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of pride, sends Joab, that is, courage, driving out and urging on the powers of the soul to its destruction. Fleeing, therefore, it hides itself as if in some city, in one of the virtues; courage besieges it, seeking to bring about the destruction of pride; but the wise woman, who is wisdom, through the discovery of the constitutive causes of virtue brings about the destruction of the productive causes of the passions, through which every constitution of wickedness comes to be in the soul.

QUESTION 170 What does the story about Amasa mean, when Joab killed him? ANSWER Amasa is interpreted as 'anointed' or 'anointing'; he is taken, therefore, for

dispassion, as easily escaping every hold of the adversaries through his perfection, while Joab is taken for courage. Whenever, therefore, the soul through courage, after perfect dispassion as a state, abandons prayer and busies itself in vain with some passion, it kills, that is, it renders inactive the more perfect mode of contemplation, by busying itself with defeated enemies.

QUESTION 171 What does the story about the same Joab mean, when he killed Abner and

what is the curse that was brought upon him? ANSWER Here Joab is taken for the resentful thought, against which he also receives the

curse, that of leaning on a staff 14Α_240 and falling by the sword, the word indicating, I think, through the staff the hope of the resentful one in perceptible things—for every resentful thought, always being wrapped up in material things, also has its support in them—and through "falling by the sword" the destruction of such a relation through the sharpest word.

QUESTION 172 Whose person does Hushai represent when David sent him "to scatter

the counsel of Ahithophel"? ANSWER Since Hushai was the son of Jemini, in his own person

he is interpreted as 'spinning,' but in relation to his father he is called 'son of the right hand'; he is taken for discernment; for this, by its diagnostic power, refines and scatters the counsels of the adversaries.

QUESTION 173 What is meant by what was said by the Apostle, "the fullness of him who fills all in all"? ANSWER God, according to His essence, is apophatically removed from all beings;

for He is neither spoken of, nor conceived, nor participated in in any way by anything; but according to His providential procession, being participated in by many, by them He is also filled. For each of the created things, according to its own logos which is in God, is said to be a member of God and to have a place in God; indeed, if one should move according to it wisely and rationally, one will be in God, filling one's own place and working out comeliness in the body of Christ as a useful member. 14Α_242 But whoever, having abandoned his own logos, is irrationally carried towards non-existent things, will justly suffer eternal punishment for the blame that has come to be, as far as it depends on him, in the body of Christ.

QUESTION 174

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ὑπερηφανίας, ἀποστέλλει τὸν Ἰωάβ, τουτέστιν τὴν ἀνδρείαν, ἐκδιώκουσαν καὶ παροτρύνουσαν τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν αὐτῆς. Φεύγουσα οὖν αὐτὴ ἐγκρύπτεται ὡς εἴς τινα πόλιν, μιᾷ τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἐκπορθεῖ ταύτην ἡ ἀνδρεία, ζητοῦσα τὴν τῆς ὑπερηφανίας ἀναίρεσιν ποιήσασθαι· ἡ δὲ σοφὴ γυνή, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ σοφία, τῇ ἐφευρέσει τῶν συστατικῶν τῆς ἀρετῆς αἰτιῶν ἀναίρεσιν ποιεῖται τῶν ποιητικῶν τῶν παθῶν αἰτιῶν, δι᾽ ὧν πᾶσα σύστασις γίνεται ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ κακίας.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 170 Τί σημαίνει ἡ κατὰ τὸν Ἀμεσσαεὶ ἱστορία ἡνίκα ὁ Ἰωὰβ ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτόν; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ Ἀμεσσαεὶ 'ἠλειμμένος ἢ ἀλείφων' ἑρμηνεύεται· λαμβάνεται οὖν ἐπὶ τῆς

