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a deceiver, but he became a counselor of what is expedient, making him a man out of a wild beast. But may it not be so; these things are not so, they are not. For if he did not know what was good, and what was evil, how did he also receive the commandment? For no one gives a law to one who does not know that transgression is evil; but God both gave it, and punished him when he transgressed, and He would not have done both these things, if He had not made him from the beginning capable of knowing virtue and vice. Do you see how it has been demonstrated to us from all sides, that it was not after the eating of the tree that he knew good and evil, but that he understood it even before this? Let us therefore hold fast to all these things, beloved, and having returned home, let us set a double table, that of food, and that of hearing, and let the husband speak the things that were said, and let the wife learn, and let the children also hear, and let not even the servants be deprived of this hearing. Make your house a church; for you are responsible both for the salvation of your children and of your servants; and just as we are required to give an account for you, so also each of you is required to give an account for servant, and for wife, and for child. From such narratives, then, our dreams will follow most pleasantly, and freed from all fantasy; for whatever the soul is accustomed to meditate on during the day, such things it also imagines in sleep. And if we keep what is said each day, we shall not need much labor; for the discourse after this will be clearer to you, and our teaching more eager. So that, therefore, there may be some gain both for us and for you, for us from the teaching, and for you from the hearing, along with the bodily table let the spiritual table also be set for you. For those things will become security and adornment for you, and God will direct the things of the present life toward what is profitable, and all things will be most easy and convenient for you. For seek, He says, first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you. Let us seek this, therefore, beloved, that we may obtain the good things both here and there, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY VII. Why the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what is the meaning of, Today you will be with me in paradise.

1. I exhorted your love much yesterday to remember the things that were said, and in the evening to set 54.608 a double table, that of foods, and adding the feast from the words. What then? Did you do this, and set the double table? I know that you did, and that you partook not only of that one, but of this one also. For surely, having been zealous for the lesser, you were not going to neglect the better. For this one is better than that one. For the hands of cooks composed the one, but the tongues of prophets prepared this one; and the one has the growths from the earth, but the other has the fruit from the Spirit; and the foods of this table hasten toward corruption, but those of that one toward incorruption; and this one sustains our present life, but that one guides us to the life to come. That you set this one along with that one, then, I know, not by having asked your attendant, nor your servant, but the clearer messenger of these things. Who is this? The applause for what was said, the praise for the teaching. For when I said yesterday, "Let each of you make his house a church," you cried out loudly, showing the pleasure you took in what was said. And the one who

