Exposition on Proverbs

1Exposition on Proverbs. From Origen’s explanations of the Proverbs of Solomon.

17.161 A proverb is a hidden saying whose meaning is shown through another saying that is clear. For this reason Solomon reigned in Israel: to know wisdom and training. Wisdom is spiritual knowledge. It holds the discourses about God, about beings without bodies, about judgment, and about providence; or it is what unveils contemplation of ethics, of the natural order, and of theology. Or again, wisdom is knowledge of bodies and of beings without bodies, and of the judgment and providence contemplated in that field. Training is a moderated handling of the passions, seen in the passionate or irrational part of the soul. And anyone who practices theology with intensity has come to know wisdom.

That means the criterion must be upright and undistorted. Someone who does not know righteousness cannot settle disputes rightly. Solomon himself would not have judged the two prostitutes rightly if he had not kept the exact accounts of what is just. We judge uprightly and without distortion when we obey virtue and condemn vice. There are three criteria in us: sense, reason, and mind. Sense deals with what can be sensed; reason with words and thoughts; the mind with contemplation of what is intelligible. Just as the mind reaches sensible things through the senses, so through the virtues it contemplates intelligible things. That is why wise Solomon teaches us that the mind also holds the place of sense.

Those who take vice to themselves despise wisdom by being evil. Lacking the fear that begins sense, they become senseless and despise wisdom—how? By neither practicing it nor pursuing it. Everyone who does base things hates the light. Wisdom is not dishonored by its own nature, but by their ignorance. The pious choose training so that, once the soul is purified, they may receive the wisdom that will not enter a soul skilled in evil. Those without the fear of God—which makes the beginning of sense—are senseless toward wisdom and training and despise both, like those who refuse the Old Testament and accuse the Creator of harshness.

Just as “head” and “neck” here point to the mind, so “crown” and “collar” here signify knowledge. For this is the Holy Spirit’s habit: under many names he has named God and his angels, and also the mind, virtue, knowledge, ignorance, vice, the devil, and the devil’s angels. He does not set the names down simply, as some think. They mark different operations—God working toward us through angels, we working in him, and demons working toward us. Those who share the same vice become co-heirs with the opposing powers. What is “common” is what does not belong to the one God. See the wicked agreement, and the ruin that follows.

A “net” is eternal chastisement and a many-branched punishment that the just Judge brings upon unclean souls for the destruction of wings that grew badly. The winged ones are we human beings, who have the power to fly upward if we will. “Going out” here names the soul that has left vice and ignorance. Such was Israel’s going out after their birth from God’s judgment and teaching. He also calls that same soul “broad”: “Widen your mouth,” he says, “and I will fill it”; and Paul writes to the Corinthians, “be enlarged also yourselves.” By a soul that goes out in this way, wisdom is praised; and in a land broadened through the virtues, wisdom speaks with boldness. The tops of her walls mean extreme freedom from passion, if those who love the law liken a wall to themselves. For that wall David also prays when he says, “Let the walls of Jerusalem be built”—that is, the fallen walls of such a soul, clearly on account of the Uriah affair. How then, earlier—

2Solomon says: “Will the one who rejoices over a person who is perishing go unpunished?” Or perhaps wisdom rejoices the way she rejoiced over the ruin of Matthew the tax collector, and over the ruin of the robber who believed in Christ. In the one case wisdom destroyed the robber’s old life; in the other, the tax collector’s.

A “siege” is ethical teaching that tears down a soul badly built, under God’s siege. Just as infants stand between the just and the unjust, so all human beings stand between angels and demons—neither demons nor ranked as angels—until the completion of the age. He said they were wronging “infants,” of whom Christ said, “Do not cause one of these little ones to stumble.” The person free from passion rests without fear from every evil thought, and soon will lodge in the kingdom of God, because he heard and kept God’s commands and hoped in him.

In this way a person hides God’s command by doing it, or by doing it not for empty glory. That is why the demons, by not letting us do it, are said to snatch it away. Then you will understand how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and how it becomes the broker of the knowledge of God—when in faith and longing you come to him as one in need. Wisdom and understanding must be there first if someone is to grasp the fear of the Lord. Bring this home to those who despise wisdom and understanding, yet want to take refuge in fearing God as if it were an easy thing.

If Christ does not rescue us, we will travel the bad road as if it were good. Holy people say all things that are faithful—but not everything is. The devil has nothing faithful, nothing worthy of trust. Here “man” means the devil, as in the Gospels, if a wicked man sowed the weeds. The greatest plot, it seems, is to fall in with a bad counsel and with crafty, insidious, wicked men. If that kind of counsel—crushed, that is, darkened—is a motion of the mind, how did it abandon the teaching of youth? How did it forget the divine covenant? He speaks to us of bad counsel as of a rational living being.

Or here “bad counsel” means the devil. For he counseled badly when he said, “I will set my throne above the stars, and I will be like the Most High.” He forgot the divine knowledge when he left the teaching of youth—and that “youth” shows his former state, in which he was also zealous. If she can make the young understanding where so much is hard to rein in when she is absent, she is far more useful to an elder. Those who are overtaken by years of life through the works of the coming ever-living life seize the straight paths of an untroubled and unbroken life. They are not overtaken by his compassions into the paths of that straight everlasting life.

For the Lord loves those who pursue righteousness, and the counsel of the evil one will not overtake them. But those who trust the devil do not seize the straight paths of life, nor will they turn back into the kingdom of God. The one who does not live lawfully forgets the law; the one who lives by it remembers it. The one who keeps God’s words is not only the one who does them, but also the one who advises others. The one who loses them is the one who will not practice them and who hinders others. For it is not the hearers of the law who will be justified.

Healing is the health that comes from virtue for your way of life; God’s grace and care belong to your thoughts and intentions. When the soul’s powers—that is, the virtues—receive care, then all my bones will say, “Lord, Lord, who is like you?” The memorial power of the soul, once it receives care, will surely say, “I remembered God and was glad.” Likewise the seeing power will say, “I considered your works and was amazed.” So too the desiring power: “Lord, before you is all my desire.” And the rational power: “I reasoned through the ancient days.” The same will follow for the other powers.

That is: for those who are willing, nothing is hard—not like the desire for money. A pure mind draws near to wisdom, because it knows the good; the unclean mind will be far from her. After the transgression Adam is forbidden to partake of this tree—if a tree of life is planted from the fruits of righteousness. And the tree of life is the wisdom of God. Every lawless person is justly forbidden to touch this tree. God founded the earth by wisdom; and through his sense the abysses were broken open, the

3and the clouds ran with dews. So the “earth” he named here, holy Paul called breadth; and what are called heavens here, Paul in Ephesians calls height; and the abysses named in a figure he calls depth; the dewed clouds he calls length. All of these are symbols of rational natures, divided among worlds and body according to the analogy of their state. This also fits the Son of God now. But the faithful soul is also earth that bears a hundredfold. From the richness that is wisdom she becomes wise, while God founds her upon it. For he settles the gathering of teaching and makes a fastening from wisdom. And as she always advances, he makes her heaven—a purest creature, a dwelling of angels and of noetic essences—once she has received sense of what is and contemplates the exactness of things, as if the many-storied judgments of God.

Against wisdom alone the demons are powerless. They are not allowed to cast thoughts into the heart of the one who has been made wise. For the mind that competes for the contemplations of wisdom becomes unreceptive of unclean thoughts. A pure mind draws near to wisdom, because it knows the good; the unclean mind will be far from her. A stumbling-block for a rational nature is an unclean thought or false knowledge. But the one fenced round by God’s counsel does not stumble in these things.

Neither an assault of wicked thoughts, he says, will frighten the one who has become wise, nor will the impious who attack from outside tear down his power when they want to strip him of natural goods. No one can take what cannot be captured—and what is more arrogant than the impious person? Yet you will also overcome that many-formed beast if you are gentle and equitable, while the Lord is with you. From this we learn that mercy removes the fearful phantasms that meet us by night, or also in contemplation. And not only that: it also removes from those who think this way the wicked accusations at the departure and the harmful chastisements in the judgment. Gentleness, freedom from anger, long-suffering, and whatever naturally settles stirred wrath do the same—if fearful appearances usually arise from the turmoil of wrath.

Do not hold back from doing good not only with food for the needy, but also with the knowledge of God, with wisdom, and with the commandments. And whatever is dear to God and joins a person to him, do not hold back from doing that good to the one who needs you. This enmity toward the neighbor makes someone evil not only in body but also in soul. Ignorance of the Lord is in the houses of the impious, but knowledge of God is in the souls of the just. The dwellings of the just are blessed when Christ apportions the prizes to each according to their works; to the impious he apportions a curse and not a blessing.

Extreme vice raised to its end is called pride. The Lord arrays himself against the unjust as righteousness, against liars as truth, against the proud as humility. That is why he is a friend to those who think humble thoughts—for that is what “He gives grace to the humble” means—and against the proud he arrays himself. Those who have learned and taught godly wisdom will inherit heavenly glory. The impious raised dishonor for themselves before angels and human beings from Christ.

By “training” he means ethical virtue; by “thought,” divine knowledge. A “son of the virtues” is the one qualified according to them, who acts not for someone else’s sake but for virtue’s sake in what accords with it. “I grant you a good gift, the heavenly kingdom, if you do not abandon my law.” Note here that he names the mind a good gift, because of the one who takes gifts unjustly in the bosom and is not prospered. Those unjust gifts mean the affairs of the evil one; when the mind receives them, it is not prospered in its ways.

A crown of graces are God’s commandments, which give back the crown of the kingdom to those who do them. A crown of delight is the knowledge of God, which shields us and thrusts away every passionate thought and every false knowledge. These many ways lead into one way—the one who said, “I am the way.” He called many ways the virtues that carry a person to the knowledge of God. The years of life of the one who hears through the prophets of the heavenly Father will be multiplied, and who receives his words through the only-begotten Son, so as to be directed in the ways of righteousness of life and saved into the ever-living life. Of this

4The place of the army is wickedness and false knowledge, and everything unacceptable to God. For the impious reasonings are enemies, killing souls. In his beloved ones the Lord gives sleep, but the impious are not his beloved ones, therefore to the impious the Lord does not give sleep. Hence it can also be persuasively shown that they are not by nature sleepers, the demons. Our virtues go before us and enlighten us in the present life, which is called night in relation to the coming day. Until the day is established in which the sun of righteousness rises. Or, until they establish us in safety, they do not depart, for this is characteristic of day, to disperse darkness. Which also Christ said: The one walking in the day does not stumble. On the contrary, the reasonings of the impious, since they did not know nor understand, wander in darkness. They stumble, but they do not have indulgence as those stumbling through ignorance, for they themselves have worked darkness. See how virtue even in darkness produced light, and wickedness even in light produced darkness. Neither the manner in which they sin do the impious know, nor do they know the cause, whence they stumble. But they do not even know this, that they transgress, which is a sign of the utmost wickedness. He calls the virtues springs, from which flows the living water of the divine words, which is the knowledge of Christ. And David: They appeared, he says, the springs of the waters, and the foundations of the world were uncovered, evidently by the visitation of our Savior Jesus Christ. Your eyes, he said, look straight ahead. This is the things which alone are dear to God, or the things made clear to us by the prophets concerning Christ alone and his disciples. And all things spoken by someone toward Christ, befitting him, and only him. This agrees with: Unless the Lord builds the house and guards the city, that is, unless the Lord gives us strength to direct the steps toward him, we labor in vain, we who do not call upon him in comfort, but undertake in arrogance. For the conspicuous prostitutes and the teachings of the heterodox deceive the innocent hearts through flattery. Therefore the greatest safety is not to take hold of the beginning, for having taken hold, it is difficult to escape. As far as their hearing, it is good. But the fat signifies the pleasure from which impurity is born, whose offspring, wickedness and ignorance. Of which nothing more bitter can be found in the events of the day of judgment. Hence we know that the spirited part dominates in the demons, for he says, unmerciful is the spirit, and their anger is sharp. For they hunt for destruction those who obey them, thus they honor those who honor them. Through wickedness the evil ones wear away the flesh of Christ, and they consume the blood, having considered it common. For he says, the one eating my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. But the one eating unworthily the body and drinking the blood of the Lord, eats and drinks judgment to himself. There was when there was no evil, and there will be when there will be no evil. For the seeds of virtue are inexhaustible. And this convinces me a little, and not yet completely in every evil having become, the rich one in Hades being judged by wickedness, and having pity on the brothers. And to pity, it obtains the finest seed of virtue. Knowledge and a spring is a well. For those who approach the virtues, it is considered to be a deep well. But to the apathetic and pure, a spring. Thus also the Savior sat by the well, the hour was about the sixth. Consider the well the divine knowledge, and not the well of water. Just as the spring is ready as it were, that is, the flowing water to the thirsty, so the well in labor to those who wish to draw. And just as the spring is unfailing in flowing, so the sensory writing has an unceasing course, and it is easy for the thirsty to grow old in God. And just as the well provides labor to those who draw, so the theoretical knowledge to those who wish through it to accomplish the virtues, of soul and body, to contemplate the divine things, and to counterfeit the kingdom of heaven. A woman here signifies the knowledge of God. This was given to us from youth. Whom Solomon in his youth teaching says, Son, lest an evil counsel seize you, speaking of the devil, as having counseled evil. She who has abandoned teaching.

