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If someone should wish to commit to writing through a precise examination, he will collect a long discourse and spend much time, so that it would not even be tolerable to the readers on account of its length. Therefore, it is truly great and wonderful, and requiring much attention and diligence, and before these, divine assistance, to be able first to master the material dyad of the innate powers, I mean anger and desire, and their corresponding division; and blessed is he who has been able to lead them readily wherever reason decides, until through practical means by way of moral philosophy he is purified of his former thoughts.

A contemplation from Scripture concerning how the gnostic man ought not to join the word of wisdom to the law of nature, and what is the addition of the letter alpha to the name of Abram.

Then also to rise above them and utterly cast them out, as Hagar and Ishmael, did that great Abraham, when his rational faculty, in the person of Isaac, was already able to be exercised in the vision of divine things, being taught by the divine voice which is borne by knowledge, that the divine offspring of free spiritual knowledge according to the intellect, joined to the servile seed of the flesh, cannot attain the blessed promise, which is the grace of deification set forth according to hope for those who love the Lord, which he had already received in a typical way, having been mystically united through faith to the principle of the monad, according to which he became single-formed, or rather one out of many, he was brought together magnificently, alone to the alone God in his entirety, bringing with him absolutely no type whatsoever of scattered knowledge concerning anything else, which, I think, signifies the power of the letter alpha given as an addition to his name. For this reason he was also named the father of those who are brought to God through faith by the privation of all things after God, since the children are able to have the same types as the father, according to faith in spirit.

A contemplation on Moses concerning the removal of his sandals. This, perhaps at the beginning of his gnostic training, that great Moses also

was being instructed, being taught by the divine voice, when he drew near to see the light mystically appearing in the bush, which said, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground,” signifying, I think, that the soul must be powerfully loosed in its disposition from all bodily things, when it is about to make the gnostic journey through contemplation toward the intellection of super-cosmic realities, and to have a complete estrangement from the former life lived in the relations of the flesh, through the removal of the sandals.

A contemplation on the parts of the sacrifices. This again, perhaps, the same most divine Moses in the regulations for the sacrifices

indicated, commanding that the fat of the sacrificial animals be removed, and the kidneys, and the breast, and the lobe of the liver, that it is necessary to remove the general powers of the passions within us, I mean anger and desire, the truly material dyad, and their activities, and to consume them in the divine fire of mystical power according to knowledge, with desire being signified through the kidneys, and its activity, that is, pleasure, being signified through the fat, or the suet, and of anger (1201) through the

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βουληθείη τις δι᾿ ἀκριβοῦς ἐξετάσεως παραδοῦναι γραφῇ, πολύν ἀθροίσει λόγον καί χρόνον δαπανήσει, ὡς μηδέ ἀνεκτόν εἶναι τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι διά τό πλῆθος. Μέγα οὖν καί θαυμαστόν ὄντως ἐστί καί πολλῆς δεόμενον προσοχῆς τε καί σπουδῆς, καί πρό τούτων τῆς θείας ἐπικουρίας, τό δυνηθῆναι πρῶτον μέν τῆς ὑλικῆς δυάδος τῶν ἐμφύτων κρατῆσαι δυνάμεων, θυμοῦ λέγω καί ἐπιθυμίας, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτάς μερισμοῦ, καί μακάριος ὅς ἄγειν ἑτοίμως ταύτας ὅποι τῷ λόγῳ δοκεῖ δεδύνηται, μέχρις ἄν τοῖς πρακτικοῖς διά τῆς ἠθικῆς φιλοσοφίας τῶν προτέρων καθαίρηται λογισμῶν.

Θεωρία ἐκ τῆς Γραφῆς περί τοῦ μή δεῖν τόν γνωστικόν τῷ τῆς φύσεως νόμῳ τόν τῆς σοφίας λόγον συνάπτειν, καί τίς ἡ προσθήκη τοῦ ἄλφα στοιχείου εἰς τό ὄνομα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ.

