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5.31 (31) Everyone who does not accept the spiritual contemplation of Holy Scripture, has rejected along with it both the natural law and the written law according to the Jews, and has been ignorant of the law in grace, according to which deification is given to those who are led by it. Therefore, the one who takes the written law carnally, does not nourish the soul with virtues; and the one who does not attend to the inner principles of beings, does not generously feast the mind on the manifold wisdom of God; and the one who does not know the great mystery of the new grace, does not rejoice in the hope of future deification. Therefore, the lack of contemplation according to the written law has following it the want of the manifold wisdom of God understood according to the natural law, which in turn is followed by an utter ignorance of the deification to be given by grace according to the new mystery.

5.32 (32) Every mind that is discerning and strong in vision according to Christ, always desires and seeks the face of the Lord. The face of the Lord (15∆_276> is established as the true contemplation and knowledge of divine things according to virtue, seeking which, it is taught the cause of its own want and destitution. For just as the face is characteristic of each individual, so also does spiritual knowledge clearly characterize the divine. The one who seeks this is said to seek the face of the Lord. But the one who becomes carnal according to the letter of the law with bloody sacrifices has a desired ignorance, accepting the commandment only for the 1361 pleasure of the flesh, and carnally clinging only to the matter of the letter according to the senses.

5.33 (33) The one who worships carnally according to the law begets sin in actuality as matter, and as form is materially shaped by the mind’s assent to it through the suitable pleasures of the senses. But the one who accepts Scripture spiritually puts to death both the actuality as matter, and the assent as the form of sin, along with the modes according to misuse for the pleasure of the senses, through natural thoughts at the height of contemplation.

5.34 (34) The spiritual law, or mind, delivers over the matter and the form, and the five modes of the five senses according to misuse concerning the matter and the form—I mean the impassioned and unnatural entanglement of the senses with sensible things, that is, the things subject to time and flux—after the passing of the carnal worship in the law according to the letter, and the crossing over from ignorance, to be put to death by the higher principles and thoughts according to natural contemplation, for those who are at the height of the law of spiritual contemplation to abolish and put to death the most universal relation in the symbols of things under time to sense and body.

5.35 (35) Without natural contemplation, no one discerns the incongruity of the legal symbols with respect to divine realities. For if someone, having first contemplated naturally (15∆_278> the incongruity in the symbols of divine and intelligible things, does not long to come according to the mind, placing the sense entirely outside the divine inner sanctuaries, to the beauty of intelligible things, he cannot be released at all from the carnal diversity in the types; according to which, as long as he stands clinging to the letter, he rightly does not alleviate his destitution from the famine of knowledge, having condemned himself to eat the earth of Scripture, that is, the body, after the manner of the deceitful serpent; but not according to Christ, the heaven, that is, the spirit and the soul of Scripture, that is, the heavenly and angelic bread; I mean, being fed on the spiritual contemplation and knowledge of the Scriptures in Christ, which God gives, lavishly supplied to those who love him, according to what is written, He gave them the bread of heaven, man ate the bread of angels.

5.36 (36) One must [consider] the interpretation of Scripture according to the senses toward the body as being manifestly of the passions and of the disposition relative to temporal and transient things

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5.31 (λα΄) Πᾶς ὁ τήν πνευματικήν τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς θεωρίαν μή προσιέμενος, τόν τε φυσικόν ταύτῃ καί τόν γραπτόν κατά τούς Ἰουδαίους συναπώσατο νόμον, καί τόν ἐν τῇ χάριτι νόμον ἠγνόησε, καθ᾿ ὅν δίδοται τοῖς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀγομένοις ἡ θέωσις. Ὁ τοίνυν τόν γραπτόν νόμον λαμβάνων σωματικῶς, ἀρεταῖς τήν ψυχήν οὐ διατρέφει· καί ὁ τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων οὐκ ἐπιβάλλων, τῇ ποικίλῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίᾳ τόν νοῦν οὐχ ἑστιᾷ φιλοτίμως· καί ὁ τό μέγα τῆς καινῆς χάριτος μή γινώσκων μυστήριον, τῇ ἐλπίδι τῆς μελλούσης θεώσεως οὐκ ἀγάλλεται. Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἔλλειψις τῆς κατά τόν γραπτόν νόμον θεωρίας, ἔχει παρεπομένην αὐτῇ τήν ἔνδειαν τῆς κατά τόν φυσικόν νόμον νοουμένης ποικίλης σοφίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐφεπομένην ἔχουσαν τῆς κατά τό καινόν μυστήριον χάριτι δοθησομένης θεώσεως πάντως τήν ἄγνοιαν.

