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heaven, that is, the spirit and the soul of Scripture, which is to say the heavenly and angelic bread; and I say, being fed the spiritual contemplation and knowledge of the Scriptures in Christ, which God gives, bountifully supplied to those who love him, according to what is written, *He gave them bread from heaven, man ate the bread of angels*.

36. It is necessary to destroy the interpretation of Scripture according to the senses, with respect to the body—as manifestly generative of passions and of the disposition related to temporal and flowing things, that is, of the impassioned activity of the senses toward sensible things—like the children and offspring of Saul, through natural contemplation on the mountain, (1364) by the anagogical ascent of the divine oracles, if somehow we desire to be filled with divine grace.

37. Both the law understood according to the letter alone, and the people of the Jews, and anyone who is in mind an imitator of them, does injustice to the truth, circumscribing the power of the law by the letter alone, and not accepting natural contemplation for the manifestation of the mystical knowledge hidden in the letter, which exists as a mean between types and truth; leading away those who are led from the former, and leading them back toward the latter; but as it were utterly denying this, and placing it outside the mystagogy of divine things. Therefore, the cultivators of divine spectacles must kill this bodily and temporary interpretation of the law, as being subject to time and flowing, through natural contemplation, as on a mountain at the height of knowledge.

38. He utterly destroys the corporeal sense of Scripture, who by practice through natural contemplation kills that which comes from the written law, namely, the soul’s pleasure-loving and body-loving relation toward unstable and flowing matter, slaughtering like the children and offspring of Saul the groveling mind of the law, through the midst of natural contemplation, as on a mountain at the height of knowledge, and making manifest before the Lord, that is, through confession, the former interpretation with respect to the body of the law. For this, “to expose to the sun,” can be understood by the studious, as “before the Lord.” And *they exposed them to the sun*, it says, *on the mountain before the Lord*; bringing to light, that is through knowledge, the mistaken preconception according to the letter; which is, to make manifest at the height of contemplation the letter of the law as dead through knowledge in the spirit.

39. *The letter*, it says, *kills, but the spirit gives life*. Therefore it is necessary for that which by nature kills to be killed by the life-giving spirit. For it is utterly impossible for the corporeal and the divine of the law, that is, the letter and the spirit, to coexist with each other in activity at the same time; because that which is able to take away life is not by nature in harmony with that which naturally provides it.

40. The spirit is a provider of life; but the letter is a remover of life. Therefore it is not possible for both the letter and the spirit to act at the same time, just as it is not possible for the life-giving to coexist with the death-dealing.

41. (1365) Mystical circumcision is the complete removal of the impassioned relation in the mind concerning adventitious generation. For considering things naturally, we know that the removal of the natural integrity that comes from God is not perfection. For nature does not produce perfection when mutilated by art, and through contrivance, laying aside what belongs to it from God according to the principle of creation, lest we introduce art as stronger than God for the confirmation of justice, and make the contrived lack of nature a fulfillment of the lack in justice according to creation; but from the local [gu. 65, typical] position of the contrived part, we are taught to perform with our will [ibid. knowingly] the circumcision of the impassioned disposition of the soul; by which the will is rather regulated to run with nature, correcting the impassioned law of acquired generation.

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οὐρανόν, ἤγουν τῆς Γραφῆς τό πνεῦμα καί τήν ψυχήν, τουτέστι τόν οὐράνιον καί ἀγγελικόν ἄρτον· λέγω δέ, τήν ἐν Χριστῷ τῶν Γραφῶν πνευματικήν θεωρίαν καί γνῶσιν βρωματιζόμενος, ἥν δίδωσι δαψιλῶς ἐπιχορηγουμένην τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν Θεός, κατά τό γεγραμμένον, Ἄρτον οὐρανοῦ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς, ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος.

λστ΄. Χρή τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πρός σῶμα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐκδοχήν, ὡς παθῶν προδήλως καί τῆς πρός τά χρονικά καί ῥέοντα σχετικῆς διαθέσεως οὖσαν γεννητικήν, ἤγουν τῆς πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐμπαθοῦς ἐνεργείας, ὡς Σαούλ τέκνα καί ἔκγονα, διά τῆς φυσικῆς ἐν ὄρει, (1364) τῇ τῶν θείων ἀναγωγῇ λογίων ἀφανίσαι θεωρίας, εἴ πως ἐμφορηθῆναι θείας ἐφιέμεθα χάριτος.

