,

Response. God, having once for all brought to completion, as he himself knows, the first principles of things that have come into being and the 14Β_060

universal essences of beings, is still at work, not only preserving them in their existence, but also creating, bringing forth, and constituting in actuality the parts that are in them in potentiality, and furthermore, through providence, assimilating the particular to the universal, until, by uniting the self-chosen impulse of particulars through their movement toward well-being with the more general principle according to the nature of rational essence, he might make them harmonious and co-moving with each other and with the whole, so that they do not have the volitional difference of the parts in relation to the whole, but one and the same principle will be contemplated in all, not divided by the modes of those of which it is perhaps predicated, and thus he might display the deifying grace of all things being actualized. It is for this grace that God the Word became man and says, “My Father is at work until now, and I am at work,” the one willing, the other effecting, and the Holy Spirit essentially bringing to completion both the good pleasure of the Father in all things and the effecting work of the Son, so that through all and in all there might be one God in Trinity, analogously whole in each of those deemed worthy according to grace and contemplated in all, just as the soul exists naturally in the whole body and in each of its members without diminution.

SCHOLIA. 1. In matter: that is, existing potentially in the universal essence of beings, the

particular things that come into being from matter, whose generation God is said to be manifestly working.

2. He speaks of the assimilation of the particular to the universal, the union of all human beings according to a single movement of the will toward the principle of nature, which God works through providence, so that just as there is one nature of all, so too 14Β_062 there might be one will, all being joined to God and to one another through the Spirit.

C (3). CONCERNING THE ONE IN THE GOSPEL CARRYING THE JAR OF

WATER. 3. QUESTION 3. Who, according to the Gospel, is the one in the city carrying the jar of water,

and why of water, whom the disciples sent by Christ meet and are told to follow? Who is the master of the house? And why is his name passed over in silence by the evangelists? And what is the large upper room, furnished, in which the awesome mystery of the divine supper is celebrated?

Response. Not only did Scripture pass over in silence the name of the man to whom the

Savior sent the two disciples for the preparation of the Passover, but also that of the city into which they were sent. Therefore, at first glance, I suppose this to signify through the city the sensible world, and through the man the universal nature of human beings, to which are sent, as disciples of God the Word and preparers and forerunners of his mystical banquet for human nature, the law of the first covenant and that of the new, the one cleansing nature from all defilement through practical philosophy, the other leading the mind up gnostically through contemplative mystagogy from corporeal things to the kindred sights of intelligible things. And a proof of this is that the disciples who were sent were Peter and John; for Peter is a symbol of practice, and John of contemplation.

Ἀπόκρισις. Τοὺς μὲν πρώτους τῶν γεγονότων λόγους ὁ Θεὸς καὶ τὰς 14Β_060

καθόλου τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας ἅπαξ, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, συμπληρώσας, ἔτι ἐργάζεται οὐ μόνον τὴν τούτων αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸ εἶναι συντήρησιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς δυνάμει μερῶν δημιουργίαν πρόοδόν τε καὶ σύστασιν, ἔτι μὴν καὶ τὴν διὰ τῆς προνοίας πρὸς τὰ καθόλου τῶν μερικῶν ἐξομοίωσιν, ἕως ἄν, τῷ κατὰ φύσιν γενικωτέρῳ λόγῳ τῆς λογικῆς οὐσίας διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ εὖ εἶναι κινήσεως τῶν μερικῶν τὴν αὐθαίρετον ἑνώσας ὁρμήν, ποιήσειεν ἀλλήλοις τε καὶ τῷ ὅλῳ σύμφωνα καὶ ταὐτοκίνητα, μὴ ἐχόντων τὴν γνωμικὴν πρὸς τὰ καθόλου τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους διαφοράν, ἀλλ᾽ εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς ἐφ᾽ ὅλων θεωρηθήσεται λόγος, μὴ διαιρούμενος τοῖς τῶν καθ᾽ ὧν ἴσως κατηγορεῖται τρόποις, καὶ οὕτως ἐνεργουμένην τὴν ἐκθεωτικὴν τῶν ὅλων ἐπιδείξηται χάριν· δι᾽ ἣν γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Λόγος φησὶν ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι, ὁ μὲν εὐδοκῶν, ὁ δὲ αὐτουργῶν, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος οὐσιωδῶς τήν τε τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐπὶ πᾶσιν εὐδοκίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτουργίαν τοῦ Υἱοῦ συμπληροῦντος, ἵνα γένηται διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσι εἷς ὁ ἐν τριάδι Θεός, ἀναλόγως ὅλος ἑκάστῳ κατὰ χάριν τῶν ἀξιουμένων καὶ ὅλοις ἐνθεωρούμενος, ὡς ὅλῳ καὶ ἑκάστῳ μέλει τοῦ σώματος δίχα μειώσεως ἐνυπάρχει φυσικῶς ἡ ψυχή.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. 1. Ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ· τουτέστι, τῇ καθόλου τῶν ὄντων οὐσίᾳ δυνάμει τυγχάνουσι, τά

