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A perjurer is(25), that is, one who swears falsely in the name of the Lord, one who promises to God a life according to virtue and practices things foreign to the promise of his own profession and transgresses the covenant of the confession of a venerable life through idleness concerning the commandments, such as I. And to speak briefly, one who has chosen to live according to God and is not completely dead to the present life, is a liar and a perjurer(26), having sworn to God, that is, having promised a blameless course in the divine struggles, and not having fulfilled it (14C_250> and for this reason is not praised at all. “For,” it says, “everyone who swears by him shall be praised,” that is, everyone who has promised to God a divine life and through the truth of the works of righteousness fulfills the oaths of the good promise. But if the one who fulfills his own promises certainly has praise, as one who swears by God and speaks the truth, it is clear that the one who becomes a transgressor of his own covenants will have blame and dishonor, as one who has sworn by God and lied.

Passing over these, as if certain houses, the hearts, that is, the disposition of each, the sickle, that is, the Word of God the Father, inasmuch as He is essentially knowledge and virtue, utterly perfects them, by a change for the better making the former state of each heart disappear and bringing each one to the participation of the good that is lacking in him and making the thief of knowledge an unashamed worker of virtue, and the thief of the apparent discipline of morals a knowledgeable cultivator of the disposition hidden in the soul, and making the perjurer a true guardian of his own promises, confirming his own professions by the works of the commandments.

SCHOLIA 1. See the mystery; see the strangling of the Physithesites; see the

death of Italus and of Nilus. 2. We do not speak, he says, of a difference of hypostases in Christ, because the Trinity

has remained the Trinity, and with the incarnation of God the Word, no addition of a person occurred to the Holy Trinity through the incarnation. But we speak of a difference of natures, (14C_252> so that we may not hold that the flesh is consubstantial with the Word by nature.

3. That one who does not speak of a difference of natures, he says, has no way to confirm the confession that the Word became flesh without change, not knowing that what assumed and what was assumed are preserved according to nature in the one hypostasis of the one God and Christ after the union.

4. How the Lord is a sickle, and what its breadth of cubits is considered to be.

5. How He again, as a sickle, has a length of twenty cubits. 6. Why the prophet saw the sickle flying. 7. Faith establishes perfect love for God through hope; the good

conscience, establishes love for neighbor through the keeping of the commandments. For a good conscience has no accuser for a transgressed commandment; but the heart of those who desire true salvation is naturally disposed to trust only these things.

8. How the Lord is a curse, and whose curse. 9. Since, he says, man had his desire moving toward the earth, to

it he is pushed even unwillingly by death. 10. What is the thief, and the perjurer. 11. Wicked theft is the capture of nature through deceit. A sacrifice is, which he sacrifices

those stolen by him, the devil, the slaughter of the will with respect to the divine life, and the complete abolition of memory according to it. Destruction is, the ignorance that befalls those who are sacrificed, through the deprivation of the knowledge of God. For this reason

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Ἐπίορκος δέ ἐστιν(25), ἤγουν ὀμνύων ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Κυρίου ψευδῶς, ὁ ἐπαγγελλόμενος τῷ Θεῷ τὸν κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν βίον καὶ ἀλλότρια παρὰ τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν τῆς οἰκείας ἐπαγγελίας ἐπιτηδεύων καὶ τὴν συνθήκην τῆς ὁμολογίας τοῦ σεμνοῦ βίου διὰ τῆς ἀργίας τῶν ἐντολῶν, οἷος ἐγώ, παραβαίνων. Καὶ συντόμως εἰπεῖν, ὁ κατὰ Θεὸν ζῆν προελόμενος καὶ μὴ τελείως τῷ παρόντι βίῳ νεκρούμενος, ψεύστης ἐστὶ καὶ ἐπίορκος(26), ὀμόσας μὲν τῷ Θεῷ, τουτέστιν ἐπαγγειλάμενος τὸν ἐν τοῖς θείοις ἀγῶσιν ἄμεμπτον δρόμον, καὶ μὴ πληρώσας (14Γ_250> καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μηδαμῶς ἐπαινούμενος. «Ἐπαινεθήσεται» γάρ, φησίν, «πᾶς ὁ ὀμνύων ἐν αὐτῷ», τουτέστι πᾶς ὁ τῷ Θεῷ τὸν ἔνθεον ἐπαγγειλάμενος βίον καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης τοὺς ὅρκους πληρῶν τῆς καλῆς ὑποσχέσεως. Εἰ δὲ πάντως ἔπαινον ἔχει ὁ τῶν οἰκείων πληρωτὴς ἐπαγγελιῶν, ὡς ὁ ὀμνύων ἐν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ἀληθεύων, δῆλον ὅτι ψόγον ἕξει καὶ ἀτιμίαν ὁ τῶν οἰκείων συνθηκῶν παραβάτης γενόμενος, ὡς ὀμόσας ἐν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ψευσάμενος.

