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6. The unclean spirits are accustomed to beguile men, deceitfully suggesting the passions contrary to nature under the form of those according to nature.

7. He who by nature exists according to His pleasure and as man without passion, appropriated the experience of our pleasure for the provocation of the tempter; for he was passible in the flesh according to nature, as man, on account of mortality, but not subject to passion in his will, as sinless.

8. He calls the promptings of the devil toward the Lord in the desert, in the temple, and on the high mountain, temptations.

9. He calls that the passion of the cross through which the devil was defeated and the nature of man was freed from death and sin.

14Β_132 10. The passibility of pleasure is one thing, and the passibility of the flesh is another; the passibility of pleasure, that is, sin, was not in Christ.

11. He has called it a property of nature, that which according to the will after the transgression is prone to slip into sin out of weakness; which the Lord did not have naturally according to the flesh, being also essentially sinless in the flesh.

12. That interpreters of Scripture ought not to interpret something as not being able to be interpreted otherwise.

22 (22). CONCERNING "IF IN THE AGES TO COME HE WILL SHOW THE

RICHES OF HIMSELF, GOD, HOW HAVE THE ENDS OF THE AGES COME UPON US?". 22. QUESTION 22. If in the ages to come God will show his riches, how have

the ends of the ages come upon us? Response. He who of all creation, both visible and invisible, according to only the

inclination of his will established the generation before all the ages and the very generation of things that have come to be, had an ineffably super-good counsel for them; and this was that he himself be unchangeably mingled with the nature of men through the true hypostatic union, and that he unalterably unite to himself the human nature, so that he himself might become man, as he himself knows, and might make man God by union with himself, having evidently divided and defined the ages wisely, some for the activity of his becoming man, and others for the activity of making man God.

Therefore, the ends of the ages preordained for the activity of his becoming man have come upon us, since the divine 14Β_134 purpose according to the incarnation received its outcome through these very events; which the divine apostle, having considered, and having perceived the end of the purpose of the ages for God to become man through the very incarnation of God the Word, says that the ends of the ages have come upon us, with the ages being understood by us not simply, but as those which, evidently for the activity of the mystery of the embodiment, have received their proper end according to the purpose of God.

Since, therefore, the ages preordained according to the purpose for the activity of God becoming man have received their end in us, as God has in truth effected and fulfilled his own perfect becoming-man, it is necessary, then, to await the other ages that are to come for the activity of the mystical and ineffable deification of men, during which God will show to us the surpassing riches of his goodness, perfectly effecting deification in those who are worthy. For if he of the

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6. Τὰ ἀκάθαρτα πνεύματα πεφύκασι ὑποσύρειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὑποβάλλοντα μετὰ δόλου τὰ παρὰ φύσιν πάθη ὑπὸ μορφήν τῶν κατὰ φύσιν.

7. Τῆς ἡμῶν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν, οἰκειοῦτο πεῖραν εἰς πρόκλησιν τοῦ πειράζοντος ὁ φύσει καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἀπαθής ὑπάρχων· παθητός γάρ ἦν σαρκί κατά φύσιν, ὡς ἄνθρωπος, διά τό θνητόν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐμπαθής κατά γνώμην ὡς ἀναμάρτητος.

8. Τὰς προτροπὰς τοῦ διαβόλου πρὸς τὸν Κύριον ἐν τῇ ἔρημῳ, ἐν τῷ ναῷ καὶ ἐν τῷ ὑψηλῷ ὅρει καλεῖ πειρασμούς.

9. Πάθος τοῦ σταυροῦ καλεῖ ἐκεῖνο δι' οὗ ἡττήθη ὁ διάβολος καὶ ἡ φύσις τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἠλευθερώθη ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας.

14Β_132 10. Ἕτερὸν ἐστι ἡ παθητότης τῆς ἡδονῆς, καὶ ἕτερον ἡ παθητότης τῆς σαρκός· παθητότης τῆς ἡδονῆς, τουτέστιν ἁμαρτία, οὐκ ἦν τῷ Χριστῷ.

