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on account of their folly, not being worthy of boasting; for example, if someone boasts that he is rich and possesses many things, it might be said to him: “Be ashamed of your boasting”; if someone boasts of this external nobility, it will be said to him: “Be ashamed of your boasting”; if someone boasts of luxury of garments, of the building of a house lavishly constructed, the boast is foreign to the boasting of saints, for which reason it will be said to such a person: “Be ashamed of your boasting.” Hear the word <through> the prophet Jeremiah, commanding us not to boast, not even in wisdom; “Let not the wise man,” it says, “boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his wealth, but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know that I am the Lord.” Do you wish to boast and, while boasting, not hear “be ashamed of your boasting”? Boast as the apostle did and say: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”; do you wish to boast, so that it may not be said, “be ashamed of your boasting”? Listen to Paul boasting and learn when he says: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me,” listen to what sort of boasts he boasts: “with far greater labors”—who among us can say this?—“with far more imprisonments, often near death; five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.” We learn, then, that there are also differences in boasting, as some boastings are worthy of shame, about which that apostolic saying might be said: “And their glory is in their shame”; in those things for which they ought to have been ashamed, in these they think they are glorified. After this, let us see the things concerning the loincloth. “Thus,” for, “says the Lord: go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your loins, and you shall <not> pass through water. And I bought the loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it around my loins, and the word of the Lord came to me, saying: take the loincloth that is around your loins, and arise and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock”; after some days he comes there, he finds this loincloth had rotted, and the Lord adds, giving the starting point of the interpretation of the loincloth, saying: “Just as the loincloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the house of Israel and all the house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, to be for me a people of renown and for a boast and for a glory, and they did not listen to me.” Therefore the prophet is taken in place of God, girding the linen loincloth about his loins, as God the people; “for I made to cling to myself,” he says, “this people, says God,” and the people becomes, as it were, a loincloth for God; but why does it become God's loincloth around his loins? He who is able, reading Ezekiel and seeing God as it were embodied in the word, and in what way the parts of him from the loins down are fire, and the parts from the loins and up are electrum, let him investigate the reason why the lower part of God is fire. The things from the loins and of generation, these are fire; for all things in generation need the cleansing that comes from fire, all things in generation need chastisement. But the things above the loins that have transcended generation, these are a material like <electrum>, the purest and most precious in the world; for electrum is said to be more valuable than gold. Since, therefore, the scripture uses examples, in order to teach that the upper body of God is more precious and the lower body is inferior, for this reason it introduced God as composed of fire and electrum. In generation, each of us is fire, and he himself is also a body of God; we are not the electrum, but if we ascend and make progress—for it is possible to move from being today in the lower parts,

