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He called night the hidden, deceitful attacks of the enemy, and day the acknowledged temptations that are in the open. Therefore, one who has acquired the habit of divine knowledge and is ignorant of none of the enemy's devices does not fear any of the hidden attacks of the enemy; for fear is nothing other than an expected evil. But indeed, he also considers the labors for acknowledged temptations to be a rest, on account of the testing that comes to the soul from engaging with them, and the blessed expectation resulting from this, of the crown of incorruptibility.

QUESTION 111 From the Apostle to the Romans: "For God has shut up all in

disobedience." RESPONSE Just as its own master pursues a runaway and wandering beast, and when

he has shut it in with its pursuers and finds it wounded, he takes care of it, so also the Word of God, having become man, "shut up"—that is, "overtook"—and found all to be disobedient and sinful, and having mercy, He saved them.

QUESTION 112 From the same: "but he who is weak eats vegetables." RESPONSE This was not said by the Apostle concerning bodily illness—for he always rejoiced in

illnesses of the body—but he commands the one who is weak 14Α_168 in soul to eat vegetables, that is, things that are plain and simple and easily digested and do not fatten the flesh. And this is the ready sense; but according to contemplation, he is weak and eats vegetables who is unable to ascend to the height of knowledge and, like Moses, to draw near to the very darkness where God is, but still, whether he is one of the people or even one of these higher seventy elders, he is nourished by natural contemplation in the manner of vegetables.

QUESTION 113 From the same: "I say that Christ has become a servant of the circumcision on behalf of

the truth." RESPONSE Since in the beginning man, having been deceived and having fallen into transgression,

was compared to the beasts and was condemned to be born and to die in their manner, and the Lord, not enduring that His own creature should utterly perish, at different times worked out his salvation, and in Abraham He made more manifest the salvation that was to be through His coming in the flesh, whence, after all the promises to him, He gives him circumcision, which signified the removal of the passible part of the soul, since, therefore, all the saints did circumcise the passionate part of the soul, yet they did not remove it completely—for they were subject to the condemnation of nature, having been born from sexual union—, the Lord Himself, the Master of nature, who also gave circumcision to Abraham, came and truly became the servant and fulfiller of this, having accomplished the complete removal of passionate generation 14Α_170; for He was conceived without seed and was born without corruption.

QUESTION 114 From the same: "And this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to rise from sleep."

RESPONSE

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Νύκτα ἐκάλεσεν τὰς τοῦ ἐχθροῦ κεκρυμμένας δολερὰς προσβολάς, ἡμέραν δὲ τοὺς ὁμολογημένους καὶ ἐν φανερῷ πειρασμούς. Ὁ οὖν τὴν ἕξιν τῆς θείας γνώσεως εἰληφὼς καὶ μηδὲν ἀγνοῶν τῶν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ νοημάτων οὐ φοβεῖταί τι τῶν κεκρυμμένων τοῦ ἐχθροῦ προσβολῶν· φόβος γὰρ οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἢ προσδοκώμενον κακόν. Ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν ἡγεῖται τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῶν ὁμολογημένων πειρασμῶν πόνους διὰ τὴν ἐγγινομένην ἐκ τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς συμπλοκῆς τῇ ψυχῇ δοκιμασίαν καὶ τὴν ἐλπιζομένην ἐκ ταύτης μακαρίαν ἐκδοχὴν τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς ἀφθαρσίας.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 111 Ἐκ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους· «συνέκλεισεν γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς τοὺς πάντας εἰς

ἀπείθειαν». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Καθάπερ ἀποδρᾶσαν καὶ πλανώμενον κτῆνος διώκει ὁ ἴδιος δεσπότης, ἐπὰν