But she who has abandoned teaching

5Youth and the divine covenant forgotten; forgetfulness and neglect are secondary to knowledge acquisition; as the ultimate illness of health and the secondary death of life; simultaneously, the same knowledge is called mother, wife, and sister because the teacher begets through it, as Paul says of the Gospel to the Galatians; she is wife because she bears virtues and correct teachings with me, if wisdom begets prudence in a man; she is sister because we both come from the one God and Father; I said, he says, that wisdom is your sister; grace and friendship liberate; virtue and knowledge liberate the rational soul; for grace and friendship are virtue and knowledge; if the hind comes from friendship, the colt comes from graces; therefore the hind is the symbol of theory; the colt, of apathy; for the one is from virtues, the other from knowledge; it comes to pass naturally; the hind is the symbol of theory, of incorporeal things and of God’s knowledge; friendship is the love toward God and neighbor; the colt is apathy; theory concerning God’s knowledge naturally arises from virtues; love comes to pass naturally from wisdom; apathy comes from bodily virtues; she urges us always to associate with such graces; whoever associates with these will not only converse with God but become his housemate; the virtue of rational nature is called friendship and makes those who follow it through God’s knowledge friendly with God; in the friendship of virtue and the company of knowledge, the one who associates is many times among the benefited; some think this concerns external wisdom, which it is not good to linger over due to its deceits; others interpret this concerning wickedness and not being much toward it; thus it is impossible for a man to completely avoid evil thoughts, but not to linger in them is possible; those he calls embraces; every one who guarantees Christ the friend as justice and truth delivers his own soul to enemies, those accustomed to fighting men, through friendship with the Savior; friendship is spiritual, knowledge of God, by which the saints are called friends of God, as John the Baptist was friend of the bridegroom, Moses and the apostles; no longer, he says, do I call you servants, but friends; do you see struggle and vigilance?

sleep is the active sin of the soul; drowse is the first impure thought gathered in the soul; post-drowse is the inclination toward worse things; therefore the law forbids sleep, the Gospel forbids drowse, if the former cuts off active sin, the latter the first evil thought gathered by reason; it was said to the ancients, do not be angry; but I say to you, do not be provoked; note here that the harmonious motion of the ant’s nature is called wisdom; for the wiser of the wise is called wiser; how then is it not under a master, if all things are slaves of God?

or perhaps God is called master in two ways, as creator and as known; therefore Paul writes: now having been freed from sin, and having been enslaved to God (obviously according to virtue and knowledge), you have your fruit for sanctification, and the end eternal life; but if the ant, being irrational, lacks share in such end and knowledge, it is clear that it is also free from such servitude; well then it is said that the ant is not under master according to this lordship; but again it is said to be under lordship, under God, as under creator; through the ant Solomon seems to inscribe for us the practical way; through the fleecing, the theory.

6The events signify also the one who made them, whom both pure and impure, wise and foolish, approach toward the soul’s health. The wax seems to me to hold the account of those things, while the remaining honey is a symbol of their contemplation. The wax will pass away, for heaven and earth will pass away, but the honey will not pass away, nor will the words of our Savior Jesus Christ pass away. Concerning which Solomon says: Honeycomb, good words; their sweetness is healing of the soul. And David says: Your words are sweeter to my throat than honey to my mouth. The result of the labor of the virtues and knowledge, he called labor. But kings and commoners, not those wearing a diadem or the poor in dung, he means those who have their mind toward God refined and strengthened by virtues, these he calls kings.

This sleep happens only to a rational soul, for it signifies here ignorance and lack of knowledge. Of which wakefulness produces something like a solitary sparrow on a roof. We must beware lest through such bodily movements the opponents come to know their own reasonings moving within us, since we have believed only God to be a discerner of hearts. Everyone who eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood acquires righteous blood. But a rational soul deprived of this blood is said to die. For the soul that sins, that one shall die. But if there is righteous blood, then certainly there is also unjust blood. Which those who eat the food given to the Ethiopians and nourished by the bread of falsehood gather within themselves. And those who sacrifice to other gods consume their own righteous blood. But those who offer sacrifice to the one God, they corrupt their unjust blood. Corruption will follow the unjust blood, but this must now happen from the beginning, not thus, for health of children is not by corruption of disease, nor are those born with health from the beginning. By slandering falsehood to each other, they bring themselves into discernments and lawsuits.

Or brothers are those who have the grace of adoption and are under the same father Christ. Whom the witness of injustice tries to divide, throwing disturbances and judgments among them. And 'he kindles,' as I think, is added because of the passionate reasonings, kindling anger indeed, and toward wrath and hatred desire toward shameful works. These reasonings the holy Paul also called burning arrows of the evil one, piercing the soul and working death. He commands to bring forward the mother, which is wisdom generating according to God. And yet it was necessary to say the father, for this one is more disposed toward agreeing with the son. But since it is not possible to know God before the theory of the events, therefore he commands to bring forward the mother and not the father, so that through the mother the son may see the father. For if she does not generate, he does not see the light, which is knowledge of him, God. That the commandment of the law is a lamp and light. And perhaps the lamp, the Old Covenant is that. For he was the lamp burning and shining. Light, the New Covenant. For I say, I am the light of the world. Conviction indeed of evils, education moreover of goods. For through the law comes knowledge of sin. For such is the pleasure of wickedness, as much as and one loaf.

If he is caught by true knowledge, he will renounce all false knowledge. The former thief, from lack of knowledge, from the senselessness caused by our Savior’s knowledge and wisdom. He is said to restore sevenfold, to praise God seven times a day. And giving all his sensible things to God, he will deliver himself from the things prepared by the devil and his angels for punishment. Everyone who shares in wickedness is an adulterer of the devil who first married wickedness, and having been a murderer from the beginning, and with him he brings about destruction of his own soul. Our sister wisdom is, because the Maker of the incorporeal nature Father, and he has made her. But wisdom here he speaks of not the Son of God, but the contemplation of bodies and incorporeals, and the judgment and forethought existing within her. He now calls the flesh of a human a door, for through it the evil one works deceits upon humans, to those wishing to walk the broad and spacious road, and leading away to destruction.

7Here one must pay close attention to what Solomon says concerning wickedness: that it is not wickedness itself which leads the human being, in the beginning, upon the broad way; nor does it compel one to travel upon the streets of its houses, or to draw near to its bedchamber, or to speak in the evening twilight. But if it sees someone yielding themselves to pleasures, then immediately the form of wickedness, appearing with a lascivious aspect, meets that person, or it causes the hearts of the young to leap forth. Those who wander in the broad places receive thoughts of adultery, fornication, and theft; but those who wander outside these places pursue unnatural pleasures, seeking to lie with males, and entertain fantasies of other forbidden things. Yet take heed lest this accusation be true even of holy men; and whoever does not remain still but wanders about will share in the guilt of the accusations leveled against the dishonored woman. Of these thoughts, some are pure, others impure; and of the lines, some are called straight, others crooked. Now an angle is a bent straight line; or, understood intellectually, the impure thought is an angle. Therefore, the fact that wickedness lies in wait against every angle signifies that, through all impure thoughts, it deceives the soul. By means of the saffron and the crocus and the rest, the deceptive conceptions, or the various passions, are signified. –Behold wickedness, which has no beginning from itself, but arises from the preludes of virtue; for to partake in common sacrifices is good. But when they have been subdued by them, then at times they send forth the poison, enumerating the objects of desire for those who are in love, all of which are sufficient to enchant,

Origen clarifies that the focus is not on one’s own nature, but on the foolishness of those who hear. According to reason, the κα κίᾱ (likely a textual variant or corruption for κακία, meaning wickedness) seeks to shame our person through things like cords, beds, coverings, saffron, and cinnamon. These items, he says, signify evil and diverse passions—pleasures devised by the inventors of evil. The long-delayed return over many days refers to Paul, who, having spiritually fixed his gaze upon the divine economy, declares as his final enemy the one to be destroyed: death. Solomon had already written of death as a man of wickedness, one who takes the silver of a balance in his hand and thereby grasps humanity; yet even if he returns to sinning, he does not foresee God’s wrath, because he bears with patience the race of humans. For if he had not foreseen the fear of God, he would have utterly destroyed all people by the roots. There are three kinds of skin afflictions: scabs, the white (likely vitiligo or leukoderma), and the so-called star-like eruption. The scab, when held without restraint regarding mixtures, makes sleeping difficult and causes oozing; it cries out, and in oozing, it sends forth blood from the eyes, and it brings forth offspring poorly and painfully. Indeed, the Scripture draws from the history of this creature: those who yield to wickedness become scab-covered and are likened to birds made like them through excess. There is also another kind of scab found in the sea, moving in herds here and there, which sailors, having entangled their multi-hook nets, catch; and it does not merely flee when seeing the caught prey,

But indeed another runs swiftly after another in order to catch game; in this way those who associate with wickedness appear, striving to overcome one another through pleasures, surrounding themselves with warlike death. Here he has spoken of the heart as virtue, either the one walking upon the heart or the one fashioned by God, the spiritual. Here wisdom has been taken as a kind of offspring of instruction and knowledge; for instruction and knowledge being advanced first, he adds: For wisdom is better than precious stones, as the abundance of instruction and knowledge is contained within wisdom, which is given through the Spirit, a discourse of wisdom; and this same thing is also called the spirit of sonship. It is to be noted that he calls injustice, insolence, and arrogance, the unjust, insolent, and arrogant person, naming them from the state of the hand’s disposition. This means, from me, the prudent and the secure; for where this is, there also that is; you see lifeless things of bodily nature placed everywhere and prevailing. Then, having also spoken of ruling through it, he adds what is much greater: for to rule thus, and to be able to lawfully use authority, is better; but some, while calling the holy and great ones kings, call tyrants those still fighting against the flesh and ruling over the passions. He introduces a greater love here, namely when it is not set against the same; for indeed, when the Savior says to Peter, Do you love me? the one addressing him knowing, gives the lesser to himself, that is, I love you; and upon hearing the third, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me? he understood that the lesser.

8The third offering he made to him was this: only the wise man is truly rich and renowned, because within him lies the possession of many things and the offspring of wisdom. If one sows these into the spirit, they reap life. It seems he speaks of his own wealth when he says: You need no expense, no innovation, for your love toward me; it is enough to love only, and you will be loved in return. Moreover, what is wonderful—that righteousness resides in wealth—is also true with me, and this, along with all other things, is good. The substance that is God’s wisdom existed begotten before the ages and eternal before creation; but when it entered into relation with the generated, it became the beginning of God’s ways, the creative and providential. Thus the beginning is a spouse to the creations of which it is the beginning—that is, the relation toward the generated. But wisdom is eternal, substantially existing before the ages with God. Impiety is sin against God; and impious, too, is anyone who stores up punishment for his own soul, prepared for the impious.

