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discourses on wickedness. And it is shown from this that the ancient dragon has no authority over us, unless it is permitted by God, according to His 64.549 ineffable dispensations concerning us. And that he is able to destroy a man, if he should receive permission, but he is not able to do evil, but asks it of God. For he knows, even though he has fallen, that unless God permits, he himself can do nothing against anyone, with the permission being understood thus, that it happens wisely, since it comes from God. What he says is something like this: take away from him the guard of external care, and of the care for his soul; for it is not worthy of wonder, if you keep him unassailed by war; permit me to corrupt his flesh even to the marrow. For calamity knows how to test an undisciplined mind, having only luxury [perhaps, and luxury only] as the basis of its worship of you; so that if you touch his flesh, then he will bless you to your face, that is, he will openly blaspheme you. «But the Lord said to the devil: Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his soul.» (But Theodotion has, you shall not touch his soul.) From Chrysostom and Olympiodorus. Again the philanthropic God, wishing to make public His own champions to angels and men, permits this also, so that we may learn that whatever the Evil One can do, he can do by permission; and he was saying, You touch his flesh. But so that he might not say that you struck him sparingly, as your own servant, He did not do what the devil asked, but permitted him. But see, He did not only say, Do not touch his soul, but, Only preserve his soul, He placed him in great fear; The salvation of his soul, He says, I seek from you. For since it was likely that he would inflict such an affliction as to kill the body, and he could have said that I did not touch his soul; for this reason, He says, preserve him, lest he suffer anything regarding the principle of life; for if you destroy him, the theater is no longer assembled for us. «And he struck Job with a grievous sore, from his feet to his head.» He struck him, it says, with a most grievous torment, with leprosy and elephantiasis over his whole body; for he made his whole body one wound, one bruise, so that through all his members he might be shown a champion. For wickedness does not know how to spare, being a kind of corruption with its own most bitter disposition. «And he took a potsherd to scrape away the discharge, and he sat on a dunghill, outside the city.» And for what reason did he not scrape away the discharge with his hands, nor with his fingers? So that the treatment might not become a cause of greater revulsion. And he who could not bear to treat himself, how could he have received it from others? He was his own executioner, not digging through his ribs, 64.552 but cutting away the gushing putrefaction, and scraping the living clay with dead clay. And for what reason did he sit on a dunghill? So that the heap might cover what fell down. And for what reason in the open air? So that he would not suffocate himself with the stench; which he would have suffered, if he had been shut up in some small house; besides, the tempter had not even left him a house. For the loss of his children was grievous, but nevertheless another more grievous tragedy awaited this grievous one, without even a short respite. Hence the sources of the worms, the streams of discharge, the sitting on the dunghill, the potsherd scraping his ribs, the stench of the sores, which brought on that strange famine, not allowing him to touch the food he saw, and instilling a revulsion more grievous than the famine, and these things not for two, or ten, or twenty, or a hundred days, but for many months. Not moderately will the examples concerning Job console those who suffer, and the wounds of the just man, and the dunghill, more venerable than any royal throne. For from seeing a royal throne, there will be no gain for the onlookers, but only a temporary delight, having no benefit; but from the

