Twelve Books of Anagogical Contemplations on the Hexaemeron

OF THE SAME ANASTASIUS, TWELVE BOOKS OF ANAGOGICAL CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE HEXAEMERON, ADDRESSED TO THEOPHILUS

TO THE READER

PREFACE

an orderly manner, consistent with the divine consecrations of the secret sacraments of God; they never make this showing to the whole mixed multitude at once, before the one who presides over the liturgy—that is, over the public ministry of holy things—after the superior order of the divine choir, which is beyond any mediation, standing outside the most holy doors, like a certain herald crying out with a loud voice and by supreme command, has separated from the inner sanctuaries, to which it is not permitted to approach, those who are not permitted to enjoy or partake of them, fearing him who in the Gospel was clothed in filthy garments, and who was cast out far from the wedding feast because he had not prepared a garment suitable for that divine banquet. To this work, however, we have come to compose ourselves, not placing our hope in eloquence, in pleasant fables and trifles, or in the art of Greek oratory, nor armed with savage and useless iambics; for we have Christ as our guide on the way, who calls Greek wisdom foolishness and the emptying of the cross. For we speak of divine Scripture, which, although it was set forth through a certain humility of voice and slowness of tongue, was confirmed and adorned by few, and those rustic and fishermen, and cobblers and unlettered men, and it put the wise to shame and showed them to be foolish and useless. Wherefore, at present, there will be no discourse from us of figures and intervals, nor of rotations and motions and regressions to their own places, nor of positions and alterations, nor of motions in a circle, nor of antipodes and the parts of heaven, and the motions of Saturn, nor of the motion and degrees of the heavens, nor of the rising and setting of the moon, nor again of the stars and the individual stars that are observed within them; nor of the rising of waters and of floods, from which they who have busied themselves in mathematics and this conjectural art—from which the Word, who has dwelt upon the earth, has liberated the Church as if from a deadly plague—have apprehended the sight of the earthquakes that occur in certain places. For what gain would the Church have if it learned the entire motion of the sun and moon, and of the heavens, and of the earth and the winds and the stars, other than only a passing and false opinion? But learning and hearing that by God Himself, the Creator of all things, two works were produced: one, indeed, by which man and (to say it once) every created thing was produced; and another, by which it might be well for both man and every created thing, when He Himself assumed flesh, having set all things free from destruction, when they received that they might be well; and that the divine prophet Moses foresaw also the production and workmanship of the creature for the sake of its well-being, and by writing how it came into existence that it might be for this end, He inserted into Scripture itself its reformation through Christ so that it might be well, though in a way of prophecy, obscure and allegorical. ^A For God first built in wisdom all things that are in the heavens and on the earth for His own image and prior description. And that He was premeditating and first describing immediately from the first effect of His voice its foundations and structure and appearance and illumination, and through the first heaven and the second, and the luminaries that are in them, and not only this, but also through the sun and moon themselves, and the earth, and the waters, and plants, and cattle, and birds, and fish; and, to speak once, through every creature of heaven and earth, He preaches and magnificently commends Christ who speaks in them and through them.

Preface

^B Learning these things, the Church exults and rejoices, is glad and illuminated, and is rendered strong and robust, or rather is armed, against the unfaithful; convicting, putting to shame, overcoming, banishing, and triumphing over them: since every creature that is seen and perceived by the intellect was first constructed and prefigured to the image of Him and of His Bridegroom, Christ. For this is the mystery which before the ages and before generations God first defined and predestined. Whence it is also said that God brought all things back to their head and restored them in Christ. What is "to bring back to the head and restore," other than that those things which were previously figured and shadowed in Him by reasons, were in very fact fulfilled in Him? For all things, he says, were created through Him and in Him, Christ, as many as are in heaven and as many as are on earth, things visible and invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities and Powers, all were created through Him and in Him; but the Apostle of God, saying that all things, visible and invisible, were created in Christ, clearly shows and teaches that even the invisible creature itself was first figured and made in Christ and in the Church. ^C But concerning the celestial things, indeed, in the manner in which they describe and prefigure Christ and the Church, we cannot clearly say how the angel is understood by those to whom He is: the Angel of the great counsel, and again how the archangel, who is the prince of the angels, sends them also as ministering spirits who stand by Him: and how He is named the Beginning, who is in the beginning, God the Word, the Prince of peace and the Father of the age to come. For great is His principality, and of His peace there is no end. Or how we may understand Power itself, who is God having power, strong and mighty. For His power is, as Daniel says: And an eternal power that shall not pass away; for power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, you will also understand the Throne to be homonymous, inasmuch as the Father rests upon Him as the only-begotten and own Son, and at the same time also makes us rest, consistently with that which is written: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will make you rest. And if

you also wish to know why it is said to have six wings, listen to Him who says to it: "In the shadow of your wings you will protect me," ^A extending His wings, He received them. Just as the true light, however, enlightening every man coming into the world, is deservedly called "full of eyes" [πολυόφθαλμος], that is, having many eyes, as He sees all things. But by homonymy, the Lord is also called this, who possesses the rule over those who rule: for the Lord is strong and powerful, the Lord is powerful in battle. And, "the Lord of hosts." And, "the Lord most high." Since, however, Cherubim is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge"—and God is the Lord of knowledge, for He knows all things before they come to pass, and: "No one knows the Father except the Son" ^B —it is deservedly also called Cherubim, He who formed the Cherubim Himself. Just as, also, Seraphim, which is interpreted as "burning and consuming fire": for "our God is a consuming fire," and Christ is, and for this reason, He says: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth." But let this now be said as if by way of an epitome, how they are referred to Christ, and how the things that came before describe and prefigure Him. But that they are also patterns of the Church, and indicate and figure it beforehand, the divine Apostle himself releases you from this doubt in the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of the tabernacle of testimony and of all things constructed in it, that they were made as a figure of the Church, saying: "Christ did not enter into man-made copies, but into heaven itself." By saying "copies," he shows without any doubt that whatever things are in the Church are imitations of the heavenly orders. If, therefore, invisible things, and those which are most excellent, are compared to the image and figure of the Church, do not henceforth doubt any further, and do not lack faith that all earthly things, which are written in the Mosaic law, had a shadow and figure of the good things to come in us, as Paul teaches. For it is to be understood that what Christ says, that one iota and one apex, by which is signified the sign of the cross, will not pass from the law until all things come to pass, it was spoken of Himself, indeed, but also of the Church. For of what else would the image, the tabernacle of testimony, and the paschal lamb, and the blood, and the sprinkling, and the sacrifices, and the fire, and whatever things are done through the legal worship of God, be, if not of Christ and the Church? Whence also he who ^C adorned the Church with the senses, the most celebrated Cyril, in his Commentaries on the Hexaemeron in Genesis, said that the mystery of Christ and the Church is announced through this Mosaic Scripture. Guided by whom, and having taken the occasion from whom, Ammonius, a most approved interpreter of the Church of Alexandria, in the work which he composed of the paternal opinions on the Hexaemeron, said that many who contended that it was not made by God as a figure of the Church, but served only the letter, had brought much force to the sense of the God-inspired Scripture. The same Ammonius said that this is the cause of the dissension of some Exegetes from others. For if Paul refers to the Church the fact that all creation was made on account of the man Adam and Eve, saying: "This sacrament is great, but I speak in Christ and the Church," without doubt all creation that was made on account of man and his spouse is referred to Christ and the Church. And that this argument indeed surpasses our strengths, neither we deny, nor does anyone who is wise. But since from this there is ^D great glorification in the Church, and any Scripture whatsoever receives from this greater weapons against the enemies of piety who have surrounded it, for this reason, having invoked Christ the giver of light through His spouse the Church, who opened the mouth of Balaam's ass, and who bestows His glorious gifts upon many unworthy ones, not to say all, I have dared to enter this immense sea, using as assistants, after Christ, the holy Fathers who expounded before us. For even if we have placed the Mosaic Scripture before the evangelical for the sake of exposition, we have not, however, placed the figure before the truth, nor the shadow before the things, nor the past before the present for the sake of doctrine, but so that we might openly show that these ancient and earlier things prefigure our mystical and recently arisen things, and shadow forth the truth until it itself comes, and has rendered the whole body of holy Scripture devoid of shadow. But if our speech should also say something new and less customary, we ask and beseech the sons of the holy Church, both present and future, not to listen to what is said with a hostile, envious, and malicious spirit, but with a brotherly one. For the unerring and perfect knowledge of things is never of God alone, since even the spiritual man knows in part, and speaks in part, and he who is according to the heart of God, David, prays, saying: "Open my eyes, that I may understand the wonderful things of your law."

BOOK I. ON THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION.

"In the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was invisible and unfinished, and darkness was upon the abyss, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water." ^A

It is neither easy for us to state nor simple for the listener to hear how many and of what nature were the opinions of those who, many centuries ago, set forth the subjects mentioned here. For concerning the phrase "In the beginning he created," some have doubted whether the beginning itself has some more ancient principle upon which it depends, or if it is without a beginning. And if it indeed has one, it cannot be called a beginning. But if it does not have one, it obviously lacks both a beginning and time. For what time and beginning can there be for that which lacks a beginning? For a beginning has nothing prior to itself, as happens in the case of matter and form; for matter is prior to form. Similarly, an element, since it is composite and consists of matter and form, has a beginning—namely, matter and form. They say, however, that matter is the beginning of all things, since it is an incorporeal thing, devoid of quality, and which is explained only by reason, but does not fall under the senses. ^B Therefore, it is said, it is embodied from a sort of impression, which is form. And thus, first an element is made—either ether, or fire, or air, or earth. Then, from the combination of these elements, a composite thing is made, whether animate or inanimate. And they say that matter and form approach the nature of a beginning more than the elements do. But the elements approach the nature of a beginning more than other bodies. We, however, say: the Beginning that surpasses all other beginnings is, first of all, God; and after God, the beginnings of natural bodies are the elements. But some of the external philosophers are divided; for to some it seemed that fire is the beginning, because of its force, which is in itself easily moved and which consumes everything it seizes. To others air, because it is the cause of life through respiration. To others water, because of its generative nature. To some, moreover, earth, because most living creatures are born from the earth, and are resolved back into it. ^C

Plato, however, said that God and matter are the principles: the former as God and Father; the latter, because it receives the work and form, he called mother, departing from the truth and not attributing the whole to God at all. Others, again, considering things more logically than naturally, said that the earth is the beginning of the universe, as it is the center of the celestial sphere. For the center is more ancient than the sphere or circle. Others have openly proclaimed that the world is the universe. There are also those who said that it came into being by chance and accident, and as it happened, that its first part emerged. Others partition the whole world into four elements and a fifth, the ethereal body, and believing that the four elements are governed by the ether (the most beautiful thing of the ether being heaven), they say that this was the first to emerge. ^D We, however, following the laws and decrees of the divine Moses, say that in the beginning heaven and earth were created together. And if anyone wishes to see the beginning of all commandments, let him consider these. But for the understanding of all things that are perceived, the beginning is God, who surpasses all beginnings, who made all things and produced not from any matter that existed before, but from nothing, both those things that fall under our understanding and the elements.

The divine and sublime Basil, resolving the objection brought forward concerning the beginning, said that the constitution of the intelligent powers is older than the sensible world. And again, as to what is appended: "God created heaven and earth," some who hold opinions different from ours have doubted: why did the writer not join the creation of the waters and the darkness? Furthermore, concerning the Spirit also that was hovering, since the waters seem to be before heaven and earth, and yet there was darkness on the surface of the abyss—especially when the darkness here was itself also circumscribed by the waters—how is it said that the Holy Spirit, who illuminates, was hovering over them, and how was the Spirit of God, who is the author of giving light, simultaneously present with the darkness? To this objection, therefore, certain expositors replied that, when the writer had spoken of the creation of heaven and earth, he simultaneously comprehended, through the extremes, all the creatures that intervened. But from this, another doubt also arose: For how, it says, does God appear to have made light after heaven and earth? And how does he not name the creation of fire at all? In which place, when the most wise Gregory had said that light is the nature of fire, another doubted in return: And for what reason did the Scripture not call it fire itself? How is it, moreover, that if it is the nature of fire, it neither burns nor heats? For if by two words, I mean "heaven and earth," he comprehended the four elements, light will be found to be the fifth element. But if he did not join them, for what reason did God comprehend fire in heaven and earth, as in light, but no creation was spoken of in the darkness, nor in the abyss, nor in the water, nor in the spirit?

^A Since the divine Scripture teaches us the creation of one element alone (namely earth), and not four. For light is not numbered with these, as those who are skilled in such things state. Furthermore, they say again: if God brings into existence the workmanship of a creature that falls under observation, he should simultaneously constitute the visible heaven with the earth, and not that which is invisible. But the first-born, twin-born creature, even that which does not fall under observation, he hid, clothing it from above and below with a sort of crystalline and swiftly flowing garment of waters ^B. This, in turn, generates for us another not insignificant doubt, namely, that the upper parts are covered (an intermediate partition acting as a lid), lest the lower things be able to look upon the upper, and again, the upper look upon the lower. For while the first and most splendid heaven, as a certain divine purpose and resplendent mirror, repelled the divine gleams of that which is borne above, with an opposing brilliance, in order to illuminate the things that are below, the buried and submerged earth could not (to eyes that truly understand) look upon the divine ray from above which penetrated right down to it.

But since we have not found the resolution to the doubts we have posited, and we are clearly perplexed and altogether hesitant in these matters, we rely on the mouth of the Holy Spirit: the tongue of Paul, I say, who says ^C that whatever things are in the Law, they were written beforehand as a figure of Christ and the Church itself. If I am to speak the truth, taking the opportunity from Papias, a most illustrious man of Hierapolis, who spoke in his *Epitheton*, and from Clement and Pantaenus the Alexandrian priest, and from the most wise Ammonius—the interpreters—as well as the agreement of the ancients and those of the first rank who understood the whole Hexaemeron as concerning Christ and the Church, after the truly sensible creation according to the letter, we look without any doubt toward the meaning regarding the Church, for ^D which the whole scope of our struggle exists, and to this labor we descend.

Otherwise, we do not dismiss the letter, but, seeking the meaning mystically hidden within the letter by the good and most kind Holy Spirit, we first consider this in bodily things. Wherefore let the physicists of the philosophers not send their tongues here, hearing the word: "God made heaven and earth." Neither should they say that God made the origin of heaven from the earth, as if from a center, since they say that the center is the principle of the whole sphere. For it does not happen as it does among men, who can neither draw a circle, nor turn a hoop, nor arrange the points of a circle equally, nor bend a line and make it similar to a wheel, unless the middle center has been fixed first. Thus, it also happens here. For that you may learn that God does not follow the consequence of nature, but fashions the heavenly things naturally and not artificially, Moses says: "God made the sphere, then the earth as the center." For in truth, one should say the opposite:

^A God made the earth and the heavens, or the center, and then in its own order, placed and enclosed within its congregation, the sphere. For if they accept the copulative conjunction, and say that both were made at the same time, it would surely be necessary, as is their opinion, that the principle and cause of the circle—namely the center or the earth—be signified first, and more so than the reverse. But if they confess that every center is fixed upon something stable and solid, and that the circumference is thus circumscribed—and not otherwise—but recognize that God, above the waters which resist no concussion but are immediately poured out and flow around, not only cast in that which is dense and heavy, but even in these [fluids] solidified the multitude: just as they would not concede that He could raise the heaven like an arch without a center; for those things which among men are of such a kind as to be impossible, are possible with God. ^B But we must move to another series, and it must be asked of the supernal wisdom, which gives to all as they rightly ask, that it reveal to us the mystical sense which is within the letter, namely how, throughout the whole creation of the six days, He previously constituted and prefigured the figure and image of the Church of Christ. For thus He says: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." By "heaven," while comprehending them together, He names all the celestial and intellectual constitutions of the holy virtues and of the intelligible world; so that you may understand the supernal world to have been fabricated first, congruently with the voice of the theologian who says: "First, indeed, He thought of the angelic and celestial virtues, and the thought was the work." But now, again, this sensible world, which is perceived—at once including with the heaven itself also everything that is upon the earth along with man—things, I say, animate and inanimate. For when He said: "In the beginning God made heaven," He lifted your mind to the creation of the supernal order. Then, when He added: "and the earth," He lowered your mind to the position of the lower fulfillment, the entire comprehension of which He exhibited in part, namely by "the earth," teaching you to know not only the earth, but also the heaven which encompasses and contains it, synecdochically as if by a certain term, including by two words the workmanship and creation of the world which is seen and the world which is understood, which in the beginning God made: in the beginning, I say, the paternal [beginning], namely by reason or the Word: "For in Him and through Him all things were made" [Coloss. 1, 16]. ^C When He had thus far constituted the creation of all celestial and terrestrial things, the angel of God who was speaking with Moses passes to the mystical rationale of the Church. Which he again calls "another earth," and speaks of its ignorance and error which was in the beginning: "the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was upon the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne upon the water." But it must be asked: whether, when heaven and earth are ordered and are in their own place, and furthermore have their middle interval filled by the abyss, after that was also ^D filled, has not the air filled the universality, so that nowhere in the universality was a vacant place left? For all admit that there is nowhere a vacant place, and it is the consensus of all that the air immediately surrounded the universality when the water of the abyss was gathered together at once; for from the water, to speak once, the air is exhaled: and this is also a type and figure of the divinity which cannot be emptied. For just as the air is everywhere and fills all things, so also does the divine nature, present in the universality, fill it in such a way that it cannot be emptied. For as the air, not filling this place, is not emptied from that, so also does the divinity fill all things in such a way that it is not emptied. And as the air is both dark and bright—but the first [state] is that which is dark—so also is the Divinity darkness to those who do not will [the light], but light to those who do will it. But the first [state] is that which is dark, because the first is ignored, and then is recognized. And as the air, as if tractably and insensibly, is even more perfect when it is divided, to the purpose that it may move, cutting through bodies: so also God, to those who wish to penetrate through Him as a medium and, as if by penetration (insofar as it can be done by a man), are united to Him insensibly, He Himself is opened with perfection, and he who knows, knows himself, as one who has been deified. And as the air—both that which is external contains and cools that which is within the animal, yet the use which is internal is more necessary—so also God, that which is external contains with the camp of the angels, as those who are salutary spirits, but even by Himself into them works vivification or revivification. But these alone are deprived of that divine air who have chosen swimming upon the chest and belly through the humor of sin: for there are pleasures from the humors. But the chest and belly [are] a sharp propensity toward those things which are beneath the belly. But by that which is dense and altogether tending toward evening, profound and sad and black, and altogether dark, by those things which have been said, Moses described the terrestrial world covered by certain various things as if by integuments and veils, as if [it were] gathered and compressed earth, as one which is at once in darkness and in the shadow of death in the terrestrials of Erebus: partly suffocated by the waters which are placed upon it, and partly poured over by the darkness of the abyss; then by the spirit of the wind which is borne vehemently upon the water, tossed and agitated by the waves. For "to be borne" signifies the vehemence of motion and the impetus of the air. And this is indeed, congruently with the Mosaic letter regarding the earth, a crasser and more bodily narration, as far as it pertains to the history itself. A certain sea, horrid and dark, and tossed by many waves, and describing openly a whole black night [over] the whole orb of the earth: which was indeed openly and without any doubt a prefiguration and image of the previous state, or rather of transgression, of error, and of the tempest, and of ignorance.

^A For this earth was invisible, in that it was not only unseen, but also did not see; that is, from its very beginning it was without eyes and blind, which the prince of darkness of this age, having been placed over the abyss endowed with reason, blinded. The waters of sins also overwhelmed and submerged it, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness, which blew through the mouth of the serpent, brought upon it a most heavy tempest and stirred up a thousand waves of temptations. Whence it is said not only that the earth was *aoratos*, that is, *aommaton*, meaning lacking eyes, but also invisible, as one which was not seen at all. "I will turn away my eyes from you," says God. And through Hosea he says, not only to the Jews but to all the race: "I will shut my eyes from you, because I hate your works." But he also calls it unformed. For since the rivers of evil had burst into it, and the wicked winds had blown, it fell and became unformed and unconstructed: its ruin was great; as one that had not been built upon the wife and bride of Christ, namely upon the rock of Peter's faith. In such and so great evils, therefore, lay the nature born of earth, when the fullness of time came that it might ascend from the earthy deep of pleasures, and be freed from the waters suffocating it, and that there might be a tranquility of the waves which were rising up against it: so that the wicked winds might be silent, and the darkness of ignorance might recede, and the splendor of God's thought might shine forth. And therefore he sang, "And God said, Let there be light": that is, Christ, the true light that "lighteth every man coming into the world." "Let there be," meaning let him come to ^B generation, let him be fashioned and embodied. But in order to show you that the incarnation of the Word is more necessary than all things, and that all things were made on account of it, without which they are vain and empty, having become useless through sin and returning to nothing; Scripture hands that down to you immediately from the beginning, saying: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"; either he created it in a temporal beginning, or it pleased him that the heaven should be fashioned as God, and the earth because of Jesus the man. But when did this creation please him? When he began to produce sensible things, but not those which fall under the intellect. For he knew that these would suffer those things, and would be evilly affected and corrupted by the sin of Adam: and by his benignity and clemency he anticipated the incursion of evil that was about to happen, preparing the physician before the affection and the vice. Therefore the fatted calf is also mentioned in the divine Luke. The calf as flesh: or as one who was about to draw the yoke of the Cross, fatted, however, so that he who was already long ago and from the very beginning might be defined and predestined to undergo our nature. When therefore he established the heaven and the earth and those things which are with them, then he also wove in the mystery of the incarnation. For the bitterness of Adam was not omitted to the angels. Whence also Matthew, describing his generation according to the flesh in the Gospel, says: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham"; Christ saying: "I have come as a light into the world"; and: "I am the light, and the life and the resurrection"; the light which truly had risen "for the revelation of the Gentiles" who were previously darkened, from which the people "who were in darkness saw a great light" of knowledge, when "the day-spring from on high" visited us, to "give light to them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death." For the fact that the earth was in the beginning buried in the nether regions, this earlier described our earth-born nature sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death: whose illumination in the last times through Christ, he previously described as: "God said, Let there be light, and there was light," which ran before and prefigured the true light, namely Jesus. But examine this here accurately and exactly, ^C just as when he had said above: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," he does not say here: "And God made light," but: "And God said, Let there be light," so that you may learn the difference between creation and generation, and so that you may suppress the voices of the heretics, who say that God the Word accepted the incarnation unwillingly and against his will: and that because he could not refuse the paternal command, as one who loved the Father, he nevertheless unwillingly and as one who would not oppose, underwent human nature. Therefore for this reason and because of vices of this kind, he did not say: "And he made light," but: "Let there be light." For that which is made has not perhaps consistency with the affection to which it is moved, as that which least agrees with the efficient cause: but generation does not have itself so for Christ, the true light. For those things which are generated rejoice together with the generation, ^D and one is pleasing and acceptable to the other, and at the same time they exult and seek perfection: just as we see fetuses leaping in maternal wombs, and hastening to be brought forth: and in plants, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, growing willingly. He said, therefore, "There was light": but not "He made light," so that through that "There was," you might understand the voluntary and appropriate and joyful good pleasure of the Word with the Father in the Incarnation, not that the Word underwent flesh forced and driven by necessity: led by the word, "There was." Whom also the Father, seeing so bearing the flesh, rejoiced. And therefore it is said: "And God saw that it was good." If all things which God made are very good, why does Scripture not say that those darknesses, which were before the light, were good? But neither does he call those waters good, nor the abyss which was darkened, good. The writer therefore saying: "And God saw the light that it was good," shows that all those things which came before the true light that "lightened every man coming into the world," and obscured, overwhelmed, submerged, and suffocated the earth, were not good, so that it itself, lacking light, invisible and unformed and unfruitful, sustained the contrary spirits, which before the light of Christ held dominion upon the earth. In these things, however, by earth, understand man. Whence we also hear of this good light.

^A And if, as is agreeable, you marvel at what is said regarding the light generated by God, tell me what kind of light it was when God, being light, immediately made His first work dark and obscure—the world, I mean? How does He who works with skill work in light? Why did He place darkness before light? Then, having placed it first, how does He not say how those darknesses came to be? For it is clear that darkness is a sign or symbol of sin, and sin is uncreated and has no subsistence. For just as waters have murkiness from their own essence, so also does man, by his own and uncompelled purpose, or spontaneously, make and create sin.

But you, before you come to inquire into the reason for day and night, first consider that darkness ^B was uncreated: then light, and afterwards darkness was made; and Moses designates this as “a day,” though not everyone measures a day in this way. For in Babylon, indeed, they count the day from the rising of the sun to its setting, making no mention of night, as it has no substance, but happens accidentally. The Egyptians, however, count the day from evening to again the next evening, because those who described the world—the cosmographers—placed darkness before the adornment and distribution of this universe. But what kind of darkness is it—is it sensible or not?—that too is above our comprehension to understand, and for this reason he names night the mother of day. Whence also those who wrote fables say that Diana was born first of Latona, then Apollo; this is, from the night. And she herself is Latona: for in her is born forgetfulness and sleep. First, therefore, as *aéromin*, or *aerótomim*, namely dividing the air, the moon was born; after whom was born also Apollo: that is, the sun from the universe (*hēlios*), so that it would not burn up the universe and reduce it to smoke. The Umbrians, an Italian tribe, say the day is from midday to midday: for the day does not keep an equal course for all regions. Certainly, around the northern seas and Thule, night is very short. For when the sun has already set, its splendor diminishes a little, and immediately appears again in the east. The Athenians and Romans, however, define the day from sunrise to sunset, as Cato and Labeo say.

But do not pass over this at the beginning of the creation of the world, namely, how when God had made the firmament of heaven, or rather heaven and earth, omitting to adorn the heaven which was itself also unadorned and uncomposed, He immediately proceeds ^C through the writer to speak about the earth, saying: *And the earth was invisible and uncomposed.* Whence, when the interpreter had said regarding these things that God, wishing to lead Israel (who in Egypt had worshipped earthly creatures as gods) away from such idolatry, teaches him that those things are creatures on earth. Another objected, saying: But nevertheless Israel also worshipped the host of heaven and the sun and the stars, as the prophets say.

^D *And the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was upon the abyss*: which are the evils before the generation of the good light upon it, namely ignorance and error. Then in the same way, for Israel there is first set that darkness of the three days, and then again the day. And again the nocturnal sacrifice of the Passover, and the day which illuminated Israel more than the one which had preceded it. And again in the Red Sea he speaks of the first darkness of the fourth watch of the night, then the morning splendor and the salvation of the people from the deep. In the same way, also on Mount Sinai he places darkness, gloom, and storm; and afterwards, the precepts of God bringing light: so here too he first placed darkness above the abyss, and then

^A the lion and the ox, fashioning knowledge within us: nor this alone, but also we acknowledge man, the most excellent of all living creatures, and we bear the likeness of his countenance within ourselves; yet to know and to declare God, neither does any created nature suffice, nor even our own; since the generation which was wrought below through the flesh, God and Father hides from us: for this mystery, which had been hidden from all ages in all things, He has given to you, children of men, as first to be learned; and through your Church we have subsequently acknowledged this. But if, listener, you tremble because of these things that are said, let Paul release you from this fear, saying: For now, he says, he has ascended that he might appear before principalities and powers through the Church. Whence, even in ascending, he struck with astonishment the supernal powers in the heavens who were doubting, asking those who were ascending together with the Lord, and saying: Who is this king of glory? O wonder, how admirable are the miracles and gifts which God has bestowed upon human nature in dwelling within it! Men showed the angels the God whom previously they had not seen; incomprehensible miracles! They celebrated their God with hymns, and did not see what they were celebrating. The Thrones carried Him who was being borne; and they did not see whom they were carrying. They adored and glorified incessantly and without silence, having six wings and many eyes; and they did not perceive whom they were adorning with praises. Therefore, he who had once been Lucifer, who was once rising, had fallen with bent knees. ^B But that earth (man, I say) which heard: Thou art earth, and into earth thou shalt return, being drawn down into the deep, fell into the lands, germinating thorns and thistles in sins. For this reason, the writer introduces his discourse on this matter. Therefore, the earth is adorned by God before heaven, since the earth is before the angels, and we men born of earth have seen God through the flesh: and He adorned the infernal regions before the supernal, gladdening and illuminating them. Before Cherubim and Seraphim: magicians, and publicans, and thieves, and harlots, and sinners, saw God face to face, and in Him they rejoiced and delighted: then they transmitted Him thus to be seen by the supernal Virtues. That, however, whom not even the blessed angels themselves saw in essence and nature, but whom the Father alone knows and who alone knows the Father: men have seen Him carnally before the angels, as David testifies saying: The heaven of heaven is to the Lord, but the earth He has given to the children of men: openly showing this, that according to nature everything surpassing heaven, and the heavenly Word, the Son of the heavenly Father and from heaven, cannot be known by another, as far as essence is concerned, except by the Lord of all (I say) Lord God, and by grace the Father of earthly things: but the earth He gave to the children of men, who are below, naturally fathers: but he gave the earth, or he proposed the earthly generation of the Word, to be known ^C what its mystery might be: but not even the whole of it do the angels themselves know, nor that concerning the supernal generation.

It is clear, however, that they cover their faces with two wings, and their feet with two: openly showing (from the fact that they typologically and symbolically cover their faces with their head), and thus, as if in a symbol, saying of their understanding: Even though we be mountains, yet we do not know anything openly concerning the two generations, which we show by the wings that cover us around: nor are we able to speak to men concerning them. But the feet shall be the transitions of the understandings which are from us by participation, to you who are at the ends and placed after us. But we fly with two wings only, extending through flight the longing, and the inclination, and the perpetual contention, and inquiry to learn something concerning these two generations. By the inquiries of which, we are always borne as if winged, and we have not as yet found rest from our flight. For the solution of that which is sought is as it were a certain beautiful rest of the flight of the mind wandering much around that which is sought. For we have the knowledge of the two generations of the Word: but of them we by no means have the recognition, and therefore we always fly. Although we know the essence of all living creatures: namely of the aerial and also the terrestrial, what an eagle is, and ^D they were desiring, thirsting, praying, as suppliants they were asking to see Him who is not seen, to behold Him who does not fall under aspect, or even only as in a glass and in a riddle to fix their eyes upon Him, and they could not, because to the divine essence it is not possible to approach, nor can it be comprehended. But if, O man, you do not believe what is said, hear Peter saying: Gifts have been given to men, into which angels desire to look, and could not, inasmuch as the human earth was then invisible, down in the deep of the darkness of sin, as one that was unformed. Wherefore also the heaven was unknown, and the firmament was not adorned on the first day. And on the second day, when it had looked up and as it were breathed from the dead, and had seen the light, and had become a partaker of the Spirit, and had been liberated from the evil waters and the darkness, and had germinated fruit—what was previously unfruitful; then from that time onward the heaven was also adorned, and exhilarated by the sun, the moon, and the stars; adorned (I say) was it by Christ, the Church, and the saints, inasmuch as the heavenly minds received Him indeed always shining as He ascended with the flesh; but they rejoice together with the Church, and shine forth with the saints. Wherefore the supernal Powers greatly and vehemently defend, love, and protect the human race, and pray and intercede for it, since through us they have deigned to see what by themselves they could not.

^A And these things, indeed, are said to show for what reason the earth was adorned before the heaven in the creation of the world. Since, however, Scripture often calls not only the hostile Powers, but also the very congregations of waters, "waters" and "abysses" over which evil darkness lies, it is necessary that we adduce prophetic testimonies concerning these. David, therefore, says: *Deep calleth unto deep* (Ps. xli, 8); and now the abyss—that is, the multitude of the Gentiles, who were previously covered in darkness—exhorts the Jew to the consideration of God. For some have understood the two appellations of waters as referring to two peoples: the abyss as the people of the Gentiles, over whom there is darkness, and the water as that of the Jews, over whom the Spirit of divine Scripture was borne, but did not rest. Concerning these waters, it is said: *Living water shall go out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the former sea, and half of it toward the hinder sea* (Zach. xiv, 8). As the prophet Habacuc also cries: *And you led your horses into the sea, troubling many waters* (Habac. iii, 15), calling the holy angels and apostles the horses of Christ. Whence, too, at the ascent of these horses, the abysses are troubled, and there is a *multitude of the sound of waters* (Ps. lxxvi, 16–18). And that passage: *Praise the Lord from the earth, you dragons and all abysses* (Ps. cxlviii, 7), is sung concerning the nations. By dragons, he means those leaders of theirs who were previously wild and inhuman. Since, then, there are so many testimonies, do not wonder that he speaks of the congregation of the Gentiles, which was previously covered with darkness. *Darkness was upon the abyss.* Before the light, there was the darkness of impiety, the darkness of lust and intemperance, the darkness of idolatry, and of all other sins—before the presence, I say, and the advent of the true light, namely, Christ. For Scripture places darkness alone before the light because we were first in error, and then we passed over to the light. Therefore, the dark law is prior, and then the Gospel. Therefore, evening is prior, and then the day. Hence, it is established by law that the Lord’s Day should begin from the evening, since from the dark death we proceeded to the light of the resurrection. If these things were not so, it would be highly improper and unbefitting to God to name darkness before light, and to constitute the creature dark and gloomy right from the beginning. Whence, since the Manichæan could not understand these things in this way, he names two gods—darkness and light—and before the light of Christ, he places an adversary who is dark and gloomy; but we, by making the anagogical contemplations of which we have spoken, do not dissolve the letter. Far from it! Rather, we openly recognize that there was sensible darkness over the sensible abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne over the sensible water; whether it be the spirit of the air, which human custom is wont to call wind, or the Holy Spirit; the former signifying and describing the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the work is of both; namely, both the aerial spirit, so that it may breathe into the water of baptism after the manner of a cross, and the Holy Spirit, ^B so that it may sanctify. Therefore, perhaps here he once again examines the water and the spirit after the darkness—that is, after sin, the illumination of baptism. For just as if over some pool, God established the Spirit over the water, so immediately after this He commands, saying, *Let there be light* of illumination, *and there was light* of illumination. Whence also here we learn first the mystery of the Trinity in baptism, when He says: *And God said*—clearly the Father—*Let there be light*, that is, let Christ appear on earth, *and the Holy Spirit of God* who was borne over the water. Through this mystery, we also learn of a life pleasing to God. For after baptism has been given, he says, and the faith that is in it acts as a seal, *Let there be light*, he says: that is, let a life pleasing to God be practiced through works, like light shining before men, in accordance with Christ who said so. When He had also seen this, He praises it: *For God saw* the light of life, *and said: It is good.* He praises it because He delights in such light. For there is joy over one sinner who repents. Wherefore, as though the creature were already illuminated both by faith and by a good life, and those things which were in it—the darkness of sin and of incredulity—had been separated from it in baptism, the Writer immediately subjoined, saying: *And God separated between the light and between the darkness* that were upon the water of the abyss. This was prefigured also by those two birds that were sent out from Noah’s ark; whence it is allowed to see that there, too, the darkness is prior. For the raven flew out first over the waters. And when the dark raven had been smothered and perished—Satan, or having even ^C adhered to coarseness and carnality (for not all can grasp the discourse)—then the Spirit of God, the dove, was borne, flying over the water, not finding rest for its feet, so as to fix a tabernacle in man, or to inhabit and walk within him, even if all the mountain tops were uncovered. These things indeed signified the evidence and impudence of the vices of the weak, and the excessive pride of wickedness, and its hardened and calloused obduracy. And therefore the dove, namely the Spirit of God, was borne over the water. Scripture in various places places together this water and the Holy Spirit, as it were having a certain natural kinship and conjunction between them. And therefore the Lord says to Nicodemus: *Amen, amen I say to you, unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven* (John iii, 5). And again: *He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; now this he said of the Spirit which they that believed in him should receive* (John vii, 38, 39). The Psalmist too appropriately says twice: *Praise him, you heavens of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens let them praise the name of the Lord, for it is exalted* (Ps. cxlviii, 4). For that reason, Scripture calls the terrestrial and celestial waters the more darkened, showing us, as we flow away in sin, the darkness of sin.

^A Nevertheless, God separated between light and darkness, after the powers of darkness had been expelled from us, placing in our midst the partition-wall, the cornerstone, Christ; of whom He further adds, saying: He called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. The light, He says, is what I also call day; but those things which oppose it, I call darkness and night. And: Walk while you have the light; night comes, when no one can work. For we are not children of the night, but of the day of Christ. For those who sleep the sleep of sin sleep in the darkness of the night; and those who are drunk, are drunk again in that same night from their sins, as Paul teaches. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. He did not say: The first day; but, One day, not two. This is a great mystery ^B regarding Christ and the Church, which at one time was an obscure evening, but united to the true light, they became two in one flesh, into one day of light which illuminates every man coming into the world of the faith of Christ. Whom He then initiated by baptism, when He said: And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters, showing Himself through the Spirit and the water; through whom He also cleansed him from ancient defilements, and taught the mystery of regeneration, because He said: Let there be light, by which word He also required of him a good life, which should shine like light before His face: so that it might not happen that he be sluggish toward the intense and vehement sweats of virtue, as one who would not have the crowns of such great labors, of which those who labor will be partakers in the future. He also teaches him the mystery of the resurrection, and says: Do not think the struggles you are to return to will be of no profit to you. It will not be so; but there will be an evening for you, contracted through death, and you will be free from all ^C operation, and the darkness of murkiness and blindness will seize you. Then afterward there will be morning for you: namely, there too is the day of the resurrection, and the rising sun, which falls under the understanding, will dissolve the mortal night, and will call you to awake, and thus you will see that divine morning which Moses indeed called day. Nor did he say the first day: which would have been more appropriate, and to recount the last day in his discourse: but because he was typically pre-narrating that future day, which hours and points do not measure, and which is not interrupted by night, but is perpetual and continuous, he named it "one," as one which always behaves in a similar and the same way: and not "first," because it is not circumscribed at all by a "last." For the first and the last are of such a kind that they refer to something: but there, nothing of the sort arises as Christ does. Yet those who are even outside grace say almost the same things. For the Pythagoreans called the first day of the month, not the first, but the "similar": not, as I think, apprehending that indissoluble life by vision, but in the meantime they called it so. The Egyptians also, by a sacred reason, engrave on their pyramids the dragon that devours its own tail, signifying ^D the eternal and individual revolution of divine things; for the Egyptians referred the dragon to the gods. Orpheus, however, called God *monada*, a unity, that is, an individual. For neither the sesquialteral, nor the sesquitertian, nor any other part of a number is in Him. But unity differs from one, as much as an archetype differs from an image. The exemplar indeed is unity, but the imitation of unity is one: just as the sun is an imitation of the one Unity, I mean, Jesus. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK SECOND. ON THE SECOND DAY OF CREATION.

On the first day, the veil of the higher heaven was made, which approaches the Holy of Holies, into which Christ the forerunner entered for us. For that reason, on the second day, a second and exterior veil is made, which is called: The firmament in the midst of the water: which indeed is the firmament of faith in Christ. But this would not have been done, unless the light had first been born: namely, after baptism was given, faith follows. Now this firmament is not made outside the water, but in the midst of the water, concrete from it for all nations, since God made salvation in the midst of the earth, as He who dwelt in the middle of the terrestrial womb of the Virgin and made the salvation of the world by the compact firmament of His holy body in the midst of the incorruptible womb, the fountain of life of the maiden, the Mother of God; and placed under the water of the firmament, under the sun, I say, of His divinity. In this firmament, I say, by faith, He built the moon, the Church, saying that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Whence it was even firmly established in the midst of the waters, unshaken in the midst of the billows, winds, storms, and innumerable tempests of passions and heresies. Thus also He sent those who built it like sheep in the midst of wolves; of men, I say, who delight in slaughter and blood; saying: In the midst of the waters let there be a firmament, namely, let firm faith be preached, so that the waters—the Gentiles—may no longer be split and tossed and scattered, with some saying they belong to Peter, others to Paul, others to Cephas: but let their sea be made firm, so that I may walk upon its...

water and dwell and stroll in the hearts of those who are in the midst of living water, by faith: and of dead water, by unbelief. For if one is an unbeliever, let the darnel be separated from the wheat, the chaff from the bread: *For I have not come to bring peace* ^A *to light versus darkness, but to make a separation in the midst of the serpent.* If, however, as is reasonable, the argument seems unlikely, I will show you that God performed some such separation on each of the six days: perhaps, by a multitude of examples, I shall deliver you from unbelief. On the first day, therefore, the separation of light from darkness took place; on this day, the separation of water from water; on the third, the separation of earth from the waters; on the fourth, the separation of the luminaries between day and night; on the sixth day, the distinction and division of men and birds. But if you do not easily admit that the division of the Church from error and unbelief is signified in all things, tell me for what cause, or what need was there for God to join things together, and then to separate them in a second order? For this is a sign of a craftsman who is by no means unskilled. For He says: *And God made the firmament, which strengthened the earth of man above the pool, and God separated [the water] in the midst of the water which was above the firmament: and it was so, and God called the firmament heaven; and God saw that it was good.* What need was there, I ask, on that day to make this second veil: the heaven, I mean, which is called the firmament? For the first heaven sufficed for the placement of the sun and moon and stars to illuminate the earth. But if this had to be done at all, why was the second heaven not also as it were native: but as if from some external region, did He bring it out from the earth and from its droplets? The nature of the upper heaven, therefore, which is ^B incomprehensible, seems to me to have the type and figure of the divine inaspectable and incomprehensible nature; but the firmament, which ascends from below, has the figure of Christ's humanity or flesh. Moreover, the water that ascends from below with it and was intercepted in the midst of the first, and which is properly of the heaven and of this firmament that ascends from below: describes the image of His unpolluted soul, which is intermediate between the divinity and the thickness of the flesh, inasmuch as these are two heavens, of which one is visible, while the other does not fall under sight. A witness to what has been said is Gregory, who is clear in divine matters, saying that the Lord's soul is intermediate between the divinity and the thickness of the flesh: for in divine Scripture, soul and water are called signs of life. See, indeed, that the heaven above, which does not fall under sight, was called heaven by nature from the beginning. But the material firmament, which ascends from below, was not made heaven by nature from the beginning: but after the union it had with the inaspectable nature of heaven, then it too was called heaven. But since the holy body of Christ is also called God by deification and union, ^C it is, however, not so by nature: for it is necessary, on account of typical, but not natural things—which have been called the traditions of things—to say that [it is] the firmament which was made from the waters. The abyss was the seat of darkness, O man. But that which was exalted above through Christ is the seat of God’s light: it also sits with Him individually. Regarding these heavens or natures united in Christ, that saying applies: *The heavens declare the glory of God:* this is, they proclaim the natures of Christ and the glory of the Only-Begotten God Himself, who is considered from them and in them, and demonstrating Him to be both the paternal [Logos] and as God, and as the man who is at once God in Him. Moreover, the firmament announces the work of His hands, since it behooved Him, who is the one touching [all things], to work through Himself: in miracles, it announces him: that is, the man who is seen in it. For through him were the miracles of divinity performed, whom they raised from the earth, saying: *Your hands made me and fashioned me,* the firmament [raising it] from corruption to incorruption. Whence the heaven of His flesh which is seen, made for Him from the moisture of the earth: namely, from the blood of the earthly Virgin, He strengthened or assembled unto incorruption, because it ^D is the flesh of God. For it was not corrupted, nor did it perish, even if it followed the nature of things even on the cross. For even if it was God's flesh, it was nevertheless also ours. But the other, namely that which was intercepted, as has been said, between the two heavens—I mean the soul, as has been said—is in its essence, as one which had no need to be strengthened, because its nature cannot be corrupted in the least, nor does destruction fall upon it.

If, however, you will, you will not receive the firmament as concerning the flesh of the Lord alone, namely the air, but also concerning His divinity. For how does air fill all things, and no place is empty of it; yet it is even called by those from without a place capable of all things and which is able to receive all things: it is, moreover, even transparent, capable of no figure, and inaspectable, but making things to be seen while it itself is not seen at all: so also the God of all fills all things, and no place is empty of Him. For there is no creature that is not conspicuous from Him; but He is capable of all things, who seek to understand the deification which exists from Him, congruously to that which was said by Moses: *There is a place by Me,* namely, a faculty of receiving you and yours. But what else is more transparent than Him, who almost blinded the eyes of the disciples on Tabor? It is, however, capable of no figure, to such an extent that it receives no other form, as a form in matter. To these things, moreover, it is added that He is inaspectable. For he who reclined above His breast said: *No one has ever seen God.* [This is known] by those who have a powerful sharpness of mind: as for instance the angels; the heaven and all creation, whence and how it was made: but He Himself is not subjected to comprehension, nor is the mode of His essence seen. Let this also not escape you, that...

just as air is the life-giver to men and to those things which are on earth, so also God, approaching, gives life to those who live rationally: to angels, I say, and to men, but also even to those that are beastly, preserving them in their essence alone: not, however, by approaching them or passing through them. But if you also understand concerning angels and demons that which is said: *And God separated between the water which is under the firmament, and the water which is above the firmament*, you understand nothing that is at variance with piety. Some, however, refer this also to two peoples, namely, to us indeed who stand firm and stable upon the foundation of Peter and the immovable constancy of his faith, and to the Jews who fell and were made subject to the lower firmament. But this may also be said about us and our adversaries: for God, coming upon the earth, separated a great multitude of demons and sent them into the abyss; namely, under the firmament of the earth, whither were sent those who had entered into the herd of swine, so that, the enemies being fewer, we might live our life rightly and through virtue. Sometimes the angel of God also made a separation in the sea, standing in the midst of the Israelites and the Egyptians, in order to save the people of God, prefiguring the Angel of the great counsel who was about to deliver us from the hand of the devil. And most sweet Gregory of Nyssa understood the separation of the waters to be of the intelligent Powers. For some God placed in the heavens for divine glorification, but others for ministry on earth, conveniently to Him who calls them *ministering spirits who are sent for the sake of our ministry and salvation* ^C. For see, says Christ, *that you do not despise one of these little ones who believe in me: for I say to you, that their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven*. But if you ask, and how has no one ever seen God? Know that in the Son, as in a certain divine mirror, we see the glory of the Father, congruently to that which is written: *He who has seen me, has seen the Father, because I am in the Father, and the Father is in me*. You shall also understand the division of the two waters as the just who are separated from sinners, those indeed who are snatched up in the clouds above the foundation, but these who are transmitted below to the infernal regions. For I do not know what need there would be for waters to be borne above the heaven. Did God desire that the angelic powers should feed upon fish? For He who strengthened the heaven out of the waters, and suspended the earth over the waters, was able to keep the firmament indissoluble even without water, even from the fire of the sun. Therefore, we have learned from Sacred Scripture of the fabrication of two heavens, as a type and figure of the two veils of the temple, which signify the two natures of Jesus, and of the two peoples, and of the two Churches: the supernal Jerusalem, I mean, and our own, of the faithful. For what God is to the superior heaven as light, that is the sun to this lower heaven, and the Gospel to the firmament of the Church. And ^A what are the holy angels in heaven, which does not fall under sight, these are also the stars in the firmament; and in the Church, the saints. But if in the Davidic hymns you hear also of the "heavens of heavens," this is a property of the Hebrew language, which often names the singular in the plural. But when you hear Paul snatched up *to the third heaven*, consider the first heaven to be the air, congruently to that which is said: *I know all the birds of the heaven*, that is, of the air; then the second heaven, of the stars; and the third, the supreme heaven of the angels. For indeed in the exterior part of the temple stood a great multitude of Israelites, but into the interior alone entered the priests, and into that which is inside the second veil, the high priest alone. How also in the heavens you will find, in the exterior heaven indeed and what is with us, in the aerial firmament, I say, the kinds of birds to be engaged together, which signify the gregarious multitude of Israel; but inside the firmament which appears, to enter and dwell and serve and worship are the intelligent Powers, and perhaps also the souls of the just. Above the second heaven (which indeed that may be, I do not understand), that is, the second veil, no one has entered except the true High Priest alone, Christ, who is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And I consider the superior heaven to be the paternal bosoms. But you, when you hear from Divine Scripture that God is and dwells in the heavens, or is inside the second veil, do not understand any circumscriptions, and local habitations, and transmigrations, and ascents, and exits. For since our nature is humble and abject, the Holy Spirit speaks with it as it is capable of hearing. And of that which we say, the Mosaic Scripture set before us is our witness, which contains certain coarse words and unworthy of God who cannot be circumscribed: which indeed Moses did not bring forth from his own house, but God, when He Himself had spoken these things through holy angels on Mount Sinai in the tabernacle. But nor did Moses put his name at all in its inscription, as did the other prophets in the books of their prophecies. § 66 But that the angels reported these things to Moses, hear Paul saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews about the Scripture of the Mosaic law: *For if the word spoken through angels was firm and stable*. Similarly also the blessed Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles, making words to the Jews, was saying about Moses: *This is he who was in the Church in the wilderness with the angel who was speaking, and on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the words of life to give to us*. Behold, I have openly heard from Paul, Stephen, and the apostles that there were angels who announced the book of Genesis to Moses: and for that reason he did not inscribe it with his own name. Furthermore, this also is not to be passed over: as to why he called this day the second: but I consider this to have been done aptly and truly at once. For if God did not form man for this reason, that for his sake He might undergo the gibbet of the cross and might be attracted—

^A to Himself, by Himself and His disciples, the human race: but rather that he who had been formed might remain firm and stable in those things which had been bestowed upon him in Eden, and not be dragged away from them at all—yet he, when he had not remained so, was overcome and cast out of Eden, and condemned to corruption and destruction: therefore it was necessary that some things should come that were far better than the previous benefits; and these were the assumption of human nature by Him who fashioned us. And now, ascending from the lowest point to the aerial firmament out of the waters of the earth, since humanity was assumed by Christ, it is at the same time with the great and primary heaven—with the divinity of the Word, I say—assiduously. And these things were done secondarily, so that the primary things, having received medicine, might be cured.

Therefore, the second day and the second action is called the assumption of the Savior’s human nature. Which, having distinguished here and there between the faithful and the unfaithful, He signified by the waters through the firmament of the faith of Christians. It appears, however, that this too must be beautifully stated, that the diverse acceptance of the memorable interpreters in the divine Scriptures is not to be rejected: for from that very divinely inspired foundation, we have learned to do this. Whence also it is right to hear from the divine Fathers, lest we should labor from a lack of knowledge: for the Holy Spirit, not being able, just as rain to plants, to bestow diverse grace in the edible fruits of those—for it is multi-faceted, and the water of divine Scripture, which flows from the one fountain of the Holy Spirit, has much and the same light. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK THREE.

ON THE THIRD DAY OF CREATION.

^C I have indeed made the first book, O Theophilus, concerning those things which were made by God on the first day: which is called the Lord’s day. When God had brought all things from nothing to the point of existence, from then on He established the world like some mass cut into pieces. After the Lord’s day, as if to the second sacred step of the ladder, we advanced to the height of the firmament. Now, however, in this, we shall dare to approach the breadth and depth and length of the waters, having Christ as our pilot with the Father: as the Creator and equal in operation, and a true brother, and truly of the same essence. *And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear.* Remember, O reader, my having said that we do not pass over to unwritten anagogical senses by dissolving the letter: but we have been instructed by Paul who says: *The letter killeth* (II Cor. III, 6): just as it also killed the Jews. For that reason, after the letter, we also seek the spirit which is shadowed forth through the letter, but is fulfilled in Christ. For behold, when the water had been gathered, and was indivisible, and in a certain way consisted as one sea, from which the aerial firmament made that division, the one part indeed above, the other truly below: how does the Lord say, *Let the water which is under heaven be gathered into one gathering?* Therefore, if there is one gathering for all the water, one sea for the whole face of the earth, one shore, one gathered ocean: then how do you say: *Let it be gathered?* For *let it be gathered* is said and takes place among things that are dispersed. If, therefore, we understand the ^D things proposed in accordance with the letter, [and] like the Jews: not even in these was God’s command fulfilled. Yet the divine Scripture testifies, saying: *And it was so*, even if in the last times it was so done. For in the beginning it was done in the sensible water contrary to what God had commanded, if you follow the letter. For He Himself said: *Let the water which is under heaven be gathered into one gathering:* as if commanding concerning one water and one gathering; but the waters were gathered into many gatherings, not into one gathering. Nor should the auditor be disturbed on account of what we say: for the divine Scripture itself testifies to this. For the writer subjoined, saying: *And the water which is under heaven was gathered into its gatherings.* Behold, it does not say: the water was gathered into its one gathering, but, *into its gatherings*—its many [gatherings], many waters, many gatherings having been brought about. For out of that one first gathering and the sea of one water, many waters [and] many seas were made: many lakes were divided, [and] many fountains were divided into many rivers. That water which was previously gathered under

^A heaven is divided into many places and in many ways. Water in the abyss, behold one congregation: the water of the ocean, behold again also another congregation: the Red Sea itself, and that which is near to us, behold a fourth congregation of waters: the rivers from Eden: behold a great congregation of waters: Phison, Geon, Tigris, and Euphrates; behold four congregations of waters. The fountain which ascended from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth: behold also another congregation of waters on the outside, the mother of many waters. The congregation of the sea, the Dead Sea, a type of the Jewish and infertile and dead congregation. Infertile waters, and those formerly of Jericho, and those which now are fertile: figuring us, who beget one another in the living Spirit and the water of baptism. Genital water, like the Egyptian water, begetting many. Potable waters, and those which are in use. Water which cannot be approached: as the Ammonite: behold also a foreign congregation of water. Waters in divided islands, and by themselves congregations. Rivers on the continent: lakes and waters which in other places have a different operation and quality: bitter water, water approaching the taste of bitumen, perishing water, such as that which is in the deserts of Ethiopia: hot and healthy water. Innumerable congregations of diverse and many waters.

Yet God did not order it so that water should be divided, but united into one congregation. But what necessity was there for the Creator to extend water over the entire surface of the earth, and then to gather it back together, and not rather to place and fix each created thing in its own proper place? Therefore, let us not also fall into the snares of the Manichaeans. For they, understanding the command of God concerning these waters according to the letter, have thought that God lied, for the reason that the water was not gathered into one congregation, but rather the opposite was done. Here therefore be present, O gatherer of these most divine waters of the Church, and lead [us] to the depth of these waters. God says, "Let the water which is under heaven be gathered," this is, "the entire multitude of nations which are under heaven, let it be gathered into one congregation of my faith and Church," just as the water which is under heaven has been gathered—the multitude, I say, of the angelic Powers—into one congregation of God, into concord, into one pleasing agreement of souls, into one hymnody, into one heavenly Jerusalem, into one vision of light, where there is no heresy nor division, where there is no Jew nor Græcus, where there is no Scythian nor Barbarian, nor the unrighteous nor the infidel, nor serpent nor scorpion, nor creeping beasts, nor sin nor gloom: but one water, and one stream, and one fountain and like it ^B and the well of living water to which Christ sits, and one holy and precious congregation. Let the will of God therefore be done as in heaven so on earth. Let the human race be gathered, namely the water upon which darkness formerly sat; let it come and be gathered to the light: that is, to Christ who gives commands to His disciples and says: "Go and gather all nations and waters into one congregation of baptism, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: of Him, I say, the Spirit who previously was carried over this water, but now dwells in it, and joins all the waters of the nations which were previously remote and distant, into one congregation of the Church: and they shall all be one water of life, one fountain, one garden of delights, one flock, one shepherd, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body of Christ, one spirit, one heart, one flesh, the Church as spouse, and her spouse Christ, one firmament, one heaven Christ and the people of the faithful as the stars which in Him are perfected and illuminated.

So must the voice of God and the command concerning these waters be understood and accepted: thus and not otherwise do we feel in spirit, [concerning] all things, and not in the flesh: and thus do we preach concerning ourselves who were previously nations dispersed and wandering about after countless gods which were not gods and were mute, to say the divine voice and to say by commanding: "Let the water which is under heaven be gathered into one congregation." God the Word gathers upon the earth into one congregation. Dividing through the airy firmament, when He had lifted the water into the heavens, He dilated it and greatly extended it from the ends even to the ends of the entire creation, and of the abysses and of the seas: and when He had spread it out like a veil above the firmament, He extended it, that we ^C might learn that those who were previously nations engulfed in darkness upon the earth, gathered into one congregation of the consensus of Christ’s Church, shall be caught up one day in the clouds to meet the Lord in the heavens, extended and dilated: some indeed in the region of the living, others however in paradise, and others in outer tabernacles, and others in the light of the living, and others in the kingdom of God, and others in the city of the Lord of virtues, congruently with that which was said by Christ, "Many are the mansions with the Father." Concerning the congregation of these waters endowed with reason, Christ was saying that He was sent not only for the sheep of Israel, but also that He might gather the dispersed children of God. Concerning these waters of the sea, David says to God: "Gathering as into a bottle the waters of the sea, placing the abysses in treasuries." Calling the Churches the treasuries of God, where the gold and silver of the word of Scripture is stored up, hidden and spiritual, where the pearls of the divine sacraments are guarded, which we are commanded not to cast before swine: for they, like Judas, do not grasp them.

