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of knowledge reasonably does not console the lack; having condemned himself to eat the earth of Scripture, that is, the body, after the manner of the deceitful serpent; but not feeding according to Christ the mind, that is, the spirit and soul of Scripture, which is the heavenly and angelic bread (I mean, the spiritual contemplation and knowledge of the Scriptures in Christ) [alt. food]; which God gives, bountifully supplying it to those who love him, according to what is written: *He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels.*

It is necessary, therefore, to annihilate the sensual interpretation towards the body of Scripture—as being manifestly generative of passions and of the disposition related to things temporal and fleeting (that is, of the impassioned activity of the senses toward sensible things)—as children and offspring of Saul, through natural contemplation, as on a mountain by the spiritual ascent of the divine oracles [alt. words], if indeed we desire to be filled with divine grace. For if (752) the iniquity is upon Saul, according to the divine oracle, and upon his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death, it is clear that both the law understood according to the letter alone, and the people of the Jews, and anyone who is an imitator of them in thought (for the Word knows this to be the house of Saul), wrongs the truth by circumscribing the power of the law by the letter alone, and by not accepting, for the manifestation of the knowledge mystically hidden in the letter, natural contemplation, which exists as a mean between types and truth; leading away from the former those who are being led; and leading up to the latter; but as it were utterly denying this, and putting it outside the divine mysteries.

It is necessary, therefore, for the stewards of the divine spectacles to kill this bodily and temporary interpretation of the law, as being subject to time and fleeting, through natural contemplation, as on a mountain in the height of knowledge. *For David*, it says, *called the Gibeonites, and said to them: What shall I do for you, and with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? And they said to the king: The man who consumed us, and persecuted us, and plotted to exterminate us, we will destroy him, so that he will not stand in any border of Israel. Give us seven men from his sons, and we will expose them to the sun to the Lord on the hill of Saul. And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Saul's concubine, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merob daughter of Saul whom she bore to Adriel. And he gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they exposed them on the mountain before the Lord. And the seven of them fell there together, and they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the beginning of the barley harvest.*

Where in the history do we find that the Gibeonites destroyed Saul, so that he would not stand in any border of Israel; when Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, was saved by King David, and many others of Saul's kin, as is recorded in the book of Chronicles? (753) How then, having taken seven men from his seed, did they say, *We will destroy him*, so that he will not stand in any border of Israel, though he had died many years before this? But, as it seems, the illogical was mixed with the letter of the history, so that we might seek the true meaning of what was written. Therefore, he who by action through natural contemplation, as through certain Gibeonites, puts to death the pleasure-loving and body-loving relation to unstable and fleeting matter that is born in the soul from the written law, completely annihilates the bodily sense of Scripture, that is, Saul, from every border of Israel; slaughtering, as children and offspring of Saul, the base meaning of the law, by means of natural contemplation, as on a mountain in the height of knowledge, and making manifest before the Lord, that is, through confession, the former interpretation according to the body of the law. For this can be understood by the studious as being exposed to the sun before the Lord; having brought to light, through

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γνώσεως εἰκότως ἀπορίαν οὐ παραμυθεῖται· τῆς Γραφῆς τήν γῆν, ἤγουν τό σῶμα, κατά τόν ἀπατηλόν ὄφιν ἐσθίειν ἑαυτόν καταδικάσας· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά Χριστόν τόν νοῦν, ἤγουν τῆς Γραφῆς τό πνεῦμα καί τήν ψυχήν, τουτέστι τόν οὐράνιον καί ἀγγελικόν ἄρτον (λέγω δή, τήν ἐν Χριστῷ τῶν Γραφῶν πνευματικήν θεωρίαν καί γνῶσιν) [ἄλλ. βρῶσιν] βρωματιζόμενος· ἥν δίδωσι δαψιλῶς ἐποιχορηγουμένην τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν ὁ Θεός, κατά τό γεγραμμένον· Ἄρτον οὐρανοῦ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς· ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος.

Χρή τοιγαροῦν τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός σῶμα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐκδοχήν, ὡς παθῶν προδήλως καί τῆς πρός τά χρονικά καί ῥέοντα σχετικῆς διαθέσεως οὖσαν γεννητικήν (ἤγουν τῆς πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐμπαθοῦς ἐνεργείας), ὡς Σαούλ τέκνα καί ἔκγονα, διά τῆς φυσικῆς, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῇ τῶν θείων ἀναγωγῇ λογίων [ἄλλ. λόγων], ἀφανίσας θεωρίας, εἴπερ ἐμφορηθῆναι θείας ἐφιέμεθα χάριτος. Εἰ γάρ ἐπί (752) Σαούλ ἡ ἀδικία, κατά τόν θεῖον χρησμόν, καί ἐπί τόν οἶκον αὐτοῦ, ὑπέρ οὗ ἐθανάτωσε τούς Γαβαωνίτας, δῆλον ὡς ἀδικεῖ τήν ἀλήθειαν, ὅ τε νόμος κατά μόνον τό γράμμα νοούμενος, καί ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαός, καί εἴ τις ἐκείνων μιμητής ὑπάρχει κατά διάνοιαν (τοῦτον γάρ οἶδεν ὁ λόγος οἶκον Σαούλ εἶναι), μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι περιγράφων τοῦ νόμου τήν δύναμιν, καί μή δεχόμενος πρός τήν φανέρωσιν τῆς μυστικῶς ἐγκεκρυμμένης τῷ γράμματι γνώσεως, τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, μέσην ὑπάρχουσαν τύπων καί ἀληθείας· τῶν μέν τούς ἀγομένους ἀπάγουσαν· πρός δέ τήν, ἐπανάγουσαν· ἀλλ᾿ οἷον ταύτην πάμπαν ἀρνούμενος, καί τῆς τῶν θείων αὐτήν ἔξω ποιούμενος μυσταγωγίας.

