Theologica
ascending step by step, they are introduced as guests to the master of the house, and being very pleased with the furnished room, they lead the teache
such as euphratius, emitting a certain life-giving radiance, for this color is a symbol of life while another is purely white, shining with the beaut
of the heresy, he asks whether the name of the Father is significant of essence or of energy, so that, if we should say essence, he might immediately
Eunomius as not being able to reason logically and being ashamed that he is engaged in arguments with such an unlearned man. For it was necessary, he
I know,” says the father, “whether they deceive themselves or those about whom the argument is for not simply, whatever is said of something, will al
if we grant your proposition to be true, that the Father is greater by nature, it will also be true that what is by nature is not in every case great
has prevailed to be called. The procedure of the sorites is of this sort: for the sophist asks, Will a medimnus be filled by one grain, and will some
to follow alien whistles. For, he says, my sheep hear my voice a voice not of the inarticulate kind that proceeds according to a certain sound, w
he drew these muddy streams but if he uttered anything else besides this, he himself would know and those who are familiar with his writings. Not onl
overshadowing the womb of the virgin he declared, nor did he interpret the name Christ as he ought, which signifies the dual nature with the one per
an opposing virtue to this bestial and bodily union, and without it, he declares that no one will see the Lord. Then, wishing to establish how this pa
shaking it daily and by continuous licentiousness disturbing its tone, and from this adding agitation and trembling to it. These things the apostle sa
having set a god or mind over the creation of beings, others did not comprehend this, but grasped at a material principle, positing ethers or airs or
“But others imagined that the nature of visible things is held together by atoms and indivisible bodies and masses and hard substances.” Who are these
intertwining supports and counter-foundations came to be, these indeed also begot stronger bodies and those least expended in a short time but as man
In the Song of Songs he is a theologian, in Ecclesiastes a natural philosopher, and in the Proverbs he is simply a pedagogue and a chastiser, subjecti
they attribute to the universe and to their risings and appearances, settings and concealments, and to their configurations with respect to the sun an
to the soul. Therefore, this wisdom, having built the nature that possesses it as a house, so that the building might not slip, supported it round abo
Wisdom, having made these things, commands the senseless to turn aside to her and eat her bread, and to partake of the mixed wine. The sensel
being persuaded by Platonic approaches and Aristotelian arts, to which indeed the children of the Greeks especially attest scientific understanding, b
This scientific understanding must be considered that according to which God created all things in wisdom and in understanding stretched out the he
............]type, a certain supercosmic state, suitable in nature to the intelligible powers, standing [............], always being and for this reas
me, and again, not long after, and before all the hills He begets me. To creation, the why it was created is added for He created me as the beg
And it is reasonably asked what is the archetypal beauty, and how this is manifested in created things, now being represented as an image, now being s
it is imagined as what they have indeed been able to see for the lessening of the images is not due to the divine nature, but due to the weakness of
of a property for Father and Son and Spirit, and the properties are unbegottenness and begottenness and procession, but the divinity is one for that
having come together with an individuated human substance, nothing else has come into being from this ineffable mixing and blending, but even after th
I have become a perfect man, he says, remaining God which I was so also the nature united to me has become perfect God, remaining flesh which it was.
of all to God,» to the Father «of the only-begotten Son,» the word «Lord» is properly applied either to the Son or to the Spirit who is ranked with th
Repentance is not proportional to the offenses, but You, as Lord and able to do whatever You will and not subject to law, mix justice with mercy for m
And how did he who did this secretly and wronged the Israelite Uriah, with whose wife he had lain, work wickedness before him? But furthermore, touchi
inclination for virtue is heavenly, but vice is earthly. Since, then, it was possible to hold fast to the former, he slipped away, having become eart
cut off. Such is the opening speech of the prosecutor but consider what God also sets against it. He was not driven from his ancestral land, O judge,
15 [33.] By the same author, on the Gospel text: Mary turning, she says to him
has it been contained? And in what small particle of earth has the uncontainable one been circumscribed? And I seek lest perhaps the place is also acc
I have not yet ascended to the Father wherefore I do not embrace your touch, nor do I accept the contact of your hand for according to your supposit
This approaches something like for evil is sufficient for the body, and what need has the flame of more fuel? These things, he says, are from us
a full assurance through works, from which proceeds a faith that is without curiosity and unerring “in the name,” he says, “of Jesus of Nazareth, ris
He has set down the name of an artificer as blameless, but has left that of unbelief and heresy unsaid (for he says, he would make Christians instead
God of all.” The twofold explanation of these sayings is sufficient for distinct purposes, for the simple and for the wise, and wherever one places hi
This theological saying, about which you have wisely as[ked], has often troubled me as well, th[at...... “and famines] in such a wealth of goodness, w
to have the benefit inherent in each for in the one, the sweetness of the phrasing is [sweet]ened by the depth of the thought, and in the other, the