δὲ συγκλείσει αὐτὸ μετὰ τῶν διωκόντων καὶ εὕρῃ αὐτὸ τετραυματισμένον ἐπιμελεῖται αὐτοῦ, οὕτως καὶ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐνανθρωπήσας συνέκλεισεν ἀντὶ τοῦ "κατέλαβεν" καὶ ηὗρεν πάντας ἀπειθεῖς καὶ ἁμαρτωλούς, καὶ ἐλεήσας διέσωσεν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 112 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Οὐ περὶ σωματικῆς νόσου τοῦτο εἴρηται τῷ Ἀποστόλῳ ἀεὶ γὰρ ἔχαιρεν ἐπὶ

ταῖς τοῦ σώματος νόσοις ἀλλὰ τῷ ἀσθενοῦντι 14Α_168 κατὰ ψυχὴν λάχανα ἐσθίειν προστάσσει, τουτέστιν τὰ σχέδια καὶ λιτὰ καὶ εὐκατέργαστα καὶ μὴ λιπαίνοντα τὴν σάρκα. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ πρόχειρος νοῦς· κατὰ δὲ τὴν θεωρίαν, ἐκεῖνος ἀσθενεῖ καὶ λάχανα ἐσθίει, ὅστις ἀδυνάτως ἔχει πρὸς τὸ ὕψος τῆς γνώσεως ἀναβῆναι καὶ κατὰ Μωσέα αὐτῷ τῷ γνόφῳ οὗ ἐστιν ὁ Θεὸς ἐμπελάσαι, ἀλλ᾽ ἀκμὴν εἴτε τῶν τοῦ λαοῦ εἷς εἴτε καὶ τῶν ὑψηλοτέρων τούτων τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα πρεσβυτέρων τυγχάνων, τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν δίκην λαχάνων τρέφεται.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 113 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «λέγω μὲν Χριστὸν διάκονον γεγενῆσθαι περιτομῆς ὑπὲρ

ἀληθείας». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἐπειδὴ κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς ἀπατηθεὶς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἐν παραβάσει γενόμενος

παρεσυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσιν καὶ κατεδικάσθη κατὰ τὸν αὐτῶν τρόπον καὶ γεννᾶσθαι καὶ ἀποθνῄσκειν, ὁ δὲ Κύριος τὸ ἴδιον πλάσμα εἰς τέλος ἀπολέσθαι μὴ ἀνασχόμενος κατὰ μὲν διαφόρους καιροὺς τὴν αὐτοῦ διεπραγματεύετο σωτηρίαν, ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἐκδηλότερον ἐποιεῖτο τὴν μέλλουσαν ἔσεσθαι διὰ τῆς ἐνσάρκου αὐτοῦ ἐπιδημίας σωτηρίαν, ὅθεν μετὰ πάσας τὰς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐπαγγελίας δίδωσιν αὐτῷ τὴν περιτομήν, ἥτις ἐδήλου τὴν περιαίρεσιν τοῦ παθητικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς μέρους, ἐπεὶ οὖν πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι περιέτεμον μὲν τὸ ἐμπαθὲς τῆς ψυχῆς μέρος, οὐ μὴν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς περιεῖλαν ὑπέκειντο γὰρ τῇ καταδίκῃ τῆς φύσεως, γεννηθέντες ἐκ συνουσίας , αὐτὸς ἐλθὼν ὁ Κύριος ὁ καὶ ∆εσπότης τῆς φύσεως, ὁ καὶ δοὺς τῷ Ἀβραὰμ τὴν περιτομήν, διάκονος ταύτης καὶ πληρωτὴς ἀληθῶς γέγονεν, τὴν παντελῆ τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς γεννήσεως περιαίρεσιν 14Α_170 ποιησάμενος· ἄνευ γὰρ σπορᾶς συνελήφθη καὶ δίχα φθορᾶς ἐγεννήθη.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 114 Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ· «καὶ τοῦτο εἰδότες τὸν καιρόν, ὅτι ὥρα ἤδη ὑμᾶς ἐξ ὕπνου

ἐγερθῆναι». ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