Questions and Doubts 1 part 1/9

[...]os. Volume I. Questions and Answers I. (≡A_≡) QUESTION. ANSWER. ...in the passions; and it diminishes the assault and the evil, and is restored again to its former shape, that is, to the desire according to nature — if indeed there is any striving and longing for God.

And the putting of the hand into the bosom signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, being made flesh in the workshop of our nature;

for this is what the bosom and the white hand signify;

and again, when the hand is restored to its former shape, it is shown that after the resurrection the Lord, having been taken up, was restored into the paternal bosom.

For Moses, having become a mediator of God and of the people, at one time holds the person of God and the Father, and at another time that of our nature.

QUESTION: What does the tower being built in the land of Shinar signify? ANSWER: We too build a tower whenever we move away from the east, that is, whenever we are removed from knowledge;

and we come into the land of Shinar, that is, into... [The work of holy Maximus has been divided into volumes, and the pages are numbered following the series of the ‘Gregorios Palamas’ editions, ‘To Byzantion’, Thessaloniki, ‘Philokalia of the Watchful and Ascetic Fathers’, so that the reader may easily consult the translation.]

There is also an indication of the page in the Patrologia (==) whenever the text derives from there.

For ‘Shinar’ is interpreted ‘a watching of teeth’;

then we also build a tower, that is, we set great store by the fleshly passions, and we build, joining passion to passion.

For those who are zealous about vain things never wish to stop, but have an insatiable craving for them.

But God halts the building of the tower and confuses the tongues whenever, disciplining us for our benefit, he cuts short our evil;

for whenever he disciplines with sickness the one overcome by the impurity of fornication, or brings to sobriety through poverty the one enslaved to gluttony, he makes, as it were, a cutting-short of the tower of the passions, at the same time also confusing the tongues;

for having checked by sickness the fornicator who continually meditates upon fornication, and having made him occupied instead with the health of his body, he has, as it were, confused the voice of his continual meditation on the passion.

QUESTION: Since it is written in the Gospel that unless one be born of water and Spirit [he cannot enter the kingdom of God], and elsewhere again, that he himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire — I ask to learn what the difference is.

ANSWER: The Holy Spirit, coming to be in each [element]: as water, it cleanses the defilement of the flesh; as Spirit, it washes away the stains of the soul; as Holy Spirit, it instills the manners of the virtues; as fire, it makes one God by grace, causing the divine marks of virtue to shine upon him.

QUESTION: Since, according to Gregory the Theologian, who says in his oration on Pentecost, ‘the apostles received their perfection through three gifts: first, by healing sicknesses and driving out demons; second, by the breathing-upon after the resurrection; third, by the Spirit itself substantially, in the form of tongues of fire’ — how can one who becomes equal in rank to the apostles in virtue receive the aforesaid gifts, and how must one understand ‘substantially’? I ask that this be explained by way of an example.

But how the Holy Spirit was operative at first, and how it came upon the apostles substantially at the last, it is necessary to explain by way of an example.

Just as when a piece of wood is placed upon a frying-pan, and then, when the fire is kindled beneath, the wood receives a share of the heat of the fire through the medium of the pan — so at first the Spirit operated dimly in the saints;

[but once applied directly,] it immediately assimilates the wood to its own nature.

Thus, by means of sensible examples, one may form an image of what ‘substantially’ means.

QUESTION: Since Scripture does not say plainly that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, and moreover, since he gave back everything — as he himself says, that he took not even so much as a shoe-latchet — from where did he give the tithes? For he himself was carrying nothing of his own when he went out to war in such alarm.

ANSWER: Since divine Scripture says that Melchizedek was a priest of God, it is therefore fitting to believe that Abraham, holding the rank of a layman, gave the tithes to the priest.

And that he indeed had something to give from is clear from what follows:

for the kings who made war against Sodom had taken not only the possessions of Sodom, but also had with them the spoils of other regions, which they had previously taken captive;

all of which Abraham, having cut them down and taken these, gave back what belonged to the Sodomites, but kept the rest for himself;

and from these he also gave the tithes to Melchizedek.

And since the priesthood of the Gospel is believed to be according to the order of Melchizedek, and not according to the order of Aaron, and it is not recorded that Melchizedek had a wife, it necessarily follows that bishops also, who exercise the priesthood according to his order, do not take wives.

QUESTION: Since it is written that the prophet Amos was a goatherd who nipped sycamore figs, what is a goatherd, and what is ‘to nip’? ANSWER: A goatherd is a shepherd of goats, and ‘to nip’ is to cut.

