121

our paths from your way, Symmachus rendered more clearly, saying: Nor were our steps turned aside; in a place of affliction; or according to Aquila: You have crushed us in an uninhabited place, and have covered us with the shadow of death. We have not forgotten you nor have we transgressed our covenants with you. If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a foreign God; shall not God search this out? We call upon you as a witness, he says, and a judge and examiner of our words and of the thoughts of our mind that escape the notice of the many. You yourself then know, if, having suffered so much and been humbled in a place of affliction, and covered by the shadow of death, we have forgotten your name; and if we have not, full of confidence, boasted in your name; and if also, despairing of help from you, we have gone to some other, stretching out our hands to another God; of these things also you are the judge. You know also the secrets of the heart and the very thoughts, in which for the sake of piety we are put to death every day. For he who with purpose has considered in each temptation to accept death for the sake of truth, such a one has in effect died. And the Apostle also said this, since the persecutions were continuous and successive, and the distractions threatened him with death. But for each temptation he was steadfastly prepared to struggle even to death; wherefore he reasonably said that he died daily. With this thought, therefore, the ancient prophets of God also said these things through the preceding words: For in our secret thoughts we were put to death all the day long. But indeed we were also accounted as sheep for the slaughter; for having once given ourselves over as if for a sacrifice on behalf of all the people, in thought and purpose we were slaugh 23.389 tered, as you yourself, O God, bear witness; for you alone know the secrets of the heart. Since, therefore, we have suffered such things, we reasonably with boldness turn you toward us and rouse you as if sleeping and say: Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise, and do not cast us off forever; or according to Symmachus: Why are you as one who sleeps, Master? Wake up, and do not cast us off forever. For even if you have cast us off in part because of the sins of the people, yet we beseech you not to cast us off forever, but to accept our good deeds on behalf of all the people. But it must be noted that the word has hinted at a dyad of persons. Why do you turn away your face? Do you forget our poverty and our affliction? Symmachus: Why do you hide your face, do you forget our affliction and tribulation? You hide your own face, O God, and you turn away so as not to see shameful and unseemly things, and things alien to your sight. But since we are bold because of the aforesaid good deeds, why do you hide your face? And with us suffering so many things and enduring evils for the sake of your piety, why do you forget our affliction? that is, our poverty, according to the Seventy. For even if these are great good deeds as regards us, yet as regards you all things are poor and small, and very little. Except that from our perspective they are great. Wherefore we beseech you not to make a forgetting of our poverty; but to remember also our affliction, which we have endured for your sake. And since our soul has been humbled to the dust, we beseech you to forgive our weaknesses. And elsewhere he entreats God with the same argument, saying: Remember that we are dust; man, his days are like grass. But also our belly has cleaved to the ground. For though it ought to be filled with holy streams and a spring of living water leaping up to eternal life, from excessive dryness our belly has cleaved to the ground. Understand the belly of the soul to be its memory, or also its ruling faculty, in which it gathers all its lessons and contemplations; in which also having received seed it conceives, and having come to term it brings forth spirit

