom 3:20). He who knows the law through it enters into sin, clearly, and also virtue; but the one knows in order to do, the other in order to flee. And confusion and wandering.

The Snare of the Wicked Mind§31

31Folly, impiety, and coarseness are these things. For even the external sophist-lover has spoken of sophistic disturbances. And it is necessary to know a turning about, that these things must be turned around, not held permanently. Even if they sometimes stand in the soul, it is not necessary to have them, but to turn them around and turn away from them.

And I find her more bitter than death along with the woman, who is a beast. I find her, the coarseness that turns around, 'more bitter than death'—because when I take experience of her, I die; I consider her more bitter than death. But if someone considers her death and the destruction of the soul, he will reject her, he will cease from her. Along with the woman, who is a beast. It is possible also to say this opinion, which is the most skillful, that she is a woman whom he rejects, whom he saw bringing nothing other than death.

For the opinions and the habit of the women say much regarding the praiseworthy and the scurrilous, as if saying: 'Does Wisdom not bring prudence to a man?' and 'Your wife is like a fruitful vine, your sons like young olive shoots.' From this woman, male offspring are produced, nourished by fire and light. For the blessing of these kinds is that fire and light nourish them.

But again it is said scurrilously: 'Do not pay attention to a bad woman,' it says, 'the lips of a prostitute withdraw, which for a little while sweetens the pharynx. Later, however, you will find her more bitter than bile.' Then after a little while it brings this: 'the feet of folly'; he said the woman is folly. Therefore also he distributed her before wisdom.

He says that this woman, whom he said is a turning about, whom he had as coarseness, is a beast, not a hunted thing. It is possible also to say this, that someone measures the evil, not as a certain day, but as a wild beast springing upon himself. And it is possible, for the sake of the spoken moral instruction, to take the bad woman to be signified according to the bad history. You know that sins happen to be appropriate to certain things. Mostly, to carry it is a man's thing to wander about sophistically, but for a woman it is to be brought forward in incontinence. Therefore he says this woman, whom he calls a prostitute, whom he calls 'sitting on a couch' and 'calling to those passing by,' is a beast.

It is a snare, even if you take it as a disposition: the cunning and malicious disposition, and the sophistical or heretical one; she is a bad woman. And her heart is a fishhook, and bonds are in her hands; the good will be set apart from her before God, and the sinner will be caught in her. She wants to fish for those approaching. And contrary to this is the fishhook which Jesus cast into the sea. For the net of the divine discipline and of the evangelical teaching is 'a snare cast into the sea and draws from every kind' (Matt 13:47). And since the snare is not perceptible, neither are the things being fished for perceptible. If, therefore, it says, 'from every kind,' it says this: 'from every kind of human character that has fallen into the watery life.'

And concerning the devil it is said in one of the twelve prophets—and this is Amos—'Will he be silent in swallowing up the ungodly the righteous? And will you make men like the fish of the sea and like the creeping things that have no leader?' (Habakkuk 1:13-14). For he says: 'He drew to a conclusion in a hook and gathered in his net. Because of this, he sacrifices to his net and offers sacrifice to his bob. His bob always wavers, and will he show no mercy in killing nations?' Thus the enemy hunts differently, just as 'the Word of salvation' does. For Jesus 'cast it into the sea' as a snare, and 'Peter is about to cast nets.' And some teachings are such that, looking at each one, they say specifically what kind of person it is. For when it gathers diverse nations by a snare, it is: 'it will show no mercy in killing nations.'

And since the predecessors of false doctrines make them as if they were a divine art or offer sacrifice to them as to a god. This woman, therefore, having been called to have snares, has in her own heart because of her many-sided way of hereticalizing and seizing men, the snare is of the devil. Here we wish to understand that of Job, so that from him and from this we may take the theory. He says that 'no swimming thing coming together will let even one scale of its tail, nor shall the ships of fishermen touch its head' (Job 41:1). Then he says: 'Who will uncover its face? And for the folding of its skin, who would enter?' (Job 41:13). No one is able to uncover its face. Multi-

The Preacher's Discovery and the Woman's Snares§32

32He is a person, imitating the deceptive Protagonist; for he does not have a face that is entirely ordered. Thus he says in Job: 'Who will strip off his face-covering?' (Job 41:13). You cannot say that this is his face. If you lift his face by word or by thought, something worse is found. Furthermore, he is folded up everywhere; 'into the folding of his armor' no one can enter. And if you enter, it is folded up again.

So also here the wicked woman called here—whether you mean regarding rhetoric or regarding opinion—does not have one snare. When you think you have escaped one, she lays another. A bond is in her hands. She immediately binds the one approaching. Her hand refers to practice and energy. The one acting according to her is not only hunted and snared, but also falls into a bond; he is judged a prisoner. The good man will be taken out from her before the face of God. The good man before the face of God is not such in essence, but the one hurrying to have virtue, so that he may become even more good for God. This one, therefore, does not fall into her, is not hunted, is not snared. But the foolish one is handed over to the good man 'not falling into her snares' or into the bonds. And 'being handed over' is often interpreted: after many times preventing, when that evil no longer prevents, a handing over to him occurs. And he will be caught sinning in her. No one sinless is caught by her. The beginning of being caught is having sinned. Indeed, it approaches even the saints; but since they do not sin, they are not caught by her, but are outside her, trampling her.

Furthermore: the ascent. Did I encircle it to know? It is a whole ascent; we say this. It is not far from what was said, that, since 'the maker of them is seen through the greatness of beauty and of creatures' (Wisdom 13:5), the one circling the whole cosmos and seeing all that God made, sees them as 'very beautiful' (Gen 1:31). But if he does not circle, but takes one by one, he does not see the beauty of the created. So, therefore, if one does not circle all the doctrines and all the virtues and their sequence, and all the creation and through it...

By knowing the creation, one knows the Creator, according to His power. Then, having grasped all things together in thought as if circling, wisdom finds the truth.

'Behold, I have found this,' says the Preacher (Eccl 7:27), 'one single thought to find, which my soul sought and did not find.' The Preacher is the teacher of the general assembly. 'The Preacher found this'—the 'finding' here is 'grasping.' But what kind? This very thing: that the woman who exists has snares in her heart and a bond in her own hand. To know this is of the Preacher. For this will benefit those listening to the Preacher.

Regarding 'one single'—since he speaks here in the plural; for it is not spoken about only one alone, that 'one single.' We mean, that is, about her snares; he says that her deceits and her snares find a foolish thought and teach it. For indeed, these women also mislead one another and lead forward not toward finding a good thought, but toward being cunning. But did he not say 'one' above? The evil is not single, but rather many and widely spread.

Listen closely, for he does not say these things about a specific woman, but about every woman having such zeal, 'one single thought to find.' And if you take it regarding the snares, you say that even the snares seem to be in agreement. For those professing false doctrines attempt to say that their false opinions agree. 'Which my soul sought and did not find.' My soul sought their thought, and did not find it. It is difficult to hunt. It is like the things said: 'Do we not ignore His thoughts?' (Job 11:6) 'Who could enter to strike His armor?' (Job 41:13).

But what then is the 'found' in the preceding? Here he says additionally: 'one single thought to find.' This thought I desired to see, so that I might also teach them. And 'did not find' can be said in such a way as 'not of the one willing nor the one running, but of the God who shows mercy.' From myself I found nothing. But God revealed to me; He showed me the cunning of this thought. For he does not say that the one running and the one willing achieves nothing.

The Many Faces of Man§33

33He found one man out of a thousand, and a woman he found not in all these things. Many manuscripts have 'a man'; 'but a woman in all these things he found not.' If you can take it literally, that a diligent man barely finds one man out of a thousand, but a diligent woman is not to be found in all these. Or thus: he found a man, one of the thousand, a single thought of a man from many, but a woman not, because of her being hard to hunt, because of her being hard to grasp—is he saying he has found this? For it is a prey.

It is one thing to know someone as a sophist, and another to grasp his sophisms. For he who guards himself from falling into sophisms knew that he has a sophist against him, but he is not always able to untie his sophisms. But to find truly is that is, to see his craft, to make his deception manifest. Furthermore, see, he found this, which God made with the upright man, and they themselves sought many thoughts. The essence of this observation is this: God made man upright, that is, good and well, having nothing crooked or bent. But they themselves found many thoughts.

According to those thoughts, these are the differences: that 'he is a certain prey', that 'to find one thought with the one', that 'someone is a fool'. They were saying that the enemy is complex, when I mentioned the First. But he certainly has a face resembling himself, in that he is Satan, in that he is the Accuser. This face of his only those are able to see who say, 'for we do not ignore his thoughts.' They know what kind of a deceptive face he has, being imposed from without, and what kind of a face is, as if according to his nature, his face. But according to his nature, his face is that which sinks into evil. And you find often sophist men having ten thousand faces around them, and they have one hidden aim.

Therefore, that is his face. Just as he moves from these to those who are praised, there is a certain face of the man, according to which he is a man, not according to which he is an evil man or a cunning man.

This is the one who has become in honor: 'a man being in honor does not fail' (Psalm 49:12), as the man having become 'both in image and in likeness' (Gen 1:26) of God. And this indeed is his preceding face, which if anyone should look upon and contemplate, he would find the man.

But they did not achieve one single calculation, but many. For wickedness is manifold. And I have once spoken aloud an image regarding the process of division, that all those who succeed find the same number, but those who err do not find the same.

A man therefore has a face, according to which he is rational, according to which he does all things with reason; and just as I was saying regarding the judge: the true judge is a living soul, just. He observes nothing other than the facts of the things being judged, not whether they are friends or enemies or relatives. For the good of the judgment depends on this.

And observe that he did not say 'property was cast away,' but 'to the properties.' And there is one form of man which makes him like God, but there are many, into which he falls. When he becomes cunning, he bears the face of a fox. When harmful and injurious, he bears the face of a serpent; when wild, a lion; when uncontrolled and a lover of pleasure and a flatterer, a dog. And entirely from the one man and the one form, variety and manifoldness arise.

And again the purpose will be, even if it seems not to some, by which the rejection of all forms occurs, to bear them so that that which God has made might be revealed. When, therefore, he remained in identity, he had one calculation. And just as it is said in one of the Psalms: 'God dwells with the single-minded in his house' (Psalm 68:6), those dwelling piety, uprightly, and ecclesiastically are single-minded, 'being equipped with the same mind and the same purpose,' as each is to be single-minded.

The Light of the Word and the Mouth of the King§34

34But you say a second meaning, that all have one way. It is said concerning those having such an opinion, that of the 'believing ones, one soul and one heart' (Acts 4:32), it is not by number, but by identity. And this identity is the first state.

And we ourselves sometimes are in disagreement with ourselves, saying: 'Is this not that?' But that is not understood. Because of this it is said: 'The one who has heard is at rest.' When one is no longer carried away by many things, but knows that which the messenger announces, he is at rest, no longer disturbed. For surely that philosopher says regarding ignorance as disturbance: 'Let us not be disturbed by the parts of substances.'

Who knows the wise? And who knows the resolution of a sentence? Wisdom illuminates a man's face. He who understands the wise is rare. For it is a matter of knowing scientifically who is wise. He who thus contemplates the wise man knows who he is and his wisdom.

No one can know a shipbuilder without examining the art by which he constructs ships. And no one can know who a painter is unless he knows the art of painting. Just as it is impossible for one to know a white body without knowing what white color is, and it is impossible for one not knowing a science to know what that science is, so it is not possible to know a wise man without having known the wisdom by which he has become wise and by which he is called wise. Surely, others recognize others, and others do not recognize others.

So who knows the judgments of the sentences of the wise? He who understands these things—being able to be intelligent and being able to be discerning—is rare, as are parables and obscure speech, maxims of the wise and enigmas. The resolutions of enigmatic sentences are not known by chance, but by one being wise according to the wisdom by which the sentences are brought forth. Wisdom illuminates a man's face.

