,

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he named the birth by the Spirit and the grace of adoption leading to deification; in the midst of which stands the incarnate God, as upon a lampstand, that of the one (14Γ_288> and only catholic Church, reconciling them to himself and to one another and making them progenitors of the light of virtue and knowledge.

Perhaps, too, the Word(45) mystically alluded to the soul and the body by the two olive trees, the one as flourishing with the words of true knowledge like the olive tree, and the other as dense with the practices of the virtues.

But if the word of Scripture(46) also alludes to the two worlds—I mean the intelligible and the sensible—by the two olive trees, it would also be well understood this way; in the midst of which the Word stands as God, mystically outlining(47) the intelligible to appear in the sensible through types, and teaching the sensible to be perceived as existing in the intelligible through principles.

But if the vision of the olive trees also prefigured(48) the present life and the one to come, this mode of contemplation would also be good; in the midst of which stands the Word, leading away from the one through virtue, and leading back to the other through knowledge; which perhaps the wondrous Habakkuk understood when he says: “In the midst of two living creatures you will be made known,” calling “living creatures,” just as the great Zechariah calls the bronze mountains and the olive trees, the two worlds or ages, or their corresponding lives, or the soul and the body, or action and contemplation, or the state of goodness and its activity, or the Law and the Prophets, or the whole Old and New Testament, or the two peoples, the one from the Gentiles and the one from the Jews, or the two laws, the natural and the spiritual, or faith and a good conscience; in the midst of which the Word stands, hymned and glorified through all things, and leading all things to one harmony of the good, as God of all, and for this reason he made all things, so that he might become for all things an indissoluble bond of identity in goodness through their union with one another.

(14Γ_290> And perhaps the Word called the lampstand in the vision the Church and the soul, as having by nature the light of grace as something acquired and subject to repair, because goodness by nature belongs to God alone, from whom by participation all things receptive of light and goodness are by nature both illumined and made good.

And these things the word has treated concerning these matters, taking care for due proportion. But you yourself, having contemplated with God better things than these from your own resources, brighten, O holy father, my dim-sighted soul with the ever-shining rays of your thought.

SCHOLIA 1. What is the lampstand? 2. How is the Church unadulterated gold? 3. How is she pure? 4. How is she undefiled? 5. How is she unstained? 6. How is she undiminished? 7. What is the lamp of the lampstand? 8. Not every man coming into this world, he says, is by the Word

necessarily illumined; for many remain unillumined, and without a share in the light of full knowledge; but it is clear that it means every man who by his own will comes into the true world of the virtues; for everyone who in truth, through a freely chosen birth, comes into this world of the virtues, is certainly illumined by the Word, receiving an immovable state of virtue, and an unerring science of true knowledge.

9. How is the incarnate God the Word also a lamp? 10. What is the bushel, under which the lamp is not placed to be covered?

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Πνεύματι γέννησιν καὶ τὴν πρὸς θέωσιν χάριν τῆς υἱοθεσίας, προσηγόρευσεν· ὧν μέσος ἕστηκεν ὁ σαρκωθεὶς Θεός, ὡς ἐπὶ λυχνίας, τῆς μιᾶς (14Γ_288> καὶ μόνης καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, καταλλάσσων αὐτοὺς ἑαυτῷ τε καὶ ἀλλήλοις καὶ ποιῶν φωτός, τοῦ κατ᾽ ἀρετήν τε καὶ γνῶσιν, γεννητικούς.