Since, then, the sap of the sycamore fig is raw, thick, and harmful, those who nip it cut the sycamore fig with small knives and make the sap flow out.

And small creatures creep in from within, and when the ray of the sun falls upon it, they sweeten and soften it.

This, then, is according to the letter;

but according to the anagogical sense, a shepherd of goats is one who shepherds by reason the appetitive part of the soul;

And he nips the sycamore figs who subdues the body through self-control and drains away the moisture of the passions;

for such a one, after the manner of little creatures, receives divine thoughts, and by the sun of righteousness is sweetened and made soft in soul, and becomes a prophet from God and a teacher to others.

And if he fixes his gaze upon the crucified Lord, whose flesh, hung on high, held dead and inoperative the law of the serpent of sin in our flesh, he is saved.

And the serpent is of bronze, since the nature of bronze admits neither diminishment nor corrosion, just as the Lord did not admit the venom of sin, nor did his flesh see corruption.

And since Gregory the Theologian recalls, saying, ‘the bronze serpent is hung up against the serpents that bite, yet not as a type of him who suffered for us, but as an antitype’, and that ‘he who believes puts to death, together with it, the powers under it’ — it is necessary to clarify these things as well.

He who, through virtue and knowledge, has purified the visual faculty of the soul knows clearly that evil has no subsistence, and exists in none of the things that are, except only in the being-enacted [of it].

Since, then, the serpent, the originator of evil, through disobedience mingled into man the crookedness of sin, Moses is commanded to hang up the bronze serpent, thereby indicating in advance what was to come to pass in the Lord;

for he alone, through the suffering of the cross, exposed sin to public shame, and showed it to be inoperative and dead.

Whoever, then, fixes his gaze upon him and believes that the enemy has been put to death and rendered inoperative, he too puts to death, together with him, the powers under him;

for [the enemy] is no longer able to do harm, either through the senses or through the sensible things by which he held his dominion;

for this reason, then, it was said by the father, ‘not as a type, but as an antitype’, as indicating in advance the deadening of the devil.

QUESTION: How must we too, if indeed the law is spiritual, keep the sabbath of days, and the sabbath of weeks, which is Pentecost, and the sabbath of years, the seven-year period, and the sabbath of the seven-year period, which is the Jubilee? ANSWER: We keep the week of days whenever we cease the operation of evils; and we keep also the sabbath of weeks when we cease our assent to wicked thoughts.

And we keep also the sabbath of years when we do not admit the assault of desire, since the year has the sprouting-forth of fruits, and the desire that these arouse in it.

And we keep also the Jubilee when we bring completely to rest the memories of evils and the imaginings that befall us out of prior impression;

for ‘Jubilee’ is interpreted ‘the loosing of bonds for the living’ or ‘the release from mourning for the living’; for when someone acquires perfect dispassion, then he is loosed from the bonds of sin, and, being released from mourning, he settles joy within his soul.

QUESTION: What does it signify that Elisha raised up the son of the Shunammite woman? ANSWER: The prophet Elisha signifies the Lord, and the child of the Shunammite woman signifies human nature.

For since [human nature] had grown weak through transgression and had been put to death by the diabolical scorching heat, the Lord sent Moses, working wonders by means of a rod, just as Elisha also sent Gehazi; and [neither of them] raised up the man, nor were the prophets able to do this.

The Lord himself, therefore, out of his love for mankind, having taken up our flesh, through its sufferings gave life to our nature, which had been put to death.

Why is it that one of the evangelists traces the genealogy from below upward, while the other does the opposite? ANSWER: I think that they did this not without purpose, but rather in a most mystical manner;

for since some of the faithful are led down from the promises to the practice of the commandments, while others, beginning from the practice of the commandments, are led up to the promises — for this reason the one traces the genealogy downward, and the other traces it upward.

QUESTION: For what reason is it the custom of the Church, in the offering of the precious Body and Blood of the Lord, to set forth the loaves and the cups in unequal number? ANSWER: All the things performed in the Church have a rationale that transcends nature.

And since these symbols are, in a preeminent way, mysteries and images of the divine essence, and this essence is uncompounded, while all creation is compounded, and only, as has been said, the Holy Trinity is simple and uncompounded — for this reason, then, the Church sets forth the loaves and the cups unequal, thereby characterizing the divine in them.

