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of imaginings. (1104) But he who crosses the Jordan, is transferred to the land of knowledge; in which the intellect, being mystically built as a temple by peace, becomes a dwelling place of God in spirit.
54. He who has divinely completed for himself the sixth day with suitable works and thoughts, and has himself, with God, well completed his works, has crossed over through contemplation the entire subsistence of things under nature and time, and has been transferred into the mystical contemplation of the ages and of eternal things; keeping sabbath unknowingly in the intellect, the total abandonment and transcendence of beings. But he who has also been deemed worthy of the eighth, has risen from the dead; from all things after God, I mean, both sensible and intelligible, and of principles and thoughts; and he has lived the blessed life of God, Who alone in truth is properly called and is life; just as he himself also became god by deification.
55. The sixth day is the complete fulfillment of practical activities concerning virtue according to nature; but the seventh is the completion and cessation of theoretical activities concerning the ineffable knowledge of all natural concepts; and the eighth, the transference and transition of the worthy toward deification. And perhaps the Lord, revealing this seventh and eighth day more mystically, named it the day and hour of consummation, as circumscribing the mysteries and principles of all things. Which none at all of the heavenly and earthly Powers will be able to know before the experience of suffering it, except the blessed Divinity Itself that accomplishes these things.
56. The sixth day signifies the principle of the being of beings; the seventh indicates the mode of the well-being of beings; and the eighth suggests the ineffable mystery of the ever well-being of beings.
57. Knowing that the sixth day is a symbol of practical activity, let us fulfill in it the entire debt of the works of virtue; so that it may be said of us also, And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
58. He fulfills the debt of good work praised by God, who through the body labors for the soul on the well-ordered variety of the virtues.
59. He who has completed the preparation of the works of righteousness, has passed over to the rest of gnostic contemplation; (1105) in which, having divinely encompassed the principles of beings, he rests from the intellectual movement concerning it.
60. He who has partaken of God's seventh-day rest for our sake, will also partake of His eighth-day activity for our sake, according to deification, that is, of mystical resurrection; he too having left in the tomb the linen cloths lying there, and the napkin that was on His head; which when a certain Peter and John see, they believe that the Lord has been raised.
61. The Lord's tomb is perhaps this world, or the heart of each of the faithful; the linen cloths are the principles of sensible things along with the modes according to virtue; and the napkin is the simple and unvaried knowledge of intelligible things, along with the contingent theology, through which the Word was known before, having for us, completely apart from these things, an incomprehensible apprehension beyond them.
62. Those who bury the Lord with honor will also behold Him gloriously risen; being unseen by all who are not such. For He can no longer be captured by those who plot against Him, not having the external coverings, through which He willingly seemed to be captured by those who wished it, and endured to suffer for the salvation of all.
63. He who buries the Lord with honor is revered by all who love God; for he rightly rescued Him from public display and reproach, not leaving His crucifixion on the wood as a pretext for blasphemy to the unbelievers. But those who place seals
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φαντασίας. (1104) Ὁ δέ Ἰορδάνην διαπεράσας, εἰς τήν τῆς γνώσεως μετατίθεται χώραν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ νοῦς, ναός μυστικῶς ὑπό τῆς εἰρήνης οἰκοδομούμενος, Θεοῦ κατοικητήριον γίνεται ἐν πνεύματι.
νδ΄. Ὁ τήν ἕκτην θεϊκῶς μετά τῶν προσφόρων ἔργων καί ἐννοιῶν ἑαυτῷ συμπληρώσας ἡμέραν, καί αὐτός μετά τοῦ Θεοῦ καλῶς τά ἑαυτοῦ συντελέσας ἔργα, διέβη τῇ κατανοήσει πᾶσαν τήν τῶν ὑπό φύσιν καί χρόνον ὑπόστασιν, καί εἰς τήν τῶν αἰώνων καί τῶν αἰωνίων μετετάξατο μυστικήν θεωρίαν· σαββατίζων ἀγνώστως κατά νοῦν, τήν ὁλικήν τῶν ὄντων ἀπόλειψίν τε καί ὑπέρβασιν. Ὁ δέ καί τῆς ὀγδόης ἀξιωθείς, ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ἀνέστη· τῶν μετά Θεόν λέγω πάντων, αἰσθητῶν τε καί νοητῶν, καί λόγων καί νοημάτων· καί ἔζησε τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ μακαρίαν ζωήν, τοῦ μόνον κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν κυρίως ζωῆς καί λεγομένου καί ὄντος· οἷα καί αὐτός γενόμενος τῇ θεώσει θεός.
