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significant of rational knowledge. Therefore, by joining the four hundred and thirty-five, you indicated the rational knowledge according to nature and time of the divine men living in them.

41. The numbered things agree with the numbers. The horse is swift in the race, having the ever-moving and upward-tending element in its feet; time is sharp in its movement, making its own course without interval, the action of the numbered things is effective; for a cyclical number makes it manifest. For that which is composed with itself six times generates itself sixfold. Therefore, the swift and strong and effective character of the virtuous disposition of the divinely signified men has been indicated by the word of the spirit through the horses and their numbers.

42. What is a mule. 43. What is the blameworthy horse and mule of Scripture. 44. He who gives to his observers a presumption of knowledge about himself, he says, only by

the utterance of the words he has stolen, persuading the ears of the foolish like Absalom, and by his company tyrannically defiling the beautiful God-loving theories of his teacher as if they were women, for (573) uninitiated ears, according to the counsel of Achitophel, which is interpreted as a brother plastering over; that is, a brother loving with guile, is convicted of being vainglorious, falling under the hand of the servants of David, in the breadth of the diversity of natural contemplations, arraying himself against the superior with his own audacity. For he is shown neither to walk on the earth, as not having the stability of a virtuous character; nor indeed to have grasped heaven at all, as having not in the least touched the truly lofty disposition according to knowledge; and he dies receiving three darts against his heart, I mean the memory of the transgression against his teacher, and the shame for the conceit of non-existent knowledge; and in addition to these, the inescapable acceptance of the coming judgment. For the vainglorious one, detected by these barbs, dies, being struck, whom the evil counselor Achitophel precedes, suffering death by hanging, as was just, teaching children to rise up against their fathers, and seeing his evil counsel scattered. For he can no longer bear to live, having lifted the veil of his blameworthy friendship with David, and being unable to show that the vainglorious and falsely-named gnostic held the power of the word.

45. A contemplation on the same things in another way. 46. Gilead, interpreted as a migration of mourning, he says, of repentance

indicates the hardship; but as a migration of witness, it signifies the conviction of the conscience over transgressions; and as a revelation of them, it typifies the specific confession of sins committed. Having undergone this state, the mind that has conceit pursuing it on account of some good, kills the conceit born from it through union with foreign sensation; and again returns to Judea and Jerusalem; I mean, the confession of the divine mercies upon it; and the perfect dispassion in virtues; and the peaceful contemplation of beings in spirit; and upon these, as a divine tabernacle, mystical theology; in which the beauties completely unseen by others are mystically veiled.

47. The number eight, being one of the numbers within ten; and eighty, of those within a hundred; and eight hundred, of those within a thousand; and eight thousand, of those within ten thousand, being contemplated in themselves, indicate immobility, according to the relaxation and intensification of the quantity. Therefore, being placed laudably in Scripture, they indicate perfect immobility with respect to the passions; (5760 that is, the cessation of passions. And this characterizes the state of the age to come, in which there is no generation of passions. But forty bears the image of sensible things; and five, of the senses; to which, according to natural knowledge, the sensible world is subject. Rightly, therefore, concerning wickedness

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λογικῆς ἐπιστήμης σημαντικός. Συνάψας οὖν τόν τετρακόσια καί τριάκοντα καί πέντε, τήν κατά φύσιν καί χρόνον τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ζώντων θείων ἀνδρῶν λογικήν ἐπιστήμην ἐδήλωσας.

μα΄. Συμφωνεῖ τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς τά ἀριθμούμενα. Ὁ ἵππος περί τόν δρόμον ταχύς, τό ἀεικίνητον καί ἀνωφερές στοιχεῖον ἔχων ἐν τοῖς ποσίν· ὁ χρόνος περί τήν κίνησιν ὀξύς, ἀδιάστατον τήν οἰκείαν ποιούμενος φοράν, ἡ πρᾶξις τῶν ἀριθμουμένων δραστική· κυκλικός γάρ αὐτήν ἀριθμός ποιεῖται κατάδηλον. Ὁ γάρ ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἑξάκις συντεθείς, ἑαυτόν γεννᾷ ἑξαπλάσιον. Οὐκοῦν τό ταχύ καί ἰξύ καί δραστικόν τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἕξεως, μυστικῶς δηλουμένων θείων ἀνδρῶν, διά τῶν ἵππων καί τῶν αὐτῶν ἀριθμῶν δεδήλωκεν ὁ λόγος τοῦ πνεύματος.

