189

But the Eta, also as an acrostic, indicates a most steadfast character of virtue; which things the patriarch Abraham, having mystically arranged according to number, went out with courage against the opposing powers, as having three hundred and eighteen of his household; that is, the principle of theology which circumscribes the whole, through the 't'; and the ineffable mystery of the divine incarnation of the Word (568) through the ten; and the perfect mode of steadfast disposition according to virtue through the eight; which the account called "of his household," as being divine offspring according to grace from the heart of him who possessed them.

27. How the number three hundred denotes perfect providence. 28. The number one hundred is the tenfold multiplication of the divine decad of the commandments;

for there is a perfect comprehension of all of them, activated in each one through the others. And the comprehension of the divine commandments activated in each one through the others is complete and whole virtue. And perfect virtue is an unerring knowledge of the truth. Therefore, the unerring mind that knows the truth became a hundred years old according to the great Abraham, he too considering his own body to be dead; that is, he sees the life according to sense ceasing, and begets the joy that lives in the spirit. For this is what Isaac is interpreted to mean. It belongs to providence, therefore, not only to preserve nature according to its own principle, but also to make it divine, the will having been perfectly qualified by the virtues according to acquired wisdom; with which nature, when contemplated, is constituted to complete the number three hundred.

29. The number six holds the perfect declaration of the being of existing things. But the number ten signifies the constitution of the well-being of existing things. Therefore, by multiplying the six by ten, or the ten by six, one makes the number sixty, which declares the state of well-being of existing things in actuality.

30. Of flesh and of sense and of the world, clearly. 31. Who, according to the spiritual interpretation, are the Hebrew boy and the Hebrew girl. 32. When dispassion arrives, he says, which the seventh year denotes, both reason and thought return to the contemplation of kindred things, having received freedom from the service of the virtues in corporeal modes.

33. They say that pleasure is desire in action, since according to its definition it is a present good. And desire is pleasure not in action, since according to its definition it is a future good. And anger, the movement of contemplated madness; and madness, anger in action. He, therefore, who has subjected these powers to reason finds desire becoming pleasure for him in the soul's unstained intercourse with the Divine in grace; and anger, a pure ardor guarding the pleasure found in the Divine, and a sober madness, which completely transports the soul's volitional power from existing things according to its yearning for the Divine. Therefore, as long as the world lives in us through the soul's voluntary relation to material things, we must not grant freedom to these powers; lest, being mixed with perceptible things as with their kin, they make war on the soul, and take it captive to the passions, as the Babylonians once did to Jerusalem. For the age, during which the law commanded the foreign-born children to serve, (569) the account signified the soul's volitional relation to this world, that is, to the present life, showing through the things narrated the things that are understood.

34. The number seven thousand, set here as praiseworthy, signifies the temporal and present life adorned with virtue and reason. For if the number one thousand signifies, according to the meaning given in the myriads, that the written and natural law are fitting for one another in the life of the God-loving, it is clear from this that seven thousand denotes the entire life of the God-loving under time, guarded by these. But the three hundred, the being according to nature, and the well-being according to grace of

189

Τό δέ Ἦτα, ὡς ἀκροστίχιον καί αὐτό, ἀρετῆς ἦθος παραδηλοῖ παγιώτατον· ἅπερ πρός ἀριθμόν μυστικῶς μετάξας, θαῤῥῶν ἐξῆλθε κατά τῶν ἐναντίων δυνάμων Ἀβραάμ ὁ πατριάρχης, ὡς οἰκογενῶν ἔχων τριακοσίους δέκα καί ὀκτώ· τουτέστι τόν τό πᾶν περιγράφοντα τῆς θεολογίας λόγον διά τοῦ τ΄· καί τό ἄῤῤητον μυστήριον τῆς θείας τοῦ Λόγου ( 568) σαρκώσεως διά τούς δέκα· καί τόν τέλειον τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν παγίας ἕξεως τρόπον διά τοῦ ὀκτώ· ἅπερ οἰκογενῆ προσηγόρευσεν ὁ λόγος, ὡς τῆς καρδίας ὄντα τοῦ κτησαμένου θεῖα κατά χάριν γεννήματα.

κζ΄. Πῶς κατά τόν ἀριθμόν τήν τελείαν δηλοῖ πρόνοιαν ὁ τριακόσια. κη΄. Ὁ ἑκατόν ἀριθμός, τῆς θείας τῶν ἐντολῶν δεκάδος ἐστί δεκαπλασιασμός·

