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according to it making the form a distinguishing mark of our existence; in Christ Jesus our God and Savior, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

SCHOLIA. a. The mind, purified to the utmost through the virtues, those of the virtues

is naturally taught the principles; making its own person the knowledge divinely characterized from them. For every mind in itself is formless and uncharacterized, having an acquired form, either the knowledge subsisting in spirit from the virtues, or the ignorance that supervenes from the passions.

b. He who has received the divine knowledge from the virtues in spirit, which is the form of the mind, is said to have experienced divine things, because he has acquired this not by nature in his existence, but by grace in his participation. But he who has not received knowledge from grace, even if he says something about knowledge, does not know by experience the power of what is said. For mere learning does not give knowledge as a state.

c. He said well that Saul is taken according to this passage of Scripture; because he is taken in many ways in other places, being appropriately adapted to the contemplation revealed from the history.

d. Just as, he says, one who unites with a concubine does not have a lawful marriage; so one who practices the learning of the law in a fleshly manner does not have a lawful cohabitation with it; begetting from it illegitimate doctrines, that are also corrupted along with the life of the flesh.

e. He who receives, he says, the scriptural learning according to the body, is taught from it sin in practice, and the mind's meditation on sin; he learns from the letter of the law luxury, and intemperate unions, and murders, (776) and to detest all of God’s creation.

f. A contemplation according to another approach. This world is also called anathema, a place of condemnation, which he who does not cross over in mind to the spirit of the law is naturally disposed to beget by his attachment.

g. That toward whatever, he says, we are disposed in relation, toward that we also possess meditation in the mind.

h. According to another contemplation, that anathema is also the formless motion of the passions; and the shame of the mouth is the motion that gives form to the passion for the perception of the mind, and by its thoughts provides suitable matter for the passion.

i. He set forth in summary the three contemplations of the text. j. He who has been persuaded that to live luxuriously in a fleshly manner according to the law is a divine command,

receives gluttony as a gift of God with joy for his way of life; from which he begets the habits which by their misuse defile the activity of the senses.

k. A summary repetition of what was contemplated before, through which he shows that he who understands the law in a fleshly manner, makes a concubine of its learning; and begets both the state and the activity of the passions; and brings in gluttony as something divine, for the generation of the habits that by their misuse pollute the senses; to the destruction of the natural principles and seeds in existing things.

l. He who remains with the symbols of the law, he says, is not able to see the nature of existing things according to reason, and to preserve the principles placed essentially in existing things by the Creator, because of the difference of the symbols with respect to the nature of existing things.

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κατ᾿ αὐτήν εἶδος τῆς ἡμῶν γνώρισμα ποιουμένης ὑπάρξεως· ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Θεῷ καί Σωτῆρι ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τούς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α΄. Νοῦς εἰς ἄκρον διά τῶν ἀρετῶν καθαιρόμενος, τούς τῶν ἀρετῶν

πέφυκεν εἰκότως ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι λόγους· τήν ἐξ αὐτῶν θειωδῶς χαρακτηρισθεῖσαν γνῶσιν, οἰκεῖον ποιούμενος πρόσωπον. Καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν γάρ ἀνείδεός τε καί ἀχαρακτήριστος πᾶς καθέστηκε νοῦς, μορφήν ἔχων ἐπίκτητον, ἤ τήν ἐκ τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑποστᾶσαν ἐν πνεύματι γνῶσιν, ἤ τήν ἐκ τῶν παθῶν ἐπισυμβαίνουσαν ἄγνοιαν.

β΄. Ὁ τήν νοῦ μορφήν τήν ἐξ ἀρετῶν ἐν πνεύματι θείαν δεξάμενος γνῶσιν, τά θεῖα λέγεται παθεῖν, ὅτι μή φύσει κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν, ἀλλά χάριτι κατά τήν μέθεξιν ταύτην προσέλαβεν. Ὁ δέ τήν ἐκ χάριτος μή δεξάμενος γνῶσιν, κἄν λέγῃ τι γνωστικόν, οὐκ οἶδε κατά τήν πεῖραν τοῦ λεγομένου τήν δύναμιν. Ψιλή γάρ μάθησις, τήν καθ᾿ ἕξιν γνῶσιν οὐ δίδωσιν.

