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53. Clearly, with wheat. 54. Clearly, with wine. 55. Clearly, with oil. 56. He said that wheat is a support for the soul, as being spiritual knowledge;
and wine, that which gladdens the heart, as productive of the loving union with God; and oil, he has called that which fills the face with gladness, as being characteristic of the spiritual grace that illumines the mind according to impassibility.
57. Amalek is gluttony; its king is the earthly mindset; its herds and flocks are the matters that nourish the passions; and the vine, the rash movement of the thought; and the olive tree, the smoothness of desire that ignites according to pleasure, which things he who abides by the corporeal sense of the law transfers, as if to a holy land, the habit of piety; for which he receives, as a wage, the divine turning-away.
58. The people of the Jews were called foolish as being godless; and without understanding, as being evil-doers, which is impious and sinful.
59. The passion of gluttony, he says, is wont by nature to kill the divine offspring of the virtues; but this passion, both the grace of faith and the obedience to the divine commandments kill through the logos which is according to knowledge.
60. How He is light. 61. How the Lord is a preparation before the face of all peoples. 62. How the Lord is also the glory of Israel. 63. According to another contemplation, who are the peoples, and what is the before their face
preparation of the people. 64. What again are the nations, which He reveals when He arrives
the Logos. 65. (785) How the Logos is again called the glory of Israel. 66. At the same time, he says, one kills the in the letter of the law
corporeal mind, he receives as king the logos in the spirit. 67. He took David to mean both the Lord, and the Gospel, and the
spiritual law; and knowledge, and contemplation, and the so-called practice, and the new people; and according to many modes of contemplation, he adapted it suitably to the passages for the underlying need.
68. He who has the types but not the archetypes of the mysteries, and the questioning but not the knowledge of the illuminations in the spirit, having received as a loan what is consistent with the aforesaid, the experience according to sense in the symbols of the law; starving in soul for the spirit, and being shortsighted toward the questioning which is like a guide to the knowledge according to truth.
68. Interlocution is that in which perhaps there is often also wandering. 70. Of blessedness, it is clear, those who have been deemed worthy of it by participation
characterizing, and from itself making them known.
INQUIRIES, AND ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS AND SELECTIONS from various difficult chapters (786)
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νγ΄. Σίτῳ δῆλον ὅτι. νδ΄. Οἴνῳ δῆλον ὅτι. νε΄. Ἐλαίῳ δῆλον ὅτι. νστ΄. Τόν σῖτον ἔφη ψυχῆς εἶναι στήριγμα, ὡς γνῶσιν ὄντα πνευματικήν·
τόν οἶνον δέ, καρδίας εὐφραντικόν, ὡς τῆς πρός Θεόν ἐρωτικῆς ἑνώσεως ποιητικόν· τό δέ ἔλαιον, προσώπου πληρωτικόν ἱλαρότητος εἴρηκεν, ὡς τῆς λαμπρυνούσης τόν νοῦν κατά τήν ἀπάθειαν πνευματικῆς χάριτος χαρακτηριστικόν.
νζ΄. Ὁ Ἀμαλήκ ἐστιν ἡ γαστριμαργία· ταύτης ἐστί βασιλεύς, τό φρόνημα τό χοϊκόν· τούτου βουκόλια ἐστι καί ποίμνια, αἱ θρεπτικαί τῶν παθῶν ὕλαι· ἄμπελος δέ, ἡ προπετής τοῦ λογισμοῦ κίνησις· ἐλαία δέ, ἡ καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐκπυρωτική τῆς ἐπιθυμίας λειότης, ἅπερ μεταφέρει ὡς εἰς γῆν ἁγίαν, τήν ἕξιν τῆς θεοσεβείας, ὁ τῷ σωματικῷ τοῦ νόμου παρακαθήμενος· ὑπέρ ὧν καθάπερ μισθόν δέχεται τήν θείαν ἀποστροφήν.
νη΄. Μωρός ὡς ἄθεος ἐκλήθη ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαός· ἀσύνετος δέ, ὡς κακοπράττων, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἀσεβής καί ἁμαρτωλός.
νθ΄. Τό τῆς γαστριμαργίας πάθος, φησί, τά θεῖα τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀποκτένειν γεννήματα πέφυκε· αὐτό δέ, ἥ τε χάρις τῆς πίστεως, καί ἡ ὑπακοή τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν, διά τοῦ κατά τήν γνῶσιν ἀποκτένει λόγου.
ξ΄. Πῶς ἐστι φῶς. ξα΄. Πῶς ἐστιν ἑτοιμασία κατά πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν λαῶν ὁ Κύριος. ξβ΄. Πῶς ἐστι καί δόξα τοῦ Ἰσραήλ ὁ Κύριος. ξγ΄. Κατ᾿ ἄλλην θεωρίαν, τίνες οἱ λαοί, καί τίς ἡ κατά πρόσωπον αὐτῶν
ἑτοιμασία τοῦ λαοῦ. ξδ΄. Τίνα πάλιν τά ἔθνη τυγχάνουσιν, ἅπερ ἀποκαλύπτει παραγινόμενος
ὁ Λόγος. ξε΄. (785) Πῶς δόξα λέγεται πάλιν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ ὁ Λόγος. ξστ΄. Ἅμα, φησίν, ἀποκτείνει τις τόν ἐν τῷ γράμματι τοῦ νόμου
σωματικόν νοῦν, βασιλεύοντα δέχεται τόν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι λόγον. ξζ΄. Τόν ∆αβίδ ἔλαβε καί εἰς τόν Κύριον, καί εἰς τό Εὐαγγέλιον, καί εἰς τόν
πνευματικόν νόμον· καί εἰς τήν γνῶσιν, καί εἰς τήν θεωρίαν, καί εἰς τήν λεγομένην πρᾶξιν, καί εἰς τόν νέον λαόν· καί κατά πολλούς θεωρίας τρόπους, προσφόρως τοῖς τόποις πρός τήν ὑποκειμένην ἥρμοσε χρείαν.
ξη΄. Ὁ τούς τύπους ἀλλά μή τά ἀρχέτυπα τῶν μυστηρίων ἔχων, καί τήν ἐρώτησιν, ἀλλά μή τήν γνῶσιν τῶν ἐν πνεύματι φωτισμῶν, εἰληφώς δάνειον, τό ὁμολογούμενον τοῖς προειρημένοις, τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐν τοῖς συμβόλοις τοῦ νόμου πεῖραν· κατά ψυχήν λιμώττων τοῦ πνεύματος, καί τήν ὥσπερ ὁδηγίαν ἐρώτησιν τῆς κατά ἀλήθειαν γνώσεως μυωπάζων.
ξη΄. Μεταξυλογία ἐστί, τό ἐν ᾗ τυχόν ἐστι παλλάκις καί πλάνησις. ο΄. Μακαριότητος δῆλον ὅτι, τούς κατά μέθεξιν αὐτῆς ἀξιωθέντας
χαρακτηριζούσης, καί ἐξ αὐτῆς γνωρίμους αὐτούς καθιστῶσα.
ΠΕΥΣΕΙΣ, ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟΚΡΙΣΕΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΡΩΤΗΣΕΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΚΛΟΓΑΙ διαφόρων κεφαλαίων ἀπορουμένων (786)