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5. He calls the modes of action according to virtue those who inhabit Judea; and the principles of knowledge according to contemplation, he calls those who inhabit Jerusalem.

6. He calls the praiseworthy death of the intellect the volitional renunciation of all existing things, after which it is its nature to receive the divine life by grace, having apprehended without concepts the cause of existing things instead of existing things.

7. He calls glory the indefinite knowledge, which is terminated by no principle; and honor, the unrestrainable movement according to virtue toward the nature of the will.

8. Unforgettable knowledge, he says, having an indefinite [quality] concerning the divine infinity, the movement of the intellect beyond intellection, depicts through its indefiniteness the more-than-infinite glory of the truth. And the voluntary imitation of the wise goodness according to Providence brings honor, the manifest assimilation, as is possible, of the intellect to God according to its disposition.

9. Ft. Hear, Nilus, you who are dragged down, and be silent. 10. According to the anagogical sense he says David is Christ; and his burial,

the memory in righteousness being incomparable to every rational nature. For the Word of God, having become man, did not measure righteousness by the laws according to the nature of the flesh; but the righteousness naturally present to Him as God He activated through the flesh, with His natural energy not being diminished.

QUESTION 54.

In the first book of Esdras it is written concerning Zerubbabel: "And when the young man went out, having lifted his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, he blessed the King of heaven, saying, 'From you is the victory, and from you is the wisdom, and yours is the glory; and I am your servant. Blessed are you, who have given me wisdom; and to you I give thanks, O Lord of the fathers.'" What does, "Having lifted his face to heaven toward Jerusalem," and the rest, signify?

Response. Zerubbabel, according to the precision of the Hebrew language, admits both a rough and a smooth breathing; and

composition and (509) division and accentuation. And with a rough breathing, this name signifies a seed of confusion; but with a smooth breathing, a rising of confusion. But compounded, a rising in confusion; but divided, a rising of dispersion; but accented, he himself is rest.

Zerubbabel, therefore, is the philosophic intellect; first, through repentance, being sown according to righteousness in the confusion of the captivity of the passions. Second, a rising of confusion, making manifest the shame of the confused passions. Third, a rising in confusion, giving illumination through knowledge in the confusion of the activity of the senses toward sensible things, and not allowing them to approach sensible things without reason. Fourth, a rising of dispersion, furnishing to the powers of the soul that are dispersed among sensible things a rising of the works of righteousness; according to which action with reason is constituted, not lacking the gnostic contemplation that leads the dispersed powers back to intelligible things. And fifth, he himself is rest; as having made all peace and joined together: the practical, to the good according to nature; and the contemplative, to the truth according to nature.

For every action is by nature for the sake of the good; and every contemplation seeks knowledge for the sake of truth alone; when these things have been accomplished, the practical aspect of the soul will not exist at all any more, nor indeed its contemplative aspect through strange and subtle contemplations; it having become beyond everything, both being and what is conceived, and

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ε΄. Τούς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῆς πράξεως τρόπους λέγει, τούς οἰκοῦντας τήν Ἰουδαίαν· τούς δέ κατά τήν θεωρίαν λόγους τῆς γνώσεως, λέγει τούς οἰκοῦντας τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ.

στ΄. Νοῦ ἐπαινούμενον θάνατον λέγει, τήν πρός πάντα τά ὄντα γνωμικήν ἀπογέννησιν, μεθ᾿ ἥν τήν θείαν χάριτι ζωήν ὑποδέχεσθαι πέφυκεν, ἀντί τῶν ὄντων τόν αἴτιον τῶν ὄντων ἀνεννοήτως ἀπολαβών.

ζ΄. ∆όξαν λέγει τήν ἀόριστον γνῶσιν, καί μηδενί περατουμένην λόγῳ· τιμήν δέ, τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν πρός τήν φύσιν τῆς γνώμης ἀκάθεκτον κίνησιν.

η΄. Ἡ ἄληστος γνῶσις, ἀόριστον, φησί, ἔχουσα περί τήν θείαν ἀπειρίαν, τήν κατά νοῦν ὑπέρ νόησιν κίνησιν, εἰκονίζει διά τῆς ἀοριστίας τήν ὑπεράπειρον δόξαν τῆς ἀληθείας. Ἡ δέ τῆς κατά τήν Πρόνοιαν σοφῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐθαίρετος μίμησις, τιμήν φέρει, τήν πρός τόν Θεόν τοῦ νοῦ κατά τήν διάθεσιν ἀρίδηλον, ὡς ἔστι δυνατόν, ἐξομοίωσιν.

