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stained with every sin, bearing in myself the very turbulent surge of my thoughts, and having neither mind nor intellect purified, so as to become a mirror of God and of the divine manifestations, nor having speech able to suffice for the things understood, shall I speak the divine and ineffable things, that surpass the comprehension of every rational nature? Considering these things, I was hesitant to speak, and I feared the command—for the truth will be told—lest I should incur a double ridicule, for my ignorance and at the same time for my folly; which is the most grievous thing. For the charge of ignorance is pardonable, if it does not proceed from sloth. But to possess, along with ignorance, the conceit of knowledge, is grievous and reprehensible and unworthy of all pardon and a greater one, not to say a proof of the utmost ignorance. But since the fruit of disobedience is death, while the humble and obedient one, becoming a disciple of Christ, is led up to the heights and receives from God illuminating grace and opening his mouth is filled with the spirit and is purified in heart and illumined in intellect and receives utterance in the opening of his mouth, not being anxious what he shall say, but becoming an instrument of the spirit speaking in him, obeying through you Christ who rules as hierarch in you, I submit to the command and I open my mouth, trusting in your prayers, that it will be filled with spirit, and I shall speak oracles that are not the fruit of my own intellect but the fruit of the spirit that enlightens the blind, receiving and uttering whatever it will give. And first I will set forth the best things from the wise among the Greeks, knowing that if anything is good, it has been bestowed from above by God upon men, since 'every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.' But if anything is opposed to the truth, it is a 'dark invention' of satanic error and a 'fiction of an evil mind,' as Gregory, great in theology, says. Therefore, imitating the way of the bee, I will compose with what is proper to the truth and will gather salvation even from enemies, but I will reject everything that is base and connected with falsely named knowledge. Then, following these things, I will set in order the nonsensical talk of the God-hated heresies, so that by recognizing falsehood we may adhere more to the truth. Then, the destroyer of error and the driver-out of falsehood, the truth, beautified and adorned as with golden tassels by the words of the divinely inspired prophets and divinely taught fishermen and God-bearing pastors and teachers, with God and by His grace I will set forth, whose glory, flashing forth from within, illumines with its splendors those who approach it with the requisite purification and the putting away of turbulent thoughts. I will say, as I said, nothing of my own, but having collected into one the things labored upon by the chosen teachers, as much as I am able, I will make my discourse concise, yielding in all things to your command. But be forgiving to me, O God-honored ones, I entreat you, for having obeyed your commands, and receiving my obedience, give me in return the provision of your prayers. 1 Concerning knowledge. Nothing is more honorable than knowledge; for if knowledge is the light of the rational soul, conversely ignorance is darkness. For just as the deprivation of light is darkness, so also the deprivation of knowledge is darkness of the reason; for ignorance is characteristic of irrational beings, but knowledge of rational ones. Therefore, he who lacks knowledge, being by nature cognitive and capable of science, this one, being rational by nature, is through a neglectful and slothful soul worse than the irrational; and I mean knowledge to be the true knowledge of things that are. But if knowledge is of things that are, false knowledge, being a knowledge of what is not, is ignorance rather than knowledge; for falsehood is nothing other than what is not. Since, therefore, we do not live with the soul naked, but our soul is covered as if by the veil of the flesh, it possesses a seeing and cognitive mind, like an eye, receptive of the knowledge and science of things that are, but it does not have this knowledge and science from itself, but has need of the

