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Therefore, the prideful thought, or also the surge of the passions, is wont to kill those who from these things minister to God and are established in virtue.

QUESTION 50 How should one understand what is said in the Creed: “incarnate of the Holy Spirit

and Mary the Virgin”? RESPONSE

Some of the saints say that from the Holy Spirit, in the manner of a man's seed, the soul was implanted, but the flesh was formed from the virginal bloods.

QUESTION 51 What is the meaning of the saying from Proverbs: “He who strikes hand in hand shall not be held guiltless”? RESPONSE

He who mixes a wicked deed with a virtuous deed “shall not be held guiltless.” 14Α_090 QUESTION 52

From the same: “Do not become surety for your friend; for if you do not have” the means to repay, “they will take the mattress from under your sides.”

RESPONSE He calls the body a friend because of the soul’s relation to it; this one he says not to

become surety for, that is, not to deem it worthy of sparing, nor, when owing the labors for virtue, to allow it to pursue relaxation. For if the mind, while applying itself to asceticism, should begin to give way, the mind not finding how to render the account for virtue, the demons take even the ascetic practices in which he rested from him; for this is what the mattress signifies.

QUESTION 53 What does the saying of Isaiah signify: “Who has measured the water in his hand, and the heaven

with a span, and all the earth in a handful”? RESPONSE

Since, according to the prophet Habakkuk, “the virtue covered the heavens” of the

Lord, that is, His conduct in the flesh surpassed the virtue of the angels in heaven—He Himself, by His action (for this is the hand), measured all knowledge, which is tropically named water; for the nature united to the Word has comprehended all knowledge. And “the heaven with a span”: by heaven he means the highest principle of beings, and by span the knowledge of sensible things extended with action, because the hand has five fingers; these principles, therefore, the Lord, having become man, 14Α_092 measured out, summing up all things in Himself. And “all the earth in a handful” signifies this, that the Lord so constrained His own flesh, being earthly, that He did not permit even the natural and blameless passions to be active.

QUESTION 54 Who is Hezekiah, and what is the sickness, and what is the fig cake from which the wound was healed? RESPONSE

Hezekiah is taken as a figure of humanity; and the wound in the

thigh signifies the law of sin, because the generative parts are situated near the thigh; and the fig cake is the life-giving flesh of the Lord, having no sap of sin, from which healing has come to us for the wound of the transgression.

QUESTION 55 What does it signify, the iron that fell into the Jordan from one of the sons of the

prophets, which the prophet Elisha, by casting in a piece of wood, made to float? RESPONSE

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οὖν τοὺς ἐκ τούτων ἱερουργοῦντας τῷ Θεῷ καὶ τῇ ἀρετῇ ἐγκαθημένους ἀποκτέννειν πέφυκεν ὁ ὑπερήφανος λογισμὸς ἢ καὶ ὁ τῶν παθῶν σάλος.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 50 Πῶς χρὴ νοεῖν τὸ ἐν τῷ Συμβόλῳ λεγόμενον "σαρκωθέντα ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου

καὶ Μαρίας τῆς Παρθένου"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ

Φασί τινες τῶν ἁγίων ὅτι ἐκ Πνεύματος μὲν ἁγίου δίκην γονῆς ἀνδρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν καταβληθῆναι, τὴν δὲ σάρκα διαπλασθῆναι ἐκ τῶν παρθενικῶν αἱμάτων.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 51 Τί ἐστιν τὸ τῶν Παροιμιῶν "χειρὶ χεῖρα ἐμβαλὼν οὐκ ἀθῳωθήσεται"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ

Πράξει ἐναρέτῳ ὁ πρᾶξιν μίσγων φαύλην «οὐκ ἀθῳωθήσεται». 14Α_090 ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 52

Ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν· «μὴ ἐγγυήσῃς σὸν φίλον· εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἔχεις» ἀποδοῦναι, «λήμψονται τὸ στρῶμα τὸ ὑπὸ τὰς πλευράς σου».

ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Φίλον λέγει τὸ σῶμα διὰ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸ τῆς ψυχῆς σχέσιν· τοῦτο μὴ

ἐγγυᾶσθαί φησιν, τουτέστιν μὴ φειδοῦς ἀξιοῦν, μὴ δὲ τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἀρετὴν πόνους ἀποδιδόναι ὀφείλοντα, τὴν ἄνεσιν ἐᾶν μεταδιώκειν. Εἰ γὰρ τῇ ἀσκήσει προσανέχων ὁ νοῦς ἄρξηται ὑπενδιδόναι, μὴ εὑρίσκων ἀποδοῦναι ὁ νοῦς τὸν ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς λόγον, λαμβάνουσιν οἱ δαίμονες καὶ εἰς ἃς ἐπανεπαύετο ἀσκήσεις ἐξ αὐτοῦ· τοῦτο γὰρ δηλοῖ τὸ στρῶμα.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 53 Τί δηλοῖ τὸ Ἡσαΐου ῥητὸν "τίς ἐμέτρησεν τῇ χειρὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν

σπιθαμῇ καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν δρακί"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὸν προφήτην Ἀμβακοὺμ «ἐκάλυψεν οὐρανοὺς ἡ ἀρετὴ» τοῦ

Κυρίου, τουτέστιν ἡ κατὰ σάρκα αὐτοῦ πολιτεία τὴν τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀγγέλων ἀρετήν, αὐτὸς τῇ πράξει τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ χείρ ἐμέτρησεν πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν, ὕδωρ τροπικῶς ὀνομασθεῖσαν· ἡ γὰρ ἑνωθεῖσα τῷ Λόγῳ φύσις πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν κατείληφεν. Τὸν δὲ οὐρανὸν σπιθαμῇ· οὐρανὸν λέγων τὸν ὑψηλότερον τῶν ὄντων λόγον, σπιθαμὴν δὲ τὴν μετὰ πράξεως ἐκτεταμένην γνῶσιν τῶν αἰσθητῶν διὰ τὸ πέντε δακτύλους ἔχειν τὴν χεῖρα· τούτους οὖν τοὺς λόγους ἐνανθρωπήσας 14Α_092 ὁ Κύριος ἐξεμέτρησεν ἀνακεφαλαιωσάμενος τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ. Τὸ δὲ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν δρακὶ τοῦτο δηλοῖ, ὅτι οὕτως ὁ Κύριος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα γηΐνην οὖσαν περιέσφιγξεν ὡς μηδὲ τὰ φυσικὰ καὶ ἀδιάβλητα πάθη μὴ ἐφιέντος αὐτοῦ ἐνεργεῖν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 54 Τίς ὁ Ἐζεκίας καὶ τίς ἡ ἀσθένεια καὶ τίς ἡ παλάθη ἐξ ἧς ἰάθη τὸ τραῦμα; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ Ἐζεκίας εἰς πρόσωπον λαμβάνεται τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος· τὸ δὲ τραῦμα τὸ ἐν

τῷ μηρῷ σημαίνει τὸν νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας διὰ τὸ παρακεῖσθαι τῷ μηρῷ τὰ γεννητικὰ μέρη· ἡ δὲ παλάθη ἐστὶν ἡ σὰρξ ἡ ζωοποιὸς τοῦ Κυρίου, μὴ ἔχουσα ὀπὸν ἁμαρτίας, ἐξ ἧς ἴασις ἡμῖν γέγονεν τῆς πληγῆς τῆς παραβάσεως.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 55 Τί σημαίνει τὸ ἐκπεσὸν σιδήριον ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ἀφ᾽ ἑνὸς τῶν υἱῶν τῶν

προφητῶν ὅπερ ὁ προφήτης Ἐλισσαῖος ἐμβαλὼν ξύλον, ἐπιπολάσαι πεποίηκεν; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