θ΄. Ft. Ἄκουε, Νεῖλε, κάτω συρόμενε, καί σιώπα. ι΄. Κατά τήν ἀναγωγήν τόν ∆αβίδ εἶναί φησι τόν Χριστόν· τήν δέ ταφήν αὐτοῦ,

τήν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ μνήμην ἀσύγκριτον οὖσαν πάσῃ τῇ λογικῇ φύσει. Οὐ γάρ τοῖς κατά φύσιν τῆς σαρκός νόμοις τήν δικαιοσύνην ἐμέτρησε γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος· ἀλλά τήν ὡς Θεῷ φυσικήν παροῦσαν αὐτῷ δικαιοσύνην ἐνήργησε διά σαρκός, φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας οὐκ ἀμειρούσης.

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ Ν∆΄ .

Ἐν τῶ πρώτῳ Ἔσδρᾳ γέγραπται περί τοῦ Ζοροβάβελ· "Καί ὅτε ἐξῆλθεν ὁ νεανίσκος, ἅρας τό πρόσωπον εἰς τόν οὐρανόν ἐναντίον Ἱερουσαλήμ, εὐλόγησε τῷ Βασιλεῖ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, λέγων. Παρά σοῦ ἡ νίκη, καί παρά σοῦ ἡ σοφία, καί σοῦ ἡ δόξα· καί ἐγώ σός οἰκέτης. Εὐλογητός εἶ, ὅς ἔδωκάς μοι σοφίαν· καί σοί ὁμολογῶ, ∆έσποτα τῶν πατέρων. " Τί σημαίνει, τό, " Ἄρας τό πρόσωπον εἰς τόν οὐρανόν ἐναντίον Ἱερουσαλήμ," καί τά ἑξῆς;

Ἀπόκρισις. Ζοροβάβελ, κατά τήν ἀκρίβειαν τῆς Ἑβραΐδος καί δασεῖαν δέχεται καί ψιλήν· καί

σύνθεσιν καί (509) διαίρεσιν καί στιχισμόν. Καί δασυνόμενον μέν, τοῦτο τό ὄνομα, δηλοῖ σποράν συγχύσεως· ψιλούμενον δέ, ἀνατολήν συγχύσεως. Συντιθέμενον δέ, ἀνατολήν ἐν συγχύσει· διαιρούμενον δέ, ἀνατολήν διασπορᾶς· στοιχιζόμενον δέ, αὐτός ἀνάπαυσις.

Ζοροβάβελ οὖν ἐστι, νοῦς φιλόσοφος· πρῶτον διά μετανοίας ἐν τῇ συγχύσει τῆς τῶν παθῶν αἰχμαλωσίας κατά δικαιοσύνην σπειρόμενος. ∆εύτερον ἀνατολή συγχύσεως, φανεράν ποιούμενος τῶν συγκεχυμένων παθῶν τήν αἰσχύνην. Τρίτον, ἀνατολή ἐν συγχύσει, διδούς φωτισμόν διά γνώσεως ἐν τῇ συγχύσει τῆς πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐνεργείας, καί οὐκ ἐῶν λόγου χωρίς αὐτάς προσβάλλειν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς. Τέταρτον, ἀνατολή διασπορᾶς, παρέχων ταῖς διασπαρείσαις περί τά αἰσθητά δυνάμεσι τῆς ψυχῆς, ἔργων δικαιοσύνης ἀνατολήν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ μετά λόγου πρᾶξις συνέστηκεν, οὐκ ἀμοιροῦσα γνωστικῆς θεωρίας τῆς πρός τά νοητά ἐπαναγούσης τάς διεσπαρμένας δυνάμεις. Καί πέμπτον, αὐτός ἀνάπαυσις· ὡς πᾶσαν ποιήσας εἰρήνην καί συνάψας· τό μέν πρακτικόν, τῷ κατά φύσιν ἀγαθῷ· τό δέ θεωρητικόν, τῇ κατά φύσιν ἀληθείᾳ.

Πᾶσα γάρ πρᾶξις, διά τό ἀγαθόν γίνεσθαι πέφυκε· καί πᾶσα θεωρία, τήν γνῶσιν διά μόνην ἐπιζητεῖ ἀλήθειαν· ὧν διανυσθέντων, οὐδέν ἔσται τό σύνολον τό πλεῖττον τῆς ψυχῆς τό πρακτικόν, οὔτε μήν τό θεωρητικόν αὐτῆς διά ξένων δριμύττων θεωρημάτων· παντός ἐπέκεινα γενομένης καί ὄντος καί νοουμένου, καί