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πάσης ἁμαρτίας κατεστιγμένος, φέρων δὲ τῶν λογισμῶν ἐν ἐμαυτῷ τὸν πολυτάραχον κλύδωνα, καὶ μήτε νοῦν καὶ διάνοιαν κεκαθαρμένος, ὡς ἔσοπτρον θεοῦ καὶ τῶν θείων χρηματίσαι ἐμφάσεων, μήτε λόγον ἔχων ἐπαρκέσαι τοῖς νοηθεῖσι δυνάμενον, τὰ θεῖα καὶ ἄῤῥητα φθέγξομαι, τὰ πάσης λογικῆς φύσεως ὑπερβαίνοντα τὴν κατάληψιν; Ταῦτα δὴ λογιζόμενος ὤκνουν τὸν λόγον, ἐδεδίειν τε τὸ ἐπίταγμα, εἰρήσεται γὰρ τἀληθές, μήποτε διπλοῦν ὀφλήσω τὸν γέλωτα, τῆς ἀμαθίας ἅμα καὶ τῆς ἀνοίας· τὸ δὴ χαλεπώ τατον. Σύγγνωστον μὲν γὰρ τῆς ἀμαθίας τὸ ἔγκλημα, εἰ μὴ ἐκ ῥαθυμίας προέρχοιτο. Τὸ δὲ σὺν τῇ ἀμαθίᾳ κεκτῆσθαι τὴν τῆς γνώσεως οἴησιν, χαλεπὸν καὶ ἐπίμωμον καὶ συγγνώμης ἁπάσης ἀνάξιον καὶ μείζονος, ἵνα μὴ λέγω τῆς ἄκρας ἀμαθίας τεκμήριον. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῆς παρακοῆς ὁ καρπὸς θάνατος, ὁ δὲ ταπεινὸς καὶ ὑπήκοος Χριστοῦ μαθητὴς καθιστάμενος πρὸς ὕψος ἀνάγεται καὶ χάριν παρὰ θεοῦ τὴν φωταγωγὸν κομίζεται καὶ ἀνοίγων τὸ στόμα πληροῦται τοῦ πνεύματος καὶ καρδίαν καθαίρεται διάνοιάν τε φωτίζεται καὶ λαμβάνει λόγον ἐν ἀνοίξει τοῦ στόματος, οὐ μεριμνῶν τί λαλήσει, ὄργανον δὲ χρηματίζων ἐν αὐτῷ λαλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος, δι' ὑμῶν τῷ ἐν ὑμῖν ἱεραρχοῦντι Χριστῷ πειθόμενος ὑποκύπτω τῷ ἐπιτάγματι καὶ ἀνοίγω τὸ στόμα θαῤῥῶν ταῖς ὑμετέραις εὐχαῖς, ὡς πληρωθήσεται πνεύματος, καὶ λαλήσω λόγια οὐ τῆς διανοίας καρπὸν τῆς ἐμῆς ἀλλὰ καρπὸν τοῦ τοὺς τυφλοὺς φωτίζοντος πνεύματος, ὅσα δώσει, λαμβάνων καὶ ταῦτα φθεγγόμενος. Καὶ πρότερον μὲν τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι σοφῶν τὰ κάλλιστα παραθήσομαι εἰδώς, ὡς, εἴ τι μὲν ἀγαθόν, ἄνωθεν παρὰ θεοῦ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δεδώρηται, ἐπειδὴ «πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστι καταβαῖνον παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων». Εἴ τι δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀντίπαλον, τῆς σατανικῆς πλάνης «εὕρημα σκοτεινὸν καὶ διανοίας ἀνάπλασμα κακοδαίμονος», ὡς ὁ πολὺς ἐν θεολογίᾳ Γρηγόριος. Τὸν τῆς μελίσσης οὖν τρόπον μιμούμενος τοῖς οἰκείοις τῆς ἀληθείας συνθήσομαι καὶ παρ' ἐχθρῶν σωτηρίαν καρπώσομαι, ἀποπέμψομαι δὲ πᾶν, ὅ τι φαῦλον καὶ τῆς ψευδωνύμου ἐχόμενον γνώσεως. Εἶτα τούτων ἐχόμενα τῶν θεοστυγῶν αἱρέσεων συντάξω τὰ φληναφήματα, ὡς ἂν τὸ ψεῦδος ἐπιγινώσκοντες πλέον τῆς ἀληθείας ἑξώμεθα. Εἶτα τὴν τῆς πλάνης ὀλέτειραν καὶ τοῦ ψεύδους ἐλάτειραν, ὥσπερ κροσσωτοῖς χρυσοῖς τοῖς τῶν θεοπνεύστων προφητῶν καὶ θεοδιδάκτων ἁλιέων καὶ θεοφόρων ποιμένων τε καὶ διδασκάλων λόγοις κεκαλλωπισμένην καὶ περικεκοσμημένην ἀλήθειαν σὺν θεῷ καὶ τῇ αὐτοῦ ἐκθήσομαι χάριτι, ἧς ἡ δόξα ἔσωθεν ἀπαστράπτουσα τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας μετὰ τῆς δεούσης καθάρσεως καὶ τῶν ταραχωδῶν λογισμῶν ἀποθέσεως φωτίζει τοῖς ἀμαρύγμασιν. Ἐρῶ δὲ ἐμὸν μέν, ὡς ἔφην, οὐδέν, τὰ δὲ τοῖς ἐγκρίτοις τῶν διδασκάλων πεπονημένα εἰς ἓν συλλεξάμενος, ὅση δύναμις, συντετμημένον τὸν λόγον ποιήσομαι κατὰ πάντα ὑπείκων τῷ ὑμετέρῳ προστάγματι. Ἀλλά μοι συγγνώμονες γένοισθε, θεοτίμητοι, παρακαλῶ, ταῖς ὑμετέραις ἐντολαῖς πειθαρχήσαντι καὶ λαμβάνοντες τὸ ὑπήκοον τὴν τῶν εὐχῶν χορηγίαν ἀντίδοτε. 1 Περὶ γνώσεως. Οὐδὲν τῆς γνώσεώς ἐστι τιμιώτερον· εἰ γὰρ ἡ γνῶσις φῶς ἐστι ψυχῆς λογικῆς, τοὔμπαλιν ἡ ἄγνοια σκότος. Ὡς γὰρ ἡ τοῦ φωτὸς στέρησις σκότος ἐστίν, οὕτω καὶ ἡ τῆς γνώσεως στέρησις λογισμοῦ σκότος ἐστίν· ἀλόγων μὲν γὰρ ἡ ἄγνοια ἴδιον, λογικῶν δὲ ἡ γνῶσις. Ὧι τοίνυν μὴ πάρεστι γνῶσις, γνωστικῷ κατὰ φύσιν ὄντι καὶ ἐπιστημονικῷ, οὗτος κατὰ φύσιν ὢν λογικὸς ἐξ ἀμελοῦς καὶ ῥαθύμου ψυχῆς ἀλόγων ἐστὶ χείρων· γνῶσιν δέ φημι τὴν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν. Εἰ δὲ τῶν ὄντων αἱ γνώσεις, ἡ ψευδὴς γνῶσις ὡς τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὖσα γνῶσις ἄγνοια μᾶλλον ἤπερ γνῶσίς ἐστι· τὸ γὰρ ψεῦδος ἕτερον οὐδὲν ἢ τὸ μὴ ὂν καθέστηκεν. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν οὐ γυμνῇ τῇ ψυχῇ ζῶμεν, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ὑπὸ παραπετάσματι τῷ σαρκίῳ καλυπτομένη ἡμῶν ἡ ψυχή, νοῦν μὲν ὁρῶντα καὶ γνωστικὸν οἷον ὀφθαλμὸν κέκτηται καὶ δεκτικὸν τῆς τῶν ὄντων γνώσεως καὶ ἐπιστήμης, οὐκ οἴκοθεν δὲ τὴν γνῶσιν καὶ τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἔχει, ἀλλὰ δεῖται τοῦ