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to the tomb, and setting soldiers before it, hateful for the enterprise; who also slander the risen Word as having been stolen; with silver, just as the false disciple to betrayal; I mean the ostentatious manner of virtue; so also buying the soldiers for the slander of the risen Savior. The gnostic knows the emphasis of what is said; not being ignorant of how and in how many ways the Lord is crucified, and is buried and rises again; as if making dead the passionate thoughts seated by demons in the heart; the modes of moral comeliness, divided in temptations like garments; and passing over like seals the imprints imposed upon the soul, of sins according to presumption.

64. Every lover of money, feigning virtue through reverence, whenever he finds the desired matter to acquire, renounces the way in which he was formerly considered to be a disciple of the Word.

65. Whenever you see some proud people not bearing to praise their betters, and contriving to make the spoken truth unproclaimed, barring it with countless temptations, and lawless slanders; understand for me that the Lord is again being crucified (1108) and buried by them; and guarded by soldiers and seals. The Word, turning these things to His advantage, rises again; appearing more clearly by being warred against; as if being tempered for impassibility through sufferings. For He is stronger than all, as being and being called truth.

66. The mystery of the incarnation of the Word holds the power of all the riddles and types in Scripture, and the knowledge of visible and intelligible creatures. And he who has known the mystery of the cross and the tomb, has known the principles of the aforementioned things; but he who has been initiated into the ineffable power of the resurrection, has known the purpose for which God primarily constituted all things.

67. All visible things need a cross; the state that checks the relation of things activated in them according to sense; and all intelligible things need a tomb; the complete immobility of things activated in them according to the intellect. For when the natural energy and motion concerning all things is abolished along with the relation, the Word alone, existing in itself, appears as if raised from the dead, having all things from it according to circumscription, with nothing at all having affinity to it by a natural relation. For the salvation of the saved is by grace, and not by nature.

68. Both the ages, and the times, and the places are among the relative things; without which nothing conceived along with them exists. But God is not among the relative things; for He has nothing at all conceived along with Him. If, therefore, God Himself is the inheritance of the worthy, he who is deemed worthy of this grace will be above all ages and times and places, having God Himself as his place, according to what is written: Be to me a defending God, and a strong place, to save me.

69. The end has nothing at all similar to an intermediate state; since it would not be an end. An intermediate state is all things after the beginning that are behind the end. If therefore all the ages and the times and the places with all things conceived along with them are after God, who is a beginning without beginning; and since they exist far behind His infinite end, they differ in no way from an intermediate state; and God is the end of the saved, nothing of an intermediate state will be contemplated with the saved who have come to the ultimate end.

(1109) 70. The whole world, being defined by its own principles, is called both place and age for those who live in it; having according to nature modes of contemplation proper to it, to produce in them a partial understanding of the wisdom over all of the

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τῷ τάφῳ, καί στρατιώτας προκαθιστῶντες, μισητοί τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως· οἵ καί ἀναστάντα τόν Λόγον, ὡς κλαπέντα διαβάλλουσιν· ἀργυρίῳ, ὥσπερ τόν νόθον μαθητήν εἰς προδοσίαν· λέγω δέ τόν ἐπιδεικτικόν τρόπον τῆς ἀρετῆς· οὕτω καί τούς στρατιώτας πρός συκοφαντίαν τοῦ ἀναστάντος Σωτῆρος ὠνούμενοι. Γινώσκει τῶν λεγομένων τήν ἔμφασιν, ὁ γνωστικός· οὐκ ἀγνοῶν πῶς τε καί ποσαχῶς σταυροῦται ὁ Κύριος, καί θάπτεται καί ἀνίσταται· ὡσεί νεκρούς μέν ποιῶν τούς ὑπό δαιμόνων τῇ καρδίᾳ παρακαθημένους ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς· τούς διαμεριζομένους ἐν τοῖς πειρασμοῖς ὥσπερ ἱμάτια, τούς τρόπους τῆς ἠθικῆς εὐπρεπείας· καί ὑπερβαίνων ὥσπερ σφραγίδας τούς ἐπικειμένους τῇ ψυχῇ τύπους, τῶν κατά πρόληψιν ἁμαρτημάτων.

ξδ΄. Πᾶς φιλάργυρος, δι᾿ εὐλαβείας τήν ἀρετήν ὑποκρινόμενος, ἐπειδάν εὕρῃ τήν ποθουμένην ὕλην πορίσασθαι, τόν τρόπον ἐξώμνυται, καθ᾿ ὅν μαθητής εἶναι τοῦ Λόγου τό πρίν ἐνομίζετο.

