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neither by my teaching nor by the deeds done by me, for this reason my Lord will be present as my helper. For when God the Father, he says, defends me and destroys all your insolence and establishes my glory, who among you will be so great as to oppose the invincible will and be able to harm the one who is helped by him? Therefore, if the scribes and Pharisees had any sense, they would have refrained from their plots and attempts against him, having foreknown through the holy prophets that they would not be able to harm Christ, being God and Lord and the true Son of the Father. But you will all grow old like a garment, and a moth will consume you, or also decay according to Symmachus, or a devourer according to Aquila. Through which he signifies the obsolescence of their corporeal worship; “for whatever is becoming old and growing aged is near to disappearing.” But the moth devouring them signifies the conscience for what they have dared, like a worm eating away the soul; for seeing the turning of the nations to God and their own falling away, which they endured on account of their impieties, they are wounded and consumed by their conscience. Therefore, also at the end of the book at hand, he prophesies about the same things, saying; “Their worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.” Having gone through so many things concerning the events of his passion, the Lord himself adds, addressing the same people; And now, if there is anyone among you who fears the Lord, let him obey his servant. But by calling himself the servant of God, he allows it to be understood that, even having become human, he is the true Son of God the Father. And to hear his voice was not a “transgression of the law,” but a confirmation of the law, which prefigured the truth through type and shadow, which is God and his decrees. “For I do not desire the death of the sinner as much as his repentance.” Therefore, even now I call you back, you who are in the darkness of ignorance, and I say; You who walk in darkness and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord and lean upon God. Only come and obey, and believe in him who promises you salvation. But as I see, you shut yourselves off from all good hope, and you heap up your own fire and strengthen your own flame by “persisting in your unbelief” and, by your blasphemies against me, you kindle all the more the fire of “eternal punishment” that awaits you. Therefore you will lie down in sorrow, or according to Symmachus: you will lie down in pain, or according to Aquila: you will lie down to hard toil. But so that you may not suffer these things, even now I advise you to turn back and listen to these words of mine. And so listen, O men who pretend to honor the Lord, but do the opposite of the Lord's will by driving out justice and considering truth itself an enemy, since out of far too much foolishness the peoples of the Jews, seeing the only-begotten Word of God in our form, that is, having become human, did not understand the mystery concerning him, and not understanding, they impiously grieved him in many places with slanderous words. As I just said, he makes his most comely glory and power clear to them, and he removes from some the desire to think little of him, saying; “Trust in the Lord.” Therefore, he most clearly says that he himself is Lord and God, removing, as I said, the desire to think and speak of him in a base manner. What then is it that I say: Look to the solid rock, which you hewed, and to the pit of the cistern, which you dug. But instead of: and to the pit, Symmachus has: to the hole, and Aquila: for the cutting out. And through these things the word seems to allude to that very “rock” which received the body of the Savior, in which “Joseph” dug the cave “in his new tomb.” Then from here he moves on to the

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διδασκαλίᾳ μήτε ταῖς πράξεσι ταῖς ὑπ' ἐμοῦ πεπραγμέναις, εἰκότως ὁ μὲν ἐμὸς κύριος βοηθὸς ἐμοὶ παρέσται. ἐπαμύνοντος γάρ φησι τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς καὶ πᾶσαν ὑμῶν ἐπήρειαν ἀφανίζοντος καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν ἱστάντος δόξαν, τίς ἔσται τοσοῦτος ἐν ὑμῖν ὡς ἀντιτάξασθαι τῇ ἀνικήτῳ βουλῇ καὶ κακῶσαι δύνασθαι τὸν παρ' αὐτοῦ βοηθούμενον; οὐκοῦν εἴπερ τινὲς ἦσαν νουνεχεῖς οἱ γραμματεῖς τε καὶ Φαρισαῖοι, ἀπόσχοιντο ἂν τῶν κατ' αὐτοῦ σκεμμάτων τε καὶ ἐγχειρημάτων διὰ προφητῶν ἁγίων προεγνωκότες, ὡς οὐκ ἂν ἰσχύσειαν ἀδικῆσαι Χριστὸν θεὸν ὄντα καὶ κύριον καὶ υἱὸν ἀληθινὸν τοῦ πατρός. Ὑμεῖς δὲ πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσεσθε, καὶ σὴς καταφάγεται ὑμᾶς, ἢ καὶ εὐρὼς κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον, ἢ βρωτὴρ κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν. δι' ὧν σημαίνει τὴν παλαίωσιν τῆς κατ' αὐτοὺς σωματικῆς λατρείας· «πᾶν γὰρ τὸ παλαιούμενον καὶ γηράσκον ἐγγὺς ἀφανισμοῦ». σῆτα δὲ καταβιβρώσκοντα αὐτοὺς τὴν συνείδησιν ὧν τετολμήκασι δηλοῖ, δίκην σκώληκος κατεσθιούσης τὴν ψυχήν· ὁρῶντες γὰρ τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐπιστροφὴν καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀπόπτωσιν, ἣν ὑπέμειναν διὰ τὰς ἀσεβείας αὐτῶν, ὑπὸ τῆς συνειδήσεως τιτρώσκονται καὶ κατεσθίονται. διὸ καὶ ἐπὶ τέλει τῆς μετὰ χεῖρας βίβλου περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ὁ αὐτὸς θεσπίζει λέγων· «ὁ σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτήσει, καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβεσθήσεται, καὶ ἔσται εἰς ὅρασιν πάσῃ σαρκί». Τοσαῦτα περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸ πάθος αὐτῷ συμβεβηκότων ἐπελθὼν αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ἐπιφέρει τοῖς αὐτοῖς προσφωνῶν· Καὶ νῦν, εἴ τίς ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ὁ φοβούμενος τὸν κύριον, ὑπακουσάτω τῷ παιδὶ αὐτοῦ. ἑαυτὸν δὲ παῖδα θεοῦ λέγων ἐφίησι νοεῖν, ὅτι καὶ ἄνθρωπος γεγονὼς υἱός ἐστιν ἀληθινὸς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρός. καὶ τὸ ἀκοῦσαι τῆς αὐτοῦ φωνῆς οὐ «νόμου παράβασις» ἦν, ἀλλὰ βεβαίωσις νόμου διὰ τύπου καὶ σκιᾶς προαναγράφοντος τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς καὶ τὰ αὐτοῦ θεσπίσματα. «οὐ» γὰρ «βούλομαι τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τὴν μετάνοιαν αὐτοῦ». ὅθεν ἔτι καὶ νῦν ὑμᾶς ἀνακαλοῦμαι ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀγνοίας σκότῳ τυγχάνοντας καί φημι· Οἱ πορευόμενοι ἐν σκότει καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς φῶς, πεποίθετε ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι κυρίου καὶ ἀντιστηρίσασθε ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ. μόνον ἥκετε καὶ ὑπακούσατε, ἐπαγγελλομένῳ τε ὑμῖν σωτηρίαν πιστεύσατε. Ἀλλ' ὡς ὁρῶ, πάσης μὲν ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος ἑαυτοὺς ἀποκλείετε, τὸ δὲ ἑαυτῶν πῦρ σωρεύετε καὶ κατισχύετε τὴν ἑαυτῶν φλόγα τῇ ἑαυτῶν «ἐπιμένοντες ἀπιστίᾳ» καὶ ταῖς κατ' ἐμοῦ βλασφημίαις τὸ περιμένον ὑμᾶς τῆς «αἰωνίου κολάσεως» πῦρ μειζόνως ἐξάπτοντες. διὸ καὶ ἐν λύπῃ κοιμηθήσεσθε, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ἐν ὀδύνῃ κοιμηθήσεσθε, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν· εἰς διαπόνησιν κοιμηθήσεσθε. Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ταῦτα πάθοιτε, ἔτι καὶ νῦν παραινῶ ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ τούτων ἐπακοῦσαί μου τῶν λόγων. καὶ δὴ ἀκούετε, ὦ ἄνδρες οἱ προσποιούμενοί τε τὸν κύριον τιμᾶν, ἐναντία δὲ πράττοντες τῇ τοῦ κυρίου βουλῇ ἐν τῷ τὸ δίκαιον ἐλαύνειν καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν αὐτὴν ἔχθραν ἡγεῖσθαι, ἐπειδὴ ἐκ πολλῆς ἄγαν ἀβελτηρίας οἱ τῶν Ἰουδαίων δῆμοι τὸν μονογενῆ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον ὁρῶντες ἐν εἴδει τῷ καθ' ἡμᾶς, τοῦτ' ἔστιν γενόμενον ἄνθρωπον, οὐ συνίεσαν μὲν τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ μυστήριον, ἀσυνετοῦντες δὲ πλεισταχοῦ παλιμφήμοις ἐλύπουν φωναῖς ἀνοσίως. καθάπερ ἔφην ἀρτίως, ἐναργῆ καθίστησιν αὐτοῖς τὴν εὐπρεπεστάτην αὐτοῦ δόξαν τε καὶ δύναμιν, καὶ τοῦ μικρὰ φρονεῖν ἐπ' αὐτῷ βούλεσθαί τινας ἀποκομίζει λέγων· «πεποίθατε ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ». ἐναργέστατα δὴ οὖν κύριον ἑαυτὸν καὶ θεὸν εἶναί φησιν, ἀποκομίζων ὡς ἔφην τοῦ χαμαιπετῆ περὶ αὐτοῦ βούλεσθαι φρονεῖν τε καὶ λέγειν. τί οὖν ἐστιν ὅ φημι· ἀποβλέψατε εἰς τὴν στερεὰν πέτραν, ἣν ἐλατομήσατε, καὶ εἰς τὸν βόθυνον τοῦ λάκκου, ὃν ὠρύξατε. ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ· καὶ εἰς τὸν βόθυνον, ὁ Σύμμαχος· εἰς τὴν τρυμαλιάν, ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας· πρὸς ἐκκοπήν. ἔοικε δὲ διὰ τούτων ὁ λόγος αἰνίττεσθαι αὐτὴν ἐκείνην τὴν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ σωτῆρος ὑποδεξαμένην «πέτραν», ἐν ᾗ «ὁ Ἰωσὴφ» τὸ σπήλαιον ὤρυξεν «ἐν τῷ καινῷ αὐτοῦ μνημείῳ». εἶτ' ἐνθένδε μεταβαίνει ἐπὶ τὸ