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20. The letter Tau is a type of the cross, preserving in its shape the image of the cross. And Iota, as the first letter of Jesus, signifies the awesome name. And Eta, also as a first letter, indicates the most steadfast character of virtue; which the patriarch Abraham, having mystically transposed into a number, went out boldly against the opposing powers, having three hundred and eighteen men of his household; that is, through the three hundred, the principle of theology which embraces the universe, and through the ten, the ineffable mystery of the divine incarnation of the Word; and through the eight, the perfect mode of a steadfast state according to virtue; which the Word called men of his household, as being the divine offspring by grace of the heart of him who possessed them.

21. The number one hundred is the tenfold multiplication of the divine decad of the commandments; for it is the perfect comprehension of all of them, each being actualized through the others. And the comprehension of the divine commandments, each being actualized through the others, is complete and whole virtue. And perfect virtue is wisdom. And wisdom is the unerring knowledge of the truth. Therefore, the one who has unerringly known the truth has become one hundred years old, like the great Abraham, he too perceiving his own body to be deadened; that is, he sees that life according to sense has passed away, and he begets the living joy in the Spirit. For this is how Isaac is interpreted. Therefore, it is a work of providence not only to preserve nature according to its own principle, but also to make it divine, the will having been perfectly qualified by the virtues according to acquired wisdom, with which nature, being contemplated, is suited to produce the number three hundred.

22. The number six has the perfect indication of the being of existing things. And ten signifies the constitution of the well-being of existing things. Therefore, by multiplying six by ten, or ten by six, one makes sixty, which indicates the state of the well-being of existing things according to activity.

23. When dispassion, he says, which the seventh year indicates, has arrived, both reason and the intellect return to the contemplation of kindred things, having received freedom from the ministry of the virtues in their bodily modes.

24. An image of the unoriginate kingdom is the immutability of the intellect concerning true knowledge and the incorruptibility of sense concerning virtue, with soul and body bound to each other according to the transformation in spirit of the sense toward the intellect only by the divine law of the spirit, according to which they possess the ever-moving and perpetually living and pervasive energy of the Word, in which every dissimilarity with respect to the divine is completely absent.

25. They say that pleasure is desire in act, since according to its definition it is a present good. And desire is pleasure not in act, since according to its definition it is a future good. And anger is a movement of premeditated madness; and madness is anger in act. He, therefore, who has subjected these powers to reason, will find desire becoming for him a pleasure according to the unstained union of the soul with the divine in grace; and anger, a pure ardor guarding the pleasure concerning the divine, and a sober madness, which completely transports the soul's attractive power from existing things according to its yearning for the divine.

Therefore, as long as the world lives in us according to the soul's voluntary disposition toward material things, one must not give freedom to these powers; lest, having been mingled with sensible things as with kindred things, they make war on the soul, and take it captive to the passions, as the Babylonians once did to Jerusalem. For the age in which the law commanded the children of other nations to be enslaved, the Word signified the dispositional relation of the soul toward this world, that is, the present life, showing through historical events the things to be understood intellectually.

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20. Τό Ταῦ γράμμα σταυροῦ τύπος ἐστίν, ἐν τῷ σχήματι σώζων τοῦ σταυροῦ τήν ἐκτύπωσιν. Τό δέ Ἰῶτα, ὡς ἀκροστίχιον τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, τό φοβερόν ὄνομα σημαίνει. Τό δέ Ἦτα, ὡς ἀκροστίχιον καί αὐτό, ἀρετῆς ἦθος παραδηλοῖ παγιώτατον· ἅπερ πρός ἀριθμόν μυστικῶς μετεγκλώσας, θαῤῥῶν ἐξῆλθε κατά τῶν ἐναντίων δυνάμων Ἀβραάμ ὁ πατριάρχης, ὡς οἰκογενεῖς ἔχων τριακοσίους δέκα καί ὀκτώ· τουτέστι τόν τό πᾶν περιγράφοντα τῆς θεολογίας λόγον διά τοῦ τριακόσια, καί τό ἄῤῤητον μυστήριον τῆς θείας τοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως διά τούς δέκα· καί τόν τέλειον τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν παγίας ἕξεως τρόπον διά τοῦ ὀκτώ· ἅπερ οἰκογενεῖς προσηγόρευσεν ὁ λόγος, ὡς τῆς καρδίας ὄντα τοῦ κτησαμένου θεῖα κατά χάριν γεννήματα.

