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activity as movement; but according to the will 15∆_090, toward the volition of the one possessing it, manifested according to its use.

2.28 (28) We have a natural criterion, the law according to nature, teaching us that through the wisdom in all things, our desire ought to be moved toward the mystical initiation of the maker of all things.

2.29 (29) The well of Jacob is Scripture; the water is the knowledge in Scripture; the depth, the hard-to-pass-through position of the Scriptural enigmas; the bucket is the learning of the divine word through letters, which the Lord, being the Word-Himself, did not have, and not giving the knowledge that comes from learning and study to those who believe, but the ever-flowing wisdom from spiritual grace, and bestowing it, never ceasing, upon the worthy. For the bucket, that is, learning, taking the smallest part of knowledge, leaves the whole unrestrained by any account. But knowledge according to grace possesses the whole, even without study, the wisdom attainable by humans, gushing forth variously for our needs.

2.30 (30) The tree of life, and the one not such, from this alone, that the one was named the tree of life, and the other, not of life, but only of the knowledge of good and evil, have a great and ineffable difference. For the tree of life is in every way productive of life; but the tree not of life is clearly productive of death. For that which is not productive of life, from the fact that it was not called the tree of life, would clearly be productive of death; for nothing else is divided in opposition to life.

2.31 (31) The tree of life, also as wisdom, has a very great difference from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is neither 15∆_092 wisdom, nor named so. For proper to wisdom are mind and reason, but proper to the state opposed to wisdom, in the opposite manner, are irrationality and sense-perception.

2.32 (32) Since man came into being, composed of a rational soul and a sensible body, let it be, according to one conception, that the tree of life is the mind of the soul, in which the reality of wisdom exists; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the sense-perception of the body, in which the movement of irrationality clearly exists, 1233 and having received the divine command not to touch it in experience through activity, man did not keep it.

2.33 (33) Both trees according to Scripture are discriminative of certain things, that is, the mind and sense-perception; for instance, the mind has a power of discriminating intelligible and sensible things, temporal and eternal things; or rather, being a discriminative power of the soul, it persuades it to hold fast to some things, and to rise above others. But sense-perception has a power of discriminating the pleasure and pain of bodies; or rather, being a power of ensouled and sensible bodies, it persuades one to be drawn to pleasure, and to send away pain.

2.34 (34) Man, if he belongs only to the sensible discrimination of bodies according to pleasure and pain, transgressing the divine commandment, eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; that is, irrationality according to sense-perception; having only the discrimination constitutive of bodies, according to which, as good, he holds fast to pleasure; and as evil, he abstains from pain. But if he belongs wholly only to the intellectual discrimination that distinguishes eternal things from temporal things, keeping the divine commandment, he eats of the tree of life; I mean the wisdom established according to the mind; having only the discrimination constitutive of the soul; according to which, as good, he holds fast to the glory of eternal things; and as evil, he abstains from the corruption of temporal things.

2.35 (35) The good of the mind is the dispassionate disposition toward the spirit; 15∆_094 and the evil, the passionate relation to sense-perception; and the good of sense-perception

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ἐνέργειαν κίνησιν· γνωμικῶς 15∆_090 δέ, πρός τήν τοῦ κεκτημένου βούλησιν, κατά τήν χρῆσιν ἐκφαινομένην.

2.28 (κη΄) Φυσικόν ἔχομεν κριτήριον, τόν κατά φύσιν νόμον, διδάσκοντα ἡμᾶς, ὅτι πρός τῆς ἐν ὅλοις σοφίας, ἔδει πρός τήν τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν ὅλων μυσταγωγίαν ἡμῶν κινεῖσθαι τήν ἔφεσιν.

2.29 (κθ΄) Τό φρέαρ ἐστί τοῦ Ἰακώβου, ἡ Γραφή· τό δέ ὕδωρ ἐστίν, ἡ ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ γνῶσις· τό δέ βάθος, ἡ τῶν Γραφικῶν αἰνιγμάτων δυσδιεξίτητος θέσις· τό δέ ἄντλημά ἐστιν, ἡ διά τῶν γραμμάτων τοῦ θείου λόγου μάθησις, ἥν οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ Κύριος Αὐτολόγος ὑπάρχων, καί οὐ τήν ἐκ μαθήσεως καί μελέτης διδούς γνῶσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἀλλά τήν ἐκ χάριτος πνευματικῆς ἀένναον σοφίαν, καί μηδέποτε λήγουσαν τοῖς ἀξίοις δωρούμενος. Τό γάρ ἄντλημα, τουτέστιν ἡ μάθησις, μέρος ἐλάχιστον λαμβάνουσα γνώσεως, τό πᾶν ἐᾷ μηδενί λόγῳ κρατούμενον. Ἡ δέ κατά χάριν γνῶσις, ὅλην ἔχει καί δίχα μελέτης, τήν ἐφικτήν ἀνθρώποις σοφίαν, πρός τάς χρείας ποικίλως βλυστάνουσαν.

