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he made the heavens, it proclaims. But how one should understand descent and ascent, since the Word of God does not make transitions locally, but scripture calls such providences of his in this manner tropically, we will explain in its proper place. 6.9.4 It was necessary to mention in these things also the new covenant, which the coming of Christ was about to bring to men; this is the new song after the old, given by Christ to all the nations. Therefore the saying at hand says: "O God, I will sing a new song to you." 6.9.5 But "touch the mountains and they will smoke," I think signifies the burning and destruction of all idolatry, which was especially practiced among the ancients on the mountains, so that even the Jews themselves are reproved, for "on every high mountain" they practiced idolatry in imitation of the foreign nations. 6.10.1 From Psalm 147. "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise your God, O Zion," then continuing it says: "who sends his word to the earth, his word runs swiftly." It is clear that the one who sends is different from the one who is sent. Therefore, here too you have the one who sends, the God over all, and the one who is sent, the Word, who, having many names, is sometimes called Wisdom, sometimes Word, at other times God, and again Lord through the divine oracles. 6.10.2 And having observed in what way in a very short time the word of his teaching filled the whole world, I well know that you will marvel at the result of the prophecy which says "his word runs swiftly." 6.11.1 From the 2nd of Kings. "And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song." Then it says in sequence: "and he bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and flew upon the wings of the winds, and he made darkness his hiding place," 6.11.2 and at the end of the same song: "deliver me," it says, "from the contentions of the people, you will make me the head of the nations; a people whom I did not know served me, at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me"; "foreign sons will be cast away." 6.11.3 The God who bowed the heavens and came down, who rode upon the man whom he had assumed, whom the word now calls a cherub, flew up with him, making his ascent with the divine spirits escorting him, they themselves also being called wings of the winds. But it intimates obscurely that these things happened in secret according to certain ineffable and hidden reasons, saying: "and he made darkness his hiding place." The following things, in consequence of the incarnation of Christ, signify the opposition of the Jewish people against him, and the obedience of the nations to the teaching of Christ. You would find similar things in the same words also in the seventeenth psalm, concerning which the things which seemed best have been said before. 6.12.1 From the third of Kings. "And now, Lord, the God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you spoke to your servant David, my father. For will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? if heaven and the heaven of heavens are not sufficient for you?" 6.12.2 These things are found in the same words also in Chronicles. Therefore, God promised to David to raise up a king from his loins, of whom God himself says he will be father, so that the one born "of the seed of David" would be named the son of God and would have a throne of an eternal kingdom. 6.12.3 But these things were spoken as an oracle to David in the second of Kings through Nathan the prophet in this manner: "and it shall be when your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, who will be from your loins, and I will prepare his kingdom; he will build a house for me in my name, and I will set up his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son." 6.12.4 The same things are also said in like manner in Chronicles. But in the eighty-eighth psalm it is said: "he will call upon me, you are my father, O God

