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do they believe their enemies who testify to the power of grace? 6.4 And from such miracles that divine man became famous and attracted many of the neighboring barbarians—for those who boast of Ishmael as their ancestor inhabit that desert—, longing for tranquility, he was forced to leave the cave and having completed a long journey, he takes possession of the mountain called Amanus, and this, long full of much polytheistic madness, he cultivated with many and all kinds of miracles and planted the piety that now thrives in it. 6.5 But to recount everything is very laborious, and for me perhaps even impossible. Recalling one thing, therefore, and setting forth a kind of stamp of his apostolic and prophetic miracle-working, I leave it to those who read to understand from this the power of the grace he received. It was summer and harvest time, and the sheaves were being carried to the threshing floors. But a certain man, not content with his own just labors, but desiring what belonged to others, stole some of his neighbor's sheaves, and tried to increase his own pile with them. But immediately the divine judgment against the theft was delivered, and a thunderbolt was brought down and the threshing floor was set on fire, and that wretched man went to the man of God, who was encamped not far from the village, and he recounted the disaster, but tried to hide the theft. When, having been ordered to speak the truth, he confessed the theft—for the suffering compelled him to accuse himself—, that divine man ordered that with the undoing of the injustice the punishment be undone; "For," he said, "when you pay back those sheaves, that fire sent from God will be extinguished." So it was possible to see the one man running and bringing the stolen ears of corn to the one who had been wronged, and the pyre being extinguished without water through the prayer and intercession of the divine elder. 6.6 This filled not only the neighbors with fear, but also the whole city—I mean Antioch; for the place was under its jurisdiction—and it compelled them to run there, one to ask for deliverance from demonic madness, another for an end to fever, another for a cure for some other affliction. And he ungrudgingly supplied the streams of the grace dwelling within him. 6.7 But again, longing for tranquility, he desired to reach Mount Sinai. But many of the best men, learning of this and pursuing the same philosophy, ran together, longing to share his journey with him. Having completed a journey of many days, therefore, when they were in the desert of Sodom, they see from afar a man's hands stretched up high from a pit, and at first they supposed it was a demon's deceit. But having prayed more earnestly and seen the same thing, they hurried to that place and they see a small ditch of the kind that foxes are accustomed to make, contriving lairs for themselves; but they saw no one appearing there; for hearing the sound of their feet, the one who had his hands outstretched hid himself inside the lair. 6.8 And the elder, peering in, begged him earnestly to show himself, if he had a human nature and was not some deceitful demon fashioning such things; "For we too," he said, "pursuing the ascetic life and longing for tranquility, are wandering through this desert, desiring to worship the God of all on Mount Sinai, where, having made his own appearance to his servant Moses, he gave the tablets of the law, not because we believe the divine is circumscribed by place—for we hear him saying: "3Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord"3 and that "3He that comprehends the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants therein as grasshoppers"3—, but because for those who love ardently, not only are the beloved greatly desired, but also the places are lovely which the

