121

Alas, how much I lack of good things in ignorance! And you will hasten to know these things, so that you may be called a gnostic. For if you do not know yourself, what kind of person you are, what sort you are, how will you know the Creator, how will you be named faithful, how will you be called a man, being an ox or a wild beast? Or as some irrational animal or even worse than these you will be, being ignorant of the one who created you. Who, not knowing him, will dare to say that he is rational? For he is not! For how can he be, who is deprived of reason? He who is deprived of reason is in the rank of the irrational, and being shepherded by men, he will surely be saved; but if he does not wish it, but approaches a mountain and ravines, he will be food for wild beasts like a lost lamb. Do and practice these things, lest you fall away, little child!

24.

Through what he confesses in the present discourse he writes, he shows the depth of his own humility, and proceeding he teaches it to the one who has reached the measure of perfection and been deemed worthy of such revelations in contemplation, imitating the divine Paul in this also, who called himself a sinner and unworthy to be called an apostle. (188)

Grant me, Christ, to kiss your feet. Grant me to embrace your hands, the hands that brought me forth by a word, the hands that created all things tirelessly.

121

οἴμοι, πόσον ἀπολείπω τῶν καλῶν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ! καί σπουδάσεις ταῦτα γνῶναι, ἵνα γνωστικός καλῇ γε. Εἰ γάρ σεαυτόν οὐκ οἶδας, ποταπός εἶ, ποῖος πέλεις, πῶς τόν κτίστην ἐπιγνώσῃ, πῶς πιστός ὀνομασθήσῃ, πῶς δέ ἄνθρωπος κληθήσῃ βοῦς ὑπάρχων ἤ θηρίον; Ἤ ὡς ἄλογόν τι ζῷον ἤ καί χείρων τούτων ἔσῃ ἀγνοῶν τόν κτίσαντά σε. Τίς ἐκεῖνον μή γινώσκων λογικός εἰπεῖν τολμήσει, ὅτι ἔστιν; Οὐ γάρ ἔστι! Πῶς γάρ, ὅς ἐστέρηται τοῦ λόγου; Ὁ δ᾿ ἐστερημένος λόγου εἰς ἀλόγου ἔστι τάξιν, ποιμανθείς δέ ὑπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων πάντως ἔσται σεσωσμένος˙ εἰ δ᾿ οὐ βούλεται, ἀλλ᾿ ὄρει καί φαράγγοις προσπελάζει, βρῶμα ἔσεται θηρίων ὡς ἀπολωλός ἀρνίον. Ταῦτα πρᾶττε καί μελέτα, μή παραρρυῇ, τεκνίον!

Κ∆'.

∆ι᾿ ὧν ἐξομολογούμενος ἐν τῷ παρόντι γράφει λόγῳ, δείκνυσι τό βάθος τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ταπεινώσεως, καί προϊών διδάσκει αὐτήν τόν εἰς μέτρον ἐλάσαντα τελειότητος καί ἀξιωθέντα τοιούτων ἐν θεωρίᾳ ἀποκαλύψεων, Παῦλον τόν θεῖον κἀν τούτῳ μιμούμενος, ἁμαρτωλόν ἑαυτόν ἀποκαλοῦντα καί ἀνάξιον τοῦ καλεῖσθαι ἀπόστολον. (188)

∆ίδου μοι, Χριστέ, καταφιλεῖν σούς πόδας. ∆ίδου μοι τάς σάς κατασπάζεσθαι χεῖρας, χεῖρας τάς ἐμέ λόγῳ παραγαγούσας, χεῖρας τάς πάντα κτισάσας ἀκαμάτως.