λζ΄. Ἀδικεῖ τήν ἀλήθειαν ὅ τε νόμος κατά μόνον τό γράμμα νοούμενος, καί ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαός, καί εἴ τι ἐκείνων ὑπάρχει κατά διάνοιαν μιμητής, μόνῳ τῷ γράμματι περιγράφων τοῦ νόμου τήν δύναμιν, καί μή δεχόμενος πρός τήν φανέρωσιν τῆς μυστικῆς ἐγκεκρυμμένης τῷ γράμματι γνώσεως τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, μέσην ὑπάρχουσαν τύπων καί ἀληθείας· τῶν μέν, τούς ἀγομένους ἀπάγουσαν, πρός δέ τήν ἐπανάγουσαν· ἀλλ᾿ οἷον ταύτην πάμπαν ἀρνούμενος, καί τῆς τῶν θείων αὐτήν ἔξω ποιούμενος μυσταγωγίας. Ταύτην τοιγαροῦν χρή τοῦ νόμου τήν σωματικήν καί πρόσκαιρον ἐκδοχήν ὡς ὑπό χρόνον καί ῥέουσαν, ἀποκτείνειν διά τήν φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῷ ὕψει τῆς γνώσεως, τούς τῶν θείων ἐπιμελητάς θεαμάτων.

λη΄. Τόν σωματικόν νοῦν τῆς Γραφῆς ἀφανίζει παντελῶς, ὁ πράξει διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας ἀποκτείνων τήν γενομένην ἐκ τοῦ γραπτοῦ νόμου, πρός τήν ἄστατον ὕλην καί ῥέουσαν τῇ ψυχῇ φιλήδονον σχέσιν καί φιλοσώματον, κατασφάττων ὡς τέκνα τοῦ Σαούλ καί ἔκγονα, τήν χαμαίζηλον τοῦ νόμου διάνοιαν, διά μέσης τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ὡς ἐν ὄρει τῷ ὕψει τῆς γνώσεως, καί φανεράν ποιούμενος ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, δι᾿ ἐξομολογήσεως δηλαδή, τήν πρός σῶμα τοῦ νόμου προτέραν ἐκδοχήν. Τοῦτο γάρ τό, Ἐξηλιάσαι, νοεῖσθαι δύναται τοῖς φιλομαθέσιν, ἔναντι Κυρίου. Καί ἐξηλίασαν αὐτούς, φησίν, ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἔναντι Κυρίου· εἰς φῶς ἀγαγόντες, διά τῆς γνώσεως δηλαδή, τήν κατά τό γράμμα πεπλανημένην πρόληψιν· ὅπερ ἐστί, φανερῶσαι κατά τό ὕψος τῆς θεωρίας τό γράμμα τοῦ νόμου νεκρόν διά τῆς ἐν πνεύματι γνώσεως.

λθ΄. Τό γράμμα, φησίν, ἀποκτείνει· τό δέ πνεῦμα ζωοποιεῖ. ∆ιό χρή τό ἀποκτείνειν πεφυκός, ἀποκτείνεσθαι πνεύματι ζωοποιῷ. Συνυπάρχειν γάρ ἀλλήλοις κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἅμα κατά τό αὐτό τό σωματικόν τοῦ νόμου καί τό θεῖον, ἤγουν τό γράμμα καί τό πνεῦμα, παντελῶς ἀμήχανον· ὅτι μηδέ συμφωνεῖν πέφυκε τῷ παρεχομένῳ κατά φύσιν ζωήν, τό ταύτην ἀφαιρεῖσθαι δυνάμενον.

μ΄. Τό μέν πνεῦμα, ζωῆς ὑπάρχει παρεκτικόν· τό δέ γράμμα, ζωῆς ἐστιν ἀφαιρετικόν. Οὐκοῦν οὐ δύναται καί τό γράμμα πράττειν κατά τό αὐτό καί τό πνεῦμα, ὥσπερ οὐδέ τό ζωοποιόν τῷ φθοροποιῷ συνυπάρχειν.

μα΄. (1365) Περιτομή ἐστι μυστική, τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς κατά νοῦν περί τήν ἐπείσακτον γένεσιν σχέσεως, παντελής περιαίρεσις. Φυσικῶς γάρ ἐπιβάλλοντες τοῖς πράγμασιν, οἴδαμεν ὡς οὐκ ἔστι τελειότης ἡ τῆς ἐκ Θεοῦ κατά φύσιν ἀρτιότητος περιαίρεσις. Οὐ γάρ ποιεῖ τελειότητα φύσις διά τέχνης κολοβουμένη, καί διά περινοίας, ἀποτιθεμένη τό προσόν αὐτῇ θεόθεν κατά λόγον δημιουργίας, ἵνα μή τήν τέχνην, Θεοῦ πρός βεβαίωσιν δικαιοσύνης ἰσχυροτέραν εἰσάγωμεν, καί τήν περινενοημένην τῆς φύσεως ἔλλειψιν, ἀναπληρωτικήν ποιώμεθα τῆς ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ κατά δημιουργίαν ἐλλείψεως· ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῆς τοπικῆς [gu. 65, τυπικ.] τοῦ περινενοημένου μορίου θέσεως, διδασκόμεθα ποιεῖσθαι γνωμικῶς [idid. γνωστ.] τήν περιτομήν τῆς κατά ψυχήν ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως· καθ᾿ ἥν μᾶλλον τῇ φύσει συντρέχειν ἡ γνώμη ῥυθμίζεται, τόν ἐμπαθῆ τῆς ἐπικτήτου γενέσεως νόμον διορθουμένη.