2.30 (λ΄) Τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, καί τό μή τοιοῦτον, ἐξ αὐτοῦ μόνου, τοῦ, τό μέν ζωῆς ξύλον ὀνομασθῆναι· τό δέ, οὐ ζωῆς, ἀλλά μόνον γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, πολλήν καί ἄφατον ἔχουσι τήν διαφοράν. Τό γάρ τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, πάντως καί ζωῆς ἐστι ποιητικόν· τό δέ μή τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, δῆλον ὅτι θανάτου ποιητικόν. Τό γάρ μή ποιητικόν ζωῆς, ἐκ τοῦ μή προσαγορευθῆναι ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, θανάτου σαφῶς ἄν εἴη ποιητικόν· ἄλλο γάρ οὐδέν τῇ ζωῇ κατ᾿ ἐναντίωσιν ἀντιδιαιρεῖται.

2.31 (λα΄) Τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, καί ὡς σοφία, πλείστην ἔχει διαφοράν πρός τό ξύλον τό γνωστικόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, τό μήτε 15∆_092 ὄν σοφία, μήτε ὠνομασμένον. Τῆς μέν γάρ σοφίας ἴδιον νοῦς καί λόγος, τῆς δέ τῇ σοφίᾳ κατά τό ἐναντίον ἀντικειμένης ἕξεως ἴδιον ἀλογία καί αἴσθησις.

2.32 (λβ΄) Ἐπειδή ἐκ ψυχῆς νοερᾶς καί σώματος αἰσθητικοῦ συνεστώς πρός γένεσιν ἦλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἔστω κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν ξύλον ζωῆς ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς, ἐν ᾧ τῆς σοφίας ὑπάρχει τό χρῆμα· ξύλον δέ γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, ἡ τοῦ σώματος αἴσθησις, ἐν ᾗ τῆς ἀλογίας ὑπάρχει σαφῶς ἡ κίνησις, 1233 ἧς κατά τήν πεῖραν, μή ἅψασθαι δι᾿ ἐνεργείας ὁ ἄνθρωπος τήν θείαν λαβών ἐντολήν, οὐκ ἐφύλαξεν.

2.33 (λγ΄) Ἀμφότερα τά ξύλα κατά τήν Γραφήν, τινῶν εἰσι διακριτικά, ἤγουν ὁ νοῦς καί ἡ αἴσθησις· οἷον, ὁ μέν νοῦς, ἔχει δύναμιν διακριτικήν, νοητῶν καί αἰσθητῶν, προσκαίρων καί αἰωνίων· μᾶλλον δέ ψυχῆς ὑπάρχων δύναμις διακριτική, τῶν μέν, αὐτήν ἀντέχεσθαι πείθει· τῶν δέ, ὑπεραίρεσθαι. Ἡ δέ αἴσθησις ἔχει δύναμιν διακριτικήν ἡδονῆς σωμάτων καί ὀδύνης· μᾶλλον δέ δύναμις ὑπάρχουσα ἐμψύχων καί αἰσθητικῶν σωμάτων, τήν μέν ἡδονήν ἐπισπᾶσθαι πείθει, τήν δέ ὀδύνην ἀποπέμπεσθαι.

2.34 (λδ΄) Ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐάν μέν μόνης τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὀδύνην αἰσθητικῆς τῶν σωμάτων γένηται διακρίσεως, τήν θείαν παραβάς ἐντολήν, ἐσθίει τό ξύλον τό γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ· τουτέστι, τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀλογίαν· ἔχων μόνην τήν συστατικήν τῶν σωμάτων διάκρισιν, καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς μέν καλοῦ, τῆς ἡδονῆς ἀντέχεται· ὡς δέ κακοῦ, τῆς ὀδύνης ἀπέχεται. Ἐάν δέ μόνης τῆς τῶν αἰωνίων διακρινούσης τά πρόσκαιρα δι᾿ ὅλου γένηται νοερᾶς διακρίσεως, τήν θείαν φυλάξας ἐντολήν, ἐσθίει τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς· τήν κατά νοῦν λέγω συνισταμένην σοφίαν· μόνης ἔχων τήν συστατικήν τῆς ψυχῆς διάκρισιν· καθ᾿ ἥν, ὡς μέν καλοῦ, τῆς τῶν αἰωνίων ἀντέχεται δόξης· ὡς δέ κακοῦ, τῆς τῶν προσκαίρων ἀπέχεται φθορᾶς.

2.35 (λε΄) Νοῦ μέν καλόν ἐστιν, ἡ ἀπαθής πρός τό πνεῦμα διάθεσις· 15∆_094 κακόν δέ, ἡ ἐμπαθής πρός τήν αἴσθησιν σχέσις· αἰσθήσεως δέ καλόν