,

the life-giving Spirit was working the unchangeable perfection of the good in us through knowledge from experience. Therefore, each of us who are still able to sin lacks the will to purely offer ourselves wholly in our judgment to the Spirit.

14Β_076 SCHOLIA 1. By the one way, he says, the grace of adoption is given only in potentiality,

since to all who have been baptized is given the possibility to become sons of God; for he said: "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of the heavens." And again: "but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God." But by the other way, through the fulfillment of the commandments and the knowledge of the truth, is given the perfection of this same adoption, that is, the inability to sin, through the deification that does not exist in the first way. For because of the free will of man, the possibility for sin is not taken away in him, as his whole desire has not yet been turned by grace toward God.

2. Idle faith, he says, has the grace of adoption in potentiality, since those who have it are not moved by the commandments.

Z (7). CONCERNING "FOR THIS IS WHY THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED EVEN TO THE DEAD". 7. QUESTION Z' What is "for this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to

man in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit? How are the dead judged in the flesh? Response. It is a custom in Scripture to exchange tenses and into one another

to transpose them, and the future as past and the past as future, and to express the present in the tense before and after it, as is clear to those experienced in it. Therefore some say that Scripture here means by "dead" the people who died before the coming of Christ, such as those in the flood, those at the time of the tower-building, those in Sodom, those in Egypt, and the others 14Β_078 who at various times and in various ways received the manifold justice and the terrible inflictions of the divine judgments; who not so much for ignorance of God as for their insolence toward one another paid the penalty; to whom it says the great proclamation of salvation was preached, having already been judged in the flesh according to man, that is, having received the penalty for their crimes against one another through life in the flesh, so that they might live according to God in the spirit, that is, receiving in soul, while being in Hades, the proclamation of the knowledge of God, having believed through the Savior who descended into Hades to save the dead also. And so that the passage might be understood, let us take it thus: for this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, who were judged according to man in the flesh, so that they might live according to God in the spirit.

Or again, it says "dead" perhaps cryptically, meaning those who carry around in the body the dying of Jesus, to whom reasonably in truth through their very works has been given the divine Gospel, since the Gospel introduces a denial of carnal life, but a confession of spiritual life, those who are always dying according to man—I mean the human life in the flesh in this age—but living according to God in spirit alone, according to the divine apostle and those with him, who are not living their own life at all, but have Christ living in them in the soul alone. Thus those who for God's sake in this age are dead are judged in the flesh, afflictions

ζωοποιὸν Πνεῦμα τὴν ἄτρεπτον ἐν ἡμῖν τοῦ καλοῦ διὰ τῆς ἐν πείρᾳ γνώσεως ἐνήργει τελείωσιν. Λείπει τοιγαροῦν ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν τῶν ἁμαρτεῖν ἔτι δυναμένων τὸ καθαρῶς ἑαυτοὺς ὅλους κατὰ τὴν γνώμην ἐμπαρέχειν βουληθῆναι τῷ Πνεύματι.

14Β_076 ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. ∆ιὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς τρόπου, φησί, δίδοται δυνάμει μόνον ἡ χάρις τῆς υἱοθεσίας,

ἐπεὶ πᾶσι τοῖς βαπτισθεῖσι δίδοται ἡ δυνατότης γενέσθαι υἱοὺς τοῦ Θεοῦ· ἔφη γάρ· «ἐάν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος, οὐ δύναται εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν». Καὶ πάλιν· «ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα Θεοῦ γενέσθαι». ∆ιὰ δὲ τοῦ ἑτέρου τρόπου, διὰ τῆς ἐκτελέσως τῶν ἐντολῶν καὶ τῆς γνώσεως τῆς ἀληθείας, δίδοται ἡ τελειότης τῆς αὐτῆς υἱοθεσίας, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀδυναμία πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν, διὰ τῆς θεώσεως τῆς οὐκ ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τρόπῳ ὑπαρχούσης. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τὴν ἐλευθέραν βούλησιν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀφαιρεῖται ἐν αὐτῷ ἡ δυνατότης πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν, ὡς μὴ στρεφομένου ἔτι κατὰ χάριν ὅλου τοῦ πόθου πρὸς Θεόν.