Consequently, loving death belongs to those who hate wisdom, if wisdom is life. Taking hold of wisdom here doubly: I mean that which comes from the Holy Spirit, given in words and writing to the godly-minded, through which the knowledge of God was made known to the world. Likewise, the hypostatic Son and Word of God, who brought all things from non-being into being by his wisdom. The sacrifices he refers to are those prophets who were sealed and slaughtered by the praise of Christ, because they sifted them with the vessel of knowledge—the sweet understanding of him for the intelligent—saying: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; for he himself slaughtered them and slays them, because he himself urges those who believe in him for himself, as he himself dies for you. If Paul the apostle is a slave of Christ, and Christ is wisdom, then Paul is a slave of wisdom. Likewise, we will gather the word of the remaining apostles and prophets, having shown themselves slaves of his wisdom. We ought not to reprove sinners, but to remind them of divine fear. Whoever turns them away from evil, or those who are evil returning from sin and wishing to come to repentance—be patient with evil ones blinding them, and do not rebuke for a single fault, lest they come to hatred from beginnings.

But when they become wise and strengthened, then rebuke. And Christ did not rebuke his disciples while they were young, because they were not the old ascetics ready for new wine. Or he calls foolish the senseless and stupid, or those entirely alien from divine teaching—whom we ought not to rebuke, but to admonish, to teach, and to instruct. And if indeed Ahab and Herod were rebuked, yet they had already shared in the divine law, even if they transgressed; therefore, these also ought to be reproved. Or it seems these things are said then to the most infantile, since why did John and Paul rebuke? One ought not to reprove sinners, for person-to-person reproof makes the sinner shameless; but we ought to do this among the wise and just. Between the one being reproved and the reprover, not upon many. Every wind of teaching turning about, having been shipwrecked concerning

9The wickedness of life oppresses the innocent; it protects the innocent. Yet He speaks of those who endure evil from some source, and who practice innocence in love. Or thus: Unexamined, possessing the pretense of piety but being untested and untried— for the one who is not examined, and who openly reveals his thoughts and reasonings to others, wanders in self-conceit. The covering, instead of not allowing to breathe. Or He speaks of enmity toward wickedness, by which we become enemies of God; and the enmity against God and mankind that arises in us by the evil one in the heart— the righteous indeed shake it off, while with their lips they praise God, whenever the evil one thus subdues them. For if we are enemies, says Paul, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son; but if the enmity is wickedness, then friendship is virtue and knowledge of God, by which we become friends of Him and of the holy powers; and upon this friendship, those who are His friends are also friends to one another. Lord, before You all my desire is, says David; that is, whatever is pleasing to God and harmonious with the just, one ought to desire, so that our prayer may become acceptable before God; but the ungodly is carried away in eternal destruction by desiring and doing what is not friendly to God. If the fear of the Lord adds days,

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; these days are parts of wisdom, made by the sun of righteousness. For one who presses forward adds knowledge and illuminations. Moreover, for such days David prays, saying: Do not bring me to the midst of my days. And these days, Abraham having fulfilled them, died old and full of days. And the Lord adds the divine visions as days to those who are in faith and fearing Him. But the years of the wicked, seen as foolish and devoid of divine grace, have been made little. He speaks of the lifetime of a man as an age, as Paul says: I will not eat meat for the age, lest I scandalize my brother. For that which is added to the constitution of his life, he has called an age. For the righteous does not sin in giving, being troubled by the evil one. But the wicked who sin will not only be cast out of the kingdom, but will dwell in fire and not on the earth. Instead, grace is an overflowing abundance; and the mouth of the pious now speaks the mind and the heart, as if singing hymns to God through the lips. But the mouth speaking evil of the wicked is turned away from God to become that of the evil one. See therefore what comes from that, and what from this. For having the goal toward the future, one certainly attains what was expected, having finished as the righteous. Or He leads us forward to the resurrection.

And concerning this, the existing things remain, and are not destroyed; but concerning that, even the existing things are extinguished. For in the present age alone they boast—of whom it has been said: "Their glory is in their shame." Not as if the righteous one were the subject of justice, saying, "Instead of him, the wicked is delivered up," but because the snare comes from the wicked against the righteous, the wicked falls into it while this one remains. The righteous is snatched away by God, but the wicked, having been abandoned, falls—according to the saying, "The sinner is caught in the works of his own hands." Or because the righteous is thought by some to be a man of sins, the wicked comes and does evil to the righteous; from the sins and the punishments that were to come, he has delivered himself, but for himself he has taken up the punishments. He is delivered over by himself through his own wickedness, as one who has given himself over to an unapproved mind. Either this is discernment concerning things to be done, or not; or so that they may manage their own lives—for it is a great and hopeless wave. For such people, driven about by every wind, suffer shipwreck concerning life or faith; and they fall like leaves from a tree, those who do not possess the wisdom of God. But if salvation is in counsel, and not merely in counsel, but also in much counsel,

10It follows, then, that no one is preserved in bodily things or in material possessions, nor even according to nature itself. This is because those who introduce or bring about natures—meaning, those who shape or define what things are by their essence—are the ones who determine preservation. At this point, the soul is directly called “body” by the one who speaks plainly. And Christ, too, in the Gospels, refers to the soul as a body—saying, “The lamp,” he declares, “the eye is the body of it.” He called the lamp the mind, for it is inherently receptive of knowledge. But the body, he says, is the spirited and passionate part of the soul—what some call the irrational part, and others, the emotional or suffering part of the soul. Now, the one who, from the things he makes and teaches, produces good outcomes—first, he gains knowledge of both intelligible and immaterial things in the life to come; and in the age to come, he obtains the kingdom of heaven, securing it for himself and for those who learn from him. He does not merely destroy his own body, but also the soul, along with those who follow him, in the fire of shared destruction. This man—this one who wrongly thrusts hand into hand with violence—is the teacher of evil deeds and false doctrines. But this other one—this one who sows righteousness—is the one who advances in speech concerning virtues and the knowledge of God. To those who sow for their own private gain, and who multiply their holdings, stand opposed those who gather and diminish—because those who sow for themselves are, in fact, those who sow into the spirit and reap life; but those who gather and diminish are those who sow into the flesh and thus gather corruption for themselves. The divine word is like grain: which the Jews, having hidden it away, left behind for the Gentiles. —And this is just like what our Savior says in the Gospels: “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, so that it may give light to all in the house.”

Just as grain serves as nourishment for the body, so divine knowledge sustains the soul. Yet the one who possesses the sustenance of both body and soul but refuses to impart it, instead demanding payment from those who lack it, will be abandoned to the demons. Moreover, he writes a curse upon himself, declaring that he will stand under the judgment of the people of the angels and all the righteous on the day of reckoning, and thus he shall be accursed. The practical cultivation of virtues according to the Spirit is a spiritual craft; but the one who performs what is owed to God seeks out delightful companions—those willing to receive what is due to God—so that, just as he himself engages in exchange, they too may engage in mutual giving. As for those who seek not the good but the evil, they shall be left aside. This tree of life is the one planted in the midst of Paradise, whose fruit Adam was forbidden to touch after his sin, having cast away the seeds of righteousness from which the tree of life grows. Lest you remain silent toward me, says David, and I shall become like those who descend into the pit. A lawless person who falls silent will be forsaken by God—that is, hated and not shown mercy—when he renders the rewards due to those who have received the grace of his incarnate economy, as he says in the Gospels: “And grace for grace.” The wealth of the wicked is evil. But the righteous shall consume them, evidently through wholesome teaching; therefore, even in the age to come, having become fifteen cities, they shall inherit the heavenly inheritance which the impious, having surrendered themselves to impiety, were about to receive—but the righteous shall possess it, as Paul also says in 17:193: “But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation and of God’s righteous judgment.”

The good one will act as an heir for those who obey him as sons obey their father, and he will adopt them into the heavenly kingdom. For they are invincible, just as weapons produce safety; for nothing evil can stand against wisdom, because it is an unconquerable weapon; only against this are the demons powerless. But to the foolish, both visible things and incorporeal things are entirely opposed. Here he speaks of the bodies as houses; for houses are the dwellings of souls, and they are owed by those who know piety and possess theoretical knowledge. The lawless must learn not only the knowledge of God, but also every commandment of the life-giving ones, so that, having become pure, they may see God with their intellectual eyes. For this is the blessed end, which every rational nature has preserved. And the houses of the righteous are ready to receive all, as the Lord commands. Now he has spoken of the intentions as the divine visions and the dispositions of the virtues, which he set against the ways of the bold-hearted mind. For from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, as the Lord said; not to do evil, but to do good, the good man intends in his mind. But the bold-hearted, acting and speaking like a fool, will be filled with scourgings, and with the loss of things, and finally will lose his own soul. Now he has spoken of the rebukes as the commandments; for these reprove us when we sin. And those who hate them,

11They die in the shame of their sins, and along with the evil they have invented, they will be dealt with wickedly. However, through those who pass by wickedness, the education of the innocent is recognized as blameless. Quietness is the abstinence from active evil and from seeing evils, which the good practice in stillness. But the eyes of the mind and body of the wicked are constantly contemplating evil throughout all time. Yet the prudent person is not in Hades with the sinners; rather, the ways of life, the thoughts of divine words and deeds—these the prudent person always does and teaches, so that, turning away with their disciples from Hades, they may be saved. Those who do not practice his commandments are his enemies; but they become his friends when they run to the righteous, confessing their wicked deeds. Having been moved by these things, just as those others, they will go on the life-giving ways. For Paul proclaimed: Those who once were enemies were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Take heed that all enemies, through the righteous, become friends—so that Christ may say to all: No longer do I call you slaves, but friends. Again, there, wisdom is needed to make atonement; either the one who knows the words about punishment is an angel, or the wrath of God is spoken. The wise person in divine works and words, being of one mind with him, will not be startled by him. Nests of wisdom are the churches, or the tents in heaven; and wisdom is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Moreover, nests of understanding are better than silver, namely, the practical virtues: justice, knowledge, wisdom, self-control, courage, patience.

Unrebukeable gentleness, freedom from anger, mercy, and faith joined with hope and love: through these, as if climbing the rungs of a ladder, one may enter without hindrance into the dwellings of wisdom, those who wish to ascend and dwell there.

He speaks of discipline as the fear of God, fasting, self-control, vigilance, hymnody, and the discipline that comes upon us in sickness as a testing from God.

He calls rebukes the commandments of God, for these indeed rebuke us when we sin.

He says the ways here are the senses; and the one who guards them preserves his own soul from death toward life, for life is that which sustains all living things, and brings into being from non-existence the Holy Trinity, which causes to be. And the one who loves life, and ever strives to live in it, will refrain from his own mouth the words and works not of God, and will draw near to the knowledge of God.

God is life; and the source of His self-existent, triple-wisdom life is wisdom, knowledge, and the virtues; from this spring those who drink partake of immortality and eternal life; but for those who possess such a spring, there is an understanding of the words of life; yet the discipline of the foolish is folly, and the undisciplined discipline is folly.

He said that knowledge is recognition, because it recognizes all things; and the heart of the wise perceives what comes from its own mouth, both in bodily judgment and in incorporeal matters, and whatever they themselves do, they teach and practice.

The demons, learning words from the devil, attempt against the holy, and imagine themselves trying to separate them from knowledge.