ἀπαθείας, ὡς πᾶσαν λαβὴν τῶν ἐναντίων διαφεύγων εὐχερῶς διὰ τὴν τελειότητα, ὁ δὲ Ἰωὰβ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀνδρείας. Ὅτ᾽ ἂν οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ διὰ τῆς ἀνδρείας μετὰ τὴν ἐν ἕξει τελείαν ἀπάθειαν καταλείψασα τὴν εὐχήν, πάθει τινὶ μάτην προσασχολεῖται, ἀποκτέννει, τουτέστιν ἄπρακτον ποιεῖ τὸν τελεώτερον τῆς θεωρίας τρόπον, τοῖς ἡττημένοις ἐχθροῖς προσασχολουμένη.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 171 Τί σημαίνει ἡ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν Ἰωὰβ ἱστορία ὅτε ἀπέκτεινεν τὸν Ἀβεννὴρ καὶ

τίς ἡ ἐπενεχθεῖσα αὐτῷ κατάρα; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἐνταῦθα ὁ Ἰωὰβ ἐπὶ τοῦ μνησικάκου λαμβάνεται λογισμοῦ, καθ᾽ οὗ καὶ τὴν

κατάραν δέχεται, τὸ ἐπὶ σκυτάλης ἐπερείδεσθαι 14Α_240 καὶ ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ πίπτειν, δηλοῦντος, οἶμαι, τοῦ λόγου διὰ μὲν τῆς σκυτάλης τὴν περὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ τοῦ μνησικάκου ἐλπίδα πᾶς γὰρ μνησίκακος λογισμός, ἀεὶ ἐν τοῖς ὑλικοῖς εἰλούμενος, ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν ἐπερείδησιν ἔχει διὰ δὲ τοῦ «πίπτειν ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ» τὴν διὰ τοῦ τομωτάτου λόγου τῆς τοιαύτης σχέσεως ἀναίρεσιν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 172 Τίνος ἐπέχει πρόσωπον ὁ Χοῦσι ἡνίκα ἔπεμψεν αὐτὸν ὁ ∆αβὶδ «διασκεδάσαι

τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ Ἀχιτόφελ»; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ἐπειδὴ ὁ Χοῦσι υἱὸς ἦν τοῦ Ἰεμινί, ὡς μὲν εἰς τὸ ἴδιον πρόσωπον

ἑρμηνεύεται 'νήθων,' ὡς δὲ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς σχέσιν λέγεται 'υἱὸς δεξιός·' λαμβάνεται δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς διακρίσεως· αὐτὴ γὰρ τῇ διαγνωστικῇ δυνάμει λεπτύνει καὶ διασκεδάζει τῶν ἀντικειμένων τὰς βουλάς.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 173 Τί σημαίνει τὸ εἰρημένον τῷ Ἀποστόλῳ "τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν

πληρουμένου"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ Θεὸς κατὰ μὲν τὴν οὐσίαν ἀποφατικῶς πάντων ὑφεξῄρηται τῶν ὄντων·

οὔτε γὰρ λέγεται, οὔτε νοεῖται, οὐδὲ μετέχεται οὐδαμῶς ἀπό τινος· κατὰ δὲ τὴν προνοητικὴν πρόοδον ὑπὸ πολλῶν μετεχόμενος, ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ πληροῦται. Ἕκαστον γὰρ τῶν γεγονότων κατὰ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον, τὸν ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ὄντα, μέλος Θεοῦ λέγεται εἶναι καὶ τόπον ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ἔχειν· ἀμέλει τοι καὶ εἰ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν κινηθείη σοφῶς τε καὶ λελογισμένως, ἐν τῷ Θεῷ γενήσεται, τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τόπον πληρῶν καὶ τὴν εὐπρέπειαν ἐν τῷ σώματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὡς μέλος εὔχρηστον ἐργαζόμενος. 14Α_242 Ὅστις δὲ ἀφεὶς τὸν ἴδιον λόγον παραλόγως πρὸς τὰ ἀνύπαρκτα φέρεται, δίκην δικαίως αἰωνίαν ὑφέξει τῆς γενομένης ὅσον ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ μομφῆς ἐν τῷ σώματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

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