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has become a producer of righteousness. The name of understanding is taken to mean doing good to the brethren in need; for the apostle also says concerning the offering: "Consider what I say; for God will give you understanding in all things." 291 Understanding is the science of things comparable and not comparable. Comparable things are those which are likened, which are equalized, when we bring one thing together with another and find it to have identity either in likeness or in equality. He who has understanding, therefore, knows which things are joined with which, and which are not. 3 The Lord preserve him and keep him alive and bless him on the earth. It can be said concerning both: the Lord will guard the poor and the needy. For this reason he also brought the one who understands into the same state with him. Where was it ever said that: when you see, say, a sick person and a doctor who has suddenly come there for another reason, consider that the divine word of providence has brought the doctor, a compassionate doctor, so that sympathizing with the sick person he might help him medically. He either blesses the poor and needy man and makes him live on the earth, or the one who understands and has received understanding for the poor and needy. If you speak about the Savior, he preserves him and gives him life; for though "he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God." Take "on the earth" as common. 3 and deliver him not into the hands of his enemies. He does not deliver such a one "into the hands of his enemies." Such a one has many enemies, he has many who lie in wait; for since he is a blessed man and has understanding for the poor and needy according to all the explanations given, he also has many who lie in wait; for God will deliver him from their hands. But he who gives himself over to his persecutors is not delivered from their hand. 4 The Lord will help him on the bed of his suffering. Here he speaks about the poor man; even if he becomes sick on a bed and such a thing is painful to him, God helps him. Consider the things said about the paralytics in the Gospels; on a bed of suffering remained the one who for thirty-eight years had been lying bedridden so that he could not be moved nor rise up. And other such paralytics were recorded in the gospels. But not everyone on a bed of suffering and sickness is delivered. Therefore Ahaziah fell from his bed out of the upper room and died. But if for an anagogical sense, the body is often called the bed of the soul. And there are many scriptures that support such a contemplation. When someone, therefore, is in the corruptible body and the earthly tabernacle which "weighs down the thoughtful mind," he is "on a bed of suffering"; but when God helps him, he makes him discipline the body and bring it into subjection, and he is no longer lying on the body, but he himself then takes up his pallet and walks. The body, therefore, is a bed. The lover of pleasure, the lover of passion, the one who accepts and does the things of the body, suffers on a bed, but God helps him and makes him well, so that having become well he is no longer lying on the bed, but he himself carries it, and as they say thus, that when the soul rules the body. Since: who are the sixty mighty men, who are received in blessing, who are around the couch? from Abraham to nineteen and from . These, therefore, are the sixty mighty men who ministered to the body of the Savior at his birth. It must also be said thus: in six days the world was made, and it is a perfect number, as has often been shown; for sixty is six in tens. He, therefore, who has surpassed the world and has become above is mighty, being "a man taught war," having a sword "upon his thigh." Around the bed of Solomon, therefore, are these sixty mighty men, around the Lord's body, circling it, considering for what reason the Savior was incarnated. "Sixty" therefore "mighty men are around it, all holding a sword." They are sword-bearers. And there are swords that the wise hold; "the saints will boast in glory and

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δικαιοσύνης γέγονεν ποιητικός. τὸ τῆς συνέσεως ὄνομα ἐπ̣ὶ τοῦ εὖ ποιεῖν τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς δεομένους λαμβάνεται· καὶ γὰρ ὁ ἀπόστολος περὶ προςφορᾶς λέγει· "νόει ἃ λέγω· δώῃ γάρ σοι ὁ θεὸς σύνεσιν ἐν πᾶσιν". 291 ἔστιν δὲ σύνεσις ἐπιστήμης συνβλητῶν καὶ μὴ συνβλητῶν. συνβλητά εἰσιν τὰ ὁμοιούμενα, τὰ ἰσαζόμενα, ὅταν ἄλλο ἄλλῳ συναγάγωμεν καὶ εὑρίσκωμεν αὐτὸ ἢ καθ' ὁμοιότητα ἢ κατ' ἰσότητα τὴν ταὐτότητα ἔχειν. ὁ οὖν σύνεσιν ἔχων ἐπίσταται, ποῖα ποίοις συνάπτεται καὶ ποῖα ποίοις οὐχί. 3 κύριος διαφυλάξαι αὐτὸν καὶ ζήσαι αὐτὸν καὶ μακαρίσαι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ γῇ. περὶ ἀμφοτέρων δύναται λέγεσθαι· κύριος φυλάξει τὸν πτωχὸν καὶ πένητα. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸν συνίοντα εἰς ταὐτὸν αὐτῷ ἤγαγεν. πού ποτε ἐλέχθη ὅτι̣· ὅταν ἴδῃς, φέρε, κάμνοντα καὶ ἄφνω ἐληλυθότα διὰ ἄλλην πρόφασιν ἐκεῖ ἰατρόν, σκόπει ὅτι ὁ θεῖος τῆς προνοίας λ̣όγος ἠγίοχεν τὸν ἰατρόν, οἰκτίρμονα ἰατρόν, ἵνα συνπαθήσας τῷ κάμνοντι βοηθήσῃ αὐτῷ ἰατρικῶς. ἠ´̣τ̣οι δὲ τὸν πτωχὸν καὶ πένητα μακαρίζει καὶ ζῆν αὐτὸν ποιεῖ ἐν τῇ γῇ ἢ τὸν συνιέντα καὶ σύνεσιν λαβόντα ἐπὶ πτωχὸν κ̣α̣ι`̣ καὶ πένητα. περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐὰν λέγῃς, διαφυλάττει αὐτὸν καὶ ζῆν αὐτῷ παρέχει· εἰ γὰρ καὶ "ἐσταυρώθη ἐξ ἀσθενείας, ἀλλὰ ζῇ ἐκ δυνάμεως θεοῦ". κατὰ κοινοῦ τὸ "ἐν τῇ γῇ" λάβε. 3 καὶ μὴ παραδῷ αὐτὸν εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ. οὐ παραδίδωσιν τὸν τοιοῦτον "εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ". πολλοὺς ἔχει ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐχθ̣ρούς, πολλοὺς ἐφεδρεύοντας ἔχει· ἐπεὶ γὰρ μ̣α̣κάριος ἀνήρ ἐστιν καὶ σύνεσιν ἔχει ἐπὶ πτωχὸν καὶ πένητα κατὰ πάσας τὰς ἀποδοθείσας σαφηνείας, καὶ πολλοὺς ἔχει τοὺς ἐφεδρεύοντας· ῥύσεται γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν. οὐ ῥύεται δὲ ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τῶν διωκ̣όντων ὁ ἐπιδιδόμενος αὐτοῖς. 4 κύριος βοηθήσει αὐτῷ ἐπὶ κλίνης ὀδύνης αὐτοῦ. ὧδε περὶ τοῦ πτωχοῦ λέγει· κἂν ἐπὶ κλίνης γένηται νοσῶν καὶ ὀδυνηρὸν ᾖν αὐτῷ τὸ τοιοῦτον, βοηθεῖ αὐτῷ ὁ θεός. ἔχε τὰ περὶ τῶν παραλυτικῶν ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις εἰρημένα· ἐν κλίνῃ ὀδύνης ἔμεινεν ὁ τριάκοντα καὶ ὀκτὼ ἐνιαυτοὺς βεβλη̣μένος κλινήρης ὥστε μηδὲ σαλευθῆναι δύνασθαι μηδὲ διαναστῆναι. καὶ ἄλλοι δὲ τοιοῦτοι ἀνεγράφθ̣ησαν ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις πα̣ραλυτικοίς. οὐ πᾶς δὲ ὁ ἐπὶ κλίνης ὀδύνην καὶ ἀρρωστίαν ἔχων ῥύεται. Ὀχοδίας οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς κοίτης ἔπεσεν ἐκ τοῦ ὑπερῴου καὶ ἀπέθανεν. εἰ δὲ πρὸς ἀναγωγήν, τὸ σῶμα πολλάκις κλίνη ὀνομάζεται τῆς ψυχῆς. καὶ πολλαί εἰσιν γραφαὶ συναγορεύουσαι τῇ τοιαύτῃ θεωρίᾳ. ὅταν τις οὖν ἐν τῷ φθαρτῷ σώματι ᾖν καὶ τῷ γ̣ηΐνῳ σκήνει ὃ "βρίθει νοῦν πολυφρόντιδα, "ἐπὶ κλίνης ὀδύνης" ἐστίν· ἀλλ' ὅταν βοηθήσῃ αὐτῷ θεός, ποιει῀̣ αὐτὸν ὑπωπιάζειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ δουλαγωγεῖν, καὶ οὐκέτι ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος βέβληται, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς λοιπὸν αἴρει τὸν κράβακτον̣ καὶ περιπατεῖ. τὸ σῶμα οὖν κλίνη ἐστίν. ὁ φιλήδονος, ὁ φιλοπαθής, ὁ τὰ τοῦ σώματος ἀποδεχόμενος καὶ πράττω̣ν ὀδυνᾶται ἐπὶ κλίνης, ἀλλὰ βοηθεῖ αὐτῷ ὁ θεὸς καὶ ποιεῖ αὐτὸν ὑγιῆν, ἵν' ὑγιὴς γενόμενος μηκέτι αὐτὸς ᾖν βεβλημ̣ε´̣νος ε᾿̣πὶ τη῀̣ς κ̣λίνη̣ς, ἀλλὰ αὐτὸς αὐτὴν βαστάζῃ, καὶ ὡς λέγουσιν οὕτως, ὅτι ὅταν ἄρχῃ ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ σώματος. ἐπερ · ποῖοί ει᾿̣σιν ο̣ι῾̣ ε῾̣ξ̣ήκοντα δυν̣ατοί, οἵ εἰσιν ἐν εὐλογίᾳ παραλαμβανόμενοι, οἱ κύκλῳ τῆς στρωμνῆς; ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἕως ἐννεακαίδεκα καὶ ἀπὸ . οὗτοι οὖν εἰσιν οἱ ἑξήκοντα δυνατοὶ οἱ περὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ σωτῆρος διακονήσαντες αὐτοῦ τῇ γενέσει. λεκτέον δε`̣ καὶ οὑ´̣τως· ε᾿̣ν ἓξ ἡμέραις ὁ κόσμος γέγονεν, καὶ τέλειος ἀριθμός ἐστιν, ὡς πολλάκις ἀποδέδοται· ἐν δεκάσιν γὰρ ὁ ἑξήκοντα̣ ἕξ ἐστιν. ὁ ὑπ̣ερ̣βὰς οὖν τὸν κόςμον καὶ ἄνω γενόμενος δυνατός ἐστιν "δεδιδαγμένος πόλεμον ἀνὴρ" ὤν, ἔχων ῥομ̣φαίαν "ἐπὶ μηρὸν αὐτοῦ". περὶ τὴν κλίνην οὖν τοῦ Σολομῶντος οὗτοι οἱ ἑξήκοντα δυνατοί εἰσιν, περὶ τὸ σω῀̣μα τὸ κυριακόν, κυκλ̣οῦντες αὐτό, σκοποῦντες, διὰ ποίαν αἰτίαν ἐσωματώθη ὁ σωτήρ. "ἑξήκοντα" οὖν "δυνατοὶ κύκλῳ αὐτῆς, πάντες ῥομφαίαν κατέχοντες". ξιφήρεις εἰσίν. εἰσὶν δὲ ξίφη ἃ κατέχουσιν οἱ σοφοί· "καυχήσονται ὅσιοι ἐν δόξῃ καὶ