118

He permitted the typical temple to be built, through exceedingly grosser symbols, wishing to draw up from matter the mind of the Jews, which had become much grosser than the insensible places [Fr. types], having perceived the unsuitability for God's (372) dwelling from what is earthly and repulsive; and from this, to come to a complete perception of what naturally belongs to Him. Not discerning this, the Jew, who knows only how to nourish pious conceit out of arrogance, was rightly deprived of the type, and wrongly alienated himself from the truth.

SCHOLION. 1. He who has only the form of knowledge, which is bare reason; and he who practices the image of virtue, which is bare character, is a Jew, he says, being himself puffed up by types of truth.

QUESTION 32.

What is, "If perhaps they might grope for Him and find God?" How does one find God by groping? Response. One who does not see the entire visible, corporeal worship of the law according to sense, but who examines each of the visible symbols with intellectual approaches, being taught the God-perfecting reason hidden in each, finds God in the reason; groping well through the intellectual power, as in the refuse of the matter of the legal ordinances, if he might find hidden in the flesh of the law, the pearl, the reason that completely escapes the senses. And likewise, he who does not circumscribe the nature of visible things by sense alone, but wisely investigates according to the intellect the reason in each created thing, finds God, being taught the cause of these same beings from the manifest magnificent work of beings.

Since, therefore, discernment is characteristic of one who gropes, he who approaches the legal symbols gnostically, and contemplates the visible nature of beings scientifically, discerning Scripture, and creation, and himself; Scripture, into letter and spirit; creation, into reason and appearance; and himself, into intellect and sense; and having taken the spirit of Scripture, the reason of creation, and his own intellect and united them indissolubly to one another, he has found God, having come to know, as one ought and as is possible, God, who is in intellect and reason and spirit; having been delivered from all that leads astray and drags one down into myriad opinions; I mean, of letter and appearance and sense, in which exists diverse quantity, which is contrary to the monad; but if someone, having interwoven the letter of the law, and the manifestation of visible things, and his own sense, should confound them, he is blind and shortsighted, suffering from ignorance of the cause of beings.

SCHOLION. 1. He who has seen only, he says, the spirit of Scripture without the types; and the reasons of creation without the forms, according to the intellect alone, freed from the activity (373) of the senses, has found God; in the spirit of Scripture, as the cause of goodness; in the reasons of beings, as the cause of power; and in himself, as the cause of wisdom. For the reasons of things from non-being relate the power of the Creator; and the spirit of Scripture, leading back to deification those who have gone astray, announces the goodness of the one who wrote it; and our own intellect, containing without extension the reasons of created things, openly proclaims the wisdom of the Artificer.

118

τόν τυπικόν οἰκοδομηθῆναι ναόν συνεχώρησε, διά τῶν ἄγαν παχυτέρων συμβόλων, τόν πολύ πλέον τῶν ἀναισθήτων τόπων [Fr. τύπων] παχυθέντα νοῦν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἀνασπάσαι τῆς ὕλης βουλόμενος, συνιδόντα τό πρός (372) κατοίκησιν Θεοῦ ἀνεπιτήδειον ἐκ τοῦ προσύλου καί ἀπεμφαίνονος· κἀκ τούτου, τῆς τῶν προσόντων αὐτῷ φυσικῶς γενέσθαι διόλου συναισθήσεως. Ὅπερ μή διαγνούς, ὁ μόνον τόν κατ᾿ εὐσέβειαν τῦφον ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας διατρέφειν εἰδώς Ἰουδαῖος, καί τοῦ τύπου καλῶς ἐστερήθη, καί τῆς ἀληθείας ἑαυτόν κακῶς ἀπεξένωσεν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ. α'. Ὁ μόνην τῆς γνώσεως τήν μορφήν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ ψιλός λόγος· καί ὁ τήν

εἰκόνα τῆς ἀρετῆς, ὅπερ ἐστί, τό ψιλόν ἦθος ἐπιτηδεύων, Ἰουδαῖός ἐστι, φησί, καί αὐτός ἀληθείας τύποις φυσιούμενος.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΛΒ΄.