This is her nature, by which she binds them in friendship with the heavenly powers; and the same thing, I believe, Solomon has indicated by this proverb, saying that the twisted man is Satan; but those going about bearing lamps of deceit—namely, the false teachers on his side—he calls evil demons; yet friends, namely, the holy ones, those who through knowledge are touching God and one another. A lawless man, the devil is; and he attempts to tempt the friends of God, and he leads them away to the ways of destruction and not of goodness; but when he has deceived any one of the holy ones, he establishes thoughts for his own eyes, and he considers them twisted, lest perhaps he should save the repentance of him whom he has hunted; and he nibbles with his lips upon his eyes all the evil thoughts, both renunciation and all pleasure of licentiousness; this one is a furnace of all wickedness, and he kindles within it the souls of those who are about to be destroyed; but of this furnace, the divine Spirit quenches the flame, shaking forth wisdom like dew; yet many still of those who are in it, wicked men, are accustomed to imitate their father, the devil. He has said here that the bosoms are the hearts of the unjust; but I think also that everywhere the bosom signifies either the mind, or knowledge; and the wicked indeed the devil embraces in his bosom, but the righteous the Lord. If every one who practices sin is a slave, and every one who departs from wickedness through virtue has held as masters the foolish demons—who also is the house of mysteries of God—

12It will be, according to the analogy of the feeding, that to each of the brethren is given spiritual knowledge; and so Paul, on the one hand, gave milk to drink to those in Corinth, on the other hand, nourished those in Ephesus with more solid food, speaking concerning height and length and width and depth; and by means of these distinctions he indicates the division of the rational nature, which division encompasses the discourses concerning God's judgment and providence, which discourses are very deeply rooted and lead away from the human condition. Furnaces are the trials; for by means of the trials God elects the warm and the sluggish hearts of the elect. The heretic obeys the tongue of the doctrines of the godless; but those of the Church do not even pay attention. By means of obeying, the voluntary is shown, as if erring into God's wise governance. –This one obeys the tongues of the lawless, he who receives unjust calculations from them and hastens to act according to them; concerning these the righteous is said not to pay attention, to see both the visible and the invisible, that is, not to nourish oneself further within. The faithful, he says, will see the words of this world, which they have figuratively presented as nourishment to the mind; but the unbeliever will not even know the word of any chance thing, on account of the uncleanness of his own soul; for that the wealth of the soul is the knowledge of God, Paul teaches, saying: You have been enriched in everything, in all knowledge and in all wisdom; but if anyone wishes to show that this conception is not this one of mine,

Let those who possess wealth speak of where they acquired their riches—the ones who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented; how, too, can the unbeliever not possess even a single obol, while many unbelievers, cloaked in great wealth, I mean kings and rulers of this world, abound in riches? Faithful lips declare the virtuous thoughts; but to the foolish, evil thoughts will be acceptable. For what partnership has righteousness with injustice? Unless, perhaps, one who has repented seeks discernment and faith. Through righteousness, we conceal iniquity; through self-control, we conceal intemperance; and again, through love, we conceal hatred; and through freedom from love of money, we conceal greed—yes, the greed quantified as 17.200. We also conceal arrogance through humility, and ferocity through meekness, as we seek spiritual friendship, which signifies holy knowledge; and according to Paul, certain ones among the saints are called fellow citizens, and natives of the heavenly Jerusalem, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. He says here that the body is the house of the soul; and again, the soul is the house of the mind; and the same mind is called the eye of the soul. But the one who has learned divine knowledge and wisdom, yet has surrendered himself to wickedness, and instead of good words brings forth evil ones, and is unwilling to turn back and be saved—such a person will not see wickedness and depravity depart from the house of his body; rather, they remain firmly entrenched within him, so that complete evil may come upon him, abiding immovable within him on the day of the Lord’s wrath.

The body formed from the earth by the Lord for us, he says, is a house here; and the one that will not be moved, that is, will not depart from its own house, is anger and tribulation, sent forth by men and demons by the Lord, against those who repay good with evil, to the good-doer himself, a human being.

If one who repays evil for evil is lawless, how much more so is one who repays evil for good? Such a one became Israel in the wilderness; to whom Moses says in Deuteronomy: “A crooked and perverse generation, do you repay the Lord thus?” Here he says the beginning is knowledge; and righteousness follows knowledge, for righteousness is begotten from knowledge; but deficiency is ignorance; and strife and battle, every wickedness, precedes ignorance, the wickedness.

Why then do you again accuse the poor? By leading us away from idleness; therefore authority does not come from the laying on of hands; hence, if you wish to walk with boldness, you must be just; and strife and battle precede deficiency, that is, the lack of virtue in those who do wrong.

Such is the one who says the bitter is sweet and the sweet is bitter; and who calls light darkness, and darkness light. Here riches are said to be wisdom and knowledge; but to the foolish, what has the learning of wisdom and knowledge come to? For as a vine cannot grow in thorns, so in folly wisdom cannot bear fruit; for riches are the foolish person’s, the things concerning each particular matter of his.

13Foolishness: for by these things one becomes heartless and unable to acquire wisdom. In every matter, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, for the Lord opposes the proud. And the one who twists the learning of God’s things will fall into evil concerning judgment. Here he speaks of the beloved Christ, who, because of his love for humanity, became human. No longer do I call you servants, he said to the disciples, but friends. And in every season, may Christ abide with you as a friend. But if those who are children of Christ are mutually friends, then the gentle and the righteous are also brothers to one another, being born of the Spirit of adoption. For this reason they are begotten by wisdom, so that they may lead people from wickedness to virtue and from ignorance to the knowledge of God. This is the fickle person, easily turned from virtue to wickedness, yielding to evil reasonings. Here he calls God Father, and his love for humanity Mother, who has begotten him in the flesh and made him endure suffering for our sake. But our God and Father does not rejoice over a son adopted yet untaught in God’s wisdom and knowledge, but rather over one who abandons himself to wickedness and malice. However, a wise son brings joy to his mother, the love of God, who draws us to God and the Father as weaned sons, longing for the spiritual, solid nourishment, so that just as the Son of God, Jesus Christ, has become our brother by likeness, we too may conduct ourselves in deed and word. Moreover, our mother is the Church, whom God and the Father have joined to himself by the Holy Spirit as a wife; for she continually bears sons and daughters for him. And indeed, over those who are being instructed in God’s knowledge and wisdom, both our Father God and the Mother Church rejoice; but over the uninstructed, she deeply grieves and sorrows, as if we were unwilling to turn back and be saved.

But rather to persist in wickedness. Here the face of contemplation is spoken of: for contemplation is the understanding of an intelligent man, wisdom and knowledge and righteousness; but the intellectual eyes of the foolish, and within the body in the extremity of wickedness and depravity. Wrath is sent forth against the foolish son by God and the Father on the day of judgment; but to the Church which has begotten by the Spirit, and to the choir of the holy, grief will certainly be upon the destruction of the foolish son; and that whereas the wise son has both begetter and mother, the foolish has only the begetter; for the mother and the begetter are one, but the begetter is not always also a mother; for if the begotten perishes in wickedness and ignorance, the begetter remains, but the mother does not; because even the begotten has not partaken of the Spirit of adoption; likewise also concerning sensible mothers it will be thought, and concerning the death of the sensible: we shall call the mother and the begetter, but no longer the mother of the dead child. One transgresses by taking away the righteous man’s due, or by perverting his disciples toward injustice, and sins; for having possession of them, he has suffered loss; for they do not seek our things, but us; and he calls powerful those who reign in Christ. The one led by the foolishness of demons has no need of God’s wisdom or knowledge; for he has loved darkness more than light; and even if he rejoices in foolishness, he thinks he needs no wisdom. As water makes plants grow, so the word of a man established in virtues refreshes the virtues, and bears aloft toward God those who wish to become wise; and he speaks of a river leaping forth, the ineffable grace of the wisdom of the all-holy Spirit, the ever-flowing wisdom of the triune divine unity. The one who receives and acts upon the existing wickedness of the devil, in contemplation and speech, whose persons he admires as the face of the impious; but the just in judgment, and in word concerning bodies, it is not good to reject the holy.

14Boldness, by withdrawing the soul from gentleness, gives it over to death. It is not the fear of God that brings the lazy to repentance, but the fear of demons; for they stir them up to abhorrence. Or it is the fear of the Lord, which separates them from laziness and rouses them from evil through good works unto repentance. The soul and body are androgynous— the one soft, the one poured out, the one neither able to teach itself nor willing to learn from others. Or the fear of evil drives back those who hesitate toward virtue, who lack the forward-looking resolve. A man whose choice is feminine will not possess the nurturing virtue; they will hunger when, seeing the kingdom from the opposite side, they are tormented in the trial. The abundance of the knowledge of the Lord, and the active power of the Word, he calls strength; for he alone knows what was before, what is now, and what will be. He himself commanded, saying, “Let there be light,” and heaven, earth, and all that is in them were brought into being from non-existence. These things reveal him as Lord and God alone. By means of a righteous life, the just run toward him; by means of contemplation, they are exalted. Or, from the things that are made, or from their greatness, it is evident that God is almighty. We must use this word toward those who have not received knowledge from God, yet endeavor to teach others; for David says, “When I hear your praise, I will then declare your marvels to others,” and Solomon says—

What your eyes have seen, say this: for many, having failed to attain virtue themselves, do not merely encourage others to succeed, but they also compel and urge them on. Here he speaks of a man as God: for he who subdues his own anger in judgment, keeping himself under control by observing God’s commandments, likewise applies this to sensible things. Just as our Lord is said to become a stumbling stone to the rebellious and a rock of offense to those who fall away, so too the faint-hearted stands against those who sin; indeed, the faint-hearted may be called the wicked one, and every demon that has fallen from virtue and knowledge. Therefore, the upright life he has declared to be the dwelling of humanity, which one enlarges and provides with what is worthy of God’s fullness—this he calls the throne of rulers, or rather, of the holy powers. For the mind is an excellent habit, either restraining or restraining the one who sits, keeping them immobile. Understanding puts an end to folly, for it is the allotment of the rational nature; and among the powers, it determines what comes to be and what is done. For the one who possesses divine understanding, all things yield; or he speaks here of the counter-arguments raised by the demons against us, those opposed to virtue, seeking to separate us from God—these the lot of understanding keeps from us, and it sets the ruling demons to retreat, as one allotted to God, from himself and from others, as one possessing divine understanding. Or he speaks of the soul as receptive to life and death, from which the self-determining power is shown in the fruits of the present and the future, whether one enjoys them well or badly.

He who finds good wisdom finds God’s grace. –He who holds onto wickedness is foolish and impious, as though he were the inventor of it, like the devil. The wealth of knowledge and wisdom adds to us many joyful gatherings; but the unclean person, whom the poor man claims, is separated from the angel given to him from childhood. For spiritual friendship is virtue and knowledge of God, by which we are joined in friendship with the holy powers—if indeed those who repent become joy to the angels. Thus too the Savior calls friends those who were once servants, having deemed them worthy of His greater contemplation; thus also Abraham, enriched in knowledge, sets before his friends who appear at noon that mystical table which he himself has prepared. But Saul, too, is separated from his former friend because of his wickedness; for it is written: “And the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” And the spirit of the Lord says to the angel: “For He makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” That the angels are entrusted with humanity, the Lord teaches in the Gospels, saying: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” And again Jacob says: “Your angel, the one who delivers me from all evil.” Those who ignore the words concerning judgment and providence blaspheme the Creator; they are false witnesses.

15They will not go unpunished who persist in wickedness on the day of judgment; and those who, again, are overwhelmed by their own passions and consider virtue unattainable, these unjustly accuse the one who gave the law. The base do not honor worth but repay fear with flattery, being sycophants who show partiality; but the true person will not flatter evil, but will expose it. Everyone who hates their poor brother, according to the saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," will be far from the love of God and the angels; or, everyone who hates their brother who is poor in virtue, and alienates themselves from the friendship toward the passions, will be cut off from life. —He has called the knowledge of God a good conception, and to those who know it, the pure in heart, he is accustomed to draw near; but the one who obeys these things for the sake of learning is prudent and will find it. —One who does much evil through deeds and words accomplishes wickedness, which is every sin; but the one who crafts destruction with words against people, and blasphemies against God, will not be saved. Neither sensual pleasure nor bodily profit benefits the fool; for he will trample the former underfoot, being a swine devoted to pleasure, and under the influence of sensual indulgence his flesh will be moved to passions, and he will hurl blasphemies against God; even if he comes from slavery to freedom, he will do this. If one boasts rightly, they boast in the Lord; and our Lord is wisdom, so the one who boasts rightly boasts in wisdom; therefore the boast of the long-suffering and merciful one,

Wisdom and knowledge belong to him, yet they come upon the lawless, delivering them from wickedness—now possibly, in the age to come necessarily. Our Lord is fire consuming and a lion enraged; toward those who sin, he burns and devours, as wood, grass, and reed, the flesh marshaled against the Spirit; but light and dew are for those who persevere, showing them the words of what has happened, and quenching the fiery darts of the evil one, and cooling the heat arising from action. He called the unclean soul a companion; and of her, he declared the wages, the condition, from which pure prayers do not arise. To teach sons about virtue and the knowledge of God belongs to the fathers; but to give wisdom to the children belongs to the Lord, for he speaks of wisdom as a woman in these things: “Be enamored of wisdom, and she will keep you; honor her, that she may embrace you.” The commandments, as toward the God who enjoins them, are called commandments; but as toward the mind journeying within them, they are called ways; and the one who guards keeps the soul from death toward life, his own soul; but the one who is careless will encounter the endless death. Thus it is with sensible things; yet as much as the sun exceeds the moon in excellence, so much does the one who shows mercy to the poor in virtue and who recalls them through the Lord’s instruction and admonition exceed, and to give a gift to God, he has named the purity of the heart; for, according to analogy, we are deemed worthy of knowledge by God through our dispassion.

