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18. The vine makes wine; the wine, intoxication; intoxication, ecstasy; therefore also the active word, which is the vine, being cultivated by the virtues, begets knowledge; and knowledge begets the good ecstasy, which removes the mind from its relation to the senses.

49 (49). CONCERNING "AND HEZEKIAH SAW THAT SENNACHERIB HAD COME". 49. QUESTION 49. What is meant again in the same book: and Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and his

face was to make war on Jerusalem, and he took counsel with his elders and mighty men to stop the waters of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. And he gathered many people and stopped the waters of the springs and the river that flowed through the city? What do these things mean in a spiritual sense?

Answer. The mind that pursues practical philosophy with knowledge and is girded with all

divine discernment against the opposing power (14Β_328> is Hezekiah, interpreted according to his name as divine strength, and for this reason reigning over Jerusalem, that is, of the soul or of the vision of peace, which is contemplative knowledge freed from the passions; who, when he sees the opposing power moving against him, rightly takes counsel with his elders and mighty men to stop the waters of the springs outside the city. The rulers of such a mind are the principle of faith and that of hope and that of love, ruling with seniority over all divine thoughts and reasonings in the soul, and wisely counseling the mind, at the same time together also strengthening it against the opposing power, and showing the ways of its destruction. For without faith and hope and love, nothing of evil is completely abolished, nor is anything of good fully achieved. For faith persuades the embattled mind to turn to God, becoming for it an entire provision of incorporeal weapons for the encouragement of courage. Hope becomes for it a most truthful guarantor of divine assistance, promising the destruction of the opposing powers. And love prepares it to be difficult to move, or rather, completely immovable from divine affection, even when embattled, nailing its entire power of desire to divine longing.

And the names of the rulers, when interpreted, are in harmony with these words. The rulers of Hezekiah at that time were Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. Eliakim is interpreted as "resurrection of God," and his father Hilkiah as "portion of God." Therefore, of the divine portion, that is, of true knowledge, the first and only son is the principle of faith in the divine resurrection within us, with the necessary economy according to knowledge, that is, discernment, rightly enduring the uprisings of both voluntary and involuntary temptations. (14Β_330> Somnas the scribe is interpreted as "turning back," clearly signifying through itself the most complete principle of divine hope, without which it is by nature impossible for anyone to turn back to God in any way, since it is the property of hope to act as a scribe, that is, to teach and to bring before the eyes future things as if they were present, and to persuade those who are warred against by the opposing power that the defending God is in no way absent, for whose sake and on account of whom the saints have their war. And Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, is interpreted as "brotherhood of God," and Asaph his father as "gathering." Therefore, of the gathering and union of the soul's powers in the same things concerning the divine, that is

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18. Ἡ ἄμπελος οἶνον ποιεῖ· ὁ οἶνος, μέθην ἡ μέθη, ἔκστασιν· οὐκοῦν καί ὁ ἐνεργής λόγος, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ ἄμπελος, γεωργούμενος ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, γεννᾷ τήν γνῶσιν· ἡ δέ γνῶσις γεννᾷ τήν καλήν ἔκστασιν, τήν τόν νοῦν τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν σχέσεως ἐξιστῶσαν.

ΜΘ (49). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΚΑΙ ΕΙ∆ΕΝ ΕΖΕΚΙΑΣ ΟΤΙ ΗΚΕΙ ΣΕΝΝΑΧΕΙΡΙΜ". 49. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΜΘ' Τί ἐστι πάλιν ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ βίβλῳ· καὶ εἶδεν Ἐζεκίας ὅτι ἥκει Σενναχειρὶμ καὶ τὸ

πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ τοῦ πολεμῆσαι ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ ἐβουλεύσατο μετὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων αὐτοῦ καὶ δυνατῶν ἐμφράξαι τὰ ὕδατα τῶν πηγῶν, ἃ ἦν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, καὶ συνεπίσχυσαν αὐτῷ. Καὶ συνήγαγεν λαὸν πολὺν καὶ ἐνέφραξεν τὰ ὕδατα τῶν πηγῶν καὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν διορίζοντα διὰ τῆς πόλεως; Τί θέλει ταῦτα σημαίνειν κατὰ θεωρίαν;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ μετὰ γνώσεως μετιὼν τὴν πρακτικὴν φιλοσοφίαν νοῦς καὶ πᾶσαν

