144

this in the desert, I mean in contemplation of nature, he built pious doctrines concerning existing things like secure towers; in which the one who takes refuge does not fear the demons plundering in this desert, I mean in the nature of visible things, and deceiving the mind through sensation, and dragging it down to the darkness of ignorance.

And he hewed out many cisterns: that is, the various dispositions for better things, which are receptive of the lessons given from God according to knowledge. For he had much livestock in Shephelah, and in the plain; and vinedressers in the hill country, and in Carmel, for he was a farmer. He who lawfully contends for the truth with the weapons of the right hand and of the left, from the various dispositions concerning virtue and knowledge, as from hewn cisterns, anoints the livestock in Shephelah for endurance, that is, the movements of the soul about the body, which are trained through the trials of involuntary temptations, giving them to drink the words concerning patience; and the livestock in the plain, that is, the movements of the soul which prosper through the things on the right hand in the breadth of virtues, he gives to drink the words concerning humility and moderation, so that they neither fall because of the things on the left, nor are puffed up by the things on the right.

And vinedressers in the hill country, and in Carmel. Vinedressers in the hill country are the pious thoughts that abide in the height of contemplation and cultivate ecstatic and ineffable knowledge. And in Carmel, are the thoughts that cultivate the principle of perfect dispassion and purification through the removal of all things that surround the soul’s fruitfulness like a kind of foreskin, and which, as it were, gnostically circumcise completely the mind's relation to material things. For Carmel is the knowledge of circumcision.

He says that Uzziah was a farmer, because every mind that has the strength of God for contemplation is also a true farmer, keeping the divine seeds of good things pure from weeds through his own diligence and care; until he has the memory of God preserving him. For it says: And he sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah in the fear of the Lord. And the word knows that Zechariah, translated into the Greek language, means memory of God. Therefore, let us from every side beseech the Lord that His saving memory be preserved for us, lest our accomplishment corrupt the soul, being lifted up to a height, and having dared, like Uzziah, to do things beyond nature.

SCHOLIA. a. He calls the wondrous tent the holy flesh of (444) God from us, as having received its being in him without

seed; and the house, the intellectual soul. For the Word, having become man, ineffably united to Himself flesh intellectually ensouled, purifying like with like. And the place is the Word Himself who unchangeably fixed our nature in Himself according to His hypostasis. We therefore pass through to this tent, the flesh, sanctifying our flesh through the virtues, by which it is naturally made to be conformed to the body of his glory according to the grace of the Spirit; and within the house of God, that of unmixed contemplation, according to simple and undivided knowledge, we arrive at the intellectual soul of the Lord itself; so that we too might have the mind of Christ according to the Apostle by participation in the Spirit, becoming by grace through him all that he by nature became through the economy for us.

b. He has called the cornerstone the bond of the corner, that is, of the Church. c. He calls the incarnation the Corner Gate, being the gate of the Church; and the towers,

the correct doctrines concerning the incarnation. d. He called the corner of the valley the natural union of the flesh with the soul;

and the spiritual connection of the soul to it as a minister of virtue.

144

τοῦτο κατά τήν ἔρημον, φημί δή τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, οἷον πύργους ἀσφαλεῖς τάς εὐσεβεῖς περί τῶν ὄντων ᾠκοδόμησε δόξας· ἐν αἷς ὁ καταφεύγων, οὐ φοβεῖται τούς κατά τήν ἔρημον ταύτην, λέγω δέ τήν φύσιν τῶν ὀρωμένων, λῃστεύοντας δαίμονας, καί πλανῶντας τόν νοῦν διά τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καί πρός ἀγνοίας κατασύροντας ζόφον.

Καί ἐλατόμησε λάκκους πολλούς· τάς διαφόρους δηλαδή τῶν κρειττόνων ἕξεις, τάς δεκτικάς τῶν θεόθεν χορηγουμένων κατά τήν γνῶσιν μαθημάτων. Ὅτι κτήνη πολλά ὑπῆρχεν αὐτῷ ἐν Σεφιλᾷ, καί ἐν τῇ πεδεινῇ· καί ἀμπελουργοί ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ, καί ἐν τῷ Καρμήλῳ, ὅτι γεωργός ἦν. Ὁ διά τῶν ὅπλων τῶν δεξιῶν καί ἀριστερῶν νομίμως ὑπέρ ἀληθείας ἀθλῶν, ἐκ τῶν περί τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν διαφόρων ἕξεων, ὡς ἐκ λατομητῶν λάκκων, τά ἐν Σεφιλᾷ κτήνη, τουτέστι, τά διά τῆς τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν γυμναζόμενα πείρας, περί τό σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς κινήματα, πρός ὑπομονήν ὑπαλείφει, ποτίζων τούς περί καρτερίας λόγους· τά δέ ἐν τῇ πεδινῇ, τουτέστι, τά διά τῶν δεξιῶν εὐθηνούμενα, τῷ πλάτει τῶν ἀρετῶν τῆς ψυχῆς κινήματα, τούς περί ταπεινοφροσύνης καί μετριοπαθείας ποτίζει λόγους, πρός τό, μήτε τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς καταπεσεῖν, μήτε τοῖς δεξιοῖς ἐπαρθῆναι.