name, but is of things that are in some way relative to another, and this is that which is begun but relatives are simultaneous by nature, so that th
And to those with weak sight the rays of the sun seem somehow dim, and our own sufferings are blamed on others who are not suffering. Therefore, the t
you will find prepositions and conjunctions and combinations of nouns placed, as it seems, superfluously whom indeed the great one, emulating, surpas
But from the scriptures self-sufficiency has been witnessed to for God, and if someone should exchange this for fullness as having exceeding power (
three in one, this very thing is as a cause of the others. If, then, we have justly and aptly arbitrated the concepts of the philosophers and have bot
from that which is eternal in both respects, I mean in both substance and energy, will the argument proceed to that which is not eternal in both respe
23 42. From the first oration On the Son, on the text “the three highest opinions concerning God”
The polyarchy of the Chaldeans which indeed, that I too might boast a little, I alone in our times have accurately investigated. Not according to
and each one is able, these things are common to the three. They are therefore distinct in their unity, and united in their distinction but that in w
of love and they say there is a ruling sun from the solar fount, and an archangelic one and a fount of perception, and a fontal judgment, and a ligh
but he accepts the identity of the persons not dogmatically, but hypothetically, so that from this, having reasoned something absurd, he might drive o
substance. If, then, the Son differs from the Father in respect to something pertaining to the substance, it is nothing new for the identity, as you
to each other, which is not granted. This solution is different from the first for he does not wish to show that God and unbegotten are the same, bu
with the birth from bodies he has transferred the honor from the life-giving inbreathing, but to the one from baptism he has allotted these two things
with that pure and godlike inbreathing for David says, in sins did my mother conceive me. But the Word, having become as we are, entering the virgi
deceit in his mouth». He therefore, by the splendor of His pure nature, has honored the need for baptism. For this reason, then, I think, the great Fa
the order of the world, and behind it, the last to be created, man. And if one were to take up the parts of intelligible substance, one will find in e
having suspended them like pearls, and others as stones “engraved,” so that some of them might move and be carried around, while others might be bound
On both sides you will find the divine notion preserved for there is a certain man in Christ, and one is raised up to heaven also in Christ. He who p
he might have drawn it up. Since, then, both are according to reason, for this reason the apostle is in doubt whether this or that happened, when he w
this great beholder and sublime man, having obtained more divine and higher theophanies, at which indeed the mind acts, moving in a circle, as if from
the mind is able to follow, so as to be able to perceive that it communes with things beyond nature, and when the whole vehicle of the soul, the man,
he renewed. This is a second explanation of the opening of the heavens. But why will the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of Man, as if i
of one beginning, then indeed, having beheld the Son clothed in our nature and placing the lower nature above them and not making an addition to the h
but through its connection with the body it has come to be in evil, it does not have entirely extinguished the power of returning to the good, but par
do they not return to the light? because darkness is by nature less than light, and evil than virtue. And I say less judging each according to its own
having immediately beheld its immortality with his mind, received it, this one has both suffered and is being initiated, not that one who learns does
The syntax is Attic, as if one said 'and it enlightened me, who was thirsty, as to the intermediate things', but it must be understood in relation to
the better ones, and I was beseeching the ruler of the vision at that time to bring me to the higher sights, to which indeed the soul's desire provoke
He has not confined it to humans alone, but has also extended it to all living creatures, from which one might see the spider automatically stretching
I might say, that the meanings of the words have produced this ambiguity for us, since, if anyone should wish to consider the truth itself, the judgme
with the emphases concerning each of the narratives, he terribly shakes the hearer. Thus, therefore, both Ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah of Amoz and th
he might suppose. “It came to pass,” he says, “as this day.” For with us, days and nights fill up and define the year, but in the case of the upper an
they are by nature bodiless everywhere,» not circumscribed by place. And from this they will reason that, since the devil is also entirely bodiless, h
having flowed from the heavens, how did you also walk over the whole world under heaven? For what have you to do with the stars or the sun's light or
and the gift of discernment is at work, and the one who has acquired it goes straight forward, but the one who is otherwise has turned aside somewhere
but having come to us it is divided, not by being itself separated and divided, but by the body that received it taking it in a divided manner accordi
nor to the dissolved body, which has become completely unrecognizable because of the difference of its features and the dissolution of its constituent
Ephraim, he says, is the strength of my head and we have interpreted Ephraim as breadth, which is, according to faith in future good things, an unfai
by the measure of a letter. But we, in the way possible for you, not interpreting it more broadly, but as it were translating for the sake of greater
to have the legislation of the first, but to take the outcomes from the second, wings of a dove covered with silver, is said elliptically for they
to ascertain his “weights,” nor having come across any books that announce the measure of his righteous deeds, for these reasons he says, “because I h
Lord of Sabaoth this counsel shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass, but the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. But
ruling these, as being descended from him, were called Ephraim. When therefore this news was spread abroad into Israel, Ahaz had forgotten his own cou
So, one might take from here starting points for allegorizing and for transferring the literal history to the spiritual contemplation, but I am not ac
an utterance and plainly resembling an oracle but it is necessary first to set down the saying by itself, and then to add the interpretation. Woe, l
the passionate pleasures, so that, reaping these instead of every hardship, we may be captured by the waves. And he sends out “papyrus letters upon th
will be trodden underfoot but the Lord of Sabaoth will be the crown of hope, woven for the remnant of the people.” For the former crown was woven fro
are other such names. But they did not hold different opinions from one another about the same matter, as you supposed, neither the evangelist John no
and flashing with the pure whiteness of the intellect for then both Moses and Elias are present with him, that is, the most spiritual words of the Mo
the senses or the commandments or the virtues or the principles of created things but the devil crucifies all these things, not allowing them to oper
should one blame the over-subtlety of the allegory, I would have a plausible excuse and a ready retreat in the unassailable authority of the fathers w
God, when he wills, can do all things, and that the incorporeal, being neither great nor small in magnitude, is circumscribed by nothing, but by its o
relatively, but that the whole thing that came forth was a mere man, and for this reason it is also naturally 'resolved into that from which it came t
For one of them said the serpent was a type of Christ, but the other, an antitype. For if one simply looks at the history and does not analyze it part
and puts to death with it the powers under it» most clearly establishes, how the serpent on the one hand was hung for the salvation of those of a diff
she was approaching and was about to embrace the one who had escaped the denseness of the body, he holds her back from her impulse, as having indeed c
it was both, so indeed also after the resurrection He made what was assumed immortal, yet He did not deprive it of the properties of its nature. But o
I am silenced from both sides and I do not know how I might mock either Astarte or the abomination Chemosh or the image of the star or whatever else
changing gods? For if Arius is very proud of what is with him a begotten thing and a created thing, as having risen above all other created things, ye
48 63 You have asked about firstborn among many brethren, inquiring what the name might mean. But I am investigating the other significations of suc
nature and to make worthy of the more divine things but we, or rather, some of us, understanding nothing of the mystery, have not ascended with the L
we may propitiate the judge, lamenting indeed for those first and abundant goods we have missed, and hastening through the purification here toward th
you hold to a common confession, but you have derived it from a logical approach. But how can it be a body and indefinite? For let the infinite now
to grant all that we ask, revering him. In vain, then, did those before us revere this, and propitiate it, and hope to find it benevolent, since being
Then he says: For if he passes through the universe by means of a void, all things will be gone from us, in order that God might be divided, both bec
denying mind and God, he thinks that the cosmos was formed automatically from indivisible bodies for he speaks of certain indivisible and impassible
it would have its motion in the middle, but if it were fiery, from the middle but indeed it is seen moving cyclically therefore it is something else
the one who bears to those who are borne,” he added, “if indeed they will grant this too.” What? To think that the god who moves is different from the
for one is solar, the other lunar. But also demons, he says, having transformed themselves into a lion and appearing in the middle of the night, when
the power, and the third according to the intellect, which is also first for those ascending and is called the source of the sources which are divided
thinking he has found God, since he has eliminated the body, is refuted by the very science of dialectic. For one who has found one of the existing th
submitting the other things to their own definitions, finally defining God also, you have said, that which is none of these things, your definition
This question is on everyone's lips, is time in time or not in time? which indeed was also put forward by this divine father <πρὸ> those who think t
that many of the things proposed according to the power of contradiction have difficulties on both sides, and neither the one affirming them would spe
not the intelligible world, as some suppose for this is eternal, and what is eternal is called eternal by participation in eternity, so that the form
After the opposition concerning time, which we discussed sufficiently in another discourse and smoothed out, he also proposes this proposition, which
to speak the truth by all necessity-if you think so and there is nothing to refute the power of contradiction as axiomatic and self-evident, with I a
the one who theologizes theologically and though it is possible to refute the same problem, which happens perhaps to be a logical one, dialectically
he proposed such a problem: was the Son present to himself being begotten, or was he not present? For precipices are rent on either side of this dilem
has departed ashamed and defeated, but the Anomoean is left alone, let us see what he might say, being distinctive in his own particular dogma. “The u
is predicated, of angels I mean and intellects and souls, but unbegottenness of God alone. What therefore is of God alone and proper to him, this i
playing a part, a plaything of existence, an image and a shadow always fleeing and running back to non-being. Give me the account of matter, and then
of the intellectual birth then we will also know the essence of God, and we might comprehend existence, and we will learn the unity contemplated in t
