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made splendid by the energies of the Spirit. For He will be, says the great Symeon, speaking of the Lord, for the fall and rising of many in Israel, a fall for the unbelieving, but a rising for the believing. For some say that tin is a compound of silver and lead. Therefore, lead bears the symbol of discipline and punishment and chastisement and of the weight of condemnation, while (14C_036> silver is likewise a type of splendor and glory and eminence. If this is so, then faith, which is signified by tin(26), both disciplines and punishes and chastises and condemns those who have become reprobate in it through idleness with regard to the commandments, as having, perhaps, the lead of the flesh's weakness(27) strengthened in the Word according to the union, and again it makes resplendent and glorifies and illumines and leads to deification those who have become approved in it through the keeping of the commandments, as having, perhaps, the silver of the Word's divinity, flashing wholly upon the worthy as far as is possible.

Some have taken the tin stone to refer to our Lord Jesus Christ, as being composed of two natures, divinity and humanity. But if someone wishes to contemplate the faith of Christ or Christ Himself more gnostically, faith is lead, and Christ Himself is lead, inasmuch as He disciplines the soul and chastises the flesh and punishes the passions and condemns the demons, but silver, inasmuch as He makes the mind resplendent with virtues and glorifies it with knowledge and by deification makes it light, a reflection of the first light. According to this concept one must also understand the fall and rising that come from Him; for He brings about a fall of the flesh, that is, of the carnal mind and of the passions and of sin and of the demons, but a rising of the mind, that is, of the spiritual mind and of the natural powers and of virtue and of the thoughts that hold knowledge together. And simply, the Word brings about a fall in the worthy of the entire old man according to Adam and of the letter of the law, and a rising of the new man according to Himself and of the spirit of the law.

Perhaps for this reason also, according to Scripture, faith is likened to a tin stone, because those who blacken(28) its virtue or its knowledge are able again, through repentance in accordance with practice and contemplation, to be made resplendent and to receive back again their own luminous clarity of life.

(14C_038> SCHOLIA 1. They say that the end of practical virtue is the good; and this is the fulfillment of divine energy; to which the rational part of the soul leads, using both anger and desire according to nature; in which the beauty of the likeness is naturally made manifest. But they say that the end of contemplative philosophy is the truth, which is an indivisible, uniform knowledge of all things concerning God; to which the pure mind is borne, having completely extinguished its own judgment according to sense-perception; in which knowledge the clear, unadulterated dignity of the divine image is shown.

2. He considered the women to be virtues, of which love is the end; and he elevated the truth to unquantifiable knowledge; of which, he says, both of love and of knowledge, the law that rules nature, having recognized the character, casts off like wine the pleasure of the passions of the flesh; and like a king, the vainglory that immoderately possesses all things.

3. The disposition according to virtue, he says, is the face of the contemplative mind, as it is raised to heaven, to the height of true knowledge.

4. Another contemplation concerning the same thing, according to which he says the registration in heaven is only for those who, according to their intention, register their whole selves with the reed

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κατηγλαϊσμένην ταῖς ἐνεργείαις τοῦ Πνεύματος. Ἔσται γάρ, φησὶ Συμεὼν ὁ μέγας περὶ τοῦ Κυρίου λέγων, εἰς πτῶσιν καὶ ἀνάστασιν πολλῶν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, πτῶσιν μὲν τῶν ἀπιστούντων, ἀνάστασιν δὲ τῶν πιστευόντων. Φασὶ γάρ τινες ἐξ ἀργύρου καὶ μολίβου σύνθετον εἶναι τὸν κασσίτηρον. Οὐκοῦν, ὁ μὲν μόλιβος παιδείας καὶ τιμωρίας καὶ κολάσεως καὶ τοῦ βάρους τῆς κατακρίσεως φέρει σύμβολον, ὁ δὲ (14Γ_036> ἄργυρος λαμπρότητος καὶ δόξης καὶ περιφανείας ὡσαύτως τύπος ἐστίν. Εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ ἡ πίστις ἡ διὰ τοῦ κασσιτήρου(26) σημαινομένη καὶ παιδεύει καὶ τιμωρεῖται καὶ κολάζει καὶ κατακρίνει τοὺς ἀδοκίμους ἐν αὐτῇ γενομένους διὰ τῆς ἀργίας τῶν ἐντολῶν, ὡς μόλιβον ἔχουσα τυχὸν τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν ἀσθένειαν(27) ἐν τῷ λόγῳ δυναμωθεῖσαν κατὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν, καὶ λαμπρύνει πάλιν καὶ δοξάζει καὶ φωτίζει καὶ πρὸς ἐκθέωσιν ἄγει τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ γενομένους δοκίμους διὰ τῆς ἐργασίας τῶν ἐντολῶν, ὡς ἄργυρον ἔχουσα τάχα τὴν τοῦ Λόγου θεότητα τοῖς ἀξίοις ὁλικῶς κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἐναστράπτουσαν.

Ἔλαβον δέ τινες τὸν κασσιτήρινον λίθον εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, ὡς ἐκ δύο συγκείμενον φύσεων, θεότητός τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος. Εἰ δέ τις τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν ἢ τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτὸν θεωρῆσαι βούλεται γνωστικώτερον, μόλιβός ἐστιν ἡ πίστις καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Χριστός, ὡς παιδεύων ψυχὴν καὶ κολάζων σάρκα καὶ τιμωρούμενος πάθη καὶ κατακρίνων δαίμονας, ἄργυρος δέ, ὡς νοῦν λαμπρύνων ταῖς ἀρεταῖς καὶ δοξάζων ταῖς γνώσεσι καὶ τῇ θεώσει ποιῶν αὐτὸν φῶς, τοῦ πρώτου φωτὸς ἀπεικόνισμα. Κατὰ ταύτην τὴν ἔννοιαν ἐκληπτέον καὶ τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ γινομένην πτῶσιν καὶ ἀνάστασιν· πτῶσιν γὰρ ποιεῖται σαρκὸς ἤγουν σαρκικοῦ φρονήματος καὶ παθῶν καὶ ἁμαρτίας καὶ δαιμόνων, ἀνάστασιν δὲ νοὸς ἤγουν πνευματικοῦ φρονήματος καὶ φυσικῶν δυνάμεων καὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ τῶν συνεκτικῶν τῆς γνώσεως λογισμῶν. Καὶ ἁπλῶς, ὅλου τοῦ παλαιοῦ κατὰ τὸν Ἀδὰμ ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ γράμματος τοῦ νόμου ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις ποιεῖται πτῶσιν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ τοῦ νέου κατ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νόμου ἀνάστασιν.

Τυχὸν δὲ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κασσιτηρίνῳ λίθῳ κατὰ τὴν Γραφὴν παρεικάζεται ἡ πίστις τῶν ἐν τοῖς μελαίνουσιν(28) αὐτῆς τὴν ἀρετὴν ἢ τὴν γνῶσιν δυναμένων πάλιν διὰ μετανοίας κατὰ πρᾶξιν καὶ θεωρίαν λαμπρύνεσθαι καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν αὖθις ἀπολαμβάνειν φωτεινὴν τοῦ βίου διαύγειαν.

(14Γ_038> ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Πρακτικῆς ἀρετῆς τέλος εἶναί φασι τό ἀγαθόν· τοῦτο δέ, θείας ἐνεργείας

ὑπάρχει συμπλήρωσις· πρός ἥν ἄγει τό λογικόν τῆς ψυχῆς, τῷ τε θυμῷ καί τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ κατά φύσιν χρώμενον· ἐν ᾗ τό καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν πέφυκεν ἀναφαίνεσθαι κάλλος. Θεωρητικῆς δέ φιλοσοφίας τέλος εἶναί φασι τήν ἀλήθειαν, ἥτις ἀμερῶς τῶν περί Θεόν ἁπάντων ἑνοειδής ἐστι γνῶσις· πρός ἥν ὁ καθαρός φέρεται νοῦς, ἀποσβέσας ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν κρίσιν· ἐν ᾗ γνώσει δῆλον ἀκίβδηλον τό τῆς θείας εἰκόνος ἀξίωμα δείκνυται.

2. Τάς μέν γυναῖκας εἰς ἀρετάς, ὧν ἡ ἀγάπη τέλος ἐστίν ἐθεώρησεν· τήν ἀλήθειαν δέ, πρός τήν ἄποσον ἀνήγαγε γνῶσιν· ὧν, ἀγάπης τέ φησι καί γνώσεως, ὁ βασιλεύων τῆς φύσεως ἐπιγνούς τόν χαρακτῆρα νόμος, ἀποβάλλεται καθάπερ οἶνον, τήν τῶν παθῶν τῆς σαρκός ἡδονήν· καί ὥσπερ βασιλέα, τήν πάντων ἀσχέτως κατοιομένην δοξομανίαν.

3. Ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διάθεσις, φησίν, πρόσωπόν ἐστι τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ νοός, ὡς εἰς οὐρανόν, πρός τό ὕψος τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἐπαιρόμενον γνώσεως.

4. Ἄλλη περί τοῦ αὐτοῦ θεωρία, καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπογραφήν λέγει μόνων ἐκείνων εἶναι, τῶν κατά πρόθεσιν ὅλους ἑαυτούς ἀπογράφεσθαι τῷ καλάμῳ