Τυχὸν δὲ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν δύο ἐλαιῶν παρῃνίξατο μυστικῶς ὁ λόγος(45), τὴν μὲν ὡς λόγοις ἀληθοῦς γνώσεως κομῶσαν κατὰ τὴν ἐλαίαν, τὸ δὲ ὡς ἀρετῶν πράξεσι πεπυκασμένον.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ τοὺς δύο κόσμους, τόν τε νοητὸν λέγω καὶ τὸν αἰσθητόν, διὰ τῶν δύο ἐλαιῶν ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς αἰνίττεται λόγος(46), καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι καὶ οὕτω νοούμενος· ὧν ἵσταται μέσος, ὡς Θεός, ὁ Λόγος, τὸν μὲν νοητὸν ἐν τῷ αἰσθητῷ φαίνεσθαι τοῖς τύποις μυστικῶς διαγράφων(47), τὸν δὲ αἰσθητὸν ἐν τῷ νοητῷ τοῖς λόγοις ὄντα νοεῖσθαι διδάσκων.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ τὴν παροῦσαν ζωὴν καὶ τὴν μέλλουσαν ἡ κατὰ τὰς ἐλαίας διετύπωσεν ὅρασις(48), καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι καὶ οὗτος τῆς θεωρίας ὁ τρόπος· ὧν ἵσταται μέσος ὁ Λόγος, τῆς μὲν ἀπάγων διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἐπανάγων διὰ τῆς γνώσεως· ὅπερ νοήσας τυχὸν ὁ θαυμαστὸς Ἀμβακούμ φησιν· «ἐν μέσῳ δύο ζῴων γνωσθήσῃ», ζῷα λέγων, ὥσπερ τὰ ὄρη τὰ χαλκᾶ καὶ τὰς ἐλαίας ὁ μέγας Ζαχαρίας, τοὺς δύο κόσμους ἤγουν αἰῶνας, ἢ τὰς προσφυεῖς αὐτῶν ζωάς, ἢ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τὸ σῶμα, ἢ τὴν πρᾶξιν καὶ τὴν θεωρίαν, ἢ τὴν ἕξιν τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, ἢ τὸν νόμον καὶ τοὺς προφήτας, ἢ τὴν Παλαιὰν ὅλην καὶ τὴν Καινὴν ∆ιαθήκην, ἢ τοὺς δύο λαούς, τὸν ἐξ ἐθνῶν καὶ τὸν ἐξ Ἰουδαίων, ἢ τοὺς δύο νόμους, τὸν φυσικὸν καὶ τὸν πνευματικόν, ἢ τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν ἀγαθὴν συνείδησιν· ὧν μέσος ἵσταται διὰ πάντων ὑμνούμενός τε καὶ δοξαζόμενος ὁ Λόγος καὶ πρὸς μίαν τοῦ καλοῦ τὰ πάντα σύμπνοιαν ἄγων, ὡς πάντων Θεός, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πάντα ποιήσας, ἵνα πάντων γένηται τῆς καθ᾽ ἕνωσιν πρὸς ἄλληλα τοῦ καλοῦ ταυτότητος δεσμὸς ἀδιάλυτος.

(14Γ_290> Λυχνίαν δὲ κατὰ τὴν ὅρασιν τυχὸν τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν εἶπεν ὁ λόγος, ὡς ἐπίκτητον φύσει τὸ τῆς χάριτος φῶς ἔχουσας καὶ ἐπισκευαστόν, διότι μόνου τοῦ Θεοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἐξ οὗ κατὰ μετοχὴν πάντα φωτίζεταί τε καὶ ἀγαθύνεται τὰ φωτὸς κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ἀγαθότητος δεκτικά.

Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν περὶ τούτων, συμμετρίας φροντίζων, διῆλθεν ὁ λόγος. Αὐτὸς δέ, παρὰ σεαυτοῦ σὺν Θεῷ τὰ κρείττω τούτοις ἐπιθεωρήσας, φαίδρυνον, ὅσιε πάτερ, ταῖς ἀειφανέσι τῆς σῆς διανοίας ἀκτίσι τὴν ἀμβλυωποῦσάν μου ψυχήν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Τίς ἡ λυχνία; 2. Πῶς ἀκίβληλος χρυσός ἐστιν ἡ Ἐκκλησία; 3. Πῶς καθαρά; 4. Πῶς ἀμίαντος; 5. Πῶς ἄχραντος; 6. Πῶς ἀμείωτος; 7. Τί τό λαμπάδιον τῆς λυχνίας; 8. Οὐ πᾶς ἄνθρωπος εἰς τοῦτον ἐρχόμενος τόν κόσμον, φησίν, ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου

πάντως φωτίζεται· πολλοί γάρ ἀφώτιστοι διαμένουσι, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀμέτοχοι φωτός· ἀλλά δῆλον ὅτι, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος κατ᾿ οἰκείαν γνώμην εἰς τόν ἀληθῆ κόσμον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐρχόμενος· πᾶς γάρ ὁ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν διά τῆς αὐθαιρέτου γεννήσεως, εἰς τοῦτον ἐρχόμενος τῶν ἀρετῶν τόν κόσμον, ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου πάντως φωτίζεται, λαμβάνων ἕξιν ἀρετῆς ἀμετακίνητον, καί γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμην ἄπταιστον.

9. Πῶς καί λύχνος ἐστίν ὁ σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος; 10. Τίς ὁ μόδιος, ὑφ᾿ ὅν ὁ λύχνος οὐ γίνεται καλυπτόμενος;