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the law of nature prevailing; and understood thus it clearly agrees with the interpretation of its own name. For generation, or genealogy, or being reckoned in a genealogy is what the name Darius signifies, as those who know the exact meaning of such a word say. And the name of generation and genealogy has become a property of the natural law; for the genus and the things reckoned in a genealogy are subject to nature; and genealogy concerns the things of nature.

Therefore, Darius was rightly taken for the law of nature. For the law of nature contains both the genera and species that are referred to nature; and the things considered with respect to nature; I mean time and place. For of everything created, these are naturally contemplated as indispensable conditions.

Darius, then, as I said, is the law of nature; and Zerubbabel, the contemplative mind, who went out as from (540) Darius, the law of nature, and transcended the ordering of phenomena under time and place, and lifted up the face of his gnostic disposition according to virtue to heaven; that is, to the height of intelligible substances; before the Jerusalem which is understood to be in the heavens; of that Jerusalem, I say, which has its walls inscribed on the hands of the Lord; in which is the dwelling of all who rejoice; to which the true return of the captives takes place; of those who, according to the divine Apostle, seek the dwelling place from heaven; of those who are able to say with the great David: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill; let my tongue cleave to my throat, if I do not remember you; by "right hand" perhaps meaning the spiritual practice of divine and praiseworthy deeds; and by "tongue cleaving to the throat," the gnostic energy of the logos within us, cleaving out of ignorance to the throat; that is, to the passion that is fixed around the throat, and remaining immobile with regard to the desire for the ineffable goods; and for this reason unable to taste the goodness of the Lord.

θ΄. But if Zerubbabel, hastening toward Jerusalem, transcends the principles of time and nature; whether he is the contemplative mind in us, or the creator Logos above us, who became in us as we are and for this reason became man, so that through incarnation He might lead to himself those who had cast themselves out from impassibility and life toward the passions and death of the flesh, he rightly leads out with himself those born to him as lawfully similar, and leads them to the heavenly Jerusalem; whose summit of virtue and of knowledge, the discourse has symbolically compared through a variety of the aforesaid forms and numbers. For every God-loving and just man, making his return intelligibly toward the Jerusalem above, fulfills the aforesaid numbers of the different forms; gathering the principles of each form and number into one fulfillment of virtue and knowledge; and the text of the Scripture proposed for our examination, which is as follows, clearly shows this.

And all were from Israel, from twelve years old, apart from children and women, four myriads, three thousand, three hundred and sixty. Well done, the precision of the oracles of the Spirit, having noted that none of those numbered in Jerusalem and who had departed from Babylonia; by which I mean the confusion of the present age, are completely under the age of twelve; the text mystically indicating that only one born beyond sensation and time; for this the number twelve clearly signifies, being composed of five for the senses, and seven for time; and having broken the soul's relation to these things, goes out from their confusion, hastening to the city above; having, apart from (541) women and children, four myriads, three thousand, three hundred and sixty.

"Children" are perhaps the thoughts concerning the natural, blameless passions which are not in our power; and "women," either the thoughts, or the natural appetites and pleasures, which do not bring accusation on those who possess them; being established as a necessary consequence

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κρατῶν τῆς φύσεως νόμος· καί συνᾴδει γε σαφῶς οὕτω νοούμενος τῇ τοῦ οἰκείου ὀνόματος ἑρμηνείᾳ. Γενεά γάρ, ἤ γενεαλογία, ἤ γενεαλογούμενος δηλοῖ τό τοῦ ∆αρείου ὄνομα, καθώς φασιν οἱ τήν ἀκρίβειαν τῆς τοιᾶσδε φωνῆς ἐπιστάμενοι. Φυσικοῦ δέ νόμου καθέστηκεν ἴδιον, τό τῆς γενεᾶς, καί γενεαλογίας ὄνομα· τῶν γάρ ὑπό φύσιν τό γένος, καί τά γενεαλογούμενα· καί τῶν περί φύσιν ἡ γενεαλογία.

Οὐκοῦν καλῶς ὁ ∆αρεῖος εἰς τόν τῆς φύσεως ἐλήφθη νόμον. Περιέχει γάρ ὁ νόμος τῆς φύσεως, καί τά ὑπό φύσιν ἀναγόμενα γένη καί εἴδη· καί τά περί τήν φύσιν θεωρούμενα· τόν χρόνον φημί καί τόν τόπον. Παντός γάρ γενητοῦ, τά ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ φυσικῶς συνεπιθεωρεῖται.