Christ's treasuries, therefore, are the Churches, in which ^D some indeed of the faithful are given five talents, others however ten, others truly two, others however one. In these treasuries He has stored the abysses of the nations which were previously engulfed in darkness, because darkness was over the abyss. Concerning this abyss of the nations the prophet Habakkuk also said: "The abyss gave its voice"

, glorifying Him who illuminated it and dissolved the height of the fantasy of that gentile idolatry. Regarding this abyss of waters, the God of glory thundered by the Gospel: "The Lord God is over many waters," and over countless nations. Wherefore the Lord will again inhabit the deluge, in one congregation, and the Lord will sit upon it as upon a throne, resting, and reigning over it unto eternity.

^A For the third day, God made the waters into one congregation. On what account? Because after the first Mosaic day, and the second prophetic worship, on the third day we nations have been gathered into one congregation of faith through the net of the Gospel. Wherefore Christ, who rose from the dead on the third day, also said: "Today and tomorrow I work signs"—behold the two days. By "signs," however, He refers to those which were performed in Egypt, those in the desert, and those through Moses: these are, to speak once, of the first day. But those of the second are the ones performed through Elijah and Elisha and those who subsequently followed as prophets. But on the third day, the radiant day of His advent is perfected, which demonstrates through the Gospel His study, full and absolute in all respects: for Christ is the plenitude and complement of the law of the prophets. And Paul says, "The law is perfect in every part," namely, the law of Christ: "but I, through the law," that is, the Mosaic law, "serve the law of sin." Hence also the marriage wedding in Cana was held on the third day: and Cana is interpreted as "creature"; in which creature, when He descended, the incorruptible union of Christ and our nature was accomplished. At this wedding on the third day, Christ performed His first miracle in water, since on the third day He gathered the water of the nations into one congregation, having transmuted it, as the true vine, from water into the wine of joy, in His congregations—namely, in the stone water-jars of the rock of the Churches, which hold about two measures of the Old and New Testament: or three, of the mystery of the Trinity of God who rose on the third day: who on the third day says: "Let the water that is under the heavens be gathered into one congregation." For many were the waters lately, and many and execrable were the synagogues and congregations extended over the whole face of the earth. I speak now of waters, not doctrines and disciplines alien to piety, but of the water that destroys gentile doctrine, astrology, and divination. The water of the shedding of blood, the bitter water of the heretical itch of the tongue, the water dark and difficult to interpret. The waters of Greek superstition are many, many rivers, many drowning-pools. This one taught that there is no God, that one that there is no providence. This one preached the worship of the sun, that one wood to be adored; and this one taught that wooden statues be fashioned, and that one to adore fire; another initiated into mysteries of lust and intemperance. These are the first and sterile and undrinkable and deadly waters of the world of the earth, standing in many ^B receptacles, basins, conduits, and congregations, and those which are the synagogue or congregation of Apollo, the synagogue of Saturn, the synagogue of Ammon, and another of Serapis, the synagogue of Julius, the synagogue of Mercury, the synagogue of the Pythian one and of Diana. Nor this alone, but also the reprobate Judaic one, the enemy of Christ and the adversary of God. Because of these impious synagogues and congregations, and the execrable disciplines and doctrines of the peoples and nations that are in them, God commands with a loud voice, saying: "Let the water that is under the heavens be gathered into one congregation of faith." When the waters, and the borders, and the barbarian races had heard this voice of Christ God—just as then in the creation of the world, the flowing waters, with fear and trembling, were hastening, running, and accelerating with great impetus, and were not waiting for one another so that they might be gathered into one congregation, and the northern, southern, western, and eastern waves and torrents of the world were moving: forestalling one another and rising into billows, as if pushed and driven by some violent and divine Spirit that was being borne over them, so that all the waters of the earth might become one congregation and sea. Thus it is possible to see all nations, and especially on that day of Pentecost, running together by that violent voice which was made by the Spirit, who even now is borne over the gentile faithful water, which has been gathered into one congregation of faith, and united into one framework of the Church. For see not only in matters, but even in the very words, the consonant and suitable union of those waters, and of these waters of the nations. The Spirit who was borne over the water, then Himself breathing, forced and united them into one congregation: and this same Spirit, coming and breathing, made the union of the nations. It is written there: "The Spirit sat," and here it is written: "The Spirit sat over each one of them." On that first day, God made light: and on the same first Sunday, the light of the Holy Spirit came upon tongues of fire. It is written there: "On the third day the water was gathered": here, those gathered from every nation that is under heaven unanimously. All the gentile waters, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and those who inhabited Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, and Egypt and the parts of Libya that are about Cyrene, Romans, and Jews, and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. Who indeed, when they had all heard the voice which was made from heaven, were like waters: the whole multitude were gathered together in the house where the apostles were. O, how new are these things! It matters not whether it be said that that whole multitude was gathered and confounded in the house of the apostles. For the word: "It was confounded": it is very fitting that it be said aptly and decently of the waters. For it is said of the waters—endowed with reason at that time—and of Christ’s fishermen, on account of one preaching of a common life. Therefore it is very fitting for Christ the Lord to say:

"Let the water which is under the heaven be gathered together into one congregation." Let the water be gathered, for the fishermen have prepared [it]. "Let the water be gathered": for Peter now dips the cross like an oar into the worldly sea. "Let the water be gathered," for the net of the Word is prepared. "Let the water be accumulated," for the net cannot be broken. "Let the water hasten," for the boats are present. The water is joined, for those who baptize are hastening. ^A Let the water be sanctified, for the Precursor, to whom even the waters of the nations were running, comes first; and they were running around, that they might be gathered and accumulated by him. That precursor of the ancient waters was also a precursor and a pattern of this Precursor, and a figure and indication of the waters of those who believe and are endowed with reason, who are running to Christ. Through that ancient precursor of the waters, the fountains of waters were established, and the foundations of the earth were revealed. Through this precursor of the waters of the nations, the foundations of the Church of the whole earth were strengthened and created.

Those running waters revealed, by their vehement course, all the mountains which had previously been covered; ^B they prefigured the Precursor of the nations, revealing and showing the mountains of the Churches of Christ, which previously were covered and stifled by darkness. Before that precursor of the waters, the rock upon the earth was not known; and before the Precursor of the waters of the nations, we did not know Christ, the Rock.

Those gathered waters showed the light to the earth; and in the confluence of the waters of the nations, the Sun of Justice has arisen. Before that precursor of the waters, the bird did not dwell on the earth, and before the congregation of the course of the nations, the dove of the Holy Spirit did not dwell in us. Before that gathering of water, the earth in no way showed fruit; just as human nature—that is, virtues—did not possess fruit before the congregation of Christ's Church. Through the gathering of the first water, man ate bread; and in our congregation—that is, [the congregation] of the nations—the heavenly food has appeared as food, and all these heavenly goods are born for the earth of man. Prophetically, God said: "Let the water which is under the heaven be gathered together into one congregation, and let the dry land appear." ^C Furthermore, on the third day, God brings forth the earth from the deep, openly describing first the three-day resurrection of Christ from the dead for our earth-born nature, that it may no longer remain dry. Let that which was the dry and unfruitful Gentile Church appear and be revealed, which had once been hidden by God, so that it might be made bare from the snares of the devil. Let that which was dry, deserted, and thirsting appear, because water has erupted in the desert, so that it may no longer remain dry. Let it appear, and let her who was once the Gentile Samaritan woman come to the fountain of life, carrying the water-jar of the soul to the living well. For Christ sits, awaiting her. Let the dry land appear, and she who was suffering poorly from the flow of the blood of idolatry, so that the flow of blood which was running may be dried up, and the spring of baptism may gush forth. Let the dry land appear, and take away the evil covering of the soul's shame. ^D Loosen the middle wall of partition of sin, which separates God from it. Let that which was covered appear, no longer blinding, but let it be seen, since the God of gods has been seen in Sion. Let the Church, which was once dry, now breathe and ascend from the deep of ignorance, and let it receive the rays of the heavenly Sun, as it is called rain. Let the dry land be revealed, because the light for the revelation of the nations has arrived, and it is time from now on that she herself should cast off and put aside the darkness which has been imposed upon her, so that she may have it subjected and trampled underfoot by herself and cast down to the abyss, and may hear: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon the darkness which was once placed upon you and [which was] hostile to you, but now is subjected." For I shall subject to the Church, which had suffered violence and had been submerged and underfoot, all the waters, both terrestrial and celestial—having dried up the nature and flesh of man in the extermination and privation of the fountain of the life of paradise—lifting it up over every principality and every power, showing to it in the rank of the Cherubim the face of God, who for its sake arrived, Christ God, because He says: "Let the water which is under the heaven be gathered together into one congregation: let the dry land appear," so that before the heaven the dry land may be adorned. For because of it, He who sows has gone out, to sow and to irrigate and to adorn the dry land. For the seed is prepared, namely the Gospel; the sower is ready and eager, namely Christ; the laborers are prepared, namely the apostles; they are good reapers, they are teachers; the oxen are diligent, those who carry the cross; the yoke is suitable, for it does not gall the neck; the natural gifts have germinated well, for they look upon the well-adorned height of virtues. The regions of the nations are white and pure souls. For the gathering of the harvest, the threshing floor of the Church is wide and ample; the furrows have been well-worked, for the Baptist has cut through them; the fields are fruitful: "For produce," he says himself, "fruits worthy of repentance." From now on, let the dry land be opened and appear, so that its foundations may be placed on the holy mountains of faith, which had rotted from the circumjacent waters washing over them: that they may confirm and establish it upon the waters of the pool, so that it may rejoice, rising up in the depths of baptism, [that which] once was dry and devoid of the moisture of divine influx: so that in it may be constructed, and the mountains of the regions may indeed exult, but let the hills of the multitude leap for joy: but let the flocks of the nations rejoice. But let the sea of the adversaries flee, namely, wicked and false unbelief. But let the Jordan of the baptism of the nations turn back those who flee from it and do not receive baptism. Whence the Prophet says of God: "The whale of the sea, which disturbs the sounds of its waves, who shall withstand [it]? But You rule the power of the sea; the sounds of its waves, who shall withstand? But the swell of its waves You calm." For Jonah the prophet, prefiguring You, when he was cast into the sea, effected

^A a tranquility of the waves which had brought death, just as you do to the idolatry of the whole world, the destruction of the sea. For, portraying your death and resurrection, he slept in the ship just as you did upon the wood of the cross; and after his sleep he was cast into the deep, as if into the lake of the deepest hell and the whale’s sepulcher; and, prefiguring salvation for those who were sailing together in the ship of the Church, he granted that the waves should cease. For You are the One who commands and says: "Let the water which is under the heaven be gathered together into one congregation," and it was so; and the water which was under the heaven was gathered into its congregations. Behold, the letter of the text has not been fulfilled: for the water which is under heaven was not gathered into one congregation; but many waters were gathered into their congregations.

^B He is the owner of the sea, and He Himself made it, and His hands fashioned the dry land: this is the man who says: "Your hands, O Lord, have made me and fashioned me" (Ps. CXVIII, 73). God did not fashion any creature of those that are in heaven or on earth with His own hands, except for man who was made in His image, of whom Moses says: "God called the dry land earth" (Gen. I, 10). Behold the admirable mysteries! The earth, in the deep, suffocated by other waters, He calls "dry." But when the waters receded from it and were divided, and it was dried up, He no longer names it "the dry," but "earth": just as it is also clear, beyond controversy, that Christ was describing and prefiguring the images and figures of the new creation in Christ within the whole creation of six days. But since we are speaking primarily of the earthly Egypt: it would not be absurd if we demonstrate through things, as if through words, the figures of the unveiling and liberation from the evil and dark waters of error which were previously upon it. For to Egypt alone out of all the regions of the world, God granted an indelible example and monument for the admonition of piety. For, like each of those waters which once covered the entire face of the earth, the land of Egypt is covered by the river Geon. Wherefore, regarding the region of Egypt, it may be said at the time of the rising of the waters, that the land of Egypt is invisible and unformed, and that the darkness of mist and storm is over the abyss of such waters; and the Spirit of God (that is, the renewal of the wind) is carried over the water. For so have many interpreters translated it. "And darkness was upon the waters, and the Spirit of God was hovering over them." For the Scripture did not say (they claim): *Pneuma Theou* with the article—that is, *the* Spirit—but *Pneuma Theou* without the article, that is, Spirit of God; this is: one of the four spirits of the winds was being carried over the water. But that "being carried over" is not proper to the nature of the Divinity, which cannot be circumscribed.

And God called the dry land earth, and the gatherings of the waters He called seas. What do you say to me regarding this, O Hebrew? For regarding the history, the opposite of what God commanded happened. For primarily there was one congregation, one sea, one ocean, one deep, one water: the whole water that was under the heavens was together, individual, united, indivisible. But when God said: "Let the water be gathered into one congregation," the water which was under heaven was rather divided into many waters, as if He had already said: "Let there be many collections, many congregations, many seas," as the very text of Scripture witnesses, which has: "The water which is under heaven was gathered into its congregations." He says, therefore: "And ^C God called the earth dry, and the gatherings of the waters He called seas."

Come, therefore: once again opening the veil and covering of the letter, let us understand the spiritual meaning of the spiritual sayings, saying: The one and indivisible gathering of water, correct and into which no blame falls, is the piety and religion of the Catholic Church toward God; but the congregations of waters are the Churches which are in the location of the regions of the nations, as Paul teaches, saying to the Churches of God: "The Churches of Corinth," look, another congregation; "The Churches of the Thessalonians," look, another congregation of the nations. For just as the kingdom of heaven is one, but has many mansions, as Christ says: so also is there one common Church of Christ. There are also individual Churches of the world of the correct faith. But it must also be noted in this place, that when God created the earth with the heaven, it was not called "dry." For God made man fruitful and fertile, and not "dry." But when it was suffocated by the darkness which was above it, and by the waters: then it became dry and dead. Then, when God again calls it to its ancient illumination, He renames it and restores to it its first name: and when it appeared to God out of the darkness, He immediately called it earth, just as the history says that God called the dry [land] earth: inasmuch as, from infertility to fertility, man is henceforth called and renewed through Christ. And the prophet also bears witness to what I say in the ninetieth Psalm.

^D But that which is admirable in the rising of the waters in Egypt, by which it was covered, with darkness and mist and infertility and the suffocation of the earth itself, is that it is not after the month or days of the birth in the flesh in Bethlehem and the apparition of Christ, but in the days of natal celebration and apparition and illumination, the land of Egypt is covered and darkened by waters and mist. When, however, Christ, the light of the world, was born: and from the manger in Bethlehem, into Egypt with His mother fleeing from Herod, He was brought, the land of Egypt is immediately uncovered, it casts off the darkness, it puts off the mist of error, it puts on the light of the Sun of righteousness. For He was there, together with His own sphere, namely His mother: and He dissolved the darkness, and threw off from His face a certain veil, namely the covering of water, and fixed His eyes upon Christ, and recognized Him, adoring and falling down, whom formerly it did not know (because of the darkness of error which hung over it), covered by the waters of ignorance. But the Nile recedes and returns from Egypt in the days of the months of December and Ja-

-^Anuary. It begins to flow in the month of June: and it increases after him, that is, in July. But in August and the whole of September, flooding Egypt like a sea, it makes navigable that which was before arable. It begins, however, as has been said, to decrease in October and November; in the month of December and the whole of January, it returns to its former channel. When, therefore, before the birth of Christ we saw it sad and dark, and infertile, and submerged in the deep and unadorned; then after Christ’s birth and his presence, that in every part of Egypt there occurs a recession, and the earth is adorned and irrigated, the regions rejoice, the marshes thicken, the fields germinate, and the villages are as if uncovered from the depth of the waters and raised on high, and the waters are gathered into their congregations, and their ditches and rivers—let us plainly understand, when we see these things happen in Egypt, that the incarnate Word of God was he who in the beginning architected the creature of heaven and earth, and he himself dwelt in Egypt in the flesh, and when he saw it darkened and suffocated by the evil one, he cried out with power as God, just as with the worldly waters so also with the Egyptian ones, saying how many years, and even unto the consummation after the rising of the Nile, let the water which is above the face of the whole land of Egypt be gathered into its congregations. Again: let the earth appear, as he who already of old indeed rebuked the spirit of error and expelled them from Egypt, now however in his own time has made the waters stagnate; so that both to him and to us he might recall to memory that he himself is the creator of the world who delivered it from darkness and error. For if the Word of God made all things in wisdom, he did nothing untimely and not without a certain scope proposed to himself: and, if he is all-powerful, was God not omnipotent, powerless to irrigate Egypt also with celestial rains just as the whole earth? Which indeed he also made more concave than the whole earth which is under heaven, as those who have described the descriptions of the worlds of the earth teach. But let no very foolish auditor laugh at what is said: but let him believe him who says that God made all things in wisdom. For you will altogether confess with us, that for the admonition of piety and the making of faith concerning the creation of the world, God established in Egypt this miracle of the ascent of the waters and their return to their own place. How again, in those bordering parts which are called the Adyta in the Barbaric Pentapolis, the earth is borne upon the waters, convincing the incredulous that God sustains the heavy earth above the waters beyond nature: that the stone cut from the mountain, which is the cornerstone Christ, will wonderfully lift our earth-born essence above the waters, namely, above the heavens. Similarly also in the mountains of Lycia which are called ^C [the Chimera], water and fire meet together, teaching us the indivisible union of Christ’s divinity and humanity. For if he is by nature wisdom and the giver of wisdom, and in wisdom God the Son of God made all things, just as I previously said: through all things which are above the earth we learn his ineffable wisdom. Whence standing in the presence of the treatment of the waters, and being struck with awe: I do not believe that even the bad and metallic and bitter and abhorrent waters which even approach the taste of bitumen, or copper, or any metal to which there is no access for the senses, were made outside the mystery of God: but I believe that they look to some profound example, and teach us that God indeed made the whole water, namely the human race, in the beginning one good water, of one nature, of one operation, of one power, similar and undivided: but the operation which is in the air, and the diverse temperature and quality of the earth, whether smelling of salt, or rust, or some other unpleasant odor from the metals, changes the water to its own property: thus the diversity of customs which is in places has cut the human race, which is one, into many divisions. But understand for me the water created by God as the Catholic faith of truth, which God made from the beginning. But the bad waters, again, are the disciplines of impure heresies: which the air, that is the evil prince of the air, the devil, and the heart of earth-born men which tastes terrestrial things—becoming bitter or approaching the burning of bitumen—has generated and turned, and made from good, bad, and altered the faith. Which indeed has happened also in the waters of the sea. For God from the beginning made it sweet water: but it was changed in time, and by the air and the elements made salt by divine permission, prefiguring and before describing the mutation of the human sea, which from virtue was turned into a salt vice, which Christ changed for the better through the sea of baptism. ^D

* And God said, Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay, sowing (seminans) seed according to its kind and likeness. In these also again, if you look at the letter, the diction of Scripture seems not at all consequent and not in agreement with itself. For speaking in the feminine gender by the rule of grammarians, it ended in the neuter, for, it says, Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay sowing. If, therefore, it is led back to the grass sowing the seed, it is correct: but if to the hay, you would say it is fitting, sowing the seed. Scripture, leaving this consequence, says, Sowing seed according to its kind. It seems to me, however, that the consequence of these things is of such a kind, that the expression: Let the earth indeed bring forth the grass of hay, is said by God to infertile souls: that other part, however: sowing seed according to its kind: 870 it seems to me that God is commanding the choir of the apostles. Whence after his exit, who is inseparable from the Father, he said of himself, A sower went out to sow seed, of the word, according to the nation, and according to the region in the whole earth which was before called dry: upon which he descends, as rain upon a fleece, the Word of God sowing it and saying: Let the earth bring forth

^A (namely, the good earth) first the blade of grass, the simpler and delicate fruit of the Word which is suitable for the minds of those of the Jewish persuasion and those less participant in reason, the souls of the flock of Christ that are more infantile and in need of milk. For it is for the perfect—that is, for us who are the faithful—the solid food which the perfect bring forth, of whom it is said: Let the earth bring forth the blade of grass and the fruit-bearing tree producing fruit, whose seed is in it. For that which always germinates, and which in no way perishes or decays, is the fruit of the Gospel. The fruit-bearing tree, since every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. The fruit-bearing tree having the fruits of the Spirit, as those who now say: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." Whence those who are illuminated are flourishing in the house of God and in the courts of our God, "since the righteous man shall flourish like a palm tree," imparting also other fruits of the seed, so as to be clean in heart and like a cedar in Lebanon, multiplying and giving joy; for trees of this kind of the Lord shall rejoice with the cedars of high Lebanon, namely, the celestial powers which the Lord has planted and not man. But you, when you hear that after the simpler and delicate nurturing of the grass of the Word, which it was commanded to cultivate as is becoming, it is then also commanded to cultivate the fruit-bearing tree producing fruit, whose seed germinates in the form commanded, you shall understand nothing else than the passion of the cross, and that the Mosaic prophecy proposes this to us for imitation. And therefore it speaks to the Church to let the tree of the cross bring forth, but though it is ^C fruitful for us alone, yet to the Jews it is a stumbling-block and to the unbelievers foolishness; yet it produces fruit that is both beautiful to the sight and good for food, namely, the crucified Christ, whom we gather by receiving him from the part of the righteous thief, casting down blasphemy, and ourselves ascending the cross so that we may proclaim from both sides the same theology of Christ, having become immortal in time. The seed of which fruit is the Evangelical preaching made from the fruit itself, and proceeding into the earth, dilated and dispersed when he commanded the disciples: "Go and preach the Gospel to every creature": to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK FOUR.

CONCERNING THE FOURTH DAY OF CREATION.

And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between the day and the night. I deem it equitable, and highly to be embraced and useful throughout our entire exposition of the six days, to admonish the hearers that we are not ^D dissolving the history of the letter, but are spiritually expounding the bodily creatures through allegory; nor are we overturning the expositions of the Fathers, but are listening to that luminary of the earth and most clear lantern of the Church, Paul, saying that the old Scripture and the Law is the shadow of the truth of the things of Christ and the Church: and that

all things are oriented toward Christ and in Christ, both those things which are in heaven and those which are on earth. And therefore, shaking the ear of Scripture free from the covering of the Mosaic letter imposed from the outside, we seek the first rationale—the grain, I say, which is consumed within the wheat—namely, Christ. All things prefigured Christ and his Church: Moses, I say, and the first and second tablets, and the tabernacle, and the mount, and the bush, and the fire, and the manna, and the urn, and the ark, and the lamb, and the doves, and the turtle-doves, and the sacrifices, and the blood, and the sprinkling, and the priests, and the mercy-seat, and the two veils, and the rock, and the staff, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and, to speak once for all, all the legitimate things of Israel. So also all the legitimate things which were spoken by Moses were spoken about Christ and for the sake of Christ, consistently with the voice of Jesus himself who says: "One iota or one apex shall not pass from the law, until all things concerning him are done and fulfilled." For even that which is the most wretched and vilest of all God’s creatures—the worm, I say, which is born without seed from the fatness of the earth—long ago prefigured and depicted the womb of the most glorious Birth-Giver of God, as David testifies, speaking in the person of Christ: "I am a worm, and not a man": that is, generated without seed like a worm, and not in the human manner by way of seed; the reproach of men of the Jews, the abjection of the gentile people; so that hereafter you may neither doubt nor be incredulous concerning the most excellent creatures, that they were all figures of Christ, among which are also the lights that were made on the fourth day. But before that statement, it must be asked why three days were lacking and imperfect, having light indeed, but not having the multitude of the sun, moon, and stars; nay rather, they seemed to be in a certain way deep and not illuminated: for they did not have the sun, the luminary of heaven and earth, or the universe that shone through the other days. What then do we say to these things? And why was the fourth day the first and not lacking? Let us hear, I pray, what laws and modes of piety and divine religion existed among men before the advent and illumination of Christ. For in the beginning, indeed, in the first creation, God gave to Adam a faint and vanishing light of knowledge, namely, the law of the commandment. Then, in the second place, after the flood, God, recreating the creature and opening the earth again from the waters, gives a second law concerning certain mandates and precepts given to Noah. Wherefore he also calls the law that was given to him a Testament. Then there was the third day, the law which was given on Mount Sinai. Israel, therefore, was instructed and sanctified for three days before he received the law. Since, therefore, those three institutions of human life and ways of living—which were, I say, in Adam before the law, and that which was in the law given to Noah, and that which was in the Mosaic law—were imperfect, and life was still being conducted in the deep, nocturnal, and foggy darkness of impiety, before the multitude of the apostles and doctors, the lucid ones, I say, who are the stars on the earth, and before there arose Christ ^A the Sun of Justice, with his spouse the moon, namely the Church, for that reason God made three days before the fourth, imperfect and opaque and lacking both sun and moon.

^B The fourth day, however, was itself the perfect one for the world. And because of it, at the fourth watch of the night, Christ came then walking upon the sea and upon the waters to his own disciples who were being tossed by the tempest and were about to perish in the sea of this world, and to us likewise, the disciples who were being brought into danger by the spirits of darkness and the waves of impiety. Whence God also saved Israel in the sea at the fourth watch of the morning to figure us. For we are his people whom he delivered from the hand of the wicked devil, Pharaoh, on the fourth and first perfect day, after the Sun of Justice rose from the dead on the third day: whom this sun, which was created by God on the fourth day, earlier signified, showing us a certain new and worthy mystery that we should examine, for the reason that it was made on the fourth day. For the light of the three preceding days, expanded and dispersed through the whole universe, showed the light of the uncreated Trinity reaching everywhere, and leaving no place empty. But when the orb of the sun is fashioned on the fourth day, and that light which is everywhere present is placed in it, this signifies that that divine light is placed in a certain orb, first indeed obscure because of the sin of Adam, but afterwards lucid because of the union in God by hypostasis: in the abject and despised man, namely, whom the Son of Man will assume to himself out of the whole obscure and dark humanity; but also in such a way that it is not constrained into a narrow place nor circumscribed. For just as the light, after its placement in the sun on the fourth day, is present everywhere and expands through the whole earth, so also the light of the divinity after the incarnation is not circumscribed nor contracted: but again, just as God is Christ, it beholds, illuminates, and vivifies all things. For that hypostasis of the Word of God is also made manifest in the flesh: and it also illuminates the world from the flesh. The fourth day, however, ^C in which the ^D sun was perfected—which signifies Christ's incarnation—signifies that the perfection of all good things will then appear, when from the lucid star (namely, the Virgin) the most lucid star shall have arisen out of Jacob, having the morning star of the stars (preceding the Magi, who were overwhelmed by darkness), which indicates this. The quaternion fulfills the denary: for unity with binary fulfills the ternary, and three with it make the senary, and the quaternary with it fulfills the denary; and therefore they call the quaternary *tetraktys*, that is, the perfecter: because from its parts, if they are reduced to unity, the denary is constituted. Saying, therefore, the fourth day: since ten...

^A indicate, I openly show that the perfection of all good things will then appear and shine upon the human race, when Christ shall have been of one nature then obscured, as in me the light is united in an obscured world. I have much to say in judgment concerning the fourth day, and that by this number, namely the quaternary, every celestial creature which was made in six days is administered and consists, that number teaching us by example that the holy Trinity is indeed uncreated: but that which is after the Trinity is of the incarnation of Christ, who is one from the holy Trinity, the mode and reason, it is the fountain and beginning and root and foundation and security of all good things which were made by God in the creation of the six days in heaven and in earth, agreeably to the voice of Paul which says: All things were created into the type and figure of Christ, first indicating the reason and mode of his incarnation who after three (I will say the reason) through the four Gospels as the fourth day in the four parts of the orb of the earth, in which the celestial sun has risen to the world. Because of the mystery of such a rising, he made also on the fourth day the sun. Because of this, from the four elements he made all things, namely fire, earth, and water, and air: for this reason also these same four are considered in each of them in four ways, fire indeed in light, and in the stars, and in the moon, and in the sun: water, however, in the firmament, and the other water above the firmament, and in the terrestrial, and in the abyss. He divided the air into the four winds and the four seasons of the year. He divided the earth into four ends, as also into four ^B generations, I mean, of herbs, and of fruits, and of living beings, and of men. Similarly also dividing the living beings into four genera, he named them, calling them cattle, animals, wild beasts and reptiles. The birds, however, he calls by one appellation; for they are a type and figure of the heaven of birds: namely the intelligent Powers, of whose thoughts or life to be lived there is no division. Similarly also four seeds are recognized in the creature above the earth: namely of germinating things, and of birds, and of fishes, and of living beings. For those alone are born on the earth and from the earth, which are a type of the four seeds of the doctrine of the Word, that is, of God. For as the seed is born of its own accord from the earth, so also the reason of the doctrine naturally, from Christ and the angels, whom the birds will figure, and from ^C animals and men (for the scriptures are by men), for through these four modes the earth of the Church is sown. Fishes, however, cast seed into the earth, except that they are born from the waters without seed: but why we shall say on the fifth day. And yet neither are the fishes deprived of the figure of the quaternary, since they have the figure of the cross: just as also the birds, with which they were made. For they themselves are borne in the air and in the waters with two wings, and head and tail. Cattle also, since they are quadrupeds, describe the fourth number. Similarly also man, having an image figured to the form of the cross, as one who is to the image ^D of the Crucified, prefigured the four horns of the cross, which is also called the wood of life: for it was the cross of Christ. For because of him it is carved out by the chisel of the wood truly planted by the streams of waters; the four, I say, of the Gospels. But it will not be absurd, if we understand the vision of that fourth one also who was seen in the furnace of the children in the likeness of the Son of God, as the figure of the fourth day: and of Christ who was shown in it, namely the sun. For that fire is akin to this sun; since that is corporeal, having the power both of burning and of guarding the children; it prefigured the image of the sun that is in us, namely Christ; so also the furnace, the Virgin. While, however, I pursue these earthly things on the fourth day, the divine prophet Ezechiel, as if assisting from the fourth number, recalled his prophecy and ecstasy into memory, showing us that those quadriform living beings of the supreme intelligent Powers which he saw, signify and describe the mystery of Christ in those things in which the prophet contemplated the face of a man, and of an ox and of a lion and of an eagle, teaching us that the Angel of the great counsel (though he be incorporeal) also underwent a human form: as a man indeed he will be seen on earth; as a lion, however, when he shall have fallen, he will sleep in the monument: but he will have open eyes of divinity, for the divinity is not captured by the affection of sleep, or of any other; but springing forth he will rise from the dead, and as an eagle he will be assumed as king into heaven. Wherefore Paul divinely cries out, that in the figure and type of Christ were created the earthly and celestial things, from which are especially also those which said in the fourth and first day are perfect; of which he said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven for illumination upon the earth. A beautiful commutation the firmament received from God of the waters of the Church. For consider that before the firmament was made, the water was not firm nor solidified, which was called the abyss because of the evil darkness of error which lay upon it; which when God had exterminated from it, he gave to them the opposing light, saying: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven for illumination upon the earth. For the blessed angels are not illuminated by any created thing, but by God himself of whom the Scripture says: The just is light perpetually. For the illumination of the earth, therefore, were the lights made, not also for the illumination of those things which are in the sea: since the demons sent by Christ (whose type are the noisy fishes) into the abyss are destitute of the illumination of the celestial light and alien from it. But if of the sensible stars God said only: Let there be lights, would he not have said: For the illumination of the earth and the sea? For more than those who are turned towards the earth, the stars are of use to those who navigate in the sea. Therefore corporeally indeed the Scripture speaks, concerning those things which were truly and fittingly made by God for the creatures: but through them without

any falsehood it prefigures the whole mystery of Christ and the Church. But if the carnal Jewish hearer contradicts these things, tell me, why, when God had made the firmament, did He not immediately with it make the stars, and the sun, and the moon: as when He opened the earth, He immediately adorned it with herbs, and fruits, and trees of wood? Why, moreover, did He make the smallest things before the two perfect luminaries? And how again, among the two perfect ones, is the lesser not made first, but the greater? But it is a thoroughly terrible, in my opinion, and hidden mystery! The stars, indeed, He created above by command in the firmament; but the sun and the moon, when He had fashioned them by Himself upon the earth, as Adam and Eve, He afterward raised up on high and placed them in the firmament. ^B

Therefore, when you hear these things, you who have the power of knowing, O hearer, do not delay, but pass on and let us again enter into the interiors of the veil of Scripture, having been occupied with external philosophy, with the matter signifying to us the holy inner chambers of thoughts. For the Scripture teaches us this also regarding Moses, saying that he had entered into the very darkness where God was, saying: "Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heaven for the illumination of the earth." Saying these things, He made and fixed the third illumination in the firmament of the Church through the stars, and through the sun, and through the moon. Through the stars, because the holy prophets of old and righteous men announced first and ran before the world announcing the arrival of the sun, Christ God, and of His spouse, the Church. Then after their dawn, the sun shone forth, namely Christ: and His spouse, the moon, namely the Church. Therefore she also runs to bring help to the star of the sun, illuminating the sun with her rays. For unless she were supporting the illumination of Christ and the Church, she herself would not also be carried by day along with the sun, when it is the full moon. For when the Church is imperfect, as in the time of the Synagogue of the Jews, she shines only at night; in their life, I say. But when she shall have been perfected by God who perfected all things, then she appears at the same time with the sun, namely Christ, with the day of our evangelical life of the faithful dawning. Take also another contemplation concerning these. On the first day, God first illuminated the creature through one certain singular and individual light, before the sun and moon and stars were present; revealing, indeed, and showing the illumination of the Divinity in the world. But in this perfect, first, and fourth day, in which the presence of the sun appeared upon the earth from heaven: the world knew the threefold illumination and the threefold light of the same essence at the same time, in type of the holy Trinity: in that first light, indeed, we are taught the unity of the Divinity; but in this threefold light is prefigured the Trinity of those which at the same time are of the same essence, [and] persons. But if what has been said seems to you harsh and forced, we will speak of the same thing in another way. Perhaps because the stars were made native in the firmament of heaven from the beginning, that [is] the figure ^C of the holy angels who were created in the heavens; and therefore He placed them before the sun and moon should shine upon the earth. For before the sun, Christ, and the moon, the Church, the most divine minds or intelligences also offered light to those who were upon the earth, assisting them in various ways. For that God constructed these two great luminaries upon the earth, and then placed them in the firmament of heaven; we learn from the very words of Scripture. For the lawgiver Moses says: "And God said, Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven"; as one who by His command made these sensible things, but also those things which fall under the intelligence of the holy angels [as] luminaries: "For He Himself said, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created" (Ps. XXXII, 9). But [regarding] the two luminaries [it is] not so: but: "God made great luminaries, and placed them in the firmament of heaven." He made them first, and then placed them above. But where were they to be made by Him if not upon the earth? For there was no other place outside the heaven except on the earth, where they were made by God Himself, and then were lifted up again. See for me again here also the earth being illuminated by the sun before heaven: and thus to return to heaven to Christ, who is the sun, after His composition and construction which was made upon the earth. For let it not escape us that the sun is composed from all the luminaries, as one who consists of two kinds in type of Christ: namely from that first celestial and ancient light, and the fire which was afterward made and is intercepted in the ether, and was deliberately cast upon the earth. And understand that these things provide light to us: namely the Divinity of the Word. For "the true light was even formerly in the beginning, which illuminates every man" (Joan. I, 9): but again [it refers to] our bloody and incandescent flesh. For the light in the sun received fire; that is, the Word illuminating was made flesh: "For the Lord put on and girt Himself with Adam" (Hebr. I, 11). For Adam is interpreted as "incandescent" and "bloody": since "the children have partaken of flesh and blood" (Hebr. II, 14); from which also Christ (namely the sun) appeared composed upon the earth. And therefore also His sister, the moon, namely the Church, says in the Canticles: "My kinsman [is] white and ruddy" (Cant. V, 10): namely God and Adam; white on account of the Divinity, ruddy on account of the humanity: such as we also see ^D the composite sun, white and ruddy; to the image of Christ who is the sun of justice. Of whom God says through the prophet Malachias: "The sun of justice shall rise to those who fear God" (Malach. IV, 2), that he may appear to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. For this is the sun who says: "I have come as a light into the world" (Joan. XII, 46); that is: when He was subtle as light on account of the Divinity, He was affected with shame because He had come into the world. This is the sun of whom it is also said prophetically: "The sun shall arise"; that is, he tends to the lower regions, and again he comes into his own place. For Christ, when He had descended into the lower regions and had risen again, returned to the Father; just as He was also saying: "I went out from the Father, as God."

Furthermore, the very name of the sun, which is *helios* in Greek, when it is a Hebrew word, is interpreted as "God." For this reason Christ cried out from the cross, *Heli, Heli*—which the evangelist, interpreting it, says: "That is, My God, my God"—for the sun was a type of Christ. Hence, if the operation of heat should depart from a man, life is immediately separated from him and he is transmitted to death, teaching us by this example that the power of Christ Himself vivifies all things, and he who is separated from it does not have eternal life, but is dead in sin.

^C Those, therefore, who have scrutinized the reasons for the nature of created things have said that the tempering and composition of the nature of the sun is ineffable and incomprehensible, for it is a type and figure of the ineffable union of the singular hypostasis of Christ; and among these is also the divine Basil. For if the sun is simple light, how does it miraculously and supernaturally warm the earth? But if it is unrefined and unmingled fire, how does it not burn the trees and the grass? The sun has many examples and preceding figures of Christ. For we do not know how, from the sun itself, fire goes forth and is ignited, or where it goes when extinguished; or how, without any wood, or wax, or any other such coarse body, no one can see fire by itself and naked, or hold it upon the earth; teaching us by the example that no one saw the naked divinity of Christ or handled it until He had assumed flesh. Again, fire is within every creature—in wood, and in stones, and in waters—and no one sees or comprehends how it dwells within them: just as the Word of God, which is everywhere and fills all things, of whom Scripture says: "Our God is a consuming fire." Furthermore, we find that the light of the moon and the stars is supplied by the sun, as those who are most versed in external philosophy teach, signifying to us that the Church and the luminaries of the saints are illuminated by Christ, who falls under the intellect. For He Himself is the light, of which the Church and the just speak: "From the fullness of his fire we have all received." To whom He also says, conversely: "You are the light of the world." Of whom He said again typically: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven," which He raised from the earth so that it might appear above the earth. Whence we also learn, miraculously and beyond the opinion of all, that all these things were done first on earth, then they were handed down from heaven; as if the earth were endowed with the mystery and advent of Christ before heaven, and then, after the composition and construction, it sent the luminaries that are in heaven to the intelligence that is in heaven in His assumption. I, for my part, certainly hear Paul saying, or rather the Holy Spirit who dwells in him proclaiming: "All things were made in the type of Christ, both those which are in the heavens and those which are made upon the earth."

^A I have seen the sun constructed upon the earth and composed of two things: namely, that it consists first of light, and afterwards of fire; then, after such a composition and union in subsistence, it was lifted from the earth to heaven and restored: I see nothing else than Christ the Son of God assumed into the heavens with His flesh. For this is the sun of whom it is written: "He has set His tabernacle in the sun," which is to say, He united His flesh to the divinity of the Word. And He Himself is like a bridegroom. For He was given to the marriage of human nature by the Father who begat Him. When, however, His bride, namely the flesh, was incorrupt: "Proceeding from his chamber": that is, from the Mother: "He shall exult as a giant to run his way" into the heavens: "His going forth is from the summit of heaven," who was to return to us: "And then his meeting even unto the summit of heaven" of Him returning to the Father. Through this example, therefore, let us learn prophetically—the sun: namely Christ, running in the heavens: whom also Elijah, running through the ether, presignified. But the stars from above from the firmament, I say, are the holy angels looking upon Him, returning upwards to Him, and all quickly meeting Him and adoring Him, and leading the choirs and saying to their supreme princes: "Lift up your gates, O princes, and prepare the way for Him who ascends above the sunset, now into the heaven of heaven at the rising of the sun." For now He ascends from the earth above the Cherubim, and He is extended to the heavens. He is extended, however, having two wings, as one who is at the same time God and man, upon the "wings of the winds" of the incorporeal spirits who have six wings. And "He made darkness his hiding place," as one who is ineffable, indescribable, and who cannot be comprehended by the intellect, the twofold nature, that is. For this is signified by the darkness, that He, just as He taught no one, even though He enters into this form of obscure and ineffable ineffability and undergoes the bosom of the Father, having around Himself (as one who is God and the Word) the tabernacle of His body in which He dwelt without any circumscription, not laying it aside (even if He has departed from us), as some have ill-argued concerning Him: but as in a most luminous tabernacle, free from natural obscurities and affections, He dwells in it even after His departure from us, and it is water, not dark, but in the clouds of the air.

^D But here He calls human nature water, fittingly to that which is written: "The great and spacious sea"; namely, human nature, which is both wide and abundant in multitude; of which it has been said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth," in which are "creeping things without number," namely, the nations who walk upon their chest and belly, as those who serve pleasure, because they are delighted by blood and gluttony. And again, as another prophet says: "Water shall go forth from Sion, and half of it into the first sea, and half of it into the last sea."

^A For what reason, however, did He not make these two luminaries of one operation, form, and species, but rather made the sun both burning and illuminating, and the moon, also itself, both illuminating and moisturizing? Might it not altogether be in the form of Christ and the Church? For the sun here illuminates the just; but it burns those who have need of scorching and the purging of sins. He said, therefore: "I came to cast fire upon the earth." The moon, however, meaning the Church, illuminates by preaching the Trinity, but provides moisture by offering baptism.

Some, however, say that the moon is a figure of the Scripture of the law and the worship which is in the Synagogue, which daily receives many defects and diminutions of divine light. We, however, hearing that the sun was constructed first, and the moon afterwards, deem it rather to be a type of Christ’s Church, as the spouse of Christ: for we are taught this by the realities themselves. For on the day on which the fourteenth moon was in the beginning, on that day Israel was commanded first of all to sacrifice the Pasch as a type of Christ: whence even until now the Jews observe that same fourteenth day, not knowing what they are observing. If, therefore, the lamb prefigured Christ, it is clear that the day of the moon, which is the full moon, signifies the fullness of the Church for whose sake Christ was sacrificed. For its very name signifies grace, meaning the regeneration of baptism. For *selēnē*, that is, the moon, is interpreted as *selas nēpiōn*, that is, the radiance of infants, and of all who are generated, inasmuch as it is a different pool from the womb: for this is light. Or again, the radiance of the moon is that which is becoming a child, because it is perpetually generated and regenerated. Which, indeed, is the perpetual regeneration of the light of baptism. And therefore the moon consists of thirty days, made up of three perfect numbers, namely tens, in type and figure of the three perfect hypostases—to which nothing is wanting—of the holy and co-essential Trinity, in whom we believe in baptism. Therefore, the Creator of all, Jesus, who is one of the Trinity, having been baptized when thirty years old, because there the mystery of the Trinity was to be manifested to the world. David also, who according to the flesh was a figure and father of Christ, became king at thirty years old, and was anointed beforehand as by some typical mystery of baptism. Likewise how Joseph, another type of Christ, ruled in Egypt when he was thirty years old. For Christ also, having been sold for thirty pieces of silver, redeemed and liberated the field of the potter of the whole world (namely, of God the Creator) through faith in the Trinity of his spouse, the moon, namely the Church. Which also Noah’s ark, which was constructed to a length of three hundred cubits and a height of thirty cubits, once openly and without any doubt prefigured, in type of the exalted Trinity which Christ, who is one of the Trinity, the sun of justice, revealed to us, who in himself showed forth three exaltations. For he was first exalted on the cross. Whence then the sun, as though...

^A a true type of Christ, suffered together with Christ (its miserable creator), and when his undefiled soul had departed from his own body, the sun likewise departed from its celestial body, the firmament; and when Christ had descended into the underworld, at the same time the sun also descended with him as night approached. Whence also, when Christ rose and ascended from the dead in the morning on one of the sabbaths, the sun also rises from the earth with him, making 874 the day. For this is the second exaltation of Christ, which the sun, ascending from the earth on high, clearly prefigured on this fourth day of creation. Note also that Christ likewise on the fourth decade (that is, on the fortieth day) made his assumption into heaven, ascending into the heavenly Jerusalem. His entry into which was a true and certain figure also of his entry into Bethlehem ^B after he was born, and his entry after the fortieth day into the earthly Jerusalem. Observe, however, most prudently, I ask you, whether the law of God did not also long ago prefigure this in a type, saying that on the fortieth day a woman is purified from the filth of her uncleanness, and enters the temple of the Lord; since he who, in the fourth number of the fourth law—as was said above—as the fourth day of the number forty, purified human nature, which had once labored badly with a flow of blood, from the flux of the filth of idolatrous blood, and having cleansed it and rendered it no longer subject to corruption and destruction, Christ, having been first washed in baptism, entered again into the Holy of Holies as a great high priest and offered it to the Father for our salvation. Whence also on the fortieth day, having fasted after the regeneration of his baptism for us, being tempted at times in the desert of the nations, he abolished the devil and rendered him idle. If, therefore, in his birth from the Virgin, and in the regeneration of baptism, and again in the formation of his incorruption from the dead, Christ kept the number of forty days, let us learn exactly and be persuaded that every number of forty in Scripture prefigured the mystery of Christ, namely the dispensation in his flesh, which, after the ternary scheme, appeared to the world as if it were a day of the fourth illumination. Thus, therefore, the wrath of God on the fortieth day checked the threats of drowning the world from on high with water in the flood, announcing to the world the benefit of his kindness toward men. Similarly Moses also, first describing Christ, when in the fortieth time he had slain that wicked man in the type of the devil who carried on war with the Israelite man, buried him in the sand of the abyss. Then he himself for forty years first fed the flock devoid of reason, that of Jethro, in the type of Israel lacking reason, and for a space of forty years he preserved the people of God that is called (namely us) in the desert of the Church. He fasted forty days on Mount Sinai in the type of Christ. For forty years Samuel, the son of the woman who was once barren, prophesied. Solomon, who built the temple of God ^C, said in prefiguration of Christ’s Church, forty years he reigned over Israel. But all these things confer upon us the number of the fourth day, in which Christ was born and shone forth, who was before the sun, with his spouse the moon (namely the Church), when God said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to shine upon the earth." It is fitting, however, for him who is permeated with divine desire and love in the sweetness of the word of God, to seek, congruently with him who says: "How sweet are thy words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth." Wherefore when God had made light on the first day, he did not say: "Let there be light," that it might shine upon the earth: especially since that light is the mother and producer of all things, which shone forth from the same essence of the luminaries in heaven. And let us say that that light, singular and simple, was a type of the monarchy and Judaic ^D faith, and of that which was before the law and that which is after the law; which indeed could not illuminate the whole earth, because it was still covered, when God showed that light, by the water and darkness of error (which are the earthly covering over the heart of men), until God made two lights which are great, shining upon the earth. I mean, however, the advent of the uncreated Word of God, and the moon, namely the Church espoused to him. And the great light, namely Christ the sun, in the principalities of the day (that is, who is risen in the beginning of the preaching). And the moon in the principalities of the night: that is, when the newborn infants were to receive the principality, which was unbelief in them, he straightway makes his illumination arise, which for us is the moon, the Church. Note, however, how he did not say, in the principality, but in the principalities. For the sun of justice has many principalities, many powers. For he is the Prince of peace, he is the prince or Lord of the Powers, he is the King of kings, he is the prince and Lord of lords, he is the King of glory. He had one principality, the light which illuminates man before the advent upon the earth; before the ages, that is, with him it is without beginning. For thus we understand that: "In the beginning was the Word," in the Father. For not in the beginning of the age, but in the beginning, the begetter, was the Word, and the Word was with God. When, however, the principality of his own advent appeared and arose, he had many principalities. For after he had commanded the heavenly, he commanded also the earthly, receiving the weak into his inheritance, and the ends of the earth as his possession, and dominating from sea to sea, he was the leader of our salvation, and was the beginning of baptism, and the beginning of incorruption from the dead, and the beginning that God should dwell in man: for thus we have understood Christ the firstborn in many of our brethren, in whom God dwelt through him. This heavenly sun Christ has another principality or beginning also. For he himself first began, and paved and prepared the way for us to the Father, after man was taken up on high. Through these therefore and suchlike princip

^Aate, or beginnings, understand the great luminary to be in the principalities or beginnings of the day, which illuminates the sun that falls under the perception of the mind, through the twelve hours, to wit, the disciples and apostles; but the lesser luminary in the principalities or beginnings of the night. To me it seems that the example of the sun and moon is apt and accommodated by words, and by things, and by figures to Christ and the Church. For when God had made these two luminaries, the great one (to wit, the sun) he fixed immediately at the sunrise of the firmament, but the moon at the sunset, teaching us by this example that in the beginning of the advent of Christ, with Christ himself shining in the flesh upon the earth, the Church was not shining. For she still stood in the sunset of sin. But when Christ, setting, had gone to the Father in the heavens, then the moon arose, then she showed her operation, then she ruled over the darkness of the night, then she illuminated those who were in darkness, then she trampled upon the principalities and powers and the princes of the darkness of this world, commanding and ruling, and subjecting every obscure and dark deceit and power of diabolical operation; and therefore she is said to have been made by God in the principalities or beginnings of the night, as she who, after the sunset of the sun (to wit, of Christ), is invisibly illuminated by him, just as the moon is by the sun. Whence, as a certain moon by aversion and privation or defect of light, the Church undergoes the obscure eclipses of heresies and the afflictions of enemies, suffering a swoon of the soul as it were and, as if failing, but quickly shining again or receiving her own light. These things the prophet Habacuc clearly teaches us, saying about the sun and moon: The sun is lifted up on high, that is, Christ has ascended into the heavens; and then the moon stood in its order, to wit, the Church in its valid state, in its beauty, in its comeliness, in its illumination, in its course. And he rightly said, in its order; for before it was unordered and uncomposed, as one that was given to idolatry. But there is also another admirable discourse about the sun and moon, showing the mystery of Christ and the Church. For they who have diligently investigated the affairs of the sun and moon say that the whole creation which is under the heavens is administered and governed by these two luminaries, and depends upon them, as well that of animate as of inanimate bodies: the sun indeed dominating the heat, as one who is of a dry element, in a type of Christ who at the end of the harvest of consumption is to wither those who are under sin, with the fiery river that is drawn from their baptism: whence also the sun withers and warms the creatures. But the moon having the governance and administration of the authority of the water and of the Holy Spirit, who was given and entrusted by Christ to the Church as to a moon, which was given to the moon as was Christ, and entrusted for power and governance, that we might be born and regenerated through her, until the night of this world has passed and gone, and Christ the sun of justice has risen again. And [this] moon receives from God the power and governance of the water, and the spirit in all water and in the sea and in many bodies, and we ourselves have much experience of this matter, and all who descend into the sea in ships testify that when the body of the moon grows, the waters also grow and are multiplied, and when it decreases, they cease and decrease in turn with it.

They say also that there is an animal similar to the ethereal moon (in as much as it grows white at the extremities, but is dark and misty in the middle), that one does not even see it when the sky is without a moon: but that at that time it has its eyes closed, and remains without food. The ape, however, has more manifest operations. For when the moon grows, the circle of its eyes is dilated; but when it decreases, the circumference of its eyes is contracted. They say also that in the river Hydaspes there is born a stone which is called Lychnis, which indeed gives forth a modulated sound when the moon grows. Also in a river of Gaul they say that a fish lives, which is called by the inhabitants a clepias, which indeed grows white when the moon is waxing, but grows black when it is waning. Since therefore both bodies are changed, and waters increase and decrease in the mutations of the moon, transfer these things to the series of the allegory, and you will see everything on every side to agree. For when the Church grows and is promoted, at the same time the assemblies of the faithful peoples also grow: but when it wanes and, by persecutions, the body and the light of ecclesiastical faith are sought after by the infidels, the assemblies of the faithful peoples also decrease and diminish. Similarly, the spirit also, to which it is innate to be upon the water, proceeds and recedes, and is multiplied and decreases in the course and rising and setting of the moon and its increment and defect. ^C Therefore, they who sail most diligently observe and consider the aspect of the moon, and the figure, and the light, and its four conversions—the rising, I say, and the seventh, and the fifteenth, and the twenty-first: for in these it brings about changes of winds. For there are also four ends of the four winds of the Church ruling and passing through. Therefore the moon, which is from God, typicallly undergoes four mutations. For when it comes to the rising, the Holy Spirit immediately inspires it, not agitating and exciting our sea with waves, but rather rendering it tranquil, and encouraging us to sail with a favorable wind. But on the seventh day of newborn infants, he inspires a wind which pursues the spirits of wickedness, and initiates them in the vestibules with catechesis and breathes into them the pardon which might expel the demons who inhabit in the generation of sin. But when it has grown, the spirit of heresies breathes into the midst of it, and of its disciples who have been cut off from their integrity, and have loved the decrease of its lights, at which time it begins also to decrease. But in its perfect contraction and defect, when the university is to come

^A to judgment, then the destructive spirit will breathe, not from itself, but through itself, shaking, if it be possible, even the elect. Thus the moon figures the Church: whence the new light is also called the rising of the moon, because of the regeneration of those who are newly illuminated, which is perpetually generated and regenerated like the moon, until the consummation of the age. But the prudent listener thirsts entirely and longs to learn again concerning the two powers of the sun—that is, concerning the hot and the dry—and how these relate to Christ. The hot and dry element is fire; so also the earth is dry and cold; for it too must be brought in because of what is to be said. Therefore, whoever we believe Christ to be, perfect God and perfect man, we understand his divinity to be fire; for our God is a consuming fire. ^B And again, concerning the earth, it is the earth-born humanity of his flesh; of which two essences and elements indeed the construction of the first Adam was a true and accurate type. For from these two was Adam made, namely, both by the inspiration of the divine fire and from the dry concrete clay born of the earth. If, therefore, the discourse demonstrates the matter subtly: in the two luminaries are known and ordered the four elements of which the world consists. But the two luminaries, the sun and the moon, without any controversy, describe Christ and the Church first. Let every man learn, therefore, that in these waters, and through these two celestial luminaries (that is to say, Christ and the Church), there consist, are ordered, and are preserved both those things that are in the heavens and those that are on the earth; and both those things that fall under sight and those that do not, and both living and inanimate things, and both mobile and immobile things, and the creatures of the six days, composed of the four elements.

And as one body is born through man and woman, so, indiscriminately, the body of the faithful people, the Church, is born through these two luminaries; and thus that saying is openly fulfilled: *They shall be two in one flesh*; and that all flesh consists of the four elements of sun and moon. Wherefore, to him who prudently observes that figure which refers primarily to Christ and the Church—that is, of Adam and Eve—the sun and moon are the preceding enigmas: ^C which two constitute and produce, out of two and two elements, one individual flesh of man; as the seed of man, with the sun providing its light in the womb of the font, his spouse, namely the moon, which is the Church. All things indeed certainly show a great equality and likeness of the sun and moon to Adam and Eve; but of fire and earth—that is, God and man—we were saying a little before that the sun describes Christ, as the one who has the element of fire, the hot, and that of earth, the dry. Similarly also Eve is interpreted as Life: and Life is also the Church, exhibiting the perpetual regeneration ^D and life which is through water and the spirit, of which lunar cause, describing the grace of baptism, he is the source. But God the Word himself gives warranty for what I say concerning that life and generation and regeneration through water and the spirit, saying: *Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven*. The eclipse indeed, or the defect of the moon, occurs when the moon is full. For when the fullness of the nations shall have entered the Church, then it enters heaven, leaving the earth behind. Therefore the moon also has a simple light, and not a double one like the sun. For Eve was born from one rib of man. But Adam, as the sun is a figure of Christ, is double and composite—namely, from earth and the divine insufflation which God did not breathe into Eve: since the fullness of the Church does not consist of two essences, I mean of divinity and humanity, as does Christ, but from humanity alone. For that divine and essential insufflation of God, which entered the earth, was the true type of the God-Word who proceeded from the Father, and who indivisibly, through the hypostasis, united to himself the man born of the earth. But I think that the first parent Adam was also created outside paradise, and then placed in paradise, which corresponds very aptly to the sensible sun, since Adam himself too, as Scripture says, was thus placed in the world. Whence it is also written concerning the luminaries, and as it is also in man: *And God*, he says, *took the man whom he had fashioned, and placed him in paradise*, establishing him, with Eve, as prince of all living things, just as also the two luminaries, that they might rule over the day and the night, and that they might have dominion over all living things, through the four elements which are in them, of which and through which consists all the nature of bodies, both of the brutes and the birds. But if you wish to see the defect and diminution of light, and again its renewal, as in the moon, also in Eve, consider the prophet who says to God: *Your precepts are a light upon the earth*. The defect of which Eve also sustained through disobedience. For Adam was not deceived, as the Apostle says; but Eve was deceived when, oppressed by the power of the dark and obscure serpent, her light had failed. Yet the true light, which proceeded from her, restored the defect of that light: from the second Eve, I say, Christ, as from a certain full moon, [came] Mary, who was never diminished or failed, nor was deprived of her essential light, namely her virginity, when the Angel shouted to her: *Hail, full of grace*, on account of Eve, who is the moon, who was ill-treated and vexed, and who, having fled from her own defect of disobedience, had hidden herself and feared the tree of disobedience and transgression. Grace, I say, filled by the Sun of justice—namely, by God. Let these things said by us briefly suffice concerning the sun and moon on the fourth day, when God said:

^A *Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth*, that He might separate between the middle of the day and middle of the night, and between the middle of light and the middle of darkness. Consider also this, that consistently with the natural consequence of created things, Moses names them *great lights*: and he properly names the sun the great one, as one that has light from itself, not from elsewhere. But the lumen (light) is not such as that which has light by participation, not by essence, and is illuminated by the sun, whose participant it is, [receiving it] from the one imparting it. But, to speak of the matter somewhat more concretely, the rational faculty which is properly in us is said to be twofold: namely, that by which we are adorned and recognized as men, distinguished from the rest of animals which live without reason, which indeed differ diametrically from the reason of which we are participants. And there is that [part] in us devoid of reason, as that which sometimes opens itself to reason, and is a participant of it, and is illuminated by its power. Just as it is possible to see the continent [man] from the incontinent, and the temperate from the intemperate, and from the bold and timid man one who is armed with the virtue of greatness of soul. Just as, therefore, this [part] in us is called a participant of reason, and that which is properly a participant of reason, and that which lacks reason [yet] obeys reason; so properly, those are great lights—both the sun which illuminates by essence, and the moon which gives light by illumination.

