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What is the meaning of Adoni-bezek “being hanged on a double wood” by Jesus son of Nave?

RESPONSE The double wood is a figure of the activity and relation toward sensible things according to both soul and body. Whoever, therefore, according to Jesus, cutting the path of virtue through the commandments, will render wickedness inoperative in both soul and body, toward both sensation and what is contrary to nature, this person has hanged the ruler of this world on a double wood.

QUESTION 175 What is the meaning of the story concerning Ahab when the prophet saw the angelic powers on the right and on the left?

RESPONSE Here the prophet weaves the universal account of providence, knowing that the originating principle is intermingled in all things; and through those on the right he introduces the principles that propose dutiful actions, but through those on the left, those of judgment, that is, of things not in our power. But whoever is led to what is right neither by the teaching of the divine law, nor by the affliction of occurring tribulations, this one is handed over, being abandoned to self-love, that is, to the sin within him, which, pushing him into a greater depth of evils, does not stop until, having killed him unrepentant, it sends him to the tribunal there.

14Α_244 QUESTION 176 What is the meaning of the woman in the Gospel bent over for eighteen (18) years?

RESPONSE A soul occupied with sensible things through its three powers is signified by the woman bent over. For the number six, in which the sensible world was brought into being, when multiplied by three, makes eighteen. If, therefore, through repentance it approaches the Word and God, it becomes healthy, no longer stooping toward earthly things but contemplating the heavenly beauties.

QUESTION 177 What is the meaning of the ode of Habakkuk which says, "the sheep failed from the food and there are no oxen in the stalls"?

RESPONSE Sheep are the thoughts and movements of the mind, and oxen are spiritual teaching; the stall is dispassion in practice. When this is lacking, spiritual teaching fails; and when this fails, the thoughts and movements established in our mind through it are also wont to fail along with it, as the soul descends to the affairs of this life because of the famine of the word.

Or alternatively: the rational sheep failed from not being fed the spiritual food of teaching, because the spiritual oxen, the teachers, were not in the stall of the Church.

QUESTION 178 What is the anagogical meaning of the Lord's command 14Α_246 "if someone compels you to go one mile, go with him two"?

RESPONSE The one who compels us for the one mile of his commandment is the Lord through his teaching. It is good, therefore, for us to obey him when he commands and to go two miles, that is, to obey the commandment and to add through works the other one mile.

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Τί σημαίνει ὁ Ἀδωνιβέζεκ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ναυὴ Ἰησοῦ «κρεμνώμενος ἐπὶ διδύμου ξύλου»;

ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Τὸ δίδυμον ξύλον τύπον φέρει τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα πρὸς τὰ αἰσθητὰ

ἐνεργείας καὶ σχέσεως. Ὅστις οὖν κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν διὰ τῶν ἐντολῶν τέμνων τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς, ἀνενέργητον τὴν κακίαν ἐπί τε ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος πρός τε τὴν αἴσθησιν καὶ πρὸς τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ποιήσει, οὗτος τὸν ἄρχοντα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου ἐπὶ διδύμου ξύλου ἐκρέμασεν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 175 Τί σημαίνει ἡ κατὰ τὸν Ἀχαὰβ ἱστορία ἡνίκα ὁ προφήτης εἶδεν τὰς ἀγγελικὰς

δυνάμεις ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ ἐξ εὐωνύμων; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ προφήτης ἐνταῦθα τὸν καθόλου τῆς προνοίας ὑφαίνει λόγον, εἰδὼς πᾶσιν

ἐμμεμίχθαι τὸν ἀρχικὸν λόγον· καὶ διὰ μὲν τῶν δεξιῶν τοὺς ὑποθετικοὺς τῶν καθηκόντων πράξεων εἰσηγεῖται λόγους, διὰ δὲ τῶν ἀριστερῶν τοὺς τῆς κρίσεως ἤτοι τῶν οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν. Ὅστις δὲ μήτε τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τοῦ θείου νόμου, μήτε τῇ ἐπιφορᾷ τῶν συμβαινόντων θλίψεων πρὸς τὸ εὐθὲς ἄγεται, οὗτος παραδίδοται, καταλιμπανόμενος τῇ φιλαυτίᾳ ἤτοι τῇ ἐν αὐτῷ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἥτις εἰς πλεῖονα κακῶν ὠθοῦσα βάθος οὐχ ἵσταται ἕως οὗ ἀποκτείνασα ἀμετανόητον τῷ ἐκεῖσε παραπέμψῃ δικαστηρίῳ.

14Α_244 ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 176 Τί σημαίνει ἡ ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ συγκύπτουσα γυνὴ ἐπὶ ἔτη ιη' (18); ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ψυχὴ τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐνησχημένη διὰ τῶν ταύτης τριῶν δυνάμεων

σημαίνεται διὰ τῆς συγκυπτούσης γυναικός. Ὁ γὰρ ἓξ ἀριθμός, ἐν ᾧ ὁ αἰσθητὸς εἰς γένεσιν παρήχθη κόσμος, τρισσούμενος ἀποτελεῖ τὸν ὀκτωκαιδέκατον. Ἐὰν οὖν διὰ τῆς μετανοίας προσέλθῃ τῷ Λόγῳ καὶ Θεῷ, ὑγιὴς γίνεται, μηκέτι εἰς τὰ γήϊνα κατακύπτουσα ἀλλὰ τὰ οὐράνια περιαθροῦσα κάλλη.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 177 Τί σημαίνει ἡ ᾠδὴ Ἀμβακοὺμ λέγουσα "ἐξέλειπον ἀπὸ βρώσεως πρόβατα καὶ

οὐχ ὑπάρχουσιν βόες ἐπὶ φάτνης"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Πρόβατά εἰσιν τὰ τοῦ νοῦ νοήματα καὶ κινήματα, βόες δὲ ἡ πνευματικὴ

διδασκαλία, φάτνη ἡ κατὰ πρᾶξιν ἀπάθεια, ἧς μὴ ὑπαρχούσης ἐκλιμπάνει ἡ πνευματικὴ διδασκαλία· ταύτης δὲ ἐκλειπούσης συνεκλείπειν αὐτῇ πέφυκεν καὶ τὰ δι᾽ αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ νοῒ ἡμῶν συνιστάμενα νοήματά τε καὶ κινήματα, τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὰ τοῦ βίου πράγματα διὰ τὸν τοῦ λόγου λιμὸν κατερχομένης.

Ἢ καὶ ἄλλως· ἐξέλιπον τὰ λογικὰ πρόβατα ἐκ τοῦ μὴ σιτεῖσθαι τὴν πνευματικὴν τῆς διδασκαλίας βρῶσιν, διὰ τὸ μὴ ὑπάρχειν ἐπὶ τῆς φάτνης τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοὺς πνευματικοὺς βόας, τοὺς διδασκάλους.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 178 Τί σημαίνει κατ᾽ ἀναγωγὴν τὸ τοῦ Κυρίου παράγγελμα 14Α_246 "ἐάν τις

ἀγγαρεύσῃ σε μίλιον ἕν, ὕπαγε μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ δύο"; ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ ἀγγαρεύων ἡμᾶς ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος διὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας τὸ ἓν τῆς

ἐντολῆς αὐτοῦ μίλιον. Καλὸν οὖν ἡμᾶς ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ κελεύοντος καὶ ὑπάγειν δύο μίλια, τουτέστιν ὑπακούειν τῆς ἐντολῆς καὶ προστίθειν διὰ τῶν ἔργων τὸ ἄλλο ἓν μίλιον.