,

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the pleasure of the flesh, while the word of Scripture introduced Nineveh holding fast to God, it is clear that what appeared pleasing to God is far better and more honorable than all things whatsoever honored by men, indeed than things which do not exist and seem to exist only by a preconception according to a mistaken (14Γ_352> judgment, of which there is no account at all according to existence, but only a fantasy deceiving the mind and providing to the passion an empty form for non-existent things, but not a substance.

SCHOLIA 1. In how many ways Jonah is interpreted. 2. In how many ways Joppa is interpreted. 3. To how many things Jonah corresponds when spiritually contemplated. 4. To what Joppa corresponds when spiritually understood. 5. According to another approach, a suitable contemplation concerning Joppa for each individual case. 6. Of a much-troubled squall. 7. He calls the head the first discourse on the monad, as the beginning of all virtue;

and the clefts of the mountains, the thoughts of the spirits of wickedness, by which our mind was swallowed up through transgression.

8. He calls the lowest earth the state that in no way perceives divine knowledge, or that has any movement whatsoever of the life according to virtue.

9. He calls the abyss the ignorance that overlies the state of wickedness; on which, as upon earth, the seas of wickedness are established.

10. He said the earth is the fixed state of wickedness; and the everlasting bars, the passionate attachments to material things which hold together the worst state.

11. He calls light the true knowledge; and the life of mortals, the conduct befitting rational beings, of which he who has the evil state is deprived.

12. Here he took the sea to mean this world; into which the Lord came through the flesh.

13. He calls the Lord 'Rest', as the deliverance from the labors for virtue; and the healing of God, as the physician of the wound from death (14Γ_354>; and the grace of God, as redemption; and the suffering of God, as the one who takes up our passions.

14. How our Lord and God is grace; see, Nilus, and be not shaken, by: “Full of grace and truth”.

15. How Jonah indicates the prophetic grace. 16. That it consumes, he says, the evil power when it attacks, the of the saints

patience. 17. That the saints, suffering bodily, and willingly for the sake of truth

undergoing the death of the flesh, effected the life in spirit according to faith among the nations.

18. That the natural weakness of the saints is the occasion for the exceeding divine power, by which the Lord showed the proud devil to be inferior.

19. He says the king is the natural law; and the throne, the passionate state according to sense perception; and the robe, the mantle of vainglory; and the sackcloth, the mourning according to repentance; and the ash, humility.

20. He calls men, those concerned with reason; and cattle, those concerned with desire; and oxen, those concerned with anger; and sheep, those who stumble in the contemplation of visible things.

21. That Nineveh also signifies the soul of each person. 22. Time and place are 'not without'; without which none of created things exist. 23. The Church, having the discourses concerning virtue and knowledge, and the of each

individual soul, since they transcend time and nature, has more than the twelve

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τὴν σαρκὸς ἡδονήν, τῆς δὲ Νινευὴ τὸν Θεὸν ἀντεχόμενον εἰσήγαγε τῆς Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, δῆλον ὡς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τιμίων τὸ τῷ Θεῷ φανὲν προσφιλὲς πάντων τῶν ὁπωσοῦν ὄντων πολλῷ κρεῖττόν ἐστι καὶ τιμιώτερον, ἦπου γε τῶν οὐκ ὄντων καὶ μόνῃ προλήψει κατ᾽ ἐσφαλμένην (14Γ_352> κρίσιν εἶναι δοκούντων, ὧν οὐδεὶς τὸ παράπαν ἐστὶ κατὰ τὴν ὕπαρξιν λόγος, μόνη δὲ φαντασία τὸν νοῦν φενακίζουσα καὶ σχῆμα τοῖς οὐκ οὖσι διάκενον, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὑπόστασιν, τῷ πάθει παρεχομένη.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ 1. Ποσαχῶς ἑρμηνεύεται Ἰωνᾶς. 2. Ποσαχῶς ἑρμηνεύται Ἰόππη. 3. Πόσοις ἀναλογεῖ πνευματικῶς θεωρούμενος Ἰωνᾶς. 4. Τίνος ἀναλογίαν ἔχει νοουμένη πνευματικῶς ἡ Ἰόππη. 5. Κατ᾿ ἄλλην ἐπιβολήν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἕκαστα πρόφορος θεωρία περί τῆς Ἰόππης. 6. Πολυταράχου ζάλης. 7. Κεφαλήν λέγει τόν πρῶτον περί μονάδος λόγον, ὡς ἀρχήν πάσης ἀρετῆς·

τάς δέ σχισμάς τῶν ὀρέων, τάς διανοίας τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας, ὑφ᾿ ὧν κατεπόθη διά τῆς παραβάσεως ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς.

8. Γῆν λέγει κατωτάτην, τήν μηδαμῶς γνώσεως αἰσθανομένην θείας, ἤ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ζωῆς τήν οἱανοῦν κίνησιν ἔχουσαν, ἕξιν.

9. Ἄβυσσον καλεῖ τήν ἄγνοιαν ἐπικειμένην τῇ ἕξει τῆς κακίας· ἐφ᾿ ᾗ βέβηκεν καθάπερ γῇ, τά τῆς κακίας πελάγη.

10. Γῆν μέν τήν παγίαν τῆς κακίας ἕξιν εἶπεν· αἰωνίους δέ μοχλούς, τάς συγκρατούσας τήν χειρίστην ἕξιν ἐμπαθεῖς προσπαθείας τῶν ὑλικῶν.

11. Φέγγος λέγει τήν ἀληθῆ γνῶσιν· ζωήν δέ βροτῶν, τήν πρέπουσαν λογικοῖς πολιτείαν, ἧς ὁ τήν κακήν ἕξιν ἔχων ἐστερῆται.

12. Ἐνταῦθα τήν θάλασσαν, εἰς τόν κόσμον τοῦτον ἔλαβεν· εἰς ὅν διά σαρκός ὁ Κύριος γέγονεν.

13. 'Ἀνάπαυσιν' λέγει τόν Κύριον, ὡς τῶν ἐπ᾿ ἀρετῇ πόνων λυτήριον· ἴασιν δέ Θεοῦ, ὡς ἰατρόν τῆς ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου (14Γ_354> πληγῆς· Θεοῦ δέ χάριν, ὡς ἀπολύτρωσιν· καί Θεοῦ πόνον, ὡς τῶν ἡμῶν ἀναδοχέα παθῶν.

14. Πῶς ἐστι χάρις ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καί Θεός· ἴδε, Νεῖλε, καί μή σαλεύου, τῷ· «Πλήρης χάριτος καί ἀληθείας».

15. Πῶς δηλοῖ τήν προφητικήν χάριν Ἰωνᾶς. 16. Ὅτι δαπανᾷ, φησί, προσβάλλουσαν τήν πονηράν δύναμιν, ἡ τῶν ἁγίων

ὑπομονή. 17. Ὅτι σωματικῶς οἱ ἅγιοι πάσχοντες, καί τόν ὑπέρ ἀληθείας ἑκουσίως

ὑπερχόμενοι θάνατον τῆς σαρκός, τήν κατά πίστιν ἐν πνεύματι ζωήν ἐνήργουν τοῖς ἔθνεσι.

18. Ὅτι τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερβολήν θείας δυνάμεώς ἐστιν ὑπόθεσις, ἡ κατά φύσιν τῶν ἁγίων ἀσθένεια· ἧς ἥττονα τόν ὑπερήφανον διάβολον ὁ Κύριος ἔδειξεν.

19. Τόν βασιλέα φησίν εἶναι, τόν φυσικόν νόμον· τόν δέ θρόνον, τήν ἐμπαθῆ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἕξιν· τήν δέ στολήν, τήν τῆς κενῆς δόξης περιβολήν· τόν δέ σάκκον, τό κατά τήν μετάνοιαν πένθος· τήν δέ σποδόν, τήν ταπεινοφροσύνην.

20. Ἀνθρώπους λέγει, τούς περί τόν λόγον· κτήνη δέ, τούς περί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν· βόας δέ, τούς περί τόν θυμόν· πρόβατα δέ τούς περί τήν θεωρίαν τῶν ὀρατῶν πταίοντας.

21. Ὅτι καί τήν ἑκάστου ψυχήν ἡ Νινευή σημαίνει. 22. 'Οὐκ ἄνευ' εἰσί, χρόνος καί τόπος· ὧν χωρίς οὐδέν ἔστιν τῶν γενητῶν. 23. Τούς περί ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως λόγους ἔχουσα ἡ Ἐκκλησία, καί ἡ τοῦ καθ᾿

ἕκαστον ψυχή, ὡς ὑπερβαίνοντας χρόνον καί φύσιν, πλέον ἔχει τῶν δώδεκα