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of God alone according to the flesh, and having innovated the laws of the statutes according to nature, and prepared before the face of all the peoples, and “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” For our Lord is truly a light to the Gentiles(60), revealing to them through true knowledge the eyes of the intellect that were shut in the darkness of ignorance, and having prepared himself again(61) as a good exemplar of virtue for the faithful (14Γ_412> peoples, having become for them an outline and a pattern of a face according to virtue; looking to him, as the author of our salvation, we achieve virtues through practice, by imitation, as far as is possible for us.

But also “the glory of the people Israel” is he himself, God and Logos(62), as one who illumines the mind with the divine light of knowledge through mystical contemplation. Or perhaps the discourse speaks of peoples as the principles according to nature(63), and the face of these principles as the true, unerring opinion concerning beings, of which preparation for knowledge the Logos himself has clearly been established as the creator of nature, and the Gentiles as the passions contrary to nature(64), which he reveals when they are hidden, bestowing the light of knowledge, and utterly expels from nature; and the Logos becomes the glory of Israel(65), as one who cleanses the mind from the passions contrary to nature and adorns it with the principles according to nature, and furthermore, binds it with the diadem of immutability according to deification. For the glory of Israel is truly the deliverance from passions contrary to nature, the achievement of principles according to nature, and the acquisition of goods beyond nature. The one who receives this intelligible David, even if he is envied by Saul, is not captured; but on the contrary, through much love for mankind, as one without passion, though being hated he heals with the harp of the spirit his enemy who is being choked by an evil spirit, and makes him sober-minded, freeing him, as from an evil demon, from the evil seizure of earthly-mindedness. For everyone who through envy hates and wickedly slanders with calumnies the one who is stronger in the struggles of virtues and in the abundance of the word of spiritual knowledge is a Saul, being choked by an evil spirit, not bearing the glory of the happiness in virtue and knowledge of the (14Γ_414> better man and for this reason raging all the more, because he cannot destroy his benefactor.

And often he also bitterly sends away his dearest Jonathan, I mean the innate reasoning according to conscience, which rebukes the unjust hatred and truthfully recounts the achievements of the one who is hated, like the Saul of old who was truly vain; to whom Samuel says, as to a transgressor of the divine commandments: “It has become vain for you, because you have transgressed my commandment, which God commanded you.” Saul, as I have said before, is either the written law or the people of the Jews living according to the written law. For from both, being thus earthily intertwined with each other, the spirit of the Lord departs, which is spiritual contemplation and knowledge, and an evil spirit comes upon them, that is, the material mindset, with the successive disturbances and whirlings of things under generation and corruption, choking them, as though they were epileptics, with the instability of their thoughts. For both the law, when understood earthily according to the letter alone, is epileptic, being shaken by myriad contradictions and having no harmony with itself; and the Judaizing mind, raging with the unstable revolution of material things, of necessity itself also has its own disposition correspondingly changed in an unstable way. But whenever David, the one truly musical by nature, our Lord Jesus, sings with the spirit of gnostic contemplation to both the law and the Jew, he makes the one spiritual instead of earthly, and he transfers the other to faith from unbelief. Therefore, according to Saul, both the law and the people of the Jews are both epileptic and sober-minded. For the law is epileptic (14Γ_416> is, as I said, when taken earthily, and the Jew is epileptic, wishing to worship God earthily; and again the law is sober-minded,

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Θεοῦ μόνος τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, καὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν θεσμῶν καινοτομήσας τοὺς νόμους, καὶ κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν λαῶν ἡτοιμασμένος, καὶ «φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν καὶ δόξαν λαοῦ Ἰσραήλ». Φῶς γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐθνῶν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν(60), ἀποκαλύπτων αὐτοῖς διὰ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιγνώσεως τοὺς τῷ ζόφῳ τῆς ἀγνοίας ἐπιμεμυκότας ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς διανοίας, καὶ θείας ἀγωγῆς πάλιν ἑαυτὸν ἑτοιμάσας(61) τοῖς πιστοῖς (14Γ_412> λαοῖς ἀγαθὸν ἀρετῆς ἐξεμπλάριον, προσώπου τοῦ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ὑπογραμμὸς αὐτοῖς γενόμενος καὶ ὑποτύπωσις· πρὸς ὃν ἀφορῶντες, ὡς ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν, τὰς ἀρετὰς κατὰ μίμησιν, ὡς ἡμῖν ἐστι δυνατόν, κατορθοῦμεν διὰ τῆς πράξεως.

