Questions and Doubts 1 part 5/9

ANSWER: As to the literal history, Chrysostom, interpreting the passage most skillfully, said that the first account, which states that those present heard the voice, means that they heard Paul's voice saying, 'Who art thou, Lord?' but saw no man except Paul.

But the second account, which states that they saw the light but did not hear the voice of him who spoke, means that they did not hear the voice that came from the Lord to Paul, but saw only the light.

But according to contemplation, the passage is to be understood thus:

the gnostic mind, after the manner of Paul, has thoughts as its companions;

so at the first appearance of the Word to the mind, the thoughts hear only echoes and phantasms of knowledge, but behold nothing clearly manifest;

but as the mind progresses and comes to be upon the steps, that is, upon lofty contemplation, the thoughts no longer partake of phantasms but come into perfect participation in the light of knowledge.

QUESTION: How ought the repentance of God found in Scripture be piously understood? ANSWER: Those who have resolved to think piously of divine things say that it is impossible for God, being by nature Creator, not to be by nature also the provider for the things He has created.

And if this is so, it is altogether necessary that, since God by nature provides for humanity, there are with Him many modes concerning the nature under His providence, in view of salvation.

For since man is a quick-turning creature, readily changing along with times and circumstances, it is altogether necessary that the divine providence too, being one and the same, should change along with our dispositions, devising a manner fittingly suited to the evils that arise in our nature.

And just as in medicine there are many diseases underlying it, and it is necessary for the skilled physician, since the underlying body falls into many and various afflictions, himself to pass from lesser to better methods, so also with God, the passage of providence from one manner to another is customarily called by Scripture 'the repentance of God.'

QUESTION: What does the saying in Psalm 104 mean, 'He turned their heart to hate his people'? ANSWER: God knows not only the things that are, before the ages, as existing in Him in very truth — even though all these things themselves, both those that are and those that shall be, did not receive their being-in-themselves at the same time as their being known, but each at its fitting time (for it is not possible for the infinite and the finite to exist together) — but also the end of each thing's disposition according to its motion;

for there is no time or age that interposes between this and God;

for nothing in Him is recent, but the things to come are as things present;

but times and ages are indicative, not to God, but to us, of the things that exist in God.

Let us not, therefore, suppose that when we see God doing something, at that point His knowledge concerning it began.

And if this is true, as indeed it is, He knew altogether, as present, not only the wickedness that was going to belong to the Egyptians, and their choice disobedient to every working of good things, and their disposition apt for vengeance for the evils done to the Israelites out of the custom prevailing in Egypt, but also the disposition of the Israelites that was going to draw near obediently to the word of piety through faith.

Since, then, He allowed such hidden dispositions, previously restrained by Him, to come into operation, in this respect He is said to have 'turned' their heart;

for just as with a sluice-gate secured and forcibly holding back the rush of water, if someone should happen to turn it, the water immediately releases its hidden rush, so also both the evil and the good dispositions, providence permitting, are brought into the open through intervening events.

QUESTION: In Exodus, of whom were Moses and Pharaoh types, and what is Egypt, and how did the plagues affect some but not others? And who is the destroyer, and what is the death of the firstborn, and why does Scripture in one place say 'led up out of Egypt,' and in another 'led out'? ANSWER: Moses is a type of the pious and of their end, and Pharaoh of the impious and of their end;

for insofar as Moses was obedient and pliable for the impress of the divine commands, to that same degree Pharaoh was disposed to the contrary.

And Egypt, according to one of the interpretations concerning it, is translated 'darkening,' and it is taken to signify this present age.

And the geographers say that Egypt is lower-lying than all the earth;

for this reason Scripture says not only 'led out' but also 'led up' — 'leading out' signifying those coming from the fleshly attachment to the spirit, and 'leading up' signifying those carried up from material things to the intelligible things.

And Egyptians are all who are lovers of pleasure and lovers of the world, even if they should be of noble birth in body;

and Israelites are all who are lovers of God and haters of the world.

For some, then, the water is blood; for others, water according to nature;

for since water is nourishing and life-giving, it signifies that whoever makes the occasion of this life serve injustice, plunder, and covetousness, being a murderer of those wronged by him, has water as blood;

but whoever has the occasion of his life from just labors, for him the water is the water of life.

The firstborn of the Egyptians are killed because they do not have their doorposts anointed with the blood of the lamb.

The firstborn are the first offspring and thoughts of the mind; the doorposts are the senses; the destroyer is the devil, who through the senses binds the soul to sensible things and abolishes every divine movement of it.

