442

of nature, and through His own incarnation, having bestowed upon nature the grace beyond nature, deification.

μδ΄. God truly became man, and gave another beginning to nature of a second birth, through pain ending in the pleasure of the life to come. For just as Adam the forefather, having transgressed the divine commandment, introduced to nature another beginning of generation contrary to the first, one composed of pleasure, but ending in death through pain, and devised according to the counsel of the serpent a pleasure that was not the successor to a preceding pain, but rather passed over into pain, he justly had all those who were born of him in the flesh according to him, because of the unjust beginning from pleasure, subjected with him to the end through pain in death; so also the Lord, having become man, and having fashioned for nature another beginning of a second birth from the Holy Spirit, and having accepted the most just death of Adam through pain, which in Him, however, became most unjust, since He did not have as the beginning of His own generation the most unjust pleasure of the forefather from disobedience, He made an annulment of both extremes, I mean of the beginning and the end of human generation according to Adam, since (1325) these were not originally from God, and set free from its guilt all those who are mystically reborn from Him.

με΄. The Lord, having taken away the pleasure that comes from the law of sin for the annulment of carnal generation of those born in Him by grace through the Spirit, permits them to receive death, which was formerly for the condemnation of nature, for the condemnation of sin, no longer having the pleasure of generation from Adam; but only the pain because of Adam active in them; not as a debt for sin, but by dispensation, because of the natural circumstance, against sin, death; which, whenever it does not have pleasure as its mother—pleasure, of which it is by nature the punisher—it manifestly becomes the father of eternal life. For just as the life of Adam according to pleasure became the mother of death and corruption, so also the death of the Lord on account of Adam, being free of the pleasure from Adam, becomes the begetter of eternal life.

μστ΄. After the transgression, the nature of men had as the beginning of its own generation conception from seed according to pleasure, and birth according to flux; and as an end, death through corruption according to pain. But the Lord, not having this beginning of his carnal generation, was not subject to the end, that is, to death.

μζ΄. Sin, having at first enticed Adam, persuaded him to come to the transgression of the divine commandment; by which, having introduced pleasure, and having nailed itself through pleasure to the foundation of nature in him, it condemned the whole of nature to death, pushing the nature of created things toward extinction in death through man. For this was contrived by the sower of sin, and father of evil, the wicked devil, who on the one hand exiled himself from the divine glory out of pride, and on the other hand, through envy toward us and God, exiled Adam from paradise, to destroy the works of God, and dissolve those things established for generation.

μη΄. The devil, envying God and us, by deceitfully persuading man that he was envied by God, prepared him to transgress the commandment. Envying God, so that His all-praised power, which deifies man, might not be made manifest in its working; and manifestly envying man, so that he might not become a partaker of the divine glory in appearance according to virtue. For the most vile one envies not only us for the glory in God on account of virtue, but also God for His all-praised power over us for salvation.

442

φύσεως, καί διά τῆς ἰδίας σαρκώσεως, τήν ὑπέρ φύσιν χάριν δωρησάμενος τῇ φύσει, τήν θέωσιν.

μδ΄. Γέγονε ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, καί δέδωκεν ἄλλην ἀρχήν τῇ φύσει δευτέρας γενέσεως, διά πόνου πρός ἡδονήν μελλούσης ζωῆς καταλήγουσαν. Ὡς γάρ Ἀδάμ ὁ προπάτωρ τήν θείαν ἐντολήν παραβάς, ἄλλην ἀρχήν γενέσεως, ἐξ ἡδονῆς μέν συνισταμένην, εἰς δέ τόν διά πόνου θάνατον τελευτῶσαν τῇ φύσει παρά τήν πρώτην παρεισήγαγε, καί ἐπενόησε κατά τήν συμβουλήν τοῦ ὄφεως ἡδονήν οὐκ οὖσαν προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον, ἀλλά μᾶλλον εἰς τόν πόνον περαιουμένην, πάντας τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ σαρκί γενομένους κατ᾿ αὐτόν, διά τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἄδικον ἀρχήν, εἶχε συνυπαγομένους αὐτῷ δικαίως, πρός τό διά πόνου κατά τόν θάνατον τέλος· οὕτω καί ὁ Κύριος γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, καί ἄλλην ἀρχήν δευτέρας γενέσεως ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου τῇ φύσει δημιουργήσας, καί τόν διά πόνου τοῦ Ἀδάμ δικαιότατον καταδεξάμενος θάνατον, ἐν αὐτῷ δηλαδή γενόμενον ἀδικώτατον, ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντα τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως ἀρχήν τήν ἐκ παρακοῆς ἀδικωτάτην τοῦ προπάτορος ἡδονήν, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ἄκρων, ἀρχῆς τε λέγω καί τέλους τῆς κατά τόν Ἀδάμ ἀνθρωπίνης γενέσεως, οἷα δή (1325) προηγουμένως οὐκ ὄντων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τήν ἀναίρεσιν ἐποιήσατο, καί πάντας τούς μυστικῶς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀναγεννωμένους, τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς ἐνοχῆς ἐλευθέρους κατέστησε.