Τούτων ὑπερχόμενος, ὥσπερ οἰκίας τινάς, τὰς καρδίας, ἤγουν τὴν ἑκάστου διάθεσιν, τὸ δρέπανον, τουτέστιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς Λόγος, ἅτε δὴ γνῶσις κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων καὶ ἀρετή, συντελεῖ πάμπαν αὐτάς, τῇ πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολῇ τὴν προτέραν τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας ἐξαφανίζων κατάστασιν καὶ φέρων ἑκάτερον πρὸς τὴν τοῦ λείποντος αὐτῷ καλοῦ μετουσίαν καὶ ποιῶν τὸν μὲν κλέπτην τῆς γνώσεως ἐργάτην ἀρετῆς ἀνεπαίσχυντον, τὸν δὲ κλέπτην τῆς τῶν ἠθῶν φαινομένης καταστολῆς ἐπιστήμονα τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν κρυπτομένης γεωργὸν διαθέσεως, τὸν ἐπίορκον δὲ ἀληθῆ τῶν οἰκείων ὑποσχέσεων ἐργαζόμενος φύλακα, τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν ἐντολῶν τὰς οἰκείας ἐπαγγελίας πιστούμενον.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Βλέπε τό μυστήριον· βλέπε τήν ἀγχόνην τῶν Φυσιθεσιτῶν· βλέπε τοῦ

Ἰταλοῦ καί τοῦ Νείλου τόν θάνατον. 2. Οὐ λέγομεν, φησίν, ἐπί Χριστοῦ διαφοράν ὑποστάσεων, ὅτι Τριάς

μεμένηκεν ἡ Τριάς, καί σαρκωθέντος τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Λόγου, προσθήκης προσώπου οὐ προσγενομένης τῇ ἁγίᾳ Τριάδι διά τήν σάρκωσιν. Λέγομεν δέ φύσεων διαφοράν, (14Γ_252> ἵνα μή τῷ Λόγῳ κατά τήν φύσιν ὁμοούσιον τήν σάρκα πρεσβεύωμεν.

3. Ὅτι φύσεων διαφοράν ὁ μή λέγων, φησίν, οὐκ ἔχει πόθεν πιστώσασθαι, τήν ὅτι γέγονε σάρξ ὁ Λόγος δίχα τροπῆς ὁμολογίαν, μή γινώσκων σωζόμενον κατά τήν φύσιν τῇ μιᾷ τοῦ ἑνός Θεοῦ καί Χριστοῦ ὑποστάσει μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τό προσλαβόν καί τό προσειλημμένον.

4. Πῶς δρέπανον ὁ Κύριός ἐστι, καί τί τό πλάτος αὐτοῦ θεωρεῖται τῶν πήχεων.

5. Πῶς αὐτός πάλιν ὡς δρέπανον ἔχει τό μῆκος εἴκοσι πήχεων. 6. ∆ιά τί πετόμενον τό δρέπανον εἶδεν ὁ προφήτης. 7. Ἡ πίστις τήν εἰς Θεόν διά τῆς ἐλπίδος τελείαν ἀγάπην συνίστησιν· ἡ ἀγαθή

συνείδησις, τήν εἰς τόν πλησίον διά τῆς φυλακῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἀγάπην ὑφίστησιν. Ἡ γάρ ἀγαθή συνείδησις, παραβαθεῖσαν ἐντολήν οὐκ ἔχει κατήγορον· ταύτας δέ μόνον ἡ καρδία πιστεύεσθαι πέφυκε, τῶν ἐφιεμένων τῆς ἀληθοῦς σωτηρίας.

8. Πῶς ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος ἀρά, καί τίνος ἀρά. 9. Ἐπειδή, φησί, πρός τήν γῆν ἔσχεν τήν ἔφεσιν κινουμένην ὁ ἄνθρωπος, εἰς

αὐτήν ὠθεῖτε καί μή θέλων ὑπό τοῦ θανάτου. 10. Τί ἐστιν ὁ κλέπτης, καί ὁ ἐπίορκος. 11. Κλοπή ἐστι πονηρά, ἡ δι᾿ ἀπάτης τῆς φύσεως ἅλωσις. Θυσία ἐστίν, ἥν θύει

τούς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κλεπτομένους ὁ διάβολος, ἡ κατά τήν ἔνθεον ζωήν σφαγή τῆς προαιρέσεως, καί ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν τελεία τῆς μνήμης ἀναίρεσις. Ἀπώλειά ἐστιν, ἡ κατά στέρησιν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ γνώσεως ἐπισυμβαίνουσα τοῖς θυομένοις ἄγνοια. ∆ιά τοῦτο