QUESTION: What is meant by what is said in Psalm 75, 'The thought of man shall confess to you, and the remnant of thought shall keep festival to you'? ANSWER: The festival belongs to those who rejoice, while confession belongs to those who are tested;

and the one belongs to grief, the other to joy.

This, then, is what it means: that in the judgment, the transient and imperfect thought of the good, when weighed against the evil and fully-accomplished thought, has the greater weight;

for the one is tested, while the other becomes the occasion of festival and joy.

QUESTION: What does the Apostle mean when he says, 'I would rather speak five words in the church... than ten thousand words in a tongue'? ANSWER: He speaks five words, even though what is spoken is one, meaning he who speaks the pedagogical word concerning the five senses;

but he speaks ten thousand words in a tongue who, through his own word, makes a summoning of the passions.

He speaks five words who, through contemplation in the spirit of the things that exist, points to the Creator;

for nature is fivefold, consisting of form and the four elements;

but he speaks ten thousand words who fashions ornate discourses and persuasive combinations concerning the operation of visible things, for his own glory and pleasure, and who makes a god of the creation rather than the Creator;

for creation was not given in order to be made a god, but in order to teach of God.

and every man who is preoccupied with these things falls short of the divine promises.

QUESTION: What is the etymology of gluttony? ANSWER: None of the grammarians or rhetoricians has recorded it.

But Aristotle, in his work 'On Animals,' mentions an animal called 'margos,' and says that it is born from putrefaction between earth and water;

and from the time it is born, it does not cease eating earth until, having tunneled through the earth, it comes to the surface;

after three days a cloud of rain comes and rains upon it, and it revives, no longer being one who ever eats.

And from this, I suppose, the ancient philosophers, taking their cue, called those who eat much 'gastrimargoi' [gluttons].

For every passion is naturally born from putrefaction, and once born, it does not cease consuming the heart that gave it subsistence, until, through the settled state of ascetic struggle, it comes to manifestation;

and having come to manifestation, it dies by the three powers of the soul, and thus the grace of the Holy Spirit, appearing as through a cloud of teaching, gives drops of knowledge and gives life — not according to the former passion-bound life, but according to the virtuous life proper to God.

QUESTION: What is the parable in the Gospel of the laborers hired for the vineyard, and what is the seeming inequality? ANSWER: The judgment of God does not occur according to time and body, because the soul too, being timeless and bodiless, since it does not receive its growth and its limit according to time, makes the movements of its disposition timelessly.

It is good to clarify what is said by means of an example;

often there is one who has spent seventy years in the solitary life, and another only one day;

since, then, the aim of the profession is that one, having torn away from attachment and relation to material things, should transfer the whole soul to God, the one who has lived seventy years, having taken no care at all for such dispassion, died still so; while the one who has lived one day, having torn away all his passion-bound thought toward material things and having wholly embraced it to God, was made perfect;

in the distribution, then, that takes place according to the judgment, the one receives the wage worthily, as having brought the aim of the profession to its end, while the other receives it by grace alone, in return for the labor of ascetic discipline he endured.

QUESTION: Was grief, then, something Job did not admit in what befell him? ANSWER: We say that Job became one who did not admit grief;

for he who has once piously made his examination of the things that are, and has confirmed in himself hatred toward transient things and love toward the things that do not pass away — how could he be grieved when transient things suffer, through a change of condition, what they are naturally accustomed to suffer? QUESTION: Why, then, did none of the saints admit grief, and yet how is it said of many saints that they had grief, just as Paul also says, 'I have unceasing grief,' and so forth? ANSWER: He who is occupied with the practical matters, so long as conscience pricks and strikes him through the images that arise according to memory, altogether grieves with the praiseworthy grief;

but he who has attained to the measure of perfection comes to be even above this;

for both grief and joy are said of God according to His providence — grief over those who perish, and joy over those who are saved.

The principle of grief, then, is one, but it admits many modes of dispositions.

Fellow-feeling, and a superabundance of joy, when a God-like perfection, laid up within, is providentially distributed to the things without.

the one, on the one hand, is that which defines for the practical matters what is needful, which indeed also precedes the practical matters;

and the other is that which reflects upon the things done, which is also thought of after the action.

"I planted a vineyard and set a fence around it," and so forth.

ANSWER: The planting of the vineyard signifies creation, the fence signifies the natural law, and the paling signifies the written law;

by which the Creator secured our nature.

