drink” and the rest, teaching us that the things according to the letter are a shadow, but the true meanings of the law underlying these are good things to come, in which it is possible to find what are the pure spiritual foods of the soul and what are the impure, in false and contrary words, harming the one nourished by them; “for the law had a shadow of the good things to come.” 11.13 And just as in many things it must be understood what was marveled at by the Jews concerning the words of the Savior, that they were spoken with authority, so also in the things concerning this passage. For having called the crowd to him, he said to them: hear and understand and the rest, and he said this while the Pharisees were being scandalized by this word, as they were not a planting of his own Father in heaven because of their wicked doctrines and their paltry interpretation concerning the law, and for this reason they are being uprooted; for they were uprooted for not having accepted the true vine cultivated by the Father, Jesus Christ. For how could they be a planting of the Father, who were scandalized by the words of Jesus, who turns one away from “do not touch, nor taste, nor handle, all of which are for destruction in their use, according to the commandments and teachings of men,” but brings his own intelligent hearer to seek “the things above” concerning these things and “not <the things> on earth,” as the Jews do? And since because of their wicked doctrines the Pharisees were not a planting of the Father in heaven, for this reason he says to the disciples about them as about incurable men, let them alone; let them alone for this reason, that being blind, though they ought to perceive their blindness and seek guides, they, being insensitive to their own blindness, even profess to guide the blind, not considering that they will fall into a pit, about which it is written in the Psalms: “He dug a pit and hollowed it out and will fall into the hole which he has made.” Elsewhere, then, it is written that “seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain; and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him,” but here he extends a hand to the crowd, having called it to him and turning it away from the literal interpretation of the questions according to the law, when first he said to them: hear and understand, while they did not yet understand what they were hearing, and next, as in parables, he said to them: not what enters into the mouth defiles a person, but what comes out. 11.14 After this, it is worthwhile to look at a phrase that is falsely accused by those who say that the God of the law and of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not the same; who say that the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ is not the cultivator of those who think they are reverencing God according to the law of Moses. Jesus himself said that the Pharisees, who were worshiping the God who created the world and the law, were a planting which his heavenly Father did not plant, and for this reason it is to be uprooted. And they might say these things too, that if the one who “brought in” and planted the people who came out of Egypt “to the mountain of his inheritance,” “to his own ready dwelling place,” were the Father of Jesus, Jesus would not have said concerning the Pharisees that every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. But to these things we will say that as many as were not a planting of the Father in heaven because of their wicked interpretation concerning the things of the law, these had their “minds” blinded, as “not believing the truth but taking pleasure in unrighteousness” by the one deified by the sons of this age and for this reason called by Paul the god “of this age.” And do not think that our Paul says that he is truly a god; for just as “the belly,” not being a god, of those who value pleasure too highly, being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, is said by Paul to be their “god,” so the ruler of this age, not being a god, concerning whom the Savior says: “now the ruler of this world has been judged,” is said to be the god of those who were not willing to receive the “spirit of adoption,” that they might become sons of that age and “of the resurrection from the dead,” and for this reason remained in the sonship of this age. And these things seemed to me, even if spoken digressively, to have been necessarily included because of “they are blind”

