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the Word; which He who longs for the salvation of all men, and hungers for their deification, curses as fruitless and withers away; so that, preferring to be righteous rather than to seem so, having stripped off the tunic of hypocritical moral display, and having pursued the virtuous life without guile, as the divine Word wills, they might lead their life piously, showing the disposition of their soul to God rather than the outward moral affectation to men.

(312) And if we Christians are of such a kind, feigning piety through our habits without the righteousness of works, let us receive the Word as loving mankind, hungering for our salvation, withering away the seed of evil in the soul, conceit, which no longer bears the fruit of corruption, that is, man-pleasing [Fr.ἀνθρωπαρεσκίαν]. You have, according to my meager ability, the power of the Word; according to the narrative given, it has shown the Lord to be rightly hungering, usefully cursing the fig tree, and opportunely withering it, as it is an impediment to the truth, whether it be the ancient tradition according to the Law of physical types, or the conceit of the Pharisees and of ourselves in our morals.

QUESTION 21.

What is the meaning of, "Having stripped off the principalities and powers," and so forth? And how was He clothed in them at all, since He was born without sin?

Response. The one like us in every way, except for sin alone, unchangeably putting on the

our nature, the divine Word, having become a perfect man, possessed the first Adam, who appeared in the modes of coming-into-being and of birth; for man, having received his being from God, and having come into being according to this generation of being, was free of corruption and sin. For corruption and sin were not co-created with him. But when he transgressed the commandment and sinned, he is condemned to a generation constituted through passion and sin, in the passibility on account of it, with sin from then on possessing generation in nature as under a law; according to which no one is without sin, being subject (313) by nature to the law of generation introduced after coming-into-being on account of sin.

Since, therefore, on account of the transgression came sin, and on account of sin passibility in generation entered into the nature of men, and the first transgression always flourished along with the passibility of generation through sin, there was no hope of freedom, since nature was bound by an evil bond indissolubly according to its will. For inasmuch as nature strove for its own constitution through generation, by so much more did it bind itself to the law of sin, having the transgression active in its passibility. For in this very passibility, on account of its natural condition, having the increase of sin, it had the energies of all the heavenly Powers, both Principalities and Authorities, hidden in the passions according to nature, according to the general sin in its passibility, through the passions contrary to nature. Through these every evil power was at work, according to the passibility of nature, unto the [Fr.καί τήν] corruption of the passions contrary to nature, driving the will through those which are according to nature.

For therefore, out of love for mankind, the only-begotten Son and Word of God, having become a perfect man, in order to deliver human nature from this evil plight, took and had sinlessness without incorruptibility from the first constitution of Adam according to his coming-into-being; and from the generation later introduced into nature on account of sin, He took only passibility without sin. Since, therefore, in the passibility according to Adam, as I said, on account of sin, the

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ὁ λόγος· ἥν ὁ τῆς σωτηρίας ὀρεγόμενος πάντων ἀνθρώπων, καί πεινῶν αὐτῶν τήν ἐκθέωσιν, ὡς ἄκαρπον καταρώμενος ἀποξηραίνει· ὅπως τοῦ δοκεῖν εἶναι δίκαιοι, τό εἶναι μᾶλλον προκρίναντες, τόν μέν καθ᾿ ὑπόκρισιν τῆς ἠθικῆς ἐπιδείξεως ἐκδυσάμενοι χιτῶνα, τόν ἐνάρετον δέ καθώς ὁ θεῖος βούλεται λόγος, ἀνοθεύτως μετελθόντες, εὐσεβῶς τήν ζωήν διενέγκωσι· Θεῷ μᾶλλον τῆς ψυχῆς τήν διάθεσιν, ἤ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τόν ἐκτός ἐπιδεικνύμενοι περί τά ἤθη σχηματισμόν.

(312) Εἰ δέ καί τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐσμέν τοιοῦτοί τινες, τήν εὐλάβειαν διά τῶν τρόπων σχηματιζόμενοι δίχα τῆς ἐπ᾿ ἔργοις δικαιοσύνης, ἐκδεξώμεθα τόν λόγον ὡς φιλάνθρωπον, ἡμῶν πεινῶντα τήν σωτηρίαν, ἀποξηραίνοντα τῆς ψυχῆς τό τῆς κακίας σπέρμα τήν οἴησιν, μηκέτι φθορᾶς καρπόν φέρουσαν τήν ἀνθρωπαρέσκειαν [Fr.ἀνθρωπαρεσκίαν]. Ἔχετε κατά τήν ἐμήν πενιχράν δύναμιν, τοῦ λόγου τήν δύναμιν· κατά τήν ἐκδοθεῖσαν ἀφήγησιν καλῶς πεινῶντα τόν Κύριον, χρησίμως τε τήν συκῆν καταρώμενον, καί εὐκαίρως ξηραίνοντα δείξασαν, ὡς ἐμποδιστικήν τῆς ἀληθείας, εἴτε κατά τήν παλαιάν κατά τόν νόμον τῶν σωματικῶν τύπων παράδοσιν, εἴτε τῶν Φαρισαίων καί ἡμῶν ἐπί τοῖς ἤθεσιν οἴησιν.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΚΑ΄ .

