The devil is located; God alone is unbounded; Job's endurance and the devil's illusions; the mountains are the prophets
Athanasius continues his commentary on Job, now explaining the devil's coming before the Lord as a matter of will and location, then turning to Job's endurance and the devil's deception of Eve and Job's wife, and finally interpreting the mountains as the prophets.
And the Lord said to the devil: “Where have you come from?” (Job 1:7). At the same time, this also establishes that all created things are in divided places—the lights in the firmament, the clouds in the air. And for human beings he fixed the boundaries of nations, while the angels are sent out for ministries, and they go up and down on the ladder. And here they came, it says, to stand before the Lord, and a question is put to the devil: “Where have you come from?” So they are in a place, and wherever they are sent, there they are present. But God alone is unbounded. Therefore they do not seek the one who is present everywhere as if he were in a place, so as to find the unbounded one enclosed in a region. Rather, to stand before him is this: to be formed by his will and to be stretched up wholly toward him. For every creature is before God, even the rebellious and most wicked one, in respect of the unbounded nature of that essence. But the angels are present to God in a special way, according to the insatiable longing of divine love.
“If we have received good things from the Lord’s hand, shall we not endure the bad things?” (Job 2:10). So Job was contending, and the trial was great, but the athlete appeared greater than the trial. The tempter was flowing in heavily, and the one fighting against him was harsh, but the one being tempted appeared more courageous, conquering the attacks and assaults of the evil one by the greatness of his mind. The mark of courage is endurance. For by this each of the saints, bearing the painful and grievous things that happen in life, prevailed against the devil. And the Spirit, wanting us to possess both of these, commands in the psalm: “Be strong, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 31:24). For the one who endures is courageous, and the courageous one would be enduring. Therefore blessed Job was strengthened through enduring, and through bearing his pains courageously he endured. He pushed away his wife, who had been deceived by the serpent and corrupted in her thoughts. For there the inventor of evil is entirely hateful, and only appearing to seek someone to seize and swallow, he hides and covers what he himself is, and by counterfeiting through illusion the truth that all desire, he casts his own poison upon those who follow him. So he deceived Eve, not speaking his own words but counterfeiting the words of God and distorting their meaning. So also he undermined Job’s wife, persuading her to counterfeit love for her husband while teaching her to blaspheme against God. So the deceiver plays with human beings through illusions, stealing and dragging each one into his own pit of evil.
“He who makes the mountains old, and they do not know it, who overturns them in wrath” (Job 9:5). The mountains are the prophets—Moses and those after him. And the Scripture makes this clear: “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come” (Psalm 121:1). The one who gives his reasoning mind to the words of the prophets lifts up his eyes to the mountains, seeing that his help will come from the words understood in the prophets, from the Lord who made heaven and earth and filled the pure heart of the prophets with mysteries.
Greek
