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5. He who, he says, accepts the teaching of Scripture according to the body, is taught sin from it in practice, and the study of sin according to the mind; luxury, and intemperate unions, and murders, and to abominate all of God's creation is learned from the letter of the law.

6. A contemplation according to another approach. Anathema is also said of this world, the place of condemnation; which one is wont to generate by attachment, who does not cross over to the spirit of the law according to the mind.

7. For that to which, he says, we are disposed by relation, to that we also possess the study according to the mind.

8. According to another contemplation, that anathema is also the formless movement of the passions; but shame of mouth, is the movement which gives form to the passion for the perception of the mind, and by its thoughts provides matter suitable to the passion.

9. By way of summary he has set forth the three contemplations of the text. 10. The one persuaded that it is a divine command to live luxuriously in a bodily way according to the law, the

receives gluttony as a gift of God with joy for his way of life; from which he begets ways that pollute by their misuse the activity of the senses.

11. A summary repetition of the preceding contemplations, through which he shows that he who understands the law in a bodily way, takes its teaching as a concubine; and begets both the habit and the activity of the passions; and adopts gluttony as divine, for the generation of ways that by their misuse defile the (14Γ_422> senses; for the destruction of the natural principles and seeds in existing things.

12. He who remains with the symbols of the law, he says, is not able to see the nature of beings according to reason, and to preserve the principles placed essentially in beings by the Creator, because of the difference of the symbols from the nature of beings.

13. The principles of nature indeed bear wood, becoming matter for the knowledge of divine things; but they bear water, effecting the cleansing of passions, and the dissemination of the life-giving energy in spirit.

14. Another contemplation of the same things, introducing through the Gibeonites the calling of the gentiles.

15. He spoke of matter and form according to contemplation as Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the fivefold misuse of the senses, as the five sons of Merob; whom having joined to one another, that is, having interwoven sense with matter and form for the sake of the constitution of the law according to the flesh, he who circumscribes the mind only by the letter, completes the fleshly passion; but he corrupts the natural principles.

16. That passion and nature, according to the principle of being, in no way coexist with one another.

17. He who does not believe, he says, that Scripture is spiritual, does not perceive his own poverty in knowledge.

18. When, he says, David is taken in relation to the law, according to the Jews, signifying the letter, he is interpreted as contempt, because of the tradition of the divine ordinances according to the flesh; but according to the Christians, signifying the spirit, he is interpreted as strong in sight, because of the contemplation of knowledge according to the mind.

19. He said the soul of Scripture is the spirit; and the body, the letter. 20. He speaks of the three years as the three laws, the written, and the

natural, and that of grace, which are connected to each other. (14Γ_424> Therefore, he who understands the written law in a bodily way does not nourish the soul with virtues; and he who does not attend to the principles of beings does not generously feast his mind on the manifold wisdom of God; and he who does not know the great mystery of the new grace does not rejoice in the hope of future deification. Therefore the lack of [understanding] according to the written law

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5. Ὁ πρός σῶμα, φησίν, τήν Γραφικήν ἐκδεχόμενος μάθησιν, τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἁμαρτίαν διδάσκεται, καί τήν κατά νοῦν τῆς ἁμαρτίας μελέτην· τρυφήν, καί συνουσίας ἀκρατεῖς, καί φόνους, καί πᾶσαν τοῦ Θεοῦ βδελύττεσθαι τήν κτίσιν ἐκ τοῦ γράμματος τοῦ νόμου μανθάνεται.

6. Θεωρία κατ᾿ ἄλλην ἐπιβολήν. Ἀνάθεμα λέγεται καί ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ὁ καταδίκης χωρίον· ὅν γεννᾷν τῇ προσπαθείᾳ πέφυκεν, ὁ μή πρός τό πνεῦμα τοῦ νόμου κατά νοῦν διαβαίνων.

7. Ὅτι πρός ὅ σχετικῶς, φησί, διακείμεθα, πρός ἐκεῖνο καί τήν κατά νοῦν μελέτην κεκτήμεθα.

8. Κατ᾿ ἄλλην θεωρίαν, ὅτι ἀνάθεμά ἐστι, καί ἡ τῶν παθῶν ἀνείδωλος κίνησις· αἰσχύνη δέ στόματος, ἡ τό πάθος εἰδοποιοῦσα πρός αἴσθησιν τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις, καί ταῖς ἐπινοίαις ὕλην ἁρμόδιον τῷ πάθει πορίζουσα.

