254

by the letter of the law to cling to fleshly reasonings, grace was taken away from knowledge.

And David, it says, sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said: The iniquity is upon the house of Saul, because he put the Gibeonites to death. David is every discerning mind according to Christ, always seeking the face of the Lord. And the face of the Lord is established as the true contemplation and knowledge of divine things according to virtue, which, in seeking, he is taught the cause of its lack and difficulty; and he is commanded to give up to death the two sons of Saul by the concubine Rizpah, and the five sons of his daughter Merob. Saul is, as I said, a requested hades, that is, a desired ignorance. And a clearly desired ignorance is the letter of the law, that is, the fleshly power of worship in the law, which is the fleshly aspect of the law; or a mind that clings only according to sensation, in a fleshly way, to the matter of the letter. And Rizpah is, according to her interpretation, a course of the mouth, which is the learning of the law only according to its spoken pronunciation. And truly he has a course of the mouth, but not of the intellect, who is a stranger to the spiritual contemplation of the law. And the sons of Rizpah are Armoni and Mephibosheth. And Armoni is their anathema, which is the corruption through the body, according to sin, of the energy of the passions; or the place, that is, the world, in which the penalty for the transgression was given; that is, the inward disposition toward the world according to pleasure; or perhaps, the coarse and unadorned and unformed movement of the passions. And Mephibosheth, the shame of their body, which is the unnatural movement of the mind concerning evil; that is, the inventive thought of the passions; or perhaps, the world-loving and body-loving meditation of the reasonings. Or again, the movement of the mind that brings form to the passions, and shapes the beauty according to pleasure toward sensation. For it is natural to beget these sons (749) from the learning according only to spoken pronunciation, both the written law, and the mind that sits only with the letter of the law. And Merob, according to her interpretation, is (the daughter of Saul) the fullness of the throat; which signifies the passion of gluttony. For it knows only how to beget the luxury of the body, and the disposition for enjoyment of material things, both the law according to the letter, circumscribing with its symbols those who worship according to it; and the mind, because of its flesh-loving life, limiting the law to its types according to the letter. And the five sons of Merob, the daughter of Saul, are established as the five impassioned modes of the five senses according to misuse; which the disposition that cares for the body alone through luxury, according to the law, is always accustomed to bear to Adriel, that is, to the contemplative part.

These two sons of Saul (that is, matter and form), and the five grandsons of Saul, that is, the five modes of the senses concerning matter and form according to misuse (I mean the impassioned and unnatural entanglement of the senses with sensible things, that is, the things subject to time and flux), after the death of Saul (that is, after the passing of the fleshly worship in the law according to the letter, and the crossing over of ignorance), David the wondrous, according to the divine oracle, delivers them to be put to death by the Gibeonites (that is, to the higher reasons and reasonings according to natural contemplation, the spiritual law, or mind, [delivers] the most universal relation in the symbols to sensation and the body of things under time to make disappear and to put to death), being done on the height of the hill of Saul; I mean, of the law of spiritual contemplation. For if one does not first, having contemplated in a natural way the reflection in the symbols of divine and intelligible things, desire to come according to the mind, placing sensation completely outside the divine sanctuaries, to the seemliness of intelligible things, he cannot be released at all from the fleshly variety in the types; according to which, as long as he has gone on clinging to the letter, the ... from the famine of the

254

γράμματι τοῦ νόμου σωματικῶν ἀντέχεσθαι λογισμῶν, ἡ χάρις ἀφῃρέθη τῆς γνώσεως.