concerning begettings: if begetting is imperfect in bodies, it must be taken as perfect in the case of incorporeal beings. But I, as the argument proc
of things that are terminated, of things that are limited, of those things where this looks towards an end. For example, the motion of a clod from abo
will cease, clearly according to them it has not even begun but indeed it both has begun and will not cease, therefore that which will cease has not
which is indeed the relation, which he discovered in the midst of the names, and again let another one go besides those, and used his own hands agains
to apply the concepts concerning these things to the theorems. For these three seem to lie in succession to one another: substance, and activity, and
conjunction with God, but when He was simple and incorporeal He was superior to such doctrines. You ought then, because He long ago transcended your n
he accepted but you have found this to be even more of an occasion for insolence, like a frenzied patient blaming or even flogging his physician, bec
“and the one below, having become man, is God,” as if there were another man above. But this is refuted by many arguments. For if their argument is ab
Gregory: for when speaking about the Lord's body, he adds this: a body which is three-dimensional is by nature circumscribed, even if by the union wit
of instructing souls or to steer them and direct them and to lead them up from the sea to the divine beacon, and all the other things which the great
let him demonstrate by means of figures, and let this one explain how the stars might be fixed and make clear the sun's station along its length and t
is composed of these four elements for it partakes of earth because of its solidity and not collapsing, if indeed one must believe Plato when he says
They were being transformed and were unconcerned with common affairs, but became utterly alone with God thus indeed they lay both beside one another
which are indeed many, but this one thinks itself, and in thinking itself it thinks the things that are, and the things that are are many therefore,
and in reality it is necessary for us to be likened, then to run back to the very head of our bond, the one, by which alone we happen to be a portion
he led up to the divine. For wonder is caused by incomprehensibility, and by this wonder, longing, and by this longing, purification, and deification,
But when one brings oneself near to the superior one and knows no dividing wall between us and him, one might confidently call them gods, on the one h
guiding by the hand but how shall we cross over, using no one to guide us by the hand? Therefore again boldness and again youthful exploits. I say, t
standing by the divine and not even as much as “Nadab and Abihu” having gone up to the mountain of the theophany, nor even as much as “the seventy eld
has performed the wonders. For such is the principle of the communication of properties, with the names and the things being communicated to the natur
perfect God and perfect man, so that it is spoken sublimely and magnificently to the Father that the Lord of glory was crucified. For the union of t
having felt it during the swallowing, he attributed the resistance to the divine nature, and he thought that precisely because he felt this hardness,
some have apportioned a part of their own possession to the one able to discover what is hidden, I have no dispute with them but what they have promi
and certain doctrines from the apocrypha were also extemporaneously composed, and opinions of those who think otherwise concerning the divine than is
has for this reason become an object of emulation in the co-enumeration, unless he should also set forth the reasons for the mixture and give the why
let this much be known to you beforehand, that the word “that” here has been brought forward for his own construction by the Father and is not an obje
Or rather of half of it for the more difficult part has not been interpreted. As the Orphic or Platonic discourses teach me, and the treatise concern
He himself is its creator. Know, therefore, that one of the things signified by nature is also that which has in some way come to be for according to
the Lord became man that man might be deified. Or because having said above natures are being made new and having declared what he wanted, he set fo
is adulterated with tin and lead. If, then, it has been so buried in such materials, that not even the slightest bit of the gold is visible in it, it
punished, so from there he will hand over to the outer fire, that is, to the complete inability to do evil. For just as God is a spring of goodness an
to the enemies of God, but for astonishment and a demonstration of greatness, not for punishment, as the discourse has shown. The great one, therefore
you should mark, Lord, O Lord, who shall stand?), so also in the punishments from there even if 'unquenchable fire' is threatened and 'unsleeping wo
reworking and the explanations that follow are these. The father, wishing to interpret the saying of the Lord in the gospels, which is, my Father is
has become and subordinate. But I refrain from the term greater not only for this reason, but also because you, the listener, are ignorant about the
I hear the term used with precision for the scriptures speak of the morning twilight and the evening twilight. What then is the twilight on either si
I would say myself that not even privations are devoid of God, for God is the hypostasis of these as well, because He is of all things, so that it mig
from below does it hinder and anticipate from above? Is their motion then spontaneous? But whence the order? But are they set over all things? And why
in his wrath”: you will understand as smoke both the predetermination of the mystery before the ages, and the delivery of the Mosaic law, and whatever
dissolving the moist into vapors, then for the matter to be transformed into the form of fire, and then for the flame to be kindled, so indeed also in
of inflammation and receiving all the fire from there and having an irresistible upward motion Indeed, to these first the divine light is visible, up
apo[...35...]sacrifices upon the divine libation and animal sacrifices to the life-giving Word [...30... the priest received the “brea]st” and the “lo