ξε΄. Ὅταν ἴδῃς τινάς ὑπερηφάνους μή φέροντας ἐπαινεῖσθαι τούς κρείττονας, ἀκήρυκτόν τε μηχανωμένους ποιεῖν τήν λαλουμένην ἀλήθειαν, μυρίοις αὐτήν ἀπείργοντας πειρασμοῖς, καί ἀθεμίτοις διαβολαῖς· νόει μοι πάλιν ὑπό τούτων σταυροῦσθαι τόν Κύριον (1108) καί θάπτεσθαι· καί στρατώταις καί σφραγῖσι φυλάττεσθαι. Οὕς ἑαυτοῖς περιτρέπων ὁ Λόγος, ἀνίσταται· πλέον τῷ πολεμεῖσθαι,διαφαινόμενος· ὡς πρός ἀπάθειαν διά τῶν παθημάτων στομούμενος. Πάντων γάρ ἐστιν ἰσχυρότερος, ὡς ἀλήθεια καί ὤν καί καλούμενος.

ξστ΄. Τό τῆς ἐνσωματώσεως τοῦ Λόγου μυστήριον, πάντων ἔχει τῶν τε κατά τήν Γραφήν αἰνιγμάτων καί τύπων τήν δύναμιν, καί τῶν φαινομένων καί νοουμένων κτισμάτων τήν ἐπιστήμην. Καί ὁ μέν γνούς σταυροῦ καί ταφῆς τό μυστήριον, ἔγνω τῶν προειρημένων τούς λόγους· ὁ δέ τῆς ἀναστάσεως μυηθείς τήν ἀπόῤῥητον δύναμιν, ἔγνω τόν ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τά πάντα προηγουμένως ὁ Θεός ὑπεστήσατο σκοπόν.

ξζ΄. Τά φαινόμενα πάντα δεῖται σταυροῦ· τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργουμένων ἐπεχούσης τήν σχέσιν, ἕξεως· τά δέ νοούμενα πάντα, χρῄζει ταφῆς· τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά νοῦν ἐνεργουμένων ὁλικῆς ἀκινησίας. Τῇ γάρ σχέσει συναναιρουμένης τῆς περί πάντα φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας τε καί κινήσεως, ὁ λόγος μόνος ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑπάρχων, ὥσπερ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγηγερμένος ἀναφαίνεται, πάντα κατά περιγραφήν ἔχων τά ἐξ αὐτοῦ, μηδενός φυσικῇ σχέσει τήν πρός αὐτόν οἰκειότητα τό σύνολον ἔχοντος. Κατά χάριν γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ἡ τῶν σωζομένων σωτηρία.

ξη΄. Τῶν πρός τι, καί οἱ αἰῶνές εἰσι, καί οἱ χρόνοι, καί οἱ τόποι· ὧν ἄνευ οὐδέν τῶν συνεπινοουμένων τούτοις ἐστίν. Ὁ δέ Θεός, οὐ τῶν πρός τι ἐστίν· οὐ γάρ ἔχει τι καθόλου συνεπινοούμενον. Εἴπερ οὖν ἄρα κληρονομία τῶν ἀξίων αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Θεός, ὑπέρ πάντας αἰῶνας καί χρόνους καί τόπους ὁ ταύτης ἀξιούμενος τῆς χάριτος ἔσται, τόπον ἔχων αὐτόν τόν Θεόν, κατά τό γεγραμμένον· Γενοῦ μοι εἰς Θεός ὑπερασπιστήν, καί εἰς τόπον ὀχυρόν, τοῦ σῶσαί με.

ξθ΄. Τό τέλος οὐδέν τό παράπαν ἐμφερές ἔχει μεσότητα· ἐπεί οὐδέ τέλος. Μεσότης δέ ἐστι, πάντα τά μετά τήν ἀρχήν κατόπιν ὄντα τοῦ τέλους. Εἰ τοίνυν πάντες οἱ αἰῶνες καί οἱ χρόνοι καί οἱ τόποι μετά τῶν συνεπινοουμένων αὐτοῖς ἁπάντων, μετά τόν Θεόν εἰσιν, ἀρχήν ἄναρχον ὄντα· καί ὡς ἀπείρου τέλους αὐτοῦ πολύ κατόπιν ὑπάρχουσι, μεσότητος οὐδέν διαφέρουσι· τέλος δέ τῶν σωζομένων ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, οὐδέν ἔσται μεσότητος κατά τό ἀκρότατον τέλος γενομένοις τοῖς σωζομένοις συνθεωρούμενον.

(1109) ο΄. Ὁ πᾶς κόσμος ἰδίοις περιοριζόμενος λόγοις, καί τόπος λέγεται καί αἰών, τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ διαιτωμένων· τρόπους θεωρημάτων ἔχων κατά φύσιν τούς ἐν αὐτῶ προσφυεῖς, μερικήν κατανόησιν αὐτοῖς ἐμποιῆσαι τῆς ἐπί πάντα σοφίας τοῦ