What he says amounts to this regarding the things of life: I believe, however, that great loss consists in the deprivation of the contemplation of events that have occurred; and the addition to the soul consists in the obliteration of natural conceptions concerning God, with the soul utterly falling into irrationality. And the Savior also says in the Gospels: What will it profit a person if they gain the whole world but forfeit their soul and suffer loss? Here, the destruction reveals the ignorance of both bodily and incorporeal things; and the loss presents the ultimate irrationality. If the fear of the Lord is life for a person, and the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction, then the life of the person is therefore wisdom and instruction. Therefore, to know wisdom and instruction is to know Christ and his teaching. Thus, the fearless person will be in wickedness and ignorance, in which Christ is not present. Those who live in wickedness and ignorance do not seek the fear of God within themselves, nor do they hope for mercy upon themselves; and Christ is not in them, because they do not will to have him. The one who does not live rightly hides his unjust hands within his soul, unwilling to cultivate his own earth, that is, his body; nor does he wish to be filled with spiritual things. For the practical virtues have their reason in the hands, those which bring the bread to our mouths—the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world through inspired wisdom and knowledge. If the wrath of dragons is their wine,

16Wine, therefore, the unrestrained anger is; making men unrestrained; and wrath is insolent: for it arises from boiling anger. But if, according to the law, the Nazirites abstain from wine, then it has been ordained by law that the Nazirites are to be outside anger. Here Christ is plainly called a king: for the one who provokes him through sins, sins against his own soul. Just as the foolish man is not ashamed of disgrace, so the one who borrows grain to sow in an unplowed field: already, because it will be repaid from his farm to the lender, even if the borrower should happen to die. — If it is possible to borrow grain in an unplowed field from those who have worked their own land in the six years, that is, from those righteous ones and prophets who shone in the six ages before Christ’s presence, to imitate their virtues, those who also nourish in the seventh year the widow and the orphan, in order to repay them in the kingdom of heaven the reward of the manifestation of virtues, having become firstfruits of the virtues. Those whom, clearly by virtue, someone has begotten, will leave to those who come after an icon and a blessing; and the unblemished one will leave righteousness of nurture until the end. For elsewhere it was said that the one who speaks evil ceases; but also Christ: and the one who reviles the Church will be deprived of the faith, which was to him light before the slander; and he would also speak concerning the outer darkness; therefore it has been said concerning the future: and Christ himself, father and mother, is able to be spoken of: father indeed of those who have the Spirit of adoption; mother however of those who need milk and not solid food.

And indeed, the Christ who speaks in Paul—though He is the one speaking—was made a father to the Ephesians, revealing to them the mysteries of wisdom; and He became a mother to the Corinthians, nourishing them with milk. The pleasure discovered among us that comes from evil, which he says is assigned as a portion in the first things, at first delights your palate, but later you will find it more bitter than gall. Do not speak, moved by pride: “I alone will wage war against my enemies”; but wait for the Lord and call upon Him, that He may help you. Do not rely on yourself as if you could act without the Lord; for He says through David that apart from Him there is no helper: “I do not trust in my bow.” Regarding sensible things, we say that a large and small weight exists—among which are gold, silver, bronze, lead, and whatever else is weighed. Measures, however, are those things measured in vessels: grain, wine, oil, and legumes. Furthermore, the person called bold yet timid by some, I consider to be a large and small weight. Moreover, universally, every excess and deficiency—this is a large and small weight; for both are vices, and measures are doubled. Furthermore, the one who wishes to suffer well at the hands of others, yet himself does not choose to similarly relieve others, possesses double measures—namely, not obeying the command that says: “Whatever you wish that people would do to you, you also do to them.” Not the ear that hears badly is the work of the Lord, but the one who attends to good things; and not the eye that sees badly is the work of the Lord, but the one who sees and imagines divine things.

For whoever hears the Lord and observes his commandments performs the work of the Lord. The same principle applies to all parts of the body. You should employ this statement against those who accuse us, saying that our body and the God within us are engaging in insolence. This means: do not sleep excessively, but remain wakeful, so that you may not be cast into Gehenna. Do not slander. Through the virtues, open the eyes of your soul. Through wisdom, be filled with heavenly bread. To weigh oneself against the works of the Lord and also 17.213 of the devil’s works is an abomination to the Lord. Yet the Lord calls a balance-scale the mind, which is naturally endowed to judge rightly the things that occur, but which is inclined by the impulse of self-will through friends or riches. Do not hasten, he says, toward the promise before God, lest the need, or the desire of the greater abundance, seize you and begin to repent, and you insult God by preferring something else to him. For repentance upon good things does not happen to the just, but to the unjust. The unjust, therefore, should not make any promise to God without careful consideration, for after praying, repentance arises. –To hastily dedicate oneself to the Lord, which is to sanctify something of one’s own, and then immediately afterward to change one’s mind, is a snare to the man. Christ is the winnower of the godless. He will come upon the godless like a lion upon prey. Or a winnowing fan, which separates the chaff from the grain, he will apply to them.

17An absurd punishment. The mind is the storehouse of the belly, the heart, and knowledge; in it are laid up all divine teachings as well as impious doctrines. Just as one who lights a lamp seeks to find something among the things stored in the pantries, so the Lord, with the light of His knowledge, searches the storehouses of human words and deeds. To those people who know the Lord’s knowledge, it is light for them. Therefore, if the Lord’s light is the Lord’s knowledge, and the Lord’s light is the breath of humanity, then the Lord’s knowledge is the breath of humanity. The demon who appears in ignorance, pretending to be something, He has named a lamp that empties the mind of good knowledges and transforms itself into an angel of light. Since, however, the Lord’s light was not chosen to be known or walked in by them, the impious reckoned ignorance as light. If they indeed held ignorance as light, then clearly they also practiced the works invented by the demon of ignorance; those who journeyed with his ignorance will be with him into the ages of ages. But those who are with the Lord’s knowledge will be with the Lord. He casts out this statement regarding the sacrifice offered through irrational beasts; for a sacrifice to God is a spirit broken in pieces. If holy and right works are the Lord’s works, and one of His works is the mind,

The mind was rightly created by God, pure and upright, and we are obligated to preserve it in that state against the evil influences that come upon us. He set the defiled and common house in opposition to the open-air corner; but if the defiled and common house is wickedness, then the open-air corner is virtue—the very angle of virtue. This is the practice of contemplation in action, touching and enlightened by the sun of righteousness. Paul also spoke well when he called the high priest of the Jews a defiled wall, to be struck blind by God. Likewise, the Savior in the Gospels called the Pharisees defiled tombs. And well did he say in verse 17.216, upon the corner: “Here lies the stone rejected by the builders, which has become the cornerstone; and this is Christ.” Now, what is common is what does not belong to the one God. Secret giving is when the right hand acts and the left hand does not know; it stirs up a strong wrath against itself on the day of judgment, the one who withholds aid from the needy. The synagogue of the giants is wickedness and ignorance; for the giants are the demons. This means that the one who strays from the path of righteousness will find rest in great sins. It is better to be solitary than to keep company with such as these; and David says: “In a desolate, impassable, and waterless land, thus have I appeared before you in the holy place.”

The earth is now a desert where virtue dwells in the soul, uninhabited by the old human passions that once dwelled there—those corrupting impulses that once ruled according to the former deceitful desires. For this reason, the devil finds no rest in it, since he wanders wearily through waterless places seeking repose, yet finds none; for he is king over all who dwell in the waters, that is, over those who rest and indulge in carnal pleasures. Again: the paths of wisdom are the sheltered dwellings of her house. If this is so, then surely the warlike, gossiping, wrathful woman is wickedness itself—the kind that makes the one who lives with her become warlike, gossipy, and irritable. Wisdom of the Lord rests in the heart of a righteous, wise person; but foolish men slander her in order to destroy her. Wisdom is a fortified city, within which the wise dwell, tearing down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God—of which the fortified cities, says the text, are those souls subdued and conquered by impious demons and wicked men, who exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. When the wise man ascends this stronghold and sees their supposed security, he, by means of such wisdom, surrounds and overthrows it. He who guards mouth, tongue, mind, passion, and desire preserves his soul from the anguish of judgment. He himself is…

18One who devises schemes in his mind: bold, indeed, is the one who undertakes anything without fear; self-willed, the one who desires to act freely without examination; boastful, the one who exalts himself beyond what he truly possesses in dignity; a plague, the one who, while destroying himself, also transmits harm to others—for such a one is destructive in nature, so as to spread wickedness to others as well; and whoever cherishes grudges is lawless. For there is also a good desire: the angels, therefore, are those who never at any time desire evil desire; the demons, those who continually desire evil things; human beings, those who at times desire, and at times do not desire; and the one who desires the whole day through, instead of throughout the whole of life—such is also the meaning of, “In the fear of the Lord, be vigilant all the day,” in place of “throughout the whole of life.” He says the horse is the mind, the one engaged in battle against the devil, and opposing him; for, he says, “You shall mount upon your horses,” and “your horsemanship shall be salvation,” and concerning the Lord upon Paul: “That you may stand firm in my name,” he says. He named the virtue signified by a familiar name a good name; for this too is good—the name, which possesses a good meaning. Thus, we do not praise the unjust woman called Justice, but the one who possesses justice, even if injustice is thought to be hers; and above silver and gold, heavenly wisdom. They meet one another: the rich, by means of acts of mercy, purges his anger and acquires love; but the other, through poverty, is taught humility of mind. For the one wishes to be instructed; the other, to give instruction—so that the one may be joyful, the other merciful. He who possesses wisdom and the fear of the Lord shall inherit heavenly life, glory, and wealth.

For Noah possessed every generation; Abraham possessed these as well; and those who were taught by Peter also possessed them. In the age to come, those who have been enriched in every way, in all knowledge and wisdom, will rule over the ungrateful and the deprived of this wealth—but as for who are the servants and who are the masters, it is not necessary to make this public, because the discourse concerning them is mystical and profound; and even to make it explicit, they demonstrate the instability of human life. Yet even in oligarchies, the rich rule over the poor; and otherwise, those who possess knowledge rule over those who are not such; and the faithful from among the Gentiles, to the Israelites to whom they had previously lent, now lend teaching—but formerly they had lent to many nations and ruled over them; now, however, since the kingdom has been taken from them, the reverse has come to pass. God loves the cheerful man in the commandments, and the giver in acts of mercy, as Paul also says: “He who shows mercy, in cheerfulness”; and the Lord brings to completion the vanity of works through virtue and through knowledge. Human gifts—namely, the virtues of the soul—He names, by means of which, conquering the devil, one provides oneself as precious to God, and deprives oneself of the soul from those demons who have acquired it. He desires that the person be cast out from the habit of the hand by means of spiritual teaching, with which he once had contentiousness; and the demon, being a plague of the soul, must be chased forth—for if he dwells within it, through impurity he dishonors all the right reasonings.