I have often observed midwives attending to newborn infants or even the woman in childbirth herself. For they, whenever the one who has given birth or
of the disciples that the one approaching him was a Persian, and that it was necessary to address this one in the Persian tongue and that he was a Me
consecrating themselves with unutterable and secret characters on priestly plates, they beheld the light spread beneath for the incorporeal powers. Th
“In the beginning,” he says, “was the Word.” And why, O pinnacle of theologians, do you not also testify this saying to the Spirit? For in the beginni
He was not separated from the Father, his nature not having been divided nor having taken on length and breadth, but being indivisibly present everywh
of the nature of the spirit itself, or rather to distinguish the homonyms of the name, and to show according to which of the significations God must b
a substance without substance and an existence having no trace of knowledge, a monad that unifies monads, and a good that is both unparticipated in an
naming one, soul the other, and spirit the other and the body is the man of dust, soul that which has transcended the body, but no longer beholding
And indeed this is he who cooled the furnace for the three children and extinguishes the fire of the passions and holds nature together and preserves
he was baptized for us for he himself, the one who takes away the sin of the world, did not need purification, but we did, for whom all things were
he might taste the sweetness of the juices and touch soft things, he has divided the two against the three, giving the eye and the ear to God, but the
baskets. Perhaps it was necessary for him, having left these numbers, to introduce the second banquet in which the seven is taken twice. At least for
called the lacking of the sigma, since it is truly a heptad, being as it were something venerable and adorned with the light of purity. For these reas
declare both the Father and himself to be? What else could the Father still create or the Son work with Him, when the angels have come into being and
And another, that God, having made all things, made some with a nature that is ageless and ever-enduring, while for others he set a time for their exi
produces generations. And let no one contentiously attack, that this account makes the creations co-eternal with God for I do not assign a genesis in
and he was nourished by his disciples being nourished and strengthened by the word), concerning the coarser food he makes no mention, as it has no pla
of him,” since at that time they did not understand how great was that which was seen. And they will partake of bread that is not corporeal and flowin
the divinity was not divested of flesh, so as to depart from its own nature, nor was the humanity so deified as to depart from its own property. But t
having come into being, it imperceptibly descends and proceeds towards evening. Such was also the progress in grace of the noetic sun according to the
82 From the [epistle] to the Philippians, on being made in the likeness of men.
He speaks of a certain twofold likeness, the one having what is different, the other standing according to the same for he says that the images which
since others have already begun, I spare the refutations concerning these things for I will not quibble about matters in which some, from a pious min
of the soul, for this reason to the first he speaks plainly, but to the second he speaks in proverbs. The things of plain speech, then, are many and c
The sin will be forgiven for one condescending to cosmic laws and God will be forgiving to him, to one who falls towards what is visible and through t
And if you should remove that which is, you have given no spaciousness to nature. By that, therefore, by which it is not circumscribed, by this it is
they have pre-eminently glorified what is finite, how is the infinity of God entirely comprehensible? For shall we not for this purpose use the custom
If, then, these things are so, and the divine is purely incorporeal and in every way like itself and without parts, how does the difficult to be cont
It seems to have been thus casually thrown out by the great Father, that 'was' and 'will be' are parts of 'time as it relates to us,' but 'to be' pert
beyond eternal, so that we may make the eternal a third thing after that. Thus, therefore, 'to be' has been assigned to God but this has not been all
has he brought forth? but he has not suffered the fate of the many, who, not having their own criterion of their own soul nor being strong enough to t
a kind of temporal, he says, movement and interval. But of this aeon we do not possess a very clear concept, because we have never lived in such a
defending himself excessively, as if his argument was supplied to him from the doctrines of Aristotle, not even thus would reverence for him be preser
Aristotle’s 'entelechies'? At any rate, things that are in themselves incorporeal revert but even of these, some revert to themselves, and others to
All things, existing in the one before all things, later proceeded forth and were distinguished for the procession from the one is also a distinction
the soul of the body (for may I not be so mad), but that in its first generation it has its constitution with the body then, when that is dissolved,
it glorified the benefactor. For it was the first to perceive the benefaction, having come into being immediately from God and not being led up to the
balanced. When, therefore, he looked to the dignity of the soul, and that it was created in the image of the maker and had partaken of the divine inbr
in principle even things not yet come to pass were, for God, in the category of things happening or having happened. Therefore, it was not said by the
nor inclinations towards bodies for God has shut up, so that I myself might speak in another way than that which the word in Job hinted at, here a
advancing and called monads and after these the unitary mind, to which those are brought to an end then certain partial minds under which are the s
we were not numbered with the «seventy elders» nor were we enrolled in «the council of elders,» but were condemned to stand somewhere far off with the
we are acted upon by the stronger one. And permit me to present the argument with examples. For let there be for me someone about to ascend to the sun
tree of knowledge and the tree of life? and secondly, if the tree of wisdom is nothing other than the distinction of good and evil, how is it that the
to taste of the tree of life and to purely converse with God himself. For because of this both happened to be planted in the middle of paradise, becau
and we are many instead of one. For this reason also Adam was one before the disobedience, but after the disobedience his oneness was divided into a m
worshipped, rising up together and being cut short together? What then? Do you not think that at these things the Herod within us would rage and rise
being baptized by the surge, if not even more, should any thought in us, being named Peter for his firmness, yet not having entirely gotten outside of
of the Son, and I think this to be one of the things extremely difficult to understand, although to those who have interpreted the passage it did not
the argument in those is to the argument here, so also the definitions are different. For there a definition is called the cause of the effect, becaus
wait for the right time for having put on for myself the armor of reason, I shall choose to wage war against you on Plato's behalf. And I would asser
of the second clause is not superfluous, but was said by the great one, so that the harmony of his speech might be sound for it was not necessary for
composed of fluids and breaths, just as is the nature for ensouled bodies, for with the bones having been removed, it was set before those celebrating
We must apply the touching power of the soul, which is beyond reason and thought. Let us then touch the ears of the divine Lamb, hearing spiritually t
is indeed a wicked thought, becoming from this receptive of impurity and making the soul cachectic. Let us eat the liver with the snub and convex part
For since Simmias and Cebes held a different opinion about this, positing a certain harmony and assigning it to bodies, but he refuted the argument fr
has worked virtue. But since he bound securely the energy of this one's soul, so that even when loosed it could not do anything pertaining to virtue,
having become, we were sanctified. or you will understand as human of God that He has ascended to our nature both locally and temporally, and through
“the hour nor the day” of the Lord's coming, and for these reasons let us be watchful, lest coming upon us while we are slothful he should reproach ou
your life flourishes and looks toward evening, since you do not know at what hour the Lord is coming. For the life appointed for each person is like a
place. Therefore, having found the wicked servant to be such, he will condemn him to death, which is plainly a cutting in two for for the soul to be
and “apostate.” And if we understand the beast simply as a dragon, as we hear, we will not allegorize anything of what is said, but we will understand
I have been dead, but I am illuminated, because among you Aaron I have stood up, which indeed is also a most brilliant festival. and let us embrace
to utter, to be sacrificed to Christ and thus to slaughter spiritually the one being initiated and to sacrifice to God. Yesterday, he says, the lam
the blessed one has seen, and to grant to him such an appearance as not being fabricated. But I would not bear witness to this for the man, but to thi
he might have to argue against them as things spoken logically, he elevated his own discourse to this divine manifestation of prophecy, and having fas
being opened up, so that neither my tongue suffices for the detailed exposition in brief, nor your hand for the writing of what is dictated, it is bet
working his own soul. For God gave himself as an example to the whole world, on the one hand, standing in his first beauty, and on the other, by the o
105 From Again my Jesus, to the Father is Father and {not} without beginning .
it is necessary to raise further difficulties about the other things but so that we might not, having completely bound you with the knots of argument
Or rather, let us not even speak of him in comparison to these things, but unrelatedly and absolutely. And so the Spirit is not without a beginning f
having given birth to Zarah, is set forth in secret teachings, the one as a type of the Jewish multitude, and the other as a symbol of the church of t
But the writing concerning Job is not the least part of the scripture. To these let the book of Sirach also be added. For concerning the so-called Lit
in words he says something like this (for I do not remember his exact words), that the mind does not dwell in all men, but those who have prepared the
climates, for others sideways, but for us northerners oblique, cutting the equator in two. For it touches each of the tropics at one point, but it cut
“So then, our” he says “account is one account, just as there is of a horse and of an ox and of a man and of each of the things under the same species
God but if not, to rank it with creation. For to us the object of worship is one divinity, which indeed the divine fathers have named essence and nat
For the things from the knowledge of phenomena up to the intelligible realities are imperfect sabbaths and sabbaths of sabbaths and sojournings and
and emeralds and carbuncles and sapphires and beryls and onyx stones and the oracle was always attached to the ephod, a kind of priestly br
110 Brief allegories of the laws and customs among the Jews
“darkness”, into which “he entered, where God was”, is the formless and invisible occupation of things beyond nature in which the one who has entered
of bodies, but that which really subsists in the individuals under it but according to our own dogma, that is called enhypostatic which is composed a
it is necessary to say, but to understand with the eyes of the mind. And just as because of the consubstantiality of the holy Trinity we proclaim one
The name of the holy Powers denotes the ordered character of the super-cosmic and intellectual authority. Therefore, possessing these Godlike properti
For this one alone, beyond the others, has made a more accurate treatise concerning the divine order.
