21

to be able to think with impunity that [souls] come into bodies for the punishment of pre-existing evils, but also to reasonably attempt to deceive others into holding this view through the credibility of their persons, not acting rightly or piously; but leaving them to hold what they hold, we ourselves will piously examine the mind of the teacher, in addition to what has been said, in another way as well.

I do not think that he wishes here to recount the cause of human generation, 1092 but of the misery that has come upon it. For having lamented the wretchedness of our body by saying, "O the conjunction and the alienation! What I fear, I tend to, and what I love, I dread,” and the rest, and having, as it were, (14∆_096> questioned himself about the cause of the evils by which we are beset and of the most wise providence regarding it by saying, "What is the wisdom concerning me, and what is this great mystery?" he adds the solution, making it clear thus: "She wishes that we, being a portion of God and having flowed from above—so that we might not, being lifted up and exalted on account of our dignity, despise the Creator—should always look to Him in the struggle and battle with the body, and that the conjoined weakness should be a discipline for our dignity."

As if he were saying, since man was made by God from soul and body out of goodness, for the purpose that the rational and intellectual soul given to him—existing, as it does, in the image of its Maker—(on the one hand, cleaving firmly to God in knowledge, according to its desire and the total love from its whole power, and having acquired that which is according to the likeness) be deified, and (on the other hand, wisely caring for the body, according to its scientific providence towards what is subordinate and the commandment that bids us to love our neighbor as ourselves) also make it rational through the virtues and appropriate it to God as a fellow servant, with itself as mediator making the Creator an indweller, and making Him who bound them together an indissoluble bond of the given immortality for it, in order that what God is to the soul, this the soul might become to the body, and the one Creator of all might be revealed, analogously pervading all beings through humanity, and the many things naturally distinct from one another might come into one, converging with one another around the one nature of man, and God Himself might become all in all, having taken all things and given them subsistence in Himself, through nothing that exists any longer possessing its own motion and being deprived of His presence, by which we both are and are called gods and children and body (14∆_098> and members and a portion of God and such things, with reference to the final goal of the divine purpose.

Since, therefore, man came to be this and for this purpose, but in the forefather he used his readiness for power for the worse, transferring his desire from what was permitted to what was forbidden (for he was self-determining, and being deceived chose to be joined to the prostitute and become one body, rather than to be joined to the Lord and become one spirit, and he willingly alienated himself from the divine and blessed purpose, preferring by choice to become dust over being God by grace), God, who administers our salvation wisely and philanthropically 1093 and in a manner befitting His goodness, fittingly attached the punishment that follows upon the irrational movement of our intellectual power, punishing with death, perhaps according to the likely account, that very thing around which we had squandered the power of love owed intellectually to God alone, so that we, by loving what is nothing, might at some point learn through suffering and be taught to lead this power back again toward that which truly is. Which he makes clearer as he proceeds, saying, "But for this reason also it seems to me that none of the goods here are trustworthy for men, nor long-lasting, but if anything, this too has been well contrived by the artisan Word and the wisdom that surpasses all intellect, that we are toyed with by the things that are seen, as they change in one way and another

21

σώματα ἐλθεῖν ἐπί τιμωρίᾳ τῶν προγεγονότων κακῶν φρονεῖν ἐπ᾿ ἀδείας δύνασθαι, ἀλλά καί ἄλλους ἀπατᾷν οὕτως ἔχειν εὐλόγως ἐπιχειρεῖν διά τῆς τῶν προσώπων ἀξιοπιστίας, οὐ καλῶς οὐδ᾿ ὁσίως πράττοντας, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκείνους ἔχοντας ἀφέντες ὡς ἔχουσιν αὐτοί εὐσεβῶς ἡμεῖς τόν νοῦν τοῦ διδασκάλου πρός τοῖς εἰρημένοις καί κατ᾿ ἄλλον σκοπήσομεν τρόπον.

Οὐκ οἶμαι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης αὐτόν γενέσεως ἐνταῦθα, 1092 ἀλλά τῆς ἐπιγενομένης αὐτῇ ταλαιπωρίας τήν αἰτίαν ἀφηγεῖσθαι βούλεσθαι. Θρηνήσας γάρ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν τήν ἐλεεινότητα διά τοῦ εἰπεῖν, " Ὤ τῆς συζυγίας καί τῆς ἀλλοτριώσεως! ὅ φοβοῦμαι, περιέπω, καί ὅ στέργω, δέδοικα», καί τά ἑξῆς, καί οἷον (14∆_096> πρός ἑαυτόν διαπορήσας περί τῆς αἰτίας τῶν οἷς ἐνισχήμεθα κακῶν καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν σοφωτάτης προνοίας διά τοῦ φάναι. " Τίς ἡ περί ἐμέ σοφία, καί τί τό μέγα τοῦτο μυστήριον; " ἐπάγει τήν λύσιν τρανῶς ποιούμενος οὕτως· " Ἡ βούλεται μοῖραν ἡμᾶς ὄντας Θεοῦ καί ἄνωθεν ῥεύσαντας, ἵνα μή διά τήν ἀξίαν ἐπαιρόμενοι καί μετεωριζόμενοι καταφρονῶμεν τοῦ Κτίσαντος, ἐν τῇ πρός τό σῶμα πάλῃ καί μάχῃ πρός αὐτόν ἀεί βλέπειν, καί τήν συνεζευγμένην ἀσθένειαν παιδαγωγίαν εἶναι τοῦ ἀξιώματος».