Καί ἐζήτησε, φησί, ∆αβίδ τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Καί εἶπε Κύριος· Ἐπί τόν οἶκον Σαούλ ἡ ἀδικία, περί οὗ ἐθανάτωσε τούς Γαβαωνίτας. ∆αβίδ ἐστι, πᾶς νοῦς κατά Χριστόν διορατικός, ἀεί ζητῶν τό πρόσωπον Κυρίου. Πρόσωπον δέ Κυρίου καθέστηκεν ἡ κατά τήν ἀρετήν τῶν θείων ἀληθής θεωρία καί γνῶσις, ἥν ζητῶν διδάσκεται τήν αἰτίαν τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐνδείας καί ἀπορίας· καί κελεύεται δοῦναι πρός θάνατον τούς δύο υἱούς Σαούλ τούς ἐκ τῆς παλλακίδος Ῥεσφᾶς, καί τούς πέντε τῆς αὐτοῦ θυγατρός Μερώβ υἱούς. Σαούλ ἐστι, καθώς ἔφην, αἰτητός ᾅδης, ἤγουν ἄγνοια ποθητή. Ποθουμένη δέ σαφῶς ἐστιν ἄγνοια, τό γράμμα τό νομικόν, ἤγουν τό σωματικόν τῆς ἐν νόμῳ λατρείας κράτος, ὅπερ ἐστί τό τοῦ νόμου σωματικόν· ἤ νοῦς μόνης κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀντεχόμενος σωματικῶς τῆς ὕλης τοῦ γράμματος. Ῥεσφᾶ δέ ἐστι, κατά τήν αὐτῆς ἑρμηνείαν, δρόμος στόματος, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ νόμου κατά μόνην τήν ἐν λόγῳ προφοράν ἐκμάθησις. ∆ρόμον δέ ἀληθῶς ἔχει στόματος, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διανοίας, ὁ τῆς πνευματικῆς τοῦ νόμου θεωρίας ἀλλότριος. Υἱοί δέ τῆς Ῥεσφᾶς ὑπάρχουσιν, Ἐρμονθί καί Μεμφιβοσθέ. Ἐρμονθί δέ ἐστιν, ἀνάθεμα αὐτῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν διά σώματος φθορά τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐνεργείας· ἤ ὁ τόπος, τουτέστιν ὁ κόσμος, ἐν ᾧ τῆς παραβάσεως ἐδόθη τό ἐπιτίμιον· ἤγουν ἡ καθ᾿ ἡδονήν πρός τόν κόσμον ἐνδιάθετος σχέσις· ἤ τυχόν, ἡ πρόσυλος καί ἀκαλλής τῶν παθῶν καί ἀδιάπλαστος κίνησις. Μεμφιβοσθέ δέ, αἰσχύνη σώματος αὐτῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ παρά φύσιν τοῦ νοῦ περί κακίαν κίνησις· ἤγουν ἡ ἐπινοητική τῶν παθῶν ἐνθύμησις· ἤ τυχόν, ἡ φιλόκοσμος μελέτη τῶν λογισμῶν καί φιλοσώματος. Ἤ πάλιν, ἡ τοῖς πάθεσιν εἶδος ἐπάγουσα, καί τό καθ᾿ ἡδονήν πρός αἴσθησιν διαπλάττουσα κάλλος τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις. Τούτους γάρ γεννᾷν τούς υἱούς (749) πέφυκεν ἐκ τῆς κατά μόνην τήν ἐν λόγῳ προφοράν ἐκμαθήσεως, ὅ τε γραπτός νόμος, καί ὁ μόνῳ προσκαθήμενος τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου νοῦς. Μερώβ δέ, κατά τήν αὐτῆς ἑρμηνείαν ἐστίν (ἡ τοῦ Σαούλ θυγάτηρ), ἡ πλησμονή τοῦ φάρυγγος· ὅπερ δηλοῖ τό τῆς γαστριμαργίας πάθος. Μόνην γάρ οἶδε γεννᾷν σώματος τρυφήν, καί τήν τῶν ὑλικῶν ἀπολαυστικήν διάθεσιν, ὅ τε νόμος κατά τό γράμμα, τοῖς συμβόλοις τούς κατ᾿ αὐτόν λατρεύοντας περιγράφων· ὅ τε νοῦς, διά τήν φιλόσαρκον ζωήν, κατά τό γράμμα τόν νόμον τοῖς τύποις περιορίζων. Πέντε δέ τῆς Μερώβ θυγατρός Σαούλ υἱοί καθεστήκασιν, οἱ κατά πράχρησιν ἐμπαθεῖς πέντε τρόποι τῶν πέντε αἰσθήσεων· οὕς τίκτειν πάντως εἴωθε τῷ Ἐσδριήλ, ἤγουν τῷ θεωρητικῷ μέρει, ἡ μόνου τοῦ σώματος κατά νόμον διά τρυφῆς ἐπιμελουμένη διάθεσις.

Τούτους τούς δύο τοῦ Σαούλ υἱούς (ἤγουν τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος), καί τούς πέντε τοῦ Σαούλ υἱωνούς, ἤγουν τούς περί τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος κατά παράχρησιν πέντε τρόπους τῶν αἰσθήσεων (λέγω δή τήν ἐμπαθῆ τε καί παρά φύσιν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων συμπλοκήν, ἤγουν τά ὑπό χρόνον καί ῥεῦσιν), μετά τήν τελευτήν Σαούλ (τουτέστι, μετά τήν πάροδον τῆς ἐν νόμῳ κατά τό γράμμα σωματικῆς λατρείας, καί τήν τῆς ἀγνοίας διάβασιν), παραδίδωσι θανατωθῆναι κατά τόν θεῖον χρηματισμόν, ∆αβίδ ὁ θαυμάσιος τοῖς Γαβαωνίταις (τουτέστι, τοῖς κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὑψηλοτέροις λόγοις καί λογισμοῖς, ὁ πνευματικός νόμος, ἤ νοῦς, τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις πρός αἴσθησιν καί σῶμα καθολικωτάτην τῶν ὑπό χρόνον σχέσιν ἀφανίσαι καί θανατῶσαι), κατά τό ὕψος γινομένοις τοῦ βουνοῦ Σαούλ· λέγω δή, τοῦ νόμου τῆς πνευματικῆς θεωρίας. Εἰ γάρ μή φυσικῶς πρότερόν τις τήν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις τῶν θείων καί νοητῶν διασκοπήσας ἀπέμφασιν, ἐλθεῖν ποθήσῃ κατά νοῦν, ἔξω παντελῶς τῶν θείων ἀδύτων τήν αἴσθησιν θέμενος, πρός τήν τῶν νοητῶν εὐπρέπειαν, τῆς ἐν τοῖς τύποις ἀπολυθῆναι καθάπαξ οὐ δύναται σωματικῆς ποικιλίας· καθ᾿ ἥν ἕως βέβηκε τοῦ γράμματος ἀντεχόμενος, τήν ἐκ τοῦ λιμοῦ τῆς