,

deliverance from the passions, endurance of temptations, discourses on virtues, modes of activities, the casting out of the soul's disposition towards the flesh, the alienation of the sense's relation to sensible things, the intellect's complete withdrawal from all created things—and simply countless other things there are for abstinence from vice and ignorance, and for the attainment of knowledge and virtue. Fittingly the Lord said, “whatever you ask for in faith, you will receive,” saying that the pious must seek and ask with knowledge and faith for all things simply that alone contribute to the knowledge of God and virtue.

For these things are in every way profitable, and in every way the Lord gives them to those who ask. He therefore who through faith alone—that is, the immediate union with God—seeks all things that lead to this union, will in every way receive them. But he who, without this cause, seeks either other things or the things aforesaid, will not receive them; for he does not believe, but as an unbeliever seeks his own glory through divine things.

LE (35). CONCERNING HOW WE ARE COMMANDED TO EAT THE FLESH OF THE WORD AND

DRINK THE BLOOD, BUT NOT BREAK THE BONES? 35. QUESTION 35. Since the Word became flesh, and not only flesh but also blood and bones, and

we are commanded to eat the flesh, and to drink the blood, but not to break the bones, I ask to learn what is this threefold power of the incarnate Word.

Response. Willing to come into being, as He Himself knows, the super-essential Word and of all

Creator of beings, brought with Him the natural principles of all visible and intelligible beings, along with the incomprehensible concepts of His own divinity; of which, let the principles of intelligible things be the blood of the Word, and let the principles of sensible things be the visible flesh of the Word. Since, therefore, the Word is the teacher of the spiritual principles both in visible and in intelligible things, fittingly and according to reason He gives to the worthy, as flesh to eat, the scientific knowledge in the principles of visible things, and, as blood to drink, the gnosis in the principles of intelligible things, which Wisdom also prepared from afar mystically through the bowl and the victims by means of the Proverbs; but the bones, that is, the principles concerning the Godhead that are beyond understanding, being infinitely and equally distant from every created nature, He does not give, since the nature of beings does not have, according to any capacity, a receptive relation to them.

And again, the flesh of the Word is true virtue, the blood is unerring knowledge, and the bones are ineffable theology. For in the manner of blood, being transformed in appearance into flesh, so too knowledge through practice is refashioned into virtue, and in the manner of bones, which constitute blood and flesh, so also the principles concerning the Godhead that are beyond all understanding, being inherent in beings, both unknowingly make the substances of beings (14Β_228> and hold them together in being, and they constitute all knowledge and all virtue.

But if someone should say that the principles concerning judgment and providence are the flesh and the blood, as things that will surely at some time be eaten and drunk, and that the ineffable principles concerning the Godhead hidden within them are the bones, he has not, I think, gone outside of what is probable.

Perhaps, again, the flesh of the Word is also the perfect return and restoration of nature to itself through virtue and knowledge, and the blood is the deification that is to hold it together by grace for eternal well-being, and the bones are the unknown power itself that holds nature together for eternal well-being through deification.

ἀπαλλαγὴ παθῶν, ὑπομονὴ πειρασμῶν, ἀρετῶν λόγοι, τρόποι ἐνεργειῶν, ἐξήλωσις τῆς πρὸς σάρκα τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεως, ἀποξένωσις τῆς πρὸς τὰ αἰσθητὰ τῆς αἰσθήσεως σχέσεως, τοῦ νοῦ παντελὴς ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν γεγονότων ἀναχώρησιςκαὶ ἁπλῶς μυρία ἄλλα εἰσὶ τὰ πρὸς ἀποχὴν μὲν κακίας καὶ ἀγνωσίας, κατόρθωσιν δὲ γνώσεως καὶ ἀρετῆςεἰκότως ὁ Κύριος ἔφη πάντα ὅσα ἂν αἰτεῖσθε πιστεύοντες λήψεσθε, πάντα ἁπλῶς τὰ πρὸς ἐπίγνωσιν Θεοῦ καὶ ἀρετὴν συντείνοντα μόνα καὶ ζητεῖν καὶ αἰτεῖν μετ᾽ ἐπιστήμης καὶ πίστεως δεῖν εἰπὼν τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς.

Ταῦτα γὰρ πάντως συμφέρει, καὶ πάντως δίδωσιν αὐτὰ τοῖς αἰτοῦσιν ὁ Κύριος. Ὁ τοίνυν διὰ μόνην τὴν πίστιν, ἤγουν τὴν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἄμεσον ἕνωσιν, πάντα ζητῶν τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἕνωσιν, πάντως λήψεται. Ὁ δὲ ταύτης δίχα τῆς αἰτίας, κἂν ἄλλα, κἂν τὰ προειρημένα ζητῇ, οὐ λήψεται· οὐ γὰρ πιστεύει, ἀλλ᾽ οἰκείαν ὡς ἄπιστος διὰ τῶν θείων πραγματεύεται δόξαν.

