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for the commandment of righteousness to be increased, so that creation might receive the blessing, in the curse of Adam the blessing according to the nature of God the Father becomes a curse upon the curse of sin for the destruction of the increased disobedience toward the generation of fruits of injustice, so that creation might receive a deprivation of its increase according to sin. For He became a curse for my sake and a sin, according to the divine Apostle, He who undoes my curse and takes away the sin of the world.

For I had two curses, one being the fruit of my own choice, that is, sin, through which the fruitfulness of the soul according to virtue fell to the earth; and the other, the death of nature justly condemned because of my choice, thrust there by necessity, and nature not willing it(9), where the movement of my choice was sown according to my judgment. Therefore God, who established the generation of nature, willingly undergoing the condemned curse of nature, I mean death, slaughtered and killed by His own death through the cross the curse of sin that lived in me by choice, and the curse of my God has become a curse and death to my sin, not permitting the transgression to come to the generation (14Γ_238> of the fruits of injustice, but for the divine righteousness according to the commandment, a blessing and unending life.

This sickle, that is, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, makes an end of the thief and perjurer, and destroys his house, and casts down his timbers and his stones. But in truth a thief and a perjurer(10) is the wicked and lying devil. A thief, as one who through deceit craftily plundered man from paradise, he being the work and creation of God and a precious possession, and led him into this place of affliction and defiled the image of the divine glory with many stains of sin, seeking to make the wealth of another his own property, he who wrongly desires the goods of others, not to keep them, but to steal and kill and destroy(11). And a perjurer, as a liar and a deceiver; for having promised Adam to give the glory of divinity, he cast him down to the dishonor and outrage of irrational beasts and, to say what is most important, has made him more dishonored than any beast, having so much more than the beasts in respect to the outrage of irrationality, inasmuch as what is against nature is more abominable than what is according to nature, and, having alienated him from immortality, he polluted him with the cloak of corruption.

And the house of this thief and perjurer(12) has become the present world of corruption and of successive confusion, which he perhaps usurped, having robbed man, in which he was also permitted to rob for reasons He knows(13), God who permitted him to rob, until the cyclical course of time is completed.

Having lodged in this world as in a house through the ineffable incarnation, the Word of God both bound and abolished the devil and completely finished the timbers and stones of this world(14), utterly destroying and making disappear the wooden images and the altars and the (14Γ_240> shrines of the statues, through which, as some multiform and strange God, the father of error, the devil, thought to be worshiped by those who were led astray, making their folly the material of his own glory, being himself much more foolish than those who were led astray. For what is more foolish than to seem, when the thing is not in truth by nature? In this house of the thief and perjurer devil, I mean in this world, the philanthropic Redeemer of our souls and bodies, having lodged in the flesh, destroyed it entirely according to the manner of the former error(15) and again restored it all according to the principle of true knowledge and, to put it simply, having driven the robber from the possessions of others, He Himself again as Master has taken possession of His own through virtue, having magnificently built His holy Church throughout all the world under heaven.

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δικαιοσύνης αὐξηθῆναι τὴν ἐντολήν, ἵνα λάβῃ τὴν εὐλογίαν ἡ κτίσις, ἐν τῇ ἀρᾷ γίνεται τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἡ κατὰ φύσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς εὐλογία, τῆς καθ᾽ ἁμαρτίαν ἀρᾶς ἀρὰ γινομένη πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν τῆς πρὸς γένεσιν καρπῶν ἀδικίας αὐξηθείσης παρακοῆς, ἵνα λάβῃ στέρησιν τῆς καθ᾽ ἁμαρτίαν αὐξήσεως ἡ κτίσις. Κατάρα γὰρ δι᾽ ἐμὲ καὶ ἁμαρτία γέγονεν, κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, ὁ τὴν ἐμὴν λύων κατάραν καὶ τοῦ κόσμου αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν.

∆ύο γὰρ κατάρας εἶχον ἐγώ, μίαν μὲν καρπὸν οὖσαν τῆς ἐμῆς προαιρέσεως, τουτέστι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, δι᾽ ἧς εἰς τὴν γῆν τὸ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπέπεσε γόνιμον, ἑτέραν δὲ τὸν καταψηφισθέντα δικαίως διὰ τὴν ἐμὴν προαίρεσιν τῆς φύσεως θάνατον, ἐκεῖσε πρὸς ἀνάγκης, καὶ μὴ βουλομένην τὴν φύσιν ὠθούμενον(9), ἔνθα τῆς ἐμῆς προαιρέσεως ἐνεσπάρη κατὰ γνώμην ἡ κίνησις. Τὴν οὖν κατακριθεῖσαν τῆς φύσεως ὁ τῆς φύσεως ὑποστήσας τὴν γένεσιν Θεὸς ἑκουσίως ὑπελθὼν κατάραν, φημὶ δὲ τὸν θάνατον, τὴν ζῶσαν ἐν ἐμοὶ κατὰ προαίρεσιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάραν τῷ οἰκείῳ θανάτῳ διὰ σταυροῦ κατασφάξας ἀπέκτεινεν, καὶ γέγονεν ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ μου κατάρα τῆς ἐμῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάρα καὶ θάνατος, μὴ συγχωροῦσα πρὸς γένεσιν (14Γ_238> καρπῶν ἀδικίας ἐλθεῖν τὴν παράβασιν, τῆς δὲ κατ᾽ ἐντολὴν θείας δικαιοσύνης εὐλογία καὶ ζωὴ ἀτελεύτητος.

