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time, from the ever-existing God, through which alone he, having been wholly born according to the will, is known. And being this alone, he is preserved in Scripture, as one who perhaps was first made beyond matter and form according to virtue, which things can be shown by his being without father, without mother, and without genealogy, and as one who has surpassed in knowledge all things under time and age, whose existence began in time from a genesis that did not deny having once begun to be, having stumbled over nothing in the divine course according to the intellect, which perhaps signifies having neither beginning of days nor end of life; and as one who exceptionally, secretly and silently, and, to speak concisely, unknowingly, has entered into God Himself through the mind, after every removal of all existing things, and having been made and remade, whole by the whole, which the phrase, *But being made like the Son of God, he remains a priest forever*, can suggest. For every one of the saints, of whose exceptional goodness he was the beginning, has been proclaimed a type of God the giver according to that very goodness. In this sense this great Melchizedek also, on account of the divine virtue created in him, has been deemed worthy to be an image of Christ our God, and of His ineffable mysteries, to whom all the saints are gathered as to an archetype and the cause of the manifestation of the good in each of them, but especially this man, as bearing in himself more prefigurations of Christ than all the others.

An explanation concerning the Lord, about the things said of Melchizedek. For our Lord and God Jesus Christ is by nature and in truth most uniquely without father

is also without mother and without genealogy, and having neither beginning of days nor end of life; without mother, on account of the immaterial and incorporeal and completely unknown pre-eternal birth from the Father above; without father, according to the birth below, in time and with a body from his mother, for which at the conception he did not establish the mode of seed; and without genealogy, as (1144) having the manner of both His births completely inaccessible and incomprehensible to all. And having neither beginning of days nor end of life, as being without beginning and without end and completely infinite, as God by nature; and he remains a priest forever, as not ceasing to be by any death of wickedness or of nature, because He is God and the bestower of all life according to nature and virtue. But do not think that anyone is deprived of this grace, because the word defined it with respect to the great Melchizedek alone. For God has perhaps naturally implanted in all the power for salvation, so that each one who wishes may be able to be remade by divine grace; and that he who wishes to become Melchizedek, and Abraham, and Moses, and simply to transfer all the saints into himself, may not be hindered, not by changing names and places, but by imitating their ways and manner of life.

Another contemplation on Melchizedek. Therefore everyone who has put to death the members that are upon the earth, and the whole of his own flesh

having extinguished the mindset, and having shaken off completely the relation to it, through which the love owed by us to God alone is divided, and having denied all the marks of the flesh and of the world for the sake of divine grace, so as to be able to say with the blessed Apostle Paul, *Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?* and what follows, such a one has become without father and without mother and without genealogy according to the great Melchizedek, not being in any way held by flesh and nature, because of the union that has come to be with the spirit.

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χρόνον, ἐκ τοῦ ἀεί ὄντος Θεοῦ, καθ᾿ ἥν δι᾿ ὅλου μόνην ὅλος γνωμικῶς γεννηθείς ἐπιγινώσκεται. Μόνος δέ τοῦτο ὤν τῇ Γραφῇ τετήρηται, ὡς πρῶτος ἴσως ὑπέρ τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος κατά τήν ἀρετήν γενόμενος, ἅπερ διά τοῦ ἀπάτωρ καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος δηλοῦσθαι δύναται, καί ὡς πάντα τά ὑπό χρόνον καί αἰῶνα κατά τήν γνῶσιν παρελθών, ὧν τό εἶναι χρονικῶς τῆς γενέσεως ἤρξατο τό ποτέ εἶναι οὐκ ἠρνημένης, οὐδ᾿ ὁτιοῦν τῷ κατά διάνοιαν θείῳ δρόμῳ ἐνσκάσας ὅπερ σημαίνει τυχόν τό μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε τέλος ζωῆς ἔχειν· καί ὡς ἐξῃρημένως, κρυφίως τε καί σεσιγημένως, καί συνελόντα εἰπεῖν, ἀγνώστως, μετά πᾶσαν τῶν ὄντων πάντων ἀφαίρεσιν κατά νοῦν εἰς αὐτόν εἰσδύς τόν Θεόν, καί ὅλος ὅλῳ ποιωθείς τε καί μεταποιωθείς, ὅπερ τό, Ἀφωμοιωμένος δέ τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἱερεύς εἰς τό διηνεκές ὑπεμφαίνειν δύναται. Πᾶς γάρ τις τῶν ἁγίων, οὗτινος κατ᾿ ἐξαίρετον ἀπήρξατο καλοῦ, κατ᾿ αὐτό καί τύπος εἶναι τοῦ δοτῆρος Θεοῦ ἀνηγόρευται. Καθ᾿ ὅ σημαινόμενον καί οὗτος ὁ μέγας Μελχισεδέκ διά τήν ἐμποιηθεῖσαν αὐτῷ θείαν ἀρετήν εἰκών εἶναι κατηξίωται Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων αὐτοῦ μυστηρίων, εἰς ὅν πάντες μέν οἱ ἅγιοι συνάγονται ὡς ἀρχέτυπον καί τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν τοῦ καλοῦ ἐμφάσεως αἴτιον, μάλιστα δέ οὗτος, ὡς τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων πλείους ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων τοῦ Χριστοῦ τάς ὑποτυπώσεις.

