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for the unbelieving; but a resurrection, for the believing. For some say that tin is a composite of silver and lead. Therefore, lead bears the symbol of instruction and retribution and punishment, and of the weight of condemnation; but silver is a type of brilliance and glory and majesty, (525). If this is so, then faith, signified by the tin, both instructs and exacts retribution and punishes and condemns those who have become unapproved in it through idleness regarding the commandments; as having, perchance, the lead of the flesh's weakness, empowered in the Word according to the union; and again it makes brilliant and glorifies and illumines, and leads to deification those who have become approved in it through the working of the commandments; as having, perhaps, the silver of the Word's divinity, flashing forth wholly to the worthy as far as is possible.

And some have taken the tin stone to refer to our Lord Jesus Christ, as being composed of two natures, divinity and humanity; and if someone wishes to contemplate the faith of Christ, or Christ himself, more gnostically; faith, and Christ himself, is lead, as instructing the soul, and punishing the flesh, and chastising the passions, and condemning demons; but silver, as making the mind brilliant with virtues, and glorifying it with knowledge, and by deification making it a light, an image of the first light. According to this sense must also be understood the fall and resurrection which comes from him; for he makes a fall of the flesh, that is, of the fleshly mindset; and a resurrection of natural powers and of virtue and of the thoughts that hold knowledge together. And simply, the Word effects a fall of the whole old man according to Adam, and of the letter of the law in the worthy, and a resurrection of the new man according to himself, and of the spirit of the law.

And perhaps it is for this reason that faith is likened to a tin stone according to the Scripture, because those who blacken its virtue or knowledge, are able again through repentance according to practice and contemplation to be made brilliant, and to receive back their own luminous clarity of life.

SCHOLIA. a. In how many ways Zerubbabel is interpreted, being translated into the Greek tongue. b. He says that the goal of virtue is the good; and this, is of divine energy

the fulfillment; to which the rational part of the soul leads, using both the spirited and appetitive parts according to nature; in which the beauty of the likeness is naturally made manifest. And he says that the goal of contemplative philosophy is the truth, which is an indivisible, unified knowledge of all things concerning God; to which the pure mind is carried, having completely cast off from itself judgment according to sense-perception; in which knowledge the manifest, unadulterated dignity of the divine image is shown.

c. He contemplated the women as virtues, of which love is the goal; and he referred the truth to unquantifiable knowledge; of which, I mean both of love and of knowledge, the law that reigns over nature, having recognized the character, casts off like wine the pleasure of the passions of the flesh; and like a kingdom, the vainglory of all who possess things without restraint.

d. (528) The disposition according to virtue, he says, is the face of the contemplative mind, as lifted up to heaven, toward the height of true knowledge.

e. Another contemplation concerning the same thing; according to which he says the registration in the heavens belongs only to those, who according to intention offer their whole selves to be registered by the reed of the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit registers in the heavens those who are willing, but not those who are compelled.

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μέν, τῶν ἀπιστούντων· ἀνάστασιν δέ, τῶν πιστευόντων. Φασί γάρ τινες ἐξ ἀργύρου καί μολίβδου σύνθετον εἶναι τόν κασσίτερον. Οὐκοῦν ὁ μέν μόλυβδος, παιδείας καί τιμωρίας καί κολάσεως, καί τοῦ βάρους τῆς κατακρίσεως φέρει σύμβολον· ὁ δέ ἄργυρος, λαμπρότητός τε καί δόξης καί περηφανείας, (525) τύπος ἐστίν. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο, καί ἡ πίστις ἡ διά τοῦ κασσιτέρου σημαινομένη, καί παιδεύει καί τιμωρεῖται καί κολάζει καί κατακρίνει τούς ἀδοκίμους ἐν αὐτῇ γενομένους διά τῆς ἀργίας τῶν ἐντολῶν· ὡς μόλιβδον ἔχουσα τυχόν, τῆς σαρκός τήν ἀσθένειαν, ἐν τῷ Λόγῳ δυναμωθεῖσαν κατά τήν ἕνωσιν· καί λαμπρύνει πάλιν καί δοξάζει καί φωτίζει, καί πρός ἐκθέωσιν ἄγει τούς ἐν αὐτῇ γενομένους δοκίμους διά τῆς ἐργασίας τῶν ἐντολῶν· ὡς ἀργύριον ἔχουσα τάχα τήν τοῦ Λόγου θεότητα, τοῖς ἀξίοις ὁλικῶς κατά τό δυνατόν ἐναστράπτουσαν.