γ΄. Καλῶς κατά τόνδε τῆς Γραφῆς εἶπε τόν τόπον λαμβάνεσθαι τόν Σαούλ· διά τό κατά πολλούς ἐν ἄλλοις τόποις λαμβάνεσθαι τρόπους, πρός τήν ἐκ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀναδεικνυμένην θεωρίαν προσφυῶς ἁρμοζόμενον.

δ΄. Ὥσπερ, φησίν, ὁ παλλακῇ συναπτόμενος, νόμιμον οὐ κέκτηται τόν γάμον· οὕτως ὁ σωματικῶς τήν νομικήν ἐξασκούμενος μάθησιν, νόμιμον τήν πρός αὐτήν οὐκ ἔχει συμβίωσιν· νόθα γεννῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς δόγματα, καί τῇ τῆς σαρκός ζωῇ συμφθειρόμενα.

ε΄. Ὁ πρός σῶμα, φησίν, τήν Γραφικήν ἐκδεχόμενος μάθησιν, τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἁμαρτίαν διδάσκεται, καί τήν κατά νοῦν τῆς ἁμαρτίας μελέτην· τρυφήν, καί συνουσίας ἀκρατεῖς, καί φόνους, (776) καί πᾶσαν τοῦ Θεοῦ βδελύττεσθαι τήν κτίσιν ἐκ τοῦ γράμματος τοῦ νόμου μανθάνεται.

στ΄. Θεωρία κατ᾿ ἄλλην ἐπιβολήν. Ἀνάθεμα λέγεται καί ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ὁ καταδίκης χωρίον· ὅν γεννᾷν τῇ προσπαθείᾳ πέφυκεν, ὁ μή πρός τό πνεῦμα τοῦ νόμου κατά νοῦν διαβαίνων.

ζ΄. Ὅτι πρός ὅ σχετικῶς, φησί, διακείμεθα, πρός ἐκεῖνο καί τήν κατά νοῦν μελέτην κεκτήμεθα.

η΄. Κατ᾿ ἄλλην θεωρίαν, ὅτι ἀνάθεμά ἐστι, καί ἡ τῶν παθῶν ἀνείδωλος κίνησις· αἰσχύνη δέ στόματος, ἡ τό πάθος εἰδοποιοῦσα πρός αἴσθησιν τοῦ νοῦ κίνησις, καί ταῖς ἐπινοίαις ὕλην ἁρμόδιον τῷ πάθει πορίζουσα.

θ΄. Κατά συναίρεσιν τάς τρεῖς θεωρίας τοῦ κειμένου ἐξέδωκεν. ι΄. Ὁ πεισθείς θείαν εἶναι διαταγήν τό σωματικῶς κατά νόμον τρυφᾷν,

τήν γαστριμαργίαν ὡς Θεοῦ δῶρον λαμβάνει μετά χαρᾶς πρός συμβίωσιν· ἐξ ἧς γεννᾷ τούς μολύνοντας τῇ παραχρήσει τήν ἐνέργειαν τῶν αἰσθήσεων τρόπους.

ια΄. Ἐπίτομος τῶν προθεωρηθέντων ἐπανάληψις, δι᾿ ἧς δείκνυσιν ὅτι ὁ σωματικῶς ἐκλαμβάνων τόν νόμον, τήν αὐτοῦ παλλακεύεται μάθησιν· καί γεννᾷ τήν τε τῶν παθῶν ἕξιν καί τήν ἐνέργειαν· καί ὡς θείαν εἰσοικίζεται τήν γαστριμαργίαν, πρός γένεσιν τῶν ῥυπαινόντων τῇ παραχρήσει τάς αἰσθήσεις τρόπων· εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι φυσικῶν λόγων τε καί σπερμάτων.

ιβ΄. Ὁ τοῖς συμβόλοις τοῦ νόμου, φησίν, ἐναπομένων, οὐ δύναται κατά λόγον τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ὁρᾷν, καί τούς τεθέντας οὐσιωδῶς ὑπό δημιουργοῦ τοῖς οὖσι λόγους περιποιεῖσθαι, διά τό τῶν συμβόλων πρός τήν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν διάφορον.