^B But we must return to the series proposed from the beginning, and say this: that when God had already made light on the first day by Himself, He separated between the middle of the day and middle of the night, and between the middle of light and the middle of darkness. For how could the preceding three days have fallen under measure; or how could evening and morning have occurred, if not through the separation of light and darkness? Wherefore, by these lights, Scripture teaches us certain other spiritual mysteries, beyond corporeal things. Indeed, that [passage], *Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years*: God does not say these things wishing to teach men astrology, nor that they should place the hope of [their] government in the sun, moon, and stars, as the vanity of foolish astrologers seems to do; but through these lights and stars which appear, we are taught spiritual signs, and seasons, and years, and orders, and government, and admirable mysteries. ^C I speak, however, of those stars which have shone and led the way upon earth for the holy apostles and prophets and doctors who are illuminated by the Sun of justice, and who say: *Of his fullness have we all received*. For what need was there of stars at all? Or why was the moon not made perpetually full and illuminating the night? Moreover, what profit does the creature have, as far as the letter is concerned, from the rising and restoration and waning of the moon? And what gain does the Church make by seeing that which is called the Bear, which never sets? Or the Pleiades, unanimously leading the chorus of six stars? There are also innumerable other figures and names among the stars of the firmament, from ^D which the Church is taught nothing spiritual by their corporeal position and motion. But if anyone has the power to rightly know and judge, and is a knower and reader of divine law, let him read the divine tables written by God both internally and externally, so that they may be understood externally indeed according to the letter, but internally according to the spirit. There are also two tables of the heavens, which internally bear the stars endowed with reason and the accounts of the angels and angelic mysteries, but externally [bear] the stars which fall under our view: and by describing the enigmas of them through the figures in them, and the places and differences of their courses, teaching us the differences, and seasons, and places, and characters, and courses, and the apparitions of the saints who have shone in the firmament of faith, who have illuminated us from on high. Therefore, some of the stars rise while the night is yet increasing (that is, in error, I say): such as were Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham. Others again [rise] in the middle of light and darkness, such as we know those to have been who lived under the Law. Others again [rise] as the night is proceeding and the day approaching, who are the blessed prophets, and the Baptist, and especially those who were near to the splendor of the rising of the Lord. The last and most luminous of these prophets, indeed, like the morning star, is the precursor of the sun (namely, Christ), John, saying: *Behold, after me arises the sun of justice for the world*: who, when he had arisen and come forth from the waters of the Jordan, at daybreak showed the twelve houses of the disciples, who are the stars that contain and dominate all the stars of the firmament, namely, the Church. But if you wish to learn better some names of this [reality] which was once the Zodiac circle of the Church, namely the twelve apostolic stars, consider the twelve appellations of the firmament. These are: Virgo, Hesperus, Lyra, Gemini, Leo, Taurus, Aries, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Pisces, Scorpius, Cancer, and very many others. But those are indeed called fabulously and falsely; in the firmament of the Church, however, they shine spiritually and always. For the Church has as the star Virgo, namely the holy Virgin, and those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Of whom were also those five virgins who, in the middle of the night, as lamps, kindled the light of their stars. The Church also has the star Gemini, Thomas, who is called the Twin. It has the Lion, namely Luke. For the Lion was also seen in the Seraphim, since he wrote the Gospel to the best of men. Furthermore, it also has other lions, which Christ brought forth as the lion's cub of Judah, who indeed ruled and obtained a kingdom over wild and sometimes savage beasts, namely, the nations. For the congregation of these bulls is in the heifers of the Churches. But it also has Mark, who appeared as an ox in the animal of six wings, since he began his Gospel from the sacrifices.

It also has Ares who make the seed of the word of the flock, of whom it is said: "Bring unto the Lord the sons of rams." It has Sagittarius, those who preside over the people and cry to the Lord: "Who teaches my hands for war, and you have placed my arms like a brazen bow." This firmament also has the constellation Pisces, by which Peter and James and John, the fishermen, were fished. It also has the Lyre, the most wise Paul. It also has Cancer, again Peter: for in it the sun which falls under the intellect walked with a double gait, namely forward and backward: for through him he flashed, both in those who were before, who were indeed from the Jews, and in those who were before who are us—for Peter drew both, the former by signs, the latter indeed by doctrines.

It also has seven planets, namely seven deacons, who enter with a counter-motion to the revolution of the others. For they, in feeding the multitude which was taught by others, lest it should fall due to the necessity of the body, bolstered the word which was given by the others. It has also the star Perseus, whom you might wish to be from the Magi coming from Persis into Bethlehem through the star, to the sun which falls under the intellect and is hidden. It also has Aquarius, to whom it was said: "Rivers shall flow from his belly, rivers of living water." It also has the Hesperi, who rose around the eleventh hour.

Not only the names, but even the very shapes and species of the stars lead us to spiritual notions and contemplations. Therefore, of these, some are joyful as if smiling, as he who says: "Pray always in the Lord, without ceasing; rejoice in everything": others are indeed mournful and sad, as those who heard him who said: "Blessed are they that mourn." Others again, celebrating a feast day, are as those who are kindled for Christ, and say: "We have passed through fire and water." And others are keen, contending in the race, as he who crossed from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, and when he had died there with his yoke-fellow Peter, both in the sunset illuminate the West. Whence we see some of the stars shining to the North, others indeed to the South, and others to the Bear, and others rising in diverse places, which have shone in the whole world, signifying the luminaries of the Church. For why should they not be summer stars at all times, which are those who rightly bore the weight and heat of afflictions, and the burning of the flesh—the blessed apostles are strong, and the disciples who rose with them. But others again of the stars are: all the stars shine, but some indeed rise in the spring time immediately after Christ's resurrection, who endured three times, and expected the reward, as laborers of the Lord's harvest. There are also certain winter stars, which are indeed the martyrs, who shone in the middle of the winter of idolatry. But if one must also speak of their position, not even that is improper or without mystery. For some of them enter as if they were solitary monks; as those who from the number of the twelve set out for preaching, befitting him who says: "I am alone until I pass over": and as those who alone practice the monastic life in crags where there are no fountains, saying: "You have set me alone in hope." Others however go two or three together; as those who were setting out from the seventy-two, or even those who were exercised together in twos for ascetic or monastic contests when they had heard him who said: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Others enter like a choir or a crown, of which sort are those who say: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity!" And others are perfect, which are indeed very bright, holding the place of teachers and pontiffs who say: "Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me": of which sort was Paul, who, while he was the first and greatest star above all, ^B had followers like certain short ones, Timothy and Silas and Barnabas and Luke, who, not much later, from a disciple was made a confessor to the master: and if he who says, "It is sufficient for the disciple if he be as his master," did not speak false, he was not lesser than Paul: for he sits together with Paul. Others however again hold the figure of the cross, of which sort was he who said: "Who have crucified their own flesh with its vices and concupiscences." Others also go in pairs and conjoined, bearing the very yoke of Christ, and in soul and body drawing it, as two shining eyes. Whence also the stars move and run as if they were certain animate images of the inanimate ^C luminaries of the masters. Therefore they lead not only those stars which are upon the earth, but also those which are in the sea, nay more, since stars endowed with reason much more illuminate and preserve in the ship of the Church those who are tossed by the waves of the affections and perturbations of the soul, until the night of life passes and the Sun of Justice rises again from heaven. Thus, in this way, let the Church spiritually consider the stars, those things which are said about the sun, moon, and stars: how also that divine man who was both carried up and caught up as far as the third heaven, and learned to be carried as far as the saints, as a wise contemplator of the stars, interpreted the reason of these stars and of the sun and moon, saying concerning those who have shone in their times: "There is one glory of the sun," namely of Christ: "and another glory of the moon," that is, of the Church, "and another glory of the stars," of the saints, I say: "for star differs from star in glory." For Peter holding the first seat, and I, says Paul, excel all others with greatest honor.

^D Regarding these stars, let us understand, after the sensible ones, that which was said by God: "And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years." For it is so, and it was done.

^A For the time of the apostles was one thing, the time of the saints who brought (offerings) was another, the time of the holy martyrs was another, and the time of the doctors another. Concerning these stars, David also says to God: "Who counts the multitude of the stars, and gives names to them all." That is, from among them, He calls some servants, others hirelings, others indeed laborers, others friends, and others fathers. For if you understand this concerning corporeal stars, you will not find that God, who made them, imposed a proper name on each one beyond the common one; for later, human wisdom called one Sagittarius, another Docias, another Prestera, another Typhon, another Lampadias, another Pogonias, and called others otherwise. From these stars of the Church, you will understand what is said in the eighth psalm to Christ: "The moon and the stars which you founded." But why did He not say: "And the sun"? Because, as I said before, the sun is a true and certain figure of Christ: but Christ was not founded, nor did He stand in the firmament of heaven, but above the heavens on the Cherubic throne: for the whole psalm was spoken about Him: "For your magnificence is raised above the heavens, you who have perfected praise from the mouth of infants and sucklings, and who, as great High Priest, have passed through the heavens." But he who, even to this letter, understands the account of the heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars corporeally, the divine Scripture itself argues that he does not piously apply himself to the sacred Letters. For it is said in the hymns of David: "Praise the Lord, sun and moon; praise Him, all stars and light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, for He spoke and they were made; He established them forever and for ages of ages. He gave a command, and it shall not pass away." If, therefore, God established them for ages of ages, that the heavens and the sun and moon and stars should exist, how does God say again through the same prophet: ^B "The heavens shall perish, and shall grow old like a garment, and as a covering they shall be rolled up"; and again He says through another prophet: "The heaven shall be rolled up as a scroll in the consummation of the ages, and the heavens shall fall like leaves"? For which reason the Creator of them Himself, God the Word, Jesus, says: "Heaven and earth will pass away"? As figures: but the firm heaven of faith will not pass away, and the heaven that is seen will be extinguished as a figure: but the sun, namely Christ, whom the sun prefigured, He remains for ages of ages. Similarly, the typical moon will also perish; but the true moon of the Church, which He previously preached and announced nocturnally, will not grow old: and the holy stars, namely the choir of the saints endowed with reason, remain eternal; but their figures, namely the temporal stars, shall fall like leaves when the Just shine like the sun, that is, Christ. For the sun here prefigures Him, as the discourse has often shown; but the moon, the Church. For just as our external man consists of two corporeal faculties, namely of the sun illuminating and dry, and of the humid and illuminating [moon], so also our internal man is regenerated and formed by two spiritual things, who is born of the moon, namely the Church, through water and the Spirit. ^C Hear and praise the things that are ineffable and admirable in these. How the sun and moon, of which one is observable: the other is such that it falls under view, they openly declare to us the mystery of Christ and the Church to those who wish to understand it spiritually. For the one is subtle in the pattern of divinity, but the other gross in the image of humanity. For indeed the spirit lies hidden in the water, but the blood lies hidden, unobservable, in the body. Do not read these things and those which are of this kind according to the science of medicine, but according to spiritual science, if indeed you believe that God made all things in wisdom. Consider also, not in this fourth day, and in the mysteries which were wrought in it concerning the sun, the moon, and the stars, and concerning the Church of Christ and baptism, and concerning all the rest of the six days, which in the fourth day of the world, that is in the fourth millennium, were written by God through Moses in Israel and prefigured, and revealed and predicted to us: when especially the type of baptism was in the Jordan by Joshua, son of Nun, he there baptizing without wetting, [in] the Ark, namely the Church of Christ, [by] a still spiritual and diurnal and gently flowing baptism, where Joshua, son of Nun, was also baptized by a nocturnal, marine, and false Mosaic typical baptism: which afterwards was rendered spiritual, diurnal, and salutary, when the Spirit descended into the water, after the Lord ascended from it. For the most holy Lord had no need of purgation, that He should receive baptism after the Spirit descended to sanctify the water, as happens in us: but so that Jesus, standing in the middle of both baptisms, might crush one thing and hand down another, having immediately exterminated the first [baptism] with the first people. This is Joshua, son of Nun, the primary type of Christ, who made the sun stand still in Gabaon, and the moon in Pharanga, one opposite the other, as it was from the beginning. In which, through the station and fixing of the two luminaries which were in figure, the enemies of the Church also perished. ^D How, moreover, we have shown that the fourth millennium of the fourth day of the world corresponds to the fourth day of the creation of the six days: so also we will show that the remaining ones correspond to their even-numbered millennia in their own time, God granting us the word in the opening of our mouth. But how, from the very places where Joshua made the sun and moon stand still, the auditor has faith that the state and the lifting up on high of Christ and the Church are described and prefigured, hear, I beg you. Gabaon is, interpreted: but Rama, in the Hebrew tongue, is explained as height. But Pharanga, sublime, or raised on high: into the height of the lifting up of Christ and the Church (I say, of the two luminaries) through the two appellations in the place [in question] signifying in the fourth

^A millenary, which is the middle day of the age: just as also at the beginning of creation, the fourth day was the middle of the seven days. Therefore, in it was prefigured the Sun of justice, the mediator of God and men, and the middle ^B of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, and the intermediate stone, the cornerstone of two peoples. Who also, on the cross, was lifted on high in the midst of two trees, and brought salvation in the midst of the earth when it was the middle day. And may there be glory to Him for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK FIVE. OF THE FIFTH DAY OF THE CREATION OF THE SIX DAYS.

Scarcely at last, after many circumlocutions of words, the fourth day has transmitted us to the fifth: in which, from God, as from a certain rock of the four-day death, the creature proceeds to life: and life is shown in it primarily, having a beginning from water and the Spirit in the Church, which the Maker of all things prefigured on the fifth day, saying: *Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls, and flying things flying above the earth according to the firmament of heaven.* And it was so. If, according to the natural sequence of things, the earth ought to receive from God the procreation of cattle, and quadrupeds, and reptiles that proceeded from it before the waters: as that which was made ^B immediately after the heaven, and is named and placed in Scripture before the waters: why are the waters now adorned in the first place? For we see that in the position of the two luminaries, that which is in the firmament of heaven is ordered first by God: namely the sun, which is of the dry element: and it constituted the earth, which is co-elemental, and is related to it: and how now have the waters seized the first parts and, as it were, the first-born of life? I say the same of the moon, which through water and spirit displays another grace of those things which are administered and subsist by it, when the first-born life and spirit had brought forth and showed life, He dispensed all things divinely and wisely and established them in wisdom. For in the heavens indeed the sun received the first parts and the first place, since above every principality and power, Christ (who is the Sun perceived by intelligence) is in the heavens: as one who is the door and the one leading to the Father. But on earth, where He humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, He voluntarily gave the first parts, as to His own ^C body, the Church: I speak, however, of the mystery of baptism. For just as in the heavens Christ is our door and way to the Father, so also on earth our door and way to the Father is baptism, to Christ through the Church, and for that reason, before all things, both life and the living soul are shown from water and the Spirit, and are manifested upon the earth, God saying: *Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls, and flying things flying above the earth, according to the firmament of heaven.* Tell me, you who pay attention only to the letter of Scripture, for what cause is it said in the plural in the waters: *Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls;* and in all things [created] that proceeded from the earth on the sixth day, wild beasts, reptiles, beasts of burden, quadrupeds, God the Word does not command in the plural but in the singular, saying: *Let the earth bring forth the living soul?* Nor is this alone necessary to diligently inquire: For what reason did God bless all the things that were generated from the waters, but deprived the living creatures, quadrupeds, and cattle generated from the earth of a blessing: whence the waters indeed, as things that were blessed, even hither and perpetually bring forth winged creatures of their own accord without seed and conjunction, of which number are the quails and the ortygometrae; but the earth does not at all bring forth a wild beast, or a beast of burden, or a quadruped without seed. And again, those which have their origin from the earth are perpetually occupied upon the earth: but those which were born from the waters, some are called marine, but others (when they have receded) are called celestial when they are lifted on high: this is the winged creatures of heaven: which God also knows, just as He says through the Prophet, *I have known all the winged creatures of heaven.*

But lest through frequent and mutually succeeding doubts we lead the listener into hesitation and perplexity and confusion of mind, it shall now be treated by us, which I quickly approach, not in the least overturning the history of things which is according to the letter: but it is necessary to say a few things first from divine Scripture about the fifth number, just as about the fourth. We find therefore that in the fifth century, namely in the five-hundredth year of Noah, the foundations of the ark were laid, which indeed is ^D the true and certain type of Christ, in which we, the wild beasts of all nations gathered together, have been preserved from the evil flood through the dove, namely through the Spirit. Whence also the width of the ark was completed of fifty cubits, because the number five and fifty is called just by the mathematicians. For it removes the four which are in the nine, and joining them with the unit, leads them to the five: and the three which are in the eight, and composing them with the two, makes them five, and the two which are in the seven, and joining them with the three, makes five. And one from the six, and joining them with the four, makes five. Similarly also fifty creates [a relation] against those which precede it, and those which itself...

follow. By the same reasoning, the Church also proclaims, together with the sin—the flood which justifies God and His justice, which removes from the midst the enmities that are against us. Noah also builds an ark for five hundred years, since when the new Noah came in the five thousandth year, He began to build the ark of the Church. ^B

Nor is it foreign to mention the other measurements of the ark as well. The height of the ark was thirty cubits, and then it was reduced to one cubit, because the Church also proclaims three hypostases and the one nature of the one sole God; but the width was fifty cubits, because the Church taught and preserved the law for those greatly mixed flocks of wild beasts and ignorant nations, by triple-multiplied hundreds, drawing them in naturally in many ways and by many means, through written and mystical things. We find many symbols of the Church in the divine Scriptures for the number fifty. For in the fiftieth year God commanded Israel in general the perfect and absolute remission and forgiveness of debts, and the liberation of those who were upon the earth. For this is what God says in Leviticus: *Sanctify the year of the fifty years, and proclaim remission upon the earth to all who inhabit it, the year of remission*; that is its significance. The Hebrews therefore call the fiftieth number the Jubilee, which is interpreted as mercy or forgiveness. For in this way the psalm of David, of forgiveness and the remission of sin, is also called the fiftieth; for it is likely that this psalm of remission was either written before or after this number. All these things, however, are a true and certain prefiguration of that fifth day of the week, in which the Sun of righteousness, Christ, ascended into the heavens and was raised ^C on high. And on the fiftieth day He sent the Spirit: by water, I say, and His own Spirit, He bestowed the remission of sins. And on the fifth day He gave the mystical supper, which dissolves all sins. You have, therefore, an open manifestation of why, on the fifth of the six days, the waters upon which the Spirit was borne brought forth living souls: prefiguring for us the regeneration that takes place through water and the Spirit. For the Sun, which descends under our understanding (just as the sensible sun in the firmament, from above, sending down its ray into the waters), when lifted up on high into the heavens, immediately caused the regeneration which is through water and the Spirit, according to what was said: *And you will send Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth*. By this way, therefore, and by no other, God blessed the souls born from the waters (namely, those regenerated through baptism), saying: *Increase and multiply, and fill the waters*. But concerning the living creatures and beasts and wild animals that are of man, and the serpents and poisonous men, who are pilgrims and foreign to the generation of baptism, He in no way imparted to them the blessing; but He left them without a blessing: then, as if standing in the middle, Christ between the terrestrial and marine living creatures, and ^D fixing His eyes upon those which are born from the earth, and saying: *Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, who is borne over the water, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven*; nor will the bird of heaven be made through the dove, namely through the Spirit: nor will he be *caught up in the clouds to meet me in the air*. But if these things were not so done and prefigured; tell me, O Moses, the cause, and [ask] for what reason, because sin had been admitted into God, the cattle and the living creatures of the earth remained without a blessing. How, moreover, were the reptiles, which are bereft of reason and void of mind, and the fish, and the birds able to hear the voice of God and the blessing that was being given? Is it not manifest that these things were prophetically foretold concerning the men who are baptized into Christ? 879 But the very series of Scripture, according to the letter, shows that these things were commanded by God concerning men who are gifted with reason and have immortal souls. For God did not say: "Let the waters produce reptiles of animated bodies": for *animal* and *body* signify the self-moving and vital soul itself: but [He said] "of living souls," that is, of souls not dying. And yet the souls of fish and birds are not living, but dying: *For the blood*, He says, *is its soul*; but the living soul is solely our own, which is gifted with reason. *For man was made*, He says, *into a living soul*; because it was about to be that we should be reborn through water and the Spirit. Therefore, He turns the whole discourse to the souls; and He says, after baptism and the grace and illumination that arises from it, that those who are baptized are made living souls, and not living beings: so that, He says, the body also may come back to life with the soul. But the animals alone are of living souls; for He speaks from that time after baptism concerning the soul alone: for it is necessary for it to live, and not the body with it: for there are enmities for the body against God. Let the reptiles, therefore, belong to those who are baptized; as fish chosen for God's provision which are brought by those who were previously fishermen, but are now apostles. But let those also be birds which are carried on high to meet Christ in the air. These things, however, will be if we have been drawn up from the water of baptism, not as reptiles, but as living souls: the soul alone, after baptism; receiving the effort toward better things, and established such as it came forth from the water; and the reptiles of living souls had not gone forth, lest any care be had for the body. For if an animal is spoken of, it is understood that they are body and soul at the same time. For that reason from the beginning the Spirit was borne as a living soul over the water, vivifying and moving the water. Therefore, the divine Scripture also places these two together as congenite, as soul and body, sometimes indeed saying: *With You (namely, the Spirit, as God) is the fountain of life*. Sometimes, however:

His spirit shall breathe, and the waters shall flow.* The Lord also says: *He who believes in me* (that is, the whole Spirit, if it has been thickened), as Scripture says, *rivers of living water shall flow from his belly*. Similarly, he also says to the Samaritan woman, *I will give him water, I who am spirit as God*, and *those who worship me must worship in spirit and truth*, and *a fountain of water leaping up into eternal life will be made for him*. Therefore, the first is the life of those living from the waters. From these the first advent of the Spirit was made known, for he was moving over them. The first resurrection from them was made through Jonah: in them is hidden the pearl of the Fatherly radiance. Through the Jordan, the purification of the creature was made; from the waters was made the germination of fruits; from the waters was the irrigation of paradise. Before all things, in the beginning, the waters received the illumination of light, so that they might be carried over the earth and wash and tinge it, and almost preach all human nature which was to be baptized. For which reason, on the third day, the water ascended from the baptism of waters of this kind, such that he who has been baptized and has believed is in the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And when God had led this forth as if from a certain pool of waters, he immediately commands it to bear fruit, fittingly to John the Baptist, who was instructing those who were being baptized and saying: *Produce fruits worthy of repentance*; he himself also saying, *Let the earth sprout green herbs, and the fruit-bearing tree producing fruit*. I think the herb is the sinners, the fruit-bearing trees, the just; God signaling to us by his voice that after baptism there will be generated certain fodder for cattle and demons, and material for fire from sloth and negligence like hay, not with God commanding this, but foresignifying what was to be. But some, bearing fruit as if in groves and gardens, as in the wood of the three trees, will have the slightly inclined cross which they might embrace, which germinated from three woods; producing the well-colored fruit of the sanctification of the soul, invoking Christ, who had rested and fallen asleep in the wood of the cross fashioned from three trees. For perhaps, just as on the third day, herbs and fruit-bearing trees are a type of sinners and the just; so also on the fifth day proposed, the fish indeed which are tinged in the water and do not receive the breeze nor breathe the spirit which is carried over the water, are sinners who even after baptism remain in the deep and waves of pleasures, and have not put off the virus of sin, have not looked upon the Sun of justice, nor received the wings of the dove (namely the spirit), and therefore cannot fly up into heaven, but have remained reptiles, and have not been made birds like the just. Of these virulent and stinking fish, the king is that great and malignant whale, of which God says to Job: *He is the king of all that are in the waters*. I think, therefore, that for this reason, in the generation of animals from the earth, God said: *Let the earth produce a living soul*, as being one and similar to all men, and generation from the earth and carnal generation from a woman; but in the waters, on account of the spiritual, from them, the diverse regeneration of baptism, he says: *Let the waters produce reptiles of living souls*, he says. For one soul departs from the pool, he who has been baptized sincerely, from mind and heart; there is another soul, he who approached grace with doubt; and another soul is he who approached the sacrament testing it, like Simon Magus, of whom it was said: *Simon Magus was also baptized*, and he ascended as he went down: that is, not illuminated. For otherwise is affected, I mean in those who are baptized, the heart of the gentile and barbarian, who is entirely ignorant of Christianity and the Scriptures of God; and with another mind he approaches who is instructed and initiated in knowledge and intelligence, and as if previously illuminated in the sacrament of Christ. Whence again, with baptism, prophetic charisms, and tongues, and signs, and foreknowledge, some of those who approached baptism illuminated by knowledge were accounted worthy, immediately made different and changed from others. But the Sun of justice, signifying this new change of the baptized toward the things that are better, changed the water of the sea, rendering it salty inside and out: inasmuch as salt is the Word of God, taking away all virus and purging away all stench and putrefaction, guarding bodies, doing good by food, and uniting celestial bread. Whence also Christ reproaches those who do not have and keep such salt in themselves. There is a certain admirable reason in the nature of waters, very suitable and fitting to the regeneration of baptism, which happens without seed and corruption. For, as those who know the art of fishing say, the nature of fish has indeed the masculine and feminine sex swimming, and they do not mate with one another; but they mate as if without seed from water and spirit; properly and without doubt, with this example signifying our spiritual and seedless generation from water and spirit, about which it is said: *They were born not of bloods, nor of the will of man, but of God*. But they also say that the tortoise, which is called so, and the lamprey mate; but because it is rare, it is not the law of the Church. But since both these marine animals and those mating go out into the land from the waters, they live a double life and do not live in the manner of swimming animals. Whence that which is called the lamprey, going out from the sea, mates, as they say, with a sea snake. For whoever do not wish to have the Lord as father and the pool as mother, but approach baptism feignedly and deceitfully, as Simon did, they again ascribe to themselves as father the devil, the ancient serpent, and hear, *You are of your father the devil*, and they renounce the water of the pool. For they are not born in it; and approaching into the land, they receive a generation which is conversation and life least illuminated, for above the water, not above the land…

^A that vomits them out again. But not the one who was previously inflexible; rather, he has learned to be more benign, clement, and merciful after the Cross which it prefigured, and the three-day burial: signifying the One who was about to suffer these things, interceding for those who crucify Him and afflict Him with evils. The Song of the Children also induces these very sea monsters to honor God, when it says: *Bless the Lord, you whales and all that move in the waters*, seeing those who were sinning receive the preaching, and immediately change.

But when some of the ancient commentators arrived at this context of the expression, he asks why God gives the command as if to some others, ordering them and saying: *Let the birds multiply*; for He does not direct the discourse to the person of the birds, as He did to the fishes. But when he had doubted these things and spoken, he explains that we ought to learn from this, that to those who are baptized, and especially to those who have become birds in their virtues, holy angels are given by God, who care for them and provide for their illumination. For it is to them that God directs the command, ordering and saying that the birds should multiply; that is, those who savor and obey heavenly things. The Lord Himself also gives us faith, and teaches that angels are the guardians of those who believe in Him. For He says to certain unfaithful ones: *See that you do not despise one of these little ones who believe in me. For I say to you that their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven*. And it must indeed be known that we shall find that God blessed nothing of those things which were created in the six days except for man and those things which were born from the waters. Wherefore, from the beginning when they were brought forth, the prophetic utterance was fulfilled which says: *The voice of the Lord is upon the waters*, which were blessed by Him before all things, and for this reason, even until the present day and until the consummation of the age, without seed they generate the souls of many fishes, as well as a few birds, namely the quails and others, by which Israel was once nourished. And perhaps because the number of these birds—I mean the righteous—was going to be very small, for that reason God, having more concern for them, orders the holy angels who take care of the terrestrial creation: *Let the birds multiply upon the earth*, which were generated or rather regenerated from the waters, and have there deposited the virus and stench of sin; and they fly up to heaven from the fluid and dark and tempest-tossed waters of this world, to the waters which are firm and stable and tranquil, and not shaken by any waves, proceeding on high through the air where the Sun of Righteousness is situated, and His consort, the moon, always illuminated, rests, and the stars endowed with reason guide and illuminate the orb of the earth with heavenly light, and the spiritual water which is above the heavens praises the name of the Lord without silence. Many and profound discourses concerning the waters are announced in the divine Scripture of the creation, which for some ages, and heavenly bodies...

and men, requires mature minds to attain the open understanding and declaration of them, so that we may speak considerately and without any error, conveniently to the truth itself of those things, by which they were created by God that they might exist. For what reason, therefore, in the creation of the six days, is the rationale of the waters left silent and secret; and why is the rationale concerning the spirit and the fire neither announced nor published as is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the plants, and the luminaries, and men? For what was difficult, that would stop the Creator from saying: "Let there be water; and let there be fire," as He commanded in all the rest of creation? But perhaps the divine Scripture, instructing us that the holy Trinity is uncreated and ineffable, left the rationale concerning these three creatures silent and secret—in the Mosaic book, I mean. For which reason, those depicting the divine Scriptures preach that God is, symbolically, both fire and water and spirit. Therefore, that it is under every creature in the abysses, and likewise also upon the earth, and in the heavens, and above the heavens, we are taught typically that the divine essence is uncircumscribed and encompasses every creature. Which indeed is again signified by this, that wind and fire are invisible and intangible and subtle, and devoid of matter, and life-giving in every way.

Some, however, say that the fourfold division of the waters—that, I mean, which is above the heavens and the firmament, which is from water, and the terrestrial and subterranean water which is dark and final—is a type of the four orders of natures endowed with reason. And indeed, that the water which is above the firmament is an image of the super-celestial Powers; the firmament, however, is again a symbol of the holy luminaries of the order of man. But the various terrestrial waters are types of the various earthly nations, disparate and divided by faith. But the subterranean water is a symbol of the opposing Powers, which are entirely separated from the divine fire, and light, and spirit; ^A for they are the incurable wounded who sleep the sleep of sin in the underworld, of whom God no longer remembers, ever, or at all, and they have been repelled from His hand and cannot stand. But the fish, which are indeed sinners: they are indeed partakers of the light in some part, as those who are in the sea and not in subterranean places; and therefore also they strive in small part to imitate the birds, as those who have fins—that is, in part, piety: whence also they fly in the waters like birds. But some of them, carried upon the waters and swimming, look at the sun with fixed eyes. But those who are of them more wicked, and have more matter, since they are not scaled, have their origin below from muddy matter; who indeed have nothing at all of good works, lazy and slothful and moving with difficulty: and they are easily caught for death, and are harmful to eat. From which both abstaining and not abstaining, the true Israelite, which we are, is commanded. This, the fifth day, teaches us concerning Christ and the Church, signifying to us beforehand the symbols and enigmas of the beginning of baptism, in which were created the five senses of human nature: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. In this, the fifth day of the age, I mean, in the five-thousandth year, the laver was also made by Solomon, the son of David, in the temple of God at Jerusalem, as a type of the baptism of the Church of Christ God, the son of David. In the same way, again, that basin in the great upper room, ^{B C} on the fifth day, having the likeness of a pool; He washed the feet of the disciples first with Christ: and then He gave them His body and blood for participation, when also, the testament having been made, Christ on the following day, the sixth day, was affixed to the cross on Golgotha, and opened paradise to the thief. To whom we also, with Christ leading on the sixth of the six days and giving the Word to us in the opening of our mouth, come. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

BOOK SIXTH.

ON THE SIXTH DAY OF DIVINE CREATION.

He who from tranquil ports finishes the paths of the sea with ships, when they have attained a favorable and following wind, and having on the fifth and sixth day pleasant, cheerful, and suitable waves at the prow, and with a terrible and vehement force of the waters, they complete the swift steps and courses of the ship; with certain leaden and heaviest sounding leads they test and explore the deeps of the waters, from day to day from the incomprehensible and ineffable depths to the shallower deeps situated higher on the surface, and hoping for the rest to reach the shores. When, however, the ship of this book has already ^D completed the course of the days, it arrives at the greater waters and deeper gulfs of the sea, which are truly dark and incomprehensible. For which reason he is to be aroused more fervently with prayers in dreams over the ship, and on the pillow of the principal mind, the resting God the Word, who having seized the rudders of the mind and tongue, as with two oars of the ship of our animal nature, may rebuke the contrary spirits and intelligences, but with His own light may illuminate the deep (namely, ignorance) of the proposed waters; that to this, one and all, inspired by God, we may look and say: Why, O God, who most wisely and above wisdom made all things...

(having created light on the first day), did You not also at that same time create all things that are from the light, namely the luminaries? But leaving those things which were created from the light, did You pass to the waters, creating the firmament from them? Then, when You had established the firmament, did You not even then complete the adornment of those things which are the luminaries within it, but, leaving that also imperfect, did You again pass on the third day to the waters, gathering them from the earth? And again, when You had not fully perfected those things which were produced from the waters and in the waters, namely the fish and the whales, leaving those things likewise semi-perfect and lacking the power of generation, did You pass to the earth, saying: "Let the earth bring forth herb and fruit-bearing tree"? And this being done, why did You not at once cause the living creatures to come forth from the earth, and the beasts, and the reptiles, but, leaving the construction which is made from the earth imperfect, did You return again to the firmament and on the fourth day make the stars and the two luminaries? And from there did You return again to the waters on the fifth day, with the perfect generation of fish and birds from them? Then having returned in this way on the sixth day to the earth, did You fulfill the things which are from it, namely the living creatures, and the beasts, and the reptiles, and the wild animals, and man?

^A It follows from this that the first three days are the recipients of the imperfect creatures; but the last three (namely the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth) adorned and filled up the entire creation of the world, through the Christ of the three days who says: "Today and tomorrow I work signs, and on the third day I am perfected," ruling over the heavenly bodies endowed with reason, the stars, and the terrestrial and subterranean things. For the heaven, the earth, and the sea were full of His glory. For when the sun and moon shone, the earth and sea were immediately adorned. For even before the entire creation, He in His mind conceives and creates the heavenly and angelic Powers that illuminate us. But the second, He brings forth and generates the gatherings of the waters, namely the waters of the nations, which were previously shifting and unstable, and tossed by many waves, and were borne with a swift course toward idolatry. But the third, He again visited, and the day of the Spirit, when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in. For God looked upon the creatures of the world: toward the Greek (namely, Gentile) waters, showing them the light of divine knowledge on the first day of the age. But when they had known God, they did not glorify Him as God, as Paul testifies, saying that for the argument of the knowledge of God, God gave wisdom in the beginning, and knowledge concerning the position of the heaven, and of the stars, and of the sun, and of the moon, and of the plants, and of the animals, and of the bodies, and of the forms. Since, therefore, the water of the nations did not know the Maker of wisdom, God, leaving it imperfect and not generative, approached the earth, giving through Abraham the sign of circumcision. And for this reason, He promised the earthly reward of this sign, both to Abraham and to Israel, saying that He would give them for a possession the land of the earthly Palestine of the promise. Similarly also to the Israelite people who went out of Egypt, God ^B establishing in the Law those many heavy and difficult precepts, with sharp threats and curses, promised them no heavenly remuneration for these things, but earthly gifts, fertilities, and bodily happinesses, and the possession of a wide land, and the perception of goods and fruits that would perish. Hence, and because of these things, we rightly understand the earth as the people of the Jews, as those who mind earthly things and do not have citizenship in heaven. Therefore, teaching us these things in the creation of the world in six days, God did not at the same time perfect the waters, and the things that arose from the waters; nor, again, did He in one day adorn the earth, and the living creatures and fruit-bearing trees that proceeded from it. Wherefore, it seems to me that the heavenly things were formerly illuminated by the divine light: but when the Sun who is perceived by the intelligence (namely Christ) had been set above the earth and taken up on high, the supernal world was further illuminated and brightened. Conformably, therefore, to the adornments made by command, and the spiritual advancements of the heavenly, terrestrial, and marine creature, we must understand the Maker, in that creation of six days which then was, now to work in part in the waters, then to pass from them to the firmament: and when the firmament was perfectly adorned, to pass to the earth: and when it was semi-perfect, to proceed to the waters: then completely finishing the firmament, and blessing the gatherings of the Gentile Churches, and finally turning the land of Israel also in the consummation of the ages, in the fullness of the creation of the six days. If, however, to the hearer, as one who is not initiated into the mysteries, it does not please him what is said: tell me, you, for what reason—when God had not finished individual creatures at once—He then passes to another, but leaving the former imperfect, returns again to the former! But if to you, being a faithful one, those things which are said seem worthy of faith and credible: incline your ear hither, and turn your mind to me, and you will see that in the dispensation of the flesh assumed, God the Word in the same way also constructed and perfected his new creature. For to those who have within themselves the light of knowledge, it is indeed clear that the ancient ^C creation of the world was an adumbration, having a type of the Church; which, just as the God-Word becoming man, creating and constructing a certain world, begins from the Gentile waters—as one who has spent time in the region of the Gentiles, in Nazareth. Concerning which the prophet Isaiah says: "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephtalim, toward the way of the sea, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." For so also Simeon placed the nations in the first place, and then Israel, saying of Christ: "A light to the revelation of the nations," then: "and the glory of thy people Israel." He passed then from Nazareth of the sea of the nations, and came to Jerusalem into Bethlehem, and there was born, and leaving imperfect the...

unfruitful ^A earth of Israel, he came again to the waters of the Gentiles, having first called the Magi, and having set out into Egypt unto the barbarous waters of the Nile. But when he had not yet gathered them into one congregation, he returned to the land of Israel whence he had departed, showing a small herb and certain fruit-bearing trees (to wit, his disciples, and John the Baptist, and Joseph, and Nicodemus, and a few of this sort): and immediately, having left behind the Jewish worship, he approaches again to the currents of the Jordan, the Sun of justice, creating the light of baptism. Then he so blesses and causes the waters to be brought forth, and thereupon he comes also to the land: that is, taking care of Israel and healing their diseases. And again having departed from the land, he went to the abyss: to wit, from the cross, that he might preach remission to the spirits that were in the prisons of the underworld. ^B Thereafter, when he had risen, he returned from the earth to the firmament, to God, and from thence again he caused the waters of the Gentiles to produce animals, once the life-giving Holy Spirit had been sent from on high upon them.

Which indeed do not cease to generate and regenerate upon themselves the very nations which formerly were reptiles, and now have been made winged birds, until the fullness of the Gentiles has entered entirely into paradise: and then for the rest the word of God is perfected, which says concerning the animals of Israel: "Let the earth bring forth a living soul." Rightly did he say: "a living soul." For Israel is one. But among the Gentiles, the innumerable nations which have proceeded from our waters, he does not say "a living soul," but "innumerable souls." For he says: "Let the waters bring forth the reptiles of living souls," and not them alone, but also "birds flying over the earth according to the firmament of heaven." Of such birds was that baptized Paul, who wished from the water to fly to the third heaven, and again from there to pass into paradise. Of such a sort of bird was Philip, who, flying through the air and coming to the Ethiopian of Candace, baptized him upon the water: and through the dove, namely the Spirit, he made himself a bird. Such a bird, he who said: "Who will give me wings like a dove," which descended into the Jordan, "and I will fly and rest in that rest of the heavenly birds having six wings," desired to become. Unto these birds flew the first of all the birds from the life-giving water which flowed from the side of the Lord in the place of Calvary, the holy thief, flying through the air with the King of birds, Christ, the great Eagle, into paradise. Of the birds of Christ the Psalmist also speaks: "The sparrow," namely the thief, or some other, "hath found for itself a proper nest of the wood of paradise: the turtledove," namely the Church, which alone has known one spouse, Christ, which loves a life more solitary than delicate, soft, and effeminate: a nest for itself, namely the kingdom of heaven; where she may store her young. Seeing which birds as they emerge from the waters, Isaiah also shouted: "Who are these ^A that fly as clouds, and as doves with their young?" These are the birds that are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Of whom he also said: "Where the body," he says, "or carcass is (the thief, I say), namely in Paradise, there also shall the eagles be gathered together," which have suffocated our supplanter, the serpent, under their feet. Or again, where his holy body was dead, there he gathered us, that we might be partakers of it. For he, raised on high on the cross, gathered the Gentiles, and the birds of the nations born from the water, that they might imitate his passion and cross. And when he had descended into the waters of the abyss, he made those bodies of the Saints, who had slept and risen again, fly forth with him from the subterranean waters.

But it remains that we should subsequently reveal the context of the speech of the Scripture itself. "And God said: Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and beasts of the earth according to its kind. And it was so." God divided all living creatures (from the earth, I say, and from the sea) into two offsprings and generations, who from two women, to wit Leah and Rachel, or from Sarah and Hagar, established two sons, namely two peoples, to wit from the Gentiles. Whence it comes about that what was then said by God to Rebecca, it is fitting also to say of the creature which is seen: "Two nations and two peoples shall proceed from thee, and one people shall overcome another, and the greater shall serve the younger." But they are surely greater and significantly stronger which were born from the earth, the animals and ^C beasts, than the fish of the sea, and above all, the birds. But if you who are listening reject the things which are said, as things which are not probable, what will you do or say when you see that the animals which have sprung from the waters have anticipated the blessing which is given by God? For how did Jacob anticipate the blessing of Esau? Because the one was a hunter, and had his origin and generation as if from the earth, and the life which he lived together with the wild beasts in the field and with the reptiles: whence also Esau was nicknamed Edom, that is, "red"; but Jacob, who together with the blessing snatched away also his birthright, when he had flown off into the Mesopotamia of the waters, there in the waters he brought forth in the house of God. For Bethel is interpreted "House of God," whence also Rachel is called "House of God." She indeed was a type of the Church which exists from the Gentiles, in which the Spirit of God, lovingly, as it were resting (because she brought him forth), is borne over the water of the Mesopotamia of all the Gentiles. Observe also that Rachel, as a type and figure (as also was Rebecca) of the Church of the Gentiles which was at one time barren, when she was upon the land of the waters of Mesopotamia, was there betrothed to Isaac, and immediately, as a beautiful and alert pool pouring forth water, she watered the infidel camels of her father.

^A For Abraham is interpreted as "father of nations," in the figure of God and Father of the nations.

We have therefore demonstrated in many ways that the animals born from the waters are a figure of the nations, which were once in the depths of ignorance. On account of this, Christ also made his own disciples fishers of them. We have, moreover, another most firm and very admirable proof, which might persuade even the extremely incredulous and contentious person that the animals born of the earth bear a certain and evident type of the people of the Jews. What, then, is that proof? I say that Adam, born from the earth, is, in regard to his flesh, kin to those beasts and reptiles born of the earth. For on the sixth day both he and they were created, but not the marine fish, which were made on the fifth day. How also is Christ, the second Adam, kin to the Jews in regard to his flesh, if it is from those gentle beasts and non-venomous reptiles, and not from us, namely, the nations? That the earth is the genus of the nations of the Jews is shown by these things. You will learn, moreover, from the very words: "Let the earth bring forth quadrupeds." Since they look down to the earth and crave earthly things, he fashioned them in the image of the earth, so that those who might renounce impiety would inherit the expanse of the earth. Prophetically, also, Moses foretells of their furious and lethal venom, calling them with a loud voice reptiles and beasts. Furthermore, he even enumerates that which is better of theirs by ignoring it, calling them beasts of burden. But what is said regarding Christ by the prophet Habakkuk: "In the midst of two animals you shall be known," wise Fathers understand as concerning the two peoples: "Of two animals," so to speak, one terrestrial, the other marine. And clearly in this way God did not make Eve—who is a figure of Christ’s Church from the nations—from the earth from which he fashioned Adam, since the Church is not kin, but of a different kind, a guest, and alien to the Jews, who are not blessed animals: as she is from the reptiles and birds of the sea which received God’s blessing.

But if you offer your ears to what is being said with a lively and open spirit, O listener, concerning these two peoples (of the terrestrial, I say, and the marine), I will prove it to you both from graphic and various demonstrations of the Old as well as the New Testament. For the incense, which God ordered Moses to prepare (signifying the union of both the Jews and the believing nations, which God smelled and they became for him a sweet-smelling odor), [he] established by law that its composition should be made from earth and sea. For stacte has its origin from the earth, while onyx consists of the sea. Likewise, also, the ointment of Moses (which itself also signified the two peoples) was poured out entirely from the beloved Son, conveniently with him who says: "A poured-out ointment ^B is my beloved," for from him and through him is the fullness of the faithful; which ointment he was ordered by God to compound: he took the calamus from the earth, and myrrh from the sea. And perhaps for this reason Christ also, through the calamus born from the earth and the sea-sponge, was given vinegar to drink on the cross; that is, he tasted the bitterness of death. For two nations also (the Romans, I say, and the Hebrews) condemned him to death: the type of whom was also the pair of thieves, namely, both he who is saved through faith, and the Jew who perishes through incredulity. Again, however, we hear God commanding Moses to weave the high priest Aaron’s tunic from twisted purple. Now purple consists of two animals: from the worm, I say, born from the earth, and the marine oyster. Therefore, again, the two peoples ^C in the passion clothed Christ with a purple cloak; signifying beforehand that the Word of God reigned as King over the two peoples in the flesh of the one celestial [King]. Which other colors of the other garments, which were woven then with the purple in the tunic of Aaron, also clearly described beforehand. For the fine linen which shines more than snow shows the symbol of the light which proceeds from the light of the Word of God: the twisted scarlet bears the image of the flesh, for they shared in flesh and blood with the children. But the hyacinth, as it is called, is in like manner of a celestial color: for which reason they who investigate silken colors also call it an ethereal color. We also find that the Magi offered to Christ along with gold born from the earth, also marine myrrh. Just as formerly those two types of the two peoples, Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped Jesus for burial in two aromatics (terrestrial, I say, aloe, and marine myrrh).

Since we have learned from many proofs by periphrasis that animals born of the sea and from the earth are an evident type of the two peoples; it is necessary also to say for what causes the flock of animals born of the earth (the people, I say, of Israel) was not a participant of the same blessing as the gentile fish, and those birds which are from them. And first, indeed, because they were not baptized, and were not co-generated with the water and the Spirit that was moved over the waters; but the second cause for which they were deprived of the blessing: because in them was the serpent, the enemy and insidiator of Eve (or rather of the holy Church), and he was to be liable to that terrible execration of Christ. We find, however, that God in the whole Scripture of the Law, when he had blessed someone with his own mouth, and afterwards had cursed him; I do not know if he did not give the blessing with some distinction, as he says in Israel and to Solomon: "If you keep my commandments and my justifications." For he foreknew that both (but especially Israel) were going to abolish and transgress the divine laws, and would be liable to those innumerable...

curses which are in the Law; but most of all, because of their future impiety toward Christ, they would be liable from his mouth to those innumerable woes and sentences of desolation and ejection. But he who does not interpret the divine Scriptures in this way—could he ask what sin earth-born animals could have committed against God, such that He did not bestow upon them a blessing equal to that of the fish? For as regards their bodily constitution and nature, the earth-born animals and beasts of burden have a far more excellent and clearly incomparable status than fish.

^B Let the dog, which faithfully guards the flock, watches the house, and protects the vineyard, persuade you of this; and the ox and the ass, which know their own benefactors; and the horse, the mule, and the camel, which often, beyond human reason, know the paths they have traveled once, and at night are often reliable guides for their masters: whence it is that often in war, after God, the service of horses, mules, and camels is our salvation. If the human race were lacking in these, it would perish, as it would not suffice by itself for its own service. Hence, God also testified that they possess wisdom, speaking long ago to the most merciful and patient Job: *"Will you give strength to the horse, or clothe his neck with neighing? He exults boldly; he proceeds to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear, and does not yield to the sword"* (Job xxxix, 19 sq.), etc. But regarding marine reptiles, the fish have neither voice, nor cognition, nor wisdom, nor knowledge, nor memory, nor senses whereby they might know, nor any service, benevolence, or love toward the Lord. Indeed, all these properties of fish, being devoid of reason and sense, apply well to the people of the Gentiles, so that they may be understood and spoken of in that light. For at first, the Gentile was deaf like the fish, not hearing the voice of the Lord. He was also mute like them. For he did not have the Word of God within himself; his ears and mouth were stopped by demonic waters, and his eyes shrouded in darkness, so that they did not recognize the Sun, the Lord Christ, God, nor turn their eyes toward Him. For this reason, God specifically called the fish the reptiles of the nations, for a reptile is like the serpentine devil in soul, heart, and reason. It is dragged entirely upon the earth upon its breast; it contemplates nothing heavenly, thinks of nothing sublime, reflects upon nothing exalted; but its whole bodily stature clings to the earth from head to tail (that is, from beginning to end), dragged into dust and dung, into the bosom of idols, into the belly and navel of excess ^D and lust. Hence, because of these reptiles, Christ called the fishermen from the Gentile fishers before all others. Furthermore, the first-born son, namely Cain, in the figure of the first-born Israel, was a tiller of the soil (as one who was akin to the earth-born and unblessed animals), the murderer of the good shepherd Abel, namely Christ; of whom He himself said: *"You are of your father the devil"* (Joan. viii, 44); that is, from Cain who imitated the devil’s work: *He was a murderer from the beginning*; that is, immediately from the beginning of the production of the world; as one who killed his own brother. Therefore, you also will be murderers by imitation, for you will inflict death upon my Jesus-humanity; yet you will inflict no harm upon me as God, because you cannot attack me in that respect.

All these testimonies we have brought forward for the glory and exultation of the Church of Christ; for we faithful receive the greatest utility and confirmation when we learn that, when heaven and earth were first created, from that time the people of the creeping things and fish received a blessing from the Lord. But the brother of this prodigal Gentile son, who was a tiller of the soil in the field of the vineyard of Israel, remained without a blessing, as one who even to this day does not bring into his mind the desire to enter and be a partaker of the body and blood of the fatted calf. And the fatted calf is named Christ, because for many times before the nuptials and union with the Church, he was prepared by his Father for the consumption of the nations, and in a certain way, the sacrament was being fattened. For God, before the ages, revealed the ancient true counsel for our glory, the nations, just as Isaiah and Paul proclaim. And God said: *"Let us make man in our image and likeness."* Conforming to the reason of anagogy, you shall understand Christ here, in whom that word is said: *"Let us make man,"* when He undertook the human nature; but the word *"Let us make,"* not only the Father and the Spirit say—the one as approving and ratifying, the other as preparing—but the Son also, as God, consents to that which is to be done, so that He also may be seen to embrace the assumption of human nature: but the word must first be examined in another way. And already indeed, books have been composed by us on this matter as much as we were able to attain, and to them we transmit those who wish. In sum, however, so that the work might not be like a mangled member or body, left incomplete and mutilated, this must be fulfilled. But these are the questions: why did God not distinguish between the creation of animals from the earth and the creation of man, as He did between the fish and the earth-born animals? But as if there were a certain kinship between them, He fashioned both man and them on the same day. Resolving which, one of the expositors, because of that kinship which he had with the Jews according to the flesh, said it was a simultaneous creation. Hence, the same man says, it is permitted to contemplate and admire that, having left behind those things which were near and akin to him, this man was introduced by God and placed in paradise, to work it and to keep it. But certain other and second animals, or rather beasts of a different kind and which were far remote, He brought in—not the first, but the second—which are indeed the flocks of beasts, namely, the nations.

After these things, it is to be known and considered that this first voice in the divine Scripture

was spoken in the plural; it signifies the divine Trinity, saying in the creation of man alone: *Let us make man in our image and likeness*; ^A just as if three distinct persons of men, if it be permitted to speak so, were building an image and a statue by common counsel and consent, and each one were making in the statue some proper likeness, effigy, and figure, so that there should be in it that which is seen, more bodily and thicker. There was, I say, the height in one of the divine artificers, the breadth in another, and the depth in another. For thus, properly, is an image and a statue made according to imitation, figure, and the image of the diverse artificers of that one and individual, one and only essence and nature of God: of the soul, indeed, to the image of God and the Father, as we also named before in two books which we published concerning the construction of man; of the Reason, however, or internal Word, which describes and fashions God the Word begotten by God; and of the Mind, which bears the image of the Holy Spirit. ^B But when we sometimes produced this utterance before one of the Hebrews—for many and often there have arisen controversies and contradictions (plainly extemporaneous) with their kind—the wicked man contradicted us, saying that some king (even if he be alone) can say that: *Let us make*; and that: *We have commanded*. But when we approached and said: "And why, before the creation of man, is God not seen to have used this verb, *Let us make*, in any other creature (whatever it may be), and not to have said it except in the case of man alone, and again in the case of the woman who was made afterwards, when He said, *Let us make him a helper*?"—to these things there was no voice for the Jew, nor again any contradiction. For it is impossible that man should be to the image of those who say: *Let us make man in our image and likeness*; unless he bears in himself some other proper figure or effigy of each one of these artificers. Whence that which is to the image of the Trinity—in the incorporeal and intelligent substance of our soul, which is devoid of matter and incomprehensible—everyone of us men has in the same way. But that which is to the likeness, those alone have who have recreated themselves through that way of life which is by virtue, who have God dwelling within them, and by grace are in a certain way like Christ, both in divinity and humanity. Therefore, the divine Scripture, explaining it both twice and once, says: *And God made man to the image*, which is created by God and is natural in us; but that, *To the likeness*, is of the way of life which is undertaken by free choice, and is induced and assumed through a life that is led according to virtue. Therefore, he who has the same name as the Word, the theologian John, teaching us this, says, writing to some: *Little children, now we are the sons of God*, through this baptism, ^C *and it has not yet been manifested what we shall be, since we shall see Him as He is*. You see that after holy baptism He says the life which is led by virtue generates that which is to the likeness. Which, if it shall have been manifested in the heart, you will see him in himself conformed and assimilated to Him, as much as man can and is able.

Whence also one of the foolish external philosophers received this from our divine Scripture, saying that philosophy is the assimilation to God, as much as it is possible for it to be done by man, when he had looked upon this sacred Mosaic Scripture which says: *Let us make man in our image and our likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heaven, and all the reptiles that creep upon the earth*. When we have reached this place, the most wise and illustrious discourses given by God to the Holy Spirit are opportunely to be praised and celebrated by us, and we must say: *Truly the law is a lamp to my feet, O Lord, and a light to my paths*. For let us hear how great and how impregnable are the weapons God has fashioned for us from this against the Jews and the Barbarians, and the Samaritans, who tear apart and mock the faith of the Christians, as one that worships three gods, and not the holy Trinity which is at the same time of the same essence. For when the Scripture says that two persons (of Adam, I say, and Eve) are one man alone and not two, we convince the adversaries of the truth, because (in three Persons) God is celebrated with hymns and praises, God is one and not three, on account of the nature of the same essence at the same time: just as also in Adam and Eve. For on account of the kinship and the same essence at the same time, hear how God calls even them in the whole human race one man, saying: ^D *Let us make man in our image and our likeness, and let them rule*: two, yet saying one man. And again He says: *And God made man, to the image of God He made him, male and female He created them*. Lo, here also He called two one man, so that He might provide you also with weapons to demonstrate that the Father and the Son (since there are two hypostases or persons) are one God. Whence also when God was about to bring the flood, He says to Noah: *The end of all flesh is come before me*: lo, He signifies a multitude of men. Hear, then: He calls this entire multitude one man, again saying to the same Noah, *I will destroy man whom I have made*. If, therefore, He calls innumerable thousands of human persons one man on account of the likeness of nature, how much more can the three persons of the divinity (of the same essence at the same time) be called one God? And in other innumerable places you will find divine Scripture calling the entire human race one man: as when again it says after the flood concerning the universal human race: *The thought of man is prone to evil from his youth*. And again: *Man is made like to vanity*. And: *Man, as grass are his days*.

