,

may consume their wickedness like fire, completely eradicating it from nature, having stripped off at the time of death on the cross the principalities and the powers, remaining unconsumed by the pains, but rather appearing terrible against death, having driven out the passibility according to pain from nature; for man, whose will was averted from it through cowardice, being always tyrannized by the fear of death and against his will, for the sake of living, clung to the slavery according to pleasure.

The Lord, therefore, stripped off the principalities and the powers during the first trial of temptations in the desert, having healed the passibility according to pleasure of the whole of nature; and he stripped them off again at the time of death, having likewise driven out from nature the passibility according to pain, making what was accomplished for us his own through philanthropy, as if he were responsible, or rather, as the Good One, reckoning the glory of the accomplishments to us. For since, having taken on like us, without sin, the passibility of nature, 14Β_128 through which every wicked and destructive power is wont to effect its own ends, at the time of death he stripped off those that came upon him for the sake of investigation, both triumphing over and making a public example of them on the cross at the departure of his soul, since they found nothing at all of their own in the passibility of his nature, when they most expected, on account of the natural passibility according to the flesh, to find something entirely human, he rightly, through himself, by his power and as through a kind of first-fruits of his holy flesh from us, freed the entire nature of human beings from the evil mixed into it according to its passibility, having subjected to the very passibility of nature the wicked dominion that once reigned in it, I mean, in its passibility.

It was possible, indeed, to contemplate the account of this matter in another, more mystical and elevated way. But since, as you know, the more ineffable aspects of the divine dogmas must not be set down in writing, let us be content with what has been said, which dissuades a mind overly curious about this. And if God grants that I be deemed worthy to be in your presence, we shall together examine the apostolic meaning with a love of learning.

SCHOLIA 1. He calls "coming-into-being" the first fashioning of man by God; and "generation",

the succession from one another that came later by condemnation on account of the transgression. 2. He calls "vices" the activities of unclean spirits. The passions are of two

kinds; the one is the unnatural passions, which are vices always opposed to the virtues, unable ever to be manifested in the virtues; the other kind are those 14Β_130 passions, which, although not made by God in the nature of human beings, yet entered it together with the transgression, for which reason, considered in themselves, they are bad, but are able to be changed into good things by those who use them well, which are both pleasure and pain, and both desire and fear, in which vices are hidden, through which the opposing powers are wont to perform unjust actions.

3. He calls pleasure and pain, desire and fear, "movements of the soul," taken as both good and bad, in which the vices latently subsist.

4. He names the succession of human beings an "adventitious generation" to our nature, by bodily union, similar to the animals. For if the nature of man had not fallen through the first man by the transgression, the multiplication of the human race would not have happened by the union of bodies, which is the penalty for the transgression, but by some wondrous divine manner, without any defilement of seed.

5. He names "succession" the generation of human beings from seed through union, which was not in his nature, but is a penalty adventitious to nature.

αὐτῶν πονηρίας ὡς πῦρ δαπανήσῃ, παντελῶς ἐξαφανίσας τῆς φύσεως, ἀπεκδυσάμενος κατὰ τὸν τοῦ θανάτου καιρὸν ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας, μείνας τοῖς πόνοις ἀνάλωτος, μᾶλλον δὲ φοβερὸς φανεὶς κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου, τὸ κατ᾽ ὀδύνην παθητὸν ἐξηλώσας τῆς φύσεως· ἧς ἀπορρέπουσαν διὰ τῆς δειλίας τὴν γνώμην ἔχων ὁ ἄνθρωπος διαπαντὸς φόβῳ θανάτου καὶ παρὰ γνώμην τυραννούμενος διὰ τὸ ζῆν τῆς καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν ἀντείχετο δουλείας.

Ἐξεδύσατο μὲν οὖν ὁ Κύριος τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ πεῖραν τῶν πειρασμῶν, τὸ καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν παθητὸν τῆς ὅλης φύσεως ἰασάμενος· ἀπεξεδύσατο δὲ ταύτας πάλιν κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦ θανάτου, τῆς φύσεως ὁμοίως ἐξηλώσας τὸ κατ᾽ ὀδύνην παθητόν, τὸ ἡμῖν κατορθούμενον ἑαυτοῦ διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν ὡς ὑπευθύνου ποιούμενος, μᾶλλον δὲ τῶν κατορθουμένων τὸ κλέος ἡμῖν ὡς ἀγαθὸς λογιζόμενος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁμοίως ἡμῖν λαβὼν χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας τὸ τῆς φύσεως 14Β_128 παθητόν, δι᾽ οὗ πέφυκεν ἐνεργεῖν τὰ ἑαυτῆς πᾶσα πονηρὰ καὶ ὀλέθριος δύναμις, ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ θανάτου καὶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἐλθούσας ἐρεύνης χάριν ἀπεξεδύσατο, θριαμβεύσας τε καὶ παραδειγματίσας αὐτὰς ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ κατὰ τὴν ἔξοδον τῆς ψυχῆς, μηδὲν τὸ σύνολον εὑρούσας ἐν τῷ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν παθητῷ τῆς φύσεως ἴδιον, ὅτε μάλιστα προσεδοκοῦσαν διὰ τὸ φύσει κατὰ σάρκα παθητὸν εὑρεῖν τι πάντως ἀνθρώπινον, εἰκότως δι᾽ ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμει καὶ πᾶσαν ὡς διά τινος ἀπαρχῆς τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν ἁγίας αὐτοῦ σαρκὸς τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῆς ἐμφυρείσης αὐτῇ κατὰ τὸ παθητὸν κακίας ἠλευθέρωσεν, ὑποτάξας αὐτῷ τῷ τῆς φύσεως παθητῷ τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ ποτε, φημὶ δὲ τῷ παθητῷ, βασιλεύσασαν τῆς φύσεως πονηρὰν δυναστείαν.

