,

138

the purpose of the things considered, and the other time, that is, age, in which it will be manifest in actuality, transforming all analogously, as each is receptive of it, toward the divine likeness; which glory, perhaps, the Word foretold follows the toils for virtue.

Someone will say these things in defense against the one saying why Scripture here said not ‘seeking’ and ‘searching’, but ‘seeking out’ and ‘searching out’, and emphatically showing forth the obvious sense. But I also know another argument, having heard it from a certain wise man. For he, delivering a more mystical account concerning the beginning and the end, both of seeking and of seeking out, used to say that ‘seeking’ is naturally ordered toward the beginning, while ‘seeking out’ is toward the end. For one does not naturally ‘seek out’ the beginning, just as one does not naturally ‘seek’ the end, but one ‘seeks’ the beginning, and ‘seeks out’ the end. For, he said, from the moment man, through disobedience, put his own beginning behind him at the very moment of his coming to be, he was not able to seek what had come to be behind him; and since the beginning naturally circumscribes the motion of things that have come from it, it was rightly called also an end, unto which, as the cause of the motion of moving things, the course receives its limit.

Therefore, man, in seeking out his own end, arrives at the beginning, which is naturally in the end; and having abandoned the seeking of it, he pursued the seeking out of it, as it is by nature an end. For it was not possible to escape its circumscription, which surrounded him on all sides and limited his motion. It was not possible, therefore, to seek the beginning, as I said, which had come to be behind, but to seek out the end existing before him, so that through the end he might know the beginning that had been left behind, since he did not know the end from the beginning.

(14Γ_178> And perhaps the wise Solomon, initiating us into the mysteries, says this: what is it that has been? It is the very thing that will be; and what is it that has been done? It is the very thing that will be done, as if clearly showing the beginning from the end. For after the transgression, the end is no longer shown from the beginning, but the beginning from the end, nor does one seek the principles of the beginning, but seeks out those which lead moving things toward the end.

But if, because ‘seeking’ is spoken of in many places in Scripture, as in “Seek peace and pursue it,” and “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” he does not consider this notion sound, he has at hand, if he intelligently reflects, the confirmation of what has been said. For when the word said, “Seek peace and pursue it,” it encouraged us to pursue the beginning in the end; and the kingdom, being a beginning, it exhorted us to seek out through righteousness, as the end of the kingdom. For the kingdom of God is before all righteousness, or rather, to speak more properly, it is righteousness itself, toward which, as an end, every motion of the virtuous hastens. For if righteousness is the distribution of the equal to each according to worth, and a kingdom is a lawful superintendence, then righteousness is the same as the kingdom, through which, as through an end, it is easy for those who wish to journey toward the kingdom as to a beginning. For righteousness is the kingdom actualized, and the kingdom is righteousness confirmed by deeds. For to superintend beings lawfully is to distribute to each what is according to worth, and to distribute to each what is according to worth is a lawful superintendence of beings. Therefore, the difference in wording has in no way disturbed the conceptual consistency of Holy Scripture, that is, among the wise who are intelligent in divine matters.

(14Γ_180> And if someone should wish to understand in another way both ‘seeking’ and ‘searching,’ and ‘seeking out’ and ‘searching out,’ he will find that ‘seeking’ and ‘seeking out’ move around the intellect, while ‘searching’ and ‘searching out’ move around reason. For the intellect naturally seeks, while reason naturally searches. For seeking is, so to speak in a definition, a simple motion of the intellect toward some knowable object with desire; while searching is a simple motion of reason concerning some knowable object

138

νομιζομένων τὴν πρόθεσιν, καὶ τὸν ἄλλον καιρόν, ἤγουν αἰῶνα, καθ᾽ ὃν παροῦσα φανήσεται κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν, πάντας ἀναλόγως, καθὼς ἕκαστός ἐστιν αὐτῆς δεκτικός, μεταποιοῦσα πρὸς τὴν θείαν ὁμοίωσιν· ἣν δόξαν τυχὸν τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς μεθεπομένην πόνοις προεῖπεν ὁ λόγος.

Ταῦτα μὲν ἐρεῖ τις ἀπολογούμενος πρὸς τὸν λέγοντα τί δήποτε μὴ ζήτησιν καὶ ἐρεύνησιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκζήτησιν ἐνταῦθα καὶ ἐξερεύνησιν εἶπεν ἡ Γραφή, καὶ τὸν πρόχειρον νοῦν ἐμφαντικῶς προδεικνύμενος. Ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ ἄλλον οἶδα παρά τινος σοφοῦ λόγον ἀκούσας. Ἕλεγε γὰρ ἐκεῖνος, μυστικώτερον τὸν περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς καὶ τοῦ τέλους τῆς τε ζητήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐκζητήσεως λόγον ποιούμενος, πρὸς μὲν τὴν ἀρχὴν τετάχθαι φυσικῶς τὴν ζήτησιν, πρὸς δὲ τὸ τέλος τὴν ἐκζήτησιν· οὐ γάρ τις φυσικῶς ἐκζητεῖ τὴν ἀρχήν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ζητεῖ φυσικῶς τὸ τέλος, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν ἀρχὴν ζητεῖ, τὸ δὲ τέλος ἐκζητεῖ. Ἀφ᾽ οὗ γάρ, ἔφασκεν, ἅμα τῷ εἶναι διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀρχὴν ὀπίσω ποιήσας ὁ ἄνθρωπος ζητεῖν οὐκ ἠδύνατο τὸ κατόπιν αὐτοῦ γεγενημένον, καὶ ἐπειδὴ φυσικῶς ἡ ἀρχὴ περιγράφει τῶν ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς γεγενημένων τὴν κίνησιν, εἰκότως προσηγορεύθη καὶ τέλος, εἰς ὅπερ, ὡς αἰτίαν τῆς τῶν κινουμένων κινήσεως, δέχεται πέρας ὁ δρόμος.

