The Perils of Earthly Desires and the Blood of the Soul
For the nature of understanding is twofold: one is of the hands, the other of mind and hand; for understanding, which is called along with wisdom, comes into being through the mind. Concerning this it is said, 'The Lord gives wisdom, and from his face knowledge and understanding' (Ps 78:6). But the one of the hands, being practical and productive, is shown in the understanding of the good in all those who practice it. For the understanding that is practiced is practical knowledge; and by this the teacher guides certain ones who are not so much benefited by words. Let practical knowledge and the discussion of real-world matters be understood, so that we may logically know for each of those practicing according to virtue.
Toward the intellect: Once made the possession of God, the soul, having enriched the temple, having entered the experience of those dwelling within, received it. For they came upon it, not as the inheritance of God, but as the invisible enemies of old, unable to approach it even in measure, and mortal because of the strangeness of God's presence within. Having not approached these, they entered into the temple of God which is in it, corrupting it through which they entered into sins. Lest this should happen, it is written to some, 'Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' (1 Cor 3:16). If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God corrupts him; for the temple of God is holy, and you are some of them. It is also possible to call the unclean and uncircumcised thoughts mortal, having come into the inheritance once held by God as a soul, which also once entered into the sacred. But if the things happening at certain times in Christianity, having been worked by the Gentiles in the holy places, signify the things dwelling within, let the one encountering them judge. For the invisible enemies, called mortal, were not so powerful as to lay waste the once-become city of God, as if no fruit of anything remained in it, to place it in a state of desolation. And the desolation...
A small thing, as it is written in Isaiah (Isa 55:1), is a fig-bearing tree; and the fruits of this are figs and gourds. These are Egyptian foods which the people desired when sinning, even though they had the manna and the heavenly food from God, but also the mortal foods of God's servants and food to be eaten by the winged ones of heaven.
For the sinning soul, seeing the peace of God, is lost; Jerusalem, which passed well, had certain thoughts, because the diligent and virtuous servants happened to be of God. But they did not entirely remain, instead of seeking the incorruptible life, but they received something mortal in doing something passionately.
This is not the mortal food becoming of the winged ones who snatch what was sown by the roadside, which the Savior interpreted as the evil one (Matt 7:15) and those being sickened by this. For indeed vultures and young vultures, profiting from the beasts of the earth, do not eat the holy ones but their flesh. For whatever is found to be fleshy and passionate is nourished.
If it is possible to raise these things up to the witnesses of Christ, he himself will understand; many in persecutions, having become food for birds and beasts, yet their souls were not able to be devoured by the spiritual winged ones of heaven nor by the beasts themselves, because God did not hand over a soul confessing Him.
But the blood, which becomes the removal of the soul, instead of its life-giving power, which is called 'turning,' is poured out not far from or far from Jerusalem but around it. And this is the boundary of peace. Since the one stumbling goes outside of Jerusalem, of the correctness of the dogmas, the aforementioned blood is poured out about it and around it, not even worthy of a burial because of his exalting his sins; such are the things falling away after the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 4:2). Since the one being baptized is not buried with Christ (Rom 6:4), and secondly not...
Greek