121

τρίβους ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ σου, ὁ Σύμμαχος σαφέστερον ἐξέδωκεν εἰπών· Οὐδὲ μετετέθη τὰ ὑπορθοῦντα ἡμᾶς· ἐν τόπῳ κακώσεως· ἢ κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν· Συνέθλασας ἡμᾶς ἐν τόπῳ ἀνοικήτῳ, καὶ ἐπεπώμασας ἡμῖν σκιὰν θανάτου. Οὐκ ἐπελαθόμεθά σου οὐδὲ παρέβημεν τὰς πρὸς σὲ συνθήκας. Εἰ ἐπελαθόμεθα τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν, καὶ εἰ διεπετάσαμεν χεῖρας ἡμῶν πρὸς Θεὸν ἀλλότριον· οὐχὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐκζητήσει ταῦτα; Σὲ μάρτυρα, φησὶν, ἀνακαλούμεθα, κριτήν τε καὶ ἐξεταστὴν τῶν ἡμετέρων λόγων καὶ τῶν κατὰ διάνοιαν λανθανόντων τοὺς πολλοὺς λογισμῶν. Αὐτὸς γοῦν οἶσθα, εἰ, τοσαῦτα παθόντες καὶ ταπεινωθέντες ἐν τόπῳ κακώσεως, καὶ καλυφθέντες ὑπὸ τῆς σκιᾶς τοῦ θανάτου, λήθην τοῦ ὀνόματός σου πεποιήμεθα· καὶ εἰ μὴ ἐπὶ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι παῤῥησίας γέμοντες ἐκαυχώμεθα· εἰ δὲ καὶ, ἀπογνόντες τὴν παρὰ σοῦ βοήθειαν, ἐπὶ ἕτερόν τινα ἤλθομεν, ἑτέρῳ Θεῷ χεῖρας ἀναπετάσαντες· καὶ τούτων σὺ κριτὴς τυγχάνεις. Οἶσθα δὲ καὶ τὰ κρύφια τῆς καρδίας καὶ τοὺς λογισμοὺς αὐτοὺς, ἐν οἷς καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἕνεκα τῆς εὐσεβείας θανατούμεθα. Ὁ γὰρ τῇ προθέσει λογισάμενος ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ πειρασμῷ τὸν ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας ἀναδέξασθαι θάνατον, δυνάμει ὁ τοιοῦτος τέθνηκε. Καὶ ὁ Ἀπόστολος δὲ τοῦτο ἔλεγεν, ἐπειδὴ συνεχεῖς ἦσαν καὶ ἐπάλληλοι διωγμοὶ, καὶ οἱ περισπασμοὶ θάνατον ἀπειλοῦντες αὐτῷ. Ὁ δὲ καθ' ἕκαστον πειρασμὸν παρεσκεύαστο ἐνστατικῶς μέχρι θανάτου ἀγωνίσασθαι· διὸ εἰκότως καθ' ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκειν ἔλεγε. Ταύτῃ οὖν τῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ οἱ πάλαι τοῦ Θεοῦ προφῆται διὰ τῶν προκειμένων ταῦτα ἔφασκον· Ἐν γὰρ τοῖς κρυφίοις ἡμῶν ἐθανατούμεθα πᾶσαν ἡμέραν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς· ἅπαξ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς παραδεδωκότες ὥσπερ εἰς θυσίαν ἀντὶ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ, τῷ λογισμῷ καὶ τῇ προθέσει ἐσφαγιά 23.389 σθημεν, ὡς αὐτὸς σὺ ὁ Θεὸς μαρτυρεῖς· μόνος γὰρ γινώσκεις τὰ κρύφια τῆς καρδίας. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν τοσαῦτα πεπόνθαμεν, εἰκότως μετὰ παῤῥησίας ἐπιστρέφομέν σε πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ διεγείρομεν ὥσπερ καθεύδοντα καί φαμεν· Ἵνα τί ὑπνοῖς, Κύριε; Ἀνάστηθι, καὶ μὴ ἀπώσῃ εἰς τέλος· ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον· Ἵνα τί ὡς ὁ ὑπνῶν εἶ, ∆έσποτα; Ἐξύπνισον, καὶ μὴ ἀποβάλῃ εἰς τέλος. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐκ μέρους ἀπώσω διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ, ἀλλ' ἱκετεύομεν μὴ εἰς τέλος ἀπώσασθαι, τὰ δ' ἡμέτερα παραδέξασθαι κατορθώματα ὑπὲρ τοῦ παντὸς λαοῦ. Ἐπισημήνασθαι δὲ δεῖ, ὅτι δυάδα προσώπων ὁ λόγος ᾐνίξατο. Ἵνα τί τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀποστρέφεις; ἐπιλανθάνῃ τῆς πτωχείας ἡμῶν καὶ τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν; Σύμμαχος· Ἵνα τί τὸ πρόσωπόν σου κρύπτεις, ἐπιλανθάνῃ τῆς κακώσεως ἡμῶν καὶ θλίψεως; Κρύπτεις μὲν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πρόσωπον, ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἀποστρέφεις πρὸς τὸ μὴ βλέπειν τὰ αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἀπρεπῆ, καὶ τῆς σῆς θέας ἀλλότρια. Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ τοῖς λεχθεῖσι κατορθώμασι παῤῥησίαν ἄγομεν, ἵνα τί τὸ πρόσωπόν σου κρύπτεις; Τοσαῦτα δὲ πασχόντων καὶ κακοπαθούντων τῆς σῆς ἕνεκεν εὐσεβείας, ἵνα τί ἐπιλανθάνῃ τῆς κακώσεως ἡμῶν; ἤτοι τῆς πτωχείας, κατὰ τοὺς Ἑβδομήκοντα. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ μεγάλα ταῦτα ὡς πρὸς ἡμᾶς κατορθώματα, ἀλλ' ὡς πρὸς σὲ πάντα πτωχὰ καὶ σμικρὰ, καὶ ὀλίγιστα. Πλὴν ὡς ἐξ ἡμῶν μεγάλα. ∆ιὸ ἱκετεύομεν μὴ λήθην ποιήσασθαι τῆς ἡμετέρας πτωχείας· μνησθῆναι δὲ καὶ τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν, ἧς ὑπεμείναμέν σου χάριν. Καὶ ἐπεὶ ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν εἰς χοῦν τεταπείνωται, συγγνῶναι ταῖς ἀσθενείαις ἡμῶν ἱκετεύομεν. Καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ δὲ τῷ αὐτῷ λόγῳ δυσωπεῖ τὸν Θεὸν, λέγων· Μνήσθητι, ὅτι χοῦς ἐσμεν· ἄνθρωπος ὡσεὶ χόρτος αἱ ἡμέραι αὐτοῦ. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ γαστὴρ ἡμῶν ἐκολλήθη εἰς γῆν. ∆έον γὰρ αὐτὴν πεπληρῶσθαι ναμάτων ἁγίων καὶ πηγῆς ὕδατος ζῶντος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, ἐξ ἀνυδρίας ὑπερβαλλούσης ἡ γαστὴρ ἡμῶν ἐκολλήθη εἰς γῆν. Γαστέρα δὲ ψυχῆς νόει τὸ μνημονικὸν αὐτῆς, ἢ καὶ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, ἐν ᾧ πάντα συνάγει τὰ μαθήματα καὶ τὰ θεωρήματα· ἐν ᾧ καὶ σπέρμα ὑποδεξαμένη κύει, καὶ τελεσφορήσασα γεννᾷ πνεῦμα