Τί ἐστιν, "Εἰ ἀρά ψηλαφήσειεν, καί εὕροιεν Θεόν;" Πῶς τις ψηλαφῶν εὑρίσκει Θεόν; Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ πᾶσαν τήν φαινομένην τοῦ νόμου σωματικήν λατρείαν μή κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν

ὁρῶν, ἀλλά ταῖς κατά νοῦν ἐφόδοις ἕκαστον τῶν ὁρωμένων συμβόλων διασκοπήσας, τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ κεκρυμμένον θεοτελῆ λόγον ἐκδιδασκόμενος, ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τόν Θεόν εὑρίσκει· καλῶς ψηλαφῶν διά τῆς νοερᾶς δυνάμεως, ὡς ἐν φορυτῷ τῇ ὕλῃ τῶν νομικῶν διατάξεως, εἴπου κεκρυμμένον εὕροι τῇ σαρκί τοῦ νόμου, τόν τήν αἴσθησιν παντελῶς διαφεύγοντα μαργαρίτην λόγον. Ὡσαύτως δέ καί ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ὁρωμένων μή τῇ αἰσθήσει μόνῃ περιγράφων, ἀλλά κατά νοῦν σοφῶς τόν ἐν ἑκάστῳ κτίσματι λόγον διερευνώμενος, εὑρίσκει Θεόν, ἀπό τῆς προβεβλημένης τῶν ὄντων μεγαλουργίας, τήν αὐτῶν τῶν ὄντων διδασκόμενος αἰτίαν.

Ἐπειδή τοίνυν ἴδιον τοῦ ψηλαφῶντος ἡ διάκρισίς ἐστιν, ὁ τά νομικά σύμβολα γνωστικῶς ἐπερχόμενος, καί τήν φαινομένην τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ἐπιστημονικῶς θεώμενος, διακρίνων τήν Γραφήν, καί τήν κτίσιν, καί ἑαυτόν· τήν μέν Γραφήν, εἰς γράμμα καί πνεῦμα· τήν δέ κτίσιν, εἰς λόγον καί ἐπιφάνειαν· ἑαυτόν δέ, εἰς νοῦν καί αἴσθησιν· καί τῆς μέν Γραφῆς, τό πνεῦμα· τῆς δέ κτίσεως, τόν λόγον· ἑαυτοῦ δέ τόν νοῦν λαβών καί ἀλλήλοις ἀλύτως ἑνώσας, εὗρε Θεόν, ὡς ἐπιγνούς, καθώς δεῖ καί δυνατόν ἐστι τόν Θεόν,τόν ἐν νῷ καί λόγῳ καί πνεύματι· πάντων τῶν πλανώντων, καί εἰς μυρίας δόξας κατασυρόντων ἀπαλλαγείς· λέγω δή γράμματος καί ἐπιφανείας καί αἰσθήσεως, ἐν οἷς ἡ διάφορος ὑπάρχει ποσότης, καί τῆς μονάδος ἀντίθετος· εἰ δέ τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου, καί τήν τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐκφάνειαν, καί τήν οἰκείαν αἴσθησιν ἀλλήλοις τις προσπλέξας συμφύρῃ, τυφλός ἐστι μυωπάζων, τήν τῆς αἰτίας τῶν ὄντων ἀγνωσίαν νοσῶν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ. α΄. Ὁ μόνον, φησί, τῆς Γραφῆς τό πνεῦμα δίχα τῶν τύπων· καί τῆς κτίσεως δίχα

τῶν σχημάτων τούς λόγους, κατά μόνον τόν νοῦν, τῆς κατά τήν αἴσθησιν (373) ἐνεργείας ἀπηλλαγμένον ἑωρακώς, εὗρεν Θεόν· ἐν μέν τῷ πνεύματι τῆς Γραφῆς, ὡς ἀγαθότητος· ἐν δέ τοῖς τῶν ὄντων λόγοις, ὡς δυνάμεως· ἐν ἑαυτῷ δέ, ὡς σοφίας αἴτιον. Οἱ γάρ τῶν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων λόγοι, τήν δύναμιν ἀφηγοῦνται τοῦ Κτίσαντος· καί τό τῆς Γραφῆς πνεῦμα πρός θέωσιν ἐπανάγων πλανηθέντας, τήν ἀγαθότητα διαγγέλλει τοῦ γράψαντος· καί τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς νοερόν, ἀδιαστάτως τούς τῶν γεγονότων λόγους χωροῦν, ἀναφανδόν τήν τοῦ Τεχνίτου κηρύσσει σοφίαν.