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Not that he himself created evil in the life of men, but that man, through thoughtlessness, used the good things given by God for the service of evil. But it is customary for holy scripture to express such thoughts in such words, as "God gave them up to dishonorable passions," and "He gave them up to a debased mind," and "He hardened the heart of Pharaoh," and "Why, Lord, have you made us wander from your way, have you hardened our hearts so that we do not fear you," and "He made them wander in a trackless and pathless place," and "You have deceived me and I was deceived," and whatever is of a similar nature to these, in which cases the precise meaning does not establish that any of these evils arose in human nature from God, but it accuses the power of choice, which is indeed good 5.303 and a gift of God given to our nature, but has become for us through thoughtlessness a power for inclination toward the opposite. Therefore the Preacher saw "All the things that are done" in the life under the sun, that "all was vanity." For there was none who understands, there was none who seeks God, since all turned aside and together they became worthless. For this reason, after saying that "And behold, all is vanity" he added the reason that not God is the cause of these things but the choice of human impulse, which he called spirit. And he accuses this spirit, not because it was such from the beginning; for it would be beyond accusation if it had been created so; but because having been perverted it was disjoined from the world. For what is crooked, he says, cannot be made straight, that is, that which is perverse could not become fitting for the creation adorned by God. For just as the craftsman who crafts something for himself according to a plan straightens with a ruler and line the parts that complete the construction of the vessel through their technical placement relative to each other; but if one of these is not straightened according to 5.304 the line, the straight harmony in no way accepts the crookedness, but it is necessary for that part also to be subjected to the line and to be made straight, if it is to be fitted to what is straight; so says the Preacher, that the nature perverted by evil cannot come to be in the creation adorned by the right reason. And what is lacking, he says, cannot be numbered. The scriptural custom teaches us to understand that to lack is to be wanting, and this can be confirmed from many examples. For Paul, who has learned the secret in everything and in all things, knows both how to be in need and how to abound; and he who spent his father's substance through profligacy, when a famine took hold began to be in need; and concerning the saints, Paul, in his account, says other things about them, in which they suffered hardship in the body, and adds this, that they were "Destitute and afflicted." Therefore here too the word, by saying "what is lacking," indicated by the term what is wanting; but what is wanting cannot become numbered with those that are. For the disciples too, as long as they were all in their own fullness, were twelve in number, but when the son of perdition perished, the number was cut short by the one who was wanting not being numbered with those that are; for after Judas they both were and were called eleven. Therefore "what is lacking," he says, cannot be numbered. What does this mean through the word? That once our part too 5.305 was numbered with the whole; for we too contributed to the sacred hundredfold of rational sheep. But since the one sheep, our nature, was led astray from the flock of the heavenly way of life, having been dragged down through evil to this salty and parched place, no longer is the same number mentioned for the flock of the unerring, but ninety-nine are named; for what is vain is outside the number of those that exist, because "what is lacking cannot be numbered." Therefore he came to seek and to save that which was lost and, taking it upon his shoulders, to restore to those that exist that which was being lost in the vanity of things that do not exist, so that the number of God's creation may again become complete, the lost one having been restored to those who are not lost. What then is the return of the one who has strayed and what is the manner of the departure from evil to good, we are taught in what follows. For the one who has experienced

