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Concerning a passionate and unbelieving and evil disposition. And what is the union of God with the sons of light and in what way this happens in them. And towards the end, a denunciation of those who unworthily dare to assume the high priesthood.

Discourse 15. (224) Brothers and fathers, darkness is always opposed to light, to faith

unbelief, ignorance to knowledge and hatred to love. For when God said from the beginning: "Let there be light," and it came to be, darkness at once vanished; but with the withdrawal of the light, night came to be again. And Adam, being guarded by faith in God, existed in immortal glory and was in paradise, but having been turned aside to unbelief by the enemy, he is condemned to death and cast out of paradise and instead of divine and spiritual knowledge, he received carnal knowledge. For having been blinded in the eyes of his soul and having fallen from imperishable life, he looked up with his bodily eyes; and having cast the sight of his eyes upon visible things with a passionate sense, he knew Eve his wife, and she, having conceived, gave birth to Cain. (225) This knowledge, therefore, is truly an ignorance of every good thing; for if he had not first fallen from the knowledge and contemplation of God, he would not have been brought down to this knowledge. So also Cain his son, if he had not first been inflamed with hatred and envy against his brother Abel, would not have killed him.

Therefore, all who are held by the darkness from birth and do not want to gaze upon the intelligible light, from which the forefather fell, these consider those who have come to be in that light and who speak of the things of the light as opposing enemies, being struck by their words. For just as a ray of the sun entering a dark house from somewhere, like some arrow, wounds and cuts through the darkness, so also the God-inspired word of a spiritual and holy man becomes like a two-edged sword in the heart of a carnal man, causing pain and arousing it to contradiction and hatred on account of ignorance and unbelief.

But he who thinks he knows something, while knowing nothing, even if he sees an angel coming down to him from heaven, he sends him away as an evil demon, and if an apostle, or a prophet of God, he turns away from him too as another Simon Magus. And oh, the utmost insensibility! The blind man considers the one who sees to be blind, and he who is truly foolish considers his words to be foolish. And just as when, at night, some people often say that the sun is not shining, a blind man, hearing them, does not believe them, and in the middle of the day he again disbelieves that it is night, thinking he is being deceived by both; and whether (226) he hears that there is light in the day, or that it is dark in the night, being in doubt, he rejects those who speak; so also those who sit in the darkness of the passions and have their mind blinded by ignorance, or rather, not possessing the mind of Christ, consider the one who has the mind of Christ as being without a mind, and the one who does not have it as being of sound mind, concerning whom the prophet David rightly says: "The senseless and the mindless shall perish." Therefore, such people twist all Scripture according to their own desires and corrupt themselves in their own passions, even if the divine Scripture does not suffer this, but rather those who falsify it.

How then, tell me, will he who applies correct judgment to things, ever read correctly by themselves the thoughts of the light, when out of conceit they do not condescend to be taught? He who is blind in his eyes and does not see the light, how will he read the letters that are in the light? But he who is blind in his mind and does not have in

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Περί ἐμπαθοῦς καί ἀπίστου καί πονηρᾶς διαθέσεως. Καί τίς ἡ ἕνωσις τοῦ Θεοῦ πρός τούς υἱούς τοῦ φωτός καί τίνα τρόπον ἐν αὐτοῖς αὕτη γίνεται. Καί πρός τό τέλος, καταδρομή τῶν ἀναξίως κατατολμώντων τῆς ἀρχιερωσύνης.

Λόγος ΙΕ΄. (224) Ἀδελφοί καί πατέρες, ἀεί μέν ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκεινται τῷ φωτί τό σκότος, τῇ πίστει

ἡ ἀπιστία, ἡ ἀγνωσία τῇ γνώσει καί τῇ ἀγάπῃ τό μῖσος. Εἰπόντος γάρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ· "Γενηθήτω φῶς" καί γεγονότος, εὐθύς τό σκότος ἠφάντωτο· τῇ δέ τοῦ φωτός ὑποστολῇ νύξ καί αὖθις ἐγένετο. Ὁ δέ Ἀδάμ τῇ πίστει τῇ εἰς Θεόν φρουρούμενος ἐν τῇ ἀθανάτῳ ὑπῆρχε δόξῃ καί ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ ἦν, ὑπό δέ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ εἰς ἀπιστίαν παρεκτραπείς θανάτῳ καταδικάζεται καί τοῦ παραδείσου ἐκβάλλεται καί ἀντί τῆς θείας καί πνευματικῆς γνώσεως τήν γνῶσιν τήν σαρκικήν ἐκομίσατο. Ἐκτυφλωθείς γάρ τούς τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμούς καί ἀνωλέθρου ζωῆς ἐκπεσών, τοῖς σωματικοῖς ἀνέβλεψεν ὀφθαλμοῖς· καί ἐμπαθεῖ αἰσθήσει τοῖς ὁρωμένοις τήν τῶν ὀμμάτων ἐπιβαλών ὅρασιν, ἔγνω Εὔαν τήν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καί αὐτή συλλαβοῦσα ἔτεκε τόν Κάϊν. (225) Ἡ οὖν γνῶσις αὕτη ἀγνωσία ὄντως ἐστί παντός ἀγαθοῦ· εἰ μή γάρ πρῶτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ γνώσεως καί θεωρίας ἐξέπεσεν, οὐκ ἄν εἰς τήν γνῶσιν ταύτην κατήγετο. Οὕτω δέ καί ὁ Κάϊν ὁ υἱός αὐτοῦ, εἰ μή πρῶτον εἰς μῖσος καί φθόνον ἐξεκαύθη κατά τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἄβελ, οὐκ ἄν αὐτόν ἀπέκτεινεν.

