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of life, (1157) since all life is by nature sustained by its own and proper food. And the food of that blessed life is the bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world, as the unfailing Word Himself declared concerning Himself in the Gospels, by which the first man, not wishing to be nourished, was reasonably deprived of the divine life, and took hold of another, the begetter of death, according to which, having put on himself the irrational form, and having obscured the unattainable beauty of the divine, he delivered all of nature as food for death. Through which death lives throughout this whole interval of time, we being consumed as food by it.

That the saints were taught from the unstable course of the present life that there is another life, the true and divine and likewise existing one.

Wisely understanding its inertia and succession, the saints were taught, as is likely, that this is not the life primarily given to men by God, but they were mystically taught of another, divine and likewise existing, which they supposed God, being good, must have primarily created for Himself in a fitting manner, towards which, through wisdom according to the grace of the Spirit, as is possible for men under death, having lifted up the eye of the soul, and having inwardly received the divine longing for it, they reasonably thought it necessary to put away this present life, if they were to purely lay hold of that one according to the necessary principle. And since the putting away of life does not happen without death, they devised as its death the casting off of carnal affection, through which the entrance of death came into life, so that by devising death for death they might cease from living for death, dying the death precious in the sight of the Lord, which is truly the death of death, which is able to destroy corruption, and which provides entrance to blessed life and incorruption for the worthy. For the end of this present life I think it is not even right to call death, but a release from death, and a separation from corruption, and freedom from slavery, and a cessation from turmoil, and an abolition of wars, and a passing of confusion, and a retreat of darkness, and a relief from toils, and a silence of indistinct noise, and a calm from surging, and a covering of shame, and an escape from passions, and an annihilation of sin, and, to speak concisely, a circumscription of all evils: which things the saints, having accomplished through voluntary mortification, presented themselves as strangers and sojourners of this life. For, fighting bravely against the world and the body and the rebellions arising from them, and having choked the deceit arising from both according to the entanglement of the senses with sensible things, they preserved for themselves the dignity of the soul unenslaved; very reasonably, judging it lawful and just for the lesser to be led (1160) by the greater, rather than for the greater to be fettered by the worse. Which is indeed a divine law and innate for those who choose to embrace the life primarily fitting for rational beings, the one that similarly, through self-sufficiency, imitates the freedom from want of the angels, and is unhindered.

That the saints did not perform natural contemplation or scriptural mystagogy in our manner.

But returning in sequence, having examined the remaining things of the transfiguration according to our ability, let us adapt them to the things previously contemplated, so that there may be a contemplation of the saints

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ζωῆς, (1157) ἐπειδή πᾶσα ζωή οἰκεία τε και καταλλήλῳ πέφυκε συντηρεῖσθαι τροφῇ. Τροφή δέ τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης ζωῆς ἐστιν ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς καί ζωήν διδούς τῷ κόσμῳ, καθώς αὐτός περί ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις ὁ ἀψευδής ἀπεφήνατο λόγος, ᾧ διατραφῆναι μή βουληθείς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος τῆς μέν θείας εἰκότως ἀπεγένετο ζωῆς, ἄλλης δέ θανάτου γεννήτορος ἐπελάβετο, καθ᾿ ἥν τήν μέν ἄλογον ἑαυτῷ μορφήν ἐπιθέμενος, τῆς θείας δέ τό ἀμήχανον ἀμαυρώσας κάλλος, βοράν τῷ θανάτῳ τήν ἅπασαν φύσιν παρέδωκε. ∆ι᾿ ἧς ὁ μέν θάνατος ζῇ δι᾿ ὅλου τοῦ χρονικοῦ τούτου διαστήματος, ἡμᾶς βρῶσιν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατεσθιόμενοι.

Ὅτι ἐκ τῆς ἀστάτου περιφορᾶς τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἄλλην εἶναι τήν ἀληθῆ καί θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν ζωήν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οἱ ἅγιοι.

