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the power of understanding that light, and true virginity and the zeal for incorruption ends in this goal, to be able through it to see God; for that which is properly and primarily and solely beautiful and good and pure is the God of all, no one is so blind in mind as not to perceive this even from himself.

12.t Chapter 12. That he who has purified himself will behold the divine beauty in himself; in which also is discussed the cause of evil.

12.1 But perhaps no one is ignorant of this; but it is likely that some seek to know if

it is possible to find a method and a way that will guide us to this. Now, the divine books are full of such instruction, and many of the saints hold up their own lives like a lamp for those who walk according to God. But as for the suggestions from the divinely inspired scripture for the proposed purpose, it is possible for each one to gather them richly from both testaments; for many things in the prophets and the law, and many in the evangelical and apostolic traditions are available to be taken in abundance. But what we too may devise, following the divine voices, are these.

12.2 This rational and intellectual animal, man, having become a work and imitation of the divine and pure nature—for so it is written about him in the cosmogony, that "He made him in the image of God"—this animal, then, man, did not have in himself by nature nor essentially from his first generation that which is subject to passion and mortal—for it was not possible for the principle of the image to be preserved, if the depicted beauty was contrary to the archetype—but later passion was introduced to him after his first creation. And it was introduced in this way: he was an image and likeness, as has been said, of the power that rules over all things, and for this reason he also had the likeness to the one who has authority over all in the self-determination of his choice, not enslaved by any external necessity, but governed by his own judgment toward what seemed best and choosing what pleased him by his own authority. But this calamity, by which humanity is now held, he, being voluntarily led astray by deceit, brought upon himself, becoming himself the inventor of wickedness, not finding it as having come from God; "for God did not make death," but in a way man became the creator and craftsman of evil. For just as the participation in the sun's light is set before all in common who have the power of sight, but someone can, if he wishes, by closing his eye, be outside the perception of the light, not because the sun withdraws elsewhere and thus brings darkness upon him, but because the man, by closing his eyelids, has walled off his eye from the ray—for since the power of sight is unable to be active when the eyes are closed, it is altogether necessary that the inactivity of sight becomes the activity of darkness, being constituted voluntarily in the man through his lack of sight—or as if someone building a house for himself were to cut no passage into it for the light to enter inside, he will necessarily live in darkness, having willingly closed off the entrance to the rays; so also "the first man, from the earth," or rather, he who begot wickedness in man, had in his nature the beautiful and the good set before him from all sides by his own authority, but voluntarily against himself the things contrary to nature

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ἡ δύναμις τῆς τοῦ φωτὸς ἐκείνου κατανοήσεως, καὶ ἡ ἀληθινὴ παρθενία καὶ ἡ περὶ τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν σπουδὴ εἰς τοῦτον τὸν σκοπὸν καταλήγει, τὸ δι' αὐτῆς δυνηθῆναι τὸν θεὸν ἰδεῖν· ὅτι γὰρ τὸ κυρίως καὶ πρώτως καὶ μόνως καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ καθαρὸν ὁ τῶν ὅλων ἐστὶ θεός, οὐδεὶς οὕτω τυφλὸς τὴν διάνοιαν, ὡς μὴ καὶ ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ συνιδεῖν.

12.t Κεφάλαιον ιβʹ Ὅτι ὁ ἑαυτὸν ἐκκαθάρας ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ θεῖον κάλλος κατόψεται· ἐν ᾧ καὶ περὶ τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ αἰτίας.

12.1 Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἴσως οὐδεὶς ἀγνοεῖ· ἐπιζητεῖν δὲ εἰκός τινας, εἰ

δυνατόν ἐστιν οἷόν τινα μέθοδον καὶ ἀγωγὴν τὴν πρὸς τοῦτο χειραγωγοῦσαν ἡμᾶς ἐξευρεῖν. Μεσταὶ μὲν οὖν αἱ θεῖαι βίβλοι τῆς τοιαύτης εἰσὶν ὑφηγήσεως, πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν ἁγίων καθάπερ τινὰ λύχνον τὸν ἑαυτῶν βίον τοῖς κατὰ θεὸν πορευομένοις προφαίνουσιν. Ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἐκ τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς εἰς τὸν προκείμενον σκοπὸν ὑποθήκας ἔξεστιν ἑκάστῳ πλουσίως ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν διαθηκῶν ἀναλέξασθαι· πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν προφήταις καὶ νόμῳ, πολλὰ δὲ ἐν εὐαγγελικαῖς τε καὶ ἀποστολικαῖς πα ραδόσεσι πάρεστιν ἀφθόνως λαβεῖν. Ὅσα δ' ἂν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐπινοήσαιμεν ταῖς θείαις ἀκολουθοῦντες φωναῖς, ταῦτά ἐστι.