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οὐχ ὅτι αὐτὸς τὸ κακὸν τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωῇ ἐνεποίησεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τοῖς παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ δοθεῖσιν ἀγαθοῖς ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὑπὸ ἀβουλίας εἰς κακῶν ὑπηρεσίαν ἐχρήσατο. σύνηθες δέ ἐστι τῇ ἁγίᾳ γραφῇ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν νοημάτων ταῖς τοιαύταις ἐξαγγέλλειν φωναῖς, ὡς τὸ Παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας καὶ Ἔδωκεν αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν καὶ Ἐσκλήρυνε τὴν καρδίαν Φαραὼ καὶ τὸ Τί ἐπλάνησας ἡμᾶς, κύριε, ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ σου, ἐσκλήρυνας ἡμῶν τὰς καρδίας τοῦ μὴ φοβεῖσθαί σε, καὶ Ἐπλάνησεν αὐτοὺς ἐν ἀβάτῳ καὶ οὐχ ὁδῷ, καὶ Ἠπάτησάς με καὶ ἠπατήθην, καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ἐστὶν ὁμοιότροπα, ἐφ' ὧν ἡ ἀκριβὴς διάνοια οὐ τὸ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τι τῶν ἀτόπων ἐγγενέσθαι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει συνίστησιν, ἀλλὰ κατηγορεῖ τῆς ἐξουσίας, ἣ ἀγαθὸν 5.303 μέν ἐστι καὶ θεοῦ δῶρον δεδομένον τῇ φύσει, γέγονε δὲ διὰ τῆς ἀβουλίας ἡμῖν δύναμις τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον ῥοπῆς. εἶδεν οὖν ὁ ἐκκλησιαστὴς Σύμπαντα τὰ πεποιημένα ἐν τῷ ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον βίῳ, ὅτι πάντα ἦν ματαιότης. οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ὁ συνιῶν, οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν θεόν, ἐπειδὴ πάντες ἐξέκλιναν καὶ ἅμα ἠχρειώθησαν. διὰ τοῦτο εἰπὼν ὅτι Καὶ ἰδοὺ τὰ πάντα ματαιότης τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπήγαγεν ὅτι οὐχ ὁ θεὸς τούτων αἴτιος ἀλλ' ἡ προαίρεσις τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ὁρμῆς, ἣν πνεῦμα ὠνόμασεν. κατηγορεῖ δὲ τούτου τοῦ πνεύματος, οὐχ ὅτι τοιοῦτον ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἦν· ἦ γὰρ ἂν ἔξω κατηγορίας ἦν εἰ τοιοῦτον ἐγένετο· ἀλλ' ὅτι διαστραφὲν ἐξηρμόσθη τοῦ κόσμου. ∆ιεστραμμένον γάρ, φησίν, οὐ δυνήσεται ἐπικοσμηθῆναι, τουτέστιν οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τῇ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ διακοσμηθείσῃ κτίσει οἰκεῖον τὸ ἐνδιάστροφον. ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ τεχνίτης ὁ κατὰ πρόθεσίν τι ἑαυτῷ τεκταινόμενος κανόνι καὶ σπάρτῳ διευθύνει τὰ μέρη τὰ τὴν ἐργασίαν τοῦ σκεύους διὰ τῆς τεχνικῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα θέσεως συμπεραίνοντα· εἰ δέ τι τούτων μὴ κατὰ 5.304 τὴν σπάρτον διευθυνθείη, οὐ παραδέχεται πάντως τὴν διαστροφὴν ἡ εὐθὴς ἁρμονία, ἀλλὰ χρὴ κἀκεῖνο ὑπαχθῆναι τῇ σπάρτῳ καὶ εὐθὺ γενέσθαι, εἰ μέλλοι τῷ εὐθεῖ συναρμόζε σθαι· οὕτω φησὶν ὁ ἐκκλησιαστής, ὅτι ἡ παρὰ τῆς κακίας διαστραφεῖσα φύσις τῇ κεκοσμημένῃ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀρθοῦ λόγου κτίσει ἐγγενέσθαι οὐ δύναται. Καὶ ὑστέρημα, φησίν, οὐ δυνήσεται ἀριθμηθῆναι. ὑστερεῖσθαι τὸ λείπεσθαι ἡ γραφικὴ συνήθεια νοεῖν διδάσκει, καὶ τοῦτο ἐκ πολλῶν ἔστι πιστώσασθαι. ὁ γὰρ Ἐν παντὶ καὶ ἐν πᾶσι μεμυημένος Παῦλος οἶδε καὶ ὑστερεῖσθαι καὶ περισσεύειν· καὶ ὁ διὰ τῆς ἀσωτίας τὴν πατρικὴν ἐκδαπανήσας οὐσίαν λιμοῦ κατασχόντος ἤρξατο ὑστερεῖσθαι· καὶ περὶ τῶν ἁγίων ὁ Παῦλος διεξιὼν τά τε ἄλλα φησὶ περὶ αὐτῶν, ἐν οἷς ἐκακοπά θουν τῷ σώματι, καὶ τοῦτο προστίθησιν, ὅτι Ὑστερούμενοι καὶ θλιβόμενοι. οὐκοῦν καὶ ἐνταῦθα Ὑστέρημα ὁ λόγος εἰπὼν τὸ λεῖπον διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ἐνεδείξατο· τὸ δὲ λεῖπον ἐναρίθμιον τοῖς οὖσι γενέσθαι οὐ δύναται. καὶ γὰρ οἱ μαθηταί, ἕως μὲν πάντες ἦσαν ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ πληρώματι, δυοκαίδεκα ἦσαν τὸν ἀριθμόν, ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπώλετο ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας, ἐκολοβώ θη ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῷ μὴ συναριθμεῖσθαι τοῖς οὖσι τὸν λείποντα· ἕνδεκα γὰρ μετὰ τὸν Ἰούδαν καὶ ἦσαν καὶ ὠνομάζοντο. τὸ οὖν Ὑστέρημα, φησίν, οὐ δυνήσεται τοῦ ἀριθμηθῆναι. τί τοῦτο σημαίνει διὰ τοῦ λόγου; ὅτι ἦν ποτε καὶ τὸ καθ' 5.305 ἡμᾶς τῷ παντὶ ἐναρίθμιον· συνετελοῦμεν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς τὴν ἱερὰν τῶν λογικῶν προβάτων ἑκατοντάδα. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπεβουκολήθη τῆς οὐρανίου διαγωγῆς τὸ ἓν πρόβατον ἡ ἡμετέρα φύσις διὰ κακίας πρὸς τὸν ἁλμυρὸν τοῦτον καὶ αὐχμῶντα τόπον κατασπασθεῖσα, οὐκέτι ὁ αὐτὸς ἀριθμὸς ἐπὶ τοῦ ποιμνίου τῶν ἀπλανῶν μνημονεύεται, ἀλλ' ἐνε νήκοντα καὶ ἐννέα κατονομάζονται· τὸ γὰρ μάταιον ἔξω τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν ὑφεστώτων γίνεται, διότι Ὑστέρημα οὐ δυνήσεται τοῦ ἀριθμηθῆναι. ἦλθεν οὖν ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλὸς καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων λαβὼν ἀποκαταστῆσαι τοῖς οὖσι τὸ τῇ ματαιότητι τῶν ἀνυπάρκτων ἐναπολλύμενον, ἵνα πάλιν ἄρτιος γένηται ὁ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ θεοῦ ἀριθμός, ἀποσωθέντος τοῦ ἀπολωλότος τοῖς μὴ ἀπολλυμένοις. Τίς οὖν ἡ τοῦ πλανηθέντος ἐπάνοδος καὶ τίς ὁ τρόπος τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν κακῶν πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀναλύσεως, ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς διδασκόμεθα. ὁ γὰρ πεπειραμένος