Τί ἐστιν, "Ἀπεκδυσάμενος τάς ἀρχάς καί τάς ἐξουσίας," καί τά ἑξῆς; Πῶς δέ καί ἦν αὐτάς ὅλως ἐνδυσάμενος, ἁμαρτίας χωρίς γεγενημένος;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ κατά πάντα τρόπον ὅμοιος ἡμῖν, δίχα μόνης ἁμαρτίας, ἀτρέπτως ὑποδύς τήν

ἡμετέραν φύσιν θεαρχικός Λόγος, τέλειος γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, τόν πρῶτον Ἀδάμ εἶχε, τοῖς κατά γένεσίν τε καί γέννησιν τρόποις φαινόμενον· οἷον ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ Θεοῦ τό εἶναι λαβών, καί γενόμενος κατ᾿ αὐτήν τοῦ εἶναι τήν γέννησιν, φθορᾶς ἦν καί ἁμαρτίας ἐλεύθερος. Οὐ γάρ συνεκτίσθη αὐτῷ φθορά καί ἁμαρτία. Ὅτε δέ τήν ἐντολήν παραβάς ἥμαρτε, γέννησιν καταδικάζεται, διά πάθους καί ἁμαρτίας συνιστάμενην, ἐν τῷ δι᾿ αὐτήν παθητῷ, τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐχούσης ὡς ἐν νόμῳ λοιπόν κατά τήν φύσιν τήν γένεσιν· καθ᾿ ὅν οὐδείς ἐστιν ἀναμάρτητος, ὑποκείμενος (313) φύσει τῷ νόμῳ τῆς μετά τήν γένεσιν διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπεισαχθείσης γεννήσεως.

Ἐπειδή τοίνυν διά τήν παράβασιν ἡ ἁμαρτία, διά δέ τήν ἁμαρτίαν τό παθητόν κατά τήν γέννησιν τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπεισῆλθε, καί συνήκμαζεν ἀεί τῷ παθητῷ τῆς γεννήσεως διά τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἡ πρώτη παράβασις, οὐκ ἦν ἐλπίς ἐλευθερίας, δεσμῷ πονηρῷ δεθείσης ἀλύτως κατά γνώμην τῆς φύσεως. Ὅσον γάρ πρός τήν οἰκείαν ἔσπευδε διά τῆς γεννήσεως σύστασιν ἡ φύσις, τοσούτῳ πλέον ἑαυτήν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐπέσφιγγεν, ἐνεργουμένην ἔχουσα κατά τό παθητόν τήν παράβασιν. Ἐν αὐτῷ γάρ τῷ παθητῷ διά τήν φυσικήν περίστασιν ἔχουσα τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν αὔξησιν, πασῶν εἶχε τῶν οὐρανίων ∆υνάμεων, Ἀρχῶν τε καί Ἐξουσιῶν, κατά τήν ἐν τῷ παθητῷ γενικήν ἁμαρτίαν, διά τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν, ἐγκεκρυμμένας τοῖς κατά φύσιν πάθεσι τάς ἐνεργείας. ∆ι᾿ ὧν πᾶσα πονηρά δύναμις ἐνήργει, κατά τό παθητόν τῆς φύσεως, εἰς τήν [Fr.καί τήν] φθοράν τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν, τήν γνώμην διά τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐλαύνουσα.

Γενόμενος γάρ οὖν ὑπέρ φιλανθρωπίας ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ μονογενής Υἱός καί Λόγος, τέλειος ἄνθρωπος, διά τό ταύτης τῆς πονηρᾶς ἐξελέσθαι τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν ἀμηχανίας, ἐκ μέν τῆς κατά τήν γένεσιν τοῦ Ἀδάμ πρώτης συστάσεως, λαβών εἶχε δίχα τῆς ἀφθαρσίας τό ἀναμάρτητον· ἐκ δέ τῆς ὕστερον διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπεισαχθείσης τῇ φύσει γεννήσεως, μόνον εἴληφε δίχα τῆς ἁμαρτίας τό παθητόν. Ἐπεί τοίνυν ἐν τῷ παθητῷ τῷ κατά τόν Ἀδάμ, ὡς ἔφην, διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν, αἱ