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διὰ τὴν ἄνοιαν οὐκ οὖσιν καυχήσεως ἀξίοις· οἷον ἐὰν καυχήσηταί τις ὅτι πλούσιός ἐστιν καὶ πολλὰ κέκτηται, λέγοιτ' ἂν πρὸς αὐτόν· «Αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν»· ἐὰν καυχήσηταί τις ἐπὶ εὐγενείᾳ ταύτῃ τῇ ἐκτός, λεχθήσεται πρὸς αὐτόν· «Αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν»· ἐὰν καυχήσηταί τις ἐπὶ πολυτελείᾳ ἱματίων, ἐπὶ οἰκοδομῇ οἰκίας πλουσίως κατεσκευασμένης, ἀλλοτρία ἐστὶν ἡ καύχησις καυχήσεως ἁγίων, διὸ λεχθήσεται πρὸς τὸν τοιοῦτον· «Αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν.» Ἄκουε τοῦ λόγου <διὰ> τοῦ προφήτου Ἱερεμίου κελεύοντος ἡμᾶς μὴ καυχᾶσθαι μηδὲ ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ· «Μὴ καυχάσθω» γάρ φησιν «ὁ σοφὸς ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ αὐτοῦ μηδὲ ὁ ἰσχυρὸς ἐν τῇ ἰσχύϊ αὐτοῦ μηδὲ ὁ πλούσιος ἐν τῷ πλούτῳ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ ἐν τούτῳ καυχάσθω ὁ καυχώμενος, συνιεῖν καὶ γινώσκειν ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος.» Θέλεις καυχᾶσθαι καὶ καυχώμενος μὴ ἀκοῦσαι· «αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν», καύχησαι ὡς ὁ ἀπόστολος καὶ εἰπέ· «Ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται κἀγὼ τῷ κόσμῳ»· θέλεις καυχᾶσθαι, ἵνα μὴ λεχθῇ· «αἰσχύνθητε ἀπὸ καυχήσεως ὑμῶν», ἄκουε Παύλου καυχωμένου καὶ μάνθανε ὅταν λέγῃ· «Ἥδιστα οὖν καυχήσομαι ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις μου, ἵνα ἐπισκηνώσῃ ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ», ἄκουε οἷα καυχᾶται καυχήματα· «ἐν κόποις περισσοτέρως»-τίς δύναται ἡμῶν τοῦτο εἰπεῖν; - »ἐν φυλακαῖς ὑπερβαλλόντως, ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις· ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων πεντάκις τεσσαράκοντα παρὰ μίαν ἔλαβον, τρὶς ἐραβδίσθην, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην, τρὶς ἐναυά- γησα». Μανθάνομεν οὖν καὶ καυχήσεων εἶναι διαφοράς, ὡς τινὰς μὲν καυχήσεις εἶναι αἰσχύνης ἀξίας, ἐφ' οἷς λέγοιτ' ἂν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἀποστολικόν· «Καὶ ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν»· ἐφ' οἷς ἔδει αὐτοὺς αἰσχύνεσθαι, ἐπὶ τούτοις 11.5 οἴονται δοξάζεσθαι. Μετὰ ταῦτα ἴδωμεν τὰ περὶ τοῦ περιζώματος. «Τάδε» γὰρ «λέγει κύριος· βάδιζε καὶ κτῆσαι σεαυτῷ περίζωμα λινοῦν, καὶ περίθου περὶ τὴν ὀσφύν σου, καὶ ἐν ὕδατι <οὐ> διελεύσῃ. Καὶ ἐκτησάμην τὸ περίζωμα κατὰ τὸν λόγον κυρίου καὶ περιέθηκα περὶ τὴν ὀσφύν μου, καὶ ἐγενήθη λόγος κυρίου πρός με λέγων· λάβε τὸ περίζωμα τὸ περὶ τὴν ὀσφύν σου, καὶ ἀνάστηθι καὶ βάδισον ἐπὶ τὸν Εὐφράτην, καὶ κατάκρυψον αὐτὸ ἐκεῖ ἐν τῇ τρυμαλιᾷ τῆς πέτρας»· μετὰ ἡμέρας ἔρχεται ἐκεῖ, εὑρίσκει διασεσηπὸς τοῦτο τὸ περίζωμα, καὶ ἐπιφέρει ὁ κύριος διδοὺς ἀφορμὴν τῆς ἑρμηνείας τοῦ περιζώματος λέγων· «Καθάπερ κολλᾶται τὸ περίζωμα πρὸς τὴν ὀσφὺν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, οὕτως ἐκόλλησα πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ πάντα τὸν οἶκον Ἰούδα, φησὶν ὁ κύριος, τοῦ γενέσθαι μοι εἰς λαὸν ὀνομαστὸν καὶ εἰς καύχημα καὶ εἰς δόξαν, καὶ οὐκ εἰσήκουσάν μου.» Οὐκοῦν ὁ προφήτης ἀντὶ τοῦ θεοῦ παραλαμβάνεται περιζωννὺς περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ τὸ περίζωμα τὸ λινοῦν, ὡς ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαόν· «ἐκόλλησα γὰρ πρὸς ἐμαυτόν» φησιν «τοῦτον τὸν λαόν, φησὶν ὁ θεός», καὶ οἱονεὶ περίζωμα ὁ λαὸς γίνεται τοῦ θεοῦ· διὰ τί δὲ περίζωμα γίνεται τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ; Ὁ δυνάμενος ἀναγινώσκων τὸν Ἰεζεκιὴλ καὶ ὁρῶν τὸν θεὸν τῷ λόγῳ οἱονεὶ σωματοποιούμενον, καὶ τίνα μὲν τρόπον αὐτοῦ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀσφύος κάτω ἐστὶν πῦρ, τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀσφύος καὶ ἄνω ἐστὶν ἤλεκτρον, ἐρευνησάτω τὸν λόγον, διὰ τί τὸ κάτω τοῦ θεοῦ πῦρ ἐστιν. Τὰ ἀπὸ ὀσφύος καὶ γενέσεως πράγματα, ταῦτα πῦρ ἐστιν· πάντα γὰρ τὰ ἐν γενέσει χρῄζει τοῦ καθαρσίου τοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ πυρός, πάντα τὰ ἐν γενέσει χρῄζει τῆς κολάσεως. Τὰ δὲ ἀνωτέρω τῆς ὀσφύος ὑπερβεβηκότα τὴν γένεσιν, ταῦτά ἐστιν ὕλη ὡς <ἤλεκτρον> ἐν κόσμῳ καθαριωτάτη καὶ τιμιωτάτη· λέγεται γὰρ τὸ ἤλεκτρον χρυσοῦ εἶναι τιμαλφέστερον. Ἐπεὶ οὖν παραδείγμασιν χρῆται ἡ γραφή, ἵνα διδάξῃ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ σῶμα τὸ ἀνωτέρω εἶναι τιμιώτερον καὶ τὸ σῶμα τὸ κατωτέρω εἶναι ὑποδεέστερον, διὰ τοῦτο εἰσήγαγεν τὸν θεὸν ἐκ πυρὸς καὶ ἠλέκτρου συνεστηκότα. Ἐν γενέσει πῦρ ἐστιν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, καὶ ἔστιν σῶμα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ αὐτός· οὐκ ἐσμὲν τὸ ἤλεκτρον, ἐὰν δὲ ἀναβαίνωμεν καὶ προκόπτωμεν-δυνατὸν γὰρ μεταβῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ σήμερον εἶναι ἐν τοῖς κατωτέρω,