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πονηρίας διαλέγεται. ∆είκνυται δὲ καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ὡς οὐδεμίαν ἔχει καθ' ἡμῶν ἐξουσίαν ὁ ἀρχαῖος δράκων, εἰ μὴ ὑπὸ Θεοῦ συγχωρηθῇ, κατὰ τὰς ἀῤῥήτους αὑτοῦ 64.549 περὶ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομίας. Καὶ ὡς ἀνελεῖν μὲν ἄνθρωπον δύναται, εἰ λάβοι συγχώρησιν, κακὸν δὲ ποιῆσαι οὐ δύναται, παρὰ Θεοῦ δὲ ἐξαιτεῖ. Οἶδε γὰρ εἰ καὶ ἔπεσεν, ὅτι, εἰ μὴ Θεὸς ἐπιτρέψει, οὐδὲν αὐτὸς κατὰ τινὸς δύναται, τῆς ἐπιτροπῆς οὕτω νοουμένης, ὅτι σοφῶς γίνεται, ἅτε παρὰ Θεοῦ γινομένης. Ὃ δὲ λέγει, τοιοῦτόν ἐστι, περίελε αὐτοῦ τὴν φρουρὰν τῆς ἔξωθεν θεραπείας, καὶ τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν ἐπιμελείας· οὐ γάρ ἐστι θαύματος ἄξιος, εἰ φυλάττεις αὐτὸν ἀπολέμητον· συγχώρησόν μοι διαφθεῖραι τὰς σάρκας ἄχρι καὶ μυελῶν. Ἐλέγχειν γὰρ οἶδε συμφορὰ γνώμην ἀπαιδαγώγητον, τρυφὴν καὶ μόνην [ἴσ. καὶ τρυφὴν μόνην] τῆς περὶ σὲ θεραπείας, ὑπόθεσιν ἔχουσαν· ὡς εἴγε ἅψῃ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, τηνικαῦτα εἰς πρόσωπόν σε εὐλογήσει, τουτέστι, φανερῶς σε βλασφημήσει. «Εἶπε δὲ Κύριος τῷ διαβόλῳ· Ἰδοὺ παραδίδωμί σοι αὐτόν· μόνον τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ διαφύλαξον.» (Ὁ δὲ Θεοδοτίων, τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ οὐχ ἅψῃ.) Χρυσοστόμου καὶ Ὀλυμπιοδώρου. Πάλιν ὁ φιλάνθρωπος Θεὸς, ὁ τοὺς οἰκείους στεφανίτας ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνθρώποις δημοσιεύειν βουλόμενος ἐπιτρέπει καὶ τοῦτο, ὥστε μαθεῖν ἡμᾶς, ὅτι ὅσα δύναται ὁ Πονηρὸς, κατὰ συγχώρησιν δύναται· καὶ ὁ μὲν ἔλεγε· Σὺ ἅψαι τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτοῦ. Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ λέγῃ, ὅτι σὺ πεφασμένως αὐτὸν ἔπληξας, ὡς οἰκεῖον θεράποντα, οὐκ ἐποίησεν ὅπερ ᾔτησεν ὁ διάβολος, ἀλλ' ἐκείνῳ ἐπέτρεψε. Ὅρα δὲ, οὐκ εἶπε μόνον, Τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ μὴ ἅψῃ, ἀλλὰ, Μόνον τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ διατήρησον, εἰς μέγαν αὐτὸν φόβον περιέστησε· Τὴν σωτηρίαν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, φησὶ, παρὰ σοῦ ζητῶ. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἰκὸς ἦν, τοιαύτην αὐτῶν ὅσον ἐπιβαλεῖν, ὥστε ἀποκτεῖναι τὸ σῶμα, καὶ εἶχεν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ οὐχ ἡψάμην· διὰ τοῦτο, φησὶ, διατήρησον, μή τι πάθῃ κατὰ τὸν τῆς ζωῆς λόγον· ἐὰν γὰρ ἀνέλῃς, οὐκ ἔτι ἡμῖν τὸ θέατρον συγκεκρότηται. «Καὶ ἔπαισε τὸν Ἰὼβ ἕλκει πονηρῷ, ἀπὸ ποδῶν ἕως κεφαλῆς.» Ἔπληξε, φησὶν, αὐτὸν χαλεπωτάτῃ βασάνῳ, λώβῃ καὶ ἐλέφαντι καθ' ὅλου τοῦ σώματος· ὅλον γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα ἓν τραῦμα ἐποίησεν, ἕνα μώλωπα, ἵνα δι' ὅλων τῶν μελῶν στεφανίτης ἀναδειχθῇ. Οὐ γὰρ οἶδε φείδεσθαι κακία, φθορά τις κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν ὑπάρχουσα πικροτάτην διάθεσιν. «Καὶ ἔλαβεν ὄστρακον, ἵνα τὸν ἰχῶρα ξύῃ, καὶ ἐκάθητο ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας, ἔξω τῆς πόλεως.» Τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν οὐχὶ χερσὶν, οὐδὲ δακτύλοις τὸν ἰχῶρα ἀπέξεεν; Ὥστε μὴ τὴν θεραπείαν μείζονα γενέσθαι ἀηδίας ὑπόθεσιν. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν θεραπεῦσαι μὴ ἀνεχόμενος, πῶς ἂν ἑτέρων ἔτυχεν; Αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ δήμιος ἦν, οὐ διορύττων τὰς πλευρὰς, 64.552 ἀλλὰ τὴν πηγάζουσαν σηπεδόνα περικόπτων, καὶ τῷ νεκρῷ πηλῷ, τὸν ζῶντα πηλὸν ξέων. Τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν, ἐπὶ κοπρίας ἐκαθέζετο; Ὥστε τὰ καταπίπτοντα συγκαλύψῃ τῇ θημωνίᾳ. Τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν αἴθριος; Ὥστε μὴ ἀποπνίξαι ἑαυτὸν τῇ δυσωδίᾳ· ὅπερ ἔπαθεν ἂν, εἴγε ἐν οἰκίσκῳ τινὶ κατακέκλειστο· ἄλλως τε, οὐδὲ οἶκον αὐτῷ καταλέλοιπεν ὁ πειραστής. Ἦν μὲν γὰρ βαρεῖα καὶ ἡ τῶν παίδων ἀποβολὴ, ἀλλ' ὅμως τὴν χαλεπὴν ταύτην τραγῳδίαν ἑτέρα χαλεπωτέρα ἀνέμενε, καὶ μηδὲ μικρὸν ἀναπνεύσαντος. Ἐντεῦθεν αἱ πηγαὶ τῶν σκωλήκων, οἱ τῶν ἰχώρων ῥύακες, ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας καθέδρα, τὸ ὄστρακον, τὸ τὰς πλευρὰς καταξαῖνον, ἡ δυσωδία τῶν ἑλκῶν, ἡ τὸν καινὸν ἐκεῖνον ἐπεισάγουσα λιμὸν, καὶ ὁρωμένων οὐκ ἀφεῖσα τῶν σιτίων ἅπτεσθαι, καὶ τοῦ λιμοῦ χαλεπωτέραν ἐντιθεῖσα τὴν ἀηδίαν, καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐπὶ δύο, καὶ δέκα, καὶ εἴκοσι, καὶ ἑκατὸν ἡμέραις, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ μησὶ πλείοσιν. Οὐ μετρίως δὲ τοὺς ὀδυνωμένους παρακαλέσει τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἰὼβ παραδείγματα, καὶ τὰ τοῦ δικαίου τραύματα, καὶ ἡ κοπρία, ἡ παντὸς θρόνου βασιλικοῦ σεμνοτέρα. Ἀπὸ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ θρόνον ἰδεῖν βασιλικὸν, οὐδὲν ἔσται τοῖς θεωμένοις τὸ κέρδος, ἀλλὰ πρόσκαιρος μόνον τέρψις, ὄνησιν οὐδεμίαν ἔχουσα· ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ τὴν