This says that the wisdom of man shows his face to be luminous, not the face of the body, nor the member of the flesh, but the face of the inner man, about which the wise say: 'The light of your face has been shone upon us, Lord' (Psalm 4:6). And if the light that makes wise and makes people wise and enlightened is constructed...

In your face there is light—for your word is your image, your character—the one participating in this light is enlightened and becomes illuminated. Thus Jesus says to those who drew near to him: 'Let your light shine before men' (Matt 5:16). And he says to all: 'You are the light of the world' (Matt 5:14). The apostles are not a light perceptible to the world, that is, visible to the many of men, but of the true world. Jesus did not find sin for the one reconciled to God in Christ. This, therefore, is the face of the inner man being enlightened by wisdom. And wisdom, light, word, truth, and the other notions called concerning Christ are the same.

And the shameless one will be hated before his face. 'Guard the mouth of a king and do not be hasty regarding the word of God's oath' (Ecclesiastes 8:2). The shameless one, the one not having boldness from the light and wisdom that is absent, will be hated as a reproof. This exists especially for the sophists who wish to philosophize the truth. For from much shamelessness they argue against the truth. Thus they interpret things as if they do not possess nature. Therefore he is hateful, even if he sometimes escapes through craftiness and is not hated, but indeed he is hateful. And he is hateful who is worthy of being hated, even if no one hates him. For malice, even if it be any other kind, is hateful; pleasure overcomes many who love. Many are those being seduced; and it is not as if evil is not hateful.

'Guard the mouth of a king' (Ecclesiastes 8:2). Guard the mouth of the king of the truth; keep his word, live and think according to his word. For the mouth has often been demonstrated to us to signify the word. He stood by the word of God, which is called his mouth of a king, and so he acts, so he thinks, so he lives. And do not be hasty regarding the word of the oath of God. And among those outside, such a thing is hateful. He who is hasty to swear provides a ground for suspicion, unless an oath is imposed upon him by the ruler in the absence of any witness and he is compelled to swear concerning this. Therefore he said: 'Do not be hasty,' meaning: do not take a voluntary course toward swearing; do not handle an unprovable faith. If it is possible for faith to be provided, do not be hasty regarding an oath.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Commandment§35

35One who swears to his neighbor and does not break it, thus speaking truthfully so as not to violate the oath, is not to be hated. 'You shall go out from his presence; do not stand in evil speech' 1 Tim 4:16; for he will not do whatever he wishes, as a king exercising authority? It is possible to speak excessively regarding the shameless man, saying, 'You shall go out from his presence.' Get away from the shameless man.

These things can also be applied to the devil himself and to all evil power. For things said about men as being evil or wicked could also be said about the demons and the devil. For what is said about men as being breathing animals is not applied even to the devil or to a demon.

It is also possible to say regarding the king, before whom one must behave correctly, 'You shall go out from his presence,' meaning as one being sent away from him, as we say, 'this one came from the king.' 'Do not stand in evil speech.' This means: even if it should ever happen through ignorance to say something evil, such as a harmful lie, do not stand in it, do not remain in it. Regarding the divine utterances and words, Paul writes, 'be mindful of them' 1 Tim 4:16. Remain in the words of God, which are unsearchable and healthy.

For will he not do whatever he wishes? Will the shameless man not do what he wills? Therefore, flee from his presence. And even if it is regarding God as a king, do not suppose that because he wishes to do something, he will escape from Him if you flee, by fleeing from His knowledge. As a king exercising authority: a king possessing authority is prevented by no one, no one stands against him, but he does whatever he wishes. Therefore, take both sides.

Either regarding the true king, God—for he does what he wishes, and no one resists him; or if it is said regarding the shameless man, it again creates fear in us to flee from him. This has been said: truly the wise man is king. The Stoics indeed say that only the wise man is king, and only the priest. For if the king is the one who rules legally, but only the wise man knows this, then only this one is king. Immediately, regarding Abraham, who was an ordinary man by chance, it was said to the discerning ones, 'You are a king before God among us' Gen 14:18. Even if you are others to others, you are a king before God. For a king is a king...

God is among those who are. If the word is about a shameless person, he himself is like a king exercising authority over those brought under his embassy. 'Let not sin reign in your mortal body' (Romans 6:12). The one who reigned, death, from Adam to Moses, exercises authority over those under his power and his beginning. And who will say to him: 'What will you do?' The one guarding the commandment will not know an evil word. And regarding God, it is true to say that no one says to him: 'What will you do?' And regarding the shameless and impudent king. Perhaps this shameless one may be able to bear the face of the Antichrist. For indeed there in the prophecy about him of Elijah, a certain daughter rose up and thus reproved him, saying him shameless.

The one guarding the commandment will not know an evil word. See: the one knowing the good immediately knows also the evil. But to know in this way does not mean to use, but only to know. For if a commandment is given so that 'we may turn away from evil and do good,' it is necessary also to know the evil, so that we may turn away from it and choose the good. Concerning such things the apostle writes, saying: 'Test all things, hold fast to the good; abstain from every form of evil' (1 Thess 5:21). You see, how the one testing all things knows the good, and that it is to be chosen and kept, and the evil, that it is to be fled from; it is proper to be estranged from it.

If, then, the one knowing the good saw the evil and again saw it, how does he say here that the one guarding the commandment does not know an evil word? Even though the commandment is a good word. But the one knowing the good word knows also the evil word; yet he says that the one guarding the commandment does not know an evil word, that is, he does not say that he does not know, but that he does not use it, not to know it in the way: 'even Jesus did not know the sin' (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus the guardian of the commandment does not know an evil word. Let the 'not knowing a word' be either an offense or not hearing the word in the way it ought to be heard. The one hearing the word as it ought, has experience of it. But the one guarding the commandment, since he has no experience of the opposite of the commandment, will not know the evil word. And the word is often said instead of the thing. Mary, having heard the word of the angel...

The Knowledge of Self and the Order of the Soul§36

36He says: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word' (Luke 1:38). Thus it shall be to me, as your word flows through me. And I will not say something paradoxical. For 'in the soul' there is also a word: 'the thought which is without being either true or false, when it is already necessary to exist as such,' or to be true or to be false. A thought is called a word because it falls under the definition of knowledge; 'for a word is that which signifies time,' and it is a word in which there is to be a speaking of truth or a speaking of a lie. Since therefore such things are thoughts, we shall call them words.

This is why the divine apostle, knowing this, says 'he has heard unspoken words' (2 Corinthians 12:4). And it seems to be a contradiction, unless we take the spoken and the unspoken to mean something different from one another. They are unspoken insofar as they are spoken only in the mind, and God imparts them to the intellect. And they possess truth or falsehood, so that according to this also they are words. They are unspoken because they are not brought forth through syllables, not being able to be written or inscribed. But that which is not brought forth through syllables is unspoken. If, however, each of the things I say is spoken—for I bring it forth through articulated voice—yet the thought, which the voice does not submit, is an unspoken word. For it possesses either the truth or the lie. They are unspoken in that they do not have the quality of being brought forth through syllables and articulated words, but they are words in that they possess truth or falsehood.

And the heart of the wise knows the time of judgment; for in every matter there is a time and a judgment, for much knowledge of the wise is upon it. This is what he says: the mind and the heart of the wise know 'the time of judgment,' not only that which is spoken of in the Scripture. The divine words say 'the time of judgment' regarding that time, by which all stand before the judgment of God. And he calls this time 'the day of judgment.' Here, therefore, the wise man knows all time and the judgment of every matter. Having judged the things, he imposes his judgment, and having judged the words, he brings them forth. For he knows when it is necessary to give an answer and when not, and when to oppose a word and when to let it go for the sake of the listeners. He knows the judgment of this time, so that you might not take a spoken time, such as a day or a night, but a time, to say, such as this.

Having such a state. 'Therefore the heart of the wise man knows the time of judgment,' he knows the judgment, by which it is necessary to use the times. For in every thing there is a time and a judgment. Every thing has a time and a judgment, it is manifest. Therefore, the one able to manage things in this way, as he says timely concerning them and having judged, this one is wise and performs the work of a wise man. For the knowledge of man concerning himself is much.

And human knowledge we receive in two ways, that which he knows and that which is known to him. For example, those who are knowing of themselves possess that same word, of the one knowing and of the one being known. If they are knowing of themselves and not others are knowing of them, they themselves are the knowers and the being known. 'Therefore great is the knowledge of man concerning himself,' and that which he himself knows and that which he himself is known by.

Indeed, countless things have been moved by men toward that opinion which says, 'Know thyself.' It is one, the voice is brief, but the thought is much. He who has known himself has known that he is a created being, and he has known that he has come into being for the acquisition of virtue. He has known that the soul rules in himself and the body is ruled, and again in the soul that the rational part rules, while the desiring and the spirited parts are ruled. If these things happen in reverse, it is bad. That soul, if it is ruled by the body and rules the body, is destruction to that man; and if the rational part is ruled by the spirit or by desire, this rule is lawless.

Therefore it is necessary for the wise man to know himself and to have mastery, that 'the knowledge concerning him is much,' and that which is concerning him, which he ought to know. For if he knows that 'the knowledge concerning him is much'—since he ought to know himself—having known not a little, he will not consider himself to have been perfected in life. Even if he is with all that is possible to exist here and has received knowledge, he knows that 'he knows in part' (1 Cor 13:9) and he will not stop as some already do, but he still works toward acquiring even more knowledge, even if he knows all visible things. And, as Solomon says, you might receive 'knowledge without error' of all 'things that exist,' lifting his mind upon the invisible, he knows that he possesses knowledge in many respects. For he has comprehension of the sensible things alone.

The distinction between future existence and imminent tendency§37

The Bread of Life and the Cleansing of the Soul§38

The Assyrian and the Seven Shepherds§39

39the weight of the sixth verse

The devil himself is defeated against you. When he approaches and draws near and finds strong ones, then he is destroyed.

Something like this was also mentioned a little ago regarding what was said in Isaiah: 'Before a child is known to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the raids of Samaria against Assyria the king' (Isaiah 8:4). It was not a great thing if he 'had taken the power of Damascus,' that is, the nations, and 'having taken the raids of Samaria' he 'would deliver' if the 'Assyrian' had gone away. As if someone holds a territory in the absence of the ruling king and takes it, it is not a great thing, nor is 'peace' secure; for 'coming' that one will avenge the things taken in his absence. But when, in the presence of the defender, it is taken from him, they are strong and, having the deepest 'peace,' they are the ones removing his things.

Therefore he says that 'this peace' is the true one. 'This peace' is when 'the Assyrian, having come into your land,' is defeated, when he is rendered helpless, being unable to 'raid' from the 'land' because of his own weakness. 'And seven shepherds shall arise against him,' he says—the holy ones before the visitation, as it was said, because the Sabbath named 'seven'—'and eight marks of men' after the visitation who believed. These 'bite' and cause him pain. For the wording in the Scripture means this: 'But if you bite and devour one another' (Galatians 5:15); and in Habakkuk again concerning this same evil one, it is said that 'suddenly they shall arise, biting him' (Habakkuk 2:7). Contrary to expectation, those from the nations who once 'shall arise' against him cause him pain, 'biting him.'

He therefore says that the holy ones before the visitation 'shall arise against the Assyrian, seven shepherds,' so that you may take all the prophets before the visitation, these patriarchs, as these 'shepherds,' not standing on the number 'seven' which is divided into five and two, but on the mystery of the week. Those who had 'left the Sabbath to the people of God for forty years' found 'rest of soul' through Jesus—for 'you shall find rest for your souls' (Matthew 11:29)—these are in the true Sabbath and are named by him through the 'seven.' They are said...