Whoever, then, cultivates the natural sowing of the good genuinely, according to choice, that one has produced fruit for the planter;

but whoever is irrationally carried toward non-being, that one produces thorns, that is, the passions, and is trampled by the demons who bring these about.

QUESTION. From the Song of Songs:

"Come from Lebanon, bride, come from Lebanon; from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards."

ANSWER. God the Word says to the soul that is betrothed to him through good works — or indeed to the whole nature of humanity — to go forth from idolatry (for this is what Lebanon signifies) and from vicious disposition (which is what the dens of the lions signify);

for the lion always attacks the shoulders — that is, the practical [life] — and "from the mountains of leopards," that is, from ignorance;

for this animal by nature makes its attack against the eyes, and the eyes are plainly taken [to signify] knowledge.

"Upon the mountains and the hills I will contend with you."

ANSWER. Since angels have been entrusted with providential care for the life of soul and body and for this earthly place, ministering to us divine words, and likewise the prophets too have conveyed to us, through their own words, the ways of salvation — it is concerning these, then, that he says he will contend with us, calling the mountains the angels, and the hills the patriarchs and prophets.

QUESTION. What does the verse of the psalm mean: "He will take up the orphan and the widow, and will destroy the way of sinners"? ANSWER. The widow is the soul that has let the natural law die; the orphan is the underhanded manner [of conduct], practiced for the sake of ostentation and grosser gains, not having God as father.

"Because they had no covering, they wrapped themselves about with a rock."

ANSWER. Those who formerly had no covering — that is, faith — were the nations;

and they wrapped themselves about with the rock, [that is,] faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

QUESTION. Whether it is possible to find a natural demonstration concerning the Holy Trinity? ANSWER. All existing things are believed to exist in three modes: in substance, in differentiation, in life;

and from the inner principle of the substance of beings we are assured that there is some substance — this is the Father;

and from the differentiation of beings, [we are assured of] wisdom, that is, the Son — for it belongs to wisdom to allot to each nature its fitting property, and to preserve each of the things that have come into being distinct and unconfused, both in relation to itself and to the rest; and from life, the Holy Spirit.

But in the case of God these are hypostatic and are so spoken of, whereas in the case of creatures they are accidents.

QUESTION. From St. Gregory the Theologian, on the words "All brought in what had been proclaimed to them, but some were self-prompted" — what do the things brought in signify? ANSWER. The self-prompted are those who come to the good from the natural seeds present within them; those who were proclaimed to are those who come to the good through teaching.

And gold is offered by the one who piously discourses on theology; silver by the one whose life is pure and whose teaching is bright and transparent; precious stones by the one who adorns the dominion of the practical [life] with divine words; twisted fine linen by the one who preserves the settled state of virtue unshaken amid involuntary trials, and through these, in the manner of water, washes and whitens the thoughts that arise in the soul from sin; spun scarlet by the one who, by the abundance of reason, obliterates the pleasure and passions within our power through the mortification of the members of the body; and purple by the one who has embraced, accurately and unfailingly, the knowledge of beings;

for purple, according to a single application, is taken [to signify] knowledge;

for it is composed of many and various kinds [of dye], just as knowledge too is composed of many and various contemplations.

one on account of transgressions, the other according to the worth of the one loved;

Love, therefore, puts away the fear that arises from transgressions, but preserves the fear that is according to the worth of the one loved.

Exultation is the joyful disposition upon the acquisition of certain things, while gladness is the enjoyment of the things [already] acquired.

QUESTION. What do the cows and the ears of grain shown to Pharaoh in his sleep signify? ANSWER. Here Pharaoh is taken [to signify] nature;

and the good cows signify the practical [life], and the ears of grain signify knowledge;

Knowledge and practice operate [together].

But the other cows and ears of grain, the ugly and wind-blighted ones, signify ignorance and vice, which had the strength to devour both the vigor of the practical [life] signified by the cows, and the knowledge signified by the good ears of grain.

But our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Joseph, who alone both foreknows and remedies such a famine, taking faith as gold, and a bright life as silver, and moral philosophy as sheep, and the swift and eager [quality] of life according to God as horses, supplies the grain, that is, true knowledge.

QUESTION. Who is the unjust judge in the Gospel, and who is the widow woman? ANSWER. By "the judge of injustice" [Scripture] means the natural law, hardened by transgression and respecting neither God nor man; and by "the widow" [it means] the soul bereft of good works.

