,

8. He who, according to virtue in his will, he says, has become equal towards all, shows God to be impartial in himself, just as He created one nature for all according to one and the same Logos, so also He legislated for all one movement of the (14Β_262> will, according to which the principle of nature, which seems to have been scattered, is naturally gathered together.

9. He calls "mediocrity" the state that is freed from the passions contrary to nature, but has not yet attained the goods that are above nature. For it shows the will to be in equal measure with nature, having nothing that is self-inclined and that opposes the principle of nature; and for this reason it knows all human beings as one, since it has the law of nature as a book written by God.

10. That we have as a natural criterion the law according to nature, teaching us, that before the wisdom in all things it was necessary for our desire to be moved towards the mystical initiation of the Creator of all things.

11. Faith, the Mother of the Logos, according to the anagogical sense; which being created first, later gives birth, embodied in the virtues, to the Logos who created her.

ΜΑ (41). CONCERNING THE FIVE HUSBANDS OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. 41. QUESTION 41 What is the meaning of the five husbands of the Samaritan woman, and of the sixth who was not

her husband? Response. Both the Samaritan woman, and she who took the seven, according to the Sadducees,

brothers in marriage, and the woman with the issue of blood, and the woman bent toward the ground, and the daughter of Jairus, and the Syrophoenician woman indicate both the universal nature of human beings and the soul of each individual human being, each signifying both nature and the soul according to the underlying disposition of the passion. For instance, the woman of the Sadducees is nature or the soul, which has cohabited barrenly with all the divine laws given from the age, but does not accept the expectation of things to come. Likewise the woman with the issue of blood is nature and the soul, dissipating towards matter through the passions the power given to it for the generation of works of righteousness and (14Β_264> words. The Syrophoenician woman is the same nature and the soul of each person, having the intellect as a daughter, grievously torn apart epileptically from helplessness by the love of matter. Similarly, the daughter of Jairus is the nature and soul according to the law, having completely died through the inaction of the legal commandments and the inoperativeness of the divine precepts. The woman who was bent over is nature or the soul which has bent its whole intellectual power concerning action toward matter through the deceit of the devil. The Samaritan woman, just as the preceding women, indicates nature or the soul of each person, having cohabited with all, apart from the prophetic gift, as if with husbands, the laws given to nature; of which five had passed away, and the sixth, even if he was present, yet was not the husband of nature or of the soul, not begetting from it the righteousness that saves completely.

Nature therefore had a first law, as a husband, the one in paradise; a second, the one after paradise; a third, the one at the flood in the time of Noah; a fourth, that of circumcision in the time of Abraham; a fifth, that of the offering of Isaac. Having taken all these, nature cast them off, they having died through its own fruitlessness in the works of virtue. And the sixth, the law through Moses, it had as though not having it, either because of not performing the righteousness ordained according to it, or because it was about to pass over to another law, as to a husband, the Gospel, since the law was not given for eternity to the

8. Ὁ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῇ γνώμῃ, φησίν, ἴσος πρός πάντας γενόμενος, ἀπροσωπόληπτον ἐν ἑαυτῷ δείκνυσι τόν Θεόν, ὥσπερ πάντων καθ᾿ ἕνα καί τόν αὐτόν Λόγον μίαν δημιουργήσαντα τήν φύσιν, οὕτω καί πᾶσι νομοθετήσαντα μίαν τῆς (14Β_262> γνώμης τήν κίνησιν, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ δοκῶν ἐσκορπίσθαι τῆς φύσεως συνάγεσθαι πέφυκε λόγος.

9. Μεσότητα λέγει τήν ἀπηλλαγμένην μέν τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν, οὔπω δέ τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἀγαθῶν ἐπειλημμένην κατάστασιν. Ἰσονομοῦσαν γάρ τῇ φύσει τήν γνώμην δείκνυσι, μηδέν ἔχουσαν αὐτοῤῥεπές, καί τῷ λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως ἀντιφερόμενον· καί διά τοῦτο πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἕνα γινώσκουσαν, ἅτε δή βίβλον θεόγραφον ἔχουσαν τόν νόμον τῆς φύσεως.

10. Ὅτι φυσικόν ἔχομεν κριτήριον τόν κατά φύσιν νόμον, διδάσκοντα ἡμᾶς, ὅτι πρό τῆς ἐν ὅλοις σοφίας ἔδει πρός τήν τοῦ Ποιητοῦ τῶν ὅλων μυσταγωγίαν ἡμῶν κινηθῆναι τήν ἔφεσιν.

11. Πίστις, ἡ τοῦ Λόγου Μήτηρ, κατά τήν ἀναγωγήν· ἥτις δημιουργουμένη πρότερον, γεννᾷ σωματούμενον ὕστερον ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τόν αὐτήν δημιουργήσαντα Λόγον.