The Eightfold Sign and the Rain of the Word§40

The Tree by the Waters and the Wind of the Spirit§41

41The good has come, calling the south wind. And observe the cause: 'Blow through my garden and let my fragrances flow,' which the north wind does not do. And he has used more natural names; for he said 'cold wind' for the north. And the coldness closes the pores of the trees, which are called seeds, so that the parts remain inside.

But if the warm south wind blows through the garden of this soul—for the garden is according to the soul—the pores are thinned, that is, the concepts, since the fragrances are the sweet thoughts. Therefore he says this: 'Where the tree falls, there it will remain.' If the south wind blows through the soul, the fragrances flow, and where the sweet ones are, they fall.

Instead of asking, 'is there not still a transfer?', he speaks of an immediate falling, as if I say: 'All the nations will stand before the coming Savior king, to separate the goats from the sheep; and he will set the sheep on the right, but the goats from the left' (Matthew 25:32). So, 'where it fell, it remained'—the goat from the left, the sheep on the right?—Not so, if one hears the goats: 'Go into the eternal fire' (Matthew 25:41). He does not say that they will always remain there, nor does he say that those called into the kingdom will always remain there and not move into greater and super-ascended and super-cosmic places, to reach that glory which the Savior had before the world (John 17:5).

And he says this: 'Where it falls, there it will remain,' as if he says, like the one making a distinction: if it is earnest, it will remain in virtue; if it is trivial, in wickedness. And this is not doubtful, but he shows what follows; even if he spoke doubtfully, it was because of the turning of the will; but he did not speak doubtfully. Furthermore, does the 'wood' lie in another scripture? The one blessed for not having settled in the counsel of the ungodly, nor having stood...

He says that one shall not walk in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the ungodly, but shall be like a tree planted by the outlets of the waters. Then he brings forth a little more: 'and all that he does shall be prosperous,' showing that he speaks concerning a man; for it is not in the power of a plant to 'do' and to 'be prosperous.' And it is brought forward: 'not thus are the ungodly, not thus,' like the tree. And again in Jeremiah it is said: 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord; and he shall be like a tree planted by the waters' (Jeremiah 17:7-8), and he calls it 'blessed' by the Lord. And again in the Psalms you have: 'Then all the trees of the forest shall rejoice before the face of the Lord' (Psalm 96:12).

Observing the wind, he does not sow, and seeing in the clouds, he does not reap, in which there is no knowing what is the way of the Spirit. And it is true toward the word, for when the strong 'wind' scatters the sown seed and it does not enter into the furrows of the earth as it ought. And as for an illustration, the 'wind' is often taken regarding an uncertain matter; for it has been said that 'they are carried by every wind.' If you 'observe' this 'wind,' you 'will not sow,' but when it ceases, when there is great clarity and calm; that is, just as the soul is carried about here and there by passions, it is not able to 'sow in tears' so that 'you may reap in joy' (Psalm 126:5), it is not able to 'sow into righteousness.' Therefore, 'observe' the 'wind.'

And it is possible, and indeed it is possible, for 'observing' to be used instead of 'watching closely.' The word is also taken regarding this, sometimes regarding a guard, and sometimes regarding an observation. When he says that 'the sinner will observe the righteous' and 'seeks to kill him,' he is careful, as an archer would observe, which limb of the opposing one is bare, so that he might send the arrow there. But when he says 'you will preserve us,' instead of 'you will protect us.'

The Way of the Spirit and the Mystery of Bone Formation§42

42In the same way, the serpent cannot strike the wing of the man if it is outside the sandal. He who is 'shod with feet in preparation for the gospel' is not struck in the wing by the serpent. Thus indeed, in a manner of blessing, it is said to someone: 'iron and bronze is your sandal.' But you know that 'iron and bronze' is not received as a blessing for sandals; for it strikes the foot; for the sandal pulls the one 'shod' into its own shape and a wound occurs around the foot. Therefore, the one who has received 'authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy' (Luke 10:19) shows himself unhurt. The invincible and the unhurt are signified many times by these materials.

And seeing in the clouds, he will not reap (Ecclesiastes 11:4). When 'he sees in the clouds,' he sees rain lying upon the earth, 'he will not reap.' We must force the meaning of the word; if a 'rain' is lying upon the crops, the 'rain' being driven down harms the things being reaped, making them moist, and they easily come to rot. This is therefore what the command is: in a suitable 'time' let every 'thing' be done by each one in his own way. Through these two words, he transfers them to all things.

For example, one being introduced into godliness, by way of divine knowledge, let him 'sow' when it is 'time,' receiving lessons which were fitting for the one being introduced to receive. And let him not 'reap' prematurely, but when he sees a 'rain' lying upon the ground capable of watering, then let him 'reap.' For at such times the harvest is taken. The diligent one begins and always has an end in the cutting ahead. The prior labors reach an end, but those following them take up the beginnings.

Such a thing, then, is this, and in the gospel the Savior says concerning the Spirit, of 'reapers' and 'sowers': 'that the sower may rejoice at the same time as the reaper' (John 4:36). But it is not profitable in the same time to 'sow' and 'reap' in the sensible sense. But that of the word, the 'things being reaped' are grown, and those being grown come to 'being reaped.' For I said that some are left behind, but to others they come. For it has been said, 'when a man has completed, then he begins' (Sirach 18:7); and that which 'begins' and 'completes' happens 'at the same time.' The 'beginning' signifies the 'sowing,' and the 'end' the 'reaping.' 'The sower and the reaper rejoice at the same time.' And it is possible also to take it thus: when the s...

His harvest 'is completed', but it does not have the 'reaper'. The 'reaper', when he does not have 'seed', does not have that which 'he might reap'. Therefore, these things can happen simultaneously by the 'blessing' and 'grace of God'.

11,5a In which ones there is not a knowing one, what is the way of the Spirit. He says this: that 'in which there is not a knowing the way of the Spirit', these commandments are useful. And he said that the diligent and the perfect—indeed diligent and always progressing through progresses—is both; for he knows the 'way of the Spirit'. Thus, 'is the one knowing the way of the Spirit'; 'let him watch', if it is 'wind', not 'to sow', and when 'rain' is appropriate, and not 'to reap'.

11,5bc Just as a bone in the belly of a pregnant woman is formed, thus one will not know the 'works' of God. Regarding the incomprehensible of these 'works', it signifies either the hard-to-grasp. Those who have dealt with the nature of animals have spoken of a certain way and a sequence of change for each part; concerning 'bone' they did not have the power to say. 43 They say that blood is composed in such a way: when food is presented and digested—when it becomes through being sent to be processed—the food changes into blood; and that which is rejected must be cast out, it is not decomposed into the composition of the thing eaten, but is cast off as waste. But when it has been absorbed, then, through a change occurring successively, it is decomposed into blood. Then they say that from the blood, having become thick and congealed, flesh is made, and from the wastes of the food, hair, nails, and such things are made, which are as wastes. But concerning the generation of 'bone', none of them found it, so that this was as 'your judgments are a great abyss' (Psalm 36:6). Such a thing is also what is said in one of the Psalms: 'My bone was not hidden from you, which you made in secret' (Psalm 139:15). And 'which you made in secret', he says this, that its genesis is hidden; and 'was not hidden' this was 'from you'. Therefore, take this for an illustration.

She 'carries' is pregnant the woman who has received the seed from a man. But the seed, having been cast into the womb, undergoes the first change into nature. For there is nothing other than nature or seed having thickened, having near to change into flesh. After nature, the change leads to the embryo, the embryo...

Sowing in Tears and Reaping in Joy§43

43Toward the living thing, after which the manifestation immediately occurs. Just as 'it is not known' those 'in the womb of the pregnant woman,' unless by chance a revelation from God happens to occur, so the soul, which has attached itself to the seeds and the wombs of the 'bridegroom' of the Savior—about whom it is said, 'he who has the bride is the bridegroom' (John 3:29)—has hidden the wombs. But then they become manifest, when the wombs, which God sowed, change into thought and works. It is not therefore necessary to always have them 'in the womb.' And one has them 'in the womb' and 'bears them' who does not change the words and the thoughts of the works into works and dogmatic contemplations. Just as there 'you do not know' those things, unless they change into good works and pious contemplations, so also one 'will know the works of God' no other way than if they change into works according to energetic operation.

In order that you might receive the strong dogmas as the 'bone of the pregnant woman' by an upward leading; for the 'bones' are the sustaining things of the body. In the same way, without the dogmas of piety, the passions and the duties are not correctly placed. For this reason, it is said concerning these 'bones' that they also have 'knowledge of God' and know that no one is 'like Him.' He did not say absolutely, but rather 'in the womb of the pregnant woman'; just as if I say that when it is night nothing of the visible is seen, I am not saying that nothing is seen, but rather when it is night; for it is not the same to say 'nothing is seen' and 'at night nothing is seen.' 'In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening let not your hand withhold, for you do not know which this or that will succeed' (Eccl 11:6).

Since we are very much turning toward the literal, and this is to be taken toward history. Often the name of 'day' does not signify only the illuminated air when the sun was above the earth, but also the whole life of man, as if the hymnographer says, 'and I waited for you all the day.' And often 'day' and a 'season' beginning and receiving are called the same. He says therefore that at the beginning of the 'season'—so that you might take the 'day' as one 'season' of 'sowing' and 'reaping'—he says at the beginning of that 'season,' by which there is 'sowing,' do not be slow, 'sow your seed.' For so in the 'evening' not...

Your hand finds what it will reap; when the time is fulfilled, the harvest will stand. And these things are spoken in a literal sense. But in an allegorical sense, those 'sowing in tears'—those 'sowing into the Spirit, so that they may reap eternal life'—sow in the beginning of the 'day'; and it is that 'day' which Abraham received with love and longing, so that he might 'see' and be shown by the Savior. And that 'day' is the one of which the choir of the saints says: 'This is the day which the Lord has made'. The apostle also signifies this same thing to the Romans, writing: 'the night is gone, and the day is near, as if we walk decently in the day' (Romans 13:12). Thus he says: the time of 'ignorance' is called 'night'; after this has 'passed', the 'day' succeeds it.

The beginning of the 'day' is 'morning', in which all the saints hasten. One of them says: 'I will stand before you in the morning and watch' (Psalm 5:3), and 'my God, my God, toward you I rise at dawn' (Psalm 63:1). Another says: 'out of the night my spirit rises toward you, O God' (Isaiah 26:9). In this morning, 'sowing in tears', sowing the seeds of virtue with pains, sowing into the Spirit with sweat, so that you may 'reap eternal life', and having 'sown in tears you may reap in joy' (Psalm 126:5) and come 'rejoicing', bringing the sheaves of the seed. Therefore, let not 'your hand' let go of the beginning of the sowing. The word 'sow' applies to both senses.

It can also be understood thus: since, as 'walking decently in the day', they are both 'children of light' and 'children of the day', these have the 'present age' as the 'morning' of virtue, in which they owe to 'sow', so that in the 'evening' they may 'reap'. Yet that 'evening' is not theirs, but of others; for to them there will be eternal light, the 'sun of righteousness' (Malachi 4:2) always touching them. You have something similar in a psalm: 'weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning' (Psalm 30:5). The sun 'rises and sets' at once, but not for the same people; to those to whom it 'rises', they 'rejoice'; to those to whom it 'sets', they 'weep'. Something similar is brought in Jeremiah: 'late her voice cried out', when her 'sun' was 'setting'. And it is said in the manner of a threat: 'and the sun shall set upon the prophets'—and 'prophets' here he means...

Christ as Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End§44

44The false prophets—for 'the day shall come upon them to darken them' (Eccl 11:6). Therefore, you, O man, being exhorted to 'sow in the morning, and let not your hand withhold' (Eccl 11:6) until the 'evening', so that you may receive an excellent 'harvest' of knowledge from God; for 'light your own light of knowledge, and bear fruit unto the fruit of life, until generations of righteousness come to you'.

