162

God being the cause for her of so great a good, by having prepared the way before her in giving the spiritual understanding of the God-inspired scriptures. Her shadow covered the mountains. For they who had some high and exalted state of life, called mountains, were covered because they lived well under her. but also those who through a more vigorous life had become firm and vigorous, so as to be called God's profit, were covered by her climbing vines, being in a way supported by them. And being a good vine, this vine sent out its branches to a very great length, so that as they approached the seas they did not suffer harm, by bearing fruit tropically even in the very trials and surges of life, which are called seas. And it sent out its offshoots even to the very rivers that watered it, in order to render the appropriate fruit. And her branches would be those who have grown up with the Judaic worship, who bear fruit because they abide in the law, her offshoots being the proselytes. But if such a soul be a vine cultivated by God, having its beginning and root in the Word, according to which it is rational, who said, "I am the true vine," God will plant its different relations and powers, which are tropically roots, in the various conceptions of the Only-Begotten. Therefore this vine, being exalted because it is well cultivated, will cover the high dogmas of truth, called mountains, with its shadow. And this is the way of life and knowledge here, which can exist bearing a shadow and type of its true state hereafter. And it extends its offshoots, the virtues that have grown alongside its powers, to the drinkable words of God, called rivers. And in another way, whatever grows alongside it for benefit from other learning can also be called its offshoots. For in the way that offshoots are enriched and changed to richness from the plant on which they grew, so the things from other learning growing alongside it are enriched from its principal teaching, every name being taken captive to the obedience of Christ. Why did you break down its hedge? When the vineyard bears fruit, the keeper of the grapes is in the booth. but when there is unfruitfulness, he abandons the booth. And they who pass by the way pluck her, not those who go on the way. and these are false teachers and the spirits of error. And they pluck her, having a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness; for she has become a dwelling-place for such things. And when on the one hand she bears passions for fruit instead of the moral virtues, she has brought forth thorns instead of grapes; but when on the other hand she sins concerning matters of knowledge, she bears a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness. A boar from the forest has ravaged it. The things that ravage it are either its irrational and wild passions, or the brutalized and most wicked powers. And perhaps the shameful desires and licentious pleasures can be a boar, which also on account of their uncleanness lie in wait in a forest, that is, among fruitless plants; for these passions are hidden in irrational impulses and imaginations, and angers and wraths, even if the designation of the wilder solitary beast can signify them as having occurred. and the solitary beast is the wild ass, as one might say, Her spirited part will mount. 829 Ps 79,18.19 Often a man, who for our sake became as we are and did not cast off being what he was, is addressed in the divine scripture; For behold, Dawn is his name, and after me comes a man. If therefore upon this man, inasmuch as he became human, the hand of God that works signs and wonders should come, being the right hand (and this is God the Word), instead of saying, if he should be united hypostatically to flesh having a rational soul and through it should work the divine signs, there will be so great an improvement for us as not to depart from you. For so, partaking of you, we shall be made alive and your