Ἔπειτα δέ καί ὑπέρ αὐτάς γενέσθαι καί παντελῶς ἀπώσασθαι, ὡς τήν Ἄγαρ καί τόν Ἰσμαήλ, ὁ Ἀβραάμ ἐκεῖνος ὁ μέγας, τοῦ λογιστικοῦ ἤδη περί τά θεῖα κατά τόν Ἰσαάκ ἐκεῖνον γυμνασθῆναι δυναμένου θεάματα, ὑπό τῆς κατά τήν γνῶσιν φερομένης θείας φωνῆς διδασκόμενος, μή δύνασθαι τό κατά νοῦν θεῖον τῆς ἐλευθέρας κατά πνεῦμα γνώσεως γέννημα, τῷ δουλικῷ τῆς σαρκός ἐπισυνημμένον σπέρματι, τῆς μακαρίας τυχεῖν ἐπαγγελίας, ἥτις ἐστίν ἡ κατ᾿ ἐλπίδας προκειμένη τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τόν Κύριον τῆς θεώσεως χάρις, ἥν ἤδη τυπικῶς ὑπῆρχε ποειληφώς, τῷ περί μονάδος λόγῳ διά πίστεως μυστικῶς συναφθείς, καθ᾿ ὅν ἐνοειδής γενόμενος, μᾶλλον δέ ἐκ πολλῶν εἷς, μόνος πρός μόνον δ᾿ ὅλου τόν Θεόν μεγαλοπρεπῶς συνήχθη, μηδένα τό παράπαν τῆς οἱασοῦν περί τι ἄλλο τῶν σκεδαστῶν γνώσεως τύπον ἑαυτῷ συνεπιφερόμενος, ὅπερ οἶμαι δηλοῦν τήν τοῦ δοθέντος εἰς προσθήκην τοῦ ὀνόματος ἄλφα γράμματος δύναμιν. ∆ιό καί πατήρ τῶν διά πίστεως προσαγομένων Θεῷ κατά στέρησιν πάντων τῶν μετά Θεόν ἐχρημάτισεν, ὡς τούς αὐτούς κατά πίστιν ἐν πνεύματι τύπους τῷ πατρί τῶν τέκνων ἐμφερῶς ἔχειν δυμαμένων.

Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν περί τῶν ἀφαιρουμένων ὑποδημάτων. Τοῦτο τυχόν ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς γνωστικῆς ἀγωγῆς καί ὁ μέγας Μωϋσῆς ἐκεῖνος

διδασκόμενος ὑπό τῆς θείας φωνῆς ἐπαιδεύετο, ἡνίκα προσῆγεν ἰδεῖν τό ἐν τῇ βάτῳ μυστικῶς φανταζόμενον φῶς φασκούσης, Λύσον τά ὑποδήματα ἀπό τῶν ποδῶν σου, ὁ γάρ τόπος ἐν ᾧ ἔστηκας γῆ ἁγία ἐστί, τό δεινῶς, οἶμαι, τῶν σωματικῶν ἁπάντων ἀπολελύσθαι κατά διάθεσιν τήν ψυχήν, μέλλουσαν τήν διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν ὑπερκοσμίων νόησιν γνωστικήν ποιεῖσθαι πορείαν καί τελείαν τοῦ ἐν σχέσι σαρκός προτέρου βίου ἀλλοτρίωσιν διά τῆς τῶν ὑποδημάτων ἔχειν ἀποθέσεως.

Θεωρία εἰς μέρη τῶν θυσιῶν. Τοῦτο πάλιν ἴσως ὁ αὐτός θειότατος Μωϋσῆς ἐν ταῖς τῶν θυσιῶν διατάξεσι

παρεδήλου τῶν ἱερείων ἀφαιρεῖν τό στέαρ, καί τούς νεφρούς, καί τό στηθύνιον, καί τόν λοβόν τοῦ ἥπατος, ἐπιτάσσων, τό δεῖν αὐτάς τε τάς γενικάς τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν παθῶν δυνάμεις, τόν θυμόν λέγω καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, τήν ὄντως ὑλικήν δυάδα, καί τάς ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν ἀφαιρεῖν, καί τῷ θείῳ πυρί τῆς κατά γνῶσιν μυστικῆς ἐκτῆξαι δυνάμεως, τῆς μέν ἐπιθυμίας διά τῶν νεφρῶν, τῆς δέ ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς, τουτέστι τῆς ἡδονῆς, διά τοῦ λίπους, ἤτοι τοῦ στέατος δηλουμένης, καί τοῦ θυμοῦ (1201) διά τοῦ