κατά μέρος ἐκ τῆς ὕλης γινόμενα μερικά, ὧν τήν γένεσιν φησίν ὁ Θεός προδήλως ἐργάζεται.

2. Τήν πρός τά καθόλου τῶν μερικῶν ἐξομοίωσιν λέγει, τήν πάντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατά μίαν τῆς γνώμης κίνησιν πρός τόν λόγον τῆς φύσεως ἕνωσιν, ἥν ἐργάζεται διά τῆς προνοίας ὁ Θεός, ἵνα γένηται πάντων ὥσπερ μία φύσις, οὕτω 14Β_062 καί γνώμη, πάντων Θεῷ τε καί ἀλλήλοις συναφθέντων διά τοῦ Πνεύματος.

Γ (3). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΩ ΒΑΣΤΑΖΟΝΤΟΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΡΑΜΙΟΝ ΤΟΥ

Υ∆ΑΤΟΣ. 3. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Γ' Τίς ἐστι κατὰ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον ὁ ἐν τῇ πόλει τὸ κεράμιον βαστάζων τοῦ ὕδατος,

καὶ διὰ τί ὕδατος, ᾧ οἱ ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ πεμπόμενοι μαθηταὶ ἀπαντῶσι καὶ κελεύονται ἀκολουθεῖν; Τίς τε ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης; Καὶ διὰ τί παρὰ τοῖς εὐαγγελισταῖς σιωπᾶται τὸ ὄνομα; Καὶ τί τὸ ἀνώγαιον τὸ μέγα καὶ ἐστρωμένον, ἐν ᾧ τὸ φρικτὸν τοῦ θείου δείπνου ἐκτελεῖται μυστήριον;

Ἀπόκρισις. Οὐ μόνον ἡ Γραφὴ παρεσιώπησε τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ὄνομα, πρὸς ὃν ἀπέστειλεν

ὁ Σωτὴρ τοὺς δύο μαθητὰς εἰς τὴν τοῦ Πάσχα παρασκευήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἣν ἀπεστάλησαν. Ὅθεν, κατὰ πρώτην ἐπιβολήν, ὑπονοῶ τοῦτο δηλοῦσθαι διὰ τῆς πόλεως τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον, τὸν ἄνθρωπον δὲ τὴν καθόλου φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, πρὸς ἣν ἀποστέλλονται, ὥσπερ μαθηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Λόγου, καὶ πρόδρομοι τῆς αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων μυστικῆς εὐωχίας ἑτοιμασταί, ὁ τῆς πρώτης διαθήκης νόμος καὶ ὁ τῆς καινῆς, ὁ μὲν διὰ τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας παντὸς μολυσμοῦ τὴν φύσιν ἀποκαθαίρων, ὁ δὲ διὰ τῆς θεωρητικῆς μυσταγωγίας ἀπὸ τῶν σωματικῶν πρὸς τὰ συγγενῆ τῶν νοητῶν θεάματα τὸν νοῦν γνωστικῶς ἀναβιβάζων. Καὶ τούτου τεκμήριον τὸ τοὺς πεμφθέντας μαθητὰς εἶναι Πέτρον καὶ Ἰωάννην· ἔστι γὰρ ὁ μὲν Πέτρος πράξεως, ὁ δὲ Ἰωάννης θεωρίας σύμβολον.