you will arrive at the first formation and creation, which indeed came to be out of non-beings. But since our theology also made use of such prepositi
But I do not mean simply melody-making and use in stringed instruments, but all history and education gathered from words and the other simple learnin
Jonah and Joel the prophetic [......] trumpets. Josiah begets Jotham, and he begets Ahaz, Ahaz begets Hezekiah, Hezekiah begets Manasseh, Man[asseh] b
of the soul, for this reason to the first he speaks plainly, but to the second he speaks in proverbs. The things of plain speech, then, are many and clear even to those who look at what is apparent, and are rather written down in the Beatitudes; but the things of the proverb, the others are not few, but this one, even more than the others, which you have now proposed to us in the form of a question, has become more proverbial and more hidden, how other things will be forgiven to the one who sins, but if someone has sinned against the spirit itself, this will be kept indelible for all time. for if someone should compare it, unadorned, with the other divine teachings, he will find how it seems to be harsh and contrary to those. for how is there not a very great difference and contradiction, when some teachings grant an ancient cutting off of sin through repentance, but this divine oracle alone declares that one thing of all does not yield to repentance? And the homonymy of the spirit also has a certain ineffable and hidden meaning. and, leaving aside the air and the winds from the solstices and the equinox that move and are spoken of in many ways, we have observed in the divine writings that sometimes the spirit is uttered uncombined, as it is written here, but at other times composed with the divine, as "a divine spirit that made me" and "the spirit of God was moving over the waters". What then is the difference in both? I, for my part, say, not dogmatizing, but more accurately following divine doctrines, that where the divine is added to the spirit, the one person of the Trinitarian theology is indeed signified, called spirit in a particular way by the theologians, being ranked with the Father and the Son; but where the spirit is uttered without the divine, it happens to be predicated of the three persons, as it were; "for God is spirit," he says, and makes perfect "those who worship him in spirit and in truth"; this is the voice of the incarnate Word, repeating tautologously and attesting the spirit to himself. For since whatever the nature of the three is, it is by nature beyond all soul and thought, and it is neither divided by the apprehensive imagination nor is it encompassed by intellectual movements (for that which primarily is, is beyond all life and mind), for this reason when we would still speak about it, we utter it in riddles and symbols. And just as the divine scripture often declares it to be "fire," indicating its destructive power over matter and its all-shining and brilliant nature, and its transcendence of the elements, so indeed it also calls it "spirit" in many places, signifying its ease of movement and its subtlety and its life-giving nature that refreshes both the soul and bodies. Since, then, we have established these premises, come now, let us from this point fittingly adapt the interpretation to the problem itself, and let us secure the underlying point and resolve what is doubtful. "Every sin," he says, "will be forgiven to man, but to him who has sinned against the spirit it will not be forgiven." Our Lord, being simple, became composite by his assumption [of flesh], and through the medium of flesh, as through a veil, he conversed with us. Having become, then, a mediator of two natures, like a "cornerstone" binding together the things that were separate, he is skillfully joined to each of the opposites; for at one time tears flow from his eyes and he groaning rebukes his troubled flesh, but at another time he calls back the departed soul for the dead man, and at one time he asks for the raising from another place, but at another time he himself raises the one who stank. It is likely then that those who have seen both things, both what pertains to the divine nature and what is done in a human manner according to the lower nature, are at one time roused to the higher things and know the one who works as God, but at another time are brought down to the more earthly things and suppose him to be a man who seals his nature by his works. To the one, then, who assails the Word become human and the things of the flesh