∆αρεῖος οὖν, ὡς ἔφην, ὁ νόμος τῆς φύσεως· Ζοροβάβελ δέ, ὁ θεωρητικός νοῦς, ὁ ἐξελθών ὡς ἀπό (540) ∆αρείου, τοῦ νόμου τῆς φύσεως, καί τήν ὑπό χρόνον καί τόπον τῶν φαινομένων ὑπερβάς διακόσμησιν, καί ἄρας τό πρόσωπον τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν γνωστικῆς διαθέσεως εἰς τόν οὐρανόν· τουτέστι τό ὕψος τῶν νοητῶν οὐσιῶν· ἐναντίον τῆς ἐν οὐρανοῖς νοουμένης Ἱερουσαλήμ· ἐκείνης λέγω τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ, τῆς ἐπί τῶν χειρῶν Κυρίου ἐχούσης ἐζωγραφημένα τείχη· ἐν ᾗ πάντων εὐφραινομένων ἐστίν ἡ κατοικία· πρός ἥν ἡ ἀληθινή τῶν αἰχμαλώτων ἐπάνοδος γίνεται· τῶν ἐπιζητούντων τό ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον οἰκητήριον· τῶν μετά τοῦ μεγάλου ∆αβίδ δυναμένων λέγειν· Ἐάν ἐπιλάθωμαί σου, Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἐπιλαθείη ἡ δεξιά μου· κολληθείη ἡ γλῶσσά μου τῷ λάρυγγί μου, ἐάν μή σου, μνησθῶ· δεξιάν λέγοντος τυχόν, τήν πνευματικήν τῶν θείων καί ἐπαινουμένων πρᾶξιν· γλῶσσαν δέ κολλωμένην τῷ λάρυγγι, τήν ἐν ἡμῖν τοῦ λόγου γνωστικήν ἐνέργειαν, κολλωμένην ἐξ ἀγνοίας τῷ λαιμῷ· τουτέστι, τῷ περί τόν λαιμόν πηγνυμένῳ πάθει, καί ἀκίνητον μένουσαν περί τήν ἔφεσιν τῶν ἀῤῥήτων ἀγαθῶν· καί διά τοῦτο γεύσασθαι μή δυναμένην τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου χρηστότητος.

θ΄. Εἰ δέ χρόνου καί φύσεως πρός Ἱερουσαλήμ ἐπειγόμενος ἐκβαίνει τούς λόγους ὁ Ζοροβάβελ· εἴθ᾿ ὁ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς θεωρητικός νοῦς· εἴθ᾿ ὁ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς δημιουργός Λόγος, ἐν ἡμῖν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς γενόμενος καί διά τοῦτο γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα πρός ἑαυτόν ἀγάγῃ διά σαρκώσεως τούς πρός τά πάθη καί τόν θάνατον τῆς σαρκός ἑαυτούς ἀπό τῆς ἀπαθείας καί τῆς ζωῆς ἐξώσαντας, εἰκότως τούς αὐτῷ γεγεννημένους κατά τόν θεμιτόν παραπλησίους, ἑαυτῶ συνεξάγει, καί πρός τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ ἄγει τήν οὐράνιον· ὧν τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν ἀκρότητα καί τῆς γνώσεως, τοῖς προκειμένοις εἴδεσί τε καί ἀριθμοῖς συμβολικῶς διά ποικιλίας ὁ λόγος παρείκασε. Πᾶς γάρ θεοφιλής καί δίκαιος ἄνθρωπος, νοητῶς τήν ἐπάνοδον πρός τήν ἄνω ποιούμενος Ἱερουσαλήμ, τούς προκειμένους διαφόρων εἰδῶν ἀριθμούς συμπληροῖ· τούς ἑκάστου εἴδους καί ἀριθμοῦ λόγους εἰς μίαν ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως συνάγων ἐκπλήρωσιν· καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο σαφῶς, τῆς προκειμένης ἡμῖν εἰς ἐξέτασιν Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, ἔχων οὕτως.

Οἱ δέ πάντες ἦσαν ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, ἀπό δωδεκαετοῦς χωρίς παίδων καί γυναικῶν, μυριάδες τέσσαρες τρισχίλιοι τριακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα. Εὖγε τῆς ἀκριβείας τῶν λογίων τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἐπισημηναμένου μηδένα τῶν ἀριθμουμένων ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ καί τῆς Βαβυλωνίας ἐκβεβηκότων· ταύτην δέ λέγω τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος τήν σύγχυσιν, εἶναι παντελῶς ὑπό τόν δωδεκαετῆ χρόνον· δηλοῦντος τοῦ λόγου μυστικῶς, ὅτι μόνος ὁ γεγεννημένος ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν καί χρόνον· τοῦτο γάρ δώδεκα σημαίνει σαφῶς ἀριθμός, ἐκ πέντε διά τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί ἑπτά διά τόν χρόνον συναγόμενος· καί τήν πρός ταῦτα τῆς ψυχῆς διακόψας σχέσιν, ἐκβαίνει τῆς αὐτῶν συγχύσεως, πρός τήν ἄνω πόλιν ἐπειγόμενος· ἔχων χωρίς (541) γυναικῶν καί παίδων, μυριάδας τέσσαρας τρισχιλίους τριακοσίους ἑξήκοντα.

Παῖδές εἰσι τυχόν, οἱ περί τῶν φυσικῶν ἀδιαβλήτων καί οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν παθῶν λογισμοί· γυναῖκες δέ, ἤ αἱ ἐνθυμήσεις, ἤ αἱ κατά φύσιν ὀρέξεις καί ἡδοναί, μή φέρουσαι τοῖς κεκτημένοις διαβολήν· ὡς ἀναγκαῖον παρακολούθημα καθεστῶσαι