,

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a remembrance of evil things, a shame of the mouth, that is, of the mind, both in being and in word.

Or again, their anathema is(6) the place of the now prevailing penalty of nature, that is, this world, as having become a place of death and corruption on account of sin, into which from paradise after the transgression of the divine commandment the first man fell; which world, according to the pleasure-loving disposition of the will, that is, the worldly passion, is naturally disposed to beget (14Γ_370> from the learning that is only in the utterance of the word of the law he who does not cross over in his mind to the inner divine comeliness in spirit of the legal letter. And the shame of their mouth is the world-loving and body-loving meditation of the thoughts in the mind. For wherein the world, from the bodily fashioning(7) appearing in the letter of the law, is naturally disposed to be begotten according to the disposition of the will, that is, the world-loving disposition, the world-loving and body-loving meditation of thoughts in the mind is also fittingly begotten together.

Or again, their anathema is(8) the material and unbeautiful and unformed motion of the passions, but the shame of the mouth is the motion of the mind that brings form to the passions and shapes the beauty according to pleasure for sensation. For without the inventive power of the mind for the shaping of a form, a passion is in no way led. Therefore, he who circumscribes the power of the divine promise by the letter of the law alone has the learning of the law as a concubine but not as a lawful wife. Whence of necessity such learning, not through itself but through the one who accepts it bodily, that is, who has intercourse with it, begets the anathema and the shame. For he who believes that God ordained the sacrifices and the feasts and the sabbaths and the new moons according to the law for bodily luxury and repose will in every way and altogether come under the guilt of the activity of the passions(9) and the shame of the filthiness of the shameful thoughts concerning them, and he will be under the perishable world and the body-loving meditation in his thoughts and under the matter of the passions and the form, being able to hold nothing else honorable except perishable things, and on account of this, perhaps evilly begetting Merob, who begets five sons for Esdriel. But Merob is interpreted 'fullness of the throat', which is gluttony. For this alone, (14Γ_372> having received license from the commandment in a Judaic manner, begets the modes of misuse of the senses for Esdriel, that is, for the contemplative part of the soul. For Esdriel is interpreted 'divine power' or 'strong helper' or 'powerful sight,' which is the mind that came to be in the image of God.

But gluttony, as an offspring of the law of the flesh according to the commandment, that is, of the letter, having been wrongly persuaded, he cohabited with. For the mind, having been persuaded that luxury according to the flesh(10) is an ordinance of a divine commandment, according to the law in the letter, accepts no other than it for cohabitation, considering it a divine offspring and of the reigning law, and from it he constitutes the modes of misuse of the senses. For whenever the contemplative part of the soul embraces luxury according to the law in the letter as divine for cohabitation because of the commandment, it pursues a use of the senses contrary to nature, not allowing the use of the activity of any of them to appear according to nature.

He, therefore, who practices the learning of the law in a bodily manner(11), as one having the knowledge of divine things as a concubine but not a lawful wife, and begetting from it the anathema of the activity of the passions and the shame of the unpleasantness of the thoughts concerning them, and from Merob, that is, from his daughter gluttony, receiving as offspring the modes of misuse of the senses, is accustomed to kill the principles in the nature of beings, that is, those according to nature, as Gibeonites, and

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τῶν φαύλων ἐνθύμησις, αἰσχύνη στόματος, τουτέστι τοῦ νοῦ, καὶ οὖσα καὶ λεγομένη.

Ἢ πάλιν, ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν ἐστιν(6) ὁ τόπος τοῦ νῦν κρατοῦντος ἐπιτιμίου τῆς φύσεως, τουτέστιν ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ὡς χωρίον θανάτου καὶ φθορᾶς διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν γενόμενος, εἰς ὃν ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου μετὰ τὴν παράβασιν τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς ὁ πρῶτος κατέπεσεν ἄνθρωπος· ὅντινα κόσμον κατὰ τὴν τῆς γνώμης φιλήδονον σχέσιν, ἤγουν τὴν κοσμικὴν προσπάθειαν, γεννᾶν πέφυκεν (14Γ_370> ἐκ τῆς κατὰ μόνην τὴν ἐν λόγῳ τοῦ νόμου προφορὰν μαθήσεως ὁ μὴ διαβαίνων κατὰ νοῦν πρὸς τὴν ἔνδον ἐν πνεύματι τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος θείαν εὐπρέπειαν. Αἰσχύνη δὲ στόματος αὐτῶν ἐστι ἡ κατὰ νοῦν φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν καὶ φιλοσώματος. Ἐν ᾧ γὰρ ὁ κόσμος ἐκ τῆς ἐμφαινομένης τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου σωματικῆς διαπλάσεως(7) κατὰ τὴν γνωμικὴν σχέσιν γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκεν, ἤγουν ἡ τὸν κόσμον φιλοῦσα διάθεσις, καὶ ἡ κατὰ νοῦν φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν εἰκότως συγγεννᾶται καὶ φιλοσώματος.

