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like the great Samuel, seeing intellectually the things that are ahead, will clearly reveal to us the meaning concealed by the letter of the scriptures, flashing forth with gnosis the sublime light of the truth in all things, persuading those able to learn that nothing has been written by the Holy Spirit unseasonably or in vain, even if we are not able to comprehend it, but all things have been written mystically and opportunely and for the sake of human salvation, of which wisdom is the beginning and the end, in the beginning first creating fear(38) (14C_088> and later, in its perfection, constituting longing, or rather, she herself becoming fear(39) for our sake in the beginning by way of economy, in order to make the lover of wickedness cease, and later, being found naturally as longing for her own sake in the end, in order to fill with intellectual laughter those who have exchanged cohabitation with all beings for cohabitation with her.

I have believed that such men are recorded by the Spirit, such boys and girls, such male and female singers, such camels, such horses, such mules and such donkeys, which the Holy Spirit knows how to write of, not those which bodily sensation is accustomed to describe, but those which a pure mind receives, formed by the reed pen of grace.

SCHOLIA 1. The fulfilled grace of the Spirit is wisdom, which according to power and state and activity comprehends all the forms of knowledge that come to those who are perfect in Christ; through which the mind, having gone outside the types of the senses, stripped of all diversity, approaches the principles both of created things and of the Scriptures, gathering the divine characters in them into the fulfillment of one God-befitting form around itself; according to which it receives, as far as is possible, a unified and indivisible knowledge of all beings, through which the light of truth is accustomed to appear, flashing forth.

2. The true gnostics, he says, when teaching the principles of the mysteries in the Scriptures, use the historical types as examples, for the uplifting of those being taught, fitting the spirit of contemplation to the letter of the history; so that both the type for the sake of the senses, and (14C_090> the principle for the sake of the mind may be preserved with respect to man, who is composed of soul and body, with which both the mind and the senses are naturally concerned, as belonging to one man.

3. Praise is a word that indicates divine beauty; but the act of praising is a relation between the one praising and the one praised, that is, a narration of the words that indicate divine comeliness; according to which the state of knowledge is naturally constituted, transforming the one praising toward the one praised. And the sacrifice of this act of praising is not only the complete mortification of the passions contrary to nature, and the transcendence of those according to nature, but also the complete offering of the one praising to God.

4. Knowledge not bridled by divine fear in practice, produces conceit, he says, persuading the one puffed up by it to put forward what is borrowed as his own, making the contribution of the word for his own praise. But practice, growing along with divine desire, without receiving knowledge of things beyond practical matters, makes the practical man humble of mind, being contracted into himself by words beyond his own power.

5. He who, through faith and love for God, has conquered the irrational movements of the passions contrary to nature, also goes outside the law of nature itself, he says, and is wholly transferred to the region of intelligible things, and casts out from himself, along with the alien servitude, what is connatural according to nature, together with the things that have been added to them.

6. According to nature is everything whatsoever that is naturally a subject, or predicated of a subject, or in a subject; from which the terms of definitions are gathered. For the things that complete the different natures of beings, into their own

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κατὰ τὸν μέγαν Σαμουὴλ νοητῶς βλέπων τὰ ἔμπροσθεν, ἀποκαλύψει σαφῶς ἡμῖν τὴν τῷ ῥητῷ τῶν γεγραμμένων κεκαλυμμένην διάνοιαν τὸ ὑψηλὸν φῶς τῆς ἐν ὅλοις ἀληθείας γνωστικῶς ἀπαστράπτουσαν, πείθων τοὺς μαθεῖν δυναμένους ὡς οὐδὲν ἀκαίρως οὐδὲ μάτην τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι γέγραπται, κἂν ἡμεῖς χωρεῖν οὐ δυνάμεθα, πάντα δὲ μυστικῶς καὶ εὐκαίρως καὶ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἕνεκα σωτηρίας, ἧς ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος ἐστὶν ἡ σοφία, φόβον(38) μὲν ἀρχομένη (14Γ_088> πρῶτον δημιουργοῦσα καὶ πόθον ὕστερον τελειουμένη συνιστῶσα, μᾶλλον δὲ φόβος(39) αὐτὴ κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς δι᾽ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομικῶς γινομένη, ἵνα παύσῃ κακίας τὸν ἐραστήν, καὶ πόθος ὕστερον φυσικῶς εὑρισκομένη δι᾽ ἑαυτὴν κατὰ τὸ τέλος, ἵνα πληρώσῃ γέλωτος νοητοῦ τοὺς τὴν αὐτῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀλλαξαμένους συμβίωσιν.

Τοιούτους ἐγὼ ἀναγράφεσθαι ἄνδρας τῷ Πνεύματι πεπίστευκα, τοιούτους παῖδας καὶ παιδίσκας, τοιούτους ψάλτας καὶ ψαλτῳδούς, τοιαύτας καμήλους, τοιούτους ἵππους, τοιαύτας ἡμιόνους καὶ τοιούτους ὄνους, οὓς γράφειν οἷδε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὐχ οὓς σωματικὴ περιγράφειν πέφυκεν αἴσθησις, ἀλλ᾽ οὓς ὑποδέχεται νοῦς καθαρὸς τῷ καλάμῳ τυπουμένους τῆς χάριτος.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Πεπληρωμένη χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐστιν, ἡ κατά τήν δύναμιν καί τήν ἕξιν

καί τήν ἐνέργειαν περιληπτική πασῶν τῶν εἰς ἀνθρώπους κατά Χριστόν τελείους φθανουσῶν γνώσεων σοφία· δι᾿ ἧς ὁ νοῦς τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν τύπων ἔξω γενόμενος, πάσης γυμνοῖς ποικιλίας προσβάλλει τοῖς τε τῶν γεγενημένων καί τῶν γεγραμμένων λόγοις, τούς ἐν αὐτοῖς θείους χαρακτῆρας εἰς μιᾶς περί ἑαυτόν θεοπρεποῦς μορφῆς συνάγων συμπλήρωσιν· καθ᾿ ἥν πάντων ὡς ἐφικτόν τῶν ὄντων ἑνοειδῶς τήν ἀδιαίρετον ὑποδέχεται γνῶσιν δι' ἧς ἀστράπτον ὑποφαίνεσθαι πέφυκε τῆς ἀληθείας τό φέγγος.

2. Οἱ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν γνωστικοί, τῶν ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς, φησί, μυστηρίων τούς λόγους διδάσκοντες, ὡς παραδείγμασι τοῖς καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν κέχρηνται τύποις, πρός τήν τῶν διδασκομένων ἀναγωγήν, ἁρμόζοντες τῷ τῆς ἱστορίας γράμματι τό πνεῦμα τῆς θεωρίας· ἵνα ὅ τε τύπος διά τήν αἴσθησιν, καί (14Γ_090> διά τόν νοῦν ὁ λόγος περί τόν ἄνθρωπον σώζωνται, τόν ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος, περί ἅ πέφυκεν ὑπάρχειν ὅ τε νοῦς καί ἡ αἴσθησις, ὡς ἑνός ἀνθρώπου τυγχάνοντα.

3. Αἶνός ἐστι λόγος θείας μηνυτικός καλλονῆς· αἴνεσις δέ ἐστι, σχέσις αἰνοῦντος καί αἰνετοῦ, τουτέστιν ἀφήγησις τῶν μηνυτικῶν τῆς θείας εὐπρεπείας λόγων· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τῆς γνώσεως ἕξις συνίστασθαι πέφυκε, μεταποιοῦσα πρός τό αἰνετόν τό αἰνοῦν. Θυσία δέ ταύτης ἐστί τῆς αἰνέσεως, οὐ μόνον ἡ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν τελεία νέκρωσις, καί τῶν κατά φύσιν ὑπέρθεσις, ἀλλά καί ἡ πρός Θεόν παντελής τοῦ αἰνοῦντος προσαγωγή.

4. Ἡ μή χαλινουμένη τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ κατά τήν πρᾶξιν γνῶσις, τῦφον ἐργάζεται, φησίν, ὡς οἰκεῖον τό δεδανεισμένον προβάλλεσθαι πείθουσα τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ τυφωθέντα, πρός οἰκεῖον ἔπαινον τόν ἔρανον τοῦ λόγου ποιούμενον. Ἡ δέ πρᾶξις τῷ θείῳ συναυξάνουσα πόθῳ, τῶν ὑπέρ τά πρακτά μή λαμβάνουσα γνῶσιν, τόν πρακτικόν ἐργάζεται ταπεινόφρονα, τοῖς ὑπέρ τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν λόγοις πρός ἑαυτόν συστελλόμενον.

5. Ὁ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν διά τῆς εἰς Θεόν πίστεως καί ἀγάπης νικήσας τάς παραλόγους κινήσεις, καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἔξω γίνεται νόμου, φησί, καί πρός τήν χώραν τῶν νοητῶν ὅλος μεταβιβάζεται, καί τό κατά φύσιν ὁμόφυλον, μετά τῶν προσγενομένων αὐτοῖς, τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ἑαυτῷ συνεκβάλλει δουλείας.

6. Ὑπό φύσιν μέν ἐστι πᾶν ὅ καθοτιοῦν ἤ ὑποκείμενον, ἤ καθ᾿ ὑποκειμένου, ἤ ἐν ὑποκεμένῳ εἶναι πέφυκεν· ἐξ ὧν οἱ ὅροι συνάγονται τῶν ὁριστῶν. Τά γάρ συμπληροῦντα τάς διαφόρους τῶν ὄντων φύσεις, εἰς τούς αὐτῶν