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From the condemnation, therefore, of growing through seed like grass and of having life through blood according to the other animals, the Lord, who heals nature and leads it back to the ancient grace of incorruption, came to set it free, and to show it manifestly the good towards which it was made in the beginning but was in no way moved, and to trample the evil one towards whom, at the very moment of its coming into being, it was moved unnaturally through deceit and exhausted its whole power, and to bind to Himself the power of desire (of which the navel is a symbol), having received a fruitful disposition in the good that is firm and unchangeable, and to wash it in water, cleansing it, He says, from the defilements of ignorance with the sea of knowledge poured over it according to grace, and to salt it with salt, and to swaddle it with swaddling clothes, that is, having firmly strengthened by the Spirit the natural energy toward the good for which it was made, to render it pure from the corruption of the passions and unsusceptible to it, and by wrapping it with the true principles of existing things, as with swaddling clothes, to make it completely indispersible.

107. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION ON THE SAME THING

Another contemplation on the same thing. Perhaps, through what has been said, the teacher suggests that the principle according to the generation

of human nature is twofold, 14Ε_022 one of the soul, the other of the body, he conceptually divided the generation from bodies into two generations, showing the soul being constituted ineffably from the divine and life-giving inbreathing, and the body being formed from the underlying matter of the body from which it comes, at the same time as the soul, at conception. For it is not right to say that the principle and mode of generation is unalterably the same for both, because these two are not identical to one another in substance. For of things whose being is not identical to one another, clearly their principle and mode of generation in relation to each other is also different. But it is right to think that for the soul there is another principle and mode, according to which it comes to be and is, and the body remains unchangeably united to the soul.

108. A CONTEMPLATION ... AGAINST THOSE WHO SAY TO PRE-EXIST OR TO POST-EXIST ... THE

SOULS A brief contemplation against those who say that pre-exist or post-exist the

bodies, the souls. Even if at the same time in the existence of both, I mean of soul and of body, the same

is the time of generation, with neither pre-existing the other, as I said, in generation, nor post-existing, so that the species [formed] from 1324 both, as a whole, may not be dissolved, justly would the principle of relation, having the hypostasis of the one as a part existing older in itself, and having its union with another completely unrelated by nature, and for this reason never naturally completing the hypostasis of another by composition with another, without corruption and the alteration toward that which it was not. For that which pre-exists specifically in itself is not by nature brought into the hypostasis of another species. But if that which pre-exists accepts composition with another for the completion of a different species, 14Ε_024 it does this either entirely according to nature, or contrary to nature. And if according to nature, it will never be seen ceasing from composition with another for the fulfillment of a different species, because of the force of nature, being unable to depart from itself, and for this reason neither without a body is the

4

Τῆς οὖν τοῦ φύεσθαι διά τῆς σπορᾶς ἴσα χόρτῳ καί δι᾿ αἵματος κατά τά λοιπά ζῶα τήν ζωήν ἔχειν καταδίκης ὁ τήν φύσιν ἐξιώμενος καί πρός τήν ἀρχαίαν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας χάριν ἐπανάγων Κύριος, ἦλθεν αὐτήν ἐλευθερῶσαι, καί ἐμφανῶς μέν αὐτῇ δεῖξαι πρός ὅπερ γενομένη κατ᾿ ἀρχάς οὐδόλως ἐκινήθη καλόν, καί πατῆσαι τό πονηρόν πρός ὅπερ ἄμα τῷ γενέσθαι διά τῆς ἀπάτης τήν ὅλην αὐτῆς κινηθεῖσα παρά φύσιν κατεκένωσε δύναμιν, καί καταδῆσαι πρός ἑαυτόν τήν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας δύναμιν (ἧς ὑπάρχει ὁ ὀμφαλός σύμβολον), τήν ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ γόνιμον ἕξιν λαβοῦσαν παγίαν καί ἀμετάπτωτον, καί λοῦσαι ἐν ὕδατι, καθᾶραι λέγων τῶν μολυσμῶν τῆς ἁγνοίας τῷ πελάγει τῆς περιχυθείσης αὐτῇ κατά τήν χάριν γνώσεως, καί ἁλίσαι ἁλί, καί σπαργανῶσαι σπαργάνοις, τουτέστι τήν πρός ὅπερ γέγονεν ἀγαθόν φυσικήν ἐνέργειαν ἀπρίξ στερεώσας τῷ πνεύματι, σήψεως παθῶν καθαράν καταστῆσαι καί ἀνεπίδεκτον, καί τῇ περιβολῇ τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀληθῶν λόγων δίκην σπαργάνων περισφίγξας ἀδιάχυτον παντελῶς ἀπεργάσασθαι.

