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an equal interval being measured against each other, the return of human nature from death to life becomes for us the subject of this great and universal feast, which all human life celebrates at the same time, of those who have received the mystery of the resurrection. What is the subject of my letter? Since it is customary in these public sacred festivals for us to display through all things the disposition lying within our souls, and some, by giving their own gifts, signify their joy, we thought it well not to pass you by unhonored with our gifts, but to greet your soul, both lofty and magnanimous, with poor tokens of hospitality from our poverty. But our token of hospitality brought to you through this letter is the letter itself, in which there is no discourse adorned with fine-sounding and well-composed words, such that the letter might on this account be considered a gift by lovers of words, but the mystical gold, which is wrapped in the faith of Christians as in a kind of bundle, might become a gift to you, when unfolded as far as possible through these letters and showing forth its hidden splendor.

4.4 Therefore we must recall the introduction. Why is it that when the night has advanced to its highest point, when the nocturnal increase no longer admits addition, then he who has grasped all things and holds the universe in his own power appears to us in the flesh, he who is not contained even by all existing things, but contains all things and takes up his abode in the smallest, thus does the great power go forth with the good will and in equal measure, wherever the will inclines, there it shows itself, so that neither in the creation of beings was power found to be weaker than the will, nor, having been moved to condescend to the lowliness of our nature for the benefit of mankind, was it unable to do this very thing, but both to be in this and not to leave the universe ungoverned? 4.5 Since, therefore, there is surely some reason for both seasons, how at that time he appears in the flesh, but at the equinox he restores to life again the man who was dissolved into earth through sin, having presented these things in my discourse as briefly as I am able, I shall make the letter a gift. 4.6 Or surely you have already grasped with your quick-wittedness the mystery suspected in these things, that the advance of the night is checked by the addition of light, and the darkness begins to be contracted as the length of the day increases with its additions. For this would perhaps be clear even to the many, that darkness is akin to sin, and so evil is named by Scripture. 4.7 Therefore the season in which the mystery [of us] begins is a kind of interpretation of the economy for our souls; for since wickedness had already poured forth to infinity, it was necessary for the day that shines for us through the virtues to be revealed by him who puts such a light in our souls, so that the life of light might be extended as long as possible, increasing with good additions, but the life in wickedness might be contracted to the smallest by gradual subtraction; for the increase of good things 4.8 becomes the decrease of evil. But the equinox, having received the feast of the resurrection, interprets this through itself, that there will no longer be an opposing order set against it, with wickedness contending on equal terms with the good, but the life of light will prevail, as the gloom of idolatry is consumed in the superabundance of the day. 4.9 For which reason also the course of the moon on the fourteenth day shows it opposite to the rays of the sun, abounding with all the richness of splendor and contriving that no succession of darkness should occur in its part; for having succeeded the setting sun, it does not set itself, before it has mingled its own rays with the true rays of the sun, so that one light remains continuously, during the interval of the day

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ἴσον ἀλλήλαις ἀντιμετρεῖσθαι διάστημα, ἡ ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν ἐπάνοδος τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ὑπόθεσις ἡμῖν γίνεται τῆς μεγάλης ταύτης καὶ καθολικῆς ἑορτῆς, ἣν σύμπασα κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἑορτάζει ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωὴ τῶν τὸ μυστήριον ἀναδε 4.2 ξαμένων τῆς ἀναστάσεως. τί μοι βούλεται τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἡ ὑπόθεσις; ἐπειδὴ σύνηθές ἐστιν ἐν ταῖς πανδήμοις ταύς ἱερομηνίαις διὰ πάντων ἡμᾶς ἐπιδείκνυσθαι τὴν ἐγ κειμένην ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν διάθεσιν, καί πού τινες τοῖς ἰδίοις δώροις δωροφοροῦντες τὴν εὐφροσύνην ἐπισημαί νουσι, καλῶς ἔχειν ἐνομίσαμεν μὴ παραδραμεῖν σε τῶν ἡμετέρων δώρων ἀγέραστον, ἀλλά σου τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν ὑψηλήν τε καὶ μεγαλόφρονα τοῖς πενιχροῖς ξενίοις ἐκ τῆς πτωχείας 4.3 ἡμῶν δεξιώσασθαι. ξένιον δὲ ἡμέτερον τὸ διὰ τοῦ γράμμα τός σοι προσαγόμενον αὐτὸ τὸ γράμμα ἐστίν, ἐν ᾧ λόγος μέν τις περιηνθισμένος ταῖς καλλιφώνοις τε καὶ εὐσυνθέ τοις τῶν λέξεων ἔστιν οὐδείς, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο δῶρον τὴν ἐπιστολὴν τοῖς φιλολόγοις νομίζεσθαι, ἀλλ' ὁ μυστικὸς χρυσὸς ὁ τῇ πίστει τῶν Χριστιανῶν οἷόν τινι ἀποδέσμῳ ἐνειλημμένος γένοιτο ἄν σοι δῶρον, ἐξαπλωθεὶς ὡς οἷόν τε διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων καὶ τὴν κεκρυμμένην λαμπηδόνα προδείξας.

