eat, and drink my blood. Then be drunk, he says, from gladness and receive forgetfulness of all worldly cares, as if becoming ecstatic from the intoxication. Then the pure master and bridegroom, showing that his flesh willingly underwent death for us and suffered, but certainly not his divinity, says this also to them, whom he has called his companions: I sleep, but my heart is awake [5, 2]. I, he says, even if I have died in the flesh which I assumed, yet my divinity has remained completely impassible. But again let us hear the bride of the Song. The voice of my beloved, he knocks at my door: ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night’ [5, 2]. She says: In the middle of the night when the bridegroom came, ‘Throw open,’ he said to me, ‘the doors of your heart, so that I may make my home in you with my Father.’ For by your virtues you are indeed my companion. If then you will open to me, he says, I will give you a great gift, the dew of my head, the drops of my locks, that is, I will give you to perform healings for people; for my dew is a healing for people. These things, then, she says, he said while knocking at the door, but I said to him, that is, the bridegroom: I have put off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I soil them? [5, 3]. I, she says, long ago opened the doors to you; for I have taken off the thickness of transgression, which I will never put on again, having repented, and I have cast off the pollution of the earth from my feet and prepared them for the paths of salvation, which I will no longer defile by turning back. When the bridegroom heard these words of hers, he wished to dwell within her, as it were, but the uncontainable could not be contained at all; for his hand alone filled her, as can be learned from these words of the bride of the Song. For the bride and virgin says as follows in order: My beloved put his hand by the latch, and my heart was thrilled for him [5, 4]. I, she says, although I opened every door of mine to receive Christ, the Word and bridegroom, nevertheless only his hand barely entered; wherefore I was greatly astonished at his magnitude. The pure virgin philosophized well. For the nature of humans, which is very small in relation to the divine nature, is not able to contain the whole most divine nature of the wondrous bridegroom, as far as in conceptions and theologies. I rose up to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with choice myrrh, on the handles of the lock [5, 5]. I, she says, when I opened to receive the bridegroom, and he was uncontainable in my inner parts, I arose for a more laborious and harder practice, so that by many labors and the mortification of the flesh I might open wider the doors of my reason and receive the bridegroom who was formerly uncontainable. Wherefore my hands, she says, along with my fingers, from the labors dripped myrrh even to the locks themselves, that is, I mortified the members of my flesh, until I opened all the locks and doors of mine and threw open all the senses of my soul. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away [5, 6]. But even if I opened, she says, all my doors, not even so was the Word and bridegroom containable for me. My soul went out when he spoke [5, 6]. Then, she says, I lifted my mind to the heavens, desiring, of course, to learn something clear about him, but nevertheless he was higher even than my mind. For the bride and virgin says as follows in order: I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me [5, 6]. And how indeed will he be found and held somewhere, who by nature is none of the things that are known, not form, not color, not place, not quantity? The watchmen who go about in