^A *Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.* Do you hear, foolish Jew, and you, Barbarian and Samaritan, how the whole of humanity is called "man"? By the same rule, therefore, Divinity also is one, and is called God; and Israel, although they are six hundred myriads of men, is called one Israel; and the Assyrian, the whole nation, is spoken of in one person, just as the Persian and the Hyperborean and the remaining nations, although they consist of innumerable persons, are called in one person. Since God has foreseen something better for us Christians, or rather—to pass over the many proofs that are made through testimonies—we shall prove what we hand down from this very Word which the Jews use as an insult. For He said: *And God said* (look at the singular), *Let us make* (look also at the plural). Attribute the latter entirely to the nature, but the former to the persons, and not vice versa. For if it were absurd for the nature, it is not serious for the persons. See, indeed, in the innumerable multitude of men, there is one nature. Having already said these things in the second book against the Jews, we have not placed them here because of any forgetfulness. For it would be welcome, if it could be done, for these things to be posted in the squares, at the crossroads and the public ways, for the knowledge and understanding of the faithful, and for the shame and refutation of the Jews, who, as I said before, wag their tongues against Christ and His Church.

^C *Let us make man according to our image and likeness, that he may have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the cattle, and over all the earth, and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.* It makes us sluggish to say the same things over again, because we have explained them elsewhere. But I marvel at those present who have remained in the mere letter, and have said that the physical authority and dominion over fish and fowls and all beasts is what *according to the image and likeness of God in man* signifies. For we do not find that the first-formed man himself had dominion over the fish of the sea, nor any other of the righteous who have been from the beginning of the world. I mean dominion, not that which consists of artificial cleverness, and instruments, and hunting skills, as it has seemed to some to say, from which comes the Gabaleothes. For that is not dominion, but cunning and deceit. For he who rules over someone, and especially by the command of God, does not rule with subtle mental cogitation, but rules openly with power and authority. But if, as is likely, some envious people still contradict me, I shall provide proof of what I say from two of the Church’s pillars. But I would like, again, O Jew, I say to you, I would like you to tell me if there was anyone among men according to the image and likeness of God. Is it that holy forerunner John, who is greater than all those born of women? Or similarly Peter, that supreme and most ancient summit of the saints ^D and of the apostles? Not even these were endowed with dominion over all things. And that Peter indeed did not have dominion over all the fish of the sea, hear him saying to Him who truly has dominion over fish, and sea, and fowls of the air, and those gifted with reason, and the whole earth, namely Jesus: *Through the whole night* (perhaps through Jewish worship) *working, we caught nothing; but at Thy word* (namely, faith in Thee) *I will let down the net* of the Gospel into the sea of the world of the nations. Concerning John, however, he who is of the same name as the witness himself says in the Gospel according to John, *John indeed did no sign*. How then can he who did no sign, and Peter who did not have dominion over the fish, be said to be in the image and likeness of God? For he who has dominion over animals and fish and fowls by the command of God says to the lion: *Come*, and he comes; and to the eagle: *Enter*, and it enters; and to the fish: *Approach*, and it obeys; and to the dragon: *Perish*, and it immediately expires. Observe, however, that God gave dominion not only over fish and beasts and reptiles to the man who was made to the image and likeness of God, but over the whole earth. Whence it is also written that they rule over the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air in a second order; and then 885 thus, *Over the cattle, and over all the earth*: that is, over all things that are and dwell upon the earth, namely, over men and nations. If, therefore, He subjected everything under the feet of Him who is truly according to the image of God, it is clear that this man is the Lord of all things that are in the world, as one who has them under the feet of man as chattel and servants. Tell me, therefore, how Moses, who was such and so great, was not to the image of God? For he was fleeing from the face of Pharaoh. How was Elias, who was taken up in a fiery chariot, hidden far away from the face of Jezebel? How were almost all the prophets, the just, and the apostles, put to death by the hands of the impious; they would not have suffered this, if they had held dominion over the whole earth, and if He had subjected all things under his feet. When there was such and so perplexed a doubt concerning this saying, Paul, the mystic of ineffable secrets, coming to bear his Epistle to the Hebrews, immediately stood by; considering whom, we were freed from an obscure and very profound doubt, saying that Christ is the image of the invisible God, and that He rules and has dominion over all things as the heir of all, and that all things are subjected to Him (except God, I say, and the Father), and that to Him every knee bends in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. For this is to rule over those endowed with reason: the fish of the sea, and the intelligent fowls of the air, and men who are like cattle and beasts of burden, and the whole earth. For He places the subjection of the fish, since before all He had dominion over those who are regenerated through water and the spirit, namely us Gentiles, and those who are in the abyss of the lower world in darkness and the shadow of death. Then he speaks of the second, the fowls of the air, the intelligent Powers of whom He says: *I have known all the fowls...*

^A of the heavens. For when he ascends from the earth with flesh, he was known and observed by the Principalities and Powers through the Church. But when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, those beasts, and the cattle born from the earth, and its kindred, namely Israel, of whom He said: *I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and them I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, one shepherd* 41, shall be fully subjected to the dominion of Christ. And thus it will happen in Christ, and it shall be understood of Him and of His spouse, the Church, that which was said by God concerning the two: *Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the cattle, and all the earth* — *from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth* 42.

Carnal men, however, who understand the corporeal power of man concerning carnal fish and birds, and all cattle, and beasts, and reptiles, and all things that are upon the earth, will be unable to show us any man, apart from Christ, who is to the image of God. For none of those who have been born from the age (I do not say from kings, but not even from the just) has held rule, with a power having empire, over all things that are upon the earth and sea; even if he were gifted with the grace of performing miracles, and of perceiving and predicting prophetic things. Moreover, the Lord does not define the perfection of the man who is to the image and likeness of God by the casting out of demons, nor by the performing of signs, as when He says: *Will they not say to me in that day: Lord, have we not done many miracles in thy name? And I will say to them: Amen I say to you, I know you not* 43. But, *Love*, He says, *your enemies, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you, that you may be like your Father who is in heaven* 44; defining being to the likeness of God in the virtue of charity. How even Christ Himself, speaking through Paul, used the same rule and definition, when He says: *If I should speak with the tongues of men, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, it profits me nothing* 45. But enough of these things.

But if, having progressed to the letter, we remain there, how will you be able to show that that most glorious Mother of God is to the image and likeness of God? For where did she command, or exercise dominion over sensible beasts, or fish, or birds, or the whole earth, she who fled from the face of Herod into Egypt? And who (tell me, I ask) either of men or of demons will dare to say that she who is of the same essence with God, as far as the flesh is concerned, is not to the image and likeness ^B of Him who was born as she is; for how is she the mother of such a son, not bearing in herself the complete and uninjured image of her offspring? Wherefore it has been shown to him who is a son of peace (and not a producer of battles and offenses) that he alone possesses the dominion over the fish which are spoken of, and the birds, and the cattle, saying: *All things are delivered to me by my Father* 46: *And all power is given to me in heaven and in earth* 47; and: *The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand* 48. But He is said to receive it from the Father, as He who has been made man; yet again He is honored insofar as He appears as the Father, as one who is His Son of the same essence as He who He is.

Let us see, however, also what those things signify which He says concerning the blessing: *And God made man, to the image of God he made him* ^C, that is, the image and prefiguration of Christ. He made man a composite being, mortal and immortal, visible and invisible, subject to destruction and in whom destruction does not fall. *Male and female he made them*: this indeed for the reason that it is lax and soft, and easily dissoluble unto death. And God blessed them saying: *Increase and multiply, and fill the earth*, namely through the procreation of children, male and female. *And have dominion over it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heaven, and all cattle, and all the earth, and all creeping things that creep.*

*And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon all the earth: and all trees which have in themselves the fruit of seed, shall be to you for food and to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the heaven, and to every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth which has in itself the soul of life, and every green herb shall be to you for food. And it was so. And God saw all the things that he had made, and behold they were very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.* Up to this point, the great philosopher and doctor Olympiodorus says that the end of sensible creation exists. But when he says, he remarks, that Scripture in the form of an epilogue or repetition: *This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth* ^D, and the rest which follows concerning the new creation in Christ, it describes and prefigures those things which in later times received their end in the Church. Which also the most holy Apostle names as the world, saying: *For God hath not subjected unto angels the world to come, whereof we speak* 49; naming the Church the world, for the reason that it was to be founded by Peter, but to be built up by Him: just as He also used to name the new one which then had begun to be produced. For if through all the things which Moses both contemplated and constructed on Mount Sinai, he was describing beforehand the type of the Church (namely both through the holy Tabernacle, and all things which were in it, and every legal cult),

and by speaking of the creation of man as having taken place in perfect immortality and incorruptibility, ^A and by offering the blessing, and the male and female, and the generation of the beasts, and their consumption, he proceeds to show the cessation of life. For the washing, he says, of those who are baptized in Christ possesses the true and perfect cleansing of the first parent Adam (which comes down to us) from abnegation and sin. For which cause, certainly, some infants, when they are illuminated, being clean from all iniquity and sin of the world (of whatever kind it may be), and having received the Spirit, and having been clothed with Christ, often depart in that very hour or after baptism, akin to no guilt or vice, but holy, as Paul testifies. For it is necessary in these to say one of two things: either that they are not freed by baptism and the Spirit from the sin and abnegation of the first parent Adam (which has never come into anyone's mind), or that, having been freed, they have unjustly fallen back into death; or that they were indeed freed, but, in the likeness of their first parent Adam and Eve, they were clothed with a mortal body, and when they attain to a better life through death, they shall receive—not subject to destruction and then immortal—their bodies in their resurrection, now dead, lest evil should be immortal and eternal, as the divine Gregory says: that is, lest we be in perpetual destruction; but that in Christ we may be clothed with incorruption, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK SEVENTH. ON THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE AFTER THE SIXTH DAY.

And the heaven and the earth and all their host were finished. And God finished on the sixth day the works which he made, and rested on the seventh day from all his works which he made. For by these things, the Scripture shows and teaches us that he both made and makes certain other things after these, as it testifies, saying, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Hence, moved by this, some of the ancient expositors, namely, from the fact that they said God ceased on the seventh day, anticipated by saying that it shows that in the seventh age (that is, in the seventh millennium of years) the consummation of the world shall happen. In individual days, he says, of the creation he did works, equal in number to the days: namely, in the first day, after the simple elements, one work, which is light. In the second, however, two: namely, the firmament, and the division of the waters as well those which are above as those which are below. In the third day, three: the gathering of the water, and the uncovering of the earth, and the germination of fruits from it. In the fourth, four: the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and their arrangement. In the fifth, again, five works: namely, the five senses, and fishes and beasts, birds, and the blessing which was made in them. ^B Sixth day, six: that is, the animals from the earth, and man and woman, and the blessing which was shown to him, and the power which was given to them, and food.

For in these, the expositors say, during the six days, it is permitted to see in each of them some evident symbolic indication of the things which were made by God. For in the first day, the separation of light and darkness signifies that separation of those who were on the right and left of Christ, namely, the sinners and the just: whence he also commands those who were on the left to depart into the outer darkness. Similarly, also, on the second day, the water is in part carried up into the heavens, but in part is sent away again into the darkness of the abyss; he teaches us what things are to be concerning the just and sinners from among us in the consummation. The third day teaches us more manifestly the reason of the resurrection, through that which he who was then Creator, and afterward is to be Judge, said: "Let the water which is under heaven be gathered into one gathering, in judgment." And on the third day, which is from the earth, the grass and the germination and production of trees, he shows... ^{C D}

^A the resurrection. As Paul also cries: "For then the fruit of the works and deeds of each one shall rise from the earth." But what Christ says, that in the resurrection the just shall shine as the sun, ascending in the cloud to the heavens, ^B clearly shows also the fourth day by the separation which God made therein of day from night. But also what was said by God on the fifth day: "Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls, and birds flying above the earth," we see very aptly to be happening more in the resurrection of the dead, when those who had at some time been suffocated in the sea and devoured by fish, rise again having living souls and immortal bodies: from which some indeed become birds flying into heaven. On the sixth day, some have said that the formation of man from the earth is a symbol of the resurrection of dead bodies: others, however, that it is the procreation of various beasts, and birds, and quadrupeds, and cattle; calling creeping things and beasts "impious Gentiles," while those quadrupeds and cattle which are indeed unclean and not fit for eating, they interpret as those who live with sin in faith, but that "clean" ones have the figure of the just.

These things, the interpreters say, being so, it remains entirely to speak of the seventh day, that it latently and secretly causes the future kingdom. ^C For just as in each of the days of the week of six days, there was some sign of the resurrection, and of the world, and of the generation of men; so also in each millennium of the six thousand years passed, there was some symbol and type of the resurrection and the transition of the creature to that which is better, namely to incorruption and the removal of destruction. For in the two hundred and thirtieth year of the first day, Seth (which is interpreted "set" or "placed") was born, having the image and likeness which Adam from the beginning received from God [and] obscured through transgression, as we shall more fully show when we have arrived at the places that follow. But in the one thousand five hundredth year (as the noon of the age tended toward evening) Enoch was translated, who was the first-fruits and figure of the translation and reformation of men to the better: for Enoch is interpreted "innovation." Whence on the seventh day ^D that signifies translation, who was the seventh from Adam, he was translated. But in the two thousand five hundredth year, which is the half of the third day of the age, the reformation of the world took place after the flood through Noah. For Noah also is interpreted "reformation." Similarly, in the three thousand five hundredth year, which is indeed the half of the fourth day, two peoples were generated, Israel and his brother. But if you do not admit this as a sign of the resurrection, know that on the same fourth day Israel went out from Egypt, and entered into the land of promise. Now, however, the interpreters interpret the exodus from Egypt as: the exit from the world, and the entry into the supernal Jerusalem: because we all, the true spiritual Israelites, pass through the bush and the burning sea of the river of fire: but those who in their deeds imitate the Egyptians are submerged by fire. You have also the half of the fifth day: for the things that are in the age are patterns of the constitution of the supernal Jerusalem, where ^A he entered into the Holy of Holies. The precursor is Christ, whom previously the Ark, having entered the temple, described and prefigured, when David, exulting, led the choir and danced in a type of Christ. Because the Ark of the man endowed with reason which had perished, in which the Testament of God had first been deposited, was found and liberated from the wicked foreigners who had reduced it to captivity. But all these things which have been said concerning five signs in the five meridians of the five days, or thousand years of the age, are not only symbols of the world's translation to the better, and of incorruption and the removal of death: but also of the appearance of Christ himself and of [his] assumption of man and the Church. For at the noon and evening of the sixth day, or in the five thousand five hundredth year, he appeared incarnate: ^B since towards the evening of the sixth day he formed Adam for his own type. And therefore, some conjecturing have said that the resurrection occurs at the evening and half of the sixth day, which the six evening twilights signify; so that those who are worthy may be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Concerning which, he says, on the seventh day, God the Word ineffably and mystically constructed the end of all that he created, just as God the Word himself teaches us, saying: "Come, blessed of my Father, to be heirs of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." For just as he founded the creature, then he also prepared the kingdom.

This indeed is the twenty-second work of God, for the interpreters of both Jews and Christians say that God did twenty-two works. Of which, indeed, twenty-one we have already enumerated a little before as done in the six days. ^C But the twenty-second is the kingdom of the future age prepared, and spiritual contemplation. For this reason, he also numbers all his Old Testament in twenty-two books. But [the world] neither knows why, nor understands the mystery of the twenty-second number. Nor does it consider that indeed the twenty-second number consists of two perfect numbers or "tens," signifying Christ composed of two perfects (of divinity, I say, and humanity) having written two testaments; the Mosaic, I say, the Decalogue, and the Gospel. For thus is the twenty-second number fulfilled from two decalogues and two essences, namely divinity and humanity. ^D Since, however, the discourse has arrived at those things which are to be said concerning the rest and consummation of the seventh day, it will not be alien if we bring into the middle some of Christ's sayings which he spoke concerning the consummation. For in pa-

par- ^A abola he spoke of the ten virgins, that at midnight he himself would come from heaven as the bridegroom. Midnight is considered to be the fourth part of the night and the day: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day." But Christ's day has a duration of a thousand years, so that the midnight of the present seventh day is now the two hundred and fiftieth year. This the Lord again silently signifies, saying: "Who then is the faithful and prudent servant, whom his lord when he comes will find watching? Amen I say to you, he will set him over all his goods: and if he shall come in the second and third watch and find them so, blessed is that servant." Since there are four watches of the night, why does the Lord not say the first watch also; but having named the second and the third, he passed over the first and the fourth? ^B Wherefore, the second and third watch again correspond to midnight: for the perfect and full night is the five hundredth year of the day. And the half-night is the two hundred and fiftieth year. Similarly, the completion of the second watch and the beginning of the third watch is the same two hundred and fiftieth year. These things, however, the interpreters have said by conjecture for the recreation of the mind, not as defining them: for they were not ignorant of Him who said: "Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of God." But God, they say, hid the day and the hour; yet those who have the Holy Spirit, who knows even the "deep things of God," can conjecture the times. We conjecture, therefore, they say, from the things and words of God and Scripture, which were spoken enigmatically and secretly concerning the consummation; but the true outcome and end of the age only the Creator of times and of all things knows. Since, however, nothing is so pleasant to men, and especially to those in whom dwells the fascination of envy, and to slander and overturn the things of others, to the ruin and subversion of the hearers, and there are, as is likely, some who will criticize the calculation and number of the years which we have mentioned in the six evening twilights and noons of the millennial years, perhaps with a few years lacking or even redundant; to those who are worthy to be made more certain, we answer that the cause of this matter arose from those who were chronographers at certain times, who did not agree in their counting. Secondly, one must know that the Hebrews calculate the year differently, and the tradition of the Roman Church differently; for the former count a year of only three hundred and fifty-four days. Further, because the Church sometimes did not exactly find the number in the four hundred years, in which God said to Abraham that Israel would be reduced to servitude and afflicted by the Egyptians, since they did not serve the Egyptians for four hundred years, and regarding the one hundred and twenty ^C years mentioned by God to Noah, since they are not finished, and many other things likewise; ^D that it is not said of the seventh day equally as of the other days: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day," is an evident sign of the consummation and completion that took place in it, say the holy Fathers, and especially holy Clement and Irenaeus, and Justin the martyr and philosopher, who, writing most learnedly on the sixth commentary of the sixth day, says that the sixth number is the intelligent soul of man, and its five sensing senses. Whence also, when he had discussed much about the sixth number, he said that everything which was fabricated by God is六foldly divided into things intelligent and immortal, such as are the angels; and into things endowed with reason [which are] mortal, such as are men; and into things sentient devoid of reason, such as are beasts, and birds, and fishes; and into things moving, and insensate, such as are winds, and clouds, and waters, and stars; and into things which grow and which also move, such as are trees; and into things insensate which do not move, as are mountains and earth, and such like. For all things created by God in heaven and on earth touch one and another of these distinctions, and are defined and circumscribed by them. ^D Admonish yourself, moreover, you who consider the beautiful things made by the beautiful God, that you may know that Christ himself, the artificer of the six days' creatures, consists in a certain way of the senary number; namely, of flesh

^A which consists of four elements, and of a rational soul, and of divinity. Therefore, if all things were created through him and tend toward him, as well those which are in heaven as those which are on earth, as Paul cries out, they altogether signify the one who is in the senary, and every senary number which is in the Old and New Testament signifies him. Therefore, in order that Christ may contain all things and rule over all, the six-thousand-year number is the unit of all calculation and number which is spoken of in the scriptures, and it contains all the science and quantity of numbering, both in units and in binaries and ternaries, and in creatures on earth and those above, since it is significant. And for this reason, the first Adam was made on the sixth day, so that he might prefigure the image of the individual parts of Christ, who is the six days, who is the second Adam, who indeed was upon the earth and appeared on the sixth day of the age; namely, in the five thousand five hundredth year, which is the meridian and the evening, and the middle of the sixth hour, specifically of the sixth quantity of the age.

For that reason, in the evening of the sixth day, Adam was made in the garden and paradise from the earth and from the divine inbreathing (from the visible nature, I say, and that which does not fall under sight), prefiguring and first describing Christ, the visible and the invisible; which sixth hour, in his own image and that of the Church, was seen by Abraham at the oak of Mamre, and there he made a sacrifice of a calf (which prefigured his death), and he was a partaker of human food, not prefiguring his own nature, but he loosed the sterility of Sarah, namely, of the Church; for she brings forth not one, but many Isaacs: and he was in the tabernacle typically; for there also he walks in the Church of God. But it was again meridian and evening and the sixth hour, when Joseph ^B in the image of Christ dined together with his brothers, and admirably prefigured and described the Passover of Christ, and then he inhabited the cistern, indicating and signifying beforehand Christ, who after that supper was to be cast into the cistern of the sepulcher. It was also the sixth hour when the admirable Ruth (like the beautiful Church), when she had approached Boaz in the field as if to Christ, being hungry, was fed by him, and became his wife. How beautifully that Gentile Church, the most wise Samaritan woman, imitated this, who, seeking how God should be worshipped, approached Christ at the sixth hour, long since sitting upon the well of the pool and the bath, when he freed her from slavery and from the water to be carried for alien idols, or from sweating and laboring in those things which pertain to them; just as she carried water for the Samaritans. Christ brings all these evenings of the sixth hour to pass because of that man who had been overturned in paradise in that evening in that paradise. For because of the first-formed Adam, in the evening and at the sixth hour on the sixth day of the age, he ascended the cross in the garden of Golgotha or Calvary, in the sixth hour of the same millennium and the seventh hour of the week, and the sixth hour of the sixth day, which the sixth day of the creation of the six days, proposed to us for narration, openly prefigured and described; for if anyone wishes to consider as if in the middle of these two days (of that sixth day, I say, and of that in which the second Adam, Christ, voluntarily suffered his passion), he will find them to be, as it were, two images corresponding to each other without distinction and of the same nature, imitating each other and assimilated to each other through things. And indeed now it has been spoken of by us at length in the mystical contemplation of the saving passions of Christ our God in the Gospel, and we transmit the studious listener to those things to learn. Similarly, since the whole scope and institution of this work is to show that the creation of the universe of six days, both in the heavens and on the earth, prefigures and describes the incarnation of the Word of God and the Church, it is necessary from now on to bring forward a few things from many of that ancient day, just as they prefigure and ascribe the saving passions of Christ which he suffered on the sixth day, and as Adam, having been made by God with free will, suffered voluntarily and not by any necessity, so the Lord underwent the passion freely and voluntarily. Heed also those things which are to be said, and you will see the types of the sixth day prefiguring and describing the truth. From eating, Adam suffered ^C death; wherefore Christ also, when he had risen from eating the supper, came to the passion and death. Through Eve, Adam suffered; likewise also Christ suffered on account of the Church. And, to speak in a few words, Adam ate, fled, and hid in the garden; having been sought, he was found and condemned: likewise also Christ ate the supper, voluntarily fled to the mount of Olives to pray, hid in the garden of the torrent of Kidron; he was sought by the Jews and was found by Judas providing a sign with a kiss; he was cast out from there bound in the garden just as Adam from paradise, and was affected with reproach and ignominy, carrying the wood on his shoulders, and became a mockery and a curse, and he was condemned on account of him who had been condemned, those who had gathered saying: He is worthy of death. And having gone out beyond Jerusalem, he died on account of the first-formed one ^D who had undergone death, having gone out from the garden. And he was betrayed and went into the garden, and was crucified on the wood on account of the man who had been betrayed in the garden, and had gone into the garden of the world to feed on all things as if on the herbs of the field: for he had become like a beast and devoid of reason after the sin. Whence the garden was on Calvary, where Adam lay dead. When Christ had come there, hanging on the wood, he opened paradise to the thief; by night Christ ate the Passover before the passion, because in this way Adam also ate by night, and he was betrayed before his eyes were opened. There were three trees in paradise: one indeed as

^A the tree of life, the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: for this reason also three trees were fixed in the garden of Golgotha or Calvary; one indeed the tree of the thief who was saved, so that through him we may perceive the non-perishing fruit of theology, just as he did in paradise, and eating it we may rejoice, eating it not once but always. The cross of Christ is the tree of life, on which the ripe cluster was lifted up on high, and our life was seen hanging before us, by whose power many were even revived and raised from the tombs. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, however, was the cross of the blasphemer, which had been fixed for his good, had he so willed; but it turned to his evil, when he rashly put forth his tongue with an ungrateful spirit, and instead of praising God he blasphemed God, and ate death unto his destruction. Three guilty ones sinned in paradise, Adam, and Eve, and the serpent, out of whom two indeed were saved, but one perished. Since therefore three guilty ones were hanging on Calvary (for the Lord was also called "sin," even if because of Him He was not guilty or condemned, and although He was not, He alone would have that which was said of Him), one ungrateful thief, since he was a type of the devil and the serpent and of Judas who strangled himself on a tree, perished. For just as it is written that Adam was deceived by guile, ^B so also Judas made his betrayal with a kiss and guile: and just as it is said that the devil entered into the serpent, so also it is written that Satan himself entered into the heart of Judas, the disciple of Christ. Now Satan was also once in the heavens a disciple of Christ with the other holy disciples (I mean with the angelic Virtues); but he was one of the princes. For it was said of him: "But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (Ps. LXXXI, 7). Wherefore Judas also was one of the chief disciples; among whom the money bag had also been entrusted and given into his hands. And lest we say the same things which (as has been said) we have spoken in the mystical contemplation of the passions of Christ, let those who studiously hear Him who commands and says: "Search the Scriptures" (John v, 39), take into their hands the books of heaven and earth, and the other which says: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matt. 1, 1), the creator of heaven and earth, and there diligently considering what things were done on this day in paradise at the time of the first Adam, and what things were done on that sixth day in the passion of the second Adam, they will find one by one and without defect everything to be in like manner in both cases: the first Adam and the second Adam, the garden of paradise and the garden in which Christ walked. There [was] disobedience, and here the cutting off of an ear; the former indeed through the protoplast, the latter through him who holds the first seat; the trees in paradise and the trees in Golgotha or Calvary; the eating in paradise and the eating in the mystical supper; the sleep of Adam bringing on ecstasy and the trance ^C of the mind; the stupor of Christ on the cross, the side bared for wounding; the nakedness after the eating of Adam, and the nakedness after the supper of Christ: for He put off His garments; the betrayal through the serpent, and the betrayal through the disciple, the son of the viper; the evening in which the protoplasts hide themselves from God, and the evening in which God curses Adam’s head, the Calvary that was subjected to Him, that it might bear thorns with thistles, and the thorns on the head of Christ; the sadness in childbearing, and the sadness troubling the soul of Christ even unto death; the sweat of bread mixed with labor, the sweat like clots or drops of blood; the flaming sword blocking the entrance to Eden, and the sword opening the side of Christ. Nor these alone, but also certain similarities of the two: there the devil and the serpent, here Pilate and Caiaphas; here and there Adam and Eve, and the middle tree; and here the thief blaspheming on one side, and there the other, praising God, and the middle tree, but of the cross; and the garment there of fig leaves, and here a garment of linen; and then the rest, and here the sabbathism perfected: for we are taught of two rests from the book set forth which is called Mosaic: "And God finished on this day His works which He did." But some copies have, which God did upon the earth. This is the first rest, hear also the second. For it says immediately: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works which He did; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His works which God had begun." If therefore God rested on the seventh day from all His works which He did, how does it say afterwards that God caused to spring up still from the earth every tree beautiful to behold and good to eat, and planted paradise, and God fashioned from the earth all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the sky? Therefore it is to be understood again concerning Christ. For on the sixth day He rested from all His works which He did upon the earth, having died in the flesh for us. But when He had gone to the spirits who were in the prison of hell, there He finished all the works of His advent which He had begun. This is the second rest. Which indeed the seventh day (as being that of the creature) the Savior and holy One blessed, because in it He rested from all His works. In it salvation was made for those who were under the earth, as for those who were upon the earth. In it the hells were despoiled. In it Adam was freed from griefs. In it Christ had dominion over the dead as well as the living. Then from the cross He walked in the tracks of the abyss. And when He had descended there, then the gates of death were opened to Him in fear, then He searched out death, then He bound the tyrant, then He finished the works for which He had come. On this seventh day He rested from all His works, when He had risen on one of the Sabbaths, and had blessed it, because on the sixth day indeed He perfected all His works which were of creation; but He rested on the seventh day of the age, from all the works.

their works (that is, of his preaching) which God began to perform on the sixth day of the world, ^A which indeed is both the end and the beginning of either creation. Furthermore, let not the Jews—those worshipers of the Sabbath and gluttons for the Sabbath—boast themselves, nor conceive great spirits. For God did not bless that Sabbath which was at the beginning of creation; for indeed, he did not cease from all his works in it. But if he did not cease in it, it is transparent that he did not bless it, even if the Jew, indignant at these things that are said, should say that it was on that seventh day that God rested from all his works. Divine Scripture, however, refutes him and stops his mouth, saying that after the seventh day, God caused every beautiful tree to spring up from the earth, and he planted paradise, and he fashioned from the earth the beasts, the cattle, and the birds, and he gave a commandment to Adam, and made him garments of skins, and established the Cherubim to guard paradise, and set his bow in the clouds. God is also seen to have performed many other works after the seventh, as I said a little while ago. And since the Jews have great spirits and great arrogance against us because of their Sabbath—that which is cast about by the mob and [practiced] by their gluttons—let the ignorant learn that we do not find God blessing any thing, and then later turning to hold it in hatred and to execrate it (just as I have said elsewhere, and as we are also about to say regarding the punishment of Adam). But if he blessed and sanctified this sensible day of yours, how did he dissolve and exterminate your worship of the Sabbath day? How did he execrate your Sabbath and hate it, saying to you through the prophet: *Your new moons and your Sabbaths my soul hateth*? How can a thing hateful to God be holy? What blessing of God does a day hateful to God receive? ^{B C} And beautifully and fittingly it was said to God: *God hateth your Sabbaths as profane and iniquitous*. But God has not rejected or execrated our spiritual Sabbaths. For indeed, God gave the law to you, O Jew, concerning the rest and cessation of the Sabbath day, in order to convict you of your defection and iniquity, for he knew beforehand that you would not observe his precepts and would worship idols; so that when God saw you worshiping idols, and then acting at leisure on the Sabbath and doing nothing, he might ask of you: For what reason do you rest on the Sabbath and do nothing? To which you will be forced to say, that in six days God created heaven and earth and all that is in them, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, he rested from all his works. To which your son will altogether reply, saying: And if God is the creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them, you ought rather to worship and honor him as the Creator, and not the creatures. This is the cause and the occasion, as interpreters say, for which God gave the law to the Jews fiercely and with threats, that they should cease and keep rest on the Sabbath; so that, by telling of it and explaining it to those who ask, they might be found by their own mouth to accuse their own ^D impiety. For if we understand the precepts which he commanded not to be done on the Sabbath corporally, what does it profit for God to be pleased that one should not kindle fire at all on the Sabbath, but should spend it in darkness? And what does it profit that your camel and your ass and your ox should be idle on the Sabbath? And what does it help God if a Jew does not take a journey on the Sabbath day? But all these things are understood and fulfilled spiritually. For if the seventh day were more excellent and honorable than all days, why did God command to be circumcised on the eighth day and not the seventh? For the Jewish law has nothing more necessary than circumcision. If God commanded not to carry a corporal burden on the Sabbath, how is it that in Jericho, for seven days in succession, the whole people of Israel, carrying their chariots and their vessels [or rather, arms], walked around the city? If God commanded not to kindle a corporal and sensible fire on the Sabbath, how, after the law, when Moses had come to perform the Scenopegia, or the feast of tabernacles, for twelve days in succession, receiving the offerings and sacrifices of the leaders of the twelve tribes, did he kindle fire and offer sacrifices on each and every day? Therefore, O Jew, it is not (as you imagine) that God blessed a corporal Sabbath, which passes away, perishes, and no longer appears. Nor did he command camels and asses and mules to keep the Sabbath; otherwise, he would not have commanded you to circumcise on the eighth day; nor did he establish a law for you concerning a corporal burden; for even on the Sabbath a woman who has given birth takes up the infant whom she bathes, and you carry your son and your daughter on your shoulders; which is indeed a carnal burden, and not a spiritual one. You were commanded, however, not to do any servile work, but whatever belongs to the soul and pertains to the soul. Come, therefore, and learn from me how you ought rightly and fittingly to God keep the Sabbath; and to make your seventh day (that is, the rest) quiet from all your works, from things that pertain to sustenance. For six days, work rightly through the five senses and the immortal soul. I believe in Christ, who on the sixth day of the world was made man, who abolished the seventh legal worship of the Sabbath and rendered it idle and ineffectual, and extinguished the fire of that sacrifice itself, and commanded that such a fire no longer be kindled on the Sabbath, but henceforth that your ox and your beasts be idle, that is, that you no longer sacrifice to God a beastly sacrifice; but to sacrifice to God a rational sacrifice of praise, and in place of a sensible fire, to kindle for God a divine illumination: neither to carry a carnal burden, nor to subject the soul to its appetites: nor to enter on this rough path which he prohibited who said: *I am the way*. Furthermore, depart from your seventh day, and attain to the eighth and first of Christ, that you may receive the spiritual circumcision, receiving in your senses the holy Trinity, and the beautiful effect of the octad. But these things indeed to

the Jew, because of his boasting and exultation ^A regarding the corporeal Sabbath, who even until now has not known the true sabbath-keeping. For the Sabbath is a sabbath of rest and repose, a true laying aside of sin, which I, who am a believer, am commanded to perform, and to celebrate a feast in rest and in the fulfillment of my life. In which Sabbath God commands me not to take up the burden of sin and the load of this age, concerning which someone said: "My iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are heavy upon me." Therefore, He commands me neither to kindle a fire on that Sabbath—which is death—that is, to extinguish all the heat of desire and the "fiery darts of the wicked" which compel one toward eternal flame. Moreover, God prohibits us from going on a journey on the Sabbath, consistent with him who says: "I have refrained my feet from every evil way." But He commands ^B us to keep the Sabbath, and to bind and keep in idleness the donkey and the ox, that is, pleasure and anger and the other irrational disturbances of the soul. He commands that there be a sabbath-keeping and rest and idleness even for the earth, and that those, both male and female, who can practice the virginity of the flesh itself, should neither sow nor receive seed. For "he who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and destruction." But above all, He commands us to make our handmaid and our manservant rest on the day of the Sabbath: this is, that our soul and our body may not serve the prince of this age, but be in liberty and removed from the movements and disturbances of the soul.

For the seven days signify our seven ^C ages, through which we enter upon the journey of the present life so that we may arrive at the eighth day, in which there is no servitude or worship, namely, the future life. For sacrifice or *latria* (that is, the service of God) is no longer offered to God for sins. For the first day is that of the infant, that we may be immediately illuminated by baptism, for light was made on the first day. The second, the age of the boy, that we may be conformed to heavenly words; for on the second day, the firmament was made. The third, of the adolescent, that by chastity we may dry up the moisture of the soul's movements and the passions that are stirred up; for on the third day God separated the dry land from the water. The fourth is the young man: that you may bear the four virtues like stars and appear in the world like a luminary; for the sun was made on the fourth day. The fifth is the state ^D of the middle or consistent age, that you may bridle the five animals of your senses, lest they flee toward sin; for on the fifth day the animals were made. The sixth is honorable old age, that, as a true man, you may render firm and stable by reason the image that was from the beginning, and may cast off the clay of the body and compose yourself with virtues; for on the sixth day man was made. The seventh is that of decrepit age, namely, a hoary conscience and a grave, honest, and pious manner of living, so that rest may be invoked for the earth through death, when, as a whitening ear of corn and as ripe grain, it is carried in its own time to the sepulcher, "going to your fathers, nurtured in a good old age"; for on the seventh day the Lord rested from His evangelical works in the sepulcher; and henceforth you constantly await the eighth, namely, the resurrection from the sepulcher: for on the eighth day the Lord rose from the dead.

With these and such things you shall celebrate the Sabbath of God. This is the Sabbath which God truly blessed and sanctified. And to you, indeed, who are a Jew according to the flesh, as it seems, the observance of the Sabbath is necessary, as it is placed there to convict you of your iniquity, as I said a little before. But to me, who am a believer and who have perfectly withdrawn from the worship of idols, there is no need at all for this "sabbath of many cooks," in which your donkey and camel and dog spend the Sabbath with you, as you are devoid of reason. For you think that God, because He labored in the works of the six days of the creation made by Him, and became as one weak and exhausted, for that reason blessed the seventh day, so that He might receive rest and remission from labor. But it is not so. For hear the Prophet saying: "The great and strong God shall not hunger, neither will He be exhausted." On the seventh day, therefore, the Creator makes the creature rest and fulfills it, that He may show the unbegotten Trinity: for seven and three make ten. The number ten is that which contains and fulfills all numbers, as those who are trained in the disciplines of arithmetic have said. Moreover, the fourth number also, in turn, which is of the fourth or first perfect day, when the sun was made, is perfect and not at all lacking, for it contains and fulfills the number ten. For four and three which precede them, and two which are before them, and the unit which precedes them, a perfect ten is found. But indeed, from the unit also, the virtues up to the quaternary make the quantity of ten: for one and two and three are six: and four make ten. For in the way that every creature, so also all numbers describe the mystery that is in Christ. For there is unity, as one who has a single person; there is binary, which is perfect in divinity and humanity; trinity, as one who is in soul, body, and divinity; quaternary, which renovated man from the four elements; quinquenary, which, with the body, which consists of four elements, renovated also the soul which is according to the image; senary, as one who appeared to the world on the sixth day; septenary, as one who made us rest from the Sabbath of the Law; octonary, because of the circumcision of baptism; nonary, as one who in three similes preached the mystery of the Trinity: namely, naturally, by writing, and mystically: and three times three are nine; but the denary, as perfect and the fullness of the law of the Decalogue, Who is the Word and Son of God before the ages. To Him be glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SEVENTH BOOK. On the twofold name of God, and the twofold creation of things.

^A This is the book of the generations of heaven and earth, when it was made, the day on which God made heaven and earth. Let the Church open her ears attentively, let her dilate her heart, and let her fix the eyes of her mind clearly, and let her knock at the door ^A unto them that hold the keys of knowledge, saying: "Open to me the gates of righteousness" of divine and arcane mysteries, that the people of God, having entered into them, may be able in some way to understand why, before the creation of man from the earth was made by God, divine Scripture calls and addresses the Maker by a certain simple name, namely God, adding no composition or addition to that name, as when it says: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." And again subsequently: "And God said." And: "God separated the space of light." But man having been made twofold (who is, I say, composed of earth and divine inspiration), Scripture immediately rendered the name of the Maker also composite and twofold, calling Him Lord and God, and this not once, nor twice, nor seven times, but in seventeen chapters in order and successively it named Him God and Lord, as if by a continuation of duplication and of a composite name, instructing us by the Holy Spirit and saying: "Recognize that He who long ago before the ages was simple and uncompounded, by having a human tabernacle constructed for Himself, will be united to it in hypostasis in subsequent times, and will become composite—He who was before simple and uncompounded—bearing a composite appellation through the incarnation, as one who is called Christ God, that is to say, God and man." Which, when Thomas had beautifully touched and said, and had perceived in Him the conjunction of the two natures, he cried out saying: "The Lord God and my God." ^B But if the Jew contradicts these things which have been said, I admit the contradiction; but to it, I move the contrary objection: namely, that he himself tell me for what reason divine Scripture did not duplicate the name of the Maker or Creator until man was created twofold by God, namely both material and devoid of matter, mortal and immortal, earthly and celestial, as says the divine Gregory in his theology, ^C in both things and words, of the Word of God, who once was simple, Scripture describes for the first time in man the composition and the incarnation. Wherefore, since God also made Him like the angels after His own image and likeness, saying: "For all things were made through Him and in Him," it discusses His incarnation and composition and combination; two, I say, individual essences of Christ: namely both the unaspectable essence of His divinity, and the aspectable essence of His individual humanity; clearly fashioning and expressing His image by the entire creation, both aspectable and non-aspectable.

Therefore, for this reason He made two heavens; the one indeed above, which has an essence among men that is not aspectable and is clearly ineffable and inexplicable, into a type and image of the unaspectable and inexplicable essence of His divinity; but the second heaven He raised from the earth, and placed it as aspectable, and called it the firmament, in the figure and type of His immaculate flesh, which indeed, having been taken from the earth, He raised on high. And there is also of these two heavens a middle, living water, to the image and type of the holy, vivifying soul of Christ, which is intermediate, as again Gregory the theologian says, between the divinity and the crassness of the flesh. Wherefore, this water is inferior to the upper heaven; that is, the intelligent soul, endowed with reason, bears the lesser essence of the Word of God: whereas it is superior and more excellent than the crass and visible firmament, as I have also said elsewhere: for it must be known that the heaven which is seen, and the heaven which is above the water which is not seen, have an inseparable and individual essence, just as the one Christ, who is a composite hypostasis, as being from two things that fall under aspect; ^D and from one which falls (namely the body); for the Word-God is unaspectable, and the soul; but the body is aspectable, as Paul truly says, saying: "All things are created in Christ, both those that are on earth and those that are in heaven, and visible and invisible." Whence it happens that for this reason there are also two earths, that which falls under aspect and that which does not, namely that which is with us, and that which is uninhabitable or paradise; and two living beings, the angel and man, the aspectable; two waters, the manifest and the non-manifest; two spirits, namely the spiritual and divine, and the wind; a twofold fire, namely material and non-material; a twofold light, that which falls under aspect and that which does not; two kinds of animations and movable powers; the mortal (for also the spirit in irrational living beings is called soul, by abuse of the term) and that which is within us immortal. Twice-living existences, terrestrial and marine; twofold is life, temporal and eternal; twofold generation, from seed, and from the dead; twofold baptism, by water and spirit; twofold knowledge, present and future; twofold goods, temporal and eternal; two laws, written and spiritual; two Testaments, two peoples. There are two narrations of the construction of Adam, one simple, the second crass and earthly, as if a double one: since the prophet Moses, or rather the angel who speaks within him, immediately duplicates the matters; so that they may be symbols of the two properties of Christ. Whence also he shows Him to be a twofold planter; a twofold tree, sensible and that which falls under intelligence: narrating two rivers of waters, two certain plantations, two generations of birds: a twofold position of man in paradise: two colloquies with Adam, one of the animals and one

of life (that is, of Eve); and narrating in it two garments: one of leaves, signifying the subtle divinity of the Word (which proceeds from the Father’s root); the other of the skin tunic, which it brought forth, two narrations of the woman, two of its fruits: two formations of animals, two appellations of the man. For the one first formed is called man, then later he was named Adam, that is, bloody earth. Similarly also two appellations for the woman: for first she was called woman; then later, Eve, that is, life. But these twofold matters of Scripture, which I have now adduced, are appropriate not only to Christ, but also to the two Churches, because of the duplication of the name of the Lord who was previously called God: for when man was made, he was immediately called both Lord and God, with Scripture clearly pre-signifying for us the dispensation of the Word having assumed flesh. For that this name "Lord" is accepted regarding the assumption of human nature, hear David saying: *Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, God the Lord, and appeared to us*. And again: *The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand*, namely after the assumption of flesh; for to sit is proper to bodies. Whence Gabriel also brought down this appellation from heaven, saying to the most glorious Mother of God: *Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee*. And the co-angels of Gabriel say to the shepherds who were in Bethlehem: *There is born to you ^A Christ the Lord in the city of David*. With whom Elizabeth, as clearly equal to the angels, [as] the mother of the angels, said, equal to the angels—and she who was either an angel or archangel, and even above angels—to the Mother of God: *And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?* But Paul names "Lord" that which was corporeal of Christ the Lord: *For had they known it*, he says, *they would not have crucified the Lord of glory*. And in the descent into hell, and in the assumption into the heavens, the angels called Christ the strong and powerful Lord, and Lord of hosts. But if you wish for the reason why God was called "Lord" after the assumption of flesh, I shall confidentially interpret it for you, having the suffrage of the divine Scriptures and their sacred interpreters. Therefore, the most celebrated and apostolic mystic of these divine things, Dionysius, says in his most wise *Theology* that God is called in Greek *theos*, from the fact that he *theorei* all things, that is, contemplates and beholds; but "Lord," namely *Kyrios*, from the fact that he *kyrieuei*, that is, has dominion and lordships. For *Kyrios* is said [to signify] power and lordship: *akyron* is said [to signify] that which is idle and has no strength or power, but is rendered empty and vain.

Rightly therefore and aptly and conveniently, in his advent to men, when he assumed flesh and was seen on earth, God the Word was then also called Lord: for before that he was named *Theos*, as he who was the *theoretes* of the world, that is, its contemplator and inspector. But when, having come through the flesh, he struck down our enemy tyrant; when he afflicted death with death; when he snatched us from the hand of the demons; when he taught the impious the knowledge of God; when he received the nations from the Father as an inheritance; when he possessed the ends of the earth; when he was lord from sea even to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the orb of the earth: then he was called Lord, as one who would lord over us, over whom the devil previously obtained lordship. And David clearly prophesying this to him said: *O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!* Since from the rising even to the setting [of the sun] the name of the Lord is praiseworthy. And: *The Lord is exalted above all nations, Jesus*. And: *The Lord reigned, he put on the beauty of flesh*, he put on ^B the Lord man, the strength of the cross, for the sake of him who was weak, and girded himself. And for that reason Scripture called him "Lord God" when that twofold man was composed of clay by divine insufflation. For *God*, it says, *fashioned man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul*. I would wish now that Moses himself, the writer of this book, were present with me in the flesh, and that I might ask him the cause of the duplication of the name of God, if he would not have immediately spat in the face of the impudent Synagogue of the Jews. For who, I ask, would not have been stunned because, after the completion of the entire creation of the six days, when Moses had come to make the summary repetition, he immediately introduces the duplication and composition of the name of God, signifying the dispensation of the flesh assumed by Christ, namely that he was to come to restore and renovate all things into a summary and head, and to make a new creature, and a new man, and a new heaven, and a new earth, and new animals, and new birds, and new ^C fruits, and new paradises, and new rivers, and a new orb of the earth? Which indeed Paul, clearly knowing, was saying: *If any man be in Christ, a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are made new*. But that which is worthy of all stupor and admiration is also that, while the divine Scripture throughout the entire creation of the six days was naming the Creator with a simple and uncompounded name, it was making a simple and uncompounded narration of created things: but after it doubled the name of the Maker, it immediately in the repetition also doubled the deeds done, in them making not a few additions; clearly teaching us the mystery of the new creature in Christ and the Church. For not only does he multiply the second things over the prior ones, but he also shows us a great and incomparable difference in the second creation. For in the prior narration of Creation, he says that grass and fruit-bearing wood germinated from the earth; but in the second, brief repetition, he says that the paradise of delights and every tree ^D

of life, and the plant of immortality. Again, the first river of the earth irrigated the whole face of the earth from a uniform fountain; but the second irrigation irrigated the circle of the earth from four rivers to bear fruits. In the former animals, the earth did not produce birds; but in the latter creatures, animals and birds sprang forth from the earth. In the prior narrative of the creation of man, he does not mention that divine, saving, and life-giving insufflation; he mentions it, however, in the second. In the first creation, he says that he made them male and female; but in the second formation of man, which tends towards Christ, he does not say male and female; for *in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female*; for Christ is one, and His person is one, singular and individual. ^A The first food, common to beasts of burden and wild animals, God gave to Adam; but the second was rational and alien to every nature lacking reason. The first creatures and beasts of burden God called, but the second He brought to man, and he imposed names upon them. Consider, I entreat you, those things also which follow thereafter. Before man was placed in paradise, it was not commanded him that he should work, and keep the former woods of perishing food; but it was commanded that he should keep those of the second paradise, which remains for him into life eternal. Previously, man was alone and without help; but in the second creation and narration, he was indeed simple and uncompounded; but in the brief repetition of the whole creation, then woman was made, and he heard: *Bone from the bones* of the spiritual Adam, *and flesh from his flesh*. Then was also built that which was previously dissolved; then also was built the woman, the spouse of her husband who was previously separated. Then also was called "Life" that which was previously made "death"; then also God brought to Adam her who was previously far away; then they were two in one flesh, who were previously two fleshes. They were naked, until in the second creation they were covered by God; they who in the beginning were blind, afterward received sight. But if you bring forward to me, O auditor, the disobedience, and the serpent, and the food, and the death, and the exit from paradise, stay your step, and do not hasten; and you will see that the things to be said in these matters possess within themselves much grace and elegance, for we still stand ^B in the midst of the contest. Those, however, who do not accept the brief repetition of Scripture which is after the six days as a type of the Church, are convicted by the additions that are in it of knowing nothing at all of those things which we shall afterward demonstrate more at length. These things, however, I have now said in a few words concerning the double name of God in the brief repetition made by Moses concerning man; so that he who was called Lord God, when man was made and paradise was a type of the Church. Nor let any one of the foolish dare to say that this addition to the divine name was made out of a certain simplicity, or unseasonably, or out of a certain folly. Or is he ignorant that not one iota or one apex of the sacred Scripture and Law will pass away? Which law and Scripture indeed, being interpreted, were written in the Spirit and by a holy mouth, in fire and ^C darkness and gloom and tempest, and with the sound of the trumpet of ten thousand angels. For the Law is holy, and the oracles of the Lord are very fiery, strictly speaking kindled by the fire that was on Mount Sinai, and thus delivered: For the Lord was in the concussion and not in the concussion, the Lord was in the darkness and not in the darkness: the Lord was in the fire and speaking fiery oracles to Moses, inflaming souls, and burning up that which is gross and earthly in them. From this, moreover, it appears that the wisdom of God has a hypostasis and exists. For just as that which catches fire is one thing, and that which is corporeally ignited is another: so also understand by analogy and convenience that the oracles of God truly exist and are not diffused into the air. For He did not say "fire-catching," but "fiery," or truly refulgent, and for this reason David had said: *The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes*. But it is ^D clear on both sides, namely, because it also proceeds from fire, from the divine nature, I say (for God is a *consuming fire*), and again kindled through the Sinaitic fire, and written with a fiery finger, and impressed and figured on fiery tablets: but it was also given indicating the fire-like and luminous face of Moses. In which there is nothing unseasonable, nothing which does not have its goal, nothing without a mystery. But it is worthy of admiration that, when Adam is become double, God is immediately named Lord and God, Scripture calling the Maker by a double name throughout the whole history of paradise. And I shall not hesitate to philosophize eagerly for you with a ready and alacriuos mind, and consequently to add the beginnings of the chapters. For it says: *And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden on the east. And: The Lord God made to grow out of the earth. And: The Lord God took the man whom He had fashioned. And: The Lord God commanded Adam. The Lord God said to the woman: Why have you done this? The Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this. The Lord God made [garments] for Adam and his wife. And the Lord God said: Behold, he is made as one of us. And: The Lord God took him from the paradise of delights, to work the earth from which he was taken. And you hear that from the moment there entered (as it were a certain divine nature) the divine insufflation into the body of Adam born of the earth, Scripture immediately did not call him by a simple name, but (insomuch as Christ was not only God) composedly named Him God and Lord, just as in pure and adulterated and ancient exemplars we have most diligently found; I mean, in those which had been noted by Clement, and Irenaeus, and Philo the philosopher, and by him who composed the Hexapla. For which reason God fabricates the creature of the six days, while He was simple; but the new creature which was afterward, (as he who was made complex) the Lord

and Deus; that is, God and man, Christ Jesus. ^A Let him hear with such a spirit the mysteries of the living God, and marvel. For when Adam went out of paradise, immediately Scripture did not call Him by a compound name, but by a simple one. For narrating to us the divinely inspired history of the birth of Eve, it says immediately after the exit from paradise: "And Adam knew his wife, and when she had conceived, she brought forth Cain and said: I have obtained a man through God." But for what reason, O Jew, did divine Scripture, which in seventeen chapters consecutively, in paradise, had named God by a double name, and had called Him Lord and God, immediately after man's exit from paradise, call Him God only, but not Lord and God? So that you might learn that the Lord and God is proper to the Church, and not likewise to those who are outside the Church. For of men who are on the outside, He is indeed God; namely, *Theos*, which is *theates*, that is, a spectator; but for the Church, God is both spectator and Lord, ruling over her, having care of her, and receiving, guarding, and defending her. But if He is also named Lord, Lord God, in divine Scripture after the expulsion from paradise, do not wonder; for there will be a time when He will rule even over those who are outside the Church through the Gospel, and there will be, as He Himself said, one sheepfold, one shepherd. Nor do I depart from my opinion which I said before, once and for all from the Jew and the envious one of the faith who contradicts this understanding of mine, demanding as it were with bit and bridle ^C that we say why, before the coming of the divine instruction to Adam, God was not named Lord and God, but only God.

This is therefore what the prophet Moses teaches us here according to the letter: "This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when it was the day in which God made heaven and earth"; that is, on the first day, before any greenery had been born upon the earth, and before any herb of the field had been born. "For the Lord God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to work the earth; but a fountain used to ascend from the earth." Those who follow here the letter, and that alone, here bring forward a false divine Scripture. For we do not find at all on the first day, before the vegetables and herbs in the six days, the fountain mentioned, nor irrigation, nor water under the earth; but that the whole nature of waters was above the earth. But where water was, there was no irrigation ^D nor draft. From what earth, then, was it ascending and irrigating the upper earth? For He signifies two earths, saying that a fountain used to ascend from the earth below, and irrigated the whole face of the earth. When, however, there were not yet fruits, nor plants, nor animals, nor birds, nor farmers, nor any men at all, what was that fountain irrigating, ascending from subterranean places? For if it was irrigating the whole face of the earth, what was the use of that river which went forth from Eden to irrigate paradise, since paradise itself is on the earth? For hear the consistency of the Scripture: "In the beginning when God had made heaven and earth,

But let us return to the proposition: "This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when it was the day in which God made heaven and earth." Wait a little, and you will hear the same writer Moses saying, or rather the Holy Spirit speaking through him: "This is the book of the generation of man, in the day in which God made Adam, to the image of God He made him; male and female He made them, and He blessed them." What the difference might be between the two appellations, namely the book of heaven and earth, and the book of man, the one from the other, we shall state the distinction in the things which follow: namely, that it is altogether necessary for us to understand all the things that are in this book concerning these two—namely, that heaven is the type of Christ, but earth the type of the Church; and thus thereafter to refer the entire creature of the six days to them, namely the waters, the abyss, and the light, and the herb, and the trees, and the firmament, and the luminaries, and the animals, and the birds, and the irrigations, and all other things; and thus is fulfilled the utterance which says that all things were created through Christ and in Christ.

It must be attentively observed, however, that from the day on which man was made to the image (namely, the prototype of Christ, the type of Adam), God no longer fabricated anything by command: nor from that time forth did He produce the second creation by doing work properly and truly and without any doubt, with divine Scripture predicting the advent and presence of the Word of God which was from heaven to earth, and in that creature which is in the second order teaching us by a brief repetition that the God of gods will be seen among us upon the earth, and by Himself, through His own work and His own hands, He will fabricate a new creature, a new heaven and a new earth, and a new man from unseeded earth, not seeded. Which, indeed, signifying to us before, divine Scripture both doubles the construction and narration of the creature and of man, placing hence a beginning, and laying the foundations of the Church of Christ, and saying prophetically: "This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when it was the day in which He made heaven and earth," and every green thing of the field before it arises. For the Lord God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no one to work the earth; but a fountain used to ascend from the earth. "And God fashioned man, receiving clay from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." There is great obscurity in the words proposed, and this whole passage is very obscure, not only as it pertains to its spiritual anagogy, but also as it is difficult to know regarding its bodily history. Therefore, if it seems good, let us first direct it to greater clarity in the letter, and then let us scrutinize its hidden and spiritual sense.