Ὅσοι τοιγαροῦν τῷ ἐκ γεννητῆς σκότει κατέχονται καί πρός τό νοητόν φῶς, ὅθεν ὁ προπάτωρ ἐξέπεσεν, ἐνατενίσαι οὐ βούλονται, οὗτοι τούς ἐν αὐτῷ γενομένους τῷ φωτί καί τά τοῦ φωτός διαλεγομένους ὡς ἀντικειμένους ἐχθρούς λογίζονται, πληττόμενοι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτῶν. Καθάπερ γάρ ἡλίου ἀκτίς ἐν οἰκίᾳ σκοτεινῇ ποθεν εἰσελθοῦσα, οἵα δή βέλος τιτρώσκει καί διατέμνει τό σκότος, οὕτω καί λόγος θεόπνευστος ἀνδρός πνευματικοῦ καί ὁσίου, ὡς δίστομος μάχαιρα ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνθρώπου σαρκικοῦ γίνεται, ἰδύνην ἐμποιοῦσα καί πρός ἀντιλογίαν καί μῖσος ὑπό τῆς ἀγνωσίας καί ἀπιστίας αὐτήν διεγείρουσα.

Ὁ δέ καί οἰόμενος εἰδέναι τι μηδέν εἰδώς, κἄν ἄγγελον ἴδῃ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ πρός αὐτόν κατελθόντα, ὡς δαίμονα πονηρόν ἀποπέμπεται αὐτόν, κἄν ἀπόστολον, κἄν προφήτην Θεοῦ, ὡς ἄλλον τινά Σίμωνα Μάγον καί αὐτόν ἀποστρέφεται. Καί ὤ τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀναισθησίας, ὁ τυφλός τυφλόν ἡγεῖται τόν βλέποντα καί ὁ τῷ ὄντι λῆρος λῆρον ἡγεῖται τούς λόγους αὐτοῦ. Καί καθάπερ ἐν νυκτί πολλάκις λεγόντων τινῶν μή λάμπειν τόν ἥλιον, ἀκούων ὁ τυφλός οὐ πιστεύει αὐτοῖς, καί ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μέσῃ ὤν νύκτα εἶναι πάλιν ἀπιστεῖ, πλανᾶσθαι οἰόμενος ὑπό ἀμφοτέρων, καί κἄν (226) φῶς εἶναι ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἀκούῃ, κἄν σκότος ἐν νυκτί, ἀμφιβάλλων τούς λέγοντας ἀποσείεται· οὕτω καί οἱ ἐν σκότει παθῶν καθήμενοι καί τετυφλωμένον ἔχοντες τόν νοῦν ἐξ ἀγνοίας, μᾶλλον δέ νοῦν μή κεκτημένοι Χριστοῦ, ὡς μέν ἄνουν τόν ἔχοντα τόν νοῦν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὡς δέ ἔννουν τόν μή τοῦτον ἔχοντα λογίζονται, περί ὧν εἰκότως ὁ προφήτης λέγει ∆αυίδ· "Ἀφρων καί ἄνους ἀπολοῦνται". Τοιγαροῦν πᾶσαν οἱ τοιοῦτοι Γραφήν κατά τάς ἰδίας αὐτῶν ἐπιθυμίας στρεβλοῦσι καί παραφθείρουσιν ἑαυτούς ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν πάθεσιν, εἰ καί μή πάσχει τοῦτο ἡ θεία Γραφή, ἀλλ᾿ οἰ ταύτην παραχαράττοντες.

Πῶς οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, ὁ τήν κρίσιν ὀρθήν τῶν πραγμάτων ἐπιφερόμενος, ὀρθῶς ποτε ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν τά νοήματα τοῦ φωτός οἱ τυφλοί ἀναγνώσονται, μή καταδεχόμενοι ἀπό οἰήσεως τό διδάσκεσθαι; Ὁ τυφλός τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καί μή βλέπων τό φῶς, πῶς τά ἐν τῷ φωτί γράμματα ἀναγνώσεται; Ὁ δέ τυφλός ὤν τόν νοῦν καί μή ἔχων ἐν