12.2 Τὸ λογικὸν τοῦτο καὶ διανοητικὸν ζῷον ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τῆς θείας τε καὶ ἀκηράτου φύσεως ἔργον καὶ μίμημα γε γονώς-οὕτω γὰρ ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἀναγέγρα πται, ὅτι «Κατ' εἰκόνα θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν»-, τοῦτο οὖν τὸ ζῷον, ὁ ἄνθρωπος, οὐ κατὰ φύσιν οὐδὲ συνουσιωμένον ἔσχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ παρὰ τὴν πρώτην γένεσιν τὸ παθητικόν τε καὶ ἐπίκηρον-οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν δυνατὸν τὸν τῆς εἰκόνος διασω θῆναι λόγον, εἰ ὑπεναντίως εἶχε τὸ ἀπεικονισμένον κάλλος πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον-, ἀλλ' ὕστερον ἐπεισήχθη τὸ πάθος αὐ τῷ μετὰ τὴν πρώτην κατασκευήν. Ἐπεισήχθη δὲ οὕτως· εἰκὼν ἦν καὶ ὁμοίωμα, καθὼς εἴρηται, τῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων βασιλευούσης δυνάμεως καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐν τῷ αὐτεξουσίῳ τῆς προαιρέσεως πρὸς τὸν ἐξουσιάζοντα πάν των εἶχε τὴν ὁμοιότητα, οὐδεμιᾷ τινι τῶν ἔξωθεν ἀνάγκῃ δεδουλωμένος, ἀλλὰ τῇ γνώμῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν διοικούμενος καὶ τὸ ἀρέσκον αὐτῷ κατ' ἐξουσίαν αἱρού μενος. Τὴν δὲ συμφορὰν ταύτην, ᾗ νῦν κεκράτηται τὸ ἀν θρώπινον, αὐτὸς ἐθελοντὴς ἀπάτῃ παρενεχθεὶς ἐπεσπά σατο, αὐτὸς τῆς κακίας εὑρετὴς γενόμενος, οὐχὶ παρὰ θεοῦ γενομένην εὑρών· «θεὸς γὰρ θάνατον οὐκ ἐποίησεν», ἀλλὰ τρόπον τινὰ κτίστης καὶ δημιουργὸς τοῦ κακοῦ κατέστη ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Καθάπερ γὰρ τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς κοινὴ μὲν πρόκειται πᾶσιν ἡ μετουσία οἷς ἡ τοῦ ὁρᾶν δύναμις πάρεστι, δύναται δέ τις, εἰ βουληθείη, μύσας τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἔξω γενέσθαι τῆς τοῦ φωτὸς ἀντιλήψεως, οὐ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀποχωροῦντος ἑτέρωθι καὶ οὕτως ἐκείνῳ τὸ σκότος ἐπάγοντος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διὰ τῆς ἐπιμύσεως τῶν βλεφάρων τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς ἀκτῖνος διατειχίσαντος -τῆς γὰρ ὁρατικῆς δυνάμεως ἐν τῇ ἐπιμύσει τῶν ὀμμά των ἐνεργεῖν ἀδυνατούσης, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τὴν ἀργίαν τῆς ὁρά σεως σκότους ἐνέργειαν γίνεσθαι ἑκουσίως ἐν τῷ ἀν θρώπῳ διὰ τῆς ἀορασίας συνισταμένην-· ἢ ὥσπερ εἴ τις οἰκίαν ἑαυτῷ κατασκευάζων μηδεμίαν ἐντέμοι τῷ φωτὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔσω πάροδον, ἀναγκαίως ἐν σκότῳ βιώσεται ἑκὼν ἀποκλείσας ταῖς ἀκτῖσι τὴν εἴσοδον· οὕτω καὶ «ὁ πρῶτος ἐκ γῆς ἄνθρωπος», μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ τὴν κακίαν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γεννήσας, ἐν μὲν τῇ φύσει τὸ καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἔσχεν ἁπανταχόθεν προκείμενον, ἐθελοντὴς δὲ καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὰ παρὰ φύσιν