46

For just as when the sensible sun rises all bodies are clearly revealed together, so also God, the intelligible sun of righteousness, rising in the mind, as he himself knows how to be contained by creation, wishes the true principles of all intelligible and sensible things to be revealed together with himself. And the splendid co-manifestation of the Lord's garments with the light of his face, which took place at the Transfiguration on the mountain, reveals this, gathering together for God the knowledge of the things after him, I think, and around him. For neither can the eye perceive sensible things without light, nor can the mind receive spiritual contemplation without the knowledge of God. For in the one case, light gives perception of visible things to the sight, and in the other, the knowledge of God bestows the knowledge of intelligible things to the mind.

37. A CONTEMPLATION OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE TRANSGRESSION OF ADAM OCCURRED

A contemplation of the manner in which the transgression of Adam occurred. Truly, because he did not fix the eye of his soul on this divine light, the forefather Adam, like a blind man, reasonably in the darkness of ignorance, willingly grasping with both hands the refuse of matter, gave himself over completely, inclining to sense-perception alone, through which, having received the destructive venom of the most bitter beast, he did not even enjoy sense-perception itself as he wished, having contrived to possess the things of God without God, and before God, and not according to God, as he ought not, which was impossible. For accepting his helpmate who had accepted (14∆_196> the serpent, more than God, accepting sense-perception and the forbidden tree, which was offering the fruit with which, he had been taught beforehand, death was associated, he made it the first-offering of his food and exchanged life for the fruit, having fashioned for himself a living death throughout the entire time of the present age.

For if death is the corruption of generation, and the body which comes to be through the influx of nourishment is naturally always corrupted, being spent by the flux, then Adam, through the very things by which he believed life to exist, always kept death flourishing for himself and for us. Since if he, being persuaded by God rather than by his spouse, had been nourished by the tree of life, he would not have cast away the given immortality, which is always preserved by participation in life, 1157 since every life is by nature preserved by its own and suitable nourishment. But the nourishment of that blessed life is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, as the unerring Word himself declared concerning himself in the Gospels, by whom the first man, not wishing to be nourished, was reasonably deprived of divine life, and took hold of another life, a begetter of death, according to which he put upon himself the irrational form, and obscuring the unattainable beauty of the divine, he handed over the whole of nature as food for death. Through which death lives throughout this whole expanse of time, making us its food, while we never live, being always devoured by it through corruption.

38. THAT FROM THE UNSTABLE REVOLUTION OF THE PRESENT LIFE THERE IS ANOTHER

TRUE... That from the unstable revolution of the present life there is another, the true

and divine life which is ever the same, the saints were taught. The saints, wisely understanding its powerlessness and successive nature (14∆_198>

were taught, as is likely, that this is not the life primarily bestowed on men by God, but another, divine and ever the same, which they supposed God, being good, must have fittingly and primarily created for himself,

46

Ὥς γάρ τῷ αἰσθητῷ ἡλίῳ ἀνατέλλοντι πάντα καθαρῶς συνεκφαίνονται τά σώματα, οὕτω καί Θεός ὁ νοητός τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος ἀνατέλλων τῷ νῷ, καθώς χωρεῖσθαι ὑπό τῆς κτίσεως οἶδεν αὐτός, πάντων ἑαυτῷ νοητῶν τε καί αἰσθητῶν τούς ἀληθεῖς βούλεται συνεκφανίζεσθαι λόγους. Καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο τῆς ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους Μεταμορφώσεως τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ λαμπρά τῶν ἐσθημάτων τῷ φωτί τοῦ προσώπου αὐτοῦ γενομένη συνένδειξις, τῷ Θεῷ τήν τῶν μετ᾿ αὐτόν, ὡς οἶμαι, καί περί αὐτόν συνάγουσα γνῶσιν. Οὔτε γάρ δίχα φωτός τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὀφθαλμός ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι δύναται, οὔτε νοῦς χωρίς γνώσεως Θεοῦ θεωρίαν δέξασθαι πνευματικήν. Ἐκεῖ τε γάρ τῇ ὄψει τό φῶς τῶν ὁρατῶν τήν ἀντίληψιν δίδωσι, καί ἐνταῦθα τῷ νῷ τήν γνῶσιν τῶν νοητῶν ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιστήμη χαρίζεται.

