,

is that which is known, and which by the identity of its state makes into God the one deemed worthy of divine participation.

8. He says that the types of the divine goods are both the modes according to virtue and the principles of beings; by which God perpetually becomes man, having as a body the modes of the virtues, and as a soul the principles of knowledge in the spirit, by which He deifies the worthy, giving an enhypostatic character of virtue, and granting an essential existence of unerring knowledge.

9. He interpreted the richness of goodness to be God's disposition of goodness towards us.

23. CONCERNING “AND GOD WILL GIVE HIM THE THRONE OF DAVID HIS

FATHER". 23. QUESTION 23 If David reigned over only the Israel according to the flesh, but the Israel according to the flesh

rejected the kingdom of Christ—for which reason it also passed to the Gentiles—how, according to the voice of the archangel, will the saying, *and God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever*, hold true?

Reply. This difficulty seems to me very much to have a clear and manifest explanation. If

for not all who are from Israel are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but the children of the promise are reckoned by God as seed, and though the number of the sons of Israel be as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved, it is clear that the faithful people that through works of righteousness and true knowledge according to faith sees God, is Israel, whether it brings its lineage from Israel according to the flesh, or belongs to the portion of the Gentiles. For he who bears in himself the clear and undefiled character of the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is not estranged from the calling and grace of the true Israel.

But blessed David himself also had the kingdom of the faithful in Israel. Whence, as soon as Israel extinguished for itself the light of faith, it at once also fell away from the kingdom of David. So then, the spiritual throne of David and the intelligible kingdom of rational souls and the faithful house of Jacob and the holy and great nation, over which, instead of the carnal and provoking Israel, God, delivering an oracle prophetically to Moses, promised to establish him, that is, the one typically understood through him, saying, "Let me alone, and I will blot out this 14Β_146 nation at once and I will make of you a great and terrible nation, greater than this one," but not the faithless and provoking house of Jacob, and the sinful nation and the evil seed and the lawless sons and the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah and those who have turned away with an evil turning and have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel and have not known or understood God and have been struck with an incurable plague of unbelief that admits no method of rational healing that cures unbelief of the soul—for woe, He says, sinful nation, evil seed, lawless sons; you have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Why are you still struck, adding lawlessness? There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages—not those who have limped on both their hams and have turned away from the truth and been cast out from the divine inheritance like Cain and Ishmael and Esau and Reuben and Er and Onan and Manasseh and Eliab and Amnon, the firstborn of the patriarchs and prophets who were cast out and rejected—for He says, My firstborn son is Israel; for he is not only-begotten;

ἔστι τό γινωσκόμενον, καὶ ποιοῦν τῇ κατά τήν στάσιν ταυτότητι Θεόν, τόν ἀξιούμενον τῆς θείας μεθέξεως.

8. Τῶν θείων φησίν ἀγαθῶν τύπους εἶναι τούς τε κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόπους, καί τούς τῶν ὄντων λόγους· οἷς ὁ Θεός διαπαντός ἄνθρωπος γίνεται, ὡς μὲν σῶμα τούς τρόπους ἔχων τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὡς δέ ψυχήν τούς ἐν πνεύματι λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, οἷς τούς ἀξίους θεοποιεῖ, χαρακτῆρα διδούς ἀρετῆς ἐνυπόστατον, καί ἀπλανοῦς γνώσεως ἐνούσιον χαριζόμενος ὕπαρξιν.

9. Πλοῦτον ἑρμήνευσεν εἶναι χρηστότητος, τήν εἰς ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ διάθεσιν τῆς ἀγαθότητος.

ΚΓ (23). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΚΑΙ ∆ΩΣΕΙ ΑΥΤΩ Ο ΘΕΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΘΡΟΝΟΝ ∆ΑΒΙ∆ ΤΟΥ

ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ". 23. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΚΓ' Εἰ ∆αβὶδ τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα μόνου Ἰσραὴλ ἐβασίλευσεν, ὁ δὲ κατὰ σάρκα Ἰσραὴλ

τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀπώσατο βασιλείανδιὸ καὶ μετῆλθεν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη, πῶς κατὰ τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ ἀρχαγγέλου σταθήσεται τὸ καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς τὸν θρόνον ∆αβὶδ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ βασιλεύσει ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον Ἰακὼβ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας;

Ἀπόκρισις. Τοῦτο πάνυ μοι φαίνεται τὸ ἄπορον δήλην ἔχον καὶ φανερὰν τὴν διασάφησιν. Εἰ