11. Φύσεως ἴδιον κέκληκε, τό κατά γνώμην μετά παράβασιν πρός ἁμαρτίαν ἐξ ἀσθενείας ὀλισθηρόν· ὅπερ οὔτε κατά σάρκα φυσικῶς εἶχεν ὁ Κύριος, καί σαρκί κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἀναμάρτητος ὤν.

12. Ὅτι οὐ δεῖ τοὺς ἑρμηνευτάς τῆς Γραφῆς ἑρμηνεύειν τι ὡς μὴ δυνάμενον ἄλλως ἑρμηνευθῆναι.

ΚΒ (22). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΕΙ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΑΙΩΣΙ ΤΟΙΣ ΕΠΕΡΧΟΜΕΝΟΙΣ ∆ΕΙΞΕΙ ΤΟΝ

ΠΛΟΥΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΥ Ο ΘΕΟΣ, ΠΩΣ ΕΙΣ ΗΜΑΣ ΤΑ ΤΕΛΗ ΤΩΝ ΑΙΩΝΩΝ ΚΑΤΗΝΤΗΣΕΝ;". 22. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΚΒ' Εἰ ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις δείξει τὸν πλοῦτον αὐτοῦ ὁ Θεός, πῶς εἰς

ἡμᾶς τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων κατήντησεν; Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ πάσης κτίσεως, ὁρατῆς τε καὶ ἀοράτου, κατὰ μόνην τοῦ θελήματος τὴν

ῥοπὴν ὑποστήσας τὴν γένεσιν πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς τῶν γεγονότων γενέσεως τὴν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἀφράστως ὑπεράγαθον εἶχε βουλήν· ἡ δὲ ἦν αὐτὸν μὲν ἀτρέπτως ἐγκραθῆναι τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων διὰ τῆς καθ᾽ ὑπόστασιν ἀληθοῦς ἑνώσεως, ἑαυτῷ δὲ τὴν φύσιν ἀναλλοιώτως ἑνῶσαι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην, ἵν᾽ αὐτὸς μὲν ἄνθρωπος γένηται, καθὼς οἶδεν αὐτός, Θεὸν δὲ ποιήσειε τῇ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἑνώσει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, μερίσας δηλονότι σοφῶς τοὺς αἰῶνας καὶ διορίσας, τοὺς μὲν ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ τοῦ αὐτὸν γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον, τοὺς δὲ ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ τοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ποιῆσαι Θεόν.

Τῶν οὖν ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ τοῦ αὐτὸν γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον προωρισμένων αἰώνων εἰς ἡμᾶς τὰ τέλη κατήντησεν, τῆς θείας 14Β_134 προθέσεως κατὰ τὴν σάρκωσιν δι᾽ αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων λαβούσης τὴν ἔκβασιν· ὅπερ ὁ θεῖος διασκοπήσας ἀπόστολος, τῆς κατὰ πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων πρὸς τὸ γενέσθαι τὸν Θεὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐνιδὼν τὸ τέλος δι᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Λόγου σαρκώσεως, φησὶν εἰς ἡμᾶς κατηντηκέναι τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων, οὐχ ἁπλῶς παρ᾽ ἡμῶν νοουμένων τῶν αἰώνων, ἀλλὰ τῶν, ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ δηλονότι τοῦ τῆς ἐνσωματώσεως μυστηρίου, τὸ οἰκεῖον κατὰ πρόθεσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ πέρας εἰληφότων.

Ἐπεὶ οὖν οἱ κατὰ πρόθεσιν ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ τοῦ γενέσθαι τὸν Θεὸν ἄνθρωπον προορισθέντες αἰῶνες εἰς ἡμᾶς τὸ τέλος εἰλήφασιν, ἐνεργήσαντος κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ τελείαν ἐνανθρώπησιν καὶ πληρώσαντος, τοὺς ἄλλους ἐκδέχεσθαι χρὴ λοιπὸν αἰῶνας ἐπελευσομένους ἐπ᾽ ἐνεργείᾳ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων μυστικῆς καὶ ἀπορρήτου θεώσεως, καθ᾽ οὓς τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον τῆς χρηστότητος αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς δείξει ὁ Θεός, ἐνεργήσας τελείως ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις τὴν θέωσιν. Εἰ γὰρ αὐτὸς τῆς