235

he bears [the type] also of Adam, and of the common nature, and of Christ, and of the prophetic grace, and of the ungrateful people of the Jews, who toil against every good and are ever envious of the divine graces. For example, of Adam, he bears a type and of the common nature, fleeing from Joppa to the sea, and for this reason, according to the power of his name, he is called a flight of beauty. Joppa signifies paradise prefigured in it, (696) which is truly and is named a watchtower of joy; and a powerful joy and a wondrous beauty, because of the wealth of incorruption in it; whatever this paradise might have been, planted by the hand of God. For, it says, the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed; and what trees were in it, whether perceived by sight or by intellect; and what was the tree of life in the midst of paradise; of all of which Adam, having received the command to eat, perhaps did not even touch; For of every tree, it says, that is in paradise you shall eat freely.

Again Joppa signifies virtue and knowledge; and the wisdom that is upon them; virtue, when it is interpreted as wondrous beauty; knowledge, when it is taken as a watchtower of joy; and wisdom, when it signifies powerful joy; through which man, being perfected, receives unspeakable joy; the powerful joy, which truly holds together the godly and divine constitution of man; if indeed wisdom is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her, according to what is written; and to those who lean on her, as on the Lord, she is security. For we see the nature of men ever fleeing Joppa, that is, the state of virtue and of knowledge, and the grace of wisdom upon them, just as Adam fled paradise through disobedience; because its mind is diligently set on evil things, and into the sea; I mean the brine of sin, being willingly dragged down; as our forefather Adam, having fallen from paradise to this world, was rolled down, and diligently embraced the unstable [nature] of material things, and the error and confusion that is otherwise both briny and borne by brine; the gain for those who cling to it is only so much as to be cast into the sea, and to be swallowed by the whale, and to have water poured around them even to the soul; and to be surrounded by the lowest abyss, and for the head to go down into the clefts of the mountains, and to descend into the earth, whose bars are eternal keepers; as being clearly the bottom of the lowest abyss; the land truly dark and gloomy, a land of everlasting darkness; in which there is no light, nor can one see the life of mortals, as Job somewhere says, the great one who contended in great struggles for the truth.

The prophet, therefore, signifies Adam, that is, the common nature of men, mystically prefiguring these things in each instance: the [nature] that slipped away from the divine goods as from Joppa, and was carried down to the misery of this life as to a sea; and was sunk in the unstable and loud-roaring sea of attachment to material things; and was swallowed by the whale, the intelligible and insatiable beast, the devil; (697) and received the water of temptations in wickedness poured around it from all sides, even to the soul; that is, as being surrounded by the temptations of life; and was surrounded by the lowest abyss; that is, having its mind bound by complete ignorance, and its reason overwhelmed by the great weight of wickedness; and for its head to sink into the clefts of the mountains; that is, the primary principle of faith concerning the one God, as the head of the whole body of the virtues, was shut up as in certain lightless clefts of mountains, into the thoughts of the wicked powers, and was divided into many opinions and fantasies. For the word spoke of the clefts of mountains as the conceptions concerning error of the spirits of wickedness, which lie somewhere in the depth of the lowest abyss of ignorance; and having descended into the

235

φέρει καί τοῦ Ἀδάμ, καί τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως, καί τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καί τῆς προφητικῆς χάριτος, καί τοῦ ἀγνώμονος, καί ἐπί παντί καλῷ διαπονουμένου καί ταῖς θείαις ἀεί βασκαίνοντος χάρισι λαοῦ τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Οἷον, τοῦ μέν Ἀδάμ, φέρει τύπον καί τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως, φεύγων ἐξ Ἰόππης εἰς θάλασσαν, καί διά τοῦτο κατά τήν τῆς προσηγορίας αὐτοῦ δύναμιν, φυγή κάλλους καλούμενος. Ἰόππης δέ δηλοῖ τυπούμενον ἐν αὐτῇ τόν (696) παράδεισον, τόν ὄντως κατασκοπήν χαρᾶς καί ὄντα καί ὀνομαζόμενον· καί χαράν δυνατήν καί καλλονήν θαυμασίαν, διά τόν ἐν αὐτῷ πλοῦτον τῆς ἀφθαρσίας· ὅστις ποτ᾿ ἄν ἦν ὁ παράδεισος οὗτος ὁ χειρί Θεοῦ φυτευθείς. Ἐφύτευσε γάρ, φησί, Κύριος ὁ Θεός παράδεισον ἐν Ἐδέμ, καί ἔθετο ἐκεῖ τόν ἄνθρωπον ὅν ἔπλασε· καί τίνα τά ξύλα τά ἐν αὐτῷ, εἴτε θεωρούμενα, εἴτε νοούμενα· καί τί τό ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ παραδείσου ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς· ὧν πάντων ἐσθίειν πρόσταγμα λαβών ὁ Ἀδάμ, τυχόν οὐδέ ἥψατο· Ἀπό παντός γάρ ξύλου, φησί, τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῶ βρώσει φάγῃ.

Σημαίνει δέ πάλιν ἡ Ἰόππη, τήν ἀρετήν καί τήν γνῶσιν· καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς σοφίαν· τήν ἀρετήν μέν, ὅταν ἑρμηνεύεται καλλονή θαυμαστή· τήν δέ γνῶσιν, ὅταν ὡς κατασκοπή χαρᾶς λαμβάνεται· τήν δέ σοφίαν, ὁπηνίκα τήν δυνατήν σημαίνει χαράν· καθ᾿ ἥν τελειούμενος ἄνθρωπος, τήν ἀνεκλάλητον λαμβάνει χαράν· τήν δυνατήν, καί ὄντως συνεκτικήν τῆς κατά θεόν καί θείας τοῦ ἀνθρώπου συστάσεως· εἴπερ ἡ σοφία ξύλον ζωῆς ἐστι πᾶσι τοῖς ἀντεχομένοις αὐτῆς, κατά τό γεγραμμένον· καί τοῖς ἐπερειδομένοις ἐπ᾿ αὐτήν, ὡς ἐπί Κύριον, ἀσφαλής. Φεύγουσαν γάρ ἀεί τήν Ἰόππην, τουτέστι, τήν ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως, καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐταῖς σοφίας τήν χάριν, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἀδάμ τόν παράδεισον διά τῆς παρακοῆς, ὁρῶμεν τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων· διά τό τήν διάνοιαν αὐτῆς ἐπιμελῶς ἐγκεῖσθαι τοῖς πονηροῖς, καί εἰς τήν θάλασσαν· λέγω δέ τήν ἅλμην τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἑκουσίως κατασυρομένην· ὡς πρός τοῦτον τόν κόσμον ἐκπεσών τοῦ παραδείσου ὁ προπάτωρ Ἀδάμ κατεκυλίσθη, καί τήν ἄστατον τῶν ὑλικῶν, καί ἅλμην ἄλλως φέρουσάν τε καί φερομένην πλάνην τε καί σύγχυσιν ἐπιμελῶς περιέπουσαν· ἧς τοσοῦτόν εστι τό κέρδος τοῖς ἀντεχομένοις αὐτῆς, ὅσον μόνον ποντισθῆναι, καί ὑπό τοῦ κήτους καταποθῆναι, καί περιχυθῆναι ὕδωρ ἕως ψυχῆς· καί ἀπό τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου κυκλωθῆναι, καί δύναι τήν κεφαλήν εἰς σχισμάς ὀρέων, καί κατελθεῖν εἰς γῆν, ἧς οἱ μοχλοί αὐτῆς κάτοχοι αἰώνιοι· ὡς πυθμένα δῆλον ὅτι τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου τυγχάνουσαν· τήν γῆν τήν σκοτεινήν ὄντως καί γνοφεράν, γῆν σκότους αἰωνίου· ἐν ᾗ οὐκ ἔστι φέγγος, οὐδέ ὁρᾷν ζωήν βροτῶν, ὥς πού φησιν ὁ μέγας καί τοῖς μεγάλοις ὑπέρ ἀληθείας ἄθλοις διηγωνισμένος Ἰώβ.

Σημαίνει γοῦν τόν Ἀδάμ ὁ προφήτης, ἤγουν τήν κοινήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἐν ἑκάστῳ ταῦτα τυπῶν μυστικῶς· τήν, ὡς ἐξ Ἰόππης τῶν θείων ἐξολισθήσασαν ἀγαθῶν, καί πρός τήνδε τοῦ βίου καθάπερ θάλασσαν τήν ταλαιπωρίαν κατενεχθεῖσαν· καί τῷ ἀστάτῳ καί πολυφλοίσβῳ πελάγει τῆς τῶν ὑλικῶν προσπαθείας καταποντισθεῖσαν· καί ὑπό τοῦ κήτους τοῦ νοητοῦ καί ἀπλήστου θηρός τοῦ διαβόλου (697) καταποθεῖσαν· καί τό ὕδωρ πανταχόθεν τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ πειρασμῶν περιχυθέν δεξαμένην ἕως ψυχῆς· ὡς περιχεθεῖσαν δηλαδή τοῖς πειρασμοῖς τῆς ζωῆς· καί ὑπό τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου κυκλωθῆναι· τουτέστιν, ὑπό τῆς παντελοῦς ἀγνοίας καταδεθεῖσαν τόν νοῦν, καί περικλυσθῆναι τῷ πολλῷ βάρει τῆς κακίας τόν λογισμόν· καί καταδύσαι τήν κεφαλήν εἰς σχισμάς ὀρέων· τουτέστι, τόν πρῶτον κατά τήν πίστιν περί μονάδος λόγον, ὡς κεφαλήν τοῦ παντός σώματος τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὡς εἴς τινας σχισμάς ἀφεγγεῖς ὀρέων τάς διανοίας τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων κατακλεισθεῖσαν καί εἰς πολλάς δόξας καί φαντασίας καταμερισθεῖσαν. Σχισμάς γάρ ὀρέων, τῶν ἐν τῷ βάθει που τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀβύσσου τῆς ἀγνοίας κειμένων τῆς πονηρίας πνευμάτων περί πλάνην ἐννοίας εἶπεν, ὁ λόγος· καί κατελθοῦσαν εἰς τήν