διάκρισιν θείαν διεζωσμένος κατὰ τῆς ἐναντίας δυνάμεως (14Β_328> Ἐζεκίας ἐστίν, κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ κράτος θεῖον ἑρμηνευόμενος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βασιλεύων τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἤγουν τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ τῆς ὁράσεως τῆς εἰρήνης, τουτέστι τῆς παθῶν ἀπηλλαγμένης γνωστικῆς θεωρίας· ὅς, ἐπειδὰν ἐπικεκινημένην ἴδῃ κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀντικειμένην δύναμιν, δεόντως βουλεύεται μετὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων αὐτοῦ καὶ δυνατῶν ἐμφράξαι τὰ ὕδατα τῶν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως πηγῶν. Ἄρχοντες δὲ τυγχάνουσι τοῦ τοιούτου νοὸς ὁ τῆς πίστεως λόγος καὶ ὁ τῆς ἐλπίδος καὶ ὁ τῆς ἀγάπης, πρεσβυτικῶς δυναστεύοντες πάντων τῶν κατὰ ψυχὴν θείων νοημάτων τε καὶ λογισμῶν καὶ σοφῶς τῷ νῷ συμβουλεύοντες, κατὰ ταὐτὸν ὁμοῦ καὶ συνεπισχύοντες κατὰ τῆς ἐναντίας δυνάμεως καὶ τοὺς τρόπους τῆς αὐτῆς καθαιρέσεως ὑποδεικνύντες. Χωρὶς γὰρ πίστεως καὶ ἐλπίδος καὶ ἀγάπης οὐδὲν οὔτε τῶν κακῶν καταργεῖται παντελῶς οὔτε τῶν καλῶν κατορθοῦται τὸ σύνολον. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ πίστις πείθει τῷ Θεῷ προσχωρεῖν τὸν νοῦν πολεμούμενον, πάσης αὐτῷ γινομένη παρασκευῆς ὅπλων ἀσωμάτων πρὸς τὸ θαρρεῖν παραμύθιον. Ἡ ἐλπὶς δὲ τῆς θείας αὐτῷ καθίσταται βοηθείας ἐγγυητὴς ἀψευδέστατος, τὴν τῶν ἐναντίων καθαίρεσιν ἐπαγγελλομένη δυνάμεων. Ἡ δὲ ἀγάπη δυσμετακίνητον, μᾶλλον δὲ πάμπαν ἀκίνητον τῆς θείας στοργῆς αὐτὸν εἶναι παρασκευάζει, καὶ πολεμούμενον, προσηλοῦσα τῷ θείῳ πόθῳ πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν τῆς ἐφέσεως δύναμιν.

Καὶ συνᾴδει γε τούτοις τοῖς ῥήμασιν ἑρμηνευόμενα τὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων ὀνόματα. Ἄρχοντες δὲ τοῦ Ἐζεκίου κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον ὑπῆρχον τὸν χρόνον Ἐλιακὶμ ὁ τοῦ Χελκίου ὁ οἰκονόμος καὶ Σομνᾶς ὁ γραμματεὺς καὶ Ἰωὰχ ὁ τοῦ Ἀσὰ[φ] ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος. Ἑρμηνεύεται δὲ ὁ μὲν Ἐλιακὶμ Θεοῦ ἀνάστασις, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ Χελκίας μερὶς Θεοῦ. Οὐκοῦν θείας μερίδος, ἤγουν γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς, υἱὸς πρῶτός τε καὶ μόνος ὁ κατὰ τὴν πίστιν τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν θείας ἀναστάσεώς ἐστι λόγος, μετὰ τῆς δεούσης κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν οἰκονομίας ἤγουν διακρίσεως καλῶς διαφέρων τάς τε τῶν ἑκουσίων καὶ ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπαναστάσεις. (14Β_330> Σομνᾶς δὲ ὁ γραμματεὺς ἑρμηνεύεται ἐπιστροφή, σαφῶς μηνύουσα δι᾽ ἑαυτῆς τὸν πληρέστατον τῆς θείας ἐλπίδος λόγον, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδαμῶς οὐδενὶ καθοτιοῦν πρὸς Θεὸν ἐπιστροφὴ γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, εἴπερ ἐλπίδος ἴδιον τὸ γραμματεύειν ἤγουν διδάσκειν τε καὶ ὑπ᾽ ὄψιν ἄγειν ὡς παρόντα τὰ μέλλοντα καὶ μηδαμῶς ἀπεῖναι πείθειν τῶν πολεμουμένων ὑπὸ τῆς ἀντικειμένης δυνάμεως τὸν ὑπερασπίζοντα Θεόν, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ δι᾽ ὃν τοῖς ἁγίοις ὁ πόλεμος. Ἰωὰχ δὲ ὁ τοῦ Ἀσὰφ ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος ἑρμηνεύεται ἀδελφότης Θεοῦ, καὶ Ἀσὰφ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ συναγωγή. Οὐκοῦν τῆς κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ περὶ τὰ θεῖα συναγωγῆς τε καὶ ἑνώσεως τῶν ψυχικῶν δυνάμεων, τουτέστι