^A The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss. If, however, there was darkness over the creation, why did it irrigate in the darkness? And if the Spirit of God was borne over the water—that is, a vehement wind was agitating it and moving it with waves (for to be borne is to be moved vehemently)—how, I ask, in the gloom, and darkness, and tempest, with the whole earth covered and overwhelmed by waves ^B or subterranean water, could it be irrigated by any spring rising from the earth? Are we therefore unable—if we do not completely exclude history from the letters of Divine Scripture—to understand also through anagogy this spring which rises from the earth below, and which, in the gloom, darkness, and tempest, irrigates the whole face of the earth, the human water, I say, which is contrary to the rain that descends from above onto the fleece? Wherefore, since that subterranean water is sterile and infertile, and a wicked and dark irrigation, the earth, which is a participant in reason, could not produce every green thing, namely either fruit or herb. For God had not yet caused a voluntary rain to fall from above from the perennial fountain of life; there was no dew from Hermon—Christ who descended from the Father—nor was there anyone who sows for the planting of the Gospel, and there was no apostolic man to cultivate the earth which is in the soul.

Understand further, I ask. Divine Scripture did not say that there was no man, for on that day man had already been made. But there was not such a man who could work and cultivate the earth of the soul. For the man who descended from Heaven had not yet come forth to work and cultivate the earth of the soul, and to pull up thorns and thistles, to produce fruit itself, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. Since, therefore, such a God-man had not yet appeared to work the earth, but that subterranean spring (namely the malignant power) was flooding and irrigating the whole face of the earth, for this reason Divine Scripture immediately introduces man, the figure of the heavenly man, saying: *And God fashioned man from the clay taken from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul;* doing this as if to say that, having the grace to compress the water of the adverse power, God the Word was born man on earth, both fashioned by God and a shoot planted by God; so that, being joined by nature, he might rightly irrigate those things which are born of the earth and, as is fitting, by reason purge the rational germs, like cleansing like, and bear fruit. ^C

But if you do not believe these words as being improbable, what will you say when you hear immediately that God is planting, with the work, the plants also for whose sake—or if only for whose sake—He had immediately before fashioned the farmer from the earth for their cultivation? For after Scripture said: *And man was made into a living soul,* it immediately subjoined that: *And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden to the east, and placed there the man whom He had made,* as it were placing a farmer in the things that were to be cultivated. And therefore, near these things, when he had proceeded to the work of such a good farmer ^D and those plants which had been irrigated by him had been made fruitful, Scripture immediately brings in, saying consequently: *And the Lord God caused to spring up still from the earth every tree beautiful to behold, and good to eat, and the tree of life in the midst of the paradise, and the tree of knowing that which can be known of good and evil.* What then have the expositors rightly understood and interpreted concerning Christ and the Church, Adam, and all the plants, trees, fruits, and the paradise previously mentioned? They said these were written prophetically by Moses concerning us and Christ. I mean, what was said concerning paradise, and the plants, and the animals, birds, beasts, and what follows thereafter.

But if they contend that these trees and plants and fruits were produced from the earth on the third day, and [that] the seeds which germinated [were the same], they will necessarily say that the common food of man, and of the brutes, and of birds, and of reptiles, was the fruit of the tree of life, and the fruit of the tree of knowing good and evil. For so God said on the sixth day to man: *Behold, I have given you every tree that has in itself the fruit of seed-bearing seed, it will be food for you and for all the birds of heaven.* If, therefore, the Word and the speech of the Lord is eternal, surely if man through disobedience was deprived of the fruit of the tree of life, the beasts and reptiles ate from it. But if they ate, how is it that they do not live forever, but receive more than man a perfect and, in every respect, absolute destruction, and inevitable death?

But even if we suppose them not to have been participants in the tree of life, yet as things ordered to have society with men, they would have been entirely participants in the tree of knowing good and evil. And how then do they not know good and evil just as man does—the reptiles and beasts and birds? From this sense, therefore, most interpreters, and especially the ancients, receded, saying that paradise is not sensible, nor are the two trees of life and knowledge in its midst; lest they necessarily make the beasts and cattle have society and participation in the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. For God did not distinguish between the food of Adam and the food of the brutes; but He gave to them commonly every fruit-bearing and seed-bearing tree for food. If, therefore, they were sensible, says Clement and the ancients who followed him as interpreters, [those of] paradise, and the two trees which are between them, the beasts and reptiles would be found to be more excellent than man, as indeed they were not prohibited from the eating of any tree and fruit. Wherefore, from the very command of God concerning the common food which He gave unanimously to man and to all the beasts, it is permitted to know that they are not the same trees which were made on the third day and those which are in paradise. For to say that the Lord God *still* caused to spring up from the earth every tree *beautiful to behold and good to eat*, by this the Scripture shows us still a second creation of more excellent trees, or those words...

of prophecy concerning the trees endowed with reason which arose in the latter times in the paradise of the Church. And since the treatment of paradise is frequent and difficult to interpret, and always doubtful among interpreters, let us see again how God's command concerning common food came to be; then we shall discuss paradise.

God therefore says to Adam when He made him: *Behold, we have given you every seed-bearing herb that is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed-bearing seed shall be for you for food, and to all the birds of the sky and to all the beasts of the earth that have in themselves the spirit of life, and every green herb for food*, and it was so. If, therefore, these trees include the trees of paradise (namely, both the tree of immortality and of the knowledge of eternal life), then wretched and miserable is man alone, who is in the image and likeness of God, in that he alone is deprived of paradise, and of knowledge, and of the food of eternal life. For the serpent, the asp, the scorpion, and the dog to this very day enjoy every fruit and every tree over the whole earth and paradise: for they did not exit from the time they entered with Adam into paradise, but remained within when he went out, as they were not expelled on account of the transgression. Understand, therefore, the law of God spiritually, for the law is spiritual, as Paul cries out; *for the letter kills*. It remains, therefore, that (lest we be put to death by the letter) we learn where it is fitting to compare spiritual things with spiritual, namely the letters through which the Holy Spirit speaks, from which comes the great and chief and most hidden mystery concerning paradise. ^C But you who understand this present passage carnally and according to the flesh, regarding the trees and fruits, tell me again how, when God commanded one and equal food for all men and beasts and birds (that food, I say, which is from herbs, shrubs, and trees), it happens that many animals do not feed on herbs but on flesh, as they are more carnivorous? How, again, does God, who allowed us to eat the fruit of every herb and tree that is upon the earth, make it so that many herbs and very many trees are not edible for men and brutes, and are poisonous and deadly? These not only we, but nature itself, which is devoid of reason, rejects and refuses, and there are other innumerable things of this kind for both us and brutes, which are in no way edible and are lethal by nature. ^D The ancient interpreters of the Churches, I say, Philo the philosopher and contemporary of the Apostles, and the famous Papias of Hierapolis, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and Irenaeus of Lyons, and Justin Martyr and philosopher, and Pantaenus of Alexandria, and Clement the Stromatist, and their followers have spiritualized the things written about paradise, referring them to the Church of Christ. Among whom are the two most learned in all things, the Cappadocian Gregories. They all, for certain reasons, maintained that there is also a certain spiritual paradise. First, because if Adam was not subject to destruction when he was made, it is clear that he was not a partaker of earthly food, into which destruction falls. But if he could be a partaker of sensible foods, it is also clear that destruction falls upon him. (For whatever enters through the mouth is again excreted.) But if destruction fell upon him, he was altogether mortal; but if he was created mortal, then death was not caused by disobedience; and this is indeed the first cause of the interpreters. The second, however, is the woman’s remaining without an exit. The third, indeed, is that of the living creatures who had remained with her in paradise. The fourth, the previous common eating of food by men and brutes. The fifth, that it was impossible for one man to cultivate such an immense magnitude of paradise, where indeed its irrigation is divided into four sources. Moreover, what need was there to labor, when often one tree or another would suffice him for food? And what need was there to guard, when no other men were present, not yet thieves; and all beasts and birds were subject to him, and obeyed his word? Nor is this all, but also [as to] what was said and done by God in paradise? If we understand it to the letter, they say, we shall fall into innumerable Scyllas and Charybdes and the precipices of labyrinths. When God fills heaven and earth without any limitation, and is present everywhere, and is above the universe, and neither moves nor is contained, nor passes through, nor descends nor ascends; how did Adam hear His voice entering 894 and walking in the evening in paradise? How did he see Him face to face, and this, they say, when Scripture says: *No one has seen God at any time*, nor heard the voice of God. Moreover, Moses himself, who narrates these things to us about paradise, testifies that God said to him: *Man shall not see my face and live*. But now, even the divine Paul, caught up to the third heaven and pa->

paradise, to rightly inspect the ineffable words of paradise, when he sought to see God there and did not contemplate Him, returned saying of God: *Whom no man has seen, nor can see*. And if these things are so, as they certainly are, what will you do next, O Israelite, who understand with a corporeal sense those things which are said about paradise, when you hear: God is incorporeal, and stripped of the matter and figure of flesh, and yet he made the sound of footsteps in paradise? How is he who lacks hands said to have gathered the soil with his own hands and fashioned man? How did he perform the excision of Adam’s rib, and fabricate the building of the woman, being incorporeal? ^B And not only this, but he was also a gardener and the administrator of his own creature, bringing oxen and sheep, beasts and cattle to Adam, that he might call them one by one, he who knew all things before their birth. With what mouth and lips, moreover, did he—who possessed neither, as he is incorporeal—breathe the spirit of life into the face of man? For if God the Word had been then incarnate and endowed with a human form, he would by no means have taken on flesh from the holy Virgin and been made man in the end times.

Wherefore, on account of these incomprehensible causes, those interpreters of whom we spoke, understanding all things said about Paradise spiritually, have said that diverse heresies have been born from certain men who heard carnally what is said in Genesis about God and Paradise; some indeed establishing that God has the form of a body, others offering great acts of thanksgiving to the serpent, ^C as though it were through his counsel and the transgression which occurred that the whole human race was generated; who are therefore rightly called Ophites, that is, Serpentines. The Manichaeans, moreover, both men and women, gather naked in their churches in imitation of Adam and Eve. Others worshipped an unbegotten nature of fire, for the reason that no mention of fire is made in the entire creation of the six days. Others worshipped water as unbegotten, because it is not written: And God said: Let there be water. Others, among whom are the Persians, contracted marriage with their sisters and mothers, for the reason that our first parents were joined with their mothers and sisters. There are also certain heresies which accuse God for not having prevented the wicked one from seducing Eve through the serpent. ^D Yet another heresy determined that the souls of beasts are also endowed with reason, being able to hear and cultivate prayer, when it had heard God blessing the birds and fishes, and cursing the serpent, and bringing beasts and birds and cattle to Adam, that he might know what to name them.

The wonderful interpreters whom we mentioned first, desiring to refute these and many other heresies which took occasion from the words of Scripture concerning paradise, and henceforward fixing their eyes spiritually on the sacred Scripture—as Paul commands—determined that there are two paradises, as did also Dionysius, one spiritual and one sensible, one terrestrial and one celestial, which is perceived and which is understood; just as Christ is also heavenly at once and terrestrial, in accordance with the type of the two Churches, I say, the earthly and the celestial city of the virtues of the Lord, where there is also a second and truer land of promise, a region of the living, and mansions, eternal tabernacles which have no succession, and the second land of the meek, into which corruption does not fall, which has trees and waters not liable to destruction, and plants which do not wither, and fruits ever germinating, which are perennially irrigated by a perennial fountain of life, and daily flourish unto the ages of ages, and always grow into something better, and never cease to progress and increase and be formed into that which is better and higher, and which are planted and placed in the house of God, and flourish in his supernal atria; of which kind are the cedars of the celestial Lebanon, which the Only-Begotten planted (namely, intellectual natures), with which he there nested the sparrows of holy souls, and the herons, namely Christ, is the leader of their house, for whose sake alone he planted and established that meadow which does not perish nor grow old, intellectual and devoid of matter. Concerning which it is said: *And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east, and put there the man whom he had made*. And Eden is interpreted, by some, as "bloody delights." But as the ancient Jew says, Eden is interpreted: "burning of coals": which indeed quite aptly is said to befit the spiritual paradise, and that which is devoid of matter, and angelic, and intellectual: *For he makes*, he says, *his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire*. To the reason of the spiritual paradise the interpreters most especially confirmed themselves, adducing as witness Ezekiel, and the God who spoke in him, where God is seen revealing to us enigmatically, in the prophet himself, the fall of the devil from heaven, saying thus: And you, son of man

receive a lamentation over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: You are a seal of likeness and a crown of beauty in the delights of the paradise of God. For the prince of Tyre was indeed impious and an idolater in the days of the prophet Ezekiel. He says, in fact, that this prince was adorned with twelve precious stones, a power perhaps of the supernal virtues. And immediately after the donning of the stones, he adds, saying: From the day you were created with the Cherub, I placed you on the holy mountain of God, that is, in heaven. Thus he says subsequently: You were in the midst of the fiery stones, namely, of his flaming intellectual Virtues, fittingly for him who says: Who makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. Let us also hear what follows: From the day you were created, until iniquities were found in you. These things were spoken by God properly against the devil; for the prince of Tyre never lived in such a way that the stain of vice and just reproach did not fall upon him. For he was impious, and he died as a son of the impious. But neither was he in the midst of coals and fiery stones, as we heard regarding the prince of this world. And God adds regarding him, saying: From the multitude of your merchandise; understand the multitude of knowledge and wisdom which the devil previously possessed as the highest prince and leader of the army. Through which knowledge, having fallen into pride, he thought thus, saying: I will place my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High. Wherefore, again, God cries out against him through the words that follow in Ezekiel, saying: And you have sinned, and you were wounded from the mountain of God; that is, you have been cast down from the height of the mountain of God, for he immediately hints at this by adding: And the Cherub has brought you out from the fiery stones. It seems to me that God commanded some most excellent and magnificent one from among the Cherubim that, taking the devil as one accused, he should inflict punishment upon him: he who led him out from the midst of the intelligent armies, and cast him down from heaven. Wherefore Christ said: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. Let us also hear what follows: for he says subsequently and consequently: Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; your knowledge was corrupted with your beauty. For by beauty, he means the excellence of form which the devil previously enjoyed, as one fiery and light-bearing, and additionally great knowledge, the cognition of mysteries and of wisdom. Here, therefore, we learn that the splendor of elegance and grace which the demons and their prince previously possessed, they do not possess today. And neither do they have their former wisdom and knowledge. Hear now of his renowned fall from that paradise of delights of God, and the heavenly mountain; thus he says in the things that follow: Because of the multitude of your sins, I cast you to the ground. Behold, we have clearly heard that from a certain high paradise of delights and fiery stones, this one who is called the prince of Tyre was cast to the ground: for Tyre in Greek is called *kratos* and *oros*, that is, power and mountain. Whereupon it is permitted from here, from those things which were said to Ezekiel, to know that all the Fathers who spoke of there being some spiritual paradise and spiritual trees, said so following the divine words of the prophet: among whom are also those of the most wise Gregory, who say that they are certain plants, namely contemplations, as he sets forth their contemplation. But what was Gregory's spiritual contemplation, if not that illumination of the Holy Spirit? Concerning which contemplation the Lord says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

^B See, for he shows that this paradise is not absolutely called so by the prophet, but the paradise of God. The Mosaic paradise, however, is not written with the name of God, but is simply called paradise. Whence also the divine Ambrose, in all things, and Justin the God-inspired martyr, in their commentaries on the Hexaemeron, while going through the things concerning paradise, after having spoken of the sensible trees and waters, and the earthly paradise, brought into the midst the proposed words of the divine Ezekiel concerning the heavenly paradise; and having pursued them, they added a great and subtle examination and contemplation of them, saying that it is most shameful and hateful to God to say or to think at all that the blessed and adorable divinity of the Word of God enters into a flowing and material paradise with the righteous thief. And what is the worthy reward of that venerable and God-befitting confession, to yield as a reward to the thief the consuming of pomegranates, pears, grapes, and corrupted figs? Who, again, is worthy of that venerable and God-befitting confession, to yield as a reward to the thief the consumption of pomegranates, pears, grapes, and corrupted figs?

^A And yet, who again, they say, having a mind wise in divine things, would say that Paul, having been directed in the region of the gardener—with mattock and axe, which are appropriate for tillers—to the flight of the heaven-traversing Paul, was caught up? And as for those unspeakable words which he found neither in the second nor the third heaven, that these were enigmatically uttered by the pure and divine mouth of Christ in the ground watered by mystic streams?

But as we say these things regarding the spiritual paradise, let not the perverse Origen boast as one who thinks rightly. For he, having used anagogies and spiritual contemplations insatiably, reduced all creatures that were made in the six days through allegory to fabulous tragedies; nor did he understand—as is consistent with the letter—the sensible heaven, nor the earth, nor the waters, nor plants as truly plants, nor stars as truly stars, nor anything else, not darkness, not light, not the abyss, not the spirit, not the firmament. Whence it comes to pass that the Church is henceforth necessitated, insofar as it concerns the trifles and doctrine of Origen, to believe that which is seen is the creation of God. Wherefore, quite rightly, a synodical sentence rejected Origen. For it was necessary first to admit the history which is consistent with the letter; then, where it is appropriate, to proceed to the anagogies. For this reason—I say, for the vain labor of Origen, who reduced the entire creation of the six days to fabulous allegory and changed and altered the body of the holy Scripture—is it now necessary to keep on earth, in gardens, things which are higher than all the supernal virtues and closer to God than the most excellent Cherubim?

But enough of these things; we must return to the Mosaic history and consider what has been proposed. For there also, I think, it is permitted to those who possess the light of divine knowledge to see what is said concerning both these paradises; namely, what sequence he uses when he first narrates for us, as I have already said, the spiritual one, as when he says: *And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden toward the East:* yet we do not find on earth a place which is called Eden, and were it not to signify toward the east, whether of the earth or heaven, it gives us some signification of the supernal East, where the Father of lights and the life of the living is, and that such a paradise is there. So much so that, speaking of the spiritual paradise, he makes no mention of trees, nor of waters, nor of stones, ^B nor of earth, nor of gold, nor of food, nor of regions, nor of boundaries, nor of any other thing that is in it. But that which follows, *And he placed there the man whom he formed*, he said indeed in the heavenly paradise, as a prophecy regarding the assumption of human nature in Christ into the heavens in the end of times. But if the Prophet speaks as already past that which is yet to be, you have, as the great Ambrose says, very many proofs of this in Scripture, as when he says: *A child is born to us* (Isa. IX, 6). And: *They dug my hands and my feet* (Ps. XXI, 17). And: *The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand* (Ps. CIX, 1). And: *They gave gall as my food* (Ps. LXVIII, 22), etc., and things of this sort. But it was rightly said: *He placed there the man whom he formed: whom he appointed heir of all things* (Hebr. I, 2), Christ. Whence the Hebrews, from a book which is not included in the Canon, which is indeed called the Testament of the Protoplasts, say that Adam entered into paradise on the fortieth day; as also seems right to a certain historical chronographer, Pyrrhus, and to certain expositors. Which ^{A C} indeed quite aptly corresponds to Christ’s assumption into heaven. For even into the earthly Jerusalem, after He was born in Bethlehem, He entered on the fortieth day.

The more recent Fathers—I mean those around the divine Basil, and the river of Christ, John Chrysostom, and Theodore, truly the wonderful Antiochene, and Severus the Gabaleote, and Eusebius of Emesa, and in word and deed the most blessed Epiphanius, and the interpreter of God, Cyril, and Theophilus—all these expounded the writings concerning the six days congruently with the letter, omitting allegories and anagogies.

On account of the vain labor of Origen, as I said before, they themselves also brought forward proofs and demonstrations worthy of faith regarding the sensible paradise, which immediately follows the one we called spiritual. For the legislator Moses immediately added, saying: *And the Lord God made to grow yet further from the earth every tree beautiful to see and good for eating, and the tree of life in the midst of the paradise: and the tree of knowing that which can be known of good and evil. And a river goes out from Eden to irrigate the paradise. Thence it is separated into four beginnings. The name of the one, Phison: this is the one which circles the entire land of Evilath: therefore that* ^D

^A gold—but the gold of that land is good; there is the carbuncle and the prase stone—and the name of the second, Geon: this is the one which circles all of Ethiopia. And the third river, Tigris: this is the one which flows over against the Assyrians. And the fourth river, Euphrates. From these places and nations and names and boundaries born of the earth, and furthermore from the gold and the prase stone and Ethiopia and the Assyrians and the Euphrates, many of the Fathers affirmed that these are to be understood primarily of the paradise born of the earth, and especially from the leaves of the fig tree that the first parents sewed together for themselves for loincloths. Hence, even fittingly, those who understand the letter said the waters were sensible, the woods truly edible, the fruits garden fruits and those into which decay falls, and that the gold was material. Likewise the carbuncle and the prase, the emerald stone; and the fig, they said, was a true fig—and especially the divine Epiphanius, from the fact that he heard Scripture saying that the land of the Jordan was once irrigated as paradise, and as the land of Egypt.

We indeed receive, accept, and embrace this paternal opinion and tradition concerning the sensible paradise. For in this work, arming ourselves beforehand, we have often said that we do not dissolve the history of Divine Scripture which agrees with the letter, nor do we overturn the opinions of our holy Fathers. And yet, because we hear the divine Paul relating everything that is in the Law mystically to Christ—namely the tabernacle, the ark, the urn, the temple, the lamb, the foods, the drinks, the woods, the animals, the birds, the gold, ^B the emeralds, the carbuncles, the waters, and all the rest which were indeed then made mystically, fittingly to the letter, but now are truly seen in the Church—it must be spiritually considered whether these things also, which are now written by Moses corporally concerning the sensible paradise, were previously described typically with relation to Christ and the Church, inasmuch as they were entirely made through Christ, prefiguring the assumption of his flesh. Following, therefore, the orator of theology, Gregory, who said that Adam was a husbandman of the immortal and divine notions in paradise, let us ascend from the letter that kills to the spirit that gives life; for the sacred letter always ascends along with those who ascend: *And the Lord God made to grow yet [again] out of the earth every tree that is fair ^D to look upon and good for food.* Here it is fitting to inquire diligently what "growth" is, which in Greek is *anatolē*, and what "growth" that is *exanatolē*. In those things which come from the earth and are born, it is indeed called "rising" (namely *anatelon*), which appears straightway at first; but "risen again" (namely *exanatelon*), which, when it has withered and been dried up, rises a second time through water and the diligence and industry of agriculture. Wherefore it has been said very clearly and aptly, prophetically, concerning the Church: *And the Lord God made to grow yet again out of the earth every tree* ^A fair to look upon and good for food. For the Church indeed was born at the beginning when it was made green and flourishing well, and had its trees thick; but it was dried up by the heat of the malignant sun, who is transfigured into an angel of light, when the serpent had hissed into it through his mouth and had dried it up through idolatry. When, therefore, the celestial river, God the Word, had come and irrigated it through water and the river, it was raised up and blossomed again, and He again vivified its trees which were endowed with reason, of which it is said: *And the Lord God made to grow yet again out of the earth*; that is, after it had been dead and dried up, He again, in a second order, made it grow once more; the earth of Christ, endowed with reason, [made to grow] every tree fair to look upon and good for food. Concerning which ^B woods the Scripture does not speak of hay, nor chaff, nor brushwood, nor grass, nor a tree fair to look upon and good for food. And the infertile tree, and the hay, and the stubble, and the chaff is cut down and thrown into the fire. But there is nothing of that kind in these woods, but it says that in them all are fair to look upon, all good for food, all well-flourishing, all sprouting from God. For they were not grown from the earth by His command, but God Himself, the craftsman, planted with and made co-corporal and become a kinsman of them, born from the earth, made them germinate from the earth as if they were His own members, as they are the body of Christ, and members from member; all beautiful, since He Himself is said to be fair beyond the sons of men. Whence also, after the passing of the sixth day, the divine Scripture narrates the germination of these trees, that is, after the Sabbath of legitimate worship; it was said concerning these ecclesiastical beautiful woods: *Praise the Lord, ^C fruitful trees and all cedars.* And again it says: *The trees of the plain shall be filled*, which says: *I am the vine, you are the branches, and my Father is the husbandman.* For in this is my Father glorified, that you may bear fruit, and will be my disciples. Concerning these trees the Savior was crying out to the Jews, saying: *The vineyard shall be taken from you and given to another who brings forth its fruit.*

From these beautiful woods (as being those which were useful for the building of the ship of the Church), when one had received [this], he was saying: *According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise architect I have laid the foundation.* From these beautiful woods, those are the ones who were first rooted and first planted, *the feet of those who gospelize peace.* In these beautiful woods are the trees of the righteous planted by the streams of waters, who *give their fruit in its season*; that one, indeed, saying: *But I as a fruitful olive in the house of God*; and another singing: *The Lord feeds me and I shall lack nothing: in a place of pasture He has set me; He has nurtured me over the water of refreshment.* Another: *The just shall flourish like a palm tree.* And another: *Like the dense juniper.* And another: *Like the willow by the flowing water.* And: *Like the apple tree among the woods of the forest, and like the cypress, and*

^A a pine and a cedar, perfuming and adorning the meadow of the Church, in which the Lord God made to spring up still, and still, and into the age of the age, every tree beautiful to behold and good to eat. Beautiful trees are those of which God said: *Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream divine dreams.* The tree beautiful to behold was that which says: *My eyes are ever toward the Lord.* Beautiful trees to behold are those who have vision such as he who saw the vision of God, Daniel, who said: *I was contemplating in the vision of the night until thrones were set.* Isaiah also had such a vision, who said: *I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.* Such a beautiful vision is also signified by him who says: *I sleep, and my heart keeps watch.* Such was Paul, who gazed upon the Lord in spiritual vision. And, to say it once for all, every mind that is clear-sighted and apt for divine vision is called a tree beautiful to behold: good ^B is the tree for eating in the paradise of the Church, which is every orthodox teacher, nourishing with dogmas the sheep of the flock of Christ, and laying upon them no deadly or harmful discipline; but having in himself the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostle also germinated and enumerated: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence, and what is similar to these. Thus it seems to me that in the Church are to be understood trees beautiful to sight, and good for eating, and suitably producing fruit, such as the tree of life, saying: *My food is that I may do the will of my Father.* To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

The end of the seventh book and of the bodily creation of the six days: after which there is from henceforth the beginning of a new creature in Christ, having an understanding more excellent than those things which have been said.

BOOK EIGHTH, OF THE TWO TREES AND THE FOUR RIVERS OF PARADISE.

^C *And the Lord God made to spring up out of the earth every tree beautiful to behold and good to eat, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of the knowing of that which can be known of good and evil.* We have great need of inspiration and illumination to look openly and to say what is the true essence and substance of these two trees. And it is clear that things which Divine Scripture has passed over in silence are not to be investigated. For the Holy Spirit has dispensed and administered all things which contribute to our utility. Whence also, from wise commentators, no judgment or conjecture or opinion of these trees has been given. For the earlier interpreters, taking them for contemplation, have celebrated these two plants. Others, however, [say] that they are not sensible and [to be] eaten: Theodoret of Cyrrhus, however, said that the fig was the tree of fruit which Adam ate: similarly also Theodore of Antioch, similarly also the unhappy Origen: I call him unhappy, since, although he expended many and useful labors in the Church, and interpreted all the old and new Scripture to the letter; afterwards, as also Eusebius of Palestine, he fell away from the truth. Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit has kept silent and hidden from us the naming and nature of these two trees, it is clear that the investigation and manifestation of those things which are hidden by God is not necessary nor useful to the Church. For hence [it was] ^D not at all agreeable to the holy Fathers regarding those things which they comprehended.

Let not the Church, therefore, inquire into the nature of these two trees; but rather of what type and figure these two trees are, and what is the life-giving fruit and food, from which when anyone eats in the Church, he will live and not die for ever. But what again is the other fruit, from which when anyone has tasted, he will see his nakedness and shame, and will die an eternal death. For it is to be noted that one of these trees indeed offers us life, but the other is the maker of death. Which two foods were perhaps symbols of virtue and vice: and the fruit-bearing giver of virtue is Christ, whom that tree of life described earlier. And therefore, as life and the life-giving [one], He cried out: *I am the life.* — In Him indeed was life, and the life was the light of men. For our life is hidden in Christ. And when Christ our life shall be manifested, He shall give life to our dead bodies, who says: *And as I live, and you shall live.* For the living Word of God and the life and the resurrection, how again is death the malignant devil who was signified by the other tree which is called: *That which can be known of good and evil.* He was indeed beautiful at first when he was made, and therefore he was called, first indeed the tree which can be known of good; then also the deadly tree of evil [is] the devil. Concerning whom Christ says to the Jews

^A: "You are from your father, the devil; he is a murderer from the beginning; and he who eats of this fruit shall die with death." If, however, you ask for what reason divine Scripture conceals the names of these two trees—I mean of the living Son of God and of the enemy who opposes Him—you should know that, as it revealed these things to a wicked, unclean, and voluptuous nation, it did not wish to reveal the Son of God to the Jews at all, lest they should understand the deification of the Sons of God, and the nuptials of God, and the multitude of gods, they who referred an ox and a fly to the status of gods. Therefore, in this way, it did not even reveal the devil to them openly; but at one time it called him the serpent, and at another time, the tree bearing death-dealing fruit, hiding from them altogether the creation of the invisible, intellectual Virtues, because of their insatiable insanity for the worship of idols, lest if they had learned that there were certain natures devoid of matter and intellectual, they would have referred them into gods. God Himself bears witness to what I say, thus speaking through the prophet Hosea to Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who establishes the heaven and creates the earth, whose hands have created all the host of heaven, and I have not revealed them to you, lest you should walk after them." From this we clearly learn why mention of the angels was passed over in silence in the Mosaic Scripture.

How also about these two trees, of which it says: "And the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of knowing that which can be known of good and evil": here, those who know well how to search out divine things have diligently and accurately treated the context of the diction concerning these two trees, saying: Why does Scripture not speak in the case of generation, namely, "in the midst of paradise," but in the case of offering, saying that they are "in the midst of paradise"? So that we may learn from the phrasing that they were not planted at the same time as other trees, nor are they of their same nature, but were created by the exercise of virtue and vice to test our free will. We do indeed find in some unadulterated copies that after it said: "And the Lord God caused to spring up yet every tree beautiful to see and good for food," the writer made a perfect full stop, as if the heading regarding the trees was completed, and then began a verse saying: ^B And the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of knowing that which can be known of good and evil, so that by passing over it and introducing it, he might say why they came into paradise. That Christ is greater and life-giving has been said by us a little before. And that He calls Himself the tree, hear Him Himself saying to the Jews: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit." He said these things to them, because they were saying that He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Likewise, also, going out to His passion to the garden of Golgotha, bearing the wood of the cross, He called Himself the tree of life, saying to the women who were lamenting and weeping: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children; for if they do these things in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry?" The green wood is the tree of life, the Lord naming Himself; but the dry trees, and unfruitful, and fuel for fire, are the Jews.

But if you also wish to know that He is in the midst of the paradise of the Church, hear Him saying to the disciples: "I am in your midst as one who serves." Whence also John was saying to the crowds: "In your midst stands He whom you do not know." Who stood in the midst of the disciples and breathed on them saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit," in agreement with what is said: "God stood in the congregation of the gods; in the midst, however, He judges the gods," who is the mediator between God and men, and made salvation in the midst of the earth; who is the tree of life: whence (because His divinity is uncreated) it does not say that He was planted with the trees, but that He is in the midst of paradise. Likewise also with evil. I speak, however, of the middle tree of the evil one, death-dealing, of the knowing of good and evil, because He Himself is of a different essence ^C from the human nature of those trees which are called beautiful. For that reason, in the sixth case, Scripture says that they are in the midst of paradise; whence also the woman, discoursing with the serpent, said "in the midst of paradise" [is] the tree. Two trees are called "the middle" ones: namely, the tree of the divine, and the tree of the opposing power; since for anyone who wishes, virtue and vice are found to be equally desirable on account of our free will. And for that reason, in my opinion, God, giving the law to Israel, says concerning those two trees: "Behold, I have set before you life and death." For there were two trees signifying and effecting life and death: "But a river goes out from Eden, and it waters paradise"; but this river is other, and secondary, and dissimilar to the prior irrigation. For the former, rising from the earth, used to inundate ^D the whole face of the earth, making it dead and barren. And therefore a certain one of the prophets was making a vow to God, saying: "The Lord will inhabit the flood," that is, He will spring up and sit as king forever. But this river of God goes out from Eden, watering paradise as His own field and God's possession by His own power. For one must note that, when that prior irrigation had ceased, Scripture renamed it, saying: "But a fountain was ascending and watering"; but this one, as one that perpetually waters the Church for ages, it calls "present": "For the river," it says, "goes out from Eden," that is, from delights, "to water paradise." When, therefore, we have fortified ourselves so as not to dissolve the bodily history of things, which is appropriately according to the letter, let us also alacritously consider that history which is about these proposed rivers and places, just as those things also are prefigured concerning Christ and the Church. For we hear someone saying about the exiting river and the Church: "The impetus of the river makes glad the city of God."

because the river of God, overflowing from its paternal fountain, is filled with the waters of the nations, which indeed the prophet was evangelizing, saying: "And the Lord will go out to them like a river of peace"; who says: "I have gone out from my Father, and have come into the world": I have gone out for the salvation of my people, to save my christs. Moses describes the divine emergence of this divine river from heaven, saying: "A river goes out from Eden," that is, from abundant delights, "to water the paradise" ^A through that water which goes out, namely through the Spirit who proceeds from the Father. For whoever receives this river, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The history teaches us this openly, saying that the river which goes out from Eden is multiplied and divided into four rivers, and makes for the Church spiritual riches. Concerning this David says: "They shall be inebriated from the fatness of your house, and you shall give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure; for with you is the fountain of life."

But the river goes out from Eden to water the paradise: from there it is dispersed into four heads. The prophet Moses called the subterranean irrigation of the evil one a fountain, showing that the devil is the author and generator of vice, and that he did not receive evil from any other source, but is himself the fountain and beginning of sin; but he called the grace of the Holy Spirit, proceeding as it were from the paternal fountain, a river separated from the infidels: watering, however, with four ^B heads (from the ends, I say, of the circle of the earth) the paradise of the Church of those who believe in Christ. The name of the one is Phison. This is what encompasses the whole land of Evilath. In all the earthly places that are manifest, there is no place that is called Evilath. Wherefore we argue from this also to the infidels that Scripture tells us spiritual mysteries. For Phison is interpreted as "the mouth of alteration." This alteration or mutation itself of the right hand of the Most High occurred when the divine Word had altered and changed the mouth and spirit of the Church, from blasphemy to faith, and from cursing to theology or the praise and preaching of God. But Evilath, in turn, is interpreted as "birthing" and "bringing forth." For it signifies properly the Church of the nations which was once sterile, to which God cries out through the voice of the prophet: "Rejoice, O barren one who do not bring forth; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail; for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband" from among the Jews. Since the barren one has brought forth seven; and she who brings forth is near to labor, and in her labor she has cried out thus: We are born to the beloved Son of God who is called Phison, who is the ^C mouth of the Father, and he changed our race from corruption into incorruption, and he encompasses and guards the entire land of Evilath which brings forth and bears Christ himself. Wherefore he subjoined, saying concerning this spiritual Evilath, that "there is gold, and the gold of that land is good": this is the Divinity, which is not, as that of many lands (the gods and idols of the nations) evil, obscure, and adulterated. But in many places of divine Scripture, you yourself will also find, upon searching, that gold is taken as a figure of the Divinity of the Word. For the wooden ark, which was earthy, was covered inside and out with pure gold as a type of the Divinity. Likewise, Solomon's temple was adorned with purest gold. Moreover, the golden ark also described and prefigured Christ the Word to us beforehand. And perhaps for that reason the Magi also offered gold to Christ (in place of all) on behalf of the nations, the image of the idolatry which was in Babylon having been crushed, and their gold offered up to him, so that when the darkened and vanishing image of Adam (which had been ^D the image and likeness of God, and whose character had been greatly changed and deleted, and crushed by the motions and perturbations of the soul), and the remains of the divine commandments [had been destroyed] by the poison of the serpent, Christ, as the divine character of the paternal hypostasis, having reformed it while taking the form of a servant, might purge it by the seal of baptism through water and fire, having impressed upon it the proper and convenient reason of faith. And again let the gold of that land become good, congruently with what is written concerning the spiritual church of Evilath. For in it alone is the honest and non-adulterated gold of dogmas. But the ark, which signifies the Church of the nations beforehand, he says is covered inside and out with pure gold of the Divinity, because God causes even those things which are on the outside (which the Jew sees alone) to shine: and those which are inside, which you (the gentile people) behold together with those that are outside, he likewise illuminates, brightening it on all sides, even if the Jew, on account of ignorance, does not see the probity of that which is on the outside. But Solomon's temple figured the human temple, in which the Trinity dwells: which shines with gold on the inside, because the temple of God which is in man must have the splendor of works only on the inside, and not also on the outside for the sake of ostentation: since the lightning of the Divinity also illuminates the soul, and renders it similar to gold in form; but the body remains neglected and contemptible: for he to whom internal things are of concern holds no account of it. Moreover, the urn also (inasmuch as it is accepted for the soul) bears manna, namely Christ; but if for the Church, it bears the mystic bread: which, however, those who keep manna today and tomorrow and thereafter do not smell.

There is also another stone, which by grace through tempering has received the gold-like splendor of the Divinity; and another which has received the pure and non-adulterated dogmas of theology, and is illuminated by them: and there is the carbuncle and the emerald; the carbuncle is the celestial sun, God the Word. For our God is a consuming fire: and for this reason, coals were also kindled by him. Of this which is called carbuncle,

^A all his imagelike ones are conformable, made luminous, to whom he said: "I am the light of the world." This coal of the Word of God that other coal also first described and prefigured, which Isaiah saw in the midst being held by tongs, and purging his sins. For the tongs of Christ, holding him with two wings, are his immaculate Mother and his most holy body. There is, namely in their midst, the carbuncle, and then again in the same river the green stone as well. The color of the carbuncle is indeed celestial, but the second is terrestrial: for this reason it is not called a stone that is born from the earth, and which is a type of the Word’s earthly flesh. But because all flesh is grass, and all grass appearing in color is seen as green or like a leek, for this reason that which is of the carnal Christ, as having germinated from the earth, is assimilated to that color. Whence also the divine Daniel called the dispensation of the assumed flesh a stone, saying: "A stone is cut from the virginal mountain without hands of sowing and corruption." The stone which the execrable builders rejected, who offended against the flesh when they thought they were building up the people, the Scribes and the Pharisees. Concerning which stone God also says through the voice of another prophet: "Behold, I place in Sion a stone, that everyone who believes in him may not be put to shame." These things, as I at least judge, the divine Scripture teaches us enigmatically through these rivers and the gold, the carbuncle, and the emerald: for it is not by wanting to make us goldsmiths, jewelers, or smelters of gems fused in gold that Scripture says these things.

Let us see, however, also those things which follow in Scripture. For when it had mentioned the first river, Phison, it subjoined, saying: "And the name of the second river is Geon; this is that which circles all the land of Ethiopia." The discourse proceeded, drawing us toward the breadth of the Nilus flowing in Egypt, so that it might lead us to Geon, to which river of this discourse we most especially incline, and we ought entirely to turn our discourse more elegantly toward Egypt. For above all the rivers that flow with violent force upon the earth, we see that this river which is called Geon has a great propriety and consistency with Christ. For, as those say who have beautifully and accurately translated the Hebrew language into Greek, Geon is interpreted as "pourer out" or "emptier," which indeed in truth is Christ. As the "pourer out," he poured himself out, taking the form of a servant, with the old man renewed, and the face of the earth renovated, and with a right spirit renewed in our bowels. Whence also, after Phison, Geon is immediately placed as the second born of Paradise, signifying Christ the second born upon the earth by the second generation through the flesh, after the generation of his same essence from the Father, which is before the ages. And perhaps for that reason the divine Jesus, born immediately from the earth upon the earth from a Virgin and ^B from the fountain of the Bethlehemite cave, departs to the Geon river in Egypt, because Geon is the second from paradise, and the Son is the second by hypostasis from the Father. Whence also Geon proceeds and descends from the height of the cataracts, because Christ also descended from the height of the celestial cataracts upon the earth. Geon irrigates and enriches the upper region of Ethiopia and the lower region of Egypt, just as Christ also enriches and illuminates both celestial and terrestrial things. From unknown and unlooked-at and inaccessible and inscrutable places, both proceeding, they descend into inhabited places: and so in all things by figures and examples Geon preaches, and most openly proclaims the mysteries of Christ. Wherefore the Nilus, which at one time from the beginning flowed with blood and water, prefigured for us by example the blood and water about to emanate from the side of the river of God, Jesus, on Golgotha. And this Geon, simultaneously irrigating the whole earth, and again returning to its proper former place, is seen to prefigure Christ, who irrigated and illuminated the world, saying at the same time: "I have gone out from the Father, and again I go to my Father; I have returned to my prior things, and my places are not circumscribed." This most pleasant and fruit-bearing Nilus once killed the wicked offspring of the Pharaoh, by the order of the lawgiver, by being done to death, first indicating and signifying Christ who killed the first-born of the devil-Pharaoh (I speak of impiety and idolatry) in the depth of the water of baptism. This Geon first described for us the most grave punishments of the Egyptians which the Lord Jesus brought upon the people of demons for our sake. Geon alone crowned for us Joseph the king, who prefigured and spoke all things to us concerning Christ. The land of the Nilus was the first of all the regions of the Gentiles to see God dwelling among them in the flesh, and no region of alien Barbarians in the world saw the face of Christ in the flesh except Egypt alone. In it, the Pasch was a type of Christ’s passion, and the first lamb was ^C cut. In it, the redemption of the nations was described first from the hand of the tyrant of the world. Egypt first saw the blood of the lamb marked at eventide upon the houses for salvation, and it showed the blood of the lamb Christ poured out at the evening of the ages, until it colored the house of the Church. After the storm of winter, when the Lord had turned his ascension into the air, from there, from his side, the Lord caused the water of life to spring forth for us in the garden of Golgotha. Therefore Geon also, making the salvation of the people its ascent, irrigates the Ethiopians before all others, preaching to us that Christ saves and illuminates and irrigates the first of the peoples of the nations who are clouded in darkness. Of whom David says to the Church: "Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God; behold the aliens and Tyre and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there"; for Ethiopia has anticipated its hands toward God, before all others entering into a covenant with Christ and making [it] through that eunuch who was of the queen of the Ethiopians, the Church, which indeed, united to Christ...

cries out: "I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." But why black, at first in unbelief, who am now dark by humility, and beautiful now by the knowledge of God? For I am the Queen of the South who arise from the ends of the land of the nations, and coming, I saw the wisdom of Solomon, who truly cried out to me: "Come, my beautiful neighbor, to me." For I am the resurrection, and I am the river of God, who for thy sake was made the earth-born Gihon, and who flow around and encompass all the land of the nations of Ethiopia and of Egypt, which was formerly in unbelief, but now is the beginning of the faith; for the Egyptians first saw the Lord, and the Lord was made known to the Egyptians, and an altar was erected to the Lord in Egypt, fixed on the rock of Peter, and a column was set ^B for the Lord at the borders of Egypt, the Lord in Bethlehem upon a light cloud, like celestial rain in the bosom of the cloud of Mary his mother, and in his course came into Egypt, fleeing voluntarily from the wicked hands of the unrighteous, and he shook the man-made things of Egypt, and shattered the sculptures of Egypt, and raised her up who was lying prostrate. For Egypt with her own hands received God coming to her and running with haste; and she hid from the wild beasts of the Jews him who snatched her from the hands of demons: and she kept, embracing with her arms, him who saved her and the world, and she covered him who rules her and all things by his hand: and Egypt received with hospitality him who in the flesh voluntarily was a guest in her, and us who were guests in her he lifted up into the heavens. And Egypt nourished the celestial bread who nourished all, and Gihon of Egypt watered with the water of life, and Egypt opened the opening for him who says: "I am the door," and she gave the beginning of the entry to God the Word, who was at once without beginning and in the beginning from the principle that lacks a beginning; and Christ found in Egypt where to incline his head by faith: for in his own country there was no place of faith for him in the inn of the abandoned Synagogue of the Jews; and the God of gods, the Lord, spoke out of Egypt, sending his Son to us before the apostles, the God of the apostles; and Gihon was made holy through the Holy of Holies, sanctified, and for illumination and sanctification the gold-flowing river anticipated the Jordan which received Christ in its currents; and again a second time Egypt, holier than the saints, received for the Mosaic Mary, the Lady Mary; and Gihon enriched a second time Joseph, who indeed was called a man, but was not the husband of the Mother who was in every respect incorrupt, since he himself was pleasing and accepted before him who emptied himself. But these are the encomia of Egypt, which in another separate book we have composed at greater length. ^C Now, however, the time calls us to sail through the other rivers in a few words, considering how they too have a relation to Christ and to the paradise of the Church of the nations: for thus the consequence of Scripture says: "And the third river, the Tigris, he himself goes against the Assyrians." But why does he name two rivers indeed (Phison, I say, and Gihon) as flowing around, and as if guarding and encircling the paradise of Christ: but the third river, not as flowing around, but as if meeting it with battle and war, he says is against the Assyrians? Assyrians indeed are interpreted as "not directing"; Tigris, however, in the Greek tongue is called "broad and austere." Therefore, against the Assyrians who direct their life away from the path of peace, the evangelical preaching resists, waging war against them. For we know that the Assyrians are enemies and foes of the city of God, Jerusalem, who have also variously despoiled and burned that which is the house of God. Against whom the third of the fullness of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit, I say) goes as an enemy and foe: but this fourth river is the Euphrates. In many and diverse places, the holy theologians of the Mosaic documents are accustomed to call only the Euphrates the great one among these four rivers, as when God says to Israel: "I will set thy borders from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates." And Euphrates indeed is interpreted in the Greek tongue as *καρποφορία αὐτῶν* [their fruit-bearing]. And the Euphrateans are conversely called fruit-bearers. Some of the interpreters, however, interpret Euphrates as the "dispersion of vice"; but Euphrata [is interpreted as] the land bearing fruit. Therefore, the great river of God, the Euphrates, namely Christ, who is the fruit-bearing of the Euphrateans, that is, of the nations bearing fruit, was born in Euphrata (that is, Bethlehem) so that he might disperse the vice of the nations, and render the land fruit-bearing, the Church which was previously unfruitful: that the earth may give us its fruit, since the giver of fruits, the Euphrates, is inseparable in it. For it is fitting more prudently to observe how Phison is indeed said to flow around the whole of that land of Evilath, or "the parturient": but Gihon likewise contains, guarding the peoples in it who ^D were formerly of the Ethiopians: but the Tigris protects and defends it against the wicked Assyrians. But it is not written of the great Euphrates, either to cross, or to go, or to flow around, but to be stable and immovable, as one who always says: "Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the age." And: "I will not leave you orphans." Therefore, neither is this great river said to irrigate any region or place. For it does not irrigate a place, but the whole world, this fourth river. But understand the fourth river to be the evangelical, and the preaching of the whole world, after the natural and Mosaic prophetic law. But because those things which are now said about these rivers seem hard and constrained, not only to the Jews but also to many of the Church who are carnal, and are not capable as with the divine Paul of understanding and saying that "The letter killeth" (for the law is spiritual), come, let us show

them from the divine Scripture itself the spiritual Euphrates, which is previously named Christ. ^A It is perceived, therefore, that God in the law commands Israel that every male from the whole earth, wherever he may dwell, should come three times each year and worship at Jerusalem, imposing a dreadful bond and pronouncing a decree: "Cursed is every man at Jerusalem who does not do all things that are written in the law of this book." If, therefore, he set thy borders from the river of Egypt unto the great river which thou thinkest to be the Babylonian Euphrates, how is it possible that thou shouldst come three times a year from Mesopotamia? It must be said either that the entire scope of God is this: to bind by the law and to show that Israel is accursed, which cannot and is not able to perform the precepts which God commanded; or that Scripture names Christ spiritually as the Euphrates, saying to Israel: "I will set thy borders," that is, the limit of the time of legitimate worship, "unto the river of Egypt, unto the advent of Christ," who is the great fruit-bearing Euphrates; and immediately the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away, as Daniel says; and the anointing of the leader and the judgment shall be blotted out. For the end of the law is Christ. For the Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist. Exasperated (I know) and angered in hearing these things is the Jew, calling those things that have been said false trifles. Let us, therefore, approach him through another principle, namely, the Gihon.

^B "I will set," he says, "thy borders from the great river Euphrates." This is the utterance of God (regarding the borders) to Israel. But God is not one who lies; for the Word of God remains forever, as David also says: "Forever, O Lord, Thy Word remaineth in heaven; Thy truth is unto generation and generation." Since, therefore, God has promised and does not lie, and has said that He would set the borders of Egypt unto the Euphrates, how is it that Israel obtained dominion over neither the river Gihon, nor those who are near the Gihon, nor again the Euphrates, nor any counsel that is near the Euphrates? But having returned to the Palestine of the Canaanites, why did he not possess up to the Euphrates? I, however, will say to him: And how in the wilderness didst thou provoke God, and didst thou possess and hold from Dan unto Beersheba the Amorites and Hittites, and the remaining ^C nations of the land of Canaan? Let the Church, therefore, and the Jew learn that from the exodus of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates, namely Christ, God constituted that they should hold the borders of legitimate worship. For this spiritual Euphrates, which destroys him who is made worship and libation through blood—this, I say, Euphrates, God prefiguring, says to Jeremiah who was in Jerusalem before the captivity of Israel: "Go, cast thy loincloth into the Euphrates." But God calls the Euphrates the place flowing with water near Jerusalem, which is called Phara or "fruit-bearing." And when the prophet had placed the loincloth of his *lumbus* there, he went after some days to see it and bring it back, and he found it corrupted. "And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah saying: So will this people be corrupted as the loincloth of the linen"; the loincloth of the linen, God naming Israel whom the great river Euphrates in Jerusalem corrupted and destroyed; for He utterly destroyed it through the Romans, Titus and Vespasian. For the loincloth is not only of nature, situated in the loins of the belly and the genital parts: therefore Christ, when He had come to the supper of the New Testament to join the nations to Himself by kinship, having taken a cloth, girded Himself. It remains, therefore, for us to show ^D to the Jew himself, and to the Church, that there is a spiritual Gihon, so that we may persuade both to understand the Scriptures not only in the literal sense (for the letter killeth). For look, if we should understand the contemplation of the letter corporally as it is present, which says: "I will set the borders of Israel from the ends of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates," we would find God to have lied, as it seemed to the wicked Manichaeans that God who spoke the Old Testament was a liar. Therefore, lest we also fall into those snares, let us believe Christ who said that "One iota or one apex shall not pass from the law, until all be fulfilled": for all things were written concerning Him in the Old Testament. For we find in the beginning of the third book of Kings, David about to die after he had reigned thirty-three years in Zion, in a type of the age of Christ according to the flesh, saying: "Call me Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and they entered before the king, and the king said: Take the servants of your lord with you, set my son Solomon upon my mule, and bring him down to Gihon, and anoint him king in Jerusalem." And they did as the king commanded them, and Solomon returned from Gihon to his father David reigning. Wherefore nothing then was lacking to David from saying, when his son ascended from Gihon to him, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." For Gihon signifies Egypt; for this also is a river at Jerusalem, which is called Siloam. Whoever, therefore, the Hebrew who struggles against the things that are said is refuted by the consequence of facts. For we do not find another king anointed in Gihon, except only Solomon the son of David. Therefore, David also does not build the temple of God, which indeed was fitting, for he was most just. But the son of David, namely he who administered the temple of man, endowed with reason, dissolved through Him who also pacified Solomon round about all nations. Therefore, the Queen of the South also, namely the Church, of the years of the latter age, of those namely who were formerly Ethiopians, arose from the ends, but not from any place, and came to see the wisdom of the son of David, namely Jesus, the spiritual Solomon, since from the temple of Solomon anointed in Gihon, unto the great river Euphrates, were determined the borders of the legitimate worship of the temple of God (which dissolved the temple

^A of Israel) and endowed with the principle of sacrifice, which extinguished sacrifice through Christ, who is the coal that cannot be calmed or extinguished. For He also ignited Isaiah, and inflamed him unto Himself, appearing to him then also symbolically with the royal intent of sacrifice. Thus, O brothers, eat the flesh of the body of Holy Scripture, hungering for them; and thus drink the blood of the mysteries hidden in the flesh of Scripture; for whoever is thus a partaker of it has eternal life. Since, however, we have learned from the evangelical traditions that the property proceeding in the Holy Spirit is, as the Lord says, *The Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father* [John 15:26], perhaps the writer signifies the Spirit when saying: *A river goes out of Eden to irrigate the paradise of the Church.* For that word, "goes out," signifies perpetuity, and that there is no rest. Which indeed the Lord Christ Himself promised us again, saying: *If I go to the Father, I will ask Him, and He will send you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth that He may remain with you forever* [John 14:16]. But if you also seek the four origins of the illumination of the Holy Spirit, know that it is He who spoke in the just ones who were before the Law, from whom was also he who said: *The divine spirit that abounds in our nostrils, the breath of the Almighty that teaches me.* Similarly, there is a second in the Law: a third in the prophets: and then a fourth in the order of the four rivers of the evangelists. For Matthew, indeed, it is fitting to speak of evangelical preaching. But Mark is called the "gift of life," and Luke is the "obedient to the Lord." Moreover, the very position of the four rivers indicates in sequence the immutable order and position of the four holy evangelists. The first, therefore, is Matthew, who is called Phison: which indeed is interpreted as "a change of mouth." For when Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew language, his speech was changed and translated by Luke and Paul into the Greek tongue. The second useful river is Mark, which is called Gihon: since Mark also, when he had announced the Gospel to the Egyptians, caused living water of preaching to gush forth there from his belly through the Spirit. The third is Luke, who is called Tigris, which indeed is interpreted as "Side." For what in the Gospels is wider or richer than the Gospel according to Luke? For when he had been a disciple of the source of Paul's doctrines, he gushed forth fluvial streams from Paul's rivulets. The fourth is John the beloved, *who reclined on the breast* [John 13:25], who, when he reclined on the breast of the Light, announced to us the generation made from on high by the very Father of lights, who is Himself the true light lighting every man, and the light shining in darkness [John 1:5], and the light of the world, as He said. To Him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

BOOK NINE. CONCERNING THE SUBSEQUENT CREATION OF THINGS, AND WOMAN AS THE HELPER OF MAN.