21. Ὁ ἑκατόν ἀριθμός, τῆς θείας τῶν ἐντολῶν δεκάδος ἐστί δεκαπλασιασμός· πασῶν γάρ ἐστι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐνεργουμένην δι᾿ ἀλλήλων τελεία περίληψις. Ἡ δέ δι᾿ ἀλλήλων τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐνεργουμένη περίληψίς ἐστιν, ἡ παντελής καί ὁλόκληρος ἀρετή. Ἀρετή δέ τελεία ἐστίν ἡ σοφία. Σοφία δέ ἐστιν ἄπταιστος γνῶσις τῆς ἀληθείας. Ὁ τοίνυν ἀπταίστως γνοὺς τήν ἀλήθειαν ἑκατονταετής γέγονε κατά τόν μέγαν Ἀβραάμ, κατανοῶν καί αὐτός τό ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα νενεκρωμένον· τουτέστιν, ἀπογενομένην ὁρᾷ τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ζωήν, καί γεννᾷ τήν ἐν Πνεύματι ζῶσαν χαράν. Τοῦτο γάρ Ἰσαάκ ἑρμηνεύεται. Προνοίας οὖν ἐστι μή μόνον φυλάξαι κατά τὸν ἑαυτῆς λόγον τήν φύσιν, ἀλλά καί ποιῆσαι θείαν, ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τελείως ποιωθεῖσαν τήν γνώμην κατά τήν ἐπίκτητον σοφίαν, μεθ᾿ ἧς ἡ φύσις θεωρουμένη, τόν τριακόσια πέφυκεν ἀποτελεῖν ἀριθμόν.

22. Ὁ ἕξ ἀριθμός τήν τελείαν ἔχει τοῦ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων δήλωσιν. Ὁ δέ δέκα τήν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι σημαίνει τῶν ὄντων σύστασιν. ∆εκαπλασιάσας οὖν τόν ἕξ, ἤ ἑξαπλασιάσας τόν δέκα τις, ποιεῖ τόν ἑξήκοντα, δηλοῦντα τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων κατάστασιν.

23. Τῆς ἀπαθείας, φησίν, ἥν τό ἕβδομον ἔτος δηλοῖ, παραγενομένης, πρός τήν τῶν συγγενῶν ἐπανέρχονται θεωρίαν, ὅ τε λόγος καί ἡ διάνοια, λαβόντες ἐλευθερίαν, τῆς ἐπί τοῖς σωματικοῖς τρόποις τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπουργίας.

24. Ἀνάρχου βασιλείας ἐστίν εἰκών ἡ τοῦ νοῦ περί τήν ἀληθῆ γνῶσιν ἀτρεψία καί ἡ τῆς αἰσθήσεως περί τήν ἀρετήν ἀφθαρσία, τῆς ψυχῆς καί τοῦ σώματος κατά τήν ἐν πνεύματι πρός τόν νοῦν τῆς αἰσθήσεως μεταποίησιν μόνῳ τῷ θείῳ νόμῳ τοῦ πνεύματος ἀλλήλοις συνδεδεμένων, καθ' ὅν τήν ἀεικίνητον τοῦ λόγου καί ζῶσαν διαπαντός ἔχουσι διϊκνουμένην ἐνέργειαν, ἐν ᾗ πᾶσα παντελῶς ἄπεστι πρός τό θεῖον ἀπέμφασις.

25. Ἐνεργουμένην ἐπιθυμίαν φασίν εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν, εἴπερ παρόν ἀγαθόν κατά τόν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν. Ἀνενέργητον δέ ἡδονήν τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, εἴπερ μέλλον ἀγαθόν κατά τόν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν. Τόν δέ θυμόν, μανίας μελετωμένης κίνησιν· καί τήν μανίαν θυμόν ἐνεργούμενον. Ὁ γοῦν ταύτας συνυποτάξας τῷ λόγῳ τάς δυνάμεις, εὑρήσει τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτῷ γινομένην ἡδονήν κατά τήν ἐν χάριτι πρός τό θεῖον τῆς ψυχῆς ἄχραντον συμπλοκήν· τόν δέ θυμόν, ζέσιν ἀκήρατον τῆς περί τό θεῖον ἡδονῆς φρουρητικήν, καί σώφρονα μανίαν, τῆς κατά τήν ἔφεσιν τῆς ψυχῆς περί τό θεῖον θελκτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀπό τῶν ὄντων τελείως ἐκστατικήν.

Οὐκοῦν ἕως ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ κόσμος ζῇ κατά τήν πρός τά ὑλικά τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον σχέσιν, οὐ δεῖ ταύταις παρέχειν ἐλευθερίαν ταῖς δυνάμεσι· μήπως μιγεῖσαι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ὡς ὁμοφύλοις, πολεμήσωσι τήν ψυχήν, καί λάβωσιν αὐτήν δορυάλωτον γεγενημένην τοῖς πάθεσιν, ὡς πάλαι τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ οἱ Βαβυλώνιοι. Τόν γάρ αἰῶνα, καθ᾿ ὅν τούς ἀλλοφύλους παῖδας ὁ νόμος δουλεύειν ἐκέλευσε, τήν πρός τόν κόσμον τοῦτον, ἤγουν τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν γνωμικήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐσήμανε σχέσιν ὁ λόγος, διά τῶν ἱστορουμένων παραδεικνύς τά νοούμενα.