ΛΕ (35). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΠΩΣ ΚΕΛΕΥΟΜΕΘΑ ΕΣΘΙΕΙΝ ΤΗΝ ΣΑΡΚΑ ΤΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΥ ΚΑΙ

ΠΙΝΕΙΝ ΤΟ ΑΙΜΑ, ΜΗ ΣΥΝΤΡΙΒΕΙΝ ∆Ε ΤΑ ΟΣΤΑ; 35. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΛΕ' Ἐπειδὴ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, καὶ οὐ μόνον σὰρξ ἀλλὰ καὶ αἷμα καὶ ὀστᾶ, καὶ

κελευόμεθα ἐσθίειν μὲν τὴν σάρκα, πίνειν δὲ τὸ αἷμα, μὴ συντρίβειν δὲ τὰ ὀστᾶ, παρακαλῶ μαθεῖν τίς ἡ τριμερὴς αὕτη τοῦ ἀνθρωπισθέντος Λόγου δύναμις.

Ἀπόκρισις. Εἰς οὐσίαν ἐλθεῖν βουληθείς, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτὸς ὁ ὑπερούσιος Λόγος καὶ πάντων

τῶν ὄντων δημιουργός, τοὺς τῶν ὄντων πάντων τῶν φαινομένων καὶ νοουμένων μετὰ τῶν ἀκαταλήπτων τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος νοημάτων φυσικοὺς ἐπεφέρετο λόγους· ὧν, τῶν μὲν νοητῶν οἱ λόγοι εἶεν τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Λόγου, τῶν αἰσθητῶν δὲ οἱ λόγοι ἡ φαινομένη τοῦ Λόγου ἔστω σάρξ. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν καὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς φαινομένοις καὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς νοουμένοις πνευματικῶν λόγων ὑπάρχει διδάσκαλος ὁ Λόγος, πρεπόντως καὶ κατὰ λόγον δίδωσι τοῖς ἀξίοις, ὡς σάρκα φαγεῖν, τὴν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐπιστήμην καί, ὡς αἷμα πίνειν, τὴν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν νοουμένων γνῶσιν, οὓς καὶ ἡ σοφία διὰ τοῦ κρατῆρος καὶ τῶν θυμάτων πόρρωθεν μυστικῶς διὰ τῶν Παροιμιῶν ἡτοιμάσατο· τὰ δὲ ὀστᾶ, τουτέστι τοὺς ὑπὲρ νόησιν περὶ θεότητος λόγους, πάσῃ γενητῇ φύσει κατὰ τὸ ἴσον ἀπείρως ἀπέχοντας, οὐ δίδωσιν, οὐκ ἐχούσης τῆς τῶν ὄντων φύσεως κατά τινα δύναμιν πρὸς τούτους τὴν ἐπιδεχομένην σχέσιν.

Καὶ πάλιν, σάρξ ἐστι τοῦ Λόγου ἡ ἀληθὴς ἀρετή, αἷμα δὲ ἡ ἄπταιστος γνῶσις, ὀστᾶ δὲ ἡ ἀπόρρητος θεολογία. Τρόπον γὰρ αἵματος, κατ᾽ εἶδος εἰς σάρκα μεταβαλλομένου, καὶ ἡ γνῶσις διὰ τῆς πρακτικῆς εἰς ἀρετὴν μεταπλάττεται, καὶ ὀστέων δίκην συστατικῶν αἴματος καὶ σαρκός, καὶ οἱ πάσης ἐπέκεινα νοήσεως περὶ θεότητος λόγοι, τοῖς οὖσιν ἐνυπάρχοντες, τὰς τῶν ὄντων (14Β_228> ἀγνώστως καὶ ποιοῦσι καὶ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι συνέχουσιν οὐσίας, καὶ πᾶσαν γνῶσιν καὶ πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν συνιστῶσιν.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ τοὺς περὶ κρίσεως καὶ προνοίας λόγους εἶναι τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὸ αἷμα, ὡς πάντως ποτὲ βρωθησομένους καὶ ποθησομένους, τοὺς δὲ τούτοις ἐγκεκρυμμένους ἀρρήτους περὶ θεότητος λόγους ὀστᾶ φήσειέ τις, οὐκ ἔξω βέβηκεν, ὧς οἶμαι, τοῦ εἰκότος.

Τυχὸν δὲ σάρξ ἐστι πάλιν τοῦ Λόγου καὶ ἡ τῆς φύσεως τελεία πρὸς ἑαυτὴν δι᾽ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνώσεως ἐπάνοδος καὶ ἀποκατάστασις, αἷμα δὲ ἡ ταύτην πρὸς τὸ ἀεὶ εὖ εἶναι χάριτι συνέχειν μέλλουσα θέωσις, ὀστᾶ δὲ αὐτὴ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἀεὶ εὖ εἶναι διὰ θεώσεως συνέχουσα τὴν φύσιν ἄγνωστος δύναμις.