4.4 Οὐκοῦν ἐπανακλητέον ἡμῖν τὸ προοίμιον. τί δήποτε προελθούσης μὲν πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον τῆς νυκτός, ὅτε οὐκ έτι προσθήκην ἡ νυκτερινὴ ἐπαύξησις δέχεται, τότε ἡμῖν διὰ σαρκὸς ἐπιφαίνεται ὁ τοῦ παντὸς περιδεδραγμένος καὶ κρατῶν ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει τὸ πᾶν, ὁ μηδὲ ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν ὄντων χωρούμενος, ἀλλὰ τὸ πᾶν περιέχων καὶ τῷ βραχυτάτῳ εἰσοικιζόμενος, οὕτω τῆς μεγάλης δυνάμεως τῷ ἀγαθῷ θελήματι συνδιεξιούσης καὶ κατὰ τὸ ἴσον, ὅπου περ ἂν ῥέψῃ τὸ θέλημα, ἐκεῖ ἑαυτὴν δεικνυούσης, ὡς μήτε ἐν τῇ κτίσει τῶν ὄντων ἀτονωτέραν τῆς βουλήσεως εὑρε θῆναι τὴν δύναμιν, μήτε ὁρμήσαντα τῷ ταπεινῷ τῆς φύ σεως ἡμῶν ἐπ' εὐεργεσίᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων συγκαταβῆναι, πρὸς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἀδυνατῆσαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τούτῳ γενέσθαι 4.5 καὶ μὴ διαφεῖναι τὸ πᾶν ἀκυβέρνητον; ἐπεὶ οὖν πάντως τις λόγος ἐπ' ἀμφοτέρων ἐστὶ τῶν καιρῶν, πῶς τότε μὲν διὰ σαρκὸς ἐπιφαίνεται, τῇ δὲ ἰσημερίᾳ τὸν εἰς γῆν ἀνα λυθέντα διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἄνθρωπον τῇ ζωῇ πάλιν ἀπο καθίστησι, ταῦτα διὰ βραχέων ὡς ἂν οἷός τε ὦ παραστήσας τῷ λόγῳ, δῶρον τὸ γράμμα ποιήσομαι. 4.6 Ἦ πάντως προέλαβες ἀπὸ ἀγχινοίας τὸ ὑποπτευόμενον ἐν τούτοις μυστήριον, ὅτι ἐγκόπτεται τῆς νυκτὸς ἡ πρόοδος τῇ τοῦ φωτὸς προσθήκῃ καὶ συστέλλεσθαι τὸ σκότος ἄρ χεται αὐξομένου ταῖς προσθήκαις τοῦ ἡμερινοῦ διαστήματος. τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἴσως ἂν γένοιτο φανερόν, ὅτι συγγενῶς ἔχει πρὸς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τὸ σκότος, καὶ οὕτω τὸ 4.7 κακὸν παρὰ τῆς γραφῆς ὀνομάζεται. οὐκοῦν ἑρμηνεία τίς ἐστι τῆς ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας ὁ καιρὸς ἐν ᾧ τὸ μυστήριον [ἡμῶν] ἄρχεται· ἔδει γὰρ πρὸς ἄπειρον ἤδη τῆς κακίας ἐκχυθείσης τὴν διὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἡμῖν λαμπο μένην ἡμέραν παρὰ τοῦ τὸ τοιοῦτον φῶς ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν ἐντιθέντος <ἐπιφανῆναι>, ὥστε τὸν μὲν φωτεινὸν βίον εἰς ὅτι μήκιστον παρατείνεσθαι ταῖς ἀγαθαῖς προσθήκαις αὐ ξανόμενον, τὴν δὲ ἐν τῇ κακίᾳ ζωὴν διὰ τῆς κατ' ὀλίγον ὑφαιρέσεως εἰς ἐλάχιστον συσταλῆναι· ἡ γὰρ τῶν ἀγαθῶν 4.8 ἐπαύξησις τοῦ κακοῦ μείωσις γίνεται. ἡ δὲ ἰσημερία τὴν ἀναστάσιμον ἑορτὴν δεξαμένη τοῦτο δι' ἑαυτῆς ἑρμηνεύει, ὅτι οὐκέτι πρὸς ἀντίπαλον τάξιν ἀντικαταστήσεται, ἰσο παλῶς τῷ ἀγαθῷ τῆς κακίας συμπλεκομένης, ἀλλ' ὁ φω τεινὸς ἐπικρατήσει βίος, τοῦ ζόφου τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας ἐν 4.9 τῷ πλεονασμῷ τῆς ἡμέρας δαπανωμένου. οὗ χάριν καὶ τοῦ σεληναίου δρόμου τὸ κατὰ τὴν τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην ἡμέραν ἀντιπρόσωπον δείκνυσιν αὐτὴν ταῖς τοῦ ἡλίου βολαῖς, πλη θύνουσαν παντὶ τῷ πλούτῳ τῆς λαμπηδόνος καὶ μηδεμίαν τοῦ σκότους διαδοχὴν ἐν τῷ μέρει γενέσθαι παρασκευάζου σαν· δυόμενον γὰρ διαδεξαμένη τὸν ἥλιον οὐ πρότερον αὐτὴ καταδύεται, πρὶν ταῖς ἀληθιναῖς αὐγαῖς τοῦ ἡλίου τὰς ἰδίας συμμίξειεν, ὥστε ἓν φῶς κατὰ τὸ συνεχὲς δια μεῖναι, κατὰ τὸ διάστημα τοῦ ἡμερινοῦ