5.32 (λβ΄) Πᾶς νοῦς κατά Χριστόν διορατικός καί ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, ἀεί ἐφίεται καί ζητεῖ τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Πρόσωπον δέ Κυρίου (15∆_276> καθέστηκεν, ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῶν θείων ἀληθής θεωρία, καί γνῶσις, ἥν ζητῶν, διδάσκεται τήν αἰτίαν τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐνδείας καί ἀπορίας. Ὥσπερ γάρ τό πρόσωπον χαρακτηριστικόν ἐστι τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον, οὕτω καί ἡ πνευματική γνῶσις ἐμφαντικῶς χαρακτηρίζει τό θεῖον. Ἥν ὁ ζητῶν, λέγεται ζητεῖν τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Ὁ δέ κατασαρκούμενος κατά τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου ταῖς ἐναίμοις θυσίαις, ποθουμένην ἄγνοιαν ἔχει, πρός μόνην 1361 σαρκός ἡδονήν ἐντολήν ἐκδεχόμενος, καί μόνης κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀντεχόμενος σωματικῶς τῆς ὕλης τοῦ γράμματος.

5.33 (λγ΄) Ὁ μέν σωματικῶς κατά τόν νόμον λατρεύων, καθάπερ ὕλην γεννᾷ τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν, καί ὡς εἶδος τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τοῦ νοῦ συγκατάθεσιν ταῖς προσφόροις ἡδοναῖς τῶν αἰσθήσεων ὑλικῶς διαπλάττεται. Ὁ δέ πνευματικῶς τήν Γραφήν ἐκδεχόμενος, ὡς μέν ὕλην τήν ἐνέργειαν, ὡς εἶδος δέ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν συγκατάθεσιν, μετά τῶν κατά παράχρησιν πρός ἡδονήν τῆς αἰσθήσεως τρόπων θανατοῖ, διά τῶν φυσικῶν λογισμῶν ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆςθεωρίας.

5.34 (λδ΄) Τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος, καί τούς περί τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος κατά παράχρησιν πέντε τρόπους τῶν πέντε αἰσθήσεων· λέγω δέ τήν ἐμπαθῆ τε καί παρά φύσιν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων συμπλοκήν, ἤγουν τά ὑπό χρόνον καί ῥεῦσιν, μετά τήν πάροδον τῆς ἐν νόμῳ κατά τό γράμμα σωματικῆς λατρείας, καί τήν τῆς ἀγνοίας διάβασιν, παραδίδωσι θανατωθῆναι τοῖς κατά φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὑψηλοτέροις λόγοις καί λογισμοῖς, ὁ πνευματικός νόμος, ἤ νοῦς· τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις πρός αἴσθησιν καί σῶμα καθολικωτάτην τῶν ὑπό χρόνον σχέσιν, ἀφανίσαι καί θανατῶσαι, κατά τό ὕψος γινομένοις τοῦ νόμου τῆς πνευματικῆς θεωρίας.

5.35 (λε΄) Χωρίς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, οὐδείς τήν πρός τά θεῖα τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων ἀπέμφασιν διαγινώσκει. Εἰ γάρ μή φυσικῶς (15∆_278> πρότερόν τις τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις τῶν θείων καί νοητῶν διασκοπήσας ἀπέμφασιν, ἐλθεῖν ποθήσει κατά νοῦν, ἔξω παντελῶς τῶν θείων ἀδύτων τήν αἴσθησιν θέμενος, πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν εὐπρέπειαν, τῆς ἐν τοῖς τύποις ἀπολυθῆναι καθάπαξ οὐ δύναται σωματικῆς ποικιλίας· καθ᾿ ἥν ἕως βέβηκε τοῦ γράμματος ἀντεχόμενος, τήν ἐκ τοῦ λιμοῦ τῆς γνώσεως εἰκότως ἀπορίαν οὐ παραμυθεῖται τῆς Γραφῆς τήν γῆν, ἤγουν τό σῶμα, κατά τόν ἀπατηλόν ὄφιν ἐσθίειν ἑαυτόν καταδικάσας· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά Χριστόν, τόν οὐρανόν, ἤγουν τῆς Γραφῆς τό πνεῦμα καί τήν ψυχήν, τουτέστι τόν οὐράνιον καί ἀγγελικόν ἄρτον· λέγω δέ, τήν ἐν Χριστῷ τῶν Γραφῶν πνευματικήν θεωρίαν καί γνῶσιν βρωματιζόμενος, ἥν δίδωσι δαψιλῶς ἐπιχορηγουμένην τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν Θεός, κατά τό γεγραμμένον, Ἄρτον οὐρανοῦ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς, ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος.

5.36 (λστ΄) Χρή τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός σῶμα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐκδοχήν, ὡς παθῶν προδήλως καί τῆς πρός τά χρονικά καί ῥέοντα σχετικῆς διαθέσεως οὖσαν