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οὐρανοὺς ἐποιήσατο, θεσπίζει. ὅπως δὲ κάθοδον χρὴ νοεῖν καὶ ἄνοδον, τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου οὐ τοπικῶς μεταβάσεις ποιουμένου, τροπικῶς δὲ τὰς τοιάσδε οἰκονομίας αὐτοῦ τοῦτον τῆς γραφῆς ἀποκαλούσης τὸν τρόπον, ἐπ' οἰκείας ἀποδώσομεν σχολῆς. 6.9.4 ἔδει δὲ μνημονεῦσαι ἐν τούτοις καὶ τῆς καινῆς διαθήκης, ἣν ἔμελλεν ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσία προξενήσειν ἀνθρώποις· αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ καινὴ ᾠδὴ μετὰ τὴν παλαιὰν ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσι δεδομένη. διό φησιν τὸ μετὰ χεῖρας λόγιον· «ὁ θεὸς ᾠδὴν καινὴν ᾄσομαί σοι». 6.9.5 τὸ δὲ «ἅψαι τῶν ὀρέων καὶ καπνισθήσονται» αἰνίττεσθαι ἡγοῦμαι ἐμπρησμὸν καὶ ἀφανισμὸν πάσης εἰδωλολατρίας, ἥτις παρὰ τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι μάλιστα ἐσπουδάζετο, ὥστε ἤδη καὶ αὐτοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἀπελέγχεσθαι, ὡς «ἐπὶ πᾶν ὄρος ὑψηλὸν» κατὰ μίμησιν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐθνῶν εἰδωλολατροῦντας. 6.10.1 Ἀπὸ Ψαλμοῦ ρμζʹ. «Ἐπαίνει, Ἰερουσαλήμ, τὸν κύριον,αἴνει τὸν θεόν σου, Σιών», εἶθ' ὑποβάς φησιν· «ὁ ἀποστέλλων τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ τῇ γῇ, ἕως τάχους δραμεῖται ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ». Σαφὲς δὲ ὅτι τοῦ ἀποστελλομένου ὁ ἀποστέλλων ἕτερος ὢν τυγχάνει. ἔχεις τοιγαροῦν κἀνταῦθα τὸν μὲν ἀποστέλλοντα τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεόν, τὸν δὲ ἀποστελλόμενον τὸν λόγον, ὃς πολυώνυμος ὢν τοτὲ μὲν σοφία τοτὲ δὲ λόγος ἄλλοτε δὲ θεὸς καὶ πάλιν κύριος διὰ τῶν θείων χρησμῶν ἀνηγόρευται. 6.10.2 ἐπιστήσας δὲ τίνα τρόπον ἐν σφόδρα χρόνῳ βραχεῖ τὴν πᾶσαν οἰκουμένην ἔπλησεν ὁ τῆς διδασκαλίας αὐτοῦ λόγος, εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα θαυμάσεις τῆς προρρήσεως φασκούσης «ἕως τάχους δραμεῖται ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ». 6.11.1 Ἀπὸ τῆς βʹ τῶν Βασιλειῶν. «Καὶ ἐλάλησεν ∆αβὶδ τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς λόγους τῆς ᾠδῆς ταύτης». εἶθ' ἑξῆς φησιν· «καὶ ἔκλινεν οὐρανοὺς καὶ κατέβη, καὶ γνόφος ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἐπέβη ἐπὶ χερουβὶμ καὶ ἐπετάσθη ἐπὶ πτερύγων ἀνέμων, καὶ ἔθετο σκότος ἀποκρυφὴν αὐτοῦ», 6.11.2 καὶ ἐπὶ τέλει τῆς αὐτῆς ᾠδῆς· «ῥῦσαί με», φησίν, «ἐξ ἀντιλογιῶν λαοῦ, καταστήσεις με εἰς κεφαλὴν ἐθνῶν· λαὸς ὃν οὐκ ἔγνων ἐδούλευσέ μοι, εἰς ἀκοὴν ὠτίου ὑπήκουσέν μου»· «υἱοὶ ἀλλότριοι ἀπορριφήσονται». 6.11.3 Ὁ κλίνας οὐρανοὺς καὶ καταβὰς θεός, ὁ ἐπιβὰς ᾧ ἀνείληφεν ἀνθρώπῳ, ὅντινα νῦν χερουβὶμ ὁ λόγος ὀνομάζει, ἀνέπτη σὺν αὐτῷ τὴν ἄνοδον πεποιημένος μετὰ τῶν δορυφορούντων αὐτὸν θείων πνευμάτων, πτερύγων ἀνέμων καὶ αὐτῶν χρηματιζόντων. σκοτεινῶς δὲ ταῦτα καὶ ἐν παραβύστῳ γεγενῆσθαι κατά τινας ἀπορρήτους καὶ λανθάνοντας αἰνίττεται λόγους, φάσκων· «καὶ ἔθετο σκότος ἀποκρυφὴν αὐτοῦ». τὰ δὲ ἑξῆς ἀκολούθως τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐνανθρωπήσει τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ γενομένην ἀντιλογίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων λαοῦ σημαίνει, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν ὑπακοὴν τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίας. αὐτοῖς δὲ ῥήμασιν τὰ παραπλήσια εὕροις ἂν καὶ ἐν ἑπτακαιδεκάτῳ ψαλμῷ, εἰς ἃ τὰ φανέντα προείρηται. 6.12.1 Ἀπὸ τῆς τρίτης τῶν Βασιλειῶν. «Καὶ νῦν, κύριε, ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραήλ, πιστωθήτω δὴ τὸ ῥῆμά σου, ὃ ἐλάλησας τῷ παιδί σου τῷ ∆αβίδ, τῷ πατρί μου. ὅτι εἰ ἀληθῶς κατοικήσει θεὸς μετὰ ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ γῆς; εἰ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οὐκ ἀρκέσουσί σοι;» 6.12.2 κεῖται ταῦτα αὐταῖς λέξεσιν καὶ ἐν Παραλειπομέναις. Τῷ μὲν οὖν ∆αβὶδ ἐπηγγείλατο ὁ θεὸς ἀναστήσειν ἐκ κοιλίας αὐτοῦ βασιλέα, οὗ πατὴρ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἔσεσθαί φησιν, ὥστε τὸν γεννώμενον «ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αβὶδ» υἱὸν ὀνομασθῆναι θεοῦ θρόνον τε βασιλείας ἕξειν αἰώνιον. 6.12.3 ταῦτα δὲ ἐν μὲν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῶν Βασιλειῶν διὰ Νάθαν τοῦ προφήτου ἐχρήσθη τῷ ∆αβὶδ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον· «καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν πληρωθῶσιν αἱ ἡμέραι σου καὶ κοιμηθήσῃ μετὰ τῶν πατέρων σου, καὶ ἀναστήσω τὸ σπέρμα σου μετὰ σέ, ὃς ἔσται ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας σου, καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ· αὐτὸς οἰκοδομήσει μοι οἶκον τῷ ὀνόματί μου, καὶ ἀνορθώσω τὸν θρόνον αὐτοῦ ἕως εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. ἐγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς πατέρα καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι εἰς υἱόν». 6.12.4 τὰ δ' αὐτὰ καὶ ἐν Παραλειπομέναις ὁμοίως εἴρηται. Ἐν δὲ ψαλμῷ ὀγδοηκοστῷ ὀγδόῳ λέλεκται· «αὐτὸς ἐπικαλέσεταί με, πατήρ μου εἶ σύ, θεός