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to make what was impossible among them possible, not for the condemnation of those who did not keep it, but for the salvation of those who believed. The first had the flaming sword guarding the entrance to the tree of life and barring Adam and those from him from it; this one had the arch-commander Michael, protecting and guarding those in him all the more, but not allowing the scattered nations to enter into it. There God pre-ordained, that through the side of Adam the recreation of Adam might take place; and for this reason the woman then came from the man without intercourse, so that from the woman again the side of Adam might be taken and without emission and intercourse might be born the man Christ and God and through him Adam might be renewed; in this paradise God promised beforehand to Abraham to bring in through his seed (136) all the nations that had been cast out and to make them one flock.

Since, therefore, those who possessed these good things both before entering into the land of promise and after entering transgressed also the commandment of God which says: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord and you shall not worship a foreign God" and "they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons and ate and drank the wine of their libations and worshiped what their fingers had made, and they killed the saints and stoned the prophets, they turned into a crooked bow and provoked with foreign gods and with their abominations the God who nourished them in the wilderness and they forgot him" - what then did the Lord who chose them above all the nations? Was he angered and did he turn away from them? By no means, but he sent his Son to wash away their sins, since they also had come to be like the nations, as it is written: "And they were mingled among the nations and learned their works" and "being in honor, they did not understand." Therefore, recall for me the ark of the sons of Noah and of the beasts and creeping things that then entered into it, as I said, when recounting the things in it, that Noah is a type of Christ, and his sons of the people under the law, and the beasts and the creeping things of the nations. Therefore the people under the law, who were called the Lord's portion, his inheritance, were made like the beasts, that is, the nations; and God, wishing to recall them and restore them again to their original state, came down to earth (137) and was incarnate, taking the side of Adam from the all-pure flesh of the Theotokos, and he became man, made like us in all things except sin. Why this? So that he might perfect through faith in him those who kept the law, and might join through faith to the rest of the body those of them who had prostituted themselves to idolatry, and thus the nations might likewise be justified through faith according to what was thus spoken by Paul: "For if their trespass, he says, has become the wealth of the world, how much more was their salvation to become so?"

But the contemplation of what was said as far as I can understand from the letter also clearly suggests something else to me. But pay attention, so that you may know well what the divine Apostle says: "If their trespass has become the wealth of the world, how much more was their salvation to become so?"

6. On the saying of the Apostle: "For if their trespass is the wealth of the world

has become" and the rest; and a personification of both peoples, I mean the nations and Israel. (137)

From the scattering of the nations, as I have already said, Israel became the Lord's portion.

This Israel, therefore, having become a great nation and a numerous people, ran aground into

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ποιῆσαι τό ἀδύνατον παρ᾿ ἐκείνοις δυνατόν, οὐχί πρός κατάκρισιν τῶν μή φυλαξάντων, ἀλλά πρός σωτηρίαν τῶν πιστευσάντων. Εἶχεν ὁ πρῶτος τήν φλογίνην ῥομφαίαν φυλάττουσαν τήν εἴσοδον τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καί ἀπείργουσαν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τόν Ἀδάμ καί τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ· εἶχεν οὗτος τόν ἀρχιστράτηγον Μιχαήλ, τούς ἐν αὐτῷ μᾶλλον περισκέποντα καί φυλάσσοντα, τά δέ διασπαρέντα ἔθνη τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ μή παραχωροῦντα. Προῳκονόμησεν ἐκεῖ ὁ Θεός, ἵνα διά τῆς πλευρᾶς τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἀνάπλασις γένηται· καί διά τοῦτο ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρός τότε ἄνευ συνουσίας γέγονεν ἡ γυνή, ὡς ἄν ἐκ τῆς γυναικός πάλιν ἡ πλευρά ληφθῇ τοῦ Ἀδάμ καί ἄνευ ῥεύσεως καί συνουσίας γεννηθῇ ἀνήρ ὁ Χριστός καί Θεός καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ὁ Ἀδάμ ἀνακαινισθῇ· προεπηγγείλατο ἐν τούτῳ τῷ παραδείσῳ ὁ Θεός τῷ Ἀβραάμ εἰσαγαγεῖν ἐν τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ (136) πάντα τά ἐξωσθέντα ἔθνη καί μίαν ποίμνην αὐτούς ἀπεργάσασθαι.