Ἔλαβον δέ τινες τόν κασσιτέρινον λίθον, εἰς τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, ὡς ἐκ δύο συγκείμενον φύσεων, θεότητός τε καί ἀνθρωπότητος· εἰ δέ τις τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν, ἤ τόν Χριστόν αὐτόν θεωρῆσαι βούλεται γνωστικώτερον· μόλιβδός ἐστιν ἡ πίστις, καί αὐτός ὁ Χριστός, ὡς παιδεύων ψυχήν, καί κολάζων σάρκα, καί τιμωρούμενος πάθη, καί κατακρίνων δαίμονας· ἄργυρος δέ, ὡς νοῦν λαμπρύνων ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, καί δοξάζων ταῖς γνώσεσι, καί τῇ θεώσει ποιῶν αὐτόν φῶς, τοῦ πρώτου φωτός ἀπεικόνισμα. Κατά ταύτην τήν ἔννοιαν ἐκληπτέον καί τήν ἐξ αὐτοῦ γινομένην πτῶσιν καί ἀνάστασιν· πτῶσιν γάρ ποιεῖται σαρκός, ἤγουν σαρκικοῦ φρονήματος· καί φυσικῶν δυνάμεων καί ἀρετῆς καί τῶν συνεκτικῶν τῆς γνώσεως λογισμῶν, ἀνάστασιν. Καί ἁπλῶς, ὅλου τοῦ παλαιοῦ κατά τόν Ἀδάμ ἀνθρώπου, καί τοῦ γράμματος τοῦ νόμου ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις ποιεῖται πτῶσιν ὁ Λόγος, καί τοῦ νέου κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀνθρώπου, καί τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νόμου ἀνάστασιν.

Τυχόν δέ καί διά τοῦτο κασσιτερίνῳ λίθῳ κατά τήν Γραφήν παρεικάζεται ἡ πίστις, τῶν ἐν τοῖς μελαίνουσιν αὐτῆς τήν ἀρετήν ἤ τήν γνῶσιν, δυναμένων πάλιν διά μετανοίας κατά πρᾶξιν καί θεωρίαν λαμπρύνεσθαι, καί τήν οἰκείαν αὖθις ἀπολαμβάνειν φωτεινήν τοῦ βίου διαύγειαν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Ποσαχῶς ἑρμηνεύεται Ζοροβάβελ, πρός τήν Ἑλλάδα φωνήν μεταφερόμενος. β΄. Ἀρετῆς τέλος εἶναί φησι τό ἀγαθόν· τοῦτο δέ, θείας ἐνεργείας ὑπάρχει

συμπλήρωσις· πρός ἥν ἄγει τό λογικόν τῆς ψυχῆς, τῷ τε θυμῷ καί τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ κατά φύσιν χρώμενον· ἐν ᾗ τό καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν πέφυκεν ἀναφαίνεσθαι κάλλος. Θεωρητικῆς δέ φιλοσοφίας τέλος εἶναί φησι τήν ἀλήθειαν, ἥτις ἀμερῶς τῶν περί Θεόν ἁπάντων ἑνοειδής ἐστι γνῶσις· πρός ἥν ὁ καθαρός φέρεται νοῦς, ἀποσκευάσας ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν κρίσιν· ἐν ᾗ γνώσει δῆλον ἀκίβδηλον τό τῆς θείας εἰκόνος ἀξίωμα δείκνυται.

γ΄. Τάς μέν γυναῖκας εἰς ἀρετάς, ὧν ἡ ἀγάπη τέλος ἐστίν ἐθεώρησε· τήν ἀλήθειαν δέ, πρός τήν ἄποσον ἀνήγαγε γνῶσιν· ὧν, ἀγάπης τέ φημι καί γνώσεως, ὁ βασιλεύων τῆς φύσεως ἐπιγνούς τόν χαρακτῆρα νόμος, ἀποβάλλεται καθάπερ οἶνον, τήν τῶν παθῶν τῆς σαρκός ἡδονήν· καί ὥσπερ βασιλεία, τήν πάντων ἀσχέτως κατοιομένων δοξομανίαν.

δ΄. (528) Ἡ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διάθεσις, φησίν, πρόσωπόν ἐστι τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ νοός, ὡς εἰς οὐρανόν, πρός τό ὕψος τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἀπαιρόμενον γνώσεως.

ε΄. Ἄλλη περί τοῦ αὐτοῦ θεωρία· καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπογραφήν λέγει μόνων ἐκείνων εἶναι, τῶν κατά πρόθεσιν ὅλους ἑαυτούς ἀπογράφεσθαι τῷ καλάμῳ παρεχόντων τοῦ Πνεύματος. Βουλομένους γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀναγκαζομένους ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπογράφεται τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον.