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our hearts only,” then they will be turned to that divine joy and gladness, gazing upon the ineffable beauty of that which was found. “For ‘Rejoice with me,’ he says, ‘for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’” And the neighboring or cohabiting powers of the soul, which rejoice at the finding of the divine drachma—the rational, the appetitive, and the disposition which arises from grief and anger, and if there are any other powers contemplated in the soul—would reasonably be considered friends, all of whom it is fitting to “rejoice in the Lord” when they all look to the beautiful and the good and do all things for the glory of God, no longer becoming weapons of sin.

12.4 If, then, this is the meaning of the finding of that which was sought, the restoration of the divine image—now concealed in the filth of the flesh—to its original state, let us become that which the first-formed man was in his first life. What then was he? Naked of the covering of dead skins, seeing the face of God with boldness, not yet judging the beautiful through taste and sight, but only “delighting in the Lord” and using the given helper for this purpose, as the divine scripture indicates, that he did not know her before he was exiled from paradise and before she, in place of the sin which she committed when deceived, was condemned to the punishment of birth pangs. By this sequence, therefore, we came to be outside paradise, having been cast out with our forefather, and now it is possible for us, by reversing the course, to return to our ancient blessedness. What then is the sequence? Pleasure arising through deception then began the fall. Then shame and fear followed upon the passion of pleasure, and the no longer daring to be in the sight of the creator but hiding oneself under leaves and shadows. After this they are covered with dead skins and thus are sent as exiles to this diseased and toilsome place, in which marriage was devised as a consolation for dying.

13.t Chapter 13. That the beginning of care for oneself is freedom from marriage.

13.1 If, then, we are to depart from here and be with Christ, it is fitting to begin the departure from the last thing, just as those exiled from their own homes, when they return from whence they set out, first leave that place which they encountered last as they were proceeding. Since, therefore, marriage is the last thing of the separation from the life in paradise, the word directs those departing to Christ to first leave this, as it were, a final station; then to withdraw from the misery concerning the earth, in which man was established after the sin; thereupon to be outside the coverings of the flesh, having put off the “tunics of skin,” that is, “the mind of the flesh,” and “having renounced all the hidden things of shame,” no longer to be overshadowed by the fig tree of this bitter life, but having cast off the coverings of life from these temporary leaves, to be again in the sight of the creator, and to reject the deception according to taste and sight, and to no longer have the venomous serpent as a counselor, but only the commandment of God. And this is to touch only the good, but to reject the taste of evil, since from there the beginning of the sequence of evils took hold for us, from not willing the evil

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μόνας τὰς καρδίας» ἡμῶν, τότε ἐπὶ τὴν θείαν ἐκείνην χαράν τε καὶ εὐφροσύνην ἐπιστραφήσονται, τῷ ἀφράστῳ κάλλει τοῦ εὑρεθέντος ἐνατενίζουσαι. «Συγχά ρητε γάρ μοι», φησίν, «ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμήν, ἣν ἀπώ λεσα.» Αἱ δὲ γείτονες ἤτοι σύνοικοι τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις αἱ ἐπὶ τῇ εὑρέσει τῆς θείας δραχμῆς εὐφραινόμεναι, ἡ λογιστική τε καὶ ἐπιθυμητικὴ καὶ ἡ κατὰ λύπην τε καὶ ὀργὴν ἐγγινο μένη διάθεσις, καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλαι δυνάμεις εἰσὶ περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν θεωρούμεναι, εἰκότως ἂν καὶ φίλαι εἶναι νομίζοιντο, ἃς πάσας τότε «χαίρειν ἐν κυρίῳ» εἰκός, ὅταν αἱ πᾶσαι πρὸς τὸ καλόν τε καὶ ἀγαθὸν βλέπωσι καὶ πάντα εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ ἐνεργῶσι, μηκέτι τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὅπλα γινόμεναι.