QUESTION: Since some are perplexed as to how it can be said that the incarnation of the Lord escaped the notice of all the heavenly powers, when we find that the prophecies concerning the Lord came about through angels, and Gabriel announced the conception of the Virgin, and angels instructed the shepherds in the mystery — what, then, is it that escaped the angels’ notice? ANSWER: That the angels knew of the Lord’s incarnation, which was to take place for the salvation of mankind, one must not doubt.

But this escaped their notice: the incomprehensible conception of the Lord, and the manner in which he, being wholly in the Father, and being wholly in all things and filling all things, was wholly in the womb of the Virgin.

QUESTION: Why is it that on Mount Ebal, on which the curses were given, Joshua the son of Nun is commanded to build an altar and to write the law? ANSWER: ‘Gerizim’ is interpreted ‘circumcision’, and ‘Ebal’ ‘a lump [of dough]’; in the lump, then, of the accursed portion belonging to the nations, our Lord Jesus Christ fixes an altar — that is, the Church — inscribing the law not on tablets of stone, but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

And he says that the altar was built of whole stones, upon which no iron was laid, signifying the intelligible stones, the apostles, who became unhewn on account of the simplicity and unaffected plainness of their character;

from whom the Church of the nations was constituted.

QUESTION: What does it signify, that which the prophet threatens — that those who make ‘chauones’ for the host of heaven will be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar, so that he may fix his throne at the gate of Jerusalem? ANSWER: ‘Chauones’ are little cakes of various kinds, which the Jews and their wives used to make and place in the windows of their houses, to receive the light of the moon and of the morning star.

...finds sensible things pleasurable — such a one makes ‘chauones’.

For ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ is interpreted ‘prophesying the judgment of affliction’. QUESTION: What do the five sacrifices prescribed by the law signify —

the sheep, the ox, the goat, the turtledove, and the dove? ANSWER: According to one approach, the ram is taken as the ruling faculty over the rational part, the bull over the incensive part, the goat over the appetitive part, the turtledove over temperance, and the dove over sanctification.

But if one must also inquire into the properties naturally belonging to each animal, and apply to each of them the fitting contemplation, those who have studied such things say that the sheep offers three things to its owner: wool, milk, and a lamb;

and the pupil of its eye moves around together with the sun, and each day it discharges three hundred sixty-five pellets.

And man, the rational sheep, if he is zealous to offer himself as a sacrifice to God his owner, is bound to give, as it were wool, ethical practice; as it were milk, natural contemplation — for this is nourishing to the mind; and as it were a lamb, to beget, through his own teaching, a disciple in every way like himself and perfect, and to offer him to God.

And such a one also has the pupil of his eye moving around together with the sun — that is, the mind moves around together with the sun of righteousness, who bears our affairs through the providential governance of the things that are; that is, [the mind] follows;

for both in afflictions and in times of prosperity, giving thanks, he follows the providence that guides all things well.

And such a one casts off each day three hundred sixty-five pellets, that is, he continually casts away, as corruptible and superfluous, the things that are subject to time and generation.

Concerning the ox they say that it has a triangular heart, and a five-lobed kidney;

And it has three stomachs, and by day its eyes are light-like, but by night fire-like; and for a third of the day and a third of the night, looking toward the east, it breathes, blowing;

and its right nostril gives off the fragrance of musk, and its blood is destructive of all tame animals except the dog.

And its having a triangular heart [means] this: to hold in the heart sound teaching concerning the Trinity, so that, just as the heart naturally imparts life to the body, so also piety toward God constitutes the members of the soul;

And its having a five-lobed kidney [means] this: that the desiring [part of the soul] is not turned toward the passions, but through the five senses surveys creation unto the desire and love of the Creator alone;

And its possessing also three stomachs;

The [first] stomach, receiving the food first, and by its digestive power sending on the pure part of it to each of the members, gives the remainder to the belly.

Thus, then, it befits us too, being led through the practical life and through natural and theological contemplation, and distributing to all the members of the soul what is fitting, also to provide for the lesser part, that is, the body;

And its having eyes fire-like by night, but light-like by day, [means] this: the contemplative power, in the day of the virtues, receiving the rays of knowledge from the sun of righteousness, but in the night of the successive temptations brought on for the sake of virtue, grasping the inner principles of the abandonments;

And its having the right nostril fragrant;

The right part of man is the soul, since we are twofold, of soul and body;

He, then, who through the virtues of the soul draws to himself the grace of the Holy Spirit, becomes fragrant to others.

And the blood of such a one is destructive of the tame animals, that is, anger gone astray is destructive to the men who imitate it, but food to the demons barking against us.

The goat has such a nature:

climbing the mountains easily, it walks the cliffs, and delights in musical melodies; and if its right horn is burned as incense in any place, it produces the illusion of an earthquake;

and it excretes two hundred droppings each day.

The right horn signifies that he who, through prayer, offers the contemplative [faculty] of the soul to God, becoming fragrant to those who hear, shakes the settled state of fleshly passions in them.

Such a one at every turn casts off the error of the senses concerning sensible things;

for the senses, being intertwined with sensible things;

for example, the number four, multiplied tenfold, makes forty; and this, multiplied fivefold, produces two hundred.

QUESTION: What is the didrachma which even the Lord is required to pay, and what is the fish which Peter is commanded to catch, and to take from it the stater and give it to those who demand it? ANSWER: Those who demand the didrachma bear the image of the natural passions in us;

These approached Peter — that is, the practical one of the Lord, humble, and one who, after the manner of a disciple, obeyed the Father — demanding of him, as of a man, what they had a custom of exacting as tribute from all men.

But since, having put on our flesh, he also received its blameless passions, he consented also to pay these to nature, without sin.

Since Gregory of Nyssa, in his own writings, appears — to those who do not understand the depth of his lofty contemplation — in many places to be intimating [the doctrine of universal] restoration, I beg you to say what you know concerning this.

ANSWER: The Church knows three restorations:

one, that of each individual according to the inner principle of virtue, in which he is restored, having fulfilled the principle of virtue [assigned] to him;

and a second, that of the whole of nature in the resurrection, the restoration unto incorruption and immortality;

and the third, which Gregory of Nyssa especially made use of in his own discourses, is this:

the restoration of the powers of the soul, which have fallen under sin, again to that for which they were created.

Whence the mind, [as] king, knowing this, hands [them] over to judgment, to the law of God, so that all might utterly perish.

And the dust that is sprinkled signifies asceticism and humility;

for through these the traces of the passions running through the soul become manifest to the mind.

QUESTION: How must we understand what was said by the Apostle: 'Christ the firstfruits, then those of Christ at his coming, then the end'? ANSWER: Christ became the firstfruits through the resurrection; then those of Christ, those who believed in him; then the end, the salvation through faith of all the nations.

But if you wish to understand what has been said also with reference to each individual: Christ as firstfruits is faith in him; then those of Christ, the works of faith; then the end, the being separated from all things, both sensible and intelligible, and through knowledge being joined to God.

And 'the last enemy that is destroyed is death' means this: when we ourselves also yield our whole self-determining will to God;

then the last enemy also is destroyed;

and it is called death, since life is God, and what is opposed to life is fittingly called death.

'This he set in the cloud,' that is, in the world;

and the world is a cloud on account of the wrath of God, or rather the penalty of death;

for at times the cloud is taken in a good sense, as gently watering and as giving shade from the heat, but at other times also in the sense of wrath, as, through its violence and intensity, destroying and hailing.

According to this, then, it says that the bow is set in the cloud, that is, in the world of wrath, the incarnation of the Lord, so that the human race might no longer be flooded by the waters of wickedness; and it is a bow for this reason, that we might know that the Lord's reconciliation toward us is a war against our enemies and adversaries, or also that the Lord's war against the enemy has become for us a reconciliation.

QUESTION: For what reason does the law forbid the eating of all blood of wild beasts and the rest? ANSWER: By 'wild beasts' it means not only the untamed, but also the tame animals that are unclean according to the law, such as the donkey and the pig and the like;

and these are passions of wickedness, more violent and untamed.

It is not fitting, then, to make use of these for the support of our wickedness.

And since blood is taken [to signify] the support of life, and often also anger on account of murder, it suggests that we should understand that we must set our whole life before God and not live for ourselves but for God, as the law says, that you pour out the blood before the altar; or also that the irascible [faculty] should not have its service directed toward one's own defense or toward one's own passion, but only toward holding fast, manfully and vigorously, to God and divine things.

QUESTION: What, according to the law, is the goring bull, and why, though irrational, is it put to death? ANSWER: The goring bull is he who has acquired a zeal contrary to reason, as though supposedly according to God, and who makes use of it for defense against others.

It is necessary, then, to put to death such a passion, lest, having struck many, it kill them, and cause its own master, that is, the soul, to be endangered along with them.

QUESTION: What is Joseph's coat of many colors, and what does the outcome, according to the dream, of the father's and brothers' obeisance signify? ANSWER: Israel — that is, the mind that sees God — makes for his own son Joseph — that is, for the one begotten according to God — a coat of many colors, that is, he clothes him with the ethical mode together with the varied diversity of the virtues.