με΄. Τήν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἡδονήν εἰς ἀθέτησιν τῆς κατά σάρκα γεννήσεως τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ χάριτι διά Πνεύματος γεννωμένων ὁ Κύριος ἀφελόμενος, τόν εἰς καταδίκην τό πρότερον ὄντα τῆς φύσεως, εἰς τήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάκρισιν αὐτοῖς συγχωρεῖ δέχεσθαι θάνατον, ἔχοντας μέν τοῦ Ἀδάμ οὐκέτι τήν ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡδονήν τῆς γενέσεως· μόνην δέ τήν διά τόν Ἀδάμ ὀδύνην ἐνεργοῦσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς· οὐ κατά χρέος ὑπέρ ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλά κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν, διά τήν κατά φύσιν περίστασιν, κατά τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τόν θάνατον· ὅς ὁπόταν μή ἔχει γεννῶσαν αὐτόν μητέρα τήν, ἧς γίνεσθαι πέφυκε τιμωρός, ἡδονήν ἀϊδίου ζωῆς προδήλως καθίσταται πατήρ. Ὡς γάρ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡ καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ζωή, θανάτου καί φθορᾶς γέγονε μήτηρ, οὕτω καί ὁ διά τόν Ἀδάμ τοῦ Κυρίου θάνατος ὑπάρχων τῆς ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἐλεύθερος ἡδονῆς, ἀϊδίου γεννήτωρ γίνεται ζωῆς.

μστ΄. Ἀρχήν ἔσχε μετά τήν παράβασιν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐκ σπορᾶς σύλληψιν, καί τήν κατά ῥεῦσιν γένεσιν· καί τέλος, τήν κατ᾿ ὀδύνην διά φθορᾶς θάνατον· ὁ δέ Κύριος ταύτην οὐκ ἔχων ἀρχήν τῆς κατά σάρκα γεννήσεως, οὔτε τῷ τέλει, τουτέστι τῷ θανάτῳ, ὑπῆρχεν ἁλωτός.

μζ΄. Τόν Ἀδάμ ἡ ἁμαρτία καταρχάς δελεάσασα, πρός παράβασιν τῆς θείας παρέπεισεν ἐλθεῖν ἐντολῆς· καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἡδονήν ὑποστήσασα, καί ἑαυτήν διά τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐν αὐτῷ καθηλώσασα τῷ πυθμένι τῆς φύσεως, τόν θάνατον τῆς ὅλης κατέκρινε φύσεως, ὠθοῦσα πρός ἀπογένεσιν κατά τόν θάνατον διά τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τήν φύσιν τῶν γεγονότων. Τοῦτο γάρ καί μεμηχάνητο τῷ σπορεῖ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καί πατρί τῆς κακίας πονηρῷ διαβόλῳ, τῷ ἑαυτόν μέν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας τῆς θείας ἐξοικίσαντι δόξης, διά φθόνον δέ τόν τε πρός ἡμᾶς καί τόν Θεόν, τοῦ παραδείσου τόν Ἀδάμ ἐξοικίσαντι, ἀφανίσαι τά ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί διαλῦσαι τά σενεστῶτα πρός γένεσιν.

μη΄. Φθονῶν τῷ Θεῷ καί ἡμῖν ὁ διάβολος, δόλῳ τόν ἄνθρωπον ὑπό Θεοῦ φθονεῖσθαι παραπείσας, παραβῆναι τήν ἐντολήν παρεσκεύασε. Τῷ Θεῷ μέν, ἵνα φανερά μή γένηται κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἡ πανύμνητος αὐτοῦ δύναμις θεουργοῦσα τόν ἄνθρωπον· τῷ δ᾿ ἀνθρώπῳ προδήλως, ἵνα μή γένηται τῆς θείας ἐν εἴδει κατ᾿ ἀρετήν μέτοχος δόξης. Φθονεῖ γάρ ὁ μιαρώτατος οὐ μόνον ἡμῖν τῆς ἐπί τῷ Θεῷ διά τήν ἀρετήν δόξης, ἀλλά καί τῷ Θεῷ τῆς ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν διά τήν σωτηρίαν πανυμνήτου δυνάμεως.