9

The Gibeonites dealt craftily with the Israelites. The evil craftiness of Absalom, under the guise of gentleness, leading the subjects astray, and gathering a multitude of apostates for a plot against his father. And some are accused, as having also craftily devised a plot against the people of God.

Here, however, the Word approves of the craftiness that is undertaken for benefit, as it were a weapon for the affairs of life, and fortifying through itself the souls of the more simple. For if Eve had had this craftiness, she would not have been so easily captured by the deceits of the serpent. Therefore, the present teaching fortifies the guileless man, who because he believes every word is easily corrupted in his thoughts, offering him as an alliance for the affairs of life the benefit that comes from craftiness. Next is to examine how it gives to a young child perception and thought. Since man is twofold, as the Apostle says: the one being without, the other within, according to the one seen, and according to the one understood in secret, it is necessary for us to take the things of age similarly for both. Therefore, to say that a newborn child receives bodily perception is not far from the ridiculous. For which of the senses can the book bestow, when sight, and hearing, and smell, and taste, and touch are immediately born with us, and do not come from teaching, but from nature completing the living being through them? Therefore, one should understand neither "child" bodily, nor "perception" as one of those enumerated, but one must transfer the ages to the inner man. For we have been taught in many places of Scripture of a childish state of the soul; and another of maturity; and another of an elder. For example, as we have learned from Paul, those in Corinth were infants; wherefore they still needed milk, the introductory and simpler teaching of the Gospel, not yet being able to handle the solid food of doctrines. But a young man according to the soul is he who is equipped in all parts of virtue 31.413 towards perfection, who is fervent in spirit, who is vigorous for the acts of piety, and flourishes with all the energy of good works; whom the Gospel also calls violent, able to seize the kingdom of heaven; whom also the Holy Spirit receives into the hymns, as fitting: For let young men, it says, and maidens praise the name of the Lord. And in Joel the young men have promises that they will see visions. But an elder according to the soul is one perfected in prudence; such was Daniel, revealing in a young body the gravity from understanding more venerable than any gray hair. Wherefore those full of wicked days say to him: Come, sit in our midst, and declare to us, for God has given you the eldership.

Therefore, here also it calls a young child one who has been born again through the washing of regeneration, and nurtured, and become as a child, and through such a state is fit for the kingdom of heaven. To such a newborn babe, then, who has longed for the rational and pure milk, the book of Proverbs gives, to one exercised by it, perception and thought; perception of present things, and thought of future things. For it teaches human affairs, and makes them perceptive of things, so as neither to be enslaved to unseemly pleasures, nor to be agitated about the vain glories of this world. And it also produces a thought of the age to come, and through what it says brings one to the faith of the things promised. And since we have transferred the differences of ages to the inner man, it is consistent also to transfer the names of the senses to the powers of the soul. So that when it says, Incline your ear to my words, we should know that it seeks the ready hearing of the soul, as the Lord says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear; and, A wise word into the ear

9

κατεπανουργεύσαντο τοὺς Ἰσραηλίτας οἱ Γαβαωνῖται. Πονηρὰ πανουργία τοῦ Ἀβεσσαλὼμ ἐν σχήματι ἐπιεικείας ὑπαγομένου τοὺς ὑπηκόους, καὶ πλῆθος ἀποστατῶν συναθροίσαντος εἰς ἐπιβουλὴν τοῦ πατρός. Ἐγκαλοῦνται δέ τινες, ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταπανουργευσάμενοι γνώμην.