Ἐπεί οὖν οἱ ἐν τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τούτοις ὄντες καί πρό τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τήν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας γῆν καί μετά τό εἰσελθεῖν παρέβησαν καί αὐτοί τήν ἐντολήν τοῦ Θεοῦ τήν λέγουσαν· "Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ· Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου Κύριος εἷς ἐστι καί οὐ προσκυνήσεις Θεῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ" καί "ἔθυσαν τούς υἱούς αὐτῶν καί τάς θυγατέρας αὐτῶν τοῖς δαιμονίοις καί ἤσθιον καί ἔπινον τόν οἶνον τῶν σπονδῶν αὐτῶν καί προσεκύνησαν οἷς ἐποίησαν οἱ δάκτυλοι αὐτῶν, ἀπέκτεινάν τε τούς ἁγίους καί ἐλιθοβόλησαν τούς προφήτας, ἐστράφησαν εἰς τόξον στρεβλόν καί παρώξυναν ἐπ᾿ ἀλλοτρίοις καί ἐν βδελύγμασιν αὐτῶν τόν Θεόν τόν θρέψαντα αὐτούς ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καί ἐπελάθοντο αὐτοῦ" - τί οὖν ὁ παρά πάντα τά ἔθνη ἐκλεξάμενος αὐτούς Κύριος; Ὠργίσθη καί ἀπεστράφη αὐτούς; Οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλά ἀπέστειλε τόν Υἱόν αὐτοῦ κατακλύσαι τάς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν, ἐπειδή ἐφθάσθησαν ὁμοιωθῆναι καί οὗτοι τοῖς ἔθνεσι, καθώς γέγραπται· "Καί ἐμίγησαν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι καί ἔμαθον τά ἔργα αὐτῶν" καί "οὐ συνῆκαν ἐν τιμῇ ὄντες". Τοιγαροῦν ἀναμνήσθητί μοι τῆς κιβωτοῦ τῶν υἱῶν Νῶε καί τῶν θηρίων καί ἑρπετῶν τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τότε εἰσεληλυθότων, ὡς εἶπον, τά ἐν αὐτῇ διηγούμενος, τόν μέν Νῶε τύπον εἶναι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τούς υἱούς δέ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ λαοῦ, τά δέ θηρία καί τά ἑρπετά τῶν ἐθνῶν. Οἱ γοῦν ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ἄνθρωποι, οἱ μερίς Κυρίου κληθέντες, ὁ κλῆρος αὐτοῦ, τοῖς θηρίοις εἴτ᾿ οὖν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐξωμοιώθησαν· καί θέλων αὐτούς ὁ Θεός ἀνακαλέσασθαι καί εἰς τό ἀρχαῖον πάλιν ἀποκαταστῆσαι κατῆλθεν ἐπί γῆς (137) καί ἐσαρκώθη, λαβών τήν πλευράν τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἐκ τῶν πανάγνων τῆς Θεοτόκου σαρκῶν, καί ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, ὁμοιωθείς ἡμῖν κατά πάντα πλήν ἁμαρτίας. Τί τοῦτο; Ἵνα καί τούς ἐν νόμῳ φυλάξαντας τελειώσῃ διά τῆς εἰς αὐτόν πίστεως, καί τούς εἰς εἰδωλολατρείαν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκπορνεύσαντας διά πίστεως τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι ἐπισυνάψῃ, καί οὕτως δικαιωθῶσιν ὡσαύτως καί τά ἔθνη διά τῆς πίστεως κατά τό οὕτως εἰρημένον ὑπό τοῦ Παύλου· "Εἰ γάρ τό αὐτῶν παράπτωμα πλοῦτος, φησί, τοῦ κόσμου γέγονε, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἡ σωτηρία αὐτῶν γενήσεσθαι ἔμελλεν;"

Ἀλλ᾿ ἡ θεωρία τοῦ εἰρημένου ὅσον ἀπό τοῦ γράμματος νοεῖν μοι καί ἕτερόν τι σαφῶς ὑποτίθεται. Ἀλλά προσέχετε, ἵνα γνῶτε καλῶς τί ἐστιν ὅ λέγει ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος· "Εἰ τό αὐτῶν παράπτωμα πλοῦτος κόσμου γέγονε, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἡ σωτηρία αὐτῶν γενήσεσθαι ἔμελλεν;"

στ΄. Εἰς τό ῥητόν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου· "Εἰ γάρ τό αὐτῶν παράπτωμα πλοῦτος κόσμου

γέγονε" καί τά ἑξῆς· καί προσωποποιΐα τῶν ἑκατέρων λαῶν, τῶν ἐθνῶν φημι καί τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. (137)

Ἀπό τῆς διασπορᾶς τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὡς ἔφθην εἰπών, μερίς Κυρίου γέγονεν ὁ Ἰσραήλ.

Ὁ γοῦν Ἰσραήλ οὗτος, εἰς ἔθνος μέγα καί λαόν πολύν γεγονώς, ἐξώκειλεν εἰς