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ἀπατεὼν, ἀλλὰ σύμβουλος τῶν συμφερόντων κατέστη, ἐκ θηρίου ποιήσας αὐτὸν ἄνθρωπον. Ἀλλὰ μὴ γένοιτο· οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα οὕτως, οὐκ ἔστιν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ᾔδει τί μὲν καλὸν, τί δὲ πονηρὸν, πῶς καὶ τὴν ἐντολὴν ἐλάμβανεν; Οὐδεὶς γὰρ δίδωσι νόμον τῷ μὴ εἰδότι, ὅτι κακὸν ἡ παράβασις· ὁ δὲ Θεὸς καὶ ἔδωκε, καὶ παραβάντα ἐκόλασεν, οὐκ ἂν ἀμφότερα ταῦτα ποιήσας, εἰ μὴ γνωστικὸν αὐτὸν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐποίησεν ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας. Ὁρᾷς πῶς πάντοθεν ἡμῖν ἀποδέδεικται, ὅτι οὐ μετὰ τὴν βρῶσιν τοῦ ξύλου τὸ καλὸν ᾔδει καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸ τούτου ἠπίστατο; Ταῦτα οὖν ἅπαντα, ἀγαπητοὶ, διακρατῶμεν, καὶ οἴκαδε ἀναχωρήσαντες διπλῆν παραθῶμεν τὴν τράπεζαν, τὴν τῶν σιτίων, καὶ τὴν τῆς ἀκροάσεως, καὶ λεγέτω μὲν ἁνὴρ τὰ εἰρημένα, μανθανέτω δὲ γυνὴ, ἀκουέτω δὲ καὶ παιδία, μὴ ἀποστερείσθωσαν δὲ μηδὲ οἰκέται τῆς ἀκροάσεως ταύτης. Ἐκκλησίαν ποίησόν σου τὴν οἰκίαν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὑπεύθυνος εἶ καὶ τῆς τῶν παιδίων καὶ τῆς τῶν οἰκετῶν σωτηρίας· καὶ καθάπερ ἡμεῖς ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἀπαιτούμεθα λόγον. οὕτω καὶ ἕκαστος ὑμῶν καὶ ὑπὲρ οἰκέτου, καὶ ὑπὲρ γυναικὸς, καὶ ὑπὲρ παιδὸς ἀπαιτεῖται εὐθύνας. Ἀπὸ γοῦν τῶν τοιούτων διηγημάτων ἥδιστα διαδέξεται ἡμᾶς τὰ ὀνείρατα, καὶ φαντασίας ἀπηλλαγμένα ἁπάσης· οἷα γὰρ μεθ' ἡμέραν ἡ ψυχὴ μελετᾷν εἴωθε, τοιαῦτα καὶ καθ' ὕπνους φαντάζεται. Καὶ ἐὰν τὰ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν φυλάττωμεν λεγόμενα, οὐ πολλοῦ δεηθησόμεθα πόνου· καὶ γὰρ σαφέστερος ὁ μετὰ ταῦτα λόγος ὑμῖν ἔσται, καὶ ἡμῖν προθυμοτέρα ἡ διδασκαλία. Ἵν' οὖν γένηταί τι πλέον καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἡμῖν μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς διδασκαλίας, ὑμῖν δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀκροάσεως, μετὰ τῆς σωματικῆς τραπέζης καὶ ἡ τράπεζα ὑμῖν παρατιθέσθω ἡ πνευματική. Καὶ γὰρ ἀσφάλεια καὶ κόσμος ἐκεῖνα ὑμῖν γενήσεται, καὶ τὰ τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον ὁ Θεὸς κατευθυνεῖ, καὶ ῥᾷστα ὑμῖν ἔσται πάντα καὶ εὔκολα. Ζητεῖτε γὰρ, φησὶ, πρῶτον τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ πάντα ταῦτα προστεθήσεται ὑμῖν. Ζητῶμεν οὖν ταύτην, ἀγαπητοὶ, ἵνα καὶ τῶν ἐνταῦθα καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ ἐπιτύχωμεν ἀγαθῶν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ καὶ μεθ' οὗ δόξα τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΛΟΓΟΣ Ζʹ. ∆ιὰ τί ξύλον γνωστὸν καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ καλεῖται τὸ ξύλον, καὶ τί ποτέ

ἐστι, Σήμερον μετ' ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ. αʹ. Πολλὰ παρεκάλεσα χθὲς τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην μεμνῆσθαι τῶν εἰρημένων, καὶ διπλῆν ἐν ἑσπέρᾳ παραθεῖ 54.608 ναι τὴν τράπεζαν, τὴν τῶν βρωμάτων, καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων προστιθέντας ἑστίασιν. Τί οὖν; ἐποιήσατε τοῦτο, καὶ παρεθήκατε διπλῆν τὴν τράπεζαν; Οἶδα ὅτι ἐποιήσατε, καὶ οὐκ ἐκείνης μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταύτης μετέσχετε. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ περὶ τὴν ἐλάττω σπουδάσαντες, τῆς βελτίονος ἐμέλλετε ἀμελεῖν. Καὶ γὰρ βελτίων ἐκείνης αὕτη. Τὴν μὲν γὰρ μαγείρων συνέθηκαν χεῖρες, ταύτην δὲ προφητῶν παρεσκεύασαν γλῶσσαι· καὶ ἡ μὲν τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἔχει βλαστήματα, ἡ δὲ τὸν καρπὸν τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος· καὶ ταύτης μὲν τῆς τραπέζης πρὸς φθορὰν ἐπείγεται τὰ σιτία, τὰ δὲ ἐκείνης πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν· καὶ αὕτη μὲν τὴν παροῦσαν ἡμῶν συγκρατεῖ ζωὴν, ἐκείνη δὲ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν ἡμᾶς ὁδηγεῖ. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν παρεθήκατε μετ' ἐκείνης καὶ ταύτην, οἶδα, οὐκ ἀκόλουθον ὑμῶν ἐρωτήσας, οὐκ οἰκέτην, ἀλλὰ τὸν τούτων σαφέστερον ἄγγελον. Τίνα δὴ τοῦτον; Τὸν κρότον τῶν εἰρημένων, τὸν ἔπαινον τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἶπον χθὲς, ὅτι Ἕκαστος ὑμῶν ποιησάτω τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ ἐκκλησίαν, μέγα ἀνακεκράγατε, δηλοῦντες τὴν ἡδονὴν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς εἰρημένοις. Ὁ δὲ