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understanding words as flesh, in the same way, to some we cover, but to others we reveal. For the Logos, the creator and lawgiver of all, is hidden when he appears, being by nature invisible, and he is made manifest when hidden, not believed by the wise to be subtle by nature.

May it be for us to manifest by way of negation this hidden thing, and rather to pass over all power of figures and riddles which represent the truth and to be led up ineffably from the letter and from phenomena to the Logos himself according to the power of the Spirit, than for this apparent thing to become hidden by way of affirmation, so that we also, having become murderers of the Logos, do not serve the creature in a Hellenic manner rather than the creator, believing nothing to be higher than visible things and more magnificent than sensible things, or looking only as far as the letter we should esteem only the body in a Judaic manner, deifying the belly, and considering shame to be glory, and carry away the same lot as the deicides, since we do not discern (14∆_156> the Logos, who for our sake came to us in our own likeness, made dense for sense-perception through a body and syllables and letters, which has inclined the whole power of our intellect toward itself. For the divine Apostle says, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. For the letter, loved for itself alone, is accustomed to kill the logos within it for those who love it, just as also the beauty of creatures, when not viewed for the glory of the one who made it, 1132 is by nature disposed to deprive those who contemplate it of rational piety.

And again the Gospel, Unless those days were cut short, that is, of wickedness, no flesh would be saved, that is, every pious thought about God. For the days of wickedness are cut short, when the mistaken judgment according to sense-perception which creates them is circumscribed by reason, and has come to be after the pious justification according to it. For the law of the flesh has differed in nothing from the Antichrist, always wrestling with the Spirit and setting itself against his divine law, as long as the present life is dear and lovely to those defeated by it, and the Logos, not yet having appeared, has not destroyed it by the word of his power, having separated the mortal from the immortal, and having cast out the vexing slavery from freedom, and having shown the truth itself in itself to be pure of falsehood, and having distinguished the material and temporary things from the divine and eternal ones, toward which the mind, being deceived through its affinity for them according to sense-perception, is naturally inclined to lean and to be put to death by irrational affection; to which mind the God-befitting descent of the Logos preeminently occurs, raising it from the death of ignorance, and restraining the impassioned disposition toward material things and leading its desire back to that which is lovable by nature. Therefore I think it necessary for us, being rational, to care for the body that is far better than garments, that is, for the divine and lofty thoughts of both Holy Scripture and the spectacles in creation, and hastening through reason to the Logos (as the Logos himself says, Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing?) (14∆_158> lest in due time we be convicted, having taken hold of none of these things, not having grasped the Logos who subsists and gives subsistence to all things, like that Egyptian woman, who, having seized only the garments of Joseph, completely missed the company of her beloved.

For thus we shall see the garments of the Logos, I mean the words of Scripture, and the visible creatures, as both brilliant and glorious through the alteration of the doctrines concerning him, and befitting the divine Logos through lofty contemplation, when we too have ascended the mountain of the divine Transfiguration, being in no way offensively prevented from the blessed touch of the Logos like Mary Magdalene, who thought the Lord Jesus to be the gardener, and only of things subject to generation and corruption

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λόγους σάρκας νοοῦντας, ὡσαύτως τοῖς μέν καλύπτομεν, τοῖς δέ ἀποκαλύπτομεν. Κρύπτεται γάρ φαινόμενος ὁ τοῦ παντός δημιουργός καί νομοθέτης Λόγος, κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχων ἀόρατος, καί ἐκφαίνεται κρυπτόμενος, μή λεπτός εἶναι φύσει τοῖς σοφοῖς πιστευόμενος.

Εἴη δέ ἡμῖν τοῦτο δι᾿ ἀποφάσεως ἐκφαίνειν κρυπτόμενον, καί πᾶσαν σχημάτων τε καί αἰνιγμάτων τό ἀληθές εἰκονίζουσαν δύναμιν παρελθεῖν μᾶλλον καί πρός αὐτόν τόν Λόγον ἀπό τοῦ γράμματος καί τῶν φαινομένων κατά τήν τοῦ Πνεύματος δύναμιν ἀῤῥήτως ἀναβιβάζεσθαι, ἤ τοῦτο φαινόμενον κρύπτειν διά τῆς θέσεως γίνεσθαι ἵνα μή καί ἡμεῖς φονευταί τοῦ Λόγου γενόμενοι ἑλληνικῶς τῇ κτίσει λατρεύσωμεν παρά τόν κτίσαντα, μηδέν ἀνώτερον τῶν ὁρωμένων εἶναι πιστεύοντες καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν μεγαλοπρεπέστερον, ἤ μέχρι μόνου τοῦ γράμματος διαβλέποντες τό σῶμα μόνον Ἰουδαϊκῶς περί πολλοῦ ποιησώμεθα, τήν κοιλίαν θεοποιήσαντες, καί τήν αἰσχύνην ἡγησάμενοι δόξαν, τόν αὐτόν τοῖς θεοκτόνοις κλῆρον ἀπενεγκώμεθα, ὡς τόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς πρός ἡμᾶς γενόμενον διά σώματος καί συλλαβαῖς καί γράμμασι παχυθέντα διά τήν αἴσθησιν, ὅλην τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν νοεροῦ τήν δύναμιν πρός ἑαυτήν ἐπικλίνασαν, οὐ διαγινώσκοντες (14∆_156> Λόγον. Φησί γάρ ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, Τό γράμμα ἀποκτείνει, τό δέ πνεῦμα ζωοποιεῖ. Καί γάρ καθ᾿ αὑτό μόνον τό γράμμα στεργόμενον τόν ἐν αὐτῷ ἀποκτείνειν λόγον τοῖς στέργουσιν εἴωθεν, ὥσπερ καί τό κάλλος τῶν κτισμάτων μή πρός δόξαν τοῦ πεποιηκότος 1132 ὁρώμενον τῆς κατά λόγον εὐσεβείας ἀποστερεῖν τούς θεωμένους πέφυκε.