μβ΄. Τί ἐστιν ἡμίονος. μγ΄. Τίς ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς ψεκτός ἵππος καί ἡμίονός ἐστι. μδ΄. Ὁ πρόληψιν περί ἑαυτοῦ γνώσεως, φησί, τοῖς θεωμένοις διδούς κατά μόνην

τήν προφοράν ὧν σεσύληκε λόγων, τάς τῶν ἀσυνέτων ἀκοάς ὡς Ἀβεσαλώμ παραπείθων, καί τῇ συνουσίᾳ τυραννικῶς τάς καλάς τοῦ διδάξαντος θεοφιλεῖς ὥσπερ γυναῖκας, εἰς (573) ἀκοάς ἀμύστους μιαίνων θεωρίας κατά τήν Ἀχιτόφελ συμβουλήν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἑρμηνευόμενον ἀδελφός κονιάζων· τουτέστιν ἀδελφός δόλῳ φιλιάζων, ἐλέγχεται δοξομανῶν, ὑπό τήν χεῖρα πίπτων τῶν παίδων ∆αβίδ, ἐν τῷ πλάτει τῆς τῶν φυσικῶν θεωρημάτων ποικιλίας, τῷ κρείττονι μετά τῆς οἰκείας αὐθαδείας παραταττόμενος. ∆είκνυται γάρ μήτε γῆς ἐπιβαίνων, ὡς ἤθους ἀρετῆς πῆξιν οὐκ ἔχων· μήτε μήν οὐρανοῦ παντελῶς ἐπιλαβόμενος, ὡς τῆς ἀληθῶς ὑψηλῆς κατά τήν γνῶσιν ἕξεως οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἁψάμενος· καί θνήσκει τρία βέλη κατά τῆς καρδίας δεχόμενος, τήν τε τῆς εἰς τόν διδάξαντα παρανομίας φημί μνήμην, καί τήν ἐπί τῇ οἰήσει τῆς οὐκ οὔσης γνώσεως αἰσχύνην· καί τήν ἐπί τούτοις ἄφυκτον τῆς μελλούσης κρίσεως ἀποδοχήν. Ταύταις γάρ φωραθείς ὁ κενόδοξος ταῖς ἀκίσι, θνήσκει βαλλόμενος, ὅν προλαμβάνει τόν δι᾿ ἀγχόνης, ὡς δίκαιον ἦν, ἀποφερόμενος θάνατον, ὁ κακός σύμβουλος Ἀχιτόφελ, διδάσκων πατράσιν ἐπανίστασθαι παῖδας, καί τήν κακήν βουλήν διασκεδαζομένην ὁρῶν. Οὐ φέρει γάρ ἔτι ζῇν, τῆς τε πρός ∆αβίδ ψεκτῆς φιλίας ἄρας τό πέπλον, καί τόν δοξομανῆ καί ψευδώνυμον γνωστικόν, ἔχοντα τοῦ λόγου τό κράτος ἀποδεῖξαι μή δυνηθείς.

με΄. Κατ᾿ ἄλλον τρόπον περί τῶν αὐτῶν θεωρία. μστ΄. Γαλαάδ, ὡς μέν μετοικία πένθους ἑρμηνευομένη, φησί, τήν τῆς μετανοίας

δηλοῖ κακοπάθειαν· ὡς δέ μετοικία μαρτυρίας, τόν ἐπί τοῖς πλημεληθεῖσιν ἔλεγχον σημαίνει τῆς συνειδήσεως· ὡς δέ ἀποκάλυψις αὐτῶν, τήν κατ᾿ εἶδος τυποῖ τῶν ἁμαρτηθέντων ἐξαγόρευσιν. Ταύτην ὑπελθών τήν κατάστασιν, ὁ τήν οἴησιν ἐπί τινι καλῷ διώκουσαν ἔχων νοῦς, τήν ἐξ αὐτοῦ κατά τήν πρός τήν ἀλλόφυλον αἴσθησιν ἕνωσιν γεννηθεῖσαν οἴησιν ἀποκτείνει· καί πάλιν πρός τήν Ἰουδαίαν καί τήν Ἱερουσαλήμ ἐπανέρχεται· λέγω δέ, τήν ἐξομολόγησιν τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ θείων οἰκτιρμῶν· καί τήν ἐπ᾿ ἀρεταῖς τελείαν ἀπάθειαν· καί τήν εἰρηνικήν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν τῶν ὄντων· καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς, οἷα δή θείαν σκηνήν μυστικήν θεολογίαν· ἐν ᾗ μυστικῶς τά παντελῶς τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀθέατα περικαλύπτεται κάλλη.

μζ΄. Ὁ ὀκτώ εἷς ὤν τῶν ἐντός δεκάδος ἀριθμῶν· καί ὁ ὀγδοήκοντα, τῶν ἐντός ἑκατοντάδος· καί ὁ ὀκτακόσια, τῶν ἐντός χιλιάδος· καί ὁ ὀκτακισχίλια, τῶν ἐντός μυριάδος, ἀκινησίαν καθ᾿ ἑαυτούς θεωρούμενοι δηλοῦσι, κατά μέντοι τήν ἄνεσιν τοῦ ποσοῦ καί τήν ἐπίτασιν. Οὐκοῦν ἐπαινετῶς τῇ Γραφῇ κείμενοι, τήν πρός τά πάθη τελείαν ἀκινησίαν δηλοῦσι· (5760 τουτέστι, παθῶν ἀπογένεσιν. Τοῦτο δέ τήν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος χαρακτηρίζει κατάστασιν, ἐν ᾧ παθῶν γένεσις οὐκ ἔστιν. Ὁ δέ τεσσαράκοντα, τῶν αἰσθητῶν εἰκόνα φέρει· καί ὁ πέντε, τῶν αἰσθήσεων· αἷς κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην φυσικήν ὁ αἰσθητός ὑποπέπτωκε κόσμος. Εἰκότως οὖν τήν περί κακίαν