Ταύτην τοιγαροῦν χρή τήν σωματικήν τοῦ νόμου καί πρόσκαιρον ἐκδοχήν, ὡς ὑπό χρόνον καί ῥέουσαν ἀποκτένειν διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῷ ὕψει τῆς γνώσεως, τούς τῶν θείων ἐπιμελητάς θεαμάτων. Καί ἐκάλεσε γάρ, φησί, ∆αβίδ τούς Γαβαωνίτας, καί εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Τί ποιήσω ὑμῖν, καί ἐν τίνι ἐξιλάσομαι, καί εὐλογήσετε τήν κληρονομίαν Κυρίου; Καί εἶπον πρός τόν βασιλέα· Ὁ ἀνήρ ὅς συνετέλεσεν ἡμᾶς, καί ἐδίωξεν ἡμᾶς, καί ἐλογίσατο ἐξολοθρεῦσαι ἡμᾶς, ἀφανίσομεν αὐτόν τοῦ μή ἑστάναι αὐτόν ἐν παντί ὁρίῳ Ἰσραήλ. ∆ότε ἡμῖν ἑπτά ἄνδρας, ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, καί ἐξηλιάσομεν αὐτούς τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν τῷ βουνῷ Σαούλ. Καί ἔλαβεν ὁ βασιλεύς τούς δύο υἱούς Ῥεσφῶς θυγατρός Ἀϊᾶ, παλλακής Σαούλ, τόν Ἐρμονθί, καί τόν Μεμφιβοσθέ, καί τούς πέντε υἱούς Μερώβ θυγατρός Σαούλ οὕς ἔτεκε τῷ Ἐσδιήλ. Καί ἔδωκεν αὐτούς ἐν χειρί τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν, καί ἐξηλίασαν αὐτούς ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἔναντι Κυρίου. Καί ἔπεσιν ἐκεῖ οἱ ἑπτά ἐπιτοαυτό, καί ἐθανατώθησαν ἐν ἡμέραις θερισμοῦ, ἐν ἀρχῇ θερισμοῦ κριθῶν. Ποῦ κατά τήν ἱστορίαν εὑρίσκομεν, ὡς ἠφάνισαν τόν Σαούλ οἱ Γαβαωνῖται, τοῦ μή ἑστάναι αὐτόν ἐν παντί ὁρίῳ Ἰσραήλ· τοῦ υἱοῦ Ἰωνάθαν υἱοῦ Σαούλ Μαριβαάλ παρά τῷ βασιλεῖ ∆αβίδ διασωθέντος, καί ἄλλων πολλῶν τῆς συγγενείας Σαούλ ὡς ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ φέρεται τῶν Παραλειπομένων; (753) Πῶς δέ τούς ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ λαβόντες ἑπτά ἄνδρας, Αὐτόν, εἶπον ἀφανίσομεν, τοῦ μή ἑστάναι αὐτόν ἐν παντί ὁρίῳ Ἰσραήλ, πρό τούτου πολλούς ἀποθανόντα χρόνους; Ἀλλ᾿, ὡς ἔοικε, παρεμίγη τῷ ῥητῷ τῆς ἱστορίας τό παράλογον, ἵνα τό τῆς διανοίας ἀληθές τῶν γεγραμμένων ζητήσωμεν. Οὐκοῦν τόν σωματικόν νοῦν τῆς Γραφῆς, τουτέστι τόν Σαούλ, ἀφανίζει παντελῶς ἐκ παντός ὁρίου Ἰσραήλ, ὁ πράξει διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ὡς διά τινων Γαβανιτῶν, ἀποκτένων τήν γεννωμένην ἐκ τοῦ γραπτοῦ νόμου πρός τήν ἄστατον ὕλην, καί ῥέουσαν τῇ ψυχῇ, φιλήδονον σχέσιν καί φιλοσώματον· κατασφάττων ὡς τέκνα Σαούλ καί ἔκγονα, τήν χαμαίζηλον τοῦ νόμου διάνοιαν, διά μέσης τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῷ ὕψει τῆς γνώσεως, καί φανεράν ποιούμενος ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, δι᾿ ἐξομολογήσεως δηλαδή, τήν πρός σῶμα τοῦ νόμου προτέραν ἐκδοχήν. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐξηλιάσαι νοεῖσθαι δύναται τοῖς φιλομαθέσιν ἔναντι Κυρίου· εἰς φῶς ἀγαγόντες, διά