2. Ἡ ἀργή πίστις, φησίν, δυνάμει τήν χάριν ἔχει τῆς υἱοθεσίας, ὡς διά τῶν ἐντολῶν μή κινουμένων τῶν ἐχόντων αὐτήν.

Ζ (7). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΓΑΡ ΚΑΙ ΝΕΚΡΟΙΣ ΕΥΗΓΓΕΛΙΣΘΗ". 7. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Ζ' Τί ἐστιν εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη, ἵνα κριθῶσι μὲν κατὰ

ἄνθρωπον σαρκί, ζῶσι δὲ κατὰ Θεὸν πνεύματι; Πῶς οἱ νεκροὶ σαρκὶ κρίνονται; Ἀπόκρισις. Ἔθος ἐστὶ τῇ Γραφῇ τοὺς χρόνους μεταλλάσσειν καὶ εἰς ἀλλήλους

μετεκλαμβάνειν, καὶ τὸν μέλλοντα ὡς παρῳχηκότα καὶ τὸν παρῳχηκότα ὡς μέλλοντα, καὶ τὸν ἐνεστῶτα εἰς τὸν πρὸ αὐτοῦ καὶ μετ᾽ αὐτὸν χρόνον ἐκφωνεῖν, ὡς ἔστι δῆλον τοῖς αὐτῆς πεπειραμένοις. Φασὶν οὖν τινες νεκροὺς λέγειν ἐνταῦθα τὴν Γραφὴν τοὺς πρὸ τῆς ἐπιδημίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ τελειωθέντας ἀνθρώπους, οἷον τοὺς ἐν τῷ κατακλυσμῷ, τοὺς ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τῆς πυργοποιΐας, τοὺς ἐν Σοδόμοις, τοὺς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους 14Β_078 τοὺς κατὰ διαφόρους καιρούς τε καὶ τρόπους τὴν πολύτροπον δίκην καὶ τὰς ἐξαισίους ἐπαγωγὰς τῶν θείων κριμάτων δεξαμένους· οἵτινες οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἀγνοίας Θεοῦ τοσοῦτον ὅσον τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους παροινίας τὴν δίκην ἔτισαν· οἷς εὐηγγελίσθαι λέγει τὸ μέγα τῆς σωτηρίας κήρυγμα, κριθεῖσιν ἤδη σαρκὶ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, τουτέστιν ἀπολαβοῦσι τῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους ἐγκλημάτων τὴν δίκην διὰ τῆς ἐν σαρκὶ ζωῆς, ἵνα ζήσωσι κατὰ Θεὸν πνεύματι, τουτέστι ψυχῇ δεχόμενοι, κατὰ τὸν ᾅδην ὄντες, τῆς θεογνωσίας τὸ κήρυγμα, διὰ τοῦ καὶ νεκροὺς σῶσαι κατελθόντος εἰς ᾅδην Σωτῆρος πιστεύσαντες. Ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ νοηθῆναι τὸν τόπον οὕτως ἐκλάβωμεν· εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη, κριθεῖσι κατὰ ἄνθρωπον σαρκί, ἵνα ζήσωσι κατὰ Θεὸν πνεύματι.

Ἢ πάλιν νεκροὺς λέγει τυχὸν ἐπικεκρυμμένως τοὺς τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντας, οἷς εἰκότως κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν δι᾽ αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων δέδοται τὸ θεῖον Εὐαγγέλιον, εἴπερ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον σαρκικῆς μὲν εἰσηγεῖται ζωῆς ἄρνησιν, πνευματικῆς δὲ ὁμολογίαν, τοὺς ἀεὶ μὲν κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, λέγω δὲ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐν σαρκὶ κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ζωήν, ἀποθνῄσκοντας, ζῶντας δὲ κατὰ Θεὸν μόνῳ τῷ πνεύματι, κατὰ τὸν θεῖον ἀπόστολον καὶ τοὺς ἀμφ᾽ αὐτόν, τοὺς ζῶντας μὲν οὐδαμῶς ἰδίαν ζωήν, ζῶντα δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς κατὰ μόνην ἔχοντας τὴν ψυχήν. Οὕτως οἱ διὰ τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ νεκροὶ σαρκὶ κρίνονται, θλίψεις