171

you work iniquity in your heart upon the earth; and of this, he says, your deeds are the proof: Your hands weave injustice. Judge rightly, therefore, O sons of men, and consider within yourselves if your works agree with your words. For if you speak righteousness, how do your hands weave injustice? From which you are shown to devise iniquities in your heart, and to think one thing, but to speak another with your mouth. If, therefore, you truly speak righteousness, judge what is right, O you men, and what you speak, that also do, and do not work iniquity in your heart, nor let your hands weave iniquity. The sinners were estranged from the womb, they went astray from the belly, they have spoken lies. And these things are addressed to the sons of men who profess to be godly, and to pursue the laws of righteousness, but who do not judge rightly. He says therefore to them: Hear, O you who speak righteousness with your mouth, but work injustice with your hands, and weave together many sins at the same time; nothing of what is devised in the mind of each person escapes the great judge. For even if one seems to hide from the eyes of men, let him know that he has wandered into a terrible error, deceiving himself. For he will not escape the notice of the great judge of all, before whose tribunal we shall all stand. And how could these men escape God's notice, when even before they came into the light, they were known to the one who knows all things before their birth? Therefore before they were born, as though they already existed, he foresaw them as being such as they are now; and already from that time they were rejected by him. The sinners were therefore estranged from the womb. And even if they especially pretend to speak righteousness today, pursuing the opposite in their works, yet they have not now appeared as such before God; but before they came forth from the belly, or rather even before they were conceived in the receptacle of the womb, they were counted among the erring by him, and that they would be such was not unknown. And already from that time they were known as those who would speak lies, and that their passion is according to the likeness of the serpent. The children of the Greeks are also accustomed to call the soul "thumos" (passion/spirit). Since, therefore, the ancient serpent, having deceived Eve, pretended to use sweet and friendly conversation, and to make mention of God, and to display a certain reverence, saying to the woman: Why has God said: You shall not eat of every tree in the garden? and again: For God knew that in whatever day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil; and while feigning such things, and pretending to know God, he spoke with the woman, but in his heart he was working iniquity, and with his deeds he was weaving injustice; it is fitting that these men are also said to have a passion and a soul similar to the aforementioned serpent; which God himself also foresaw with his foreknowledge. For hearing the divine words and by the sacred 23.521 being instructed sayings, they will bring forth nothing for their benefit, because of stopping their ears, and not receiving the powers of the divine incantations, but being like a deaf asp that stops its ears, so as not to hear the voice of charmers, of the charmer charming wisely. Therefore, they were likened to the serpent because of their hypocrisy and their feigned speech about God, but to the asp because of concealing the death-bearing venom in themselves. But if they were compared simply to an asp, there would be hope that they might someday be benefited; since even that terrible reptile is such that from an incantation and the preparation of certain others it casts off its venom, and puts away its rage, and as it were puts its wickedness to death; but if such bitterness of the asp is weakened and withers away by the power of certain words, and it casts off its venom, what must be said about the soul of man, which is in the image of God