Ἦν μὲν καὶ ἄλλως τὸν περὶ τούτου λόγον μυστικώτερόν τε καὶ ὑψηλότερον θεωρῆσαι δυνατόν. Ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδή, καθὼς ἴστε, τὰ τῶν θείων δογμάτων ἀπορρητότερα διὰ γραφῆς οὐ δεῖ κατατίθεσθαι, ἀρκεσθῶμεν τοῖς εἰρημένοις δυσωποῦσι φιλοπραγμονοῦσαν περὶ τούτου τὴν ἔννοιαν. Θεοῦ δὲ χαριζομένου καὶ τὸ κατ᾽ ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν ἀξιωθῆναι, τὴν ἀποστολικὴν διάνοιαν ἅμα φιλομαθῶς ἐξετάσομεν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Γένεσιν λέγει τήν ἐκ Θεοῦ πρώτην τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διάπλασιν· γέννησιν δέ,

τήν ἐκ καταδίκης ὕστερον διά τήν παράβασιν ἐξ ἀλλήλων διαδοχήν. 2. Κακίας λέγει τὰς ἐνεργείας τῶν ἀκαθάρτων πνευμάτων. Τὰ πάθη δυὸ

εἰδῶν ἐστι· τὸ μὲν τὰ παρὰ φύσιν πάθη ἐστί, ἅπερ εἰσὶ κακίαι ἀεὶ ἀντικείμεναι ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, μὴ δυνάμεναι ποτὲ ἐκδηλωθῆναι ἐν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς· τὸ δὲ ἕτερον τὰ 14Β_130 πάθη εἰσὶ ἐκεῖνα, ἅπερ εἰ καὶ μὴ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ποιηθέντα ἐν τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ' εἰσῆλθον αὐτῇ ἅμα τῇ παραβάσει, διὸ θεωρούμενα καθ' ἑαυτά, κακὰ εἰσι, δυνάμενα δὲ μεταβληθῆναι εἰς ἀγαθὰ τοῖς χρησαμένοις καλῶς, ἅπερ εἰσὶ ἢ ἡδονὴ τε καὶ ὀδύνη, ἡ ἐπιθυμία τε καὶ ὁ φόβος, ἐν οἷς κεκρυμμέναι εἰσὶ κακίαι, δι' ὧν αἱ ἀντικείμεναι δυνάμεις πεφύκασι πράττειν ἀδίκους πράξεις.

3. Κινήσεις τῆς ψυχῆς λέγει τὴν ἡδονὴν καὶ ὀδύνην, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ τὸν φόβον, λαμβανόμεναι ὡς ἀγαθαὶ καὶ κακαί, ἐν αἷς λανθανόντως αἱ κακίαι ἐνυπάρχουσι.

4. Τὴν διαδοχὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὀνομάζει ἐπείσακτον γέννησιν τῇ φύσει ἡμῶν, ἐνώσει σωματικῇ, ὁμοίᾳ τοῖς ζώοις. Εἰ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσις οὐκ ἔπιπτε διὰ τοῦ πρώτου ἀνθρώπου τῇ παραβάσει, ὁ πολλαπλασιασμὸς τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου γένους οὐκ ἂν ἐγίγνετο τῇ τῶν σωμάτων ἑνώσει, ἥτις ἐστὶ ἡ τῆς παραβάσεως ποινή, ἀλλὰ θαυμαστῷ τινι θείῳ τρόπῳ, ἄνευ μολυσμοῦ σπέρματός τίνος.

5. ∆ιαδοχὴ ὀνομάζει τὴν δι' ἑνώσεως γέννησιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐκ σπέρματος, ἥτις οὐκ ἐν τῇ φύσει αὐτοῦ ἦν, ἄλλα ποινὴ ἐστὶ ἐπείσακτος τῇ φύσει.