διττὸν γὰρ καὶ τὸ τῆς συνέσεως ει δος, τὸ μὲν χειρῶν, τὸ δὲ νοῦ καὶ χειρός· ἡ γὰρ μετὰ σοφίας ὀνομαζομένη σύνεσις νῷ παραγίνεται. περὶ ταύτης λέγεται ̔Ο κύριος δίδωσι σοφίαν, καὶ ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ γνῶσις καὶ σύνεσις. ἡ δὲ τῶν χειρῶν πρακτικὴ καὶ ποιητικὴ τυγχάνουσα δηλοῦται ἐν τῷ Σύνεσις δὲ ἀγαθὴ πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσιν αὐτήν. ἡ γὰρ ποιουμένη σύνεσις χειρῶν ἐστι· καὶ ταύτῃ ὁδηγεῖ τινας ὁ διδάσκαλος τοὺς μὴ τοσοῦτον λόγῳ ο σον πράξει ὠφελουμένους. Νοηθείη δὲ χειρῶν σύνεσις καὶ ὁ τῶν πρακτέων λόγος καθ' ο ν δυνάμεθα ἑκάστῳ τῶν κατὰ ἀρετὴν πραττομένων ἐπιστῆσαι λογικῶς. 815 Ps 78 αργ ῃιδε απολλ νρ. 127 816 Ps 78,1–3 Πρὸς δὲ διάνοιαν· η ποτε κλῆρος γενομένη θεοῦ ψυχὴ καὶ ναὸς χρηματίσασα μεταπεσοῦσα πεῖραν τῶν ἐγκειμένων ε λαβεν. η λθον γὰρ ἐπ' αὐτὴν ου σαν κληρονομίαν θεοῦ οἱ πάλαι μηδὲ κατὰ ποσὸν δυνάμενοι συνεγγίσαι αὐτῇ ἀόρατοι ἐχθροὶ ου ς ει πεν ε θνη διὰ τὸ ἀλλότριον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκειώσεως. ταῦτα ου ν ἐγγίσαντα ἐμίαναν τὸν ἐν αὐτῇ α γιον τοῦ θεοῦ ναόν, φθείροντες αὐτὸν δι' ω ν ἐνῆκαν ἁμαρτημάτων. ο πως ου ν μὴ τοῦτο γένηται, γράφεταί τισιν Οὐκ οι δατε ο τι ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν; ει τις τὸν ναὸν τοῦ θεοῦ φθείρει, φθειρεῖ τοῦτον ὁ θεός· ὁ γὰρ ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ α γιός ἐστιν, οι τινές ἐστε ὑμεῖς. ∆υνατὸν δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἀκαθάρτους καὶ ἀπεριτμήτους λογισμοὺς ε θνη εἰπεῖν ἐλθόντας εἰς τὴν κληρονομίαν τήν ποτε οἰκειωθεῖσαν θεῷ ψυχήν, ο τε καὶ ἐμίαναν τό ποτε α γιον. εἰ δὲ τὰ συμβάντα κατά 158 τινας καιροὺς τῷ χριστιανισμῷ α μα τοῖς ἁγίοις τόποις ἐνεργηθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν σημαίνει τὰ ἐγκείμενα, κρινέτω ὁ ἐντυγχάνων. Ου τοι δὲ οἱ ἀόρατοι ἐχθροὶ ε θνη καλούμενοι εἰς τοσοῦτον ι σχυσαν ὡς τήν ποτε πόλιν θεοῦ γενομένην ἐρημῶσαι, ὡς μηδενὸς ε τι καρποῦ ἐν αὐτῇ περιλειπομένου εἰς ὀπωροφυλάκιον αὐτὴν τεθῆναι. τὸ δὲ ὀπωροφυλάκιον, ὡς ἐν ̔Ησαΐᾳ γέγραπται, διὰ σικυήρατόν ἐστι· σίκυες δὲ καὶ πέπονες τούτου οἱ καρποί, Αἰγύπτια βρώματα α περ ἁμαρτάνων ὁ λαὸς ἐπεθύμει, καίτοι γε ε χων τὸ μάννα καὶ τὴν οὐράνιον τροφὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ θνησιμαῖα τῶν θεοῦ δούλων βρώματα καὶ τροφὴν θέσθαι τοῖς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πετεινοῖς. ἡ γὰρ ἁμαρτοῦσα ψυχὴ ἡ τὴν εἰρήνην τοῦ θεοῦ ὁρῶσα, ο τε καλῶς διῆγεν ̔Ιερουσαλήμ, λογισμούς τινας ει χεν οι διὰ τὸ σπουδαῖον καὶ ἐνάρετον δοῦλοι ἐτύγχανον θεοῦ. ου τοι δὲ οὐ πάντῃ ε μειναν ἀντιποιούμενοι τῆς ἀφθάρτου ζωῆς, ἀλλὰ θνητόν τι προσείληφαν ἐν τῷ πράττειν τι ἐμπαθῶς. τοῦτο ου ν τὸ θνησιμαῖον βρῶμα γενόμενον τῶν πετεινῶν τῶν ἁρπαζόντων τὰ παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν σπαρέντα, α ἑρμήνευσεν ὁ σωτὴρ τὸν πονηρὸν ει ναι καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τούτου νοσοποιουμένους. ου τοι γὰρ γῦπες καὶ νεοσσοὶ γυπῶν χρηματίζοντες θηρία γῆς ο ντα οὐ τοὺς ὁσίους ἀλλὰ τὰς σάρκας αὐτῶν κατεσθίει. ει τι γὰρ εὑρίσκεται σαρκῶδες καὶ ἐμπαθές, τρέφεται. Εἰ δὲ ἀνάγειν ταῦτα δυνατὸν εἰς τοὺς Χριστοῦ μάρτυρας, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπιστήσεις· πολλῶν ἐν τοῖς διωγμοῖς βρῶσις ὀρνέων καὶ θηρίων βορὰ γεγενημένων, πλὴν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν οὐδὲ τὰ πνευματικὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οὐδ' αὐτὰ θηρία κατεδωδῆσαι δεδύνηται, οὐ παραδιδόντος τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς θηρίοις ψυχὴν ἐξομολογουμένην. ̓Εκχέουσι δὲ αι μα οἱ αι τιοι γινόμενοι ἀναιρέσει ψυχῆς, ἀντὶ τοῦ τὴν ζωτικὴν αὐτῆς δύναμιν τροπικῶς αι μα καλουμένην, οὐ μακρὰν οὐδὲ πόρρω τῆς ̔Ιερουσαλὴμ ἀλλὰ κύκλῳ αὐτῆς. αυ τη δέ ἐστιν ἡ τῆς εἰρήνης ο ρασις. ἐπεὶ δ' ὁ σκανδαλιζόμενος ε ξω γίνεται τῆς ̔Ιερουσαλήμ, τῆς τῶν δογμάτων ὀρθότητος, περὶ αὐτὴν καὶ κύκλῳ αὐτῆς ἐκχεῖται αὐτοῦ τὸ προειρημένον αι μα, οὐδὲ ταφῆς α ξιος ω ν διὰ τὸ ὑπεραίρειν αὐτοῦ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα· τοιαῦτα δὲ τὰ μετὰ τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας πταιόμενα. ἐπεὶ ου ν συνθάπτεται Χριστῷ ὁ βαπτιζόμενος, δεύτερον δὲ οὐκ
About this text
Discover how early Christians interpreted the Psalms as divine messages and prophecies about salvation and judgment.
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- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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