For indeed, the apostle shows that the soul is like a council, bringing in thoughts either as accusers or as those making a defense; for he says, "Between one another, the thoughts are either accusing or defending." And where there is accusation and defense, there is also a council. But also, the plague dishonors all as a tyrant, or as one who wishes to establish his own customs, casting out the customs of others in disgrace, whom he has cast out from a spiritual system; and not only will he himself be cast out, but also those associated with him—quarrels, contentions, battles, and all that produces plague. The Lord who guards our souls also shepherds our spiritual knowledge, coming down and saying, "I am the good shepherd, whom the lawless one dishonors." But if Christ is indeed king of those who are ruled, and shepherd of the flock, then he will one day be alone king of the flock, when those worthy of the royal dignity pass into the royal state. Our enemy, the devil, walks about like a lion seeking whom he may devour; whom the timid, fearing, takes up into the labor of virtues. But if the lion is on the paths of justice seeking to seize someone, that one is the devil; and in the broad ways leading to destruction, with his phalanx of demons, he himself slays those who obey him. The devil is a deep pit; but the one hated by the Lord, who does not attend to himself securely—yet Job was not hated by the Lord, but was undergoing trial.

19Grace is for the one whose mouth has fallen into iniquity; but the one hated by the Lord is left in the pit to the end, being a lover of pleasure in the knowledge of sin. The rod from the root of Jesse, which is Christ, is far from the heart of the fool; he shepherds his people, the young Israel, in the pasture of his own sheep. Just as the devil slanders us before God, taking from us virtues which he did not give us, so we slander him, taking from him evils which we did not give him. And inasmuch as we receive evils from him, we receive them as from a poor man among virtues; and inasmuch as we give our virtues to him with a lessening of ourselves, we give them as to a rich man in wickedness. But perhaps, he says, as one giving little to a ruler, from whom the slanderer gains more by accusing the greater, he gains more and damages his own soul. The one who attends to the all-wise words of God and does what he commands has established his heart and knows that they are good; this one hears the words of God, the one who does what is commanded by them. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. But if you set your heart to know and to do, he will make known to you his way, saying: I am the way and the truth. The one who enlarges his heart through purity will understand the words of God, both the practical and the sophistical.

And the theological as well: for all treatment according to Scripture is divided into three parts, into the ethical, the physical, and the theological. And to the first part belong the Prooemia; to the second, Ecclesiastes; to the third, the Song of Songs. These, when understood through purity, are inscribed in the heart, so that you may be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, whether to learn or to refute. And you too shall ask questions of those who are able to be questioned. But do not force the one who is being led on in knowledge. Therefore he adds: And do not despise the weak in the gates. Those who accept vain reasonings, and in this way honor the wicked, let them strive with all their power, by means of good reasonings, to repay the worse. For if they are not able to do this, they will take the couch that is under the ribs of the soul, that is, virtue. The one who transfers the boundaries of piety makes it either superstition or impiety; and the one who transfers the boundaries of courage makes it either rashness or cowardice. Likewise also concerning the other virtues, and concerning the dogmas, and concerning faith itself, this must be understood. But especially must this be observed concerning the Holy Trinity. For the one who does not theologize about the Holy Spirit dissolves baptism; and the one who also names certain others as gods brings in a multitude of gods; or even the familial arrangements concerning each thing, and for this reason it is necessary to remain, not to move them. Here he declares the devil to be a potentate; but his tables are false testimonies.

Insults, slander, evil counsel, shameful desires, and every satanic practice—these the Evil One sets before you; perceive them with your intellect, and place upon them the discernment of your mind, which is your hand. Know that you must prepare yourself for such things, for they ought to stand beside you on the Day of the Lord, when He renders to each according to his works. But if you are insatiable, and reach for the lofty, the greater, and the more abundant—those things which are divine and of God—do not crave the provisions of the Evil One; for these are held fast to a fleeting life, which is falsehood. Yet you must perceive the Divine Scripture intellectually and spiritually; for the knowledge gained through historical sensation is not true. If you seek to draw the divine mind toward the literal, according to outward vision alone, you, being unstable, will depart to your own house—namely, the vision fitting to it—having wings constructed for you by the Holy Spirit who precedes you, which wings are the spiritual gifts; thus you soar high above it, as it were, into the ether. Therefore, not to comprehend the literal beyond measure, but to cling to it without satiety, is a life of falsehood. If the slanderer eats the grain of impiety and is made drunk by lawless wine, you must not dine with him; you ought not to be impious and lawless. For these vices defile spiritual knowledge. Do not speak, says he, that which is prudent—meaning deep and mysterious—for you must not cast pearls before swine. Do not transgress the eternal boundaries of godliness.

20Do not enter the land of those who have orphaned themselves from God, who hold wickedness as a possession of demons, from whom they were deprived of the heavenly Father; for the Lord who redeems them from the surpassingly brilliant light out of darkness is mighty. A righteous son will ponder his lips with wisdom, and wisdom will speak with him and remain with him; but the twisted one will fall away from her. If one turns away from evil by the fear of the Lord, he rightly urges us through all of life to turn away from every evil. Every person drunk in wickedness, and the one who from wisdom prostitutes himself into ignorance, will become impoverished from divine grace; and he will not put on the wedding garment—every one who in the demonic night is drowsy with sleep, but instead, wearing his flesh as a ragged and torn garment, he will torment himself with the fire of Gehenna. One of the elders said: the soul is the mother of the mind, speaking of the soul as the passive part of the soul—anger and desire—for through practical virtues he advances the mind into light; for by courage and self-control we acquire wisdom and knowledge of God, which are virtues of anger and desire; he might also say that the mother is the ancient Covenant, which is not to be despised. Here, concerning the teachers, he says of their writings: but those who made them and taught them, and who made the journey toward heaven, he called wanderers; for many have taught, but they did not make their journey toward heaven, because they did not guard it; for the one who converses in walks—that is, who acts and teaches—walks worthily of the calling to which he was called by God.

Sin is like a bowl when it exists only in thought, but when it is carried out in action, it becomes like a cup that holds the deed. The overreaching part, however, is what cooks call the pestle: it strikes many blows against the substance it hits, yet it does not open the place it strikes. To His disciples, the Lord says: Knock, and it shall be opened to you. A mind that receives a foreign thought or teaching will dwell on evil reasoning; but the one who guards himself will inherit life as an inheritance. How dreadful is insensitivity to pain! Then you will say, while being struck in the conscience, that you did not strive to attain the rewards of old age, nor to be freed from torments; they mocked me, 17.225—that is, they insulted me—but I, desiring not to know when the dawn of the soul comes, nor when the recognition of sin arrives. The house of virtues, built with divine wisdom, is constructed and, with understanding, the fear of God and knowledge, is set upright. The one concerning faith, or any of the virtues that are shipwrecked, is an unskilled pilot heading into battle against opposing forces, both in theology and in virtue; but the one who sails with skill in warfare seems to possess the mind on earth that anticipates God’s help, a counseling heart, the heart that does all things with counsel; and it is possible to say the same thing regarding every virtue: for there is also shipwreck concerning temperance, and concerning love, and concerning greed, and concerning every single doctrine, which likewise happens to the catholic and apostolic Church; but if, with skill in warfare, one must fight against the opponents, then our life upon the earth is like a naval battle; for if we wish, we overwhelm them in prayer of the heart and in reason directed toward God, composed and ordered.

If we do not wish to resist, we are swept away like those who drift upon the waters; and if we are also made to war against them, even if their war is great and fierce, it amounts to nothing; we shall fortify ourselves solely by fasting and self-control, and we shall cut them off and their weapons as a spider severs its web; and if we also hearken to the voice of the Lord, wherever two or three are gathered—heart, mind, and soul— they shall agree together in being contained within His bounds, and the Lord will be with us. For all that God does, when we understand it, and all that He teaches, when we put it into practice, in no way transgress His word; the gates of wisdom are the practical deeds, and the contemplation of the mind, through which the wisdom of God enters; they do not turn aside, neither to the right nor to the left, because they reckon themselves to be in councils discerning good and evil; and they counterfeit the good, while they approach the evil. To those who do not wish to be instructed by the wisdom and knowledge of God, through the present death the eternal stands opposed; the foolish one is he who has been sweetened in the wisdom of God, then forsaken it, and now joins himself to folly; therefore he also perished with his sins; but if virtue diminishes wickedness, then wickedness is clearly destroyed by virtue; and this will come to pass in the age to come, until wickedness ceases; for what is defiled will be, instead of corrupted, destroyed; and impurity is destroyed either by practice or by severe chastisement. It is necessary to use this saying toward those who have been deemed worthy of divine things.

21That they may not neglect the instruction, for many are being led away by wickedness into death; and those who are being killed in innocence unto death, you shall not spare to buy with your own blood; but if you give money or a beneficial word when asked, and if you say, 'I do not know this person,' you will be convicted of lying, and you will be guilty of two things—falsehood and murder; for the One who fashions breath also knows all things that He gives to each according to their nature: good to the good, and evil to the evil. For it is evident that reward is not according to quantity; for the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed. But if anyone wishes to take hold according to quantity, let them suppose the recompense in proportion to each one's power, as also the gifts of the Spirit are given according to the proportion of faith. He who eats honey is the one who is benefited by the divine Scriptures; but the one who casts out the words from the things from which holy prophets and apostles have taken them, in doing and teaching, chews wax; and while eating honey is for the one who desires all things, eating wax is for the pure alone; or let honey be called the allegory, and wax, the literal exposition and investigation, in order to possess the hidden and deeper mind; for there is honey in the wax; and let the throat be the nourishing power of the soul, by which foods are conveyed into the belly; if therefore you accomplish these things—both those according to thought and those according to history—they will be to you a sensation of the wisdom itself, these wise doctrines; for if you find the spiritual mind of the Scripture, your end will be good, as it is said: 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints'; do not abandon the hope for the future; do not prefer the devil to the righteousness of God, which the just possess; and do not let yourself be fed by deadly foolish reasonings, which is the belly; do not betray God for the sake of pleasure; for this one is the pasture of the righteous.

And he will not leave you. God indeed turns away his wrath from the one who has fallen, having shown mercy to him; but he is angry with the one who rejoices over the downfall of his enemy. For everyone who exults over a soul perishing is like the devil, who does not desire that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And indeed the Lord has commanded in the Gospels that we should pray for our enemies, that is, for all people. But the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is not fleshly, that is, not perceptible to the senses. Now whoever is delivered to it while stumbling, their bones shall be broken by blows from above; and their bones shall be consumed by burning fire. Or whoever is delivered to it for repentance, shall be broken by the word of his wisdom like grain, so that he may become sweet bread. –The sword of God destroys those who are corrupted and worn away by the lusts of deceit, utterly consuming them. Or those who come from wickedness to the knowledge of God, it strips bare by the nerves from their evil deeds, so that, having put off the old man, they may clothe themselves with the new man created according to God, who is also impervious to demons, having been cleansed by the Lord, and abstaining from every wickedness. For he adds that they may become impervious like young eagles; or because those who have been burned and reduced to ashes ultimately become impervious to the eagles. For indeed, my words have been surrounded, and so on. –Who gathered the winds in his bosom? The swift mind of the wind has gathered faith from the east and west, north and sea, in the knowledge of God, and has given them spiritual contemplation to store up in the virtues. For the knowledge of God is the bosom of God, in which he embraces and prevails over all the godly, just as one might embrace gold in one’s bosom. –He who gathered from the east and west, north and sea, all the earthly nations, and condensed them by the virtues in the faith directed toward him, Christ God,

22And one who stores away the heavenly water—the flowing water that comes from the fountain of life, that is to say, knowledge and wisdom, as Christ himself declares: “Whoever drinks of this water will never thirst again”—and also, “Whoever believes in me, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” This one steals knowledge, not the one who receives what was beforehand prepared, but the one who takes away knowledge from false pretense. For indeed, all who have believed in Christ, receiving teachings from the holy prophets and apostles, are not called thieves of alien doctrines; for one steals another’s teachings in order to fill a hungry mind—but this was done before the appearance of the Savior. Now, however, Paul says: “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him work honestly, so that having acquired knowledge, he may share it with those in need.” For what is not ours and yet is ours, that we should steal it, we who have believed in Christ? For all things are ours, and we are Christ’s, through whom all things were made; and Christ is God’s. Therefore, banish the understanding of evil, do not again yield to wickedness; for everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin, and sin is now called the devil, the one who actively works iniquity. The offspring of evil, etc.—slander defiles the mind that utters it, and the mother of that, namely the soul, is not treated kindly. Vainglory makes the one who possesses it think himself just, without considering evil, though often he only does good things. Arrogance causes the one who possesses it to overlook poor friends.

