Spiritual Blindness and Symbolic Afflictions

To know that in the divine scripture the name of cunning is placed not only in a reproachful sense but also in a praiseworthy one. For when it is said regarding wisdom, 'that I might give cunning to the guileless' (Ps 55:23), it is clear, as it speaks of prudence and a praiseworthy deed; for such a thing is given by wisdom. And again: 'the cunning one was averted from coming evils' (Jon 3:4), which indicates a sensible action, which is accomplished toward him in the manner of repentance when the onset of evils is proven, as the Ninevites did, fleeing the threat; for the wrath is dispersed by this repentance. That cunning is also placed reproachfully is shown in: 'I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve in his cunning, your thoughts might be made frivolous' (2 Cor 11:3). And we have the 'hands' signifying actions in the scripture, as this one also seems to have understood. For when it says: 'thorns grow in the hand of the drinker' (Prov 26:5), we do not take the part of the body to mean—for thorns do not grow upon that—but rather the actions, according to which one sins. Therefore, 'their hands shall not do' is true, since God is not willing to fulfill the outcomes of their counsels. 'He who seizes the wise in their prudence, and turns aside the counsel of the many-scheming' (Ps 58:12). That is, he seizes the devices of the wise by his own prudence, or by the prudence of those who shared from him, as Elisha seized the sophistry of Gehazi, whom he caught scheming, saying: 'Your servant has not gone right or left' (2 Kings 6:17). To whom, having understood his movement, he said: 'Was not my heart with you?' (1 Kings 20:42). He also turns aside the counsel of the many-scheming ones, like that of Ahithophel, having prayed the blessed David and saying: 'Turn away the counsel of Ahithophel' (2 Sam 15:31). Not only this, but he also turned aside the counsel of the 'lawless elders' and of Egypt, who had deliberated against prudence, thus as regarding Susanna, because of their many-scheming, saying: 'Squeeze me from every side,' and Joseph, in his youth, with prudence and movement, escaping the devices of the lawless woman of Egypt. 'Darkness shall meet them by day, and the noonday, having felt it, shall be like night; and they shall perish in war' (Dan 2:22). He says that as many as attempt beyond their own power as they think...

What they grasp without the inspiration of God, they find nothing, being overtaken by darkness and groping as if they were handling things in the night, being unable at all to perceive anything with precision. For just as a film lying over the eyes prevents the power of sight, so a passion of this kind acts upon the mind, causing it to fail to see even in bright and manifest things. Furthermore, their being stretched out signifies that ignorance is occurring, for they fail to see even at midday.

You might say that even one who believes in the evangelical message might still be called out in sins, being unable to see despite the presence of a great light; for in what he believes, light appears to him, but in what he does not use toward what is necessary with that light, he is blinded. This happened symbolically to the Egyptians; for they spent three whole days and three nights in darkness. And that they suffered this because of their own cause, it was not simply that the day was obscure to all, but to them alone, while the Israelites suffered nothing of the sort.

But also the men according to Sodom, being struck with invisibility, were shown through the senses symbolically to be being blinded according to their intellect. And those in the Kingdoms who were struck with invisibility [text corrupted: ῃαξατ ῃαξατ]. You do not say this without necessity, and you say that those who fall according to the truth through sophistical and plausible words fall into days of darkness and midday as if in night; but if the one standing for the truth exposes the thinness of their plausibility through proofs, they seem like the blind and the senseless, whom they are unable to withstand. They are also destroyed in the war, the struggle for the truth.

The symbols of these are the Egyptians, being led by Pharaoh and defeated by the Israelites by the help of God, and Goliath by David, and all those who were defeated by the servants of God according to the sensible. For these bring forth a sign that even the enemies of the wise according to the intellect are unable to stand against the truth advocated by them. But even more clearly is the example according to Moses, when he waged war against the Amalekites. For whenever the hands were lowered, a change occurred in the coming victory when they happened to be stretched upward toward God. From which it is shown, as the one with the high wisdom of the truth...