162

τοῦ θεοῦ αἰτίου αὐτῇ τοῦ τηλικούτου ἀγαθοῦ γινομένου διὰ τὸ ὁδοπεποιηκέναι εμπροσθεν αὐτῆς τῷ δεδωκέναι τὴν πνευματικὴν τῶν θεοπνεύστων γραφῶν διάληψιν. ̓Εκάλυψεν ορη ἡ σκιὰ αὐτῆς. ἐσκέποντο γὰρ οτι ευ διῆγεν ὑπ' αὐτῆς οἱ ὑψηλόν τι καὶ διηρμένον πολιτείας εχοντες ορη καλούμενοι. ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ δι' εὐτονωτέρου βίου στερροὶ καὶ ευτονοι γεγενημένοι ὡς χρηματίσαι θεοῦ κέρδους ἐκαλύπτοντο ὑπὸ τῶν ἀναδενδράδων αὐτῆς τρόπον τινὰ ὑποβασταζομένων ὑπ' αὐτῶν. εὐκλήματος δ' ουσα ἡ αμπελος αυτη ἐπὶ μήκιστον ἠφίει τὰ κλήματα, ὡς θαλάσσαις αὐτὰ πλησιάζοντα μὴ ὑφίστασθαι βλάβην τῷ καὶ παρ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς πειρασμοῖς καὶ κλύδωσι τοῦ βίου ὀνομαζομέναις θαλάσσαις τροπικῶς καρποφορεῖν. ἠφίει δὲ καὶ τὰς παραφυάδας αὐτῆς εως καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ποταμῶν τῶν ποτιζόντων αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸν κατάλληλον καρπὸν ἀποδοῦναι. κλήματα δὲ αὐτῆς ειεν οἱ συμπεφυκότες τῇ ̓Ιουδαϊκῇ λατρείᾳ, οι διὰ τὸ ἐμμένειν τῷ νόμῳ καρποφοροῦσι τυγχανουσῶν παραφυάδων αὐτῆς τῶν προσηλυτευόντων. Εἰ δὲ αμπελος ειη ἡ τοιάδε ψυχὴ ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεωργουμένη τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὴν ῥίζαν εχουσα ἐν τῷ λόγῳ, καθ' ον ἐστι λογικὴ τὸν εἰπόντα ̓Εγώ εἰμι ἡ αμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, καταφυτεύσει θεὸς τὰς διαφόρους σχέσεις καὶ δυνάμεις αὐτῆς, ῥίζας τροπικῶς ουσας, ἐν ταῖς ποικίλαις ἐπινοίαις τοῦ μονογενοῦς. αυτη τοιγαροῦν ἡ αμπελος ὑψουμένη διὰ τὸ καλῶς γεωργεῖσθαι καλύψει τὰ ὑψηλὰ τῆς ἀληθείας δόγματα ορη ὀνομαζόμενα σκιᾷ τῇ ἑαυτῆς. εστι δὲ αυτη ἡ ἐνταῦθα πολιτεία καὶ γνῶσις ὑπαρχθῆναι δυνάμεναι σκιὰν καὶ τύπον φέρουσαι τῆς ἀληθοῦς μετὰ ταῦτα καταστάσεως αὐτῆς. ἐκτείνει δὲ καὶ τὰς παραφυάδας αὐτῆς τὰς παραφυείσας ταῖς δυνάμεσιν αὐτῆς ἀρετὰς εως τῶν ποτίμων τοῦ θεοῦ λόγων καλουμένων ποταμῶν. δύνανται δὲ καὶ αλλως παραφυάδες αὐτῆς καλεῖσθαι, οσα παραφύεται αὐτῇ ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ ἐκ τῆς αλλης παιδεύσεως. ον γὰρ τρόπον αἱ παραφυάδες πιαίνονται καὶ πιότητος μεταποιοῦνται ἐκ τοῦ φυτοῦ ῳ παρέφυσαν, ουτω τὰ ἐξ αλλης μαθήσεως παραφυόμενα αὐτῇ πιαίνεται ἐκ τῆς προηγουμένης διδασκαλίας αὐτῆς, αἰχμαλωτιζομένου παντὸς ὀνόματος εἰς τὴν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ινα τί καθεῖλες τὸν φραγμὸν αὐτῆς; οταν ὁ ἀμπελὼν καρποφορεῖ, ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τυγχάνει ὁ φύλαξ τῆς σταφυλῆς. ἀκαρπίας δὲ ὑπαρχούσης, ἐγκαταλείπει τὴν σκηνήν. Καὶ τρυγῶσιν αὐτὴν οἱ παραπορευόμενοι τὴν ὁδόν, οὐχ οἱ πορευόμενοι. εἰσὶ δὲ ουτοι ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι καὶ τὰ τῆς πλάνης πνεύματα. τρυγῶσι δὲ αὐτὴν εχουσαν σταφυλὴν χολῆς καὶ βότρυν πικρίας· γέγονε γὰρ τοιούτων οἰκιστική. καὶ οτε μὲν ἀντὶ τῶν ἠθικῶν ἀρετῶν πάθη καρποφορεῖ, ἀκάνθας ἀντὶ σταφυλῶν ηγαγεν· οτε δὲ περὶ τὰ τῆς γνώσεως ἁμαρτάνει, σταφυλὴν χολῆς καὶ βότρυν πικρίας φέρει. ̓Ελυμήνατο αὐτὴν υς ἐκ δρυμοῦ. τὰ λυμαινόμενα αὐτὴν ητοι τὰ αλογα καὶ αγρια πάθη αὐτῆς ἐστιν, η αἱ ἐκτεθηριωμέναι καὶ πονηρόταται δυνάμεις. καὶ τάχα υς ειναι δύναται αἱ αἰσχραὶ ἐπιθυμίαι καὶ ἀκόλαστοι ἡδοναὶ αι καὶ διὰ τὸ ἀκάθαρτον ἐν δρυμῷ τουτέστιν ἀκάρποις φυτοῖς λοχῶνται· περὶ γὰρ τὰς ἀλόγους ὁρμὰς καὶ φαντασίας τὰ πάθη ταῦτα ἐγκρύπτεται, θυμοὺς δὲ καὶ ὀργάς, εἰ καὶ ὡς γενομένας ἀποσημαίνειν δύναται ἡ τοῦ ἀγριωτέρου μονιοῦ προσηγορία. μονιὸς δὲ ὁ αγριος ονος, ὡς αν τις ειποι Τὸ θυμικὸν αὐτῆς ἐπιβήσεται. 829 Ps 79,18.19 ̓Ανὴρ πολλάκις, ο δι' ἡμᾶς καθ' ἡμᾶς γενόμενος καὶ μὴ ἀποβαλὼν τὸ ειναι ο ην, προσηγόρευται παρὰ τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ· ̓Ιδοὺ γὰρ ̓Ανατολὴ ονομα αὐτῷ, καὶ ὀπίσω μου ερχεται ἀνήρ. εἰ ουν ἐπὶ τοῦτον τὸν ανδρα καθὸ γέγονεν ανθρωπος ἡ ποιητικὴ σημείων καὶ τεράτων θεοῦ χεὶρ γενηθείη δεξιὰ τυγχάνουσα (αυτη δέ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς λόγος), ἀντὶ τοῦ εἰ ἑνωθείη σαρκὶ καθ' ὑπόστασιν ψυχὴν λογικὴν ἐχούσῃ καὶ δι' αὐτῆς εὐεργήσειε τὰς θεοσημείας, τοσαύτη βελτίωσις περὶ ἡμᾶς εσται ὡς μὴ ἀποστῆναί σου. ουτω γὰρ μετέχοντές σου ζωοποιηθησόμεθα καὶ τὸ σὸν