Parents should, in like manner, dispense harsh foods to their children, so that the righteous and godly may be abhorred by them; they should be placed under restraint, and the parent himself should rise above such indulgence. For anger possesses entirely the one who harbors it, seeking nothing else but to compel evil-doing and punishment, to slander and insult, and never ceasing to act as a false accuser. Whoever conceives and carries out evil in action and thought, who corrupts his own mind or watches over another person with intent to harm, shall be accursed among the peoples of the angels and hateful among those of the nations who have been saved, when all shall become one flock and one shepherd. But those who reprove and correct through open confession of their own deeds, and who reflect upon the counsels of the better mind, shall be revealed as lofty before the Lord, proclaimed upon all things. Upon them shall come, in the present age, the good blessing of their works and the intellectual contemplation of wisdom; but in the age to come, the apportionment from the Lord. The one who walks behind the commands of God is built up in righteousness and holiness; for with wisdom a house is built, the soul and body prepared for the indwelling of God. Yet wisdom will not enter into a soul skilled in evil. For just as thorns destroy or livestock perish when there is no one to cleanse and guard, so too the foolish: wickedness is the goad that drives one toward those who beforehand prepare the way to the kingdom. A bulwark is an impassivity of the rational soul, composed of practical virtues; yet it is torn down and obliterated by the foolish person’s choice. Corruption loves these things: sordid gain, lust, and the harlot woman.

Indeed, these things have neither end nor satiety; there are three things that will be filled, and the fourth—she has not found it sufficient to say it is enough—namely, Sheol and the love of a woman, and the earth that is not satisfied with water; and fire, and water, they did not say, "It is enough." It continually receives the seeds, whatever you may cast down, and it longs for them. Thus, death and fire, upon the things they long for, they destroy. Such a thing is also poverty; these matters are consuming. Such a thing also is sloth and idleness. For perhaps someone wonders, why does Sheol not have satiety, even though it consumes humanity? For this reason, he says, these things also do not have satiety, nor do they stand still anywhere. But observe what has committed fornication with Sheol. These ravens—mystically they feed the righteous, but they punish the wicked, plucking out the eyes of injustice—because they laughed at the Father of all and God, and they dishonored the gracious knowledge that bore them. For the eye of the Father is the law given to us in righteousness by Him. And those who pluck out the eyes of the impious, He called ravens; but those who devour him entirely, He named eagles, because He trusts the former for partial purification, the latter for complete purification. For God wills even the impious to be saved. The rooster, the bird among us, is called "unwearied." And beside the females that associate with it, they are known as such; and the flocks of birds gather around it, perhaps because it circles around all.

23He rejoices in pleasure; yet he is of good courage and turns himself wholly toward love in all things. Thus, the orders of the angels submit to the God of all, not only in fear but also in love, when He wills to perceive them as they obey His command and act upon it. Likewise, it is natural for the souls of the righteous to be so disposed: for all who place themselves under His command do not merely desire to know the mysteries and depths hidden in the Scriptures, which He approves of being known, but also whatever is destined to occur in human life—whether brought about by men or demons, whether through mental vision, by the grace of the divine Spirit granting foreknowledge, or through angelic instruction, or through the revelation of a vision. Here he calls the righteous "powers," those who possess strength against demons and passions, which he terms "spirit." Let them not drink from the cup that intoxicates the mind and clouds the senses with the harsh wine of heretics, which contains some knowledge contrary to the wisdom of God; lest, having drunk, they forget God’s wisdom and be unable to judge rightly or perceive the theory of knowledge, and thus fail to help themselves and the weaker in soul. To those who mourn in sin and ignorance, give them to drink from the Lord’s vineyard unto intoxication—that is, fasting, prayer, self-control, confession, and all things that bring joy to the soul; but to those in positions of authority, let them drink the pains of sin unto satisfaction, so that, having drunk, they may forget the demonic poverty. For the one who is intoxicated by the knowledge of the Lord forgets the practice of sorrows. He calls the poor the one deprived of knowledge.

Now then, concerning the corrupt and impure nature brought about by sin: the one who, through the spiritual word, puts to death the old man corrupted by deceitful desires, establishes his own mind in righteousness. This mind is said to be the throne of God, for wisdom and understanding have no other natural dwelling place but here; they do not sit elsewhere by nature. And righteousness, if not grounded in rational nature, cannot truly exist. All these things—the spiritual word, the renewed mind, righteousness, wisdom, understanding—are none other than Christ himself. You must be what you appear to be; do not pretend. Do not boast, but remain silent among the wise and listen attentively to the elders. Do not say, “I will set my throne above the stars, and I will be like the Most High.” Do not crave the chief seats, but fix your gaze on the lowest place. For it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be told, “Take the lowest place,” and be sent away in shame before the powerful. Do not pretend to be wise, nor deem yourself just. It is better that good things be spoken of you than that you speak them yourself. Therefore, God exalted him highly and bestowed on him the name above every name. He speaks of what has come before: our friend is God, who, because of his friendship toward us, became human. For he himself said to the disciples, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” When a friend rebukes you, Christ says, because of this sin, avoid it; do not despise the rebuke, but withdraw and return to the original sound judgment—that is, to God’s loving kindness. He says, give thanks for God’s commandments; and friendship, he says, is the love toward God and neighbor. Let the one who loves God keep these commands within himself, so that he may not become twofold in distress before God.

When each receives what is due according to their worth, the Savior also says in the Gospels to the Jews who believed in him: If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and the truth has freed you from the curse of the law. Therefore, if friendship liberates, and the Savior liberates, and Christ is both truth and friendship, it follows that all who possess knowledge of Christ are friends to one another. Thus, concerning this friendship alone, those who are friends of the same person are friends, and others are also friends. The one who has been taught about the virtues and practices them guards his own possessions in a harmonious and mutually beneficial way. Place a precious sardius stone into a golden earlobe, and the wisdom of the Lord into an understanding that is impassive yet obedient to the Lord. Just as water flowing from snow in a dry place under heat brings benefit and refreshes the scorched, so God acts upon those who receive his knowledge, wisdom, and commandments. And just as snow melts under heat, so too does the counsel of the just dissolve the wickedness of the soul. As winds and clouds guide sailors upon the sea to prevent shipwreck, so the false knowledge of those in God’s wisdom prevents them from perishing along with those who boast in it. As bones give strength and security to the body, so the virtues have grown naturally within the soul. Yet these bones are shattered if not guarded against sins; some have called the spirited soul weak, for it breaks its own spiritual bones before God.

24He says they are by nature saying: "Lord, Lord, who is like you?" The way of evil is wickedness itself; and the foot of the lawless is iniquity itself. And it will perish on the day of judgment: a habit formed by the way, and an energy by the foot, will be perceived. Just as vinegar in a wound that has the beginning of corruption is incongruous, though it is food for sweetness, so the contemplation and conversation of a woman scatter the heart of the one who gives himself over to virtue and has a beginning. For what falls upon the heart is a passion, which is wickedness; and by its absence, some are called apathetic. –Grief is a corrupt privation of corrupt pleasure; but grief is also a praiseworthy privation of virtues and the knowledge of God. He says here that bread is the solid nourishment of the soul’s commandments; and drink, that it signifies divine knowledge; and coals of fire, that they are the gifts of the all-holy Spirit, which inflame and purify the wrinkles of men; for a coal of fire touched the lips of Isaiah’s seraphim at one time; and the one who has been cleansed, learns fieriness, and cries out to all: for by this kindness and beneficence, purifying oneself, the ruling part, you will make the fiery graces of the Holy Spirit compel him, not only to take hold, but also to make him your zealous worker in every good work, as if he had become your familiar friend before God in all things. He said the devil is a shameless person, stirring up the soul toward evil, and raising up, like northern clouds, evil thoughts against the soul; but everywhere Solomon says the tongue is the mind: therefore this person ought to be ashamed in judgment, which is not good.

Here then falls a righteous mind in the presence of Satan, accepting a corrupt line of reasoning, or a false doctrine. And one who turns away from the fountain of wisdom, rejecting its knowledge, and purifies the notions of the mind—these are called falls, and these are called risings, and these are called seats, and these are called standings, and these are called walks, and some of them are called stumbling blocks; and others are called hard and soft, and fragrant and foul, and sweet and bitter, and smooth and straight, and scholia. And again, some of its parts are called thorns and thistles, and others are called light and darkness, and life and death; and still others are called sickness and health, and again they are named falsehood and truth; and many other names does Scripture assign, both to the soul and to its notions. But a few things out of many are to be said: these are mind, soul, heart, man, male, female, slave, servant, father, son, spirit, eye, mouth, lips, tongue, larynx, belly, bosom, arm, finger, nostril, sheep, goat, shepherd, and many other names of the soul, which it is not now possible to set forth in detail. Counsel he spoke of here as the inclination of the heart toward the better: when someone does not call upon the divine help of God within himself, and forms a plan to do something good after reflection, but instead begins arrogantly and boastfully—it will not be completed, but rather what he undertakes will come to misfortune, because he has not surrounded himself with the divine aid of God for counsel.

Here he says the horse refers to the swift man who is receptive to learning, wisdom, and justice; but he is goaded by means of enigmas. The donkey, however, is pricked with a goad; the slow one among these hard sayings is pricked, instilling fear in them. But to the foolish nation, it is said they shall be struck with a rod, for he sets boundaries over the faithless servants or those under authority; the rod, after all, is a symbol of correction. From his own feet, etc. Here he says the feet are the servants; and shame comes upon the master from them, when he sends a message by a foolish messenger, or by counsel, or wisdom, or embassy, or alliance, or sympathetic words. For the foolish are defeated in all things; and indeed the Lord says in the Gospels: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. 17.240 Remove the foolish man’s evil way, and make his false knowledge long departed from him. Whoever gives knowledge to the foolish is like one who binds an honorless stone in a sling with gold; or like one who binds a precious stone in a sling and hurls it at stone-throwers. If the ecstasy of the foolish is shattered—by which they were estranged from God—then, having become clean again, they draw near to God; for all flesh shall see the salvation of God. But take heed here: that the souls purged of wickedness, he has called the flesh of the foolish; and so the Lord says: My spirit shall not remain in man forever, because they are flesh. The one who casts off,

25He says, examining his own wickedness and turning back to him, then turning again to him, he is like a dog eating its own vomit; just as was the wife of Lot, and she turned back toward what the unclean spirit had caused her to turn toward. This saying must be used against those who are reckoning some of the unworthy among the priesthood, or in the lot; for no one among us has established the justice and liberty of the Church; but it is either ours, or Christ’s, through which He judged Himself justified to be given over to slaughter, and His blood was poured out on her behalf; thus also every one who desires to undertake the oversight of the Church’s households must surrender himself, and seize the collar of the evil one, and liberate those under his wickedness, and bring them into the full knowledge of Christ. As fire in wood, so in evil thoughts the anger that is directed toward the passions of the mind blazes and burns; but where there is no double-mindedness, that is, no divided soul, but either to God or to mammon, stillness will come from it, the one over the other; either the commandment of God, having conquered, the evil one will be subdued, and he will make peace with wickedness; but if one chooses both, and falls out of life, and will be deprived of temporary things. The lips here he says are the thoughts; but the one who does not open the lips of the mind against the evil, confessing to God the evils which he has sown against God, but conceals them, covers his heart with grief, not thinking through folly that he has sin in these things; not knowing the God’s good compassion; for to those who thus endure and proclaim these things to Him, He awards crowns as if they were contending in each struggle through Him. He mocks, instead of rejoicing, he has taken; for a cheerful soul, delighting in the knowledge of the Scriptures, rejoices in being filled; but an impure soul, and the false knowledge, surely believes it to be true. Or the place of the heart, virtue and knowledge, from which a man, having been estranged, falls into wickedness and ignorance, and becomes a slave of sin, doing it; inasmuch as he is rational,