φάγετε, τὸ δ' αἷμα πίετέ μου. εἶτα μεθύσθητε, φησίν, ἀπὸ τῆς εὐφροσύνης καὶ πάντων λήθην λάβετε τῶν κοσμικῶν φροντίδων, ὡς ἐν ἐκστάσει δήπουθεν γενόμενοι τῇ μέθῃ. Εἶτα δεικνὺς ὁ καθαρὸς δεσπότης καὶ νυμφίος ὡς ἑκουσίως θάνατον ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ὑπέστη ἡ σάρξ τε πέπονθεν αὐτοῦ, πάντως οὐχ ἡ θεότης, φησὶ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸς αὐτούς, οὓς εἴρηκε πλησίον· ἐγὼ καθεύδω καὶ ἡ καρδία μου ἀγρυπνεῖ [5, 2]. Ἐγώ, φησί, κἂν τέθνηκα σαρκὶ τῇ προσληφθείσῃ, ἀλλ' ἡ θεότης ἀπαθὴς ὅλως μεμένηκέ μου. Ἀλλ' αὖθις ἀκουσώμεθα τῆς νύμφης τῶν Ἀισμάτων. φωνὴ τοῦ ἀδελφιδοῦ μου, κρούει ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν μου· ἄνοιξόν μοι, ἀδελφή μου, πλησίον μου, περιστερά μου, τελεία μου, ὅτι ἡ κεφαλή μου ἐπλήσθη δρόσου καὶ οἱ βόστρυχοί μου ψεκάδος νυκτός [5, 2]. Φησίν· ἐν μέσῳ τῆς νυκτὸς ὡς ἦλθεν ὁ νυμφίος, τὰς θύρας ἀναπέτασον, εἶπέ μοι, τῆς καρδίας, ὡς ἂν ἐν σοὶ ποιήσωμαι μονὴν σὺν τῷ πατρί μου. ταῖς ἀρεταῖς γὰρ πέφυκας ὄντως ἐμοῦ πλησίον. εἰ γοῦν ἀνοίξεις μοι, φησί, δώσω σοι δῶρον μέγα, τὴν δρόσον μου τῆς κεφαλῆς, ψεκάδας τῶν βοστρύχων, ἤγουν, ἰάσεις ἐκτελεῖν δώσω σοι πρὸς ἀνθρώπους· ἴαμα γὰρ ἡ δρόσος μου τυγχάνει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν θυροκρουστῶν, φησίν, ἐκεῖνος εἶπεν, ἐγὼ δ' ἐξεῖπον πρὸς αὐτόν, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸν νυμφίον· ἐξεδυσάμην τὸν χιτῶνά μου, πῶς ἐνδύσομαι αὐτόν; ἐνιψάμην τοὺς πόδας μου, πῶς μολυνῶ αὐτούς; [5, 3]. Ἐγώ, φησί, καὶ πρόπαλαι τὰς θύρας ἤνοιξά σοι· τὸ γὰρ τῆς παραβάσεως ἐξεδυσάμην πάχος, ὅπερ οὐκ ἐπενδύσομαι πώποτε μεταγνοῦσα, καὶ μολυσμὸν ἀπέρριψα τῆς γῆς ἐκ τῶν ποδῶν μου καὶ τούτους παρεσκεύασα πρὸς τρίβους σωτηρίας, οὕσπερ οὐκέτι μολυνῶ στραφεῖσα πρὸς τοὐπίσω. Τούτων αὐτῆς ὡς ἤκουσε τῶν λόγων ὁ νυμφίος, ἔνδον ἠθέλησεν αὐτῆς ὥσπερ κατασκηνῶσαι, ἀλλ' οὔκουν τὸν ἀχώρητον ἦν ὅλως χωρηθῆναι· ταύτην καὶ γὰρ ἐπλήρωσεν ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ καὶ μόνη, ὡς ἀπ' αὐτῶν μαθεῖν ἐστι τῆς νύμφης τῶν ᾀσμάτων. φησὶ γὰρ οὕτω καθεξῆς ἡ νύμφη καὶ παρθένος· ἀδελφιδός μου ἀπέστειλε χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀπῆς, καὶ ἡ κοιλία μου ἐθροήθη ἐπ' αὐτόν [5, 4]. Ἐγώ, φησί, κἂν ἤνοιξα πᾶσαν ἐμοῦ τὴν θύραν, ὡς ὑποδέξασθαι Χριστόν, τὸν λόγον καὶ νυμφίον, πλὴν μόλις εἰσελήλυθεν ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ καὶ μόνη· ὅθεν τὸ μέγεθος αὐτοῦ μεγάλως κατεπλάγην. καλῶς ἐφιλοσόφησεν ἡ καθαρὰ παρθένος. ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις γάρ, ἡ βραχυτάτη πάνυ ὅσον πρὸς φύσιν θεϊκήν, τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ νυμφίου ὅλην οὐ δύναται χωρεῖν τὴν θειοτάτην φύσιν, ὅσον ἐν ὑπολήψεσι καὶ ταῖς θεολογίαις. ἀνέστην ἐγὼ ἀνοῖξαι τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου· χεῖρές μου ἔσταξαν σμύρναν, οἱ δάκτυλοί μου σμύρναν πλήρη ἐπὶ χεῖρας τοῦ κλείθρου [5, 5]. Ἐγώ, φησίν, ὡς ἤνοιξα δέξασθαι τὸν νυμφίον, κἀκεῖνος ἦν ἀχώρητος ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς ἐγκάτοις, ἀνέστην πρὸς ἐπίπονον καὶ σκληροτέραν πρᾶξιν, ὅπως τοῖς πόνοις τοῖς πολλοῖς σαρκός τε τῇ νεκρώσει πλατύτερον ἀνοίξω μου τοῦ λογισμοῦ τὰς θύρας καὶ τὸν ἀχώρητον τὸ πρὶν εἰσδέξομαι νυμφίον. ὅθεν αἱ χεῖρές μου, φησί, μετὰ καὶ τῶν δακτύλων τοῖς πόνοις σμύρναν ἔσταξαν μέχρις αὐτῶν τῶν κλείθρων, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἀπενέκρωσα τὰ μέλη τῆς σαρκός μου, μέχρις τὰ κλεῖθρα ξύμπαντα καὶ θύρας ἤνοιξά μου καὶ πάσας ἀνεπέτασα τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθήσεις. ἤνοιξα ἐγὼ τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου, ἀδελφιδός μου παρῆλθε [5, 6]. Ἀλλὰ κἂν ἤνοιξα, φησίν, ἁπάσας μου τὰς θύρας, οὐδ' οὕτως ἦν μοι χωρητὸς ὁ λόγος καὶ νυμφίος. ἡ ψυχή μου ἐξῆλθεν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ [5, 6]. Εἶτα, φησίν, ἀνύψωσα τὸν νοῦν πρὸς τὸν αἰθέρα ποθοῦσα δήπουθεν μαθεῖν σαφές τι περὶ τούτου, ἀλλ' ὅμως ὑψηλότερος καὶ τῶν φρενῶν ὑπῆρχε. Φησὶ γὰρ οὕτω καθεξῆς ἡ νύμφη καὶ παρθένος· ἐζήτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν, ἐκάλεσα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουσέ μου [5, 6]. Καὶ πῶς γὰρ εὑρεθήσεται καὶ κρατηθήσεταί που, ὅστις οὐδέν τι πέφυκεν ἐκ τῶν γινωσκομένων, οὐκ εἶδος, οὐ χρωματισμός, οὐ τόπος, οὐ ποσότης; εὕροσάν με οἱ φύλακες οἱ κυκλοῦντες ἐν