127

QUESTION 40.

What does the number of the six water jars at the wedding in Cana of Galilee signify? Response. God, who created the nature of human beings, at the same time as He willed its being into existence,

also harmonized with it a power capable of performing its proper duties. The six water jars, therefore, are the natural power capable of performing the divine commandments; human beings, having emptied this power of its knowledge through their vain concern for material things, possessed this power empty and waterless; and for this reason they did not know how to cleanse the filth of wickedness. For one who is without knowledge does not in any way understand the way of virtue that cleanses from wickedness; until the Logos, the creator of nature, came and filled the aforementioned power capable of performing its duties with natural knowledge; and thus He changed into wine—I mean, into the logos of knowledge that is beyond nature—both the logos and the law of nature; which those who drink are transported out of the nature of all beings, and fly away to the hidden place of the divine indwelling; in which they receive all the joy and exultation that transcends knowledge; drinking the good wine, that is, the ineffable logos which makes one divine, last of all the providential dispensations concerning the human [Fr. humanity].

The creative power of nature is taken to be the number six; not only because in six days God made the heaven and the earth, but also because this number alone among those within the decad is most perfect, being composed of its own parts. And the Word says that the jars held two or three measures each; as the natural practical power holds, according to natural contemplation, like two measures, the whole knowledge of created things; both of corporeal natures from matter and form, and of intelligible substances from essence and accident; that is, the comprehensive knowledge of bodies and incorporeal beings; and according to the theological mystagogy accessible to nature, as three measures; the knowledge and illumination concerning the Holy Trinity, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

You, therefore, as men of knowledge, contemplate what is being said; how the general creative power of nature for higher things is divided into six, and these also general, modes of the virtues; and what is the universal and most general virtue of the others, in relation to the universal creative power of nature for the virtues, which is also divided into six species, these also being general; so that, being harmonized with the power of nature, it might be contained, being formed into species in a sixfold manner through those modes; and besides (397) these things, who are the servants who drew the water, who is the bridegroom, who is the bride, who is the master of the feast, who is the Mother who announced boldly to the Word, that “They have no wine.” For all these things remain to be further examined by the initiate and initiator of the divine words and thoughts, if indeed he delights in the way of anagogy according to the mind. Nevertheless, so that the discourse concerning these things not depart from us and leave us completely speechless for the present, not giving even in part the spiritual banquet to those who are rightly hungry, I will speak according to my ability, not promising to reveal the whole meaning in what has been said (for my mind is weak for comprehending the spectacles contemplated in these things), but as much as the power of my intellect is able to contain.

They say, then, that the most general of the virtues is love; and they say that the most general creative power of nature for this is reason; which, firmly grasping its own cause, when it is actualized, is distinguished into six more general modes, which are comprehensive of the species into which the principle of love is naturally distinguished: the hungry and thirsty, and strangers and naked, and the sick and those in prison

127

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Μ΄ .

Τί σημαίνει ὁ ἀριθμός τῶν ἕξ ὑδριῶν ἐν τῷ γάμῳ τῷ ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας; Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας Θεός, ἅμα βουλήσει τό εἶναι αὐτῇ

δέδωκε, συνήρμοσεν αὐτῇ καί δύναμιν τῶν καθηκόντων ποιητικήν. Αἱ τοίνυν ἕξ ὑδρίαι, ἡ κατά φύσιν ποιητική τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν ἐστι δύναμις· ἧς κενώσαντες τήν γνῶσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, περί τήν ματαίαν τῶν ὑλικῶν πραγμάτων σπουδήν, κενήν τήν τοιαύτην δύναμιν εἶχον καί ἄνυδρον· καί διά τοῦτο πῶς τῆς κακίας καθᾶραι τόν ῥύπον οὐκ ᾔδεσαν. Ὁ γάρ γνώσεως ἄμοιρος, τόν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ῥυπτικόν τῆς κακίας οὐδαμῶς ἐπίσταται τρόπον· ἕως ἐλθών ὁ τῆς φύσεως δημιουργός Λόγος, ἐπλήρωσε τήν προειρημένην ποιητικήν τῶν καθηκόντων δύναμιν τῆς κατά φύσιν γνώσεως· καί οὕτω μετέβαλεν εἰς τόν οἶνον, φημί δή τόν ὑπέρ φύσιν τῆς γνώσεως λόγον, τόν τε λόγον καί νόμον τῆς φύσεως· ὅν οἱ πίνοντες, τῆς τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων ἐξίστανται φύσεως, καί εἰς τόν κρύφιον τῆς θείας ἐνδότητος ἀφίπτανται τόπον· καθ᾿ ὅν τήν πᾶσαν ὑπερκειμένην τῶν γνώσεως εὐφροσύνην δέχονται καί ἀγαλλίασιν· τόν καλόν οἶνον, τουτέστι, τόν ποιητικόν τῆς θεώσεως, πάντων ὕστερον τῶν κατά Πρόνοιαν περί τό ἀνθρώπινον [Fr. τόν ἄνθρωπον], οἰκονομιῶν πίνοντες ἀπόῤῥητον λόγον.