ψυχῆς, διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς μὲν πρώτοις παρρησιάζεται, τοῖς δὲ δευτέροις παροιμιάζε ται. Τὰ μὲν οὖν τῆς παρρησίας πολλὰ καὶ δῆλα
καὶ τοῖς πρὸς τὸ φαινόμενον ἀποβλέπουσι, καὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖς μακαρισμοῖς μᾶλλον ἀνάγραπτα· τὰ δὲ τῆς παροιμίας οὐκ ὀλίγα μὲν καὶ
τἆλλα, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων, ὃ νῦν ἡμῖν ἐν ἐρωτήσεως εἴδει προβέβληκας, παροιμιωδέστερον καθέστηκε καὶ κρυπτότερον,
πῶς τἆλλα μὲν τῷ ἁμαρτάνοντι ἀφεθήσεται, εἰ δέ τις πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα διημάρτηκε, τοῦτο ἀνεξάλειπτον τῷ παντὶ φυλαχθή σεται.
εἰ γάρ τις αὐτῷ γυμνῷ τοῖς ἑτέροις θείοις προσκρούσει διδάγμασιν, εὑρήσει ὅπῃ ἀπεσκληκότως καὶ ἐναντίως πρὸς ἐκεῖνα ἔχειν
δοκεῖ. πῶς γὰρ οὐ μεγίστη διαφορά τε καὶ ἐναντίωσις, τῶν μὲν παλαιὰν ἐκκοπὴν ἁμαρτίας τῇ μετανοίᾳ διδόντων, τούτου δὲ μόνου
τοῦ θείου χρησμοῦ ἓν τῶν πάντων τῇ μετανοίᾳ μὴ παραχωρεῖν φοιβάζοντος; Ἔχει δέ τι καὶ ἡ ὁμωνυμία τοῦ πνεύματος ἀπόρρητόν τινα
καὶ κεκρυμ μένην διάνοιαν. καὶ ἵνα τὸν ἀέρα ἀφῶμεν καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῶν τροπῶν καὶ τῆς ἰσημερίας πνεύματα πολλαχῶς καὶ κινούμενα
καὶ λεγόμενα, παρατετηρή καμεν ἐν τοῖς θείοις γράμμασι ποτὲ μὲν τὸ πνεῦμα ἀσυνδύαστον ἐκφερό μενον, ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα γέγραπται,
ποτὲ δὲ μετὰ τοῦ θείου συγκείμενον, ὥσπερ «πνεῦμα θεῖον τὸ ποιῆσάν με» καὶ «πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν ἐπεφέρετο». τί ποτ'
οὖν ἐν ἀμφοτέροις τὸ διάφορον; ἔγωγ' οὖν φημι, οὐ δογματίζων, ἀλλὰ θείοις ἀκριβέστερον ἑπόμενος δόγμασιν, ὡς ἔνθα μὲν τὸ θεῖον
τῷ πνεύματι πρόσκειται, αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ ἓν τῆς τριαδικῆς θεολογίας δηλοῦται πρόσωπον, πνεῦμα παρὰ τοῖς θεολόγοις ἰδιοτρόπως καλούμενον,
πατρὶ συντασσόμενον καὶ υἱῷ· ἔνθα δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα χωρὶς τοῦ θείου προ φέρεται, τῶν τριῶν ὥσπερ προσώπων τυγχάνει κατηγορούμενον·
«πνεῦμα γὰρ ὁ θεός», φησί, «καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ» τελειοῖ· τοῦ ἐνανθρωπήσαντος λόγου ἡ φωνὴ
αὕτη, περιταυτο λογοῦντος καὶ ἑαυτῷ τὸ πνεῦμα προσμαρτυροῦντος. ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἥτις ἐστὶ τῶν τριῶν ἡ φύσις ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν πέφυκε καὶ
ψυχὴν καὶ διάνοιαν, καὶ οὔτε τῇ καταληπτικῇ φαντασίᾳ αὕτη μερίζεται οὔτε τοῖς νοεροῖς περιδεδραγμένη τυγχάνει κινήμασιν (ὑπὲρ
γὰρ πᾶσαν καὶ ζωὴν καὶ νοῦν τὸ πρώτως ὄν), διὰ τοῦτο ἔτι δ' ἂν περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγωμεν, ἐν αἰνίγμασι καὶ συμβόλοις προ φέρομεν.
καὶ ὥσπερ «πῦρ» αὐτὸ πολλάκις ἡ θεία γραφὴ ἀποφαίνεται, τὸ ἀναιρετικὸν τῆς ὕλης ὑποσημαίνουσα καὶ τὸ παμφαὲς καὶ λαμπρὸν καὶ
τῶν στοιχείων ὑπερκείμενον, οὕτω δὴ καὶ πνεῦμα ἐν πολλοῖς τοῦτο κατονομάζει, τὴν εὐκινησίαν δηλοῦσα καὶ τὴν λεπτότητα καὶ
τὴν ζωογόνον φύσιν καὶ ἀναψύχουσαν τὴν ψυχὴν ὁμοῦ καὶ τὰ σώματα. Ἐπεὶ γοῦν ταῦτα προϋπεθέμεθα, φέρε δὴ καὶ αὐτῷ τῷ προβλήματι
κατ αλλήλως ἐντεῦθεν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν προσαρμοσώμεθα καὶ τό τε ὑποτρέχον ἀσφαλισώμεθα καὶ διαλυσώμεθα τὸ ἀμφίβολον. «πᾶσα» φησίν
«ἁμαρτία ἀφεθήσεται τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, τῷ δὲ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ἁμαρτήσαντι οὐκ ἀφεθήσε ται». ἁπλοῦς ὢν ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, σύνθετος τῷ προσλήμματι
γέγονε καὶ διὰ μέσης σαρκὸς ὥσπερ παραπετάσματος ἡμῖν καθωμίλησε. μέσος γοῦν δύο φύσεων γεγονώς, οἷά τις «ἀκρογωνιαῖος λίθος»
τὰ διεστῶτα σφίγγων, πρὸς ἑκάτερα τῶν ἀντικειμένων δεξιῶς ἥρμοσται· νῦν μὲν γὰρ δάκρυα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καταρρεῖ καὶ συγχυθείσῃ
τῇ σαρκὶ ἐπιτιμᾷ ἐμβριμώμενος, νῦν δὲ ἀνακαλεῖται τῷ τεθνεῶτι τὴν ἀπελθοῦσαν ψυχήν, καὶ νῦν μὲν ἄλλο θεν αἰτεῖται τὴν ἔγερσιν,
νῦν δὲ αὐτὸς τὸν ὀδωδότα ἐξανιστᾷ. εἰκὸς οὖν τοὺς ἀμφότερα τεθεαμένους, ὅσα τε τῆς θείας ἔχεται φύσεως καὶ ὅσα κατὰ τὴν κάτω
φύσιν ἀνθρωποπρεπῶς πράττεται, νῦν μὲν πρὸς τὰ κρείτ τονα διεγείρεσθαι καὶ θεὸν γινώσκειν τὸν ἐνεργοῦντα, νῦν δὲ πρὸς τὰ χθαμαλώτερα
καταφέρεσθαι καὶ ἄνθρωπον ὑπολαμβάνειν τὸν τὴν φύσιν τοῖς ἔργοις ἐπισφραγίζοντα. Τῷ μὲν οὖν ἐπεμβαίνοντι τῷ λόγῳ ἐξανθρωπιζομένῳ
καὶ τοῖς τῆς σαρ