Ἐξήγησις εἰς τόν Κύριον, περί τῶν λεγομένων εἰς τόν Μελχισεδέκ. Μονώτατος γάρ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καί Θεός Ἰησοῦς Χριστός φύσει καί ἀληθείᾳ ἀπάτωρ

ἐστί καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος, καί μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχων· ἀμήτωρ μέν διά τό ἄυλον καί ἀσώματον καί παντελῶς ἄγνωστον τῆς ἄνω ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός προαιωνίου γεννήσεως· ἀπάτωρ δέ κατά τήν κάτω καί χρονικήν ἐκ τῆς μητρός καί ἐνσώματον γέννησιν, ἧς κατά τήν σύλληψιν τό διά σπορᾶς εἶδος οὐ κατεστήσατο· ἀγενεαλόγητος δέ ὡς (1144) ἀμφοῖν αὐτοῦ τῶν γεννήσεων τόν τρόπον ἔχων καθόλου τοῖς πᾶσιν ἄβατον καί ἀκατάληπτον. Τό δέ μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχων, ὡς ἄναρχος καί ἀτελεύτητος καί παντελῶς ἄπειρος, οἶα φύσει Θεός· μένει δέ ἱερεύς εἰς τόν αἰῶνα, ὡς μηδενί θανάτῳ κακίας ἤ φύσεως τοῦ εἶναι παυόμενος, ὅτι Θεός καί πάσης τῆς κατά φύσιν καί ἀρετήν ζωῆς χωρηγός. Μή νόμιζε δέ ταύτης τινά ἀμοιρεῖν τῆς χάριτος, ἐπειδή περί μόνου τοῦ μεγάλου Μελχισεδέκ ὁ λόγος αὐτήν διωρίσατο. Πᾶσι γάρ ἴσως ὁ Θεός τήν πρός σωτηρίαν φυσικῶς ἐνέθηκε δύναμιν, ἵνα ἕκαστος βουλόμενος τῆς θείας μεταποιεῖσθαι χάριτος δύνηται· καί θέλων Μελχισεδέκ γενέσθαι, καί Ἀβραάμ, καί Μωϋσῆς, καί ἁπλῶς πάντας μεταφέρειν εἰς ἑαυτόν τούς ἁγίους, μή κωλύηται, οὐκ ὀνόματα καί τόπους ἀμείβων, ἀλλά τρόπους καί πολιτείαν μιμούμενος.

Θεωρία ἄλλη εἰς τόν Μελχισεδέκ. Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν τά μέλη νεκρώσας τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καί ὅλον ἑαυτοῦ τῆς σαρκός

ἀποσβέσας τό φρόνημα, καί τήν πρός αὐτήν δι᾿ ὅλου σχέσιν ἀποσεισάμενος, δι᾿ ἧς ἡ τῷ Θεῷ μόνῳ χρεωστουμένη παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀγάπη μερίζεται, καί ἀρνησάμενος πάντα τά τῆς σαρκός καί τοῦ κόσμου γνωρίσματα, τῆς θείας ἕνεκεν χάριτος, ὥστε καί λέγειν δύνασθαι μετά τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου τοῦ ἀποστόλου, Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπό τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; καί τά ἑξῆς, ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀπάτωρ καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος κατά τόν μέγα Μελχισεδέκ γέγονεν, οὐκ ἔχων ὅπως ὑπό σαρκός κρατηθῇ καί φύσεως, διά τήν γεγενημένην πρός τό πνεῦμα συνάφειαν.