For if this [soul] should come to repentance, it forces the natural law by importuning it, through asceticism and self-control, to abstain from what is contrary to nature.

And if, he says, the mind, through zealous and industrious persistence, has the strength to accomplish even what is above nature, how much more, he says, will God listen to those who cry out to him through fervent and importunate prayerful persistence? QUESTION. What is the scroll given to the prophet Ezekiel, in which were written lamentation, and song, and woe, and how was it made sweet in his mouth? ANSWER. The scroll is the divine Word;

and written in it is lamentation, that is, the threats of punishments; song, the promises of good things; and woe, because those who are made sober neither by fear of the punishments nor by the exhortation of the promises, and do not become better, will assuredly receive the woe of eternal punishment.

And that the scroll was made sweet in the mouth of the prophet signifies this: that he who continually meditates on the things aforesaid, and gives heed to what is threatened and what is promised, is made sweet by hope.

for these too had need of the Lord's visitation to them;

for in him, according to the Apostle, were recapitulated not only the things on earth but also the things in heaven.

And after this he was presented to God the Father, and thus the Spirit descends.

But it is possible to contemplate the matter at hand also according to another mode of contemplation:

for since the Word of God is hidden within his ten commandments, and is embodied in us, condescending to us through the practical [life], and again leads us upward, exalting us through knowledge, until we come to the commandment loftier than all, which says, "The Lord your God, the Lord is one";

for when our mind, released from all things — or rather, having itself released all things — comes to rest at last in God himself, then it receives the fiery tongues, becoming god by grace.

QUESTION. Why is it that, although Luke says in Acts concerning Paul that he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to spend the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, he appears to have made a genuflection, which is forbidden by the canons? ANSWER. He is not speaking of Pentecost itself, on which the Spirit descended, but since the fifty days are called "the day of Pentecost," Paul was hastening to spend the first day after Easter in Jerusalem, as is clear from the fact that during the fasts he bent the knee.

QUESTION. Why does the apostle Paul call himself a Roman, and, in conversing with the tribune, say, "But I was even born [one]"? ANSWER. Those throughout every province, thinking it a great thing to be called Romans, would register themselves as Romans by paying fees, and the name would pass on to their lineage;

since, then, the apostle's parents also, being in Tarsus, had been registered to be called Romans, the apostle reasonably says, as one born of them, "But I was even born [one]."

QUESTION. From Amos the prophet:

"and two or three cities will gather together into one city to drink water, and they will not be satisfied;"

What do the cities signify? ANSWER. Here "cities" must be understood as souls, because, like [things composed] of houses, they are made up [of many parts] and are receptive of the virtues;

and the two cities [signify] souls that have been built up through practice and contemplation;

and the three [signify souls] that rightly accomplish theology through undoubting faith.

Since, then, the prophet set this down in the form of a curse, it signifies that when a famine comes — not of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord — even if such souls have reached the measure of the aforesaid virtues, yet grow negligent, they seem to seek knowledge, but because they do not pursue the practical [life], they fail [to attain it];

and even if they seem to gather into one city, that is, to the teacher, they are not filled with knowledge;

for neither is the grace of teaching given to him — [namely] the power to be able to give the divine knowledge to drink to those in need.

"The city from which a thousand went out, a hundred will be left; and [the city] from which a hundred went out, ten will be left."

ANSWER. Since every number is comprised within four decades — for instance, the first decade [proceeds] from the unit; then this decade itself, in turn, is a unit of the hundred; then the hundred is a unit of the thousand; and again the thousand is a unit of the myriad — since, then, the number of virtue too increases by advance and receives increment, this, I think, is what is signified through the numbers: that one who has so rightly accomplished the ten commandments that each commandment is comprised within the rest, having multiplied these tenfold, has arrived at the hundred, and, after the manner of Sarah, has received the addition of the [letter] rho.

And whoever has also rightly accomplished the knowledge that comes after these, having multiplied the hundred tenfold, has arrived at the thousand.

And since this too was spoken by the prophet in the form of a curse, it signifies that, through negligence, one who had come to the measure of the thousand in virtue is brought down and comes to the hundred;

and likewise also the one [who descends] from the hundred in the practical [life] comes to a mere observance of the commandments according to outward custom, or even performs them in a Jewish manner.

"Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! And this [day] is darkness and not light — just as when a man flees from before a lion and a bear meets him, and he leaps into his house and leans his hands against the wall, and a serpent bites him."

