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teach me what they are. Again he says such things for their sake, so that they may learn that he who has sins and iniquities is not hidden from God. And he himself, having said to his friends "I know that I shall appear righteous," says reverently to God, "You teach me how many are my sins." Similar to this is, "I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this; the one who judges me is the Lord." And it is a good thing to learn 357 one's faults, so that we may turn away from them. Why do you hide from me, and consider me your adversary? And this is in reference to their assumption; for God, who dwelt in him, was not hidden from him, but these things were said because they thought this. "For they think this, that you are my adversary, believing that I suffer because of sins." Or will you be frightened of a leaf moved by the wind, or do you oppose me as grass carried by #6the spirit? The whole of the thought would be thus: "Why do you hide from me, considering me to be your adversary and a leaf moved by the wind and grass carried by the spirit?" These things are indicative of an inconstant manner and worthlessness, according to what was said by the Savior concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?"- instead of "someone easily despised and changed by any random person." But these things, as was said before, Job says in reference to the assumption of his friends. 358 Because you have written down evils against me, and you have encompassed me with the sins of my youth. It is clear that he speaks in reference to their suspicion; for by "evils" he now means afflictions. For since his friends thought that he was suffering because of sins, he himself connected "you have written down evils against me" with "and you have encompassed me with the sins of my youth," signifying that "from the way my friends are disposed in running me down as suffering for sins, it follows that they think that the sins of my youth have now been encompassed upon me." And you have put my foot in a hindrance. He does not say these things according to his own will, but in reference to the one who supposes that everyone who is afflicted suffers this for having sinned. But being smoothed out, it would be thus: "You have placed my power of walking, by which I act rightly, in a hindrance, it being suspected otherwise by them as if I had sinned and for this reason was partaking in tribulations." For in a certain way, he himself brought this about, having given him over to the one who asked, from which it happened that his foot was placed in a hindrance, 359 being hindered among them, as was said, by sins, since they were unwilling to correctly understand the progress of the righteous man, which is a foot. That it is customary for Scripture to speak of things established by the will of the one acting as being from God, because he has permitted them, will be clear to you from "God gave them over to dishonorable passions" and "to a debased mind" and "to the desires of their hearts." But if also on account of the affliction of his whole body, which no longer allowed him to attend to the needs of those in want or of any others—as he also said, "But my door was opened to everyone who came"—he said this, you have considered, which he did not fail to know had happened to him for the sake of a contest. For God does many such things for the sake of what is expedient, as it is possible to learn from the things concerning his people, whom God led through the wilderness [...] for three days usefully, so that they might not think the return to Egypt was quick. But consider, lest he says this also of the fellowship with the body, which is a burden and occurs through an ineffable dispensation, 360 as the highest purity is not being accomplished. And this again is for some reason; for we are not to blame, nor is God to blame. And you have watched all my works. The blessed one, being a saint, knows what was said by David, that God does not watch all the iniquities of those who stumble, but again, instructing them for what reason he suffers—that it is for a contest—he has said the foregoing as if He had watched all his works and thus brought upon him the