Τοῦτο τὸ δρέπανον, ἤγουν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καὶ Θεὸς Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, συντελεῖ τὸν κλέπτην καὶ ἐπίορκον, καὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ καταλύει, καὶ καταβάλλει τὰ ξύλα αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς λίθους αὐτοῦ. Κλέπτης δὲ κατ᾽ ἀλήθειάν ἐστι καὶ ἐπίορκος(10) ὁ πονηρὸς καὶ ψεύστης διάβολος. Κλέπτης μὲν ὡς συλήσας δι᾽ ἀπάτης δόλῳ τοῦ παραδείσου τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἔργον καὶ κτίσμα Θεοῦ καὶ κτῆμα τίμιον ὑπάρχοντα, καὶ εἰς τόνδε τῆς κακώσεως ἀγαγὼν τὸν τόπον καὶ τὸ τῆς θείας ἀπεικόνισμα δόξης πολλαῖς ἁμαρτημάτων κηλίσι καταρρυπώσας, ἰδίαν περιουσίαν ζητῶν ποιήσασθαι τὸν ἀλλότριον πλοῦτον ὁ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων κακῶς ἐφιέμενος ἀγαθῶν, οὐχ ἵνα τηρήσῃ, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα κλέψῃ καὶ θύσῃ καὶ ἀπολέσῃ(11). Ἐπίορκος δὲ ὡς ψεύστης καὶ παραλογιστής· ὑποσχόμενος γὰρ τῷ Ἀδὰμ δώσειν θεότητος δόξαν, πρὸς ἀτιμίαν κτηνῶν ἀλόγων καὶ ὕβριν κατέβαλεν καὶ παντὸς κτήνους, ἵνα τὸ κυριώτερον εἴπω, πεποίηκεν ἀτιμώτερον, τοσοῦτον πλέον ἔχοντα τῶν κτηνῶν κατὰ τὴν ὕβριν τῆς ἀλογίας, ὅσον τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν τὸ παρὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ βδελυκτότερον, καί, τῆς ἀθανασίας αὐτὸν ἀποξενώσας, τῇ περιβολῇ τῆς φθορᾶς κατεμόλυνεν.

Οἶκος δὲ τούτου τοῦ κλέπτου καὶ ἐπιόρκου(12) ὁ παρὼν τῆς φθορᾶς καὶ τῆς ἀλλεπαλλήλου συγχύσεως καθέστηκε κόσμος, ὃν τυχὸν ἐσφετερίσατο, λῃστεύσας τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἐν ᾧ καὶ λῃστεύειν συνεχωρήθη δι᾽ ἃς οἶδεν αἰτίας(13) ὁ λῃστεύειν αὐτῷ συγχωρήσας Θεός, μέχρις ἂν ὁ κυκλικὸς τοῦ χρόνου συνέστηκε δρόμος.

Ἐν τούτῳ τῷ κόσμῳ καταλύσας ὡς ἐν οἴκῳ διὰ τῆς ἀφράστου σαρκώσεως ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος τόν τε διάβολον δήσας κατήργησε καὶ τὰ ξύλα καὶ τοὺς λίθους τοῦ κόσμου τούτου(14) παντελῶς συνετέλεσεν, τὰ ξόανα καὶ τοὺς βωμοὺς καὶ τὰ (14Γ_240> τῶν ἀγαλμάτων ἱδρύματα διολέσας παντελῶς καὶ ἀφανίσας, δι᾽ ὧν, ὡς Θεός τις πολύμορφος καὶ ἀλλόκοτος, ὁ τῆς πλάνης πατὴρ διάβολος προσκυνεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν πλανηθέντων ᾤετο, τὴν ἐκείνων ἄνοιαν δόξης ἰδίας, ὡς πολὺ τῶν πλανωμένων ἀνοητότερος, ὕλην ποιούμενος. Τί γὰρ τοῦ δοκεῖν, οὐκ ὄντος κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν φύσει τοῦ πράγματος, ἀφρονέστερον; Ἐν τούτῳ τοῦ κλέπτου καὶ ἐπιόρκου διαβόλου τῷ οἴκῳ, λέγω δὲ τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ, ὁ φιλάνθρωπος τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν Λυτρωτὴς καὶ τῶν σωμάτων διὰ σαρκὸς καταλύσας ὅλον κατέστρεψε κατὰ τὸν τῆς προτέρας πλάνης τρόπον(15) καὶ ὅλον πάλιν κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως ἐπανωρθώσατο λόγον καί, ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, τὸν λῃστὴν διωθήσας τῶν ἀλλοτρίων κτημάτων, αὐτὸς πάλιν ὡς ∆εσπότης δι᾽ ἀρετῆς τῶν οἰκείων κεκράτηκεν, κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπ᾽ οὐρανὸν τὴν ἁγίαν αὐτοῦ μεγαλοπρεπῶς Ἐκκλησίαν δειμάμενος.