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The face of the Logos, which shone like the sun, is the characteristic hiddenness of His substance, upon which it is impossible to gaze with the interpretation of thoughts, just as it is with the brilliance of the sun, even if one is very purified in one's power of sight. But since Scripture mentioned a garment, it is necessary according to the flow of the sequence to also make mention of the body. The body of the Logos, then, is the substance of the virtues, such as goodness, meekness, and such things; but the garments of the Logos are the words of Scripture and the creation which was brought forth and received its being from God, which are seen as white by those who scrape away the overlying denseness from the letter of the divine Scripture and by the contemplation of the Spirit behold the brilliant beauty of the thoughts, and by those who, by the removal of sensory deception, behold the sensible creation brilliantly and from the greatness of its beauty reason analogously to its Creator.

QUESTION 192 "And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared, talking with Him. And Peter answered and

said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'"

(14A_270> RESPONSE For those who pass from the letter to the spirit see both the law

and the prophets with the Logos and with a piercing voice proclaiming His presence. But for what reason did Peter make mention of tents? Because all knowledge and all virtue, when compared to the future state, differs in nothing from an easily dismantled tent, according to the Apostle who says, "whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." And there are three tents: the practical, the natural, and the theological. And the theological he assigned to the Lord as God; the natural contemplation to Moses, as one who wrote of the generation of all things; and the practical to Elijah, as a virgin, a zealot, and an ascetic.

QUESTION 193 What is the reason for Moses and Elijah fasting forty days, and why

did the Lord, as if sealing the acts of His servants, deign also Himself to remain without food for the same forty (40) days, and what does the number forty signify?

RESPONSE The number forty is often taken up in the divinely-inspired

Scripture as signifying affliction, as the Israelites suffered in the desert for forty years, and the same served in bondage in Egypt for four hundred years. But indeed this world, in which we endure affliction, is composed of four elements. Moses, therefore, as the first to legislate and who delivered the law to the Jews when they were infants, fasts for forty days, signifying that the legislation according to him legislates the abstinence from sins of action; for every sin is naturally composed from sensible things and the senses. (14A_272> But Elijah, bearing the type of the prophetic gift, as one who had ascended beyond the legal precepts, fasts for forty days, signifying that the prophetic gift legislates abstinence from assents. But the Lord, as the fulfiller of the law and the only one who takes away the sin of the world, having fasted for forty days, has given us the power not only to abstain from sins of action and assent, but also to become superior to mere fantasies themselves.

QUESTION 194 What does it mean in the Gospel when, after the Lord had repelled every temptation of the devil,

the evangelist notes that "the devil departed from him until an opportune time"? What opportune time, then?

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Πρόσωπον δὲ τοῦ Λόγου ἐστίν, ὅπερ ἔλαμψεν ὥσπερ ἥλιος, ἡ χαρακτηριστικὴ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ κρυφιότης, ᾗπερ ἐνατενίσαι τῇ τῶν λογισμῶν ἑρμηνείᾳ ἀδύνατον, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τῇ λαμπρότητι τοῦ ἡλίου, κἂν εἰ πάνυ τις τὴν ὀπτικὴν δύναμίν ἐστιν κεκαθαρμένος. Ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδὴ ἱμάτιον ἐμνήσθη ἡ Γραφή, χρὴ κατὰ τὸν εἱρμὸν τῆς ἀκολουθίας καὶ τοῦ σώματος μνείαν ποιήσασθαι. Σῶμα οὖν τοῦ Λόγου ἐστὶν ἡ τῶν ἀρετῶν οὐσία, οἷον, ἡ ἀγαθότης, ἡ πραότης καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα· ἱμάτια δὲ τοῦ Λόγου εἰσὶν τὰ τῆς Γραφῆς ῥήματα καὶ ἡ προβεβλημένη καὶ ἐκ Θεοῦ τὸ εἶναι λαβοῦσα κοσμουργία, ἅπερ λευκὰ βλέπουσιν οἱ τὸ μὲν γράμμα τῆς θείας Γραφῆς ἀποξέοντες τῆς ἐπικειμένης παχύτητος καὶ τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος θεωρίᾳ τὸ λαμπρὸν τῶν νοημάτων ἐποπτεύοντες κάλλος καὶ οἱ τὴν αἰσθητὴν κτίσιν τῇ περιαιρέσει τῆς κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν ἀπάτης λαμπρῶς ἐποπτεύοντες καὶ ἐκ μεγέθους καλλονῆς τὸν ταύτης ∆ημιουργὸν ἀναλόγως συλλογιζόμενοι.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 192 «Καὶ ἰδοὺ ὤφθησαν Μωυσῆς καὶ Ἡλίας συλλαλοῦντες αὐτῷ· ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ

Πέτρος εἶπε τῷ Ἰησοῦ· "Κύριε, καλόν ἐστιν ἡμᾶς εἶναι ὧδε· εἰ θέλεις, ποιήσωμεν τρεῖς σκηνάς, σοὶ μίαν καὶ Μωσῇ μίαν καὶ Ἡλίᾳ μίαν"».