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Κύριος τῷ Διαβόλῳ Πόθεν παραγέγονας; Ἅμα καὶ ἐν τούτοις περίσταται, καὶ ὅτι τὰ γενητὰ πάντα ἐν μεμερισμένοις τόποις εἰσὶ, φωστῆρες μὲν ἐν τῷ στερεώματι, νέφη δὲ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι· καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν, οἱ δὲ ἄγγελοι ἀποστέλλονται εἰς διακονίας, καὶ ἀναβαίνουσι καὶ καταβαίνουσιν ἐπὶ τῆς κλίμακος· κἀνταῦθα ἦλθον, φησὶν, παραστῆναι ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, καὶ πεῦσις γίνεται πρὸς τὸν Διάβολον· Πόθεν παραγέγονας; ὥστε ἐν τόπῳ εἰσὶ, καὶ ἔνθα ἀποστέλλονται, ἐκεῖ πάρεισι, μόνος δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἀπερίγραπτος. Ὅθεν οὐχ ὡς ἐν τόπῳ, τὸν πανταχοῦ παρόντα ζητοῦσιν, ἵν' εὕροιεν ἐν χωρίῳ καὶ συγκλειόμενον τὸν ἀόριστον· ἀλλὰ τὸ παραστῆναι τοῦτό ἐστι, τὸ τοῖς θελήμασιν αὐτοῦ τυπωθῆναι, καὶ τὸ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁλικῶς ἀνατείνεσθαι· Θεοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἐνώπιόν ἐστι πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις, καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ ἀποστατικὴ καὶ πονηροτάτη κατὰ τὸ ἀπερίγραφον τῆς οὐσίας ἐκείνης· ἰδίως δὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι πάρεισι τῷ Θεῷ κατὰ τὸν τῆς θείας ἀγάπης ἀκόρεστον ἔρωτα. Εἰ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐδεξάμεθα ἐκ χειρὸς Κυρίου, τὰ κακὰ οὐκ ὑποίσομεν; Ἠγωνίζετο μὲν οὖν ὁ Ἰὼβ, καὶ μέγας ἦν ὁ πειρασμὸς, μείζων καὶ ἐφαίνετο ὁ ἀθλητὴς τοῦ πειρασμοῦ· καὶ πολὺς μὲν ἔρρεεν ὁ πειράζων καὶ χαλεπὸς ἦν ὁ μαχόμενος· ἀνδρειότερος δὲ ἐφαίνετο ὁ πειραζόμενος, 22 νικῶν τὰς ἐπιχειρήσεις καὶ προσβολὰς τοῦ πονηροῦ, τῷ μεγέθει τῆς διανοίας· γνώρισμα τῆς ἀνδρείας ἐστὶν ἡ ὑπομονή· ταύτῃ γὰρ ἕκαστος τῶν ἁγίων φέρων τὰ συμβαίνοντα ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἐπίπονα καὶ λυπηρὰ, ἴσχυε κατὰ τοῦ Διαβόλου· ἅπερ τὸ Πνεῦμα θέλον ἡμᾶς ἀμφότερα κτᾶσθαι, προστάττει λέγων ἐν τῷ ψάλμῳ· Ἀνδρίζου καὶ κραταιούσθω ἡ καρδία σου, καὶ ὑπόμεινον τὸν Κύριον. Ὁ γὰρ ὑπομένων, ἄνδρειός ἐστι, καὶ ὁ ἄνδρειος ὑπομενητικὸς ἂν εἴη. Διὸ καὶ ὁ μακάριος Ἰὼβ διὰ τὸ ὑπομένειν ἐκραταιοῦτο, καὶ διὰ τὸ ἀνδρείως φέρειν τοὺς πόνους ὑπέμεινε, καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα διωθεῖτο, ἐξαπαταθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄφεως, καὶ φθαρεῖσαν τὰ νοήματα· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ὅλως ἐστὶ μισητὴς ὁ τῆς κακίας εὑρετὴς, καὶ μόνον φαινόμενος ζητεῖν τίνα ἁρπάζειν καὶ καταπιεῖν, διὰ τοῦτο ὃ μέν ἐστιν αὐτὸς, ὑποκρύπτει καὶ σκέπει, ὑποκρινόμενος δὲ τῇ φαντασίᾳ τὴν πᾶσι ποθουμένην ἀλήθειαν, τὸν ἴδιον ἰὸν ἐπιβάλλει τοῖς ἀκολουθήσασιν αὐτῷ· οὕτω καὶ τὴν Εὔαν ἠπάτησεν, οὐ τὰ ἴδια λαλῶν, ἀλλ' ὑποκρινόμενος τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ῥήματα, τὴν δὲ διάνοιαν αὐτῶν παραποιῶν οὕτω καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ Ἰὼβ ὑπέβαλε, πείσας αὐτὴν ὑποκρίνεσθαι φιλανδρείαν, διδάξας δὲ βλασφημεῖν εἰς τὸν Θεόν· οὕτω τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὁ δόλιος παίζει ταῖς φαντασίαις, ὑποκλέπτων καὶ σύρων ἕκαστον εἰς τὸν ἴδιον τῆς κακίας βόθρον. Ὁ παλαιῶν ὄρη, καὶ οὐκ οἴδασιν, ὁ καταστρέφων αὐτὰ ὀργῇ. Ὄρη οἱ προφῆται, ὁ Μοϋσῆς καὶ οἱ καθ' ἑξῆς. Καὶ δῆλοι ἡ γραφή· Ἤρα τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου εἰς τὰ ὄρη, ὅθεν ἥξει ἡ βοήθειά 23 μου. Ὁ τὸ διανοητικὸν ἐπιδοὺς τοῖς λόγοις τῶν προφητῶν, ᾔρε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς εἰς τὰ ὄρη, ὁρῶν ὅτι ἥξει ἐκ τῶν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις νοηθέντων λόγων ἡ βοήθεια αὐτοῦ παρὰ Κυρίου τοῦ ποιήσαντος τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, πληρώσαντος μυστηρίων τὴν καθαρὰν τῶν προφητῶν καρδίαν.