9. Κατά συναίρεσιν τάς τρεῖς θεωρίας τοῦ κειμένου ἐξέδωκεν. 10. Ὁ πεισθείς θείαν εἶναι διαταγήν τό σωματικῶς κατά νόμον τρυφᾷν, τήν

γαστριμαργίαν ὡς Θεοῦ δῶρον λαμβάνει μετά χαρᾶς πρός συμβίωσιν· ἐξ ἧς γεννᾷ τούς μολύνοντας τῇ παραχρήσει τήν ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων τρόπους.

11. Ἐπίτομος τῶν προθεωρηθέντων ἐπανάληψις, δι᾿ ἧς δείκνυσιν ὅτι ὁ σωματικῶς ἐκλαμβάνων τόν νόμον, τήν αὐτοῦ παλλακεύεται μάθησιν· καί γεννᾷ τήν τε τῶν παθῶν ἕξιν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν· καί ὡς θείαν εἰσοικίζεται τήν γαστριμαργίαν, πρός γένεσιν τῶν ῥυπαινόντων τῇ παραχρήσει τάς (14Γ_422> αἰσθήσεις τρόπων· εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι φυσικῶν λόγων τε καί σπερμάτων.

12. Ὁ τοῖς συμβόλοις τοῦ νόμου, φησίν, ἐναπομένων, οὐ δύναται κατά λόγον τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ὁρᾷν, καί τούς τεθέντας οὐσιωδῶς ὑπό ∆ημιουργοῦ τοῖς οὖσι λόγους περιποιεῖσθαι, διά τό τῶν συμβόλων πρός τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν διάφορον.

13. Ξυλοφοροῦσι μέν οἱ λόγοι τῆς φύσεως, ὕλη πρός τήν γνῶσιν τῶν θείων γινόμενοι· ὑδροφοροῦσι δέ ῥύψιν ποιοῦντες παθῶν, καί διάδοσιν τῆς ἐν πνεύματι ζωτικῆς ἐνεργείας.

14. Ἄλλη θεωρία τῶν αὐτῶν, εἰσηγουμένη διά τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν τήν κλῆσιν τῶν ἐθνῶν.

15. Ὕλην εἶπε καί εἶδος κατά θεωρίαν τόν Ἐρμονθί καί τόν Μεμφιβοσθέ, καί πενταπλῆν παράχρησιν τῶν αἰσθήσεων, τούς πέντε τῆς Μερώβ υἱούς· οὕς ἀλλήλοις συνάψας, ἤγουν ὕλῃ καί εἴδει προσπλέξας τήν αἴσθησιν διά τήν πρός σάρκα τοῦ νόμου σύστασιν, ὁ μόνον τόν νοῦν περιγράφων τῷ γράμματι, τό μέν σαρκικόν πάθος ἀποτελεῖ· τούς δέ φυσικούς διαφθείρει λόγους.

16. Ὅτι πάθος καί φύσις κατά τόν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, οὐδαμῶς ἀλλήλοις συνυπάρχουσι.

17. Ὁ μή πιστεύων, φησί, τήν Γραφήν εἶναι πνευματικήν, τήν οἰκείαν κατά τήν γνῶσιν πενίαν οὐκ αἰσθάνεται.

18. Ὅταν, φησίν, ὁ ∆αβίδ εἰς τόν νόμον λαμβάνεται, κατ᾿ Ἰουδαίους, τό γράμμα δηλῶν, ἑρμηνεύεται ἐξουδένωσις, διά τήν πρός σάρκα τῶν θείων νομίμων παράδοσιν· κατά δέ Χριστιανούς τό πνεῦμα σημαίνων, ἑρμηνεύεται ἰσχυρός ὁράσει, διά τήν κατά νοῦν θεωρίαν τῆς γνώσεως.

19. Ψυχήν τῆς Γραφῆς εἶπε, τό πνεῦμα· σῶμα δέ, τό γράμμα. 20. Τούς τρεῖς ἐνιαυτούς λέγει, τούς τρεῖς νόμους, τόν τε γραπτόν, καί τόν

φυσικόν, καί τόν χάριτος, ἐχομένους ἀλλήλων. (14Γ_424> Ὁ τοίνυν τόν γραπτόν νόμον λαμβάνων σωματικῶς, ἀρεταῖς τήν ψυχήν οὐ διατρέφει· καί ὁ τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων οὐκ ἐπιβάλλων, τῇ ποικίλῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίᾳ τόν νοῦν οὐχ ἑστιᾷ φιλοτίμως· καί ὁ τό μέγα τῆς καινῆς χάριτος μή γινώσκων μυστήριον, τῇ ἐλπίδι τῆς μελλούσης θεώσεως οὐκ ἀγάλλεται. Οὐκοῦν ἡ ἔλλειψις τῆς κατά τόν γραπτόν νόμον