432

Contemplation on the one who declares the house unclean. For the priest, according to the legal ordinance, entering into the by any means

unclean house, and declaring it so, and giving instructions for purification to the owners, I understand that the high priestly Logos is signified through him, entering into the soul like the purest light, and uncovering the accursed counsels and thoughts along with the blameworthy deeds, and wisely suggesting the ways of conversion and purification. This, I think, she who received the great prophet Elijah more clearly signified when she said, Man of God, you have come to me to bring my iniquities to remembrance.

Contemplation on Saint Elijah, and on the widow of Zarephath. For every soul, widowed of good things and destitute of virtue and of the knowledge of God, whenever

it receives the divine and discerning word, coming to the remembrance of its own sins, it is somehow taught to feed the nourishing word with the breads of virtues, and to give the spring of life to drink with the doctrines of truth, and to prefer its own healing over its own nature, through which the flesh, the water jar, will supply the practical readiness for virtues, and the mind, the cruse, will continually pour forth the contemplation that preserves the light of knowledge, and the innate reason, just as the widow's son there, having put away the former passionate life, will be deemed worthy to become a partaker of the divine and true life given by the word.

Contemplation on the Transfiguration of the Lord. Thus also some of Christ's disciples, in addition to those mentioned, to whom it was granted to ascend and

be lifted up with him to the mountain of his manifestation through the practice of virtue, seeing him transfigured, unapproachable in the light of his face, and amazed at the brightness of his garments, and having recognized him made more venerable by the honor of those with him on either side, Moses and Elijah, (1128) passed from the flesh to the spirit, before putting off the life of the flesh, by the change in the operations of the senses which the spirit worked in them, having taken away the veils of the passions from the intellectual power within them, through which, being purified in the senses of soul and body, they are instructed in the spiritual meanings of the mysteries shown to them. They were mystically taught that the all-blessed splendor of his face, shining radiantly so as to conquer every operation of the eyes, was a symbol of his divinity, which is beyond mind and sense and substance and knowledge, being led by the hand from the concept of his having no form nor beauty and of knowing the Word made flesh to the one who is fair in beauty beyond the sons of men and that in the beginning he was, and was with God, and was God, and being elevated gnostically to the glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, through the theological negative assertion that hymns him as utterly incomprehensible to all; and that the whitened garments bear a symbol of the words of holy Scripture, as they then became brilliant and clear and plain to them, and were understood without any riddle-like enigma or symbolic shadow, and signifying the word that is both in them and veiled by them, at which time they attained a smooth and upright knowledge concerning God, and were freed from passionate attachment to the world and the flesh; or of creation itself

432

Θεωρία εἰς τόν ἀφορίζοντα τήν ἀκάθαρτον οἰκίαν. Καί γάρ τόν ἱερέα κατά τήν νομικήν διαταγήν εἰσιόντα εἰς τήν καθ᾿ ὁντιναοῦν

τρόπον ἀκάθαρτον οἰκίαν, καί ἀφορίζοντα αὐτήν, καί τά πρός κάθαρσιν διαστέλλοντα τοῖς κεκτημένοις ἀκούων τόν ἀρχιερέα λόγον δι᾿ αὐτοῦ παραδηλοῦσθαι νοῶ, φωτός δίκην καθαρωτάτου εἰσιόντα εἰς τήν ψυχήν, καί τά ἐναγῆ βουλεύματα καί διανοήματα μετά τῶν ὑπαιτίων πράξεων ἐκκαλύπτοντα, καί τούς τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς καί καθάρσεως τρόπους σοφῶς ὑποτιθέμενον. Ὅπερ, οἶμαι, σαφέστερον ἡ τόν μέγαν προφήτην Ἠλίαν ὑποδεξαμένη παραδηλοῦσα ἔλεγεν, Ἄνθρωπε τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἰσῆλθες πρός ἐμέ τοῦ ἀναμνῆσαί με τάς ἀδικίας μου.

