143

is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear? What is the meaning of *the time for judgment to begin from the house of God*, and *if the righteous one is scarcely saved*?

Response. God, who created the nature of human beings, did not create along with it, with respect to sensation, either pleasure or pain(1), but he fashioned in it a certain capacity for pleasure in accordance with the intellect, by which it would be able to enjoy him ineffably. But this capacity—I mean the natural desire of the intellect for God—the first man, at the very moment he came into being, gave over to sensation for the sake of sensible things. Through this first movement, by means of sensation, he experienced pleasure activated contrary to nature; to which He who cares for our salvation(2), according to providence, attached pain, like a certain chastising power, by which the law of death was wisely implanted in the nature of the body, so as to limit the desire of the intellect, which was moved contrary to nature towards sensible things like a madness.

From this, on account of the irrational pleasure that entered into nature, pain rationally entered in response, through many sufferings, (14Γ_200> in which and from which comes death, effecting the removal(3) of pleasure contrary to nature, yet not its complete annihilation, by which the grace of divine pleasure according to the intellect is naturally revealed. For all toil, having as the cause of its own generation a preceding activation of pleasure, is clearly a debt paid naturally and causally by all who have partaken of nature. For pleasure contrary to nature is in every case naturally attended by toil in all those whose generation was preceded causelessly by the law of pleasure; and by ‘causeless’ I mean the pleasure from the transgression, as it was clearly not the successor of a preceding toil.

Therefore, since after the transgression all human beings had pleasure naturally preceding their own generation, and there was no one at all who was naturally free from impassioned generation according to pleasure, but all, as if paying a natural debt, rendered the toils and endured the death consequent upon them(4), and the way of freedom was completely impassable for those tyrannized by unjust pleasure and naturally subject to just toils and the most just death consequent upon them, it was necessary, for the annihilation of the most unjust pleasure and the most just toils on account of it (by which man, in his suffering, was miserably torn apart, having the beginning of his generation from corruption—that is, according to pleasure—and ending the goal of his life in corruption—that is, through death), and for the restoration of suffering nature, that a toil and death both unjust and uncaused be devised (uncaused, that is, as in no way having had a preceding pleasure at its generation, and unjust, as not at all being the successor to any impassioned life) so that, a most unjust toil and death, being introduced between unjust pleasure and most just toil and death(5), might utterly destroy the most unjust beginning of nature which comes from pleasure and (14Γ_202> its most just end through death on account of it, and the race of human beings might again become free of pleasure and pain, with nature having recovered its original good inheritance, no longer defiled by any of the marks inherent in things subject to generation and corruption.

For this reason, the Word of God, being perfect God by nature, becomes a perfect human being, composed of a rational soul and a body naturally subject to suffering(6), like us, apart from sin alone, having in no way at all had the pleasure from disobedience preceding his birth from a woman in time, but voluntarily, out of love for mankind, accepting the pain on account of it, which is the end of nature, so that, by suffering unjustly, he might destroy the beginning of generation from unjust pleasure that tyrannizes nature, not having it, like other human beings, as a debt paid on its own behalf, and of the Lord the

143

μόλις σῴζεται, ὁ ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἁμαρτωλὸς ποῦ φανεῖται; Τί ἐστι τὸ καιρὸς τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τὸ κρίμα ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ εἰ ὁ δίκαιος μόλις σῴζεται;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας Θεὸς οὐ συνέκτισεν αὐτῇ κατὰ

τὴν αἴσθησιν οὔτε ἡδονὴν οὔτε ὀδύνην(1), ἀλλὰ δύναμίν τινα κατὰ νοῦν αὐτῇ πρὸς ἡδονήν, καθ᾽ ἣν ἀρρήτως ἀπολαύειν αὐτοῦ δυνήσεται, ἐνετεκτήνατο. Ταύτην δὲ τὴν δύναμινλέγω δὲ τὴν κατὰ φύσιν τοῦ νοῦ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἔφεσινἅμα τῷ γενέσθαι τῇ αἰσθήσει δοὺς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τὰ αἰσθητὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν τὴν πρώτην κίνησιν διὰ μέσης τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἔσχε παρὰ φύσιν ἐνεργουμένην τὴν ἡδονήν· ᾗτινι κατὰ πρόνοιαν ὁ τῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας κηδόμενος(2) παρέπηξεν, ὥσπερ τινὰ τιμωρὸν δύναμιν, τὴν ὀδύνην, καθ᾽ ἣν ὁ τοῦ θανάτου μετὰ σοφίας ἐνερριζώθη τῇ τοῦ σώματος φύσει νόμος, περιορίζων τῆς τοῦ νοῦ μανίας παρὰ φύσιν ἐπὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ κινουμένην τὴν ἔφεσιν.