Ἐκζητῶν οὖν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τέλος ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν καταντᾷ, φυσικῶς ἐν τῷ τέλει τυγχάνουσαν· ἧς ἀπολιπὼν τὴν ζήτησιν, τὴν αὐτῆς, ὡς τέλους φύσει, μετῆλθεν ἐκζήτησιν. Οὐ γὰρ ἦν αὐτῆς διαφυγεῖν τὴν περιγραφήν, πανταχόθεν αὐτὸν περιϊσταμένην καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ περιορίζουσαν κίνησιν. Οὐκ ἦν οὖν ζητῆσαι τὴν ἀρχήν, ὡς ἔφην, ὀπίσω γεγενημένην, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκζητῆσαι τὸ τέλος ἐμπρὸς ὑπάρχον, ἵνα γνῷ διὰ τοῦ τέλους τὴν ἀπολειφθεῖσαν ἀρχήν, ἐπειδὴ μὴ ἔγνω τὸ τέλος ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς.

(14Γ_178> Καὶ τοῦτο τυχὸν ὁ σοφὸς μυσταγωγῶν Σολομών φησιν· τί τὸ γεγενημένον, αὐτὸ τὸ γενησόμενον· καὶ τί τὸ πεποιημένον, αὐτὸ τὸ ποιηθησόμενον, ὡσανεὶ σαφῶς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκ τοῦ τέλους δεικνύς. Οὐκέτι γὰρ μετὰ τὴν παράβασιν δείκνυται τὸ τέλος ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐκ τοῦ τέλους, οὐδὲ ζητεῖ τις τοὺς τῆς ἀρχῆς λόγους, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκζητεῖ τοὺς πρὸς τὸ τέλος τοὺς κινουμένους ἀπάγοντας.

Εἰ δέ, ὅτι πολλαχοῦ τῆς Γραφῆς ἡ ζήτησις εἴρηται, ὡς τὸ ζήτησον εἰρήνην καὶ δίωξον αὐτήν, καὶ ζητεῖτε πρῶτον τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ, βεβαίαν οὐχ ἡγεῖται ταύτην ἔννοιαν, αὐτόθεν ἔχει νουνεχῶς ἐπισκήπτων τῶν λεχθέντων τὴν πίστωσιν. Εἰπὼν γὰρ ὁ λόγος ζήτησον εἰρήνην καὶ δίωξον αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ τέλει τὴν ἀρχὴν διῶξαι παρενεγύησε καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν, ἀρχὴν οὖσαν διὰ τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ὡς τέλους τῆς βασιλείας, ἐκζητῆσαι παρεκελεύσατο. Βασιλεία γὰρ Θεοῦ πρὸ πάσης ἐστὶ δικαιοσύνης, μᾶλλον δὲ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν αὐτοδικαιοσύνη, πρὸς ἥν, ὡς τέλος, ἐπείγεται πᾶσα σπουδαίου κίνησις. Εἰ γὰρ δικαιοσύνη ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ ἴσου κατ᾽ ἀξίαν ἑκάστῳ διανέμησις, βασιλεία δὲ ἔννομός ἐστιν ἐπιστασία, ἄρα ταὐτὸν τῇ βασιλείᾳ ἡ δικαιοσύνη, δι᾽ ἦς, ὡς τέλους, ὁδεύειν τοῖς βουλομένοις ἐστὶν εὐμαρές, ὡς πρὸς ἀρχὴν τὴν βασιλείαν· δικαιοσύνη γάρ ἐστι βασιλεία ἐνεργουμένη καὶ βασιλεία ἐστὶ δικαιοσύνη δι᾽ ἔργων κεκυρωμένη· τὸ γὰρ ἐννόμως ἐπιστατεῖν τοῖς οὖσι διανέμειν ἐστὶν ἑκάστῳ τὰ πρὸς ἀξίαν, καὶ τὸ διανέμειν ἑκάστῳ τὰ πρὸς ἀξίαν ἔννομός ἐστι τῶν ὄντων ἐπιστασία. Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲν τῆς κατὰ νοῦν τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ὁμαλότητος ἡ κατὰ τὴν λέξιν διαφορὰ παρεσάλευσεν, παρὰ τοῖς σοφοῖς δηλαδὴ τῶν θείων νοήμοσιν.

(14Γ_180> Εἰ δὲ καὶ καθ᾽ ἕτερον βούλοιτό τις ἐκδέχεσθαι τρόπον τήν τε ζήτησιν καὶ ἐρεύνησιν, καὶ τὴν ἐκζήτησιν καὶ τὴν ἐξερεύνησιν, εὑρήσει τὴν μὲν ζήτησιν καὶ τὴν ἐκζήτησιν περὶ τὸν νοῦν κινουμένας, τὴν δὲ ἐρεύνησιν καὶ τὴν ἐξερεύνησιν περὶ τὸν λόγον. Ζητεῖ γὰρ φυσικῶς ὁ νοῦς, ἐρευνᾷ δὲ κατὰ φύσιν ὁ λόγος. Ζήτησις γάρ ἐστιν, ἵν᾽ ὡς ἐν ὅρῳ περιλαβὼν εἴπω, ἁπλῆ τοῦ νοὸς πρός τι γνωστὸν μετ᾽ ἐφέσεως κίνησις· ἐρεύνησις δέ ἐστιν ἁπλῆ τοῦ λόγου περί τι γνωστὸν