171

καρδίᾳ ἀνομίας ἐργάζεσθε ἐν τῇ γῇ· τούτου δὲ, φησὶν, ἔλεγχος αἱ ὑμέτεραι πράξεις· Ἀδικίαν αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν συμπλέκουσι. Κρίνατε οὖν εὐθέα, υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ λογίσασθε παρ' ἑαυτοῖς, εἰ τοῖς ὑμετέροις λόγοις συμφωνεῖ τὰ ἔργα. Εἰ γὰρ δικαιοσύνην λαλεῖτε, πῶς αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν ἀδικίαν συμπλέκουσιν; Ἀφ' οὗ δείκνυσθε ἀνομίας ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ λογιζόμενοι, καὶ ἕτερα μὲν διανοούμενοι, ἕτερα δὲ τῷ στόματι λαλοῦντες. Εἰ δὴ οὖν ἀληθῶς δικαιοσύνην λαλεῖτε, κρίνατε τὰ εὐθέα, ὦ οὗτοι, καὶ ἅπερ λαλεῖτε, ταῦτα καὶ πράττετε, μηδὲ ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνομίας ἐργάζεσθε, μηδὲ αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν ἀνομίαν συμπλεκέτωσαν. Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας, ἐπλανήθησαν ἀπὸ γαστρὸς, ἐλάλησαν ψευδῆ. Καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀποτείνεται τοὺς ἐπαγγελλομένους θεοσεβεῖν, καὶ τοὺς τῆς δικαιοσύνης μετέρχεσθαι νόμους, μὴ κρίνοντας δὲ ὀρθῶς. Φησὶν οὖν πρὸς αὐτούς· Ἀκούσατε, ὦ οὗτοι, οἱ λαλοῦντες μὲν δικαιοσύνην τῷ στόματι, ἐργαζόμενοι δὲ ταῖς χερσὶν ἀδικίαν, καὶ πολλὰς κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ συμπλέκοντες ἁμαρτίας· τὸν μέγαν κριτὴν οὐδὲν λανθάνει τῶν κατὰ διάνοιαν ἑκάστῳ λογιζομένων. Κἂν γὰρ δοκῇ τις ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοὺς κρύπτειν, ἀλλ' ἴστω, ὅτι δεινὴν πλάνην πεπλάνηται ἑαυτὸν ἀπατῶν. Οὐ γὰρ τὸν μέγαν τῶν ὅλων κριτὴν λήσεται, οὗ πάντες πρὸ τοῦ βήματος παραστησόμεθα. Πῶς δ' ἂν καὶ λάθοιεν τὸν Θεὸν οὗτοι, ὁπότε καὶ πρὶν εἰς φῶς προελθεῖν αὐτοὺς, πάντα εἰδότι πρὸ γενέσεως αὐτῶν ἐγνωρίζοντο; ∆ιὸ πρὶν γεννηθῆναι αὐτοὺς, ὡς ἤδη ὑφεστῶτας, καὶ τοιούτους ὄντας οἷοι νῦν εἰσι προεώρα· ἤδη τε ἐξ ἐκείνου ἀπόβλητοι ἦσαν παρ' αὐτῷ. Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν γοῦν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας. Καὶ εἰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα σήμερον δικαιοσύνην λαλεῖν προσποιοῦνται, τοῖς ἔργοις τὰ ἐναντία μετερχόμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐ καὶ παρὰ Θεῷ νῦν ἐφάνησαν τοιοῦτοι· πρὶν δὲ ἀπὸ γαστρὸς προελθεῖν αὐτοὺς, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ συλληφθῆναι ἐν τῷ τῆς μήτρας δοχείῳ, ἐν πεπλανημένοις ἐλογίσθησαν παρ' αὐτῷ, καὶ μέλλοντες ἔσεσθαι τοιοῦτοι οὐκ ἠγνοοῦντο. Ἤδη δὲ ἐξ ἐκείνου ὡς ἂν μέλλοντες τὰ ψευδῆ λαλεῖν ἐγινώσκοντο, καὶ ὡς θυμὸς αὐτοῖς ἐστι κατὰ τὴν ὁμοίωσιν τοῦ ὄφεως. Θυμὸν δὲ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ παῖδες Ἑλλήνων καλεῖν εἰώθασιν. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν καὶ ὁ παλαιὸς ὄφις, τὴν Εὔαν ἀπατήσας, προσεποιεῖτο μὲν γλυκείᾳ καὶ φιλικῇ κεχρῆσθαι ὁμιλίᾳ, μνήμην τε Θεοῦ ποιεῖσθαι, καί τινα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι εὐλάβειαν, λέγων τῇ γυναικί· Τί ὅτι εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Οὐ μὴ φάγητε ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ; καὶ πάλιν· Ἤδει γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι ᾗ δ' ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, διανοιχθήσονται ὑμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ, καὶ ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ, γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν· καὶ τοιαῦτα μὲν ὑποκρινόμενος, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν εἰδέναι προσποιούμενος, ὡμίλει τῇ γυναικὶ, ἐν καρδίᾳ δὲ ἀνομίας εἰργάζετο, καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις ἀδικίαν συνέπλεκεν· εἰκότως καὶ οἵδε λέγονται θυμὸν ἔχειν καὶ ψυχὴν ὁμοίαν τῷ προλεχθέντι ὄφει· ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸ προείληφεν ὁ Θεὸς τῇ προγνώσει. Τῶν γὰρ θείων εἰσακούοντες λόγων καὶ τοῖς ἱεροῖς μαθη 23.521 τευόμενοι ῥήμασι, οὐδὲν τικτήσονται πρὸς ὠφελείας, διὰ τὸ βύειν τὰ ὦτα, καὶ μὴ καταδέχεσθαι τῶν θείων ἐπῳδῶν τὰς δυνάμεις, ἀφομοιοῦσθαι δὲ ἀσπίδι κωφῇ καὶ βυούσῃ τὰ ὦτα αὐτῆς, πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀκοῦσαι φωνῆς ἐπᾳδόντων, φαρμακοῦται φαρμακευομένου παρὰ σοφοῦ. Τῷ μὲν οὖν ὄφει ὡμοιώθησαν διὰ τὴν ὑπόκρισιν καὶ τὴν ἐπίπλαστον περὶ Θεοῦ ὁμιλίαν, τῇ δὲ ἀσπίδι διὰ τὸ κρύπτειν ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν θανατηφόρον ἰόν. Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ἁπλῶς ἀσπίδι παρεβλήθησαν, ἐλπὶς ἂν ἦν ποτε ὠφεληθήσεσθαι· ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ δεινὸν ἑρπετὸν ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν ὅτε ἐξ ἐπῳδῆς καὶ κατασκευῆς ἑτέρων τινῶν ἀποῤῥίπτει τὸν ἰὸν, καὶ τὸν θυμὸν ἀποτίθεται, καὶ ὥσπερ ἀπονεκροῦται τὴν κακίαν· εἰ δὲ ἡ τοιαύτη τῆς ἀσπίδος πικρία δυνάμει λόγων τινῶν ἐξασθενεῖ καὶ ἀπομαραίνεται, τὸν ἰόν τε ἀποῤῥίπτει, τί χρὴ λέγειν περὶ ἀνθρώπου ψυχῆς, τῆς κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