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δίδαξόν με, τίνες εἰσίν. πάλιν δι' ἐκείνους τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγει, ἵν' ἐκεῖνοι μάθωσιν, ὅτι ὁ ἔχων ἁμαρτίας καὶ ἀνομίας οὐ λέληθεν θεόν. καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ εἰπὼν τὸ "οἶδα ὅτι δίκαιος ἀναφανοῦμαι" πρὸς τοὺς φίλους πρὸς θεὸν εὐλαβῶς λέγει ὅτι "σύ με δίδαξον, πόσαι εἰσὶν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι μου". ὅμοιον τούτῳ τὸ "οὐδὲν ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐν τούτῳ δεδικαίωμαι, ὁ δὲ ἀνακρίνων με κύριός ἐστιν". καλὸν δὲ καὶ τὸ μανθάνειν 357 τὰ σφάλματα, ἵνα ἐκ τούτων ἐκτρεπώμεθα. διὰ τί ἀπ' ἐμοῦ κρύπτῃ, ἥγησαι δέ με ὑπεναντίον σου; καὶ τοῦτο πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνων διάλημψιν· οὐ γὰρ ἐκρύπτετο ἀπ' αὐτοῦ θεὸς ἐνοικῶν ἐν αὐτῷ, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἐκείνους τοῦτο οἴεσθαι καὶ ταῦτα εἴρηται. «τοῦτο γὰρ οὗτοι νομίζουσιν, ὅτι ὑπεναντίος μου τυγχάνεις, νομίζοντές με δι' ἁμαρτίας πάσχειν.» ἢ ὡς φύλλον κινούμενον ὑπὸ ἀνέμου εὐλαβηθήσει ἢ ὡς χόρτῳ φερομένῳ ὑπὸ #6πνεύματος ἀντίκεισαί μοι; τὸ ὅλον τῆς νοήσεως οὕτως ἂν εἴη· «διὰ τί με ἀποκρύπτῃ ἡγούμενός με εἶναι ὑπεναντίον σου καὶ φύλλον ὑπ' ἀνέμου κινούμενον καὶ χόρτον ὑπὸ πνεύματος φερόμενον;» ἅπερ παραστατικὰ τυγχάνει εὐμεταβόλου τρόπου καὶ φαυλότητος κατὰ τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος λεγόμενον περὶ Ἰωάννου· "τί ἐξήλθατε εἰς τὴν ἔρημον θεάσασθαι; κάλαμον ὑπὸ ἀνέμου σαλευόμενον;"- ἀντὶ τοῦ «εὐκαταφρόνητόν τινα καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ τυχόντος μεταπίπτοντα». ταῦτα δέ, ὡς καὶ πρότερον εἴρηται, πρὸς τὴν τῶν φίλων διάλημψιν ὁ Ἰὼβ λέγει. 358 ὅτι κατέγραψας κατ' ἐμοῦ κακά, περιέθηκας δέ μοι νεότητος ἁμαρτίας. σαφὲς ὅτι πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνων ὑπόλημψιν λέγει· "κακὰ" γὰρ νῦν τὰς κακώσεις φησίν. τοῦτο γὰρ νομιζόντων τῶν φίλων, ὅτι δι' ἁμαρτίας πάσχει, αὐτὸς τῷ "κατέγραψας κατ' ἐμοῦ κακὰ" συνῆψεν τὸ "περιέθηκας δέ μοι νεότητος ἁμαρτίας" σημαίνων ὅτι «ἐξ ὧν οἱ φίλοι μου κατατρέχοντές μου διάκεινταί με δι' ἁμαρτίας πάσχειν, ἑπόμενον ἔχουσι τὸ νομίζειν, ὅτι αἱ τῆς νεότητος ἁμαρτίαι νῦν μοι περιετέθησαν». ἔθου δέ μου τὸν πόδα ἐν κωλύματι. οὐ κατὰ βούλησιν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ταῦτα λέγει, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸν ὑποτιθέμενον, ὅτι πᾶς θλιβόμενος ἁμαρτὼν τοῦτο ὑφίσταται. ἐξομαλιζόμενον δὲ οὕτως ἂν εἴη· «τὴν πορευτικήν μου δύναμιν, καθ' ἣν κατορθῶ, ἑτέρως παρ' ἐκείνων ὑπονοουμένην ὡς ἁμαρτόντος μου καὶ διὰ τοῦτο περιστάσεσιν κοινωνοῦντος ἐν κωλύματι ἔθηκας.» τρόπον γάρ τινα αὐτὸς τοῦτο ἐνήργησεν ἐκδοὺς αὐτὸν τῷ αἰτησαμένῳ, ἐξ οὗ συνέβη ἐν κωλύματι τεθεῖσθαι 359 αὐτοῦ τὸν πόδα, π̣αρ' αὐτοι῀̣ς ὡς εἴρηται κωλυόμε̣νον ἐξ ἁμαρτιῶν, μὴ βουλομένων αὐτῶν τὴν προκοπὴν τοῦ δικαίου, ἥτις ἐστιν πούς, ὀρθῶς ἐκλαμβάνειν. ὅτι δὲ σύνηθες τ̣ῇ γραφῇ καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ γνώμης συνιστάμενα τοῦ ἐνεργοῦντος ὡς παρὰ θεοῦ λέγειν διὰ τὸ συνκεχωρηκέναι, σαφὲς ἔσται σοι ἐκ τοῦ "παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας" καὶ "εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν" καὶ "ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν". εἰ δὲ καὶ διὰ τ̣ὴν ὁλοσώματον κάκωσιν μηκέτι συνχωροῦσαν αὐτῷ αὐτουργεῖν τὰ πρὸς τὰς χρείας ἢ τῶν δεομένων ἢ ἄλλων τινῶν-καθὰ καὶ εἴρηκεν. "θύρα μου δὲ παντὶ ἐλθόντι ἠνέῳκτο"-τοῦτο ἔλεγεν, συνεπίσκεψαι, ὅπερ οὐκ ἠγνόει διὰ ἀγῶνα αὐτῷ γεγενῆσθαι. πολλὰ γὰρ διὰ τὸ συμφέρον τοιαῦτα θεὸς ποιεῖ, ὡς ἐκ τῶν κατὰ τὸν λαὸν α̣υ᾿̣τοῦ ἔστιν μαθεῖν, ὃν διήγαγεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου †εξον† διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν χρησίμως, ἵνα μὴ ταχεῖαν οἰηθῶσιν τὴν εἰς Αἴγυπτον ὑποστροφήν. κατανόησον δέ, μήποτε καὶ τὴν πρὸς σῶμα κοινωνίαν β̣άρος οὖσαν καὶ δι' οἰκονομίαν ἀπόρρητον γινομένην τοῦτο λέγει 360 ὡς τῆς ἄκρας καθαρότητος μὴ ἐπιτελουμένης. τοῦτο δὲ πάλιν ἔκ τινος αἰτίας· οὐ γὰρ ἡμᾶς, οὐ γὰρ τὸν θεὸν αἰτιατέον. ἐφύλαξας δέ μου πάντα τὰ ἔργα. οἶδεν ὁ μακάριος τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ ∆αυὶδ εἰρημένον ἅγιος ὤν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς οὐ παρατηρεῖται πάσας τὰς ἀνομίας τῶν πταιόντων, ἀλλὰ παιδεύων ἐκείνους πάλιν, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν πάσχει-ὅτι δι' ἀγῶνα-, τὸ προκείμενον εἴρηκεν ὡς πάντα αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα φυλάξαντος καὶ οὕτως ἐπαγαγόντος αὐτῷ τὰ