ΜΑ (41). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΠΕΝΤΕ ΑΝ∆ΡΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΣΑΜΑΡΕΙΤΙ∆ΟΣ. 41. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΜΑ' Τίς ὁ λόγος τῶν πέντε ἀνδρῶν τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος, καὶ τοῦ ἕκτου καὶ μὴ ὄντος

ἀνδρός; Ἀπόκρισις. Καὶ ἡ Σαμαρεῖτις γυνή, καὶ ἡ τοὺς ἑπτὰ λαβοῦσα, κατὰ τοὺς Σαδδουκαίους,

πρὸς γάμον ἀδελφούς, καὶ ἡ αἱμόρρους, καὶ ἡ πρὸς γῆν συγκύπτουσα, καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ Ἰαείρου, καὶ ἡ Συροφοινίκισσα καὶ τὴν καθόλου τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν καὶ τὴν τοῦ καθέκαστον ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν δηλοῦσιν, ἑκάστη κατὰ τὴν ὑποκειμένην τοῦ πάθους διάθεσιν σημαίνουσα καὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν ψυχήν. Οἷον, ἡ μὲν τῶν Σαδδουκαίων γυνή ἐστιν ἡ φύσις ἢ ἡ ψυχή, ἡ πᾶσι μὲν τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος δοθεῖσι θείοις νόμοις ἀγόνως συνοικήσασα, τὴν δὲ τῶν μελλόντων προσδοκίαν οὐκ ἀποδεχομένη. Ἡ δὲ αἱμόρρους ὡσαύτως ἡ φύσις ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ ψυχή, τὴν δοθεῖσαν αὐτῇ πρὸς γένεσιν ἔργων δικαιοσύνης καὶ (14Β_264> λόγων τοῖς πάθεσι πρὸς τὴν ὕλην διαρρέουσα δύναμιν. Ἡ δὲ Συροφοινίκισσα ἡ αὐτὴ φύσις ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ τοῦ καθέκαστον ψυχή, ὡς θυγατέρα τὴν διάνοιαν ἐπαχθῶς τῇ φιλίᾳ τῆς ὕλης ἐξ ἀμηχανίας ἐπιληπτικῶς διαρρησσομένην ἔχουσα. Ἡ δὲ θυγάτηρ Ἰαείρου ὁμοίως ἡ κατὰ τὸν νόμον φύσις τε καὶ ψυχή, παντελῶς ἀποθανοῦσα τῇ ἀπραξίᾳ τῶν νομικῶν ἐντολῶν καὶ ἀνενεργησίᾳ τῶν θείων προσταγμάτων. Ἡ δὲ συγκύπτουσα γυνή ἐστιν ἡ φύσις ἢ ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ πρὸς τὴν ὕλην τὴν περὶ πρᾶξιν νοερὰν δύναμιν ὅλην διὰ τῆς ἀπάτης τοῦ διαβόλου ἐπικάμψασα. Ἡ δὲ Σαμαρεῖτις, ὡσαύτως ταῖς προλαβούσαις γυναιξί, τὴν φύσιν δηλοῖ ἢ τὴν τοῦ καθέκαστον ψυχήν, δίχα τοῦ προφητικοῦ χαρίσματος πᾶσι συνοικήσασα, καθάπερ ἀνδράσι, τοῖς δοθεῖσι τῇ φύσει νόμοις· ὧν πέντε μὲν ἦσαν παρελθόντες, ὁ ἕκτος δέ, κἂν παρῆν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἦν ἀνὴρ τῆς φύσεως ἢ τῆς ψυχῆς, μὴ γεννῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς τὴν σῴζουσαν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς δικαιοσύνην.

Ἔσχεν οὖν πρῶτον νόμον ἡ φύσις, ὡς ἄνδρα, τὸν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ· δεύτερον τὸν μετὰ τὸν παράδεισον· τρίτον τὸν ἐν τῷ κατακλυσμῷ ἐπὶ τοῦ Νῶε· τέταρτον τὸν τῆς περιτομῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀβραάμ· πέμπτον τὸν τῆς προσαγωγῆς τοῦ Ἰσαάκ. Τούτους λαβοῦσα πάντας ἡ φύσις ἀπεβάλετο, θανόντας τῇ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν ἀκαρπίᾳ τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἀρετῆς. Ἕκτον δέ, τὸν διὰ Μωσέως, εἶχε νόμον ὡς οὐκ ἔχουσα, ἢ διὰ τὸ μὴ ποιεῖν τὴν κατ᾽ αὐτὸν διατεταγμένην δικαιοσύνην, ἢ διὰ τὸ μέλλειν αὐτὴν πρὸς ἕτερον, ὡς ἄνδρα, νόμον μεταβήσεσθαι, τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, ὡς τοῦ νόμου μὴ δι᾽ αἰῶνος δοθέντος τῇ