*And God took the man whom He had made, and placed him in Paradise* [Gen. 2:15]. Before any investigation, it must be considered, regarding the opposite place, why God did not make man, born and fashioned from Paradise, within Paradise, but brings him in from elsewhere, naked and uncomposed, from outside into Paradise; but within Paradise He fashions the woman from Adam; and again, when He had fashioned the beasts outside, He afterwards introduces them to the man in Paradise. For it was fitting either to fashion the woman with the man outside, or to construct the man within, where the woman was constructed. But how did God, when bringing the beasts and animals, not lead them to both when they were together, but only to the man? The Jew, reading this every day, does not understand; because he still has the veil of animal ignorance imposed upon him. For if these things are understood according to the letter, they induce every absurdity and blasphemy. For if God fills heaven and earth (as One who can neither be circumscribed, nor seized, nor changed, nor moved, nor migrated), how does He not pass from place to place, as God transferred him and placed him? ^C But if you say that the woman was made from the rib outside Paradise, how does He bring her in at the same time with the man into Paradise? But lest we cover one doubt with another, we who wish to learn clearly and without error how God took the man whom He fashioned; let us hear Paul saying about Christ, that *when He was in the form of God* [Phil. 2:6], He placed the man whom He made in the Paradise of the Church, to work it (that is, the man) and to guard it. But if anyone is troubled by this word, let him tell me, since the breadth of Paradise is of incomprehensible magnitude, to such a degree that ^D the abundance of its irrigation makes four rivers irrigating almost the entire earth, how could he, being alone, have practiced the tilling of the earth with hoe, rake, or plow; or how was he guarding it, when there were neither thieves, nor men, and all beasts and reptiles had been commanded to feed together with him on all the fruits that grow from the earth, as things made by God to be participants with man and

^A coheirs of the fruits, as has been briefly said by us already: but all beasts and birds were subjected to Adam. When, therefore, you hear that God brings Adam from a certain unknown place, which can neither be explained nor comprehended, merely naked and unformed, into paradise; and clothes him within with a tunic of skin of our nature; and brings to him inside the beasts which, before his entrance, were outside: by all these things nothing else is predicted, except that God the Word, who was first naked and unformed, by the will and cooperation of the Father, from an unknown place which cannot be explained (namely, the Cherubic throne) has entered into the paradise of the Church, to work it and to guard it: and having assumed flesh, He received the tunic of our essence (namely, the man whom He fashioned), and was united to it in substance. For He did not take hold of angels, but He took hold of the seed of Abraham, when, having taken the linen towel of flesh, He girded Himself, it not being imposed upon Him by another. For He clothed Himself with flesh without human seed. Concerning whose entry into life, Paul, the forerunner of paradise, testifies, saying of God the Father, and the Son who was introduced by the Father: *When, however, He brought the first-born into the inhabited world*, and placed Him in the Church, whom He made heir of all things, He says: *And all the tribes of the nations shall adore Him*; and all the lions (namely, the kings of the earth) shall call Him blessed, as one who has received from the Father the beasts (namely, the inheritance of the nations) and His own possession, the ends of the earth. Thus let the Church understand that: God took man, and placed him as His own body into one holy substance, that he might work the fullness of the faithful people, and might guard the paradise of trees, namely of souls gifted with reason. Whence also, as if placed by the Father for this very thing, He was saying: *My Father works until now, and I work*, and to me, guarding the paternal command, He gave the field and garden, into which, having departed from the Father, He entered immediately who sows for the sake of sowing: and immediately in the morning I hired twelve laborers, the disciples, commanding them and saying: *No one among you who lays his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.* Furthermore, *Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy*, namely the cross; and he who sows receives a wage, and gathers fruit, that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. These twelve I hired for myself early in the morning. But after ^B I saw the great paradise, and many regions, white and pure in heart, and prepared by purpose for the harvest of faith, and for grafting from infidelity to the knowledge of God; and not this only, but also trees beautiful to see and good to eat, and having ripe fruits, I said: *The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few.* For which reason, when I had also shown the people, I hired ^C other seventy laborers to work in and to guard this paradise, to work well, and to sow, and to plant, to prune, and to irrigate, commanding them and saying: *Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted, root it out, and plant our word and dogma.* And not only this, but it is permitted through Him to see this second Adam (namely, Christ) openly working the trees gifted with reason; and those indeed which are unclean, cleansing them. To whom He was also saying: *I will, be cleansed*; but the dry ones He was moistening: of which there was also that tree which had its dry hand like a branch; to which the good gardener exclaimed, *Extend your hand* to the work of God. Thus also, as if life, He mortified men affected by death; among whom was the dead and dry tree, Lazarus, irrigated by the water of tears, and which immediately germinated from the earth. But this husbandman, Jesus, also knows how to graft supernaturally, as one who, like a gardener, grafting with clay and water him who was blind from birth (as one who was light from light), restored sight to the eyes of the blind. And if you also wish to see the irrigator Himself, hear Him saying: *If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink.* For thus sitting at the well, that beautiful vine (the Samaritan woman, namely) was irrigated, and He rendered it fertile. Whence also, as a fruit-loving husbandman and God, He reproached him who had irrigated that fig tree for three years, ordering it henceforth to be cut down: just as also, when He had by Himself rebuked the fig tree which bore leaves, but not fruit, He dried it up.

Book 9

But let these things be said concerning the fact that Christ works the paradise. But concerning the fact that He guards this very garden, gifted with reason, hear Him saying: *I will not leave you orphans.* And: *The gates of hell shall not prevail against* this paradise: *I am the door of the sheepfold, and I lay down my soul for them.* And: *No one is able to take them out of my hand.* Because those whom the Father gave me, I have guarded them, and none of them has perished, except the son of perdition. For this is the will of the Father who sent me that whatever the Father has given me, I should not lose any of it. For to this end did He place and constitute me, that I might work and guard His paradise planted by God. And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying: *From every tree which is in paradise, eating you shall eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; and on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.* The meaning was not obvious, nor manifest, nor yet easy for the interpreters who set out for this work to attain; wherefore it was also in every respect discrepant in the proposed sayings. For some perceived by vision the plant which was then edible, of which kind, they say, the fig ^D dried up

^A partaker of the tree of life; for He is indeed that tree. And therefore the serpent in no wise counseled the Church that it should partake of it, for it heard Him saying: He who eateth this my bread, shall live forever. But what pertains to the serpent, and what is toward the serpent, must be spoken of in those things which follow. Let us return, however, to the divine mandate, that, fulfilling the command of Him who commanded in us, we may contemplate those things which concern the creation of the six days, and impose an end to the labor.

For most beautifully, when He introduced the first-born man, endowed with reason, into paradise, He made him also king, and subjected all things under his feet, God gives him the law of the mandate, as though discussing these things with Adam, and saying: Hear, He says, O first work and first-formed creature of my undefiled hands, and the unbegotten and most beautiful likeness of my incorrupt image; know that I alone, of all the creation which falls under vision and which does not fall under it, have formed thee to my image. I am Lord of the heavenly, but I also constituted thee lord of the terrestrial. I have fashioned thee a man from the earth; do thou also fashion a man from the womb. I hold as a seat the heaven which is above ^B the waters, but to thee I have given as a seat the earth which is above the waters. I command the angels, and thou commandest men. All the Cherubim stand by me, and all the animals of the field stand by thee. I subject those which have six wings; thou shalt subject the birds which have many feathers. I command those which have many eyes; thou shalt command the demons which see many things. I am Lord of the subterranean; do thou also rule over the fishes which are in the subterranean places of the sea, and let your fear and trembling be over all whales, and reptiles, and beasts of the earth. All things have I subjected to thee as in my image. All things I have given under thy hands, animate, inanimate, trees, budding things, natural things, birds, and what is sown. Rule over all: enjoy all, and most of all, me who am the tree of life, thy God; and with full heart, promptly and cheerfully, satisfy thyself with these delights. And not with these only, but also with those which are from every tree and fruit which is in paradise, that is to say, with all the delights which are presented to you from angelic virtue, eat; only that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that which is planted near (for ^C vices adhere to virtues), do not touch, do not handle, do not approach, do not take into your hands, do not carry: For in whatever day you shall eat from it, by death you shall die. If you shall attempt to become like me, knowing good and evil, and both those things which are hidden and those which are manifest, immediately you shall die the death.

Considered, however, should be the questions which arise for us in those things which have been proposed. Of which one is the first, how God did not give this precept to Adam and his wife, but to Adam alone: then Adam imparted it to his wife. Then why does He not rather command him not to eat from the tree of life (as being more precious), but from that which is less? For that food is far more excellent than the food of knowing good and evil, as that which renders him immortal, and makes him alien to corruption and destruction, and is bread for the angels. And God shows an ineffable difference in the tree of knowledge, prohibiting afterwards that Adam should be a partaker of it by the guardianship of the Cherubim. Thirdly, why, when God had ordered Adam nothing concerning the tree of life, did the serpent not rather counsel him to be a partaker of it? Then why did it not attack the man but the woman, and where it even found her acting ^D privately. Fifthly, from whence did it know, since it was ignorant of the precept given to them. Sixthly, again, why did He command only the man to be a partaker of all trees; but certainly He says that they should abstain from the tree of knowledge, and denounces death to both. Seventhly, if he was formed wholly not subject to destruction, how did he perceive the fruit of the tree to tend toward corruption? Eighthly, why did He not also place this food of beautiful trees in common for men and beasts, just as also the former within paradise, when He had brought them to Adam. Ninthly, how did he not die on the very day in which he ate, conformably to the sentence which God pronounced upon him. Tenthly, for what cause when He called Adam. And these things indeed all who wish, let them examine as they desire and are able, and with eloquent words and pleasant manner of speaking and rhetorical tropes let them debate and understand.

However, when I see and hear mystically God giving the commandment and precepts to Adam alone, with no one present or interceding; then later Adam imparting the command to them, I understand it as that of Adam calling his incorrupt wife (namely, the Church) and saying: The words which I speak, I do not speak from myself, but I have received the command from my Father what I should say and what I should speak. By this reason Christ is also called the Angel of the Great Counsel, because He consulted the ancient true counsel together with the Father before, which God predestined before the aeons that He would come to our glory, and proclaim to his flock as to his wife, and to the seed of the word receiving from him, and to her who brings forth the son. Whence He does not command him that he should not be a partaker: This is what God commanded man not to eat, this is, not even to conceive in the mind. This is what is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: this is what is called the fruit bringing pleasure, to be puffed up with pride and to think oneself God, knowing good and evil: since neither angel nor demon, but

indeed God alone knows the mind of men, as Job says. For he himself knows the secrets of the heart, who searches hearts and reins, God. He therefore warns man, as if saying to him: Take heed to yourself and beware that the power and great authority which I gave you when I established you king and lord of the whole visible world does not lift you up into pride, and you experience to think it robbery to be equal to me (who am God), knowing good and evil. ^A Observe that before you I made a certain other [being], and I established him as prince of the plants endowed with reason, and of the angelic, intelligent paradise: who, not having endured that weight of power, he also attempted to eat, and he ate the wood of deadly will, wishing to be God, knowing good and evil, and saying: I will place my seat above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High, and knowing good and evil as He does, namely foreknowing who is about to do this or that, and knowing the things which are hidden and manifest to men; and he died an eternal and unending death, and was cast out beyond his power, and has not even authority over swine, and now he is at once evil and envious, and he is jealous of your glory, O Adam, and of your power, and of your beauty which is in the image of God. He is about to come to you, he is about to creep into you, then to deceive you, that he may cause you to wander through the path from which he himself fell, and deprive you of the glory and honor and power which I gave you, so that you may not come into the place from which he fell. And to speak once for all, every precept and law which God gave to the first-formed was nothing other than a protestation to guard piety against him, and that they should not refer themselves as gods: and think themselves to be like God, knowing good and evil, and the hidden and the manifest. But this we shall show more manifestly in the things which follow hereafter, even from the very words of God to Adam. ^C Nor let it seem to you improbable or forced that Scripture says the wood is idolatry and defection, from which she immediately from the beginning tasted and ate, and the wife of God (namely, the Church) was stripped and cast out, for the reason that she admitted this nearest and greatest sin against God, that she had fashioned for men woods in the likeness of idols, and had worshipped them. But in many and diverse places of Scripture you will find defection from God called the fruit of the wood. Wherefore in the parable also of the prodigal, who is the people from the Gentiles, who receded far from God, God named the sin husks, which is indeed the food of swine, namely of the unclean demons. Which food, as the prodigal people was eating, it was desiring to be sated, that is, to cease. For he who is satisfied, from that time ceases to eat. And no one gave to me, until the celestial Bread came which led me away from the wood of husks. ^D Moreover, Moses also in the second canticle, taxing the idolatry of the Jews, calls it a plant: for from the vine of Sodom is their vine and their fruit of Sodom, their bunch is a bunch of bitterness. ^B Similarly also God speaks of them through Isaiah: I looked that my vine should make grapes, but it made thorns. Whence also in the books of Kings God names Israel the wood of the forest, which established over themselves a thorny king, the bramble, that is, the devil who thought himself to be a God knowing good and evil. Furthermore, as for the fig tree also which Christ withered so that it should no longer bear fruit, if someone were to say that this was idolatry, he would not have sinned; of which the type was the removal of the blood of the woman laboring under an issue of blood (namely, Eve), which the Lord repressed by drying up the blood of the sacrifices. ^B If, therefore, we justly and broadly learn that wood is called impiety, why do you wonder if God says of it to man: Of every wood that is in paradise you shall eat; this is: Enjoy and be satisfied with every contemplation, with every knowledge, with every illumination of the holy Spirit, with every wisdom of divine Scriptures, with every wood beautiful to see and good to eat, both angelic, and prophetic of Scripture, and evangelical, and of discourse accommodated to teaching. Pluck from every holy fruit-bearing wood, and be a partaker of charity, and of meekness, and of faith, of hope, and of fortitude: since they are blessed who hunger and thirst for these foods, conformably to Him who says: My food is that I should do the will of him who sent me. Whence again He was saying: I have food to eat which you know not.

But you too taste, and know that it is Christ who gave all good things to be enjoyed, saying: Eat of all intelligences and graces; but of the evil wood of sin (namely, of knowing good and evil) do not eat, lest you die the death of the soul. Thus it is to be read and understood concerning these two woods. But those who in every way oppose the theological voices of the Gregories, and say that these are sensible and edible, altogether necessarily (I say again) make all beasts, and reptiles, and flies, and dogs, and all birds to be partakers of the tree of life, as they were commanded in the prior food to feed at the same time with man from every tree and fruit which is upon the earth. But it is not, it is not so. For see that in these two (Adam, I say, and Eve) He placed enigmatically a certain difference of food with a participation of all things, that is, he granted the knowledge of heavenly and terrestrial and subterranean things to man alone, who is Christ. For He is the one who knows all things, even the deep things of God; but abstinence from sin, namely from the Evil One, to man alone and to Eve, namely the Church. And hence it is clear that Scripture does not speak of edible wood, when it prohibited to man the knowledge of good and evil; for before that eating the woman knew good and evil. For hear her in the conference with the serpent, bringing forward the contrary dogma, and saying to him and setting forth the divine command, and the threats of death intended if he were of the wood.

^A Partaker. But neither were they blind before the knowledge; for it says: *And the woman saw that it was beautiful*, before the eating. But if the food were perceptible and carnal, they would have been altogether dead even carnally when they ate. But because they sinned with mind and intelligence, they underwent also a spiritual death of the soul. He calls the man Adam here: just as the Word of God also [is called] earth-born by the incarnation. For Adam is interpreted as earth and fire, as I have said elsewhere. *And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a helper like himself.* When Manes, the wicked leader of the Manichaeans, came to this point, understanding the context of the letter corporeally, he was killed by the letter in accordance with the voice of Paul, calling God a liar. Similarly also the impious Aquila, thinking the same things as the nations, wishing to rebuke God, instead of what ought to have been said: *Let us make him a helper according to him*, said: *Let us make him a helpmate from over against him*; that is, an adversary and enemy. What then? Tell me, O Jew, is God true, or a liar? Did the divine mouth of the almighty Lord Sabaoth, in the midst of darkness 903 and gloom and fire and tempest and trumpets and angels, speak these words to Moses, and did the finger of God write these things on the Tables, saying: *It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helper like himself*: and is the tongue of God and His mouth and His hand again speaking and writing falsehood? Far be this absurdity. For the Word of God ^B remains true unto the age, and to the age of the age. And how was that woman not a helper to Adam, but rather an enemy, and therefore a pit and a female insidiatrix, and murderess, and exterminator, and the author of countless evils to him and to the whole world? But if woman was made by God for this very purpose, that she should be a helper to man, and woman could never be an enemy to man; but every woman is found by divine prescription to defend and protect her husband: since everything stands in that for which it was made by God (for light illuminates, and does not cease; bread nourishes; the sun runs, and the moon; with it plants germinate, animals bring forth, fish swim, birds fly, and, to speak once, until the consummation of the age, each creature stands in that for which it was made by God; in each, I say, inanimate and animate nature), how then is woman, who was made for the man’s assistance, not made a helper? Moreover, how, when she is weaker than man, can she be his helper? For [this] assistance, I say again, of the carnal man, God decreed from the beginning that woman should be according to the flesh, never [that she] should be studious to have for a woman or to nourish hatred and stir up to anger, or to desert her husband; never that a woman should be seen heavy or depraved; never that a woman should appear to lie in wait for her husband, and to plot his murder! And how do we see on the contrary that woman is not a helper to man, but rather a temptation? For who, I ask, kindles and inflames the flame of generation, if not the ^D filth of lewdness and adultery? And who, moreover, caused the destruction of the whole world by the flood, if not the beauty of those women, the daughters of men, whom the sons of Seth took as wives? But if woman was an aid to Adam, how do we all lament her as having been the counselor of death and ruin and common destruction? These things, O Jew, who hold the Scriptures, rather teach us. For one woman, your sister, I say, the daughter of Jacob your father, who was called Dinah, committed lewdness in Shechem; then on account of the fornication, her brothers iniquitously destroyed the whole city, killing the just and the unjust together. On account of which girl’s fornication and slaughter, God ordained that so many thousands should be reduced to slavery in Egypt for four hundred years. ^B And what sort of helper is woman? Bathsheba committed adultery against him whom you think to be your Christ, David, I say, and she perpetrated slaughter against her own husband Uriah. Then, even though this was most especially pardoned to David, nevertheless adultery was committed against ten of his wives by his son Absalom; and God ordained through Nathan the prophet that the sword would not depart from the house of David forever. This is the work of beautiful women. But who among men was gifted by God with as much wisdom as Solomon? And all his wisdom was devoured by women. Who was as endowed with glory as Judah the son of Jacob, so that it was ordained by God that he should be king of the Jews? And the woman Tamar, by deceiving him, caused his whole tribe to be born from adultery. And what sort of helpers are these? It would be a long speech, and time and paper and the method would fail us to narrate how and what sort of things are performed by the female race in the world from the beginning and until the consummation of the age in patriarchs and prophets, and among private individuals and kings, and among the faithful likewise and the gentiles, and Chaldean and Egyptian and Trojan and heroic and Roman nations and hostile ones. But if woman is a helper, how does Scripture say that *wine and women separate from God*? For how many, tell me, have denied God on account of a woman? Whence also Solomon, as one who has experienced the evils of women, said: *From ten thousand men you will find one faithful, but from women you will not find one*. But we say these things, not accusing nature nor the creature of God (for all things are good that are made by God), but seeking that assistance of which God said: *It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helper like himself*. If therefore it is not good for man to be alone, how, when He is God, did He make any work that is not good? And how also was it said a little while before: *And God saw all things whatsoever He had made, and behold they were very good?* How then is man alone not good? And how does He now say that man is alone? For when he was fashioned, we heard the Scripture saying: *God made man, to the image of God he made him, male and*

^A female He made them, and He blessed them both, and appointed them masters of all that are upon the whole earth.

And again afterwards He gave them a commandment in paradise, that they should eat of every tree: but of the tree, He says, of knowing good and evil you shall not eat, lest you die. After all these things, He says it is not good for man to be alone: *Let us make him a helper like unto himself.* You tell me in your mind that this is a repetition and a brief summation of those things which were said before, and a more subtle narration of Adam and Eve who had already been made in the image of God. A terrible word indeed! For I perform an embassy for Christ and for the Church 36 and for what is just. It was necessary to note with great and profound attention that God does not speak of any one person: *It is not good for man to be alone*; but by uniting and comprehending [the words] concerning the whole nature of men. For He did not speak a hypostatic or singular personal name, but signifies the whole human race, saying: *It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helper like unto himself*: that is, for all of man, for the whole race, for the whole human nature. And this is evident from hence. For when He intended to bring about the flood, let us hear the Scripture saying: *And it repented God that He had made man*, that is, the whole race. And again: *I will blot out man whom I have made.* And again: *The thought of man is inclined to evil.* How, therefore, the same words are [used] of the whole human race, so also that which says: *It is not good for man to be alone*, was spoken of the whole of mankind: *Let us make him a helper like unto himself.* Again I exhort the Jew and the Greek or the Gentile to seek and possess that helper which God made to bring aid to the whole race of men: a helper not of flesh and pleasure, not of seed and blood; a helper and spouse, and one who was by no means a betrayer, but a savior, a preserver, an illuminator, a benevolent one, one who cleanses sins, not one who commits them, one who introduces [us] into the kingdom of God, not one who casts us out of it, a helper who brings forth sons of life and heirs of eternal life; a helper who makes great apostles, and makes publicans into theologians, and renders harlots more virtuous than virgins; a helper who quickens the dead, and rouses the circle of the earth from the mortification of idolatry; an invincible helper, an impregnable helper, ^D a helper unconquerable and unbroken in struggles. All kingdoms, all progenies, all tribes, and all tongues of the nations were saved by her. She raised up those lying prostrate, she cured the infirm, she recreated the creature. And therefore the Lord God spoke of her—of the Church, I say: *It is not good for man to be alone.* And therefore God the Word is united to him, so that man is no longer alone, but whole with God, not only in one hypostasis, but also when he is united to Him through virtue. *Let us make him a helper like unto himself.*

But hear how a helper is made for him. For He immediately subjoined, saying: *And God the Lord fashioned yet from the earth all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the sky; and He led them to Adam, that he might see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called any living soul, that was its name, and Adam called names for all the cattle, and all the birds of the sky, and all the beasts of the field.* There is no small or light contradiction among the interpreters regarding these things that are set forth. For some say that these and the first living creatures are the same things, both the beasts and the birds. Others, however, agreeably to him who says: *If there be any new creature in Christ* 37, say that by these are foretold secondary and other things, namely the diverse nations which are gathered to God in the Church. In this opinion, however, is also that most celebrated man in theology, Eustathius, preacher and martyr, and the supreme doctor of the Nicene synod, whom I obey and whom I follow as one inspired by God. For in many ways, says that Father, the difference and dissimilarity of these living creatures and birds can be discerned. First, by the fact that He said: *And the Lord God fashioned yet from the earth.* For we do not find the creature of God as a forming *except man*. Again, by the fact that 904 it says: *Yet [or "also" or "further"]*, the Scripture shows that certain other living creatures and birds are foretold here besides the former. For it is not written that the first birds were generated from the earth, but from the waters. But these were generated from the earth, or rather were fashioned by the very hand of God, and not by a command. Similarly, also by the fact that it says *all* the birds and *all* the beasts were now fashioned by God, it gives no place to say that they were made before, but are now a part. Whence even in these things God commands them nothing concerning the eating of seeds. For those that enter paradise do not eat grass, but every tree beautiful to behold and good to eat, and especially the tree of life, namely Christ, who quickens these living creatures also. Wherefore it can be said that these beasts are the ecclesiastical nations, which are gathered to God in the Church; or that paradise today is the stable of horses and swine and camels and sheep. Nor should you contend: for as much as you might contend, you will not be able to show that those animals went out of paradise, from the day that the Lord introduced and gathered them. And if you had eyes, and the veil of ignorance were not placed upon your face, you would see, if you would, that these beasts of the field gathered unanimously are introduced to the spiritual Adam by God—what was once a lioness, the Chaldean; what was once a leopard, the Macedonian. For Daniel 38 called these beasts for you. Nor these alone, but also the elephants of the Ethiopians, and the dragons of Thebais, and the asps of Egypt, and the lions of Babylon, and the wolves of Arabia, and the ostriches and wild asses of the Cyrenians: all these are one flock of beasts which are fed in the Church herself, the helper. For the rest look, O Jew, and see, and do not

^A perpetually remain blind. The beasts have entered under the roof, as Job says: *They have entered in, and have not gone out* (Job xxxvii, 8). For the wild beasts have acted peacefully, as God says: *All the beasts of the field shall bless me, the sirens and the daughters of the ostriches: for all the beasts of the field are mine, and all the birds of the air* (Isa. xliii, 20). Open your ears, and do not be deaf like the asp, which does not hear the voice of the enchanter (Ps. lvii, 5, 6). O beast, I am speaking to you. O beast, I am singing to you. O beast, I wish to tame you (that you may be a sheep), and to consecrate you to God. Are you not ashamed, tell me, I beg, that He brought the lion, and the lioness, and the bear, and the leopard, and the dragon, and the asp, and the wolf, and the wild ass into the paradise of the Church, so that they might be fed, and enjoy, and be satisfied with the delights from every fair tree, and might rejoice, and be satisfied from the tree of life—and yet you have stood apart with the wild beasts, when you are God’s sheep, you who were once a genuine first-born? The beasts are subject, and they have entered into the stall, and you, who ought to have been the shepherd of the beasts, have turned out to be a wilder beast. See, indeed, what God signifies: that the nations, which were made in the second place by Him and were led by Adam into paradise, He called beasts, saying through the writer: *And the Lord God further fashioned from the earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air* (Gen. ii, 19). Is it possible that it should ever come into your mind that God, who is un-contemplatable, incomprehensible, and unapproachable to the Cherubim and Seraphim, to whom all intellectual powers render worship with ^B fear and trembling, whom no man has seen (1 Joan. iv, 12), nor can see His face and live, He who is above the heavens and all principality and power, is a consuming fire (Heb. xii, 29), in the form of a groom, pulling horses, but also wolves and camels by the hand like a servant to draw them to Adam, that he might see what he was to call them—He who knows all things, as God, before their birth, and counts the multitude of the stars, calling them all by name, and gives to all creatures names appropriate to His own will? But the Jews, who attend only to the letter of the Scripture and are killed by it, do not understand these things. But you, O most divine one and inhabitant of the paradise of the Church planted by God, enter upon the certain and unerring way with Paul, the spectator of paradise, the citizen of paradise, hearing him say that all creatures which are in heaven and on earth describe and figure Christ and the Church. For that reason, therefore, He did not bring the first living creatures, which were made by His command, to Adam—for they were a type and figure of the people of the Jews—but He brought us, the second people, not deserted, but united with the birds of the air, that is, with the faithful who are born of water and the Spirit.

It is, in truth, indeed necessary to hear and admire the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. For just as He says of the creation in Adam, so also He says it in these beasts. For there it is written: *Let us make man in our image* (Gen. i, 26); that is, by the common consent of the fullness of the Trinity He says that word: *Let us make*. Similarly, He says here: *It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helper like himself* (Gen. ii, 18), that is, one fashioned by God. But as to how this helper was fashioned by God, hear: *And the Lord God further fashioned from the earth all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the air*. This is the helper, this is the flock, this is our helper, the Church, of the reasoning ^C animals. For, just as God said: *Let us make a helper for man*, He immediately also constituted such a helper fashioned by God. And when He makes man, born from the earth, and of the same essence as that for which He calls the Church paradise and the plantation of trees. But when He creates and fabricates that which is called life, He also fashions the synonyms and the living animals at the same time. For he who is born from the earth is of the same genus as those which are on the earth, and life is proper to living things. But man, namely Adam, was made before woman: for He is before the ages, and without beginning, and uncreated, and without time before the Church, God the Word. But here He fashions the living creatures before Eve, who is called life: for the bestial nations were first, and thus in the last times their Church was constituted, into which God and Father brought them to the second Adam, Christ, that He might see what to call them. And hear His Son openly saying this: *No one can come to me, unless my heavenly Father draw him* (Joan. vi, 44). Behold, you have heard the voice of the Lord teaching you how He brought the beasts of the nations to the Son, who is of the same essence together with Him, into the paradise of the Church. Wherefore He says again: *Those whom you have given me, Father, were yours, and you gave them to me* (Joan. xvii, 6). *For everyone who has heard from the Father comes to me, and all that the Father has given me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will not cast out* (Joan. vi, 37). Let the beasts of the nations, therefore, which have entered unto the Son through the Father, be confident, hearing Him say: *Him who comes to me I will not cast out*. And *All things have been delivered to me by my Father* (Matt. xi, 27). For the Father loves the Son, and has given Him power over every creature, saying: *Ask of me* as a Son, *and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the beast, your inheritance, and as your ^D possession the ends of the earth* (Ps. ii, 8). Let them hear, I say again, these, those who are within, and let them hear the holy word, the beasts of the nations. For they shall not be cast out. But if the Jew wishes to hear who those were who were cast out so that the beasts might enter in, he will hear the gardener of this paradise saying: *It was necessary for the wild beasts to enter from the East and the West, and to recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God; but the children of the bridal chamber, namely the Jews, to be cast out into the outer darkness* (Matt. viii, 11, 12). *For I will call my people, not my people* (Ose. i, 9), and the Synagogue which has obtained mercy, her who has not obtained mercy (Ose. ii, 24; Rom. ix, 25).

And since the discourse, in narrating remote and wonderful matters, is difficult to persuade not only to the Jew but also to some of the faithful, it is necessary that we confirm what we say from other beasts. Listen, therefore, to Noah who was in the ark, when Scripture speaks of corporal animals and material things, how God there commands him also to enter into the ark ^A with the beasts, the beasts of burden, and the birds. Likewise, after the flood, it also speaks of their exit from the ark, which happened with Noah, and how here too God, since He had brought about the entry of these beasts into the paradise by Himself, and had been as it were their leader and herdsman, did not lead them out again, but left them inside. But if the Jew murmurs and grows angry hearing these things, he shall wait a little, and he will hear the word which shows that neither the woman, nor she who is called Life, left the paradise, but only the man, who had entered from without. Yet Life, as if fashioned in the paradise, as one who was indigenous and not entered from without, remained in that place as a life quickening the things that were introduced to it. What then, he says, is it not written after the exit from Egypt—out of paradise—that *Adam knew Eve his wife*? Stay your step, O man, and do not labor, but wait, and then when you are at the place of Adam's exit from paradise, if you can show me (O Jew) that it names the exit of the beasts or the exit of the woman, ^B the coming of Christ has not yet come; but you will not show it, however much you may contend. But he who indeed entered from without and existed, the man, departed thither whence he came. His wife, however, truly Life, remained inside with the animals, to quicken them at the tree of life, which were sometimes called beasts and birds. Let the faithful therefore learn that the trees, beautiful and good and fruitful, which were produced by God in the second place, and the second beasts and birds which God Himself fashioned; and again that sheet which Peter saw in a vision, having all the beasts and quadrupeds and birds of heaven, and that woman herself whom we call Life, the helper of man, signifies nothing else than the paradise of the Church, into which God introduced the bestial nations and brought them to Christ, according to Adam, that he might see what he would call them, each one conveniently to his merits and the life he has led. And therefore He called them sheep, those who are placed at the right hand; kids, however, those at the left; lambs, as those who follow Christ; oxen, as those who draw the plow of the cross; horses, as those who trouble the false water of incredulity; and others, eagles, as those who are extolled to theology or the contemplation of the Divinity; and others, doves, because of the signification of the grace of the Spirit itself. But if you also wish to see the wild beasts in this paradise, hear Him saying: *Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions*.

^A Whence He also names wolves those who lie in wait for the flock of the Jews, and *vipers' brood*; and others, foxes. *And everything that Adam called it*, He says, *that is the name of it*. That is, not lightly nor rashly, but congruently to the life of each one's deeds, and to the suitability of their merits, Christ imposes names. Therefore God imposed names on every creature and on created things. To these beasts only and to the woman, Adam also imposed names; that is, Christ to His people and to the Church. But if the Jew grows insane again, to say to us: Why, when God had given proper names to all things, did He not impose them either on the woman or on the animals? For it behooved Him to give proper names to all, but not Adam: I shall say: Why, when God had mentioned once and twice that He had made the woman, did He not name her woman, but *helper*? How then, when He had named the man Adam, does He not Himself give a name to the woman: but by right and merit, her man Jesus himself names even his wife, and his children, as a father and one who presides over a house, and rules over his wife and his children? Wherefore also the truthful legislator was saying that *He is the good shepherd*, and the sheep hear His voice, and He calls them by name: that is, He named them, then when God brought them to Adam, that he might know what to call them. But when they were being gathered, they were called beasts; when, however, they were introduced into the paradise and into the fold of the good shepherd, having been made conformable to the Lamb Christ, immediately they were all called sheep. He who does not thus understand the things that are written about the paradise, and about the beasts introduced into it, must by all means understand that Adam indeed sits inside as a master and king: but that God the omnipotent ministratively serves him, and brings the beasts to the Lord. Which indeed is impious and full of all absurdity. But for Adam was not found any like unto him, and how, while the man is in perils, and falls into the chances of fortune and calamities, and seeks a helper, and cries to God: *Give us help from tribulation, for we have been made very poor; help us, O God our Savior*. *Incline unto my aid, O Lord, make haste to help me*. And: *Deliver me from my enemies*, from the opposing powers which have plunged me into idolatry and impiety. ^D When the man had been crying to God for a long time about these and suchlike things, and was seeking a helper; and many, thinking to help him, had come into the midst—the patriarchs, I say, the doctors, the sophists, the kings, Moses, the prophets, and they and many others had associated with the man: there was not found a helper like unto him, made man in the likeness of man: that is, God and man, the only lover of man, a helper, God the strong, having power, the prince of peace. For it behooves a helper to be stronger, not at all in need

of help. For who is a helper is a helper in dangers and adverse things, as one who repels force. And for this reason it is said in Greek, *boēthos*, from repelling force: which is indeed said of the Church alone. But if you think that every flesh and carnal woman is named a helper of man, why do we not find, after this helper who was made in paradise, any other woman—the saintly, or the holy, or a prophetess, or the wife of a patriarch—called a helper of man throughout the entire divine Scripture? We have searched for this diligently, and we have not found it. For if it were a common name, and, if I may say, a universal one for the female gender, that of "helper," it could not be that it would not be placed in divine Scripture, whether when Seth, or Lamech, or Noah, or Abraham, or some other received a helper for himself. But among all those who are joined with wives, you will find it stated thus: He took her as a wife, not as a helper. Without any controversy, the man is rather a helper to any woman, as he who is her head, curator, and defender. But if the female is a helper of the male, why do not women stand in the battle line in wars, but men fight for women, and men run through the seas, and till the earth, and take care of everything, and protect the females—deploying every machine and art to bring aid to their own wives? But if, as a gross lover of flesh, you say that the sexual union of the male is an aid: then the matter should have proceeded thus, and not rather that in the couplings of the bed the wives would take the swords away from their consorts, so that they might prepare the bed for others.

But even the dog, and the bear, and the lioness, and the swallow, and all the females of animals ought to be called helpers of their males. But it is not so: since if Scripture were to call the female of every kind, whether of bird, or wild beast, or reptile, a helper of the male; but we do not hear this said in cattle, or beasts, or creatures that swim, or birds: but in Adam alone. For if it were necessary to give an aid to those living creatures which are subject to the hand of man, and over which he holds dominion, they would be more in need of an aid. Here, however, let us hear the contrary: that to man, who is prince and lord, and to whom all things are subject under his feet, there was not found a spiritual helper, a helper before God, a helper of the soul, rightly taking care of that man: of him, I say, who fell among thieves, and fled from God, and was wounded, and departed a prodigal. But he who, as a heretic and envious one, contradicts the things that are said, but opposes the Holy Spirit and Christ, who through the mouth of Paul refers whatever is said concerning Adam and Eve to Christ and the Church. But if the Jew says that a lawful bedfellow is also a helper of man: of what kind, I ask, is that helper who, punishing every sinning man immediately without pardon, ^A transmits him after his repentance to eternal fire?

But the good and clement helper, ^B the Church of Christ herself, providing sinners with place and time for repentance, and being able to make thieves and magicians, and those who deny God and idolaters, citizens of heaven and heirs of paradise and of the kingdom of the heavens. But how she herself was made and constituted and named the helper and preserver of the world, let the deaf Synagogue hear its prophet Moses saying: *And the Lord God sent a trance upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and filled up the flesh instead thereof; and the Lord God built the rib which he had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her unto Adam.* I see here a profound statement, and one difficult to contemplate, since there are many doubts in the things proposed. Before all else, let the Church demand this of the faithless and carnal Jew: that he explain how, when God stood by Adam and, as with a certain physician's art, as you suppose, cut out his rib, Scripture says, *He filled up the flesh instead thereof, and brought her unto Adam*; for when neither had God retreated, nor was the woman who had been made from Adam absent, but both were together, whence did God bring her unto Adam? It should have said: *The Lord God built the rib into a woman, and showed her to Adam.* For "he brought her" signifies that after she was made, she fled somewhere and was separated far from her man; then God brought her, having been converted, back to Adam ^C—the spiritual and the senator, the bodily and his consort the Church. For just as a little before Scripture said that God was the leader of the horses and beasts and cattle, bringing both beasts and birds to Adam, so now it refers to him as the leader of the bride, bringing the bride to Christ the bridegroom. But let us return to the beginning of the discourse, seeking to learn from him who commands and says: *Seek and you shall find.* How, when Scripture had narrated for us the common and indivisible and incorrupt creation of man and woman, when it said: *And God made man, in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them*; afterward it narrates privately and individually two separate generations, thoroughly different and dissimilar, and which have no similarity between themselves, neither as regards the manner, nor as regards the location. For Adam he made outside paradise in a certain ineffable and uninterpretable and incomprehensible place, as I also said elsewhere; then, when he was outside, he introduced him into paradise: but he made the woman inside, in paradise. Since Christ also, from within, from the Father, from an unknown and uninterpretable place (being God the Word), came in unto us. Then he made the Church, which is called the helper, out of his own rib in him. And for this reason, the sacred Scripture refers to us the divided and dissimilar generations of Adam and Eve, that as it formed him first from inanimate earth; and then his Word and God, when

he was inanimate (since it is not an animal of itself) having produced the animated being when it was not an animal, and then animated, fashioned, and quickened it; but as for this animated being [made] from an animate one, and perfect from a perfect one, and living [life] from a living one, it fabricated and called it, that is to say, it pleased Him that man, being endowed with mind and soul, should become the Word. For once man was made animated, He built up the Church from Himself, animated by the Holy Spirit.

If, however, a learned Jew mocks what I say, let him tell us himself how the omnipotent God, who in a moment of time created all the celestial powers together in such a way that they existed of themselves, did not simultaneously fashion man and the human multitude, nor those two themselves, I mean Adam and Eve? Whence also, when He had made all beasts and living creatures and birds and fish according to their kind, so that male and female would generate through mutual intercourse and coition, the Scripture by no means spoke of male and female in all those instances, except in the case of man alone and Eve, saying: "Male and female He created them." This, indeed, teaches us an admirable mystery; I speak, however, of the mystery of Christ and the Church. For it says: "And God sent an ecstasy into Adam" (Gen. 2:21). It did not say "He sent," but "He sent into"; that is: God and Father did not send this into that which he possessed essentially, but into that which he had by accession through the economy of the flesh. For he went forth, having become what he was not, while remaining what He was, God the Word: He went forth when He was naked and uncompounded, having been made a compounded [being], God and man at once. Concerning this ecstasy or 'going forth' and incarnation, the prophet Habakkuk spoke to Him: "You have broken into an ecstasy the heads of the mighty" ^C (Hab. 3:13), that is, of the opposing powers. For 'ecstasy,' another interpreter has said 'torpor'; another, 'lethargy'; another, 'sleep.' But torpor, lethargy, and sleep are participators in life and death; as if he were to say: The formerly immortal and unsleeping God the Word, in His going forth and departure from the heavens, with flesh assumed, even tasted the sleep of death, having become man. Most sapiently, however, it is said that the Lord God sent this ecstasy or 'going forth' into him, and put him to sleep. For "God and the Father did not spare His own Son, but for all of us delivered Him up" (Rom. 8:32) to death, in which His unstained soul went forth, separated from His most holy body; since He himself had also gone forth from corruption into incorruption, and from death to immortality, having a truly admirable and spiritual ecstasy or 'going forth.' Concerning this, God says: "And the Lord God sent an ecstasy into Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs." And why a rib? A subject member; for one sleeping, it is a single rib, besides the other members, but it is placed over the other members from above. Showing, therefore, ^D that the rib which was once subject (namely, the Church) shall be subject to Christ, his other rib (I mean the Synagogue, I say, of the Jews) remaining not subject. For that cause He says that He took one of his ribs: for one is assumed, but the other is dismissed. We have therefore called them two ribs, [and] two churches: namely, that which is from the Gentiles and that which is from the Jews, since on account of that rib which was taken and built into a woman, it was said of Christ: "He shall leave his father according to the flesh, namely the Jewish people, and his mother who bore him, the Synagogue: and shall adhere to his wife, who was born of him as a rib, that is to say, the Church of the Gentiles: and they shall be two in one flesh" (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Eph. 5:31). For Christ and the Church are one agreement and consonance. For we are the body of Christ, and members of members, and flesh and bones. One might also say there are two ribs ^B of the second Adam, His divinity and His humanity; the one indeed (namely, the flesh) subject and overcome by the sleep of death; but the divinity not subject and overcome by the sleep of death, but higher than the other rib of flesh. When, indeed, God had taken this, He built it into the woman, the Church: and for her He filled Christ’s flesh. For when He had imparted to us of His divinity, in turn He took flesh from us. Concerning which exchange David said to God, exclaiming against the Jews and saying: "They have reproached the commutation of Thy Christ" (Ps. 88:52); that is, they affected the flesh of the Son with reproach and contumely. "And the Lord God sent an ecstasy into Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs." By this we learn that in Christ's death the Church has arisen and come forth into the light, which is indeed the rib. Wherefore Christ also, being pierced in one side after death, sent forth as if from a spring, blood and water; that is, the mystery and regeneration of the Church through fire and water. And He was not wounded in the other side: for what was an impediment to the madness of the Jews, that the Lord should not suffer in both? But so that they might learn that the rib of the Jews knows not how to suckle, for that reason Christ is wounded in one. But God the Word took one rib. Moreover, because from the mother alone (beyond nature) He took flesh without a man, He also filled the flesh not sown, replacing that rib which was taken from Adam for a wife. After he said: "And the Lord God built the rib," making a perfect stop, the great Clemens, and then making a beginning of a verse, subjoined: "Which He took from Adam into a woman"; and it seems to me that he attended quite piously to the diction. For Theodotion also thus distinguished the same word, so that it is that which is said: "And the Lord God built, and adorned, and made beautiful and lovely, and sanctified the rib of flesh which He took from Adam for Himself as a wife, namely the Church." Why does Paul say: "I have betrothed you to one man to present you as a chaste virgin" (II Cor. 11:2)? Whence also God is united and betrothed to this rib, [and] says through the prophet to the adulterous Synagogue: "I am

no longer your husband, and you are no longer my wife" (Hosea 2:2).

But if you also wish to learn [about] the building of this rib, which was once deserted and forsaken by God, hear the cornerstone (the firm and unshakable foundation) united to it, Christ, saying: "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matth. XVI, 18). For it was built upon the foundation of the faith of the prophets and apostles (Ephes. II, 20), who are the good laborers of the most wise architect. But when was this one rib, the Church, built? It is clear that it was when the other rib was forsaken, and the second Jewish temple was dissolved. Since this [temple] was as it were one rib of Christ the Adam, it clearly described first the name of the first parent; for if the name Adam be reduced to a calculation, it completes the number forty-six; for the Jewish temple, which was destroyed by the Romans, had been built in forty-six years.

^A And the Lord God built the rib which he had taken from Adam into a wife for himself, and led her to Adam, that is, after the resurrection by which he raised himself. For it is not written: "And the Lord God awakened Adam, and led the woman to him." The faithful also have in the Gospels an open demonstration of the advent of this Church (after the resurrection of Christ) to him. For when he rose from the dead, then he commanded his apostles, saying: "Go into the world, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matth. XXVIII, 19). Go, gather my dispersed sons, the dispersed members; unite my divided flesh; join together my dissolved bones; bring to me the rib that is separated from me; call to me my wife, who has been led away captive; build her up again into my consort, the Church. Join to me, who am the stone cut from the holy mountain without hands (Dan. II, 34), those stones of which Isaiah speaks: "Holy stones are rolled over the earth." By these the rib of Christ, the Church, is built; and when the members kindred to his flesh have been joined, and we, who are his bones (by union to him and the coalescence of faith), have been gathered and bound together, he, seeing so beautifully the rib, the Church, his fellow-body and consort, built by God, when God and the Father led her to him, the second Adam said after his resurrection from the dead: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." To him, therefore, who attends only to the naked words taken literally, the words are very discordant and contrary to the facts. For as long as ^B the members of the body are united in the body, we can say of each one of them: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." But when, for some cause, there has been an ablation and division of some member from the body, it no longer has a place to say: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh"; but this was once bone of my bones and flesh of my body. Now, however, it is no longer my bone nor my flesh, but it is diverse, taken away, cut off, alienated from my bones and flesh.

But here, in this admirable, stupendous rib of the Adam who is spoken of, things are said conversely. For before the ablation and division of the rib, which was taken and came forth from his body, we did not say it was bone of his bones, nor flesh of his flesh. But when it was taken and born from his body, and became as his own body, it was brought to him, and then he says: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," that is, of the same kind. Whence, by this, that he says and adds that, "Now," he shows us that previously this rib was not of the Jews, nor bone of his bones, nor flesh of his flesh—of the true Adam, I mean. And if indeed he had said: "This bone is of my bones," the Jew would have a place to understand what is said literally. But with that word restored, "Now," he openly shows us that from the time when the second Adam departed by a beautiful and blessed and immutable departure, and slept (he who enlivens us all) his three-day death, and brought forth his beautiful Church, the rib of the same body, and built her into his wife, and God led her, turned from error to Christ, until all these things were done, it was not yet bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. That word, therefore, "Now," is said because of the advent, when, being near to Adam, she is joined to him by proximity, and united, and betrothed, and coupled. And therefore [he says] from himself: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh": my own, I mean, of Christ, from whom also it was born. And therefore it also hears: "To your husband shall be your conversion, and he, as Lord of all, shall rule." But in the creation of six days, he creates and fashions man last; yet in that which was later, he introduces him first, and ^D then the things that bear the image of the Church. For first, indeed, Christ took on flesh, and then the Church was made, into which the beasts entered last. To Christ himself, who introduced it, be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

TENTH BOOK. ON THE CREATION OF WOMAN AND ON SIN.

"She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her husband." And why immediately "woman," and not more conveniently according to the order of the growth of bodies—first an infant, then a girl, then a young woman, and then a woman—but instead he calls her a woman immediately, that is, a perfected thing, a matron, a mother of a family, a mother, a nurse, a parent, and one having many children? Wherefore does he say: "She shall be called woman"? And yet he has already said that she was built by God into a woman, and then brought to Adam. But in order to show that these things refer to the Church, which in the last ages was betrothed to Christ, for that reason he puts it in the future tense, saying: "She shall one day be called woman, because she was taken from her husband." And yet what is taken or born from a man is not called a man's woman or wife, but a daughter, or a maiden, or a son, or an offspring; just as also in animals, birds, and beasts, every flesh that proceeds from flesh (namely, substance from the substance of the same essence) is called offspring and son; here, however, he does not speak in this way of the flesh of the rib which was taken from her husband. Behold another doubt again. His husband Adam did not yet exist, there had not yet been intercourse or union: and how does he say that she was taken from her husband? It is therefore perspicuous in every way that these things are referred and predicted to Christ rather, who is both her begetter, and the Church which was born from him and united to him. For Christ alone is both the begetter and the husband of his wife and bride, the Church. Some of the commentators, however, have also seemed to hear these things in this way regarding the Church. They say that she was first united to God when human nature was made. Then she herself was taken from her husband, or rather abstracted and torn away; for she had been led by the devil into the captivity of idolatry. When, therefore, God brought her back after she had turned (he who had once been her husband), to himself (to the second Adam, I mean), he said: "This now after conversion is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh; she shall be called woman or my wife, since I, Christ, am her first parent and spouse." Since from me, Christ, who am her husband, she was taken, stolen by stealth, and now she returns, for she had been under another husband (namely, the devil) and was an adulteress. But if the Jew contradicts this, our people ought to know this, hearing that God in the Law sometimes calls the Synagogue a wife, and now indeed says to her: "You have cast off shame before all"—that is, you have fallen away from me, united to all the gods of idols you have played the harlot, and have worshipped every creature. And therefore he said to her again: "I am no longer your husband, and you are no longer ^A my wife, because your fornication has been amplified over Sodom your sister." And thousands of others of that kind, as if an adulteress, God is seen to say to the Synagogue in the Law. But if the Jew hears and endures those things which are said by me, I show him that his wife, the Synagogue, was also created from flesh, just as the Church is, as one that has arisen from the circumcision of the foreskin of Abraham, the first parent of the Jews: just as Christ’s Church [arose] from the flesh of Adam’s rib. But that flesh (the foreskin, I say, of Abraham) was cast away when it was first circumcised, and was trampled in the dust, predicting the ejection of the Abrahamic Israelitic race. But the flesh of the rib was honored by God, as life, and was not cast away; but was immediately built by the hand of God into a perfect woman, namely, the Church of God. Wherefore, just as that flesh and the seed of circumcision had two appellations through a woman (Sarah, I ^B say, first, then Sarra); so also the Church of God, Eve, received two names: the latter, however, is better and more excellent than the former beyond measure. For first she was named woman, afterwards life: which also, expressing it by a type, the wife of Abraham was called first Sarah, that is, leader and prince; then Sarra, that is, abounding in children. For she commanded all the Church, when she had brought forth many faithful. "She shall be called woman because she was taken from her husband, for this reason a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." For this reason—what is this "For this reason"? This is, because of the fact that she was taken from her husband: because she is his rib, flesh, and bone, and limb, and part, and as it were his offspring and fetus and generation. For this reason that true and only God and man denies his father and mother. For he said: "My mother and my brothers are those who do my will." And "shall cleave to his wife." That wife of his I mean who proceeded from his side and flesh and his bones, ^C which is the only wife of the spiritual Adam: for no other woman proceeded from her husband except that one alone. For all other women in the world proceed and are generated from women, and then are joined in marriage to strange and external men, nor yet do they cleave and result in one. For what cleaves and is agglutinated has no division or disjunction from the other in place or in mode, but is once and for all so agglutinated that air is united to light, and iron to fire, and the tincture of purple to the garment, and the soul is indivisibly united to the body. Yet you shall understand through this agglutination and adhesion of the wife and husband, that ^D

^A the destination and adhesion of the Word of God, which through the hypostasis is made with our nature—which indeed is the parent of the Church, since we are members of His body from His flesh and from His bones, consistent with the voice of Paul. Whence it comes about that in a certain way Adam is both father and husband to his wife, just as Christ is to the Church. A father, indeed, as generating her through water and the Spirit; but a husband, as one who casts the seed of the Word into her. Through which He generated, nourished, increased, and multiplied these many and truly innumerable sons (sons, I say, of the Gentiles) for her. For in this way also the Church is called the helpmate of Christ, in that she herself, after His assumption, brings forth, teaches, illuminates, preaches, and converts the nations to God.

For because the prior Synagogue was an adulteress, ^B and the sons themselves whom God had begotten and exalted on high despised Him: because of this act, Christ left His father—namely, the people of the Jews—and His mother, the Synagogue, and adhered to His wife whom He took from the Gentiles; and they were two in one flesh of one people. This is a great mystery; this is (I, Paul, say) in Christ and the Church. They were prefigured and described beforehand. Which things? Those things, clearly, which are written concerning Adam and Eve: his formation, I mean, the inbreathing into him, his placement in paradise to work and guard the command given to him concerning the animals, his entrance into paradise, his sleep, his ecstasy, the rib built up, her being led to him, and so much the more flesh. On account of which it was also said: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak in Christ and the Church. For if one looks at the letter, a married man and woman are not one flesh and substance. Moreover, the flesh of a woman is far weaker than the flesh of a man. And how "one"? But not every man desires and honors his wife more than his father and mother. Whence it is possible to see daily innumerable men who leave their wives and go off to others, yet no one can easily deny or leave his father or mother. And yet, the Lord Christ, after He was united to us, was one in hypostasis, when He had left His own tribe and kindred, and had crossed over to the Greek or the Gentile. But if the flesh of the husband and the woman is one, it is absolutely required that, if the man be infirm, the woman also be infirm, and again, if the woman be afflicted or grow old, the husband’s flesh should likewise waste away, and if the man should die, the wife should also die at the same time. But because I speak those things which serve to defend the cause of Christ and His spouse, the Church, I take up arms against the Jews. Let the Jew, therefore, say to me: If a man and husband are "one flesh," how did He not say: "And into one soul," which was indeed more necessary?

^C I say, clearly, because one is the soul of the Lord, partaker of reason and intelligent, and another is the Church, namely the Holy Spirit. But that men and women have different flesh, hear God saying: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh, as those who are clearly raving after women. And again He says: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and all flesh shall see the salvation of our God. Hear, therefore, Paul, the citizen of paradise (whose memory is eternal), saying that Christ and the Church are into one flesh, and referring the example of Adam and Eve to them. But it is also said otherwise if you wish: Eve, life, is to the image of the life-giving soul. Therefore these two (the body, I mean, and the soul) become one man, and thus is perfectly fulfilled that: They were two into one flesh; for Christ is from two: God at once and man.

You will also note yourself that, on the sixth day of the creation of the six days, these things were then being said and done by God, since on that sixth day they received the end of the age in Christ and the Church; nevertheless, in the fourth day, discoursing on the sun and the moon, we showed that, "And they shall be two in one flesh," understanding the two luminaries as Christ and the Church. For the sun indeed is believed to be the dry and earthly element of the earth; but the moon the spirit of the wind, in the place of the spirit of the soul. Therefore, the slime of the earth and the spirit being united, two are made into one man. Perhaps, however, the more mystical sense of the creation holds in this way.

Since Christ dwells in us, consistently with what is written: I will dwell in them and walk among them, for this reason every heart purified and united to the Word of God, both are two in one flesh: for he who adheres to God is one spirit. And not only in things, but also in the very words it is permitted to hear divine Scripture joining and making Adam and Eve one, as one man, in the type of Christ and the Church. For He says: Let us make man to our image and likeness. Behold, when He had spoken of man in one person, He added, saying: And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. That, however, "Have dominion," is a dual or plural voice, joining them in unity in duality, and duality in unity. And again He says: And the Lord God made man; to the image of God He made him—that is, him who is one and alone as if in two. And that is clear from what He adds: Male and female he made them. Behold, two who are into one flesh, He calls one man.

Furthermore, in the command also concerning eating and abstaining, it is permitted to hear God saying the same thing, namely one man when they are two: Of every tree that is in paradise you shall eat, addressing the man; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not you eat; but in whatever day you eat from it, by death you shall die. You see here also again different persons...

^A to be dispersed and gathered, are fit, he says, for those who live outside of man.

And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed. If indeed this nakedness were spoken of in the first-formed pair before the transgression, it could be said to be blameworthy and not praiseworthy; but since there was nakedness with them from their very birth and creation, before all things, turning to the Jew, I desire to learn from him again how no other nature created by God, which had need of a covering, was created naked, except man alone? For angels, and wild beasts, and cattle, and birds, and quadrupeds, and especially reptiles were created naked by God, and none of them were clothed by God except man alone. Therefore, in the first-formed pair themselves, you should understand this nakedness, and that it was brought about by God simultaneously both typically and prefiguratively in Christ and the Church, in the beginnings. For could not He who fashioned every essence, both that endowed with reason and that lacking reason, have easily created man not needing coverings, had He chosen so to be clothed? But since God the Word, who from the beginning was naked and simple, was to be composed by God and to be clothed in the leathern tunic of our flesh, having become flesh and dwelling among us, therefore God created Adam the man (according to the prototype of Adam) naked, and his consort the woman, an image of the Church, to be clothed in Him in turn. For whoever, he says, have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. And therefore the Scripture says: And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed. For where sin has not yet occurred, shame does not dwell there; for shame is the offspring of sin; and where nature is pure and clean, and naked of every adventitious sin and of the clothing of the old man, no shame enters there. Therefore the first-formed were made naked of every stain, spot, defilement, and wound, and for that reason they were not ashamed: for they did not yet know that on account of which there is shame. But if you wish to hear of this in God the Word, One not to be affected by shame, hear Him when He names Himself judge of iniquity, namely as the One condemning the wicked worldly eruption of sin, neither fearing God (for He is God), nor fearing man, as One who judges rightly and without respect of persons. And therefore they who were in the seat of the Sadducees said: Master, that you judge rightly, and do not accept a person, tell us concerning the tax. Therefore, when God was indeed naked, He was not suffused with shame; but when, having assumed flesh, He was no longer naked, He was affected by shame; and with this shame contemplated, He endured the cross for us. And therefore, struck by the Jews, beaten with whips, and spat upon, He said: I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the slaps, but my face I turned not away from the shame of spittings. And again the same Jesus says through the prophet to the Father: You know my reproach, and my shame, and my reverence, for the shame of my face has covered me. ^D Now, as I think, He calls Adam himself Paradise, on account of the state of circumscription that is in him through participation in God; and the trees of Paradise, which are planted in him, are the intellectual perceptions and vital virtues. Use these, as the Word commands. But as they have been given to you, and according to the nature which the trees have, as being—that is to say—insensate and immovable toward every bestial affection; but concerning those sensible things which are divided toward this and that, as toward good and evil, which are distributed among living creatures, "You shall not eat." For the Word grants to it the utterance of a single form, tending toward the one Lord: but those things which are various and can be dispersed and gathered, are fit, he says, for those who live outside of man.

carnal, if you understand these things concerning bodily shame in the nakedness of Adam and Eve, tell me, since no one else was present with them, by whom were they to be affected with shame, especially if they did not know before the transgression the mystery of the parts for begetting children, and what the difference of their formation was, nor that they were made for sexual intercourse and nuptial union, and that for this cause male and female were created by God? If, therefore, they did not yet know these things, with what shame were they to be suffused? Wherefore, without controversy, nakedness is to be referred to Christ and the Church: for both were naked from the beginning, God indeed the Word, naked of humanity, but the Church naked of divinity, not yet having put on Christ.

Furthermore, she was not ashamed before she had transgressed, partly indeed because she was pure and already prepared for incorruption (for by nature shame is wont to exist in figures and bodies that are subject to corruption and death, and are material), and partly because, both naked and with open face, she contemplated the countenance of the Lord. Concerning which praiseworthy nakedness, divine Paul says: We groan, desiring to be superinduced with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed being clothed, we shall not be found naked. Not naked of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which nakedness it is innate to the tunic of evil actions to cause, with which he was clothed who was cast out of the nuptials; which those who were first naked, the protoplasts, did not bear; nor, again, did that righteous man, and one who was subject to no reproach, the pious Job. And therefore he said: Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. But whether the Lord and we ourselves, after the resurrection, shall be to be suffused with no shame in that nakedness of the body, observe and note that for yourself as well.