πασῶν γάρ ἐστι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐνεργουμένη δι᾿ ἀλλήλων τελεία περίληψις. ἡ δέ δι᾿ ἀλλήλων τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐνεργουμένη περίληψίς ἐστιν, ἡ παντελής καί ὁλόκληρος ἀρετή. Ἀρετή δέ τελεία ἐστίν, ἄπταιστος γνῶσις τῆς ἀληθείας. Ὁ τοίνυν ἄπταιστος νοῦς τήν ἀλήθειαν ἑκατονταετής γέγονε κατά τόν μέγαν Ἀβράαμ, κατανοῶν καί αὐτός τό ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα νενεκρωμένον· τουτέστιν, ἀπογινόμενον ὁρᾷ τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ζωήν, καί γεννᾷ τήν ἐν πνεύματι ζῶσαν χαράν. Τοῦτο γάρ Ἰσαάκ ἑρμηνεύεται. Προνοίας οὖν ἐστι μή μόνον φυλάξαι κατά τήν ἑαυτῆς λόγον τήν φύσιν, ἀλλά καί ποιῆσαι θείαν, ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τελείως ποιωθεῖσαν τήν γνώμην κατά τήν ἐπίκτητον σοφίαν· μεθ᾿ ἧς ἡ φύσις θεωρουμένη, τόν τριακόσια πέφυκεν ἀποτελεῖν ἀριθμόν.

κθ΄. Ὁ ἕξ ἀριθμός τήν τελείαν ἔχει τοῦ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων δήλωσιν. Ὁ δέ δέκα τήν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι σημαίνει τῶν ὄντων σύστασιν. ∆εκαπλασιάσας οὖν τόν ἕξ, ἤ ἑξαπλασιάσας τόν δέκα τις, ποιεῖ τόν ἑξήκοντα, δηλοῦντα τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων κατάστασιν.

λ΄. Σαρκός καί αἰσθήσεως καί κόσμου δῆλον ὅτι. λα΄. Τίνες εἰσί κατά τήν ἀναγωγήν ὁ Ἑβραῖος παῖς καί ἡ Ἑβραία παιδίσκη. λβ΄. Ἀπαθείας, φησίν, ἥν τό ἕβδομον ἔτος δηλοῖ, παραγενομένης, πρός τήν τῶν

συγγενῶν ἐπανέρχονται θεωρίαν, ὅ τε λόγος καί ἡ διάνοια, λαβόντες ἐλευθερίαν, τῆς ἐπί τοῖς σωματικοῖς τρόποις τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπουργίας.

λγ΄. Τήν ἐνεργουμένην ἐπιθυμίαν φασίν εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν, εἴπερ παρόν ἀγαθόν κατά τήν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν. Ἀνενέργητον δέ ἡδονήν τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, εἴπερ μέλλον ἀγαθόν κατά τόν αὐτῆς ἐστιν ὁρισμόν. Τόν δέ θυμόν, μανίας μελετωμένης κίνησιν· καί τήν μανίαν θυμόν ἐνεργούμενον. Ὁ γοῦν ταύτας συνυποτάξας τῷ λόγῳ τάς δυνάμεις, εὑρίσκει τήν μέν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτῷ γινομένην ἡδονήν κατά τήν ἐν χάριτι πρός τό Θεῖον τῆς ψυχῆς ἄχραντον συμπλοκήν· τόν δέ θυμόν, ζέσιν ἀκήρατον τῆς περί τό Θεῖον ἡδονῆς φρουρητικήν, καί σώφρονα μανίαν, τῆς κατά τήν ἔφεσιν τῆς ψυχῆς περί τό Θεῖον θελητικῆς δυνάμεως ἀπό τῶν ὄντων τελείως ἐκστατικήν. Οὐκοῦν ἕως ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ κόσμος ζῇ κατά τήν πρός τά ὑλικά τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον σχέσιν, οὐ δεῖ ταύταις παρέχειν ἐλευθερίαν ταῖς δυνάμεσι· μήπως μιγεῖσαι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ὡς ὁμοφύλοις, πολεμήσωσι τήν ψυχήν, καί λάβωσιν αὐτήν δορυάλωτον γεγενημένην τοῖς πάθεσιν, ὡς πάλαι τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ οἱ Βαβυλώνιοι. Τόν γάρ αἰῶνα, καθ᾿ ὅν τούς ἀλλοφύλους παῖδας ὁ νόμος δουλεύειν ἐκέλευσε, ( 569) τήν πρός τόν κόσμον τοῦτον, ἤγουν τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν γνωμικήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐσήμανε σχέσιν ὁ λόγος, διά τῶν ἱστορουμένων παραδεικνύς τά νοούμενα.

λδ΄. Ὁ ἑπτακισχίλια ἀριθμός ἐπαινετός ἐνταῦθα κείμενος, τήν χρονικήν καί παροῦσαν ζωήν ἀρετῇ καί λόγῳ σημαίνει κεκοσμημένην. Εἰ γάρ γραπτόν καί φυσικόν νόμον ὁ χιλιάς ἀριθμός, κατά τήν ἀποδοθεῖσαν ἐν ταῖς μυριάσιν ἔννοιαν, περί τόν βίον ἀλλήλοις σημαίνει τοῦ φιλοθέου συμπρέποντας, δῆλον ἐντεῦθεν ὡς ἑπτακισχίλια πᾶσαν τούτοις φρουρουμένην τήν ὑπό χρόνον δηλοῖ τοῦ φιλοθέου ζωήν. Ὁ δέ τριακόσια, τήν ἐπί τό εἶναι κατά φύσιν, καί εὖ εἶναι κατά χάριν τῶν