11,6c Because you do not know what sort of thing will belong, this or that. 'You do not know', he says, 'what this or that will belong to'. If you are 'sowing' but not farming, you do not know whether it bears fruit or does not bear fruit.

328 It is also possible to take this to mean that the same person 'at once' 'sows' and 'reaps', so as not to 'belong' to one kind first and to another kind second 'at once' while all things are happening. And yesterday was a witness to the Gospel that 'so that the sower may rejoice together with the reaper' (John 4:36), as the same 'time' is for both 'seed' and 'harvest'; 'harvest' indeed of the progress already received, and 'seed' of the future to be received.

And the visitation of the Savior may happen to some 'in the morning' and to others 'in the evening'; 'evening' for those who were unfaithful, but 'morning' for those to whom the sun 'has risen' (Ps 118:130) through 'faith' and 'piety'. And this must be said: it is impossible to teach correctly one who has not learned.

In the very beginning of the introduction to instruction, it is 'sow and let not your hand withhold' so that one might again have a product and 'sow' and feed others. Such a blessing is brought forth in Genesis concerning Benjamin: 'Benjamin', he says, 'a wolf that snatches the morning food and will distribute food in the evening' (Gen 49:27).

The 'wolf that snatches' was when 'he persecuted the church and incited it'; gap... of that state, and the rest became from 'Benjamin' the son of the right hand, the 'son of the day', the son of rest; then indeed 'he ate in the morning', being instructed in the introduction according to faith, 'and in the evening he gave food as nourishment', he became an 'apostle', a 'teacher in faith and truth among the Gentiles'.

Furthermore, what then is 'you do not know'?—since they are 'at once', you do not have the knowledge that divides this from that. To 'belong' here means to be placed together. 11,6d7ab And if the two are the same good things. And the light is sweet and good to the eyes.

To see with the sun. If, he says, 'you sow' well and 'you reap', 'the two good things have happened at once'. And you have received well the preceding progress and have received the following well.

Jesus himself therefore says to be 'beginning and end'; 'I', he says, 'am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the living one and I became dead, and behold, I am living forever' (Rev 1:8, 22:13). See how these things, appearing to be opposite, he says to be himself both before and after. For he says, 'I am the first and I am the last', or first, 'I am the Alpha and I am the Omega'.

There are letters which the Holy Spirit engraves in the heart of those thus prepared. For he says: 'not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets I engrave' (2 Cor 3:3); and he says these are written by the Holy 'Spirit', by the 'living Spirit'. He himself is also the divine letters; in which the 'book of the living' (Rev 21:27) is written, in which 'the names' of the apostles are engraved 'in the heavens' (Rev 21:27), there they are inscribed. He therefore says 'I am the Alpha and I am the Omega'.

Through other things he revealed that the other things also are. He himself is therefore 'beginning' and 'end'. It is therefore within his power to participate 'at once', in which respect he is 'beginning' and 'end'; according to one respect 'beginning', and according to another 'end'. And just as we call the same one 'lamb' and 'shepherd' and these do not conflict, so we call him 'way' and 'door' and these do not oppose. Thus he himself is called 'beginning' and 'end'.

'Beginning' is as a 'foundation' of the 'divine building' being laid down; 'for no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid' (1 Cor 3:11). He himself is the 'head of the corner' (Ps 118:22); he himself the 'placed foundation' 'has become the head of the corner', joining; and the 'corner' is the meeting of two walls. Just as the two covenants and the two peoples were joined and the church became one, using Christ as 'head', so also he became 'end'.

Behold, 'beginning and end', 'first and last'. Take the 'first' here according to honor; there are those bearing the first things 'in the church' such as 'apostles, prophets'; there are also the others having such things as 'the gift of healings, understanding, governance, tongue'. All...

The Light and the Visible§45

45Therefore he is that one. For they become such by imitating him. And so he is called 'first' in honor and 'last' in honor.

But if you wish to hear a deeper word: Jesus your Lord, 'passing through the heavens,' imitated all the logoi in both the ascent and the descent, just as it is carried in Isaiah to the one ascending, so that he might benefit every rank; for he did not pass through a place descending, where no benefit was accomplished. Therefore the super-ascending one can also be a living being, but the 'last' is perhaps the 'man or the one descended.' He imitated all, so that every rank might be benefited. For did not the apostle himself say, 'he has become all things to all, so that he might win all' (1 Cor 9:22)? And to those to whom 'he became all things' and who also are 'the last,' 'he became lawless to the lawless, so that he might win the lawless; a Jew to the Jews, so that he might win the Jews; wisdom to the wise' (1 Cor 9:20-22)—if then his imitator was doing these things, he does much more.

Furthermore, he says having said this: 'the living one and I was born a corpse.' 'I am the living one,' not the 'one having become living'; for he is 'living,' for he is 'life,' but 'he became' 'dead'; but the intervening part is resolved: for he came up; 'and behold, I am living forever' (Rev 1:18). For if even 'living' he happens to have 'become dead,' he has not 'become dead forever' by that 'life' shining forth, which they had before the death.

And the light is sweet and good to the eyes. In either way, the 'light is sweet' 'to the eyes and good.' It benefits the 'eyes.' And if you take it regarding the sensible, it shows him the visible things. But if regarding the divine 'light' of the eternal, about which it is said, 'was the true light, which enlightens every man' (John 1:9), 'enlightening the eyes of the heart,' it is 'sweet' to them. In either way, the 'light' and the 'eyes' must be taken, and likewise the 'sweetness.' Similarly, if he speaks about the visible things of those shown by the sensible...

The word 'sweet' is instead 'pleasant'. If you take the internal 'eyes' and the 'true light', it is 'sweet' just as it is said, 'Taste and see that the Lord is good' (Psalm 34:8) and 'Your words are sweeter than honey and wax' (Psalm 19:10), 'Eat honey, my son, for it is good wax, so that your palate may be sweetened' (Proverbs 24:13). The 'honey', that which is eaten, is the 'good', the spiritual dripping from the Scriptures; and the 'wax', in which the word of the Scriptures consists.

Regarding 11,7b, it is seeing with the sun. He who has this 'light' 'sees the sun'. Listen again in another way. The other visible things are shown by 'sun' and 'light'; but the 'light' itself is not shown by another, but it manifests itself. This happens both in history and in the upward ascent. To see in harmony, there must be both sight and 'light' and visible things. For there are times when, though sight exists, visible things are not perceived, when it is night. And again, when the 'light' exists, if someone does not look, even if he is not deprived of it, he does not see them. Therefore, you see these things when the 'light'... makes them manifest for perception.

And there is something else: the 'light' that shows, the visible things that are shown, and the sight that shows. Regarding the intelligible, it is not so. The 'light' is not shown by 'light' even though it is visible, but it makes itself manifest. Moses said this, 'Show me yourself', and 'no one else is able to show me' (Exodus 33:13), just as if someone said to the 'sun', 'Show yourself to me', for no one else can show you. So also the Savior said in the Gospels: 'He who has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will manifest to him' (John 14:21).

Memory and Eternity§46

46Himself, myself. Again, 'I manifest', 'no one else shows me'. But you say that the Son 'shows the Father'. But observe that it is the essence of Father and Son; for just as the 'Father is shown' by the Son, so also the Son by the Father; 'he who has seen me', he says, 'has seen the Father' (John 14:9). And see that the Son reveals the Father, and the Father also reveals the Son. For Paul says as 'God was pleased to reveal his Son in me' (Galatians 1:16). And Peter was testified that 'flesh and blood did not reveal' (Matt 16:17) the Son to him, but the one who begat him, the 'heavenly Father'.

11,8abcd And if a man lives many years, in them... he will be made glad and will remember the days of darkness, because many they will be. 11,8a 'Even if a man lives ten thousand years', but he was a 'man' guarding the 'image and likeness' and thus the 'man' has become as 'straight' so as to know the straightness of the light and to 'sow in the morning' and 'not to leave anything to the hand in the evening', 'he will be made glad'. 11,8ab 'Even if he lives many years, he will be made glad'. And 'many years' come from the cycle of the 'sun of righteousness' (Malachi 4:2). For just as the perceptible sun, circling a certain circuit, makes 'years' and annual cycles, so also 'the true light'.

Concerning these things, therefore, the holy one who was enlightened by him says: 'I have remembered and meditated on eternal years'. If all things among us are 'temporary', how can 'eternal years' be spoken of as occurring among us? And again: 'I have remembered eternal days, understanding generations of ages'. From 'eternal days' the 'eternal years' are constructed. 'Even if a man lives many years, he will be made glad in them', if he acts thus as a 'man', if he is not 'compared alongside' and becomes 'beast-like', if he is not 'a mare of a horse', 'not wise' according to the 'half-part'.

Furthermore, the 'even if'? —since not all 'live' these 'years'; but not according to nature does the 'living one live', but if he wills, 'he lives'. If this, therefore, exists, 'he will be made glad' in all the days. Therefore, regarding the literal sense, the truth is not mentioned as such, 'if' someone lives ten thousand 'years', 'he will be made glad in all of them', unless you say it thus: the wise man does not rejoice only over pleasant things, but also over unpleasant things, bravely bearing them; for 'I will bless the Lord' (Ps 34:1).

"At all times," he says, even if the surrounding things were unpleasant and even if they were distressing; just as Job "at all times" "rejoiced" (Job 1:21). And he will remember the days of darkness, because they will be many (Ecclesiastes 11:8). Mostly, the one being in evil does not "remember" the "eternal lights", but the one being in virtue knows even the evil and "remembers" it; thus indeed he "turns away" from it. For until the present they are working, but the wicked are handed over even after these things to the darkness and to other unpleasant things, to all the punishments. The one "remembering", therefore, will not be tried by them.

However, we take "to remember" in a different way; for we also take from the use of memory many times, and the not using of forgetfulness. For when he speaks about the righteous, those enjoying the divine promises, saying "they will forget their first affliction"—instead of saying they will not be tried by it again—"nor will it fall upon their heart again". Why? "For the heaven will be new and the earth will be new"; once my cosmos has been re-measured and the promises have been fulfilled, there will no longer be memory of the distressing. And thus we have become accustomed to say: when a change occurs, we say one takes "forgetfulness of former things", whether they were good or not good. For it is said: "In a good day, the amnesty of evils" (Sirach 11:25). For he does not say this meaning that the one tried by "days of good" and of light realized that he was being tried by "evils". But no longer does he "remember" them according to experience.

Rejoice, youth, in your youth, and let your heart make you good in the days of your youth, and walk in ways blameless and in the vision of your eyes (Eccl 11:9). "That which is coming" is not eternal; "they are temporary" regarding these "things seen", the visible creatures; but "the unseen" are also "eternal", which the saints strive to possess, saying: "Our aim is not the things seen; for the things seen are temporary, but the unseen are eternal" (2 Cor 4:18). If they are not "eternal", they are not going to be, even if perhaps "virtue" or "knowledge" were once going to be; among us this happens: if we have not become in evil or in ignorance, we are not going to have lost light or going to have goodness. Therefore by nature the divine things are outside of the "presently existing". And I remember that I have used such a sample.

The Nature of Evil and the Coming Good§47

47At what time? The one who... [The text is damaged here.]. But it is present here, as it is about to be. And I have used such an example: that if a man, while it is day, having closed a door in a house, should block up every opening, the light is not present to him, yet it is present. If, therefore, he opens the shutters, if he casts away ignorance, he finds the light present; so that it is not 'about to be'. Therefore, everything of this kind that is 'coming' is 'vain', of the nature of the 'vain'. For 'vain' is not a reproach, unless it is through comparison with those who have risen far above. Such things were indeed said at the beginning of the book; but then we used such examples, saying that it shines and illuminates bright lights. Just as regarding the sun and the light, that which is there is the solar one; this is 'vain', not denied but inferior.