πόσει» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, διδάσκων ἡμᾶς ὅτι τὰ μὲν κατὰ τὸ γράμμα σκιά ἐστι, τὰ δ' ἀληθῆ τοῦ νόμου ἐναποκείμενα τούτοις νοήματα μέλλοντά ἐστιν ἀγαθά, ἐν οἷς ἔστιν εὑρεῖν, τίνα τὰ καθαρὰ τῆς ψυχῆς πνευματικὰ βρώματα καὶ τίνα τὰ ἀκάθαρτα ἐν λόγοις ψευδέσι καὶ ἐναντίοις βλάπτοντα τὸν τρεφόμενον ἐν αὐτοῖς· «σκιὰν γὰρ εἶχεν ὁ νόμος τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν». 11.13 Ὥσπερ δὲ ἐν πολλοῖς κατανοητέον τὸ θαυμαζόμενον παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἐπὶ τοῖς τοῦ σωτῆρος λόγοις ὅτι ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ ἐλέγοντο, οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν τόπον. Τὸν ὄχλον γοῦν προσκαλεσάμενος εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ἀκούετε καὶ συνίετε καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, καὶ τοῦτ' ἔλεγε Φαρισαίων σκανδαλιζομένων ἐπὶ τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ, ὡς διὰ τὰ μοχθηρὰ δόγματα καὶ τὴν φαύλην περὶ τοῦ νόμου ἐκδοχὴν οὐκ ὄντων φυτείας τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἑαυτοῦ πατρὸς καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκριζουμένων· ἐξερριζώθησαν γὰρ μὴ παραδεξάμενοι τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς γεωργουμένην ἄμπελον ἀληθινὴν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν. Πῶς γὰρ ἠδύναντο εἶναι φυτεία τοῦ πατρὸς οἱ ἐπὶ τοῖς Ἰησοῦ σκανδαλισθέντες λόγοις, ἀφιστᾶσι μὲν τοῦ «μὴ ἅψῃ μηδὲ γεύσῃ μηδὲ θίγῃς, ἃ ἦν πάντα εἰς φθορὰν τῇ ἀποχρήσει, κατὰ τὰ ἐντάλματα καὶ διδασκαλίας τῶν ἀνθρώπων», προσάγουσι δὲ τὸν συνετὸν ἑαυτῶν ἀκροατὴν τῷ «τὰ ἄνω» περὶ τούτων ζητεῖν καὶ «μὴ <τὰ> ἐπὶ γῆς», ὡς οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι; Καὶ ἐπεὶ διὰ τὰ μοχθηρὰ δόγματα οὐ φυτεία ἦσαν τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς πατρὸς οἱ Φαρισαῖοι, διὰ τοῦτο ὡς περὶ ἀνιάτων αὐτῶν λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς τὸ ἄφετε αὐτούς· ἄφετε διὰ τοῦτο ὅτι τυφλοὶ ὄντες, δέον αὐτοὺς αἰσθάνεσθαι τῆς τυφλότητος καὶ ζητεῖν ὁδηγούς, οἱ δὲ καὶ ἐπαγγέλλονται ἀναισθητοῦντες τῆς ἑαυτῶν τυφλότητος ὁδηγεῖν τυφλούς, οὐ λογιζόμενοι ἐμπεσεῖσθαι εἰς βόθυνον, περὶ οὗ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς γέγραπται· «Λάκκον ὤρυξε καὶ ἀνέσκαψεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμπεσεῖται εἰς βόθρον ὃν εἰργάσατο.» Ἀλλαχοῦ μὲν οὖν γέγραπται ὅτι «ἰδὼν τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος· καὶ καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ», ἐνταῦθα δὲ ὀρέγει χεῖρα τῷ ὄχλῳ, προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτὸν καὶ ἀφιστὰς τῆς ῥητῆς τῶν κατὰ νόμον ἐρωτημάτων ἐκδοχῆς, ὅτε πρῶτον μὲν ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· ἀκούετε καὶ συνίετε, οὐδέπω συνιεῖσιν ὧν ἤκουον, ἑξῆς δὲ ὡς ἐν παραβολαῖς ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· οὐ τὸ εἰσερχόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐκπορευόμενον. 11.14 Μετὰ ταῦτα ἄξιον ἰδεῖν λέξιν συκοφαντουμένην ὑπὸ τῶν φασκόντων οὐ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι νόμου καὶ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ θεόν· οἵτινές φασιν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ οὐράνιος πατὴρ γεωργὸς τῶν κατὰ τὸν Μωσέως νόμον οἰομένων θεὸν εὐσεβεῖν. Αὐτὸς εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοὺς Φαρισαίους, οἳ ἦσαν λατρεύοντες τῷ κτίσαντι τὸν κόσμον καὶ τὸν νόμον θεῷ, εἶναι φυτείαν ἣν οὐκ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ οὐράνιος αὐτοῦ πατήρ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὴν ἐκριζοῦσθαι. Εἴποιεν δ' ἂν καὶ ταῦτα ὅτι οὐκ ἄν, εἴπερ πατὴρ ἦν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὁ «εἰσαγαγὼν» καὶ φυτεύσας τὸν ἀπὸ Αἰγύπτου ἐξελθόντα λαὸν «εἰς ὄρος κληρονομίας» ἑαυτοῦ, «εἰς ἕτοιμον κατοι κητήριον» ἑαυτοῦ, εἶπεν ἂν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐπὶ τοῖς Φαρισαίοις ὅτι πᾶσα φυτεία ἣν οὐκ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ οὐράνιος ἐκριζωθήσεται. Πρὸς ταῦτα δὲ φήσομεν ὅτι ὅσοι διὰ τὴν μοχθηρὰν περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἐκδοχὴν οὐκ ἦσαν φυτεία τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς πατρός, οὗτοι τετύφλωντο «τὰ νοήματα», ὡς «μὴ πιστεύοντες τῇ ἀληθείᾳ ἀλλὰ εὐδο κοῦντες τῇ ἀδικίᾳ» ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοποιηθέντος ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου καὶ διὰ τοῦτο λεγομένου παρὰ τῷ Παύλῳ θεοῦ «τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου». Καὶ μὴ νομίσῃς Παῦλον ἡμῶν ἀληθῶς εἶναι λέγειν αὐτὸν θεόν· ὡς γὰρ μὴ οὖσα θεὸς «ἡ κοιλία» τῶν ὑπερτιμώντων τὴν ἡδονὴν φιληδόνων μᾶλλον ἢ φιλοθέων λέγεται ὑπὸ Παύλου εἶναι «θεὸς» αὐτῶν, οὕτως μὴ ὢν θεὸς ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, περὶ οὗ φησιν ὁ σωτήρ· «νῦν ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου κέκριται», θεὸς εἶναι λέγεται τῶν μὴ βουληθέντων τὸ «πνεῦμα τῆς υἱοθεσίας» λαβεῖν, ἵνα γένωνται υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου καὶ «τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν», καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μεινάντων ἐν τῇ υἱότητι τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. Ταῦτα δέ μοι ἔδοξεν, εἰ καὶ παρεκβατικῶς εἴρηται, ἀναγκαίως παρειλῆφθαι διὰ τὸ τυφλοί εἰσιν