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the future; and to utter the present, into the time before and after it, as is clear to those who have experience of it. Some say, therefore, that Scripture here calls 'dead' the people who died before the coming of Christ; for example, those in the flood, those at the time of the tower-building, those in Sodom, those in Egypt, and the others who at various times and in various ways received the manifold justice and the extraordinary inflictions of the divine judgments. These paid the penalty not so much for ignorance of God, as for their drunken violence toward one another; to whom he says the great proclamation of salvation was preached, they having already been judged in the flesh according to man; that is, having received the penalty for their crimes against one another, through the life in the flesh, so that they might live according to God in the spirit, that is, in the soul; receiving, while in Hades, the proclamation of the knowledge of God, through faith in the Savior who descended into Hades to save the dead as well. But that the passage might be understood, let us take it thus: For this reason the gospel was preached even to the dead, who were judged according to man in the flesh, that they might live according to God in the spirit.

Or again, perhaps he speaks covertly of the 'dead' as those who carry in the body the dying of Jesus, to whom fittingly, according to truth, the divine Gospel has been given through their very works; since the Gospel introduces a denial of carnal life, but a confession of spiritual life; those who are always dying according to man—I mean, the human life in the flesh according to this age—but are living according to God in the spirit alone, like the divine Apostle and those with him; those who live no life of their own at all, but have Christ living in them, possessing only the soul. Thus those who for God’s sake are dead in this age are judged in the flesh, having tribulations and many torments and hardships and persecutions, and enduring myriad kinds of temptations with joy.

QUESTION 8.

Since again the holy John says: "God is light;" and a little later again: "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light;" how is the same one said to be both light and to be in the light, as one thing in another?

Answer. (285) God, who is truly light in essence, becomes truly light in those who walk in him through the virtues.

Therefore, just as the light by participation, as are all the saints, through love of God come to be in the light by essence, so the light by essence, through love for humanity, becomes light in the light by participation. If therefore we are, according to virtue and knowledge, as in light in God, God himself also becomes light in the imitation, as an archetype in an icon; or rather, God the Father is light, that is, in the light of the Son and the Holy Spirit, not being one light and another and another; but in essence one and the same, three-fold in light according to the mode of existence.

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μέλλοντα· καί τόν ἐνεστῶτα, εἰς τόν πρό αὐτοῦ καί μετ᾿ αὐτόν χρόνον ἐκφωνεῖν, ὡς ἔστι δῆλον τοῖς αὐτῆς πεπειραμένοις. Φασίν οὖν τινες, νεκρούς λέγειν ἐνταῦθα τήν Γραφήν, τούς πρό τῆς ἐπιδημίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ τελειωθέντας ἀνθρώπους· οἷον, τούς ἐν τῷ κατακλυσμῷ, τούς ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τῆς πυργοποιίας, τούς ἐν Σοδόμοις, τούς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, καί τούς ἄλλους τούς κατά διαφόρους καιρούς τε καί τρόπους, τήν πολύτροπον δίκην, καί τάς ἐξαισίας ἐπαγωγάς τῶν θείων κριμάτων δεξαμένους. Οἵτινες οὐχ ὑπέρ ἀγνοίας Θεοῦ τοσοῦτον, ὅσον τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους παροινίας τήν δίκην ἔτισαν· οἷς εὐηγγελίσθαι λέγει τό μέγα τῆς σωτηρίας κήρυγμα, κριθεῖσιν ἤδη σαρκί κατά ἄνθρωπον· τουτέστιν ἀπολαβοῦσι τῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους ἐγκλημάτων τήν δίκην, διά τῆς ἐν σαρκί ζωῆς, ἵνα ζήσωσι κατά Θεόν πνεύματι, τουτέστι ψυχῇ· δεχόμενοι κατά τόν ᾅδην ὄντες τῆς θεογνωσίας τό κήρυγμα, διά τοῦ καί νεκρούς σῶσαι κατελθόντος εἰς ᾅδην Σωτῆρος πιστεύσαντας. Ὑπέρ δέ τοῦ νοηθῆναι τόν τόπον, οὕτως ἐκλάβωμεν· Εἰς τοῦτο γάρ καί νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη, κριθεῖσι κατά ἄνθρωπον σαρκί, ἵνα ζήσωσι κατά Θεόν πνεύματι.

Ἤ πάλιν νεκρούς λέγει τυχόν ἐπικεκρυμμένως, τούς τήν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντας, οἷς εἰκότως κατά ἀλήθειαν, δι᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων δέδοται τό θεῖον Εὐαγγέλιον· εἴπερ τό Εὐαγγέλιον σαρκικῆς μέν εἰσηγεῖται ζωῆς ἄρνησιν, πνευματικῆς δέ ὁμολογίαν· τούς ἀεί μέν κατά ἄνθρωπον, λέγω δέ τήν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐν σαρκί κατά τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον ζωήν, ἀποθνήσκοντας, ζῶντας δέ κατά Θεόν μόνῳ τῷ πνεύματι, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον καί τούς ἀμφ᾿ αὐτόν· τούς ζῶντας μέν οὐδαμῶς ἰδίαν ζωήν, ζῶντα δέ τόν Χριστόν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, κατά μόνην ἔχοντας τήν ψυχήν. Οὕτως οἱ διά τόν Θεόν ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ νεκροί, σαρκί κρίνονται, θλίψεις καί βασάνους πολλάς καί στενοχωρίας ἔχοντες καί διωγμούς, καί μυρία πειρασμῶν εἴδη μετά χαρᾶς ὑπομένοντες.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Η΄.

Ἐπειδή πάλιν λέγει ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης· " Ὁ Θεός φῶς ἐστι·" καί μετ᾿ ὀλίγα πάλιν· " Ἐάν ἐν τῷ φωτί περιπατῶμεν, ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί· " πῶς καί φῶς ὁ αὐτός λέγεται καί ἐν τῷ φωτί εἶναι, ὡς ἄλλος ἐν ἄλλῳ;

Ἀπόκρισις. (285) Ὁ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἀληθῶς φῶς ὑπάρχων Θεός, ἐν τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ διά τῶν

ἀρετῶν περιπατοῦσίν ἐστιν ἀληθῶς φῶς γενόμενος. Ὥσπερ οὖν τό κατά μέθεξιν φῶς, ὡς οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες, διά φιλοθεΐας ἐν τῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν γίνονται φωτί, οὕτω τό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐν τῷ κατά μέθεξιν φωτί διά φιλανθρωπίαν γίνεται φῶς. Ἐάν οὖν ἐσμέν κατά τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν ὡς ἐν φωτί τῷ Θεῷ, καί αὐτός ὁ Θεός ἐν τῷ μιμήσει γίνεται φωτί, ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι ἀρχέτυπον· ἤ μᾶλλον φῶς ἐστίν ὁ Θεός καί Πατήρ, ἐν φωτί δηλαδή τῷ Υἱῷ καί ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, οὐκ ἄλλο καί ἄλλο, καί ἄλλο φῶς ὑπάρχων· ἀλλά κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἕν καί τό αὐτό, κατά τόν τῆς ὑπάρξεως τρόπον τρισσοφαές.