ANSWER. The day of the Lord is the illumination and the knowledge of the Lord;

whoever, then, desires to lay hold of the knowledge of God without the practical [life], he is rightly pronounced miserable;

for, being troubled by the passions — both wrath and desire — seeking to flee from being bitten by the lion, that is, by wrath, he falls into the bear of desire;

then, being hemmed in by these, he leaps into the house and leans his hands against the wall, and a serpent bites him;

the house is the soul, and the wall is the body;

whenever, then, one leans the practical powers of the soul upon the enjoyment of the body, pleasure comes forth — for it is this that is the serpent — and it bites him;

for through each sense of the body, as through an opening, pleasure creeps in and bites the wretched soul.

To one, then, who is thus ailing in the eyes of the soul, the sun of knowledge is darkness and blindness.

QUESTION. From the Psalter:

"The words of the Lord are pure words, silver refined by fire, tried in the earth, purified seven times."

ANSWER. They are called pure inasmuch as they purify us from every stain of sins;

and [they are called] silver refined by fire on account of their transparency and their illuminating quality, as in silver;

and on account of their divine character, and their testing of our hearts;

for the heart is called "earth" in the Gospel;

and [they are called] purified seven times, whenever we purify each commandment sevenfold.

It is good that what is said be made clear in the case of a single commandment;

the law declares, "You shall not murder."

Whoever, then, wishes to purify this commandment sevenfold, not only abstains from murder by the hand, but also, if he sees one hungry, feeds him; if he sees one thirsty, gives him drink; if he sees one naked, clothes him; if he sees a stranger, takes him in; if he sees one sick, does not overlook him; and if he sees one in prison, runs to him.

And simply put, whoever neglects one of these has, by this reckoning, committed murder;

for, as far as it depended on him, he allowed the one in need of him to die, though he was able to restore him.

Whoever, then, joins the six enumerated commandments of the Lord to the legal commandment "You shall not murder" purifies the word of the Lord sevenfold;

and it is possible to apply this also to each commandment.

QUESTION. From Proverbs:

"Let your foot rarely enter your friend's house, lest, being sated with you, he hate you."

ANSWER. Here he calls our body a "friend," on account of our natural union and affection toward it.

The saying, then, exhorts that care for the body not be made a matter of anxious concern, but that provision for it be made only in step with the trace of the soul — and this too but rarely — lest, by your setting great store by its rest, it display in you the marks of enemies and of those who hate.

Understand by "thefts by day" the defeats that befall us from the evil one through the outward senses, for which the patriarch used to pay the toils of asceticism;

and "thefts by night" are those by which the enemy plunders us through inward thoughts, for which, after the pattern of the patriarch, we must pay toils and vigils and the other kinds of asceticism.

QUESTION. What does the heifer signify whose neck is broken in the valley, according to the law concerning ignorance of a murder? ANSWER. It signifies through these things the spiritual intent of Scripture: that we must fear not only concerning manifest sins, as those who are about to render account for them, but also, fearing on behalf of what we do unknowingly, must always break the neck of the heifer — that is, our flesh — in the valley of self-control and asceticism.

QUESTION. What do Nadab and Abihu signify, who offered strange fire and were therefore burned up? ANSWER. Those who continually serve God as priests, and offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice, and have within themselves the fervor of the Holy Spirit after the pattern of Cleopas, offer their own fire to God;

but whenever, through negligence, they fall outside this state and gather within themselves the inflaming of the passions, then they have brought in strange fire, and their conscience is burned up by the fire of reproof.

QUESTION. For what reason is fine flour always included together with the sacrifices of the law, sometimes mixed with oil, sometimes baked in an oven, sometimes in a pan? ANSWER. The fine flour is to be taken as referring to reason, being the food of rational beings;

and when it is mixed with oil, it signifies reason together with the illumination of knowledge;

but when in the pan, it signifies reason tested and made firm through the pleasurable temptations that assail us from within;

but when in the oven, it signifies reason made firm through the testing, in patient endurance, of the temptations that assail us from without.

What do the two hundred and fifty men signify, who rose up together against Moses and, offering incense, had fire come out from the Lord and consume them, so that the Lord commanded Eleazar to take up their censers and make them into hammered plates and fasten them to the altar? ANSWER. The number fifty, with reference to divine things, is always taken as transcending things under time;

but the number two hundred [pertains] to sensible things and the senses, on account of the combining of the number four with the number five.

All those, then, who apprehend sensible things in a sensible manner, and pursue divine virtues for the sake of sensible things, rise up together against the divine law, and their conscience is burned up by the fire of reproof.