Εἰς δέ τόν ἕξ ἀριθμόν, ἡ ποιητική τῆς φύσεως λαμβάνεται δύναμις· οὐ μόνον ὅτι ἐν ἕξ ἡμέραις ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός τόν οὐρανόν καί τήν γῆν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μόνος τῶν ἐντός δεκάδος ἀριθμῶν ἐστι τελειότατος, καί ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων συνιστάμενος μερῶν οὗτος ὁ ἀριθμός. Χωρούσας δέ τάς ὑδρίας ἀνά μετρητάς δύο φησίν ὁ Λόγος, ἤ τρεῖς· ὡς τῆς κατά φύσιν πρακτικῆς δυνάμεως χωρούσης, κατά μέν τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, ὥσπερ δύο μετρητάς, τήν ὅλην τῶν γεγονότων γνῶσιν· τῶν τε ἐξ ὕλης καί εἴδους σωματικῶν φύσεως, τῶν τε ἐξ οὐσίας καί συμβεβηκότος νοητῶν οὐσιῶν· ἤγουν τήν τῶν σωμάτων καί ἀσωμάτων περιληπτικήν γνῶσιν· κατά δέ τήν ἐφικτήν τῇ φύσει θεολογικήν μυσταγωγίαν, ὡς μετρητάς τρεῖς· τήν περί τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, ἤγουν Πατρός, καί Υἱοῦ, καί ἁγίου Πνεύματος, γνῶσιν καί φωταγωγίαν.

Ὑμεῖς οὖν ὡς γνωστικοί τό λεγόμενον θεωρήσατε· πῶς ἡ ποιητική τῶν κρειττόνων γενική τῆς φύσεως δύναμις, εἰς ἕξ διαιρεῖται, καί αὐτούς γενικούς, τῶν ἀρετῶν τρόπους· καί τίς ἡ πρός τήν καθόλου ποιητικήν τῶν ἀρετῶν τῆς φύσεως δύναμίν ἐστιν ἡ καθόλου καί γενικωτάτη τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετή, καί εἰς ἕξ εἴδη, καί αὐτά γενικά, διαιρουμένη· ἵνα τῇ δυνάμει τῆς φύσεως ἁρμοσθεῖσα, χωρηθῇ διά τῶν ἐκείνων τρόπων ἐξαχῶς εἰδοποιουμένη· τίνες δέ πρός (397) τούτοις οἱ τό ὕδωρ ἠντληκότες ὑπηρέται, τίς ὁ νυμφίος, τίς ἡ νύμφη, τίς ὁ ἀρχιτρίκλινος, τίς ἡ τῷ Λόγῳ παῤῥησιαστικῶς ἀπαγγείλασα Μήτηρ, ὅτι Οἶνον οὐκ ἔχουσι. Ταῦτα γάρ πάντα λείπεται προσεξετάζειν τῷ μύστῃ καί μυσταγωγῷ τῶν θείων καί λόγων καί νοημάτων, εἴπερ πάντως τῷ τῆς ἀναγωγῆς κατά νοῦν ἥδεται τρόπῳ. Πλήν ἵνα μή παντελῶς ἐπί τοῦ παρόντος ἄφωνος καταλειφθείς ἡμῖν ὁ περί τούτων οἰχήσεται λόγος, μή διδούς τοῖς καλῶς πεινῶσι κἄν ἀπό μέρους τήν πνευματικήν πανδαισίαν, ἐρῶ κατά δύναμιν, οὐχ ὅλην ἀποκαλύπτειν ἐπαγγελλόμενος τήν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις διάνοιαν (ἀσθενής γάρ πρός περίληψιν τῶν ἐν τούτοις νοηθένων θεαμάτων ὁ ἐμός καθέστηκε νοῦς), ἀλλ᾿ ὅσην ἡ τῆς ἐμῆς διανοίας χωρεῖν πέφυκε δύναμις.

Γενικωτάτην οὖν τῶν ἀρετῶν φασιν εἶναι τήν ἀγάπην· τήν δέ ταύτης ποιητικήν γενικωτάτην τῆς φύσεως δύναμιν, φασίν εἶναι τόν λόγον· ὅς τῆς οἰκείας ἀπρίξ ἐπιλαβόμενος αἰτίας, ἐνεργούμενος εἰς ἕξ διακρίνεται γενικωτέρους τρόπους, περιληπτικούς τῶν οἷς ὁ τῆς ἀγάπης διακρίνεσθαι πέφυκε λόγος εἰδῶν, πεινῶντας καί διψῶντας, καί ξένους καί γυμνούς, ἀσθενοῦντάς τε καί τούς ἐν φυλακῇ