νε΄. Ἕκτη ἡμέρα ἐστίν, ἡ τῶν πρακτικῶν περί ἀρετήν τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐνεργειῶν, παντελής ἀποπλήρωσις· ἑβδόμη δέ ἐστιν, ἡ τῶν θεωρητικῶν περί τήν ἄῤῥητον γνῶσιν πασῶν τῶν φυσικῶν ἐννοιῶν ἀποπεράτωσις καί ἀπόπαυσις· ὀγδόη δέ, ἡ πρός θέωσιν τῶν ἀξιῶν μετάταξίς τε καί μετάβασις. Καί μήποτε ταύτην τήν ἑβδόμην καί τήν ὀγδόην τυχόν μυστικώτερον ὑποφαίνων ὁ Κύριος, προσηγόρευσεν ἡμέραν συντελείας καί ὥραν, ὡς πάντων περιγράφουσαν τά μυστήρια καί τούς λόγους. Ἅς οὐδέν οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν τῶν ἐπουρανίων καί ἐπιγείων ∆υνάμεων γνῶναι πρό πείρας τοῦ παθεῖν δυνήσεται, πλήν αὐτῆς τῆς ταῦτα ποιούσης μακαρίας θεότητος.
νστ΄. Ἡ ἕκτη ἡμέρα, τόν τοῦ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων λόγον ὑποδηλοῖ· ἡ δέ ἑβδόμη, τόν τοῦ εὖ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων τρόπον ὑποσημαίνει· ἡ δέ ὀγδόη, τό τοῦ ἀεί εὖ εἶναι τῶν ὄντων ἄῤῥητον μυστήριον ὑπαγορεύει.
νζ΄. Πρακτικῆς ἐνεργείας σύμβολον ὑπάρχουσαν τήν ἕκτην ἡμέραν γινώσκοντες, πᾶσαν ἐν αὐτῇ τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν ὀφειλήν ἀποπληρώσωμεν· ὅπως καί ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν ῥηθείη τό, Καί εἶδεν ὁ Θεός πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε, καί ἰδού καλά λίαν.
νη΄. Ἀποπληροῖ τήν ὀφειλήν τῆς ἐπαινουμένης τῷ Θεῷ καλῆς ἐργασίας, ὁ διά σώματος τῇ ψυχῇ φιλοπονῶν τήν εὔκοσμον ποικιλίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν.
νθ΄. Ὁ τήν παρασκευήν τῶν ἔργων τῆς δικαιοσύνης πληρώσας, διέβη πρός τήν ἀνάπαυσιν τῆς γνωστικῆς θεωρίας· (1105) καθ΄ ἥν τούς λόγους τῶν ὄντων περιλαβών θεοπρεπῶς, τῆς κατά νοῦν περί αὐτήν κινήσεως ἀναπαύεται.
ξ΄. Ὁ τῆς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἑβδοματική τοῦ Θεοῦ μετεσχηκώς ἀναπαύσεως, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς μεθέξει κατά τήν θέωσιν ὀγδοατικῆς ἐνεργείας, εἴτουν μυστικῆς ἀναστάσεως· ἀφείς καί αὐτός ἐν τῷ τάφῳ κείμενα τά ὀθόνια, καί τό ἐπί τῆς κεφαλῆς σουδάριον· ἅπερ θεωροῦντες εἴ τις Πέτρος καί Ἰωάννης, πιστεύουσιν ἐγηγέρθαι τόν Κύριον.
ξα΄. Μνημεῖον ἐστιν ἴσως ∆εσποτικόν, ἤ ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, ἤ ἡ ἑκάστου τῶν πιστῶν καρδία· τά δέ ὀθόνια, οἱ τῶν αἰσθητῶν μετά τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τρόπων ὑπάρχουσι λόγοι· τό δέ σουδάριον, ἡ τῶν νοητῶν ἐστι μετά τῆς ἐνδεχομένης θεολογίας ἁπλῆ καί ἀποίκιλος γνῶσις, δι᾿ ὧν ἐγνωρίζετο πρότερον ὁ Λόγος, ἀχώρητον ἡμῖν ἔχων παντάπασιν δίχα τούτων, τήν ὑπέρ ταῦτα κατάληψιν.
ξβ΄. Οἱ θάπτοντες ἐντίμως τόν Κύριον, καί ἐνδόξως ἀναστάντα θεάσονται· πᾶσιν ὄντα τοῖς μή τοιούτοις ἀθέατον. Οὐκ ἔτι γάρ τοῖς ἐπιβουλεύουσίν ἐστιν ἁλωτός, οὐκ ἔχων τῶν ἐκτός τά προκαλύμματα, δι᾿ ὧν ἐδόκει θέλων ἁλίσκεσθαι παρά τῶν βουλομένων, καί πάσχειν ὑπέρ τῆς πάντων σωτηρίας ἠνείχετο.
ξγ΄. Ὁ θάπτων ἐντίμως τόν Κύριον, πᾶσίν ἐστι τοῖς φιλοθέοις αἰδέσιμος· θριάμβου γάρ αὐτόν καί ὀνείδους καθηκόντως ἐῤῥύσατο, βλασφημίας ὑπόθεσιν οὐκ ἀφείς τοῖς ἀπίστοις, τήν ἐν τῷ ξύλῳ αὐτοῦ προσήλωσιν. Οἱ δέ σφραγῖδας ἐπιτιθέντες