The serpent, however, was more prudent than all the beasts that are upon the earth. And as far as concerns the prudence that is in voice and nature not endowed with reason, that many animals are more prudent than the serpent, no one who is wise would contradict. For it does not guard a house, nor does it ever watch a flock as a dog does; it does not drive away thieves, nor does it frighten wild beasts; it does not care for wounds with a kind of art of medicine; nor, being separated from its master, does it wail and mourn, seeking him. Nor, again, can the serpent ever imitate and represent the figures, gestures, and pursuits of men in the way that apes and monkeys can. For these animals lack almost nothing of human nature except speech. For by a certain natural habit they possess both the imitation and the practice of the things and figures they see. And therefore apes are called in Greek *pithekoi*, because they express all manners. Nor should the listener be disgusted by the mention of this animal as something unworthy of ecclesiastical ears. For we hear of things that are even less than these being mentioned in the Law by the very mouth of God, which is free from all defilement. Indeed, even in the third book of Kings we find the ship of Solomon coming every year from Tharsis, which is in the western region of Hesperia, and bringing gold and animals of that kind. Therefore, the serpent is not (as has been shown) more prudent than all the beasts of the earth. Wherefore, Scripture says either that the devil entered into it, or it calls the serpent itself naked. But to me it seems that the former is better and the latter secondary. For Symmachus and Aquila, instead of "prudent," said "crafty," which is indeed properly understood and said of our crafty adversary. But if you ask why God did not speak these things nakedly at that time, but named the serpent on behalf of the devil, learn openly that when He was speaking to an evil and lustful people, He did not wish to reveal to Israel either those things which pertain to the angels or those which pertain to Satan who trampled upon Eve, lest they should worship and adore him as one stronger than God, as one who had been able to entice the protoplasts away from God by his own prudence. You, however, when you hear that the serpent was more prudent than all the beasts of the earth, should know that the craftiness of the devil is far stronger than all human prudence. Wherefore the Lord said to us: Be prudent as serpents. For because God was giving the Law through Moses on the summit of that mountain of Sinai to a people who could not easily be persuaded, for that reason, when He was writing these things, wishing to terrify the incredulous Israel, He describes to them the law that was given to Adam, and the transgression, and the punishments, and the sentences, and the inexpiable exterminations, and those horrid execrations against the serpent, and the pains and groans of the woman, and the sweat and the curse of the earth, and its thorns and thistles, and the sentence of death, and the return to the earth from whence he was taken, and the destruction and dissolution of man. All of which the protoplasts suffered because, obeying the wicked serpent, they strove to make themselves gods, in contempt of and in defection from the one and only true God; they thought it robbery to be equal to God, that is, ascension and elevation on high, and an extension beyond the angels, if they were to become gods. For the counsel tacitly signified this, saying: You shall be as gods knowing good and evil, namely, beyond the angelic mind, if they were to become gods. But God was setting all these things before the people, repelling them and, as it were, restraining them from the defection in which they immediately labored at Horeb, when these words were still being spoken to Moses on the mountain, and even from other idolatries that followed later, which took their beginning of transgression from that author of evil, the serpent, and from the tree which is called the tree of disobedience. And perhaps for that reason, to admonish them and to recall to their memory the things that were done in paradise, God unanimously displayed to them various wonders through the serpent and the wood: now truly changing the rod of Moses into a serpent, then mortifying the serpent into a piece of wood: first describing that one ought not to obey the serpent to worship the wood, or that through the wood

^A of the cross he shall destroy and put to death the serpent who seduced those in paradise. Because of whom, again, the rod of Aaron, being animated from wood, crawled as a serpent and suddenly consumed the false magical operations in the wood of the serpent. And again, the bronze snake, not breathing, was hung in the desert by Moses: silently saying that there will be a time in which, with Christ as the unconquerable anvil, the prince of the evil counsel, the serpent, having been struck by Pilate as if by one wielding a hammer, and toasted, and loosened, and affected by death, will be proscribed from the world, dead on the wood as if marked upon a pillar of infamy, he who until this time was in the solitude of all good: and the bites of the people bitten by the serpent will be restrained.

And the serpent said to the woman: Why is it that God said, You shall not eat of every tree that is in paradise? And the woman said to the serpent: We eat of every tree that is in paradise, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God said, Neither shall you eat of it, nor touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: You shall not die by death, for God knew that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. That this is here a sea of meanings and understandings and a dark depth, above all things that have been transmitted, it is not our place to say: for the text itself proposes this clearly. Those who take this historically and not rather spiritually, but hunt for the literal words, I know not how they will resolve the objections made to them by Irenaeus. For he says, contending against the heresy of the execrable Ophites: How can it be that the serpent, which was made by God, by nature void of reason and intellect, is said to be endowed with reason and speaking? For if it accommodated to itself its own reason, and discretion, and intelligence, and the answering of those things which were said by the woman, then it is not forbidden to any serpent to do this. But if they say that it was by divine counsel and dispensation that it addressed Eve with human speech, they establish God as the author of sin. But neither is it permitted to the malignant demon, from the fact that it is not for this purpose that it exists, to bestow reason upon a nature that lacks reason; for it would never have ceased to speak ^B to men through serpents and beasts and birds, and to deceive them. But from where, also, even while it was a beast, did it hear the commandment which was given to man alone, given mystically: when not even the woman herself had learned it? And why did it approach the woman rather than the man? But if you say to me that it approached her as being weaker, on the contrary, she appeared stronger and more manly as a helper of man in the transgression of the commandment. For she alone resisted the serpent, and with a certain objection and contention (surpassed by craftiness) ate of the wood; but Adam, since he had not struggled at all nor contradicted, was made a participant of what was given by the woman: which indeed is an open indication of perfect weakness and a sluggish mind. For the woman is to be pardoned, as one who was overcome by the serpent: but Adam is not to be pardoned, as one who was overcome by the woman, when he himself had received the commandment from God in his own person. For the woman, when she heard the commandment from Adam, was so affected that she despised it, either because she was not deemed worthy to be one with whom God would speak, or because she perhaps doubted and thought that Adam had given her this commandment from himself. But when the serpent found her acting apart, so that it could speak with her in private, seeing her either eating from the wood or not eating, it offered the food of the wood. And if indeed she was eating, it is clear that she was in ^C the body into which destruction falls: for whatever enters the mouth, goes into the belly. If therefore destruction was falling into her, it is clear that she was also mortal. But if she was mortal, there was certainly no execration, nor that voice of the pronouncement of the sentence of God saying to man: Dust you are, and into dust you shall return: as also the truth of things holds. But if, again, the serpent saw the woman not eating, how did it lead her to eat, she who had never eaten?

And the serpent said to the woman: Why is it that God said, You shall not eat of every tree that is in paradise? And the woman said to the serpent: We eat of every tree that is in paradise, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God said, Neither shall you eat of it, nor touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: You shall not die by death, for God knew that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. That this is here a sea of meanings and understandings and a dark depth, above all things that have been transmitted, it is not our place to say: for the text itself proposes this clearly. Those who take this historically and not rather spiritually, but hunt for the literal words, I know not how they will resolve the objections made to them by Irenaeus. For he says, contending against the heresy of the execrable Ophites: How can it be that the serpent, which was made by God, by nature void of reason and mind, is said to be endowed with reason and speaking? For if it accommodated to itself its own reason, and discretion, and intelligence, and the answering of those things which were said by the woman, then it is not forbidden to any serpent to do this. But if they say that it was by divine counsel and dispensation that it addressed Eve with human speech, they establish God as the author of sin. But neither is it permitted to the malignant ^D demon, from the fact that it is not for this purpose that it exists, to bestow reason upon a nature that lacks reason; for it would never have ceased to speak to men through serpents and beasts and birds, and to deceive them. But from where, also, even while it was a beast, did it hear the commandment which was given to man alone, given mystically: when not even the woman herself had learned it? But who, moreover, indicated to this bloody murderous serpent that the sentence of death which was cast by God upon them would not come to an end, he who said: On the day that you eat, you shall die by death. And not only this, but also that with that which they would lack in death, the eyes of those who before did not see rightly would be opened, but they gave access to death by that which is called an opening? Yet I will join these questions also with the preceding ones. How did a brute beast, devoid of reason, hear the voice of God, when He uttered the horrible execration to it, which taking it seems to have stood in its own person before God, if indeed the theological voice rightly says: No one has ever seen God, nor has a bodily ear received the voice of God, or ever heard it? For we have all received this from the voice of the Lord in the Gospels. Come back, therefore, to me again, O son, bidding farewell to the letter which kills: and whatever (in the very reality of the matter) was the operation of God concerning the serpent which is spoken of, and concerning the wood and the woman, and how the nature of things stands, and how the affair was conducted from the beginning, must be left to God alone, who both did and said these things, and knows them. But what things the divine interpreters have philosophized about these, and how they were excellently and admirably prefigured concerning Christ and the Church, I shall say, trusting in those who have said: He who is able to receive, let him receive; and: He who has ears of the holy Spirit to hear, let him hear. A certain thing exceeding all art, and nearly similar to God and formless, and the ineffable beauty which was not made with material limbs, which was made to the image of God, our soul endowed with reason and immortal, from the superessential essence, an essence become

from non-essence. Again, it was a likeness, and a semblance, and conversely responding to the formless splendor of the ideas, of the prince and of the forms, which had been made by the divine gift of the Maker. This, therefore, is both the image and the likeness of Him who is above image and likeness; and it appeared and was called [such]. And he who is called the serpent, as an intelligent intelligence, when he had seen the intelligent one naked as a queen, then a virgin, pure, untouched, incorrupt, a young girl, the bride of God, crowned with a diadem (as if in a bridal chamber), surrounded by divine love, in a mystical mystery, and to whom no man has been joined, residing in the bedchamber of paradise: since he was the wretched one cast out, and driven from the celestial axes. After he thus saw our form and nature, both fashioned by divine hands and animated by the divine Spirit, and constituted queen of all creation that is under the sun: not bearing the loftiness of our honor, the wicked one was emulous, he envied, he was affected with anguish and pain, he was astonished and admired the beauty, glory, power, virtue, form, and the vision and grace similar to God. And when he had watched and surveyed everything, as one who is at once both malignant and envious, he was able by his fraud to seduce the woman from her husband, and when he had received her acting alone and separated, he deceived her: suggesting to her a vain and empty hope, as I have just said. For he suggested that it would come about that through eating she would become a goddess, [that she would become] such that she would escape being like God and would no longer bend her neck to worship God: but would be equal to God, knowing all good and evil, like God.

By this empty hope, extolling and suspending the fantastic faculty of the woman's soul to the heights, he deceived her and led her into error. Now I call the woman Eve, and the serpent him who is said to be "wiser than all [the beasts] which the Lord God made," which are on earth, but not also those which are in the heavens. These things are understood by me in accordance with the letter of the outer veil and the body of Scripture, so that we may not give an opportunity to swine and dogs (namely, to men who take pleasure in slanders): who say that these things do not happen according to the letter. But those who are instructed by Paul, who refers to Christ and the Church everything that is in the Law, and especially those things which are written about Adam and Eve, are comparing spiritual things with spiritual; for the law is spiritual. It is, however, clear that even those things which are in the Law are all previously described and prefigured concerning Christ. Therefore, both the paradise, and the trees, and the fruits, and Adam, and the woman, and the access to her, and the victory over her, and the serpent, and the food, after the history which is according to the letter, were prefigured and adumbrated in Scripture concerning Christ and the Church. For human nature indeed at one time, from the beginning, was as it were the spouse of God, acknowledging Him and worshipping Him, and inseparable from Him, just as Eve, who is called the woman and wife of the protoplast, desiring God indivisibly. ^A

^B ...[The text at the beginning of the column "A rans. Id testatur..." belongs to the conclusion of the previous section, here translated for continuity]: A remains. Abel attests to this by offering gifts to God; Lamech (like Adam) foretelling of Christ as a prophet; Seth, renewing his image who had been made to the image; Enos, who began to call upon the name of the Lord; Enoch, who first, as one pleasing to God, previously described and prefigured the resurrection, having been made immortal and translated by God; Mathusala, the son of Enoch; Lamech his grandson, who begat Noe, the figure of Christ, and said: "This one will make us rest from our labors and our afflictions, and from the earth which the Lord God cursed"; ^C Noe, whom the Lord attested to be a perfect and just man, who also appeased Him, so that the human race might not perish all at once. As the Lord also did, as a man reconciling the Father for men.

For as long as the human Church, which is called Adam's, had such children and fruits, before the earth was corrupted by idolatry, lust, and luxury, and madness for women: in truth, she was naked with her husband before God, nor did they both blush, but was affected toward God freely and confidently, as one not subject to sin. Being therefore so affected, and rejoicing with her husband, the serpent, moved by envy, approached her. But hearing of "the serpent," understand by the corporal serpent that deserter, the dragon, whom God in Job, giving answers, named in this way. For this is he who deceived the Church. For the serpent said things to the woman that were not at all good, namely, to the Church. If, however, you hear only according to the letter what is said concerning the serpent and the woman, it was fitting to attack both at the same time, and much more the man. But if you understand only spiritually, it was not fitting to attack only [the woman], but namely Christ. For Adam was not deceived, as he who was the type of Christ, but the woman was deceived, namely, the nature of men, the Church. It is, however, to be noted that the serpent invaded and deceived the woman alone and far removed from her husband (namely, God): nor could he deceive her as long as he saw her not separated from her husband. From there, however, it is permitted to learn openly that whatever things are of this woman are referred to the Church, for we do not find Adam entirely conversing with the serpent. Whence also, when asked by God why he ate, he does not say: "The serpent deceived me," but: "The woman gave to me, and I ate." But the woman says to God: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." But again, in the curse of the serpent, God accuses nothing of the man, but of the woman. And therefore He says to him: "I will put enmities between you and the woman." And why not also between the man? For as far as the letter is concerned, he wants the man and the serpent to be friends, saying: "I will put enmities between you and the woman," whoever that may be, but not between the men: just as when He says that Christ Himself is "of the seed of David according to the flesh," and that "He took hold of the seed of Abraham," even if He were not from the seed of a man, but from the flesh of a woman (and alone) had taken flesh ineffably and incomprehensibly. ^D

^A And the serpent said to the woman. We must immediately inquire, in this very dry statement, for what reason—beyond all living creatures and birds—it calls the serpent an adversary and a plotter against the Church? It can be said that many of the serpent’s characteristics are assimilated to the machinations of the devil. First, there is the prostration of its entire body upon the earth. For every nature, both of living and inanimate things, has something that is carried upward, having motion and growth toward the heights, except for the serpent alone. For the very fact that it crawls upon the earth shows that it tramples its own prudence and heart of its own accord, sensing or thinking of nothing at all that is lofty or heavenly. Wherefore it often sheds its own form, just as the serpent, when it is transformed, sheds its form into an angel of light, 1 as if changing from its ancient prudence. Hence also it injects lethal poison through its mouth and empty counsels into the soul, and observes the heel of the extremities of life, and lies in wait to ensnare it, always crouching in the paths of men so as to impede our steps toward God. And therefore God brought it about that it should be hunted and destroyed by the incantations and prayers of the wise. Furthermore, that they hiss and call out to those living things that are born in water and spirit, possessing the form and shape of a serpent, for the sake of union and mating—this can be very aptly said of the malignant dragon. For he cannot impart his seed to them until he has separated them from water and spirit and led them out onto dry land, not being able himself to touch or grasp water and spirit, as one who is an enemy and alien to them.

But it is said that the enemy, who was to wage war against the woman, entered the garden or orchard as much as could be grasped, with Scripture first signifying that in the last times the dragon himself, the apostate or defector, as the Antichrist and adversary of Christ, will again deceive the Church through food so that it might adore him and not God, as if he were God. This, indeed, he also did in the case of Eve, as those who are practiced in these matters have said. For, they say, what the Church ate before all else, therein the Church sinned before all else, to which it was said of the serpent: "He shall observe thy heel, and thou shalt observe his head." But that the observer of the heel and the persecutor of the heel is the Antichrist, Moses himself teaches us in this place of Genesis, calling Christ a lion in the blessings of Jacob. "Lion’s whelp, Judah; from the sprout, my son, thou hast ascended," and the things that follow thereafter. Moreover, in Deuteronomy, 2 in the blessings of Moses which he foretold to the twelve tribes, the divine Moses, prophetically introducing the Antichrist as the adversary of Christ, similarly calls Christ himself a ^B lion’s whelp, teaching us both the tribe and the place from which he will be born. But when he came to the prophecy of the tribe of Dan, he says: "A lion's whelp, Dan, and he shall leap out of Basan." 3 But some say that Basan is Scythopolis, which is near Galilee: from where Christ also proceeded according to the flesh. He shows you now, of necessity, the place of the Antichrist, from whence he has his exit and motion; since, before his advent, his deception, forestalling, has already deceived many men, who say that the Antichrist will be born from a certain village of Leuchus. Now this was a craft and machine of the devil, so that men, awaiting him from Egypt, might believe and receive him who is born from Galilee, worshiping him as Christ, who is plainly a deceiver and Antichrist. It remains, therefore, for us, consistently with the predictions of Jacob as well, to show that the Antichrist proceeds from the tribe of Dan and that he is the serpent biting the heel of the horse, 4 who is referred to in such a way because he is now set before us in paradise. For the Patriarch, conversing with Christ, says this of Dan: "Dan shall judge his people as one tribe in Israel, and Dan shall be a serpent in the way, sitting in the path, biting the heel of the horse, and the rider shall fall backward, waiting for the salvation of the Lord." 5 Behold, you have it plainly: the serpent and the heel are taken from the Antichrist, and it shows you the fall of those who are bitten by him, through whom he also led the first parents, Dan, to impiety. For even if these things had happened conveniently to that statement, God would have been seen by Adam and the woman in the garden in a figure, and he would have conversed with them—but as one who could not see the Maker Himself; hence, having taken this occasion, the malignant demon deceived the woman by suggesting to her that God was of the same general kind and of the same essence as she herself was, befitting the form and figure that she was seeing. ^C

And therefore he says to her: "Why, what is this that God said: ‘Ye shall not eat from every tree that is in Paradise’?" Hence it is clear that before all eating, this serpent was speaking with the woman. This is, when the Church was fasting from all sin and idolatry; with whom, just as with a woman in the beginning, the malignant serpent and dragon the defector, craftily arguing and conversing, and wishing to seduce many into the error of worshiping many gods, said: "Who are those who in the beginning worshiped that evil demon and left God?" "Why is it that God said to you, 'Ye shall not eat from every tree that is in the Paradise'?" This is: Do not adore all creatures and me, but to Him alone show honor and worship. ^D

Then, when the woman had said: "Of every tree that is in the Paradise we eat, but of the fruit of the tree God said, 'Ye shall not eat, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die,'" just as that malignant one died. To these things the cunning serpent answers, saying,

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knowing good and evil. You hear: the devil did not rebuke, he did not upbraid, he did not treat ^A them with contumely; he teaching them and leading them into the error of the worship of many gods. Hence he even accuses God to them of envy. "He envies you," he says, "lest you also might become as he is, gods knowing all things: and therefore He commanded you not to eat of that fruit of mine, nor to touch me, nor to adore me." For to him who adores me, I give from the knowledge of good and evil a lower wisdom, astrology, divination, sorcery, predictions, precognitions, the producing of prodigies, incantations, the obedience of beasts, the service of birds, the transformations of beasts of burden, the scrutiny of sublime things, the calling down of fire, pedestrian walking upon water, the contemplation of the abyss, the slaughtering of serpents, the revelation of treasures. When the wicked serpent had been troublesome to the woman (as it was called), that is to say, to human nature, with these and other innumerable such promises, for many years he persuaded her and inclined her to fall away from God and to worship him. Therefore it says: "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food." Wherefore she had her eyes opened, and loved the food or taste, because the tree was good for food: for all food is known and proved by taste. Wherefore from this also are they refuted once again who think these things are said only according to the letter: "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes to see, and beautiful to consider." For as far as the bodily expression is concerned, which is at hand, it seemed to some to say that the malignant one, when he was speaking to the woman, showed her a certain form that was beyond measure splendid and full of wonder, transfiguring himself into an angel of light, as the Apostle says, as if to say: "In this form and glory you will be as gods, if you are partakers of my fruit." And for this reason, it says, that was said: "And the woman saw the tree that it is pleasant for the eyes to see, and beautiful to consider"; but whether these things are so, I have nothing to say. And taking of the fruit, she herself ate, and also gave to her husband, and he ate. And yet her husband was not yet, nor was she yet his wife. But why did not both eat at once, ^B but the woman first: then the man when he had received it from her, and he did not contradict, nor cry out, nor did he at all rage against her, as one who had not obeyed the command of God? These things, therefore, are thus.

The malignant demon, therefore, first convenes the Church: he afflicted her with trouble, persuaded, deceived, took and grasped the fruit of the evil eating, he adored the malignant one as God; then when she had eaten, she returned to the man, she dismissed the serpent. When, therefore, she had rightly returned to him whom she had badly left, the man received her whom he was seeking greatly, and he received her as a prodigal. He did not complain, he did not ^C rebuke, he did not repulse; but when he had received the fruit of the tree from her, or rather for her sake, he tasted it with a prompt and eager spirit. Understand the fruit of the tree as the death of Christ on the cross which He received from her, as if for His own wife, and tasted it for three days, so that He might taste death for all, conformably to the voice of Paul. Which death and food that vinegar and gall indeed silently signified, which He who was made in all things to the likeness of Adam, except for sin alone, tasted in the garden and on the wood of Golgotha. For if Jesus voluntarily accommodated all our things to Himself, it is altogether clear that by the temptation also which He voluntarily sustained from the devil immediately after baptism, He was tempted to the likeness of Adam so as to be untemptable. For see in both, imitations and examples reciprocating to each other, clearly teaching you this, and that just as he exhorted the former Adam to idolatry through Eve: so also to the second Adam through the flesh, he brought a cause and an irruption, but did not reach the mark. But to refute the one who contradicts, the truth of the facts, which is in this way, suffices. For when the first Adam was first generated, Satan attacked him through the rib of his spouse (namely, Eve), and when the second Adam (namely, Christ) first showed the true regeneration of His baptism through His spouse, the tempter attacked to tempt Him.

The first Adam had the insufflation of God; the second, the Spirit from heaven. Again, the temptation of Adam was in the midst of the plants at the fountain of Eden: and the second temptation, for Christ, was exhibited on the Mount of Olives in the midst of the trees to Him rising from the fountain of the Jordan. The first man was tempted when he was in the midst ^D of the beasts: similarly also Mark said about Christ: that He was with the beasts in the desert, tempted. When man was fasting in paradise and had not yet eaten anything, the devil exercised temptation through food: similarly also when Christ had fasted forty days, the malignant one approached Him through food, saying: "Command that these stones become bread." There the serpent said: "You will be as gods," and to Him he said: "If You are the Son of God, command; this and that." The first temptation was through inquiry and contrary objections by the woman and the serpent: similarly also the temptation of the Lord followed contradictorily between Him and the malignant demon. If, therefore, all these things have a similar type and figure in the first Adam and in Christ, henceforth do not doubt, but know certainly that that which he spoke to Christ, saying, that He should fall and adore the malignant dragon himself: this was what he attacked the woman, the Church, with in the beginning, and persuaded, and deceived. Whence also when God was attacking man with reproaches, after He clothed him in a skin tunic, He does not charge him with the crime of food, but with divine vision and defection, saying: "Behold, Adam is made as one of us."

^A in order to know good and evil: saying, Adam, the man of the world in general. For thus they imagined themselves to be gods, like Saturn and Jupiter, and Mercury and Apollo, and Hercules and Serapis, and Diana and those others, nothing less than gods. To whom it very aptly applies that which was said after that evil eating of the first-formed: For when they had eaten, he says, their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked from the thing which they thought they had attained; they recognized, however, that they had strayed from the thing which they expected to have achieved. Finally, the Church and every man who clung to her error recognized that they had been deceived by the malignant serpent, and they were blind, thinking themselves to be gods. But when the true light shone which enlightens every man, the eyes of their soul were opened: and they knew that they were previously naked and wretched. For it is to be noted that he does not say: They are naked, but that they were previously (in past time) blinded by idolatry. There is, therefore, a first, distinct nakedness of theirs, which is the alienation from goods, for which reason they were not even then ashamed; but there is another which is now called nakedness, namely, to have fallen away from God. But those who listen only to the letter of what is written concerning paradise, and the fruits, and the trees, and the food, and the serpent, and the recovery of sight, fall into the destructive impiety of the Manichaeans and the Ophites. For they offer greatest thanks to the serpent as to a benefactor, saying that through the serpent food came to us; through the food, the recovery of sight; through that, in turn, marriage; and through marriage, the world: and on account of man's sin, God was made man. Hence the kingdom of heaven and eternal goods, of which the serpent was the author and conciliator for us. Therefore, lest we also fall into their impieties, let us prophetically understand concerning Christ and the Church whatever is written or done historically in paradise, understanding certain temporal intervals of times in each of them differently, even if we hear them all as having taken place at one time. For that time was different when the Church was not blushing, as one who was naked of all sin with her husband: and another time, in turn, when, with reins loosened, she left her husband and had commerce with the serpent, and became an adulteress. Again, another was the time when, having dismissed the serpent and as it were renouncing him, she returned to her former husband and spiritual Adam. For this was the time when she knew and recognized herself to be naked and unadorned and deformed. This was the time when the husband took her, and with her tasted the fruit of the tree, for her sake suffering death and rising from the dead. But since now my words are directed to the Church, and not to the Jews, listen, O faithful one, and hold the faith as one who is faithful, seeing indiscriminately all things that are in paradise, not seeing the nakedness of the first-formed ^B ones, and through it recovering sight. Come henceforth from the types to the reality of the things. For Christ, overturning that nakedness of both, and healing the blindness, and abolishing their evil food through a certain blessing, and raising them from their own fall, and leading them back, seeing, to whence they departed, not seeing; hear what He does after He rose from the dead. For Cleopas, and he who was with him, Luke (as the mystics have said), [were going] to Emmaus from Jerusalem, just as Adam and Eve, separated, and not seeing the true light; Jesus, drawing near, was walking with them: and their eyes were still held so that they might not recognize Him. But although this was indeed a flaw of sight, hear also the things that come next: *And it came to pass while He sat at table with them, taking bread He blessed it.* Behold a blessing in place of a curse. *And breaking, He gave it to them; and their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him.* Behold, you have the food: you also have through the food the recovery of sight, and the recognition of God, whom the first-formed did not know through the food.

Deinde, what is done after the food has been taken? *Rising that very hour, they returned to Jerusalem.* Behold also the excitement from the fall: behold also the beautiful return from error. First they ate, then they returned in this way. But after Eve first ate from the fruit, then she returned to Adam, and shared the fruit with him, and he ate. But Adam was not deceived, that is, Christ: but he sat down at the same time, willing that she who had fallen might rise. But you, still lingering in the letter, consider also their action, and ask who Adam was, and what he became after the transgression. For he was entirely luminous and godlike, and an image of a certain sort (so to speak) similar to God. But after disobedience he became dark and unadorned, entirely clothed in black sin. Therefore these things happened to the first parents. And David later weeping said: *Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night showeth knowledge.* ^D As yet, he says, the first parents were like luminous days, when (when they had not yet eaten from the tree) the word of the serpent's counsel did not yet pass from the woman to the man: and under the understanding of the setting sun they were thoroughly clothed with its rays as with a robe. But when she, persuaded, ate, she also put on the nocturnal darkness of sin, just as the night is covered with darkness, neither knowing what to advise the man, who himself also was made night on account of equal ignorance, and [she] announces knowledge, namely that which can be known of good and evil, handing it to him as she announces it. But it is also to be considered in another way. For previously indeed, as long as before she ate it was as a luminous day, the word announced, namely, gravely and severely—for on account of the will to sin he did not allow Eve to use a longer speech. When

however the evil was accomplished, and by enjoyment she had filled her desire, and lust was calmed and satisfied, then he announced the recognition. Behold, he said, we are stripped of the plant of virtues and qualities. For the eyes of their mind were opened, and they knew to what evil they had descended, and what they had suffered, teaching one another: so it pleases me to understand all that is written concerning paradise and the first-formed. For I perform an embassy for Christ, and on behalf of my own sister-mother, Eve the Church of life, whom I defend against the Jews and heretics, raising and setting up trophies for the faithful people, and by these understandings and ^A contemplations which have been spoken of throughout this entire work of the six days, the faithful people are armed against adversaries: nor will there be any work against them with more powerful trophies or weapons, not Mosaic, not prophetic, not Davidic. For these are not the carnal weapons of our warfare, nor fragile, but powerful to God for the destruction of the fortifications of enemies destroying their thoughts, and every height that is exalted against the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ our true God: to whom be glory and power together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK ELEVENTH. CONCERNING THOSE THINGS WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER THE FIRST SIN.

Jam indeed it has been shown by us a little before that they had their eyes open before the eating. For to say that the woman saw that the tree was good for eating shows that she saw clearly. Nor this alone, but also to say that it was pleasant to see and beautiful to contemplate, by these three expressions we plainly indicate a sharp-sighted edge, and a curious and certain evidence of the luminous vision of the eyes. Whence also Symmachus, for *shall be opened*, ^B set down *shall become intelligent*. Similarly, for *the eyes of both were opened*, he said *they became intelligent*, that is, they became wise, and the eyes of their soul came to the recognition of their nakedness. Concerning which the royal Prophet also poured out prayers to God, saying: *Reveal my eyes, since the light of the eyes itself is not with me*, but *enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death*. Therefore, understand the aspect of the eyes as the recognition of sin and consent to conversion. For it must be carefully and accurately noted that, when the woman was near the serpent, and separated from her husband, she was the first to have eaten from the tree, yet she did not immediately look ^C until she was turned to her husband. But when the spiritual Adam had received and eaten—that is, when Christ had suffered—then through his passion the woman looked with him. But if you do not understand the matter in this way, it was necessary for the woman, when she first ate, to look first.

Let us see now those things which follow. *And they realized that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves, and made themselves loincloths.* Since in the previous account the writer said they were not ashamed, now he says that one was ashamed of the other, for it was consequent to say this. But since they had not yet come together in nuptial union, nor did they know for what reason the genital parts among them are of different figure (namely male and ^D female), of what shame were they affected, that they sewed together loincloths from fig leaves? For if they wanted to cover the nakedness of the body, many other leaves of plants are by their nature more suitable and useful for that purpose, such as we see the leaves of the Indian palms. We do not, however, deny, nor do we dissolve the corporal history of the divine Scripture itself. But again we ask how these loincloths born of the fig tree are prefigured concerning Christ and the Church, since all things were made through him and looking towards him. *And they sewed fig leaves, and made themselves loincloths, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise in the afternoon.*

It is a common, and against which nothing can be said, dogma, that the afternoon of that sixth day of the week of creation tacitly signifies and describes the middle of the sixth day of the world, namely the five thousand five hundredth year, in which the Lord God was made man. The time, therefore, which is before the afternoon signifies the legitimate worship of the Synagogue, as one that has fig leaves, namely certain unfruitful discourses, and precepts which in a certain way are moderately itching, and on the surface in a certain way scraping the dirty wounds of men: for fig leaves gently in a certain way scrape the filth of vessels, through the medium roughness which is in them. But they also cover the nakedness and shame of nature through circumcision. Wherefore also around that part which received circumcision, our first parents placed loincloths from fig leaves: this perhaps showing by example that in the evening of the day of the creation of the world, circumcision will be covered in a certain way and abolished by the veil of the leather tunic of Christ. For indeed leaves are producers of shadows. For the Law had a shadow of the precepts of Christ. For under the leaves the fruit of Christ was covered in the Scripture of the Jews, which was not seen by them on account of the covering of the…

^A letter, and as if by a great stone ^B covering it—namely, the obscurity. Who will roll away the darkness of the letter for us, so that, looking within the cloud and these divine holy of holies, into the Holy of Holies, we may see the hidden orgies of this mystery, which indeed we would not have grasped with the correctness of the orthodox faith if we had been led away historically by the thickness of the wording? For God, who fills heaven and earth, who says: "Man shall not see my face and live," how did He, by a personal presence, and at the same time by a location-based passing through, and uttering the sound of a voice, approach Adam at midday? And for what cause was he ashamed to be seen naked by God, since he had been made naked and exposed by God from the beginning? Was God ignorant—He who knew all things before their birth—of the place where Adam was hiding, and thus exclaimed: "Adam, where art thou?" But what is more admirable is why He does not call both, and much rather the woman who had been deceived; for Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived. And how is God not seen to have spoken at all with the woman before the transgression? Since therefore this consideration is great and difficult to grasp above all things that have been said before, not only for those who are in our own times, but also for those who many centuries ago were inspired by God, and are beautifully versed in them, just as Adamantus, the investigator of Christ, also says: these things also let us pray for after the likeness of others, that we may receive the finger that touched the eyes of the man blind from birth. For the Lord Adam was immortal from birth, as one who was made to see by the light of God, so that, when He had touched our eyes, He might say: "Ephphatha," which is, "be opened." For our eyes are held fast, lest they openly recognize.

Book 11

^B Quomodo [propheta] quidem Moses, vel potius angelus qui loquitur in ipso, per omnem actum qui est in inobedientia, et peccatum ligni, communes facit et conjungit ambos protoplastos, vel potius mulierem solam ostendit esse in culpa: ipsa est allocuta, ipsa est decepta, ipsa comedit, ipsa viro dedit, ipsa ei est insidiata, ipsa fuit causa peccati, nuditatis, timoris, subligaculorum, fugæ, absconsionis a Deo, pœnæ, exsecrationis, mortis, et, ut semel dicam, malorum innumerabilium. Et cum hæc ita habeant, quomodo Deus cum accessisset illo meridie ad inquisitionem et veluti examinationem eorum qui non obedierunt, non vocat mulierem ad examinationem, non eam graviter increpat, non ponit omnino in ejus pœna exsecrationem, non dat ei terram ad comedendum, non spinas, non tribulos, non esum feni, non sudorem vultus, sed neque eam expellit aut exterminat a paradiso, non ei omnino revocat serpentem in memoriam, non eam pudore afficit, dicens: Cur decepisti Adamum? Sed cum ostendisset omnem benignitatem et bonitatem in mulierem quæ ceciderat, pergit ad hominem, et dicit ei: Adam, ubi es? Et dixit ei: Vocem tuam audivi deambulantis in paradiso, et timui, quia nudus sum, et latui. Et dixit ei Deus: Quis tibi annuntiavit quod sis nudus, nisi ex ligno, ex quo solo tibi mandavi ne comederes, ex eo comedisses?

^C Fortasse non est alienum, quod illæ dixerunt, Maria et Salome et Joanna, quærentes eum qui latebat in paradiso Golgotha sub ligno, nempe nudum Christum Adam quem vocavit et eduxit Dominus Deus ex latebris, excitans eum ex mortuis secundum carnem, hoc nos quoque dicere de hoc Adamo qui latebat in hoc horto in medio ligni, quem quærens Deus suscitare in meridie, ad ipsum advenit. Illæ enim, nempe Maria Magdalene cum duabus aliis dicebant: Quis revolvet nobis lapidem ut videamus eum qui intus latet? Similiter idem mihi quoque succurrit dicendum in propositis et non contemplabilibus mysteriis.

^A And He said to him: "I heard your voice as you were walking, and I hid, because I am naked." Listen also to Adam responding with things that are fitting for God. For, being sought and called alone, he answers singularly, and did not join the woman with himself. For he does not say, "We heard your voice walking in paradise, and we were afraid because we are naked," and we hid, which indeed would have been the truth. But, by accusing his own rib, he betrays himself on her behalf. When I was investigating these things, the citizen of paradise, Paul, approaching again into our midst, said: "It is a great mystery; but I say this in regard to Christ and the Church," for whom He gave Himself unto death. Hence, even when called by God, the true Adam, when He said, "Adam, where are you?" it is not said in Scripture that He went out or came to God, for the Son is always inseparable with God.

^B And who was to rule over them. Whence it is permitted to see, even that truly man, as one who has power and is Lord (namely, Christ), naming the wife as the Church, calling her by her very name, Life. For He truly vivifies those whom He generates, namely by baptism. And concerning man alone, the Prophet says to God: "You have made him a little lower than the angels, You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have set him (but not them) over the works of Your hands, and have subjected all things under his feet," and of him alone, but not of them, that is, not of both, but of Adam alone, in the figure of Christ. He shows you this great and incomparable difference of Adam from Eve, in honor and glory, so that you may learn exactly and accurately when you see the man in the figure of Christ lowering himself to the woman, and together with her eating from the tree; and similarly seeing, and similarly being naked, and similarly sewing fig leaves; that is, premeditating and composing, and simultaneously uniting word with word for a defense, and simultaneously hearing the voice of the Lord God walking, and fearing, and fleeing, and hiding, and being called alone for examination, and enduring harsh punishments for her, and being alone expelled from paradise, and receiving the sentence of death. When you see Adam doing and suffering all these things, you will understand Christ (through Paul) saying to you: "Adam was not deceived." For the ancient one ate in the type of Christ in one way, but the woman in the type of the Church in another way. In one way is Adam's recovery of sight to be understood; in another, the woman's. One is the nakedness of the man, and another that of the woman. Otherwise does Adam, who is the figure of Christ, fear—(he who is) not deceived—and otherwise does the deceived woman fear. For she, through disobedience, (is) like the Church; but Adam (namely, Christ), because He takes it upon Himself for both. In this way, the nakedness which He endured on Calvary, and the flight, are to be understood. Wherefore by dispensation He also fled into Egypt, and the Lord God called Him who was hiding in Egypt. Whence He also said: "Out of Egypt I have called My Son." But if you also wish to see Christ voluntarily fearing for the Church, listen to the evangelist saying concerning Him: "And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly," and therefore "He was sorrowful even unto death," healing the sadness of the woman, and for her led to the passion.

^C We have prefaced these things, blocking the mouths of the Jews, lest, hearing us refer all things of Adam to Christ, they might think that He was under sin, and subject to accusation and execration. For the demonstration of those things which have now been said is sufficient to persuade even the most incredulous, that whatever things indeed were objects to the woman, were objects in accusation, but whatever things Adam heard from God, without any charge or accusation, are said concerning Christ, by His lowering Himself for the Church, attributing to Himself her sin and execration and death. For this reason God made the affairs of Adam different and more exalted than those of the woman, so that we might learn and be taught the incomparable difference of Christ over the Church. For when God had said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," He said nothing of the kind concerning the woman when He was about to create her from the rib of Adam. And again saying, "God made man; in the image of God He made him," He does not say of her, "He made her," but after He said concerning man, "He made him," then He subjoins, "male and female He created them." Similarly also in the formation of man, when He said, "God made man having taken dust from the earth, and breathed into him the breath of life," He made no mention of the woman. For regarding the essence, the Church had nothing from the divine essence, of which the breathing was the symbol, signifying first the entry of the Word of God from the Father into that which is clay from us, and the habitation in the hypostasis.

^D And therefore God does not give the woman His essential breath, because the woman is not composed of divinity and humanity, like Christ-Adam, but of one flesh alone, namely the rib of humanity. Furthermore, also in the placement and entry of Adam into paradise, it does not say: "He places the woman with him." Nor indeed in the work does He make her work with him, nor to be a guard with him. Nor is he commanded to eat from every tree that is in paradise except for Christ alone. Nor does he impose on the woman the naming of the beasts and birds: for He brought them to Adam alone. Since then the woman had eaten what is called the fruit of the tree of evil impiety, standing near the serpent as if she were his wife, and then she had renounced him, as I have already said before, and had returned to her husband, we do not find her to have approached anymore or to have spoken with the serpent at all. All things, therefore, that were after her conversion to Adam...

(that is, to Christ) one must understand as good ^A works. All these things are not those of a wrathful judge, but they were then prefigured for the benefit of the Church and of any human being whosoever is of the same genus as she is. The recovery of the sight of the eyes, [signifies] the recognition of the true light of Christ; the covering of nakedness, however, [signifies] the beginning of sense toward correction. For "the wise," he says, "cover their shame."

Hear, moreover, what comes to pass after the breeches were put on. For those who before had not obeyed the voice and commandment of God—who before the meridian of the ages had not yet arrived, and by the flesh had not yet drawn near to us, and the preaching of God had not yet walked [among us] at the time when his sound went forth into all the earth, saying: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" — when the voice of the Lord was made upon the waters, when the thunder of the evangelical voice was made in the wheel of the world, they heard ^B the voice of the Lord saying: "My sheep hear my voice," they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the paradise of the Church of the wild olive trees (namely, of the Gentiles) and saying: "Come unto me, all ye that labor," since you cut down the woods of the mountains to carve out empty gods, and you are burdened by them so that you may go to cursed temples, and I shall cause you to rest from all these things.

And they feared the Lord, whom before they did not fear. They feared, because they did not have the wedding garment; for they were not yet baptized into Christ, that they might put on Christ. They were naked, stripped of the former garment of incorruption and immortality. But when they heard the voice of Him who seeks the sheep that was lost, and the covering of the tree of life, Christ, who says through the Prophet concerning us: "In the shadow of thy wings shalt thou protect us," when we shall have been in the secret of thy countenance. And when He had received this prodigal, naked man, who had entered in from the outside, He covered him, saying: "Bring the first robe" which he bore before, namely the garment ^D of incorruption, "and clothe him."

When, therefore, you hear of the Lord God being present, and saying to Adam: "Where art thou?" understand this calling as a good thing. For whom God seeks and calls to Himself, it is manifest that he is indeed departing from evil, while being found with God. But if, with anger and heat, as some suppose, God approached Adam and Eve in paradise to punish and torment them, He ought to have gone immediately to the serpent and punished the author of evils. He ought to have condemned the woman, the insidiator of the man, and to have exterminated her from paradise, and subjected her to execration and death. Here, however, the contrary occurs; mark this carefully. He neither execrates her, nor accuses her, nor condemns her to death; but He both separates her and redeems her from her insidiator, the serpent, saying to it: "I will put enmities, and as it were a bill of divorce, between thee and the woman," freeing her from you, and causing her to cleave to Me who am her husband and Lord, and clothing her with a tunic—namely, Me, who am woven from things above. For she had been stripped by you, and I name her Life, as she who had been afflicted with death by you.

These things are not the consequences of history. For when God had said to Adam: "Who told thee that thou wast naked, unless thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?" See what Adam answers God, saying: "The woman whom thou gavest me with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Have you heard how Adam did not sin, as one who was not deceived? For he does not say: "The woman deceived me." He does not say: "She supplanted me," or "She was the counselor of sin to me," lest he cast blame upon Him who gave her to him. For he could have defended himself and answered God, saying: "I was right when I was previously alone; but the helpmate whom you gave me was not a helpmate, but an enemy and an insidiator."

But he says or thinks nothing of the kind. Therefore he says: "The woman whom thou gavest me, to save and deliver and support me, she gave to me the death that proceeded from her, the fruit of the tree, and I ate with a prompt and eager mind, contradicting nothing at all and refusing nothing." For this reason Adam makes no mention at all of them, while speaking with God, as one who was neither disobedient, nor had received any assault from the serpent, nor had it even approached him, just as Christ [had not]. Nor, again, is God seen in that terrible execration of the serpent to have accused him of anything concerning the man, or to have made any mention of Adam before him; but He execrates [the serpent] utterly for the sake of the woman, and casts him down, bringing it about that he should fall, from a state from which he could not be raised, and condemning him to eternal damnation, because the woman—the Church—only, and not Adam—Christ—was deceived.

For now, He says, "The prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing." Whence also God, holding as fixed and accepted the response of the innocent Adam in the figure of Christ who did not sin, when he had said: "The woman whom thou gavest with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," questions him no further, but immediately goes to her, for Moses says: "And to her God said: Why hast thou done this? And the woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." How is it, however, that though accused by God concerning Adam, she does not answer about him, but about herself? Is it not clear that this shows that sin did not fall upon Adam? Just as if she were saying to God: "Adam is innocent, I alone did not obey my God, and I broke the covenants entered into with you, and I wandered like the sheep that was lost, having become a wanderer and worshipping idols, and wandering naked and fluctuating upon the mountains and hills, and defiled by the filthy stains of sacrifices? Because the crafty serpent beguiled me, supplanting me as an inexperienced young girl and causing me to go astray." When the woman was almost confessing before God, through what she said: "The serpent beguiled me," as one who had indicated her repentance and it was forgiven her: God passes to the evil dragon, the apostate serpent, and says to it: "Why hast thou done this?" But because you have done this, and have dared to deceive immediately the first

^A fragment of my hands, which was made in the image and likeness of me; you are cursed above all cattle and above all beasts that are upon the earth. You are cursed, and you alone, but not Adam; you alone, and not the woman. But you are cursed above all my creatures that are upon the earth, not from those that are in heaven. For those who are in it, my angels, are blessed, because they who are sent for administrative duties bless me. For you hoped, if men had sinned, to become in their place the king of all that is upon the earth, saying: "I will be like the Most High"; but you are frustrated in your hope: for I give them all power to tread upon the serpents and upon your neck. Then, when He had said these things, He foretells to it also the vice and evil mind the penitence of which would be touched by nothing, saying, not by commanding but by prophesying: "Upon your chest and belly," that is, in your anger and pleasure you shall crawl, being moved by no repentance. "And you shall eat dust all the days of your life"; that is, having fallen from celestial wisdom and divine knowledge, placing earthly and material thoughts [first], you shall be turned about and wallow; "and I will put enmities between you and the woman whom you deceived," namely my Church. We give thanks to your ineffable and unspeakable clemency, Christ God, who liberated us, and separated us from the society and love, and union, and friendship of the evil, diabolical serpent. You are the God who alone does great wonders: who for the sake of your love for your spouse, the Church, have placed enmities between us and your enemy, ^B so that we may no longer serve it, but you alone, the living and true God, who say to the insidiator of this your consort and spouse, the woman: "I will put enmities between you and the woman." "I will put enmities": a thing which is to be, and that it is a placing of enmities that the word "I will put" signifies, the One who says it demonstrates: "I, in the last times, will put enmities between you and the Church." For truly, now the woman is a friend to you, now she is your spouse, now you have made her a captive, now she serves you, now she is subject to you, now she worships you by sacrificing her sons and daughters to you and your demons; but do not boast, nor be puffed up, nor therefore become insolent. For the hour comes, and now is, when I shall come visiting her at noon, and I shall perform her vengeance, and I shall put terrible and implacable enmities between you and the woman, the Church. For I will not come then to put peace between you and her, but the evangelical sword, for dividing and separating you, the malignant and adulterous husband-serpent, from the woman whom you snatched from me: so that as she loved you above all other women, the synagogues of the Persians, Indians, Arabs, and Ishmaelites, so she may hate you above all: or rather, so that I may say it once, that all may hate you (for is God the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles?) and that day and night, armed against you, she may destroy you. If these things do not signify so, it behooved God so to say to the serpent: "And behold ^C enmities are placed from this time between you and the woman." For why, once the crime was committed, would it be necessary to avenge afterwards him who did it? But the Jew does not believe these words, attending only to the letter. Then do you not see (I say to them) the terrible enmities of this wife of Christ, the Church, which she has against the serpent? Do you not see the impression, do you not see the struggle, and this when you yourself are the first to experience it? For what do you not attempt? What kind of battle do you not stir up? What sword do you not arm to overwhelm her? But she stands even more firm and stable, and proceeding against the swords, she does not deny Christ: "And in all these things we have overcome," so that we may say with Paul. Do you not see the sharp swords and arrows of the mighty God, through which she stands armed against the serpent in the battle line and in the fray, armed and fortified on all sides, and girded with the sword of the spirit, the helmet of hope, the breastplate of faith, the shield of baptism? Do you not see the invincible and unbroken weapons, in which she crushes and takes away the head of the serpent? The Cross, I say, the body and blood of Jesus, vows, prayers, vigils, and other things which she wages against the serpent, and stands against it in the battle line, so that she may no longer serve it? Wherefore, henceforth waging enmities with it, and turned to her own husband (namely, Christ), she is daily attacked in war by the satellites of the serpent, endures persecution, is beaten, is tortured, is killed, is bound, is affected by injury, hungering, walking naked, serving, thirsting, bereft of children and torn limb from limb, while with the serpent, however, she enters into neither a treaty nor friendship. But even if it should be necessary hundreds of times to undergo death, with a ready and eager spirit she hands her members and children to the fire, and to the swords, and to the torments, rather than strike, or give, or receive, pledges of friendship with the serpent. But of those things which are now being said, we are witnesses who hear the Word: daily approaching dangers for the faith of this woman of Christ, but not obeying the serpent. Witnesses of the enmities are those who in the deserts and mountains and caves struggle against the serpent. Witnesses of the enmities of this woman are the pastors, who teach her beautifully to say daily: "I renounce Satan, the evil serpent, and his worship, and his deception, and his idols, and his riches, and his libations, and his servitude." A witness of the enmities given by God to this pious woman which she has undertaken with the serpent is the destruction of idols, the overthrow of their temples themselves, the crushing of statues, the ^D deletion of columns, and, among the nations, the knowledge of God who predetermined these good enmities. And He said to the serpent: "I will put enmities between you and the woman." And why the woman, and not rather the man? For the head of the woman is the man, and it (since it is the hostile head) was fitting that he should wage war with the head of the serpent; but He says nothing of the sort, because there is nothing in common to the serpent with the spiritual Adam, namely Christ. He says, therefore: "I will put enmities between you and the woman." If, however, you understand corporally the words of God to the serpent,

see how many absurdities you fall into by interpreting it in that way. Indeed, even if you had been reading these things correctly for a thousand years, you would not yet have known the truth that lies within them, when you rather ought to be enlightening me in these matters, as one who has received them from God and to whom they have been entrusted. Furthermore, learn from me, who am a barbarian and a beast, the meaning of your own laws. And so that she might be hostile to the malicious serpent and not obey him, God gave to the woman and the Church the duty—or rather, the ability—to crush his head with guile; yet the Church cannot do this. And for this reason, God transferred the discourse from the woman to the man (namely Christ), saying to the serpent: "He shall watch your head, crushing you with guile; and you shall watch his heel," that is, the extremities of the entire body of Christ (this being the Church), sifting it in the last times. His heel, and the extremity, is the presence of the Antichrist, which is to be in the last times; for the evil serpent watches and expects his time, as he will use him as an instrument to supplant the Church again through food; and this is when the future famine will occur, just as we also handed down in the previous book. That Christ was the guardian of the Church, there will be no need of any greater proof than that which He says in the person of Christ: "And the Lord God took Adam, and placed him in paradise to work it and to guard it." And first indeed, that God cursed him unjustly. For, since he lacked reason and intelligence, he was an unwilling instrument of the devil; nor was it fitting to be angry at an instrument bereft of reason. Secondly, that if God wishes only the woman to bear enmities with the malicious one, it is obvious that He wishes the man to be the beloved of the serpent. Thirdly, if God placed enmities between the bodily serpent and our carnal woman, in one moment of time all the serpents would consume all the women, and especially those who are not in cities while they sleep. Fourthly, that very many other beasts also are hostile to us. But the serpent does not eat earth daily, but also other foods of meat. Nor does the serpent that falls under the intellect—since it is immortal—eat earth, being sent into eternal fire for all the days of its life. Concerning that very serpent, however, which falls under the intellect, and concerning the Church, understand the divine utterance which says: "I will put enmities between the devil and the woman." Blessed, therefore, is this woman alone among women. For from this we learn a great dogma concerning her, even one higher and more excellent than the heavens themselves. What is this? I say that the Church of Christ, which is the only Church of the Christians, is the enemy and foe of the serpent; but all other religions and faiths which are in the world (both of the Jews and of the Barbarians) are friends, companions, and spouses, and the own possessions of the devil the serpent: born of him, and having conceived from him the evil seed of detestable dogmas, so that to them he is both father and husband, he who introduced the detestable corruption among them: for this is also what the subsequent words of God to the serpent signify. For when He had said: "I will put enmities between you and the woman," He added, saying: "And between her seed." And yet He ought to have said: "And between her offspring," if those things that are said referred only to the bodily serpent and the bodily woman. For a woman does not emit seed; but when she has received it, she brings forth offspring. The seeds of the Church, therefore, are the pious dogmas and disciplines which that farmer sowed, saying: "He went out who sows to sow." Again, the seeds of the serpent are the evil and impious seeds, the weeds and preachings of the heretics. These indeed, Christ seeing sprouting in the midst of the wheat, was saying: "An enemy man has sown these"; that is, the evil serpent; and for this reason, addressing him as the enemy of the Church, He was saying: "I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall watch your head, and you shall watch his heel." Speaking about the woman and her seed, how did He transfer the discourse to the male, saying: "He shall watch your head, and you shall watch his heel"? His? Whose? Perhaps the woman's? Far be it! For that which is said does not have that meaning. I am cut through, and again I am held in admiration of you (I say to you again, O Jew) as to ^{A B C D} why He transferred the diction from the woman to the man concerning Christ, saying to the serpent: "He shall watch your head": because of that voice which joins both in society, saying: "And they shall be two in one flesh," so that through the feminine as well as the masculine voice He might teach us that Christ and the Church are some indivisible thing, and of the same nature, and of the same flesh, and concorporal, and single. Keep for me, O faithful and holy assembly, these things assiduously in memory, which have been said (I say) concerning the divine voice which says to the serpent: "I will put enmities between you and the woman, one and alone": and therefore He does not say, "women"; forasmuch as all other faiths which are in the world, beside this one and only Church of Christ, are friends of the serpent. Furthermore, however, when you see the remaining women and faiths, and the synagogues of the Jews and Barbarians, singing, crying out, celebrating feast days, watching, fasting, sacrificing, adoring, naming God, preaching faith, establishing dogmas, reading the Scriptures, but not confessing Christ as the true God from true God, know for certain that they all are friends of the devil (namely of the serpent) and not one of them is hostile and alien from him, except this one and only Church of Christ, and his seed. For all those are fornications and adulteresses, and of the seed of the serpent.

^A receiving and bringing forth—and perhaps even having their own innate seed—they are detected by the serpent, for he and the demons who are with him have often confessed and preached Christ as the Son of the most high God. Hence, in the temptation, the serpent even spoke to Him as to the Son of God: *Command that these stones become bread*; and as to the Son of God he said: *Cast thyself down* from the temple; and as to God they all besought Him not to cast them into the abyss; and as to God and the Lord of all, they supplicated Christ that He might allow them to enter into the swine; and the demon adjured Him as God not to torment him. For the demons, trembling, spoke such prayers to no one of the just who have been from the ages, except to Christ God alone. For they knew, from the things they suffered, that it was to their own ruin and perdition and that of their prince the dragon that the Judge came to the woman and the man who had sinned—not to judge or curse them, but to save them, as the Savior Himself says: *I came not to judge the world, but to save*. For the Son of Man came ^B to seek and to save that which was lost; for He came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance, because *they that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick*. If therefore, Christ the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, came into life because of kindness, and clemency, and the forgiveness of sins; and His advent into paradise, which was to those who had sinned, was a true type of His advent to the woman who had been deceived, to Eve—that is, the Church, and human nature—let every faithful man understand that God did not then come to Adam and Eve in order to inflict punishment, nor to take vengeance, nor to destroy, nor to curse. For the sheep that was lost was a pattern of Adam, and the good Shepherd did not seek it with anger, but carried it on His shoulders: and the groat which had fallen from the ten, namely Eve, was the Church, and the kindness of God did not seek and find it with anger: and the man who fell among thieves was the first-formed Adam; and He did not treat him with any threats, but healed him and carried him on His shoulders, just as Jesus carried the cross. Furthermore, the good thief also expressed a clear type of Adam, and through Him Christ opened to us the gift of paradise. For the rest, do not fail to believe that even against the first-formed who sinned, God then showed much clemency in the punishments that were decreed by Him against them, in which He indeed shadowed forth words by way of certain curses for the terror of the wicked race of the Jews, when He was setting forth the Law. But those words are to be interpreted as being spoken by way of prediction, not punishment, so that they might be referred to Adam and Eve, regarding those things that were to happen to the Church when she was living in error with the serpent before the advent of God the Word.