Θεωρία εἰς τόν ἅγιον Ἠλίαν, καί εἰς τήν Σαραφθίαν χήραν. Πᾶσα γάρ ψυχή χηρεύουσά τε καλῶν καί ἀρετῆς ἔρημος καί γνώσεως Θεοῦ ἐπειδάν

τόν θεῖον καί διαγνωστικόν ὑποδέξηται λόγον, εἰς μνήμην ἐρχομένη τῶν αὐτῆς ἁμαρτημάτων διδάσκεταί πως ἀρετῶν ἄρτοις τόν διατρέφοντα τρέφειν λόγον, καί ποτίζειν ἀληθείας δόγμασι τήν πηγήν τῆς ζωῆς, καί αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως τήν εἰς αὐτήν προκρίνειν θεραπείαν, δι᾿ ἧς τε ὑδρία σάρξ τήν ἐπί ταῖς ἀρεταῖς πρακτικήν συντομίαν χορηγήσει, καί ὁ καμψάκης νοῦς τήν τό φῶς συντηροῦσαν τῆς γνώσεως θεωρίαν διηνεκῶς πηγάσεις, καί ὁ ἔμφυτος λογισμός, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ τῆς χήρας ὁ υἱός, τήν ἐμπαθῆ προτέραν ἀποθέμενος ζωήν τῆς παρά τοῦ λόγου διδομένης θείας καί ἀληθοῦς γενέσθαι μέτοχος ἀξιωθήσεται ζωῆς.

Θεωρία εἰς τήν μεταμόρφωσιν τοῦ Κυρίου. Οὕτω καί τῶν Χριστοῦ μαθητῶν πρός τοῖς εἰρημένοις τινές, οἷς συναναβῆναί τε καί

συνεπαρθῆναι αὐτῷ πρός τό ὄρος τῆς αὐτοῦ φανερώσεως δι᾿ ἀρετῆς ἐπιμέλειαν ἐξεγένετο μεταμορφωθέντα θεασάμενοι, τῷ τε φωτί τοῦ προσώπου ἀπρόσιτον, καί τῇ τῶν αἰσθημάτων λαμπρότητι κατάπληκτοι, καί τῇ τῶν ἐκατέρωθεν συνόντων τιμῇ Μωσέως καί Ἠλίου γεγενημένον αἰδεσιμώτερον ἐπεγνωκότες, (1128) ἀπό τῆς σαρκός εἰς τό πνεῦμα μετέβησαν, πρίν τήν διά σαρκός ἀποθέσθαι ζωήν, τῇ ἐναλλαγῇ τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργειῶν ἥν αὐτούς τό πνεῦμα ἐνήργησε, περιελόν τῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς νοερᾶς δυνάμεως τῶν παθῶν τά καλύμματα, δι᾿ οὖ καθαρθέντες τά τῆς ψυχής καί σώματος αἰσθητήρια τῶν παραδειχθέντων αὐτοῖς μυστηρίων τούς πνευματικούς ἐκπαιδεύονται λόγους. Τήν μέν ἀκτινοφανῶς ἐκλάμπουσαν τοῦ προσώπου πανόλβιον αἴγλην, ὡς πᾶσαν ὀφθαλμῶν νικῶσαν ἐνέργειαν, τῆς ὑπέρ νοῦν καί αἴσθησιν καί οὐσίαν καί γνῶσιν θεότητος αὐτοῦ σύμβολον εἶναι μυστικῶς ἐδιδάσκοντο, ἀπό τοῦ μή ἔχειν αὐτοῦ εἶδος μήτε κάλλος καί τοῦ σάρκα τόν λόγον γεγενημένον γινώσκειν ἐπί τόν ὡραῖον κάλλει παρά τούς υἱούς τῶν ἀνθρώπων καί τήν ἐν ἀρχῇ αὐτόν εἶναι καί πρός τόν Θεόν εἶναι καί Θεόν εἶναι, ἔννοιαν χειραγωγούμενοι, καί πρός τήν ὡς Μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός πλήρη χάριτος καί ἐληθείας δόξαν διά τῆς παντελῶς πᾶσιν ἀχώρητον αὐτόν ἀνυμνούσης θεολογικῆς ἀποφάσεως γνωστικῶς ἀναγόμενοι· τά δέ λευκανθέντα ἱμάτια τῶν ῥημάτων τῆς ἁγίας Γραφὴς φέρειν σύμβολον, ὡς τηνικαῦτα λαμπρῶν καί τρανῶν καί σαφῶν αὐτοῖς γενομένων, καί παντός γριφώδους αἰνίγματος καί συμβολικοῦ σκιάσματος χωρίς νοουμένων, καί τόν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὄντα τε καί καλυπτόμενον παραδηλούντων λόγον, ὁπηνίκα τήν τε λείαν καί ὀρθήν περί Θεοῦ γνῶσιν ἔλαυνον, καί τῆς πρός τόν κόσμον καί τήν σάρκα προσπαθείας ἠλευθερώθησαν· ἤ τῆς κτίσεως αὐτῆς