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τοῖς ἐχθροῖς τῇ δυνάμει τῆς χάριτος μαρτυροῦσι πιστεύουσιν; 6.4 Ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων δὲ θαυμάτων ὁ θεῖος ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος ἐπίσημος γεγονὼς καὶ πολλοὺς τῶν γειτονευόντων βαρβάρων ἐπισπασάμενος-οἰκοῦσι δὲ τὴν ἔρημον ἐκείνην οἱ τὸν Ἰσμαὴλ σεμνυνόμενοι πρόγονον-, ἡσυχίας ἐρῶν, καταλιπεῖν ἠναγκάσθη τὸ σπήλαιον καὶ πολλὴν ἀνύσας ὁδὸν ὄρος καταλαμβάνει τὸ καλούμενον Ἀμανόν, καὶ τοῦτο πολλῆς πάλαι γέμον πολυθέου μανίας τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ παντοδαποῖς ἐγεώργησε θαύμασι καὶ τὴν νῦν ἐν αὐτῷ πολιτευομένην εὐσέβειαν κατεφύτευσεν. 6.5 Ἀλλὰ πάντα μὲν διηγεῖσθαι λίαν ἐπίπονον, ἐμοὶ δὲ τυχὸν καὶ ἀδύνατον. Ἑνὸς τοίνυν μνησθεὶς καὶ οἷόν τινα χαρακτῆρα τῆς ἀποστολικῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ προφητικῆς θαυμα τουργίας προθεὶς καταλείπω τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν ἐννοεῖν ἐντεῦθεν ἧς ἔλαβε χάριτος τὴν ἰσχύν. Θέρος ἦν καὶ ἀμητὸς καὶ τὰ δράγματα εἰς τὰς ἅλως μετεκομίζετο. Ἀνὴρ δέ τις τοῖς δικαίοις οὐκ ἀρκούμενος πόνοις, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἐφιέμενος, ὑφείλετο μὲν τῶν τοῦ πέλας δραγμάτων, αὔξειν δὲ τὸν οἰκεῖον διὰ τούτων ἐπειρᾶτο θημῶνα. Ἀλλ' εὐθὺς τὴν κατὰ τῆς κλοπῆς τὸ θεῖον ἐξεφέρετο ψῆφον καὶ πρηστὴρ ἐπεφέρετο καὶ ἡ ἅλως ἐνεπίμπρατο καὶ ὁ δείλαιος ἐκεῖνος τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ κατελάμ βανεν ἄνθρωπον οὐ πόρρω τῆς κώμης ἐσκηνωμένον καὶ τὴν μὲν συμφορὰν διηγεῖτο, κρύπτειν δὲ τὴν κλοπὴν ἐπειρᾶτο. Ὡς δὲ τἀληθῆ λέγειν κελευσθεὶς ὡμολόγησε τὴν κλοπήν -τὸ γὰρ πάθος καὶ ἑαυτοῦ κατηγορεῖν κατηνάγκασε-, προσέταξεν ὁ θεῖος ἐκεῖνος ἀνὴρ τῇ λύσει τῆς ἀδικίας λῦσαι τὴν τιμωρίαν· "Σοῦ γάρ, ἔφη, τὰ δράγματα ἐκεῖνα ἐκτιν νύντος, τὸ θεήλατον ἐκεῖνο σβεσθήσεται πῦρ". Ἦν τοίνυν ἰδεῖν τὸν μὲν θέοντα καὶ τῷ ἀδικηθέντι τοὺς κλαπέντας ἀστάχυας προσφέροντα, τὴν δὲ πυρὰν ἄνευ ὕδατος σβεννυ μένην τῇ τοῦ θείου πρεσβύτου προσευχῇ καὶ πρεσβείᾳ. 6.6 Τοῦτο οὐ μόνον τοὺς περιοίκους ἐνέπλησε δείματος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἅπασαν-τὴν Ἀντιόχου λέγω· ὑπὸ ταύτην γὰρ τὸ χωρίον ἐτέλει-θέειν ἐκεῖ κατηνάγκασε καὶ τὸν μὲν ἐπαγγέλλειν δαιμονικῆς λύττης ἀπαλλαγήν, τὸν δὲ πυρετοῦ παῦλαν, τὸν δὲ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν ἐνοχλούντων ἰατρείαν. Ὁ δὲ ἀφθόνως τῆς ἐνοικούσης χάριτος ἐχορήγει τὰ νάματα. 6.7 Ἀλλὰ πάλιν τῆς ἡσυχίας ἐρῶν τὸ Σίναιον ὄρος κατα λαβεῖν ἐπεθύμησεν. Μαθόντες δὲ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀρίστων καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν μετιόντες φιλοσοφίαν, συνέδραμον κοινωνῆσαι αὐτῷ τῆς ἀποδημίας ποθοῦντες. Πολλῶν τοίνυν ἡμερῶν ὁδὸν ἐξανύσαντες, ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὴν σοδομῖτιν ἐγένοντο ἔρημον, ὁρῶσι πόρρωθεν ἀπὸ βάθους χεῖρας ἀνδρὸς εἰς ὕψος ἐκτεινομένας, καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον δαίμονος ἐξαπάτην ὑπέλαβον· προσευξάμενοι δὲ σπουδαιότερον καὶ ταὐτὸ θεασάμενοι ὥρμησαν ἐπ' ἐκεῖνο τὸ χωρίον καὶ βραχὺ μὲν ὄρυγμα θεωροῦσιν ὁποῖα ποιεῖν πεφύκασιν αἱ ἀλώπεκες καταδύσεις ἑαυταῖς μηχανώμεναι· οὐδένα δὲ εἶδον ἐκεῖ προφαινόμενον· τοῦ κτύπου γὰρ τῶν ποδῶν αἰσθόμενος ὁ τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτεταμένας ἔχων, εἴσω τῆς καταδύσεως κατε κρύβη. 6.8 ∆ιακύψας δὲ ὁ πρεσβύτης ἐλιπάρει μάλα πολλὰ ὀφθῆναι αὐτὸν εἰ ἀνθρωπείαν ἔχοι τὴν φύσιν καὶ μὴ δαίμων τις ἀπατεὼν εἴη τοιαῦτα σχηματιζόμενος· "Καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς, ἔφη, τὸν ἀσκητικὸν μετιόντες βίον καὶ τῆς ἡσυχίας ἐρῶντες, ἀλώμεθα κατὰ τήνδε τὴν ἔρημον, ἐν τῷ Σινᾷ ὄρει τὸν τῶν ἁπάντων ἐπιθυμοῦντες προσκυνῆσαι θεὸν ἐν ᾧ Μωϋσῇ τῷ θεράποντι τὴν οἰκείαν ἐπιφάνειαν ποιησάμενος ἔδωκε τῆς νομοθεσίας τὰς πλάκας, οὐχ ὅτι τὸ θεῖον τόπῳ περιγεγράφθαι νομίζομεν-ἀκούομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ὅτι· "3τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ, λέγει ὁ κύριος"3 καὶ ὅτι "3κατέχει τὸν γῦρον τῆς γῆς καὶ τοὺς ἐνοικοῦντας ἐν αὐτῇ ὡσεὶ ἀκρίδας"3-, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τοῖς θερμῶς ἐρῶσιν οὐ μόνον οἱ ἐρώμενοι τριπόθητοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τόποι ἐράσμιοι οἱ τὴν