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of the chest, and of the energy according to it, being signified through the lobe of the liver, in which the bitter and most pungent bile is fixed.
A brief contemplation on the different kinds of leprosy according to the Law. This again, in the section on leprosy, I think he wisely indicates through riddles
symbolic, having divided the affliction of leprosy into four kinds, into white and pale green and yellowish and dark, through which both the irascible and the concupiscible are shown to be divided into their subordinate species, desire, through the white and pale green, being indicated as divided into pleasure and pain, while the irascible, through the yellowish and the dark, is cut into anger and wrath and the hidden villainy of hypocrisy. For these are the first kinds of the passions under them, as they say, and the most primary of all the offspring of the irascible and of desire, by which it is not possible for the soul, being nursed in sickness, as long as it is marked by these, to be numbered among those deemed worthy of the divine encampment.
A contemplation on Phinehas and those slain by him. This I think that wondrous Phinehas also with his personal zeal
to hint at. For having pierced the Midianite woman along with the Israelite, he showed mystically, through the spear, that matter with form, and desire with the irascible, and foreign pleasure with impassioned reason, must by the power of the high priest's word be thrust away together entirely from the soul. For form has the relation to matter, as the irascible does to desire, giving it motion by its approach, it being motionless in itself, and as reason does to pleasure, being naturally suited to give it form, it being without form and unshaped according to its own nature. The power of the names themselves also indicates this. For the Midianite woman is named Cozbi, which is My Tickling, and Zimri the Israelite, which is My Song, that is, my distraction. Whenever, therefore, the rational part of the soul, having turned away from divine meditation and contemplation and become distracted, is entangled with the material tickling of the flesh in the furnace of sin, it certainly needs the zealous word of the high priest, for the destruction of those things so wickedly intertwined with each other, and for the turning away of the impending divine compulsion.
A contemplation on, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs," and on the fact that the apostles should carry neither a staff nor a bag nor sandals.
This the Lord himself also, as it seems to me, perhaps was showing, on the one hand in what he says, "Do not give (1204) what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine," perhaps calling the intellectual part in us holy, as an image of divine glory, which he instructed not to allow to be wrongly disturbed by being barked at by the movements of the irascible, and calling its divine and brilliant thoughts "pearls," by which everything honorable is naturally adorned, which he exhorted to keep undefiled and free from the unclean passions of material desire; and on the other hand, in what he says to his holy disciples being sent out to preach, prescribing how they should be well-equipped and unencumbered, and says this among other things, "Take neither a bag for the road, nor a staff, nor sandals for your feet," as it is necessary for one who has undertaken the high journey of knowledge to be free from all material weight, and pure from every impassioned disposition of desire and the irascible, as both the bag and the staff indicate, the one signifying desire, the other the irascible, and especially of that according to
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στηθυνίου, τῆς δέ κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐνεργείας, διά τοῦ λοβοῦ τοῦ ἥπατος, ἐν ᾧ ἡ πικρά καί δριμυτάτη πέπηγε χολή, σημαινομένων.
Θεωρία σύντομος εἰς τήν κατά νόμον διάφορον λέπραν. Τοῦτο πάλιν κἀν τῷ περί λέπρας τόπῳ σοφῶς οἶμαι παρεμφαίνειν δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων
συμβολικῶν, τήν ἀφήν τῆς λέπρας εἰς τέσσαρα γένη μερίσαντα, εἰς λευκόν καί χλωρόν καί ξανθόν καί ἀμαυτόν, δι᾿ ὧν τό τε θυμικόν καί τό ἐπιθυμητικόν εἰς τά ὑπ᾿ αὐτά εἴδη διαιρούμενα δείκνυται, τῆς μέν ἐπιθυμίας διά τοῦ λευκοῦ καί χλωροῦ, εἰς ἡδονήν καί λύπην μερίζεσθαι δηλουμένης, τοῦ δέ θυμοῦ διά τοῦ ξανθοῦ καί τοῦ ἀμαυροῦ εἰς ὀργήν καί μῆνιν καί τήν κεκρυμμένην κακουργίαν τῆς ὑποκρίσεως τεμνομένου. Ταὐτα γάρ πρῶτα γένη τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτά παθῶν, ὥς φασι, καί πάντων ἀρχηγικώτερα τῶν τοῦ θυμοῦ καί τῆς ἐπιθυμίας γεννήματα, οἷς τήν νοσηλευομένην ψυχήν οὐχ οἷόν τε, ἕως ὑπό τούτων κατέστικται, τοῖς τῆς θείας ἠξιωμένοις παρεμβολῆς ἐναρίθμιον εἶναι.
