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swallowed by an insatiable beast, the devil, and having received the water of temptations in evil poured around it from all sides (14Γ_306> even to the soul, so that life was clearly encompassed by temptations and to have been encircled by the uttermost abyss, that is, the mind having been bound by complete ignorance and the reason to have been overwhelmed by the great weight of evil, and having plunged its head into the clefts of the mountains, that is, the first principle according to faith concerning the monad(7), as the head of the whole body of the virtues, having been shut up as into certain lightless clefts of mountains by the thoughts of the evil powers and having been divided into many opinions and fantasies—for the Word called "clefts of the mountains" the thoughts concerning error of the spirits of wickedness lying somewhere in the depth of the uttermost abyss of ignorance, and having gone down to the earth(8), whose bars are everlasting holders, that is, brought down to a state desolate of all divine perception and deprived of the vital movement of the virtues, a state having absolutely no perception of goodness and no movement of desire for God in the mind; upon which is established, like an abyss(9), the gloom of ignorance and the incomparable depth of evil, and the mountains of error are rooted, I mean the spiritual forces of wickedness; into whose clefts the nature of men, having previously entered, later became a foundation on account of its most evil state, as being receptive of their error and wickedness; having, like everlasting bars(10), the inner passions for material things, which did not allow the mind, being freed from the darkness of ignorance, to see the light of true knowledge; which state, perhaps, as I said a little earlier, the great Job enigmatically spoke of: "a land dark and gloomy," a land of everlasting darkness; dark, as desolate of all true knowledge and contemplation, and gloomy, as deprived of all virtue and action; in which, he says, "there is no light," that is, of knowledge and truth(11), "nor to see the life of mortals," evidently the conduct befitting rational beings.

(14Γ_308> In these things it happens, perhaps, whenever the prophet, figuring in himself the passions of humanity, into which it has wretchedly scattered itself, appropriating the things of our common nature, that the meaning of the name is fittingly applied to him, figuring Adam, being interpreted 'flight from beauty'. But whenever he prefigures God, who for our sake became in our things, like us, through flesh intellectually ensouled, apart from sin alone, and prefigures the mystery of the economy and the sufferings according to it, he signifies the descent from the heavens into this world through the passage from Joppa into the sea(12), and he reveals the mystery of the death and the burial and the resurrection by being swallowed by the sea-monster and after three days and three nights being given up unharmed, and for this reason, he is well named, appropriately according to the power of the calling, 'rest' and 'healing of God' and 'grace of God to them,' and perhaps also 'labor of God' on account of the voluntary passion. For the true rest of those wearied in pains(13) and the healing of the contrite and the grace of the remission of sins the prophet mystically prefigured Christ Jesus the true God through his own dramas. For he himself, our Lord and God, having become man and having sojourned in the sea of our life, as from the heaven of Joppa, which is interpreted 'a watching for joy,' into the sea of this life, according to what is written, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame," and having voluntarily descended into the heart of the earth, where the evil one, having swallowed us through death, held us imprisoned, and, having drawn up through the resurrection the whole captive nature to heaven, is truly our rest and healing and grace(14), rest, as loosing the law of circumstantial slavery in the flesh (14Γ_310> for the sake of this temporary life, and healing, as the contrition

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ἀπλήστου θηρός, τοῦ διαβόλου, καταποθεῖσαν καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ πανταχόθεν τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ πειρασμῶν περιχυθὲν (14Γ_306> δεξαμένην ἕως ψυχῆς, ὡς περισχεθεῖσαν δηλαδὴ τοῖς πειρασμοῖς τὴν ζωὴν καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου κυκλωθῆναι, τουτέστιν ὑπὸ τῆς παντελοῦς ἀγνοίας καταδεθεῖσαν τὸν νοῦν καὶ περικλυσθῆναι τῷ πολλῷ βάρει τῆς κακίας τὸν λογισμόν, καὶ καταδῦσαν τὴν κεφαλὴν εἰς σχισμὰς ὀρέων, τουτέστι τὸν πρῶτον κατὰ τὴν πίστιν περὶ μονάδος λόγον(7), ὡς κεφαλὴν τοῦ παντὸς σώματος τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὡς εἴς τινας σχισμὰς ἀφεγγεῖς ὀρέων τὰς διανοίας τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων κατακλεισθεῖσαν καὶ εἰς πολλὰς δόξας καὶ φαντασίας καταμερισθεῖσανσχισμὰς γὰρ ὀρέων τῶν ἐν τῷ βάθει που τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου τῆς ἀγνοίας κειμένων τῆς πονηρίας πνευμάτων περὶ πλάνην ἐννοίας εἶπεν ὁ λόγος, καὶ κατελθοῦσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν(8), ἧς οἱ μοχλοὶ αὐτῆς κάτοχοι αἰώνιοι, τουτέστι πρὸς τὴν πάσης αἰσθήσεως θείας ἔρημον καὶ ζωτικῆς κινήσεως ἀρετῶν ἐστερημένην κατενεχθεῖσαν ἕξιν, τὴν μηδεμίαν παντελῶς ἔχουσαν αἴσθησιν ἀγαθότητος καὶ Θεοῦ κατ᾽ ἔννοιαν ἐφέσεως κίνησιν· ἐφ᾽ ἧς βέβηκεν, καθάπερ ἄβυσσος(9), τῆς ἀγνοίας ὁ ζόφος καὶ τὸ ἀνείκαστον βάθος τῆς κακίας, καὶ τὰ ὄρη τῆς πλάνης ἐρρίζωται, τὰ πνευματικὰ λέγω τῆς πονηρίας· ὧν πρότερον ταῖς σχισμαῖς εἰσδῦσα γέγονεν ὕστερον βάσις διὰ τὴν κακίστην ἕξιν ἡ φύσις τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὡς δεκτικὴ τῆς αὐτῶν πλάνης καὶ πονηρίας· τὴν ἔχουσαν, καθάπερ αἰωνίους μοχλούς(10), τὰς ἐνδιαθέτους προσπαθείας τῶν ὑλικῶν, τὰς οὐκ ἐώσας τὴν διάνοιαν, τοῦ σκότους τῆς ἀγνοίας ἀπαλλαγεῖσαν, τὸ φῶς ἰδεῖν τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως· ἥντινα τυχὸν ἕξιν, ὡς μικρῷ πρόσθεν ἔφην, ὁ μέγας Ἰὼβ αἰνιττόμενος ἔφη· «γῆν σκοτεινὴν καὶ γνοφεράν», γῆν σκότους αἰωνίου· σκοτεινὴν μέν, ὡς πάσης ἀληθοῦς ἔρημον γνώσεώς τε καὶ θεωρίας, γνοφερὰν δέ, ὡς πάσης ἀρετῆς ἐστερημένην καὶ πράξεως· ἐν ᾗ, φησίν, «οὐκ ἔστι φέγγος», δηλαδὴ γνώσεως καὶ ἀληθείας(11), «οὐδὲ ὁρᾶν ζωὴν βροτῶν», τὴν λογικοῖς δηλονότι πρέπουσαν ἀγωγήν.