Ἀλλὰ καὶ «δόξα λαοῦ Ἰσραὴλ» αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Λόγος(62), ὡς τῷ θείῳ τῆς γνώσεως φωτὶ διὰ τῆς μυστικῆς θεωρίας καταφαιδρύνων τὸν νοῦν. Ἢ τυχὸν λαούς φησιν ὁ λόγος τοὺς κατὰ φύσιν λόγους(63), πρόσωπον δὲ τούτων τῶν λόγων τὴν ἀληθῆ περὶ τῶν ὄντων ἄπταιστον δόξαν, ἧς ἑτοιμασία σαφῶς πρὸς ἐπίγνωσιν αὐτὸς καθέστηκεν ὁ Λόγος ὡς κτίστης τῆς φύσεως, ἔθνη δὲ τὰ παρὰ φύσιν πάθη(64), ἅπερ ἀποκαλύπτει λανθάνοντα, φῶς δωρούμενος γνώσεως, καὶ παντελῶς ἐξωθεῖται τῆς φύσεως· δόξα δὲ γίνεται τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ὁ Λόγος(65), ὡς τῶν παρὰ φύσιν παθῶν ἀποκαθαίρων τὸν νοῦν καὶ τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν λόγοις κατακοσμῶν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τῷ διαδήματι τῆς κατὰ τὴν θέωσιν ἀτρεψίας ἐπισφίγγων. ∆όξα γὰρ ἀληθῶς ὑπάρχει τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἥ τε τῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἀπαλλαγὴ παθῶν καὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν λόγων κατόρθωσις καὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ φύσιν ἐπίκτησις ἀγαθῶν. Ὁ τοῦτον τὸν νοητὸν ∆αβὶδ προσδεχόμενος, κἂν φθονῆται ὑπὸ Σαούλ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ἁλίσκεται· ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὐναντίον διὰ πολλὴν φιλανθρωπίαν, ὡς ἀπαθής, καὶ μισούμενος θεραπεύει τῇ κιθάρᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος τὸν ἐχθρὸν πονηρῷ καταπνιγόμενον πνεύματι, καὶ ποιεῖ σώφρονα, λύων αὐτόν, καθάπερ δαίμονος πονηροῦ, τῆς κακῆς τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φρονήματος ἐπιληψίας. Πᾶς γὰρ διὰ φθόνον μισῶν καὶ κακῶς διαθρυλλῶν ταῖς διαβολαῖς τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι τῶν ἀρετῶν καὶ τῇ περιουσίᾳ τοῦ λόγου τῆς πνευματικῆς γνώσεως δυνατώτερον Σαούλ ἐστιν, πονηρῷ καταπνιγόμενος πνεύματι, μὴ φέρων τὸ κλέος τῆς κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν καὶ γνῶσιν εὐδαιμονίας τοῦ (14Γ_414> κρείττονος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πλέον μαινόμενος, ὅτι μὴ δύναται τὸν εὐεργέτην διαχειρίσασθαι.

Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν ἀποπέμπεται πικρῶς τὸν φίλτατον Ἰωνάθαν, τὸν ἔμφυτον λέγω κατὰ συνείδησιν λογισμόν, τὸ ἄδικον μῖσος ἐλέγχοντα καὶ τοῦ μισουμένου φιλαλήθως ἀφηγούμενον τὰ κατορθώματα κατὰ τὸν πάλαι καὶ μάταιον ὄντως Σαούλ· πρὸς ὅν φησι Σαμουήλ, ὡς παραβάτην τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν· «μεματαίωταί σοι, ὅτι παρέβης τὴν ἐντολήν μου, ἣν ἐνετείλατό σοι ὁ Θεός». Σαούλ, ὡς προέφην, ἐστὶν ἢ ὁ γραπτὸς νόμος ἢ ὁ κατὰ τὸν γραπτὸν νόμον πολιτευόμενος λαὸς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Ἀμφοτέρων γὰρ οὕτω χοϊκῶς ἀλλήλοις συμπεπλεγμένων ἀφίσταται τὸ πνεῦμα Κυρίου, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ πνευματικὴ θεωρία καὶ γνῶσις, καὶ ἐπέρχεται πνεῦμα πονηρόν, τουτέστι τὸ ὑλικὸν φρόνημα, ταῖς ἀλλεπαλλήλοις τῶν ὑπὸ γένεσιν καὶ φθορὰν ταραχαῖς καὶ δινήσεσι, ὡς ἐπιλήπτους, τῇ ἀστασίᾳ τῶν λογισμῶν καταπνῖγον. Ὅ τε γὰρ νόμος, χοϊκῶς πρὸς μόνον τὸ γράμμα νοούμενος, ἐπίληπτός ἐστι, μυρίαις δονούμενος ἐναντιώσεσι καὶ μηδεμίαν ἔχων πρὸς ἑαυτὸν συμφωνίαν· ὅ τε ἰουδαΐζων νοῦς, τῇ ἀστάτῳ περιφορᾷ τῶν ὑλικῶν ἐπιμαινόμενος, ἀστάτως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν οἰκείαν συμμεταβαλλομένην ἔχει διάθεσιν. Ὁπηνίκα δὲ ∆αβίδ, ὁ κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν φύσει μουσικός, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς, ἐπᾴσει τῷ πνεύματι τῆς γνωστικῆς θεωρίας τόν τε νόμον καὶ τὸν Ἰουδαῖον, τὸν μὲν ἀντὶ χοϊκοῦ ποιεῖ πνευματικόν, τὸν δὲ μετάγει πρὸς πίστιν ἐξ ἀπιστίας. Ἔστιν οὖν, κατὰ τὸν Σαούλ, ὅ τε νόμος καὶ ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαὸς καὶ ἐπίληπτος καὶ σώφρων. Ἐπίληπτος γὰρ ὁ νόμος (14Γ_416> ἐστίν, ὡς ἔφην, χοϊκῶς λαμβανόμενος, καὶ ἐπίληπτος ὁ Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν, χοϊκῶς τῷ Θεῷ λατρεύειν βουλόμενος· καὶ πάλιν σώφρων ὁ νόμος ἐστίν,