Ἐντεῦθεν διὰ τὴν ἐπεισελθοῦσαν τῇ φύσει παράλογον ἡδονὴν ἡ κατὰ λόγον ἀντεπεισῆλθεν ὀδύνη, διὰ πολλῶν παθημάτων, (14Γ_200> ἐν οἷς καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ θάνατος, ποιουμένη τῆς παρὰ φύσιν ἡδονῆς τὴν ἀφαίρεσιν(3), οὐ μὴν δὲ καὶ τελείαν ἀναίρεσιν, καθ᾽ ἣν ἡ κατὰ νοῦν τῆς θείας ἡδονῆς ἀναδείκνυσθαι πέφυκε χάρις. Πᾶς γὰρ πόνος, ὡς αἰτίαν τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως ἔχων κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν προηγουμένην τὴν ἡδονήν, χρέος ἐστὶ δηλαδὴ φυσικῶς κατ᾽ αἰτίαν παρὰ πάντων τῶν μετειληφότων τῆς φύσεως ἐκτιννύμενον. Τῇ γὰρ παρὰ φύσιν ἡδονῇ πάντως παρέπεται φυσικῶς ὁ πόνος ἐν πᾶσιν, ὧν ὁ τῆς ἡδονῆς νόμος ἀναιτίως προκαθηγήσατο τῆς γενέσεως· ἀναίτιον δέ φημι τὴν ἐκ τῆς παραβάσεως ἡδονήν, ὡς μὴ γενομένην δηλονότι προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον.

Οὐκοῦν, ἐπειδὴ μετὰ τὴν παράβασιν πάντες ἄνθρωποι τὴν ἡδονὴν εἶχον τῆς ἰδίας φυσικῶς προκαθηγουμένην γενέσεως, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἦν τὸ σύνολον ὁ τῆς καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν ἐμπαθοῦς γενέσεως φυσικῶς ὑπάρχων ἐλεύθερος, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς χρέος πάντες φυσικὸν ἀποδιδόντες τοὺς πόνους καὶ τὸν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ὑπέμενον θάνατον(4), καὶ ἦν ἄπορος παντάπασιν ὁ τῆς ἐλευθερίας τρόπος τοῖς ὑπὸ τῆς ἀδίκου τυραννουμένοις ἡδονῆς καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν δικαίων πόνων καὶ τοῦ ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς δικαιοτάτου θανάτου φυσικῶς ἐνεχομένοις, ἔδει δὲ πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν μὲν τῆς ἀδικωτάτης ἡδονῆς καὶ τῶν δι᾽ αὐτὴν δικαιοτάτων πόνων, ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἐλεεινῶς διεσπᾶτο πάσχων ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ φθορᾶς, τῆς καθ᾽ ἡδονήν, ἔχων τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς γενέσεως καὶ εἰς φθοράν, τὴν διὰ θανάτου, τὸ τῆς ζωῆς καταλήγων τέλος, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἐπανόρθωσιν τῆς παθούσης φύσεως ἐπινοηθῆναι πόνον καὶ θάνατον ἄδικον ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀναίτιον (ἀναίτιον μέν, ὡς οὐδαμῶς προλαβοῦσαν ἡδονὴν ἐσχηκότα κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν, ἄδικον δέ, ὡς οὐδεμιᾶς τὸ παράπαν ἐμπαθοῦς ζωῆς ὄντα διάδοχον) ἵνα, μέσος διαληφθεὶς ἡδονῆς ἀδίκου καὶ πόνου καὶ θανάτου δικαιοτάτου(5), πόνος καὶ θάνατος ἀδικώτατος ἀνέλῃ διόλου τὴν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀδικωτάτην ἀρχὴν καὶ τὸ (14Γ_202> δι᾽ αὐτὴν διὰ θανάτου δικαιότατον τέλος τῆς φύσεως, καὶ γένηται πάλιν ἡδονῆς καὶ ὀδύνης ἐλεύθερον τὸ γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς εὐκληρίαν ἀπολαβούσης τῆς φύσεως, μηδενὶ τῶν ἐμπεφυκότων τοῖς ὑπὸ γένεσιν καὶ φθορὰν γνωρισμάτων μολυνομένην.

∆ιὰ τοῦτο, Θεὸς ὑπάρχων τέλειος κατὰ φύσιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος γίνεται τέλειος ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ ψυχῆς νοερᾶς καὶ σώματος παθητοῦ κατὰ φύσιν(6) παραπλησίως ἡμῖν χωρὶς μόνης ἁμαρτίας συνεστώς, τὴν μὲν ἐκ τῆς παρακοῆς ἡδονὴν οὐδαμῶς τὸ σύνολον ἐσχηκὼς προηγουμένην αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐκ γυναικὸς ἐν χρόνῳ γεννήσεως, τὴν δὲ δι᾽ αὐτὴν ὀδύνην, ὑπάρχουσαν τέλος τῆς φύσεως, διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν κατὰ θέλησιν προσηκάμενος, ἵνα, πάσχων ἀδίκως, ἀνέλῃ τὴν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀδίκου τυραννοῦσαν τὴν φύσιν ἀρχὴν τῆς γενέσεως, οὐκ ἔχουσαν ὡς χρέος ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς ἐκτιννύμενον, κατὰ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους, καὶ τοῦ Κυρίου τὸν