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Foreknowledge of things that have a beginning (14Γ_194> of their being is through a cause. Christ was therefore foreknown not as what He was by nature for His own sake, but as what He appeared by economy for our sake, having come into being later.

For it was truly necessary for the Creator by nature of the essence of beings to become also the Author by grace of the deification of created things, so that the Giver of well-being might appear also as the Bestower of eternal well-being. Since, therefore, no being whatsoever knows itself or another, what it is in essence, it is reasonable that no being by nature has foreknowledge of anything that will come to be, except for God who is beyond beings, who both knows Himself, what He is in essence, and has foreknown the existence of all things made by Him even before they came into being, and who is going to graciously grant to beings the knowledge of themselves and of one another, what they are in essence, and to reveal the logoi of their generation, which pre-exist unitively in Him.

For we reject as being foreign to the truth the argument that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world by those to whom He was later revealed at the end of the ages, as if those very ones existed before the foundation of the world with the foreknown Christ, an argument which introduces the substance of rational beings as co-eternal with God. For it is not at all possible to be with Christ as He is and then to be separated from Him altogether at some point, since in Him the consummation of the ages and the stability of moving things are designed to occur, according to which no being whatsoever will be subject to change. But the word of Scripture called Christ unblemished and spotless, as being by nature, in both soul and body, completely foreign to the corruption of sin; for His soul had no blemish of evil, nor His body the stain of sin.

SCHOLIA 1. A boundary is of a limit, the end of things naturally finite; but a measure,

a definition of quantity in general, and the end of both ages and temporal natures. But an end is the definition of things finite in beginning and end according to generation. And creation is the hypostasis of things brought forth out of non-being. The hypostatic union of these, he says, was pre-conceived according to providence in relation to Him from whom these things have come to be. So that both the being of beings might be preserved in essence as is natural; and that subsisting, that is, how to be, might receive divine grace, with all things being transformed toward immutability by the union with God.

2. He says that knowledge is twofold: the one consisting in reason and divine concepts, being present in form, not having the sense perception of the things conceived; and the other, according to activity, having alone, without reason and true concepts, the enjoyment in form.

3. Since, he says, through knowledge reason is naturally apt to signify the knowable, it moves the desire of those moved by it toward the enjoyment of what has been signified.

4. Before all experience, he says, there exists a reason of knowledge; because enjoyment is naturally dominant only in experience.

61 (61). CONCERNING "FOR IT IS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN FROM THE HOUSE

OF GOD". (14Γ_198> 61. QUESTION 61 For it is time for judgment to begin from the house of God. And if it begins first with

us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God? And if the righteous one

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πρόγνωσις τῶν ἀρχὴν (14Γ_194> ἐχόντων τοῦ εἶναι δι᾽ αἰτίαν ἐστίν. Προεγνώσθη οὖν ὁ Χριστὸς οὐχ ὅπερ ἦν κατὰ φύσιν δι᾽ ἑαυτόν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅπερ ἐφάνη κατ᾽ οἰκονομίαν δι᾽ ἡμᾶς γενόμενος ὕστερον.

Ἔδει γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸν κατὰ φύσιν τῆς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας δημιουργὸν καὶ τῆς κατὰ χάριν αὐτουργὸν γενέσθαι τῶν γεγονότων θεώσεως, ἵνα ὁ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι δοτὴρ φανῇ καὶ τοῦ ἀεὶ εὖ εἶναι χαριστικός. Ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων ἑαυτὸ τὸ παράπαν ἢ ἄλλο γινώσκει ὅ,τι ποτὲ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ἐστίν, εἰκότως οὐδὲ τῶν γενησομένων οὐδενὸς οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων ἔχει κατὰ φύσιν τὴν πρόγνωσιν, πλὴν τοῦ ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄντα Θεοῦ, τοῦ καὶ ἑαυτὸν γινώσκοντος ὅ,τι ποτὲ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ἐστὶ καὶ πάντων τῶν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πεποιημένων καὶ πρὶν γενέσθαι προεγνωκότος τὴν ὕπαρξιν, καὶ μέλλοντος κατὰ χάριν φιλοτιμεῖσθαι τοῖς οὖσι τὴν ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἀλλήλων ὅ,τι ποτὲ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχουσι γνῶσιν καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ μονοειδῶς προόντας τῆς αὐτῶν γενέσεως φανερῶσαι λόγους.