His place is virtue. An untroubled mind delights in varied pleasures—wisdom, knowledge, and hymnody; but a mind troubled by passion is shattered in ignorance and wickedness, and comes to a fall that is incurable and great. God is our friend and the friend of our forefathers, and of those who come after us; for he himself said, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns.” Here Christ is our brother according to grace; but to enter your brother’s house without the commandments he has given us, in order to gain authority to enter his house—that is, to enter the kingdom of heaven—do not attempt it unhappily regarding these things; for such was the one who entered the wedding feast without a wedding garment; having been bound hand and foot, he was cast out of the wedding. Our brother here is the choir of angels; for according to the nature of the angels, before the transgression and fall, the devil was of the angels and of us; but God is our friend; and it is better to dwell with our true and genuine God, who is near and most closely present, than with one who has made himself far from himself a devil, as if submitting to a brother, in order to perish together with him. The one who joins with me through true knowledge is superior to the one who joins with me only through nature. The house of man is virtue; if therefore one does not attend to it with diligence, in the time of trials he falls from it. Here the fig tree is the righteousness of God, which those who plant it in themselves and in others, and who transmit it as a graft, shall eat its fruit by the hand of the Lord, the only just one, and shall contend for righteousness; and to those who guard his righteousness together with themselves, he appoints, assigning righteousness, the righteousness that also justifies angels, in the brilliant splendor of the unchanging righteousness; but whoever guards the word of the Lord, guards the Lord in his own heart as unchangeable from him; and he shall be honored not only from here on by

26Not only the angels, but also in the future time are under the Creator of the angels. For example, one does not drive away folly by dishonoring the fool, but by teaching him what disgrace folly brings upon itself; for indeed, confrontation directed at the person makes the sinner even more shameless. Of the words of God, some are written for the life of sons, others for the service of attendants. If one is courageous in impieties, then one is also courageous in virtues; and if the courageous person in impieties falsely accuses the poor, the courageous person in virtues encourages the poor. Therefore, everyone who comforts the poor in impieties, conspiring against them, slanders them before God—that is, opposes them with accusations—so that they may perish together with him. The lavish rain does not only destroy the fruits, but also lays waste the face of the earth, which bears the fruits; yet there is also a gentle rain, which makes the face of the earth healthy and nurtures and causes to grow the fruits within it. Thus, the lavish rain, by destroying the fruits, kills people, while the gentle rain, through the fruits, brings forth life. There is also a law that is lawless, and a law that is just. The lawless law destroys those who obey it; but the just law not only grants longevity of days, but also becomes a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven for those who submit to it, because it belongs to God. And everyone who loves God loves his law and keeps its precepts; and everyone who keeps the law attains divine possession and knowledge of God. But if those who love the law build walls for themselves, now the wall signifies insensibility and the knowledge of God.

These things alone by nature guard the rational nature. If wealth is the wickedness of the godless, and wise men shall destroy it, it is clear that the righteous and the wise destroy wickedness, through spiritual instruction leading the impure toward virtue. The law does not abhor anyone’s prayer, but the One who gave the law, God, regards the one who turns away his ear and causes the law not to hear as abhorrent. And Paul says: Foreseeing the future, Scripture instead says, “The One who gave Scripture foreknew the future.” The things sown in his heart by the evil one, if he does not declare them to the Lord God or to a God-loving person, will not prosper in the victory over the evil one; but the one who declares them shall be beloved by God and His angels. And James says: Confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed. And the Psalmist says: I will declare my iniquity before me to the Lord, and You forgave the wickedness of my heart. The revenues of the evil king are wickedness and false doctrines; for these things draw near to him those who are ruled by him. Moreover, those who obey the evil one falsely accuse God, because they are subject not to God but to His enemy, the devil. Since God hates the devil because of his evil works, He again, through His own works, exposes humanity to God. And the one who hates to wrong his own soul shall live the long time of the endless age. A man here, a murderer of the devil, he says:

He who becomes surety for injustice guarantees the presence of Satan. When one promises to Satan to deliver the fruits of iniquity—know that a lawless nation is the doctrine of demons, to which the educated son does not submit; by "son" he means the intellect. The one who suspends the mind from slipping into the wickedness of the evil nation, as if placing a savage collar upon it, prepares to receive an incorruptible world from the hand of the Lord as a private treasure for his soul. The one who cleanses himself from passions and labors to keep God’s commandments shall be filled with the bread of life—wisdom and divine knowledge. But the one who wastes leisure in neglecting God’s commandments shall be filled with poverty. Now the merciful, in the age to come, shall be shown mercy by God and become angels; they shall rule over the scoffers and the wealthy impious. Such a dignity the Lord also promised to give His disciples: to seat them on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. A throne is where the mind sits, full of spiritual knowledge, gathering those who have strayed from piety. To judge here means to teach. As also, "Open your mouth with God’s word, and judge all things soundly," means "teach." Moreover, know this: the merciful who overcomes the scoffer shall not himself become a scoffer, but will make the scoffer more merciful. If the impious cease to be impious, they shall become just; for the present destruction is the abolition of impiety.

27This signifies that, just as the Lord called Matthew away from the tax office, He bestowed righteousness upon him; for the righteous increase whenever the wicked abandon their wickedness and become righteous along with those who are fervent in devotion. The righteous also groan and grieve, seeing the wicked standing in the place of wickedness, unrepentant. Indeed, a man who rebukes in the Lord’s discipline and instruction is better than one who urges in a hard heart, promising to share enjoyment with him in the burning; for when he is suddenly ignited in the desire of the passions, death that comes upon all arrives upon his fellow workers, and there is no healing for their souls. He did not say that healing would not exist after the fire is quenched, but that there is no healing while it burns, because it clearly has as fuel the substances of the passions—wood, grass, stubble—since, if it is true that health naturally grows after the burner for those who are being burned, then the same applies here. When the righteous are praised by the Lord on the day of judgment, the peoples of their share will rejoice; but those who are under the rulers and authorities, and the world-governors of this world, will then certainly groan. Here he speaks of the Father as God; but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing those who are called after Christ, following Him in deed and word and wisdom, and imitating Him, rejoices over them. And the good shepherd is a mind that possesses dispassionate thoughts; but if this is so, then a rash thought is a passionate thought, and a sheep is a dispassionate thought; therefore, the Lord sets those who are like goats on His left.

The sheep are on the right hand; he calls those who possess irrational souls goats, and in the same way he names those who have the tares among them tares, and those who possess the wheat, wheat, calling them by the name of their possession from the skilled and practiced habit of the hand; such also is what is said by Paul: Love does not boast, that is to say, the one who has love. Christ raises up the rational nature through his commandments, but the lawless Antichrist stirs up the human race toward destruction. In all things, judging is said to be teaching; for indeed, the one who judges between two or more concerning one thing teaches what is just and how to abstain from injustice; likewise, concerning virtues and every good thing, judging is said to teach; but a man here judging nations, he says, is Peter, who has taught the whole world the faith in Christ and godliness; and Paul, and the other teachers who came after; but a base man, those who follow Theodotus and Judas and the Samosatene and those of like mind with them; moreover, concerning the base man, David says: And they shall laugh at him, and they shall say: Behold the man who did not make God his helper. Men of blood are the demons, who have slain those living in Christ by shedding blood; but the upright will seek out his soul; these are those who wish to do and to understand what they themselves have practiced and conceived. Truly, the foolish man has an unrestrained temper; but this one is tempered in part, that is, becoming angry at things that are burning with passion. And toward the simpler ones, this must be said:

To those who are earnest, the one who through patience gradually consumes anger, bit by bit. To those who keep the law, the Lord will be an interpreter in the kingdom; but to those who break the law, there will not be an interpreter, but rather a punisher will be present. For no one is by nature hard-hearted; this is shown by the fact that, even if one understands, they do not obey. For the one who is by nature hard-hearted would never think anything correct at any time. I say this because of Pharaoh, who was hardened against Israel, and who was not instructed by words but by scourges. If indulgence leads to sin, and everyone who sins is a slave to sin, then everyone who indulges is a slave to sin. And on the last day, they will not grieve little over themselves. The Lord humbles the proud, but gives glory to the humble. —He says that pride is wickedness; and pride, along with the hunger it brings, causes destruction through wickedness to those who practice it, on the day of judgment. But to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the glory they gave God in hymns and by keeping His commandments will glory them. For glory is doing God’s commandments, as the Lord Himself says: “Those who glorify Me, I will glorify.” And wickedness begets pride in the rational soul. A thief is none other than the devil; but the one who divides himself — keeping part of God’s commandments and doing part of what is evil — hates his own soul. For a little

28For just as the devil, having stolen the perfect man, offers him up in sacrifice, so too does the thief come only to steal, to sacrifice, and to destroy. For the thief says, "I do not come except to steal and to sacrifice and to destroy." — He spoke of the law as an oath: just as the oath places God in the soul, so the law brings God into the soul; and as perjury removes God from the soul, so lawlessness casts God out from it. Therefore, if, upon hearing the law established, we do not confess our sins before ourselves, being afraid and ashamed before men, we shall be brought to ruin. Thus David also says: "I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord concerning my iniquity, and You forgave the wickedness of my heart." And again: "Speak, you first, your sins, that you may be justified." And again Solomon says: "He who covers his wickedness shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes it shall find mercy." Those who fulfill the commandments serve the angels, for they are our guides, who received us from the beginning, when the Most High divided the nations and set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. And in ministering to our leaders, the angels, in the will of the Lord, in the judgment, there shall be right standing for us before the Lord on that day when He judges the inhabited earth in righteousness, if indeed the Father has given all judgment to the Son. Courage is the best habit of the rational soul, by which it has conquered and holds fast against its enemies. Having overcome the opposing power, we strip it, learning its words about it.

So that the evils associated with it may be made plain, those who are driven out by it— not only the simple-minded, but also those who have been made light-headed by indulgence— may easily flee from it. The soul trains itself upon wool and flax, exercising the discourses concerning both animate and inanimate things; or examining the discourses about practical and natural matters; or drawing the contemplation concerning bodies and incorporeal beings toward itself through practical habit. Or again, it finds the soul risen from night, watching, discovered by the Sun of righteousness, the Bridegroom; certainly, too, when it prays not to fall into temptation, saying, “I have kept watch and become like a solitary sparrow upon the housetop”; but food for the soul is the study of divine discourses, and its works are the virtues; its attendants are the senses. Thus, the soul more precious than costly stones provides these things to its bodily dwelling. It is said that the soul of the earnest one possesses the wood of knowledge and the wood of life of the Church— knowledge as law, life as word. For this soul is the one that came forth from Christ’s side, and having been found as His bride, she is the prudent and courageous woman who has kept this faith and again awaits this heavenly Bridegroom. A pure intellect is a noose, binding virtue to virtue and doctrine to doctrine; or it is a spoken word drawing spiritual contemplation from the intellect. Without such intellect, one cannot proceed nor come to be in contemplation of incorporeal things unless one has first set right what is within; for the disturbance of one’s own inner state tends to turn one back toward the things from which one came forth. But having acquired dispassion, one continues in contemplation through time,

And he will not worry about those in his house, for all who are with him are clothed: the one, anger, with gentleness and humility of mind; the other, desire, with self-control and continence. Hesitant grains—those things which make hesitation to obtain the kingdom—are eaten by the guileless and simple-minded soul that is well-knowing and God-loving; she does not eat them, nor does she even taste them, should she happen to desire them hastily; for she calls hesitant grains the evils. False pleasures and vain beauty: the most foolish soul not only conceives and imagines what is pleasing to itself, but also undertakes in action to fulfill the contemplation. But if the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, then the soul that happens to possess wisdom praises the fear of the Lord, which has become to her a foreigner in regard to such knowledge. For they know that she possesses the knowledge concerning practical matters—namely, the choice of virtue and the flight from vice—and that she has acquired as her possession those who are taught by her; therefore, they say, having taken hold of her, we handle these things thus. Otherwise, the possession of the righteous, wisdom and prudence, understanding and virtue—these possessions are seized by the impious, who persuade the righteous to do something of the things forbidden by God, so that the mind, blinded by sin, may fall away from these holy possessions. To the understanding righteous person, the burdensome things of affairs become easy; but to the one who is otherwise disposed, and who possesses ease and some manner of refreshment, the easy things become burdensome. For they possess a discourse that is knowledgeable in theorems, yet having nothing lofty.