Ἧς τό ἀδρανές καί ἀλλεπάλληλον σοφῶς κατανοήσαντες οἱ ἅγιοι τήν ἀνθρώποις προηγουμένως ἐκ Θεοῦ δεδωρημένην ταύτην μή εἶναι τήν ζωήν, ὡς εἰκός, ἐπαιδεύθησαν, ἄλλην δέ θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν, ἥν μάλιστα δεῖν ὑπέλαβον ἑαυτῷ πρεπόντως ἀγαθόν ὄντα τόν Θεόν προηγουμένως δημιουργῆσαι, μυστικῶς ἐδιδάχθησαν, πρός ἧν διά σοφίας κατά τήν χάριν τοῦ πνεύματος, ὡς ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς ὑπό θάνατον, τό ὄμμα τῆς ψυχῆς ἀνανεύσαντες, καί ἐνδιαθέτως τόν αὐτῆς θεῶν ὑποδεξάμενοι πόθον, ἀποθέσθαι δεῖν ταύτην τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν εἰκότως ᾠήθησαν, εἰ μέλλοιεν καθαρῶς ἐκείνης κατά τόν δέοντα λόγον ἐπιλήψεσθαι. Καί ἐπειδή ζωῆς ἀπόθεσις θανάτου χωρίς οὐ γίνεται, θάνατον αὐτῆς ἐπενόησαν τήν ἀποβολήν τῆς κατά σάρκα στοργῆς, δι᾿ ἧς εἰς τόν βίον ἡ τοῦ θανάτου γέγονεν εἴσοδος, ἵνα θανάτῳ θάνατον ἐπινοήσαντες τοῦ ζῆν τῷ θανάτῳ παύσωνται, τόν τίμιον ἐναντίον Κυρίου θάνατον ἀποθανόντες, τόν ὄντως θανάτου θάνατον, τόν τήν φθοράν μέν φθείρειν δυνάμενον, τῇ δέ μακαρίᾳ ζωῇ καί ἀφθαρσίᾳ παρεχόμενον ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις εἴσοδον. Τό γάρ πέρας τῆς παρούσης ταύτης ζωῆς οὐδέ θάνατον οἶμαι δίκαιον ὀνομάζειν, ἀλλά θανάτου ἀπαλλαγήν, καί φθορᾶς χωρισμόν, καί δουλείας ἐλευθερίαν, καί ταραχῆς παύλαν, καί πολέμων ἀναίρεσειν, καί συγχύσεως πάροδον, καί σκότους ὑποχώρησιν, καί πόνων ἄνεσιν, καί βομβήσεως ἀσήμου σιγήν, καί βράσματος ἡρεμίαν, καί αἰσχύνης συγκάλυμμα, καί παθῶν ἀποφυγήν, καί ἁμαρτίας ἀφανισμόν, καί πάντων, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, τῶν κακῶν περιγραφήν· ἅπερ δι᾿ ἑκουσίου νεκρώσεως οἱ ἅγιοι κατορθώσαντες ξένους ἑαυτούς τοῦ βίου καί παρεπιδήμους παρέστησαν. Κόσμῳ τε γάρ καί σώματι καί ταῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπαναστάσεσι γενναίως μαχόμενοι, καί τήν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν κατά τήν τῶν αἰσθήσεων πρός τά αἰσθητά συμπλοκήν παραγεγομένην ἀπάτην ἀποπνίξαντες, ἀδούλωτον ἑαυτοῖς ἐφύλαξαν τῆς ψυχῆς τό ἀξίωμα· μάλα γε εἰκότως, ἔννομον κρίναντες εἶναι καί δίκαιον τό ἧττον ἄγεσθαι (1160) μᾶλλον τῷ κρείττονι, ἤ τό κρεῖττον τῷ χείρονι συμποδίζεσθαι. Ὅσπερ δή νόμος θεῖος καί τοῖς προαιρουμένοις τήν λογικοῖς προηγουμένως πρέπουσαν ἀσπαζεσθαι ζωήν ἐμπεφυκώς, τήν ἐμφερῶς δι' ὀλιγαρκείας τό ἀπροσδεές τῶν ἀγγέλων μιμουμένην καί ἄνετον.

Ὅτι μή καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἤ τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, ἤ τήν γραφικήν μυσταγωγίαν ἐποίουν οἱ ἅγιοι.

Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπανελθόντες καθ᾿ εἱρμόν τά λείποντα τῆς μεταμορφώσεως τοῖς προθεωρηθεῖσι κατά δύναμιν διασκοπήσαντες προσαρμόσωμεν, ἵνα θεωρηθῇ τῶν ἁγίων