Ὡσανεί ἔλεγεν, ἐπειδήπερ ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα ὁ ἄνθρωπος γέγονε παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τήν δοθεῖσαν αὐτῷ λογικήν τε καί νοεράν ψυχήν, ἅτε δή κατ᾿ εἰκόνα τοῦ ποιήσαντος αὐτήν ὑπάρχουσαν, κατά μέν τήν ἔφεσιν καί τήν ἐξ ὅλης δυνάμεως ὁλικήν ἀγάπην ἀπρίξ Θεοῦ γνωστικῶς ἐχομένην, καί τό καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν προσλαβοῦσαν θεωθῆναι, κατά δέ τήν ἐπιστημονικήν πρός τό ὑφείμενον πρόνοιαν, καί τήν περί τό ἀγαπᾷν τόν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτόν κελεύουσαν ἐντολήν, ἐμφρόνως τοῦ σώματος ἀντεχομένην, λογίσαι τε δι᾿ ἀρετῶν αὐτό καί οἰκειῶσαι Θεῷ ὡς ὁμόδουλον δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς μεσιτευούσης τόν ποιητήν ἔνοικον, καί τῆς δοθείσης ἀθανασίας ἄλυτον δεσμόν αὐτόν ποιησομένην αὐτῷ τόν συνδήσαντα, ἵν᾿ ὅπερ ἐστί Θεός ψυχῇ, τοῦτο ψυχή σώματι γένηται, καί εἷς ἀποδειχθῇ τῶν ὅλων ∆ημιουργός, ἀναλόγως διά τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος πᾶσιν ἐπιβατεύων τοῖς οὖσι, καί εἰς ἕν ἔλθῃ τά πολλά ἀλλήλων κατά τήν φύσιν διεστηκότα περί τήν μίαν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσιν ἀλλήλοις συννεύοντα, καί γένηται τά πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτός ὁ Θεός, πάντα παραλαβών καί ἐνυποστήσας ἑαυτῷ, διά τοῦ μηδέν ἔτι τῶν ὄντων κεκτῆσθαι τήν κίνησιν, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ ἄμοιρον παρουσίας, καθ᾿ ἥν καί θεοί καί τέκνα καί σῶμα (14∆_098> καί μέλη καί μοῖρα Θεοῦ καί τά τοιαῦτά ἐσμεν καί λεγόμεθα τῇ πρός τό τέλος ἀναφορᾷ τοῦ θείου σκοποῦ.

Ἐπειδή τοίνυν τοῦτο καί ἐπί τούτῳ ὁ ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, ἐν δέ τῷ προπάτορι τῷ ἑτοίμῳ πρός ἐξουσίαν ἐπί χεῖρον ἐχρήσατο, μετενεγκών ἐκ τοῦ ἐπιτετραμμένου πρός τό κεκωλυμένον τήν ὄρεξιν (καί γάρ ἦν αὐτεξούσιος, καί τοῦ κολληθῆναι τῷ Κυρίῳ καί ἕν πνεῦμα γεγέσθαι, καί τοῦ κολληθῆναι τῇ πόρνῃ καί ἕν σῶμα γενέσθαι, ἀπατηθείς προείλετο, καί τοῦ θείου καί μακαρίου σκοποῦ ἑκών ἑαυτόν ἀπεξένωσε, τοῦ Θεός εἶναι, χάριτι τό χοῦς γενέσθαι καθ᾿ αἵρεσιν προτιμήσας) , σοφῶς ἅμα καί φιλανθρώπως 1093 καί τῇ αὐτοῦ πρεπόντως ἀγαθότητι ὁ τήν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν οἰκονομῶν Θεός τῇ παραλόγῳ κινήσει τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν νοερᾶς δυνάμεως παρεπομένην δεόντως τήν τιμωρίαν παρέπηξεν, αὐτό ἐκεῖνο τυχόν κατά τόν εἰκότα λόγον κολάσας θανάτῳ, περί ὅ τήν κατά νοῦν μόνῳ Θεῷ χρεωστούμενην τῆς ἀγάπης δύναμιν κατεῤῥήξαμεν, ἵνα τοῦ μηδενός ἐρῶντες διά τοῦ πάσχειν ποτέ μαθόντες πρός τό ὅν πάλιν ταύτην ἐπανάγειν διδαχθῶμεν τήν δύναμιν. Ὅπερ προϊών ἐμφανέστερον ποιεῖται λέγων, " Ἀλλ᾿ ἐμοί μέν καί διά τοῦτο δοκεῖ μηδέν τῶν ἐνταῦθα ἀγαθῶν εἶναι πιστόν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, μηδέ πολυχρόνιον, ἀλλ᾿ εἴπερ τι ἄλλο, καί τοῦτο καλῶς τῷ τεχνίτῃ λόγῳ καί τῇ πάντα νοῦν ὑπερεχούσῃ σοφίᾳ μεμηχανῆσθαι, παίζεσθαι ἡμᾶς ἐν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις, ἄλλοτε ἄλλως μεταβαλλομένοις