ΛΖ (37). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΘ' ΟΝ ΓΕΓΟΝΕΝ ΤΟΥ Α∆ΑΜ ΠΑΡΑΒΑΣΙΣ

Θεωρία τοῦ τρόπου καθ᾿ ὅν γέγονεν τοῦ Ἀδάμ παράβασις. Ἀμέλει τούτῳ μή ἐπερείσας τῷ Θεῷ φωτί τόν τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμόν ὁ

προπάτωρ Ἀδάμ τυφλοῦ δίκην εἰκότως ἐν σκότει τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἄμφω τώ χεῖρε τόν τῆς ὕλης φορυτόν ἑκουσίως ἀφάσσων μόνῃ αἰσθήσει ἑαυτόν ὅλον ἐπικλίνας ἐκδέδωκε, δι᾿ ἧς τοῦ πικροτάτου θηρός τόν φθαρτικόν ἰόν εἰσδεξάμενος οὐδ᾿ αὐτῆς, ὡς ἠβουλήθη, ἀπήλαυσε τῆς αἰσθήσεως, δίχα Θεοῦ, καί πρό Θεοῦ, καί οὐ κατά Θεόν, ὡς οὐκ ἔδει, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, τά τοῦ Θεοῦ ἔχειν ἐπιτηδεύσας. Τήν γάρ σύμβουλον παραδεξαμένην (14∆_196> τόν ὄφιν Θεοῦ πλέον παραδεξάμενος αἴσθησιν καί τοῦ ἀπηγορευμένου ξύλου, ᾧ καί θάνατον συνεῖναι προεδιδάχθην τόν καρπόν ὀρέγουσαν, βρώσεως ἀπαρχήν ποιησάμενος πρόσφορον τῷ καρπῷ τήν ζωήν μετηλλάξατο, ζῶντα τόν θάνατον ἑαυτῷ κατά πάντα τόν χρόνον τοῦ παρόντος καιροῦ δημιουργήσας.

Εἰ γάρ φθορά γενέσεως ὑπάρχει ὁ θάνατος, ἀεί δέ τό δι᾿ ἐπιῤῥοῆς τροφῶν γινόμενον φυσικῶς φθείρεται σῶμα τῇ ῥοῇ διαπνεόμενον, ἀεί ἄρα δι᾿ ὧν εἶναι τήν ζωήν ἐπίστευσεν ἀκμάζοντα ἑαυτῷ τε καί ἡμῖν τόν θάνατον ὁ Ἀδάμ συνετήρησεν. Ὡς εἴγε τῷ Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἤ τῇ συνοίκῳ πεισθείς τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς ζωῆς διετράφη, οὐκ ἄν τήν δοθεῖσαν ἀπέθετο ἀθανασίαν ἀεί συντηρουμένην τῇ μετοχῇ τῆς ζωῆς, 1157 ἐπειδή πᾶσα ζωή οἰκεία τε και καταλλήλῳ πέφυκε συντηρεῖσθαι τροφῇ. Τροφή δέ τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης ζωῆς ἐστιν ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς καί ζωήν διδούς τῷ κόσμῳ, καθώς αὐτός περί ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ὁ ἀψευδής ἀπεφήνατο Λόγος, ᾧ διατραφῆναι μή βουληθείς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος τῆς μέν θείας εἰκότως ἀπεγένετο ζωῆς, ἄλλης δέ θανάτου γεννήτορος ἐπελάβετο, καθ᾿ ἥν τήν μέν ἄλογον ἑαυτῷ μορφήν ἐπιθέμενος, τῆς θείας δέ τό ἀμήχανον ἀμαυρώσας κάλλος, βοράν τῷ θανάτῳ τήν ἅπασαν φύσιν παρέδωκε. ∆ι᾿ ἧς ὁ μέν θάνατος ζῇ δι᾿ ὅλου τοῦ χρονικοῦ τούτου διαστήματος, ἡμᾶς βρῶσιν ποιούμενος, ἡμεῖς δέ ζῶμεν οὐδέποτε, ἀεί διά φθορᾶς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατεσθιόμενοι.

ΛΗ (38). ΟΤΙ ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΣΤΑΤΟΥ ΠΕΡΙΦΟΡΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΗΣ ΖΩΗΣ ΑΛΛΗΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ

ΤΗΝ ΑΛΗΘΗ... Ὅτι ἐκ τῆς ἀστάτου περιφορᾶς τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἄλλην εἶναι τήν ἀληθῆ

καί θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν ζωήν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οἱ ἅγιοι. Ἧς τό ἀδρανές καί ἀλλεπάλληλον σοφῶς κατανοήσαντες (14∆_198> οἱ ἅγιοι

τήν ἀνθρώποις προηγουμένως ἐκ Θεοῦ δεδωρημένην ταύτην μή εἶναι τήν ζωήν, ὡς εἰκός, ἐπαιδεύθησαν, ἄλλην δέ θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν, ἥν μάλιστα δεῖν ὑπέλαβον ἑαυτῷ πρεπόντως ἀγαθόν ὄντα τόν Θεόν προηγουμένως δημιουργῆσαι,