Without doubt, some wish to think regarding virtue what they also think regarding evil; for it has been said regarding evil that 'it was not from the beginning, nor shall it be unto the age' (Wisdom 14:13). Regarding idolatry and fornication it is indeed said, but through synecdoche, it is understood regarding all evil. And it is said that 'injustice lied about itself' (Psalm 27:12). And 'to lie' is, as we say, to have 'lied' regarding the earth, as regarding grain, as regarding a vine. And some who have a shared view of the soul say that virtue is such: it does not exist without the one acting. But this is a falsehood, for it is in God, and from there we derive it. Even if we depart, the good exists in God. But the evil, if no one acts, is no longer. And regarding this, namely the primordial evil, which is called all evils after a secondary designation: for both the 'wicked' and the 'enemy' and 'death' and the 'sinner' are so called. Indeed, it is said, 'crush the arm of the sinner and the wicked' (Psalm 10:15), crush his work called the 'arm'; then immediately it says: 'his sin shall be sought, and it shall not be found through itself'. 'Through itself it is not found'; for among those that exist, it is something that has happened (accidental) capable of being cast away. It is not an inseparable thing that has happened; nor does anything of the inseparable things happen, since nothing is cast away from them. In this way, nothing that happens many times remains. Furthermore, what kind of harm? It remains inseparable; except it was not always inseparable, but from the time it was established, from the time it...

the character does not change whether looking with the body

The Integrity of Sight and the Tripartite Soul§48

48A curved road, such as those to whom the word speaks: 'O you who abandon straight paths' (Proverbs 2:13), whose 'paths are crooked' and 'curved.' 11,9b And let your heart make you good in the days of your youth. 'Let your heart make you good,' not the external things. It has often been said to us regarding the difference between happiness and blessedness, that some place happiness in being fulfilled by the three kinds of goods. Wealth does not 'make good,' it does not truly make one good, nor does health of the body, nor having rank and glory. But possessing virtue of the soul 'rejoices' one. This, therefore, is 'let your heart make you good,' not the external things, not the things concerning the body; do not think greatly upon these, and hasten not to pursue these.

11,9c And walk in blameless paths. Walk in the 'straight paths' I have spoken of clearly; for the virtues and the activities according to them and the contemplations of the truth are 'good and straight paths.' Likewise, regarding Elymas the sorcerer who perverted the human, Paul says: 'Do you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?' (Acts 13:10) Not that they 'are being perverted' there, but to what extent he 'perverts' them toward that. Just as if someone presumes upon youth saying that one need not be prudent, and bears insults against prudence, for he does not make it real. Some indeed hold council with injustice; but those who hold council with such things slander justice. Therefore, 'let your heart make you good,' not the accidental things, not the bodily things. Then you will have 'blameless paths' and chance to be blessed; for 'blessed are the blameless in the way' (Ps 119:1) and 'he who walks blamelessly and works righteousness.' And see that 'walking' is not in vain; for it was possible to say both 'stand blameless' and 'sit blameless'; but the walk signifies progress. Therefore, 'walk blameless,' beginning to follow the 'way' with the 'blameless.' Such also is that which is written by Paul: 'we shall walk in newness of life' (Romans 6:4), so that we may progress 'in the newness of life.' Having stripped off the garment of the old life, 'we have put on the new man.' We have a new life, we progress in it, and not turning away from it, we shall not lack.

11,9d And in the vision of your eyes. Take it again in its entirety.

If "your heart is good," you have "eyes" that see well. And in plain words: not seeking foreign beauty, you turn the "eye" away from a prostitute; you do not see a woman for shameful desire, but you have an "unblemished" "vision of the eyes." If you also take the "enlightened eyes of the heart," called the "eyes of the reasoning," the "unblemished" state is much more established.

And know that God will judge you regarding all these things, and remove passion from your heart and drive out evil from your flesh. Do what I command you, knowing "that God will judge you in all these things." "Judgment" measures out punishments for the bad, but promises and good things for the serious. Since you do not destroy in vain, if you "walk" "unblemished in your ways" (Psalm 119:1) and "are rejoiced in the days of your youth" (Ecclesiastes 11:9), strive; for "God will bring you to judgment" regarding these. If they were bad things, for which "judgment" was made toward him, punishment was to be expected; but since they are good—for the "ways" and the divine thoughts are fitting—if you walk thus "unblemished," you do not destroy in vain; for "God leads you in these to judgment."

And remove passion from your heart. "Passion" is not a virtue of the "heart," but of the spirited part. Therefore he says: do not use your reasoning and your mind for "passion," but, even if this movement ever stands in the spirited part, restrain it in your "heart." Thus it is removed "from your heart," not by being mixed with it.

The soul is tripartite, as many have said. And the matter is such: we have various senses. Just as it is not possible to see by hearing, nor to touch or smell by intellect, so we appear to have the inner man and the soul itself. We have a spirited power, a reasoning power, and a desiring power. From where do we know this? Observe that the reasoning is distinct from the spirited and the desiring from the irrational animals: irrational animals have a spirited power and "passion," and a desiring power and desire, but they do not have reasoning. Since they do not have reasoning, it is evident they do not have the reasoning part, they do not have mind. And the mind is signified by the name of the "heart."

The Purpose of Youth and the Nature of Vice§49

49He continues in the Scripture. Therefore he says that, even if you should ever be angry, do not lead the 'anger' into the 'heart', so that the 'anger' does not become a disposition. And if you should have a desire having suddenly become in the desiring part, do not carry it into the mind and the reasoning faculty; for it will be a disposition and no longer a passion or a pre-passion, but wickedness. And lead away evil from your flesh: 'And from your flesh lead away the evil' (Ecclesiastes 11:10). And unbridledness seems to be a wickedness of desire; therefore 'lead it away from your flesh'. And it is possible also thus: if 'the anger departs from your heart', you do not practice evil through the members and the body; the one being angry strikes many times and threatens and intends to murder. When therefore 'the anger departs from your heart', those things happening through actions which are evil also pass away.

11,10c.12,1abc For youth and thought are vanity; and remember your Creator in the days of your youth, until the days of your wickedness do not come (Eccl 12:1). 11,10c If the young man does not 'walk' 'in the ways blameless', nor does he do the other things which he was appointed to do, he is in 'ignorance'. It is also said in proverbs by this wise man: 'Folly spreads from the heart of a youth' (Proverbs 22:15). 'Ignorance' is disguised by 'youth'. If indeed anyone exceeds the movement of 'youth' and moves like an old man as if in 'youth', he has much 'ignorance'. 'That I may give cunning to the innocent, and perception and understanding to the young child'. If 'perception and understanding are given to the young child' by wisdom, it is evident that he has cast away 'ignorance'. When he does not have knowledge, he is in thoughtlessness. For this reason also in the Psalms such things were joined to 'youth': 'Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances' (Ps 25:7). See that 'youth' is most receptive to these things and possesses them. Therefore 'rejoice', so that you may not have 'folly'; therefore 'walk', so that you may not have 'vanity' and 'evil of the flesh'.

Regarding Ecclesiastes 12:1, therefore, in the day of your youth, remember who created you. God is the one who 'created' Eccl 12:1; it is not that God 'creates' vices in me. For this reason, observe that He 'created you in youth,' not so that you might have 'ignorance,' not so that you might be thoughtless, not so that you might be unlearned, but so that, being receptive to knowledge, you might take it up.

Until the days of your vice arrive Eccl 12:1. If he means by 'vice' this thing which is contrary to virtue and brings boastfulness to the one possessing it, he says: 'until the days of your vice do not come,' meaning as long as you are receptive to virtue and 'vice'—do not expect 'vice,' and do not prepare yourself for it. For when you possess virtue, 'vice' has no place in you. In the very young, there is the power of both, virtue and 'vice'; but in those who have surpassed the new age, such that they no longer bring the character of infants, there is no 'vice' in that soul, but only virtue. And the infant and the diligent man both flow with 'vice,' but they are different in how they are apart from 'vice.' For the diligent man, by disposition, has what is contrary to 'vice'—and this is practical virtue, the virtue of a single whole—and opposites cannot coexist; but in the infant, not having 'vice' is not a disposition, but an absence of 'vice.' If, therefore, he means 'vice' as this worst condition, 'until the days of your vice do not come,' walk 'blamelessly' Eccl 12:1 regarding what has been commanded to you. Furthermore, does 'until they come' mean as if they are 'coming' by necessity? No, but rather as if 'vice' is being urged upon us. If I say that as long as the body of the living thing is healthy, disease does not 'come,' I am not saying it is necessary. Again, I say that as long as someone is an infant, unlearningness does not 'come' to him. I say this differently: for age hinders; it is not age that prevents disease or health, but the expression of the opposites. If, however, he means 'vice' as he means harm—for harm can be both injury and punishment—before it 'comes'...

The Will of God and the Allegory of Celestial Bodies§50

50Regarding punishment, the 'evil' that is coming, do what I tell you, so that the coming punitive evil may not find you liable. Does punishment come before? God brings punishment upon men not as it happens by chance, but when He judges it beneficial to bring it upon them; for the Lord is a 'righteous judge, powerful and long-suffering, not bringing wrath on every single day; if they do not turn back, He will whet His sword' (Ps 7:11). Since God is a 'righteous judge,' how is it that sinning men do not fall under punishment and retribution? Is it because, through weakness, He 'did not bring it'? No; He is 'powerful' and was able to punish immediately, but with His power He is also 'long-suffering' and 'does not bring wrath on every single day'; for those whom He 'brings wrath upon' and those whom He does not, He knows through His most profound words. Therefore, when they despise the warning of the threat because the 'evil' has been hidden, as if it were necessary only to be punished later, then 'if they do not turn back' to whom He was long-suffering, 'He will whet His sword.'

This is the 'evil' that is 'coming,' being not a habit in the hand, but a punitive, most violent affliction. In the 'time' therefore of 'judgment,' upon every 'time,' He judges all. And He calls this 'time' at once a 'time of judgment' and at once a 'day of wrath' and a 'day of retribution.' 'Until this evil comes,' 'until the evil has come,' repent. 'Repentance' has a 'place'; 'the Lord of the promise is not slow, as some think He is slow, but is long-suffering toward them, not wishing to destroy anyone, but wishing to bring all to repentance' (2 Pet 3:9). Since therefore 'repentance' is given to you as a superior thing, repent before the 'evil comes.'

And the years in which you speak will pass; I have no desire for them; until the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds turn back the rain (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2). If the punitive 'evil comes,' the 'years' stand in which 'you do not have' 'in them the will.' But no one wants to be punished. If the 'years' of the promises are present, the diligent have 'in them the will'; they wish to enjoy the promises by working for what brings them. For example, the lovers of good and even these sensible things...

Those who only accept things do not have a 'will' for a time of famine, but they have it for a time of prosperity. For the righteous man, then, there is a 'will' in those times when the recompenses take place. It is written in Isaiah: 'they shall desire,' says Simon, 'if the wicked have become consumed by fire' (Isa 66:24). Does not he who wills the impending wrath 'become consumed by fire'? He has his 'will' in that time.

