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of our constitution, I say, as the divine David says: "Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me," that is, from my own construction. But this was precarious for Adam, being newly made, for the reasons we have stated-or the tree of life is the more divine understanding that comes from all sensible things and the ascent through them to the originator, and creator, and cause of all things, which he also called every tree, the full and indivisible, bearing only the participation of the good, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the sensible and pleasurable food, which in appearance is sweet, but in reality places the partaker in participation of evils; for God says: "Of every tree that is in the paradise, you may freely eat," saying, I think, through all created things be led up to me the maker, and from all things gather one fruit, me, the true life. Let all things bear life for you, and make my participation the constitution of your own existence; for thus you will be immortal. "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die"; for by nature sensible food is the replenishment of what has been emptied and goes into the privy and corruption; and it is impossible to remain incorruptible for one who partakes of sensible food. Or the tree of life is the participation of God, by which the angels also are nourished, by which we were to receive incorruptibility; for it was necessary for us first to be subject without discernment to the law of God, until we came to a perfect state of virtue, and thus to receive as a gift from God the discernment of good and evil, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the discernment of thoughts and the power of contradiction is not safe for the newly made, because his reasoning still has passion and pleasure. Therefore I say the tree of life is the commandment given by God-for righteousness is a tree of life to all who lay hold of it. And blessed is the wood through which righteousness is planted, says Solomon-but the tree of knowledge is the discernment of good and evil. It was necessary, therefore, for Adam through undiscriminating obedience to be united to God and in that union to be enriched with deification in due time, when God by nature was pleased, and the true knowledge and discernment of all things and endless life. But it was necessary for a test to be made of undiscriminating obedience. Therefore God gives a commandment, not to taste of the tree of knowledge, not to trust his own discernment nor to eat from any tree having a natural energy productive of the knowledge of himself, that is of his own nature. Therefore, when the evil one approached through the serpent and said: "you will be as gods, knowing good and evil," if you eat, he trusted his own discernment, and deification and knowledge seemed good to him. And he did not consider that all things are good in their season and that the good is not good, if it is not done well, and that it is not right to snatch beforehand what will be given against the will of him who gives being and well-being. And he saw that it was good, and ate and was stripped of the ecstasy towards God, and the bodily eyes were opened, and the passions were stirred, and they knew that they were naked, and were ashamed. And they were distracted from God and like infants they lusted for pleasure and were banished from the tree of life and became mortal. For the enemy knew from experience that to attend upon God is the cause of deification and eternal life.

26 On Man So, therefore, God created the intelligible substance,

I mean angels and all the heavenly orders, -for these are manifestly of an intellectual and incorporeal nature; and I say "incorporeal" in comparison with the grossness of matter; for only the divine is truly immaterial and incorporeal- and also the sensible, both heaven and earth and the things that lie between them, the one being akin to him (for rational nature is akin to God and apprehended by the mind alone), the other being in every way very far removed, as falling, that is, under sense-perception. But it was necessary for a mixture from both