(14Γ_308> Ἐν τούτοις μὲν γίνεται τυχόν, ὁπηνίκα τὰ πάθη τυπῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ὁ προφήτης, εἰς ἅπερ ἐλεεινῶς ἑαυτὴν κατεσκέδασεν, τὰ τῆς κοινῆς οἰκειούμενος φύσεως, καὶ ἐφαρμόζεται δεόντως αὐτῷ, τυποῦντι τὸν Ἀδάμ, τῆς προσηγορίας ὁ νοῦς, 'φυγὴ κάλλους' ἑρμηνευόμενος. Ἡνίκα δὲ τὸν δι᾽ ἡμᾶς ἐν τοῖς ἡμῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς διὰ σαρκὸς νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένης χωρὶς μόνης ἁμαρτίας γενόμενον Θεὸν προδιατυποῖ καὶ τὸ τῆς οἰκονομίας καὶ τῶν κατ᾽ αὐτὴν παθημάτων προδιαγράφει μυστήριον, τὴν μὲν ἀπ᾽ οὐρανῶν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον σημαίνει κάθοδον διὰ τῆς ἐξ Ἰόππης εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν μεταβάσεως(12), τὸ δὲ τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τῆς ταφῆς καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως μυστήριον ὑπὸ τοῦ κήτους δηλοῖ καταπινόμενος καὶ μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας ἀπαθὴς ἐκδιδόμενος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο προσφόρως κατὰ τὴν τῆς κλήσεως δύναμιν 'ἀνάπαυσις' καὶ 'ἴασις Θεοῦ' καὶ 'Θεοῦ χάρις αὐτοῖς,' τυχὸν δὲ καὶ 'πόνος Θεοῦ' διὰ τὸ πάθος τὸ ἑκούσιον, καλῶς ὀνομαζόμενος. Τὴν γὰρ ἀληθινὴν τῶν ἐν ὀδύναις κεκοπωμένων ἀνάπαυσιν(13) καὶ τὴν ἴασιν τῶν συντετριμμένων καὶ τὴν χάριν τῆς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀφέσεως Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν ὁ προφήτης διὰ τῶν οἰκείων δραμάτων μυστικῶς προδιέγραψεν. Αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καὶ Θεός, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος καὶ τῷ πελάγει τοῦ βίου τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς ἐνδημήσας, ὡς ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ τῆς Ἰόππης, ἑρμηνευομένης 'κατασκοπὴ χαρᾶς,' εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν τοῦδε τοῦ βίου, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον «ὃς ἀντὶ τῆς προκειμένης αὐτῷ χαρᾶς ὑπέμεινε σταυρόν, αἰσχύνης καταφρονήσας», καὶ εἰς τὴν καρδίαν τῆς γῆς, ἔνθα διὰ τοῦ θανάτου καταπιὼν ἡμᾶς εἶχεν ὁ πονηρὸς καθειργμένους, καταβὰς ἑκουσίως, καί, διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀνασπάσας, πρὸς οὐρανὸν ὅλην τὴν κεκρατημένην φύσιν ἀναγαγών, ἀνάπαυσις ἡμῶν κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν ὑπάρχει καὶ ἴασις καὶ χάρις(14), ἀνάπαυσις μέν, ὡς τὸν νόμον τῆς ἐν σαρκὶ (14Γ_310> διὰ τὴν πρόσκαιρον ζωὴν περιστατικῆς λύων δουλείας, ἴασις δέ, ὡς τὸ σύντριμμα