Ἐνταῦθα μέντοι τὴν ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ παραλαμβανομένην πανουργίαν ὁ λόγος ἐγκρίνει, οἱονεὶ ὅπλον οὖσαν πρὸς τὰ τοῦ βίου πράγματα, καὶ ὀχυροῦσαν δι' ἑαυτῆς τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἁπλουστέρων. Εἰ γὰρ εἶχε τὴν πανουργίαν ταύτην ἡ Εὔα, οὐκ ἂν εὐάλωτος ἐγεγόνει ταῖς ἀπάταις τοῦ ὄφεως. Τὸν οὖν ἄκακον, τὸν διὰ τὸ πιστεύειν παντὶ λόγῳ εὔκολον εἰς τὸ φθαρῆναι τὰ νοήματα, ὀχυροῖ ἡ προκειμένη δι- δασκαλία, οἷον συμμαχίαν αὐτῷ πρὸς τὰ τοῦ βίου πράγματα τὴν ἐκ τῆς πανουργίας ὠφέλειαν παρεχομένη. Ἑξῆς ἐστιν ἐπισκέψασθαι, πῶς παιδὶ νέῳ δίδωσιν αἴσθησιν καὶ ἔννοιαν. Ἐπειδὴ διπλοῦς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὥς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος· ὁ μέν τις ἔξωθεν ὢν, ὁ δὲ ἔνδοθεν, κατά τε τὸν ὁρώμενον, καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ νοούμενον, ἀνάγκη ἡμᾶς καὶ τὰ τῆς ἡλικίας ἐφ' ἑκατέρων παραπλησίως λαμβάνειν. Τὸ μὲν οὖν λέγειν τὸν ἀρτιγενῆ παῖδα αἴσθησιν λαμβάνειν σωματικὴν οὐ πόῤῥω ἐστὶ τοῦ γελοίου. Ποίαν γὰρ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἡ βίβλος χαρίσασθαι δύναται, καὶ ὄψεως, καὶ ἀκοῆς, καὶ ὀσφρήσεως, καὶ γεύσεως, καὶ ἁφῆς εὐθὺς συναπογεννωμένων ἡμῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἐκ διδασκαλίας προσγινομένων, ἀλλὰ τῆς φύσεως διὰ τούτων ἀπαρτιζούσης τὸ ζῶον; Οὔτε οὖν παῖδα σωματικῶς νοητέον, οὔτε αἴσθησιν μίαν τούτων τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον τὰς ἡλικίας μεταληπτέον. Ἐδιδάχθημεν γὰρ πολλαχοῦ τῆς Γραφῆς καὶ παιδικὴν κατάστασιν τῆς ψυχῆς· καὶ ἄλλην ἀκμαστικήν· καὶ ἄλλην ἤδη πρεσβύτου. Οἷον, ὡς παρὰ Παύλου μεμαθήκαμεν, οἱ ἐν Κορίνθῳ νήπιοι ἦσαν· διόπερ καὶ γάλακτος ἔτι ἐδέοντο, τῆς εἰσαγωγικῆς καὶ ἁπλουστέρας τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλίας, μήπω δυνάμενοι περικρατεῖν στερεᾶς τροφῆς τῆς ἐν δόγμασι. Νεανίσκος δὲ κατὰ ψυχήν ἐστιν ὁ πᾶσι τοῖς μέρεσι τῆς ἀρετῆς κατηρτισμένος 31.413 πρὸς τὸ τέλειον, ὁ τῷ πνεύματι ζέων, ὁ σφριγῶν πρὸς τὰς πράξεις τῆς εὐσεβείας, καὶ ἀκμάζων πρὸς πᾶσαν εὐτονίαν ἀγαθῶν ἔργων· ὃν καὶ βιαστὴν τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον λέγει, δυνάμενον διαρπάσαι τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν· ὃν καὶ εἰς τοὺς ὕμνους, ὡς ἐπιτήδειον, τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα παραλαμβάνει· Νεανίσκοι γὰρ, φησὶ, καὶ παρθένοι αἰνεσάτωσαν τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου. Καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰωὴλ ἐπαγγελίας ἔχουσι οἱ νεανίσκοι ὁράσεις ὄψεσθαι. Πρεσβύτερος δὲ κατὰ ψυχὴν ὁ τετελειωμένος κατὰ τὴν φρόνησιν· ὁποῖος ἦν ∆ανιὴλ, ἐν νεαρῷ τῷ σώματι τὸ ἐκ τῆς συνέσεως σεμνὸν πολιᾶς πάσης αἰδεσιμώτερον ὑποφαίνων. ∆ιό φασι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνοι οἱ πλήρεις ἡμερῶν πονηρῶν· ∆εῦρο, κάθισον ἐν μέσῳ ἡμῶν, καὶ ἀπάγγειλον ἡμῖν, ὅτι σοι ἔδωκεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ πρεσβυτέριον.

Οὐκοῦν καὶ ἐνταῦθα παῖδα νέον φησὶ τὸν διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ τῆς παλιγγενεσίας ἀναγεννηθέντα, καὶ τραφέντα, καὶ γενόμενον ὡς παιδίον, καὶ διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης καταστάσεως εὔθετον ὄντα τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. Τῷ δὴ οὕτως ἀρτιγενεῖ βρέφει, τὸ λογικὸν καὶ ἄδολον γάλα ἐπιποθήσαντι, δίδωσιν ἡ βίβλος τῶν Παροιμιῶν δι' αὐτῆς γεγυμνασμένῳ αἴσθησιν καὶ ἔννοιαν· αἴσθησιν μὲν τῶν παρόντων, ἔννοιαν δὲ τῶν μελλόντων. Παιδεύει μὲν γὰρ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, καὶ αἰσθητικοὺς ποιεῖ τῶν πραγμάτων, ὡς μήτε ἀτόποις ἡδοναῖς δουλεύειν. μήτε περὶ τὰς ματαίας τοῦ κόσμου τούτου δόξας διεπτοῆσθαι. Ἐμποιεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος ἔννοιαν, καὶ προσβιβάζει δι' ὧν λέγει τῇ πίστει τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰς τῶν ἡλικιῶν διαφορὰς ἐπὶ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον μετελάβομεν, ἀκόλουθόν ἐστι καὶ τὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ὀνόματα ἐπὶ τὰς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς μεταφέρειν. Ὥστε ὅταν λέγῃ, ὅτι Ἐμοῖς λόγοις παράβαλε σὸν οὖς, εἰδέναι ἡμᾶς χρὴ, ὅτι τὸ εὐήκοον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπιζητεῖ, ὡς ὁ Κύριος· Ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν, ἀκουέτω· καὶ τὸ, Λόγος σοφὸς εἰς οὖς