12.4 Εἰ οὖν αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπίνοια τῆς τοῦ ζητουμένου εὑρέσεως, ἡ τῆς θείας εἰκόνος εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἀποκατάστα σις τῆς νῦν ἐν τῷ τῆς σαρκὸς ῥύπῳ κεκαλυμμένης, ἐκεῖνο γενώμεθα, ὃ ἦν παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ζωὴν ὁ πρωτόπλαστος. Τί οὖν ἐκεῖνος ἦν; Γυμνὸς μὲν τῆς τῶν νεκρῶν δερμάτων ἐπιβολῆς, ἐν παρρησίᾳ δὲ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πρόσωπον βλέπων, οὔπω δὲ διὰ γεύσεως καὶ ὁράσεως τὸ καλὸν κρίνων, ἀλλὰ μόνον «τοῦ κυρίου κατατρυφῶν» καὶ τῇ δοθείσῃ βοηθῷ πρὸς τοῦτο συγχρώμενος, καθὼς ἐπισημαίνεται ἡ θεία γραφή, ὅτι οὐ πρότερον αὐτὴν ἔγνω, πρὶν ἐξορισθῆναι τοῦ παραδείσου καὶ πρὶν ἐκείνην ἀντὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἣν ἀπατηθεῖσα ἐξήμαρτε, τῇ τῶν ὠδίνων τιμωρίᾳ κατα κριθῆναι. ∆ι' ἧς τοίνυν ἀκολουθίας ἔξω τοῦ παραδείσου γεγόναμεν τῷ προπάτορι συνεκβληθέντες, καὶ νῦν διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔξεστιν ἡμῖν παλινδρομήσασιν ἐπανελθεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν μακαριότητα. Τίς οὖν ἡ ἀκολουθία; Ἡδονὴ τότε δι' ἀπάτης ἐγγενομένη τῆς ἐκπτώσεως ἤρξατο. Εἶτα αἰσχύνη καὶ φόβος τῷ τῆς ἡδονῆς πάθει ἐπηκολούθησε καὶ τὸ μηκέτι λοιπὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς εἶναι τολμᾶν τοῦ κτί σαντος ἀλλὰ φύλλοις καὶ σκιαῖς ὑποκρύπτεσθαι. ∆έρμασι νεκροῖς μετὰ ταῦτα περικαλύπτονται καὶ οὕτως εἰς τὸ νοσῶδες τοῦτο καὶ ἐπίπονον χωρίον ἄποικοι πέμπονται, ἐν ᾧ ὁ γάμος παραμυθία τοῦ ἀποθνῄσκειν ἐπενοήθη.

13.t Κεφάλαιον ιγʹ Ὅτι ἀρχὴ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἐπιμελείας ἡ ἀπαλλαγὴ τοῦ

γάμου ἐστίν.

13.1 Εἰ οὖν μέλλομεν ἀναλύειν ἐντεῦθεν καὶ σὺν Χριστῷ γίνεσθαι, πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ τελευταίου προσήκει τῆς ἀνα λύσεως ἄρξασθαι, ὥσπερ οἱ τῶν οἰκείων ἀποξενωθέντες, ἐπειδὰν ἐπιστρέφωσιν ὅθεν ὥρμησαν, πρῶτον ἐκεῖνον καταλείπουσι τὸν τόπον ᾧ τελευταῖον προϊόντες συνέτυχον. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τοῦ χωρισμοῦ τῆς ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ ζωῆς τὸ τελευταῖον ὁ γάμος ἐστί, τοῦτον πρῶτον καταλιπεῖν ὥσπερ τινὰ σταθμὸν ἔσχατον τοῖς πρὸς τὸν Χριστὸν ἀναλύουσιν ὑφηγεῖται ὁ λόγος· εἶτα τῆς περὶ τὴν γῆν ταλαιπωρίας ἀναχωρῆσαι, ᾗ ἐνιδρύνθη μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὁ ἄνθρωπος· ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἔξω τῶν τῆς σαρκὸς προκαλυμμάτων γενέσθαι, τοὺς «δερματίνους χιτῶνας», τουτέστι «τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς» ἐκδυσαμένους, καὶ πάντα «ἀπειπαμένους τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς αἰσχύνης», μηκέτι τῇ συκῇ τοῦ πικροῦ βίου ὑποσκιά ζεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἀπορρίψαντας τὰ ἐκ τῶν προσκαίρων τούτων φύλλων τῆς ζωῆς προκαλύμματα ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς γίνεσθαι πάλιν τοῦ κτίσαντος, τήν τε κατὰ γεῦσιν καὶ ὄψιν ἀπάτην ἀπώσασθαι, σύμβουλόν τε μηκέτι τὸν ἰοβόλον ὄφιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ μόνην ἔχειν. Αὕτη δέ ἐστι τὸ τοῦ καλοῦ μόνου ἅπτεσθαι, τὴν δὲ τοῦ πονηροῦ γεῦσιν ἀπώ σασθαι, ὡς ἐκεῖθεν ἡμῖν τῆς τῶν κακῶν ἀκολουθίας τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβούσης, ἐκ τοῦ μὴ θελῆσαι τὸ κακὸν