On the necessity of the preceding words

These things I have necessarily prefaced, and I have fortified the auditor, lest he should take it ill, or think that he is hearing foreign things in the contemplations we are about to present while we discuss punishments—as though they were new, strange, and incredible things. For the grace of the Holy Spirit never ceases to adorn and crown the paradise of the Church with new flowers of intellectual meanings. For as I have already said, a thousand heresies have sprung up which had indeed heard about paradise and the first-formed, but had understood nothing spiritual in them. For the Samaritans, from the fact that He said: *Thou art earth, and into earth thou shalt return*, thinking the whole man to be mortal because the soul is also terrestrial along with the body, denied the resurrection. But the unhappy Origen, whereas he was called wise in some way or other, became a fool, pronouncing the place of incorruption to have been a brothel, and decreeing the intercourse of the woman to be the beautiful fruit of the tree of disobedience.

The Manichaean, however, imagined that there were two opposing powers of divinity, the serpent and the Creator, which had struggled against one another in the field of paradise; and that the good God was the creator of the soul, which is also man to the image of God; but that the evil God was the maker of the body, which wages war against the soul. Concerning which it is also written, he says: *And God formed man, taking slime from the earth*. The heresy which is called that of the Encratites abstains from nuptials and the woman, as if from an evil and treacherous thing; and similarly also from the fruits of trees, as being those which cause sin, on account of the tree which is called that of disobedience.

And not only this, but very many in the Church are also turned to impious thoughts about God, hearing carnally and crudely the things which were done in paradise. For if, they say, God foreknew that which was to happen, He Himself is the author of it, as one who conceded to the serpent at once to corrupt the first work of the hands of God. For what need was there at all for that demon to dwell together with them in paradise? But certain others have even fallen into other more absurd thoughts, which, for fear that the simpler ones might be offended, it is not necessary to mention. ^D Whence also that great Ambrose, solving them, heard that the things which are said about disobedience and paradise, and the trees, and punishments, and death, are not as if from the power of a demon, but are as if from a certain mystical dispensation. As for the rest, it is time to consider the words which were said by God to the woman and to Adam. Which, indeed, some think are sentences and condemnations of curses. But before I dissolve these, I recall to the memory of the auditor that, while we were discussing the fifth day, we spoke of the blessing of the fish made by God; and that

on account of the serpent and the execration or curse which it was about to bear, for that reason He did not bestow upon the living creatures an equal blessing. For you will not find in all the Scripture of the Law, any things having been blessed by the mouth of God, and again having been subjected by God to execration; and this is clear from Cham the son of Noah. For when he had behaved iniquitously in the uncovering of his father, and after Noah had been awakened from sleep and recognized the iniquity of the son of Cham, Noah did not dare to execrate the son, because he had been blessed by God after the flood along with his two brothers. Wherefore he does not say: Cursed be Cham, but cursed be Chanaan, having execrated those who were to be born from him, and not Cham. But I say these things resisting the aforementioned heresies; regarding the rest, for the sake of Christ’s Church also, defending her, I say these things; to the end that I may show her to the Jew and the Barbarian, to be free from every execration of God and alien to His indignation. For what does Scripture say about the woman after the execration of the serpent? God, forsooth, said: *Multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy groanings; in sorrows thou shalt bring forth children, and thy conversion shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.* But that we may contemplate more clearly the mysteries that are in those things which seem to be punishments, let us join also the things that were said to Adam. For to him also does God say: *Because thou hast hearkened to thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy works: with labor shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the earth: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return to the earth, from which thou wast taken, for earth thou art and into earth thou shalt return.* Alien and in every way exceeding all sense is he who wishes to understand these things corporally, and such a one will fall into these absurdities. I say, therefore: how is it that God, when about to execrate the serpent, brings forth for it the cause of its execration, which is the deception of the woman; similarly also, when rebuking Adam, He points it out to him, saying: *Because thou hast hearkened to thy wife*; but against the woman, in the punishment, God brings forth no sin or cause at all: namely, not a mention of the serpent, not the name of the food, not the tree of disobedience, nor any other cause whatsoever. And it is a miracle worthy of astonishment that the serpent indeed, which deceived the woman, was subjected to such a grave and bitter and never-to-be-condoned execration for eternity; but she who deceived him who was made to the image and likeness of God (I mean Adam), received no reproach from God: for according to corporal laws, the fault of one who deceives a king is greater than one who deceives a woman. For that which the serpent neither dared, nor attempted, nor could do: this the woman did against the man. But these things which are full of all astonishment are these: how, when the wise tongue of Christ, Paul, says: *Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived*, in the punishment of her who was deceived, the very harshest and gravest sentences were indeed enacted:—but in the punishment of Eve who initiated the trap, are they not fully enacted? Is there not the execration of the earth in her works, no food bringing perpetual pain, no eating of herbs, no production of thorns, no rising of thistles, no sweats of the face, no returning to the earth, no death, no ejection from paradise, no prohibition of the tree of life, no guarding of cherubim around her, no turning sword against her? For they who had fallen into the same sin ought to have undergone the same and equal punishments, and the deceiving woman all the more. But if the auditor says to me that, since the woman was the partner of life and spouse, and cohabitant with Adam, she was entirely a partner in the punishments and calamities of the husband: the one who says these things does not judge correctly. For if it were thus, what need at all was there for different punishments against them, and which have great difference and repugnance? For it would behoove Him, just as there in the beginning when He made them, He gave to them equally the eating of seed along with the brutes: so also here, to give punishments commonly, and to say: *Cursed is the earth in your works, in sorrows shall you eat of it, it shall bring forth thorns and thistles to you, and you shall eat the herb of the earth in the sweat of your faces, until you return to the earth, from which you were taken*; but God does or says nothing of the sort. Wherefore, when He had said to the woman, *In sorrows shalt thou bring forth children*, He says nothing of the sort to the man. And through all Scripture, naming the fathers as generators, but not the mothers, He says again that the woman's conversion becomes to the husband, but the man's reversion to the earth. And again, naming the man the earth, He does not name the woman. Nor indeed can it be that she is called earth, since she is the rib of a living being and life. Since, therefore, there is such perplexity and doubt in the proposed punishments, and this having pursued me for a long time, the divine Apostle frequently pricks my side with his hand, saying again: Understand these things about Christ and the Church, to which God in the beginning foretells prophetically, and not in anger, the deception that is to befall her: and then the chastisements and afflictions which befall her through the deception, for her benefit, and then her best conversion and salvation through afflictions. For just as some king, discussing in a modest and merciful way with his spouse who has committed adultery, addresses Eve, saying: Hear, woman, the things which are announced to thee by me, God, not without pain, and which I protest to thee. Thou hast despised me, who am the Lord thy God: and art about to adore and worship the evil serpent. But I, seeking thy conversion and salvation, multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy afflictions and thy groanings and thy calamities: now indeed bringing upon thee the flood, then pestilence and famine, earthquake, rain of fire and brimstone, the lack of rain through the mouth of the prophet, dangers from the sea, dangers from wars, from nations, from persecutions, and every kind of calamity and affliction and sorrow. Wherefore in these

^A pains you shall bring forth evil children, who effect sin and unchastity and iniquity and idolatry. But stay of good courage, and do not despond in your soul, nor despair, nor entertain bad hope: for after those many sorrows which I bring upon you, after the many groans which you will utter to me, after chastisements and famine and necessity, I announce to you a great joy which shall be for all your people: after all ways and means of human help have been taken away from you, your conversion shall be to your spiritual husband, Adam (namely, Christ), and he himself shall rule over you from sea even unto sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth, O Church, O Eve, O your life, which is called woman. We bless thee, Christ, who hast called us, and from error hast caused our conversion to thee. We worship thee who hast ruled over us, as Lord of lords: lest thy own wife and bride, woman, should be oppressed by the rule of the evil serpent. Henceforth let this woman, this life, sing and shout with a loud voice joined to that woman who is truly life and who bears life, and brings forth life, saying: *My soul magnifies him who has ruled over me*, I who am the Church from the Gentiles: *and my spirit has exulted in God my Saviour. For he has looked upon the humility of his handmaid. For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he has wrought power with his arm, and has scattered the proud Jews from the thoughts of his mind, and has exalted us humble ones into the heights. The hungry dogs of the nations of the peoples he has filled with the good things of the bread of life, and the rich in sacrifices and libations he has sent away empty*, so that they no longer worship and adore in a destroyed temple. The Jew hears this and grows angry and is torn apart, and cannot point out any falsehood. But if the truth of things is not as we have interpreted in the words of God to the woman: let the Jew tell me where, when Eve had turned aside or been separated from Adam, God said to her: *To your husband shall be your conversion?* And as he is ruling over her, why does he say to her: *He shall rule over you?*—as if, forsooth, someone had insulted her and had ruled over her. For by all means it is seen that this woman is separated from her husband, and then converted back to him. For he who returns, it is clear that he returns thither whence he had previously departed. For consider with me the inseparable union of husband and wife, which is one body, one member, and his rib. Wherefore he also said of her: *This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; wherefore we are two into one flesh.* How then, when one flesh is glued together and one bone, can they be two strictly, yet God now says to the woman: *To your husband shall be your conversion, and he shall rule over you?* How, when the bone and flesh are his, does she convert to him? Therefore by all that has been said we learn that the woman went away outside her husband, and afterwards returned to him, and again became his rib and woman and flesh. For she is ^B the woman who said to Osee the prophet: *I will go and I will return to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.* And therefore God says to this Church which is called woman: *And to your husband shall be your conversion, and he himself shall rule over you.*

Hence we learn, on account of that which God has in the last times for the woman, the dominion: that when God first planted the paradise, the type of the Church, Scripture named Him God: and adding, Lord. For you will not find Him called Lord and God before paradise: but only, God. But if, proceeding step by step from other proofs to others, I do not bring satiety to the reader by saying many things: I will show him also the false likenesses and parities of the error of the woman and the Church. For first, as the woman in paradise, seduced by the serpent, suffered through the eyes when she saw that the wood was good for eating, and pleasant to the eyes to look upon, and fair for considering; but secondly, she was affected by the affection through the contact of the hand, the fruit having been received; and thirdly, in turn through the eating: so for me, proceed from her to the catholic Church of men, and you will see that the same thing happened to her in the beginning. For when there were then two generations of men in the beginning in the world, who were referred to their own and separate genealogy, and were a prefiguration of the two peoples, and some indeed proceeded from Adam, others however from Cain the parricide: those who proceeded from Adam indeed had in the figure of the people of Christ a certain grace of the Holy Spirit in their countenance, which showed them and separated them from the people of Cain: and especially Seth, whom Adam begot to his own likeness and image, as Scripture says. Wherefore the men who were in that time called him God. But those who were born from the seed of Cain, in the type of the people of Israel, were guests and strangers from that grace and illumination which was in the countenance, as those who had drawn their origin from the parricide. Wherefore those who were of the seed of Adam (who was the type of Christ), who were called the sons of God, envied those who were of Cain because of the splendor which shone forth in their countenance. They, therefore, who were called the sons of God, as those who were sons of Eve by the mother, received the first affection through the eyes: then the other, through contact and taste. For just as it is said of her that she saw the wood good for eating, and pleasant to the eyes to look upon, and fair to consider, so also it is written of his sons: *And the sons of God, that is, who drew their origin from Adam, saw the daughters of men, namely those who had descended from Cain, that they were fair, and took them as wives.* Behold the affection of sight and touch. But afterwards they ate the evil fruit, namely the meats of the sacrifices of the demons. But these are indeed the disobedience of the nature of the woman. Thereafter her first sorrow and groan was the inundation of the whole world:

^A and after that, the pains and groans that led her to repentance. Therefore, neither is there pain or groan placed upon the serpent, because he cannot be led to any repentance. Nor is conversion ascribed to him, as it is to the woman; nor, conversely, is a groan ascribed to man, for the spiritual Adam does not need repentance, as he was not deceived. Hence, there is no conversion placed upon him either, for he was never deceived. For this reason, it is not said that anyone dominates him, as is said of the woman, since he himself is the Lord of Lords. Observe, however, how he does not subject man to that which is for her a punishment, until he made her conversion toward him, saying: "And your conversion shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you." Therefore, since the Word of God is active, as she was converted and united to her proper husband through union in substance, after the union, God immediately brings him to suffer on her behalf. For he says consequently: "And he said to Adam: Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and ate from the tree from which I alone commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground in your works. In labor you shall eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat your bread, until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." When Adam had heard these things from God, he immediately called the name of his wife Life. "For she is," he said, "the mother of all living." What are you saying, O man? Terrible accusations from God are brought against you because of the woman, and curses, and punishments, and sentences, and death, and extermination, and pains, and punishments, and thorns, and sweats, and angers, and whatever things are heavy; and yet you call ^B Life her who was to you the cause of all these things! You should rather name her Death, the ensnarer, the traitress, and the scandal and shipwreck of the whole world: as one who is the procuress of unbearable evils for the world, as one who has laid a snare for all, as one who has afflicted all with injury, as one who has brought destruction to all, and destroyed all. "Stop," he says, "O man who says these things: God is he who justifies, who is he who condemns?" For the helper of man was not his enemy, nor will he ever be. For the rest, do not attend to the naked words, but look to the nature of things. For if these things were indeed said about a mere woman, your rebukes would be just; but since the most holy Paul is present with us and follows inseparably, in that which he says about Adam and Eve, and cries out with a loud voice: "This mystery is great; but I speak of Christ and the Church;" it is absolutely necessary that we understand, down to the last iota and the last stroke, all that is written about the protoplast Adam and Eve as referring to Christ and the Church. But if you oppose what has been said: tell me, I pray, how did the protoplasts, having entered into the examination naked and without a loincloth, come to be clothed and covered by God with skin-tunics in judgment, ^C congruously with the order of the judgments of the world? How, if Adam stands as a defendant (as one deceived by the woman) condemned in the very examination, did he name Life, the woman? How, as you say, could a man who was made under a curse, in the very hour of the curse, prophesy through the Holy Spirit about things that were to be after I know not how many thousands of years, saying of the woman: "She will be the mother of all living"? How, moreover, after God clothed them again, mocking Adam and saying: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us," did he not simultaneously afflict with shame the woman who was more at fault than Adam? Nor does he expel her together with him from Paradise, nor does he say to her: "Cursed is the ground in your works": which indeed he ought to have said to her more than to Adam. If, therefore, Paul, who has Christ speaking in him, seems trustworthy to you when he says: "Adam was not deceived," it is clear that no crime was brought against him. But if a crime was brought against him, he was entirely afflicted by injury because of that accusation. If, however, he was not afflicted by injury, it is clear that he was not even cursed. But his wife having been returned to him, he—not being deceived (as we have said a thousand times)—took the punishment upon himself. And since the entire scope of our discourse is against the Jews, to stop the mouths of those who say that if Christ was cursed, then the multitude of Christians hopes in a cursed Christ: it is absolutely necessary for us to show the Jew also from the prophetic record that Christ suffered for the Church, and not for his own sins. Indeed, Isaiah certainly writes, crying out against the unbelief of the Jews: "Lord, who has believed our report, and the arm of the Lord, namely Christ, to whom has it been revealed? We report before him, as a boy and as a root in thirsty ground: and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty: but his form was unsightly, failing beyond the sons of men." ^D In the passion of the cross we hear that he had neither form nor beauty, because Jesus wiped away in his own form through the wood of the cross, which he took upon himself for his spiritual Church, the evil beauty of that tree which the woman looked upon as beautiful to see and having beautiful form. For the prophet added concerning him, saying: "He was afflicted by ignominy and was not reckoned"—that is, he was delivered by God for our sake, and was subjected to punishment for the sake of the woman, and was not reckoned as suffering for his own sake. For he says, "He bears our sins, and he suffers for us," hearing: "Cursed is the ground," that is, your earthly life, among the Jews who judge in this way in your ineffable works. For you were called cursed by Moses who said: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." And the Jews say: "This man is cursed, since he did not observe the Sabbath."

"In sorrow shalt thou eat of it" (Gen. 3:17): that is to say, you shall live without sin. For if you were to live with sin, the world would love you as its own and would not afflict you.

This, which we hear being granted by God himself, we have considered him to be in labor, and in a plague, and in affliction, even as one who had undergone punishment and death for his own sins. But he was, as it says, "wounded for our iniquities"—namely, the iniquities of those of us who are of the woman, the Church—"and he was sick for our sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed. For he bore the sins of many, and for our sins he was delivered up" (Isa. 53:5, 12). ^A You have here a perfect and manifest calculation and demonstration that, for the sins of the woman, Adam hears all those things which are set forth as punishment, while he himself is without sin, in the image of Christ. Now let us see, if possible, how those very words of punishment which are spoken contain no execration or curse from God against men. For he did not say to him as he did to the serpent and to Cain: "Cursed art thou"; but: "Cursed be the earth in thy works." "In thy works," he says, "which you are about to perform: adoring the earth, and stones, and statues, and its waters, and its fire, you shall make it cursed. In sorrow you shall eat of it," while I bring upon it drought and sterility, and often famine for your chastisement and affliction, just as I also said to the woman: "I will multiply your sorrows and your groanings; thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field," inasmuch as the earth should be uncultivated and desert because of drought and sterility. "In the sweat and labor of your face you shall eat your rare and meager bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for earth you are, and into earth you shall return." This indeed is the interpretation of the letter, as concerns what is set forth, consistently. For just as the historians of ancient worldly narration say: sorrows, famines, droughts, scarcities, and sterilities persuaded those ancients to curse the earth. Whence also, perishing from famine, they used to say that the earth was cursed by God—just as, conversely, human custom names it blessed when it is seen to be fertile. But they had no experience of sowing. For the historians say again that Abraham was the first to sow the seed of grain in the earth with a plow: ^D for us, as I think, the patriarch signifies by this example that from his seed the heavenly bread, Christ, would be seen on earth for the consumption and salvation of men, when the earth of the Abrahamic Mary, the Theotokos, would receive the heavenly rain. Lamech also, the father of Noah, testifies that God did not curse man, but, as I said, famine and the corporal affliction which he then brought upon those generations. For when he had begotten a son, he says: "He called his name Noah," which is interpreted as Rest, saying: "He shall make us rest from our works and the labors of our hands, and from the earth which he ^A has cursed," the Lord God—namely, in the punishment of Adam.

Certainly, when Noah and his sons went out of the ark after the flood, God confirmed to them more openly the blessing with which he had blessed the protoplasts, and afterward said: "I will not again curse the earth" (Gen. 8:21). But when you hear that until the ark the whole earth was under a curse, you can hold it to be nothing else than the Church of Christ, in which God also confirmed and renewed the ancient blessing of man, because after the flood the nature of men, dominated by impiety, fell into innumerable afflictions and chastisements inflicted by God. From this dialogue of God with Adam proposed to us, we are taught to listen and understand much more spiritually what is said about paradise and the trees and the fruit which the woman and the man ate. For when God had said to them: "In the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death"—how did he not only remove this from them in their punishments, but also gave them a life of many years, saying to the woman that she would bring forth children in sorrows, and to Adam, "In sorrows you shall eat of the earth all the days of your life"? Those, however, who do not understand in a way consistent with the ineffable dispensation of God all the things that are said about paradise spiritually, are compelled entirely to make the serpent the author and conciliator and effecter of our entire human generation and of the constitution of the world, through the counsel given to the woman. But the choir of the holy Fathers does not teach this; rather, that even without the serpent and the tree and the food, from that divine voice which was spoken to the protoplasts: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth," it was intended that the human race should consist through carnal generation, differently than the angels were created. Far, then, be Origen from us, and the mystics of Origen, who fabulously apprehend our souls to be pre-existent in vision. For when he had been born, and had come into being, and had arrived at identity, so to speak, with the tunic of skin—I do not know whence moved and whence he obtained this—he established the dogma that Adam and Eve (before the tunics) were naked minds upon which no destruction could in any way fall, and which were not capable of death, flux, food, drink, or sleep. The most wise Methodius, overturning this prodigious insanity, brings against him not one or another, but even a tenth scriptural proof, showing that God from the beginning truly made man generated from the earth and terrestrial—just as he also speaks to us through the mouth of Paul, saying: "The first Adam was of the earth, earthly: for the first is earthly, then through Christ [that which is] spiritual. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:47). For if, he says, man fallen through disobedience was transmuted and altered in essence (as one who had taken off and put on a body different from the other), in that he was affected by an injury from God; for it behooved the demons also, who had sinned far more, to suffer this.

^A ...or if he should again touch that which is worse, he might undergo perfect death; which also came about in accordance with the voice that said to him: "You are earth, and to the earth you shall return."

But concerning this divine judgment, there faces us now a matter to be discussed against the Samaritan. For he uses this divine voice against us, to and fro, to deny and abolish the resurrection of the dead, which says to Adam: "You are earth, and to the earth you shall return." Against whom (if I may also speak more physically) it is necessary to contend first of all that man is not entirely from the earth: but one part is indeed from the earth, while another is not from the earth, but from God by insufflation. For which reason God also called him a living soul; and it was necessary (as even one of the outsiders says) that what is from the earth should return to the earth, but what is from God should return to God, since not even the whole essence of the body is entirely from the earth, but from fire, and from air, and from water. But if man were entirely from earth, he would not differ from a clay vessel, and then any potter could fashion men. But no other man was made from the earth except Adam alone: and it was necessary to pass the sentence of death upon him alone, and not upon anyone else. For all of us humans are from humans, and not from the earth: and especially this has no place when speaking about the woman, since she was made from the side of the man: and it would have behooved Him to say to her: "You are the rib of a man, and to the rib you shall return." But neither are birds, if the words of the Samaritan are observed, subject to death, nor are fish: for they were not born from the earth, but from the waters. How, then, when in the commandment God had said to man: "But in the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall die the death": yet here in the punishments He did not name death at all, but a reversion, saying: "You are earth, and into the earth you shall return." You alone will return and go back to earth, you alone, not the woman also. Since, therefore, God did not say: "You are earth, and into the earth you shall return" (plural), how there did He command commonly: "Do not eat, lest you die"? And again He said commonly: "Male and female He made them," and commonly gave them dominion over all, commonly [gave them] their first food, and commonly the way of life to be lived in ^D paradise: they commonly ate from the tree, and commonly they received sight: they commonly made loincloths, they commonly heard the voice of God walking, as we said before, and they commonly feared, and simultaneously hid themselves: it was necessary that they who did and suffered all things in common should receive the common and same sentence from God, which says to the man and to him alone: "You are earth, and into the earth you shall return." For here, if the Samaritan and the Jew do not take offense at me, God is not speaking of one and the same, but of two. For He did not then say to the man: "From earth you are, and into the earth you shall return": but, "You are earth, and into the earth you shall return," one [earth] and another...

[earth]—implying that he is pointing to the earth. And since this meaning seems harsh and forced to many, if it seems so, I will prove this with examples. Let us suppose God says to the very element of earth: "I say to you, O earth, earth you are, and into the earth you shall return"; is it not manifest that the speech says [this] of two earths? And again, if He says to water: "You are an element, and into an element you shall return," it is clear that He speaks of two elements. Likewise, if He had said to an angel: "You are an angel, and into an angel you shall return," He would have signified to us two angels: thus also by the phrase, "You are earth, and into the earth you shall return," it is necessary that we understand one earth and another, one Adam and another, one reversion and another, one return and another. By reasoning these things to the Samaritan, I have fortified you as a believer, so that you may understand that spiritual Adam who said: "I went forth from the Father, and I return to my Father." ^B But the spiritual and diligent listener will certainly ask: If all things in the Law were first described and figured concerning Christ, as the Apostle says, how can the punishment proposed to Adam also be referred to Christ spiritually, in its very phrases, plain and bare, and especially that [saying]: "Cursed is the earth in your works"? How is it possible that we should understand a curse at all in Christ? Nevertheless, because a little before we heard Christ saying to the serpent in cursing: "You shall eat the earth all the days of your life"—that is, the earthly and material and muddy senses of sin. The food, he says, of the serpent was cursed and condemned in the ineffable works of Christ, so that both the serpent and his food should be cursed. For just as the food of Christ is justice, so also the food of the serpent is sin. And do not marvel when you hear the earth named as the earthly senses of sin, hearing Christ also name it "the world" when He says to the disciples: "You are not of the world, just as I am not of the world": that is, of earthly and worldly wisdom. Concerning which also Paul cries out to some: "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth." ^C Thus also the Prophet teaches us the same thing, saying: "In the morning I destroyed all the sinners of the land"—that is, I was cutting off all the evil contemplations of the incursion of sin. Concerning whom He again admonishes those who live in sins, saying: "Let sinners fail from the earth," as if He were saying, "Henceforth let sinners depart from sin." Concerning which he calls upon God, saying: "Arise, O God, judge the earth"; that is, Condemn the earthly sin, which is the food and consumption of the serpent, condemning his school so that it may not move in the whole world, but hiding it and rather reducing it to ash so that it may be brought to nothing. For you are our God, a consuming fire. But Christ, since He is God, came to cast fire upon the earth (namely, sin) and hay, and thorns, and thistles, and stalks, and chaff, and weeds, as the matter and fruits and ^D germs of infertility and sin.

It remains that we hear the words of God which follow next to the corporal and spiritual Adam. For He subjoins, saying: "And you shall eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread." You will ask (if only you have faith in what has been said) how God said that man is sustained by three foods: namely, first indeed by earth, but second by herb, and third, by bread, the proper food of man. For He does not say to him: "In sorrows you shall eat earth"; nor concerning the herb does He say "And you shall eat your herb," but He places this only on the bread, saying: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread," teaching us hence that earth, indeed, which is partaker of reason, is properly the food of the serpent, which is understood as idolatry, which also God has execrated and cursed. Whence also, as an old and first sin, I say, idolatry, He places it first. Herb, however, is void of reason and is the bestial food of the lower sins. Bread, indeed, is the food of man, which is taken in sweat and labors. And therefore God says (saying that bread alone is proper to man): "You shall eat your bread": since herb and earth are signs of sin and impiety.

Christ therefore consumes that in one way (namely, by erasing and utterly destroying it), and in another way He eats the proper bread of His most holy body, purging and breaking it, and deifying it, and rendering it not subject to decay, and renewing it even from the union itself; but also at that time when the sweat of His face became like drops of blood, when also He said that He was sorrowful even unto death. For after His death, henceforth sorrow and pain fled away, and groaning fled away, which were before the passion: and in their stead was introduced joy and gladness and exultation, and incorruption. And sweats indeed, and pains, and herbs, and thorns, and thistles, and sorrow, all these were until then, until, affected by death, He returned to the proper earth from which He was taken, from which also He was assumed with [the] holy...

nature of [the] body and earth-born, appropriately to the voice that said to Him, "You are earth," as one who is human, even into another celestial earth: into the earth of the spiritual Israel, of our true promise in the heavens, into the earth of the meek, into the holy earth, into the land and region of the living and the city of the Lord of hosts, the celestial Jerusalem. Since, therefore, through the woman—Life—whom He brought forth from His own side, having put to sleep the One who vivifies nature, and thus she was cut out—the One who says, "I am the life" (John 11:25; 14:6)—these things came to pass, and He came into the world, and through her He dissolved death, and through her He vivified those irrational ^A animals of the nations which had been introduced to Him in paradise, and through her He vivified the dead from the netherworld, and granted life to mortal nature: for this cause also the new Adam underwent the penalty of death, and the name of His wife (that is, the Church) He established as Life, since she herself is the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20), life hidden in Christ (Col. 3:3). Hence we are taught the great and admirable glorification of the Church. Blessed and thrice blessed is the hope and the high reaching of Christians. For through these things which have been said, we learn that all other faiths which are in the world are dead, and are mothers of dead peoples and nations, as those which did not have in themselves Him who says, "I am the life," nor regenerate and vivify through the womb of water and the Spirit their children and peoples: but they are without seed, and widows of the fount of life, not enjoying the living water leaping up into eternal life. ^B

Therefore, His Church alone is called both life and mother of all living. And for this reason, her husband also is the mother—not of the dead, but of all living—for Christ is the true life; and whoever is not born of her is dead in sin. But the bodily woman of the bodily Adam is not the mother of the living, but of dead men. But regarding this spiritual mother, He does not say that she is the mother of all men, but the mother of all living, as she who is life, and for that cause God did not at all name death in her penalty; since, when it is life according to nature, it is alien to death, remaining eternal. But if the Jew urges me now to understand the bodily wife of Adam as the mother of all living, it is necessary by all means that I should say she is the mother of the angels; for they also are more alive than we are. What then? He asks: Is the Church also the mother of the angels? Not at all; but since her husband is their Creator, by adoption she is also called their mother. Since He made them also her ministering spirits, who are sent for ministry (Heb. 1:14), to her and for her. For it behoves them to serve the adopted mother and the spouse of their husband and God. Whence, since He contains and vivifies all things, God imposed upon her a name most general and comprehensive, calling her Life; since life is not a personal name, but uniting and comprehensive. ^C

For even in God and in angels and in men, life is commingled. And I think that for this reason also, because the Church is of many kinds and many nations, having her own body and fullness from the entire race that is under heaven, she has claimed for herself a most general name: just like that terrible and astounding beast in Daniel (Dan. 7:1ff.), which lacks a name, and does not have (as something alien) a consistent name, because it itself also first describes and figures the kingdom of the Romans and the Christians. But it is necessary besides all these things to notice how this spiritual spouse of the second Adam progressed from a worse name to a better one. For in the beginning she was called "Rib," and cut or divided: signifying, as I think, by this amputation and division, the defection from God which was about to come upon her. Then, after this, she was built and raised to what is better: because she approached her husband, Christ, she was called "woman." Finally of all, she was called "Life," as she who had progressed from death to life. But her husband is not so, but from a better name receives a worse one. For in the beginning Adam attained great honor and glory, as one who was called the image and likeness of God; then afterwards he was called "man," and then again "Adam": and finally of all, "earth," so that through these things we may openly learn and be taught that whatever things are in the protoplast are to be referred to Eve, the Church, and Adam, to Christ. For thus, when in the beginning there was the splendor and character of the substance of God Himself who cannot be looked upon, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6), so that the Church might be called Life from indigence: having become this, and named from Him, and recorded in the book of the living. For as it pertains to the remaining faiths, it has been said of them: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living," that is, of the children of the Church, the mother of the living, "and let them not be recorded with the righteous" (Ps. 68:29). For unjust are they who have denied God, and have chosen the unjust Satan: to whom also they preferred to render worship through idols, having abandoned the Church. ^D Which, indeed, as one abounding in children, and often bringing forth, and fruitful in offspring, and having many persons, has a universal (if I may so say) name, just as universal life is. But her husband Christ, as One who is the Only-Begotten, and having one person, when being indivisible, is named by the hypostatic name of one person. And I could indeed have contended here also against the Samaritan; but if I say many things, I fear the satiety of the hearers. For he himself, saying and understanding the man’s bodily wife to be the mother of all living, necessarily and even if unwillingly confesses that the souls of men are living; but if he says they are dying, he shows God to be a liar. The woman is no longer found to be the mother of the living but of the dead, after the likeness of beasts. For as far as concerns the Samaritan, both a dog and an ass are already mothers of all living: since—

^A let us offer glory to Christ, the King of all, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

OF SAINT ANASTASIUS

ON THE SPIRITUAL ANAGOGY OF THE HEXAEMERON OF CREATION

BOOK TWELVE

^B “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife ^C skins, and clothed them.” But tell me, I pray you, who are those who are judged and condemned, who are clothed, led forth, and adorned by the immortal hands of the almighty God, in the manner of a bridegroom and a bride, as if prepared for new nuptials? For neither does any mortal king, nor even a humble prince, adorn his own enemies with his own hands, nor hand them over to be adorned by others. Rather, having stripped them and subjected them to punishments, he would lead them naked, bound to his chariot, and would triumph over them and cast them into prison. Does it not seem, therefore, that those garments of skin signify some mystery to us? For whoever is clothed and covered by God shall dwell in the shelter of the God of heaven, and he shall not be found subject to judgment or condemned.

However, we must here observe how God, having briefly allotted to these two, in accordance with the law, their diverse punishment, immediately granted a vestment equal, similar, and of the same value to both, as if to those conspiring in one soul and under one yoke. For that connection is not in harmony, since that pair was divided by the accusation Adam brought before God, because he had listened to the voice of his wife. For it was not fitting to join to him again the one who had been the author and cause of curse and death for him. Nor indeed were our first parents cursed, as some think; for they received that garment from God, the tunics of skin, not after the curse, but before it. Not that God [would have permitted] them to endure life without tunics.

even as He [did] with the angels and the rest of the living creatures; but this model signifies that, being stripped by sin, in the latest and final times they would eventually be clothed and covered by God, just as that prodigal and worthless son, upon his conversion, was clothed with the first and royal robe. ^A At the same time, through this donning of skins derived from beasts, the incarnate economy of Christ was also prefigured. For the Word became flesh and dwelt in our mortal, pelliceous nature, which was also prefigured by the tent of Abraham, in which was born the son and laughter, Isaac, as a type of Christ who sheds light upon all things with joy; after which tent, the tabernacle of testimony, being the second, signaled the Church, that tent-bearing Eve, the wife of Christ-Adam, and the one called Life, the mother of the living, the life-bearing tabernacle of the undefiled nature, the Theotokos, God’s lodging and God’s nurse, but, as for humanity, the ever-virgin Mary. Intra within whom, as within a certain rational tabernacle, by a concurrence that exists per se and an uncorrupted congress, the Word of God was twofoldly intertwined and connected by hypostasis, nor did it adhere to that natural tabernacle. ^B Observe, in fact, that He alone, existing per se—now duplex and composite, Adam clothed in skins, whereas before he was naked, simple, and entirely unmingled and unconjoined—migrated from a certain unknown, incomprehensible, and indistinct place, where God, through the Holy Spirit, wrought—not by command, but by His own operation—that seamless tunic, which that multicolored tunic that the patriarch Israel fashioned for his Joseph also signified. Hence, when that composite, tent-bearing God, hidden in human nature, was returning to where He had come from, His companions and the powers, the citizens of heaven, looking toward the veil of His flesh, were seized by divine awe and, in terror, exclaimed: "Who is this that comes from Edom, with red garments from Bosra?" ^C The same goes for that earth-born Adam. Edom indeed is interpreted as paradise and bloody pleasure; and Bosra, flesh. From blood and flesh, therefore, that red, pelliceous tunic was composed; which, when others saw Him again ascending into heaven [as] composite, the sharer of divine godhead, saying to Christ, "Evohe" (for why, therefore, is thy clothing red, and thy garments like those of them that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone). ^D For it is evident that He Himself, who [wore] the pelliceous [garment]...

tunic, keeps hidden within His rational and immortal nature, while only the mortal appears. Thus, Christ is acknowledged in these as Adam, both God and man; and His spouse, the Church, inasmuch as she has put Him on, is called "composite." "For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ," having become conformed to Him.

— And the Lord God said: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil." And for what reason, tell me, besides this? When God called him after the eating, as he was hiding himself, why, I ask, did He not immediately speak this utterance to him, if—as the Jews suppose—it is reproachful and not mystical? For if God said this mocking or accusing him, it should have been that, before all else in the reproach to him, He would have said this, and then thus have added the sentence. For after that affectionate and quasi-paternal and bridal clothing and donning of the tunics, it was entirely out of place or reason to say that God had spoken thus in order to accuse him. But because God had, through the tunic, made "composite" him who was formerly "not composite," and had hidden in mortal nature him who was previously a man not needing to be hidden, and had united to him his foreign and alien nature, and had fashioned and delineated him as a certain sign ^B and type and image of the One of the Trinity, for this reason, looking at him and, as it were, pointing with a divine finger, He said: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us," one of the three persons of the Divinity; that is to say, "In the last times and even unto the final ages, He shall be" as one of the Trinity: the Son and Word of the Father, having become composite, God and man at once. And at the same time, through this utterance, God announces to Adam that he has been rendered quasi-one of the Trinity, united to the Trinity, a partaker of the Cherubic throne, sitting at the right hand of majesty, adored and glorified by every principality and power. But if anyone should contend in opposition, saying that it was because of the deception of the serpent, which said to them, "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," that this was therefore brought against ^C Adam and cast upon him by God, we shall answer to— ^D

^A first that the serpent, saying "You shall be as gods," was teaching polytheism, claiming there are many gods. But note that Adam neither spoke with the serpent, nor saw it, nor approached it or the tree of disobedience; only the woman did. And if indeed He wanted to reproach him regarding the words of the serpent and that he essentially had to be exiled, God ought rather to have exiled the woman for this reason. But notice here, with much divine inquiry, that after the putting on of this tunic, God no longer makes any mention of the woman together with Adam, but says everything thereafter about the man alone; for He says, "Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil," as if to say, "Behold, we have sketched out a certain type and figure of the second Adam, Christ." And now is not yet the time for him to stretch out his hand and take and partake of the tree of life, which is God. For the ineffable incarnation is yet to come, and [that he] may eat, that is, hide this within himself, and he who eats [it] shall live forever. For that which is consumed is ever-living, and it does not need an immortal life of which to partake; whence also in this place the interpreters and those who compiled the Hexapla made a perfect rendering of the statement; and for the rest as the beginning of the verse, since the chapter is consequential, they began by saying: "And the Lord God cast him out," that is, Adam, "from the paradise of pleasure, to till the ground from which he was taken." ^B I know that the meaning of what has been said seems very forced to the hearer; therefore, these things must be taken up again. Some people here, among whom are Jews and Samaritans, think that the words of God have this meaning: "Behold, Adam has become as one of us," as they supposed, of the three hypostases, "to know good and evil. And now, lest he stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life and eat, and live forever, let us cast him out of the paradise of pleasure." Thus do many men understand it. But the meaning does not lie in this way. What makes it dark and obscure is this: instead of saying, "And now it is not yet the time for him to eat of the tree," the writer said, "Now therefore, lest..." But if these things were not as I said, Adam ought not to have been exiled at all, but rather the woman herself, who stretched forth her hand, who dared, and took, and ate first, and gave to her husband; or rather, before her, the cause of all evils ought to have been cast out. ^C But it is manifest that the contrary happened here, where not those two guilty ones are cast out, but only the innocent one. Nor indeed was Adam deceived. For I will never cease to ^D chant that regarding the sinless Christ. Therefore, if he was not deceived, neither was he cast out. For exile [is not...]

^A written, but sending forth. For it says: "The Lord God sent Adam forth from the garden of delight to till the ground from which he was taken." For the Lord was sent forth according to the Father's will, as if from the garden of the Father's bosom into this painful land of ours, to work our salvation, saying: "My Father is working, and I am working," and to guard us that we might not succumb to the sting of unbelief and sin. And He cast out Adam and placed him opposite the garden of delight, and set the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way to the tree of life. ^B Listen, I pray you: behold, the man went out alone, he who had also entered from without. Then where is the serpent? Where is the woman? Where are the beasts? For they did not go out, however much the Jew and the Samaritan may contend with ten thousand arguments. The woman herself, who is called Life, did not go out. But she remained within, vivifying and nourishing the beasts. She was never cast out, nor is she ever cast out. For it was your handmaid, the Synagogue, that was cast out, so that true liberty might remain within; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir ^C with the son of the free woman. And that I may confirm and ratify this word for the faithful and the Jews, I will show them, through other women, that that woman was not cast out.

Noah once entered the ark with his own wife, and when he went out of it, the exit of his wife with him is also recorded. Abraham once went out into Mesopotamia, and his wife also went out with him; likewise, when he went out of Egypt, we read also that his wife went out with him. Jacob once went out from the house of Laban, and the divine Scripture records with certain strict accuracy the exit ^D of Rachel and Leah with him. Moses also went out from Midian, and the exit of his wife with him is written; and you shall find in the Scripture other countless women who went out with their own husbands. And how, tell me, did she who was the first and only beginning, and root, and head, and life, and queen, and mother of all living, not go out with her husband from the garden, nor those beasts and cattle which God Himself brought to Adam, that he might see what he would call them? For if they had gone out, the Scripture would not have kept silent about their exit, but would rather have accurately recorded when and with whom they had gone out, just as it described their entry. And since our discourse has been launched upon strange and paradoxical matters, I will by other [proofs] seized from Scripture argue against the Jews.

that these beasts did not exit. He says again that before the flood, the beasts and the cattle entered into the ark with Noah, and their exit with him is also written; and a number was set with great precision. Similarly, Scripture also tells us of the exit of the cattle of Abraham and the cattle of Lot, and especially of the departure of Jacob from Mesopotamia; and not only that, but it also describes the immense multitude of the animals that went out from Egypt with Israel. Tell me, then, how is it that for these beasts and animals, which were fashioned by God, not created at God’s command as the other animals were, but created by His own hands, their entry into Paradise is recorded, but their exit is not mentioned at all? For it would be a terrible and almost wondrous thing if the asp, the serpent, ^B the viper, the dragon, and the scorpion were to enjoy the tree of life together with the once-deceived woman, and God had not driven them out of Paradise, nor forbidden them to approach the tree of life. He did not say concerning them, or the woman, "Lest they stretch out their hand and take and eat of the tree of life and live forever."

And tell me, how could God, having made man in His own image and likeness, and having enlivened him with His own divine breath, so condemn and banish him alone, without mercy, above all the beasts that remained in Paradise—those beasts that were the authors of sin, the serpent and the woman? For it says, "And the Lord God cast out Adam from Paradise, and placed him before the Paradise of delights, ^C and set the Cherubim and the flaming sword which turns to guard the way of the tree of life." Man, therefore, perished all alone, if indeed he was the only one condemned above the beasts. And it went poorly for the Cherubim too, for while all the other animals were enjoying Paradise in complete security, the Cherubim themselves—the janitors of the Cherubic throne, of personal servitude, of the presence and the enjoyment of the eternal glory—were assigned instead as gatekeepers and guards of this earthy, beast-tending garden, and were shamed by being ordered to serve as jailers for the condemned serpent and the woman. But away with such absurd and insolent words! The most divine Paul, standing by, ^D looking sternly at me, said: "That mystery is great; I speak, however, concerning Christ and His Church" (Eph. v, 32). And these things are to be understood in this way: for the woman, as having come forth from the man, has turned to her own parent; but the man, descending from the Father, has migrated back to Him from the earth, each one to his own kindred and fatherland.

For Adam, who is born of the flesh and born of paradise and a citizen of heaven, ^B Christ, indeed entered naked, as God, into paradise and the life here below, and underwent without change His saving ecstasy, through which He brought forth His own companion, the Church. Having become incarnate, she properly returned to Him, and He took upon Himself all that was in her: the eating, the flight, the abuse, the curse—having become a curse by hanging on the tree—the nakedness, and the hiding by which He was hidden in Hades with the wood of the cross. Wherefore God, calling Him out from that hiding, brought Him forth and raised Him up, having clothed Him in incorruptibility over that perishable mantle from the seed of David according to the flesh—that earthly, grassy, carnal tunic He had put on unspeakably—having endowed Him with an incorruptible, solid, God-woven one from God above, made immortal for Him, into something indissoluble beyond the former one which He put on from Mary the Theotokos, having transformed and consolidated [His] body. Wherefore, after He had put on that tunic of incorruption, since it was impossible for Him to tarry longer in this caducous and mortal life, God took Him, thus clothed, into the paradise of the Church—for from the region of the earth heaven is beheld—so that He might till the earth from which He was taken and received, that is, that by His care He might guard the human race from all evil, and the flaming, turning sword to guard the way of the tree of life. ^C "Cherubim" is expounded as a multitude of knowledge; and knowledge is the true, pious faith in Christ, which God established and ordained to guard our progress and our course in this life from error. By "tree," however, understand the whole people of Christ, and by "life," the Church; for she is the one whom He called "life," as being the mother of all who live in God, whom the Cherubim and Seraphim and the flaming sword, which is itself the word of God, guard unto eternity from the serpent. For our God is a consuming fire. And He calls it "turning" as if encompassing the Church, ^D and also as if sending the word of God from heaven into the Church, which alone looks toward Him; for the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, as Paul says. Indeed, just as the Son is for us the way to the Father, saying, "I am the way," so also the Church is for us the way of life to the Son, who says, "I am the life." And for this reason He also called His spouse "Life," as the one who vivifies us animals and leads us

to the life of all. ^A For this reason, He is Himself the Tree of Life, that is, the Church, taken for Him by the Father and joined with the garment of skin from the animals of paradise. Therefore, when Christ dwells in us, as Paul exclaims, He puts on the garment of skin; but when you look again upon His wife, who is called "Life," the Church, as a sort of double tabernacle—from there indeed possessing the sacred mercy seat, bearing around the living flesh of the Lamb. But from without, the worldly holy place—attend to how Paul clearly teaches these things, transferring and referring those legal matters to the Church, establishing the first and second veil, and then also how he stabilizes that first and outer tabernacle, having the ordinances of worship, ^B and then after the second veil, he fixes that other tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies.

Now, therefore, as I traverse the course set before me, it remains for me to show that God, when He spoke of man, saying, "Lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever," did not imply bodily life, but a certain spiritual eating and life; for then He delays and restrains him, as if he were not yet capable of that through which he was to remain in the error of idolatry. For what greatness or excellence would there have been in his remaining immortal according to the flesh, living in impiety according to the immortality of demons? ^C This would have been even more pernicious for him, since he did not cease from sin and would therefore be exercised with much greater punishments. Therefore, just as we demonstrated above that it was not of bodily death that God spoke when He said, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death," and as He said again, "In sorrow you shall bring forth children," so also here it must be understood, and just as "in sorrow you shall bring forth children," so also here in the Church, what sort of eating is this, of which he who partakes shall live forever?

I know that all of you who have heard the word spoken have immediately thought of the participation in the mysteries of the Body of Christ. ^D What then, tell me, do all who partake in the Church possess eternal life, and shall none of them descend into eternal punishment? And yet, for those Corinthians who partook of the mysteries, that very participation immediately resulted in death; indeed, it would have been better for that man Judas if he had not been born, he who became a participant in the immortal hands of Christ. How many also in the deserts, though deprived of the eating of the divine bread, nevertheless possess eternal life, and do not come into judgment, but have passed from death to life, being themselves entirely the bread and body of God, and blood, and house, and temple, and altar.

and whole burnt sacrifice, and offering, and chrism, and gods by deification, and fellow-members, and conformed to the glory of the image of God, and holy communion, as having been received by God, and receiving in themselves and housing God. So it is ^B clear that the partaking of bread alone is not the eating from which one who eats has the eternal life of the soul. For the eternal life of bodies after the resurrection we acquire, believers and unbelievers alike. Wherefore, many things were ready in Paradise, given by God for man to feed upon; one of them, as one might say, universal, from which he who eats will not [necessarily] have eternal life—namely, that of which it was said: "Of every tree that is in Paradise you shall eat." Another was altogether of the tree of life and more spiritual; for whoever eats of the tree of life shall live an eternal life. But what is this eating of the tree of life in the Church? Hear the living Bread of life Himself, Christ, explaining this to us in the Gospel according to John and saying: "Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life." And then, when the hearers doubted ^C as to what that food was of which He was speaking to them, He says: "My Father gives you the true bread which descends from heaven. I am the bread of life; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live unto eternity. The fathers ate the manna in the desert and died. This is the bread descending from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die." By saying "bread descending," He shows that bread is continually descending from heaven, so that you might not suppose that He refers to His body, and imagine within yourself that everyone who partakes of it, even if he should happen to be wicked, has through the communion the eternal life; He removes you from such a thought and shows you ^D that we partake of the mysteries in two ways. The worthy enjoy that bread which is always descending from heaven—that is, the indwelling and illumination of the most holy Father, of the divinity of Christ—inasmuch as they reflect on divine and heavenly things. But the earthly-minded, who reflect only on earthly things, partake audaciously and unworthily of the earthly and mere flesh of Christ, a manner of eating altogether alien to the higher; wherefore, so that He might teach us both, after He said, "I am the bread of life descending from heaven," that is, God the Word, "and if anyone eats of it, he will live unto eternity," the same one adds, "and the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." You see the difference if someone eats of that bread which descends from heaven, when He said he has eternal life; but concerning the flesh, He by no means added that, whence, concerning the fearful and ineffable

mysteries, see how He often repeats his words upwards and downwards. For as the Jews were again raging against each other in their perplexity and failure to grasp the words, He speaks consistently to them: "Amen, amen, I say unto you"—and I say the amen twice so that you might know that heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, but shall remain firm forever. "Amen, amen, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no eternal life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." For He Himself is, as I have often said, the tree of life that gives life; and if you do not believe, hear what follows, for the Word of God proceeds to say in sequence: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me, and I in him." He does not speak of the flesh and blood seen by the eye; for Judas and Simon Magus also partook of the body and ^B blood of the Eucharist, of the bread and the cup, yet Christ did not dwell in them, nor did they in Christ.

But what the true eating of the mystical flesh of Christ is, and what the ineffable blood hidden therein is, we leave to those who are more capable and more learned in the mysteries, to those to whom it is proper to dispense such things; these things have been said by us to confirm the hearer more clearly, that the tree called the tree of life is nothing other than the participation in and union with God, in the man who partakes of Him; while the other tree, that which produces death, is the opposing power of the serpent. And when you hear that God is the only tree of life inside the paradise, and that His wife, who is called Life, remained inside with Him, ^C know precisely that there is no other faith outside the Church which partakes of God and of His food; and that he who does not eat and drink from this, as the Word says, does not have eternal life; and that life and the living faith do not exist anywhere else, unless within where the living ones remained, and the wife, Life, with them near the living tree of life. Concerning which woman it is also written: "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and said: I have acquired a man through God," not through the serpent, not through the tree, not through the eating, not through the transgression, not through the curse, nor through any other reason whatsoever, rational or irrational, or any similar act; but I, the Church, have acquired a man through God, that is, through Christ; whence the others ^D

^A among the interpreters, and those associated with Symmachus, have wonderfully published such a reading. For instead of saying "I have acquired a man through God," one said: "I have acquired a man with the Lord," which means a man united with the Lord, being God and man together. Yet another of the interpreters wrote: "I have acquired a man, the Lord," in order for you to say a man who is God, just as he said to him, "My Lord and my God."

Blessed art thou therefore among women, the only life, and the life-giving mother of the faithful, the glorious mother, O Church of Christ, the spiritual spouse of the spiritual Adam, that is, God; and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, the multitude of the nations of the living. For thou alone didst acquire a man without seed through God, the Word, subsisting by himself, when he knew his woman, whom he had previously created ^B as one formerly unknown to him and not yet turning toward him. Thou art a rib and portion of the Adam of God, since any other faith is foreign and alien to him; he built thee for himself as a home and a woman, leaving behind all other women—those churches which are in the world—that are not such as thou, and have remained in error. Thou alone art bone from the bones of his solid divinity, and flesh from the flesh of his humanity, in which he hid his divinity intact, for "his bone shall not be broken." Thou alone wast taken from thy husband, and didst conceive and bear from him, and no other; whereas all other faiths conceive and bear from their own husband, the serpent.

Because of the love for thee, thy lover Jesus left the warlike people of the Jews and their adulterous mother, the synagogue, and ^C cleaved unto thee, and was joined to his own completely incorrupt woman. And you have become one flesh, one body, one holy body, one Christ, one faith, one flock, one shepherd, while all other flocks and peoples have many pastors and impostors. God brought thee, as a comely woman, to his Son, while all other women, like harlots and adulteresses, wander abroad and are defiled. To thee alone he proclaimed, saying that thy return shall be to thy husband Christ, while the remaining synagogues do not look at him at all, nor do they turn to him.

Wherefore, blessed art thou again among women, thou alone, O Church of Christ, crowned with many wreaths, having brought forth many sons, and shining with great light; thou alone art blessed among women, no other; because thou alone ^D are ruled by the Lord of lords, while all other peoples remain under the empire of the dragon. Thou art the enemy and the invincible champion, and the slayer of the serpent, while every other faith is friendly, intimate, and beloved to him. He called thee alone life, the life-bearing mother of us all who live through thee, as...

the other faiths are dead, ^A mortified by sin. Thus, he also clothed and adorned thee alone as his own bride; but the other straying synagogues he left bare, unadorned, and shameful, stripped of the celestial covering, because they did not flee under the shelter of thy wings. O incorrupt one, thou alone art the field for the God-sown seed of the Word, the adversary and exterminator of the offspring of the dragon; whereas the other faiths, conceiving from it, bring forth serpents, vipers, and scorpions—a bitter people, being as they are the brood of vipers. Thou alone watchest, and keepest guard, and together interrest and slayest the head of the many-headed dragon, strangling and destroying him in the water of baptism. ^B For thy husband made thee alone according to his image and likeness, fashioned to accord with the glory of God, whereas all the other synagogues were fashioned and formed according to the image of thy enemy. God blessed thee alone to increase and multiply and replenish the earth with children, but the other harlots, straying by nature, he left unblessed. Christ appointed thee mistress, and ruler, and queen of all—of the birds of heaven, of the holy angels, of the beasts of the earth, of the nations, and of the mute fishes; and he subordinated to thee the infidel slaves, and gathered for thee the faithful. ^C He granted thee alone to enjoy the immortal and incorrupt pleasure and the tree of life, while other women howl altogether like dogs, being bereft of the eternal bread. Thou alone beautifully tillest and guardest thy paradise, driving far from the vineyard the wolves and foxes—those who, as if it were unguarded, corrupt the uncultivated fields of the faithless, which are heavy with tares. O miracle! Thou alone hast become a helper to man—to God, thy helper and protector—labouring, teaching, preaching, illuminating, converting, calling them to him as to a light, namely all those who lie in darkness and in the shadow ^D of death; begetting and bringing forth, nourishing with bread and giving to drink of the chalice, increasing, and making fruitful, and planting the seeds, and daily tending thy garden and paradise, and the little ones of thy flock. Wherefore, since thou art of such industry—a guardian at home, a lover of thy husband, pious, strong, an auxiliary, armed, a fighter, and ever ready and willing to lay down thy soul for thy husband Adam—that is, Christ—and to be in peril for his sake, therefore he has stationed for thee, as for a queen, Cherubim with flaming and unmoved swords.

armatura, instructa, quæ tibi immortalem et incorruptam vitam æternam custodiant. Te Seraphim tueantur, te sex alæ tegant, throni cessent, multis oculis prædita cernant, tibi principatus serviant, potentiæ ministrent, virtutes ancillentur. Te reges adorent, sacerdotes glorificent, ut hominum choræ te celebrent, te nationes exornent, te linguæ laudent. Quoniam igitur tu sola, neque ulla alia, a viro tuo Christo talem et tantam gloriam et honorem sortita es, oro te et obtestor utpote matrem meam et nutricem a teneris unguiculis et a majoribus, ne desinas purum verbum tuum lac e mammis tuis mihi largiri ut inde te tuosque agnos discipulos lactem. Ne desinas incorrupta columba sancti Spiritus, Ecclesia Dei, in corde meo manere, et inambulare, ibique multos per me pullos parere. Ne dedigneris, o viri amans et uno viro contenta, Christi turtur ex ore tuo cibum sationis in os meum infundere, ut inde te tuique niduli pullos vicissim nutriam: ne cesses, o cœlestis luscinia, suavi cantu tuo et modulatione aures meas demulcere, ut semper nidulo tuo circumvolitans, pullos tuos oblectem. ^B Ne moreris, perennis fons vitæ paradisi, e speculatione tui Eden scaturire nobis æternos et limpidos tuos latices, ut aqua viva saturare possint rationales istos et animatos ovium greges. O pulchra et coronis redimita horti cultrix, ne defatigeris nos inoculando et emplastrando, ut vicissim propagines tuas pulchre disponere et inoculare possimus.

^C O luna semper lucida, ne cesses præire nobis et facem lucere per noctem impietatis et Scripturarum tenebras et difficultates. O conjux et comes te circumradiantis viri tui solis Christi, ne desinas radios ex eo nobis infundere, ut ita per te multis luminaribus accensis, ea tibi rursus appendam. ^D O Dei thesaure, oro te et obtestor, purum et regium veræ tuæ imaginis argentum abunde nobis porro suppedita, ut illud in trapezitarum tuorum animas ditem. Denique ut te iterum vero nomine compellem, o quæ adjutrix viro tuo a Deo facta es et cognita, perge, precor, nos tueri, nobisque in omni—

being made known, do not cease to stand by and help, at every time, and in every place, and in every matter, those who intercede on your behalf, and who for your sake readily offer up their own soul and flesh, and who, as much as in them lies, gladly help your helper ^A, and who daily die for your sake, and stretch their own necks to the sword, and for your sake courageously pour out their own blood, and who know how to exalt your horn for the sake of your defense against your enemies, and who know how to overturn your adversaries with the two horns of your lamb and God, by his natures or by his operations.

BY THE SAME ANASTASIUS AN ORATION ON THE SIXTH PSALM

^B Bless, Father.

The exhortation of the Holy Spirit in the sixth psalm contains a subject matter for sincere repentance, most fitting for the beginning of the fasts, to the Church. For in it he teacheth...