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ἡμετέρας φημὶ συστάσεως, ὥς φησιν ὁ θεῖος ∆αυίδ· «Ἐθαυμαστώθη ἡ γνῶσίς σου ἐξ ἐμοῦ», τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς ἐμῆς κατασκευῆς. Ἐπισφαλὴς δὲ αὕτη τῷ Ἀδὰμ ὑπῆρχε νεοπαγεῖ ὄντι, δι' ἃς εἴπομεν αἰτίας-ἢ ξύλον μὲν ζωῆς τὴν ἐκ πάντων τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐγγινομένην θειοτέραν ἔννοιαν καὶ τὴν δι' αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ἁπάντων γενεσιουργόν τε καὶ δημιουργὸν καὶ αἴτιον ἀναγωγήν, ὅπερ καὶ πᾶν ξύλον ὠνόμασε τὸ πλῆρες καὶ ἀδιαίρετον μόνην τε τοῦ καλοῦ φέρων τὴν μέθεξιν, ξύλον δὲ γνώσεως καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ τὴν αἰσθητὴν καὶ ἐνήδονον βρῶσιν, τὴν τῷ δοκεῖν μὲν γλυκαίνουσαν, τῷ ὄντι δὲ ἐν μετουσίᾳ κακῶν τὸν μετέχοντα καθιστῶσαν· φησὶ γὰρ ὁ θεός· «Ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ βρώσει φαγῇ», διὰ πάντων, οἶμαι, τῶν κτισμάτων ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὸν ποιητὴν ἀναβιβάσθητι, λέγων, καὶ ἕνα καρπὸν ἐκ πάντων κάρπωσαι, ἐμὲ τὴν ὄντως ζωήν. Πάντα σοι ζωὴν καρποφορείτωσαν, καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν μέθεξιν ποιοῦ τῆς οἰκείας ὑπάρξεως σύστασιν· οὕτω γὰρ ἔσῃ ἀθάνατος. «Ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν, οὐ φάγεσθε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. Ἧι δ' ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖσθε»· φυσικῶς γὰρ ἡ αἰσθητὴ βρῶσις τοῦ ὑπεκρεύσαντός ἐστιν ἀναπλήρωσις καὶ εἰς ἀφεδρῶνα χωρεῖ καὶ φθοράν· καὶ ἀμήχανον ἄφθαρτον διαμένειν τὸν αἰσθητῆς βρώσεως ἐν μετουσίᾳ γινόμενον. Ἢ ξύλον μὲν ζωῆς ἡ μετοχὴ τοῦ θεοῦ, δι' ἧς καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι τρέφονται, δι' ἧς τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν λαμβάνειν ἠμέλλομεν· ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς πρῶτον ἀδιακρίτως ὑποταγῆναι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἕως εἰς τελείαν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἤλθομεν, καὶ οὕτως δῶρον παρὰ θεοῦ λαβεῖν τὴν διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ, ὅπερ ἐστὶ ξύλον τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ κακόν. Οὐκ ἀσφαλὴς γὰρ τῷ ἀρτιπαγεῖ ἡ διάκρισις τῶν λογισμῶν καὶ τὸ ἀντιρρητικὸν διὰ τὸ ἐμπαθῆ ἔτι καὶ ἡδυπαθῆ ἔχειν τὸν λογισμόν. Ξύλον μὲν οὖν ζωῆς φημι τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ δεδομένην ἐντολήν-ξύλον γὰρ ζωῆς ἐστιν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πᾶσι τοῖς ἀντεχομένοις αὐτῆς. Καὶ ηὐλόγηται ξύλον, δι' οὗ δικαιοσύνη πεφύτευται, φησὶ Σολομών-ξύλον δὲ γνώσεως τὴν διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ. Ἔδει οὖν τὸν Ἀδὰμ διὰ τῆς ἀδιακρίτου ὑπακοῆς ἑνωθῆναι θεῷ καὶ πλουτῆσαι τῇ ἑνώσει τὴν θέωσιν ἐν καιρῷ, ὅτε ὁ φύσει θεὸς ηὐδόκει, καὶ πάντων τὴν ἀληθῆ γνῶσίν τε καὶ διάκρισιν καὶ τὴν ἀπέραντον ζωήν. Ἔδει δὲ ἀπόπειραν γενέσθαι τῆς ἀδιακρίτου ὑπακοῆς. ∆ίδωσι τοίνυν ἐντολὴν ὁ θεός, μὴ γεύσασθαι τοῦ ξύλου τῆς γνώσεως, μὴ πιστεῦσαι τῇ ἰδίᾳ διακρίσει μηδὲ φαγεῖν ἀπὸ ξύλου τινὸς ἔχοντος φυσικὴν ἐνέργειαν ἐμποιητικὴν τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως ἑαυτοῦ ἤτοι τῆς ἰδίας φύσεως. Προσβαλόντος οὖν τοῦ πονηροῦ διὰ τοῦ ὄφεως καὶ εἰπόντος· «ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν», ἐὰν φάγητε, ἐπίστευσε τῇ ἰδίᾳ διακρίσει, καὶ ἔδοξεν αὐτῷ καλὸν ἡ θέωσις καὶ ἡ γνῶσις. Καὶ οὐκ ἐλογίσατο, ὅτι πάντα καλὰ ἐν καιρῷ αὐτῶν καὶ οὐ καλὸν τὸ καλόν, εἰ μὴ καλῶς γένηται, καὶ ὡς οὐ χρὴ προαρπάζειν τὸ δοθησόμενον παρὰ γνώμην τοῦ διδόντος τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὸ εὖ εἶναι. Καὶ εἶδεν, ὡς καλόν, καὶ ἔφαγεν καὶ ἐγυμνώθη τῆς πρὸς θεὸν ἐκστάσεως, καὶ διηνοίχθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ οἱ σωματικοί, καὶ τὰ πάθη ἐκινήθησαν, καὶ ἔγνωσαν, ὅτι γυμνοί εἰσι, καὶ ᾐσχύνθησαν. Καὶ περιεσπάσθησαν ἀπὸ θεοῦ καὶ ὡς νήπιοι ἐλιχνεύθησαν πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν καὶ ἐξωρίσθησαν ἐκ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ θνητοὶ γεγόνασιν. Ἤιδει δὲ ὁ ἐχθρὸς ἐκ τῆς πείρας, ὅτι τὸ προσεδρεύειν θεῷ θεώσεως καὶ ζωῆς αἰωνίου γίνεται πρόξενον.

26 Περὶ ἀνθρώπου Οὕτω μὲν οὖν τὴν νοητὴν οὐσίαν ὑπεστήσατο ὁ θεός,

ἀγγέλους φημὶ καὶ πάντα τὰ κατ' οὐρανὸν τάγματα, -ταῦτα γὰρ ἀριδήλως νοερᾶς ἐστι καὶ ἀσωμάτου φύσεως· «ἀσωμάτου» δέ φημι συγκρινομένης πρὸς τὴν τῆς ὕλης παχύτητα· μόνον γὰρ ὄντως τὸ θεῖον ἄυλόν τε καὶ ἀσώματον- ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὴν αἰσθητήν, οὐρανόν τε καὶ γῆν καὶ τὰ τούτων ἐν μέσῳ κείμενα, καὶ τὴν μὲν οἰκείαν (οἰκεία γὰρ θεῷ ἡ λογικὴ φύσις καὶ νῷ μόνῳ ληπτή), τὴν δὲ πάντῃ που πορρωτάτω κειμένην, ὡς ὑπὸ τὴν αἴσθησιν δηλαδὴ πίπτουσαν. Ἔδει δὲ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων μίξιν