Καί πάλιν τό Εὐαγγέλιον, Εἰ μή ἐκολοβώθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι, δηλαδή τῆς κακίας, οὐκ ἄν ἐσώθη πᾶσα σάρξ, τουτέστι πᾶσα περί Θεοῦ εὐσεβής ἔννοια. Κολοβοῦνται γάρ κακίας ἡμέραι, τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν δημιουργούσης αὐτάς ἐσφαλμένης κρίσεως τῷ λόγῳ περιγραφείσης, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτόν εὐσεβοῦς δικαιώματος κατόπιν γεγενημένης. Ἀντιχρίστου γάρ οὐδέν διενήνοχεν ὁ τῆς σαρκός νόμος, ἀεί παλαίων τῷ Πνεύματι καί τῷ αὐτοῦ θείῳ νόμῳ ἀντιτασσόμενος, ἕως ἡ παροῦσα ζωή τοῖς ἡττημένοις αὐτῇ προσφιλής ἐστι καί ἐράσμιος, καί οὔπω φανείς ὁ Λόγος τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως ἀνεῖλε, διακρίνας τοῦ ἀθανάτου τό θνητόν, καί τῆς ἐλευθερίας τήν διοχλοῦσαν ἔξω ποιησάμενος δουλείαν, καί τήν ἀλήθειαν αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν ψεύδους καθαράν ἀποδείξας, καί τῶν θείων καί αἰωνίων τά ὑλικά καί πρόσκαιρα ἀποδιορίσας, πρός ἅ πέφυκεν ὁ νοῦς διά τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός αὐτά οἰκειότητος πλανώμενος ἐπικλίνεσθαι καί τῇ ἀλόγῳ θανατοῦσθαι στοργῇ· πρός ὅν μάλιστα προηγουμένως θεοπρεπής τοῦ Λόγου κατάβασις γίνεται, τοῦ θανάτου τῆς ἀγνοίας αὐτόν ἀνεγείρουσα, καί τῆς πρός τά ὑλικά ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως ἀναστέλλουσα καί πρός τό κατά φύσιν ἐραστόν τήν ἔφεσιν αὐτοῦ ἐπανάγουσα. ∆ιό ἀναγκαίως οἶμαι δεῖν τοῦ ὑπέρ τά ἐνδύματα μακρῷ κρείσσονος σώματος, τουτέστι τῶν θείων καί ὑψηλῶν νοημάτων, τῆς τε ἁγίας Γραφῆς καί τῶν κατά τήν κτίσιν θεαμάτων, φροντίζειν λογικούς ὄντας, καί διά λόγου πρός Λόγον σπεύδοντας (καθώς φησιν ὁ Λόγος αὐτός, Οὐχί πλέον ἐστίν ἡ ψυχή τῆς τροφῆς, καί τό σῶμα τοῦ ἐνδύματος;) (14∆_158> μήπως ἐν καιρῷ διαλεγχθῶμεν μηδέν ἔχοντες τούτων ἐπειλημμένοι, τοῦ ὑφεστῶτος καί ὑφιστῶντος τά πάντα Λόγου οὐ περιδραξάμενοι, κατά τήν Αἰγυπτίαν ἐκείνην, ἥτις μόνων τῶν ἱματίων τοῦ Ἰωσήφ ἐπιλαβομένη τῆς τοῦ ἐραστοῦ παντελῶς διήμαρτεν ὁμιλίας.

Οὕτω γάρ ἄν τά τε ἐνδύματα τοῦ Λόγου, φημί δή τά ῥήματα τῆς Γραφῆς, καί τά φαινόμενα κτίσματα, λαμπρά τε καί ἐπίδοξα τῇ ἐναλλαγῇ τῶν περί αὐτόν δογμάτων, καί τῷ θείῳ λόγῳ ἐμπρέποντα διά τῆς ὑψηλῆς θεωρίας, καί ἡμεῖς ἐπί τό ὄρος ἀναβάντες τῆς θείας Μεταμορφώσεως θεασόμεθα, οὐδαμῶς πληκτικῶς εἰργόμενοι τῆς μακαρίας τοῦ Λόγου ἁφῆς κατά τήν Μαγδαληνήν Μαρίαν, κηπουρόν εἶναι δόξασαν τόν Κύριον Ἰησοῦ, καί μόνων τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν