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the learning of the law by rote; which he, (740) who embraces only the corporeal worship of the law, takes unlawfully to dwell with him; from which he begets nothing pious and God-loving. For he who practices only the corporeal learning of the law by the utterance of the word, does not have a lawful cohabitation with the word, that is, the learning of the law. Whence his offspring become base-born and rejected. For to him, because of the unlawful union, are born of Rizpah, Armoni and Mephibosheth, which is their Anathema, and the Shame of their mouth. For Armoni, according to one interpretation, is interpreted as Anathema; and Mephibosheth, shame of their mouth. And their Anathema is the corruption, through the mouth because of sin, of the activity of the passions. And Mephibosheth is the unnatural movement of the mind toward evil; that is, the mind's inventive reflection upon vile things; both being and being called, the shame of the mind.

Or again, their anathema is the place of the now prevailing penalty of nature; that is, this world, having become a place of death and corruption because of sin; into which the first man fell from paradise after the transgression of the divine commandment; which world, according to the pleasure-loving disposition of the will, that is, worldly attachment, he is disposed to beget from the learning that consists only in the utterance of the word of the law, who does not cross over in his mind to the inner divine beauty of the legal letter in the spirit. And shame of their mouth is the mind’s world-loving and body-loving meditation on thoughts. For in that the world is disposed to be born from the corporeal formation which appears in the letter of the law according to the disposition of the will, that is, the disposition that loves the world; the mind’s world-loving meditation on thoughts is also fittingly co-generated as body-loving.

Or again, their anathema is the unformed and unadorned and unshaped movement of the passions; and shame of the mouth is the movement of the mind that brings form to the passions, and shapes beauty for the senses according to pleasure. For without the inventive power of the mind, a passion is in no way led toward the formation of a shape. Therefore, he who circumscribes the power of the divine promise by the letter of the law alone, has the learning of the law as a concubine, but not a lawful wife. Whence of necessity such learning, not through itself, but through him who receives it corporeally, that is, who has relations with it, begets the anathema and the shame. For he who believes that God ordained the sacrifices and the feasts, the Sabbaths and the new moons according to the law for the sake of bodily luxury and rest; will in every (741) and all ways come under the guilt of the activity of the passions, and the shame of the filthiness of the shameful thoughts concerning them; and he will be under the corruptible world, and the body-loving meditation in his thoughts; and under the matter and the form of the passions, being able to hold nothing honorable other than corruptible things; and for this reason, perhaps, he badly begets Merob, who bore five sons to Adriel. And Merob is interpreted as fullness of the throat, which is gluttony. For she alone, having received permission from the commandment in a Judaic manner, begets the modes of misuse of the senses for Adriel; that is, for the contemplative part of the soul. For Adriel is interpreted as divine power, or a strong helper, or a powerful sight; which is the mind made in the image of God; but which has been persuaded to take up gluttony as its consort, as the offspring of the law of the flesh according to the commandment, that is, of the letter. For the mind, having been persuaded that luxury according to the flesh is a command of a divine ordinance according to the law in the letter, accepts no other than it for cohabitation; considering it to be divine and the offspring of the reigning law, and from it establishes the modes of misuse of the senses. For whenever the contemplative part of the soul embraces luxury according to the law in the letter as divine because of the commandment, for

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προφοράν τοῦ νόμου μάθησις· ἥν εἰσοικίζεται παρανόμως, (740) ὁ μόνην τήν σωματικήν τοῦ νόμου περιέπων λατρείαν· ἀφ᾿ οἷς οὐδέν εὐσεβές γεννᾷ καί φιλόθεον. Ὁ γάρ μόνην τήν σωματικήν τοῦ νόμου κατά προφοράν λόγου μάθησιν ἐξασκούμενος, νόμιμον οὐκ ἔχει τήν πρός τόν λόγον, ἤγουν τήν μάθησιν τοῦ νόμου συμβίωσιν. Ὅθεν δυσγενῆ καί ἀπόβλητα καθέστηκεν αὐτοῦ τά γεννώμενα. Γεννᾶται γάρ αὐτῷ διά τήν παράνομον κοίτην ἐκ τῆς Ῥεσφᾶς ὁ Ἐρμονθί καί ὁ Μεμφιβοσθέ, ὅπερ ἐστίν Ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν, καί Αἰσχύνη στόματος αὐτῶν. Ἐρμονθί γάρ κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν, Ἀνάθεμα ἑρμηνεύεται· καί Μεμφιβοσθέ, αἰσχύνη στόματος αὐτῶν. Ἀνάθεμα δέ αὐτῶν ἐστίν, ἡ διά στόματος καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν φθορά τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας. Μεμφιβοσθέ δέ ἐστιν, ἡ παρά φύσιν τοῦ νοῦ πρός κακίαν κίνησις· ἤγουν ἡ κατά νοῦν ἐπινοητική τῶν φαύλων ἐνθύμησις· αἰσχύνη νοῦ, καί οὖσα καί λεγομένη.

Ἤ πάλιν ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν ἐστι, τόπος τοῦ νῦν κρατοῦντος ἐπιτιμίου τῆς φύσεως· τουτέστιν ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ὡς χωρίον θανάτου καί φθορᾶς διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν γενόμενος· εἰς ὅν ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου μετά τήν παράβασιν τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς ὁ πρώτος κατέπεσεν ἄνθρωπος· ὅντινα κόσμον κατά τήν τῆς γνώμης φιλήδονον σχέσιν, ἤγουν τήν κοσμικήν προσπάθειαν, γεννᾷν πέφυκεν ἐκ τῆς κατά μόνην τήν ἐν λόγῳ τοῦ νόμου προφοράν μαθήσεως, ὁ μή διαβαίνων κατά νοῦν πρός τήν ἔνδον ἐν πνεύματι τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος θείαν εὐπρέπειαν. Αἰσχύνη δέ στόματος αὐτῶν ἐστιν, ἡ κατά νοῦν φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν καί φιλοσώματος. Ἐν ᾧ γάρ ὁ κόσμος ἐκ τῆς φαινομένης τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου σωματικῆς διαπλάσεως, κατά τήν γνωμικήν σχέσιν γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκεν, ἤγουν ἡ τόν κόσμον φιλοῦσα διάθεσις· καί ἡ κατά νοῦν φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν εἰκότως συγγεννᾶται φιλοσώματος.

Ἤ πάλιν, ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν ἐστιν, ἡ πρόσυλος καί ἀκαλλής τῶν παθῶν καί ἀδιατύπωτος κίνησις· αἰσχύνη δέ στόματός ἐστιν, ἡ τοῖς πάθεσιν εἶδος ἐπάγουσα, καί τό καθ᾿ ἡδονήν πρός αἴσθησιν διαπλάττουσα κάλλος τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις. Χωρίς γάρ τῆς κατά νοῦν ἐπινοητικῆς δυνάμεως, πρός διάπλασιν μορφῆς οὐδαμῶς ἄγεται πάθος. Οὐκοῦν ὁ μόνῳ τῶ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου περιγράφων τῆς θείας ἐπαγγελίας τήν δύναμιν, παλλακήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ γυναῖκα νόμιμον ἔχει τοῦ νόμου τήν μάθησιν. Ὅθεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἡ τοιαύτη μάθησις, οὐ δι᾿ ἑαυτήν, ἀλλά διά τόν αὐτήν σωματικῶς ἐκδεχόμενον, ἤγουν συγγενόμενον γεννᾶ τό ἀνάθεμα καί τήν αἰσχύνην. Ὁ γάρ διά τρυφήν σωματικήν καί ἀνάπαυσιν, τάς θυσίας καί τάς ἑορτάς· τά τε Σάββατα καί τάς νεομηνίας κατά τόν νόμον τόν Θεόν διατεταχέναι πιστεύων· πάντη τε (741) καί πάντως ὑπό τήν ἐνοχήν γενήσεται τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας, καί τήν αἰσχύνην τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς αἰσχρῶν λογισμῶν ῥυπαρίας· ὑπό τε τόν φθειρόμενον ἔσται κόσμον, καί τήν ἐν λογισμοῖς φιλοσώματον μελέτην· ὑπό τε τήν ὕλην τῶν παθῶν καί τό εἶδος, μηδέν ἄλλο πλήν τῶν φθειρομένων τίμιον ἔχειν δυνάμενος· καί διά τοῦτο τυχόν κακῶς γεννῶν τήν Μερώβ, τήν γεννῶσαν υἱούς πέντε τῷ Ἐσδριήλ. Μερώβ δέ, πλησμονή φάρυγγος ἑρμηνεύεται, ἥ τίς ἐστιν ἡ γαστριμαργία. Μόνη γάρ αὕτη παρά τῆς ἐντολῆς Ἰουδαϊκῶς λαβοῦσα τήν ἄδειαν, τούς κατά παράχρησιν τρόπους γεννᾷ τῶν αἰσθήσεων τῷ Ἐσδριήλ· ἤγουν τῷ θεωρητικῷ μέρει τῆς ψυχῆς. Ἐσδριήλ γάρ ἑρμηνεύεται θεία δύναμις ἤ βοητός ἰσχυρός, ἤ βλέψις δυνατή· ὅπερ ἐστίν, ὁ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα μέν Θεοῦ γενόμενος νοῦς· τήν δέ γαστριμαργίαν ὡς τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐντολήν σαρκός νόμου, τουτέστι τοῦ γράμματος, γέννημα, παραπεισθείς συνοικισάμενος. Πεισθείς γάρ ὁ νοῦς θείας ἐντολῆς εἶναι διαταγήν κατά τόν ἐν γράμματι νόμον τήν κατά σάρκα τρυφήν, ἄλλην οὐ προσίεται πλήν αὐτῆς πρός συμβίωσιν· ὡς θείαν, καί νόμου τοῦ βασιλεύοντος αὐτήν ἡγησάμενος γέννημα, καί τούς κατά παράχρησιν ἐξ αὐτῆς τῶν αἰσθήσεων συνίστησι τρόπους. Ἐπειδάν γάρ τό θεωρητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς, τήν τρυφήν κατά τόν ἐν γράμματι νόμον ὡς θείαν διά τήν ἐντολήν ἀσπάσηται πρός