Τὸ γὰρ δὴ λέγειν τινὰς προεγνῶσθαι τὸν Χριστὸν πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ἐκείνοις, οἷς ὕστερον ἐφανερώθη ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων, ὡς αὐτῶν ἐκείνων πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ὄντων σὺν τῷ προεγνωσμένῳ Χριστῷ, ὡς τῆς ἀληθείας ἀλλότριον ὄντα τὸν λόγον, οἷα δὴ συναΐδιον τῷ Θεῷ τὴν τῶν λογικῶν οὐσίαν εἰσάγοντα, παραγραφόμεθα. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι παντελῶς σὺν Χριστῷ γενέσθαι καθώς ἐστι καὶ πάλιν αὐτοῦ τὸ σύνολον ἀπογενέσθαι ποτέ, εἴπερ ἐν αὐτῷ πέφυκεν ἡ τῶν αἰώνων ἀποπεράτωσις γίνεσθαι καὶ ἡ στάσις τῶν κινουμένων, καθ᾽ ἣν οὐδὲν ἔσται τὸ παράπαν τῶν ὄντων τρεπόμενον. Ἄμωμον δὲ καὶ ἄσπιλον ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς τὸν Χριστὸν ἔφη λόγος, ὡς κατὰ ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα φύσει παντελῶς τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν φθορᾶς ἀλλότριον· οὐ γὰρ ἔσχεν αὐτοῦ μῶμον κακίας ἡ ψυχή, οὐδὲ τὸ σῶμα σπίλον τῆς ἁμαρτίας.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Ὅρος μέν ἔστι περιοχῆς, πέρας τῶν φύσει πεπερασμένων· τό δέ μέτρον,

καθόλου ποσότητος περιγραφή, καί τέλος αἰώνων τε καί χρονικῶν φύσεων. Τό δέ πέρας ἐστί, περιγραφή τῶν ἀρχῇ τε καί τέλει κατά γένεσιν πεπερασμένων. Ἡ δέ κτίσις ἐστί, τῶν κατά παραγωγήν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ὑπόστασις. Τούτων ἕνωσις καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν προεπενοήθη φησί κατά πρόνοιαν πρός τόν ἐξ οὗ ταῦτα γεγόνασιν. Ἵνα καί τό εἶναι τῶν ὄντων φυλαχθῇ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὡς πέφυκε· καί τό ὑποστῆναι, ἤγουν πῶς εἶναι κατά χάριν δέξηται θείαν, τῇ πρός τόν Θεόν ἑνώσει πάντων πρός ἀτρεψίαν μεταποιηθέντων.

2. ∆ιττήν εἶναι λέγει τήν γνῶσιν· τήν μέν ἐν λόγῳ κειμένην καί θείοις νοήμασι, κατ᾿ εἶδος παροῦσαν τήν αἴσθησιν τῶν νοηθέντων οὐκ ἔχουσαν· τήν δέ, κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν, μόνην ἔχουσαν δίχα λόγου καί νοημάτων τῶν ἀληθῶν τήν κατ᾿ εἶδος ἀπόλαυσιν.

3. Ἐπειδή, φησί, διά γνώσεως ὁ λόγος τό γνωστόν πέφυκεν ὑποσημαίνειν, κινεῖ τήν ἔφεσιν τῶν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων, πρός τήν τοῦ σημανθέντος ἀπόλαυσιν.

4. Πρό πάσης πείρας, φησί, λόγος ὑπάρχει γνώσεως· ὅτι κατά τήν πεῖραν μόνην πέφυκε δυναστεύειν ἀπόλαυσις.

ΞΑ (61). ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ "ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΡΞΑΣΘΑΙ ΤΟ ΚΡΙΜΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΥ ΟΙΚΟΥ

ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ". (14Γ_198> 61. ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΞΑ' Ὅτι καιρὸς τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τὸ κρίμα ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ Θεοῦ. Εἰ δὲ πρῶτον ἀφ᾽

ἡμῶν, τί τὸ τέλος τῶν ἀπειθούντων τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ Εὐαγγελίῳ; Καὶ εἰ ὁ μὲν δίκαιος