Θεωρία εἰς τόν Φινεές καί τοῦ ἀναιρεθέντας ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. Τοῦτο καί τόν θαυμαστόν οἶναι Φινεές ἐκεῖνον τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ζήλῳ
παραινίττεσθαι. Τήν γάρ Μαδιανίτιν τῷ Ἰσραηλίτῃ συγκαταιχμάσας, μυστικῶς διά τοῦ δόρατος τήν ὕλην τῷ εἴδει, καί τῷ θυμῷ τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, καί τήν ἀλλόφυλον ἡδονήν τῷ ἐμπαθεῖ λογισμῷ δά τῆς τοῦ ἀρχιερέως λόγου δυνάμεως συναπωθεῖσθαι χρῆν παντάπασι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνέφαινεν. Εἶδος γάρ πρός ὕλην τρόπον ἐπέχει, ὅ τε θυμός πρός τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, τῷ προσεγγισμῷ διδούς αὐτῇ κίνησιν, καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν οὖσαν ἀκίνητον, ὅ τε λογισμός πρός τήν ἡδονήν, εἰδοποιεῖν αὐτήν πεφυκώς, ἀνείδεον καί ἄμορφον κατά τόν ἴδιον λόγον ὑπάρχουσαν. ∆ηλοῖ δέ τοῦτο καί αὐτή τῶν ὀνομάτων ἡ δύναμις. Χασβή γάρ ἡ Μαδιανίτις ὀνομάζεται, ὅπερ ἐστί Γαργαλισμός λου, καί Ζαμβρί ὁ Ἰσραηλίτης, ὅπερ ἐστίν Ἆσμα μου, τουτέστι μετεωρισμός μου. Ἐπειδάν οὖν τῆς θείας ἀπονεῦσαν μελέτης τε καί ἐνατενίσεως τό λογιστικόν τῆς ψυχῆς καί μετεωρισθέν τῷ ὑλικῷ τῆς σαρκός γαργαλισμῷ συμπλακῇ κατά τήν κάμινον τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ ζηλωτοῦ πάντως δεῖται ἀρχιερέως λόγου, πρός ἀναίρεσιν μέν τῶν οὕτω κακῶς ἀλλήλοις συμπεπλεγμένων, ἀποστροφήν δέ τῆς φερομένης θείας ἀναγακτήσεως.
Θεωρία εἰς τό, "Μή δῶτε τά ἅγια τοῖς κυσί, καί εἰς τό, μήτε ῥάβδον μήτε πήραν μήτε ὑποδήματα χρῆναι τούς ἀποστόλους βαστάζειν."
Τοῦτο καί ὁ Κύριος αὐτός, ὡς ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, τυχόν παρεδήλου, τοῦτο μέν ἐν οἷς φησι, Μή δῶτε (1204) τό ἅγιον τοῖς κυσί, μηδέ βάλλετε τούς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, ἅγιον ἴσως καλῶν τό ἐν ἡμῖν νοερόν, ὡς θείας ἀπεικόνισμα δόξης, ὅπερ μή κακῶς ἐᾷν ὑπό τῶν θυμικῶν κινημάτων καθυλακτούμενον ἐκταράσσεσθαι παρηγγύησε, μαργαρίτας δέ τά θεῖα καί λαμπρά τούτου νοήματα, οἷς τίμιον ἅπαν κοσμεῖσθαι πέφυκεν, ἅπερ διαφυλάττειν ἀμόλυντα καί τῶν ἀκαθάρτων τῆς ὑλικῆς ἐπιθυμίας παθῶν ἐλεύθερα δεῖν παρεκελεύσατο· τοῦτο δέ ἐν οἷς πρός τούς ἁγίους αὐτοῦ μαθητάς ἀποστελλομένους ἐπί τό κήρυγμα περί τοῦ πῶς εὐσταλεῖς αὐτούς εἶναι καί ἀπερίττους διατυπῶν καί τοῦτο πρός τοῖς ἄλλοις φησί, Μή δέ πήραν αἵρετε εἰς τήν ὁδόν, μήτε ῥάβδον, μήτε ὑποδήματα εἰς τούς πόδας ὑμῶν, ὡς δέον τόν τῆς ὑψηλῆς κατά τήν γνῶσιν πορείας ἐπειλημμένον παντός μέν ὑλικοῦ βάρους ἐλεύθερον εἶναι, πάσης δέ τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν καί θυμόν ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως καθαρόν, ὡς δηλοῖ ἥ τε πήρα καί ἡ ῥάβδος, ἡ μέν τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, ἡ δέ τό θυμόν ἐπισημαίνουσα, μάλιστα δέ τῆς καθ᾿