(14Α_270> ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Οἱ γὰρ διαβαίνοντες ἀπὸ τοῦ γράμματος εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ὁρῶσιν τόν τε νόμον

καὶ τοὺς προφήτας συνόντας τῷ Λόγῳ καὶ διαπρυσίῳ καταγγέλλοντας φωνῇ τὴν αὐτοῦ παρουσίαν. Τίνος δὲ χάριν σκηνῶν ὁ Πέτρος ἐμνημόνευσεν; Ἐπειδὴ πᾶσα γνῶσις καὶ πᾶσα ἀρετή, συγκρινομένη τῇ μελλούσῃ καταστάσει, σκηνῆς εὐκαταλύτου οὐδὲν διενήνοχεν, κατὰ τὸν Ἀπόστολον φάσκοντα "εἴτε προφητεῖαι παύσονται εἴτε γνῶσις καταργηθήσεται". Τρεῖς δὲ σκηναί εἰσιν· πραγματική, φυσικὴ καὶ θεολογική· καὶ τὴν μὲν θεολογικὴν ὡς Θεῷ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἀπένειμεν, τὴν δὲ φυσικὴν θεωρίαν τῷ Μωυσῇ ὡς γεγραφότι τὴν τῶν ὅλων γέννησιν, τὴν δὲ πρακτικὴν τῷ Ἡλίᾳ ὡς παρθένῳ καὶ ζηλωτῇ καὶ ἀσκητῇ.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 193 Τίς ὁ λόγος τοῦ Μωσέα καὶ Ἡλίαν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας νηστεῦσαι καὶ τί

δήποτε ὁ Κύριος ὥσπερ τὰ τῶν δούλων ἐπισφραγίσας κατεδέξατο καὶ αὐτὸς τὰς αὐτὰς μ' (40) ἡμέρας ἄσιτος διαμεῖναι καὶ τί σημαίνει ὁ τεσσαράκοντα ἀριθμός;

ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΙΣ Ὁ μὲν τεσσαρακοστὸς ἀριθμὸς ὡς κακωτικὸς πολλαχοῦ ἐν τῇ θεοπνεύστῳ

παρείληπται Γραφῇ, ὡς οἱ κακοπαθήσαντες ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Ἰσραηλῖται τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη καὶ οἱ αὐτοὶ δουλεύσαντες ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τετρακόσια ἔτη. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ὁ κόσμος οὗτος ἐν ᾧ τὴν κάκωσιν ὑπομένομεν ἐκ τεσσάρων συνίσταται στοιχείων. Ὁ οὖν Μωυσῆς ὡς πρῶτος νομοθετήσας καὶ νηπίοις οὖσι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τὸν νόμον παραδούς, τεσσαράκοντα νηστεύει ἡμέρας, σημαίνων ὅτι ἡ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν νομοθεσία τῶν κατὰ πρᾶξιν ἁμαρτημάτων τὴν ἀποχὴν νομοθετεῖ· πᾶσα γὰρ ἁμαρτία ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν καὶ τῶν αἰσθήσεων συνίστασθαι πέφυκεν. (14Α_272> Ὁ δὲ Ἡλίας τοῦ προφητικοῦ χαρίσματος τύπον φέρων ὡς ὑπεραναβεβηκὼς τὰ νομικὰ παραγγέλματα νηστεύει τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας, σημαίνων ὅτι τὸ προφητικὸν χάρισμα τὴν ἀποχὴν τῶν συγκαταθέσεων νομοθετεῖ. Ὁ δὲ Κύριος ὡς πληρωτὴς τοῦ νόμου καὶ μόνος ἄρας τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, νηστεύσας τὰς τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας, δέδωκεν ἡμῖν δύναμιν οὐ μόνον τῶν κατὰ πρᾶξιν καὶ συγκατάθεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν ἀπέχεσθαι ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ψιλῶν φαντασιῶν ἀνωτέρους γενέσθαι.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ 194 Τί σημαίνει ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ ὅτε μετὰ τὸ πάντα πειρασμὸν τοῦ διαβόλου τοῦ

Κυρίου ἀποκρουσαμένου ἐπισημαίνεται ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς ὅτι «ἀπέστη ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ὁ διάβολος ἄχρι καιροῦ»; Ποίου ἄρα καιροῦ;