Until the sun is darkened and the light and the moon and the stars (Matt 24:29). The time can also be taken rhetorically, and the 'years in which not' the sinner has a 'will'; it shall happen then, when 'the heaven and the earth pass away' (Matt 24:29). And 'the sun' is 'passing away' 'with the heaven and the earth,' he says, 'it shall be darkened and the moon shall not give its light' (Matt 24:29). 'Until the sun is darkened'; and it is possible to take it thus: as much as we in this life have our present existence unhindered, we are able to be illumined by the 'sun of righteousness' (Mal 4:2) and by the 'light of the true one' and by the 'moon and the stars.' But we take the 'moon' more allegorically as the ecclesiastical opinion; and toward the 'sun of righteousness,' 'moon' may be said to be the teaching which is able to enlighten there. And likewise, the 'stars' are taken as the ministers of the divine gift, the 'angels,' in whom God 'speaks' His 'word.' They are 'darkened,' therefore, that is, from you; for the 'sun' is by no means extinguished at once. And just as in the nights it seems to us that the 'sun' itself is 'being darkened,' not because it suffers, but because it is becoming distant from us, far from our sight, so also the 'sun of righteousness' 'is being darkened' to those who are no longer worthy of being illumined by it.

And they shall turn the clouds back behind the rain. 'Clouds' have often been said to be those ministering the spiritual 'rain,' namely men or angels. And these 'turn back' 'behind the rain,' no longer ministering the 'rain'; for it is not advantageous then for the 'rain' to come. You have an apostolic saying such as this: advise that men should be diligent, and attend to virtue and divine opinion and abstain from the opposing things; and having said this, he takes such a pattern, that regarding how much the divine teaching is, 'it is necessary to attend' and

Vessels of Gold, Silver, Wood, and Clay§51

51Take up virtue and stand apart from evil; and he says: “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but bearing thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near to cursing, its end” (Heb 6:7-8); and after other things he says: “but we are persuaded of better things concerning you, beloved, things that belong to salvation” (Heb 6:9) — instead of: having duly used the “rain” and been watered, you bore what he called “the vegetation of salvation.”

They no longer minister the “rain” to you — for this does not happen to you advantageously; you have the seeds of “thorns and thistles” laid up within. It is advantageous, then, for “earth” so disposed not to be watered, lest sprouting occur of the evils laid up within and the passions change into vices and dispositions. If, then, we are so as to be “approved earth” and “bringing forth useful vegetation,” the “clouds” pour the “rain” that increases the spiritual “vegetations.” Again: the ministering angels? — “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth for service for those who are about to inherit salvation?” (Heb 1:14). And men too minister the divine “rain,” and to these it is commanded to “sprinkle righteousness” (Isa 45:8), not to “sprinkle” water, not to pour rain.

“In the day when the guards of the house are shaken” (Eccl 12:3). The name “house” is used in the inspired Scriptures for various things. For when he says that the one who “heard” the “words” of Jesus and changed them into deeds “builds his own house upon the rock” (Matt 7:24), he calls the conduct and the practical and contemplative life the “house” of the doer. And “the houses of transgressors shall owe cleansing, but the houses of the just are acceptable” calls lives and conducts “houses.” And “since the midwives feared God, they made houses for themselves” (Exod 1:21) — “having feared” him, they had both fear and “house” and “stronghold”: for “the fear of the Lord is a stronghold of the holy” (Prov 14:26). And by the name “house” is often signified the place around the earth.

It is useless to the master if it is not prepared for every good work. Thus he says: in the world there are diligent men; and these are 'vessels' of 'gold and silver' (2 Timothy 2:20).

And whoever 'purifies' their own mind and works through fire, they are 'gold vessels', having diligence concerning the intelligible things, being moved toward the supra-cosmic things. But 'silver' vessels are those ministering the word. For it has often been demonstrated that the 'word' stands for the name of 'silver'.

And I say from a clear rhetorical figure, so that this enigma may become manifest: the Spirit gives a 'word of wisdom' and a 'word of knowledge' (1 Corinthians 12:8). And you have this distinction: the one having the 'word of wisdom' and 'word of knowledge' and perceiving correctly and contemplating the scientific things and being able to speak them didactically; for they are having a 'word of knowledge', but they are not 'capable' of 'honoring'. And they truly possess precise conception and undivided knowledge, but they are not such as to carry over what has been perceived to others in a didactic manner. Thus they are having a mind having been made precise, and because of this they are 'gold vessels', but they are not such as to minister to others what has been perceived to them.

Others are 'silver', being able by word to make clear what has been perceived to them and what they read. And there are other 'vessels of wood and clay'. And of these, 'some for honor, others for dishonor' there are (2 Timothy 2:20). The 'gold and silver' are precious, but the 'wood and clay' are 'dishonorable'. The 'wood' is able to be consumed by fire, and the 'clay' is such as it is 'to be crushed'.

But natures are not introduced here as unchangeable, as the myth of the heterodox desires. For it follows that 'if anyone purifies himself from the dishonor of them', it is evident that 'as a vessel', 'he will be a vessel for honor to the master for every good work'; so that by himself someone becomes a dishonorable and ignoble 'vessel'.

There is indeed a transition occurring from the honorable to the dishonorable; for it has been said in the Lamentations of Jeremiah regarding a great change having happened to Israel from piety to impiety and from practical virtue to practical wickedness: 'the precious sons of Zion, adorned with gold' and silver, 'how they were counted as vessels of clay' (Lamentations 4:2). You see that the precious things are made of gold and silver.

Pottery and the Rejected Vessels§52

52"They were counted as shards." Likewise also the race of Israel, when it was unfaithful to the Savior, says "as vessels of a potter they are broken, they shall shepherd them with an iron rod" (Psalm 2:9); when they were sheep, they were golden and were led under a pastoral "rod", but now "with an iron rod", and "they are broken like vessels of a potter".

Immediately also in Jeremiah a mystical thing regarding such things lies; it is commanded "to go down into the house of the potter, and having gone down" (Jeremiah 18:2) he saw a "vessel" being flattened, "clay" being shaped into a "vessel"; and since the dwelling did not have the form of the "vessel" of "honor", "it fell from his hands"; the potter "let it fall" so that it might be remolded by the potter. Therefore, when a place has capacity for repentance, it is a clay "vessel" capable of being remolded, of being transformed. But when it has reached a stability in a state almost unchangeable or difficult to change, then it is henceforth a "shard". For this reason it is cast away.

Furthermore, the prophet, after seeing in the "house of the potter" the shaping of the "vessel", takes a "small shard" and "breaks" it. And he says: "thus I will destroy the pride of Jacob". Therefore they were rejected, therefore "they are cast out". And he says concerning this in Isaiah, of this "broken shard vessel", that thus "it was broken" (Isaiah 30:14) so that "not to be found" is a part of it "in which" anyone is able to take a little "water" or "fire", that is to say, having become completely useless, not even the "water"—the little bit or that still capable of quenching—can be received, nor the "fire" that brings to the "shard" itself hardness.

Therefore: here does he say "house" for the world or the church? For in this too there are such diverse "vessels" "for honor and for dishonor". And that such things are in the church, the divine word says: "remove the evil one from among yourselves" (1 Corinthians 5:13), "vessels of dishonor" etc. Again, "fornication is heard among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that a man has a woman of his father" (1 Corinthians 5:1). And he commands "to cast out" this one. And the church can be the "great house" and the surrounding place. And "guards" of this "house" are those appointed to watch.

If you take the church, the teachers — and angels attend upon these. Concerning Peter, at any rate, they said: “It is his angel” (Acts 12:15). And the little ones in the church have angels “always beholding the face of the Father” (Matt 18:10); and if the little ones, how much more the perfect. Again: if these are “shaken”? — the evil of those being guarded has intensified: the guards will abandon them, whether they were perfect men or angels. For they say: “Come, let us abandon her” — as the Holy Spirit cries out beforehand, saying: “The daughter of Zion shall be abandoned like a tent in a vineyard” (Isa 1:8).

There was a Jewish historian, Josephus. In the divine portents that happened after the Savior was betrayed by the Jews, he set down this one too, which he relates: there was a great door of the temple; thirty strong men could scarcely shut it, and bars were laid on that it might be secured when shut. Suddenly, he says, in one night the priests going their rounds heard, he says, a voice as of many saying: “We are departing from here”; and suddenly, he says, the gates opened of themselves. And this was the “daughter of Zion shall be abandoned like a tent in a vineyard.”

And this happened most of all when the Savior “abandoned,” saying: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage” (Jer 12:7); “behold, your house is left to you,” the Savior says again to the Jews themselves. This, then, is the “guards of the house being shaken”: the sentries being removed, no longer tending the “house.” Again: in what day, then? — […] of the judgment […]. Again: but if it is the place around the earth, what? — again […].

“And the men of power are perverted; and the grinding women have ceased, because they have grown few; and those that look through the windows are darkened” (Eccl 12:3). The “men of power” are these: those who rule the house as generals — the rulers. “Perversion” does not mean their wickedness, but the transfer from the rule with which they had been entrusted. […] no longer is the general a general […].

The futility of false doctrines and the diminishing of truth§53

53It is so; no longer is the rider a rider. And the truths began to act, because they had been diminished. Gapped by Gapped way Gapped history. For if the 'belly' and its 'foods' are 'nullified', when Gapped life Gapped and the world Gapped the Gapped 'the truths began to act' Gapped not being the 'truth-telling ones' Gapped that they are not of God.

He indeed says in Jeremiah to the false prophets who mix the logical things with 'chaff'; if the 'chaff' is 'grain' to the wind—'the Lord says, are my words not like grain?' (Jeremiah 23:28)—the 'words of grain' are those of God. Those able to divide them and to refine and to prepare, these are 'truth-telling' or 'truths', so that I may speak femininely according to the word. Those dividing ecclesiastically the 'words' of God, being 'grain', make nourishing breads and bring 'fine flour' to the altar; for there are also sacrifices offered through 'fine flour'. Those from the heterodox, not dividing the 'words' of God as is necessary, but dividing them errantly and unto impiety, 'truth-tell' badly. The 'flour' of these is 'rejected', serving neither for sacrifice nor for food.

In Hosea, therefore, he says to the prophet: 'Why have you passed over impiety, and endured its iniquities, and eaten false fruit?' (Hosea 8:7). Then he says: 'You have sown corruption with the wind, and this destruction; a whirlwind had no strength to make flour' (Hosea 8:7). This is badly 'hidden' from the 'truth-telling one'. In the same way also concerning the intelligible things and Gapped in the Gospel Gapped 'to be two in the field, one being taken and one being left' (Matthew 24:40); and 'two being truths, one is taken Gapped it is left' Gapped; these are those who sow Gapped Gapped with them Gapped having been given.

They sow something and from it they 'forgive' again, 'receiving' by the same scripture, and it 'is forgiven' as 'I have sown without fruit' toward someone. Not 'leaven' is it, not 'leaven' true, not the 'leaven' which is able to be produced and to be brought forward as a sacrifice.

Concerning this futility, in Isaiah it says: 'If you bring spelt, it is in vain; a memorial in vain is to me' (Isaiah 1:13). Nor does the 'memorial' have the 'fragrance' of 'incense'; therefore 'it is an abomination.' Nor does the 'spelt' have anything useful for being made into bread or to be brought forward as a sacrifice; therefore 'it is in vain.'

These then, the 'truths' which are praiseworthy, have 'diminished'; for they no longer clarify the scriptures, since the space has been collapsed, having reached the end of this age. The 'truths' therefore 'diminished, because they were made few'; as much as is upon you, you have made them 'few,' you have constructed them weakly.

Moreover, is it not because of this, as the time no longer permits, that they do not 'be true'?—to the extent that they have been diminished for these people; do not diminish the 'fewness' here in terms of number, but of their power and strength. But has their strength become less beyond the time? For you think that as far as possible these 'truths' do not 'be true' even after this, for those able to be nourished by them.

They 'were made few,' because the greater part of those being nourished was diminished and fell away from seeking such nourishment. Moreover, do we not also receive this inappropriately there, with 'and the sun was darkened' (Luke 23:45)?—and concerning the 'light' and the 'sun' let us say that, although it seemed to 'be darkened' regarding those, they 'were not darkened.' Again, therefore, I say as toward these men...