γὰρ οὐ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, οὗτοι Ἰσραήλ, οὐδ᾽ ὅτι εἰσὶ σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ, πάντες τέκνα, ἀλλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας λογίζεται ὁ Θεὸς εἰς σπέρμα, καὶ ἐὰν ᾖ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ὡς τὰ ἄστρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ κατάλειμμα σωθήσεται, δῆλον ὡς ὁ πιστὸς λαὸς καὶ δι᾽ ἔργων δικαιοσύνης καὶ ἀληθοῦς τῆς κατὰ τὴν πίστιν γνώσεως ὁρῶν τὸν Θεόν ἐστιν Ἰσραήλ, εἴτε κατὰ σάρκα φέρει τὸ γένος ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, εἴτε τῆς ἐθνικῆς ὑπάρχει μερίδος. Ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων τρανὸν καὶ ἄχραντον τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῆς πίστεως τῆς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ ἀπηλλοτρίωται κλήσεώς τε καὶ χάριτος.

Ἀλλὰ καὶ ∆αβὶδ αὐτὸς ὁ μακάριος τῶν ἐν Ἰσραὴλ πιστῶν εἶχε τὴν βασιλείαν. Ὅθεν ἅμα τῆς πίστεως κατέσβεσεν ἑαυτῷ τὸ φέγγος ὁ Ἰσραήλ, ἅμα καὶ τῆς τοῦ ∆αβὶδ εὐθὺς ἀπέστη βασιλείας. Ἄρ᾽ οὖν τὸν τοῦ ∆αβὶδ πνευματικὸν θρόνον καὶ τὴν νοητὴν τῶν λογικῶν ψυχῶν βασιλείαν καὶ τὸν πιστὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τὸ ἅγιον καὶ μέγα ἔθνος, ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἀντὶ τοῦ σωματικοῦ καὶ παραπικραίνοντος Ἰσραὴλ προφητικῶς χρηματίζων ὁ Θεὸς τῷ Μωυσῇ καταστήσειν αὐτὸν ἤτοι τὸν δι᾽ αὐτοῦ τυπικῶς νοούμενον ἐπηγγείλατο εἰπὼν "ἄφες με καὶ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ἔθνος 14Β_146 τοῦτο εἰσάπαξ καὶ καταστήσω σε εἰς ἔθνος μέγα καὶ φοβερὸν ἢ τοῦτο", ἀλλ᾽ οὐ τὸν ἄπιστον οἶκον τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ παραπικραίνοντα, καὶ τὸ ἁμαρτωλὸν ἔθνος καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν σπέρμα καὶ τοὺς ἀνόμους υἱοὺς καὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας Σοδόμων καὶ τὸν λαὸν Γομόρρας καὶ τοὺς ἀποστραφέντας ἀποστροφὴν πονηρὰν καὶ τὸν Κύριον ἐγκαταλιπόντας καὶ τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ παροξύναντας καὶ τὸν Θεὸν οὐκ ἐπεγνωκότας οὐδὲ συνιέντας καὶ πληγέντας πληγὴν ἀπιστίας ἀνίατον καὶ μηδεμίαν δεχομένην λογικῆς ἰατρείας μέθοδον, ἀπιστίαν ψυχῆς θεραπεύουσανοὐαὶ γάρ, φησίν, ἔθνος ἁμαρτωλόν, σπέρμα πονηρόν, υἱοὶ ἄνομοι· ἐγκατελίπετε τὸν Κύριον καὶ παρωξύνατε τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. Τί ἔτι πληγῆτε προστιθέντες ἀνομίαν; Οὐκ ἔστι μάλαγμα ἐπιθεῖναι οὔτε ἔλαιον οὔτε καταδέσμους, οὐ τοὺς χωλάναντας ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀπεστραμμένους καὶ ἐκβεβλημένους τῆς θείας κληρονομίας κατὰ τὸν Κάϊν καὶ Ἰσμαὴλ καὶ Ἡσαῦ καὶ Ῥουβὴμ καὶ Ἢρ καὶ Αὐνὰν καὶ Μανασσῆν καὶ Ἐλιὰφ καὶ Ἀμνών, τοὺς τῶν πατριαρχῶν τε καὶ προφητῶν πρωτοτόκους καὶ ἐκβεβλημένους καὶ ἀποδεδοκιμασμένουςφησὶ γὰρ υἱός μου πρωτότοκος Ισραήλ· οὐ γὰρ μονογενής·