Καί ἀμπελουργούς ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ, καί ἐν τῷ Καρμήλῳ. Ἀμπελουργοί εἰσιν ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ, οἱ κατά τό ὕψος μένοντες τῆς θεωρίας, καί τήν ἐκστατικήν καί ἀπόῤῤητον φιλοκαλοῦντες γνῶσιν εὐσεβεῖς λογισμοί. Καί ἐν τῷ Καρμήλῳ, οἱ τόν περί τελείας ἀπαθείας τε καί καθάρσεως διά τῆς τῶν ἁπάντων ὡς ἀκροβυστίας τινός τῷ γονίμῳ τῆς ψυχῆς πειρικειμένης ἀφαιρέσεως γεωργοῦντες λόγον, λογισμοί, καί οἷον γνωστικῶς περιτέμνοντες παντελῶς τοῦ νοῦ τήν σχέσιν τῶν ὑλικῶν. Ἐπίγνωσις γάρ περιτομῆς ὁ Κάρμηλός ἐστι.

Γεωργόν δέ φησιν εἶναι τόν Ὀζίαν, ὅτι πᾶς νοῦς ἰσχύν Θεοῦ πρός θεωρίαν ἔχων, καί ἀληθής ἐστι γεωργός, καθαρά ζιζανίων διά τῆς οἰκείας σπουδῆς καί ἐπιμελείας, τά θεῖα τῶν ἀγαθῶν διαφυλάττων σπέρματα· μέχρις οὗ συντηροῦσαν αὐτόν ἔχῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ τήν μνήμην. Φησί γάρ· Καί ἦν ἐκζητῶν τόν Κύριον ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ζαχαρίου ἐν φόβῳ Κυρίου. Ζαχαρίαν δέ μνήμην Θεοῦ, πρός τήν Ἑλλάδα φωνήν μεταφερόμενον οἶδεν ὁ λόγος. ∆ιό πάντοθεν δεηθῶμεν τοῦ Κυρίου, τήν σωτήριον αὐτοῦ ἡμῖν φυλαχθῆναι μνήμην, ἵνα μή διαφθείρῃ τήν ψυχήν τό κατορθούμενον, πρός ὕψος ἀρθεῖσαν, καί τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν ὡς Ὀζίας κατατολμήσασαν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Σκηνήν λέγει θαυμαστήν τήν ἐξ ἡμῶν ἁγίαν τοῦ (444) Θεοῦ σάρκα, ὡς δίχα

σπορᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ τό εἶναι λαβοῦσαν· οἶκον δέ, τήν νοεράν ψυχήν. Σάρκα γάρ νοερῶς ἐμψυχωμένην ἀῤῤήτως ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Λόγος τῷ ὁμοίῳ τό ὅμοιον ἀνακαθαίρων. Τόπος δέ, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Λόγος ὁ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἀτρέπτως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν φύσιν πηξάμενος. Πρός ταύτην οὖν τήν σκηνήν σάρκα διερχόμεθα, τήν ἡμετέραν διά τῶν ἀρετῶν ἁγιάζοντες σάρκα, δι᾿ ὧν σύμμορφος πέφυκεν γίνεσθαι τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ κατά τήν χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος· καί ἔσω τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῆς ἀμιγοῦς θεωρίας, κατά τήν ἁπλῆν καί ἀδιαίρετον γνῶσιν, πρός αύτήν ἀφικνούμενοι τήν νοεράν τοῦ Κυρίου ψυχήν· ἵνα καί ἡμεῖς νοῦν Χριστοῦ κατά τόν Ἀπόστολον τῇ μεθέξει τοῦ Πνεύματος ἔχωμεν, γινόμενοι κατά χάριν δι᾿ αὐτόν ὅσαπερ αὐτός φύσει κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν γέγονεν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς.

β΄. Τόν ἀκρογωνιαῖον λίθον σύνδεσμον κέκληκεν τῆς γωνίας, ἤγουν Ἐκκλησίας. γ΄. Πύλην γωνίας τήν σάρκωσιν λέγει, πύλην οὖσαν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας· πύργους δέ,

τά ὀρθά περί τῆς σαρκώσεως δόγματα. δ΄. Φάραγγος γωνίαν εἶπεν, τήν πρός τήν ψυχήν κατά φύσιν ἕνωσιν τῆς σαρκός·

τήν τε κατά πνεῦμα πρός αὐτήν ψυχῆς ὡς ἀρετῆς ὑπουργόν συνάφειαν.