ΡΖ (107). ΑΛΛΗ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ

Ἄλλη εἰς τό αὐτό θεωρία. Τυχόν δέ διά τῶν εἰρημένων ὁ διδάσκαλος διττόν εἶναι τόν κατά τήν γένεσιν

τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως λόγον τε καί τρόπον 14Ε_022 εἰσηγούμενος, τόν μέν ψυχῆς, τόν δέ σώματος, τήν ἐκ σωμάτων γέννησιν εἰς δύο κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν διεῖλε γεννήσεις, τήν μέν ψυχήν ἐμφαίνων ἀῤῥήτως ἐκ τοῦ θείου καί ζωτικοῦ ἐμφυσήματος συνισταμένην, τό δέ σῶμα ἐκ τῆς ὑποκειμένης ὕλης τοῦ ἐξ οὗπέρ ἐστιν ἅμα τῇ ψυχῇ κατά τήν σύλληψιν γινόμενον σώματος. Οὐ γάρ τόν αὐτόν ἀπαραλλάκτως φάναι θέμις ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν τῆς γενέσεως εἶναι τόν λόγον καί τόν τρόπον, ὅτι μηδέ ταυτόν ἀλλήλοις κατά τήν οὐσίαν ἄμφω ταῦτα τυγχάνουσιν. Ὧν γάρ ἀλλήλοις μή ταὐτόν ἐστι τό εἶναι, τούτων δηλονότι καί ὁ πρός ἄλληλα τῆς γενέσεως παρήλλακται λόγος καί τρόπος. Ἀλλά ψυχῆς μέν ἄλλον εἶναι δίκαιον οἴεσθαι καί λόγον καί τρόπον, καθ᾿ ὅν γίνεταί τε καί ἔστι καί ἀμεταβόλως μένει σῶμα καί ψυχῇ συναπτόμενον.

ΡΗ (108). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ... ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΛΕΓΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΡΟΫΠΑΡΧΕΙΝ Ή ΜΕΘΥΠΑΡΧΕΙΝ ... ΤΑΣ

ΨΥΧΑΣ Θεωρία σύντομος πρός τούς λέγοντας προϋπάρχειν ἤ μεθυπάρχειν τῶν

σωμάτων τάς ψυχάς. Εἰ καί ἅμα κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν ἀμφοτέρων, ψυχῆς λέγω καί σώματος, ὁ αὐτός

ἐστι τῆς γενέσεως χρόνος, οὐδενός τοῦ ἑτέρου προϋπάρχοντος, ὡς ἔφην, κατά τήν γένεσιν ἤ μεθυπάρχοντος, ἵνα μή τοῦ ἐξ 1324 ἀμφοῖν εἴδους ὡς ὅλου λυθῇ, δικαίως ἄν ὁ τοῦ πρός τι λόγος πρεσβυτέραν ἔχων καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν οὖσαν τήν τοῦ ἑνός ὡς μέρους ὑπόστασιν, καί πρός ἄλλο κατά τήν φύσιν παντάπασιν ἄσχετον ἔχουσαν τήν ἕνωσιν, καί διά τοῦτο μηδέποτε τήν σύν ἄλλῳ κατά σύνθεσιν ἄλλου τινός φυσικῶς συμπληροῦσαν ὑπόστασιν χωρίς φθορᾶς καί τῆς πρός ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν ἀλλοιώσεως. Τό γάρ καθ' ἑαυτό ἰδικῶς προϋφισάμενον εἰς ἄλλου τινός εἴδους ὑπόστασιν οὐ πέφυκεν ἄγεσθαι. Εἰ δέ εἰς τήν ἑτέρου εἴδους συμπλήρωσιν τήν πρός ἄλλο δέχεται σύνθεσιν 14Ε_024 τό προϋφιστάμενον, ἤ κατά φύσιν τοῦτο ποιεῖ πάντως, ἤ παρά φύσιν. Καί εἰ μέν κατά φύσιν, οὐδέποτε τῆς πρός ἄλλο πρός ἐκπλήρωσιν εἴδους ἑτέρου συνθέσεως παυόμενον ὁραθήσεται, διά τήν βίαν τῆς φύσεως ἑαυτῆς ἐκστῆναι μή δυναμένης, καί τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ οὔτε σώματος χωρίς ἡ