To such a Joseph, then — 'Joseph' being interpreted as 'addition' — the father and the mother and the brothers do obeisance;

for to everyone who adds to and increases the measures of virtue and knowledge, the natural law and nurturing sense-perception do obeisance, bowing down together with the natural and perceptual principles that pertain to them.

But since Joseph is also taken as a type of the Lord, God the Father is fittingly said to make for his own Son by nature a coat of many colors, which, for our sake, he took from us — a body embroidered with the divine virtues, according to what is said in the Psalms: 'but a body you have prepared for me,' which body his brothers according to the flesh, the Jews, stripped off and defiled with the blood of the Passion.

And the father and the mother and the twelve brothers did obeisance to him, that is, the law and the [priestly] service, and those who believed from the twelve tribes.

For to those who journey through the practical life, it becomes a pillar of cloud, giving refreshment from the heat of temptations; but to those who journey through knowledge, it becomes a pillar of fire, giving light and cleansing away the mist of ignorance.

QUESTION: What does the manna signify, and what is [the meaning of] its stinking for those who do not gather it in sufficient measure? ANSWER: The manna signifies the Word of God, who is fittingly adapted to all through the practical life and knowledge, and who nourishes the soul.

Whenever, then, someone makes right and reasonable use of it, that is, pursues the mean of the virtues, fleeing equally their excesses and deficiencies, such a one gathers the manna sufficiently.

But whenever one makes excessive rather than right use of it — for it is good to illustrate what is said by means of a single virtue: whenever someone, pursuing temperance, flees licentiousness but judges marriage abominable, already for him the word of temperance has begun to stink through the immoderation of its excess, and not only has it begun to stink, but has bred worms as well, that is, has generated other passions.

QUESTION: What is the sense of the woman who is struck and miscarries, and that if the child comes out formed, the law ordains that he who struck her give life for life, but if it should be lost unformed, he only fines him? ANSWER: According to the letter we understand it thus:

since murder is [murder] of the body — for the soul is never murdered, being immortal — for this reason that which is not formed into human shape does not incur the danger [of death], but only a small penalty;

but if the human image has been completed, such a one is fittingly exacted [the penalty for] the murder of a completed man.

But according to the spiritual contemplation, we understand this: that he who scandalizes a soul that has conceived the divine Word and formed, through a settled state, the seed of virtue, and causes it to cast off such a formation of teaching, is guilty of death;

but he who scandalizes a soul that has received the seed of the Word, but has not formed it through settled state and operation, is worthy of penalty.

QUESTION: What do the six cities of refuge signify, and why were three given in the land of promise, and the other three outside? ANSWER: Since the tribe of Gad, on account of possessing many cattle, received cities outside the land of promise, of these the law consecrated three for the involuntary killer to flee to, and the other three in the land of promise.

This, then, is signified according to the mode of the anagogical sense:

since there are three ways in which we sin without deliberate intent — by the act of tyranny, from deceit, and from ignorance — it is necessary that the one caught up in these flee, before the passion that follows should pursue and kill such a one, that is, make him sin with deliberate intent: the one who sins from tyranny, to the city of self-control; the one from deceit, to the city of experience and good cunning; and the one from ignorance, to the city of learning.

And these [cities outside the land] were allotted to the practical ones on account of [the land's] fertility and its suitability for the pasturing of cattle;

for the practical life is both fruitful in virtues and a shepherding of the more brutish [impulses].

And the inner cities were allotted to those who have knowledge;

For since the man of knowledge occupies himself with three things — ethical, natural, and theological knowledge — it is necessary that the one who commits involuntary murder, that is, who applies himself inexpertly: in ethical teaching, moving anger and desire contrary to reason, flee to the city of meekness (for the end of ethical philosophy is meekness); and the one who errs in natural contemplation and applies himself unscientifically, flee to the city of knowledge;

and the one who errs in theology must flee to the city of faith, lest the passion accompanying ignorance should prevail to overtake and destroy the one who partakes of it.

But as for what it means that such a one must remain 'until the great priest dies,' and then return to his acquired land, it remains to consider next.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is a great high priest;

so whenever we come to perfect dispassion and no longer bring to him anything of this world, whether words or thoughts, and simply whenever we come to be above sense-perception and conception and no longer know Christ according to the flesh, then the great priest has died to us, no longer receiving from us worship from any of the things that have come to be;

and thereafter we are restored to our acquired land, that is, the land that is in God himself, in whom are the inner principles of the virtues.