The Cracks in the Rock and the Marketplace§54

54Worthy of the food... 'the truths were becoming real' (12:3d). And those 'looking in the eye-sockets' will darken. These 'looking in the eye-sockets' are the souls using the senses. For the senses are to be taken as 'eye-sockets'. Therefore, those 'looking in the eye-sockets' will 'darken'. For when the sensible things pass away, then darkness will prevail; they no longer see those sensible things as they ought; is there anything left besides the loss of accurate perception?

It is also possible to take it this way: those 'searching the Scriptures' and 'paying attention to the reading' of them find 'eye-sockets', through which they are able to be enlightened, and the light that exists within. Therefore, these 'looking in the eye-sockets' 'were darkened' because they are no longer 'becoming real'. But the 'becoming real' ones split the seeds, making 'eye-sockets'. Take the investigation of the Scriptures and their clarity by analogy with the splitting of the seeds which makes the 'eye-socket'; and this is also what it means for them to 'become real'.

And it can be said differently: they say that those 'looking in the eye-sockets' seem to see much; and some are able to approach the light; and despite the inability and the weakness of the sight, a perception of the light occurs. When, therefore, the hidden light is produced again, those 'looking' are 'darkened' through certain 'eye-sockets'. They are not able to see the light, having those small 'eye-sockets'. But when their body changes from the 'perishable' to the 'imperishable' and from the 'psychic' to the 'spiritual', they no longer have 'darkening' senses, but renewed and increasing ones.

Therefore, the 'darkening of those looking in the eye-sockets' does not bring complete injury; for when they 'are darkened', they will see things more clearly according to the argument of 'the part', so that their own 'eye-socket' of 'the part' is not 'abolished' by becoming a great opening. And it is possible to take it this way because 'the eye-sockets' is in the plural. A praiseworthy 'eye-socket' is brought forward in the singular in the Mosaic writings, when he received a desire to 'see the face' of God and to see Him clearly and 'knowingly'. God said to him that, being still a 'man', he 'is not able' to possess the brightness (Exodus 33:20); 'but I place you in the opening of the rock' (Exodus 33:22), regarding one 'rock' as an 'eye-socket'. And 'the rock is Christ' from that...

Regarding the 'rock' and the openings in Christ. For they are called 'rocks' in the plural and 'crevices'. 'The spirit crushes the rocks'. And it is said concerning the devil: 'The pride of your heart has carried you away to dwell in the crevices of the rocks' (Obadiah 1:3)—not 'in the crevice of the rock', for that is blessed—but because they pay attention to antichrists and false teachers and false prophets, the 'crevice' of those is not for seeing but rather for harming. 'Fissures of rocks' indeed are called 'crevices' in other places; and the discord of the teaching is a 'schism' and a multitude of 'crevices'. Therefore, those 'looking' in the 'crevice' do not 'gaze darkly', but rather are enlightened. But those in the many 'crevices' who seem to see are 'darkened'. When the truth comes into the midst, every deception is loosed; and in the deception were the many 'crevices'. And as they often said the image of the division, that those failing the vote of 349 say ten thousand 'rocks'. If therefore the correct vote shines upon, that which those voting wrongly said is loosed. Thus those holding false doctrines, in the absence of the truth, become so; when this shines and illuminates, all those holding false doctrines are loosed.

12,4ab And they will shut doors in the marketplace in the weakness of the voice of the truth. 12,4a I spoke concerning human matters, those 'being seen and being timely'. Concerning the coming age and the end of the present age he teaches and says that 'they will shut doors in the marketplace' (Ecclesiastes 12:4). And 'marketplace' here he means the church, as the rhetoricians say. As long as this life exists, the 'marketplaces' or the 'marketplace', the church, exist, in which those who speak are speaking. But 'it will be shut' after these things, when teaching is no longer present in the 'time of judgment'. I do not say this to mean that there will not be instruction in the ages to come, but according to that 'time' in which those being judged 'stand at the judgment seat of Christ' (Romans 14:10); for they have a word regarding what has been done, regarding being instructed or being taught. And if ever the labor from the... gap... another word is not instruction being brought forth by men or angels... concerning the ten virgins in the parable it is said that the...

The Closing of the Marketplace§55

55The five who have gathered oil, pressed from the true olive tree, possessing that which provides nourishment and illuminates, entered with the bridegroom into the banquet when a cry occurred in the middle of the night: 'The bridegroom comes, go out to meet him' (Matt 25:6). But those who did not take oil in the vessels, having neglected the one who guards the light, went out to buy and no longer found those selling them; for it was no longer a place of instruction then, nor were those selling the divine words present. And because of this, they remained outside.

And here, therefore, when the village is gathered, the 'marketplaces' are 'closed'; they do not have those 'open doors' about which the divine words write. For indeed the apostle says: 'A great and effective door has been opened to me, and there are many who oppose me' (1 Cor 16:9). If the 'great door' of the word is 'opened' and 'effective', then 'many who oppose' are present. And it is 'effective' when those who hear convert the teachings into works. And 'many' become 'opposing'; for if we observe the Scriptures, it is not always that false prophets are found when they are prophets, nor are false apostles present at other times when they are apostles and teachers. For, envying, they 'oppose' and attempt to contradict the truth, attempting to contradict those who teach well, sometimes even attacking them and leading them to death. Therefore, a 'door' 'has been opened to me, great and effective'. It is not that the 'marketplace' was 'shut', but the 'doors' of the 'marketplace' were not 'open'.

And in another epistle of his he says: 'After I had come and a door had been opened, I had no respite for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother' (2 Corinthians 2:12). Before the 'door was opened', he 'had no respite' so as to bring forward the word without finding those who cooperate with him. And in the proverbs it is said: 'Blessed is the man who listens to me, and the man who, if he keeps my ways, remains watchful at my doors by day' (Prov 8:34). The 'doors' of wisdom are the 'doors' of the 'marketplace'. Therefore the 'doors' in the 'marketplace' are 'closed' when the place of instruction is gathered. And see that they 'close' the 'doors' voluntarily. The 'closing' of the 'doors' is not by force.

Perhaps this is why he commands us “to knock that it may be opened” (Matt 7:7): when men hesitate, lest they knock on the “doors,” they “are shut.” But when the “doors” of the “marketplace” have been “shut,” consider what happens “in the weakness of the voice of the grinding woman” (Eccl 12:4). We were told that there is a “grinding woman taken up” — grinding well and making “flour” and “fine flour” useful — and another “abandoned,” having “sown wind-spoiled things”; and she has “flour” from which it is not possible to make bread. The “one,” then, the “taken up,” has its “voice” “in weakness.” But I want to say something newer, which I am eager not to have trampled down.

“In weakness,” he says, “is the voice of the grinding woman” — of the “taken up,” not of the “abandoned.” But it does not admit speechlessness entirely: for it is a holy soul or a holy church; and after these things too, as is possible, it speaks. But the paradox, which I said I would speak, is this: we once said concerning Moses that he did not speak against the Jews with the intention of an accuser. For the Savior said this: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; Moses is the one accusing you, in whom you have hoped. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47).

He did not “accuse,” then, with the intention of speaking against them — since even concerning those who “made the calf” he interceded, saying: “If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me too out of your book which you wrote” (Exod 32:32). Thus, then, he “accused.” Since they “did not believe” even “his writings,” he defends himself, saying: “I kept silent about nothing of what was revealed to me; but when God said: ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel’ (Exod 19:3), I spoke, and there is nothing of what was revealed that I kept silent about.” The defense, then, which he spoke, seemed to be an accusation of them, since when he spoke the things leading to faith and proof, they did not receive them. So too here “weak” is the “voice of the grinding woman.” She does not speak so boldly as when the hearers benefit and those nourished by the “grinding women,” but in a way she defends herself. And if it were possible, she would have wanted, if it were possible, to hide the defense, lest they […].

The Proclamation of the Resurrection§56

56It must be said, because of the truth, what is the inherent nature of things. What then are those 'closing the marketplace'? They are the teachers. This is similar to what is said in Isaiah, though rather according to a different thought than the literal words: 'I am being finished by the clouds so that no rain falls upon it'; for from receiving the 'rain', they were turning the 'thorns' and the 'thistles' into plants, but the intention of the 'clouds' and what was commanded to them was that the 'vineyard might bring forth brief grapes'; but since instead of 'grapes' they had grown 'thorns', not wishing to increase the evil again by stinginess, He 'commanded' them 'not to rain'.

In this way also these teachers, since they no longer had those whom they ought to teach, 'closed the doors in the marketplaces'. And this happens in this way many times, for when the teachers hear: 'Do not give the holy thing to the dogs, nor cast pearls before the swine, lest turning they throw them upon you and trample you' (Matt 7:6). Toward this, again, 'it is not given to those'. For they were about to be more impious, 'trampling' the divine words which are the 'pearls', and decorating the 'inner man' with worldly things; not even observing the beauty or the preciousness of them, they were about to 'trample' them instead of regarding them highly. So in a certain way they 'close the doors in the marketplace' here; and if so here, much more there, until the judgment seat and the tribunal be 'opened'.

'And the daughters of song shall rise up to the voice of a sparrow, and all the daughters of song shall be humbled' (Ecclesiastes 12:4). The 'marketplace' will 'rise up to the voice of a sparrow'. Those 'knowing in part and prophesying' 'closed' the 'marketplace' and its 'doors'. These are the 'apostles', the 'prophets', the 'teachers' among men. Let us show that even the spiritual beings 'sent for ministry' are 'withdrawn' 'to the voice of a sparrow'. A 'sparrow' may be said to be the Savior here according to the man, according to: 'And I became as a sparrow upon a roof' (Psalm 102:7). And each of the birds, when 'having heard the words' of Jesus, turns them into works and 'builds a house' and fills the building and crowns the building, cries out 'upon the roof' in vigilance.

As if raising the 'voice'. The proclamation of the truth can also be called a 'sparrow' then, becoming lofty, since it once happened below for the hearers. But since now even the perfect hearers have become inspired and pursue the things above, there the 'sparrow upon the roof' cries out to them; the perfect has cried out, happening above the world, to face 'face to face' with the truth.

'Rising to the voice of the sparrow', since it is also possible for them themselves to 'rise' concerning which the word speaks according to the expected resurrection. The proclamation of the resurrection signifies one thing in many ways. For when it is compared to a 'trumpet'—'the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise incorruptible' (1 Cor 15:52)—this trumpeter is the herald of the resurrection, calling so that all having heard the summons may 'rise'. For this reason it is compared to a 'trumpet'. And this instrument is loud-voiced and is heard everywhere. Thus also here the proclamation of the resurrection said 'sparrow', which seems not to be undignified.

The 'rising ones' are 'being raised', but instead of 'corruptible' they are 'incorruptible', instead of 'dishonorable' and 'weak' they are 'strong' and 'glorious', instead of 'psychic' they are 'spiritual'. Therefore, there will be a 'rising into the voice of the sparrow'. But how will that 'marketplace' which was 'closed' 'rise'? It will 'rise' in the whole world.

I say this: that proclamation being made public here changes from being 'in part' 'prophecy or knowledge' (1 Cor 13:9) but becomes 'face to face'. This is the 'rising' according to the former dispensation. But what kind of 'time' shall we receive? The time of 'judgment'. But in what 'time' is it 'closed'? When the present age reaches its end. In this... the beginning and the end are one. The end of this day brings the beginning of the next... there is no separating time from time. Therefore, what is called 'now', which they say is noteworthy and the boundary of time, is the end of the past, the future of the present, and again the end of the present and the beginning of the future. If I say this, I say judgment and resurrection together; and it seems that the beginning is the end of the resurrection.