Ἢ πάλιν, ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν ἐστιν(8) ἡ πρόσυλος καὶ ἀκαλλὴς τῶν παθῶν καὶ ἀδιατύπωτος κίνησις, αἰσχύνη δὲ στόματός ἐστιν ἡ τοῖς πάθεσιν εἶδος ἐπάγουσα καὶ τὸ καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν πρὸς αἴσθησιν διαπλάττουσα κάλλος τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις. Χωρὶς γὰρ τῆς κατὰ νοῦν ἐπινοητικῆς δυνάμεως πρὸς διάπλασιν μορφῆς οὐδαμῶς ἄγεται πάθος. Οὐκοῦν ὁ μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου περιγράφων τῆς θείας ἐπαγγελίας τὴν δύναμιν παλλακὴν ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γυναῖκα νόμιμον ἔχει τοῦ νόμου τὴν μάθησιν. Ὅθεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἡ τοιαύτη μάθησις, οὐ δι᾽ ἑαυτὴν ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν αὐτὴν σωματικῶς ἐκδεχόμενον, ἤγουν συγγινόμενον, γεννᾷ τὸ ἀνάθεμα καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην. Ὁ γὰρ διὰ τρυφὴν σωματικὴν καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν τὰς θυσίας καὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς τά τε σάββατα καὶ τὰς νεομηνίας κατὰ τὸν νόμον τὸν Θεὸν διατεταχέναι πιστεύων πάντῃ τε καὶ πάντως ὑπὸ τὴν ἐνοχὴν γενήσεται τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας(9) καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς αἰσχρῶν λογισμῶν ῥυπαρίας, ὑπό τε τὸν φθειρόμενον ἔσται κόσμον καὶ τὴν ἐν λογισμοῖς φιλοσώματον μελέτην ὑπό τε τὴν ὕλην τῶν παθῶν καὶ τὸ εἶδος, μηδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν τῶν φθειρομένων τίμιον ἔχειν δυνάμενος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τυχὸν κακῶς γεννῶν τὴν Μερόβ, τὴν γεννῶσαν υἱοὺς πέντε τῷ Ἐσδριήλ. Μερὸβ δὲ 'πλησμονὴ φάρυγγος' ἑρμηνεύεται, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ γαστριμαργία. Μόνη γὰρ αὕτη, (14Γ_372> παρὰ τῆς ἐντολῆς ἰουδαϊκῶς λαβοῦσα τὴν ἄδειαν, τοὺς κατὰ παράχρησιν τρόπους γεννᾷ τῶν αἰσθήσεων τῷ Ἐσδριήλ, ἤγουν τῷ θεωρητικῷ μέρει τῆς ψυχῆς. Ἐσδριὴλ γὰρ ἑρμηνεύεται 'θεία δύναμις ἢ βοηθὸς ἰσχυρὸς ἢ βλέψις δυνατή,' ὅπερ ἐστὶν ὁ κατ᾽ εἰκόνα μὲν Θεοῦ γενόμενος νοῦς.

Τὴν δὲ γαστριμαργίαν, ὡς τοῦ κατ᾽ ἐντολὴν σαρκὸς νόμου, τουτέστι τοῦ γράμματος, γέννημα, παραπεισθεὶς συνοικισάμενος. Πεισθεὶς γὰρ ὁ νοῦς θείας ἐντολῆς εἶναι διαταγήν, κατὰ τὸν ἐν γράμματι νόμον, τὴν κατὰ σάρκα τρυφήν(10), ἄλλην οὐ προσίεται πλὴν αὐτῆς πρὸς συμβίωσιν, ὡς θείαν καὶ νόμου τοῦ βασιλεύοντος αὐτὴν ἡγησάμενος γέννημα, καὶ τοὺς κατὰ παράχρησιν ἐξ αὐτῆς τῶν αἰσθήσεων συνίστησι τρόπους. Ἐπειδὰν γὰρ τὸ θεωρητικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν τρυφὴν κατὰ τὸν ἐν γράμματι νόμον ὡς θείαν διὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν ἀσπάσηται πρὸς συμβίωσιν, τὴν τῶν αἰσθήσεων παρὰ φύσιν μετέρχεται χρῆσιν, μηδεμιᾶς συγχωροῦν κατὰ φύσιν διαφαίνεσθαι τὴν χρῆσιν τῆς ἐνεργείας.

Ὁ τοίνυν σωματικῶς τοῦ νόμου τὴν μάθησιν ἐξασκούμενος(11), οἷα δὴ παλλακὴν ἀλλ᾽ οὐ νόμιμον ἔχων γυναῖκα τῶν θείων τὴν εἴδησιν καὶ γεννῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς τὸ ἀνάθεμα τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς λογισμῶν ἀηδίας καὶ ἐκ τῆς Μερόβ, τουτέστι τῆς αὐτοῦ θυγατρὸς γαστριμαργίας, ἔκγονα λαμβάνων τοὺς κατὰ παράχρησιν τρόπους τῶν αἰσθήσεων, τοὺς ἐν τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων, ἤγουν τοὺς κατὰ φύσιν, ὡς Γαβαωνίτας, ἀποκτέννειν εἴωθε λόγους καὶ