Mockery of Zion and the Willow§57

57concerning the judgment: for we anticipate them being raised, not being judged, even if it happens at once. As I have often said, that the body and the color are at once. It is not possible to say one before the other; for the body is anticipated; it is necessary for it to be a body so that it may be color; for I do not anticipate the color so that it may be the body.

“And all the daughters of song shall be humbled” (12:4d). According to all those things assigned to “shall rise to the voice of a sparrow,” I speak of the “humbling” of the “daughters of song.” The false teachers are “daughters” of “song”; they are “daughters” of “voice” alone, not of mind, nor of wisdom, nor of knowledge, nor of light. And because of their unintelligible and because of what has been exposed concerning the “pro kairos,” these “daughters” are spoken of. Therefore these “shall be humbled”; and in the way that darkness is dissolved by the presence of light, so by the presence of “rising to the voice of a sparrow,” or the “marketplace,” or the Savior, or the divine teachers, their nothingness is exposed. It is shown that their teaching had existence only insofar as it lived by the presence of the moment—and so that I may say something much more impoverished than what is often said by some—that “human wisdom,” promising eloquence and a composition of words, has existence up to “voice.” And since this “voice” will pass away, no longer being struck air, when they become above the air, those concerning whom the word is spoken “shall be humbled.” The “daughters of song” are found to be nothing, if the wise teachers were not called “daughters” or “daughters of song,” but rather “sons of light,” “sons of wisdom.” Furthermore, do we have something to say from another scripture appropriately? “Turn away from me the sound of your songs, and the melody of your psalter I shall not hear” (Amos 5:23); their “song” is considered a disturbance. And “song” and “melody” are the same. And even “I will turn,” he says, “their feasts into mourning and their songs into lamentations” (Amos 8:10); behold, an appropriate “song.” And the. Text cuts off..

Having said, 'Sing to us a hymn from the songs of Zion,' they were mocking. They said, 'Even upon the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept' (Ps 137:1). 'Having reached Babylon and its unstable currents called rivers, we sat; we no longer desired to depart, taking memory of their own fatherland. This happened by us remembering Zion; we no longer desired to depart before Babylon.'

Then he says, 'Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our instruments' (Ps 137:2), the musical instruments, the instruments of the new song. And the willows are a plant that is fruitless, deceiving men. They say that if its flower is rubbed into water and drunk, it makes the castrated ones lustful. For this reason the poet said the willows are 'fruitless,' because they castrate the men in a certain way. The instruments, therefore, that is, the bodies, were hanging from the willows, the branches of impurity.

Then they, as if performing a circumcision, were saying, 'Sing to us a hymn from the songs of Zion,' saying 'songs' in the plural more insolently. For one song is that of Zion and one hymn; for it is said, 'O God, I will sing to you a new song' (Psalm 144:9), one song. These, therefore, since the discordant one makes many songs, are saying this in a broken way; it is said discordantly, 'Sing to us a hymn from your songs' (Ps 137:3).

Then they, knowing that they are saying the songs in the plural badly, say: 'How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?' (Ps 137:4). 'In a foreign land we are yours' (Ps 137:4). So it is a broken song and a thing to be blamed. And if he says, 'with the singing not to be allowed,' it signifies a broken song, a psalm not being properly brought forth.

'And from on high they shall see and be amazed in the way; and the almond shall blossom, and the thorn shall grow thick' (Ecclesiastes 12:5). If anyone sees from on high, being called high, having a high heart and a high mind, he sees that 'in the ways there are amazements' (Ecclesiastes 12:5).

The Rod and the Almond Blossom§58

58…there are, they are fears. In general, the things proclaimed about the use confound the mind concerning such things; and especially when it is believed to be near, it confounds the mind and “amazement” results. They are amazed at the things said, and just as in sensible things, if a lightning strike is expected, all fear; when thunder comes, all are afraid. The psalmist said this too: “at the voice of your thunder they shall be afraid” (Psalm 104:7; LXX 103:7). And just as from the sensible “voice” they take fear, being confounded, so from the loud-voiced divine word, about which it is said as of “thunder”: “the God of glory thundered” (Psalm 29:3; LXX 28:3) and again “the Lord thundered from heaven” (2 Sam 22:14).

Those around James and John heard this “thunder”: for they were called “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). And as Peter, because of the firmness of the faith he had — the “rock” as it is called — was surnamed “Peter,” so these too were called “sons of thunder” from their loud voice. But perhaps someone will object to us: “Yes, let John thunder great things, theologizing and saying ‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1:1) and ‘he was the true light’ (John 1:9) and ‘the only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father’ (John 1:18); but what ‘thunder’ did James bring? For he was taken away at once.” We say that it can be said in a comprehensive way, or that both held loud-voiced things in mind, but James was not permitted to write, having been released quickly from life at the Savior’s assumption.

Just as from the sensible “thunder” “amazement” takes the hearers, and they fear through expectation or some other stroke, so when these heralds of the truth are “lifted up,” “amazement” takes those still “on the way”; but they must already be those who have ascended to the “height.” “And the almond shall blossom” (Eccl 12:5). Those who have spoken about the nature of plants say this about the “almond”: before all plants in spring it puts forth leaves and casts them off after the casting-off of all the other trees; it is lasting, then. For this reason the priestly “rod” was said to be of “almond-wood” (Numbers 17:8). For it did not remain for a few days: from Moses until the visitation of the Savior it appeared.

They were deacons of these traditions. And they quickly 'flourished' and quickly withered. But the priestly 'rod' of 'almond-wood,' being so, remained for long, until a succession might be born from the greater and more spiritual priesthood; and it blossomed before the others. And this must be said: that there will be a true teaching and a false and deceptive one. For they say: in the times of the prophets, false prophets are found; for the evil is a mimic of the true. From the time that Christ appeared in visitation, many false Christs promised to come.

We say therefore this: even if those of the other teachings were plants, and later 'blossom' after the upright teaching and before it; for when it appears, they are quenched. This 'rod' therefore loosed the 'rods' of the others, of the false apostles, of the false prophets. Will the 'almond' therefore 'blossom'?—this: when 'the daughters of the song are humbled' (Song of Solomon), the promised false teachings, false 'rods', then even more 'the almond will blossom'.

Regarding the apostolic word, we say that there will be a standing of righteousness when injustice prevails among men. Loosing the injustice and revealing those who advocate it, being something great, its greatness would not have been shown if there were not a great injustice which it loosed. And we say that 'the truth of God prevailed in human falsehood'. And we say that then, especially, the good appeared of the truth, when many false sophists came into the midst, promising contentious words.

Let there be a king capable and having a many-handed army and experienced in war. Does his greatness not appear when he goes against an enemy of thirty men and prevails over them? And not thus by the Preacher, but rather by Ezra, were problems regarding the king set forth. And the former two have spoken well, but the second interpretation of the third was strong; and it has been said that 'truth conquers' and is powerful. For even if 'women are strong' and such 'wine' and the 'king' and the others, but 'truth excels'. The 'prevailing' of the 'truth' appeared while those strong ones were present.

The Human as a Dwelling and the Response to the Flute§59

59Having been interpreted by others, they were somewhat obscure, remembering; and remembering this, the magnitude of the 'truth' did not appear. And the 'acris' (judgment) might grow fat. In the apostolic word it was said again this: that where there is 'law', there also is 'transgression'. If the gospel had not come into the midst, there would not have been a great punishment according to those not receiving it.

Immediately indeed he says that it is necessary 'that this gospel of the kingdom be preached in all the world for a testimony to all the nations' (Matt 24:14), so that no one might take a pretext to seize the unseemly. When therefore the aforementioned 'almond shall blossom', the 'acris' (judgment) 'grows fat'; and the 'acris' is taken instead of a flogging; 'the locusts consumed the remnant of the field' (Joel 1:4). And it 'grows fat' then receiving much food; and its food are the men being handed over to it. And it is possible also to take as a character the 'blossoming of the almond'.

The 'almond' has two perimeters outside the edible part: shell-like and then bitter, the husk which is on the outside. The outside husk may be the body; for it is bitter, having a relation to pleasure. But that shell-like husk is the soul, for it is well-proportioned and large; and within is the edible, the spirit. When therefore that thing of the time of the apostle writing is fulfilled: 'May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, your whole spirit and soul and body' (1 Thess 5:23), 'the almond has blossomed'; for in the 'blossoming' these three things are contained. Therefore the man 'blossoms' when he advances in virtue, having 'the body being transformed' (Philippians 3:21) so as to become 'conformed' to the 'body' of Christ.

And the caparis might be scattered, because the man went into the house of his age. The 'house of the age' of the 'man' is the life after these things. All the things spoken are happening: and 'the doors are shut in the marketplace', and 'they rise up to the voice of the sparrow' (Ecclesiastes 12:4) those being called to this, and 'the daughters of the singer are humbled' (Ecclesiastes 12:4). Those who are in the 'house' of the 'age' are the 'men'. And the place concerning the earth is the 'house' of this 'age of the evil one'. All the things spoken are happening. Since therefore he 'went into' another 'age', he went 'into' the age of 'his own house', 'into' that after these things.

All things having passed away here are loosed. It is possible to take it this way also, since the 'man' is according to the soul. When all the things that have come to him are loosed—the fleeting things, the trivial things—he 'goes into' his own remaining 'house,' having left this 'age.' And an 'age' is appropriate and a 'house' is for the 'man' who has become a divine state, being 'according to the image and likeness of God,' from which he 'departed' from this 'age.' Those things are loosed, as if someone says that fornication has ceased. For the 'man departed into' the place of incorruption.

And those being cut in mourning surrounded him in the marketplace (Matt 12:5). Therefore, 'after the flute has been played' and 'the wailing' is increasing, those formerly speaking in the marketplace, as if lamenting them, speak. Therefore, 'in the marketplace those being cut surrounded him.' You also have it said in the Gospel by the Savior: 'To what generation shall I liken this generation?' and he says: 'It is like children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another: We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we mourned for you and you did not weep' (Matt 11:17). And he adds: 'John came neither eating nor drinking' (Matthew 11:18). Behold the 'lamenting of the child'; for John is taken for all the ancient Scripture and those who ministered to it, but the Son of Man is taken for the body of the Church, the apostolic and evangelical choir. He says, therefore, that the 'children play the flute,' so it is necessary for those hearing the flute to 'dance.' But the 'dancing' of the imitation of words is promised to be made through the hands. When, therefore, they hear the word of the wise of salvation and the word bringing forth piety, and are conformed to the announced works and the intellect, they 'dance' praiseworthily according to the dancing which David 'danced' before the ark (2 Sam 6:14). For when they 'lament' calling to repentance, raising up feeling, they 'cut their breasts,' because this raises up feeling. When one laments and cuts his breast because another is sinning, he immediately says, 'How much this one reproaches himself for my sake, I also ought to do this.' And these, therefore, hearing the lament, if they 'cut their breasts' bearing their hands against their chests, they raise up feeling for themselves. These, therefore, were the former speakers...

The Marketplace and the Silver Cord§60

The Source and the Partial§61

The Part and the Whole§62

The Wheel upon the Pit§63

The Pit and the Helplessness of Christ§64

64In the places of Scripture, Hades is named the 'pit'. For see what it says: 'Lord, you brought my soul up from Hades, you saved me from those descending into the pit' (Psalm 30:3). And the Savior, having become man and having accepted death on behalf of men, says: 'I was numbered among those descending into the pit, since I became as a helpless man'. He was crucified and his hands and his feet were as 'helpless'; 'he was heard like a sheep toward slaughter' (Isaiah 53:7), as 'helpless'. And he led himself into the 'helplessness'. And he brings forward: 'free among the dead', and 'I was numbered among those descending into the pit', and 'helpless man' it seemed to be, but 'free among the dead' I am. And one is able to understand 'free among the dead', that is, without sin.